People, not profits. A simple but evocative slogan that’s deservedly turned into its own confident campaign. It’s easy to get behind. I like it.

But I’d like to offer a slight variation: People equals profits. Take care of your people, and the profits will come. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, should think about that advice.

Epic Games (Fortnite, Unreal Engine) laid off 1,000 people. The reason for the layoffs: Epic is spending more than its earning because Fortnite is making less money.

These vacuous layoffs clearly fall on Tim Sweeney. He wanted to poke all the bears. He launched the now-struggling Epic Game Store to compete with Steam. He wanted to take down Apple and Google’s cut of sales in their app stores. He’s now pursuing Roblox’s user-generated content model within Fortnite. No better time to pursue these self-righteous battles than when the Fortnite cash is rolling in, right?

I wonder what it would be like if Epic used the oodles of Fortnite money to take care of the people who made it successful. I don’t mean adding things like ping-pong tables, swimming pools, or a Taco Bell. I mean more laborers to shoulder the burden of keeping Fortnite relevant well past the time it should have.

The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon has 25 writers and 24 producers for an almost nightly hour-long show. It’s probably still not enough writers and producers. Fortnite is a live-service game; it’s open 24/7. You need as many brains as possible to keep the ideas fresh, guide the game forward, and then you need the hands to put it into action.

Tim Sweeney says “What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.”

Translation: Make the same number of bricks, without straw—and fewer people.

Somewhere along the way, the Fortnite team developed ideas to connect seasons through a story, map changes, live events, and more. That doesn’t happen if it weren’t for the brains already working that operation.

If Fortnite’s going to do that, for an even bigger audience once mobile comes back, wouldn’t one think you need more people, not less?

Tim said they’re spending more money than they’re making.

Companies and services like Netflix, Uber, Xbox Game Pass, Zillow, and Amazon take losses all the time before earning any profits—some still aren’t.

Tim wrote in his layoff letter: “Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”

Sweeney couldn’t wait a few more years for the mobile money to kick in, apparently. He just now figured out the magic couldn’t be consistent; it’s ridiculous he thought it ever could be. He started his pet projects on the defective thought that Fortnite money would keep rolling in—seemingly funded only by Fortnite’s bizarre amounts of cash. He built houses on sand, now they’re trembling, so he punished the ones who brilliantly earned that cash despite his carelessness.

​We don’t know who was laid off; we don’t know their significance.

​It doesn’t matter. It could’ve been QA, producers, modelers, janitors, PR, etc. If a company ever felt the need to hire someone for a job, there’s a need. Now someone else has a greater burden. We’ve repeatedly seen studios do this: layoffs, then a reduced team has to carry the load of the once sufficient team, and eventually those games collapse or have to negotiate significant changes to maintain the foundation. Yes, we humans are capable of carrying a lot. That doesn’t mean we should.

​If Tim wants Fortnite to maintain its industry-leading, money-making dominance, he needs to take care of his people. Fortnite is the most blatant example of a game where its success is only because of the people running it. But as is often the case with CEOs, Tim is focused on what Tim wants, not what’s good for his people or his money-maker.

​Tim’s messing with the money. Maybe he should go.

Leave a comment

I think I have content ideas that would allow me to post more often. I mentioned in a previous entry how even I can forget this newsletter exists since its only once a month. I don’t want that to be the case.

One of my passions is dissecting gameplay, but I’ve never been able to do it for any particular publication. Based on what most outlets publish, it seems like gameplay analysis is not the type of content that fits anywhere. So, I’m just going to do it here. Maybe I find out why it’s not a big thing. Maybe it’s great. Consider it an experiment. I hope you like it.

The newsletter will remain monthly, but additional content will post directly to the Substack page without an email. I’ll include those posts in the newsletter.

​I’m thankful you read and have subscribed (and pledged!) while I continue to work out this publication. If this is your first time here and you like it, please subscribe. I’d like to surprise you. And if you really like it, a pledge goes a long way for this brotha! Either way, I’m so very appreciative. Writing, just like video games, is much more fun with people.

​Enjoy the issue!

What I Wrote

Newsletters

I write the newsletter for GamingTrend. You will need to sign-up for free to read them.

Playing Pokémon with my kid made me reconsider its youthful design

Big AAA games are dead. Smaller games are the future.

Have a laugh

Remember your gaming good ol’ days

Opinions

No sign-up needed to read everything else.

Latest Pokémon ripoff, Pickmon, indicates what people want Nintendo to do

Overwatch’s Stadium should be reworked or removed

Maybe Overwatch PvE still has a chance

Reviews

Screamer review

Subscribe now

Games, Games, Games

Bililitz

Bililitz feels like a Commodore 64 game—very simple. Get a high score.

It’s a procedurally generated platforming game where you navigate randomized obstacles, stomp on or avoid enemies, and collect golden squares for points while the screen auto-scrolls vertically. It’s very simple but gets quite complicated.

What holds Bililitz back is what counts as death. Most times spikes killed me instantly, sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes enemies took one of my three hearts, sometimes they killed me instantly.

I’d rather Bililitz choose to be a one-hit KO game or you get three hits. Or clearly communicate which objects are one-hit KOs.

The Melty Way

The Melty Way seems to take inspiration from the goopy physics of World of Goo and the precision platforming of Super Meat Boy. It’s a clever platformer that iterates on Meat Boy’s trail of blood concept, but this green goo character loses itself as it leaves its trail of goopiness. It creates opportunities for clever puzzles involving managing your size.

The smaller you are, the faster you move, the higher you jump, and you fit comfortably through small crevices. If you’re bigger, you’re heavier, you move slower, but you can take a little bit more damage.

My only gripe is that you get a special power that lets you launch yourself in any direction. But it feels like the power only uses eight directions instead of 16 or more, reducing accuracy. You also can’t consistently see exactly where you’re aiming because there’s no arrow except when you first receive the power. Thankfully, I imagine that’s something that can be easily fixed. This one’s on my radar.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

Clearly piggy-backing off the wild success of Vampire Survivors (rightfully so), Vampire Crawlers takes the simplistic addictive formula and somehow successfully turns it into a dungeon-crawling card game. Successfully meaning proof-of-concept. I had to force myself to stop playing the demo. Its lengthy demo says everything that needs to be said about how this game works.

As typified by other dungeon crawlers, you move one space at a time through a maze of enemies and collectibles. To fight, you must use cards that cost mana points. Some cards attack, some give armor, and everything references Vampire Survivors.

Each fight gives you experience points that makes you stronger and gives you more cards. Gem slots allow you to permanently upgrade your cards and there are other methods to buff your cards. Your strategy comes from understanding which cards to focus on in the moment.

Another challenge is using different crawlers who come with different starter cards. I had more success with certain characters, as I learned quickly that I can’t reuse the same strategies with different characters. I have to adapt in the moment.

I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a roguelike as I think it’s pretty easy compared to Vampire Survivors, but I also didn’t care. I had fun creating an overpowered deck and wanted to see how far I could take it.

Voidling Bound

Imagine Pokemon, but you control the creatures, and they evolve far more often. It’s not a perfect parallel, but I hope that paints somewhat of a picture.

Voidling Bound is, essentially, a shooter where the creatures you collect are the guns; and the guns gain new skills and abilities. Despite that reductive description, the intrigue comes from constantly evolving the creature adds power and changes attributes, forcing you to constantly adapt how you play with them. It’s like raising a child. You thought you had them figured out only to realize they’ve changed again.

Voidling Bound has been one of the more interesting demos I’ve played, and I’ve had to stop myself from playing it so I can try other games. I certainly advocate wishlisting this one.

SpeedRunners: King of Speed

The first SpeedRunners launched in 2016 according to everywhere I can find its original release date. I mention this because Steam says I last played it in 2013. I vividly remember that because I was on my first ever gaming PC, writing for my first outlet. I don’t remember having early access to it. I also don’t remember playing much of it. Probably because I only played it for 70 minutes.

It wasn’t bad, it’s just very easy to understand, and I had so many other games to play. So, here comes the next iteration of SpeedRunners, and it’s a riot, for sure.

You choose a runner who’s dressed up like a superhero or supervillain and race around a platforming course trying to get so far ahead of the competition that they violently disappear when hitting the end of the screen. It’s fun. And it would be more fun if I didn’t try the demo when only the masters of SpeedRunners remained.

If I had time to get better at it, I know I would enjoy it. But that’s the cost of making a competitive multiplayer game with an established audience. People like me don’t have time or patience to master it.

