Unwinnable

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Friction Burns

A house with a tin roof built on top of horizontal oil drums sits in a warehouse that is also a museum, a single light illuminating an old man asking questions of the residents on the porch

Finding The On-Ramp To Route Zero

By Ruth Cassidy • September 26th, 2022

Kentucky Route Zero carries its own ghosts of its critical legacy. How do I get past that?

Current Issue

Letter from the Editor

A shark person standing in front of a field of video monitors.

Unwinnable Monthly – September 2022

By David Shimomura • September 19th, 2022

Welcome to the spoopy season, new columnists await!

Run It Back

In a still from The Last of England, a woman with long blonde hair wearing a wedding dress rends her dress apart while screaming in front of an open flame.

1987

By Oluwatayo Adewole • September 28th, 2022

Tayo’s back discussing two films from 1987, both by trailblazing gay directors, Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys and Derek Jarman’s The Last of England.

The Beat Box

In a still from the movie Men in Black, Will Smith's character prepares to use his memory-erasing device.

Noteworthy Hip Hop – September 2022

By Noah Springer • September 27th, 2022

1997 was a good year for hip hop and an even better one for Noah.

Revving the Engine

A 3D rendering of a gray metal robot wearing a shoulder-slung pouch and a loose piece of red fabric tied around its head. A teddy bear with glowing blue eyes perches on the robot's right shoulder.

2020s Tech, 1980s Spirit

By Ben Sailer • September 26th, 2022

Dykom Software’s twin-stick side-scrolling shooter invokes 80s geek culture nostalgia while hiding a few twists underneath an absurdist premise.

DNGN

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • September 26th, 2022

Ten levels down and more to go…

Feature Excerpt

To Be a Bird on an Island

By Taylor Hidalgo • September 23rd, 2022

During unsteady times, it’s easy to get caught up in the sadness of uncertainty. Thankfully, there are little animals tromping around an island to remind us that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Open World

Painting of a Benedictine Monk staring down in pensive consideration of mankind's place on this earth and IDK probably god's role in it or something

So Why Even Do It At All?

By Edward Smith • September 22nd, 2022

I think it’s important for me to make clear that this is not all about just negativity.

Feature Excerpt

Shark Party

By Michael Lee • September 22nd, 2022

The kinds of relationships people form in online spaces can be as meaningful and socially rewarding as physical encounters with human bodies.

Dimensions

Screenshot from Paradise Killer where you face a shimmering white humanoid figure with their arms raised, a ghost on the beach surrounded by chairs, umbrellas, and askew obelisks

Paradise Killer is On a Heavenly Trip

By Caroline Delbert • September 21st, 2022

Kaizen Game Works built their lore sky high, climbed through an unseen ceiling, and emerged into the scene of an age-old mystery. With Oli Clarke Smith.

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