Video Game Blog 027: Video Game Vacation
Welcome to 2023 in the SoraRabbit Hole! This is going to be a big year here, and so I decided to spend the first week of the year relaxing and recharging. And what better way is there to do that then to play video games? That’s right, I squandered an entire week of potentially productive time doing very little except playing games. Well, I still had to work my day job, but I put all of my projects on hold and forced some relaxation.
GAMES!
It was fantastic. This was time I very much needed. In the never-ending struggle to balance work, family, my paying job, and recreation, I’m left as a very tired and stressed bunny. This year we celebrated Christmas as a family on the 31st, since that was the earliest everyone could be available. The last few years I have been hosting Christmas at my place (skipping the quarantine year, of course) and cooking a big meal for everyone. It’s been a lot of fun and I hope it continues for years to come.
On that day, after saying a fond farewell to my visiting family, I curled up with one of my new games and spent a few hours unwinding. I had no plans for the following day, so I continued playing, stocking up the shiny new memory card I was gifted for my 3DS with new games and going through my list of unfinished games looking for more stuff to play. Gradually this became a week-long endeavor, my thinking being that I could use a break after the holidays and my usual breakneck pace of posts to finish out the year. I also used it as an excuse to finalize my 2023 Game List, which charts my gaming goals for the new year.
After the week was up, I had a page of notes and the concept for this post… a series of mini reviews and commentary on the games that took up my week. Here we go!
Okay, guess we’re doing the chibi thing. (Credit: Nintendo, GameFreak)
Pokémon Shining Pearl: I started with this one, which my mom gave me for Christmas. It was a little odd playing this, as it’s a remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which I played only a few short years ago. It really put into perspective how many Pokémon games I’ve played over the last three years.
I’m having a lot of fun with it, as expected. I’m choosing to train different Pokémon that I didn’t really spend a lot of time with in my previous playthroughs and taking my time enjoying the classic mechanics. I mean, of course I love the new direction they went with Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, but it’s nice to revisit a simpler more linear time, when you had one path to follow but still plenty to discover along that path.
The chibi art style is taking some time to get used to, and I can’t say I fully approve of the choice… the character models are shrunk down to cutesy cartoony caricatures, but when you enter battle they have normal proportions. I know they were going for a throwback Nintendo DS-era vibe, but it’s a little awkward and just gives me flashbacks to the conflicting art styles within the original version of Final Fantasy VII.
Design choices aside, so far I’m enjoying myself and loving the game, but I do think it could have used some more innovation like we saw with the Ruby/Sapphire remakes. But hey, the game gave me a free Mew and Jirachi, the latter of which I always managed to miss out on during promotions. Kinda a weird feeling having two mythical Pokémon on my team before I even reach the second gym, but I love it.
DASH! (Credit: Nintendo)
Mario Kart: As I cast around looking for games to take my attention, I found myself especially gravitating towards Nintendo games. I got back into Mario Kart 64 and downloaded Mario Kart 7 for my 3DS. I also took the plunge and got Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch. I did feel this was a little wasteful since I had it for the Wii U, but the Switch version looks awesome and has so much content I couldn’t resist.
I am slightly ashamed to say I’ve been sleeping on the Mario Kart series. We had Super Mario Kart when we were young and we played the hell out of it. I did play Mario Kart 8 with my family whenever I got the chance, and when we visit the arcade, it’s one of the first games we go to. But there were so many games in the series that I hadn’t tried yet. As soon as I got back into them, I was desperate to find the two I was missing… Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii. My plan was to hit the used game stores, since there are still two in town that carry games for the older systems. I was going to trade in some of my duplicated games and search for these two titles, along with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (See the next section for more on that.) In my rush to leave the house, I forgot the games, but Cocoa and I still hit up one of the stores. No luck scouring the shelves, but the enthusiastic store clerk found a disk-only copy of Double Dash behind the counter. It was expensive and I was going to pass on it, but Cocoa insisted on buying it for me for my upcoming birthday. (And played it with me that night even though she doesn’t much like racing games!) As the disc was sitting in the cleaning machine and the clerk was printing up the case art for us, he gave me tips and tricks, telling me where the shortcuts were and generally gushing about the game. Turns out he’d sunk countless hours into it years ago.
Later that day I checked the other store and neither of the remaining games I wanted were there, so I had to find them online. By the end of the day I had both of them bought and enroute to join my collection! (They actually both arrived today before I went to work.)
Anyway, enough of the Nerdy Adventures of SoraRabbit. The bottom line is that I played a lot of Mario Kart last week, and here are my thoughts.