I still think it’s a fun a little platformer and concept, but it’s lost its novelty.

Last Flag

Last Flag is the playground version of Capture the Flag—the one where you have to actually hide the flag before searching. I love the concept and the mechanics feel fine, but it’s missing essential sound design to make this game good and accessible.

There are times I can’t tell I’m getting hit because I didn’t have any impact sounds. Guns barely make any noise. I want to hear the characters make silly sounds and noises that reflect the whimsical profiles and personality the developers gave them. I’m not saying sound design will rocket this game to the top, but it will certainly help connect players to what they’re doing and who they’re playing with. Imagine Overwatch without its sound design. You can’t. It feels baked in.

I’m going to keep an eye on this one because I want to see how it turns out next month. I hope it’s better than what’s here because should be more fun than the demo.

Thanks for reading! See you in April! Or you can check out my Substack page to read any content you like as it posts.

Ta-ta for now!

My boss at GamingTrend chose me to be the editor for their video game newsletter! I’m now the voice and representative of the video game side of the site. In my experience, usually senior writers or EICs write newsletters, so it’s an honor that they trust me to write it.

If you want to help boost my stats each week, visit gamingtrend.com to sign up and receive the newsletter. It’s free. If you don’t care to have another newsletter in your inbox, I’ll post the articles in Replay Value each month, but you’ll still need to make a free account to read them. No matter whether you subscribe or not, I’m happy I can share the news with you here, and I appreciate the support.

The industry lacks creativity in AAA games now. The only risks publishers are willing to take are ill-advised live-service games or sequels of established properties. It’s left a lot of people feeling like games are homogenized, and they’re not. Indie games are where the creativity lies. I like a good, big AAA game, but it’s time to diversify.

In response to that, as well as to satiate my own curiosity, I’m going to spend more time playing demos (and other paid games I can get my hands on) and commenting on and recommending them in Replay Value. I’ve wanted to create something other than opinions that’s exclusive to this newsletter, but also useful.

People want something different, and it’s hard to know where to look. This is my way of contributing.

This will also make the newsletter much beefier (I’ve always thought a monthly newsletter should take longer than 20 minutes to get through, anyway), but I hope it will make the newsletter more exciting, seeing what’s out there.

Enjoy!

What I Wrote

Relooted review

Relooted makes you feel like you're a mastermind, and escaping is thrilling, but there are just enough problems that drag the experience down to the point you can't ignore them.

I wanted to enjoy Relooted more, and I love the premise and gameplay, but much of what surrounds that is distractingly mediocre.

Australia Did It hands-off preview

Australia Did It is nothing like I've seen before. It's a well-thought out experiment that's simple in presentation but looks tactical and outrageous.

I was invited to see and play Australia Did It before the Steam Next Fest demo launched, and I like where this game is going, and I love the title. I have footage later that you can watch.

We should appreciate video game music more

I played an impromptu game with my friends called “We listen, and we don’t judge.” The point is to share something that would likely be embarrassing, but now will be heard without judgment. I made an admission that in the past had been met with negative responses and weird looks: I listen to video game music.

My love for music in games was born when I was seven. My family had an NES, and it was connected to my dad’s impressive sound system. The only game we owned at the time was Tetris 2. So I went into solo mode, and when I hovered over the music section, I heard the C track (you could choose songs labeled A, B, or C) and fell in love.

This is one of the GamingTrend newsletter pieces I wrote. You’ll need a free membership to read it.

Denshattack! preview

You know what would be absurd and fun? Watching a train suddenly jump in the air and do a perfect 540. Just like how you can find an app for any weird fascinations, there's a game for this ridiculous fantasy: Denshattack!

Gaming CEOs don’t need to be gamers to run businesses

There’s an expectation among some who pay attention to the games industry that to lead a video game company—in order to thrive in this industry—you must be a gamer. “Show us your gamerscore!” its demanded. “Prove you’re one of us!”

That’s not true.

Hermen Hulst is a descendant of game development; look at how PlayStation is struggling. Phil Spencer, who announced his retirement last Friday, played the games, has a gamerscore over 120,000, and wore the shirts; he couldn’t get most of us to buy into Xbox. They’re both gamers, yet we’re unsatisfied.

There’s been enough people on the internet getting twisted in knots because the new Xbox CEO isn’t a gamer—she’s doing a poor job of trying to be one, too. That doesn’t matter. Can she make Xbox better? That’s the question. I don’t have much hope she can, but it’s not because she’s not a gamer. I don’t expect top executives to be masters of their products.

Subscribe now

Games, Games, Games

I’m taking suggestions for a better name for this section, but this is what it feels like! A huge dump of the demos I’ve checked out, and this is only the last week of February. If time allows, next month will be a lot more. It’s like a treasure chest of games, except not all that glitters is gold. You’ll see what I mean.

Let’s start with my top 5 (in no particular order). It’ll be sorted randomly from there.

Australia Did It

Australia Did It is a turn-based tactical tower-defense (think Plants vs Zombies) game combined with a new concept: reverse bullet hell. The goal is survival.

Each turn, you use mercenary units to destroy disgusting creatures and technologically advanced robots, and defend a train station. Once you’ve survived, you take off to the next station as hordes of enemies try to destroy you. This is where the reverse bullet hell comes in: you’re the bullet hell. But only so many units can shoot at a time and you have to choose the right units, otherwise it could cost you.

The most interesting element of Australia Did It is that you can combine units to make stronger units.

It’s not an easy game. It requires so much tactical thinking. Eventually, I realized it was impossible to calculate all the possibilities, so I focused on making the best I could make, which made it much more fun.

Rami Ismail, the developer, also mentioned that it’s okay to start over when you know it’s not going to work out. He wanted players to be able to know that pretty quickly so we didn’t waste our time. It’s nice to know it’s okay to quit.

Click the banner below to check it out.

Denshattack!

In Denshattack, you drive a train around a colorfully dystopian Japan and perform tricks like you would on a skateboard. The easiest comparison for the type of tricks you’re doing is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Yes, you’re making a train do all kinds of flips and twists that skaters make their skateboards do.

But you also have to avoid obstacles and look out for collectibles if you want to achieve the highest scores and perfect each level.

You can read more about it in the preview above. It’s absurd, and it’s worth checking out.

Replaced

It’s 1980 and America has been devastated by a nuclear catastrophe. You control an AI, named R.E.A.C.H., that’s been forcibly trapped in a human body. The malevolent Phoenix Corporation created the AI and turned Phoenix-City into a walled-off stronghold. R.E.A.C.H wants to uncover what’s going on and why it exists. And I want to know why it was trapped in a human body.

Replaced is a 2.5D side-scrolling brawler with Batman: Arkham-style combat. The setting is dark, ominous, and tense, but fighting feels weighed down, not nearly as smooth and graceful as The Dark Knight. I enjoy its challenge, though.

David Burdette, my comrade and former podcast cohost alerted me to this one. He’s unashamedly already calling it his indie Game of the Year. I can’t blame him. I felt a similar way about A Space for the Unbound, when that game launched January 2023 (it landed as my second best game that year and best indie game).

I don’t share the same excitement, but I’m drawn to the unknown of this dystopian world.

Titanium Court

Titanium Court is the reason why you play indie games. You’d never find this unique take on a Match-3 game in AAA.

Titanium Court is a story-based Match-3 that feels like an improv set. You’re a crowd participant, and what you do during the Match-3 game influences what happens in the story. The tale seems like it has a beginning, middle, and end, but between the major events, you’re shaping the outcomes.

During the Match-3 sequence, you’re protecting the fort by manipulating mountains, water, forests, and enemies, and sending friendly units to gather resources. When you match three of anything, they go away, and new blocks fall from the top. The challenge is picking and choosing what you match. Eliminating every enemy will certainly protect the fort, but it could make it unlikely that your units can gather resources.

I don’t know how anyone came up with this, but not only is it unique, it’s brilliantly put together and addictive.

Fair warning: Titanium Court requires a lot of reading.

The demo took an hour, but it was well-worth it. I highly suggest you play it, and if you don’t have time, watch my gameplay. It’s fascinating.

Croak

Croak is a fascinating take on Celeste, the difficult platforming game. Nearly all the foundational elements of Celeste—quick respawns, collectibles, intricate platforming—are in Croak. The difference is Croak uses his tongue to navigate levels. And it makes this disgustingly funny slurp sound. Like, it’s the perfect sound.

