Video Game Thoughts - Wii U, Setting In A Honey Moon

Last year’s wishes are this year’s apologies - a fitting sentence for when I bought a Wii U in 2016 and 2024.

I originally wrote this for BasedGamer, the video game website I used to write for, but I’m just repurposing this for my blog instead since that site has been gone since 2018 or so.

Why did I buy a Wii U anyway? What’s the appeal?

First, there was Xenoblade Chronicles X. When I worked at a cellphone store in 2015, my manager was a big gamer like I am. He recommended the game but I didn’t have a Wii U yet. He showed me footage of all the robot combat and how big the world was and I basically said “SOLD.” I immediately went to the used game store in the same mall I worked at and bought a Wii U, just like that.

Second, I’m a sucker for Dynasty Warriors-like games so Hyrule Warriors made me wanna get a Wii U. I’ve never fully played a Legend of Zelda game before so Hyrule Warriors is the first one that I absolutely love. I’ve tried other Zelda games and I never got into them. They just aren’t for me.

Third, video game website Giant Bomb made Super Mario Maker look fun and it genuinely is after I bought it and spent several hours designing levels to upload. I love seeing how people died in levels I made and what they’d say about it in the Nintendo forums, or Miiverse as it was called.

I genuinely loved how the controller was basically a tablet with buttons. It felt nice and comfortable for someone with big hands. It was a unique gimmick but I also bought a standard controller (that was marketed as a “pro controller”, funnily enough).

I remember trading in my Wii U, my 3DS, and all my games for those two systems to GameStop just to upgrade my PS4 to a PS4 Pro just for the benefit of 5 gigahertz wifi. Another bonus is that my PS4 Pro ended up being the super cool limited edition Death Stranding edition.

The Wii U is like the friend you get bored with because you’ve run out of things to talk to. You know you want to spend more time with it but you just run out of interest in anything it has to offer. But you don’t hate the Wii U, right? You’re just bored of it. It’s indifference that kept the Wii U in cement shoes. But I digress.

It wasn’t until December 2024 where I kinda wanted to get a Wii U again just to play Xenoblade Chronicles X. I already preordered the game for the Switch but goddamn it, I wanna play it on its original console. It was a big reason why I bought the Wii U in the first place. Mario Maker isn’t that fun now because Nintendo’s online services for the Wii U have shut down. I got Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition for the Switch and it’s absolutely amazing on it so I probably won’t need to buy it again for the Wii U (but I most likely will because I’m a collector).

I traded in a dozen or so games that I don’t care about or don’t play or have never played to the local retro game store I frequent and I basically got a Wii U for free. This Wii U bundle came with 3 Wii U games I’ve never played before - Smash Brothers for Wii U, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Mario Kart 8.

I played a bit of Super Mario Bros. and I remember why I only enjoyed making levels and not playing them. The jumping feels a little floaty and not accurate compared to older Mario games but that’s fine. Wall jumping is fun but that doesn’t really save it for me. Maybe I’ll give it another chance soon.

Playing Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U with a remake coming in 2025 would make someone think that I’m crazy but trading in enough games to get a Wii U for free and just paying 40 dollars for Xenoblade - a game that can go up to 120 dollars for some reason. I never gave my Wii U a chance so buying Xenoblade would definitely be a starting point.

I'm Still In A Stream, Snake Eater

Oh hello there, random reader! It’s been a while since my last long post that wasn’t just about breasts. What have I been up to? I’m glad you asked in this one-sided conversation.

I’ve quit streaming so that’s something. Not necessarily something I’d consider bad, more like extremely liberating.

It’s genuinely freeing to not be a Twitch streamer anymore. It used to be fun, playing wrestling games, and ranking bad ones. I didn’t care about the money or the views because to me, it was just refreshing to just talk to people and do stupid stuff in video games. I didn’t ever see it as a big deal like other people do. To me, it wasn’t about “building a community” and getting all these subscriptions. Yeah, I’ve gotten payouts from Twitch but I never saw it as something to quit my job over and then  bitch about why numbers are so low.

It was exhausting mentally to put on a happy face and pretend to be nice to people I actively dislike “just because it’s civil”. “Civil”, meaning, “for the views”. Here’s something about me - I don’t like being disingenuous with people I have no need for. Twitch isn’t a job for me, it’s not my livelihood. It’s just an entertainment website for me and the people I met there, I considered as friends. Big mistake because then you get to see how two-faced a lot of them are. It’s jarring to see someone talk shit about someone else in private and then act all buddy-buddy in public. I hate seeing that. I hate doing that. 

It just boiled down to me calling out a former streamer friend for openly flirting with a married man who was being openly flirtatious in public, drawing her art and stuff. It was disgusting. The worst part is that the married man had never seen what the dumb streamer looked like so he was flirting with a cartoon and a voice. Gross. Maybe I could’ve handled it better than posting a cut off photo of Roman Reigns that says “Kill Yourself” on the bottom but it was just exhausting to be around these people I considered friends and I just blew up. Screw that. I didn’t need that drama in my life. I am my own drama.

It was tiring to be in communities where people just cared about views and subscriptions. It was exhausting to be in streams where the streamer’s gimmick is “bullied by chat” and “oh i’m a gamer girl”. That’s like 90 percent of Twitch streamers. That doesn’t make anyone special.

Maybe I’ll stream again in the coming year but I genuinely feel exhausted when I get the urge. Every time I look at the microphone on my desk, I get the urge to start streaming. Then I remember how bullshit my former friends are to me with their clique-y high school bullshit. 

The amount of times I’ve seen streamer friends not be in a good headspace is astounding. Maybe you shouldn’t stream if you’re this fragile. Maybe you should just shut up and go play in private. Maybe streaming isn’t for you if you’re this mentally fragile.

Yearly post

Wouldn't wanna end the year with no post at all so here:

Boobies. 

But you're still the same

You know it's kinda weird to see someone you know you were going to ask out in the near future and you just lose feelings for them in a snap. It's like the lights turn on and you see that the room's been empty and everything you've assumed inside wasn't there after all. It's hard to explain.

Part of me thinks I'm fickle and I've just grown accustomed to that feeling of temporary infatuation. Then you realize it doesn't matter and you don't matter to them and it was all just overthinking in your head. You're back to square one with one less person you had feelings for.

Lately, I've been too focused on nothing, if that makes sense. I really, really wanted to see if things go right with this lady. I really wanted to take a chance and see where it goes.

Risk Failure

There's a quote I always go back to whenever I have a setback in work or my career in general. It's a quote from wrestling manager and former promoter Paul Heyman said in the Rise and Fall of ECW documentary.

"I'll risk failure. Sometimes, half the fun is failing. Learning from your mistakes, waking up the next morning, and saying 'Okay. Watch out. Here I come again. A little bit smarter, licking my wounds, and really not looking forward to getting my ass kicked the way I just did yesterday.' So now, I'm just a little more dangerous."