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[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl36 ~ Row 1 retrospective

Hey everyone! Now that I've completed Pokémon Yellow, the first row of GameBoy games (according to the roadmap I designed) is complete! Breaking up the games like this is helpful for tracking my progress, allowing myself checkpoints to mix up the pace, and also cutely arranging the games according to theme!

Alright gang, line it up!

If you can't tell, my inspiration for the rows and row titles comes from one of my fav games, Rhythm Tengoku :3

I'm just gonna say it; I'm proud of how I organized this whole challenge. I think this was a strong first row, both as an introduction to the GameBoy and as a healthy mix of different games.

I enjoyed playing this one quite a lot, too! Sure, there was a... lmost a year gap between when I finished Alone in the Dark in summer 2023 and when I started Wario Land 3 in late spring 2024. To be fair to myself, real life transitions were coming and coming fast. Playing WL3 welcomed a return back to comfortable routine. Then with Dr. Mario and Yellow soon to follow, I never had an excuse to be bored. If I owned these four games and a GameBoy and I had no other video games in my possession, I think I'd be entertained for a longgg time.

But that's not what this challenge is about, is it?! I've come to accept lately that I love video games too much as an art to limit myself to only playing a handful of them obsessively. I want to experience it all. Since that's impossible, I've settled with finding creative ways to play it most.

I'm super happy to have enjoyed the brief experience of playing a handful of GB games that a child in '95 might have randomly collected over several garage sales.

But I'm also excited to move on~!

~Row 1 stats~

Total time: 81.5 hours Rating: 8.5 / 10 100% completed: 3 games Favorite game: Wario Land 3

~Some screenshots to send it off!~

Pokémon Yellow knocked my socks off with the spritework sometimes. Badass. Also references real life locations for some reason??

Alone in the Dark jumpscare

I'm gonna play the shit out of the Wario Land series just you wait

See you in row 2. Thanks for reading!

~Lark

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl36 ~ Kanto Pokémon League HALL OF FAME

My Pokémon Yellow journey is finally over! I flew, biked, and meandered at a reasonable pace, with DUCKIE and her all-yellow team, all the way through the Kanto region. Having bounced from gym to gym for the final six badges, DUCKIE was finally permitted to traverse the caves of Victory road and then stand proud atop the Indigo plateau. There, she faced the Elite 4 trainers of the entire region, and finally, the Pokémon league champion!!

Well, as it turns out, BOSER got there before us, so we just had to stomp him and his team one more time. That'll teach him who trained the better Sandslash! >:D

(For the record, in the final battle against BOSER, my team was almost 20 levels behind his and we STILL handed his shorts to him)

To commemorate the achievement of beating a generation 1 Pokémon game for the first time, I present to you... a hand-drawn collage of my final team, each performing their signature move!

Welcome to the hall of fame, lil buddies!

SONG the Pikachu ~ Never was the strongest, but followed loyally right beside DUCKIE the whole way

WOMP RAT the Sandslash ~ Wins the award for most intimidating-looking Pokémon that only stands at 3 feet tall

MARYPLANT the Victreebell ~ Named after the great swampy U.S. state itself, it ended up being the strongest member of the team

RUY LOPEZ the Hypno ~ This creep is only here because I couldn't evolve Kadabra into Alakazam (affectionate)

JINXIE the Ninetales ~ Rescued from captivity in Rocket's casino and rocking the flaming mohawk, it was born to be a champion

GROOVY the Omastar ~ Integral to DUCKIE's final stretch towards championship... though only revived from a fossil in the very last hours of the adventure

~Conclusion~

And so, the chapter closes on what will perhaps be the longest endeavor of the entire GameGirl challenge. I enjoyed it, despite all of Yellow's shortcomings and limitations. The game delivered on a sense of fun and discovery and triumph that I can see why it was so popular in its time. It genuinely recaptured a bit of that Pokémon magic for me; I've been seriously considering picking up one of the Switch games just to explore the worlds and meet the lil critters they have to offer.

As far as Pokémon Yellow, though... how good is it, actually? It's primitive; it sets the precedent for all games to come, while also lacking many of the defining features we've come to know the games for. No physical/special split for moves, several types missing, no gender (arguably pretty woke :3), no running, tiny inventory, no post-game content, very limited color and sound design, and some questionable requirement for progressing. Dealing with the whole mess of closed roads to Saffron and also being forced to scour the Safari zone, of all places, to find a necessary Hidden machine... it began to feel like an arbitrary fetch quest to actually get anywhere. My game was also made harder by the fact that there are no yellow birds in this game to Fly with (not counting Zapdos, I also restricted myself from using legendaries :p). Overall, I had fun, but it was ridden with plenty of visual and gameplay monotony and soooo many vague game mechanics. Every single entry after this one improves upon it. Yellow feels like a beta version of Pokémon... but not bad for a first try!

Do I recommend it? Only if you're already a Pokémon fan. Otherwise, just play one of the remakes or, y'know, any other Pokémon game

Welp... that's enough Pokémon for a while! In fact, it's time for a short break from the GameBoy! I think I'll post once more about the row in its entirety, soon. Otherwise, I've got some other games in the queue that I'll use to take a load off.

I hope you enjoyed the art! ^w^

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl36 ~ UPDATE II

Capcom is a very interesting company. I'd argue it's one of the most consumer-friendly and accessible game makers when it comes to, well, letting you play their games. Very frequently, they will mark down entire series on sale, all at once. They've made a habit lately of rereleasing their old titles on newer platforms, e.g., Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (never before released in English!).

