Tuesday, July 24, 2018

2 new (mini classic) consoles

So I have 2 new consoles.  They are classics.  They are minis.  Can you guess what ones they are?

I picked up the SNES Classic Mini first and then about two weeks later I say an article online that the NES Classic Mini was back in production and available in stores that day.  So . . . at lunch I took a little trip to my local Best Buy and bought one (after I did a bunch of research online to make sure they had some in stock).

I haven't plugged them in yet as my life outside of work has been consumed with getting my swimming pool back in service after a devastating monsoon storm.  When it's over 110 degrees outside the last thing you don't want to have working/swimable is your pool.  It's the only relief that doesn't cost an arm and a leg on your electric bill.  You still have to pay to run the pump, but if your pump can't run . . . well, you now know what I was dealing with.  Now that the pools back in swimable condition (although it's so warm it feels like a taking a hot bath) I can get back to playing video games.

One thing I would like to do with the NES Classic Mini is to play Mario Bros and finish the game by playing all the levels.  I use to play this game (along with Duck Hunt and Tetris) every time I would go babysit my niece for my sister and brother-in-law.  Once he showed me the warp pipes I took advantage of them every chance I could to skip levels . . . especially worlds with water levels.  I hate water levels. 

I've "finished" the game but I haven't played all the levels.  This will be a real test of my platforming skills as there are whole worlds in that game that I haven't even seen yet.  And there's some Bullet Bill levels that I had to play because I skipped some water levels and I hated those levels.  This should really interesting. 

I'm also excited to play the original Zelda games.  I've played later ones in the series but it will be interesting to see where/how that all got started.

I haven't decided if I'll record my play through of any game or not.  I know Nintendo has a strict policy on having their video game footage on streaming platforms like YouTube.  I don't have enough followers, or likes, or views or whatever YouTube is using to measure things now a day and I don't really care about that.   My YouTube channel is for my use/pleasure/enjoyment.  Anything beyond that is just frosting.

Is there a game on the NES or SNES Classic that you would like me to play?  If so, let me know in the comments below.

Games with Gold Challenge

I didn't make any New Year Resolutions this year.  Why?  I just wasn't feeling it.  With a resolution I was feeling the pressure of "I have to do it" . . . when in reality I rarely do.  So I didn't make any and I felt okay about that for a while.  Around the middle of January a thought occurred to me.  Instead of resolutions, why not a challenge? I had a moment of epiphany and I knew exactly what "challenge" I would undertake.

Every month I download the Games with Gold free games on Xbox . . . unless I have them already (that's happening more often than not nowadays).  Why not play ones of those?  Why not make a challenge out of it?  And so I did.

I've decided to pick one of the free games each month and try playing them.  Maybe even finishing them.  If I did that it would be 12 finishes in a year.  That might be a record for me.  I probably won't record them but I'll play them.

So far I've dabbled in Back to the Future: The Game and Zombi.   I got a little frustrated with Back to the Future because I had to go through and select every response option before I could progress the story.  It was at the Professor's house and you're trying to get the book back from Biff.  Having to go up to your dad and talk to him about 4 times before you could progress things was annoying.  But I'll keep playing.

In Zombi I got out of the training missions and was feeling only so-so confident in my ability to move on.  But it was time to go to bed so when I get back to it I might start all over to refresh my skills and be more confident in my ability to survive.  I am a serial starter after all.

It's an interesting concept for a challenge and I'm curious to see how it all plays out at the end of the year.  I'm not setting it as resolution as I don't want to force myself to do it and feel guilty if I fail.  There is no failure this way . . . just more new games to start playing.

Are you up to the challenge?  Could you pick one free game each month and play it to see what it's like?