October opus: Sonic Mania Plus...

Sonic the Hedgehog is 28 years old this year but has lived more than half his life in shitty games. Our blue friend had a home in 5 great speedy platform games in the early 90s. Then, some bigger changes in technology and some really terrible direction lead SEGA to produce poop for the next 20-odd years. Nintendo has always taken new tech in stride and implemented it in the titles quite well. Think of each system's new Mario or Zelda game and how well it uses its console's gimmick: Mario's movement in Super Mario 64, Z-targeting in Ocarina of Time, Link's Master Sword moving 1:1 in Skyward Sword via the Wiimote Accelerometer, and more recently, using the Wii U's touchpad to sketch blocks in New Super Mario Bros - nTh iteration.

And still better with the 2d D-pad.

Sonic...hasn't received the same treatment. The SEGA Saturn title used an isometric view and analog controller for Sonic 3d Blast to go with the new CD-quality audio. The music worked; the rest was awkward. Then while Mario was messing around on Sunshine Island (Gamecube), SEGA decided Sonic needed vocals and we were treated to unskippable, poorly-acted, awkwardly paced and stupidly long cutscenes in a game with only a good first level. This trend of underwhelming Sonic games with only good first levels repeated for years. But even with the music, there's been a prominence of guitar-heavy rock music with lyrics in most of the titles since Sonic Adventure that were hit and miss.

THEN, a few years ago, a fan updated/remade a few Genesis-era Sonic games. This all culminated into Sonic Mania, a return to roots with a blend of the only 5 Sonic games that matter: Sonic 1-3, & Knuckles, and Sonic CD. Sonic Mania blends these so thoroughly into a great shiny package and hits on almost everything great about the series. For example, two desert levels Oil Ocean (S2) and Sandopolis (S3) have been conceptually blended. In the original Sandopolis, you were inside of a pyramid that consistently got darker until you activated light switches throughout the level. In Sonic Mania, you're running through an oil extraction site that gets hazy until you activate fans to blog away the smog. The blends manifest themselves in the music, aesthetics and functions like the haze mechanic I mentioned. There are so many stages that Eggman Dr. Robotnik has gone the way of Bowser and recruited the Hard-boiled Heavies to harangue the heroes in different boss forms.

The devs balanced speed and running really really well. The levels are loaded with springs and sequences that don't screw up momentum with obstacles. There are even those parts in the game where you're running so fast that Sonic almost moves out of the frame, and they're used sparingly enough for you to really appreciate them. Past titles have suffered from poor camera controls, camera tracking, or the simple fact that touching the controls during the speed sequences could kill Sonic. A lot of the titles may have only had one of these sins, but Sonic Mania doesn't commit any.

Sonic Mania is the most fun I've had in a while. The game is gorgeously colorful, the remixed soundtrack is amazing, and I'm considering buying it for the appeal of a playable soundtrack. Have any of you played a game again for its soundtrack?

Hang on, Geddy! Ohh wait-shoot em!

I actually started the month with a title called Owlboy, which is heavily inspired by Kid Icarus from the original NES. The game has a neat aesthetic and in true sci-fi nature takes its world of sentient owls, stick bugs, penguins and spiders as established; there's no irony there. The story has to deal with capture and pirates and stuff...and I was just playing the game to experience vertical platforming. I really liked the music and artwork. Even towards the end of my 14-hour journey to the platinum, I forgot controls occasionally since they were just a bit awkward.

Ohh my! Yes, yes. Quite riveting!

After Owlboy, I was waiting for Sonic Mania to arrive in the mail and discovered just how awesome one of the previous free PS+ games was. The game is called Foul Play, and the title card is a theatre curtain. I figured it would be some murder mystery or otherwise dialogue-heavy slow-paced game. It turns out that this is a beat-em-up game where you play actors in a series of Vaudeville plays, beating the snot out of baddies for the audience's enjoyment. Get combos, dodge, pop the fist-fodder into the air, whack, sock, evade and chuck enemies into stage objects to applause and a great soundtrack. One fact is that October has seen three fast and fun titles with great music and unique aesthetics.

