Pokémon Ranger – RIP My Touchscreen:

Posted on by in Gaming

The first Nintendo game that I ever played, was, like many kids, a Pokémon game. However, I wasn’t playing a ten-year-old child out traveling the world and making creatures fight one another. I was a Ranger, out protecting the people and Pokémon of the world I lived in. For those of you who haven’t heard of the Pokémon Ranger series, first off, you are missing out. This game series is great fun and really puts the focus on getting to know the world around you and helping the people in it.

Instead of training Pokémon, you “capture” them which is essentially a minigame in which you draw circles around the creature in question to calm it down. Once calm, it’ll happily help you with a task before heading back out into the wild, unharmed and happy. Different Pokémon can help you with different tasks such as helping you up cliffs, cutting down trees and powering various electrical switches.

As you start the game, you proceed through the usual menus of picking your name, gender, and appearance, etc. However, the only Pokémon you will have by your side throughout the entire game is either a Minun or a Plusle, aka the cutest little beings ever and if anyone ever hurts them, I’ll destroy the entire universe. After a quick tutorial on how to “capture” Pokémon, your character is made a fully-fledged Ranger and you fly off to the base to receive your first mission. The game’s story is split up into a series of missions that have you traveling around the region helping citizens and rescuing as many Pokémon as you can.

LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE. LOOK AT THEM.

I know this will sound cheesy, but the Ranger series is really all about the power of friendship. It strips back everything you know about the Pokémon franchise, taking away all the TM’s and advanced tactics that seem so common in the main series, leaving you with a single tool at your disposal. Most of your missions involve an injured, panicked or scared Pokemon putting themselves or others in danger. With the help of those around you, you can bring peace and resolve the situation. The more missions you complete, the more missions open to you and the more challenging Pokemon you can tame. The “enemies” in the game are the goofiest possible, the Go-Rock Squad. They are basically a group of evil musicians that wander around angering the Pokemon with their… unique methods.

The Ranger series is a trilogy of games, mostly sticking to the tried and trusted formulae. The stories all follow a Ranger trying to protect the people and Pokemon of their homeland and immerse you in the world. You don’t feel like a passing stranger in the Ranger games, wherever you go people recognize your character like a Ranger and will happily chat with you, even asking you to help with their own problems in later games through side quests. By removing the battling system completely, the game’s focus on its story and character really flourishes and I highly recommend the series, alongside the Mystery Dungeon games which have some twists in there that shocked little Caitlin to their core.

There is an element of “catching them all” for the completionist like myself but instead of having 200 Pokemon in a computer, you have a “Fiore Browser”, which lists acts like the Pokedex from the main series but instead of listing statistics and natures, it tells you how the Pokemon can assist you during captures e.g. slowing down the target, making your capture more effective, etc, and what their “Field Move” is – such as cutting down a tree.

These guys are extra, with a capital E.

In the first game alone, there are 213 different Pokemon to encounter and capture, with enough variety in the process for you not to get bored. You can have a few Pokemon in your party at once and utilize their abilities to help you on your missions, never willingly putting any Pokemon or person in harm’s way, in comparison to the ridiculously violent 10-year olds. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Although you can only have one “partner” Pokemon at a time in the games, you do get a Pichu playing the Ukulele as your partner in the third game so… best game series of all time, everyone goes home and stop trying, you can’t beat perfection.

Anyways, that’s all I really had to say about the Pokemon Ranger games. My good friend (spacelady who made our fantastic logo), reminded me of how much I love this series so here we are. Apologies that it’s shorter than usual, it’s the last week of my placement so everything is a little bit all over the place.

As always, like, comment and follow the site both here and on Twitter – @OurMindGames. I recently got accepted for a press pass to EGX in October so I can’t wait to bring you all amazing content from the convention!

Thanks,

CaitlinRC.

Card Games – Take the Rage with You Wherever You Go:

Posted on by in Gaming, tabletop

In a world that is dominated by technology, people often complain about the good old days of playing card games around the dinner table or whilst at picnics. Though considering some of my childhood experiences with card games, I’d argue they were not such good old days. (Looking at my family holidays in particular). However, in an economic climate where not everyone can afford the latest gaming console installments, being able to whip out a deck of cards and pass the time with good friends is a godsend. Though not all card games are created equal, with some specific ones leading to high levels of salt and unbridled fury *cough* Mao and Uno *cough*.

