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Let's Talk Little Brother Jim on Not Now Mom, I'm Gaming
Oct 1, 2025
This is a podcast review of the walking simulator game Little Brother Jim. ╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ Check out the list of games we've played - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wX0hIM77LDhnovmDis-8I0LDOst_MzSPGcsWJMVXHVg/edit?usp=sharing ╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ Check out our written review - https://tgexp.com/little-brother-jim/ ╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ Vote for this game to be on our podcast - https://tgexp.com/future-gameplay-podcasts/ ╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ Join our Discord! - https://discord.gg/RygH2XK ━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━ (https://www.patreon.com/worthyofme) Our Patreon allows people to have early access viewing for videos like this before they're released to the public. PATRONS Two Can Sam ━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━ Feel free to contact us for podcast reviews - podcast (at) tgexp.com
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Not Now Mom. I'm gaming.
0:23
My name is Kay and on this episode I'll be talking about my brother Jim which is a walking simulator made by the devs
0:31
Tonga Tonka Bojer I believe. I played multiple other games so far and even did
0:37
a podcast episode for Drizzle Pass some time back. That's probably not that
0:43
great since it's one of the first uploads on this channel. I may consider redoing my older videos, but that's for
0:50
another time. My Brother Jim was released in 2019, and I just wanted to play a walking sim
0:58
since it's been a while since I simply chilled out while playing a game. Bear in mind, this is not exactly cozy. There
1:06
are times where you'll be doing driving tests and courses, and they can become fairly tedious.
1:13
Luckily, if you keep failing, the game offers the choice to skip past the level, so you could opt to do that.
1:19
I just wanted to tell you that it's not purely walking around. The rating for it right now is a very
1:26
positive, but there are only 50 reviews. The blurb for this game states this.
1:33
Paul's little brother Jim passed away a year ago today. Now Paul goes for a walk
1:38
up to the hill where they spent their last night watching the fireworks around the city. On the way there, he stops by
1:45
some randomly placed magical mailboxes filled with notes from his gone brother Jim from the other side. Jim loved a
1:52
Jeep parking video game in his life, but got stuck at its final level.
1:57
Going through this game, you'll know I didn't read the blurb before buying and playing as always.
2:03
But I hope you'll enjoy this gameplay review. If you do, tell me your thoughts, leave a like, and subscribe to
2:10
the channel because mom's watching. And you wouldn't want to disappoint her,
2:15
would you? The title screen is pretty simple. You've got a more games link
2:20
toward the top that's not as intrusive as some other games are with their promotions of other games. I still think
2:26
a more games link should be provided after a game has been played, like when it comes back around to the title
2:32
screen. I realize not a lot of people wait that long and may want to exit as soon as the
2:37
game is over, but I'm still under the impression even if they skip the credits, they'll still look at the title
2:43
screen again. And an additional button would probably catch their eye. Sort of
2:48
silly to ask us to view other games like this when it's not even been played yet. The font they chose is bold and playful
2:55
looking, so it highlights the title of Little Brother Gem with a sort of little brother type of text, I suppose. As far
3:02
as the imagery goes, it's polygonal art. There's a deer drinking from a small
3:08
pool of water with a mailbox beside it that shimmers. At first, I thought the mailbox was a camera and it was taking
3:15
pictures of the deer, but no. It's resemblance to the mailboxes within the game that you'll be coming across.
3:22
Also, looking closer, it seems like the reflection of the deer is that of a bear, but it's hard to distinguish.
3:29
Playing the game actually helps seat a bit better. But maybe it's just me. I will say a lot of games by Tongo Bodur
3:37
have really good soundtracks to them. And the one on the title screen is a jammer that kind of makes you feel like
3:43
you're cruising through the south.
4:12
Within the settings, you'll have five categories: general, controls, audio,
4:17
display, and graphics. In general, you can choose a language, as well as if you want to have the crosshair on, which I
4:24
don't think I really minded. There's force feedback, but I wasn't sure what that meant and left it on.
4:31
There's also option of headbob and DLSS. A lot of times headbob doesn't bother
4:36
me, but in some games it can be a bit much. I don't know what it is like in this game because I took it off.
4:43
Controls are self-explanatory. You can see the key binds and do stuff with sensitivity.
4:48
The audio is for master, music, sound effects, and voice. Display shows
4:54
resolution, what window mode you want, VSSync, and FPS limit.
4:59
Finally, the graphics can go to an overall of ultra, and all the settings available. Once you start a new game,
5:05
you start out with learning how to drive a vehicle in a little course. You have three lives, and you aren't supposed to
5:12
touch anything within the course or the cones on the side of it. There's no music to the first level, which is a bit
5:18
odd, but I think it's so you don't get too distracted. They want you to focus on what you're doing for the time being.
5:25
The course is fairly easy to do for the first level, but I still took my time because I'm an anxious mess when it
5:31
comes to any kind of course game where you have lives and need to do things just right. I will say the Jeep sounds
5:37
more like an airplane. To end the course, you need to center
5:44
the Jeep on the parking symbol. And I do mean center it. It's pretty nitpicky
5:49
with how your car has to be placed. Once complete, a bear gets out of the jeep
5:54
and roars in victory because it's not every day a bear gets to drive a vehicle without leaving a single scratch.
6:00
On the second level, we get music.
6:09
It also states that you have a handbrake in this level, though it doesn't give you the keybind for it, meaning you'll
6:14
need to find it on your own, either by checking the settings or testing different keybinds to find it. Sort of
6:20
silly to have someone go look for the keybind to a vital part of the game play.
6:26
I didn't use the handbrake for the end of this course, but do for the third. It's a hard stop, so you can break slide
6:33
into a turn, which is what I did when the parking symbol showed up to the right, but you could keep going straight
6:39
for what I assumed would be a dead end because this game does have those in these courses.
6:45
The fourth level is a bit more nighttime than the others and has some pumpkins laying around outside the cones. It also
6:51
reminds you to use the handbreak. I did it in increments because I'm a chicken when it comes to accidentally hitting
6:57
the out- of-bounds cones. In fact, I forgot to use it and hit the cones anyway, which knocks off a jeep's life
7:04
from the top left. This course tricks you with a couple dead ends, so if you hit those, you'll
7:10
at least get some backing up practice. By the way, that cone was way too close
7:16
to the parking symbol. The fifth level is short and sweet, but there are coins you need to gather
7:21
before the parking space will activate. You'll know if coins are in a level because it will show if there are any to
7:27
collect in the bottom right corner. No Mario coin sound here. Just a little plop.
7:36
In level six, an area will be blocked off by cones until you get the appropriate coin to open it. I did a lot
7:42
of pulling forward and backing up to align the car correctly to get back through the course because I'm not a fan
7:47
of backing it up. At least not that far. Level seven proved that I'm not very
7:53
good at unclear directions. There's a red area on the ground and before it it states wait, but I thought it wanted me
8:00
to wait on the red tile. And so I kept stopping on the red tile which would light up and place me back at the
8:06
beginning. And as much as it pains me to say this, I repeated this action so many
8:12
times that the game came up with a prompt that asked me if I wanted to skip to the next level. So, hey, if you're
8:18
having a hard time with a driving course, you can always skip ahead. I'm not sure if the achievements trigger or
8:24
not if you skip levels because technically you're still going to reach certain levels to activate the
8:29
achievements. I didn't skip. Turns out you have to wait for the red light to come on and when it turns off, you can
8:36
drive over the red tile. Basically, don't be on it when it lights up or you get taken back to the start of the
8:42
course. I ended up going the wrong way and hitting a dead end. So, I had to back up
8:48
all the way to where the red tile was and you guessed it, had my tires on it when it lit red.
8:55
In level eight, there are two coins to obtain before you can park your way out of here. It's also raining, but luckily
9:01
that doesn't add more stress to your driving skills, unless you hate driving in the rain as much in a video game as
9:06
you do in real life. You have to collect four coins at level 9 and it has a whole lot of paths you
9:12
can take, meaning a lot more chances to end up at a dead end. I got a little crazy with backing up and hit two
9:19
different cones, but I made it out with a single life to my jeep. Level 10 is interesting because it makes
9:25
you back up after collecting the first coin because it's a narrow lane and the path you passed up was blocked up until
9:32
the coin was grabbed. When I got the second coin, I struggled with backing up at an angle because my brain doesn't
9:37
like to work backwards for some reason. There is a red tile in this level that you'll need to wait on. And just when
9:44
you think you can go around to the parking spot you saw in another location, the ways are blocked. You have
9:49
room to back into a turn in order to go straight on the path you were just on. But man, this driver's test really likes
9:56
to put you through it. Once you get through this level, you're in the actual game, which is cabins
10:01
around us out on the lake. At this point, you can tell if you're going to like the crosshair from the
10:07
settings being on or not. It is a little white dot in the middle of the screen, so I can see how people could get
10:13
annoyed by looking at it. It doesn't really serve too much of a purpose, honestly.
10:19
After moving a little bit, the game provides keybinds for either running or auto walking, if that's your thing. In
10:26
walking simulators, I kind of like to take my time and walk around to check out the environment. But sometimes if
10:32
everything is starting to look the same, I'll move faster or if I see something important up ahead and want to get there
10:37
faster. There's a cabin with a mailbox that shimmers out on the dock and music
10:42
starts playing when we get closer.
11:00
For some reason, I didn't think I could get to the mailbox. I guess I figured it's more of a landmark than anything.
11:06
So, I basically moved on until I reached the second mailbox, which activated a story. Once I knew they told a story, I
11:14
had to double back to the first one. Turns out I just didn't see the path that would take me out to it. When you
11:20
get close enough to read the story, there's nobody voicing it. And the font can be a bit hard to read. It's white
11:26
font and cursive on kind of a faded out background of the game. Maybe they
11:32
thought it would make it easier to read, but I don't think it does. It reads, "Dear Paul, I have to tell you something
11:39
funny about that game I've been playing for my last few days here. You have to park these jeeps in their correct spots.
11:46
But apparently, it's not the player parking the jeep. It's this funny bear. Isn't that unique? This big brown bear
11:53
stuffs itself inside the jeep. Hey, I can't stop laughing. He closes the door
11:58
and starts driving. The bear drives around, then finds our parking spot. I
12:04
feel sad about getting stuck at the final level, though. There is an achievement for a final level, so it
12:09
makes you think that might be the toughest one. I'm pretty sure the only bear game I know of is Baron Breakfast,
12:15
which I have yet to play, though it is on my wish list. Not sure if I can remember another one, though.
