Video Game Journal 3 (April 2026)
The idea of a 'backlog' has some unique stranglehold on video game culture. Sure, one might have a reading pile or a watchlist, but how much does one feel the need to clear it fully, to tick each entry off some insubstantial list before moving on to anything new? I suppose it's far healthier and conducive to actually appreciating things to accept that your experience with them will take as long as it needs - it's taken me months to read some of my favourite books, as with video games. Journey before destination.
Anyway, I played a few interesting tidbits this April. Daiku no Gensan is a delightful oddity, and Hylics was a pure dadaist joy. A few games on the docket are slow burns - I'm very sparsely picking through Grand Theft Auto V, thirteen years late, but it sure does look pretty these days. I'm continuing with Shogun Showdown when the mood strikes, which is probably how a lot of roguelikes are best treated. Unsure on continuing with Grapple Dog, it's fun, but I fear may not be grabbing me.
Reviews for the month's playing are below.
Star Wars: Dark Forces [1995] (Steam via The Force Engine) ★★★
A surprisingly well-designed Doom clone with a fun Star Wars jacket on, certainly better than any Star Wars themed WAD I've tried.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II [1997] (Steam via OpenJKDF2) Unfinished
Couldn't gel with this one. While I'm sure the environments were technically impressive, they're bland and sparse, shooting feels far wonkier, levels plodded along without much of interest, I just wasn't very impressed all round, really.
Arctic Eggs [2024] (Steam) ★★★
Aesthetically, Arctic Eggs vibes hard as fuck. Low-poly, industrial edged surrealism in a strange future world, fringed by a catchy soundtrack and philosophical asides. The weirdos inhabitating this place are the stars of the show, giving off a hell of a lot of personality for such brief encounters. And there's a lot of chickens. And a lotta cooking eggs.
The cooking takes some getting used to, but once you're into it, you're flipping over easys in no time. The catch it, these freaks love to chuck random shit in the pan, ranging from cigarettes to entire bottles of beer, including the bottle. It makes some challenges more frustrating than fun, particularly in the club area. Gratefully, are given grace to avoid those who are especially odd in their requests. For the best, really.
If you're into indie walking sims with a strange style and a clunky cooking minigame, Arctic Eggs is just the one for you.
Freeway [1981] (Atari 2600)
There's not much going for Freeway as a single player game. Sure, mix up the modes and try to learn the patterns, but to what end? Your compatriot, the other chicken crossing the road, stands sentinel and stoic, either terrified by the passing traffic or caught in some awful ennui, pondering the eternal question. Either way, he doesn't make much competition, and watching your score tick up while the other remains static saps the challenge of purpose. Maybe I can talk my partner into playing some ancient games with me, but the answer remains clear: ain't nothing to gain from being a lone chicken in this world.
Hammerin' Hero [2009] (PlayStation Portable) ★★
More charming than it is fun, nevertheless this is a competent action platformer that is just about as brief as it ought to be. There's a low budget feel to the whole affair, the levels are sometimes exceptionally swift, and it has the curse of molasses, that sluggish sticky movement that's never quite as responsive as it should be. Very much akin to Ganbare Goemon, you'll find something here to like if you're a fan of quirky adventures celebrating Japanese culture.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan [1990] (Game Boy) ★★
A decidedly efficient action game with a lick of charm and cute look. Not much going on here aside from whacking some guys off into the distance, but it controls well and it's so brief that repetition has no time to set in. Worth the tea break to play through.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers [1991] (Game Boy) ★
Can't hold a candle to its predecessor, plays and looks worse and design feels more frustrating as well. A real opportunity to iterate sadly lost.
Aliens [1990] (Arcade) ★★★
Good fun to run through, a poor man's Alien Storm battling multicolour xenomorphs and wearing an ugly-cute Aliens coat. It's swift and surprisingly diverse, though no variety of gameplay is fleshed out enough and honestly feels a bit clunky.
Hammerin' Harry [1991] (NES) ★★★
Looks good, plays good, over with quickly, and unlimited continues (!!!) - just about all I want from a chill afternoon with a NES game. Recommended!
Hammerin' Harry [1990] (Arcade) ★★★
Harry's original arcade outing it fairly similar to the NES port, only with prettier dressing and somehow easier difficulty.
Hylics [2015] (Steam) ★★★★
Hylics is a surreal delight of the highest calibre, posing non-sequitur philosophising and visuals worthy of any memorable trip. I was largely ignorant of my purpose or goal for nearly the whole thing (still kind of am, truth be told), but ultimately, it feels besides the point. Hylics is experiential, and its systems aren't deep enough to engage with much beyond a surface level - sometimes, they don't need to be. It's not so much to make the argument that this is an 'art game' and therefore above such petty things as character levels, or even a clear storyline; all games are art. I think it's more that different games aim at different things, and design choices are usually (hopefully) made with a clear direction in mind. Anyway, give Hylics a shot, it's cheap and offers an experience that is like little else.
Daiku no Gen-san 2: Akage no Dan no Gyakushuu [1993] (NES) ★★
A fairly mediocre follow-up to its predecessor, feeling slower, cheaper, and all round more irritating. Not an awful game, mind you, just not where I'd hoped a sequel would take the foundations laid before it.
Ganbare! Daiku no Gensan [1993] (SNES) ★★★
Closer to the follow up I was hoping for - prettier, smoother, if much slower, with a good selection of levels and a relatively low difficulty, minus a few points that dip into ultimately poor design, i.e. more annoying than challenging. Still, will worth a run through, and very straightforward to play in Japanese.