So I played Super Mario Land, Mario Land 2 6 golden coins and some Tetris past midnight, checked socials later to find....devs of a mental health action shooter look forward to a health-insurance funded "golden age" of gaming?
Ummmm... yeah.. i'm not from the United States of America but I am aware that healthcare there is abysmal, I don't think letting doctors prescribe a subscription to xbox game pass would improve things.
I mean sure, video games can improve mental health, one of the games I played last night Tetris is a good example of that. But given how people are struggling to afford treatment, I dont think having your insurance front the cost for video games is a good idea. Still the FDA has already cleared it, we can only wait to see how it goes. Why not share your thoughts on it? Full article from PcGamer: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/deepwell-dtx-videogame-therapy-fda-clearance/
So now onto the games. I did not buy a NSO sub for this since I'm sure a lot of people would tell me to just emulate, though I dont feel like tinkering with my steam deck to do that. I played these on a 7-day trial for this post and I wont bother with a full sub, unless folks really want to see thoughts on the games available there.
Mario Land 2 was the first I played and I've enjoyed the game a lot in the past. Its just a neat lil mario romp for your handheld Game Boy and was the first appearance of that garlic rouge Wario. Honestly Mario Land 2? Easy as hell, most of the bosses take 3 bounces quickly and take no time at all. I can genuinly say the hardest boss was the three pigs in the toy zone since they take 9 hits in total for all three. The bunny ears that mario gets here? Probably the most op item in the game since you can jump high and glide a far distance, going back to the difficulty, the first level you go through to get to space zone? Once you get in a bubble just keep pressing A and stayat the top of the level as you go forwards, nothing will touch you and you'll get to the end.
Since I beat that quick, it wasnt quite midnight so I decided to play through Mario Land 1 since I played the sequel and its certanly a strange beast compared to the other mario games. I mean you have Egyptian sphinxes, ufos, easter island heads and exploding koopas. Come to think of it, Land 2 also had some out there locales and enemies with a tree of ants and bees, outer space with bad stars, a massive house with a zone name furries would appreciate, a halloween zone with voorhees goombas and japanese yokai, a toy mario with ball shooting pigs and a couple of levels in turtle zone where you go in a sunken sub and roleplay jonah in a whale.
If you played mario platformers nowadays, you understand they have a pretty traditional structure with their worlds: grass, desert, ice, water, fire etc. I guess since these games were released around bros 3 and world, nintendo didnt really have a formula locked in so for their handheld titles, they decided to experiment a bit and create some unique enviroments and enemies. Thats probably what led to Land 3 starring Wario himself instead of Mario, leading to a whole bunch of games with that guy.
More games need have a spooky world, only other games I know that have it are Sonic Adventure 2 with pumpkin hill and Sonic Heroes with that Castle. Donkey Kong 64 has Creepy Castle as a world and Banjo Kazooie has Mad Monster Mansion. What other games have a spooky level in them?
Anyway, Land 1 ends rather abrupt, you get to the end of world 4, shoot a cloud and then you're suddenly fighting Tatanga and then, credits. I know the game was made to go with the launch of the Game Boy but, I couldnt help but wonder if it was rushed, it was certanly a surprise even though I've beaten the game before. Anyway since I STILL wasnt past midnight, I decided to run out the clock with Tetris to round out this Game Boy feature.
I can play Tetris alright but I am by no means a tetris pro, barely even average I think, I get to a point where I get a few lines cleared, get dealt with some tetriminos I can't place properly thanks to rng and then it cascades into a game over. You ever hear of those Grandmaster Tetris arcade games from Japan that are uber-hard? Yeah i'm nowhere close to the folks who can play those games reliably. But I managed to run the clock past midnight so I was able to accomplish my goal regardless. Tetris is fine, its an iconic game that people know of and it'll outlast all of us, no doubt about that.
Hey you know that meme about "I want games with worse graphics from people paid more" meme? That was kind of the philosophy of Gunpei Yokoi who was the creator of the Game & Watch and the Game Boy, and that philosophy still kinda drives Nintendo to this day. That and DMCA the fans.
Thank you for reading this post on Midnight Gaming. Feel free to leave feedback and game suggestions. Anons are currently on. See you all tomorrow.
