This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Natalie Got A New Shower!
• TSF Showcase 2024-23 Shimai ga Nakayoshi Kara Ryouomoi ni Naru Hanashi [How Sisters Go from Friendship to Romance] by Sebire
• Take-Two Shutters Private Division Label (Take-Two Botches It Again!)
• Avalanche Studios Shutter Suddenly (Just Cause Developer Closes North American Studios)
• 7-Year-Old Platformer, Yooka-Laylee, is Getting a Remaster (And it Looks Worse The The Original)
• Remaster, Remake, Re-Release, Repeat (A Tangent I Wrote While on the Phone with IRS)
• Summer Game Fest Rundown (The Bits ‘N’ Pieces Before The Big Stuff)
• Lego Horizon Adventures Announced (Much to Natalie’s Confusion)
• Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Announced (It’s Not Natsume, But It’s Close Enough)
• Slitterhead Gameplay Reveal (Split ‘Em All 1995! I am Possession Man! 1 Billion Dead Yo-Kais!)
• Killer Bean Revealed to the Broader Gaming World (Grand Theft Potato Looks DOPE!)
• Natalie Learned About Unknown 9: Awakening (It’s A Possession Stealth Action Game!)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Natalie Got A New Shower!

Yoooo! Guess who just spent $4,000 on renovating her shower? This bitch!

Okay, so… long story short is that after I bought my new home and before I moved into it, I had some guys repaint it, do some repairs, the works. During this process… the shower door for my ensuite bathroom fell off its hinges and shattered. This was not strictly a problem, as I still could use the main bathroom shower, but this did mean I had a basically useless shower… and one with some pretty fundamental issues. 

It had a giant built-in seat that would need to be worked around. Its door design was terrible, as it would always hit the toilet, and you do not want a glass door to hit a toilet. The base of the shower had a crack in it that would only get worse. There was a stupid faucet near where one’s right leg would be if they sat on the shower bench. The tiling had issues and some mold stains— it would need to be spruced up and repaired.

Instead of going in for the economical ‘band-aid’ approach, my mother was able to find some Eastern European guys and some Mexican guys who could demolish and rebuild the entire shower. And it cost… a mere $8,000. That might sound like a lot, but the other guys we were quoting said $12,000 and only wanted to do minor renovations. These guys were cheap, we saw their work beforehand and… yeah, the shower’s fine. It looks plain, but fine enough, nice enough, and the tile on the floor has enough traction that I’m not worried about slipping. However, as you can plainly tell, there’s no faucet, showerhead, or glass. That’s because the door’s on back order, so I cannot try out the shower for myself.

Also, because of these renovations, I had to move to my mother’s bedroom for a week, while she slept in the living room slash office on my bed. It was a weird arrangement, but as of releasing this, I’m back in my bedroom. So all is well!

Akumako: “Damn, you’ve sure gotten boring. And you’re not even 30 yet!”

…My life has always been boring. I’m just glad things have generally worked out for me well enough that I can comfortably afford half of a shower renovation like this, while making enough to cover my mortgage payments. I’m not rich by any means, but I’ve done some work in my time, and despite my family’s chronically bad history with men, I can borrow $30k if I ever run into an emergency. Most Americans can’t say that!

Akumako: “…When you say shit like that, I really want to just eat you so the singularity can occur.”

You mean the end of The Saga of Dawn and Dusk altogether?

Akumako: “That is such a pompous-ass name for something so stupid and you know it.”

Well, I can’t very well call it Natalie Neumann’s Duskverse or something! And something like NNVD sounds like a stock ticker.

Akumako: “Complaining, complaining. But what should I expect from the sad shitbird who came up with Natalie.TF and TSF Series.”

Look, my naming skills are highly situational… but your name is just ‘devil girl.’

Akumako: “And who named me?”

Some Japanese dudes?

Akumako: “Not that thot! ME!“

Oh… piss off! I don’t want to take any of your lip! Not when I’m busy with the Segmented Summer Showcases of 2024.

Akumako: “…So, without further ado, let’s talk about S3 2024?”

No, ya dumb pea! I still need to do TSF Showcases! …Except this one is more of a quicky than anything else.

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TSF Showcase 2024-23
Shimai ga Nakayoshi Kara Ryouomoi ni Naru Hanashi [How Sisters Go from Friendship to Romance] by Sebire

In publishing this, I’m fresh off of reviewing TSF visual novels re:Dreamer and Press-Switch. And I’m patiently awaiting a release date for Student Transfer V8. So I’m going to take this as an excuse to dig back into the shallower end of the pool… with female-to-male incest! In all honesty, this has been sitting in my maybe pile for a few months now. I wasn’t sure if there was quite enough to eke out a full TSF Showcase for it, but I think I can manage.

The comic opens up with a flashback of two young female twins trying to understand the concept of love and the difference between romantic love and platonic love. The more reserved one, Akari, who wears her hair in a low ponytail, tries to express her love to her more outgoing twin, Airi, who wears a side ponytail. But Airi does not think sisters are supposed to develop a more romantic love, and instead tries to convince her sister to pursue boyfriends instead. Because children have a limited understanding of… things in general.

