Maybe because the last two games I played were Silksong and Baba, but when I got to the Old Tower part, it was legitimately fun to figure out where to use specific powers to progress and build a mental map. A tiny bit noseblind, but not punishing--welcoming even.

A discovery of depth.

Prematurely ended it at 116 dandelions, definitely going back. I will put the OST in the background when I need to channel being a confused little creature, which is often--but in a more productive way.

Aspirational, but IF we do find out by the 2030-50's I WILL be petty and call this year a bingo.

Saw a video about talking about a paper in 2025 about Ganymede potentially being evidence of dark matter by maybe being a victim of a hit and run (no, I have no idea what I'm talking about)

No.

The answer to your question is No.

Especially if the question is one word.

Beaten a few levels, cleared/flowered(?) a few areas, but have gotten to a point where like I'll have a momentum from solving one--

Then I'll open another and I avert my eyes like it's a beloved pet delivering grave news in a dream.

"That's something to unpack for another day for sure."

I love the animations for each and everyone, there's so much visual polish and character details.

I like the game. I just wanted to understand what I felt by saying it.

The game feels a bit heavier, but I think that's a bit purposeful and makes me want to improve. (Still it kinda compounds.)

And I would be more willing to engage with learning that as a dumb casual if I was just waiting less.

Navigating the menu is little bit of a pain in the butt.

Then in Arcade, I'm waiting an oddly long time between stages.

A love for that culture! The visual indicators for the tech make it easier to internalize. So you'll loop back to wanting cool moments from learning the nitty gritty faster.

So, Rivals 2 seems to go a lot harder into the technical stuff. So you'd think I'd be definitely exhausted by that.

Not really, surprisingly!

Yeah, I think the game is pushing for a more technical competence but that's the identity, right?

Never really cared if I was good at them but felt nice.

Usually, I don't want to get good at fighting games because I don't want to homogenize mechanics across games.

(I'm dumb sentimental, you seen my posts.)

Just wanna see a cool move and eek out a win.

The original made me feel like I was finally understanding the competitive side of Smash/Platform fighters.

I'm jokingly saying, "I'm going back (to crazy)," in a grim voice

I like this kind of humor, you don't have to.

My "hopeful alignment" for this year is to go full freak. Whole Dunning-Kruger. Especially in private, just waves of delusions and idealism without apology.

I think that'll give me stamina to be sane in public.

Also, there's more times it's inappropriate to be 50% crazy then 75% crazy, right?

I'd like to imagine someone sees me fingers pinching the bridge of my nose face down is like,

"Ah poor guy must gotten bad news."

Nah, he IS Baba AND Stupid

Y'know that wall of difficulty was a lot wallier then I expected.

I've been going through my day trying to solve this one puzzle in my head, like by playing it in my head AND IM LOSING

Baba is brain. Help.

So I either miss crazy obvious stuff I have to repeat, or intuitively figure out weird stuff and never really get why.

I'm having a GREAT time.

Like same issue with math in school growing up, I have to constantly reinvent the wheel (at varying levels of success) to remind myself why it works

The game has already made me babble nonsense loudly "No, 'Baba is you, is wall' makes Baba wall, but there's only 'Baba is you', so no Baba. No you."