12:22
Anyway, now you know what the beginning was all about. There's nothing within this cabin, but it's still kind of cool
12:29
to look around. I mean, barrels and boxes are cool, I guess. I'm trying to
12:35
make it sound better than it is. If you fall into the water, it does reset you at a certain point. Not far from where
12:41
you are, wherever that may be within the game itself. I love the soundtrack so far, though.
12:47
The seagulls can become an annoyance, and the environment isn't a bad thing at all. But man, that sun is blinding. Sun
12:55
rays breaking through trees or buildings and such are great. Staring directly at it is not.
13:01
There's a rocky path that takes you to the other side of where you need to go. And I fell off here at least once. But
13:07
in my defense, I looked away, but you can see up ahead that another mailbox is glowing in the distance. It's
13:14
here that I want to say I wish that they didn't shimmer and glow. Like, yeah, it
13:19
makes them easy to see in the distance and know where they are, but I just would have liked if maybe they had a
13:26
beacon on them instead. They just seem more like flashlights otherwise.
13:31
This mailbox reads, "Remember fireworks night? Surrounding us was a vast blackness. I felt the hard damp ground
13:38
beneath my legs. In the sky were a million bright blanking stars. This was
13:44
our last night together." After I jokingly asked you a million times when the fireworks would start, they finally
13:50
did. Then you jokingly tossed a blanket over my head, not realizing that soon you wouldn't be able to see me at all.
13:58
Well, first, why on earth would you remind us of that? Good lord. I'm sure it's something that we already won't
14:03
forget, and now here we are remembering it all over again. I will say a lot of Tonga Bodur's games
14:10
I played do have depressing tales to them, but man, they don't normally hit
14:15
this hard this fast. As far as fireworks go, I appreciate they're a grandeur from afar, but I hate
14:23
how loud they are. and loud noises just don't appreciate one another.
14:28
I didn't mention it before, but you can stand by a mailbox to keep the text on the screen, and as you walk away from
14:34
it, the text disappears. So, it's not on a time limit, and you don't click to make it disappear. You just have to
14:41
continue walking. The third mailbox is out on another dock of a cabin, and I really wish there was
14:48
something more to these cabins. I realize there's nobody living in them and perhaps by the look of them they've
14:53
been abandoned, but anything would be better than just random boxes or barrels randomly placed. Like, give us a reason
15:01
to want to look around the cabin besides just putting a mailbox here to find.
15:06
The letter inside reads, "Our mom and dad told me about the first day they brought me home from the hospital. You
15:13
grimaced and said it was a stinky bundle, but when you thought they weren't looking, you came over to me and
15:18
smiled. You tickled my toes. Then you stomped away in mock anger. Apparently,
15:23
it took you one week to warm up to me. Then you even started changing my diapers.
15:30
Fun fact with me, I'm not a fan of cats. Clearly, this includes babies. I
15:35
remember when my brother had come over with one of my nieces as a baby, and while my mom was holding her, she asked
15:41
me to hold on to her for a moment, and I was not a fan. They laughed at my scrunched up face while I held my niece,
15:48
but I was eager to pass her off to someone else when the chance came up. Listen, they're obnoxiously loud when
15:56
they're crying. They're a stinking mess when they take their potty break. They're never sleeping when you wish
16:01
they were. You're constantly waking up from them needing something. I've got chronic migraines, and babies and
16:08
children are a very good trigger for them. Once a kid is around 15 or so, I can probably handle them a bit better.
16:14
You know, when they can engage in a proper conversation with you and have some wits about them.
16:20
Thankfully, I have an older brother, so we had to deal with my whiny butt, not vice versa.
16:26
The next mailbox states, "Remember that family next door? We used to go and play with the kids. One time I was invited
16:33
for lunch, but didn't know our phone number. I had to run back to her house to ask mom. She said yes. Then I ran
16:40
back to the neighbors and stood outside their door. I didn't know what to do. They eventually saw me waiting and let
16:46
me in. Then showed me how to knock and use the doorbell. I just begun learning
16:51
the life. You know, there weren't very many kids in the neighborhood, either around my
16:57
house or my grandparents house, that I'd really ever hang out with. I had a friend several houses down, but her mom
17:04
was my babysitter when we were kids. There was also another couple of kids down a connecting and residential area,
17:11
but I can't remember how I became friends with the girl. Just that my brother was friends with her brother and
17:16
they had a dog named Hershey that I was afraid of as he didn't have an air of friendliness about him.
17:23
My grandparents house though, where I spent a lot of my time as a kid, didn't have anyone I hung out with. There was a
17:30
girl, but we didn't hang out that much. Her parents were a tad strict with what she could do. They were the types to say
17:36
that Harry Potter was satanic or something. And I like the movies, so I don't know. It was kind of awkward.
17:43
Every other friend I met was either from my school or a sixth grade camp. I guess with how much time I spent with
17:50
my cousin, finding friends wasn't exactly a high priority since my cousin lived next door to her grandparents
17:55
house and she was always over there when I was or I just go over to her house.
18:00
As far as not knowing to knock or ring the bell, I have forgotten doorbells were a thing in my 30s. Since it' been
18:07
so long since I actually went over someone's house, I'd always knock and sometimes people just don't hear
18:12
knocking, especially when they're wearing noiseancelling headphones.
18:18
When we walk away from this mailbox, our character blinks and turns to face a giant door in the distance, as if
18:24
emphasizing the point of the letter. Then we blink again, and the door is gone.
18:30
The next mailbox reads, "Do you remember our first vacation where we stayed at a fancy hotel? Our parents told us to keep
18:36
it down and not run around. They told us to go on ahead and they'd
18:42
meet us at the restaurant. So, we walked to the elevators by ourselves. Then, we pressed every single button. The
18:49
elevator stopped at all the floors and everyone was mad at us. We were such a pair of menaces.
18:55
I don't think we ever stayed at a fancy hotel before, but we've been to a whole lot of them given our family used to go
19:01
on vacation a few times a year. In fact, the most interesting place I remember staying at on vacation is when I took my
19:08
family on a train vacation. We stayed in a sort of log cabin that looked really
19:13
nice on the inside and outside there was a fire pit. Nothing like that in the hotels we spent days in, just indoor and
19:21
outdoor pools that we'd hang around in during our downtime. As far as pressing every button on the
19:26
elevator, I've definitely done that as a kid, but I waited until I got off on our floor to do it when nobody would know it
19:32
was me. They definitely had to know was some kid, though. At the next
19:37
mailbox, we used to live in a big city, but sometimes we were allowed to visit the local park. When we were really
19:44
lucky, we'd all get in the car, then drive out to the country. We'd be told to be careful with the bargewire fence
19:51
that it was private property. We'd often head to the national parks. Then we could run around all we wanted. One time
19:58
I hid behind a tree for an hour and gave everyone a heart attack. I can't imagine actually hiding
20:04
somewhere for an entire hour just because I could or to see if anyone would actually find me. Like I have a
20:11
good imagination. I can stay in a single spot for a while with no issues because my brain will just make up scenarios.
20:18
I'd be thinking the future, present, past. I'd reconstruct events that already happened and play the what if
20:24
game, but to just hide and wait. Nah, I couldn't.
20:30
We finally leave this area and enter another one. Not that the previous was a bad bad place to be. I looked around a
20:37
lot and found several screenshot worthy spots, but it's always good to change it up. Unfortunately, the environment
20:43
didn't change all that much. It's still kind of the same foliage and
20:49
flowers and whatnot, but this time we're not by the water and there aren't any annoying seagulls to listen to. Up
20:56
ahead, there's someone waving their arms up on a hill we make our way to. The music slowly pans out as we get closer
21:03
to the person until we blink and they disappear. It almost feels like we're hallucinating
21:08
things. And while I'd hope there'd be a change in music, it goes back to the guitar
21:13
soundtrack from before, which was a little disappointing, mainly because I know these games have good soundtracks,
21:20
and to not change it up at this point makes this game so far one of the more disappointing ones as far as music goes.
21:26
But hey, at least we get a look at a waterfall that creates a stream we'll be running along to get to the next phase
21:32
of mailboxes. And the first one we get here says, "I'm
21:37
sure you don't want to read all about kids memories, brother. I just want to jog your brains so you remember and even
21:44
tell you about things you didn't know. I'm sure you know that I love you and always will. I know you loved me. We
21:51
can't take it for granted. Look at all these other families who don't even speak to each other. When you have your
21:57
own family, always remember to listen and love." Clearly, there's some red flags in that
22:02
letter, such as putting the fact that we loved him in past tense while his love
22:08
remains in the present. And then talking about how we should stay in touch with our families and show our love to them while never taking it for granted. That
22:15
just screams something happened to our younger brother and he's no longer with us, which I suppose was obvious from the
22:21
fireworks letter, but still. Now, instead of abandoned cabins by the lake, we've got ramshackle broken down
22:28
buildings that we come across, which could easily collapse at any given moment and bury us beneath the rubble.
22:34
What fun it is to find a mailbox under something that could end our life, too, brother.
22:40
It reads, "You know how I loved computer programming, and that's what I was studying to do. What you don't know is
22:47
that I wanted to be a rock musician. Yes, I confess. All those times you yelled at me to turn the music down
22:53
because it was loud and blaring. I took guitar lessons, but I sucked at it. I tried singing in the shower, but it was
23:00
bad. Well, a guy can dream, right? While I can't really relate to wanting
23:06
to be a musician or being in a band, I have played the acoustic and electric guitar, as well as piano and flute for
23:11
school. Piano I done for longer than the other instruments, with flute having the shortest amount of time. I really like
23:19
music. Certain songs can just touch the soul better than anything else can and can also just really relate to your
23:25
mood. Heck, sometimes songs can even switch you to a different mood depending. That's how it is with me. But
23:33
I think after all that time of playing different instruments, it just felt too monotonous.
23:38
There's only so many chords to play, even though there's a ton of songs to learn. There wasn't really a sense of
23:44
adventure or higher calling for me, which is why I went to drawing, then
23:49
writing, than gaming. This time, when we blink in game, we see an electric guitar in the distance until
23:55
we blink a second time. We're kind of moving away from the waterfall and stream at this point and just heading
24:01
through a narrow path that doesn't offer too much on the visual end of things, such as pretty screenshot material, but
24:06
I'm sure it'll get better. for now. The next mailbox reads, "Do you remember Samantha?" "Probably not. She was in my
24:13
grade, not yours. I had such a huge crush on her, but she didn't know I existed." One day at recess, I ran up to
24:20
her and gave her a kiss. What a look on her face. I realized I shouldn't have done it. I could have been injured.
24:29
But later, we started hanging out, but the rule was never ever mention the kiss.
