Hi, I'm doing another series; big surprise. It's the only way I can still feel feelings, by stringing them together into continuous segments of more feelings to come. The more avid (read: compulsive) reader may have picked up on me buying almost every Pokémon generation, to cope with some stuff. After several months of letting that pricey mistake fester in me, I've finally made the move towards playing those cartridges. Before I can start, I do need to remove and replace each individual battery as every single one of your Game Boy save batteries have sadly died by now. If you were holding on to games from your childhood, then I hope you have fond memories, because that's all there's left. I put a video of me butchering a DIY battery repair on TikTok, if that's your thing.

Now that I have beaten the Elite Four in Pokémon Yellow, I'm going to see if I can finish every other generation that way and assess whether they hold up, one by one. I have never played a bunch of these iterations, so I'm going in with as much of a clean slate as possible. The only version I don't own is Black or White 2, because of its ludicrous price, but I'll find a suitable replacement when that time comes. Additionally, no remakes for now, because that's not in the spirit of what we're going for here. Okay, I hope that's all clear: Beat every core generation game, then talk about them. Yeah? Sounds good? Then let's get into Generation 1, the OG shit.

I originally played, I dunno, like ten hours or so of Pokémon Blue, so I knew the basic outlines of the first release. Anyone who is roughly my age has probably picked up on the concept through osmosis as well, but just in case: You're a little child who, one day, gets called by the old man next door. He wants you to pick up a Pokémon and venture out into the world, to catch more critters and become the very best at doing so. The ol' professor's kid is a butthole and also your arch rival. I call that jerk Farts, because I can. Farts doesn't care about Pokémon, only about winning. It's an anime story, baby. You've heard this one before.

Pokémon Yellow isn't fully faithful to the original. Instead of choosing from three element types, you just get tossed a Pikachu that hangs out with you. This is sort of the fan version, as you'll also get handed other favorites down the line. Honestly, a nod to the anime was exactly what I wanted anyway, because I remember the show more than the video game. In broad strokes, however, the Gen 1 games are identical.

The core of what makes the Pokémon games great is finding new creatures. Walking through tall grass, spelunking in some cave; every new area has its own Pokémon to catch, if you can wear them down first. At the time it was released, this collection system was revolutionary and it still feels great today. The attachment rate to new Pokémon is instant. That's likely why so many remember Gen 1 the fondest, because it was probably the first time you had this overwhelming rush. Yet, looking back, the biggest flaw I can attribute to Gen 1 is that you are rarely finding new stuff. The initial catching frenzy slows to a crawl around the early mid-game, after which you're left with fighting a biblical stream of rats and bats. The time in between obtaining another friend is easily hours apart. That's just not a great feedback loop, even if that eventual satisfaction is significant each time. Not actually coming close to the slogan of catching them all was very sobering. I want nothing more than to catch these precious babies, but the game fights me tooth and nail for it.

Instead, the actual focus in Pokémon Yellow becomes a seemingly unending barrage of trainer battles. Rather than fight wild Pokémon that can be caught, you go up against someone in the same line of work as yourself, for a feat of strength. It's not so much that these battles aren't fruitful, since there's good money and experience in them. Rather, the frequency of a challenge every screen is a real war of attrition. Fights aren't hard, unless they're in a specifically trained area like a gym, but these matches are constant, battering Pokémon and draining their stamina. Moves have limited uses and the better the attack, the fewer times it can be done. Moreover, bouts yield no Pokémon, since catching another person's friends is bad etiquette. Though I do still think that it's hilarious when other trainers just chuck out two tiny seahorses, against your mythical beast that controls the weather. Good luck, Sara. I am super murdering your pet.

So yeah, looking back on it, I was pretty surprised to find the classic Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) tropes we usually associate with different genres to be more visible in Pokémon Yellow than I thought. It is a game made in Japan in the nineties, after all. You do just roam around dungeons and fight people most of the time. There are plenty of mazes and other obtuse progression elements. Your Pokémon need a specific move, which you apply on a specific spot, lest you wander around eternally. And then sometimes you get a new buddy that you can nurture and grow. That's always nice.

There's a lot of banking on exactly one fun aspect in this video game. In theory, that's pretty bad and Gen 1 has aged more than I'd admit. Yet, I still think that just the act of catching a team of friends, outfitting them with cool moves and outsmarting opponents is a tight package on its own. There are additional items, to give your squad some devastating attacks. Then, you can also get into buffs or elemental effectiveness. If you want to, there's a bunch of lateral growth that can make your experience even more tenacious. You technically don't need anything other than raw grit, but it certainly spices things up. There are few games like it and they rarely come close to nailing the simple, self-evident systems of Pokémon. Even 25 years later, it is impressive that developer Game Freak managed to come up with such a captivating concept. Any lesser game would've had me walk away during its many dips, but that glint of desire to get better pushed me onwards to a 39-hour completion. I did, indeed, want to become the very best.

I managed to defeat the Pokémon League on my first attempt, which I had initially started to test the waters. In this final event, you go up against four masters consecutively and either beat them all or start over from scratch. My sidekick Pikachu was my opener, because they could paralyze foes out of the gate. In the wings, I had both a Blastoise and Charizard waiting, for water and fire elements respectively. As a tank, I chose Sandslash, a cute but very deadly porcupine armadillo. I reluctantly chose the spoon-wielding Kadabra for their powerful psychic attacks, but mostly because I was too lazy to build another option. That would've added a few more hours to the playthrough. Instead, I just gave that weirdo a suplex move, because I could. Lastly, as an anchor, I boosted an icy Articuno as high as I could. Those freezing attacks hurt some fringe Pokémon real bad. Still, despite its diminutive size, it was my Pikachu that ended up doing most of the work, just like the anime! I couldn't have wished for a more fitting end to all our hard work together. I love you, buddy.

Now, finally the question: Does Generation 1 still hold up? It's honestly hard to tell. It would be rare to find anyone like me, who hasn't played this game through at least once. If you have, then some of the more glaring parts, like long puzzles, constant item management and endless corridors might not seem so frustrating. Though, on that end, one of the only other differences Pokémon Yellow has is that Pikachu takes up physical space in the game. For a game where tons of areas are exactly one tile in size, Pikachu also taking up one tile turns your friend into a pest that blocks your path more often than not. Fuck you, buddy.

If you haven't played through the original, however, you could probably skip it these days and move to another, similar version, without missing too much. Any subsequent version is just this core idea executed in a slightly better way. The games are, for better or worse, very iterative that way. There is too much time in Pokémon Yellow spent on finding some door or an exit or trudging towards a new city. Everything in your path is just another obstacle, one after another. Your only real loss is not finding some of the show's favorites, but those can easily be replaced with new friends. And, of course, you'll miss out on some quality moments with this cute, endearing game. It turns out that Pokémon is still a good time, any way you can get it.

Apparently, we all felt that Pokémon resurgence at the same time, as fellow site user danielkempster started their own journey in another blog. Maybe read it, also, if you have that insatiable nostalgia lust. They'll be going all-in with a deep dive, rather than just sticking to one version. I just wanted to hang out with my Pokémon friends. I called my Pikachu "Fatto Ratto." If you don't give your Pokémon nicknames, we can't be friends. That's something Farts would do.

