Screenshot: IGS Classic Arcade Collection The IGS Polygame Master arcade system is perhaps not as well known as similar systems in the United States, with the closest probably being SNK’s Multi Video System known as the Neo Geo MVS, which made its way to the home market in a slightly different form as the NEO GEO Advanced Entertainment System, or the AES. I’m comparing the two because the IGS Polygame system was the Taiwanese answer to SNK’s single JAMMA board dominating arcades. If you’ve never heard of the IGS Polygame Master arcade system or any of the titles in this classic collection, that makes sense, since we didn’t really get many of these arcades out west. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever run into one in real life. Galloping Ghost Arcade, one of the largest in the country, doesn’t even have a Polygame System, as far as I’m aware. Therefore, the IGS Classic Arcade collection is a rare opportunity to play these Taiwanese arcade games that you might not have ever heard of. Which makes sense, because a lot of these games were released around the time when games–and arcades especially–were transitioning to 3D graphics. Who wants to play a boring old 2D game? Well, it turns out modern audiences do, especially when they have great pixel art like a lot of MVS/AES games did. And while the IGS Polygame Arcade System technically has a bit more horsepower than what Neo Geo’s Pro Gear Spec could put out, it wasn’t a generational leap in graphical fidelity. So despite the IGC Polygame Master Arcade System boasting higher performance benchmarks than its SNK comptemporary, it only manages to provide more consistent frames than fancier graphics. Screenshot: IGS Classic Arcade Collection While I’m not an expert on the IGS Polygame System and its library, I would hope that the IGS Arcade Classics would be chock full of the best of what the system had to offer. If that’s true, then I don’t think I was missing out on much back in the day. I’m not saying the games are bad. They’re just good enough, with pixel art graphics that look second rate only compared to the best in the industry at the time, but still impressive to today’s standards. That said, if this is the cream of the crop regarding representation there is some serious lack in variety–and good titles. What you get in this bundle is 6 beat ‘em ups, 1 fighting game, and 1 run and gun game that is essentially a Metal Slug clone–and in my opinion the best reason to get the pack: Demon Front. I want to start with the good because I’m a game reviewer and a game historian at once, and these games definitely deserve to be seen and played by people. And Demon Front is a bit of a hidden gem. Calling it a Metal Slug clone isn’t incorrect nor an exaggeration. It shares a lot of elements of Metal Slug, but without the vehicles. It even has a similar graphical style–and it runs at a consistent high frame rate thanks to the (I’m assuming accurate) emulation of the IGS Polygame Master arcade system. I’ve never had a chance to play this game on original hardware, and while it is a bit underwhelming for a Metal Slug fan like myself it is definitely the strongest game in the bunch. Run, shoot, and use your companion to mitigate damage. Screenshot: IGS Classic Arcade Collection The second best game on the list is Martial Masters. It’s a fighter in the same vein as SNK fighters like the King of Fighters series with a four button layout. It’s a fast, very fluid fighting game that has an art style that looks a bit like Street Fighter III or a little bit like The Last Blade, but the latter could be attributed to the game’s Once Upon a Time in China-like theme. It’s an incredibly good fighting game, too. Which is rare when you come across one-offs that try to copy certain styles. And the pixel art is top notch, and could sit comfortably in with some of the best SNK and Capcom had to offer at the time. And then the rest of the games are beat ‘em ups. This is usually a genre that I’m fond of, but the only standout of the lot is The Gladiator. The Knights of Valor series is just okay, and is just another retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. While Oriental Legend and Oriental Legend Spooky are based on Journey to the West. I liked these games a little better than the Knights of Valor series, but that’s mostly because they didn’t take themselves so seriously in their character design. While the games themselves are good enough, and worthy of checking out for those who are retro game minded, the presentation of the series of games leaves a bit to be desired. Mistranslations abound as some options have to be figured out through context clues. There’s also some graphical issues I had on some games. While it doesn’t say it’s compatible with Steam Deck or Steam Machine, it also doesn’t run on either of these devices, which is too bad because retro games are great on those systems. The games do have local co-op, and the ability to be played online–though I didn’t get a chance to test any network capability. The lack of graphical options is also a bummer, with some basic CRT/scanline effect toggable, but not much else–not even the ability to remove the arcade border, which is something I usually prefer to do. Overall, IGS Classic Arcade Collection is great because it exists. I’m always an advocate to getting old games into a form that can be played by later generations. But I wish the presentation is a little bit better, and I fear that the titles are so niche and/or obscure that this pack won’t get much traction in the west, and therefore not likely to see much in the way of western centric updates. But it’s worth getting just to play Martial Masters and Demon Front, two very worthy arcade titles that have been obscure in the west.

Joffrey Company Artists Jose Pablo Castro Cuevas and Laila Madison. Photo by Cheryl Mann I don’t like to live in extremes. Especially as a reviewer, things that fall too far towards a total loss are hard to write about - because it’s not always as clean cut as there being no effort put in, and no thought. Sometimes it’s a lack of understanding or a leap too far left of center. Swing the other way, and something that you can’t really find fault with leads to a big ol’ case of writer’s block and oftentimes, can seem like pandering. There’s a reason for shades of grey. Even still, extremes are enticing. When you see something incredible, you tell everyone. When you taste something horrible, you call someone over to share the experience with you. I’m not going to keep you in suspense here, not that you necessarily were in suspense if you have any familiarity at all with John Neumeier or the Joffrey Ballet as a whole. From top to toe, they’re masters of their craft and Liliom is absolutely a reflection of that. It’s a masterpiece. It transcends. It’s stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely heartbreakingly tragic. It’s more than a ballet but absolutely a ballet. The Joffrey Ballet’s Liliom fully embodies the original work but also extends its borders. And none of it would be as compelling to the core if every single part of Liliom wasn’t conceived, choreographed, lit, costumed, scored or danced as perfectly as it is. That intensity sets it on fire in the best way. Extremes are born of passion, and passion for better or worse is at the heart of Liliom’s story. If you, like me, were unfamiliar with the original 1909 play by Ferenc Molnar, and also, simultaneously unaware of the musical it inspired, Carousel, it’s putting it lightly to say it’s a tragedy. Set during the Depression in a city “very much like Chicago” it centers around a charismatic carnival barker going through a sort of Dickensian series of flashbacks of his life - why it ended, why it began, and actions he should or should not have taken. Setting the scene at the Lyric, the curtains were already drawn aside to reveal a window to the sky as we found our seats. In a theater as ornate on such an important evening, it almost seems like a tear in the fabric of reality to see the jagged edges of the backdrop give way to a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. And it’s a great glimpse of what’s to come before the baton drops on the first song. Joffrey Company Artists Evan Boersma and Reed Henry. Photo by Cheryl Mann Liliom isn’t even our main character’s name, and even in the play, he hardly has one. It’s in fact the Hungarian word for lily (yes, like the flower) and it’s one of those monikers you get by being the opposite of the thing the word describes. In this case, being called a lily - something white, pure and delicate - is a juxtaposition to what you really are if you earn that nickname - a tough guy. One of the most interesting choices Neumeier made in the adaptation of the play to the ballet was to change the gender of Liliom’s child from a daughter to a son, and introduce a theme of generational trauma and masculine identity to the mix. While you’d be forgiven for thinking that a play that takes place in an amusement park that inspired a movie that had a name like Carousel would be all cotton candy and whimsy, Liliom takes that notion from you immediately with its first act, and the introduction of the Balloon Man. Now if I’d known any of that, or if I’d read the synopsis inside the program before I started taking notes, I wouldn’t have had the unique experience of solely interpreting the story through what I saw on stage. It was a decision made out of necessity (and anxiety) that turned out to be rewarding in a strange way - I only had the ballet to tell me the whole story. As a journalist it’s not something I admit with any sort of pride - doing the research is crucial. But it lent itself to the discovery that the entire company at Joffrey is capable of telling the story of Liliom without the benefit of words, and with the virtuosic talent of everyone involved. As the lights dim and the show starts, Balloon Man (who I’d simply referred to as Sad Clown in my notes) begins a slow and eerie solo journey from one dark corner