Tilting at Pixels

Trevor's Top Ten Games of 2025

Trevor — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Screw the preamble and The Man as we jump right into number ten.

10. UNBEATABLE

UNBEATABLE is a raw, powerful mess.

A rhythm game seven years in the making, UNBEATABLE is artistic splendor made manifest. Its style is frantic, aggressive, in your face and downright rebellious. It’s all in service of a story with something to say, a story of grief and self-actualization. A story about finding the strength to hang on to what matters when it feels like the whole world just wants to beat you into the pavement.

UNBEATABLE is the story of Beat, Quaver, Treble, and Clef, members of a renegade punk band in a world where music is illegal. Each chapter covers a different era in their journey as the game bounces between variations on rhythm games, from DDR style up-down telegraphs, to a day at the batting cages.

Swing batta batta.

These sequences are especially impressive when they’re scrambled up, or reintroduced with a twist in future chapters. I admit, they don’t always quite land; some events don’t have the same level of polish or execution, especially any section where you tap as a faint white circle appears. But, when these set pieces come together, it’s nothing short of magic.

When I realized this capstone scene to chapter one was a playable sequence and not a cutscene I nearly dropped the controller. Skill issue on my part.

You might be wondering why, with such lofty praise, UNBEATABLE only ranks in at number ten. The answer is messes cut both ways. A lack of refinement is endearing, especially in a game about beauty in the rough edges of creation, but these edges get too rough; cutscenes start and stop with an abrupt punch, characters sometimes speak too fast, too slow, interrupt each other in odd places, or maybe even don’t speak at all. On several occasions I kept waiting for the next line in a cutscene that never came. Typically these were solved with a simple checkpoint restart, but on several occasions the game needed a full quit to unstick. Sometimes mess is endearing, but as you’re barreling towards the end of an emotional roller coaster, this jank brutally undercuts otherwise heartrending events. It’s a real shame, because quite frankly, no other game on the list made me feel such raw emotion.

UNBEATABLE helped me find the inner teenager I thought I’d lost, even with some intermittent jank. Maybe even because of it. The young punk with a chip on his shoulder is still in there, yearning to prove a hostile world wrong.

9. Dynasty Warriors: Origins

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Dynasty Warriors would make my top ten list ever. I certainly enjoyed the series back in like 2005, but every time I dipped my toes back in, it didn’t seem like the series had evolved past the Playstation 2 era. Origins marked a huge shakeup to the series, losing the giant ninety-minute battles for more small-scale engagements, and also drops selecting the historical murderfest general of your choice for a new protagonist.

Don’t worry, all your favorites are still playable via a tag team system.

As Ziluan, you’ll befriend just about every major figure from the Han Dynasty before it inevitably splits into three warring factions. From there, it's up to you to decide which Kingdom deserves the throne as the future ruler of China. The world map in particular makes an unexpectedly big difference — all the iconic battles are here again, but the topographic map illustrates why each one was so important. You get a much better sense of what sea routes were at stake, or why retreat wasn’t an option.

In changing up the formula, Origins also manages to tell much more personal stories that better represent the source material. In old Dynasty Warriors games, major events fly by in a blink. The famous generals say some whacky shit, challenge you to battle, then you kill them and move on. In Origins, you get a much deeper sense of who these people are, what they wanted, and what drove them towards conflict. In fact, you’ll get to know all the major generals intimately before the real bloodbaths begin.

Arguably too intimately.

In all the ways that matter, Origins feels like Dynasty Warriors is finally what it always wanted to be.

8. Battle Suit Aces

You know how long I been waitin’ for this?

Back in 2017, I fell in love with a little game from Trinket Studios called Battle Chef Brigade, a strange little mix of Nickelodeon cartoon, monster hunting, and bejeweled. I eagerly awaited their next project... And waited. And waited. And finally, in 2025, we got Battle Suit Aces. What we got is not at all what I expected, but still worth the wait.

Much like Battle Chef Brigade, Battle Suit Aces adopts a cartoonish style, evocative of Avatar: The Last Airbender or perhaps more apt, Voltron. The plot, however, is more akin to something like Gundam Wing — ends up the galaxy is full of various factions, all with access to giant robots. Your particular faction, The Patchworks, is tasked to research and eliminate a new intergalactic threat. The Frenzied are popping up in every corner of the galaxy, and your crew is on the hunt for wherever they may appear.

And you eliminate Frenzied by — wait. Take a guess. What’s the genre on display? Lock in an answer. Okay.

Did you land on... Card battles?

Yeah, every battle in Battle Suit Aces is basically a short Magic: The Gathering showdown. Each of your pilots has unique abilities and stats, which won’t be very impressive at the start, but build up as the game continues. Each time you meet a new faction, you’ll also get opportunities to add their pilots to your lineup. The trick, of course, is to create a deck full of symbiotic cards that pack a wallop when everything falls into place. There’s also plenty of card-related puzzles to solve, where you’ll be presented with a seemingly hopeless situation, but there’s one way out to deduce using a pre-determined deck.

The narrative itself meanwhile, is surprisingly robust — and the best parts are curiously optional. Between battles you’ll have the opportunity to mingle with your crew, learn all their goals and ambitions, and of course, watch some dopey cartoony antics unfold. After that and a little tinkering with your cards, it’s off to the next mission.

Yes, there are romance options if that’s what you’re into, you godless heathens.

If you have even a passing interest in card games and deck builders, this one is a must.

7. Ghost of Yotei

Ghost of Yotei had huge shoes to fill. Ghost of Tsushima is still perhaps the closest thing to a competent, hollywood-level video game script. Couple that with a shockingly organic open world and breakneck action, and by God, you’ve got yourself a hit.

Yotei retains some of what made Tsushima sing, but does choose to abandon the more grounded historical backdrop for a traditional revenge plot. The game opens with a flashback to our protagonist Atsu’s childhood, as her family is murdered by a gang known as the Yotei Six. Many years later, Atsu returns to Ezo (now known as Hokkaido in the modern day) to hunt them down. It certainly lacks the depth of Tsushima’s narrative, but you know what? I’m a sucker for revenge stories.

The Yotei Six, who you will see in frequent flashbacks.

Mechanically, Atsu loses Jin’s katana stances for a whole arsenal instead. By the end of the game she’s rolling around northern Japan with a spear, twin katanas, a kusarigama, and even a freakin’ odachi. That’s not even to speak of other classic techniques, like pocket sand or firebombs. Atsu gets arrows too, but they’re practically an afterthought once you’ve assembled the rest of your murder implements.

By the end of the game, Atsu carries a whole weapon shop on her back.

While Yotei largely delivered more of the same, what lands it high on the list is atmosphere. What Sucker Punch lost in historical accuracy, it gained in artistic design. So much of Yotei feels like running through a living painting. The action is fun and rewarding, but it isn’t what I remember. What I remember is casually strolling through a field of white lilies on a horse while Atsu strums the shamisen. I remember galloping across an open field only for an entire herd of horses to join in. And I remember hiding out in an Inn while Lord Saito’s soldiers interrogate the locals as to my whereabouts, a disaster brought about not by some quest, but simply organic happenstance.

When stealth fails, it’s nothing a spear can’t fix.

Yotei may have not done much to change up an established formula, but the immaculate, striking design invites you to stay a while, strum a shamisen, and enjoy the journey.

6. No, I’m Not Human

The only horror game to make the list this year, No, I’m not Human places you in the safety of your own home as the world outside falls apart. This apocalypse is brought to you by The Visitors, an alien race capable of appearing human. They walk among us, talk like us, even act like us, but it is all just a ruse to bide time until they eat us in our sleep.

Each day, survivors come to your door, begging for shelter. And each day, you’ll have to choose if you’ll provide that shelter, running the risk every time you might be letting a fox into the hen house. In the game’s cruelest twist, you aren’t the one who pays the blood price — the other survivors are. And until you weed out whoever amongst you isn’t human, it happens every night, again and again, until there’s no one left to eat but you.

No, I’m Not Human stews in a pervasive tension. It always feels like you have just enough to get by, all while painfully limited in your available actions per day. The objective is simply to survive however many days it takes for the nightmare to end, but once a Visitor sneaks in and begins a nightly feast, survival quickly feels beyond reach.

You’ll scrutinize everyone’s behavior, and depending on what you see on the news, maybe even their ears.

A playthrough of No, I’m Not Human only takes a few hours to complete, but there’s a surprising amount of permutations to experience. With ten endings to see currently, some of which are downright esoteric to achieve, this one will require multiple attempts. Heck, it took me a few tries to survive at all.

5. Hades 2

Considering how many hours I poured into Hades 2, it’s surprising it ranked so low. Even now, as I hit publication, it feels wrong... And yet, when I look at what awaits, I simply must call it where it lies.

Mechanically, Hades 2 is a tremendous improvement on the first Hades. Our protagonist, Melinoë, has a new arsenal, new powers, new foes, new friends, and even some new Gods in her corner. Her story also represents an escalation in stakes. Where Zagreus simply wanted to see the surface, Melinoë must instead descend to the depths of Hades for a single task: Kill Chronos, who’s usurped Hades' Throne.

One of Melinoe’s new weapons is basically a mech suit.

It isn’t long until another path presents itself, one up to Mount Olympus itself where the other Gods are locked in an eternal battle with Chronos’s forces. There’s essentially an entire other game to experience up there, with a whole new lineup of bosses and allies. The structure of each route is quite unique, which makes for a great change of pace. Much like the original, your runs are interspliced with bite-sized interactions amongst whichever friends are hanging out in the Grove.

New characters means new boons and buffs.

And while I will sing praises for Hades 2 all day when it comes to mechanics, structure, creative weapon choices and the like, you will find much less praise for the narrative this time around. It is easily the most unsatisfying conclusion to any game on the list, so much so it actually killed my enthusiasm to keep playing after the credits. Supergiant has since patched the ending, so if you are somehow just now hearing about Hades 2 from me, hopefully you’ll have a better experience.

Chronos will taunt you for every failure, above or below.

Despite my frustrations with the conclusion, Hades 2 makes for a strong follow-up to Supergiant’s previous smash hit, and their continued support suggests latecomers will get a more satisfying experience overall. While you all have fun with that, I’ll place it here in the fifth spot.

4. Dispatch

Easily the biggest last minute shakeup to the list, Dispatch quickly ascended the charts. Dispatch is an episodic super hero story, with some obvious Telltale history in its DNA. Hey, remember how every Telltale episode took months or years to release? So did AdHoc, and they didn’t like it either. Dispatch’s entire season came out only a week apart, just like a TV show (before the days when streaming services dumped ten episodes at once in your lap, anyway). With that news alone, things were off to a strong start.

Where to start with what’s to love here? First off, you have a stellar voice cast, with Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as the leading man, Robert Robertson. Almost anyone who’s appeared on the world’s number one D&D podcast, Critical Role, is here as well, playing the endless cast of freaky superheroes and villains. Second, this all star cast has easily the funniest script of the year as their material. There’s just so many S-tier zingers and abrupt, comedic slapstick.

Invisigal has about half the peak zingers.

Like the episodic Teltale games of the old regime, most of Dispatch comes down to making a series of binary choices — but unlike Telltale games, you’ll notice I said “mostly.” Dispatch is effectively split into two halves; the major story beats, and your daily routine as an eponymous hero dispatcher. A disgraced former superhero known as Mecha Man, Robert Robertson now sits behind a desk helping lead the Z-Team at SDN to victory. Each shift you’ll be presented with a problem, and it’s up to you to assign the right heroes for each task. The Z-Teamers are, of course, the worst crew at SDN, assembled from all former villains looking for redemption. It’s a big uphill battle to mold them into a proper team, but by the end, they’re a loveable band of misfits.

Assigning the best people to a task isn’t always possible, so sometimes you gotta send the B-team of the Z-team and pray.

If you choose to take on the role of a dispatcher, you’ve got some hard choices ahead of you. Good luck navigating a love life full of superheroes.

3. Absolum

Back when 2025 started, I thought for sure Marvel: Cosmic Invasion would steal a spot on this list. Beat ‘em ups win me over with ease, one seems to make every list. While Cosmic Invasion is extremely good and I would recommend it, Absolum took it a step beyond. It set a new standard in what I even think a modern beat 'em up can be.

Absolum introduces you to a cast of Dollar Store Dungeons & Dragons characters, as well as its own pantheon of deities known as Root Sisters. There are four playable characters in total — a gruff dwarf, a blue elven swordmaiden, a frog wizard, and a clockwork automaton. A motley crew that would fit right at home on a Saturday Morning Cartoon in the 90s. The four of them are the last hope to unseat the despotic warlord, Azra.

You’ve only got four characters to pick from, but their movesets are diverse enough to justify a limited roster.

Roguelikes are in, and while there’s been a few beat ‘em up experiments with roguelike mechanics, Absolum nails the concept beyond comparison. Each run, you’ve got multiple paths to take. After each segment, you’ll pick an elemental upgrade to one of your abilities. Like any good rougelike, once you get a good combination going, you become a living wrecking ball. The right choices turn you into a walking lightning storm, or grant you an endless spectral skeleton army.

Keeping in line with modern roguelike sensibilities, there’s always minor adjustments and upgrades to make at your home between runs. Here, the characters occasionally interact and reveal something about their place in the world. You’ll learn new moves, new arcana, increase stats — all the good stuff to make the next run smoother.

There’s many secret paths and locales to find on your journey to unseat Azra.

The world building, character designs, and upgrades are all well and good, but we’ve seen those before. Where Absolum carves out a niche is how it reinvents the beat ‘em up with more mechanical depth. You have a dodge button, which can be used to backstep, or shift into the foreground and background. Or, you can even dodge towards an enemy at the right time to parry. Or, you can time a heavy swing to collide with a foe’s for a big clash. This makes it possible to completely decimate fights once you solve a pattern. Likewise, there’s another skill ceiling to explore in combo construction, in mastering all the ways to use abilities and spells to endlessly juggle a weakened foe.

Absolum is one of those games where just when I thought I’d seen it all, there was always one more surprise around the corner. More on that in the bonus awards section.

2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

What is there I could possibly say about The Game Awards Sweeper that hasn’t already been said? I’ll do my best, but in this case, I’ll start by saying sometimes the masses are right.

In the first hour alone, I was struck by a realization; Expedition 33’s setting is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It pokes at the edges of eldritch horror, or the fringe of a post-apocalyptic tale, but never takes form in those well-trodden paths. Instead, the image it takes is one of The Paintress. Somewhere, off on the horizon, she draws a number in the sky every year. Anyone that age immediately withers into rose petals like a graceful Thanos snap. And next year, the number counts down again. As the title suggests, the number hits 33 as the action begins.

Expedition 33 gets off to a rocky start when just about the entire landing party dies in the blink of an eye. The game follows a handful of hearty survivors who venture into a world unknown, all who know they may not live to see the end, but still strive to pave the way for those who come after. It’s a theme so inherent, the leading man Gustave repeats it ad nauseum during fights.

The mystery of The Paintress is only the first step to a larger puzzle, one best left to your own discovery.

Mechanically, anyone who longed for another Legend of Dragoon or Super Mario RPG had to be delighted. While Expedition 33 plays like a turn-based RPG, there’s plenty of active mechanics to put your reactions to the test. Attacks have different button timings to maximize damage, not unlike the previously mentioned titles, but that’s the least of the DNA borrowed. When a foe attacks, it’s on you to dodge, parry, or jump appropriately. Dodge has a more merciful window, while parry requires perfect timing and nets a free counterattack if executed perfectly. Likewise, jump is only called for against larger enemies, but also nets a counterattack. These mechanics reward a player’s mastery, and to some extent, their willingness to lose. Each loss is another opportunity to improve, learn the timings, and eventually decimate any boss.

You must parry every hit in a combination to land a counter, but the reward is massive.

The lineup of characters is limited, but there’s a world of depth in each one alone. Sandfall did an excellent job carving out a unique identity for all the surviving expeditioners. Maelle shifts stances with each stab, Lune acquires elemental chroma she then expends for stronger effects, Gustave’s strikes power up his mechanical arm, and Sciel uses card skills to build stacks and deal massive damage. As each character levels up, they gain skills that expand upon these simple goals. With only six skill slots, the real trick is putting together the right combination of moves to cause explosive chain reactions.

If you were to ask me why everyone latched onto Expedition 33, I’d say it comes down to the alluring, contradictory world; Sandfall crafted a beautiful, mysterious setting, but the beauty is dangerous, and equally unfair. And when a group of inspiring, kind people are trapped in such a heartless world, you can’t help but strive for victory.

1. Blue Prince

While it feels like most games trust players less and less each year, Blue Prince stands in defiance. It believes in your natural curiosity and deduction skills and hands you a mystery box, content in the belief you'll seek to solve it.

Simon P. Jones is the sole inheritor of the Mt. Holly Estate, an ever-shifting mansion overlooking the fictional nation of Fenn Aries. However, his uncle’s will has two stipulations — in order for Simon to claim his inheritance, he must find the mansion’s secret 46th room, and he also cannot sleep in the mansion overnight. So every morning, Simon sets foot in a new Mt. Holly, to continue the hunt for the elusive antechamber.

The game’s title is both a hint, a pun, and thematically appropriate. Each day, Simon opens the door to his future estate and builds out the rooms via a selection of three blueprints. This means you effectively build the mansion as you go, creating the layout. Some rooms are merely hallways or garden alcoves, but the vast majority contain a mystery. Sometimes the mystery is obvious, like a multi-colored dart board or a series of boxes with if/then statements to puzzle out. Others require a perfect combination of items and adjoining rooms to solve, and half the time, there are puzzles you won't even know are puzzles into until later.

Where Blue Prince ascends to the #1 spot is when a similar realization takes hold — the mansion itself is the puzzle. All the seemingly disconnected decor serves a larger purpose, but it’s impossible to see the bigger picture at the onset. As the mysteries fall back, each one reveals a new, larger layer to uncover. And what’s really fascinating is the way the game is designed, every player will arrive at these revelations in a completely different order; no one seems to have taken the same path to discovery.

Even after the credits roll, the questions persist — and to my surprise, they are discoverable. What I first thought to be sequel bait had answers deep within, beyond the surface. For those curious about the world itself, there’s a surprisingly robust environmental story to uncover after the credits, one of political intrigue, rebellion, sigils, and colors.

If you have a feeling the seemingly useless items in this storage room are important, that’s a good instinct.

Plenty of games on the list this year had profound stories and original ideas. What sets Blue Prince above them all is the design itself; Blue Prince sets you loose with no direction into a giant sandbox, and puts the onus on you to uncover the rest. Pulling this off in a way that would still be satisfying, where it’s always possible to progress, where one reveal does not ruin or spoil a later one despite the freeform nature, is nothing short of a miracle.

Bonus Awards

A feature returning from last year, Bonus Awards are like getting a Bonus Star in Mario Party when you're already down by five. They're not enough to win, but I still always like to highlight other overlooked titles throughout the year — for positive or negative reasons. Speaking of which, let's start with...

Coolest Flop (Formerly “Best Game No One Played”)

Rematch

At the time of writing, Rematch has about 4,000 players on Steam. Considering the all time high was 42,000, things look grim for the future of Rematch, and that’s a shame.

Sloclap tried something remarkably different coming hot off the heels of Sifu, and took their penchant for tight kung fu action onto the pitch for soccer. The result is a soccer game with simple, accessible controls, but a tremendously high skill ceiling. In both presentation and mechanical depth, it is unlike any other sports game I’ve played, and mercifully free of the ancient design decisions of the annual FIFA entry.

Best Low Budget Indie Surprise

Silly Polly Beast

Silly Polly Beast is what I live for. It’s messy and unrefined, but there’s heart behind the cracks.

Silly Polly Beast kicks off with our protagonist waiting in a park for their friend Alice. You can tell they’ve done something big and dangerous, whatever it is. The cops are on the hunt, and Polly makes an effort to keep a low profile. When Polly ends up falling into a hellish abyss, the story takes a wild turn and never stops until the end.

The game itself is shockingly difficult — combat is fast, frenetic, and over in seconds. Ammo is limited, and while there’s always a fresh round of ammo to collect somewhere on the map, it requires navigating around aggressive hordes to collect. If you decide to check this one out, be aware you’re gonna die. A lot.

Yes, you will eventually ride that melee skateboard too.

In the end, the pain (both in terms of difficulty and occasional bugs) was worth the reward. The story is on par with all the surreal creativity of Silent Hill or Signalis, which is about the highest praise I can bestow upon any title under twenty dollars.

The “Wtf That Came Out This Year?” Award

Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution

Back in 2002, WayForward was hard at work on a new Shantae game for the Gameboy Advance. Two years later, WayForward was unable to find a publisher for their (mostly) complete game. With the GBA seemingly on the way out anyway, they made the difficult decision to set Risky Revolution aside and start on the next project instead.

In 2025, Limited Run Games helped fund the development and release of Risky Revolution, more than twenty years later. And the result is actually... Kinda great? It absolutely feels like playing a game dug out of a time capsule — the colors are bright and vibrant in a way only the collective optimism at the turn of the millennium could produce.

In what is perhaps the most tragic twist in this twenty-year affair, I’m inclined to mention this game feels more lively and fully formed than the most recenty entry, Shantae And The Seven Sirens.

Best New Deltarune Boss Theme

It’s TV Time!

Toby Fox creates the catchiest earworms, just song after song that infects my brain and plays on loop up there forever. It’s TV Time! is a phenomenal track that brings home a whole chapter spent sparring with your own television set, now made sentient. The frenetic song morphs between daytime TV game show jingle and charged sports anthem in equal measure, as you’re juggled from mini-game to mini-game in the final showdown.

It’s TV Time! wins this one not only for a stellar themed composition, but also for matching the ratcheting tension and frantic pace of this chapter’s penultimate encounter.

Game I Wanted to Dunk On and Instead Found Myself Reminded There is Good in the Strangest Places

Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Originally, I wanted to title this the “Straight to the Glue Factory” award. What the hell happened in June? These horse girls took over the world. Tempting though it is to dunk on this game of anthropomorphic racing horses, I find myself instead moved by the kindness of horse simps. Believe it or not, this game had a measurable positive impact on the lives of real retired race horses, who received donations by the bushel from fans for their upkeep.

On a totally unrelated note, have you considered creating a waifu mascot for your local volunteer fire department?

Best Revival of a Gaming Boomer Franchise

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Now this is a Ninja Gaiden game, baby. Ragebound harkens back to the old school, hard-as-nails NES titles, and it sticks the landing unbelievably well. The inclusion of Kumori and her Kunai bring about devious 2D platforming (though from what Silksong players tell me, it's far from the most devious platforming this year).

Worst Revival of a Gaming Boomer Franchise

Double Dragon: Revive

Okay, the title is ironic on this one, yes.

The warning signs were in the air early on this one. The original Double Dragon artist Koji Ogata left an early demo... Well, unimpressed would be an understatement. He had this to say.

I’ll be honest! No one from Technos acknowledges this as a Double Dragon game. [It's] a super cheap, modern-style game that shows no respect for Double Dragon.

My own feelings aren’t as strong as his, mind you, but in a year of extremely good beat ‘em ups, Revive comes up painfully short and forgettable. There’s very little progression, and your basic punches don’t feel like they have much of an impact at all. I find it particularly offensive that Double Dragon: Revive thinks it's impressing anyone with a “punch enemies into the background” mechanic, a feature Batman Returns already did on the Sega CD/Genesis and SNES in 1992. Heck, Turtles in Time even let me throw Foot Soldiers into the foreground.

Biggest Release I Didn’t Play

Hollow Knight: Silksong

While tempting, listen — I’m deep into fighting games over here. The only way I could handle Silksong too is to stop playing everything else. Happy for all of you the day finally arrived, but I’ll get around to this one another time.

Pit of the Year Award

Ball X Pit

If you ever thought the classic arcade game Breakout could use some Vampire Survivor mechanics, have I got the game for you. Somehow this game about ball-breaking an army of square minions also contains base building and upgrade mechanics, and a bevy of unlockable ball launching playable characters.

CloverPit, a Roguelike slot machine game, certainly put up a good fight in this category, but in the end, Ball X Pit was the more robust package.

Best Survivor Clone

Bermuda Survivor

I guess I'll just give out this award every year until someone stops making these, huh? Bermuda Survivor immediately won me over with its absurd premise and character designs. The big change here from the typical survivor formula is a much more objective-based map design. Rather than simply trying to run out the clock, your task is to try and find all the survivors from your cursed expedition.

Once you get a good build going, the game rushes towards the end quickly — but it’s also a five dollar game. And for five dollars, I had a great five hours or so.

Putting the “Rogue” Back in Roguelike Award

House of Necrosis

House of Necrosis has the look of a classic Resident Evil game, but surprise, it actually plays like a proper roguelike. Randomized items, randomized enemies, everything only moves when you do, and you start from scratch every run. This strikes me as a deeply unpopular design concept in the modern day, and yet Warkus committed to the hardcore bit, and I respect it. The retro aesthetic even helps sell the unforgiving experience, setting expectations for a ruthless 90's-era Playstation original.

Funniest Volume Slider

Mario Kart World

In the first patch to Mario Kart World, Nintendo added a much requested feature — the ability to control the background music. Great idea, right? It would be, if you had more than two options. Loud, and normal. Never change, Nintendo.

Best Dispatch Z-Teamer

Prism

Listen, I thought long and hard about this one. It’s a tough choice. Coupe is tremendously useful, Invisigal is a loveable salty loser, Golem gets it done even while high on weed gummies, Malevola heals injuries.

But then there’s Prism.

If you have an empty slot, she’ll clone allies to fill them, making tasks that normally would require a team of four need only two. Couple that with decent stats and the fact she’s the only hero to reliably show up for work every episode despite any external drama, and she quickly became my most dispatched Z-Teamer.

Worst Dispatch Z-Teamer

Sonar

He’s an egotistical prick for one, which is already a mark against him. While it’s thematically appropriate he therefore has few synergies with other heroes, it makes him not much of a team player. Plus, his stats change after every rest, so you really have to change up your plans constantly to use him effectively.

Best Fake Pinball Table

Tony Hawk Pro Skater’s Skate of the Living Dead

You wouldn’t think there’d be enough of these to make a whole category, and yet, we had two.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 Remastered features a new pinball stage called SKATE OF THE LIVING DEAD, where you skate around a pinball table while a giant Tony Hawk plays it above you. Meanwhile, over in Hotel Barcelona, the local lounge with an ear-trading bartender features an in-game pinball table called PUZZLE OF DEATH.

Not pictured, all the ghosts that pop up while you play.

Despite the fact you can’t actually play the table itself, the award goes to Tony Hawk, simply because this fictional table is more feature-rich. It contains a physical ball lock, a lower playfield, classic drop targets, and a pop bumper field. If someone physically built this table, it would be a great play. If someone physically built PUZZLE OF DEATH, it would be found wanting without all the phantasm enemies popping up.

Best VR Game I Only Played Because it Finally Escaped Meta Hell and Showed Up on Steam

Sushi Ben

Sushi Ben is more of a vibe than a game, but what a vibe we’ve got here. A little mix of mini-games and anime aesthetics, all tied together in a dopey, deeply unserious story about a cutthroat real estate agency trying to level a quaint Japanese fishing town to raise a coastal theme park. The game leans into the anime aesthetics so hard, the english voice cast are all actors for the hottest current shows. Did you enjoy Takamura in Dandadan? Great news, that was A.J. Beckles and he’s here. How about Denji in Chainsaw Man? Yup, Ryan Colt Levy is here. Maybe you liked Kasumi in Persona 5? That’s Laura Post, and yup, she’s here too.

Sushi Ben is all about helping this little beachside sushi hut hold out against an invasive Zaibatsu. You’ll fish, play ping pong, collect cursed items, shoot archery targets, and just roll with some fun beachside vibes.

Best “Shit just got Real” Moment

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy — The First Ending

This was perhaps the closest call on the list — and curiously, both entries deliver the one-two punch right after the first set of credits roll. So in fairness, I’ll highlight the runner up. Real quick though, you do see the word “ending” up there, right? I’m about to spoil the shit out of both these games.

In Absolum, you spend the entire game squaring off against Azra the Sun King. The game title itself never seems to come up... Until you finally defeat him. The world becomes covered in a misty red haze as it is revealed Azra was under the thrall of another God the entire time. And suddenly, you are presented with a new task — defeat Absolum. Ends up, the first successful run was just a tutorial.

Meanwhile, over in Last Defense Academy, a similar earth-shattering revelation occurs when you reach the first ending. During the game, the protagonist possesses the ability to rewind time, which mechanically, serves as a way to undo a poor move in this turn-based tactics game. As you approach the first ending and everything goes to hell, the protagonist unlocks their full potential... And rewinds the whole fucking game.

While both moments strike a similar effect, the award goes to Last Defense Academy for committing whole cloth. In New Game+ the protagonist plays out the narrative from day one again knowing exactly what will happen, and as the player, you get to make new choices to alter everyone’s fate. I only took the time to glean the surface of possibilities here, but to say the least, the amount of deviations is extraordinary. Last Defense Academy’s New Game+ could keep you busy all year.

And that, as they say, is that. I will see you all next year, where hopefully 2024's most anticipated game Holstin is out. Remember when I thought that'd be on this list? I sure do.

Outrun 2: Coast to Coast: Everything Outrun 2 Taught me About Dating

Trevor — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Are you getting ghosted on dating apps? Aren’t sure which places are socially acceptable to engage strangers in conversation? Having trouble approaching a woman who has both a fireball and a flash kick?

Fortunately, Sega provided a master class in dating advice back in 2003 when they released the arcade game Outrun 2. While time has moved on, some truths persevere forever.

Here’s some key advice on how to impress a potential partner.

1. Drift Through Blue

We’ve all been there; the afternoon Sunday drive to the local burger joint is an absolute yawnfest. Well, get your grip on that e-brake, because nothing spices up the drive like Drifting Through Blue.

Now remember — it has to be through the blue. She’s not gonna be impressed if you just drift anywhere. Sidewalk? No. Anywhere else on the street? Absolutely not. And through red? What’s wrong with you? You’re not some godless heathen in a Corolla. Red is for the non-drifters.

Now there’s another question worth addressing here, one I get asked all the time. “Should I avoid the other cars while drifting?” While your date doesn’t seem to mind a few collisions, they will slow down your drift. This lowers the bottom line on how many hearts you can acquire from the task, which in turn will make her love you less.

And we don’t want that.

2. Don’t Hit Anything

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Didn’t she just tell me to drift into traffic? She didn’t mind collisions then! What gives?” Well hey, people change. I bet you change your mind sometimes, too. In your girlfriend’s case, she’ll be changing her mind every quarter-mile stretch of road and evaluating your performance on three tasks per region. These are the challenges we must rise to meet in the dating world.

When she says anything, remember, she means anything. No cars, no trees, no guard rails. There’s a huge upside here though; she will instantly love you the maximum amount just from assigning the task. This affection will plummet of course as soon as you make contact with the smallest pebble, but for at least one microsecond, you’ll get to experience the euphoria that comes with someone finally giving a shit about you.

Hold on to it. It’s fleeting.

3. Hit The Ghosts

Listen, I don’t know what these ghosts are doin’ on the road. Maybe they’re the spirits of everyone who died on the hiking trails in Redwood National Park, or maybe they’re the last vestiges of previous boyfriends who didn’t measure up. Best not to think too hard about it, or why your new girlfriend wants you to run them over so bad. I mean, she really wants you to hit those ghosts. Almost like she’s hiding something.

No, no. Forget it. Just another intrusive thought. I mean, she already told you why the shovel’s in the trunk, remember? She helps her grandma garden on the weekends.

4. Dodge The Asteroids

Okay, I admit, this is a big ask. No one ever said dating was easy, but I guess it was even harder in 2006. Normally our atmosphere stops this sort of thing, but yeesh, global warming, am I right?

Now there’s some good news here. While asteroids this size would normally cause a crater the size of Rhode Island, these ones mostly do potholes. That’s nothin’ to us at this point. We’ve already confronted ghosts, and the notion ghosts are real. When we shuffle off this mortal coil, we too might be trapped in the Redwoods for all eternity, condemned to get hit by some other guy driving a Testarossa to impress his Clarissa. Maybe that guy is us. Maybe this is just some endless time loop, stuck in a Morbius Strip of our own lives, committing spectral-manslaughter on ourselves until the heat death of the universe.

What was I saying? Right. Watch the skies, these rocks fall slow. Almost as slow as our own march towards the infinite void.

5. If You Can’t Meet Her Expectations, Find Someone With Lower Standards

If you’ve mastered all the above challenges, excellent work! Your girlfriend should now be lavishing you with praise for a masterful job juggling beach balls, slaying ghosts, and juking the occasional UFO.

There’s a more likely scenario, however, where you didn’t even finish the race and she hates your guts. She may have even strangled you in a fit of frustration while you stalled out in the meridian. A common response when you don't measure up and collect enough hearts. But so what? Don’t be discouraged!

The trick here is to find another girl with lower standards. There’s two other girlfriends waiting to be wowed by your driving skills, who are completely unaware of your inability to perform on the road. And, when all else fails, remember to always go left at every offramp. It’s the easier path, and as long as you never tell her that, she’s bound to be impressed.

I hope this guide helps. Now, I really ought to mention it seems like all these girls are sticklers for Ferraris, so before you tackle anything in this guide, you’ll need to get one of those.

You got this, buddy.

Outrun 2 isn’t available for sale anywhere, because Sega lost the Ferrari liscense and yanked it from every storefront. Fortunately, all the necessary wisdom is compiled here.

Rematch: The Overwhelming Potential of Rematch

Trevor — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not sure anybody expected Sloclap, the studio behind 2022’s Sifu, to follow up their martial arts action hit with sports. And yet here we are with Rematch, the newest live service soccer game. (A brief aside for the overseas readers; “Soccer” is the word we use to talk about “Football” here, lest we Americans confuse it for the game where a bunch of guys run around with a ball cradled in their hands until the only one who’s allowed to kick shows up.)

While Rematch had a decent kickoff, the base is starting to dwindle. In two months, the game has gone from an average of 90,000 regular players on Steam to 10,000. While this doesn't include the console population, it's still indicative of a significant falling off. I can think of quite a few reasons this is happening, but to get into why we’ll need to break down what makes Rematch stand out from the annual EA Sports FIFA experience.

A Personal Touch

In order to make eleven players on a field manageable, most soccer games in the past forever years allow the player to hop control to whoever is closest to the ball. Unlike this ever-present hotswap method, Rematch keeps team sizes small — and more importantly, individualized. Everyone controls exactly one character on the field at all times.

This lets Sloclap lean into their greatest strength — tight, refined mechanics. Rematch hones in on ball control as the key element, encouraging players to master rainbow arcs and bicycle kicks just as much as standard passing and positioning. Even a pass requires more manual control than the average FIFA game; while a quick press flings the ball in the close vicinity of a teammate, there’s additional precision and even lob options to make interceptions harder. Just observing how a player moves the ball around the field quickly conveys their average skill level in a way no other soccer game has achieved yet.

Dropped in the Deep End

The obvious issue here is the same one every fighting game faces; a high skill ceiling means new players suffer until they gain enough experience to be competitive. It feels very, very bad to start Rematch and feel like dead weight, especially on small teams where poor skills stand out. When there's only three people on a team, it becomes quite easy to identify the weak link. When the game had frequent newcomers on launch, it was probably quite easy to end up on a team full of newbies. But now the honeymoon period is over, and only the people invested in mastery remain. The odds you will be in a game with other new arrivals is virtually nonexistent.