24:36
I've never kissed anyone at school. I didn't kiss anyone until late 20s, early 30s. I don't think I can even say I had
24:43
a crush on someone while I was at school. I dated someone, but I wasn't like hooked on his attention or anything
24:49
like that. The most I had was an interest in talking to certain people about certain subjects.
24:55
However, there apparently was someone that had a crush on me because I remember on a Valentine's Day, a guy gave me a teddy bear holding a heart. I
25:03
didn't know what to do with it. I definitely don't have it to this day.
25:08
Reaching the crest of a hill, we get another mailbox. I still miss Fluffy. I know you and Mom
25:14
and Dad said Fluffy ran away, but I knew you were lying. I knew he was hit by a
25:20
car. You were trying to spare my feelings. It's okay. He was 19 years old
25:25
and lived a good life. If you go into my room, I still have all his photos and videos on my computer. It's great that I
25:32
get to see him again. Again, that last statement basically confirms that her younger brother is gone and now gets to be with his equally
25:38
deceased pet. Speaking of, 19 years old is a dang long time for an animal to
25:44
live. Either dog or cat. I'm starting to think it maybe wanted to die and just ran in front of a car to get it over
25:50
with. One of my cats had gotten hitten by a car, I think, because he came home at
25:56
the back door and his back leg was all mangled and bloody. I of course was crying and panicking
26:02
because my parents were out of town at the time. One of my uncles was allergic to cats, so couldn't help. And something
26:08
about other family members not being available. I finally got a hold of someone to take him to the vet and they
26:14
put him down. Super depressing for a kid and quite traumatizing if I'm being honest. I didn't have anyone to help me
26:21
out through it aside from my family member that took us to the vet since it's not like my parents were home.
26:26
Aside from my cat, we'd caught a wild turtle and it managed to get out of its bowl we headed in outside and it ended
26:32
up walking out into the road and getting hit. Not a huge loss, but more of a well that sucks moment. Also, to change the
26:40
subject, I think the music changes here, which is really weird that it would shift on reading a mailbox letter rather
26:46
than shift to something different on an environmental change. I don't really see the logic in it.
27:09
In case you're wondering, Fluffy was indeed a cat because we blink and a giant white cat appears in the distance.
27:15
It's more like a kitten than an adult, but that's okay. Sometimes we're more fond of their cute and cuddly face.
27:22
The next mailbox is inside of a circle of stone pillars that kind of remind me of Stonehenge, but clearly not. And
27:29
before you reach it, there are crows on the pillars that fly off as you approach. It almost made me think there
27:34
was a carcass in the center or something. There's not. There is a pretty mountain in the distance that has
27:40
a trail going through it, though. This mailbox states, "There was that one
27:45
nice winter day when mom and dad drove us into the cold country. We bundled up coats and mits and then built a snowman.
27:52
I was all warmed up, so I donated my scarf to him. We gave him pebble eyes and a twig nose. Then we had a snowball
27:59
fight. That was the best winter ever. But those snowballs hurt more than you think when they hit your face. Even the
28:07
snowman was sorry for me. I don't recall a time when I made a snowman as a kid, even though I know I
28:14
did. and then probably even made multiple because for some reason I like the snow as a child. Not so much these
28:21
days. I also don't have any knowledge of snowball fights, so I guess my winter memories are slim. If you have a fun
28:28
winter story, I'd love to hear it and play some of my own missing stories. It is drizzling a bit as we make our way
28:35
through a gap in the tall rocks. And it's a little reminiscent of Drizzle Path for me. Another one of Tonka
28:41
Padur's games that can be probably described as their least impressive at this point due to it not having aged
28:47
very well. In this next mailbox, we find out why we're confronting a whole lot of
28:52
mailboxes in the first place. Remember my obsession with mailboxes? I
28:57
wondered why we didn't have one at the house. We had a slot the door where the mailman dumped our mail or she left
29:04
parcels on the doorstep. So, Dad made me my own small mailbox. Wasn't that cool?
29:10
I expect it's long gone now, but we used to have fun putting letters in there to each other. Do you remember? This is why
29:16
I've sent mailboxes on your path now. I think I can understand how someone
29:21
might become obsessed with something that they don't initially have, such as a mailbox.
29:27
You've got all these other houses with them, but not yours. And it's kind of a bummer and might make your place stand
29:33
out a little too much in your mind. So, you look at them more often when you see them. And then you start wanting that
29:38
one and that one and that one. And given the looks on some of the mailboxes
29:44
nowadays, and I'm speaking of ones that aren't your typical everyday every house mailbox, it'd be fun to go through with
29:51
buying several of them. I mean, really, just check out some of the unique mailboxes on Etsy or just Google unique
29:58
mailboxes. You'll wonder why yours is so ordinary. As you progress forward, you'll notice
30:04
there are some fluffy clouds that spel out the numbers 3234.
30:09
A little weird, but just coming from a letter that spoke a mailboxes and makes you think that was the number to our
30:14
house address. The next letter reads, "Did you ever wonder why your Lego pieces went missing? That's because I
30:21
would steal them to complete my own projects. You complained, but I just blame the vacuum cleaner or the cat for
30:27
stealing them. Mom would tell us she'd take it all away if we didn't behave. You never said a word of it to me, even
30:34
though you'd see my Lego structures set up on my desk. It was rather obvious, wasn't it? Why is it we always decide to
30:42
blame the pet for something that we've done? They're always the one to get thrown under the bus, and you'd think
30:47
one would start to realize the ruse that when someone says they did it, it means the person doing the fingerpointing
30:53
clearly did it. Parents are probably more liable to see through a thinly veiled blame technique. But not a whole
31:00
lot of the younger generation as long as you can back your story up in a somewhat manipulative way. At least as the older
31:07
brother, we didn't actually rat him out. Preferring to bicker about it. Probably to make our younger brother feel sorry
31:12
about what he did. If that even worked in the end. Doesn't look like it. The
31:17
only time I was good at stealing things from people is when I was the banker playing Monopoly. Nobody liked it when I
31:23
played the banker. At this point, we're coming up on a cabin that's not actually dilapidated and falling apart. But
31:29
first, we're checking their mailbox. I have to make a confession. When you
31:35
weren't home, I'd go into your room and snoop around. I knew you were out on call for your job or you'd be out gaming
31:40
with your friends late on Sunday night. So, I'd sneak out of bed so I wouldn't disturb my parents. I use a flashlight
31:47
and go into your room. I especially liked looking through your books and going through your desk. Oh, you better
31:53
believe I'd snoop through my brother's room when he wasn't home. He was more of a socialite than I was. Always going to
31:59
parties and hanging out with his friends and doing things that were frowned upon by her parents. Though they never really
32:05
said anything, which means I'd go through his drawers and pick through different things he had
32:10
stashed away. I found a photo of him with a fake tattoo on his arm, and I do remember my parents clearly telling him
32:16
no tattoos. I didn't say anything to them, but I kept it as leverage if he ever ticked me off enough. I was that
32:23
kind of sister. I still kind of am if I'm being honest. Now, we approached the cabin and notice
32:29
that there is a padlock on the door. It requires four numbers to open it. So, we'll be using the cloud's message of 32
32:36
34 to open it. Inside there's at least a few different furniture pieces like a
32:42
chair sitting at a table that has a red and white checkered cloth over it and a couch off to the other side as well as
32:48
maybe an older TV box or tableside desk. I'm not entirely sure because there's a mailbox in the room.
32:54
This time it's not your typical letter you're receiving, but rather a question that needs answered via multiple
33:00
choices. I don't know what happens if you choose options for these other than the ones you're clearly supposed to go
33:07
with. I chose all the proper answers for these questions and there's no achievements
33:12
for any other type of ending. So maybe you just be sounding like an ass. The question is, do you wish that Jim would
33:19
have been the type of brother that you would have wanted to hang out with? An odd question because it's clearly
33:24
breaking the fourth wall here, right? It's technically not asking us as the already big brother, but rather the
33:30
person who's currently playing the game. I went with yes, he's cool. A butterfly
33:36
symbol glowed in the top right. And then we're back on our driving course with Brother Bear. This time starting on lap
33:42
12. From the get-go, you'll notice there's a lot of areas that are marked off that you aren't able to access yet and other
33:49
paths that are open, including a straightforward path. I think this course is trying to make you take a
33:55
wrong turn and doubt yourself on where to exactly go in these turns. But the parking spot is straight ahead with no
34:01
turns required. Sneaky.
34:06
Level 13 is the first driving course where you'll run into a deer. Literally,
34:11
as it dashes across the road in front of you, and it's almost like real life because you're so focused on driving,
34:18
you won't notice a deer standing at the side of the road before it makes a mad dash. It's kind of funny if you don't
34:24
notice a deer because the landscape is bare, almost like a desert with rocks, dead trees, and bits of dead foliage.
34:32
But the level is here to show you deer exist in this universe as a path is straightforward otherwise.
34:38
Level 14 tricks you because you're clearly going to drive forward, but when you do, you end up at a dead end. The
34:45
parking spot was actually behind you from the get- go. Level 15 has a ton of
34:51
turns in it and includes several strips of red where you'll need to stop, as well as an icon you can grab that seems
34:56
to be life replacement if you've already lost a life by hitting a cone or something.
35:02
If you're full on health, it won't help you. Aside from those two things, it shows you it's just a lot of sharp turns
35:09
until the end. I had the most trouble so far with level
35:14
16 and ended up restarting so many times from touching parts of the course too much. In my defense, while there are a
35:22
lot of turns like the previous level, these turns are harder to take due to water barrels being close to the turn,
35:28
meaning you're going to need to be a lot more careful. But I do like how it's dusk out. I think because the red
35:35
lighting is just a nice visual aesthetic. Aside from all the obnoxious barrels,
35:41
there's no other surprises. Level 17 is kind of the same deal as before. A lot of water barrels, a lot of
35:48
turns, but because you dealt with a previous course, you should be more prepared for this one. You will need to
35:54
find a coin before you can take the parking spot out of here. And luckily, at some point, there is a health orb if
36:00
you take a damage. And then another one by the actual coin. Get ready to do some
36:06
backing up to turn around and make your way back to the parking spot. Level 18 was one of the shorter courses
36:12
for me as I didn't take any of the false paths that were offered. There is a large red panel right before the parking
36:18
spot. Level 19 is an absolute pain in the butt. You start out already on the
36:26
parking spot and there are four directions you can take as well as four coins you'll need to grab. Two paths
36:32
have two coins to them. So, there's a chance you might take two wrong turns and we'll have to backtrack, which is
36:39
exactly what happened to me. When you start on level 20, you can see the parking spot directly behind you.
