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Comment on CGA-2026-06 🦇🧛♀️🔥 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow in ~games
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CGA-2026-06 🦇🧛♀️🔥 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
COLOSSAL GAME ADVENTURES PRESENTS: 🦇🧛♀️🔥 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Yarrr! Now it be me... [ahem] Sorry, we're out of Pirates!. Now it's ACTUALLY my time to post! Let's set the scene. Looking...
COLOSSAL GAME ADVENTURES PRESENTS: 🦇🧛♀️🔥 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Yarrr! Now it be me... [ahem] Sorry, we're out of Pirates!. Now it's ACTUALLY my time to post! Let's set the scene. Looking for a nice summary last month, I found this one from TCRF:
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a Castlevania game that, shock, isn't about one of the Belmonts! Instead, we get some white-haired emo kid that happens to have the ability to absorb souls.
... Thanks, TCRF. I'll spoiler the writeup for the sake of scrolling through twice.
Some background: Dracula in your Pocket
Unfortunately, as a slap in the face to my thirties, the GBA is a decidedly proper "retro" console. That shouldn't really be a surprise, though, as it's a distinctly 16-bit console with many parallels to SNES hardware. Sampled audio, mode 7 graphics... But only a little 240x160 screen. Despite that, a few companies managed to pack in some very robust experiences on the hardware.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is the third GBA Castlevania entry; before it came Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance. At the time, these were pretty well-received - Circle was nominated for a few awards and sold ~500k copies. Harmony wasn't quite as universally acclaimed, but sold a respectable 120k in America. It flopped in Japan.
That said, nowadays the first two titles aren't esteemed quite as well. Circle is a very polarizing title. Some appreciate the mechanics and exploration, while others detest it for some awful control scheme decisions. The GBA display did not suit its dark color palate well, and playing it on original hardware without a backlight is asking for eye strain. Since it was made by a different team than the contemporary Castlevania devs headed by Koji Igarashi, he swept Circle under the rug when it came to establishing a Castlevania timeline. (I have not played it myself yet, though I suspect my wrists are not ready for the impending RSI of a double-tap dpad run command.)
Where Circle's experimental bits get love, Harmony of Dissonance has really not aged well for many. Igarashi was looking to get a Symphony of the Night experience in a mobile form factor by design, but this meant a pretty conservative approach. He unfortunately left the comparison open - at a time when you can play both games on the same device - to call Harmony "SotN at home". The aesthetics are kind of nutty as well; the team flew in the opposite direction of Circle by making things - especially Juste Belmont - glow with a very garish set of vibrant blues, reds, and greens, on top of purple and sky blue backgrounds. This was to REALLY stand out without a backlight. Boy do they. The soundtrack was also compressed to save room on the cartridge, leading to a reputation as one of the worst Castlevania soundtracks in a pretty musically-storied franchise. (With some proper sampling, I love it! Played back on the little high-pass GBA speaker, though, stuff like this really grates.)
Igarashi and his team had another shot on the platform. This time, they nailed something special in the coffin.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Aria takes place in the year 2035, quite farther ahead than anything else in the series. Japanese transfer student
and fashionista boy band dreamboatSoma Cruz is hanging out with his friend and shrine maiden Mina Hakuba to observe a solar eclipse. In doing so, he finds himself warped to the eclipse itself, where Dracula's Castle has been imprisoned. There, an enigmatic man introduces him to his unknown power - the dominion over monsters' souls to use for himself. Trying to find his way out of the castle, he meets a few other mysterious figures who are there for various reasons and agendas... I'll leave the rest of the plot to you to discover.Now, we're not quite at 2035. (I think bell bottoms are back? I don't see the fur coats and flame boots yet.) However, it is 2026 now, and much like the cycle of Dracula's castle, last year's most hyped release was a 2D Metroidvania! Konami just announced the first 2D Metroidvania in a very long time, and they and the Dead Cells dev team will be fighting a forest which they all themselves planted. But looking backwards, despite over two decades of iterative work on this genre, Aria has plenty that stands out - not just against Castlevania's run of six games over about seven or eight years, but arguably still today in a very crowded genre.