So yeah, leave it to Capcom to drop a bunch of sales on the eShop and then ALSO release FIVE MORE of their games not previously available on modern consoles, just this past week.

AND THEY'RE ALL MEGA MAN.

As you can see, I've added two New! categories, called Shooting gallery and Shooting gallery II. Numbered in classic Mega Man fashion, as well as cheekily referencing the Game&Watch game. Well, at least the rows are finally even 4s across the board again.

I should say that I have played Dr. Wily's Revenge before (see: GameGirl28 ~ Wario Land 3), and I wouldn't call myself a fan. The game felt difficult in a very artificial and frustrating way. Blind jumps into spikes, bullets bouncing off every wall in tight spaces, frame-perfect jumps over fatal obstacles, all the tropes of "Nintendo hard" games. I hope to learn that the rest of the games improved upon this design... or else I'm in for a world of hurt in those final three rows.

I'm super super excited to delve into all the lore of these GB Mega Man titles, though. New robot master pairings, time travel, pogo sticks... it will all make sense in due time.

I'm a huge fan of the Mega Man franchise, by the way, so it will be a great pleasure to experience four sequels for the very first time!

Until then~!

Oh, but before I leave you, a quick peek behind the scenes! Currently, still working on beating Pokémon Yellow. 6 badges down and I've just arrived at the Seafoam Islands. I also have art based on my playthrough that I plan on sharing here when it's finished. After that, to be fully transparent, I will be taking a short break from GG36 to play a different game, which I'll also post about. In addition to all that, I've been getting really into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe recently, studying tech and shroomless shortcuts and fun stuff like that. I wanna document my growth in that game as well, so that may also be a new series. To recap: Pokémon finale, art, GG36 break, and MK8D posting! Exciting stuff coming up!!

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.

LARXISM IS ON THE RISE.

<3

[the-larxist-manifesto]

Whatnot ~ The long road to Saffron

Welcome to Whatnot, where I just kinda talk about random thoughts I'm having at the moment. Irl I say the phrase "... and whatnot" a lot—but do you ever wonder what exactly the whatnot is? That's what this blog will be.

I love me a good, long journey. I don't always know what decisions will lead me to a worthwhile journey, but the best ones tend to arise from spur-of-the-moment ideas and just saying "sure, let's give it a try." For example, this whole GameGirl31 project. Nintendo added GameBoy games to NSO, I noticed how few of the titles I recognized, and I decided it could be a unique challenge to play them. It is now setting in exactly how much time this will take me.

Pokémon Yellow, for instance. I don't know this particular generation super well, but I understand the Pokémon formula well enough. Despite this, more than 20 hours have been dedicated to this playthrough so far. I've only earned four gym badges (five if you count the one I skipped, accidentally?), meaning I'm about halfway through the experience. Just stating the facts here. We can imagine what the timer will read by the end.

I'm actually playing a session right now, taking a break in the middle to write this entry. I left off in the middle of route 14. In-game, I've been really wanting to return to Vermillion City because, about five hours back, I managed to completely avoid fighting Lt. Surge and then leave without the badge I need. That being said... five hours later, I couldn't be stuck on the more opposite side of the Kanto region. There is no quick way back to Vermillion from Fuchsia. I can only press forward. And the next leg of the journey is... the long, long road to Saffron City.

So, I packed as many hyper potions and ultra balls as I could into my trainer bag, and then started on the road. The journey is so long that it's actually made up of 5 separate routes.

Map; for reference, the path between any two cities in the Kanto region averages 1 to 2 routes

I can feel the length of the journey as I begin dismissing the possibility of travelling back to Fuchsia City for the Pokécenter. I'll just have to rely on the resources I've got. The only things to be found along these routes are other traveling trainers and the occasional patch of grass.

I've complained in the past about this game looking kinda ugly, in the graphics department. The overworld sprites are quite simplistic. The colors are limited. Often, it feels like I'm just staring at pencil lines etched in a white void. Yet somehow, the simplicity of the landscape around me as I bike the miles of this road... a true sense of distance sets in. DUCKIE is so far away from home. She's so far from anything that even resembles home. Only passing blades of grass, bushes, a small forest, abandoned fence posts... lines etched into the world by nature itself.

And then I read a sign.

Route 14 / West to Fuchsia City

There's something very haunting about a sign that only points you in one direction. Dead end. One way. Do not enter. Or maybe a highway sign that names a city you've never heard of about 50 miles away. This sign didn't tell me I was going anywhere. It only told me the quickest way back to civilization.

For those who don't know, in my actual life, I recently drove over 3,000 miles across the United States—nonstop except to sleep and eat, over the course of 6 days. It was another one of those decisions that felt so much smaller when it was just an idea in my head. Then I got into the car and drove away from my house, for once with no intentions of coming back. Then I crossed my first state border. Then I passed one last small town. Then, only the lines of rock and shrubs etched in the world around me.

I saw a lot of signs like this one on the long drive. Route 14 / West to Fuchsia City. It's just a practical sign to put up. A statement of fact as to where the nearest market would be, for instance. Yet something about it ineffably reads like a warning.

