Grab-bag Post #1
"We have so much time, and so little to see . . . wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."
- Willy Wonka
I kinda need 3 copies of me. There's only so much time in the world, and there's so many things I'd like to have done. So I would need one of me to be the normal teacher/husband/father and do all the family stuff. Home repairs, car maintenance, school plays, outdoor recreations, kids' sports events, books, etc. Version 2 would be dedicated to watching all of the culturally significant TV shows and films that I hear about but have never seen, as well as keep up on current stuff. Version 3 would catch up on the video game and comic book backlog, as well as play current games (most modern comics are rubbish, apparently). At night, all 3 consciousnesses would "synch up" so that all of us would have experienced all of the stuff.
Chasing the Purple Dragon
To a certain extent, a lot of games don't really "scratch the itch" for me the same way they did when I was younger. I think there are several reasons for it.
1) I have a lot more choice over what, when, and how much I purchase. It's one of the benefits of being an adult. I'm no longer reliant upon parents and birthday/Christmas gifts to hope I get something I'll like, so I no longer have to "make due" with mediocre games.
2) As a kid, being able to just have video games was a big deal for me. My imagination filled in the gaps left by bad design and limited technology from the images/text in the manuals and on the box art. I also just accepted that some games have odd design choices or poor localization that I had to live with or do without, whereas now I can see it as a design flaw and don't feel pressured to accept it if I don't want to. And now that modern programmers have more resources and consoles have enough horsepower under the hood, there's no excuse for bad graphics/translation so I'm more willing to put a game down if it doesn't meet my standards.
3) Part of what I liked about them was talking about them and comparing notes, so to speak. The only people I really get to do that with are my boys and my brother Brady, and people on Reddit. Not that I'm complaining about my family, but there's something about having a rousing lunch table debate with schoolmates over games that just doesn't happen anymore for me.
4) I think it can be hard to go back to just mediocre games or even slightly above average games once a really good game makes an impact. So for example, after playing something like Final Fight, the original Double Dragon seems weak/outdated by comparison. It's almost like how addicts need stronger drugs to get the high they once had, and for me, Breath of the Wild was a really big high. I kinda got spoiled by playing a lot of well designed games from Nintendo/Miyamoto, so a lot of other games just seem a little lacking. It's as if I got used to John Williams' level of quality movie music composing before learning that other composers existed and having to put up with everyone else not matching up.
5) More resources are being spent on mobile games that end up being kinda crappy. Many of the modern Triple-A titles aren't released on Switch because of hardware limitations, and I'm more reluctant to experiment with new games because of the price.
My Precious
I know a lot of people trade in games to places like GameStop so they can purchase newer stuff, but I've never been one to do that other than four times.
2) I gave Michael my copy of Mega Man X3 (SNES), which I also purchased used from the Card Shop because he was having trouble finding one and was an avid Mega Man collector. This is the one I'm most okay with, since it's better to be in his collection than just sitting in my closet, despite how much it's currently worth.
3) I gave Brady my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles (3DS) to give to a friend because I really wasn't enjoying it and I was hoping for more of an experience like Octopath or Final Fantasy VI.
4) I sold my copy of Skyrim (Switch) through Reddit because I was upset that it didn't have certain control scheme fixes in 2018 (like inverting axes) and the game was kinda buggy.
I kinda need 3 copies of me. There's only so much time in the world, and there's so many things I'd like to have done. So I would need one of me to be the normal teacher/husband/father and do all the family stuff. Home repairs, car maintenance, school plays, outdoor recreations, kids' sports events, books, etc. Version 2 would be dedicated to watching all of the culturally significant TV shows and films that I hear about but have never seen, as well as keep up on current stuff. Version 3 would catch up on the video game and comic book backlog, as well as play current games (most modern comics are rubbish, apparently). At night, all 3 consciousnesses would "synch up" so that all of us would have experienced all of the stuff.
Chasing the Purple Dragon
1) I have a lot more choice over what, when, and how much I purchase. It's one of the benefits of being an adult. I'm no longer reliant upon parents and birthday/Christmas gifts to hope I get something I'll like, so I no longer have to "make due" with mediocre games.
