Bio
FORMER: Programmer, Forum Moderator, Game Designer, Boxer
CURRENT: Trucker, Streamer, Writer, Singer
ASPIRING: Novelist!

I've been writing about video games on the internet since 2005. Back in 2013, I began to take notes on all the games I was playing, and I started recording the dates I finished playthroughs back in 2015. All reviews you see here were written for Backloggd, but most are ones whose completion dates I have listed in my personal notes going back to 2015. I'll allow myself exceptions if I can make an educated guess on when I would've finished a given game, but everything else will require a personal revisit before I can review it.

I play an eclectic mix of games, but these days I'm mostly focusing on older games released up through the 7th console generation (i.e. Wii, 360, PS3), with some exceptions here and there. I believe in an average score being between 2 and 3 stars, so don't be surprised if you see games I acknowledge as "good" being in that range.

I hope you have a nice day!
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


Gone Gold

Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page

1 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year

Gamer

Played 250+ games

Adored

Gained 300+ total review likes

GOTY '23

Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event

Popular

Gained 15+ followers

Donor

Liked 50+ reviews / lists

Well Written

Gained 10+ likes on a single review

Busy Day

Journaled 5+ games in a single day

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

Best Friends

Become mutual friends with at least 3 others

Loved

Gained 100+ total review likes

N00b

Played 100+ games

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Favorite Games

Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
Persona 4
Persona 4
Pokémon Crystal Version
Pokémon Crystal Version
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby and the Forgotten Land

302

Total Games Played

014

Played in 2024

000

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

Bushido Blade
Bushido Blade

Mar 26

The Muppets: On with the Show!
The Muppets: On with the Show!

Mar 17

Blast Corps
Blast Corps

Mar 16

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Mar 10

Golf Story
Golf Story

Mar 05

Recently Reviewed See More

Absolutely fascinating concept for a fighting game. You would think boiling down a fighter to its bare minimum would result in an extremely dry game without much of a hook, but you'd be quite wrong. Because any blow can be the killing strike, matches build with tension as they go on, particularly when either side begins sustaining injuries. Easy to fall into the fallacy of thinking an opponent's down and out, only to be caught off-guard by a carefully-timed killstrike from a kneeling opponent.

Of particular note to me are the controls, for how much they visually communicate their own ideas. Lightweight placed extreme consideration for how to represent their fighters' actions, and this is reflected in the layout of buttons on the PlayStation controller. Immediately you have the attack buttons, △/○/X as High/Mid/Low Attack - a descending order matching the buttons themselves. The last face button, □, is used for parries, which is to the left. Looking at it from the perspective of a player on the screen's left - as Player 1 would be at the start - the defensive □ is in a position retreating from the enemy, while the offensive ○ is advancing towards the enemy.

We also see this level of thought placed into the R1 and R2 buttons, which respectively are used to elevate or lower the player. On their own, R1 shifts to a higher stance while R2 shifts to a lower stance. Movement plus R2 makes the fighter crouch, and hitting R2 while the player is crouching makes the fighter go even lower than a crouch and fling dirt. Movement plus R1 lets the player climb a wall, and R1 out of a crouch turns the motion into a leap forward. There's a lot of very careful psychology like this to what the buttons do, and it's this sort of meticulous, deliberate design ethos that permiates a lot of what Bushido Blade is as an experience.

Bushido Blade feels a bit like a tech demo with all its offerings. Its emphasis on realistic weapon simulation, as well as mixing and matching eight weapons with six player characters, is pretty cool, and the game's main hook. Slash Mode is a fun challenge, very much a nod to traditional swordfighter movies. POV Mode is a complete gimmick, but darn if it isn't a cute idea. Link Mode is a cool idea - not a lot of games would make use of the ability to hook up multiple PS1s - but I've never had any Player 2s, so I can't vouch for it.

So, the hook for me has always been Bushido Blade's campaign. The initial draw there is how the game enforces its understanding of Bushido code - strike an opponent dishonorably (while they're talking, while they're vulnerable, etc), and the story admonishes the player with a bad ending. I'm always fascinated when a game bakes its moral code into its game systems, particularly if it's an established real-world code rather than the simple good/evil binary. But the campaign is quite short - potentially only six fights, in a game where every strike is a killing blow - and the endings are all melancholy and don't seem to resolve anything, so there's sort of an empty feeling a player has walking away from it.

...until they realize that there's a puzzle to finding the good ending. I don't mind spoiling it here: first, the player must navigate through the game world, screen by screen, as they look for their exit. Second, the player must clear every fight without sustaining damage. I guess, because each strike is a killing blow, the usual "don't lose a round" approach to a fighting game's true ending is an unrealistic approach?

