this is what Kingdom Hearts looks like to normal people

It's taken me this long to realise why I found the #OoT Remake model so off-putting and yet slightly familiar...

"I want to see MOOMINS again, Gandalf!"

You know that serialised television fatigue a lot of us have been feeling? The "I want more, cheaper, less 'important' episodes and I'm not even joking?" kind of thing? If I were its new showrunner, #DoctorWho would absolutely come back as this.

Donkey Kong 64 does not appear to have been invited to the DK Challenge event. :(

That thumb-wrestling match might be the most torturous 'stage demo' Nintendo have made me sit through since Wii Music.

Fox and Dana

Star Trek characters explaining hard moral choices: Kira: In the resistance we didn't have the luxury of House Rules. Oh, you landed on Free Parking? You got NOTHING! B'elanna: I'm sure it was easy for Starfleet to focus on their quarter... In the Maquis, sometimes screencheating was the only way.

So I reached out to D+ over this and it seems they're letting the system's captioning feature handle subtitles on Xbox. You can now adjust them via: Xbox Guide -> Settings -> Accessibility -> Captioning -> "On Using Customised Style". You can set the size, colour etc. there and D+ will abide by it.

Frequent Nintendo leaker getting momentarily confused at the doctor's office when they call out for "Nathaniel the Hathaniel".

Well... I took some comparison footage but it turns out -- surprise! -- there's no Disney+ account on BlueSky. For me this is inconvenient, for others it could render the service useless. So while I chase, enjoy these shots: the largest I can make it on my PC, and the only option on my TV via Xbox.

Amazing, Disney+ now sets its subtitles to the smallest possible size and even if you log into the web version to adjust them (because lol NO you can't do that in the app, what are you thinking), it doesn't save. Love this future for us.

The Fred Rogers Production has started uploading every episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for free. www.youtube.com/@misterroger...

Still very much a #Minecraft work-in-progress but this is the Nether Hub entrance to what'll be my cyberpunk city and building something this dense is *exhausting*.

My most-wanted thing from any potential June Nintendo Direct is D-Pad support for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and I might not even be joking.

Finally, they've added Frank; the sassy US-accented gelatin cube sidekick destined to fix the God of War series.

Having the Nintendo Music app open in a browser tab while I work has already improved my afternoon.

New games writing zine! The Oath #1 is OUT NOW! 6000+ words! Cover and illustrations by @itmeanspencil.bsky.social, some words and layout by @thethirstymage.com. First issue only $1! 14 pages, PDF/epub. Shares appreciated! stuartgipp.itch.io/the-oath-1 stuartgipp.gumroad.com/l/oath1

Today I sat, and looked out of the window, and thought up a premise. In just my brain! I worked through what made it interesting, stirring in characters and events that would help explore it, and broke that down into some story beats. And it was a JOY. I LOVE creative writing! This 👇 IS sickness.

Thought I'd poke a bit at #MinaTheHollower before dinner and oof, no; this is a game that needs your FOCUS! Each screen is very dense, managing resources across multiple height levels requires strategy and spatial awareness... It actually reminds me of the "considered chaos" of Doom 2016, et al.

I remember once having a long conversation with DK64 software engineer Simon about the various text formatting options he'd put into the code. The English script hardly made use of them but the Japanese localisers created what he described as "a rainbow of text". Some examples clipped from YouTube:

Today has been very hot but honestly, I didn't really notice because I'd gotten into a zen state, editing the pilot of what I hope will be our welcoming, cheeky, long-running podcast about a beloved subject matter! Please stay tuned...

What a toy-like, tactile game Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is. With a complete tonal overhaul it could easily be a Wario Land game. As it is, it's reminding me a lot of playing Mario 64 for the first time, and trying out different physics interactions with the objects scattered around.

Okay, Yoshi and the Amazing book, everyone says you’re for kids but maybe you’ll—

It's MAY, for fuck's sake. At least we doubled-down on green energy sources to provide-- oh. Well at least there isn't an-- oh. Oh.

