Hey guys, remember that time when we said Double Jump was going to slow down with only one blog post a week? And you know how that hasn’t happened?
…Yeah.
We could list excuse after excuse – 2020 has been horrendous. Our family and friends have been fortunate to not be too affected by the virus and everything else going on in the world. However, things are still plenty messed up.
But we’ll save the excuses for another time and talk about what’s going to happen to Double Jump going forward.
Double Jump is a passion project for both of us. We have ideas about which direction we want to take it. There are various other creative outlets we want Double Jump to take shape in.
Unfortunately, life happenings get in the way and, if we’re to be brutally honest, creativity has diminished these past months.
This isn’t to say we no longer want to do anything with Double Jump. In fact, we’re saying Double Jump is coming back.
The future of Double Jump
We have big plans for Double Jump and are working on them behind the scenes. While we do so, the blog is officially going on hiatus. We didn’t think it was fair to keep you guys hanging all the while staring at a blog post from June.
The blog will be coming back into full swing in January 2021. We wanted to take these next couple of months to give ourselves plenty of time to work on changes, new features, and implement our ideas.
There will be more to come in January 2021 as well, but we’re not saying anything because of spoilers.
At this time, we’re only streaming once a week on Friday afternoons (with the occasional extra stream thrown in should we feel like it and find the time to do so), usually around 3 pm EST. So be sure to keep in touch with us there.
We understand that once a week doesn’t sound like much. We also understand being on hiatus for three months seems a bit much as well (especially since we’ve practically been on hiatus for much longer).
So, while you eagerly (yes, eagerly) await for Double Jump’s return and for our streams on Fridays, do be sure to give our friends some love. If you’re not following their blogs and/or Twitch channels, be sure to check them out.
(Apologies to anyone we’ve missed… there are a lot of you.)
Thanks for all the support
Yes, it’s been a while and it’s going to be even longer until the website is back into full swing. But we’re excited for these new changes and ideas and we hope you guys are too.
In the meantime, we hope to see you around on Twitch. At the very least, we’ll see you again in January 2021.
We began live streaming on Twitch in August 2018. It’s been a little over a year and while we haven’t been the best with our schedule, we’ve done a lot of live streams in the past 12 months. We aim to live stream three days a week – one together and each do a solo stream. When we first started, a friend asked me, while I was doing a solo live stream, “What does each of you bring to the table when you stream?” What makes our solo streams different? What makes our streams together click? I didn’t have an answer. We were new to streaming and we’re both so similar to one another, I had no idea what to say. Well, a whole year later, we finally figured out the answer to that question.
We work really well together, hence why we started doing this blog and streaming with one another. Trying to figure out our personal strengths when it comes to streaming threw us for a bit of a loop. Talking about it more in-depth the other night, after about a year’s worth of streaming under our belts, it became a little clearer. For one thing, while our taste in video games is similar, our play styles aren’t. My streams tend to be ones that focus on some story elements, games that I want to complete and share the journey with those in the chat.
We do work really well together. It’s fun to bounce ideas and conversations off one another while we stream. We do have a difference in opinion once in a while too. I think, when the question was first asked, I said we chose to do our stream schedule the way it is because of time. We wanted to stream a few times a week, but both of us doing three streams a week was unrealistically due to work and other life obligations. For the most part, we’re each able to commit to two streams a week. Through our solo streams, as Kris said, we realized we have totally different play styles. She always focuses on beating the game while I tend to play more “ongoing” games. I don’t 100% games, but I do try to collect as much as I can during my play through. I do my best to make certain games last.
Yes, Rachel is the collector while I’m more invested in the stories and characters. We both enjoy exploring in games but for different reasons. Mine is to find secrets that have to do with the adventure, while Rachel generally enjoys getting as much money as possible, haha! Case in point was when we did our joint Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures streams. Rachel was focused on the Force Gems — which, technically, wasn’t money in the game, but the essence was the same — while I wanted to move the plot along. Both of our play styles were necessary for continuing the game.
I also wanted the Force Gems because there was a small competition between multiplayer to see who got the most. So, my competitive side definitely came out for that. Anyway, we came to this conclusion the other day when we were trying to figure out our stream schedule for the following month. I noticed Kris’s game are plot-based and have a solid end goal. For example, Super Mario RPG. Most of the games I’m playing are ongoing. For example, The Sims 4. I’m doing the 100 Baby Challenge at the moment, but it’s a longer goal and even when that’s complete, there’s so much more to do in that game. Kris played through Donkey Kong Country and I started Animal Crossing. We have vastly different goals when it comes to “completing” a game or simply playing a game for the long run.