of the stage to the other, a rainbow of perfectly glossy and buoyant balloons at times seeming to lift him, drag him, and tie him to his place. And he is a sad clown, quite literally, with a defeated, depressed greasepaint ghost of a grimace. He’s a clown. He should be happy. A lighter-than-air, candy colored array of balloons should be uplifting. But it isn’t, and his presence is instead a constant reminder that the other side of comedy is tragedy. I mean, hope floats, perhaps, but what happens if nothing else does? Liliom’s Balloon man, Evan Boersma, becomes a sort of River Styx tour guide, leading Liliom the man, through the afterlife, and the life he led before. It begins and ends with the amusement park, and everything about Ferdinand Wogerbauer’s set design, Jim French and John Neumeier’s lighting design, and Michael LeGrand’s scoring creates the perfect illustrated page for the Joffrey’s dancers to leap off of. It’s a feast of neon ferris wheel silhouettes, bright lights and the centerpiece carousel. But it’s no happiest place on Earth nor is it in its prime, and everything has the patina of diesel smoke, street trash and rancid puddles of a city that’s under the constant strain of economic depression. Playland’s sign is askew and in disrepair directly behind the gilded reins of ornate horses and other such tamed exotics waiting to take you away from reality and into a swaying, soothing spin or two around the circle. Joffrey Company Artists Jose Pablo Castro Cuevas and Victoria Jaiani. Photo by Cheryl Mann. Crowds rush in, pointing, laughing - falling in love. Balloons are everywhere in Liliom’s imagery, and to me seemed a direct representation of hope and its fleeting nature. Almost everyone could have it, but it rarely stayed with anyone for long, and the longer the play went on, the harder it was to obtain or keep. Liliom is the sort to have a lot of dates but never be dating, and he’s also the sort who’s seduced by fame and fortune. He’s got the talent and especially the charisma to win over crowds, and entice them to come in, but he’s also short tempered, impulsive and chronically emotionally unavailable. Which of course, makes him the sort who’s absolutely irresistible. A classic ‘bad boy’ (tough guy?) who oozes confidence but has never heard of caution. You get to know his character right away thanks to the bombastic talent of Jose Pablo Castro Cuevas, whose Liliom crackles with energy and whose solos are absolutely mesmerizing, embodying all the cocky charm of a natural showman, top hat and sparkly jacket included. He’s in the thrall of who I was calling, in my shorthand “Jazz Lady,” and the program tells me is Mrs. Muskat, the owner of the amusement park who is also his lover, a point I got all on my own, thanks to the standout talents of Amanda Assucena. Not only was she an incredible dancer, she was an incredible character, full of confidence, exuding a regal perfume of seduction that Liliom couldn’t help but fall for. Enter Julie (prima ballerina Victoria Jaiani) and her best friend, Marie (Natali Taht) who work together in a depressing job (I couldn’t figure out which depressing job, because again, hadn’t looked at the synopsis) but it later turned out that they were both waitresses at a cafe. That tracks. Joffrey Company Artists Jose Pablo Castro Cuevas and Reed Henry Wanting to get a break from what is actually oftentimes a very demanding and depressing job, they head to Playland,where our boy Liliom is quite literally in the spotlight, making the magic he was born to make. This is the sort of “rizz” you can’t just pull out of a hat - you have to be born with it, and he was. Julie’s in love. Sometimes it happens that fast. The thing is, she’s being wooed by a different guy, and a (literally) drunken sailor has just barged in to ruin a perfectly good meet cute. Instead, he takes up the reins of “drunk and disorderly” and starts pestering Julie. Liliom impulsively jumps in and defends her, and before long we’ve got a knife fight, courtesy a shady (turns out, underworld) character, Ficsur (Xavier Nunez) who’s always around to incite some sort of trouble. Liliom wins, but instead of drawing blood, he decides to let the sailor go. A jealous Muskat fires Liliom. Meanwhile, a different romance blooms, when Marie falls for a bellhop I called “Hops” whose actual name is Wolf (Jonathan Dole), we get to see a simple romance. They’re giddy, silly, and light. They fly together, all levity and infatuation, and run off into some beautiful summer evening. Julie’s alone, and so is Liliom, and the heat is intense. As much as the chemistry between Cuevas’ Liliom and Assucena’s Muskat sizzled, we’re shown an even brighter burning passion between Liliom and Julie. Even so, it’s never easy. There’s a push and pull and they never quite get to have that simple togetherness. Fiscur’s always around trying to get Liliom to give in to his baser desires and go do crime. But Liliom’s distracted and enchanted by Julie. The Joffrey Ballet Ensemble. Photo by Cheryl Mann. Life comes at you fast, though, and this is the Great Depression. So we haven’t got the time to have a love story here, because unemployment. Unemployment at a devastating scale, where it’s a fight for survival. Which…sounds familiar. Back at the Lyric, the carousel’s faded to the grey backdrop, the lights are out, the confetti’s now kicked up detritus as a mob of men head to the job agency. Their signs read things like “WHO WILL HELP ME GET A JOB. I DON’T WANT CHARITY.” A facsimile of Emmett the Clown appears as a spectre, kicking his own hat down the street away from himself. Colors drain. The Balloon Man is in all black, or he’s turned his face away. In all the darkness, we get a rare moment of sunshine when Marie and Wolf get married, but Liliom’s too far down in his depression to not be angry at someone else who can feel something other than despair. Things get messy as he lashes out at Julie, and it breaks the bubble of polite conversation topics and things you think would be hashed out in a ballet - we’ve now gotten into the meat of the play’s main topic - domestic violence. Muskat’s back and wants Liliom to return to Playland, but Julie’s pregnant, and suddenly that spectre of hope is back, this time with a whole bunch of other drama to sort through. And, if you recall, we’re still at a wedding. That doesn’t last long, and Liliom’s off on his own to be reckless and self destruct, so he does, with the help of Fiscur, a guy whose suave moves (ala MJ himself) and cool suit (which is, incidentally what I called him) belie his ability to make everything a hundred times worse and encourage the anger and violence he’s been harboring inside himself. Thinking he’s found a place where these things will work for him, he decides to get involved in some thievery. And it doesn’t end well, because, again, tragedy. Hungarian tragedy. (For reference: Hungary’s great at tragedies.) In a highly symbolic, surrealist setting like ours, details matter, and the internal storm that is Liliom’s anger, despair and innate violence (not my words, but a fact of the character, according to the source material) takes the form of a very broken, staccato and itself violent pas de deux with the bad influences, from Ferenc to anyone who shares the diagnosis. The directness of the movement means even someone who’s completely unfamiliar with the story can follow the through lines, but it isn’t trite or overwrought. It spreads from character to character like a disease and is unmistakable in its inherent disjointed way. Now, I told you much of the story. And I won’t tell you how it ends. You know it’s a tragedy. You can read for yourself what happens before they get through the first act, or before it even starts. You could Google it on the train. I hesitated, because the story is the ballet, but the ballet is the story, too. In telling you what I told you, you know the entire plot of the 1909 play Liliom, by Ferenc Molnar. But you haven’t seen the Joffrey Ballet performing John Neumeier’s performance and there’s nothing I can say that would spoil it, because it is so tied to each performer that graces the stage. Joffrey Company Artist Victoria Jaiani, Children's Cast Member Sam Farster. Photo by Cheryl Mann. You can’t see the way that even as Liliom courts Julie, he doesn’t fully see her as a person. She tries to show him but he’s always turned away. You won’t know that he pulls away (literally) just as he gets close to anyone, and you won’t see his resistance to being vulnerable. You won’t see the moment he lets down his guard, curls into a fetal position on Julie’s lap, and her hand softly brushes his hair back. Joffrey Company Artists Victoria Jaiani and Reed Henry. Photo by Cheryl Mann You won’t see that love turn cold with a slap, and her life turn into an endless cycle of trying to clean up all the broken things, or the way that she ragdolls and melts in Liliom’s arms during their dances, but soars and leaps and enchants on her own, which he still doesn’t see. Or the way that caress comes back later on. Or the moment you physically see the violence spread through that familiar, beautiful but jarring pas de deux, to the last place you’d want it to. It’s in every single step on stage with every single performer. It’s in the music, the symbolism of the balloons, the way Liliom peers from behind the veil to the life with Julie and his son he’s missing. It’s in the finer points of set design and the incredible costumes Neumeier designed. You could’ve read the synopsis, but you didn’t have to read a single thing before you saw the Joffrey perform Liliom. Why? Because Molnar’s words and Neumeier’s interpretations are carried by their feet, and the score, and the set. Every single thing comes together under the lights on that stage to tell a story of imperfect people, passion and loss that could come alive in no more realistic manner than this particular company’s portrayal, because they give it no less than everything in them. And I was hooked on every word left unspoken.

