Backlog: The Embiggening – August, 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/31/25 at 02:16 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! It’s Bakc 2 Skwell time again for all the little illiterate TikTokers. As usual, just when their target audience no longer has as much free time to swallow Tide Pods, eat cups of raw cinnamon, or kick down random doors, the Games Industry suddenly drops a whole bunch of releases, ending the doldrums of the Summer Games Drought. But, as usual, those of us with taste and acumen are left with the task of determining whether the Drought is actually over, or if those droplets falling from the Heavens aren’t actually rain.
We’ve got lots of Shovel-Ready trash coming in August, with Licensed Swill including games based on the ‘90s-era ‘Goosebumps’ children’s horror novels, the ‘80s-era ‘Space Adventure Cobra’ anime (which is on RetroCrush ALL the time, and it too cringey to watch), the relatively recent anime ‘Demon Slayer,’ and the ‘80s-era ‘RoboCop’ movie (with the new ‘RoboCop’ game being a sequel to …
Microsoft Terminates Key XBONE Feature
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/27/25 at 06:11 PM CT
Remember the disastrous Xbox One (a.k.a., XBONE) reveal, where Microsoft’s representatives spent all of their time talking about how you could have all of your non-gaming content (a.k.a., ‘it’) in one place, with little concern for showing actual exclusive games one might wish to play on the ostensible game console that was the XBONE? That feature came to be known as Microsoft Movies and TV… and they’re officially shutting ‘it’ down.
This reminds me uncomfortably of Microsoft’s decision to kill-off Windows Media Center and the dedicated versions of their flagship OS that came with it. The MJ Crew was SERIOUSLY invested in the success of Windows Media Center, with both Nick and I going whole-hog into cord-cutting (though, being rural, I never had a cord to begin with) and placing Windows Media Center-powered Home Theater PCs at the beating heart of our media consumption experience. The key difference, of course, is the fact that Windows Media Center was really, …
Steam Forced into Inconsistent Adult Content Ban by Purse-String Holders
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/20/25 at 05:02 PM CT
The world seems to have an Adult Content problem – Primarily that 70% of adults want it, while the other 30% are prudish scolds who want it banned. And, unfortunately, thanks to the Horseshoe Theory of politics, there’s enough power behind the desire for bans that they tend to be enforced.
A few years ago, Valve made waves in the face of Sony Bowdlerizing and censoring fairly benign and inconsequential content in Japanese games by announcing that any and all uncensored content would be welcome on Steam… then almost immediately regretted that decision. After a couple rounds of back-and-forth, though, Steam ultimately ended up as a glorious Laissez-Faire marketplace where people who were open to Adult Content in their games could opt-in to see such things, and those who didn’t want to see such content – or who weren’t officially old enough to see it – could ignore it. And that seemed to be the perfect balance between insane levels of porn everywhere (like unfiltered …
“Stop Killing Games” Movement Shows Europe Still Ahead of U.S. in Consumer Rights
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/13/25 at 03:12 PM CT
Rights abuses by IP and copyright holders have been a recurring subject on this blog, largely because they are so flagrant and egregious in contemporary Industrial Gaming, and neither the Democrats nor Republicans that control the United States government and write all of the laws seem to want to do anything about it. Considering the last major piece of legislation Americans got was the horrendous Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was copied largely intact across foreign governments ranging from the U.K. to Japan, it felt like we as consumers were at the mercy of Corporate Persons who seemed determined to NEVER let us enjoy Intellectual Property on our own terms.
Since the formation of the European Union, however, the European Commission has been on the bleeding edge of pushing for individual rights. Sometimes these pushes veer into nonsensical and Woke directions, but most of the time, European regulations force multi-national corporations to stop doing objectively …
Square-Enix and the Concept of “Awareness”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/06/25 at 01:36 PM CT
It’s no secret that “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” made a bit of a splash with its release earlier this year. It was also one of the games that made my list of titles to get excited about in 2025, primarily by virtue of being a story-rich, turn-based RPG with decent production values – the type of thing Squaresoft and Enix were renowned for in the Golden Age of ‘90s-era gaming, but which has largely fallen out of favor, with studios pushing more in the direction of Cinematic Sandboxes with copy-pasted Action-based combat instead.
Square-Enix has gone on the record stating that they are “aware” of the success of “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” and seem to be pondering a return to the style of game that made the original two component publishers into household names once upon a time.
And this is worrisome.
