Speaking of content sources, we lost a real one at the beginning of the month with the selling off of Polygon to Valnet. The site is still around, but it’s likely going to lose its identity with much of the staff having been laid off. Polygon was one of the first gaming sites where I became familiar enough with a writer’s style and opinions to formulate my own dialogue with the review. I had to look deeper than a giant number at the bottom that told me whether it was good or not. In many ways it was what sparked the notion that I could write about games in my own way. I appreciate what it was and I’ll definitely miss it.

Now onto some good vibes! I recently traveled to Ohio (the air in the Midwest just hit different y’all), and that was a perfect excuse to continue my run of older portable titles. Thanks to my perhaps illogical fear that my PSP screen would get damaged in transit I retreated to the safety of the clamshell design of my Nintendo 3DS. In the midst of a multi-hour flight delay, my butt growing numb with each passing minute, I called on an unfamiliar cadre of agents to save me from my boredom.

Elite Beat Agents

Developed by iNiS, Elite Beat Agents was released for the Nintendo DS in November of 2006 as a Western market specific follow-up to their first rhythm game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Like its predecessor, EBA has players tapping and dragging icons on the handheld’s touch screen in time with popular music tracks. While this is happening, the top screen is showing off increasingly chaotic scenarios where the titular agents are “aiding” those in need.

I had to put quotes around that because the agents aren’t actually doing any physical direct assistance. Rather, their dancing is a form of motivation for the people - inspiring them to press past their obstacles. At least I think that’s what’s going on. It’s funny, the game was included in Nintendo’s Touch! Generations sub-brand which was intended to appeal to a broader audience past the traditional gamer. This is the same brand that included titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age, and while I can see the rhythm-based gameplay appealing to just about anybody I can also see the confusion on my grandmother’s face as I try to explain that there’s a secret government agency full of dancers who encourage a mom to fight off the weather so she can take her son on a picnic.

While I’m confused by the business decision, I’m in no way complaining about the game’s tone. The quirkiness of the characters and the gonzo nature of the scenarios are its best feature, and I believe they are a large part of why this game still resides in people’s minds. After I got back from my trip I’ve been playing the game in one to two song chunks, and the level of silliness it brings is exactly what I need in the middle of the workday. The game is unapologetically itself and I can’t find any fault in that.

There are a couple things that I can quibble with however. The first has little to do with the game itself and more to do with the device it’s played on - the audio quality is poorer than I’d want in a game so reliant on music. It’s never outright bad, and once I’ve entered the flow of a song I’m no longer aware of it. Don’t worry, this isn’t American Idol on GBA levels of quality, but when a track is just getting started the level of compression is noticeable.

The other callout is a bit more layered. I initially had this noted as “missing out on storyboard” - meaning that I was unable to appreciate some of the story animations that were happening on the top screen mid-song because of how intensely I had to be locked into the game. On face value this translates to “one part of the game is so good that I miss out on the goodness of the other part of the game”, but when I went to YouTube in an attempt to catch what I had missed I also noticed that the agents had a repertoire of smooth moves that had gone unseen as well. This led to a cycle of internal Q & A that resulted in me coming to the realization that there is a tactility missing from this game that keeps it from engaging my entire body.

See, I have to hyper fixate on the icons because it’s difficult to find the perfect timing thanks to my body’s inability to catch the beat in the same way that it does in a Guitar Hero or even Donkey Konga. In those instances I have two whole hands and arms guiding me along (or hips when I’m getting funky on bass in the former), but in the case of Elite Beat Agents I’m only moving my right wrist. Honestly, I can’t even put this in the gripe category now - is this just a me thing? This reminds me of how some people don’t mind typing on their smartphone keyboards while I’m over here dreaming about the Samsung Rant I used in high school. Anyway, let me wrap this thing up before somehow I fall into a diatribe about the loss of physical buttons in EV vehicles (I had to use a rental car in Ohio, OKAY).

Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo Dual Screen is a fun goofball of a game. It takes advantage of the platform to deliver a creative take on a familiar genre. The game has a style and an identity that you just love to see, and I’ll continue to applaud it whenever given the opportunity. If, like me, you missed this when it originally dropped you know what they say: better 6,700 days late than never.

Listen, I have a limited knowledge about the economy and politics, but I know that a back-and-forth like this makes a tense and stressful situation even more so for a lot of folks. And moments like this are when people could really use silly technology and video games specifically to help take their minds off of the chaos of the world - just look at the phenomenon that Animal Crossing: New Horizons became during the heat of the pandemic. Games bring us joy in scary times, so I want to remind everyone that it isn’t limited to the newest releases. If this newsletter has done anything for me it’s been a constant reminder that there is a rich history of both thoughtful and mindless content out there to be played and enjoyed at a fraction of the cost.

That enjoyment can also be enhanced by sharing it with others in some way. So leave a comment on someone’s post, write your own, join a discord, or shoutout new and old games on social media and in the streets. There’s still plenty of fun to be had!

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Practicing what I preach, I’m continuing to really enjoy the PSP I bought a couple months ago. I’m already noticing a trend with the kinds of games that are available on this thing: the baby brother to the familiar console franchise, the pick-up-and-play arcade title, and the odd PSP original franchise. I’ve got a couple games lined up to fulfill the latter two types (I have had my eyes on Patapon since 2008), but before that I had to know how well Kratos’ anger translated to the handheld in God of War: Chains of Olympus. The answer: shockingly well.

Chains of Olympus is a prequel to the original PS2 game, set halfway through Kratos’ ten years of servitude to the gods of Olympus. After the Sun falls from the sky, the Earth is shrouded in darkness and the Olympians are put into a slumber by the God of Dreams, Morpheus. The Spartan warrior is tasked with finding the Sun god Helios and helping him return to the sky in order to save the world.

I’ve maintained a fondness - at least in memory - for the original God of War games. Although I arguably shouldn’t have, I played through those games as they were releasing and fell for the grandiose drama of the story and the visceral flow of the combat. A point of pre-teen pride was completing the first game and finding out via G4TV that it was thought to be a pretty difficult game - so much so that the developers had an easter egg including a number you could call after reaching the end of the game. It, along with the ending boss battles in Kingdom Hearts, was my introduction to the concept of video games being too difficult and the intentionality of the developer’s in designing a game in such a way.

With Chains of Olympus I haven’t felt that same sense of difficulty (thank you age and experience), but everything from the handling of Kratos’ iconic Blades of Chaos to where treasure chests are hidden feel deeply ingrained in my brain. Have you ever returned to a friend’s childhood home after several years away and off instinct gone to the fridge or pantry and grabbed the same snacks you used to as a kid? In the moment you aren’t thinking about it, you’re just eating the Zebra Cake, but days later you’re equally amazed that Little Debbie is continuing to make those things and that they are taking up the same real estate in your friend’s parents home. I’ve been experiencing that feeling repeatedly with this game - thankfully sans the sugar intake.

This series’ design translates well to the PSP. In my journey with the handheld this has been the most impressive game so far. The trademark sense of scope, complete with the wide angle shots of Kratos as a spec against a gargantuan enemy or backdropped by a vast landscape, is still present on the small screen. And since the camera is intentionally fixed to elevate the cinematic presentation, just as it was in the PS2 entries, I never feel the missing right analog stick.

I don’t actually recall if it was like this in the original titles, but the pacing of the gameplay also feels at home on the PSP. Combat is typically siloed in a pseudo-arena and is often followed by some sort of navigation puzzle to open the path to the next location. There are a generous number of save points as well making it easy to play a 10 to 20 minute chunk of the game then move onto another activity. I found myself using this often since, and this is likely the only quibble with my experience so far, the intense nature of the battles can sometimes leave my adult hands a bit cramped using such a small device. The excitement caused by the series’ quick time events tend to lead me to tighten up my entire body each time they pop up. It’s a game design element that I’ve grown to miss, but it leads to the exposure of the downsides, at least for me, of the PSP.

That aside, it’s been nice to discover a title that feels simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. This is why we often see movie studios and game companies return to the well of a familiar franchise decades later - they hope to ride the coattails of the good feelings inspired by the past. Despite the compromises I’m sure were needed to fit Chains of Olympus on the PSP, it never feels like a compromised experience. Neither does it come across as forced or reek of bait to engender unearned good feelings like a reboot can at times (funnily enough God of War in 2018 is the exact opposite of the reboots I’m referencing). To complete the loop I started at the top of this post, this is the joy of the backlog I hoped to experience. It’s an opportunity to relive these titles without the weight of marketing or peer pressure. It reveals which design choices stand the test of time and which were better off left in the past (for what it’s worth I didn’t spend any time on the over-indexed masculinity present here, but it’s goofy at best and I can see it off-putting some). I’ll likely see this through to completion, but I’ll wait a few months before checking out the other PSP title, Ghost of Sparta. It’s been a treat, but I don’t want to overindulge and ruin the experience for myself.

What I mean by that is there are plenty of times in the moment-to-moment gameplay where I should be frustrated. The lock-on targeting and camera fight against you in combat, traversal outside of battles feels dated, some boss fights encourage spam tactics rather than strategy, and the gummi ship sequences continue to be an active waste of time. AND YET...as soon as I land in a new Disney-themed world or I earn a new cutscene I’m grinning y’all. Purely reinvigorated to see what’s next.

