This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Welcome to Chicago (Duck Motherfucker)
• Tango Gameworks is BACK… Somehow? (Krafton Baffles Yet Again!)
• The Goemon Spiritual Successor Goes International! (Bakeru Announced For a Western Release)
• WayForward is Back 2 Licensed Games! (RetroRealms Halloween & Ash Vs Evil Dead Announced)
• When Do Games Become Retro? (A Recurring Shower Thought)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Welcome to Chicago (Duck Motherfucker)

And thus ends week 2 of my first vacation in over half my life. Both Cassie and her boyfriend have left my home, leaving me with a mighty big mess to clean right before my busy season at work. Overall, it was an experience I enjoyed, but have no intention of doing again for a very, very long time. While I can see the inherent joy of going on a vacation, I am a person who desires regimen and routine. If I could, I would have a uniform daily schedule, as I enjoy doing specific things. I enjoy doing my work, my writing, and my goofing around time. While it was fun hanging out with Cassie and her boyfriend, and mucking about in Chicagoland, it was also a lot of work, a lot of driving, and a lot of lying around. 

Now, I know this is a boring answer and not what people are supposed to think after vacation— people are supposed to enjoy vacation time and desire it as often as possible. But I am someone with such sensitivities that I actually am happiest when cooped up in my room, at my computer, with my favorite music playing, writing or working on spreadsheets. It sounds like a boring life, but I never claimed to be an exciting person.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some incredible moments throughout this trip and I won’t forget the days I spent with Cassie in-person anytime soon. It’s just that I am simply not built for 11 days of hanging out with friends non-stop, as it has been 10 years since I last had an in-person hang-out with someone. Perhaps I should just get some local friends to hang out with and spend time with in an attempt to achieve a sense of balance. …But I do not know how to make friends with people unless they reach out to me first. And I kind of don’t want to try, I guess?

It’s not like I’m someone suffering from loneliness. HRT and surgery ‘cured’ whatever depression I had. And I am pretty well collected, all things considered. I know what I want from life, and this has been a really fun side quest, but it’s time to get back to the main campaign. …Because holy shit am I going to be strapped for time if I want to get Psycho Shatter 1988 done in time. And TSF Showcase has gotten so out of hand… that I might need to switch over to a bi-weekly schedule. It is one thing to do a 20 to 300 page comic a week. But trying to do several comics one week and then a 1,600 page series the next is a fool’s endeavor.

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Cassie: “Natalou~”

Cassie? Did you hi-jack my computer again?

Cassie: “The numbers Natalie, I forgot what they mean! *cough* Anywho, how was your first vacay with friends?”

Oh, it was wonderful! But I probably won’t do another one for a few years. Not until your wedding. Then I can be a bridesmaid!

Cassie: “Yays, I had a blast with the Natties in Chicago! Things were fun and I’m glad Natalie enjoyed it too.”

How long do I need to wait for the wedding?

Cassie: “There is no wedding planned! Or at least not for a few years… you realize how much prep goes into one of those things? Cuz I sure DON’T!”

Oh… then I guess this is bye-bye for a long while, because going to Chicago is expensive, and Nat cannot travel out of the country… yet!

Cassie: “Goodbye, sayonara my orange-haired friendo! Don’t mind the foxfloof mess covering everything~”

And thus, Cassie disappeared into pink sakura petals and a pile of fox hair.

…Ah fudge. I’m going to need to get a LOT of garbage bags…

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Tango Gameworks is BACK… Somehow?
(Krafton Baffles Yet Again!)

…So Krafton just brought the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Microsoft and announced that they are re-establishing Tango Gameworks. If that confuses you, it should, as understanding this story requires some history. Or rather a refresher on recent events. 

In May 2024, Microsoft, fresh off of the Activision Blizzard purchase, axed several studios. Nobody cares about Roundhouse Games or Alpha Dog. Arkane Austin was trying to fulfill their promises and make Redfall (2023) not a complete mess. But the big loss was Tango Gameworks, developers of The Evil Within (2014), Ghostwire: Tokyo (2021), and the widely acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush (2023). Tango had their last day of work on June 14, with a sad pizza party no less, and was promptly shuttered.