2) As a kid, being able to just have video games was a big deal for me. My imagination filled in the gaps left by bad design and limited technology from the images/text in the manuals and on the box art. I also just accepted that some games have odd design choices or poor localization that I had to live with or do without, whereas now I can see it as a design flaw and don't feel pressured to accept it if I don't want to. And now that modern programmers have more resources and consoles have enough horsepower under the hood, there's no excuse for bad graphics/translation so I'm more willing to put a game down if it doesn't meet my standards.
3) Part of what I liked about them was talking about them and comparing notes, so to speak. The only people I really get to do that with are my boys and my brother Brady, and people on Reddit. Not that I'm complaining about my family, but there's something about having a rousing lunch table debate with schoolmates over games that just doesn't happen anymore for me.
4) I think it can be hard to go back to just mediocre games or even slightly above average games once a really good game makes an impact. So for example, after playing something like Final Fight, the original Double Dragon seems weak/outdated by comparison. It's almost like how addicts need stronger drugs to get the high they once had, and for me, Breath of the Wild was a really big high. I kinda got spoiled by playing a lot of well designed games from Nintendo/Miyamoto, so a lot of other games just seem a little lacking. It's as if I got used to John Williams' level of quality movie music composing before learning that other composers existed and having to put up with everyone else not matching up.
5) More resources are being spent on mobile games that end up being kinda crappy. Many of the modern Triple-A titles aren't released on Switch because of hardware limitations, and I'm more reluctant to experiment with new games because of the price.
My Precious
1) I traded Contra III (SNES), a game I bought used from the Card Shop in Ontario, straight over for a copy of The Legend of Zelda (NES), complete with manual. I kinda wish I had just outright bought Zelda because I would still like to have it, and it's actually worth quite a bit now.
2) I gave Michael my copy of Mega Man X3 (SNES), which I also purchased used from the Card Shop because he was having trouble finding one and was an avid Mega Man collector. This is the one I'm most okay with, since it's better to be in his collection than just sitting in my closet, despite how much it's currently worth.
3) I gave Brady my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles (3DS) to give to a friend because I really wasn't enjoying it and I was hoping for more of an experience like Octopath or Final Fantasy VI.
4) I sold my copy of Skyrim (Switch) through Reddit because I was upset that it didn't have certain control scheme fixes in 2018 (like inverting axes) and the game was kinda buggy.
I have some others that I'm tempted to sell/trade, but the return on investment verses the amount of work needed to sell them is low enough that it's just easier to keep them in my collection.
Reminiscing about O-town
One thing I always liked about growing up where I did (meaning the placement of my house in Ontario) is that we lived on the border of the commercial/residential zones (thanks to SimCity for that vocabulary). It meant that many conveniences like gas stations, some fast food places, and the mall were just a short walk. In fact, Pizza Hut, the video rental store, Circle K, and several other things were on my block and I didn't even need to cross a street to get there, and the mall required only crossing once. Both pizzerias and Circle K had arcade machines, as did the mall so I had fairly easy access to them (but a finite supply of quarters, much to my chagrin).
Reminiscing about O-town
And while I'm on the subject, I fondly remember the mall being a magical place when we first moved to Ontario. It had a really wide variety of stores - 2 shoe stores, 4 clothing stores, a drug/general store, a fancy restaurant, a candy store, a pizza shop, a Sears appliance showroom, a bookstore, a Hallmark gifts and card store, a bank, a florist, an arcade, a hardware store, a sports equipment store, and a grocery store. It also had 2 ramps because it was built onto a sloped piece of land, and the stairwells next to the ramps had the mall office and a mini-arcade. Many community events were held in the mall on Saturdays, like demonstrations of how to escape a fire put on for kids, scout-o-rama, Halloween events, and magic shows. Plus the seasonal decorations and the amount of people walking around just made it fun. Over the years, though, shops started closing up and being replaced with more clothing stores until that was pretty much all that was left besides the grocery store and a dollar store. It's kinda sad, really.
Stuff I used to like
Some of the things I enjoyed as a kid didn't survive the transition to adulthood, so to speak. While this blog is mainly focused on Marvel and Nintendo stuff, I also enjoyed He-man, Transformers, ThunderCats, TMNT, and a little Voltron. Curiously, I really wasn't into GI Joe all that much. Later interests were Darkwing Duck and the Batman Animated series. However, once easy access to the source of the property (meaning the TV show) was gone, my interest waned. I did like a few aspects of some of the Power Rangers concepts, but didn't feel like investing as much time into watching it all that much.
Grab-bag Post #3
Stuff I used to like
Grab-bag Post #3
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