Blaze's UberFeed

In response to your recent answer on AI, the push back from consumers is also, obviously, happening from data centers right? (And accelerating it if anything) I keep reading how crazy the push with data centers has been in parts of the US and hope your ar

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I think a lot of the most valid legal response is coming from data center protesting, actually. Thanks to the work of guys like Benn Jordan, data center sound pollution and the effects that has on human health is getting more attention for sure.

I get the feeling the climate impact angle isn't grabbing hold very well because climate change denial is still a widespread issue, but this is definitely measurable, immediate, and real. It's not some far off date that could happen if we don't change eventually, it's something effecting people right here, today.

And it's already being used to dole out pressure.

As far as I'm aware (and admittedly infrasound is something most people cannot hear), I'm safe for now. I do wonder about my brother, though. The Guardian article I linked mentions data center noise pollution waking people up in the middle of the night, and I know there were some nights where I could sort of hear a vibration coming in through my bed frame, like it was coming from the ground. But that's super anecdotal.

Here, the only noise pollution I notice is the screaming children in the apartment complex courtyard every night until 8pm.

Count to Ten | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

I hate being so paranoid about generative AI, especially after I learned of the possibility of some of the [TOTALLY LEGAL VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS] I’ve been using having AI garbage in them.

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

It is an unavoidable reality that everyone is shoving generative AI into everything. It's an easy way to prove to investors that they are "innovating." These investors are either total morons who have absolutely no sense in what is actually good, or they're the kinds of snake oil salesmen that know exactly what AI is doing and are trying to force it on purpose.

Considering it's really feeling like the richest people are also the dumbest and most destructive, it could go either way. But I am increasingly of the mind that at some point in the next 20 years, one of those dudes is going to burn out, die, and then suddenly some of the insanity we've been living through just evaporates into thin air, all because that dude isn't throwing money at stupid problems nobody was asked to solve.

My point is, everyone is being forced to touch a little bit of AI whether they want it or not. I've certainly done my fair share of protesting.

Firefox had a thread on their community feedback forums about whether to add AI to the browser. By my own personal manual count, 95% of the replies to that thread were clearly against it. Firefox got AI tools anyway.

Four or five separate times, when Google asked about AI tools on Youtube or on the search engine, I've always said "Less AI, please." Instead, they add more AI. Do you realize that Google still has a specific "AI Mode" tab when the entire search engine is just one big prompt you can type conversational english into and get responses that don't return search results at all?

As part of Youtube's shopping commission stuff, they asked me to apply to an Amazon Influencer account so I could have Amazon affiliate links on my videos. When I did that, both of the lists I made were autofilled with AI generated titles and descriptions, and even after I deleted the generated text, every time I'd change the list, it would try to replace my hand-written text with something AI generated. They claimed the AI generated text would lead to more sales, even though everything it showed me was either super boilerplate or a straight up lie.

We can't get away from it, which is why so much hatred is building up for it. Which both fuels my theory that some super rich investor is pushing for it harder than consumers can push back, but also means that one day consumers will be able to push hard enough to cause the whole thing to collapse.

We will ALWAYS outnumber them. At the end of the day, at the very source of it all, their wealth and power comes from us. Stay strong, stay smart, stay aware. But know when to pick your battles. There's no sense wearing yourself out worrying about day-to-day problems. Their day will come. Their greed has already sealed their fate, just as it has done many times before.

Just saw Vibe Coded AI mods with Mario in Elden Ring, Sora in Borderlands and Spiderman in Batman Arkham Knight. I literally think we are screwed, AI is moving too fast.

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

How is that "moving too fast"?

The mods are trash, for one thing. They are made by rich people who can afford to burn the tokens and can also afford to buy computer hardware to run this garbage. Because the thing with these mods is you have to run concurrent copies of both games at the same time. So Spider-man in Arkham Knight means running two relatively heavy games together so that the AI "mod" can copy data between them.

This is not software meant for the general public. This is some kalshi-brained techbro slopping together two games for him and his buddies. They probably play that stuff for an hour one time for one day and then forget about it because they're busy slopping something else up.

Please do not forget that luck has caught up to these people twice now already. The same people pushing vibe coded AI slop are a lot of the same people who were pushing NFTs and crypto.

Are NFTs a thing anymore? Is cryptocurrency? To most people, no. I'm sure they still exist in some form or another, buried in the darkest most illegal corners of the internet, but they are not a mainstream concern for anyone. We look back at Jimmy Fallon showing off his Bored Ape NFTs on The Tonight Show and think, "Man, what an asshole."