Gen 1 Rating: 7/10

Previous entry: Clicker Royale

I've recently been in and out of an appreciation for wrestling. It's a 'funny' story. World War 3 was a trending term, as it tends to be, which led me to a wrestling review YouTube channel that I had forgotten. The group of crass Irish dudes throw in a litany of Simpsons and video game references, as they dismantle every segment they've ever watched. It's an insensitive, but entertaining viewing experience. Their video about the WWE pay-per-view with that trending name pushed me down another rabbit hole. Thank you, dystopian happenstance, I guess?

At the same time, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) released a new mobile game, called NJPW Strong Spirits. As I remember, Giant Bomb alum Alex Navarro was quite fond of this branch of wrestling that I personally know nothing about, so this seemed like the perfect blend of coincidence to dive into something new. The game is free to download, so there's no harm in checking, right?

Explaining what NJPW Strong Spirits is in an elevator pitch is a little awkward, but it's a gacha game at its core. Mobile games, ya know? There are slot reels where you acquire new wrestlers from the various factions in NJPW. There are tiers of rarity. Getting multiples will increase that person's rarity and stats. You can even buy a wrestler's very soul. That's their "shard" equivalent that you can hoard to push that character to a new tier, but it is hilariously presented. Other than that, you've seen this hook a dozen times. Now forget about this altogether, because the gacha element just gets in the way of the game.

The main gameplay of NJPW Strong Spirits happens in the Dojo, where the wrestler you train will participate in a season. Together with some selected training partners, your rising star will increase in one of five categories, boosting their stats. Each training session decreases health that needs to be replenished by resting. Low health will increase the percentage of failure, which does not increase potency and can result in injury. The game is adamant about pushing a good balance. There's a wholesomeness to NJPW Strong Spirits that is pretty endearing.

While this basic section of clicking buttons and numbers going up is fine, the best part comes from what happens between these moments. Every training partner you choose has a series of events that can trigger, presented in short visual novel segments. Depending on how you choose to resolve these stories, you'll receive a bonus or, rarely, get a negative consequence. You can't tell Sweets Makabe to wait on eating an ice cream and not expect that to be disastrous to their reputation. Technically, the stories are just choosing what stats to increase as well, but they're built in such a cute presentation. There is a fitting picture taken of every wrestler, as they record a guitar in a studio or have a lovely nap with their little dog. If you're just interested in the stats, you can skip the scenes, but that's robbing a lot of the magic in this game. For me, the visual novel elements are the best part of this release. I want Bushi to like me and ask me what kind of accessories they should pick to make an appearance.

As well as triggering random events, some training sessions can also teach your star new skills. Partners have a set of unique abilities that they can pass on, such as taking better bumps or specializing in a certain field. You'll need to allocate a set of limited points to unlock these skills, along with enhancing a moveset, to prevent you from just farming abilities. Instead, NJPW Strong Spirits focuses more on building a specific wrestler; one who will go to the top ropes any chance they get or just someone that will overwhelm opponents with combo strings.

You see, all that training is leading to your next match with your improved star. These sections, complete with some elaborate entrances, show matches in full motion video (FMV) sequences. If you do a flip off the ropes, you will see a clip of when that wrestler did that move on someone. It's not accurate to the people in the match, but there is an impressive amount of footage in this game. While watching repeat clips will get old fast, I do always watch every new opponent's moves. If there's one thing I learned about NJPW, it's that everyone there is as extra as they can be.

During the matches, wrestlers are building a gauge to unleash a finisher move. The goal is, still, to get that three count. This is the real test, to see if you've allocated your points correctly, as it is possible to survive a finisher, maybe even two of them. Getting there is, however, also the most frustrating element of NJPW Strong Spirits by far. Opponents are almost always at a small advantage and will kick out at something as infuriating as 2.99, only to pile drive your star into another existence. Progress in this game is incredibly hard to make, because losing a match also means not getting the bonus from winning, which carries over to the next bout in a snowball effect. This is where this otherwise quickly release breaks down.

At the end of your seasons, you will be tasked with winning the G1 Climax; the most prestigious event there is. Even with my best efforts, I've never made it, which means you'll have to repeat that same session and try again. In short, you'll go back to square one every time, which is where repetition sets in real bad. The end of a Dojo segment, which takes an hour, allows you to put your wrestler into a team that goes up against other players. Ultimately, that's what creating the unique wrestler is for: to create a build for player versus player (PvP) ranking. Sadly, that part of the game is as dry and barebones as matching with someone and seeing the result. Other than doing it for your daily objectives, there isn't a lot of drive to go head-to-head. The bonding and growing is where it's at. It's about the journey and not the destination, all that jazz.

NJPW Strong Spirits is silly; it's a very silly game. Having a wrestling game with dating sim elements and FMV segments is something to behold, for sure. This part is as endearing as it is entertaining. Unfortunately, the gacha element or, rather, the consequences of that system make the game too impenetrable to stick. Unless you're already dedicated to that branch of wrestling and their personalities, I don't see anyone pushing through this unique, but grind-heavy release, just to see more tidbits of powerbombs and top rope suplexes. That's likely why a lot of unlocks are geared towards fans, such as watching full matches by linking a NJPW account or collecting a gallery of pictures from official merchandise. I think this is what is considered being a mark. Even some of the progress is gated behind a paywall, so the limits of what's enjoyable for free are pretty visible upfront. NJPW Strong Spirits is, however, fun while it lasts. Everyone should try to get in the good graces of an annoying YouTube wrestler, who straight-up comes out with a chair that has a QR code on it, which links to their channel. Japanese wrestling is wild.

I've entered another ridiculous shopping spree. These last few weeks, I've amassed about two dozen new old games. It all started with looking up the availability of some random Playstation 2 games, like From Software's back catalog, such as Eternal Ring or Evergrace. Before I knew it, I was several packages deep into more terrible license games and forgotten spinoffs. I have a problem. I didn't even get those games; I spaced out and got different garbage. There's a lot of trash out there and a ton of it exists at my house.

Some of my choices were inspired, slash cursed, by this site. Like many, I read through a whole bunch of Game of the Year lists. One write-up that really stuck with me was Jeff Bakalar's inclusion of pinball games. We all know Jeffy B. likes pinball, but the passion behind his picks got me fired up to flip some flippers. That Godzilla one in particular sounds like a really good time. Unlike New Jersey's finest, however, I'm not a billionaire mega influencer that can just magically make a table appear, so I did the next logical thing: I added a few random video games to my cart, without ever so much as looking up a trailer. It's pinball; how bad could they really fuck that up?

It feels like that setup kind of answers itself, but being forever optimistic, I eventually booted up a few games. By some coincidence, both those releases are PlayStation 1 games, because the older the platform is, the more likely you'd still get game variety. No one is pressing a disc with pinball on it these days. Hell, it doesn't look like one of these was that memorable when it was released, as it's a ghost online. That lack of documentation gave me an excuse to go over my experience and lightly rank each table that came across my hands.

Worms Pinball (PS1)

The first game I'll cover is a cash grab from developer Team17. Before deciding to jump the shark with NFTs, the company was set on milking the success of Worms, to the extent of forcing the matter. Initially, this release was called Addiction Pinball, as seen on the branding of one of the options. With their 2D critter combat game taking off, they packaged a Worms table in here and quickly sent this one off with a new name. The second pinball choice comes from an honest-to-god Belgian game, World Rally Fever. You'll always score some points for national pride, at least when it comes to grabbing my attention. This completely random MS-DOS racer is currently discounted on GOG, if you'd like to relive very specific nostalgia.

