Around the Network

Happy weekend everyone! Hope it was a good one.

I’m winding down towards a nice holiday away from the trials and tribulations of everyday life, so as I think I’ve previously mentioned, there will be no new Cover Game feature until my return in early July. In the meantime, however, you can continue to expect the usual mix of modern and retro games and visual novels.

The site just passed the 1,000 post mark this week — let’s check out what you might have missed around this historic occasion!

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MoeGamer

Delving Into Kirby’s Dream Course #2 — I spent a bit more time with this unusual Kirby title for Super NES, enjoying how it combines minigolf with elements of platformers and puzzlers.

Delving Into Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest #2 — Some further thoughts on one of Castlevania’s more divisive entries, including how its obtuseness may have been intended to provoke discussion rather than frustration.

Warriors Wednesday: Never Let Zhao Yun Tank — As Orochi’s armies grow in strength, the Shu forces creep ever closer to uncovering the enduring mystery of where the hell Liu Bei has gone.

Waifu Wednesday: Pokégirls, Vol. 1 — With excitement for the new Pokémon increasing with the new footage from E3, I thought it about time we acknowledged that this has always been a series as much about cute girls as it is about fighting monsters.

NES Essentials: City Connection — A new release on the Nintendo Switch’s NES app, City Connection is by no means a beloved game, but I’ve always been rather fond of it.

New Game Plus: Iron Giant (Finale) — We finally conclude our Atelier Rorona DX playthrough with a battle against the base game’s toughest opponent: the Iron Giant. Will I prevail with just seven days left to go before the final deadline?

Educational Esperanto Visual Novel Struggles with Valve’s Amorphous Content Policies — If you read nothing else from me this week, please at least check this out. The game in question looks thoroughly fascinating, and you’d better believe I’ll be exploring it in depth in the very near future.

Atari A to Z

Back on track this week, with a mysterious German puzzler that may or may not have been a type-in listing from a magazine, and two very different takes on World War I air combat!

Cool Stuff By People Who Aren’t Me

I am a proud Patron of Paul “Mr Biffo” Rose, the Cheap Show podcast and The Game Chasers, because all of them put out great content that is worth your support. The Game Chasers are working on a movie, too; be sure to check out their Kickstarter if you’re a fan.

Check out some examples of what these fine folks have been up to here:

I’m also a Patron of fellow blogger and consistent ray of positivity Matt over at Normal Happenings, and I’m pleased to announce that I’m going to be part of his latest collaborative project: The Characters That Define Us. This will be unfolding throughout the entire year of 2020, and will consist of 52 bloggers from the community highlighting 52 amazing characters from the world of video games.

Check out Matt’s Twitter for the full details of who’s doing what! My picks won’t be a big surprise to anyone who knows me well…

Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s see what the WordPress community has been up to this week:

Ethics and Tragedy of Blades in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Backlog Crusader) — Angie has penned a wonderful piece about one of Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s most interesting narrative aspects here. Well worth your time!

A space diary from the Frontier (Kimimi the Game-Eating She-Monster) — Kimimi reminds me why I thought Frontier: Elite II always sounded cool, but I never really had all that much fun with it! Death is involved.

Tifa’s Redesign: A Balance of Fanservice and Practicality (Lumi Reviews Things) — Lumi pens a great piece on the newly-revealed Tifa from Final Fantasy VII remake, and how her new(ish) look strikes a great balance between her classic appearance and modernity.

E3 Isn’t My Scene Anymore and That’s Okay (Adventure Rules) — Robert Ian Shepard ponders how the fun and excitement of E3 season seems to have diminished as he’s grown older — and how this isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all.

Perfect Gamer Pressure (The Gaming Diaries) — If you watch other people playing games on YouTube or Twitch, you’ve probably made a conscious decision as to whether you’d rather watch someone highly skilled playing to perfection, or someone struggling through in a distinctly “human” manner. Which do you prefer and why?

All right, that’ll do for now. I’ve got a podcast to finalise, stinky armpits to wash and a bed to sleep in. And probably cats to pet at some point in the middle of that routine, too.

Have a lovely remainder of your weekend, thank you for your continued support as I take aim for another 1,000 posts, and I’ll see you soon!


The MoeGamer Compendium, Volume 1 is now available! Grab a copy today for a beautiful physical edition of the Cover Game features originally published in 2016.

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this article. I’ve been writing about games in one form or another since the days of the old Atari computers, with work published in Page 6/New Atari User, PC Zone, the UK Official Nintendo Magazine, GamePro, IGN, USgamer, Glixel and more over the years, and I love what I do.

If you’d like to support the site and my work on it, please consider becoming a Patron — click here or on the button below to find out more about how to do so. From just $1 a month, you can get access to daily personal blog updates and exclusive members’ wallpapers featuring the MoeGamer mascots.

If you want to show one-off support, you can also buy me a coffee using Ko-Fi. Click here or on the button below to find out more.

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4 thoughts on “Around the Network”

  1. Congrats on the milestone! Always enjoy reading your content and the massive amount of work you pour into all of it. Even though I barely have time to comment it on all, it has been a big inspiration for me both content-wise and trying to actually go back and play some of the titles you have written on. Hope to see 1,000 more posts in the future and keep up the good work!

    1. Thank you! That’s really lovely to hear. I’m really glad to hear you’re interested in trying some of the things I’ve written about. If you get around to it, be sure to stop by and let me know how you get on 🙂

      1. Will do. Most of the trouble is just finding the stuff in an adequately playable state (trying to avoid emulation as much as possible), but might be a project I will save for next year if I’m still around.

  2. Congratulations on 1000 posts! That’s amazing, I hope to see lots more in the future. I’m looking forward to seeing your post for the Characters That Define Us. Enjoy your holiday as well. Hope it’s a good one.

    Thanks for including my post in your round up.

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