Xator Nova

The importance of the original Super Mario Bros. can't be understated: It doesn't have to do with being a genre pioneer, since games like Jump Bug , Pitfall or Pac-Land already included the jump mechanic, and the Mario franchise already had two games behind its back: Donkey Kong and Mario Bros . It isn't about being the sidescrolling game either, since Pac-Land 's and Jump Bug 's also scrolled their screens alongside the player, and a few days after the original Super Mario we had Makaimura on the arcades, which also included the jump mechanic alongside a screen that followed the player. What differentiates Super Mario Bros. from its predecessors is the creation of a world surrounding a mechanic, especifically the jump. Shigeru Miyamoto's focus as an author is the direct perception of the interactive premise for the player's immersion, and for that purpose there is particular care to the tangible effect of the environments. In simpler terms, that you

The best new game releases of 2022 were, to me: He Fucked the Girl Out of Me (Taylor McCue, 2022) Into Ruins (Eric Billingsley, 2022) Yars: Recharged (Liudas Ubarevičius, 2022) Automaton Lung (Luke Vincent, 2022) Citizen Sleeper (Gareth Damian Martin, 2022) Know by Heart (Ice-Pick Lodge, 2022) Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D, 2022) Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins (Daisuke Inoue, 2022) The best games I played in 2022 for the first time from any year were: Libble Rabble (Toru Iwatani, 1983) In the Psychic City (Hot-B, 1984) Otocky (Toshio Iwai, 1987) Golden Axe Warrior (Okaru, 1991) Heartbeat Memorial (Yoshiaki Tanaka, 1994) Darkstalkers: The Dark Warriors (Junichi Ohno, 1994) Palette (Nishida Yoshitaka, 1998) King of Dragon Pass (David Dunham, 1999) King's Field IV (Rintaro Yamada & Satoru Yanagi, 2001) One Piece Mansion (Hideaki Itsuno, 2001) Nepheshel (Studio Til , 2002) Radio Zonde (Inudon Empire, 2002) Histoire (tk, 2004) Blue Wish Resurrection (x.x. Game Room, 200

  Microtransactions, archetypal anime girls and an overload of monetary systems are enough alarm signs that the game should be nothing more than a product to shamelessly steal the money from the average otaku. Though since a game is not what it seems to be, but rather what it actually happens to be, a small peek at the mobile game "Gothic Wa Mahou Otome" immediately reveals its quality as an action game, where the tactile control in combination with shooting game mechanics gives birth to one of the greatest exemplars of the aesthetic capability of movement in the genre. The key of its success is in the scoring system. To obtain points, naturally a player has to hit the enemies in a stage. However, numerous variables are added that let the player increase their score. Firstly, the avatar is surrounded by a visible ring for the player, which extends its radius if they keep shooting down enemies. If the target is within this circle, the power of the shot is increased, and with t

  The game presents itself as a story of a broken heart, with a path to self-realization and self-love, but immediately turns itself into psychedelics as soon as it gives the player the control. It decides to become a rhythm game, except there's no real sense of tempo because the visual cues are treated more as quick-time events, as environmental obstacles in the story, than the player having to immerse themself in the music, like Tetsuya Mizuguchi's "Rez", or having the challenge feel in flow with the story at hand, like Keiichi Yano's works such as "Gitaroo Man" and "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!". It is a fast-paced chase sequence, except that the presence of checkpoints at every corner and an unlimited amount of attempts reduces the weight and intensity of the tracks, as if the game couldn't stand the player losing, unlike high velocity games such as Toshihiro Nagoshi's "F-Zero GX". The psychedelic stylization with rapid camera

  An autobiographical story of a transgender woman and her traumatic experiences with sex work.  Personal and intense in its prose, abstract in its presentation.  Defamiliarization and impersonation as representation of the coping mechanism. The game portrays the victim as not herself but other abstract being, a shapeless ghost, as a representation of the mind distancing itself from trauma. A  melancholic, surreal sea of consciousness brings life to fuzzy, drowned memories because it is so difficult to face trauma that repressing it is the instinctive reaction to get as distant as possible from those events. And a fitting pixel-art aesthetic - not just a stylistic choice born from lack of resources but the representation of the raw feelings of an innocent mind. One of the best games of the year so far.

In this post I compile many of my favorite LGBT media, stuff that has been impactful to me, so that others perhaps get to know works that may interest them. I've also probably forgotten a few works, I will update whenever I remember or get to know something new. This is also open to suggestions - I'm also trying to broaden my own horizons since it is new territory for me as well. Books: - Den lille havfrue ("The Little Mermaid", Hans Christian Andersen, 1837) - Carmilla (Sheridan Le Fanu, 1871) - The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890) - Der Tod in Venedig ("Death in Venice", Thomas Mann, 1911) - No se lo digas a nadie ("Don't Tell Anyone", Jaime Bayly, 1994) Films: - Ang Tatay Kong Nanay ("My Father, My Mother", Lino Brocka, 1978) - In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden ("In a Year of 13 Moons", Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978) - Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu ("Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", Nagisa Oshima, 1983) - Distant

Here I did a podcast on the anime Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara, 1997) alongside the American critic and writer Tevis Thompson, in commemoration of the show's 25th anniversary. There was another question asked after the podcast was made, this time by @BeetBeatBit from Twitter, which I felt worth responding as an addendum, since it also includes further thoughts on the director. Spoiler alert on the endings of Penguindrum , Yurikuma and Utena : Q: "What do you think of Mawaru   Penguindrum (Kunihiko Ikuhara, 2011)?" I like Penguindrum , but I feel that I felt it backwards as you did because so many episodes dedicated to the stalker girl in the first half are in fact my least favorite aspect of the show, or at least made me wonder why we spend so much time with this activity that I don't feel adds that much - even when it is revealed why she behaves the way she does, I remain unconvinced. We already understood that she is a messed up