Pyronoid
13 reviews liked by Pyronoid
Battlefield V
2018
i don't know why dice decided to give soldiers random lines of dialogue when you revive them but I thank them for it. it really enhances the authenticity of the world war 2 experience. i rush across the battlefield to revive "c0ck4ndb4llT0rtur3" and their character tells me "man is as a wolf to itself" while my squadmates sit in a truck honking the horn to the tune of cruel angel's thesis. truly, these are the fields watered with our fathers' blood
Metroid Fusion
2002
PREVIOUSLY ON METROID: Samus Aran, galactic hero, nemesis of the evil space pirates, and bounty hunter who to my knowledge has never actually Hunted a Bounty, commits genocide.
this isn't a game theory or another example of a leftist unwilling to read a game in a way that isn't materialistic (i mean. not entirely, anyway...), this is just textually what occurs in Metroid 2. Samus touches down on SR388 and doesn't leave its surface until she's exterminated every single Metroid, except one, a final act of mercy that's immediately dropped off for invasive scientific study.
difficult to approach and often really quite tedious, Metroid 2 is nonetheless a truly remarkable game accurately described by FMTownsParty (https://www.backloggd.com/u/FMTownsParty/review/1831/) as an "art game for the Game Boy", and something of a black sheep in Nintendo's vast catalogue. it's a game I respect immensely even if I will probably never play it again, and its uniqueness stands out all the more for the abject failure of its twin remakes to replicate it, even if they are accomplished works in their own right, and one of my sticking points with Super Metroid, a game I like but cannot bring myself to love, is that it largely excises these more narratively complex elements in favor of something far more traditional. super metroid is an exceedingly fine game, but it doesn't really go for it, y'know?
thankfully, Metroid: Fusion makes up for it's predecessor by going for it harder than few games could ever hope to match.
becoming a new kind of life-form made out of the DNA of the single act of mercy you offered to a species you exterminated only to find yourself hunted by the physical embodiment of that past extermination wearing your face and using your powers is enough of a killer hook to hang an entire game out of but somehow Fusion just keeps going, adding layer upon layer of incisive thematic work interrogating it's central character relentlessly, until it cements itself as (with the possible exception of Majora's Mask) the single most thematically rich, narratively accomplished nintendo game with no input from Shigesato Itoi. every pixel of this game is bursting with resonance and detail and purpose that is near un-rivalled. fusion isn't just the best metroid game, it's one of the best games, period.
i think we've mostly chilled out on decrying Fusion for its linearity, but i wanna highlight what the game's structure does to serve it. the game's loop is simple: you arrive in a sector, adam tells you roughly what you need to do and why, and then you go do that thing, usually with some little hidey-holes you can poke in along the way to get an upgrade. but within this loop, the information you are given and the information that is withheld is pointed. even before the big reveals it's clear just how much the federation is manipulating and lying to you, and as you question your orders more and more, the game widens the scope it offers you, going from your first run in sector 1 being practically on-rails to the sections where the game lets go of the reins entirely, inviting you to find the path forward on your own, which are inevitably the moments where you push up against and bomb your way through the walls of the conspiracy around you. portal wishes it could do this as well.
everything about the storytelling in this game is so incisive, so pointed. the way the game emphasizes the destructive/predatory nature of Samus by making clear that you are not only the reason for the X's existence, by wiping out its natural predators, the Metroids, from the ecosystem, but also for it's spread throughout the station, as the AI reminds you that by opening up other areas, you are letting the X spread into them. the federation and samus' intertwined culpability in this incident is never left in doubt, the very act of playing a Metroid game, of increasing your ability to navigate this space, is toxic and bringing about it's destruction.
this culminates in one of the most remarkable sequences in the game and, indeed, the series, when you trick your way into the restricted zone and discover, inevitably, that the federation is breeding metroids. for "peaceful purposes", they claim. contrary to the game's reputation as constantly talking (Samus has some internal narration but it's genuinely quite sparse, and her actually talking back to the AI at the end is a big moment) this entire sequence, from the reveal to the knife-twisting that is the SA-X showing up to do as Samus does: butcher Metroids, to the final escape, where you drift upwards through an elevator shaft filled with other metroids - your kin, now - it's all done wordlessly, and communicates far more complicated feelings than anything in Super Metroid.
more than Other M could ever conceive, Fusion is about Samus. her destructive and violent past in the prior metroids, and her current status, a tool of the federation that they are preparing to discard once they find multiple, mass-produced SA-Xs they believe they can control. after all, why not? they controlled Samus, at least up to a certain point. the way the game pulls back its tight linear pacing ever so slightly as the story reaches its climax communicates Samus' push for personal autonomy beautifully, which is why I wish the ending was just a little tighter.
