Why am I filled with dread as I hold my classic edition of Streets of Rage 4 in my hands?

 If you've ever met me, you'd know I'm a HUGE fan of Streets of Rage. I don't know how else to describe my formative years with video games other than by cutting my teeth on Streets of Rage 2, and then later Streets of Rage (1). The series has ALWAYS been in my heart, and it's the exact kind of fun (but also challenging) experience that I live for when I'm playing a game. Even to this day, SoR2 holds up SO well, in both the gameplay and the sound department. It's just... such a good game. Unlike most people in the community, I don't like SoR3, but moreso than the gameplay, it's the music that rubs me the wrong way. I think it's a fine game, but in my opinion it's just not as good of an overall package as Streets of Rage 2 was. 

When Streets of Rage 4 was announced, I absolutely went nuts. And then I heard about the original limited edition physical releases (no one knew about the Signature Games or whatever they are other physical releases at the beginning) from Limited Run Games, I went BONKERS. I was so damn excited, not only did I set alarms for the releases' sale times, I made sure to ask no less than three friends to remind me when the sales went live so that I'd be sure to grab one for the Switch and one for the PS4 (If you're wondering, I got the Classic Edition for the Switch and the Limited Edition for PS4). Then I went ahead and bought the game on Steam on release day because I just COULD NOT WAIT TO CONTINUE MY CHILDHOOD. 

Well let me tell you, I played the hell out of Streets of Rage 4 on Steam. I got all the characters, played online with a friend that also got a copy, and then I started getting my friends to join me for 4 player mode via Parsec... Man, we had an absolute BLAST! There also was a patch released a day or so ago that has tweaked a LOT of the gameplay, so I'm super excited to jump back in and see what's changed. ... I won't lie, I'm mostly looking forward to SoR4 Axel not being garbage. He was definitely the worst of the SoR4 characters at launch... 

My original plan for the Switch Classic Edition from LRG was so that I could put the Genesis case on my shelf with the rest of my Genesis games. It would have helped me fill up my collection, but also this way I could add the game to its... Well, it's rightful place in my collection. It belongs with the rest of its kin, even if it came along 25 years later! The Limited Edition version comes with a host of items, and I'm super excited to display all of them somewhere (If you've seen my room lately, it's pretty much a disaster...). I also know that I will play SoR4 on console, because that's where it belongs. I actually so far have been using a Genesis controller via adapter to play on Steam, but I'm sure the experience will be just as fun on the PS4. And I know, with absolute certainty, that other friends will get it there, so I can play with them too!

Okay, but what does me gushing about Streets of Rage have to do with the pandemic? Okay, I'm getting to that. The Classic Editions from LRG were shipped and I've actually got my Switch Classic physical release here with me. But... When it arrived, I wasn't happy to see it. I haven't played the game in a while sure, and it's going to be a pain to unlock all of the characters a second time (I'll have to do it three times altogether, but WHATEVER, IT'S STREETS OF RAGE DAMNIT), but something else about it bothered me. I kept staring at the box, which I still haven't actually taken out of the mylar wrapping, and feeling somehow like this was wrong. It wasn't wrong in the sense that I felt like I didn't deserve it, as if you know me, it's very difficult for me to splurge on something for me. I don't have very many issues buying things for other people, but when it comes to nice things for myself, I have a real problem listening to the voice deep inside that says

I just... For some reason I almost never hear that. When it came to Streets of Rage 4, I went ALL OUT though. I wanted to celebrate and give everybody involved as much money as I could, like a sort of preemptive thank you for carrying on something that was such an integral part of my childhood. Oh, and just in case you haven't heard, the game is AMAZING. 

Me putting in all this effort to grab them, and here I am, somehow upset that this new package arrived on my doorstep. All the steps involved up until that point were great, but upon actually holding it in my hand, I just felt bad. On top of that, I could not for the life of me figure out why? After a little bit of introspection I realized what I was actually feeling was that the Switch version wouldn't see nearly as much action as the PS4 will, and the Steam version already has. But that's to be expected, considering of all my consoles, I absolutely use my Switch the least. So that still didn't explain why I felt so bad holding this brand new game in my hands.

But thinking about playing the Switch version got me thinking about why I originally was excited to play it on the Switch in the first place. My original intention was to take part of my childhood with me on the go-- Except that realistically I only bring my Switch with me when I'm on vacation, or at NYCC. And then it finally dawned on me, the reason why the Switch version in particular upset me so much, whereas I love the Steam edition and will adore the PS4 version, is because I feel like I won't have a chance to play with anyone. 