The public is already developing a large scale revulsion to the AI industry. It's synonymous with cheap, ramshackle, ugly, low-effort work. The 1% of people who use it correctly are similar to the 1% of fair uses for blockchain tech.

Stop letting yourself get carried away with doom and gloom. Funding for AI is drying up, prices are going up enough that corporations are going to start cutting their token budgets, and the technology has basically never produced anything of long term value.

Something about that industry will completely collapse, just like the last two industries did. And then some new fad will take its place and you can be a doomer about that instead. Like, I dunno, quantum computing or hard light holograms or DNA hacking or whatever.

i…hope this recent initiative to make classic sonic the go-to for 2d games doesn’t mean they’re going to pretend that the advance and rush games don’t exist. i think they deserve to be brought forward, too

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I am not counting on Sega to remaster anything anymore unless it's something they can cram into a Yakuza game.

We might get lucky and the Sonic Advance games could turn up on the Switch through the Nintendo Classics app. But I am not holding my breath.

Bonkers idea but would Nintendo be able to get away with releasing a brand new 2D Zelda that is completely scaled down to Gameboy graphics and made by a very small team? “Get away” as in it would still sell nearly as well as their other 2D Zelda titles.

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I don't think they could, no. Not unless there was a justification for that. Like how a reduction in visual or spacial complexity would let them put those resources into some other gameplay element. Sort of like how Nintendo originally prototyped Breath of the Wild using NES graphics:

They did it like that because they'd never made a big open Zelda map like that before, with systems for fire propagation and so on.

But for a company like Nintendo, there's a certain expectation for presentation that I don't think they can really avoid. It's a bar of quality. And once you raise that bar, you have to keep meeting or even exceeding that level of quality, or else it raises questions about development proficiency and company health and everything else.

Hard to believe it’s been 20 years of the spring sound effect having a zooming sound overlayed on top of it.

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Yeah it's kind of weird that's become the defacto Sonic spring sound now. Like even in Fortnite right now, with Green Hill Zone on the map, it's that version of the spring sound.

SE_SPRING

The weirdest part to me is that zoom sound is the same one they used in the American Sonic cartoons when Sonic takes off running.

Reverse Ricochet 3Hollywood Edge Sound Library

I mean it's technically just a stock sound, it's just funny they used the same one. I wonder if it was on purpose or not.

How DO Pac-Man and Mega Man’s most recent games actually stack up in the presentation department compared to Sonic? Obviously they aren’t the most high-budget stuff out there but I just don’t know what it is with Sonic since Forces that it’s art direction

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I mean, I really liked Mega Man 11. Apparently the art style is kind of divisive but I didn't have a problem with it. I would go as far to say that Mega Man 11 is my favorite classic Mega Man game and I'm very curious about Dual Override now.

Plus, I mean, look. Divisive graphics or not, this looks a hell of a lot better than Sonic 4 or Sonic Superstars. It's surprising what competent art direction, a decent budget, and a proper development schedule can do for a game.

I can't speak for Pac-man but I know those Pac-man World remasters are generally well received. Like, more than I expected. Namco even went out of their way to re-hire the Pac-man World 3 cast to create a brand new dub for Pac-Man World 2. That's an extra mile I would not have expected Namco to take, given those are very "westernized" Pac-man games, and thus not "on brand" for a Japanese company.

Can you imagine Sega going to such lengths for Sonic? Going back and re-hiring old actors to create a brand new dub for a remaster/remake? They literally just did the opposite for the 2024 remaster of Sonic Generations, and redubbed the entire game with the current cast. And it was weird!

I am sorry for constantly sending you and others negative messages, but I just can’t be positive about anything anymore for a variety of reasons, including (but not limited to) the fact that the internet is a horrible, toxic place where people tell other

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I mean you don't have to apologize for being yourself. Not to me, anyway.

But... things do get better? It's possible to leave toxic spaces. It's possible to make friends that love you for who you are. The internet you see is not what the internet actually is, it's just the loudest voices in your general vicinity.

I understand it's difficult. And I can't give you exact directions to get out. But there are better places out there. There are better people out there. There is a healthier way to engage with fandoms and communities.

A better world is possible and you seem to be in a cycle of self-sabotage. That doesn't mean you want to be there, but it does mean you're having trouble finding a way out. It's actually a pretty classic problem with abuse. Sometimes people are in abusive situations and they trap themselves in there by accident, by making excuses for their abusers, by looking down on and disrespecting themselves, all kinds of reasons. It's a known cycle that's hard to break.

