themblan's blog

Nintendo reminds me of myself. I used to be like everyone else, but something happened, whether my self-confidence was shattered, or I realized I was different. I no longer wanted to be like everyone else; I wanted to be different. Nintendo is the same way. They will never change nor become what they were meant to become in the '80s and '90s. Just like we have to accept people the way they are if we love them, we have to accept that about Nintendo. It's not like we can directly change them. Nintendo 64 was the first and last time that Nintendo really tried to create the most powerful console on the planet. Thus, it is only natural for them to not care about power after it bombed. Nintendo is not one to try a failed experiment twice, at least in a row. Nintendo needs their confidence back. NS's success might provide them just that, so that they might make a powerful, home-exclusive, home-console next generation, which is exactly what many people want.

I think about children being born into the world today, and I pity them. What a shame it is to be born into a world where your worth is measured by how you compare to others. It's no wonder why there are so many mental disorders on the planet, whether it's an eating-disorder, depression, manic depression disorder, or a general feeling of unworthiness. Growing up, we are constantly competing against our peers, and yet people wonder why we are not united in adulthood. In high-school, people wonder why school-spirit only seems to exist in the cheerleaders and the athletes, when we are constantly competing against our classmates for our grades. Competition is not a noble thing. Animals compete for mates, and for dominance within a group. Are we not better than animals? Have we not transcended them? I have a dream, that one day, this world will rise up, and stop being an endless competition.

I don't like it when battles and aggression (aggro) from AI trigger battle-music in videogames. It is unnecessary. Combat already is stressful; there is no need to amp it up. In horror-games, it totally ruins the sense of surprise necessary for jump-scares. In Resident Evil 4, whenever you aggroed an enemy, even if you couldn't see him, her, or it; the battle-music was triggered. It let you know that you had to fight. When the battle-music was not playing, you absolutely knew you were safe. When is combat-triggered game-music okay? It is good in random encounters in RPGs. You're walking along the overworld in an RPG. The mood is a certain way, and so the music reflects that. Your next step triggers a battle. The screen makes a transition-effect to a whole new scene: the battle-stage. The battle-music plays. This is okay. This is good. There may be other scenarios where combat-triggered game-music is okay, but in general, it is not. Having combat-triggered game-music i...

What is hope, but an illusion of power over powerlessness? We pray and hope for things to actualize in the real world. Sometimes these things come true, and most of the time, they don't, but if one of our hopes do come true, we feed this lie to ourselves that our mental energy of hoping contributed to its happening; when in reality, it had nothing to do with us. Hope is a reaction - a self-defense mechanism over the feelings of powerlessness and non-actualized desires. It is a crippling emotion that prevents us from expanding our consciousness beyond the surface-levels of our brains and subconscious minds. By focusing on what we don't have, we obstruct the ability to appreciate what we do have. By only hoping and using mental energy, we don't try other strategies of achieving happiness. We narrow our minds, like children focusing on one toy they want for Christmas. It is ironic that the feeling designed to escape powerlessness serves to perpetuate it. We must fight...

It's no secret. Open-world, sandbox-type games are in right now; they have been for a long time. As a gamer who grew up in the '80s and '90s, however, I prefer more linear games. There are at least two camps of gaming that emerged from the beginning: the home-computer games, and arcade-games. The games I grew up with were mostly inspired by developers who played and developed arcade-games. Even Nintendo's roots were in the arcade, so it's only natural for me to enjoy linear games more. The problem is that linear games are less-respected, especially, by professional game-reviewers, who will easily hand out high scores for open-world games, whereas they won't as easily for linear games. They let their left brain do most of the talking. In theory, it seems like you get more from open-world games: go anywhere , and do anything . The reality, however, is that linear games provide an experience that is more fun and challenging. Personally, if you tell me that ...