Yes, clearly people can still come over, and it's not as though I never see my friends! But the pandemic has fundamentally changed the idea of "going out." I'm sure eventually there will be a vaccine and we'll be able to speak of coronavirus in the past tense, but for the here and now, it's disrupted a whole hell of a lot of people's lifestyles. I'm sure eventually NYCC and other large cons will be back, but maybe they won't? Maybe this changes everything. In this particular case, NYCC is a particularly dubious case because of the idea of what us con-goers refer to as "con plague." There has not been a single year that I've gone to NYCC where I haven't come home and been sick, or gotten sick right as I got home. This is going to change the way we do things, whether we like it or not. 

I hadn't even thought of anything remotely close to that, but the virus sure has put a damper on gaming for me, and it's even impacted situations that I thought were a given when it comes to gaming. Every year that me and my friends have gone to NYCC, each of us has packed a handheld console and while we wait, or take the train to and from, or we're sitting in a panel that someone else picked, we play. That has been the primary use situation for both my Vita and Switch on-the-go for years. And now all of a sudden I feel like it's gone forever. I didn't feel bad because I thought I was going to play the Switch version less than I've played SoR4 on other consoles, I felt bad because I feel like I'm not going to play this game as it was intended (WITH FRIENDS!) at all. That turned something I'd been looking forward to for 20 years into something to dread. 

Now I'm sitting here wondering how arcades are supposed to survive this? I actually stacked a bunch of stuff on top of the Switch classic edition so that I wouldn't have to look at it. Every time I look at it, I'm faced with a new dreadful thought, and that's no bueno! I'm sure a lot of people have already realized how their lives will be different from this point out, but I needed something to hit a little bit closer to home for me to realize what I was actually dreading. I just want to have fun with my friends and now I'm worried that's going to be taken away from me... I know some semblance of the normal I knew will stick around, but I hate change. 

I've tried to rewrite that last paragraph at least 12x so that it felt like I was teaching some lesson or imparting a moral... I don't think there is one though. I just want to share experiences and have fun in a way that I've done pretty much my whole life! They do say "Modern problems require modern solutions," but I like doing things the way I've always done them. Change sucks. 

Update TiiiIIIme

Hey there guys 'n gals! I realize that lately I've been relegating this blog to no more than update posts, but there hasn't been anything related to my online presence as of late that I wanted to talk about. I haven't really had a chance to film much of anything as of late, work has been crazy and I got injured at our smallest nerf war of all time last weekend... It's finally healed enough that I am mostly ambulatory (I still can't bend the leg all the way without feeling like I'm being immolated, but that's neither here nor there hahahaha).

ANYWAY! What Have I been up to you ask? Mostly I've been cataloging itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. Whatever free time I've had I'd been using over the last couple weeks has been devoted to understanding what's in the bundle, and now that that's over (If you bought the bundle and want my spreadsheet, you can grab it here: Google Drive Link ), I'm slowly adding all the applicable games to my backloggery so I can make EVEN MORE NOTES about what games to film for YouTube. After I'm done with that particular step, I'm going to do my best to start up the next let's play, T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger, the one that's been on hold for months now. I apologize for that, but I'm pretty sure that I can start now whenever I get the chance. 

In the meantime, while my mom is out of the house I'm going to get some blasters reviewed for my secondary channel. It seems like I haven't been neglecting Scott in Real Life because Unfair-Y Tales was releasing weekly, but I actually had all of those videos ready to go and scheduled months before the season ended... I don't have too much planned for that channel until the new season of UFT starts (which is next year!!). That of course is not accounting for the planning of UFT, I'll be working on that of course! Can't just release it without having worked on it, y'know?

In regards to Twitch, I actually spent the last couple weeks streaming cataloging the bundle, which was something really new and different! And just before that, I got on Twitch Sings, which everyone seems to really enjoy. We even got Heather, AKA theoxfordcomma to come sing too! It was a blast! On Tuesday we're going to jump back into the platinum hunt for Skylanders: Imaginators, which just so happens to be the final thing I have planned out for my Twitch channel! Well, that's not entirely true... I have a couple of multiplayer streams still planned that I'd love to get done but as for beaten/completion quests, the Imaginators platinum hunt is the final test! After that you're all subject to my whims and desires for what I'm currently playing!

