I remember Masquerade. So lovely and mysterious! My mother and I would sit and read it and try to puzzle it out. We had *just* figured out the core mechanism (follow the hidden hare’s paws to the letters along the sides) when they announced it had been found. Poop.

There was a CCG one, as I recall, that led to a nice little platinum cube.

It menaces with spikes!

I was disappointed by the Thief franchise reboot, around the same time. Not just because it was a blatant console port. It just didn’t have the same feel as the old games. The blend of technology and magic.

Yep. And the monorail, and Homer jumping Springfield Gorge, etc. May just be random Simpson-y things, or may have broader meaning within the episode.

I like the callout on the poster to Homer’s instant makeup application invention...

There actually *is* a way to tell which pipe they’re coming up - the top of the pipe will noticably rattle back and forth as they climb.

For the Headcrabs, I submit Ravenholm in Half-life 2.

For jump scares, I give you Thief 2.

Pretty much any vinegar-based condiment - Ketchup, Mustard, Worchestershire sauce, to name a few - will be good until the sun burns out. Okay, maybe not, but that bottle of tabasco is functionally immortal as long as it’s not getting too hot or anything.

What you SHOULD be doing is mulching the body (you can get a body composting building), turning it into fertilizer. Use that fertilizer to grow a lovely bunch of vegetables. Which you will then turn into a nice healthy veggie salad. Then resurrect the deceased, and have them eat the veggies grown of their own putrid…

(though Stray did have some Ape-like vehicles, which was nifty)

Piaggio Ape. Fight me.

Big strong on the lumberyard. Running out of resources SUCKS, and while a few rocks are pretty easy to find on a run, wood isn’t.

No mention of Binding of Isaac, where the titular hero fights horrible monsters *with his own tears*?

Then you get the very last bit of the game, which is *jarring*.

Those are definitely some buttocks, yep. Glistening, even.

Ouch. Given how tiny Niantic is, that would have been like half their staff. I hope they kept Cocoa, their one-eyed office spaniel.

Too much Vader. Like, put some back. It’s okay to have threats that aren’t The Big Guy.

Aww yeah, totally my jam. Oh to be a small creature getting noms at a sushi truck.