But you can break it. And there is something better out there waiting for you.

If you can, consider starting therapy. I know finding a therapist can be scary. I knew for more than 20 years I would need to attend therapy, and it took my roommate almost constantly pushing me, harder and harder and harder, for a solid year, for me to find a therapist before I actually did it. And that was on top of seeing a neurologist that suggested I find a therapist, too, which I sort of ignored.

Clear your mind of whatever you think therapy might be. Here's what therapy is for me: a place for me to say anything and not be judged for it. To not be shamed for it. Instead, my therapist's goal is to help me understand where those thoughts are coming from. Often that's enough. If the thought is particularly destructive, like I also have my own self-esteem problems, my therapist tells me ways to deal with those destructive thoughts.

That's all it is. It's just talking. It's about getting you to understand yourself, who you truly are. And if you're thinking you don't want to know that, because you're afraid or whatever, therapy is designed to help with that, too. Again: it's not about being judged. It's not about being shamed. It's not about having arguments. This isn't a nanny, or a parent, or a teacher that is trying to punish you. My therapist has largely just provided me with advice. That advice helps me recognize my insecurities, and defeat (or at least manage) the personal demons that are keeping me from being happy.

There's a lot of bad shit in the world right now but I can guarantee they aren't as bad as you think. You can find rays of sunshine among all of these dark clouds.

The Dude Alert has been sounded and so i must ask: Have you dabbled in the RPGmaker Scene as of late?

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I only ever dabbled in the RPGMaker scene one time, a very very very long time ago. It might have been right before or right after I got into Clickteam Fusion (or, "Click & Create" as I knew it back then). I think I wanted to make an RPG, as many first-time developers do, not realizing how much work that would be.

RPG Maker was different enough from Clickteam Fusion that it kind of scared me away. The first and primary thing that spooked me was RPG Maker's insistence on storing graphics in bitmap sheets.

In all versions of Clickteam's software, you have a sprite/object editor. It's rudimentary but gets the job done and I was mostly experienced with pasting in individual frames from art programs anyway. It handled all the hard stuff and I could set hot spots using a hot spot tool. Easy.

RPG Maker, at least the version I was looking at (1999-2002) managed sprites by big giant sheets in BMP format and you needed to make sure all the sprites were evenly spaced in a specific grid pattern for the software to properly read and import them.

I took one look at that, recognized how much harder that was going to be than Clickteam's object editor, and never looked back.

I figure surely it's better now, the tools must be way more logical by now, but I have no interest in working on an RPG right this second.

re sonic’s diminishing sales figures in the 2010s: what do you make of mania’s position in all of this? do you also see it’s greenlight as a sort of hail mary from sonic team? given what iizuka’s said about the first movie, i find the implication that man

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Mania's position, to me, when viewed in this new context, reminds me of Koji Igarashi's final Castlevania game.

The story as I heard it goes: Iga's first big break is Symphony of the Night on the Playstation. It's a love letter to his two favorite Castlevania games: Dracula's Curse (Castlevania 3) and Rondo of Blood.

He did not really become "The Castlevania Guy" until the launch of the Gameboy Advance four years later. There he lead development on Harmony of Dissonance and basically took over as steward of the franchise. Aria of Sorrow, Lament of Innocence, Dawn of Sorrow, basically every Castlevania game from that point onwards was his.

Iga finally got to the point where he wanted to make a big budget 3D version of Symphony of the Night. But something about Japanese game development seems resistant, because much like Keiji Inafune tried to force Capcom to greenlight Mega Man Legends 3 by announcing a project without having official company approval, Koji Igarashi tried to get Konami to greenlight his 3D Symphony of the Night game by stealthily sneaking in a teaser trailer that ran at TGS.

Konami management was furious. They had not approved this project. They wanted recompense. The Nintendo Wii was still pretty hot around this time, so Konami wanted Iga to make a Castlevania game for that console. If he could make a successful Castlevania game for the Wii, he would get to do SOTN 3D.

They suggested he create a home port of the still-in-development Castlevania Arcade, since that game had a motion control whip. It could be adapted quite well.

Instead, Iga thought he knew better. He created Castlevania Judgment, a fighting game, despite openly admitting he had no interest or understanding in fighting games. He hired the artist behind Death Note (Takeshi Obata) to redesign the familiar cast and figured it would be an easy slam dunk.