So, how do these tables play?

Pinball Power (PS1)

I don't know how I managed to pull it off, but I've stumbled upon a unicorn. Pinball Power from budget developer Midas Interactive Entertainment is an internet enigma. There are fewer than a dozen videos of it and just one or two readily available emulation files. I know this, because I went down a hole of trying to record what's not shown online, only to realize that the emulated version is incomplete as well. In fact, the search results will spit out the Austin Powers property instead. That's how obscure this thing is.

This disc contains three tables, though with a twist. Pinball Power uses an adventure hook, to give a sense of progression. As such, players are tasked with gathering items on one table, before moving to the next. You can opt to practice the two subsequent playing fields in an awkward menu, which is also likely the only time anyone will see these tables.

Camelot

Camelot is the main table and where your quest starts. It's a good thing that my copy came complete with a manual, because that's the only place where the name of this table is mentioned. In-game, this is just where the title screen dumps you. While the visuals are grimy, even by PS1 standards, the medieval fantasy setting is kept neat. Board structure is standard fare, with ramps pushed to the side, a second left flipper to direct the upper board and a fun bumper maze up top. For what it's worth, it works. Sound design further drives home that this is a budget title. Pinball Power adds a few barks to lead the player in their quest, but it is surprising just how much dead air there is between hitting spots. There isn't a whistle to be heard, until some progression shouts that you now possess "advanced bravery." Sporadically, you'll get a sword clank, take it or leave it. I've never heard a quieter board in my life. Emptiness constricts this game like a vise. The most baffling aspect of this game, however, is the feel itself. It must be hard to make pinball physics, because the balls here never roll fluidly. The flow is more like quicksand, where momentum doesn't quite go fast enough, until it hits a breaching point. This means that, not only will gameplay move erratically, it's also going to be a lot slower than you'd imagine. Luckily, I was able to get a hang of it eventually, but even then it felt more turn-based than it should. It fits the role-playing nature, but this is one sluggish pinball experience. Maybe Pinball Power knows its limitations, because the trough is fairly small and the outlanes almost always have a saver active to send the ball back. There's a big margin of error, so I guess that comes with a lot of leeway. A multiball can last ages due to these buffers, but you'll need to get there. It is difficult to hit shots effectively without consistent momentum and every table wants you to clear at least ten missions to proceed. You'll be trying endlessly to hit this one tiny angle, while pixel skips will ruin the attempt every time. If successful, a little story panel comes up that details what feat you've conquered. You're slaying dragons, freeing wizards or obtaining better equipment. It's a story device, but these tidbits perfectly cap progression. While the actual pinball feel here is some of the worst around, I eventually settled in a groove that at least let me justify my time. That said, the several barriers in place here, to get to a more enjoyable place, is not something one should ever put themselves through. This exists purely as an oddity to sink a few days into, just to say you've done it. Rating: 5/10

Fisher King

This is the clearest, but also most mundane table. Ramp left, ramp right, bumpers up top; you've seen this before. Strangely enough, this has extra flippers on both ends, though they rarely feel like they service more than one specific shot. This board really hammers home the emptiness of Pinball Power. It's fine, but nothing ever happens. There are no turns in momentum and barely any sounds. As the grand finale, Fisher King needs more than the castle construction on the top of the board and the presentation of a real table. Once again, you can only do one-off runs, so I didn't do more than a handful. It's so anticlimactic that I have no additional things to say about it. It's Pinball Power, just less entertaining. Rating: 4/10

I still own a few more pinball games that I know of, like Pokémon Pinball being fused in my original Gameboy. It didn't feel proper to mention a game like that with these two others. Maybe that will be something for a next installment. For now, however, I'm all pinballed out. I can't say ol' Bakalar did me any favors by getting me pumped to flip out. It's probably something that's better done in real life. I appreciate the enthusiasm nonetheless. Liking stuff is cool.

Smell ya!

Previous entry: Dota Underlords

I think that, by now, I've highlighted enough mobile giants and chances are pretty likely that there will be several more. So, this week, we'll steer away from household names and instead look towards tiny games. Don't worry, it's not Wordle, though that's also a good time.

To find our bite-size experience, we turn to the one place that's actually not terrible at surfacing games: itch.io. I dug into that ginormous bundle that got passed around some time ago and only found very few .APK files, which is the install format for Android devices. Luckily, as mentioned, you can just search the site for Android games and eventually that landed me on Clicker Royale. A punchy name goes a long way, as you can immediately tell what the hook here is. That's solid marketing, plain and simple.

Despite the name, however, Clicker Royale is only an endurance fight in spirit. Made as a game jam by one single person, Maxence Jacquot, the project has a straightforward goal. Tap the button on the screen as much as possible, which will have an effect depending on the current phase. The first and main phase of the game has the taps yield gold. In turn, that currency unlocks a shop with three slots, which hold more power, a multiplier, health or a way to click automatically. The auto clicker option gets cutely represented as a separate finger tapping the button. If you buy twenty fingers, you'll see all twenty digits going at it! 2022 is the year of excessive on-screen elements and I love it.

With each item purchased, the price of the next shop items increase, so multipliers are the most coveted item. There's a pretty sharp balance that requires you to keep tapping, no matter what, so the exponential increase really helps the strain on your poor fingers. In my case, I held my phone in the age-old Tekken claw, so that I could distribute my hits with multiple digits. My second hand hovered above the shop, so no time ever went lost to transition. Work smarter, not harder. You know, it's about time that a clicker game actually required active participation to be a main gameplay factor. It's pretty strange that we've sort of accepted that there are games that play themselves for us, endlessly. Maybe it's best if we don't dwell on the use of psychology in video games for too long. It's all good fun, let's say.

After a set period of grinding money and power, Clicker Royale switches over to a fight sequence. This is what the buildup is meant for. Once again, you'll be furiously hitting your phone screen to defeat a little ghost that does damage over time. After a successful bout, you'll be rewarded with a hefty sum that helps you seed the next round. Health can be regained by eating fries or burgers that are available in the shop. Then, the cycle starts anew.

This tight process will repeat a handful of times, with the final opponent being the king of the ghosts, whose crown is up for grabs. It's a tough boss, but as long as you keep blasting that phone screen, victory should be certain. That is all of Clicker Royale. You've seen the whole package. The entire playthrough will take about ten minutes, which is also the amount of time it takes for someone my age to have their hand cramp up. Maybe that run time is due to constraints around development time, maybe it's a deliberately ingenious calculation. Either way, it works perfectly to close the loop on an entire playthrough.

So yeah, despite its name, there isn't really that much battle royale as implied. This release is more of a light clicker with some growth potential. If there's any downside to Clicker Royale, it's that this is a concept that deserves to be fleshed out into a game with some real hooks or depth. More ways to scale, subsequent playthrough unlocks, enemy variety; that sort of thing. It's tough to really come down on it as a game jam item, however. Especially as a thing that was just made for fun, it's incredibly well established and cohesive. The entire idea is there and plays like a full release would, without any cut corners. Even the pixel art assets look clean. Consider this proof of concept, well, proven. Let's get to building out the full thing!

You'll probably not play Clicker Royale for more than an hour, but as a miniature clicker without the "numbers go up" disease of its peers, it's a refreshing experience. Download a game, play a game, win a game; all in the span of the same lunch break. You won't have to come back for daily missions or prestige exponential features. Having this game contain a natural ending is, in itself, a unique trait in the clicker genre. Then again, if it were to start developing into a full release, it would certainly be just as enticing. I may have even beaten it a few more times, just because it's fun to do. In the end, that's as good of a benchmark of a game as any. We like to have fun around here.

