TroytlePower

[troytlepower]

I love the Wario Land games! I missed the overworld map a bit in this one, but in every other way it was great!

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Just as I strayed to get fed up with climbing this tower, the game pulls me back in by revealing that I was climbing in and around Nintendo headquarters.

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Death or Treat had two months of extra time before landing on Switch, but between framerate issues and a horrible font choice, it is a frustrating release.

Death or Treat is a Solid Title with a Bad Switch Port - Geek to Geek Media

Fans of Dead Cells or Rogue Legacy will find familiar fare in Death or Treat, but its delayed Switch port is not up to snuff.

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Rolled Credits: Mortal Kombat X | TroytlePower on Patreon

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Mortal Kombat X was a blast! I liked 9 a lot, but this one looked stunning, had more satisfying combat, and improved on already solid storytelling!

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I uh... I didn't like Akira.

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Nimona is exceptional. Go watch it.

A ★★★★★ review of Nimona (2023)

Very good, very gay, very funny, very sad. Absolutely loved it, was crying like a baby while my kiddo and I talked about the message at the

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The Story of Mortal Kombat (2011) Explained by a Fresh Fighting Game Fan - Geek to Geek Media

The upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot of the prior trilogy which started with the ninth Mortal Kombat game which is a reboot of Mortal Ko

I had way, way too much fun trying to explain the plot of Mortal Kombat.

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Starship Troopers is a weird, weird movie.

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Rolled Credits: Kirby’s Dream Land | TroytlePower on Patreon

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Another one for Super Switch Club. While I’ve always liked Kirby games, they never really stick with me… so while I don’t think I’ve ever played through his first outing before I could be entirely wrong about that.

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I played through Streets of Rage 2 for an upcoming episode of Super Switch Club. I like beat ‘em ups for their simple fun, but this one might have been too simple.

Rolled Credits: Streets of Rage 2 | TroytlePower on Patreon

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Rolled Credits: Batman: Arkham Origins | TroytlePower on Patreon

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I finished my replay of the forgotten stepchild of the Arkham franchise. The open world doesn’t click with me and I got tired of fighting Bane, but otherwise I think this is a really worthwhile entry.

Click the thing to hear my post credit thoughts.

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A ★★★★ review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Just good stupid fun. Real silly, inventive action, solid special effects. Whole cast was great. Michelle Rodriguez as a barbarian is perfec

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Rolled Credits: Huntdown | TroytlePower on Patreon

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I finished off Huntdown, a pretty cool cyberpunk run’n’gun shooter with awesome aesthetics, great music, and a terrible name!

Click the thing to hear my immediate postgame thoughts!

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*taps mic*

Oh hey, is this thing still on? Is this a viable alternative to twitter? That place blows, and I need somewhere else to yell about video games and movies and stuff.

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the Emotional Impact of Interactivity

The first narrative-focused Star Wars game in nearly a decade, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, puts players in control of a former Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis who, as a child, survived Order 66, the command that turned the Clone Troopers against their allies and led to the near-total destruction of the Jedi. The focus of this game is mostly on over the top action, but I found that certain beats of the story were incredibly impactful, especially because being in control of the character led me to be inexorably involved with their experience.

Yoda says: Reader beware, ahead spoilers there are.

The game picks up several years after Order 66, with Cal working an honest labor job while hiding both his Jedi past and abilities until tragedy leads him to reveal himself. It doesn’t take long at all for him to embrace his Jedi abilities and dive back in to the fight between the forces of Light and Darkness.

As the game progresses, the player gains access to few new Force abilities for Cal to master. Each time, it’s framed that Cal is remembering these skills from his former training, with the sudden remembrance built into the narrative by having the player guide Cal through a flashback to his childhood training with his master, Jaro Tapal.

These sequences are a great way to introduce the new Force abilities to the player in a way that makes sense to the narrative, but since each flashback is basically just Jaro and young Cal in a training room practicing, there’s not a whole lot of narrative development within the flashbacks.

Eventually, you finish unlocking new abilities with Cal saying something like, “That’s it, I now know how to do everything I could back then.” Imagine my surprise, then, when a bit further into the game the familiar transition to a flashback sequence started up again.

Right away, I could tell something was different this time. Instead of the familiar training room, young Cal was standing in a dormitory. For a few seconds, I was confused, until I realized there was only one reason the game would bring me back to this more innocent time in Cal’s life after I’d finished unlocking abilities this way: I was about to experience Order 66 first hand.

Cal was being summoned by Jora Tapal to the training room, so I cautiously walked out of the dormitory and along clean sterile hallways to that destination. Along the way, I passed several Clone Troopers, and brief snippets of conversation with them made it clear that these weren’t just comrades in arms to Cal, they were his friends.