A major difference between Celeste and Croak is that this game includes arena bosses like a traditional platformer. Based on the first boss, it’s simple jumping, but the challenge is predicting which technique to use.

The level designs are smart, but, like other indie games, it’s missing a certain charm. Croak should have a lot more going for it, but I’m not drawn to Croak and his sticky tongue compared to Madeline’s inspiring story. But from a gameplay perspective, it’s a great take on this type of platforming. And the animations are superb. Some real professionals worked on those.

Lort

I saw this early access game blowing up on Steam, so I bought it to see why people were excited about it besides that it was on sale.

Lort is an action roguelike with co-op for up to 8 players. It’s a variation on Risk of Rain 2, but not nearly as polished—expected from an Early Access game.

You drop into an impressively big world to destroy varying-sized fortresses and complete objectives to fight the boss of that level. You’ll find loot and power-ups along the way that will, hopefully, help you succeed. Your time is short, though. You have three in-game days to defeat the boss, and if you don’t, well, I never tried to see what happens. But judging by the difficulty, I can’t imagine it would be good.

I’d argue Lort may have released into early access too early. It’s clunky, it’s missing sound effects that would add flair, the character balance is lopsided, and the difficulty increases unevenly.

They’re making updates, but there’s a lot more to go before this is ready to even attempt to compete with Risk of Rain 2.

This isn’t a demo, so I recommend that you don’t buy it. If you’re interested, wishlist it and wait about another two years (not exaggerating) before you try it.

Sky Drill

Remember Doodle Jump? That’s Sky Drill, except it’s a roguelike and much more difficult. The goal is to bounce the ball as high as possible, using different platforms made of different materials that influence how the ball bounces. Eventually, you will miss a platform, and instead of being able to recover, once you miss, you’re put into a freefall and turn into a drill.

You crash through the ground and drill as deep as your momentum can take you while collecting gems and avoiding rocks that slow your momentum. You can exchange the gems for money and pay for attributes and power-ups that will help you go higher as you use this stronger equipment to overcome previous limitations.

I love just playing the demo. It’s easy to get into, doesn’t waste time, and doesn’t require any advanced PC features. Sometimes the best games don’t require much. Sky Drill fits in that category.

Soccerboy vs Aliens

This developer clearly like futbol, and I’m guessing they have an appreciation for aliens, so why not make a game where a soccer-loving kid kicks soccer balls—better than Messi or Ronaldo—into aliens?

The story goes that aliens want the World Cup trophy, so instead of creating their own intergalactic team to take on us puny humans or just steal it, they kidnap one of the greatest soccer players. Now it’s up to Soccerboy to save the day by combining Mario-style platforming while kicking a soccer ball.

You can kick the ball in several directions and use it to collect items and perform trick shots while hopping to different platforms and killing aliens.

It’s an unwieldy platformer. Regular movement feels normal, but once you’re sprinting, jumping feels out of control. It reminds me of Super Meat Boy, but far less controllable, and the level designs don’t fit that degree of floaty imprecision.

Firebird - Tale of the Stolen Light

The artstyle immediately drew me to this metroidvania, and I wanted to give more time to see where this game goes, but it didn’t support gamepad, so my gameplay looks like I’m learning how to play games.

You play as a girl who wants to recover the stolen firebird, which prevented the world from being enveloped in shadows.

I’m already concerned about some of the platforming. There was a jump where I couldn’t see what was below me, which is classic platforming design that shouldn’t be copied. The combat feels weird, too. I’m not a fan of enemies being unaffected by hitstun to make me play a more defensive poke style.

But how I feel is also colored by playing with a keyboard.

I wishlisted it to keep it on my radar, but I don’t have high hopes for it.

Mombo Combo Legacy

When I first saw the trailer, I thought this might be a game that could give Sonic the Hedgehog a run for his rings. I saw a spinning character that was bouncing gracefully off of enemies, and I thought “This is what Sonic should look like!” as if I, a non-developer, cracked the code for Sonic.

Mombo Combo Legacy isn’t that significant, but it is fun. You play as a purple-humanoid character that likes dangle his tongue, and the goal is to create the biggest combo you can by bouncing off enemies and objects as quickly as possible.

It feels sharp, it’s playful, and it’s forgiving but still difficult.

Apparently, this is the second game for Mombo, so I’m going to wait for the first game to go on sale so I can play it and give my thoughts.

Subscribe now

GetHigh.EXE

This was the strangest game I played. It’s $0.99 cents and I wouldn’t pay that for this. It’s one of those “Was this made with AI” levels of bad.

It’s a parkour game where you just jump over stuff, so it’s closer to a platforming game. Your goal is to reach the top of this digitized, wireframe-laden…mountain? Tower? I don’t know what it is.

The demo wasn’t ready when I played it. I couldn’t figure out how to invert my Y-axis with its awful menu that shuns text for some reason, like menu navigation is supposed to be a game as well. Once I died, I had to keep rechecking the inversion because it wouldn’t save.

You’ll see in the video that I couldn’t figure out one of the jumps because there wasn’t enough room to fit. I didn’t see any control for ducking, either. No other buttons did anything. Or maybe they did, but I couldn’t tell because the menu is its own form of discovery.

I didn’t see this until after I played but the description says only the sound effects and music were AI-generated. You sure? Are you sure about that?

I wouldn’t even visit the website. I feel like I’m going to download a virus or something.

It’s just bad.

Akatori

If I buy this one, that’ll give me more time to understand if Akatori is actually unfair or if I need more time. I have plenty of moments where I’m having fun, so I’m leaning towards I need more time.

Amber Storms are poisoning all living things, so it’s up to Mako to cleanse the world.

This is a Metroidvania that wants to be a souls-like, but the difficulty primarily comes from managing stamina instead of a blend of tough enemies and resource management. The uppercut move, in particular, doesn’t feel like one that should take stamina. I’m sure it demands stamina because it’s a launcher, but it doesn’t feel right.

It’s also very easy to get lost. I don’t remember if there’s a map, which I hope there is.

It feels good to attack and use the moves, though. Since the enemies take a lot of hits, I did have to dance around them a bit to avoid getting hit.

Akatori has plenty of potential. This one is definitely going on my wishlist.

TrailRail

This is a puzzle platformer where you play as a girl, and as you walk, a magical trail follows your movements. When you press a button, the trail solidifies, and you can move it around with your body.

TrailRail is one of the most interesting platformers I’ve played lately, and it’s definitely difficult, but I’m afraid it’s going to struggle with its own physics. You’ll see in my gameplay that I get stuck, and it’s because I can’t tell if I’m doing something wrong or if the physics aren’t cooperating—maybe it requires too much precision. I feel like that’s going to hurt the game for a lot of people who play it.

It’s a fantastic concept, though. The demo is definitely worth checking out.

Bombun

I see Bomberman all over this game—Bomberman 64 specifically. The feel of the music, the way the rabbit throws bombs (although the animation looks like Kirby 64), the level styles; there’s no doubt Bomberman is a reference. But there are enough stylistic differences and gameplay quirks that it stands out. I just don’t think it has the same—here’s that word again—charm.

It’s competent, but bland. You’re a bunny whose friendship with another bunny has suddenly turned sour, so they’re bombing your air fortress, and you must stop them. That’s pretty radical get-back if you ask me.

You run (slowly) around the levels trying to reach the end while destroying enemies. It felt too easy, but I can imagine some levels will require more sophisticated platforming.

There are some interesting ideas in here, but it’s definitely missing excitement. Still, I’d say check it out.

Crown of Silence

I’m not usually into self-proclaimed souls-likes, but I’ll try a 2D one. You play as an unnamed character who can wield several weapons at once—hammers, swords, throwable blades, you name it. You can switch between them for your preference or for what’s most useful for a fight.

The enemies have clever moves that I didn’t anticipate, which is exactly what you want, but how the enemies vary their moves might be too predictable to maintain the difficulty expected of a souls-like. Unfamiliarity is the reason I lost against the first boss as many times as I did, but once I understood the routine attack order, it was over for the boss.

But I’m not sure enemies can be shiftier since your confined to a 2D space, and your only movement utility is a dash, which doesn’t dodge attacks anyway.

It’s glitchy, too. I lost my ability to switch to my sword, so I had to settle for the hammer during the boss fight.

The pixelated graphics evoke a hellish mood, but the lack of visual contrast obscures pathways to move forward. I had to end my time with the demo because I couldn’t find where to go next, despite using the map. So, either the map isn’t clear enough or the environment is too obscure. Or maybe I’m missing something that would allow me to move forward.