Meanwhile, Krafton is an interesting publisher. Originally just another name in the sea of South Korean game publishers, they steadily built up a sizable repertoire. In 2011, they launched the action MMO TERA, which has the honor of being the only MMO I ever played for a significant amount of time when I tried it a decade ago. I thought it was alright. (I wanted to say how many hours I spent on it, but Steam wiped that data from my library, I guess.)

In 2017, they published PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (or PUBG Battlegrounds). A game whose impact and presence has been overshadowed, but… it cannot be ignored in the gaming landscape. PUBG routinely sees peak player counts of over 600,000 people on Steam, has sold over 80 million copies on PC and consoles, and has one of the biggest mobile games in the world. Especially in Asian markets. But especially in India, where it was so popular, the government tried to ban it! Hell, it was so big that Krafton took an investment from Tencent, who now owns 13.6% of the company, under the name of Image Frame Investments.

In 2021, they bought Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment, because investor money was flying like one of those money blowing arcade novelties. 

Then in 2022, their subsidiary, Striking Distance Studios, released The Callisto Protocol. This was positioned as a new Dead Space game in all but name, and survival horror fans were hyped about it, but the game wound up… feeling like a first draft in many regards. It was a commercial failure, having a budget of $162 million dollars, needing to sell 5 million copies to break even, and only selling 2 million in its launch window. I previously examined this situation, and… Krafton was being a bunch of idiots when budgeting this game. There are only, like, 3 million people in the world who like Dead Space, and what the hell is a Callisto Protocol, anyway?

Krafton is a perplexing company in my eyes. But in everyone else’s eyes, they are the PUBG guys with a market valuation of over $10 billion dollars. They can do whatever they want… so why did they cast their eyes on a niche game studio and how did they buy an IP directly from Microsoft? 

That is the million-dollar question, and I seriously have no clue why Microsoft would just allow someone else to buy their IP like this. Buying up IP is their MO, because you never know when someone will want to make a Phantom Dust TV show… 

Also, I kind of wish that they did not buy the IP, because then we could have Mango Gameworks making Hi-Fi Crush.

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The Goemon Spiritual Successor Goes International!
(Bakeru Announced For a Western Release)

It was bloody weird how Good-Feel just casually revived the long dormant Ganbare Goemon series with a spiritual successor and it just wasn’t localized. I’d be lying if I said that the Goemon games were widely celebrated or acclaimed outside of Japan— six games were ever localized, two were for GameBoy, and one was a barely related arcade game. However, there is definitely some major nostalgia from those who did like these games, and if Konami actually tried, they could have made the series more well known. Instead, they basically stopped making it in 2005 and stopped localizing it in 1999.

This is why it was so exciting when Good-Feel announced Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!! in June 2023. And why it was so sad when it was only announced for a Japanese release. You’d think that Nintendo would want to do Good-Feel a solid and localize the title for them. They made Wario Land: Shake It! (2008), Kirby’s Epic Yarn (2010), StreetPass mini-games, Yoshi’s Woolly World (2015), Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019), and Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024). Clearly Nintendo trusts these guys, but they just did not bother to localize this passion project and net an easy win with niche enthusiasts. 

Fortunately, and unlike Buddy Mission: Bond or Yo-Kai Watch 4, this game is getting localized. Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!! is being localized as… Bakeru. Courtesy of Spike Chunsoft, the game will be released on September 3, 2024 for Switch… and PC. Which is wild! I never imagined a game like this would come to PC, but I guess it makes sense. 

Although, something about this whole situation strikes me as a bit… suspect. The choice to name the game Bakeru, with no subtitle or anything, is just confusing to me, as while I admit the original name was too long, Bakeru is too simple. The trailer’s narration really does not aspire confidence in the publisher’s understanding of the game. And this western version will feature a new movement system for Bakeru and one new enemy. Things that were seemingly not part of the patches for the Japanese version. Making these seem like ‘additions made to appease impatient westerners who might otherwise struggle with the game’. Maybe it will make the game more fun, or maybe it will not gel with the rest of the game, as it simply was not designed for these movement systems.. Who knows?!

