Your Friend Who Likes Games

I got an email from Nintendo last week promoting the fact that Super Mario Sunshine was now available to play in the GameCube collection of Nintendo Switch Online. I’ve known Sunshine to be a game of mixed reviews, and wanted to see for myself. I played about 6 minutes of it and got over the camera controls pretty fast. To my knowledge, there’s no way to change them – at least I didn’t see any in the options. On a whim, I instead booted up Mario Smash Football.

This moment of, ‘hey, why not, I haven’t tried it before’ has started to solidify the idea of a video game subscription in my head, but not so much where I’m jumping at PlayStation and Xbox with my wallet. But the, ‘I’ve already paid for this and have access to it’ creates a much smaller barrier to entry. Historically, I’ve enjoyed Mario sports games. They’re often a well-produced and accessible version of a sports game that anyone can pick up and play. My friends and I played the wheels off of Mario Golf: Super Rush on an every-Wednesday stint that nearly lasted a year. They’re usually pretty solid games to play with friends and others but not often deep enough to justify a full price of admission. And while I really enjoyed a weekend with Mario Smash Football, that former statement rings true in that I wouldn’t want to pay $50 for it. I feel like the Mario sports games could be justified as $30 games… either that or start adding more features. I’d personally love if they found a way to incorporate a rogue lite structure to these games that give you reasons to keep coming back and playing matches. But that could be just me, a person who has a bit of a tougher time with self-motivation in the playing of video games. Minecraft doesn’t work for me.

I booted up Mario Smash Football and jumped right into a game, caught onto the basic controls quick and played a tight match that ended with a 9-minute sudden-death overtime. Was pretty hooked on the action after that. I don’t think I realized how good of a game concept Mario Smash Football could be. I didn’t realize it’s more of an indoor soccer presentation. It feels like Nintendo’s take on the FIFA Street franchise. This game is a fairly simple, arcade-y soccer game that also offers plenty of challenge if you’re looking for it.

It’s interesting to play games of a certain time period and witness the tone and flavor that was presented then- then being 20 years ago in 2005. Wario and Waluigi have some choice dance moves – Wario taunting by smacking is butt and Waluigi mimicking WWF’s ‘suck it’ motion. The female characters over-sexualized a noticeable tad. The game’s flavor still had that edgey-ness to it that I feel was a result of pressure from Xbox and PlayStation to be tough and cool. It’s interesting.

I did the thing I always do in sports games and got stuck between two difficulties. What’s funny and also fascinating is that I got stuck between the first two – Novice and Professional. Novice became too easy that it was boring but Professional has felt unfairly difficult at times, but I tend to ask then, “What is the game trying to teach me?” I’ve found that in the Professional difficulty at least, lob-passes are essential. I still have a little bit of trouble mixing up the pass and shoot button. It can be such a twitchy game that I find myself pressing buttons in muscle memory patterns but not in ways that serve my current attack at the time. I end up then passing when I meant to shoot and visa versa. And making mistakes/giving the ball away can be very quickly punishing with a goal for the other team.

Super shots are a gimmick of this game that offer teams a chance to score a 2 pointer. To be fair, you need to be completely open and untouched in order to execute them, as you have to first charge your shot and then successfully execute hitting two points on a swinging meter. Again, all without getting tackled. They can be annoying to try to successfully execute and REALLY annoying to have them performed against you. The fact that the shot takes forever to happen with a very slow cinematic that twirls the camera around the shooting player twice. That act of the game’s, I think, creates a frustrating impatience for the player that may aid their vengeance and addiction to playing. It certainly kept me hitting A ready to get the ball and get ‘em back.

In true Mario fashion there are items you can use to throw at the other team to blow them up, freeze them, slip them up or simply gain the ball back. I found them to be giving to teams at a fair pace that was limited enough to stay away from getting annoying (though I haven’t played on the two highest difficulties). I also found it very fair that if you throw your 3 green shells, they can also hit and down your teammates as well. The items are not to the level of annoying I’ve heard the game-changing abilities of Mario Tennis Fever to be – in Mario Smash Football, you’re not covering the entire pitch with ice.

I can look at a game like this, see what’s on the surface and say, ‘yeah, I get it.’ But continual play and progressing difficulty can continue to show you what is possible within the game. CPU characters performing diving headers and bicycle kicks incentivizes me to learn lob passes into the box. Various passing cadences and shots from certain locations show me what is and is not allowed. And at the very least, Mario Smash Football is engaging from whistle to whistle. I’d be impressed if I’m patient enough to make it through each of the cups successfully. I’ve only won the first two so far.

My Mario Smash Football weekend was fitting for the return of the Premier League, and I’m happy to know what the game is and know that twitchy/engaging challenge is waiting for me when I’m ready for it.

One last note on longevity of the game… there is milestones you can be awarded trophies for through various numerical stats over time in the game. Apparently, I’m quite the violent player and have received a silver Paramedic Award for racking up a decent amount of tackles.