Screenshot: Trivia Murder Party 3 The last time I played a Trivia Murder Party game was way back in (I think) Party Pack 3. I was playing in a crowd at C2E2, Chicago’s Comic and Entertainment convention, against a group of other convention goers. It was chaotic. I messed up some games because I felt super on the spot, but it was glorious, heady fun. This exact type of browser-based, room-code casualness makes Jackbox Party Pack games so accessible and alluring for casual audiences—and Trivia Murder Party 3 continues that. Just now in a standalone format. But there are some extras that make this not only a standout title for Jackbox Studios, but also make playing with strangers even easier. Screenshot: Trivia Murder Party 3 Traditionally packed within the Jackbox Party Pack, Trivia Murder Party 3 has broken out of its confines, and serial killer [Redacted] along with it. This time, the festivities take place at Camp Mass Acres, where you and fellow counselors will have to face off in a series of games that will test your trivia knowledge, your ability to decipher clues, and even your math skills. Get too many questions wrong, and you’re in danger of death—but not even death is permanent, and fortunes can change quickly in Trivia Murder Party 3. Making Trivia Murder Party III standalone and based on Unreal Engine 5 allows developer Jackbox Games to do a lot more than if it was bundled with a bunch of other games. That includes “true online multiplayer and matchmaking.” Which means matchmaking with random strangers on the internet—exactly how video game murdering was meant to be done. Of course, that doesn’t take away the ability to murder your friends. But now you don’t even need to wrangle a group of friends to play, yet you can still capture those big crowd moments like in the past. And you can even mix the groups together. The ability to fill out the rest of the ensemble of hapless counselors with internet strangers is a chaotically fun idea. Screenshot: Trivia Murder Party 3 Being a standalone title also means multiyear support. It would be great to see Trivia Murder Party 3 be updated with new minigames, trivia questions, and more–instead of relying on new release packs. I’m not saying I want the Jackbox Party Packs to go away, I’m just saying that having a dedicated Murder Party community stick around a game that has an ongoing roadmap is an alluring prospect. Right now Trivia Murder Party 3 will be in Early Access for 6 months to 1 year. So that means they’re giving the community some time to provide feedback before it hits 1.0. Screenshot: Trivia Murder Party 3 In its current state,Trivia Murder Party 3 is a polished experience, and I had no problems jumping in with friends and playing a few rounds. Though we did suffer from a disconnect or two using the traditional room code method. If you buy into Trivia Murder Party III Early Access you’ll get a game with over 800 trivia questions, 11 “Killing Floor” mini-games and four new “plot twists” that modify the game and help change things up. I’ve always been a fan of Jackbox Games, so it’s hard for me not to recommend Trivia Murder Party 3. While the extra graphical panache that the Unreal Engine 5 provides isn’t essential, it does help amplify the experience without bogging it down. This will easily slot into the rotation of party games I play with friends, and I’ll be keeping an eye on it as it makes its way to 1.0.

Screenshot: Cosmic Fear While I’ve played a few great games that could be classified as “walking simulators,” the vast majority of these types of games aren’t great. Sometimes it's the indulgence in the surreal, or the lack of meaningful progression or meaningful impetus to see what’s behind the next door, et that kills it. Cosmic Fear isn’t the best of the genre, but it’s a rare example of a game that sits in the middle ground. It doesn’t fall victim to the worst of the overused tropes that a lot of first person psychological horror games submit to, but it doesn’t rise above, either. First of all, Cosmic Fear isn’t a great name for a game featuring Cosmic Horror. I know it’s a bit petty to go for the game’s name right off the bat, but it feels particularly lazy in this case. While naming it “Lovecraft Mythos Game #3” would be a little bit on the nose, it would have been at least a bit more novel. I guess solo developer Alesandro Guzzo really asked, “what happens when someone is exposed to cosmic horror?” and answered in the most literal way you could imagine. (The answer is: Cosmic Fear.) Screenshot: Cosmic Fear But that’s probably because Allesandro was too damn busy making detailed environments to worry about trifling matters such as what to name his latest game in his Lovecraft inspired walking simulator trilogy. I can tell you this: I’ve only played Cosmic Fear and I don’t feel like I missed out when it comes to story and context, as it’s all pretty self contained. Most of what you will do in Cosmic Fear is explore the (again, beautiful) environments and either search for where to go next or where to use that item you just found. It’s a niche type of gameplay you really have to be into to appreciate fully. There are some hooks that can keep you searching for your next clue–and sometimes you’ll be told exactly what to do, and even then it might not seem obvious. There isn’t much hand holding (no scent trails ala Wolverine) but there were enough clues that I usually wasn’t stumped for any significant amount of time. Screenshot: Cosmic Fear While Cosmic Fear is definitely a psychological horror game I didn’t find it very scary. Sure, scary is subjective, and I tend to find cosmic horror more fascinating than scary. But even the detailed levels and immersive atmosphere couldn’t garner even a tiny bit of “spooked” out of me. While Cosmic Fear is more about exploration and being engrossed in the Lovecraft vibe it does have some light puzzle solving. These puzzles are usually in the form of lock and key type interactions: find the item that you need to remove whatever barrier to progress. And while there is a way to put items into an inventory, you’re never juggling inventory items to find the right one for any given situation. At least, that’s not a situation I ever found myself in. Screenshot: Cosmic Fear Cosmic Fear at least leans into the “cosmic” aspect of the cosmic horror. Far too often Lovecraft inspired turns into tentacles, strange writing and strange artifacts. Don’t get me wrong, Cosmic Fear has these things, but it also has some damn cosmic elements, too. I don’t want to spoil too much, since the game is mostly its story. Unfortunately, for a game that relies heavily on being narrative driven it has uneven pacing. That’s a given for a game that requires players to discover exactly how to move the story forward, but the open nature without extensive handholding exacerbates this problem. There are no waypoints showing you where to go, and only little white dots that appear over an item to indicate that you can interact with it. Screenshot: Cosmic Fear I don’t think Cosmic Fear is a good game, and I don’t recommend it. However, it does have some promise, and while solo developer Allesandro Guzzo is great at creating environment, there is work that needs to be done in almost every other aspect–including writing. But for a solo developer it's impressive, and if you absolutely have to play this Lovecraft inspired game you’re not in for any surprises–or fear.