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WayForward is Back 2 Licensed Games!
(RetroRealms Halloween & Ash Vs Evil Dead Announced)

While I think there is a deluge of horror media out nowadays, and much of it quality, licensed horror video games have kind of been in a rut. This is mostly because of Dead by Daylight being such a successful platform for horror that either the IP was licensed for it, or the rights holders tried to make a game in the same genre. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, Puppet Master, etc. All of these games are asymmetrical multiplayer slasher sims… when that is not the ‘best’ genre for a horror game. Survival horror is a broad genre that can be presented in many ways, and a game based on a horror IP does not strictly need to adhere to them. Also, the game still needs to be good.

This is all a roundabout introduction to the actual story here. This past week, two retro-aesthetic action platformers from two unrelated horror IPs were announced simultaneously, both developed by WayForward. RetroRealms: Halloween and RetroRealms: Ash Vs Evil Dead. 

Akumako: “…What the hell are you even talking about?”

Well, this is more of a side announcement from Boss Team Games, publisher of Evil Dead: The Game (2022). They are trying to make themselves up to be a big licensed games studio— a modern Brash Games— and also announced Halloween game running on Unreal Engine 5 this past week. But with that game being years away, they had WayForward make a low budget double feature in the interim.

I think that both games look basic and by the books, especially when presented side-by-side. They are very detailed visually, with meticulous sprite work and effects and have some… brow-raising visual choices. Which I guess means they do indeed feel like an old licensed game, as creators would just throw whatever in sometimes. However, they still look like solid little games that will appease fans of the series and offer a few hours of fun.

Now, I don’t really care much for either IP— Halloween (1978) scared the shit outta me when I was 6. I liked the first two Evil Dead movies when I watched them a decade ago. However, I do find this to be such a bizarre situation that I could not just ignore it. Especially because the games are going to be sold together, and will each feature a crossover level. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen, and the last time I saw this was… when WayForward made The Mummy Demastered. A sprite-based Metroidvania that, while not the best, was way better than the movie it was tied to.

RetroRealms: Halloween and RetroRealms: Ash Vs Evil Dead will launch on October 18, 2024 for all systems that games can officially be released on. PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC via Steam.

…Actually, listing out all those platforms is making something click in my head…

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When Do Games Become Retro?
(A Recurring Shower Thought)

Something that I find particularly curious is how the term ‘retro’ is used in the parlance of gaming enthusiasts and marketing. The term ‘retro’ is rather vague, just referring to the recent past. To be into retro gaming means to be into games that are old, but how is ‘old’ defined, and when does a game become old? This is something that aging Gen Xers and Millennials have been grappling with for a while, and like all globe and generation spanning issues that lack a central means of discussion, it will continue ad infinitum. 

I have seen people try to gate off ‘retro’ as referring to a specific era, insinuating that retro consoles were consoles that were released before 2000, or that retro consoles used cartridges. Arbitrary delimitations that are informed by the age and lived experiences of the individuals and how they compartmentalize time. Personally, I have said that games become retro or old after their tenth anniversary, and transcend into being an old game. Now, this is also an arbitrary distinction, as there is nothing magical about ten years’ time other than how people are trained to think in terms of decades. 

However, even using a 10 year rule is a contentious decision due to how few tangible improvements have been made to console games over the past decade. Sure, resolution, textures, frame rates, and lighting have all improved. But I doubt the industry will shift enough by March 2025 for something like Bloodborne (2015) to seem retro.

Meanwhile, I would consider every 3DS game ever made to feel retro nowadays, even those that are only 5-years-old. This is due to how much of a technical leap there was between, say,  Yo-Kai Watch 3 and anything developed ground up for the Switch. So, should that be a rule? Well, no, then games that are being released in 2024 and use sprite art or low poly 3D models would be considered ‘retro games’. You cannot base it off of looks or vibes, because that is too subjective.

So, if years and the technical proficiency of a game do not make it retro, then what does? Well, that’s the $500,000 question, as people like to lump entire console libraries together as becoming retro. This made sense for consoles with a short shelf life, like the Nintendo 64, GameBoy Advance, Sega Saturn, or consoles that definitively ended at a specific time. GBA ended the GameBoy Color. The Wii ended the GameCube. Major Nintendo DS games rushed out before the 3DS launched, and the only major one after that were Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 in 2012.

