For me, I like losing in games that have really stupid, melodramatic, or overdone Game Over screens.

Interesting that you mention Perfect Blue and Paprika, when I’d say Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers are far better movies. I also feel that as far as Makoto Shinkai films go, 5 Centimeters Per Second is far more representative of his style and far more artistically beautiful than Your Name.

There’s a bit more to the Prime Directive than that, and there is definitely a component to it which states that when you’re on an alien world, you must more or less respect and operate within their laws — in other words, you get no special exceptions simply because you’re not FROM there.

You’re jumping to some serious conclusions here! I’m not basing my worldview off of Star Trek — I just happen to believe that when you’re in another country, you should respect its laws, and accept the consequences you’re given if you break them. Which is a viewpoint that always makes me think of Star Trek, since so…

See, I agree with the Star Trek approach on things like this. When you’re on another world (in another country), you operate within ITS laws, not YOUR laws. The appropriate penalty for teens stealing things IN THE UNITED STATES is fear and embarrassment. The appropriate penalty for teens stealing things IN CHINA is…

*They’re are also tears in my eyes.

Gotta be the pedant again, as this is a pretty big pet peeve of mine.

That’s not entirely true. A staggered launch can absolutely work, and may even result in some players buying the game twice (once digitally when it first comes out so they can play it right away, then against physically when that version is released, to add to his/her collection). There’s not really any reason to…

Yeah, I’m a little confused by that part too. I assume it’s a requirement from the console manufacturers now — like, it’s probably Sony saying, “it is no longer legally viable for publishers to publish discs on our format without a rating.” Though I’m not sure how enforceable that is.

Basically, just because digital and physical games are classed differently. When you release a game physically, it falls into a different release category than when you release it digitally. This... honestly is probably just to prevent people from releasing games digital-only first in order to dodge payment. But…

Sort of, yeah. Even before, if you wanted to release a game physically in stores, you’d have to pay to get it rated (or rerated) by the ESRB. Releasing digital-only first didn’t absolve you of the responsibility of paying to have it rerated.

Controversial opinion: Tokyo Banana is nasty. My least-favorite souvenir from Japan that anyone can possibly bring, without question. I genuinely don’t get the appeal.

Which is why I suggested the ESRB might be part of the concern. Regardless of who owns the IP, if no ESRB rating for the game is displayed on the box for the Switch units sold in stores, those stores are technically selling a game that’s not rated by the ESRB, which goes against their policy and their agreement with…

No, but there could be serious ramifications if base Switch units were determined to be in violation of ESRB guidelines. That could literally warrant a retailer-mandated recall on the product, since retailer compliance with ESRB regulations is more or less a matter of policy at this point.

Sounds to me like this was probably an unsanctioned tribute added in by a programmer without Nintendo’s official blessing, so there are likely legalities at play. As in, Golf was probably not licensed for distribution as a pack-in game on the Switch (especially since I doubt any ESRB ratings or anything of the sort…

I’m really glad you talked so much about Stay Alive. That movie was such a beautiful train wreck. My friends and I have subjected many an unwitting attendee of “good bad movie night” to it, and I still love to quote it out of context — though it’s been a while, so the best I can do now is paraphrase:

A creator cannot be held responsible for those who fail to understand his/her material. Especially when — and this is a statement I can’t verify, but I would be shocked were it not true — there are significantly more people who DO understand it, and DO appreciate it for what it is, than those who don’t.

Old South Park, I might grant you this — though I would argue it’s always had SOME universal appeal, and its intention was never to spread hate.

It’s interesting to me that you guys are discussing the change in South Park’s humor under the premise that the show has gotten less funny, when I actually would very much argue the opposite: the show has gotten exponentially funnier over the years, peaking in the early to mid 2010s and still holding on to a lot of…

You know what game REALLY needed to be on there, for obvious reasons? Flashback.