Subtle game design choices like this leave an impression on me like nothing else. The developers could have written "Road connecting to Saffron City," like they did with every other sign in the game. They could have put up no sign at all. But they chose this sign. I don't know; that made this world feel so much more real to me. And once again, for the first time ever, I think the simplicity of the graphics in this game do a great service to the tone and worldbuilding at this leg of the game. The same scenery passing you by over and over again. Eventually blurring into abstract lines etched in the void. You have grown so much as a trainer, to make it this far all by yourself. This is what it feels like to be far from home. It feels sickeningly lucid to become so aware of the bigness of the world.

That's a feeling only video games can give you, baby! And that's why video games are art, as if I even had to argue that. But who knew such strong emotions could come from a game that looks like... this?

Go on, guess which Pokémon that is. I bet you can't.

And so, I'm actually pretty excited for the long journey to Saffron City. It is, after all, just a small part of the long journey to beating Pokémon Yellow. Which is, of course, only a small part of the long journey to play 31 GameBoy games!

Well, at least for these journeys, I don't have to sleep in my car. :p

That's it for this edition of Whatnot! Too niche for GameGirl, but stuck out too much in my mind not to write about. I hope to do a lot more of these in the future (including non-video game stuff, ideally). Ta-ta for now~

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl31 ~ Pokémon Yellow, pt. 1

Thus we arrive at our first large trek of this journey. A full-on RPG. Admittedly, it's my own fault I even have to play this one. Pokémon Yellow is not actually on NSO. But I happen to own a copy of it on 3DS Virtual console, so I figured I owed it to the legendary series to try out the very first generation!

My goal: become the Pokémon League champion. But leading up to that is a long, winding, blocky road. Can't wait to share how many hours this one takes me xP

~My history with Pokémon~

I have a... complicated relationship with Pokémon. My first game was White version on the DS, which was love at first sight. There's something very different and special about playing Pokémon games as a kid. Being allowed to name and raise your own captured critters and then excitedly show it off to your friends. I battled, I traded, I conquered the Pokémon League, I explored every nook and cranny of Unova. I spent HUNDREDS OF HOURS in this game. When you're a kid, that's basically your whole life. I'll never forget my first Pokémon adventure. I miss you every day, Pigpy... ;n;

But then... something... changed. I tried going back to FireRed, Ruby, and jumping on the hype for Pokémon X... but it felt different. I even got White 2 as a Christmas gift, but by that time, the magic was gone. I haven't played a new Pokémon generation since. For a little while, I dabbled in Pokémon Showdown (a battle simulator where you build your dream team and face off against other trainers online) and even attempted a few nuzlocke challenges (a self-imposed "hard mode" where your Pokémon must be released when they faint). At this point, I was trying to rekindle the magic. Find new ways to enjoy these games. Learn battle strategy, meticulously plan team compositions, raise the stakes to the point that I would have NO CHOICE but to care.

While those were indeed enjoyable ways to play, I've never felt the same about Pokémon as I did that very first time. In fact, my criticisms of the series began to outweigh the fun. Why is it so slow? So much throwaway, cheesy dialogue... slow transitions from overworld to battle... battle to overworld... more dialogue that you read only in hopes of an item or moving the plot along... leveling up is a drip feed... random encounters at every turn... punished with each loss by having to walk back to the Pokémon Center... then back to where you were... constant micromanagement of HM moves for traversal to each and every story-significant location... the cycle drives me MAD. Not to mention constant missteps by Game Freak in rushing out unfinished, glitchy products or otherwise ignoring the desires of their fans in new entries.

sigh

Okay... okay... general Pokémon rant over. For now. I'd love to talk about this game in particular. So far, I've been playing with an open mind. Let's see where that's gotten me.

~DUCKIE's journey~

Yes, I am following the bizarre convention in old Pokémon of writing names in all caps

DUCKIE is a young girl (we'll just say she's tomboyish (this game forces u to be a boy /.\) ) who, prompted by her sarcastic childhood friend BOSER, sets off from her small town of Pallet to see the world and collect creatures called Pokémon who wander all about the region. As she visits new places and meets new people, she learns of the esteemed Pokémon League—an organization of professional trainers that dedicate their lives to strategizing, raising, and battling Pokémon. DUCKIE earns her first badge in Pewter City, proving that she bested one of the eight gym leaders. From here on out, her goal is to become champion of the entire Kanto region.

Since DUCKIE is a bit of a fashionista, she themed her Pokémon team around the color yellow! Of course, this started with her very first Pikachu, gifted to her by the famous Professor Oak. From then on, she studied (googled the first 150 pokemon) and planned a route (looked up where they all spawn) to lead a team of all yellow colored Pokémon.

Right now, 14 hours and 2 gym badges into her journey, this is how the team stands:

SONG the Pikachu! (reference to the Pikachu song, OGs know what I mean)

WOMP RAT the Sandslash! (LEGO womp rat my beloved)

MARYPLANT the Weepinbell! (I KNOW WHAT UR THINKING, YES WEEPINBELL IS YELLOW JUST NOT IN-GAME FOR SOME REASON)

RUY LOPEZ the Hypno! (the author of works on chess, reference to They Might Be Giants song "Rest Awhile")

~Taking in the sights~

As we all know by now, Pokémon stands as one of the pillars of the GameBoy's success as the biggest portable gaming console of the 90s. For a game THAT popular, I'm a little... surprised... at the visual design. Okay, the thing is, the Pokémon designs are awesome. I have always always ALWAYS loved how every single artistic detail hints at their combat type, natural habitats, biology, even things like diet and mating behaviors. Tons of personality in their faces and stances, as well; it's even visible on the in-game sprites, which often lean into exaggerated expressions and dynamic poses (to make up for being a completely unmoving sprite).

