Tag: Noob

I Don’t Know How To Play Video Games, But Here’s What I Thought Of ‘Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’

by Mikaela Maxwell

Read my previous thoughts on Super Mario Odyssey here!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf was actually one of the first video games that Derek introduced me to. My siblings had Nintendo Game Boys and such as kids, but it was never something I really got into (though I’m not quite sure why). A few years back, when Derek suggested that I try playing Animal Crossing on his 3DS. I’m sure that I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of the idea, thinking “I am an adult,” “I’m awful at video games,” “It’s not really my thing,” etc., etc. In any case, my rubber arm was twisted and I was set up to play.

The first time that I played Derek sat next to me answering my questions about how to do things and why things mattered and what not. After about an hour he needed to go into the next room to record the Geekscape Games Podcast, and I continued on my own. I continued and continued (and continued). I played all through the podcast recording, and I even needed to interrupt him at one point to ask what this flashing red light on the 3DS meant? Turns out it meant I had played for so long that I had killed the battery. I played for at least 4 hours that night, and for many days thereafter. I can’t remember exactly how long I stayed on that particular game, but suffice to say that I really enjoyed it, and it was definitely a great way for me to start getting into video games. It also freaked me right out as suddenly I was devoting all of these hours to playing a game! How could I possibly be that guy?!

So yesterday when I was informed that there was an Animal Crossing game that I could play on my phone, that shit was downloaded immediately. And again, was played until there was no battery left to play. Obviously, it’s only been out for a minute so I haven’t gotten a chance to put too too many hours into the game, but I have definitely put in a few.

Right off the bat I loved the art style. The opening screen is the Nintendo logo with these two-toned trees and simple campers, and I fell in love immediately! I ain’t even mad when it takes foreeeever to load, cause I get to just sit there looking at this beautiful little screen thinking about how I could turn it into wall art on a hypothetical child’s bedroom wall someday…

The game is definitely true to form with the same classic characters and design of furniture and decorations and such. But there is also an element of modern simple art that seems just a bit hipper than what I remember from the original (3DS version).

One of the things that had me buy into the original game was that I got to modify and design things for myself. There were clothing options and home building options and you could plant trees where you wanted trees to be; you even got to design your character on a basic level, which is my favourite part of pretty much any game. (I once spent over an hour designing my Elder Scrolls Online character, only to be interrupted by a phone call and have it time out and reset… oh angry days.)

Although this game is somewhat different in the goals and basic tasks that you do, you still get to design and dress your character, and deck out your campsite with new furniture on a regular basis! Yay! One element that I really liked was getting to take my camper in and having it painted to my liking. I’m realizing now that I’m pretty sure my camper has the same colour scheme going on as the tiny trees on the loading screen, I’m such a level 7 (#SixSeasonsAndAMovie).

When I played the original for the first time I got a peach near the beginning, and either ate or sold it; for those of you out there who have played Animal Crossing before, you know what a silly mistake that was. You later discover that how you generate income is by planting trees and selling the fruit, and the way you grow a tree is by planting a fruit, thus when you are given fruit in the beginning although it seems sweet to make a buck off of it, the wise thing to do is plant it, because soon you will have 3 more of that fruit to either sell or plant! Needless to say as soon as a I learned how to shake fruit from the trees in Pocket Camp, I started hoarding it immediately. I’ve also been hoarding pretty much everything else until I figure out what my priorities need to be. Though I haven’t seen a way to plant trees thus far, sooo if you’ve got that figured out, let me know! (though I’m thinking maybe it’s not a thing in this mobile version).

I’ve also been enjoying fishing. It reminds me of my near and dear Stardew Valley, except much, much easier. Actually, most things in this game are pretty easy, even easier than I remember the original being, which is great as it means that I can be more focused on my goals than on trying to figure out how to master a specific task. I imagine that could get a little boring, but I’m not super far into the game yet so hopefully some things will become more challenging as you move forward. So far the most challenging part has been waiting to for things to regenerate, while not wanting to waste resources, or spend real money to speed them up.

This game is free to download with in game purchases. It seems like lots of people are into that, which I can definitely appreciate for games like Crossy Road (on which I spent way too much money buying characters… ?!). This feels more like a real game, however, not just a ‘phone game’, and I personally would way rather pay a set amount and just be able to play by earning things in the game. That being said I haven’t yet bought anything. I’m sure I will at some point, likely once I have a better idea of what the point of everything is, but so far I have been resistant to spending any real money on it (though those launch specials are looking pretty pretty pretty appealing).

