themblan's blog

After getting my Everdrives, in particular the one for my NES, I've been looking for that hidden gem that I would fall in love with. I watched YouTube-videos and stuff, and I found some good games, but nothing really made me fall in love with it to the point where I had to keep playing that game until I beat it. Then just a little earlier, I loaded up Super Mario Bros. 3 again. Holy cow. This game is still good. Even though I've played the first stage a million times, it's still fun and fills me with joy. Is it just nostalgia? I think it's part of it, but I think it's just a brilliantly crafted game. Everything from how colorful it is, to the music, the world-map, to the mechanics - everything is fun. So why do we keep looking for that great new game to play? We can just go back to our favorites and replay those. Life would be so much easier, but it wouldn't be as fun either. There was a time when our all-time favorites were brand-new. We want that feeling o...

Tomorrow Corporation announced that three old games will be coming to Nintendo Switch on launch-day: World of Goo, Little Inferno, and Human Resource Machine. All three titles have already previously been on other Nintendo-consoles. World of Goo was on Wii, and the other two were on Wii U. This is becoming a little much, no? I feel like Wii U was one big Early Access project - a beta-machine. We're getting port after port after port. I'm happy for people who never owned Wii U, but what about the people who did? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Although I'm really digging the box-cover, it's essentially the same game with a few extras. You know why I was excited for Mario Kart 8? The HD-graphics; the new anti-grav mechanic. These things are no longer new. Again, I know most people on earth haven't experienced MK8 before, but I have. Also, I know I don't have to buy this game again, but my point is, they could have been working on another game instead of porting thi...

'Janky' is a word I see thrown-around a lot in the gaming-industry to describe anything negative. What does it mean? I looked it up on two online dictionaries (dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com), and I got zero hits. This is not a real word, so it does not have a real meaning. Its only meaning exists on the internet. Fun facts. Good to know.

I was watching The Lobby on Gamespot.com when I noticed Kallie Plagge, formerly of IGN, on the show. She is now a full-time Associate Editor at Gamespot. She was previously at IGN, where she was the resident Pokémon-expert. She appeared on most IGN Anime Club podcasts as well as many Nintendo Voice Chat podcasts. Good to see her moving up the ranks, and I wish her good luck.

Although it will be digital-only, I am very glad IAS is confirmed for launch in NA. It got a favorable reception when it released earlier, and I just needed an excuse to play it. Now I do. The developer's name is called Tokyo RPG Factory, which is a terrible, depressing name for a studio. Maybe it sounds better, and is not as pejorative in Japanese. A lot of people like Jason Schreier of Kotaku, compared this game to Chrono Trigger, which is not a bad game to be compared to. As someone who was only going to get Zelda at launch, I have finally found a second game to get. Thank you, Square Enix. May less and less games skip Nintendo-platforms.

This is a response to a Reddit-post. No. I would not. I have had bad luck with Razer-products. I do not trust their quality-control, and I do not like how their products look.

The Nintendo Switch is not launching with many launch-titles. Its best and only worthwhile launch-title will also be coming out for Wii U on the same day. So why is the Nintendo Switch still worth buying at launch? The hype. There is nothing like the feeling of being an early adopter, whether it's for iPhones or Nintendo-consoles. You belong to a small group of like-minded people who share a passionate love for the thing you just purchased. It is a feeling that is only replicable once every few years. It's irreplaceable, unpurchasable, invaluable... Don't do it for the left brain, but the right brain. For the love, the feels, the emotions, the hype-moments, the feeling of camraderie, and ecstasy.

Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers was one of the most perplexing game-announcements of the January Nintendo Switch Event. An old, 2D game that looked like a lazy port of the ugly HD Remix really made me not interested. But as I dug deeper and discovered more information about it, like the option to use the old sprites and the inclusion of online play, I realized that this game could be a blessing in disguise - a hidden gem. Street Fighter V is not in a good place right now. The competitive scene is a mess, the online-play is still not great, and despite their efforts, the game is not attracting non-competitive players. Street Fighter II was the pinnacle of the series, both in popularity and overall balance, so it's great that it's making a comeback, on the newest successor (Nintendo Switch) of the home-console that helped elevate it to enormous success beyond the coin-op (Super Famicom). Street Fighter II was very innovative and mind-blowing in the arcade,...