High Hopes (A Shield Nuzlocke): Chapter 2

Kris P. Fanfiction, Home, Kristen, Nintendo, Pokemon , , , , , ,

Double Jump Kris MiiHappy Friday, everyone!

This Friday, we are continuing my Pokemon Shield Nuzlocke, “High Hopes.” If you missed the first chapter or want to be reminded of the rules, feel free to go back to that post. Otherwise, hope you enjoy this piece!

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Chapter 2:

Current Team: Bond the Sobble
Body Count: 0

My first experience with the overgrown grass in Route 1 was tripping over a Blipbug.

I decided to blame Hop. He had taken off down the route towards Wedgehurst, saying how we needed to meet the professor, and I was just trying to catch up. I was lucky I didn’t land on and squash the poor thing. Instead, it ran right into Bond, who was startled enough to Pound it with a tongue-lashing. Considering it was dazed, I tossed a pokeball and caught it.

“Well, what do you know,” I murmured to Bond as I picked up the Blipbug’s pokeball. “We got ourselves a new teammate.”

Said new teammate was dubbed Piccolo and — after reaching Wedgehurst, meeting the professor’s assistant and granddaughter Sonia, and receiving a Pokedex from her — was then almost eaten on Route 2 by a Rookidee.

At my shout, Bond leaped to Piccolo’s defense, soaking the offending Rookidee with a Water Gun. The Flying-type gave off a shrill scream before flapping up into the air, avoiding Bond, and diving at Piccolo again. On reflex, I chucked a pokeball at the bird, both the ball and the Pokemon colliding together.

As the pokeball stilled, signalling another capture, Bond, Piccolo, and I all took a collective deep breath.

“I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this,” I muttered, returning my Pokemon and picking up my new Rookidee’s pokeball. I backtracked to Wedgehurst, figuring that Hop and Leon could wait a bit longer for me. I wanted to get appropriate food for my Rookidee so he didn’t try to eat Piccolo again.

Heading back to Route 2, there were a few other beginning trainers that gave my team some experience, and it wasn’t until it was nearly sunset that Professor Magnolia’s house appeared on the horizon. Hop was there in front of the property, gazing towards the lake, but he gave me a grin when he spotted me finally showing up.

“‘Bout time,” he said. “I thought you got lost, but I figured if Leon could figure out how to here, then you’d be just fine.”

“It’s a straight way from Wedgehurst to here,” Leon said dryly, catching Hop’s words as the pair of us caught up to the champion by the professor’s door. Leon ruffled his brother’s hair, adding, “I’m not that bad.”

“He kinda is,” Hop whispered to me as we followed Leon into the house, and I stifled my chuckles as we were introduced to Professor Magnolia.

She was a nice old lady, talking about the wishing pieces and dynaxing Pokemon, and spoke up for Hop and me when Leon seemed hesitant about endorsing us. To be fair, I was as hesitant as Leon, but before I could blink, it was decided that Hop and I would battle to see if we were worthy of the champion’s endorsement. As Hop and I got into position on the makeshift battle arena outside of Professor Magnolia’s house, I wondered if Hop would hate me if I told him that I really wouldn’t mind if Leon didn’t endorse us for the Galar Gym Challenge.

I mean, sure, it would probably be a good time. Growing stronger with my Pokemon wouldn’t be a waste and it would be a good excuse to go off and explore the region more thoroughly. Yet, unlike Hop, I didn’t feel that pull to become the next greatest trainer in the region.

I’ll play the role of rival in The Legend of Hop and support him as well as I could, but if Leon could only endorse one of us after our battle, I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it was Hop.

“C’mon, Kris!” Hop was stretching from the opposite side of the makeshift battle pitch, his grin infectious. “Come at me with everything you got!”

“Alright, alright,” I said, making a show of brushing off imaginary lint from my shirt and giving my friend a crooked smile at his excitement. Glancing over at Leon, I saw Professor Magnolia join him on the sidelines, the older woman interested in seeing how well Hop and I battled. 

Leon said, “Listen up, you two,” and gave us a pep talk about always learning from every battle. I mulled over the few battles I’ve had with other trainers on the route when heading towards Professor Magnolia’s house, trying to figure out if there was anything I learned aside from paranoia whenever my Pokemon took a little too hard of a hit. Leon snagged my attention again as he added, “So show me something good in this battle!”

“You got it!” Hop wasted no more time as he tossed out his first Pokemon. Predictably, his Wooloo bleated as it emerged and shook itself.

I knew his Wooloo. It was gentle and sometimes showed a little more common sense than its trainer. Taking a deep breath, I called out my own Pokemon.

Piccolo blinked her big eyes as she stared at the Wooloo before her. My Blipbug didn’t seem too surprised, probably from having seen plenty of wild Wooloo on Route 1. What Piccolo was surprised about, apparently, was me commanding, “Struggle Bug.”

Whether she was surprised I was reminding her of the only move she knew or just to attack in general, I wasn’t sure. Being tiny meant that Piccolo hadn’t spent too much time helping Bond and Ryder the Rookidee battle the few other trainers on Route 2.

Unfortunately, her pause meant that Wooloo, who had no such problems with listening to Hop and attacking, barrelled into Piccolo with a Tackle.

Oh, shit.

