What better occasion to write an overdue blog post than during one of the coveted days when our Lords from on high deign to shower us with scraps of video game commercials? While I love to pretend being aware of my role as a consumer makes me better than those who aren’t, I have been known to enjoy a video game announcement or two (hundred) in the past. If posts I’ve made ever reach the public where I’m seen responding to an announcement with “OMFGHGJKHKJT,” I am truly sorry.

Before I get into things: where have I been? Well, Limbo, basically. I’m struggling to find steady employment between contract work. Even the most promising leads fizzle into nothing, time and time again, and statistically speaking, things appear as though they will only get worse. So, that’s great. I’m not going to fake optimism. Shit is really bad for me and many others in and outside of my fields of expertise. This is by design, and those with the most potential power to change it are also those responsible for it. Things will get worse before they get better. I can only pray that I’m one of the lucky few who gets to pop their head out from under the economic landslide and get some air. Nobody ever knows.

But hey, it’s not all bad. I have a roof over my head (for now), and Old School Gamer Magazine has continued to be accommodating. I have an article coming up in 1-2 months or so? It’s a subject I’m really excited to write about. My previous article about licensed games was a pleasure to create, but licensed games aren’t a particular passion of mine. Next time, we’ll get closer to that core. More details once that goes public.

Oh, right. Just in case anyone doesn’t know, I’m not completely off the internet between posts. I’m active on Blue Sky, and much of the menial stuff I used to cover in these posts is just talked about there. I’m a good-ass poster, so I recommend following me.

The Nintendo Direct

First thing’s first: I don’t have a lot of money. As a matter of fact, I have the least amount of money now than I have had in quite a while. One of the downsides to not having money is not being able to buy things, because that requires money. For the unfamiliar, this means I don’t have “new things.” I don’t often play “new games.” So for some announcements, I won’t have anything to say. If you’re willing and able to help fund any of my exploits, please consider using the various donation features located in my site’s header. My bank account was recently closed and reopened due to related economic issues, so hopefully that doesn’t cause any problems there.

NOTE: I speed-watched this Direct, as I was pretty busy this morning with the aforementioned bank account fiasco. If I have gotten any details wrong, please correct me so I may adjust this article. It is never my attention to spread misinformation.

Mario’s 40th Anniversary: Officially “Over the Hill”

I’m not famous enough to enter the museum yet, as much as I’d like to. And I’m not money enough to go to the Universal Studios park. Come to think of it, I’ve never been there at all. I just want to punch a question mark block, man. If it was the mid-2000s again, I would assume the Kyoto marathon sponsorship was Nintendo’s attempt to deflect blame for childhood obesity rates. Instead, I am just left confused.

Another Super Mario. Bros Movie

I didn’t watch the first one, because I’m an adult who watches other things aimed at children. It sounds like it was fairly competent at what it set out to do. What I’ve heard about the original, more video game-inspired score being scrapped near the movie’s launch is very sad, however. I’m slightly surprised that Chris Pratt did not mysteriously disappear from the cast. Maybe I’ll watch these movies sometime, but I’m not in a rush. I’d sooner check out that 1986 OVA that nobody seems to like. Hm, that would be a good article…

Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2

We can’t truly ring in a Mario anniversary without another scam collection by Nintendo. I know, “scam” is harsh—that’s why I chose to use it! Nothing against the Galaxy games proper; they’re great. But if you haven’t gone down a memory pipe, you’ll recall SMG1 found itself as part of a collection released for Mario’s 35th anniversary. Nintendo soon removed that collection from their digital shop, giving some bullshit reason about it being “more fun” to not be able to buy the games you want or something. Whatever excuse they gave is irrelevant, however, as it’s fundamentally unacceptable behavior.

My beef with this upcoming collection is the deviousness of using the last collection to inspire FoMO in audiences, as this one could also potentially vanish. I don’t know if anyone’s asked a Nintendo rep about their intentions, but I wouldn’t take their word, regardless. Also, the collection’s pricing intrinsically factors in both Galaxy games, essentially requiring purchasers of the last collection to “double dip.” You can purchase SMG2 on its lonesome, but it costs $40. Now, I’m no math-a-magician, but those numbers don’t work out for me. At the very least, I know $40 is too steep for me—even if I wasn’t essentially in poverty.