Fans rejected it. 3D fighting games had a stigma, nobody really wanted a Castlevania fighter, a lot of fans rejected the dramatically different character designs, and worst of all, even those who played it said the game was unbalanced and dead simple. It was not a game for Castlevania fans, and it was not a game for fighting game fans. It bombed.

Iga's redemption had failed. He went against the grain and paid the price for it.

He tried to keep Castlevania alive at Konami, but he was given no budget to do anything. He was basically reduced to an indie developer, having to do coding, art, and most other things himself with a very, very small team. His final game at Konami, his last shot at redemption, was Castlevania: Harmony of Despair for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

Basically, Iga's take on Monster Hunter, but filtered through the lens of his greatest hits. Giant, sprawling, side scrolling Castlevania levels, where your goal is to team up with your friends and take down that area's boss. Tons of gear to obsess over, random loot drops, and big huge DLC packs.

And the best part was? The game was 80% recycled assets from games that already existed. Production costs couldn't be lower. He was hoping he could be saved by the fandom's love of Castlevania. The game was non-stop fanservice.

People didn't get it. They viewed it with derision. There was a lot of focus on how you could zoom the camera so far out as to make the game unplayable (not that you had to play it like that, but it became a big sore spot for many).

It, too, failed, and Igarashi ended his time at Konami. The rest is history.

Sonic Mania is basically Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, except the "non-stop fanservice" angle actually worked. It probably helps that Sonic Mania stuck extremely close to classic gameplay instead of trying to be some new weird thing that fans could reject. But they are vaguely similar circumstances to me, where it was sort of this last ditch, low budget, long shot thing. Mostly recycled content.

And Sonic Mania did it. Sega was unprepared for how well it sold.

Why do people like Frontiers and CrossWorlds when they’re both terrible? Is it ironic? Spite? Are they being paid by SEGA to praise them?

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Sega absolutely is not spending money on that kind of stuff. Are you kidding me? As cheap as they are? I remember when they invited Somecallmejohnny to the Sonic 2 movie premiere, but he had to pay for all the travel expenses himself.

I dunno what to tell you, man. People just have different tastes. Their financial situation, their theological situation, their education situation, how their parents raised them, all of it shapes their likes and dislikes.

Some people like really dense, long novels. Some people struggle to read comic books. Some people love to obsess over football statistics. Other people get frustrated by how much waiting around there is between plays.

One type of person does not cancel out another type. All four of these examples can coexist in the same room together, and all four of them can be valid and correct in their feelings. This does not have to be the Thunderdome.

One thing I have learned about myself is that I can trace certain phobias back to specific instances from when I was very very young. I grew up absolutely terrified of bees, for example, because when I was four years old, my dad took me and my mom to Seaworld and I got swarmed by bees at the food court.

I can't wear turtlenecks because when I was three years old, I cracked my collar bone and had to wear a neck brace for about a month and because I was basically still a baby, I didn't understand why I needed to wear it and it really upset me, so much so that anything touching my neck, even as an adult, makes it feel like I am suffocating and going to gag.

I have a fear of heights most likely because two of my older cousins were pushing me on a swing set when I was little and they thought it would be funny to push me really, really hard and going that high, that fast, that violently made me panic.

These are core, formative moments in my life that influenced more than three decades of feelings about certain subjects.

People have thousands of these moments that form their personality and what they are willing to tolerate as they grow into an adolescent and eventually an adult.

People are allowed to like Frontiers and Crossworlds, even if you do not.

For what it's worth, I kind of like Sonic Racing Crossworlds. I wish it had more to do that wasn't just doing basic grand prix cups and racing online, but that's because I think the core offline race mode against CPU racers is pretty fun. It's just focusing way too much on competing with real human beings, when I think that is the game at its worst.

Also, it's $70 for a game that definitely does not contain $70 worth of content, even when you factor in the DLC. Go look at something like Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6, also games that are mostly predicated on being competitive with real humans, and look at how robust their offline singleplayer options are. Sega charging $70 for Crossworlds is a joke and it's not surprising the game did not meet sales expectations.

A lot of people I've spoken to that like Frontiers also generally seem to admit the game has problems and mostly enjoy it for trying new ideas. They see potential in an open world Sonic game with Devil May Cry combat, even if Sega did not fully realize it in that first game. I don't entirely disagree with that, though I still don't see why Sonic has to be a melee fighter. Sort of like how it doesn't make sense to give Sonic a sword. People at Sega like Sonic more as a character than any actually piece of his concept, but that's nothing new.

