Spooky

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: March 2025

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Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5) – Very good Monster Hunter game. Maybe a little too easy, and there’s a pretty slim selection of monsters to fight. Also the post-game story just kind of petered out… no big finale like we’re used to. Oh well! It was still a bunch of fun all the way through and I look forward to grinding hundreds more hours out of it.

Scary Shadow Spot: Bitter Glass (PC) – This is probably the most unique-feeling Doesn’t Matter game, but is in need of a lot of polish. I even encountered a game-breaking bug that forced me to restart the game halfway through. It took less than 20 minutes to recover my progress, but still. Big oof.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES) – This would be a much more frustrating game without NSO’s rewind feature. That’s all I want to say.

TE Video: Coming Soon (April 2025)

If you weren’t already aware, I record most of my let’s plays pretty far in advance. Like, most videos that go up were recorded months before their air date. And so I’m really excited for April, because a couple of games that I really, really liked are finally getting their dues.

????? (PC) – April 1. I can’t spoil my April Fools video, now can I?

Ignited Entry (PC) – April 3. Another Jordan Lindgren game, and I believe the most recent of the bunch. It’s really quite good, with the exception of a frustrating chase sequence towards the end. Try to guess how many times I die before I make it!

Crystar (PC) – April 5/12/19/26. Had to follow up Mario & Luigi with another long RPG. This one’s a little more actiony, a lot more anime, and significantly more depressing. Like, we’re talking Nier levels of bleakness here. Big fan!

Newspaper Day (PC) – April 7. A bad indie horror game. So bad that I couldn’t be bothered to earn the good ending. At least I had fun making plenty of BJ jokes.

Dead or School (PC) – April 10/24. Parts 8 and 9 of a whopping 20. If you haven’t gotten into it by now, I don’t think it’s likely to ever happen.

Prison City (PC) – April 14/21/28. Side-scrolling action platformer that borrows a ton from classic NES games. I had a blast with it, and highly recommend watching it for the nostalgia along if you grew up in the NES era. Part 4 (the finale) airs in May.

The Final Pin (PC) – April 17. With this, I’ve played all of Jordan Lindgren’s games (to date). I really like this one, but it’s definitely more of a mystery/thriller than a horror game. Which isn’t a bad thing. I just want to set your expectations properly.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2025

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Wedding Witch (PC) – A horny Vampire Survivors clone that I bought and played for a joke, but then I ended up spending 10 hours 100%ing it. Whoops!

Silent Hill 2 (PC) – I’ve been itching to play the original since finishing the remake last year, and a co-worker recommended I try out the Enhanced Edition mod, so I did. It looks good for sure, and it was nice to revisit a classic. Really drove home how much bigger the remake is, too. Livestreamed the whole thing, too.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – Should have finished this months ago, but the whole let’s playing process really slowed me down. I liked the game a lot, but would have liked it even more if the dialog was cut down by 25-50% and it was like 10 hours shorter. That also describes how I feel about most M&L games that came after Superstar Saga.

TE Video: Coming Soon (March 2025)

Join me on YouTube and/or Rumble for at least three videos a week. Although I might give up on Rumble, since they recently changed their monetization requirements from “none” to “an absolute shit-ton” and I’ll never see a penny there now.

I’ve also been streaming on YouTube on Friday evenings pretty consistently lately, so consider dropping by to make chat slightly less empty.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – This one will continue to run every Saturday in March, as it has for the last three months. However, episode 20 is the finale! It’s finally coming to an end! What a bittersweet moment it was/will be.

9 Years of Shadows (PC) – This series ends with episodes 6 and 7 on March 3 and 10 respectively. While I obviously recommend checking out the game in general, the last episode isn’t one to miss if you want to see me completely lose my cool.

A Night on the Farm (Switch) – Airing March 6, this is a little indie horror adventure about a perfectly average night on a perfectly average farm. My playthrough clocks in a just under an hour and a half, showing off three of the five(?) possible endings. If that sounds like a letdown to you, just know that the endings aren’t all that different.

Dead or School (PC) – Parts 6 and 7 go live on March 13 and 27 respectively. I’ve forgotten most of what’s actually in these episodes, but there’s a fight against a tank boss on part 7! And I make at least one Metal Gear Solid reference!

Suite 776 (PC) – Goes live on March 17. I could swear I had played this one before, but honestly, I may have just played and watched too many indie horror games at this point, and they’re all just blending together in my mind. Anyway, I like it, and it’s got a pretty fun easter egg right near the end.

Spicy Candy (PC) – Airs on March 20. More of an interactive story than a game, really. You play as a little girl who gets locked out of the house by her neglectful mother on Halloween and sets off to collect candy. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS.

Broken Through (PC) – Goes live on March 24. I’ve played all of Jordan Lindgren’s games, and this one is my favourite by far. While the “haunted video game” theme is becoming a little too common, this game does it well and was, surprisingly, legitimately spooky. I was genuinely unsettled a couple times while playing it. Fun!

