The First Annual Mark’s Game Space Awards
It’s been a rough year, to say the least. We are currently in an unprecedented time, and a pandemic still rages across the globe. But, this time has afforded me the opportunity to work on this blog and refine and sharpen my skills as a writer, so that’s an awesome thing. I’ve discovered this is what I am meant to do with my life and I’m singularly focused on growing and improving and putting in the work, and I think whoever reads these will see that the effort is there. Before we get to my awards for this year, for the best games and whatnot, I’m going to highlight posts that I’m particularly proud of, for one reason or another.
I had wanted to do something like this for about 2 years, and on May 15th, 2020, I dove headfirst into it, with an introductory post I had started in January:
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/now-youre-playing-with-power
All things considered, it’s not too bad for a first post, and it outlines a purpose: create an environment where we can talk about games honestly and with positivity. Sometimes, I get down on myself as a critic, and think I’m not as hard on games as I need to be, but this comes down to my disposition I think. I’m not cynical, and I usually enjoy the games I play. The offenses a game commits have to be particularly egregious and noticeable for me to consider them unforgivable. Games are supposed to be fun, and I usually have fun when I play games. My job is to tell you whether a game is worth your time, and usually it is. Because I buy these games based on whether or not I would enjoy them. And then my job becomes telling you why I enjoy it. If I can do that, and if it can be enjoyable to write and to read, then I can consider it a success.
What’s not a success is this one, my first Kingdom Hearts Review:
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/kingdom-hearts-retrospective-part-1
It was started in February of 2019, as a Google Document, and it shows its age, let me say that! It’s overly long, has no pictures, and uses way too many words to make its points. What was planned as a 3 part series didn’t turn out that way because of technical issues, and it will remain as 1 part, because I don’t feel like subjecting you all to my old stuff.
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/animal-crossing-new-horizons-review
This one is pretty good! It was brought about after a friend of mine requested more images, and video to make my points. Thanks to the Switch’s ease of use for capturing screenshots and getting them on my computer, I was easily able to place the screenshots where I wanted to in my review. I think it’s better for you guys to be able to see the personality and charm of the game firsthand, and it illustrates exactly why I love the game.
After this, I wanted to do a review of Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, for the Switch. I think it’s fantastic, due to the level of detail and care put into each of the games. It’s also been a great learning tool for me, learning how to play new games from all over the world. But I had to change the format of it so many times. Originally it was going to be my thoughts on all 51 games, as I took screenshots of each, but that was too much. I then got really frustrated, and discouraged. It wasn’t fun for me to do all 51 games, and I was stumped as to how to continue. My thinking went “if I change, who will care? Nobody is reading anyway. I’m never going to blow up and get the views I want”! My mom, who has been incredibly supportive of me throughout this, helped me realize that if I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t give my best effort, and people will read my content no matter what. Because it’s good, I enjoy writing and I need to do this! I’m meant to do this with my life I never want to stop writing about what I love and what I believe in. Enter probably my favorite thing I’ve written this year, my 2 part Retrospective on the Muppets:
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/the-muppets-an-appreciation
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/the-muppets-an-appreciation-part-2
The Muppets have been my comfort thing for this year. And this writing is really good because there was very little pressure on me. And whatever pressure there was, led to positivity, because the Muppets are inherently free of cynicism and bitterness. It was exactly what I needed to refocus for the rest of the year. I didn’t upload for a month because I was looking for my microSD to SD adapter. Turns out it was right near where I kept my consoles the whole time! But, all the while, I was working on probably the best game related writing I did for this year:
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/animal-crossing-new-horizons-part-2
My favorite part of the whole process has been seeing how a post comes together. The writing is one thing, but the screenshots and videos are my personal favorite, because I’m playing, but I can still claim that it’s work! Because it is, and it’s very enjoyable work, which enhances my points, and I think this post is emblematic of when everything goes right!
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/the-console-wars-in-review
This combines my 3 favorite things: Games, Writing and History. It begins in 1990, when the Sega Genesis was released, because that’s when Sega ramped up their aggressive marketing campaigns, and ends in the here and now. It was fun to go back and do research, and see whether I could find any common threads among the big 3 console manufacturers, and as it turns out, there were quite a few! I might do a few more histories in the future, considering how much I enjoyed this one. My next post was actually pretty straightforward: a Mario Kart 8 Review that I had sitting around pretty much done since August, and in October I added the images and some last second polish, and it turned out pretty good!
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/mario-kart-8-review
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/lets-go-back-and-playnew-leaf-and-wild-world
This one was fun, because my curiosity and desire to make the most fun things to read compelled me to buy the 2 Nintendo DS Animal Crossing games. And this one was a fun one to make! It was the first in what I think will become a long-running series, and I can’t wait to do the next one!
https://www.marksgamespace.com/blog/pga-tour-2k21-review
This was my first PS4 game review! Trust me when I say, this was an arduous process, requiring first the purchase of a flash drive, and then reformatting the drive who-knows-how-many times, getting frustrated, rebuilding the console’s database, and stopping short from initializing the system, which would erase all the data. What I had to do was create a Twitter account and upload the screenshots I took on the console to that Twitter account! Like I said, it was a process, but I got it done, and it provides a blueprint for future PS4 Game Reviews, and maybe PS5 if I get my hands on one sometime soon, though I suspect and would hope the blueprint changes!
