#& that's new (good) metroid content

[thescrump]

nintendo direct reaction

NEW MARIO AND LUIGI WHAT THE HELL? "SEAFARING ADVENTURE" BRO MARIO ON THE GRAND LINE

NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS LOOKING GOOD

ok random anime game

New Squeenix RPG? this can go one of two ways

nintendo switch sports dlc... i thought that died 2 years ago

ok new metroidvania

disney illusion island dlc... haven't heard that name in ages

hello kitty game?

looney tunes sports game? ok ig. might still get it

AMOGUS UPDATE?

Farmagia? ok looks kinda fun

DKC RETURNS HD? WITH CONTENT FROM THE 3DS PORT?

DRAGON QUEST 3 REMAKE? IT'S LIKE THE FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTERS? MY GODDDDDDD! AND HD 2D REMAKES OF DQ 1 AND 2? I'M SOLD. and such incredible spritework...

A funko pop game. why. BUT FUNKO FORDY FORZBORE THO?

denpa men looks fun. actually, i kinda want it, since i know it's free now

METAL SLUG TOWER DEFENSE? looks cool, but not for me

darkest dungeon 2 is here now.

four swords with online play? turok? PERFECT DARK? switch online going hard

what is phantom brave

MARVEL VS CAPCOM COLLECTION? OH YEAH I'M BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE

NEW MARIO PARTY? JAMBOREE? THIS IS AWESOME!!! BROKEN TURBO DICE? what's with all the mario games on islands tho

ALL NEW CLASSIC STYLE 2D ZELDA? USING THE LINK'S AWAKENING REMAKE'S ART STYLE? AND YOU ACTUALLY PLAY AS ZELDA? the puzzle solving in this game is gonna be epicccccc

ugh. just dance

lego horizon? i thought this was gonna be a playstation exclusive. looks really different from normal lego games

stray on switch?

hobbit simulator?

ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS COLLECTION?

is this danganronpa? no, not exactly

romancing SaGa? never heard of her

METROID? IS THIS PRIME 4? AFTER ALL THE YEARS OF TORTUROUS WAIT? SYLUX? THE METROID PRIME 4 IS REALLLLLLL

[mfporky]

I feel like people forget just how many Nintendo IPs got proper revives on the Switch, so I made a big fat thread about some

The biggest one in my eyes, a series that holds strong importance to me, is Pikmin. After getting a pretty damn good game on the Wii U back in 2013 the series was propelled into a limbo-like state with Pikmin 4 being "On My Way!" for a decade straight. Mainline wise, nothing, we don't talk about Hey Pikmin. Absolute crickets for awhile and then almost overnight it became THE system for Pikmin games. Pikmin 3 Deluxe, which is way more than just a port, with a bucket full of new content and an alternative campaign, released October 30th 2020. Back to crickets for a few years until all of a sudden, Pikmin 4 and ports of Pikmin 1 and 2 released on the same day of July 21st 2023. All incredible games in their own right, the supreme ports of all, insanely proud Nintendo treats their small fish franchise with such delicate care; if you're using this list as a game suggestions list, check out Pikmin you will NOT regret it.

Famicom Detective Club, which was one damned to eternal obscure Nintendo fanatic knowledge hell, has arose from its grave and is unironically making strong waves. The last original game being made in 1989 and then having "Super Famicom Satellaview Remasters" in the mid 90s, which are damn hard to find proper info on. Other than that, tombstone. Only real thing of note being that it was the first project Yoshio Sakamoto sunk his pen into, other than that it was doomed to niche oddity and a footnote in gaming history. The Switch changed all that, with remakes of the first two games being bundled together and released May 14th 2021. That's not all, a brand new game in the series, "Emio - The Smiling Man", is currently set to release August 29th 2024 as of writing

F-Zero, technically got a new game! It's pennies compared to everyone else's quarters and dollars, but after a 20+ year hiatus its worth a mention. With the last game in the series, ironically called F-Zero Climax, released on the GBA there were crickets after that. Gone but not forgotten, it got the occasional rerelease onto the latest system's virtual console, and it still had a spot in Smash Brothers. Granted if you were me growing up you'd figure that Captain Falcon was just some wack original character, but shit the representation matters. It was like that until September 14th, 2023, when a brand new game in the series with online got announced and released later in a Nintendo direct! Sure it was just a battle royale game, another drop in the bucket with the 99 subtitle, but it counts for this list.

Metroid, the series infamous for its dry spells, has been an oasis of new content recently. The last chronological game in the 2D Metroid series was Fusion, released in 2002, with the Metroid Prime game getting its third installment in 2007. In terms of original games, that was it. There was a remake of Metroid 1 on the GBA, and a remake of Metroid 2 on the 3DS, and there were spinoffs here and there (Metroid Prime Pinball is my GOAT baby); other than that, nothing. That is until the Switch came along, with Metroid Prime 4 being announced within the same year of the Switch's release. It took literally 7 years to get more info about Prime 4 but its with confidence to say that the game is coming out, sometime in 2025. 2D Metroid, long dormant and stagnant and almost two decades without a game got a surprise announcement in a Nintendo Direct; the highly anticipated and teased Metroid Dread, long thought to be a cancelled DS game but emerging in the flesh brazen as ever. Released October 8th, 2021, Metroid is officially back after what felt like centuries of wait.

2D Mario has been stuck in a rut of unoriginality for a decade and a half now. Since the release of New Super Mario Bros for the DS in May 2006, 2D Mario was stuck in a loop of distilling the same damn game over and over, with it getting stripped more and more of what once was in such a short time. It hit a boiling point in November 2012, with the release of "New Super Mario Bros U", the second New Super game to release that year. After that, nothing. People were sick of what felt like the same damn game, sure they were passable but it felt emblematic of everything 2D Mario shouldn't be. Then, almost like an angel from the heavens, came Super Mario Bros Wonder; the antithesis of New Super, it had original concepts in boatloads and felt like a proper evolution of 2D Mario. New concepts in spades, so much extra content, brilliant new artstyle in a new kingdom. It feels like going from store bought freezer pancakes from Walmart to a French chef from a 5 michelien star restaurant making you your breakfast.

The Mario & Luigi series, although a cult classic series, never quite got the mainstream attention it deserved. Even with classics like Bowser's Inside Story, Dream Team, Superstar Saga, the financial backing from the public and internal was just never quite there. After Dream Team (sleeper hit, if you're interested check it out!), it was the beginning of the end with the release of Paper Jam. Reused assets, real basic baby story, padding aplenty, dialogue that hits the senses like pulling teeth (fuckin leave Luigi alone), there's no way this was anything other than a cash grab. A collaboration with Paper Mario too, another cult classic series, it was insulting to both Paper Mario fans and M&L fans. After that, no new original games. Alphadream pumped out two remakes, which are pretty alright, and them they went bankrupt. God bless Alphadream, but the writing was on the wall when they kept making 3DS games long after the Switch came out. It was a dark time, felt clear as light that the M&L series will remain to be past tense and just a footnote in the large conglomerate that is Mario now. Until recently, with the announcement of Brothership; a new spanking game in the M&L series releasing in November of this year.

Genuine generational run Nintendo is going on right now. List could've droned on for easily triple the length, and I might make a sequel to this one day. Could've been even more if i talked about new Nintendo's new IPs or just how much better everything's gotten. It rules we live in this time now, especially after the dark ages of the Wii U.

[nikoanesti]

Ok actual 6/18/24 Nintendo Direct summary though:

Mario & Luigi: Brothership: Right out of the gate, the highlight of the whole thing for me. It could've just been this and I woulda been more than satisfied. Immediately got excited seeing the M&L styled character models, but honestly expected just a remake for a moment. But wow, a whole new M&L RPG! And in a year where we've gotten two remakes of other great Mario RPGs! It feels too good to be true, but I'm very excited! Interested to know who's developing it since AlphaDream is no more, but it looks like there must be some returning staff, cuz this does look like a M&L game, especially in the character design department!

Nintendo World Championships: Not interested. It feels less like it has anything to do with the actual NWC events and more just like a rebranded NES Remix game. And to be totally honest, I am completely burnt out on Nintendo repackaging these same NES titles over and over and over by now.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: So, I really like this game. But I've already double dipped on it. So I don't think I'm gonna triple dip, but we'll see. Depends on the price for sure. It can't be the full $60. Metroid Prime remake was $40, and even that would be pushing it in this case.

The New Denpa Men: I really enjoyed the Denpa Men games on the 3DS and I haven't thought about them in a long time! I forget how many I played, definitely the first two, maybe the third? They're very good like...simplified, straightforward, lite classic JRPGs, in the vein of Mother/Earthbound and early Pokemon. So I'm glad this is coming back! And it's free! ...Well, "free to play," so we'll see what that entails within the game itself...

Super Mario Party Jamboree: As big a Mario fan as I am, my interest in the Party series has never been very high. I do have Mario Party Superstars, mainly just because it was all classic boards and minigames I already knew. I did not care for Super Mario Party, which this seems to be the successor to. It was one of the blandest Mario games I've ever seen, and very light on content, so I don't know how much better this will be. Once again, only 5 new boards. It has 2 classic ones as well, but that still doesn't really feel like enough to me.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: I feel...weird about this one. I was very excited to see the Link's Awakening remake style used for a completely new game. But the gameplay looks nothing like that, or any classic top-down Zelda, so...I feel a little misled. But I'll wait to find out more till I say for sure if I want to play it or not.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD: Good game, but weakest of the Luigi's Mansion series, and I have no desire to double dip.

NSO GBA and N64 games added: Well...I never fully played through the Four Swords campaign in the GBA Link to the Past to unlock the extra dungeon, so...maybe I can finally do that? (Ah who am I kidding, I probably still won't). Would definitely like to play through Metroid Zero Mission for the first time, I've always meant to. Turok, I'm not sure if I'm really interested in, I've never played the series, but I'll check it out. And Perfect Dark...I love that game, and like Goldeneye, it's very cool that it's available on this, but also like Goldeneye...we really need a remaster, not the N64 version ported over to Switch. Even if you remap the controls, they're not gonna feel great... So sadly I don't know how much time I'll spend with it.

Metroid Prime 4: I haven't played any of the Prime games and don't really intend to, but I'm just glad this isn't vaporware hahah. I thought development of this was going horribly wrong or something, so it's just good to see it is in fact coming along, and I'm happy for fans of the series!