This makes onboarding new players gently impossible; they’re either willing to take L after L for hours until they learn, or they’re already pounding out a Steam refund request.

New Patches, New Problems

Rematch has had at least one major patch so far, but this patch has not addressed some of the biggest issues holding the game back. Perhaps most amusingly, the first patch normalized run speed so players would stop doing empty headers across the field for a marginal speed boost. It was like watching a bunch of dolphins play Water Polo.

This patch also, rather unfortunately, introduced a new rare bug where sometimes a player simply can’t keep possession of the ball. In the fifty-and-some-odd games of Rematch I’ve played this has happened once, but in a competitive, skill-based game, it can’t happen even once. Even worse, occasionally a goalkeeper’s forward lunge fails to catch a ball, no matter how spot on you are. The ball even teleports into your hand as if caught, and then suddenly propels into the net as if you never had it. A new player only needs a handful of those experiences to bench Rematch forever. These issues are set to be fixed in an upcoming second patch this weekend, and while this will address reliability and better netcode on ball handling, it still doesn't address the underlying issues with matchmaking and player onboarding.

Crossplay is in the works for patch three which ought to help new players find each other, but I’m concerned about Rematch's future all the same. Arguably, it might've been better to delay launch until crossplay was ready. Audience retention is key to a competitive online game. Once the player count dips low enough it takes more than a few minutes to find a match, people may stop launching it all together.

Unsolicited Ideas from the Waterboy

In the interest of productivity, I’ve thought about what could address these problems. Emergency patches for ball handling not working as intended would be a good first start, but that only addresses gameplay issues. Getting people to stick around at all is another hurdle.

The next major patch set to drop Monday promises significant improvements to matchmaking to better pair up players of similar skill levels. While this helps, I think there’s still a missing step. Right now, Rematch’s tutorial introduces you to each technique, but doesn’t do a great job of demonstrating when and why to employ them organically. Recognizing when these situations arrive in a real match and executing them in a timely fashion is much, much harder than pulling them off in a series of isolated challenges.

The tutorial already weaves new players through a small narrative as you go from hopeful prospect to newly signed star. Instead of dumping players into the main menu upon finishing this tutorial, I propose it would be more beneficial to drop new players into a match against AI bots. While this match also gives players a safer, pressure-free environment to test out their fancy moves before letting down real teammates, it also serves a hidden dual function; placement. How well the player does here determines their starting position, getting players into similarly comfortable teams faster.

The tutorial ends with a montage of your character going pro, but this marks when it’s time for the first match against real opponents.

An Unexpected Pivot

Let me employ a trademark tangent and tell you all about a seemingly unrelated game called Onrush.

Onrush is a racing game by Codemasters from 2018. While everyone else was busy making racing games, the Onrush team made the dumbest, most arcadey car game ever. It featured power ups, combat mechanics (somehow), and non-traditional modes like King of the Hill or Deathmatch, all of which somehow worked perfectly in a racing game. You might be wondering why you haven’t heard of Onrush until now, and the answer is simple — no one showed up to play it. Despite a strong presentation, Onrush went to the great junkyard in the sky. The servers went down in 2022 and aside from YouTube clips and a few lingering screenshots, it's now lost to the world.

Rematch needs defenders, now more than ever. While it certainly has problems, these issues are relatively minor in the grand scheme of what Sloclap has already accomplished. We have seen the same soccer game again and again for thirty years, but finally, we have something novel. A mix between Rocket League, Sifu, and Soccer, with grand potential to be a thrilling competitive event. In a perfect world I’d love to see Rematch someday emulate the UEFA format; three different leagues, promotions and demotions at the end of each season. The works.

We never get to that world if Rematch fades away. Right now, this has the potential to be the greatest soccer game ever made. I’m placing my trust in Sloclap to prove it, and also you, to help keep it alive until the day comes.

(Rematch is now available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox for $29.99. It's also available on Xbox Game Pass. Given how Gundam Evolution panned out, we’re about to also find out if these articles in defense of new games save the day, or I’ve just become a herald of doom.)

Street Fighter 6: Diaphone In Your Corner

Trevor — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Its been a while since yours truly got absolutely washed at Justin Wong’s charity tournament, but our efforts to perform better in the Fighting Game Community are always ongoing. Since then, we’ve been all in on Street Fighter 6. Our love of the game, however, has not translated into results. In 2024, I went out to EVO and got washed. I signed up for several online tournaments, including the Central Illinois weekly, and got washed — on stream again, even. Since then we’ve been participating in a biweekly tournament hosted by the Newbie Fight Club, and the laundry is lookin’ mighty clean because guess what? Washed.

With Combo Breaker coming up, I thought a change of pace would be nice. What if instead of these endless Ls, we took a W or two at a tournament? Just to see what it feels like?

I put some time and effort into learning Luke and quickly ascend to Diamond 5... and then one night later, we take loss after loss until we’re down to Diamond 3. Our training arc was falling apart fast.

So I sought out a coach.

Coaching with Diaphone

For those of you who follow the fighting game scene, an introduction is hardly necessary. For the rest of you, however, a short primer to get you up to speed.

Diaphone is a fighting game player and content creator with expansive tastes. While many FGC creators stick to specific genres or games, Diaphone’s content is often unpredictable. It ranges from the mainstream, like Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear: Strive, to truly unexplored depths, such as the Roblox Tekken game Crash Out.

Whatever fighting game you’re thinking of picking up, there's almost certainly a starter guide somewhere on his channel.

In terms of his solo content, look no farther than Diaphone’s One Handed Mai Challenge, where watching the process to engineer a functional control scheme is just as compelling as the actual run.

As for offline events, last month Diaphone competed in the Sajam Slam International Championship. For the unfamiliar, The Sajam Slam is an event where popular streamers break off into teams, with a pro from the respective game acting as their Coach. The teams then compete in a series of round robin battles until the two top performing teams advance. In a special twist this year, however, the winners also went up against finalists from the Reject Fight Night in Japan, and the competition was fierce.

While Team Diaphone didn’t take the championship, Diaphone himself clutched out a win in Grand Finals against Tokido to save his team from complete 5-0 annihilation.

While there’s quite a few Street Fighter 6 coaches out there on Metafy, watching Diaphone coach his team for the Slam convinced me he’d be the one to try. I signed up and waited for the day.

Our coaching session was a two-step process. First up...

Replay Review

After exchanging a few pleasantries, we hopped into my replay log and observed a few recent games together via Discord screen share. It didn’t take long for Diaphone to identify an issue with my inputs, but we had a different problem to solve first. Diaphone’s mouse hovered over my input readout. “Do you see this discord overlay? It’s right over the buttons I want to show you.”

“Oh, yup, yeah, I see that.”

“Okay, just... don’t talk for a sec.”

Once my discord name dimmed, Diaphone rewound the replay to explain what he saw.

Discord’s overlay made this process tricky at first.

“You went from downback, then switched to down, then medium punch. So basically, you’re just making your life like ten times harder.”

A few seconds later, he notices the same issue on a crouch jab attempt.

“If you’re at downback, and you have the impulse to say ‘I wanna jab here,’ how long does it take? Four frames, right? One, two, three, four. The way you did it, you had the brain impulse ‘I wanna jab’ and then you press down, then jab. One, two, three, one, two, three, four. So like, while most characters have four frame crouch jabs, you just did a seven frame crouch jab.”

For those of you who might not be following, I don’t blame you. We’re deep into the nuance of Street Fighter here, so I’ll do my best to translate — every time I think about doing something, I’m adding a slight wait for no beneficial reason. A quirk of some bad muscle memory I’d ingrained over the years.

We don’t even make it out of the first replay until something embarrassing occurs. For whatever reason, I go for some combo that literally doesn’t work on Luke. Diaphone rewound the moment twice while asking, “what’d you go for here?”

He studied the combo for a few seconds, then added, “that just doesn’t work.”

Watching it now, I truly am not sure what I was going for either. Past me just threw it in for future embarassment in an article.

It doesn’t take long until another disaster occurs, as Luke lets a DP fly against a Ken who’s miles away.

I want to curl up and die.

However, this is also where Diaphone noticed the recurring pattern that defines all my biggest issues. He rewound to watch the inputs again. “If you wanna get really good at DPs, the key is you gotta clean up the input.” Diaphone is distracted as my DP haymaker whiffs again. “It’s not terrible, it’s honestly not terrible. I liked the idea. The issue with this input is the forward here. You could hit the punch at downforward instead of forward, so you’re basically doing this DP like three frames slower.”

After a second he added, “and it’s actually worse than three frames, because for these three frames you’re actually standing. So they can hit you earlier than if you were crouching.”

This observation explains so many issues I’ve had since Street Fighter 6’s release. Anti-airs have long been my biggest weakness.

After our third match review, Diaphone picked up on another pattern. “So if you notice, you did fireball round start two times in a row.” Diaphone precedeed to start each round in succession to see the pattern repeat.

It’s hard to tell, but these are all different rounds.

“I’m guessing you haven’t really mastered a fireball character yet — this’ll be easier in training mode, but I wanna talk a lot about how fireballs are meant to be used.” He’s extremely correct on that observation. My only master characters so far — Kimberly and Honda — have no projectiles.

Maybe you could count Honda’s forehead, but I wouldn’t.

We moved on to a new replay against a Mai who immediately jumped over my fireball (you can spot the moment in the compilation above). Diaphone paused to break down the issue. “The short answer is fireballs are really good at convincing people to jump. But it’s a pretty low percentage option, because if you hit someone you do sixty damage. But if they get a jump in, they do three thousand damage.” Diaphone glanced at the damage readout in the replay UI. “Or two-thousand and eight hundred damage.”

“You never want to lead off with a risky option, and this is a risky option in this case because we know nothing about this guy. This is the first time you’ve played this guy, you have no clue how he plays. He might be a jumper, he might have the patience of a saint. You don’t know.”

Before we jumped into training mode, I made a request. “Can we watch a replay on the other account?” So far, all the replays were from the PC version. I wanted to see if my inputs changed at all between platforms. We quickly noticed that is not the case; my issues were consistent across PC and PS5, which is valuable information.

The end of the next match gets outrageously scrappy. I throw out a super, whiff, somehow land a lucky Suppressor anyway, then drop the combo, eat their super instead — it’s a mess.

“You wanted me to watch this match? Okay,” Diaphone said laughing as chaos ensued.

If I’d known what was going to transpire at the end of this match, absolutely not. But too late, we saw it. We can't unsee it. After another dose of embarrassment, it was time for some hands-on training.

Training Mode

Once in the training room, Diaphone’s lesson plan began. “Okay, first thing. If we’re not gonna do fireball round start, best way to get rid of a bad habit is to replace it with another one,” he says, repeating something my therapist has stressed as well. “So what are we doing on round start?”

Without saying a word, I Drive Rush into his face with a crouching medium punch.

“Yes, yeah, okay, I guess you can technically do that. But it comes down to do you want to play like Noah The Prodigy, or do you wanna play like Chris Wong?”

I thought about it for a second, then answered, “Chris Wong.” No offense to Noah, but I need to learn to slow down more than I need overwhelming offense.

“What does Chris Wong do most of the time round start?”

The answer is immediately obvious to anyone who’s seen Chris Wong play. “I feel like nothing?” I said.

“Exactly, right. He’s just looking for something to react to. So if you Drive Rush, I’m checking you, if you jump, I’m anti-airing.”

During the 2023 Capcom Cup Grand Finals, Chris Wong did very little every round start — and that was with a million dollars on the line.

I’m extremely used to playing characters who just bully their way to victory on offense, and it’s here I realize that’s not necessary on Luke. He’s got all the tools to watch and wait. There’s no need to get down in the muck and go ham. I made a mental note to do less.

“The cool thing about Luke is if people are bad at parrying — here, just try parrying my fireballs at this range.”

I perfect parried a few, then Drive Rush canceled into his face again.

“Okay, that’s cute. I guess you can do that, yeah, you’re a born Luke player,” he says. “Makes sense, coming from a Luke player who mastered Honda.”

After my interruption, he demonstrated what he really wanted to show off. On the next parry attempt, he drive rushed in and grabbed.

“So once they start looking for the fireball, you can mix in this.” It’s a nifty trick to add to the belt.

After that, we move on to the main lesson. “You had a couple good anti-airs so I know you know how to do it, but getting rid of that forward input is so key,” he said. After this, Diaphone showed off a few other methods to input a DP. “There’s a couple different ways to input DPs, and any shoto player above 1600 knows how to do this crap.”

So, instead of inputting the default notation:

You can also input:

And get a DP all the same. The trick here is the first downforward input counts as forward for the purposes of the input — technically, you're pressing down and forward after all. In addition to just getting the move out faster this way, the way I'm doing it — adding an extra forward motion at the end — means I'm only one accidental input away from wasting a level 1 super. Which happens a lot.

Next comes a big one, a technique I understood conceptually but not how to execute reliably. A cross-cut DP. “When you see me jump, just hold forward,” he said. It's a common way to block a cross-up. After blocking his cross-ups a few times, the lesson continued. “Cross-cut is an extended application of that. To cross-cut, you’re gonna do this forward input, then right as I go over your head, do a half-circle back.”

To put the notation tool to work again, the input he describes looks like:

Remember, you’re only pressing the button once they go over your head.

After this explanation, I landed the cross-cut on the very first try.

“That’s it,” he said. “You learned cross-cut. And if you wanna get super optimal with it, you can hit the button on the diagonal.”

Until this lesson, I never knew it was so easy. It also explains what makes the Shoto cast so strong, generally. Jumping over a skilled shoto is never free.

To conclude, Diaphone had a few last words of wisdom. “I think there’s an easy way to hit Master, where I just tell you ‘use Drive Rush more and here’s some oki setups,’ but realistically, you’re looking to get better at the game. I think getting Master the slow way, learning better footsies and that sorta thing, is the direction you wanna go.”

As a Honda Master, I understood what he meant. Honda is a belligerent menace, and was even more of one in season one. I headbutted my way to the top without really learning the fundamentals, and I’ve paid for it since.

There’s a few other small tricks Diaphone taught along the way, largely regarding whiff punishes and neutral mind games, but the messy inputs, fireball use, and cross-cuts are the main takeaways. If I clean those skills up, it saves me from a lot of online grief.

What Coaching Doesn’t Get You

On reflecting upon the session, I had a few observations. First up is what the session didn't help with.

Instant Master Rank

Let’s get the easy one out of the way — if you're new, a one hour session with Diaphone will not get you to Master overnight. Perhaps the most surprising revelation from a single coaching session is that an hour barely gets you started in a game as complex as Street Fighter 6. We really only had time to focus on the weakest parts in my gameplan: Messy inputs, understanding when to throw a fireball, and cross-cut DPs. Are there other weaknesses to work on? You bet, but we can only improve so many skills at once. And right now, those weaknesses are getting me bullied out of Master rank.

A Cure for Tournament Nerves

I knew Diaphone couldn't fix this one already, but the topic came up nonetheless. What can I say? Yours truly is known for going the way of the San Jose sharks when it's time to perform. We choke hard here. But there’s only one cure, and it is both difficult and easy at the same time.

Start showing up.

You have to put yourself in the situation enough times you start to adapt. You’re gonna get your ass beat. You’re gonna drop combos, eat safe jumps, and you might even look like a fool on stream. Twice. The trick is to realize even if you go 0-2, you’re still lapping the guy watching at home. You’re a competitor, they’re a non-entity. When starting at the bottom, keep that in mind.

What Coaching Does Get You

While plenty of Diaphone’s advice is readily available on his own YouTube channel, there are some serious benefits you only get from coaching. The difficult thing about fighting games is the higher your rank, the tinier the corrections needed to perform well. The devil’s in the minutia.

Personalized Corrections

My DP inputs were the very first thing Diaphone zeroed in on while watching replays, and it revealed perhaps the biggest weakness I had — possibly since I first started playing any Street Fighter. Little me learned to do a DP this way while playing Street Fighter 2 on an SNES and kept doing it forever and ever. If it wasn't for this coaching session, we'd still be doing it.

It’s something that not only no one around me noticed, but I personally would never look for. Heck, I’ve watched god knows how many of my own replays and never noticed. I would’ve gone on thinking I was simply slow and bad. It seems like a small thing, and yet, this one extra input is likely responsible for half my losses, if not more. Three extra frames is the difference between an anti-air and losing 50% of a life bar to a wall-to-wall AKI combo.

The “Why” Behind the Mistakes

Let’s be honest — Diaphone should probably not be the one who needs to tell me to stop doing round start Sand Blast. Getting jumped on at 99 seconds ought to be all the indication one needs. But for people like me who don’t quite comprehend what’s happening, Diaphone’s advanced knowledge of Street Fighter 6 and its systems help break down the Cost-Benefit Analysis.

Let’s consider this; what do I get from this option if I’m right?

60 damage.
Maybe a step or two forward, as a treat.

But if I’m wrong?

Lose 30% of your lifebar.
Hold the corner, bozo.

There’s basically no reason to do this, at least not right at the 99 second mark with no information.

Progress Log

So next, we did what any good student does. That night, I ran some drills, got a feel for a proper cross-cut DP, and worked on losing that extra forward input. Then it was time to go into ranked and...

Day One

...we did worse. Much worse.

At this point, I think many aspiring students would assume their training was a bust. But here’s a harsh truth anyone who’s played any sport knows — when you begin implementing a new skill, you will do worse. Even if you understand the concept in your mind, it takes time to ingrain new muscle memory. In fighting games, this means when you begin improving your anti-airs, you might start losing in ranked to opponents you would’ve beat the day before; if you’re focused on the air, opponents with a strong grounded approach get away with more.

But we’re looking at the long game here, not the immediate one. The Ls we take now pave the way for more Ws overall than if we hadn’t begun refining new skills to begin with.

And you know what? Despite the losses, we actually ended the day slightly above where we started, albeit not by much. Sometimes, staying steady is a win (especially after tanking two ranks the previous week).

Day Two

I truly don’t know what either of us are doing in this clip.

After watching Day One’s replays, it becomes clear some things from the lesson are sticking better than others. It’s about 50/50 if that extra input sneaks into a DP still, and while we’re cross-cutting consistently in training mode excercises, we’re struggling to land it in matches. We’re even struggling to just DP normally now sometimes. More often than not, we’re getting accidental level one supers.

What I also notice though, is we are still tossing that fireball at round start. A lot. Remember that tip from earlier, the one both Diaphone and my therapist mirrored? It’s much easier to replace a bad habit with something else than to stop it all together. So I came up with an unorthodox solution.

At round start, before FIGHT appears on the screen, I do the input for fireball. That way, the urge is out of my system before the match begins. For a pointless ritual, this works oddly well.

We end Day Two at about the same place we started. Not ideal, but again, a week ago we tanked so hard we fell two placements. Still an improvement.

Day Three

We finally crack into Diamond 4 again, but it’s around this time I learn something unfortunate — my DPs are cleaning up when facing right, but when facing left? Nope. Still slow, still messy, still extra inputs. It takes longer than I’d like to admit running drills to iron this out.

It’s hard to say if cross-cuts are working out, because we encounter very few jumpers on Day Three. Day Three is an army of Ryus with strong, grounded fundamentals. They’re much more interested in crouching-medium-kick-into-fireball than they are into cross up attempts.

Day Four

Things are starting to come together. Cross-cuts still aren’t happening in matches yet, despite having near perfect execution in training — by the time I recognize I need to do one in a match, it's always too late. But we win much more than we lose this night, and our anti-airs are getting better. We end halfway through Diamond 4.

Day Five

We learn a valuable lesson on Day Five: quit when you’re ahead.

Day Five starts strong. We still aren’t 100% on DP inputs and we’re not landing many cross-cuts, but there’s noticeable improvement in reactions. We’re slowing down and watching our opponent, especially on round start. We sail halfway through Diamond 4.

Here’s the thing — up until now, these logs reflect about an hour a night in Street Fighter 6. Tonight however, since it was going so well, we kept on queueing. Why quit now? I’m the next Daigo, baby!

By the end of the next hour, all the day's gains are erased, just like the stock market in 2025. We take L after L, but hey, at least we helped two Diamond 5’s become masters. Good for them. Schmucks.

Day Five feels very, very bad, but on a bright note, something magical does happen.

Five days in, we finally land a cross-cut in ranked.

Day Six

Day Six is, without a doubt, the most demoralizing day since the coaching session. Whatever trend started the day before continues until we’re in Diamond 3 again. While the DPs are better, the only cross-cut we land all day is against a teleport-happy Dhalsim.

The trend is clear — I’m getting read all day. This is my second time dropping down to Diamond 3 with Luke. While I like Luke’s Flash Knuckle combos, confidence I can play him at a high level is quickly waning.

Day Seven

Fuck Luke, we’re Ryu mains now.

Diaphone’s lessons were applicable to any shoto, so I figured let's see what happens If I apply the same concepts elsewhere. We still have cross-cut DPs, we still have to work on our anti-air inputs, but now we don’t have to perfectly time Flash Knuckles to maximize damage. I’ll miss blowing through other fireballs with OD Sand Blast, but hey, at least I have a projectile that goes full screen.

When we last left Ryu he was Platinum 3. That doesn’t last long. It’s unbelievably easy to pile on the damage as Ryu and we quickly sail to Diamond 1.

We also return to Mai, who we last left in Diamond 3. Sure enough, the lessons helped there too. The DPs feel way more reliable and she’s in Diamond 4 in no time.

Day Eight

We let Luke out of the doghouse and immediately win seven games in a row. After almost a whole week, we’re finally back in Diamond 5. Sometimes, you just gotta take a breather.

We even land a cross-cut on a Chun Li abusing Falling Crane again. Feels good!

I realize something on Day Eight — one of the situations where I get hit the most is after a jump in. Even though I successfully block or parry most of them, the pressure after catches me eventually. Instead of holding the pressure better, anti-airs resolve the entire situation. It’s a good motivation to keep at it.

Day Nine

We only find time for a few games this day, but we do end up matched against a fellow Newbie Fight Club member in ranked. A fun surprise. AnythingBagel takes the W in a close set.

Sometimes its nice to get a reminder there's a real person on the other side. It's easy to depersonalize the endless sea of nameless opponents in a nonstop ranked grind.

Day Ten

We are halfway through Diamond 5.

This is officially the closest I’ve been to Master with Luke. Something that really stands out in retrospect, especially after watching all these replays; even though we never fully mastered cross-cuts or fixed every anti-air input, the mere act of landing both of those slightly more led to way more wins overall. Opponents stop jumping after only a couple successful DPs. Joke’s on them, the next one might’ve worked.

We also devise a new strategy on Day Ten that makes a big impact. Keeping in mind what Diaphone said about waiting and watching in Street Fighter 6, we come up with two game plans — one for players who are patient, and one for Ken players with names like “IMissCocaine” who play like they just got out of rehab and are tweaking out on the controller. If someone is playing like an absolute Mad Lad, we slow down the offense. Let them go ham for a while. If someone is playing a more patient game, we get aggressive, especially if they have a way to harass me at full screen. I will not suffer a JP with full screen real estate.

Day Eleven

This is the day. Eleven days since the coaching session, averaging about an hour a night, Luke hits Master.

We play a few Master games just to see where we’re at, and sure enough, we drop to 1400 in no time. It’s not all losses, though. We even out around there, bouncing around between 1400 and 1350. For now, I take that to be an accurate baseline.

Ed. — Writing from the future to say I must not be as good a student as I thought, because a week later I'm 1100 MMR. For those of you who don't know what that means, lets keep it that way.

Conclusion

So, here’s the question: Would I have gotten Master just from putting in the time, or was there no hope without a Diaphone in my corner?

I think there’s a world where I could’ve gotten Luke to Master without coaching, but that’s a world where my gameplay remains inconsistent once I get there. The real benefit of coaching isn’t quick and easy answers to get a rank, it’s direction. Diaphone identified the weakest holes in my gameplan, and in doing so, gave me something to focus on. There are plenty of things I could tell were bad calls during our replay review, like letting a wakeup DP rip when my opponent was half the screen away, but those bad calls were, oddly enough, not the most detrimental aspects of my gameplan overall. Without Diaphone’s observations, I might’ve started trying to fix the wrong mistakes. Heck, when I look back, I already was. I was trying to emulate Chris Wong's play style without understanding the underlying inputs. It's like trying to master the butterfly stroke before you know how to swim.

Make no mistake, it's within your power to hit Master without outside assistance. When you think about it, you have to; no amount of coaching saves you from putting in the work to get better. But good coaching helps draw your focus to the right skills to work on, and gets you a stronger foundation.

When I hit Master on Honda and Kim last year, without any coaching, my MMR plummeted like a rock and I had no idea how to improve. This time around, even though I'm struggling in Master all over again, I'm more aware of where the holes in the gameplan lie. Previously Master felt like a brick wall, but now there's a light at the end of the tunnel, provided I stay the course.

Ed. — One last editiorial aside. While our ranked MMR is still tragic, our local tournament results improved significantly at the first post-coaching meet. Even if we get washed at Combo Breaker in a month, I consider taking down my local rivals a huge win.

If you too feel lost on the road to Master, Diaphone's available to be your guide.

Diaphone is available to hire on Metafy for the game of your choosing. Maybe even Roblox Tekken, if you ask nicely.

Trevor’s Top Ten Games of 2024

Trevor — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Despite everything, we still have video games. How about that? We have some special features on today's list, but first, the traditional rundown. Starting with...

10. Granblue Fantasy: Relink

You may not know the story of Granblue already... But trust me, you do. A young boy or girl, through an act of selflessness, happenstance, or both, gets special powers and is charged to save the world. Sometimes they gotta master the elements, sometimes they gotta find the seven relics. In the case of Granblue, we got themed elemental dragons to tame. It’s a dated formula for fantasy stories, but Granblue is now a ten year old franchise, so I’m willing to cut it some slack.

While I’ve never been a huge fan of the mobile game itself, the 2020 fighting game took the ninth spot on my list. Since then I thought it would be neat to play a fantasy adventure set in the world without all the gacha game nonsense, and this year, we finally got it. Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a classic JRPG experience, where you and your campy friends explore the world with bombastic abilities, a steady progression of levels, and the power of friendship. All very standard fantasy adventure stuff with an anime flair. It's all well executed, with impressive enviornments, a decent combat system, and an outrageous number of abilities to unlock during the 40-and-some-odd-hour journey.

The abilities only get more ostentatious as the game progresses, and they start mighty showy.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink doesn’t do anything to break the mold, but it executes on what it is perfectly. The cast is large and varied, with an eclectic array of personalities and skills. The visuals pop, the colors vibrant and stark everywhere you go. The settings and environments are varied enough to remain intriguing throughout too, taking you from snowcapped landscapes to lush forests. I’m especially relieved at the steady progression — at no point did I feel it was necessary to grind like crazy or farm materials to advance. Given what the mobile game is like, that feels like a miracle.

Wouldn’t you know it though, Cygames couldn’t help themselves and shoved all the gacha nonsense in the endgame anyway. If you really want to, you can run the final battles over and over again to craft stronger weapons. These then gear you up to take on tougher versions of boss battles, or tackle post-game content. This all takes place after the credits roll, thankfully, so you won’t be required to do it to see the full story play out... And the standard forty hour adventure is worth the price of admission alone.

9. Helldivers 2

Are you a fan of Starship Troopers? Me too. There are Starship Trooper games out there, but trust me, this is really the one you’ve been waiting for.

On a surface level Helldivers 2 is nearly identical to the first one, just from a different perspective and with better polish — and yet, it’s amazing how far two simple changes go. The immediacy of an over-the-shoulder perspective heightens the danger, and also allows the team at Arrowhead to create enemies with more specific weaknesses than just “glowing spot on the back”. Likewise, the improved fidelity turns what used to be a casual, low-stakes experience into mutant bug vietnam. The first time you call in an airstrike, it is terrifying and incredible.

No friendly fire protection here, so careful where you carpet bomb.

Right off the bat, Helldivers 2 sucked me in with its barely veiled nationalistic satire. The tutorial fills you with bravado, announces you're the best Helldiver the world’s ever seen... And then you see a whole field of other Helldivers getting the exact same treatment, all getting told their special, talented soldiers. Beautiful.

From there, it’s time to “liberate” other alien planets with your wide array of firearms, orbital strikes, and turrets. While you can do this alone, Helldivers 2 is absolutely meant to be a squad-based affair. Each Helldiver only has room for so much gear, so having a well-rounded squad fills gaps in the mission arsenal. The various enemy types force a need for wide variety; some are only vulnerable to explosions, others need precise shots to strike weak points. Hopefully you all brought the right tools for the job.

When it comes to bugs, aim for the squishy parts.

The real winner here though, is the ongoing support from Arrowhead. Everything happening in Helldivers 2 is part of a global conflict, and every successful mission advances the campaign for all Helldivers. This also means a constant addition of new unlockable weapons, gadgets, and stratagems. While all these things are presented like a battle pass, I appreciate how none of these "battle passes" ever expire. No matter when you jump into Helldivers, you can start unlocking gadgets and weapons on the page of your choosing. No forced scarcity, no scary timers artibtrarily removing things from a storefront.

A battle pass is a familiar sight these days, but Helldivers shows more restraint than others.

If you’re looking to Helldive with a group of friends, you can’t go wrong with this one.

8. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Easily the most tragic title on the list, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown by Ubisoft Montpellier released early 2024... And to put it bluntly, no one bought it. The term “poor sales figures” defined every Ubisoft release this year, and Lost Crown was the canary in the coal mine. I’m here to say those sales figures are not emblematic of Lost Crown’s quality — it is the best Metroidvania style game to come out all year.

While it certainly fits the Metroidvania mold, Lost Crown layers on strong artistic presentation and key mechanical twists to make the experience special. The first thing I must mention is the memory shards, because they’re the kind of thing that makes you go, “how has no one thought of this before?” Nothing is more quintessential to the Metroidvania experience than coming across an unscalable gap or oddly colored door and knowing one day, you’ll have to venture back with a new gadget to advance. Memory shards allow you to snap a screenshot of the area in question and refer to it on your map later, which in any game heavy on backtracking, is an absolute godsend. This concept alone saved me much aggravation.

It’s a simple thing, but it goes a long way with a map this sprawling.

The combat is more robust than one would usually expect from a simple Metroidvania too, lying somewhere between the simplicity of an arcade brawler and a dense action game like Devil May Cry. Even before you get any fancy weapons or time magic, Sargon can angle his attacks up or down to get around an enemy’s guard, or even launch them high to render them helpless. All your new techniques have both traversal and combat applications, which makes each one doubly impactful on your journey.

Slides, arrows, and spatial magic only scratch the surface.

What really puts Lost Crown on the list is the strong art direction. The character designs, cinematics, and stellar combat flourishes have an exceptional style. The backgrounds and environments are equally impressive, as sections of the citadel remain suspended in time, as if frozen mid-collapse. It makes for both a unique setting, and a handy narrative device to justify jumping around floating platforms.

Given the sales reception it’s easy to dismiss Lost Crown, but make no mistake, this is a quality release otherwise overlooked in an abysmal year for Ubisoft.

Even when you get your ass kicked, the game looks incredible.

7. Metal Slug Tactics

This was, perhaps, my most hotly anticipated title last year... And the year before that. It took quite some time for Metal Slug Tactics to finally see the light of day. After several delays and radio silence I started to get nervous, but it's finally here and the wait was worth it.

Metal Slug has struggled to find footing since the end of the arcade era. It was the ultimate coin-munching, side-scrolling shooter, the definitive title found in every bowling alley and laundromat. But how do you adapt a fast-paced run-and-gun series where the difficulty lied in using the least amount of quarters into a modern strategy game?

Teamwork makes the bad dudes die.

Leikir Studio took the run-and-gun part literally, and built the whole game around it. Moving the full distance each turn rewards the player with armor to reduce damage and an equal amount of points to execute special moves. On the flip side, standing still makes you a sitting duck, liable to die in a single hit from anything. The stages themselves do an excellent job getting this message across as they usher you towards a single direction, and focus more on accomplishing a specific task over killing every enemy on the screen.

The real joy in Metal Slug Tactics comes from its roguelike formula. Each time a character levels, they take a new perk or ability. These perks often reward the merc in question with additional actions or movements when certain conditions are met. By the end of your run it’s quite possible to take out every enemy in a single turn from optimal, economical use, activating perks over and over again in an endless murder loop.

Running is the best way to survive against endless Nazi robots.

There’s definitely a learning curve here, as Metal Slug Tactics can’t really be played like similar games of its ilk. Hunkering down in an advantageous tactical position is actually bad strategy here. Once you get over that hump, it rewards your decision making in spades.

There are many unlockable characters here, including the fan favorite Ikari Warriors — Clark, Leona, and Ralf.

6. 1000xResist

The most narrative-driven entry on the list, 1000xResist takes place in a world beyond culture and identity. Humanity as we know it has gone extinct after the arrival of an alien race known as The Occupants. With them came an illness that caused humans to expel water through their eyes until death. One girl, Iris, mysteriously immune to this starborn disease, represents all that remains of us. After many years of cloning, The Allmother, the progenitor of them all, commands a society of her many selves. Years after our extinction generations of her clones live on, each serving a rather specifically named function in society.

The game opens halfway through the story, as the main character, Watcher, cuts down The Allmother. From there, you’ll return to the day Sister Blue was made the new Watcher and see what led to matricide.

There’s much I could say about the story of 1000xResist (and make no mistake, story is the only reason to pick this one up; there is no other mechanic to speak of besides some light platforming) but to me, its real power is in the subtext. The Allmother was once known as Iris Kwan, an immigrant from Hong Kong. Her identity and background is core to understanding who she was. However, by the time you reach the game’s present, every concept of a nation or background is stripped away, and all that remains is the Allmother and her clones. Humanity has homogenized into only a single woman, and the mere idea of other cultures, countries, identities, is all foreign to the Allmother’s many selves. It’s all in service of a story that has something to say about immigration and assimilation, and it does it all with an unbelievable level of nuance. So much so, I was stunned with 1000xResist’s subject matter from start to finish.

It’s an absolutely gripping tale with something poignant to say about the purpose of resistance and rebellion.

5. Unicorn Overlord

Vanillaware continues to be one of the most impressive small studios out there. Since their inception in 2002, Vanillaware’s employee count has never crossed the fifty person mark. You can feel the human, personal touch in every title, down to the hand-crafted detail in every art asset, and Unicorn Overlord is no exception.

Unicorn Overlord marks Vanillaware’s return to fantasy. The plot is something right out of Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics — Alain, a valiant knight from a fallen nation, must build a rebellious army against a tyrannical ruler, one liberated village at a time. In most J-RPGS, it’s very common to gather a new recruit or party member in each region, slowly building your little band of heroes. Typically, you end the game with six-to-ten weirdos ready to journey to the end. Unicorn Overlord took that formula as a challenge and said “what if that happened after every fight?”

It doesn’t take long for your list of units to become overwhelming.

By the end of chapter 4, you will wonder how you’re possibly supposed to manage so many units. By chapter 14, you’ll stop caring and realize there’s no end to the influx. The good news is unlike other J-RPGs, your party size isn’t limited to four or five of your cartoony friends — instead, you’ll assemble them into self-contained units and order them about the battlefield. The amount of customization here is off the charts. You can fine tune your units positioning and their internal logic on when to perform certain actions. As you advance, you’ll be able to put six people into a single configuration, and then command multiple of these units on the battlefield at once.

