Marigold
2005
Katamari games are probably the only games made out of pure love. And this one is the one that seems like it exudes the most love of all.
<3
<3
It's very anti-war, it wants to make sure you know it's anti-war, but not in the same way that Ace Combat 5 hits you over the head with it like a blunt instrument. It has more interest in showing the (unfortunately mostly faceless) individual personal conclusions to being faced with fascism and war atrocity. PJ's naive belief that the government cares about the average person, alongside desperate right-wing fascism turned into manipulation of trauma-addled war veterans. It's trying to say a lot, it REALLY comes close to fucking this up, but I think you can read it in a way that isn't too misguided.
This game really gets into the hypocrisy and morality of war, the idea that there is a such thing as a "gentleman's war", the validity of buying into war for "noble reasons", the inherent bloodthirst and dehumanization caused by borders - your side is all evil, even the civilians, so get fucked, etc. It doesn't matter anyway, to participate willingly in a war is buying into it, regardless of whether you're a supposed "knight" or an indiscriminate slaughterer.
Mission 11: The Inferno -> Mission 12: The Stage of Apocalypse is eternal.
Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.
This game really gets into the hypocrisy and morality of war, the idea that there is a such thing as a "gentleman's war", the validity of buying into war for "noble reasons", the inherent bloodthirst and dehumanization caused by borders - your side is all evil, even the civilians, so get fucked, etc. It doesn't matter anyway, to participate willingly in a war is buying into it, regardless of whether you're a supposed "knight" or an indiscriminate slaughterer.
Mission 11: The Inferno -> Mission 12: The Stage of Apocalypse is eternal.
Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.
2022
Wants to handle Blade Runner / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep style questioning, while also drawing parallels to The Queer Experience. Everyone wants to know what it's like to be you, because you're not normal. Has queer characters in spades. Substitutes jaded Eastern European leftism for youthful, cautious optimism.
Suffers from the limitations of the scope, it can feel like the Big Defining Moments for culture on the station just kind of... don't have anything change. The struggle part quickly fades past a certain point, and it turns into a more regular-feeling VN after that point. Doesn't inter-weave as much as it feels like it should.
Suffers from the limitations of the scope, it can feel like the Big Defining Moments for culture on the station just kind of... don't have anything change. The struggle part quickly fades past a certain point, and it turns into a more regular-feeling VN after that point. Doesn't inter-weave as much as it feels like it should.
2020
Painful emotional retreats into your own head to escape things you don't want to feel, awkward re-connections where you can't shake the thought of "I really wish I was at home sleeping right now". Sleep doesn't bring any relief though, because your dreams are just as stressful as being awake. A frayed string, pulled tight and threatening to break at any moment.
2021
societal collapse will be traced back to the new york times acquisition of this game.
2022
You always think you're doing the right thing in the moment. Time passes. Things fall apart. No longer safe in the hands of love. I told her a bedtime story. She was burned at the stake.
The Tony Hawk game that pushes you because it knows you can do it. It knows you can pull out 500k combos and bust out nearly 2 million points in under two minutes, and it just wants you to learn how.
2021
To burgeon over with anticipation, confirm you're real, and engage in heroism through love. To be kind.
Love is a hand-made lunchbox full of chalk, and a hug for the camera.
Love is a hand-made lunchbox full of chalk, and a hug for the camera.
Ambitious, missed potential, confused, anti-nationalist. Yeah. Emotionally aware, dramatic, pays attention to its individual characters while tripping over itself for what it actually stands for.
They had a great opportunity with the anti-war stuff, not that it's terrible, but it's like... well, it eventually resolves itself into nationalism being bad, which is true, but to get there it also felt like it had to give up another thing it got close to: something along the lines of "war is manufactured by the ones who don't have to experience it." but that gets dashed aside for couple of twists that I won't detail because I don't want to give this a full spoiler tag.
Lovely cast of characters, albeit somewhat scatter-brained usage of them. The method of feeding you cutscenes that are mostly from a non-military non-player perspective is always something I liked, and the aesthetic of shooting it through a camera for journalism that also exists in some places is nice... There's a lot going on in this, it gets very direct with shit like the military silencing journalists (temporarily, in this case) so they don't report on things that should be known, the citizens of your originating country don't fucking care about the war and think it's pointless... It has ambition, like I said before.
It plays nice. It has horrid team-AI, with a caveat: they are decent at damaging enemy planes, they are godawful at finishing them off. It's very scripted, which okay, fine, it's way more focused on making you engage with the narrative and the spectacle (stuff like the ICBM lighting up the entire sky), I don't think it's a huge issue. It's not very difficult outside of a couple of obtuse occasions. It has lots of hectic radio chatter, for me it helps prop up some of the border-line snoozefest levels, but if you think it isn't convincing enough, yeah, there's nothing helping some of these missions. Lots of infinitely respawning pairs of jets and whatnot to keep you occupied. It's whatever.
