Im someone who struggles with video game addiction and self isolating. I started my journey with actually trying to get rid of my backlog as I felt like I needed to to be free of my problem. My life became completely about video games and all of these stupid games I wanted to play and felt like I needed to play. I do not enjoy the concept of owning things I do not need. It makes me feel weighed down and bloated and out of touch with myself and my needs. I used to own over 2.5k videogames. And I started my journey by trying to constantly wrangle and grasp whats important to me. What I need and truly want and desire, etc. Over time, I started to finally be able to breathe and distance myself from games a bit more and also I was growing to hate gaming and I dont want to hate this hobby as its a very special cornerstone to me and my identity. So it fueled more of my desire to conquer it. To clarify, I had been deleting games, selling games, really thinking and considering what im actually doing and spending my money on. Its been hell. Ive wasted thousands of dollars on games and bundles I have never played. But I really wanted to find me, make room for who I can be. Now. For the record. This is a part of the reason why backlogs are stupid. This is so much time and effort and misery that can just be put into learning new skills and getting into new hobbies. I needed backlogs to get in touch with myself and figure out what I really want out of gaming and also to deny and distance myself from my unhealthy relationship with gaming. I actually did not play a ton of my backlog. I cleared about like, maybe 50-100 something games. But i deleted 2.2k of my games. Its not worth it. Stop caring so much about the money value, and stop buying so many games. I currently have less than 70 games on my backlog and checking my average to beat time its still 77 days to beat my backlog. Its at this point I deleted my profile and my backlog number can just remain ambigious and ill figure out if i should delete or let go of a game as I play it. I think backlogs at best, should serve only to prioritize what games you would be crestfallen to not complete of if you were to not play them if you only had one more year to live. Or what serve to help you grow as a person. Like right now im playing breath of the wild because I struggle with learning how to go with the flow, and botw is all flow and nothing else, and im really connecting with that. I dont think people should stress so much about games they havent played, but i think we all accumulate way too many games. Games are not just a purchase with your wallet, you pay with your time too. And who knows how long that could take. I have 201 hours in the witcher 3 and the average to beat yome is 102. I havent even found or met ciri yet. I think in previous days, we used to get games way less, but with the commodification and rise in studios and indie devs, theres amazing games everywhere you look. And deep down i think a lot of us just get way too caught up in the nature of the new shiny things around us. You have limited time on this earth, and it could be up tomorrow. Dont waste your time with experiences you dont need, and also accept you cant do it all. No one can or has done and been everything in this life and even if they have, they werent one thing all their life like some have, true masters who have lived and breathed one thing for their whole life and still find it special. Honestly after my journey with backlogs, I just kept thinking of how envious and jealous I am of people who can just replay a thing over and over again. Or just play one game like runescap forever. Its fine, its justified, its all you need if that's what you need. I think we need to stop implying we need to play all of this crap. Shake up your life or let things come to you when they come to you. But dont grasp out to everything. Let things resonate wirh you when they do and dont be afraid to keep your nook where you have it if its all you need. I will beat most of my 70 games when I beat them, and I will discard stuff when I do. I want to get into ttrpgs and art and look more into careers and I am ok with just letting some of these games be unplayed forever and just replaying dust an elysian tail and working through killer7 and playing lethal company as a comfort game. Dont overthink this junk. Just live, play, clear out house when you need to make space for you. Often times, you will feel like you -needs- something or have the but ifs, not many things in this life you absolutely need. Listen for signs from the world if you should keep something, but dont be afraid to let things down the creek. My soul is so much lighter for it and yours will be too.

I first played Starfox Adventures when I was around 14 and while I don't hate the character design they landed on for Krystal (she's something of a lesbian awakening character for me, in retrospect), even at that age I felt like she was treated like trash. I just wanted to play as the cool girl. Like, that's HER staff. Those should be HER powers. Such a ripoff.

this is the part with the mazda rx7

I feel your take on Oshiro is wrong. Instead of building on chapter 2, i feel chapter 3 kicks off chapter 4. Oshiro is scattered and lost mentally, feels he's being mocked by Madeline depsite her just trying to help. After his mockery and anxiety builds, he finally snaps in his stress and attacks Madeline. TLDR - Chapter 3 has Oshiro have an anxiety attack, Chapter 4 has Madeline have an anxiety attack

