I haven't been on social media much lately, so here's a status report for all the projects I have going:

1. OH JOES! is receiving a major update. I've added or am in the process of adding 9 new game modes, 14 Achievements, quality-of-life improvements (eg, an option for Quick Lasers to have a warmup animation before firing), an Italian translation, and more. This will probably be my last update to the game (notwithstanding any necessary functionality patches), so I'm making it a point to include everything I wanted to have as part of the initial release but got too burned out to implement. Thank you to everyone who's written words of encouragement and rekindled my enthusiasm for this project.

2. I'm updating this website on a relatively frequent basis. I've been chipping away at various Series Opinions, and I finally added a link to my Mega Man Fangame Tracker under the Games section. Once the aforementioned OH JOES! update is released, I'll post the next developer diary I've been working on, which should be considerably happier than the last one.

3. I'm still working on my Mega Man 8 playthrough for YouTube, I swear. It's hard to work up the motivation to play one of my least-favorite games in the series, let alone replay the same half a stage over and over without any guarantee I'll get decent footage. I'll devote more time to this as my fangame commitments disappear. In the meantime, you can track my progress by looking at the banner image I'm using on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

4. I'm designing a handful of screens for a unique trio of fan-made Mega Man relay levels, where each designer makes a few screens and passes the level along to the next designer to continue the challenges. This is a very small commitment that will only occupy a few evenings total. No release date yet, but probably sometime in the next couple months. (If you'd like to participate, we could use more designers! Click here to join the Discord server.)

5. No further livestreams are planned for the foreseeable future. I do plan to get back to streaming eventually, and I may stream on a whim (like I did recently with a dash-free run of Mega Man X), but my Twitch channel is officially dormant for the time being. I need some time away from actively performing in front of an audience, and I want to direct my attention to projects with a clear endpoint.

6. I'm a judge and on the development team for Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest 3. I will also be designing a judge level and likely making other contributions to the game. I expect this project will consume most of my free time in December, January, probably February, and possibly March. However, after this is all over, I intend to step away from developing Mega Man fangames and refocus on recording. It's been fun to be so active in the fan community and create content based on my favorite video game franchise, but I have a fanbase of my own that's been starved for new videos these last three years.

7. I am a contributor to the Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest website and have been tidying up (read: overediting) the existing pages and adding new pages. There's a little bit more I'd like to do, but nothing I have to do; this might take up a couple more evenings across the next several months.

8. In an effort to complete my playlist of music from OH JOES!, CosmicGem has given me permission to upload videos of his compositions for the game. I just need to take 10 minutes to slap together a background image and make the videos.

9. This has been on the backburner for an outrageously long time, but some diligent fans have added closed captioning to some of my YouTube videos, and I just need to review them. As a professional copy editor, I want to make sure the captions are as accurate and tidy as possible—which means this is essentially an extension of what I do at work all day, hence why it takes me so long to get around to it in my spare time. However, I'm most grateful that people are willing to put in the effort to write accurate captions, sparing my viewers from the inappropriate and nonsensical absurdities of Transcribe Audio.

On top of all this, I've got a normal life to lead—keeping up with boring adult stuff such as housework and bills; spending time with friends, family, and my wife; taking time to relax with books, movies, and video games; and so forth. I'm assuming that all counts as "normal." I'm prioritizing my side projects as much and as often as I can, but there's only so much time in a year, and only so much energy in a day. But thanks for sticking with me as I try to do it all.

Story navigation: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

If there's one thing I learned from "Maze of Death," my contribution to the first Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest (MaGMML), it's that levels need to be playtested by other people—people who think and play differently than you do. People who don't already know what's coming. People who aren't predisposed to thinking that everything is perfect and wonderful. It's important to playtest the heck out of your own creation, but you can't stop there.

In playtesting as in life, there is strength in diversity. Gaming skill varies greatly from one person to the next, and we all have our own ideas about what is and isn't fun. Our expectations are informed by the games we've played and the lives we've led. We differ in how we deliver feedback, and in what we deem important to point out. Some of us are attentive to detail; some of us are oblivious to the obvious. Some of us like to take our time, explore, and think things through; some of us like to barge ahead and rush through challenges. I could go on. The broader and more eclectic the playtesting group, the more bugs you'll catch, and the better your final product is likely to be.

From the beginning, my plan for OH JOES! was to playtest in phases. Whenever I had a substantial amount of new content, I'd send the game for playtesting. Not every playtester was involved in every round of playtesting, and the size of the group depended on the size of the development milestone I'd reached. My rationale was that I'd get better feedback if I had a mix of some playtesters who'd seen several iterations of the game, and some playtesters who came in fresh at various points in development. Rotating playtesters also helped people from getting burned out, and it ensured that the finished product didn't just cater to the tastes and opinions of the same few playtesters.

By the time OH JOES! was released, almost 30 playtesters had taken the game for a spin, and I extend my thanks to all of them. At first, the group was mostly comprised of the people actively helping me with the project—CosmicGem, Entity1037, Jasper Valentine, and Renhoek. Along the way, I roped people I knew (either personally or through years of Internet interactions) into playtesting, including Alice "Mother" Kojiro, B.B. Sting, Dash Jump, Desertskunk, Mr_Cobb, ProcneDevi, Super Adapter, and Zapetroid. A number of folks specifically from the Mega Man fan community either volunteered or took me up on a request to playtest, such as happygreenfrog, IcyTower, Mark in Austin, NaOH, PKWeegee, Quack Man, and Raine.

I thought it was important to get feedback from the people with whom I'd be judging MaGMML3, so I invited Mick Galbani, Pachy, and Shinryu (and ACESpark, but he was extremely busy at the time). For good measure, I recruited Cheez, the MaGMML judge who seemed most likely to appreciate my game, as well as Dolphin, a regular judge of informal Mega Man Maker contests. I wanted input from fellow fangame developers, so I asked for help from Blyka, Lars Luron, SnoruntPyro, and WreckingPrograms. I was also planning on reaching out to the likes of MegaPhilX, MrWeirdGuy, GoldWaterDLS, and YouTuber RoahmMythril, but by then I had a near-excessive number of playtesters for a game that was only four stages long.

As often as possible, I pestered people to playtest my game in person; otherwise, my preference was a playthrough video with audio commentary. It's easier for me to gauge difficulty, fun, and fairness when I know exactly how the player reacts to each situation, both visually and verbally. Glitches are easier to replicate when I can study a recording for possible causes, too. Some people preferred text feedback via e-mail, Facebook, Discord, or even a PDF, sometimes with screenshots or short video clips attached. This allowed people an opportunity to articulate their thoughts in a way that might be difficult in the middle of a playthrough, plus it cut straight to the heart of what they felt did and didn't work. Getting feedback in a variety of formats kept the playtesting process fresh for me, and I got a well-rounded sense of my game that way.