I’m so charmed by these characters that I’m engrossed in their plight all over again. What I’ve yet to decipher is if this is because 30-year-old me is actively enjoying the drama or if it’s due to 10-year-old me finding comfort in revisiting his virtual friends again. But I’m also wondering - does it matter? Is there a difference?

I’ll keep thinking on that one as I head into the game’s final few worlds. In the meantime, I managed to spend some time with a newer to me title that’s a little more simple.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

As I imagine most other 16-year-olds who played video games at the time would, I loved Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World when it was released in 2010. It was one of the few films I went to see multiple times in the theater at that age. I was and continue to be impressed by its editing, vibrancy, and all around ingenuity. For me, it’s one of those movies I can flow with. It’s an unfair comparison, but the 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up released the same year Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game doesn’t leave the same impression.

From the first in-game fight, it became obvious that the speed of the game was going to be an issue. Scott (or whichever fighter you select) moves through the stage at an annoyingly sluggish pace. I had to constantly be sprinting in order for it to feel close to natural. This affects combat as well. There have been numerous occasions where I appear to be doing well only to be knocked down (where gameplay basically stops for 5 seconds) because I’m hitting the buttons too fast and it doesn’t register. It feels like I’m dancing with the game and it refuses to go my tempo, so I’m left stumbling through trying and failing to match its groove before the song ends. I’ve tried to keep in mind that this may be in line with the old school arcade games it is imitating - which, if true, I can applaud the commitment to the bit - but that doesn’t translate to enjoyment. Those opening moments were filled with frustration.

That is until I noticed a couple levels in that you can walk into some of the shops in the background and give your fighter stat boosts. Some of this is definitely on me for not reading the “How to Play” in the start menu, but I feel the game could have made this RPG element more obvious by at least indicating when you can interact with the background. The way the mechanic works is that players can purchase items that either give health back or increase their Speed, Defense, Strength, and Willpower (this impacts your Super Attack power). Once I realized this the difficultly became more manageable, but it also revealed more frustrations in the game’s design. First, the item selection menu does not tell you what the item does until you’ve purchased it. This is a small quibble until it’s combined with my second issue, the game necessitates grinding. The loop I found myself in too often was thus: proceed to a new level, make it about halfway through before failing thanks to the overpowered enemies, return to the first level’s halfway checkpoint because it’s the closest to item shops and a sequence that rewards a lot of money, purchase an item, realize that it increased the wrong stat leaving me with not enough money for another item, finish the first level, repeat the first level until I can purchase the item I want, return to the original level that started the loop and hope I increased my stats enough to get through. It’s all just too clunky.

It’s a bummer, because everything about the game aside from the gameplay is great! It was such a smart choice to go with the pixel art which feels both timeless and in-line with how this narrative has been presented elsewhere. The character designs mesh with the spirit of the original work and seeing familiar images like the bass guitar battle and screen-filling “KO” brought a smile to my face. There’s also no denying how kinetic the Anamanaguchi soundtrack is in this game. It’s the perfect companion to push you forward with its pulsing retro-future sonic blend. I’ve had a few of these songs saved in Spotify for years now, and they have been getting a lot more plays in recent weeks. The presentation package is simply spot on for this story’s whole vibe.

To be fair to the game, I wanted to point out that I exclusively played this in single-player mode. With these kinds of beat 'em ups there’s always a new level of fun when other players are introduced, so there’s the possibility that some of the more grating gameplay elements become less so with friends. With that in mind, it’s still tough to recommend as an extended play, but maybe there’s room for it as a secondary title you go back to when you need something to fiddle with for fifteen minutes. While the movie is something I revisit even to this day, playing the game doesn’t capture the same magic.

Thanks for watching me stumble along as I try and figure out how to cram a bunch of my hobbies into a life filled with other responsibilities and worries. I’m sure this won’t be the end of it. Appreciate your time - now onto the game this week!

Burnout Legends

The journey with the PSP continues this week, and we’re really stepping on the gas now! Similar to Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Burnout Legends is attempting to bring the gameplay users would be familiar with from the larger consoles and make it portable. Unlike with Ratchet & Clank where the usual frenzied gunplay felt a little watered down, the arcade racing genre the Burnout franchise is a part of translates much better to Sony’s handheld.

Burnout 3: Takedown was one of my favorite games growing up, and Legends elicits that same level of energy and excitement from me. While the game repackages tracks and modes from the initial three mainline entries in the series, it was only a year removed from Takedown so the third entry’s DNA comes through the strongest in this bite-sized iteration. There are a few traditional modes everyone would be familiar with like Time Attack and 1-on-1 competitions for vehicles, but the star of the show are the ways in which the game offers opportunities for destruction. Even in a standard race taking an opponent out is a main objective - the easiest way to be number one is if 2-6 are unable to finish a race after all. Slamming the first place car into a barrier, taking their spot in the race, is endlessly satisfying. And the boost you are rewarded with means you rarely lose your momentum.

But the non-standard modes are where the most fun is had. Racking up an increasing combination of Takedowns is exhilarating even on the small screen. The game does a great job of managing the thrill of the chase. The competition may appear too far off to catch up with, but maintaining a high speed for long enough will eventually bring you within arms reach. This need for speed (HA!) keeps you in a state of focus for an entire race. Then there is the “Crash” mode where causing as much damage as possible is the only objective. This was the mode that instantly transported me back to the PS2 days of Burnout 3. Outside of the technical differences between the two, the crash gameplay is a mirror of what I grew up with including the slow-motion that triggers to allow you more maneuverability in deciding what your car hits. It’s a treat, and I’m delighted by what was possible on the PSP at the time especially when comparing what Legends looked like on the Nintendo DS.

As noted, there are inherent differences and noticeable limitations in bringing the franchise to the PSP. Most of these have to do with how many objects can be rendered on screen at a given time. In the crash modes the amount of destruction one can cause is limited by the amount of vehicles the handheld is able to show at once. It’s one of those things that is noticeable if you are looking for it but doesn’t take too much away from the moment to moment fun. The biggest hinderance would be the draw distance and screen size of the device. Developer Criterion Games did a great job in having the headlights and brake lights of other vehicles have a distinct glow so you can identify them sooner, but at top speeds it takes a healthy amount of concentration and some squinting to ensure you don’t mistakenly crash. I could feel my brain having to work a little harder than it would if I were playing one of the console versions.

However, none of those hinder the joy of Burnout Legends. Its arcade spirit pairs well with the pick-up-and-play nature of the PSP. There have been several evenings where right before bed I pick up the device, play through a couple events, and go to sleep. One more shot of adrenaline before heading off to dreamland. It maybe hasn’t been the best for getting those coveted eight hours, but the fact that I keep doing it anyway should tell you everything you need to know.

Apologies for the way too delayed post. I’m not switching my posting day just struggling to re-find my routines after starting a new job. The next post is still planned for March 2nd. See ya then!

***

One of my most frequent sources of gaming entertainment and news is the podcast Into the Aether. Every summer the hosts have been doing a season kickoff that coincides with a retrospective of a specific console. This time around they gave a heads-up that the focus will be on Sony’s 2005 handheld, the PlayStation Portable - encouraging listeners to play along if possible. Quite serendipitous as I’d already been itching to revisit the device’s catalog, so I went on the hunt. Luckily, after a couple weeks I found a red PSP-3000 in good condition at a local game store. Although there was a beautiful, in-box copy of Persona 3 Portable that was calling my name, I decided for a cheaper title just to make sure the device actually worked.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

Released in 2007, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is the first spin-off of the popular franchise to be released for the PSP. A little web searching revealed that, surprisingly, it is one of the best-selling PSP games ever. I use that adverb because after playing for a couple of hours in the year 2025 I can only describe it as intensely average.

The setup is simple. Our titular heroes are attempting to enjoy a vacation when a little girl is kidnapped by a group of robots. During the act, the captors drop an artifact belonging to a race of creatures that may or may not exist. So the duo go off to learn more and rescue the child. Oh, and Captain Qwark is tagging along so he can search for his parents on their computer or something. As I said, I’m only a couple of hours in so maybe this expands into a universe-spanning epic tale, but early indications signal the opposite. It’s a small scale adventure for a small scale device.

While not overly exciting, the simple story isn’t a big concern because the meat and potatoes of the franchise are still there. Size Matters doesn’t deviate from what people love about the franchise - creative gunplay in fun environments. If you’ve played any other Ratchet & Clank game this one will be immediately familiar. If you like running, jumping, or shooting it’s all here! Things are definitely toned down a bit due to the simplicity of the hardware - there’s a level of flair you might find in other entries that the PSP isn’t able to match. So it all leads to a fun-enough, muted version of better games you’ve played elsewhere.

That said, I still find myself impressed. I’ll share deeper thoughts as I play more games on the device, but playing on original PSP hardware is a treat. Sure, I can feel the compromises, but Size Matters is still a PS2 quality game running on a tiny handheld just a few years after the larger console’s release. In fact, it’s so close to what one would expect on the PS2 that the game would eventually be ported onto the console just a year later. I may not be giving a standing ovation for what Size Matters is as a game, but that it exists at all gets a little round of applause from me.