Ok, so fast-forward a few days, I am still enjoying the game, but definitely have now found a few things bothersome. My biggest gripe is that everything takes so long! Not to say that the game is slowed down, but each task you do is for some reason accompanied by so many different animations and different screens that for a single task you are having to click through 4 or 5 pages. For example, this game requires you to craft a lot of furniture, because for some reason each character will only visit your campsite if you have specific furniture (Rude!). Well, every time you craft a piece of furniture you have to watch an animation of you fake opening a box and click through 4 other screens just so you can get back to the original screen you were on and order the next damned piece of furniture! Literally every single task takes time where you just sit and stare at your phone and wish that you weren’t stuck waiting to get through some pointless animation or dialogue so you can just keep moving forward with the friggin game!

Oh man, I guess I didn’t realize it, but that has been really bugging me. I even noticed today at work on my breaks I actually just ended up not bothering to play the game because I felt like the bored-waiting-to-get-to-the-next-screen to actually-enjoying-this-adventure-and-feeling-accomplished-by-completing-a-goal ratios were waaaay off. I’ve also noticed some bugginess, which I’m sure we all have, but every time I see that server error screen I have flashbacks to Pokémon Go, and I don’t wanna go there again!

Overall this game seems like a good game to pick up when you’ve got a little bit of time and don’t want to get too invested in something. I’ll probably still play it when I am waiting for the bus, or half watching TV in my living room, but it definitely doesn’t have me hooked the same way that New Leaf did, at least not yet.

I Don’t Know How To Play Video Games, But Here’s What I Thought Of ‘Super Mario Odyssey’

by Mikaela Maxwell

Geekscape has been a part of my life for about three years now (as has my Fiancé Derek). Turns out that Derek comes with Geekscape, and Geekscape comes with Derek, and the two are pretty much inseparable.

It’s been pretty neat watching Derek be a part of this community that shares so many interests – interests in topics that were for the most part so (sooooo) foreign to me. Through Derek I have learned a lot (and then learned again and again and again when I forget and ask for the millionth time) about a lot of these things.

Derek and this site have opened a door to a whole range of ideas that are so intricate and involved; I really do feel like I am learning about a whole new culture when trying to understand the ins and outs of this ‘Geek culture’. I still feel like I am just scratching the surface of understanding things like role playing games, graphic novels, comic books, superheroes, anime, and of course video games (just to name a few). That being said, I’ve also discovered that I quite enjoy most of this stuff!

And so here we are – I’m writing, and you’re reading, about my experience playing a video game. Who would have ever thought this would be a thing!?

In my head, it seems like everybody’s first video game memory should be of something Mario related… in truth mine is not. Now I could be totally mixing things up, but if Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis is a thing that existed, it’s definitely my first video game memory. I definitely remember sitting in my Dad’s living room button mashing the shit outta the controller and, according to these rose coloured memories, annihilating the competition using one of those wicked lady fighters as my weapon of choice. I also favoured Duck Hunt in my youth… and continue to long for its return all these years later (but unfortunately don’t have a TV that it would work on). Later in my teen years, my Mom’s house became equipped with a new-to-us N64 and a few games, including Diddy Kong racing, which quickly became a family favourite. That pretty much sums up my video game experience during the Pre-Derek Era.

https://youtu.be/GcoTSYSuoO0

The other day I started playing Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch, and I was pretty much instantly hooked! As a person who didn’t really embrace video games until much later in life it can sometimes be super difficult and overwhelming to get into a new game. This has not been the case with Super Mario Odyssey… except that it was literally difficult because I couldn’t exactly remember how to go about getting into a game on the Switch, or how to get into the game under my own profile (Derek, unwittingly, narrowly escaped me ruining his gamer cred by assuming his Mario identity). Luckily for him, through patience, perseverance, and a fair bit of swearing, I finally entered into the realm of Super Mario Odyssey.

One of the things that I really liked about this game is it doesn’t overwhelm you with controls. You start in a place (a level I guess… maybe a world!?) that does a good job of holding your hand through learning approximately five basic controls. Some of it is intuitive, and mostly it becomes intuitive pretty quickly, but at no point is it overwhelming to remember how to function on a basic level. It seems also that as you move through the game, and through the levels or worlds, you are kind of taught what you need to know as you need to know it. This was re-emphasized to me when I got to a more challenging area of the game and died like 10 times before deciding I should just move on to a different area, where I then learned the skills and acquire the equipment I needed to be able to complete the previously murderous task without difficulty.

That being said, I have become very grateful for the ‘Action Guide’ menu option (when I remember it’s there). As much as I appreciate the simplicity of the basic movements and my ability to function with that as my baseline, I still have a lot of difficulty remembering what the more advanced functions are. I’m sure that if I were to play multiple hours a day, many days in a row, it would be a lot easier to remember how to, for example, roll, which would make getting around so much faster.

