Popcap Games are Still Fun, Actually
I went through a lot lately, and while depressing thoughts had thankfully given way to neutral numbness, it was a precarious position to be.
Listless and idle on my laptop, Steam opened by accident. I scrolled. There, buried deep in my Family Library, was a collection of classic Popcap Games. Insaniquarium, Bejeweled, Bookworms... A mate had bought them when they were deeply discounted some years ago and I did laugh at him when we setup the family account. I guess he has the last laugh now because I decided to download Bejeweled and Bookworm... and they were as fun as I remembered.
Seriously.
I blasted through gems for a couple hours and it brought me smile. Somehow it was slower than I remembered. Modern games would probably speed up all the animations, amp up the lights and pizzazz, give you extra dopamine boosts. I went through a couple "No More Moves" early owing to unfortunate randomizations, and a part of me couldn't help but laugh because these days you'd be offered a chance to buy something to continue. For fifty cents, maybe, or a whole bag of insurance for $1.99?
I put in so many hours into Jewel Quest on a bootleg NES back when I was 5-7... Mario was cool, Contra was fun, there were many interesting stuff in those 999-in-1 cartridges, but these falling blocks took a big chunk of my allotted playing time. I played it in different color palettes... Because 75% of the 999 were colorswapped versions of random titles.
Bookworm has a whole lore on its own. I used to like it so much, I downloaded it on my phone to circumvent the limited PC time I had. Remember the Java J2ME games? But my phone wasn't in the proper resolution for the game, so some part of the left side of the board and some part of the bottom side of the board were cut off entirely. I was nothing but an obstinate child, so for all the years I had that phone I played the game with 1/4th of the board offscreen. Proud to report I still got good scores, though sometimes the game would end early because the burning tiles were on the side of the board I couldn't see. It was like a new challenge mode unto itself. How far could I go before the invisible tiles burned me up?
Good games are good.
They don't stop being good.
Unfortunately Rocketmania is no longer on Steam. Maybe it's time to dig up that old hard drive.