January 25th

Welcome back readers.

We’ve seen some awesome WIPs for the Fansite Jam so far.  You’ve still got a month to work on your entry if you want to participate (I’d love to have you participate). Jam details are here here, and the previous Fansite Jam’s entries are compiled here. I’ll be submitting one this year too!

Check out our Patreon; if you want to help us run more stuff like this in the future, that’s the best way to support us.

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

High Guard, Low Life

Our opening section this week brings together the industry-level inquiries and perspectives, focusing on demographic trends (real or bullshit), indie development, and the rather selective battles the enthusiast press deigns to pick.

• If You Ask Nicely | Autumn Wright
  Autumn Wright weighs the priorities of criticism against those of the enthusiast press, noting the selective nature of poptimist defenses (Further Reading: Kaile Hultner on Dan Stapleton’s editorial about IGN’s review policies).
• Please, Stop Using Gen Z To Rationalise AI Slop | This Week in Videogames
  Maddie Ange sets the record straight when AI boosters try to paint Gen Z as the slop generation (Further Reading: Maddie’s previous writing on the impacts of LLMs on voice actors).
• RETURN TO SENDER | DEEP-HELL
  Skeleton contemplates the crumbling cyberpunk edifices of a Half-Life 2 mod and of indie games development.

“When I returned after my brief stint back on the west coast after the holidays my relationship to G-String had changed. Rather than being something I fired up at random in the middle of the night – here it was something more real. I personally knew developers who were slowly fighting on their backs to be recognized for new work they wanted to do. Like the developer’s posts of G-String it seems like every creative I know feels backed into a corner. Either the producer in their head is asking for lightning to strike twice, or the company they have to work for to cover the costs of overheads. The hair rising tingle of florescent lights and paid-for lunches while a group of people tell you they can only afford to make sure hits.”

Any Objections, Lady?

Next we’ve got a couple sections dedicated to single-game analysis. This first set scrutinizes capitalist and authoritarian power structures in the games that we play.

• SEIZURES NOT MADE BY VIRTUE OF DUE PROCESS | killjoy
  Will Butler investigates Samus Aran’s cop history and tendencies (Further Reading: Skeleton on Samus’ many contradictions over the years).
• Ruminations on Mouthwashing | Medium
  Kat contemplates guilt, responsibility, and the cruelties of capitalism in Mouthwashing (Further Reading: Franny on Mouthwashing).
• Failing to Fill Space | Unwinnable
  Wallace Truesdale takes the measure of purposeful emptiness and loneliness in Unbeatable (Further Reading: Maverick on Unbeatable).

“The perspective is oddly grounding — to go from the high-energy rhythm game action at one of Unbeatable’s concerts, which gives us one of the closer views of the band, to these strolls where the world looks like it can swallow you — in that it underlines both how grand the band is becoming while also portraying how small they ultimately are. It’s as if the world itself is presenting a call to action to the band members, and subsequently the player, to push back against the world’s emptiness with the only thing that can match its vastness: music. To put it another way, an individual body could never fill an empty stadium, but the music it produces might stand a chance.”

Banjo Renewie

This second set dwells more on temporality and (quickly looks up Bakhtin) chronotopes.

• Rhythms of the Everyday in Animal Crossing | Eteo Archetypes
  Jay Castello takes the scenic route through the seasons in Animal Crossing (Further Reading: Holly Nielsen on winter and death in Friends of Mineral Town).
• Playing The Plague Doctor | Stop Caring
  Artemis Octavio reflects on her third trip to the Steppe (Further Reading: Grace Benfell on Pathologic 3).
• Rocket science and marshmallows against toxic nihilism | Lia’s blog
  Lia dwells on Outer Wilds and a future not yet written.

“There is frustration there, of course. We both know that every extra year comes with a bodycount. I can’t imagine how many friends she’s buried by now. But that doesn’t mean we give up, does it? At the very least it is always worth blunting the damage. At the same time, those small actions eventually start gently altering the trajectory we’re on.”

Logical Fal’Cie

Genre section! Genre section? Are FFXIII and Kingdom Hearts in the same genre?

• Part 1.9: The Crystarium | No Escape
  Kaile Hultner closes the book on Final Fantasy XIII and sets their sights on the rest of the fabula.
• Experience Changes the Game – Kingdom Hearts Final Mix | Pixpen
  Sam Howitt returns to the original Kingdom Hearts after leveling up.

“It felt good to finally finish parts of a game that had seemed impossible so long ago, alongside the comforts of childhood memories it all brings forth. The game had become significantly easier, but in a way that I had earned through effort and understanding. I didn’t beat those superbosses through brute force from my extra strength, I learned what abilities would be useful in offensive and defensive contexts and applied that.”

Full Spectrum Knight

These next three picks inflect their object texts with historical context and consideration.

• Batman – “Batcraft parts” | Super Chart Island
  Iain Mew details and situates the original ZX Spectrum Batroidvania as well as the creative duo who put it together (Further Reading: more Spectrum writing from Iain).
• Why Does Donkey Kong Throw Barrels? | Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games
  Drew Mackie pursues a couple of different leads on where DK’s primary ordnance might have come from (Further Reading: Drew on the origin of Pauline).
• Dead as Dreams | Bullet Points Monthly
  Astrid Anne Rose details the Irish history and mythology which inform The Seance of Blake Manor.

“By rooting out petty grievances and musty grudges and convincing his fellow guests not to attend the séance, Ward effectively marshals facts and logic into battle against self-delusion. The conventions of the adventure game serve him well here. But Coventry can’t simply be dissuaded from his revenge; the detective mechanics are useless against him because the facts of his past, his buried trauma, are a fiction. Ward instead has to fill in the blanks around the real Coventry-Blake, winding closer to the truth of his identity and his motive by groping in the dark. Beneath Blake Manor, the tainted dreams of Goibniu radiate, soaking the manor in a false reality where the land belongs to whoever’s name is on the deed and the path of history is true and just.”

Patch Notes

Now, some design-minded pieces.

• 27 Tips For Future Bumpslash Designers | Melodic-Ambient
  Melos Han-Tani offers some design pointers to help you get your own Angeline Era-style combat system off the ground.
• Unfair Flips (Flowers, 2025) / Q-UP (Everybody House Games, 2025) | exp.
  Mathew Kumar makes heads and tails of those coin flip games that went viral last year, exploring their metacommentary on exploitative game design.
• Sailor Moon Another Story – Magical Madness | Rinowase Down The River
  Rinoa plays a Super Famicom Sailor Moon RPG for sickos that scoffs at the suggestion of balance (Further Reading: Dia Lacina on the B and C-List RPGs you probably slept on).

“Sailor Moon Another Story is the worst game I played this in 2025, and one of the worst JRPGs I have ever played. I will fondly remember it forever.”

Critical Chaser

Told my partner who plays a lot of Animal Crossing about this one. They just laughed. Iykyk.

• 12-Player Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is a Nightmare Because Nintendo Handles Online Functionality in the Most Ridiculous Way Possible | IGN
  Rebekah Valentine watches the seaplane landing cutscene way, way too many times.

“I was so foolish and naive a week ago, when I first had the idea to get 12 of us together for an Animal Crossing session. It would be easy, I thought! So easy, I originally didn’t even plan on writing anything about it! Let me just call up…11 other people I know who are still playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”