All the chairs everywhere actually being usable impressed me at first, and there’s a few a things where you can activate or turn some animation on or off... but yeah, at this point, absolutely need more stuff you can use.

I'm so excited for this, the demo ruled!

Detective Pikachu was fun and I was really disappointed when it seemed like there wasn’t going to be any follow-up, so fingers crossed! 🤞🤞

Yeah, I’ve heard basically nothing about Fantasian (an RPG by some of the original Final Fantasy devs that looked cool as hell) since its launch there, and I’m scared it may die an exclusive, as IIRC Mistwalker hasn’t ported any of their previous Apple Arcade games.

Glad the main Minecraft YouTuber I watch these days has always masked up properly.

You know, you just reminded me, I don't think I've heard about Ninja since he switched platforms again a while back? It's been nice!

Hopefully this gets the “KOTAKU DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT MOBILE GAMES” crowd off your backs.

And then Among Us was made by the Henry Stickmin devs, which makes sense really but also still blows my mind every time I remember

Yeah, honestly what really got me was... lately Kingdom Hearts has gotten way into checkers and plaid, and... it took me a while to notice, but a lot of Rindo’s jacket is stripes instead! You can definitely still tell Nomura had a hand in these designs, but they do feel pretty fresh to me, and I like that.

Neo TWEWY has a surprisingly low number of belts, so far, at least going from the demo. Much heavier on the hoodies.

EarthBound 64 will always be one of my favorite what-ifs. Like, obviously the peak is “could there have been an EB64 that was at all a viable competitor to Final Fantasy VII”, but even well short of that lofty goal might’ve paved the way for a few more RPGs on N64 besides, well, Paper Mario and... Quest 64.* “How…

I gotta wonder what other FFs people awakened to. Is it just which one you played at the right time, or were some more conducive than others? I can’t imagine much happening with the early sprites, but clearly VII did it for a lot of people. There’s been some reevaluating of VIII, and I know some people swear by its…

I think the incredibly low barrier to so, so much entry is also what’s helped them attract disillusioned WoW players, and... I suppose it’s got to have been worth it (in that enough people must convert into paying customers) for them to keep it around, but it definitely makes it easier for spikes to occur every so…

I’ve heard both /hudlayout and opening a retainer/vendor menu are enough to stay AFK without being kicked; not the best for watching, perhaps, but probably enough for doing an emote forever?

I couldn’t see watching a whole series like this myself, but I’ve watched and enjoyed some challenge videos that basically just summarize a run. I think those generally lead pretty easily to a compelling narrative arc:

Ah, a good reminder I never preordered the one game I was considering. RIP. The demo was sick, hope the rest can hold up!

Even within those, I feel like there’s so many more interesting options than are actually getting made! It feels like practically all the real-USA games are “big, well-known city (or a parody of it) that you can do/stop crimes in”; sure, so many Japanese games are just Tokyo (probably half of them are Shibuya!) but…

And then of course there’s the (probably not that) rare fans going for a third option, and shipping him with Link :P

The volcano stealth mission where you lost everything did go a bit long for me, but I found the Silent Realm tear-collecting to actually be a really satisfying challenge. It basically turned you into a speedrunner, first exploring and routing out areas you had some familiarity with, until you could finally try full…

If it ever gets down to $30.... maybe even $40 if I’m feeling stupid... I might bite.