Katamari Forever: a profile

I am one of those people that uses the word perfect subjectively. I think something is perfect if it does what it's intended to do and nails all the details along the way. I abhor smoking but can tell you cigarettes are a perfect product. The addictive factor has been refined through decades of testing despite the obvious signs of damage to health. Cigarettes are so good that skipping 5-10 minutes of work every hour or two is socially acceptable, as long as you're harming your health. Try that shit with a 5-10 minute break to read a book or blend some smoothies in the break room and report back to me. Anyhoo, cigarettes are a perfect product to me, and the Katamari Damacy series is also perfect.

This guy is hilarious, annoying, the most important entity
in the Katamari universe...and that bulge is amazing!

If you haven't heard of Katamari Damacy [~Clump Soul], the story goes that your father, The King of Cosmos, [got drunk one night and] accidentally destroyed the planets, and it's your job to roll up enough items to form new ones. This story is told through surreal 10-second animations which were just as random in original Japanese. Also, to reach back to the title, it doesn't make sense in Japanese either, and the creator said it randomly popped into his head. This is a relief to me, as there are some really stupid anime titles that had to have been conceived similarly. Bubblegum Crisis and Cowboy Bebop come to mind, but I digress. Anyway, the bizarre opening sets the tone for the whole experience.

The game has a bright, cartoony palette and features everyday objects that the Prince of the Cosmos collects into a ball as he rolls through living rooms, backyards, train stations, and eventually the Solar System. This can be explained with a picture. What can't be explained is how the game sounds.

Each game features a peppy, poppy and eclectic soundtrack that stands well on its own. The music is good and the composer knows it. The PS3 title that I'm currently playing, Katamari Forever, is a blend of the first and second title, with a story to link all the chaos. The entire soundtrack is a remix of these two games as well. From the Katamari Wiki: "Miyake employed the help of over 20 other Japanese artists and remixers to help the soundtrack, which was designed to act as part of a "musical trilogy" with the soundtrack to Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. This was accomplished by choosing tracks from those games that were either fan or staff favorites and having them remixed by both Japanese and non-Japanese artists, though Miyake notes that the majority of the artists were Japanese as he did not know many non-Japanese musicians, the same problem that kept non-Japanese artists out of the first two soundtracks of the "trilogy".

I'd argue the most popular song of the series is not the main theme, but Lonely Rolling Star. The first gets its own version in each game, and the second gets a dubstep remix in the PSP title. One of my favorite tracks from the first game, Cherry Blossom Color Season, is a very poignant track about a summer memory with school kids doing vocals while a boy takes the lead. In Katamari Forever, it's done by a peppy 80s soft rock female vocalist. Both versions nail the sense of nostalgia, even without knowing what the lyrics mean. The remix that most blew me away in the same game was the second game's J-POPpiest song Everlasting Love being both mashed up with You Are Smart and translated to English (Everlasting Love + You).

For sound effects, objects are picked up with a plop or plunk that gets deeper with larger things. You start out picking up thumbtacks and batteries and once you get to animals and people, they let out screams and other strange noises.

The aesthetic, sounds and music combine to create an amazing experience, and the controls fit perfectly. Your rolling is controlled by both thumbsticks and little vibrations tell you when you pick stuff up. Although titles in the series are on other platforms, the controls make the most sense on the Dualshock controllers, as the sticks are side by side. The latest titles are on Android and iOS which makes me wonder what they did to the controls. There's a remake of the first Katamari Damacy coming to the Switch at the end of the year, which fits the theme of the Switch being a GREATEST PORTS platform with almost no original titles. Either way, the Katamari Damacy series is highly recommended and you should give it a roll!

Where the hell have I been?

It turns out working full time, wrapping up a graduate degree, owning a house and doing marriage paperwork takes a lot of time.

School: I'm currently in a class about how to choose, create and make the most of materials for ESL learners. Basically, true/false and multiple-choice questions are dogshit for actually learning language, but garbage sells. It's a lot easier to sell shit that's easy to grade to the non-teachers who are in charge of curriculum and budgets, so inefficient and superficial language learning prevails!