Given that this is a tiny, independent venture, consider leaving a nice comment on the game's itch.io page if you do decide to complete it one day. You can find Clicker Royale here.

Previous entry: League of Legends: Wild Rift

Remember auto chess? This genre suddenly sprouted from a Dota 2 mod, to a point where I was watching streamers load up the game, who had never even played a single match of the Valve monolith. Eventually, the genre became a craze that took over the zeitgeist from battle royales; that's how obsessed people were about this. The original mod creators went out to make their own version, while Valve adapted their property into Dota Underlords. Developer Riot made their version as well, like they steal any Valve game, with the creation of Teamfight Tactics (TFT).

For me, Dota Underlords was the perfect balance between the three iterations. The original didn't have a strong hook and TFT had that compounding League of Legends complexity that I just don't gel with. Underlords is straightforward, it has recognizable characters and its layers are easy to understand. Being on Steam is likely also a big advantage, though I've played more of the mobile port than anything. I've since attained the highest rank in the game and can call myself Lord of White Spire. That's probably a Dota thing; I don't know, I also have not played the original. In any case, I'm a big deal!

Well, to be frank, I'm only a Lord in the baby mode, Knockout. This version is a sped up distillation from the main game. There's a reason for that. If you've answered "no" to my previous question of remembering auto chess, then you are probably in the majority of people who have gotten the genre to dry up as quick as it landed. Underlords is a dead game, technically, which makes achieving great heights a little easier. It's not that you can't find a game; queues still pop in the fast mode, every minute or two. Rather, Valve has put the game on life support, like any of the company's projects that slither out, before Gabe goes back to printing money with Steam. Think of that what you will with the upcoming Steam Deck in mind.

There hasn't been an update in forever, which makes the meta just what it is now. Some compositions are strong, some are useless and there's no movement in that. This is mainly why the regular mode has a low player count. No one wants to spend over half an hour trying to build a team with units that are objectively worse, as everyone sucks up the limited pool of prime choices. Still, where Underlords has been left to die is kind of a nice place. It's like a hospice, but nature is really beautiful outside of its windows with no escape. It beats the view of a literal graveyard that my grandfather had, but I digress. There are a lot of good combinations that, with a bit of luck and some good item choices, can stop a fully upgraded Slark with a Mask of Madness. That's what's called an "S-tier" unit. Yes, there's a meta, but it's pretty wide and that's more than can be said for several other franchises.

So, how is the game played? Well, everyone starts with some gold and a bench that can hold a few units. Getting multiples of the same Dota hero will upgrade them to two and three stars, with its final form receiving an added bonus. There are two main layers on top of that. One comes from choosing increasingly better items that can be held by units, like the aforementioned Slark. Alternate things that are possible with items are increasing a certain alliance, which boosts multiple pieces at once, or obstructions that can be placed on the board. The other layer is managing an economy with a set of rules, like getting a bigger bonus every ten gold or receiving a pittance from a lost round. Oh, as the name implies, you're also given one of four overlords that have a specific theme. These special characters sort of funnel you to play a certain way, by granting the team a powerful boon.

A standard tactic in Underlords is trying to get to three star units as soon as possible, since their stats are just a lot better. Getting a finished Alchemist that burns down the entire enemy board will offer a lot of leeway for your dudes who haven't really popped yet. Another strategy is making sure that alliances are synergetic. Most units have several allegiances, which can be fit into a symbiotic group of bonuses. It's really fun to comprise a plan for which alliances are going to get the most out of the team, like a mini puzzle game within a game. On top of that, some of the openness that comes from building a team makes it possible to react to enemies. If someone is crushing your damage-heavy squad with magic, you can get scaly friends that resist those attacks, while also stunning the crap out of foes. Like any game, a healthy dose of crowd control goes a long way. Slark has both of those as well, by the way. Slark is very cool.

As a match advances, units that cost more gold will appear in the slot reels. A late game pick is a lot more powerful, but it's a lot more expensive, appears rarely and it's unlikely to grow. This push and pull of ramping choices is how the meta is created, as the bulk of the game is won earlier on. Usually, the big hitters are Beastmaster, Lycan, Omniknight or, of course, Slark. All of those cost three gold, which is the sweet spot between getting someone early and them being beefy. Still, a common late entry is Faceless Void; an assassin for five gold that freezes a large chunk of the playing field, while other members keep hacking away. Assassins are the best alliance, as they're highly mobile and do tons of damage. Spirits are kinda similar to that, but with a magical area of effect, which makes them a strong second.

Yet, Underlords really shines in how minimal these advantages are. Demons are glass cannons that are tough to maintain, but their damage can delete any board instantly. Regular old brawlers melt in the late game, but getting a lot of them early can overwhelm opponents before they can get there. Almost any combination, except one or two, has a fighting chance, if you know what you're doing. It'll take a while to really get a grasp of every part of the huge Underlords glossary, but even that has a lot of leniency. Since the depth comes in all these little steps, you can just mix and match alliances first, then figure out what abilities complement those choices, then figure out three star stuff and so on. When I first started, I didn't know a single late game ability and still managed to create teams that could win games. As long as stuff hits, it hits! That's the beauty of the game.

Dota Underlords is worth a whirl, considering the entry barrier is low and it's even possible to play against artificial opponents. The game is self-evident, it's elegant and it's versatile. And hey, since it's also in its death throes, just imagine how good you could be. You, too, could become a Lord of White Spire, since that's a lot more like a time investment than it is a skill barrier, at this point. If anything, the auto chess genre is just a clever spin on an active puzzle game, with a ton of replayability on top of that. There's a special joy to watching troops you've commandeered, but have no control over, duke it out and come out on top. That's the kinda stuff that makes you feel smart; you did that!

I'm sure Valve will update it any day now. Any day...

Previous entry: League of Legends: Wild Rift

Remember auto chess? This genre suddenly sprouted from a Dota 2 mod, to a point where I was watching streamers load up the game, who had never even played a single match of the Valve monolith. Eventually, the genre became a craze that took over the zeitgeist from battle royales; that's how obsessed people were about this. The original mod creators went out to make their own version, while Valve adapted their property into Dota Underlords. Developer Riot made their version as well, like they steal any Valve game, with the creation of Teamfight Tactics (TFT).

For me, Dota Underlords was the perfect balance between the three iterations. The original didn't have a strong hook and TFT had that compounding League of Legends complexity that I just don't gel with. Underlords is straightforward, it has recognizable characters and its layers are easy to understand. Being on Steam is likely also a big advantage, though I've played more of the mobile port than anything. I've since attained the highest rank in the game and can call myself Lord of White Spire. That's probably a Dota thing; I don't know, I also have not played the original. In any case, I'm a big deal!

Well, to be frank, I'm only a Lord in the baby mode, Knockout. This version is a sped up distillation from the main game. There's a reason for that. If you've answered "no" to my previous question of remembering auto chess, then you are probably in the majority of people who have gotten the genre to dry up as quick as it landed. Underlords is a dead game, technically, which makes achieving great heights a little easier. It's not that you can't find a game; queues still pop in the fast mode, every minute or two. Rather, Valve has put the game on life support, like any of the company's projects that slither out, before Gabe goes back to printing money with Steam. Think of that what you will with the upcoming Steam Deck in mind.