Years later, Akari and Airi are both high school students, but Akari has not grown past the love she shared for her sister, and has carried this unrequited feeling for years, thinking and hoping for some solution. …Which comes her way in the form of spontaneous human sexual reassignment, a tried and true TSF staple. Akari is hospitalized and by the time Airi sees that her body has transformed into that of a man. 

Though, it’s a bit hard to tell with the art. Sebire drew every character with a sharp chin and shadow-casting nose, and opted not to make the hair recede as part of a transformation— as it shouldn’t, because hair length has nothing to do with sex. …Aside from baldness. That’s triggered by testosterone. If you’re AMAB and wanna avoid baldness, get some t-blockers. And if you’re AFAB but thinking of going on HRT, you might wind up a bald man depending on your genetics.

After coming to terms with the transformation, the two sisters, or rather siblings, comfort and reassure the other. Akari is just glad that her sister didn’t turn on them over their transformation, to which Airi states that “guy or not, you’re still you,” and that they should treat each other the same. This is followed by Akari walking around shirtless, emphasizing the differences between their once nearly identical bodies, showing that Airi is, in fact, viewing her sibling in a different light..

Airi then goes out to meet Akari to help them shop for guy clothes, but when she gets there, she’s shocked to see that Akari looks completely different. Their long meticulous hair was cut for something shorter and casual. They traded their wide-rimmed glasses for contact lenses (which I don’t think you can get with a one day turnaround). And are wearing a black T-shirt and jeans— the default boy outfit. Airi rightfully points out that they look like a completely new person, and being around this new Akari leaves her heart racing as they go on their shopping trip, which functions more as a date. 

Now is a good time to pause and talk about what I find interesting about this comic. Aside from how rare it is for a TSF story to be MtF that follows the perspective of an untransformed female protagonist. I find the rationale of most forms of incest, especially when transformation is at play, to be interesting. Most people develop a sexual aversion to family members they grow up around, commonly dubbed the Westermarck effect. But that does not apply to everyone, as different families in different cultures operate in different ways. Akari clearly never developed this aversion, and after Airi saw her former sister like this, looking, feeling, and sounding like a different person, she was left conflicted.

Airi knows that this person is/was her sister, and has internalized that seeking a romantic relationship with a sibling is not socially acceptable. Yet she does not have lived experiences with this male version of Akari, who, based on how she describes them, is her type. Is that preference due to a physical similarity between herself and the new Akari? Is this due to latent feelings she has for Airi that she could not acknowledge prior to this fantastical transformation? Even in a simple story like this, it is not made truly clear, and the reader can fill in the blanks with what they think is most interesting. 

Now, you could say that later parts of this comic do clarify things. But when two people are in a tense situation, when their relationship is hanging in the balance, it is possible for them to alter their opinions and beliefs. This is especially true for younger people and the people they depend on, and is part of the reason why IRL incest is so dangerous. If a child has a parent come up to them for a romantic and sexual relationship, some will just crack under pressure and convince themselves this is good, as the alternative is too risky. Love, abuse, and coercion are not as clear cut as some might like to think.

Anyway, after their trip, Akari puts Airi in their lap, puts their arms around her, and tells her how much she makes their heart beat, before kissing them on the lips. Airi is startled by this, and when she lashes out at Akari for this action, Akari begins to cry, openly declaring their love for her and how, no matter what, they cannot fall in love with anyone else. All of which leads to Akari saying that they dreamed of becoming a man, so they could be her boyfriend. It is a tear-filled confession, complete with self-loathing from Akari as she anticipates Airi’s rejection. They ask for forgiveness… only for Airi to give them a kiss.

Airi says that if Akari loved her like that, they should have said so, and when asked if she wants to enter a relationship, she agrees with a “sounds good! Let’s do it!” Which I just think is a hilarious line in this context. Airi then reassures Akari, reciprocating their desire for sex, and the two then proceed to have a 15 page sex scene. And… it actually works pretty well. 

Akari starts out unsure how to use their new penis, instead gets Airi off with their hands, as the two apparently have the same ‘weak spots.’ I know that’s bullcrap, but I can suspend my disbelief for it. Airi, wanting this to work and committing to this route, then gives her sibling a paizuri. Which I like seeing in TSF erotic works, if only because I think the contrast is neat. And after ejaculating as a man for the first time, Akari is consumed by a sense of vigor that leads them to traditional penetration. Akari uses her familiarity of Airi’s ‘weak spots’ yet again, and the two reach a gushing climax. It’s pretty basic, cut there’s a clear narrative build-up, and I appreciate that. Because without narrative or character, sex is just noise.

After cleaning up, the two are left to face the reality of what they just did, embarrassed by the fact they’ve fallen in love, and Airi ends this story with a confession. That she always harbored feelings for Akari, but kept them locked away for so long. But now, she does not want to hide from anything, and declares that, boy or girl, she loves Akari. This seems like it is a clear cut case, and that is likely the author’s intent, but the power dynamics, considering the alternatives, I still think this is more ambiguous. 

Now, that’s not to discredit or claim that their love is disingenuous. A person’s feelings are their feelings, and they should be able to pursue their own happiness. But… that’s the thing about incestuous relationships. What might feel right could always be the way for someone to rationalize their way out of a shitty situation, choosing to pursue love because… it’s easier than ruining a relationship someone has had since birth.