Piccolo flipped backwards with a somersault as Wooloo rolled right on over her and back to position in front of Hop. She gave a delighted bleat as I debated on whether to return Piccolo already. My Blipbug, however, shook off the Tackle and charged as fast as her species could — which, really, wasn’t wasn’t that fast — at her opponent. Wooloo stared at Piccolo as she went closer.

Hop didn’t waste time in commanding a second Tackle, and I preemptively winced. Wooloo, again, ran over Piccolo, but Piccolo hung on to Wooloo this time around.

Wooloo tried shaking itself to dislodge Piccolo, but Piccolo nearly buried herself in Wooloo’s thick wool, biting as she used Struggle Bug on her opponent. In a desperate move to get Piccolo off, Wooloo rolled right into the stone wall surrounding Professor Magnolia’s property, knocking itself out.

“Great try, Wooloo,” Hop said, returning his Pokemon. Piccolo stumbled back towards me as I congratulated her. Immediately, I returned her when Hop tossed out a Rookidee.

“Ryder!” My own Rookidee exploded from his pokeball, eager to battle again, and dove at Hop’s Rookidee with a Peck attack.

The two birds traded Peck attacks a couple of times until Ryder broke off and honed his claws against the professor’s stone wall. Hop’s Rookidee chased it, getting another hit in, but Ryder’s sharper claws snagged it so Ryder could get one more good Peck in.

“Ryder, enough!” I called my Pokemon back as Hop called his to return. Together, Hop and I sent out our starters to face off once again.

Scorbunny set the battlefield on fire with an Ember and Bond nearly panicked. He leaped onto one of the nearby trees, using Water Gun to put out the few flames that Scorbunny kept kicking up.

“Aim for the rabbit!” I said, ducking from one such wayward Water Gun.

Bond got the hint and directed his next attack at Scorbunny. Scorbunny’s ears flopped with the water and it shivered before Hop commanded it to Tackle my Sobble. Scorbunny dashed up the tree, its feet connecting with Bond enough to make both of them tumble back to the ground. Bond got up first, using his tongue to Pound the Scorbunny even further into the field before his Water Gun met Scorbunny’s next Ember attack.

Another Tackle to Bond, another Pound to Scorbunny, an Ember, and one last Water Gun revealed Bond — and me — as the victor.

“Heh…” Hop returned his Scorbunny, giving me a lopsided smile. “I’d expect nothing less from my rival.”

“It was a good battle,” I said, hoping that I could avoid every other wild Pokemon and trainer on Route 2 to get back to the Pokemon Center.

“Well.” Leon came up to the pair of us, pausing only to stomp on one last little ember on the battlefield to snuff it out. “After seeing a battle like that, I’ve little choice but to give you both an endorsement as Champion.”

“YES! Thanks, Lee!” Hop cheered, and I thanked Leon as well, before Hop turned to me. “Alright, Kris! You and me are going to train up against one another to aim for that Champion’s title!”

I paused, but Hop’s enthusiasm was contagious. I couldn’t let him down.

I returned his grin. “Absolutely.”

Who knows? Maybe becoming Champion wouldn’t be such a bad goal after all.

Have you ever failed a Nuzlocke challenge? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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Video Game Tycoon [Mobile Game Review]

Rachel Game Reviews, Home, mobile games, Rachel , , , , ,

Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Thursday!

I played another mobile game. Video Game Tycoon. This is a game that exists.

Mobile Game Review: Video Game Tycoon | Mobile Games | Video Games | Gaming | Game Review | Video Game Review | DoublexJump.com

I don’t have much to say about this game, but I bet this post will be a decent length. I enjoy simulation games and I loved my time with Game Dev Tycoon on Steam. For whatever reason I looked up video game simulation games in the app store. I was surprised to find a handful of these kinds of games. I downloaded all of them, but let’s just talk about Video Game Tycoon for now.

This is a tapping game. You point your finger and continuously tap the screen. This is it. But I guess I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you head to the Menu, you can do one of three things. The first is to create games. Now, you have zero control over these games. First, you pick a “Tittle.” By that, I mean “Title.” But the game has a typo and actually says “tittle” instead of “title.” So, name your game, choose a platform (PC, console, mobile, arcade, or portable console), then choose a story, which is the genre. There’s horror, a slice of life, fantasy, sci-fi, action or endless. Finally, your category: RPG, adventure, sports, strategy, simulation, MMO, shooting, puzzle, casual, or arcade. There are five graphics you can choose from and then you choose a game icon. These icons are parodies of actual game icons from the app store. I wish I was joking.

Then your character creates the video game and… that’s it. You don’t do anything else with it. It makes you money all the time, sure, but there are no stats or any way to really “progress” in the whole game-making. The game will make you a certain amount of money in the game per second real-life time. You can spend more more to update the games which is just you tapping a button.

The more games you make, the more money you’ll make. For example, my first game is version 2.0 and makes 11 in-game dollars per real-life second. My 11th game is version 1.1 and makes 144,000 in-game dollars per second.

Your games will get reviews. Good or bad, you’ll get a tip. In other words, the reviews mean nothing and it’s just an extra way to make a pinch more money.

You can hire employees as well. These people specialize in various areas such as SEO, programming, artist, and more. Of course, these are just fancy titles. Hiring these people don’t boost the quality of your games at all. You can spend a boatload of money to level them each up to level three (which is the max) and each time you hire someone and level them up, your money per click will increase.