Mario Pennis Fever

Aces was one of my most-regretted game purchases in recent memory. It’s not because the game was bad, per se. In fact, its mechanics seemed to have considerable depth to them. Rather, Aces had no entry point for someone like me. The game’s skill ceiling was very high, and you had basically nothing to do in the game other than to play online and get your face beaten in by people actually familiar with the mechanics of the Mario Tennis series. There was a single-player mode, but calling it “half-baked” would be generous. The fact you couldn’t even use the game’s genuinely fun cast of characters in single-player was an astonishingly stupid decision. “Finally, a Mario game where I can play as Mario” is something no one has ever said in all of history.

It seems deliberate that this announcement seems to focus on a more robust single-player mode. That’s great to see them responding to criticism. But that lost $60 still burns me. This isn’t enough to regain my trust. I don’t know what would be. I think even if this game got amazing reception, I still would be loathe to purchase it in some misguided attempt to recoup my previous mistake. Plus, “Mario Superbabies” is just something you’re not gonna sell me on. Those twerps are annoying as hell.

I just wanted to see Daisy in short shorts, man. Turns out you don’t need $60 for that.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (If They Feel Any Shame)

Jokes aside, Wonder looked really good. I love me a classic 2D Mario side-scroller, and it sounded like this one tickled everyone’s jimmies. Again, I’m just broke. The little theme park mode is cute. I have no doubt I would have loved it as a kid, and I’d be down for trying it now. It’s a great way to bring some novel multiplayer to this familiar genre archetype. I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know if this is online. I don’t care to check, because I can’t play it, regardless.

I do think it’s fucking insane they announced this when it’s not coming out until spring 2026. It’s like they think this is on par with announcing Super Mario Odyssey 2 or something. What the fuck.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book: It’s Not a Low Frame Rate, It’s a Style

Again, jokes aside, this looks pleasant enough. I get “Yoshi’s Story if it were less obnoxiously designed” vibes, which is about what I typically get out of seeing post-Good-Feel Yoshi games. Cozy platformers are hard for me to get excited about. I feel like there’s so many things competing for my time these days that I’m never lacking for a “relaxation” game that I don’t need to drop full MSRP on. I do think this will be well-made, and it’s aesthetically delightful, but I haven’t even gotten to the Good-Feel games yet. Hoping it’s good.

Storm Lancers

I keep seeing ads for this on my YouTube TV app. It reminds me a lot of 20XX, which was a cool game. I dig the graphic style. I have friends into these sorts of games, but I’m always conscious of the feedback loop wearing itself thin. It looks decent, at the very least.

Dinkum

“Plant crops—”

Nope.

Popucom: Where Are the Idols?

You mean they’re going after Palworld, but plagiarizing Splatoon on its developer’s own show is fair game? It does look really fun, but the problem with these new party game IPs is you need friends with the game day one, and they haven’t generated the brand loyalty needed to ensure that. I hope it catches on.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

I hate Miis. Even if I didn’t, I think this section would only be one sentence shorter.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection

I’m always down for a compilation, but I’m not particularly into Mortal Kombat. I was when I was much younger (ironically), but it didn’t stick. I think I saw that notoriously bad Sub-Zero platformer among the footage, which is incredible. Nothing but respect for that.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade

Here’s something different, in the sense that it’s a modern game I do own on a different console. Bought it on sale for PS4 (obviously not the Integrade version), and I just haven’t gotten to it yet. If I had a Switch 2, I’d be kicking myself for yet again buying a game without the immediate intention of playing it. So… good thing I don’t?

Lynked: Banner of the Spark

It looks like Skylanders. I don’t really know what you do in Skylanders, but this looks like it. This doesn’t appeal to me, personally.

Hades II

I still have to go through the Supergiant catalog, so no comment. I know Hades was beloved.

Kirby Air Ride Amiibos

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I feel like an announcement just for Amiibos does not warrant its own section in a Direct.

Hyrule Warriors: Something Something Whatever

Maybe it was a mistake to comment on every announcement. I’m hungry. Um, I liked the very first Hyrule Warriors, but the Breath of the Wild ones kind of lost me. Part of why I enjoy tie-in Warriors games is the ability to play as characters you are otherwise never able to, and only getting to do that for one portion of the Zelda franchise naturally makes them less appealing to me. I’ve heard they hold up better as games, but I don’t hold Warriors gameplay in the highest esteem, so these factors don’t even out enough to make me interested. I haven’t written them off completely, but I don’t feel excited yet.

And where’s Purah?

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

Whenever I talk about Dragon Quest, I tend to piss a lot of people off. Sounds like a good excuse to not dwell on this one.

