30 Insights of a Diluted Mind - October '18

Seems I missed September. Huh. I’m in a good headspace lately. Let’s get some of those thoughts out on paper, shall we? 1) Count me in as the cliched many who always flock to all things ‘Halloween’ as soon as the calendar changes to October. From a video game standpoint, I don’t tend to play anything with a ‘spooky’ theme or anything like that, but I do enjoy the content that a lot of my favorite creators tend to put out. I know some people don’t care for all the extra emphasis on ‘creepy and sinister’ once October rolls around, but that’s okay. I don’t like what a lot of people like either. 2) At one point I thought I’d rifle off 31 horror movies over the course of the month to get in the spirit of the season but I realized a few things: i) That’s a lot of time to devote to movies. ii) I don’t need to watch 31 movies to get ‘in the spirit’. iii) I don’t want to watch 31 movies. I’m not a big film buff and don’t watch a ton of movies, but there’s something about watching scary movies that really provides an extra element of fun. 3) I don’t do well with the supernatural, so when I watch movies to get in the Halloween spirit, it’s usually classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Critters, House, Tales From the Crypt, Return of the Living Dead...things like that. I watched Paranormal Activity once and that messed with me so bad that I still have a hard time getting visuals like that out of my head. Campy = OK. Spirits and ghosts? Stay the hell outta here with that noise. 4) Speaking of movies, while I just admitted I don’t watch a lot, I have been going back and watching a few different ones lately, and they’re all video game related. In the past couple of weeks I’ve watched Street Fighter: The Movie, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and Mortal Kombat. While Raul Julia is great to watch, he couldn’t save that movie. It’s bad. As for the other two, I really enjoyed the anime, for what it was. And Mortal Kombat...it’s a movie based on a video game fighting game. That’s all it is and EXACTLY what it is. I’m not sure it needs to be more than that. Either way, it was still good. 5) I have both Double Dragon and Super Mario Bros. in the queue and ready to watch. I watched Double Dragon a few years ago and I remember having to turn it off for some reason or another and never got back to it. Clearly I had no desire to. As for Super Mario Bros...well...I don’t ever remember it being good, and it’s been 20 years, at least. However, it was Mario, so...I remember enjoying it just because. I already know it’s bad, but I want to see if it’s still ‘so bad it’s good’. 6) My recent watching of Street Fighter reminded me as to how much I enjoyed Street Fighter II and made me remember how much I actually played it as a kid. As much as I rattle off other games I played when I was younger, I tend to have a lot of memories of Street Fighter that I don’t usually reference or talk about. I’m not sure why that is. 7) I rented the game quite often as a kid, between the original and Turbo. I’d go to friend’s houses for sleepovers and someone always had it. It was almost as standard as Super Mario World in most circles that I rolled with. I never really played any more in the series though. I think I played Street Fighter V when I got it as a free download on my Vita, but that wasn’t too enjoyable, from what I recall. 8) Actually, though...my favorite pinball game of all time was a Street Fighter table. There used to be one in our Arena and when I was about 15 and working at a local hockey school, we’d play the hell out of it. We also discovered that when it was setup, the incline wasn’t overly steep, so the game would run a little bit slower. It wasn’t a big deal, because it allowed us to rack up some pretty high scores on the game, which made for a lot of long pinball games that would run until the wee hours of the morning. 9) We also discovered that the quarter box underneath the cab was REALLY easy to get access to, having a very accessible sliding door that we could open, reach into, and pull quarters out of. It was shady, I’ll admit. But I can honestly say we only pulled quarters out to put back into the game. We never put one of those quarters into another machine or anything else. So...basically it was like having the game on ‘free play’. Still doesn’t excuse us from what we did. HA! 10) Those who follow me know that my creative output usually comes in long spurts, but I can happily say that I’m in one now. I’ve been feeling a lot of the creative juices lately (hence this blog) and it feels good. It’s a shame that I don’t allow myself to put out more on a more consistent basis, but I know enough not to force it. If I did, it wouldn’t happen at all, so this is better. 11) Speaking of, I’m working on my latest ‘History of WWE Games’ video and this one was fun to go back and play. I recorded the footage awhile ago, so I recently went back and rewatched it. Man, what a fun game. I know a lot of non-wrestling fans who played it a ton back in the day and still enjoyed it. I finished the script recently, and now need to find the time when the house is quiet enough to voice something. 12) I should also state that I’ve got a couple of small cameos from my ‘Tubing friends who are lending their tones to this one. I always love including others in what I do. 13) Well, after cancelling my Collector’s Edition pre-order for WWE 2K19, I still went ahead and pre-ordered the Deluxe digital version. So...another year that I’ll have the latest NHL and WWE releases. I knew I was going to play them anyways...so...whatever. Hard to change habits, and I enjoy them, so I know I’ll get my money’s worth. 