Presenting the first in my experimental new series, SHATFACTS! #SHATFACT #001: William Shatner portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in the American sci-fi series, 'Star Trek'. Be sure to follow and subscribe so as never to miss a #SHATFACT. Cheers!

Since the last few years have made it abundantly clear that leadership contests don't actually promote anyone with staying power, the next Prime Minister should be decided via an episode of 'Fun House'. I want a PM who isn't afraid to topple face-first into a paddling pool full of gunge.

A 25-year late glow-up: I would have made it very clear in the early years of Star Trek: Voyager that they couldn't go above very low warp, due to lack of resources. Among fixing other plotholes, it would have explained why the Kazon keep dogging them for literal years and spread malicious rumours.

AAH! Surprise @johndorney.bsky.social jump-scare as The Meddling Monks Pt. 2 drops. That's my evening decidedly sorted. And since one of the stories is dinner party-themed, I would be unabashedly insane not to open these mint chocolates at the same time...

And with this bizarre setup I do dub thee, #Balatro, beaten with every deck on Gold Stake. Arise, Sir Completionist+.

Blue Prince (2025)

Her bow always looked like very expressive ears to me 🤭

I've been going hands-on with upcoming features in Insiders today, so that I can write about the details with confidence. But hey, the NDA's gone, so let's all enjoy this ethereal emerald escort from an angle you might not have seen it before!

My talking wolf that eats children may have been bred by me for the specific purpose of eating children, but if Catherine Storr hadn't written those "Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf" books and left them around in kids' spaces, it probably wouldn't even have occurred to it! -- AI discourse metaphor

A man trying to complete the final Gold Stake deck in #Balatro will do some very silly things. (Oh, look, the Boss Blind is "all Spade Cards debuffed"...)

NEW VIDEO! No, really. Shares VERY much appreciated, and thank you all for being so patient while I got myself together! <3 It's finally time to keep critiquin'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvX...

She's like Doctor T'Ana from Lower Decks; it's such an amazing glow-up! There's maturity, character and backstory implicit in the details and it completely fits with what they're going for.

Diving into the #Evercade Oliver Twins Collection. Go, Dizzy, Go! is not one I expected to be drawn to, but it's really interesting how a few years of wisdom and learning from the Designers adjusts the difficulty curve, tutorialising and gamefeel of (the rather inscrutable) inspiration, Kwik Snax!

I can have some Dizzy, as a treat.

I've just noticed that my gamerscore is currently 165,777 and if life was a JRPG, this would score me some kind of curse-proofing amulet or something.

Reform is a protest party. A protest against decency, integrity, kindness, expertise, and progress. It's a party of pettiness and hate, and it is made up of petty and hateful people from the grassroots to the very top. What it doesn't have is competence. So good luck with the bins and potholes.

Five years ago in #Minecraft, I made a quick lava farm using dripstone (as well as a basalt generator) in a cave deep beneath my megabase. Tonight, I've finally gotten around to giving it a quick glow-u! (Fitting for the glow squid farm I want in the next room...)

Spring has well and truly arrived now that I've just had a knock on the door and been asked to return the first ill-aimed football (and frisbee, and tennis ball) of 2026.

Another clean-up #Minecraft project from the Bank Holiday, this makes an amethyst geode a lot easier to AFK at and mine. Also it's purdy.

I'm not sure how well it translates internationally just HOW SAVAGELY the GameCube died on its arse here in the UK. By 2003, Argos (a major catalogue store and retailer) were selling the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! bundle for just £40; not much more money than a standalone GameCube controller. 🫠

Love this so much for you, Kurt! Only jetlag, not floating point errors.

Actually you know what, let me just

in short... have gun, will travel

It's a simple and sometimes silly conceit, but when you think about it, Samus needing to shoot a door to open it is like the mission statement of that whole series: your weapons and your tools for traversal can be one and the same.