What’s money per click? Well, that’s the main point of the game. You’ll receive a certain amount of money per second from your games but if you want to make more money (which may also be the majority of your money) you need to repeatedly tap the screen. I have six employees – five are level three and one is level two. I get about 200,000 in-game dollars per click. So, yeah. Mindlessly point your finger and tap the screen repeatedly while you watch something on TV. That’s the only way to go.

Finally, there are operations. This is basically buying supplies for your video game company such as paper, your website, studio rent, and more. Buy these, level them up for more money, and your money per cap or per hour will increase.

The money earned per hour is what you make when you don’t have the game turned on. The money per cap is what it sounds like. If you have the game turned off and your cap is a million dollars, that’s all your game will make when you have the game shut off. You could make two million per hour but if the cap is one million, you’ll only make the one million for one hour and that’s it – even if you have the game off for six hours.

This was something that bothered me because you have to strategically buy what you need. Most often than not, the cap would be less than the hourly. Not to mention, that money per second you make from the games? That’s only when the game is turned on.

It makes sense, yes, but if you want to make any money in this game (because honestly, hiring and leveling up employees, buying and leveling up the operations, and creating and updating the games takes a lot of money) you need to have this game on all the time. You also need to be tapping that screen quite often as well.

Well… that’s it. That’s all there is to it. I don’t want to play a game when I have no control over anything other than tapping the screen. I also don’t want the game to be turned on all the time. I have other games I need to play.

As soon as this review is done, this game is getting deleted from my iPad.

Video Game Tycoon gets a rating of…

Play It | Download It | DELETE IT

Overall, Video Game Tycoon is not fun. At first, I thought it was cool because it was a relaxing mindless game. But it got old very quick and everything became so expensive quickly. There’s no saving money in this game and there doesn’t seem to be an overall end goal either. It wasn’t worth the time.

Have you played Video Game Tycoon? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.

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Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy [Video Game Review]

Kris P. Game Reviews, Home, Kris & Rachel, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch , , , , , ,

Lady Layton | Professor Layton | Video Games | Gaming | Nintendo Switch | Doublexjump.com

Title: Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy
Publisher: Level-5
Developer: Level-5
Platform: iOS, Android, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch
Category: Puzzle, Adventure
Release Date: July 20, 2017 (iOS, Android), October 6, 2017 (Nintendo 3DS), November 8, 2019 (Nintendo Switch)
How we got the game: Received it for Christmas 2019 on the Nintendo Switch

krismii
Layton’s Mystery Journey — or Lady Layton, as we’ve been calling it — has been a game that’s been on our radar since it was announced for the 3DS. We’ve enjoyed the few Professor Layton games we’ve played, and we were looking forward to seeing what Lady Layton was all about.

rachmii
Lady Layton, of course, is not Professor Layton himself. However, we enjoy the puzzles and characters so we were interested in seeing how Lady Layton presented herself after playing so much Professor Layton.

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krismii
Lady Layton has similar gameplay mechanics as the Professor Layton series. Navigating through different scenes, you point and click on the environment to interact with objects and people, finding clues to the current mystery as well as short puzzles that bolster the gameplay. While you don’t directly control the main character’s movements, you are able to go between scenes via the handy map.

rachmii
All you need is the ability to point-and-click with your Joy-Con and have enough brain power to solve some puzzles. Lady Layton is part visual novel where the characters interact. We took turns reading dialogue from certain characters though some parts were voice-acted with a short anime cut scene here and there.

 krismii
That’s pretty much all there is to the gameplay mechanics. Some puzzles include literally rotating pieces to solve them, others include more mathematics, and still some are more logic puzzles. Aside from the puzzles and main storylines, there are also a plethora of minigames that tie in to the few cases — puzzles that have to do with shopping or food or Sherl the canine sidekick — as well as a wardrobe change function for Katrielle. We didn’t really explore these options too much, to be honest, as we weren’t too interested in them.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I play the Layton games mostly for the puzzles. In this particular game, however, the puzzles were too easy. Normally there are puzzles we get stuck on and need to use our hint coins a lot or rope our parents in to help us. The majority of the puzzles in this game we breezed right there. There were only a handful of puzzles we got stuck on.

krismii
We did feel a bit more bored by the majority of the puzzles than we have in other Professor Layton games, yes. This game felt like there was a lot more fluff rather than substance when it came to the actual gameplay.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
Yes, it was pretty light-hearted for the most part. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed the banter between the characters. Overall, though, the main gameplay could have issued a little more of a challenge for me.