The real seller here though, is personality. Vanillaware’s hand-crafted artwork, from the environments to the character portraits, is exceptional throughout. Each unit has their own storyline to see play out, and the game is full of Fire Emblem-style support conversations between your eclectic cast. Their personalities shine through in writing, voice acting, and artistic presentation. With so many characters sharing the spotlight each of their stories is more of a small vignette than a full individual tale, but they do a good job portraying motivations, goals, and flaws.

If getting into the nitty gritty of a unit’s internal logic or the thought of managing many units on a field sounds overwhelming, I wouldn’t recommend Unicorn Overlord. For everyone else, it’s an easy sell on a game of the year list.

The derisive quips alone made me laugh out loud more than once.

4. Astro Bot

Astro Bot is an absolute delight.

If you own a PlayStation 5, you likely played Astro's Playroom once, enjoyed the surprisingly robust tech demo, and moved on. At no point did I expect Astro Bot to get a full game, let alone be in contention for game of the year. And yet here we are, with a fully realized tech demo taking the fourth spot.

Astro Bot is the first game I’ve played since Ape Escape to use every part of a PlayStation controller. The speakers, vibrations, gyroscopes, and even the microphone all get used to varying degrees, and while this led to frustration at least once, it's otherwise successful at cranking up the immersion. Part of this comes from the presentation, where Astro quite literally flies around on a big Dualsense. Other than that, Astro Bot uses a wide variety of devices each stage that make great use of all features, be it the haptic feedback or even blowing into a microphone. Most of the time I found this more charming than irritating... Most of the time.

While I loved most of Astro’s upgrades, I despised the monkey climbing tool. So much.

I am immensely impressed that despite the presence of thematic galaxies, every single stage within feels profoundly unique. There are few shared assets (aside from some thematically consistent bonus stages), and while the game reuses the various gadgets Astro Bot acquires, it finds new ways to iterate upon them and increase the challenge. In a rather... unexpected and strange comparison, Astro Bot solved one of my major complaints about Balan Wonderworld, in that these ideas compound on themselves as the game goes on instead of getting discarded.

This is all in service of celebrating PlayStation’s vast history. Everyone’s here, from easily recognizable figures like Kratos and Nathan Drake, to more obscure figures like Vib-Ribbon or Arc The Lad. Every galaxy ends with one world dedicated entirely to a PlayStation classic, which makes for a fun referential capstone to each zone.

Boy.

Presentation and execution is where Team ASOBI really shined. Team ASOBI is not shy about showing off their technical prowess; many stages feature impressive fluid dynamics, massive landmarks or creatures, and a zillion tiny pieces of detritus to flick around. There’s also an impressive command of sightlines and scale, which ensures every world hides its most impressive set piece or mechanical twist until you stumble into it yourself.

Astro Bot captures all the magic of a Disneyland Dark Ride in every stage.

3. Silent Hill 2

I won’t lie to you — I am shocked this rated so highly.

The Silent Hill franchise already has a tragic reputation when it comes to remasters, and the initial trailers for this one did not impress. Take into account how Bloober Team’s previous games were more unintentionally funny than scary, and well... My expectations were so low, there was no pit deep enough for James to dive into.

This clip from Jerma’s stream sums up their previous game, Layers of Fear.

Sometimes, it’s really nice to be wrong.

Guess who’s back. Back again.

Silent Hill 2 (2024) captured the magic of the original game and then some.

By some miracle, Bloober Team managed to preserve the disconnected, dreamlike feeling inherent to the series. All the doomed characters assembled in this town usher from one tortured environment to the next, seeing impossible things and walking impossible routes to get there. Silent Hill follows the same non-euclidean route, falling down and folding back on itself. It all leads to an intentionally obtuse labyrinth, one which begins with a semblance of logic but eventually devolves into nonsensical architecture. It’s exactly as mystfying as it needs to be.

You’ll see some recognizeable venues and objects, but the puzzles themselves are quite different than you might remember.

Speaking of obtuse design, the remake retains the same panicked, fussy swings and gunplay that exemplify what it would be like to be a normal dude attacking monsters. James doesn’t have any strong form — every swing is a wild haymaker with all his force behind the blow, and the game sells every hit with satisfying thunks and big screen shakes. Somehow, Bloober succeeded in making this style of combat enjoyable to play, definitely more so than the original.

I especially feel a need to call out the boss fights. Each one filled me with absolute dread, and even though I’d played the original, the remake managed to elevate every iconic encounter to new heights. The Abstract Daddy sequence made me take a breather to recover — both from shear terror, and from how the new execution better portrays Angela's traumatic past.

This all culminates in a powerful, haunting experience, one just as effective as its progenitor twenty years ago. It is, without a doubt, the strongest horror game to come out all year.

The handwritten map makes a return, and it’s more doodled on than ever. And you should know... The game does not pause when you whip this thing out.

2. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Leaving Midgar again twenty years later felt like coming home.

The first time I stepped onto the Kalm streets, now full of life and color, I nearly dropped the controller. When you observe the surroundings, the attention to detail is absolutely staggering. Every shop is immaculately crafted, every flower meticulously placed. I remember thinking “there’s no way Square Enix can keep this up,” and yet every city elicited the same response. Junon, Nibelheim, even the hovel under Junon. I wanted to live there, even for just a moment. I could imagine the day to day happenings in every city, the common sounds and smells. And somehow this continued, unabated, for eighty hours.

Junon has never looked better.

None of this would matter, of course, if the cast of characters inhabiting the world fell flat, but the performances and presentation are exceptional. Much has been said, and deservedly so, about Britt Baron, Brianna White, and Cody Christian (who play Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud respectively), but I have to set my highest praise on two others in Rebirth. Suzie Yeung as Yuffie perfectly embodies the brazen, egotistical gremlin, so much so I can hardly imagine anyone else playing the part. This is, I think, one of the harder performances to get right. It would’ve been quite easy for Yuffie to become an absolute cringe demon if not reigned in, and Suzie finds the sweet spot.

As for the other, John Eric Bentley as Barret gets a broader range in Rebirth than he had in Remake, as most of Barret's personal trials and tribulations happen here. Bentley not only crushes the more melodramatic moments on the low end, but sells the comedic beats as well. There are at least three major sections of Rebirth where Bentley’s performance had to stand alone, and stand alone it did.

Perhaps the greatest adjustment from the original is the increased focus on interpersonal connection. Cloud does very little alone now — any major event he once did solo, he’s now joined by members of the cast. In addition to giving these characters more to do, it provides more moments of connection. Cloud not only gets to know his little band of weirdos better, he also has more meaningful conversations and interactions with his found family. There’s a simplicity to the script I appreciated from start to finish, where nothing feels belabored. People say everything they need to in only a handful of words. Sometimes, they say enough with no words at all.

Cloud and Tifa channel some big K-Drama energy.

This increased focus on interpersonal connection translates to the gameplay as well. This time around, everyone gets an opportunity to play the lead and show off. Yuffie grapples around mountainsides, Aerith channels magic, and Red XIII scrambles along walls. Every character has a plethora of tag team combinations, called Syncronization Abilities, which pack a significant wallop. There’s more going on in their individual combat toolsets too, so much so that after 100 hours I still felt there was more to learn on everyone. The materia combinations become intoxicating; with a few simple steps any character becomes a powerhouse in their own right. While none of the main story felt particularly challenging until closer to the end, there’s plenty of bite to be found beyond the credits. There’s a whole plethora of challenging boss fights, and a hard mode waiting for real masochists.

The new synergy attacks do wonders to open up your options in combat... And look cool as hell.

Rebirth captured the original so well that I felt the same childlike wonder every step closer to Sephiroth. I’m eager to see what comes next as we finally close out this series.

1. Balatro

Never doubt the power of a simple, well-executed concept.

As I contemplated what game should take the top spot, I ran into a conundrum — most of the games I adored this year were remakes of beloved classics. Yes, the work done to bring them to life is substantial and impressive, yes, they are both mind blowing experiences in their own right... but both also had an existing framework to iterate upon. Even Astro Bot, while a nearly perfect game, has the entire history of PlayStation to draw upon in an endless gamut of references. So I asked myself, while I love these games, which game on my shortlist represents more of what I want to see in the industry?

And so, despite my reverence for all things narrative-driven, somehow we find ourselves here. A game made by a single person as a side project that somehow caught the attention of the entire world. Balatro is just that good.

The fire effect on big numbers is real good.

Balatro, to put it simply, is roguelike poker. The goal is to make enough from a hand to advance to the next round, and the bar for each round gets higher and higher. By just playing normal poker you’re unlikely to get there, but fortunately, there’s a whole array of jokers to select that’ll help you break the rules. Want diamonds to count twice? There’s a card for that. Ever been missing a single card in a straight? Don’t worry, there’s a joker to make that missing number irrelevant. Heck, ever wished you could just somehow make a meaningless hand good? There’s a card for that too.

The end result is maybe the most addicting solo card game in history. Every run, you’re adding new cards to your deck, buying jokers, swapping things around, all in an effort to create self-perpetual, chip-generating hands. And when it works, it feels great to see that number climb higher and higher.

There’s a bunch of unlockable cards for future runs.

Presentation takes this one the extra mile. Balatro could’ve simply told you your end result, but instead, it counts each card individually, then counts it again. And again, if your jokers will it. And then the count gets faster and faster, until the numbers light on fire. It’s simple, but it all sends the message loud and clear — you did it right. You’re on to something big. And, if you really go big, eventually the game has to start counting in exponents. It’s simple, quaint, and genius.

The boss blinds bring about all sorts of complications.

Mark my words: Balatro will be my generation’s version of Window's Solitare. You won’t be able to find a phone, tablet, or computer without it.

Other Awards

Rather than my usual final categories, I thought I’d bring back a Tilting at Pixels classic. Since The Game Awards amended their rules this year, I thought, why not do the same? Please enjoy some new categories I made up on the fly. Why? Because the world is on fire so I’ll make my own rules now.

Best Game I Didn’t Finish and Wanted to Give an Award to Anyway

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

I have two strict personal rules regarding the top ten list — I cannot include games still in early access, and I cannot include games I didn’t complete. This leads to a situation where at the end of the year, I often spend the holidays doubling back to titles I left in limbo. For games like 1000xResist and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, it’s feasible to sit down and close out a half-completed save in a few nights.

For Infinite Wealth? Absolutely not.

Kiryu joins the party this time around, and it’s a treat.

In fact, I would say you should never be like me when it comes to the Yakuza games. You’re best off taking your time, following whatever lead strikes your fancy. Some of the best content in is always off the beaten path, triggered by talking to some NPC hanging out on the beach. Or you can wander into an arcade and kill an hour or two playing Sega arcade games, but within the confines of Yakuza.

Even though it didn’t make the list, I needed to take a moment and say if you’ve ever thought about playing a Yakuza game, you couldn’t go wrong here. Ichiban is an excellent protagonist to carry the mantle, and these games continue to be absolutely packed with content. In terms of a dollar to time investment ratio, Infinite Wealth could keep you entertained for half a year.

Best Performances in an Otherwise Terrible Game

Alone in the Dark

How many goddamn times is Alone in the Dark going to get remade? Can we accept this lineage is cursed yet? While Silent Hill and Resident Evil live their best lives in the modern age, Alone in the Dark flails around, dies, then goes dormant for seven years until another ill-fated studio decides to try their hand at a reboot. This time the cross fell on Pieces Interactive, and it fell hard; so hard, the studio closed a month later. There’s moments of promise here and there, but overall, this is a very bog-standard horror game with simplistic puzzles and weak combat.

However, by some miracle, Pieces got David Harbour and Jodie Comer to play the roles of Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood. Casting professional television or film actors in games doesn’t always translate to success mind you, but this time? This time, it worked out great. David and Jodie do an exceptional job at their respective roles, so much so it's all that kept me going. Suffering through another combat encounter where my bullets felt like paper was always worth David Harbour interrogating another cagey maid or chasing some far-fetched lead like a deranged madman.

Alone in the Dark has some impressive mocap performances.

Game That Feels Like it was Supposed to Come Out Ten Years Ago (in a Good Way)

Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a great single player RPG adventure, despite the fact many of its design decisions feel dated. You and your crew travel to different regions full of different elemental topography to explore, bash goblins, and save villages.There’s not a lot of depth or nuance here, but sometimes, that’s exactly what you want. Just a group of good people doing good things, killing cartoonishly evil bad guys and monsters to save innocent townspeople.

Its design sensibilities, from the levels to the dialogue, all feel like they’re from a breakout title on the Xbox 360 in 2007. But you know what? Those types of games don’t get made much these days, and if they do, they’re live service games full of gacha pulls and an endless material-gathering rat race. It was nice to play something that felt like a return to the past, before every game had to be an endless nightmare of battle passes and pull banners.

There’s something very funny about a long standing gacha franchise becoming a normal anime fantasy adventure.

Game That Feels Like it Was Supposed to Come Out Ten Years Ago (in a Bad Way)

Foamstars

Remember when Battle Royales first became huge, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie? PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite, Escape from Tarkov, and even Call of Duty were all in an arms race to be the new definitive Battle Royale. And, in an effort to all one-up each other, they all came out within a few years of each other.

You know what’s not a good idea? To try to get in on the trend a decade later.

It is painfully obvious Foamstars is trying to eat Splatoon’s lunch, but the thing is, Splatoon already finished its lunch. The bell rang, it's off to the next class, and Foamstars is there wondering where everyone went, holding an empty paper bag.

It’s entirely possible Foamstars is a fun game, or does something unique... But no one will ever know, because the people who play Splatoon have already been playing it for two console generations. Godspeed, brave pop star inspired Foamstar soldiers. All four of you. We will play you into the foamy deep.

Best Game No One Asked For

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

Nobody on the planet hoped and prayed for a spiritual successor to the legendarily bad Zelda CD-i games, but Seedy Eye Software made it anyway. You beautiful, crazy bastards. I could kiss you, every last one of you.

I really don’t know what to say except they succeeded. Arzette perfectly emulates the busted, jittery art style, so much so I damn near felt like I needed to check for a LaserDisc player. Bravo, I say. Bravo. The industry needs more of this unhinged energy.

Best Game Nobody Played

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

One of the stranger releases this year, Kunitsu-Gami is a mix of action, tower defense, and real-time strategy all deeply steeped in Japanese mythology.

While not the most polished, it's certainly one of the more original concepts Capcom put out this year. Your active combat has some tight controls and simple combos, but you’re also tasked simultaneously with commanding units about the field to ward off evil spirits and seal torii gates. The creature designs and visual presentation are really exceptional, especially for a budget title.

(Be honest, you expected Concord to be here, right? Alas, it’s impossible to say if it deserved this award, because it shut down before I could even play it for meme purposes.)

Best Remaster

Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered

If you played the original Dead Rising, you might remember restarting the game several times before you made any progress. The original release took the “survival” in survival horror as a challenge, and every time you died, you either went back to your last save, or started the whole game over and retained your experience.

This created a huge pain in the ass of a game where the stakes were unbelievably high, as save points were few and far between. If you lost hours of progress, it became real appealing to just start the whole game over instead and try to put yourself in a better position. Take into account the whole world moves on an internal clock where if you don’t complete tasks in time you’re locked out of the entire story, and you’ve got yourself one punishing experience.

The Remaster preserves this style of play if you really want it, but by default, you can now play the definitive Zombie Mall Survival game like any other. The game checkpoints every time you load into a new zone, which means now the most progress you’ll ever lose is maybe five minutes. While the game still plays like the original (with some improvements to firearms), it looks unbelievably good for a nearly twenty year old game. The RE Engine continues to impress.

Worst Remaster

Lollipop Chainsaw: Repop

Just about every Suda 51 game is due for a remaster, and this year we got two. Both fell short. Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered is at least acceptable — most of the negative response you’ll see is more a critique of the game itself aging poorly than anything else. So how could one get worse?

How about adding new particle effects that actually make the game unbearably slow? Visually, I actually like the silly rainbow afterimage Juliet leaves behind. However, this effect also slowed down her heavy attack animations, which makes certain bosses and enemies either tedious or impossible to fight. Add in the licensing issues — like the absence of the song “Mickey,” which used to play on every super activation — and you’ve got a remaster that might actually make the original more desirable.

If I can’t decapitate zombies while Baby Tate blares, why am I here?

The “Wtf That Came Out This Year?” Award

Clock Tower: Rewind

I don’t know why WayForward keeps getting first dibs to release Japanese-only SNES classics in the states, but I’m here for it. If you’ve played the Clock Tower series before, you’re probably thinking of a Playstation game. However, there was an SNES title before that, which makes the one we got here actually Clock Tower 2 in Japan. Go figure.

WayForward finally delivered an official translation of this SNES classic, complete with a few other bells and whistles added on (including the ability to rewind to an earlier moment, as the title implies). This makes it the first release of the original Clock Tower in the US, thirty years after the initial release.

The ACTION 52 Award

UFO 50

Back in 1991, a company called FarSight technologies released an ambitious and unlicensed title for the Genesis and NES called Action 52. As the name suggests, it was a massive collection of 52 games compiled onto one cartridge, sold at an exorbitant (and probably extortionary) pice.

What a deal.

This year, Mossmouth asked and answered the question “what if Action 52 had been good?”

There’s something for everyone in here.

UFO 50 is a giant collection of fifty NES inspired titles, and the scope is absolutely staggering. While some are relatively simple, a surprising amount are fully realized games that will take twenty hours or more to complete. These games blend genres and tropes together in unexpected ways, such as the horror RPG Grimstone, or the strategy shuffleboard game Lords of Diskonia. Unlike Action 52, which was barely fit for human consumption, there’s something for everyone here.

Best Survivor Clone

Karate Survivor

I played three Survivor style clones this year, all of them great. League of Legends absolutely crushed it with their Anima Squad mode, but I couldn’t tell how much of my enjoyment simply came from finally having a way to play League without nine other people inventing new slurs in chat. Holocure! Save the Fans is a free game that’s been out for a while, and while quite good, it is packed full of Vtuber references that are lost on me. I have no idea why anything is happening, why the weapons are what they are, or what I’m even attacking — but, the addition of supers and precision aiming to the Survivor formula makes it quite fun to play.

In the end, I have to give it to Karate Survivor, largely because of an innovative approach to progression. Honestly, your first couple runs... Kinda suck. You can’t really do much except land a few ineffectual strikes. However, as you progress you don’t just increase stats, you unlock new methods to use the environment. Soon you’re throwing bottles, kicking chairs, catching knives, diving over desks. It perfectly captures the feeling of a classic Jackie Chan movie, and in doing so, sets itself apart from the plethora of Survivor-style clones out there.

The “We Have Overwatch At Home” Award

Marvel Rivals

Ever since Blizzard slapped a 2 in front of Overwatch and ran it into the ground, I’ve been on the hunt for a new shooter to tickle the same itch. Now we have Marvel Rivals, an absolutely shameless facelift starring Marvel characters. Normally I’d say aping another game’s style this egregiously is a recipe for disaster, not unlike Foamstars above, but Marvel Rivals picked up the hot iron Blizzard dropped when Overwatch 2 failed to perform. If Splatoon 3 had bombed and Nintendo had taken the servers for the other Splatoon games offline forever too, maybe Foamstars would’ve had a chance.

Whatever the cause for its success, Marvel Rivals gives me the same joy the original Overwatch used to. Shameless or not, Marvel Rivals is now poised for success. Now to see if it can stay excellent, or if it patches itself into oblivion.

Best Star Wars Experience for Anyone Who’s Sick of Jedi

Star Wars: Outlaws

If you enjoyed The Mandalorian, I’d say you owe it to yourself to check out Star Wars: Outlaws. Sure, there’s plenty of negative commentary out there (much of it accurate), but the positives make up for all the blemishes in spades. While the vast majority of popular Star Wars games focus on the iconic Spiritual Space Samurais, Outlaws instead has you laser-gunslinging and spaceship-blasting your way across the galaxy.

Along the way you’ll make many friends, and also get plenty of opportunities to betray those friends, who will betray you in turn. It’s all part of the Star Wars Scoundrel experience.

Most Anticipated 2025 Title

Holstin

The demo for Holstin is maybe the most “demoy” demo to ever demo in 2024, complete with the characters breaking the fourth wall repeatedly to remind you what you’re experiencing is more a proof of concept. Even the level select is a breakdown of which mechanics you’d like to experience, like a pitch deck for a presentation.

That said, just look at this.

The first time I drew a gun in the demo, I was floored. Everything feels like an old point and click adventure, but the seamless perspective shift reminds you otherwise. In a horror setting, this has potent and terrifying potential.

Best Horror Game To Feature No Monsters Except the Dark Truths Within Mankind’s Own Heart

Mouthwashing

There were plenty of traditional horror experiences this year, even other retro-inspired ones. Mouthwashing, however, is more reminiscent of movies like Sunshine or Event Horizon, where our true enemy is ourselves. Say hello to the crew of the Tulpar, who are now stranded in the far reaches of space. When the game starts, they all know they’re screwed. The ship has crashed, and all that’s left to do is circle the drain until they find out what runs out first — power, food, or sanity.

Mouthwashing excels at disclosing world-shattering information at a steady clip, the kind that makes you look back on the story so far in a new way. Forget just an unreliable narrator, the whole damn crew is unreliable in their own individual ways — some by choice, some by denial, and others because they’re literally bedridden and unable to speak. Whatever you think the story is gets upended over and over again as you bounce around in time, piecing events together in a twisted, tragic puzzle.

Unlike Listerine, this game will not leave you feeling refreshed. Excellent, horrifying, dystopian, and poignant. At the edge of the universe, no one can hear Curly scream.

Most Insane Lore Rabbit Hole I Fell Down

Shadow the Hedgehog’s Backstory

This is the same year a Silent Hill 2 remaster came out, and yet... Here we are.

I don’t even know where to start. The last Sonic game I spent any real time with was the first Sonic Adventure. Since then, I’ve dabbled in a few others — Sonic Mania, some of the driving games — but the grander narrative has largely been lost on me. When the Sonic 3 movie approached, I decided to dig in and see what I missed.

What I found made me feel like I was astral projecting into another reality.

(For those of you who played Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Adventure 2 this next part will be old hat, but please, just take a minute to imagine what it’s like to learn all this in the year 2024.)

Did’ja all know Shadow The Hedgehog was created in a lab? I sure didn’t. Did you know his only friend was a nine year old girl named Maria, who is also Robotnik’s Granddaughter? Again, not me. At no point did I assume Dr. Robotnik reproduced, let alone that his kids had kids. Did you know Maria had a terminal illness and the only way she could survive was to live on a space station? Yes? No?

This is an official image from the latest Sonic game. I’m losing my mind.

And did you know when an organization hilariously called G.U.N. decided Shadow was too dangerous to be left alive, they sent assassins to the Space Ark and gunned her down? Did you get that? G.U.N., “the Guardians of the United Nations,” gunned down a little girl — who, I will remind you, is biologically related to Dr. Robotnik — in front of Shadow the Hedgehog.

Truly this was the part Keanu Reeves was born to play.

And so now, I leave you, with all this cursed Shadow the Hedgehog knowledge. You'll need about a year to process all that... And by then, a new list will be waiting for you. In the meantime, someone please tell me it isn't worth looking into the backstory of every Sonic character to see if they're all this loony. Please.

An interview with Singer, Songwriter, and Game Composer Megan McDuffee

Trevor — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Like many, my first exposure to Megan McDuffee's work was the original River City Girls soundtrack in 2019. It stood out in a way many game soundtracks didn't that year; The synth beats and smooth vocals perfectly fit the pastel-colored, kick-ass River City World. Since its release, "The Hunt" in particular has kept a spot warm on a Spotify playlist. Since then, McDuffee's career has only continued to grow. She's composed soundtracks and songs for Aeon Drive, River City Girls 2, River City Girls Zero, the Atari Recharged collection, and more recently, Yar's Rising and Streets of Rogue 2.

How she found time to answer our questions somewhere in there, I'll never know, but I'm grateful she did.

Photo above from "Hostile Takeover," a Cyberpunk inspired album full of corporate dystopian synthwave beats.

Trevor: First off, a few simple questions. Favorite Rocky Horror Picture Show song? (As a show of solidarity, mine is "Sword of Damocles.")

Megan: "Sweet Transvestite."

T: How many times did you attend a midnight screening?

M: Only once, actually! But many more that weren't at midnight, or were actual stage performances.

T: First instrument you learned?

M: Piano.

T: Favorite musical? (I'll accept movies.)

M: Does Labyrinth count as a musical? In general I'm not really a musical fan, but if I have to choose, "Sweeney Todd." The intro orchestral theme is incredible.

Why yes, we do allow Labyrinth around here.

T: One video game score and one film score that have stuck with you forever?

M: This is such a tough one, seeing as I was heavily influenced by both film and game scores (and made it my life's work). One game score I find myself coming back to over and over again is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's also one of my favorite games. And for film scores, the vocal songs and instrumental scores by David Bowie and Trevor Jones are permanently cemented in my brain in the best way.

T: I think it's safe to say you've always been passionate about music, but how did your career begin?

M: Indeed it is! I've been immersed in music studies and performance my entire life. So I suppose you could say it started at six years old when I performed at my first grade talent show. As far as actual profession though, when I graduated the University of Santa Cruz with a Film Scoring major and Electronic Music minor I started hustling and looking for any opportunity to compose that I possibly could.

T: When did your connection to WayForward form?

M: I always call this my networking miracle. Many years ago (around 2015-ish), I was part of a group of musicians called the “Materia Collective.” This was a network of composers, songwriters, arrangers, instrumentalists, etc. with a love of video game music. One prolific composer by the name of Dale North happened to be good chums with folks at WayForward, and at one point they had a conversation about an upcoming title. They expressed interest in finding someone with a synthpop sensibility, and Dale mentioned me. At this point I didn’t realize that Dale even knew who I was, let alone recommended me for a job! WayForward took a listen to my work, loved it, and our partnership was born.

T: In River City Girls 2, the lyrical songs you composed reflect each antagonist's greater motivations and attitudes leading up to their boss fights. How much information on these characters did you have going into River City Girls 2 in order to write these tracks? Did you have a full script to work with, or were these composed largely based on early design documents?

M: I had a basic description of each boss/villain character and what their whole personality and vibe was. I also had character artwork. So between the descriptions and art, I had enough to go on.

Tsuiko, the social media savvy menace, mocks players incessantly in "Your Like."

T: Sticking with River City Girls 2, there's an incredible collaboration track called "River City Anthem" credited to you, Mega Ran, DJ CHiEF, and the Microphone Misfitz. How does a track with that many collaborators come together?

M: I actually didn’t have anything to do with that track, other than mastering it alongside the rest of the soundtrack. My name is only on there to avoid the “various artists” black hole on streaming services.

Mega Ran himself makes an in game cameo as the song plays.

A brief aside — since Megan couldn't comment much on "River City Anthem" I reached out to DJ CHiEF, who graciously provided some insight on how this track came together.

Trevor: Who approached who first about getting a group together for the River City Anthem?

Dj CHiEF: Oh man, that's a good question. Mega Ran was the one who brought us all in, and he already had an idea about what to do for the track. We'd all worked together — me, Mega Ran, The Microphone Misfitz, D-Nick — on "Keep Watching" before. The Microphone Misfitz do Breakin' songs, you know, they come from that world. So we used that style for River City Anthem.

T: Did you have any direction from WayForward about what they wanted, or did you guys have a lot of freedom to do your own thing?

Dj: We knew it was a sequel so we looked at at the original, and that helped inform the track — we knew it would be upbeat, humorous, a brawler. After that, it came together in elements. We brought in the lyrics from Mega Ran, and then The Microphone Misfitz and D-Nick came in with the chorus. The record scratch break down at the end, it's funny, it was the first sound I'd recorded for the track and it became the sound we built the track around. If you ever catch the Microphone Misfitz live, it's really cool, their dancers use that scratch breakdown on stage.

DJ CHiEF and The Microphone Misfitz provided this video of a live performance of River City Anthem, complete with said dances. A big thanks to Dj CHiEF and The Microphone Misfitz! We now resume our previously scheduled interview.

T: In terms of more recent WayForward releases — Prior to Yar’s Rising, you also worked on the Atari: Recharged soundtrack. Did the songs you composed for Yar’s Revenge: Recharged help inform any of your work in Yar’s Rising, or did you approach it with a fresh start?

M: The brief was quite specific for Yar's Rising; I was to produce three tracks, the third of which was supposed to reference my soundtrack for Yar's Recharged. So in that one track, I took melodies from “Army of One” and re-vamped them to fit the Yar's Rising musical aesthetic.

T: How many revisions would you say a song goes through before it reaches a state you'd call "finished?"

M: It really depends and varies greatly. Many times I’ll finish composing and producing the track, and make no changes other than tweaking the final mix a few times. Other times I’ll have somewhere in the ballpark of five versions before moving on to the mix stage. I’ve been fortunate that my clients are usually quite happy on version one of any particular delivery!

T: How many would you say it took for “Hacking My Brain?”

M: Once I was satisfied with the song (which took about three or four sessions of getting it the way I wanted), I sent it off. WayForward and Atari didn’t have any revisions actually, they liked it exactly as I delivered it!

Hacking my Brain is a catchy beat you’ll hear frequently while exploring Yar’s technofunk city.

T: On another note, I have to imagine your scores and songs are composed and done long before the game sees release. How long was it between finalizing your contributions in Yar’s Rising and the actual release?

M: About eight months.

T: Have you managed to play every game you've composed for?

M: Not yet!

T: How does your approach change between recording your own work and composing for a game?

M: My approach is pretty similar, actually. When I’m tasked with a game score, I’m typically given a brief and reference music to analyze before diving in. When I’m working on my own artist releases, I essentially give myself a brief just like I’d get from a game studio. I find that being presented with limitless possibilities is kind of daunting, so deciding on tone, vibe, instrumentation, and song theme beforehand really helps narrow down what I want to create.

T: In 2019, you did a handful of cover songs for an EP dubbed “Barely Covered.” Have you considered doing another cover album of some kind since? Which songs would be on your short list?

M: Funny you should ask! What started as an experiment on Instagram now has folks clambering for a cover album from me. I began posting performances, covering 90’s and 00’s songs in a dark synthy style. My follower count grew exponentially, and now I’m releasing the cover songs in full once per month. While no album is in the plans per say, I will definitely release them as singles.

Ed. - Shortly after this interview, two singles dropped. "Don't Speak" and "Californication" are now available on Spotify.

T: By the time this article is up, your latest album, "Crimson Legacy", will be available. How would you describe "Crimson Legacy"? What would you call the overall theme?

M: "Crimson Legacy" is my second album about two years in the making. It’s in a style I’ve always wanted to do — darker, edgier, and much more rock and industrial-oriented than any of my previous releases. I wanted to capture the essential weirdness and surreal quality to the strange 70’s-90’s movies I grew up with: Labyrinth, A Clockwork Orange, Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland, Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc. "Crimson Legacy" is a sinister delight, full of whimsy, lust, and revenge. It’s for all my fellow witches, warlocks, weirdos, and creatures of the dark corners of the earth.

Megan, channeling that dark energy in the "Your Demise" music video.

T: If you had to pick a standout track on "Crimson Legacy", which song would it be?

M: Oh gosh, this is so impossible. I try to create albums with no weak links, and every song being my favorite. I guess based on the reception from my fans, I'll go with "Your Demise."

T: When it comes to looking to your future, you’ve got a strong connection to horror — I’ve stumbled across a few of your independent horror compositions, your work is in the trailers for Annihilation and The Predator, and you're a narrator for the Podcast "Creepy". Do you have any upcoming opportunities to compose the score for a horror game? And if not, do we need to get the word out?

M: Ah yes, I very much love horror! I did the soundtracks to the RetroRealms’ Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Halloween games that were released recently. But yes, please do get the word out. I’d absolutely die happy working on something like Dead Space or Doom, or even something really cool and indie. That would be tremendous.

T: Are there any musicians in the game industry (colleagues, collaborators, or otherwise) you'd like to shout out or call attention to?

M: I have soooo many talented colleagues and collaborators! I'll drop a few names for you: Dale North, Ben Prunty, Simon Chylinski.

T: And finally, do you have any advice for aspiring game composers?

M: Produce and compose consistently to hone your skills, network your ass off, and be more persistent than you thought you could be. "Overnight successes" are usually a decade in the making, but you can do it as long as you don't give up.

A big thank you to Megan McDuffee for her time. You can hear her latest track in the River City Girls 2 Double Dragon DLC, with Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan on vocals. For those interested in a career in game composition, she's provided more detailed advice below.

Yar’s Rising: Hacking My Brain

Trevor — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Yar’s Rising is a curious product. After finishing the game, my mind swirled with a million questions, chief among them... Why Yar?

For the uninitiated, Yar’s Revenge is a 1982 Atari game with a whacky plot about a war between space bugs, the Qotile versus the Yars. It wasn’t just about killing all the Qotile on screen, you also had to engineer certain situations to make their bases vulnerable, which helped it stand out from other space shooters like Space Invaders and Defenders. Between 1982 and now, Yar has had one other entry, Yar's Revenge: Recharged, part of a comprehensive Atari remake collection.

First Yar needs to nibble down the wall, then you gotta enter the Ion Field to activate the Zorlon Cannon. Good luck figuring out which collection of pixels is which.

I’ve seen many reviews of Yar’s Rising call it soulless, uninspired, or a paint-by-numbers Metroidvania cash grab, and I can’t agree. Not even a little. Two major facts fly in the face of narrative.

First off, there’s far too much evidence of legitimate, good faith effort. The story, writing, character designs, and music all convey a tremendous passion and care. The voice actors are giving this whacky plot their all, the scenery pops with a neon, techno-punk aesthetic, and Emi "Yar" Kimura has a carefully crafted failgirl personality. The perfect ditzy doofus to fumble through an adventure.

Major story beats are told via comic panels. Like any good failgirl heroine, the story opens with Yar late on her first day.

And second, if you wanted to try and slap a licensed property on a soulless Metroidvania to make quick money, that licensed property would not be Yar’s Revenge. Yar’s Revenge is so old, the average millennial wouldn’t be the one to buy this out of pure nostalgia, nor their parents — their fucking grandparents would. And if they did, the average grandparent would be confused and annoyed by all the modern lingo a rambunctious team of young adult cyberterrorists use. Only the hacking mini-games would resemble the original title they fondly remember playing on their Atari 2600 consoles, now sitting in a basement caked in a thick cigar smoke, cocaine residue still lingering on the grill.

More on how Yar’s Rising remixes these old stages later.

Based on the sales figures and steam analytics, we will probably never get a Yar’s Rising sequel. Nonetheless, after finishing the game, I have some thoughts on what I’d love to see from a hypothetical sequel we're unlikely to get.

Metroidvania Yar

A familiar sight.

At first I was mystified by this choice, turning Yar’s Revenge into a Metroidvania. I had to ask, “what does this have to do with the source material? After forty years, Why even call this Yar anything?” In practice, it worked far better than anticipated.

In most Metroidvanias, you unlock a new weapon or mobility option, and then previously inaccessible areas open. Yar’s Rising blocks your progress through two methods. Throughout the game there are consoles everywhere to hack. Every “hack” in Yar’s Rising is a bite-sized Yar’s Revenge level, or sometimes a collection of two or three challenges back to back. Upon success a door opens somewhere, or an elevator becomes operational, or you unlock some new charm or ability. This continues for the entire game.

The upgrade sequences are lavish and flashy.

