Games this Week… Pokémon Sword, Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team, and Animal Crossing Hype


Another light gaming week for me, as we have been spending more time watching television in the evenings, when I’ve not been busy with non-profit work, but I did get a little bit of game time in beyond my usual morning Hearthstone and Ring Fit Adventure routine (which, by the way, I highly recommend if you are exercise averse but love the gamification of mundane tasks; it’s been a life changer for me).

Pokémon Sword

I was able to pick up Pokémon Sword one night this week, and spent a few hours sending my stored Pokémon out on PokéJobs, customizing my character’s appearance, and then actually riding around on my bicycle, trying to catch new Pokémon. After like five or six attempts at catching a Perrserker, the evolution of the super ugly Galar region Meowth, I finally managed to snag one. I feel like I went through at least thirty of the various Poké Balls trying to get the damn thing.

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I’ve logged about 17 hours into the game, and I just made it to Circhester, one of the gym cities (for the 6th badge). I like roaming around the wild areas and building up my Pokémon teams, so my forward progress has been… limited. I started the game aiming for cute Pokémon only, and then all of my cute Pokémon evolved into hideous emo rockers (I shit you not) so I don’t know what aesthetic I’m even going for now. It’s a weird mix of lithe and spiky Pokémon and fat fluffy Pokémon. Right now I have a Snorlax as my party lead, and I love my big squish monster who just wants to eat lots and lots of curry. Snorlax is me, is what I’m saying. Also, I refuse to let my Grookey evolve. It will be Grookey forever because I cannot abandon its cuteness. I will not.

Anyway, I would like to play more and actually get through all of the main story so that when the DLC drops, I can play through that. I just need to find the time (ha!).

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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team

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I’m a total sucker for everything Pokémon, and Nintendo has been blasting my email with newsletters about this upcoming game, so of course I had to download the demo to figure out if I want to buy it or not, and right now, I’m leaning toward a maybe. 

Honestly, for what it is, the $60 price point seems excessive. I feel like it might be something worth buying when it’s on sale for like $20, not full price. It may get more complex than I’ve seen in the demo so far, but it seems like a pretty basic dungeon platformer for $60.


Animal Crossing


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HOLY MACARONI GUYS, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out in ONE MONTH! Nintendo did a live update yesterday on what to expect, and I was able to pre-load the game onto my Switch, even though I won’t be able to play until 3/19. That day can’t come soon enough.


As many of you are now aware, I am very big into crafting in video games, and LET ME TELL YOU DOES ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS DELIVER. Watching the intro video yesterday, I literally squealed out loud because of the ability to design, craft, and recolor your own furniture in-game. Decorating my house is 90% of the reason I play pretty much any game, so I am READY for this.

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Anther really cool feature I’m looking forward to is a sort of multiplayer mode. You can invite family members who also live on the island to play with you, provided you have enough Joy-Con controllers. This is perfect, because kiddo and I like a lot of the same games, and a lot of the time, she has to settle with watching me play something, instead of playing herself. But now we can play together! And because she loves Animal Crossing as much as I do, I think it will be a great way for us to spend time together.

Beyond regular old furniture crafting, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will also let you enter a sort of construction mode where you can edit the actual island. So you could add a lake, or a waterfall, add or remove cliffs, create roads, and so on. I think that’s pretty cool.

I am really hyped about this game. I’ve been waiting for a new Animal Crossing console game since City Folk came out on the Wii.

I am so ready to move into my new deserted island home.

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