Today marks not only the beginning of Operation 3DS (in which I try to play every 3DS game in order of release - as close to completion as possible - you can follow my progress on Gamer Era I guess) but also a return to a 2011 mindset for an upcoming episode of The Pauldcast (both it and Gamer Era can be found wherever you get your podcasts) and honestly, I think this is maybe the most time I ever spent playing with these in-house AR games. I still had the cards, so it was nice to use them again after about 13 years in storage (wow! I feel old) but otherwise it's kinda just limited by the circumstances of its own existence, much like myself.

I bought this for my 3DS in Gamestop in the world's saddest shopping center. That's a bit of a lie - I've seen sadder ones - but that place represents an era of my life that is long since over, and I imagine it is the same for anyone who has ever been there. It's still going. Places that are born in certain times are often doomed to be haunted by the memories of those who grow out of them, and this place was no exception. I haven't been there for years. We used to go there on school tours, and because at a certain age things that are mundane seem adult and grand and out of this world, we'd spend the hour granted to us by our teachers (in this case a woman who would drift in and out of our school years like a ghost in her own right, I actually ended up seeing her with another school when she visited our college for a tour, but I kept my distance, as though I would've said anything) milling about, commenting on how busy it was. Sometimes we'd get separated, which we were told we were not allowed to do. I'd wander around looking for a familiar face, having done my shopping early, not much by way of cash to my name anymore, and I'd often end up clinging onto a group of my friends like a limpet to a rock, feeling an unspoken sense of discomfort from them that stemmed from my very presence, my very being, the fact I was born years ago and lived my life in order to reach this moment, outside a small, grim café, eavesdropping on a conversation I was already a part of. We would sit on the bus and go back to school and pick up our shit and go home and I'd sit alone at night and I couldn't even tell you what I'd think about. Those memories are gone, like the person I was then, without any attempt to salvage them. I would love to know what I thought of everything back then, just as I would love to tell the person I was back then and will always be at heart that I am better off now than I thought I ever would be and that they will be too. The default camera angle in this sucks absolute shit and the controls are so wonky and it's absolutely insane that it defaults to regular difficulty and 10 minute halves like what the fuck is up with that. Anyway