The battles also have clear goals snd indicate new waves nicely. In one example you have to defeat 8 enemies in a rather small area. Each enemy is a brute(smasher) but they only show up 2 at a time. It becomes more of a puzzel. Smashers will move toward whoever shoots them the moment they are shot. So it becomes a…

The beauty of it is failing a few times on a battle in this game isn’t a big deal. It’s very much a streamlined version of the genre

Unloaded a beautiful combo on my bus ride this morning:

I’m happy with this just for existing. “Hardcore, XCOM-Style Real Time Tactics” meets “Family Friendly Nintendo Cartoon” meets “Basically Minions” seems like a combination designed to make executives writing sales projections reach for the ejector seat button in the pitch room. With big budget games getting safer…

I’m enjoying the heck out of the game. Finished World 3 last night, that opera boss battle (which I wouldn’t have spoiled, but whatevs) was just too bizarre and fun for me to get annoyed at the game getting a little self-referential. Who knew this game would be the one to outdo Final Fantasy VI, twenty plus years…

The reduction is something I’m kind of waffling about, though I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve played of the game. On one hand, it helps the game feel incredibly distinct - from Mario, from Rabbids, and just from other games in general. The tightness of how it meshes influences gives it a specificity you rarely see in…

I thought this game was great, although yeah some of those block pushing puzzles were pretty tedious

>One necessary means of maintaining an edge is to always make sure your crew stays well equipped, but the only way to get weapons is to buy them and the only way to get enough coins to really stay ahead of the curve is to finish each encounter with a “perfect” rating.<

This is definitely a “to each his own” situation. The fact that it is turn-based tactical combat is what changed this from a “Who cares?” to a “Must have!” for me

I like your analysis a lot, especially the two Coopers representing the two halves of the show. I still feel frustrated that this seems to have been a show about making a show, as opposed to all the other things that Twin Peaks season 1 and 2 were about. But I guess we have Mark Frost’s upcoming book to tick off all…

I’ve always heard people talk about their school day turmoils with essays and stretching out their font type to make 1 page feel like 3, but that scenario never resonated with me at all.

Maybe it’s Baby’s First Critical Analysis to suggest that Twin Peaks: The Return is an extended meditation on both itself and the original run of episodes, but that’s the most coherent interpretation I have so far. I guess the only insight less piercing than that would be “Dale Cooper symbolically represents the…

I’m in!

Thanks for the Kinja info, and for the link to your great piece on Elite. It’s funny but I’ve never actually played Elite before! I’ve played M.U.L.E. and Starflight, games of a similar vein in a few ways from what’s described by you and others about Elite, but not that title.

Thank you, DL! I wouldn’t be able to change my verbose writing style even if I tried (and I have tried over and over and over again), so I can definitely promise more of the same in the future :P /cheer. It means so much to me that you enjoy them though. Thank you.

I think the depiction of schools has changed in Western video games over the years. There’s less of the graffiti-and-trash aesthetic nowadays; the hallways are cleaner. In Life Is Strange, for instance, the hallways are almost pristine. Heck, even in a game like Lollipop Chainsaw, the school looks like it was clean unt…

Hah I very much appreciate the offer but I’m actually up in buffalo, which is a little bit of a drive over to Watkins Glen. Have fun out there!

Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogostick, somebody remembers me! Thanks, Matt!!

Hmm, tough to think of one that’s truly set at a school, since I haven’t played any Personas and Final Fantasy VIII is an...interesting entry in the series. So, it might not quite be right, but I’ll go with Persona’s weird Fire Emblem-obsessed cousin, Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Though the fact that they’re high schoolers…

Yooooo, forgot to put this in the WAYPTW, but there is a special Games Done Quick event this weekend to support Houston. https://gamesdonequick.com Lots of good games on the schedule (Breath of the Wild all dungeons run, a Link to the Past race where one player won’t use the sword and the other will have randomized…