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There are a lot of good ones. I'll just highlight Streets of Rage 2. Plays great, music is great, looks good. It's my favorite game on either system.

Shining Force

It started out really slow, but now I'm mid-late game. I've got a band of characters I like and I'm on the cusp of promoting most of them.

It's older and less refined than other games I've played in the genre (ie, Fire Emblems), but it's been a good time.

One of my first memories of being disillusioned with media, having my hopes up and being let down was TPM. I went and saw it, kinda convinced myself it was cool...

Then a couple days later, someone was asking me about, and they asked what happened. I took a moment to think and finally had to come back and say 'idk, I guess nothing really'.

The two longest and most memorable waits I've done were for the Wii and Wii U.

The Wii was great. Was a very social, collaborative experience.

Got to the store probably at 6 or 7 am. Two people were in front of me in line. The first would show up in my circle of friends years later, and I didn't even realize until going back and looking at the pictures. The other was an older gentleman getting in line for his son, and when his son did show up later it turned out to be a friend of mine. I just hadn't met his dad before.

At first we were in the lobby, then moved to the garden center, eventually to outside the front entrance before noon. Employees didn't really know to expect us or what to do with us.

Everyone had their DSes and we spent most of the day playing something or other. Toward the end of the night, when the crowd got bigger, I remember doing 8-person Bomberman battles.

It was a cold November day. By the evening, I was freezing and hungry. My parents and some friends swung by at different times to bring blankets, snacks, etc, and those felt like such exciting moments.

Fast forward to the Wii U. I got a preorder, but they said there weren't enough preorders to do a midnight launch. Stubbornly wanting to relive the great time I had waiting for the Wii, that was enough to make me drive over to the next big town and wait at a different store.

For a long time, I think I'm the only one in line? Or maybe someone was before me. Idk. But the line didn't build up until like, an hour before midnight. I talked to people, but didn't really connect with anyone strongly.

The cold was bitter this time. I was layered up way more, but felt as tho I was barely hanging in by the end of it. Folks in line kept asking if I was alright, offering to hold my place in line if I wanted to go take a break and warm up in the car.

I don't know that we did any multiplayer sessions, but it was cool at least to get 3DS streetpass hits all day.

After all of it, I could just as easily have walked into a store the next weeks and bought one.

So yeah, the Wii was a moment for me, the U was a failed attempt to revisit that moment (a lot like the systems themsleves, kinda). Then there's the difference between being in high school, hanging out with friends in your home town, and being in college keeping to yourself.

Wow, that's amazing! I hadn't even heard of the hukumusume sight, so finding that AND your difficulty sorting work on top feels like hitting a jackpot. Thank you!

May have to try the user styles later, mobile-friendly would be nice. But it already doesn't seem too bad by default.

In general, it's usually nice to see what's listed over at https://comprehensibleinputwiki.org/

Here's the Italian page.

Been doing more new kanji this week and watching some more Japanese YouTube videos. Better than usual for me, I suppose. n_n;

I also started watching through the Deutsch Welle alphabet videos. Want to start taking some baby steps in German.

Good call! Savor it.

Looking forward to the post-mortem. ;)

No, I try to keep in mind that most situations are transient and I don't really know what people born today are going to be dealing with.

Climate change looks pretty bad for people going into the future, don't want to discount or downplay that. But other things, from the terrible political trends and hatred to wars to failed or booming economies will ebb and flow over lifetimes, and it's hard to say in many ways if the future holds better or worse for today's children.

It's funny, Sakurai addresses something like that right at the start of this Direct. He mentions that he made the game on request, and was confused that they wanted it. "It's a frantic racing game with familiar characters, isn't that just like Mario Kart?" Then he kinda shrugs it off, like "Yeah, guess it is lol."

Yep! For those that aren't already aware of it, GMTK has this whole series of videos showing the development process for this game: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc38fcMFcV_uH3OK4sTa4bf-UXGk2NW2n

I remember a while back, thinking I'll be done with StS once I beat ascension 20. Then, I'll just get 20 with the first three characters. Now I'm eyeing the leftover achievements. Never ends. StS2 will destroy me lol.