Square-Enix has been out-of-touch and on the back foot for well over a decade now. It seems that since shortly after the merger, the two-headed Ettin of a …
Backlog: The Embiggening – July, 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/28/25 at 08:24 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! We are, once again, right smack in the middle of the Summer Games Drought, with only the miserable offerings of various non-E3 digital game showcases to keep us looking toward the future. It’s no wonder publishers are so hung-up on porting and remastering old games, when there’s next to nothing truly new to look forward to.
Of course, the Summer Games Drought doesn’t prevent shovelware from raining down upon us. We’ve got Licensed Swill coming based on the ancient ‘The Phantom’ superhero, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in “Tales of the Shire,” an OLD anime in “Hunter x Hunter x Nen x Impact,” and a newer anime in “Edens Zero.” In Swill that is 2 Cazual 2 Exist, Nintendo is christening the Switch 2 launch window with a ‘Mario Party’ game. Lastly, in Annualized Swill, EA is pooping out a ‘College Football’ game for 2026.
In new multi-platform releases, there are… a few titles, but nothing to get …
The Ghost of Consoles Future
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/21/25 at 09:37 PM CT
I saw a random video essay the other day that went into detail about how the PlayStation 5 feels like a console that doesn’t really exist, even though it was released 5 years ago. Yeah, FIVE years in, which, in the days of Moore’s Law and the rapid progress of microchip potency, would have been an entire hardware generation. Consoles like the NES, Sega Genesis, and even Sony’s first PlayStation had lifespans of about 5-6 years – maybe a tad longer – before their eminently-more-powerful successors would arrive on the scene. The video essay in question, produced by small-time YouTuber, Save Slot, suggests that, as the PlayStation 5 reaches the end of what would have been one of its predecessor’s lifespans… it really has nothing to show for itself.
I can’t help but agree, and foresee a similar problem in the Nintendo Switch 2’s future. Both the PlayStation 5 and the Switch 2 are platforms that, at launch, are basically glorified port machines, allowing Sony, and …
Without E3, Summer Game Hype Feels Dead
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/15/25 at 03:04 PM CT
It always used to be that around this time of year, E3 – the Electronic Entertainment Exposition – would dump an incredible amount of info about upcoming releases into the Games Journalism pipeline, drowning the public in cinematic trailers and giving special access to playable demos to trusted members of the press. Sadly, we don’t have much of any of that anymore – as neither E3 nor trusted members of the press exist in 2025.
This is the second year of E3’s official death, after two additional years of “temporary” cancellations and postponements, with promises of returning, “better than ever.” Originally created by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) as a trade show, E3 quickly became the pivot point upon which print journalism magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly balanced an entire year’s worth of coverage. When E3 was at its best, we saw the big platform holders competing for Gamers’ attention in a fierce marketplace of ideas, where dumb …
There’s a New Nintendo Console, and I Couldn’t Care Less
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/08/25 at 03:44 PM CT
Nintendo just released the Switch 2. It’s such a mainstream commercial product release that the legacy media networks all deemed it worthy of mentioning during their evening World News broadcasts. Yet, as someone who cares about gaming more than most other topics, I just can’t get excited about this thing.
We all know the “Cons” list going against the Switch2: It’s $450 without a game. New first-party games are $80. Most physical third-party games are digital downloads tied to special key-cards. Nintendo opted out of adding Hall Effect joysticks to prevent a repeat of the infamous Joycon drift issue.
None of those would really be deal-breakers for me individually, or even when piled together. The thing that’s preventing me from exuding even a fragment of interest in the Switch 2 is the complete and utter lack of compelling game releases. It’s been proven as objectively as possible over the last decade-plus of Gaming Economics that buying multi-platform titles …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/01/25 at 01:46 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
I finished the second of my 3 Backlog Ablution picks… and was sorely disappointed by it. Other than that, Chris and I got through two pretty good couch-coop ‘Vania-style games, and I splurged on a new Switch game that was good, but could have been better.
“Gal Guardians: Demon purge” – 3.5/5
“Pentiment” – 2.5/5
“The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom” – 4/5
“Pampas & Selene: The Maze of Demons” – 4/5
Chris’ Review:
Chris is STILL playing “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” feverishly, and insists that he’s “almost done.” On my advice, he’s waiting to set up his new gaming PC until he actually IS done, so Uplay’s cloud save feature doesn’t accidentally send him back to square one. Even more disappointing, in spite of completing 2 couch coop games with me this Spring, he only submitted a …
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