36:46
There are five coins in total you'll have to collect, and the first two will open at the path to the left at the
36:51
beginning. So, at least those are fairly easy to find and grab. The coins aren't that hard to find, thankfully, but the
36:58
road you're traveling on is very tight considering the objects placed on it to make it thinner. There is going to be a
37:05
health orb if you have taken damage. Level 21 adds two new additional
37:11
features. an invisibility area, which simply makes you completely invisible when you touch it, and then a couple of
37:18
colored boxes you have to smash your way through. It's something to be wary of when smashing through the boxes because
37:24
the parking spot is right after them, and if you're not careful, you can drive over it into the cones.
37:30
Okay, now we're back in the world where we'll be following the stream as I mentioned before in the last walking
37:35
section. I like this area a lot because there are houses up on the side of the rocks to either side of us and it does
37:42
provide a nice screenshot area. And in this new area, we do get another musical track to listen to.
37:59
The first mailbox we approach reads, "There was that one day our parents took us to the lake. We no sooner set up the
38:06
canoe and were out paddling when it started raining. I'd thought our parents would call us back to shore, but they
38:12
didn't. It was fine. We had a great time getting wet. Before the canoe overflowed
38:18
with water, we paddled back to shore where mom was waiting with dry towels. Being reckless was fun to us back then.
38:25
Well, I can't say that I was a reckless child in my youth or even nowadays because I definitely was not. Maybe I
38:33
had as much anxiety about things back then as I have now, if a little less, which made me always heir on the side of
38:40
caution. Plus, I wouldn't get into a canoe. I don't like being any kind of open water
38:46
in a small vessel like that. Though, I did go out on a boat once upon a time with my family and went fishing with
38:51
them. I was the only one that was able to catch anything. And I think I hooked a small shark, which wasn't uncommon,
38:57
but cool. definitely made me seasick while traveling out to our location, though. I didn't get sick or anything,
39:04
but it wasn't fun. We tried along the water, not caring that our shoes and socks get wet, because there's no way
39:10
we'd be walking barefoot. Not with all these freaking rocks and pebbles digging into our feet, unless they're already callous and can take a beating. A statue
39:17
of a man sitting down and looking out into the distance is on the left, looking like he's sharpening a crude
39:23
stone blade. Further ahead is a mailbox that reads, "Many of these letters were about us
39:30
when we were young, but I knew back then that we wouldn't be young forever. It was like I had a premonition or
39:35
something. If you ever wondered why I joked around so much, while you remain the serious one, that's why. Life is
39:42
short. Might as well enjoy it yourself, right?" There has to be some kind of diagnosis for him coming up that made
39:47
him terminally ill with a set deadline for when he'd pass. I mean, as far as him not exactly
39:53
knowing there was something wrong, but putting on a happy face in a world of serious people, it does remind you that
39:59
people know their bodies better than anyone else. So maybe there were signs that our younger brother couldn't
40:05
identify, but still didn't feel quite right. Sometimes that's how I get before my blood pressure drops. Something won't
40:11
feel right, but I can't pinpoint what it is until my whole body goes into a momentary numb state. The environment is
40:18
starting to open up and become pretty to look at again. What with the lighting and all, but there is more to look at in
40:24
the distance when we get to continue. Until then, the next mailbox.
40:30
Do you remember how we sent that bully packing in grade 10? He said I was fat. I said, "I know that." He said I was
40:37
pale. I said it was because I drank ale. Everything he said to me, I made a rhyme
40:42
right back at him and laughed. You were so clever and right. Make a joke of it like their comments don't hurt us. They
40:49
soon stop. I'm not sure if this would entirely make a bully back off. It'll certainly make
40:55
them mad that they can't get a rise out of you and that you're making them look like a fool, which depending on their
41:00
age, I suppose, might initiate a physical reaction like a punch or a
41:05
shove to the ground. Something that could actually hurt since their words aren't doing the job. I myself never had
41:12
a bully confront me. One of my friends walked into the bathroom while my nose was bleeding and they threatened to beat
41:18
the crap out of whoever did it to me. I wouldn't say they were joking, but they were also probably serious, so no
41:25
bullies for me. But yeah, judge what kind of bully you're dealing with. If they've been in confrontations before or
41:31
they're all barkked, no bite. Well, I thought I was headed for a windmill, but it turns out we get another
41:37
environmental change. The trees are really pretty, though. They look like weeping willows, but their tendrils are
41:42
a teal and white coloration. There are two paths you can take at the start, and when I took the wrong path,
41:48
the music stopped completely. There's no mailbox back here, but you do see the
41:54
front of a jeep on top of a ledge, making me think it's supposed to be the jeep that the bear is driving and the
41:59
little gameplay sequences, which is fun. Music can also be fun, though. With
42:04
nothing else back there, I took to go the correct path where we can actually see mailboxes glowing and so to catch
42:10
our attention, which they did, but I wanted to go the other way first. The first mailbox states, "When you were
42:17
hanging out with your big university friends, you didn't want them to know you had a younger brother, so I showed
42:22
up and you told them I was your Uber driver. At first, I was confused. Then you winked at me, but I was mad. So,
42:30
after your friends packed up their books and headed for the door, I said to you, "Mom wants you to vacuum the house
42:35
before dinner." The look on your face. Uh, I think it's rightly so that he got
42:41
mad. I don't know what the point was to hide the fact that you have a younger sibling, unless it's because they're a
42:47
nuisance in your life, perhaps. But either way, the truth is going to be found out eventually, especially if your
42:52
parents show up with your Uber driver for some reason or another. I'd get mad, but I wouldn't really make a fuss out of
42:58
it. I just roll my eyes and consider him immature for trying to hide the obvious.
43:03
Most siblings look a little like each other after all. The next mailbox is when the music finally kicks in again.
43:10
I'm unsure why there was so much downtime, but there was. And then the letter we read says, "You taught me how
43:16
to ride a bike. We'd often go out bike riding after school, but before we had to help our parents make dinner. One
43:22
day, my bike went missing. probably stolen by that grade 10 bully, but you scoured the neighborhood and brought it
43:28
back to me. And we never told our parents. I mean, you can now if you want. I think that's one of the main
43:35
things kids would worry about, especially if they're leaving their bike outside the house, maybe leaning against
43:41
the porch side or wall or fence or something. It always amazes me that people do this in video games. And for
43:47
the most part, video games do tend to reflect some truths to reality. We have a really long driveway, so even if we do
43:54
leave things laying outside the house, most of the time people won't be able to see it anyway. And nobody bothers to
44:00
find out if there's even is anything for them to snatch. Although, we did have
44:05
the neighbors that rented the house next door, and they had a kid that would try to look in our cars to take stuff. I
44:11
heard the car door shut late one night, and then another day, my door wasn't shut all the way. I didn't bother
44:16
locking my door since this crap never happened before. Lesson learned when ghetto folk lived
44:22
next door and they were nasty. By the time they were kicked out, the entire house was a mess with trash thrown
44:28
everywhere. Toilets overflowing with crab, dog poop smeared in places. The entire place had to be reworked.
44:36
Continue forward in the game and a gigantic blue bicycle appears above us in the sky, gone in the blink of an eye.
44:43
Again, there are two paths to take and I decide on the right path. Surprisingly, there is absolutely nothing there that I
44:50
could find. So, we continued to the next mailbox. Remember when I fell out of the tree
44:55
trying to build a tree fort and you practiced first aid on me? Mom had to make take me to the hospital, but the
45:01
doctor was impressed at how well you wrapped up my arm. Only bruises, fortunately. I expect that's what you
45:07
got your career idea from, and you called me the smart one. I don't recall a time when I ever went into a
45:13
treehouse, but I do remember that I used to climb one of the trees in my grandparents backyard, the same tree
45:19
they always threatened to grab a switch from to swatter butts, though that never happened.
45:25
It's also weird that a couple times now he's written mom and not mom as he had at the start. Now I'm unsure if we're
45:32
British or American. Yet another left or right path up ahead, and I take the one that doesn't
45:38
immediately show a mailbox. There was no mailbox on that side. However, it did loop in a circle, so I had to go back to
45:44
the start of the circle where I was to read the mailbox I would have missed. It reads, "Saturday morning was the
45:52
best. We get up at like 6 a.m. and go and watch the cartoons. Do kids today even get to watch cartoons? They sleep
45:59
in until 11:00 a.m. and then get on their smartphones. Looney Tunes and Rocking Bullwinkle are the best. Reminds
46:06
me, dig through my DVDs and save those for your kids or watch them again. There
46:12
are no age limits. I'm going to say that yes, kids today do
46:17
get to watch cartoons. But the real question is, do they even bother doing so when there's Tik Tok and YouTube and
46:22
gaming apps on their smartphones to play around with? My nephew will grab his phone as soon as he wakes up to start
46:29
playing games on it, and it's like, good lord, have restraint. Even I'm not that
46:34
bad. Also, those two kids cartoons are from way back. When I watched cartoons as a
46:40
kid, it was Hey Arnold, Rugrats, The Fairly Odd Parents, and The Wild Thornberries.
46:46
I don't even know what cartoons exist now. Moving on to the next mailbox. I
46:52
admit it now. There was that girl, Charlene. She called multiple times, but I told her that you were talking to
46:58
Maria. Boy, was she mad. I tell you, something wasn't right with her. Trust
47:03
me, I saved you a lifetime of grief with that one. Since I'm not here anymore, stay focused and finish your university.
47:10
Trust me, you're the one with all the time left in the world. I wouldn't say that ending line is
47:17
exactly true just because a doctor hasn't given us a deadline. Anyone can die at any given time while thinking
47:24
themselves invincible to a longer life. It just doesn't happen like that, unfortunately.
47:30
As far as saving someone a lifetime of grief by blocking a girl from entering their life when it's better if they
47:35
didn't pass that line, I remember liking one of the girls my brother dated more than the others. But they were always
47:41
getting into fights and yelling like all the time. It was kind of like with me
47:46
and my first boyfriend, but I just wasn't that into him and stayed because I was afraid to back out and girls just
47:53
had boyfriends and it was a thing. Not the best explanation, but there's not much of a better one for our
47:59
predicament. Our next mailbox states, "I don't think our parents were supportive
48:04
of my computer programmer career choice. They felt there was way too much competition. And in gaming, no way."
48:11
They said, "I'd starve to death before I ever found a job. Your brother's going to med medical school, so maybe you can
48:18
go to law school." I just laughed. I was going to do what I was going to do with the time I had left.
48:25
I hate it when people think something else will be a better choice for you career-wise.
