If Little Big Planet for the PS3 and PS4 ever get a proper sequel or remaster, or the Restitched developers ever actually put out that spiritual successor it would be a no-brainer. It was a magical game series for me that was not only very fun to play but also inspired creative and logical thinking with the intricate community level maker tools built into the game. Especially LBP2 with its logic gate and microchip implementations. When I took real engineering classes I was familiar with many high level concepts just because I screwed around with them in a video game as a child. Crazy.
It was also a very cute and well done aesthetic. The gorgeous background enviroments and the little sack boy character you play as. The vibrant collection of music. It was very unique.
Favorite: Steam Deck, it’s my favorite piece of gaming hardware I’ve ever owned. The controls are fantastic, it’s now frustrating to use other controllers that don’t have back paddles, gyro, or track pads.
Least favorite: cheap off-brand controllers, with bad tactile buttons, sticking buttons, analog sticks that drift, analog sticks that only register 8 directions, etc.
Also, Wii U. I have some mixed feelings on it because I have some good memories with the system, but the hardware never paid off. Their were almost no games that made use of the gamepad screen in a way that wasn’t just a gimmick, generally the only real advantages of it were being able to play on a handheld screen while the TV was being used (a feat that the switch and steam deck so far better) and being able to have split screen multiplayer where the players can’t see each other’s screen (limited because you only have 1 game pad, and the deck struggles to do two different rendered screens for many games, with games like Hyrule warriors having to cut the enemies in half when doing split screen).
Nintendo DSi - The DS just had such an incredible library, with tons of unique titles you could never experience elsewhere. Though the sad thing about how unique it was is that... you can't properly experience a lot of these titles elsewhere. Emulation just isn't the same. While it came out very late and wasn't worth upgrading to if you already owned an earlier model, the DSi was a very nice and sleek evolution on the hardware. Much more softmod-friendly too.
Miyoo Mini Plus - Bought this last year on sale as an impulse buy. Ended up liking it so much I wish I'd bought a more expensive model with analog sticks. My ultimate dream is to someday get something that runs SteamOS in this form factor.
My custom built fightstick - Put this together last year to replace my old Hori RAP4. Really happy with how it turned out! Love the GP2040-CE, I used to have to go through an adapter to use the HRAP4 on Switch and I can feel the difference not having that added latency anymore.
Hard for me to name least favorites, because I haven't owned a system I actively disliked, and I don't wanna just say CD-i or N-Gage or whatever. But I guess I'll list ones that I have mixed feelings on:
Wii - The Wii had a few great games. It also had a lot of duds. The saddest thing about it is how many games had to shoehorn waggle gimmicks in, and how few of them actually did it well.
Steam Deck - As a Linux nerd that wants to see the platform grow, I love that the Steam Deck exists. It's arguably the most important thing that has happened to Linux gaming. It just isn't for me at all. It's too big to be a handheld, I grew up on a Game Boy Color and I still love curling up with handhelds in bed, but this doesn't feel cozy to play with at all. I do occasionally use it + dock as a portable setup I can take to FGC events, or when I have guests I'll sometimes hook it up to the TV for Jackbox, but it mostly gathers dust the rest of the time.
Switch - Great library, and the hybrid form clearly worked out for Nintendo just because they don't have to divide their output between two platforms. But like the Deck, it's not what I want in a handheld, mine doesn't leave the dock. It's also rather frustrating how many bad ports the system got, I wish developers would simply stop trying to port games it clearly can't handle - especially when there are plenty of older titles in their back catalog that I'm sure could have good ports but get overlooked. And don't get me started on JoyCons!
Them's Fightin' Herds - Glue Cup was short on commentators this week, so I volunteered to fill in. Been a long time since I've done proper commentary, honestly missed it a lot.
Kitsune Tails - Cute little platformer, but maybe a little too on the nose in just how much it copies from SMB3. I think they didn't need to put Kuribo's Shoe in there.
Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers - Liked the demo a lot, but my opinions are already a little more mixed on the full version. It has cool ideas, but it feels like there's just not enough player agency, and a lot of ways to get stuck in stalemates. Maybe I need to give it a little more time to figure out strats I'm missing.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - Casual practice, no cool clips worth sharing this week. Or maybe I just don't feel like dumping my SD card right now.
Splatoon 3 - Also just practice sessions.
Slay the Spire - The usual.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Running out of things to say here.
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