But you can be confident in your own views and not have to destroy anyone else's.

If you could be a fly on the wall and have listened in on the discussions that lead to good or baffling decisions with games, which would you pick? Also the Tumblr app is forcing me to watch ads when accessing your tumblr now

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I feel like most of mine are for Japanese games, because Japanese developers tend to be pretty guarded (or only spoke to Japanese publications, which have yet to be translated).

Sonic 06 is pretty high up there. I'd love to know what that game was originally pitched as. I'd love to know the decisions that drove them to cut or keep what ended up in the final game.

I'm also super curious about Nintendo games. The original Super Mario World went through a lot of changes, for example. I'd love to hear why. Same with something like Ocarina of Time.

The ads thing is annoying, I'm sorry about that. You could try using a web browser -- a lot of people have told me to access Tumblr through Firefox on my phone, because that has rudimentary extension support and you can install uBlock on it.

If tumblr is making it hard to ask questions, that might explain why I've been getting fewer lately, leading to big gaps in this blog (so much for my decade long unbroken streak).

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Sounds like a good way to twist your ankle

Why is Sonic so lacking in the presentation and style department that even Pac-Man and Mega Man are outdoing him in both departments with their most recent or upcoming games? Is the budget THAT low now that we can’t match the quality of style or aesthetic

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Sega's just cheap. That's all there is to it. I've mentioned it before, how Takashi Iizuka accidentally let it slip that remastering an old game costs the same amount of money as making a brand new game. That's not the way it works! Remasters are supposed to be cheap and easy, as long as you've correctly maintained your legacy code!

Instead, Sega delisted more than 60 ports and remasters a few years ago for no outwardly logical reason. Sure, some of them were a little clumsy, but a clumsy remaster can sometimes be better than no remaster at all. And it's not like Sega is exactly racing to replace those delisted games with better versions, either.

The truth of the matter is that Sega is owned by Sammy, and a lot of Sammy's business was from pachinko. That business has waned pretty hard in recent years, which has put the financial squeeze on different parts of their business, including Sega.

There's been a lot of talk recently about how Sega wanted to kill the Sonic franchise entirely and if I'm being honest that's not the first place I heard about that. I had friends in the game press tell me all the way back in 2011 that Sonic games didn't sell as well as they used to, and that coincides with Takashi Iizuka saying that Sonic Generations was "the end of that era of Sonic game."

They wanted to move on from Boost Sonic because they were getting diminishing returns. They wanted to reinvent the series. That started with Sonic Lost World, which has concept art to suggest it may have been a game intended for Classic Sonic.

Sonic Lost World was backed up by Sonic Boom, which Sega of America's Stephen Frost literally admitted was created to "refresh the Sonic brand." They had seen a sharp drop off in Sonic merch sales and wanted to effectively do a New Coke. The old Sonic fans were moving on and they wanted to target a new generation.

Unfortunately both games were tied to the Wii U, and apparently Sonic Lost World bombed harder than any Sonic game ever made. This caused Sega to pull the rug out from under Sonic Boom. Big Red Button wanted a delay to make the game better? On a dead platform? Absolutely not. The whole thing was sent out to die. Abort!

This is how we got Sonic Forces. It seems like it was potentially a different game and then sort of became Sonic Team's "break glass in case of emergency" project, releasing as a very messy, very clumsy Sonic Generations 2 (that was not, in fact, Sonic Generations 2, according to Takashi Iizuka).

In this environment you can see how Sega would want to kill the Sonic franchise. Both sales and reputation were in the pits. Sonic 06 was a blow to Sonic's reputation, but it at least sold well enough to become an Xbox "Platinum Hits" game. But Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom had no such luxury, and Sonic Forces was them going back and trying to get those dying embers to produce some heat again.

It's not hard to see things from the corporate side of Sega where Sonic looks like he needs to be put out to pasture, or at least have budgets dramatically slashed.

The question now is why they aren't willing to invest more if the Sonic franchise really is on the upswing again. It sounds like maybe they aren't doing that? I guess we have to see what Sonic Frontiers 2 looks like.

BOGO | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Potentially weird ask: since Sonic Frontiers’ Cyloop mechanic borrows a lot from NiGHTS’ Paraloop; do you think any of the other auxiliary Cyloop-related mechanics (e.g. Quick Cyloop, or drawing specific shapes for certain temporary effects/buffs) introdu

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Ehhh... I dunno. The whole thing with NiGHTS is that it's meant to express the feeling of flight. You're supposed to feel a little light and floaty. That's part of the point.

