39 reviews liked by darklink20001


There's a moment near the very end of this game that I think really epitomizes Simon's Quest for me. You're going up to Dracula's Castle again.... and it's quiet. Nobody's home, just the eerie ruins of a place you once passed through long ago. There's no real twist to it either, it's just played straight. You walk in, unceremoniously kill Dracula, and that's it. It leaves this sort of hollow feeling, a deep reminiscence of the Castlevania that once was.

Simon's Quest is the most interesting kind of sequel to me, one that seeks to completely invert and upend the status quo of the original game. If the original Castlevania was about a methodical seige to defeat evil and save the day, then Simon's Quest is a showcase of the genuine aftermath shadowing such a task. Even after defeating Dracula, Simon doesn't have much of anything to return to. The world that he supposedly "saved" is completely dead looking, and he's left with a curse that's constantly eating away at his body. It's a premise that lies in stark contrast to the elating feeling that came with beating the first game, almost as if we've been kicked down and mocked despite our greatest efforts and supposed victories.

Simon's Quest is a game I'd consider to be genuinely brilliant and forward thinking, but not everyone seems to agree with me. Perhaps there couldn't be more fitting fate for it. A game reviled and dismissed by most, just as its hero is left with nothing but bitterness and decay.

Rollerdrome has one primary thing going for it, and that’s how damn good the core loop feels. Envisioned as a blend between a bullet-time third person shooter and Tony Hawk’s Proskater, Roll7 manage to make each system in Rollerdrome feel simple to comprehend, harder to master, and Very Cool to engage with. You can play it marginally safer and approach enemies cautiously, on a continuous defensive, but Rollerdrome’s campaign pushed me to embrace its combo system by making your level score one of the requirements for unlocking more levels. So in practice, the game quickly becomes about killing enemies as fast as possible while performing tricks in-between each kill to restore your ammo.

There’s a ton of nuance to this though. All four of your weapons have different tactical usages, and also use up the same ammo pool. With enough time, it becomes more and more clear how each enemy can be most effectively countered. Each enemy type operates differently, but can also be dodged to get a boosted slowdown mechanic that increases the damage you deal; this effectively means there’s a potential bonus to picking off snipers later, for instance, since their laser sights give constant opportunities to engage this mode. By the later levels, the game is a nonstop flurry of dodging, pulling off tricks, slowing down time midair to snipe across the map, and doing it over and over again without dying. It’s fantastic fun!!

It’s a shame then that the remainder of the game does little or nothing to add to this core experience. While I love the cell-shaded, 70s dystopia theming (and the reliance on bold, crisp coloring helps keep the action consistently clear), the game feels stuck between the more brutal implications of its death game premise and a Saturday morning cartoon affectation. For a game about murder on live TV, its narrative makes the strange decision of fixating on Rollerdrome’s behind the scenes corruption. I love that player character Kara Hassan is Arabic, and that we get some idea of their cool demeanor via slight bits of commentary at a few points, but the few story beats feel surprisingly muddled beyond this. It all feels so slight as to make me question why it exists at all; as-is, it feels like it hamstrings the game’s tone into something needlessly self-serious. But yeah! Had great fun skating, always nice to play something like this where you can feel yourself getting considerably better in real time!

what if when each level began it said "MARIO SHART!" and he 😂​🇸​​🇭​​🇮​​🇹​​🇹​​🇪​​🇩​ ​🇭​​🇮​​🇲​​🇸​​🇪​​🇱​​🇫​!!!😂

really glad the translation is out now! i don't think 2 was nearly as emotionally resonant for me as the first one was, with one later game side story that i felt was somewhat antithetical to the "vibe" of the games, and i think its larger scale might not always be to the game's benefit, but it's an enjoyable time. definitely more of a fun game that i'm glad i got to play and one i'm excited to come back to more than one that sticks in my heart in the way the first did. either way, i'm glad this series is slowly becoming more accessible because it's really something special

simon is also the best character

Far and away the most egregiously misguided attempt at myth-making in games history. This isn't the worst game ever. It's not the weirdest game ever. It is not the 'first American produced visual novel.' Limited Run Games seems content to simply upend truth and provenance to push a valueless narrative. The 'so bad it's good' shtick serves only to lessen the importance of early multimedia CD-ROM software, and drenching it in WordArt and clip art imparts the notion that this digital heritage was low class, low brow, low effort, and altogether primitive.

