What I'll be playing the rest of 2023

I have been feeling very nostalgic recently. Specifically, nostalgic for my time as a kid playing the Game Boy Advanced. My parents were reluctant to let me start playing video games, and the GBA was the first console they let me get! It was the bright red Target addition and it was sooooooo cool. I mean just look at this bad boy.

Well it just so happens that my wonderful wife purchased me a freeplay zero GBA conversion kit, which I've almost completed building. It also just so happens that there's really not a lot of newly released games I'm really interested in playing. It seems like as good a time as any take a time machine back to the early 2000's with a little self imposed challenge!

Here are the rules:

1. From now until 2024 I'll play (mostly) only GBA games
2. I'll write about each game I play, including game design, impressions, and any childhood memories they bring up.
3. The first 2 rules are really just "suggestions". Ludum Dare is next week so I'll be playing & rating games from that. There's also a couple Pico-8 games I've been meaning to get to.. but those are basically gameboy games right?

Side Note: I spent A LOT of time with my head mere inches from the unlit screen.. which maybe confirmed some of my parents apprehensions with video games. As a parent now I find myself thinking a surprising amount about "screen time". I love video games; I make them in my free time and they're what I write about most here. However like anything else there's a healthy and unhealthy way you can interact with games.. I should ask my parents about how they navigated that with me!

Now if you'll excuse its time to get back to some Kirby and the Amazing Mirror..