Screenshot: BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO Listen: This is definitely not the first time I’ve come across this specific hyper-niche brand of absurdism in video games. I’m not sure exactly what it is that makes gaming such prime ground for over-the-top dedication to bad art styles, whimsy, absurdity, and avant-garde presentation. While I could go on and on about how versatile video games are as an artistic medium, doing so in a review for BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO doesn’t really seem to be the most appropriate place for it. BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4—or just Brazilian Drug Dealer 4, which is the first game in the series I’ve played—has a reputation that precedes it. You can even buy a physical copy of Brazilian Drug Dealer 3, complete with low-resolution graphics blown out of proportion with a sheer “graphic design is my passion” panache. And while the whole thing is an obvious joke that screams of streamer bait, it’s actually a game that follows a solid tradition and ends up being fun, too. I can address the “fun” and “tradition” parts simultaneously. While this can certainly be viewed as a meme game, it’s exactly what I would expect from a Quake mod—which is what this essentially is. It’s not really a fully unique game, instead using gameplay and enemies straight from Quake, just reskinned with some behaviors tweaked. There are some extra movement abilities thrown in for good measure, too–like the ability to double jump and air dash. Don’t get me wrong, there have been enough changes to at least call this a Quake “total conversion,” but to me, it’s definitely just another Quake mod—and that actually wins it some points in my book. BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO I spent a lot of time in my youth (you can tell I’m old because I say “my youth”) downloading mods for Doom, and later Quake and Quake 2. I know mods are still around, and while turning enemies into Thomas the Tank Engine has always been popular, I distinctly remember turning all of the Imps in Doom into Barney the Dinosaur. There are definitely worse games to use as a foundation, because Quake is one of the best first-person shooters of all time. And, in my humble opinion, it's exactly the type of game every modern “boomer shooter” should aspire to be—unless they’re specifically going for a Build Engine or Doom clone feel. BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO Because Brazilian Drug Dealer 4 just reskins a lot of weapons and enemies to function like their Quake counterparts, I felt right at home running around and blasting… okay, whatever the hell it is I’m blasting. Honestly, I have only a vague clue as to what’s happening here. While I think being Brazilian might help a bit with the context, even then the entire thing feels like an inside joke I’m not a part of. To summarize: I don’t care about the meme content, and while I appreciate the presentation for its audaciousness and for pulling off exactly what it was going for, it’s not really “for me” and it detracts from the underlying shooter. While you probably don’t play a game like this seriously, I had a hard time finding it amusing in any sort of humorous way. Again, I feel like I’m missing context, or maybe I’m just too old. But if you want some good gunplay in your meme game, having Quake as a (barely) concealed framework is a winning bet.

Screenshot: Monowave I love when a game isn't afraid to try new things, get its hands dirty, and makes a few mistakes along the way. There are indie titles out there that really swing for the fences in terms of bold new mechanics, genre mash-ups, and everything in between. Monowave is an interesting specimen that attempts to introduce a novel emotional mechanic, presenting itself in a very indie, almost arthouse sort of way. I would love to say that developer Studio BBB Inc. stuck the landing, but the more I played Monowave, the more I hated it. Monowave is a game about emotions. Rather, it uses the names of emotions to describe different states that the main character, Mono, can shift into—ostensibly to bypass whatever obstacle is blocking the critical path. It all checks out on paper, but I have to make something clear about how rewarding game design actually works. Screenshot: Monowave Clever adventure and platforming games will hand you a power-up only after teasing you with a path you can’t take or a puzzle you can’t solve. When you finally discover the solution to that puzzle that’s stumped you, you have that "aha!" moment. Rinse, repeat, throw in some interesting enemy and boss encounters and baby, you have a stew going. There’s a reason for that formula: it feels good. It directly taps into the dopamine center and rewards the player, telling them not only "you did this!" but "you’re a very clever player." Monowave completely abandons any sense of cleverness. Sure, it possesses a whimsical and charming art style—and while I definitely overuse the word “charming,” it really does fit here. It has side-scrolling. Boy, it does that, too! With platforming! But it’s all executed in a way that feels like the developers either haven’t played a modern video game, or they just don’t care to engage with one. The movement feels tight enough, but almost every interaction with the world is incredibly superficial. Screenshot: Monowave There is no satisfying sense of progression or discovery. You never have to backtrack to use a newly found item in a clever way. In fact, almost every ability or emotional state you need to progress is handed to you right in front of the obstacle it solves. It's the equivalent of putting a locked door in a game and leaving the key on the floormat, so puzzles are usually about positioning and timing. Monowave tasks you with shifting between four emotional states—Happiness, Sorrow, Anger, and Anxiety. On paper, it sounds great. Happiness grants an empowered jump, Sorrow lets Mono squeeze through tight passages, Anger unlocks wall-jumping, and Anxiety lets you safely tip-toe over hazards like brambles. Screenshot: Monowave You can even pass these emotions to enemies to change their behavior, like making a creature angry so it burns down a plant blocking your path. But instead of layering these mechanics into complex, brain-teasing encounters, the game just sets up simple locks and immediately hands you the corresponding emotional key. It’s a puzzle game, so I always have to emphasize that puzzle difficulties can vary wildly between people–but in this case it wasn’t about difficulty, but about the entire setup. Screenshot: Monowave It might seem like I’m being hard on Monowave, and I probably am. But it’s just not a very good game. It’s always difficult to look at something that clearly had love, energy, and skill poured into it, just to tell you all that it falls flat. It does have a great art style—I love the bright colors and the hand-drawn scratch-art aesthetic against the dark backgrounds. But that’s really the sole bright spot I can find from my time with it. Ultimately, Monowave feels like one of those indie games I would cover years ago in an attempt to prove that video games were art, showcasing titles that highlight the visuals while ignoring the fact that they are barely games at all. For the record: all video games are art. I don’t need to validate that anymore. But not all art is good, and as a game, Monowave is not good. (I’m so sorry.)

