Summer Plans Made Too Late and a Birthday Weekend Update

There's a lot of covering up of pass details, but I can assure you that Hikau, the Robot is a fun game. —Taken with an iPhone 8 

There were a couple of things I wanted to try out this summer that, unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to do—the major one being a trip on the local water taxi.

This was on me for buying a season pass way too late into the season (Mid-August)—and finding out that the taxi's hop-on hop-off service only operates on Saturday and Sunday. My Dad was working on the deck over the summer and since we both managed to frequently get Saturdays off, I wanted to be present to help him when he needed it—especially when the heat managed to break. 

The other one was a Grub Street virtual class and they had some really neat ones including one on writing unlikeable characters and a scriptwriting workshop. I'm not worried about missing them—I feel like they'll come up again regardless of season. 

However, I do have one day trip left back to Boston to start off the birthday weekend—and to properly close off summer. This trip is going to be a little different and will be more of a proper downtown tour. I'm going to post the highlights as I go on Mastodon—with later crossposting to Twitter*—and will probably do a longer blog post about it later on next month. 

What else? 

Shipwreck Lane will be a review for October. I might sneak a poll in next week to see what game I should review before the end of the year. 

Hope you all had a good summer! 

*I no longer use Twitter on my mobile devices, meaning that I don't log into Twitter as much as I used to.   

Islets & Islanders—An All-Accommodating Getaway Package

Even if I took this photo in mid-May, I enjoy having an early sunrise in the summertime. Not so much the late sunsets though for some reason. —Taken with an iPhone 8 

Summer and I do not exactly get along. Sure, there may be more opportunities for adventure and spectacle with a local fireworks show—unrelated to US Independence Day—but it is the extensive heat that sours what is otherwise a low-key season. Walks were something I would usually avoid in summer more or less because, well, I usually end up in a aura of moisture about ten to fifteen minutes in—sometimes after I make it across the street. While it might be a bit of bummer, the little things like a Dairy Queen Blizzard treat,  or going to a family reunion at a lake house make the season worthwhile. The ideal summer image of a tropical island vacation also sounds promising with two games making up a vacation package of easy-going fun.

One of many quirky and lovable characters who reside in the sky islands. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) 

The first stop in this vacation cruise is a journey to the skies where a chain of once-connected islands lies scattered across the clouds in Islets—a game developed by Kyle Thompson for Armor Games Studios. The official website describes the game as “A Surprisingly Wholesome Metroidvania” and, while I think it fits the adventure to a tee, it also does not do the game proper justice. Even if I was alternating between this game and Tears of the Kingdom back in June, I found Islets to be a vibrant and refreshing change of pace. This starts with our main character, a warrior mouse named Iko, who sets forth on a journey to join the sky islands together again and he is far from alone as a competing warrior, an overzealous show-off named Snoot, manages to tear down Iko’s boat by merely revving his own airship. Once Iko crashes onto the lush green plains of Northstable Island, his quest truly begins with a simple tutorial and some low-fi beats from the game’s composer, Eric Thompson.

The controls are very easy to get the hang of—even if I sometimes forgot I could do forward rolls—and the power ups are the usual standard metroidvania fare. Players familiar with Hollow Knight will recognize the double jump and Islets's own approach to wall-clinging abilities where Iko can just climb straight up to the top. When Islets does its own thing, though, it does so it a cool fashion from arrows that can create contrails for platforms to airship boss fights which feel like something out of Cotton, Darius, or Turrican. 

The big innovator which fully gives Islets that refreshing change of pace is the exploration itself. While Iko might not have the expansive move set of someone like the Knight, the act of reconnecting the islands acts a series of power-ups to encourage backtracking. Each time I added an island back to the chain, the journey back through them almost felt like new with additional pathways sandwiched between adjacent ares instead of a mere trek around the map. The visuals themselves, while not as detailed as Hollow Knight or Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, still breath life into the aerial archipelago and the characters who fly about them and the hub town, Sky City. If the links between islands are like powers-ups, the characters and how they develop act as pieces of lore, in which denizens tell Iko about landmarks and points of interest.