Perhaps you would have better luck. It’s not polished, but it is interesting, and I think that’s enough to try it.

That’s it for this edition. See you in March!

But I’m feeling like once a month is a long time before we’re able to share in any kind of communication.

When I decided on once a month, I wanted it to feel like you could forget about me and focus on whatever else you’re doing—the attention economy is exhausting. Plus, a monthly newsletter gives me more time to send something with sharper writing. But I feel like there are other ways I’d like to engage with you during the month, leading up to the monthly newsletter.

I’m thinking about adding my review notes on games that I review for GamingTrend (edited for writing practice and readability—my raw notes would make your head spin) so you can get a behind the scenes look at what a reviewer goes through while playing a game with the intent to give a thoughtful opinion.

Or instead of showing my notes, giving greater details of my review by making videos discussing my thoughts of the game I reviewed since I record everything.

Either of these would be a paid subscription offering as it would be a lot of time to edit the notes or record and edit a video, but I think the insight would be really worth it—if not for you, then maybe for someone else you know who might be interested.

I’d love to know your thoughts. If you didn’t know, you can comment on these newsletters. I’ll include a button below.

Leave a comment

I’m also considering including content like video or my notes due to the increased threat of AI in the writing industry. I talk about that below, as I’m sure for many of you, regardless of what industry you’re in, AI is looming larger and larger.

I wrote plenty at GamingTrend this month; opinions on Hades II and Arc Raiders, review for an abysmal girly DOOM-like shooter, thoughts on a previous Overwatch event, and one of the best representations of diversity in games. Plenty of interesting reads (I think so!).

February is looking like a good chunk of solid games and opinions for me to discuss, as well. I’m already looking forward to the Black history and love month.

Enjoy this issue!

What’s on my mind

I follow this guy on YouTube named Charles Cornell, a musician who entertainingly explains what’s happening in songs, including video game music. Here’s a great video of him reacting to and explaining music from Expedition 33.

I watched another video of him discussing AI’s influence on music, specifically noting that we’re reaching the point where the average person doesn’t notice when music includes AI—or even cares if it does. It’s disturbing to think about.

I’d say some time in October, I had recently been listening to GameChops’ Zelda-inspired Lo-Fi tracks at work. As a result, YouTube recommended a Pokemon jazz video, or something of the like, I don’t remember exactly. I hadn’t heard of the creator, so I clicked, and I was immediately enchanted with the extremely funky interpretations of some well-known songs from Red and Blue.

The comments (paraphrasing) said things like “This is fire!” I agreed. But around the fifth track, my brain started picking on the drums. I started hearing familiar licks from other songs. I also picked up on how the tempos were nearly the same.

What started out as glee over newfound funky interpretations, turned into soul searching. Why is this drummer and the music metronomically rigid? Why are all the songs using the same tempo? I played drums for 28 years, so idiosyncrasies pop out at me.

I realized the drums were, at best, digital. I was disappointed they weren’t human, but now I wondered… is this actually AI music?

Of course, YouTube has a way of telling on itself. I clicked out of the video, and I saw another video for a different game with a similar thumbnail style from the same channel. This time, I clicked on the profile. You have got to be kidding me. An entire channel based on recreating video game music… with AI.

*click* Do not recommend this channel.

Not only were these interpretations digital, they were just a mishmash of AI scrapes. I was mad at myself for not spotting it sooner. But I realized I only sensed that something was up because I could feel that it had no feeling.

Music is inherently emotional communication, which is why it’s the most resonant entertainment medium. Some people don’t like any TV, movies, books, or video games. Everyone likes some kind of music. Everyone connects with someone’s emotional outpouring.

This made me reflect on the future of games writing, a fraught industry constantly fighting to remind people that humans are writing, not large publications (IGN gave this game…, for example).

The reality of AI now is that writing is much easier to fake. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard just use ChatGPT. Their logic is that you can get your message across without needing to think about grammar, structure, tone, clarity, etc. AI can do all of that for you!

This is why LinkedIn comments feel vapid. Anyway…

I learn from an editor who’s now writing a book on how to apply principles of writing to AI output. He’s convinced it’s not going away, so if you’re going to use it or have to use it, might as well teach people what good writing looks like so you can mold the output to your voice. It’s a terrible thought, but it’s the reality. The tech billionaires are hell bent on making AI work, and so much money is poured into it, regardless who wins the war, someone is going to win and make AI permanent, at the expense of our planet, our livelihoods, and our minds.

Writing is most susceptible to AI and most easily missed by humans. Most people don’t know the fundamentals of good writing. I needed 28 years of drumming to pick up on AI music! No, I don’t think humans who accept punctuation-less emails and poorly communicated tweets can spot good writing. They only know when it’s obviously AI.

Still, I believe that AI can never replace anything creative. Even if AI could objectively create beautiful prose, or sonically amazing music, or become an actress in Hollywood, AI could never replicate the soul.

I am writing this. That little injection about LinkedIn, that was me, based on my experience. AI could replicate that I did that, and even inject its own whimsy based on whatever it’s scraped, but it can’t fool you forever.

With that said, it can fool people who don’t follow someone. This is where it gets tricky for gaming publications.

How do you know if whatever was written on IGN, GameSpot, GamingTrend, The Gamer, or even publications on Substack used AI? You have to know the person. I know Travis Northup, freelance writer for IGN. I know him as a human being, and I can spot his written tone and voice from a subheading. I can do the same with John Walker at Buried Treasure, or Jeff Gerstmann, or Alex Navarro at Nextlander. I’ve never met them, but I’ve listened to and read their work for 27 years. I’m sure you could do the same for your favorite whatever.

But most people won’t know the difference. So how does an industry AI-proof itself? One, maintain trust. I think more people will go independent. Corporations keep pushing AI, which erodes trust.

Two, video will become essential. Yes, AI can spoof video too, but it takes much more resources, and more importantly, it’s harder to spoof someone’s soul.

The combination of independent publications and video will help build trust. And it will ultimately enhance writing because people will be familiar with their favorite writer’s voice.

In my line of work specifically, I think reviews will need to shift to video to avoid the coming increased AI accusations (it’s only a matter of time before some stupid reviewer is caught using AI for their review). Not just scripted takes, but live video assessments anchored with writing. Or the other way around—writing anchored with live video assessments.

That’s my initial assessment of how we AI-proof this industry. It’s unfortunate we have to think about this, but it’s the current reality.

It’s this kind of nonsense that makes supporting your favorite people more important. Whether that’s me or whoever, support them. It’s the world we’re headed down.

Humanity is resilient. We’ll figure it out, but this world’s elites have done such a good job at dehumanizing and devaluing creative and thoughtful work because they are such broken people; unable to emotionally connect with human experiences. And that’s what they’re relentlessly trying to wipe away.

Let’s beat AI.

Subscribe now

What I wrote for GamingTrend

I want to keep playing Hades II, but it’s pushing me away

I like Hades II a lot. It feels great, but there are some things that make Supergiant’s first sequel bloated.

Most rougelikes (or roguelites, whatever) allow you to progress straight through—A to B. You’re free to engage or disengage with any of the content that’s not critical to beat the game. This is true of the first Hades. This is why it felt unique to the roguelike genre: the story organically intertwined with failed runs. Extra conversations or side content was optional. Sometimes, you would be rewarded for doing them, but importantly, it was optional. Now Supergiant is saying all of the content is important, but I’m not convinced that it is.

Don’t Stop, Girlypop! review

I wanted this game to be good, but it’s just not.

It’s obvious Funny Fintan Softworks loves this game, but there are so many bizarre balance issues and unjustifiable missing features that could have been avoided just by stepping back and thoughtfully observing the games that inspired them.

Relooted truly represents what it means to have diversity in the games industry

This is a game about repatriating stolen African artifacts. I love the concept. And it’s got so many people on Steam riled up. They can’t seem to help themselves. They see a game with black people and must show their racism. It’s upsetting and entertaining at the same time. But this game would not exist if Nyamakop hadn’t made it. That’s the benefit of having different voices in the industry.

There’s an increasing awareness of European and American museums stealing artifacts from around the world to place into their museums. It robs the countries of their stories and history, and many countries are doing what they can to repatriate those artifacts. Relooted asks “What if we made a game about taking back those artifacts?” In this case, yes, stealing. The characters in the game recognize the absurdity and optics, but they also recognize the urgency. Every year a museum keeps those artifacts, it’s another year the rightful country and culture doesn’t benefit. It is absolutely a politics, economics, and power equation. Nyamakop, the developers, say let’s just paint a world where we steal them back.

