I'm online, I like video games, I made a post today. I'd like a copy of Quake, please.

Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Luigi's Mansion 3, Super Mario Wonder, Metroid Dread, and probably more I'm forgetting.

The last game I played was Storyteller, where you have to create visual stories based on a given scenario. Depending on what the scenario is, I might be getting married, or killing myself, or killing myself and then being resurrected, or becoming a vampire, or losing my true love, or murdering the king . . .

Just today I finished a game called Storyteller. It's a really neat little game where you arrange characters and situations to fit a described scenario (like "the detective arrests the butler") and sometimes after you complete the scenario, you get a bonus "alternate" scenario to complete (such as "the detective arrests the butler but the butler is innocent"). The puzzles start out simple, but then they get more and more complex. I was hooked on it when I started it last night and played until 3 AM, then I finished it today (and it's getting an update in September, so there will be more to experience soon). Seriously, I recommend it.

My wishlist (not including confirmed upcoming titles) would be:

Game Boy/Game Boy Color

Donkey Kong 94
Lazlo's Leap
Mario Picross
Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow
Super Mario Land
Pokemon Pinball
Wario Land 2/3
Pokemon Gold/Silver
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Avenging Spirit
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
Mario Tennis

Game Boy Advance

Metriod: Zero Mission
Wario Land 4
Wario Ware: Twisted
Donkey Kong Country Advance 1/2/3
Super Mario Advance 1/2/3
Drill Dozer
Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land
Mario Golf: Advance Tour
Mario Pinball Land
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Yoshi: Topsy Turvy

And the big one . . .

MOTHER 3!!!!!

I only completed it for the first time last year too and you know what, I loved it. Even though I had no childhood nostalgia for it and people are always talking about how it's aged poorly, I was still swept into the large world and gorgeous music and I think it's still well-worth playing today.

I live in a mild climate that only gets one or two big snows a year, so snow is really special when it comes. I love walking in the snow, listening to the snow crunches and winter breezes, admiring how the snow makes everything white and quiet, watching the snow dance around in the wind. Yeah, don't get me wrong, I know how snow can outstay its welcome in colder climates and even around here there have been times where I've had to shovel out the driveway and such, but there's something so poetic about snow.

I'm gonna go old-school and say the Hammer Bros from Super Mario Bros. Anyone who's ever played the game knows exactly what I'm talking about - they jump around throwing the hammers around and you can't kill them by jumping on them because of those hammers and as such you have to wait until they jump on a ledge so you can jump UNDER them and all the while you have to watch out for those hammers flying around. If you don't have a Fire Flower, they're a real pain in the butt.

I LOVE Dance Dance Revolution. Even though I usually only get a few levels in before I get a game over, the game rocks my socks off. If my back injury ever gets better, I'm heading back to the boardwalk arcade (assuming it still exists) and playing more rounds of Dance Dance Revolution.

I've never been great at Guitar Hero, but I'm fairly good at Elite Beat Agents. I mean, I still have yet to beat it, but I've gotten pretty far in it. It's all a matter of getting the right feel for the song.

Difficulty, in and of itself, says nothing about a game's quality - it's just one of the many elements that goes into a game. I enjoy difficult games that have an addicting "just one more try" nature about them like VVVVVV, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Celeste, etc. I also enjoy difficult retro games like Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden and Ghosts 'n Goblins, though I have to admit that save states make these games MUCH more tolerable. Long, long stretches where you can't save can really get on my nerves - I get why it was a thing back in the NES days, but with modern games there's no excuse. For example, I've been really hesitant to play Neir: Automata because I've heard that the FIRST LEVEL is an insanely difficult romp where you can't save at all and it takes around FORTY MINUTES to complete (assuming you don't screw up and have to start all over again). Yeah, my time is precious to me and I don't know if I have so much time to invest in that.

Also, if a game is difficult for the wrong reasons such as bad controls, that's another story altogether. If I'm fighting the controls instead of testing my skill, I'm not having fun. And of course, some games just troll you (see I Wanna Be The Guy).