…Yeah, I don’t want to get into any arguments about incest as a storytelling tool, especially as it seems to be getting more flak as of late, so I’m just going to end things here. No real trivia about the artist behind this either, as they are just a regular old hentai artist who, four years ago, dabbled into TSF once, but never again.

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Take-Two Shutters Private Division Label
(Take-Two Botches It Again!)

You know, when Take-Two announced Private Division, I thought this would be repeated by other major publishers. That secondary indie or AA labels would become a staple of the few remaining third party studios around. Kind of like the Square Enix Collective or the EA Originals labels. Unfortunately, this initiative does not appear to have taken off, as major publishers seem to think it is good business to invest in a few marquee titles, rather than foster other smaller creators and build up smash hits. Sure, the amount of return might be smaller than a AAA game, but the rate of return on a super successful low budget game is way higher.

Sadly, big publishers have decided that they don’t want to run the risk on $20 million projects that could see returns of $40 million. Instead, they want to invest $300 million into a game, hoping it will rake in $400 million. I’m an Enrolled Agent with a master’s in Accounting, and while I’m a tax person, not a finance person, I know a stupidly risky bet when I see one.

Contextual preambling aside, the core of this story is that Take-Two is in the process of dismantling and ending Private Division. Meaning that the people who worked in its four offices around the world are going to be out of a job. While the developers the subsidiary owns, Roll7 (OllieOllie World) and Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program) will be shut down. 

A small group will remain responsible for the remaining titles the publisher has signed on— No Rest for the Wicked, Tales of the Shire, Eternal Strands, and Project Bloom. Meaning that they are not ending whatever funding they were providing to the developers. And there have been attempts to sell the label and its related IP. But plans have not progressed as expected and Take-Two wants to clear their plate of this expense by the end of Q2. 

This is just another loss in the games industry, and per IGN’s write-up on the situation… this is another case of corporate incompetence ruining a company filled with passionate and skilled people. Take-Two assigned unrealistic expectations, appointed bad managers, and they made such a mess of things they couldn’t even sell off the company to private equity.

This sucks, and was a ripe shit way to start off June.

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Avalanche Studios Shutter Suddenly
(Just Cause Developer Closes North American Studios)

First, a bit of clarification. Avalanche Studios is the Swedish developer of explosive open world action games. Just Cause, Mad Max (2015), Rage 2, and the upcoming Xbox Microsoft published Contraband, which was revealed via a CG teaser in 2021. They have no relation to the Utah developers of Cars 3: Driven to Win and the wizard game based on the IP owned by the Holocaust denier who has devoted her life to bigotry.

The story is that Avalanche Studios is closing down two studios, laying off around 50 people. With the two studios being the Montreal studio they opened in October 2023, and the other being their New York City studio, which was opened back in 2011. This effectively ends Avalanche’s North American presence, and the suddenness of this event… raises several questions.

Why is this happening? Well, I have a pretty straightforward theory that I came up with all by myself! After the sale of Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix is still the owner of the Just Cause IP and is currently trying to get a movie greenlit. However, there has not been a Just Cause game since 2018’s Just Cause 4. For optimal brand synergy, they would want to have a movie and game come out close to each other. However, Square Enix took an extraordinary loss last month as they canceled many projects. And it is entirely plausible that one of these projects was Just Cause 5.

If so, why would they cancel it? Because Just Cause 4 did not meet their lofty expectations. In fact, I don’t remember Just Cause 3 being treated too hotly. Their Max Max (2015) game was seen as average in its heyday and sold poorly. And Rage 2 (2019) was just written off as being ‘fun enough’ or ‘a solid 7/10.’ …Yeah, I’m honestly surprised Avalanche is still around to be honest. Not because they made bad games, but because they made a lot of games that were neither critical darlings nor sales juggernauts. Plus, game development is so complicated that even getting an average game to release is a feat in and of itself.

Regardless, this sucks for the studio, and makes me wonder if they will be around if Contraband will suffer the Microsoft curse and get mismanaged to hell and back. 

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7-Year-Old Platformer, Yooka-Laylee, is Getting a Remaster
(And it Looks Worse The The Original)

The sheer variety of remasters and remakes wafting through the air is something I have mixed feelings about. I think most games could easily go up a point on a ten point scale with some quality of life, additional polishing, or specks of new content. Unfortunately, for every good remaster, there’s one that’s more comparable to a port and another one that is materially worse than the original. While I understand that remasters are often economical projects with low staff, low budgets, and low resources, I find it beyond frustrating when they muck up something obvious. Sometimes it’s the performance, often it’s the visuals, but most often it’s the lighting. 

I understand that publishers want their remasters to look different, for there to be a palpable difference in side -by-side comparisons. However, that requires either enhancing the original image or… just changing it. And a lot of the time, it’s easier just to change it. To throw in a lot of bloom and bright effects not present in the original game, and claim it’s better. While I understand the appeal of more realistic lighting, I view colors to be the most important part of a game’s visual identity. If you are remastering or remaking something, there should be two options. 