Arc Raiders is definitely about shooting—but it shouldn’t have been

Arc Raiders became one of the most popular games by the end of 2025, and based on what Embark Studios’ CEO has been saying, it doesn’t seem like Embark Studios was prepared for that level of success.

Tension is the identity of Arc Raiders. If you remove tension, it’s no better than a round of Warzone. Before players were added, Arc Raiders had tension, but Embark experimented with adding players, and then found more tension. Adding humans has been undeniably effective. If you watch someone play Arc Raiders, you’ll immediately feel it from hearing buzzing miniguns, shots popping off in the distance, ominous footsteps, creepy droids on the ground that seemingly appear from nowhere, and a bunch of other sounds. But there was a side-effect when Embark added human players: human decisions. By adding PvP, Arc Raiders immediately became about shooting other people—maybe not to the studio, but to the players. And it’s what the players think that matters.

Overwatch 2’s Showdown Shuffle creates more frustration than fun

Someone at GamingTrend disagreed with my take here because I focus on the human problems with this mode, but that’s a big factor in multiplayer games, particularly if completing challenges is tied to what your fellow humans do. And something about this mode made people play Overwatch very poorly.

Showdown Shuffle functions similarly to Mystery Heroes, but it’s a role queue mode with different parameters that make you switch your hero—mostly by kills and assists. I started with tank, which I knew was my weakest role, but I needed to finish seven games in each role, so I decided to start with my worst role. Similarly to Mystery Heroes, I like the variety and surprise from playing different characters. It’s like hearing your favorite song come on the radio (is that too old of a reference?). I normally wouldn’t play certain characters as I play Overwatch like I choose my food at restaurants: I know what’s good and I’ll keep ordering that. But it’s incredibly frustrating to play a character you’re not familiar with alongside other teammates who also don’t know their character well; trapped because we can’t get a kill. It’s the blind leading the blind. That’s no one’s fault but it tends to create this vicious mental snowball effect in players where they start playing the worst kind of Overwatch.

For God’s sake, Arc Raiders doesn’t need a trading marketplace

More evidence to suggest that Embark Studios’ CEO doesn’t quite know what to do with Arc Raiders’ success. But it’s obvious they shouldn’t do this.

Embark Studios has two games—The Finals and Arc Raiders—both which have been successful. Only Supergiant Games and Respawn Entertainment are studios that I can think of in the modern era that have had this much success consistently. But the studios mentioned have had success because they have standards they have not negotiated. Embark Studios now has a choice for how it will think about their successful games, and Arc Raiders is the first test. It’s not looking good. If the CEO is even thinking about adding a marketplace to a game that is based on getting loot as the core of the gameplay, it’s clear greed is setting in.

That concludes this edition. Thanks again for reading! See you in February!

2025 was the hardest year of my life—quitting my job, my father-in-law’s death, and subsequently getting laid off was more than enough anxiety and sadness for a year. I’ve never thought of a new year as a reset—time is indifferent to our manufactured rituals (though I enjoy a good new year’s party). But January 1, 2026 will be an exception. I hope 2025 was better for you. No matter how it turned out, though, let’s have an awesome 2026 together.

The New Year

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions, but since the games industry wakes up from its much needed hibernation in January, it’s a logical time to set goals. Let me share my editorial goals with you.

I want to play 40 games this year and review 25 games. This will help me improve my writing after taking two years off for podcasting work. And what’s cool for you is that I’ll present games that you may not have heard of.

I don’t have a goal for opinion articles, but I’ll have plenty of them for you throughout the year. I also won’t set a goal for the newsletter. I’m taking my time with this. I want organic growth and a community that wants to read what I have to say. No numbers for numbers’ sake. So if you’re reading this, that tells me you want to be here, and I am incredibly thankful for you. I hope I can make y’all proud.

December

This newsletter is a giant round-up; every review and opinion I wrote for GamingTrend this year—a giant ICYMI. I also include additional end-of-the-year impressions, and I share my feelings about the Pokémon franchise.

Don’t get used to this. Most issues won’t be this long. I hope you enjoy the too long for email edition! Happy New Year!

You can read the full version outside of email on the main page.

Year-end round-up

Battlefield 6 secure boot requirement killed my PC, EA should be responsible

I am one of the hundreds (if not thousands) of people whose PC suffered as a result of EA and DICE's quest to crush cheating in Battlefield 6. I understand why they want to do this: It negatively impacts the experience of hundreds (or possibly thousands) of PC players, and Battlefield 6 is looking to be a return to form for the franchise, and EA doesn’t want anything getting in the way of that narrative. Therefore, EA requires PC players to run their PCs with Secure Boot enabled when playing Battlefield 6 – even in the beta. But forcing all players to enable Secure Boot shifts the responsibility onto the players. This is EA’s problem to solve, not the players. And since this is their problem for the game they decided to develop so that we can buy and enjoy, they should be responsible for what happens to the machines of those who play their games.

I meant this with every fiber of my being. I almost permanently lost my computer, but a good friend came through for me and helped me purchase a new motherboard.

Battlefield 6 open beta impressions

Time will tell if it turns out to be bad design, but I liked how the maps created that sense of action. It felt like Operation Metro or Locker every game. If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is, but it doesn't change the essence of Battlefield. Vehicles had room to maneuver in the streets, but they were just wide enough so infantry could still launch rockets at them. Liberation Peak, a map set in a craggy mountainside, allowed jets and helicopters to fly around, and there was plenty of room to snipe people. That map was more free-flowing than the others, and it demonstrated that the funnel design can allow for some freedom.

This may or may not have aged well.

King of Meat review

King of Meat is an emotional roller coaster. I enjoy the electrifying world, the satisfying combat, and the inspired dungeon designs. But I was also tearing out what’s left of my hair in frustration at the contradictory flow of the combat and annoyed by the self-indulgent presentation and grating characters. These issues undercut everything I enjoyed about this co-op party platformer.

Battlefield 6 can dethrone Call of Duty in two ways

But the plan to allow more time to enjoy the beta is backfiring because the more I play Black Ops 7, the more I see why Battlefield 6 poses the threat that it does.

Battlefield REDSEC’s Gauntlet is better than the battle royale; more people need to talk about it

Gauntlet uses the same mechanics as the BR. I felt the same tension and thrill as I would in a BR match without needing to search for loot, worry about the map shrinking, and being eliminated from the game entirely, or waiting for a respawn. You play the whole game. Even better, you can use the loadouts you've worked hard to unlock from the base multiplayer game. If you like the BR but feel you're not good enough to survive, Gauntlet is a great entry point. It's considerably more interesting and fun.

Just Dance 2026 review

With the release of Just Dance 2026, the new era of Just Dance is now firmly established. If this year’s release is any indication, we’re in for a roller coaster with this franchise for the next five years. Ubisoft reinvented the interface and created a continuous package starting with Just Dance 2023, which had a solid setlist in comparison to the very good Just Dance 2022. Since then, the franchise has been good to middling. This year, Just Dance 2026 offers the weakest song selection in a very long time. Many of the dances are uninteresting, the new party mode disrupts what makes Just Dance fun, and the new camera controller is great for letting your hands be free, but isn’t any more accurate than using the Joy-Cons. Just Dance has officially become as inconsistent as an annual sports title.

Impressions

All greats have an Achille’s Heel: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 impressions

Once a year I play a game with a story that overwhelms me with emotions. Last year I couldn’t play many games, but in 2023, it was A Space for the Unbound. The year before, it was Pentiment and Endling - Extinction is Forever. In 2021, it was Tales of Arise. These games elicited joy, laughter, melancholy, sadness, or pain. Usually a game focuses on sadness and joy, but the best games give me nearly all of those emotions. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was that game this year.

Clair Obscur starts deeply moving and sad. You’re dropped into the moments before the Gommage, a devastating event where friends, family, and loved ones all die at the hands of The Paintress. Every year, she paints a new number that has been counting down from 100. Anyone who is older than the previous number is tragically erased from existence. No one knows why, so each year teams of expeditioners—usually ones who have one year left to live—travel to the dangerous land where The Paintress lives to understand and end this diabolical ritual. This year, it's Expedition 33’s turn.

