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juushikaOne of Devon's Christmas gifts to me was (Poochy &) Yoshi's Woolly World on the 3DS. I intended to play Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance when I finished Kirby, and so complete all the side-games before KHIII comes out. And I will! ... After Woolly World. Chasing whims & deviating from my self-imposed requirements is more productive than doing something because I feel like I should, esp. in realms as frivolous as cute video games, esp. when immersed in the cold abyss of anxiety and grief and etc.
And it is a cute game! It's reminiscent of but doesn't hold a candle to Kirby's Epic Yarn—same basic aesthetic, but not (so far) as varied or as lovingly detailed. It's a simpler implementation of art design as level design, the way that the player's toolkit interacts with a world composed of craft supplies. But it's not really a fair comparison, because Epic Yarn is a genuine work of art. Woolly World has its own toolkit and design choices, and it's charming*, and the audio design is superb. The 3DS port also has the ability to customize your own Yoshi, with a skin tool similar to the clothing designer in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (and onward) in terms UI and level of customization. The pixels map on to actual knit stitches. I made a pumpkin-themed orange Yoshi. A+.
* I glanced at the other Yoshi titles to see if I might like them, and while the gameplay is almost identical, their oversaturated messy look is the aesthetic opposite; no, ty. (And I cannot overstate how much I don't want to escort baby-Mario.)
But what really impresses me is the accessibility. There's the option to switch between traditional and "mellow" play, the latter providing hints and endless ammo; Yoshi has a hover ability which is even more generous in mellow mode; levels can be customized with badges (which cost a nominal amount of in-game currency) to grant things like stronger attacks or invulnerability to voids. All of these things can be changed on the fly. I tried to play a hot 1.5 hours of Mario Galaxy a few months ago and I just could not with the platforming; it's a skill I don't have, an action I don't enjoy, and the presence of a health system when falling into a void is still a one-shot kill just. fucking. it's stupid. Yoshi's Woolly World is so aggressively accessible as to be too easy and, you know what? I don't mind. It's child-friendly in a way that a lot of these Nintendo games appear to be but, in gameplay, are not. It's disability friendly. If I find the void OHKO frustrating, I can just opt out of that bad and broken system. And it goes a long way towards making the soft, cuddly aesthetic transfer into gameplay; it feels like a more fully-realized self.
ETA: This would hold more true if they didn't keep introducing new one-shot mechanics which required new badges (which can only be acquired after the fact)!
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hbomberguy's Speedrunning Is Awesome, And Here's Why doesn't directly address much of what makes speedruns awesome on a media criticism level* but is a love letter to how runs develop and how speedrunning interacts with intended gameplay mechanics/experiences, and it's that last point which I most enjoy. I wish he had slipped in something about TAS Bot when talking about the relationship between code/ideal runs/human runs/variety of gameplay experiences, but it is already a 40min video.
* Foldable Human's SGDQ2018 Amy run does! TL;DW: speedrunning makes us reexamine a game's win conditions, and therefore its implied rules, which helps us understand how games do what they do—and games as an interactive medium are primarily about how and do.
And it is a cute game! It's reminiscent of but doesn't hold a candle to Kirby's Epic Yarn—same basic aesthetic, but not (so far) as varied or as lovingly detailed. It's a simpler implementation of art design as level design, the way that the player's toolkit interacts with a world composed of craft supplies. But it's not really a fair comparison, because Epic Yarn is a genuine work of art. Woolly World has its own toolkit and design choices, and it's charming*, and the audio design is superb. The 3DS port also has the ability to customize your own Yoshi, with a skin tool similar to the clothing designer in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (and onward) in terms UI and level of customization. The pixels map on to actual knit stitches. I made a pumpkin-themed orange Yoshi. A+.
* I glanced at the other Yoshi titles to see if I might like them, and while the gameplay is almost identical, their oversaturated messy look is the aesthetic opposite; no, ty. (And I cannot overstate how much I don't want to escort baby-Mario.)
But what really impresses me is the accessibility. There's the option to switch between traditional and "mellow" play, the latter providing hints and endless ammo; Yoshi has a hover ability which is even more generous in mellow mode; levels can be customized with badges (which cost a nominal amount of in-game currency) to grant things like stronger attacks or invulnerability to voids. All of these things can be changed on the fly. I tried to play a hot 1.5 hours of Mario Galaxy a few months ago and I just could not with the platforming; it's a skill I don't have, an action I don't enjoy, and the presence of a health system when falling into a void is still a one-shot kill just. fucking. it's stupid. Yoshi's Woolly World is so aggressively accessible as to be too easy and, you know what? I don't mind. It's child-friendly in a way that a lot of these Nintendo games appear to be but, in gameplay, are not. It's disability friendly. If I find the void OHKO frustrating, I can just opt out of that bad and broken system. And it goes a long way towards making the soft, cuddly aesthetic transfer into gameplay; it feels like a more fully-realized self.
ETA: This would hold more true if they didn't keep introducing new one-shot mechanics which required new badges (which can only be acquired after the fact)!
* * *
hbomberguy's Speedrunning Is Awesome, And Here's Why doesn't directly address much of what makes speedruns awesome on a media criticism level* but is a love letter to how runs develop and how speedrunning interacts with intended gameplay mechanics/experiences, and it's that last point which I most enjoy. I wish he had slipped in something about TAS Bot when talking about the relationship between code/ideal runs/human runs/variety of gameplay experiences, but it is already a 40min video.
* Foldable Human's SGDQ2018 Amy run does! TL;DW: speedrunning makes us reexamine a game's win conditions, and therefore its implied rules, which helps us understand how games do what they do—and games as an interactive medium are primarily about how and do.
