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 May 2021

May was a pretty good month over all. I definitely had some ups and downs, but I feel like I'm settling into my new job and finding that balance between all the things I want to do in my life. I still want to do far, *far* more things than I have time for, but I think I'm doing ok and more or less, I'm playing games that are really satisfying.

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

1. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I'm still not sure whether or not I ever finished this game. The "third act" definitely has all our armies finally pointed in the same direction. The game does feel a little disorganized still and there are still a lot of things they took and did better in following games. One the plus side our hero being asked "Do you mind if I call you 'Dark Bag of Organs'?" is a real Fire Emblem high point.
   
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - This continues to be a really great strategy game. The more I play the more I wish there was a bit more variety of things to do at the strategic level, but the actual main game play loop of taking contracts and fighting bad guys is really rewarding. It's also the first game where I feel like the speed of the game really works with the idea of things falling apart "fun". If you fail there's no real penalty to starting again and finding something else new and interesting. I think it's along the lines of the Super Meat Boy approach to 2D platforming, but in turn based strategy.
   
   
   
   


3. New Pokémon Snap - I think I'm playing the game wrong. I seems to have stalled in a way people talking on Twitter don't seem to have experienced. Still it's very rewarding and a nice short game play loop.
   
   
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - All of the other games I played this month are a bit slow in their play style and it's been nice to having something to fire up and feel kinesthetically free and skilled in. Having also finished Bowser's Fury not that long ago, I think Odyssey still feels like the best "Mario" experience of moving and exploration.
   
   
   
   


5. Kirby's Dream Course - I was a little mad that I couldn't figure out what to do, but I'm learning. For a game I didn't play (or maybe rented once) this really triggers my SNES nostalgia and it's been fun to play. That being said, I'm completely ready for Mario Golf: Super Rush.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Blog: Games of April 2021

April was a pretty good month. I did better at striking the balance between enjoying playing games and getting other stuff done too. I didn't play as few games as I did last month, but I was pretty focused and enjoyed what I played.

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

1. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - The Wii sequel to Path of Radiance. It feels like the developers got to take all of the things that worked well in Path of Radiance and build on them. Unlike pretty much any other Fire Emblem game I can think of, it's divided into several parts where you run totally different armies with a lot of different characters. That's been interesting from a story perspective and it does let you make better use of all of the characters. I'm pretty sure I played this all the way through when it came out, but I really don't remember any of it any more.
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - It's still a ton of fun, but the game does seem to require some good decisions (and luck) early in the game to succeed later on. I think the heavy world randomness is also making the game a little bit harder than it needs to be. I find that interesting because in the battles, the game does a very good job of allowing you to manage and mitigate bad randomness (certainly compared to the Fire Emblem games, for example) but it feels like some worlds are just less winnable than others. Still, overall, I'm really enjoying the moment-to-moment gameplay and learning about the ways to do better later in the game.
   
   


3. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Compared to Radiant Dawn, I do remember this one pretty well. I think some of my enjoyment stems from nostalgia, but it seems like a very balanced Fire Emblem game both in terms of difficulty and in terms of gameplay and story. I think every aspect of the game gets improved on in later sequels, but it feels like this has a lot of seeds for what went well in the later games.
   
   


4. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - I am bad at this game and I would like to be not quite so bad. I picked it up thanks to watching Play Frame's Let's Play of the Link to the Past / Super Metroid randomizer. I've enjoyed it and I want to keep playing to some extent just to get to the point where I can play through mostly knowing what I'm doing and not getting myself into stupid situations. Playing this also left me really wanting to replay Ocarina of Time, particularly thinking about how OoT built out so many things that are hinted at in A Link to the Past, but aren't really included.
   
   


5. New Pokemon Snap - I suppose I played the original game, but I don't really remember doing it. I feel a bit like I was mostly interested in New Pokemon Snap because it's a new game that I could pick up day one, during a pandemic where I'm feeling a little cabinfevery. It's bright and sparkly and pretty fun. I think it also has quite a bit of depth and replay, although I'm not sure I'm interested in mastering it.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for April:

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