Bonus Bits:

The Best Way to Play PSP Games in 2025

I hate to repeat my sources in back-to-back newsletters, but the timing of this post and companion video could not have come at a better time. Brendon is one of the hosts of the aforementioned podcast, and his rundown of the many ways one could get into the PSP is a helpful primer for anyone looking to do so themselves.

But before the new stuff, I’m once again failing at my first objective of this newsletter and revisiting a game I’ve already played as homework for another title in the franchise I want to get to.

Yakuza Kiwami

I originally played Yakuza Kiwami back in 2018 when I took a week off before starting a new job. In that 7-day stretch I completed the main story for both it and the just-released God of War. Pitting this remake of a 2005 off-beat brawler for the PS2 against one of Sony’s biggest releases of the year, in a franchise I grew up with, meant that Yakuza was playing second fiddle no matter how good it was. I did not put it in the best position to leave an impact especially with such a constrained time frame. So now here I am attempting to right my wrongs and get more context for the franchise before attempting to play the newer Like a Dragon titles. After having played a little over a third of the game, I can safely say 2018 me did this game dirty.

The driving force behind my enjoyment is the guy you spend all your time playing as: Kazuma Kiryu, a yakuza returning to the world after spending ten years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Despite his rough exterior and shady job, Kiryu clearly has heart. Even though he is known in the community as being the best fighter around (“the Dragon of Dojima” isn’t the kind of nickname just handed to you), he often refuses to use his fists unless absolutely necessary and it’s usually for the benefit of others rather than himself. There’s a softness to him that is drawing me in.

If I knew more about media history, I’d be able to identify if this was some kind of trope but for the sake of comparison I get a lot of John Wick vibes off of Kiryu. You simultaneously want to do everything you can to stay on his good side but also give him a hug because he’s really earned it. It’s interesting that I happened to pair this game with God of War whose protagonist, Kratos, started off as the complete antithesis of Kiryu. Originally driven purely by bloodlust, it isn’t until the reboot in 2018 that Kratos finally evens out into a more rounded character with a softer emotional core - more akin to the Yakuza hero. Ahead of his time in a way, Kiryu is a fascinating male character that I’m dying to know more about.

Accentuating Kiryu’s uniqueness is the chaos of the situation the game centers on as well as the carousel of characters he engages with. After being released from prison, Kiryu finds his clan in the midst of a power struggle. Prominent leaders have been murdered, millions of dollars are missing, and he finds himself in charge of a young child who may be tied to it all. While primarily acting as a gripping gangster thriller, something it does very well, it’s the noir mystery elements that really have me yearning for more. Although I’ve played this game before, I’ve forgotten some of the larger beats so I feel like I’m experiencing the ride for the first time. The slow reveals of what side characters were up to during Kiryu’s absence keep the story humming at a satisfying pace.

The game also sprinkles zaniness through a few side characters and the variety of optional missions. I haven’t had the opportunity to fully invest in the extras the game has to offer (it’s been difficult to pull away from the main plot) but what I have seen so far have been fun diversions that keep me on my toes. Mixing the crazy and the stoic can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable tonal mismatch, but there’s a confidence in the way Yakuza Kiwami makes its choices that brings it all together in a very distinct way.

This is the first of many in a decades long franchise, but if this is the starting point I’m excited simply imagining where it all ends up.

Bonus Bits:

Stop doing homework!

I’ve had this video in my queue for some time now, so it’s ironic that I finally watched it after starting a couple franchises from the beginning. A bit of counter-programming to what I’ve been doing here recently, the video advocates for people to start wherever in a franchise they would like to - specifically calling out the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. It’s very much my personal style to start from the beginning when possible. I do this with all forms of media because it’s fun for me to experience the chronological progression of the art and the artists. But I have to agree, find the style that’s most fun for you. These are videogames after all, and if you aren’t getting some sort of enjoyment out of it then what’s the point!

Everyone is Underestimating Mouse Mode

Nintendo FINALLY announced the successor to the Switch a couple of weeks ago. I’ve yet to put my thoughts about the announcement anywhere, and if I was more precious about SEO then I probably would have made that a priority but so it goes. This Wavelengths video doubles down on one of the aspects of the new Switch that I’m absolutely fascinated by, Mouse Mode.

The feature has yet to be officially announced, but you can see teases of it in the reveal trailer. It continues the history of Nintendo doing something out of left field to differentiate its newest consoles from the pack. It also could open the door to more PC-only and DS-era titles making their way to the handheld, the latter of which would be a big win for game preservation and availability. We’ve got two more months of speculation before we hear more at a Nintendo Direct in April, but there’s a strategy here that’s beginning to take shape.

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This is something I’ve actually been thinking about for months but kept putting off due to some internal resistance to changing my own arbitrary rules. As I reflected on the past year and considered how I wanted to spend my time in the new one, I came to accept that Saturdays are the days that I usually get my most writing done. The typical openness of the day helps my brain wander to a more creative space. This should also help me avoid the rushed mindset I’d sometimes find myself in on a Friday night. Nothing but upside, I hope!

Okay, enough operational talk, let’s get to what you came here for - video games!

Kingdom Hearts

The point of this newsletter is to get me to clear out some of my backlog, and that will sometimes require a little additional homework. Despite the original Kingdom Hearts and its sequel being some of my favorite games from my childhood, I’ve yet to play any of Kingdom Hearts III. While I was initially hyped for the game, the 14-year gap separating mainline entries (there were plenty of spinoff titles released in-between) didn’t do anything for my waning interest. A lot of life happens between ages 12 and 26 and the series just didn’t make the cut.

2025 is the year that I finally cross that game off the list. However it’s been over a decade since Dream Drop Distance, the last entry I played, and I’m a little fuzzy on the story so far. I could just watch one of those YouTube recap videos, but what’s the fun in that? So I’m planning to revisit this franchise front to back to see how it holds up starting with the 2002 original. The journey has started off both rockier and more revealing than expected.

Within the first five minutes of starting up a new game file I was hit with a nostalgia-fueled whiplash. It begins with an opening CGI cutscene that is doused in early 2000s pop sounds with a sprinkling of melodrama. It’s like an exhilarating fever dream. Initially, I found myself feeling slightly embarrassed at the idea of 10-year-old me booting up this game on my family’s shared PS2, but I immediately tossed that emotion out the window and replaced it with the pure joy I always feel whenever Hikaru Utada’s ‘Simple And Clean’ hits my eardrums. Then the gameplay starts.

As soon as I started to control lead character Sora, I noticed the cobwebs on this title. Movement simply does not feel good in the opening hours of the game. This is one of the stiffest jump mechanics I’ve experienced in recent memory. This makes traversing the first couple of worlds more difficult than it needs to be as it’s too easy to mess up a platforming section. It’s also possible to completely miss an attempted attack on an enemy in battle due to the default speed and height of the jump. It’s all just a little too wonky and makes the first part of the game a bit uncomfortable to play.

The game also has a few obtuse elements. There are choices that you must make at the beginning of the game that until watching this IGN video while writing up this piece I had no idea had any effect on the game. Perhaps foolishly, I thought that were simply meant to raise some internal curiosity for the player. All of this was much worse as a child who did not slow down to read everything and therefore missed a lot of key mechanics for a good part of the early game to the point that I remember almost bouncing off of it entirely.

All that said I’ve been enjoying this game and the spirit it embodies. Sure, some of that may come from nostalgia, but as I’ve been playing I’ve realized how influential this game was on me. Going back to the opening cinematic for example, while 31-year-old me may have felt a few seconds of embarrassment I never felt that as a kid. I likely just thought it was cool and unique. The visual of Sora floating and falling into the water is something that I still frequently see in my mind whenever I listen to certain kinds of music. The story’s somewhat broad but pure notions of light and dark, doors opening and closing, and different worlds finding common ground in the power of friendship are all ideas that I carried throughout my school years. I simply forgot where it started.

Despite the flaws, I’m excited to continue playing through the franchise, and this entry in particular. Kingdom Hearts was one of my first introductions to a more RPG-style of game and narrative, and rediscovering some of those initial feelings has been fun. I’m not expecting it to hold up to how I remember it from my childhood, but I think what I do end up getting out of the experience will be equally invigorating.

P.S. Total side tangent, but I finally published my favorite games of 2024 post over on my blog. If you’ve been reading here throughout the year you can probably guess a few of the games, but you won’t know unless you check it out.

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Thanks for following along as I kicked off this project, and I’ll see you in 2025.

Resident Evil 4

I can’t believe I started the remake of Resident Evil 4 six months ago! This was one of those games that ended up getting kicked to the side for the sake of having new games to write about in this newsletter. I’m glad to have made the time for it in December because it continued to be the horror-filled thrill ride it started out as.

Surprisingly, as with Persona 3, what stood out to me was the excellent pacing. Just like in the original, the remake uses a chapter structure evenly split (give or take a chapter or two) across three distinct locales. Each night I could spend an hour to an hour and a half fighting to recapture the President’s daughter, and walk away with some feeling of catharsis thanks to the up and down nature of the narrative. It felt like watching prestige television.

