Four in February 5

Normally, I’d post this on the last week of January to avoid being bumped into the middle of the month by my traditional Super Bowl commercials post. But then Nintendo had to go and shutter the Wii eShop, so there were bigger fish to fry.

Another February is upon us. And so too is another Four in February: The NaNoWriMo I actually get around to doing™.

For those of you who don’t remember or are new to the party, Four in February was kicked off by the late Joystiq. The rules are simple:

“Pick four games to finish in February and then try to finish them. That’s it. No crazy rules, no limits on what you play. Just choose four games and take them on with gusto. That’s the 4iF way.”

— Anthony John Agnello

Because of the late post, I will not be holding another Democracy in February. Worry not for this quaint form of government, though; Democracy Inaction will be returning in a better form for an ongoing streaming series later this year.

Without further ado: Meet my picks.

Super Metroid Randomiser

Ever since the combined A Link to the Past/Super Metroid randomiser came out, I’ve been drawn to it like a moth to a supermassive black hole. However, I figure it would be best to play just the Super Metroid part by itself to get a handle on its logic and pathing. And also to reacquaint myself with a few dosen E-tanks and missile packs I never bothered myself with in vanilla.

Pandora Tower

If you want to give me snark for still not finishing my last Democracy Inaction assignment from 3 years ago, allow me to redirect you to the fact that Geoff still hasn’t started Virtue’s Last Reward and is in mortal danger of getting lapped by Angela, who only finished the first game a few months ago.

I wanted to include an Operation Rainfall game in my Wii retrospective, but the dirty secret is I haven’t played any of them. That will no longer be true after this month, with the shortest of them teed up on my plate.

Now that I’ve talked all big and bad, watch this be this year’s game that I screwed up.

Chroma Squad

I haven’t partaken in a Steam sale in a while, but this was part of the spoils from the last time I succumbed to one.

This game looked like it was right up my alley. Part tactical combat, part business simulator, all Super Sentai parody. Now, I’m going to find out.

I have some time this weekend to stream, so I’ll put this on. As much as I’d like to do another full run of a game, I’m afraid that limiting my play to a stream would keep me from finishing it on time. You’ll at least get to see things get rolling.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

This one is going might seem small at first, but you’ll soon see how it grows.

I’ve been playing the new Smash since it came out. I’ve gone through the Adventure mode and unlocked all the characters. So what’s left for me to rate this as a game to finish this month? Spirits.

There are 1,302 Spirits in the game. I have 83 to go. Still sounds like a small order? Consider that all save eight of those are Fighter Spirits, which have replaced the trophies that were previously awarded for clearing Classic Mode with each fighter.

So… 75 fighters, of which I’ve only played Classic Mode with a handful. And those fighters with multiple costume-based personas, like Bowser Jr. who is also all seven Koopa Kids. I’d have to beat classic eight times with Bowser Jr. alone, once each while using each of the costumes.

And those other eight? Most are locked behind Challenges that cannot be broken by a hammer (I only have six of those anyway).

So I think this could be one of my beefier picks.

Backup option: Super Mario Maker

Because I’ve often needed a backup option for when life intervenes, I’m going to pick this one in advance. SUPER MARIO advance.

This is an option from the original Democracy in February that didn’t make the cut. As a refresher: I have never beaten the 100 Mario challenge on Expert difficulty. However, that predated the toughest of the tough being expelled into Super Expert difficulty, so I figure Expert won’t be too tough to handle now. Therefore, this will be upgraded to clearing both Expert and Super Expert.

…and that might make for even better streaming than ALTTP Randomizer trolling.

Who else committed to the challenge this month? What games are you playing? Let us know in the comments. Or — better yet — let’s talk it over in the Damage Control Discord channel. We can hold each other responsible and push for the finish together.