However, it's the... overworld and menu designs that leave something to be desired. At least the text is pretty legible, being sized up on the small dot matrix screen. But the menus are very flat and strangely organized. There is a lot of information just... missing. Don't expect to pick up an item or learn a new move and actually understand what it does. In this respect, the game relies heavily on trial and error (and a great deal of patience). And wow, the towns and routes are just plain ugly. It's a tile-based overworld layout, so it makes sense that there isn't too much space for detail. Still, we've already seen several tile-based GB games that look shockingly good. Pokémon Yellow is hands-down the ugliest game I've played so far.

That being said, I do think the journey has had moments of beauty. For one thing, I adore the use of color. Unlike Red and Blue, Pokémon Yellow was developed specifically for the GB Color, and it takes advantage of this by giving the color-based towns their own auras. Here, I have a short scrapbook of the Pokécenters I've visited:

A very pretty palette of colors, like watching the hue of the sky change throughout the day ^_^

One more thing I have to point out about the visuals: seriously, these folks are GREAT at character design. Not only do the Pokémon all have their own personalities, but you gotta look out for their eccentric trainers too.

FREAKS, ALL OF THEM!!!! but I love them so much. ..

~To be continued...~

That's all I got for now! I'd love to talk about the Kanto region, how DUCKIE's story unfolds as she pursues Pokémon League championship, gameplay oddities, and more—but that will have to wait until I actually beat the game. I don't know how many entries it will take. 2 out of 8 badges doesn't seem like very much for how long I've played, but I think the pacing is just kinda weird? We'll see, I guess! Talk to you then!!

TTYL larxists <3

[the-larxist-manifesto]

The Master Quest ~ Super Mario Sunshine

Hello lovelies! In a post NOT related to the GameBoy for once (but still related to video games :3), I've decided I wanted to just chat about my recent gaming endeavors. And maybe explain what a "master quest" is, exactly.

~The Master Quest~

This is the name I've assigned to my interest and ongoing goal of beating and 100% completing video games. Bit pretentious to name it after the hard mode from one of the most beloved and important games of all time, but I digress. It's my own little thing, I get to name it. It makes for a snappy blog title too, so whatever, get off my back, Ocarina of Time sux anyway!!!!!!!!!!! /hj

I have a document outlining all the games I've beaten since 2017, that's how dedicated I am to this project. Although, it's not so much a project now as it is just a journal of my hobby. The original point of The Master Quest was to beat all of the games in my physical video game collection, but it quickly evolved to include games that I've borrowed and free games and games I've played through... other methods... so yeah, I just have it now to prove how much of a gamer I am. I've 100% completed 44 games as of this writing!

~Super Mario Sunshine~

Thanks to my good friend, Lynne, for streaming this game and reigniting my interest in playing it! It's, like, one of her favorite games of all time, and she knows tons of cool glitches and secrets and has the game memorized to a scary degree. Check out her streams sometime; she'll often play her favorite games with a twist, with many a fun fact to share at every turn! (You can even watch the VOD of the stream where I guest starred and (nearly) completed my game live!! :D)

After having played this game since I was in elementary school, I finally collected every single shine sprite and blue coin on Isle Delfino! To be honest, I don't think I have much to say about this game that hasn't already been said, so I'm gonna keep this a short and sweet celebration.

WOOHOO YAYYYY I FINALLY DID IT YEHEAAAH!!!!

If you wanna hear some of my opinions on theming, gameplay concepts vs. gameplay in practice, and maybe even a bit of us yelling about bananas, watch the stream VOD! >:D

Of course PACHINKO was my last shine...

Fake ending, where Il Piantissimo is teased as the next vandal terrorist villain

REAL ending, where it's party time!

REEL ending, where Peach catches a haddock

Ahh, the age old Mario game tradition; stamp your 100% file that you toiled hours of your life over with a silly little icon and award the player in literally no other significant way

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl31 ~ Dr. Mario

It's Dr. Mario time. We all know it. We've all played it (even if you don't remember how or why). We all are a little more than confused by its existence.

Let me briefly tell my story with Dr. Mario. When I was just a girl—at a time where my only video games were whatever random N64 and PS1 games my parents owned—I really looked forward to the occasional visit to my gamer aunt and uncle's house. Having extended family who are into video games is just the coolest feeling as a child, when all other grown-ups do only boring stuff like reading and fishing trips. During one fateful day out with my aunt, I was gifted my very own Nintendo DS Lite—the first console I felt was truly mine. An amazing feature of my silver DS, I would come to find, was backwards compatibility with GameBoy Advance games! And one of the first games I received to test it out was a little combo cartridge called Dr. Mario & Puzzle League

My actual childhood Dr. Mario & Puzzle League cartridge! (alongside my physical copy of GB Dr. Mario :p)

I'll be blunt here: I hated Dr. Mario. Its companion, Puzzle League, was (excuse my pun) leagues better, offering tons of single player puzzles, customization options, and a catchy as hell soundtrack—in addition to its multiplayer connectivity! Dr. Mario, sadly, only contained a couple of variations on endless mode; not much fun to be had for a child with no link cable to play with friends. Dr. Mario seemed too... simple. Only 3 colors? All you do is clear viruses? Nah, I was above this game.