Now, it is time. I’ve played a great deal of games this year, most old, some new. But there can be only one best game! I’ve been split on whether or not to do this in just one category or break it up into multiple categories. I think, in the best interest of my audience, I’ll only award Game of the Year, though in the future we might expand if my audience grows. So, the nominees for Game of the Year are as follows:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
I wouldn’t have over 450 hours on this game if I didn’t enjoy it. While some people got bored of it within 2 weeks, I didn’t! In fact, it’s become almost a daily ritual after my writing to fire it up and check on my villagers and my island and see how they’re doing. Talking to my villagers and giving them gifts and seeing what they’re up to is one of my favorite parts of the game. Sure they don’t have the rude, rough edge that they possessed in older games, but they make me happy, and it’s fun to witness their outlook on their lives! I’m also taking the time to customize my island, not to the extent that others are but I’m trying. And since launch, it has been updated to reflect the seasons and add new fish and bugs to catch! I cannot wait to see what other updates are in store, and to celebrate and hang out with my villagers and friends in the future!
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Final Fantasy 7 is a behemoth of a game. Everything, from the music to the gameplay to the narrative, was complex and complicated, but still enjoyable. Even the size of the thing was huge. It came on 3 discs! The story was enough for me to really enjoy the game. It’s probably the most iconic and influential narrative in all of video games, and one of the games responsible for cinematic gaming that we enjoy today. My biggest criticism was that the gameplay wasn’t up to the quality of the narrative and everything else. But now, with this remake, the gameplay and graphics are now up to par with the storytelling, making this the definitive Final Fantasy 7 experience! The combat is satisfying and strategic, the music gets an upgrade, and the voice performances from the main cast is superb! And the best part is, even though this was about a 40 hour game from start to finish, we’re getting treated to a continuation of the story, sometime soon! The game has certainly come a long way in the 15 years since it was initially shown off for the PlayStation 3, and I can’t wait to see where Square Enix will go from here!
And the award goes to…
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Yes you all knew that this was coming! I have telegraphed it for at least the past 3 months, and I said that unless Cyberpunk blew me away, this was the lock! Unfortunately, Cyberpunk blew me away for all the wrong reasons. But that’s another story for another time! The point is, I have almost gained infinite enjoyment out of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. 480 hours of building and exploring my island and making friends with my villagers can’t be wrong! While it’s not the best game to come out of this year, and people have grown bored of it and called it shallow and lacking in personality, I have enjoyed every single day I have played this game and that’s largely due to the villagers! Speaking of which:
Villager Lineup as of 1/9/2021
It took a lot of effort to get to this point where I have the villagers that I want. To do this, I used 2 methods. One, I set the time on my console forward to a certain date, and every time there wasn’t a villager at the campsite, I would move a day forward until there was, at which time, I would go to the campsite, see who it was, and if it wasn’t who I wanted, I would repeat the steps again. This was very, very, very time consuming, taking me several hours at most. I took a screenshot ahead of this post, at how far ahead in time I was for proof:
I would say it hasn’t been worth it, but if I did that I would be a liar. Because out of this method I have gotten 4 villagers that I have really wanted. Apollo and Stitches were fairly easy to procure out of natural time travel, randomly showing up when I was looking for my real prize, Tammy. Longtime readers may remember that Tammy was my starter villager, along with Buck, and that I made the decision to give her up, which I later regretted. In fact, I regretted it so much that I set out to get her back. I devoted hours and hours to this goal, and then…
It happened! I got her back! The other villager whom I wanted was Roald, the fat Jock penguin with the big eyes, and after many hours of time travelling I got him on my island as well.
As for the second method, that involves scanning in Amiibo cards of the villager you want to get them into the game via the campsite. Amiibo is Nintendo’s official line of figurines and cards with different functionalities in games depending on the game and the Amiibo. I bought a pack of 20 cards, each containing various villagers, and immediately obtained the ever-elusive Bob!
I had been looking for Bob for a long time, and to get him to live on my island, I had to invite him to the campsite 3 separate times, and each time I had to craft something to give to him. Once that was done, I was given a choice of who to kick out, and once that was done, he moved in:
So, you could say that apart from a few minor changes, namely getting Buck back, I’m satisfied with my villagers and my island. And I’m satisfied with this blog as well!
What you’re reading now is about 7 years of development and searching for a platform and a purpose! I had wanted to do something with writing and games for years and most ventures I tried fizzled out because I lacked the ambition to pursue them. They were fun, but they were derivative. Other people did them first and did them better and I don’t think it helped that I started on YouTube, where gaming creators are a dime a dozen these days. I wasn’t really dedicated enough because it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was write! And I have written, about games specifically, because that’s what I’m passionate about. Games give an extra dimension of interactivity that literature and movies lack. I never want to stop playing them because of the impact they’ve had on me. And to that end, I don’t want to stop writing about them, in the long term at least! So I won’t, going into this next year we will keep going forward, because there’s always more to play! I feel like I finally found something that works and that I really enjoy doing, and that’s something that I’m really happy with! But posts may be more infrequent going into this year because I am starting back at school, so be sure to follow me on my Twitter so you won’t miss a post! Happy belated New Year everyone!
Let’s make it a great one!