Now, I don’t remember every little detail from the 2005 original, but to my brain the remake did a great job of expanding on the story - particularly through more fulfilling interactions with Luis and Ada as well as numerous juicy clues sprinkled throughout the landscape for you to stumble on. The motives of the central enemy came across more considered and ultimately more threatening because of it. I’m not a big DLC purchaser, but Capcom weaved Ada in the game so well and teased out her whereabouts throughout the narrative that I think I’ll have to jump back into this world to play Separate Ways.

That’s really some of the highest praise that I could throw at a game. I enjoyed it enough to want to pay more to keep spending time with it. This remake proves that Resident Evil 4’s blend of horror and camp is timeless, and if you haven’t ever experienced it for yourself there’s no better time to start than now.

Carto

To avoid spending the holidays in a sad place thanks to the horrors of Resident Evil and depressing narrative of Persona, I scrolled through my earmarked titles in the PlayStation Plus catalog and picked the one with the cutest icon. Carto is a 2020 puzzle adventure game where you play as a young girl who is separated from her grandmother after a big storm. Using her cartography skills the player must put together a map of new lands you discover to make your way back home.

This was the perfect game to offset the heavier titles I was playing alongside it. Gameplay wise, Carto represents the cartography aspect of the character by having you collect missing pieces of the map and rearranging them in a way that opens new paths and reveals new characters. It reminded me a bit of my time with Arranger earlier this year with an even more calm aesthetic. This is good and simple vibes at its finest.

That also means that I haven’t run into too much of a challenge or complexity in my first few hours of the game. Depending on what you’re looking for that could be frustrating to some, but I still found each new map revelation satisfying in its own way. It’s just been nice to spend time in this world, meeting new characters, and exploring the pleasing designs.

This is one of those small titles that lives and breathes on its one main mechanic. Either it clicks with you or it doesn’t, but I’d bet more often than not everyone will find some piece of this puzzle they enjoy.

As 2024 rapidly comes to a close, I’m attempting to wrap up some of the titles that I started this year in preparation for a “Games of the Year” post while still making time to start a few new things to keep this place interesting.

Thankfully, I just hit credits on the year’s most time-consuming endeavor so a few more evenings will now be free, and the GOTY conversation just became a whole lot clearer.

Persona 3 Reload

First, a moment of personal celebration - I DID IT - Persona 3 Reload can officially be taken out of my backlog. After almost 80 hours I’ve completed my first entry in the series, and it was well worth the investment.

When I first wrote about the game a few months ago, I talked about the its calendar system and the ways in which it worked with my real life schedule. The structure of the game makes it more akin to reading a couple of chapters of a fantasy novel before bed where the player gets to dictate the level of action or drama scenes each night. The ability to choose between fighting enemies in the main dungeon of Tartarus or progressing my relationships with side characters took some of the weight off that I usually feel when playing large RPGs. There are well defined breakpoints and narrative beats that act as guide rails. They keep you moving forward while still allowing for plenty of flexibility within a given month to make the world feel more your own. Reload nails the pacing problems that typically keep me from seeing such long games through to the end.

As time went on it became clearer to me which characters I personally wanted to be invested in, and most of them have storylines with satisfying payoffs. Some of them ended up hitting pretty close to home leaving me with tears in my eyes. And with the main party members specifically, Atlus developer P-Studio cultivates a strong story of unity through a common struggle in the face of differing trauma responses. Persona 3 has such a clear perspective on its core ideas, and it’s special when a game manages to imbue that into both its gameplay and story.

It’s not perfect of course. There were a couple characters and moments that rubbed me the wrong way - some inappropriate relationships (to keep it spoiler free). The few uncomfortable situations that I could never get a read on weren’t enough to sour me on the game, but they just left me confused at their inclusion. Thankfully, those are largely avoidable if I wanted to do another playthrough, unlike the last two in-game months which lose some of the equilibrium found elsewhere. I’m of two minds here because these months contain some of my favorite story moments, putting extra gravitas on some tough choices for your team, but the focus ends up tilting more towards grinding out battles to prepare for the final boss. It’s a period of waiting, and I found myself with fewer things to do with my in-game evening. Again, not opinion altering for me, especially when I was 70 hours in at that point, but I could feel the momentum take a hit.

I’ve got plenty more personal reflections I’m still sifting through that I’ll save for a later date, but I can at least say the game’s narrative themes of death and time left an impact on me. Now that I’m done with it, there’s been a noticeable void that I’m trying to better understand. It’s difficult to outright recommend an 80-hour RPG to everyone, but I think Persona 3 Reload is something special. If you are at all curious about the franchise, I can’t think of a better starting point.

Panel de Pon

Lastly, I wanted to throw another shoutout to Panel de Pon, better known as Tetris Attack to us in America. I wrote about this one more than I expected in the last post, but it has become a daily staple in my house in the two weeks since. My wife absolutely loves this game! It’s become the 30-minute transition activity between work/school and dinner time.

I cannot throw enough praise on the competitive balance the game is able to achieve with one difficulty slider. The skill gap between my wife and I is easily closed with the introduction of one additional block color and a dialing up of the speed. It never feels like a hollow victory when she beats me, and if I want to win I have to put in some real thought and strategy into my approach. Win or lose we both tend to walk away satisfied and honestly feeling more connected. If you’ve been looking for a game to introduce to a partner, child, or friend who doesn’t typically play video games this 1995 Super Famicom title may have what you need.

I selfishly have a little call to action for you too. I’d love if you could share other people whose video game writing you enjoy. In the new year I want to include more links to others to further engage in the community, spread some of the fun, and hopefully find inspiration (and more things to add to the backlog). 2024 was about my own personal mission to get back in the groove of writing, but I want 2025 to be about extending past myself. So reach out with your suggestions here.

With that, let’s talk about rediscovering an old favorite with a slight twist.

Panel de Pon

I love to give peeks behind the curtain on how I decide what games to write about for each post. Sometimes there is some foresight - I progressed in a couple titles that will be appearing here later down the line after I’ve made more progress - but often times there’s a game that takes hold of me while I’m walking towards a totally different game. Inspired by all of the Donkey Kong Country music I’ve been consuming on the Nintendo Music app, I was planning to spend time with the actual game - something I haven’t done since I would stay at my grandfather’s house back in the late 90s. So I loaded up Nintendo Switch Online, gave the catalog a quick perusal, and all my plans were thrown out the window when I discovered it contained Panel de Pon.

Now I had never actually played Panel de Pon since it was only ever released in Japan, but a core memory of my childhood is playing the American version, Tetris Attack, with my cousins. Both were developed by Nintendo’s Intelligent Systems team, so gameplay wise the two are identical. Players are faced with a screen of rising colored blocks and are tasked with arranging them in vertical or horizontal matching sequences to make them disappear. There are the usual gameplay modes you’d expect, including a story mode, time attack and multiplayer. I don’t regularly play these kinds of puzzle games, but I still found myself in a trance that only the need for food could break. I primarily played through the Stage Clear mode which has you clearing blocks up to a designated line with the speed of play gradually increasing with the stage number. I found myself in a flow state similar to what I can get into with a game like Hades where my brain starts to operate at a speed that made previously challenging levels seem slow by comparison.

The multiplayer also stands the test of time. I don’t play many video games competitively with my wife, but I wanted to recreate those childhood memories and Panel de Pon provided the ability to make the game fun for both of us. It allows players to add a speed handicap to their respective boards so each can find the best challenging pace for themselves without sacrificing competition. There’s also a balance in the Vs. mode since you can either choose to focus on setting up combos that send garbage blocks to your opponent’s screen or just keeping your pile of blocks as low as possible. There’s a small level of strategy that’s unnecessary, but still incredibly fun.

The big difference between Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack is in the overall cosmetic package. The Japanese game features original fairy characters and settings while the American version replaces them with more familiar faces from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. I found this video that gives a thorough rundown of the differences, but fortunately the cute and whimsical aesthetic that lodged itself into my brain remains largely unchanged. The charm of the game’s design elements is undeniable. I was in my happy place admiring the beautiful background art and character designs. I’m in full-on hype man mode, but even the colors of the blocks feel locked in to just the right shades to maximize the vibe.

Acting as the cherry on top to this delectable sundae of a game is the music. There are some minor differences here between the two versions with Tetris Attack containing a few tracks based on Yoshi’s other adventures, but the core of what I remember is still in the original version. From the opening notes of the title track you know you’re in for a good time. The tracks blend an airy melody with a driving bass section that perfectly compliments the gameplay. The melodies are what manifest that blissful feeling I’ve come to associate with this game for so many years, but the thumps of the bass are the underlying motivation to clear the level quickly. Each stage track also has an additional “Critical” version that activates when you are close to losing that is equal parts exciting and terrifying.

This is one of those games that is both universally accessible and timeless. It’s also an exercise in the importance of game preservation. I feel like I rarely hear people talk about Tetris Attack, and I think that’s because the name is not really prevalent today. It’s unlikely that Tetris Attack will ever be widely available because of the use of the Tetris name. In an interview over a decade ago it was communicated that since Tetris Attack isn’t really a Tetris game that it was seen as diluting the brand. For now, the Nintendo Switch Online version of Panel de Pon is the best we’ll be able to get. But it’s a game so good I’ll gladly pull up Google Translate when I undoubtedly feel the pull to hop back in.

