With the 2019 retrospective behind us, let’s look forward to 2020. I actually ended up doing a surprisingly decent job of at least trying out almost all of my most-anticipated games of last year (though let’s ignore all the 2016-2018 games still sitting untouched on my shelves) – hopefully we can keep that trend up in 2020! On that note, what games am I actually looking forward to playing this year? Let’s find out!
All posts by Jiggeh
Ten old games I really enjoyed playing for the first time in 2019 [2019 Retrospective part 2]
I never feel too comfortable or interested in doing any kinds of ranked “Game of the Year” lists, for a number of reasons, not least that I typically don’t feel like I play enough games to really be able to do a meaningful ranking. However, between streaming projects and picking up a lot of random old Japanese games on a somewhat regular basis, I still end up experiencing a lot of games for the first time over the course of a year. So without caring so much about when a game came out (which I typically don’t, anyway), I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the non-2019 games that made the biggest impact on me in 2019.
So let’s get to it – Ten old games I really enjoyed playing for the first time in 2019:
“Games I’m looking forward to in 2019” – The Aftermath [2019 Retrospective part 1]
So about a year ago I wrote an article about ten then-upcoming games I was looking forward to play in the year 2019. Before we get to some other end/beginning of year listicles, I thought it’d be appropriate to do a short followup on that article; a little mini-review to sum up my thoughts on each of the games (or at least confirming whether they came out and if I played them!). Without further ado, here’s “Games I’m looking forward to in 2019” – The Aftermath.
Continue reading “Games I’m looking forward to in 2019” – The Aftermath [2019 Retrospective part 1]
Oh hey, I have a blog I guess?
Well, unsurprisingly, it happened. After an already not-that-great run of at least trying to post with some degree of regularity, things fell off a cliff after a few months. Whoops!
I feel especially embarrassed about never getting to follow up on some of the speculative posts about MORTAL KOMBAT 11 and other stuff, but well, that’s life I guess. I, uh, will be able to write much more well thought out things on those topics now that I’ve gotten to meditate on it for a few months, maybe? Ummm… sure, let’s go with that!
I’ve also played a bunch of games over the past 6-9 months that I certainly have some Thoughts On, and that’s something I genuinely would like to address in written form. One of the original ambitions I had with this blog was to practice my writing, and specifically practice putting my rambling thoughts into somewhat-less-rambling into words, and then editing those words and perhaps learn to get my thoughts across without going on at absurd lengths.
On that note, this post is getting rambly and sprawling already, so let me cut myself off right there and just wrap up with this: I don’t feel comfortable promising anything, but I will at the very least try to kick some life into this website again, and write up some new stuff.
Ten games I’m looking forward to in 2019
It’s 2019! Another year has come and gone, and as usual I enjoyed a whole bunch of new (and old games)…. and also as usual, there were a bunch of games that I’d looked forward to, but then for one reason or another ended up never playing (or, you know, didn’t play yet). GOD OF WAR, MONSTER HUNTER WORLD, 428: SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE, SOULCALIBUR VI, MONSTER BOY, SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE – eh, hopefully I’ll find a little more time for y’all over the coming 12 months.
So, it seems almost a given that at least half of the games I’m looking forward to in 2019 will end up sitting in my shelf, unplayed, till at least 2020, but hey – as bad as I am about buying games and then not play them, I’m sure as hell not gonna feel any backlog shame months in advance… so for now I’ll peacefully enjoy just being able to look forward to stuff, guilt-free!
So here we go, ten games I’m looking forward to (possibly!) playing in 2019: Continue reading Ten games I’m looking forward to in 2019
Thoughts on Streets of Rage 4’s art
A couple of months back, seemingly out of nowhere, DotEmu announced they were bringing out STREETS OF RAGE 4 – the first new STREETS OF RAGE game in 24 years (and counting)! Like many people out there I am hugely fond of the original SOR series, and am largely positive, excited even, for this new game. But given that I am a long-time fan, you bet I’ve got some Thoughts on SOR4.
First off, it should of course be noted that this is early days still. My impressions are all based on the small handful of trailers and screenshots that have been released, and considering the game doesn’t even have an official release date yet, I think it’s fair to say that we are pretty far away from the full picture. Still, based on what DotEmu & co have chosen to show of the game, I think there’s a number of things worth commenting on.
