this arrived yesterday
initial impressions of the first two games of Season 1 are:
the surfing game, Whitewater Wipeout, uses the crank to turn and is kind of fun but borders on unplayable. like i would have to be really dedicated to wanting to learn the skill of turning the crank (but also hitting the dpad sometimes? it’s not clear what that does, but they sometimes tell you to do that), and that will probably just happen over time since i bought this thing and have to wait for the rest of the season to unlock. reserving judgment until i’m better at it.
Casual Birder is very charming. a guy i used to book a lot, Maxo, did the music and sound effects and they are appropriately very charming and breezy and nice. the game itself feels like it’s crafted for someone slightly more twee than i - someone who has fond memories of Pokémon, perhaps. there’s a little more talking to people in it than i’d care for, but the central conceit seems to be you need to photograph’em all (the birds). you do this by using A to bring up your camera, then you point it to where you want with the dpad, and then turn the crank to change focus. it’s nice and pleasant and so far kind of simple, but not in a bad way.
my allergies have been really bad and i feel like crap today so i’m probably not in the best, most focused game playing mood, or like, a good mood in general, so take my criticisms with at least one grain of salt.
i think these two are kind of weird choices to start off the season. like if they were there alongside something else i think it could work, but as of right now it feels very much like an early console release kind of thing. tech demos with fun ideas that project the potential of things to come.
system feels nice to hold and play on, and so far the screen visibility feels pretty nice, even without a back or front light or what have you.