That Sense of Adventure

I’ve loved RPGs since I first started playing video games. Whether turn-based or action-packed, I’m always up for a new adventure. That sense of wonder and excitement when you set off on a new journey is my very favorite aspect of RPGs, and I’m curious if it’s the same for others.

FF7 looks quaint now, but being turned loose in this big world blew my mind back then.

For me, there’s no feeling in gaming quite like setting off on a new adventure. What wonders lie ahead, out there in the vast expanse? What kind of people will I meet along the way? What beautiful sights will I see? It’s always a treat to step out into a new game world and start exploring. My philosophy is that, in any RPG that allows it, I wander off and just explore for a while at the beginning. It’s exciting to just check out the world around me and see what there is to find. Sometimes, it results in hilarity, like when I run off in the wrong direction in a Fallout game and immediately get killed by Cazadores or Deathclaws. Other times, exploring as much as possible can net you cool rewards, like upgrade materials to get late-game weapons in Final Fantasy VIII. It’s just nice to be given the freedom to explore a virtual world and uncover its secrets in a way you can’t in real life.

No joke, I have played Skyrim for dozens of hours and never finished the main questline. Why not? Because I just love walking around the map and finding new quests as they come to me. I like doing all those little things, like meeting new companions, getting married, building a house, or exploring some random cave I happened upon while checking out the local scenery. I find all of that stuff way more immersive than getting involved in the more rigid story quests, and the game gives me the freedom to play that way.

I randomly wandered into Markarth in Skyrim and was awestruck by its architecture.

From Software certainly loves encouraging players like me. Souls games give you ample opportunities to run off and see what dangers lurk off the beaten path. Explore every nook and cranny in Elden Ring, and you’ll find numerous hidden dungeons, side quests and people you otherwise wouldn’t meet. That freedom to explore and be adventurous makes their games a joy to replay, since you might find things next time that you missed this time.

A good cast of characters also helps create that sense of adventure. Meeting all sorts of people and creating a motley crew that inevitably has to save the world is one of the biggest strengths the genre has to offer, in my book. Playing a Fire Emblem game and finding your army filled with everyone from royals to career thieves to priests makes for such a lively and often wholesome time, as you watch these very different people become fire-forged friends. Without delving too deep into spoilers, one of the reasons I hold Final Fantasy VII in such high regard is its varied party members who are all more troubled than they first appear, and find themselves growing as people while the fate of the world rests in their hands.

Side quests in Demon’s Souls can acquaint you with new allies like Yuria.

This is also one of the reasons my first playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas was so memorable. Meeting the various companions who can accompany you on your journey and learning their backstories only when they trusted you enough to share made them feel more human than the average NPC. They felt like true traveling companions, especially since they all have their own personal convictions and views on the situations you encounter throughout the story. Similarly, the Mass Effect trilogy allowing you to befriend people from all over the galaxy, and help them through their personal trials and tribulations between apocalyptic crises, made it one of my favorite RPG experiences. Even Super Mario RPG benefits from having charming allies to accompany you on your journey to reclaim Bowser’s castle.

Lovable party members like Mallow and Geno elevate Super Mario RPG.

Combine varied locations to explore, diverse and interesting allies to travel with, and secrets to find, and it’s easy to see why RPGs are a winning formula for so many people. No other genre gives me that same sense of discovery and camaraderie in a virtual world. It’s nice to dive into that fantasy of being plucked out of an ordinary life and setting off on a grand adventure now and then, and video games can deliver that experience like no other medium.

Where is My Punch-Out!! on Switch?

You ever just stop and think about how a game should exist, but doesn’t? That may sound silly, but I found myself recently wondering why on earth we haven’t gotten a new Punch-Out!! game on Switch. I’m quite fond of the series and enjoyed the little cameo it got in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where portraits of the boxers adorned the wall of the local pizzeria, but I’ve been itching to play a new one and it’s nowhere to be found.