Although SOR4 will (presumably) be the first STREETS OF RAGE game to actually hit the market since 1994, it’s far from the first attempt at bringing the series back. SOR developers Ancient themselves put together concept art as well as mockups for a 3D incarnation back in the 90’s, but this original SOR4 was infamously axed by a SEGA exec unfamiliar with the SOR brand. Continue reading Thoughts on Streets of Rage 4’s art
Ten characters I really want to see return in Mortal Kombat 11
So, I recently wrote a post with a bunch of collected thoughts and speculation on MORTAL KOMBAT 11, but to be perfectly frank the real reason I wanted to write about MK11 was basically to talk about my personal wish list for what (or who) I would like to see in the game. Leave it to a verbose dimwit like me to spend 1,700 words without ever getting to the point! But hey, this way I get to spin off this wish list nonsense into its own post, which is probably for the better, anyway.
A few minor notes before we get started:
- This is a list of who I want to see in MK11 – but I’ll make note of how likely I think each of these guys are to actually make it into the game
- I’m operating under the assumption that all purported “leaks” are inaccurate, or at the very least not worth acknowledging until corroborated by official announcements
- The list is not in order of who I’d like to see more or less, or any other particular order for that matter
All right, so without further ado, let’s get on to the list!
Continue reading Ten characters I really want to see return in Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat Eleven
At The Game Awards a couple of weeks back, MORTAL KOMBAT 11 was announced to the world. As a long-time fan of the MK series, and especially the most recent instalments, the news that the latest incarnation is coming – and soon! – was great indeed. NRS are keeping things close to their chest as usual, so for now we don’t know a whole lot about MK11. So let’s recklessly speculate and express some wishful thinking, shall we?
First off, there’s been a number of supposed “leaks” surrounding certain details about the game, including the character roster, game modes, and whatever else, dating back to well before the game was officially (or even unofficially) announced. So far though, I personally haven’t seen anything leaked that has since turned out to be true, or couldn’t reasonably be guessed – at this point all the “leaked” info I’ve seen has been conflicting with other “leaked” info, and/or been of the nature that we can’t know what’s accurate until it’s corroborated by official reveals. So long story short: I’m largely ignoring all “leaks” for the time being. Continue reading Mortal Kombat Eleven
Five things that can make any game better
There’s no shortage of different types of games, and I think it goes without saying that there’s no one recipe for how to put together a good game (much less a successful one!). Even on a personal, subjective level, I might have a general preference or tendency towards certain types of games – arcadey and action-focused games in my case – but there are always exceptions. Certain games manages to either overcome some inherent bias on my part, or just appeal in a different way, for totally different reasons.
There’s no real central thread connecting what makes different types of games compelling, and as such, it would be sort of inane to suggest there are rules that any and every type of game should follow. Now, having said all that, throughout my years of obsessing over big and small details in games, there are a couple of things I’ve found can increase my enjoyment of a game – any game. So without further ado, presented in no particular order: Five things that can make any game better: Continue reading Five things that can make any game better
Thoughts on the DEAD RISING series and Capcom Vancouver going under
DEAD RISING is one of my absolute favourite games of all time. I could (and probably will, at some point) write at length about why I love it, why I disagree with most fans’ assessments of the sequels (DR3 is clearly the second best in the series, at least if you play it the right way), or why DEAD RISING 4 is a hot piece of garbage that pisses all over the series’ legacy (YouTubers Tehsnakerer and GhenryPerez have covered that last point pretty well though, so by all means check out their videos – I largely echo their thoughts). But for now I thought I’d share some musings on the state of the DEAD RISING series, in the wake of Capcom Vancouver (lead developer of the DR series starting with DR2) imploding earlier this year.
So DEAD RISING had been Capcom Vancouver’s bread and butter for a number of years, up until DEAD RISING 4 in 2016 (re-released and ported to PS4 in 2017 under the groanworthy moniker FRANK’S BIG PACKAGE). For a brief period Capcom Vancouver were also responsible for a much-maligned mobile free-to-play reboot of SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II TURBO. While that might sound like a great idea, CV’s PUZZLE FIGHTER not only looked absolutely hideous, it apparently played poorly too, quickly devolving to pay-to-win with the actual puzzle-solving aspect apparently second to building a sick deck with rare loot drops or whatever. I wish I could give a first-hand report on the game, but it was shut down before I got around to even trying it out. Continue reading Thoughts on the DEAD RISING series and Capcom Vancouver going under
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