This repackaging of an overlong workplace sexual harassment/rape joke is altogether uncomfortable at best. Further problematising this, accompanying merch is resplendent with Edward J. Fasulo's bare chest despite him seemingly wanting nothing to do with the project. We've got industry veterans and games historians talking up the importance of digital detritus alongside YouTubers and LRG employees, the latter making the former less credible. We've got a novelisation by Twitter 'comedian' Mike Drucker. We've got skate decks and body pillows and more heaps of plastic garbage for video game 'collectors' to shove on a dusty shelf next to their four colour variants of Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl on NES, cum-encrusted Shantae statue, and countless other bits of mass-produced waste that belongs in a landfill. Utterly shameful how we engage with the past.

ENG above; PT-BR abaixo.
THIS REVIEW DISCUSSES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. I DO NOT MINCE MY WORDS.
ESTA RESENHA DISCUTE VIOLÊNCIA DOMÉSTICA. NÃO MEÇO MINHAS PALAVRAS.

Akira Yamaoka – Terror in the Depths of the Fog

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My grandfather was a domestic abuser. He was controlling and violent. He cheated on his wife of many years, for many years. He attempted to run over his teenage daughter because he didn’t like her friends. It’s almost 30 years later and aunt still struggles in her relationship with her own children. He fills my heart with rage and I do not forgive him.

My father was a domestic abuser. He was controlling and violent. He cheated on his wife of many years, for many years, and put it on the internet. A police officer, he had a strong alibi for arriving home late (from his affairs) and attempted to strangle my mom. His only interest in raising me was my success in school, for which he wished to enroll me in a military high school. I know today that I would not have survived this, and thank my mom for impeding him. He fills my heart with rage and I do not forgive him.

Stories like my family’s are not uncommon. It takes a cursory look to find similar ones in news, in scientific publishing, in public health policies; but it takes a lot of involvement, introspection and tears to detect, comprehend and truly believe them when they’re in our communities, in the mouths of our neighbors and peers, in the beliefs and behaviors of those we love. We’re taught to respond to this shock with dismissal, to call it a farce and demand explanations for why the victims deserved what happened to them.

Silent Hill 2 understands this. It’s unafraid to discuss the pervasive nature of violence and its day-to-day reality. It’s a masterful portrayal of extraordinary phenomena that manifest in mundane lives. It oozes complexity and empathy in every second. Every single detail expresses something about the characters in a manner that makes me hauntingly uncomfortable, for I’ve met or been all of them in my life. Angela, who at her worst can barely identify who’s in front of her or what was last said in conversation; Eddie, who points to a single author responsible for his suffering, unaware of the larger material conditions that caused it; James, who’s been in my life longer than I’ve been alive and terrifies me as a potential future.

No game speaks to my reality and truth more than Silent Hill 2: of patriarchs who elect themselves arbiter and warden. No game is a better reminder of how lucky I am to not have been in the fire myself, yet simultaneously of how I’m still affected by the heat of its embers. It reshaped my preconceptions and expectations and categorically improved how I treat others and myself. I cannot overemphasize this game’s potential for sensitization and growth.

Please play it. Your life, and that of everyone in whose you participate, will be better for it.

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Meu avô foi agressor doméstico. Ele era controlador e violento. Traiu sua esposa de muitos anos, por muitos anos. Tentou atropelar sua filha adolescente porque não gostava dos amigos dela. Faz quase 30 anos e tia ainda tem dificuldades para se relacionar com os próprios filhos. Ele enche meu coração de fúria e eu não o perdoo.