And that was the last time I ever played Dr. Mario.

UNTIL NOW.

~Earning my PhD~

I began playing this game with the standard GameGirl procedure; playing a few rounds to get accustomed to the new environment, checking out the manual, conducting a small amount of personal research, and then setting goals to beat the game. The manual offered the usual gallery of fun official art and basic tutorial, but it didn't contain anything I didn't already know. That is, except one interesting detail that caught my attention.

Let me ask you a question that was at the forefront of my mind at this time: how do I "beat" Dr. Mario? An endless, arcade-style puzzle game with no story? The manual, Dr. Mario himself, had the answer.

Pay special attention to the second bullet point. I'll see "something special?" It's so ambiguous yet so enticing, and with such a difficult condition to discover whatever it was, I couldn't hold myself back. I knew that my destiny was to complete the game on the highest difficulty on the highest speed setting.

To do this, I put about 10 hours of work into practicing this game; matching colors, creating combos, managing junk pills, refining my reflexes, always looking at the next piece coming up, and then the one after that. I learned some very valuable techniques for getting far in this game. Always having at least one column available with each of the three colors is extremely helpful when you're given a pill (or, when you're unlucky, three or four in a row) of a color that simply does not match the current trouble virus. You must put care into placing each and every pill. You must be cunning to attack viruses from above, below, from the sides, or even a falling combo. You must be dexterous on the higher speeds, shifting pills across the bottle and rotating it twice in less than a second.

When I finally accomplished my first milestone, I was met with a scene I'd never witnessed before. A tranquil, wide open ocean floor...

The viruses sit there, watching the occasional sea life drift by. The sea appears so lonely...

~Dr. Mario master~

Yes, my goals for this game primarily entailed clearing levels at the highest difficulty. Specifically, I considered the game "beaten" if I cleared MED speed levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, and I considered it "100% completed" if I cleared HI speed levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. But what about the actual game? Was it fun? Worth becoming so competent at playing?

Unsurprisingly, this is the simplest and shortest GB title yet. I placed it here in the challenge as sort of a break from larger adventures, after all. The visuals are quite simple; beyond the initial gag of Mario dressed up in a lab coat, there isn't much to look at. The viruses do a funny little dance at the bottom of the screen, then get knocked over and blipped out of existence as you clear them. The game has a total of 6 unique songs: one for mode select, the iconic Fever and Chill that you may choose for gameplay, jingles for winning in multiplayer or setting up a combo of four or more, and then a special song for the special something after clearing one of the four MED or HI speed levels. The songs will easily get stuck in your head, and the special song was well worth earning each time I arrived at the bottom of the infested sea. The blips and bloops of gameplay will sometimes match up PERFECTLY with the gameplay themes; its like the composition is playing together with you, as well as being solid tunes that have been hummed by fans and remade by Nintendo for decades to come. They did a good job with the sound design, overall!

I guess my biggest gripe is... the overall concept of Dr. Mario? I still find it a bit too simple, even after all this time. There aren't many reasons to come back to it, if you aren't attempting the insane feat of 100% completion. The main draw of this game is the multiplayer and hoping that the satisfying falling-block match-4 formula keeps players hooked long enough to keep coming back when bored. But sadly, there isn't much versatility with the mechanics. Where other puzzle games contain a higher variety of pieces (Tetris), or greater combo opportunity (Puyo Puyo), or slicker visuals (Meteos), or some other wacky gimmick to keep you continuously exploring (Meteos again)... Dr. Mario falls short of a cure-all for boredom.

For the sake of this challenge, I did try out the multiplayer with a friend! A very cool feature of the NSO retro games is being able to connect with friends online, and play as if you were sitting across from each other with a link cable! In this game, you and your competitor (did you know that's what COM stands for? Competitor? Not "computer," as I always thought) race to clear the bottle of viruses before the other. The multiplayer does contain some unique visuals, including an indicator for how many remaining viruses your competitor needs to clear or how many wins you've accumulated (best three out of five).

Shoutouts to @br00f for playing with me! She beat me in a best of five that went all the way to game 5... and I have to call her Dr. Broof from now on...

~Conclusion~

In a vacuum, Dr. Mario is a well-made, fun, fast-paced puzzle game with some cool cutscenes and music to discover if you become skilled enough. Compared to other puzzle games, I find it a bit lacking in single-player content. I also think that the concept is a bit bare-bones, especially in this first iteration. Not much to accomplish beyond basic combos and managing three colors; it's almost too simple even for a casual player (as we witnessed in the Dr. Mario & Puzzle League anecdote).

Granted, I've never played the newer iterations of Dr. Mario. Maybe they've come up with more ways to shake up the formula? I won't be pursuing it anytime soon, I'm afraid; Dr. Mario just isn't for me. I can acknowledge it as a very important and solid GB title, worthy of being a member of the NSO library. That's about it.

Recommend? Sure, try it. It's probably as good as any other version of Dr. Mario

Oh, and I did manage to 100% complete the game! Check it out!

Look! All the viruses have been cleared away, the ocean flows freely with life once again~

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl28 ~ UPDATE!!

So, I didn't even really think about this when starting the whole blog thing, but yeah I forgot that Nintendo is actively updating NSO. I was logging in to play some casual Dr. Mario and a new update literally JUST DROPPED, I got kinda jumpscared ngl. I will indeed be including any new games in the challenge, so... welcome Alleyway, Super Mario Land, and Baseball!

