blatant self-promotion, short reviews of games, and things I find interesting. I used to draw comics, but now I sometimes write blog posts instead. he/him
Completed in 2026: Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (SNES)
This is a platform game in which Dixie Kong has to drag a Baby, that is also Large, around a series of dangerous levels to...actually I'm not sure. I'm off to the Wikipedia to check on the story.
...okay, I'm back. The story is insane and doesn't matter. It's an excuse to jump and collect bananas in a bunch of new themed areas. I got this game for Christmas in 1996 and I could not have been more excited at the time, being a huge fan of the previous games in the trilogy. At the time I enjoyed it, but I've never seriously tried to finish it again in the 30 years since its release.
Gosh, 30 years. Huh. Just gonna...just gonna sit with that for a minute.
In my memory, and when I'd see screenshots or videos in the ensuing years, the game was synonymous with "Cutesy" and "Gimmicky". Having now played it again, it is still Cutesy -- aggravatingly so -- but I will ease off on "gimmicky". I went too far on that one.
So! Stars: The levels and variety of challenges are good. Lots of tricky bits and secrets. I didn't come close to finding everything, and that's fine, I think. I like the more free-range nature of the overworld, and the bits of item collection and puzzle solving you get to do. It plays well and the graphics are still top-notch for a 16-bit system.
Wishes: well, again, I wish it was less cute. The vibes of the first game are immaculate, the second one leans a bit darker overall but is still great. This game is Disneyfied to a bizarre degree and everything is too bright. Also: WHY isn't it Dixie and Donkey in this game? Why introduce Kiddy Kong, a baby that annoys me? If we're gonna have a team of Agile Monkey + Big Slow Monkey, why not use the series namesake?
Lastly, I wish the music was better. There are some decent tracks but overall it has nothing on the previous two games, which in fairness did set the bar insanely high.
I finished the main story but really don't see myself going back to this one for another thirty years. I'll write it up again when I'm in my 70s. It's okay, but a disappointing after two games that are all-time classics.
This is a casual escape-room-style puzzle game with some faintly creepy, cosmic horror undertones. I don't remember much of the story, but this time the scope of the game has expanded to let you navigate a mansion that functions as a hub between the major puzzle rooms of the game. (The mansion itself...may also have secrets and puzzles of its own?)
I've said it before, but this trilogy is a delight and full of detailed, intricately-designed puzzle boxes. It's frequently quite cheap on Steam as well, and worth checking out. Play it!!
hey where have the "recently completed" entries been, Nathan?
I stopped at the beginning of the year because I didn't think anybody was reading them. But actually I miss writing them, so I'm gonna start catching up now. (don't worry, you won't get flooded with posts, I have completed shockingly few games in 2026)
In our church we take weekly turns as 'worship leader', the person who picks the songs we sing and organizes how the services will flow. The theme of the morning was 'creativity & art' and our worship leader got on the mic to say he asked an AI to help pick songs that fit the topic.
So there was just an entire booth full of wind chimes for sale at mountain fair. It started to get a little windy and they all went off at once. It was so pretty.
There is exactly one spot in the castle (well two, because reverse castle) where if you stand there and equip the secret boots, Alucard will say "WHAT???" and get stuck because he's now too tall to move through it.
I've made this exact post like 3 different times atp but. It's endlessly funny when people (especially tech company people) treat Asimov's three laws as a legit proposed framework for Artificial Intelligence safety when like. Nearly every single Asimov story they're featured in involves something going wrong as a result of a robot trying to follow three three laws in a situation that makes execution of the laws ambiguous or contradictory. They're not a guideline for legit AI programming they're a plot device designed to cause problems due to interacting in weird ways with complicated hypothetical situations!
Shoutout to Nazgul, the 2yo Czechoslovakian wolfdog who ran onto the cross-country skiing course and across the finish line to the crowd's cheers.
No worries: He's a local pet, he's friendly, he didn't interfere with any athletes' results, and he was returned to his owners. Videos at the link. [X]
Computers are so scary what if I accidentally hit F12 in a steam game and it takes a screenshot. What if I press shift + F12 while in word and accidentally save my document 😖
If you had to learn what the F keys on your computer do through me reblogging this post, then I'm glad you did. Computer literacy is not a skill that gets taught anymore, and it is absolutely one that needs to be taught in order to be learned. Don't ever feel bad for not knowing something, but ☝️ don't ever stop learning learning about your environment, the tools you use, and especially the people around you
Recently Completed: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Switch 2)
This is a first-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on exploration and motorcycle. You play as Samus, intergalactic bounty hunter who gets zapped through time and space to a new planet where she is forced to socialize with coworkers and defeat one of the robots from Daft Punk.
I have awaited this game for many years! I bought my first Switch in 2017 so I could be ready to play it! Now it's here and...I liked it. I didn't love it, but it's good. That's the short review. Play it, I say. I do have some Stars & Wishes after the fold, as well as mild spoilers if you're curious:
⭐ The graphics are spectacular.
⭐ The boss fights were some of my favourites in the Prime series, (I enjoy the Prime games but find almost every boss extremely tedious. These were challenging and fun!)
⭐Motorcycle is neat
⭐I liked the Zelda-inspired optional shrines and their puzzles. I could have done more of those!
⭐Feels very good to play for a returning series veteran.
🌠 I wish your teammates were not so chatty. I didn't hate them the way some do, but I was frequently exasperated by their tendency to state the obvious, right up until the end of the game. McKenzie kept telling me to try things I was already doing. It must be tricky to onboard new players after all this time, so I don't blame them for trying; I've been with this series a long time and so this comes more naturally to me.
🌠This is indeed the most linear Metroid I've played in a while.
🌠Mild spoiler ahead: The Mines, about 4/5th through the game, have a mechanic where you're frequently swarmed by hordes of enemies that are not interesting to fight. I didn't like the story beats that happened there, I didn't like the constant fighting. Bad Mines.
🌠A bit bigger spoiler ahead: You have to shepherd your coworkers through the first portion of the final boss battle. If they're knocked down you can revive them, but if they're hit again they die and you start the entire fight over. This sucks and is frustrating, because they are stupid and will not get out of the way of some big attacks that happen quickly in succession. I had to repeat the first phrase three times because of them.
Some nitpicks:
🐛It felt like I regained movement control a lot faster when switching out of morph ball than in previous games. At first it really threw me off -- I'm used to unmorphing, stopping for a moment, then continuing. Once I got used to it, I liked how smoothly I could go from morph-to-unmorph without losing momentum through rooms I'd already visited.