Oh, this was one of those videos I didn't know I needed. I do have a sort of backlog problem, not with video games since I mostly play old platformers or fighting games, but with books and comics and movies and even tv-shows. Especially books, since they take longer to get through. I love reading, and re-reading, and I love the idea of reading, but like you said; there is a difference between a desire and an obligation. And the moment my hobby feels more like an obligation, it ceases to be fun. As for the "completion list" instead of a back-log... I already do that, and it works well. I want to point out some pitfalls, though, so people can learn from my mistakes. 1. Do not compare your list with others in a competitive way. Comparison is the thief of joy, after all, and when I look at my "books I've read this year" list compared to one of my friends who is a way more avid reader than I, I tend to feel inadequate. Don't. It's your list, done in your time. We're all different. It's not a competition. It's more important that you've either enjoyed or got something out of the books you've read/games you've played/films you've watched etc. than that you completed many. The same thing is true for; 2. Don't compare your list in a competitive way with an older list. "Ah! I've only read X amount of books this year? Last year I read Y amount of books." Once again, no need to feel inadequate. It's not a competition, it's just a list. Yes, it could be a clue that perhaps work has taken up too much time, or that something else is off. Otherwise, once again, it's not the amount on the list that matters. I understand that the need to do all those 1001 X before you die and FOMO is big (In Sweden we call it "man måste ju passa på") and spurred on by social media and the consumerist hellscape and all that. But every "Must play/Must watch/must read" list are more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Recommendations, not obligations. So just relax. It's your life, your journey, and not a competition. Tack för en förträfflig video, tjejer!

bit of a problem with this: you don't get a choice if you don't want a backlog. If you have games that you want to finish, then you have a backlog. No ifs, ends or buts about it.

i have a google doc of games, but i don’t think of it as a backlog, i think of it as a list of choices i can make at some point if i wish!! i also have one that’s games ive played, wether finished or unfinished and i find it satisfying even if i haven’t finished it, but as a testament to the effort i put into trying

I like the idea of a journal replacing the "to do" list, I might actually try that. In general, one thing that's helped me a lot is having the rule that I can only buy a game if I want to play it right away. I do have a Steam wishlist, but what's nice about the rule is that if something goes on sale and my response is "eh...not right now" then I have a strong indicator that I should just take it off the list completely. Over time it's helped me better understand which games I'll actually enjoy, and which ones I should just watch someone else play on youtube. 😂 Yes that means I pay full price more often, but I also buy fewer games overall so it works in my favor. Plus I avoid the temptation and disappointment of preorders!

changed my mind about the game this video is more relevant with the current state of the world

"You don't need a backlog" tell that to my backlog!

In regards to Command (as a mild defender of the game), I unfortunately have to break the news to you that Krystal being given so much agency and teaming up with Star Wolf was not an attempt to pull the wool off of people's eyes about Fox as a character… but rather, because Krystal was not received positively in Japan at the time, while the west wanted more of her, which caused conflict in how the game presents itself. "NTR" is usually the solution to get rid of certain female characters, and it's unfortunate. As for the dialogue being "meaner" it's just because of NoA's bad translation, which is also present in a lot of Mario titles. In the Japanese version, Krystal isn't snappy at all. You also totally left out the Anglar Emperor is most definitely a transman, and I'm disappointed it wasn't discussed. He is respected and affirmed by his men and mercenaries! (the lure is usually put on female anglerfish, but he is referred to as he/him and has facial hair!)

This video helped me. Thank you.

I think I'll join the Patreon.

