Omar On The Go

Day 68 "It's-a-me, Mario" - well Mario Day is upon us, and even though I don't have any particular plan for celebration, it is however, a good excuse to talk about Mario and why it brings the inner child out of me. March 10th is also known as MAR10 Day started officially in 2016 as a way of Nintendo celebrating its most famous and successful character/franchise by having Mario related events and sales through the web, platforms and their store. One question that I have asked myself through the years, is "why do I like Mario so much? What is it about the character and the main games and spinoffs that I like so much?", and it all comes down to one word: FUN. For me, Mario games in general are about FUN, not a deep story or existential problems, not about mind-blowing graphics, not about complex mechanics and long-ass tutorials, they are mostly about great but simple gameplay mechanics, nice colorful cartoony characters and animations, intricate level design, a...

Day 52 I've said before, I am an avid gamer and one of the main reasons, beside the fact that I find them very fun and highly entertaining, is that it allows me to throw myself into a different universe and live a different life for a few hours. They allow me to live in a fantasy world and personally I find that extremely exciting and therapeutic because I can forget about my personal struggles and are extremely good at lowering my stress levels.  I like almost any kind of game but as everything in life, I do have certain exceptions: 1- It cannot be a mobile game (as in played on a smartphone) - I hate using touch controls, and those games are generally made to be extremely simple or highly addictive.  As a smartphone power user, I do find other better uses for my phone and its battery. 2- It cannot be too realistic - in the sense of trying to simulate real life things.  For example, I like racing games, I just don't like simulation type of racing games as in Gran Turismo...

Day 25 And just out of the blue Nintendo and Microsoft announced that Goldeneye 007 is dropping this Friday on Nintendo Switch Online and Xbox consoles, and I couldn't be happier or more excited for this re-release.  You see this game originally came out in 1997 and it was the game that proved many things back in the day like that First person shooters could actually work on consoles or that couch multiplayer was here to stay. After Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007 became the second-best and popular multiplayer on the Nintendo 64 and not only the multiplayer was magnificent, the single-player mode introduced and adapted many concepts in such a great way, that 26 years later, many FPS games still follow. Back then I was barely 12 years old, in my 3rd year at this new school I was in and that then I felt very weird.  I did not necessarily feel unwelcomed, but I did feel like I didn't fit in.  I was not part of the popular kids, I was not looking to be one either, I was a bit of...

Day 21 After thinking about what to write about today, many topics came through my head like my relationship with food or my love/hate relationship with working out, how bad I am at playing sports (but play them when I have to), my 2.5 years late IG post about my cats and how they have help me with stress, continue stories about travel or share some additional family drama, but going through social media I came across an interesting post by CAPCOM (the game developer) that today is the 25th Anniversary of Resident Evil 2.  As posted on Instagram You can bet that this entry will be about that particular game and how it changed my perspective of what a videogame could really be regarding storytelling, atmosphere and gameplay.  I have to give a little bit of background first though, as mentioned before, I'm a Nintendo fanboy at heart and by the fifth generation of gaming consoles, I definitely choose the Nintendo 64 over the PlayStation (PSX) and there were a few reasons why:...

Day 10 This have to be a record for me of some sort.  10 days writing has to be one for me. I said that slowly but surely, I will be expanding into my hobbies and things alike. I think I already let you know that I'm a bit into video games mainly because it has always disconnected me from reality and transfer me to a fantasy world.  For me, is a great way to release stress and, contrary to popular belief, keep my mind active by diving deep into a story, flexing my reflexes with great gameplay, and learning some new skills along the way. Yesterday a group of gamer friends shared the picture below: It was very exciting to see where I started, and how far gaming has come.  So long story short, I started at #1, with the Atari 2600.  I have vivid memories of me playing Joust even though I was just a very small child and the game itself was developed/released even before I was born. But truly the console that initially made me a "gamer" was the #2, the Nintendo Entert...

Day 8  Work week eve - yeih! Why do we dread Sunday nights so much?  I think you already know the answer but in my case, and funny enough, having a really good TV show, actually made me look forward to a Sunday night at 9PM.  There are many good examples, but HBO shows tend to take the lead on this. During the times of Game of Thrones and more recently House of the Dragons or The White Lotus, looking forward to something good and entertaining made my Sunday nights very exciting instead of dreading the fact that I have to work on Monday, is just too bad that tonight there's no new show on HBO.  We have to wait until 2024 for season 2 of HotD and season 3 of TWL, even though it was renewed, we still don't have a clear release date. Thankfully, a new show is coming up on January 15th, 2023, on HBO, and I am extremely excited about it.  The show is a TV adaptation of The Last of Us , a post-apocalyptic action-adventure game with survival/horror element.  The ex...