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)

The Last Laugh

Life is a highway…


Use your fucking turn signal and make sure to stay
in your own god damn lane

A bit of a strained metaphor on that attempt at positing some wisdom, but I think there’s still a salvageable message somewhere in there. Shifting gears here, as someone who spends most of his day centered around gaming, whether it be thinking, reading, writing, playing…I still have trouble keeping up with most of the industry. I’m not sure if I’m within my rational means to accuse this hobby of being either a younger man’s game, or a medium that demands one has a lot of capital in order to enjoy what is on offer, but I definitely question who, outside of people employed within the industry, don’t feel utterly lost in the shuffle in attempting to keep up with the reality of the everyday of video gaming. To wit: I keep forgetting we are deep in the midst of award season, and no matter where I look, the majority of the titles nominated for any given award shindig are ones I haven’t even played yet, and I’m getting down on games everyday.


Mostly figuratively now a days, but engagement is engagement

This particular award ceremony was the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards, so a bunch of the industry’s devs got together and gave their two cents on which titles were the cream of the crop. As previously mentioned, even though I am somewhat familiar with the games discussed, the fact of the matter is I haven’t even played most of them, which leaves me scratching my head as to what I was doing all of 2024, but I digress. I did (and am still) playing Balatro, which dominated the award ceremony, by taking home not only Best Debut, Best Design, and Innovation Award, but also claimed the top prize by winning Game of the Year.


The Joker steals the show again, but what else is new?

What I find maddening about this is what I must be missing about Balatro, cause it’s very obviously some key element that makes the entire experience so heavily praised, so what I’m not “getting” about the little card game that could baffles me. As I recently addressed in an article, the game doesn’t seem to be overly compelling to me as I sift through it’s simplicity and try to understand what it has to offer outside of some slightly spruced remixing of what appears to be a basic card game prominently featuring The Joker cards as strategic fulcrums that help win the day.This really could be a moment of different strokes for different folks, with my penchant for being totally repelled by anything even remotely resembling a table top game front in center. Whatever “it” factor that Balatro possesses that seems to elude me aside, game of the year is mighty impressive, so congrats to the Balatro devs for what they accomplished and for being recognized for their work. I’ll continue to contend with the title to see if I can make heads or tails of the experience, but uh…I might just not be of popular opinion on this one, even if obvious quality is staring me right in the face.


What I feel like when attempting to analyze what
makes Balatro so Balatro-y

~Pashford

Video Game Workers Unite!

When in doubt, talk it out.


Seen here: Doomguy showing Kirby the weapon he’s
nicknamed “The Conversation”

Had a lot more planned for today, but I’m currently running on negative minutes to spare, so this post is about as quick a scattershot as I can muster. Figured I’d shared with you an interesting article that discusses a brand new union that was formed between both America and Canada in the name of rights for video game workers called the UVW-CWA, which will hopefully strengthen the industry by protecting workers and looking out for the most vulnerable within the field itself. This is on the tail of a number of disastrous years for video games, where dozens of studios have shuttered and a good ten thousand workers have lost their job, in spite of developing great games, so this is right on time. I was just reading another article in Edge magazine, where they interviewed a number of big names in the industry about what kind of positive changes they’d love to see, and what video games need the most, and the collective desire was more cushion and safety for workers the industry over. Hopefully, this union is an excellent step in the right direction to accomplish that.

That’s it for now. Stay groovy.

~Pashford

The Casual Delirium Of Video Games: Tuesday Edition

In the game that is life, I feel as if I’m perpetually stuck on the character creation screen


Shouting Waaaaaaaaaaah at the top of my lungs
furiously pressing *lengthen nose button* repeatedly
fueled by a pure sense of frustrated hysteria

I keep foolishly thinking I’m going to have an exorbitant amount of free time to play video games during my weekends, which alas, has been a totally fucking wrong deduction on my part. I’m also unfortunately feeling the need to view gaming through the lens of productivity in some respects, to get through as much as possible just in general, but also so I have a constant stream of content to write about. I tend to only commit to small blurbs every day on some months, I’m failing to recall how I kept this up when I was running a commercial gaming website, or even how streamers do this shit for more than half the day all the time.


Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s
crushing societal standards to succeed
under insane pressure all the time

To both my last point and my cold open, I was attempting to squeeze in the idea of starting a new title, in spite of a pack daily schedule when I was reminded Avowed just launched, this after reading some interesting feedback about the title in the recent Edge magazine, only to have stupidly misunderstood the assignment of what a “quick” play would entail. In the regard of not having much time at the moment, and by forgetting the game was not entirely dissimilar to an Elder Scrolls game, and to that point, having a massive god damn character creator to get through. With only a good hour to spare on the clock, I just shook my head thinking”definitely playing this…another time it looks like.” Good character creators are usually so intense, they represent a meta-game in and of themselves, and I’m nearly surprised someone hasn’t made some quirky parody spin off mobile game where that and only that is the entirety of the game.


