Game EXP: Mindway (MQ2)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Mindway through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played, and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Mindway
Systems: Meta Quest, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 & 3S, & Meta Quest Pro
Release Date: January 24, 2023
Publisher: Mindway Studios
Developer: Mindway Studios
Time Spent: 
Playthrough Series on YouTube

On some level, I don't think I'm the target audience for a mindfulness and meditation virtual reality app, but at the same time, that's probably why I'm the perfect audience for this.  I'm turned off a bit by the concept of a mindfulness app or actively meditating, as it's something that I've done in the past, so it's not entirely new for me.  When I lived alone after college, I had made a space in my living room where I would meditate after work, and I would sit and focus on my breathing.  I did this for a couple of months on my own, but found that I would get really sleepy and actually fall asleep a few times, so I was convinced I was doing something wrong and stopped.  On the Quest 2 headset, I had tried two meditation apps, but both ended up going under, and they're no longer supported on the Meta Quest store.  So I'm open to the idea of meditation and open to the prospect of using the Quest 2 VR headset as an avenue to practice meditation, but not overly excited about it.  I was also a little disappointed to find out that it requires a connection to Meta's servers to verify that you have a paid subscription (more on that down the line), which means that I can't use this app while at work (we have all Meta platforms blocked on our WiFi).

That being said, I don't find that the Quest 2 headset is overly comfortable for an extended period of time, and I would like to think that I would want to be as comfortable as possible when I meditate.  The Mindway VR app, though, offers a multitude of programs/avenues to practice mindfulness and meditation practices, some that are easily transferable outside of the VR space, while others are not.

I spent most of my time with Mindway doing their "30 Days of Mindfulness," which I also found to be the most approachable if you're able to accept several flaws up front.  First, the narration is a flat/neutral-sounding and emotionless AI-generated voice.  Maybe that's something that can help people relax, knowing that there's not a real person gently talking them through ways to practice mindfulness outside of the VR space.  The second thing is that every day has you in a different location, and the majority, if not all, of the vistas and 2D backgrounds consist of AI-generated artwork.  So if you're not keen on your game not being upfront about containing AI-generated content, then the developers have already lost you on two fronts.  I personally will not advocate for using AI-generated content over someone who could do a much better job creating art, but I will admit that most of the time, I was able to accept it.

What I liked about the "30 Days of Mindfulness" was the fact that it felt like you were learning these short 5-10 minute strategies for being mindful out in the real world.  There were breathing exercises where you would just focus on your breath, paying attention to how your body moved and reacted to taking purposeful deep breaths, not the usual shallow breaths our bodies automatically take without our noticing.  There was a walking "exercise" of sorts that had you focus on how your body felt while walking (or walking around in a circle around your living room), what your body felt like coming into contact with the ground, and how the rest of your body moved when you focused in on it.  There were several sessions dealing with self-affirmations and how to deal with thoughts that might intrude on your otherwise mind-quieting meditation.  I will definitely be pulling up some of these videos from the playlist while I'm at work from time-to-time, so there is some benefit.

I dabbled a bit in some of the VR-centered sessions, such as an ASMR walk, an ASMR labyrinth board game (you know the kind), and even the sessions that focused on helping you fall to sleep.  For the latter, this was the one I was most skeptical about, mainly because I couldn't see myself falling asleep with the bulky Quest 2 VR headset strapped to my face.  Maybe the experience is different and more enjoyable with one of the newer Meta Quest headsets, but with the Quest 2 headset, it wasn't going to happen comfortably or naturally.  The walking ASMR really wasn't that comfortable either, since you weren't walking in a traditional video game sense, but it was more like you were stationary on a moving walkway with footfall sounds.  And the sound effects used sounded like there were only 2 different footfall effects per type of terrain, so the sounds got old and repetitive really fast.  The marble maze ASMR wasn't very pleasant, as I found trying to rotate the board pretty awkward for my hands, and the sound effects used didn't create a soothing atmosphere.  I guess that's pretty subjective, though.

You also have the option to create a customized mindfulness session, but you're severely limited in the locations where you can have your session.  I would think that you could pull from any one of the locations in the "30 Days of Mindfulness," but instead, you have fewer than 10 options, and none of them felt very inspiring to me.  Nothing like the rainy campsite from Day 23, or the sweeping forested vistas of Day 15, but locations more akin to the pink gummed hills of Day 19, or the empty villas of Day 28.  You are able to customize sessions by time, or limitless, as well as having guidance by a male or female (AI-generated) voice, or no voice at all, and just take in the ambiance and scenery.