I kept expecting this schtick to get old, but Yar’s Rising does an excellent job remixing classic Yar’s Revenge stages to keep you guessing. Sometimes you can’t shoot. Sometimes you're stuck autofiring. Sometimes you’re dodging missiles, or raindrops. Other times there’s nothing to shoot at all, and you’re navigating a maze instead. None of these challenges overstay their welcome, and it’s for the best. The authentic Yar’s Revenge experience would not hold anyone’s attention for several hours these days, let alone the seven or so it took to finish Yar’s Rising.

During all the hacking sequences, Emi makes some choice expressions in the corner.

All these retro references culminate in an amusing gag near the conclusion, where “Phillip Ong” hacks your system and you battle... in a game of pong. Phillip Ong. P. Ong. How the hell did I miss that?

This got me thinking — in a future Yar’s Rising game, it would be extremely cool to see the Atari reference scope expand to more than Yar’s Revenge. I’d like to see Wayforward’s creativity unleashed on Paperboy, Battlezone, Pitfall!, Night Driver, Defender, all the like. I could easily see Wayforward coming up with clever inversions across every Atari classic, and I can feel the desire already permeating in Yar’s Rising.

Heck, one of the bosses is literally named Missile Commander.

Flex Your Wings

Like any Metroidvania, Yar gains access to new movement and weaponry options throughout the game. All these upgrades are based on existing mechanics in the original Yar’s Revenge — by the time you unlock a new attack, you’ve seen its equivalent in the hacking mini-games already. Thematically, this is genius.

Functionally, however, I’m less impressed. Most of the upgrades are relatively predictable; a stronger shot, a missile, a double jump. I kept waiting for one of these upgrades to really wow me, but they never quite got there. Even as I barreled towards the conclusion, I just unlocked an even bigger charge shot.

The boss fights do a decent job forcing you to use all your tools, simple though they may be.

If by some miracle we get another Yar’s game, I’d love to see some outrageous upgrades. What if instead of referencing Yar’s Revenge, they had a broader thematic message? What if in the early game you can only fire in 4 directions, but later unlock 8-way aiming for more precision? (Savvy players would recognize this as a reference to arcade hardware and the move from 4-way to 8-way joysticks.)

Rather than Yar’s Rising functioning as a vehicle for one series, it could parallel the way games evolved to go along with the bustling retro aesthetic.

Let Emi "Yar" Kimura be Emi "Yar" Kimura

As the resident Yar’s Rising enjoyer, I must also come to the defense of the script and voice talent. Whenever I found the action subpar or the exploration moot, the silly quips and lighthearted banter kept me going. Much must be said for Jenny Yokobori’s performance, because at least 60% of the game is Emi “Yar” Kimura talking to herself — and by god, she sold it. Every meta joke about the seemingly endless array of laser walls got me good. At one point, Emi adopts a mocking tone and pretends to be some laser distribution warehouse service rep, shipping out lasers by the dozen.

Gags about Qotech’s excessive security measures persist all game.

I see complaints about Emi’s endless need to yap and quip, but without it, Yar’s Rising loses something special. Without this dedication to character, it moves closer to what more critical voices already see. Plenty of reviews have called out Yar’s Rising for merely acceptable design — "competent and forgettable", as Gamesradar put it.

When looking at the mechanics in a vaccuum I’m hard-pressed to disagree, but when looking at everything else I’m no longer convinced. There’s a charm here, a heart to the script, the voice acting, the writing. Yar’s Rising was enjoyable because of these elements, and if removed or lessened in some way, then you have a Metroidvania with no redeeming qualities.

Even during the boss fights, she can’t help herself.

So, in a hypothetical sequel, I want more absurd Emi monologues. More meta-jokes about the absurd security measures, guards who only patrol thirty square feet at a time, or how impossible it must be for any worker to go about their day when surrounded by eighty lasers and thirteen kill drones shooting on sight. If she wants to monologue for fifteen minutes straight, roleplaying as shift leader for all the murderbots chasing her down, let her.

I’m Delighted Yar’s Rising Exists, Even Though Maybe it Shouldn’t

It’s a weird thing to say, I know. The sad truth is as soon as WayForward knew they were making a Yar's Revenge game, I have to believe they knew it wouldn’t be on any GOTY lists. They’ll be lucky if it lands on any list at all. Their best bet is to cross their fingers and hope grandparents buy it for their grandkids as a Christmas present based on name recognition alone.

But after finishing Yar’s Rising I was struck with yet another thought — how lucky are we? Someone at Wayforward cared enough about this old Atari game to give it their all, knowing it probably wouldn’t do well.

Every creative element of this game — the music, the voice acting, the dopey script — all feels intentionally designed and created by a team of people who really gave a shit. Sure, the mechanics don’t stick with me, but you know what does? Megan McDuffee’s “Hacking my Brain,” a catchy beat which serves as the title theme. The ingenuity of Yar’s costume design, and the way she slowly becomes more and more bug-like with each act. The improvisational and casual tone Yar takes with everyone in her life, at the best and worst of times. Blasting stuff may have been the primary activity in Yar’s Rising, but everything surrounding it is what I cherished.

When the game starts Yar sports the company T-shirt, then later dons this jacket with buglike wing flourishes on the sleeves.

We’ve played a lot of bad games around here, so I’ll assert some authority and say I can tell when a property is phoned in. This ain’t one of em. From beginning to end, I never doubted for a second that everyone who touched Yar’s Rising loved what they made... and the painful truth is, sometimes it’s not enough. Yar’s Rising is here to remind us there’s passionate people down here in the trenches, putting their heart and soul into a game that, at the time of writing, has no current players at all and an all time high of forty-three concurrent players on Steam.

Yar’s Rising makes no sense. Adapting an ancient Atari property into this dual Metroidvania, old Atari game hacking extravaganza with sick beats, slick cybertech costumes, and meddling young adults is beyond nonsensical. I cannot fathom why you would ever do it. And yet, like Daniel Craig in Knives Out, I’m confounded and compelled at the same time.

It may not be Game of the Year material, but that’s okay. Not everything needs to be. Yar’s Rising doesn’t deserve the negativity, and it certainly doesn’t deserve any descriptor close to “soulless” or “cash-grab”. There’s something special here. Something worth defending, something this industry needs more of. Too many games today are either massively budgeted Triple-A monstrosities, or developed by one passionate dev in a garage. This industry needs a middle ground, a middle tier held up by creative people capable of building more with less. If sales figures won’t save Yar, the next best hope is someone like me, willing to stake a claim and spread the word.

We named our website based on a fictional man who dreamed large, and I cannot think of a more quixotic idea than hoping to make a Yar’s game work in 2024... except maybe cheerleading for a sequel.

May both our dreams come true, Wayforward.

Yar’s Rising is available now on Switch, Steam, Playstation, and Xbox for $29.99.

Sunset Devils: An Interview with Creator and Lead Designer, Andreas Illenseer.

Trevor — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My biases for all things Wild West are well documented on this website, so its no surprise a game like Sunset Devils caught my attention. Normally I make a note to try these games later and move on, but when I noticed the rather complex reloading UI element, it implied much more at work than the typical "spray-and-pray" approach to a top down indie shooter. I couldn't help but seek out answers on what to expect. I reached out to Sunset Devils lead creator and designer, Andreas Illenseer, to find out more.

Trevor: First off, I thought I’d ask how long the game has been in development.

Andreas: Actively, probably since around 2019, with lots of pauses between. I've had the idea and drawings for it a few years before that though. The first thing I designed was the protagonist, Red. Maybe around 2011.

T: Also, a question of personal intrigue — I noticed a fair amount of Guilty Gear fanart in your portfolio. Are you still out there climbing the stairway to Heaven?

A: Haha no, I haven't played in a while. Happy Chaos was the last Strive character I was really excited for, but the lobbies breaking got a bit grating. I still listen to the series' soundtrack frequently. I was really enjoying Granblue Versus: Rising when it came out though, and been meaning to get back into that. (I main Axl, by the way).

If you’ve played Guilty Gear, this bit of memery from Illenseer makes perfect sense.

T: Do you have a team over there, or is this a solo endeavor? And if anyone on the team wants to share, where can we find their other work?

A: I'm primarily the director, writer and artist. There's a programmer, a composer, and a few other people helping out here and there. Our composer is Sigmuu, here’s their Soundcloud.

T: What were your inspirations for Sunset Devils? Any specific games or movies that helped inform the world and design elements?

A: Lots of things. Classic spaghetti western movies obviously. Anything Sergio Leone was involved in, especially The Dollars movies and Once Upon a Time in the West. The Great Silence, The Big Gundown, and Django are some of my other favorites.

A: As far as games go, it’s flattering how often people compare Sunset Devils to Boktai. I do like Boktai 2 a lot. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is another game I really enjoy the gunplay, structure, and atmosphere of. And also this game called Lonely Star. It sadly only had a demo and its Kickstarter didn't meet its funding goal. I remember playing it around 2021 and being totally enraptured, there's a ton of direction inspiration I'm taking from that.

Lonely Star is extremely wild. I feel like I've played everything like it and nothing like it simultaneously. You can check out the demo for yourself here.

A: For books, Blood Meridian [by Cormac McCarthy]. Though I read it only relatively recently (and regrettably haven't finished it yet because it's a hard read), there's a lot in it I recognized was already in Sunset Devils. I also take a lot from anime/manga like One Piece and Trigun, and more esoteric stuff, like cryptid stories, legends, folklore and theological stuff.

T: What would you say is your favorite cryptid, and what was your favorite One Piece arc so far?

A: Tough one. I'll go with wendigos or skinwalkers if those count, because I think I've seen one last year. Favorite arc is also a tough one. I should say Dressrosa since Corazon is my favorite character, but I also liked Impel Down and Thriller Bark a lot. Also another thing I recalled that inspired me I should maybe mention... Homestuck. I have a very strong sense of nostalgia and hate for it, but it inspired my art heavily as a teenager. I got into drawing with pixelated brushes purely because of that comic.

T: Wait, take me back to the Wendigo sighting. What's the full story there?

A: It was kinda mundane, honestly. I was staying in a small town in canada for a few months and went outside for a smoke one night. I saw a tall figure walk past from around the corner of the building as I was walking to the backyard. really tall, emaciated and hunched over, dark long hair covering its face with two bright eyes peering through. back maybe covered in bits of hair or scales, it might've had a spiny tail. it looked like it was walking towards the fence to the neighbors' place and was just giving me a passing glance.

A: I only saw the thing for a split second as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, when I blinked it was gone. Still went and had my cigarette. It was good.

T: Perhaps the most unique element in the UI is the detailed revolver display in the bottom right, which implies a much more involved reloading process than other games. Can you walk us through what’s going on there?

A: Every gun has to be manually operated and cycled to fire, like real guns from that time period. So there's an input for loading, unloading, cocking the hammer, pulling the trigger, etc. Cocking the revolver for instance, you have to scroll your mouse wheel down to mimic the motion. Most guns have their own mode of operation and characteristics.

A: I came up with the system because I wanted to do the opposite of what most top down shooters were doing, where every gun is just kind of a bullet hose.

T: What kind of arsenal are we looking at?

A: I myself don’t know yet lol. But definitely a good variety of guns. The player always has access to their knife, and there'll be miscellaneous items to use and carry too. Every gun keeps its own ammo count and state of operation, but draws from the ammo pool the player has. Guns use different ammo types, some are easier to handle, others shoot farther... it'll be up to the player to decide which guns they wanna carry around and prioritize.

T: What are a few firearms it’s safe to confirm in Sunset Devils?

A: Definitely want a C96 Mauser and LeMat revolver in the full game.

T: Resident Evil fans will want to know — will there be a “knife only” achievement?

A: Knife only is something I think would be cool but might not be possible in the current demo. We’ll see!

T: How would you describe the structure of the game? Are we looking at something akin to an open world, or is this a more linear adventure?

A: Something in between. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or the 2D Zeldas are good examples. There'll be a relatively linear main story, but side missions and tasks will give the player more of a reason to explore.

T: What’s the timeline on the Kickstarter launch?

A: As soon as the demo is done. We're aiming for sometime in May.

T: Can you drop us a teaser on any scenes and action sequences you’re particularly proud of so far?

A: I'm interested to see what people think of the intro and story, and I'm excited to see how much people will struggle with the controls.

A big thank you to Andreas Illenseer for their time. You can keep an eye out for the Kickstarter launch here, and you can find the Sunset Devils Steam page here.

A Star Fox Retrospective

Trevor — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After acquiring Star Fox 64 from local retailer and stream partner Live Action Games, I found myself stunned at just how well this twenty-seven year old game stood up. Soon after, I took time to replay the whole Star Fox series. I couldn’t tell you why or how in the slightest — we go by vibes here. And this February, we were vibing with Star Fox. The series has a strong foundation... until around the mid 2000s.

Before we get to dunking on the, uh odder games in the series though, I thought it’d be best to start from the beginning.

Star Fox (A.K.A. Starwing)

Star Fox absolutely revolutionized a genre, bringing a bullet hell style game into the third dimension — and, quite frankly, pushed an older piece of hardware beyond its capabilities to do so.

As the story goes, the inspiration for Star Fox came from Miyamoto’s visits to the Fushimi Inari shrine in Japan. Walking through the gates was the impetus for the “corridor style” shooter, and, well... It's a fox shrine. The rest is easy enough to put together.

However, when lead programmer Jez San was presented with the idea of a 3D space shooter on the SNES, he made it quite clear the SNES was already doing the best it could. Enter the “Super FX” chip, a piece of hardware in every Star Fox cartridge designed to do the bulk of the work.

The Super FX was so powerful, The Star Fox team often joked the SNES was just a box to hold the chip.

I must confess, these days the game does not impress like it once did. The poor thing chugs along at ten frames a second, and that's when there aren't a billion things on screen. But in historical context, seeing this sort of gameplay on the SNES was mind blowing.

The story here is mostly told through the instruction manual. Curiously, in the original, team Star Fox didn’t even own their own Arwings. General Pepper of the Corneria army developed them, but didn’t have time to train any pilots. So he hires a mercenary unit to fly them and save his galaxy. Does this make any sense? At all? Why do these four mercs know how to fly this experimental spacecraft no one’s seen?

Who cares? Stop asking questions, start shooting.

Fox and the team mostly communicate through dopey sound effects. Every now and then your squadmates get chased and need a save. If they get taken out, they’re down for the rest of the game — but honestly, you’ll hardly notice. They barely ever help. At most, they sometimes throw a bomb or health ring your way for the trouble.

Everyone’s favorite(?) failfrog.

At the onset, you pick one of three routes to Venom: easy, medium, or hard. There’s no opportunities to deviate from the path, aside from one weird trick where you go off course and fight a slot machine.

Once you win the jackpot, it's actually game over. The credits roll, and team Star Fox gets lost in space and time forever. Dark.

There’s no way out from here. You get to shoot the credits forever until you finally turn the system off.

Aside from the slot machine, no matter what route you pick, it all ends with Andross — who, despite appearing like a monkey in his broadcasts, is a polyhedral silver face straight out of a bad 80’s music video.

The original Star Fox was very cool for its time, but the mere existence of the Super FX chip speaks to just how far Nintendo pushed a 3 MHz processor and 64 KB of RAM. To put it bluntly, The first Star Fox feels like a framework, a prototype. The ideas at play were simply too ambitious and far outstripped the available hardware.

Star Fox 64 (A.K.A. Lylat Wars)

When the team revisited the Star Fox concept on a piece of hardware capable of rendering all these lofty ideas, the real magic happened.

There’s a few alterations to the SNES story here. Team Star Fox are still mercenaries, but they actually own their own equipment. They also have their own flagship, the Great Fox, piloted by an Android named ROB (a reference to the original NES assistant). We also now have some lore. Some rock hard backstory. Fox McCloud’s father was also a former famous pilot, who went missing five years ago during the last battle against Andross. Peppy, your rabbit wingman, once flew alongside him. This will become apparent quickly, as he references your father on just about every occasion.

Weird observation, Pep.

The entire crew’s personalities are more refined compared to the original. Falco is an egotistical hotshot, Peppy is the level-headed tactician, and Slippy is an absolute fuck up. Just a trash frog. But, he also designed and developed all your tech, including the Arwing, so good for him.

In one other major change from the original, if someone on your crew goes down, they’re only temporarily out. ROB spends one mission fixing up their Arwing, and they rejoin you after. Aside from missing out on quips during a stage, you still won’t really notice when they’re gone... until Star Wolf shows up and you’re hounded by four ships at once.

Fighting team Star Wolf alone is absolute hell.

Multiple paths still exist, but they’re handled adaptively now. Instead of picking a route, success or failure determines the next destination. Sometimes this requires some kind of trick on the stage itself, and other times you simply need to perform a task within a certain amount of time or rack up enough kills.

Despite the on-rails nature of the gameplay, Star Fox 64 is absolutely full of repalibility. Depending on the route you take, you’ll see entirely different bosses, new characters, and even specialized vehicles. If you never end up on the hard route, for example, you’ll never see the Blue-Marine.

Falco has no faith in this thing.

And you might also never meet Katt, Falco’s old friend who is here to remind you at all times she is a woman. If the pink ship, pink background, pink indicator, and flitty music doesn’t tip you off, don’t worry — she’ll just tell you. And Falco.

Gotta love the 90s.

Mechanically, Star Fox 64 introduced several novel concepts to the series. First off, you can lock on and fire a homing shot, which is a godsend in a game this frantic. It’s not quite like Panzer Dragoon where you can fire off a whole barrage, but a well placed shot eliminates multiple targets. You'll even be rewarded with additional points for destroying multiple ships with one expertly placed charge shot.

The original had a boost and brake system, but Star Fox 64 takes the G-diffuser to new levels with U-turns and loops. The loops turn the tables on any tailing foes. U-turns, meanwhile, are only possible in All Range Mode, a new type of stage where instead of flying in a specific direction you’re given a square field to navigate.

During All Range Mode, the crew roams freely and a mini-map appears.

We also have an actual resolution this time! The original Star Fox just rolled credits and called it a day. This time team Star Fox gets a medal ceremony, then runs around in front of a sunset for a while.

And, of course, Genral Pepper has to pay up. Despite my best efforts, I can't even crack 100,000 dollars. Saving your whole galaxy for under 100k seems like an absolute steal, but Pepper complains anyway.

One steep bill, huh? Next time maybe I won’t bring an elite fighting force to save your galaxy, Pepper. How about that?

All these years later Star Fox 64 is still a treat — and, in my estimation, is the best in series. This is largely because Star Fox 64 lets Star Fox be fucking Star Fox. Now you might think that’s tautological, but we’re about to explore why, surprisingly, its not.

As the Star Fox series continued, it seemed ashamed to just be a good 3D evolution of the bullet hell genre. Now it had to innovate, but the ways the series chose to innovate were... curious.

And by curious, I mean bad. Well, mostly bad.

Let’s start with the very next game...

Star Fox Adventures

I mean, you barely need me to spell this one out, right? Just look at the screenshot. For anyone who's played this weird side story of a Star Fox game, it will not surprise you to learn it began life as a completely unrelated N64 game called “Dinosaur Planet.” At the same time Rare began working on a version of said game we would never see, Miyamoto requested the next Star Fox game be an action adventure platformer instead of a shooter. Once Nintendo got a look at Dinosaur Planet and noted some similarities in character designs, Rare got the greenlight to slap Star Fox on it, and also rebuild for the Gamecube.

The end result is a Star Fox game that throws out its entire legacy for an (admittedly decent) Zelda-esque game. It’s fine, but not recognizable as Star Fox. You do get a handful of Arwing missions, but it's painfully clear they weren’t the focus of development.

Painfully.

If you saw these out of context, you might think it's a homebrewed fan project. And if it was, it would be impressive... but it's not. They mostly exist to take the story to a new location, not unlike the Gummi Ship rides in Kingdom Hearts. A brief two or three minute detour before you return to the real game.

In the interest of fairness this entry is still beloved among Star Fox fans, but there's no denying it abandoned the series' existing framework. The next handheld entry took us back to the skies.

Star Fox Command

This one comes the closest to what I would’ve liked from a Star Fox sequel. The entire crew is now playable and then some. The cast is extensive this time around, featuring not only the main cast but an assortment of side characters and new crewmates. Their Arwings have a handful of differentiation, such as blaster styles and G-diffuser capabilities. Some ships handle on a dime, and some are beefy tanks. Much like the earlier games in the series, we also have a collection of different routes available. And this time, each route actually has a different ending entirely — the image above comes from one where Falco and Fox become successful racers after retirement. The endings are largely determined by which characters join your journey, which also means you'll get to swap between a bunch of different Arwings during missions too.

Too bad in order to control this assorted cast, you have to scribble on a goddamn screen.

During the command segments, you only have so many turns to knock out every objective. You’ll guide your crew to them with the DS stylus.

Command is split between two modes — an RTS style plotting game where you draw out the paths your crew will take, and a mode where you take direct control of said ship once it encounters an objective. During the battle section, your buttons do surprisingly little. Barrel rolling? Scribble fast on the left or right side of the screen. Aiming? Slide your stylus up and down. It’s a pain in the ass, makes precision aiming hard as hell, and underutilizes almost every button on the device.

Still the only game where the dream of playing as Bill is alive.

That said, I won’t deny I found aspects of this one enjoyable. The endings run the gamut from touching to absurd, the varied Arwings make it fun to replay, and the command sections get creative on how to complicate your ability to draw a line. It’s a solid game, but the dreadful controls hold it back from greatness.

Star Fox Assault

This one hurts the most.

Star Fox Assault starts strong. Flying the ship feels good, everything looks great, you’re blastin’ lasers in space. It’s Star Fox, baby. We’re back.

And then this bullshit happens.

You are going to spend the majority of the game on foot. If it looks promising, I regret to inform you it is not. As a gimmick for the N64 multiplayer, running around on the ground was fine. As a primary means of combat for a full single player game? Not so much. Enemies spawn off screen and blast you in the back. The grounded dodge roll feels funky and slow, and Fox often gets tagged with a stray hit when invincibility frames run out at the tail end. You do get access to the Landmaster thankfully, but it feels nowhere near as good to control as its N64 counterpart.

Of extra special insult is the “wing missions.” Instead of flying your own Arwing, Fox hangs out on the wing of a different Arwing and shoots things. All the fun of Star Fox, but without being able to move. Joy. Every single one of these goes on for way longer than it ought to, and your wingman flies about as fast as a kite in a light breeze.

The greatest tragedy of Assault is it could’ve had it all, but yet again, Star Fox tosses out what put it on the map for a bunch of gimmicky nonsense. And what’s worse, this entry throws out alternate routes too. This also means you can’t even try to avoid the bullshit ground missions, because they’re always going to be there. Waiting.

There’s a taste of greatness in Assault. But only a taste.

Star Fox Zero

You’ve got to be kidding me.

We waited for this one. Nintendo teased it repeatedly at the end of many a Direct showcase. No ground missions, no weird gimmicks, no Zelda UI. Just some good old fashioned space blasting. The footage looked absolutely amazing.

Too bad it controls like garbage though, because guess what? The only way to precisely aim is to use the gyroscope inside your Wii U gamepad.

What. The fuck.

Why? Why? There’s two joysticks on the controller. AND BUTTONS! So many buttons! But no, the only way to fly this time is to fling the tablet around the living room like you’re keeping an eye out for homicidal pizza-themed animatronics.

To add insult to injury, Star Fox Zero does feature co-op... in that one person flies and one person aims. But the aimer still has to use the Wii U pad (or a Wiimote) because of course they do. And while I’m at it, doesn’t this co-op mode feel kind of like a self-report? Isn’t it like saying “we made the controls so byzantine and torturous it requires two people to manage it?”

To further rub salt in those wounds, Star Fox Zero brings back ground missions. They aren’t quite as bad in terms of controls... but thematically, they are somehow stupider. I mean, real dumb.

Yeah, that right there? That’s the Arwing. Every now and then your wings morph into chicken legs and you march around the interior of a giant space station. A station so big, in fact, you probably could’ve just flown through it.

But no. Instead, we get chicken leg Arwings.

Ends up Star Fox 2 would’ve introduced both All Range Mode and the chicken Arwing... had it been released in a timely fashion and not 2017.

Mercifully, Star Fox Zero doesn’t pull out the chicken Arwing often, and it even gives you the opportunity to swap between the two forms on the fly. Thus, it’s not the most offensive thing in Star Fox Zero.

No, that honor goes to the Gyrowing. This detestable VTOL vehicle is forced upon you on two occasions, and every single time is too many. It generates no forward momentum of its own, and has an obnoxious little robot you’ll lower down on a tether the size of a bendy straw. And, for your first full-fledged mission with this hovering death trap, you’ll do it all in stealth. That’s right, this Star Fox game has a stealth mission.

During the Star Fox 64 Zoness mission, your task is to take out every search light on the planet’s surface. This remixed version has you sneaking around curiously well lit sewer cooridors instead. What the hell goes on down here that made it necessary to install 10,000 lumen lighthouse bulbs every three feet?

In the interest of fairness, I do have some nice things to say about Star Fox Zero. Actually controlling the Arwing feels great. The right stick controls your boosters, which gives you way more precision over boosts and breaks. It also looks incredibly sleek, even by today’s standards. During the normal missions, there’s plenty of fun to be had, and the motion controls are easy enough to manage during the standard corridor sections.

But then you’ll switch to “targeting mode,” where the Arwing moves sideways at all times and the only way to aim is to look at the gamepad and tilt like a goddamn pinball machine. This game just can’t help but step all over its best parts with terrible ideas. I hate it. I hate it so much.

It’s extra hard to hit a big glowing weak spot when you have to split your attention between two screens.

Nothing drives the nail in the coffin quite like the final stage. Here, you’re required to fight Andross and dodge lasers — which is all well and good, except you can only tell where the lasers are by looking at the gamepad. And, once you’re finally in the showdown with Andross, the only way to target him is with motion controls; Just turning the ship won’t get the reticle high enough. After certain attacks, he’ll swap your ship between Walker or Arwing mode, making an already disorienting fight downright dizzying. There’s neat ideas in this final conflict, but the motion controls and forced ship swapping turns it into a wide awake nightmare.

Much like Command, this entry is full of great ideas ruined by an adherence to byzantine control schemes. For every stage I enjoyed, there was another I prayed would end. If this game were re-released on the Switch without lousy motion controls, I would recommend it immediately. If it were released in the same state, I’d say the same thing I’ll say now: stay away. The handful of good missions are not worth the agony.

Star Fox Guard

This is a fucking tower defense game.

Listen, it’s fine — it uses the Wii U gamepad pretty well, but it's barely a Star Fox game. Though, at this point, there’s more outliers than originals, so what even is a Star Fox game now? Who cares? Bring on the Star Fox dating sim next or whatever.

If we turn to critical reception at the times of release, it's easy to see the downward trend after Adventures. Star Fox and Star Fox 64 took home high scores across the board, but from Command onward, review scores averaged out. In terms of sales, those also dropped off significantly — but to be fair, Star Fox Zero released on a console that sold abysmally too. If everyone who bought a Wii U also bought Star Fox Zero, it still would've only sold 3 million worldwide at the time (in the first month, Zero barely sold 25k).

So, after this disappointing tour of Star Fox history, it’s time to look forward. Some day, at some time, Nintendo will return to the Star Fox IP. I’m sure of it. When that day comes, here’s my wishlist.

1. No More Gimmicks

Please just let me fly an Arwing. Please oh please. God, please. I don’t want to have to wiggle a remote, scribble on a screen, or rotate a fucking tablet like a grandparent asking their grandkid how to open facebook. I just want to move a joystick and press a button to shoot.

2. Refine The Wheel Before Reinventing It

This one feels like the obvious answer all along, right? What if instead of three paths, we had five? Six? Or, what if you chose at the start of each mission who takes an Arwing and who takes a Landmaster? Maybe you even pick who you control, and their Arwing and Landmaster have unique properties. Now in addition to new routes, you also have new vehicles to experiment with. What kept you coming back to the first two Star Fox games was the variation in each run. I want things to improve replayability — for choices you make in previous worlds to come back in a later one, for mission failures to be a possibility again, for curiosity to be rewarded with a new path through a planet.

All of this would’ve been much preferred over a thousand new ways to fly our ship poorly.

3. More Optionality, Less Length

This one ties into the previous point. The appeal of Star Fox 64 is its brevity. The game is exactly as long as it needs to be to feel like the last great counteroffensive in a prolonged war. You can save the entire Lylat system in a breezy hour and a half at most, and that’s excellent. For some reason, every subsequent Star Fox game thought the best answer was to make sequels longer. Assault lost all variation, but racked up a seven hour run time. Zero retained some alternate paths, but these simply change how levels end instead of changing your course towards Venom entirely.

Star Fox ought to be a game you can beat in one sitting, but each time you do, there’s an opportunity to see and experience new things. During the development of Star Fox 64, a particular route was dubbed the “Miyamoto route,” because it was his favorite during playtesting. There’s not really any such thing as “favorite” now. Reducing twenty five potential paths to Venom down to one is an absolute tragedy that demonstrates a misunderstanding of what made the series appealing to begin with.

There is another world — an unlikely, yet tragic one — where we never get another good Star Fox game. If such tragedy is the bygone conclusion here, I'm happy to report we'll always have Star Fox 64. This game (and its 3DS re-release) is still just as exceptional as launch day, and just like its Super FX powered predecessor, its a powerful testament to just how far Nintendo could stretch 4 MB of RAM and a 93 MHz processor. Just once, we had the right people, in the right place, with the right hardware, at the right time.

Maybe we'll never see a good Star Fox again, but at least, even if only once in the whole series, Nintendo captured lightning in a bottle.

If purchasing an N64 or a 3DS is out of the question in 2024, Star Fox 64 is also available on the Nintendo Switch expansion pack.

Trevor's Top Ten Games of 2023

Trevor — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It's been a whole decade. A decade of T@P! Somehow I'm still here, doing these. Let's get right into it, starting with...

10. Eternights

Eternights is the most anime game I played all year, by every metric possible. One part dating sim and one part cyberpunk dystopia, Eternights is all about a group of plucky teenagers trying to survive when an anti-aging drug wreaks havoc. After the rest of the world morphs into techno-infused organic masses, it’s up to a handful of unaffected teenagers to save everyone and everything, all while battling their own hormones.

It is no mistake Eternights is first up, because it is rough around almost every edge. The character models convey emotion with big anime eyes and sweat drops, but look quite basic otherwise. The combat is full of creative ideas, but there’s a janky, imprecise feeling to every swing and dodge holding them back from their full potential. Of most note, however, is the writing itself. The broad story takes many engaging twists and turns, but a juvenile quality pervades all interpersonal interactions. For every joke to make me laugh out loud, another made me cringe so hard I almost imploded from second-hand embarrassment.

And here’s the crux of my dilemma here — to some extent, it actually makes the game more authentic. The average teenager is full of cringe. They’re tumultuous years where you’re still figuring out who you’re supposed to be, all while in the midst of a sexual awakening. Who wouldn’t deal in high volumes of cringe during the powder keg that is puberty? But boy, when you’re stuck watching the main character get squeamish because a girl needs a basic necessity like pads and you’re supposed to feel gross about it because "girl things icky," it is a pain without cease.

Around the time the gang needed a parachute and the main character mainfests Yuna’s enlarged bra, I realized it was never going to get better.

All that said, Studio Sai is the debut designer I'm most excited to see develop and grow. Despite all its rough qualities, Eternights is still a captivating and impressive accomplishment, especially from a studio the size of one. I almost have a sense of deja vu, placing Eternights here — back in 2013, Larian Studios took my 10th spot with Divinity: Dragon Commander, a game equally rough around the edges. Ten years later, Baldur's Gate 3 swept the game awards.

We'll see if I'm as on the mark with Studio Sai in a decade, too.

What's that? Where's Baldur's Gate 3 on my list?

Well, it's not number nine.

9. Sea of Stars

Another impressive indie release takes the number nine spot. Like many indie titles, Seas of Stars harkens back to SNES era J-RPGs. It’s with some regret I must say, this initially put me off from trying this one at all; many indie developers create games harkening back to an era that inspired them, but don’t always understand what made these games good in the first place. For every excellent SNES or NES-like indie game, there's nine similar well intentioned but poorly executed ones on the front page of Steam. Sea of Stars had the good sense to not simply be a carbon copy of an inspired work, but instead iterates to create something original.

Sea of Stars follows Valere and Zale, two children who undergo a strict training regimen to become "Solstice Warriors," soldiers who wield magical powers from the sun and moon. After experiencing their time-lapsed training montage (which also serves as your tutorial), you embark into the world to stop the ascension of a vile sorcerer known as “The Fleshmancer.” Like any good J-RPG, the gang amasses a band of plucky and eccentric allies along the way.

While visually Sea of Stars closely resembles Chrono Trigger, The more obvious inspiration here is Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Combat is built around timing button presses during attack and defense animations, with a few unique twists in your special moves. Where it takes a relatively unique approach, however, is resource management. Basic attacks refresh your MP, while skills and attacks fill a combo gauge, which allows two characters to perform a powerful action in tandem. There’s no saving your resources here — you’re encouraged to spend, spend, spend, then attack to refill your meters. It makes for a different kind of RPG experience, where you’re always free to use your biggest and baddest moves rather than hoard those resources for only boss fights.

Speaking of boss fights, many of these enemy designs were awe inspiring.

Of last note, this one really comes together with impressive world building. Anytime the gang camps, the traveling historian Teaks is there to share stories about acquired tomes or artifacts, framed almost like a bedtime story for the crew. These stories are well worth hearing, but by no means are you forced to endure diatribes about the history of this strange land and its non-euclidean architecture. They're all entirely optional and easily skipped if you're just here for a fun adventure. For the lore hounds though, there's much to dig into, and it goes to show just how much work Sabotage Studios did creating a consistent, believable world.

It also helps Teaks is a great character in her own right, which injects some personality into these optional exposition dumps.

Sea of Stars is a tremendous accomplishment in the indie scene, and delivers the complete fantasy RPG package from the days of old.

8. Jedi Survivor

I had many positive things to say about Star Wars: Jedi Survivor already this year, and back in the summer, I thought it might be a real contender for a top three spot. And yet, here we are.

Jedi Survivor picks up five years after Fallen Order. The cast of the original game is now scattered to the winds, fighting the Empire indepedently across the galaxy. When Cal accidentally awakens a deranged Jedi-gone-sith from the High Republic era, he also discovers a path to the planet Tanalorr, tucked away in an unknown pocket of space. He sets out to reunite the old crew in an effort to stop the rogue Sith, and locate this lost planet outside the Empire’s reach.

Unlike the relatively linear first game, Jedi Survivor instead bounces Cal and company back and forth between the same planets in one system, as new gadgets and abilities open new pathways. The star map to Tanalorr lies somewhere in this solar system, which leaves Cal and friends in a race to find it before their foes do, world hopping as both parties follow breadcrumbs back and forth.

It may be ambitious to say, but currently, this particular series stands poised to be the best modern Star Wars trilogy, assuming the final entry sticks the landing.

7. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

In the words of the new hit track from Hideki Naganuma, I just can’t “Get Enuf”.

The inspiration for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is apparent to anyone who ever owned a Dreamcast. Since Sega didn’t seem interested in making a new Jet Set game for the last decade, Team Reptile set out to do it themselves.

The premise? Welcome to New Amsterdam, where gangs all over are trying to make their mark as writers. Only the best succeed in going “All City”, tagging up the whole town while evading law enforcement and rival gangs. Cyberfunk strikes a darker tone than its predecessor though, because before you're even out of the tutorial, you get decapitated. You wake up with a red cybernetic dome instead, and set out to go All City to draw out “DJ Cyber,” who still has your real head preserved in a jar somewhere like a Futurama episode.