First off, this game is eight megabytes small. It's nipping at its big brother Symphony's heels in scope, despite it being a little over one percent of SotN's CD file size, and some crazies like me still prefer it. The team made damn good use of that space after learning their mistakes from Harmony.
Despite that little size, it's a memorable adventure! I hope you enjoy it. I find Aria's main strength is setting a pace and size which it meets and rarely over- or under-stays. It's also an aesthetic crown jewel for the GBA platform; the colors still accommodate the hardware, but there's much more mastery of the system. Flowing water, the flickering moon, bats flying off in the distance... It captures the gothic feel of the castle in a more subtle way. And while I'm fond of Harmony's, uh. Dissonance, the sound design is much tighter here. Some little bits of lore and character interactions help color the adventure, and it creates plenty of space for your head to fill in the gaps, too. (Konami! J prequel when??)
The game has a number of neat secrets that I'll let you discover. So - I'll leave you to it!
...Or, if you'd like, I won't! Since Aria isn't the most obscure game, some of you may have played it. With that - or, to kick off some discussion of the game's flaws - I'd like to pivot into a new topic here!
Mods
Aria of Sorrow is great, but there are a few rough edges. Notably, the stats are a little fucky - Wit barely influences item or soul drop rate. Int is also a little weak, not influencing your bullet souls much. The colors still acquiesce to the mix of GBA and GBA SP screens, a bit too washed on modern displays. Weapon balance is a bit off, due to one particularly dominating choice.
Of course, with that 8 MB filesize, numerical problems are just a hex edit away! Bump some values around and you maybe can "solve" these problems. But is that better? Worse? In line with the developers, or a bastardization of their vision? The most powerful tool in the hands of modern video game players? Does it ruin a shared conversation of art, or does it stoke it?
For what it's worth, I personally fell off Super Metroid about three times until I applied a patch that gave Samus movement closer to the GBA games. Modding sometimes just opens up options or tastes to us - and I think when it comes to pure enjoyment, go buck wild. So I invite people to try it and see what you think!
As always, I'm a slut for randomizers and Aria rando seems fairly robust. But since I suspect I will eventually play that in Archipelago many times, I think instead I'm going to try a slew of new hacks and throw them together to see what happens. Weapons modifications! Color palate changes! Vegan items? Sure, why not! I'll post what I go with in the end.
As always, mark ya spoilers as such with the following text block:
<details> <summary>Spoilers</summary> Spoiler text goes here. </details>
Game Setup
A couple years ago, Konami released the Castlevania Advanced Collection with Circle, Harmony, the SNES version of Dracula X, and Aria. This is pretty much the only way to legally obtain Aria nowadays - and if I'm not mistaken, it includes the .gba ROM in case you'd like to play it in a way other than the official emulator. (Someone fact check me on that...)
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
- Share which version of the game you're playing
- Share what hardware you're playing it on
- Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
- Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
- Share if you ever cosplay as Soma Cruz
- Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself? What about its system or era? What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time? What other games from the same time period are you familiar with? What are you expecting from this game in particular? Which Castlevania game has the best Death fight?FAQ
What is CGA?
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Do I have to sign up?
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Are there restrictions on what/how to play?
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
- Choose whichever version of the game you want.
- You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
- You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
- Try a randomizer or challenge run.
- Play a different version of it.
- Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
What is the schedule?
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the
colossal game adventuretag.What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
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Comment on Mina the Hollower | Out now! in ~games
Lapbunny Link ParentPedantic here, but you'd probably be looking for LCD filters since the visuals are cribbing from GBC aesthetics like Link's Awakening DX. Agreed, though, wish it came with something.Pedantic here, but you'd probably be looking for LCD filters since the visuals are cribbing from GBC aesthetics like Link's Awakening DX. Agreed, though, wish it came with something.