The Curse of Virtual Boy

Is this a fucking joke? Didn’t the world collectively agree that the Virtual Boy wasn’t good? Why are we celebrating being given the honor to pay $90 to play a supposedly okay Wario Land game and Jack Bros.? If anything hasn’t changed with VR, it’s overpaying for hardware that you’ll probably be bored of by the end of the week.

I want to give credit for the effort at game preservation, but the hubris of this is really getting in the way. Nintendo has spent decades wiping their ass with any mention of the Virtual Boy. I don’t know how many of you remember, but for years, Nintendo’s official designation of the Virtual Boy was that it was a “toy” as opposed to a video game console. This, to me, seemed like an attempt to excuse its failure and their lack of commitment to the product. It wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, you silly goobers! And now they’re asking for $90 for the right to play it? Why am I reminded of when Sony rereleased Morbius in theaters after it became popular to meme on it? Unfortunately, I don’t think this will flop anywhere near as hard as the second coming of Morbius.

And no, I don’t care that there’s a poverty-version utilizing cutting-edge cardboard technology. If the emulation scene can figure out how to get these games to display and work on a 2D display, so can Nintendo. The required peripherals are a money-siphoning scheme. They dare to ask for money to play Virtual Boy games when they haven’t even done a good job of upkeeping their other systems’ libraries on NSO? They dare rerelease 3D Tetris before Diddy Kong Racing? I won’t allow it. I’ll keep my $90 that I don’t have, thank you very much!

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake

I thought they already made this. It looks good. My experience with the Fatal Frame series is playing that PAL/JP region-exclusive Wii game. The English version had actors with thick British accents voicing Japanese girls exploring an ancient, traditional shrine. It was a great source of comedy. I don’t judge the whole franchise by that excursion or anything; I just haven’t gotten around to these yet.

Upgraded Switch Games

Various games receive a boost in performance from the Switch 2. Nothing I’ve really played. I’m happy about this practice, though I’m frustrated it’s exclusive to Switch 2. I’m convinced most software’s technical problems with the Switch 1 are because of poor optimization, and I likewise suspect that these enhancements for the Switch 2 are relying almost entirely on its increased processing power rather than refining their code, thus leaving more potential on the table.

PowerWash Simulator 2

The enduring legacy of Super Mario Sunshine was not its groundbreakingly precise controls and physics, but being able to perform janitorial duties without leaving your home. I won’t lie, though—I get the appeal. Doubt I’d spend money on this game, but if you put it in my hands, I’d probably be there a while.

Suika Game Planet

I’m unfamiliar with this, but the art style is adorably twee. The gameplay feels like what you’d get if you turned Puzz Loop inside-out. I don’t know how accurate that is.

Metroid Prime 4

Oh, boy. Many things about MP4’s tumultuous development are beginning to make sense: the numerous delays, the lack of gameplay footage, the lack of anything at all. What could explain the sunk time investment other than a switch to an open-world structure? I won’t say nobody in the world saw this coming, but there couldn’t have been that many, surely.

I can’t really blame anyone for bristling up upon seeing the footage of Samus traveling wide-open fields on a motorcycle. The Metroid name kind of implies finely-detailed and immaculately structured labyrinths, and that level of focus is often antithetical with open-world game design. In my experience, whether it’s Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring, the question of whether or not the design will be less focused than its forbears, but rather how much compromise there is. Both of those games are great, and I’d bet MP4 will be too, but at least everyone knew what to expect well in advance. MP4 is a numbered sequel, and yet it’s taking an enormous shift in direction. Fans had a right to expect a logical follow-up to MP3, and I’m personally not a fan of the presumption that the ultimate conclusion of video game design is an open-world. Until I play one that isn’t compromised (something I doubt I’ll ever see), I can’t get behind that.

An open-world Metroid game can absolutely work. On paper, you’re just expanding the games’ typical mazelike structure. But is this the one that’s going to be able to pull that off with minimal compromise? This game that’s had a notoriously troubled development history? I don’t know. I really hope it works out. I will say, some of the environments in this trailer looked phenomenal. Maybe the sense of awe will carry the game.

Donkey Kong Bananza DLC

Didn’t play DKB, cuz I can’t. Looks good. Still desperately want to know why Pauline has morphed into a baby. Why is the fate of every Mario character to become a baby?