Meu pai foi agressor doméstico. Ele era controlador e violento. Traiu sua esposa de muitos anos, por muitos anos, e publicou na internet. Como policial, ele tinha um álibi forte para chegar tarde em casa (depois de pular a cerca) e tentou estrangular minha mãe. Seu único interesse em minha criação era meu sucesso escolar, pelo qual ele desejava me matricular em um colégio militar. Sei hoje que não teria sobrevivido, e agradeço minha mãe por tê-lo impedido. Ele enche meu coração de fúria e eu não o perdoo.

Histórias como a da minha família não são incomuns. Basta uma leitura superficial para encontrá-las em notícias, em publicações científicas, em estratégias de saúde pública; mas é necessário muito envolvimento, introspecção e lágrimas para detectá-las, compreendê-las e genuinamente acreditar nelas quando estão em nossas comunidades, na fala de nossos vizinhos e pares, nas crenças e comportamentos das pessoas que amamos. Somos ensinados a responder a esse choque com desmerecimento, acusações de farsa e a demandar motivos pelos quais as vítimas mereceram o que lhes ocorreu.

Silent Hill 2 entende tudo isso. Não receia em discutir o caráter pervasivo da violência e sua realidade cotidiana. É uma retratação mestra de fenômenos extraordinários que se manifestam na vida mundana. Transborda complexidade e empatia em cada segundo. Todo mínimo detalhe da obra expressa algo sobre os personagens de uma maneira que me assombra, pois já conheci ou fui todos eles em minha vida. Angela, que em seus piores momentos mal consegue identificar quem está em sua frente ou a última coisa que lhe foi dita; Eddie, que aponta para um único autor como responsável por seu sofrimento, desapercebido das condições materiais maiores que o causaram; James, que faz parte da minha vida há mais tempo do que eu mesmo e que me aterroriza como potencial futuro.

Nenhum jogo diz mais sobre minha realidade e verdade que Silent Hill 2: sobre patriarcas que se elegem árbitro e algoz. Nenhum jogo é melhor lembrete do quão sortudo sou de não ter sido jogado ao fogo, mas simultaneamente de como ainda sou afetado pelo calor das brasas. Ele ressignificou minhas preconcepções e expectativas e categoricamente melhorou o modo como trato outras pessoas e eu próprio. Sou incapaz de exagerar o potencial desse jogo para sensibilização e crescimento.

Por favor, jogue. Sua vida, e a de todos das quais você faz parte, melhorará.

genuinely delightful. i think it's possible to compare this unfavorably to JSRF but realistically i think it trims a lot of what doesn't work about that game (too many weak, mostly linear levels; finicky platforming) and keeps most of what does, with large-ish zones (expanding outward with completion) and a compelling sense of style even if your favorite bit of stylistic flair from JSRF isn't represented here. i do think it could benefit from a slight increase to speed, especially on the ground where even boosting feels somewhat limp, but otherwise? i think this rocks. probably could use some tutorialization too. nobody seems to know how to get that one graffiti spot in mataan without googling

somehow just a bit beyond articulation...everything so instantly inviting to Me Specifically, and i just happened to play it when im in the mood for something like that. childhood terror, adorable furries, lavish on a sensory level, and Just Meta Enough to make me reflect on my long-neglected enjoyment of writing stories, of the necessary curiosity required to explore things before they happen, a tension and anticipation not unlike actually experiencing the story. the things u learn from weird dead ends, how they all contribute to the texture as new wrinkles are added in real time, things that U Do Yrself surprise u as they click into place. rly solid refutation of the idea that Only Literal "Canon" Events Matter, and a deeply comforting Exploratory Experience

The quiet comfort and faint familiar warmth of endless oblivion. A game about a long dead almost entirely empty world dragging on long past it's own time. There are only 2 inhabitants of this world who aren't the player character, they both have problems you need to solve, one of them seems kinda impossible and the other wants some special colored fish. You start helping one assuming it will eventually lead to you being able to help the other.

