I was out and about today, and finally saw a 3DS in action for the first time. As billed, the 3D effect is absolutely gobsmacking, but even after just a few minutes I was finding it quite tiring on my eyes and I imagine the novelty will largely wear off after a couple of days, leaving you with a very pricey way to play Ridge Racer and Super Monkey Ball again. But not quite THIS pricey:
Viewers, a confluence like this comes around about once a decade. If it’s as sunny, warm and beautiful where you are as it is in Bath today, get out there and witness the phenomenon for yourself.
If it isn’t, don’t worry – you can do it indoors too.
The world moves alarmingly fast nowadays, doesn't it? But right now, at this particular moment in time and until something else shiny and exciting comes along (probably around lunchtime), this is the best game ever.
With a certain amount of irony, then, (and for no very good reason that I can immediately discern), it's called Forget-Me-Not.
Aged viewers will recall this reporter's once-burning love for the Nintendo DS. But it wasn't just the appearance on the scene of the younger, slimmer, all-touching-all-the-time iThings that caused the flame to die.
This week, with the Western launch of the 3DS just a few days away, I went back to the old stager for one last hurrah, to see what I'd missed in what's now almost two years of iOS-focused gaming and also to see how it felt to use a so-called "real" handheld console again. I found out some things, and have written them down here because I'm old and I forget stuff.
Hey! It's time for another WoSblog Challenge! WOO!
We're all familiar with the concept of Where's Wally/Waldo, right? The above is a tableau in similar vein but with a bit of a Biblical theme, taken from the iThing game Where's Jesus? Your job is simple: find the inset character (bottom left) somewhere in the main picture. He usually shows up after you've found three or four others in Level 1 (of 10).
There is literally nothing more tedious on Earth than some scared 15-year-old fanboy thicko witlessly pronouncing that the iPod, iPhone and iPad aren't "proper" videogaming devices, because "all the games are five-minute casual Flash rubbish or Angry Birds".
It gets really wearisome having to point out how ignorant and stupid they are in detail every time, so to save myself a bit of effort in the long run I've knocked up a convenient one-stop counterpoint for easy reference.
Get a load of this monstrous boss enemy. Yikes! It's a bit like if Salamander had been written by HR Giger. It'd certainly give me the heeby-jeebies at the end of a tough-level of bullet-hell shmup, or worse yet, if it came hurtling down a corridor at you in some survival-horror FPS. But do you know the most terrifying thing about it?
YOU'VE ALREADY GOT ONE OF THESE LIVING INSIDE YOU.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Last Marble: “Link to source of Joanna Cherry quote above – https://x.com/joannaccherry/status/1954107324638880232” Aug 11, 01:06
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Last Marble: “Extract from Joanna Cherry’s sustained broadside against Nicola Sturgeon (from 8 Aug Scottish Daily Mail page image featured on Joanna’s…” Aug 11, 00:33
sarah on Snowflake Patrol: “Well done for putting time and money into trying to protect our youngsters, George. Your daughter is completely right to…” Aug 10, 21:47
Marie on The Last Marble: “Yet it was an ITV journalist (Peter Smith) that made her out to be a laughing stock on ITV news.” Aug 10, 21:28
sam on The Last Marble: “For Liberate Scotland?” Aug 10, 21:23
sarah on The Last Marble: “It is especially galling given that every journalist in Scotland knows what really happened, including the un-reported defence evidence that…” Aug 10, 21:21
Iain More on The Last Marble: “I see the Alphabet Wokist Quisling Sturgeon getting a lot of Media time on ITV. Nauseating! Disgusting! Stomach Churning!” Aug 10, 21:06
sarah on The Last Marble: “I agree, sam. It is amusing [sort of] and punchy – a very clear illustration of Scotland’s [and Wales and…” Aug 10, 20:37
sam on The Last Marble: “Off topic. My missus received this link and we watched it. It is a short video on the Free Scotland…” Aug 10, 19:53
Izzie on The Last Marble: “Can anyone enlighten me as to how this advances the cause of a free and independent Scotland?” Aug 10, 18:53
Lorn on Snowflake Patrol: “No, James, I know you did not say that Scotland was subsumed. Professor Black said that recently. I agree that…” Aug 10, 18:17
Lorn on Snowflake Patrol: “Correct, James. They just banked on no one up here knowing that or, failing that, not caring.” Aug 10, 17:53
TURABDIN on The Last Marble: “A REVIEW «An amazing achievement. Nicola Sturgeon manages to write dispassionately about her life’s passion, and mindfully about experiences that…” Aug 10, 16:47
Hatey McHateface on The Last Marble: “Discountable. Remainderable. Pulpable. Recyclable. You overlooked these, TURABDIN. Frankly, somebody’s made a big mistake. The only hope for decent sales…” Aug 10, 16:05
Iain More on The Last Marble: “Callum says: 10 August, 2025 at 8:30 am Sturgeon and her coterie of sycophants deliberately tried to put an innocent…” Aug 10, 15:53
sam on The Last Marble: “Doon the stank? Broomielaw?” Aug 10, 15:52
Hatey McHateface on Snowflake Patrol: “The sound of one hand clapping.” Aug 10, 15:52
James Barr Gardner on The Last Marble: “Wee Johnny’s lost his jaurie……..” Aug 10, 14:59
James Cheyne on Snowflake Patrol: “At the moment only one bank benefits from being the bank of England, just as the benefits of being the…” Aug 10, 14:28
James Cheyne on Snowflake Patrol: “TURABDIN, However, I agree with you that Scotland often seems to be the brains in general, while Certain parts of…” Aug 10, 14:14
TURABDIN on The Last Marble: “«SUCCESSFUL, REMARKABLE, great skill, unflinching honesty. triumph, truly searching, truly frank, compelling, clear-eyed, self-critical , riveting, deeply human, enlightened, enthralled.…” Aug 10, 14:14
James Cheyne on Snowflake Patrol: “TURABDIN. The bank of England had stronger connections to the East India Company first. And for all that is still…” Aug 10, 14:08
Mark Beggan on The Last Marble: “Frankly my dear I don’t give a dam. By Virago Curmudgeon” Aug 10, 13:25
Northcode on The Last Marble: “Sturgeon – no, not that one, this one; Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was an American writer, mostly of fantasy and science…” Aug 10, 13:07
TURABDIN on Snowflake Patrol: “WHAT SCOTS DO FOR OTHERS, «William Paterson was a Scottish trader and banker. He was a founding member of the…” Aug 10, 12:59
Confused on The Last Marble: “this is unintentionally funny in all the wrong places https://archive.ph/XOZ9e – also, oddly revealing, in a between the lines sort-of-way…” Aug 10, 12:40
Sven on The Last Marble: “Oneliner @ 11.25. Well, I’ve long thought her a bit of a (pantomime) horse’s ass.” Aug 10, 12:25
James on Snowflake Patrol: “Probably got a job with “Aidan” and the 77th in “Fifeshire”.” Aug 10, 11:58
James on Snowflake Patrol: “Three in a row – Bingo!” Aug 10, 11:56
James on Snowflake Patrol: “Aye, they Yoons don’t like it up ’em!” Aug 10, 11:55