48:30
Like, it's not even up to you anymore. They just want to get you into a job that makes a higher amount of money
48:35
right off the bat. That's like telling someone not to be an artist because too many people are artists out in the
48:41
world. Yeah, but everyone has their own interpretation and style of artwork.
48:47
Just like a computer programmer for gaming is going to have different ideas than others that have already been down the gaming path. Don't tell people what
48:54
they can and can't do. They'll prove you wrong. Now, there are three paths to choose
49:00
from. The right path was a dead end, and then I started to go the left path, but that seemed to loop all the way around
49:06
to the middle with no mail mailboxes in it. So, I just went back to the middle path where the next mailbox was.
49:14
I want you to know that I'm not perfect, brother. As posted earlier, I went through your things when I was a kid,
49:19
and I borrowed what I wanted until you got home. I also blamed you for eating all the pie from the fridge that time. I
49:26
told dad you had done it. Not sure what happened after that, but hey, sorry. There were way too many salads for
49:32
dinner and I was a growing boy. At least he admits he's not perfect and we've already seen the flaws ourselves
49:39
and none of us are perfect either. I've certainly blamed my brother for things that I did, but we never got into a big
49:45
amount of trouble for anything. On another note, I love salad with Olive Garden Italian dressing. When we start
49:52
walking, a ginormous cake appears up ahead. Not a pie. A cake. I would know
49:58
because I'm not a fan of pie all that much, but I do love me some cake. Continuing forward, we're met with a
50:04
cute abandoned house that we can't go inside. But thinking back to all the other buildings, there probably wouldn't
50:10
be much inside anyway. Instead, we'll read what's in the mailbox.
50:15
There was that time you rescued Squiggles from the university's laboratory. You didn't have time, so I
50:22
looked after him. I still remember that rat. What a character. When I walked
50:27
into the room, he'd stand up on two feet and wiggle his little nose at me. He even got them to stop testing on animals. That was quite an
50:33
accomplishment. And I'm proud to be your brother. There's animal testing done in
50:38
schools. I know that you dissect frogs at some point, which is gross, mind you. When am I ever going to need to know
50:45
what and where the insides of a frog are? I didn't think there was any kind of animal testing going on, though. Most
50:51
of the time, a rat's just going to be a pet for a classroom. I've never had a rat, but I used to work
50:57
at a pet store where I'd handle rats and clean out their cages. I liked them, but they always kind of scared me since I
51:03
didn't know if they were going to bite or not. We didn't always handle the animals all the time like they were meant to be if you're going to own one
51:09
as a pet. Their claws caused my arms itch like crazy whenever I got them out and handled them. With a blink of her
51:16
eyes, Squiggles appears above us in all his ratty glory. Serious Kaiju moment going on. I take the path in front of
51:24
the house and we get to see the Jeep again. And then fog settles over us, but nothing else. It's a dead end. I turn
51:30
back and finally get a good look at the front of the house, and it looks really nice. I wouldn't mind living in a place
51:36
like it, though. It's probably a little too big for just one person. The next mailbox reads, "You taught me
51:43
how to drive a car as you had your driver's license first." Of course, they insisted that I take pro driving
51:49
lessons, too. But I still remember when you flipped out cuz you thought I was going to trash your Honda Civic because
51:54
I put my foot on the wrong pedal. Then I quickly rided my foot. I'll bet that bear can drive better than I can. I
52:02
can't drive stick shifts. My dad tried to teach me going down our gravel driveway. He told me which pedal to
52:08
press down and to accelerate. But when I started accelerating, he told me to take my foot off the other pedal.
52:15
And when I did, Gravel started spraying from the back tires due to the amount of gas I was putting on. And we swiveled a bit. So yeah,
52:23
my dad's a terrible stick shift teacher, and I don't ever want to do it again.
52:28
I met with another dead end, and I have to say they're starting to become a little annoying. At least offer a little
52:35
something at the end of them, even if it isn't a mailbox. Speaking of, next one states, "You
52:43
bailed me out one time. I'd spend all the rent money on a party. Honestly, I just did the math wrong, but you lent me
52:49
the cash. That was so brotherly of you. You never told her parents. I'd have been so embarrassed if you had." I
52:56
remember they were proud of both of us, so it was a good thing my big brother looked out for me.
53:01
I'm not sure if I'd be the person to ask someone for help if I screwed myself over like this. I think I'd probably
53:08
just end up freaking out and crying and then my parents seeing me stressed and me having to come up with something to say about it. Maybe my brother would
53:15
help me out in this case, but if it was vice versa, it's really hard for me to say no in certain circumstances,
53:21
and I think I'd feel bad for him and give him the money. As much as I hate some of the problems that have been
53:27
stirring within the family, whenever I hear my parents talk about how he needs some money for this and that, I want to
53:33
help him moneywise, but I just stop myself because it's just going to continue being an issue. Why keep trying
53:40
to fix something when it'll never get fixed? Also, I'm sorry. At this point, I've
53:45
kind of been neglecting the music side of things. So, let's hear what this place is all about right now.
54:06
Now that that's out of the way, the next mailbox. I really missed you when you started
54:12
your first year of medical school. That was your 30-hour a day adventure. But we still kept in touch through text, email,
54:18
and Skype. What did siblings do in the past when there was an attack? Call on the phone. That seems so yestery year.
54:26
Anyway, when I missed you, I'd head into your bedroom and, you guessed it, snoop through your things. I remember having a
54:33
landline and calling people on our corded phone, which had a very long cord, mind you. I could never stand or
54:40
sit still, so by the end of the call, I'd have the cord wrapped all around me from ceaseless pacing. Also, I can't
54:47
imagine going through my siblings things after so many years because there are some things that change from kids to
54:53
adults that I just don't really want to look into. This time, we come across a small shack
54:59
with another lock on the door, but the answer is not in the sky. It's through one of the windows on the wall where you
55:05
can see a mailbox on the inside. 5972.
55:11
Aside from the usual slim amount of furniture, a locker has been added in of all things. The mailbox has a question
55:19
for you to answer, and that's knowing what you know now, would you have lived your life any differently? Golly, that's
55:26
a question. I don't regret all the time I spent drawing and writing and reading, but maybe I regret all the times I spent
55:32
learning music that I just brushed off a lot of times, even though I enjoyed that my parents loved listening to me play
55:39
for them. If I knew gaming would be so much fun and I get to know like-minded
55:44
people that like the same weird games I do and that I could do podcasts and reviews and have people actually watch
55:50
and listen to such things, I would have done it earlier. It's so much fun for me to do, but it also takes so much time,
55:57
especially since I work a full-time job. Not that I wouldn't have if I reverse
56:02
time and all that, but I'd definitely be further ahead than I am now. As far as the actual answer to the
56:09
question I chose, no, you can't change destiny. And thus, we're back on the
56:14
roads at level 23, which makes me think maybe it doesn't really matter what
56:19
answers you choose because I figure the first choice would be more appropriate. Maybe it is just up to you to answer
56:26
honestly with yourself. This driving course is just a lot of tight turns, slim roads, and a single
56:33
health pack if you've made an error. Nothing more to it, which is perfect to get you started driving properly again.
56:40
Level 24 had a deer run out toward me, but I actually missed him because I was driving so fast. So, there's that.
56:47
Sometimes you just get lucky in a video game, just like real life. There is a trick to the route where going straight
56:53
will lead to a dead end when you should actually turn left. You're introduced to the jump mechanic
56:59
in level 25. It's a red bar that you'll be jumping over. So, if you touch it, you're thrown back to the beginning.
57:06
Past that, there's a left and right path before the parking spot where you can grab the two coins you need. On level
57:12
26, I had fun swerving to the right and backing up into a coin in order to turn
57:18
left and continue forward to grab the other coins, get past a red space on the ground, and even crash through a double
57:24
set of boxes. The boxes do explode into pieces, and they can block the screen,
57:29
which might block how well you see the parking spot. At level 27, you want to back your car
57:35
up and rev up for a jump over the bar because you can't do it at a dead stop.
57:41
There is another one that leads you to the correct path while the other is a large dead end that allows you to back up easily. Maybe for more speed as well.
57:49
You'll need two coins on level 28. And thankfully, the game gives you a perfect chance to back up easily when getting
57:55
that first coin. After that, just head to the parking spot and you'll have everything you need to leave.
58:01
I don't know why it took me this long to start having fun with doing slide turns with the handbreak, but I can't tell you
58:07
how many times I had to restart the level 29 course from slamming into things.
58:13
Not only that, even if you're being careful, there are a couple chances for you to hit some deer. Don't worry, I got
58:20
through it only after around eight deaths. Level 30 was a lot easier with just a
58:25
jump and a lot of different unbreakables to smash through. I think level 31 wanted me to back it up after collecting
58:32
that first coin, but there was no way I was even going to try. So, I backed up best I could in the small amount of
58:38
space provided in order to double back. It was just a matter of getting the other coin in the on the way to the
58:43
parking spot. And finally, we have level 32. This one introduces you to the speed
58:50
orb. And this is one you're going to want to be careful with because if you're going fast and grab one of these, you're going to go faster and it's
58:56
easier to wreck into something or make a dumb mistake. Here, you're going to grab the speed
59:02
boost while jumping over red line. And there is a barrel ahead, so don't tilt the car toward it when landing. There's
59:09
a second speed boost and red line before getting to the end.
59:14
Another new environment, and this time it feels like we're actually walking along a hiking trail. just one littered
59:21
with mailboxes with the first one saying, "When we were young kids, we lived in an apartment building. Then
59:28
when we were both in school, our parents bought a house. Our first winter there was spectacular. A fine layer of snow
59:36
fell to the ground. We almost raced out of the house in t-shirts and slippers, but mom yelled at us to put our winter
59:42
gear on. Then we ran outside and built a snowman. It looked more like a beer, but
59:48
that's okay. We made it together. Well, I don't have a story like this
59:53
because I've lived in the same house as my parents since I was born. My brother was the only one to go to a college dorm
1:00:00
and get his own place with his own family. Also, here Jim is writing mom with an O
1:00:07
instead of a U. Again, I'm not sure if he realized he was doing it at the time.
1:00:13
Lo and behold, when we step away from the letter, there's now snow forming on the ground. It might look pretty, but
1:00:19
I'm still not a fan of the cold and never will be. The next letter says, "It was
1:00:25
springtime, and dad wanted to clean out the basement. The first step was to carry everything up the four small steps
1:00:32
to the yard, dump it there, then go through it all later." Wow, you were so
1:00:37
strong carrying your load. I had trouble carrying things, so got relegated to carrying the small boxes and stuff.
