Perhaps you could say that it was a great start to the new year™.

The ever popular trivia night at the EXP bar in downtown Vancouver, which hosted the regular folks all battling for supreme video game knowledge after cramming wikipedia articles into their memory before it begins. (I might be half joking, because I know I've seen it happen a couple of times.)

Our table of 5 dudes under the name “Cat Mario” never win as much as the other kids, Our vast knowledge doesn’t do as well with the modern games, and we’re quite limited to the older consoles of our generation. But I mean, we're older than most of the people filling that space.

For as long as Cat Mario has appreciated participating, there’s always the odd chance that we win big. It's a rare sight for sure. Some like to think that we really knew what we doing, but I always feel like the music part of the trivia is when we really shine.

Or I may have been the only person in the room that night, that has ever played Skullmonkeys.

That win was the only reason I found myself playing Destiny. The top prize, a big old case of redbull cans and a legendary download code for the taken king. Splitting up these prizes wasn’t the hardest thing to do because nobody, save for my roommate and I, had any interest in playing that game/a PS4.

The next month, we saw ourselves back in the rightful place of 4th. "Fight on, Cat Mario."

So let’s get excited about playing Destiny shall we?

[Hell… I sure am late to the party for the “excitement”, aren’t I?]

Well… let’s get excited when we get around to the Taken King expansion. That’s when it really opens up. By “opens up”, I mean “has a story”. But I’m not even sure that was an issue, since I was just mainlining everything?

I appreciate what the game is trying to do here: Expansive areas, where you just move around to beacons accepting quests and bumping into other space bros as they shoot their way through environmental hazards. There’s always going to be something neat about that.

Am I going to join with them on their quest? Not unless I know them, and my circle of friends seemed to be responsible enough to not spend their money on this game. (Well, except for those that have, of course. At least one of them that I’ve talked to, didn’t actually like the Taken King dlc, which is funny knowing that I’ve had the opposite reaction with it.)

I guess, at it’s core it was just boring. I mean, boring as a game that wants you do to multiplayer based raids/dungeons and constant drops for sweet loot. But I give it a pass because I got this all for free and I suppose if something interesting ever does come down the line, then I’m always available to give it a try.

Or I could just wait for Destiny 2, m i rite juys?

Let’s talk about Streety fights for a minute. Let’s talk about it’s rocky launch, which is par for the course with every game where the online part is crucial to its well being. Let’s talk about how the roster in this game is a lot of fun to play. Let’s talk about how I’m maining Rashid, because he looks cool and is totally relatable, because one day I’m going to be face-to-face with Ryu and all I’m ever going to want is for senpai to notice me.

Let’s talk about how I should finally get around to buying myself a fight stick, because I’ve been telling myself to do that for the past 6 years... But the only thing that I can find at a decent enough price is a mini HORI, but I’m hesitant on spending 50$ because at least one person is raising a loud enough stink to make me think otherwise.

Let’s talk about how Chun-li fighting in her police uniform is pretty bad ass.

Let’s go back to the issue of the servers for a second and be grateful that I can get into ranked matches now, but am discouraged to play at the moment because I keep getting paired up with super bronze ranked fellows far beyond my pay grade.

But let’s not forget that every experience should be one to learn from.

I haven’t touched Street Fighter since Super Street Fighter IV, because I didn’t want to keep buying version after version of it. If Capcom is to be believed, then the current game sitting in my PS4 is the only one I’ll ever need as long as they promise to keep adding onto it, because I’m trying to get back into fighting games with an open mind.

I’ve always loved the scene, and I have enjoyed plenty of games within my time, but I never had the privilege to play around any scene. Watching fighting tournaments online and playing the occasional game with a group of friends that actively ‘enjoy’ it, has nudged me into thinking about it differently.

And being told about “Vancouver Street Battle” in Burnaby is something I’ll definitely make myself go to.

But of course, we’re all biding our time right now because the game isn’t really ‘out’ till March. The lack of the 8 player lobby is slowing down the momentum.

And… um.. Playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates is slowing down that momentum a bit as well… but I’ll let that be a story for another time.