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krismii
The graphics of the game are cute, the same style that has been used for previous Professor Layton games to keep them connected. While some of the more exaggerated designs for characters I could do without, the art style is engaging and keeps me interested in continuing the story.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I enjoy the art style. I think it’s charming overall. There are certainly some interesting looking people but it’s fun nonetheless.

krismii
The music for this game is cozy. Relaxing and soft, the tunes do well being paired with the characters — the main cast being comprised of a gentlewoman and her eager, polite assistant — and the locations of the game. I enjoyed the music, but it was low-key for a game about solving crimes.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I agree that it was low-key for a crime-solving game. Then again, none of the “crimes” were dire so it seemed as though the music fit. Lady Layton is a fairly light-hearted game. The music was catchy regardless though.
Story | Video Game Reviews | Video Games | Gaming | Blogging | DoublexJump.com

krismii
The title of this game is Katrielle and The Millionaires’ Conspiracy, which gives one the impression that there is a larger, overarching story amid the multiple cases that this game provides. Within the dozen cases that the game provides, the “millionaires” are introduced but there is no larger case that you are always trying to discover. Each case is individual before it brings all the characters together during the last case of the game.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I don’t mind having multiple cases throughout the game. Having 12 cases to solve seems fun. However, other than the characters, none of the cases had anything to do with… anything, really. The cases introduced the characters but never hinted at a bigger conspiracy until the final case. Even then, the solution seemed out of the blue.

krismii
The solution both seemed like it came out of the blue, but it wasn’t particularly surprising either. We had guessed who the true culprit was before the answer came about and, even now, there are parts of the last case that don’t make sense to me for the culprit to be who they were. The story could have been a lot stronger when it came to the characters. The characters themselves were interesting enough, but there wasn’t enough of a plot to really show their strengths.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
Not to mention that Sherl, a talking dog, approached Kat the beginning of the game wondering who he was and how he got turned into a dog. Supposedly, he was human at one time and has no memory. That mystery was never answered. After the credits, it hinted at a sequel, but I would have liked more mention of that. Once he initially asked for her help figuring out who he is, his “case” was never mentioned again throughout the entire game.

Replay Value | Video Game Reviews | Video Games | Gaming | Blogging | DoublexJump.com

krismii
The cases themselves are fairly linear, with the one outcome each. Likewise, the puzzles usually only have a couple of ways to reach the answers as well, if they have more than one way to the outcome in the first place. The only replayability this game may have is if the player missed some puzzles and wanted to go and find them again. There are some minigames to play as well but nothing that we found particularly striking.

Rachel Mii Double Jump
I’m not sure if this is a game I’d pick up again. The puzzles were fun but pretty easy compared to the Professor Layton games. The mini-games weren’t great and overall, each case didn’t allow you to solve it alongside Kat. It made some parts boring. The game was okay overall and the characters were certainly enjoyable.

Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy gets…
Video game review: 3 Lives
3 out of 5 lives.

Have you played this game? What did you think? Let us know in the comments! 

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Top Tuesday: Favorite Bosses In Luigi’s Mansion 3

Rachel Home, Rachel, Top Tuesday , , , ,

Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Tuesday!

It’s no secret I absolutely enjoyed my time with Luigi’s Mansion 3. It’s hard not to talk about this game all the time. I beat it within of week of having the game and I can’t wait to play through it again when I have the time. In the meantime, I’m going to talk about some of my favorite bosses in the game. Please note, this may contain spoilers if you haven’t beaten the game yet.

Top Tuesday: Favorite Bosses In Luigi's Mansion 3 | Video Games | Gaming | Nintendo | Nintendo Switch | DoublexJump.com

Kruller

The third floor mimics a shopping mall and the boss is none other than the security guard. Except he’s scared. He sees Luigi and hides behind his desk. I think it shows the personality behind the boss and it made me feel bad to fight him. Kruller found a water gun and fights you using that which is cute. I know it’s to show off Gooigi’s weakness, but still. I enjoyed it.

King MacFrights

This boss was actually pretty annoying. It took some getting used to when it came to figuring out how to fight him. However, the atmosphere was great. This battle is in a ring and King MacFrights is on a horse with a joust. Meanwhile, ghosts are sitting in the stands cheering when you get hit and booing you when you hit him. It’s quite funny.

Morty

This floor was pretty tough. For the first time in the game, I had to look up how to solve the puzzle. It was fun though and well designed for the most part. When you complete the puzzle and trigger the boss battle, Morty, a film director, is so excited to have you. He thinks Luigi would be perfect to play the star in his movie. Thus, the boss battle is between you and a ghost dressed in a Godzilla-like costume. Again, it’s a lot of fun. Morty is the main boss and it’s optional to catch him or not. Of course, you don’t know that right away until you catch him and get an achievement… I felt so bad that I captured him.

Serpci

Serpci is a female pharaoh. You fight her in the Tomb Suites by a temple surrounded by sand. This battle was the first battle that killed me. I died multiple times, I’m sad to admit. The battle itself isn’t too hard but for some reason I kept messing it up. I enjoyed my time with it though. Serpci creates faces and hands out of sand that attack you. And yes, it is just as creepy as it sounds.

DJ Phantasmagloria

What a mouthful, right? I don’t care, this is the best floor, hands-down. This boss was so much fun and I wish it lasted longer. You fight on a dance floor while the DJ plays music and her minions, ghosts in red hoodies, dance to the beat. Yes, this is the actual beginning of the fight. No, I didn’t know that right away. Luigi stood still tapping his feet and snapping his fingers (adorable!) while watching the ghost dance. I was totally mesmerized and watched them dance way longer than I should have.

Which ghosts are your favorite bosses from the game? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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Kind Words [Video Game Review]

Kris P. Game Reviews, Home, indie games, Kristen , , , , ,

Kind Words | Video Games | Gaming | Indie Game | PC | Doublexjump.com

Title: Kind Words
Developer: Popcannibal
Publisher: Popcannibal
Platform: PC
Category: Indie, chill word game
Release Date: September 13, 2019
How we got the game: Bought and downloaded it on Steam

Pssst…. There may be story or gameplay spoilers in this review! You’ve been warned!

krismii
Kind Words has been on my radar since I heard about it a few months ago, and it came right back up to the front of my to-play list thanks to the Game Awards having it as a nominee for the Games for Impact award. I was finally able to download it, and I am not disappointed in it.