It’s a harrowing premise (an unfortunate rarity for high-profile games), but just like the 2024 Olympics, the French developers spare nothing in delivering maximum emotions and spectacle. The story is driven by beautiful graphics and animations, but most importantly, excellent writing and voice acting. There were only a few times when the dialogue or the story strayed into modern parlance unsuited for the time-period and twisted version of Paris.

Expedition 33 isn’t afraid of exploring death. Death is imminent, frequent, and melodramatic, but not overdone. The theme hovers like a fog—omnipresent but not offensive. It’s remarkable any humor is found in this game. The journey starts so hopeless and the stakes are so high it’s hard to imagine there is anything to laugh at. Yet, Sandfall manages to insert gallows humor, but there are other times when funniness feels disconnected from the undeniable seriousness of a situation. Still, the actors’ deliveries are so good, it’s easy to ignore the minor disconnects.

It can’t be overstated how melodramatic Expedition 33 is. Battle animations are drawn out and spectacular, conversations drone but provide delightful character insights, and voice lines are delivered with constant emotion. It wears its JRPG inspirations on its sleeve (Final Fantasy and Persona are games Sandfall Interactive named as inspiration), but still keeps its French aesthetics. Reference the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony and you’ll easily understand what I mean.

However, Sandfall couldn’t avoid a common RPG error: knowing when to stop. The drama reaches its peak at the wrong time. More than three-fourths through the campaign, I started to wonder when this journey would end, and by the time it should have, I was presented with my cardinal sin of gaming: the “Oh, by the way” quest. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, it’s time to end this, but now I have one additional quest. Nothing kills my desire to finish a game faster than these hoggish fetch quests.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is one of the worst offenders of this terrible design idea. You go through all the places, complete the Tower of the Gods, finish all the temples, and oh, by the way, now you need to assemble the Triforce. That kind of fetch quest never makes a game better. It’s only a pretentious assumption that the gameplay is so gripping that time doesn’t matter. Not true. Time is always more important. The same thing happens in Clair Obscur. I’ll give Sandfall credit, the fetch quest is more entertaining because it’s a combat-based fetch quest, and it’s shorter, but it’s still unnecessary.

That’s the harshest criticism I have for an amazing experience, but that problem hurts the excellent combat, too. By the time you’re close to the end of the game, it’s combat sequence after combat sequence. It feels like you’ve done it all before, and you’re waiting to get to a boss fight or an enemy you haven’t encountered just to stay engaged.

Variety keeps Clair Obscur’s battles exciting. There is a parry and dodge system and another quicktime mechanic that constantly keeps you engaged through all phases of a fight. Mechanics are steadily introduced, which allows for a comfortable acclimation to the various systems. It also helps that losing yields no additional punishment to restarting from a gracious checkpoint. I felt enabled to fail and take on as many fights as I wanted (and I did). That wasn’t as simple against bosses. Losing to some bosses felt worse because they had multiple phases and losing meant starting the boss fight from the beginning. The early phases were always easier to get through, but it’s the only time the game feels like it demands perfection.

One issue I felt with the quicktime events on offense: It was less interesting due to its repetition, particularly if you’re using the same moves over and over. Certain skills require attention to timing to maximize healing, damage, or for the move to work at all, but it doesn’t give the same satisfying sensation like a parry.

Turn-based games have received an unreasonably bad reputation as boring. Certain games give merit to that feeling, particularly ones with little strategic depth like—I hate to say it—Golden Sun, where it’s not challenging enough to adjust your strategy. Those games need more to maintain excitement (which Golden Sun has, okay!).

Clair Obscur, unfortunately, has this problem. Once I found a moveset that worked, there was no reason to change it, even when I attacked into a weakness. The strategy was in upgrading the right weapons and choosing the best Pictos. I never changed weapons for a fight, but adjusting Pictos for a fight made some battles much easier.

I didn’t get to finish Clair Obscur (hence why it’s not a review), but I see why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the greatest game this year—I’m going to say in the last five years. It’s fresh, inventive, and unapologetically French. I hope this is a wake-up call to the rest of the games industry: Make smaller games, with smaller budgets, and take big swings with those.

Leave a comment

Stop and go: Ball X Pit impressions

I’ll never forget this. I was seven years-old. I owned a Game Boy, and I was playing Centipede. I made it to around level 350. I was unstoppable. I wish I had proof, but this was before ubiquitous video capture. Centipede was one of those games where the difficulty stopped increasing after a certain level, and it became an endurance run. I reached that threshold, got in a zone, and I didn’t look back. I swerved my ship between mushrooms, dodged ridiculously fast and erratic spiders, and bobbed and weaved as loose centipede body parts wiggled around. I was entranced by the speed. My eyes quickly ping-ponged across the little screen sending information to my young brain at what felt like blistering speeds, and my fingers responded instinctively to every threat. After a while, the speed felt normal. That run ended in a classic childhood way—dinner time.

Games rarely provide this feeling anymore, mostly because they’re not designed like arcade games where the goal is to simply get high scores. Ball X Pit, inspired by arcade games of the past, creates the same feeling I felt playing Centipede. The problem is Ball X Pit constantly interrupts that thrill, and it diminishes my desire to play this creative roguelite.

If you broke Ball X Pit down to its core gameplay, it’s basically Breakout meets Space Invaders. You control a character that launches balls into enemies, and those balls bounce in various directions, ultimately returning to you, and you launch them again. The enemies appear in rows and columns and slowly glide down the narrow Tetris-sized lane to eliminate you.

Your character (of which there are multiple to choose from) starts with a specialized ball that can do unique damage such as bleed or poison, or even damaging enemies while the ball passes through them. As you kill enemies, you’ll collect experience that allows you to choose between randomly generated perks to create a build. This is the first example of Ball X Pit inelegantly pausing the action. The selection menu covers the entire screen, meaning you can’t see the enemies anymore. It’s as jarring as playing a fighting game and someone accidentally hits the pause button. It’s like music stopping at a party—the vibe is lost if it doesn’t come back quick enough.

I’d usually present an alternative solution, but everything on the menu screen is necessary. You need to see what your upgrade options are and what they do; you need to know how they affect your character and stats; and I don’t think there would be a reasonable way to pick choices while still playing. But the results in power and effectiveness justify the relatively short pause.

The other more disruptive stop in play comes from just beating a level. Remember, arcade games like the ones Ball X Pit is inspired by don’t stop, but Kenny Sun decided it would be best if runs end at a predetermined point (a boss). It feels like it’s created that way because that’s what roguelikes are supposed to do—there must be an end! It’s not that Ball X Pit’s design is flawed; it’s fun…in bursts. I don’t want the fun to stop. Instead, Ball X Pit feels like a traffic jam.

Each level starts extremely slow. You’re weak and there aren’t many enemies. If you progress far enough and your build is good, you become overpowered, and that’s when you feel the adrenaline rush.

And then it’s over. You’re back to the main area, and you have to restart another run, and build towards that rush again. It’s not wrong or creatively inept to make the game this way, but it feels like a missed opportunity to enjoy and continually challenge your builds until you reach the toughest areas or die. It could even create a unique Roguelike experience and give you that rush.

Levels are separated into depths in the pit. The deeper into the pit you go, the tougher the challenge. But you can only access the other levels after attaining more gears to allow the elevator to go deeper. I imagine starting at level one and ending much deeper in the pit, depending on how well I did, all in one run. Once you’re done, you earn all the experience and resources. I don’t think it would break the pit part of Ball X Pit, either.

Above the pit is a town you set up using buildings unlocked through various means, and each building unlocks something that benefits your next run. But annoyingly, you can only unlock the perk after you’ve sent your characters bouncing into the buildings a certain number of times. It’s too many steps, but it’s the reason you must gain resources, and it would be nice to gather as many resources as possible in one run.

I recognize one long run could frustrate the pit experience. In order to bounce your characters, you have to wait, similarly to a free-to-play mobile game. As Ball X Pit is currently constructed, one run would give you so many resources that the only reason why you wouldn’t spend them is the timer. That’s typically 15 minutes or less. Imagine one run that lasts an hour and you only unlock one or two things for all the work. Also, making a run more than 15 minutes would create time constraints for a lot of people. That’s probably not this audience.

Leave a comment

Umamusume: Pretty Derby

I hadn’t heard of Umamusume (pronounced Oo-muh-moo-soo-may), but because it won Best Mobile Game during The Game Awards (and received a loud applause), I had to check it out. When I opened the Steam page, I was immensely intrigued for two reasons: It had 11,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, and it featured girls racing. Around a horse track. Like in a derby. Yes, it is subtitled Pretty Derby, but the bewildering realization doesn’t kick in until you see it in action.

