Words of Wisdom: Mind to the Grind

Adversity is often key in cultivating a sense of who we truly are.


The great educator that is death…just look at how
many lessons I learned

Not to say that we don’t deserve a break every now and again, but the struggle of the everyday and how we decide to build ourselves in the face of difficulty is integral to the growth process. Whether it be something as simple as playing a video game, or something as grand as confronting our own existential value in the face of the seemingly infinite expanse of the entire universe in our waking hours, every moment is instrument in building us up into the kind of person we will become. I think that’s why it’s important to not just throw ourselves into the grind without purpose or thought relentlessly, but be mindful about how we do so. When we put our mind to the grind as well as our bodies, we can not only test ourselves in a number of ways, but we can also be mindful while we do it. I think there’s a lot of worth in the phrase work smarter not harder, and applying our experience, wisdom, and insight into how we are able to process the harsh realities of life, to better prepare for even more in the future, and the best ways to cultivate ourselves in the process, will not only temper us into improved versions of ourselves, but with mindfulness, the most ideal person we want to be will come out on the other end.

Take care of yourself, and others.

~Pashford

NieR: Automata Making Fan Service Fashionable

I’m guessing anime fans are some of the most dehydrated people on the face of the planet…


Cause they always seem thirsty as hell

On a somewhat related tangent (wait for it), I’m always on the look out for some great behind the scenes moments and deep dives into “how the sausage is made”, so to speak, even though in reality, I would never actually want to know how literal sausage is made, as the process is grotesquely horrifying, so that was a very poor choice of words to try and enforce my metaphor with some impactful meaning, but it’s the end of a work week and I’m quite tired, you see. More to my point, having some insight from industry juggernauts and alumni of the old school variety giving their two cents on the inner machinations of what exactly makes gaming tick is always a delightfully welcomed and insightful experience. Though, on occasion, I am left just ever so slightly rather confused about the information I come across.


This was an intentional self-burn, to be fair, but
have you checked out any of the titles from the Kingdom
Hearts series recently?

In this realm of thought, I bring to the fore a quotation from a big wig cut from the Sony cloth and days of yore, Shuhei Yoshida, who recently spared a few moments in an interview being passed around in relevant circles, to share some perspective on the breakout success of 2017 action title, NieR: Automata:

“I think the Japanese game industry was revived after NieR so much so that I would say it was before NieR and after NieR,” Yoshida said. “To put it simply, I think NieR: Automata was the title that made people realize ‘let’s make something Japanese.'”

Interesting share by Yoshida, who has been around the block once or twice, but one that also comes as a complete shock to me, making me scratch my head wondering if I was paying close enough attention to gaming in the 2010’s as much as I thought I was. While Automata was undeniably successful in leaving it’s mark on the industry, I don’t ever really remember a lull in Eastern influences within the gaming world, neither in presentation, relevancy, or popularity from my recollection, which leaves me wondering why out of all games, Yoshida cites it more than others. The quote has been rattling in my brain for a couple of days now, and as I continue to ponder it, it does thrust into focus the undying urge to go back and do a quick retrospective of just where Japanese games seemingly dropped their native pretense and started chasing a more Western approach to design within the gaming world, or perhaps it was just trends he was referring to?


Exhibit A, B, C, and D maybe?

I’m not sure if that’s what he’s referencing exactly, though there does feel like more to this story, at least a piece missing that makes the mystery left more to the imagination without one being deeply familiar with the zeitgeist at the time. However, I never really stopped gaming in the 2010’s and have done so for decades now, so for something as large as this to have eluded my observational powers seems quite queer. If you factor in the notion that as an analogue of Eastern influences in entertainment, anime has been nothing but trending upwards and continuously gaining popularity for awhile now, and that both anime and gaming seem to run quite close to each other in terms of both audience reach and influence as well, I stand correct at what I thought was an already admirably track record on Automata’s behalf, and am now even more genuinely curious to go back to it, and re-explore titles from that time period, to better understand the context.