Either follow the original vision to a tee and only improve things based on quality of life features and what the original developers or fans of the original want the game to be. Or treat the original as a loose jumping off point, reimagining it, and creating what is ultimately a different game. The latter… can be very difficult, as it is just making a new game. While the former… is not too different from modding or making a rom hack of the original release. A practice that amateurs have been performing for over 25 years.

I am not saying that something beyond this binary will always result in subpar results. But I have seen a lot of remasters/remakes, and many of them run into the same issues by interjecting intrusive, transformative elements into a game that is supposed to be ‘faithful.’ (Glares at Persona 3 Reload.)

Preamble aside, Yooka-Laylee was a 2017 3D platformer that was marketed as the spiritual successor to N64 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie, coming from some of the original developers. The title had a lot of good things going for it, was a rousing success on Kickstarter, but when it actually came out… it was just okay. The game had a lot of problems. Some of them technical, some of them design issues, and despite its best efforts, the game never managed to reach the highs of the games that preceded it.

There was a lot that could be improved on, redesigned, and overall updated. So the idea of a Yooka-Laylee remaster is one with some merit. And as part of the S3 festivities, we got just that, creatively entitled Yooka-Replayee. 

From the list of changes and improvements of the original, it sounds pretty promising:

• Updated and enhanced visuals, as the original was clearly made on a budget and had some areas that looked half-finished.
• New challenges and bonus content, a remaster staple.
• A new collectible currency for “vending machines” which… gives people more things to collect in this collectathon, so I guess that’s good.
• A map and objective tracker, a feature that sounds like it should have been in the original game.
• A new orchestral soundtrack, a nice feature that was probably beyond the Kickstarter budget— orchestras are expensive, but not too expensive.
• Updated movement and camera controls is another vague descriptor, but I know the original had control issues, so that at least sounds good.

This all sounds ideal… but then I watched the trailer and saw that they pulled a freaking Wind Waker HD and doused everything in obtrusive, obnoxious, lighting. God rays are persistently shining down from the sky. The once lush crayola green trees and grass have been soaked with yellow tinting. And everything that was once bright and clear is now obscured with more lighting effects. It looks obnoxious in my book, and I think the people who put out this trailer realized that. At the 27 second mark, they show footage of the 2017 original… but blur it to hell and back to make the remastered look better. It’s scummy, and even though this is presumably from the same developers… I have to ask who hit them in the head to make them think this was an improvement? Did these people learn nothing from 2014’s Fable Anniversary? A remaster that blanketly looks worse than the original?

Why can’t every remaster team be like Atari subsidiary Nightdive Studios and make tasteful visual alterations that enhance the original image? I mean, I just saw a trailer for their remaster of Killing Time right after this, and it’s like peering into another universe where things make sense! (Killing Time is an obscure 1995 3DO and PC shooter that was featured on the excellent Ross’s Game Dungeon.)

Yooka-Replaylee will release for unspecified consoles and PC in 2025.

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Remaster, Remake, Re-Release, Repeat
(A Tangent I Wrote While on the Phone with IRS)

Something that I find… frustrating about the current climate of gaming is the sheer number and visibility of remasters, remakes, reissues, and re-releases of older titles. This is something that’s particularly notable when looking at the library of publishers like Sony Interactive Entertainment, Nintendo, and Square Enix, but is common across the industry.

I understand the economic and development reasons why these projects keep getting pushed. But the sheer volume of these re-whatevers has me worried about the future of the industry. Because… when will this stop? I thought it would stop making sense to remaster or re-release a game if it is already playable on modern hardware, but clearly that’s not the case. 

Sony has been filling up much of their PS5 generation with remastered PS4 games, and remastering titles that are less than a decade old appears to be their primary plan to fill up their release calendar. Nintendo is seemingly planning on filling up the next year of releases with re-releases of their prior titles, and I see no reason to stop. They have an incredible backlog of games that people love and will happily buy again. Same with a lot of legacy publishers, who are sitting on a goldmine of titles that they could just port forward or spruce up.

I’m a fervent supporter of preservation and I want the overwhelming majority of games ever made to be available on modern hardware. But this habit of presenting reissues of old games as ‘new’ games is… something that just does not sit well with me. Yes, a game someone has never played before or hasn’t played in decades may as well be a new game, but at this point, the industry is relying on re-whatevers as a crutch. The industry is struggling to keep pace with what people want, struggling to develop games at the disgusting ‘modern’ scale, and struggling to make new games that people want. It adds to the sense that something is wrong with the industry, that it is decaying, that there’s nothing new worth looking into from major publishers. (For clarity purposes, I’m not saying I agree with this sentiment, just that it exists.)

I mean, four of the top ten rated games of 2024 so far are just re-whatevers of games from prior years. Three are the latest entries in acclaimed Japanese series. Three are indie games. It makes sense that publishers keep doing this, as the games are critically successful and appreciated by the community, so they presumably sell well.

So… I guess my problem is that re-whatevers have transformed from a semi-reliable way to play older games on modern systems into being something else. Now, they are some of the most celebrated games hitting the market and a way for console manufacturers to fill up their release calendar when working on major titles. Hell, Nintendo has put out 30 re-whatevers for the Switch, and the most exciting thing about its future library are re-whatevers of future titles.