Nintendo-fanchildism is like a vortex. It sucks you in, kills your brain-cells, self-identity, and personal tastes. Nintendo Directs are like sermons preaching to the masses. It's easy to turn into a Nintendo-fanchild, especially if you err on the side of religiousness; but it's not a good thing. It feels nice to feel like you're part of a group - the congregation of Nintendo-fanchildren, part of something greater than yourself, but is it really? You are the greatest thing, not some corporation. Nintendo is not greater than you. They may have more money and more fans than you, but you are the most important thing in your life. One of the worst feelings I get is at large social gatherings like church-services and wedding-receptions. In church-services, everyone is urged to sing the same song at the same time. At wedding-receptions, people are urged to go on the dance-floor and do things they don't want to do. People are reduced to faceless balls of energy - robbed of t...

There are a lot of videos on YouTube with people saying they were wrong about Nintendo Switch, as if they're proud to admit they were wrong. They are so desperate to be part of the majority, the sheep, the "verdict," that they lose all semblance of self. Maybe you were wrong about it not selling well, but you were right about it not being something you would like. After an initial honeymoon-period, which wasn't long, I do not like the NS, just like I knew I would, deep down. It's an underpowered home-console, and it's an overly big handheld; it's literally the worst of both worlds. Just because it's selling well and people like it, doesn't mean it's a good thing. The converse is also true. If something doesn't sell well and people don't like it, doesn't mean it's a bad thing (e.g. Wii U). NS is selling well because of marketing and the hive-mentality that comes with capitalism, and not because it's actually a go...

This game is gorgeous. I liked the new term they came up with to describe the engine, which is HD-2D. It is really fitting, because the game is nostalgic and next-generation at the same time. I have never seen a game look like this. The game gives us that 2D, tile-based look of the old Final Fantasies before VII, but there are 3-dimensional planes and real-time lighting that really makes the game pop. It kind of looks like a pop-up book, like Yoshi's Story, but much better. The music sounds like something that would come from a Western RPG. It reminds me of Guild Wars 1. Sometimes I prefer the music in Western RPGs because they are more atmospheric and serve to set the mood, rather than provide a memorable melody. The story is very somber; it reminded me of the individual stories in Valkyrie Profile, but not as depressing. I liked it because it wasn't light-hearted, like many RPGs coming from Japan these days. They remember their roots. If you look at games like Final Fanta...

Metroid: Samus Returns is getting high praise by many professional reviewers, but it has some serious problems. The controls, as they relates to movement in the game, are not very good. You can only use the Circle Pad, and so it is not very precise. I will be near the edge of a ledge and desire to go to the edge so that I can make a difficult jump. It is nigh impossible to inch carefully to the ledge with the Circle Pad. There is so much dead-zone on the Circle Pad that by the time you register a movement, you move far too much and have fallen off. In a 2D platformer, the d-pad should still be an option. I am not a framerate-snob, but it is way too low and choppy in this game. If using 3D graphics was too taxing, they should have gone to 2D. I understand that 2D is probably not MercurySteam's forte, but the framerate affects a lot of things, including the melee-counter. The melee-counter comes out too slowly, as if I'm playing a laggy online game. In Splatoon, many ti...

A lot of videogame-companies want to sell their games on the biggest install-base, and that is logical, but it's not necessarily the best way to go about things. Having a game available in the launch-window is also very lucrative. Recently, word came out that many independent videogames sold best on Nintendo Switch, including Wonder Boy. Even though people who own a Nintendo Switch probably have other platforms on which to buy games, they chose to purchase these independent videogames on Nintendo Switch to further justify their purchases of this 300-dollar system. Tales of Symphonia sold 953,000 copies worldwide on Gamecube, while the PlayStation 2 port sold only 486,000. Granted, the PlayStation 2 port came later, but the install-base of PlayStation 2 was much higher. Knowing the audience of a platform is very important. Nintendo-fans were starving for a good RPG on Gamecube. PlayStation 2 owners already had a bunch of quality RPGs, but Gamecube-only owners didn't have m...