An unexpected highlight of Islets, which puts some arcade-like action into a Metroidvania. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode)  

Even for a game that makes simplicity shine in everything from world-building and character development to gameplay, there are some rough patches of turbulence—mostly in the form of boss battles. While I found it really cool that said bosses and normal enemies had projectiles that were easy to see—and simple tells of attack prep with a few exclamation marks—the big behemoths felt like they took forever to defeat. Even if these fights get tedious after awhile, the sword-fighting does not feel out of place. The variations between the difficultly levels are not much to write home about either—the more difficult the setting, the stronger the foes are. They also develop more complex bullet patterns between each tier, but it feels more subtle with the most notable difference being in the first boss’s second phase with both easy and normal modes being completely identical.   

The last little niggle deals with Islets own version of health and ammo bonuses—a roulette of additional perks which range from the afermentioned to adding extra power to every other attack and in-game currency you can use in Sky City for other perks. This is another one of Islets’s neat twists to the metroidvania formula and most of them are not that difficult to obtain. The ones that pose some trouble seldom require extreme coordination or reflexes, making Islets easy to fully complete. As for the rewards, even if there is a choice whether to play it safe with a health increase or risk it for gold, the variety in choice sometimes varies greatly. The incremental increases offered both with said pickups and the Sky City stores might prompt players continuously go for the former, but considering how easy it is to gain funds, there is some breathing room. 

Islets might lack the palm trees of a tropical beach resort in both in the literal and figurative sense, but it is still a metroidvania that manages to both accommodate newcomers and challenge the pros simultaneously.

This island reminded me of Windwaker while I was building the mills and cities. I couldn't help but think of Windfall Island. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode)

The next destination is a proper cruise from one island to the next where the cities, tourist attractions, and even the agriculture turn the vacationer to a full-time construction worker in Islanders—an indie game developed by Grizzly Games. Unlike the intense focus on finances, budgeting, and proper zoning in similar titles like Sim City, Islanders focuses more on just developing the procedurally-generated islands into livable spaces while aiming for a high score. Each island requires a certain amount of development and points before the player can start an expedition to the next one and the key to a quick getaway is, well, zoning by building type. Each building can benefit from either adjacent structures—like mills and fields—or by the surrounding resources, which can significantly bolster the score. Even if a player reaches the expedition cap, they can still continue to further develop the island with fountains, parks, and towers among other options. 

Even if the sessions can be short—usually between one to two hours—Islanders has quite a bit of depth with its gameplay with situations that require some out-of-the-box thinking. There may be islands where the game provides you with multiple wooden piers (or plateaus) in order to make up for the lack of land mass. Some locales might even provide you with major buildings and exclude the smaller producers—think sawmills without lumberjacks or mills without fields. Even particular buildings like the Shaman’s Hut involve some pixel-perfect placement to get the highest amount of points possible, and to make up for the reduction if there is a mansion nearby. 

This deceptively simple gameplay loop kept me enthralled with Islanders with each session I played while the 3D visuals and music evoked that relaxing island atmosphere. There are both tropical and snowy islands alongside many interesting geographic variations which help keep the game fresh. For those who just want to get creative, the game also includes a “sandbox mode” that takes the scoring system out completely. Both modes make Islanders into a game that embraces the best aspects of summer—a laid-back day at the resort with a crossword puzzle and piña colada. (Other drinks are available.)     

