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

Playing For Shits And Giggles

When the world is falling apart, be sure to have a comfortable front row seat.


How I look checking the headlines for what frightening nightmares the new day brings

Another short one from me today my riztastic readers, as per my quickie yesterday, at some point in my week, I do have to both get some well deserved rest *and* find time to you know, actually play the games I wish to write about. Mar10 Day shennigans definitely derailed me a bit, but it’s good to catch up with Nintendo’s sacred cow once in a blue moon. I use to make it a habit to do a one shot playthrough of any major Mario game upon it’s release day, and just do one massive 12 hour session to 100% the whole thing in it’s entirety to help manufacture the greatest amount of challenge and really highten the dopamine rush of some gaming par excellence. A reality I sadly was not able to predicate upon with Mario Wonder on day of launch, but playing through the game in a similar manner is still in the cards.


Super Mario Wonder definitely the elephant in
the room of my potential Mar10 Day festivities

Speaking of cards…that segways perfectly into a game I did finally get to sit down with briefly and try out after reading so much bluster involving it’s highly addictive nature, and that’s Balatro, which has been regularly praised by outlets far and wide as the new hotness, being a highly addictive card game you will simply not be able to put down. Well, after putting the title down after about twenty minutes of playtime, I can tell you emphatically that is simply not true.

Admittedly, it would seem I merely dipped my toe into the perverbial waters of interest, and plan on continuing to play it to see just “what is up” with the game, but thus far, it is seemingly just some suped up remix of Poker with more of a collection aspect to it involving combo cards with special abilities. Not sure if there is some crazy grand twist to the game along the lines of Doki Doki Literature Club where the game does a 180, ditches the faux premise it sets itself up to appear to be, but then diverts right into crazy town by being super meta while simultaneously possessing a twisted narrative hidden behind an unassuming aesthetic….or if Balatro really is just, you know, kind of like poker.


Pictured: Balatro’s main gameplay hook

The jokers are wild, it would seem.

~Pashford