PLAYING STUFF!!!!!! it's all old stuff because i never play anything new, sorry

- i'm playing crash bandicoot 2. it's so, so super much better than the first (and i like the first!!!!! a lot!!!!) but crash 2 is just, ugh the level design is surprisingly immaculate. i think the only levels i really haven't cared for are the jetpack ones, and that's literally just because crash keeps getting caught on the geometry at the edges in weird ways. but it just... it feels fun and surprisingly clever for an old platformer? and the difficulty is like, just at the right amount. i like it a lot

- i'm playing chrono trigger again. i don't know what to say about it that hasn't been said a million times over, it's just a really beautiful game

- i FINALLY beat ape escape. still adore it, still adore the soundtrack

- i've gotten really into playing weird versions of games i grew up with for some reason. i dunno, there's something about that contrast or exploring a pathway that could have existed but didn't that i'm really weirdly into? i just burned a bunch of Dreamcast games and one of the ones i've been messing around with is Sonic Adventure 2 -- you'd think i'd have nothing to say about it compared to the GameCube version but there are a couple neat things: one, the transparency effects, holy crap they add so much more than i thought they would. prison lane has this weird ass rust-colored haze, iron gate does this cool thing where the whole level's this moody blue then it TURNS ALL RED AND FLASHING and you can see the transparent alarm lights just zipping by the whole screen, green forest kinda has this green-blue haze if you look up — it looks fuckin good for a system from 1998. Battle's a great port and that's the version of the game i grew up with, but there's a bunch of just tiny atmospheric touches that were unfortunately lost (also Big!!! nooo). anyway secondly i just wanted to briefly mention that the Dreamcast VMU was a super fucking cool idea and i love VMUs that's all

- speaking of weird versions of games, Super Mario 64 DS. god do i have some mixed feelings on that version... um... the graphics and all the aesthetic touches are really neat? surprisingly good-looking for a DS game -- i thought i'd hate that weird blocky pixel look but actually for some reason i really like it in this game? and there's a bunch of cool-looking areas like some of the extra rooms in Peach's Castle and that weird... poison area with the Goomba Boss. but the controls, lord the controls. i cannot get used to any of the control schemes no matter what i do -- the strap has just become this forgotten peripheral and i can't find a DS strap anywhere and also i don't even know if the 3DS or DSi has a spot for one. so i have to use a stylus, but i write right-handed, so using a stylus in my left hand just feels... so... weird. but there's no way to switch handedness with standard controls, so you have to use the weird dual control thing, and even that doesn't really feel comfy and the touch screen is finicky anyway and... yeah. i just feel like there's a lot of missed opportunities here, too. like how cool would it have been if you were introduced to the fact that you start as yoshi by him just *jumping out of the pipe instead of mario*. or if that was a 2nd quest. the extra characters feel like they were shoehorned in as lame lock-and-key things instead of alternate playstyles that you can mess around with and you're rewarded with for going into some of the extra areas. all in all i have super mixed feelings. i'm still probably gonna try and finish it cuz it's mario 64




that's it as far as stuff i'm playing. there's more stuff i'd like to (re-)play soon:
- paper mario: the thousand year door
- zero time dilemma
- metroid prime 1-3 (never played any of them but 1)
- metal gear solid 2
- deltarune is still sitting on my computer taunting me...

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