After watching the trailer, I thought this was another Japanese game for men to ogle girls and metaphorically control them without being sexually explicit. To be clear, it is that, but the premise is deeper.

Cygames, the developer (one of my favorite Japanese developers, by the way), created Umamusume to tell the history of Japanese derby’s using anthropomorphized representations to make each story more engaging. Each girl carries the name of a factual horse and a humanized fictionalization of that respective horse’s personality. One story in the game told a tale of a racer helping pull a truck out of a lake. She was going to be late to the race, but she wanted to help anyway. I don’t know if that was a factual story, but I imagine it could be an allegory on how exceedingly helpful the horse was, or it could have actually happened. Cygames makes it difficult to know what’s fact, which defeats the purpose, but I applaud this odd of way of sharing a history.

Umamusume is easy to try since it’s free-to-play, but there is an exhausting learning curve. You’re inundated with innumerable explainer tutorials up front making it easy to forget very important elements that create progress. It’s way too much to take in at once. I had to use a guide, not to know what the best strategies were, but to remember what the game told me. But once I figured out what to do, it was much more enjoyable.

It’s insightful how people view real horses who race. People talk of race horses as if they’re NBA athletes, but there are similarities: Horses have their own personalities, you can see them without any significant gear obstructing them, and many of them are approachable.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is still an awkward way to tell the history of horses, and I still don’t feel 100% comfortable with the portrayals, but I also can’t deny that I’m fully invested in this game right now.

Leave a comment

No evolution

My daughter is four-years-old, and parents of older children keep telling me that’s a great age. I agree and understand why. My little bean is amazed by everything. I’m not exaggerating. She’s amazed by shadows; how rain washes away her chalk drawings; how water boils; flickering Christmas lights; the different shapes of the moon; clouds in the sky; no clouds in the sky; and more. As the song goes: Everything is awesome.

Her wonder is inspiring. I long for the days when I could consistently look at something I’ve seen hundreds of times and find some intricacy I’ve never noticed before. But now as a dad, I’m not able to sit in wonder because I’m explainer dad. Along with my daughter’s wondrous curiosities, she also wants to know why. So I find myself pretending to be amazed to validate her amazement, but I would rather be as thrilled as her by that discovery.

At 39 years-old this battle for wonder is what I feel with Pokemon. I’ve played the monster collection phenomena since its launch in the US. Kanto (didn’t formally have that name until the second generation) felt like a new world. I met people, formed relationships with my pocket creatures, and lived my own adventure. I continued to grow up in this world through the ensuing releases. When I visited Johto, I could make friends, explore well past the sun going down, and create new bonds with new combative companions.

College didn’t stop me. The third and fourth generations allowed me to continue exploring new lands, meet unique personalities, and trade Pokémon with people all over the world. But by the fifth generation, the magnificence wore off. Up until Sun & Moon, I played all of them but didn’t finish them. The desire to become the very best subsided. The Pokémon mafias were less menacing and more laughable. Every city had gym leaders with the same quest to earn their badges. New creatures didn’t feel believable—like natural extensions of animals. Now we had chandeliers, appliances and electronics, and, literally, trash. Worst of all, the stories started becoming shallower, and I found it harder to role-play as an intrepid Pokémon adventurer. I already became a Pokémon master—like, 5 times. I achieved more than Ash, who still hadn’t conquered any Pokémon league. And with each new land I entered, I somehow was supposed to start each journey as if I had never done this before.

The fundamental problem with Pokémon is that Game Freak has frozen the franchise in time. Pokemon’s audience will always be young kids, as it should be, but there should be a version of Pokémon that speaks to an older audience, whether that’s teenagers or young adults. Mario has always appealed to a younger audience, yet it still has a maturity built in to its gameplay that allows adults to enjoy its colorful, whimsical, and notably predictable worlds. Pokémon doesn’t have the same room to mature its gameplay, but it can strive to evolve with its stories. I’m suggesting Game Freak add narrative depth.

When I was younger playing Red and Blue, I made up my own narratives as I traveled. Gym leaders I lost to were now rivals, and when I sought a rematch, there was no need to battle the underlings; I’m going straight for the leader, fully prepared. It was an anime episode in my mind. Maybe Game Freak couldn’t design a version of the nemesis system, but the worlds they create are full of personalities. There’s no reason why a Pokémon is unable to bring depth to human relationships. Why is nearly every trainer’s family just a mom? How did Giovanni run a gym and a crime syndicate for so long? What is it like for young adults to raise Pokémon and go on this journey? How do trainers deal with love, loss, family, education, politics, and other realities?

Game Freak is at the point of making multiple games at a time. Not one game in development can be geared towards an older audience—the audience that grew up with the franchise and still enjoys it?

My daughter will get to a point when shadows no longer excite her, the moons bright light will annoy her, or the water won’t boil fast enough. Instead, she will have to rediscover fascinating elements, but that will come through her own life experiences. Game Freak creates these exciting worlds that once captivated me, but I have nothing left to discover. I hope they realize adults still enjoy being wowed.

Subscribe now

Demo Impressions

Super Meat Boy 3D

It was 1995. Super Mario 64 was launching the next year. I remember seeing screenshots of Mario’s pixelated body running through the bright green plains of Bob-Omb Battlefield in Nintendo Power magazine. It would be the first time Mario was rendered in 360 degree 3D in a game. How would the iconic platforming gameplay translate? We know how the story ends.

Super Meat Boy is following in Mario’s far less bloody footsteps. Our beloved OG of the tough-as-nails, beat-a-level-in-less-than-60-seconds platformer returns in full 3D. But that’s where Meat Boy ends his imitation of the treasured plumber. While Mario added punches and kicks, and essentially became an early collectathon adventure, Super Meat Boy 3D is nearly a one-to-one translation of its 2D predecessors. And based on the demo, it’s almost as fun.

The list of similarities between 2D and 3D Super Meat Boy is as follows: SMB 3D’s physics feel the same as in 2D. There’s still a stopwatch tracking how fast you can beat a level, Dr. Fetus still beats you and Bandage Girl up before taking her to the next level, and yes, it’s still tough as nails. In fact, it’s tougher, but not in the way it should be.

I’ll tell you now, if you try this game out, turn off 45 degree snapping. It’s awful. It makes you unintentionally flub angular wall jumps. Team Meat should remove that option. With that said, even with it off, Super Meat Boy 3D struggles with camera issues, even though it’s a fixed camera. It’s hard to see where to land, and it’s sometimes difficult to know where to go. I’ve died many times only because I couldn’t see what was ahead.

Objects tend to have unforgiving hitboxes as well. There was a level with metal scrap on the ground and I landed just on the edge of a hole with the scrap next to it. It looked like I could land there, but I died. Those are the kind of issues 3D brings, and it seems that, yes, maybe Super Meat Boy should stay in 2D.

But it’s not horrendous. It feels just the same as previous Meat Boy’s, though they’ve added wall-running and air dashing. It adds to the platforming challenge, but also challenges your finger dexterity. It’s very engaging.

I think Super Meat Boy 3D will do well. It will be challenging, but I don’t think it will feel as fair as its 2D predecessors.

Pragmata Sketchbook

You would think shooters have exhausted every way we can shoot guns by now, but in Pragmata, Capcom devised an intriguing style that, I think, only Japanese developers could devise.

A bit of context: You’re dressed in a space suit with a young child hanging on your back, and you’re escaping a space station full of killer robots that walk like zombies. Shooting them takes a sliver of health, but the girl can hack them to blow open their exterior and reveal their insides allowing you to deal more damage. It’s the hacking makes the shooting considerably different.

When aiming down sights at a robot, a grid appears with several squares with a few icons in them. In order to open the robots, you must create a path to the power button icon. The first few times I did this, it felt overwhelming. How do I draw this path and keep myself from taking damage? That’s the feeling Capcom is going for. It’s not a creepy environment. It’s brightly lit, lots of white walls and the robot colors range from dark gray to white, but all the robots plod around as if it’s a zombie shooter. These ponderous robots allow more time to complete a hack, but the contrast between the environment and the enemies diminishes how overwhelming it feels. And when I played the second demo, I was hacking the enemies much faster, which erased any overwhelming feelings.

