Ludonarrative

Weekly Wonder: I know the irony here. Last week my weekly wonder was that I was doubling down on the Switch 2, and realizing that I don't need little emulators because the Switch gives me everything I need. But this time, this emulator was really necessary I promise. The Retroid Pocket Nova was announced on Sunday, slowly teased throughout the week, and then released for pre-order on Friday night. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, checking discord for news at 8PM and 5AM each day. It's what I've wanted for over a year now: The RP Mini but with fun colors and a slightly bigger screen. The 477M but lighter and with an OLED screen. The 476H but more powerful. No more glass front.

This is the one. A perfect Gamecube machine, a perfect Donkey Kong Country machine, a perfect Dreamcast/N64/NES/SNES machine. Not to mention 4:3 OLED will be fantastic for GBA and GB as well. The colors are great, bindable M1 and M2 buttons, good battery size, swappable back plates, even the price was reasonable given the AI crisis. I still have all of July to play my Switch games, and then hopefully August will be my NOVA MONTH before September brings with it a deluge of new releases to take my attention towards PS5 and Switch.

Weekly Wonder: Rediscovering the Switch 2. Maybe this is a silly one! It's not like the Switch 2 ever collected dust in my house, I picked it up day 1 (and pre-ordered it twice) and my top games have been primarily on the Switch 2 ever since. But I've always chafed to play games on smaller, more portable devices whenever possible. I've poured money into emulation and custom Switch Lites as recently as last month, because something about that felt more, I don't know, special and individualized and hobbyist. Maybe that's pretentious of me. But lately I've realized that I was just spending my type worrying about my game libraries and front ends and optimization more than playing, and I was spending money on hardware and not software. The June Nintendo Direct showed me how much great third party support is coming to Switch 2-- this is becoming the best handheld ever for playing AAA video games, and it also has the best indie library ever and a growing library of classic games that can be played easily and quickly. I don't need anything else. I even ordered a Mechanism pillow, which I have mocked to people in the past, because I want to try and really lean into this... yes, I always find a way to spend money. What I'm reading: More and more and more graphic novels. Top choice this time around is maybe the first volume of the indie comic Kaya, which is a neat and unique Sci-Fi Fantasy story about a girl with a magic-robot arm escorting a young prophet across a dystopian desert. Tom Taylor's Detective Comics also continues to deliver in its second volume. I'm really looking forward to this next week or two though, when I'll get into the second volume of Absolute Green Lantern and the first round of trades from the Kai-Sei Godzilla universe.

What I'm playing: I've been playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake (now that I know I'll be able to play the whole trilogy within the next year and all on handheld) but I'll save that mostly for next week. My big love this week has been Banjo-Kazooie on NSO. I've bounced off this game a ton in the past, because it's slow or janky or just not what I've wanted. Well, I've finally broken through that and I get it now. It's got such a life to it, the environments and sound are so bouncy. The exploration becomes so fun as you unlock your toolkit and understand the game's problem solving language. It's actually aged better than I expected. Maybe better than other games of its era? I'm on the desert level and loving every second. My biggest uh, note or criticism, perhaps, is that it lives and dies on how goddamn British it is.

What I'm watching: Game Changer Season 8 has been off to an incredibly strong start. I think my favorite episode so far has been Rulette 2. I totally get why some people don't like it when they repeat a game, but I think it's interesting to see how they build on or change game systems to create new types of comedy, or try to re-capture lightning in a bottle. Improv is so amorphous and famously hard to capture on camera, how do you evolve a game to keep it fresh? Rulette 2 did it so, so well, and manages to both exceed and improve the first episode, if that makes sense. They are now two halves of a greater whole, and I can see them making a lovely third episode like they did with Sam Says before retiring it.

What I'm looking forward to: As of writing, the Mechanism Pillow is arriving today, as is a new comfy t shirt that will definitely earn a treasured spot in the rotation. It's been a good 2 days or so after a horrible 2 weeks, and these two packages are the latest cap to it. I'm gonna try to enjoy it as I ride into the weekend and into a snoozy, snoozy Sunday.