When my family and I used to go on holiday together, we’d take puzzle books, Top Trumps and a deck of cards to pass the time, alongside the library’s worth of fiction books we brought to read by the pool. After dinner each evening, we’d deal out the cards and play a card game – everything from Chase the Lady to Hearts, to Donkey and President. We’d keep score on a piece of paper from my mum’s bag and despite my dad winning most games, it was mostly a competition between my sister and me, because what is life without a bit of sibling rivalry.

I’d like to hope that there are very few individuals that haven’t ever played a card game. No matter how old you are, there is always something for you. Like most forms of media, your enjoyment of it is dependent on what you are willing to put into it. For example, Irish Snap is only fun if you all throw yourselves into it completely. If you don’t know what Irish Snap is, basically when you place down a card you say a specific number. If that card matches your number, everyone must touch their forehead and then slam their hands down on the card and the last person to do so gets all the cards in the pile. It can be both exhilarating and terrifying, especially if someone forgets to take off their rings!

As you can tell, this article is more of a series of examples of fun card games to play with those you care about or want to get to know better. As a student, people often seem to assume that the only way you can make friends is through drinking and clubbing. However, card games can also be a good way to get to know people. Games like Cheat or Mafia or Would You Rather, are the best way to get past those awkward first few conversations. After all, you can’t really feel embarrassed around someone if you’ve already confessed some of your darkest secrets to them. More than anything, it’s a conversation starter. Often those first few words are the hardest, so having something to divert your attention to once you all become accustomed to one another’s presence, can be comforting, especially to those struggling with social anxiety.

One card game that basically everyone has heard of at this point is Uno. From YouTube videos of various people screaming in rage at one another, to people flipping tables in rage over being given 16 cards for no reason. Uno is the Monopoly of card games, capable of ruining friendships in a single game. All the adverts for it are so wholesome, showing groups of friends laughing and smiling, when in reality – Uno is war. You stare dramatically around the room, scanning your friend’s faces for any hints on their strategy, trying to plan three or four steps ahead, making contingency plans for every situation. You lie in wait, poised like a hunter waiting for the right time to strike. Then when the moment is right, you lunge forward, throwing your card down or challenging someone a millisecond before they can get the word “Uno” out of their mouth. It’s fun, I promise.

What I’m trying to say with this very short piece is that card games can be the catalyst to lifelong friendships. Gaming can be with dice, cards or controllers. It’s the relationships we forge through these games that matter the most, not the actual content of them. Whether we are playing cards over a kitchen table or adventuring across imaginary worlds with our friends across the globe, gaming is something that ties us together and holds us strong through the fires of life. Appreciate it. No matter what form it takes.

Anyways, this was more of a little informal chat than an article. Back to service as usual on Monday,

Thanks,

CaitlinRC.

Drawn to Life – Where Scribbles Can Save The World:

Posted on by in Gaming

A profound belief of mine is that anyone can be good at anything if they put their mind to it. Growing up, I was never “gifted” at art. Neither my sister nor I were considered “artsy”, mostly sticking to crafting birthday cards or building little models out of wood and glue (much to my mum’s chagrin). At school, I was pushed away from the arts – something that I fought against, keeping my love for drama going strong and discovering the joys of backstage work. However, I lost my love for art. I dropped art at the end of Year 8, not returning to it until the end of my first year of university due to that innate fear that I wasn’t good enough to even try.

The fact I lost something that brought me so much joy for so long, is an experience that I hope no-one else will go through. It is this attitude to “not naturally born artists”, that can crush so many people’s dreams and deprive the world of the unique beauty that they would bring to it. Therefore, I think games like the Drawn to Life series, can be crucial in inspiring the future generation. For those who have never heard of these games, it’s a bit hard to explain but I think there’s a mechanic in it for everyone. The games were developed by 5th Cell, the team behind the Scribblenauts series, for the Nintendo DS. It’s sequel – known as Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, was released in two editions for the Nintendo Wii and the DS, each version telling a different story.