Even Abe is sad I can't buy stock...

House: mid-August to now has been me coming home from work with some kind of project to address: replacing the kitchen faucet, garbage disposal, installing the bidet, making a noise-and-temperature window insert, and exploring my new neighborhood. Traffic is pretty loud and I still hate motorcyclists. What are they revving their engines for in a 30 mph zone, anyway? My new neighbors, on the other hand, understand the concept of not being noisy at night, parking where they should park, and training their animals not to be douchebags. This is a massive improvement to my quality of life for an amount I can afford with some concessions...LIKE INVESTING *dramatic crying*. No more monthly deposits into Vanguard for the time being. It sucks, but building equity is like investing...just gotta cut through that thick block of interest first.

Spoiler: not the last time. This is at the beginning of the game

With all that, it's not like I wasn't gaming at all. Septemper PS+ owners got God of War 3, a game where you play as a complete asshole. Like, wow. Kratos spares nobody. In terms of trophy hunting, this game is pretty quick and easy. This game still keeps the fluid and responsive fight controls, though platforming requiring double jumping and gliding sucks. This game has your signature smooth combat with lots of blood, a protagonist who doesn't have a whole lot of motivation in this title, and the occasional boob!



Before that, I had the express pleasure of Cosmic Star Heroine, a 16-bit-ish action RPG that is heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger. You can see and avoid battles, there are battle abilities that resemble single / dual techs, and the soundtrack is quite awesome. Also, the game is hilarious and has some personality. Even if the plot is so-so, the characters are pretty entertaining, and the NPCs even more so. I scooped it up on sale for <$10 and it was a sweet playthrough and worth it! Go, small developers!

Other than these two Platinums, I have been logging the other half of playtime plugging away at Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Guitar Hero Live. I just shacked up with Gamefly for their $10 promotion for a single disc rental for 2 months and my first crack will be OwlBoy.

Gaming in August 2018

Hey Folks, nothin much going on but the rent. PSYCH! I got married on the first of August and started a mortgage two weeks later. So, 'ain't nothin going on but the mortgage.' Now begins the paperwork to get a work permit for my beautiful wife. Once we let her loose on the American work force, she's going to be the breadwinner by far. I'd like to think that this means I'll have more time to play video games, but that'll likely mean more housework!

The death music in this game still triggers me

Speaking of video games and my wife, while between quarters and waiting the on paperwork, she found herself with an abundance of free time. Earlier this year, I'd gotten an SNES Mini and the game she chose to start with was Super Mario World. Now, I've had 30 years of experience with the franchise, which has barely changed its controls. Folks, I watched her walk right into enemies or right off of pits over and over and realized that I am a really terrible backseat gamer. At least there are short cords on the controllers, meaning her ability to rightfully huck the controller at me is limited. Turns out SMW is a pretty hard choice to be your break-in to game. Progress is slow, but man is she persistent!

This fight took a couple attempts

In June, she started Chrono Trigger after seeing how excited I was to add the ROM to the system. She absolutely loved CT and saw at least 3 endings. Next was Final Fantasy IV. It was pretty awesome to hear the soundtrack as I did whatever I do around the house that isn't playing video games while she hauled arse. In August, she completed A Link to the Past. Her biggest challenge was a room in the final dungeon with a collapsing floor and 4 torches to light. It came down to the coordination of an action button + a direction. I don't know if she should burn through all the classics or start getting into some of the less-polished games. She's not a fan of current-gen controllers with 20+ buttons, so we'll likely stick to the SNES mini.

Pissed off bantha

It has been great seeing her enjoy something she used to just think was for 'boys.' Since she mostly plays when I'm asleep or at work, I get to hear her new experiences of games I've known well. I don't think she'll be playing Overwatch and cursing Hanzo alongside me any time soon, but in 2018, she's played 4 of the best games ever made and doesn't show any signs of slowing down--now she's playing Final Fantasy VI.

