I understand that I’m not the average gamer anymore, but have evolved Pokémon-style into a curmudgeon. I don’t give a rat’s ass about how pretty a game is, how “enhanced” the tech gets, how many polygons a piece of hardware can push, any of that. Maybe I’ve aged out of the main age group of gamers… I know I’ve disconnected just enough that my finger isn’t as “on the pulse” of the industry as it used to be.
In short, that means mostly Overwatch these days, the occasional RPG (Persona 4 Golden is still a classic), a moment with one of the various classics collections (the Sega Genesis Classics version of Altered Beasts won’t play itself, y’know). But that doesn’t mean I don’t still, occasionally, enjoy a new release with all the promise that brings.
This (and all screenshots) taken by my from my personal Nintendo Switch.
Like how I just downloaded Arcade Archives Shusse Ozumo, an arcade game previously exclusive to Japan, released in 1984, and made available to me here in the US on July 11th, 2019.
I haven’t missed the NIS America annual press event since I started going in 2010 or so, and yesterday I spent my evening mulling over video games, musing over cocktails (well, ginger beer in my case) and pizza, and listening to professional nerds tell me about their upcoming products. It’s my favorite event of the year simply because they produce the types of games I’m personally interested in most: dungeon-crawler RPGs and Disgaea.
Disgaea is love. Disgaea is life.
Last night, they were showing an obscene number of titles for the modestly-sized company they are – 19 in total, up from the 8 they showed in 2016 – ranging from visual novels like PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness, to their powerhouse murder-mystery series Danganropa, to the afore-mentioned Disgaea 5 Complete for the upcoming Nintendo Switch. The biggest news was that all of the titles they named would be released at some point in the 2017 calendar year, but that only matters if the games are any good, so it’s worth taking a look over the full list.
When Nintendo’s WiiU was initially announced, I thought that the built-in screen would be used to play games on the go. There was a battery, the thing was bulky and a tiny bit heavy (for long-term travelling use, anyway), analog sticks and buttons and everything that reminded me of a Ben Heck portable build. In short: I was excited. Think of the possibilities! Not just a portable Nintendo console, but a fully-fledged Nintendo console on the go! As much as I love my 3DS, it’s not quite the experience of sitting down through a cutting-edge Mario or Zelda title!
When I heard for certain that it still needed the plugged-in box to actually play, I wasn’t devastated per se, but I was a sad panda. Even with the touch screen capabilities (which were fun and interesting, BTW) I couldn’t justify for myself buying one. Partly because of being broke, but also because I’ve been focused on enjoying my portable consoles over the past few years for my personal fix. So when I watched the trailer for the Nintendo Switch this morning, I started getting really excited.
Update time! These seem to be getting slightly later and later every time I write them, but… no matter.
Word Count: 23,576 Page Count: 58
That’s a net-positive of 2,165 words and five pages to the manuscript. This kind of admittedly-pathetic progress is why people make fun of their friends when they ask “so… how’s your novel coming along” sarcastically. And sometimes, like it has been over the past week, it’s been well-deserved.
Still, progress is progress. And in my time not-writing I’ve had the ability to binge-watch some history classes through Crash Course, catch up on some games I’ve wanted to dig further into but haven’t had the time, do a little reading here and there, play a little poker.
I feel like I’ve been kicking back more lately, but feel both more and less pressure to get certain work done – I’m between reviews right now which is kind of nice. It gives me more time to think, to appreciate games I genuinely adore and haven’t given the attention they so rightfully deserve, and less time to play games I may end up despising for one reason or another.
I need to get my ass in gear, so as a goal, I’ll shoot for at MINIMUM five thousand words until my next update on either Sunday or Monday (my two regular days off). That would put me around the 28,500 mark, so while 5K is the minimum, I’ll shoot to break through 30K total. Maybe it’ll help to think about it as “as soon as THIS story is written I can start in on a new one”, but since I have multiple fully-realized concepts in my head (some of them mapped out either in the beginning stages or already laid out in some fashion) that’s enough of a challenge for another night.
Or maybe a punishment… if you can think of a worthwhile-yet-not-TOO-painful punishment for not having 5,000 words of fiction written in a week, do let me know in comments. If there’s a good one, I’ll shoot video and upload it to YouTube for your sadistic enjoyment.
Stand Tall, and hopefully your own writing is a bit more concrete and focused than mine has been!
About a week ago on Game Revolution, I shared before E3 2015 a few of my stories from previous events. These stories weren’t exactly the most flattering for me I admit – poking fun at a celebrity, calling another out for cutting in front of me in line, and crashing the cabana of yet another famous and talented person (I tend to only make a TOTAL ass of myself in front of famous people, like Alex Borstein of MadTV and playing Lois Griffen on Family Guy). This year, in surprising fashion, I was actually able to confront the celebrity I had directly addressed, and in turn, make an ass of myself in a mutually-assured deprication.