Screenshot: Shroom and Gloom Sometimes it feels like you can’t open Steam without seeing a new roguelike deckbuilder for sale. Don’t get me wrong: I love the genre, but it gets a bit stale after a while. That’s why a game like Shroom and Gloom feels so fresh. Entering Early Access today, it melds the deckbuilder format with a psychedelic, gross-out art style and novel gameplay mechanics that make it stand out from the crowd. Published by Devolver Digital and developed by South African Team Lazerbeam, this first-person dungeon crawler trades the genre's standard 2D maps for 3D exploration and a culinary combat system that requires you to literally eat your fungal foes to survive. Shroom and Gloom is played from a first-person perspective. While that doesn’t drastically alter the core combat loop of a deckbuilder, it does boost the immersion a bit. I enjoy the fresh perspective, at least. Screenshot: Shroom and Gloom What really sets the game apart, however, is its dual deckbuilding system. Not only are you building a combat deck to take on foes via tight synergies, but you’re also managing a separate Explore deck. These support cards are used between battles to heal your character, discover new cards, interact with the environment, or upgrade your existing deck. It makes decisions between battles just as crucial as the combat itself, and it’s vastly more engaging than just clicking down branching pathways on a static map. Screenshot: Shroom and Gloom Another unorthodox aspect is the card scaling. If you build an Explore deck that allows you to fully utilize those quiet moments between encounters, you can continuously modify your cards throughout a run. It turns weak starting abilities into overpowered attacks and game-breaking super-weapons. While most deckbuilders rely heavily on damage mitigation, Shroom and Gloom revolves around taking damage—and then immediately eating your enemies to heal it. You can add modifiers to foes so that, upon death, they become edible and bestow energy, health, or both. You can season, skewer, roast, and physically devour the fungal myco-monstrosities, or throw them into a pot to brew game-changing soups. Screenshot: Shroom and Gloom Because Shroom and Gloom is an Early Access release, it’s naturally going to need a bit of time to ripen before hitting 1.0. Developer Team Lazerbeam estimates a 12- to 24-month Early Access period to get things just right. The current serving offers two distinct zones to explore, complete with different characters and tailored decks, but there's a lot more on the way. The studio plans to gather direct community feedback while they cook up the final version. Ultimately, the standout feature of Shroom and Gloom is its vibe. There’s something deeply unsettling about the secrets hidden in the Gloom, and I have a feeling that the more we uncover, the worse it’ll get. It doesn’t help that you’re literally told you’re being "ripened for consumption" during the game-over screen. And the unlockable characters include “concerned parent,” who I’m assuming is looking for her son–the Paper Boy, which is the default starting character. This is a dungeon crawler that promises to be as weird as it is strategic, and I'm looking forward to what Team Lazerbeam has in store for us in version 1.0.

Make it so mine. Please, Le Creuset. Hear my plea. Star Trek x Le Creuset. If you want to give nerd cred where nerd cred is due, look no further than your nearest Trekkie. If you're reading this, the thing I'm writing, then that's me. The Trek fandom has endured the worst insults while simultaneously spearheading some of the things all of nerddom holds dear, like conventions, letter writing, canon and merch. We've had 60 glorious years of captains, starships, tribbles, Klingons and the Federation and our imagination knows no bounds. There are generations upon generations of fans. Some came into it way back when Lucille Ball gave it the boost it needed to become a thing in the first place. Some watched TNG because their parents were watching it and didn't come to appreciate it until later. Some just discovered it with Lower Decks, Discovery, Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks. The point is, there's a lot of us, in every demographic, every class, every single place in every nation. And we've got money to spend if you've got the wares. Well. Someone told Le Creuset, and I'm fearful my wallet will never recover. I thought it was too much- certainly there's no way Le Creuset would go THIS far. I mean, it's not just one beautiful enameled cast iron with a Starfleet Delta. There's a Galileo casserole. A Spock spoonholder. A mother flippin' COMMUNI-GRATER. Friends. Trekkies. People who like to cook. I have one thing to say to you: Now, I'd have bought a Le Creuset anyway. Do I have other brands of enameled cast iron that work just as well? I sure do. But the beauty and timelessness of a Le Creuset makes me want one. The fact that they stand by their lifetime warranty makes me want one. The love and craftsmanship they put in each piece makes me want one. And now, they went full bore into Star Trek with it. My bank account will absolutely never recover. Let's explore just a FEW of the things I need to get my hands on yesterday and fear I never will: I mean, it even goes fast. You can tell by the way it is. Here's the 500 dollar Enterprise Round Dutch Oven with Starfleet Delta Knob. I weep. Or this Star Trek Collection Klingon Round Braiser with Klingon Trefoil Knob coming in at 450 dollars with a whole lot of phaser fire? Fireworks? Some sort of spacial anomaly? I mean, we'll get on that later. But wait, there's more. For 60 bucks you can get your hands on a Gorn, Balok or Talosian Mini Cocotte. OMG, it's a Galileo Rectangular Casserole for $150. To be honest, when I saw it in the main collection image I thought it was a butter dish but wanted it no less. Now I can make enchiladas in it instead of just putting out the butter. This is the Communi-Grater. No, I'm not just calling it that. That's what it's called. It's $68 dollars, and I simply must acquire it. It needs to go right along with our Enterprise pizza cutter, and I will accept no substitute. There's also Spock mugs and spoonrests and a host of other amazing, kitschy things I want to buy so damn bad. Say you were a crazy Trekkie and wanted it all? It'd set you back 1578 dollars but that's a small price to pay to have amazing quality super nerdy cookware, I think. Hint hint, literally everyone who's planning on buying me a birthday or Christmas present. If you're even a little geeked out by this and want to...engage in commerce...here's the link. Make it so.

This is the beginning of a series that's written by a neurospicy for ...well, the rest of you. Or the rest of us. Or both. Whether you like it or not, the apps the kids are using are relevant in pop culture. So whether, like me, you actually enjoy some of the weird shit coming out of the "clock app" and can find uses for it in your life (pleasure counts) or you're one of those who's halfway to a Satanic panic about it and how terrible it is, you really can't deny its relevance to society at large, and to ignore it would be ignorant, frankly. I fought that fight with Twitter long before it became the place most journalists gathered. So instead of acting like we aren't all doing a little doomscroll here and there, or acting like it's the worst thing since sliced bread, DnD, video games, or whatever else everyone's saying is rotting our brains, let's discuss. Maybe we'll agree, maybe we'll laugh. Maybe we'll learn something. Tawpics: Death of The Pastor's Wife It's a bit of a double dip but Tiktok is sure still talking about The Death of The Pastor's Wife. It's not hard to see why. Not only is it triggering the hell out of those among us who lived any sort of life inside the evangelical church and are now outside it, it's incredibly triggering for anyone who's been in an abusive relationship. Leaving abuse is the most dangerous part, and the more places that this kind of thing is put under the spotlight as the heinous horrible shit that it is, the less likely entire congregations are going to accept that whatever the pastor says from the pulpit is God-breathed, ethical or anything other than maniacal. Please, keep the conversation going. It might save someone's life. Keith Lee Getting Cancelled This one is interesting, because largely, Keith Lee has been unproblematic. He's a darling in the TikTok community, and often doing charitable work and giving honest reviews of places all over the country. It's pretty wholesome content, or it's seemed to be, and over the years he's given many a business his trademark boost. Recently, this influencer was almost in a fatal car crash, and his take on it did not go over well. So what was the problem? When relaying the story of the crash (where someone else did die) he was overly expressive about God saving him and how grateful he was that he didn't die. Whether or not he meant it that way, quite a few people, Christian and non, took it as him basically celebrating God was in his corner when other innocent people died and what...didn't have God in their corner? I think it'd be a lot like making it through cancer with your best friend and saying God saved you because you were faithful. Maybe you believe that, and it could even be true, but the implication is that the person who died wasn't as worthy of being alive as you. My hot take? I think it was insensitive. Incredibly. Someone else wasn't so lucky. But I also don't think it was malicious or intended. I think the problem with social media influencers is that there's a lot less steps between them and the post button than there is with celebrities. Most of them got started doing it on their own and even if they do now have a team telling them what's not the best idea, they're not always listening. And when something traumatic happens and they want to talk about it right away, they may not be thinking clearly. So is it in poor taste? Yeah. Should he maybe have taken more time to consider what he was saying? Also yeah. But does it make him a bad person? No. And does it mean we should all stop supporting him because of this? Also no. Go ahead and @ me. The White House "Arcade" and Why They're Gonna Get Sued ICYMI, the White House recently decided it was time for them to get with the times and be all cool and shit, and put some video games up on the White House website. You know, the official government site for the White House that represents the entire nation. That one. Instead of tasking, I don't know, anyone, with any kind of skill in game production to do any kind of actual developing of any kind of game, though, they decided, hey, what if we take beloved IP from classic retro video games and turn it into a racist, horrible propaganda machine. Meet the Tetris clone where you build walls to keep immigrants out. I only wish I were kidding: And the official response from Tetris. Update: Looks like the PPS had an impact, as the Tetris clone is gone from the site as of publish date. Now let's talk about MAGA stealing the SEGA logo: And finally, today, the piece de resistance as Nintendo is busy launching all kinds of marketing frenzy about the anniversary of Legend of Zelda. Here's the craziest one: Legend of Trump. Complete with insanely obvious copyright infringement and obvious lies about how well intentioned Trump is in making America Great Again. Now this isn't a fully realized game on the arcade site. They're not capable of anything near that. But it IS a pretty obvious infringement at a moment when Nintendo is wholly focused on their Zelda IP and announcing plenty of new games/merch/etc. Which makes this the dumbest thing they've done RE: Video Games all week. If you want my hot take, you already missed it, and I just hope Nintendo goes after this idiocy with the fervor they do for just about anyone who dares mess with their IP. Well, that's all we have time for in this week's Tik Tok Tawk. Join us for what I'm sure will be just as crazy nonsense next week. Or don't. You still have free will. I think.