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Comment on Website is unhappy in ~tildes
Lapbunny Link ParentFor the sake of the site, you should never remember anything again. Can you maybe run on pure gut instinct instead?For the sake of the site, you should never remember anything again. Can you maybe run on pure gut instinct instead?
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Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
Lapbunny Link ParentReally? I feel like Pixar blew the door open for all-ages movies; little nods to parents, lazy or not, have felt ubiquitous since. Getting a whole nuclear family to schelp their asses in seats is...Really? I feel like Pixar blew the door open for all-ages movies; little nods to parents, lazy or not, have felt ubiquitous since. Getting a whole nuclear family to schelp their asses in seats is 4.5x ticket sales, if you need a demographic...
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Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by up to $300 in ~games
Lapbunny Link ParentMore or less? Hyperbole for the sake of comparison aside, this older article about Target wasting a shitload of food starting their grocery department has sat in my mind for a decade because...More or less? Hyperbole for the sake of comparison aside, this older article about Target wasting a shitload of food starting their grocery department has sat in my mind for a decade because there's so much waste over building a customer base and fucking up on a grand scale to figure out the infrastructure. Yes, they had preemptive contracts in place for the product; no, they didn't have the infrastructure to store or ship these appropriately; yes, they were trying to generate demand; no, the results were off the mark.
Granted, that's all to sell a basic human need rather than generating boilerplates and cats with moustaches.
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Comment on When did your preferred fighting game franchises peak? in ~games
Lapbunny (edited )Link ParentSkullgirls and Street Fighter 6 are the ones I've always heard have great tutorials. But I see a bunch of problems to overcome with them, at least IMO: Teams are just resource-bound. Skullgirls...Skullgirls and Street Fighter 6 are the ones I've always heard have great tutorials. But I see a bunch of problems to overcome with them, at least IMO:
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Teams are just resource-bound. Skullgirls was a passion project and they probably figured having the sweaty team-based form of the sweaty anime subset of a sweaty niche genre needed an ambassador; they sound so strung-out it's a miracle they did it. On the other side, SF6 is the biggest dog; they want the community to grow, so they need to cover every base. But they've got Capcom money to invest in it.
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Like you said, there are a lot of people who will glaze over this. Some people were buying Skullgirls for the tutorial. If yours sucks, then people just won't interact with it and go somewhere else with a better one as an entry point. If you spend too much time/money, that takes away from the core base who isn't going to interact with this at all. It's a gamble. Kind of a prisoner's dilemma, too, to let someone else do it; no one does it and the genre dies, or someone really tries but that's less dev time for their own core game.
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Likewise, structuring these is hard. Anyone new to a game, experienced or not, needs to know how unique mechanics work. Something like Guilty Gear with a slew of options on burst alone needs to figure out where along the line of "this is what this does" and "this is how you use it" can be really difficult to balance for thousands to millions of people. Some experienced players will just ignore a tutorial and try to figure it out themselves anyway or wait for the meta to sort itself out. Some intermediate players who get basic things like hitstun, crossovers, or the different flavors of burst will still struggle with what that means to a character's kit. (it me! hi!)
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It's hard to teach a genre about yomi with an AI that isn't responding like an equal-level, or very patient and higher-class, player.
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You learn a lot by fucking up, and fucking up doesn't feel good. It's hard to either make that sexy or respond to the billions of ways someone will fuck up.
A lot of the problems that plague the genre's growth likewise cause trouble for a good tutorial entry point, I think.