Little Mac’s iconic pink tracksuit.

For the unfamiliar, Punch-Out!! is a Nintendo series that began life in the arcades in 1983. In 1987, the most famous version was made for the NES. It featured Mike Tyson as the final boss, and was titled Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! to capitalize on his star power at the time. You take on the role of Little Mac, a teenage boxer hoping to climb the ranks against a quirky cast of opponents from various nations. The gameplay always struck me as more of a rhythm game than boxing simulator, and the whole game eschews realism in favor of memorable flair like having one boxer use “magic punches” to confuse you or another being so large his only weakness is distracting him by making his shorts fall down.

The game was a big hit, and sold over 2 million copies. It was eventually rebranded to remove Tyson from the game and replace him with the fictional Mr. Dream, but the core gameplay remained the same. It spawned a sequel on the Super Nintendo and a reboot on the Wii. The latter was the last game we got in the series, all the way back in 2009, and I think it provided a perfect template for how a Switch version could work. Punch-Out!! on Wii utilized the console’s signature motion controls, which I think any veteran of Wii Sports can tell you is perfect for a boxing game. It also added fun new modes like Title Defense, where Mac must defend his title against his old foes with new gimmicks and techniques, and Mac’s Last Stand, where Mac decides to retire after he loses 3 times. You face off against random opponents until you lose those 3 matches, and Mac keeps his word, with the standard Career mode no longer being available on that save file.

Little Mac being so tiny just makes me root for him even more.

I think you could honestly just port Punch-Out!! Wii to the Switch and it would still be great fun. An entirely new entry would be even better, though. Imagine online matches against real people around the world! That could breathe new life into the series. Sure, we have multiple Fitness Boxing games on the system (including the outrageously delightful Fist of the North Star variant) and Arms, but they aren’t quite the same as watching Little Mac’s rise to fame. For now, I suppose I’ll have to be content with getting to play as the pint-sized brawler in Super Smash Bros., but I’d love to step into the ring again.

Forgotten Favorites: Bust a Groove

I’ve thought for a while that it would be fun to discuss some of my forgotten favorites on this blog. Meaning, those old games I played and loved as a kid that faded into obscurity or never took off to begin with, and that most people won’t recognize if you mention them. I think we all probably have some games like that. First up, here’s Bust a Groove.

Just seeing this title screen takes me back to my local video store.

Bust a Groove is one of those games I rented a million times from my local video store. I never saw it for sale in any stores around me back then, and didn’t get my own copy until I became an adult. But, it was a staple of my gaming rotation during the late ’90s. Released in 1998 for the original PlayStation, it’s a quirky rhythm game from that period between the release of PaRappa the Rapper and the plastic instrument craze that swept the gaming world in the mid 2000s.

Frida’s stage will have a rainstorm that blows the walls down if you do well.

The gameplay is unlike any I’ve seen in other rhythm games. Two players or a player and a CPU character compete across numerous stages, each with their own theme and song. Each player has a little window on screen that displays inputs. There are arrows corresponding with the directions on the d-pad, and then another little window that displays either the X or O button. The windows flash along with the beat of the song playing in each stage, and the final input must be made on the fourth beat. The arrows can be pressed anytime before that, but the idea is to play along with the beat.

The triangle button can be used to launch an attack at your opponent and disrupt their moves, which must be dodged by pressing square. If one player performs better than the other, the camera will eventually focus on them entirely and they will trigger a Fever Time at the end of the song, which lets them do a solo dance. There are also some neat stage effects that can occur if you play well. One stage has numerous windows that will shatter to reveal the night sky, while one set in a nightclub will have a spotlight come down. There are also a few hidden characters who are unlocked by beating the game multiple times.

If you’re good enough, you’ll push your opponent off screen.

