On my 3rd playthrough of Prime 4, and it really is amazing how it shares Prime 3's priorities and problems almost entirely: linear structure, greater emphasis on plot, segmented and mostly flat areas, a specific interest in action set pieces, huge reliance on audio/visual design to succeed

"But I do think culturally we are back to brunch." This month in Dialogue, @austinwalker.bsky.social goes long on craft, industry, and doing the work.

This week’s Critical Error about the purpose and structure of game reviews got me wanting to toot my own horn a bit. Over the past year @abrambuehner.bsky.social and I have done stellar in depth discussions about most of Nintendo’s games. Our Bananza, Z-A and Drag x Drive discussions are standouts!

This is not meant to make me sound cool and different and mysterious: sometimes I genuinely struggle with understanding the things I value from games, and how I want to talk about them. I can feel very alienated from what others are prioritizing and taking seriously

There are so many videogames

I've been traveling for the last week but I haven't been homesick, I've been Highguardsick. I need to get back to it. Certainly the most fun I've had with a multiplayer game in the last 5 years, just brilliantly tuned for these intense never-over-til-it's-over matches. Such a shame about Wildlight.

I've already played a bunch of Mario Tennis! I love how Fever Rackets can either be a source of huge laughs and party chaos, or tools for strategically pushing your opponent around. Really great stuff so far, exactly what I wanted!!

Ignore the toe-cam and enjoy this candid photograph with my new best friend, the incredibly soft Munchlax I got from the Pokémon Center

Since game design friction is one of the big topics of today- check out our ever relevant discussion about the topic! Framed through the lens of Dragons Dogma II and Princess Peach Showtime, @abrambuehner.bsky.social and I discussed the pros and cons of game friction. youtu.be/YtThOl-cyLk?...

Giovanni puts forth a beautiful idea here: what if our childhood games were remade for a new generation of kids to enjoy, rather than being remade for the cohort of adults who initially grew up with them? I love this idea. Passing stories down rather than holding onto them so tightly

Some thoughts on Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. I think it’s a neat approach for a remake to look at the original, read it as a kid’s game, and ask what it can do visually and mechanically to reinforce that. www.polygon.com/dragon-quest...

I've discovered an annoying subgenre of gaming YouTuber which is white guys in their 30s who all look like they work at a microbrewery and make the same video called "How to cure your gaming burnout" with a picture of a steam deck or emulator handheld (that you've never heard of) on the thumbnail

Late to the Partner Showcase: I found that quite boring and mostly an exercise in reaffirming that Switch 2 is gonna keep us busy with a bunch of neat games we already knew about. Which is fine I guess! But I hoped for more. Very hyped for Pragmata and MH Stories 3 still

I really like Captain Rainbow

I want to share some hopes and dreams for the forthcoming ALLEGED Partner Showcase but out of principle I can't do that until the thing is actually announced. Doesn't matter that it's almost definitely happening

If I were the editor of a gaming site, I think I would impose a rule that remakes and remasters can only be reviewed by people who haven't played the original. To me that's a critical and underserved POV, especially when I think these kinds of revisits are geared to the newcomer a lot of the time.

🚨 Mario deserves more than the disrespect he is subject to in the Super Smash Bros. series 🚨 read: jakesteinberg.substack.com/p/super-smas...

I've played so much Highguard this weekend with @tuckerhazell.bsky.social, it's a truly electric game (in 5v5). So carefully set up for these tense, long matches where it's never truly over until it's over. We've had some amazing come from behind wins. My favorite multiplayer game in quite a while

If everyone giving commentary on Nintendo adjusted their framing from speaking on behalf of an imagined shareholder or customer to speaking for themselves, the quality of discourse would immediately and significantly improve

January movies, asterisks are rewatches

The arrests of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lundy are unacceptable and a clear violation of the Constitution. This is a dangerous abuse of power that threatens the rights of every single American. They must be released immediately.

Wake up, Sleeper. We're not finished yet. Citizen Sleeper 2: Design Works, Vinyl, SPINDLEJACK TTRPG & CS1: DW / Vinyl / TTRPG Reprints / Represses. Can you do without? 🔗 Journey below... @jumpovertheage.com | @blackysan.bsky.social

TOMODACHI LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Huge on this Splatoon 3 update. Its additions are core changes to the game's rules & indicates that EPD5 is thinking about the foundational elements and how they can be rethought. The series has been structurally beholden to Splatoon 1 for a decade. I hope its future challenges established ideas

And if you want the whole tale of the creation of the Dead Space saga, Make Us Whole is available now!

