Good Riddance, 2016.

Wow. There is only half an hour to go but it must be re-iterated; this year kind of sucked. I take that kind of back, it just plain sucked. One of the few things that didn't suck about it were the words I wrote during it, though. Here's our customary end of the year post where I link the shit I liked writing the most and then give you some hopeful words.

Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation: A Review

Linked because A) I shook off the spectre of the Ad Hominem Ghost mostly with this one, by being nicer to it than the other one and B) because for all the disdain I have for this little series, hindsight ended up making it just a mediocre masocore I played at the end of March. It's no Dread Beast, but it's no master alchemical creation either like other more easily-impressed folks might say. It was ehh. Maybe if they make a third it'll rise beyond ehh, but this was an anticipation to write so on it goes.

I Am The Shadow, The True Self (Super Mario Brothers 2: The Lost Levels)

The most Nintendo Project-y I got all year. Something about this game inspired me, and so I wrote these words about it. There's not too much to say beyond that, other than it's a resurgence of the older, more pretentious oddball occultist form of writing I had back when I was doing the Nintendo game goddess thing. I like it, but no talk about writing and goddesses is complete without...

Dr. Strangenep Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Goddesses (Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3)

The wall, the myth, the massive 5000-word post that was ages in the making. I had teased the idea of doing a Neptunia writeup on my short experience with the first Rebirth game, but kept putting it off. Then I played Rebirth 3 and liked it and combined both of those into this brick. I could have gone harder; one friend of mine played all seven Neptunia games on Steam this year. Maybe more? One was enough for me, and the proof of how it resonated with me is there in the words.

31 Days, 31 Screams (All Of It)

A project that sort of just came to mind off the top of my head. It sounded fun, so I went for it. For the most part it worked, but you can tell when I gave a shit and when I didn't. Dawn Of The Dead, for instance, I did not give a shit... whereas with something like Scream, I did. I ended up finding at least one new horror favorite in Dead Alive, but otherwise this was a fun little experiment that let me talk about a genre I like and play with writing about all sorts of media. Yay.

Everything I Wrote In The Last Two Weeks

Because they're good words and I was productive and I have 16 minutes left in the year.

Now, parting words. To your right is Lillie, from Pokemon Sun and Moon. Like Chiaki Nanami before her, she was a very important fictional girl because she was an inspiration to me as I played my Game of the Year. I, being a weird waffly man with Nintendo goddess leanings, recognize her as part of the Valya, that beautiful force of positivity that seemed to be trampled upon all year as evil and death ran rampant. Let us do what we can to fight that evil and death with good and life. Be it a shining beacon of good feelings or the bright flames of revolution, let us stand for the change we wish to see in this upcoming year and banish as many of the dark consequences of this trash fire as possible. Have a happy 2017, and I'll be writing a bunch of words and posting them here.

Now, let the voice of love take you higher, and have a good one.