And, while we have similar taste in games, the genres that we prefer do vary. During joint streams, Rachel always beats me in the races in Mario Kart Deluxe 8 and I do better during the platforming levels of New Super Mario World Deluxe. Super Smash Bros. is a toss-up, a cross between luck and skill, while our early Nuzlocke adventures had me at the helm talking to the NPCs in the RPG and Rachel wanting to just see what Pokemon we can collect in each route. Our About Me page has mini bios with some fictional game stats but, honestly, they’re pretty close to home.
I find it amazing that streaming – and even the blog as well – has made us realize so many things about ourselves and each other. We often have a hard time coming up with post ideas, especially debate topics, because we have such similar tastes and opinions when it comes to certain video games and gaming in general. Though we do not “play” the games in the same way even if we may interpret certain plots in the same way and have a similar meaning to them, if that makes sense. And it makes me wonder, how we each got to play games the way we do? Is it a player-one, player-two thing? Just our personalities? I don’t know.
That’s a fascinating topic in and of itself. Do our play and stream styles come from a nature or nurture standpoint? I grew up playing games like Super Mario RPG and Ocarina of Time, while I believe one of Rachel’s first games was Diddy Kong Racing when she could first pick up a controller. While I don’t believe you understood what was going on, Rachel, you enjoyed zooming around, eluding Dad and me, while collecting all the pretty balloons, haha!
When I was younger, I gravitated toward games that I thought were “easy.” I loved watching you play Zelda, but the bosses and puzzles intimidated me. I wanted to stick with Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, and casual games like Pokemon. Of course, all those games aren’t too plot-based. In Mario Kart, you work to unlock new race tracks, karts, and characters. Smash is similar. Pokemon, you gotta catch ‘em all. I remember playing Gold & Silver and trying so hard to do just that – catch them all. I also didn’t talk to people either. I just went through the motions and you needed to tell me which people to talk to so I could get certain HMs to progress the game.
Which is interesting to think about, as you don’t seem to mind puzzle games now, but I suppose many of those tend to rely on collecting and unlocking more items and levels, which is on par for you. As for me, talking to the NPCs and exploring the areas to dig deep in the games’ stories are what I’m all about. With that said, our streams tend to benefit from our play styles. With Rachel’s excitement with collecting, that energy follows her into her streams and allows her to be so engaged with the chat and her personal goal with the games. While I do well with the chat, I’m interested in bringing the topics around to deeper questions about the games themselves, maybe gaming news that we’ve heard recently and what that may mean for how we play games. During joint streams, I play off of Rachel’s energy but I also tend to focus on the gameplay, especially during single-player games we may be streaming.
The puzzles, as I move up through the levels, give me a good sense of accomplishment and I feel like I’m making progress, which is a similar feeling that collecting things makes me feel. Because yeah, I do enjoy puzzle games now even if I’m terrible at them. Also, “energy” is a good word to describe the way I stream. I love engaging with the chat about the game I’m playing and also general chit-chat, but I also get super distracted. I either lose my place in the chat because I’m focusing on the game or I screw up in the game because I’m too busy reading chat or responding to something. My brain can’t do both.
Your energy is something I want to try to mimic during my solo streams, haha! Granted, when streaming together, it works great. Your energy and my focus on the gameplay keeps both the chat and the game moving, which hopefully creates entertaining streams. As we keep streaming, both together and on our own, I bet we’ll mold our own entertainment brand. We’ll see what another year of streaming brings!
If you live stream, do you find yourself fitting into a certain “play style?” Let us know about them in the comments below! If you like this post, please share it around.
Happy belated birthday to Double Jump! Back on February 3rd, our little blog turned three years old! They grow so fast… It’s been quite a year, actually, with some changes and updates made to our blog and Double Jump as a whole.
We might have thought Double Jump’s birthday was February 16th, which is why we never said anything on the actual birthday. Yeah, a lot has changed since the beginning of Double Jump. Not just with the blog, but we’ve branched out quite a bit between collabs, streaming, and more.
By “we,” we mean Rachel, but at least she remembered around the time the blog’s birthday was. I vaguely remembered that it was in February and that’s about it. Considering the original intent of this blog when we started it three years ago was to branch out and maybe connect with others who also enjoyed gaming, I’m pretty proud of the connections we made due to collab posts and our Twitch channel.
For sure. We’ve come a long way in these past three years. To “celebrate,” if you will, we’ve decided to do another gaming challenge! We chose for this challenge to be Pokemon based because… well, we love Pokemon, so why not? We’re not necessarily competing against each other or racing one another. We’ll be doing the same thing differently. If that makes any sense at all.
We each used a randomizer to pick only three of the eighteen Pokemon types for us to raise for a play-through of one of the core games. My random types are Dark, Dragon, and Ground, which sounds like a decent balance of physical and special attacks. I’m excited to have Ground, as it’s one of my favorites, and Dark is right up there as well. Dragon may be interesting, as that is one of the rarer types.