1:00:44
Finally, it was all out. Dad sure tossed out a lot of stuff that day.
1:00:50
I wouldn't be able to carry a lot of boxes myself since I'm such a small, weak little girl with the arm strength of a baby child. I'm also the kind of
1:00:57
person who wants to carry 10 grocery bags at once into the house because I don't want to make several trips out to
1:01:02
the garage to bring them in. But if there ever comes a day we clean out the garage, heaven forbid, I have no idea
1:01:10
what we'll do with all that stuff in there. There's no doubt it would look so much better and more roomier, though.
1:01:16
The snow on the ground is now gone. We'll just blame global warming on that one. And when we look up, we can see a
1:01:22
giant floating box with who knows what inside. Although it looks more like an office
1:01:28
supplies box than a junk box. In the next mailbox, after the yard
1:01:34
cleaning, we had this big garage sale. I was so tired from cleaning out the basement, I could barely move. I took
1:01:41
the money that people handed to me. I hope I counted properly because by the end of the day, I didn't care anymore.
1:01:47
Still, we rad in a lot of cash. Do you know what our parents did with it? Probably paid my medical bills.
1:01:56
I'm not sure if cash obtained from goods in a garage sale would really put a dent
1:02:01
in paying off medical bills, but it's a nice thought to have. I'm sure their
1:02:06
parents spent it towards their kids, so maybe more specifically toward Jim, but there's no way to know for sure.
1:02:13
I don't think we'd ask for anything knowing our brother was on a downward slope healthwise.
1:02:19
We used to have several garage sales going on at our grandparents house since the driveway is a whole lot shorter than
1:02:25
our own place. I remember selling some of my books and I think we might have even got rid of our SNES
1:02:32
when all said and done since I certainly don't have it anymore. And I stopped going over there as often after my
1:02:38
grandma became sick and bedridden. If that was the case, I definitely didn't get the amount of money I should
1:02:44
have from it. Oddly enough, after those mailboxes, the scene shifts again.
1:02:50
Instead of a forest and dirt path, we were now in a higher elevation area where one slip might send us careening
1:02:57
down the cliff side. So, there's a fun thought to have. I don't think it actually happened in this game, but I
1:03:03
don't think I tested it. You can definitely fall from great heights in some of their other games, so who knows?
1:03:10
At the edge of the said glyph is a mailbox that reads, "I can't quite recall, but I think the first film we
1:03:16
ever saw in a movie theater was Spider-Man. It was terrible. Not as good as the modern Spider-Man films today.
1:03:24
Still, it was exciting getting Pop to drink that we normally weren't allowed to drink. And a big bag of popcorn to
1:03:29
crunch on throughout the film. I accidentally dropped my bag and it spilled all over the place.
1:03:37
I was actually thinking the letter wouldn't have been completed because the person fell off before they finished writing it. But this is Jim we're
1:03:44
talking about and I don't think his life ended on such an unfortunate slip. Anyway, as far as movie theaters go, I
1:03:50
won't try to remember the first one I went to see, but I do recall when I was getting my ears pierced at a young age,
1:03:56
the first one hurt and I didn't want to get the other ear done. So, my mom prried me to go see The Lion King in
1:04:01
theaters if I got the other one pierced. Nowadays, I don't even wear earrings. I
1:04:06
enjoyed the fancy ones with feathers coming down, but it was always a hassle to take them out before bed, then put
1:04:12
them back in and rinse and repeat. I hate repetition, even when I'm the one
1:04:18
doing it. The next mailbox says, "I remember when
1:04:23
you weren't so perfect yourself. You decided to collect dead bugs, remember? You'd make these elaborate settings and
1:04:29
put them into display cases along with the name of the species. Mom found them
1:04:34
and screamed. Boy, did she re you up for bringing dirty bacterial things into the house.
1:04:41
Dad had to moderate and the resolution was to let you keep the bug displays at the back of the storage shed where they
1:04:47
likely still are today. It takes a certain type of person to want to have display cases of bugs
1:04:54
spread out around you in a room. Like some bugs are interesting, don't get me wrong, but on another note, some bugs
1:05:01
just need to be disintegrated by fire. And if spiders were a part of that collection, even though they're not
1:05:07
bugs, oh no, that's crossing the line.
1:05:12
After that letter, we get another scene change. I wish I knew why we're going from one
1:05:18
place to another so quickly. If we were entering different phases of Jim's livelihood, then maybe I'd understand it
1:05:24
a bit better. But for the most part, he's been talking about their childhood and nowhere really place specific aside
1:05:30
from the lake. Before we read the first letter in the section, here's a clip of the music.
1:06:05
I enjoyed collecting things, too. I collected Lego, as you know, as I'm sure that you were missing plenty of it. I
1:06:12
didn't even do anything with half of it. After I was gone, I'm sure that dad found about 10 plastic containers of it
1:06:17
under my bed or in the closet. I hope you donated it to charity or something.
1:06:23
I'm sure some kids somewhere would love it. Some might even be worth something.
1:06:28
Is that collecting Lego or is that hoarding? Because I get the feeling what
1:06:33
he was doing is more along the lines of hoarding. I can't judge him. I used to buy a notebook every time I saw one in a
1:06:39
store, even if I already had 50 notebooks with only a couple pages written in each one. I was the same way
1:06:45
with sticky pads and annotation tabs because I like to highlight and write things in the books I read. So many
1:06:52
highlighters and sticky tabs. The next mailbox states, "I always seem
1:06:59
to get sick more often than you, but it was fun in a way. Stay home from school, get pampered by mom or dad, depending on
1:07:06
who was off work that day, get lots of hot soup and hot cocoa. I didn't even
1:07:11
have to get dressed. and we were quarantined from each other so we didn't pass our germs around. It was kind of a
1:07:17
mandatory resentment period. I got sick a lot as a kid. A lot of it
1:07:23
was that my cramps were terrible, but also I started getting headaches a lot, which I now realize I have chronic
1:07:28
migraines. I was lucky that my mom worked from home most of the time I was in school and she
1:07:34
had to pick me up. No hot soup or cocoa for me, though. I just pass out in bed for several hours. The same thing I do
1:07:41
these days is a cure. Interestingly enough, we will now be
1:07:46
entering a house. Whose house? Not sure. Maybe ours. I assume it would be have to
1:07:53
be ours, but it does actually have some kind of lived in feel to it. We've got a kitchen, a living room, bedroom, and an
1:08:00
upstairs area. I thought the balcony is our mailbox. Weird place for the mailman
1:08:06
to reach, but whatever. Remember when dad taught Fluffy tricks? Who said you
1:08:12
can't teach a cat tricks? We'd go out into the yard and he'd run around in the green grass. Then we call him to come
1:08:19
and he would. He'd play fetch with his fake bone toy. We had him to sit, stay,
1:08:24
jump up, lie down. What a cat. We adopted him as a kitten, and he sure
1:08:29
lived a long time for a cat. I think my coworker's cat lived to 18 before she
1:08:35
had to put it down. It's crazy that they can actually live that long, but maybe I'm more used to dogs and their shorter
1:08:42
lifespans, especially medium to largesiz breeds. I don't know how old our oldest cat was.
1:08:49
We got him when he was already 5 years old or so, and he just lazed about all the time. I'm going to go out on a limb
1:08:56
and say he was around 15 or so. That's the oldest one of my cats has ever been.
1:09:03
Next up, we're heading toward a church. I don't think those are crows I've been
1:09:09
seeing around throughout the game now that I got closer to them gathered around the outside of the church. They
1:09:14
look like magpies, but I think they sound like crows when they take off. I'm not exactly sure what magpies sound
1:09:21
like, but don't they mimic? The mailbox says there was that brook
1:09:27
behind the house, kind of like a river, but much smaller. In the summer, it would dry out. In the spring or fall, if
1:09:34
you listened hard enough, you could hear the sounds of the water slowly dribbling over pebbles and stones. Sometimes there
1:09:40
was even a fish or frog in there. It was refreshing to take off socks and shoes and stick one's feet in there. We have a
1:09:47
creek in our front yard that I'd always try to catch frogs or find tadpoles in when I was younger. Embarrassing story.
1:09:54
But there was also one time where I got my shoes stuck in the mud. I had to go to the bathroom so bad. I just stood
1:10:00
there crying for a hot minute. I don't remember the outcome, but my bladder was unruly back then, and
1:10:06
something might have happened outside of my control. Behind this church is a small cemetery
1:10:12
with a cluster of headstones. And just like that, the game became a
1:10:17
bit darker. Despite the already somber mood with sprinkles of happiness added in from Jim's letters, sometimes it's
1:10:25
hard to remember that this game revolves around a deceased brother as a sort of celebration of life. Or maybe it's just
1:10:31
me that kind of forgets the subject matter considering how the pretty environment can steal my attention away.
1:10:38
The next mailbox states, "I wanted to win the lottery. Do you remember? I wondered what the point of going to
1:10:44
school and finding a job was. If I won the lottery, I'd be set for life. I wouldn't have to do anything. But then
1:10:50
he reminded me that even billionaires work hard. Sometimes twice as much as us. So, back to computer programming I
1:10:57
went. Doing something I enjoyed very much was all that mattered to me really.
1:11:02
Wouldn't it be nice if winning the lottery and never having to work a day in your life was that easy? I wonder
1:11:08
what's the average amount of money people waste on trying to win the lottery. because I'd love to win, but
1:11:14
I'm not going to throw money on something that gives such a slim chance. And half the time the winners were in
1:11:19
freaking California where all the rich people already live. Like, come on.
1:11:25
Next mailbox. I remember that day. I was so proud of you, brother. You volunteered to donate
1:11:32
blood in my honor. You just reached the minimum age. You had that rare type two.
1:11:38
What was it? Oh, negative. That's it. I wish I could have donated blood, too.
1:11:43
Honestly, if I could right now, I would to make up for what all those amazing blood donors did for me. It brings a
1:11:49
tear to my eye thinking about it. Once upon a time, I used to donate
1:11:55
blood, but I stopped at some point. And I think there was a reason I couldn't one year, but then also because I'd have
1:12:01
a vasagal response to blood. Looking at blood being drawn makes me feel faint.
1:12:07
Even talking about blood or anything of the sort makes phantom pain appear all over my body. I hate it.
1:12:15
Though the whole ordeal is for a good cause, of course. Continuing to the next mailbox.
1:12:23
You were the sportsminded one. I was fine playing football on the computer, but you put all of that aside after you
1:12:29
decided you wanted to go to medical school. You know, one day you'll have your own clinic. Perhaps you can start
1:12:35
your own team and invite all the medical staff to join in or something. Probably just a dumb idea. Never mind.