In the training room, Jora Tapal and a Clone Commander waited in a booth for me to complete a final test in my training. Cal was ecstatic at this point, excited to leave the training environment and see real action in the war. I just watched the Clone Trooper with dread, knowing what was coming.

While Jora Tapal congratulated Cal, the Trooper received a message. The Emperor commanding “Execute Order 66” was barely audible in the background. I tensed up, knowing that, while Cal would be fine, Jora Tapal would not survive the next few minutes and… the Master sensed the betrayal just in time to cut the Clone down and start planning an escape.

For the next few minutes of the game, I had to guide Young Cal through narrow passageways to try to reach an escape pod, all while Jora Tapal barked orders at me while battling Clone Troopers in more open environments.

Cal was scared, and because I knew how this had to end, so was I. Cal was hesitant because of his fear, and I was hesitant because I knew that pushing the narrative forward was only going to lead this boy to losing the most important figure in his life.

I’ve seen looming tragedy like this in plenty of narratives, from books to tv shows and movies. Knowing that something terrible is coming builds up tension in the audience, and is a great way to help them connect their emotions to those of the characters in the story.

In this, though, being not just able to relate to Cal but in control of him, I was more connected with his experience than with characters in non-interactive media. All Cal wanted to do was hide, even though he knew that he had to reach that escape pod to survive, and for just a moment I stopped moving him forward and let myself hide from the tragedy I knew was coming, even though I knew that Reaching that escape pod was the only way to progress the story.

I love narratives in all forms, but moments like this are why the stories in video games will always have a higher potential for emotional impact than any other media. The best examples of watching a character’s experience will never, ever be able to reach the heights of having to push them through that experience yourself, even if it is just with the push of a button.

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2020 goals!

Hoo boy, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, eh?

2019 wrapped up with the birth of our first child, Atticus. Ramping up to the birth, the time in the hospital, and the lack of sleep since then has left me feeling pretty wiped out, creatively, so I haven’t written or drawn or done much at all on that side of things lately.

What I have been doing is watching a lot of TV, listening to a lot of podcasts, and playing a lot of video games, all while my son sleeps on my chest. In that pursuit, I listened to an episode of the “And Sometimes Rob” podcast where Rob and his wife went over their list of 2020 goals (and talked about how goals differ from resolutions) which really inspired me to make my own list… which includes blogging/journaling more!

I made my list on, I think, January 3rd… and haven’t really done much with it since (thanks to the sleep deprivation), but this morning I’m getting ready to start working after being awake since just after midnight and I thought, “hey, why not write a blog post about your goals, so that there’s some semblance of accountability for them?”

So, with that, here are my 2020 goals, in no particular order at all:

Anchor bookshelves!

I know that Atticus won’t be crawling for a while, but I still want to get our shelves fully anchored to the wall, because safety.

Reduce video game collection!

This is kind of nebulous… I want to keep my NES, SNES, and N64 cartridges (because I think the idea of playing home console cartridge games with the kid will be cool someday), but I’ve got a huge collection of DS games and PS2/Xbox/GC discs that I don’t think I’ll ever really go back to. Some of these I’ll just trade in for new games, but the rest I’ll put up on eBay.

Go through the storage unit!

My wife and I have had a storage unit for years now, and I suspect there’s a lot of stuff in there that we really, really don’t need. We’ve made small excursions into it’s depths before to either retrieve or remove certain items (like those disc-based video games), but I really want to take a weekend to empty it out, go through everything, and then either repack it or just get rid of it.

Read 12 books I already own!

This is the first of a few “backlog” goals on this list… I’m a sucker for picking up random books from thrift stores, which has left me with a bunch of books that looked interesting but I haven’t read.  I suspect I’ll bounce of several before I find 12 to follow through on.

Read 12 comics (graphic novels or story-arc collections) I already own!

The nice thing about this one is that I know I won’t totally bounce off of these, because at least the art will be engaging!

Watch 10 new “films”!

I’m not sure what to call the class of movie I’m referring to here, but basically, I want to watch some movies that are outside of my normal sarcastic-but-optimistic-action-comedy wheelhouse.

Sell the Subaru!

My wife’s poor car has problems, so it’s gotta go. We were all set to try to sell it last fall but didn’t get it done with all the baby stuff going on.

Cook 12 new recipes!

I love cooking, but sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself to find new things to cook, so we end up falling into dietary ruts. I’m hoping that pushing myself to find new things will help with variety.

Ride 200 miles!

I absolutely love biking. I’ve got a road bike that I bought nearly a decade ago that is great, even if it’s nowhere near the new hotness… but last year I didn’t ride it even a single time. That ain’t gonna fly in 2020!