Holy shit that Funko Pop game looks so bad lmaooo

Also BLUD is out today on Switch and other platforms and I feel like I should probably check that out cuz it's been a long time coming and I love the style

[beevean]

So i found this video, what are you thought on the idea, good or not ?

https://t.co/DoLbQvNZEv

Funny that this dude prefaces that Frontiers is among the few open world games that he likes. I was just thinking that Sonic is a better franchise than Metroid when it comes to integrating its concept with the open world mechanic, as you can keep its core of building up speed and momentum to find new ways to traverse the world.

Metroid... I can't see it at all. An open world would go against the general design of these games, that tends to be claustrophobic, labyrinthine, and full of obstacles that you need to tackle once you find the right ability. He mentions the image of Samus going through a forest, or a day/night cycle that would make the world dynamic, and I simply cannot picture Samus in a place like, I don't know, Kronos Island. It's not her environment! And not just aesthetically. The idea of having the entire world at your fingertips is the opposite of what Metroid games do, which is making you discover it inch by inch, ideally creating tension until you become an OP badass lol.

I agree with the cons he proposes, especially the one about ease of replayability (although the length of development is not really worth bringing up in on itself: what's important is that something doesn't happen during the development the game isn't rushed); and I agree the point that Metroid games, especially the Prime games, are already open world in a way, or at the very least open enough for how vast and interconnected they are. So I see even less need to change a well established formula that still works.

And I like this comment:

Metroid has always been open world. I've never understood the distinction. It's just the idealized version of an open world: non-linear, densely populated, richly detailed, interconnected, with interesting, memorable landmarks, varied regions and environments, and no wasted space. Metroidvania-style maps are what open world maps always should have been. To the people trying to claim that Metroid Prime is not a "true" open world because there are no wide open spaces to mindlessly sprint across, that's like saying it's not a "real" first person shooter because there's no weapon camos or battle pass. I think when most people say "open world" what they really mean is "a huge map that is mostly empty, open space, sprinkled with quest markers, filler content, and npcs". A Metroid-vania map is what you get when you take a modern "open world" map and trim all the unnecessary fat.

[nooblord9001]

Are there any particular types of asks that you would mostly want in your inbox?

:D

Questions about my amateur attempts at writing and/or game development (OCs, Settings, Thematic Intentions, Inspirations, etc.) would be the Dopamine shots directly into my bloodstream.

NSFW questions are also a topic I'll gladly get into if prompted; years ago, this account was supposed to be my NSFW alt, after all.

Speaking of which, I will acknowledge requests to elaborate on specific parts of my history on the internet over the years and how that's affected me as a person For-Better-and-For-Worse-- including matters of politics, drama, content creators I've engaged with over the years, oversharing about my personal life (within limits), etc. --provided everyone in said discussion agrees to behave themselves. I will attempt to hear out criticisms of my own behavior over the years that's made in good faith, and I'll at least flippantly respond to criticisms I sense were being made in bad faith... but I will NOT dignify attempts to weaponize me or my words against the people whom associate with me either online or offline.

Generally interesting questions or even just little Icebreakers, while not at the top of my wish list, would be appreciated as well.

Last but not necessarily least, I'll gladly attempt to provide hot takes on this-or-that media (as well as attempt to provide opinions in individual characters within said media via this ask game; see the "Character Takes Ask Game" tag for characters I've done prior), provided I've actually engaged with the media in question enough to comfortably have opinions about it. In fact, I might as well provide a non-exhaustive list under the cut:

Stuff I've engaged with and am confident enough in my experiences with it to have Opinions on:

TCoA&L (Duh)

Huniepop 1 (LMAO)

Doki Doki Literature Club

Wizard 101

World of Warcraft

Kingdom Hearts

Nier: Automata

Metal Gear Solid

Deus Ex (not quite as much the first game, but definitely HR & MD)

Halo MCC (Fucking SOMEHOW!?!)

Mass Effect Trilogy

Star Wars

Haven

Portal Duology

Most Nintendo Stuff (remind me to elaborate at some point. or don't. whichever floats your boat), particularly Pokemon & Super Smash Bros

Most Superhero Films (remind me to elaborate at some point. or don't. whichever floats your boat)

Most Pixar Films (remind me to elaborate at some point. or don't. whichever floats your boat)

ATLA

Owl House

Hazbin Hotel

Various, Assorted Science Fiction Films

Dungeons & Dragons 5E 😒

Stuff I haven't directly engaged in, but thanks to cultural osmosis I've absorbed enough information second-hand to have Strong Feelings About (almost always negative, unless specified):

The Legend of Korra (I don’t hate it like most of the other entries in this category; I just wish it was Better)

Soulsborne games

Warhammer 40K (and by extension, Helldivers)

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Karlach & Wyll are cool though)

Catradora

Stuff I've engaged with, but for one reason or another, would struggle to provide anything remotely insightful or interesting to say about them other then either "yeah i like it" or "yeah i should finish watching/playing that at some point":

Bionicle

Honey Girl

The Big Bang Theory

Baldur’s Gate Duology

Horizon Duology

Fighting Games (Namely SoulCalibur, Tekken, with a bit of Street Fighter and Skullgirls)

Soulstice

Control

Helltaker

Fallout: New Vegas

Resident Evil games

Dragon Age games

Sanic stuff

Metroid

Final Fantasy XIV

Magic: The Gathering

Pathfinder 2E

Lancer

Battletech

Transformers

[meeblo]

I wanted to start at the beginning of the series with Metroid 1 because I hadn't played any of them... silly decision in retrospect

Makes sense I suppose. In my opinion I think the best starting points are either Super Metroid or Zero Mission. Super Metroid begins with a text crawl recap of the story of the prior two games, and is arguably the most iconic and influential of the 2D Metroid games. It's largely aged incredibly well, and it still has some of the best world design of the series. It also just feels really good to control, with a great sense of momentum to things like the speed booster and satisfaction to wall jumping that the GBA games don't match imo. Zero Mission is a remake of the first game, and is the sort of remake that outright replaces the original in my opinion. It is generally easier than Super Metroid I'd say, giving some guidance on progression and having less complexity to the world design given its basing off NES Metroid 1 (though it's still definitely more complex than NES metroid 1, adding in lots of new content). Super Metroid is my personal preference but Zero Mission definitely fits more of the "start the series at the beginning" sort of sentiment.

[treasure-mimic]

Felt like messing around in photoshop today, so, what started as a want to create some franchise icons for Smash turned into full character mockups, so I put together my 10 most wanted characters for Smash Bros., whatever the next game looks like, and I’d like to post them and talk about them a bit.

Quote is I think my most wanted newcomer to Smash, I really like and appreciate everything Cave Story has done, and I think if you’re talking about indie games, Cave Story has probably had the most influence on the industry. Kids today probably don’t know much of anything about this game, but trust me when I say there’d be no Hollow Knight, no Ori, no Celeste, without Quote.

This one might be a little obvious nowadays, but I am fully behind the Waluigi train. Just one point of contention, I think people undersell his potential by just having him reference different sports games and spin-offs. I think the real play is to come up with a wholly original kit based around being a dirty cheater and trickster with a penchant for explosives.

I’d much rather have Paper Mario than Dr. Mario if I’m being entirely honest with you.

This one’s a bit weird, because I don’t have a huge fondness for Excitebike the game or Excitebiker the character, I’m just enamored with this concept of a fighting game character who fights entirely from the back of a motorcycle. I just think that’s wicked as hell. I’ll take it in whatever form I can.

Metroid Dread is in strong contention for my favorite Metroid game ever, and it did finally give us a character with a body plan and toolkit that lends itself to Smash, outside of Sylux and the Hunters, whom I’m not the biggest fans of. I’ve had some contentious history with the way Smash fans talk about Metroid, so I guess I’ll put it out now that I think if, at this point, you’re not vouching for Raven Beak, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Love me some DS VNs, Professor Layton I think at this point has the strongest ties to Nintendo and, since Phoenix Wright got to play in Marvel 3, it should be his time to shine, though I wouldn’t be opposed to any of them.

Honestly, every generation of Pokemon there’s a couple of new mons that I think would make sick Smash characters, and will inevitably get passed up for a lame starter. Nihilego deserves a spot, dammit, she’s more plot important than any number of fire/fighting muscleheads. But if we’re shilling for the most recent gen, you can’t go wrong with a giant hammer.

The Heavy is commonly in talks around Smash Bros. wishlists, especially here in the West, but the obvious problem rears its head pretty quickly. He’s a giant, lumbering, immobile mass whose main weapon takes several seconds to start up and then chews through anything it hits. This is my counterproposal, I think the Scout is just as iconic as the Heavy, comes with a lot of fun weapons and abilities, and actually has some mobility. Imagine using a downward Force-A-Nature shot to recover while spiking someone into the blast zone!

This is for sure a weird one, but once the idea came to me I started getting really attached to it. The number of Enderman variants from Minecraft Dungeons gives the Enderman a surprising amount of variance to pull from, and the Ender Dragon could be its Final Smash.

For the final suggestion, this is for sure a “there’s no chance in hell” but also “it would be really funny”. Scorpion, I think, best represents the aesthetics of Mortal Kombat, a ninja with fire, bladed weapons, and the ability to teleport, which centers him more than Sub-Zero who uses ice, Raiden who uses lightning, and Liu Kang who’s just a martial artist. Leaning heavy on the fire aspect is also a good way to nerf MK’s hypergore for a Rated E10+ game, though that really is the central appeal of Scorpion, trying to shove this edgelord into a kiddy cartoon beat-em-up.

[destiny-smasher]

Stuff From 2023!

List of things of note I experienced in 2023! A few things didn't technically release in 2023, I'm sure, but yea. Will contain my 'Top 10 Games I Played in 2023' as well.

Firstly, something I played a lot of this year in bursts but doesn't quite crack my Top 10 is Vampire Survivors. Very addicting, did some very fun goofy shit that had me laughing and engaged in a lizard brain way. Appreciated the many Castlevania references and jokes, too.

A couple of games I played every weekend for a few hours across many weeks this year were Project Zomboid and Roots of Pacha, both in a group 4. We had lots of fun with those two, and I think they're both great co-op time-sink games. Zomboid is a zombie survival sim that has way more attention to detail than its graphics may imply. It's still in early access but the depth to its is honestly pretty dang impressive. Pacha iterates on the Stardew Valley formula in a ton of small but deliberate, thoughtful ways that make for a nice twist on that Harvest Moon style game.