For a lifetime membership/access to Mindway, $79 is more than I would pay for what this app has to offer, but maybe there's more to the Fireside chats with a Mindway mindfulness coach and a group of other people logging on at the same time that helps to bring up the value.  Maybe the experience is better visually and comfortably with the Meta Quest 3 headset, but with the Quest 2, I didn't notice any shortcuts that I hadn't already experienced with other games/apps/experiences in the last year.  I genuinely think that Mindway should offer one week free for people to test out the product before moving on to any paid models, but that's also coming from someone who didn't have to pay for the product at all.  And what I keep coming back to is how calm I often felt at the end of most of the mindfulness sessions, so there is some level of benefit.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
To Find Peace Among the Rotting Corpses

MIDI Week Singles: "Big Iron" - Fallout: New Vegas (PC)

 

"Big Iron" from Fallout: New Vegas on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows (2010)
Composer: Marty Robbins
Performed by: Marty Robbins
Albums: Big Iron and Saddletrap, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and Songs from the Mojave Wasteland - Music as Heard in Fallout: New Vegas
Label: Columbia, and X5 Music Group
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

I don't know why it hadn't registered when "Big Iron" played during the first episode of season 2  of Fallout, when The Ghoul and Lucy had a shootout in Novac.  I really like this song for a couple of reasons, and despite The Ghoul shooting people in this shootout, it felt more improvised weaponry than him using his actual gun.  A little boot pistol here, a shotgun there, a grenade here, exploding rounds there.  But we're here for New Vegas.

"Big Iron," along with "Johnny Guitar," (and maybe "Jingle Jangle Jingle"), was one of the more frequently heard songs on several of the radio stations throughout the Mojave wasteland, and I love a song that tells a story, because it's easy to let your mind wander with music in the background.  "Big Iron" also reminded me a lot of "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, not so much musically or thematically, but more in its telling of an unnamed focal point of the song with a red hand/big iron being the defining trait that's sung about frequently, although significantly less dark and forboding tone overall. 

It also sounded similar to something that would be played in a Tarantino film, circa Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction.  It's just got that vibe to it, I find.  Maybe if Tarantino directed an El Mariachi short.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

And the Only Price You Pay, Is a Heart Full of Tears

Monthly Update: February 2026

 

It was an interesting month, to say the least.

Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens, were murdered by Trump/Miller/Noem/Bovino's Gestapo.  The Trump Administration immediately went into "they were domestic terrorists" mode, even as multiple videos were being released refuting all of their statements to the nth degree.  Trump's Gestapo then used five-year-old Liam Ramos as bait to have his mother open the door to her house so that they could "legally" enter and arrest her and her other child, all the while claiming that the father, Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, had fled the car when approached by ICE to leave Liam in the car by himself.  We've known for a while that ICE/DHS will lie to save face, but to this extent has been something else.

It is incredibly fucked up how our neighbors have been forced to make daily patrols of the blocks surrounding the nearby elementary school out of fear that SUVs full of uneducated, out-of-shape high school peaking law enforcement dropouts will snatch up a parent as they're dropping their kid off at school.  On a beautiful January day when it's 55 degrees, the sun is out, neighbors from all over are playing at the nearby park, and there we are scanning for SUVs driving in groups.  Not that we have to worry about The Squire being taken, but our community and school have plenty of people who don't look anything like a current ICE employee, and we look out for our neighbors and fuck all if you support any of this; and by "this" I mean the whole of the Trump administration.  Your views aren't needed here.  Are your groceries cheap enough now?  Fucking hell.

And I played some video games last month, too.   

And after some corticosteroid injections in December to combat carpal tunnel symptoms, I feel like I'm just below my peak at bouldering from just before the pandemic.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

Game EXP: The Shaved Ice Shop (PC)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for The Shaved Ice Shop through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played, and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

The Shaved Ice Shop
Systems: Windows
Release Date: December 3, 2025
Publisher: Holitass
Developer: Holitass
Time Spent: 2 Hours 12 Minutes
Playlist on YouTube

The Shaved Ice Shop is a strange little game from indie developer Holitass.  It's part cafe sim (because the shop sells coffee, milkshakes, and shaved ice), part life sim (because you buy groceries and walk from the cafe up flights of stairs into your apartment), part thriller, and part retro atmospheric-horror (because of the aspect ratio and film grain).  The majority of the game, however, is spent in the cafe fixing drinks for customers before heading home for the night, and it was only during the second-to-last chapter that I realized that the game takes place at a night cafe, not that time is incredibly wonky.

