This is my dark and terrible video gaming confession. I can count the number of games I have truly finished on both hands. Maybe even one hand. Let me find out. Hold on a moment. … Off hand I can think of six RPG or RPG adjacent games I have…

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure for the original Playstation is deeply special to me. It is conceptually special to me. But mostly it is sentimentally special to me. Rhapsody is a weird game made by weirdos, for weirdos. It was made by developer Nippon Ichi who, at the time, clearly wanted…

Hi. Ooblets just released as an early access game on steam and xbox and blah blah blah you know all this. It’s a perky, all-consuming, yet brief little experience. The gameplay loop unwraps gradually and is juicy and rewarding at first. But eventually you run out of things to do…

I’m going to dive into some context for this one. Star Ocean: First Departure on the Nintendo Switch was my quarantine 2020 shelter at home game. Actually quarantine 2020 is still going on, and I’ve moved on to other games. Blazing Heroes on Sega Saturn is currently keeping me cozy…

Hello. I’m Tim Rogers. Hello. I’m not not not Tim Rogers and this is not video games. I use words like “frictive” in a sincere and arousing way. The internet of the early 2010s hates me. They can not stand me. …

Or, Gears 5: NOT a game about subordinate male sex slaves. I decided to give Gears 5 a shot purely because the cover image has a girl front and center, and because it was advertised to have online campaign co-op. …

Or, Rift Online: A bag of Cheez-Its spilled all over the floor. “Who in the actual heck do you think you are? Talking about Rift, like, ten years after it’s release? What are you doing, man? Get a hold of yourself. Take a look in the mirror and behold the terrible form creeping in front of you.” Look… I just… There is…

A game about nothing. The drawback of releasing so many long, deeply cryptic, mysterious trailers, with zero explanation, is that it allowed us to create our own explanations and mythologies around these characters and concepts. It sparked deep inspiration. “This could be anything” we speculated. …

As a half-conscious sub-human living through my days without playing things like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Kingdom Hearts 3, I’m always on the lookout for hidden-gem, niche gaming experiences that ring true and clear, like a crystalline bell. Fatal Labyrinth on the Sega Genesis is one of those experiences…