Okay, but console generations have been lasting longer and longer. Hell, a lot of games are still coming out for the PS4 and Xbox One, which are entering their 11th year on the market, and to say they died in 2020 would be… factually wrong. 

Actually, let me go about this another way and list out the systems that I consider to be retro and try to backdoor logic into that. Every system released before 2004. Color TV whatever to GameCube. Everything released for the Wii, even Rodea the Sky Soldier, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. The first rush of big mobile games (Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Fruit Ninja, etc.) But when I get to the Xbox 360 and PS3, I pause. Not because I would argue against people who say that Perfect Dark Zero (2005) and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (2014) are not retro games. They both are in my mind. I hesitate because I’m thinking of some of the last non-exclusive games for the system. Games built for PS4 and Xbox One that were still released on PS3. 

Are LittleBigPlanet 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Far Cry 4, Destiny, Alien: Isolation, and Wolfenstein: The New Order retro games? I’m going to say… no. While they all released on the PS3, that was more as a dumbed-down port. They were not ‘best’ on the system, and saying that they are PS3 games is like saying Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (2001) is an N64 game. That’s not wrong… but that’s not the best answer one could give.

However, I will say that late PS3-era games— Grand Theft Auto 5, Dark Souls II, The Puppeteer, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, and  South Park: The Stick of Truth are all retro games. Why? Because they are PS3/Xbox 360 games. And that generation of games are so old and technically inferior next to ‘modern’ games that you could plainly tell that they are old games. 

Akumako: “Hold up, are you saying that GTA V, a game that still receives updates to this day, is retro?”

No, just the PS3 and Xbox 360 version.

Akumako: “…You fookin’ wot, mate?”

Yeah, and I don’t consider Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin to be retro either. Or The Last of Us: Remastered. Because they were developed for hardware that is still being produced, still being sold, and has not… had time to become old. For something to be retro, it needs to be inexplicably tied to something that is old, and that old thing needs to become unavailable or uncommon. 

Which is why I also consider the Wii U to be retro, and the only major Wii U title exempt from that is Breath of the Wild, as that was a Switch game. Twilight Princess was a GameCube game, and that is the superior version over the Wii release. But Breath of the Wild, a game that was sorta revealed alongside the Wii U and developed entirely during that console’s relevance? Switch game, 100%.

Akumako: “Bitch, you trippin’.”

In terms of console gaming, retro games are games associated with a console that is no longer readily accessible. With ‘associated’ referring to what hardware the game was primarily developed for, where it ‘performed’ the best, and where it was the most relevant.

…In terms of PC games, though? Fuck if I know Fuck ho’s who knows? The Sims 4 is about to turn 10, and it still gets DLC and support, and does post-launch support extend the life of a game and prevent it from becoming retro? That… is a topic for a different discussion, as I doubt many people have really thought of that. EverQuest (1999) is primo defo a retro game and it still receives a new expansion every year, but is not relevant or really examined by anybody but certified oldheads and wackos. While World of Warcraft (2004) is an industry leader in the field, so primo defo nada..

In conclusion, a game is retro if it is most associated with a console that is no longer readily available or relevant in the modern gaming market— you cannot find it at major stores and it stopped being produced. 

While a service game is retro if it meets three criteria:

• The technology the service game it is built around is considerably dated next to its peers
• The game launched at least 5 years ago (not a recent release)
• The game is not relevant in the broader market of service games and gets by via a dedicated niche or low maintenance costs

Also, if a service game is dead… then I guess it will automatically become retro in a few years. 

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Progress Report 2024-08-18

Choo-choo~!

2024-08-11: Another surprisingly long and busy day. Cassie and I went to church to listen to her boyfriend play on the pipe organ. The service was alright, surprisingly open and progressive, but nothing remarkable. The organ playing was dope. Then we went to the overpriced Korean food festival where the boyfriend accidentally bought two things of gimbap, which he gave to me for lunch. It was great, would eat again, but a burrito-sized roll cost about $8 and a skewer of meat cost $12. It was waaaaay too expensive. Then we went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, which was just a wonderfully constructed sight, one of the prettiest and most photogenic places I have seen outside of Colorado. But it was also a sunny day, humid, and we wound up walking over 4 miles, or 6.5 kilometers. 