don't get me wrong, it's a knockout in many respects. facing the SA-X, the embodiment of what Samus once was, and triumphing over it with the new(ish) powers you've obtained from interfacing and embracing the life forms you destroy is a fantastic final battle, as is the last-minute reprise of being saved by the baby metroid. much-mocked as it is, I actually like the Fusion one far better, because rather than being a straightforwardly paternalistic relationship, the SA-Xs motives are far more obscured. is this the Samus part of it? or is it the X, protecting what could be the last remnant of its existence inside Samus? or is it a bittersweet reclamation and restating of Samus Aran as the one who kills the Metroids? it could be all of them, and that's why I like it. i like metroid when it's not doing gender, frankly. i like it, even more, when Samus Aran is ultimately saved by the funny little animals she saves innocuously around halfway through the game. i think that's why i like samus, ultimately, despite her genocidal tendencies, despite the fact that she is absolutely someone who would take away one of her hands, one of the ways she is able to reach out and embrace the world around her, with a gun. here, at the end, she still has enough good in her to save people.
which brings me to the actual sore point with the ending: Adam. there's a generous read to be made on the game's depiction of Adam for much of it, and I maintain that the game is genuinely critical of him as a person, as the twin reveals of him actively deceiving Samus throughout the adventure and also being the actual mind of Adam Malkovich do much to paint the picture of a kind of shitty military guy that Samus is all too willing to absolve him due to her own guilt. the problem is, of course, the Gender. the "any objections, lady?" shit and Samus' frankly embarrassing "no wait hold on it's fine actually his misogyny is secretly woke come on" is hard to swallow and impossible to muster the enthusiasm to do so after Sakamoto went on to write and direct Metroid: Other M, a fucking dumpster fire with the biggest gender essentialist TERF energy imaginable. Other M's very existence makes it a bit harder to be generous to Fusion in the way that I would like to.
there's so much to like about the end of this game, but there's just a twinge of (ahem) Dread it envokes. from the (genuinely forgotten by me until this most recent playthrough) backpedaling of Samus' revolutionary act against the government by Adam insisting that "someone (in government) will understand" to the aforementioned gender, there are things about it that could be taken in a bad direction. nevertheless, it's hard to hold the mistakes of the future, be they in Other M or, potentially, in Dread, against Fusion too hard. it remains an absolutely singular work that I love dearly, a thematic embarrassment of riches that deserves to stand up and be counted as a true classic.
i didn't even mention how much fun it is to shoot da guys! it's very fun. five stars.
this isn't a game theory or another example of a leftist unwilling to read a game in a way that isn't materialistic (i mean. not entirely, anyway...), this is just textually what occurs in Metroid 2. Samus touches down on SR388 and doesn't leave its surface until she's exterminated every single Metroid, except one, a final act of mercy that's immediately dropped off for invasive scientific study.
difficult to approach and often really quite tedious, Metroid 2 is nonetheless a truly remarkable game accurately described by FMTownsParty (https://www.backloggd.com/u/FMTownsParty/review/1831/) as an "art game for the Game Boy", and something of a black sheep in Nintendo's vast catalogue. it's a game I respect immensely even if I will probably never play it again, and its uniqueness stands out all the more for the abject failure of its twin remakes to replicate it, even if they are accomplished works in their own right, and one of my sticking points with Super Metroid, a game I like but cannot bring myself to love, is that it largely excises these more narratively complex elements in favor of something far more traditional. super metroid is an exceedingly fine game, but it doesn't really go for it, y'know?
thankfully, Metroid: Fusion makes up for it's predecessor by going for it harder than few games could ever hope to match.
becoming a new kind of life-form made out of the DNA of the single act of mercy you offered to a species you exterminated only to find yourself hunted by the physical embodiment of that past extermination wearing your face and using your powers is enough of a killer hook to hang an entire game out of but somehow Fusion just keeps going, adding layer upon layer of incisive thematic work interrogating it's central character relentlessly, until it cements itself as (with the possible exception of Majora's Mask) the single most thematically rich, narratively accomplished nintendo game with no input from Shigesato Itoi. every pixel of this game is bursting with resonance and detail and purpose that is near un-rivalled. fusion isn't just the best metroid game, it's one of the best games, period.
i think we've mostly chilled out on decrying Fusion for its linearity, but i wanna highlight what the game's structure does to serve it. the game's loop is simple: you arrive in a sector, adam tells you roughly what you need to do and why, and then you go do that thing, usually with some little hidey-holes you can poke in along the way to get an upgrade. but within this loop, the information you are given and the information that is withheld is pointed. even before the big reveals it's clear just how much the federation is manipulating and lying to you, and as you question your orders more and more, the game widens the scope it offers you, going from your first run in sector 1 being practically on-rails to the sections where the game lets go of the reins entirely, inviting you to find the path forward on your own, which are inevitably the moments where you push up against and bomb your way through the walls of the conspiracy around you. portal wishes it could do this as well.
