I’m coming down this week after a book release last Thursday. I didn’t realize how much different a book would be than a blog post. I know they’re different—obviously—but finalizing a PDF that people would download had a new level of finality to it. Lots of times with blog posts I fix things after I publish them. That’s not possible with a PDF. Once you put it out there, it’s out there.
Playing Super Mario World
We found out we could play Super Mario World from Super Nintendo on our Switch. I played it a lot growing up. The music instantly brought me back to those times, sitting on the floor in front of the TV, staring up at the screen and trying to beat Bowser. Those were the days where the controllers had short cables and required you to sit at an unhealthy distance from the TV.
I beat the game in record time (for me). It wasn’t as hard as I remember, but it was equally as fun for this almost-forty-year-old.
Playing Celeste
It was a game-heavy week. I purchased Celeste while I was full of confidence from beating Super Mario World. But my confidence didn’t last long. Celeste is hard—really hard. It’s without a doubt the hardest game I’ve played. It’s also one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played.
The music, colors, and gameplay were fantastic. The levels require a high degree of imagination and precision to get through them. I failed over and over. But that’s the point. I started levels that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to beat. But with each attempt I got better until I was able to pull off complex combinations of moves and finish the tricky level.
This experience of getting incrementally better surprised me. It was a nice experience, to fail and fail and fail until I was able to make a series of difficult moves from muscle memory. As a struggling perfectionist, I enjoyed being thrown into a world where immediate perfection isn’t possible.
The storyline for the game was great. It dealt with deeper life topics that I wasn’t expecting from a low-resolution platform game. I won’t share any spoilers there just in case.