(EDIT: the kids these days with their crossups and mixovers)
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Comment on When did your preferred fighting game franchises peak? in ~games
Lapbunny LinkSkullgirls got me into fighting games when I was in college. Someone had it running at Otakon on the best TV I'd ever seen in my life, and I was absolutely hypnotized by it. Yeah, by the artstyle....Skullgirls got me into fighting games when I was in college. Someone had it running at Otakon on the best TV I'd ever seen in my life, and I was absolutely hypnotized by it. Yeah, by the artstyle. Like - yeah. No. Yeah, no, I - alright, yeah. But I figured if I was gonna be obsessed anyway I wanted to be good, and thankfully its tutorial was absurdly good at the time at FGC fundies. Something about the genre finally clicked; that mixed with the release of the Smash Doc made me suddenly into the FGC around 2012. It felt nice to suddenly get a whole new genre.
I'm glad the game got its little renaissance in this decade. The whole Lab Zero thing seems to have been unceremoniously settled, so I hope it un-dies another time or two...
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Comment on What's your favorite personal gaming memory? in ~games
Lapbunny LinkMan, I've got a lot I can think of. I've been writing a review of Melee for Backloggd, so I'm gonna post the first half of it because that game is my fucking moment generator for decades. Melee...Man, I've got a lot I can think of. I've been writing a review of Melee for Backloggd, so I'm gonna post the first half of it because that game is my fucking moment generator for decades.
Melee
It's Christmas. I'm, what, eight? My dad gives up on trying to connect the GameCube my parents got me. I point out that the "in" RCA ports of the VCR, the "out" RCA ports to the TV, and the "IN" screen on the VCR setting all probably have something to do with this. He sighs lets me set it up instead. I get it on the first try.My reward is, literally, a chorus heralding the most impressive computer graphics I've ever seen. I already liked technology, but this single-handedly may explain how a lifelong positive feedback of solving technical problems burrowed deep into my skull.
Dude. This fucking rules. It must be the coolest game I'll ever play in my life. I play it nonstop.
I'm 10 hours in. I futz with the c-stick. The menus still react at an angle??
Dude. This fucking rules. It must be the slickest game I'll ever play in my life. I play it nonstop.
I read about the Resident Evil remake in a gaming magazine. I'm nine, I'm not playing it for another eight years. (Then, with REMake and RE4 at checkout on my 17th birthday, Gamestop forgets to card me. I could've got away with it this whole time?? Anyway.) What is a 3rd grader to do? I boot up Melee, I go into Adventure mode, pick Fox and Falco, and shoot ReDeads only using neutral B. Shooty zombies. That works. I'm happy.
Dude. This fucking rules. You must be able to do anything with this game. I play it nonstop.
My friend's over. We're goofing around in multiplayer. WEE WOO WEE WOO. Get the door, it's Mewtwo. My last barrier to Game & Watch and All-Star mode. My friend won the last match, but he wordlessly hands me his controller. He gets it, it's my fight. I lock in. I worry I'm going to have to play another 20 hours if I lose. (That's stupid, but man, who knows?) I almost lose, because my heart is pounding and I suck at Melee. But at like 140% I knock Mewtwo out. We cheer.
Dude. This fucking rules. It must be the most exciting game I'll ever play in my life. We play it nonstop.
I'm visiting some internet friends for the first time in college. We get along already, of course, but I am halfway across the country trying to assimilate into an IRL friend group and I'm already a bit socially anxious.
We get to one of their houses and they have something prepared to completely shatter the ice. A GameCube is on. Melee is running. It's on slow-mo mode. There are four Ganondorfs already selected.
They want me to play their goofy ruleset where people can only use his DAir and Warlock Punch.
This is so dumb. You can just tech the stomp. It doesn't matter. We're cackling over the stupid antics. The rest of the week is just as wonderful.
Dude. This fucking rules. This may be the most fun I've ever have in a video game. We play it nonstop.
I'm in Pittsburgh. Fight Pitt IV is going on, so I drop by to root for Abate. Because, like, c'mon. I'm just roaming around. It's crazy watching a room full of people casually push this game so hard.
My attention shifts on the floor. I see Mew2King, so I stand by and watch. He's playing Beanwolf. Beanwolf was trying to bait him into Bowser vs Bowser... But M2K changed to Sheik at the last second.