Pokémon Pokopia: Ditto Minecraft

Ditto transforming into a human is genuine nightmare fuel; some Ex Machina shit. While writing this article, I hate games like these that look perfectly competent and enjoyable for what they are, but I have nothing insightful to say about. Sometimes that’s on me, but for games like this, it’s because we’ve probably all played games exactly like this one. You’re probably just gonna craft a bunch of bullshit and create a forever island to do nothing on but to build even more. It’s both Heaven and Hell for idle hands, and that’s an appeal that’s not lost on me, but it’s common enough to where I feel no urge to seek one of these games out for its own sake. There has to be an extremely strong, unique hook, and a Pokémon flavoring doesn’t cut it for me. Could more be revealed that matches my interests? Certainly, but I’d personally hope to get something like that in the announcement.

I’m sure it’ll be fun… At the very least, I am happy to see non-F2P Pokémon spinoffs again. I’d love to see more.

Pokémon Legends ZA: Haha, Fuck You!

I lost all interest in this game once I saw footage of the player character walking around an empty city with pop-in, context-less Pokémon. Upon hearing about launch DLC and content that requires online play, I’ve never felt more vindicated. Few companies ask for so much in exchange for so little as GameFreak. I can’t even take this seriously.

Danganronpa 2×2

…What?

How does this make any sense? I’m interested in this because I like Danganronpa, but I’m also morbidly curious as to how they justify this within franchise canon. Without getting into spoilers, Danganronpa wrapped itself up pretty cleanly. I can only guess that, after the failure of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Spike Chunsoft threw in the towel and went back to their successful IP. I’m suspicious that this game will attempt to retcon some more controversial story elements, and I hope it doesn’t… But it’s the most rational explanation I can think of for making this game. Bizarre.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

I would hope no one was actually naive enough to believe Engage killed the franchise, but at least they’ll be shut up for another game. It is odd just how long FE has been dormant, but that’s not evidence of anything by itself. To me, it looks like Intelligent Systems had an exhaustive sit down to determine what would actually appeal to a broad demographic, which was an explicitly stated goal of Engage‘s art direction.

I’ve always felt that this was a question that only Intelligent Systems were unable to answer. Obviously, if you want success, you follow what worked before. Three Houses was a huge hit critically and commercially, despite certain members of the FE community’s attempt to gaslight everyone, and you would think it a logical move to isolate what made it distinct from previous games and retain those elements. People were overall pleased with the story, art direction and tone, and increased player involvement outside of battles. Whatever flaws were part of that could be addressed in a sequel. Engage seemed to believe all of that was a coincidence and what people really wanted was exaggeratedly stylized character designs and script writing on par with a Care Bears afternoon special.

Predictably, it was not.

I know I speak for many people when I say I would like to see a game with the aesthetics of Three Houses and the mechanical refinement of Engage, and Fortune’s Weave appears to signal being just that. I’m also very happy to see something other than a medieval-inspired setting. Roman civilization is close enough to medieval Europe to not feel too alienating. Here’s hoping the setting influences the gameplay in some way, rather than every new class just being an old one with a different name.

If anything’s rubbing me the wrong way right now, it’s the character designs. It feels like Engage is still oozing from the seams of every model. A couple outfits are ridiculous in a similar vein to that game, but at the same time, the more realistic color choices made much of the environments appear bland. It’s a little too brown, grey, and unsaturated. Hopefully, that only applies for certain sections of the game. I’m just surprised, as the character designer is obviously the same as Three Houses, which I generally liked, but most of these have left me either cold or slightly reeling.

I still want to know who’s responsible for the story before I get too excited. No matter what, this will probably be an enjoyable game. For as insane as this fanbase is, Fire Emblem is a fairly consistent series, and pretty much everything under its banner has things to like about it and solid design fundamentals with a time-tested feedback loop. I’ll play it when I can, and I expect to like it. Hopefully even more than that.

Wrap Up & Economic Collapse

Okay, lesson learned: next time I do one of these things, I’ll only comment when I have shit to actually say. I didn’t think there would be as many games in the Direct as there were. By the time it started to seem unwieldy, I was halfway finished, so I had do ’em all.

An okay direct, methinks. There’s been better, certainly. The Switch 2 news mainly being updates to old games and releases slated for 2026 was pretty dire, in my opinion. This Direct clearly showed third-party games, which gives the impression they genuinely had that little to show. I know Capcom barely scraped together an announcement for Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection that was exclusive to the Japanese direct, which seems shockingly unprepared on their part. The Star Force games don’t look that great to me, but them being made more available is certainly nice. I do find it kind of pathetic they passed over another opportunity to translate Operation Shooting Star, once again leaving their fans to preserve the legacy of certain games for no personal profit, rather than handling it with a company that has 100 times the resources.