Top: Another one of my favorite builds in Islanders, featuring some of the 
Bottom: A tour guide contemplates a price hike in Islets. —Both Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) 

From sky back to the seas, the full vacation package contains a duo of pick-up-and-play titles that manage to balance both challenge and difficultly. Islets might have boss fights that feel like in-flight delays, but the journey across and between the sky islands provides a fresh take on metroidvanias for veterans and newcomers alike. The follow-cruise with Islanders suffers the opposite problem with (sometimes) short sessions, but the gameplay is engrossing enough to keep the momentum. Whether you are big into metroidvanis or want the therapeutic experience of constructing an island city without noise pollution, this vacation package has you covered! 

Islets In Sum: Brave Mouse Discovers New Technology. Epic Monsters Still Rampant: 8.5 out of 10 

Islanders In Sum: Urban Development at Its Ideal (Albeit Brief)—Tranquil and Deceptively Easy: 9.5 out of 10 

Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic—Gaming Memories are Forever

Probably my favorite cover in the entire Boss Fight Books series— Taken with an iPhone 8  

I was barely seven when Goldeneye came out on the Nintendo 64 and the only opportunity I had to play the game would not be until a few years later when I slept over at a friend’s house. We booted up the game in the late hours of the morning and, while my memory is a bit vague about what levels we played or whether his Dad rented or owned the game, we spent two hours having a blast in multiplayer. With the game now a part of the Switch Online games catalog, I was able to experience that same joy again through the single-player campaign…after I figured out the updated control scheme. Yet, it is the story about how the Goldeneye 007 game came to be which made me appreciate it even more with a recent addition to the Boss Fight Books lineup. 

Written by English professor, Alyse Knorr, Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic is a book that provides an in-depth historical account into the how Rare developed one of the Nintendo 64’s legendary titles. There are two editions to this specific book—a regular paperback and a deluxe hardcover with design documents, pictures, and even a bonus chapter on how they developed the game’s soundtrack—and I backed the the latter during their Kickstarter campaign. No matter what edition you buy, Knorr’s in-depth account of both the game’s development and the James Bond franchise itself remains the same. Everything surrounding the Goldeneye 007 game gets through coverage—the history of Rare and Ultimate: Play the Game, what led to them and Nintendo claiming a license to Ian Fleming’s suave spy in 1995, the James Bond games which came after, etc—and the chapters dedicated to a specific aspect of development feel very much like an extended, behind-the-scenes feature for a film or television show. If you are wondering what the secret to Goldeneye’s memorable multiplayer was and how it came to be, or how they worked on the in-game models and animations, Knorr has you covered.

If you want to know how Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate managed to make the iconic James Bond theme fit onto an Nintendo 64 cartridge, you will not be able to find it in the standard, paperback edition. It felt weird to me that there was a bonus chapter smack dab near the end of the book between the one on multiplayer and the other on the Nintendo 64’s struggles during Goldeneye’s development alongside how the team dealt with the violence in the game—with feedback from Nintendo and even MGM. The transition between them does not feel abrupt or awkward, but the absence of Kirkhope and Norgate’s contributions did not make any sense to me. If I instead decided on the standard edition, it would be the only setback to an otherwise well-detailed account.

The drawings, diagrams, and even reference photos do feel like a nice bonus feature with the deluxe edition. For someone like me who only had brief experiences with the game, it was cool to put faces to names, see how particular places and actors transitioned into in-game models, and how the menu’s manila folder UI developed into the file select and mission briefing screens. Players passionate about gaming history and development will be spoiled rotten with motion capture models, sketches of in-game areas, original design documents outlining what Goldeneye would be, and so much more. Both these additions and the bonus chapter combined make the deluxe hardcover feel more like the definitive edition of Knorr’s book, making it worth the US $29.95 price tag—double the price of the standard paperback at US $14.95.  

Even so, every edition of Alyse Knorr’s Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic does the game justice in the same Boss Fight Books style—where personal narrative weaves itself with academic rigor. Compared to the other books I enjoyed—Matt Margini’s Red Dead Redemption and Gabe Durham’s Majora’s Mask—Knorr’s own experiences not only entwines itself into the stories of Goldeneye’s development, but compliments them gracefully. Her love for Goldeneye shows in both her personal experiences, and her own research and interviews with the development team. Anyone interested in the history of first-person shooters, gaming in general, or just fondly remember playing this game will find themselves with the perfect martini of a book—shaken, not stirred.   

