PixlBit

I'm probably the only person in the world who didn't like EarthBound.  And you'd think I would.  But when I auditioned to be a game reviewer for The Dallas Morning News, I had to write a review of a game I liked, and a game I didn't like.  For the game I liked, I reviewed Final Fantasy 6.  For the game I didin't like?  Yeah...it was EarthBound.

I just didn't like the archaic battle system when FF6's was just so much more fun.  And the storyline was so nonsensical that I had no idea where to go 90 percent of the time.  There's a reason why that game came with a strategy guide when it was brought to the US.  So I don't really have much desire to play Mother 3.  Although one of these days when I don't have anything to do (ha), I may give EarthBound a second chance.

Of course, I'm just a weird gamer I suppose.  I mean, I'm just as excited for Puzzle Bobble Everybubble as I am Tears of the Kingdom, so what do I know?

I love love love love Animal Crossing.  Sorry I'm not playing it anymore.  When it first came out in 2020, I played it for a full year and then when the DLC came out, I played it for another couple of months.  So I've had my fill of it.  I still play the mobile game, though.  Because I'm insane.

When I was at Super Nintendo World, EVERYONE was wearing Mario T shirts.  So I decided to be a rebel and wore my Mega Man shirt on the day we arrived and my Animal Crossing shirt while at the park.  An employee even commented on my choice of wearing a Mega Man shirt in a Mario themed park.

I'm just going to put a SPOILER ALERT right here, although I don't think it's much of a spoiler.

So there wasn't much Yoshi in the Mario movie, except for one scene where you saw a herd of Yoshis running by in the background as Mario and Peach were walking in a montage.  So I guess maybe they're hinting that Yoshi will be featured more in the next movie.  And you know they're going to have a sequel since the Mario movie is almost about to reach a billion in sales and maybe even surpass Frozen as the highest grossing animated feature of all time.  Which I think is hilarious.

I think my favorite video game female character is Cammy.  Not sure why though.  She has a cool red hat and sometimes I can win when playing as her.  I'm horrible at fighting games.  Other favorites include Reiko Nagase, Ulala, Taki, Leona Heidern, Tron Bonne, Samus, and a bunch of others.

Favorite female game creators as a topic is a really good idea!  I pick Carol Shaw, the original creator of River Raid.  I played that game a lot on my Atari 5200.  I also pick Junko Tamiya.  She did the music for the classic NES Capcom game Little Nemo: The Dream Master as well as some other Mega Man songs during her time at Capcom.  And Yoko Shimomura did the music for some of the Mario RPG games and Kingdom Hearts!

While Sunshine is one of my least favorite 3D Mario games, I still think it's awesome and I loved how it really made you feel like you were on a vacation.  Heck, even the ghost house level was a haunted resort hotel!

Some of the DLC in PowerWash Simulator let you power wash Lara Croft's mansion and the motorcycle from FF7.

I watched the Mario movie a couple of weeks ago.  While I can understand why the critics had problems with it, I still enjoyed it.  Sure it had no plot and the dialogue was mediocre at best and I wasn't always thrilled with the voice cast.  But it was a heck of a lot better than the last Mario movie we got.  I'm a big fan of MST3K and Rifftrax and I can sit through a lot of bad movies.  But I couldn't sit through five minutes of that live action Mario movie. Ugh!

My two favorite things were all the references and Easter Eggs to find, and the music score which had loads of Mario game licks thrown in.  It was also great to have a movie the whole family could enjoy and not have any political or social commentary thrown in.  I also really liked their plumbing van and the commercial rap that made reference to the old cartoon.  I only wish they would "Do the Mario" at the end credits!

I hope in the future we get a Luigi's Mansion movie.  I think that would make a much better movie than a generic Mario one.  Or maybe one of Nintendo's other franchises that I like way more than Mario, like Kirby, Animal Crossing, Zelda, Metroid, etc.

Sorry it took so long to respond to this blog.  I was actually busy this past week doing something else Mario related!  This past week I went to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Hollywood!  As soon as I collect my thoughts and organize my pictures, I'll be sure to talk about it all in LOTS more detail later.  Long story short, though, is that while I enjoyed it and was glad I got to go, I don't think I want to do it again.  At least not for a LONG while!

I wish it wasn't so persnickety.

I think I had the opportunity to review this, but I didn't.  It either didn't appeal to me or I had too much on my plate already at the time.

It's a pretty original idea.  And kind of relaxing in a way.  Kind of how sometimes cleaning relaxes people.  I had a relative who loved to vacuum for instance, and I like to do laundry in the same way.  The game just got too maticulous for me.