Blog Post: Games of 2021

It's the future and some how I'm still sitting here playing Nintendo games. I only played 4 games which were released this year, and three of them were by Nintendo. 2021 has been a bit of a weird year in terms of what I wanted to play, and I really haven't felt that compelled by most of the other games released in 2021.

Everything I played this year was "good," they're all solid games you might enjoy, but none of them have really impacted me that much.

The Good

New Pokémon Snap

I don't have a huge nostalgia for the original Pokémon Snap. I enjoyed the new one, it's certainly pretty. I *may* have not figured how how to play it to advance properly, so it felt a little flat to me. Overall, I did enjoy the safari model of travelling through environments and seeing "genuine" Pokémon interactions.

Mini Motorway

I liked Mini Metro, where you have to plan out routes for a metro system and try to keep up with demand as long as you can. Mini Motorways is a nice follow up, it's prettier and the way you eventually fail feels a lot more manageable. It really runs up against the part of me that loves city building and so after a little bit of playing I'm kinda frustrated that some idiot built their house right *there*.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

I only touched the 3D World remake. It's still pretty good, but it really doesn't compare to Super Mario Odyssey. Bowser's Fury was good, it has a real lightness of movement and interesting level design. I also like the idea of Nintendo turning out light weight, smaller games more regularly, so if I could play a new Bowser's Fury sized game every year I'd be delighted. Otherwise Mario games are pretty good if you like Mario Games and Bowser's Fury is a good Mario Game. 

Mario Golf: Super Rush

I think I've said it a ton, but Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the Gamecube is one of my favourite games. I spent a lot of time playing it dreaming of how awesome it would be if it was built out to be a fuller, flashier game. Super Rush is *not* the game I dreamed of,  but it is pretty good. It's a well built golf game with fun courses. If that sounds like your jam then you'll probably like it. It has a single player "RPG" mode which I found to be underwhelming and the online modes are okay.

I appreciate the DLC support they've given the game. The big drawback to the game is they introduced a their speed golf mechanic where you sprint after your ball to hit it again as fast as possible. Even when you're not playing that mode, it still dominates the design in a way that's not bad, but a little awkward.

Blog: Games of March 2021

March was a bit of a weird month. I think I played the fewest games in a month this month than every before (at least in a long while). This was a combination of getting into Battle Brothers (maybe a little too deeply) and trying to be a little more mindful about my time.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I'm really enjoying how much I've been able to learn. I've done around 20 runs at this point and I usually find a dumb way to die (spiders - ugh), but I'm enjoying that each time I go back in I'm a little better and I'm able to get a little farther. I've been following the game's reddit, so I feel like there's a bit of a limit to the possibilities for high level play, but I'm enjoying my low level wandering around.
   
   
   I do think the game is a little bit limited by it's random world generation. My most recent play through ended up trailing off a bit because the world seemed to be missing some of the things I needed and where it had them they were in awkward places to get to. Still this has been a ton of fun and since it's pretty easy to boot up, it's been my go to a lot of the time.
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Playing Path of Radiance has been really enjoyable. It may be the nostalgia, but among Fire Emblem games it feels like it has a good balance or like it illustrates things I'm going to enjoy about other games later on. The story is pretty good and the game play is pretty good and overall, even if it's a bit slow, it's felt like a good place to put my time.
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I've been playing Bowser's Fury more than 3D World. The open world where you can jump into interesting platforming challenges is a lot of fun. I've just finished up Bowser's Fury and I feel like the 100 Cat Shines was a nice challenge without sticking around for too long. 3D world is also a total joy to play and amoung all of the Mario games Nintendo rereleased this year, it's the best to go back to.
   
   


4. Mario 35 - Well, they've wrapped it up. I found I did play Mario 35 more than I might have because there was the looming deadline of them turning the game off. It's been a lot of fun and it made me play the original Super Mario Bros. way more than I would have. I'm sad it's done, but I'm glad it was here.
   
   
   I will say, I hope we see it again for a season next year and I also hope that Nintendo has thought of a follow up in the form of Zelda 35, or possibly something even more unique and interesting. I had hoped they'd announce something by now, but they haven't.
   
   


5. Valais IV - An unusual aspect of this month is that the games I very briefly try out actually showed up in the games of the month list. So Valais IV came out for the Nintendo Online service (I think) and I tried it out. It wasn't really my thing. I'd like to get into some of those SNES style combat platformers (Castlevania stuff), but Valais really didn't really grab me.
   
   
6. Kirby's Dream Course - Another quick test. I don't get this game. I've watched a couple Let's Plays and I think it looks fun. On the other hand, I just have no intuition for what the game want's me to do. Still I might
   
   
7. Animal Crossing: New Horizon - Oooof. I feel bad, but I just couldn't pick this game up this month. The couple of minutes I played were to go to one my the villager's birthday. I felt badly about missing a digital creation's birthday, but generally feel like the game doesn't really reward an emotional investment.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for March:

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

Blog: Games of February 2021

February felt like a very busy month. I had my head down trying to get a lot of stuff done, but I also tried to pretty intentional in what I played. I happened to hit a mix of new(ish) and old and a mix of strategy and platformer / action that really made me feel good.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I head about this game years ago on Three Moves Ahead and thought it sounded like fun, but maybe a little hard and gory. I saw it go past on a good sale on Steam and picked it up a while ago and finally just started playing. I really like it. It's hard to put down, thanks to a Civ style one-more-turn and really well paced learning and difficulty turns. It's "hard" and has a bit of Dwarf Fortress "fun" in it, but honestly every time I've been wiped out or screwed something up I've been happy to start again with my next band of brothers. It *is* a little gory, but since everyone is a shown as a bust moving around the field it's not to bad (although I'm not thrilled when "brains" end up in the trophy bag).
   
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - I'm trying to set aside some time each Sunday to really get into an RPG or something big. I wanted to go back through Path of Radiance and more so Radiant Dawn (the sequel). The game's a little rough compared to newer entries (Three Houses especially) but the story is pretty good and I've enjoyed playing it. (Much as I desperately want zones of control from Battle Brothers.)

   

   From GameFaqs user Shogain

   
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I played 3D World at a happy point in my life, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Additionally, while it has some problems, it is a really good game and I appreciate how focused it is, even if that results in levels that feel a little constrained. Bowser's Fury is a a fascinating hybrid of 3D World and Odyssey, it's a lot of fun and a little frustrating. The mechanic that Giga Bowser shows up to make your life harder is really interesting, but sometimes I find the levels were just hard enough already so it tends to throw me off sometimes when I want to be focused. On the other hand I think the game would probably be a little boring if there wasn't a giant fire breathing monster on a timer.
   
   


4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - I think musou games will never be for me, but I really enjoyed this. I finished up mid-month and haven't been back, but I thought it was pretty fun. It was also interesting to look at some people who are really into the genre and see what they liked and didn't like. In short I probably never really "got" the game, but I certainly had fun and the story was interesting.
   
   


5. Mario 35 - It's almost over! (Supposedly). Still fun to dip into and I think it's definitely set me to think about playing Mario games more. I had more fun with 3D World, but a few minutes of Mario 35 was always good.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for February:

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