Chuck Wood and the Woodchucks in "The Big Lame" 

Bye, Ellie! And good luck! I'm really going to miss reading your work around here. :(

Ha! I love your reductive descriptions of the characters. I’m particularly fond of Time Ghost and Actual Ghost.

This is great advice, Kirk, though I’m sure it will be difficult for me to keep in mind. I’ve been playing many difficult games lately as well, graduating from very long stints with Binding of Isaac and Momodora to - more recently - Hollow Knight, Cuphead, and Bloodborne. Boss fights have always freaked me out, but…

Ah, the nostalgia of seeing that picture...

I like presidents who *don’t* salute NK generals.

I’m so sorry to hear that Mike has been going through this! I teared up while reading, because he has been such a prominent presence around here for so long, and I can tell that Stephen and everyone at Kotaku really care about him. I’ve missed reading and watching his work more regularly, and I hope his recovery…

Aw, I miss Brawl in the Family.

I’m having a hard time deciding. I’ve been playing way too much Into the Breach, but I only have one more achievement to get! I’ll probably also play more Breath of the Wild.

Glad to hear it! Keep playing! One of my favorite recent games.

+1 for “Economic Anxiety Land”

I am slowly adjusting to that, as I started a run with the Flame Behemoths last night. I was so used to the Rusting Hulks’ smoke canceling enemy attacks, but fire doesn’t work that way, so I have had to rethink my approach. I’m not sure if this run will end in success, haha. The swap mech is awesome, though.…

I’m glad to hear this, because the Flame Behemoths is one of the squads I’m most interested in trying soon, and that sounds like a lot of fun.

I think that’s what I’ll do as well. I’m only on my fourth run with the Rift Walkers, but it’s my first time in normal mode. I already get the feeling that starting on normal with the other squads might be a bit too difficult for me for now. I can’t wait to try them, though. The Rusting Hulks and the fire-based squad…

I hope they do reclassify Sym as Defense.

This is encouraging to hear! I wanted to get into BlazBlue and SF4 back in the day, but just couldn’t get a handle on them. With the Soul Calibur series I had fun and felt like I was at least playing capably. It would be wonderful to have that feeling again with this game, too, especially since I adore the source…

Thanks for the review, Mike. I gotta say, apart from Soul Calibur, I just haven’t been able to get fighting games to work for me. Reviews like yours and other reactions that praise how accessible DBF is are persuading me to bite again. This might be the one that I can actually play and enjoy!

You might not eat any Tide Pods, but don’t be surprised if you eat those words. :(

Drawing his paws so tiny was a nice touch.

Dammit, Nathan, that lead photo actually frightened me. Especially after having just woken up from a nap. :(