REMAKES

There were so many great remakes this year, on top of just amazing games in general, I can't fit them all into my Top 10. So here's a segment dedicated to most of the remakes I loved this year.

The remake of Super Mario RPG was such a surprise, and turned out very damn well. That game, turns out, is very near and dear to my heart and I did not fully appreciate that until this remake was revealed. It comes just shy of cracking my Top 10 list and that's honestly only because I finished Mother 3 finally right at the tail end of the year. This game manages to still feel weirdly fresh even today just due to how fucking strange it is, and the remake speeds up the pacing a bit while also adding in some new mechanics and a chunk of new post-game content. Everything was handled so well. This is like the new gold standard of complete one-to-one remakes of sprite-based games imo. I will admit the artstyle is a bit 'off' in some ways but I think it's very clean looking and captures that 90's CGI spirit really well, all things considered. And the music, OOF, so damn good.

The remake of Dead Space I don't have much to talk about, but it's very well produced. It's remade so well, in fact, that it felt like my memories of the original, even though I know it's not an exact recreation. Very well done and still holds up as a great horror action game with these improvements.

The remaster of Metroid Prime is so impressive it feels like a remake, even if the game is identical to the original aside from presentation and some control changes. It's an iconic classic, and yet I have no patience to do the Chozo Artifact stuff, so I actually did not roll credits on this version BUT still thoroughly enjoyed reliving the game with a very nice new coat of paint. It makes me excited to see what Prime 4 will look like on, I expect, more powerful hardware.

SHOWS/MOVIES

The year started strong with a TV adaptation of The Last of Us. While I've come to have conflicted feelings with the franchise at large, mainly due to its leading boss man, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of this series. Very well done adaptation that picked and chose what to keep and what to change and honestly makes for a better story as a whole if you ask me, while not really replacing the game's tactile interactive tensions. Cannot wait to see what they do with Part 2 tbqh. I loved that game more than the original but also felt it was worse as an overall game/experience/narrative. But a fresh take on that same plot could potentially address a lot of the issues I had with Part 2, while simultaneously not really 'replacing' it, either.

The Bear. If you haven't seen it, it's just. Very good television. Two seasons in and it's sitting up there chasing Mr. Robot and Better Call Saul as one of the best live action series I've ever seen. Season 2 did such a great job of giving us deeper dives on the various characters and building toward an organic and rewarding conclusion that still leaves room for another season to theoretically wrap things up. Nothing too crazy with this show, it's super down to earth, and it owns that very well with editing and pacing that varies per episode, kind of in line with the different character perspectives.

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie had me worried for a while, mainly due to the animation studio and casting. And while I'm still not 100% sold on this celebrity casting, I will admit it didn't weight the experience down -- even if it's still the second weakest element by far. The weakest element is the writing. It's not, like, offense -- it's loyal to the source material and works, it functions. But it's not doing anything beyond pushing us from set piece to set piece. If anything, the movie is a bit too short for all of the stuff it's cramming in. But on the upside, there is a lot of amazingly rendered visuals and music to take in. A real treat for fans of the franchise, and the most loyal gaming adaptation in movie form, I would say.

Across the Spiderverse is in essence the first half of a two part film. That makes it kind of difficult to talk about, especially when it's also a sequel, and the production sounds like it was marred with bad management and crunch. But the results they came up with actually met my hopes and expectations for a sequel, and that is saying something, as I had very high expectations. I completely adore this film's stupendous sense of style, editing, framing, writing, and the way it's making meta-commentary on multiple levels on top of just being an effective narrative on its own. This is animated storytelling running at full capacity in my opinion, and in general just film doing all of the kinds of things film can do. So it's no wonder that there's still a rub -- this is the first half of the story they planned. The editing, animation, framing, effects, acting, action sequences, music, writing, theming, just Farore's sake, this is SUCH a damn banger of a film and one of the best movies I've ever seen, which, again, is kind of insane given the circumstances. I can only hope they don't fuck up the conclusion.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was quite the surprise announcement, and as it turns out, quite the surprise adaptation. I won't spoil much but I will say that by the end of the first episode, it becomes very apparent that this series is no mere by-the-books adaptation, and does something unique and edifying, even if it still maintains a certain surface-level depth I wish the franchise would push beyond. Either way, I enjoyed it way more than I expected to going in, and I think it makes for a great companion to the rest of the series. The animation style was super fun, as well, with some great action sequences.

But Blue Eye Samurai sucker-punched me, having released before I'd even known about it. This show is something else, something unlike any other animated show I've seen besides Arcane. And it's not like it's mimicking Arcane, it's just the closest I can think to compare it to: a quality, thoughtfully framed, thoughtfully written, made-for-adults animated series. It tows the line between fantasy and realism in a refreshing way, its protagonist is great, its cast is compelling, its plot goes to some neat places, and things just feel very well thought-out and well-executed. Slap this in second place behind Arcane as the TV series I am the most excited to see more of in the future, just ahead of The Bear.

Something I did near the end of the year was watch The Hunger Games movies, back to back over the course of like, a week. Have not read the books but man, watching these sure made me interested in doing so at some point. I totally get why people were so enamored with this franchise, and honestly, I think its themes and messages are more relevant now than they were when this franchise was at the peak of its popularity. The films certainly have glaring issues for my tastes but yea, I managed to really enjoy them as a whole despite my lack of mainstream sensibilities. Looking forward to reading the books eventually.

Another thing my wife shared with me was 花ざかりの君たちへ (often called 'Hana-Kimi' for short). Specifically, the 2007 version, as, uh, apparently there are multiple adaptations of this. It was a live action Japanese drama about a high schooler who was born female but transfers into an all-boys school, identifying as a boy while she is there. There's more to it than that, and I won't say it handles everything the best (it's from the mid 2000's) or concludes things in quite the way I'd have preferred. Not to mention it's kind of weird seeing many tropes I'm used to seeing in anime rendered by physical, real actors. BUT it was overall a really sweet, adorable, funny, heartfelt, and reached for pro-queer expression in a time and place when that wasn't mainstream yet (and honestly kinda still isn't depending on who you ask).

Good Omens Season 3 also dropped this year. I actually don't have much to say partly because I think a big element of it is just not knowing what to expect going into it! But it was also very good, very fun, pretty damn gay, I really enjoyed it and am crossing my fingers hard they get to wrap it up the way they want.

All right! Onto my personal top 10 GOTYs.

TOP 11 GAMES

(I played and finished in 2023)

11) Mother 3

The one entry on this list that did not actually come out this year -- in fact, it's never technically released outside of Japan. Originally release in 2007 on the Game Boy Advance, this quirky RPG has developed quite the reputation. I started playing the fan translation back in like 2020, and only got around to finally finishing it this year. While that likely did tarnish the experience a bit for me, so does the final third or so -- it kind of drags on a bit, and any old school format RPG that requires grinding to progress can become a bit of a chore.

Thankfully, Mother 3 did earn its hallowed reputation in my eyes now that I have experienced it. I totally get the passion for this game now, and I am a convert. It makes me want to finally finish Mother 2, aka Earthbound. But here's the biggest thing about Mother 3 I weirdly did not expect going in, yet smashed my face in like a hammer by the time I finished it:

without Mother 3, there is no way Undertale/deltarune would exist.

The DNA for Toby Fox's works is achingly obvious in its relation to this game, specifically. I won't spoil anything and I won't go into my long list of evidence like an Ace Attorney case, but trust me, there is ample evidence to make this claim.

And that also means that Mother 3 stands on its own merits as doing things that RPGs just plain were not doing in 2007, and in some ways still aren't today. Aside from some pacing issues further in, the characters in your party aren't as developed as much as I'd like. BUT the overall narrative it tells, especially in those opening chapters, have a rare kind of earnest, human magic to them that most games just don't let themselves fall into. And it concludes in ways I did not expect and yet offered clarity as to why it is so beloved, and how Toby Fox was so inspired to put his own mark on the gaming landscape.

I owe a great deal to Undertale, personally, and as such, I also owe a great deal to Mother 3. You don't need to have played others in the series to enjoy it, you'll just be missing some referential stuff here and there. It's quite playable and unique by today's standards and I strongly recommend it if you want an RPG that is heartfelt, funny, fun mechanically, and has some simple but hard-hitting things to say about the world we live in, and what we are doing to ourselves and that world.

10) Super Mario Bros. Wonder

What can be said that hasn't been said already? Nintendo knocked it out the park with this one. This was everything I've wanted in a 2D Mario for like 15 years. The only thing 'missing' from it is playable Rosalina, but hey, we finally got Daisy in a mainline Mario game, so I'll take it. After a decade or so of dragging their feet with low-effort but enjoyable 2D games, Super Mario Wonder finally, at long last, captures what makes Nintendo games great and with their best foot forward. They haven't done 2D Mario this well since World on the SNES in 1991. And they have never put this level of production into a 2D game since... ever?

This is one of the all-time best 2D platformers out there, and for once it finally feels like 2D Mario is running on all cylinders as a big budget passion project kind of game. You love to see it.

9) Scarlet Hollow

This game isn't technically finished yet, as it is episodic, and its developers wanted to release Slay the Princess in the interim, but that doesn't stop its quality from being good enough to make my list. This game is doing the kinds of things visual novels should be doing, the kinds of things I wish to do in a sense with my own visual novel development.

It's a horror themed experience but balances the high tension with actual real stakes very well against mostly down-to-earth conversations, with lots of great tricks and touches of presentation you don't typically see in indie visual novels, along with a fantastic art style, charming characters (my favorite character has turned out to be the one I immediately disliked at first, and that's rare for me), and meaningful choices.

I can't wait to see how this one wraps up but even as it stands it's one of the best things I experienced in 2023.

8) Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Redeemed

I will admit I skipped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 after giving it an honest go in like, 2019 or so. A few hours in and i couldn't stomach it, the tonal whiplash from Xenoblade 1 (one of the best RPGs I've ever played) was too much for me. But then Xenoblade 3 came out last year, and is also one of the best RPGs I've ever played, even better than the original for my tastes.

