Halloween is coming up soon, and I’ve got some treats for you!  No tricks!  It’s a new batch of game reviews I’ve recently written at GamerDad!  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

Ultros immediately drew me in with its gorgeous neon sci-fi aesthetic, but it kept me hooked by completely subverting my expectations as the game progressed. At first glance, and by the developer’s description, it appears to be yet another Metroidvania game - which, frankly, have gotten to be extremely plentiful and much less interesting due to their abundance. But quickly, you realize this is no normal Metroidvania - nor is it quite a roguelike despite the cyclical nature of the experience. It borrows these designs to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Blue Fire is a game I like, but I don’t love. It’s a game I want to love - it draws influences from some of my favorite games, broadly 3D Platformers but with a bit of Zelda, Metroid, and Dark Souls thrown in for good measure. But despite this, it just doesn’t all come together as well as I hoped.

Beat, Heart, Beat is an action-rhythm platformer that puts a unique spin on the auto-runner, incorporating a midwest emo soundtrack and a truly bizarre cast of characters and premise. Through fifteen unique levels/songs, you’ll avoid obstacles, attack in three directions, chain combos, and try to do it all to the beat to earn the highest scores. The short quest relies heavily on replayability and high score chasing and your enjoyment will likely hinge on your affinity for the distinctive midwest emo soundtrack.

Let's dig into 1982! I got games, games, games, and a little bit about music at the end 'cause I was into it then.

Up until Lies of P released, I thought it was impossible for anybody not named FromSoftware to make a great Souls-like. We’ve certainly seen plenty of teams adapt the formula to 2D successfully, but despite the similarities, those titles feel more like variants on the classic Metroidvania formula than a proper Souls-styled game. False Hero, though, leaves no question where it draws influence - this 3D Souls-like, the product of a single developer, is imbued with everything that made the Souls series great. It even manages to add its own twist to the formula, creating its own identity in the process.

It’s been far too long since we’ve seen a proper entry in the Castlevania series. After Igarashi was unceremoniously removed from working on the franchise, it basically went stagnant. MercurySteam worked on the three Lords of Shadows games, but even the last of that subseries was released twelve years ago. Enter Belmont’s Curse, the newest entry in the series, which now rests in the hands of Evil Empire, best known for their work on Dead Cells.

When Star Fox Adventures originally released back in 2002, I skipped out. If you read my review on Star Fox, this might surprise you, given how much I love the series. But Adventures wasn’t really a Star Fox game, it was the Rare N64 game, Dinosaur Planet. It got an awkward Star Fox coat of paint, some poorly executed Arwing sections, and was dumped into the Star Fox universe, thanks to Nintendo leadership.

I’ve got another batch of GamerDad reviews I’ve recently written, including a trio of amiibo figures!  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

That's right, folks, PixlBit has officially turned 17 years old. It's hard to believe that this little gaming site has been going for that long, but here we are. This year has been particularly special for the site, as it represents a full reboot of the site with new technology and a new direction.

I'd like my media project for the year include video games, or games in general, but they just doesn't work because video games are so new and what came before them isn't so interesting that they could take up months of free time. But let me back up. What is my media project for the year? It's to go through human history in twelve parts. This is September and I'm in the 1970s, finally a decade that includes video games. If I had made gaming match the project, I would've been stuck with board/card games for eight months of the year. That isn't going to happen, not even for one month. Truth be told, I couldn't even spend a whole month on 70s video games. Only by the 80s are there enough video games to keep me going for a month.

Whether you asked for it or not, chances are, Generative AI is now a part of your day-to-day life. Increasingly, it’s been worked into every facet of, well, everything. If you’re like me, it’s become a huge part of your work life too, regardless of whether you asked for it. GenAI is changing our world; it’s deskilling workers, weakening labor power, increasing the surveillance power of institutions, and reducing our collective agency and intelligence.

Tomorrow, we're due to finally find out what Nintendo has been cooking up next for the Zelda franchise. There's no question that there are few games as beloved as the Ocarina of the Time, which puts Nintendo in an interesting position for this remake. As we all know, the Zelda formula has been totally shaken up with the latest entries, prioritizing emergent gameplay and sandboxes that allow players to explore and create, a total departure from the Ocarina-style that previously defined 3D Zelda.