If you’re wondering how that works, and if you even are who you started the game as, don’t worry — questions about your identity are core to the plot.

From there, it’s off to tackle each region and borough in New Amsterdam, taking on the other local crews, each with their own eccentric attire and hairstyles. Challenges vary between high scores, long combos, scuffs with local gangs or law enforcement, and tricky-to-reach tag locations. Bomb Rush does an excellent job putting all your skills to the test, sending you out on long distance grinds or dropping you into dry pools to test your air game.

As the game goes on you’ll add new members to your crew, all of whom use either bikes, rollerblades, or skateboards to get around. While similar in many respects, there’s some unexpected nuance between the three — bikes seem best for distance challenges, skates string together fast tricks, and the skateboard seems like the middle ground option between the two. Swapping between the appropriate choice for each challenge is key to success in Cyberfunk.

Honestly, the only reason Bomb Rush Cyberfunk took so long to beat is I kept getting distracted. Yeah, I could go do the next mission, but I’m at a 39 multiplier while cruising around the city and I’m not about to drop it now!

6. Final Fantasy XVI

It’s been a while since I’ve had positive things to say about a mainline Final Fantasy game. In fact, since we launched the website no single player Final Fantasy game has made the chart. The Final Fantasy XIII article (which I hope the fine folks at Hard Drive enjoyed) certainly isn’t an endorsement, and Final Fantasy XV I found good, but not great. Too many key aspects of the plot were relegated to outside media, or even worse, cut from the game entirely.

And what we deserve, Cid, is a good Final Fantasy again.

After two back-to-back subpar entries, Final Fantasy XVI was a treat. While the setting brings Final Fantasy back to high fantasy with castles, kings, royal families, and dangerous magic, the gameplay itself is a continuation of a trend XV began. Forget turn-based anything, Final Fantasy is now an action adventure affair.

While there’s a sense of betrayal about this shift, this direction is hardly surprising. In fact, I would even surmise the combat in XVI feels like what XV wanted to be — fast, frenetic, and flashy. Clive even begins the game with an ability not unlike Noctis and his phase shift. It doesn’t take long, however, for Clive to quickly add more tools to his utility belt of spells.

It’s not long before Clive can zip all over the screen, or even yank others closer.

Combat in Final Fantasy XVI is all about cooldown management. Clive can only use his big flashy moves so often, and choosing when is crucial. In this regard, Final Fantasy XVI borrows another idea from a previous Final Fantasy entries with the stagger state. Once you bring a large enemy to its knees, the damage you inflict multiplies. Then you unleash all your big, flashy abilities to lay on the hurt, and return to a new phase of battle to build the stagger meter again.

Staggering Eikons provides a much needed breather from their onslaught.

Despite many articles claiming the story of Final Fantasy XVI is difficult to follow due to an abundance of proper nouns, it’s actually quite simple — and not just because the game includes a live encyclopedia. The game primarily follows Clive Rosefield, first son to the archduke of Rosaria. When tragedy strikes, the whole kingdom collapses and his family is scattered to the winds. Final Fantasy XVI follows Clive’s life from his teenage years all the way to adulthood as he hunts down all responsible parties, and reunites with his lost family along the way. And, of course, amasses a never-ending assortment of allies and godlike powers which you will use to slay even more gods and steal their powers.

Bombastic set pieces, grand spectacle, and tight controls make this one of the strongest mainline Final Fantasy games in quite a while... but, amazingly, that was not enough to crack the top five this year.

5. Hi-Fi Rush

I suspect Hi-Fi Rush will be missing from a great many lists due to its early release in 2023, and that’s going to be a grave injustice.

This is the closest we’ll ever get to playing an Edgar Wright movie. Much like his famous action scenes, all of Hi-Fi Rush moves to a musical pace. When our idealistic protagonist Chai goes into Vandalay Technologies for an arm replacement, he winds up with an MP3 player embedded in his chest. Vandalay can’t have anyone thinking they make such accidents, however, so it doesn’t take long for killer robots to start hunting him down. Thanks to the power of his new arm and the never-ending beat in his chest, Chai now sees the rhythm of the world.

And it ends up “the rhythm of the world” comes straight from my high school playlist, as every boss fight is set to a licensed song. Along the way you’ll duke it out to Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, The Black Keys, and even 2000 era deep cuts like The Joy Formidable.

In terms of game mechanics, this means everything in Hi-Fi Rush happens on the beat. When you dodge on beat, the dodge is invincible. Likewise, attacking on beat does additional damage and powers up your blows. Even the enemies move to a rhythm, making all their actions and attacks consistent. The challenge comes as the game layers on more and more enemy types, all of which require different tools to conquer. Most of these tools come in the form of your companions, who Chai summons for tandem attacks. By the end, you’ve got a whole band of witty rebels at your disposal.

These team combo finishers are some of the coolest animations in the game.

Mechanically and visually, Hi-Fi Rush is already on another level, but even putting that aside, the comedic writing is shockingly good. No game made me laugh out loud as consistently all year, as this gang of jokesters and wisecrackers somehow bumble from one victory to another. There’s a positive, upbeat energy from beginning to end, and an infectious nature to the optimism shining through all the darker elements.

808 is the best robot cat.

I’d love to see this cast tackle more challenges someday, but even if such dreams never come to pass, this game is the total package.

4. Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is an exceptional hallmark of just how far Larian has come since the previously mentioned Divinity: Dragon Commander.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a D&D campaign come to life, complete with a narrative thrust to force a seemingly disjointed band of compatriots together. When your chosen (or created) character awakens aboard a Nautolid ship, mindflayers have prepped you for a very gross assimilation. After assembling a band of likewise abducted and infected citizens, you all band together to find a cure before you become mindflayers yourselves.

While you can play as any of the companion characters, you also have the freedom to make your own hapless Mindflayer victim too. In fact, you can play with four people and all make your own characters, and leave every companion at camp.

I do not think it is controversial to say Baldur’s Gate 3 is perhaps the best D&D game ever made. Where previous games in the series (including its titular predecessors) hid the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 makes them front and center. Every skill check comes with a D20 to roll, fights are all turn-based, and just about every outcome or plan of action you can imagine is accounted for.

The roll animation is very satisfying.

The greatest testament to the impressive design here is how every quest has a multitude of solutions. Goblin camp got your local druid grove down? Well, you can simply go murder them all. Or, you could make friends with them. Or, you could pretend to make friends with them, then go warn the druids and fight to protect the grove when they arrive. Or, you can get up on a cliff, stack up 40 barrels, and thunderwave them all down into the camp in a murderous hail. Or, if you really want, you can even side with the goblins and slaughter the whole dang grove. What'd the druids do for you anyway?

Or, as a Druid, remember this old refrain — when in doubt, Owlbear.

More memorable yet though, is the cast of rejects who make up your party. Everyone has their own goal, their own twisted little backstory, and their own interpersonal drama to play out along the lengthy journey to the eponymous big city. Their stories seem like side adventures, but they soon weave into the main narrative in ways that often caught me (and them) by surprise.

If you’ve managed to somehow miss all the Baldur’s Gate brainrot infecting the internet, yes, you can date them too.

With as many moving parts as Baldur’s Gate 3 has, perhaps it’s not surprising I must caveat all this praise and say it is still a buggy mess. Crashes are still relatively common, especially in multiplayer on console, and there are plenty of odd quirks and bugs that popped up along my journey. At one point, a guard I’d already killed scolded me for trying to steal things out of a barrel nearby. Other times, characters suddenly wanted to talk about something that happened hours ago — and was something we’d already discussed at length when it happened. Fortunately autosaves happen enough none of these incidents ever set me back more than a half hour, but having to replay a difficult battle over after a crash will always be obnoxious. To Larian’s credit, they’ve pumped out one comprehensive patch after another every month since release, adding not only bug fixes but entirely new content.

The bloodthirsty Paladin Minthara has had all sorts of additions to her storyline and recruitment process since release.

Despite its flaws, Baldur’s Gate 3 still ranks high for its outstanding premise, complex design, and originality. There’s nothing quite like it out this year.

3. Resident Evil 4 (2023)

In my book, the original Resident Evil 4 is the gold standard for the entire franchise. For the past twenty years, I’ve compared almost every subsequent entry to Leon’s original Plagas-ridden adventure. After the success of the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, I had high hopes Resident Evil 4 could deliver again.

It exceeded expectations at every turn.

Rather than faithfully recreate 4, the remake instead looked to the original as an inspired template. Leon Kennedy is still exploring a nondescript rural Spanish town, the president’s daughter is still kidnapped, and a cult leader named Saddler is still at the center of everything, controlling the populace with the dreaded, tendriled Las Plagas.

However, the similarities begin and end at these broad strokes. Leon is a much more capable combatant this time around, now adept at using his knife to parry blows and deliver silent takedowns. The story also does a much better job tying all the major players together in a sensible way, rather than acting like a rotating door of randos who show up every chapter to complicate Leon’s life and leave. The phone calls (formerly used for Leon to deliver one-liners to the baddies) give the cast more time to endearingly converse and joke with one another.

Everyone’s favorite merchant returns with some brand new goodies.

The new script makes the cast more fully realized, rather than a collection of B-movie tropes. Saddler is reimagined as a charismatic cult leader instead of a seemingly disingenuous huckster, Ashley is now a more capable young adult instead of a bleary eyed teenager, and Ada Wong makes more of an effort to be a duplicitous spy operating from the shadows instead of a Bond femme fatale. Of particular note is the improved roles of Jack Krauser and Luis Sera. Krauser’s role as a former mentor and partner to Leon is more thoroughly explored than a single off-handed remark before a boss fight, and Luis Sera now spends much more time adventuring alongside Leon.

Me and the bestie in the abandoned mines!

But don't worry — it wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game without some serious B-movie energy. Leon and company deliver plenty of cheesy one-liners in the face of danger, and the ostentatious monster set pieces are cranked up to eleven.

Leon gets to do plenty of dumb action guy stuff.

Altering a classic is always a dangerous gambit, but the Resident Evil 4 remake succeeded in delivering more than nostalgia — it sent me on a familiar adventure with a dozen new twists and turns, and in doing so improved on an experience I never thought could be improved upon.

2. Street Fighter 6

Street Fighter 6 is an absolute master class in Fighting Game design.

In the wake of Street Fighter V — a bungled mess from start to finish — it was hard to be optimistic about a sequel. Street Fighter V released with few modes, nasty input delay, and embarrassing net code. While it saw many improvements during its lifespan, it struggled to keep an active audience around.

Street Fighter 6 had more to prove than any other entry in Street Fighter history, but prove itself, it did. At EVO alone, Street Fighter 6 set the record for most entrants, easily doubling the pool of Strive competitors.

To start with the easy wins, Street Fighter 6 is like someone followed a checklist of everything wrong with the Street Fighter V launch and did the opposite. For those with little interest in online play, Street Fighter 6 delivers arcade runs, and a robust single player adventure called World Tour. As the name suggests, you design your own character and go world hopping, off to meet the cast in their various home countries. As you meet more and more, you also get to build your own moveset, like a stitched together Frakenstein’s monster of a Street Fighter character. Want Dhalsim’s stretchy limbs and Zangief’s SPD? Have at it. Want to Sumo Headbutt and Spinning Bird Kick in one combo? Also an achievable dream here.

Yes, that’s a fridge. To say the plot of World Tour mode doesn’t take itself seriously would be an understatement.

If you aren't interested in chasing ranks, it’s off to the Battle Hub, where everyone assembles in a virtual arcade. While you can engage in some honest Street Fighter here, you could also partake in extreme battles (fights with additional modifications like falling bombs or running bulls), or even sit at a cabinet and play some totally unrelated old Capcom games.

Excuse me bull, we’re having a Street Fight here.

Since release, Capcom has added more classic arcade games to this corner of the Battle Hub.

Two concepts make this the best fighting game to date — the Drive Gauge, and modern controls. The Drive Gauge governs a whole host of mechanics, all of which give a player more options defensively and offensively. You can burn the bar to power up special moves, abruptly close distance, parry incoming attacks, push an attacker away and create space, or even go for a counter blow known as the Drive Impact. It creates a complex system of interactions which go beyond the typical strike, block, or throw mixup essential to the genre. Modern controls, meanwhile, removes the technical input barrrier to be competitive and turns special moves into simple button presses. While there’s been much, uh, “heated discourse” over this inclusion, I think it’s essential — the fighting game genre has always been a more niche scene, and modern controls brought many who wouldn’t have played otherwise into the fold. Plenty of pros have now proven the viability of modern, and I’d say it's for the best. For people like me who desire full optionality, classic controls are still there to master.

Powerful techniques like Drive Impact here completely turn a match around.

The one area I will levy critique at this new Street Fighter entry is the shop. Despite charging $60 for the game itself (plus a battle pass for additional characters), Capcom has set their sights on mobile game whales anyway. The prices in the goods shop are incredulous enough, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle event was actually madness. Fifteen dollars per turtle costume is some Lex Luthor level nonsense. That’s 15 dollars to change the color of a bandana.

Fun as the TMNT takeover of the battle hub was, the costumes themselves were a shameless cash grab.

My gripes with Capcom’s greedy business model aside, Street Fighter 6 stands poised to have just as much impact on the entire scene as Third Strike, and that is about the highest praise anyone could offer a fighting game.

1. Alan Wake II

After thirteen years Alan Wake is finally back, and somehow, Remedy made it worth the wait.

If you have no idea why this man has a II after his name, allow me to get you up to speed. In the original Alan Wake, the eponymous author finds himself trapped in a horror story of his own making during a vacation to the small town of Bright Falls. An entity known as The Dark Presence, which resides nearby within Cauldron Lake, feeds off creative energy — music, art, and writing all serve to make it stronger and push its influence beyond the lake. Whenever anyone with a talented mind shows up in Bright Falls, The Dark Presence seeks to manipulate and control them.

In Alan Wake II, Alan is still lost in the Dark Presence’s domain after fifteen years. The new main character, Saga Anderson, is an FBI agent investigating disappearances and murders around Cauldron Lake... and while doing so, finds manuscript pages from a novel about herself. From here the game bounces back and forth between Alan and Saga, as Saga investigates his absence while contending with a violent cult, and Alan tries to write a way out of The Dark Place. The two storylines blend together, weaving in and out. Saga takes a calculated approach, operating in analyzation and deduction.

You even get your own Pepe Silvia style wall to connect all the evidence.

Alan's chapters meanwhile, are like being caught in a nightmare. The same doors lead new places, and Alan's ideas force a shift in reality. Instead of a board full of logical deductions, he instead uses the Plot Board to swap ideas in and out to alter his environnment.

The surrealist nature of Alan’s chapters will send you many unexpected places, including a reoccuring talk show where the best scene in the game takes place.

In terms of combat, there's some similarities between Alan Wake II and our number three spot. While Resident Evil 4 succeeds in making you feel like a world class agent with tight controls, Alan Wake II instead conjures up the feeling of a mad scramble. Your “dodge” is more of a hurried stumble, and even the way characters reload or fire their weapons conveys a sense of desperation. The ammo capacity in every weapon is extremely low, which makes every shot essential and keeps tensions high until the threat is put down in one violent burst.

What truly separates Alan Wake II from everything else on the list is a powerful authorial intent. Everything is dripping with intentionality and purpose, even when it may not make for an enjoyable experience. Take, for example, Alan Wake II’s gameplay segments. Human silhouettes populate The Dark Place, and only a handful of them will manifest and attack. You have no way to know which ones will become violent until you’re right next to them. Now, you could shine your light on every single one, but resources are scarce. Discretion is the key to survival. It forces the same sense of dread and frustration Alan Wake feels upon you as a player. He’s never able to trust anything around him — the people, the world, even his memories will all turn hostile the second he becomes complacent. It does not take long for you to want out of the Dark Place just as badly.

Alan Wake II culminates into a powerful exploration of the fine line between creativity and obsession, the way such obsessions hurt loved ones around us, and the way in our darkest times, we turn our own facilities against ourselves... but it also examines the other side of the equation. How in our toughest hours, those very same people we hurt are our salvation, and have the power to pull us out of any Dark Presence.

That's the top ten, but there's a few other games worthy of mention. Starting with a very obvious absence...

Notable Omissions

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

For once, I actually did play an entry in this header... for about five hours. Despite the clever premise, I couldn’t stick with it. I appreciate the creative expression Tears of the Kingdom allowed for, but when it comes to yours truly, all I did was build bridges to solve every problem. Get to a castle? Bridge. Get to a faraway island? Long bridge. Get around a U-shaped bend? Three bridges stapled together. My brain simply couldn’t grasp how to put the pieces together in compelling ways, and eventually I bounced off. I loved watching people play Tears of the Kingdom, but playing it myself felt like failing a pop quiz at every turn.

It’s not you, Link, it’s me.

Dishonorable Mention

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

Gollum is excruciating. To start with the obvious, I don’t know who out there clamored for a Gollum game. It’s a bit like hoping for a Die Hard game where you play as Sergeant Al Powell.

If you ever played Uncharted or Prince of Persia and thought, “I wish this game was only climbing,” have I got the product for you. Gollum immediately opens with its titular character getting thrown into an orc camp, where you will proceed to spend seven hours climbing around wooden barricades and reddish cliffs. Sometimes you get to kill an orc with your bare hands, but only if they aren’t wearing a helmet.

The most engaging part of Gollum is when, in classic Gollum style, you have a debate with yourself. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between tedious hours of cliff hanging.

Of everything released this year, I found Gollum the most unpleasant. Apparently I streamed this game for three hours, but it felt like a full day.

Honorable Mentions

Double Dragon: Gaiden

I play a lot of beat ‘em ups. So many. And if there’s one thing I’ve noticed over the years, it’s how the genre really struggles to find its legs outside of the coin-op era. Double Dragon: Gaiden envisions a way forward by borrowing elements from roguelikes.

In Double Dragon: Gaiden, you pick two tag team characters to save the city from four gangs holding the city hostage. At the end of every stage, your characters get some kind of upgrade — additional properties on a special move, more health, invincibility frames. Something to make subsequent stages easier. Each stage you leave for later gets an additional area as the gang in question bolsters their defenses, adding another level to punch through before you reach the boss.

This means it's impossible to see the whole game in one run, because each gang’s hideout has areas you’ll only see if you leave them for last. It also creates a compelling reason to play again and again, to try out new builds, unlock new characters, and see the additional stages. It’s not the most robust Beat ‘em up I’ve played, but the novel approach is commendable and it would be cool to see others iterate on the concept.

Super Mario RPG

While the Resident Evil 4 remake looked to the original as inspiration, Super Mario RPG went the other direction entirely. It is the most faithful recreation of a beloved classic you could ask for. I had a great time playing this remake, but aside from the good nostalgia feels, it doesn’t bring much new content to the table. There are new trio attacks and a handful of post-game boss fights, but for the most part, it simply polishes what was already there to a delightful degree. I highly recommend it to both fans and first-timers alike, but it felt far too faithful of a one-for-one re-creation to make the list.

Marvel Snap

Yup, still playing it. All the time. Send help.

Thanks for coming out for yet another top ten list. Here’s to another decade on T@P.

Birdie Wing: Triple Bogey

Trevor — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For the past year and a half, I have had a golf addiction called Birdie Wing. I’m not sure what I expected from an anime golf show, but I never would’ve predicted any of this. Birdie Wing presents a world where golf is split into two leagues — the normal pro scene we all know and love, and then a dark, gritty, underground world where the mob calls the shots. The two main characters, Aoi and Eve, are star-crossed rivals from different golf worlds. While Aoi grew up in a professional circuit, Eve spent her days in illegal golf duels. The stakes in the latter climb to death. Eve is ultimately forced to flee her home when the Golf Mob puts out a hit on her.

The Golf Mob doesn’t take loss well.

Eve clashes with countless people on her journey, because her “Golf” is bombastic and unrefined. On a U-shaped Par five, she drives the ball through the forest in the center so hard it snaps tree branches. On a Mini-Golf course, she bounces the ball off obstacles to get it in the hole, because it's easier than reigning in her power. Aoi finds this endearing because she’s never seen someone play golf this way — but her mother is horrified Aoi's taken a liking to a girl from the wrong side of the Golf Tracks.

It’s outrageous, dumb, and perfect. Peak anime nonsense. No notes.

Now let's jump over to the game.

When in doubt, just remember — EXPERIECE MATTERS.

I’m not sure where to start with what’s wrong here. The spelling on “experiece” sets the tone for the rest of our golf journey. I’ll do my best to address all the problems from most egregious to least.

Thematic Inconsistency

I think perhaps the best way to begin is to compare the way these respective pieces of media open.

In the first episode of Birdie Wing Eve is challenged to a one hole match on a golf course built around a scrapyard. Said golf course also has a train track running through it, and yes, this track is still in use, because a train rolls through in the middle of this duel. It even runs between the fairway and the green, because of course it does.

This all culminates in a dramatic final shot where Eve blasts a ball through the cars of a train and onto a precarious rake left in the bunker, which then flips the ball into the hole for a Birdie. It is a bombastic, lavishly produced, braindead affair and I love every second. Crunchryoll has clipped the scene in question into a nice, digestible quantity.

The title could not be more accurate.

Meanwhile, here’s what the first stage looks like in the game.

Now, we are on the scrapyard course. They did achieve that much, at least. However, there are no obstacles to speak of, and as you can see, my shot is unbelievably normal. It is the least dramatic shot Eve has ever taken in her life. There’s no rake, no train, and awful music. The whole soundtrack is like a knock off version of Birdie Wing’s actual score, and I question why that was necessary when this game is literally an eponymous, licensed title.

Even more egregious, however, is that I don't actually get to play the game here. For the entire first hole, the game tells you where to aim, what club to use, and even controls your power level. It is perhaps the most antithetical way a golf game based on Birdie Wing could begin. I’m almost offended.

What does offend me is the trailer for this game straight up lies, because this sequence was clearly rendered and animated for the trailer, but appears nowhere in the game. I won’t mince words here — this is false advertising. Straight up.

Almost nothing in this trailer actually made it into the game.

If there’s one thing I would say you absolutely must get right to be a Birdie Wing game, it is to represent Eve’s iconic shots. In classic bullshit anime fashion, Eve has a series of shots called “The Rainbow Bullets.” She has a color for every situation:

Blue Bullet for drives
Red for high approach shots
Green for putts
Yellow for bunker escapes
Purple for hook or slice shots
Indigo to skip the ball over a water hazard

This merely scratches the surface, mind you — over the course of the show, Eve perfects a whole series of new shots, as if they’re Dragonball Z attacks. However, the first three in particular are quintessential. The Blue Bullet happens multiple times an episode, and makes an appearance from episode one.

Let’s see what happens in the game when we approach the green.

Fuckin’ nothing, that’s what. It’s a normal ass shot. There’s no screaming, no absurd visuals, no gunshot sounds as the club connects. In fact, there’s barely any fanfare at all, aside from these face cut ins.

These lazy Persona style cut-ins pay lip service to Eve’s moves, but no visuals accompany them.

If I wanted a normal golf game, I’d be playing PGA Tour, or I’d hop down to the local bar and go a round on those Golden Tee machines. I’m here for BIRDIE WING, goddammit. People should be hitting the ball so hard their arms snap like twigs. Moses should be parting the Red Sea with a long drive in a flashback sequence. Someone’s family should be held hostage at gunpoint unless they get an Eagle on hole seven.

Instead Aoi and Eve play golf in a sad limbo, devoid of any charm or production. And I do mean Aoi and Eve, because of the six playable characters, they make up four.

Yeah. All their outfits are treated like entirely new characters. One weird trick to pad out the character select screen.

Even For A Budget Title, Why Are You Like This?

If you’re wondering if the syntax and grammar is any better here than the character select screen, the answer is no.

Story mode is a fairly straightforward affair — you watch a visual novel version of the show, and then you get to golf out an iconic scene. There are a total of six stages. It takes maybe one hour to finish story mode, and I’m being incredibly generous. Along the way, you encounter many iconic characters, screenshots, and about a thousand spelling errors.

The whole “Story Mode” encompasses the first three episodes of the show. More of a story sampler than an actual story mode, really.

One of these stages is literally a single hit on a Mini-Golf course.

Readers may remember a game called Summer Sports: Paradise Island. If you’re nervous that title is getting invoked here, that’s a good instinct.

Summer Sports: Paradise Island's Mini-Golf barely functioned. Mercifully, Birdie Wing actually works like a proper Golf game. However, much like in Summer Sports, there is no way to speed up or skip an AI shot. You will sit there for however long it takes, watching Aoi smack the ball over and over. If you could skip the AI shots, the story mode would probably take 20 minutes to clear.

But don't worry! There’s a plethora of other modes to select, such as “Free Play” and “Mini-Golf”. From here, we then select a “starting hole”.

It ends up by “starting hole,” what they really mean is “the only hole,” because once both players are done it's right back to the title screen. If you want to play a full 18 holes, you’ll have to do it one at a time and keep score yourself.

I have so many questions about why this is necessary. Surely there is some way, some method one could use to play multiple holes at once. Surely. Even Summer Sports: Paradise Island had the decency to usher me from one hole to the next, whether I wanted it or not.

You might think Mini-Golf treats things differently, but don’t worry — it doesn’t. Mini-Golf is even worse, in fact, because you only get one shot per hole. The fact this doesn’t auto-advance to the next hole is downright insane. The only way this hostile design makes sense is if the people who made this game actively wanted us to suffer. If so, mission accomplished.

To tie things back to the previous header, I must point out a Mini-Golf course does play a strong factor in one episode... But not this course. The Mini-Golf course in this game is evocative of one single scene that lasts for maybe a minute, where Eve exposes a neighborhood swindler as a fraud with a single putt.

But she had only one little putting green, not nine holes. Wait, sorry, five. There are five holes on this Mini-Golf course titled "Special Putting Course Under the Viaduct."

So, let’s say you actually manage to wrangle up someone willing to play this game, willing to sit through 18 resets to the title screen, and willing to watch anime girls get grumpy at golf clubs. Hope you’re ready to hit up the Nafrece U15, because it’s the only one in the game. Even the scrapyard course from stage one isn't on the list for multiplayer. "Select Map" indeed.

Even for a budget title, one course in the whole game is madness.

Where’d All The Work Go?

I’ll tell you where it didn’t first — the gameplay.

The golf is functional, but unbelievably erratic and inconsistent. Sometimes you’ll compensate for the wind only to see the ball travel straight ahead, and other times it carries it to the ends of the Earth. Likewise, putting is even more unpredictable. Sometimes a slight ramp up is like trying to putt up the side of Mt. Everest, and other times the ball sails past the hole like you traded out your golf club for a hockey stick.

The difference between a good putt and a bad putt...

...sure feels like luck.

The answer to the question “where did the work go?” is victory and loss animations.

They’re dramatic, evocative, and full of sweeping camera angles. They also properly represent the personalities of the character’s in play. It is the only thing even slightly representative of the show.

That, and the fact anyone plays golf here at all.

I award one point.

At Least We Golf, But Still Don’t Buy This

The absolute gall to throw To Be Continued in here when the story mode covers three episodes.

I can’t make it any clearer — don't buy this. While I crucified Birdie Wing on the cross of Summer Sports earlier, it is also its saving grace; because Summer Sports exists, I can’t say Bridie Wing is the worst golf game I’ve ever played. It’s just a close second. If what you want is a golf game, almost any other choice is better.

Even if the golf aspect is passable at times, the thematic assassination on display is irredeemable.

One of my most common complaints about games built around anime properties is often the opposite of what we have here — they care so much about properly representing special moves and iconic scenes, they let the gameplay take a beackseat. At the very least, I can thank Birdie Wing: The Game for reminding me it could be worse. Much worse.

You could have a soulless cash-grab devoid of personality (or proofreading) instead.

Yes. Birdie Wing is available on the Switch for the outrageous price of $19.99.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor: How Jedi Survivor Avoids Typical Game Sequel Pitfalls

Trevor — Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In classic T@P fashion, while everyone else ventures out into Hyrule again, we’re just getting around to Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. There are a lot of things you can come to T@P for, but timely updates on the latest release is not one of them.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was an exceptional Star Wars game in its own right, but Survivor has managed to build on its foundation in an extraordinary way — and it does it all without relying on typical strategies to kick off a sequel.

The Abilitease

The Force Unleashed kicks off with the player running around as Darth Vader, until they eventually spend the rest of the game as Starkiller.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one — Samus arrives on a new planet with all her gear from the previous adventure, only to fall down a pit and lose it all. Her armor falls off, her missiles scatter, all her beam cannon attachments somehow get scattered to the winds, and you have to go collect them all again.

The “abilitease,” as it’s often called, is a fairly common technique to set the power dial back to zero for the start of a new adventure, while still providing a glimpse of what’s to come. This happens in almost every sequel in a long running series. God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta. Every new Kingdom Hearts game, other characters get to grow and evolve, but when it comes to Sora, SE says:

My favorite recent example of this comes from River City Girls 2, where the girls get expelled and go play video games for a month until they forget all their skills.

When Jedi Survivor begins, Cal Kestis retains all his abilities and saber forms from Fallen Order. I spent a good portion of the tutorial level waiting for the “abilitease” to end... only to find it never happens. In fact, by the end of the tutorial, you have acquired one of the three new saber stances to use, too.

Instead of smashing the reset button, Jedi Survivor builds up the Cal we last left in Fallen Order. Both narratively and mechanically, this felt great. From the onset you’ve got the power to shove Stormtroopers off cliffs, flip around with the staff saber, and even swap around saber colors without having to find appropriately colored crystals. Narratively, Jedi Survivor picks up after a time skip from the first game. While the original crew has moved on to new roles in the galaxy, Cal has been fighting the Empire all along. It would be rather strange if in all the years we didn’t see them, Cal and BD-1 hadn’t picked up a few tricks — or, even stranger, lost the ones they had.

The dual sabers are yours by the time the tutorial ends.

For newcomers I imagine the amount of abilities at the onset may prove intimidating, but this creates a mechanical throughline often absent from direct sequels.

The downside to this, I foresee, is I don’t see a way to repeat this again. By the end of Jedi Survivor, every button on the PS5 controller is in use. This thing is getting pushed to the absolute brink. Unless humans evolve another hand and a we make a new controller with extra buttons between now and the third game, there’s nowhere to go next.

Backtracking with Purpose

Here’s a common Metroidvania trope — during your travels, you see a dozen florby-borp doors and you can’t get into them. Then once Samus finally recovers the bimblebop beam, you can florby-borp your way into the Ziggy Stardust chamber. Whatever. You get the idea.

However, there’s always a bunch of florby-borp doors out in the middle of nowhere, too. They either sit off in the far reaches of space, or you ran by them hours ago in some area you have no reason to return to, ever.

Originally, I was disappointed with the Galaxy Map in Jedi Survivor. You spend the majority of time on the same four planets, one of which (Coruscant) is mostly just a tutorial.

As I got further into the game though, it became clear this is the result of a new design directive. While there’s only a few planets to visit, the narrative has Cal and company chasing a mystery spanning only this quadrant of space. Each time you’re required to chase your quarry back to a previous planet, you’ll leave the current one with a new device that opens up paths on the next one. The main two planets, Koboh and Jedah, end up feeling three times the size of any planet from Fallen Order as a result.

The neat trick here is it creates a situation where the player is naturally incentivized to explore various off-shoots they couldn’t before while en-route to the next story objective. There’s no need to haul yourself out to the boonies, because Cal’s going to have to head there eventually anyway. Why not check it out then?

Cal’s tricks this time include both gadgets and wildlife.

My praise goes a step further, because what’s behind these off-shoots is often more than a simple chest. There’s a plethora of optional boss fights throughout Jedi Survivor, many of which offer more of a challenge than some of your main story encounters. While most of the rewards are things like new coats and hair styles, you’ll often find stims or health and force meter upgrades too. I never reached the end of an optional offshoot and felt the prize at the end wasn't worth it.

Survival Alone Is Insufficient

In one of the more unexpected surprises, Jedi Survivor even applies its Metroidvania approach to its post-game content. After the credits roll, the world keeps moving on. Conversations with travelers from afar continue, Bounty Hunters remain out for your blood, and the Empire’s presence looms. There’s plenty to do out there, even after you’ve seen the final events through.

The real surprise, however, is the force echoes which appear across every planet (for the uninitiated, force echoes are brief visions of past events in a given area — a common tool in the toolbox labeled THE FORCE). These new visions provide additional context on the motivations and history of everyone you met. If you take the time to go back to pivotal locations and locales after the credits, there is almost certainly a vision there about one of your companions.

And there might be some hostile wildlife waiting to jump you there too.

I’ve no doubt there are plenty of players who will be content to move on to something new after the credits roll, but for the rest, there’s additional conversations and visions to track down. One last reason to travel the galaxy before saying goodbye (or jumping into NG+).

WIth Jedi Survivor, Respawn is approaching a perfect iteration of a long-standing gaming formula. I’m eager to see where the team goes from here, and even more eager to see if they can possibly find a way to build up Cal again without taking anything away. It’s a task I previously would’ve thought impossible, but I also didn’t think I’d see a twist on a well trod formula either.

Jedi Survivor is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. If you have a choice, maybe skip the PC version. Trust me.

Ninja Baseball Bat Man: Arcade Roulette

Trevor — Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Been a while since a new feature, hasn't it?

I thought we were due for a change this summer, so I bring you Arcade Roulette. As the name suggests, every so often we will look at one arcade game I’ve never heard of in my trusty arcade cabinet, then I'll play it and offer some thoughts.

Starting with...

NINJA BASEBALL BAT MAN

If I were to sum up this game with a gif, it would be this one.

Independently, I know what all these words mean. Put together, it sure seemed like word salad. But nope, it’s completely comprehensible when you see it in action. They’re ninjas, they play baseball. They use bats. And I guess they’re arguably men?

They even drive cars, just like normal men.

Please enjoy this quote from Ninja Baseball Bat Man’s wikipedia article.

Drew's concept came up after he read the top-grossing films during its time in a USA Today newspaper. One was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the other was one of the Batman films (possibly Batman Returns).

After selecting one of the four available Ninja Bat Men, you set off on a journey through the wilds of... America, I guess, to recover stolen artifacts from the Baseball hall of fame.

One of the benefits of having an arcade cabinet with a bunch of nonsense in it is we can actually swap back and forth between the NA and JP versions. For the most part, I didn’t notice too many differences, but there is a minor change in our heroes' names.

Here’s Jose Conseco...

...Ryne Sandberg...

...Roger Clemens...

...and Darryl Strawberry.

You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right? That is was insane to name the blue guy after Darryl Strawberry when a red Bat Man is right there?

Anyway, over in the Japanese version, everything is mostly the same, except the character's last names are simply their colors. Jose Red, Ryno Green, Roger Yellow, and Darryl Blue.

As you’ve probably surmised so far, this is a classic arcade beat ‘em up. Players move left to right smacking the crap out of sentient baseballs, cleats, catcher’s mitts. Things get real weird once you reach the bosses, where you fight a plane... on a plane?

There’s a few notable alterations to the usual beat ‘em up formula. Characters have fighting game style inputs to do unique moves, which, in my opinion, makes some of our Ninja Baseball guys way better than the others. As a Mike Haggar fan I usually like my big grappling monsters, but here? Sorry big guy. You got nothin’ on the twin bat lightning spam.

OP as hell.