everything about the storytelling in this game is so incisive, so pointed. the way the game emphasizes the destructive/predatory nature of Samus by making clear that you are not only the reason for the X's existence, by wiping out its natural predators, the Metroids, from the ecosystem, but also for it's spread throughout the station, as the AI reminds you that by opening up other areas, you are letting the X spread into them. the federation and samus' intertwined culpability in this incident is never left in doubt, the very act of playing a Metroid game, of increasing your ability to navigate this space, is toxic and bringing about it's destruction.
this culminates in one of the most remarkable sequences in the game and, indeed, the series, when you trick your way into the restricted zone and discover, inevitably, that the federation is breeding metroids. for "peaceful purposes", they claim. contrary to the game's reputation as constantly talking (Samus has some internal narration but it's genuinely quite sparse, and her actually talking back to the AI at the end is a big moment) this entire sequence, from the reveal to the knife-twisting that is the SA-X showing up to do as Samus does: butcher Metroids, to the final escape, where you drift upwards through an elevator shaft filled with other metroids - your kin, now - it's all done wordlessly, and communicates far more complicated feelings than anything in Super Metroid.
more than Other M could ever conceive, Fusion is about Samus. her destructive and violent past in the prior metroids, and her current status, a tool of the federation that they are preparing to discard once they find multiple, mass-produced SA-Xs they believe they can control. after all, why not? they controlled Samus, at least up to a certain point. the way the game pulls back its tight linear pacing ever so slightly as the story reaches its climax communicates Samus' push for personal autonomy beautifully, which is why I wish the ending was just a little tighter.
don't get me wrong, it's a knockout in many respects. facing the SA-X, the embodiment of what Samus once was, and triumphing over it with the new(ish) powers you've obtained from interfacing and embracing the life forms you destroy is a fantastic final battle, as is the last-minute reprise of being saved by the baby metroid. much-mocked as it is, I actually like the Fusion one far better, because rather than being a straightforwardly paternalistic relationship, the SA-Xs motives are far more obscured. is this the Samus part of it? or is it the X, protecting what could be the last remnant of its existence inside Samus? or is it a bittersweet reclamation and restating of Samus Aran as the one who kills the Metroids? it could be all of them, and that's why I like it. i like metroid when it's not doing gender, frankly. i like it, even more, when Samus Aran is ultimately saved by the funny little animals she saves innocuously around halfway through the game. i think that's why i like samus, ultimately, despite her genocidal tendencies, despite the fact that she is absolutely someone who would take away one of her hands, one of the ways she is able to reach out and embrace the world around her, with a gun. here, at the end, she still has enough good in her to save people.
which brings me to the actual sore point with the ending: Adam. there's a generous read to be made on the game's depiction of Adam for much of it, and I maintain that the game is genuinely critical of him as a person, as the twin reveals of him actively deceiving Samus throughout the adventure and also being the actual mind of Adam Malkovich do much to paint the picture of a kind of shitty military guy that Samus is all too willing to absolve him due to her own guilt. the problem is, of course, the Gender. the "any objections, lady?" shit and Samus' frankly embarrassing "no wait hold on it's fine actually his misogyny is secretly woke come on" is hard to swallow and impossible to muster the enthusiasm to do so after Sakamoto went on to write and direct Metroid: Other M, a fucking dumpster fire with the biggest gender essentialist TERF energy imaginable. Other M's very existence makes it a bit harder to be generous to Fusion in the way that I would like to.
there's so much to like about the end of this game, but there's just a twinge of (ahem) Dread it envokes. from the (genuinely forgotten by me until this most recent playthrough) backpedaling of Samus' revolutionary act against the government by Adam insisting that "someone (in government) will understand" to the aforementioned gender, there are things about it that could be taken in a bad direction. nevertheless, it's hard to hold the mistakes of the future, be they in Other M or, potentially, in Dread, against Fusion too hard. it remains an absolutely singular work that I love dearly, a thematic embarrassment of riches that deserves to stand up and be counted as a true classic.
i didn't even mention how much fun it is to shoot da guys! it's very fun. five stars.