This video made me realize what I love so much about Samus. The whole story to date has been about Samus growing in empowerment, a character arc from orphan, to soldier, to mercenary, to superhero. The trouble is, while your analysis accused Zero Mission and it's influences from the Super Metroid comic detract from the overall story, I see those additions as only a benefit and extension to that character arc. They defined that first step for Samus, orphan, the ultimate in disempowerment, and the ultimate starting place for her growth. Later, for all the things wrong with Other M, it solidified Samus' past as an ex-soldier, who chose to leave for a solo career as a bounty hunter. With each step she takes, she grows closer to self-determination, and further disillusioned with authority. Adam, the living Adam, was the last authority figure left she had respect for, and her apotheosis couldn't bloom without him as a sacrifice, either literally or figuratively. All of that, from a war orphan, to a child raised to be a hero, to a soldier fighting for the "right" side, to the earliest bristling under the authority of command, the risky choice to side with her gut against an extermination order, to watching the last role model she had die for the sake of "the greater good", all of it lead her to the explosive moment in Fusion where she outright refused to follow stupid, dangerous orders, no matter how much authority or respect the one giving the command had. The story of Fusion, and of Samus herself was uplifted by later games, not undermined. Except for Fed Force. Mind controlled chibi Samus was stupid.

I picked up the game because I saw it was part of the summer sale on steam. I did not expect to relate so much to Madeline honestly.

This is the video that made me realize why Celeste didn’t resonate with me on my first playthrough. I thought I did it project myself onto Madeline. It turns out, I always did, just not the way that most people did, and not in a way that I realized. I interpreted Badeline as my autism unmasked. I wasn’t diagnosed when I first played Celeste, and didn’t know I was autistic. But a me that seemed “creepy,” that spoke my cruelest thoughts aloud, and that stubbornly remains a part of me, was all too familiar. I didn’t like Madeline and Badeline’s reconciliation because I wasn’t ready yet to embrace myself. But on recent playthroughs I have SOBBED.

Maybe in a minority (?) I always took having a big backlog as something positive (?). My backlog is hundreds of games long and I go all in when playing games... I will not run out of games during my lifetime even if the world around me were to end today. That's... that's a good thing to me (?).

At some point questions require answers. If you don't answer questions then you have created a Mystery Box. While all of the character connections may "shrink the world" the also expand the world to new possibilities and futures beyond that of the Metroids. It is unfortuante that much of this comes from oustide the video games and is region locked, but this is the nature of creating a long-running series based upon having little to no exposition from its foundation. At some point you need to create a more solid base to work upon. I also have to disagree that the Chozo are presented as wholly good. The games are both implicit and explicit that they are capable of violence and selfishness even before Dread. Dread is just the first game to show an actual Chozo doing those bad things.

this is why being poor is the best

While I have seen people online largely decide they'd rather recommend/play Samus Returns over the original Metroid II, I haven't seen anyone who even entertains the idea that it's narrative is done even remotely as well as the original unlike Zero Mission (which in the eyes of anyone who doesn't read manuals sorta "wins by default" there). I will admit though, I am someone who came into this franchise rather late (my first game was AM2R, and my first official game was Samus Returns), so I never really got a chance to experience the originals (and, frankly, as someone with focus and memory issues, the prospect of playing a world that's easy to get lost in without relying on a map does not sound appealing, and looking up a map online kind of defeats the whole purpose of that first exploration of the stage) - to me and my perspective, the series had always defined itself around Samus herself. As for more specific games, I kind of disagree with the notion that Zero Mission's is about revenge - not only does it really not fill in the blanks on that part prequel part tie-in manga, but outside of introducing the concept at the beginning without elaboration, the game really doesn't explore the implications of it (or the details behind it) until after Samus is finished with her primary mission. And given the delay, there's plenty of time to think about and ruminate on the ramifications of the statement given at the beginning, since so little is explained about it back then. I was always thinking the series about the 2D games (and Other M to a much more poorly executed extent) as exploring Samus's story and dynamic with the world she found herself in and the Prime subseries as a status quo used to expand the world out as a whole, but I never stopped and thought "why" or "how" that even came to be in the first place - or if that was ever an organic shift to be made in the first place (which with this video I can confidently say was not organic in the slightest lmao). And I guess since this became a much bigger comment than I initially anticipated, I'd like to finish off with a bit of trivia regarding Fusion and Other M in regards to dubbing. In the case of both games, the Japanese dub (which, given that Sakamoto (the primary writer) and the dev teams are Japanese, I presume was the original dub despite the popularity in the West and the former releasing in the West first) both specified that it was a specific faction of the Galactic Federation that was corrupt rather than the whole thing, and that in both cases the corrupt faction was dealt with (which in the case of the latter I assume is a case of trying to awkwardly justify how Fusion can even happen after the fact lol). While I don't particularly like these specifications, they do hold some importance given that they are the "true" versions of the text, and what Dread itself did eventually follow up on once that game came out.