Before we get into the actual game, I need to preface a few things.  First, of the six times I played this game, I became nauseous 75% of the time and was thankful that each chapter only lasted about 18 minutes.  I have some theories as to why this happened with this game, but nothing conclusive, so keep that in mind while I speculate.  First, I couldn't invert the y-axis, but I've played non-action games with a non-inverted y-axis before, so I don't think that that alone would cause my nausea.  Second, the formatted screen ratio could have had something to do with it.  The screen ratio itself didn't bother me as it added to the aesthetic, coupled with the graininess of the "film," which helped to contribute to a sense of unease.  Lastly, there was no reticle of any kind.  I remember Jenna Stoeber (when she still worked at Polygon before they were bought out by Valnet and fired 25+ of their existing staff) did a video highlighting the effect that having a reticle in video games (not just first-person games, you plebian pus rats) and how it can help reduce motion sickness (aka simulation sickness).

The gameplay is primarily centered around taking three to four orders to complete a shift, which seems rather odd for an entire night shift, but, going back to the motion/simulation sickness, this ended up being the perfect amount of time I could spend playing before I would have needed to quit altogether.  Also, not being able to invert the y-axis played a bit with navigating behind the counter.  Not having a reticle, apart from the above paragraph, played havoc with being able to pick up packs of ice for various drinks, and clicking on which particular kind of syrup you want to add.  I found being able to click on the small target to open the gate in the back of the shop somewhat annoying.  All of that aside, once you finish the first day, which is the last day in the timeline, I felt more comfortable operating the machines and how the game wanted me to make drinks, except that on the second day (being five days before the first day; trust me, it makes sense), I got confused and had to look up the steps to take to make a flavored milkshake.  I also greatly appreciated that I never felt that I was going to lose the game or customers if I took too long to make a drink, and that there was only ever one customer at a time, probably due to in-game limitations, but it was still nice.

If you want an accurate cafe/shaved ice shop simulator, though, you should look somewhere else, at least because of the three/four customer shifts.  Recipes are not real-world accurate.  You don't have to account for the amount of liquid in a cup if you're going to be adding additional liquid.  When drinks pour out of the blender into cups, the hole is at the upper portion of the lid, which wouldn't make sense from a physics standpoint.  And as we're in the blender, there is no cleaning of the equipment between drinks.  There's one blender for making blended coffee drinks and ice cream.  Later in the game, your character makes instant ramen a la Cup O' Noodles by placing an unopened container in a microwave without opening the lid to add water, and the animation of you drinking straight from the cup keeps the lid closed; also, without boiling the inside of your mouth with scalding hot sodium-rich deliciousness.

I lastly wanted to touch on the story, which will probably be the briefest section, as I want to avoid spoilers.  Since the bulk of the game is preparing drinks for customers, the story that happens in the background happens when you're off shift and heading home to your apartment in an alley behind the shaved ice shop.  The events are not overly complicated, but still land with an "oh damn," but not in a way that's surprising.  I'm not at all disappointed that I saw the story unfolding the way it did by the end of the third episode (Four Days Before).  If you watch the final episode (One Day Before), I decided to choose the response I did because I felt that the character would still be in shock and likely have experienced forms of relationship abuse from the same source for a while now, and standing up to their abuser wouldn't've been a choice that they could make on their own without a significant suppport network.  I did try to get an alternate ending, but something wasn't happening in the game the way I thought it should (is this too vague?), and I gave up after four attempts.

The Shaved Ice Shop, despite all of the inaccuracies in the actual running of a night cafe, and the frequent simulation sickness, and the missing reticle (see paragraphs two and three), was a nice and short comfy thriller.  If you like your comfy couch stories to include abusive relationships, murder, and suicide.  Actually, now that I write that out, it doesn't sound like a cozy game. . .  It was a nice game, though, once I was able to stomach the nausea.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
One Day Baby, You Ain't Worry My Life Anymore

MIDI Week Singles: "Ending 1" - Adventure Island 3 (NES)

 

"Ending 1" from Adventure Island 3 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1992)
Composer(s): Miyoshi Okuyama, & Hirohiko Takayama
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Developer: Now Production

I've never played any of the Adventure Island games, probably because six-to-twelve-year-old me didn't want to play a middle-aged man running around a series of islands in a hula skirt; I prefer my nearly naked men to be wielding spears and lances.