If you hadn’t guessed by the title of the games, this series involves drawing. In both games, you take on the role of the “Creator” – the god-like entity that watches over the world and cares for its residents. The citizens of the world, known as the Raposa, are humanoid creatures crossed with rabbits? It’s a bit hard to tell but they have cute ears. When you load the game up for the first time, you hear the story of how the world was created, how you created the Book of Life, which contained all the designs for your creations. The game gets you to draw forests, the world and even the people themselves. Then you hear Mari, a young Raposa, begging you for help. The darkness has almost consumed the entire village and you are their last hope.

If you don’t want to help these little cuties, then you suck 😛

The remaining villagers gather in the broken-down Creation Hall and you, the Creator, bring life to the old mannequin sat in the corner, providing them with a hero to combat the darkness and its source – Wilfre. Wilfre used to be a member of the village until he tried to make his own creations instead of just waiting on the Creator. When those creations turned into shadow monsters, he fled the village and tore the Book of Life into shreds, scattering its pages to the wind and condemning the village to eternal darkness. He is the antagonist in both games in the series, though his character gets a lot more development in the sequel.

The games are split in half, the first half being the various story elements, character interactions and drawing sequences required of you to push the plot forward. The other half is a platforming game where you fight off basic enemies, collect the various collectibles and retrieve whatever item/page from the Book of Life you were sent in there to retrieve. At the end of each “world” is a boss that forces you to combine all the skills you’ve learned in that world in order to defeat it. Once you finish one world, you move onto the next. Pretty standard stuff. However, it is the personality of the villagers you save and the world you help create, that you grow so attached to.

Nearly everything in the game, from the hero to the town’s buildings, to the very platforms you use to explore the levels, is hand-drawn by you. Sure, there’s the occasional template out there for you if you aren’t in the mood to draw but the game actively encourages you to put your own twist on the world. Either that or they ran out of budget to pay the artists. I speak from experience; you don’t need the drawings to be “high quality” in order to enjoy the game. Though, I do burst out laughing every time I see my original platform design – I accidentally hit the wrong button so all that got submitted was a red dot! It made me smile so I decided to keep it and carry on with the game, much to my chagrin later when the platforming sections became more complex. After all, it’s rather difficult to jump to a platform you can’t see…

This is my child Heather if you hurt her I WILL FIND YOU

I think part of why the Drawn to Life series has such a profound influence on my love of drawing, is the fact that it accepts literally anything you give it. Whether the hero you provide the game with is just a blob or something more… explicit (looking at you Game Grumps), they go along with it and are just as willing to enlist your assistance to save their world. No matter how ridiculous or sloppy you think it looks, to the characters in the world, it is the most beautiful creation they have ever seen. They are nothing but grateful, which is a really refreshing perspective, especially for young artists that are just starting out.

As much as I prefer the charm and mechanics of the first game, the sequel’s story is what speaks to me the most about this series. Throughout the game, there are constant hints towards a greater meaning to all this, with a mysterious voice asking you about “that night”. They get you to draw what you think you remember about it, occasionally coming back to it in between your various doodling adventures. Wilfre, the bad guy from the original game, claims to be acting for the greater good, saying that if his plan doesn’t succeed then the whole world will be destroyed. He kidnaps Heather – a young Raposa with darkness covering half her face, that you rescued in the first game. So, the Raposa set out to rescue her and defeat Wilfre once again.

Considering his behavior in the first game, no-one believes Wilfre’s “saving the world” claim but soon Mari, the now-mayor of the community, disappears. You see her rip the Book of Life to shreds and Wilfre, disguised as your friend “Sock” (totally not suspicious name there Wilfre), throws the pendant given to you by Heather into the ocean which was your only way of tracking her down. Eventually, you make your way to Wilfre’s lair where Mari confronts you all and explains why she has been working with him to drain the colour from the world. She talks about what she’s seen and how if they don’t act, they’ll all be wiped out. When Mike, a member of your community who looks creepily human in comparison to everyone else, speaks up, Mari screams at him about how he won’t ever understand. You then challenge Wilfre and once you defeat him, you must extinguish the “Eternal Flame” and allow the world you’ve spent so long saving, to fade into darkness. It’s a drastic change from the goofy adventures around the world on a giant sea turtle.

I’m not ashamed to admit that this ending sequence made me very emotional.