In the reality where Anime Armpit games exist,
anything is terrifyingly possible

I guess to tie this post to some kind of recent gaming news, I recently read that Todd Howard, in being interviewed as hype for the upcoming 21st BAFTA Game Awards, mentioned he thought Tetris and Pac-Man were two of the most important games of our time, but that Mario and Doom were two of the most influential titles, more so suggesting the former two as important for their cultural impact on the zeitgeist, and the latter two in terms of design. Hard to argue his perspective, as I’ve even come to bat with the grandeur that is Tetris more than a decade ago during the genesis of my long running series Encyclopedia Muranica. I haven’t discussed much in the way of Pac-Man, but Ms.Pac-Man stands as one of my fav arcade cabinets of all time, and it’s nature of being one of the first massive commercial hits while simultaneously being a romhack helped move the needle for game development moving forward. Not much that can be said about Mario that wouldn’t represent the metaphorical equivalent of a beaten horse corpse at this point, and I gush about the awesomeness that is Doom on a regular basis, so I’d tend to agree.


Poetry in motion, and unrivaled performance art, truly

I had more of an overall point I was planning on expounding upon, but I’ve become distracted in my musings, and I suppose a meaningful takeaway isn’t always needed when you’ve spent just a couple of minutes having fun.

~Pashford

Words of Wisdom: Non-Simulated Thinking

Dependency on technology can be a death sentence.


Sometimes, quite literally so

On my brief reflection involving the words of wisdom I share today, I just wanted to advocate for everyone not to be too reliant on technology, lest ye be ruled by it. I was just reading an article about how general intelligence is down across the board, and it got me thinking that a big contributing factor may be a reliance on technology, which can help create a false sense of security and a pretense to feed into laziness, which is sure to help cultivate bad habits. I’m no luddite, and think tech is fundamental in enhancing our lives, but don’t forget your best resource will always be your brain, and always keep the “use it or lose it” mentality close to your heart, or you may fall prey to the failures so many others already have, which is losing the very thing that makes you…you. So consider my wisdom, and always think for yourself, don’t let algorithms control your life, and never stop questioning how you can continue to refine your ability to critically think more in your everyday.

Take care of yourself, and each other.

~Pashford

Pokémon Disaster

Gotta catch em all…after beating them mercilessly into submission of course!


If only this kid lived in the world where Big Boss
exists, he could have a whole different set of issues
with this kind of enthusiasm

Writing dark deconstructions involving the Pokémon series never gets old, and quite frankly is a seemingly endless treasure trove from which to mine from. Which is a good thing, too, as I’m not always immersed balls deep into any one game in the series, in spite of multiple titles usually coming out during any given year, though my amorous tendencies for the series remains unabated. As I’ve briefly mentioned before on ATE, I have had a tenuous relationship at best with Scarlet and Violet, as the games just represent what I deem as an excessive low point for the series, which makes it a serious difficulty in swallowing the dreck that represents Pokémania in any tolerable fashion. Even the thought of booting Scarlet up at the current moment makes me shudder, as the title is such a trial in patience on every conceivable level.


What Pokémon Scarlet and Violet should have been called

Though the titles have shaped up a bit through patches and post launch content, it’s a day late and a dollar short, quite honestly. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: just because a game has an awesome approach to game design, doesn’t mean everyone needs to ape it. I know it’s inevitable, and especially in a day and age where the triple A gaming industry is always looking for a sure fire hit, you’ll bet your ass that anyone who’s anyone is going to crib notes from something as prolific as Breath of the Wild without batting an eye, but carbon copying the experience while losing the series DNA in the process does active damage to the brand, and nothing positive for anyone in the long run.


How I imagine most conversations go during
Pokémon developer brainstorming sessions

I guess since the publisher is at least shared in this case, one developer publishing under the Nintendo banner borrowing from another developer could *at least* be somewhat justified as colleagues of sorts sharing notes, but Pokémon never needed to go full open world in the first place, at least not the mainline titles. It was an experiment better saved for a side project, and to be left at that, as it makes Scarlet feel far too aimless in it’s scope when you really pair down the entire experience. The industry goes through ebbs and flows with this kind of thing all the time, as you’ll see something like Street Fighter II, Mario 64, GTA III, Halo, WoW, Minecraft, or Fortnite touch down like a mother fucking meteor on the face of the gaming planet, and everyone wants to make the same colossal impact, sometimes spawning entire sub-genres of *insert game killer here*, and thus the new trend will be born.


Sometimes the comparisons of quality work as
intended if not quite literally, though not all are so lucky***

And while I iterate now for the sake of transparent acknowledgement, Scarlet and Violet were obviously never billed as a Zelda Killer, but the lengths of effort in which the devs themselves went to compromise the very foundation of the Pokémon design ethic ended up coming off as a net-negative, and upon reflection, just completely sabotaged the whole notion of quality therein.

Being inspired is one thing, but make sure not to lose your own identity in the process.

~Pashford

(***EDIT: Dark Cloud rules, by the way.)