Aside from Order of Ecclesia - and I feel I talked about it enough last time - yesterday I started the suitably weird Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. A lot has been said about this game, particularly the oddness of the crossover, but I’ve been really enjoying the gameplay. I don’t play tactical strategy games,…

Of course, I’m compelled to disagree with you in this instance. While Mario is definitely more icon than character - and I’m going to plug Sandler’s List from Keyboard Geniuses from last year on Sonic again here - I’d argue he does embody a lot of Nintendo’s biggest and mostly best design principles. He’s a deeply…

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…

Like the past couple weeks, it’s pretty much been DS Castlevania time, with finishing Portrait of Ruin and onto Order of Ecclesia. One thing I should’ve done more with the former is use Charlotte more; I have a tendency when playing it to just use Jonathan, because the game incentivizes upgrading his sub-weapons but…

So really, all this would do is commercially and politically entangle the IOC and FIFA into some kind of elaborate web (or Zelda dungeon) of corruption, vice, and graft. Maybe if the whole esports thing fails to improve the 2018 games’ ratings, they can make a sport out of the investigations into their financial…

I like (at least the Mario Kart 8 recreation of) Rainbow Road 64! It’s really pretty, and feels like a nice, conclusive track. Even the obstacles feel celebratory.

I like almost every track in Mario Kart 8 - the only one I’ve really played extensively - but I have to go with Mount Wario. It has virtually everything for me: a beautiful, snowy backdrop, a constant shift of environments from mountaintop to cave to forest to ski slope, and a crazy design unlike all the game’s other…

Here’s mine: “Taxes are like The Legend of Zelda, in the sense that they’re currently under the control of a large, angry, porcine monster known for threatening young women, who is also currently living in a large, white castle.

And similarly, BioShock (understandably) did a number of the same things System Shock 2 had done, but it also added a deliberate and extensive focus on politics, not just through the background but embedded in the game with the moral choice system. I don’t think trying to interrogate Objectivism through whether or not…

Okay, cool. So all I’d need to do is just use my Gmail account, which feels odd, but also futuristic. Thanks!

Ah; got it.

I am. A little disappointed there doesn’t seem to be a way to alter how to read through posts other than by most popular, though.

Yo, Velleic!

Okay, so I now have a Kinja account. All that’s left to do is figure out how to actually access my profile, because I’m not sure what my password even is. Hopefully this worked...

I have heard they made some strong improvements on it. I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it, but I'm far more likely to play it or Generations than most other games in the series.

Something about Mario I think doesn't get as much discussion is how small Mario is just as legitimate or sensible an option for going through levels as his super version. And the game accounts for that, with many games even providing alternate routes dependent on having one or the other. It's not just an extra health…

To be frank, it's not a school of game design I particularly respect, let alone like. It's one for games that are meant to be shown or marketed just as much as (if not more than) to be played.

If we're being fair, Gameological isn't exactly a particularly well trafficked part of the site - I think most "WAYPTW" get exponentially more posts than most of the articles that inform Keyboard Geniuses each week. If we're still willing to be scintillating, I think it could work. But it is very much dependent on…

We mentioned it on that Keyboard Geniuses from last year, but it's really hard not to notice that while every part of Mario's design came from a functional need - clothes are colored that way to show limbs, mustache and hat allow facial definition - Sonic's is all about branding. He's blue because SEGA has a blue…

As a well known Sonic "not fan," I didn't read much of the comments, but I really like what FlimFlam and jakeoti said. Really, both it and this feel like something of spiritual sequels to one from last year, where we debated how good Sonic ever really was.