Whenever I watched someone play through the game, I kept a notepad handy and scribbled a bulleted list of things I intended to change. A playtesting session could yield up to three or four pages of notes, with about two dozen bullets per side. I used plenty of shorthand, so Hammer Joe became just "ham"; I've since discarded all these notes, but I'm sure you can imagine what it was like returning to a list a few days later and trying to remember what things like "ham stuck on ice" meant. I crossed items off the list as I addressed them (in whatever order I felt like); any items I didn't really feel like dealing with immediately got transferred to a Word document to be sorted out later. Many of these, such as native controller support, sat on the list so long that they turned into "nice to have" items to be addressed after the game's release, if there was enough interest in the game to justify the time and effort.

For the most part, I contacted my playtesters individually for their videos and written comments. I've been a playtester for other games where feedback was provided in a group chat, and though there are benefits to that approach, I find it lends itself to derailed trains of thought, people jumping on a bandwagon, and people criticizing your criticism. The individual approach also allowed me to address feedback at my own pace, without feeling pressured to keep up with an ongoing conversation.

Most of the playtesting feedback for OH JOES! was very freeform; I welcomed any and all comments, usually with minimal guidance about what I wanted people to test. To some degree, this was a mistake. Hardly anybody tried the final iteration of Easy Mode, I don't think anybody played the game in French, the glitch-prone Item-2 was largely ignored, and there were a couple paths in the final stage that few people bothered with on Difficult Mode.

My original plan for the last round of testing was to send my playtesters a questionnaire about their experience. I used to do this after every Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran for my friends, asking what specific moments and general characteristics of the quest they liked most and least. This questionnaire also would have assessed which game options were selected and which paths were taken, to give me a better idea of the gaps in testing. When it came time for final playtesting, however, I was burned out on being a game developer. I wanted the game out the door. I asked my playtesters to look only for glaring problems and tiny things that were easy to change. So much for the questionnaire.

Keep in mind that, despite the sheer number of contributors to the project, I  was the only one incorporating playtester feedback. Revamping challenges, fixing glitches, adding new features, revising dialogue, correcting graphical mishaps—that was all me. I tried not to outsource changes unless I was utterly stuck. This proved to be exhausting, because the changes required way more programming than I ever wanted to do for this game. Programming was something I tried to get out of the way early so that I could focus on the fun parts, but it kept coming back to haunt me. It was not uncommon for me to spend an entire evening trying to address a single item off my bulleted list. There's a reason why this game took 2 years to make.

It was fascinating to see what kinds of issues each of my playtesters focused on. I could tell who was a programmer, who was a level designer, who had an artistic eye, and who was more accustomed to playing fangames and ROM hacks than the official games. Comments ranged from extremely general (eg, stage 3 is too hard) to extremely specific (eg, here are the particular notes I'd like to change in the music). Some issues were no-brainers to fix (eg, the game crashes when I do this thing); other issues were annoyingly on the cusp between my fault and the player's fault (eg, magnets pulling more strongly when stacked on top of each other, which one playtester misinterpreted as individual magnets having arbitrarily inconsistent pull strengths). Sometimes, I got conflicting feedback (eg, one person said the Chill block sections were brutal and always avoided them; another person said those sections were the best).

Indeed, the hardest and most frustrating part was figuring out when and how to compromise. Incorporating feedback is a balancing act between your vision for the project and what other people want out of it, a matter of filtering out personal preference and bias (both yours and the playtester's) to get to the core of what actually needs to change. Accepting a suggestion doesn't automatically make the game better—in fact, it usually necessitates more playtesting to determine how well the suggestion works.

There are plenty of reasons why you might choose to ignore feedback, but if you start to see a theme in the ideas you've rejected, you can be sure that issue will become a sticking point once the game is released. My MaGMML2 level, "Guts Man's Asteroid," fell short of the top tier because I didn't fully address my playtesters' complaints about the boulder droppers. Despite practically every official Mega Man game having items that are off limits if you come into the stage without the right character, weapon, or upgrade, OH JOES! has received nothing but grief for some of the JOES letters being inaccessible to certain characters. Do yourself a favor and find a way to make a concession, however small or indirect, even if you completely disagree with your playtesters. Especially if your playtesters are unanimous.

For the most part, though, my playtesters seemed to appreciate and enjoy the game. It was gratifying to hear them laugh and smile (yes, you can hear a smile) in their playthrough videos. One playtester described me as a "potent designer." Another said OH JOES! might be the most fun he's ever had playing Mega Man, which strikes me as something that can't possibly be true, but I'll take it anyhow. There were plenty of critiques about the premise being stretched too thin, the stages being too long, and so forth. At the same time, there was also a lot of praise for the soundtrack, the graphics (especially the intro cutscene), the game's sense of humor, and the quality of individual challenges. The general consensus was that OH JOES!, while certainly not the next Rock Force, was fun enough to be worth a look. That's all I really wanted to accomplish.

A couple playtesters didn't seem to enjoy the game as much as the others, but they all had one thing in common: they had never heard of OH JOES! before I asked them to playtest. My other playtesters had been following the project to some extent, and they had a sense of what kind of game this was. This, in combination with some of the specific criticisms I received, led me to believe that false expectations might be influencing some playtesters' opinions. In fact, after I recommended using special weapons more often and approaching each challenge as a puzzle, one playtester who had given up on the game gave it a second chance and ended up having a blast.

It's like when my friends took me to see Hot Fuzz. "What's Hot Fuzz?" I asked. "It's Hot Fuzz! With Simon Pegg!" my friends responded. And then they stuffed me in the car and drove off to the theater. I had never heard of Simon Pegg. I had no clue what this movie was about. I spent a very long, unpleasant time in the theater suffering through a series of uncomfortably awkward character interactions. Then Simon Pegg kicked an old woman in the face, and I realized, "OH! IT'S A COMEDY!" It was a completely different movie from there on out, and this epiphany allowed me to enjoy the entire thing on a rewatch.

Expectations can radically affect the perceived quality of a thing. Viewed as a serious drama, Hot Fuzz is terrible. Viewed as a traditional Mega Man game, OH JOES! is a poorly designed disappointment. In lieu of overhauling the game to address the broadest complaints, I resolved to set clear expectations on the download page and wherever else I advertised the game.

There's plenty more I could write about the playtesting process, but I'd like to conclude by showing you the process. Culled, with permission, from over 19 hours of footage, I present to you a tiny sample OH JOES! playtesting from March 2017 through April 2018. This casually edited video is by no means comprehensive, balanced, or polished; moreover, it's comprised of footage never intended for anyone's eyes and ears but mine. Still, I hope you find the video enlightening and entertaining.

The general consensus among my friends is that 2016 was one of the worst years in recent memory, marred by a seemingly endless string of celebrity deaths and characterized by a viciously divisive election that was more personal than political. For me, 2016 was an emotional rollercoaster that served as an unlikely getaway vehicle from 2015, AKA the worst year of my life.

