This year, I have spent more money shopping online during Black Friday week than I have any other year. A bunch of games, a PlayStation Classic I regret buying (it's a complete ripoff with an underwhelming selection of games), and other products that have provided no real improvement to my life. But hey, I like buying and collecting things.
In November, I completed Mother 3, the three Kirby's Dream Land games and Kirby Star Allies (Kirby games are easy, nostalgic, and relaxing), and Pokemon Let's Go Eevee. 40 hours to beat the game, complete another Pokedex, and beat Red in his latest incarnation. 5-10 hours was spent chain-catching Chanseys to level up my Mewtwo to 100, a mind-numbing process. I'm now tired of throwing Pokeballs.
Now, I've been playing Smash Ultimate for hours everyday; I've completed every game challenge save for the online ones (I don't want to pay $20 for a subpar online service), and, as of right now, I've have collected 1247/1299 of the game's Spirits. I'm a collector, after all. But, I'm so sad that they made Sheik so weak in this game.
My main goal right now is to keep getting better at Smash. I'll probably never be as good as professional players to participate in tournaments, but that's okay. I'm proud that I can at least 3-stock level 9 CPUs.
The end of the year is a time for reflection. It is almost 2019, and there are many things to look forward to, like Kingdom Hearts III. I want the Kingdom Hearts III Limited Edition PS4 Pro, but I don't know if I'll be able to get one; I think it sold out already. I wanted to buy the 500 Million Limited Edition PS4 Pro, but it sold out too quickly. It would be nice to have an Xbox One too, so I can finally play Halo, Rare Replay, and Gears of War.
I'm a staunch critic of consumerism and materialism despite my thoughts constantly returning to things that I want to buy. I've become aware of my cognitive dissonance and unhealthy addiction to buying products related to video games. For my new year's resolution, I wish to spend less money on video games. We'll see if I fail.
Earlier this year, I created a section in my gaming bucket list that included specific Nintendo titles that I wished to complete prior to Smash Ultimate's release. Included on this list were several old NES and Gameboy games I never got around to playing, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and the Game & Watch Gallery games, among others. I'm glad I managed to play through most of them. There are still five Fire Emblem games (Radiant Dawn, Holy War, Thracia 776, Shadow Dragon, Shin Monsou No Nazo), a couple more Kirby games, Donkey Kong Country 3 (I managed to finally 100% DKC 2 though), and the Wario Land games that I have to get around to. I don't think I can ever beat the F-Zero games since they're so difficult. I also need to play more Animal Crossing. At least now Wii Fit is the only game whose character is represented in Smash Bros that I haven't played. I don't need to depend on a video game to motivate myself to exercise. I do need to motivate myself to exercise more, however.
Smash Ultimate is an amazing celebration of all things video games. The amount of games represented is overwhelming. I enjoy the faster gameplay, the numerous easter eggs and music tracks, and, most importantly, the fact that I can play as so many of my favorite video game characters from my favorite games. Smash is also the only fighting game I'm decent at.
I'll probably still be playing Smash everyday while I'm waiting for Kingdom Hearts III. Thirteen years of waiting; what's another month?