I spent a couple hours on-stream trying to grind out a good ending, and while I was ultimately unsuccessful, I came away really appreciating the challenge being asked of the player here. That thing about tension building over the course of a match? That gets amplified considerably here, both during the first round escape sequence - even once you have the path memorized, a three-to-five minute run with an aggressive opponent constantly on the player's heels - then in the subsequent six fights. It's weirdly Katze, the first boss character who weilds a firearm, who becomes a breather round - striking, because he's initially the most annoying of the game's bosses for his ability to insta-kill at range. Everything else, including the normal, non-boss characters? Could stop your attempt cold.

There's sort of a weird meditative quality to grinding out the good ending, given that first round escape sequence. There's no music, just the noises of the wintry background as the player makes their escape. Once you solve the puzzle, the player's left alone with the empty nothingness of their flight, of everything being stripped away besides the instruments of death. I know I'm making a broad, sweeping statement on a culture with which I've barely interfaced, but I dunno - it feels like there's something quintessentially Japanese to this experience. Not bad for a game designed after kids beating sticks against each other on the playground.

Oh hey, wasn't sure this would exist here. Thanks, dleo.

An interactive episode of Carmen Sandiego is a no-brainer (heck, that's practically what the gameshows were), so getting one for the Netflix show was practically expected. As its own thing, it's perfectly fine; Carmen and the Chief breaking the fourth wall might seem forced in most franchises, but it would seem more strange not to go for it here.

It is kind of weird that the educational element of the series was dropped in this! Even the Netflix show had been pretty decent about retaining the franchise's edutainment roots through most episodes' planning segments. I guess you get some regional trivia through some of the heists Carmen's forced to take, but it's never really underlined by the text. Not a big deal, I guess, simply a question of what the priorities were for this episode, but still kind of a bummer. Definitely just a supplement for the adventure- and character-driven part of the show rather than its educational goals.

That said, this is more than made up for by the reward you get for seeing it through to the good ending. What a fun little inclusion! Very much worth the half-hour or so it takes to get there.

I no longer remember with confidence how Ghost Master entered my life. I have conflicting memories of it. On one hand, I have a memory of seeing it near the checkout aisle of (of all places) a Menards. On the other hand, I sorta just remember it existing one day on the vanity in my sister's bedroom, the way Calvin & Hobbes inexplicably entered my life through a phantom collection on the bathroom counter. I think what happened was that my mother saw the Ghost Master box at the store and got it for my sister (who, while she hadn't yet evolved into her current form as a comfortably eccentric goth aunt, has always had a taste for the spooky). The Menards memory must just be a later encounter with a game I'd already met. Though, let's not underplay how weird that is: Menards is a place you go to to buy 2x4s, spackle, and pool noodles - not obscure British computer games about commanding ghosts to haunt the living.

I generally did not get along with my sister as a kid. We're cool now as adults, but for the longest time, she had no time or patience for me. This is for a number of reasons that I won't get into here, but it's important to note this for its consequence - a decent amount of my childhood was spent chasing after my sister, trying to get her into my interests. By way of example - at some point, once pigs develop wings, my sister owes me a game of Pokémon Cards.

I mention this because Ghost Master represents one of those rare childhood bonding experiences I was able to share with her.

Ghost Master is a strange, strange game. This probably represents why it was marketed as a "Sims" killer, despite the games being worlds apart - Ghost Master isn't an easy game to really sell people on. It's a real-time strategy game, but it's used for puzzling specifically. But the tone is super campy, only there's a lot of references to traditional mythology mixed in with its horror movie referenced... and there's a shout-out to "Impossible Mission" on the Commodore 64, why not...

In other words, it was the perfect game for us. There's a lot to be said for something that doesn't fall neatly into any sort of lone genre, that kind of has a cavalier approach at what it is and will do whatever it wants in the conveyance of that idea. The hook for my sister and me was the idea that you're orchestrating a ghost haunting - I mean, the intro video does a pretty great job communicating the game's tone and high concept. But there is soooo much more going on that kept us there, and still keeps us coming back after all these years.