There hasn't been an update in forever, which makes the meta just what it is now. Some compositions are strong, some are useless and there's no movement in that. This is mainly why the regular mode has a low player count. No one wants to spend over half an hour trying to build a team with units that are objectively worse, as everyone sucks up the limited pool of prime choices. Still, where Underlords has been left to die is kind of a nice place. It's like a hospice, but nature is really beautiful outside of its windows with no escape. It beats the view of a literal graveyard that my grandfather had, but I digress. There are a lot of good combinations that, with a bit of luck and some good item choices, can stop a fully upgraded Slark with a Mask of Madness. That's what's called an "S-tier" unit. Yes, there's a meta, but it's pretty wide and that's more than can be said for several other franchises.

So, how is the game played? Well, everyone starts with some gold and a bench that can hold a few units. Getting multiples of the same Dota hero will upgrade them to two and three stars, with its final form receiving an added bonus. There are two main layers on top of that. One comes from choosing increasingly better items that can be held by units, like the aforementioned Slark. Alternate things that are possible with items are increasing a certain alliance, which boosts multiple pieces at once, or obstructions that can be placed on the board. The other layer is managing an economy with a set of rules, like getting a bigger bonus every ten gold or receiving a pittance from a lost round. Oh, as the name implies, you're also given one of four overlords that have a specific theme. These special characters sort of funnel you to play a certain way, by granting the team a powerful boon.

A standard tactic in Underlords is trying to get to three star units as soon as possible, since their stats are just a lot better. Getting a finished Alchemist that burns down the entire enemy board will offer a lot of leeway for your dudes who haven't really popped yet. Another strategy is making sure that alliances are synergetic. Most units have several allegiances, which can be fit into a symbiotic group of bonuses. It's really fun to comprise a plan for which alliances are going to get the most out of the team, like a mini puzzle game within a game. On top of that, some of the openness that comes from building a team makes it possible to react to enemies. If someone is crushing your damage-heavy squad with magic, you can get scaly friends that resist those attacks, while also stunning the crap out of foes. Like any game, a healthy dose of crowd control goes a long way. Slark has both of those as well, by the way. Slark is very cool.

As a match advances, units that cost more gold will appear in the slot reels. A late game pick is a lot more powerful, but it's a lot more expensive, appears rarely and it's unlikely to grow. This push and pull of ramping choices is how the meta is created, as the bulk of the game is won earlier on. Usually, the big hitters are Beastmaster, Lycan, Omniknight or, of course, Slark. All of those cost three gold, which is the sweet spot between getting someone early and them being beefy. Still, a common late entry is Faceless Void; an assassin for five gold that freezes a large chunk of the playing field, while other members keep hacking away. Assassins are the best alliance, as they're highly mobile and do tons of damage. Spirits are kinda similar to that, but with a magical area of effect, which makes them a strong second.

Yet, Underlords really shines in how minimal these advantages are. Demons are glass cannons that are tough to maintain, but their damage can delete any board instantly. Regular old brawlers melt in the late game, but getting a lot of them early can overwhelm opponents before they can get there. Almost any combination, except one or two, has a fighting chance, if you know what you're doing. It'll take a while to really get a grasp of every part of the huge Underlords glossary, but even that has a lot of leniency. Since the depth comes in all these little steps, you can just mix and match alliances first, then figure out what abilities complement those choices, then figure out three star stuff and so on. When I first started, I didn't know a single late game ability and still managed to create teams that could win games. As long as stuff hits, it hits! That's the beauty of the game.

Dota Underlords is worth a whirl, considering the entry barrier is low and it's even possible to play against artificial opponents. The game is self-evident, it's elegant and it's versatile. And hey, since it's also in its death throes, just imagine how good you could be. You, too, could become a Lord of White Spire, since that's a lot more like a time investment than it is a skill barrier, at this point. If anything, the auto chess genre is just a clever spin on an active puzzle game, with a ton of replayability on top of that. There's a special joy to watching troops you've commandeered, but have no control over, duke it out and come out on top. That's the kinda stuff that makes you feel smart; you did that!

I'm sure Valve will update it any day now. Any day...

Previous entry: Fantasy Life Online

I dove into my backlog of mobile games for this next entry of Mobile Game of the Week. MGOTW? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue smoothly. Anyway, I've discovered a few things. The first is that a bunch of the games I've played have now been discontinued, meaning I'm unsure if I can still mention them here. They've made a lot of cool stuff out there and then axed that same stuff. Secondly, given my tastes in service games, I've been stuck playing a loop of several daily features. I forgot that these numbers don't get themselves up. It's a full time job.

I think, in that light, the game with the least psychological hooks in me is League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile version of the popular multiplayer giant. Yup, developer Riot Games just put that game on phones, after a successful campaign of making portable versions of their other clones, Not Hearthstone and Not Dota Underlords. Their development cycle is, let's just say, transparent. For Wild Rift, specifically, the adaptation might be the best thing that's happened to their flagship. In essence, it's just that game you know, except it's been distilled into a streamlined experience that's more easily digestible in every way.

So, to recap, the game has that classic multiplayer structure. And no, I won't be calling the genre by its ridiculous acronym. Here's the skinny: Five heroes with abilities face five others on a fairly symmetric map, which also has some monsters and defense towers on both ends. The goal is to destroy the enemy base, by growing that hero and unlocking more skills, as well as buying enhancing gear with the spoils of your labor. There are monsters that boost power or break down towers, heroes can hide in bushes for an ambush attempt or plants can be destroyed for special effects. A second layer to the game is understanding the three lanes and the space in between, called the jungle. League is very insistent in what behavior it expects in each section, for better or worse.

In the mobile game, some of the above is stripped down, so that the map is more viewable on a small screen. Moreover, by condensing this experience, a standard round will take closer to twenty minutes or less. In that genre, that's not a lot of time. It's totally possible to just pick up and play, though that's in essence. In reality, this sort of game still requires a lot of literacy to do anything other than playing against artificial intelligence (AI). Every hero has a specific skill set, which they can also amplify with a range of gear. The map has different objectives at certain times, but that also takes into account the current play and where everyone is located. Every simultaneous factor creates a wildly malleable monster of a game, completely fluid and open in how it's going to unfold, though equally set in its ways. Sure, you can just press buttons, which Wild Rift definitely facilitates, but playing blindly is easily exploited.

People have been playing League of Legends for many years, so even in the lowest barrier matches, anyone who overextends is essentially dead every time. You will need to learn what a laning phase is. What's an ADC and why do people get so mad at it? There's a whole compendium of stuff that everyone, except you, has internalized already. That sucks and has always sucked, in every single one of these games. There's too much stuff and too much expectancy around that stuff. Some heroes are told to stay in a certain lane or leave killing minions to their colleagues. Others need to be everywhere at once and have infinite power. Do anything wrong and it feels like an uphill battle, even if the game really doesn't work like that. One good team fight can turn any tide.

Personally, I manage this huge stress factor by primarily focusing on the map. Enemies will run into the jungle and that puts them in a prime location to get overwhelmed. That is, if they're not baiting you, which is where using a lot of vision tools around you can help. Once an advantage presents itself, it's pivotal to capitalize on it immediately, by slaying large monsters that grant boons to the whole team. If that's not possible, even just destroying camps that are on the enemy side means more resources for you and less for them. Navigating the map and being swift about removing the enemy's choices is just as effective as taking the fight head-on. Don't worry, someone on the team is always looking to be the one that makes the highlight reels. I've gotten just as many Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards by destroying turrets that the opponent ignored as I have from just jumping into a full brawl. As long as you keep your brain on, you'll make it out okay, considering an ambush can happen at any time.