Note that this review doesn’t use our typical template. Mechanically speaking, there’s not much to this game. You have a little avatar that relaxes in a small bedroom while scribbling away letters to other people. The goal is, simply, to be kind, to send words of encouragement, to give advice in response to other people’s letters, or to just let them know, “I am here and I hear you.”

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The menu on the side allows you to see requests that you can answer, send a request yourself to receive advice, send a paper airplane that floats through everyone’s room, and see your inbox, among options for the credits and settings. The setting is minimal, clean, and calming with the soft lights and the chill mix of music that you can adjust to your liking by clicking on the radio above the bed.

The game itself opens up and you meet the Mail Deer. This adorable creature claims that they are the one who sends your letters along, letting you know the gist of the game as well as warning you that you are communicating with real people and to be careful about giving away too much personal information. Mail Deer also speaks about how important they take cyber bullying or dangerous messages, and urges players to report any requests that fall under those categories. Security and safety are this game’s utmost priorities, and it shows in the community and how swiftly those reports are handled.

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One of the main criticisms of this game — and there are very few of those — is players asking for more room on the letters and paper airplanes to write their requests or advice. Sometimes the main point of a request gets lost when not all the context is there due to the lack of room, and the advice that follows doesn’t quite work.

While it can be somewhat of an issue to not have the full story, I do like the fact that the letters must be shorter. It helps with the anonymity of the game and helps to illustrate that one may not receive all the advice they hope to from a stranger online. Indeed, strangers helping out one another with advice and words of encouragement is wonderful, but there is only so much that a stranger can do. To help with that, Kind Words does have a link to mental health resources that is prominent at the bottom of the screen whenever a letter or airplane is written. If one truly needs help, that link is there for when simple advice cannot.

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Another criticism that I’ve heard about the game is that there is no method of keeping in touch or continuing to send and receive letters from the same strangers. Some have found that certain people give fantastic advice, others are wondering how well their advice was received or how someone who had written a particular letter is doing. While it would be nice to be able to keep in touch with someone else, especially since — despite the dangers — online relationships can be wonderful, I believe the one-time reply does its job well. People inherently want to help others, but it can be dangerous to be so involved with others’ problems, dangerous for both parties’ self-esteem and their mental health. To harp on a stranger’s issue, as well-meaning as one may be, can be destructive for both parties.

As the Mail Deer, sometimes the best you can do is to send along a kind word, and you have to hope that will be enough. Know that you did your best for a stranger in the form of an anonymous letter and that they will be able to take strength from your kindness.

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I believe every person has a little bit of, “I want to save the world,” in them, but it can be overwhelming when it appears that you, as only one person, can’t make as much of an impact as you think. To be able to help just one person enables one to realize that perhaps they cannot impact the whole world but, for that one person they helped, they were able to impact that one individual world, hopefully for the better.

Kind Words enables us to do just that.

Kind Words gets…
5-lives
5 out of 5 lives.

Have you played this game? What did you think? Let us know in the comments! 

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Friday Favorites: Games of the Decade

Kris P. Game Collection, Home, Kristen , , , , , ,

Double Jump Kris MiiHappy Friday, everyone!

I’m looking back on some of my favorite games that I’ve played these past ten years and I can’t believe how many gems I’ve found. It was difficult to narrow these lists down!

Friday | Video Games | Gaming | Game of the Decade | Nintendo | Doublexjump.com

Considering it’s 2020, the first year of the new decade, and we were challenged to figure out what our overall Game of the Decade was when Rachel and I joined Jett from In Third Person on his Twitch show Boss Rush this past Wednesday.

This homework was hard.

Nevertheless, I was able to create a list of my top games from the years 2010 to 2019. These are listed by the year rather than a ranking system, and this is all my personal opinion.

2010: Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver

Heartgold and Soulsilver were a couple of fantastic remakes for the original second generation of Pokemon. Considering the Crystal version was one of my favorite installments of the franchise, I was pleased with the way the remakes were handled. Updated graphics, music, and the fact that Pokemon could follow you around were all wonderful aspects of these games! (Honorable mention – Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth)

2011: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

While the motion controls can be hit or miss, Skyward Sword was such a fun adventure with some of the brightest graphics I’ve ever seen at that point for a Legend of Zelda game. The world itself was a bit linear, but I enjoyed the areas that we did explore. My favorite part of the game, though, had to be the characters themselves. Zelda and Link, Fi, Ghirahim, Impa, and even Groose all had awesome designs and character development throughout the game.

2012: Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

Harvest Moon was a series that I always enjoyed, but more so the older installments than the newest ones. A New Beginning was a happy medium for me. Allowing me to build up and create both the farm and the town was a fun project and it was always satisfying to meet the requirements needed for certain buildings. I enjoyed the graphics as well, and the online features worked great when there was enough people playing the game.