The highs and lows of 2016 were so drastic and unevenly spaced that the whole year feels almost surreal in retrospect. There were incredible highs, including Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage, seeing my name in the credits of not one but three new Mega Man games, and starting work on a Mega Man game of my own. I made one of the biggest decisions of my adult life, walking away from a stable (but undesirable) situation in order to take a risk on a new job and a new home in a different state (or, as I prefer to say, finally moving back to Earth after five years of exile on the moon). I confronted a few personal demons, not exorcising them completely but making invaluable progress. I celebrated a milestone anniversary with my wife, and we helped each other weather one physical or emotional storm after another. I had the weirdest Christmas of my life, filled with twists and turns that had me cycling through the entire range of human emotions for the better part of a week. I actually paid attention to world news for several months, attempting to keep myself informed about topics, such as the Presidential election, that were oppressively unavoidable and that demanded I have an opinion about them. I became an active part of the Mega Man fan community at Sprites INC, and I received their Spike Award for my sporadic gaming livestreams. I informally said farewell to GameCola after 8 years on staff. My mother and I went on a memorable road trip to attend the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. A brief trial of EnChroma glasses gave me a taste of what it's like to see color the way the rest of the world does. I (mostly) stopped picking tomatoes off my sandwiches. It's been quite a year.

Importantly, I made an effort to follow through on my 2016 resolutions (or, as I prefer to think of them, goals). Here's how I did:

Goal #1: Start and finish a YouTube playthrough of Mega Man 8.
Hah! I had every intention of this being the one goal I would definitely achieve, but I ended up spending almost the entire year working on designing Mega Man levels instead. Having spent too many years working on multiple projects and finishing none of them in a reasonable amount of time, I made a conscious decision not to split my focus between projects, and so MM8 remains on hold (but partially recorded) until people stop giving me excuses to make more Mega Man levels.

Goal #2: Make serious headway on the video game my wife and I are planning.
See above. I've at least made serious headway on OH JOES! (A Proto Man Adventure), which hadn't been conceived when I came up with these goals, so I'd call that at least a partial success.

Goal #3: Run at least one D&D campaign, then learn a new tabletop RPG system and run another campaign.
Failure! I played in a number of Pathfinder sessions, but I didn't run any games of my own or learn any new systems. I did at least jot down some ideas for a D&D one-shot that I've been wanting to try for several years. Once again, my creative energies were directed almost entirely toward making Mega Man levels.

Goal #4: Read 12 books.
Failure! Probably. I lost track toward the end. However, I got pretty darn close. My conservative Christian friend sent me a care package of books early in the year, relevant to some conversations we'd had, and they constituted a good portion of my reading list. I have a terrible habit of letting his gifts gather dust for several years before putting them to use, so it was good to delve into these books right away. I may write a separate post discussing everything I read in some kind of detail, but for now, here's what I read in 2016 in the order I read them:
1. Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller
2. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
3. The Ultimates, Vol. 2 by whoever wrote, drew, and inked it; the book's in the other room and I'm too lazy right now
4. And the Good News Is... by Dana Perino
5. William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope by Ian Doerscher
6. Firsthand: Ditching Secondhand Religion for a Faith of Your Own by Ryan and Josh Shook
7. Memories of the Future, Volume 1 by Wil Wheaton
8. Spock, Messiah! by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr.
9. Some Ultimate Spider-Man graphic novel, I think; once again, too lazy to check
10. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Indistinguishable From Magic by David A. McIntee
11. Things That Matter by Charles Krauthammer (about 3/4 read by the end of 2016)

Goal #5: Get my Backloggery progress index into positive double digits.
Success! Even with so much of my leisure time spent reading instead of gaming, I managed to achieve not only double but triple digits—a progress index of +200, to be exact. That means I played or removed from my collection way more games than I added. Granted, there was that Backloggery revolution halfway through the year, so my real progress index is probably more like +2 than +200, but who's counting? Wait, I am.

Goal #6: Write like I used to.
Partial success! My criteria for this one were to write regularly, write positively, and write for myself. I've obviously failed to meet the first criterion, but the second and third are well in hand. Articles like this one and posts like this one capture my passion for blogging and critical analysis, and even if they're not all sunshine and puppycats, they don't come across as the "general bitterness commentary" that characterized my writing for too long a period. I'm writing the way I want to write—the way I used to write—and it feels wonderful.


Now, then. Let's see if I can't come up with some goals I might have a better shot at achieving in 2017:

Goal #1: Spend more weekends at home.
For the last decade or so, I have done an out-of-state road trip at least once every month. Often at least twice a month. Usually at least three times a month. With so many friends and family members living close enough to visit regularly, but far enough away that a day trip is out of the question, I find myself giving up as many as 10 hours every weekend just to get where I'm going and back. Departing on a Friday evening or first thing Saturday morning, and not coming back until Sunday afternoon or evening, leaves me with insufficient time to work on my creative projects and keep on top of the housework and kick around and relax. It also leaves me with insufficient funds to live as freely as I'd like to—road trips are expensive. For the sake of my sanity and my wallet, I intend to set aside at least one weekend a month for going nowhere.

Goal #2: Finish OH JOES! (A Proto Man Adventure).
Everything is on track for the game to be released in early 2017, so I really hope there aren't any awful surprises here.

Goal #3: Finish a YouTube playthrough of Mega Man 8.
As long as I'm not designing Mega Man levels the entire year, this should be doable.

Goal #4: Read 12 books.
I was very close to accomplishing this in 2016, and I only fell short because of how Christmas vacation turned out. I'd like this goal to become a staple, because it's good to be reading again.

Goal #5: Maintain a positive Backloggery progress index.
Likewise, I'd like to make this goal a staple. My video game wishlist has shrunk dramatically in the last year, and I'm quicker than ever to identify when it's time to stop playing the game I'm working on.

Goal #6: Get involved in my community.
It has been eating as me for several years that I'm not involved in church and volunteer activities like I used to be. I want to join a choir or a small group or something, and I want to find ways to live where I'm living. Hopefully, spending more weekends at home will allow me the time to do so.


I've got a good feeling about these goals. I'll let you know in a year how things go.

June! I barely even remember what happened in June, and we're already a third of the way through July, so it's all blending together in my head. Maybe this will help me sort things out.

This Website:

I'm getting back into a writing groove, with two blog posts of actual substance to show for myself, as well as plenty of writing for my Series Opinions pages (though not quite enough to report anything as completed for June).

- Retrospective: May 2016
- A Reflection on a Reflection
- Backloggery Revolution

GameCola:

2016 has been The Year of Mega Man for me, and it would be almost criminal not to write about it on GameCola. Even though the site is finally back from hiatus, I've felt my creativity pulling me in other directions lately, so updates in this category will probably get smaller and farther between as time goes on. Or maybe I'll pull a Michael Gray and make a tradition of announcing my retirement and coming back a couple months later.

