One of my all-time favorite pastimes has to be playing videogames, and I've been doing it for over 25 years.
One of my all-time favorite games is Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (SA2), which was remastered for the Nintendo Gamecube from the 2001 original version on the Sega Dreamcast.
Apparently you've been able to buy SA2 on Steam since 2012. It costs $10, or $13 if you want to add the Battle expansion, which the website says adds more multiplayer maps, characters, and Chao Karate.
Wow, that's awesome. I paid like $50 when I got it for the Gamecube.
I had been itching to play the game, so I pulled it out and booted up my Wii, which to my slight frustration required two new 5V AA batteries to navigate the menu screen. Not the best design choice, in hindsight, but the 2000s were different times. To be fair, it would have been easier if I had booted it directly from a Gamecube.
The game is still great, but has clearly aged considering what is available in the videogame space today. Then again, that's not necessarily a bad thing because it also means there are exactly zero advertisements.
Though not quite as timeless as a game like Super Mario 64, which is available on the Switch now, SA2 still boasts a simple yet deep story, challenging gameplay, and a lot of replay value. If you weren't painstakingly trying to clear hard mode to get all 180 Sonic emblems and unlock the satisfying 3D version of Green Hill Zone, then you were raising and racing little angels and demons in the Chao Garden.
To be honest, if you decide to play this game, I don't think you should spend 200+ hours trying to get all 180 Sonic emblems, but I bet you can find a hack to get them all if you really want to play 3D Green Hill Zone. Or maybe you could look for some cool fanmade game on the internet if you're into that. I know it exists somewhere because I downloaded and played it sometime in middle school. Despite all the time I logged in SA2, I still had to copy someone else's save file that had gotten all 180 emblems. Ahh, I really miss the days of gaming when the only save file you weren't allowed to copy was the Animal Crossing one...
Playing this game for a little while really showed me what a profound effect our emotions have on our reality, where I'm particularly referring to nostalgia. Good and bad memories literally shape our minds, and we don't always consider the fact that we, in the present, are iterations of that memory bias.
It's really important to note your inherent memory bias when you're trying to be impartial.
I think that's all I need to say. Just remember that.
✌💚🎶