It is not feasible to play Wild Rift while spaced out. It ain't that kind of phone game. You will die. The upside is that rounds are relatively short, so the small bursts allow you to dip out when you've expended your brain capacity for the day. On top of that, the game itself is a lot more straightforward than the main product. There's one route, one split and even items can be built automatically. Wild Rift takes away any burden that it can and squeezes it into a diamond that is the best of its elements. Truly, that is this mobile version's biggest accomplishment. This game is League of Legends, but just the good parts, faster and easier to parse. Wild Rift is, frankly, just plain better than PC League. Play it whenever, get as good as you want at it, then leave when you're done. It's all so simple.

Obviously, as a live service, there's still an element to it that tries very hard to sell expensive cosmetics. To be fair, Riot has had a lot of experience in creating some damn good skins, even if their model is predatory. Wow, these designs are some of the best in all of video games. There are some enchanting outfits in there, even if the most alluring are often more costly than they should be. See, it's virtually impossible to buy a skin without having to buy a higher tier of currency. Every time, a purchase will just fall a few gems short of what a tier grants you. You want this skin for 340 magic beans? Well, you can buy 320 beans for ten bucks or get 650 for twenty. It's a scummy practice, no matter how you look at it. To somewhat deflect that, there's a system that will eventually grant players a free random skin. It won't be a skin for any character and it takes hundreds of games to get, but it's something.

Luckily, Wild Rift is a game built on replayability, so rounds will speed on by. Somehow, I've already amassed a thousand matches and I don't think I play that much? I'm definitely still learning every day. I just found out that a skill I was using habitually could go through walls, which opened up a whole new world. There are constant updates, clans, other battle modes, the whole nine. Will this be everyone's cup of tea? Probably not, as that initial knowledge barrier will always be an issue. Anyone willing to get over this dozen hour hump, however, may find one of the best apps out there. Wild Rift is a video game, not just a mobile game, down to expertly implemented controls that feel natural. It's telling that this product was years in the making, because the result is the best it could've been. Hopefully, Wild Rift is an evolution as to what is possible for mobile games. It certainly is currently at the top of its League, umm, league.

Ever since having to readjust my gaming life considerably, I've had a lot of conversations with people about mobile games. Surprisingly, almost everyone I talked to still thinks of phone games as the relics of app store garbage from a decade ago. It's a mentality that I've seen a lot, with multiple genres. Every free game is pay-to-win, every gachapon game is a cash grab and every mobile game is not worth more time than a standard bathroom break. People are very reluctant to try new things, even when the barrier is as low as possible. As such, these ancient ideas become monoliths of judgement. Something something about exceptions making the rule.

Additionally, I mentioned in my previous, totally nondescript blog that I've used a lot of mobile games as distractions lately. So, to chart a more positive course, I thought this would be the perfect storm to periodically highlight all the stuff I've installed on my phone over the years. Most of those installs are good! Some of them are very bad. Just like my other tastes, I spend a lot of time on garbage.

We're going to start off with the opposite of garbage, however. The first mobile release I want to point out to every soul I can is Fantasy Life Online. To put it bluntly, Fantasy Life Online is my Game of the Year. If I were to keep up with Giant Bomb tradition, this would be the sort of thing I'd take out the whiteboard and PowerPoint presentation for. Do I think it should be at the top of your list as well? Maybe we don't need to go that far, but it deserves some more general spotlight.

As I like to say, Fantasy Life Online is certainly the biggest massively multiplayer online (MMO) game with Fantasy in the title that was released this month. Even its servers just work, which can't be said for everyone. For the uninitiated, the series started as a cult hit on Nintendo 3DS, but as with every Japanese project at the time, the next installment went mobile. That's where the audiences are, now that phones are basically just computers. Tough cookies for non-Japanese people who see that platform as below them, which is also why the game wasn't localized until right now. In fact, it's half a miracle that you can play this outside of Japan today, with the double whammy of developer Level-5 no longer looking to localize their stuff and them also announcing the death of this very game in Japan. That's right, development of Fantasy Life Online has already ended before it was even out. That's going to make this localized cycle extremely interesting.

The role-playing game (RPG) revolves around a dozen job systems; something that should be familiar to the Fantasy fans. Except, in this game, we call that job a life, hence the name. Each life is a specialty, whether you want to spend your time questing, crafting dozens of armors or just run around to fish. Each path has its own progressive arc, which is kept pretty similar, so that you can learn new things more easily. Think of it more as an obsession. Right now, I want to sow dresses and suits and make shoes and scarfs and and and… It's very easy to get lost in the sauce, as the game always has just that next step ready for you. When that line is done, there will probably be a tie to another job, so that the whole process can repeat there.

To get all the chores done, Level-5 uses an old reliable method: Town building. Your personal hub is a space that can be fit with kitchens, forges and whatnot. This is mostly where I shine, because all I want to do in any MMO is dick around and make my own little corner there as cozy as I can. I spent the majority of my first dozen hours working towards cosmetics, while everyone else was racing to end game content. My town has nice brick pavements, a picnic area and, not one, but two bars for people to hang out. Every other village I visit is a utilitarian hole. Everyone that lives in my town is constantly beaming with happiness and that's exactly what I like. My people will want for nothing. I say that, while most of my townsfolk are still working constant twelve hour shifts in their respective job facilities, but that's a bit too grim of a reality for this cute game. You get experience and rewards, okay? The numbers must go up, you understand.

To get those people to run about, Fantasy Life Online introduces the gacha aspect. It's a phone game, after all. There are slots to collect party members, who come from the story parts of the RPG. The one aspect about this game that just sucks is that, if you were to pay for any of it, the prices would be exuberant. Developer Boltrend Games, who also ports games like Disgaea, has a tendency to focus on high cost gacha trappings. By the by, those gacha hooks go way deep; a lot deeper than this feel-good game needs. Luckily, the nuance here is that you probably won't ever pay. Rather, you shouldn't pay these terrible prices. Even as an avid gacha fan, I haven't put more than a symbolic support payment in. There are plenty of opportunities to get a sufficient lineup for free. I don't even think about the gacha element, most of the time.

Further mitigating disaster is the multiplayer aspect, as a lot of the MMO is facilitated to be played with others. It's easier to jump in a session than it is to solo grind. By now, most active users have power leveled to carry anyone who enters an instance with them. And boy, is this the most effortless grind I've ever witnessed. A whole boss dungeon takes about five to ten minutes. That's without taking into account party members that use super effective elements. With the right party, a rush is over in a flash.

If Fantasy Life Online excels at anything, it's that it respects your time. It gets you in, you do the thing, you leave a nice emote and you're back out. This goes for obtaining rare ingredients and defeating powerful foes alike. Almost every goal is a straight shot to obtain, which is such a refreshing way to play an MMO. I can only think of a select few bosses that are out of immediate reach. You'll always feel like you got work done today. I've managed to grind end level gear for the first time in forever and it took me maybe two days worth of concentrated effort. Any other game would've asked for a full time commitment, but not Fantasy Life Online. The game understands that you might want to do something completely different at any time, so it doesn't keep you trapped down one specific path.

