Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people who have the good taste to follow my blog. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means not a lot of people are following me, or my followers haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
 | Who doesn't plumb? |
You might say that we trusted Nintendo--to bring us the next marvel of console gaming, at least. Granted the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's processor was an upgraded cousin of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s CPU, the adoption of co-processors introduced games to a new world of possibilities. Pretty smooth marketing, if you ask me. Well, Commadore had figured that out with the Amiga, so how does it work out for our Bros who never plumb but (almost) always stomp?
| Uh, um...sure. |
When I was a kid, I used to wonder why Super Mario Bros 3 looked and sounded so much better than any of the games before it. Better graphics, better music, more powerups, larger worlds and more characters to wonder about. It turns out that the answer was simple: Better and faster organization of resources, or in technical terms, an on-cartridge memory mapper.
Nintendo was banking heavily on the success of its latest Bros adventure. So heavily, in fact, that they produced a now infamous movie, known as The Wizard (1998), as a marketing vehicle. I was one with the hype and totally into it, but even I knew the Power Glove never worked that well. But who cared? Super Mario Bros 3 was every bit as expansive, challenging and inventive as we hoped it would be.
| Chronic health issues (blah blah blah) and a bit of free time. |
I probably mentioned it already. As I'm about to start school again I've been fortunate to have some time to do some self care. Health issues persist, and I find that writing reviews of games regularly helps keep the brain juices flowing.
It's that simple. I've been using the admittedly limited scheduling function to space things out. I'm hoping to encourage others, not swamp the site, though I know new reviews are good for the site. It's also a bit of a kick to see my name on the Top 30 Read reviewers. Cool.
I appreciate all feedback and don't ask for anything more. We've all got our plates loaded. This is a moment of sharing my experiences...and it occurred to me that I owe you all gratitude. Maybe I've said it before, but I'll say it again, anyway.
| Since we're not officially reviewing NSO titles, here it is anyway. |
Mario Paint on Nintendo Switch has been an interesting shift for the console, because it brings the mouse back into Nintendo’s accessory list. If you own a Switch 2, you’ve already got that covered, since the controllers double as mice, but this review covers the experience on the Switch, not its predecessor. Suffice to say, apart from the emulation, absolutely nothing has changed for Mario Paint since its release in 1992. It’s a fun, easy to use suite of introductory digital creation tools for drawing, animation, and music.
 | Death Stranding 2 and Computer Issues |
Been playing Death Stranding 2 for 92 hours (and counting) and I've been having computer issues with a now ten year old desktop, so that's why I haven't submitted a review in the past few weeks.
I'll probably submit a review of something else by the end of the week, though. Probably. Maybe.
| My thoughts on the success of the Switch 2. |
Honest Trailers rightly accuses Nintendo of exploiting nostalgia, and well, there's no defense for that. We're of the generation who ponied up for the dominant console platform of the day and/or watched our parents do it. Looking back at the NES and SNES, these were based on hardware already a decade old at release. If you knew that there was some satisfaction that could be had seeing the equivalent of a calculator provide a novel gaming experience. Things have changed quite a bit since then.
| Who knows what's next? It ain't lookin' pretty. |
It's been a while since I've been here, and I can firmly blame a(nother) medical issue for it. Nothing serious. Just an auto-immune reaction called urticaria that no one understands well enough to do anything other than throw pills at. I'm sure we all know the story of having to wait months to see a specialist. Be at ease: It's no better up here in Canada, though at the moment things are significantly worse in the US.
 | The $80 price tag for premium games on the shiny new hardware does not have folks feeling delighted. |
Nintendo today revealed a lot of the most pertinent details about its upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console and a few launch games. One thing it didn’t touch on was the price for the hardware and its first games, which launch on June 5. However, respected game influencer Geoff Keighley quickly tweeted on X to let fans know they should expect to pay $449 for the hardware itself, and $80 for digital games. That sounds like a lot, especially for the games, but shouldn’t we have seen this coming?
| Some people feel differently about Zelda than I do. They are wrong and I am right. |
I have no way of knowing what the person next to me is thinking, and I can’t possibly hope to know every thought and preference of a stranger I meet online. Even my own tastes and preferences change over time. With that said, I’m pretty sure I’ve never met someone who played and really liked the original Zelda games but thinks that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom “isn’t a real Zelda game.”
Please don’t roll your eyes!
| We notice broken things because of all that isn't. |
I couldn't not come back here. World culture is doing as it does, galvanizing into groups who are fixated on values, behaviors or needs. That's a little vague. I'll say this instead: We're forming two groups. Those give a toss about others and those who give a toss about themselves. It's sobering to read about JoeTheDestroyer's divorce. As a child - and adult - I grew up with that threat always looming over my head, and I am fortunate that after forty years the relationship of my parents has taken a healing turn.
| Now I'm on Campfire. |
I just won't give up. Hey, wait. That's good news. Who says that we don't need editors? We do, of course, to learn from. They also have their pulse on things we don't get with our heads in the clouds and fingers on keys.