Ultimately, there’s plenty of room in the gaming world for all walks of life and perspectives, so if something high quality has a bias or a source of inspiration that resonates with people, gamers everywhere will benefit….

…which is why I would have never assumed that a more Japanese stylized influence would ever go out of fashion, cause anime fans are thirsty as hell, and gaming has a lot of overlap with that fandom, and NieR: Automata is all of that to a T. I guess people were less thirsty in the 2010’s?



Seems doubtful.

~Pashford

Behind the Games: Alien Signifiers

In a world that often defies the concepts of what constitutes normalcy, one is then tasked with the notion of approaching the everyday with a paranormal thought process.


Let’s get real spooky with it

Something I think about a lot that maybe doesn’t become more radically apparent to the readers eyes is more about the ideas behind the games themselves then just what the games “have to offer”. I’m sure I’ve stopped to consider before how others view or interpret gaming, though I find it’s always worth sharing just how deeply I’ve dug into the consideration of what those realities entail. I believe this thought has come to mind with my small article involving the Metroid Prime 4 reveal, and my approach in briefly covering “what it is” vs “what it isn’t”, or at the very least in a more paired down exposition of the matter, the information people wanted from the piece (or said trailer the piece was about, more so). I kind of alluded to some of what I’m speaking to right now with my mention of another article involving just what makes a “REAL” Zelda game, in fact a “REAL” Zelda game, and obviously, opinion’s will vary.


Worth it to mention for our younger readers, that
the trailer for Wind Waker on Gamecube, which debuted
more than twenty years ago, had initial push back from
a bunch of “hardcore” fans for not being a “REAL” Zelda game

One word I didn’t use at all in my original decontructionism involved with “The Abstract Limitations of Wisdom”, and it’s address of what entailed the “-ishness” of gaming in general was in reference to “signifiers”, which reappropriates a word from philosophy to better understand gaming through a similar lens, and helps to highlight my points in both frame of reference for how I view games, and the relative value of how others view games, among a myriad of aspects involving the “play” process. For example, with Metroid prime 4, I didn’t feel the need to focus on any lore indicators and or implications about the MP4 trailer, even the name of the planet, let alone the fact that Samus got “psychic abilities” to operate mechanisms within the games context. Some of this does boil down to priorities, as others may be more invested in the world of Metroid more than me, but the relative “signifiers” for what was present seemed on brand with MP4, which was the priority implicit with the presence of the “signifiers”, more so in the general vibe of what people would come to expect within the series defaults, more or less.

More to a specific mention, moments involving a new ability are relevant, yes, like Samus’ new “psychic abilities”. Though relevant, these abilities do represent just another “signifier” so to speak, and brings to light the idea of properties possessing propositions, that familiar which belongs to them, these elements they guarantee as “signifiers” and that one can effectively blend or utilize appropriately. Whether the utilization is through fantasy, sci-fi, or a hybridization process thereafter, the “signifiers” embody the rationalization of the entity, and thusly dictated and vindicated through the property possession proposition of said entity to predicated the “signifier”. One quick example that springs to me in reminding me of some of the “high” tech stuff that might pass off as a hybridization process thereafter (I.E. MAGIC) for such in the gaming realm is Metal Gear Solid, which more or less kind of comes off as purely magical in some respect, but still as a series, has a very strong identity, with effective “signifiers” for what gives Metal Gear Solid it’s “-ishness”, so to speak.


