New Stream Archive, In Which We Unwrap Some Surprise Gifts From The Christmas SAGE Expo! We Only Had

new stream archive, in which we unwrap some surprise gifts from the Christmas SAGE Expo! we only had time to get to a handful of games, but they are all high quality and very fun 🎁

i won't have time to stream kirby tomorrow... so we're doing it tonight instead! plan is to finish the extra modes in one big sweep and clear out the rest of the game

as usual, the vod will go up tomorrow morning for anyone who can't make it 💙

my 3rd favorite game that i played in 2023 is...

Freedom Planet 2

i was originally planning to wait on this one until the console version came out in "summer 2023." after it was delayed to the end of the year, i decided to grab the game on pc so i didn't have to wait… and i'm glad i did, because the console versions have been delayed a second time??

(i do not envy their situation and i hope the console versions are better for taking their time. honestly, i'll probably double dip anyway!)

the original Freedom Planet was a formative game experience for me during college. there was something inspiring about the way it shot for the moon – full voice acting, a fun cast of characters, a lived-in world with political intrigue, a focus on adding fast-paced combat – all trying to prove that it's more than just a Sonic fangame in new clothes.

and it worked. it gripped me and never let go! i must've replayed the story half a dozen times, speedran the levels dozens of times each. that's the reason i decided not to wait on the sequel any longer after the first console delay; i grabbed the game on pc and hit the ground running.

one aspect of what makes Freedom Planet special is its level design, and the sequel delivers – every single level is massive, open-ended, and absolutely GORGEOUS. the unique gimmicks, secret collectibles, and speedrun strats are what encouraged me to endlessly replay the first game, and each of those categories has been expanded here into some of the beefiest and most explorable levels i've ever seen in a 2D platformer, hands down. i'm so glad the sequel took its time in the oven, the levels alone were worth the wait!

to me, though, what really makes Freedom Planet stand out from other Sonic-inspired games is its fast and fluid brawling. enemies in each stage take a few hits to defeat, and every stage ends with a grand, bombastic boss fight – you get a handful of moves to tackle these fights with, and each character has very different fighting playstyles! crucially, though, there is no contact damage, meaning you can run circles around enemies while whacking away at their health bars with momentum-based attacks.

it's an incredibly fun and well-thought-out combat system, and its complexity is right at that sweet spot where it feels deep but not overwhelming. honestly it reminds me a lot of kirby's combat, which is one of my favorite combat systems in any video game! (that RtDL remake very nearly made my Top 5 this year…)

Freedom Planet 2 augments the combat system of the original in two ways. one is the addition of a spot-dodge, which feels so perfectly at home that i'm shocked it wasn't in the first game to begin with?? every game with combat benefits from the addition of a dodge, of course, but in this game especially it allows you to keep your momentum while attacking in a way that just feels so natural. there's nothing else quite like learning a boss's attack pattern enough to spot-dodge directly into a powerful counterattack!

but there's also nothing quite so discouraging as getting the boss's health down to a sliver… and biting the dust. here, too, is a place where the sequel shines: if you lose a life, you can choose to restart from a checkpoint with all your health recovered, or you can get back up on the spot with just 1 HP. the push and pull on this system is incredible – you risk getting a game over and having to redo the whole stage… but you could clutch out a victory at the last second! it has the capacity to turn near misses into huge successes, and it saved my ass countless times over the course of the adventure.

tying this all together is a great story that isn't quite as Big and Grand as the first game, but instead serves to deepen the connection between this loveable cast of characters by exploring their history and personalities in more detail. i'm still floored by the fact that these games have full voice acting – it truly makes the characters feel more alive, their personalities shine! the style of VA isn't everyone's cup of tea, i'm well aware… but as someone with fond memories of saturday morning cartoons, i find that it's very genuine and full of heart in a way that most films and AAA games don't really hit me. it's obvious that everyone involved had a ton of fun!

my one regret is that i haven't returned to the game since my first playthrough – i'd really like to replay those levels and see how fast i can clear them! and try out the other characters, and see what the arcade mode is like, and go for the achievements, and…

new stream archive – in which we visit some of the prettiest worlds that the Kirby series has to offer 💖

my twitch recap is here and it's official:

i've streamed more this year than ever before!!

my previous best year for streaming was in 2017! all the way back before i was working full time!! my record that year was 31 streams, and i never thought i would break it so soon.

(plus this new record is incomplete! i'm not even done streaming for the year!)

let's think about this for a moment: i spent the first half of the year working on Retrush, so i wasn't able to stream that much... maybe 4 or 5 times? most of this push started in August, and ever since then i've been trying to stream once or twice a week.

while working full time! and SMASHING my record from back when i didn't have to work full time.

because working is kind of the thing that's defined my life for the past 5 years... i had to Grow Up and be an adult all at once. and the whole time, i've missed streaming.

streaming taught me how to talk! it gave me confidence! and watching others stream helped me through some dark times... so i'm happy to finally pay it forward. that's what this is all about.

so if i only streamed consistently for half of this year... imagine where we'll be a year from now. what if i can keep up this momentum all through next year??

i'm excited to find out together. thank you so much for watching, chatting, laughing with me – you all make this worth it, and i'm excited to make new memories with y'all in 2024 💖💖💖

broke: going to bed

woke: sending my ass to eepy deepy