While I was talking about this Direct with a friend, he predicted the video game market was heading for another crash due to the price hikes. Thinking about it, it’s not an unreasonable prediction. We’re never going to get something like the Atari Crash ever again; part of the reason that was so impactful was because gaming was not a cultural cornerstone like it is now. There are enough people dedicated to video games that gaming isn’t an “acceptable” thing to just have vanish from pop culture, if that makes sense. There may be less games made, and less games being bought, but they’ll be around.

Instead, let’s stay in reality and discuss just how much harm is going to be done before things bounce back. I’m no Nostradamus, so don’t expect an answer from me, but I still find it interesting. First off: why a crash? There’s a lot of things contributing to America’s economic collapse that I could go into, and a collapse for America has ripple effects for the entire world due to the USD being the global reserve currency, among other things. To be clear, there is legitimately no reason a collapse has to happen. It is entirely because of incompetent authority figures and market force incentives promoting behavior that can only lead to economic ruin. The perpetual growth required for capital investment is fundamentally not possible, because money is fundamentally a limited resource. When the well runs dry, those aforementioned authority figures make increasingly desperate moves to nickel-and-dime customers and trade partners alike so that they may produce figures that look like their profits are growing for just one more quarter. Once no more blood can be extracted from the stone, they may find their profits come to a halt, but they’ll still be the ones with the money, so they’re just fine. Past a certain point, you can only fail upwards, because the economic system is designed by and for those people.

Anyway, nobody has any money, and as economic uncertainty grows, it affects all levels of the economy. If the working class is lacking in confidence, they don’t spend anything. If the business-owning class is lacking in confidence, they don’t hire anyone. Thus begins an economic spiral that only stops when wealth redistribution policies are enacted. All of the money exists—it obviously did not disappear; it was essentially stolen and hoarded by a small number of people to no one’s benefit. Hopefully that crash course in basic economic theory illuminated something for anyone. I figured a recap always helps, given the misinformation spread by those responsible for these problems.

So, video games. People can’t buy video games if they don’t have money. Video games aren’t produced if profits can’t cover production costs. Bit of a fucking problem, isn’t it? Any solution to this has virtually no chance of being put through by those with the power to do so, so it’s pretty pointless to ruminate on. It’s not like economists don’t know why everything is going up in flames; everything comes down to the few people who can influence policy. I can’t fix anything. You probably can’t, either. Maybe the best we can do is predict how far we’re going to fall, and orient our bodies so that when we hit the ground, we break as few bones as possible.

$70 a game, man. We all have less money than ever, and they want more of it than ever. On some level, I sympathize with game developers. In all honesty, many games do deserve to make more money than they do. Games typically give far more entertainment value (length) per dollar than any other medium, and they’re expensive and difficult to make. What makes this request unreasonable is how wages haven’t increased enough for this to be a fair exchange on both sides. If someone like you or me has a surplus of cash, in theory, $10 more for a game wouldn’t be a big deal—you dip into your bank account and pull out a little bit that probably would have just sat there or gone to something else superfluous.

The problem, of course, is the assumption that people have a surplus. More and more people lack enough money in their bank accounts to cover even basic emergencies, and when expenses need to be cut, extraneous purchases like entertainment are the first to go. They can ask for more money, and we might grumble and pay it for a while, but there will, inevitably, be a point where we just cannot pay what we do not have. Either people need to be paid more, or every industry slowly collapses. That’s just reality. For as antagonistic as the wealthy are to the working class, business is inherently a symbiotic relationship. Even if they were to act as evil as possible and just demand we work more hours, we will still reach a point where we have no free time to justify purchasing entertainment. It is not sustainable. You cannot make 2+2=5. You cannot.

It’s not going to happen overnight. Some day in the near future, many of us will be sitting around, and the thought will occur to us: “I don’t buy as many new games as I used to.” We’ll look around and realize that at some point, gaming became a luxury hobby, gatekept by price tags that simply lock us out of participation. Those days where you talked on social media about the latest major release will more and more become a thing of the past. It’ll dawn on you, as it will hundreds of thousands of people, that life is objectively worse than when it used to be.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. Just musing, I suppose. It’s difficult to reckon with your quality of life decreasing through no fault of your own. It’s not a great feeling. Shit sucks, and shit is going to get much, much, much worse. Just remember, no matter how bad things get, that it did not have to be this way.

