Radical Disappointment

Slow and steady wins the race…


Especially if you’re challenging this
squawking son of a bitch

Very much an apt adage in many games that have rubber band AI in terms of their racing mechanics, as sometimes, doing too well can actually screw you in your hard fought efforts at success (see above with Banjo-Tooie). I think there is a fun life lesson in here somewhere, as I only hope the applicable idea of slowing down sometimes in order to get some better footing for near future pacing is a key element to successful levels of gratification in everyday affairs. This post is very much in the essence of that idea, and which is about the best silver lining I could muster in the wake of radical disappointment at the generally draining nature of the everyday.


Superman 64 just popped into my head for some
reason. Weird.

Yeah, not everyday can be a banger, and when one is at the end of a work week and feels utterly obliterated, one finds it difficult to operate at a regular baseline, let alone pumping on all cylinders. Figured I could still muster some of my last energy reserves to give it the old college effort for consistency’s sake. I saw something interesting the other day about Nomura discussing the possible end of the Kingdom Hearts series, to parallel his own nearing retirement approaching, which is totally understandable. Any successful game series is long going to outlive it’s creators working life or even their interest in the property, and with so many other visionaries in the industry working themselves to the bone cause they either can’t let it go or feel forced to keep going (see Yoshinoro Ono with the Street Fighter Series, Kojima with Metal Gear Solid, Sakurai on Smash), you’ve got to remember: these are just men when all is said and done. Let the titans find peace in their day, and finally give them a respite as they enjoy their hard earned spoils in the equivalent of gaming Valhalla.


They


Earned


It

This would be the time I would likely have some interesting deconstructionism of the Kingdom Hearts series themes, some wacky tales involving some absurdist challenge involving one of the games, or general insight into it’s impact on the industry as a whole, but much like yesterday with my interest to discuss Half-Life, my desire to muse exists, but the endless frustration that represents my ridiculous levels of exhaustion continue to rear their ugly head. I very much didn’t even want to get out of bed this morning, and I still have a full night of work ahead of me mind you, so needless to say, every last ounce of energy saved will be sanity salvaged in the very near future. I wish for you the very same kind of rest I’m going to be enjoying as my weekend inches around the corner. Having said that, I look forward to the coming days, as The Tokyo Game Show will be happening in the coming week, and I salivate uncontrollably at the idea of all the juicy gaming news that awaits us.

~Pashford