Speaking of the cast, they’re a unique bunch. The designs are delightfully ’90s and include such figures as a Japanese magical girl heroine, a punk scientist with a mohawk and gas mask, and a pair of aliens who incorporate capoeira moves into their routine. One character is a young girl who dances with her pet mouse perched in the pocket of her overalls, and he can even be unlocked to dance solo.

The songs that accompany levels serve as theme songs for the cast and are often sung from their persepctives. There’s some nice variety in genres too, including pop, hip hop, techno and even some disco throwbacks. The stages have some pretty cool variety, too, allowing you to have dance-offs in such places as a fast food joint, a theme park and a prison. The final stage of the arcade mode pits you against a giant robot, with your character dancing on top of a building while he dances in the middle of an intersection as cars crash around him.

The zoomed out perspective on this stage is a nice touch.

Bust a Groove is a fun and unique game that I sadly doubt will ever get re-released. It did well enough to spawn two sequels back in the day, one on PS1 and another early in the PS2’s life, but the latter was never released outside Japan and changed the gameplay pretty significantly. Overall, I don’t think it had enough lasting popularity to justify a modern take on it by its publisher. It was published by Enix, who would go on to merge with SquareSoft to become Square-Enix. The game also featured music from Japanese record label Avex Trax, which I’m sure would be a licensing nightmare all these years later.

Finally, it underwent numerous localization changes that might make re-releases messy. The Japanese title is actually Bust a Move, which had to be changed for North America and Europe due to the fact that the Puzzle Bobble games were localized as Bust-a-Move in those regions back then. Some music tracks were re-recorded in English or replaced entirely for those regions as well. There were also several aesthetic changes made to keep the rating down overseas, such as removing a character’s cigarette and changing a liquor flask into a soda can.

Put all these issues together, and I’ll be surprised if we ever see this game or its sequels again. At this point, rhythm games have largely moved onto other gameplay types and platforms, as the aforementioned plastic instruments are making a comeback of sorts and we have new games in the genre being released for the likes of VR headsets and the Switch. I’m content to play the new Samba de Amigo on my Switch and a new Space Channel 5 in VR (if I can ever get over the motion sickness!), but I can’t help but bust out Bust a Groove from time to time when the nostalgia hits. It’s still a fun and unique experience after all these years.

Pesticide Not Required is a Front Runner for Cutest Game of the Year

A googly-eyed frog will get me to check out your game.

I love frogs. They’re adorable and probably my favorite animal. I also love Vampire Survivors, the addictive and arcadey game that is maybe a bullet hell and maybe a roguelike. Enter Pesticide Not Required, a game that is basically Vampire Survivors mixed with a light farming sim and starring a cute cast of frogs. I’ve been playing it for the past week and am completely hooked.

You start with Joe, the little frog on the logo and title screen, and a simple objective to survive a season on your farm. You have a few plots to start with, plus a couple of ponds for fishing and some ores that can be mined. Crops take the form of either normal plants or weapons. Normal crops give you experience points, while harvesting weapons first gives you the weapon in question and later levels it up. Fishing also provides experience, while mining yields gold. Each time you level up, you are given a choice of various upgrades. Some are straightforward buffs to specific stats and probabilities, and some are tradeoffs between multiple stats.

Wumbo!

As you plant, water and harvest your crops, waves of pests will arrive to attack, and you must fend them off with your weapons of choice. Joe starts with a tongue lash attack that’s suspiciously similar to the whip from Vampire Survivors, while the other frogs each begin with a different weapon. Each morning, a shop run by the Merch-Ant opens that offers weapon seeds, normal seeds, more plots and pets in exchange for gold. Pets can help with a variety of tasks, such as taking care of your crops for you, attacking enemies and retrieving loot from across the map. Boss enemies will occasionally appear, who will drop EXP, gold and chests containing new pets upon defeat. Once you reach the end of a run, your character becomes Wumbo and grows to massive proportions, allowing remaining enemies to be effortlessly stomped while looking delightfully silly.

The gameplay is cute and chaotic.