In a series of images, you watch a human family visit the carnival and drive home in the dark. The two children in the back of the car are a young girl and her smaller brother, whose parents are killed when the car crashes into a ditch. The young girl’s face is badly injured, resulting in half her face being heavily bandaged. Meanwhile, the little boy is put in a coma. These two children are Heather and Mike. The entire world of the Raposa is an invention of Mike’s mind, keeping him trapped in the coma. The darkness from the first game potentially hints at his struggle to survive his injuries, whilst the colour draining from the world in the second game shows that the more he wakes up, the more the vivid the world he created will become – hence Wilfre draining the colour to prevent it.

This ending was considered too dark for many people and was replaced with Mike falling out of a tree in other releases of the game, however, I think any other ending wouldn’t have such a poignant impact on the player. Throughout the game, you hear someone talking but they don’t seem to make any sense. However, as the Eternal Flame goes out and the world fades, those words become the phrase:

“God… Just bring back my little brother to me.”

I honestly didn’t expect such a deep and profound storyline from such a goofy little game series but I’m so glad I gave these games a chance. We’ve all lost someone, whether it be to illness, time or distance. Speaking from experience, the feeling of sheer hopelessness that comes from watching a loved one in pain is horrific. I can only imagine the pain Heather must have been in, each minute that her baby brother lay in that hospital bed. As much as the Drawn to Life series are kids’ games, they convey much deeper messages and encourage creative expression more than a lot of more “mature” game series.

Now, I’ve rambled on long enough. Hope everyone has a good week and remember to like, comment and follow the site to keep up to date with all my posts. If you want to chat with me about more general things, hit up my twitter – @OurMindGames !

Thanks,

CaitlinRC

Online Gaming – Yes, Online Friends Are Real Friends

Posted on by in Gaming

When you hear the words “online gaming”, a lot of people’s minds go to games like Call of Duty or Halo, where the most common words spoken over headsets are words that I will never repeat, especially if my mother is within earshot. Multiplayer has always been a thing in video games, even back to the original video game – Pong. We humans are social creatures and some of our greatest achievements such as flight, breaking the Enigma code and landing on the moon have been achieved through the co-operation of talented individuals, working towards a common goal. However, for those with social anxiety and other assorted mental health conditions, social events can be a nerve-wracking experience. I’d like to think that online gaming and the communities that it has spawned, has helped bring a lot of those people, including myself, together.

So, first things first. What is online gaming? That, like many things in life, is a broad question. The computing side of my brain would argue that it is any game mode that requires an outbound connection either across a Local Area Network or to the Internet, where individuals in different locations are all playing the same game simultaneously. This connection is why you can make your character jump in England and your friend over in Canada can watch you with a bemused expression. For the more psychology-based part of me, I’d argue that online gaming is more than just being able to play together. It’s the communities that rise around it, debating new updates and features, organising meetups and sharing their various fan projects based around the game at hand.

Growing up, I didn’t know many other people who were as interested in gaming as I was. Sure, there was the odd friend every so often, but I moved too frequently to really delve into those friendships properly. Most of my multiplayer experience was either through visiting my sister’s town in Animal Crossing (and chasing her around with an axe like the mature child I was) or playing the versus mode in Super Mario Bros against my younger cousin. When I hit secondary school and got into playing Minecraft, that was when I got to experience the world of online gaming.

Can confirm I spent far too many hours on this Minecraft server playing Hide and Seek, Death Run and Hunger Games.

Over the next few years, I threw myself into online servers – eventually joining a fan community for the popular Minecraft YouTuber group Team Crafted. In there, I ended up meeting some of my closest friends who I still speak to most days. Heck, even the RC in my username harkens back to those days, though what it stands for will remain a secret! I travelled to Minecon in London and met my friend for the first time, where we proceeded to spend the next two days being utterly ridiculous and laughing at our own weird little jokes. To this day, the phrase “Helgrind” still makes me laugh, much to everyone else’s confusion.