Pictured: “the unseen”, aka, nanomachines, son

With all that in focus, but shifting perspective a little bit, I think reassessing the priorities of the collective represents a good relative observation as well, as gaming possesses several interpretations, depending on who you speak to. I think, in maybe the most reductionist of approaches, reducing gaming to a consumer product…which it is, if we take away the magic of marketing and the beautifully blinding effects of nostalgia for just a moment, then we beging to see the justification process involving the relatively straight forward yet bizarrely abstract evaluation methodology of what the game worthy or unworthy, as it were


A set of signifiers, as it were, which sometimes entails
Captain’s America’s buttcheeks

Within an even greater narrowing of this perspective, or to help dismistify the trascendence process of worth to a zero sum total, Nintendo is essentially selling the player on this new game with signifiers, and in that context, you have to look at Samus’s new suit, the new abilities, and even in more obtuse ways, see “the unseeable”, to deduce whether or not both what you have been shown and from a marketing standpoint of excitement, what has not been shown, in order to justify to yourself whether or not these new signifiers represent a successful rationalization process to spend sixty dollars. I think to many, that would almost be a spoiled deconstructionism of what has occurred, with so many excitable hobbyists defending brand names or delusional fanboys already sold on the name Metroid Prime through a process of self-identifying through brand name and consumer product alone, the unseen of the trailer is the blind loyalism that follows a branding of signifiers that concludes an already spent sixty dollars, outside of further context.


Basically what anyone thinks when they start reading any philosophy

I had a lot more to say, which would have continued to dive into the notions of the metaphysical realities that follow suit in the observance of the nature of gaming and how those abstractions further and perhaps even more importantly cement the notion of valuable signifiers within the realm of gaming and the unseen, as it were, but we’ll have to leave it there for now. I am left with the notion that I have long agreed, as an aside, with the old observance that gaming is a business that art sometimes escapes through, though that’s another conversation upon itself as well, and yet one more point of interest that will also have to wait patiently in the wings until it’s more timely debut is to be center stage within the theatrics of the gaming world.

~Pashford

Space Truckin’: Metroid Prime 4 Trailer

Steady is the hand that sets the world aflame


Being a momma’s boy while doing so: totally optional

A whole lot of gaming news to discuss and yet not a ton of time in which to yield to the exciting premises thereafter. A Nintendo direct did happen recently, and one of which I’ve only caught bits of, the most eye catching of which was most certainly Metroid Prime 4, slated for a 2025 release date. Though this Nintendo direct is going to be followed by another dominated and fixated by the Switch 2, Metroid Prime 4 got revealed beforehand, possibly suggesting it will be a multi-platform release, on both the Switch and it’s successor. Nintendo sometimes likes to do late comer releases on current gen tech, and then do a near simultaneous releases for their upcoming next gen console historically, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond may see a similar treatment, with a possibility of a Swtich 2 upgrade available for the game, which is currently slated for a Switch release in 2025.


Maybe the game will finally answer the age old
question of “y can’t metroid crawl?”

The trailer is both exciting and formulaic at the same time, with the game very much holding no big surprises for those familiar with the pedigree, a reliably impressive caliber following suit. Both atmospheric and immersive with cryptically dense but eye-popping backdrops, expect both exploration and combat to follow the successful template set down by the original trilogy. I’ve written before about the notion involving abstract limitations of wisdom, in just how different a game can be before it loses it’s own identity, and the question deserves investigation, though I don think there is a satisfying answer. As with most of life, let alone gaming, it’s all context, and the truth behind the curiosity is always enlightened by context. In the sake of an annual or semi-regular release, reinvention may be key in keeping the masses satisfied, as curveball novelty, tawdry quirks, or token eccentricities may rule the day to break up the inanity of the everyday monotony. If your series hasn’t seen an entry proper in almost twenty years however, one could venture a safe guess that you’re probably not going to have to worry about reinventing the wheel to get things rolling again…

…for that, you will likely only need one tried and true morph-ball power up. Trailer Below:

~Pashford

inZOI: A Life Sim Run By Kitties

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.