Come evening, we watched Transformers: Rise of the Beast (2023). It was okay. It suffered from the same problem of the original trilogy of Transformers movies. It glorifies the human characters as special people way too much, and takes it to an absurd extreme that I’d say goes against the very idea of Transformers, but Circuit Breaker is a thing. The film wants to have a large toyetic cast of characters, yet utterly fails to make them all feel warranted, and most are just kinda… there, as they didn’t get the chance to do anything interesting. The villains are chuds who die without dignity and Scourge is one of the most boring looking antagonists they could have possibly made. Unicron is a threat, but is not even 10% as scary as he was in the 1986 film. Mirage is great, a wisecracking street smart Autobot who is fully tuned in with Earth culture and tries to be the protagonist’s bro. Bumblebee is fun aside from the need to kill and resurrect him, with some very well selected soundbites. But there may as well only be two Maximals in the entire film. They basically learned nothing from Bumblebee (2018). It was too toyetic with its characters.

Hopefully Transformers One turns out to be better. I just watched the trailer, and it looks pretty good, but I don’t like a lot of things about it. The idea of Transformers lacking the ability to transform. I don’t like the idea of the well-known Transformers being anything more than people who are good at their jobs and fighting in a never-ending war. Optimus Prime can be special, as that was written into his character from day one. And choosing to make Optimus and Megatron be like brothers, while an interesting angle, is an odd pull for the first fully Cybertron-set film. Also, I wrote 500 words for this Rundown. That’s it.

2024-08-12: Went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the U-boat and other fun sights. Cassie was very cute there. Wanted to be productive when we got home, but I had to turn in early for tomorrow and Cassie kept interrupting me with cuddles and grabbing my keyboard, like a cat. Did some organizational stuff for TSF Showcase and started the Bakeru bit.

2024-08-13: Wrote 1,600 words for the Rundown, wrote 2,600 words for TSF Showcase 2024-36. Went on the purple line with Cassie and her boyfriend. We mostly just layed on each other and got silly while there. Then Cassie did some cosplay, and that was a treat. Had to turn in early because my sleep schedule got messed up and Cassie drained my batteries again.

2024-08-14: Yeah, not a great day for any sort of productivity. I was busy watching anime with Cassie in the morning, went out in the afternoon and had a terrible time at Navy Pier, because of a combination of things I am sensitive too, I wound up taking the train back home while everyone else had fun.

2024-08-15: Yo! Got this Rundown edited and done! Wrote the 450 word preamble. Wrote 5,600 words for TSF Showcase 2024-36. Did not do much other than hang around at home with Cassie and her boyfriend, but we had fun and finished season 1 of Spice and Wolf Fox. Good day, made a frozen deep dish pizza— it was aight— and got $85 worth of Chinese food— the crab and shrimp toast sucked, but chicken fried rice is always great, and so is chicken and eggplant. Cassie ate ribs like a fox, which was primo defo adoracute. Will try to finish a draft of TSF Showcase 2024-36 by tomorrow. It’s over 9k words at the moment.

2024-08-16: Last day with Cassie. We went to a fish shop and mini golfing in the hot summer sun. Then we got my room back together and said out goodbyes. That took up most of my day, as they left at 19:00, and I had to reorientate things after they left. I wound up grabbing the 48 images needed for TSF Showcase 2024-36 and added like 300 more words. Will edit it tomorrow. Wrote 750 words for PS 1988. I am going against my outline for much of this chapter, and need to make sure I properly capture certain characters and add a bit establishing the setting. After that, it should be smooth sailing, but I lacked the headspace to continue further before bed.

2024-08-17: Spent the morning and early afternoon editing and posting TSG Showcase 2024-36. Spent the evening working on PS 1988, adding another 3,100 words for the recap chapter. A bit of a slow day on account of household chores, a bit of work (vacation’s over, bay-bee), and getting distracted by PokéRogue, as a new update came out. Biomes are still shit though. And the Ramble will be delayed until the game’s better-er.

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Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Vice X Weiss Vice
Progress Report:

Current Word Count: 34,322

Estimated Word Count: 88,000

Words Edited: 0

Total Chapters: 16

Chapters Outlined: 16

Chapters Drafted: 6

Chapters Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0

Days Until Deadline: 80