2013: Fire Emblem: Awakening

If you know me at all from this blog, you’ll know that the Fire Emblem series is a love of mine, particularly Awakening. It reignited my passion for the franchise, with the characters and story line, even if some of them were a bit more cliche than unique. I loved customizing the avatar, especially since they had more of a personality, and pairing up the characters is always a guilty pleasure of mine. (Honorable mention – Pokemon X/Y)

2014: Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

The Ace Attorney series is near and dear to me, and I was always curious about the Professor Layton games, hearing that they involved crimes to solve as well but with little puzzles dotting the story here and there. When this crossover game came out, we seized the chance to be introduced to Professor Layton and were not disappointed. The mesh of two casts worked well and the story was well done! (Honorable mentions – Tomodachi Life, Sims 4)

2015: Undertale

This game took the world by storm with its unique characters, metafictional elements of storytelling, and near perfect scores by critics. It was unlike anything I’ve ever played before, an RPG where you didn’t have to harm anyone. The success story of the creator Toby Fox is amazing and inspiring to anyone who knows his name. That, and the music is some of the best!

2016: Stardew Valley

This game, as I’m sure I’ve said before, is everything that I wish the newer Harvest Moon games are. The premise is simply to raise a successful farm, try to improve the community, and become friends with the townsfolk. Without any gender locks when it came to relationships as well, it’s a big step for LGBT+ representation as well. It’s an easy game to get into, put down, and then pick right back up again. Considering how well it’s been kept up to date with content and features, it’s no surprise that this game is on many people’s top games of the decade lists. (Honorable mentions – Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes, Death Road to Canada)

2017: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This game was my choice for my personal Game of the Decade. It was a tough choice, I’ll admit, but the Legend of Zelda franchise has always been near and dear to my heart. This series helped introduce me to video games, after all. Breath of the Wild was such a fresh and gorgeous take on the franchise. The graphics were beautiful, the exploration and world was fantastic, and I adored all the nods to previous entries in the franchise, with familiar areas, snippets of dialogue, and the memories. I’m so excited for Breath of the Wild 2! (Honorable mention – Miitopia)

2018: Octopath Traveler

I was in love with this game from the moment I saw the first trailer. The art style — reminiscent of a pixel-like pop-up book — was beautiful to me, and the music has turned into one of my favorite soundtracks. The battle system was fun and the character classes in this RPG were great to explore and grow. While I enjoyed the characters, I do wish they were given just a little more depth and interaction with one another. Still, Octopath Traveler was a great game to dive into and lose yourself in the world. (Honorable mentions – Deltarune, Gris)

2019: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This was probably one of the most difficult years of gaming for me to narrow down my played list and choose just one game. However, after mulling it all over for a while, I finally decided on Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Considering I was lukewarm about Echoes and Fates, and I was a little perplexed about the school setting of Three Houses, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I love this game. My main critique for this game is that there was no “golden ending;” I want to protect all of the students! And I totally never trusted the church. This game was one of my runner-ups for Game of the Decade. (Honorable mentions – Arcade Spirits, Pokemon Sword and Shield)

What were your top games of the decade? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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Rachel’s Game Of The Decade

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Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Thursday!

Last night, Kris and I were on the latest episode of Boss Rush, a video podcast hosted by Jett from In Third Person. We discussed our game of the decade from the 2010s and I thought I’d share my process as to how I came up with my game of the decade.

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Double Jump started in early 2016. I have played video games all my life but it wasn’t until Double Jump that I started playing them “seriously,” if that makes sense. I always played games with no ulterior motive in mind. I didn’t review them. I didn’t stream them. I played them for fun and when a new game came along, I usually dropped the current one and picked up the next. Unless I was super into a game, I haven’t completed many of them.

Looking back at 2010 and moving forward from there has been weird. There are so many games that I can’t believe only came out a decade ago. There are some games that came out later than I thought or earlier than I thought. Some years I didn’t play that many games and other years I played a lot of games.

I found a list of game releases on the Internet for each year. I went through each year and wrote down the games I had played. Of course, games that came out in 2012 I didn’t play until 2015 or something, but I didn’t get too technical.

Once I wrote down all the games I had played that game out in their respective years, I listed my game of the year for all of them.

  • 2010 – Donkey Kong Country Returns
  • 2011 – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
  • 2012 – Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
  • 2013 – Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • 2014 – Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright
  • 2015 – Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
  • 2016 – Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
  • 2017 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • 2018 – Octopath Traveler
  • 2019 – Luigi’s Mansion 3

I didn’t include any indie games on this list. I thought that would be too much to sift through. If I had, Death Road to Canada would have been on there as well as Gris and Celeste (if I had played it).

The other thing is, looking at all the games that released in their respective years, my personal choice for game of the year doesn’t feel like “game of the year” material. I mean, I don’t know who else would pick Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon to be the best game of the year. However, out of everything I played, I liked these ones the best for their own reasons.

But we’re just talking about the overall game of the decade.

Each of these games is my favorite for various reasons. So, how was I supposed to choose a game of the decade? Aside from story, graphics, music, and anything else that makes a video game fabulous, I looked at some other elements.

Out of those ten games I listed, I had only completed nine of them. I never actually beat Donkey Kong Country Returns. So, that was out.