But I wasn't prepared for the DLC to drop a whole ass side-game on us, a self-contained prequel to 3 that serves as narrative cohesion to tie the whole trilogy together with a bow on top, complete with perfectly tuned fanservice (and not the sexy kind, although grown-up Rex and Shulk, well, yes) that really respects its fanbase for investing hundreds of hours in this franchise.

Matthew is easily one of my all-time fav RPG main characters, probably the favorite RPG main character when I think of it (as main characters specifically go, anyway), and his game is a fraction of the length of many RPGs out there. But as usual, the entire cast had their charms, the story was nicely paced, the gameplay and overall length was just about damn perfect for what I could want from the genre.

As an expansion to a pre-existing game, this is one of the top 3 best expansions/DLCs I've ever played. When taken as a side story to an overarching trilogy, I'm not even 100% in on the lore and I still enjoyed the hell out of it, it's just the kind of thing that hits a tone of 'damn, video games are a fucking unique medium that we can do specific narrative things with across years of telling a story.'

I don't know where Monolith Soft is going next, though the ending certainly offers some intriguing teasing, but I suspect I will be there day one to see it, and am looking forward to it.

7) Pikmin 4

Given the long wait (10 years!) one might understand fan concern over the state of Pikmin 4. Turns out, that extra time was spent making this game fucking good. It's not the largest, most impressive, most complex, most inspiring, most 'anything' game I played this year, and yet I can't help saying that this is a damned good video game. It really nailed what it set out to do as a sequel, incorporating just the right ideas to spice up the formula while bringing things back to how Pikmin 2 was, and improving on the series in basically every way -- including stuff to do!

This is easily the most Pikmin game... in a Pikmin game. I still haven't 100%'d it. Without giving away any details, I'll just say that when a game rolls credits and you're only like, halfway through its content, and it just keeps going, that's just kind of wild. It would've felt like a great game even then, but the breadth and depth it ends up going to in order to keep giving you ways to engage with its wonderfully detailed world and addictive mechanics, I love it.

I just want more of it. Give me DLC with more Dandori content, the formula and feel just works so well at this point.

6) Sea of Stars

How the hell I forgot to include this one on my list initially is boggling. Easily one of the best indie games I've ever experienced. The writing is nothing to, well, write home about, but it's not bad. And in fact the story has a lot of great things going on, from an interesting world to a very potent arc with the leading support character (who, let's face it, is kind of more the main character than your two main characters).

The game's art and music are phenomenal, capturing the essence of 90's era RPGs but clearly doing things not capable back then. Made even sweeter, the game is a prequel to the studio's prior work, The Messenger, which I also played and adored in tandem, kind of going back and forth between the two once I was partway into Sea of Stars. The way this RPG repurposes songs from Messenger as well as all kinds of seemingly superfluous elements but makes it feel cohesive is pretty great.

The game also trims a lot of the fat you'd find in older RPGs, as well as lets you customize your experience in a modern way using collectibles you can toggle on and off to grant all kinds of effects, like increasing or decreasing the difficulty in various ways.

The homage paid to classics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG is clear but it's not at all copy-cat-ing, instead wearing those inspirations proudly on its sleeves and forging its own path with its own ideas. A fantastic collection of party members, a wonderful world, amazing presentation, and environments and pacing that help it stand apart from the genre that inspired it. I wish we got to know the leads better, there is a lack of character growth in many ways, but that's me grasping at straws to critique, it's just a fantastic experience and the studio should be very proud of what they've accomplished.

5) Hi-Fi Rush

This is gonna be a running trend from here on out, but on any other year, Hi-Fi Rush would've been my GOTY, easy. From this point on, we're talking measures of inches rather than miles in terms of my love for these games.

Hi-Fi Rush finally delivered on something I have waited like 20 years for: a rhythm action adventure where playing the game in sync with the music felt fucking cool and gave me emotional resonance in a way only this medium can. The humor was charmng. The visual aesthetic is almost peak 'my taste.' The music was groovy with a few tracks I did not see coming but loved seeing how they were incorporated. The story was surprisingly fun! The characters were fantastic, I loved the entire main crew in a way I rarely ever do and would jump at the chance to spend more time with (and hey, there's a whole bunch of post-game I have yet to do, so I intend to in 2024).

The only real thing I could reasonably ask for from this game is a way to play as those other party members in post-game content or new-game plus or something. And who knows, maybe we get that some day. Even if we don't, what they came up with here is the next best thing besides. And what we got is one the most video-gamey video games I have ever played, a real classic and one I think will go down as one of my all-time favs. A passion project given meaningful time, budget, and creatives to bring it to life.

Had this game offered multiple playable characters, a bit more development in its story, and maybe a stronger climax, it'd be higher. I still love it to death and want more games like it regardless.

Hi-Fi Rush is exactly what kind of game we could have gotten more of if the Internet hadn't pushed gaming into a 'live service' direction. It is literally the spirit of a PS2/GameCube game given modern form. And either way, we did get it, at least, in that form, and it fucking rocks.

4) Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

This year was big for remakes and remasters, but one stands tall above the rest, if you ask me. The original RE4 has stood as my fav in the franchise, the one that got me into the franchise, the one that got me into M-rated games in the first place. Lots of nostalgia, but it's held up surprisingly well over the years despite some limitations of the time (mainly the controls) and some older-fashioned sensibilities ("with ballistics, too~").

But Capcom fucking nailed it with this reimagining. Like Final Fantasy VII: Remake, this game is not a remaster, or a one-to-one recreation. It is a brand new game, built from the ground up, reimagining the original entirely, complete with new mechanics and story. But unlike with FF7, this is also shockingly authentic and loyal to the original at the same time. It remixes elements from the original game, maintains most of the original's map design, adds in new stuff, removes some of the more goofy shit -- and even 90% of what feels 'removed' is revealed to be repurposed for the Ada side story DLC.

It looks great, it sounds great, the adjustments to characters and story are improvements across the board, (except for Hunnigan, RIP) the gameplay is improved in intensity and feel and action and replayability. And yet despite all of this, it balances that campy tone of the original just enough to still evoke what I loved about the original's tone. And it doesn't outright replace the original game, either. The two are now like different recipes of the same sandwich or something. There's reasons to revisit the original, though for me this has now replaced the remake of RE2 as my fav in the franchise.

I really don't know where they go from here but I will look forward to it, and regardless, they fucking nailed this one.

3) Street Fighter 6

Two Capcom games, back-to-back? They had a fucking good year in my eyes. The interesting thing about this particular entry is that unlike the others on this list, I will be continuing to play this one for hours and hours into 2024, especially with more fighters still planned. And in another year, this would've easily been my GOTY.

After all, Street Fighter 6 is the single-best traditional fighting game I think I've ever played. And while fighting games are my overall personal favorite genre, I'm more of a Smash player who also loves the hell out of Street Fighter and then dabbles in Tekken and whatever else releases. Street Fighter has always been one of my go-to top multiplayer games since I got into the franchise with SF4 in 2010. While I did enjoy SF5 well enough, it just didn't keep me hungry to come back for more like 4 did. SF6 has fixed that problem by way of a multitude of changes.

It has easily the most fun single player mode I've seen any fighting game have. Like, yea, The Subspace Emmisary (and even then, I don't love that mode like other folks do, I kinda think it's... fine?) but tbqh World Tour is just better in most every way. You get to build your own fighter, earn and mix and match different costumes and individual character special moves with each fighter's fight style. You get to just hang out with the SF characters, get to know them as people, their hobbies, their fears, their insecurities, their passions besides just beating the shit out of each other. On top of this, the realistic art style shift (a by-product of the RE Engine) seals the deal on what Street Fighter 6 is aiming to do: humanize its cast.

Is it still wacky as fuck? Is it still comical and weird and goofy? Hell yes, it is. Is the story mode deep in its narrative? Not in the slightest. But it's still stepping confidently in a direction fighting games should be trying to, not being too self-serious, but also being earnest.

And I haven't even touched on the mechanics! The Drive System alone is a brilliant addition that adds a sort of 'stamina' system that works so well to add an extra layer of decision making and tension. The game's not perfectly balance imo but for how much is here it is surprisingly damn well balanced, especially given they have insisted on not pushing out a single balance patch since it launched in June. For most any other competitive game, that would be like suicide for the scene, but the game seems to be thriving and selling extremely well for the franchise. And it's earned it.

I will absolutely be continuing my warrior's journey into 2024 and I can't wait to see what else Capcom has in store for this game.

2) Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Out of every game I played in 2023, Tears of the Kingdom is easily the most technically impressive. From a design standpoint, from a 'how in the hell is the Switch doing all of this without exploding' standpoint. From a 'holy hell how is there this much stuff in a single player game' standpoint. From a 'oh my goddesses that stupid batshit idea I had 100% worked because it actually did make sense' standpoint.

Where Breath of the Wild opened our minds as to what an open world game could be -- fully designed like one giant interconnected 'level' -- Tears of the Kingdom replied in much the way I expected: it pulled a Super Mario Galaxy 2. What I mean by that is that this is a direct sequel, building directly off the foundation of the original. You know. Like video game sequels almost always used to. And which many very successful ones still absolutely do.

But Tears of the Kingdom somehow managed to wow me all over again by adding to that open world's verticality in insane ways -- the Depths alone are probably my favorite 'mechanic' from any Zelda game ever besides the time loop of Majora's Mask (and what that did for the story and gameplay). But beyond the scale of the world basically doubling and then some (floating islands and caves on top of Depths), I was curious how this game could stand tall after Elden Ring, which is easily in my top 10 favorite games of all time at this point. Elden Ring was Fromsoft's reply to BOTW. And yet Tears of the Kingdom still managed to have something new to say in spite of that very strong reply.

Tears of the Kingdom opened the door to let players essentially create their own mechanics. By removing the abilities Link had to engage with the world before, and replacing them with a brand new toolset that includes abilities you just... don't see games give you, because they'd be 'overpowered,' TOTK designs its massive world in ways that invite you to use those 'overpowered' abilities however you see fit.

Being able to interact with the world and objects in this way, being able to fuse them together to create all kinds of effects, or new methods of transportation, even interacting with things not just spacially but in respect to time, it's nuts and fun and I've already poured like 130 hours with still so much I haven't done. And that's the thing: this game wasn't designed to be 100%'d. It was designed to just... be experienced, as much or as little as you want. And games on this level of scale/budget just do not have the guts to let so, so much 'content' be missed out on. And this game does.