Historically, NiGHTS has a ribbon ring you fly through and it registers different tricks and gives you bonus points for executing lots of them, but the thing is, a lot of that ribbon ring stuff is hard to do. You get carried away by momentum a lot. Doing specific loop shapes isn't easy, not like it is in Sonic Frontiers.

I also don't know about things like the Quick Cyloop, either. That's a combat move, yeah? There isn't a lot of combat in NiGHTS. It's a really simple game. One button and two triggers does everything. The paraloop being kind of tricky to manage is part of the fun, whereas the Quick Cyloop is a combat upgrade to make stunning enemies easier to set up for combos.

I don't think there's a lot that's cross-compatible unless you're massively retooling the gameplay of NiGHTS, and I'm one of those psychopaths that does sort of think the game doesn't need to be messed with like that.

Have you seen Obsession yet?

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

Not yet. You're the second person to ask! There's a few horror movies out right now I want to see, but it's getting on Hallostream season so I'm gonna wait and see what comes up from my friends.

Because that started happening. I saw NOPE twice, Sinners twice, and Weapons twice because I decided to watch those movies on my own time and they came up during Hallostream.

I've also just been busy and haven't been in a movie mood right now. Obviously I'm still attending movie night and having fun there, but when it comes to my own time I've been catching up on Youtube or digging through TV on my friend's Jellyfin server.

I burned through both seasons of Netflix's One Piece a few months ago, really enjoyed that. Been keeping up with Rick and Morty, and the latest season is maybe the best one since Season 2. Spider-Noir was pretty alright. Loved Nirvana the Band the Show. Seasons 14 and 15 of King of the Hill were more hits than misses. The Chair Company was insane and I'm furious wondering if it was all just an elaborate troll.

Started Ash vs. the Evil Dead and kind of liked season 1, but season 2 got kind of trashy and gross so I kind of gave up on it.

Instead, I've been digging into Netflix's Wednesday. Finished Season 1 a few weeks ago, I'm probably about a third of the way through Season 2 now. It's very... young adult novel. Season 1 was kind of a darker, scarier Nancy Drew. I like it, and season 1 ended strong, but it was a little Scholastic Book Fair. Season 2 has a lot more bite and isn't shying away from being morbid and even bloody. But it's also less Nancy Drew and more "Harry Potter for Goths." Also less strictly "The Wednesday Show" and more about the broader Addams Family at large.

There's a lot I'm not entirely sure about, like how even the monsters and creatures at Nevermore Academy look at the Addamses like they're unusual. Or how the show is explicitly clear that the Addamses are murderers and thieves now. It was definitely subtext before, cute little one off references you weren't sure if you should take seriously, but now Uncle Fester talks about being a mercenary jewel thief and we see flashbacks to Wednesday helping him rob banks. Feels more dangerous and less kitschy now.

I guess I also started watching Supernatural, but not in any serious way. It's more as a breezy monster-of-the-week kind of thing when I feel like turning my brain off.

Sonic: Project Reignition (Stream Archive)

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

I feel like seeing what this fan remake of Sonic & the Secret Rings is all about

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I feel like seeing what this fan remake of Sonic & the Secret Rings is all about

No Waggle Required

2026-10-02T19:23:49Z

Do you think that rumor that a new Smash Bros and Nintendogs is in development has merit? Also, what do you think they’ll do with a new Smash? Ultimate had everyone in it, and that can’t be the case for the new one. Sakurai literally said in his video ser

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the problem with Smash Bros. games is that they contain "a lot of content" but I feel like most of it is pretty shallow and repetitive. And that's a problem.

Sakurai likes to put his all into his games and that's great, but like, he took out the trophies because they were "too much work" and then gave us the Spirit Battles because that was an easy way to have lots and lots of content. But it just sounds like a grind? Like it's there if you want it, but do most people want it?

Keep in mind, I do not own Ultimate, and I've kind of been scared away from ever owning Ultimate, because buying that game plus all of its DLC is like $200. And a lot of my friends have long since moved on.

All I've ever wanted is Melee's Adventure Mode, but with more stages. Not bigger stages, more stages. I think Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode is probably supposed to be a successor to Adventure Mode, but it's just Sakurai going overboard and making so much content that it becomes kind of boring and repetitive. Just like the Spirit Battles.

