Well, the curtain has fallen on another Christmas, and VERY soon, another year. I hope you were all able to spend the last week in relative peace and/or happiness, regardless of any formal celebrations.
With that, it's time for the annual Fallout post, where I show off my gift haul for the year and you guys can also chime in with yours via the comment section. It's the last bit of Christmas fun we'll get to have this year, so let's relish it! Have a peek at my goods:
This was definitely the biggest surprise of everything I received this year. I've had the same HP Laptop since 2015 and, needless to say, it's been showing its age something fierce. The disc drive died, the thing couldn't stay on unless you kept it plugged in, and to top it all off, it was slower than Christmas. It became frustrating to use, but I still put up with it because, hey, at least it still mostly functioned, right? Well, now that my family has blessed me with a brand-new model that runs like a dream, I no longer have to put up with said frustration. God, it'll be nice to not have to constantly worry about killing the thing by accidentally pulling the cord or wait like an hour for it to shut down.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Walmart-Exclusive Trading Card Pack
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe
Sonic Superstars (Switch)
Sonic Superstars Acrylic Stand
Persona 5 Tactica (Switch)
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Launch Edition
Marvel's Midnight Suns Enhanced Edition (PS5)
2023's gaming crop might be one for the books. Alongside the hotly-anticipated sequel to Insomniac's Spider-Man with two Spideys and a load of Symbiote fun, the year also saw a wonderfully (ha!) bizarre new 2D Mario game all wrapped up in an adorable new art style, a new 2D Sonic game with five different playable characters (which includes a brand-new REPTILE from Sonic's co-creator), another addition to the Persona 5 world with a strategy-based twist, and, oh yeah, A FULL HD REMAKE OF MY FAVORITE FREAKING GAME EVER COMPLETE WITH BRAND NEW CONTENT!!!!!
*phew* So yeah, I've mainly been spending the past week playing the latter. (Just beat it, in fact, including the new post-game battles. PHENOMENAL remake that had me grinning from ear-to-ear, especially from a lot of the new additions, such as added dialogue and the Monster List.)
Rounding things out are another turn-based strategy game (this time with a Marvel flavor) and an enhanced remake of a Kirby title from the Wii days. I actually had to reorder the latter from Amazon because the shrink-wrapped copy that I received as a gift didn't actually have a game card inside. (Seriously.) In luckier news, I definitely scored with those Walmart pre-order Mario Wonder cards:
I ACTUALLY GOT the infamous "limited to 1000 copies" Elephant Mario card!!! If you're wondering why I'm so pumped over a trading card, just look up "Elephant Mario card" on eBay and watch your own jaw hit the floor at the prices. It's the luckiest I've ever been with a trading card pack pull, and I'm definitely not letting this little rarity go to waste. With a little luck, what this sucker pulls on eBay has the potential to fully cover the cost of that nice laptop gift from before.
MOVIES! Across the Spider-Verse's release inspired me to finally finish off my collection of Spidey's cinematic starring roles (now I'm only missing Infinity War and Endgame) while the latest TMNT film starts off a whole new era for the franchise. (I was originally going to opt for the normal 4K release, but the Walmart-exclusive version of the Steelbook including that rad mini-poster made it irresistible. IT'S GOT FREAKING LEATHERHEAD ON IT!!)
More physical media fun! While the latest Pokémon set brings Unova to an end, the Turtles on the right are definitely the much bigger deal. After YEARS of being largely ignored by Nickelodeon (particularly in the realm of physical releases), they've finally, FINALLY released every episode of the 2003 TMNT series on DVD in a nice Complete Series collection. It's a legit miracle. Sure, the release isn't perfect, with particular attention given to both spotty video quality in places and the version of Turtles Forever included, but after NOTHING for SO LONG, I'm frankly just incredibly happy to finally be able have this show on my shelf next to the others. I never thought the day would come.
Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 14: Overpowered
Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 15: Urban Warfare
Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island
Moving on to some books, my annual Sonic reading pile promises a showdown with Surge and Kit, the formation of the new Diamond Cutters, the return of Team Dark, and a creepy little adventure starring Mecha Sonic. Definitely a lot of Sonicy fun to look forward to!
Didn't get any PR comics last Christmas, so I decided to more than make up for that this year by finally catching up on the Deluxe Edition hardcovers. Now I'll be able to experience the saga of the new Green Ranger! Also thrown in is the somehow-even-more-bonkers sequel to MMPR/TMNT, featuring everyone from Slash to Dinosaur Mutant Rangers. That should be a fun one to bust out on a rainy day.
Also scored a couple rad things from my sister's family. The Shadow set gives me my first taste of the LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog line (unless you count the Dimensions set from 2016) while the first collection of SpongeBob Comics adds to the illustrated nautical nonsense on my shelf. Rounding things out is a tiny Dark Magician figure from a blind bag. 'Cuz why not?
Bluetooth Earbuds
Finishing things off, some dear family friends who didn't have the opportunity to drop by for Christmas last year gifted me some Bluetooth Earbuds (always handy to have spare headphones) and 50 bucks of Amazon cash. (You'll see how I'm gonna spend it in the next post.)
That's all 2023 wrote! Thanks for reading, and I wish you all the best in 2024!
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