Small But Fierce (Little League Baseball Championship Series, The Little Mermaid, Little Ninja Brothers)

Canada is not very good at baseball. This is a fact demonstrated by my play of Little League Baseball Championship Series for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Japan creamed them. Japan is very good at baseball, because it does not exist. There is complex calculation at work with these sports games. Where to stand, when to swing, what way you must throw the ball. Complex calculations far beyond that of a little leaguer. The Japanese machine, on the other hand, can perform these just fine. JUST. FINE. My own lack of skill at sports games forces me to blame the machine. A crude excuse, to be sure, but I just plain don't like sports games. There were so many of the things; especially baseball. We're nowhere near close to done with sports on the Nintendo Project. There's a baseball diamond not far from my house. Very little baseball is played there anymore. The field is massive, though, and I was once tasked to mow it while I was on a summer works program. Not fun at all. To hell with Little League. To hell with mowing grass. I'm too hot. Throw me into the goddamned ocean.

Huh. The Little Mermaid. Another of those Disney/Capcom darlings. Phil Sandifer covered most of them (including Darkwing Duck, which was my jam from the rental store) but now I get one. The Little Mermaid is a good game, albeit a somewhat easy and short one. Then again, it was likely designed for children and little girls in mind. Dare I touch the "games for girls" mentality? I remember renting the Beauty And The Beast video game from the rental store once. My brother looked at me oddly for doing so... and it wasn't because that video game turned out to be kind of a dud, either. I, as a heterosexual white male, really have no perspective on talking about gender issues and discrimination and whatnot. This isn't my first dance with The Little Mermaid though, and I don't mean the movie. Five years ago I wrote about how Ariel was out of her mind. A raw and untempered piece from a long ago time and a long ago group. At least in the video game, Ariel's goal is not to marry Prince Eric and sire a bunch of little royals. Her quest is to save the sea from Ursula, and confront the aquatic alchemist in her own domain. It gives her a little more agency. King Triton and his mermen need not go to war. Ariel shall swim through the danger and confront the beast herself. A mythic destructor if there ever was one. I'm fine with this.

Little Ninja Brothers. It feels like we've jumped ahead. I'm staying up past my bedtime to watch the late late movie. Big Trouble In Little Chinaland. I can hardly keep my eyes open, though. It's not the game's fault. It's just me, exhausted after that undersea battle. We have the inklings of something interesting. An RPG plot with real time battles wherein our ninja friends fight in real-time. Kind of like those Kung-Fu Heroes. I wouldn't be surprised if they were related. There are towns and items and things and oh god I'm going to fall asleep here sweet dreams zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Goddess Valya appears again, in the usual form. Her hair is flowing against an invisible wind in the void of space, and I do not even need to hear her speak to know what is happening. I am in the Dreaming again, the Sub-Con of the Subconscious. Here, then, the goddess I pay tribute to with my sermons of words has summoned me. The Nightmares are coming back. The twin knights, Anxiety and Insecurity, rampaging through a calm world.

Time to once again take up the Rod of the Dreaming, and battle my demons.