But then sometimes he goes in the opposite direction, like Smash Board and Smash Run. Smash Run is kind of fun, I guess, but it gets old really fast because there's just the one map.

This guy keeps trying to crack the "infinite content" code and it always feels shallow.

Do Melee's Adventure Mode, three times as many stages, randomized order every time I boot the mode up. I don't need it to be this sprawling cinematic story mode, I don't need it to be a roguelite, I don't need it to be city trial.

Just a handful of little minigame-esque arenas using the Smash Bros. engine. Less content but of a more meaningful quality.

And I think Nintendogs will always work, but I also feel like that game needs to be big on social features. Sort of like Animal Crossing. You need to be able to look at your friends dogs and have play dates together. To me that feels more like a phone game, but Nintendo's been going cold on phone games for a while now, it feels like. So I dunno.

But a new Smash Bros.? Definitely. That's a given. Is Sakurai working on it right now? I have no idea. They let him do Air Riders, so I assume that was part of his terms for coming back for another Smash. We'll see.

Hey I think you know about Jump Superstars on the DS? What did you think? I hated the idea at first but now thinking back it really feels like something only the DS is capable of, and the idea of building your own deck out of comic panels is amazing to me

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I not only know about these games, I actually physically own Jump Ultimate Stars. A friend wanted me to play it with her and sent me a guide for how the koma system works. I believe we did play it a few times against each other, but it's also tricky without knowing Japanese.

I did enjoy the concept of its rock paper scissors system, where Comedy beats Fighting, Fighting beats Drama, Drama beats Comedy. There's a Dragon Ball special where Arale shows up and she's completely untouchable by any of the Dragon Ball characters, and suddenly Vegeta realizes he's at a type disadvantage against her.

And I was like, yeah! That's Jump Ultimate Stars rules!

Fun concept. I know there's a translation patch out there now, but I remember it being janky and unfinished. I wouldn't mind playing it again, though.

Ever play Super Metroid Cryogenesis?

2026-10-13T21:53:57Z

I've definitely heard of it. Might even have it downloaded, because a lot of people seemed to be buzzing about it but I didn't know what it was.

Haven't personally touched it, though.

Skipping around this, I will say, I was broadly not a fan of Dark Aether in Metroid Prime 2 and the way you were constantly losing health whenever you were out of a safe zone. That's replicated here, but with extreme cold. I'm sure you probably get a way to manage that, but I dunno.

I'm not totally against it though.

A Deep Dive Criticism of Sonic x Shadow Generations

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Exhausted by Chaos | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

The Wolf of WonkeeLand | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

What are you doing?

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Big Walk Session 11 (Finale)

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Big Walk Session 10

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Big Walk Session 9

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Blue Man on the Run | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Big Walk Session 8

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

The Man with the Golden Gun | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

The Black Ops | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Big Walk Session 7

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

An Uneasy Alliance | Fortnite

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Let's see what Project Hero Rewired is All About

2026-10-02T19:23:49Z

FYI PSA BBQ

2026-05-23T04:37:01Z

By the way! If you are unaware, eventually at some point bltn.net will be redirecting to...

Strange Encounters: Part Two (Podcast)

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

It's Been One Year... Let's Talk Channel Updates

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Everybody Loves a Redemption Arc - Yooka-Replaylee

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Strange Encounters: Part One (Podcast)

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

So I watch some degree of Jeff Gerstmann on Youtube. Not everything, I peek in on things once and a…

2026-05-23T04:37:01Z

blazehedgehog:Would it bother you if I got rid of the current version of bltn.net and just made it...

The Demo Roulette (8/22/2025)

2026-10-02T19:23:49Z

The Xbox Everywhere System

2026-05-23T04:37:01Z

This has come up in a couple discords in the last 24 hours, following news that Microsoft is laying...

Listening for the Voices of the Void

2026-05-23T04:37:01Z

ALTIf you would rather listen to me narrate this article, all Patreon donors and Youtube Paid...

The Road Trip Music Video

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

So It's Your First Time Playing Sonic Unleashed... (Recompiled)

2026-10-14T06:54:07Z

Sonic Kart Nite (Crossworlds Beta, Transformed, Ring Racers)

2026-10-02T19:23:49Z

Blaze's UberFeed

In response to your recent answer on AI, the push back from consumers is also, obviously, happening from data centers right? (And accelerating it if anything) I keep reading how crazy the push with data centers has been in parts of the US and hope your ar

Count to Ten | Fortnite

I hate being so paranoid about generative AI, especially after I learned of the possibility of some of the [TOTALLY LEGAL VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS] I’ve been using having AI garbage in them.