Pentiment
2022
โโ๐ช ๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช ๐ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ด๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ข๐ก โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข. โ๐ฑ'๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก. โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ก๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ด ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฆ๐ซ 2001 ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐๐ก ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฉ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฅ โญ๐๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ด๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ก ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ก๐ข ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
Vampire Survivors
2021
Admirable in the aesthetic sense, a modern-day revival of the Newgroundspunk manifesto that aided and abetted the creation of illegal little serotonin dispensers built from the pixellated bones of beloved franchises. It's about time folks were allowed to charge a couple of quid for this sort of thing - lawyers be damned! A miracle that it can walk around in Castlevania's skin and replicate its movements without anyone narcing to Konami; this is the Steam equivalent of that scene from Spider-Man 2 where everyone carries the unmasked Peter Parker down the train carriage without giving him up to Doc Ock.
As far as gameplay goes, though, I think this is somewhat abject and miserable. It gets its gamefeel just right, but locks satisfaction behind rote roguelite tedium and digital dicerolling, forcing you to relive its early-game boredom again and again until you have the means to boost ahead to the good stuff. It feels like a progression model that games just can't move on from, a skinner box that aims to rack up Steam hours punctuated with the fleeting thrills the store page promised you. Another "podcast game" in the pejorative sense, something your friend will recommend to you while frowning or shrugging.
As far as gameplay goes, though, I think this is somewhat abject and miserable. It gets its gamefeel just right, but locks satisfaction behind rote roguelite tedium and digital dicerolling, forcing you to relive its early-game boredom again and again until you have the means to boost ahead to the good stuff. It feels like a progression model that games just can't move on from, a skinner box that aims to rack up Steam hours punctuated with the fleeting thrills the store page promised you. Another "podcast game" in the pejorative sense, something your friend will recommend to you while frowning or shrugging.
Vampire Survivors
2021
God I love how people who don't like this talk about it. From the outside you'd think it was some insanely transgressive thing. Gaming's "A Serbian Film". Some real visceral reactions.
It is merely some of the best "Brain off, number go up" fun I've had in ages. At times I thought it was gonnae crash from the amount of projectiles and effects layering the screen, slowing the framerate down to the teens, which made it even funnier and added to the daft power trip. Cost me like ยฃ2 and isnae trying to rinse me of my dosh through microtransactions. I don't see the problem.
It's great fun when YOU are the bullet hell.
It is merely some of the best "Brain off, number go up" fun I've had in ages. At times I thought it was gonnae crash from the amount of projectiles and effects layering the screen, slowing the framerate down to the teens, which made it even funnier and added to the daft power trip. Cost me like ยฃ2 and isnae trying to rinse me of my dosh through microtransactions. I don't see the problem.
It's great fun when YOU are the bullet hell.
some delightfully goopy visuals and sets aside, i am honestly stunned by how completely this failed to work for me. i am by no means one of the resi 6 faithful but i found myself constantly wishing i was playing that while trudging my way through this turgid exercise in insecurity. this to me far more aptly demonstrates the air of extreme desperation many people accused resi 6 of, a supremely unconfident attempt to play catchup to an entire history of the horror zeitgeist. texas chainsaw massacre, evil dead, the shining, the ring, blair witch, the hills have eyes, escape rooms, even america's most haunted and ghostwatch...it's all been thrown in and blended together until all that remains is a tasteless textureless black sludge.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
Mario Party
1998
The nice thing about Nintendo Switch Online for old people like me is that you get a little involuntary nostalgia hit every couple of months. I wouldnโt download and emulate Mario Party of my own volition, but something about it being readily available on my Switch just makes the access to those old memories so much more enticing - even when said memories now launch with an updated warning about how they can cause permanent damage to the palm of your hand.
Funny story about this game - my younger brother and I had it in our heads that it was possible to be skilled at it. Our misguided belief that the winner of a game of Mario Party was in some way deserving of recognition and admiration eventually came to a head when our neighbour - who didnโt own or play video games of any kind whatsoever at any time - played a round with us one rainy afternoon. He came out comfortably 3 stars ahead at the end of 50 turns, brutally shredding our fragile preteenage egos to tatters. This trauma sent my brother crazy, and he had to be locked in the bathroom for an hour because he was quite simply going completely apeshit-crackers at the notion that someone who didnโt even hold the N64 controller correctly could beat him at a game heโd played for a hundred hours. Very funny to recall his little cheeky face lying on a floor sodden with Chance Time-induced tears. Great game.
You can jape endlessly about the unfairness of the original Mario Partys, but thereโs nothing you can really say thatโs more amusing than participating in it. Taking huge inspiration from the capitalist chaos of Monopoly, this is definitely one of Nintendoโs most postmodern games, directly stating on many occasions that the rules are made up and the coins donโt matter. It revels in unfairness and mean-spiritedness (literally, with the inclusion of a robber Boo) in a way I imagine Shigeru Miyamoto would frown very hard at, and I presume the meaning of Bowser hollering โThatโs often the way things go in life!โ while tap-dancing on the spot as Mario wails about being mis-sold a suspicious โsuper duper starโ for the tidy sum of 200 coins just completely passed me by as a kid. Just like the game of Life, the lesson to be learned here is that no matter how carefully plot your course and how hard you twirl your joystick, all the money in your bank can be swept away in an instant because some stupid prick stepped on a big red button with your face on it.
