Saturday is laundry day around these parts. My apartment complex's laundry room is only open from 8-4, so weekends are the only days I can do it. Laundry day used to be Sunday, but I've learned that Saturday has two advantages: one, if I don't get moving fast enough on Saturday, I at least have a backup option instead of having to wait another week; and two, the odds are much lower that there will be other people doing laundry that day. I guess other folks around here have stuff to do on a Friday night and they like to sleep in on Saturdays. This works for me, because there are only three working washing machines for a couple dozen-odd units (technically four, but one of them only accepts quarters, and there's no change machine [the other three let me pay with an app]) and competing with the neighbors for access is a frustrating, socially exhausting experience.
Laundry yesterday went about as smoothly as it could go. All the snow's gone, so walking down and back carrying a lot of weight wasn't dangerous. I didn't see another person, and although it rained on and off that day, I didn't get rained on. Also, I remembered to bring my 3DS with me for the one activity where it makes the most sense. I have a couple/three hours to kill for washing and drying, and having games is a great way to pass that time.
The potentially confounding factor is that laundry day is when I sometimes get to hang out with Laundry Cat, a cat who comes to visit me in the laundry room. For new readers, or anyone who needs a refresher, here are some of Laundry Cat's greatest hits:
( Cat photos )
If Laundry Cat shows up, obviously she'd take priority over games, but she doesn't come around quite as often in the winter, and I didn't see her yesterday. I hope she found somewhere warmer to be.
So once laundry was going, I pulled out my 3DS, which luckily I had remembered to turn off last time I used it so it still had some battery left. It's technically not a 3DS, it's a 2DSXL, which is fine because I wouldn't use the stereoscopic 3D function anyway. It's a lovely device with the exception of the power button, a rubbery little nub on the bottom of the machine that feels like an afterthought. You have to hold the button in to power it off, and every time I do I have to press so hard that I'm sure it's going to break. There's no way to shut it down in software, even though there's a software step in the shutdown process! Once I hold the button in long enough, a thing pops up on the screen that I have to tap to properly turn it off. It's like they don't want me to turn the thing off. So as a result, I usually just close it and hope I remember to plug it in when I get home, which I usually don't, so the battery's usually dead when I think to use it again, so now you're probably getting an idea why I don't play many 3DS games.
Anyway, I fired up New Super Mario Bros. 2, which if you don't remember was the one with a big coin-collecting gimmick. There's a 7-digit counter showing the total number of coins you've collected across all levels, which shows at all times on the level select screen and whenever you pause the game. I still haven't gotten far enough to learn what the point of it is. All of the level progress so far has been gated by how many of the big coins you collect, three in each level, just like traditional NSMB. There are some fun new coin toys, like a brick helmet Mario can wear that continuously spits out coins as you move around until you get hit or a certain amount of time passes. But, it just feels terrible to play. The D-pad on the 3DS is smaller than I'd like, and it just doesn't feel precise enough for the types of movement NSMB2 requires, and I'm certainly not playing a side-scrolling platformer with an analog pad. I think they want me to use the circle pad, because it was one of the big new 3DS features, and no, I'm not going to, you can't make me.
So after a couple frustrating levels, I started a game of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. You may remember a few years ago Koji Igarashi, the Castlevania guy, did a kickstarter to fund the development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which was Symphony of the Night with the serial numbers filed off. It's actually quite a good game, I liked it a lot more than I remember liking Symphony of the Night when I tried playing that many years ago. I did at one point get hopelessly stuck, just like I did in SOTN, but this time I liked the game enough to swallow my pride and look up what I was missing. It ended up being one of the better exploration platformers (or "metroidvanias", if you must) I've played in recent memory.
Curse of the Moon is a companion game that I think started as a kickstarter stretch goal. It's a more straightforward level-based action platformer done in a retro "NES plus" style; the resolution and color palette resemble the NES Castlevania graphics, but it's widescreen and features animation and effects that wouldn't have been possible on the original hardware. This is my favorite way to do an "8-bit"-style game in the present day, and Inti Creates (a developer most known for their work on handheld Megaman games, I think) nailed it.
I had started a game before, but despite enjoying parts of it, I had bounced off. You're given the option when you start a new game of playing on "veteran" or "casual" mode. "Veteran" is described: "A style for those looking for a retro style challenge." "Casual" says "An easy-going style. Lives are unlimited, and taking damage does not knock back the player. There is no penalty for selecting this style."
The first time I played, I chose veteran, and I'm not really sure why. I don't need games to be super hard to enjoy them, but I had played Castlevania 3 as a kid, so I figured I should choose the mode that most closely resembles it. I figured the developers designed the game with that mode in mind, so that would probably be the most fun way to play. Well, since I've tried a few games featured on ranking the NES, I've learned something about myself: the main thing that makes me not want to play those games is the fact that taking damage knocks you back, often into a bottomless pit. That's the #1 reason I stop playing those games. There are games that I like everything about except for the fact that taking damage knocks you back. The limited lives aren't a big deal to me; I don't mind a little bit of trial and error, or repeating difficult parts until I master them. But the main features I want in a platformer are jumping and exploration. I don't mind action elements like shooting and sword-stabbing, they can add a lot to a platformer, but if the action fucks with the platforming, that's when I start getting annoyed.