Other Gaming Stuff

I finished playing through the entire Onimusha series, and I have articles pending for every one of them. Since then, I’ve found myself once again engrossed with Super Robot Wars: Original Generations. I’ve always wanted to 100% the game, but I lost my original save file which had every game beaten on Normal difficulty. I’ve repeated that, and I’m halfway through OG1 on Ex Hard. I plan to do every game on Ex Hard and Special before moving on. The GBA version of OG2 is one of the most important games to me, so this revisit has stirred up a lot of powerful feelings and motivation. I have multiple articles in the works. One is for OGs proper, but I also updated my article on the Kingcom patch. It’s a work in progress; I’m just adding things as I notice them. It’s a patch I’m both incredibly grateful for and frustrated by, and I hope the latter doesn’t undermine the former too much. OG2’s story is so essential to me, that I’m reflexive towards any change. Granted, I think I make decent arguments for my side.

In a Noah’s Barks first, I’ve started two video game guides. There’s a pilot and mech guide for OGs, and a general tips guide for the entire franchise. I kept wanting to talk about my mechanical knowledge, then it dawned on me I could simply make use of that urge by writing a guide. I’m not claiming to be the smartest guy in the world regarding these games, but I have noticed the community overlooking certain things, whether it be on forums or other sites’ guides, so I may as well be part of the solution, eh? It’s really cathartic to notice some strategy in a game you think works well, then to both preserve and share it in the form of a guide. I sometimes find more joy in describing mechanics than I do critiquing them, and this is a great outlet for that. I want to write more guides in the future, both big and small. I think I’m pretty good at explaining things. It is technically what I have a degree in. I chose my field because I loathe bad instructions. Sadly, I failed to consider a reality where most businesses do not care if their text output is garbage. It’s not like anyone can read, anyway, right?

I’m unsure of what to do after OGs… I’m partially tempted to try playing through Gaiden with an auto-translation overlay. I would have considered this a sin up until now, and I am truly loathe to do it, but… Come on. I’ve been waiting for almost two decades to see the OG storyline continue, and there is no guarantee Gaiden will be fan-translated in my lifetime, let alone even within the next few years. I hate to experience an important game in such a suboptimal way, but I need to start considering the fact that I may never experience it at all, otherwise. Anyway, this is entirely down to how well these translation methods work. If the output is consistently terrible and/or inscrutable, I’m not going to bother. If it’s too inconvenient, I’m not going to bother. So, it’s not as if I’m settling for just any trash. The intended narrative still has to land in some way.

If that doesn’t pan out, I may play the fan-translated SNES-era SRWs I haven’t finished (i.e. all of them). Elemental Lord holds a lot of promise, and is canonical to the OG storyline. I might also playthrough OG 2nd in Japanese, or 100% Moon Dwellers. I could finish my second playthrough of Super Robot Wars W, or finally play GC, but I’m just not feeling a mainline game. I mostly want a solid story and great original characters right now. The idea of reading Tomino bullshit for the hundredth time is making my stomach churn. Although I say that, I’m also tempted to replay Alpha Gaiden, perhaps with the Archibald Grims patch. Never tried that one. Supplemental material like the OG manga and anime series have also been on my mind.

I wrote a review for Kid Chameleon after playing through it with a friend and using save states. I had do it. I had to see the end of that game some day, by any means necessary. At the same time, it’s fucking Kid Chameleon; cheating to finish this bullshit game does not exactly keep me up at night. It’s certainly a… fascinating game. I’m not proud of the review, to be honest. I literally forced myself to finish it in a single sitting, because I was so worried that it would join my ever-growing list of drafted articles. It gradually devolves into an unedited stream-of-consciousness, but by the time I finished writing, I thought the tone kind of worked when considering what a nonsensical game KC is. I’m curious to get feedback on it. Was it a mistake to publish it in that form, as opposed to possibly never getting it at all? Did the humor land? Should I have risked it falling into limbo if it meant adding screenshots, editing, etc.? Please let me know. If articles of this level of quality are acceptable on occasion, I can increase my output.

Um… what else… I watched the newest King of the Hill season a month ago, or whenever it came out. It was really good!

Just writing this entire blog post took at least two hours, and I’m beat. I hope someone has fun reading it. Remember that I’m always tinkering with something on this site, whether it’s importing old content, adding to drafted articles, or revising existing ones. Definitely follow me on Blue Sky if you don’t want to miss anything. Ciao.