This is potentially the worst match-up in the game. Everyone buckles in for something.
Obviously, M2K is trouncing Beanwolf. One stock. No hit. Two stocks. No hit. Three stocks. He's on track to the JV5. Beanwolf stands on the opposite side of FD - nope, M2K eggs him to come to him, peppering him with needles. Bowser has to engage or he's dead anyway.
Beanwolf just wants this one fucking hit. He's jumping in with Bowser's neutral B. Despite the impressive amount of coverage from Bowser flame, M2K is styling so hard that he poofs above and below it. Swats him. Beanwolf plays Bowser's slow, clunky, tank-like footsies, moving back and forth. Back and forth.
Did he see the line? Did he hypnotize M2K? Maybe he just wanted the meme exit. Either way, he takes the initiative. He runs to the side, and... Down-B. Bowser bombs. Aiming right off the edge.
M2K was off guard. Bowser's ass smacks Shiek once on its way out. Beanwolf hurtles to his death, but no one cares who won or lost. That one hit is redemption. We all erupt in applause. The announcers cheer, Beanwolf gets high fives, M2K almost falls out of his chair laughing.
I'm standing behind this the whole time, barking and clapping like a seal lost in the hype. Also, turns out I'm on video. People have watched me turn into an animal 400,000 times.
Dude.
I'm in Japan with one of the friends who made me play Slow-Mo Ganondorfs. We're at a gaming bar. I'm playing Splatoon a couple days after it came out, trying to convince myself to get a Wii U. (I left Japan with $24 USD in my bank account and 12¥ in pocket change. That wasn't happening.)
My friend gently interrupts me. He says something like, "Hey, I accidentally picked up a controller that paused these two guys playing Smash 4. They're challenging us for drinks. It's not optional." Whoops. We go over and exchange trash talk in broken Japanese and English.
Somehow we hold our own - trade a couple games back and forth. But a few games later, my friend has an idea. "You know what we do in America?"
Yeah, baby. We switch over to Melee. One of the other guys declares that whoever loses takes a shot of tequila. But we're doing pretty well.
Three games in, in probably the most fluent Japanese I speak all trip, I dramatically reveal I like tequila. They crack up. We do fuckin Slo-Mo Ganondorfs while we're all plastered. We switch to fast mode with Captain Falcon. We all go Jigglypuff.
I don't know these people, we're from opposite sides of the world, and we can barely communicate with each other.
Smash, tho?
Dude. This fuckin rules. Melee must be the most universal game of all time. Well, alright, maybe it's not. But it certainly helps, doesn't it? We play it nonstop.
We cheer to each other at like 4:00 AM, then part ways. My friend and I walk to our hotel, basking in the early morning sunrise glow through the quiet streets of Kyoto.
Some others I can think of:
Random list
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A particular final boss from Undertale.
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Beating Mega Man Battle Network 3 with a friend at like 1:00 in the morning when we were supposed to be sleeping.
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Using the glue gun in Prey (2017) and realizing I can just... Go anywhere.
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Learning Ganon's Tower skip to end an Ocarina of Time Archipelago run because I'd never actually beat the game before and I wanted to just finish already.
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Getting the flag in TF2 CTF for the first tie as a Scout and somehow running past everyone without a scratch.
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Do you know what you've just done? You've taken your first steps into Kanto!
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Initiating the end of Outer Wilds. Felt like all the gears clicked together in my head and I started moving like a motor.
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Comment on Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (May 2026) — Version 1.6 adds "Find in comments" in ~tildes
Lapbunny LinkHey, thank you as always for the app! Throwing a suggestion into the void: would it be possible to have it so the tags at the top of a post, when tapped, perform a search on that tag? There are...Hey, thank you as always for the app!
Throwing a suggestion into the void: would it be possible to have it so the tags at the top of a post, when tapped, perform a search on that tag? There are times I look at the post tags and wonder what previous discussions were on the topic; would be a nice shortcut IMO. Not sure how the UI plays going between searches and posts like that, mind you.