  • 2010 – Donkey Kong Country Returns
  • 2011 – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
  • 2012 – Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
  • 2013 – Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • 2014 – Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright
  • 2015 – Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
  • 2016 – Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
  • 2017 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • 2018 – Octopath Traveler
  • 2019 – Luigi’s Mansion 3

Out of these nine games I completed, I realized I didn’t complete alone. Kris and I played The Miracle Mask, Layton vs Wright, and Spirit of Justice together as though they were two-player games. While this isn’t a bad thing, I figured my all-time favorite game of the decade should be something I was always in control of (Kris usually handles the controls) and that I had done by myself. So, these games got the boot as fabulous as they are.

  • 2010 – Donkey Kong Country Returns
  • 2011 – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
  • 2012 – Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
  • 2013 – Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • 2014 – Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright
  • 2015 – Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
  • 2016 – Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
  • 2017 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • 2018 – Octopath Traveler
  • 2019 – Luigi’s Mansion 3

Now, wait a minute. If I’m only going to count games I played myself and had control over then there are a few other games I need to look closer at. Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Octopath Traveler. I never played those games. I never touched the controls of those games. Sure, there are light puzzles and such, but nothing as in-depth as a Layton or Ace Attorney game. These are visual novels where we took turns playing the characters.

I watched Kris play Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Octopath Traveler all the while being a backseat gamer and laughing whenever she died. Since I don’t have the full effect of actually playing these games and being in control myself… these games were also out.

  • 2010 – Donkey Kong Country Returns
  • 2011 – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
  • 2012 – Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
  • 2013 – Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • 2014 – Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright
  • 2015 – Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
  • 2016 – Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
  • 2017 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • 2018 – Octopath Traveler
  • 2019 – Luigi’s Mansion 3

Out of the decade, I only 100-percent solely played and completed three games. Wow. That’s not much, is it?

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 are all vastly different games too. Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and Luigi cover my gaming tastes pretty well, but none of them are alike at all.

I enjoy all the characters throughout each game. The dialogue is humorous in Pokemon, can be flat in Animal Crossing, and the cut scenes in Luigi’s Mansion 3 were adorable. I love collecting things in Animal Crossing. Super Mystery Dungeon isn’t a main Pokemon game and you don’t collect too many things, per se, but the exploration element is fun. Exploring in Luigi’s Mansion 3, even though it’s pretty linear, is fun as well. Each floor of the hotel is fun and unique. The same goes for the dungeons in Super Mystery Dungeon. Except, even though the layout of the dungeons in Super Mystery Dungeon are different, the gameplay is more or less the same. In Luigi’s Mansion 3, each floor has a different puzzle for you to solve.

All the games are charming in their own right. They’re relaxing. They’re quirky. They’re fun.

I still have to choose just one though.

Out of all of these games, I played and completed Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon just once. While I do hope to go back to it and replay it, I haven’t and that game is now five years old. So, the bronze trophy goes to Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out in 2013. I haven’t 100-percented the game yet since a lot of the collectibles depend on the time of year and time of day you play. However, after nearly seven years, I still go back to that game. It goes in spurts, yes. But I always go back to it.

Luigi’s Mansion 3, on the other hand, is just shy of being three months old. I played through it once and completed it. I didn’t 100-percent it because there were certain things I couldn’t find, but I beat the main story in about 20 hours. I enjoyed every second of it. I had been looking forward to this game for months. When I got it, I couldn’t put it down. I was so happy to play it. The moment I beat it, I couldn’t wait to start a new file and play it all over again.

And honestly? A game hasn’t made me feel like that in a very long time.

With that said. My game of the decade is…

Luigi’s Mansion 3.

It was a tough choice between that and New Leaf, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 gives me feels like the other games don’t. I’ve enjoyed each and every moment with all of these games. After writing this post, I have the urge to go play Super Mystery Dungeon again (especially after the last Pokemon Direct) and also check in on my village in New Leaf.

If you want to see some other game of the decade choices, feel free to catch up on Boss Rush.

What’s your game of the decade? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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Book Review: IRL

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krismii
In Real Life, or IRL, is a graphic novel by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang that showcases a high schooler’s life as she joins a popular MMORPG. Anda, the main character, has a love of gaming, both online and offline as the comic shows with her classes in computer and gaming programming as well an afterschool D&D campaign. When a well-known gamer visits her class to talk about Coarsegold, an MMORPG, and the importance of female gamers being comfortable playing as females in their games, Anda joins the guild.

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Upon entering the game, Anda meets another female online who convinces her that there are players who cheat the system by gold farming. It’s her job to get rid of them and she gets paid real money for doing so. Anda joins her in this quest believing she’s doing the right thing for the game and also making a little extra money along the way.

krismii
This isn’t well received by Anda’s mother, who was apprehensive about Anda joining an online game in the first place. Like most parents, her mother was concerned about Anda talking to strangers, particularly men. She was appeased by Anda joining an all-female guild, but when Anda starts getting paid to get rid of gold farmers, it’s her mother’s bank account that is connected to the game. Her mother, believing that Anda is talking to strangers and accepting money, cuts Anda off from her video games right when Anda begins to realize that the gold farmers are real people rather than bots.

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Before Anda gets cut off, she actually has a conversation with one of the gold farmers, a young kid from China trying to make extra money as he works in awful conditions. Anda realizes there are people out there who don’t have it as easy as she does and she’s determined to help him out. There’s a lot of morals that go into this graphic novel and it’s not just about playing video games online and making a hobby out of it.

krismii
Reaching out and trying to help others, bullying, and the morals of meeting people both on- and offline are all lessons that are touched upon in this graphic novel. I actually thought it was interesting how the mother was in this story, with her being concerned about online predators that we really don’t see much nowadays. Rachel and I grew up with the internet, having special classes occasionally in school regarding internet safety since it was still fairly new. Now, kids are much more tech-savvy than their parents when it comes to online and people’s lives are plastered on the internet more so than ever.