They did kinda ruin the whole 4-game set pattern I had going on, and of course 31 happens to be a prime number /.-

Hm... I suppose I oughta change the name of the challenge to reflect the new total, huh? I'll change the tag to something more numerically ambiguous, as well. It's worth noting that the actual number of NSO GB games is only 24, even after the update. The additional seven come from my own collection... I may reconfigure this at some point, but eh, I'm okay with how this looks for now.

I'm skeptical about how fun these additions will be. How good could a game called "Baseball" on the GameBoy actually be..?

[the-larxist-manifesto]

5 posts!

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl28 ~ Wario Land 3

When deciding the first set of games to play for this challenge, I just HAD to make Wario Land my first heavy-hitter game. As a lifelong fan of the Mario extended universe, platformers, and quirky games in general, this series always spoke to me. The problem is... most of the games are stuck on the GameBoy!!!! So actually, I haven't played very many of them at all! Thankfully, I've outlined this challenge so that I hit all three of the GB games (after which I plan, outside of this challenge, to play Wario Land 4 and Shake it).

Why am I playing the 3rd one first? Erm.... anyway, moving on...

Wario is such a fucking creature, dude. I love how much they lean into that angle for him in this game. The entire tone of Wario Land 3 basically reads "shakily drawn feral comic book characters get into Looney Tunes shenanigans together." I'll be saying this a lot throughout the challenge, but for a GameBoy game, I was so charmed by this game's art style and presentation. Pictures are favored in the exchange rate with words, so let me just showcase a scrapbook of my faves

Like in Mario 3, this sun will swoop down and attack you. But since Wario is invincible in this game, your ass just gets set running on fire

Wario can destroy the natural landscapes around him in a multitude of violent and absurd ways

Don't fuck with Wario or he WILL turn you into one of those worm on a strings....

~A competent platformer~

Aside from just being pretty, I think the developers objectively made very efficient use of the small screen real estate. The objects, enemies, and Wario himself are blown up quite large to make room for detail and style, while also increasing the legibility for platforming and squashing enemies. I've played games on a WIDE SCREEN HD TV and had more trouble seeing ahead of me. In Wario Land 3, I almost never struggled to see jumps or areas of interest ahead of me.

This game is, after all, all about exploring. On this particular adventure, Wario is transported to a whimsical island contained inside a magic music box. His aim is to escape, but not without nabbing every goblet and gold doubloon he can. Search every nook of this unfamiliar land, find every giant key to open the treasure chests, and help restore the power of the music box deity in order to go back home with your pockets lined $$$$

The gameplay loop consists of essentially three phases:

One: Metroid-vania style level progression. You enter the first level sorta unable to do much at first. It's kinda funny playing as this worthless fat old man just wandering around the forest, until you just HAPPEN upon one of these giant chests which hold little powerups for Wario. As he powers up, he resembles the tough-and-tumble brawler we know Wario to be, and can start busting through blocks and climbing up cliffs that he could not when you first visited the level. When blocked off areas become accessible, the levels evolve into wide-open platforming sandboxes. It makes the adventure feel vast, despite the size of the console!

Two: Boss battles. Like most platformers, you will encounter bad guys way huger and eviler than the other ones, and you will have to defeat them set to special battle music. All bosses, save for the final boss, follow the rules of Three Hits and Hit the Glowing Part of their Body. Each one is a unique creature with some fun arena gimmick, making them a nice change of pace after all the jumping and smash attacking.

This soccer rabbit was a particularly memorable fight. Whoever can kick a ball-ified version of the other into the net three times wins

Three: Mini games. Well, actually, there's just one mini game. Golf! For a 2D golf game, I found it fun to master power adjustment and spin to conquer the various courses. There's even a secret course you unlock by collecting the special music coins! I LOVE me a classic unlockable, especially unnecessary ones thrown in as a fun extra goodie

... Para-Goom? Is that, like, a relative of the Goomba? I was not ready to be introduced to a Darwin-esque Mario universe evolutionary tree

~Reading the enclosed instruction booklet~

OKAY TIME FOR A BRIEF SIDE TANGENT!! Given how strange and arbitrary as some of the "puzzles" were in Alone in the dark, I ended up using a GameFAQs guide at certain points. As with most old video games, console limitations and lack of in-game tutorials make it tricky to blindly play GameBoy games. Sometimes, it makes them a matter of pure trial and error. I don't find that particularly fun, personally... so when it came to some obscure bits of Wario Land (what levels to visit next after triggering an event, how certain transformations worked, etc.), I felt a sense of annoyance growing in me. What were the devs THINKING? Surely they didn't make a game THIS OBSCURE and expect children to be able to beat it??

In that moment, I tapped into my very empathetic mind and remembered... game devs may not have invented tutorials yet, but they DID include manuals with every single game! That's right! Those little booklets used to be good for something. Really quite important, actually!!

With that, I researched to find an online PDF scan of the game's original manual. That way, without the need of external guides, I could understand the full context of the game! And I am not exaggerating when I say that this guide HELPED. A LOT. It's not like the game was impossible to play without it... but it was, quite simply, a worse game. I learned how to quickly replay event cutscenes, instantly check the next level to explore, the full capabilities of every transformation, and more! Stuff that was programmed into the game but that I simply didn't know existed. Neither me nor the devs would have wanted me to continue without knowing all this!!