Screenshot: Death of The Pastor's Wife. Netflix. Netflix Documentaries have taken the platform by storm recently. It seems every month or so there’s another high profile true crime story that was in the headlines pretty recently that they’re doing a deep dive into. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen, as at least in a few cases, it felt like irresponsible journalism or at the very least, that the documentaries left out some crucial details. Death of The Pastor’s Wife is the latest iteration, and before we get into it, I’m going to, as the person writing this, expose my biases. I am someone who deconstructed from the evangelical Christian church, having grown up in it. An “exvangelical,” if you will, and that means that I’ve got years of experience inside places like Solid Rock church. For better or worse. But mostly worse. There’s a lot that can be said about J.P. Miller. He’s running all the greatest hits from the Narcissistic Abuser playbook. His father started the cycle and he picked up the baton directly from him and ran with it. He’s a groomer, he’s coercive, controlling, and manipulative. If he can’t use direct brute force, he’ll attempt emotional manipulation, literally writhing around on the ground and whimpering like a hurt animal, hoping to garner enough sympathy to regain control. Mica was 13 when she came to the church. Thirteen. I’m not sure if you recall being thirteen, but it’s a really fucked up age to be, for almost everyone I’ve ever talked to about it. Hormones, puberty, the weird in-between place you find yourself in where you’re not really a little kid and you’re not really an adult. You need somewhere to belong. You want to feel loved and special. You’re ripe for picking to people who prey on vulnerability. A church, at the heart of it, is a community of people who share the same faith, and as evangelicals like to say “a body.” And this body betrayed Mica early on. She was initially married to a high school sweetheart she met in the church, Jeremy, at only 18 years of age. He was heavily involved with the leadership at the church, which led Mica to meeting JP, and becoming his assistant, a babysitter to his kids, and leader of the worship team. It’s a whole lot of status and power for someone so young, and a whole lot of attention from a guy 15 years older. What I’m glad for in Death of The Pastor’s Wife is that they make it pretty clear that something went wrong in this death investigation. There’s a very clear, very damning pattern of behavior that started with the early grooming and unfortunately, ended up with a very suspicious suicide shortly after Mica began to pull herself out of the relationship for good. And if you know anything about escaping abuse, you know that the danger escalates exponentially when you actually leave, and just after you leave. JP’s stalking behavior was in broad daylight. It was reported to the police. It was witnessed by church members. I’m going to repeat that part. It was witnessed by church members. The thing that I think the Netflix documentary shies away from that I wish it wouldn’t is the fact that while this sort of thing can and does happen outside the trappings of the evangelical church, its rhetoric and culture make it that much easier. We’re not afraid to say it when it’s a non mainstream “cult” but I think it needs to be said: Mica Miller was in great danger at least in part because her husband was a pastor. In the hierarchy of the church, women are oftentimes defined by the men they married. Mica got close to JP initially because her first husband was involved in the church. When JP wanted what someone else had, he took it, and called it “God’s plan” to make something good out of his “sin.” You see, it’s not an isolated incident for a charismatic narcissist to come to power in a “Christian” church. It’s fairly normal. It’s just not talked about so much, because it’s so often swept under the rug. And it’s never their fault. They were tempted by Satan, tested like Job, caused to stumble by women who were wearing spaghetti straps and 13 year olds in swimsuits at youth group pool parties. Behavior is constantly surveilled and judged. The hierarchy is oftentimes dictated by proximity to leadership and superficial things like physical appearance. Everyone’s an informant, so if you “stumble” everyone else will know before long. Not only that, but questioning authority? Doubt? Those are things that will get you pushed out of the same circles you worked so hard to get into. It’s why I can so easily believe that the congregation didn’t blink when JP checked Mica into a mental facility. She was taught, as I was taught, that your husband was appointed by God as head of the house. You were to obey, and serve, and not question. You were to believe that as long as your husband was a “godly” man, there’s no reason to question him. Doubt is deviance. Defiance is punished. Questioning is sinning. And that’s how she got admitted to an inpatient mental hospital with JP taking her car, electronics, and other belongings, and how she ended up on the phone to the police, calmly asking them to intervene. They of course didn’t. But how? Why? JP was at the scene before people should’ve been allowed there. Why? It’s possible he was a chaplain, or even if not, had been involved enough in community affairs and outreaches to have buttered the right bread with law enforcement. And butter that bread he did, because post documentary articles have since revealed that JP Miller once ran over an ex wife with a car, reversed and rolled over her body again and somehow it just didn’t stick. When she left, she tried to voice her truth. He took to Facebook and posted pictures. She continued to speak out. He continued to stalk her. All the while, this man was getting up on stage playing a cute little ragtime, talking about how if you don’t provide for your husband’s needs he’ll find 20 other people who will, and, when she was finally separated, seeding it in the congregation’s minds that she was mentally ill and hitting rock bottom. He asked them to pray that she would, in fact, hit rock bottom. And then she was found shot in the head, face down in a river at a state park. Whether that was directly by JP”s hand or not is still under investigation. It would certainly be no surprise. The most chilling thing for me watching Death of The Pastor’s Wife isn’t that it happened, it’s that it didn’t surprise me one bit. In 3 churches and 4 pastors, we had 3 incidences of adultery and embezzlement leading to pastors “stepping down” tearfully after getting caught, but not before veiled and direct threats to staff, character assassination of those who accused them, and worse. What the Death of The Pastor’s Wife misses that I think we should be examining closely is the direct role that evangelical Christianity as it’s practiced today contributed to her death, and the death of so many others. It’s much more comfortable for you to think it only happens in compounds in rural areas with a few men who fancy themselves direct lines to God, but it’s in fact baked into the version of evangelical Christianity that JP Miller came to power in. It’s a system where a woman’s value is directly tied to her purity, and she can cause grown men to stumble because her shorts aren’t down to her knees. Where everyone just shifts in their seats a little upon hearing the pastor’s wife is in a mental facility and reaching her “rock bottom” and prays she’ll get there sooner. Because there is real, immediate danger there.

