Has it Been That Long?

Wow. I knew it had been a while since I'd posted anything on my blog, but I didn't actually realize it had been more than a year. The old blog has been coming into my mind a few times lately, and I finally decided to load it up. I'm not sure I'm fully ready to write much now, but there were two posts I began on 2/15 of last year still saved as drafts, so I thought I'd post what I started writing but never finished:

Post 1:

I'll take a quick tangent, since it came up, and since I never got around to blogging about it last year. My mother-in-law bought our family a Nintendo Switch for Christmas, partly because my daughter is her only granddaughter and her only grandkid that's under 20 years old, and she likes to spoil her. But she also knew I'd been dying for once since well before it came out

I'm a die-hard Nintendo fan. I was disappointed somewhat with the Wii U, a system that I always felt should have been better than it actually was. I don't think the core idea was a bad one at all, but I don't think Nintendo themselves ever quite figured out what they actually wanted to do with it. And they really seemed to be taking a step away from the amazing innovations that the Wii brought to the table. This generation marked the first time I really began to wonder if Nintendo's days as a console maker were numbered.

I followed whatever news, or lack thereof, I could about "Nintendo NX" for a long time before they finally unveiled the system with its official name and first trailer near the end of 2016. I was floored, and very intrigued. It was exactly everything that had been speculated for some time, but it was somehow also completely different from anything I'd imagined. I found myself getting very excited, and was checking daily for any further information clear until they had their full unveiling.

When they came out with the full reveal, detailing all of the features of the system and Joy-cons, I was ecstatic. I knew right away that I had to have one, something I never really felt with the Wii U (at least beyond my own desire to collect Nintendo systems). When I really understood how versatile and capable this system actually was, I was overwhelmed with an excitement that paralleled the excitement I felt when the Wii was first unveiled to the public. This, I thought, was the true successor to the Wii, as well as an appropriate successor to the Wii U. 

I finally have one now and am quite happy with it. The only down side is that I still have no money for games, and the hit games currently on it are too far out on my play queue (like Super Mario Odyssey) or difficult to justify buying because I already own it on the Wii U (like Breath of the Wild). But I've enjoyed playing the games we do have with my family, like Mario Kart and Pokken Tournament. We also got 1-2-Switch, which has been fun when we've had company over, and really helped my wife stay awake on New Year's Eve.

Post 2:

Since completing 100% on Dragon Quest III, I have been devoting time here and there to several different games. But truthfully, most of those games are also Dragon Quest III. I intend to do everything with this game that I did with Dragon Quest I and II, which includes playing through the remake versions and comparing them to the originals, and playing three challenge quests: a no-magic challenge, a solo challenge, and a minimalist challenge, all with the same parameters I used in these challenges on DQI and II. I'm also trying to take a few hours each weekend to advance my Hero Mode file on Skyward Sword, and I've been playing around a little bit with the Nintendo Switch demo of Dragon Quest Builders, which is very intriguing to me. My five year old daughter found that demo and has been playing quite a bit more of it than I have. It seems to be her new favorite game.

End Old Drafts.

I wanted to write about Dragon Quest III and the Switch, but apparently didn't find time to finish my thoughts on either one. I think I just had so much more I wanted to write than I had time and energy for, and I got tired of feeling behind on my thoughts, and life started pushing down hard around that time and for some while after, so I just kind of crashed and burned.

I think I really would like to start writing a bit more, but the time situation hasn't changed much. When I'm home, I'd rather play games than write about them, and I just don't have much other time besides my lunch break at work, when I usually end up napping and/or browsing Facebook.

But I feel like I'm coming out of a haze I've been in during yet another stressful year, and I want to start trying and doing more things, so I might just come back here a few times.