Mario Kart 64 was a little clumsy but the difficulty level is really high and I’m finding the 100 cc tracks a real challenge. It was both more and less than Super Mario Kart, which came out before it. I’m sure eventually I’ll get frustrated with the controls and quit for the later games, but for now I’m still hanging in there. (I can’t play two player on that one since I only have one classic controller, so that cuts down on the replay value a bit.)
Mario Kart Double Dash is a blast. The controls are smooth, the tracks are creative, and the races themselves are complete chaos. The amount of items flying around (especially on the Baby Park track) is insane. I love the amount of unlockable content: characters, karts, additional cups. The strategy involved with choosing your kart and your two drivers has a lot of depth. (So far I like the Koopa pair the best but their karts are kind of slow. Oh wait, turtles, slow… I get it now.) I’m still working on getting better so I can handle the 100 cc courses and unlock the Special Cup, but I’ll get there. Since Cocoa spent so much on this copy, I plan to play and unlock everything I can on it.
Mario Kart 7 seems to be a solid entry in the series, but I haven’t played too much of it yet. Just enough to try it out. The controls are smooth and the graphics are great.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a lot of fun. I played a bunch of it on the Wii U version, but I’m really liking the Switch version. I’m not spending too much time on it just yet, as I’m busy wrapping up 64 and trying to get better at Double Dash, but I know at some point I’ll dive into it fully and start unlocking everything I can.
The Mario Kart series are fun, feel-good games that bring me back to my childhood every time. They’re fast-paced, tense, and challenging. They’re the most fun played with others, but since I don’t usually have that luxury, I’m glad I can enjoy them alone.
SMASH! (Credit: Nintendo)
Super Smash Bros.: As mentioned in the previous section, I also got into Super Smash Bros. My memories of this game were fun ones, messing around on the game with my brothers. (I honestly can’t remember if it was 64 or Melee we played… probably a little of both.) I have good memories of playing as wizard-hat Pikachu and desperately mashing the buttons trying to shoot everyone with lightning. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had fun.
Super Smash Bros 64: I have never been very good at this game. I bought this one last year when I was filling up my Wii U and after a lot of struggling I managed to clear the game with Mario. After spending several more hours on it, I’ve gotten a bit better and the other day I won with Yoshi fast enough to unlock Captain Falcon. He’s a tough one to control… I keep Falcon Kicking myself right off the edge of the world. I’ve managed to clear the game with all the characters I’ve unlocked, but looking at the requirements to get Luigi and Ness, sadly I don’t think I’m good enough at the game to ever accomplish that. Besides, I want to move on to…
Super Smash Bros. Melee: I honestly forgot I had this game. It was one of the games that I bought at a used game store and put in the cupboard, swearing I would one day play it. Well, that day came during this week, on a slow work night during my break. I immediately saw the improvements over the first game not just in the controls but in the unlockables. Where the first game only had unlockable characters and one stage, this one has all that plus a ridiculously extensive collectable trophy system.
The Smash Bros series may have gotten a bad reputation lately from certain members of their rabid fanbase, but I’m glad I’m finally giving it a real try and honing my skills. I’m going to play the hell out of these games this year, I can tell already. I have the 3DS version but have not tried it yet. (I bought it before I found out the Wii U version is exactly the same, but no regrets. I need more games on my 3DS anyway.) I just got Smash Bros Brawl today and when I earn enough credits in the Nintendo eShop, I may be able to get Smash Ultimate for free. I can’t wait to fight as Sora! This is another game that’s more fun with multiple players, but failing that there is so much stuff to unlock and earn that the game keeps you playing. And the satisfaction of getting better and blasting through your fights is real.
I’m on a never-ending quest to solve puzzles! (Credit: NanoPiko)
PictoQuest: This was an impulse buy on the Switch and I am playing it constantly. I love picross and the RPG aspect to this is great. For those who are unversed, picross is a grid and number puzzle where you fill in boxes to form a simple picture, using the numbers on the columns and rows as clues. I started playing picross on my 3DS years ago when I found Pokémon Picross and later Zelda Picross. The Pokémon one adds in aspects of collecting and using the monster’s special powers, which was fun. I was hooked immediately.
PictoQuest takes the classic picross puzzles and adds in simple turn-based monster battles, hit points, money and shops, potions, magic orbs, and side quests. It’s a super easy game and I’m over halfway done with it already, but I consider it money well spent as it was cheap and I’m getting an inordinate amount of enjoyment out of it. The graphics and music are great and it’s just a cute, fun game.