Fireworks on muh screen!

How was your 4th, folks? I got to hang out with friends and watch The Rock's San Andreas and the new Tomb Raider. The former was a neutered "action" film that unraveled the moment you thought about how callous it is to make a movie with hundreds of thousands of people dying on and off screen while following a divorced couple's rekindled relationship. Ohh, and screw you, new husband, for making this divorcee happy! Tomb Raider was kinda boring but had some cool sound effects, and properly beat the shit out of Lara Croft, per mandate of the new game series.

Hell yeah she is!

In a much more efficient use of media funding, Gravity Rush has stolen my heart. I've wanted to play this PS4 remaster since even before January 2018, my Ladies' Month, and spent 30 disorienting minutes figuring out the (thankfully) simplified controls. The game involves a spunky heroine named Kat whose cat can decide which surfaces are up and down. You do this by floating, aiming at the surface you wish to stand on, and flying into it. This is all done with one button, and the camera will help you out most of the time. I'm having a blast playing this game, and I hope the story is brisk enough that the gameplay doesn't wear out its welcome.

Update: Since starting this post a week ago, I've gotten the platinum. I probably put 16 hours into the base game and all expansions, and was excited to play the whole time. The most challenging mission in the game has a perfect run of 3min30sec and took me about 20 minutes overall to ace through research and repeated attempts.

Overwatch. I've been playing the new Symmetra and a great deal of FFA deathmatch. After 2.5 years of naively trusting strangers to group up in balanced teams, there is now a create-a-group feature where you can assign roles. While it takes an extra minute to fill up, you can finally avoid the K:D ratio bros that will fill your last team slot with Genji (instead of a needed healer or tank). The problem is that the system isn't quite intuitive, and there is no usual info box with an explanation. How...cantankerous!

More like "Turn-it-up!" Ah...that was lame.

I started Rayman Legends, which is a really huge game. This Ubisoft platformer series has a great aesthetic that reminds me of Nickelodeon cartoons and certainly doesn't take itself seriously. It's one of those games with slightly floaty controls, but the levels mercifully aren't designed for precision. Rayman was a franchise I overlooked pretty much since the first game in 1995. Legends is pretty fun and not frustratingly challenging so far. I dig it!

Shape-up your security, folks!

Part of frugality and financial fitness is more than smart spending, folks. I shrug off horror stories all the time about suckers who got got by blatantly poor decisions or planning. I feel like I am above it all. This viewpoint, however, is ignorant as hell, and someone out there will be laughing hard when I land in hubris hot water. However, some of my confidence is well-founded because I take steps to protect myself the best I can. Here is what works for me:

Freeze your credit! Employment, house loans and (don't do it unless necessary!) car loans require a good credit history. Freezing your credit means telling Equifax, TransUnion and Experian not to open a new credit card or loan account without your consent to lift the freeze. This was another one of those things that I laughed off, thinking it would never happen to me. It still hasn't, but this extra layer of protection can be done in just a few minutes. Wells Fargo got busted for creating fake accounts (and subsequently spent millions of dollars asking for our forgiveness via commercials--the audacity of those crooks!) In February, Seattle ICE was caught in identity fraud.

I didn't have luck with TransUnion's website, so I called 888.909.8872 and it was an automated call. Same with Equifax; 800.685.1111, option 3 or say "freeze." It's free in Washington currently and at least 7 other states. Experian was the only website that actually worked for me, though their number is 888.397.3742.

If you have a fraudulent transaction, don't forget to tell your credit card company and let them do the leg work of investigation. I experienced some drama with Frontier Communications (may the company lose all business and collapse into nothingness!) over a bill that was $150 more than expected. I ended up waiting 5 months for it to be corrected (it wasn't) and ended up calling again when I was reported to collections. I should have paid the whole thing with my credit card and sicced my credit card company on them!