Part of me does not mind this. I would be content if the games industry were nothing but live service malarky, indie games, and re-whatevers of older titles. I have a digital library of over 500 games I care about. I have a curated collection of over 900 ROMs. And even if I dedicated my life to going through all of them… I doubt I could ever finish them all. 

However… I cannot help but view many of the modern re-whatevers as being more cynical in nature. Despite having been a vehement defender of the practice in the past, the lack of standardization with many projects has left me… anxious about a lot of re-whatevers. In a way I wouldn’t be about a wholly new game.  Simply because I feel I cannot trust most developers to do the right thing when bringing forward their games. It might be 90% great changes, but if just 10% of the changes are detrimental, that could make the whole experience break.

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Summer Game Fest Rundown
(The Bits ‘N’ Pieces Before The Big Stuff)

It’s time for the first big pseudo E3 showcase! Yay, except not really. I’m not feeling the most positive toward the games industry at the moment, and Summer Game Fest is just a way for announcements to be bundled before a large audience. I view it as a cultureless event beyond brand appeal, not unlike The Game Awards. Though, it does at least get some miniscule points for pointing out how the layoffs and studio closures affected the industry, and citing how indie games have helped prop up the industry, indicating a tidal change. It’s a pretty shallow statement, but I cannot think of much more they could fit in the allocated runtime.

Also, Cassie watched this showcase with me, and she made things more fun, as she always does. I love Cassie! She’s my best friend.

There was a lot covered, so I’m going to go over the teensy tendrils I don’t have much to say about before getting into the tangents. …Tangents less about the games and more about the circumstances surrounding them.

Civilization VII was announced, much to the delight of Europeans and PC game enjoyers. According to Cassie, Civilization VI was seen as a step back in some regards, mostly aesthetics, and there has been some burning desire for a game that reclaims the highs of Civ 5. The series is something I never got into, but I’m glad the series is still kicking and hope this entry will be a more robust experience. 

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero was confirmed to feature the best feature from the older Dragon Ball game. What-if scenarios! The game still looks quite sharp, quite impressive considering they are not directly building off of a prior game, and it seems to be garnering a rather extreme amount of hype. Which should not strike me as weird, it’s the biggest anime IP in the world— sorry One Piece, you’re too long and too unfinished— but it seems to be racking up more attention than even FighterZ. Maybe the series has just gotten more popular over the past few years…

Blumhouse, the film studio, has branched into video games with a bunch of smaller titles spanning different genres and aesthetics, which I think is a great thing. Horror is not my cup of tea— I only get full-scared by the realness and rawness of IRL. But I acknowledge and appreciate that this production company is funding a whopping six small scale games in a genre with a deeply thirsty audience.

Deer & Boy looks to be the next big dark cinematic story-driven platformer, a la Inside, and it’s all about a deer and a boy traveling throughout a world to a domain of untold horrors. Which sounds like it could be an AI’s best attempt at creating the premise of a hit indie game circa 2018, but it’s real, and it looks good. 

Wanderstop is the next game from Davey Wreden, the creator of The Stanley Parable. A masterpiece that I cannot say enough good things about, and should be part of game design curriculum. And The Beginner’s Guide, a successor game that explored the process and methods of game design… that I genuinely thought was made up of stolen assets from what turned out to be a fictional developer. Yeah, I thought Coda was real up until writing this. That should be used to discredit my media literacy skills going forward.

Enotria: The Last Song is the latest burgeoning AA soulslike, and… it looks pretty dope. The world is heavily inspired by Italian architecture, geography, and mythology, giving it a rich yet grounded visual flair. The game is centered around defeating bosses to claim marks that imbue the player character with great power, while allowing them to basically become their fallen foes. Also known as one of my favorite mechanics. I love beatin’ fools and then becomin’ ’em! And the entire game has the novel premise of being in a play where everybody fulfills a role based on the marks they wear. …None of which I really got from the CG trailer they showed. But I did get it from the store page.

Innersloth, the folks behind Among Us have launched an indie game fund to share their success with other indie game developers, which I think is incredibly cool. The fund, called Outersloth, has already brought in many developers to help them make games without worrying about funding, which is about the biggest concern with making a game. And it is presented as just being that simple. They find developers they trust, and they pay them. Which is a wonderful thing… but I have to know what their tax situation is. 

Is Outersloth a non-profit? Is Innersloth treating their contributions as a charitable contribution? Is Innersloth managing the company, because I think there might be restrictions about related parties. I know they are an LLC, but there are four ways you can tax an LLC. Is Innersloth a corporation? Because then they could only take a 10% deduction on charitable contributions. If they are a partnership though… then the charitable deductions are applied on an individual level to the partners. I can tell they have two ‘governors’ per the Washington secretary of state, so it cannot be a disregarded entity. …Also, I should remember to look up the Outersloth tax return. You can do that with all non-profits by the way.

Sonic X Shadow Generations got another trailer, and… it’s exactly what I thought it would be. Sonic Generations, but with a new campaign all about Shadow. This includes a new stage based on Bullet Station from Sonic Heroes. A psychedelic cityscape that probably is based on Westopolis from Shadow the Hedgehog. Kingdom Valley from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), the best stage to represent that game, screw Crisis City. What’s probably Final Chase from Sonic Adventure 2, because yes. And even a transformation sequence where Shadow gets demonic wings. It’s coming out October 25, 2024 for all relevant consoles, and if Cassie wants me to play it with her on stream, I will happily oblige!

