bolnerap.bsky.social
I play too many tabletop games. Busy raising a small human who just keeps getting bigger.
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#9: NBA Jam (Boss Fight Books) by Reyan Ali. A capsule post like this is insufficient. I enjoyed this book thoroughly; it was well researched, entertaining, and informative. I couldn’t help but think back to the ‘90’s and my own experiences with Jam while reading. Wholeheartedly recommend.
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I love the shoulder mounted meat grinder on that robot. One of my coworkers is going to be a huge mark for this one for the artwork alone…
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#8: The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs. The resolution of the case was better paced and more believable than the first book, but the rest didn’t quite have the charm of the setup from book 1, leaving it similarly unsatisfying as a whole. Wonder if it came together later in the series.
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2J is rough… I played through it on Switch Online for the first time a couple years ago and it just didn’t feel right. I don’t mind challenge in my Mario stages, but that game is straight up spiteful.
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#7: Beezus and Ramona (read out loud with my daughter). What the… where is their mother? Why does Mom tolerate this? (Is she medicated?) Beatrice Quimby is a saint and deserves better. We did not buy this book for our daughter; if I’d read it as a child I definitely wouldn’t have brought it up.
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#6: Super Mario Bros 2 (Boss Fight Books, ebook). Of course I’m versed enough to know where SMB2 came from and why, but there were fun nuggets of design & Nintendo of America history sprinkled in with the more general history I already knew, and the author’s personal connection to SMB2.
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#5: The Highly Effective Detective. So far I’ve only read book 1. It was fine? But almost *too* short, and the arc was really weird (slow start to rapid-fire conclusion that made me think I’d missed some chapters). I liked the setting and lead enough that I’ll read book 2.
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#4: Kino’s Journey Vol 1. If you put a Persuader to my head and asked my favorite anime, I would say Kino (‘03-‘04, though the ‘17 remake was much better than remakes of things I love tend to be). I saw this on the library bookmobile shelf and gave it a whirl. Didn’t quite hit me the same way.
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Wow, I have disconnected so much from sports that this is how I found out 😂
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Book #3: “Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide To Homicide, Vol. 1”, by Rupert Holmes. What if there were a secretive school for those who wished to carry out just one critical assassination, with a moral code and plenty of life skills courses? Wife read this one and I was sold on the premise.
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My first exposure to Return to Dream Land mechanics was playing the challenge stages in this one with my daughter. Love the remix of the KDL1 ending song in the credits for those.
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In the realm of board games, K is easy mode, with so many games that start with the letters “king”. The first one on my shelf is Kingdomino, a simple tile layer with good decisions and tradeoffs to make. It deservedly won a bunch of awards.
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For the past four years, phone, but I have a modern tablet as of about a month ago, so I expect to use that more often.
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My City is going to have an app version soon… if you do board game apps, I’d be happy to jump in a game with you.
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I won’t be keeping this one, but it was nice to support a small library. I’ll be leaving it in a Little Free Library in that area the next time we’re up there, and hopefully someone else with a connection to the area finds it. (Haig was from Michigan and writes about Detroit a few times.)
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Haig wrote about seeing that on the news and immediately envisioning what might be going on in the local firehouses and in the response. In a book full of daily travel logs that largely focused on gambling and chatting with old friends, it really stuck out.
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From page to page, I found myself equally rolling my eyes at his self-admitted 75-going-on-25 attitude toward life, but also interested by the Firefighter Brain that he couldn’t turn off. For example, this takes place in 1Q 2010, when that one guy crashed a plane into a Texas IRS building.
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Left the group 🫡 If you ask us to leave here and on Discord, I’m sure at least some of us would help save you some effort.
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I spy Ys Healing in the lower left; picked that up a while ago when it got a US print and it’s been great for wind-down times.
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All of this 👆
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One of my video game crew extolled the virtues of Bell Kirby, but I spent A Lot of time just running around kiting with Archer and it ended up being my favorite new-to-me power.
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I… kinda didn’t enjoy the Hypernova segments, especially in boss fights. Several of them were very poorly telegraphed on just what I was supposed to be doing. The block sliders were fine, but everything else felt obtuse.
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This was one of many Kirby games I ignored between Adventure and Forgotten Land. It was definitely worth playing, though the ending sequence had me rolling my eyes and saying “how many final bosses can one game have?”
I enjoyed that it was basically Return to Dream Land controls with more powers.
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That’s really impressive considering the apartment I had in Greenwood in ‘04-05 has doubled since then from $550 to $1100…
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For tabletop games, there’s not much choice other than this, a reimplementation of the classic tile layer Tigris & Euphrates. This one’s a little easier for folks to digest and has an official short game variant in the rulebook, so it gets played at work a few times a year. Sadly out of print.
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The box contains an art book, a mini soundtrack / drama CD (not pictured as the Konami-created fairy character is on it and she’s, uh, only somewhat “dressed”) and a pocket watch.
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The fantastic musical Come From Away is also on Apple TV.
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Mega Man II GB award for “what is even entering my ear canal right now”: Dungeon Encounters
And that’ll do it! I’m in the last world of Mario Galaxy 2 but there’s no way I finish by midnight. I finished about 70% of what I’d hoped to this year. Thinking about targets for ‘25.
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Blockbuster Memorial Award for games blasted through on library checkouts: Princess Peach Showtime, Mario vs. DK, Echoes of Wisdom, Shredder's Revenge
Waited for a long time and it was worth it: Ace Attorney Investigations 2
Waited for a long time and it... wasn't: Another Code R
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Star Ocean Memorial award for "why can't I turn these voices/sounds off" - Super Mario Galaxy 2's Wiimote speaker noises
Replayed it, still really enjoyed it: Quake II, VVVVVV
Replayed it, went down in my estimation: New Super Mario Bros Wii (that coop mode felt competitive)
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Earthbound Memorial Award for the game everyone recommended that I avoided playing forever, and I kinda don't get it: Hollow Knight
Didn't hit for me as it did for others, but still worth it: Mario Odyssey
Junes award for inconceivably catchy theme song: "Lake Juliet and You", Another Code R
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Favorite new-to-me game I played this year: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Honorable Mention: Donkey Kong '94
Least Favorite: Endless Ocean Blue World
Castles of Burgundy Memorial Award for the game everyone recommended that I avoided playing forever, and it turns out they were right: DK '94
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🫡
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Oh hey, I was looking at this on the eshop. I’ve never played it either.
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I’ll be interested to see what you think of Civolution. It feels like a board game that was made specifically to hit every possible point that I’m not interested in 😂
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I have one out of two of those 🤝