Art by dougdougmann@deviantart

This credit report security is especially important because I've been shopping for condos this summer. At first glance, you'd be right to question my frugality in addition to my longing to live overseas again. However, once I can sweet talk a bank into a loan, the monthly payment towards a condo loan (unit+HOA dues) is $100 or more less than rent in the area! You have to go in with a good down payment and good credit, but we're all masters of wise financial decisions, so this is no problem! This doesn't apply everywhere, and I'm leaving out the massive detail that I'm currently in an apartment with sliding scale rent. However, the going rent in Lynnwood is currently $600 for a room in someone's house, $1000 for a 1 bedroom, and $1200+ for a 2 bedroom. One of the banks I asked offered me just over $1100 monthly on a 2br condo. Consider it, folks! To keep with security, a condo means that you can't be suddenly evicted!

Also, as a person who doesn't use cash, it's amazing how more than 99% of my income is digital. That said, to limit liability, I suggest paying your cards and accounts from your bank account. The alternative is to login to Chase, Capital One and Citibank and link your bank account to each individually, creating 4 vulnerabilities instead of one. However, this is a lot of important information to have all in one place, so make sure your password isn't worthless. Make those hackers work to rip you off!

You'll want to put some thought into your password, but not too much that you can't remember. I like to use catchphrases with numbers instead of letters. "Hasta la vista, Baby!" from Terminator 2 is long, but memorable as #4st4l4v1st4b4by. I guarantee you know 10 lines or their approximates that would work very well as passwords.

Two Reddit accounts. One for NSFW, one for general browsing that leaves comments.

That's all I have for now, folks. These are all steps that take a minimum of time and energy.

Update: It's only poetic justice that I get fraudulent charges on my account a week after posting this! It seems some rapscallion used my card via Uber Eats, which you know I'm too frugal to pay for a) a phone that would be able to run the app and b) someone to deliver food I could make or go get myself! It's all good, though. I called credit card customer service, who connected me to their fraud department, and the entire phone call took 3 minutes and I'm not liable for anything. This is a great example of why I use credit card over debit cards, as the week it takes to replace your credit card is a lot less traumatic than having your bank account locked.

Gaming and Graduation

Holy moly, folks! 2018 is hummin along, with my most recent viewing of a seizure-beckoning Incredibles 2, and a significant reduction in gaming time. I just finished up a graduate-level grammar class and Washington heated up a bit, educating me on just how much warmer a TV makes the room. Back to Incredibles 2, the movie was quite awesome save for the one poor choice of a scene involving a really intense strobe light. I don't have photo-sensitivity, but I closed my eyes for sure. Don't let that keep you from seeing it, though I can't really say that it's a big screen movie, since the action is really well directed and you pretty much always know what's going on.

It def gets dicey in this game

Games! I finally platinumed Children of the Zodiarcs, which is an entertaining and beautifully drawn tactics RPG. You're a bunch of orphans making your way through seedy neighborhoods, killing those who need to be killed. My only complaint is that the soundtrack is very minimal, so about half of my gameplay was without sound. If you want a play style that feels like a board game but has the convenience of digital interaction, this game is for you. Also, plus points for having a black female lead.

Art direction +1 Lookit dem colors!

Also finished up everything in God of War. My biggest shame for being frugal is that really good games like God of War that have a shorter path to platinum usually end up getting borrowed, and the dev never sees my money. At the same time, I gotta look after Number One, and I can't be spending emotions on businesses either.

I spent a good deal of time playing Overwatch during the anniversary event, where they unlocked all the skins and even game modes for almost all of June. The game that keeps on giving.

Omae ga mattaku shinisoudaze!

In game-related news, E3's finally shown me more than a buncha zombie survival games, and Ghost of Tsushima is one title I'm very excited for. Sony musta bribed the devil with all the great exclusives coming to the PS4. Assassin's Creed Odyssey looks great, though I haven't played any titles since AC II. Cyberpunk 2077 might be the most compelling of the batch, and I'll know not to rush into it. I screwed up my Witcher experience (same developer) by starting my first play on HARD. I gave up on that playthrough, but might give the game another go before Cyberpunk comes out.

What got you most pumped at E3?