It's not bad, but it's very... fantastical. It doesn't have the balls to commit to the grand vision that it felt like it was capable of, it hit some really weird twists and story beats in the later bits, and is generally kind of strange.
Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.
They had a great opportunity with the anti-war stuff, not that it's terrible, but it's like... well, it eventually resolves itself into nationalism being bad, which is true, but to get there it also felt like it had to give up another thing it got close to: something along the lines of "war is manufactured by the ones who don't have to experience it." but that gets dashed aside for couple of twists that I won't detail because I don't want to give this a full spoiler tag.
Lovely cast of characters, albeit somewhat scatter-brained usage of them. The method of feeding you cutscenes that are mostly from a non-military non-player perspective is always something I liked, and the aesthetic of shooting it through a camera for journalism that also exists in some places is nice... There's a lot going on in this, it gets very direct with shit like the military silencing journalists (temporarily, in this case) so they don't report on things that should be known, the citizens of your originating country don't fucking care about the war and think it's pointless... It has ambition, like I said before.
It plays nice. It has horrid team-AI, with a caveat: they are decent at damaging enemy planes, they are godawful at finishing them off. It's very scripted, which okay, fine, it's way more focused on making you engage with the narrative and the spectacle (stuff like the ICBM lighting up the entire sky), I don't think it's a huge issue. It's not very difficult outside of a couple of obtuse occasions. It has lots of hectic radio chatter, for me it helps prop up some of the border-line snoozefest levels, but if you think it isn't convincing enough, yeah, there's nothing helping some of these missions. Lots of infinitely respawning pairs of jets and whatnot to keep you occupied. It's whatever.
It's not bad, but it's very... fantastical. It doesn't have the balls to commit to the grand vision that it felt like it was capable of, it hit some really weird twists and story beats in the later bits, and is generally kind of strange.
Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.
2022
To reach eternity through deicide.
2019
Wears thin once you work your way out of RPD and its parking garage, but until that point, it's a wonderful crawl through a building that is eating itself from the inside out.
Made with 20+ years of love, and it shows. <3
Played on Linux w/ Heroic Launcher, using Proton Experimental for wine base.
Played on Linux w/ Heroic Launcher, using Proton Experimental for wine base.
To form a genuine connection with others.
<3
<3
2008
PR2 was the place to be in 2008, 2009, 2010. Seriously, this game at its height was frequently peaking 2000 or more players, it wasn't uncommon that you would have to sit at the login screen spamming the shit out of it, hoping someone logged off one of the servers at the same time you were hoping to log in.
All other Platform Racing games failed. Why? Platform Racing 1: bad netcode, too primitive. Platform Racing 3: website exclusivity (on a flash game, lol), bad netcode. This leaves Platform Racing 2 in a sweet spot. People would play this shit endlessly, you could not escape the existence of this game on Kongregate. It deserved it, really. The crown jewel, though? Including a level editor. It was a well of endless content. People would make competitive maps, troll maps, casual silly maps, narrative maps (with VERY good art), it was an expressive tool way beyond what I imagine Jiggmin thought people use it for. And it was awesome. And I miss it.
Kongregate shut down most of its forums last year, and almost every chatroom was killed at the same time. Its golden era is long over, and it is fading from relevancy, only existing as a corporate shell of itself. One day it will be gone, just like one day the guy maintaining the remaining server(s) for PR2 will be gone, and all that we'll have left is our memories. It's sad, but they were good times. I miss you.
All other Platform Racing games failed. Why? Platform Racing 1: bad netcode, too primitive. Platform Racing 3: website exclusivity (on a flash game, lol), bad netcode. This leaves Platform Racing 2 in a sweet spot. People would play this shit endlessly, you could not escape the existence of this game on Kongregate. It deserved it, really. The crown jewel, though? Including a level editor. It was a well of endless content. People would make competitive maps, troll maps, casual silly maps, narrative maps (with VERY good art), it was an expressive tool way beyond what I imagine Jiggmin thought people use it for. And it was awesome. And I miss it.
Kongregate shut down most of its forums last year, and almost every chatroom was killed at the same time. Its golden era is long over, and it is fading from relevancy, only existing as a corporate shell of itself. One day it will be gone, just like one day the guy maintaining the remaining server(s) for PR2 will be gone, and all that we'll have left is our memories. It's sad, but they were good times. I miss you.
2023
Decent game feel that is somewhat plagued by strange design decisions. The GTA-like heat system and decision to include rudimentary combat in particular are head scratchers that only really serve to pull the player away from the fun part of the game (skating). Music-wise it can feel really good or quite bland, the completely silent main menu is a ???-tier decision though, and there are more than a few sounds that lack any oomph that they feel like they should have. Fun for a while.