In Sum: A love letter to a classic, late 1990s video game that goes above and beyond, but somewhat blows its cover with an extra chapter in hardcover that, while still thoroughly researched, would work better in both editions. Even so, it's a rich dossier—4 out of 5 Stars   

Boss Fight Books does sell the deluxe hardcover as an e-book for US $11.95 (at time of writing) in case you are interested in both the bonus chapter and the additional design documents, but do not want to shell out US $30 or prefer reading it in a digital format.   

A Quick Little Update...

I'm just popping to note that—as more or less per usual—I'm pushing back the Goldeneye book review a smidge. I'm going to shoot for this weekend to have it finished, written, and posted here. 

I'm not too far from the finish line, but August was a bit rough, work-wise, so I ended up distracting myself (and decompressing) with the usual method of playing Switch games and catching up on podcasts. Thankfully, I think I'm at the tail-end of the stress and I'm off for the next two days so (ideally) everything should work out!

Everything else remains unchanged...for now. 

An Unexpected and Welcomed Visit—Ink for August 5th & 6th, 2023

I had a cousin visit my parents' house with her three kids on Monday—she was initially in the region for a family reunion, but decided to stop by before heading back home—and we had a lot of fun. The highlight of the visit though was her son, my second cousin/nephew, finding out where the "video game room" was—it was mine, of course—and then I had the honor of introducing him to MsMadLemon and Banjo Guy Ollie since he was passionate about Minecraft. 

I linked the above video in a recent Mastodon thread—where Maddi shows off her railway system and ends up getting chased (briefly) by an Enderman—and when that scene with that shadowy creature happened, he was laughing up a storm. We checked out some of the other videos in the playlist as well including an earlier video where she explores a nearby cave, another prior video where she starts her Minecraft journey, and her tutorial on building a Hamam, before switching over to playing Street Fighter II on my Genesis/Mega Drive Mini where he ending up winning with two full bouts. 

Before that, and alongside Ollie's synth cover of the Minecraft theme, I attempted to introduce him into the Nintendo Force magazine...initially with the issue containing my Hypnospace Outlaw review. I think he was more mesmerized by the screenshots from Kris Randazzo's review of Fight Crab though—and I don't blame him! :-)

I did show him other issues of the Force—the recent one with Pikmin 4 on the cover (Issue #66), then the Eastward review from issue #56, and the one in which Metroid Dread graced the cover (Issue #55). I think he enjoyed reading them and he also talked at length about the E.M.M.I. robots in Dread since he owned those very same Metroid amiibos I mentioned previously.

That, and he was entranced by Ollie's Metroid covers—he requested the ones of Brinstar and of Kraid's hideout, while I had him guess the one for Phendrana Drifts since he had Metroid Prime Remastered on his Switch. 

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I was glad to see my cousin again after not being in touch for years. She was the person who recommended the university I ended up graduating in which, even under all the stress, is something I'm still grateful for to this day. She also ran a couple blogs in the past decade but sadly, they're both inactive and offline so I don't have any links to share. I can say from memory—and Kristin, if you're reading this, I hope I remembered correctly—that her first blog dealt was thought-provoking and dealt with sociological matters. 

Speaking of Relatives...

You can now listen to the Derek James tapes in their original, and cleaned-up, forms over on his nephew's website—Derek's nephew being Tom of Channel84. These tapes were originally showcased on CheapShow in episodes 105, 119, 140, and 278, with commentary by Paul, Eli, and Stuart Ashen (for the latter two) that helped bring these bizarre, yet lovable tales to life. I will always be fond of Derek's Bone Hoover story, not just for the sudden, comedic twist at the end but also for how he describes his journey to Cairo—I sometimes have that CheapShow episode on repeat for the commentary alone! 