As Beat ‘Em Ups go, Ninja Baseball Bat Man is an enjoyable success. There’s a wide variety of locales, an assortment of enemies, and flashy visuals.

There’s even a few mini-game diversions during your tour of America.

In terms of thematic consistency, however, it’s an absolute mess. The baseball theming is there until suddenly it’s not, and you’re in a haunted house, a casino, an airport. Who the hell knows. I guess there was not enough baseball paraphernalia to go around, because the sentient baseball accessories occasionally fall away to make room for stuff like this giant lotto machine.

Is it fun without quarters?

Sort of! There’s a problem I’ve come to notice with many an old arcade game — the challenge used to lie in how far you could get with a limited amount of quarters. On a free-to-play machine, the challenge vanishes. Ninja Baseball Bat Man succeeds mostly for not outstaying its welcome. The whole game moves at a breezy pace and the variety keeps it engaging. Things always seem to change up right as it begins to get stale.

I... don’t even know how to describe the final boss of Chicago. I feel offended.

Can’t say I see much reason to come back to this one after a playthrough, however, short of showing someone else the depths of this madness.

Any sections designed to drain money?

Surprisingly, no... at least, not until the end.

Once you arrive at the final level (a great big baseball diamond which I suspect is Yankee Stadium, which would make sense considering the final boss is a sentient Babe Ruth statue) every boss shows up again in rapid succession.

A common beat ‘em up quarter burning strat. The mandatory Boss Rush.

Plane 2: Plane Harder.

How many players?

Like many coin-ops, up to 4 people can be Ninja Bat Men at any time.

Length?

Ninja Baseball Bat Man takes approximately an hour to clear. For a coin-op, the perfect amount of time. Nobody wants to be in the lobby of a Pizza Hut for three hours.

Final Verdict

Ninja Baseball Bat Man is a delight. A dumb, visually pleasing romp from one American locale to the next. Does it actually care about Baseball? Sort of. It certainly didn't care enough about it to be an actual baseball game, mind you, but it did borrow the names of four famous players, and references Babe Ruth. So there's that.

We're giving it a seven. An above average brawler experience, but not quite impressive enough to call it a diamond in the rough or a forgotten gem.

For a coin-op brawler, you could do a lot worse... and we probably will, next time on Arcade Roulette.

The Sultan of Swat is reassembled. The baseball world thanks you, Ninja Baseball Bat Men.

A Resident Evil Retrospective

Trevor — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Biohazardous

You never forget your first 90’s era Resident Evil game... especially if you didn’t grow up with them.

The Resident Evil series (known as Biohazard in Japan) has always been a divisive one, largely due to it's archaic and obtuse design decisions.

It’s worth remembering when the first Resident Evil came out, typical control schemes were not set in stone. These days, you can pick up any given first person shooter and have a relatively consistent expectation of what your dual sticks will do. In the 90s, this universal language was still under construction. If you pick up an old Syphon Filter game, for example, you may be surprised to discover the right stick turns you, and the left stick adjusts aim. At the time of release, this wasn’t unusual, but by today’s standards it's absolute lunacy.

The old Resident Evil’s treat your forward input as forward to the character model, not forward to your relative perspective. This means pressing left or right merely makes the character turn in place. When people describe “tank controls,” this is what they’re referring to. Newcomers expect a direction to correspond to their orientation, because that’s how 98% of other games work.

A dazzling escape, truly.

Let me take a moment to outline why this wasn’t a bad thing twenty years ago, and was even necessary. A hot take, but bear with me.

This deliberate movement heightens the tension. Your positioning and spacing relative to enemies is key to survival, and the oft-derided tank controls mean you can’t take either for granted.
The game is designed with your archaic movement system in mind. Zombies, Hunters, and even Tyrant himself move in slow, lumbering ways so you have time to assess and react.
Because you’re forced to stand still when you shoot, you have to make a deliberate choice on when to plant your feet and fire. Early Resident Evil’s were a test of your risk assessment and resource management abilities, not your aim or reaction time.

As a horror series, Resident Evil’s archaic systems did wonders to elevate the terror, and carved out a unique identity for the series.

Now for the punt.

Not all of this remains a good thing twenty years later. In fact, it started to show its age within only five.

As the series went on and more universal control systems became ubiquitous, Resident Evil’s adherence to this formula only served to hurt it. Fans of the series knew what they were getting, but as a result, the series became insular. Here’s just a few quotes from old reviews for Code Veronica.

However, no one could have guessed that Code Veronica would also be a step above all of its predecessors in almost every aspect, while still holding true to the established Resident Evil formula that we've all come to know and love.

Ryan Mac Donald, Gamespot

They say you either love it or you hate when it comes to the Resident Evil series, but personally, I think that's a load. In my mind, either you love the game enough to put up with its clunky interface, or you don't.

Brandon Justice, IGN

The general consensus at the time is the controls were a largely expected buy-in to playing a Resident Evil game. You either signed up for it, or you bounced the hell off. These quotes are from positive reviews for one of the most highly regarded entries (9/10 scores from both), and yet every review has at least one qualifying statement all the same. It was, quite frankly, impossible for critics to discuss Code Veronica without also acknowledging the glaring weakness inherent to the name.

It’s hard then, to overstate the importance of Resident Evil 4 and the risks it took to forcibly drag the series into the modern age, while somehow not designing away the unique feeling fans expected.

One might call it a Resident Evil for fans and first timers.

Welcome, Stranger

What makes Resident Evil 4 so special, in my estimation, is it managed to preserve all the tenants I laid out before while still retaining the bare minimum to feel like a Resident Evil game. Leon still has to plant his feet to shoot, which retains the tension and decision-making test of the old games, but other changes removed much of the existing monotony.

The oft-discussed changes include:

Leon moves in the direction you press instead of spinning in place. He’s still slow and lumbering, but he’s easier to direct compared to the preceding entries.
Quick knife access. Gone are the days of going into your inventory to equip a knife. Instead you’ve got a button to whip it out at will to break boxes or finish off downed zombies (or plagas, in this case).
Enemies drop ammo and healing items, encouraging more aggressive play.

However, if you were to ask me, I’d tell you these are the biggest ones.

Over-The-Shoulder Perspective

In the old Resident Evil games, aiming for the head was no simple task. While you could aim up or down, they were binary states — which meant in order to land a headshot, a zombie had to be right next to you. While it may increase the tension, it felt weird and inconsistent, especially in a 3D environment. Why can’t Chris or Jill just aim for the head from down the hall?

Resident Evil 4 is the first in the series where the player has the freedom to aim for specific areas on the body, rather than a general direction. With this new shift in perspective comes greater precision. The use of the laser dot conveys this to players immediately — you’ve got to put that dot on them somewhere. Since Leon can’t move and shoot at the same time, the game hasn’t lost its decision-making test. On the contrary, it’s extended to choosing where to place your shots.

Down he goes.

This on its own, however, would be nothing without...

Reliable Feedback

Enemies in Resident Evil 4, especially the humanoid ones, react in specific and reliable ways to your shots. If you hit the shoulder, they rock to the side. Hit the legs, they drop to their knees. Hit the head, they stumble around. This gives you the power to control a crowd like never before, especially when you add in Leon’s new roundhouse kicks.

The kick reaction only appears when enemies are either staggered or on their knees, rewarding players for carefully placed shots.

Even against the greater foes, however, ones who won’t be stunned so easily, Resident Evil 4 still provides particle effects and satisfying squishy sounds to convey you’re blasting correct spots. This player feedback is essential, especially in a game where every shot counts. It lets players know immediately if they’re doing something right, or if they need to adjust their aim or strategy. In the original Resident Evil, this existed in the form of blood splatter, but Resident Evil 4 takes it to another level by rewarding players with melee opportunities for triggering specific reactions.

The Attache Case

My organization in this screenshot leaves a lot to be desired.

God bless the case.

Up until Resident Evil 4, your inventory was a series of squares. A knife took up the same space as a key, which took up the same space as a shotgun. Players spend an inordinate amount of time in the old games transferring items back and forth in storage, just to make space for the fourth blue hexagonal key needed to open the amber box to turn a crank or whatever. The only kind words I have for this tedious inventory management lie in the speedrunning community, where it’s fascinating to watch the pros plan a whole run around what items are absolutely essential.

Thirty minutes into the first Resident Evil and my inventory is already a disaster. At least Jill gets two additional squares, but it’s still not enough to avoid eighty trips to the storage box.

For the rest of us, there’s now the attache case. Guns, herbs, and ammo all take up space relative to their actual size. Better yet, key items go to a completely separate page and stay the hell out of your case.

All the little treasures Leon accumulates never take up valuable equipment real estate.

All of this means you’re still constrained in what you can carry, but gone is the tedium of shuffling keys in and out of your limited storage capacity to advance. The only bummer is you have to go into your inventory to equip a new weapon, which leads to a lot of menuing. But guess what? You had to do that in every other Resident Evil game up until now, too. In a historical context, this wasn’t unusual.

Starting in Resident Evil 5, you can finally bind weapons to your D-pad for quick access, a feature which has remained ubiquitous since. That’s all well and good, but let’s talk more about...

Resident Evil 5

First, a few words of praise for Resident Evil 5.

It still has Resident Evil 4’s excellent player feedback and aiming conventions, and narratively, it does a lot of work to tie up many of the loose plot tendrils left lingering from game to game. Wesker, the mysterious antagonist always working angles from the background, finally steps front and center. He may be chewing the scenery in every cutscene, but it’s enjoyable to watch.

Excella and Wesker are so mustache-twirling, they may as well be named Boris and Natasha.

However, Resident Evil 5 also marks where the series began to drift away from those key tenants I laid out earlier, starting with...

Action Supersedes Terror

Resident Evil 5 is a fun game, but I hesitate to call it "Survival Horror". Chris Redfield is an experienced soldier who’s seen it all by this point, so he’s never phased or afraid of anything happening in the game. Sheva and Chris also have military support and a full arsenal of weaponry.

A handful of stages play like arcadey on-rails shooters, even.

I’m hard pressed, in fact, to point out a single example of something terrifying in Resident Evil 5 besides the boss monsters just generally being disgusting, leechy, writhing masses.

Inventory, Why Are You Like This?

We’re back to boxes only. Nine of them, to be exact. This time, your inventory has to be managed on the fly — no pausing the game for you. While I appreciate the idea here, this inventory system is a major step backwards. Now a shotgun takes up the same amount of space as a knife again. You spend half your time in Resident Evil 5 trading items back and forth with your partner to make room. This issue becomes even more compounded when you find new weapons out in the field, pushing your already bursting inventory to the brink.

The greater consequence of this, however, is the growing assortment of tools which simply never get used because they eat up valuable space. The stun rod seems fun, sure, but that’s one less spot for ammo or a gun. Even the bulletproof vest takes up a spot in your inventory — not sure how or why that works the way it does, but there you have it. A vest within a vest. Vestception.

Co-Optomized for Two People

This one isn’t necessarily a unilateral knock. It gives the game a unique identity, and it’s well designed to encourage teamwork. The melee attacks from Resident Evil 4 return, but this time Sheva and Chris can chain several together if they work in tandem. The limited ammo and inventory space encourages the two of you to diversify your weapons to avoid overlap. And perhaps most importantly, the game puts you in many situations where communication and teamwork is key. Aside from professional difficulty, it’s possible to continuously save each other from death when health runs low.

This is all fantastic... when you’re playing with a person.

Peace out, AI Sheva.

Alone, Resident Evil 5 is hell. Your AI partner can’t wait to use every first aid spray they find, wasting valuable healing resources. There are multiple sections where Chris and Sheva are forced apart, and if your AI partner whiffs during these sequences, there’s nothing you can do to help. Your AI partner will even bodyblock your escape routes at times, trapping you in the doorway as B.O.W.s descend from all around.

There are also several puzzle rooms where the AI is programmed to sit in one specific spot until you solve it alone. Even if you end up bleeding to death, they won’t budge to save you. They’ll sit there, watching you die slowly like a roman emperor who just sentenced you to death.

Sheva refuses to move from this perch until the puzzle is solved.

Despite all these complaints, I really do enjoy Resident Evil 5, but the point here isn’t whether it’s a good or a bad game. It’s to illustrate how Resident Evil 5 was a tipping point. The series abandoned its survival horror roots, and while it still retains many of the mechanical changes from 4, it drifted away from why they existed in the first place.

In fact, as a brief aside, something stands out to me about reviews at the time for this one as well. Take these two quotes, for example.

Resident Evil 5's slow movement and gunplay take some time to get used to, and folks expecting a run-and-gun game may find the action too sluggish for their tastes.

Lark Anderson, Gamespot

This, along with the real-time inventory system (which is always restricted to nine slots and can't be upgraded) keeps RE5 in a sort of limbo between full-fledged action game and methodical survival horror game. I didn't mind the control style (which you can switch up with alternate layouts if you choose), but it does feel a bit outdated.

Ryan Geddes, IGN

Nobody had complaints like this about Resident Evil 4 (2005). While some of this one could attribute to simply advancing times (Resident Evil 5 came out three years later, after all) I think the overall tone plays a factor as well. In Resident Evil 4, it felt reasonable you’d move slow and careful in a horror setting. Meanwhile, Resident Evil 5 still uses the same control scheme, but is closer to a B-movie action film in tone. The restrained controls feel more unnatural as a result.

Any complaint I have about Resident Evil 5, however, pales in comparison to my feelings on...

Resident Evil 6

You might think this looks like a cool scene, but you’d be wrong.

Resident Evil 6 is what happens when a lifetime of additions to a franchise reach a breaking point and the series smothers itself in its own lore. In an effort to try and give the sprawling cast equal spotlight, Resident Evil 6 is multiple games in one — none of which, in my estimation, are any good. I would even argue the focus on setting up a dozen narrative threads to resolve may explain why it feels like such little care went into the actual mechanics. Resident Evil 5 May have nudged the series further towards action, but Resident Evil 6 reached a messy fever pitch.

Looking back, I find it impossible to describe Resident Evil 6 succinctly. All three main campaigns are a genre-bending emancipation from everything one could call “Survival Horror”. Leon and Helena’s campaign has elements of horror, but both protagonists are so well versed and trained they never feel in danger. Meanwhile, Chris and his new partner Piers (who is somehow both a new and old war buddy) go on a militaristic B.O.W. killing spree, tearing apart zombies and monsters with speed and precision. Meanwhile, Sherry and Jake run from a giant B.O.W., not unlike the premise of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. However, Jake is a superhuman B.O.W. himself, which keeps tensions low. They also primarily run through active war zones, which is a... different kind of survival horror than the Resident Evil series usually goes for.

This image sums up most of RE6 — big, flashy set pieces with little interaction.

A Tangled Ouroboros

In re-examining these plot threads and the baffling directions they go, I believe I have identified what it is about Resident Evil 6 that never sat well with me, both in a mechanical and narrative sense.

Narratively Resident Evil 6 got, to use a colloquial term, “way too up its own ass.” It’s so bogged down in all its own lore and history that it ceased to be anything other than a game about itself and its sprawling twenty year history. It’s a series of interactive cutscenes, followed by non-interactive ones. It might’ve been better off as a series of feature films rather than a game, quite frankly.

Mechanically, Resident Evil 6 still has player feedback, but lost the reason it existed in the first place. The melee attack is now something you can do whenever you want, but without the same impact and power, it no longer functions as a crowd-clearing reward for well placed shots. Most enemies are bullet sponges who soak up your ammo, and worse yet, poorly telegraph their attacks. This problem seems to even spread its pervasive tendrils into the level design itself, which is, to be blunt, incoherent. There are multiple combat scenarios in Resident Evil 6 where the player is left unclear on what their goal is, and the lack of positive feedback on gunfire means during a boss battle, you can't tell if you’re even harming the opponent. This is especially obnoxious when paired with Resident Evil 6’s love of invulnerable, multi-staged bosses, where only the last form is actually killable. The other forms eat up all your fruitless ammunition and grenades until a scripted event occurs.

This hallway sequence is one of many areas where it feels like you’re supposed to solve some puzzle, but the real answer is just to wait for a while. Also, where the heck did this dude come from?

The only kind words I have for Resident Evil 6 have to do with the UI design. Every character has a unique UI and cell phone menu to correspond to their aesthetic.

That’s it. All the kindness I can muster up for Resident Evil 6.

The Series Since

The suspenseful VHS tapes in Resident Evil 7 were a welcome scare after the Resident Evil 6 experience.

The introduction of Ethan Winters marked a much needed reset in the Resident Evil series, in my estimation. Introducing a new protagonist who stumbled blindly into a world of reanimated corpses reignited the lost survival horror roots once more.

However, when I look at all the design decisions made in the franchise across 7, Village, and the remakes, almost all of it harkens back to design decisions first established in Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 3 (2020) brought back the over-the-shoulder perspective and unique hit feedback. While you can move and shoot at the same time now, everyone still moves at a lumbering pace, especially when moving backwards or aiming. Village is perhaps the most obvious return to the sensibilities of 4 by far — it opens with a similar enemy gauntlet in an unfamiliar town, brings back a mysterious merchant, the attache’ case, weapon upgrades, and is even divided into distinct locations reminiscent of 4’s aesthetics. A mansion, an industrial wasteland, and a marshy lake with a large creature swimming about.

There were even plans for Ada’s return here, which were ultimately scrapped.

There may come a day where a new Resident Evil appears which will redefine the genre, but for now, every entry exists in the shadow of Resident Evil 4 (2005) — a shadow which has only grown larger as the new Resident Evil 4 Remake carves out a future for the franchise once more, bringing the seminal entry into the modern age.

Resident Evil 4 (2023) is now available on PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox. For the time being, playing this game on a PS4 is not recommended.

Most Resident Evil 4 (2005) images are pulled from T@P's inaugural stream here, from eight years ago.

Trevor's Top Ten Games of 2022

Trevor — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

2022, another year where indie surprises and AAA powerhouses rumbled for 10 coveted spots. Time to see how it all shook out after the dust settled, starting with...

10. Signalis

Signalis is, hands down, the best horror game to come out this year. No contest.

Like any good mystery, Signalis opens with a sea of questions. You awaken from a cryogenic sleep on what appears to be a spaceship. As you explore your surroundings, it’s clear things have not gone well for the rest of your crew. Those who haven’t congealed into paste due to failed suspension pods have taken refuge in a nearby mining outpost. While you may not have your memories, your belongings include a picture of someone on the crew you clearly care about, and you vaguely recall having a promise to keep to them. You make your way to the mining outpost to find her.

Only to find out things aren’t much better in there, either.

Atmosphere is the name of the game in Signalis. While there is occasional music, most of the game is deathly silent, amplifying the impact of every ambient noise. The hallways are dark and littered with environmental storytelling. Dismembered workers, scorch marks, failed barricades. Signalis is like exploring the scene of the crime in a locked building while the killer is still at large.

Puzzles are solved in a first-person perspective, all while in a deathly silence. Every second spent fiddling with switches feels like a second closer to something stabbing you in the back.

What follows is a bloody, twisted hunt through this facility to put all the pieces together. If horror is your jam—and especially if you have any reverence for the Resident Evil franchise—you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

9. Triangle Strategy

Between Tactics Ogre: Reborn and Front Mission 1st, there was no shortage of remastered turn-based strategy games, but there was at least one original strategy release to crack the top ten.

Triangle Strategy (please stop lying to us about “working titles” Square Enix) is the next game from Tomoya Asano, of Octopath and Bravely Default fame. Much like his previous works, Triangle Strategy borrows much DNA from previous Square RPGs—in this case, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Triangle Strategy differentiates itself from other clones by leaning harder into the political, aristocratic drama that made up the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics. There are major decisions to make at every turn, but where most games make the choice as simple as selecting from the menu, Triangle Strategy takes a more democratic approach.

As all your major characters assemble to debate what the correct course of action is, it’s up to you to do the rounds and convince each person casting a vote to come around to your side. You have one chance to hear everyone out and gather additional evidence before proceeding to a vote, and while sometimes you will be able to sway some of your companions, others may simply move to a neutral position, leaving you in suspense until they walk up to the podium.

If Triangle Strategy had stuck the landing it would be much higher on the list, but my biggest disappointment with this entry lies in the conclusion. There are three sub-par endings, and one more fulfilling comprehensive conclusion which requires a fair amount of luck (or internet browsing) to arrive at. Putting these aside, however, there’s no doubt Triangle Strategy is the best original release of its ilk to release this year.

8.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

LET’S KICK SHELL!

The return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was perhaps my most hotly anticipated release of the year, and it did not disappoint. What I expected was a fitting tribute to the legendary Konami TMNT arcade games, but what I got contained much more mechanical depth and artistic brilliance than any of them.

If you’ve played Turtles in Time, you have an idea of what to expect. Shredder’s back and he’s even stealing the Statue of Liberty again, the scamp. In Shredder’s Revenge, you hit the streets as the Turtles, Splinter, or even April and take out the foot clan. Rest assured all the faces from the 90’s show will appear somewhere at some time.

Take for example, one fan favorite hockey mask fella who loves sporting goods.

There’s a few new twists in Shredder’s Revenge when compared to those Konami games. For one, every character has a backstep to quickly get out of enemy range. There’s also a super bar—Ninja Power—which you can use to trigger one of three different super abilities. Hitting jump and attack simultaneously also triggers an upward airborne attack, which makes hitting flying enemies a thousand times easier than it ever was in the arcades.

Ninja Arts make clearing out a whole gang of foot clan a breeze.

What I cannot stress enough, however, is just how impressive the artistic presentation is. Every stage is immaculately crafted, with very few reused assets and backdrops. The colors and effects pop with vibrance, attacks have a satisfying weight and power, and the music is just straight bumpin’. I mean, they even got Raekwon and Ghostface Killah on this set list.

In a year with a handful of disappointing releases for yours truly (all of which you'll find at the end of this list), Shredder’s Revenge lived up to the hype.

7. King of Fighters XV

In a year devoid of many fighting game releases, the king returns.

King of Fighters is an acquired taste among the fighting game scene. Where many games try to be more accessible, KOF has remained largely similar in concept for many years. There are certainly a few changes for newcomers; everyone’s 3-meter supers are performed with the same inputs, auto-combos are present, and more complicated special moves have been simplified over the years. In a game like King of Fighters though, these simplifications only get you so far.

The KOF franchise differentiates itself from others in the genre with a unique approach to a 3-on-3 format. Unlike Dragonball FighterZ where characters are tagging in and out constantly, battles in KOF happen one at a time. Players try to create a team composition where the final character in the lineup (known as the anchor) will be able to come in and clean house with all the meter the other two built along the way. Impressive comebacks and long, technically challenging combos are iconic to the franchise.

Krohnen here is a popular anchor. There’s not much he can do without meter, but with some bars stocked up he becomes an absolute beast.

The new characters are slick. Isla is a rad graffiti artist from South America who attacks with sentient spray can arms, and Shun’ei wields giant fire and ice arms on his back. The roster also includes the return of many a fan favorite, and even includes different, powered up versions of them from previous entries.

Isla gets tricky with those cans.

The support KOF XV has seen since release did much to elevate its position on the list. In addition to regular balance changes, KOF XV has incorporated other SNK properties into the fold this time around. A Garou: Mark of the Wolves team has joined the roster, and most recently, a Samurai Shodown squad hit the field.

While there’s no Metal Slug team, the Ikari Warriors are back and they brought the iconic tank to their stage.

The only thing keeping KOF low on the list is, to be frank, the fact this is more of the same. There is not a lot of iteration from previous entries in the series, only the distillation and refinement of what’s made it unique thus far. But for KOF fans, it's exactly what we want. If King of Fighters became more accessible, at some point it wouldn’t be KOF anymore.

This ridiculous combo is quintessential King of Fighters.

6. Splatoon 3

After years of thinking about getting into Splatoon, by God, I finally did it. I understand now.

Splatoon 3 is a fitting entry to follow King of Fighters XV, as it makes the list for a similar reason—it doesn’t do anything explicitly new, but delivers a better version of what came before.

Splatoon 3 is a shooter packed with ink instead of bullets. You make an inkling or octoling then enter the fray with others, competing to mark a majority of the field in your team’s color by the end of the match. Now this much, I expected, but what I didn’t realize is Splatoon has much more to offer.

If PvP isn’t your thing, Splatoon 3 also has a surprisingly comprehensive story mode and a team-based offering called Salmon Run, where you and three allies square off against a horde of fishy enemies. In previous Splatoon games, this mode used to be available for a limited time. As of Splatoon 3, it's been expanded on and become a permanent feature.

If I had to guess, at least 70% of my playtime went to Salmon Run.

The way Splatoon 3 rotates its offerings periodically really makes it feel like a living, breathing world. Shiver, Frye, and Big Man give you deets every time you log in, breaking down the available stages and match types. And, if there’s a splatfest in play, you can also count on a fair amount of trash talk between the trio. The main hub itself is also full of activity. The shopkeepers are a lively cast of sea creatures, and the city is populated with equally lively and creative doodles from fellow citizens of Splatsville.

There’s a fair amount of creative jabs around town during splatfests.

Keep bragging, Shiver. We’ll see who’s laughing when Team Sour takes the next splatfest.

The amount on offer here is staggering. I mean, I didn’t even mention Tableturf Battle, an entire card minigame you could easily miss buried away in the courtyard.

Can’t stress this enough; it’s very easy to lose hours and hours to Splatoon 3, despite every match taking two minutes tops.

5. Monster Prom 3: Roadtrip

I’m an easy mark for laughter, but few games make me cry literal tears quite like the Monster Prom series—and Roadtrip is perhaps the best one to ever do it.

Tough choices to make every step of the way.

A cursory glance shows I’ve never talked about a single Monster Prom game on this website, which is a glaring oversight on my part. The first Monster Prom is relatively self-explanatory—you attend a monster high school, and it’s up to you (and up to three friends) to woo a classmate in time for the prom. Monster Prom 2 takes the adventure to summer camp and introduces a new cast of characters to meet. Both games have exceptionally funny writing and a vibrant cast of misfits and troublemakers, but aside from a few specific interactions here and there, it’s largely you and your friends making independent choices with little impact on each other, then seeing how those choices play out.

Roadtrip is the first Monster Prom game to upend the formula and make teamwork the name of the game. Instead of raising stats or emotional bonds, Roadtrip is an exercise in resource management. You and your team of friends must manage a series of resources in order to make it to a final destination. If anything falls below zero, it’s game over for all of you. The game even provides options on how competitive you want the journey to get. There can be victories all around, one loser, or a cutthroat road trip where you’re out for yourselves.

Don’t get too cutthroat though, or else no one wins.

Two things elevate this entry in particular—the cooperative nature of the experience makes for more engaging multiplayer, and the quality of the humor is off the charts. I can’t even land on a favorite experience. We ran from a nightmarish off-brand Sonic OCs brought to life, we assembled a Voltron-like robot in an attempt to woo a Kaiju, and the trip culminated in a visit to the amusement park, KNIFELAND.

Don’t forget your commemerative stab cam pics!

Monster Prom: Roadtrip is an excellent addition to your party game lineup (provided present company has a raunchy and dark sense of humor, at least).

4. Marvel Snap

If you’re wondering, no, I have not stopped playing Marvel Snap. It dominates my mornings and nights.

Marvel Snap is, in my book, the best mobile game on offer. It moves at a snappy pace, card synergies lead to outrageous plays, and deck-building is a highly versatile experience. Player expression, short time commitment, competitive offerings for free players—this has it all.

If I had to pinpoint a single element driving Marvel Snap up the charts, it’s the first point on the above list. Player expression. While there’s certainly common deck types, how people choose to play them and which cards they’re inclined to include is always tough to guess... and I can understand why, considering I’m right there with them.

Every card has some unique properties. Figuring out how to synergize them is the key to victory.

Every time I unlock a new card, my mind becomes a flurry of ideas on how to best create a deck around it. Sometimes this exercise ends in disaster, and other times I stumble across a new favorite deck to run. So long as this process continues—and the balance fears I alluded to in a previous article don’t come to pass—it’s hard to fathom a time Marvel Snap falls out of favor.

3. Sifu

Sifu was my first obsession of the year.

Sifu is an action game brought to you by Sloclap, inspired by a long history of martial arts action films. When your father is murdered in his own dojo by a former scorned student one fateful night, the unnamed protagonist embarks on a lifelong mission to exact vengeance.

Each area of Sifu belongs to one of the people responsible for your father’s murder. The goal is to tear through these zones with speed and panache and eliminate all five members of Yang’s former gang, then Yang himself. The whole lot of them believe you to be dead. You're a reckoning from beyond the grave.

Their assumption you’re dead is a reasonable thing to assume, considering they slit your throat before the game begins. The reason for your survival is also the game’s most unique feature; a talisman of ching coins possesses the ability to bring you back to life. There is a catch, however—each time you rise this way, you become older. In gameplay terms, this means you have the freedom to make a lot of mistakes in the pursuit of vengeance, but those mistakes have to last the entire run. Once you get past 70, that’s it. Game over. It’s back to the start to try again.

While defeat is almost certain, the good news is there’s permanent skills to unlock along the way. Each ultimate defeat brings with it some additional techniques to master for the next run. Any shortcuts you unlocked in a stage also remain, making your path to the boss easier the next time around.

This slow trickle of rewards leads to an intoxicating need to keep jumping right back in. Each boss is a serious test of your skills, and there's always a new technique to learn, some new trick—but by the time you learn it, you’re already 68 years old and there’s two more bosses to go.

The Artist always ages me a couple decades.

Sifu lives up to its martial arts lineage by never getting easier. Instead, it's you who gets better as your mastery improves.

2. Elden Ring

Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you this isn’t number one.

I almost feel ridiculous adding more words about Elden Ring to the greater internet discourse, as it feels like every aspect of this game has been disseminated and dissected in at least twenty languages, if not more. But hey, it’s GOTY time, so let’s go.

Sometimes it’s the foes who engage in jolly cooperation.

If you somehow haven’t heard yet, Elden Ring is a joint venture between legendary developer FromSoftware and George R.R. Martin. While Elden Ring shares much DNA with its Souls-like predecessors, it breaks the mold by taking the franchise open world. The map is expansive, and within an hour, the game leaves it entirely up to you as to what direction to go.

The breadth of Elden Ring is staggering. Sometimes you explore a cave and find a treasure chest, while other times you explore a cave and find a path to an entirely new underground map. Some false walls contain treasures, and others contain entire cities. If you’ve ever played a Souls game, Elden Ring is a 'roided out souls experience. To my knowledge, I explored every inch of Elden Ring, a feat which took 140 hours.

FromSoftware has always done an excellent job at crafting impressive establishing vistas...

...and if your favorite part of Dark Souls was player messages undercutting those vistas, great news about what’s back in Elden Ring!

Elden Ring feels like a culmination of everything From Software has created since Souls games emerged and dominated the industry. The gameplay options are almost staggering. You’ve got a plethora of spells, weapon types, and even new spirit ash companions to manage during your journey. There’s an excellent variety to the boss fights; some you will spend cursing your weapon choices, while others will be a breeze for melee users and a nightmare for casters. If you’ve got it in you to sink another 100 hours into Elden Ring, a second playthrough with a different build yields a different experience entirely.

The real star of the show here, I think, is the environments and spectacle. Multiple times I walked into a new area in Elden Ring and felt a piercing intimidation at the spectacle before me. A city sinking into lava, an underground cave full of stars, a horrific eldritch beast made of starlight. Over every mountain is a new shock, a new threat.

And when these new threats are too much to handle, Elden Ring gives players a way out previous Souls games never provided. Namely, in a world this big, there’s always somewhere else to go.

1. Neon White

This year’s sleeper hit slides in and steals the grand prize with ease.

From the onset, Neon White grabbed my attention with a familiar voice. The eponymous character is played by none other than Steve Blum, a.k.a Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel himself. It doesn’t take long to realize this casting is on purpose—in many ways, Mr. Blum is almost reprising the role. White used to be part of a mysterious gang of criminals and thieves, each with eclectic traits and dysfunctions. A little found family of violent misfits.

Now his found family has reassembled in the afterlife, and while your old friends seem to remember everything, White is still fuzzy on a great many details.

Ends up dying has an amnesiac effect on the soul. Also ends up Heaven isn’t quite as perfect as reported on earth. Every so often, demons run amok, and once a year, Heaven drags some souls from hell up to clear them out. While in Heaven, these souls are called “Neons”. So, if you’re wondering how a band of criminals ended up in Heaven, consider the question asked and answered. They’re temp workers at best.

The incentive to win this little contest is the winner gets to stay in Heaven... at least until the next rumble, that is, when they have to defend their title to stay. Life’s rough for sinners. The current holder of the title is Neon Green, White's former boss.

As the game continues, White unravels the mystery of his past, one piece at a time.

And along the way, asks the real questions.

So how does one exterminate demons? The answer is swiftly.

At first glance, Neon White almost looks like a Counter-Strike mod in refined form. The goal is to get from point A to point B and eliminate every demon the way. How you achieve this is up to you, but make no mistake—there’s the wrong answer, the right answer, and the better answer.

Here’s how it works; during a stage, you pick up these weapon cards. The primary function is a gunshot of some kind, but the secondary function is a new traversal option instead. These include double-jumps, quick descents, and barrier-breaking sprints. These cards are quite purposefully positioned in every stage, and figuring out where and how to use them is the trick.

Later stages really put your ability to use these cards in tandem to the test.

Everything in Neon White pulses to this frantic, aggressive energy. The music takes on an extraordinarily fast-paced tempo, practically pushing you to pick up the pace at every turn. Many enemies give you only seconds of opportunity to act, and many still can obliterate you in a single hit. Even in Heaven, the world is out to get you.

The intoxicating part of Neon White isn’t just the way all of the design choices work to sell a fernetic pace. It’s also the “ah-ha” moment that comes when you finally piece together a way to shave off time, or figure out a shortcut past an intended obstacle. You’ll hit a wall somewhere, a stage that feels completely impossible. Then you figure one thing out, then another. And by the next attempt, you’re a demon-slaying master.

Eventually you’ll get so good at a stage, you can fit the whole thing in a single gif.

To speak once more to the story, Neon White plays itself as a dark comedy... until suddenly it doesn’t. The story made me laugh out loud many times, as the cast of characters is an absolute cavalcade of lovable dysfunctional dopes. Yellow is the bro’est of bros, Red is a dangerous femme fatale, and Violet is just straight up dangerous. As you approach the end, however, Neon White takes a hard turn and becomes much more serious. As the stakes climb higher, so too do the consequences.

Cannot stress this enough—Violet is bad news.

The reason Neon White takes home the grand prize this year isn’t just the sound design, the level design, the bombastic characters, or the voice acting. It’s also because it had something to say.

Neon White wants you to ponder a single question, one which is on your screen the entire time, right next to your lifebar. “Who deserves a place in heaven?”

Neon White makes a case for the answer: “anyone with the capacity to forgive.”

Honorable Mentions

Gundam Evolution

After how much I enjoyed Gundam Evolution this year I’m surprised it ended up down here, but here we are.

Gundam Evolution is the supplemental Overwatch game I needed when Blizzard suddenly made Overwatch immeasurably worse overnight. It has a great number of changes to the usual formula, mixing up the usual “tank/support/DPS” structure for a more hybrid approach. It also rewards precision and mobility. This does make it less approachable, but the trade-off is individual skill yields greater returns.

Dragalia Lost

Instead of filling the GOTY article with 60,000 words about why Dragalia Lost deserves better than it ever got, I will instead direct you here where you can read my puritanical screed about how this delightful mobile game got done dirty.