It's a technical achievement and while I had my doubts with how strangely little Nintendo had to show, I am very glad that the experience itself manages to breathe new life into one of my all-time favorite games while improving on it in so many ways. It won't convert you if you didn't love the original -- this is a Super Mario Galaxy 2 style sequel, after all. But it's essentially replaced the original in ways I didn't think would be possible.

The story? Oof. Uh, not so much the story, let's ignore that part. That's what Nintendo wants you to usually do, anyway. But everything else, just. Din-damn.

It expands upon the first game's already fairly open-ended nature in an exponential way that I suspect developers will spend years to come trying to pin down, much like how they've spend the past 6 or 7 years trying to replicate BOTW's open world design.

For much of this year, I thought this was personal GOTY. And for many it will be, because it's just an extremely impressive video game.

Number 1...?

Going into this list, I kept telling myself, 'man, on any other year, this would be my GOTY. And if you know me personally you likely have already figured out what my GOTY is by omission. But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized just how close these top 5 games are, it really is like centimeters instead of inches, and they each -- well, every game I've mentioned here, beyond the Top 10, as well -- offered something edifying that I was very satisfied with.

And no, it's not Baldur's Gate 3. While I have spent hours playing it in co-op and a little bit solo, that game's just not really for me, exactly. Like, I can enjoy it, and I have massive respect for the dev team and what they accomplished with it. But I don't much care for D&D, and the game just didn't do very much for me personally, I lack the motivation to finish it. Remove Karlach from the game and I have next to nothing to really attach myself to, personally. I definitely get why it's many people's favorite game of 2023, though, and I do think it's a bit of a wakeup call for what can be accomplished by just making a GAME instead of struggling to contort it into a service etc.

Street Fighter 6 is fucking fantastic but it could still use some more actual fighters and incentives to keep playing besides monetizing its players in weird ways. I love it, and it will be the game from 2023 I end up playing the most (it already is, I think). But if it ended as it is, I would be very satisfied.

Hi-Fi Rush is oozing with originality and style and I adore it to death, and when I finished it, I was very satisfied.

Resident Evil 4 kept me addicted for over 100 hours, had an amazing DLC expansion, oozes replaybility in the specific ways I like for a single player action game (rogue-likes besides). I am extremely satisfied by it.

Tears of the Kingdom is so massive and fun to just explore that I know I will continue to play more in the months to come. Will I ever revisit it entirely? I'm actually not sure! That massive length does lend some repetition, even if it's the kind I find therapeutic and satisfying.

And that's what made me realize something. My personal GOTY did not just satisfy me. It made me hungry. It filled me up in a way I didn't think was possible and yet I still hunger for more, because I enjoyed it that fucking much. I played through it twice and still hunger for more. I know I will play it a third time eventually, but mainly I just have not been to remove from my brain the particular ways it made me feel, ways that only a video game can. Nothing about it felt like it needed to be overlooked.

SF6 and RE4 had dubious monetization, TOTK had a story I found to be like 90% boring and it still maintains many of the flaws of the original. And Hi-Fi Rush, while amazing, just didn't scratch the particular itch this game did for me.

1) Lies of P

If you told me that Lies of P was a game developed by some sub-division of FromSoft, I'd believe you. Which is to say I would also believe that it was made by people who wanted to break free from some of the shackles of the now infamous 'soulslike' genre.

A narrative that actually makes sense by the end? Opening up options for the player without requiring specific stat levels? Encounters and boss fights that feel ravenously challenging without just feeling like cheap bullshit? Music that crosses borders beyond 'angry chorus, angrier orchestra'?

Lies of P doesn't quite eclipse Elden Ring, but that's an absolutely unfair comparison given the utter scope and scale and variety that game packs. But Lies of P improves at the FromSoft formula in specific ways, while making concessions in others, and as a result it's just an experience that seeped into my brain like no other game this year, not even Tears of the Kingdom, despite that I put half the hours into this one.

I love all of the games I have mentioned here, you could honestly swap around the order of this top 5 and I could mentally meander a way to justify why, no, actually, this one was my favorite game of 2023. In a year so awful for the people who make games, yet so amazing for games themselves, Lies of P is exactly the kind of game I needed. I needed someone to show me that you can make something directly inspired by someone else's work, yet fine tune it in all the right ways to make it stand just as tall in terms of quality and design. Lies of P made me feel things in ways only a handful of games ever do -- and I would actually count Hi-Fi Rush among those in a regard.

But Lies of P also told a story I found compelling. It had mystery, tension, buildup, it started off seeming like it would do the vague FromSoft schtick only to 100% come together, make sense, be rewarding, and offer a 'true ending' that I got on the first playthrough, organically, without looking things up, because it just... felt right. Not only is the game adapting FromSoft's formula into something its own, it's also doing that with the story of Pinocchio. The gameplay and the story congeal together not in the 'perfect' way that it does with games like Celeste or Undertale, but rather in a more... messy way, like a puppet aching to become a real boy.

The game is full of loss, in its world and for you as the player, who will die many times. But unlike much of FromSoft's catalogue, I never once felt like I died because of bullshit. Was I trolled? Sure, the game definitely 'trolls' you in classic FromSoft fashion, lulling you into a sense of security only to sweep you off your feet. But unlike how FromSoft does it, these circumstances can always be avoided if you're cautious. And if you're not? Hey, 'We got you! We gooottt youuu, haha' and you lose a couple minutes of progress, rather than like fifteen minutes and also an entire level's worth of souls because oh right, this section you just got through is kind of bullshit cheap.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dark Souls. But the thing is, Lies of P takes the parts I love about Dark Souls, admits it can't pull off quite the intricate web of level design, but then throws away everything I do not like about Dark Souls, improves on the things I already liked, and then pushes me to meet it on its level.

The satisfaction of being a boss you spend an hour, two hours on, cannot be understated. It's a feeling unlike any other, and one only this medium can provide. And Lies of P kept me motivated, like Sekiro before it, to keep improving, keep growing, keep trying. And unlike Sekiro, it gave me so many more tools to play with, to learn, to balance in an arsenal with intent. Enemies have elemental weaknesses if I so choose to exploit them, the moveset of one weapon's handle can be applied to a completely different blade, my robotic arm can leverage things in a pinch, or be the backbone to dealing with a boss. Mastery is rewarded with practice. A vicious boss that annihilates you in five seconds can be defeated without a single scratch if you practice enough. Mastery, creativity, quick thinking, and reacting are all rewarded here.

I am more than the hands pulling the strings, I am more than a puppet, I am human. And games like this can only be made by humans, who get that specific itch that only video games that challenge us can scratch. It's not an itch everyone has, but that's why it's my GOTY and not yours, innit?

With its unique setting, its wonderful music, its cozy hub area, its narrative that offers just enough to make me care, but not so much that I am bored or feel misled, its amazing boss designs, and its wonderfully tactile and engaging combat, Lies of P is a game I just can't stop feeling something about whenever I am reminded of it.

It epitomizes so much -- not all, but much -- of what I love about what video games can do, what adaptations can do, and much like how Toby Fox was inspired by Mother 3, what people can do when they are inspired by someone else's work.

As far as I can tell, this is developer Round8's debut game, and just. Holy hell, what a way to come out swinging. I haven't seen a debut game hit this hard since, I don't know, Bastion.

Close your eyes. Come to me. Feel all right.

I did, and I do, and given what you teased at the end of this game, I have extremely high hopes of what you come up with next. And in a landscape where things feel more difficult to get excited for with each passing year, much less new IP, it's so damn refreshing to have both Hi-Fi Rush and this game standing out as signals that, hey, some folks are still willing to invest bigger budgets into new games, new ideas.

Again, a battle of centimeters here and at this point I should wrap this up and go to bed.

But yea, Lies of P reminded me of what makes me, specifically, human, in a very particular way that only it has. And I honestly think out of all of single player games of 2023, I think it will actively stand out in my heart the most in the years to come.

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

Whats the deal with Bionicle Heroes (Wii)?

Okay so everyone here knows Bionicle Heroes, probably by either the GameCube or Playstation 2 releases. Maybe even the Xbox release (of which all 3 are pretty much just ports with the input graphics changed) or the PC version (mouse and keyboard controls being the most drastic difference). It's many people's favorite (or at least most nostalgic) Bionicle game, competing with or right after Mata Nui Online Game.

The game itself is already quite repetitive - if you're the type to go for 100% completion, you're gonna be hearing the Hero Mode song A LOT. Even the DS version makes better use of unique mechanics by having Hahli use her Kanohi Elda to detect secrets, but that's a different tangent.

When I learned there was a Wii Version I was so excited to play what could very well be the Best version. To preface, I know a lot of people have a stigma against motion controls, but I've always found that the Metroid Prime Trilogy works so excellently with a Wii Remote and Nunchuck in ways that no other control scheme can match! Movement with an analog stick is more precise and comfortable than keys, and aiming with an analog stick is always wonky and imprecise. Mouse is okay, but Prime's pointer controls make those games really slick - just point where you wanna shoot, you can adjust the zones on the edges of the screen for turning your view, I really like it. I play on a close approximation of that style on Prime Remastered, but Joycons even have Gyro Drift so it doesn't always feel great.

So I go into this expecting similar - to be able to point at anywhere on screen and shoot at that. To point at an enemy and have the targeting lasers aim right at them.

Nope. Targeting is locked to the center of the screen.

Despite constantly having your pointer visible, THE ONLY INTERACTION IT HAS WITH THE GAME IS TO ROTATE THE CAMERA. You can't point at anything. Only moving the cursor towards the edges of the screen to turn your view, and whatever is closest to the center of the screen becomes your target.

You can't even adjust these zones.

Prime Trilogy showed me how WiimoteNunchuck can be one of the best control schemes, but I underestimated how it can also be one of the worst. What's the point of having a pointer if you're just gonna treat it as an analog stick????????

Not to mention it's clearly a rushed port of the GameCube release, including any prerendered cutscenes being much more compressed (though including new dialogue in the opener?) and even some missing textures revealing open skybox (luckily just minor stuff).

Like sure, I've got my gripes with every version of Heroes (the dumbing down of the most intense part of the story thus far, turning the Piraka into bumbling fools, you could at least make them intimidating in the part where BALTA TALKS ABOUT HOW INTIMIDATING THEY ARE CMON) but the control scheme makes the Wii version easily the worst. All the DS hand cramps are at least balanced out by the unique content, rahi variety (THEY HAVE FROST BEETLES), etc.