In any case, that is not my life story, and as with most games, when I go back to playing I rely heavily on this type of menu to remind me of all the other magical things I am capable of in this world! I’m hoping that as I play this game more I will actually be able to remember some of these moves, and until then I will definitely remember how to get to that Action Guide (which is actually really straight forward, yay!).

I’m not sure what the proper term is, but I tend to struggle with games where I have to use two separate sticks to look and to move at the same time. In other games this has led to a lot of getting stuck in corners and shooting the ground while enemies kill me quickly. This is another point in the win column for this game –not only is the pace totally dictated by me, but when I’m trying to figure out how to move straight enough to get from point A to point B Mario spreads his arms out and looks like a dizzy little kid trying to fly and it’s basically the cutest. It’s also super helpful that randomly swinging the Joy Cons around makes you throw your hat, because when I am being attacked by anything swatting my hands while trying to run away is a pretty automatic (and somewhat effective) reaction!

As a not-quite-gamer I appreciate the non-pressure of knowing that I can set the pace without any negative repercussions in this game. That being said, as a not-quite-gamer when I am struggling to remember/figure out how to function/not die, everything takes For. Fucking. Ever. I cannot wait util the day where I can easily and quickly get through at least the simple tasks of this/any video game without my character failing 40 times first! (except for Stardew Valley, I got that on lock already)!

I often will also struggle with nausea due to motion sickness in games where I am having to use both sticks to move and look, mostly because my character is wandering around like a drunken sailor and so I end up feeling like one. As I have put more hours into this game I am starting to notice the sea sickness, but this is another area where I am hoping practice will make perfect and hopefully I will be able to rectify the nausea while also becoming more efficient at not falling of ledges or running into things.

Moving around as Mario is one thing, but you also get to throw your hat onto different characters or objects and become them for a period of time. This is a great mechanic, which I am really enjoying when I remember to clue into using it. So far, my favourite was stomping around as a big ol’ T-Rex, though that flying Bullet Bill guy was pretty fun too. I can’t wait to figure out how to become the bird that flies just out of reach in the desert world; it’s loud, and sparkly, and seems to go anywhere, basically it seems like the ultimate do everything character to takeover (I’m casually going to pretend I didn’t spend a solid 5 minutes bouncing hopelessly on a flower waiting for, then failing to catch the bird, and not even realizing until way later that the flower throws you way higher if you actually open it before bouncing…)

I also became a cactus at one point, but could not for the life of me figure out what I was supposed to do while cactusing.

One thing I have come to love about video games is the incredible variation of beautiful art in so many different art styles, and Super Mario Odyssey did not disappoint in this category! The worlds that you are immersed in are breathtaking, and all of them are different, with different types of creatures and layouts to explore. The place where I am right now is a desert that’s been frozen, so there are all these neat Frozen crystals throughout the landscape (super pretty). Inversely, the previous world was full of lush grass and a giant water fall with dinosaurs and vicious ball-and-chains (of the not spousal variety). I am super looking forward to seeing what the next worlds have in store!

It’s always interesting for me to play a game, and then to watch Derek play the same game. It’s crazy how we can be playing the same title but end up playing totally different games. On a basic level, he has way more experience using the various video game moving around mechanics, and so that part he just doesn’t have to think about. So, in a place where it takes me a full minute to creep around an edge and collect coins without falling off, he has scooped those coins in all of 10 seconds! But also, once he got through the first real open playing area and had reached the goal (collecting enough moons to power a ship) that allowed you to move on, where I had launched on to the next world, he took the opportunity to go back and keep exploring. This is when we discovered Super Mario Odyssey has soooo many hidden treasures to be found and goals to be accomplished! After completing the main task of that world/level we discovered new paths and entrances to secret tunnels, as well as new characters to interact with, and just so many more things to do. In a world where I was stoked to have collected 5 moons when only 4 were required, Derek discovered there was actually potential for 25 moons to be obtained! What this tells me is that Nintendo was really thinking ahead, and delivering a quality product to all of its customers; not only is this game totally accessible to young or new gamers, but it is also super rewarding for people who like more of a challenge to their games!

To sum it all up, I am totally digging this game. Like so many other interests, I feel like I have just scratched the surface of it, and I am super looking forward to digging deeper. I want all of the moons. All of them. I am also super looking forward to dying less.

A helpful tip for anyone getting into this great game: Purple water is not water. Do not try to swim in it. You will die. Every time. Immediately.

Keep an eye out for more from me, If I ever manage to stop playing this game, maybe I’ll write a bit about my next new (or new to me) game experience!

https://youtu.be/g4xW9aCg2zY