On top of that, the MMO is also incredibly easy to play. Actions only require a screen tap, while retaining the core elements of active combat, such as using items, dodging and charging up skillful attacks. There's a good amount of mixing and matching to optimize strategies, but it's equally possible to just mash it out, depending on the mood. Play this like a phone game or a standard RPG, up to you. As with most Level-5 releases, the accessibility of play and depth it can maintain is the best of both worlds. From Professor Layton to Yokai Watch to this.

I'm still amazed that we were somehow blessed with a game that should've never gotten to us. This makes up for Level-5 publishing a Ni No Kuni MMO this year and not launching it globally. Yeah, that's totally a thing too! We might get a global release of that next year, however, maybe. What's even more astounding, still, is that Fantasy Life Online flew under the radar of so many people who have been looking for the next Level-5 release. The MMO lives up to the expectation of the developer's excellence; it's just that it exists on your phone. It is my humble opinion that anyone should download this game and give it a fair shot for two or three days, the same way you'd give any RPG a chance. It might just become a daily distraction. Maybe, just maybe, it might redefine how you think about playing mobile games altogether. As long as you end up having a good time, because Fantasy Life Online is, if nothing else, a good time.

The title is a double entendre, because I'm dying of a mysterious illness. That's not the subject here though, I just thought that would be funny. Rather, I wanted to do some housekeeping and hold myself accountable, inspired by another Giant Bomb thread about finishing your video game plate.

Four months ago, I mentioned in my questing blog that I finally started tackling my backlog dark horse, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. Every single time I've started that game previously, I almost immediately put it down. Still, at the time, I had given myself until the end of the year to beat one more game; a gross exaggeration of time needed, I thought at first. Well, I regret to inform you that I haven't finished the PSP version of this Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) and I don't think I will get it done in the week or so I have left in 2021. A non-trivial factor of that is the death part, but more realistically it is all the other usual distractions that have taken me away from the Sony portable. I'll mention those in a bit.

Lunar started off pretty strong. As a first impression, this JRPG is a lot more palatable than most in the same era. Story progresses way smoother than its peers, there are fewer instances of arbitrary stopping points and even grinding isn't a necessity, for the most part. You can absolutely just hop-skip your way through and that's very rare in this otherwise very defined genre. On top of that, Lunar is anime as all hell. Every story beat gets capped with a video cutscene, which is pretty impressive. The baddies in this game are also baddies, you know what I mean? When I loved playing Lunar, I made steady progress; averaging at a risky PSP recharge every two days. As an aside: Check your batteries frequently, because they might not be doing so well.

Around the same time that I posted the blog, however, I started contracting whatever abject bullshit I have now. That event made times where I could play a little more difficult. More than that, still, was Lunar's slow venom itself that did me in. Now that I had less stamina to spend, the JRPG-y-ness started popping it's head out. Around the turn of the second act, the game no longer thinks that breezing your way through is cool anymore. Reject modernity, embrace tradition! Instead, Lunar throws in an old fashioned labyrinth dungeon. Then it does that same thing again. In total, there are three of these grueling mazes and you do them back-to-back-to-back. Ouch. Even with full lucidity, that would've drained any motivation I had to play. I'm no stranger to obtuse dungeon crawling, but that's quite the brick wall to smash on your head like that.

So, whenever I felt less inclined to inch forward, I played some of the usual suspects that I go to whenever I need to distract myself. We all get that urge to just click some buttons for a while, right? At first I played Pokemon GO, which updates surprisingly frequently, until I couldn't stand up anymore. By that time, Pokemon Unite came out on mobile and that gave me an alternative to League of Legends: Wild Rift. I went all-in on that game, until I couldn't stand playing solo anymore. I'm too old to babysit other people's children in online games. Moving on, I dove back into Monster Hunter Stories, which is still an amazing and overlooked gem. I don't understand why more people didn't play it. Fast forward to now, when I bought Kingdom: New Lands and got deep into the Super Auto Pets hole. Both of those are a good time as well. I'll make sure to write about all of them, one day.

About a dozen "distractions" later, I had to stop making excuses for myself that I was getting back to Lunar any minute now. The PSP is still right here next to me on my coffee table, but it might as well be in space. It's safe to say that I haven't touched the JRPG since, despite being more than halfway through. I'm enjoying other games and I suppose that's okay. Maybe I'll pull another NeverDead and suddenly complete it over a year later. I really thought I was going to do it this time though, heck! I even lined up an entire new backlog, for when I was done. Did I mention that I bought every Pokémon game in a ridiculously feverish haze? I just own those now, even though all of their save batteries have died. Also check your Gameboy cartridge batteries, I guess. There's a lot of battery checking when you like old video games.

I'm sorry that I'm a fraud, a charlatan, a filthy casual who can't even finish one tiny JRPG, like some sort of adult baby person. For now, consider Lunar: Silver Star Harmony to be in the aptly dubbed pile of shame. It joins Dragon Quest V on Nintendo DS, whose cartridge I lost in a random DS game case somewhere, as well as 3D Dot Game Heroes and about five more classics that people keep telling me to play. In my defense, it takes quite some time to run daily objectives in this month's biggest MMO release. That MMO is Fantasy Life Online. What big MMO did you think came out this month? It's the Fantasy one, right? Fantasy Life is currently running a Christmas event where you get attacked by angry snowmen. Except the translation in that game is ever so iffy, so the monsters are called "White Devil" instead. Defeat the white devil! It's a creed we can all rally behind.

There are a ton of really cool video games out there and only so much time to play them all. At some point, I'll grow towards some sort of acceptance that I won't play the thousands in my backlog, but I've really only begun the grieving process. I'm bad and I should feel bad. And you know what? I do feel pretty bad.

Blessed holidays to my all of Giant Bomb family and may the new year bring in a tide of change.

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, now known as PUBG, is a phenomenon to say the least. The game went from being the undisputed king, changing the very shape of video games to this day, to being an evanescent afterthought in that very same space. Giant Bomb even crowned it as Game of the Year, in a pretty controversial turn of events. If you still play the battle royale (BR) genre that it has soared to the top of our zeitgeist today, however, it's unlikely that your to-go choice is still the OG, the classic; your granddaddy's BR, at this point. Once Fortnite stole the formula, and they did that quite literally, it was open season for competitors. The gaming landscape was never the same. Remember Hyper Scape? Of course you don't.

Despite a drop in popularity and player base, there is still one corner where PUBG quietly shines: Esports. After a rough start, where the first big tournament was won by playing hide and seek or swimming, the grassroots movement behind the game started to take matters into its own hands, to clean up the mess that Bluehole, now Krafton, had created. Since then, the esport has become this strategic, ever-changing highlight reel, where not one game is the same and every round feels like the glory days, from back when we were all playing with our friends.

Pardon the language, but holy fucking shit is PUBG esports good. The spectacle is a lot more viewable than your Overwatch or Dota 2. The game is more cerebral or climactic than the lightning fast Counter-Strike and its carbon copy, Valorant. Choices aren't seen as overly simple like Rocket League, but also not as tricky as StarCraft. Watching PUBG strikes the perfect middle ground, while keeping the adrenaline in its active moments at a constant high. There's a dip here or there, but to explain the entire history behind how the game is played would simply take too long. I'm really trying not to do that. Once you've seen a few matches, you know what to expect and that's when all the subtleties behind the sport will blow you away. It's unreal how good these players have become at playing PUBG. You thought hitting that Kar98 shot at 200 meters was cool that one time? These players are doing the same thing, but by using their M4 with a 4X scope. They can fire a Mini14 as fast as any automatic rifle, with the same long range accuracy as a sniper. They've started doing drive-by shootings these last few years, with such vivacity that the game had to be patched to nerf it. That hasn't stopped players from finding new ways to impress the audience, with every new update.

