Around the Network

Hello everyone! It’s Sunday night, so I thought I’d get this done before heading to bed, and perhaps to provide some of you with some afternoon or evening reading, depending on where in the world you are.

The Atelier MegaFeature is continuing apace; we wrapped up Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy this week and will be moving on to the four games of the Arland trilogy next. Yes, I’m going to cover Lulua as part of the Arland series rather than playing it in release order; I’ll be interested to see the narrative context when playing them all in succession, because I know both Atelier Totori and Atelier Meruru certainly both benefited from having their respective predecessors fresh in my mind when I originally played them.

Anyway, that’s a discussion for another day. For now, it’s time to check out what you might have missed in the last week. Hit the jump and let’s go!

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MoeGamer

Battleship: B4 U H8 – We’re rapidly reaching a point where seventh-generation games are becoming “retro”, so that means you can pick up some real bargains. Or, if you’re me, grab some games that everyone hated and see if they actually have some redeeming features.

Double Dragon: Defining the Brawler – Double Dragon is a well-loved and respected game in its arcade incarnation, but its NES version is fascinating in its own way, too, so let’s take a closer look at that.

short;Play: Soldam – Drop, Connect, Erase! I’m a big fan of this puzzler that reimagines Jaleco’s sequel to Rod-Land.

I’m Not Okay: Speaking Frankly About Mental Health, Frustration and Ambition – Some words that needed to be said.

Nurse Love Addiction: The Smell of Gas Lights – “It’s not what it seems” could be the tagline for the entirety of yuri visual novel Nurse Love Addiction, but it’s particularly applicable for Itsuki’s route.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Levigrass Shoes (Final Fantasy III #10) – The Warriors of Light find their title contested — can they come out on top and prove their worth? (Spoiler: yes)

MoeGamerTV/Atari A to Z Live Survey – If you have two minutes to fill this out, it would be much appreciated. It’s anonymous!

The Music of Atelier, Vol. 5: Mana Khemia 2 – Fall of Alchemy – We wrap up our time with Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy with another celebration of Gust’s astonishing sound team.

Atari A to Z

This week we’ve got two slightly different ports of the same Sega arcade game, developed by the same person; a pleasant drive down a long and winding road; and high-resolution (for 1984) backgammon.

Patreon

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Don’t forget that over on Patreon I post a daily behind-the scenes personal blog that is, effectively, a resurrection of my old #oneaday blog I used to host over at angryjedi.wordpress.com. At the present time, this also includes exclusive patrons-only weekly vlogs and Let’s Plays at the weekends! If you’d like to get to know me a bit better, be sure to sign up; just $1 a month (about 80p) can get you in the club, and it also provides you with access to the MoeGamer Discord as well as helping to fund and support the things I do here on the site.

Find out more and sign up to Patreon here!

Cool Stuff By People Who Aren’t Me

First up, Patreon goodness! Right now, I’m supporting Paul “Mr Biffo” Rose’s creative endeavours on the Digitiser YouTube channel, the ever-grumpy (and always hilarious) Cheap Show Podcast, gaming and gaming culture commentator Liana Kerzner, independent games writing collective The Well-Red Mage, fountain of retro computer gaming knowledge Rob “Hellfire64” Caporetto, alternative fountain of retro computer gaming knowledge Kim Justice, and blogger/YouTuber Megan Marie, all of whom you can find out a bit more about by clicking through to their profiles.

Here’s a selection of YouTube and podcast goodness from several of this lot:

And as always, we wrap up this week’s roundup with a look around the WordPress Reader to see what’s been going on!

Seven years on (Everything is bad for you) – AK’s site has been around even longer than MoeGamer, so go help him celebrate seven years of enthusing about the things he loves — and perhaps saying a few things that need to be said along the way, too!

On Writing: Why Should I Care About My Video Game Wife? (a response) (Meghan Plays Games) – Remember Quietschisto’s neato post on this subject from last week? Meghan’s got a few things to add to the discussion.

My Life With… Milk Race (ZX Spectrum) – Looking back on the cassette-based pocket money games of the ’80s, it’s always interesting to see the variety of subject matter covered. stvnorman takes us on a cycle-mounted journey that runs the length of the UK.

Lumi Rambles About His Love For Justice and Judgement From Helltaker (Lumi Reviews Things) – Topic.

Tales of the Abyss: Menu Screen Design Analysis (The Picky Champy) – Do you like getting extremely detailed about things a lot of people don’t think about in video games? Then this post is very much for you, as it’s probably the most in-depth analysis of Tales of the Abyss’ menus you’ll find anywhere online.

And that’s that for another week. Thank you as always for all your support, and, once again, if you have a moment to fill out the streaming survey that’d be really helpful for me to figure a few things out.

Have a lovely week, and play many games!


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