Great video! As someone who suffers with clinical anxiety, discovering the "backlog concept" looked like just a natural thing for gamers at first but soon became clear that it was just one more thing to be anxious about. And my mind doesn't let me "just forget about it". Your video was a really good analysis of the problem. I'll keep in my favorites to watch it every time I start to think again that I should have a backlog list

Hey dude,can I ask you something. What are Badeline's powers/abilities?

I have never heard of this game but I was dialed in for this entire video. Your commentary never disappoints :D

Now you can add 2024 Animal Well to the list of "Brainvania" titles.

i’m fine with princess peach being strong I just don’t like that they changed her personality into a girl, boss and princess peach in the movie was by far the worst character in the film. When I was trying to watch the film, I was struggling to watch it because of her. I was really get annoyed about Princess Peach in a film she didn’t really feel like princess peach. She felt very similar to Claire Dearing and Princess Daisy and also, I really hate the scene where a princess peach called Mario small and says to the toads that Mario is not important and also, I’m really getting tired of seeing female characters, turning into Mary, Sue, girl boss And I find the Girlboss trope to be insufferable peach in the movie was nothing like the games she wasn’t sweet in the film. She was pretty horrible towards Mario and I thought that she was just too perfect in the film. She never failed in the film. So yeah this is my opinion about Princess Peach in the film, and I would prefer the movie so much better if they may Peach have a high pitch voice and be a girly girl and be a little bit helpless, and then in the second act She could be strong. So yeah I really do love princess peach I love the fact that he is very girly and very feminine, and even the attacks in the game is very girly and I really enjoyed that, but she can be a bit sassy sometimes, but the movie version felt very boring and bland and liked her game version she wasn’t funny in the film. She was very boring and she was not as good as the games in the game. She’s really good and I love her in the games but in the movie she felt a little bit boring but yeah that’s my opinion about the character that is

This is one of the best videos I've seen on the topic, and I love the concept of emphasising your wins instead of highlighting failures 😊

I don't believe I have a backlog, just a game library, and the most trouble I have really is choosing which game to play next because I want to play everything 😅

I love how you dissect the themes of DKC but... Have you considered that dkc3 just sucks? I tried my best to love dkc3, i actually liked the new environments and graphics, they have like a splash mountain vibe to it, nineties 3D characters, (like scott cawthon's earlier works) in fact i actually find kiddy kong quite endearing, he understands nothing because he is a baby, but its still incredibly motivated to help the family out, risking his life in the process, i'ts like a lilo and stitch thing going on, music is also quite good despite being so different And now we start with the complaints, for me, i hate how you spend most of the time carefully manoeuvering between enemies you cannot take out, in the previous game you are a force of nature wrecking everything in your path, in dkc3 there is an overabundance of explosive barrel kremlings you cannot kill, completely invulnerable mechanical red bees (which btw have an extremely high pitched noise that makes my ears bleed); ellie is afraid of mice, you almost exclusively use the purple sqwaks that cannot shoot balls to kill enemies... And to top it all off, the collectibles are terrible in this game, the whole brother bear trade sequence is extremely slow and tedious, and getting coins is more frustrating than the previous games: in dkc1 and 2, theres a fake wall or barrel somewhere along the path that you can find if you're paying attention to the edges of the screen. dkc3 however, doesn't hide bonuses, it makes them evident, but instead of directly taking you to a bonus room, it challenges you in the overworld with one of the most tight platforming ever, and since it isn't a bonus room, death actually matters as these are typically a long way from the last checkpoint. Also, koins, I don't think i need to explain myself on that one. Overall, I don't think dkc 3 is a bad game per se, it just pails in comparison to what came before, it's like the middle point between pure 2D platforming goodness and dk64 rareware game design, something that I despise, collectibles are fun when they are not a chore but more like a medal, a reward for a small challenge. Not something you HAVE to get tons of before advancing onwards.

Amazing video. Also, just a tiny bit of Arlo slander in interesting. I enjoy some of his takes, while other just absolutely astound me. His Metroid take that you highlighted is one of his bad takes.