Funny story about this game - my younger brother and I had it in our heads that it was possible to be skilled at it. Our misguided belief that the winner of a game of Mario Party was in some way deserving of recognition and admiration eventually came to a head when our neighbour - who didnโt own or play video games of any kind whatsoever at any time - played a round with us one rainy afternoon. He came out comfortably 3 stars ahead at the end of 50 turns, brutally shredding our fragile preteenage egos to tatters. This trauma sent my brother crazy, and he had to be locked in the bathroom for an hour because he was quite simply going completely apeshit-crackers at the notion that someone who didnโt even hold the N64 controller correctly could beat him at a game heโd played for a hundred hours. Very funny to recall his little cheeky face lying on a floor sodden with Chance Time-induced tears. Great game.
You can jape endlessly about the unfairness of the original Mario Partys, but thereโs nothing you can really say thatโs more amusing than participating in it. Taking huge inspiration from the capitalist chaos of Monopoly, this is definitely one of Nintendoโs most postmodern games, directly stating on many occasions that the rules are made up and the coins donโt matter. It revels in unfairness and mean-spiritedness (literally, with the inclusion of a robber Boo) in a way I imagine Shigeru Miyamoto would frown very hard at, and I presume the meaning of Bowser hollering โThatโs often the way things go in life!โ while tap-dancing on the spot as Mario wails about being mis-sold a suspicious โsuper duper starโ for the tidy sum of 200 coins just completely passed me by as a kid. Just like the game of Life, the lesson to be learned here is that no matter how carefully plot your course and how hard you twirl your joystick, all the money in your bank can be swept away in an instant because some stupid prick stepped on a big red button with your face on it.
Halo Infinite
2021
"My slumber was disturbed by a mighty roar heard across worlds. On every world, a CRISIS. On every alternative, a new apocalypse. A doomsday. A last judgement. A conclusion that never comes but continues to arrive. An endless EVENT."
-----------------------------------------
When I first wrote about Halo Infinite, I described it as where you need to go to find an avatar of the Modern AAA game experience. Having now finished the campaign, I would like to expand that further to include the modern media landscape as a whole in 2022.
Halo Infinite begins without beginning, and ends without ending. It is an eternal middle, starting after everything is established and stopping before anything is concluded, a promise of content to come, an eternal conflict Master Chief wages to stop Halo from being fully reborn, that in it's waging produces a thousand tiny moments of HaloTM content to enjoy. Or, perhaps, not even to enjoy; to simply consume, one after another, turning blue icons grey until there are no blue icons that remain, until the next feast of Blue Icons arises, until the wheel turns again.
In a world where each day, we are presented with news headlines demonstrating time and time again that the pillars that make up our modern world are in fact the very same thing choking the life out of it, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Shared Universe, previously the niche domain of geek franchise fodder that produced such delightful ephemera as the Yuuzhan Vong or Faction Paradox, has emerged as the definitive modern storytelling mode. How else do we justify the obscene contradictions of the world in which we live than by performing necromantic rituals on dead worlds and stories, ensuring they stretch on forever and ever, insisting upon their own existences far beyond memory and relevancy or even their own endings. A world where marvel superheroes can face their Endgame and keep going, a world where The Dead Speak, and, of course, a world where Master Chief continues to fight the good fight forevermore, clearing outposts on the infinite sprawl of Zeta Halo.
Do you remember Halo 5: Guardians? Halo Infinite, hopes you do and do not, at the exact same time. That game happened, to be sure - the illusion of the Shared World cannot allow something like a game with a number attached to simply Not Occur without shattering the shared delusion of meaning and import that continuity represents - but it was followed by a phantom Halo 6 that never came out, a game that resolved the conflict with The Created that Halo 5 set up, a game where Master Chief had his tearful final confrontation with Cortana, a game that properly introduced The Banished and established them as an equal threat to the UNSC, a game that conveniently resets everything to it's most comfortably anthromorphic and predictable states. The green guy and the aliens on the ringworld, the rebel alliance and the empire. On and on it goes. Halo 6 exists now only as a wound that Infinite spends the entirety of it's runtime picking at, a gap in space and time that exists only to be filled in by content, audio logs and and lore podcasts and theory videos, Content upon Content, nothing but Content in this blasted land. Master Chief emerges from this black hole of a Game That Never Was to find Halo in the process of rebooting itself, and wearily sets himself to prevent that goal. Bereft of advancement, regressing to the Iconic Version of himself, and aided always by a false simulacra made by the image Cortana represented in prior games, against a nameless, faceless enemy, literally called The Endless, always out of sight and out of firing range, dangled forever in front of the Chief as he runs along on the hamster wheel of Halo's corpse forevermore, listening to the voices of ghosts explaining what happened in games that never were, all the while, a Final, True and Ultimate Threat hangs just out of reach, an Empty Hand holding an Energy Sword of Damocles that will never, ever fall.