At least it's still got the good soundtrack.

[dangan-kagura]

Have you ever played a game that you think is so cool, but you’re just so bad at it?

For a while, I’ve been trying to play Castlevania Dominus Collection, a compilation of the DS Castlevania games now available on PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X. They’re really great games, but… In my case, I’m really bad at them.

See, I’ve accepted that I’m really bad at the Metroidvania genre in gaming, and there are only a few games of this genre that I’m good at. One of them is the best Castlevania game, Symphony of the Night, or just SOTN. All my life, I’ve tried out almost all other Castlevania games that play similar to SOTN, but compared to that game, they’re just way too difficult. I’ve tried out the GBA and DS Castlevania games and couldn’t clear them. Yet this series is just so cool looking, I wish I was better at them, or at least I wish these games were easier for me.

To prove my point, I’ll share this. Let me compare Castlevania to the other Metroidvanias that I’m good at. The first one is the new Prince of Persia game, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

This was a fun game, and I’m glad that Ubisoft decided to revive Prince of Persia. The last entry in the series came out like, what? 2010? Anyway, this is a game that plays similar to a game like SOTN. Only differences are that this game comes with difficulty settings, so there was no shame for me to play the game on Easy. Castlevania on the other hand doesn’t have difficulty settings, and I had a hard time fighting certain bosses in the first quarter of certain games (go ahead, laugh at me for playing on Easy, see if I care). Also, Prince of Persia doesn’t have these RPG elements like with Castlevania. I don’t even have a clue what certain stats represent. Why can’t I just play the game without having to take massive damage from the enemy?

The other Metroidvania I like is Dead Cells.

This game is more like a Castlevania tribute game. What caught my attention for this game was the update from last year that included content from Castlevania, seeing as how that’s a series that doesn’t have a new installment. Anyway, Dead Cells is also a rogue game? I’m sorry, I’m new to understanding what a rogue game is. The point is, in Dead Cells, when you die, you go back to the start of the game with certain stats kept but you start with different weapons. That much I know. While it is a challenging game, it’s a lot of fun.

As for the other Metroidvanias I’ve played, I’ve tried out Metroid, Shantae, and even Touhou Luna Nights, but I was no good at them. Metroid is another series that I think is cool looking, but I’m just so bad at. I haven’t touched the series since I tried out Metroid Prime 3, and gave up. I think after giving up on Touhou Luna Nights, I came to the conclusion that Metroidvanias just aren’t for me.

Oh, I would’ve mentioned Koumajou Densetsu (or Koumajou Remilla if you’ve played it on console) but I wouldn’t exactly call it a Metroidvania since it plays more similar to the classic Castlevania games. I do actually like Koumajou Densetsu, but I love the sequel more. Actually, it was the sequel that led me to fall in love with Sakuya Izayoi. I just loved that the game gave her the role Alucard had in SOTN.

Getting back to Castlevania, now that I’ve played (and failed) almost all the games for the GBA and DS, I feel disappointed. Castlevania is a really cool looking series to me. I like the dark fantasy theme inspired after Dracula, and the timeline for the series is interesting if you can figure out each game in chronological order. The only other games in the series I do like and are good at are Lament of Innocence, Judgement, and The Adventure ReBirth. I don’t normally play the standard 2D games since I don’t normally play retro games from the 1980s. And you don’t need to tell me that there’s a lot of hate surrounding the 3D games in the series, but I try to avoid that.

But maybe I’m just bummed because obviously Konami doesn’t seem interested in making a new installment. If they do decide to make a new Castlevania game, it’d be great if such a game could improve all the things that made the GBA and DS games just so hard. Like have difficulty settings, include the option to use a continue when you die instead of getting a Game Over and going back to the main menu, or at least try to simplify the RPG elements. It doesn’t even have to be a new installment, it can be a next-gen remake of any of the old games from the 2000s. If such a game was made, I’d still play it even if I was bad at it.

Now you might be thinking, “Why not just play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow? That game isn’t a Metroidvania and doesn’t have RPG elements.” Well ironically, I didn’t like Lords of Shadow. Not because I was bad at it, but because I didn’t like the direction they went with for that game, but that’s a story for a different article.

So I’ll ask again. Is there a game series you think is cool looking but you’re just so bad at and wish you were better at? To me, Castlevania is just one of those games.

[ragsy]

Ragsy you asked for this

I need you to fill out the entirety of the questions for Dillion, Dogmark and Agent Hill also if you have her number you can post that too. (Sorry dogmark ur still my fave it’s just. Big lady….)

Was your OC influenced or inspired by any particular fictional character(s) when you made them? Dillion: Dillion is drawn from a lot of different sources of inspiration, but most notably he's sorta like if you put Prince Sidon (botw) and Zapp Brannigan (futurama) in a blender and gave the resulting abomination Laszlo Cravensworth's (wwdits) voice Dogmark: He's been around for so long that I can no longer directly trace anything about him back to any specific lineage. HOWEVER. I did find out very recently that he looks uncannily like the character in the musical Rent who is also bisexual and named Mark. That was a total coincidence Sloane: a lot of her design choices were "what would be very attractive to me personally" but i did take a lot of inspiration from Jasper (steven universe) and grizzled male spy action movie heroes.

What genre (not counting the one they’re in) would your OC thrive in? Dillion: sports anime Dogmark: romcom Sloane: stoner comedy

What genre would your OC do badly in but it would be hilarious or interesting to watch? Dillion: stoner comedy Dogmark: sports anime Sloane: romcom

What media does your character enjoy? (For characters in settings that aren’t modern Earth, could be media from their home setting or what they’d like in a modern Earth AU) Dillion: he'd be WAY into competition shows. chopped, ninja warrior, american idol, great british bakeoff, literally anything like that. Dogmark: video games! he's always been a big nintendo fanboy, but he hasn't had the means to pick up anything new in years. (he likes zelda & metroid the most) Sloane: melodrama. she doesn't really watch it though, she just enjoys having it on as background noise. but if anyone switches the channel, there will be hell to pay.

What song(s) do you associate with your OC? Dillion:

Dogmark:

Sloane:

(not necessarily for lyrical content, just vibes)

If your OC had to cosplay as a fictional character, who would they choose? Dillion: hunky magikarp Dogmark: botw-era Link Sloane: dean winchester

Has your OC ever had a crush on a fictional (to them) character? Dillion: if he did, he absolutely didn't recognize it for what it was at the time Dogmark: oh, several. the very first was both Elizabeth and Will from the pirates of the caribbean at the same time though Sloane: probably, but she will never, ever, ever share this information. ever.

How would your OC do in the last book/movie/tv show/game/etc. you read/watched/played? (the last game i played was minecraft) Dillion: he'd do pretty okay after the first few nights, but he would never be able to figure out cooking and starve to death Dogmark: he camps in the wilderness for fun all the time, so just fine actually! just going to completely ignore the horrors that keep crawling up from that ravine though!! Sloane: she's resourceful, so also pretty good. she'd get frustrated that none of the villages have anything to DRINK around here, but she'd get over it.

If your OC was a superhero, what would they be like? (powers, title, general vibe, etc.) Dillion: Captain Riptide: An ocean-themed Captain America type, with a bit of aquaman (water breathing, talks to fish) thrown in there. Basically just regular Sir Dillion, but with a secret identity. Dogmark: he's kinda already got everything already except the cool name ("What do you mean? 'Dogman' isn't cool????"), although he'd be less inclined towards vigilante heroics and more toward going on dangerous missions because the alternative is blackmail Sloane: she'd probably be one of those "mundane humans but is really good with a gun named Crackshot or Bullseye or something like that" type heroes, although her cursed monster arm would be a source of conflict that would probably lead her more toward antiheroism.

What animal would your OC have as their His Dark Materials daemon? Dillion: horse? probably horse Dogmark: hmm! hard to say! probably some four-legged carnivore? heavily steeped in symbolism of loyalty and servitude? what could that be??? Sloane: rattlesnake

What Pokémon would be on your OC’s team and/or what would be their preferred type? Dillion: w... water type Dogmark: normal type!!! normal! he's so normal!!! Sloane: ground type? maybe?

If your OC was a Dungeons and Dragons character, what would their class be? And/or: If they were playing D&D, what kind of character might they play? (these aren’t necessarily the same thing) Dillion: well. he's already a Fighter, and i think if he were playing dnd, he would also play fighter. fighters all the way down Dogmark: he'd be a ranger or sorcerer, but i think he would really enjoy playing a wizard or warlock Sloane: she'd be a rogue, fighter, or ranger, and i think she would think dnd is stupid so she'd never play

How well would your OC do in a standard slasher movie? Dillion: last to die, but he'd be, like, super guilty about it Dogmark: puts up a good fight, but ultimately no match for the jumpscares Sloane: goes down fighting in a last ditch effort to save the innocent bystanders. OR, alternatively, dies immediately due to her hubris and cocky attitude

What stock character would your OC be stuck as in a sitcom? Dillion: bumbling uncle Dogmark: awkward nerd who Just Can't Get a Girl! Sloane: token butch

Who would your OC main in Super Smash Bros? Dillion: CAPTAIN FALCON!! Dogmark: (copied from a previous ask) idk anything about the current roster, but probably Fire Emblem Sword Boy Du Jour? In melee/brawl he would be a Marth main though. Never played at any sort of competitive level, but he was still pretty good at it. Currently has a hard time holding game controllers on account of his claws and paw beans, especially the teeny tiny buttons on the switch Sloane: incineroar. she's a total shark about it too-- plays dumb for the first four stock, then as soon as she's down to one she opens up a can of whoopass on her opponent

Who would your OC play in Mario Kart? Dillion: inkling boy. [sighs wistfully] reminds him of home Dogmark: shy guy on a little bike Sloane: funky kong!!!!!!!

If your OC was in Star Trek’s Starfleet, what would be their role/position? Or, if that doesn’t really fit your OC: why would they get kicked out of Starfleet? (please take my answers with a grain of salt; i have an extremely casual surface level of understanding of how starfleet works) Dillion: listen, he's already partially based on a character who is partially based on bill shatner as jim kirk, so. he's the captain of this starship Dogmark: some mechanical maintenance role where he doesn't have to talk to anyone, or a security role where he's monitering cameras all day. don't put him in space adventure, he'll get sad Sloane: oh, head security officer. she'll wrestle with an alien lizard any chance she gets.