Dragalia Lost was unceremoniously put down this November, and with its end of service went a delightful fantasy world full of rich characters and a bombastic narrative with unexpected twists and turns.

This may be the first time I’ve used the Honorable Mention category as a memorial.

RIP Dragalia Lost.

Multiversus

While Multiversus certainly looks like yet another Smash Bros clone, this one finally managed to distinguish itself from its obvious spiritual predecessor by leaning into a team aspect. Characters have saving tethers, heal abilities, and even MMO-style classifications.

Multiversus also puts much more emphasis on mobility. With multiple air jumps and air dodges, everyone can practically fly across every map. Rather than grasp a series of fundamental mechanics like Smash, Multiversus is more about predicting and punishing large movements.

While it lacks the depth of its obvious contemporary and certainly has some problems, it deserves recognition for carving out a unique identity. I especially enjoy the unique voicework, as characters have many witty retorts and commentary calling out their partners or opponents.

Dishonerable Mentions

Saints Row (2022)

As a fan of the franchise, it hurts to see the Saint’s Row name down here on a GOTY list, but I must speak my truth.

I’ll start with some kind words—the creative spark is still here. The new cast of characters are a delight, the dialogue is snappy and witty, and the whole gang gets up to some wacky antics.

Unfortunately, most of those antics involve an extensive amount of 2010-era 3rd person shooting, as if no time has passed since Saints Row 4. In fact, sometimes it feels worse than Saints Row 4, since many of the bombastic, absurd powers from 4 aren’t at your disposal.

This on it’s own would not be enough for me to condemn the game, but layer on an extensive amount of glitches, bugs, and uninspired side events which make up a large amount of content, and you’ve got yourself a fun story that’s an absolute chore to see to the end.

Enemies threateningly T-posing as they approach is the least of your worries.

In my book, this was the year’s biggest disappointment.

Bayonetta 3

As an action game, Bayonetta 3 is a perfectly above-average experience. The snappy action I know and love is here, the new mechanics are fun to pick apart and use, and the new environments are...

Okay, they don’t look great, honestly.

Narratively, Bayonetta 3 is a disappointing conclusion to a trilogy spanning a decade. After six years between this and Bayonetta 2, it hurts me to say Bayonetta 3 was hardly worth the wait. Bayonetta 3 is packed with a formulaic narrative structure, unwarranted twists, and so many subpar mini-game experiences it feels like the game doesn’t trust its own combat to hold your attention.

Every other stage, the action comes to a standstill for a strange diversion—in this case, a rhythm game.

The best thing I can say about Bayonetta 3 is the new character Viola, a mysterious universe-hopping teenager, is a delight. To be quite frank, the presence of Viola salvaged an otherwise unpleasant experience, and if she’s to be the new face of the franchise, I welcome it.

She looks cool, right? Joke’s on you, she’s actually a massive dork.

Hopefully Bayonetta 4 or the upcoming side project Cereza and the Lost Demon can redeem this franchise in full, because right now my expectations are dashed against the rocks.

Shameful Omissions

God of War: Ragnarok

I have only just begun this monolith of a game, which means it could not make the list. Sorry Kratos.

Tunic

At least three people harped on me to get around to this one before 2022 ended. 2022 is now over. Tunic remains unplayed, and unbought. Oops.

Dragalia Lost: A Swan Song For Dragalia Lost

Trevor — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Cygames’ Dragalia Lost has existed on my phone in some capacity for almost four years now. While my participation in the game has certainly drifted in and out, I always made an effort to check in on the ol’ Bonglord Estate and see how things were going.

You may be wondering about the name there. More on that later.

Around March of 2022, Nintendo made a startling announcement. Draglia Lost is going away forever. After chapter 26 is complete, that’s it. Dragalia Lost is joining Toontown Online and LawBreakers in the great cloud in the sky. The old server farm upstate.

While I diligently participated in every limited time event in Dragalia Lost, I've been far less diligent staying on top of the story over the years. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy it, mind you; it's simply because it’s a huge time investment, one which only gets larger with each unfinished chapter. In an effort to optimize the limited amount of time I allot mobile games per day, I always focused on the time-sensitive content. After all, the main story would always be there, waiting.

But now? Now, the end of service looms. The main story became time sensitive content.

Ah yes, that old limited time event, MAIN STORY.

So I embarked on a quest. A quest to see the end of Dragalia Lost before the world is snapped from existence. Thanks a lot, Thanos.

The Journey Begins

First off, allow me to quickly get you up to speed. Judging from Draglia Lost’s looming EOS, most people reading this either haven’t played, or stopped playing years ago. Here’s the rundown.

You, a self-named protagonist, is the seventh child of the royal Alberian family in a world of dragons and magic. When your sister Zethia is kidnapped and possessed by a mysterious villainous spirit, you embark on a mission to rescue her. Along the way you amass a whole throng of allies, your own region of land to manage, and a whole bunch of dragons who form “pacts” with you.

Our Prince who’s on a quest to save his sister, and also forge a pact with the dankest of dragons.

See, in the world of Dragalia Lost, it's not uncommon for dragons to form pacts with people, allowing them to call upon their strength in battle. You, however, possess the mysterious ability to make pacts with multiple dragons, a power most do not have. Story-wise, this means enemies undergo DBZ-style transformation sequences to ramp up difficulty. Gameplay wise, this gives you a bunch of dragons to morph into once you’ve built your special bar enough. And business model wise, this gives Cygames lots of money as people do gacha pulls for powerful dragons to turn into.

Now. About the name of my estate.

See, back when I started Dragalia Lost on the suggestion of Roguelike Correspondent Fugimax, I thought I’d try it out for a month at most, then stop forever. So I made a gag name, one which has now stuck for four years. Sometimes I regret it, but when it leads to great moments like this:

I can only be so upset.

From this point forward, there will be spoilers for Draglia Lost. I’d say “stop reading if you want to see for yourself,” but by the time you read this it’ll be too late. Hell, even if you'd started a week before EOS, you'd have to spend a small fortune just to catch up.

There and Back Again: A Dragon’s Holiday

Step one, of course, was to remember what the hell was happening in the story.

The (heavily curated) tale so far; In order to rescue Zethia, Prince Bonglord amasses allies and bolsters his kingdom. The drawing of allies encomapses roughly the first ten chapters of Dragalia Lost. The key players are:

Notte, the semi-obnoxious faerie guide character all J-RPGs seem to require.

Elisanne, a Paladyn warrior from the church who aligns herself with Prince Bonglord.

Ranzal, a fierce but fun-loving mercenary.

Luca, a Sylvian archer and prankster.

Cleo, maid attendant of your home, the Halidom, who has served and maintained it for hundreds of years.

And finally Mym, A.k.a. Brunhilda, the wyrm of fire. Upon defeat, she is smitten with Bonglord and assumes a human form, Mym, in an attempt to court him.

Her and Elisanne proceed to spend many moments pining after Bonglord in their own ways. Mym by being unbelievably forward;

Unfortunately for her, Bonglord is too dense to get her oh-so-subtle hints.

And Eli by fuming with jealousy from afar.

Back to catching up.

Now, I mentioned earlier Dragalia Lost existed on my phone for four years. Sometimes, all I did to justify that existence was log in, accept the daily rewards, and quit. If you do this every day for a year in a mobile game, you will have an absurd stockpile of items. I mean, an absolutely stupid amount.

Once I got back to it, I had about 950 smithwyrm hammers, which are used to skip the waiting periods on building construction. More on that later. I also had 9000 experience crystals, used to throw at units for quick levels.

This made catching adventurers up to the necessary power levels absurdly easy when jumping back in around chapter 9. From chapters ten to thirteen, it was smooth sailing.

And you know what? The story is good.

I tend to expect little from mobile game storylines. They’re often fairly basic power fantasies with some silly diegetic explanation for why you, said hero, are uniquely equipped to summon helpers from elsewhere. As mentioned previously, Dragalia ticks this box right out of the gate — Bonglord is the only one anyone knows who can have a multitude of pacts at once with dragons. However, Dragalia ends up bucking the usual Mobile game power fantasy trend in increasingly escalatory ways.

Namely, Bonglord can lose.

At the end of chapter ten you finally catch up to your possessed sister, who is infused with the soul of the great villain Morsayati. All your siblings who rule other regions of Alberia are assembled alongside to finally face her, but. BUT.

After seeing the confrontation, your siblings arrive at a stark and demoralizing conclusion. They decide you cannot win, and instead ally themselves with Morsayati to protect their respective kingdoms. For the next few chapters, the allies you’ve spent all game uniting turn against you, forming a monolithic empire.

After all your work, all your struggles, Bonglord has come up short. You and your remaining friends in the Halidom now stand alone.

From this point forward, I was hooked. I’m used to mobile games giving into player power fantasies over and over, so even this simple subversion was enough to keep me compelled. To be fair, even before this point, I was already somewhat surprised at the level of care in rhetoric in Dragalia Lost. When Bonglord meets his other siblings, they often have profound musings to challenge his naive views.

Chelle consistently has the best takes all game.

Except Emile. Emile just sucks.

Emile is no one’s favorite Alberian Prince.

There’s shockingly good political and philosophical suppositions at work. Every character has a nuanced, complicated outlook on the world that informs their decision-making, or how they percieve one to be a "good" ruler.

Again, except Emile.

From this point forward, the story only got better. However, we can’t get there yet, because I’m trying to capture the full experience of catching up on a mobile game.

And in order to find out what happens next, we had to deal with some typical mobile game nonsense first.

Welcome to the Roadblock

I would’ve loved to continue enjoying the story. I really would’ve. But something starts happening around this point in the story, something I would actually call offensive.

It goes like this — a villain shows up from a new secret order called “The Agito”. You fight them once. Then they do their DBZ-style power up by shouting ”FERAL SHROUD, EXPAND!” and everyone freaks and says, “here they come! Get ready! This will be our toughest fight yet!”

Then you return to the main menu where you’re greeted by one of the main characters who says, “woah there Bonglord, before we fight Celia, we need to upgrade the Bramblybook Den in the castle to level fifteen!”

Then the game dumps a quest with about five-to-seven steps into your quest log and locks your progress until all steps are complete.

At first, this wasn’t too much of an issue. After all, I had four years of items stocked up. It took maybe fifteen, thirty minutes tops to tap on all the right things to make the problem go away. But, for the sake of argument, let's pretend I didn’t have all those things. Here’s what the full process would’ve looked like.

Step One — build the initial building. This is a very easy step. The required materials drop as part of the main story, and our build time is a paltry 10 seconds.

I never took any pictures of an initial build, so please enjoy this list of things I can’t upgrade instead.

Step Two — Upgrade the building to level fifteen, as per Elisanne’s instructions. With each upgrade, not only do the required material get rarer, but the time to complete gets longer too. I had a stockpile of 900 smythwyrm hammers, which skip the build time entirely.

If I didn’t, here’s how long just upgrading from level twelve to thirteen alone would take.

Yeah, that’s not hours. That’s a counter for days. Literally a day and half between upgrades. And remember, we need to get to level fifteen. You’re looking at almost a full week before advancing to a new chapter. Even if you popped back in after time away to catch up before EOS, if you haven’t been at least collecting your daily rewards, you’re totally hosed.

Now for the real freemium jackassery — there are five of these roadblocks between chapters ten to fifteen.

More importantly though, let’s pretend the upgrade process was simpler and less of a literal timesink. They are still flawed on a more fundamental level. These roadblocks completely undercut pivotal conflicts and undermine tension. The only reason they exist is to try and get you to spend money to make the roadblock go away. At most charitability, they justify and reward players who’ve kept up on the base building aspect of the game, or at least have logged in every day like me to collect an assortment of rewards. At least charitability, they are shameless and brazen attempts to squeeze money out of you once you’re invested in the narrative.

Either way, this was the worst part of the race to the finish line. While smythwyrm hammers remained in large supply, after five of these roadblocks, I was fast running out of all other upgrade materials.

fast.

Dragalia Found

As previously mentioned, the next set of villains are a mysterious group known as The Agito. The whole lot of them seem to know some kind of secret about Bonglord, one they allude to many times. The fights against The Agito mark a stark increase in Dragalia's difficulty.

The next chapter, the biggest of bombs drops. One which undermines the entire plot.

You are not of Royal Birth. Bonglord was switched with the actual seventh scion of the Alberius family.

You have no right to rule.

Even though you are finally successful in rescuing your sister, your victory is swiftly undermined when the true seventh son, Nedrick, emerges from the shadows and kidnaps her once more.

Everything tumbles apart from here. Your allies become unsure if they should even stick with your burgeoning empire. Everyone’s confidence is shaken, especially Bonglord’s. With the news out, your own citizens even begin to revolt, breaking down the gates of the kingdom you’ve spent years building.

From here, your siblings come in and right the sinking ship that is your own empire. With your own nation now under the rule of your brother, Bonglord and company set out to discover the truth of his birth.

At this point, it became very hard to stop playing Dragalia Lost. I couldn’t believe this mobile game completely undermined its entire premise for the sake of the story. With Bonglord and company unmoored, it felt like anything could happen.

Ends up I wasn’t even in the thick of it yet.

Enter The Progenitor

After a long hunt for Nedrick, your sister, and your meaning for existence, the gang finally uncovers Nedrick's true goal. Ends up he cares not for the royal family, his birthright, or anything of the sort. His true aims are much higher. In typical J-RPG fashion, Nedrick seeks to slay a God.

Two, to be specific, but who’s counting?

A being known as The Progenitor seeks to eliminate causality from the world. They’ve watched us use our free will and have decided we squandered the right. It’s time to strip us of the power of choice and mold our every action instead.

This leads to, quite literally, an impossible battle. Your crew tries to strike him down over and over, but time simply rewinds.

The group is forced to retreat and try to uncover a new means of assault.

After many more struggles, the gang discovers an answer. The Five Greatwyrms and their Auspices (their pact-bound humans) have the power to nullify The Progenitor’s abilities. For the next few chapters, while The Auspices and their dragons train to prepare for the big day, the rest of your team seeks to try and keep The Progenitor’s meddling to a minimum.

Emile gives the best pep talks.

At one point, you are given a glimpse beyond the fabric of your own reality to discover The Progenitor’s aims are larger than your own world. He is erasing entire universes, one by one, and seeks to centralize them all to ease his burden of observation.

Finally, the day comes. Your Auspices and Greatwyrms bring all to bear against The Progenitor, now masquerading under the name "Xenos".

And in the end, you fail.

Dragalia is Lost

When the next chapter starts, all that remains of the world is the Halidom.

Every city you’ve been to, every ally you met, the friends and families of your loved ones, have all been wiped from existence. It’s just your immediate crew now, floating in a cold abyss. The power of the Auspices managed to protect only this little slab of land while everything was sundered into the void.

After some despair, the gang finds their resolve again. Even if you are all that’s left, you can at least still fight The Progenitor to the last, and try to ensure this future universe will still have some measure of free will.

You march out from the Halidom to face The Progenitor one last time.

Dragalia Found

It’s here I hit another significant roadblock in two forms; Otherworld Sutr, and then Xenos himself. The difficulty spiked tremendously here. Despite my best efforts, I could barely get either of these mandatory bosses down to half.

So it was time to use it all. I put the smythwyrms to work and upgraded every single stat-boosting building I could to their maximum level. It took almost thirty minutes of tapping the same series of buttons over and over.

And after that, guess what?

We did not survive this shadow spirit bomb thing.

Yup, it was still hard as hell.

Ends up there was an entire roguelike dungeon update I missed a while back, one which provided some important upgrades for your adventurers.

This mode is surprisingly good. A shame I didn’t get around to it until a month before EOS.

So, after many hours grinding out these new unique wyrmprints, I returned to trounce Surtr and Xenos.

Absolute chaos.

And still barely beat him. The end of the game pulls no punches.

Finally, I reached the conclusion of Dragalia Lost, and as the game had managed to surprise me all along, it surprised me once more.

In order to restore the world, Bonglord must erase himself from existence. It’s a sacrifice only he can make, thanks to his special pact-forging powers.

And you know what? You do it.

The world as you knew it is reborn, but now Zethia and Nedrick run the show. Your friends and loved ones are returned, but none of them remember you ever existed. But even so, they all still feel a mysterious sense of loss and grief. Just as the game ends, however, a mysterious and familiar figure emerges from the shadows to introduce themselves. Whether or not anyone remembers your face is left ambigious as the credits roll.

It’s a bittersweet and fitting finale to a game that, at every turn, has been willing to undercut a typical power fantasy with profound consequences.

Brevity is the Soul of Missing Out

I’ve done my best here to capture the broad strokes of Dragalia's story, but in doing so I did have to excise a tremendous amount of enjoyable side content and character motivation. There’s side stories involving more minor members of the cast, characters who become key players further in I waylaid in the interest of time, and even entire storylines for every single person who joins your army, no matter how minor they may be.

Every recruit wants to talk to you when they arrive. As you can see, I neglected them forever. Oops.

After five years of service, it’s unbelievably hard to capture every addition in a swan song. But, to be blunt — I shouldn’t have to.

A Final Requiem

Now, I get it. There are plenty of games out there that simply can’t work without the eternally online aspect. All the battle royales and MMOs of the world require interaction with others to actually play. To remove the online aspect is to remove the game itself.

Here's the thing though — 95% of the content in Draglia Lost isn’t like that at all. Aside from raid events, very few interactions required the presence of others. And, with a strong enough team, the early stages of said raid events were entirely soloable. It was only the additional difficulty levels or special limited-time raid events which really required grouping up. While enjoyable, these raids could almost certainly be re-tooled for a solo experience, or alternatively, cut from the game without detracting from the rest of what's on offer.

For example, the plethora of crossover content. We got Fire Emblem, Persona, Monster Hunter, and even Mega Man.

The real tragedy of Dragalia Lost is when you cut away all the freemium bullshit, there’s still a game here worth playing. If you could excise it like a benign tumor, you’d have a fun action-adventure RPG with a rich (albeit sexually repressed) cast of JRPG characters. On a technical level, you have decent hack n’ slash gameplay, bosses with actual mechanics, sharp artwork, and music far better than any mobile game deserves. There’s also political drama, romantic pining, betrayal, dark despair, sacrifice, and love. All of which could be downloaded and enjoyed by players for years to come without the need of any online component to maintain at all.

To quote a sentient android other than Laxi: “All of these moments will be lost, like tears in the rain.” And there’s no reason it needs to be. In a perfect world, Dragalia Lost would be repackaged and sold without all the rat race and hamster wheels. Everything the developers worked on could be experienced, enjoyed, and admired for years to come, with no need for an EOS date that snaps Bonglord Estate, Elisanne, Cleo, and Mym out of existence.

Dragalia Lost is a victim of the new era of live service gaming. A rich and lively world gone forever because a line somewhere didn’t go up enough. Does it make for a smart business decision to cut your losses and move on? Absolutely. But it doesn’t make the loss of Bonglord and his friends any less tragic.

I write to you today to make it known Draglia Lost deserves to be remembered. In a sea of dime-a-dozen freemium experiences going up in smoke, I've no doubt Dragalia will be counted as another among them — and it shouldn't be. It had more heart than half the mobile games on the market put together.

I, for one, will light a candle and wave a phone flashlight in the air in remembrance of Dragalia Lost.

Dragalia Lost is no longer available, anywhere at all. May it be remembered fondly.

For now, the only Dragalia Lost content I can offer is this collection of comics compiled on the Nintendo website for as long as they remain up.

Marvel Snap: Help, I Can't Stop Playing Marvel Snap

Trevor — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Marvel Snap, the latest mobile card game from Nuverse, is an addictive, fast, and free deck builder.

I’m not yet sure if this article functions as a recommendation or a warning. I will do my best to describe what makes this mobile card game so good and leave the determination to you.

The Details

Marvel Snap is a simplified deck building card game, not unlike Hearthstone. Your deck is a maximum of twelve cards; no more, no less. This may sound too small for a deck building game, but considering every match only lasts six turns (usually), it’s just enough.

As you can imagine, this means you have to think hard about every single play. Most cards also have some kind of additional effect, and learning how to synergize these effects is key to success.

While most cards are only single digit numbers in terms of power, you can reach some big digits with clever plays.

Nothing I’ve described so far necessarily sets Marvel Snap apart from other mobile based card games, but there are a few additional caveats which help elevate Snap far beyond its spiritual predecessors.

Resists Usual Scummy Mobile Business Models

By some miracle, Marvel Snap resisted the urge to make “upgrading” a card change any actual numbers on the card. No amount of upgrades increases the strength, lowers the energy cost, or improves the card’s listed ability. Everyone’s Quicksilver remains the same, regardless of rank.

You may be thinking, “isn’t this how card games normally work?” and the answer to that is yes... provided you are thinking of actual, physical card games. Most mobile games thrive on encouraging a zillion microtransactions to power up units. Marvel Snap does provide ways to spend money, of course, but no amount of money buys you new or stronger cards.

Instead, upgrading your existing cards changes their appearance. They become shiny, animated, or foil-like. Aside from bragging rights, upgrading cards also gets you progress towards a track which unlocks new cards to use. Currently, this and the season pass are the only way to acquire new cards.

The mystery cards on the collection track unlock a new random card, plus some other goodies along the way.

You can also buy variants of existing cards in the store if you so desire. These cards range from pixel art to anime style versions of Marvel heroes and villains.

Nothing quite like getting wrecked by a 90’s anime Jubilee. Note these variants offer no special features and also can’t be used to double up, so no using these variants to fill your hand with Jubilees.

The end result is a game where I never feel truly outmatched, only outplayed. My opponent is always working within the same limitations. It’s very rare I look back on a match and decide winning was impossible; there's almost always a few key plays which cost the game.

Play the Field, Not the Player

This squrriel at Jotunheim is a real issue.

Marvel Snap has no health pools. Instead, play is decided by locations. Whichever player controls two of three locations by the end of the sixth turn is the winner. In the event of a tie, the winner is decided by highest point totals. In the event of a tie there, well... you actually tie.

The locations are where Marvel Snap provides an element of randomness, but unless you’ve played too ambitiously, it’s a randomness you can work around. Each location is revealed one turn at a time, so while you can play cards at a future location before knowing what it is, doing so is a risk. Take, for example, this location on the far right below.

Yeah. Lowest power wins. By playing here early, I’ve set myself up for a difficult round.

These locations create some insane card synergies, and it’s what keeps every game of Marvel Snap engaging. Sometimes the field ends up completely in your favor, while other times it feels like your opponent has the goddamn reality stone.

Some locations have negligible impact, such as providing a single additional energy for a turn, or shuffling a few rocks into each deck. Others, however, have gamebreaking ramifications. Some zones will actually extend or shorten the match by a few turns, or produce clones of powerful cards all over the field.

Just a casual 3072 points, no big deal. This giant play is only possible at Onslaught’s Citadel, thanks to the duplication of ongoing effects.

You may have designed your deck to do one thing extraordinarily well, but locations force you to be more adaptable. They also create a compelling mind game as the match goes on, where predicting where your opponent will dedicate their final cards makes or breaks the match.

Your Rank is Actually a Rank

The “snap” in Marvel Snap refers to a betting mechanic which makes up the game’s titular feature. At any point in a match, you can touch the cube at the top to "Snap". This will increase the ranking points on the line for the match to four. If your opponent also snaps, the total increases to eight. The winner takes it all, and the loser drops by the same amount. Demotions are commonplace in Snap.

Like any good betting game, you can also choose to fold and “retreat,” which will cut your losses in half. If you feel like you know which way the wind is blowing early, you can admit defeat to save yourself the full punishment.

This betting dynamic adds a fun mind game to every match. Is your opponent confident, or just trying to bluff their way out? Do you call it and snap back? Or bow out before they play some killer combination?

Snapping after a big card drop is a good way to try and get in their head.

The snap mechanic is just as likely to get you into trouble as it is to net you big wins, but in either case, it creates a second layer of stake alteration I've not seen in any other similar card game.

The most important takeaway is this system also ensures you only end up against equally skilled opponents, as it's impossible to rank up simply from playing a lot — you must improve instead.

What the Future Holds

The real question (which is perhaps a poignant one to ask in the wake of Overwatch 2) is whether or not Marvel Snap will manage to hold strong to these values or become corrupted over time. My two biggest concerns looking ahead are:

The Business Model

Listen, a game's gotta make money. Right now I'm worried Marvel Snap won't make enough to justify itself by selling only a $10 battle pass and completely optional art variants. If Marvel Snap has to pivot, I imagine the temptation to sell more meaningful items in the store will be strong. While giving in would be more profitable in the long run, the end result will also be just another game funded by whales, buying all the latest and greatest cards while everyone else quits and uninstalls.

No Balance in All Things

Balancing a card game is not an enviable task. Lord knows Magic: The Gathering has a long history adding and removing cards from legal play, but a mobile game operates differently by outright changing the behavior or stats of existing cards live.

The concern I have here is one I've seen come to fruition in a different game, Hearthstone. When a particular deck type got too strong in the history of Hearthstone, Blizzard wouldn't just lightly alter some numbers, they nuked the deck from orbit. Instead of coming up with counterplay cards or tuning numbers down, they'd simply kill it outright. What ultimately caused me to drop off the game is having to basically consult a list of "viable builds" to have any hope of a feasible deck.

Right now Marvel Snap feels like it's in a good spot but I dread a future like Hearthstone, where certain deck types are so eviscerated in the pursuit of "balance" the vast majority of cards become useless. It would be the kiss of death for a game so full of creative options.

If Marvel Snap manages to avoid these pitfalls, I could see it occupying a space on my phone for many years to come. It's fast, creative, easily accessible, and gauges your skill level instead of your time commitment or wallet depth.

Now I just need to learn how to stop playing at every opportunity.

Marvel Snap is available on Steam or any mobile device near you.

Gundam Evolution: Gundams Never Die

Trevor — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re lucky, you’ve experienced Overwatch 2 by now. Either that, or you’ve stared at this screen:

And never got into a game. Not the first Blizzard title to have a cursed launch, and it probably won’t be the last. At least it didn’t take all of Battle.net down like Diablo 3.

Overwatch 2 has been plagued by technical issues since release, problems like:

SMS verification locking people out, sometimes even if they have a valid number (requirement now removed).
Server instability and frequent disconnects (currently fixed. Wait, no, it's broken again).
Ashe T-poses during certain actions.
Bastion rapid-firing his super like a gatling gun.
Falling through the world to your death.
Mei teleporting around (or through) her ice wall.
Game locks half the roster in ranked under the assumption you’re a new player, regardless of how much money you’ve thrown at Activision Blizzard (fixed for now, but has re-emerged twice).
Activision Blizzard taking your money due to a UI glitch, then telling you to get bent if you ask for a refund.

However, I won't be discussing these in much detail here. Some were corrected while I was in the middle of writing this article, while others I imagine will be fixed by the time I hit publish. Harping on temporary bugs and glitches which will be irrelevant in a month or two (hopefully) isn’t the most efficient use of our time.

The real issue is if Overwatch 2 worked perfectly, I still wouldn’t want to play it.

After about three hours with Overwatch 2, I did not want to play anymore Overwatch 2. I would’ve loved to go back to Overwatch instead, but guess what? I can’t do that. Overwatch 2 is the new Overwatch. Adapt or die.

I have adapted by seeking out a new Overwatch-esque experience, which somehow led me to Gundam Evolution. I figured it would be worthwhile to go through all the reasons Gundam Evolution has won me over in a way Overwatch 2 did not, in a three point list. A classic format for this website at this point.

1. The Diminished Role of Support and Tank Roles Feels Better Designed and Accounted For

On paper, I was optimistic about the goals of Overwatch 2. Eliminate the walking balls of death, lower the impact of crowd control effects. Encourage players to get better at moving and shooting instead of capitalizing on powerful abilities. And, perhaps most importantly, add a bunch of PVE content to finally cash in on the lore of the world which thus far has only been explored in outside media.

While the mechanical alterations raises the skill ceiling and makes the game less approachable, it could lead to more impressive solo plays and allow someone to pull out a clutch win.

On paper, that’s great. On paper.

In practice, it doesn’t feel like Overwatch 2 was redesigned from the ground up to accommodate this new approach. Character abilities have been modified across the board, but the adjustments range from minimal to baffling. Tank characters who were good off-tanks don't seem to have decent kits to reflect how they're now the sole tank for the team. HP values have been increased, but since DPS players are free to act with less fear of stuns and traps, and they only have one tank to focus, these former off-tanks melt.

Doomfist made the leap from DPS to Tank. As you can see, it’s going great.

I will not be surprised if in two weeks only three of these tanks see any play, while the rest sit on the bench and wait for a future rework.

Now let’s take a look at Gundam Evolution.

Methuss here has access to a healing tether, and deploys turrets to control a point.

The majority of units in Gundam Evolution are hybrid units. They have a mix of damage, support, and defensive techniques, allowing everyone to get in the fray.

Every unit also comes with a booster engine which facilitates quick strafes, advances, and retreats. These boosters aren’t built equally, mind you; bars on the bottom left indicate how many quick maneuvers the Gundam can perform before a recharge is necessary. Fortunately every unit has a minimum of at least one, so no matter which unit you choose, you have access to abrupt shifts in direction.

You can also hover in the air, but doing so comes at a great cost to your accuracy. If you’re playing as a unit with a scope, it is impossible to look down the sights while coasting around.

All of this leads to a game where the roles aren’t as clearly defined, but teamwork is still essential to success. Melee units especially are built around an engage-and-disengage approach to combat, pouncing on key openings rather than swinging around wildly.

Gundam Evolution is more demanding of your attention and shooting aptitude in order to make victory possible, but that's also exactly what I was looking for (and didn't get) from the current state of Overwatch 2.

2. Gundam Evolution is Actually New

The Overwatch 2 Roadmap makes many lofty promises.

Remember that PVE component to Overwatch 2? Yeah, it’s not out. It probably won’t be for a while.

Despite the “2” at the end of Overwatch 2, there’s actually shockingly little added to this release. We have a new mode with a robot, some new maps, and a handful of new heroes. It is entirely possible you may hop into Overwatch 2 and see all the same stuff you saw before, but with less tanks in each match. It is perhaps the most damning--well, second most damning thing--I can say about Overwatch 2. There is very little new content here, and yet I don’t enjoy the handful of changes on display.

Among those changes is the new business model, which in some monkey-paw-wish-gone wrong, does away with the loot boxes but replaces them with something worse. Heroes are now locked behind a battle pass. The currency to unlock new items or skins slows to a crawl, and your only method to speed it up is spend money on coins. Overwatch launched at a $40 price tag. Overwatch 2 has launched “free,” but stands poised to make a great deal more than $40 per user.

The pickings are slim in this battle pass.

Meanwhile, here’s Gundam Evolution, a brand new free release full of brand new maps and content you’ve never seen before. It has not been out for long, so at the time of publication so I cannot comment on release schedules or frequency of updates, but as of right now, there’s a lot more new content to experience over there.

Currently Gundam Evolution has ten maps and three modes. Destruction is reminiscent of Counterstrike-style bomb placement maps, Domination is similar to Overwatch’s attack and defense modes, and Point Capture cycles through three locations to duel over. There’s no sign of payload maps, but quite frankly, I can live without ‘em for now.

Maps are designed with clever points of ingress and egress which make use of every suit’s heightened mobility, and narrower openings yet provide unique paths for transformation Gundams.

My biggest gripe about Gundam Evolution currently is there is no way to test out the Gundams locked behind a paywall first. At the very least, I feel they ought to be available in training mode so players can make an informed decision.

I get every game needs to make money, but we can’t slap a TEST RUN button on here or something?

If what you’re looking for is something like Overwatch but new, Gundam Evolution delivers better than Overwatch 2, somehow. As for whether it not it will survive beyond the novelty, I suppose that remains to be seen. For now however, it’s made a strong (and I would argue underrated) initial showing.

3. No Gundam Has Been Renamed Because of a Sexual Assault

On August 26th, 2021, Blizzard announced McCree’s name would be changed to “Cassidy”.

If this will be your first time finding out why, I must say, I’m impressed you managed to avoid the news from major gaming outlets and landed on us instead.

McCree’s name was a reference to Jesse McCree, a lead designer at Blizzard implicated in a rather damning series of hotel room pictures and chat logs which spanned multiple years. This all came to light in the wake of a lawsuit from the State of California over a discriminatory work culture and criminal sexual allegations, the worst of which includes the account of a former finance manager who committed suicide at a work retreat in 2017.

In the wake of this Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, released a statement promising “swift action” and “long-lasting change.” But you’ll have to forgive me if such words ring hollow when Kotick himself has spent years trying to bury every allegation so deep in the dirt it would take fucking Mr. Driller to find them again. While many of the bad actors implicated have since been let go, so long as Kotkick remains CEO, it's hard not to feel morally conflicted about launching any Blizzard product.

Meanwhile, the worst I can report about the Gundam Evolution developer, Bandai Namco Online, is the business model kinda sucks. The free currency you receive for playing does not come at a steady pace. Each new Gundam will run you about ten dollars each if you buy them outright, otherwise you’re looking at grinding out a month of daily achievements. Less perhaps, if you have more time to play than I do.

The pickings are pretty slim in this Battle Pass too.

It’s not great, but at least I don’t have to link you to a news article where Bandai Namco employees had a hotel room dedicated to a famous comedian from the 80s now serving a jail sentence.

When I compare Overwatch 2 and Gundam Evolution, I see two games trying to accomplish similar tasks, but somehow the one that should feel more like a freemium cash grab feels more fully formed and novel. The cast feels more cohesive, aiming and shooting feels snappier, and everyone has universal mobility tools to survive in a quick-to-death environment. Overwatch 2 feels like a pale imitation of the game that came before, which is especially tragic when you consider it’s mostly the same game.

The only exception where I would not recommend Gundam Evolution is if Overwatch was your “wind down” game, so to speak. A slow, less demanding shooter you could relax with. Gundam Evolution demands a lot more of your brain power and reflexes than Overwatch did--but unfortunately for you, so does Overwatch 2 now.

And, if your objections lie more on the moral side like myself, Gundam Evolution will help you get your Overwatch fix and still sleep at night.

Gundam Evolution and Overwatch 2 are both free to play and available now.

A Day at the Bloomington Video Game Convention

Trevor — Sun, 29 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I arrived at an unassuming building in Bloomington, Illinois during a torrential downpour early Saturday morning. As a first time attendee of the Bloomington Video Game Convention, I mostly expected to find retro game vendors trading their wares, a game room full of old arcade cabinets, and a whole lot of NBA Jam.

Constant readers may remember Live Action Games from an interview in 2020, where the proprietor Adrian opened up about the difficulties of running a retro establishment just before all our lives took a turn for the indoors. With the pandemic now in the rear view mirror (we hope), Adrian invited me out to see the sights for myself. LAG occupied a booth right at the entrance to BVGC; there are no pictures in the camera roll where our LAG friends are not besieged by a wall of customers.

(Adrian and Gary from RoXolid Productions joined forces for the day to sell their respective wares.)

While the LAG team got to work making deals and trades, I took to the floor to see the sights.

If your only convention experience is a major event like E3 or PAX, you may be unprepared for the rustic Midwestern Charm, which also sometimes comes with a certain amount of, shall we say, “jank”. An arcade cabinet in the back of the room struggles desperately to run Mortal Kombat 11 — even the character select screen stutters along at 15 frames a second.

This poor thing was really trying its best.

Microphone announcements are somehow simultaneously overpowering in volume, yet also sound like the speaker is at the bottom of a well. The main stage and vendor hall are one and the same, leading to a cacophony of sounds over all the retail exchanges occurring.