I struggle a LOT with sleeping these days. And I mean a LOT a lot, mainly because I've been suffering from an EXTREMELY painful back injury for almost two years now. Everything is painful, even lying down, and as such I'll stay awake for hours - it's not uncommon for the sun to come up before I get to sleep. I actually struggle to get up at freakin' NOON. Pre-back-injury me would laugh at that.

I have a published book out, but it's taken me years to finish the sequel (which is rather awkward considering that the first book ended on a cliffhanger and the inside back cover said the next book would be out the next year). My biggest goal for this year is to FINALLY get the sequel out.

I also have another book project in the work: a collection of short stories, each one with an arcade theme (like, they don't necessarily all take place at arcades, but arcade machines need to appear in every story). I'd like to get that book out this year too or at the very least have each story drafted and beta-read and rewritten so that it's CLOSE to being ready for publication.

As far as non-writing goals go, well, for almost two years now I've been suffering VERY EXTREME back pain, which has hampered basically everything in my life. I've had treatment after treatment and everything has either done nothing or made the pain worse. It would be NICE if this year I could finally get better and get my life back.

I HATE balloons popping. What's weird is that I didn't even know I had this problem (I don't remember popping balloons every bothering me when I was a kid) until I worked as a substitute teacher and I supervised a class setting up activities for a school carnival. One of the activities was one of those "pop the balloons for a prize" games, and they kept popping the balloons both accidentally and on purpose and dear GOD, it was so nerve-wrecking that I was still shaking after I got home. So yeah, now I stay far, far away from balloons as much as I can. Even the squeaky sound that balloons make when someone plays with them makes me nervous because there's the possibility that the pop will follow.

For the SNES, you can't really go wrong with RPGs. Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 6 are masterpieces, but even lesser-known SNES RPGs like the Breath of Fire games are well worth playing.

Or if you don't have enough time to invest in RPGs, the SNES and Genesis have no shortage of great platformers. The Castlevania and Contra games on both systems are awesome. So is the Super Star Wars trilogy (SNES), ActRaiser (SNES), Aladdin (both the SNES and Genesis versions) Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion (Genesis), the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy (Genesis), and lots, lots more.

Also, even though Nintendo had their first-party games removed from this site, if you have a Nintendo Switch, you can download a whole bunch of awesome SNES games with a Nintendo Switch Online account, which include Nintendo greats like Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Earthbound, Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, and much more.

There's no possible way I could pick just one track - the SNES was filled to the brim with amazing music. But, here are a few standouts that come to mind.

Underwater theme from Donkey Kong Country - so relaxing and atmospheric.

Terra's Theme from Final Fantasy 3 - beautiful.

Cave theme from Yoshi's Island - gorgeously mysterious.

Pretty much ALL the music from Chrono Trigger.

So cool! I already bought a couple of them. Thanks so much for doing this!

Hard to pick one, but the main menu track from Metroid is so beautiful, so mysterious, so haunting, that every time I boot up the game I find myself listening to the entire track before I actually start playing. So yeah, I think that would be close to my favorite NES track.

Last movie I saw in theaters was Onward. I loved it and the ending had me crying, but yeah, thanks to COVID I haven't been to the movies for months. I miss seeing movies in theaters.

Davideo7 : I applaud all your work. It appears that I lost about 9,000 Viz, though.

I really, really, REALLY want a new Chrono game. Sure, Chrono Cross was good, but fans of Chrono Trigger have wanted an actual Chrono Trigger sequel (with the original game's cast of characters) for years and years. Since Chrono Trigger's been ported to DS, Android, and even Steam, now would be a good time to give us that true Chrono Trigger sequel.

In terms of indie games, I'd love for the Aveyond, Diner Dash (on PC, not just Android skins), and Burger Shop series to continue.

Oh, and since Banjo and Kazooie have made it to Smash Bros, perhaps they could get a new game as well.