So why am I fawning over this elder video game? Why now? Well, the PUBG Global Championship 2021 (PGC) is happening right now. For anyone that I'm talking to at the moment, I've likened PGC to the football World Cup. Throughout the year, teams rack up points in events and those who are at the top, in their respective region, qualify for the grand finale that determines the best in the world, in this month-long tournament. It's all come down to this. They even created fantasy teams around events, which I also eagerly play in. I've had middling results, but I just placed in the top 50 and I improve my prospects with every new roster. My point is: The hype for PUBG esports is at an all-time high, for a multitude of reasons.

One of the main attractions to this competition is the amount of storylines that have developed, throughout the year and then once again in the tournament itself. A team made it through open qualifiers in Europe, all the way to the global stage, based solely on raw, undiscovered talent. Spacestation Gaming in North America was unsure of their position until the very last game of the very last qualifier, only making it in at the very last second. Dignitas, an early favorite, started losing steam and eventually got in by the skin of their teeth, only to crater so hard that they didn't even play past the first leg of the tournament. There are stories like this for every region, with new players making their name and monolithic teams being toppled left and right.

The tournament has just completed its first week, which was first decided by seeding teams through a point system. In the second event, those teams would, in descending order, play 16 games that would trade out the winner of each match for the next team on the board. The 16 dinner winners would finally compete to be the week's victor, once more decided by a points system. The bottom 16 spots, who didn't manage to get a chicken dinner, would then play a brutal six matches, to reshuffle where they'd come in on the aforementioned dinner format, for the next week. Being in the bottom lobby is no joke either, as there are ultimately always going to be a few highly favored teams that just didn't manage to get that one important top place finish. Playing just six games, to see if you get a better shot, has been grueling for those few squads that ride the middle of the pack, when one of the teams in that lobby is literally Asia's MVP, who just had an off week. No part of the event has a noticeable skill gap or a team who just can't compare. Every round is a brutal head-to-head, every time.

Susquehanna Soniqs, the defending champion, was in this bottom lobby. No one would believe you if you had said this a month ago. What happened here is that the best teams usually get the best spots on the map. That is, the best team in each region gets their pick. In a global tournament, however, there is a bit of a debate about who that team really is, which creates the concept of the "hot drop." If a region feels they can have a certain area over others, they'll land there together and duke it out at the start of the game. Soniqs, not wanting to lose face, accepted all comers and, well, they got their wish. Multiple squads bombed their spots and the reigning champion found out that, while they are exceptionally skilled, Chinese teams in particular excel at one thing: Kicking the everliving daylight out of anyone in immediate range. The Soniqs might come out on top in a measured approach, but when it comes to landing, picking up the first gun you see and running right at the enemy, there is no team on the planet more aggressive than 17 Gaming. These Chinese players put their boot on the American squad and flushed them out, time and again, as well as any others who would dare to do the same. As an aside, Asia does not play by the same rules in general, which seems to take other regions off guard every other year.

After being kicked so far down the board that Soniqs could only play a single game to win a chicken dinner, the defending champ made it to the top 3 in that final game. Oh, it was almost the comeback story of the century; everyone was going nuts as Soniqs just pushed ever forward, dismantling team after team in a blind yet calculated rage. It was too good to be true, as with a decrease in cover and territory, Thailand's Buriram United managed to choke out the champion, to fight their own way in the week's finals with tooth and claw. That's Buriram United, the PUBG team, not the football team. I mean, technically they're the same organization, but we really don't have time to dive that deep.

In the week's finals, another upset unfolded. A team of Argentinians, now picked up by KPI Gaming, claimed their spot in a sordidly debated way. Latin America had to be fused into North America, because the disparity in teams was getting to be too much. To balance things out, Latin America got one guaranteed spot for PGC. Some claim that this would give a spot in the global event "for free" to a team that just happened to be from a region, regardless of skill. KPI Gaming also happens to play in a very defensive style, where they turtle up in the center of the circle and wait for the competition to die. All their success has come from just being present late in the game and then striking at that opportunity. It felt a lot like the old PUBG, the hide and seek PUBG that got laughed out of the spotlight. We're sending these people to the biggest event of the year?

When teams of this caliber make the cut, we quickly forget what it takes to become a competitor. Remember that I mentioned how good players are? Any player on any roster can frag like crazy, no matter how taped together their squad appears to be. Well, KPI set up that trap like a genius, getting everyone to believe they were just little rats, only to unleash at the last moment. Oh, did I mention that there's a giant prize pool for anyone that gets to the grand finale? Maybe that had something to do with it. From being a dark horse, KPI followed their usual plan to get their four players in that final circle and then steadily began pushing earlier and harder every round. Suddenly these turtles were picking up 5 kills or more every game, while also maintaining a chance at winning the chicken dinner for even more placement points. Third place, second place, second most kills, first in damage; the stats kept coming up for KPI.

It all came down to the final game against their first place competitors, the murderous squad of Ghibli Esports. The Koreans play the opposite style of the Argentinians, never letting go of the gas. Ghibli will either win a game by killing everyone or rack up the kill points from fighting until they die. They do not care. At first, it looked like KPI was going for the tried and true method of waiting it out. That is, until they saw the kill feed. Reading the feed in PUBG esports is a vital source of information, to deduce where a squad is and, more importantly, get a sense of how healthy they are. One player of Ghibli goes down. KPI are relatively near. You can hear the shots line up with the knocks. That fight continues, with Ghibli trading their usual blows. That means, however, that for a few moments Ghibli is vulnerable to a third party arriving and KPI smell blood. They hunt down their competition relentlessly, because only one thing matters. If Ghibli dies, then whatever else happens in the last game is inconsequential. The Ghibli members start falling apart and only one player manages to retreat, clinging on to hope, but KPI do not let this go and continue the chase with a single objective. The last Ghibli player meets an early end and the squad that no one wanted to see in the finale wins the first week of PGC on their own terms. KPI are now the team everyone needs to look out for. Gen.G, the fan favorite, had been last place the entire time in another tragic storyline. They win this last match and redeem themselves in the eyes of the audience, presenting a hopeful outlook for the next stage.

There are still two weeks of this rotation system to go, before the grand finale starts. If you take anything from this, it's that PUBG esports is a game like no other. It is unrivaled in what it can achieve and it stumps expectation any time you think you've seen it all. I could talk about this thing all day and do, in my daily Twitter threads. Someone got two consecutive headshots while aiming at a flying car. Another held out multiple full teams as a solo player to get a top 3 finish. One player, with 20 hit points left, managed to somehow hold down an open corner for a full minute with only a shotgun and a dream, coming out on top in the end. Every match is different. Every time it's the best game you've ever seen. There's rarely a dull moment.

In this lengthy essay, I will try to get you to watch the PUBG World Cup with me, also called PGC. It streams every day on the PUBG Twitch channel and you can catch up to the days you've missed on their esports YouTube feed. I promise you that it is worth your time.

See you there <3