Tomas Franzese

This store went to the Minshoot' Adventures Academy of Naming Things

#7: Minishoot' Adventures: Just beat this one tonight, and it was absolutely wonderful. It nails that classic The Legend of Zelda feel by making exploration natural and meaningful while also recognizing how well that pairs with schmup mechanics. If you missed this one in 2024, play it now!

Scott Pilgrim EX Is Less Streets Of Rage, More River City Ransom Welcome back to Remastered, my weekly newsletter on the ever-evolving nature of retro gaming. This week, I have a review of Scott Pilgrim EX for you all! If you enjoy what you read, consider subscribi...

#6: Scott Pilgrim DX. Forgot to make a post for this one. Check out Remastered for my thoughts on the game and its connection to River City Ransom: www.remastered.blog/scott-pilgri...

Incredibly disturbed that this happened at my university and ashamed that the United States has cultivated such a culture of violence that this keeps happening. We need to be promoting gun control in our country and peace around the world, and we aren't.

That one caught my eye immediately too!

Highguard Isn't The First Live Service Failure, But It's One Of The Most Worrying Hey everyone, welcome back to Remastered. This week, I'm discussing the history of failed live service games in the wake of Highguard's closure. If you like what you read, consider subscribing for fre...

My latest Remastered newsletter is live! I used Highguard's delisting and server shut down today as an opportunity to look at the history of live service games and how each failure has only gotten more brutal over time: www.remastered.blog/highguard-is...

Hell is Us was great. I was very happy it got on XDA's 2025 GOTY list.

Hypothetically, let's say this is a real game. It's not good design to get players hung up on spending way too long talking to the townsfolk in generated conversations rather than engaging with the RPG gameplay. If dialogue is that important to the game, why put so little human effort into it?

AI NPCs are one of those things that seem neat initially, but once you ever interact with them, you notice how much more natural handcrafted NPC dialogue is. AI-written dialogue lacks specificity, charm, and relevance to the world and what the player needs to know. It solves a nonexistent problem.

Yeah, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of why people like that area. I understand seeing that a lot of people gather there and wanting to encompass it, but the solution is maybe working to add some more comfortable places to sit and meet there, not locking it behind a paywall.

Yeah I think it's like Soulslikes where succeeding through the friction is super satisfying. The friction is just a bit too much for me.

Maybe I am just bad at shooters, but I still think that most extraction shooters aren't very fun because there's no true payoff or win state, just a sense of relief when you extract. Arc Raiders found a sweet spot as it's very solo and casual-friendly, so it didn't just appeal to hardcore players.

Started my first run of Marathon loaded with my best equipment from the tutorial and immediately got shot and killed as soon as I spawned. I think I just don't like extraction shooters.

Yeah, I think I'm cool with it, especially now that we'll have to pay for a new center.

Scott Pilgrim EX Is Less Streets Of Rage, More River City Ransom Welcome back to Remastered, my weekly newsletter on the ever-evolving nature of retro gaming. This week, I have a review of Scott Pilgrim EX for you all! If you enjoy what you read, consider subscribi...

For this week's Remastered, I reviewed Scott Pilgrim EX! I also used it to show how this beat 'em up is mostly in conversation with River City Ransom, unlike @tributegames.com's other recent brawlers: www.remastered.blog/scott-pilgri...

I agree lol. It's just the one thing they have tried to do multiple times and failed.

The only thing they haven't been able to nail down is a Resident Evil multiplayer game. Other than that, even their misses do fairly well (if not commercially, then critically).

Yeah, gaming academia is woefully underdeveloped. Hoping to help change that.

I do think it's fascinating that we'll look back on this console generation as the one where games were available on all platforms but also took like 7 years to make.

So the thing about Highguard is that it was the final reveal at The Game Awards and people didn't like it. Then, a bunch of people willed it to fail as a live service game up to its release. Then, it came out and did actually kind of well but the studio struggled because of the Tencent money they...

Oshawott at 29 is also a shock

Indie World Showcase 3.3.2026 YouTube video by Nintendo of America

A solid Indie World Showcase all around, with a lot of games I'm looking forward to. While I'm not on the Mixtape hype train with everyone else, I can't wait to play Blighted, Minishoot' Adventures, Denshattack, My Little Puppy, Woodo, and inKONBINI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DCt...

Yeah, I think niche-focused sites will have a bit of a resurgence as stuff goes more indie. Being generalist makes more sense to maximize reach and revenue, but I personally tend to become more interested in stuff with a clear and specific focus.

I've been feeling this a lot lately too. I know I'm not my job, but it does just suck when you dedicate a decade+ to something and feel like you don't have much to show for it, even though you do good work.

The biggest thing I’m really struggling with since the layoff, and I know I’m far from the only one, is feeling like I have a “place” in media - and have like I’m not doing enough. There’s a constant feeling that I’m not trying hard enough or doing enough - that I really have to fight back.

Was planning on skipping it but now I'm really considering buying it.

a pixel art of mario and yoshi in a video game scene ALT: a pixel art of mario and yoshi in a video game scene

#5: Yoshi's Island - I never actually played this one all of the way through until now, and I'm amazed at how well this game holds up today. It's an all-time classic for a reason, and was a bright and beautiful game for me to experience at a time when I really needed something like that.

It ultimately just makes people feel like their argument is stronger because they have a point of data to back it up. I also see that same mentality applied to technical performance sometimes. In reality, those things are just a small parts of a much bigger piece of art.

Sadly that's a circumstance of those articles doing well and how people are just generally drawn to popular things. Still, it's not indicative of game quality, which is sometimes the subtext when it is brought up.