Bonus: Tournament Report - Riichi Nomi Open 2025 but mostly it's about how 1500 point honba are a stupid rule

"I'm not worried about winning stuff from two opposing business rivals. That just means I'm decorated."

A Virtua Fighter nerd explains the New Virtua Fighter EVO teaser at length

After months of buildup, the Virtua Fighter staff came up on stage at Evo this weekend, dropped about a minute of actual gameplay footage, updated us on continued support for VF5 Revo, and went on their way. This is a clever way of handling things; we’ve started to expect

The thing where you watch a bunch of first anime episodes and talk about them - Summer 2025

I haven’t done one of these in a long time, and I don’t want to commit myself to it on a regular basis because it often takes time I could be talking about more interesting stuff— like actual finished series which I could give a proper review to—

What, specifically, looks so bad about the new Fist of the North Star TV series?

I had been quietly excited about the upcoming TV series revival of one of my all-time favorites, the post-apocalyptic kung-fu melodrama Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). It’s certainly been long enough— the original Toei TV series is over 40 years old!— and with a high-end production

Mario Kart World is new and messy. That's okay and, ultimately, it's necessary

Nobody wants to have to follow up perfection, and Mario Kart 8 nailed it. Ten years and two consoles ago, the game refined the arcade kart racer into the very best version of itself. Rather than bothering with a sequel, Nintendo simply kept adding content to it until it was

Bonus : You do not need the Switch 2 Welcome Tour

Education is walking far in front of entertainment here, advertisement's hanging out in the background, and grinding boredom is the main attraction.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 offers a pack of cult fighting classics... and also Ingrid

Part of me wants to say Capcom Vs. SNK 2 isn't that old. But I know. Haruhi Suzumiya is old too.

Yeah, I bought Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves, and what's worse, I LIKE IT

I’m only two thousand words in and I finally get to talk about how the game plays!

An even and unbiased review of various online mahjong clients by the second-place winner of the 2025 Riichi City Tenkaichi tournament (2/2)

Niche mahjong choices, and therefore, Sega.

An even and unbiased review of various online mahjong clients by the second-place winner of the 2025 Riichi City Tenkaichi tournament (1/2)

Not to brag or nothin’, I just want to get that out of the way so we’re all clear.

Bonus: I should probably get out what’s in my head about Sinners

"Everything in the film centers on this one ecstatic moment that everyone builds and inhabits together, unashamed, loving, exuberant, free, and so powerful as to call the spirits out to play."

Isekai isn’t always bad; two atypical and fun isekai series from last anime season

"The thing I hate most passionately about isekai slop is the false modesty of a fake underdog."

anime

Bonus: Momentary Lily Spoiler Space - what if a post-apocalypse didn't make any sense

As the guy from Hand Shakers says, this stuff just won't mesh.

anime

Unfortunately, GoHands' Momentary Lily is the boring kind of bad anime

...like a conversation between robots programmed only to spout catchphrases like Pokemon babbling out their own names at one another.

Tohai settles gang wars with mahjong, and maybe also some spare organs

(As a general content warning, Tohai— yes, this mahjong anime— contains frequent graphic violence, including dismemberment, mutilation, torture, and sexual violence. Do not watch this series unless you are ready for anything; the violence escalates as the show goes on.) All the different Japanese manga magazines have a brand, and

anime

What do we know about the connections between GQux and Gundam? A Missing Persons Investigation

(There’s no video release for Beginning, so I am running a bit off memory of a movie I saw last week. I will get things wrong; forgive me.) GQux Beginning wants to fit its whole alternate One Year War onto film, but as it only has so much time

anime

I can't explain GQux without spoilers, so you might just want to go see it yourself, but just in case I wrote 2000 words on it

This is not Hideaki Anno's Gundam, everyone please stop calling it that

arcade games

I’d tell you more about the Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves beta if I hadn’t spent half my time waiting for a match

I had a great time playing City of the Wolves over the weekend and I’m looking forward to the completed game, but whether I buy it on launch or wait until it’s on sale depends entirely upon whether or not this online matchmaking experience improves.

arcade games

Bonus: Some of my favorite characters in Virtua Fighter 5 REVO

Now that the review-vital stuff is out of the way, I want to talk about the point that actually makes VF so fun and so rewarding to return to. That’s the characters, and how well-defined they are. I get that they don’t have the lore and story modes

arcade games

Virtua Fighter 5 REVO with rollback netcode is my Forever Video Game

Listen, I reviewed this game the last time it came out. On the Xbox 360. For Joystiq. Nine years ago. So I’m not going to write the same review again, say everything I’ve been yelling on street corners about Virtua Fighter for twenty years. I’ll try and

anime

The Colors Within/Kimi no Iro is concentrated sweetness and transcendent performance

Her direction is natural, intimate, soft, gentle and sweet like a hand cradling your chin. She makes you feel like you are physically sharing the same space as the characters. It’s no surprise that her works have forged some pretty intense connections with their viewers.

fighting games

I want to see impact and physicality in the new Virtua Fighter, and I don't want to see super meters

"...what I truly love about Sega’s arcade games is that they have always pursued a kind of magical realism. They’re obsessively detailed... but they aren’t actual simulations of real life. They’re exaggerations of it. That’s where you find the magic."

PSO2: New Genesis is probably a misfire, but that didn’t stop me from having a great time with it

After Thanksgiving this year I got pretty sick. On the one hand it was a pretty nasty cold, and the cough didn’t completely leave after two weeks. (After that, family emergency followed, wiping my December clean.) On the other, I had just purchased a brand new gaming PC, and

In honor of VF5 R.E.V.O, I'm going to teach you basic Virtua Fighter offense.

I’m seeing a lot of people in the fighting game community get curious about Virtua Fighter 5 now that it finally has decent netplay coming via the re-release VF5: R.E.V.O., and I’m really happy to see it! Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 were games ahead