Blog Posts:
- The Endless Legacy of a Good Mega Man Level

YouTube:

Now that I've got way more fangames to play than I can possibly keep up with (see this thread), I'm trying to step up how often I livestream. My original intention with my Twitch channel was to get people from my GeminiLaser channel interested by playing a few different Mega Man games, and then branching out to whatever I felt like playing...but I really have developed a niche for myself with Mega Man, and these fangame sampler livestreams have almost become a form of community service, documenting games that have received little or no coverage anywhere else on the Internet. It's kind of an honor to be the curator of what might be the most comprehensive list of Mega Man fangames out there, and to have such a strong following when I record these games.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #9: Dr. Wily's Final Attack, CalEdit, In Mega City
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #10: Bass Abyss, Polarity Reconstruction, Bad Box Over (and More)

The Backloggery:

I would strongly recommend reading my "Backloggery Revolution" post, mentioned above, before trying to make sense of this incredible list. Holy cats.

New:
- Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic II  (GBC)
- Terminator Salvation  (ARC)
- The Legend of Dark Witch  (Steam)
- Yoda Stories  (PC)

Started:
- Started: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze  (WiiU)
- Started: Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Started: Star Trek: 25th Anniversary  (PC)
- Started: Terminator Salvation  (ARC)

Beat:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Asteroid Miner  (Brwsr)
- Burnout 2: Point of Impact  (GCN)
- Caesar III  (PC)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert  (PC)
- Frogger  (GBC)
- Galaga  (GBA)
- Gamma Bros.  (Brwsr)
- Gradius III  (PSP)
- Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade  (PC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia  (PC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death  (PC)
- Hogan's Alley  (NES)
- Karaoke Revolution Party  (GCN)
- Mario Party 7  (GCN)
- Micro Machines  (NES)
- Ms. Pac Man  (GBA)
- Pole Position  (GBA)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes  (PC)
- SimCity 3000  (PC)
- Sonic R  (GCN)
- Star Wars: Episode I: Racer  (N64)
- StarCraft  (PC)
- Super Mario Bros. Crossover  (Brwsr)
- Terminator Salvation  (ARC)
- Tetris Worlds  (GCN)
- Theme Park  (PC)
- WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness  (PC)
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!  (GCN)
- Yars' Revenge  (GBC)

Completed:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Area 51  (ARC)
- Asteroid Miner  (Brwsr)
- Asteroids  (2600)
- Beetle Adventure Racing!  (N64)
- Blades of Steel  (NES)
- Braid  (Steam)
- Breath of Fire  (GBA)
- Breath of Fire II  (GBA)
- Bubble Bobble  (NES)
- Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse  (NES)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth  (WW)
- Chip's Challenge  (PC)
- Civilization III  (PC)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert  (PC)
- Cruis'n USA  (ARC)
- Demons to Diamonds  (2600)
- Deponia  (PC)
- Detana!! TwinBee  (VC)
- Dino Run  (Brwsr)
- Dokapon Kingdom  (Wii)
- Donkey Kong  (NES)
- Donkey Kong Jr.  (NES)
- Doom  (PC)
- Dragon Age: Origins  (Origin)
- Dragon Warrior II  (NES)
- Dragon Warrior III  (GBC)
- Duck Hunt  (NES)
- Duke Nukem II  (PC)
- Earthworm Jim  (SNES)
- Enter the Matrix  (GCN)
- Escape from Monkey Island  (PC)
- Escape Goat  (Steam)
- Façade  (PC)
- Falldown  (CALC)
- Final Fantasy III  (NDS)
- Final Fantasy III  (SNES)
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years  (WW)
- Final Fantasy VII  (PC)
- Final Fantasy VIII  (PC)
- FireFlies  (Brwsr)
- Galcon Fusion  (Steam)
- Game & Watch Gallery 2  (GBC)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn  (NDS)
- Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius III  (VC)
- Gradius IV  (PSP)
- Gradius ReBirth  (WW)
- Half-Life  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two  (Steam)
- Half-Life: Blue Shift  (Steam)
- Half-Life: Opposing Force  (Steam)
- Hogan's Alley  (NES)
- Infectionator!  (Brwsr)
- Jeopardy!  (NES)
- Jolly Rover  (Steam)
- Jungle Hunt  (AppII)
- Katamari Damacy  (PS2)
- King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (EGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (VGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (VGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest III Redux: To Heir Is Human  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards (VGA)  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 2: Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work  (PC)
- Life Force  (VC)
- Lufia: The Legend Returns  (GBC)
- Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares  (PC)
- Mega Man Legacy Collection  (Steam)
- Mega Man Soccer  (SNES)
- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes  (GCN)
- Metroid Prime Hunters  (NDS)
- Metroid Prime Pinball  (NDS)
- Metroid: Other M  (Wii)
- Micro Machines  (NES)
- Microzine #17  (AppII)
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge  (PC)
- Nightshade  (NES)
- Nintendo Land  (WiiU)
- Paper Mario  (N64)
- Paperboy  (NES)
- Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel  (PC)
- Police Quest II: The Vengeance  (PC)
- Police Quest III: The Kindred  (PC)
- Population: Tire  (Brwsr)
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time  (GCN)
- Q*bert  (2600)
- Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero (VGA)  (PC)
- Rampage  (NES)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes  (PC)
- Scribblenauts  (NDS)
- Scurge: Hive  (GBA)
- Secret of Mana  (SNES)
- Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon  (GBA)
- Shogo: Mobile Armor Division  (PC)
- SimCity  (SNES)
- SimCity 2000  (PC)
- SimCopter  (PC)
- SkiFree  (PC)
- Solitaire  (PC)
- Sonic the Hedgehog  (GCN)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2  (GCN)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3  (GCN)
- Space Cadet Pinball  (PC)
- Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier  (PC)
- Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter (EGA)  (PC)
- Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge  (PC)
- Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon  (PC)
- Space Quest: The Lost Chapter  (PC)
- Sparkster  (SNES)
- Spider Solitaire  (PC)
- Star Fox  (SNES)
- Star Fox 64  (N64)
- Star Soldier  (NES)
- Star Trek: Starfleet Command III  (PC)
- Star Trek: Voyager - The Arcade Game  (ARC)
- Star Wars Trilogy Arcade  (ARC)
- Star Wars: Dark Forces  (PC)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron  (N64)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader  (GCN)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike  (GCN)
- Stinkoman 20X6  (Brwsr)
- Stunts  (PC)
- Super Castlevania IV  (SNES)
- Super Mario Galaxy  (Wii)
- Super Star Wars  (VC)
- Tales of Symphonia  (GCN)
- Tetoris  (Brwsr)
- Tetris  (GBC)
- Tetris  (PC)
- Tetris DS  (NDS)
- Tetris Worlds  (GCN)
- The Curse of Monkey Island  (PC)
- The Even More Incredible Machine  (PC)
- The Legend of Zelda  (NES)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past  (SNES)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time  (N64)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages  (GBC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons  (GBC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass  (NDS)
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks  (NDS)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker  (GCN)
- The Longest Journey  (PC)
- The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse  (SNES)
- The Sims  (PC)
- Theme Park  (PC)
- Tomb Raider  (PC)
- Tomb Raider II  (PC)
- Tomb Raider III  (PC)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2  (PC)
- Treasure MathStorm!  (Mac)
- Treasure Mountain!  (Mac)
- WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness  (PC)
- Wario Land 4  (GBA)
- Word Munchers Deluxe  (PC)
- Worms: Armageddon  (PC)
- Yars' Revenge  (GBC)
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link  (GBA)
- Zork I: The Great Underground Empire  (PC)

Removed:
- Big Pixel Zombies  (Brwsr)
- Christmas Cat  (Brwsr)
- Fallacy of Dawn  (PC)
- Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords  (PC)
- Galaxian  (GBA)
- Mario Remix: Boss Edition  (Brwsr)
- Rocket Ranger  (NES)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4  (GCN)

I guess that's what happened in June.