Mario obviously being a big fan of Shakespeare in
predicating his life on the bards perspective

Yesterday I mused about the absurdity of the internet making a big deal out of nothing, which was in and of itself, me operating under the absurdity on the internet making a big deal about nothing, by absurdly making a big deal out of the nothingness on the internet. So it goes, as Vonnegut would posit, and perhaps just the natural way of how this silly farce of a series of tubes often plays itself. In any case, the Nintendo Direct Sakurai tweeted about came and went, and certainly no Smash related news sprang from the event, though there is another Nintendo Direct coming up on April 2nd that is solely Switch 2 related, so Sakurai may yet have a hand in a grand reveal of some sort on the horizon, though I remain dubious it is of the Smash persuasion. In other non-Nintendo related news, a new life-sim game called inZOI is launching on Steam Early Access as we speak (article going up late 3/27), so barring any unforseen technological snafu’s, many should be enjoying their new slice of life simulator in full splendorous glory for the better part of tonight.


Expecting a lot of cat girls to be popping up…

Being in Early Access, the game will be weathering a storm in terms of a playtesting phase of sorts, and continuing to iron our a lot of bugs, glitches, and performance issues players will no doubtedly discover upon their early interactions with the game, but this is to be expected. The title will cost as much as a Sims expansion (reminder that the two only share genre DNA and are not in fact related) at $39.99, but any updates and content drops will belong to the players for good, even when the game moves out of Early Access. I think one of the things that struck me about inZOI upon reading about the title (from multiple huge outlets, mind you), is the palpable excitement for the title from the gaming industry at large. I’ve gone on recently about how gamers are a bit more multi-dimensional than they’re given credit for, with my musings on how many players are both interested in the quiet calmness of an Animal Crossing outing after pray and spraying down hordes of demons in Doom, and I think many’s collective giddiness about inZoi helps to hit that point home in how excited they are to play it.


…and recreate Billie Eilish in the hyper realistic character
creator, which is apparently a thing a lot of people like to do

Not only did the title become the most wishlisted title on Steam, but massive outlets have been serious about covering the experience, with PC Gamer even giving it a dedicated cover story for the May issue. I’m hoping to get my hands on inZoi to give it a test run if possible, as one of the big features of the game involves a more seamless open world approach to the sim experience, with three huge maps for you to choose from where a much larger collection of “Zois” will interact in more organic ways than the smaller bubbles Sims players have been accustomed to. Mix that in with what sounds like a super in-depth character and a focus on more AI fueled activities for the Zois themselves, and it sounds like there will be a lot to explore from the get go when inZOI launches.


Including cats! Who are the ones running the show
in-game. Be sure to pay tribute to your new cat overlords
with lots of snacks and scritches

Good thing inZoi is giving us a shot at creating a meow interesting every day in simulated format, because the real one we are all suffering right now just ain’t scratching that itch. Hope to be able to bring back some updates for you in the near future…maybe after a nice catnap or two.

~Pashford

Smash Bros. Creator Moves Finger, Makes Headlines

Another day, another dollar


Always money in the Kirby stand *makes
clicking noise with mouth*

Sleep is important, apparently, and a fact I’m surprised I so lamentably dismiss as a relevant notion on a regular basis. With that in mind, I peeled myself off of my bed with extraordinary prejudice just to get myself geared up to squeeze out the most minor of updates before being reclaimed by the sandman himself. Within that notion, I saw gamers absolutely losing their biscuits over a seemingly innocuous social media post earlier today, and I could do nothing but chuckle as the gears of the online machine started to inevitably move thusly. This instance, when viewed solely in a vacuum, would usually be nothing of note, but one that assessed in a much more macro sense, carries exciting implications.

I speak of course of this tweet, that Smash Bros. creator and beloved father of Kirby sent out earlier tonight in regards to an upcoming Nintendo Direct.


Smash Bros. for the Switch 2 launch CONFIMED?!?

I typed out that caption of course with nothing short of the loudest sigh imaginable shaking my head, as I merely echo the ridiculous sentiments of overly eager gossipers in the online spaces, because Smash Bros. fans are in-fucking-sane individuals who, based on their maniacal online machinations, would lead me to believe they may huff gasoline every single time before posting online, so consider your sources of information.