Your editing and art is delightful

Great video!

Man, maybe i just see it all very differently but metroid's story to me is something that is not so much about the mystery but about what used to be mystery, about discovery. It's just something i love about game series sometimes and is not only the story within but also outside the game, and why i also advocate for release order though i also don't mind anyone going for the remakes. Throughout all the games there was just a sense of expanding and trying to solve the mysteries that i love because it feels like the player itself is part of it, i like seeing the original metroid and metroid 2 as sort of the recollection of what happened, with the remakes and the rest of the games being samus' point of view. I don't really know if it's like this or I'm just misinformed but i think it is never explained how large and how known the events of the games are, and since we only see samus' pov we get this whole whiplash of events and lore when it is truly best experienced trying to contextualize with the release order, as it makes you live the actual emotion of the mysteries being solved through the years. It doesn't feel the same going through the games starting with zero mission as it makes you feel like it was all arranged, when it is actually coincidental in its own way, see it as a domino chain, as if everything happened because of the incredibly fortunate set of occurrences of the first game, it all came together for samus to engage in all subsequent games, all cuz ridley, who she hates, is meddling with metroids, which is family history, on zebes, her past home. It all came together for her to actually start giving a fuck about what the feds are dealing with and for her to try and kick the bad guys' ass for once and for all. I love it so much it's so sad it can all just be boiled down to just a "you just had to be there" but it is really just better that way, even though pretty much all the games are good outside a time capsule, the narrative truly feels like it was made for being experienced that way

I love the idea of creating and building a log of games played rather than focusing on the ones that have gone unplayed. Thank you so much for your words.

Headcanon: Papi and Julia are trans.

Wow, you really were off to a great start until after the Fusion section, but... The rest of the video is such a painful watch, it's about a clear display of favoritism of Metroid 1 & 2 as the Super Metroid fans who judge every new entry by comparing it to Super are. While there is some level to your critique that incessant additions and revisions is bad when you could just leave things open to interpretation being justified, it falls flat on its face when you consider just how much richness, characterization and depth those new additions actually give when viewed together, just as you did with the first four games. Your conclusion managed to even skew you away from arguably the true reason that Other M was so damaging, which was the gendering of Samus who usually avoided sticking to masculinity or femininity completely and the deconstruction of her character when fusion already does it in the next game, except your over critical analysis of Zero Mission, Samus Returns and the Prime sub-series led you to believe that this was somehow caused by the influence of a comic book on the franchise. What you miss by so heavily favoring the first two entries over their remakes, is the re-contextualization of her missions. Instead of Samus JUST being a government dog for hire, she becomes a character with complex motives, a bounty hunter sent in who also has personal ties to the issue at hand, of course she would take the mission, because it's a chance for her to also enact revenge and settle the score with her childhood past. The entirety of the prime sub-series serves as a chance to show that Samus herself does have an innate sense of justice and empathy, trying and failing to save Tallon 4 at first, helping the Luminoth and avenging the fallen federation troopers on aether, and aiding the federation in the ongoing war against phazon now that she has personal involvement in it. The prime sub-series establishes the true danger of Metroids that zero mission didn't get a chance to fully show you and Samus Returns hasn't concluded showing you yet. Metroids are dangerous, reproduce-able, mutate-able and adaptable, just a single Metroid getting its fangs on phazon and chozo tech managed to create the catastrophe that was Dark Samus, they gain the ability to go through walls or dimensions, turn into hoppers or breeders, mocktroids are made, they are so dangerous because they are so useable and changeable even by accident (probably because they were engineered), the prime series establishes just how dangerous they are to justify (seemingly at first) why you are going to extinct them in SR388. Samus Returns expands little on the series other than showing Ridley for fan service, establishing the mawkin and showing how the chozo lived on SR388. It can be argued that the fight with Ridley helps strengthen the bond between Samus and Metroid, but I disagree. You are right, the silent reflection is better. All of this added material reframes Super Metroid as Samus not being someone who randomly just went "huh, is this actually wrong?" Instead she spares the Metroid and uses it for good, because she IS a good person, with good intentions. She BELIEVES the galaxy is at peace now that Metroids are finally done for, nobody else has them and the one group that does is the federation which she trusts since she worked for them and with them. Fusion changes from treating Samus as a bumbling idiot who realizes blindly following orders is bad after it's too late, to someone who's kindness, empathy, heroism and heart has been taken advantage of, she is now someone whom the federation has manipulated by lying to her, sending her on missions she has involvement in already, showering her with platitudes dubbing her a hero and stringing her along. They took full advantage of the fact that she had a hatred for space pirates, they took full advantage her combat abilities and empathy towards the federation to fight their wars in prime and ultimately extinct the metroids, they took full advantage of her mercy and giving them the baby, and they continue to take advantage her even when she no longer cooperates, by deciding that if she won't be their killing machine by choice, theyll use the version of her that will by force, the SA-X. Fusion makes her question more than just her actions in this re-contextualization, it makes her question her ties to the federation and everything they've done to keep her unknowingly under their thumb. She retakes the fate and destiny that the Chozo gave her, the ability to be a strong warrior on her own. Dread exists to show how her new freedom from any faction now places her in the neutral position that the Metroids were, it shows her growth since fusion in how she will not be so easily manipulated again, not by the federation telling her to "treat our lost assets with care" when they're obviously there to collect an X, nor by Raven Beak and his ceaseless hubris. Dread takes that uncertain future that Fusion left us on and shows how Samus is handling her character growth in her own way, as well as demonstrating just how much stronger she has gotten by no longer being shackled by manipulation. For your conclusion to judge this richness as if it were chaff to be discarded in favor of open-endedness in story telling feels biased in some way, which is fair, it is an opinion after all. But it also feels lazy, as if the new additions simply will never measure up to leaving the Chozo as nameless nobodies with statues and ruins.