For one, the presentation. Ross Mullan does an INCREDIBLE job as the narrator, commanding a ton of presence and adding so much character to the game's myriad silly proceedings. I actually think the cast does a phenomenal job all-around, with so many fun takes and voices. I cannot possibly convey how much joy I get out of some of these line reads. SUCH PREMEDITATED INDIGNITY MUST BE REPAID IN WRATHFUL SPITE. can't do much without electricity, dude. MY ACCURSED HUSBAND BURIED ME HERE IN THE DARKNESS. curse the progeny of monkeys, they who weave the waves, and cast their fellow beings into the deep, their tendrils swathed in stone. A MURDER OF CROWS; ANOINT THE WICKER MAN A TASTE OF BLOOD. make like linda blair and set his head a-spinnin'! I'D READ YOU YOUR RIGHTS, SCUMBAG, BUT YA AIN'T GOT ANY! went and got myself shot. but hey! i'm a professional. IT'S, LIKE, TOTALLY OUT THERE, AND I'M, LIKE, IN A MIRROR, Y'KNOW? betcha never seen a trickster with gams like these, huh? AH, HELLO! I LUCKY, AND THEES LUCKY'S BEEPING TABLE. oh! ah! to be seen! i had forgotten what it was like. such a... tiiiiingly feeeeling. STORMTALON, PRINCE AMONG ELEMENTALS, ANSWERS YOUR CALL OF THUNDER <dramatic inhale> AND LIGHTNING.

You might've noticed from some of those quotes as well, but man, the writing in this game is top notch. There's a ridiculous amount of artistry to how efficiently the game communicates its ideas. Like, to break it down, you have Brigit, the ghost bride. Here is how she introduces herself. This is essentially all information you receive for this character. Yet you learn her whole thing here: she was jilted, her fiancé was a compulsive womanizer, she went crazy and killed herself via electrocution, she's compelled in the afterlife to punish cheaters. Not only this, but it's presented in such a vivid way between the voice and the evocative writing. The mind easily constructs the events that conspired to bring about this spectral, wailing, charred husk of a woman. Every character, every scenario, is written or described like this.

This is without even getting into the game's Fetter system! Summoned Ghosts must be bound to specific Fetters - objects or places that hold a specific affinity. Some are obvious, like locations or elements. But then you get into really specific stuff: "Emotional", "Violence", and "Murder". An Emotional Fetter is a thing that instills or has instilled within it strong emotional responses; a Violence Fetter has caused violence; a Murder Fetter has killed or is a corpse. On occasion, the game will assign seemingly-random objects these qualities, which tells a ridiculous amount of stories. It is never relevant to the gameplay, for example, why the stump in "Summoners Not Included" is a Violence/Murder Fetter, but one wonders what happened there. Likewise for "Weird Séance", which features both a bicycle as a Murder Fetter and a couch as a Violence/Emotional Fetter. Considering the level takes place in a frat house, the implications seem horrible - yet that's what makes them so fascinating.

Since I mentioned Brigit, the most legitimate issue with the game - and the main thing that always holds me back from unilaterally recommending it to the world - is how obtuse its systems can be. Ghost Master has brilliant design, but its systems aren't always able to keep up. There are pathing issues with the mortal AI that makes herding them around imperfect. You can use the exact skills you're supposed to to get whoever where they're supposed to go. Sometimes it'll work like a charm, sometimes you'll be at it for quite some time. My sister swears she can recruit Brigit in like 5 minutes, but I've almost always taken the better part of an hour flailing around trying to get her. Her mission, "Phantom of the Operating Room", is always the lowlight of replays for me, but "Deadfellas" and "Facepacks and Broomsticks" can drag on for similar reasons, much as I love those missions for other reasons.

But when it's firing on all cylinders, the game really comes together. I talked about this with my friends on this Designing For video, but "Spooky Hollow" is a legitimately great time, all the systems really coming together there. When not bogged down on specific objectives and just speedrunning, there's a great cadence to bigger maps - stuff like "Weird Séance" and "Unusual Suspects". Once you know what you're doing, the puzzle maps - "The Calamityville Horror", "The Blair Wisp Project", "Ghostbreakers", etc - have kind of a neat cadence to them, switching it up and relying on a more careful type of resource management. And "Class of Spook 'Em High", for as simple as it is, makes for a great puzzle capstone, really building up the tension as the narrator gradually counts down the timer.

For me, the bottom line has always been the sheer amount of potential the game held. I always felt like there was way, way, way more to this game than existed just within the scope of the game disc. The ideas and how it communicates them, the writing, the acting, the mechanics, the worldbuilding... so much of it, and how effectively it does a lot of that, has mesmerized me over the years. For the longest time, the simple act of thinking about Ghost Master could send me on an obsessive deep dive into the internet, into what fledgeling community existed for the game, trying to scrounge up whatever information I could. I fully attribute my own appreciation for the macabre and for concise worldbuilding, as well as in part my appreciation for irreverence and world myth studies, to how Ghost Master approached damn near everything it set out to do.

And, like I said, it was something I could share with my sister. I dunno that she ever got as deep into obsessing over the game as I did, but I can quote something out of context from the game - even one of the gibberish lines spoken by Mortals - and trust that she'll get what I'm saying. There are very few things in this world where I feel I really got in deep on it, and it's nice to be able to share that with someone else. Especially if it's something that helps you get closer to someone.

...

...SO. I'M UP ON THIS ROOF...