I ended my last post gushing about how game releases and announcements were looming. Boy has it delivered. Mina has been a mixed bag, but 007 First Light has been a treat, and I'm excited for Yoshi and Lego Batman. On the announcement front, the State of Play was pretty good: Newish Rayman, New God of War, Wolverine looks fun, I am so goddamn excited for Control Resonant. As of writing, SGF's main show hasn't even happened yet, not to mention the Nintendo Direct or the xbox show, and September/October is already looking stuffed to the gills. But none of that is what I want to focus on today for my weekly wonder.

Weekly Wonder: Nintendo 3DS. Yes, this started out as an ill-advised, perhaps hypomanically motivated, impulse buy. But when a dual-IPS screen, gorgeous red New 3DS XL pops up on Facebook Marketplace in your city, I don't know, I jumped on it. I know own like 5 3DS devices but this is the nicest one yet and I've been playing quite a bit of it. I finished New Super Mario Bros 2, and I've been playing through the postgame of Super Mario 3D Land, playing a bunch of Picross E, and been replaying the excellent, the iconic, the unbeatable Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. Playing Captain Toad again reminds me of both how amazing it is and how amazing the 3DS is.

Captain Toad is a game where every pixel is accounted for and every puzzle box can be turned upside down and inside out to be fully understood. It rewards your time ten-fold and there is not an ounce of fat on it. It is great for short play sessions which makes it a lovely fit on the 3DS, a powerful yet pocketable device that is as charming as it is comfortable and modern. I wish there were more switch games that I could just, play on 3DS instead.

What I've been playing: The gaming headline has been 007 First Light, a game that has really blown me away and exceeded my expectations. It is a blockbuster cinematic game, so it's not going to be the most artsy or award winning affair, but it's a slick and successful game and I'm really impressed with its storytelling. I didn't know the hitman folks had it in them to write dialogue this well and string together character arcs as well as they string together big fun immersive sim set pieces. Add in fun Bond camp, typical wacko stealth gameplay, and some truly fun gun play, and it's been a blast. I'll likely beat it this weekend and I can't wait.

What I've been reading: I really enjoyed the first volume of Matt Fraction's Batman run, I've been growing on G Willow Wilson's Poison Ivy (pun intended) as I read volumes 3-6, and and I've also been reading a bunch of the World's Finest stuff. But my favorite read of the last two weeks is either Ram V's New Gods, which really landed and met my high expectations for it, or Phillip Kennedy Johnson's Batman and Robin (Vol 1 and 2) which delivered a great crime story that was grounded yet supernatural and had a great dynamic between Bruce and Damian. Some lovely character touches. But if I had to pick one, I'd pick Ram V's New Gods. I just love the constant art changes, it made it feel so... unpredictable, yet the art was still top notch across all styles and feels.

What I've been watching: Taskmaster's current season is fantastic. Armando Ianucci, known as a genius comedic writer, is this lovable goofball completely detached from what you might expect based on the cynical tone of Veep. Kumail, who I am a huge fan of, is shockingly the least funny person on the season. It's been a blast and I'm sad that next week is the season finale, but that's okay because Game Changer is back!

What I'm looking forward to: Supposedly, Tuesday morning of next week should be the first true Nintendo Direct of the year. If true, that makes it immediately of the best days of the year for me. I hate to be such a bootlicker but I can't help who I am.

Weekly Wonder: Bird Collective shirts. I hate to be my usual material self, always praising my physical goodies I bought and looking forward to new physical goodies. But... I bought a series of graphic tees with cool bird designs, so that I could wear casual clothes to work and be more comfortable. My official work polos had gotten tight and uncomfortable and it was only gonna get worse as Summer heat cranked up. Yknow what? It worked brilliantly. I feel comfy, I get compliments on the designs, and I still look like I belong at a nature center. Slam dunk.