The random types I got were Electric, Normal, and Bug. That will certainly be an interesting team. I’ve raised electric and normal a ton but I’ve only ever raised a bug once. We then randomized which game we’ll each play. I got a Pokemon from the Unova region so I’ll be playing either Black, White, Black 2, or White 2. Most likely one of the sequels.
My region is Hoenn, which I’m totally fine with. It’s been a while since I’ve played through those games, and I’ll probably pick one of the remakes to play rather than the original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald trio. We’ve decided that Legendaries are off-limits — so no Latias or Latios for me — but we can train any Pokemon that has the types that we generated, whether it be the first or secondary type. So, Rachel, with Normal, you could have a much more varied team than I will. A lot of Flying-type Pokemon are also Normal-type, at the very least. Like Rachel mentioned, this challenge is more about the journey rather than a winner, so we’ll see how our teams and games go.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how our journey goes. I know it’s not a competition, but I’m curious who will get to the Champion first or how many Pokemon will faint. Unova isn’t my favorite, but I’m excited to go back there and explore it once again.
Thanks for three years with us! Let us know what you think of our Pokemon challenge in the comments below. If you enjoyed this post, please share it around.
Happy anniversary to us! Double Jump is officially two-years-old. We first created a post on this blog on February 2, 2016. Kris and I were already avid bloggers with our own writing blogs here on WordPress. We both love gaming so much and decided, why not start a video game blog together? We wanted a clever enough name that had to do with gaming but also showing how this blog is run by two people. Thus, Double Jump was born. We were thinking the other day, though… where did the double jump mechanic originate from?
After doing some research, we found out about this old game called Dragon Buster. It was a 1984 arcade platformer that is credited with being the first video game to feature the double jump mechanic. We don’t really know too much about the game, except that it was a side-scroller with action RPG elements and a bit of hack-and-slash combat. It was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it would have been really interesting if it had been on the NES Classic!
Not that it would have mattered because we still don’t have the NES Classic… Dragon Buster was released in 2009 for the Wii virtual console, but only in Japan. So… no dice for us. This is, of course, a game we’ve never heard of before but it’s interesting to learn about. It was developed by Namco who has also developed Pac-Man, a series we all know and love. The box art for Dragon Buster is pretty cool because it looks so old. You can tell it’s from the 80s.
Perhaps there’s a way we can emulate the game somehow… It’ll definitely be something interesting to look into. In the meantime, though, thank you all for your support for these past two years! We’re looking forward to sharing many more good times and fun memories in the name of gaming with you all!
We’ll definitely look into that. Maybe by the time we figure it out we can play it for our third year anniversary. It’s hard to believe two years have already come and gone and we’re looking forward to many more years with this blog. We have a lot more plans and new features for the blog (and beyond) that will hopefully come to fruition in 2018. We’re looking forward to it and we hope you are too! Thanks for joining us!
Thanks for sticking with us! We hope you’ll continue to do so throughout 2018!
Going along with the majority of posts for the rest of this week, today I’m raving about my favorite Mario game, a classic from the past – Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
Super Mario RPG was a game originally released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2008, it was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console. I didn’t hesitate to download it.
Super Mario RPG was probably the game that first got me hooked to video games. My younger self was always bothering my very patient uncle to play the game for my entertainment until I eventually tried to play it on my own. Since then, it cemented my love of video games, and Super Mario RPG is the game that I’ve replayed and completed the most to this date.
This game was the first to give Mario a taste of a role-playing game and was responsible for the famous spiritual successor Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. It granted the player a vast world to explore and a unique party of characters. Bowser and Princess Toadstool (now known simply as Peach — this is how old the game is!) join Mario, along with two new characters, Mallow and Geno. Geno, especially, rose to a famed popularity, enough so he’s a favorite contender for the Super Smash Brothers franchise despite being owned by Square Enix rather than Nintendo.
Although the story line is a bit cheesy, especially to some older players, Super Mario RPG is a timeless game that continues to be enjoyable no matter how many times it’s played through.
Today’s post is all about those fun little figurines that Nintendo is producing called Amiibo! Let me know what you think of them in the comments.
Amiibos are figurines of popular video game characters from Nintendo. They are able to be used in conjunction with some of Nintendo’s latest games, most notably Super Smash Brothers for the Wii U.
When the amiibos first came out my reaction was caught between, “Oh, they’re cute,” and “Wtf.” I didn’t understand the concept of them other than that they may have been created just as collectibles (which is something that plenty of people do with them) before realizing that they can be “leveled up” in games like Super Smash Brothers. It wasn’t something I was into at all — I would have much rather just play the games without worrying about what level my toy was at.
Then the green yarn Yoshi came out in celebration of Yoshi’s Woolly World.