Is bunnies. (Credit: Cozy Bee Games)
Bunny Park: This was another impulse buy that I randomly came across. I got the Switch version, although I found out later that the PC version is way cheaper. This is a cute, cozy little game where you design and clean up a space of land to lure bunnies in so they can live there. The bunnies need to be fed and petted to be happy and in return they dig up coins that you can use to expand and decorate your park. You can also buy upgrades like butterflies that will collect coins, clean up junk, and even pet the bunnies for you.
As you all know I love bunnies, so this game was a natural for me. After you get a little ways into it you see there really isn’t too much depth to the game, but it’s still a nice chill relaxation game to put on for a bit. The rabbits are adorable, the music is soothing, and it’s been enjoyable in small doses. Once I expand my park fully and collect all the bunnies I’m sure I’ll stop playing, but I plan to see it through until I get that far.
I love Squall and Rinoa’s story. (Credit: Square Enix)
Final Fantasy: One of my major gaming goals this year is to finally finish my replay of Final Fantasy VIII. See, years ago I stalled in my play of FF12 (I couldn’t beat the massive 100 floor dungeon and I was a diehard completionist back then) and decided to go back through all the games. I kept getting distracted, so FF8 has taken me years to get through so far. During this week I bought the remastered version for the Switch and started over, getting fully back into the game.
I’ve always loved FF8. Unpopular opinion I know, but I liked it more than Part 7. I just felt like 8 was more developed and consistent, whereas 7 always felt like a messy experiment to me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved 7 and I am looking forward to playing the Remake, but for my taste I just liked 8 more. And then 10 came along and blew everything out of the water except for Part 4. I will always love Part 4 the most. I imprinted on that game as a child.
But enough about that… save it for the inevitable lengthy Final Fantasy post. I’m only a couple of hours into Part 8, but I’m getting that old RPG fire back. There is just an itch that only old-school RPG games can scratch… your Final Fantasies, your Dragon Quests, your Chrono Crosses… those games are my jam and I am definitely jamming out to FF8 again.
And that wasn’t all the Final Fantasy I played. On my quest for Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros Brawl, I mentioned that I traded in some duplicate games and movies. Well, since the games I was seeking weren’t there and I didn’t want my store credit to go to waste, I ended up buying both the Final Fantasy Theatrhythm games for really cheap. I’d been curious about these games ever since Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories came out, and now I had a chance to try them. I tried both to make sure the cartridges worked, and I am now steadily working my way through the first one. Music has always been an integral part of Final Fantasy, so making an RPG rhythm game just makes sense. Now I need to find the one they put out for Dragon Quest. Also I found out that they’re making a third Theatrhythm Final Fantasy game for Switch, so it seems like I got into the series at the right time.
I’m a bunny man. (Credit: Square Enix)
Final Fantasy XIV: Yes, more Final Fantasy, but not one I ever thought I’d play. A friend of mine is way into this game and gave me some great reasons to try it out. I’ve been really against MMOs all my life… not that there is anything wrong with them, or with people who play them. Cocoa and my brothers extensively play them. They’re just not my thing. I have trouble getting into them, I don’t like having to organize groups for raids or dungeon crawls, I hate the concept of subscription fees, I don’t like the time-suck aspect. That’s really a lot of it… I don’t have the time to fully immerse myself into a potentially addictive game when I have so much to do and an addictive personality.
And the biggest reason? It’s always grated at me that Square Enix decided to devote two entire numbered entries into a series I love to MMOs. Part 11 and 14 are online. (Dragon Quest also did it with Part 10, which we can’t even play since it’s never going to be brought to America Ugh.) I have never liked that and have always been of the opinion that open-ended online games should be their own series, not part of the numbered series. It’s impossible to say that you have beaten all the Final Fantasy games since those games really have no definite ending. Plus 11 is mostly inaccessible now (except on PC) and the original version of 14 is lost forever. It’s a mess and I will never be okay with their choices.
But still, my friend made some compelling arguments for the game such as she can guide me through it, she can carry me through the dungeons that require multiple people, you can play for free until you reach level 60, and I can play as a bunny man. All very good tallies in the Pro column. So yeah, I decided to download and try it out. Of course, I mucked it up as I often do and downloaded the full version instead of the trial, locking me out of the free aspect of it aside from the 30 days free you get when you start. I haven’t played it much, but I did try it out, met up with my friend in the impossibly busy and confusing starting city, and beat up some monsters. The graphics are great, the mechanics are solid, the designs, story, and music are amazing. I can see how people get sucked into this game and others like it.
