Streets of Rage 2 – The Retro Rumble Revisited

I don’t remember exactly why, but eventually I went back to Sega’s list of iOS games. I took a quick look at Streets of Rage 2. What’s this?! They fixed the problem.

What’s New
Version 3.0.2

  • Bug fixes and refinements
  • Fix for restore purchases

I was able to get rid of those pesky advertisements and play Streets of Rage 2 again… and it was good! Streets of Rage 2 has great music and sound effects. The graphics hold up too. Well, I like the classic style… reminds me of my youth. There are plenty of modern games that try to recreate the look of 16-BIT era games. Maybe there’s more to the appeal than just nostalgia.

Streets of Rage 2 was a reprieve from beating myself up on what I could be doing in life. It’s more relaxing to beat up bad guys instead. Instead of wasting time watching YouTube videos, I was wasting time playing video games and listening to YouTube videos. This is still not productive, but at least it’s more efficient.

Streets of Rage 2 has something that modern games lack — morality. There’s no ambiguity. Max, Axel, Blaze and Skate are the good guys. Everyone else is bad. Somehow, modern games see nobility as uncool. But with all the anti-heroes, or heroes that sound like they speak with gravel in their throats, I think the world could use more paragons. Is destroying private property criminal mischief? Is it a felony? Our heroes don’t seem to mind. Now pick up that turkey and eat it… yeah, the one that fell out of the garbage can and is sitting on the ground. Streets of Rage… more like Streets of Salmonella.

The point is that the heroes of Streets of Rage 2 don’t go around brooding. Perhaps that’s my problem. It seems I’ve been overthinking lately. Streets of Rage is certainly a remedy for that. While the gameplay is fun, challenging and does involve some… street smarts …it’s not mentally taxing. Well, not unless you’re playing on the more challenging of difficulties. That’s what I started to do. The higher the difficulty, the greater the potential for points. Eventually, this was the result…

Streets of Rage 2 – High Score Screen – Photics #1

…it seems humans can achieve perfection. I got a perfect score. I’m #1. Yeay me! Is this the meaning in life that I’ve been searching for? Heh, no, but it was fun. Additionally, this experience did remind me of the benefits of gaming. Video games can be educational. Games can teach people how to overcome difficulty and win. That’s a big part of life. That’s another reason why I like Streets of Rage 2.

Also, the cooperative play is hysterical. If you’re not careful, you can hurt your teammate. So many of life’s lessons are hidden in a seemingly simple game. Learning to work with others, conserving of energy, using metal pipes to reach far away objects — THWACK!

The point is that inspiration can come from anywhere. That’s why, in general, I think games can be good. I put Streets of Rage 2 on the good side. Nice job Sega. The update was great. While I still haven’t solved the problem of the direction for this website, Streets of Rage 2 reminded me of an important lesson in achieving success — keep fighting!

A New Plan

Thinking EmojiWell, the 10-Year plan didn’t work out. I just wasn’t enjoying my return to the Mac App Store or the iTunes App Store. It was a lot of work for very little reward. Now I’m thinking of a new plan. Maybe the next plan will be even more grandiose or perhaps I should keep things simple. I’m not sure. What I do know is that I need to enjoy what I’m doing. While Photics is a business, it’s also supposed to be fun!

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Free Template Tuesday #15 – Tumult Hype “Fishy”

Fishy – Animated GIFWeb development is profession that is filled with numerous challenges. Quite often, you could be faced with a technical puzzle to solve. But unlike a video game, which is designed to entertain you and make you happy, these digital enigmas can torment you. What is the right answer? In a field that is constantly changing, sometimes there are no perfect answers. Even more perplexing, sometimes there are multiple answers. Which is the best choice? That is the point of this free Hype template. Sometimes, it’s OK not to code.

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KEEN – App #5 Launched

KEEN – Animated GIF (App Icon)There’s a memory in my mind of an old video game. This was decades ago, so I don’t remember all the details. Yet, a line of digitized speech is fairly distinct. It went something like this… “Stand By For Course Correction!” I’m thinking it was a Commodore 64 game. Maybe it’s Apollo 18. The game was fairly tedious, as it attempts to recreate the piloting of a moon mission. The game isn’t as important as the idea of adjusting course. If you’re going the wrong way, a slight adjustment could fix the problem.

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Does The GDPR Fix Video Games?

The SNES Classic doesn’t connect to the Internet. There’s no Ethernet jack, no WiFi and no Bluetooth. It doesn’t have a camera and it doesn’t have a microphone. I didn’t have to worry if my machine was watching me as I was watching it. This helps with immersion. Playing is just fun. It’s not leaking personal data.

SNES Classic – European Model
The European model of the SNES Classic is so cute 😊

This may seem like a trivial issue at first, but the PlayStation Network hack showed otherwise. Imagine starting a new job, but you’re not sure if you can get to it. That’s because your credit card information was stolen. How do you pay for transportation? The virtual world was spilling catastrophe into the real world.

When the SNES was new, you didn’t need a credit card to play. That was something that slowly creeped its way into gaming. By the time the PlayStation 3 hit the market, using credit cards for gaming was commonplace. Gaming has slowly drifted into creepy territory.

The GDPR taps the brakes on data collection. How much is too much? How many times do big websites need to be hacked before something is done? How many times does Mark Zuckerburg need to appear before Congress? Well, the European Union took action. It’s not a perfect system, and it’s certainly a lot of stress for website owners to meet these new regulations, but it’s a step in the right direction. The right to privacy should matter.

Gaming, for better or worse, is now intertwined with the Internet. Advertisements are a big part of what pays for online content creation. In order to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, advertisers want to track you. There’s a numb acceptance of this fact, as that’s what pays for free content, but how did this become acceptable for paid video games? Today, it’s not enough to simply buy a game. Now these games want to track you. Your gaming experience is becoming part of big data. How long did you play? Where did you get stuck? What triggers will convince you to buy a loot box?

Video games are about relaxing your mind and having fun. Yet, that’s hard to do with today’s games. You can feel it, even if subconsciously. Your online persona is nothing more than data in a server farm, a tool to separate you from your money. That is why the GDPR matters. It creates a window of opportunity for game developers to think differently.

The SNES Classic didn’t have to update its privacy policy. It doesn’t have one! It doesn’t need one! Isn’t that refreshing? Isn’t that an ideal gaming world in which to play?