Each of the four seasons can be played in the game, and there are multiple levels of increasing difficulty for each to choose from. Between rounds, you are placed in your frog’s home. Your abode can be decorated, and so can the garden out back. There is also a big selection of persistent upgrades to purchase, to make future runs easier. While at home, you can also go to bed and change frogs. There are over a dozen frogs to unlock, and they’re all adorable. They include such characters as Greg From Accounting, who sports a tophat and monocle and has buffs related to coin gains, Hue Mann, who is definitely not three frogs in a trench coat, and the valiant knight Sir Hopselot.

Playing around with the various frogs and loadouts is tons of fun. There are also some neat challenges I wouldn’t have thought to try without seeing them in the unlock list, such as killing a boss within 5 seconds of it spawning (better get that crit rate up!) or winning a run without ever disturbing the ducks in the pond. With weapons like a bonk hammer, rolling hay bales and yo-yos that swing around you, gameplay is often both hectic and hilarious.

Home sweet home.

I’m currently closing in on the final few achievements and in-game unlocks, and have no desire to stop playing. Pesticide Not Required has been a pleasant little surprise for me, as I wouldn’t have even known it was coming out if not for Steam recommendations. It’s one of those fun experiences where I sat down to try out a run when I had some free time, only to look up and realize that 3 hours had already passed. It’s the best bang for my buck I’ve gotten in quite some time. I love a game that’s cute and fun in equal measure, and I think it’s going to be tough for any other games of 2024 to best it in those categories for me.

Princess Peach Takes the Spotlight

After getting plenty of screen time in the Mario movie, Princess Peach has landed a starring role in her own adventure, Princess Peach: Showtime!, for the Switch. I’ve spent the past few days playing it, and found it to be a delightfully campy outing for gaming’s most famous lady. This is a game I would have loved as a kid, and I hope we see more outings from her in the future.

There’s plenty of action in Kung Fu Peach’s levels.

I never cared much for Super Mario Bros. 2, but I remember playing it a bit as a kid because Peach was an option on the character select screen. Many years later, she got a solo game in the form of Super Princess Peach for the DS. I didn’t play it, and mostly just remember people laughing at it because the main gimmick was Peach using her emotions to attack, so I couldn’t tell you what the actual quality was like. Fast forward to 2024, and Princess Peach: Showtime! is here to once again place the spotlight on our girl from the Mushroom Kingdom. I was pretty happy when this was announced, and knew I’d give it a shot. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for most of my life, and was eager to see how Peach would fare in her own adventure.

I’m happy to report I really like the game! Our story begins with Peach and a few toads going to see a play at the lavish Sparkle Theater. Before the show can begin, however, an evil sorceress named Madame Grape and her minions the Sour Bunch attack the theater, plotting to take it over. With the help of Stella, a cute little star who guards the theater, Peach sets out to rescue the Sparklas, the stars of all the plays at Sparkle Theater. With their help, the two hope to defeat Madame Grape and save the day.

Mermaid Peach giving off Disney vibes.

The structure is sort of like Super Mario 64, except instead of jumping into paintings, Peach enters each of the plays at the theater and assumes the starring role. She transforms into the likes of Swordfighter Peach, Ninja Peach and Figure Skater Peach along the way, all with their own unique abilities. This lends a nice amount of variety to the gameplay. For example, Swordfighter Peach is centered around combat that includes a dodge that slows down time when executed perfectly, which you have seen before if you’ve ever played a Platinum game like Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Detective Peach, on the other hand, eschews combat entirely in favor of looking for clues and questioning suspects while solving a mystery. Mermaid Peach uses the power of song to control fish, while Patissiere Peach decorates cakes and bakes cookies via minigames. My personal favorite is Mighty Peach, a sci-fi heroine who lifts busses like Superman and punches asteroids.

Mighty Peach’s levels are like playing through a vintage sci-fi TV show.