"....You dont just inject dog dna to become immune to cats" I've got a theory that Samus in that particular moment (being eaten by the X) was the only person that the vaccine would actually work on. She had already been infected by the X, which was breaking down her body to make X goo. In that moment, as Samus was being dissolved, she gets injected with the Metroid culture. The X already in her body, for the first time encounters Metroid dna, which it would never interact with normally (because a living metroid would just eat the X). We see examples across the BSL station of the X's ability to combine creatures and mutate them into a new, hybrid creature. So the X is eating Samus, gets a taste of the Metroid DNA and does what the X do, take the traits of the constituent parts, combjne them together and mimic a living organism. Perfectly. When an X mimics a creature, it perfectly replicates everything about that creature, down to its memories and all. It perfectly mimics a hybrid. A living Samus with Metroid powers. The new, Metroid Samus Aran immediately does what any Metroid would do, and eats every X in contact with her, including the ones inside herself. Leaving a reborn Samus and no X infection.

I bought the soundtrack with my first paycheck and cherished it.

First off this is such a good video. You mentioned a lot of things I've never thought about before, but perfectly captured why I love this game and specifically the main numbered metroids as a continuous story. Fusion is such a satisfying and thought provoking culmination of the things that came before it. I do slightly disagree that the remakes ruin the impact. I do think Zero mission has the most wrong with it. feeling the need to make the planet her "old home" and saying she was raised by the chozo really does ruin the mystery surrounding them, and reframes her destruction of the pirate world in a bad way. But I think going on from there Samus returns does a lot of things right. I guess I think that one is more a matter of preference. Cause even if Zero mission frames Samus as more morally in the right, SR leans so hard into the "she go in and make boom to destroy species" that it sort of fixes it a bit. I think that game ramps into Super in a nice way really building her up as a BA lady. While I would have preferred the more melancholy ending of original 2. I still think it works well. And the reveal of the X parasite is so minor that it really just acts as foreshadowing. I think you have to keep in mind that seeing that 2 second cutscene is different for us who played fusion back in the early 2000s and have been keeping up with the lore, vs someone experiencing the games for the first time. While it might lead to some intrigue, by the time they play through Super they will likely have forgotten about it, and seeing it again at the beginning of fusion would be an aha! moment. I do sort of wish they hadn't included more info in the unlockable art pieces as I do think those kind of ruin it, but those also do a fun job of setting up Dread, so it comes with pros and cons I think.