14) My biggest goal for this year is not to devote as much time to them so I can enjoy other games. There’s not a ton of new releases I’m looking forward to, but diving into the backlog and older games lately has been a lot of fun. 15) For example, I recently played and finished Lufia II, which I had wanted to play forever but never got around to doing. I’m so glad I did. I enjoyed the original game, and while I know most people dump on the first one, it’s still a good experience. That said, Lufia II is a better game. Not all sequels measure up to the originals, but this one takes it to another level. It certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a really great game. I enjoy the first one more, but that’s because I’m wearing some pretty thick nostalgia glasses when I say that. Lufia II is a better game than Lufia, without question. 16) Also, I’ve never looked into it, but...Lufia II never was in the plans, was it? Yeah, you’ve heard it many times before, but, when the plot and ending of Lufia II is spoiled in the first twenty minutes of Lufia (which was released three years earlier), why would you make the sequel the prequel? Never made sense to me. 17) I have the Game Boy Colour release, called Lufia: The Legend Returns and I’ve never played it. Apparently it takes place 100 years after the original Lufia, which was 100 years after Lufia II. So...it’s still within the same universe, I guess. I definitely want to get to that one. There’s also a Lufia game on the Nintendo DS (Curse of the Sinistrals) but apparently it’s a remake of Lufia II...so I don’t see myself playing that one. 18) Oh damn! There was a fourth Lufia game on the Game Boy Advance? I never knew that. Sorry, backlog! 19) I always have one RPG on the go and right now, it’s Cosmic Star Heroine on the Switch. The trailer was really appealing and I had read some pretty good reviews for the PC and PS4 release of the game so I thought I’d give it a shot when I saw it on sale for a decent price on the eShop. 20) I’m about 90-120 minutes in so far and it’s not bad. The battle system is Chrono Trigger-esque and has some nice pixel graphics in 8 and 16 bit style, so it’s appealing to the eye. The story and gameplay haven’t really grabbed me like I hoped it would to this point, but it’s still really early. Plus, the game is anywhere from 10-12 hours long, so I’ll probably play it over the next week or two and finish it before the end of the month. 21) Because I’m a father of three and can’t survive without scheduling my life (or so it seems) I’m already thinking ahead to the next RPG i’m going to play. I’d REALLY like to jump into Shining Force 3 on the Saturn or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Wii. My fear with SF3 is that I’ll get sucked in and feel the need to play all three episodes that encompass the game before moving on. That...could take awhile. I guess if it’s good, that’s not a horrible thing, right? 22) As for Fire Emblem, I’ve been looking forward to more since finishing Path of Radiance on the GameCube earlier this year. Fire Emblem has become a go-to franchise for me since playing Awakening on the 3DS a few years ago. I got bit by the bug and went head first into the series. I’ve played most North American FE games, and since there were six in Japan before it ever even came west, I haven’t bothered with them. I still haven’t played the original on the Game Boy Advance, but it’s certainly on the list. 23) The only other North American FE releases I haven’t played aside from the GBA and Wii releases, was Echoes on the 3DS. I played Shadow Dragon twice, but couldn’t quite get through the final battle without losing my mind. SD is a bastard because you have to be VERY strategic leading up to the final battle with the characters that you employ and can’t lose a single damn one. 24) The first time I played Shadow Dragon, I didn’t know what I was doing and it was the first time I played Fire Emblem with ‘perma-death’. While I know that was standard for the franchise prior to Awakening, it was hard going from one to the other, in the wrong order. The second time around, I (for whatever reason) levelled up mages and clerics, thinking that was going to be useful in the end. Nope. Big mistake. Third time’s the charm? 25) Getting back to Street Fighter, I had an idea for a script that popped into my head recently. It totally gets me away from the whole ‘wrestling’ theme for most of my content, and I’m not sure how it would turn out, but...it’s on the ‘pending’ list, that’s for sure. 26) I also have an entire playthrough of Kirby's Adventure captured that’s been sitting there for a couple of years. I should really do something with that. Even if it’s just something quick. 27) Someone asked me why I’m so intent on making videos if they’re so time consuming and writing is so much easier. The answer, for me, is simple. Firstly, it has NOTHING to do with getting ‘subs’, ‘likes’ or ‘smashing that button as hard as you possibly can’. It’s more to do with having the video support what I’m saying and getting my point across more clearly. 28) “But Wally...if you were a strong writer, couldn’t your words do that for you?” Probably. And yeah, I could pump out something on a weekly basis if I wrote it. Writing comes a lot easier and more naturally, but...to be honest...the visuals, man. I love the visuals. Funny...for a guy that doesn’t enjoy a lot of movies, I watch a lot of videos for my storytelling. 29) Hockey season is here. Thank goodness. This Canadian has is igloo ready, his Molson is nice and cold, and my beavers are nicely fed. I’m ready for the NHL season to begin. And I’m hoping to watch my Edmonton Oilers play long into spring after the dumpster fire that was the 2017-18 season. 30) You may see more hockey writing from me this season. I’ve missed it. Oh...and because my output never matches my ideas, look for a hockey video game video from me before the end of the year. 31) I’m blessed. Life is good. And I know those of you that are reading this aren’t random people from a random corner of the internet. You’re people I converse with, follow, and share interests with on the daily. My total hit count on this blog will peak at about 8 reads. And that’s okay. If you’re one of the eight, thank you. It’s appreciated.