What role would your OC play in a heist story? Dillion: the muscle. he's not stealthy, he's not good at talking himself out of problems, but he IS good at bonking people in the head and/or breaking down doors. Dogmark: (copied from a previous ask) Getaway driver. He's too nervous to actually be part of the operation, but he's got a lead foot and he's a pretty solid driver. Plus, if they still end up getting caught, he can definitely outrun the cops on foot in dog form. Sloane: probably also the muscle, but in a scenario where she knows someone else is willing to put themselves in that level of danger, she'd be the overseer. planning moves, calling shots, keeping an eye on her team and guiding them to safety (and big money)

What kind of classic horror monster (vampire, werewolf, alien, etc.) would your OC be? Dillion: gillman. duh Dogmark: werewolf. duh Sloane: also werewolf, but hotter. duh

What type of Avatar The Last Airbender-type bender (or non-bender) would your OC be? Any bending specialties? Dillion: water!!!!! he's a fish man, what do you want from me!!!!!! Dogmark: (copied from a previous ask) Supposed non-bender for most of his life, but in reality just never had the opportunity to discover and hone his bending abilities. By the time he learned he was actually a bender the whole time, he'd aged out of most of the available training programs. Unsure what element though! Water maybe? (after the fact realization: probably fire actually) Sloane: non-bender, but she can definitely hold her own against a bender in a fight. probably practices chakra blocking like ty lee

Your OC gets isekai’d to a bog-standard fantasy world. What does your OC do and how badly does it go for that world? Dillion: "oh thank heavens, this is much more familiar to where i'm actually from than the other, much more creative fantasy world that i got isekai'd to right before this" Dogmark: he'd spend a week in terrified denial, then one day a gnome offers him a quarter-pint of thimbleberry ale and he throws his hands up in resignation, accepts the drink, and just learns to live with all the rest of it. his dogman curse ends up being a boon for him, it would definitely help him blend in at first Sloane: she'd spend a lot of time complaining about not having TV or cigarettes anymore (puppet shows and pipe smoke just isn't the same for her), but she'd be relieved that all of her worldly responsibilities and troubles just. vanished. (except for the cursed monster arm, but she'd probably find a cleric who could just. heal her for a day's work and everything's just peachy after that)

In the Muppet version of your story, is this particular OC a Muppet or the one human? Dillion: he's a muppet, but he's one of the full-body sized ones Dogmark: human in human form, but a muppet in dog form. when he transforms, he ducks behind a conveniently placed table and the other version jumps up in the previous version's place. Sloane: she's the human, and she never once acknowledges that her costars are made of felt and stuffing

What would be your OC’s My Little Pony cutie mark? Dillion: a really fancy medieval coat of arms with a nautilus and two crossed swords. way more detailed than any toy manufacturer could ever produce Dogmark: paw print. :) puppy Sloane: a revolver chamber, with one bullet missing.

Your OC is stuck in a musical episode. What song(s) do they sing? (And how thrilled or annoyed are they about being stuck in a musical?) Dillion: he gets the confused and excited "what the hell is happening, why are we singing" number, as well as being in the chorus for every subsequent number. he's a little pitchy, but he's so into it, so his spirit alone sells it. Dogmark: he gets the emotional "all is lost" number that happens on the transition between the second and third acts. it's his one and only musical number-- he spends the whole runtime up to that number denying that he's in a musical, but when his time comes, he owns it. Sloane: she manages to figure out how to game the system by simply not speaking the whole episode-- she communicates entirely by typing things on her phone and having TTS read them out for her. everyone else wishes she would just lighten up a little

In a murder mystery, what role would your OC play? (e.g. detective, sidekick, wacky suspect, rival investigator who gets in thew way, red herring, true culprit) Dillion: rival investigator who thinks he's extremely talented at solving mysteries, when in fact he's just jumping to conclusions and assuming he's correct Dogmark: suspect who is innocent but was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time and cannot articulate why without incriminating himself for something entirely unrelated Sloane: secret detective-- played along as just some innocent observer, but was actually clocking everything the whole time.

What is your OC’s Warrior Cats name? Dillion: splashstream Dogmark: bramblefur Sloane: tigerblaze

Gun to their head, what is your OC’s fursona? Dillion: coelacanth?? Dogmark: dog obviously, but like. that very specific kind of mutt you see with yellow single-coat fur, pointed ears, smooth tail, and no markings except for the odd white point here or there Sloane: GRAND! OLD! BOAR!!!!!

if you made it this far hi thanks i love you for loving my characters this much

[lightlunas]

My thoughts on Metroid Dread after finishing it for the first time

(Spoilers, obviously)

-Gameplaywise a good, solid Metroid. Fleshed out the ideas of Samus Returns, although I'm still not the biggest fan of the counter itself. Turning it into QTEs in some boss fights... worked, I guess? It broke up the flow of the boss fights and wasn't too common, so I can't really complain about it. I liked the slide. Upgrades were cool, the classics, some fun new ones. One thing I would criticize is that Samus almost felt... too fast, as weird as that sounds. Like when I would get chased by an E.M.M.I. I often had to pause and look at the map to consider which way to take because I could barely react to how fast I was going in the unfamiliar territory I was discovering as I was running through. Speaking of, aside from what I mentioned above, which ruined the flow of the chase sequences a bit, the E.M.M.I. sequences were fun and interesting. I would've wished for and was kind of expecting more gameplay upgrades to center around that; in the end, only the Phantom Cloak really mattered for them. I was about to write here that you couldn't even freeze them like the SA-X, but upon consideration I don't think I ever tried that? Guess I should've, but you probably couldn't, right? Still affirms that only the Phantom Cloak mattered though.

-Kinda linear, although it tried really hard not to make you notice that. I guess you could also say that it made any backtracking flow more naturally rather than make it tedious, but the point is that you rarely really had to think about where to go. It tried really hard not to let you get lost, which isn't bad I guess, because the map was pretty big and confusing. I actually found it way more confusing than any other Metroid and it took quite a while until I got used to it... somewhat. All the added detail was appreciated when you were looking for something on the map but it really didn't make it easy to read. It should've at least had some more options like turning certain icons off. Or highlighting them without having to find one first.

-Clearly put more focus on the bosses, and they had some pretty nice boss fights to show for it. They were so proud of them that they made a boss rush mode after all.

-Music, pretty disappointing. Nothing really stuck out to me.

-The final twist in the story did manage to surprise me, and it surprised me almost as much that I haven't gotten spoiled about it, even after all this time??? Or if I did, I successfully forgot it. I'm not quite sure how much I liked it, but like it I did. Much of it felt like a natural conclusion to the story threads it picked up. Maybe I would know better how to feel about it if I wasn't so confused by the very end!? Why did a X decide to save Samus?? Because of Quiet Robe's... uh... mystic powers? Or something? I don't know if speedrunning the game unlocks any bonus content that explains it, because 100% item collection sure didn't.

-I'm not the biggest fan of the suit design, particularly the visible wiring (which I thought were meant to represent her vulnerability and feeling exposed in the base suit, but they are still present in the Gravity Suit) and how the shoulder protrusions look in the Gravity Suit, like it's deformed, exposing the wiring underneath again. Also I REALLY didn't like the green light lines of the chest part going down to the stomach in the Gravity Suit. Looked silly. Like a competitive swimsuit design. Metroid Prime design still reigns supreme.

-Overall, I liked it! Cool Metroid game.

[benschwartzcinematicuniverse]

The Big Video Game Post I Took Too Seriously

This one is going to be lengthy, with links stuff. I’ll put a break after the initial shoot!

New York Times

Photos by Nathan Bajar

Here we see Ben in his natural habitat:

If you ever hit up an arcade in the 80s / 90s this whole article hits different…

This shot is the clear winner:

Smoosh. Note to self: do a basketball post

Interview take aways

Ben

Likes

Gaming

“Playing video games by myself makes me happy,” he said.

Played at Nathan’s 🌭 as a kid

First system was a Super Nintendo

The descriptions are always my favorite part of Schwartz interviews. The article refers to him as “An urban Peter Pan, he specializes in portraying young men who can’t or won’t grow up” and “Grinning and pale, like a friendly ghost with good hair…” with his outfit being “a polka-dotted shirt buttoned to the neck and basketball-print socks under spotless white Nikes.”

They talked about all the characters he’s voiced, to which Ben concluded “nobody cares about my face.” Ah, if he only knew…

There’s so much good stuff here guys just read the article!

My favorite fun-fact about Ben Schwartz comes from this article: he wore a Super Nintendo controller over his gown when he graduated college

More video game content after the break if you’re truly into it 🎮

[tl;dr there’s so much fun stuff here, but I highly recommend the Nerdist video at the bottom]

Okay let’s go>>>

Some things never change

Here are Ben’s current favorite video games (circa 2023):

One of my favorite things to do when I’m sad is to watch Ben play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 because it was one of the earliest games I played and he always says things while he plays that you’d have to be a certain age to understand, haha. Here’s a couple links:

Ben obliterating a video game knowledge test (when he sees Leonardo and says “that’s me” he’s so)

Obligatory Game Grumps content

If you watch no other links, please watch this next one ⚠️ only if you want to fall madly in love with him though ⚠️

Okay I’m going to stop now because there’s just so much I could put here

This was fun

If you’re sad, pop back here whenever you need, I know I will

Happy Friday <3

[h-worksrambles]

Just occurred to me what while I put my thoughts on yesterday’s Direct on my Twitter, I never posted them here. 😅

Overall, I found it pretty ok. There were only a few things that really stood out to me. But the good announcements were REALLY good.

I had heard there was gonna be a SNES remake but I’m surprised at myself for not guessing it would be Super Mario RPG. As of matter fact, I started that game back just before the Wii U eShop closed. I really liked what I played of it though so nice to see it get more love. And it sounds like the new version is doing Yoko Shimomura’s amazing music justice.

Spare a thought for those hoping for Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War or Donkey Kong Country. You’ll get your chance some day…

A solo Peach game for the first time since Super Princess Peach sounds interesting. And we got yet more evidence that I really need to FINALLY play the Luigi’s Mansion games. A lot of good Mario content (and that wasn’t even all of it but we’ll get there).