Like a lot of ending themes from NES (and some SNES-era) games, the ending theme to Adventure Island 3 is an entirely original theme that wasn't compiled from songs earlier in the game or the series.  What I like about this song is how the melody line takes on the galloping role that is typically handled by the bass line.  There's another flittering tone there in the middle doing runs of a sort, tucked in between the galloping piano (MIDI piano?) and the wonderful clapping percussion line.  "Ending 1" is a pretty short song, looping after only 25 seconds, but for me, it's one of those songs that doesn't let you realize you've been listening to the same melody six times over the last three minutes.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

I'll Leave Behind

Game EXP: MANDAGON (PC)

MANDAGON
Systems: Windows, macOS
Release Date: August 4, 2016
Publisher: Blind Sky Studios
Developer: Blind Sky Studios
Time Spent: 31 Minutes
Playthrough Video on YouTube

I don't remember where I first heard about or acquired MANDAGON, but it's likely that I saw that the game was free and added it to my Steam account.  Then, I promptly forgot it existed until going through my Steam library from the bottom up (when sorted by recently acquired) and didn't recognize anything about this game.  The game is described as taking inspiration from Tibetan Mythology, of which I know absolutely nothing about, so I'm not even going to try to make connections between the visuals and gameplay and anything to do with Tibetan culture.  There is a thread on the Steam forums that delves into the symbolism that I didn't catch, and I'd recommend reading through it if you want a 100% deeper analysis than what I have here.

MANDAGON is a pretty simplistic platformer.  You control a square-shaped bobbing head capable of a massive vertical leap.  There are no power-ups, no enemies to fight.  There are collectables of sort, in the form of totems scattered around the map that either give hints to the story or nuggets of Tibetan philosophy.  There are also six tablets that you have to collect to open the final door at the center of the map.  There are elevators you can unlock (although I didn't unlock them all), ladders to climb, water jets that propel you out of the water, and, for lack of a better term, a tethered jetpack to help you reach out-of-reach platforms.

I don't really know what else to say about this game.  It was short, just over 31 minutes, and was not at all complicated.  When I used the first of six tablets the illumnated the central door, I was afraid that the subsequent tablets were going to be more difficult to obtain, but that wasn't the case at all.  The map is helpful in this regard, as knowing where buildings are that you can enter (to find the tablets) and where the tablets are supposed to go is visually obvious; doors are black on buildings, and pedestals for tablets are white buildings.

It was just really nice to sit down and play an entire game in just over 30 minutes.  To experience a work of art that integrated symbolism and meaning from a culture that wasn't my own, but that I could still appreciate on several levels.  Reading analyses from the Steam thread above offered more of a heartfelt story than I knew existed.  Kind of similar to how I interpreted the story in Last Labyrinth, or really a lack of interpretation.

That's really all I've got.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
The Rapture of Grief is All

MIDI Week Singles: "Burns' Mansion" - The Simpsons Wrestling (PSX)

 

"Burns' Mansion" from The Simpsons Wrestling on the PlayStation (2001)
Composer: Christopher Tyng
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Fox Interactive, Inc.
Developer: Big Ape Productions, Inc.

I've had this article on the back burner for a while in the hopes of interviewing Christopher Tyng about this particular composition.  I was trying to find out if he had written songs for a Simpsons video game and the songs were plugged in after the fact, or if he had written specific songs for specific locations, knowing ahead of time how they were going to be used.

Because!  While I really like this song and find it super catchy, I find it hard to actually place this song within C. Montgomery Burns' massive mansion east of Springfield Gorge, just outside of town.  I can't really see either Mr. Burns or Smithers sauntering out to the wrestling ring to this song, or even when Mr. Burns chucks a nuclear bomb into the ring.

The song is high energy, if somewhat subdued during the actual gameplay, and works well with the campiness of the entire game, i.e., Simpsons characters beating the crap out of each other in a very slapstick manner, so I'll give it that.  And while having a theme performed on an evil-sounding harpsichord is more appropriate for the characters and setting, it makes for bad video game wrestling music.

Which is probably why I'm not the producer or sound designer picking out music at a video game company.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Nothing You Can Say, But You Can Learn