A game of half formed systems and places that creates a simultaneous sense of unknowable dread and a hazy yet familiar feeling of comfort. Like half-remembering a strange uneasy dream you had as an extremely young child. Probably a little odd as a comparison, but I'm reminded of the original Quake in it's atmosphere. A world of abandoned concepts, none of which are fully formed enough to feel like a dominantly voiced aesthetic, and instead form together to create a uniquely moody and muted sense of gloom and emptiness I don't think is achievable otherwise.

Also like the original Quake, this games strongest asset in that aesthetic is it's sound. The sound design in this game absolutely wrecks me, it ties together the whole of this world as something that once brimmed with life, as something worth holding dear, that was left lifeless and barren long long ago. It's the sound of a million save files for a dozens dozen 90s adventure and RPG games, all left untouched for years to come. Worlds left static and dead. You do platforming and collecting, but it feels like empty husks of worlds designed for these systems that no longer serve their intended purpose. You can fall off, but cannot die, you simply reappear where you started. The few systems at play here are so slow and archaic they don't really allow for their seemingly intended gamification of the world to ever amount to anything other than a hushed suggestion of a game that used to be, but no longer is.

As the game goes on you come to realize the only two inhabitants of this world represent equally opposing and incompatible perspectives on it's own existence. It came off to be a game about two different conceptualizations of hopelessness. One voices a want to find beauty, comfort, and familiar joys in a world long devoid of any such things. Content to float out into infinity as an empty husk so long as there are things to remind you of the way things once were, and taking solace that the world itself, despite being an empty facsimile of what it used to be, will always be familiar enough to be beautiful in it's own way. The other voices a more direct want, to cut hopelessness at the source, even if it costs everything. If there is nothing left for this world, letting it drift on sparsely alive for an eternity is a far crueler existence than letting it die with finality.

Despite being a game of emptiness, of half formed systems, a game of quiet dread, I grew a strange fondness and comfort existing in it. It convinces you this really was a world of beauty and meaning a long long time ago. But all that's left of it is a shell. Quietly drifting off into oblivion.

Made a new video to go along with this so hope ya'll enjoy it if ya check it out!

When I think of the beginning of the HD Era of gaming I can really only think of one game, Bullet Witch.

Bullet Witch is in many a way a drive of the creative spirit of a company like Cavia and while absolutely flawed I can't help but absolutely love it. A lot of this is nostalgic tie I won't lie but I just love its playful, explorative love with what it's doing and trying to do. It hits me like an absolute fun wave when I bounce around like a cool hot witch lady blasting mothafuckas down with the fully upgraded machine gun broom. Something about this sits within my mind as cozy, I love going back to it every now and again and giving it a cozy playthrough. It's like a nice goth ass cup of hot chocolate on a cold ass night ya know?

It's not some amazing masterpiece but I don't care I will always love this game. This game is like watching a 2000's Syfy/Fox series that maybe lasted like a season or two before disappearing into the ether forever. It's got a certain vibe and spirit! Like a playable 90's apocalyptic OVA (though not as hyperviolent) that flies by on vibes, huge chaotic spells and the rule of cool in ways. Alicia is a rad protag even if I wish the story here gave her a bit more in general, honestly I wish it gave Maxwell Cougar a bit more too but it also kinda perfectly fits the lean fuckin around with the 360 feel this game is going for.

This game definitely isn't for everybody, I guarantee people probably hate the shit out of this game or think little of the things I think make it really unique, soulful and fun! But for me it's just so wonderful. It's just so intoxicating to me and my memories paint more of the picture of this for me.

Bullet Witch is comfort food that I'll never hesitate to go back to every now and again.