While I have no doubts Masahiro Sakurai will somehow be involved with the Nintendo Direct that will shed light on some of Ninty’s upcoming projects, the great cynic in me mostly certainly has extreme reservations in justifiably believing the next Smash Bros. game is involved. Sakurai, as previously mentioned, is also the creator of the Kirby series, which makes regular rounds on what seems like a yearly basis as a breadwinner for Nintendo, and most certainly a likely candidate to be apart of the reveal. Others were quick to latch onto the notion that the rumors involving a Kid-Icarus remaster was in the cards, and other obtuse jokers of the most rhetorical variety are crossing their fingers for a follow up to the puzzle action title Meteos 2. The man does seem to have quite a creative touch when approaching any project, so for him to perhaps step away from the Smash series after a quarter century of working on it to act as a mere consultant on the next game, while having the freedom to create a new IP of his own liking, would be a delightful enough prospect for me.

Whatever Sakurai’s involvement with the upcoming Nintendo direct, I’m sure fans will be in for a treat for the upcoming previews of the Big N’s projects.

~Pashford

GOAT Goat

Sometimes, you just got to kick back and relax.


Some of us need it a lot more than others

Not much today from me, as both my mood and the weather are in a quaint state of idyllic contentment right about now, so relaxing seems to be my imminent concern. Though my gaming usually takes the bent of challenging, hyperactive, intense etc…there is still plenty of titles one can be positively silly engaging with on more lackadaisical days like the one I am experiencing at the moment. Such was the reminder when I saw this little nugget pop up on my feed, and gave me a giggle something fierce as I was reminded of the awesome reality that is Goat Simulator. The “Goat Direct” as it were, obviously aiming not to be upstaged by Nintendo’s Switch 2 first look the following day, and while having a go at the reality of April 1st being a prime-time hotspot for a fake news fiasco, no doubt comes draped in ridiculous seriousness in it’s intent and approach, in helping to pull back the curtain on not just some of the upcoming updates for Goat Simulator 3 by developer Coffee Stain North, but other goat like oddities they’ve been cooking up recently.


Explosive goat news impending, if I had to use my
decades of refined gaming expertise to broadcast an
educated guess

The Goat Simulator series helps to remind us that gaming has truly evolved over the years, and that the industry is not just for the AAA behemoths and budget breaking game development cycles plagued by crunch with 1000 person teams it is known for, but has plenty of room for both the smaller teams with a simple mission statement: absurdist, lighthearted fun. The event also reminds me how long I’ve been covering the gaming news, as I remember writing an article covering the inevitable launch of Goat Simulator 1 set to launch on April 1st about 11 years ago around this time when I had a gig as an editor-in-chief for commercial site way back when, sporting a similarly goofy grin covering the event more than a decade ago.

Time really flies when you’re kidding around.
~Pashford

Words of Wisdom: Self-Discovery

Finding out who we are is a lifelong process


Unless you’re Face McShooty…then you’re kind of fucked on the
whole “self discovery front”

That’s why I find games are a truly unique technological treasure in our modern age, as we can use them for more than just passive fun or as idle time killers. Video games represent one of the most inventive mediums of the 20th century, and as tech continues to evolve in the 21st, so do we, whether it be our individual tastes, preferences, or curiosities. Humanity is an endless wellspring of possibility, and our potentials are as boundless as our options, but sometimes, we just don’t know it yet. That’s why something as simple as a video game can reveal our true selves, as they allow us to explore not only our hidden desires, but our most intimate dreams and deepest desires of who we are now, or who we think we want to be through experimentation and exploration. Maybe next time when you boot up a game, stop and really think to yourself: how do I want to play this? Or who am I really? And then go find out what makes you trule happy through the act of play.

Make sure to take care of yourself, and others.
~Pashford

Gaming Review: Rapid Fire

Don’t forget to slow down and smell the flowers.


Unless it’s this one. Run far away from this one.

