Hey, remember how I passively remarked at the end of Pokémonth last year that the next November theme month would focus around Minecraft? ...Well, I meant it apparently, because here we are with another November, I'm still writing and animating for this blog, and I have some Minecraft sets I want to talk about. So, before we launch into the insane world of what I have to review, let's talk about one of the greatest and most addicting games in existence:
Like Pokémon, Minecraft is another franchise that's become much more than just a game and has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Since its start in 2009 and official release in 2011, Minecraft has gone on to be one of the most popular names both in and out of gaming. Even if you've never played it, you've likely heard the name, know what it's about, and recognize its unique 3D-pixel cube style graphics. It mixes sandbox gameplay, RPG elements, and building brick construction all in one glorious package, meaning there's something for everybody to enjoy!
I think that Minecraft's appeal is mostly found in its simplicity. Anyone can pick it up and play and almost instantly have a grasp on what to do. Find some blocks, stack them on top of one another, find some other blocks, build a workplace out of them, use that workplace with other blocks to build tools, use those tools to grab previously inaccessible blocks, use THOSE blocks to upgrade and spruce up what you have, and eventually find everything you need to build your masterpiece. All while you're avoiding night creatures, making sure you have enough to eat, exploring for hidden secrets and bosses, and playing around with potion ingredients and other seemingly-useless items to see just what can be made with them. Easy to master, IMPOSSIBLE to put down once you start. In a game where there is no goal, is there truly a stopping point?
Apparently not, because parent company Mojang and whatever other companies it licensed to program for the game continue to this day to introduce new concepts, achievements, elements, modes, and styles for each of the game's many ports, from the PC to the Xbox to iOS to 3DS to even Oculus Rift! Nearly every time you turn around, there's a new monster/creature/block/potion/etc. to try out! Pokémon WISHES it had this many ways to tame its worlds!
And that's not even touching on the vast community of Minecraft. Artists have devoted their entire careers to producing Minecraft art and structures. Modders have developed THOUSANDS, if not MILLIONS, of unofficial patches and elements for the (mostly PC)community to play with. An enormous online player base ensures that there's always someone to play and collaborate with, either in a PvP duel to the death, or in working together to create giant works of art or virtually impossible redstone programs and mechanisms.
There are conventions, there are cosplayers, there are memes, there are countless YouTube channels dedicated solely to Minecraft, there are online shows built entirely out of Minecraft elements, games and locations have been created with painstaking detail in Minecraft blocks, Denmark has even been replicated in its entirety in Minecraft!
And, of course, there are Minecraft clones. Since the idea is so simple, it doesn't take much for any basement coder to make their own version of a game where you fight monsters, collect giant pixel blocks, and just explore with no goal in mind.
And that's given us both classic games that have developed an identity of their own and also have their own adoring and dedicated fanbases.
...And crap with the bare minimum of changes to differentiate it from Minecraft and with such bugs and limitations compared to that game, that you want to avoid it like a hissing Creeper.
Still, nothing's ever gong to beat the original. It's still going strong nearly a decade after its unofficial launch, both in-game constructs and player-built mods continue to flood the interwebs, and new official and unofficial merchandise is still produced and sold by first and third-party manufacturers. Minecraft is still being ported to next-generation consoles, and has even sold so many physical and digital copies across its many ports, that it's considered the second best-selling game of all time, right behind Tetris!
Minecraft just isn't going to go away. It's a whole other world where anything is possible. If you can think it, you can create it. As technology advances, Minecraft most likely will too, giving players more and more of an immersive experience, as can be seen by its VR ports. Even though it's clearly a fantastical, humorously oversimplified world, it's becoming more and more real thanks to its developers, fanbase, and whatever technology is right around the corner. Minecraft is more than just a game. It's a way of life!
So what's my view of the whole Minecraft craze? ...Basically the same one I have with Pokémon. I LOVE it, but I'm not exactly as swept up as some other people are. ...Though I am a lot more active in the Minecraft community than Pokémon nowadays.
I received a free $20 certificate from Microsoft a few years ago(in a promotion I don't remember ever being aware of), and I bought a digital copy of the X360 version of Minecraft with it. But before that event, I remember playing a demo of it on my Xbox and not really being that into it. Maybe it was too early in the version's release and I couldn't find much to do, or maybe it was just so different than most other things I've played, that the mechanics and intimidatingly vast and varied world turned me off. Either way, I remember not being too thrilled about the game before I bought it.