Get under 200 lbs!

My weight has fluctuated a lot in the past few years… I lost something like 50 pounds before my wife and I got married by doing a keto-based diet, then packed most of that back on when we stopped. I’m sitting around 215 right now and would love to get into and stay in the 190-200 range (though less than that would be just fine, too!). I don’t want to do an extreme diet again, so this one is mostly about being more mindful about what I eat and staying active.

Illustrate a kids’ book!

I’ve had so many ideas for this over the years, and I never have the discipline to just sit down and do it… I’d really, really like to have a book I made to read to my kid by the end of the year.

Learn 5 new Ukulele songs!

I know a few chords on the ukulele, which lets me strum a few songs, but I’d like to really learn to play some things… I’ll probably pull something from The Beatles first!

Check on ADHD and Anxiety!

I used to take medication for ADHD and I hated it. I’ve never been diagnosed with any anxiety disorder, but I know I have issues there. I’d like to talk to someone about both of those things and see if there might be a treatment plan that could help me cope better than I do on my own.

Get my tooth fixed!

I’ve got this tooth that sucks, and I hate it.

Meditate 100 times!

I started doing a bit of meditation last year, but never really made it a part of my routine. It helps with the anxiety I mentioned above, so I really want to make it a common practice.

Get a tattoo!

This is actually part of a Christmas gift to my wife from a while back, but we’re finally going to do it!

Keep “The Best Animated Shows Ever… So Far!” going!

I love making this podcast because it gives me an excuse to chat with my buddy, MC, and I really want to make sure that keeps happening. We had to drop off after Atticus was born, but I’m hoping to get back to full-on production soon.

Draw or Design 100 times!

This is, like, twice a week.. shouldn’t be too hard, right? Especially if I’m trying to make that book happen!

Journal or blog 100 times!

Hey look, I’m doing it!

Work on meal planning!

This is another nebulous goal, but a really important one with there being a child in our lives. We’re trying to make sure we think at least a few days ahead about what we’re going to cook for dinner to ease up on the stress of last-minute shopping trips.

Beat 12 backlog games!

There’s a lot of games that I’ve enjoyed but haven’t finished, and I want to take the time to see some of them through!

So that’s it, my 21 goals for 2020! I think most of these are pretty attainable, as long as I stay focused on them.

If you’re reading this and have ideas about films I should watch or ukulele songs to learn or anything else, let me know! I’d also love to hear what your goals are!

Let’s make 2020 productive!

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[troytlepower]

Holy vacation, Batman: Hawaii and our Baby Shower

My wife and I do a lot of little trips, largely because we live a few hours away from the rest of our family. I don’t think a month has gone by where we haven’t at least done one weekend in Portland, or Bend, or camping, or something. We don’t typically do big vacations, but were lucky enough last month to spend a week in Hawaii, and then immediately spend another week in Portland to spend time with her parents and have a baby shower.

Hawaii was absolutely incredible. We stayed in an AirBnB right near Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, and mostly bummed around that area. We researched in advance, and decided that public transit would get us just about everywhere we needed to go, so didn’t stress about a car. Between the awesome “The Bus” system and a lot of walking, we visited several different beaches, toured the Iolani Palace, visited a farmer’s market, bought shirts at 88 Tees and coffee from Punchbowl (both of Terrace House fame), ate an insane amount of great food, and wandered through a local flea market. It was a low key vacation, without a lot of specific, set plans on what to do each day, but that made it super easy to relax and take in the beauty of Hawaii.

On our last full day there, we rented a car (which was an adventure in and of itself, since they didn’t have our reserved vehicle available), and drove around the rest of Oahu. We visited the Dole Plantation, ate some fantastic BBQ, saw even more amazing beaches, and then dropped by the actual Terrace House house on our way back into Honolulu. At the end of the day, we ended up sitting in a park to watch the sun go down, and it was just absolutely magical.

We flew back into Portland late Tuesday, and then I worked remote the rest of the week, while also visiting with both mine and my wife’s family. Her parents live in Montana, but had made a rare trip out here, so it was awesome to get to spend some time with them. Then when the weekend hit, we went to a BBQ at her sister’s house on Saturday and then our baby shower at the same house on Sunday. It was amazing to get to have so many of the people who are so important to us all gathered in one place, in support of our little family.

We’ve been back home properly for 4 days now, and I still don’t feel like I’ve fully recovered from this trip. It was relaxing and exhausting and emotionally overwhelming, but mostly it was amazing.

If you ever get a chance to visit Hawaii, do it.

But more importantly, when you do get a chance to spend time with your family, take it.

… and then take a nap!

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