Cannibalistic horticulture aside, my sentiment remains true, in encouraging individuals to slow down, take some time, and enjoy some self-reflection when one can. With that said, I’ve reached the end of another work week, and as always, I’m positively pooped. In pushing myself to rise to the occasion to meet the “quotas” set forth by creative challenges (I.E. write everyday consecutively for a month), I do tend to wear myself thin, but it is in response to feeling as if I’m simply not doing enough. The downside to this is that I rarely can find the time to do more long winded articles…or really anything aside from quick posits of wisdom or straight forward news poats, which is at least still affording me some practice in the realm of creative consistency. To wit; one of the ideas I’ve had kicking around in my head to break up some of the monotony of posting such straight forward affairs is to try my hand at a new feature called Rapid Fire, where I look back on the last week of articles, and insert a quick aside or addendum on my thoughts involving the games I’ve keyed about recently, and possibly add a little more context that I may have missed the first time around.


Context is key when discussing emotional reactions,
as sometimes you’ll be lucky enough to live in ignorance

With that said, let’s get to rapid fire:

-My write up Pokémon Disaster is a perfect distillation of what happens more often then not here on Active Time Event: working with what you got in the time you have. The initial idea was to finally sit down and watch the Pokémon Presents video Nintendo posted nearly a month ago, and dictate upon it. Mind you, the video is only twenty minutes long, and I still haven’t found the time to sit down and watch the fucking thing through to generate ideas from with which to coax an article out of…but I still wanted to write about Pokémon and didn’t have much time to do so, ergo, the Pokémon disaster occured.


Not that one

– My Words of Wisdom: Non-Simulated Thinking is another feature I came up with to have my cake and eat it too. I wanted to mostly relax on my first “weekend” day, but I still wanted to keep up with a writing schedule, so some quick posit was the way to go. I still try not to skimp on quality of course, so the idea always has to have a strong premise. I think I could have perhaps added more reference points involving how to go about engaging with tech via video games through the use of critical thinking, or wax philosophical about how mindfulness is the way to help cut through the bullshit of algorithmic tendencies, but all things in hindsight…life remains something that can only be understood backwards but lived forwards.

– The Casual Delirium of Video Games: Tuesday Edition ended up being a Frankenstein post, as I had a bunch of disparate ideas, but once again, not enough time to really dive into them all, so a monster was thusly born. Todd Howard’s thoughts on Doom and Mario’s impact on games is on point, and having even met the game in real life, he is a delightful individual with excellent insights into the industry, it’s just a shame he has helped to make himself into a meme with all of his wildly over promising ideas regarding Bethesda games.


Depending on who you talk to, of course

–Video Game Workers Unite! was a rare moment of positivity on ATE, which is a currency I don’t often trade in, but the gaming industry has been in a rough spot for a hot minute, so giving credit where credit is due for those who make the magic is definitely worth any amount of time. Writing about a more relatively important topic of note within the standards of the industry, especially involving the importance of unionizing and workers rights in general, also yields to the notion of more authentic journalistic integrity, a reality of which both gaming journalists and freelance writers don’t get a chance to experience in liu of just needing to act the role of hype man while drowning in a sea of enthusiast press that is not totally dissimilar to just straight up hawking products or being low key advertisers. A cold hard fact that I’m guessing many companies take advantage of with glee, in seeing the rise of influencers amidst the journalists and freelancers, the former of which regularly showcase they have absolutely no scruples whoring themselves out for a cheap, greasy paycheck while happily dropping any pretense they have standards or integrity whatsoever.

–Doom & Animal Crossing 4Evaz!!1<3, most definitely feels like the likeliest candidate for softball article if there was one this week, but I am madly endeared to both series, and it was a unique dual double-birthday, so worthy of the amorous celebration I showered both with. I also very likely could have easily made the article four times the length and not broken a sweat in the matter, but time was once again, not on my side. There’s actually been a shit ton of news about Doom: The Dark Ages I likely will follow up on, and I am guessing Nintendo’s Switch 2 first look on April 2nd has a great chance of showcasing more about the next Animal Crossing, so expect ample fixation on both series moving forward.