This is Halo: Infinite. The promise of ephemera, imagery, and writing that once Meant Something, that had cultural and artistic significance emerging from the time it was created, placed into a vacuum-sealed Platform to sustain itself in perpetuity, without beginning or end, a mobius loop greedily devouring it's own tail because there remains nothing else. An existential nightmare existence without progress or retreat, where Master Chief fights forever against an enemy he cannot ever defeat, yet cannot ever defeat him in turn. Where the only victory to be found is the perpetuity of the world that Is, stretching on forever and ever. The Covenant can become The Banished, the Empire can become The First Order, Dark Souls can become Elden Ring, Overwatch can become Overwatch 2, but nothing can ever actually change. Nothing can actually evolve, not even combat. The world can never be allowed to end, to die, to allow new flowers to sprout from it's corpse as it becomes a part of the earth that spawns it. No matter what happens, Master Chief must always be on a Halo, shooting a grunt with a battle rifle.
And it's still fun to shoot a grunt with a battle rifle. But it's been over 20 years since Combat was said to Evolve. When will the war end? Will it ever, or are we trapped in a perpetual conflict with an enemy that is both tremendously weak and cowardly and infinitely powerful and terrifying? When will the galaxy be at peace? When will the covenant finally be defeated? When will Durandal look back on the world that was, and wonder who we were? How many more Ancient Evils remain to be defeated? How many more Banished/Covenants exist to be broken? How many more Grunts are there to be shot with my Battle Rifle? When will the credits roll, when will the screen fade to black, when will anything come to an actual, true end?
I don't know. But I know I'll probably play the DLC. Because I don't know the way out of this world any more than you do. And at the end of the day, bereft of anything better, I'll keep shooting grunts in the face with a battle rifle.
Three stars.
-----------------------------------------
"'In the End'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
-----------------------------------------
When I first wrote about Halo Infinite, I described it as where you need to go to find an avatar of the Modern AAA game experience. Having now finished the campaign, I would like to expand that further to include the modern media landscape as a whole in 2022.
Halo Infinite begins without beginning, and ends without ending. It is an eternal middle, starting after everything is established and stopping before anything is concluded, a promise of content to come, an eternal conflict Master Chief wages to stop Halo from being fully reborn, that in it's waging produces a thousand tiny moments of HaloTM content to enjoy. Or, perhaps, not even to enjoy; to simply consume, one after another, turning blue icons grey until there are no blue icons that remain, until the next feast of Blue Icons arises, until the wheel turns again.
In a world where each day, we are presented with news headlines demonstrating time and time again that the pillars that make up our modern world are in fact the very same thing choking the life out of it, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Shared Universe, previously the niche domain of geek franchise fodder that produced such delightful ephemera as the Yuuzhan Vong or Faction Paradox, has emerged as the definitive modern storytelling mode. How else do we justify the obscene contradictions of the world in which we live than by performing necromantic rituals on dead worlds and stories, ensuring they stretch on forever and ever, insisting upon their own existences far beyond memory and relevancy or even their own endings. A world where marvel superheroes can face their Endgame and keep going, a world where The Dead Speak, and, of course, a world where Master Chief continues to fight the good fight forevermore, clearing outposts on the infinite sprawl of Zeta Halo.
Do you remember Halo 5: Guardians? Halo Infinite, hopes you do and do not, at the exact same time. That game happened, to be sure - the illusion of the Shared World cannot allow something like a game with a number attached to simply Not Occur without shattering the shared delusion of meaning and import that continuity represents - but it was followed by a phantom Halo 6 that never came out, a game that resolved the conflict with The Created that Halo 5 set up, a game where Master Chief had his tearful final confrontation with Cortana, a game that properly introduced The Banished and established them as an equal threat to the UNSC, a game that conveniently resets everything to it's most comfortably anthromorphic and predictable states. The green guy and the aliens on the ringworld, the rebel alliance and the empire. On and on it goes. Halo 6 exists now only as a wound that Infinite spends the entirety of it's runtime picking at, a gap in space and time that exists only to be filled in by content, audio logs and and lore podcasts and theory videos, Content upon Content, nothing but Content in this blasted land. Master Chief emerges from this black hole of a Game That Never Was to find Halo in the process of rebooting itself, and wearily sets himself to prevent that goal. Bereft of advancement, regressing to the Iconic Version of himself, and aided always by a false simulacra made by the image Cortana represented in prior games, against a nameless, faceless enemy, literally called The Endless, always out of sight and out of firing range, dangled forever in front of the Chief as he runs along on the hamster wheel of Halo's corpse forevermore, listening to the voices of ghosts explaining what happened in games that never were, all the while, a Final, True and Ultimate Threat hangs just out of reach, an Empty Hand holding an Energy Sword of Damocles that will never, ever fall.