From there, I moved more into general gaming communities such as the OutsideXbox/Xtra channels, who have become an important part of my life – to the point where I’m ridiculously invested in the community and have been to conventions to meet so many of my amazing friends. (Yes, hi Fanstra I know you’re reading this). From Town of Salem to Twitch streams to RDR2 Online, I have been ridiculously lucky in my life to meet so many amazing people through the medium of online gaming and they have supported me unconditionally through some of the darkest points of my life. If any of you are reading this, and you know who you are, thank you.

Obviously, everyone’s experiences of online gaming differ and a lot of it depends on the communities you join. Some can be more welcoming than others, whilst a few can seem quite intimidating at first. Although it has lessened over the years, there is still a lot of stigma against female gamers and it can put young women off gaming entirely, which is a huge loss both to the communities and to the gaming industry. So many aspects of modern gaming wouldn’t exist without the amazing men and women behind it, with the future of the industry resting in the capable hands of our generation. Yet, so many talented individuals feel unable to join the world they so adore, in part due to the mental health conditions plaguing their everyday lives.

The OX community is such a big part of my life now, I can’t imagine it without them all, especially my friends over on the fan server.

As we’ve talked about before on this site, even entering a familiar social situation can provide a host of uncertainties and potential anxiety triggers to a sufferer of say, anxiety, for example. For me, one of my main issues when facing a social situation is my escape route. Often, when I’m panicking, most of my energy is focused on not showing it outwardly and seeking an opportunity to remove myself from the situation. Now, this can’t work forever, and I do eventually break down. Meanwhile online, I can simply exit voice chat or not reply to a message for a while, giving the excuse that I had to attend to another matter without anyone really questioning where I’d been. This escape hatch being so readily accessible is a lifeline in more stressful situations or on my darker days.

Another aspect of online gaming and the communities it creates is that you come across a lot more people who understand exactly what you’re going through because so are they. Depending on those around you, you may not meet someone who also suffers from psychosis or who is also disabled for most of your young life. Meanwhile, with the Internet and the like-minded individuals forming these groups with mutual interests, you suddenly find yourself surrounded by people who understand exactly why you need to take time out or why you suddenly want people to flood your messages with pictures of cute cats instead of talking. They know why because a few days ago, that was them.

Apologies that this week’s article is shorter than usual, I’m not sure how much more I can say about this topic because it is an incredibly personal experience for everyone. This was just a little bit of how I feel the world of online gaming has impacted me. Big thank you to Mike Hodgin for suggesting this and for his support! Let me know your experiences down in the comments, and look forward to next weeks article on the Drawn to Life games from the Nintendo DS (yes, I’ve been playing my childhood games again hush)

No, you spent your weekend off playing the series.

Remember to like, comment, follow the site and follow me on twitter @OurMindGames for all updates/future polls on content!

Till next week,

CaitlinRC.

Super Mario Odyssey – Over The Moon For Moons:

Posted on by in Gaming

When we think of video games and their well-known mascots, 99% of people’s minds will go to the infamous plumber, Mario. Whether he’s flying through space or adventuring through Bowser’s internal organs, this moustachioed man can be found everywhere. I didn’t really have much experience with the Mario games personally. My main experience with them was Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS and even then, I mostly used it to play the awesome minigames with my cousins and my sister whenever we were together (just saying, I normally won). Mario games always felt a little bit lacking in the story department and repetitive with its mechanics. So, apart from the Mario & Luigi games which took a leaf out of Mario RPG’s book, and Mario Galaxy (because space is cool), my focus wasn’t on the red plumber.

When I got my Switch, I realised that I could get it cheaper if I got Mario Odyssey as well. So, I decided to go for it, thinking if anything, I’d have a fun time playing it even if I never came back to it. Plus, I was curious what it would be like to possess the minds of living creatures and make them dance to my will like puppets on strings. Plus, each possessed creature gets a version of Mario’s moustache, which is far too funny an opportunity to pass up. So, I booted up the game for the first time and was greeted by Mario’s goofy face, though thankfully in a slightly more appealing way than Super Mario 64 because that loading screen was bloody terrifying.

First things first, Mario Odyssey basically every commendation it receives and if you get the chance, it is a Mario game worth playing. It works as a good entry point into the series and really shows off the capabilities of the console, making use of the motion controls of the Joy-Cons which are a major upgrade from the controls of the Nintendo Wii. It’s charming, with an awesome soundtrack and a series of stunning levels that rewards players for thinking outside the box. Plus, with so many Moons to collect, there’s a strong urge to search every single nook and cranny of each level to ensure you haven’t missed anything. Especially when that level is so stuffed full of collectables that I guarantee it’ll burst if you put anything else in there.