So far it seems like a fun game, but I honestly have no idea where I will find the time to play it to justify the subscription fee. Maybe when I make enough money off this SoraRabbit Hole stuff to retire from my day job and become a full-time content creator. Until then I will be content to dabble.
Yeah, mostly a lot of gambling, Father. (Credit: Square Enix)
Dragon Quest V: This is the other main goal for this year. I have mentioned this in previous posts, but I’ve been trying to get through Dragon Quest V for well over a decade now. Computers crash and progress is lost, I get distracted and bored with the gambling part… it just hasn’t gone well. See there’s this casino early in the game and if you spend enough time gambling you can earn ridiculously powerful weapons that let you breeze through half the game. So it’s slot machines (the most efficient way of making tokens) for hours on end. That’s where I get stalled. Well, this week I finally finished the gambling portion. I bought my two Metal King Swords and my Gringham Whip and now I’m off to the races. Well, not really. Now I have to grind in overworld battles until my Slime Knight (Goodian) is a high enough level to survive the next boss battle. And then it will be off to complete my decade-long quest!
I love the Dragon Quest series, and Part 5 is an amazing game (the gambling parts aside) that follows one character along the entirety of his life from childhood, to young adulthood, to parenthood. It’s epic in scope and introduced the monster-collecting aspect that became a big part of the franchise. The recent movie rekindled my love for the series and I can’t wait to play through the rest of the games. (Except for Part 10. See what I’m saying here?)
Yes, more picross. (Credit: Jupiter Corporation)
And the Rest: And those are just the main games I played. I squeezed as much gaming as I could into that first week of the year in between family stuff and the day job. The last day of my vacation week was a Saturday and I jumped from one game to the next as much as I could while still doing the laundry, cooking a big weekend meal, and tidying up. It was a serious Gaming ADD day. Here are the other games I dabbled in during the week.
More Picross: Along with restarting Pokémon Picross and Zelda Picross (since my memory card failing took those save files with them.) I also found an 8 game series called Picross e for 3DS. Since they were all on sale I snagged them and am currently playing through the first one. I also found the original GameBoy port of Mario Picross and am nearly finished with Super Mario Picross on Switch Online.
Wario Land: During my previous spree of downloading games I found all the original Wario platforming games and I’m currently working my way through Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. It’s fun and I’m liking the little hat power-ups he has. Instead of Mario’s mushrooms, Wario get his power from garlic, which I find amusing. The controls and gameplay are pretty archaic, since it came out for the original GameBoy, but I’m still having fun with it. Save states make everything better.
Ace Attorney: I’ve long been curious about Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney. I keep seeing the memes of it and several people on my Twitter feed have been gushing about the games, since they were all on sale in the 3DS store. I decided to download the first one to try it. It sucked me in immediately and I played through the first case in one sitting. It’s got quirky characters, unique style and gameplay, and above all it was entertaining as hell. I went back to get the rest of the games before the sale ended.
Apart from that, I also played the demo for Kirby’s Epic Yarn, continued my daily dose of Animal Crossing, and played a little Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, which I’d restarted over the holidays. It was a nice, fun week and I will need to do this again sometime.
Oh no, bad bunnies! (Credit: NanoPiko)
So yeah, lots of gaming. As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I did this week was finalize my 2023 Game List. The main entries on there are FF8 and DQ5, but I also put a lot of shorter games like my Picross and Bunny Park games. Typically my game lists are around 20-25 games and I never come close to completing them. This year my Game List ended up at 33 entries but I’m confident that I can at least come close to finishing. Like I said, lots of them were shorter games. Plus I included some games that I will play until I feel I’ve gotten all the enjoyment out of them that I can, like Smash Bros and Mario Kart games. Tune in at the end of the year for my usual Year Review to see how I did on my list.
Poor plant guy. (Credit: NanoPiko)
And there’s my mini reviews from my Gaming ADD Vacation. I hope you enjoyed this, and more than that, I hope you all remember to give yourselves some down time. Things get so busy and there’s so much to accomplish in our short lives… now and then you just need to put everything aside and recharge. To do something nice for yourself. Amid all my other lofty goals for 2023, I’m going to keep that need for relaxation in mind and not let myself get so entrenched in productivity to sit and unwind with a game now and then. Please afford yourselves the same consideration.
Anyway, I’ll be back soon with more content. Thanks for reading, I appreciate you all, and I’m grateful for this outlet for my thoughts and creativity.
Yes. Number One. (Credit: Nintendo)
