Great piece! I’ve really gotten into ~mid-90s to turn-of-the-millennium Edge mags since moving here. It was such a fascinating era where ambitions for medium were endlessly imaginative and relentlessly evolving. The news sections weaved delightfully b/w R&D pipe dreams and PR bluster.
And ready for everyone is this piece on the value of old and "outdated" reviews and perspectives. Gaming's critical past is an important resource and provider of now oft-forgetten views:
kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com/2026/04/20/l...
Oh, I thought they were called that because you need to eat them specifically with Triss Merigold from the Witcher but three makes way more sense
i happen to have written a book about this game btw. there's even an audiobook now too!
pinkgorillagames.com/collections/...
Likewise! I really enjoy your blog, btw
Absolutely! And “good” is similarly subjective. Gone are the days of universal expectations for “replay value” and “fun factor”. I’m just happy when games surprise me, charm me, indulge my curiosity, or let me relax while listening to a podcast. Whether they’re “good” or not is immaterial.
My trick is not to and just wait for the idea to randomly click at 3am six months from now.
It seems “bad” is so nebulous now, the metacritic/review consensus has become a niche definition. To me “bad” means predatory or exploitative, which I’m not inclined to reward in any way. But games that do something unique or interesting and fail earnestly are more celebrated/less stigmatized today.
Anyway, my main point is physical is no longer a viable gateway to retro gaming for many people but my hope is they aren’t deterred from playing old games altogether. Perhaps emphasizing/educating on emulation is our best path for sharing the hobby, accepting physical as a secondary/luxury component
Even then, looking through the CeX display at the £80+ for a MD and two of its cheapest games, that still seems prohibitive for many people.
(Also, sorry, didn’t mean to suggest they’d be building a collection; I more meant the act of acquiring and “collecting” was probably the wrong word to use)
Certainly for one NES cart in isolation. But for the prospect of collecting physical games, especially for people hoping to explore the hobby (or specific platforms) from scratch, I can’t blame them for considering it unattainable today.
It’s not so hard to imagine if you can’t afford either. Both feel prohibitive when you’re broke. But if I did go to eBay, the least it could do is serve escargot.
I can't justify 700 quid for any game. Cannon Spike always seemed like an rough draft for something that could have been really great if Capcom fleshed out its progression structure (and implemented proper twin stick controls). I suppose Hades and Enter the Gungeon eventually scratched that itch.
I AM GOING TO BURN DOWN THE SHED UNLESS WE HAVE PIZZA ROLLS FOR DINNER TONIGHT
[mom sighs, rolls her eyes, writes "pizza rolls" on the grocery list for next week]
I HAVE DECIDED NOT TO BURN DOWN THE SHED
Sometimes you end up disassociating for years because of trauma.
This is how I broke free from the shackles of my numbness with Smash Bros, and let myself feel anger.
#blog #gaming #anger
Oh my gd, the Artemis II crew doing a parody of a bad 1980s sitcom intro from in space.
Source: www.instagram.com/p/DWwuHPfCZ8Z/
And yet in the depths below the Fins and the fleas, the lazy jellyfish drift into its currents most lackadaisically, perhaps devaluing love itself in the eyes of those who wish to commodify it.
The fact that there are no pokemon battles in Pokopia kind of suggests that without humans, pokemon all just live in peace and won't use their powers to harm one another.
Supporting human creativity is MUCH more important than dismissing slop. The slop will flow no matter what. it's like trying to throw buckets of water overboard to stop the titanic from sinking. But every time you support another human or respond to their work, you make a difference.
That’s no joke. I’ve attended multiple Dizzy museum exhibits and several panels with the Oliver twins and I still struggle to wrap my head around those games’ appeal. They are the apex of “you just had to’ve been there, mate” of gaming.
"The real threat is a slow, comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Not a dramatic collapse. Not Skynet. Just a generation of researchers who can produce results but can't produce understanding."
Can’t say labubu was my thing but I could see Chio wanting a Larooroo
Phantasy Star Online screenshot: An NPC exclaims “Weapon fetish?!”
And that’s being charitable
I’m surprised they still call it The News when it’s just the same horrific shit happening over and over.
Fun fact: Mid Journey has existed since the 1970s
But we just called them Journey
Yeah, I can’t imagine they would’ve saved much time with a “what if NiGHTS but Jazz Jackrabbit?” prompt.
Sometimes I buy socks from that Primark on long row and I’ve probably worn them on dates. Is that close enough?
I’m confused. Are they referring to the “smartest poker AI for the 128-bit era” bit in the dev’s description? I assume that meant the operational logic of the CPU/NPCs/systems (which games have had for over three quarters of a century) rather than any LLM/genAI bullshit.
