I still remember when I was in junior high school, I saved up three days of breakfast money just to go to the mysterious stall at the school gate to exchange for a yellow-shell GBA cassette. The boss mysteriously took out a card with a crooked sticker from the tin box, and whispered: "This "Ace Ace Attorney" is in Chinese, it's so fun!" When I got home and plugged in the phone, it showed "64 in 1" when I turned it on. I looked at it, my dear, it was full of reskinned versions of Tetris and Snake... The pirated cassettes at that time were like unboxing blind boxes. You never know whether you will be surprised or dumbfounded after turning on the phone.
Now, I have "Unhappy Painting" installed on my phone, and I feel happy as soon as I open it - this familiar smell, isn't it the spiritual sequel to those "brain teaser" mini-games in the pirated cards back then? Each level gives you a picture of a scene with missing arms and legs. You can use your fingers to fill in a stroke on the screen to make the picture complete. For example, draw a wheel for a bicycle that is missing a wheel, or add a tail to a cat without a tail. After drawing it, it really starts to move! At that moment, I almost turned my phone sideways and shouted "START"😆
To be honest, this game feels much more friendly to me than the "Spot the Difference" game in those pirated collections back then. No need to worry about freezing, no need to worry about garbled characters, and no need to worry about losing the archive and starting over. Each level is a small comic strip, draw a line and laugh, puzzle solving and graffiti are mixed together, it is particularly exciting. While I was playing, I said to my wife: "Look, back in the day, this would have been engraved on one of those '500-in-1' pirated cards, and the name would have been changed to 'Genius Painter' or 'One-stroke God'." She rolled her eyes at me, but I felt happy, as my youth seemed to be back.
Of course, now that you play genuine mobile games, you no longer have to worry about inserting the cassette and burning the machine, and you no longer have to guess at the all-English menu. The operation of "Painting is Unhappy" has zero threshold. Your fingers are the brushes and your brain is the strategy. Even though I am in my 40s, I was still stuck for two minutes by "Drawing a Missing Nose". Do you think it's irritating or not 😂
If the pirated cassettes of those years were like the roses with thorns in childhood, then "Unhappy Painting" is like the cup of warm honey water in your mobile phone. It is sweet but not greasy. You can pick it up and take a sip at any time. Let's not get hung up on the phrase “I wish I had the original version back then”, because now I'm lucky if I can have fun and enjoy it.
Anyway, I have been painting during my lunch break recently. When my boss passed by and asked me if I was doing a PPT art draft... I smiled and said, "Yes, I am painting a perfect youth."🧡