8-Bit Chronicles: Donkey Kong

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Hello, and welcome to my new Hey Poor Player column: 8-Bit Chronicles, wherein I analyze classic arcade-munchers of the 80's! Giving I already host another column (Sleeping With The Enemy), I'm certain this is rather left-field, so let's break down how this came to be and what it'll entail.

As readers may recall, I announced last fall I'd be covering Arcade/8-Bit video games after 2019's New Year. The reasoning was simple: given their brevity, they'd serve as excellent outlets for maintaining a consistent writing output. As opposed to the 1500-2000 word caps I typically uphold for Leave Luck to Heaven, these would gravitate towards 1000 words -- a reflection of their pick-up-and-play breadth, if you will.

The Switch and Zelda Will Be Mine!

Finally, after years of waiting...The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild launches alongside Nintendo's latest console: the Switch! Given how perfect the game apparently is, it's a taaaad likely things may be slow here for this month, as I'll naturally be pouring time into everything our new Nintendo baby has to offer.

As for the 3D Zelda reviews...well, I made it to three out of the five games before the new title's launch. That's pretty impressive for my standards, eh? While Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword are still coming, we'll be "switching" the focus on two other relevant titles for this month to celebrate Switch's launch, one of which happens to be Zelda-related! Please look forward to them.

I'm also planning a number of Switch-related articles for Hey Poor Player,  as well as contributing to an upcoming HUGE feature on Nintendojo, so please look out for those as well!

Nintendo Switch, here I come!

What's Next for Leave Luck to Heaven + Kirby. Also, Tags!

After three prolonged years, Ten Years of Kirby has finally come to an end. Can you believe it? Even now, I can hardly believe it's over...

That it took this long is something of a mixed blessing. On one hand, it lasted far longer than it had any right to and highlighted my struggles with a consistent writing output. Even the name continued to taunt me as the years went by; heck, considering when it started, it should be Eleven Years of Kirby. For those who struggled with my inconsistent productivity, you have my deepest apologies.

And yet somehow...this might be a bit rude considering what I just said, but I'm actually glad things turned out this way. Ten Years of Kirby in itself has served as a fascinating outlook of how my abilities have grown over the past three years. Just comparing my Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Collection reviews display a wealth of growth, so in that sense, I'm grateful it took this longer to improve at my passion.

So now I'm finally free from Kirby's shackles--boy, that's a scary image in itself---what's next for Leave Luck to Heaven? Well, for one thing, our favorite puffball isn't going anywhere. Check out my plans below:

-Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, and Kirby: Planet Robobot will be reviewed, although as I'll be taking a break from Kirby reviews for the rest of the year, I can't say when.  As mentioned on Twitter, I'll be refraining from releasing my writing schedule, so I won't promise an exact date. 

As a bonus, Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe will also get reviews. Truth be told, I actually held off on those until I finished the column, so it's been a two-year long wait for me! Needless to say, I can't wait to dive in.  

-Upon revisiting my earlier work, the reviews for Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Land 2 don't meet my current standards. Both will be subject to new drafts in the future, although again, I can't promise exactly when. Currently, I'm embarking on a 100% Kirby run in reverse and plan on returning to those two after that's complete, and obviously I don't know when that'll be complete.  

Don't fret, however: this won't be a common practice for Leave Luck to Heaven. While there are some other games I plan on re-reviewing, I'm largely content with my output since 2014 and I don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

-Kirby Air Ride was something I had to do for the column, but the rest of the spin-offs missed out on the fun. Currently, I'm thinking of getting to those after the aforementioned 100% run, but it's not set in stone. Think of it as a surprise!

-The anime adaption, Kirby of the Stars, was originally scheduled for Ten Years of Kirby, but sadly had to be cut for time purposes. I'd already watched half the series in both Japanese and English all the while taking relevant notes, so rest assured, it's still in the cards!

So there's definitely plenty of Kirby in the pipeline, but what about everything else? Well, I'm already planning on visiting two of Nintendo's most famous franchises in the near future. I'll leave what they are to your imagination, but know that one has been especially overdue for Leave Luck to Heaven!

Furthermore, I've been teasing Worldly Weekend's heavy workout on Twitter, and while that may take a little while to put into action (more on that below), I can say the next four reviews will feature Square-Enix RPGs! Dragon Quest was just the beginning...

But yes, it may take a little while for all that to happen: for starters, I'm attending a cousin's wedding tomorrow and next week I'll be heading down to New York City for my birthday weekend. Naturally, you can expect me to once again share my Nintendo/manga haul, so stay tuned!

So while you'll have to wait for all that, I'd like to make a small announcement: Leave Luck to Heaven now features tags! Over the past month, I've been gradually adding labels and the like to posts from the past year and will continue working on that this fall/winter. For fun, I've added some tags to this very post, so why don't you experiment a little?

A new era of Leave Luck to Heaven is dawning, so I hope you'll bask in it all with me. See you soon!