Each world offers fun little challenges based around these abilities, plus hidden goodies and collectibles to find. Each level has several Sparkles to find, which are similar to the standard Mario stars, moons, shines, etc. Some are given as rewards for completing main objectives in the levels or helping out Theets, the adorable inhabitants of the theater who play various roles in the productions. Others are hidden behind the set dressing or in rooms off the main path. If you collect all of them in a level, a photographer will give you a commemorative photo of your adventure. Each level also includes a special Theet who requires rescuing from the Sour Bunch, often in hidden areas, who will reward you with a new dress pattern for Peach or ribbon color for Stella.

The presentation is perfect, with the theater theme adding tons of charm to the experience. Levels are presented as a stage with all the appropriate set dressing, like backgrounds made of cardboard standees and aerial objects hanging from strings. Theets will have spotlights put on them when they’re sad and dejected, then once you help them out, the lights will brighten back up and they’ll start dancing. The gameplay is heavy on setpieces that add to the theatrical flair, such as an ice skating duel or a chase on horseback through the wild west. It’s a visual treat, and all the costumes (both available by default and unlockable) are a nice touch.

Every level looks just like watching a play unfold.

Seeing Peach embody so many cool personas reminds me of playing with Barbie dolls as a little girl in the best way. The game is unmistakably and unashamedly girly while still providing fun and surprisingly challenging gameplay, and I appreciate that as a woman who grew up playing video games. She’s both sweet and tough here, showing care for the adorable Theets and Stella while putting the bad guys in their place. Brains and brawn both come into play and help make this incarnation of Peach a well-rounded heroine.

I was curious how the difficulty would turn out in this game, and it’s actually not as easy as I expected it to be. While I think it’s going to provide a fun time for any kids who play it, they might need some parental assistance at times. Some of the Sparkles require precise platforming, quick-time events and that aforementioned Bayonetta combat to obtain, which I suspect can get a bit too complex for younger children. One complaint I have is that levels must be replayed from start to finish if you need to go back and pick up any items you missed the first time around. None of the levels are particularly long, but it can be frustrating having to start over for a Sparkle you missed in the middle of the level and then have to finish it for it to count. Just be warned if you have small children that they may need your help with some parts of the game.

Princess Peach: Showtime! is a game I would have adored as a kid. It has its flaws, like uneven difficulty and some bad performance issues here and there, but none of that can hamper my enjoyment for such a fun and whimsical game. Like I said above, I appreciate that it’s a very girly adventure at heart and proud of it. The gameplay is fun and varied while integrating my love of dressing up characters and theater, and I hope we see more titles like it in the future. If you like this kind of stuff, you should definitely consider checking it out.

Do Your Gaming Tastes Change With Age?

There’s a question I’ve seen posed on social media a few times recently: Have your gaming tastes changed as you’ve gotten older? This is usually aimed at gamers in their 30s, and as one of those myself, I thought it would be fun to write about.

I don’t think my overall tastes have changed much with age. Rather, I think I have a better grasp of what I actually like than I did when I was younger. There was a period of time from my late teens to somewhere in my 20s when I bought lots of video games I wasn’t actually that interested in out of a sense of social obligation. My friends were going to play and discuss these games, and tons of people online would too. So, I bought them to not miss out on the big new thing, and they ended up not being my cup of tea. I think it was a combination of having more disposable income for the first time in my life while still being young enough to be easily swayed by social pressure that caused this. Nowadays, I know what genres I like and don’t like, and am content with making purchases accordingly. If my friends love a game that I don’t care for, I can still discuss it with them.

As long as they keep making puzzle games, I’ll keep playing them.

