Category Archives: Features

MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The #25YearsOfPlay Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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Today’s award comes from the fact that the PlayStation turned 25… err, yesterday, actually, but near enough.

It’s pretty fair to say that the original PlayStation was a defining influence on many gaming enthusiasts’ passion for the hobby, and for a wide variety of reasons. For those who had grown up with earlier systems, the PlayStation marked the moment gaming acquired real mainstream acceptance; for those new to the hobby, it was a platform that played host to a more diverse array of experiences than ever before.

With that in mind, today’s award celebrates a game from the original PlayStation era that I have incredibly fond memories of, not just of the game itself, but of everything going on surrounding it at the time I first experienced it.

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The “Are You Lost?” Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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The next award comes courtesy of frequent commenter ASD. They want to know the five characters (from games I played this year) that I’d take on my desert island survival team.

I didn’t write about it this year, but I rather enjoyed the short-form anime Are You Lost? (aka ソウナンですか？ Sōnan desu ka?) from the summer anime season. It was one of a number of recent pieces of Japanese popular media that had a distinctly “educational” component, and I can’t help but think of it when contemplating this award.

Of course, it wasn’t a video game and thus is largely irrelevant to the discussion we’re about to have, but it was an entertaining anime that is worth checking out. Anyway. I digress.

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The “Are You Lost?” Award →

MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Atari Anime Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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This year’s first award is exactly the sort of peculiar thing I was after, courtesy of regular and longstanding reader Viscera/@Zwifu.

Viscera wants to know the Atari game I want to be remade with cute anime girls the most. Preferably something that has been covered in one of my Atari A to Z videos.

That’s a hell of a category to start with! I’m going to have to think hard about this one…

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Atari Anime Award →

My Time With Dee Dee

My Time With Dee Dee: Learn Through, Uh, Doing

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One of the nice things about being a non-commercial site that isn’t funded by big corporate advertising bullshit is that I’m not obliged to be in “competition” with any of my peers.

That means that when people like our friends over at Digitally Downloaded do something cool and interesting, I can explore it for myself and, more to the point, make you aware of it, dear reader.

If I haven’t made this abundantly clear already, the following relates to a piece of media created by a friend of mine. And if you have the slightest interest in media criticism and making use of the conventions of gaming to educate or learn something… you should definitely check it out!

Continue reading My Time With Dee Dee: Learn Through, Uh, Doing →

Essentials, Puzzlers, Sega Ages

Columns II: The Most Passive-Aggressive Puzzle Game Ever

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Remember Columns? Remember how we talked about how chilled out it was, and how it didn’t want to stress you out? Yeah, you can forget all that with its direct follow-up.

Columns II is an example of an approach to sequels that was popular for a short while in the late ’80s and early ’90s: the provision of an experience clearly geared towards expert players, and a distinct case of “the same, but more so, and way harder“.

While Columns wanted everyone to relax and have a fun old time matching coloured gems, Columns II does everything in its power to stress you out at every opportunity. And I both love it and hate it for that!

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Essentials, Mega Drive, Puzzlers, Sega Ages

Ichidant-R: Minigame Mayhem

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Say the words “minigame collection” to a modern-day gamer and chances are they will roll their eyes and say something about shovelware, perhaps the Wii.

But we’re not about that sort of negativity here on MoeGamer, particularly because I know that minigame compilations can be an absolute ton of fun, and there are numerous great examples from throughout the years.

One such example is Ichidant-R, the sequel to Tant-R, which in turn was a bizarre spinoff of Bonanza Bros. And wouldn’t you know it? Sega just happens to have released Ichidant-R as part of its excellent Sega Ages collection on Nintendo Switch. Let’s take a closer look.

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Custom Order Maid 3D 2

Custom Order Maid 3D 2: The Reluctant Idol and the Photoshoot

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It’s Tuesday! That doesn’t mean anything in and of itself, other than the fact that I’ve arbitrarily decided it’s time to pay the Empire Club of Custom Order Maid 3D 2 another visit. And that has nothing to do with it being Tuesday.

Today, we continue getting to know our “main three” maids a little better as Hi-chan tries her best to convince Majima-san to join her on her quest to become an idol maid. Aya, meanwhile, has numerous things to practice. And who knows what that mysterious little fox girl is up to?

Dust off your membership card and come on in, and be aware that there are NSFW images and themes ahead!

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The Zelda Diaries

The Zelda Diaries: Part 6 – A Beast of a Time

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Last time, we talked about how Breath of the Wild makes use of its shrines as a short-form, handheld-friendly take on the Zelda series’ dungeoneering.

There’s another major part of the game that provides an interesting twist on this traditional aspect of the franchise, however, and that’s the Divine Beasts.

Providing significant, dramatic, story-critical challenges for Link to overcome, the Divine Beasts may, once again, be a bit of a deviation from Zelda’s previously established norms, but they’re still very cool.

Continue reading The Zelda Diaries: Part 6 – A Beast of a Time →

Custom Order Maid 3D 2

Custom Order Maid 3D 2: Sex, Sommeliers and Song

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It’s time to pay The Empire Club another visit after our initial look at what went down on its first day of business.

Today, we meet the other two maids who stayed on after our uncle decided to leave us with a crippling debt, start to get to know our staff a bit better and finally begin making a bit of money.

It seems at least one of them has an ambition, too… Let’s check in with them and see how things are going!

NSFW images ahead!

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The Zelda Diaries

The Zelda Diaries: Part 5 – Indoor Play

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We’ve already seen numerous ways in which The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild distinguishes itself from its illustrious predecessors, but one of the more controversial changes for some was how it handled “dungeons”.

Rather than unfolding through a progression of discrete, large, self-contained dungeons that become more challenging as the game progresses, Breath of the Wild instead provides you with 120 shrines to discover and solve, with each taking just a few minutes at most to get through.

It’s a markedly different approach to classic Zelda — but it fits perfectly with the game’s non-linear, exploration-centric structure. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading The Zelda Diaries: Part 5 – Indoor Play →