Jack of Shadows By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • March 4th, 2024 Revenge is a dish best served over and over and over again.
Exploits Feature The Century-Long Humanification of King Kong By Van Dennis • March 1st, 2024 Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Past Presence What Time Loops Mean to Me By Emily Price • February 29th, 2024 Time loop games give us the opportunity to grow alongside the main character.
Run It Back 1995 By Oluwatayo Adewole • February 28th, 2024 In both Fallen Angels and The Doom Generation we follow dreamers.
Noise Complaint Militarie Gun Rings the Bell By Ben Sailer • February 27th, 2024 A punk song appearing in a Taco Bell commercial forces Ben to hit the drive-thru while reconsidering the gatekeeping attitude of his youth.
Funeral Rites Embarking on a DuckQuest By Alyssa Wejebe • February 26th, 2024 “What if ducks weren’t the comical sidekick? What if ducks were the heroes of the adventure?”
Feature Excerpt Made With Love: Anime Mashups and Their Creators By Justin Kim • February 23rd, 2024 They’re not just shitposts!
Feature Excerpt Fortnite, Eminem and Kidproofing Media in the Age of Content By Holly Boson • February 22nd, 2024 Eminem’s presence in The Big Bang can be interpreted as an apology to the players following their disastrous attempts at childproofing.
Letter from the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – February 2024 By David Shimomura • February 19th, 2024 The really weird stuff happens in February.
Here's the Thing Growing Pains By Rob Rich • February 16th, 2024 Rob revisits his thoughts on toy collecting and how his loose but still focused approach is great, but can also be a real pain at times.
Forms in Light Pacific Palettes By Justin Reeve • February 15th, 2024 Games like Alan Wake 2 provide a glimpse into the Pacific Northwest, allowing us to experience the multifaceted architectural identity of a region largely untouched by modern media.
Noah's Beat Box Museum Piece By Noah Springer • February 15th, 2024 A pilgrimage to “The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century” at the St. Louis Art Museum.
Casting Deep Meteo PAX Unplugged 2023 By Levi Rubeck • February 14th, 2024 Breakfast tacos, cloudy donuts, Dark Souls on cardboard and one really, really big organ.
Area of Effect The Call is Coming from Inside the Courtroom By Jay Castello • February 13th, 2024 Great Ace Attorney, set in Meiji era Japan and Victorian London, manages to upend the sacred space of the courtroom.
Rookie of the Year Mysolda: Renewing My Wedding Vows … with an NPC By Matt Marrone • February 13th, 2024 In many ways, my exploits in Skyrim remain the greatest achievements of my pathetic little life.
Beyond Structures Clockenflap 2023 Day 3: Running Youth, Otoboke Beaver, 9m88 and more By Khee Hoon Chan • February 9th, 2024 It’s day three of Clockenflap – and the final day of what is shaping up to be one of my favorite festival experiences.
Interlinked Now You’re Playing with Privilege By Phoenix Simms • February 9th, 2024 With times being as turbulent as they are in real life, sitting and appreciating a game’s artistry feels distinctly useless at times.
Here Be Monsters Loading the Gun: Simulation and Realism in Horror Mechanics By Emma Kostopolus • February 8th, 2024 Horror in game mechanics arises from the difference in how we interact with things that are realistic versus things that absolutely are not.
Friction Burns Returning to Rhythm in A Highland Song By Ruth Cassidy • February 7th, 2024 There’s a lot to learn from falling down mountains.
Mind Palaces Mostly Normal People By Maddi Chilton • February 7th, 2024 In the past few years of weird and superficial social media-based media criticism, a character’s relatability (or, used not synonymously but often close to it, likability) is shorthand for how successful they are within their text.
This Mortal Coyle Goth Femmes of Elden Ring By Deirdre Coyle • February 6th, 2024 Ranking Elden Ring’s goth femmes from “least” to “most” goth.
Ninja City: Drug Demon Disco By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • February 5th, 2024 Grab your shuriken, paisans!
I Played It, Like, Twice Death is Not the End: How to Win and Die Trying in Doomseeker By Orrin Grey • February 2nd, 2024 This is a game where it actually does pay to die, if you can do it when you mean to.
Self-Insert Mary Sue By Amanda Hudgins • February 2nd, 2024 She is you, a teenager who is stuck in a small town with no friends, with cruel acquaintances who don’t love any of the things that you do, who has been told for years that boys bully you because they like you.
Exploits Feature Is it Alt to Like Call of Duty These Days? By Elijah Beahm • February 1st, 2024 Somehow, some Call of Duty games seem to have slipped out of the mainstream…
Past Presence Romanticize Your Life! By Emily Price • January 31st, 2024 If these things are the glue that makes real “mundane” life less boring, they are hollow pleasures.
Beyond Structures Clockenflap 2023 Day 2: Atarashii Gakko!, Omnipotent Youth Society and more By Khee Hoon Chan • January 30th, 2024 After grabbing an exorbitant hotdog from the festival grounds, which I paid around USD25 for, I continued on to some of the day two acts.
Run It Back Sex and Cinema By Oluwatayo Adewole • January 30th, 2024 At the same time as a quasi-accepting era which brings us more art focused on marginalized people, a soft Hayes Code re-emerges, allowing for the clean lines of queerness but not the smudges.
The Temple of Apshai Trilogy By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • January 29th, 2024 Beware the minions of the Insect God!
Noise Complaint Age, Angst, and Paint It Black By Ben Sailer • January 26th, 2024 On their latest album Famine, long-running hardcore punk band Paint It Black prove that righteous anger has no age limit.
Funeral Rites Collaborating on Microcosmic Adventures in Mausritter By Phoenix Simms • January 25th, 2024 Mausritter has come a long way from its homebrew session and zine days.
Feature Excerpt Why I Played a 20-Year-Old Nancy Drew Game Over the Holidays By Amanda Tien • January 24th, 2024 Twice a year for more than a decade, I’d gather around a computer with my mom and sister so we could play the newest Nancy Drew game. This was our ritual, until the games stopped coming.
Feature Excerpt Solace and Play Within Games By Alyssa Hatmaker • January 23rd, 2024 Sometimes being reminded that you’re playing a videogame is a welcome feeling.
Beyond Structures Clockenflap 2023 Day 1: Uchu Yurei, Wang Wen, Envy, Yoasobi By Khee Hoon Chan • January 22nd, 2024 Clockenflap 2023 was three beautiful days long, and here are the highlights of the festival’s opening day.
Letter from the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – January 2024 By David Shimomura • January 18th, 2024 Welcome to the new year!
MIG3: The Meints Index to Glorantha By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • January 15th, 2024 The definitive guide to Glorantha guides.