Sunshine Blogger Award

I haven’t done one of these in quite a while, but the amazing Meghan from Meghanplaysgames nominated me recently. She has provided a bunch of intriguing questions for me to answer, so let’s get right into it.

In the spirit of the 25th anniversary of Pokemon: if you were the Champion of your region, which Pokemon would be on your team of 6?

To be a great champion, you need an exceptional team full of variety, that covers a bunch of different bases. Narrowing down a elite team of six is tough, but mine would have to be:

• Espeon (A super powerful psychic type)
• Togekiss (It has high defensive stats as well as incredible special attack, a must have for tanking and versatility)
• Flygon (It’s such a cool Pokemon and is a must for my team)
• Lucario (This is often a fan favourite among players and for good reason)
• Milotic (A brilliant water type that is equal parts beautiful and powerful)
• Electabuzz (This is one powerhouse of an electric type)

How do you feel about presentations like Sony’s State of Play and Nintendo Directs? Love em or hate em? Why?

I have mixed feelings about them in all honesty. There are issues about managing expectations, which stems from both the companies that hold them and the audience. I think they’re pretty pointless if you don’t have many big releases or other news to share. It can be disappointing if we just get a handful of new announcements that could have just been given trailers on their own. These should be big presentations that hype up the fanbase, not just a handful of smaller titles. They should either be large events, showing a bunch of bigger and smaller titles, or none at all. The only exception would be when Nintendo does a Mini-Direct, it’s know it won’t be anything significant, so most won’t hype it up, to then be disappointed.

Video game movies are usually terrible, but which game would you like to see adapted on the big screen? Any dream cast members?

I would love to see a film set in the Elder Scrolls universe. This would give the freedom to create an original and great protagonist. A lot of video game movies have the trouble of having a character’s legacy shadowing them, like Lara Croft or Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie. Being able to make their own hero or ensemble, means they can focus on bringing that world to life and craft a unique narrative around the phenomenal lore. Not sure about dream cast members, but I think having a lot of upcoming actors/actresses would be cool.

If you were a video game character that had to use a mundane item (i.e. an umbrella) as a weapon, what would you use?

The first thing that popped into my mind was a violin, mainly as it’s sitting in my field of view while writing this. I bought one about 4 years ago with the intention of trying to learn how to play. I soon realised it was far too hard and it’s been gathering dust ever since. This way, ironically it could actually have some proper use. Plus, it technically has two components, the violin itself and the bow. This would make me a dangerous, dual-wielding, musical menace.

Have you picked up any new hobbies during the pandemic? If so, talk about it!

I’ve recently started trying digital art. It’s still very new and I’m really not that great (the last time I did anything artistic was like 8-10 years ago), but it’s been quite relaxing and good to try something new. My latest piece was this one inspired by my favourite quote by Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

How did you get into video games in the first place?

Pokemon Red was the very first game I properly played and beat. I was obsessed with it that I tried other games, particularly playing TimeSplitters 2 with my brothers in split screen on the PS2. The rest as they say, is history.

Who is your least favourite video game character of all time?

This is a hard one, but a special place is reserved for the incredibly annoying owl from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The amount of times I would skip through a novel worth of text, just to accidentally make him repeat himself as this was the first option, was ridiculous. I thought Navi would take this place, but the owl was something else purely for that reason.

Does pineapple belong on pizza?

I don’t even like pineapple by itself, let alone on a pizza. It’s a no from me.

A lot of video games incorporate some form of cooking – if you had to cook a signature recipe in a game, what would you choose? What stats would it boost/what would it do for you?

I actually have a GCSE in food-tech and if I recall correctly, I received full marks for my lemon meringue pie. To honour that, this would be the signature dish I’d cook in a game. Since it got full marks, I think it would be appropriate that consuming it would give you a boost to your luck stat while partially healing you.

Has there ever been a game that you decided to walk away from before completing? If so, why?

The most recent one that stands out has to be Death Stranding. I thought the story was interesting enough, but the gameplay was a huge issue. All you were doing was walking and running back and forth, delivering stuff. You did unlock vehicles, but it was still painfully mundane. The encounters with the creepy looking, ghost-things also got dull fairly quickly. If the game was short, it wouldn’t be a problem, but this was an open world game that apparently lasts around 50+ hours. 10 hours was more than enough for me.

Have you ever been talked down to, or insulted for playing a certain game or genre? How did you respond?

I’m lucky that this has never happened to me that I can recall. You should never be judged for whatever game or genre you like. Everyone has different tastes. Games are meant to be enjoyed. Sure, you can have criticisms for other games, but don’t ever insult someone just cause they like it and you don’t.

Well, there are my answers to some excellent questions. I’ll nominate a few other bloggers and provide some questions. No pressure to respond if it’s not something you’re interested in.

I nominate:

• George (TheGamerWithGlasses)
• Stacey (LifeToldByStacey)
• Mariah (BizzareBrunette)
• AK (Everythingisbadforyou)
• Krista (LeeksPlays)

1. If you could have a new entry from your favourite video game franchise, but in a new genre, what would it be?
2. What video game crossover would you love to see happen?
3. What platform did you start gaming on?
4. There is often talk about difficulty vs accessibility in video games. Do you think that developers should have to include difficulty settings in their games?
5. Which legendary video game franchise do you think has the better music, The Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy?
6. What popular video game, movie or book series could you not get into?
7. Serious question now….dogs or cats?
8. What three indie games do you recommend and why?
9. What do video games mean to you?

Thanks for reading and if I haven’t nominated you, why don’t you answer some of my questions in the comments? I’d love to hear your responses.

As always, stay safe and stay tuned for more content like this.

Follow me on Twitter