My Super Mario Wonder review is the product of some good feedback from a skilled, professional editor and Hemmingway - the web app. See, it turns out that post-graduate writing and the average reader don't mix. Better to save that for my school essays. Which, by the way, I'm about a little over a year from graduating. Yay! (I mean that.)
https://www.campfirewriting.com/explore/65c3d6746b28161300589ee3
| A funny thing happens when you buy almost no video games for a few years... |
I like video games, but I've not done a great job lately of buying the ones I want. Going back several years, I've told myself, "I'll get that eventually," and then I haven't. The trend kicked in hard in August of 2020, when I made a conscious effort to focus more on writing my fiction, but the neglect had already started ahead of that.
Anyway, I've now fallen WAY behind. So I decided to make a new wish list, which I'd not done in a long while, and I limited myself to 52 titles (one for each week in a year) that I'm most irritated about not yet acquiring. Here it is:
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (Switch)
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Switch)
Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
Blue Reflection: Second Light (PS4)
Bravely Default II (Switch)
| I have so many games in my library at this point that it feels like a total waste to not play them at least occasionally. Yesterday, I did! |
Ever have one of those random days where you just feel like playing old video games? I have them periodically, but usually I don’t act on the impulse because I have other things on my agenda. Yesterday, I ignored my other agenda and got down to some gaming. I thought maybe I would play and review a game, but none of yesterday’s sessions reached the point where a review is imminent. So instead, I’ll talk about them here.
First up, I had been wanting to finally play the first Shantae game for a long while. I’d purchased every game in the series (and even backed one of them thanks to a Kickstarter campaign) when my finances were in a better place. The series is so clearly up my alley, and yesterday was my moment to finally dip my toes in that water. I… wish it had gone better.
| I just thought I'd give you all my take on the impending 3DS/Wii U eShop closure, since no one asked... |
Over the years, I have made very clear my passion for Nintendo games. The NES didn’t introduce me to the medium, but it came close. Mario Bros. was the first game to truly capture my imagination and make me the gamer I am today, before I had even heard of Nintendo. My obsession with the media has expanded to include games on all sorts of consoles, from Sega and Microsoft and Sony, but I always pay slightly closer attention to the big ‘N.’ Which is why it always bugs me when I find myself at a virtual precipice, looking over a kingdom’s worth of games that are about to disappear from the marketplace in one huge event.
| Things that matter because we want them to. |
Two more weeks. It's been six so far and apparently I'm healing slow. There could be a real, identifiable reason for that which I will be investigating. In the meantime I wear the Aircast boot for a little longer, but not when I'm at home. It's neat that we have something this useful, but not that it barely holds together in some places. Modern medicine is complicated.
I have a box of computer components which have little value to me. Video cards are annoying. You'll get the latest beast only to find yourself outpaced within a period of months or years. Progress is nice, but this is why consoles are comforting. The age of the Nintendo Switch does not diminish how much fun it is, and legacy hardware has always been one of the strengths of gaming.
| So I'm still in the top 30 of reviewers? That's good, right? |
It may be premature to announce your return before you actually make the stage, but I'm doing it anyway. Honestgamers is still where I am most read. When I last posted here I was going on about writing and so on. I haven't stopped, naturally, but I have shifted focus.
I am working with an editor now. Pretty crazy, right? You guys get to hear it first. So, it's actually awesome and I'm learning a lot. It doesn't feel right to get into details, but I can talk about other things that have happened in my life.
Well...I had a slew of health issues and haven't been functional for a while. Lately I fractured my ankle, so I'm healing from that as well. Wait, wasn't I supposed to be talking about good things that have happened?
| I've just published the first entry in a new series that I think some of you might like. |
I don't post often here about my fiction because I'm mostly here to talk about video games, but sometimes I make an exception. Today is one of those days, as I've just released the first book in a new urban fantasy series for which I have high hopes.
Death and the Shifter introduces Molly Coyle, a young private investigator working in Salem, Oregon who recently died but now has been revived as a reaper who works for Azrael, an angel of death. Alongside her trusty talking feline companion, Fuzzy, she must hunt down and execute various deserving targets. Her first potential victim is a wolf shifter. But as you might expect, things don't exactly go as planned.
| A few reasons why |
Just wanted to make a small, quick post about it in case anyone is confused.
Quick, short reasons why:
-I've had the name since the very, VERY early 00s on various sites, message boards, and online gaming accounts, but I just got tired of using it. Also, from my experience, it's very easy for people to make fun of the name when they see it for the first time. ("Hey, it's Pizza Hut!" "Oh, hey dickbutt!")
| My first new book in a very long time is available on Amazon, and you may not even have to pay to read it. |
This is a video game site, so I try not to post often about personal things unrelated, even though this is my blog. However, this is one of those times when I'm going to make an exception because how could I not?
As this post's title notes, I've published another book. The last time I did that was in the year 2000, when this site was much smaller and (as far as I can recall) I didn't know any of you who are likely to read this post today. A lot can change in over 20 years.
| I'm selling off most of my physical library of PS4 games, many of them unopened, and that starts... NOW! |
Recently, I moved from one apartment to another and the process made me realize I have way too much... stuff. A lot of that stuff, admittedly, is games. And I do like games. I like owning a lot of them physically, even. But I've realized I need to be more selective about what I buy and keep, and I've accepted that a lot of the great games in my collection would give greater joy to other collectors while I shuffle priorities. So I purchased a lot of digital versions of games I own, and I went a little nuts and now I need to sell some stuff in a hurry.
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