Same people who lament no longer having interesting manuals to read in modern games mad about dead simple mechanic that's explained in the manual, making an average map the "big filter"; RTFM.

Booted this up somewhat on a whim to explore kind of what I consider to be a throughline of sorts for the kart racer subgenre, because while I wouldn't exactly call this one of em (some might, I prefer "HIGH OCTANE ACTION ARCADE RACER"), it left a noticeable imprint for how courses are designed (inc. hazards) and people usually make the connection whenever any other kart racer implements some kind of boost/meter/hybrid system (not a "boost" item).

Was very pleasantly surprised by the little comic that fleshes out the characters, enhancing their personality immensely and explaining some of their driver habits, like Pico's bloodthirsty driving style, and sure enough in races it felt like he had the least restraint when it came to ramming into me. Makes me want to go check out the OVA/series they made for this, honestly feels like the premise was ripped by Redline (2009) LOL

Anyways the game absolutely rips, the level of stage readability for a mode-7 racing game while keeping such a raw sense of momentum is fantastic. The granularity in maneuvering is also surprising for the time, when most of its contemporaries feel like glorified lane-racers or were arcade titles with both unfair, copious levels of specialized hardware and unfair level design. I adore the presentation, having one of my favorite compositions on the SNES (the melee rendition being one of my favorite tracks in all of gaming)

"When the first Grand Prix race was held, people were angered at the brutality of the competition. The organizers had, during construction, placed various obstacles and traps along the raceway. But as time passed, and people grew used to these dangers, they soon demanded even more excitement in the race. In time, winning this race meant earning the highest honor that could be bestowed on anyone in the Universe.

In a very short time, people came to call this Grand Prix simply, 'F-ZERO' "

Much has been said about the historicity of Tetris and its many iterations, but I find the very original text-based graphics version from 1984 to be the most charming. If I was committed to grinding this as a pseudo-sport, to improve my logic center and simple problem-solving speed, I'd likely opt for one of the later titles, probably Tetris 2000 or something based off of that for what little I know; but I don't really care to, it's just an extremely fundamentally well-made puzzle game with a background that frequently births inspiration. Bored, and a few lines of code later... Tetris!

You can play a recreation of this 1984 original here,, as well as Tetris Holdings' tribute to the original. I prefer the presentation of the first here, but the second is good too.

Please don't read what this actually is, just play it. It's short (20-30m?) and one of the coolest things I've ever seen come out of romhacking. Patch over at the author's profile on smwcentral.

CW: Low effort review.

The unassuming name wouldn't lead you to believe it won the Questionable Level Design Contest '23, but from the way things are phrased it, it's as if it were an easy pick! And it's not really hard to see why!

Spoilers below here.

How is this possible? LOL, absolutely genius concept, this is the kinda stuff I play video games for. How one came up with the idea of the entire game being just the map movement (with occasional bits of hybrid normal and map platforming) is beyond me; or at least I feel like it is. The individual texts for a lot of squares were humorous and some of the level design just a bit mean.

And yet, something about reaching the end of it, with the long walk and ever so faintly sarcastic text, still felt sincere. Like "yea, here's my thing." Awesome.