1:12:42
I wouldn't say it's a dumb idea, but I think it's thinking in the bigger picture that might not actually happen
1:12:48
unless we, as the older brother, work really hard to create our own clinic. For the most part, people in medical
1:12:55
just join an already established place to make it a better place for patients. My brother actually works in hospital
1:13:02
and respiratory. I told my mom he just has to remind people to breathe and everything's good.
1:13:09
All these mailboxes are basically back to back right now. So the next one reads, "I remember mom and dad arguing
1:13:14
about something. Was it about me? They locked themselves in the bedroom and were yelling. Normally they didn't
1:13:21
fight. There was no point in arguing as there was nothing they could have done. There I said it. Seriously, don't blame
1:13:29
yourself. This is life. We make of it what we can. Personally, I'm happy with
1:13:35
how things turned out. You should know I'm in a better place.
1:13:40
Is he in a better place, though? Isn't that the whole mystery around dying and all the arguments of what happens when
1:13:46
someone dies? Sure, it's nice to think people, you know, have gone to heaven. What if
1:13:52
there's just an endless amount of nothingness and you're stuck within it? What if that nothingness also doesn't
1:13:57
exist, just like the deceased person's life? How about reincarnating into a
1:14:02
worse life? We don't want to think of the unpleasantries that could be, but
1:14:07
they're there. But it's good that Jim accepted his fate knowing there's nothing he nor anyone
1:14:13
else could do and just vibed as best as he could during the time he had left. A
1:14:18
lot of people would stress. I would stress. Heck, I stress just thinking about the possibility of a countdown to
1:14:24
a set date. I'd rather not know. During your walk to the next mailbox,
1:14:30
they added in a new mechanic, seeing as there's a gap in the ground before you reach your destination. You can now
1:14:37
jump. I don't know how many times you'll use this during the rest of the game's
1:14:42
walking simulator portion. You'd think it would be used more than once, but even in Drizzle Path, you were only
1:14:48
meant to jump one time, I think. And that might be the case here. Yeah, it's
1:14:53
weird to implement something like this once. I know. As for the mailbox though,
1:14:59
remember that time I collapsed at school? The teacher made a big fuss and the ambulance came. The students
1:15:05
surrounded me. You were called out of class to join me. They called our parents who met us at the hospital. That
1:15:11
was my first ride in an ambulance. So cool. I'll bet you get tired of seeing lots of ambulances at the hospital where
1:15:18
you work now. I actually went out in an ambulance one time during school. I was
1:15:23
having severe menstrual cramps and couldn't handle the pain and felt like I was running a temperature.
1:15:29
Can't say I was very excited to get into an ambulance. I know they put an IV into me and I was so tense they reminded me I
1:15:35
could relax my hand that was in a fist. I fell asleep there and when I woke up my mom was next to me in a chair. I
1:15:42
guess they said I was dehydrated. And given the fact that I hate water unless it's flavored, I can't believe it.
1:15:48
And now we're at another house that needs a combination to the lock. And looking in both the windows yields us
1:15:54
nothing. The code is actually on the rock wall behind the house. 8016.
1:16:01
This house's layout makes a lot less sense than the previous nice one we had entered. I mean, there's a fridge in the
1:16:08
living room next to a bed. Like what? They didn't even try with this place.
1:16:13
just threw some assets in and called it a day since the only real reason we're in here is for the mailbox that asks us
1:16:20
another important question. Do you feel comfort in reading letters from your brother or should he not have
1:16:26
bothered sending them? I chose yes and I've learned a lot more about my brother and myself which isn't a lie. We have
1:16:34
learned a lot about our brother, some things that we may not have known before. And that kind of expands on how
1:16:39
we see and feel about ourselves as well, especially moving forward from this point on. If I were to guess, we'd be a
1:16:46
little happier, more headstrong in what we hope to achieve and live life in the way our brother would have wanted us to.
1:16:54
Of course, answering that question means we're now on level 34 of the driving course.
1:17:00
Welcome back to Hell on Wheels. The first level here is going to make you do a bit of maneuvering at the start
1:17:06
because you'll need to break the boxes on the right in order to give yourself some room to accelerate and jump over a
1:17:11
red line, which also happens to have boxes before it. Once that's done,
1:17:16
you're good to go for the parking spot. You have to be careful in level 35 as you'll need to acquire two coins and
1:17:23
each of those coins has a speed boost in front of it. Go too fast and you'll accelerate into the cones.
1:17:31
Level 36 is so bright and full of colorful trees. I swear it looks like it might be someone's birthday being
1:17:36
celebrated up in here. I haven't been in this colorful place since freaking Discovery Zone, if any of you can even
1:17:42
remember that. There's a red line you to jump and boxes need to be broken to reach the end. Oh,
1:17:49
and a deer. Don't forget to notice the deer. There are several invisibility fields
1:17:55
you'll be driving over in level 37. I don't really understand them unless they're just there to make your life a
1:18:01
little harder with driving because you can't specifically see where you are, making it more difficult to go around
1:18:06
turns or speed up for red zones. You need four coins to get through level 38. And while they weren't a problem to
1:18:13
get, I did get a little lost on where to grab them. Not to mention, there's a speed boost before a red line you jump
1:18:20
over before the parking spot. Level 39 was a little confusing to me. There's a
1:18:25
long stretch of red on the ground in front of you, and you're able to back up into a section. I thought there might be
1:18:31
something back there, so I went ahead and looked, but it's a dead end in all directions, meaning you don't have a
1:18:37
speed booster or anything to get you through that red zone. Just your own speed and a prayer. Basically, it's all
1:18:43
about timing. You want to be at a high speed when you get to the red path when it's light goes out, which means there's
1:18:50
some mental planning going on before you jet forward through some boxes, a speed boost, and the finish line.
1:18:56
I do not like backing up while on an invisibility field, but that's exactly what's going to happen more than once in
1:19:03
level 40. There are quite a few of them along with a line to jump over, which lands you on
1:19:09
another invisible field. Level 41 had me hitting a deer just
1:19:16
because I took the speed boost that was offered to me. So, thanks for that game. Level 42 is a straightforward path where
1:19:23
you'll be breaking boxes one after another and getting coins in the process. Though, toward the end, there's
1:19:28
a red line to jump over, so don't get too distracted by all the pretty colors on the screen.
1:19:34
Don't trust any of the speed boosts in level 43 because you'll be hitting deer due to not stopping in time and those
1:19:40
deer are actually being hid by the environment pretty well. And finally, the open or somewhat open
1:19:47
world. This segment is really short, having only one mailbox in it, but it's
1:19:52
got a very pretty section that's perfect screenshot material. Basically, you have a bunch of cabins up
1:19:58
ahead, and they're all lit up by different colored lights on the outside of them, ranging from reddish, yellow,
1:20:04
teal, and purple. You can't get close to them because they're on the opposite side of the cliff, but they're pretty to
1:20:10
look at. Kind of like during the Christmas season when you go through a neighborhood just to look at everyone's different light shows.
1:20:17
Walking around the trail is a deer that you could also get a shot of before it runs away, never to be seen again,
1:20:23
presumably having fallen off the cliff, just like the deer that didn't make the jump in the beginning of Death
1:20:28
Stranding. RIP deer. Around the bin is a mailbox that reads,
1:20:35
"I got so serious in my last set of memories, so let's go back to light-hearted letters. Okay. These days,
1:20:41
I imagine your daily life as you're at home after a long shift at the hospital. You'll wash up, then toss a fast food
1:20:48
meal into the microwave. You may feel lonely, as there's no time for relationships when you're an intern.
1:20:54
That's why you love spending 16-our days at the hospital so you can connect with people.
1:21:00
Yeah, people get lost in their work for different reasons. And sometimes it's to avoid the inevitable loneliness of going
1:21:05
home or knowing there's going to be another fight when you get home that you don't want to deal with or some other
1:21:11
thing that's far more depressing than your job. I like getting lost in my work because it's less time for me to have straying
1:21:18
thoughts when I'm focused on something in front of me. We continue on to what looks like
1:21:23
another house we might be able to check out, but the environment changes around us to one of a babbling brook and a long
1:21:29
line of mailboxes that are going to be back to back more than they have been. So, consider this the home stretch
1:21:36
section where we'll be reading the letters one after another as they're served to us.
1:21:41
I believe there are 12 more letters to go. The first reads, "If I could see my parents again, I would. We had a great
1:21:48
set, didn't we?" Well, you hear all the stories, but we got a good lot.
1:21:54
Sometimes we'd get mad when they wouldn't let us climb that tree anymore, or allow us to get a learner's permit
1:21:59
when it changed to age 15, or not allow us to eat the whole cake in one sitting.
1:22:05
But they taught us right from wrong, like every generation does to the next. This one made me a little emotional. I
1:22:12
have some of the best parents myself. I mean, they never kicked me out of the house. They always accepted my brother
1:22:18
coming home when he had a rough night. They always joke about stuff. But there's always the times when you're
1:22:24
going to get mad at them over stupid crap. Then the regret kind of kicks in because the anger overshadows the better
1:22:30
times due to depression getting in the way of what you should really be thinking about. I'm glad I still had
1:22:36
them around. And though I try to skirt around the truth of they won't be here forever.
1:22:41
The next mailbox is across the water. I loved school up until grade 10, then
1:22:47
grade 11 and 12. I think I heard that bully is now a flight attendant. How
1:22:52
ironic. Now he must put a smile on his face and withstand complaints from others. Anyway, we had some great
1:22:58
teachers over the years. Remember Mr. Warola and Miss Brownstone? They were so
1:23:03
supportive. and that extra time we when we didn't understand stuff, they didn't have to do that. My favorite classes and
1:23:11
teachers were in 10 to 12, I think. In one of our classes, we could buy candy before class started and puppy chow,
1:23:18
maybe some other goodies. Our teacher had a soft, slow voice that could easily put everyone to sleep. One of my English
1:23:25
teachers would read my writing and make comments on it, so that was fun. I enjoyed a lot of the teachers, even
1:23:31
though some of the classes weren't my strong suit. I went to a vocational school for a couple years to learn art
1:23:37
design. Moving on to the third mailbox, you get to see a plane in the sky, which is
1:23:43
terrifying because it's aimed downward on a crash course for Earth. We had many friends throughout the
1:23:49
years, the ones in the apartment building, the neighbors, and at school. I hope you looked at some of the old
1:23:55
bunch and let them know what happened to me. Maybe reconnect. I'll bet you have nothing in common, but at least you'll
1:24:01
have something to talk about, right? Talk about me. Look for my address book. You'll find all the contacts you need in
1:24:07
there. Wouldn't it be a little weird to reconnect with past friends you haven't talked to just to bring up your brother
1:24:13
that passed away? I mean, I get that they were his friend, too, but it just seems like a weird thing to bring up,
1:24:20
unless they ask about him specifically. It would be fun to go out somewhere with everyone and do a celebration of life
1:24:27
for Jim. Fourth mailbox. Our relatives were on the other side of
1:24:33
the continent. I remember only two trips to the west coast and maybe a half dozen
1:24:38
relatives visit us over the years. I still remember our grandparents. I'm glad I had a close immediate family as
1:24:45
we never saw anyone else. Anyway, I'll bet you saw them all last month, right?