Holy fudgesicle, that thing is adorable! I just saw it available when I was at Toys R Us for something — I can’t even remember what — and they were just sitting there. I bought one on impulse (they wouldn’t let me have two) and have found myself looking more and more at amiibos.
(Technically, our Classic Mario amiibo was the first one we had gotten with our Super Mario Maker Wii U bundle, which was pretty cool. But the Yoshi’s cute factor trumped it.)
After that, Rachel and I started thinking more about the amiibos. Rachel even gave me Sheik for my birthday, where it sits proudly on my desk. We still don’t use them in games — in fact, the few we have are still in their boxes and we’re not sure if we’ll ever open them — but we keep looking at them whenever we pass them by at our favorite video game stores.
Who will be next? Charizard and Greninja? Fox or Roy, maybe? Perhaps we’ll have an updated picture of all our amiibos later down the road!
Do you collect amiibos? Which ones are your favorite?
Happy Monday, everyone! Kris here today, and I’m going to describe a common ailment that plagues many gamers, such as myself, in the world:
Player One Syndrome.
Player One Syndrome affects many a-gamer. It’s what happens when one is too used to being first player when playing video games. Some of the tell-tale signs of having Player One Syndrome include:
You’re used to always picking the levels of the games you play with others.
Exploring is second-nature to you — you always want to see what the whole game world has to offer.
Treasure and money sometimes can be a problem for you, usually because you are too busy exploring to remember to earn said money.
When it comes to gaining experience in a game, yours is probably among the highest.
You never run from a fight. In fact, you usually charge right in and are one of the most skilled when it comes to video game battles.
You seem to be protective in nature. During boss fights, you’re on the front lines to shield your teammates.
You’re generally very knowledgeable about the tips and tricks of the video game worlds.
Sometimes you seem to forget that there are others on your team, and you may be baffled when someone else questions your strategies.
Player One Syndrome does not seem to have a cure, but it’s fortunately not a very serious ailment. Those who are affected should continue to have fun playing video games and not worry at all.
Hello everyone! Kris here with a review of a novel that allows readers to dive into a virtual reality world. I hope you enjoy it!
“For a bunch of hairless apes, we’ve actually managed to invent some pretty incredible things.” – Ernest Cline (Ready Player One)
“Ready Player One” Review
This post may contain spoilers for the book.
Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” is catered to video gamers and comic book geeks, and it’s fantastic!
“Ready Player One” plays in a future version of our world, one that is bleak except for the virtual utopia OASIS. It is OASIS that allows the main character, teenage Wade Watts, to enjoy his life as he prefers the virtual world with its puzzles and various lands to reality. The novel is rife with pop culture references for readers of this time, implementing them into the adventure and romance plot flawlessly.
Although the novel started out slowly as us readers got acquainted with Cline’s world and Wade was arrogant in his skills, it was a fun read with the core plot revolving around a competition for control of OASIS. We are soon immersed in the wonder of the virtual reality and Wade’s skills, both of the gaming and social variety, are constantly challenged. Friendships are tested and strengthened, and a strong sense of community rises both in OASIS and the real world that so many try to escape on a normal basis.
With rich, fantasy settings, a wonderful and diverse cast of characters, and a healthy dose of geekiness, “Ready Player One” is more than worthy of a read.
Hey everyone and welcome to Double Jump, my sister’s and my personal little geeky corner of the blogging world. My name is Kristen.
And I’m Rachel! Nice to meet you!
Our goal for this blog is to discuss, rant, and rave about our favorite video games. We’ve each been playing games and writing for most of our lives, and thought this would be an appropriate way to share our love for gaming.
Every Tuesday and Thursday you’ll get to hear from yours truly! Every Monday and Friday, you get to listen to Kris. Every Wednesday, we’ll get together and do a post together just like this one!
Our posts will range from reviews, debates, favorites lists, and other general articles that strike our fancy about video games. Please note that these are our opinions, and we would love to hear opinions from other gamers!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so feel free to agree or disagree with us just as long as you’re pleasant about it.
Although it can be a bit difficult on the Internet, we do our best to support mutual respect between everyone sharing this space of the blogging world with us. On that note, we hope you’re looking forward to seeing what we put out! See you next week!
We can’t wait to share our love of video games with you! Kris will be back on Monday with something exciting. Have a great week, everyone!
Hey everyone, Kris here!
Hello, hello, everyone and happy Friday!
When the amiibos first came out my reaction was caught between, “Oh, they’re cute,” and “Wtf.” I didn’t understand the concept of them other than that they may have been created just as collectibles (which is something that plenty of people do with them) before realizing that they can be “leveled up” in games like Super Smash Brothers. It wasn’t something I was into at all — I would have much rather just play the games without worrying about what level my toy was at.