What I'm watching: More Drag Race All Stars, with a solid bracket 1 ending and a step-down (so far in my opinion) bracket 2 beginning. But I will definitely give a thumbs up to Pit Stop, the recap show, which is much better this season than it was for S18. I've also been watching a lot of Smosh and loving it!

What I'm reading: My comics grind continues. I've read like 10 trades since my last post, including the opening of "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", Absolute Flash, WW, and Green Lantern, and "The Moon is Following Us". But I'm going to give my shout out of the week to volume 3 of Birds of Prey written by Kelly Thompson. The book, across multiple artists and arcs, has maintained a fantastic tone and aesthetic, a great roster with lovely dialogue and relationships, and is just a delight to read. It is a boon that we have multiple books with Cass Cain and multiple books with Big Barda, but an even bigger boon that we get to see them together.

What I'm playing: After my Switch Lite hysteria, with over a thousand dollars spent for almost no reason, I have been left with... a gaming rut. A billion games to play and no drive to play it. Part of it is exhaustion, part of it is lots of reading, part of it is perhaps all of the running around with different hardware being bad for me. Never let it be said that hypomania is good for you. But something tells me I will become more focused on software soon...

What I'm looking forward to: It is almost June and that means GAMING NEWS. It has been a quiet as hell year for gaming news so far, with the Pokemon Presents being the only real banger presentation so far (and spawning a month of obsession in my life). Nintendo has been very quiet, Geoff has yet to show his gorgeous mug, and Sony's State of Play was disappointing in February. But June will be different. Sony's show is over an hour and showing in theaters, opening with Wolverine and probably closing with Intergalactic or Santa Monica's new game. Square Enix will almost certainly be showing Dragon Quest 12 and/or FF7R3 and/or Kingdom Hearts 4 sometime soon (two of which I'm interested in). Nintendo will finally have a full direct and I'm hoping they've built up an even bigger arsenal of announcements after waiting 9 full months between shows. Pikmin 4 Deluxe is coming. Fire Emblem is coming.

That's not even to mention the actual games coming that I'm looking forward to: Yoshi and Lego Batman will make great library games, and 007 First Light and Mina the Hollower are probably going to be day 1 buys for me. All 4 look like a lot of fun and all 4 are either out or come out in a week. By this time next month I will be drowning in gaming excitement.

What I'm reading: Comics frenzy continues. This week I read the first volume of Simon Spurrier's Flash, Tom Taylor's Detective Comics and Jeremy Adams's Aquaman, I also read DCeased Dead Planet, Dark Knights of Steel Deluxe Edition, and Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong. Given that Dark Knights of Steel is two trades in one, I'm keeping my one trade per day pace. My list to read only grows, but thanks to my local library I'm able to keep this financially responsible. My favorite read of the week is probably Dead Planet, a really fun and memorable elseworld story. Tom Taylor just knows how to be saccharine enough, and play with the toys in interesting ways. Green Canary and Cassandra Shazam are just iconic. His Detective Comics run starts out fun but a little predictable, although I'm a sucker for a story about the no kill rule.

What I'm playing: A light week for gaming, mostly because of my fixation on that new screen. I have been trying to wrap up my latest replay of Pikmin 4. It's my first playthrough since the free update last year that added a hard mode, a NG+, and decor Pikmin. It's also my first playthough where I plan on completing the game with 0 deaths. Even after 150 hours I still love this game to death and back, and know it like the back of my hand. When my OLED Switch Lite arrives I think I'll try and play some manageable games on my backlog (Shinobi, Main Frames), but I'm very tempted to jump into something like Persona 5 and give that another go.

What I'm watching: As of writing I'm getting ready for the season premiere of Drag Race All Stars 11. Team Dawn!

Small Wonder: I'm toying around with putting the wonder at the end instead of the beginning. Not sure if I'll stick with it. But anyway, this week's Small Wonder is Bird Collective! It's an online store that sells bird focused apparel and gives a portion of proceeds to conservation. They make really cool looking designs, they actually fit me, and since I work a nature center I get lots of compliments on them. It's going to allow me to be a lot more comfortable in the hot Summer compared to the shrinking official work polos I've been wearing in the past. Comfort is huge when you're stressed, and I definitely will be as the Summer stretches along.

