Would you believe that I've never once, in twenty years of playing the Pokemon series, seen a Shiny Pokemon? It doesn't get me down, since it wasn't even something I was aware of until about five to ten years ago, but it's still a little ridiculous, haha.

Mario Kart 8 was amazing! It's become destination gaming for me, particularly since our awesome November session. On the plus side, this session didn't involve me waking up the next morning with a dawning sense of existential dread; on the down side, some punk knocked the side mirror off my car overnight. Maybe I…

What, the game actually reacted to your name choice with adaptive text?! Is that a thing? Or was Ahab just one of several potential names? Because if not, that's some truly incredible design.

I think I managed to pull into 1st place on my last race (Electrodome?) thanks only to a well-timed mushroom and a shortcut just before the goal line. I forget who I edged out, but it was a good way to end the night for me, haha.

Yeah, I ducked out early last night at 10:00 PM EST, but that's partially because I'm old before my time. It's worth joining up, as it's oodles of fun - looking forward to seeing you on there in 2017.

Oh my goodness MK8 On The 8th was fun last night. I feel like you and I had a pretty tight rivalry going in the back half - I was Shy Guy (Username CHRS). It's the only MK8 tournament in which I achieved anything higher than last or next-to-last place, so I was pretty proud. Shame about the connection problem, though…

Oh no! I'm still hoping that Spirit Tracks moves me, as it's one of the only two Zelda games I haven't played over the past two years, but this is troubling. Is it likely that I'll enjoy it if I adored Phantom Hourglass?

Hooray for Minish Cap! It's actually near the top of my list for 2D Zeldas, which is pretty shocking, given its origin outside the company that built the franchise. Strangely, I think one of the biggest aspect that elevates it over other 2D Zelda games for me is the sense of community. You tend to find communities in…

In contrast to my notes below, I have a veeeery hard time picking my "If I Haven't Played It, It's New To Me" pick:

On the plus side, Twilight Princess was my "If I Haven't Played It, It's New To Me" pick this year. Somehow missed it when it came out back in 2006, but golly it holds up years later! Such a great game from start (or at least from the end of its intro) to finish. Having the harder mode accessible on my initial…

Ugh, that water level puzzle in the flooded basement is very tough. It's one that I put down and haven't come back to after I could find no more reflections (if I'm remembering the problem correctly). I think that is the only remaining area I've not conquered, aside from anything on the mountain peak.

I've got a request for Oranguru up on GTS right now! I'm looking to swap my Gengar for it, so hopefully someone takes me up on that offer. Have you heard about the Wondertrade Christmas event? So delightful.

This weekend I'll be playing Pokemon Sun and hopefully making some more levels in Super Mario Maker. My latest world is up and available for play - you can find it on the bookmark site at the following links:

Good call. I'm quite excited for it!

You had me there right up until the bit about rules and local laws. What are ya, some kinda square?

Tiny UI is a problem all over the current generation of games, and I don't understand it at all. In the PC world, happily, there tend to be UI fixes, but console games (like Xenoblade Chronicles X) sometimes get stuck with functionally unreadable text. In another AVClub thread, we were speculating that this may be…

I assume the patched content will be available circa 2026.

Yup! I was really hoping that the performance issues would be resolved on the Switch, and they appear to be entirely gone. I still think it's a bit crummy to develop a game for a console, jazz it up enough that it no longer runs well for that hardware, and release it on the next one in addition to the one for which it…

With few exceptions, you're pretty well-set-up with an endless supply of quality games if you've got a Nintendo console for their exclusives and a PC for everything else. I am sad that I don't currently have a way to play FFXV, Bloodborne, or The Last Guardian, but it's not like I don't have a boatload of quality…

I was pretty bummed about the performance hiccups at the Game Awards, particularly given how long the game's been in development, but it's hardly unprecedented - I loved Ocarina of Time and Dark Souls in spite of some performance hitches, so perhaps the Wii U version will be the way to go. On the other hand, my wife…