Just saw Vibe Coded AI mods with Mario in Elden Ring, Sora in Borderlands and Spiderman in Batman Arkham Knight. I literally think we are screwed, AI is moving too fast.

i…*hope* this recent initiative to make classic sonic the go-to for 2d games doesn’t mean they’re going to pretend that the advance and rush games don’t exist. i think they deserve to be brought forward, too

Bonkers idea but would Nintendo be able to get away with releasing a brand new 2D Zelda that is completely scaled down to Gameboy graphics and made by a very small team? “Get away” as in it would still sell nearly as well as their other 2D Zelda titles.

Hard to believe it’s been 20 years of the spring sound effect having a zooming sound overlayed on top of it.

How DO Pac-Man and Mega Man’s most recent games actually stack up in the presentation department compared to Sonic? Obviously they aren’t the most high-budget stuff out there but I just don’t know what it is with Sonic since Forces that it’s art direction

I am sorry for constantly sending you and others negative messages, but I just can’t be positive about anything anymore for a variety of reasons, including (but not limited to) the fact that the internet is a horrible, toxic place where people tell other

The Dude Alert has been sounded and so i must ask: Have you dabbled in the RPGmaker Scene as of late?

re sonic’s diminishing sales figures in the 2010s: what do you make of mania’s position in all of this? do you also see it’s greenlight as a sort of hail mary from sonic team? given what iizuka’s said about the first movie, i find the implication that man

Why do people like Frontiers and CrossWorlds when they’re both terrible? Is it ironic? Spite? Are they being paid by SEGA to praise them?

If you could be a fly on the wall and have listened in on the discussions that lead to good or baffling decisions with games, which would you pick? Also the Tumblr app is forcing me to watch ads when accessing your tumblr now

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Why is Sonic so lacking in the presentation and style department that even Pac-Man and Mega Man are outdoing him in both departments with their most recent or upcoming games? Is the budget THAT low now that we can’t match the quality of style or aesthetic

BOGO | Fortnite

Potentially weird ask: since Sonic Frontiers’ Cyloop mechanic borrows a lot from NiGHTS’ Paraloop; do you think any of the other auxiliary Cyloop-related mechanics (e.g. Quick Cyloop, or drawing specific shapes for certain temporary effects/buffs) introdu

Have you seen Obsession yet?

Sonic: Project Reignition (Stream Archive)

I feel like seeing what this fan remake of Sonic & the Secret Rings is all about

No Waggle Required

Do you think that rumor that a new Smash Bros and Nintendogs is in development has merit? Also, what do you think they’ll do with a new Smash? Ultimate had everyone in it, and that can’t be the case for the new one. Sakurai literally said in his video ser

Hey I think you know about Jump Superstars on the DS? What did you think? I hated the idea at first but now thinking back it really feels like something only the DS is capable of, and the idea of building your own deck out of comic panels is amazing to me

Ever play Super Metroid Cryogenesis?

A Deep Dive Criticism of Sonic x Shadow Generations

Exhausted by Chaos | Fortnite

The Wolf of WonkeeLand | Fortnite

What are you doing?

Big Walk Session 11 (Finale)

Big Walk Session 10

Big Walk Session 9

Blue Man on the Run | Fortnite

Big Walk Session 8

The Man with the Golden Gun | Fortnite

The Black Ops | Fortnite

Big Walk Session 7

An Uneasy Alliance | Fortnite

Let's see what Project Hero Rewired is All About

FYI PSA BBQ

Strange Encounters: Part Two (Podcast)

It's Been One Year... Let's Talk Channel Updates

Everybody Loves a Redemption Arc - Yooka-Replaylee

Strange Encounters: Part One (Podcast)

So I watch some degree of Jeff Gerstmann on Youtube. Not everything, I peek in on things once and a…

The Demo Roulette (8/22/2025)

The Xbox Everywhere System

Listening for the Voices of the Void

The Road Trip Music Video

So It's Your First Time Playing Sonic Unleashed... (Recompiled)

Sonic Kart Nite (Crossworlds Beta, Transformed, Ring Racers)

i…hope this recent initiative to make classic sonic the go-to for 2d games doesn’t mean they’re going to pretend that the advance and rush games don’t exist. i think they deserve to be brought forward, too