I won't post a review next Monday - I need to get ahead in articles, so skipping one Monday should work just fine. I originally hoped to finish Quick Reviews this month, but I have 5 more to do, so I guess I'll just finish them in October.

In today's review: A fairly obscure pixel-art shooter platformer/"metroidvania" about a courier that gets embroiled in a solar system-wide conspiracy that he must unravel. Things get weird, but at least there's challenge.

New art commissioned at @cozycononline.com last weekend - received it this morning before I went to work! One more picture of OC Chess, loosely inspired by the Cheschire Cat. (And, bonus, this one is safe as there's neither a weapon nor blood in the pic - unless you despise Gremlin-like faces XD)

HOLY SHIT IT'S HAPPENING The blog has officially hit the highest number of views in a month, reaching almost 42.5k! (Last record was 40227.) So, uh, we've still got 7 days till the end of the month. Which means that number can keep going up!

Steve Silberman is not here to shout it — so it’s up to all of us. Vaccines don’t cause autism. Neither does Tylenol. (I mean seriously WTF?!?!) The “epidemic” of autism is the result of increased testing, broader definitions, and raised awareness. LOUDER.

Alright, gotta tell you right away, I might not have a review ready in time for Friday. Even the Sonic Mania one was done really quick, and I don't know if I'll have time in just a few days to get something ready. I can try though! I will definitely skip a Friday or Monday, but hopefully not both.

Oooh, just caughta shiny Prinplup in Legends Arceus! Gonna evolve that into an Empoleon right away, set it aside for later... I'm making decent progress, but it's still slow. But nice! I understand the joy shiny hunters have now.

I knew I'd get to this one eventually - Sonic Mania can best be described as made by fans, for fans, with full backing from SEGA themselves, and the result is glorious. You can play as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles (and more thanks to a DLC), through stages new or returning from classic Sonic titles!

Thanks a ton to Temrin ( @wildelementstudios.com ) for this piece! With time, the reporter aspect of my lion 'sona has been cast aside, but it's good whenever I get a chance to request to add it to a picture!

@cozycononline.com is going on this weekend! It's a fun event to commission art from artists, attend panels, all from home! (Using Discord voice chat, VRChat, Twitch, etc.) I'm already planning to come out of this weekend with a lot of new art of my characters.

Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.

Shantae has to deal with an apparent danger to the Genie World, while defending Scuttle Town and her world from various threats. She's having a busy day, let's put it that way. Though the spirit of a Metroidvania is there, this game is instead split into stages; is this an improvement or a weakness?

Completely co-sign. This is basically how @sorayachemaly.bsky.social, @laurabates.bsky.social and I forced Facebook to take hate speech against women seriously in 2013.

I really should think again about reposting my own stuff from time to time. At least get more eyes onto the blog. But things have been so hectic, and *waves furiously at everything*, that my mind's either been elsewhere or desperately trying to keep itself busy with anything other than real life.

Queen

I think we can shelf this one under Game Eulogies; Riff Racer is technically not dead, but it's pulled from stores and the one feature everyone bought it for no longer works. Which sucks, I had so much music to race on it.

To my fellow cishet dudes: when we are quiet about supporting the trans community, the only voices anyone hears are the Charlie Kirks of the world. Don't let accusations of being "performative" or "virtue signaling" shut you up - that's their whole point. Our voices are needed now more than ever.

I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Without the fancy aesthetics to back it up, not nearly as many people will root for the Capitol. (Cause 'yeah, I basically see The Long Walk as The Hunger Games, version "apparently you didn't understand the first time".) Same director (Francis Lawrence), too. Just confirms what I'm saying.

Now that Kirk's killer seems to be caught, maybe the news could spare a moment's attention for the right wing, from the commentariat up to the GOP and president, whose immediate reaction was not mourning, but to seize the opportunity to try to incite violence against groups they hate

Revolution Ace is a shmup with a side of RPG, including a level-up system with new weapons and weapon slots unlocking over time. Also a story about how we shouldn't implement AI in war machines, but hey, it's not like people who advocate for it are gonna listen.