Realistically, I'm hoping to turn that time into trying out more of the games from my list of games that have no footage, and just jumping on to chat and mess around with whatever game I've currently got myself wrapped up in. Speaking of upcoming free time, I for once got a game from the devs ~a month before release, and I'm going to do my best to play as much of it as I can and actually release a review for release day! I believe this is the first time I've ever even attempted this, so wish me luck! And with that, I'm out of updates, so I'm gonna go set up to film these blaster reviews! Until next time y'all!

Let's Play delays

Hey there guys n gals, just wanted to let y'all know that I planned on starting the T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger let's play but I um... I actually can't get into the cabinet to get my PS1/some controllers. We had to get our power upgraded because we were having some issues with the house, and we ended up having to clear out a lot of the crawlspace so the electricians could get in there. 

Here's just a lil' sampling of the sheer amount of CRAP that we've got out of there. The inside is also in a state of disarray, so it's not exactly like once we go through and clear all of this stuff out that we're on the home stretch... I have some plans, like the next Okamigakure Plays (It will be Borderlands 3, as voted on by the discord!), and I would also like to play a run in Streets of Rage Remake in anticipation of Streets of Rage 4 as well! 

Speaking of the next Okamigakure Plays, I've started polling for the next month's Okamigakure Plays in our discord, which you can reach with this link. It's been hard for me to pick out a game I want everyone to play, but with everyone else's help, y'all can make it a wee bit easier for me!  

Update TIIIIME

How is everyone doing in quarantine? My state's in lockdown, for better or worse. This is truly a crazy time to be alive, but it's good that we're all alive! Let me know how y'all are coping with all this isolation, I'd love to hear some new strategies for this!

But back on track, both my D & D session got indefinitely postponed, and the Okamigakure Plays night I thought we were going to have also got canceled. My original thought that there would be no tournament this month still stands, but I probably won't be able to film an Okamigakure Plays either. It's not ideal, but that's the way it's got to be for the moment. 

On the bright side, I'm almost done redoing Season 3 of Unfair-Y Tales, which means I'll have more time to work on new content for the rest of the year. I'm excited to have all this extra "new stuff" time, and I hope that you all are too! SPEAKING OF THINGS TO BE EXCITED ABOUT, I actually passed the payment threshold for AdSense, and I intend to use that check to grab some things I've got on my list of items on Patreon. I want those payments to basically go right back into my YouTube/Twitch endeavors, and that's hopefully what I'm going to end up using them for. I think what I'm going to start with is a new HDMI splitter (with HDCP stripping of course) and a couple new HDMI cables for downstairs, because honestly moving all the cables has become the most difficult part of filming a group session downstairs. I don't mind so much bringing the HD60 with me, but all the other wires get really complicated and annoying otherwise. 

As for Twitch, I've just finished off Iconoclasts, so that means I'm taking a short break with some other game(s) before I jump into the last thing on my single player list, the platinum hunt for Skylanders: Imaginators. 

Just thought you guys 'n gals would like an update, I know I haven't exactly been sticking to schedule lately, but hopefully I can get back on track!

No March tournament this year...

Hey y'all! I see it's been a while since I added a blog post so I figured now was as good a time as any to get some info out there. As you can see from the title there will not be a March tournament this year, as I haven't had any time to plan one out. Instead my initiative this March has been to finally get my own D & D campaign up and running. It has been a year and a half in the making, but we finally have a time that the majority of the group is free for! It's going to be my first time DMing so I've got a lot riding on this first session, so here's hoping it goes REALLY well.
... I'm going to be perfectly honest with the rest of y'all, in that I'm honestly very proud of all of the work I've put into this session and the characters' backstories and the BBEGs' backstories too. Even if this group doesn't work out too well, I know I'll be able to play in the future in this current story!

There's going to be no time to plan a tournament this month, and unfortunately I think the same is true for an Okamigakure Plays, so don't go expecting one this month. If I can find one free night I might be able to do one online, but I honestly would not hold my breath (I even have a game in mind for this, but I just don't think it's going to happen). I finally got the Tekken 7 story let's play going though, so that's something, right?? I've got a little bit of free time and I'm happy to start moving along.

Next month we have another Nerf war planned, but I don't think that I'm going to record anything out in the open this time around. I would really like to get some cameras set up in the junkyard for deathmatch, because I think that's the most compelling mode that we have played so far, and there's plenty of strategy and hiding spots involved (Which I think would make for the best footage), but we almost always play deathmatch last, when everyone else is already too tired to set up their cameras and stuff. If I set up beforehand, I think it just might work, so we'll see. 

I do have a few more UFT S3 episodes left to remake, and I think after that I'll be able to work more on new content. Speaking of that, I currently have 4 more blasters still in their packaging that I've got to make reviews for, but that's on the backburner right now. 