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Well I caved. Four years since the official launch of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, and the company finally got me to sign up because of the recently released Nintendo Music app. For what it is it’s a fine app, it plays the music, but after using it for the past week and change it’s even weirder that Nintendo decided to release it when they did.

At the time of this writing, there are only 26 game soundtracks to choose from - 9 of which are Switch games and there is only 1 GBA and Gamecube game each. Knowing Nintendo’s rich catalog of music it feels criminal to have such a limited selection at launch. I can’t imagine any other service launching like this, but considering the rollout of Nintendo’s various iterations of Virtual Console over the last two decades I doubt they thought twice about it. So far, they’ve added a new game once a week, so hopefully that cadence continues, but I’ll likely have to wait until 2026 to make a rotating playlist of every version of Animal Crossing’s “7:00 AM”.

I have a couple other minor gripes that are simply inconvenient. First, it’s just a phone app. I’m most likely to use this app during my work day or when I’m writing, so to have a Mac or even a web app would be great. The second issue may just be a bug or truly a concoction of my own neurosis, but on the iPhone Lock Screen the track preview does not help you identify what game each song is from. Sure I’m listening to “Forest Interlude (Web Woods)”, but is that from Donkey Kong Country or Diddy’s Kong Quest? Each track is also given its own preview image instead of the game’s cover causing further confusion. Sure it’s not a huge problem now, but if they’re expecting me to be able to distinguish between screenshots of Nintendogs and Nintendogs + Cats we’re all going to be left disappointed. Lastly, I would love for the app to include more information about the composers. It’s a missed opportunity to celebrate and expand the reach of the creative minds behind the work that has lodged itself into our brains for years now.

I only complain because I think this app could be something special. It could be a tool that helps to further build up and shine a light on one of the aspects of gaming that tends to get lost to history. There’s a lot of great potential here, and you can already see that the team behind it has some great ideas in this first version. The feature of extending certain tracks to loop for 30 or 60 minutes has been great for my productivity this week. There’s also the ability to add a game to a list so that you don’t inadvertently stumble across spoilers in a track’s title. If you are into video game music there’s a lot to be excited about with this app, I just hope Nintendo continues to feel the same way.

Dredge

I actually started playing Dredge around the same time that I started Dead Space. I thought its seemingly more low-key but still creepy vibe would be a nice compliment to the intensity of Dead Space. The balance was definitely there, but the opening moments of the game were a bit too understated to keep my interest for very long.

In the game, you have recently taken on the job of local fisherman in the coastal town Greater Marrow. Upon arrival, you quickly understand that this isn’t just a normal job, and the town is plagued by some sort of Cthulu-esque force. From there, everything is loosely held together, and it is up to you to pull on the threads. Your initial task is simply to fish in order to make upgrades to your small boat which in turn allow you to travel farther out at sea. Along the way, you meet spooky town folk who are supposed to give you cause to go to a new island to do some further exploration. Unfortunately, the bread crumbs of story bits that you get come at such a glacial pace and the starting state of your ship is in such disrepair that it was difficult to stay motivated in the early stages of the game.

To be fair to Dredge I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with the way that the game is constructed - satisfaction can be found in the central gameplay loop and I think it’s one that is fairly common in other video games that I also enjoy. My suspicion is that it just isn’t the kind of game that fits well in the structure I’ve created in order to have something to write every couple of weeks. I tend to pick a couple games from a list and bounce between them, attempting to get a few hours deep, in the lead up to one of these posts. But there’s a big Persona-sized elephant in the room that tends to pull my attention away lately, and I found it difficult to actively choose to settle in for something as slow-paced as Dredge. For me at least, the game is better suited in a more longtail slot of my lineup. Pacing this out across months as opposed to weeks like I’ve tried to do feels like a more natural fit to its design.

This may not be for me right now, but I’ll say that if you are looking for a cozy game with some edge Dredge is worth checking out. The vibes are immaculate with this one. You just have to make sure it’s the vibe you’re looking for.

Actually wait, pause.

Nintendo Music

Can you believe for the second time in a month Nintendo announced a new product that wasn’t the Switch successor? First Alarmo, and now Nintendo Music!? I’m know some people hate that they keep doing this, but I find it so funny and whimsical. I wrote a bit about how much I love this side of Nintendo over on my personal blog - they are driving in their own lane and that’s what makes them feel special.

Personally I also find it smart business strategy - differentiation keeps them present in our mind particularly in the lead up to a noisy holiday season. I’ve thought about finally getting Nintendo Switch Online just for the chance of getting Alarmo, and as I sit here and type I think it’d be great if I could be jamming out to the Wii Shop Channel music looping for an hour instead of my usual writing playlist. I don’t have much need for another games catalog since I already have PlayStation Plus, but Nintendo Music fills a need that I have. It’s also tailored to me, someone who has produced multiple video game music centric podcast episodes in the past and always desires more spotlight on that side of a video game. I don’t need much of an excuse to talk about Tim and Geoff Follin’s Silver Surfer music, but I’ll gladly take one.

Okay, sorry I’m done, now let’s get into it.

Dead Space (2023)

Speaking of PlayStation Plus, the 2023 remake of Dead Space was added to the service to coincide with the spooky season, and as a fan of the original I’d been wanting to check it out for some time. Just like with the remake of Resident Evil 4 that I started earlier this year, I’ve found the early half of Dead Space to be an enjoyable remake of something I loved in the past, but unlike the former the game feels much more 2000s than 2020s.

I have to give credit to my wife for that last line. As I was playing the game with her beside me she asked “What is this game called?” as she routinely does. I told her and she chirped “Is this an old game? Feels like it’s from 2007.” I had to pause the game - the comment was spot on. Her explanation was that the vibe just felt old, something about the way the jump scares were constructed felt unmodern. “Zombies are outdated.” Terminology aside, there is something inherently Xbox 360-era about Dead Space. Despite some of the updates in this remake, the design of the menus, the Point A to B to C fetch quest structure, and the brown-green hues timestamp this game more than anything else. Isolated those elements could be seen as issues, but together they create a B-movie style package with rough edges that can be appreciated in contrast to its glossier counterparts like Resident Evil 4.

Quick summary of what Dead Space is all about in case you aren’t aware. You play as Issac Clarke, an engineer whose crew crashes onto a mining spaceship that has been overrun by Necromorphs. You must navigate through the craft searching for a method of escape while hopefully finding your girlfriend and answers along the way. While some aspects of the game feel dated, the central combat mechanic is timeless. The “gun” you begin with, the Plasma Cutter, is an all-time video game weapon up there with Half-Life’s Gravity Gun. It’s one of the only times I can recall wanting to stick with a game’s starter pistol in most situations. The fact that you can now visually see, thanks to the updated graphics, the flesh of the Necromorphs deteriorate with each successful hit makes the combat feel all the more satisfying. It isn’t the most powerful, but it gives a sense of control and efficiency amongst the expanding dangers of the game. In my opinion it strikes the perfect balance for a survival horror game - if you can calm your own emotional frenzy there’s no better defense against your opponents, but as your panic increases so does the risk of death.

This adds to a game that is still extremely effective in crafting a mood. As you may recall, last edition I mentioned being too overcome with dread to make enough progress to write about a certain game - that was Dead Space. Outside of the session where my wife was watching I mainly played this at night with headphones on leading to an amplified experience. The audio design is something that can get lost in muddled TV speakers, but with headphones you can’t escape the layers of whispered voices as Isaac loses some of his mental stability or the lack of sound in the lonesome vacuum of space.

It was the latter idea that really got me during this playthrough. Issac feels so alone, unprepared, and underpowered - you can’t help but feel for the guy. He isn’t a trained professional like Leon who feels confident enough to crack jokes to add levity to a dour situation. Isaac is just a guy in a bad situation that he isn’t equipped to escape from. In order to see another day, he’s forced to dismember already deformed bodies. He gets no moments of respite and neither does the player unless they turn off the game.

Dead Space is a grimy, messy, and jagged experience in the best way possible. It creates a dreadful and overwhelming situation while equipping you in a way that keeps the gameplay aspect of it fun but terrifying. I’d be hard-pressed to find a more suitable game for the spooky season.

In an effort to embrace the Halloween spirit I’ve started/continued through a couple horror games this week. However, I’m finding myself surprisingly resistant to playing them for too long. I play for about an hour at a time before the dread becomes too much and I need to switch to something else. So you’ll have to wait until the next edition of this newsletter to hear more about my experience with those. For now, two games in particular have been acting as my safe haven from the gore and terror of the spooky season.

The Plucky Squire | The Pen is Mightier

The Plucky Squire, developed by All Possible Futures, was recently added to the PlayStation Plus game catalog, and I downloaded it without much information to go off of. I was sucked in by the beautiful storybook animation and cheery colors that signaled the kind of emotional reprieve I was yearning for after a couple hours of avoiding space zombies. No false advertising here, this is exactly what it says on the tin.