Almost 3 years later this is still the best Metroid video on this site by a long shot

The term "backlog" has a pretty negative connotation because some people stress over it too much when I think it should be treated more like a rough guide. I always loved playing video games but about 10 years ago I became addicted to ranked PVP type games and grinded for bragging rights and that 0.01% chance of going pro. I didn't have fun playing the games and often passed on playing with my friends who were lower ranks so I could queue solo. It took some maturing to realize A. nobody cares about your rank in a video game IRL and B. I will never catch up to the guys in the top 0.01% of skill. The gaming backlog helps me because it stops me from jumping on ranked PVP games by default (even though I don't try hard to climb anymore) every spare minute I have to play games. It's almost like trying that new Thai restaurant your friends recommend instead of defaulting to the same Chinese place you've been to a million times to get the same dish. If I kept playing ranked PVP games non-stop, I definitely would have robbed myself of some great gaming experiences over the years. eg. The ending of RDR2 brought tears to my eyes while the average League of Legends game made me want to smash my keyboard. I guess I might be an oddball in that the backlog helps remind me that I play games to have fun, not just play games for the sake of playing games.

Not sure how the algorithm thought 2yrs later was the time to drop this, but how did you find dread? I liked the gameplay, but the story ignoring the federation corruption kinda nagged at me.

It did not even occur to me that people could be offended by Peach. How?

I don't recognise the thumbnail artwork, did you have this commissioned or can you point me toward the source?

This video is exactly the same it's trying to go against, except instead of recommending the new games and the new lore (and disregarding prime as it doesn't fit the video's narrative) it recommends the old games and lore because nostalgia. Samus is still simpathetic even with the new lore; that's established at the beginning of the manga. Plus, one could say that she spared the metroid because she saw a bit of ridley in herself (genociding an entire planet's population and ending with a child) then decided to spare it. It's also not explicitly said anywhere in the manga that the chozo wanted her to be as good as possible; if so she wouldn't have become a bounty hunter in the first place. I don't even want to talk about return of samus (the remake) as I consider it pretty bad, and I agree on points like the X being unnecessarily introduced in the ending; byt there's AM2R to replace the replacement so it's not that big of a deal Trying to reivindicate fusion is good though.

Thanks you very much for going justice to this wonderful game. This game is basically the only reason I don’t sold my psvita device even though I like other stuff on it but this one stand out the most and may be I need to try it on PS4 but is so tailor made for the vita that every time I try it every time I give up on it cause I don’t know why but some how I don’t have the same vibe

I've never understood the disdain with Fusion. yeah it's linear but have you considered that sometimes you gotta take art on its terms and engage with the narrative? have you thought sometimes your expectations don't matter?

This is what I love about (the real, 2D) Metroid Titles. No single Entry, bar the remakes, replace each other. Every Entry is a unique experience that stands on it's own legs, with similar on the surface but very different in essence Mechanics. But even if they weren't different at all, I'd still enjoy them for what they are on a more basic level. The argument could be made that the 4 games could use some contextualization. (not counting Dread as that game already tried contextualizing everything) If we don't get a new 2D Entry for the upcoming 40 year anniversary (which I am very frightened about as we haven't heard sh!t from "Nintendoesn't-give-fans-what-they-want" headquarters for this important date. I mean, we have 1 and a half year left, I hope they already started...) my best possible outcome would be a 1-4 remake, not all 4 games remade/remastered individually but putting them together as a continuous narrative, giving us answers to important questions, such as "Why does Metroid lose all Powerups at the End of Each game". (At least confirm or deny my head cannon that the upgrades are temporary and require intense concentration to be upheld, her varia suit-level being the most Samus can comfortably handle in a day to day life)

Great video, will send this to some KZbinrs I support!

I don't know anything about Star Fox, but I love these videos and especially love Kiki's furry self :3 Bookmarking for myself to finish later 1:37:30

I think that a big reason for why people accepted the new lore is that despite how tacked on it may be, it was a good story on its own. Before other m, the sources for this extra lore were actually quite good. The manga was a beautifully illustrated wonderfully written story about Samus and her formative trauma. The prime games were really fun 3d adventures with their own stories and worlds. It wasn’t until other m that the lore additions became both tacked on AND poorly implemented, which leads to the giant whiplash we see in the series.