Last month, my sister visited her childhood-home with her two children. Having two children around is certainly interesting and energetic, but it feels like a digression. I spent my whole life maturing, that having these immature people around felt like they were dragging me back with them. Sure, childhood is a wondrous time of imagination, but I don't want to, nor need to go back to those times. Adulthood is better overall. I also work part-time with children. Some are very smart from a physical standpoint; their brains are quick and sharp. You can see with some other children, however, that their brains are holding them back. They're just slower and not as productive. My job is high-stress and fast-paced, so it does not give me the tools I need to deal with mentally slower children, meaning I need a lot of time with them but the job does not give me the time I need. It is easy to teach a smart child. Teaching a slower child requires patience and a positive perspective. I tr...

The Direct kicked off with Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon , neither of which I cared for. 3DS needs to die already. The Poké Ball Edition New Nintendo 2DS XL , however, was really cool. That will sell like hotcakes. I never liked the Mario & Luigi series, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions is no different. I prefer the first Super Mario RPG on SNES. Watching Kirby: Battle Royale , I felt bad for the people at HAL, having to work on Kirby-game after Kirby-game. Other than BoxBoy, what have they been allowed to do outside of Kirby? Let them be more creative. The Kirby 25th Anniversary Copy Ability Poll did not interest me either. Polls in general are reflective of the bad opinions of majority-sheep. It was amusing how they capped off the description of Yo-Kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters and Oni Evolution with the fact that the series was a Japanese phenomenon, because other than that, I would not try that game-series. The point is that...

 The Correct Spelling is Whoa This is one of those misspellings that is rampant on the internet. The proper spelling is "whoa," but I see "woah" all the time. I don't know why this is, or who started this trend, but it has to stop, and the first step is awareness. PS4 Pro I bought a PS4 Pro via the Destiny 2 Bundle. I bought it because the optical drive on my Japanese PS4 stopped reading blu-rays and Sony's American branch wouldn't fix it. I also bought it because it's white, looks nice, and the slip-cover looks nice as well. I usually don't keep boxes of consoles unless it's a Nintendo-system, but I decided to keep this one. The Nintendo-exclusive love is over. I will embrace all companies' systems and games. The transfer-process from my old PS4 to the Pro was painless and fast. I was getting 70 MB a second after connecting the machines to each other via ethernet-cable; it was awesome. I had around 200 GB of data transferred in...

This is an obvious statement, of course, but my point is that sometimes, the best things in life happen as a substitute for the things you thought you actually wanted. It was autumn of 1997. I don't know what I did, but I was qualified to receive another videogame. I went down to electronics boutique at the mall, with my mother, to buy Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64. When I asked if I could purchase a copy, however, they were out of stock. My immediate second choice, however, was Final Fantasy VII. Boy, am I glad that they were out of stock for Goldeneye 007. Final Fantasy VII changed my life, opened my eyes, and expanded my horizons for videogames and in life. Nintendo is constantly short on supply of their items even nowadays, from amiibos, NES Minis, Nintendo Switches, and SNES Minis. If you can't buy one of these, don't kill yourself trying to find one or overpay on the internet. Buy something else, and it might be the best thing that ever happened to you.

I have only played Titanfall on PC. Maybe these problems don't exist on Xbox One or Xbox 360. Burn Cards are a fun, little element to the game that adds randomness, longevity, and fun-factor, but it also contributes to the unfairness of the game at times. Some Burn Cards are overpowered, like Map Hack which shows you where all the enemies are, whether they are cloaked or not. Satellite Uplink is a weaker form of Map Hack. Being able to call in Titans at the beginning of a game is also overpowered, but at least you can hide from them. Getting killed by someone with Map Hack, even though I am hiding by myself in the far reaches of the map, pisses me off. Premade groups of friends can also queue against teams of random players. This is unfair, and my random teams usually get wrecked. How is this any fun for either side? Curb-stomping people with no challenge is no fun, and getting killed over and over with no chance of winning is also no fun. In games with random players against...