But when I finally did start playing it, HO BOY, WAS I HOOKED! Suddenly, this large, creative world I could explore, mold, and manipulate became a huge addiction, and I just HAD to check out every nook and cranny of this vast, comically low-res universe! Hour bled into hour as I built houses, I planted crops, I tamed animals, I harvested countless diamonds and emeralds, I got my butt handed to me time and time again in the Nether*, I beat the Ender Dragon a hundred different ways, I fought the Wither and explored lost underseas civilizations, and, yes, I even managed to construct a beacon!
*Butt. Nether. Get it?
At one point, I even created my own survival map called Zombie Mall Bash, based on the horror trope of being locked inside a mall with monsters and having to find keys to get out. It even had a random monster generator using buttons and chickens to randomly drop zombies into the game! ...Unfortunately, this map was lost before I could upload it thanks to a game repair store accidentally wiping my hard drive and years of save files, so the above screenshot of a low quality Let's Play I did two years ago is all that's left of it...
Nowadays, I only play Minecraft very occasionally, usually when a new update is released. I'm one of those gamers who plays something to beat it and grab as many achievements as I can, so having a completely open-ended game with no clear goal in mind doesn't excite me as much as it used to. And thanks to the fact I have an internet speed that dial-up is pointing and laughing at, I don't play multiplayer, so I don't know anything about these Mini Games they came out with. ...Plus, with all the work I have to do nowadays and the fact I'm already addicted to Toys to Life games, I REALLY don't need another addiction slowing me down...
Though maybe I'll be tempted to play again if they ever implement Hardcore mode into the Xbox version. Certainly gives me a goal of "don't die or hours of your work will be wasted" at least...
Still, like Pokémon, Minecraft continues to be a part of my life even if I'm not actively playing the games. I still look for and buy Minecraft merchandise(and Terraria, since I was as addicted to that game as Minecraft)
And I hope to one day get around to playing Minecraft Story Mode.
And, of course, I have collected a bunch of official and unofficial Minecraft brick sets and minifigures. And that brings us to the theme of this month!
It figures that a game based on building with simplistic blocks would eventually get variants of a toy based on building with simplistic blocks. As such, this is probably the most fitting theme ever put to a building brick line!
And unlike last year's Pokémonth, where there weren't enough official Pokémon brick sets to go around(a point that has been completely undermined with the release of the Mega Construx Pokémon line), Minecraft has found a good home with Lego, ensuring there will be a large number of different sets readily available at Walmart and Toys R Us for years to come.
...But that doesn't mean we can't also take a look at the less legal side of Minecraft brick sets. Besides your standard bootleg mold copies(some of which will be featured this month), there are also designs and versions that will have you scratching your head, asking what they were thinking?! Admittedly, not as many as Pokémon has, but still enough to provide a good amount of review fodder for this month.
Now seeing how the last November theme month went and given my penchant for missing deadlines and taking WAAAAAAAYYYY too long between updates as I try to make a decent video, there are going to be a few differences between this month and Pokémonth.
Last year, I tried to cram 2 reviews in each week, each with a combined skit. ...And it was that brilliant planning that led to everything being released in the last week of the month, and going a few days into December. Since it takes me WAY longer to make these skits nowadays as well, I'm instead going to feature 1 set(maybe 2 or 3 with the minifigures depending on how much there is to talk about) a week, then a combined skit featuring all of them at the end of the month. I'll still be including a construction/showcase video for each week, but it's best if I don't try to do my comedy short films on top of all that... Hopefully, that'll get me on some sort of schedule that I can meet and get everything finished in time to start next month's reviews(which are going to be a doozy, believe me!)
And yes, I'm also focusing exclusively on brick sets this month as well(as I probably will each November.) Minecraft obviously doesn't have any Plug n Play games, nor even any bootleg Famicom or Genesis ports, unlike Pokémon. I could give a review of one of the worse Minecraft clones, but I don't have the equipment for app reviews and I don't want to venture too far outside my blog's focus on brick sets, Plug n Play games, and knockoff consoles. Don't worry*, a theme month based around Plug n Play games will eventually happen and become a regular thing.
*Or worry, depending on if you actually like my reviews or not.
So grab your Diamond Pickaxe, enchant it with Unbreaking, Efficiency, and Fortune, and join me in digging through these various brick sets until we find those elusive emeralds hidden within. Welcome to MonthCraft!
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