What I'm looking forward to: Next week I travel to California to attend my sister in law's graduation from law school. It's a short trip and one where I'll mostly be pulled along to family meals and gatherings, but it means a few days off of work and it means, if nothing else, two flights where I can sit and game, read, etc., for a few hours. I'm looking forward to that. And the day after we get back... new Game Changer season >:)

Weekly Wonder: Anbernic RG477V. I'm doing a really bad job controlling my impulse spending. But my newest doo-dad, well, it is fun. I've been calling it the Game Beef because it's like a Game Boy DMG but massive, with a gorgeous 4:3 screen, full glass front, two joy sticks, and enough power for everything up to Gamecube, Wii, PS2, even some light Switch games. It's nothing I haven't been able to emulate already, but there's something really nice about emulating 4:3 systems on a 4:3 screen, and there's something nice about a vertical form factor. I've already beaten Pikmin (classic) and Plumber for All Seasons (a gorgeous Super Mario World mod), with a long list to get to. Every new system I get feels like it's a revolution, and that never lasts forever but it's nice for now.

What I'm reading: I'm sticking with the groove on reading comics. My top pick of the week is Absolute Martian Manhunter volume 1, which feels so cool, so transformative, so uniquely comic-booky. It functions so well as a standalone experiment but also clearly ties into the broader universe. I'm really excited for the second volume. I also re-read the first two volumes of Absolute Batman and Superman, as well as the compact edition of Tom Taylor's Nightwing "Leap into the Light" and DCeased as well as DCeased Unkillables. Jesus, that's like over a trade a day. I'm enjoying it though, and I just picked up 11 new trades from the library on top of more purchased trades to read. So it's gonna keep on coming! I'm liking it.

What I'm playing: I mentioned already that I replayed the original Pikmin again this week and I also played through the excellent Plumber of All Seasons. I'll highlight the latter. This had been on my backlog for a while and I'm so glad I finally got to it because it is a delightful mix of SMW and Donkey Kong Country, with textured and evocative backgrounds, enemies with a tap of realism, it's just a really cool vibe. It really felt like a new thing despite the gameplay hewing so closely and faithfully to Super Mario World, which is not a bad thing! I especially enjoyed the boss fights and the Autumn world.

What I'm watching: This week me and my wife watched a 4 part docuseries about a cult leader who started keeping many wives including several children. It was very well made and made sure to humanize his wives as much as possible rather than letting them become props or stats in a column. It wasn't pleasant, and I don't have much of a stomach for these things, but the final episode made me really emotional, seeing how brave these people were to step up and get out.

What I'm looking forward to: Spring! Just kidding. Meds! I'm going on a new prescription (hopefully... soon... insurance >:( ) and I'm really hoping they help me, because lately I'm just in a constant state of insanity. I don't know what I'm doing a lot of the time... So a new medication is a true beacon of hope in an otherwise shit time.

Weekly Wonder: Pokemon Cards! Historically I have not cared much about the TCG, it's always been an unwieldy and expensive hobby. But if you don't care about chasing profit or completionism, it's really not that hard to spend 2 bucks here and 4 bucks there on cool physical art of your favorite creatures. So I bought an Altaria binder on Etsy and then ordered like 30 cards of Pokemon I love, for a total of like $20. It's really fun to see them all laid out and organized, and I think I've found a new somewhat manageable outlet for my retail therapy. I already have every Shuckle card ever made, but I think I might start collecting birds. Or Hoenn Pokemon. I'll think about it. For now though it's brought me joy during a difficult period.

What I'm reading: My runner up for Weekly Wonder, and perhaps my looming "era" as my Pokemania slowly winds down, is that I've started reading DC Comics again as I try to catch up after two or so years away. I've dedided to pursue trade-reading this time. For the uninitiated, "trades" are the Trade Paperback collected editions of comics. They are typically the most cost effective way to read comics, and are on a 6 month or so delay from current releases. They are also actual graphic novels you can put on a shelf, which makes them more satisfying to collect in my opinion than floppies, which sit in a sleeve in a box.

