Astroboy Mayhem.

The new job digs has me busing from the eastside up into the s.w. hills. Total commute time is about 30 minutes on 2 buses. The river-crossing bus is a short, 10-minute trip, but the bus is quite crowded. The 2nd bus, from downtown up into the hills takes about 15 minutes, but it never has more than 4 other passengers aboard. Compared to the x-river bus, this leaves me ample seating, perfect for... ASTROBOY MAYHEM!!!¹


When I acquired my pinkpearl GameboyAdvanceSP last summer (in anticipation of some extended air travel), the devastatingly fun Astroboy: Omega Factor was its 1st cartridge. 2-3 weeks later, although deep into Astroboy, I purchased the equally fantastic Advance Wars 2 to have something else to play on the plane. The Mighty Atom was thereafter carried around, but never played, as I campaigned relentlessly in Adv.Wars2 until victory was achieved some months later. The robotic Tobio may have had his 10,000,000 HP engine gunned a few times after that, but I got stalled at that pyramid in ancient Mu. Y'know, where the big steel discs come tumblin' down? Enter Super Robo Taisen.

It wasn't until recently, when I became fatally bored w/ Pokemon, that I started playing around w/ games that were actually fun again, like Drill Dozer & Astroboy.² Add the perfect setting of a bus for 20-30 minutes per workday, & I now find myself in the closing chapters of Omega Factor.³

The lesson learned? The GBA SP hath no warmer hearth than in transit, whether by bus, train or plane. Depending on how you look at it, this either a bright new day, or a dark step into pathetic geekdom. For now I can obsess about console-based games AND portable-based ones AT THE SAME TIME (sorta). For example, I play Astroboy during my commute, & Shenmue on the Dreamcast in the evening before bed.⁴

I suppose, if I wanted to notch it up, I could play Super Robo Taisen 2 in bed, before I went to sleep, but that would be excessive. Scary, even.

-d.d.

¹ I would gladly spend my time on the 1st bus w/ Astro, but in addition to a scarcity of elbow room, I'm also nursing a full mug of coffee.
² It suddenly occurs to me that my rather sudden & immediate boredom w/ Pokemon:FireRed, which I still think is an excellent game & an excellent series, stems directly from the acquisition of a Sega Genesis & having fun guys like Sonic & Vectorman around.
³ Much to Fat's consternation, I have absolutely no memory of getting past those steel discs in Mu. None. When I fired up the cartridge 3 weeks ago the save file was at the beginning of the boss fight which, it turns out, follows said steel-disc-on-the-pyramid stage. This disgruntles Fat because he advised me on how to get past the discs. I remember the advice, but have no memory of implementing it.
⁴ Or Jet Grind Radio. Or, Phantasy Star II on the Genesis.