Mario

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Let’s be honest: most “strategy” games today aren’t strategy. They are vibes. You know the ones. You click a button, a colorful animation plays, and a disembodied voice tells you that you’re a “brilliant tactician” for simply showing up. If you want to feel the warm, comforting […]

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. If you loved Pragmata, you might need a support group. Or at least a few more games that scratch that very specific itch: armored dad energy, cryptic moon lore, a sidekick who may or may not be human, and at least one confusing cat cameo. You’ve been

Look, I love sports. In theory. The human drama, the peak physical conditioning, the million-dollar contracts for catching a slightly oblong ball. It’s all very compelling. But let’s be honest: watching a 90-minute soccer match that ends 0-0 feels a bit like watching paint dry, if the paint was also guilty of simulation and rolling

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. TL;DR: We need to talk about the rabbit’s foot. We really need to talk about the red cabbage. Let me paint a picture for you. It’s Fall of Year 2 in Stardew Valley. The leaves are turning beautiful shades of orange. The music is gentle and nostalgic. And I am

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Let’s be honest, the survival crafting genre has officially jumped the shark. We’ve been marooned on so many beaches, frozen in so many snowstorms, and force-fed so many digital berries that if we actually got stranded in the wilderness tomorrow, we’d probably file a complaint about

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Let’s be real: usually, when someone invites you over to look at “slideshows” of their trip to Arizona, you start looking for the nearest exit or a blunt object. But Interior/Night decided to turn that specific brand of mid-western torture into a game called As Dusk

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. A roguelike is the gaming equivalent of Groundhog Day, if Groundhog Day was directed by a masochist and starred you, failing upwards into the sun. We are living in the golden era of the “one more run” philosophy, which is really just a clinical term for

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. So, you’ve been staring at the Square again. You’ve founded your city, you’re squinting at the clouds, and you have to pick a tribe. Do you go with the bear-loving cavemen? The horseback riders who look like they’re wearing towels? Or the weird bug people who

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. The Metroidvania genre—that beautiful, sadistic fusion of exploration, ability-gated progression, and back-tracking that makes you question your life choices, your map-reading skills, and whether you passed that same glowing door three hours ago—is thriving. While AAA publishers are busy charging $70 for the “Deluxe Legacy Remastered

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. We need to have a talk about Fall Guys. On the surface, it’s adorable. A pastel-colored utopia where cute jelly beans tumble through whimsical obstacle courses. It’s the video game equivalent of a puppy. But we all know the truth. You boot it up, you grab your