When Hulk Hogan died, this place was a straight up rave. Significantly harsher posts about it across the board. No problem! What in the world makes this situation any different? Grotesque double standards being applied. Shame on @moderation.bsky.app

THIS 👆🏾!

if that news is true, don't say anything you wouldn't want to see screenshotted and spread all over right wing media

If the month keeps going as it is, I might actually hit a new peak in blog views for September 2025. Or maybe I won't, but I'll come close. My biggest month ever was September 2017, at just a tiny bit over 40,000 views. Then things went calm for years, and views went back up starting in 2023.

This roguelite starts with a silly card game in the schoolyard with gross, weird, scary and cute monsters... it ends with deep revelations about life, the universe and everything. That's a weird pipeline of ideas to have, but OK...

Holy shit! During the national anthem at the US Open men's final, the moment Trump is shown on the jumbotron the entire stadium erupted in boos. To say the pedophile president is loathed in his own hometown would be an understatement. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣👇

Every Canadian should sign the CA petition. It is far beyond payment processors' scope to define what buyers legally can or cannot purchase.

We pushed hard Stop Killing Games for over a month, and now another threat appears to remove games, but it goes beyond the games industry Payment processing censorship affects all mature content and its creators, and a few countries can now speak up about it! UK Petition CA Petition AU Petition

Kyle Kallgren announced his retirement from online content creation today. He was one of the Channel Awesome producers with the more, um, tumultuous time both on the site and after his time on it, but I personally loved his content for being brilliant, thorough, and well-researched.

Imagine a horror game set in a Muppet-like universe, where characters made of felt and fabric are just... a normal thing. Except the ones from My Friendly Neighborhood, uh... have a few screws loose, enough to be dangerous. And we have to go through their entire studio to turn off their antenna...

Poutine, Tabarnak!

Aaaaand, one more shiny Wurmple. I like them purple little guys. How will it evolve? Hopefully, I won't need to catch many purple centipedes to get both a shiny Silcoon and a shiny Cascoon... (still gotta find 2 more Wurmples at least, either way.)

This sums up this payment NSFW fiasco pretty well.

In-between play sessions for my reviews, I spend time getting progress done in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I am now taking on the gargantuan challenge of finding an Alpha and a Shinjy for every species. Yes, every member of every evolution family - well, every one that's possible, anyway.

Received a fourth art commission made at Canfurence! This one was drawn by @genystar.bsky.social and came in the mail this morning! (Labeled for rough visuals due to implications of blood and violence). This character is named Chess, I don't get him drawn as often, and he takes some explaining.

I refuse to watch that video in whole, 'cause I know it's not gonna be representative of the experience of anyone who worked on Doug's website. He may not have been the main shithead behind the thing, but he is definitely responsible for many of the issues other content producers have had.

I love the smell of consequences in the morning. Thank you, @dragoncon.org

Iris isn't doing great. And when her inner turmoil hits a peak, she lands into an inner world where she confronts the metaphorical Giant who's the source of her sadness, as well as swaths of Greek mythology-inspired monsters in this deckbuilding roguelite.

Got a review ready for tomorrow, and thanks to Labor Day I'll have two days off ina row starting tomorrow so maybe I can play another game and have something ready for next Monday. However, with the busy weekend I'm having, I wonder if I might need a week with just one Quick Review soon.

Undertale

Being a point & click, The Inner World is rich in story and worldbuilding. We follow an intrigue involving flute-noses, indestructible deadly monsters, petrifying dragons, and so much more. It's also really damn funny.

As you've all seen, there was no review yesterday morning - I've indeed cut down from 3 Quick Reviews a week to 2. The one for tomorrow is ready, the one for next Monday as well - and I'm playing the game for Friday next week. Also, it's a surprise game not on the original list.

This video by Alex Pearlman does a really good job explaining why branding changes like his aren't "woke" they're just another chapter in the big book of "Capitalism and the adventure of endless growth for the shareholders".

BANDCAMP WHY YOU WERE THE LAST SAFE PLACE FOR MUSIC

Hey. YouTube. Give us an option to turn off automatic translation of titles to the viewer's set YouTube language. The translations fucking suck, often fail at understanding context, and occasionally don't make any goddamn sense. LET US TURN IT OFF, FFS.

Welcome to your new job - delivering numbers (again). This time from an Inbox to an outbox, with specific requirements. Mathematical operations get involved (again). If you want a game to learn to program (and, especially, debug), this one offers a close enough simulation.

If you have any questions for someone, ask! :) You will get an answer to your question faster and even save time 💙