The first trade I've read is Absolute Wonder Woman vol. 1 by Kelly Thompson, which is a banger. The Absolute universe is a great idea, and I'm glad they've actually committed to it. These takes on these characters and mythologies are truly new and interesting, not just a new coat of paint. The art is consistently high quality, the runs are actually lasting and they aren't rushing things too much. Wonder Woman in particular has a great new origin that completely inverts her dynamic with the Amazons while still feeling like it fits with her themes: rebelling against gods, holding onto compassion in the face of bleakness and hate. I'm very excited to continue reading these.

What I'm playing: I'll admit I've been in a bit of a slump! About a week ago I finished a whole slew of games. WarioWare Twisted (great), Windswept (good), Dadish 4 (good), my 7th playthrough of Pikmin 3 Deluxe (still a GOAT). I'm down to the final battle of Pokemon Omega Ruby, which might be the last mainline Pokemon game I play through for a while. I've been dipping in and out of Champions, I want to try Mystery Dungeon DX, and I still have to revisit Leaf Green to play the post game. But I don't think I'll be selected any new starters anytime soon, and the next time I do it might be for a Nuzlocke run or something specific like that.

The question is, post ORAS, what is my next main game? I've started and bounced off a ton of games (Signalis, Nine Sols, Easy Delivery Co, Mega Man Battle Network), and even got a new emulator (the Miyoo Mini Flip) which is darling and portable but has mostly been used for messing around in Mole Mania or Super Mario World, rather than actually digging into the long list of games, new and old, I want to try.

I do have ways to stall for now, with multiple library games coming due like Resident Evil Requiem, Mario Tennis Fever, and Pokemon Legends Z-A (which I've beaten, but I want to check out the post-game). But at some point I'm hoping my heart gets grabbed by something.

What I'm watching: Drag Race Season 18 is finished, and it ended on a weak note in my opinion. The finale was fun enough, with some great performances, but the final few episodes had such predictable results. I won't call it rigged or unfair, I'll just call it bland television compared to the last few years. Now we set our sights on Drag Race All Stars 11, which premiers in a few weeks. I'll also give a shot out to the new season of Taskmaster, which has been wonderful. Kumail is actually the least funny person in the cast, which is saying something because I really like Kumail. May also brings us a new season of Game Changer, possibly one of my favorite shows out there.

What I'm looking forward to: Now that things are on the upswing for me, a bit, there's a lot I'm looking forward to. The obligatory "game announcement" answer is a Star Fox reboot, which is rumored to be announced very soon, potentially next week. Plus the above books and shows are keeping my endorphins dribbling out. But I think my official pick this week is going to be Sprinkles, an ice cream place near my home that just opened for the season. I haven't been yet this year and I cannot wait, it's a great place to hang out in the evening and eat some soft serve. I have a complicated relationship with the Summer, hating the heat as I do, but this is a definitely upside.

Weekly Wonder: Glacier Cherry Gatorade. Getting back to the roots of weekly wonder, something weird, small, and tangible that brought me joy this week. Before a colonoscopy you have to do bowel prep, which means taking a whole bunch of laxatives and having hours and hours of diarrhea so that everything is cleared out for the docs to look around. It's not fun, and neither is going a full day beforehand without eating any solid foods. But one bright spot was that I had to try a new flavor of Gatorade, the clear/white one, and it actually ended up tasting awesome. I am likely going to continue drinking it here and there, especially over the Summer when I am sweaty and drained all the time. I didn't expect to discover a new lovely flavor while I was on a bowel prep diet, but I did! Good for me. I also kinda enjoyed chicken broth, but I think that was due to lack of alternative options. I'm not now, after the fact, dying for more broth.