As you've seen from some of my previous screenshots, the manual has lots of little lore tidbits and cool official art scattered throughout. It's like a little love letter to the game, stitched together by the developers to go, "Lookie! Look at this cool thing we made! Have fun!!! :D"

With this discovery, I have decided that I will be locating and reading the official instruction booklet for every single game in this challenge from now on. Not only is it helpful, but it's fun! Manuals have always been one of my favorite parts of video game collecting, so it totally enhances this challenge and gives me even more to look forward to as I go!!

~Conclusion~

My only criticisms of this game stem from my own bias against Metroidvania-type games. I don't consider it super fun to wander around the giant ass levels over and over, struggling to find one random block you couldn't break before. But I will admit, it's an economical way to maximize the gameplay in a modest number of levels and maintain a fairly high play time! That is, without abusing artificial difficulty or unfair level design... (looking at YOU, Dr. Wily's revenge....)

Aside from that: the levels look so good, the music is so catchy, and the powering up is so addictive, I can easily forgive a little repetition in exchange for the feeling of absolutely BASHING ENEMIES SKULLS IN and KNOCKING THEIR BONES TOGETHER LIKE PINBALLS with how absolutely beefed up Wario becomes later on

It's a classic for a reason. I am definitely turned on to the Wario Land series now, and I can't wait to see how they all build off each other as a franchise! Shame Wario only seems to star in minigame collections now... which only serve to kill our chances at a new Rhythm heaven game..... >:{

((jk I luh waryo where <3))

Check out this lil medley of the game's soundtrack, made by our very own SiIvaGunner team! :D

Phew, that was a long one...

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl28 ~ Alone in the dark: The new nightmare

Check out that dramatic box art! It evokes such deep mystery and fear of the hazy unknown... that you truly cannot believe that a game on the GameBoy is capable of delivering on this promise. Were you right?!

~Well, were ya?!~

Yes. Allow me to explain.

The basic premise of this game is a fixed-camera survival horror a la classic Resident evil, focusing on ammo and health management, pursuing the killer of your best friend, and searching the reclusive Shadow Island environments for clues. Of course, the mission convolutes when you discover supernatural, undead forces riddle the places that you traverse—forests and ruins and laboratories that you investigate to eventually catch the true culprit. Sounds like a fairly promising story. The problem is... well... this game is on the GameBoy. You can imagine that dynamic interactions with the environment, combat with monsters, and a strong horror atmosphere would pose quite a challenge to a developer on a dot matrix screen the size of your watch.

I am disappointed to report that THQ Nordic did not quite live up to the challenge. When you encounter a zombie or a spider or, actually, ANY kind of enemy, you are transported to the exact same top-down combat screen. Here, you are expected to maneuver your heroic Carnby to spam the shoot button; and when five shots somehow isn't enough, he turns around so sluggishly that you end up taking damage from the back. There are three different weapons to choose from... they each have different ammo and deal slightly different damage, but otherwise there is no difference in fire rate or effectiveness. So the resource management is a bit superficial, too. The combat feels so much like a cheesy arcade game with no suspense or horror at all that I dreaded every single encounter... not the good kind of dread, in this case. -.-

This is a shame because, to be honest, there was one aspect of the game that impressed me and I continuously looked forward to (and was probably the only thing keeping me going through this three-hour excursion).

~The visuals~

When it was revealed that GB games were coming to NSO in that fateful Nintendo Direct, Alone in the dark immediately caught my eye as a game I wanted to play. You might argue that it was THIS GAME ALONE that motivated me to even attempt this challenge; to see what the GameBoy is truly made of.

Take a look at this.

THIS GAME LOOKS REALLY GOOD WTF?!???! I mean, yeah, it's a little crunchy because of the resolution. But are you seeing what I'm seeing?? Fully 3D environments to explore. Painted with the complete spectrum of the GBC color palette. Dynamic camera angles that set the mood for every scene. I caught just a glimpse of this visual style in the trailers and knew that I may have underestimated the capabilities of this console.

Of course, this excitement was quickly cut short by the sluggish controls and monotonous gameplay loop. In a way, I judged a book by its cover two times in a row. First when I thought all GameBoy games had to look ugly and primitive. Then again when I thought a good-looking game also meant a fun game to play.

~Conclusion~

By the end of the 2 hours and 37 minutes I spent on this game, I still felt somewhat enriched by the experience. The graphical feat accomplished here isn't to be disregarded; props to the developers for that. However, I also enjoyed almost none of the gameplay. It was either really boring and quiet moments of figuring out which background object to press A on to move the story forward, or these sudden combat sequences that forced me to reset over and over again as Carnby was devoured alive by beasts that his little legs couldn't outrun. The dialogue and story, by the way, were quite shallow. Dialogue in GB games show a pattern of suffering from the limitations of text legibility and memory. I hope a future GB game will prove to me one day that a competent story can actually be told on this thing.

Anyway, playing this game was maybe a half hour's worth of exploring these gorgeously creepy 3D paintings of a spooky-ooky mansion, and the rest of the time wading through overly simplistic gameplay drivel.

Recommend? No X

[the-larxist-manifesto]

Thoughts on this image I found on google?

Reminds me of certain people I could name 🤔

[the-larxist-manifesto]

The larxist manifesto ~ Greetings!