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Comment on What was the best job you ever had? in ~life
Lapbunny LinkWhen I was in high school I did tech help during the summer and on weekends. I charged $20 the first hour if I had to stay past like 15 minutes and like $10 every one after, so it was a nice bit...When I was in high school I did tech help during the summer and on weekends. I charged $20 the first hour if I had to stay past like 15 minutes and like $10 every one after, so it was a nice bit of change to mess around with. I offered it for free for seniors, but a lot paid anyway. Clientele was pretty much always appreciative; one woman lost her husband and hired me to learn the internet and MS Word I think primarily for the company. Astounding amount of people still on Windows 98 and AOL in the year of our lord 2010.
Thinking about it, I probably should go self-employment again...
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Comment on Nintendo raises prices for Switch, Switch 2 and NSO in ~games
Lapbunny Link ParentColorful kid-friendly games is kinda the shtick; Pokopia, Kirby Air Riders, and Bananza are the primary reasons to buy it, and Prime 4 response is sort of polarizing if that was a draw for you. I...Colorful kid-friendly games is kinda the shtick; Pokopia, Kirby Air Riders, and Bananza are the primary reasons to buy it, and Prime 4 response is sort of polarizing if that was a draw for you. I personally got it for Pokopia, which is very good. Not
$519$569 good, IMO, nor something that's probably going to change your mind if you don't buy into the mashup of Pokémon + Minecraft + Animal Crossing + DQB. But as someone who plays things at a glacial pace due to kids, it still has me hooked over a month later.Switch 2 itself is a nice piece of hardware. Screen is way better, even though it isn't OLED, and the mouse features are a little clumsy to detach from the controller grip to spontaneously use but otherwise integrated well. Everything feels like a good upgrade over the Switch - I'm going to homebrew mine - but I doubt the console will spark your interest if you aren't about the games themselves.
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Comment on Star Fox Direct shadow dropped right before premiere in ~games
Lapbunny Link ParentObviously they're making an entire SF64 remake so the future Arwings stuck in the OoT Remake code are authentic.Obviously they're making an entire SF64 remake so the future Arwings stuck in the OoT Remake code are authentic.
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Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society
Lapbunny Link ParentI find this bleakly amusing to bring up directly next to the Tucker Carlson interview above this article here, where he's like no no people really just vote about economics I swear.I find this bleakly amusing to bring up directly next to the Tucker Carlson interview above this article here, where he's like no no people really just vote about economics I swear.
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Comment on CGA-2026-05 🕹️⛵🦜 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Sid Meier's Pirates! in ~games
Lapbunny LinkYarr! Like a scallywag I jumped the cannons and posted the Arrria of Sorrow post a month early. I do be taking my keelhaul now, which is throwing some dubloons at the game, speaking me apology...Yarr! Like a scallywag I jumped the cannons and posted the Arrria of Sorrow post a month early. I do be taking my keelhaul now, which is throwing some dubloons at the game, speaking me apology here in pirate speak, and walking the plank.
...Though, I'm surprised they fit Pirates! Gold on the Sega Genesis? I think I'm gonna give that a try.
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Comment on Your favourite karaoke songs? in ~music
Lapbunny LinkUnfortunately a lot of karaoke places use kinda outdated catalogs that appeal to like gen x or boomers, if they don't have YouTube available for the background. But in that vein: Georgia by Boz...Unfortunately a lot of karaoke places use kinda outdated catalogs that appeal to like gen x or boomers, if they don't have YouTube available for the background. But in that vein:
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Georgia by Boz Scaggs is a great warmup song. Nice range.
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The entire Queen and Steely Dan catalogs.
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You Make My Dreams Come True and Rich Girl by Hall & Oates.
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Faith by George Michael.
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Bunch of David Bowie fits my range, but Heroes in particular.