You play as Jot, the hero of the in-game book The Plucky Squire. He’s known to routinely save the day, so when you are tasked with retrieving bee’s wax from a sunglass-wearing honeybee for your wizard friend’s vinyl it seems like just another day on the job. But when the evil sorcerer Humgrump (an absolutely perfect villain name) finds a version of the book you inhabit he starts to alter the narrative for his personal gain and throws you out into the real world. You are tasked with navigating both the 2D and 3D realms to set your story straight.

As you can gather from the description, the story is loaded with character and full of fun meta moments. The wizard is DJ’ing when you are first introduced to him, the enemies are round and cute in their own way, and your sword is the tip of a fountain pen. It would fit right in on any small child’s bookshelf.

In the opening hours the moment-to-moment gameplay is reminiscent of an early top-down Zelda entry - simple directional exploration with light, somewhat repetitive, swordplay. A few additional abilities are thrown in to shake things up, but none feel all too necessary to press forward. But it’s the clever use of the story book structure that keeps things fresh. With the aforementioned ejection into the 3D space, Jot’s adventure becomes more akin to Little Nightmares minus the Tim Burton energy. You make use of common desk objects to solve environmental puzzles all while avoiding the beetles that the owner of your book apparently lets roam free in their room. Eventually, you are granted the ability to switch between the 2D and 3D spaces for an added twist. But the best feature is Jot’s ability to manipulate the storybook’s text to his advantage. Shrink objects, fill moats, and clear passages all with the swap of a few nouns and adjectives. So far in the early game most answers are pretty clear, so this isn’t something to play if you are looking for a real head scratcher. Still, it’s a joy to discover what all you can mix and match, and it inspires creative exploration.

The Plucky Squire occupies the same lane as Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It’s the kind of game that could easily be shared with someone younger, but has enough charm and solid foundation to continue to be enjoyable at my age as well. It’s been a nice getaway from some of the darker games I’m playing this Halloween season. Going through a chapter in-game is like reading a bedtime story as a kid, and there’s a sense of wonder here that is more typically found inside a Nintendo game.

Ultimately, there isn’t a lot of challenge to be found - at least from what I’ve played so far - but there’s more than enough stylistic flair to make up for it. This is fulfilling the role I needed from it these past couple weeks - to be the sunbeam amongst the grim games I’ve otherwise been occupied with. I’m not asking for much else.

Funnily, I found enough challenge in an unexpected game this past week.

College Football 25 | The Opening Drive

This is the first football sports game that I’ve played in some time. Growing up it was something that was always around, and I have the most fond memories of the NCAA Football series. From mascot games with my little brother to the full-on roleplaying mechanics of the 2007 edition where I took actual tests for points it just hit different.

I’ve always been fairly good at these games. Not great, mind you, but good enough that I could hop into a game and give most of my friends and family a decent competition. It always helped that the general mechanics of the game didn’t change very much - constantly sprint to rush the passer, tackle is tackle, etc. Well, I can’t say that anymore. I have no idea if I’ve gotten significantly worse at this kind of game or if they’ve just become much more complex in the years since I last played, but I’m bad y’all.

When I booted up the game for the first time earlier this week, I immediately jumped into a recreation of this past weekend’s Red River Rivalry game with the hopes of replicating the beat down my alma mater put on Oklahoma (TEXAS FIGHT!). Within two minutes of in-game time I threw a pick-6, fumbled the ball, and failed to record a single tackle that wasn’t performed by a computer-controlled player. I felt as overwhelmed as my wife must have felt the first time I played Overcooked with her. There were so many icons of different colors whizzing across the screen. When I scanned the top half of the screen for an open man I’d get demolished by a linebacker on the bottom half of the screen. Everything was moving at a speed I couldn’t acclimate to.

Humbled, I backed out and loaded up the Open Practice mode in an attempt to get my bearings. I ran the same play over and over to get a sense of the timing of a throw. I dove into the control menus and discovered there are now two types of basic tackles one can perform - this is before considering things like the Hit Stick - and there are now sub-menus for defensive actions alone. Folks, we’re using words like “Strafe” in virtual football now - the game done changed.

Now I’m torn if that change has been for the better. On one hand, my memories of running up the score against my computer opponent seem destined to stay in the past. This isn’t the kind of game I can share with a newbie and they immediately be able to compete. There’s a barrier to entry that I’m not sure I love. But on the other hand, I can already feel myself getting better and changing the way I think about not just this video game but the game of football after a handful of exhibition matches. Player positioning, wear and tear, and stadium atmosphere all have some modicum of impact on the outcome of a particular drive. I’m no longer just selecting the first defensive play suggested for me, but considering the down and distance and the benefits of choosing a zone or man coverage in a given situation. I still don’t know which to choose, but at least I’m thinking about it now!

As I said I’ve only played a few quick play games, but there are a couple more game types to explore. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve experienced so far - I haven’t said much about it but the attention to detail for the atmosphere of the game is incredibly fun to see too - enough to attempt to dive into those deeper modes. At least initially, I’ve found the experience of learning the new systems enjoyable, but I’m curious how long that will last. Is there a place in my gaming life for a sports game that requires from me the kind of tactility I typically associate with a fighting game? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to lace up the cleats to find out.

Persona 3 Reload | Tick...Tock...

Persona 3 is the real deal. In the same way the game reinforces structure and routine in its systems, it has become a part of my own these past two weeks. As I try and maintain a balance of my hobbies and relationships, the amount of time I can dedicate to video games shifts week-to-week and even day-to-day. Sometimes I’ve got a couple of hours to sit back with a game, but then other days it’s just a quick thirty minutes before I have to head out the door to some previously scheduled activity. What has most surprised me about Persona 3 is its ability to fit into both scenarios. The calendar system encourages me to boot up the game even if I only have time to do a day or two’s worth of activities. The growth of relationships or inflation of my bank account in conjunction with the forward progress into the next in-game day maintains a persistent sense of progress. The system makes me feel like these small steps are worth taking and will add up to something big in time. For a game that can go for 80+ hours this is a huge deal!

Last newsletter I mentioned how I found myself planning my in-game activities based on my schedule, but my mindset around the game has shifted. There’s no plan necessary. Like in life there are these large goals - climb to the top of Tartarus, get into graduate school, cure the Apathy Syndrome plaguing your town, get a promotion, etc - but you don’t achieve those goals in one night. Sure you can cram for a test, but there’s a limit to the amount of information you can intake in one day. In Persona, you can study every night the week before exams, but your Academics stat isn’t going to max out in just a few days. It forces a macro-level mentality. I’ve embraced the idea that I can hop in to study in the afternoon and work at the local coffee shop for the night and that those choices are bringing me one step closer to purchasing that new weapon or flying through exam week. It’s the small actions that lead to big results.

The smartest thing the game has done has been to introduce breaks in how far you can get in Tartarus at a time. Some may groan, but it reminds me a bit of my experience with therapy. I chip away at a problem, trying to find the balance between pushing myself too far - leading to some sort of regression - and stretching just past my abilities to get a bit stronger. At some point I master the tools needed for the current situation, and go out and live life. Until one day the landscape changes enough that I become aware of new issues that I’ve got to address. It’s a smart way to pace the game out and get players to engage with all elements of the virtual life they’ve set up.

My understanding is I’m about a quarter of the way through the game now, so for fear of spoiling too much I’ll try to avoid bringing this up again until the end of year. But if you’ve ever been curious about the Persona series this one is worth a shot.

Balatro | Just One More Round

Balatro was released for iOS and Apple Arcade last week, and I have found myself incapable of not playing it every day. I initially got a trial of Apple Arcade to see how the gameplay translated and if it made sense for me on mobile, but after one run turned into an hour and a half long play session I just dropped the $10 to buy it outright. iOS’s touch-first interface translates without a hiccup, and once I got used to it I’ve grown to prefer it over how I was playing on the Switch (the Switch version supports touch controls - I just never used them). It’s unlocked a new sense of speed and flow that wasn’t present when buttons were a part of the action.

While Persona has taken up the 30 minute to 2 hour long gaming slots I have, Balatro (aside from the accidental hour long runs) has found a perfect place in the 5-15 minute range. It’s been the go-to between meetings or before I transition into some other block of focused work. The sequence of three rounds to an ante, eight antes to a run, means that there are plenty of natural break points to get back to what I was doing before. Honestly, the most frustrating part of the experience is making sure I stop to do something else, but even that is mitigated by the fact that it is so easy to put away my phone. I have on more than one occasion just had to hit the power button on my phone to break the spell, but it’s always reassuring to know it’ll load back up right where I was. Playing on the Switch has been nice, but to be able to have this on the device that’s always with me is a game changer. The older I get the more obvious it becomes that, if technically possible, games should meet people where they are. We shouldn’t have to work around them, rather it should be vice versa.

This was already going to be on whatever end of the year list I end up making, but after the past week plus with it on iOS it’s gunning for the top. To developer LocalThunk I just have to say, no apologies necessary.