May was a fantastic month for my online projects, and I've been working on a number of things that won't be ready until at least June or July. For one thing, I started learning FamiTracker so I can try my hand at composing music for a certain semi-secret project that's in the works...

This Website:

Not much in the way of blog posts, but I did spend a lot of time developing various Series Opinions pages, finishing one and bringing several others closer to completion. On a related note, I really need to start including a "last updated" date for each of these so I can remember which ones to list in these Retrospective posts. I'm fairly certain that the majority of opinions I've written have never been mentioned in a Retrospective, on account of finishing them too early in the month to remember to include them. Well, and I also made the decision not too long ago to start highlighting each installment as it gets finished, rather than waiting for the whole category page to be done, so a lot of reviews fell by the wayside there. Poke around; there's plenty to read (and all of it is always subject to change).

- Retrospective: April 2016
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: Generations

GameCola:

By the way, GameCola is back! Again! A couple podcasts we recorded previously finally got their fifteen seconds of fame.

Podcasts:
- GC Podcast #91: Directly Indirect
- GC Podcast #92: The Singing Podcast

YouTube:

A few of the best livestreams I've ever done are preserved for posterity, my last two GameCola Podcasts are now on YouTube, and I finally got around to creating a channel intro video that's beneficial for new viewers, but mostly aimed at my longtime fans. Specifically, the longtime fans who have no idea that my GeminiLaser work is but a tiny portion of what I do in this series of tubes I call home, and especially the ones who assume I must be dead if it's been more than 72 hours since my last video or comment. Also, the video was super fun to assemble, and I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. The last item on the list isn't technically for YouTube, but I did contribute a short clip to a video put together by Patricia of Old School Lane, whom you may remember as the host of a podcast interview I did at the beginning of 2014. The video itself gets very personal and spans a range of emotions (being at various times serious, silly, depressing, and uplifting), but it's an interesting watch if you've got the time, particularly if you're familiar with Patricia's work. You'll know my clip when you see it.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - Part 1: Contest Results!
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - Part 2: Judging the Judges
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #8: Square Root of Negative One, Mavericks, Bon Ball

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #91: Directly Indirect
- The GameCola Podcast #92: The Singing Podcast

GeminiLaser:
- An Introduction to GeminiLaser

Old School Lane:
 -Should We Say Goodbye to Halcyon Days?

Games:

May marks the second time this year where a Mega Man level I designed for a contest was released for public consumption. Last time it was the Mega Man Legacy Collection; this time it's Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest, the awkwardly titled fangame comprised of levels from 20 contestants and five judges, all tied together by a hub filled with zany characters. In addition to contributing a level ("Maze of Death"), I had the honor of announcing the contest results via livestream (see above), I designed the logo on the title screen, and I've been an unofficial playtester and copyeditor/writer (you can blame me for most of the instructional text now). My personal stake in the game aside, this is one of my favorite Mega Man fangames yet; it's funny, highly replayable, and a solid challenge. The sheer variety of level designs makes for a unique experience, too; even the levels that aren't so fun to play make for good conversation, and it's interesting to read the judges' reactions to them. The game is free to download, and a multitude of improvements and tweaks have been made since I livestreamed the game. If you're even remotely interested in Mega Man, platformers, or collaborative game design, give this one a look.

- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest

The Backloggery:

It's nice to play games I'm enjoying, and nicer still to stop playing games once I've gotten everything I care to get out of them, even if I haven't beaten them yet. Faced with the reality I will probably never again be able to log into my Desura account to play the one game I have there, I did a little housekeeping.

New:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)
 
Started:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
 
Completed:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
 
Removed:
- Star Runner  (Desura)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)

As it turns out, you don't have to win the game.

With no new Mega Man level design contests cropping up, I found myself able to once again devote my free time to...uh...staying late at the office. April was a busy month. However, I managed to accomplish a few things of note, so I'm happy with what I have to show for myself this time.

This Website:

I did a lot of writing in April (at least, by current standards), and there's another Star Trek Series Opinions page and two blog posts already in the works for May. If you ever miss the kind of writing I used to do for Exfanding Your Horizons, the posts from this month should be a treat. Incidentally, I wrote almost the entire post about the NuTrek Enterprise back in February; I just didn't take photos until the trailer for Star Trek Beyond and news of the upcoming Star Trek TV series got me thinking about NuTrek again, which also prompted the 2009 Series Opinions page. I swear I've finally gotten all the complaining about the reboot out of my system. Well, at least until I start reviewing Into Darkness.

- Retrospective: March 2016
- Origin Stories
- A Tall Ship, and a Star Trek to Steer Her By
- Series Opinions: Star Trek (2009)

YouTube:

I simply did not have the time or wherewithal to record as much as I wanted, but I managed to pull off one impromptu livestream, and I recorded the intro stage of Mega Man 8 for my upcoming video playthrough. And, of course, I published the elaborate April Fools video I had originally planned for last year. Happily, it works even better now than it would have then.

Flashman85LIVE:
- One-Shot Live Playthrough: Prince of Persia

GeminiLaser:
- [April Fools'] Mega Man 8 Teaser Trailer

The Backloggery:

I effectively cleared six games from my backlog and only bought two new ones with my tax refund money, but I still only broke even on my progress index for April. Go figure. April was simultaneously one of the most refreshing and one of the most disappointing gaming months I've had in quite a long time.

Appallingly unprofessional PC port issues aside, I had an absolute blast with Ghostbusters, which reminded me why I play video games in the first place. The game was immersive, faithful to the spirit of the movies, thoughtfully designed, possessed of fun mechanics and excellent production values, and very funny (the Spirit Guide descriptions cracked me up). X-Men Legends was a cathartic release of wanton destruction and a throwback to my college days, when people in the house would pop in and out as one of us kept plugging away at the story mode.

Playing a shinier version of Gradius, which I grew up with on the NES, brought back some fond memories, and Gradius Gaiden was awesome. Hopping around from game to game in the Gradius Collection gave me my first real appreciation of what good and bad game design look like in a scrolling shooter. Bad game design looks like this iteration of Gradius III, and to a lesser extent Gradius IV, which derive challenge from all the wrong places.

