Review Day: Minecraft (Switch)

Minecraft is the ultimate "dig a hole on the beach" simulator and a perfect game for me to play with Maia now that we've completed Breath of the Wild. She can sit on the couch while I navigate and direct me to build things or explore the world. We don't really go into caves because she thinks I'm going to fall in all of the holes (I usually do), so I spend my evenings on Ian duty mining the ores needed to build all of the bunnies she wants (dad slave labour). Shown below are the Great Peeing Bird statue and Bunny Hill.

I last played Minecraft on the PC in late 2010, and it hasn't changed much. Getting started is as opaque as it once was. The interface and blocky graphics are the same. Crafting is much simpler as you can look things up in an in-game recipe book. The "killer feature" for me that pulled me back in was the ability to play on a big TV screen several feet away. In my waning days on PC, I was regularly getting migraine headaches from staring at the giant pixelated graphics up close. Now, I can pick it up for short bursts of creativity without worrying about ruining the rest of the day.

At the moment, this is a perfect game for my playing profile -- I can pick it up, make progress without much thought, and drop it when kid naps ends (or even play it with the kids). Someday I'll want another Overwatch but for now, this is a perfect outlet for the few brain cells I have left after the rest of life.

Final Grade: B