There’s a lot of talk about the rising cost of mainstream video games right now, led of course by Grand Theft Auto 6 being priced at, effectively, $100. But taking inflation into account, video games used to be a lot more expensive than they are now: going by some
At the risk of setting off any local rivalries, I am pretty certain that the center of the riichi (Japanese rule) mahjong boom in America is right here in New York City. To bring up just one point, I don’t think you’d see a large, dedicated riichi parlor
This week I decided to go see the Masters of The Universe (He-Man) movie on a cheap matinee before it drops out of theaters, which might already have happened by the time you read this. The trailer for this movie was a constant presence before nearly every film I
An emulator setup is kind of a project— a project of finding files, dragging and dropping them at great volume, and fiddling with settings— so I want to make an early impressions post on my new AYN Thor handheld before I make a final review. Why did I need a
I previously mentioned taking up Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond and having a pretty fun time returning to trading card games after frauding my way up to the top ranks of MTG: Arena way back during the pandemic. I had played the original Shadowverse— which is modeled after Hearthstone, with more Magic-
I say this despite the last feature on this newsletter being a slam review of a promising but ultimately disappointing anime: I don’t really like to write negative reviews, not anymore. I would rather not be let down in the first place. And I don’t really like to
This anime is shallow pulp, utterly confident that it’s an art film. By the time this season ends— by copying the “congratulations” scene from Evangelion, infuriatingly satisfied with itself— I was yelling at the screen. “This isn’t profound!”
I saw Yoko Kanno in Brooklyn One thing about getting into middle age is that the culture starts targeting you. The pop music of your childhood starts playing at the pharmacy and in car commercials. The old-guy references on TV shows start to be about stuff your old ass
Akanebanashi anime premiere came with Actual Rakugo I was pretty busy this past week; all my plans turned out to be for this particular week in April. Any other week this would have been the highlight: I got to see a pre-broadcast premiere of the new anime adaptation of
I found I actually did have room for some shorts this week; here they are. Rave Racer I don’t think I’ll get as obsessive about grinding out Rave Racer (the first true Ridge Racer sequel, out for consoles for the first time in the Arcade Archives series) as
The whole fighting game community has been talking about online ranked match lately, because the more you grind ranked match, the more you come to hate it. We’ll all eagerly tell you so; probably too eagerly for our own good. After the dopamine rush of rising through the ranks
YOU NEED HEART TO PLAY THIS GAME 気持ちがレイムじゃモノホンプレイヤーになれねえ
manga
I’m not sure I can really call it a criticism that these guys don’t act like any guys I’ve ever met, gay or straight. But I also suspect that this is one of those things you can file under “feature, not flaw” for the actual target reader.
manga
It’s pure mood and style, with no interest whatsoever in explaining to the viewer what the hell is supposed to be happening as the characters dance and mope and play football.
I've been a niche guy since the Playstation 2; I hardly play anything Relevant anymore, so I'm not the dude to ask for Game of the Year. Which is why I know what the game of the year was. The Gamesoft Robo Fun Club is a
ultraman
I can’t deny that Ultraman Live was a pretend superhero show for little tiny babies. It was also the coolest shit I ever saw in my life.
(My Switch says it's been 10+ hours, but I feel like it's been 40+. This could just be the time dilation of practice.) Like I've said, I’ve been really stuck on this year’s release of Ridge Racer in the Arcade Archives series.
I kind of forget that things are coming up, or that they happened two weeks ago, or indeed my position in space and time. So it was a last-minute thing when I asked my buddies if I could tag along with them to Anime NJ++, a very small convention
Legendary animator Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite, Mezzo Forte) dreams of girl assassins blasting their way through massive, bloody action movie set-pieces. A craftsman and a perfectionist, he looks to create the platonic ideal of a popcorn form, flawless in every detail from the fluttering of a jacket, to the precise
video games
If you’re of a certain age, games using live-action movie footage snap your brain to the “full motion video” fad of the 90s and the middling games that resulted from it. (Or Dragon's Lair, if you're a Gen-Xer.) I had a Sega CD
As evidenced by the tears of so many Like a Dragon series players, it’s kind of tough to learn riichi mahjong. In video game terms, riichi is a tutorial-required game. A few strict, inflexible, and complex rules shape the game’s strategy at its core; everything grows out
arcade games
It is good of the developer to let us imagine what “catlike reflexes” would really be like.
video games
This has actually been nearly in the can from a while ago, but I took an actual nice long break– the real kind, where you don't look at anything, even if you finally got a good idea for a Kawaiikochans comic– last week. Also, the thing I came
anime
(One of the things I really like about Turkey! is the way it doesn’t shy away from the “nasty, brutish and short” of ancient life, even though it’s at heart a “cute girls have fun” anime.)