In regards to motivation to keep playing, there’s not much that is pulling me toward it other than the curiosity of whether or not I can win through the cups. But like I said, I know what it is and I love the gameplay, so when I feel like taking it on again, it’s there. 🙂

Pokemon Sun

Pokemon Sun is strange but I am continually curious of it. I feel like I’m more curious and interested in it than I am necessarily having fun with it, but that’s enough of a motivating factor to keep dipping in. Feels like a research project, curious about what type of Pokemon game was presented on the 3DS at the time.

The writing has certainly been one of my favorite parts, providing a slew of screenshots and laughs. There’s a kid in the early school trials that is very concerned with being strong. Wants to be strong because it’s, ‘cool to be strong.’ When you defeat him in battle, he then contemplates if he should pursue being pretty instead.

There’s a character that compliments your cute face and describes it as one that makes old ladies want to give you candy.

And as NPC’s just sit there motionless and frozen until you prompt them to say something, imprisoned to a world that only serves you, the player, I find myself very motivated now to see what they have to say. Because either through translation or just pure quirk of what this game was trying to present.. it’s weird and funny.

With these 3DS game purchases, I’m always curious of what 3DS gimmick they try to incorporate into the games. In Pokemon Sun, there feels to be a fairly forced ‘take a picture of Pokemon through the peephole’ feature that enables some motion controls and snaps of Pokemon that you could then share on the internet? Social media was young but very much underway in 2016 and the idea of snapping and sharing what you found in game was encouraged. The game even has a fake social media presence that has folks ‘comment’ and ‘like’ your photos. My first Pikachu photo received 1,000 likes. The game communicates that ‘like’ tally is then your new record and I can’t tell if that’s a high or low bar to start with.

Team Skull is cringy and hilarious. A group of white wannabe gangsters with constant urban hip-hop gestures are the over-confident, cocky, annoying but nonetheless entertaining antagonists. Looking forward to our many battles ahead.

Pokemon Sun doesn’t really force you into wild areas like some of the other titles do, and I found as battles were getting harder that I hadn’t really taken advantage of them. I needed to discover that the wild areas occupy urban folks’ front and back yards, which is funny.

The game is funny and strange. It’s not a Pokemon game I’m really taking seriously or finding that passionate connection to but I’m so wildly curious of what it is and what it will continue to be with the evidence and entertainment I’ve found so far.

Hermit & Pig

I was hoping this time would come before the year was over. There have been a few games this year that have come out and been on my list to play, but I hadn’t found the right time for me to jump in. My year has been very Switch 2 and retro focused to this point, and having played a lot of the titles I’ve been interested in, I’ve finally found some interest again in playing some 2026 indies. So I finally (silly to say as I played Earthbound, a 30-year-old game for the first time this year) purchased and started playing Hermit & Pig.

Speaking of Earthbound, certainly another contemporary game here that’s found influence from the 90’s RPG. The art style and presentation was a very early attraction when the game was first announced and I played a bit of the demo over a year ago. One of those when I played the demo, I didn’t play but 5 seconds and went, “I’ll definitely play this.” When it came out, the community I follow had warm words and praise for it. It was then affirmed that I’d eventually get to it, and now is that time.

It has a great amount of accommodations for gameplay adjustment to tailor your experience to the way you’d like to play it. There’s an Earthbound-like battle presentation with an attack timer and button-or-arrow input combos you have to execute on time in order to attack… but you can turn all of that off if you want to. You can keep the difficulty chill and more story focused if you prefer. I’ve chosen to rid of the timer to give it that classic ‘I get to click and choose when things progress’ RPG nature and I’m close to lowering the difficulty for battles to just allow myself to move through them and continue on. Personally, I feel the game’s chill vibe and presentation can clash with the difficulty they present in battle, but hey, it’s there if you want it which is cool! I think I’m welcoming a more relaxed experience with this one.

The writing has had me laughing out loud multiple times. Early in the game there’s a dude you wake up with a mushroom and claims he’s been found out to the point where he can’t live where he’d been residing. He says he’ll have to move in with you in a ‘non-romantic way.’ And I cackled out loud when one of Hermit’s dialog choices in response was, “I’m a bit of a non-romantic myself.” The game is soaked in that humor and charm that makes every interaction with a sign, item, or other character exciting in anticipation of what I’ll find a laugh in next.

It’s interesting and fun how you get to choose how awkward you want Hermit to be by the responses you choose. None of them feel completely wrong, however you may get dinged a health point here or there for being too cringy, but some of the most fun responses definitely feel worth it. You’re sweaty anytime you approach another human and when a conversation begins, the game literally throws you into the battle screen. I can relate. Not only is it funny, but gamifies the difficulty some more introverted people can have engaging in ‘simple’ conversation with others.

I’m very early on yet but I am excited to see how many times Hermit & Pig will make me laugh, and what the story will end up telling through its journey. I look forward to relaxing, collecting mushrooms and taking in the scenery along the way – all while tampering down the difficulty to match the chill vibes I’d like to feel throughout all parts of my playthrough.

Cheers y’all, thank you for being here.

Your Friend Dillon