Tangential Permission Granted
I started the good ol' research process. Man, I love this stage of any project. It's the type of thing that satisfies my ADHD—a fact that seems so obvious post-figuring out I have it. I get to dig in deep. I get to go off on tangents that reveal even more.1 I get to be obsessive.
People have said some wild things about Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat—like it is the second best DK game of all time—that sort of wild. My favorite practical tidbit so far has been the differences in the New Play Control version of the game. The seem far more significant than I assumed, soooooo I think I will at least give it a shake. 👀
The most exciting piece so far is a talk Yoshiaki Koizumi gave shortly after the release of Super Mario Galaxy at the 2007 Montreal Game Summit. Thankfully, I have found a video of it and a well-quoted article on the same speech. I haven't watched yet, but the article promises good chunks, including some about box gardens.
I am feeling really good about the early stages of this process. We shall see the shape this thing takes over time. I might try to do the research per game as I play them. That sounds fun. Process wise, I am doing a dump of quotes I find useful and citing them below in a document. This doesn't feel the most elegant, but I feel like I need to dump out all the pieces first before organizing them.
I beat Echoes of the Eye a couple days ago, so now I can return to Jungle Beat with a clear head.2 I am already thinking about starting Galaxy, since DK is so short. I think I will play the Switch version. I was planning on the original Wii release, but since I have to play Galaxy 2 on the Wii, I thought trying the Switch version could be a good experience. I need to/would like to find out if Galaxy 2 supports a 16:9 aspect ratio though...
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
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