What I'm playing: Pokemania continues, as my main game is now Omega Ruby for the 3DS. I've formed a team of many of my favorites, since Hoenn is a region I love dearly: Gulpin, Numel, Swablu, Wingull. The 3DS games really hit the spot for me in terms of their graphical style, and I'm excited to get to mega evolutions. I've also started Windswept, an indie platformer with clear and proud inspiration taken from Donkey Kong Country 2, one of my favorite games of all time. It didn't hook me immediately, and I still wish the art style and soundtrack had a bit more personality to match DKC. But as I dig deeper in (I just reached the third world) I've really gotten enamored with the gameplay and traversal system, and I think the animal companions are fantastic evolutions of Squawks, Squitter, etc., from DKC2. It's climbed from a "meh" to a "good", let's see if it climbs even higher.

What I'm watching: This past week was the premiere of Taskmaster Season 21 with Kumail Nanjiani and Armond Ianucci. An absolutely bonkers cast and maybe the best season premiere the show has ever had? Opening with a solo task, having consistently funny moments from every single cast member, and closing with a genuinely exciting studio task that was way more fun than it had any right to be, it was just great. I immediately love this group and I'm excited for the season, even if I'm overwhelmed by the amount of TV going on. New Dimension 20 season plus new Taskmaster season, meanwhile Drag Race is still going and I'm also trying to keep up with the Game Grumps Nuzlocke playthrough. Slow down, guys!

What I'm looking forward to: This week was weird due to the medical procedure throwing off my work schedule and my body clock. I'm looking forward to a return to normalcy. I am also likely going to the zoo on Sunday with friends which would be a great time.

Weekly Wonder: Honestly my favorite part of the week was finishing the indie platformer "Rubato", but I'll talk more about that below. So let's first talk about the Mario Galaxy movie, the film that sparked a thousand discourses. I have a hard time going to bat for any particular side of the camp, perhaps because my mind is with the detractors but I cannot deny that my heart lies with the jangling keys in front of me. I found it to be a fun and joyous film.

Yoshi was the highlight for me, and perhaps the epitome of the movie. He had no interiority whatsoever. He didn't develop or progress in any real way, he was scared of Mario for 3 seconds and then he just followed them around as their buddy for the rest of their movie, no questions asked. This is, objectively, bad storytelling. Especially for a character that is plastered on posters and teased in the post-credits from the last movie. Yes Yoshi is a non-verbal dinosaur, but we all know they could have squeezed a real story out of him if they'd wanted to. But yknow what? I'm fine that they didn't. Because that brooklyn montage was incredibly funny, and in Super Mario World he's basically just a disposable tool anyway. It felt oddly on brand and endearing that he just kinda joined the team with no fanfare and then the movie kept going.

Bowser was good again, Bowser Jr was a nice surprise (the puppet scene was a highlight), and I was shocked and amazed at how much Fox McCloud we got and how well adapted he was. Rosalina on the other hand got sidelined way too hard, and the true emotions of Galaxy never really came through. It's not a crime, and it's something I expected going in, but it's still tough when you can imagine a much better version of a movie existing. Not just for adult fans, but for everyone.

I will also list a slight gripe: as happy as I was to see Pikmin make their big screen debut, it's odd to have them piled into a Dolphin-like ship and then climb out. Not is it weird for them to be flying around with Olimar in his own ship, but Pikmin have their own spaceship (the Onion) that they quite notably get into every night. What's going on there? Obviously this is irrelevant for a goofy little cameo, they probably just wanted that gag shot of the ship landing, but given how detail focused they typically are, that was strange.

All in all it's a pretty lousy movie but a pretty great Nintendo fanservice sugar rush and it manages to be pretty and fun. I went with friends after getting dinner as a group and it was a really nice evening.

What I played: This week I completed the indie collect-a-thon platformer Rubato. I went in excited before growing skeptical. The game is... insane. It's commitment to bits, even to the detriment of the game's tone or pacing, can be a little jarring at first. Shitposting can reach a point where nothing in the game feels like it matters anymore, and the game is still expecting you to care about its characters. But I stuck with it and the game really sunk its teeth into me, both with it's engaging platforming and funny goofs, as well as it's ultimately deep and complex narrative. I won't spoil too much right now, although I do plan on writing more about it, but I can say that fans of 2D platformers, as well as plans of games like Undertale, Inscryption, or fuck it, 1000xResist, should check it out.