This is Halo: Infinite. The promise of ephemera, imagery, and writing that once Meant Something, that had cultural and artistic significance emerging from the time it was created, placed into a vacuum-sealed Platform to sustain itself in perpetuity, without beginning or end, a mobius loop greedily devouring it's own tail because there remains nothing else. An existential nightmare existence without progress or retreat, where Master Chief fights forever against an enemy he cannot ever defeat, yet cannot ever defeat him in turn. Where the only victory to be found is the perpetuity of the world that Is, stretching on forever and ever. The Covenant can become The Banished, the Empire can become The First Order, Dark Souls can become Elden Ring, Overwatch can become Overwatch 2, but nothing can ever actually change. Nothing can actually evolve, not even combat. The world can never be allowed to end, to die, to allow new flowers to sprout from it's corpse as it becomes a part of the earth that spawns it. No matter what happens, Master Chief must always be on a Halo, shooting a grunt with a battle rifle.
And it's still fun to shoot a grunt with a battle rifle. But it's been over 20 years since Combat was said to Evolve. When will the war end? Will it ever, or are we trapped in a perpetual conflict with an enemy that is both tremendously weak and cowardly and infinitely powerful and terrifying? When will the galaxy be at peace? When will the covenant finally be defeated? When will Durandal look back on the world that was, and wonder who we were? How many more Ancient Evils remain to be defeated? How many more Banished/Covenants exist to be broken? How many more Grunts are there to be shot with my Battle Rifle? When will the credits roll, when will the screen fade to black, when will anything come to an actual, true end?
I don't know. But I know I'll probably play the DLC. Because I don't know the way out of this world any more than you do. And at the end of the day, bereft of anything better, I'll keep shooting grunts in the face with a battle rifle.
Three stars.
-----------------------------------------
"'In the End'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
Kill la Kill: If
2019
Shadow the Hedgehog
2005
Iโm sure the learned scholars of Backloggd will already be familiar with I, We, Waluigi: a Post-Modern analysis of Waluigi, a foundational lens through which we can view almost every video game mascot ever conceived - Ms. Pac Man, Ken Masters, Evil Ryu, Roxas, Shadow Mario, Dark Link, Dark Pit, Dark Prince, Dark Samus, and, of course: Shadow the Hedgehog. But who is Shadow the Hedgehog? Following the tenets of Waluigi Theory, itโs safe to say heโs a copy of the individual shaped by the signifier - a stencil-clone of Sonic the Hedgehog, who himself exists as a reflection of Super Mario, having been created for the express purpose of giving his codemasters a jumping mascot to stick on the box of a video game machineยน. Appropriate then that this black-furred badass lab rat would be called Shadow, existing as he does in the literal shadows of his progeniting mascots. You think Iโm taking the piss, right? Well, Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) thinks the same thing I do about Shadow the Hedgehog (the character): that Shadow is just that - a shadow, an unindividual who ceases to exist when Sonic the Hedgehog inevitably moves from the light. And in the year 2005, Sonic the Hedgehog was almost standing in the dark.
Shadow the Hedgehogโs writing team, keenly aware that the 8 year olds playing the game may not have read the works of Swiss semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure, choose to expound this metaphor in a more explicit manner, and centred it in the gameโs narrative. Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) begins with a literal Judgement Day, The Creator appearing to Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) in a biblical vision evocative of Exodus 3:3. The Black Doom asks: I created you, but who or what are you? And what form shall you take? Follow my commandments, and you can become as God. (Though unlike the Bible, Shadow the Hedgehog is more interested in getting you to follow the tenets of Collect 8 Orbs than not making unto thee any graven image) Late in the events of Shadow the Hedgehog (the game), it is revealed that Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) isnโt actually Shadow the Hedgehog at all, but in fact an android replica of Shadow the Hedgehog who is imitating the memories and actions of his predecessor, Shadow the Hedgehog. The shadow must define itself in a battle between the unconscious aspect of the self and the conscious ego that does not identify in itself, or the entirety of the unconscious; that is, everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, Shadow the Hedgehog is the unknown.