Screenshot: Voidwood PAX West is happening right now, and while we’re not on the show floor, we got a chance to get a sneak peek of Voidwood, a co-op survival horror game from Santa Barbara Games. Voidwood doesn’t go the same route that a lot of horror games go – with over-the-top gore and disturbing imagery. While it looks (to me) like a stylized version of Stranger Things (sorry) the developers were actually inspired by the film Midsommar by Ari Aster While the playthrough we saw happened over a single day/night cycle–the whole presentation took about 12 minutes–the typical gameplay loop takes place over a series of days and nights. During the presentation the developer explained the typical gameplay loop as “day is for scavenging and crafting. Night is for surviving.” The Steam store page elaborates on this: “By day, you scavenge an inviting, cursed forest. By night, you survive the hunt. Push your luck, go deeper, and speak carefully. The forest is listening.” Screenshot: Voidwood While proximity chat is a hot commodity for co-op games right now–especially horror games–it looks like Voidwood is using it as more than just a gimmick. In fact, using voice can be a liability–with “voice as a liability” being one of the game’s main hooks. Think about it: Most co-op horror is about coordinating through communication. That communication is a liability in Voidwood. Players have to be careful when they speak to each other at night to avoid being killed by the roving monsters. Despite that being explicitly stated, it seemed like the danger started right away for the players in our demonstration, with masked enemies attacking the kids within a minute of starting. While they said voice is a liability, the group never seemed to stop talking. What I can gather: it’s fun to talk–probably because it is dangerous. And Brad did most of the talking. Sorry for calling you out, Brad. Screenshot: Voidwood The sound your character is making is indicated through sound transmission indicators that get larger based on how much sound you’re making. It’s not just for voice, as sound indicators appeared to show when the players were walking as well. Despite this, the team I watched were able to coordinate fending off attackers and looting mats. The daytime consisted of gathering materials like fireflies, mushrooms and other materials to craft bandages, beast repellent and revive potions. Night, it turns out, isn’t just about survival. During the night the eponymous Voidwood seems to become lootable, with 12 pieces of Voidwood needed to complete the ritual and end the level in the demo scenario I watched. Screenshot: Voidwood The one thing from the playthrough that really stood out was that voice made a lot of difference. At one point when the kids were being swamped by monsters, someone yelled “it’s because they can hear you!” “I’m sorry, I’m just scared!” was the reply “Be scared quietly!” That should be the game’s tagline. Screenshot: Voidwood The truncated gameplay only took around 12 minutes, and I don't think they would have gotten through it without the massive amounts of support items the dev seemed to be hoarding. Not that I blame them, because I’m assuming the shortened form made everything more difficult – and definitely more hectic. While the game’s Steam store page promises revelations of secrets about previous kids stuck in these woods, this playthrough didn't give many hints to what that will look like. But I’m definitely intrigued. While I didn’t get a chance to actually put my hands on Voidwood, I can’t wait to. While I can only see Midsommar if I squint, I definitely like the direction the art style–and the game in general–is going. Voidwood is slated for release next year.

It feels good to really love something you’ve been waiting for for a long time. These days it’s been hard to get me on the MCU hype train for any reason, as it felt almost like we were in the last gasps of a franchise that had been THE thing for decades. But I love Spiderman, and ever since Into the Spiderverse, there’s no Marvel main character I want to see more than our friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Now, for a bit of background, I wasn’t a comic book kid growing up other than some Archie and Jughead or Batman once in a while, so I don’t have a depth of knowledge going back to Issue #1 and I certainly didn’t really have a lot of exposure to our webslinging hero outside Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s portrayals before we got to where we are now. Which is a shame, because the whip-smart, quippy, caring Peter Parker/Spidey/Miles Morales isn’t just impressive for brains, brawn and wit, he’s actually literally the people’s hero. He's there when your cat climbs a tree, and he's there when your apartment gets blown up by some rage filled villain. Heck, he's at the bodega you go to grabbing some milk. It's humanizing and grounding and lends a fantastical universe full of superheroes, gods and aliens a sense of reality. I’ve gotta be honest, though. When the movie kicked off with Punisher and Spidey in the midst of a heated argument/action scene, I wasn’t super thrilled. Sure, that’s opening the door for Daredevil to be around the next corner, but I’ve long considered The Punisher problematic. In a world where superheroes are trying to do the right thing and be heroic, I found Punisher to lean way more towards a villain, only in it for “justice” which in his case was mostly revenge. No room for nuance, no time for research. Only kill. And, well, that’s not a world I want to live in, nor a person I want to be around. But, just like with this movie, there’s so much more to it. Let’s get into it. Brand New Day clearly starts on a Monday. Or at least, that’s how it feels. “Previously on” Spiderman, Peter Parker was forced to give up the love of his life to protect her, and worse still, had to make MJ and Ned forget him. This isn’t a small thing for anyone, but this is most of Peter Parker’s world being taken from him and simultaneously paraded in front of him so he can’t heal from it. Not to cross the fandom streams too much, but Peter Parker’s a lot like Miles O’Brien from Star Trek. They both must suffer. It’s not for nothing though - again, it’s part of what makes him who he is, and part of what binds him to his “friendly neighborhood” moniker. He’s not a millionaire, but his parents are dead. And his uncle, and his aunt. He’s just a kid, but he’s seen a lot more than most kids his age. He’s incredibly smart, sure, and had friends like Tony Stark (who he also lost) but at the end of the day, he’s isolated. Peter Parker needs his community the way the community needs him. The place he grew up is the place he connects to the people he loved and lost. Four years after the forgetting, it’s more or less all he’s got, other than the Punisher, who, despite his gruff demeanor and constant bitching, seems to hold some affection for Spider-Man, even if begrudgingly. Not to put too fine a point on the “grounding” nature of the story, but were you to be a masked superhero trying to save lives and not get your identity revealed, your life WOULD be pretty lonely. Even lonelier if all you could do is watch your friends move on to fulfill their big dreams and the person you love make out with some other dude right in front of your face. Add to this some sort of spider puberty and you’ve got a recipe for some severe misery. Misery loves company, and while he’s doing the regular neighborhood patrols like some sort of automaton, we find out there’s a bigger bad lurking in the wings. Sure, Scorpion’s enough on his own while we’re going through spider-puberty, but now there’s something worse, and more insidious - and it’s infiltrating minds, bouncing from person to person - and worse, still - targeting Spiderman. Before long it’s pulling some awful tricks, too. It gets a hold of MJ, and in one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve seen recently, lets Peter get that moment he’s probably thought of over and over and over in the last four years - the relief of being remembered - only to have that beautiful reuniting kiss and get it all yanked away. Of course it wasn’t her. And of course, MJ isn’t safe. That’s why the forgetting was so important. Now, where can Spiderman possibly turn? If only there was a hypervigilant friend of his that had a big off the grid bunker in town that’s nigh impenetrable, and if only that person also had a mind so hyperfocused on not letting one more person lose the love of their life the way he did. Oh wait, we know that guy. That’s the Punisher. And what’s the Punisher’s superpower? He’s a combat veteran struggling with PTSD. That’s not a joke, that’s a fact. The Punisher is an elite soldier who has excelled in every area of his training. Not only that, he’s locked in soldier mode because of, you guessed it, massive trauma. Frank Castle believed fully in what he did, and he does it well. But it didn’t keep him from losing the love of his life, and it’s the pain of having that taken away from him that drives almost everything he does. So Spiderman shows up to Punisher’s bunker with MJ. And it’s where I realize so many things that work together so well in this scenario. Peter Parker and Frank Castle aren’t that different at this point. Both are