Level 6-4 of Donkey Kong Country Returns, Boulder Roller, has a great life lesson in it. Sometimes you gotta get out in front of the boulders falling from the sky instead of hanging back and waiting for them to pass

These devs make games about climbing - I sent them up a mountain in Peak www.jank.cool/three-game-d...

If I had reviewed Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club back in 2024 my strapline would've been "More Like The Beguiling Man"

Coming soon to a Discord server near you - the ability to ask yours truly and one of the minds behind Dead Space all sorts of questions about Dead Space, books, and sci-fi horror! Additional details in the reply post featuring Chuck with an adorable baby Grogu!

It's a Dead Space (2023)-iversary! 🚀 We're holding an exclusive Q&A chat over on the Lost In Cult Discord featuring the author of "Make Us Whole: The History of Dead Space", @unabridgedgamer.bsky.social and Dead Space Story Producer & Writer Chuck Beaver! Details & RSVP are below ✨⬇️

So it's just a matter of time until I get DMC 6, right? Capcom looooooooooves to share DMC sales data and list it as a top-shelf series and I can't imagine that's solely because of its Netflix show and residual sales of DMC 5

As hoped for in our newest issue, Dragon Hopper has just been confirmed for release 30 years after its Summer 1996 release plans were cancelled!

Another one that's going a little under the radar here: The Mansion of Innsmouth. It's a horror FPS that has quite the cult following. It released only in Japan as Innsmouth no Yakata (although it had English text) back when, so this is its official Western debut!

I understand that no one cares but the Virtual Boy NSO lineup is extremely, extremely cool!! Nintendo is releasing Zero Racers (a cancelled F-Zero spin-off that never leaked online and was thought to be forever lost) and D-Hopper (also cancelled, made by Intelligent Systems). I love this!

ICE murdered Renée Good in broad daylight. Less than 3 weeks later, they killed Alex Pretti, shooting him 10 times. Every day, we watch as people are ripped from their cars, their homes, their lives. We can't allow ourselves to look away from this cruelty. Abolish ICE.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: With the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, "Trump has clarified an inconvenient fact—the culture war is an actual war"

this whole cycle has been very weird. mostly feels like people online continue to prefer discussing game marketing over a game (many reviews are in fact an exploration of how well a game aligns with its marketing)

Certainly my most anticipated game of the year! I can't wait to learn more. Really curious what a Tomodachi game looks like in an era where Nintendo's biggest games are sandboxes that bend to their players. Definitely wanna see some good distance between myself and the Miis in this one still!

New in PN: The regime's mind-bending lies are a tactic "The VP told them they could kill anyone who annoyed them. Pretti annoyed them. So they killed him. Now the lies Bovino and Noem are telling about Pretti’s death are intended to encourage further extrajudicial executions and likely will do so."

Lots of Mario fans concerned that the Galaxy movie deploying motifs from various games means it's going to feel rushed. It's almost certainly gonna be structurally weak but not because it features like Odyssey and Bros. 3 aesthetics, lol. These are not dense texts that must be adapted separately

As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.

ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.

If you’re outside of Minnesota and you’re wondering how to help, this guide is excellent. And seriously. Take down your Ring doorbell TODAY.

My big question about Highguard is whether it's trying to find identity in complexity. Part of what made Overwatch so great is how simple and clear it was. I'm excited for Highguard but concerned it'll end up being too convoluted in an attempt to stand alone

It doesn't really matter but to me the Nintendo Direct is a specific type of show designed around sharing videogame news. Getting me to watch a Mario movie Direct is a big ask esp when these movies are a known quantity at this point. I'll just see the next trailer in the theater I'm there every week

I reached out to the designer of the Les Manley game series, and he told me no one had asked him about the games for almost 40 years. Here is that decades in the making retrospective interview. #gamedev #videogamehistory youtu.be/9hCE0gatnWA

posting about Rosalina's boobs on main is a good indication that you need a better group chat. some thoughts are group chat thoughts. i'm not trying to be a puritan. im just trying to help everyone file their ideas in the correct drawers

Of what I've seen: 1. One Battle 2. Sinners 3. Marty Supreme 4. Sentimental Value 5. F1 6. Frankenstein Seeing Secret Agent on Saturday 🔥

CAPTAIN TOAD AMIIBO

Sometimes people on my feed are posting about games I've never even heard of. I like being humbled like that and reminded that my taste represents just a small fraction of all the games in the world. I think we'd all do well to remember that sometimes