SuperMetalDave64 is propagating rumors that Sony is developing a new portable that will be like Nintendo Switch. Do I believe it? It's certainly possible. If Nintendo makes something, there is one certainty in this world, and that is that Sony will copy it. The Nintendo-fanchildren are angry, and others think that competition will be good, but I don't think that competition is necessarily good. When competition leads to everyone copying each other, making the same damn thing over and over again, competition is not good. It does not make the world a better place. People need to do something different and create new things. You might say that competition also spurs creativity and invention of all-new, different products, and that is also true; which is why I did not say that competition is bad, but that competition is not necessarily good, which means that it can be good, or it can be bad.

Super Meat Boy Forever This game looked better than Super Meat Boy, because it had a cuter premise to it. I have always been disgusted by Super Meat Boy's blood-and-guts theme, but this sequel might be tolerable. Shovel Knight: King of Cards I respect Yacht Club Games for delivering their Kickstarter-goals, but I am not interested in this expansion, playing as a goofy king with a big head. Specter Knight is my favorite and I don't need to play as any other Knight. Also, I am glad that this game's development will be ending soon. I'm sure Yacht Club Games wants to work on something different, and I want to see what else they can come up with next. Mom Hid My Game ChiGuy on YouTube mentioned this, but games of this quality should not be featured in a major hardware-manufacturer's video showcasing its best indie titles. Golf Story This game is visually appealing, and full of things to do, and I know that people that like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley wil...

"Patience is a virtue," they say, but is it really? You can definitely be too patient for your own good. Let's say you want something to happen. Instead of acting to get it done, you might wait for it to get done on its own. This may or may not be the right call, depending on the situation. Some people could be more patient. In public businesses, like restaurants, impatience often doesn't pay off. Employees are busy and have a queue of tasks to fulfill before your own, so nagging them incessantly is actually counterproductive. I, on the other hand, often have to tell myself to not be so patient. Applied to videogames, I have stopped being patient with Nintendo and Nintendo Switch. I have decided that they're never going to change. They will never put a priority on third-party support or even what gamers want. Their library is going to consist of first-party titles and indie-games. Instead of waiting another generation for what I want from them, I have pursued...

Many children develop into fanchildren of certain videogame-companies or videogame-consoles by circumstance. They can't have every videogame-console they desire, and so they will become fanchildren of the things they own. However, as we move into adulthood and can afford whatever we want, we sometimes fall into the same trap of fanchildism that we experienced as children. I know I did. I got a Wii U in early Q1 of 2013 and I loved it. Eventually, I bought an Xbox One as well as a PS4, but I loved Wii U so much that I ignored those two systems. After a few months of punishing myself with the terrible lineup of games on NS, I decided to rediscover my PC and PS4, and have been extraordinarily happy. Let us eschew fanchildism. Let us stop punishing ourselves. Let us play the games we want to play, and let us be happy.

People complain about racism and sexism all the time, but it's only natural for these injustices to exist in a human-world that judges each other on appearance. Our most dominant sense is our sense of sight and we use it not just with race and gender, but with clothes, weight, height, and other nuances as well. We are actually encouraged to judge people based on certain things like clothing, cleanliness, and hair. When people go to job-interviews, there is an unspoken standard of appearance that must be met. Superficial judgment then is okay and accepted, but then we condemn people for judging people on other factors. That is hard to do. You can't pick and choose which factors of appearance are politically correct and which are not. It is paradoxical, and illogical. We must eschew all superficial judgments.

YouTube is rife with spoilers days before a game is even released to the public. Even if someone is not actively searching for spoilers, there is a good chance that he or she will be spoiled, at least slightly, by a thumbnail, or a title. I have had to unsubscribe from channels because they did not respect the sanctity of a spoiler-free mind. Even if a game is 20 years old, you should never spoil a game without warning, because someone somewhere could discover and play that game and that pivotal moment could change his or her life for the better. There are games that are old, that I eventually want to play but can't get to, because of the limited time and money that I have. Just because a game is old doesn't give people the license to spoil it for everyone else. Think about something other than your views and subscriber-count for once. YouTube and Twitch are also promoting spectating instead of participation. Why is videogaming the greatest form of entertainment there is? I...