That said, there are a couple of ways Pragmata maintains the pressure. Many fights include multiple enemies. Most of the enemies used melee attacks, but a few are long distance. Keeping an eye on where each enemy is located creates harried moments, but once I became a faster hacker, I discovered that tracking enemies and how close they were was much easier.

The other way Pragmata applies pressure is by adding items in the hacking module. You’ll discover items that add bonuses once you’ve hacked a robot, but you must include them in the hacking path. The first item I received gave me more damage to hacked robots. I found another item that opened multiple robots at the same time. The items are placed randomly within the square, and that makes it much more difficult to manage. I had two choices: Go for the item or just open the robot and save the item. Sometimes I had enough time to make a mistake and undo the path, and other times I spent too long trying to include the item and took unnecessary damage. Thankfully, if you close the hack you can reopen it exactly where you left off. I can imagine situations requiring multiple enemies while multitasking detailed hacking creating tense situations. The question is if it would be fair.

Something that bothered me was how the weapon inventory worked. You’re always equipped with a pistol that holds 6 rounds, but automatically refills like a cooldown. Every other weapon has limited ammo. Guns sit on the ground like N64 and PlayStation area shooters, and you pick them up with a button. Once you run out of ammo, the gun disappears. It’s not a bug, but I’m not sure why that happens. Perhaps it’s meant to cause anxiety, but this wouldn’t function any differently than searching for ammo and keeping the gun.

It’s a small quirk, but it’s an example of the concern I have for Pragmata: it’s changing things for the sake of changing them. I understand art demands experimentation, and innovation can’t be achieved without trying things, and Pragmata is certainly trying things, but hacking and the disappearing weapons feel like an experiment more than a deliberate choice. Innovation is birthed from experimentation, but it still must be purposeful.

Out of curiosity, I want to see how far these systems go once Pragmata launches April 23, 2026. The hacking is certainly interesting, but I’m not convinced it will work through the whole game.

That’s the end. I’ll leave you with this video of my four-year-old learning Mario jumps. It’s quite impressive! There’s no sound because it’s at double-speed so it’s more interesting to watch. My daughter is Yoshi.

I’m learning four-year-old’s get overwhelmed quickly. She started strong and probably five minutes later she started forgetting how to jump at all. Video games give a good glimpse to how young kids learn.

See you next year!

Starting this newsletter is bittersweet. I'm excited to create something that's mine, where I can be my unfiltered self and discuss opinions that wouldn't perform well on GamingTrend but (hopefully) would be of interest to you. It's also another avenue to perfect my writing. I hope this journey is long and full of fun.

On a deeper personal note, my father-in-law passed away, which will inevitably make the holidays tougher for my family. Many of you, unfortunately, understand this. But my wife remains in good spirits despite missing her father. Life never slows down with a bouncy and oblivious four-year-old, though. We can't help but smile when she's around.

This month, I’ve stepped into reviewing gear and hardware at GamingTrend, but my plan is to keep this newsletter about games. It doesn't seem like that's going to stick, though. I reviewed the impressive Nvidia GeForce NOW, and I feel like I would be doing you a disservice by omitting that. And Valve announced the Steam Machine—again. Shockingly, the original Steam Machines launched a decade ago. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. But this 2025 announcement is just head-scratching as the original. If you play on PC or are considering it, you’ll have my opinion on it.

The rest of this newsletter features my game reviews and opinions I wrote for GamingTrend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

NOVEMBER REVIEWS

This month was light after taking a short break from reviewing the ROG Xbox Ally and spending extensive time testing GeForce NOW.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW Review

I don’t understand who GeForce NOW is for, but the technology is the real deal.

There was one note I didn’t mention in the review because it didn’t impact the score. However, because you’re here, I can give you more context.

• Navigating the menus is initially annoying. Content that’s specific to you doesn’t show up in logical ways. I could play Overwatch 2 and The Outer Worlds 2, and neither of them will move to the front of the list, so I don’t have to scroll. Xbox Game Pass games are way at the bottom, even though I’m subscribed, and my Xbox account is linked. The reason why it didn’t bother me much is that what I can play is based on what I own. If I had access to all the games, it would be a horrendous UI/UX. I found it best to search for what I wanted, since I wouldn't be able to find that one game I bought four years ago during a Steam sale.

Just Dance 2026

I was sorely disappointed in this year’s edition. It’s the lowest score I’ve given something this year, and it’s the lowest score on Metacritic for Just Dance on the Nintendo Switch. I wanted to like it, but the song list and dances aren't great.

This year’s edition seemed to be impacted by Ubisoft’s financial drama. I'm hoping 2027 will significantly improve.

Subscribe now

OPINIONS!

Battlefield REDSEC’s Gauntlet is better than the Battle Royale; more people need to talk about it

I thoroughly enjoy Battlefield 6, but I wasn’t looking forward to the Battle Royale. I had no idea a separate mode would be released with the BR. It’s called Gauntlet. It’s fun, but more importantly, it’s original.

Anthony Asks (and answers)

Valve announces the Steam Machine. Should you buy it?

Valve announced three new hardware products that will launch early 2026: Steam Machine, Steam Controller 2.0, and the Steam Frame. The Steam Machine is a pre-built PC that, unsurprisingly, runs SteamOS, and is shockingly like a console because you can’t modify it much, if at all. The Steam Controller 2.0 is a redesigned version of the original Steam Controller, using the same hardware and functionality as the Steam Deck inputs, including two touchpads. The Steam Frame is a VR headset that essentially functions as a PC strapped to your face, allowing you to play both VR and traditional games from your Steam library. I’m eager to play with the new Steam Controller. I liked the concept for the original, but it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.

But if you’re in the market for a new PC and you like Steam and SteamOS, consider the Steam Machine. But it’s not a forgone purchase. Why? I’m not sure if Valve can even answer that question. Besides SteamOS, there’s nothing that sets the Steam Machine apart. It’s simply another option in the pre-build market. That is, unless the price isn’t great, or you can get something more powerful, or you don’t want to deal with a Linux-based operating system, or you don’t like the controller, or you play games on different libraries other than Steam; I think you get my point. There are several reasons to avoid the Steam Machine.

I’m not saying the hardware isn’t good or instructive for the rest of the industry. The touchpads, for example, are a practical innovation for the rest of the industry. I’m not a fan of them, but their practicality for games that don’t use thumbsticks is undeniable. But that’s the controller. What Valve gets wrong--and is getting wrong again--is that there’s nothing that distinguishes the Steam Machine.

Why should you buy a Steam Machine over any other pre-build on the market? SteamOS? Reliability? Power? There is nothing that sets this apart from the rest of the market. It’s got the power of an Xbox Series X or PS5, which is absurd this late into the generation; you have to do extra work if you want to play your games from other storefronts; you don’t know if Valve is going to abandon the Steam Machine like they did with the original, so it’s unreliable. It’s a good idea, but it feels like a personal project that’s being released to the public.

Apple sells stable software and ingenuity. Microsoft sells customization and productivity tools. Valve sells a platform that you can use anywhere and hardware that competes with current consoles, with less customization than other pre-built PCs. The Steam Controller is an easier sell than the Steam Machine.

SuperJoost, who runs a very informational and insightful newsletter, says that Valve is looking to take over the living room. Here’s his full quote below:

I have to ask: whose living room? It’s not mine, it’s not a console player’s living room, so whose living room? If Valve can’t sell how it’s going to take over your living room, how is it going to take over the majority of living rooms? That tells me it’s not about taking over a living room; it’s about providing options for those in the Steam ecosystem.

If my PC dies, I have options: 1.) Build a new PC, 2.) Buy a third-party pre-build, 3.) Buy a Steam Machine. Valve wants to be in the conversation. They’re not looking to take over the living room.

That doesn’t mean the Steam Machine will flop. There are more PC players than ever, and Sony and Microsoft are making it easier to consider PC as a primary platform by releasing their games there. For a console player, why not consider a Steam Machine? It should work as simply as a console, and it might end up in a similar price range.

The Steam Machine is worth consideration, but it doesn’t hold the same value as even the Steam Deck. This, along with the rest of the hardware, aims to create more opportunities for people to be part of the Steam ecosystem. It’s not going to dominate the living room, and it’s not going to convert people. It’s a viable option; that's it.

Next month’s newsletter will arrive sometime after The Game Awards. I’ve decided to refrain from reviewing anything else this year so I can be available for my wife and avoid being burdened by deadlines. But I’m still catching up on other games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ball X Pit, so I’ll have thoughts to share.

Happy holidays! See you next month!