I’m no stranger to the Persona series. My first introduction was with Persona 4 Golden on the PS Vita back in college. A few gaming podcasts I was listening to at the time were raving about it, so I had to dive in. I didn’t see it through to completion (I’ve made my history with turn-based RPGs clear by now), but I still enjoyed my time with it especially in that form factor. By the time Persona 5 came out on the PlayStation 3/4 in 2017, I was out of school and trying to find my rhythms as a post-grad. Unfortunately, a game as time consuming as that one didn’t really make its way into my routine despite playing a few hours of it. I then bought the extended version, Persona 5 Royal, for the Nintendo Switch thinking that the lack of portability was the reason Persona 5 didn’t stick around. I’ve yet to boot it up.

So naturally, what do I do when I see people talking about Persona 3: Reload - a Persona 5-style remake of a PS2 game I somehow own but have never played? Well, I buy it with grand dreams of this being the one that clicks with me and seeing it through to the end. Did you even need to ask?

If you’ve never played or heard of a Persona game, to put it simply, it’s sort of a mix between Pokémon, a visual novel, and a dating sim. In Reload, as in the original, you take on the role of a high-school student who has recently moved to the Japanese city of Tatsumi Port Island. Days after your arrival you are recruited by a group of fellow students known as the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES for short, after they discover that you are immune to the affects of the Dark Hour, an alternate state of time and place that occurs at midnight every night. You and the group are tasked with exploring Tartarus, a tower that only appears during the Dark Hour, to find out more about the Apathy Syndrome affecting the town’s residents.

When it’s written all out like that, it sounds like a lot to keep track of, but in reality the game gets through that set up fairly quickly. I might even argue a little too quickly, as the why behind everything I’m doing hasn’t really set in after the first handful of hours. When compared to Persona 4’s murder mystery setup or Persona 5’s creepy teacher take down in the opening dungeon there’s more reliance on vibe and the initial party members to get you invested. I’m not too concerned about this, at least right now, as I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of this title. There’s still a lot of game left.

The positive spin on the opening is that I felt like it immediately introduced me to the central mechanics of the game. Within an hour or two I was already establishing social links and exploring Tartarus for the first time. Creating new relationships early in the game keeps the sense of progression consistent making the opening hours easy to get into. I’ve also enjoyed a majority of the characters that I’ve met so far. There are a couple that feel one note right now, but from my experience and understanding these characters have the potential to open up. I find the sense of mystery and anticipation around getting to know each one exciting.

The other side of the gameplay coin is the aforementioned Tartarus. Every day, you have a few options of how to spend your evening. Hanging out with friends, working around town, studying, and more. Tartarus is just one of those options, but it’s the one you need to make progress on. My opinion on this part of the game has flipped multiple times during the opening hours. Sometimes, it feels repetitive. The floors all look the same, so it’s not visually interesting to explore. It can also feel a little tedious since the early battles aren’t too complex. You quickly get an understanding of the enemies weaknesses’ and just spam those attacks. I’ve yet to face a real challenge in Tartarus. But once I treated this part of the game as just another way to spend an in-game evening I started to plan my sessions with the game a little differently. Some days I would just spend an hour building relationships around town, and then other days I’d dedicate the evening to progressing in Tartarus with an podcast on in the background.

This has echoed how Reload itself frames these different elements of the game. Persona 3 was the first entry in the series to introduce a calendar system. Like I mentioned before, each day you have the option to choose how you spend your time. There are a few guardrails in the opening hours as it introduces the mechanics to you, but for the most part you get to decide how and with whom you spend your time. If you don’t like a certain side character, you could choose to mostly ignore them. You don’t have to go to Tartarus every night, you can do it in chunks that make it more palatable and fun for you.

Finding the rhythm that works best for me in my day-to-day is exactly why I feel good about my chances of getting to the late game of Persona 3: Reload. I’m trying not to rush through this one - just going at the pace that feels good in the moment. That idea of choosing how you spend your time wisely is front of mind with Reload. It’s meeting me where I’m at, and I’m all the more grateful for it.

Super Mario Sunshine

After wrapping up Into the Aether’s gargantuan podcast running through the library of the GameCube, I was surprised by the somewhat muted response they had to Super Mario Sunshine. So I decided to revisit the title myself as part of the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection released a couple years back on the Switch. After playing a few hours of the game, I understand why this wouldn’t be topping anyone’s Mario or GameCube list.

The game starts off in such an odd way. Mario, Peach, and some Toads are taking a vacation to Isle Delfino. Upon landing, they immediately discover someone has been terrorizing the island residents by covering their land with a paint-like goop. Mario is framed by a mystery character for the crime and sentenced to clean up the mess with the assistance of FLUDD, the other character gracing the game’s cover. This opening includes voice-acting from every character aside from Mario, who is put in a Saiyan-like food trace after seeing an image of seafood. There is also a court room sequence that seemingly takes place in an endless despairing void.

I’ve dabbled in almost every 3D Mario game at this point, and this opening feels completely separate from what I’ve played before. To some degree, I can understand why. This was only the 2nd 3D entry at the time, and the developers don’t seem to have everything locked down in terms of setting up the action. In comparison to the other two games included in this collection it feels like the weird middle-child that it is. It lacks the simplicity and right-into-the-action nature of Super Mario 64, but can’t quite attain the gravitas that Super Mario Galaxy was able to achieve on the low-powered Wii. It comes across as just sort of silly.

But the real question is, how does it play? Well...also sort of off. I don’t know if it’s the Switch port, but controlling Mario doesn’t feel as natural as it usually does. I’ve read some reports that this is just how Sunshine handles, but my memories from being 10-years-old don’t hold up well enough for me to confirm or deny this (if you have any experience let me know). Initially, I thought it was due to the inclusion of FLUDD as a primary method of gameplay. Having the talking nozzle be mandatory for the majority of the game totally changes how Mario controls and how you navigate levels. This is something they haven’t done in any other Mario entry. Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey is the closest proxy, but I would argue that Cappy is often used to extend Mario’s existing abilities (i.e giving him an additional platform to jump off of) or completely changing how you engage with the level for a short-burst, focused on one particular challenge. FLUDD changes the foundational method of movement in the game and makes this feel less like a Mario title.

I’m going to keep giving this one a try in the hopes that I get used to the controls - maybe this is all an issue of comfortability with the new skillset. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it has been an uphill battle so far.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

I used to be a fiend for Sony’s lineup of mascot games in the PlayStation 2 era. Jak, Sly, Ratchet and all of their sidekicks got me through many childhood weekends. Apart from some spinoffs, and fourth entries that didn’t quite have the push the original trilogies did, Sony left these crews behind with the PS2. That is, except for Ratchet and Clank. Somehow the duo persisted rather strongly in the PS3 generation with 4 main entries in their Future saga, and a couple of spinoff games to round it out. They even made an appearance on the PS4 with a remake of the original to coincide with their very own movie. The team has remained in the zeitgeist in a rather surprising way. Sony apparently sees something in them, so in order to show off the PlayStation 5’s graphical fidelity and quick load times the company leaned on these guys once again with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Although I’ve usually enjoyed each entry, the Ratchet & Clank series was always my least favorite of the three mascot franchises. The gameplay never felt quite as diverse as the others. The Jak series had a certain edge to it, Sly made stealth actually fun, but Ratchet was serving up shooting gameplay that I felt I could get elsewhere, albeit with a pretty humorous shine to it. Rift Apart continues that trend, but my perception of it has changed some. There’s an amount of wonder and adventure that isn’t as common now as it was when Sony was leading with three mascot teams. In a sea of dour first-party titles, Ratchet & Clank’s sense of humor now feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s definitely aimed more towards the adolescent crowd, but there’s a certain charm to it if you come to it in the right headspace. In terms of gameplay not much has changed. Minute-to-minute it can sometimes feel stuck in the past, but for me at least it’s been kind of comforting. Running through stages and trying every gun varietal the game has to offer has been a nice treat. Not one I can take a lot of at one time but good for small doses.

That sense of wonder is especially present in the look of the game. It makes total sense that an animated film was made of this franchise, the character and world designs were made for it. Rift Apart feels like I’ve been placed in the middle of a movie. The weaponry also benefits from the added visual flair. Sometimes I find myself choosing a particular weapon just to see the specific shade of red one of the beams has again. All of this combined perfectly captures a Disney/Dreamworks-esque energy.

I’m sure that my opinion so far has been colored by my nostalgia for the era of gaming that Ratchet & Clank is grounded in. I get the impression that the calories in this game are a bit empty, and there’s the possibility that this is a little too simple or kiddie for some. But truthfully I’m almost looking for something to complain about. So I’ll say this: I’m smiling and giggling more often than not when the controller is in my hand, and that goes a long way nowadays.

When I wrote about returning to Uncharted 4 a few weeks back, I had noted that although Nathan's story had seemingly ended I was looking forward to how Naughty Dog would expand upon the universe they had spent a decade plus building. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is that extension, and it proves there is still treasure to be found in this franchise.

This time around you’re in control of Chloe Frazer, a standout character from the second game, with Nadine Ross from A Thief’s End tagging along as your main companion. The two are on a hunt through the mountains of India for the Tusk of Ganesh while trying to stay one step ahead of Asav, a warlord leading an insurgent group against the country’s government.