I also played Star Fox 64 3D, in honor of the movie, and really liked it. Oh and I finished that Leaf Green run, although I think I had technically done so before my last Sunday Snooze was even published. Great game! Next up is Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, plus Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. I started Ragebound a year ago until emulation failed me and I couldn't continue my save. So now I've got to replay hours of content which is why I've procrastinated on it so much. But I'm using my Switch Lite as a backlog buster, and the first few levels have been as fun and engaging as I remembered. I have a ton of Switch games I want to play, some purchased some not, so I gotta keep this momentum going.

What I watched/read: Basically nothing. Between the stresses of my current medical situation, my general exhaustion from the world, and my focus on gaming, other media has fallen aside. I am hoping to start Monarch Legacy of Monsters soon and get something going on the reading front. I have continued watching Drag Race, but I simply cannot bring myself to discuss that 5th place elimination right now.

What I'm looking forward to: This next week is not really one to look forward to. I'm getting a colonoscopy due to a bit of a health scare... the doctors don't seem overly concerned but it's hard not to get anxious about it, and it's also hard not to dread the bowel prep that will involve some very uncomfortable bathroom trips. It means some time away from the office for gaming and relaxing, but how relaxed can you really be given the circumstances?

But, given that this has been simmering for a while, I will look at this in an optimistic and positive way: I am looking forward to peace of mind and closing the book on this medical saga on Wednesday. I will get through it, feel better after, and get medication for whatever is going on. That's a good thing! Extra time in comfy pants is just a bonus.

I didn't want to be too predictable, but I'll also mention that I am still eager for new Nintendo news. Supposedly a new Star Fox will be shadow announced on Nintendo Today this month, and boy am I ready for that to happen. Pikmin 4 Switch 2 Edition, Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, lots of stuff to look forward to... eventually!

Small Wonder: The Smosh Games sweatshirt by Favorite Vegetable. This sweatshirt arrived in the mail weeks ago, and I've worn it every day I possibly can. It has a cool design by an artist I love, it reps a youtube channel I've been enjoying a lot lately, and it's super cozy. I've gotten compliments from it several times, which isn't very common for me, and it works in the house or out. Banger wardrobe addition and could very well be a small wonder of the whole ass year.

What I'm playing: Pokemon pokemon pokemon! I'm pretty deep in Leaf Green (8 gym badges and all 3 legendary birds caught, working through Victory Road). I'm also playing the goofy and exciting indie platformer Rubato on my new Switch Lite, which I've been taking everywhere. My queue from here gets a little complicated. I have other indie games on Switch to play (Signalis, Ratcheteer, Windswept, etc), I have other Pokemon games to revisit (next I'm thinking maybe Alpha Sapphire on 3DS), emulation games I want to play on AYN Thor like Wario Ware Twist It and Metroid Zero Mission, and Switch 2 games coming down the pipeline such as Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and Super Meat Boy 3D. So boy.... lots of stuff! I wish I could quit my job and game all day.

What I'm watching: I'm... rewatching West Wing... I'm not proud of it, okay? I keep wanting to dip into one of those new shows I mean to watch and then I just don't. But I did eventually dig into Pluribus so one of these days I'll be mentally stable enough to consume new content.

What I'm reading: Nothing. Womp womp. I have a bunch of new books to get into but I also may just re-read Mistborn 3 or Stormlight 2 again as I continue my Cosmere revisit.

What I'm looking forward to: The Mario Wonder Switch 2 Edition just dropped and me and my wife are gonna have a blast with that. I'm also excited about new leaks that suggest a Star Fox Reboot and a Pikmin 4 DLC. Of course, I'm excited for the Mario Galaxy movie (more on that next Sunday, probably) as well. It's all Nintendo fanboy manchild garbage, but it's getting me through dark times so who cares yknow?