The Geek-Out

Splatoon 2 logo, from geekdad.com Ok, yeah, so I’m a little late to the party on this one. Maybe a little more than a little– but who’s counting, really? Minor spoilers ahead! I’ve been letting my roommate play through the single-player campaign on my old copy of Splatoon 2 recently, and I’ve had a lot of fun watching her play (and occasionally pointing out the location of a secret, or helping her clear a level). But as she progressed through the game, I noticed something I’d missed when I first played through the game all those years ago.  In the single-player campaign, you are a young inkling recruited by famous pop-idol Marie of the famous Squid Sisters to help find her missing cousin and pop-star partner Callie , who has recently gone missing. In search of her you delve into Octo Canyon, a location overrun by the fearsome Octarian Army. You delve deeper and deeper into the canyon as you clear levels, gain new weapons, and defeat bosses, all while accompanied by some of...

Pokemon TCGP Logo, from  tcgpocket.pokemon.com In the time since my last post, my little sister has convinced me to start playing Nintendo’s Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket app– an app that lets you collect virtual Pokemon cards and battle it out against friends, strangers, and bots in battles with a simplified version of the card game rules. As of writing this post, I’ve managed to collect 293 total cards by opening Booster Packs– a loot-box-style method of obtaining cards. Each pack contains five random cards, and you can open up to two of these packs a day for free (or more, if you’re willing to spend in-game or real-world currency).  Now, cards in Pokemon have a sort of balance to them. Pokemon have a certain amount of health, and attacks that can do a certain amount of damage, given that a Pokemon has a certain amount of energy. Some of these attacks come with additional effects, conditions, or drawbacks– this is where strategy becomes important. Your deck of cards...