Welcome to my blog!! If you are reading this, you are probably one of my friends that I've linked to my new Tumblr blog. Blogging is a very new concept to me, so please bear with me as I find my voice and figure out formatting >w<

For as long as I can remember at this point, I've been typing long-winded rants on my computer about the random topics that are on my mind—from linguistics to video game reviews to venting about everyday annoyances. Until now, those were only available to myself in the form of my private journal. But after many Discord info dumps that I put way too much effort into, only to be scrolled off the screen in about five seconds of chatting, I've decided I wanted a more permanent and creative way of sharing my thoughts and interests with those I care about! So basically, if you've enjoyed me rambling on about random stuff in the past, you will probably like this blog :}

Oh, you're wondering about the banner and profile picture? The pfp is based on the box art from a game called Doga de puzzle da Puppkupu, an obscure PS1 game by a now-defunct game company called Argent. This company and the mystery around its existence has been a deep fascination of mine for years now. I've created a lot of stuff based on their properties, like my original character (OC) named Taizen Asobi. He's a Nintendo DS game case with eyeballs :3

My banner image relates to Argent as well—a welcome image from the old home page for the company, which also developed one of my favorite DS games of all time, Clubhouse Games. Don't worry, I'll explain all the lore more thoroughly at a later time.

As of right now, one of the main focuses of this blog will be the project mentioned in the previous post: GameGirl28. This challenge kicked off the whole idea of me blogging in general. I play a lot of video games. I love them as an art form, a social activity to connect people, and a fun pastime. Often, I will step away from playing a game and find my head absolutely swimming with commentary and criticism and highlights and funny moments to reflect on. Until now, I usually did all this reflection alone. But now, I have an outlet to share it all with my loved ones! Since this challenge is driven by a specific purpose and will indeed challenge me a lot, it's the perfect way to kick off my little internet journal here.

Also, I hope this will be a way to chat more with folks about stuff I'm interested in! So if you're particularly curious about the topics or what I have to say about them, always feel free to reach out to me! Anything from a Lincoln-Douglass style debate to hyper fangirling over shared media interests, I'm down for it!!

Get ready to crack open the manifesto! Flip through the pages of my deranged mind that the world wasn't quite prepared to witness... until just now. You are no longer safe from the influence of larxism. You will convert.

<3

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl28 ~ Conquering the NSO GameBoy library

Okay... so... Hello! This is my cool and awesome gaming blog where I'm gonna write my thoughts on my current gaming excursions, because I type really fast and I have a lot to say and I love video games!!

Here marks the inaugural post in a series I like to call:

~GameGirl28~

~The premise~

I grew up playing and loving Nintendo games. However, there lies a blind spot in my history with them right about where the GameBoy existed. I was too young when it was still getting games to appreciate or be any good at beating them, but only grew into gaming as a hobby when the GameBoy was considered extremely uncool. By the time I was going to the shop to pick out my own games for getting good grades in school, it was all about GBA and DS games for me. The GameBoy, as I famously say, lies slouched in the corner as the poopy predecessor to a golden era of portable gaming. I've never taken the thing seriously, and I think it's about time that I change that.

~Why now?~

When the Nintendo Switch Online service added GameBoy (GB) to the growing list of retro games, I thought for the first time that the subscription was worthwhile. It's one of the most accessible ways Nintendo has ever allowed fans to play a sampling of games fundamental to their success as a company today. Seriously, there's never been a good way to play GB before. No one's paying $5 a pop for an old game on 3DS that doesn't even have color. But now, anyone can play 21 of the GB's games whenever they want, on-the-go as originally intended, for a measly $20 a year. Since I was already paying for the service to smash noobs in Mario Kart and play SNES Yoshi's Island, I figured now was the time for the little gray box to shine.

~GameGirl28?~

You're probably wondering why the name of this project sounds like a username you might see in the YouTube comments 10 years ago under an AMV of Pikachu dancing to Butterfly.

Well, the name has a pretty simple meaning. I'm playing the GameBoy. But I'm a girl, so I gotta yassify the name. And, as of right now, I will be playing 28 total GB games. That number comes from the 21 offered by NSO, in addition to 7 other GB games I happen to own after years of collecting video games. Yeah. Seven. You can probably tell how much I cared about this console until now. I own almost 500 video games total btw the GB doesn't even make up 2% of that

Here's a little visual guide to which games I'll be playing, in order!

As for this particular order, I grouped them up loosely according to theme as well as pacing out the kinds of games I'd be playing. Since the challenge is to beat an entire library of games, there will be games that I hate, or even objectively horrible games, sprinkled in there. So, generally speaking, each row contains a little mix of every type of game. For example, "Precursor to greatness..." includes an adventure game somewhat familiar to me (Zelda), a fun, breezy, and familiar romp (Kirby), an adventure game completely new to me (Castlevania), and another easy one that I have a history with (Wario Land). The goal is to keep the challenge fresh by flowing between the new and the familiar, spacing out the stinkers with the classics, and escalating the excitement as I progress further!

~Conclusion~

This blog, my larxist manifesto, will be for more than just posting about GB games. Posts about this challenge in particular will be titled as such, and I'll probably make more cute accompanying graphics to illustrate how far along I am as well. Actually, as of right now, I'm almost all the way through "Welcome to GameBoy!" I'll make some recap posts very soon about that. So yeah, if you are also curious about a console essential to video game history that has been kinda swept under the rug (or you just wanna see me go off on fiery rants and post funny screenshots), look out for future updates!

And if you wanna see what other manner of silly things I can yap about forever, stay tuned! My next post will be sort of an overview about why I'm even blogging in the first place. ^^