This is, more or less, what I expected to find. I am neither disappointed, nor surprised. In fact, I might’ve been disappointed if everything was in perfect working order. Is it even a Midwestern convention if there isn’t at least one blown out speaker, or a handful of flickering fluorescent bulbs?

What I did not expect to find, however, were a fair amount of artists and independent game designers intermingled among the many retro vendor stalls. Rather than hunt for elusive or strange games, I instead found myself perusing homemade drink coasters and pixel art magnets, or playing alpha builds of upcoming indie releases.

While the intial plan was to capture the event in broad strokes, I opted instead to collect stories from the local masters of their respective crafts.

Yu Yu Hakusho is a deep personal cut of a media franchise near and dear to my heart. In it, a young punk named Yusuke Uremeshi dies saving a kid from a car accident. This buys Yusuke a chance at revival, provided he acts as a “spirit detective” and tracks down demons who escaped into the world of the living.

Yu Yu Hakusho had its primetime run in 1992. It is not a series on the forefront of most minds these days, and yet, at a particular artist’s booth, I spotted four recognizable silhouettes.

Twili Imp Artist

Trevor: Why don’t we start by just telling people who you are and what you do?

Kelli: My name is Kelli Bertschi, I stay at home and do art all day, pretty much. Art’s always been my life-long passion, now it’s time to do something with it. Kind of a self-taught artist.

T: Now people can’t see it, but you’re currently dressed as Claire Redfield from Resident Evil. Any special kinship for the Resident Evil series?

Except they can see it, past Trevor, because we took a picture.

K: Absolutely love it. In my top three for the horror genre. Another one of my favorites is Silent Hill, but my all time favorite series of video games is the Legend of Zelda.

T: Very good. I also see a lot of anime influences as well. Think I saw some Yu Yu Hakusho around the corner? Is that the era of anime you were most-

K: Yeah, it was definitely the 90s and late 80s that was my favorite era of anime. Sailor Moon was my entry into anime — my dad used to work at Blockbuster and he always brought home tapes, and one day he brought me a Sailor Moon tape. I absolutely fell in love with the art style and I was like “I guess this is what I wanna draw.” I used to sit in front of the TV for hours, until — well, eventually I started drawing.

T: At what point did you feel confident enough to share your art with the world? Was it immediate, or did it take a lot of time?

K: It took a lot of time. When you’re putting yourself out there, you’re putting yourself in the spotlight. Even if it's your own canvas, it’s very intimidating.

T: I can definitely understand that; I’ve felt the same way at times. Last question — where can people find you?

K: Usually I post to Facebook, Instagram, and now TikTok. I’ve really been enjoying Tiktok, because I can actually make videos of behind the scenes, rather than just showing the pictures.

T: Okay, so if people wanna see your process—

K: Yup!

T: —they can check it out there.

K: Also, on Facebook I’ve got a little community. If people want to join, they can help influence what the theme of my art will be at times.

T: And the handle people can find you at is?

K: Twili Imp Artist.

Any fan of Final Fantasy would be hard-pressed to walk past Landon Ruan’s booth. I turned the corner to find a wall of recognizable characters and environments. Unfortunately for Landon, his booth was quite close to the main stage, which means the speakers above him were absolutely bumpin’. I did my best to sneak in an interview while the DJ played on.

Landon Ruan

T: Let’s start with uh... what’s your name?

L: Name’s Landon.

T: And what’s your artist handle, if people wanted to look for your work on Twitter, Instagram?

L: I have my own website. It’s on my card, right here. [Sounds of Landon producing a card from his desk] I’m also active on Instagram, which is on the card as well.

T: Excellent. I see a lot of Final Fantasy inspired artwork. One of your favorite series?

L: Absolutely. One of my all time favorites, since the very first game, Final Fantasy 1. As you see over here, this whole stack is from Final Fantasy 1 through 4, still working on 5 and 6. Classic series. Also a huge fan of the 90s series, including 7, 8, 9. My goal with Final Fantasy is to do as many characters as I can from the series, and then also do summons, creatures, monsters.

T: Perfect, fantastic. How long have you been illustrating for, would you say?

L: Like when I first started holding a pen?

T: Yeah, let’s go with that!

L: I would say maybe, 7 or 8 years old.

T: [Laughing] very good.

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A post shared by @artbylandon

Landon's backgrounds and landscapes are particularly impressive.

L: When I started selling artwork like this, that would be 09.

T: And how long have you been coming to this convention specifically?

L: This is my third year. Not including the Pandemic time.

T: Right. Difficult time for everybody. Thank you very much for your time, I appreciate it. How’s the turnout been so far?

[Music starts blasting around now, drowning out my own voice. The question gets repeated when it dies down]

T: The turnout, how’s it been so far?

L: It’s quite... pretty good! People are starting to gather up, lots of fans of Final Fantasy here.

The first Indie developer I happened upon was tucked away in a corner, just to the left of the entrance. A simple title screen on a TV says “INTO THE DEPTHS.”

After a brief introduction, I was in those depths.

While Into the Depths was certainly rough around the edges, I was impressed at how easy it was to pick up and understand. The game plays not unlike a twin stick shooter version of Gauntlet, a forumla right at home in a retro gaming convention. The speed at which creatures track you in the halls makes it clear running and gunning is key to survival. Within only a few floors, I felt like I’d gotten the hang of it.

At one point, I managed to kite a myriad of foes in a wide circle, slowly whittling them down. It’s also at this point I remember I’m at a convention, and it’s probably not a great idea to tie up the only available station for the next hour for the sake of my gold accumulation strat.

I decided to press further in until I met my demise.

BTL Games

T: Okay, so first off, introduce yourselves for me.

Devin Larson: Hi, I’m Devin Larson, with BTL games.

Devin Larson and Emily Smith rocked some excellent costumes for the occasion.

T: Okay, so I’ve just played the demo for... Into the Depths, it's called?

D: Yup yup!

T: How long would you say its been in development now?

D: Honestly, on or off, I’d say four years now.

T: Okay.

D: Um... more off than on, but I’d say four years.

T: Okay, very good. I noticed the phrase Technomancer in there.

D: Yup, yup.

T: Would you say there’s a big cyberpunk aesthetic present?

D: Absolutely. So yeah, you’re astrally projecting into cyberspace. Lots of fun mechanics there. I wanted to make a roguelike dungeon crawl...

[Pause as Devin thinks, trying to recall an old inspiration.]

D: Man, there was a game on the Xbox Indie market way back, and I cannot remember the name of it.

T: [Laughs]

D: And instead of trying to look for lost media, I was like, “screw it, I’m gonna make it!” But I was also like, “man, I don’t want to make just another dungeon crawl, so let’s put a sci-fi twist on it.”

T: And what engine are you developing in?

D: I’m actually using GameMaker for this. I got it for really cheap, and I fell in love with it. I was like, “well, this is really intuitive and fast to build.”

T: Very good. So the convention itself, how long have you been coming out here for—

D: Oh, I — that’s a good question. I don’t think I was at the first one. When was the first one?

T: I uh, wish I could tell you, but this is my first time also.

D: Oh, really? It was before COVID times, and that really throws a wrench in it. Makes me wonder, “how many times have I really been here?” I’ve been here three times now, so however many years ago that was.

T: I understand. Feels like we all lost two years.

D: It really does.

T: If only my age didn’t go up two years also. So what—

[Slight pause as two new arrivals at the convention begin their own run of Into the Depths]

T: So, which platforms were you aiming to launch on?

D: PC and Linux. We are on itch.io—

[The new players have questions for Devin as their run starts to get ugly]

T: You know what, why don’t we pause for a minute so you guys can keep tabs on this run?

Devin does some live bugfixing.

[Interview resumes]

T: So where can people follow development of Into the Depths?

D: Itch.io is my main focus right now. I post on my personal instagram, that is Dvnzook, I also do art and... honestly, anything digital. That’s the kind of artist I am. There’s also a BTL Facebook page. Twitter I’m really bad at. I wish I was better at Twitter.

T: As a frequent Twitter user, I’m going to say that’s probably for the best, so don’t feel too bad about it.

D: Fully get that. I fully recommend itch.io, I always post devlogs there. I really want to start a YouTube, because like, video devlogs have always been very interesting to me. That’s where we’re at.

T: Last question, and this one’s just for me. Why are the finger skateboards here? I gotta know.

D: Yeah yeah, so like I said, I do weird art, and these are ones I made!

T: No kidding.

D: This one here is a glitch art technique. I 3D modeled little eyeball icons, then distorted the video so it does the crazy glitching effect. This one was a print I did based on Y2K.

T: Oh!

D: Like I said, I do anything digital.

T: Oh, amazing. [Pause] Oh my god, it’s a pun. It’s a pun! It’s a Tech DECK.

D: Yeah. Yeah, yeah!

T: Oh my god! Oh my god. Well, I better take a picture of that or people won’t understand a word of what just happened here.

D: Absolutely.

The Tech Decks.

T: Thank you!

Many vendor spots were occupied by indie game sellers and vendors. These places were often so packed for the day, I felt uncomfortable pulling anyone away for an interview. When I spotted a Combo Breaker shirt at this particular booth however, I had a hunch I wanted to follow.

Retro Velocity

T: So first off, who am I here with?

Brandon: I’m Brandon, I run Retro Velocity. You can find that on Twitter and Instagram at RetroVelocityIL.

T: Where are you guys located?

B: Near the Decal, Aurora area.

T: Okay.

B: I run an online shop mainly, and I mostly advertise through Twitter and Instagram.

Brandon assists a doomed Space Marine.

T: And how often have you guys been out here, multiple years now?

B: Yes, we’ve been here since it first started in 2018.

T: Oh wow.

B: To this one specifically. We do multiple a year.

T: So the only one you’ve missed is the one that was COVID related.

B: Yes.

T: Well done. So I also noticed the Combo Breaker shirt, have you been out there to see it in person?

B: Yeah, I’ve been doing that as well, more as a competitor rather than a spectator.

T: No kidding! What games are you competing in?

B: Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Guilty Gear: Strive, and Skullgirls are what I’m competing in this time around.

T: Hell yeah.

B: I’ve also done Accent Core +R and Melty Blood.

T: Nice! So you’ve got a lot to compete in out there.

B: Yeah.

T: So I gotta know, how far have you gone?

B: [Pause] how far have I gone?

T: Yeah. [After another delay] Top 64.

B: Nah.

T: Top 128.

B: Nah. I haven’t even gotten outta pools.

T: [Laughs]

B: This year’s the year though!

As of the time of publication, Combo Breaker is underway in Chicago. Here’s to hoping Brandon finally made it out of pools. And Brandon, if you’re reading this, don’t worry — I too have been crushed in the competitive scene. Keep it up out there.

For the next artist, this amusing doodle drew my attention.

Taryn Klockenga had a booth near the center of the convention center, and every time I walked by something new caught my eye. In a rather strange coincidence, another reporter for a local paper showed up asking for questions and pictures at the same time I did.

Tauntingwabbit

T: So first off, who am I here with?

Taryn: Taryn Klockenga.

T: And how often have you come out to this convention specifically?

Taryn: This is my first time.

T: Mine too! How often have you been to other conventions? Have you shown off your work elsewhere?

Taryn: I did Perioacon yearly, but this is the first year I’ver really been branching out, so a lot of it is brand new.

T: And where can people find you, online, or anywhere where you post your work?

Taryn: Yup, on TikTok and Instagram. Tauntingwabbit.

T: Tauntingwabbit.

Taryn: Tauntingwabbit.

T: Tell us about the handle, how’d it come about?

Taryn: Back in the day, back in AOL—

T: [Laughs]

Taryn: —I didn’t want anything everyone else had. I happened to have monty python and was like, “hey! There ya go.” Tauntingwabbit.

T: Forged in the fires of AOL Instant Messenger, yes?

Taryn: Yes, exactly.

T: Very good. As far as your influences go, I notice a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a fair amount of Star Wars inspired work as well. Are those the media franchises you’re most drawn to?

Taryn: It’s just kind of what I’m doing at the time. Just standing here, I have an idea for a Diablo piece. You know, Star Wars is always there but its weird, I don’t do a lot of artwork on Star Wars, because I worry I don’t do it justice.

T: Wow. Okay, sure. One other question I had was I wanted to know about the process — going from idea, to artwork, to finished piece?

Taryn: It’s a lot of sketchwork, and then... a lot of doubt, and then—

T: [Laughs]

Taryn: —and then you start workin’ on it, and you’re like, “okay, this is gonna be good.” I like a lot of colors, so I try to make it bright and whatnot, and then hope for the best in the end. There’s that middle dip, where you’re full of doubt, and then it’s like, “oh wait, this is looking really good! I guess I’ll keep going.”

T: Last question, how’s the turnout been so far?

Taryn: It’s been great! Everyone’s been super friendly. I love talking geek with everyone.

T: Excellent, thank you for your time.

I'd heard of Wesleyan University before, but before the Bloomington Video Game Convention, I had no idea they had their own Esports team. I took a moment to speak to the Esports Director, Cora Kennedy, who was present to represent the program.

Illinois Wesleyan Esports Team

T: Don’t wanna keep anyone too locked down today, so I’ll do my best to keep it quick. First off, who am I here with?

Cora Kennedy: Hi, my name is Cora Kennedy, I’m the director of Epsorts for the University of Illinois Wesleyan.

T: Alright! And so is this an official Esports team for the university?

C: Yes. We are a varsity team, we went varsity in 2018. We have a full program with 50 students, and about three-to-five staff.

T: Are there any specific games that are a focus of the program, in terms of what students compete in?

C: So we compete in League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Fortnight, Smash, and Valorant. However, our big focus has turned into Rocket League and Overwatch, because those are our best teams.

T: Okay. Go where the talent is I suppose, that makes sense. How has the team been performing so far, would you-

C: Well, there’s no season for us necessarily. For example, our Rocket League team played four concurrent seasons at once and—

[At this point, the NBA JAM tournament gets underway. Our voices are quickly overpowered by the auditorium microphone.]

C: Do we wanna wait for—

T: Yeah, let’s pause.

[A few minutes later, when I foolishly thought it was safe.]

T: Okay, we’re back! So, other question I had was—

[A new announcement on the loudspeaker begins]

T: [Laughs] Every time. So, how long has the program been running?

C: The program was started in 2017 as a club. It was taken Varsity in 2018, and it was building more until 2020.

T: How long have you guys been coming out here specifically?

C: This is the first time. Because my marketing director Wesley emailed me about two weeks ago like, “hey, this is a thing that’s happening!” I was like, “That’s new. Okay, Let’s go!”

T: So it was about two weeks from finding out you were going to be here, to being here?

C: Yes, I mean... we’ve done things on shorter notice, because in Esports there’s a lot of, “hey, that’s a cool thing, lets go do it!” So we do a lot of creating things out of thin air. I’ve created tournaments out of thin air, we’ve run tournaments with one week notice, it’s just what we do.

T: Wow, excellent. So how’s the turnout been so far?

C: So our biggest thing we’re for actually, is advertising our summer camp for students. I’ve already had about four or five families interested, and that on its own already pays for the venue spot.

T: What can people expect from your summer program?

C: Our summer program is meant for students ages 11 to 13, roughly middle school age. The whole goal is gaming and Esports, but also teaching leadership skills, and showing that Esports isn’t just sitting in a dark room and playing games. And so we get students active in doing teamwork building activities, lots of camp stuff really, and then gaming in our sate-of-the-art facility just for gaming on the Wesleyan Campus.

T: Alright, thanks for your time!

A big thank you to Cora for powering through NBA Jam commentary for this one — and a thank you to my recorder for not losing this one among the ruckus.

In terms of humorous gags, nothing made me laugh out loud quite like Zac Atkinson's work. His booth was an endless barrage of artistic jokes, blending multiple art styles and media properties together.

Zac Atkinson

T: I’m here with-

Zac: Zac Atkinson.

T: How many times have you been out to this convention?

Z: This is my first time at this one.

T: Hey, mine too. How long have you been illustrating, drawing?

Z: Oh, of course since I was a little kid. After high school, I started working for a studio that was coloring comic books. It was called Color Separations at the time. That was in Mt. Zion, and I’m originally from Shelbyville, Illinois. So like, since about 18 I’ve been working professionally.

T: Wow, okay. What uh, are there any covers you’ve done that are very recognizable that people would know?

Z: Most of what I’ve done that would be recognizable is coloring, so I’ve done a lot of comics and comic book covers. So I used to do covers for Young Justice, these last couple years I’ve done Marvel Age Spider-Man, Transformers, Bruce Lee, Farscape, and a couple other things. Closest thing that’s really gone viral is my parody illustrations. Inside Arkham went a little viral, and my Peanuts cast as a slasher movie.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zac (@zacatkinson)

T: I was going to say, a lot of your work seems to be a fusion of media franchises and a gag, pun, or twist of sorts.

Z: Oh yeah. If there’s a joke, I have to do it.

T: On a particular note, I love the beer coasters. The Han Solo and Lando one are spot on for what they are.

Z: Thank you, I appreciate it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zac (@zacatkinson)

Zac had a whole line of drink-label-inspired artworks available as coasters.

T: If people want to follow your work or find you, where can they do it?

Z: My website is Zacsart. You can find me at Zac Atkinson on Instagram and Twitter.

T: Thank you for your time.

At the next booth, a gauntlet is thrown before my feet.

The Renzie Challenge.

The Battlefield: Pokémon Stadium's minigame collection.

Rules: Best two out of three wins the crown.

We started with "Dig! Dig! Dig!" Four sandshrews dig like mad to find water. This mostly entails wildly pounding the L and R buttons.

I lost, but I at least felt competitive.

Next is "Sushi-Go-Round." A bunch of Likitungs scarf up sushi at a Sushi Kaiten resturant. The winner is the one who racks up the most expensive bill.

This is where disaster strikes.

It is the most shameful outcome for both of us. The score is now 1 Renzie, 1 yellow CPU, 0 me.

The final match is "Clefairy Says." A Clefairy teacher draws directions to follow on a board.

I'm out by the third set of instructions. A computer wins this one also, but because Renzie stayed alive longer, she is the victor. But, I'm not sent home empty-handed. I am given a monkey badge to commemorate the slaughter. I'm told his name is Monkey Joe.

I've got one year to prepare for the rematch.

With my defeat solidified, I turned my attention to the coffee paintings on display.

Kagan Masters

T: So who am I here with?

Kagan Masters: I’m Kagan Masters, and I paint with coffee!

T: You do! I’ve noticed.

K: I do a lot of coffee paintings, I also do watercolors too and sometimes digital. More traditional formats.

T: Okay, and who’s this here challenging people to N64 games?

K: This is Renzie, she’s the N64 master in our house.

T: Very good. Does she challenge the whole household to—

K: Oh yeah, yeah. Though she’s not as good as her little brother, her little brother can really kill it.

T: Ooh, okay. Can you tell us a little about the differences between painting with coffee versus watercolors?

K: What I do is I take instant coffee and mix it really thick, with just a little bit of water. Then you can use it just like watercolor — exact same color, exact same texture, it just looks like coffee and smells like coffee. It has a really nice neutral aesthetic.

T: And when did you start illustrating and painting?

K: Probably more around 2014 is when I really started doing a lot of art. I have a studio at the Contemporary Art Center in Peoria, so that’s where my stuff always is. You can always find originals there.

T: Are there any classes there, or is it just a space for you?

K: It’s just my workspace. Anyone can come up during normal business hours at the Contemporary Art Center, look around, view the gallery. I’m a little more nerdy than traditional gallery work, but it’s fun!

T: Last question, when did you first start incorporating coffee?

K: 2014.

T: Wait, the same time?

K: I started painting with coffee before I started doing watercolors.

T: How did that come about?

K: You spill coffee on paper and just go with it, you know?

T: [Laughs]. I love it. Thanks for your time.

For the final interview, I came across a rather small booth against the far wall of the Convention Center.

The copy reads DATE A BAT WHO GIVES YOU WINGS!

Once upon a time, maybe I would've found this premise unusual, but you know what? Just last year alone I dated weapons in Boyfriend Dungeon. And prior to that, I've dated pigeons, dads, and a skeleton. Why shouldn't bats have their turn?

Bat Cafe

T: So first off, who am I here with?

Tracy: Hi, my name is Tracy, I’m the director, character designer, and head writer of Bat Cafe. It’s an indie dating simulator based around educational facts about bats. It’s all true! It’s all about learning.

T: How big would you say your team is?

Tracy: Technically three of us. My fiancé made the music, and I have a colleague overseas named Angus Beer who did the programming. We worked on it remotely through google drive during the pandemic. We would provide the assets online, and he programmed everything in Gamemaker.

T: So pretty much most of the production team is here right now.

Tracy: Pretty much. I was going to make a cardboard cutout of him, but I ran out of time because I was making everything else! I have a picture of him, but I wasn’t able to make the stand I wanted to to prop him in for pictures.

T: So did production of the game start during Covid, then?

Tracy: The initial concept happened in 2018, but we didn’t really do anything with it up until about August of 2021. So, we had been working on it for about three months, and the rough version launched with four dateable characters in November of 2021. But recently, after I found out about this convention, we kicked it into high gear and we added two additional characters and a new campaign. All of this was done remotely, we communicated through discord and twitter and that kind of thing.

T: Wow, very good. So is this the first time Bat Cafe is here at this convention then?

Tracy: Yeah, yeah. I saw a targeted ad for it on facebook of all places and reached out to Ryan to ask if he had any slots available. He was like, “you are in luck, we had one person drop out a month ago.” I was like, “sweet, I’d love to book it!” Then I told my colleague, “we have to work on the game now.”

T: [Laughs]

Tracy: And we did it! We pulled it off, no problem. So we have a PC download version that just launched today, with those two new characters and the new campaign.

T: One question people will definitely want to know — why bats? How did it come to be about bats in the first place?

Tracy: We thought about doing — Angus has been a developer for a while, most of his background is in action adventure, shoot ‘em ups, and metroidvanias. We had been friends on Twitter for a while, and he was like, “I really like your art, would you like to try making a game? If you could, what would you want to make?” and I said, “dating simulator.”

T: Well, of course.

Tracy: There’s something about the inherent ridiculousness of something like Hatoful Boyfriend. It’s very funny to me, the idea of giving these pigeons distinct characteristics. Bats made sense to me because of all the different species. They have different dietary habits, different migratory patterns, so a lot of those characteristics inform their personalities. I’ll show you on the poster.

[Tracy presents the cast of bats, as promised.]

Tracy: This buff bodybuilder is called a pallid bat, they’re known for killing scorpions and drinking their venom.

T: Oh, shit.

Tracy: So, he’s a daredevil. [Tracy taps the bat to the left of the pallid bodybuilder.] This one here is a fruit bat named Iris, she’s got an adopted daughter. She’s a former opera star and, as a fruit bat, an immigrant from Guam. We’ve also got Benjamin the mailman, and that’s because this particular species, the California leaf-nose bat, they have a very limited range of where they migrate, so it made sense to have him be a mailman since he goes to the same places. So, a lot of those characteristics went into the character designs.

T: Wow.

Tracy: We address that in the art book too. That’s included if you pay 10$ on itch.io, and that includes the soundtrack as well.

T: I was going to ask where people can find and download this.

Tracy: Absolutely! They can go on Angus Beer — Angus like the burger — itch.io.

T: Thank you. Now I have to know, is the mailman dateable?

Tracy. Yes. He’s really into gardening, and he brings you cake later in the game. In the second campaign, you’re trying to help a vampire bat who works at a Chuck E. Cheese knockoff called Randy Roaches Pizzatronic Hoedown.

T: Oh my goodness.

Tracy: She’s asking for your help in planning this fundraiser, and she’s getting a promotion at the arcade to become the owner and manager. But, she needs to raise money to do it so she’s asking you, Willow, for help. You enlist his help with handing out invitations.

T: Excellent.

Tracy: And he dresses up as Seymour Krelborn from Little Shop of Horrors.

T: [Laughing] Oh my goodness.

Tracy: I was in a very big movie phase during most of this writing.

T: Amazing. Thank you for your time!

A Brief Rundown of Other Events

I am not going to top Bat Cafe, but there’s a few other happenings I would be remiss to omit.

One recognizable (and arguably infamous) face briefly appeared:

Billy Mitchell here showed up to present an award to Galloping Ghost Arcade for their work in game preservation.

Perhaps the most prominent figure present the entire day was Tim Kitzrow, A.K.A. Mr. Boomshakalaka himself.

It was hard to miss Tim; he spent a fair amount of the day narrating NBA Jam matches on the main stage.

From @BNVG_CON -- Tim Kitzrow lends his skills to an NBA tournament as it goes into triple OT. pic.twitter.com/lJ28vOQgOw
— Trevor Adamo (@TrevorAdamo) May 30, 2022

Tim was far too busy to stop for an interview, but his presence was a constant delight. When the NBA Jam tournament above went to a sixth overtime, Tim kept up the commentating. A master at work.

Also present were Paul E. Niemeyer and Daniel Pesina, both of original Mortal Kombat fame. Paul was the original artist, responsible for the iconic logo and character portraits. Daniel Pesina, meanwhile is most recognizable in the original games as Johnny Cage, but was also a choreography director.

A convention like the Bloomington Illinois Video Game Convention is never going to compare to a major event like PAX or E3. At first, this may sound like a knock; after all, you’re not going to play the demo for an upcoming Nintendo release, or bump into your favorite Twitch variety streamer.

But the truth is, a place like BVGC offers an experience PAX and E3 could never give you. At those major conventions, you’re just another face in the crowd. Here, you’re among the cast. For an entire day, you all know each other, seeing the same faces over and over again. People take time to get to know each other. Every sale comes with a conversation.

Should you fly out from the coastline to Bloomington for BVGC? Probably not, unless you really want Tim Kitzrow to record a voicemail message for you. But, if you're within a few hours, it is absolutely worth your time.

On a broader level, however, there's much to be gained from seeking out the gatherings in your own backyard, rather than only seeking out the next major international trade show.

If I'd stayed home, just think how much less I would now know about bats. Pallid bats are metal af.

The Bloomington Video Game Convention started in 2018 and has grown ever since. It is managed and operated by Ryan Tauscher.

Triangle Strategy: Bring Forth The Scales of Conviction

Trevor — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I have this bad habit where I purchase any game with a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy: Tactics or Tactics Ogre. Sprites arranged on a grid? Bought. Isometric 3D Architecture? Bought. Houses, Lords, political intrigue? Bought, bought, bought.

Triangle Strategy ticks all the boxes.

The drawback to this approach, as you might expect, is few games tend to live up to those lofty lineages. They either lack some of the nuance and grit, or they apply their own spin on the formula and become something else entirely. For the record, the first result is just disappointing; the second is much preferable. They are often fun surprises, even if not quite what I anticipated.

Speaking of which, do play Invisible Inc.

While Triangle Strategy doesn’t quite live up to my unreasonable expectations narrative-wise, it does manage to preserve a level of difficulty and problem solving I feel is often absent from Tactics style clones. While I certainly have some gripes, especially where the narrative is concerned, I’ll be clear up front—Triangle Strategy is great and I highly recommend it.

Let’s start with a few reasons why.

Challenge And Player Expression

Triangle Strategy retains an appropriate amount of grit on its normal difficulty, where one or two careless moves results in disaster. With many similar games, it’s possible to power up one of your units so much they wipe a whole army out on their own. All the other units on the board are merely spectators to their glory.

Fun as Fire Emblem: Three Houses is, it’s quite easy for one or two powerful units to solo a whole field. Can’t say I felt terribly strategic when enemy soldiers lined up to die in an orderly fashion to Edelgard.

Here, no amount of grinding gets your units to such a state. Number values stay low, meaning while you reap some benefits from level ups, your characters remain too fragile to take on a whole army. Even the tankier characters don’t have it in them to tackle multiple foes at once without risking death.

Positioning is essential. Any surrounded unit will eat follow up attacks from adjacent allies, which can happen multiple times in one turn. In addition to rewarding the player for purposeful placement, it also punishes poor positioning, as these rules hold true for your foes.

RIP Roland.

Likewise, spells have some very specific synergies too. Ice magic leaves spaces frozen, which slows down units passing through. Fire magic ignites oil or tall grass, and melts ice, leaving puddles behind which will make lightning spells strike the whole area.

These environmental effects are the only way to damage your allies, so be warned. I have definitely paralyzed my own units more than once by zapping a puddle.

With all these different moving pieces, team composition becomes essential. The cast of characters in Triangle Strategy all have a distinct identity informed by their history and place in the world, and the order you meet them in will vary based on the choices you make along the way. The more characters you meet, the more options at your disposal. Of special note is the blacksmith Jens who’s skills allow you to plant traps and build ladders, changing the way you traverse the landscape entirely.

On the right stages, Jens is a life saver.

While there’s certainly right and wrong answers in every encounter, this variation in character design provides plenty of options on how to assemble a team. Characters like Jens or the circus performer Picoletta allow you to forgo tanks, relying instead on trickery and traps to distract units. A combination of archers, the blacksmith, and mages might allow you to get to higher-than-normal spaces and attack from safety. Or, you could march into the enemy with multiple frontline units in an attempt to blitz down your foes.

Now, let’s say you don’t want any of this. Let’s say you want a tale of political intrigue and all this battle stuff is whatever. You’ve scrolled past all this fast as you could, and now your eyes have stopped here, startled I have called you out.

I have good news for you in particular. First off, when you lose a fight in Triangle Strategy, your units still retain any experience gained for the next attempt. If that’s not enough, don’t worry; there's also an easy mode. You will not be locked out of any story content for choosing easy, so go right ahead and plow through these events. Disrespect all the content I was here to enjoy while you watch the drama unfold between Hyzante, Glenbrook, and Aesfrost.

Speaking of which.

The Hard Decisions

In typical RPG fashion, Triangle Strategy has a number of binary decisions to make, ranging from innocuous to impactful. No matter what choice is on the table, Serenoa will bust out the “SCALES OF CONVICTION” and it's time for democracy.

We’ll get to the choices themselves in a moment, but I want to say a few words about the structure of these choices first. It’s quite common for games to offer up massive diversions in the narrative, but few force you to convince your allies which choice to make, and even less give them a vote. See, Serenoa himself does not get to make any decision unilaterally; instead, each of your allies casts a vote at the scales in favor of one path or another. It’s up to you to run around and whip the votes for your desired path.

During these sequences, the UI will show you where all your allies stand prior to the vote.

While it’s possible to pull this off outright with straight dialogue (depending on Serenoa’s invisible conviction values, which you won’t be able to see until New Game+), you can also improve your chances with careful exploration. The right piece of information found in the world could sway your allies to your desired side.

You only get one shot to change someone’s mind, so its best to explore thoroughly before engaging in heated rhetoric.

But, most importantly, this is an excellent fusion of character and plot. Too often, games treat these as separate entities. Character's personal stories exist independent of the overall narrative, and one halts to advance the other. Triangle Strategy makes them one and the same, as your cast becomes the drivers of the plot itself.

Sadly this does not hold true for the side characters, who’s stories remain self-contained. As you level them up, you’ll see new milestones in their journey.

If I have one gripe here, it's how your poor side characters have no role in these decisions, not even as tertiary observers or the peanut gallery. Aside from their self-contained personal stories the side recruits only have a handful of unique dialogue lines, most of which are secret interactions in very specific fights. (That said, if you’ve paid attention to their storylines, it's not too hard to figure out which battles they’ll have a personal stake in.)

It’s when we turn our attention towards the end of the narrative I have some complex feelings, and a warning.

Salt Must Flow

First, the good news—Triangle Strategy escalates at a reasonable and tense pace. The stakes are fairly low with your first decision, where Serenoa and Company decide which of the two neighboring nations to visit. As the game goes on, however, these choices have significant ramifications and consequences. The opening of Triangle Strategy advances at a slow pace, as the game opens in a time of tenuous peace. If you’re here for action, you’ll first have to spend quite a few chapters learning about the socio-economic climate first.

The opening chapters are mostly spent meeting diplomats and envoys from nearby nations. Also, Dragan could not be more wrong.

Once the power keg explodes, the choices Serenoa and Company make to stay alive become more and more difficult, and you feel the significance of those choices once battle breaks out. If the team suggests a particular path sounds risky, rest assured you will be retrying the battle down that route a handful of times.

If you’ve played the original demo, you know what’s up here. General Avlora is no joke.

There’s no way for me to discuss the bad news without some allusions to how the game concludes, but it must be said all the same. It is, perhaps, the worst part of Triangle Strategy, and it awaits you right at the end.

Except for one very specific set of choices, all of these tough decisions do not affect the conclusion. Instead, you will have to make one final vote which will drive you down one of three finales, regardless of what’s happened up to that point.

Given how many substantial choices are made over the course of Triangle Strategy, it’s wild none have any impact on your final options.

I will not mince words—in an otherwise great game, this sucks. Your choices ought to have greater impact than one of three pre-canned conclusions. It also does not help one character in particular arrives at an absolutely inane conclusion, one I would argue feels completely antithetical to the personal journey taken over the course of the game. I hate this more than anything else in Triangle Strategy. I will refrain from saying more, but if you play the game after reading this review, I am confident you will know of who I speak.

The warning is simply thus; be ready for that first ending to feel profoundly disappointing. With New Game+, you'll be able to breeze through new routes, recruit new characters, and most importantly, see a better ending.

The secret fourth route I’ve alluded to provides a more comprehensive conclusion, one that feels meaningful and earned. While I encourage at least one blind playthrough, I see no problem looking up the Golden Route once you hit game #2.

There is no shame in looking up how to get the Golden Route; you are very unlikely to stumble into it otherwise.

The Path Before Us is Clear

In the end, none of my qualms with Triangle Strategy tip the scales enough to deem it a poor (or even average) game. While it’s tragic the narrative couldn’t find a way to weave your choices together into more varied endings, you’re still in the company of a delightful cast of characters desperately trying to turn the wheel of fate, all trapped in a conflict set in motion long before they stepped on the world stage. It’s not quite an A+ narrative in terms of execution, but it’s compelling and tense enough for a political thriller.

Many cutaway scenes reveal how the other Royal Houses react to your decisions, which helps to feel how your choices are changing all of Norzelia.

The real success of Triangle Strategy lies on the battlefield. The strategic placement of your units, the choices in who to bring, and the interactions between all their abilities is addictive. Failure never felt completely demoralizing, because I always had new ideas for the next attempt. And likewise, new characters joining the party always felt impactful, because it meant a whole new tool kit to play with on the field.

Despite any negative feelings I may have about the story, I don’t want to undersell the other real success of Triangle Strategy. The narrative does an exceptional job reflecting your choices in both gameplay and character changes. In addition to all your choices determining the next fight, the cast interacts with one another on the field in meaningful bouts of banter and insults. They are all molded and altered by their experiences, responding to the gains and consequences in the wake of every choice. As the stakes climb it becomes harder and harder to stop playing, as House Wolffort bounces from one crisis to the next.

The barbs characters trade in battle range from simple taunts, to shockingly meaningful exchanges.

The makings are all there for Triangle Strategy to have been an incredible game, but as it stands, I have to settle for only “good”. The default endings are all disappointing in their own special ways, but even putting them aside, it’s more unfortunate a game so centered on making tough decisions only rewards one specific set of choices with a comprehensive ending, and no other. However, if what you want is a classic strategy game experience with some bite, Triangle Strategy will deliver.

And, if you decide to look up the "Golden Path" on the first go, I won't blame you. It'll be our secret.

Triangle Strategy is available on the Nintendo Switch.