Although I wasn't as happy with those games as I'd hoped, FEZ was the biggest letdown of the bunch. It could have been a clever puzzle-platformer, or a diabolical puzzle game with platforming elements, but it insisted on being a boring and tedious collectathon with almost everything worthwhile locked away as a poorly explained secret. The game is full of good ideas, but their execution makes the game feel either pretentious or just badly designed—neither of which inspired me to stick with the game any longer than I had to.

Oh, and while the sentiment of gifting me with AVGN Adventures was appreciated, ten minutes with the game reinforced how much I really dislike AVGN. Sorry.

New:
- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride  (NDS)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius II  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
 
Started:
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures  (Steam)
- FEZ  (Steam)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius II  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
- Type:Rider  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- FEZ  (Steam)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
 
Completed:
- X-Men Legends  (GCN)
 
Removed:
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures  (Steam)

Hey, this felt like a proper post for a change! It's good to be writing again.

March was another busy month. No sooner had I submitted my entry for the Make a Good Mega Man Level contest on Sprites INC than another contest opened up: designing any number of six-screen level segments for the upcoming Mega Man Endless fangame. Between friends, family, work, and my deadline-driven side projects, I was going almost nonstop by the end of the month. It was exhausting, but it was also a reminder of how I thrive on having a variety of activities to keep me occupied. Let's see what all I have to show for myself.

This Website:

I might not write many posts anymore, but the ones I do write are ones I want to hang on to. The story of my concert experience with Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage is one of my favorite things I've written for this blog, and I think it's the biggest indication that I've finally moved away from the "general bitterness commentary" that weighed down my writing only a year or two ago. Also, I've decided to start linking to my individual Series Opinions articles once they're finished, regardless of whether everything else on the page with them is finished. I've still got a lot of Star Trek and Mega Man to write about (and rewrite about, because opinions are subject to change), but I'm one step closer to having my definitive take on every part of my favorite entertainment franchises all in one place.

- Retrospective: February 2016
- The Ultimate Voyage
- Series Opinions: The Misadventures of Tron Bonne

YouTube:

Due to all the time I spent making Mega Man levels in February and March, I wasn't able to focus on playing Mega Man levels, (meaning my playthrough of Mega Man 8 got delayed)...but I did subject one of my friends to a level I made, so we can call that a compromise. I did keep another one of my recording projects going, though, carrying on with the next installment in what is possibly my favorite first-person shooter series. I like MotS less than its predecessor, but I think I like this playthrough more than the one I did for the original Jedi Knight. So it balances out. Pardon the choppiness of the first video; it gets better.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 1: The Noisy Asteroid of Ugly Awfulness
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 2: Wireframed and Imprisoned
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 3: A Pirate's Death for Me
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 4: Nothing I Want at the Swamp Meet
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 5: Taking the Bonus Level for a Bespin
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - "Maze of Death" Blind Playthrough (With Special Guests)

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #90: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween

The Backloggery:

Wow. This portion almost isn't worth mentioning. My wife and I played one round of LEGO LotR and were put off enough by all the glitches and gameplay issues that we haven't found the motivation to go back yet, and I played just enough of Nintendo Land with friends that it qualifies as Beaten by my standards. Oh, and I chipped away at X-Men Legends and played a little more of the 3DS Mega Man Legacy Collection, so it's not like I completely abandoned my favorite pastime.

Started:
- LEGO The Lord of the Rings  (Wii)

Beat:
- Nintendo Land  (WiiU)

...And that's just the stuff I finished in March! April oughta be pretty big, and I'm in a great mindset going into the month.

My free time in February was primarily devoted to designing my entry for the Make a Good Mega Man Level contest on the Mega Man fansite Sprites INC. Consequently, I'm a bit behind on the writing and recording I wanted to have done by now—but I'm behind for a good cause, and I'm excited to share my finished level with the general public once the judging is done. In the meantime, here's everything I did manage to accomplish that pertains to my online endeavors:

This Website:

With the release of the 3DS Mega Man Legacy Collection, my name now appears in the credits of an official Mega Man game by Capcom. Naturally, there's a story behind this, and it's one of the most significant stories I've written about in quite a while. In keeping with this website's purpose as a base of operations for my creative endeavors, this seemed like a good time to set up a Games page that catalogs my contributions to professional and fan-made video games. I'm more prolific than you might expect, and there's potential for the list to grow in the years to come. I also kept plugging away at my Mega Man Series Opinions, finishing off my review of Mega Man X3 and going back to tidy up some of the Classic games now that I've started to categorize things a little differently.

- Retrospective: January 2016
- The Legacy of a Challenge
- Games

YouTube:

As mentioned above, I was otherwise occupied for most of the month, so I didn't get to start recording the video footage for my playthrough of Mega Man 8 as originally planned. Still, I've got something to show for myself, including a livestream of random SNES games, and a particularly silly installment of The GameCola Podcats. Meow.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Backloggery Choice #3: Mega Man Soccer, Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Donkey Kong Country 2

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #89: When Jeddy's Away the Cats Will Play

The Backloggery:

LEGO Jurassic World got my wife and me back into co-op gaming on a regular basis, and it was the most fun we've had with a LEGO game since way back on the GameCube with LEGO Star Wars. When we went out to pick up the Mega Man Legacy Collection on release day, a couple bargain-price LEGO games came home with us, allowing for many more stay-at-home date nights. In prepping for my SNES livestream, I noticed I'd never updated Kirby Super Star for the SNES after playing through it as part of Kirby's Dream Collection for the Wii, hence the random Completed status for a game I hadn't been playing. And that's all the boring news I have to share about my video game backlog.

New:
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean  (Wii)
LEGO The Lord of the Rings  (Wii)
Mega Man Legacy Collection  (3DS)

Beat:
LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)
 
Completed:
Kirby Super Star  (SNES)
LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)

So much Mega Man! More than usual, even. No wonder I've been in such a good mood lately.

You win some, you lose some. And sometimes you do both at once.

If you caught any of my Mega Man Legacy Collection livestream, you know of my disappointment with the Challenge Mode of this otherwise superb collection. Faithful ports of the six NES Mega Man games, a music player, a comprehensive enemy database, and a sizable art gallery were well worth the $14.99 price tag on Steam for new players, but we old-timers were counting on the Challenge Mode to provide the one thing we didn't already have. We envisioned The Wily Wars, or the Game Boy games, or even the Challenge Mode of Mega Man 10, but instead we got whole chunks Mega Man 1-6 smashed together to form fifty-something time-trial stages. I don't think it's what any of us wanted, but I was willing to keep an open mind.

There are some clever challenges that transform these familiar sections into devious deathtraps. Some challenges start you in the middle of a hectic section without any chance to prepare. Other challenges run you through a gauntlet of boss fights or disappearing brick puzzles. The best challenges are disorienting, grueling, and have you exploiting every glitch and trick to shave a few seconds off your completion time. The worst challenges, unfortunately, are far more numerous. A person can only be expected to survive the moving platforms in Guts Man's stage, dodge the falling crystals in Crystal Man's stage, and square off against Charge Man so many times. Filler, repetition, and an egregious underuse of MM6 characterize the bulk of the challenges, and that's why I'm disappointed.