…Also, there are chao depicted in the key art. …I swear, if they bring back the chao garden, I will buy this game day one on principle!

Alan Wake II is getting both a physical release and a zanier bit of DLC with the Nights Springs expansion. It’s something that I just love to see. Sillier side episodes that compliment the main game with new characters and what if scenarios. Most DLC should be like that honestly. And for a game as good and successful as Alan Wake II, I think people will respond well to it.

And Phantom Blade 0 continues to look like a good Nioh slash Sekiro like Japan-based dark high tension action game. …But its name is just bad. And coming from me, that’s saying something

That being said, let’s get into the five topics that got my brain into a tizzy!

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Lego Horizon Adventures Announced
(Much to Natalie’s Confusion)

Lego Horizon Adventures is a title that leaked prior to this showcase, and one that… just kind of confuses me conceptually. The Lego game series is one that has touched generations of children, and make for some incredibly reliable co-op fun, but… they kind of vanished this generation. Part of this is due to turbulent times going on at Traveler’s Tales while developing the Skywalker Saga game. Part of that is the move of kid-centric games to mobile. And part of that has been due to the rising costs of licensed games. There is Lego Fortnite, which is about as big as a Lego game could realistically get, but the annualized Lego series is seemingly a thing of the past.

While the Horizon IP is… something I don’t quite understand the appeal of. The first game was kind of shafted as an open world game released at the same time as Breath of the Wild, the game that allegedly ‘invalidated’ the old structure of open world games. A structure that games have not generally moved away from by the way, but are supposedly inherently worse or some shit. The second was well-received, but was nothing too new or novel, and most of the discourse I heard around it had to do with its damn pick up animation. However, Sony seems adamant about making it their big open world action adventure game and even made it the tentpole IP to sell their dead-on-arrival second attempt at a VR headset.

I’m sure the games are quality, and I was psyched at the very concept of robot dinosaurs, but I do not see much of a hook to them, I guess. The twist from the first game? I dunno what it is, but I heard it was dope! But what makes this a series that warrants multiple spin-offs and side divergents? I’m not sure. …And I don’t really see how the game makes for a good Lego game. Yes, it has a lot of scenic locales and engaging combat, but… I cannot imagine it garnering the attention of a lot of kids in the way something like Halo would circa 2012. 

As for the game as illustrated by the trailer… it just strikes me as another Lego game, but with a different style, as it is from a completely different developer. Animations are more stop motion inspired and the general look is different, but this is still another co-op centric game centered around mostly linear levels with simplistic combat. Nothing about it looks bad, but I’d imagine that the Lego brand is going to be more appealing than the Horizon one, because… what is that appealing about these characters?

My lack of understanding notwithstanding (feel free to enlighten me in the comments below), Lego Horizon Adventures was announced for a holiday 2024 release of PS5, Switch, and PC. I have no idea how Lego managed to twist Sony’s arm to do that. …Oh gosh. Does that mean there’s now a slim chance Sony might just say screw it and port Horizon: Zero Dawn to the Switch 2. That would mark the end of an era…

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Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind Announced
(It’s Not Natsume, But It’s Close Enough)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was announced as a brand new sprite-based beat ’em up based on the iconic 90s incarnation of an enduring IP. …I get it. The recent TMNT Shredder’s Revenge game was a huge hit, and people dearly want licensed beat ’em ups based on nostalgic 90s properties. However… Power Rangers is getting rebooted, the original continuity is ending, and the series is in limbo at the moment. Well, aside from the comics. But nobody knows those exist. I barely know they exist.

As for the trailer, the 2D animated cutscenes looks… strange. The art is not bad, just not aligned with how the IP has been depicted in 2D animation before, and very choppy with its movement. Why not just get the artists behind the modern comics to do the art here, since that would be a cool way to appease diehard fans? I guess it’s not cartoony enough? 

The actual in-game graphics look… very nice. The characters are a bit small, but the animators use their pixels wisely. Every ranger has their own unique set of animations, which is of vital importance even with their designated colors. The backgrounds look clean and have their own scattering of details. You can tell where their priorities were. I was able to spot a lot of familiar faces, and every design is translated into this art style nicely. I think it manages to achieve a good balance between detail and visual clarity, which is very important, as this is a five-player beat ’em up. 

…Yes, five players, and that’s an odd choice. Shredder’s Revenge brought things up to six players, and at the height of the series’ popularity, there were six rangers. However, it seems that this game is sticking to the first half of season one’s continuity, and… that just doesn’t sit right with me. The original SNES beat ’em up— by Natsume Atari, developers of Pocky and Rocky, only contained the original five rangers, but that’s because it was made as the show was airing. This game though? It has no excuse. 