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Lot of songs from the musical Chess. Musicals in general, really.
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A bunch of anime openings if you just have YouTube on a TV and a bunch of weebs. Totally not speaking from experience with an anime club here.
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You need to slip some buttrock in to force people's worst Chad Kroger impressions in.
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Ocean Man, take me by the hand.
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Last two I went to had Welcome to the Black Parade and What's Going On? as the showstopping closers. Bunch of drunk nerds going HEYYYAAAYAAAAYYAYAY. Great choices for that.
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Comment on Control Ultimate Edition released for iOS and iPadOS in ~games
Lapbunny Link ParentSure! But a lot of the quarter munchers get more fondly looked upon after someone let you hit the coin button yourself - or at least when they started charging you up front on consoles - so you...Sure! But a lot of the quarter munchers get more fondly looked upon after someone let you hit the coin button yourself - or at least when they started charging you up front on consoles - so you could see how much was excellent game design and how much was trying to wring your wallet out. I love Metal Slug! I also continued 53 times on the PS2 version of 3, which I rented from Blockbuster for $5. Likewise, at least for Umamusume, I'd much more universally suggest anyone play it a couple decades into the future when someone hacks the client/server software and there isn't a Cygames that cares about that.
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Comment on Control Ultimate Edition released for iOS and iPadOS in ~games
Lapbunny (edited )Link ParentI play Umamusume. I think it's an extremely interesting way to tell all sorts of sports narratives, has the most charming cast I've ever seen in a Japanese franchise, conveys the love and humanity...I play Umamusume. I think it's an extremely interesting way to tell all sorts of sports narratives, has the most charming cast I've ever seen in a Japanese franchise, conveys the love and humanity of an extremely niche sport to a broad audience, and contrasts this mix of sports and slice of life sweetness against one of the sweatiest roguelike PvP spreadsheet RNG deathmatches you could imagine. It's one of the most Japanese things I've seen in my life, and I think its global success in the face of something so impenetrable is bizarrely entertaining. I'd recommend the BoaNE movie in particular to just about anyone who likes animation or sports movies.
It's also a mobile gacha game. Any game that's designed with it in mind should never downplay it as a genre because minimaxing financial cost is inseparably baked into the game design, IMO, and not doing so kind of feels like a cognitohazard.
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Comment on Finnish driver Juha Miettinen has died after a seven-car crash during the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie – race had received wide interest due to Max Verstappen's participation in ~sports.motorsports
Lapbunny LinkThis is horrible. I've heard the crash was related to an oil slick at Steilstrecke, which is the hard hairpin turn at the end of this long flat-out stretch. From my admittedly limited experience...This is horrible. I've heard the crash was related to an oil slick at Steilstrecke, which is the hard hairpin turn at the end of this long flat-out stretch. From my admittedly limited experience of sim racing, you're basically flat-out right before the turn to reach max speed, if not close, and I cannot imagine how awful a crash would be losing your stopping power here.
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Comment on How to find (a) new music (community)? in ~music
Lapbunny LinkA small forum I was in ran a Song of the Week program every week for quite a while. We threw songs into a Dropbox, gave scores and thoughts in a txt, and kept a big scoreboard. Obviously there...A small forum I was in ran a Song of the Week program every week for quite a while. We threw songs into a Dropbox, gave scores and thoughts in a txt, and kept a big scoreboard. Obviously there were some occasional problems with people gaming this or playing to the crowd, but it was hella fun. Lots of theme weeks and debauchery.
Obviously this is harder on the scale of tildes (forum was like ~40 people with 7-8 participants) but I imagine someone could find some neat ways to do something like that here. Just a thought!
Dawn was my first Metroidvania! It's a great game when you apply a touch-free patch that deals with the ice blocks via attacks and ignores the seal bits in boss fights. I think Aria is just a bit more consistent in certain ways with its map, and the art shift for Dawn... was, but they both trade blows well.