Inactive Visions

So. We've got a new president now (thank goodness), and he was sworn in on...well, this.

image from The Wrap

That Bible is hella thick and old. It looks less like the religious text you'd bring with you to church on Sunday and more like a weapon you'd use for protection while invading Dracula's castle. Then again, considering the last occupant of the White House, Biden could use all the protection against unholy nightmares he can get. Better bring along a sack full of garlic and stakes (not steaks with catsup; the last guy liked those) while you're at it.

image from the Castlevania
Fandom Wiki

Anyway. The eShop sale mentioned in a previous post is over, and my take from it was surprisingly slim... just Pure Pool, Panzer Dragoon, A Short Hike, and Clubhouse Games, with a copy of Captain Toad I managed to get at a steep discount, because Wal-Mart accidentally sold the game for the price of its DLC, and members of Cheap Ass Gamer were quick to flip all the copies they purchased during this brief mistake.

I haven't dug too deeply into my bounty yet, but I did leaf through Clubhouse Games and was slightly underwhelmed. It's polished yet bland, like a shellacked saltine cracker, and that's pretty much exactly what I should have expected from it. However, the selection of titles is unappetizing compared to its Nintendo DS predecessor, packed to overflowing with board games and card games I'm not likely to play. It seemed like the DS version was a little more creative, including a Jenga-like game of balance and the slightly nerve-wracking Soda Shake.

Also, Bowling was a bit of a letdown, at least from the perspective of a Switch Lite owner. I already have a couple of bowling games for the system, and the best of these, Strike!, wisely uses a vertical aspect ratio, giving you a better view of the alley and more room to swipe your finger for throws. Clubhouse Games Bowling is played with the system held horizontally, and I can't tell you how many throws I've guffed because of the limited finger real estate. At least the impact of the ball against the pins is more satisfying here, with a loud thunderous crash, compared to the unremarkable clacking of pins in Strike! and the toothless, tinkling sound effects in Knock 'Em Down Bowling.

The improbably good DS
game Tony Hawk's American
Sk8land, created by Vicarious
Visions. Guess we won't be
seeing much of that action
anymore, thanks to Bobby
Kotick.
(image from DarkZero.co.uk)

There's something else worth mentioning... oh yes, Vicarious Visions is being absorbed by the Blizzard half of Activision-Blizzard. I'm not just saddened by this news as a fan of the Game Boy Advance, where many of their games were published, but also a little mystified. VV was one of the few game companies that could turn the sow's ear of a television license into the silk purse of a respectable handheld video game, and their specialized talents will be wasted at a publisher best known for World of Warcraft. 

There's still room in this industry for a game company that can make entertaining handheld games based on cartoons and movies, really! Just look at Wayforward, which has made it their bread and butter for the last twenty years. I'd personally just leave well enough alone and let Vicarious Visions do what they do best, but hey, what do I know? (More than Bobby Kotick, the guy who cratered the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero series with a decade of oversaturation and inferior products.)