I’d say that is due to budget reasons, but I cannot imagine an extra character costing that much, and if the budget was a concern… how would they still be able to do all this dope pseudo mode 7 stuff? Rather than just feature beat’em up stages, the game also has… rail shooter slash racing segments where the player must navigate on a motorcycle or rollercoaster. And they look AMAZING! You can tell that they are rendering things in 3D and then downscaling it to look like everything’s made of sprites, but it looks like how people remember Mode 7 scaling. And this mode is also used for first person boss battles where a player pilots the Megazord! Unconventional, but awesome!

Also, this game features Robo-Rita from the Once & Always Netflix special, going back in time, and I think that’s a really cool premise to play with. A nice little nod to people who were invested in the series. …Or invested enough to watch Linkara’s retrospective on it.

Now is where I talk about the developer of the game and it’s… Digital Eclipse? Yeah, I’m surprised to see them develop a wholly original game like this, but I guess they impressed the right people at Hasbro with The Cowabunga Collection to get a deal and hire some people to make this game. I guess that this makes some sense. Also, I’m guessing most of the actual developers are just contractors hired for this project, since I doubt Digital Eclipse has much in the way of on-staff employees. It’s more honest to treat contractors as contractors.

Anyway, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will be released for all relevant consoles in late 2024. This includes PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC, and Switch. 

…Oh, SHIT! Does this mean Digital Eclipse is working on a Power Rangers game collection? Because there are WAY more Power Rangers games than anyone would imagine. 10 were developed by Natsume-Atari. The 3D console versions were wild, from different developers every time, and one of them… you didn’t play as the rangers, you played as zords!

…Also, I just remembered Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle was a thing. It was a downloadable game from 2017, and it sucked! It was basically a sub-million-dollar budget mobile game, and the first Power Rangers game in a decade! Hopefully this take on the same basic thing is way, way better.

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Slitterhead Gameplay Reveal
(Split ‘Em All 1995! I am Possession Man! 1 Billion Dead Yo-Kais!)

When Splitterhead was given a teaser reveal back in 2021, I was not sure what to make of it. Yes, it was a game from the remnants of Team Siren of Japan Studios and it had a late 20th century grungy urban Asian aesthetic. But the in-engine footage was a bit hard to parse, and I knew the game had only been in development for… maybe a year and a half. I nearly forgot about it in the following years, and when this trailer came on… I fell in love!

Splitthead is not a horror game. It is a possession-driven action game where you play as a spirit that possesses and transforms human bodies to wage battle against horrific flesh monsters. Which… is pretty close to dream game territory for me. 

I straight up love possession and body theft as a concept in just about any context. (Big surprise.) I adored the possession mechanic from Super Mario Odyssey and I have been waiting for developers to incorporate it into more games, but in more immoral, perverse, ways. Flesh monsters are something I have a deep love for, as human bodies are monstrous in general, and I enjoy seeing how artists can horrifically mutilate them. And I feel a certain deep comfort with these more rundown Asian environments. I’m the sort of person who looks at Kowloon, the walled city, and thinks it is a bold feat of urban design and architecture. I know it was dirty and smelled like shit, but the aesthetics are good.

To quote one of the top YouTube commenters for this trailer, “this looks DOPE!” It does look a bit janky in some spots, the impact of attacks from one’s flesh-based weapons are a bit MMO-like for my tastes, but… damn. There’s something special about this, and I’m psyched to see how the game fares when it debuts. 

Splitterhead will launch on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on November 8, 2024. Just barely missing the Halloween deadline that’s vital for horror games. Orz.

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Killer Bean Revealed to the Broader Gaming World
(Grand Theft Potato Looks DOPE!)

Killer Bean is an open world third-person shooter that… I thought had to be a shitpost when I first saw it. Because it is a game with a scale, level of variety, and detail that quite frankly is beyond what most AAA studios are allowed to pursue. Let alone an indie studio so indie that it’s just one dude.

Killer Bean is the brainchild of a man named Jeff Lew. An animator who worked on some very real productions, but has been developing an absurd action pastiche series since the early days of computer animation. It started with two shorts, but then grew into a feature length movie that racked up over 61 million views on YouTube. Meaning I should have known about this before watching this trailer.

Clearly recognizing the success on his hands, Lew continued to develop the Killer Bean series over the following decade, but rather than just stick with animation… he decided to try his hand at creating a video game. An open world third-person shooter with a gameplay variety that has been scarce since the Xbox 360 era, when developers could still get the resources needed to do everything Grand Theft Auto did.

The game has driving. It has gunplay while driving. It has frantic third-person shooter action, complete with a Stranglehold-esque slow-motion dive. It is dynamic enough that players can grab grenades in mid-air and throw them back at enemies and dive through windows in order to kill a target in another room. It has mech mini-bosses along with military outposts filled with bean thugs. And there is even a giant Metal Gear monstrosity that walks around the ocean while the protagonist outruns their barrage of missiles on a jetski… and it looks freakishly good.

Killer Bean is a game that, by the metrics of my mind, should not exist, but it does anyway. And to top it all off… this thing’s also a roguelike, so every Killer Bean playthrough will be a different action movie-ass experience. I can see the profound skill on display here, I can tell this game took a long time to make, and… it looks shockingly good

Killer Bean will be released via Steam Early Access in summer 2024 and… a game like this should probably be a huge hit. 