lonely, in immense pain, and still want to believe in their power to stop bad things from happening to innocent people. Peter brings MJ there because he knows that Castle will understand that protecting MJ is of the highest priority, and while he might not be the best host, he is the absolute best person on the planet to keep her safe. You can see the pain returning to his eyes when he understand what he has to do, and the flash of fear that he might not be able to do it, but there’s nothing in the world that will stop him from trying. Meanwhile, Spiderman’s off to figure out what he can do about his spider-puberty. At this point Peter’s fully rejecting the changes the spider evolution is bringing, and his own attempts to control it are failing. He needs someone brilliant who can understand why he’d need to essentially handicap his own powers - and someone who understands the burden of needing to do so. And of course, that can be no one other than The Hulk - or Bruce Banner. Now Banner’s teaching university, and he’s also got the limiter thing pretty well worked out. And here’s another perfect thing about this story involving the Hulk: He’s suffering, too. Bruce Banner carries the weight of his own strength and power and the loss of control he experiences every time he “hulks out.” It’s a power borne of anger, and it means that he completely loses himself to use it. He’s an unstoppable force, even to his own mind. He created the inhibitor so he could have some semblance of control over it. Unfortunately, the telepath manages to break that, using her powers to get him to take off the Inhibitor, and we get a fully triggered, full power Hulk. Now, The Hulk wasn’t a character I knew much about either until I was brought into the comic lore and MCU lore by my partner, but what I’ve come to know is it’s TROUBLE when the Hulk is hulking out, and he’s near impossible to stop. It’s at this point I think it’s prescient to point out that Spiderman often gets the short end of the stick as far as superheroes go. His moniker tends to do him a little wrong, I think. And perhaps his age. I know that sometimes casual fans see him as a smart kid who got bit by a spider and got some powers, but the truth about Spiderman is that he’s not just a smart kid. He’s brilliant. He’s got ideas that rival Bruce Banner’s, and Bruce Banner, by the way - also a genius, in any form. Not only that, but Spiderman has a healing factor, and is INCREDIBLY strong. Like, if there’s any chance of someone putting Hulk back in the bottle, so to speak, it’s gonna be Spidey. And that leads me to this: Brand New Day does a great job of tailoring everything around Spiderman and what he truly is. The problems that arise require everything that makes Spiderman special, from his “friendly” nature that allows him to work within the city and have some help from shop owners, law enforcement and beyond, to his brilliance in being able to create and tweak an inhibitor with a little help from his friends. This isn’t a movie that just throws bad guys out in front of him for fun - it’s well thought out. After the argument that led Frank to reveal to Spiderman and MJ that he had lost someone very close to him, MJ continues to peel back the layers and manages to convince him to go out and help Spiderman face the Hulk. And I think the only reason it takes convincing is that he’s concerned about leaving MJ, but as we said before, his bunker’s a pretty safe place to be. Here’s where my heart grew three sizes for The Punisher. Frank Castle vs. The Hulk. Because remember, The Punisher is a man. His super power is soldier, and I think if you’ve had the privilege of knowing an infantryman, you know that that is also not a joke. He’s highly trained, incredibly smart and capable, and has an unbreakable will. He’s there to fight until the very end, and he absolutely will not be stopped. The Hulk, by contrast, is an incredibly powerful superhero, and he’s bulletproof. Which means that almost nothing Frank Castle has in his arsenal will do anything at all to him. But Frank Castle never once even thinks of himself - he’s there to protect his friend, to protect MJ, and to help The Hulk, and he will stop at nothing to do it. Then again, neither will Spiderman, and he eventually is able to convince him that they’re friends, and he’s able to snap him out of it. Somewhere along the way, we get the big reveal of the whole movie - we’ve been dealing with Jean Grey. Just before she’s about to kill Metzger, he intervenes with an inhibitor, just in time to save him, and as she’s wheeled away she mutters “Sara…” Back at the bunker, we find out that MJ found Peter’s letter, and he has this second chance, it seems, to have something with her. After the cruelty of Grey’s trick earlier, it feels like this will be a great moment, but it’s dashed on the rocks with the simple reality that MJ just doesn’t remember any of it. She doesn’t remember the good times, the bad times, or any times, and worse, she has no feelings for him. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in any Marvel movie, he silently swings her through the city and back to her place, where he’s able to “meet” Ned, who’s excited, but tragically, and logically, doesn’t remember knowing him. Through a random mention of not remembering anything when Jean possessed her, MJ helps Spiderman realize there’s a lot more to the story that Metzger was lying about, and through Yelena he finds out that Sara was Grey’s sister, and Jean had to watch DODC cart her away. Now that we know DODC are the bad guys, he realizes she’s in danger and heads off to help. Metzger’s got Jean Grey strapped to a chair and is performing experiments on her - trying to see how far her range goes. While in the room, Grey realizes that the V-Max we’ve been chasing the entire story was simply a part of the ventilation system in the room where her sister had been trapped, experimented on and killed, and, well, she goes into a white hot rage, which for Grey, means world burning. She sends a wave of psychic energy through the entire city that essentially freezes everyone in place. Except Frank, who’s out of range and equipped with a sniper rifle, and except Spiderman, who’s taken off his inhibitor and finally accepted the enhanced genes the spider part of him has brought with it. After dealing with The Hand, he’s faced with Jean, who’s got shards of glass all pointed at Metzger, ready to shred him to pieces in an instant. And here’s where it all comes together. Every single person in this story has suffered greatly. Every single one has been taken down by PTSD and trauma, and felt alone, angry and scared. They’ve fought through and struggled and are all standing at this precipice. There’s a million ways this could go down, and one of them’s a bullet, but it’s at this moment that Peter Parker solves the problem as the “friendly” neighborhood Spiderman. He lets Jean in his head, despite the risk, and instead of showing her the pain and suffering so she’ll know he’s on her side, he gives her the gift of a moment of understanding, acceptance, love and comfort that he received from his Aunt May. He gives her the love she was missing, and this? Absolutely broke me. He could’ve done anything. There were so many ways to solve this puzzle,but he does it by showing her she’s not alone, and that there’s healing. She backs down, but Frank, having not got the message, fires the shot that would kill her. And Spiderman? Well, he takes that shot himself. And while he does have a healing factor, this is as close as he’s come to death. He’s down for the count, and the city mourns the loss - until he wakes up, Frank Castle at his side, as he has been. The whole time. The whole city’s got the news he’s back and better, and instead of letting it end with a final Spiderman swingout, Frank wears the mask and gloves and takes on the “hero” role so that Peter can slip out into the crowd and finally get to experience the love the city has for him. He sees Ned and we get a glimmer of hope that the memories can return when he’s able to recall their secret handshake, and then, with a promise of Spiderman in space, we roll out. This movie isn’t just a great Spiderman movie - it’s a great film. The MCU has been churning these out for years, and while they’re worth a bucket of popcorn and some face paint most of the time, I feel like especially lately, they’ve lost the gravitas. Until now. Spiderman: Brand New Day is firing on all cylinders. The villains are specifically tailored to show off Spiderman as he’s rarely been shown - in true to form brilliance, strength and character. But it’s also about something more important - loss, suffering, trauma, and how we as individuals process it, for better or worse. It’s about reaching out to others who are suffering and being willing to be vulnerable, learning to care and trust again, and fighting alongside folks in good faith for the greater good. It’s about letting people know they’re not alone, and giving them love they so desperately need even in a moment it feels like they’re unsaveable. And that is epic, and beautiful, and something I think Stan Lee would be proud to see his name behind. Yeah, it’s a superhero story. But it’s also a human story. And it’s something I’ll take with me for a long time because of it.