In regards to Twitch, I'm about to finish Iconoclasts (for better or worse...), and after that I only have one more planned solo outing for the channel, and then it's time for me to play WHATEVER I WANT, which should turn out to be interesting, at the very least. I am hoping to use some of that time to finish games I started way back when, but I'd also like to spend a couple days at least just trying new stuff. I am hoping this will also give me a chance to play some of the games I got through keymailer. I made an agreement to make content for all of those games, so it's definitely coming at SOME point. 

Twitch Plans for 2020~!

Okay, here's the blog I was supposed to write up last week with my plans for Twitch stuff! We're actually nearing the end of the list of games I said I would stream on Twitch and that's actually HELLA exciting, at least for me. That means I'll have plenty of time just to sit back and play some games that I actually WANT to play. I suspect I'll also be devoting some time to games I'd love to finish, some of which I started literally years ago.

For the MAIN plans though, the idea is that I grab the platinum in SuperChargers as quick as possible (I'm only missing one trophy so that won't be a problem). I expect to probably stream a couple more days' worth of Battleborn though, especially if I can get someone to join me! There's still so many videos I want to get filmed before the servers go down early next year... After I grab the platinum the last planned let's play I'll be running through on Twitch is going to be Iconoclasts, and then after that I'll grab the remaining trophies in Skylanders: Imaginators, which will help me grab every trophy in the whole series. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to bite that $100+ bullet and grab the final adventure pack or not though... I'm honestly not looking forward to that portion of the deal though hahaha.

There are a few more games listed on my list as games to play in multiplayer, and I plan to devote at least a few Saturdays to streaming those games with friends. I know my channel actually says I stream on Saturdays sometimes, but I honestly feel like I didn't stream a single Saturday all of last year, sorry! I also will hopefully be finishing off the Galactic Conquests in the '06 version of Star Wars Battlefront II with CrazyBacon. Grim wants me to play through Days Gone so I'm thinking I'll start that a lil' bit closer to Halloween, especially since I don't have anything left to do in ILLBLEED.

I'm actually more excited than anything else to just sit back and enjoy some games, no schedules, just having fun and sharing the experiences with some friends and fellow gamers, so I hope you guys and gals all enjoy!  

I'm a YouTube partner again!

Well, I'm not with a network this time around, but I'm back up to partner status. Basically, that just means that I can apply monetization to my videos. Unfortunately, you apply monetization separately to each and every video, and I have an ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS amount of uploaded videos, so I knew that wasn't going to work in my favor. To that end, I came up with a new lil' system!

I ended up talking it over with a few people (including my two Patreon helpers, so thanks y'all!) and I think the best course of action for me right now is to apply monetization to the videos of mine that have a bunch of views. Since I was already on the topic of 1000, I thought 1000 views was a good metric to start with. I've actually already applied monetization to the 200 or so of my videos with 1k+ views, but I tried to do it in a way to not annoy the audience!

One big change they've made is that now you can't choose where to run ads on videos that are 10 minutes or less (they have to be at least 10 minutes and 1 second long to be able to choose where ads end up). YouTube's built-in algorithm appears to choose where to place ads on any and all videos that are <10 min long. I thought originally it was just auto-applying the "Before video" ads to each of the videos, but that's not the case, sometimes it puts the ad at the end or sometimes in the middle... 

Speaking of ads in the middle, I have a huge pet peeve about that and whenever I was given the chance I opted not to include any mid-roll ads. I absolutely abhor people who throw mid-roll ads in (unless there was a logical spot for them, then it's a-ok by me because that's the television way and I'm used to it), so I didn't want to subject my audience to that. 

In keeping with the 'don't annoy the shit out of my audience' path, I've also opted not to have any skippable ads play on videos that are shorter than 3 minutes. I don't want anyone getting any ads that might be longer than my actual video, that's just annoying. In addition, I've only applied non-skippable ads to videos longer than 20 minutes, and in the 200 or so I've set up monetization on there was probably 10 or less, so you won't really have to worry about that either. I didn't opt for any ad cards at all because people don't even click the cards I have set up in almost every video, so I'm sure there wouldn't be much point in adding ad cards, now would there? 

... I know the next post was supposed to be Twitch plans for 2020 but I felt as though this was a slightly more immediate thing to post. Also! Be sure to tune in to the Kage_Okami on Sunday, as I'll be launching the 1000 sub giveaway, and this time it's a BIG one!