Plus, there are so many games being released each year that I don’t think any of us could play everything coming out if we even wanted to. Being in our 30s, none of us have the same amount of free time we once did. Careers, families and other responsibilities make it easy to narrow down your gaming purchases to things you really want to play. To illustrate how much your gaming habits can change in adulthood, a friend of mine played many different video games during high school, but now has a very busy job and children. Over the past few years, I know of two games that he’s played. Both are open-world games he knew he could take his time with, play at his own pace, and have lots of things to see and do within their worlds. On the other hand, I tend to prefer shorter games with incentives to replay like bonus modes and unlockables. I think these are different approaches to the same problem. We both want to get the most out of our games with limited free time, we just take different paths to get there.

Something like Mario Tennis is great for short gaming sessions.

One common refrain when discussing this topic with friends and family is a reduced interest in multiplayer over time. When your leisure time is limited, you don’t want to spend it getting annoyed at your teammates in a competitive game. Playing any multiplayer game with random teammates feels like a gamble, and I think one’s patience for it diminishes with age. My husband and I play plenty of co-op games and have fun, but he’s expressed a lack of desire to play these kinds of games unless he already has someone to play with.

I do find myself replaying more retro games at this point in my life than I used to. This isn’t because I’ve entered my old woman yelling at cloud phase and am about to launch into a rant about how all new games are bad, or anything like that. It’s just fun to revisit things I liked in my youth and see how they hold up. Sometimes, I find that I don’t like an old favorite as much as I remembered. More often, thankfully, I’m reminded of why a particular game was so special to me in the first place. Replaying Final Fantasy VII reminded me of how much I loved the story and characters. Replaying Tomb Raider 2 gave me a greater appreciation for how clever the level design was for a game that was notoriously rushed. Replaying Super Mario Sunshine convinced me that graphics actually peaked with the GameCube, because boy, do those visuals still look great. There are many examples like these that make it fun to revisit both classics and those obscure old games I loved back in the day.

Jumping Flash is still fun after all these years.

So, do your gaming tastes change with age? I suppose it depends on the person. I don’t think my tastes have actually changed so much as I just have a better grasp of what I like now. On the other hand, I know people whose tastes have shifted drastically to different genres and types of experiences. Individual circumstances like job commitments and social life will affect different people’s approaches to their free time in different ways, and I think it’s interesting to look at how that plays out in our gaming habits.

Going For 100%

I just started replaying Resident Evil 2 on PC, having first played it on my then-new Xbox when it launched in 2019. I had tons of fun with it back then and did a few playthroughs, but never took the time to complete all the challenges and unlock all the goodies on offer. This time, I thought it would be fun to test my mettle and try to go for 100% completion.

All done!

I’ve done this with Resident Evil HD Remaster and Resident Evil 3, so I suppose it’s only fitting that RE2 gets the same treatment. Resident Evil is my favorite video game series, and one of the things I love about it is just how much time you can sink into these games that aren’t particularly long. There are always bonus modes such as The Mercenaries and The 4th Survivor for arcadey goodness, as well as unlockable weapons and costumes to shoot for. Getting rewarded with infinite ammo weapons, especially an infinite rocket launcher, always feels like a nice little achievement. RE3 included a points shop for unlockables, which I thought was a nice touch.

The points shop added lots of replayability to RE3.

I think 100% completion in video games is an interesting topic because there’s so much variance in opinions. Some people play a game once and never touch it again, always seeking new experiences. Others are hardcore achievement hunters who go for full completion with every game they play. I fall somewhere between those two, as I love replaying my games but will only go for all the achievements, challenges, etc. if I really like the game in question and think the list seems fun. If I see something like “Win 10,000 online matches”, I’m out. Beat the game on the highest difficulty? If I love the game, sure. Otherwise, maybe not. I feel like everyone has some criteria for how much time they’re going to spend on a single video game.

I’m looking forward to facing the challenges provided by Resident Evil 2 (hello, Ghost Survivors). A game that throws a bunch of extra tasks at you but makes them fun and rewarding is always a plus in my book. I can’t wait to see how tough The 4th Survivor is after not playing it for a few years, and will keep an eye out for any more games that make going for 100% a fun task.

