I took a college course titled "Creative Writing: Virtual Worlds" expecting to have a hyper-focused class dedicated to writing about augmented reality and shit like The Matrix. Turns out, it was a class where the students carried out assignments in Second Life.

The first rule of the class was that Second Life was not a video game—it was just as real as your "first life." Upon my birth in this virtual world, I was lost and confused. I entered the nearest building to my initial spawn. My eyes were assaulted by a collage of genitalia. Mirroring the myriad *** before me, the walls were closing in. I felt myself gasping for air. Luckily, I carried over an attribute from my first life into my Second Life—the power of flight. Clipping through the ceiling, I narrowly escaped my **** riddled demise. I was late to meet with my class at my professor's estate.

As I sat in my chair sideways, legs out through the hole in the arm, my professor called upon me. "BongoMan27, are you paying attention?" My friend from outside the class I had snuck into her domain, presently standing six meters tall with his face in the window behind her, staring ominously into the farthest reaches of my soul or lack thereof. From this point forward, she told the class about her hobbies. The most noteworthy hobby came in the form of rescuing animals. The professor then asked my friend and fellow classmate if he owned any pets. He went on to discuss his two dogs and cat that his family had. As he concluded sharing, the professor told us that she, too, had dogs. "Here comes one now."

A virtual dog model spawned into the room.

Yoshi's Story is without a doubt my favorite game of all time. I grew up playing it constantly on the family N64, over and over and over. The homemade storybook aesthetic of the game combined with cute little Yoshi's running around making the most adorable noises ever is just unmatched. The game still looks phenomenal all these years later, and is still so fun to play.

Since you can only choose one level every chapter of your playthrough, that makes replay ability great, and they get harder if you're feeling bold. The game itself isn't really difficult, but it is impossible not to have fun gathering fruit and running around stomping on shy guys and other creatures. The mechanics are solid and feel satisfying to use, and the levels all offer unique experiences to traverse. The music is also so iconic to me and is one of Nintendo's best soundtracks to date.

I could go on all day but please try Yoshi's Story at least once in your life because god DAMN it's just so super happy and fun!

I played this game when it first came out as an app on IOS. I loved the game so much and when it came out on steam I immediately slurped it up as fast as one would slurp up a pizza. My one qualm is how much riddle there is in figuring out someone's order but other than that it's a great game and the art is so cute and so homey. I kind of miss how simple it used to be without all the in-app purchasing and decorations for seasonal times but I still enjoy it, the base game plays the same way anyways. Highly recommend.