Pikmin fans are eating GOOD. Pikmin 4 continues to looks more promising every time we see it and now the whole series is on Switch. I only ever played the first one and I really liked it. So I’d be most interested to dive into the rest.

Penny’s Big Breakaway already looked cute but hearing it’s from the team behind SONIC MANIA?! Oh you’d better believe I’ll be keeping an eye on that.

Also not me wanting to buy the Ganondorf amiibo despite not usually bothering with them. For uhhhh…reasons.

And last of all…Super Mario Wonder. And this actually looks really freaking COOL. I feel like New Super Mario Bros. fatigue soured a lot of folks on 2D Mario but it’s been 10 years now and I think it’s important to remember: 2D Mario is pretty much always really freaking good. And it looks like Wonder has a strong identity in its setup and visual style as well as lots of cool ideas. All while keeping the multiplayer and strong core fundamentals that made NSMB so popular. I’m really happy to see two of my favourite franchises are getting new 2D platformers that feel like more than just throwbacks so close together.

Though I do wonder if Nintendo realised what they unleashed by having Mario turn into a furry AND bulk up. Trust me, I’m on Twitter, so I know. It has already begun…👀

Overall, I liked what I saw even if it wasn’t really a mind blowing direct. Wonder will definitely do the job of a big holiday release and Pikmin 4 looks great. But it seems like this year had a few REALLY big Switch releases but is otherwise going to be quiet. We might well be in that new console transition phase. In particular Metroid Prime 4’s absence makes me more confident that that game will be skipping the Switch and releasing on a new system. But hey, remains to be seen…

[athetos]

also maybe 3 games u think are underrated...? im always after smth new to play 👀

These are 3 indie games I’m devastated I don’t see more stuff about them…

Cosmic star heroine is a relatively short chrono trigger spiritual successor that I had an absolute blast with. Combat was fun, there are almost a dozen playable characters by the game’s end and they use new mechanics that weren’t present in chrono trigger like style + hyper attacks, also instead of mp you have limited use of skills and need to defend to regain points, it makes more sense in practice. The game is so charming and there’s hilarious moments that poke fun at scifi tropes and memes and programming jokes. And the world is super cool, I don’t remember too much of the overarching plot but I liked the characters a lot. As far as chrono trigger-esque games go, it’s not as good as sea of stars, but it’s definitely better than I am setsuna or lost sphear. I wish more ppl played it!

Slime-san is a puzzle platformer that starts out simple but gets pretty fucking bonkers. You’re a cute little slime who can dash and jump and cling to walls, and as you complete stages new obstacles are added and it really ramps up the difficulty. Theres a lot of content and free dlc and you can change the color scheme and whatnot, it’s a really cute faux-retro aesthetic. Theres even boss fights which can be so brutal! It’s definitely challenging and I never completed the new game + thing but I should go back to it sometime because it’s a lot of fun. But it’s also hard.

And okay, this one was pretty highly rated when it came out but I never see ppl talking about it even though I know it’s relatively popular at least at the time of release, but I cannot recommend axiom verge enough. It’s the best metroidvania I’ve played that wasn’t a Metroid or Castlevania game (sorry hollow knight). Youre a physicist with amnesia on an alien world trying to get home and you kind of get thrown into this plot by these beings called the Rusalki… I won’t say much more than that but the lore is fucking delicious and is explored more in its not-quite-as-good-but-still-recommended sequel. Everything about the game is awesome, and it was all primarily done by one guy, Thomas Happ, and he uses the profits to help make more games and care for his son’s medical bills. But for the game itself, it’s sooo atmospheric, it leans hard on the Metroid influences, the bosses are sick, the challenge feels just right. There’s a ton of weapons you can find so you have a really robust selection to fit whatever play style you prefer, and to also help solve puzzles. Theres also abilities that help you move to new areas, but instead of your standard double jump type deal it’s things like sending out a drone to get into small spaces or being able to glitch through walls. It’s fucking great. I still think about the plot regularly and what’s next for this universe ooo…. The plot twist is so good ALSO my url is the name of one of the characters, he states that athetos is from a Greek word meaning “one who is rejected, or whose thoughts shouldn’t be entertained”. I can’t verify any of that though as I know zero Greek.

Also these aren’t underrated I’d say but I also really recommend tunic (Zelda inspired action adventure), sea of stars (as mentioned earlier), the messenger (ninja gaiden-esque action platformer that becomes a metroidvania), into the breach (roguelite(like? Only a single character Carries over between runs)), baba is you (the smartest a puzzle game ever), and shovel knight (he’s a knight with a shovel yay)

[doom-nerdo-666]

"What if the old Doom games were remastered?"

(Just felt like adding an image: This comparison image was made by quitepotato; Notice how Eternal differs for being a solid orb with a sculpted face instead of a moving face inside a sphere, even if the obscure D3 MP one also looks kinda different)

It rarely happens but there are people who would love for Doom 1 and 2 to have "remasters" or remakes.

And i think there are a lot of things to consider IF those ever happen:

The classic games have a messy art style/presentation because the original team (Who is not at id anymore, by the way) didn't care much of the setting, so Doom's premise was a "frankenstein" sort of presentation and it's why fans either get creative with fan content or argue over "this is what Doom is".

Some assets (FIREBLU, that twisted faces texture) and levels are so abstract, they could get "multiple" interpretations because there's no "definitive answer" to what X would look like in HD.

Some details like the Arch-vile's face tubes could be lost in an HD model of the demon (Specially in a series where either the story is meaningless/ignored or most people only focus on modern Doom lore; Not many invest in the OG Doom "lore" except for wiki nerds that document stuff about classic Doom, those that look at lost/obscure media like the mobile games and manuals or fans who create content like Realm667 assets that explore the aesthetic).

Lots of videogame remakes always lose some aspects of the originals, so there could always be differences we may take a while to realize and miss (This is why i like how Metroid Zero Mission comes with the OG Metroid).

Doom has the biggest modding scene and a very creative fanbase, so fans already "remastered" Doom many times and it shows 2 extremes: The first being ugly models/textures making it seem impossible to translate Doom to HD and really good assets that mean fans are too invested in the "Doom setting" and moreso than even the original id devs.

"Remaking Doom" can mean a lot of things: You mean classic UAC bases built like Build Engine/Quake maps with extra props and geometry but still retaining classic textures? Those ugly "REALISTIC" Unity locations? Mods like Smooth/Beautiful Doom that had extra/nicer sprites animations?

Even if Doom had an "art style" you'd have to consider stuff like Doomguy's "flat top of his head" and games like Wolfenstein 3D (even HD ports) and Catacombs 3D or the mobile games even.

Some sound effects have unusual origins, so remastering sounds could change them differently.

Most classic Doom music comes in different genres and instruments, so i don't think every theme has to be heavy metal just because it's the main genre.

Another way to "study" Doom's aesthetic is to look at its development and unused assets but Romero is still restricted from sharing more of them (Because even with getting Sigil as an addon in the new Doom ports, ZeniMax is still annoying).

Whatever issue Doom has, source ports and mods still exist for that.

There are obvious reasons why modern Doom games don't play like the originals and you have stuff like corpses disappearing over time.

Doom is moddable but its source code may have some legal limitations that are why the Unity ports have their limits and why "boomer shooters" made under GZDoom will never be on consoles.

Perhaps a reason to "remake" Doom 1/2 is to connect the old games to the new ones in terms of lore, which feels a bit dishonest because it's clear the classic games will always have tonal/aesthetical/mechanical/contextual differences from the new ones.

I like how Eternal had SOME remastered concepts because: 1 they still had differences from the originals and 2 Eternal is its own game with its own direction and identity. I prefer if a Doom game (mainline or spin-off) has its fair share of fanservice and "throwbacks" but is still its own thing. Videogame remakes are a double edge sword where you either completely rewrite an old game or "remake" an already modern looking game. Even worse is when remakes replace the older versions, so it feels like historical revisionism.

RE4 is a questionable remake because the game is already praised as a 10/10 game. And "setting a game to modern standards" is also questionable because sometimes, "current standards" aren't that good. "Current standards" in modern games usually mean "release product unfinished, add in MTX, put in shitty MCU writing, add Ubisoft-esque features that make a game feel bloated than it makes it feel interesting, overwork devs to death over photorealistic graphics, make the filesize too big (Either to compete with other devs for storage space or because you don't know how to compress files) and then slap a 70$ price tag and pay the IGN reviewer well enough to give it a high score". In general, "remakes" make it seem like pop culture is imploding, as if media is too much about itself.

Mildly related but i've also seen people say "what if Doom had a spin-off like Mario Maker for consoles" and it made me think of factors like:

There would be limitations, not just from tech/physical limits but also legal/policy limits, which is why Unity ports are the way they are.

Because of the large culture around Doom wads, a "Doom Maker" would be creating an off-shoot of that culture.

Doom wads are fan content hosted in fan sites and those sites/their content can last for years: Consider that when it comes to modding and custom levels in games, since SnapMap is an official feature hosted by id themselves.

Besides gameplay/engine limitations, another thing to consider when making "classic" versions of new demons (Carcass, Whiplash etc) is if their gameplay will be changed to suit the "philosophy" of classic Doom's design; Specially if there's something interesting to their differences like new interesting attacks to compensate for what they'd lack.

Aesthetics are another factor to think about, since classic Doom has aesthetics/ideas that Eternal hasn't brought back: Basically, consider trends or influences and what either Urdak/Maykrs or Sentinels/Argent D'nur would look like if they existed in the classic games; Would you be creative with their differences, try to analyze what makes the classic Doom aesthetic like that or just lazily pixelate some objects?

Would it use unused assets like textures and sprites? Remember what i said about Romero and cut Doom content.

Would they even use stuff from D64 or Final Doom? What about RPG?

Plus, Doom has a fanbase that did a lot of fanservice to itself; You could argue they got a bigger "HIRE THIS MAN" energy than Sonic fans.

Like if id wants to do any fanservice with certain games, they got a fanbase that did so much with it and they even do stuff that some other fans didn't knew they'd like.

Or at least so we don't get another incident like in QC where Doom 3 Marine had armor shards as a cosmetic but at the time, it was named "spare mags" like it was ammunation.

I also like how Quake's new port had "remastered" models that still look retro and old school.