1:24:50
A big family reunion. I wish I had been there. This is kind of weird because it makes
1:24:56
me think Jim knew almost exactly when he'd be passing. Was his health that bad
1:25:01
that the doctors or even he himself could predict the month he'd pass away in? Because what he wrote here means
1:25:07
we'd read it at least a month after his passing. I'm not sure. It's just a little odd to know something like this
1:25:14
and be so sure of it. Fifth mailbox. We had a lot of pets over the years. Dogs,
1:25:20
cats, rats, and rabbits. But I'll always remember Fluffy the best. He was so big and floofy and acted more like a dog
1:25:28
than any dog I've ever known. He used to sleep on my bed at night even though dad
1:25:33
said he shouldn't be there as my asthma would act up. But then I'd secretly open
1:25:38
the door in the middle of the night and then he'd come. My Doberman Athena was my baby and the one dog I'll always have
1:25:44
good memories of despite us having gone through a lot of dogs. My mom's favorite
1:25:49
was Pordon, her Cavalere King Charles Spaniel. I always thought he'd looked kind of dopey and dumb. I know it's
1:25:56
mean. As far as cats go, S'mores is everyone's favorite because she's a
1:26:02
crazy cat that we got as a feral kitty. She doesn't meow, but sort of chirps. My
1:26:07
dad says her mom forgot to teach her how to meow. She's got a foot fetish, too. You'll be sitting there and she'll sauna
1:26:13
over and just grab your foot and start attacking it out of nowhere. If you try to push her away, she'll jump at you.
1:26:19
Such a helien. But she's adorable. Walking toward our next mailbox, we see
1:26:25
Fluffy looking down at us from above. And now we know what a mouse feels like when a cat traps them in a corner. It's
1:26:32
terrifying. Looking back, if you ask me which memory I'd like to live again, I'd say the
1:26:38
first winter in the new house. The one when we built a snowman. And the craziest was canoeing in the rain.
1:26:45
Communing with nature has always been my favorite. Not that I think. What makes the world so beautiful is the wealth of
1:26:51
the nature. I don't even know what memory I'd want to go back to. Something
1:26:56
that had me and my parents in it. I'm not sure if it would have been our fishing trip, though. Probably not since
1:27:02
I didn't feel well during it, or the train vacation. I think I'd pick the train vacation
1:27:08
because it was a once in a-lifetime event and we had so much fun with it and our tour guide Jesse was great. The next
1:27:15
mailbox reads, "I can never learn how to approach ones like Charlene. I guess they get eliminated by unnatural
1:27:21
selection. In fact, sooner or later, you see that everyone has a match. The deal is to find the one." I hope that
1:27:28
Charlene has. Maybe everyone does have a specific match out there for them, but sometimes
1:27:34
one has to work on their attitude first in order for it to click. Otherwise, you're just stuck within a riptide of
1:27:40
turbulent emotions and sometimes can't get out. Plus, you have to actively get out for the match to connect with you.
1:27:47
Someone like me probably won't find their match because I'm too busy staying inside and working on podcasts and reviews and games to bother with finding
1:27:54
a special someone. The idea of being interrupted when I'm working bothers me.
1:28:00
The next mailbox, leaving four more left. People's imaginations leads to
1:28:06
such comedies. A huge bear has gotten into the jeep and is seriously driving it, parking and stuff. But the real
1:28:12
comedy is the fact of how short life is and that the people ignore it or don't even notice. And where I am now,
1:28:19
everyone boggles at it. And where exactly is he right now at the time of writing that letter curious?
1:28:27
I don't really have anything more to say about it, but yeah, the imagination of people knows no bounds, as suggested by
1:28:33
many games, especially like something like Date Everything. Walk away from this mailbox and there's
1:28:39
a bear roaring at us from the heavens. So much for being comedic.
1:28:45
The next mailbox states, "I'll give you a secret, but keep it well. From here,
1:28:50
we also see the future of the living. Some of us can even interfere with it. You've been granted a wonderful life, a
1:28:57
very long life, full of health and peace, and this is upon you. I hope you get the most out of it. One part of me
1:29:04
wants to say that Jim is under some kind of delusion, but this is a video game, and there's a chance that maybe Jim has
1:29:11
written these letters while he's in the better place he spoke of in a previous letter. Maybe it's open to
1:29:16
interpretation. Maybe it's not even for us to judge, but to accept that he's right, and we're
1:29:21
going to live a long and happy life. Heck, maybe that's all it takes to live the perfect life. To believe it'll be
1:29:28
just that. Our next letter reads, "I can't say much
1:29:33
for the world. Everyone is in a different place. What works here won't work there. Basically, mind your own
1:29:39
business. Change what you can. Fight for what you can. Don't fight if it's not worth fighting for. Rinse and repeat.
1:29:47
Don't read the news. Turn off your devices." Particularly when you're with loved ones. And this is coming from a
1:29:53
computer programmer. Oh, and vote. That's a big one.
1:29:58
I feel like that last suggestion was coming from the game dev himself because it's a bit silly to tag on, but I mean,
1:30:05
he's right on all accounts. Mind your business. Do what you got to do and what you want to do, and just keep reaching
1:30:10
for what you want in life. The news does suck. And I'm particularly bad at
1:30:16
putting down an electronic device, even when I'm with my parents. It's just a force of habit to keep myself busy. A
1:30:23
bad habit, mind you. Getting closer to the end with the next mailbox letter. I've enjoyed my life and
1:30:30
my life with my family and particularly my big brother Paul has been quite the learning experience. Sometimes it's been
1:30:37
fabulous. Sometimes frustrating. Sometimes painful like when Susie turned me down for prom night.
1:30:45
I'm also happy and proud to have my lived my life. And look at this cool game I made. I'll bet you couldn't have
1:30:51
done that. Oh, just kidding. You can if you set your mind to it. And there we
1:30:56
have it. This is all the game that Jim had created for his big brother Paul to play. But I wonder when we were actually
1:31:02
supposed to play it. Like if there was a certain time after Jim's death that we were allowed to, or if even we knew
1:31:09
about the game before Jim's passing. Maybe he kept it a secret the entire time until he's no longer here.
1:31:15
I'm also wondering if there's going to be another game that Paul makes now, as the last sentence may have hinted at.
1:31:22
And now we're at the final mailbox and the last letter. It's best not to look too much into the
1:31:28
past. Look at me. I'm now where I can't park the Jeep anymore. Live in the
1:31:34
present and plan for the future. Look forward to the future. Remember what I said in a past letter. Sometimes there's
1:31:41
nothing you can do. If you have faith, practice it. Be kind to people, my brother Paul. Now, if you don't mind,
1:31:48
Fluffy wants some treats. So, I'm going to go find his treat bag. Jim the Stinky
1:31:53
Bundle. I think that last part was him signing off to a previous letter where he talked about Paul saying he was a
1:31:59
stinky bundle as a baby, which is kind of a gross but endearing way to end the final letter of a game. It's also kind
1:32:05
of upsetting that this is it. This is all we're getting from Jim because he's gone and there's nothing we can do about
1:32:11
it. So, we just have to move forward and cherish what we have of the people we no longer have.
1:32:17
With that being said, we do continue forward to the hill that was talked about where we spent the last day with Jim watching fireworks. And there's a
1:32:24
scene with a small amount of voice acting to it. It was cool to have Jim. Not everyone
1:32:31
has the opportunity to have a brother or even a wonderful brother. For just a while, I've been respected and loved by
1:32:38
a wonderful young man. It's definitely cool not only having a good brother, but one who watches out for you, turns an
1:32:45
eye when you go wrong, and believes that small moments are precious for memories.
1:32:53
I am truly the stronger person because I know I can't change destiny. I'm the person who doesn't place blame at the
1:33:00
hands of others. I've accepted my life and my choices. My type of people are
1:33:06
also happier. They take information with a grain of sand. If it's pertinent to
1:33:11
them, great. If not, they move on. Perhaps I believe some greater force
1:33:16
controls my life. Those letters are a treasure to own. I
1:33:22
may have letters from when Jim was alive, but these letters have revealed more information to me about his life
1:33:28
and our lives together. I'm so glad he took the time to create those mailboxes and stuff them with his new letters.
1:33:35
And now let's take a moment to get through the credit scene before we jump back into the jeep for the final level.
1:34:41
All right, we've landed on level 45 of the Driver's Ed course, the one that Jim had trouble completing. So, let's get
1:34:48
into what we're in for. First off, I had three deaths. The first one was because
1:34:54
I didn't properly jump over a red line. The second was because of a stupid deer.
1:34:59
And the third one was once again from the jump that I couldn't quite do correctly. It's a course with a lot of
1:35:05
things going on in it, including jumps, stop portions, invisibility fields, speed orbs, have the ability to screw
1:35:11
you over, and about three deer in a row to ram into your car if you're not paying attention. I wouldn't say it was
1:35:17
a tough course. You just have to have your wits about you. And that's the end of our podcast review
1:35:23
of Little Brother Jim. And what a long fun podcast it's been. I'm happy I did
1:35:29
it with this game, despite it being a not well-known walking simulator. It's got a lot of letters in it that I was
1:35:35
able to talk about and give my own little stories on in regards to my life. I know a lot of people didn't appreciate
1:35:40
the driving portion that it felt like an entirely different game, and I understand that, but I also understand
1:35:46
why it was implemented because it was Jim's favorite game. And this is a game about him, not you.
1:35:54
But yeah, I gave this game three stars just because the driving portion can be a bit hectic on people who would have
1:35:59
liked a simple cozy game, but mainly because of the script of the letters. It's one of the main aspects of the
1:36:05
game, the core of it even, but it's just too hard to read at times. Other than
1:36:10
that, a pretty solid game with a nice soundtrack to listen to. Thanks for watching, everyone, and don't get in too
1:36:17
much trouble when you say, "Not now, Mom. I'm gaming.
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