And how does the unknown choose to define itself? Well, this Sega of America-developed video game takes place during the great uncertainty of the War on Terror. Not just in the figurative sense that the game came out four years after 9/11; it literally places Shadowโs mission to collect the Chaos Emeralds in the middle of a war between the United States government (referred to in-game as Westopolis) and an enemy โterror forceโ called โthe black aliensโ (the US President in the game always uses this term for them!! that shit is NOT a coincidence baby!!!!). As with his foray into Saussurian philosophy, Takashi Iizuka doesnโt quite trust the patrons of DeviantArt to grasp the nettle of his argument heโs making here, and eventually has to have characters say things like โwe donโt negotiate with terrorists!โ and โif youโre not with me, youโre against me!โ. Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released six months earlier.
To tie a bow on the whole treatise, the war is ultimately hijacked by a hypercapitalist/industrialist force - lead by a Northrop Grummanesque Dr. Robotnik - who reveals that Shadow the Hedgehog (the android) isnโt actually an android, but is in fact the original Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) after all, conditioned to believe he was an android replica of himself for a purpose the game doesnโt explain. Presumably the developers trusted the player to digest such philosophical matters on their own time, so allow me to explain the gameโs message: capitalism has created your character, Shadow the Hedgehog, a being who can only exist in reference to other things. Shadow is the true nowhere man/hedgehog, without the other things he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Shadowโs identity only comes from what and who heย isnโtย โ without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man. In a world where our identities are shaped by our warped relationships to brands and commerce we are allWaluigi Shadow the Hedgehog.
To sum up this game in a sentence: Charmy Bee leads an assault on a United States federal prison.
โโโโโโ-
ยน Super Mario himself is a reference to Jump Man (star of Donkey Kong (1983)), who was in turn an homage to Nintendo of Americaโs Brooklyn landlord. This arguably makes Shadow the Hedgehog the inversion of a reflection of a copy of a signifier of Mario Segale, a 62 year old landlord.
Shadow the Hedgehogโs writing team, keenly aware that the 8 year olds playing the game may not have read the works of Swiss semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure, choose to expound this metaphor in a more explicit manner, and centred it in the gameโs narrative. Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) begins with a literal Judgement Day, The Creator appearing to Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) in a biblical vision evocative of Exodus 3:3. The Black Doom asks: I created you, but who or what are you? And what form shall you take? Follow my commandments, and you can become as God. (Though unlike the Bible, Shadow the Hedgehog is more interested in getting you to follow the tenets of Collect 8 Orbs than not making unto thee any graven image) Late in the events of Shadow the Hedgehog (the game), it is revealed that Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) isnโt actually Shadow the Hedgehog at all, but in fact an android replica of Shadow the Hedgehog who is imitating the memories and actions of his predecessor, Shadow the Hedgehog. The shadow must define itself in a battle between the unconscious aspect of the self and the conscious ego that does not identify in itself, or the entirety of the unconscious; that is, everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, Shadow the Hedgehog is the unknown.
And how does the unknown choose to define itself? Well, this Sega of America-developed video game takes place during the great uncertainty of the War on Terror. Not just in the figurative sense that the game came out four years after 9/11; it literally places Shadowโs mission to collect the Chaos Emeralds in the middle of a war between the United States government (referred to in-game as Westopolis) and an enemy โterror forceโ called โthe black aliensโ (the US President in the game always uses this term for them!! that shit is NOT a coincidence baby!!!!). As with his foray into Saussurian philosophy, Takashi Iizuka doesnโt quite trust the patrons of DeviantArt to grasp the nettle of his argument heโs making here, and eventually has to have characters say things like โwe donโt negotiate with terrorists!โ and โif youโre not with me, youโre against me!โ. Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released six months earlier.
To tie a bow on the whole treatise, the war is ultimately hijacked by a hypercapitalist/industrialist force - lead by a Northrop Grummanesque Dr. Robotnik - who reveals that Shadow the Hedgehog (the android) isnโt actually an android, but is in fact the original Shadow the Hedgehog (the character) after all, conditioned to believe he was an android replica of himself for a purpose the game doesnโt explain. Presumably the developers trusted the player to digest such philosophical matters on their own time, so allow me to explain the gameโs message: capitalism has created your character, Shadow the Hedgehog, a being who can only exist in reference to other things. Shadow is the true nowhere man/hedgehog, without the other things he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Shadowโs identity only comes from what and who heย isnโtย โ without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man. In a world where our identities are shaped by our warped relationships to brands and commerce we are all
To sum up this game in a sentence: Charmy Bee leads an assault on a United States federal prison.
โโโโโโ-
ยน Super Mario himself is a reference to Jump Man (star of Donkey Kong (1983)), who was in turn an homage to Nintendo of Americaโs Brooklyn landlord. This arguably makes Shadow the Hedgehog the inversion of a reflection of a copy of a signifier of Mario Segale, a 62 year old landlord.