Inspired by the movie/tv threads and the like... what are you playing?

Video Games? Card games? Miniatures that fight with stats and cards? (Ha!)


For me, my most recent discovery is Vampire Survivors an early access game on Steam. For $3 it's like something out of the NES era, except it's a game style that's not like anything I've played in lo my many years. Very simple premise that you never stop attacking, but waves of enemies never stop coming at you for 30 min. You gather XP for the current run and gold for your overall boosts.

You unlock characters and powers and it's just a light and entertaining experience.

Now... WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING?

I've been bouncing between Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Hollow Knight among a few other titles here and there. Honestly, I think I like Ori better, which goes against the common "best Metroidvania" listings, but they're both pretty dang great.

Post Xmas 2021, I played Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, a deck-building co-op game. Most "years" have been played multiple times. I think it does a good job of channeling the feel of the movies, although some of the cards don't precisely match the cinematic timeline. It is relatively easy with two players, and gets harder with more players. It is necessary to "manage" the villains you are fighting which may be a little too "meta", but it doesn't degenerate to a min-max game.

The one negative is that when first learning the game: the 'economies' of the game were not at all intuitive to me. There were many times when I felt "that can't possibly be correct!" I do want to advise people to play the game as written (i.e. no house rules), but be aware that the rules aren't particularly clear. Almost all of the house rules simply make the game too easy... I can tolerate a slight exception when it comes to 4-player games, but I think the point is to force MORE cooperation i larger games.

I picked up the Humble Bundle for Ukraine and that got me Back 4 Blood, which went right into my queue for the eventual future where I have time for games. Also had a real gem I want to dig into with my younger son called Wandersong where you're a bard character in an adventure story, so your "weapon" is singing. We played maybe 10 minutes into it and already I think it's excellent as something that's mostly gentle and still interesting and fun.

I am playing MPQ. I haven't had the desire to venture out and play the Pokemon 3DS games I have been wanting to buy.

Vampire survivors looks real good. It reminds me of those NES plane/space craft games where it is forward scrolling and you need to shoot down the enemies and get power ups but instead of planes destroying it's castlevania characters.

Okay. So. I finally buckled down and grabbed up Streets of Rage 4, and holy crap, it’s every bit as good as I wanted it to be. The hand-drawn aesthetic is amazing, and really gives it a 1990s comicbook feel, with a style that doesn’t feel too dissimilar to Joe Madureira’s art. It plays beautifully, with combat feeling solid and impactful - each punch, each kick, each special move feeling like it hits. Character design is great, especially on the impeccably gorgeous Blaze Fielding, who’s never looked better.

My only complaint? Where was this game’s representative in Super Smash Bros Ultimate? Not only is the beat-em-up genre not at all present, but Blaze would have gone a long way towards getting another character in there who is a dedicated woman and not “you can choose to play as a woman” like in so many cases (lookin at you, Fire Emblem).