That's also why I got so excited about the Mega Man Legacy Collection Challenge Contest that Capcom held back in September. An opportunity for fans to submit their own challenges for inclusion in the 3DS release? Sign me up! Not only was this a chance to put my amateur game design chops to the test and contribute to my favorite video game franchise, but it was a chance to help make things right with the Challenge Mode. Ten new good challenges could go a long way in exploring the full potential of Challenge Mode and enticing veteran fans to pick up the collection.

I knew right away that my challenge submission had to have a theme. I considered stringing together a bunch of ice or water levels or mashing up all the most interesting Hard Hat sections, but I figured those were obvious enough that someone else would surely come up with them. After much consideration, I finally came up with a challenge stage I was proud to submit, excited to play, and thought had a low chance of being duplicated by someone else. Here's how I pitched it to the judges:

"The current challenge roster has a lot of emphasis on the earlier Mega Man games and the Robot Master stages, so my goal was to show a lot of love to some of the fortress stages we haven't seen much of. I also wanted to include sections that have a slower, safer way and a faster, riskier way to beat them; I feel this adds a layer of complexity to speedrunning strategies. Finally, I wanted to keep players improvising by choosing unconventional starting points as often as possible, and by including one section where Rush Coil must be used creatively in place of Rush Jet (assuming "Buster Only" just means the default options you have before beating any bosses, which would include Rush Coil in this case)."

Here's the kicker: In order to show the judges exactly what to include in the challenge, participants were asked to link to YouTube playthroughs of the Mega Man games in question and provide timestamps for the start and end of each segment. Guess who makes YouTube playthroughs of the Mega Man games? This guy. I can now say with certainty that someone at Capcom has seen some of my Mega Man videos, because I got an e-mail about two weeks later congratulating me on winning the contest. AWESOME. I didn't come down from that high for at least a week.

The months passed, and I still got occasional pangs of excitement when I thought about this wonderful thing that was going to happen. Finally, the 3DS Legacy Collection hit the stores, and I was there on release day to pick it up. Again. At double the price I had paid for it on Steam. I tried to ignore the visions I had of lighting money on fire and reminded myself of everything this version would contain.

Stickers! Great box art! The option of playing the original Japanese games! An even larger art gallery than before, complete with stuff I didn't already have elsewhere! Fun new backgrounds for my 3DS home menu! And, of course, ten (wait--eleven?) new challenge stages, one of which I designed. I was so psyched. Fortunately, I had the foresight to pick up a Mega Man amiibo well before I needed him to unlock the new challenge stages, so I could avoid shelling out $50 for the deluxe edition with the gold Mega Man amiibo that no one I've spoken with seems to care about.

(Side note: I totally would have bought the deluxe edition if Mega Man were in a color scheme associated with one of his special weapons...say, Gemini Laser? But I digress.)

During the entire ride home from the game store, I felt the kind of anticipation building inside myself like I used to get when I unwrapped a new video game as a kid. I don't get overly excited about much these days, but this was one of my childhood dreams about to come true, seeing a Mega Man level I designed in an official Mega Man game. As I fired up the game and started poking around the menu screen for new features, I started to feel that sense of wonder that helped get me hooked on video games in the first place. With the benefit of hindsight and plenty of time to incorporate fan feedback, surely the designers and developers alike had constructed some awesome new challenges that blew the old ones away.

Of course, the first thing was to see whether the contest winners were acknowledged in the credits. Important stuff.

THERE I AM! SO VERY COOL. You can tell this is an authentic screenshot and not Photoshopped, because it's blurry and crooked like an actual photograph. An actual photograph demonstrating alarmingly low hand-eye coordination for someone who plays Mega Man. But I digress.

I touched my Mega Man amiibo to the screen and was whisked away to a beautiful little menu of eleven challenges with fun-loving names. I scanned the list and determined that "Fortress Fun House" had to be mine. I was fully aware that the developers may have taken some liberties with my challenge idea (they even say so in the contest rules), so I wasn't expecting a perfect translation of my vision. I also wasn't expecting to feel like Alan Alda in Sweet Liberty.

The challenge I designed had ten segments. It started with MM5's fourth Proto Man stage (blast pillars and dodge spikes as the floor rises), transitioned to the first Mr. X stage from MM6 (at the intersection where you can take the highly dangerous shortcut to the boss door or the long, safer way around), and moved on to the boss of MM3's third Wily stage (the Mega Man clones). I felt this was a nice little trilogy of beginning, middle, and end; it front-loaded the challenge with a few areas likely to wreck a speedrun; and I'm pretty positive that none of those sections had been used yet in any of the old challenges.

Fortress Fun House skips those first two segments entirely. At least the boss fight is intact, and it's everything I'd hoped for.

Next up in my challenge were the brief underwater portion of the first Wily stage of MM4, the part of MM6's first Wily stage where you need to have mastered Jet Adapter to avoid impalement on the spikes (plus the alternate path for clever players), and the few screens at the end of MM4's first Cossack stage where the snow in the background kicks in.

Fortress Fun House includes the underwater section, once again omits the MM6 stage (it's official: they have a vendetta against MM6), and uses the completely wrong section of the Cossack stage. I was horrified to discover my utility-heavy vertical climb had been replaced with enemies popping out of bottomless pits (a trope I've come to despise). Adding insult to injury, the segment ends one screen before the part I wanted to include. Worse still, this exact section had already been done to death in the old challenges. I am so sorry that I'm somehow responsible for this segment; it is not what I chose.

My challenge continued with the second Proto Man stage of MM5 (the gauntlet of bouncing enemies between the pillars) and the second Wily stage of MM3 (full of bees and way too many power-ups). The latter would be an interesting experiment. The plan was to toss the player in the middle of a hectic section with hidden clamps biting at their ankles; after the initial shock, they'd proceed to the point where Rush Jet is required to reach the boss door. Except there would be no Rush Jet. Or any other special weapons, for that matter. But the interesting part about buster-only segments is that you still get Rush Coil by default for the games that have it. If you're creative, you can navigate the end of the stage with only Rush Coil. I'd hoped this would add a memorable puzzle element to an area that usually requires no effort whatsoever.

Fortress Fun House perfectly implements the few screens from MM5 and then sends the player off to the fourth Wily stage of MM3, where the junk bots start dropping out of the ceiling. At least there's still that initial surprise of enemies coming out of nowhere, there's a mess of power-ups in the middle, and it's not a segment that was used much in the old challenges, so it's a reasonable substitution. I can live with the change, and I wasn't really expecting that segment to go unaltered anyhow.