I can actually imagine Derek hosting a fiction writing workshop or being famous for creative nonfiction memoirs, but I digress...

What I've been listening to recently...

I would be remiss if I did not mention MsMadLemon's latest album, Paradox. I thought about doing a more in-depth review on it, doing a track by track look similar to the one I did for Pocket Vinyl's Winter Person in 2020...and I might do so in future. What I can say right now is that this is Maddi's best work yet and the variety of synths and trackers that make up the tracks evoked a feeling similar to the soundtrack for Eastward!

There is also Lacey Johnson's latest cover album featuring her take on some of Persona 5's greatest numbers, which is also amazing of course!

But the album I thought was the most interesting was this original soundtrack from a group called Alpha Something...   

I actually owe it to Ro Panuganti for both his cover of Nee Dhaane and his playthrough of Venba for introducing me to this game that centers on Southern Indian cooking with an emphasis on family. 

Weird thing is, I haven't played it yet and as I'm writing this post, I just found out that the game is also on the Switch. This is what happens when I more or less watch YouTube solely on the iPad these days so the video description stealthily hides itself behind a tappable word. I did rectify this and downloaded the game from the eShop and I think it will be a good way to partly spend my weekend.

Much like Turrican, its a game where a cover and a soundtrack inspired me to buy the game, so here's Ro Panuganti's take on Nee Dhaane with his first try at Southern Indian cooking with dosas and chutneys...

...and that's all from me for now! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Owning up to an Unnecessary Rant—Sunday Ink for July 30th, 2023

I don't have a picture or a screenshot for this post and know how links on social media go for the first applicable image, including video thumbnails, I decided to give another video of the week to John Rogers with a thumbnail that is thematically relevant. I'll probably get around to watching it tomorrow... 

I'm not fond of using social media to complain about petty issues about the day nor do I like being too harsh in reviewing a piece of media, professionally or otherwise. Of course, we're all human and I found myself composing a thread on Mastodon a couple of weeks ago that bashed the podcast, Threedom, which I recommended in a previous blog post. I deleted the thread shortly after since, again, I felt like I was being too critical in a way that was highly unfair and projected my own cynicism onto people who might not have contempt for their audience. 

Also, I did genuinely enjoy the first episode I listened to—and for someone who is not the biggest fan of stand-up comedy, this says something! 

I think a part my reaction from the Mastodon thread in question was my own self-consciousness at barely knowing any stand-up comedians outside of CheapShow guests, Jon Oliver*, British panel shows like Mock the Week and Would I Lie to You, and of course the controversial players** in American stand-up who frequently punch down and usually promote misinformation. 

So to hear what I thought was contempt for their audience in "3 Chuckies" with (I believe) Scott's remark about how their "[...]audience should be grateful that we do this podcast standing up," and what I took to be them being privileged enough to alienate a potential audience with Lauren's remark about how if she had to introduce herself one more time on the pod then "F— you" (yes, I'm still paraphrasing) in the Threevisiting episode, "Do You Even Know Gyms", made me believe that American stand-up mostly consists of either complete jerks or those political grifters who trended on Twitter for being "against the status quo" in all the wrong ways.

I truly believe that is not the case and if you know any American stand-ups that I should watch or listen to, feel free to suggest them in the comments! 

Those remarks, though, also brought me to the MsMadLemon video that I mentioned in the Mastodon thread where, among other things, she noted about some content creators react to gifts sent in by fans. And I linked the wrong one in the thread, so here's the actual video in question...

The bit I'm referring to starts at the 6 minute mark and, while the discussion is mostly unrelated, I would still give it your consideration—alongside the follow up video. Maybe it's because of how I've been mostly drawn to indie creators—whether it's podcasts like CheapShow, or musicians like Pocket Vinyl and Banjo Guy Ollie—that I took it personally more than I should have. That remark and the Threevisiting "F— you" still rile me up when considering how every independent artist and content creator goes to great lengths to promote their work to others and appreciates their audience—even more so when considering how the community behind said work gives that admiration back twofold.       