Unpacking (PC) – The last video for the month, going live on March 30. A wild departure from the kinds of games I normally play, this is a cute, cozy game about unpacking boxes and organizing your belongings. It also manages to tell a heartwarming story without any traditional narrative elements.

A Howl of a Prowl

I don’t watch my own let’s play videos very often. Almost never, in fact. That said, I randomly watched my playthrough of Midnight Prowl the other night, and I had an absolute blast. I actually laughed hard and consistently enough that my side started to hurt, mostly due to the game’s poor translation, but also once or twice because Past Ryan made a joke that Present Ryan found genuinely funny.

So while I don’t really like to pat myself on the back, I do highly recommend watching this video. It’s relatively short -less than half an hour- and it’s pretty darn funny. Or at least, I think so.

I stream, you stream

I haven’t really gotten into the livestreaming thing since 2020, but I have randomly done a couple streams recently. One where I played the entirety of Resident Evil: Director’s Cut (without voice-over) and one where I got lost in the first area of Dreamcore for a couple hours.

Oh, and last night I played up to the hospital in the original Silent Hill2 (with Enhanced Edition mod). There was even a stranger watching and chatting with me briefly. What a rush! I plan to return to the intertubes to finish the game at some point, but when is anybody’s guess.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: January 2025

Another year down, so many video games played… and even more un-played. *sigh* At some point I’ll figure out the “unlimited time” cheat code for life, but until then, let’s strap in for another year of… this.

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Mega Man X (SNES) – It’s tradition that this is the first game I play each new year, didn’t you know? This time I played with “rookie hunter” mode enabled on the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and I still couldn’t get my time down to under an hour! I’m beginning to think that I’m just not capable of such a feat. Oh well.

Resident Evil: Director’s Cut (PSX) – This was launched as bait to get old people to subscribe to the more expensive tiers of PlayStation+. I’m still on the cheapest plan, but now I’m able to play it for reasons I don’t understand. Oh well! This is actually the first time I’ve finished this version of the game, though I have played the GameCube and DS remakes like a thousand times each.

Peglin (PC) – The Cruciball is finally complete. Can I move on with my life now? Peglin says “no.” (And I’m okay with that.)

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: December 2024

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DEAD OR SCHOOL (PC) – I bought it because the title made me laugh out loud. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable little hack ‘n’ slash. Could use a bit more polish, but it’s just the right difficulty level and I had a fun time playing it.

Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) – I’ve been making time to play this for an hour or so every Sunday for a couple months now, and I’ve finally, finally beaten the game on New Game+ mode. Now to start New Game++! Hopefully I’ll stick with it better this time around and finish it within 2025.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (Switch) – A brand-spankin’ new arcade-style brawler that came out of nowhere and I purchased immediately. I have no regrets. While it could have used a little more time in the oven, it’s exactly what I both expected and hoped for.

Meta horror

I played this game called Among Ashes last week. It’s a surprisingly good indie horror game, definitely one of the best of the year. A fantastic example of how video games can tell stories in ways that other media couldn’t even dream of.

I’d appreciate if you’d watch the let’s play I recorded of it (embedded below). But if you really can’t stand me (why are you here?), you should at least watch someone else’s let’s play of it. I truly believe that this game deserves more attention.

Or, you know, maybe even buy a copy. You cheap bastard.

TE Video: Coming Soon (January 2025)

A new year is just around the corner, and with is comes a whole new programming schedule! I’m really excited for all the videos I have coming up, and doubly excited for absolutely nobody to watch them! Yay for time well spent!

Urayama (PC) – On Jan 2, we kick off the new year with a Japanese indie horror by a new (to me) developer, Yamoto. While it’s a bit rough around the edges, I had a great time playing it, and I think it’s a fun watch. Even with my commentary.

The Knight Witch (PC) – The last three episodes of this series go up on Jan 6, 13, and 20 respectively. If you haven’t been paying attention to it up to this point… well, I don’t think anything I can say is going to sell you on it.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – Part 8 goes live on Jan 4, with new episodes each following Saturday. I’ve kind of given up hope that anyone will care about this series, but I’m still going to see it through. At least it’s been fun for me!

DEAD OR SCHOOL (PC) – A game I had little faith in when starting, that I came to truly enjoy over time. The first three episodes of this long, long series will air on Jan 9, 23, and 30. Truth be told, at the time of this writing I’ve recorded 15 hour(ish)-long episodes and there’s no end in sight. This bad boy’s gonna be running all year.

Can’t Revert (PC) – Another indie horror on Jan 16, but this one is bad. It’s a very PT-style “walk through the same apartment over and over as scary things happen” kind of game, but with an incredibly overused plot and a bad chase sequence at the end. Still, not the worst game I’ve played recently!

9 Years of Shadows (PC) – Another metroidvania to carry on after The Knight Witch ends, this one starts on Jan 27. It’s a little more of a standard metroidvania, but with a very cool element-switching mechanic and a tenuous link to Greek mythology. I really liked this one, and I hope this series gets even one person to buy the game!