Always a feel good blast with these two

–The Last Laugh is more well deserved credit, by citing Balatro’s success at the 2025 GDCA, which continues to be representative of the notion I still give time to games that I’m not even a massive fan of. Even though I’m still playing Balatro, to attempt to understand the title as much as I can before moving on, one has to realize that even with ultra-eclectic tastes, one is just not going to like every experience under the sun. Balatro continues to remind me that I do ironically spend more time with games I don’t enjoy that much or perhaps don’t fully understand, just to get a better grasp on just why that is before just shrugging my shoulders and giving up, so there’s something admirable left to speak to, at least.

–Individualistic Collectivism was yesterdays post about the Katamari creators (Keita Takahashi) new game, To a T. There was a lot more to the interview that Game*Spark hosted and Automaton translated that I didn’t get to, one point of which involved the game’s narrative having roots in the realities of bullying, which was Takahashi’s way of attempting to humanize the story, and find connective issue of storytelling with a gaming public at large, and a topic that is taken as so mundane and everyday, most games would happily brush over it in favor for some epic cosmic battle. Nice to see in a space that continues to need to push itself to be relatable, and or at least one that still needs to strive to find a more humanistic approach, To A T is dojng so, and is not just lazily crutching on low-brow horndog schlock being shit out by a machine that regularly reguritqtes B-movie grade wank material for 16 year old minded boys.

–Gaming Review: Rapid Fire is a current work in progress. Fingers crossed it turns out well.

As always, time is against me, but it’s been fun keeping it real. That’s all…go forth and rock.

~Pashford

Individualistic Collectivism

Expanding upon new horizons is important


Downright profitable, in some cases #nooksnotabadguy

Which is something the creator of Katamari Damacy, Keita Takahashi most definitely agrees with me on. I recently covered my admiration for the series by enjoying the re-release of the sequel to the quirky Japanese title on Game Pass, We Love Katamari REROLL, and then immediately after, news about a patent for that series happening after a decade long hiatus of a new title occurred, alongside some news from his new (non-Katamari) game coming out, to A T, got some press, which is launching the 28th of May (Series X, PS5, PC). Barely missed some “article synergy” with my timing being slightly ahead of relevant information, so I’m just going to pretend I willed into existence both happenings because of how awesome I am.


Pardon me while I hannel the immortal energies of Bender…

On a different factual (but more seriously) related point, another awsome gaming outlet translated an interview done by Game*Spark with the Katamari creator (Takahashi) about the new title, and some of his insights and frames of reference in his approach to another non-traditional title. Takahashi mentioned gaining perspective by wanting to work with a larger group of people in developing new video games, part of the reason he left Namco:

 “I left the company because I didn’t want to be limited to only working with the people there. I wondered why I was only making games with Japanese people. I thought if I could develop games with more people from other countries, I would be able to get ideas from different perspectives. I’m currently developing games with a range of people from all over the world.” 

Which makes total sense coming from him, as he was always seen as having quite an obtuse approach when creating new concepts, artistically or otherwise, hence the gorgeous glory that is Katamari. I’m not even sure if the interview I’m thinking of is available online to hyperlink to, but I remember back in the day, him telling another outlet he wasn’t really a big fan of actually playing video games, so he wanted to make the “non-video game” video game, which is paradoxically perfect in my eyes. One usually finds the most explosive results within a medium when creators come packing with a totally outside viewpoint and represent aberrations within their new vocation, and the artistry thereafter is magnified thusly.


Same vibes, somehow

I have a lot more I wished to extrapolate upon that I would have loved to share with you, but per my modus operandi as of late, I am simply bereft of moments with which to enlighten. I’ll leave you with the trailer “To a T”, Takahashi’s new game, which is looking just as fascinatingly obtuse but infinitely compelling as the rest of his work.

~Pashford
PS: (Individualistic Collectivism=being distinguished among the distinguishing)