Some Thoughts on the Switch 2

The gaming world has been abuzz with discussion of Nintendo’s next console for quite some time now. Rumored to be launching early next year, the successor to the Switch has many people talking about their hopes and expectations for the new hardware. I thought it would be fun to lay out my wishes for the new system, which I’ll dub the Switch 2 for the sake of convenience.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is so good, I want to keep playing it forever.

While nothing about the console has officially been revealed yet, I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t stick to the Switch’s hybrid console format. I think it’s a great approach to hardware, and the system’s sales figures point to plenty of other people feeling the same way. The convenience factor of being able to play your games on the go or docked has made more traditional consoles feel obsolete to me, so I really hope they don’t mess with the formula too much here. I wouldn’t mind having multiple models available that include a portable-only variant, such as the existing Switch Lite, but I hope the Switch 2’s DNA remains the same.

Playing Link’s Awakening at a higher framerate would be lovely.

My next wish for the Switch 2 is better performance. I don’t expect anything too crazy here, as the aforementioned portability means it still won’t be able to match the specs of a PS5 or Xbox Series X, but it would be nice to see games run better on the new console. Many Switch games that I adore have issues with stuttery framerate, including Link’s Awakening, Metroid Dread and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and I would appreciate better hardware leading to smoother performance. Keep the graphics as they are, in my opinion. Nintendo is very adept at making their first-party games visually appealing with strong art direction and stylized graphics over realism and high polygon counts, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Just make the experience of actually playing the game smoother and I’ll be a happy customer.

Let me keep playing Metroid Dread forever.

Finally, I hope the Switch 2 has full backwards compatibility. Shigeru Miyamoto has made some vague comments about the matter, but nothing else has been laid out about the company’s plans for this feature. I have a large library of both physical and digital Switch games, and I’d hate to have to hold on to the previous console to keep playing them. Ideally, I hope they stick with the same cartridges to ensure physical games still work, and use the My Nintendo account system to make sure digital purchases carry over. Great strides have been made in regard to backwards compatibility in recent years, with Valve, Microsoft and Sony all taking steps to make digital libraries move with you. I hope Nintendo goes all-out with this for the Switch 2.

There you have it, my shortlist of desired features for the Switch 2. It sounds like it may be revealed later this year, so I likely won’t be waiting too long to see if my wishes are granted. I’d like to think I’m not asking for too much here, just some improved performance and backwards compatibility using the same hybrid hardware. Here’s hoping the new console is a good one!

Gaming Is Quite The Social Hobby

Back when I was a kid in the 1990s, it was pretty common to see video games painted as an anti-social activity. It was the realm of friendless, maladjusted children, according to many a news segment warning parents of the dangers of the medium. I feel like that was never really true, but modern gaming is such a social hobby that it seems such stereotypes might finally be dying.

Mario Kart is always a popular choice for multiplayer fun.

Even back then, gaming was a social affair. I played many video games with friends at sleepovers, parties and trips to the local arcade. Couch co-op and versus modes were plentiful, and were the primary selling points of entire genres such as fighting games. We had “party games” spring up thanks to series like Mario Party and You Don’t Know Jack, which offered lively yet casual competition with friends.

Once online gaming took off, things really changed. I can remember so many stories about the impact World of Warcraft had on gaming circles, since it was such a huge mainstream success. Playing an MMO is still a popular way to make friends while gaming, since entire friend groups can form around guilds. The proliferation of online services such as Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network in the late 2000s helped foster similar communities on console, since you could now add people to your friends list and play together without having to be in the same room.

Helping your squad win in Apex Legends is a satisfying experience.

Various other social features have been added to gaming platforms over time. Steam has many features meant to facilitate socialization, for example. Decorating your profile to show off your games/badges/achievements, discussion forums for each game, the ability to write guides and reviews, share artwork and screenshots; all of these things add a social element that we didn’t have when I was young. It’s not much different on consoles, either. I can boot up my Switch right now, see what games my friends have been playing and invite them to play with me. On Xbox, I can look at an achievement leaderboard for my friends list or find new people to play with by making a “looking for group” post. PlayStation is a similar story; I can compare trophy lists with my friends and see community updates from the video games I’ve been playing recently. It’s far from a solitary experience.