If I’m being honest some of the details of the plot were lost on me. It’s not that it isn’t good - it’s solid B-tier action movie fare - but the main attraction for me was getting to know two characters that were previously on the periphery. Chloe’s archetype will be most familiar to those who have gone on adventures with Nathan, but her sarcasm and edge are enough to make her feel distinct. Yet, it’s by setting the game in India that Naughty Dog gets the most out of the character. Chloe’s relationship to the central location helps to bring the game’s theme of legacy to the forefront both on the micro and macro sense. There’s a motivational pain just beneath the surface that I couldn’t help but root for her to get through.

I also enjoyed watching her bounce off of Nadine who is, in my opinion, the more interesting of the two due to the fact that she’s so different from the usual protagonists of the franchise. Her tough external demeanor makes it all the more sweet as you watch her walls slowly break down across the course of the game. It’s the performance by Laura Bailey that makes this character pop out and grab you.

All of this is built on the same solid foundation found in Uncharted 4. If you enjoyed the gameplay of that title or any of the previous entries you’re bound to enjoy this one. But there are a few differences worth calling out. First is a new lock-picking mechanic that’s a fun way to break up the more frantic gameplay at first, but in moments where you have to crack open a storage container to take down an enemy vehicle in the middle of a fight is when it really clicked for me. Alternatively, the game essentially gets rid of the crate dragging mechanic used to reach a higher point in the environment. I hadn’t realized how tedious they could be, but felt it the few times it showed up early on.

There’s also an expanded chapter in the game that is more open world than you’d expect in an Uncharted title. It’s an experiment that exposes some of the game’s design limitations. You end up riding around a large monotonous brown-red landscape that has no incentives for exploration in order to get to three extremely similar towers. It was the one part of the game that I could feel it losing my interest.

Otherwise the game makes great use of its shorter run time (it’s about half the length of Uncharted 4). As someone who has been trying to play more games for fun and to write about, having a shorter entry in this style of game was great, but it did leave me wanting just a bit more. As I said before, I liked Chloe and Nadine as the new protagonists, but the shorter runtime leads to some personal growth moments in-game coming quicker than you would normally expect. And while the game engages with some of the nuance of these characters, you can tell there are complexities that have to be left unexplored in order to wrap up on time.

After my time with The Lost Legacy I would be more than happy to continue to dive into those ideas with these characters. I’m not sure if Naughty Dog even desires to return to this world or if these AA entries into their exclusive franchises was a one-off Sony initiative, but I’d love to see more offshoots like this. Using the engaging template of the Uncharted franchise to write character dramas is right up my alley. And I think you’ll find it worth your time too

Instead, this week I’ve spent some time thinking about how this newsletter fits into my writing routine. Minus the couple of weeks that I’ve been out of the country I’ve managed to publish a newsletter on a fairly consistent basis since February. That may not seem like much to some, but it’s helped me develop a writing habit that I’ve been content with.

In fact, this newsletter helped push me to finally start my own personal blog - something I’ve wanted to do for years but always put off. With that came the struggle of choosing what to use my limited free time on - video games and this newsletter or one of the other myriad things I’m interested in. As soon as that struggle began to manifest an ounce of anxiety I knew something was off. I don’t want to force myself to play a new game for an hour or two just hoping it inspires me to write that week, so I’ve decided to make this newsletter a bi-weekly event. Meaning after this entry you can expect the next one to drop on August 24th, followed by another on September 7th and so on.

My hope is that this leads to more enjoyment of the games I am playing, a more thoughtful approach to my writing, more posting on my main site, and more time to read and discover other writers (reach out with any suggestions!). My aim is to keep writing with the same consistency, but have it take new shape.

Anyway, thanks for reading all that! Now, I can’t leave you without at least a little gaming content, let’s get into a quick news round up from the past couple weeks.

Bonus Bits:

Game Informer is Shutting Down

This one cut deep. Game Informer was my magazine of choice growing up - I just got rid of the dozens of issues that I still had lying around and it was a wonderful trip down gamings memory lane. The covers were always my favorite part with their beautiful art spreading to the back of the magazine as well. Thanks for the memories!

Bungie Layoffs

Listen, I know there are nuances to every situation. As a data guy in my day job, I also get that the economics make it clear that certain actions are “best for business”. But it’s tough to not get worked up when you read about the CEO’s actions and then compare that to the late Satoru Iwata.

Balatro 2025 Gameplay Update

To end on a good note one of the best games of 2024, Balatro, is getting a big and free update in 2025! I have continued to lose hours to this game since I first wrote about it a few months ago. It’s the perfect Switch companion, and I’m excited to see the ways developer LocalThunk expands the game’s potential strategies.

See ya in two weeks!

Last week, I took a visit to my hometown for my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday!), and with that came the opportunity to sift through some of my old game collection. My dad was smart and generous because instead of letting us sell our consoles and games to GameStop for pennies, he bought them back from us. Maybe that’s the foresight that age brings. One of those titles was Guitar Hero II complete with a pristine guitar controller.

I have been clicking and clacking away at the plastic instrument all week, and let me tell ya, this game still rips! I’ve found playing through a song or two to be a great post-work transition activity every day. It’s been soothing playing through the chorus of Beast and the Harlot - getting in the flow of the music - which I hadn’t expected. The team at Harmonix nailed the design of the note grids for the list of songs. There’s a variety in the patterns that always keeps it feeling fresh, and makes it easy to get lost in the game.

Guitar Hero II has brought a wave of nostalgia crashing down on me. When the original games came out in 2005-06 it was my first extended exposure to this type of music. Tejano, hip-hop, and whatever Disney Channel pushed was what typically graced my ears. I’m sure I’d heard some of these tracks on the radio or in a movie prior, but struggling through a particular section of a song within the game gave me the opportunity to get more familiar with the nuances of the music in a way I hadn’t before. As I’ve progressed through the game’s career mode, I’ve been delighted by a feeling reminiscent of going through my middle school iPod on shuffle.

But to remove those goggles and sit in the present for a second, it’s difficult to ignore that these are covers. I’m sorry Wavegroup Sound, but you are not Kurt Cobain. It never bothered me during gameplay, especially for songs or bands that I don’t listen to as often anymore, but I’ve heard enough Dave Grohl at this point to tell when it’s the real guy.

The games aren’t the only thing to have aged either. There were a couple times where I found myself needing to do some wrist warm-ups just to get through my first track. Granted, I am playing on expert (because I’m cool like that), but not many games require me to do a five-minute stretch routine. That’s not a knock against the game at all - I suppose it’s more aimed at the ever-decaying human body.

Guitar Hero II is one of those games that I don’t think will ever truly get old for me. As someone who doesn’t know how to play guitar, it continues to be an engaging way to experience this kind of music. Unlike when I was thirteen, I found myself considering learning the actual instrument. Like I mentioned earlier, there was just something about getting lost in the music. We’ll see how that turns out...but I did just hear about Clone Hero.

This week I took a break from AAA titles to try the debut of a new indie developer and a new mobile phone roguelike. I thought I was in for a lite bite with each but found the hours of the week quickly whittling away.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

Thanks to its charming aesthetic and an interesting take on movement, Arranger was one of the titles I had earmarked coming out of Summer Game Fest. In it you play as Jemma, a young girl venturing out from her home into the surrounding wilderness. The kicker is that Jemma’s movements are on a grid-based landscape, and as she moves so do objects in the same row or column as her.

I’m still early on, but the game has already given me plenty of “Aha!” moments. The developer, Furniture & Mattress, have managed to strike the perfect balance of easy and difficult. The structure of the game’s puzzles have a real carrot-on-a-stick energy that propels you to play far longer than you planned to - something I’ve personally paid for in early morning grogginess this week.

The team have also clearly had a lot of fun with the visual language of the game. They are able to create a sense of atmosphere and place even from the confines of their sometimes distant top-down perspective. The opening sequence of the game is a refreshing bit of storytelling combined with tutorial. It was also a stroke of genius to make Jemma’s method of movement part of the story. It leads to extra affection towards our character as she faces rejection for something outside of her control.

So far, Arranger has given me exactly what I wanted after I saw that first trailer a few weeks back. If you’re a puzzle fan this is one worth checking out.

Guncho

While Arranger had already been on my radar at the beginning of the week, Guncho completely blindsided me. Someone shared an article on Mastodon referencing this game and after reading “tactical wild west shooter-roguelike” on the website it was an instant download.

I’m playing this on my iPhone and it’s been the perfect lunch break companion. You play as the titular Guncho tasked with shooting your way through a series of randomly-generated levels. All of the action takes place on a hexagonal grid where the name of the game is positioning. You have six shots in your revolver to start with, but every movement causes the gun barrel to rotate - potentially throwing off the angle you had to take down an enemy. You have to work to stay one step ahead. As you progress through the stages you can choose from ammunition types or new abilities that will alter how you engage with the environment and your attackers.

Games like this are catnip for me! This was originally meant to be a 10-minute break type game, but quickly mandated a lengthier 30-minute break. As time passes and I rack up losses I can feel myself thinking through the game’s presented scenarios faster and more strategically. That sense of internal progression is what always gets me hooked on these kinds of games. I just completed my first run last night, but I’ll tell you right now it won’t be my last.