Anb's Rule of Three
Baby's first blogwagon, I guess! Sam Seer decided to ask people with blogs about three games of importance to them, like if they were invited to speak on Chris McDowall's lovely podcast1. I honestly hate trying to narrow down things in small lists because my opinion changes all the time and there are just so many great games out there! But that's part of the fun of writing it down, right? I'll be able to look at this later and think about the choices of past me. So let's get into it!
The first one is obviously Rain World, even though I barely interact with it nowadays2, since I still think Rain World probably one of the greatest games ever designed. While other games focus the experience of "survival" into basically cramming your screen full of gauges and meters, Rain World makes you see and hear what your sorry-bottom-of-the-food-chain-slugcat-player-character sees and hears. It's about feeling completetly lost and hopeless, but it's also about realizing that every single NPC creature is also trying to survive and making a lot of mistakes along the way. The concept of progression only through player skill and knowledge3, the idea of simulating an ecosystem without becoming an overdetailed mess, and the ability of communicating to the player exactly what they need to know are unmatched.
The second slot should go to Blades in the Dark. Despite all the issues I have with Blades, it really opened my mind to how much fun a rules-heavy game could be. Blades' rules of discussing position and effect make the mechanical part of the game deeply rooted in the fiction and unlike the boring "but does my spell hit this far" conversation that I had to keep having in other games. It took me a while to really understand Blades, but it was basically the game that catapulted my interest in ttrpgs and without it, I wouldn't be here writing this blog right now. I don't really care for gangs in edgy cities fueled by demon blood and wailing spirits, but the Forged in the Dark rules give such amazing and interesting levers to play with that whenever I see a game mentioning them, I need to take a look.
Lastly, it's going to be the mandatory "I played Super Mario Sunshine twenty-four years ago and I still can't get over how lovely it is" paragraph. It was my first game and it fundamentally altered my brain chemistry into pondering ideal beaches and amusement parks which I will never visit - which is absurd because I don't even like beaches and amusement parks! I think Mario Sunshine does so much more with the Mario formula than every other game in the series, from things like the weird FLUDD-based level design to being the only mainline Mario game where the locations you visit are actual places with actual life in them4. The water in it still looks better than anything in any other game or movie released ever since. Sunshine is not perfect, but Delfino Island will always be my happy place.
I would probably honourably mention Pikmin, Mythic Bastionland and the daring concept of just rolling a d20 and making shit up if I had more time, but I'm sleepy and sick and dying from the heat. Looking forward to reading other peeps' Rules of Three.
anb
Links: Sam Seer's blogwagon invitation, Rain World, Blades in the Dark, Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Mythic Bastionland
I assume it's lovely, I'm not really a podcast person.↩
I'm not going to talk about the DLC and updates. It sucks and I would have to spend quite a few blog posts explaining why even though it's not good for my health. If you ever decide to play it, downpatch it to 1.5.↩
OSR moment?↩
Maybe it's my nostalgia speaking, but an empty Pinna Park feels more alive then New Donk City every single time.↩