Christmas Haul 2017

I received several gaming-related gifts this Christmas, and I thought I’d talk a bit about each one.

Doom

Doom for Nintendo Switch was the only actual game I received for Christmas. I’ve been a big fan of the Doom series, and I thoroughly enjoyed the old Jaguar/PlayStation/N64 games. But admittedly, it has been a very long time since I’ve tried a new one.

I haven’t played much of it yet much, so it’s too early even to post my first impressions. I was a bit turned off by the fact that I needed to download an hour-long update before I could even play it–despite the fact that I was playing the physical (cartridge) version.

And then once that was done, I found that it doesn’t allow you to invert the controller’s horizontal axis (only vertical). So without a control method I like, it’s going to take me a while just to get the hang of moving around. 😛

Pixel Pals – Raccoon Mario

Pixel Pals Raccoon MarioThis thing is really cool. It’s a pixelated figure of raccoon Mario (from Super Mario Bros. 3). It’s about 5 inches (13cm) tall, and it lights up (using two AAA batteries). It looks great, especially in a dark room. It makes me want to buy more of these Pixel Pals.

64 GB MicroSDXC Memory Card

This provides me with some storage for my Nintendo Switch. Even though I almost always buy physical games when possible, it’s always good to have some extra storage available for pics, videos, or digital-only games like Stardew Valley.

Now that I can get these files off of my Switch (without posting to social media), here are a few pictures I’ve taken this year.

Sunrise in Breath of the Wild.
Sunrise in Breath of the Wild.
The moon in Super Mario Odyssey.
The moon in Super Mario Odyssey.
There's no X in Expresso.
“There’s no X in Expresso.”
Splatted in Splatoon 2.
Accidental picture I took after being splatted in Splatoon 2.
Splatoon Amiibos

Three Splatoon Amiibos: Girl, squid, and boy.

I got the Splatoon Amiibo 3-pack, with the inkling girl, boy, and squid. Amiibos aren’t something I would normally buy with my own money, but they’re not a bad thing to receive as a gift. I can use them to unlock features in Splatoon and Splatoon 2, and I can also use them to get Splatoon-themed items in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. There’s even a Splatoon-based villager named Inkwell I could get to move into my town. I might not do that right away, but it’s a possibility for the future.

Tanooki Mario Figure

Tanooki Mario collectible figure.This one is just a small collectible figure that doesn’t really do anything, but it would look nice on a shelf with other Nintendo items and figures. The interesting thing (to me, at least) is that I got two gifts based on power-ups from Super Mario Bros. 3, from two different people! And neither of them knew about the other gift. 😛

Did you get any good games, accessories, or merch for Christmas? Feel free to comment what you got, and how you like it! 🙂

Stardew Valley – Evil Morris

It’s been a while since I’ve played Stardew Valley. That’s not to say the game isn’t fun, because it definitely is. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you just know that’s how I am. 😛 I often get distracted with other things, and I don’t always return to games promptly. My backlog is embarrassingly large. 😛

But I made sure to play some Stardew Valley last night, to at least provide an update before the holidays arrive (when I’m likely to have even more distractions). 😛 So, let’s get into it.

Day 14

I knew exactly what I wanted to do, so I made a beeline for Pierre’s. Once the shop opened, I went inside and spent my 2,000g on a backpack upgrade. I now have 24 slots to hold things, which gives me a little room to work with. The default 12 slots are mostly taken up by tools, and a few basic materials I didn’t want to completely discard. So now I have some breathing room.

I wanted to buy some new seeds while I was at the shop, but I only had enough money for a couple. One thing I don’t like about this game, is that a seed is literally just one seed. In Harvest Moon games, one seed purchase actually gave you enough for 9 spaces. But here, buying (and planting) seeds is a slower, less convenient process.

I then headed over to the mine, where I spent most of the day. It’s nice to be able to actually keep the things I find, now that I have space to hold them all. Once night fell, I stopped at the saloon before heading home.

Day 15

Today, I went over the museum and donated a topaz and quartz. For donating a total of five items, I earned some cauliflower seeds as a reward. After the blacksmith processed two geodes of mine, I also donated a petrified slime and some limestone.

Seven items on display in the Stardew Valley museum.
Am I making progress, ore what?

I again went to the mine and stayed until night. When I returned home, I planted some seeds and then went to bed.

Day 16

I made a point to finally figure out something that had been bothering me in this game: I didn’t know how to separate stacks of items! If I wanted to ship an item, I shipped the full quantity. If I discarded an item, I discarded all I had!

But the answer is to press the Y button while a stacked item is highlighted. It separates it into a separate spot in your inventory, and you can keep pressing Y to use the new spot as a new stack of that item. The controls in Stardew Valley aren’t always intuitive, but I’m glad I finally figured that out. 😛

I got a letter in the mail from Pierre today, telling me that he now sells fertilizer at his shop. He told me to swing by to see if I can afford a few dozen boxes. Ha! He clearly doesn’t know how broke I am, especially after buying that rucksack upgrade.

My first stop of the day was at the museum, where I donated an amethyst. Then I headed over to Pierre’s and saw an unexpected cut scene. Morris came in, and offered all of Pierre’s customers 50% off coupons for JojaMart! How rude.

Morris: Come and get it folks... coupons for 50% off your purchase at JojaMart!All the customers rushed over to him, took the coupons, and left Pierre’s. This dude is stealing customers and trying to put Pierre’s out of business. Apparently Morris is the villain of the game. But after he left, I noticed the back door was open, so I went through. Several women were gathering in a room, but a smaller room off to the side caught my attention…the altar of Yoba?!

Altar of YobaI’m not sure what that’s all about, but the women were apparently having an exercise class. They were jogging in place, stretching, jumping rope, and so on.

Robin: My arms are strong... *pant* but my legs need work... *gasp*I walked around town a bit before returning home.

Day 17

I spent much of today working on clearing up my property. I need 300 pieces of wood to repair a bridge on the beach, so I started chopping away. But once my energy started getting low, I went into town. After chatting with some people, I went over to the community center.

I donated some items and completed the spring foraging bundle. My reward was 30 assorted spring seeds. Also, two new scrolls in other parts of the community center were unlocked. So now I have even more work to do. Fixing up this community center is going to take a long time.

Crab Pot BundleIt was getting late by this time, so I headed home.

Just a note about my Stardew Valley coverage: While I will continue to post blog entries (although they may not be frequent), I’ve decided to stop posting Stardew Valley videos–for now, at least. There didn’t seem to be as much interest in them as I hoped. I may reconsider once multiplayer is added to the game in 2018.

But for now, I really don’t have a clue how the online play will work. For example, will time still advance as it normally does, or will time freeze when you’re playing with friends? Will it have USB keyboard support for chatting? Will there be multiplayer mini-games? If it ends up being anything like online play of Animal Crossing, it could be fun. We’ll see.

In case you’re interested, Amazon has a bunch of Stardew Valley merch, like this T-shirt and a Junimo plush toy. I don’t have any of the merch myself, but it looks cool.

Happy holidays, and I’ll see you next time! 🙂