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Natalie Learned About Unknown 9: Awakening
(It’s A Possession Stealth Action Game!)

For the past… 15 years, Bandai Namco has been trying to branch out into the international market, to become a truly global collection of studios with games that appeal to just about every niche. This was seen in their 2010 trilogy of Dead to Rights: Retribution, Splatterhouse (2010), and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. The certified trashcore classic of Inversion (2012). The game that ended the Super Best Friends, Star Trek (2013).

In more recent history, they have formed a long partnership with Supermassive games with The Dark Pictures Anthology. They did a… Fast & Furious licensed game. Twin Mirror, a Don’t Nod adventure game that was made by the B team while the rest worked on Tell Me Why. 11-11: Memories Retold, an… impressionist-styled adventure game. Park Beyond, a theme park builder by the Might & Magic developers. And Project CARS, before the developer was acquired by EA.

…Yeah, Bandai Namco’s western development approach has been a really mixed bag. But they hope to change that with the first title from their fully owned subsidiary, Reflector Entertainment. A Montreal studio founded in 2016 who wants to create a universe based on a game called Unknown 9: Awakening. Which is, one, the most Japanese-ass title I’ve heard all week. And two, a terrible name to start a series. Almost as bad as Horizon: Zero Dawn. 

This is the first I’ve heard of the game and it is a… typical third-person action adventure game set in an Indian setting following a woman with magical spirit powers. Powers that give her enhanced strength, the ability to toss enemies around via a force push, possess her enemies, and slow down time. And the game is about fighting against a Caucasian bloke who wants to destroy the natural order of the protagonist’s culture for his and his people’s own gain. Also known as Colonialism, the leftist’s Fate/Grand fetish.

I think the game looks plain in the way that many realistic AAA games do. It has some good architecture on display, but the art direction is more muted for my tastes. However, I still perked up when I saw this game, as it manages to hit many notes for me. Not as many as Slittherhead, but I love the idea of a possess ’em up stealth action game and find the choice in setting to be bold. This industry seldom ever pursues India as more than an exotic chapter in a story. Which is stupid, as India’s game industry is growing. So, yeah, I’m definitely adding this game to… the list.

Unknown 9: Awakening will be released for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in fall 2024.

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…Also, this was followed up with the announcement of Possessor(s) by the developers of Hyper Light Drifter a few hours later. A 2D action game starring a character, Luca, who is possessed by an entity named Rehm. It looks good, like all the studio’s games, and possession does not appear to be a main mechanic, but… what was it with today and possession games?

Splitterhead, Unknown 9, Possessor(s), and while not possession, Enotria: The Last Song is basically about body theft. I know this is probably just a coincidence, possibly inspired by Super Mario Odyssey, but it’s weird that so many games with such a niche premise are being showcased on the same day. 

It all makes me want to drop everything and finally write out Suicide to Success. Or a loose adaptation of Heads are Gonna Roll by The Hippos, reimagined as a possession story. I know that sounds crazy, but it would actually work!

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Progress Report 2024-06-09

2024-06-02: Well, shit. I got distracted by a spreadsheet for some autistic Pokémon project I SHOULD NOT be working on. I did this week’s TSF Showcase and a few things for Press-Switch, but I mostly got sidetracked with anime and chores.

2024-06-03: Had to deal with home stuff, a surprise anime sesh from Cassie, flowchart revisions, and other little tidbits. Re-edited the first half of the Press-Switch v0.6a review for the v0.6b review, wrote a new 1,000 word section. Wrote 800 words for this Rundown.

2024-06-04: I spent today finishing up the Press-Switch review— proof, grammar check, post, formatting, grabbing like 40 images— and making sprites for the P-S crew. …I should’ve listened to a documentary on 1980s England while doing that last one…

2024-06-05: I made an interactive Press-Switch flowchart and tested some changes to the current one after a surprise update. That took me much of my day. I spent the evening watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982) for research for PS 1988 (it was worth it). And I spent the night doing basic-ass accounting work you could pay somebody $20/hr for, but I charge 3 times that.

2024-06-06: Added the Yooka-Laylee bit. Cleaned the house. Moved all my furniture back to my room. Worked on a Dragon Age bit for a Cassie interview, realized that would be next week. Did work on the chapter 5 outline after reading up on Mildred Hatcher Margaret Thatcher the cartoon chicken demon. I was sore and tired and distracted today, so progress was slow.

2024-06-07: SORENESS INTENSIFIES! Finally finished an outline for chapter 5 of PS 1988. Zeppelins are cool when they crash and drop bombs. Wrote 4,200 words for this Rundown.

2024-06-08: Got the Rundown ret-2-go, made some quick header images without even redoing the flames effect, ‘cos I’m a lazy like that. Spent 5 hours watching anime with Cassie. Darling in the Franxx isn’t great, but I like the relationship between its leads and a lot of the visual design. Waffled about before deciding to start reading a 1,600 page manga, got about halfway through it.

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Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Vice X Weiss Vice – Ultra Genocide
Progress Report:

Current Word Count: 0

Estimated Word Count: 88,000

Words Edited: 0

Total Chapters: 14

Chapters Outlined: 5

Chapters Drafted: 0

Chapters Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0

Days Until Deadline: 149