Well, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is much better on casual mode. I'm now having a great time, not just a good one. There's no reason to play on veteran unless you like pointless frustration. I made it to level 4 and when I got home I left it in sleep mode and plugged it into the charger somewhere out of the way, and it'll be ready for me to pick right back up the next time I do laundry. Unless a certain cat requires my attention, of course.
Laundry yesterday went about as smoothly as it could go. All the snow's gone, so walking down and back carrying a lot of weight wasn't dangerous. I didn't see another person, and although it rained on and off that day, I didn't get rained on. Also, I remembered to bring my 3DS with me for the one activity where it makes the most sense. I have a couple/three hours to kill for washing and drying, and having games is a great way to pass that time.
The potentially confounding factor is that laundry day is when I sometimes get to hang out with Laundry Cat, a cat who comes to visit me in the laundry room. For new readers, or anyone who needs a refresher, here are some of Laundry Cat's greatest hits:
( Cat photos )
If Laundry Cat shows up, obviously she'd take priority over games, but she doesn't come around quite as often in the winter, and I didn't see her yesterday. I hope she found somewhere warmer to be.
So once laundry was going, I pulled out my 3DS, which luckily I had remembered to turn off last time I used it so it still had some battery left. It's technically not a 3DS, it's a 2DSXL, which is fine because I wouldn't use the stereoscopic 3D function anyway. It's a lovely device with the exception of the power button, a rubbery little nub on the bottom of the machine that feels like an afterthought. You have to hold the button in to power it off, and every time I do I have to press so hard that I'm sure it's going to break. There's no way to shut it down in software, even though there's a software step in the shutdown process! Once I hold the button in long enough, a thing pops up on the screen that I have to tap to properly turn it off. It's like they don't want me to turn the thing off. So as a result, I usually just close it and hope I remember to plug it in when I get home, which I usually don't, so the battery's usually dead when I think to use it again, so now you're probably getting an idea why I don't play many 3DS games.
Anyway, I fired up New Super Mario Bros. 2, which if you don't remember was the one with a big coin-collecting gimmick. There's a 7-digit counter showing the total number of coins you've collected across all levels, which shows at all times on the level select screen and whenever you pause the game. I still haven't gotten far enough to learn what the point of it is. All of the level progress so far has been gated by how many of the big coins you collect, three in each level, just like traditional NSMB. There are some fun new coin toys, like a brick helmet Mario can wear that continuously spits out coins as you move around until you get hit or a certain amount of time passes. But, it just feels terrible to play. The D-pad on the 3DS is smaller than I'd like, and it just doesn't feel precise enough for the types of movement NSMB2 requires, and I'm certainly not playing a side-scrolling platformer with an analog pad. I think they want me to use the circle pad, because it was one of the big new 3DS features, and no, I'm not going to, you can't make me.
So after a couple frustrating levels, I started a game of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. You may remember a few years ago Koji Igarashi, the Castlevania guy, did a kickstarter to fund the development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which was Symphony of the Night with the serial numbers filed off. It's actually quite a good game, I liked it a lot more than I remember liking Symphony of the Night when I tried playing that many years ago. I did at one point get hopelessly stuck, just like I did in SOTN, but this time I liked the game enough to swallow my pride and look up what I was missing. It ended up being one of the better exploration platformers (or "metroidvanias", if you must) I've played in recent memory.
Curse of the Moon is a companion game that I think started as a kickstarter stretch goal. It's a more straightforward level-based action platformer done in a retro "NES plus" style; the resolution and color palette resemble the NES Castlevania graphics, but it's widescreen and features animation and effects that wouldn't have been possible on the original hardware. This is my favorite way to do an "8-bit"-style game in the present day, and Inti Creates (a developer most known for their work on handheld Megaman games, I think) nailed it.
I had started a game before, but despite enjoying parts of it, I had bounced off. You're given the option when you start a new game of playing on "veteran" or "casual" mode. "Veteran" is described: "A style for those looking for a retro style challenge." "Casual" says "An easy-going style. Lives are unlimited, and taking damage does not knock back the player. There is no penalty for selecting this style."
The first time I played, I chose veteran, and I'm not really sure why. I don't need games to be super hard to enjoy them, but I had played Castlevania 3 as a kid, so I figured I should choose the mode that most closely resembles it. I figured the developers designed the game with that mode in mind, so that would probably be the most fun way to play. Well, since I've tried a few games featured on ranking the NES, I've learned something about myself: the main thing that makes me not want to play those games is the fact that taking damage knocks you back, often into a bottomless pit. That's the #1 reason I stop playing those games. There are games that I like everything about except for the fact that taking damage knocks you back. The limited lives aren't a big deal to me; I don't mind a little bit of trial and error, or repeating difficult parts until I master them. But the main features I want in a platformer are jumping and exploration. I don't mind action elements like shooting and sword-stabbing, they can add a lot to a platformer, but if the action fucks with the platforming, that's when I start getting annoyed.
Well, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is much better on casual mode. I'm now having a great time, not just a good one. There's no reason to play on veteran unless you like pointless frustration. I made it to level 4 and when I got home I left it in sleep mode and plugged it into the charger somewhere out of the way, and it'll be ready for me to pick right back up the next time I do laundry. Unless a certain cat requires my attention, of course.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}