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It’s true. Most kids are on their own when it comes to the Internet. They learn from their friends or they figure it out for themselves. However, from a babysitter’s perspective, there are still plenty of parents out there who worry though mostly because they don’t understand. Their kids don’t understand either (even though they think they do) which makes them worry more. So, reading the conversations between Anda and her mother were pretty real to me.

krismii
Which is great, it’s good that the graphic novel echoes the conversations that parents you know have had. I feel as if parents’ involvement with the way their kids interact with the internet has fallen to the wayside in recent years. When it comes to the images of the graphic novel, I enjoyed the art style and how fluid it was. Being set mainly in an MMORPG, there were plenty of action shots and pages, and the characters’ expressions were always clearly captured, in my opinion.

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This graphic novel, overall, is well done. The illustrations are fun, the characters are easy to get into it, and the story is a good one.

Have you ever read IRL? Let us know in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share it around!

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Who’s That Fighter?

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Rachel Mii | DoubleJump.comHappy Tuesday!

Nintendo is kicking off the decade with a lot of big news. First the Pokemon Direct and now they’re announcing a new Smash Ultimate DLC fighter.

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Nintendo has announced there will be a 35-minute live stream announcing the new DLC fighter in Smash Ultimate and showing off whoever it is.

People on Twitter are super hyped for this announcement. Aside from memes and general excitement, there are three characters people seem to want for Smash Ultimate: Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Shantae, and Phoenix Wright.

Me? I would personally love to see Phoenix Wright. He’s been in a fighting game before and despite that, I don’t know if he would truly “fit” into a fighting game. I still think it would be awesome to see him in a new element though. He and Professor Layton – we all know he can fight from his crossover game with Phoenix.

People are also speculating it might have something to do with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This is solely based on the fact that Sakurai is holding three fingers and there are three question marks. I don’t know if that means anything at all. For the original five fighters, they said all the DLC characters were from games never to appear in Smash before. I don’t know if that rule still applies. So, this new fighter may not be from Fire Emblem.

I have to admit, I don’t know which fighter I’m hoping for. I just hope it’s a character from a game I’ve played. Either way, I’m excited to see what they have in store for Smash fans.

Which fighter are you hoping for? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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That Time I Did Not Pick Legend of Zelda

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Double Jump Kris MiiHappy Monday, everyone!

Something that I’m trying to do for the new year is to be a little more active on social media, such as Twitter. It includes trying to respond to more people, throw my opinion out there more, and just see what comes up.

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Fairly recently, a Twitter account we follow — @GifZelda — posted an image of a plethora of Nintendo 3DS games and posed the following: “You can only choose three. What do you choose?”

I took a few minutes, looked at the list of games, and retweeted my top choices for fun:
Screenshot_20200107-153526_Twitter.jpg
Fire Emblem: Awakening was a no-brainer, as that is probably one of my favorite Fire Emblem games to date. Pokemon Y had to be included to represent my love of the franchise and, out of the three games presented, I enjoyed the Kalos region the most. Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney had a fun story with both old and new characters that I’ve grown to love. The three games encompassed most of my video game tastes, and it wasn’t too difficult to choose them.

Then I realized that the first line of games were all Legend of Zelda titles and I had a mini existential crisis.

The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that literally helped introduce me to video games and as since grown into one of my favorites. Our mom may not know too much about video games nowadays, but she knows the Legend of Zelda title and what the Triforce looks like, able to link the series with my love of gaming (pun originally not intended, but awesome enough to stay there). By not choosing one of the titles, I felt as if I was betraying the Legend of Zelda.

Granted, just because I preferred other game franchises for the Nintendo 3DS to the Legend of Zelda did not diminish my love for the series. The majority of the Legend of Zelda choices were remakes of previously released titles, for one thing. For another, this choice merely solidifies how I prefer to play certain series. The Legend of Zelda franchise was always a series that I preferred to play on a television console rather than handheld, just as I prefer Fire Emblem as a handheld series instead of console.

It’s a bit funny how I categorize the franchises I play, especially with the Nintendo Switch’s ability to, well, switch between handheld and docked modes. Being able to take Breath of the Wild on the go is wonderful, but the gorgeous world is better appreciated on a bigger screen. Likewise, seeing Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the television is great, but I enjoy seeing the smaller details on handheld mode. Indeed, Three Houses was one of the first game data that I transferred from the original Switch onto my Switch Lite so I could always enjoy it.

Then there are franchises that can go either way. It’s been awesome to see Pokemon on bigger screens, especially the latest installments with the new world details, but I still enjoy the handheld versions. C’mon, they’re called pocket monsters, after all. Professor Layton and Ace Attorney are also games that I like on handheld, the mysteries and smaller screens giving a cozy sense to the games, but since Rachel and I enjoy playing them together, having the game on the television is much better for our eyes and postures.

In the end, there’s usually no right way to play your favorite franchises, even when some lend themselves to one screen over the other.

Are there any series that you prefer on a handheld screen? Or a television screen? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

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