Playing through Baldur’s Gate 3 now, and I see what they did. It’s sex up front. Within the first couple of hours you’re boinking your interest. It’s not until act III - potentially dozens of hours later - when you get to the actual romance part of the relationship. It’s an interesting take. At least with the couple of romance plots I’ve seen.

Ahh yes, definitely. I should have said that isn’t strictly a traditional shmup. Bangai O definitely has many elements of shmups, but the level design and many of the mechanics are quite unique to it.

I actually played a bunch of that Star Wars vector arcade game at my local bowling alley. Yes, I am old…

Starfox never did it for me like Space Harrier. I’m not sure why. The primitive 3D maybe. Space Harrier creature design is just plain bizarre and intriguing.

I love Space Harrier. There are a handful of other third-person, on-rails shooters (Sin and Punishment), but nothing recent that I’m aware of.

Also, Bangai O on Nintendo DS is insanely fun. I can’t think of any other games where slowdown is a necessary mechanic.

Pop quiz: four of the top five most anticipated games are Doom, Gears of War, Perfect Dark, and Assassin’s Creed: what year is it?

Pseudoregalia. It’s a 3D platformer/Metroidvania that mimics PSX/N64 graphics. I’m only a couple hours in, but so far it’s fun. The controls are buttery smooth.

For fun, we just tried to kill the guy in the image. He’s supposed to be one of the most powerful wizards in the entire world or something. Surprisingly, we succeeded. It was only his simulacrum. The attention to detail in this game is amazing.

Metroid Dread, Stardew Valley, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

The former on Yuzu’s last build on a nice 32 inch monitor with a big controller that doesn’t cramp up my hands. It’s pretty hard, but I did just get past a part I hear a lot of people quit on, so there’s that. I can’t imagine trying to play it with Joycons. I’d probably snap them in half.

Stardew Valley is creeping up on being my most played Steam game of all time. Entirely on Deck. I am starting to loathe it a bit now though. I’m very late game, and it’s super grindy. It’s just so chill though, I have trouble putting it down. I love me some brain rattling difficult Souls games, but Stardew Valley just lets me completely zone out. I also get something close to seven hours of battery with it unlike anything demanding that kills it in 2 or 3.

That does not sound ideal.

No. I do not wish my earbuds to smell like fish.

The Ginger and Orange are my favorites. Given, I’ve only had two flavors, and the Cinnamon ones were good, too.

They only started appearing in Korea recently, so I bet they’re super popular somewhere else.

The North American charger should fit, no? I’m in Korea where we’ve got big honking plugs, and I could probably squeeze it in if I tried.

Stardew Valley has taken over my Deck since, uhh, October or something. Really, I want to play other games…

Hey! Exactly like Skyrim on PS3 at release. Nostalgia!

Treasure! Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes. Bangai O. Not to mention the shmups. Damn they made some amazing games with super cool mechanics. Last I checked, they made a few anime tie-in games or something in the 2010s, but nothing since then.

The game writes itself! Sega needs to do this.

I was thinking something more like a sci-fi, existential horror film where Harrier is the only force preventing the utter ruination of the universe by an endless horde of Lovecraftian monsters, and his loneliness and indestructibility drives him to extremes, but the Iron Man-esque angle could work, too.

I am so ready for a Space Harrier movie.