Maybe I picked the wrong episodes to listen to when trying to get back into the podcast, but I get the feeling that the Threedom and Comedy Bang Bang style of humor is not for me. I actually considered buying the Comedy Bang Bang book that recently came out figure said style out, but my gut told me no, more or less. Other opinions are available and it goes without saying that CBB probably has some sort of community out there. 

I'll leave that ramble there and move on to more positive things...

Additional Pods in the Queue?

• Shrink the Box, in which Ben Bailey Smith and Sasha Bates do some psychoanalytic literary theory magic on television's protagonists
• The Channel84 Variety Show in which Tom and Rob geek out about whether it's sci-fi, nostalgia, television and film, or even the goings on in their own lives

I unfortunately don't have a link list so I'll leave it there for now. Have a good evening!   

An Updated Review Timeline and a Brief Amiibo Addiction—Ink for July 28th, 2023

Urban planning makes the best of geographic oddities. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) 

I'm changing the timeline again with regards to rest of summer's reviews partly because of the usual culprit—although that's game's mostly wrapped up (for now)—but also because of one addition to the roster.   

I'm still working on reading through Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic by Alyse Knorr and should still be on target to have a review written and published here next month. Islets will also be a review for late-August (or early September), but I'm also tacking on another game which evokes the same laid-back, summer feel. It also revolves around islands with a related namesake, Islanders: Console Edition, and was recommended to me by Ivenne, a friend of the blog and the creator behind the [Un]Official CheapShow Magazine! 

I'm aiming for somewhere between 750-1250 words for the combination review and there will be scores. (Spoilers: They're both fun!)   

As for the last item in the queue, I'm aiming to read and review The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane sometime in September.    

So that's the admin done, I thought I'd talk about what the Tears of the Kingdom shenanigans hath wrought... 

Top: A Solid Cast of Links—from the 8-Bit beginnings (rightmost) to when he composed music at sea (leftmost)—with a spider-esque robot lurking nearby.
Bottom: A Better look at the Windwaker Link & Zelda alongside the princess from her Skyward Sword days. —Both taken with an iPhone 8    

One of the things I didn't expect to do while playing this game was to break out the wallet for additional Amiibo figurines. These Amiibos have a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip located at the base designed to interact with the NFC chip on a Joy-Con or an official Switch Pro controller to allow players to further enjoy additional features with particular games. In both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, they provide a cache of resources alongside a treasure chest containing either a normal weapon or shield, a gemstone, or an exclusive piece of armor related to the Amiibo in question.

Thing is, even if they said there was a restock on Zelda Amiibos upon the game's release, I never thought to take advantage of it. Then again, I wasn't really in the market for them beforehand—I had the 8-Bit Link one already alongside an 8-Bit Mario figure, the Metroid Dread dual-pack, and Mr. Game & Watch—since most of the games I played either didn't use them or had Amiibo-only features that I felt like I didn't need. The ones I already had were close to the regular retail price that the Nintendo Life article lists for the reissued Links (around US $14.99) with the exception of the Metroid dual-pack that was closer to US $30.

But when I found the Link from Majora's Mask on Amazon for around US $38 when it scalpers usually sell it for way over US $100, I can't say no to a figurine from what is my favorite Zelda game of all time! 

Here's the thing, you don't need these Amiibos if you're looking for exclusive armor and weapons in Tears of the Kingdom. You can find chests in caves and the Depths where you can net them without having to shell out money to a scalper or braving a games store as someone over thirty looking for what could be called a kid's toy. Without spoiling anything, the trek is worth it alone no matter how you end up finding them!

...and that concludes my Tears of the Kingdom ramble. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!