Not sure anyone wanted to see this but… thanks Nintendo?

What a slightly smaller subset of people will have noticed, is the strong parallels between Nintendo’s Mario Odyssey and that of another famous Odyssey – written by Homer, the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. These two epics follow the story of the Greek hero, Odysseus, through his actions in the Trojan war and his journey home after the war ended, with victory going to the Greek’s, after the infamous Trojan horse incident. However, like any good story, the journey home was not smooth sailing and it took him ten long years to return to his wife and son, who he had left behind on the island of Ithaca. If you’ve never read these two great epics and have even a slight interest in mythology, go read it because you gain a deeper understanding about the word “odyssey” and it’s meaning in modern life.

It’s clear that Nintendo’s creation takes a few pages out of Homer’s writings, with some tweaks of their own. The entire main story of Mario Odyssey has you travelling around the world, chasing after Bowser and Peach, who always seems just one step away from you. Much like Odysseus, you travel from land to land, having to resolve the resident’s various issues and killing the occasional monstrosity as you go. Every time you think you’ve reached the end of your journey; another minor inconvenience occurs like a cyclops, being shot out of the sky by a giant cannon or a furious god of the sea drowning most of your crew members. Both Odysseus and Mario continue their journey, not for fame or glory, but to see their loved ones again, even if it means travelling to the underworld, fighting a giant dragon or disguising themselves as a hunk of meat? (What even Nintendo, what even.)

One thing that I truly love about both Homer’s Odyssey and Nintendo’s game, is that it allows you to envision travelling the world in someone else’s shoes, without ever having to leave your home. A lot of people will be saying, why don’t you go travel the world then if you love it so much? The answer to that, like the answer to many of my issues, is that of mental health. I can’t think of a single mental health condition that wouldn’t hinder you in some way from enjoying your travels. Be it having an anxiety attack in an airport, not having your support network with you when you have a depressive episode, facing your phobias by yourself or not being able to eat because to you and your mind, it is inedible. We don’t think about these things until they are suddenly blocking our path but it’s something every person with a mental health condition or a physical ailment must consider, every time they go outside.

Friendly reminder, Cappy can render you unable to control your body as you are forced to watch it be controlled by a maniac plumber.

A good explanation of this is my thought process when I go to a coffee shop to study. My anxiety demands I take the same, safe route that I have committed to memory. As I walk, I wear my noise-cancelling headphones to block out the overwhelming stimuli around me, be that passing conversation, traffic or just some very angry seagulls. Once I get there, I order, retrieve my coffee and go sit upstairs in a corner, where I can see everyone who is going up or down the stairs. I am, what you would call, naturally paranoid. Tiny changes in the environment, be it a chair moving or a conversation suddenly falling silent, can set off my anxiety. That anxiety leads to self-loathing which leads to depression which leads to flashbacks and nightmares, which sets off my PTS. It’s a cycle of damage that if I don’t take precautions with, could ruin my afternoon or even the rest of the month for me. Now, imagine that level of thought, having to be applied to travelling abroad. It’s a terrifying overload of information, is it not?

Games that incorporate travel and exploration as a big part of their narrative can be a major boon to those of us who might never be able to experience that for ourselves. In Mario’s case, the simplistic nature of the game also makes it more accessible. There’s a two-player mode for those with young children or those who struggle to use the Joy Con’s tiny controllers due to physical ailments  (trust me they can be a nightmare), though the game does punish you slightly for using the two-player mode, since it refuses to let you take part in various minigames, blocking off a lot of the game’s content which is a bummer.

This whole sequence was traumatic if I’m honest.

Anyways, I’ve rambled on long enough about this and if we’re not careful, I’ll be talking about mythology for the next 10,000 articles on this blog. Considering talking about card games or the Drawn To Life series from the Nintendo DS (yes I did just finish both games over the course of a four day weekend, no you should get a life). Let me know any suggestions down below and remember to comment, like and follow the site to keep up to date on all my posts!

Till next week,

CaitlinRC.