I can’t believe I’m turning 50 later this month.  In a way I’m a little sad about it because my life is definitely not what I’d imagined it would be by now.  I’m still single and living in a one bedroom apartment barely making ends meet with a job I don’t like that much.  But at least there are some fun things we’ll be doing this month.  My dad’s birthday is a couple of weeks before mine so I’m taking him to see the Coyote vs. Acme movie.  And then for my birthday we’re going to see the Rifftrax Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie.  And then at the end of this month some of my other family and I are going to Austin, TX to see my old college campus after 30 years, and to also see my best friend who has lived in El Salvador for a long time, but recently moved back here.  At any rate, even though it’s my birthday, I’ve got some presents for you!  Reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.  Please read as many as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two!  I’d appreciate it.  And in the comments section, feel free to give me a pretend birthday present, too!  OK let’s begin!

To be honest, I started Xbox 360 sometime in May. So it took around four months to go through everything in my physical and digital collection and play a few new ones too. Here's the list of stuff I ended with. Note that I've been playing in order of Metacritic rating, and so these are the lowest rated games I have (doesn't mean they're are actually that bad though).

One of my favorite things about the original Splatoon was that while you were waiting for an online match to start, you could play a little 8-bit arcade style game.  I even wrote an article about them here.  I missed having them in the sequels, but I can understand why they took them out.  I think most people would rather play in a practice arena doing what they’ll actually do in the match while they wait, and I think some of the extra arcade games were locked behind amiibo figures anyway.  But I still liked them because I’m weird I guess.  So I was pleasantly surprised that the arcade games made a return in Splatoon Raiders!  I don’t even remember anyone talking about them in previews or reviews, so it was a surprise to me!  So I’m going to talk about them here!

Got some time today (car repair again), so I'll finish up making notes on the list of best Wii games on Metacritic, now starting at those rated under 75.

Recently remastered and released for free on Steam, Knytt Classic dusts off the classic freeware indie game by Nifflas, Knytt, for modern systems. When Knytt originally released, I downloaded it and tried to play, but the keyboard-only controls proved to be a huge impediment to my immersion. But when I saw that Chasm developer, Bit Kid, updated the title, complete with updated graphics, modern gamepad controls, and achievements, I knew I had to give it another go. Twenty years later, Knytt stands the test of time and shines in its new format.

OK students, class is back in session!  Your assignment today is to read as many GamerDad reviews I’ve recently written and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  You’ll get an A+ if you do.  OK, let’s begin!

It was the summer of '97 - we were on a family vacation in Montreal and went to La Ronde Amusement Park for the day. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I was there; a Nintendo Megadome, right inside the park. It was like a dream come true. Even better, it was right before the release of GoldenEye 007, so I got my first look at what would soon become one of my favorite games ever. We played everything we could and left, VHS in hand, promoting some of the upcoming releases, including GoldenEye. There were some other promotional materials too, a dossier that would be thumbed through hundreds of times before we were graced with a copy of the game that Christmas.

Got another batch of game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

I had a really good time with Xbox 360, or 3tricksy as I like to call it, this week. This is what I got to in my journey through all my 360 games.

2013 is really the start Console Generation 8, but to me it's still Gen 7 because the Xbox One and PS4 came out late in that year, and I didn't get either one until maybe a year later. Yes the Wii-U was out in 2012, the 3DS and PS Vita in 2011, but it really felt like Gen 8 fully to me in 2014. So this is the last year I'll review until I get past all the Gen 7 systems in my retro journey this year.

Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten.  So here’s when those games get their due.  Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed.  And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.  Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!

Even from the outset, Pseudoregalia proves to be a fascinating game. Visually, it's striking - evoking the PlayStation 1 - you won't see many games that look quite like it these days, and few, if any, are able to pull off the style successfully. Similar to a title on the PlayStation, you're dropped into the game without much fanfare and with only the ability to jump. You have no map to help you navigate, no weapon to defend yourself, and compared to later in the game, extremely limited mobility. Exploring Castle Sansa and its surrounding areas will net you a sword and upgrades to it, as well as myriad upgrades to your movement abilities, enabling you to reach more parts of the castle.