The home stretch of my challenge included the final stage of MM2 (lava dropping from the ceiling), starting the player a couple screens in to throw them off balance. Somehow, this iconic challenge (I believe) is 100% absent from the old challenges. The entire last leg of MM1's third Wily stage was the conclusion. The obvious place to start is at the beginning of the penguin tunnel, so I of course wanted to start at the point where it becomes a flying bomb tunnel. This would continue all the way through the boss fight against the dreaded bubbles of doom (CWU-01P, in case I need to prove my Mega Man cred). Similar to how the first part of the challenge formed an arc, so too did the last part—the gauntlets of death before the boss.

Fortress Fun House skips the MM2 segment altogether. Sure, why not. The MM1 segment is almost what I wanted, except it starts with the penguin tunnel and ends...right at the boss door. Which means I'm stuck with another segment that's been overdone in the other challenges. The boss was the important part, as I don't recall seeing it anywhere else (and it's a good strategic challenge), and the rest of the stage is pointless if you start where everyone expects you to. Bummer.

So, of the ten segments I—hang on; the challenge is still going. For some reason we're in the underwater spike-lined shaft in the third Wily stage of MM2. I don't even know where this came fro—oh, and now the challenge is over. Hey, look, I got a gold medal on my first try. Woo.

Of the ten segments I submitted, only three were implemented as I proposed. Two used a different portion of the same stage, two more were added from stages I didn't choose to include, and five were completely omitted. I don't know what's more disappointing: having my challenge almost completely gutted except for the "fortress" concept, or having my name attached to something I almost don't want to take credit for. Was this even the challenge I designed anymore?

I could understand removing or changing sections to cut down on length or avoid duplication, but that clearly wasn't the reason here. Almost every other new challenge was notably longer than mine, and the amount of duplication was unreal. Off the top of my head, I remember another pass at the penguin tunnel in MM1 and the watery spike shaft in MM2, two bouts with Napalm Man and Doc Robot Quick Man, two or three excursions to the line-guided platforms in MM2's fourth Wily stage, and three or four additional trips to the underwater part of MM4 that I used. And that's to say nothing of how many times most of these segments had been used in the original challenges.

Consequently, most of the other new challenges blend together in my head, but I can pick out a few things. No Swimming Allowed might be my favorite; it's a smart compilation of water levels (I knew someone else would come up with that!) that includes one or two segments we rarely or never see. Doc Robot Rematch fits nicely with the existing boss gauntlets. I like the concept of Ready Set Go; each segment is the beginning of a different stage, but too many are ones we've seen too many times before (particularly Cut Man).

Some of the buster-only segments of the other challenges are pretty good about forcing you to face situations that are totally doable with the buster but are almost always done with special weapons. The Wily stage from MM6 that I had wanted to use gets a brief but delightfully evil cameo. Starting the player in the middle of the MM3 Wily 3 hologram hallway was a stroke of genius. There are some great moments. There are also some horrid ones, such as three awful visits to the spike-filled Foot Holder corridor in the first Wily stage of MM1—two of them without the Magnet Beam to make it bearable. The worst part of Crystal Man's stage comes back to haunt us (whyyyy!?). I even gave up on Wily's Machines after failing my first attempt to take down Wily Machine 1 with just the buster; a projected 20 minutes to presumably fight a bunch of bosses that simply aren't fun without special weapons was not appealing to me.

These new challenges could have been a real treat for 3DS owners and a wonderful showcase of creativity from the fan community, but most of them are indistinguishable from any of the old challenges if you take away the amusing names. Segments are still being duplicated with no variation in start or end point. Whole stages are still unaccounted for, and MM6 is still lucky to be included at all. I'm not upset that my challenge was overhauled; I'm upset that it was overhauled to be more like every other challenge! I would love to hear what the developers and my fellow contest winners have to say about the matter. How many of these challenges still resemble the original submissions, and why was so much changed?

Ultimately, what the developers did with my design is all on them. I can still be proud that I designed something good enough to get me credited in a Mega Man game that people around the world are paying money to play. And that is a Very Cool Thing indeed.

2016 is off to a great start. In the absence of GameCola (the main site is still in disarray), I've been dedicating my free time to a select few side projects and my New Year's resolutions. Not only have I been very productive, but I feel generally more relaxed than I've felt in a long time. What you see here might well become the format for the year.

This Website:

If you're only going by what I've posted on this blog, I've hardly done anything. But there's more to this site than the blog.

I've made a great many updates to my Mega Man series opinions, chipping away at Mega Man X3 and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, and finishing off my review of Mega Man Powered Up. In fact, I might start giving each game its own page (instead of grouping them by category) to make my reviews easier to read and keep track of. I've also made serious headway with my Star Trek series opinions, as you'll see below. All of these posts are perpetual works in progress, mind you; the more I write, the more I'm reminded to go back and refine what I've already written.

As far as regular blog posts are concerned, there's the obligatory Retrospective, but the one about New Year's resolutions is easily one of my favorite things I've written here, and perhaps one of the most important.

- Retrospective: December 2015
- New Year's Resolutions 2016
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT)

YouTube:

Not a bad month for videos. One of last year's most popular podcasts finally made it to the GameCola YouTube channel, and my latest Mega Man Fangame Sampler livestream was especially well received. The Fangame Sampler before it also went pretty well, with me beating one of the games on my first try without losing a life. Lastly, I finished off a playthrough of one of my all-time favorite video games, and the whole experience was fun enough (for me and my audience) to try tackling the rest of the games in the series in the months to come.

Behind the scenes, I've been practicing my showoffery for Mega Man 8, the next video series I have planned for my GeminiLaser channel. I don't think I've been this excited about a recording project since Mega Man 5, which is especially surprising if you've read my Series Opinions on the game. If all goes as planned, you'll see the first video in March!

Flashman85LIVE:
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #6: Scramble!!, DOS Remake, Star Man Upgraded
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #7: Hard Hat 2, Foo-roo's Flight, An Uncertain Future
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 4: What, Fisticuffs!?

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #88: When this Podcast Hits 88 Miles Per Hour

The Backloggery:

That New Year's resolution about my video game backlog has pushed me to change my gaming habits for the better. I tried a bunch of games. I removed them when I wasn't totally sold after the first play session. I powered through the last of Dragon Age: Origins in order to free up my lone, self-imposed PC game slot for something more my style. By the end of the month, my wife and I were back in the swing of co-op gaming on a regular basis, capping off one LEGO game we'd been working on for months and diving into a new one we'd just received for Christmas. Finally, in going through my Backloggery to finish writing mini-reviews for all the games I'd beaten before joining the site, I discovered a criminal offense: leaving a Mega Man game marked as less than Complete when I'd clearly met the requirements.

Started:
- Bullet Candy  (Steam)
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
- LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble  (Steam)
- Osmos  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- Dragon Age: Origins  (Origin)
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
 
Completed:
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4  (Wii)
- Mega Man X4  (GCN)
- Mega Man X4  (PS)
 
Removed:
- Bullet Candy  (Steam)
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble  (Steam)
- Osmos  (Steam)
- StarFox Assault  (GCN)

Overall, a very good month. Let's hope things keep getting even better!