// Compiling awesome content...
No sponsors, no PR fluff. Members keep it that way: ad-free reading, comments, full-text RSS, and member-only posts.
Japan's Patent Office has knocked back Nintendo's touchscreen monster-catching patent, citing a 13-year-old Pokemon fan game as prior art. It is the second patent in the family behind the Palworld lawsuit to fall, though neither ruling decides that case.
Dinoblade, a solo-built souls-like from Sucker Punch animator Jean Nguyen, launched on Steam today. It started as a viral 2022 meme of a Spinosaurus swinging a greatsword, and now carries 460,000+ wishlists and a 97% positive demo.
2027 is stacked. The One Piece, Demon Slayer's next Infinity Castle film, Solo Leveling's movie, Frieren, Chainsaw Man, Kagurabachi and a pile more are all lining up for next year. Here is everything big, with the dates as they stand.
A twin-stick roguelike where you play the infection, tear organelles out of the cells you kill and bolt them onto your own body. The build system is the most inventive thing I have played all year, and I lost a week of evenings to it. The basic movement rules are the weak link.
Melbourne's Gameclaw Studio built a side-scrolling RPG about rebuilding a dwarven home one rescued kinsman at a time, and I lost a string of evenings to it. Gorgeous pixel art, a compulsive settlement loop and honest jank in the combat. Recommended.
I bounced off Palworld hard in early access. Version 1.0 fixed the jank, killed the worst of the grind and bolted a real endgame onto the catch-shoot-build loop. Two and a half years later, the meme game became one of the best survival crafters on PC.
Season 2 kept my Friday-night tea ritual alive for ten weeks, and I loved being back on the road with Frieren, Fern and Stark. But this season is a bridge, not a destination: gentle, lovely, and clearly saving its biggest feelings for what comes next.
Ubisoft's Black Flag remake is a genuinely lovely rebuild of the best pirate game the series ever made, and a case study in souring your own launch with nine day-one DLC packs. The ship is great. The gift shop can walk the plank.
MAPPA returns to the well with Culling Game: Part 1, and the action animation might be the best the series has produced. The trade-off is a season top-loaded with rule explanations that test even seasoned shonen viewers.