These features are all still enjoyed today, and I would argue have been amplified by social media. Around the world, people log on to sites like Twitter and Reddit to share their most recent wins in battle royales, lucky pulls in gacha games, reactions to the latest trailers and announcements, fan art of their favorite characters, predictions for award season, and so on. I think it’s neat that I can hop on Discord and find servers for people to discuss obscure retro horror games with. Twitch is full of people streaming games every day, as well as events like speedrunning marathons and charity drives. As video games become more popular as a global pastime, the shared experience also grows.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can play Puzzle Fighter online.

Video games have provided a fun way to socialize since the earliest arcade days, but they used to have a reputation as an anti-social activity. I’m glad to see that image fading away over time, and love that this hobby of mine can bring people together from all over the world. I’m interested to see how social aspects of video games continue to evolve over time.

Those Genres You Can’t Get Enough Of

Do you have any genres that you’re always willing to give a shot? This thought popped into my head recently, after I played four different metroidvanias within a short time period. There are just some genres where I’m always up for trying out a new entry, and I wonder if other people have similar experiences.

The first of these genres for me is, naturally, metroidvanias. I’ve been a fan ever since I first played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. There’s just something so satisfying and addictive about exploring and gradually unlocking all the parts of a big map. It’s a genre rife with “Aha!” moments, especially when you discover sequence breaks and creative uses of the tools at your disposal. Plenty of metroidvanias include their own mechanical quirks, too. Touhou Luna Nights features a time-stop mechanic, Record of Lodoss War – Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth – has you regularly switching between two different spirit summons to damage different types of enemies in the same vein as shoot-em-up Ikaruga, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has enemies randomly drop shards that the heroine absorbs to gain their powers. Metroid Dread, with its light horror elements, provided such an enjoyable twist on the formula for me that it quickly became one of my very favorite video games.

I love the sprite work in Deedlit’s game.

Speaking of horror, that’s the next genre on my list. I attribute my love of all things spooky to my mom, who was a big horror fan and let me watch scary movies with her when I was growing up. To that end, I took an interest in series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Nowadays, there are tons of horror games to play thanks to the indie gaming boom of the past decade and renewed interest from big publishers. I’m not terribly picky when it comes to horror games, and find myself grabbing plenty of things to play from all over the budget spectrum. Spooky hide-and-seek games where you spend the whole time getting chased? Sure, I’ll try it. Slow, methodical gameplay where you solve puzzles and occasionally run into monsters? That’s fine, too. Multiplayer horror? Why not? From Haunting Ground to Dead by Daylight, I just can’t help but enjoy horror games.

I’m always willing to play a new Resident Evil.

RPGs round out the list of genres I just keep going back to. Whether turn-based or full-on action combat, I know I’m probably going to find something to like. From Fallout to Final Fantasy, some of my favorite stories and worlds can be found under the RPG label. There are plenty of options to check out on both the indie and big-budget side, and it’s been nice to see how this genre has evolved over the course of my life. There’s nothing quite like settling in for a big adventure with a new cast of heroes or revisiting an old favorite. I’m looking forward to diving into Persona 3 Reload, and the only reason I haven’t yet is that I just watched my husband’s playthrough and want to give it some room to breathe. Regardless, RPGs are irresistible to me thanks to how cozy they make adventuring feel.

Give me wacky attacks like this and I’m happy.

When it comes to my gaming staples, metroidvanias, horror games and role-playing games fit the bill. No matter what mood I’m in or what budget I’m sticking to, I know I’ll have a good time with any of these options. How about you? Do you have any genres you just can’t get enough of? I’d love to hear about it!