I’m back, sorry for missing last week, but I’m back! (Barely I was taken out with food poisoning for the past few days).

Other than doing a bunch of moving chores I’ve been keeping an eye on Crimson Desert, a game I won’t play but respect, being chilling out to some Dome Keeper, to which I’ve hit that annoying point where the base game doesn’t challenge me but I can’t complete any of the harder quests, and watching the Artemis mission.

As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to the website Reconnect, an aggregator of hundreds of different games writers work.

This week were looking into Game Dev tips, hot moments in games, the Triple-I initiative, Burger King, and much much more.

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Home of the Whopper: Ephemeral Enigmas takes a look into a long forgotten Burger King video game.

• The I’s have it: For those of us who have had a busy week this week, its very much appreciated that Seasoned Gaming has given us a recap of everything that came out in the III Initiative this week.

• Political Change: Guest writer at TWIV, Maddie Agne, explains that the biggest appeal of a cozy game is the political setting that it is nestled among.

• Garlic Fun: Josh Bycer, who we normally know from Game Wisdom, pens a guest article over on SuperJump Magazine, about one of my favourite all time video games; Vampire Survivors. Josh looks into the success of the game and development choices that led to it.

• Penny Pinch: Sidequesting is here to remind us that no matter how expensive all game electronics are right now, they ain’t going to go down in price in the future. As someone who really wants an Ayn Thor and has no money to buy one this makes me sad.

• Pico Development: provides a useful guide on how to develop an easy game on a custom linux operating system before jumping to something bigger like an engine.

• Learning from the real world: continues their discussion on what its like to teach video game development in the real world and answeres one of the most commonly answered questions.

• Hunting for the number: reminds us the true purpose of a review and how to wield it most appropriately, don’t just look at the number.

• Travelling Eight: explains the process on how Octopath Traveller was converted into a TTRPG rule set.

• It’s not about the wins and losses: muses on the sorts of games where the fun is derived from what you achieved and experienced along the way rather than whether you won or not.

• Vroom Vroom: has the latest in game analytics and new car game is surging to the top of the wishlist charts.

• Brain Burn: reached out to his community to collate a piece about gaming moments that people can’t shake from their memory.

Fun Tidbits

• DSpico, The World’s First Open-Source Nintendo DS Flash Cart, Is Now Being Sold Commercially

• Split Fiction Developer Sells 50 Million Copies Across Three Titles

• Looking for a unique challenge? Check out this cryptic image-puzzle game inspired by LOK and 0PLAYER where the puzzles are only 5 pixels wide

• “I Will Always Cherish That Chapter Of My Life” - A Million Subs Later, One Of Retro Gaming’s Most Famous YouTubers Calls It Quits

• GUNNAR Fixes Itself A Cyberpunk 2077 Collab

• Various Super Mario games bounce around the UK retail chart thanks to movie hype

• Relax in Orbit with Piano & Sleep: Mario Galaxy

• Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time

• Script Editing Tool Aids Magic School Lunar Fan Translation

• Cancelled Game from 2008, Fairy Tale

What a crazy week, huh? This industry sure does know how to set fire to itself for both entertainment and misery.

Well, it’s not my job to dwell on the bad stuff, in fact my role is the opposite, time to lighten up your day with some interesting gaming content.

As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform. A website with over 40,000 articles written by videos game enthusiasts.

This week, we’re covering game consoles that whisper at you, sailing the seas In your browser, Nintendo games, and much much more.

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Make it Ten: Big Nerd Gaming muses, what if the Game Awards had the same amount of Nominee’s as the Oscars and what that might have looked like for years prior.

• Bangers and Mash: Whilst the UK isn’t probably who you immediately think of when imagining games being made, they have had a long history of making some of the biggest games in the industry, has their top ten best games to come out of the UK and I’m very happy to see Elite on the list.

• Whispering sweet nothings: The PS1 boot up sounds is iconic, but explains that the sound was going to be something a lot more creepy….

• Try before you buy: Games aren’t getting cheaper, and so we all would love to have the ability to try a demo before sacrificing our first born child to play a game, makes the argument for why all Switch 2 games, specifically, should have demos.

• PFlower?: Thrilling Tales of Old Video games, investigates why early Mario Flower spell had a P in it and what other old iconography causes the head to scratch on further inspection.

• Tri-Forced-Opinion: muses over a history of Zelda games and how the commentary has changed over the years.

• Scaring the millions: The latest piece by details how well Resident Evil and Silent Hill have been doing.

• Game Training: explains why some skills can be taught through video games, and why some shouldn’t.

• D-LSS-Rama: One of the big dramas of the week has been the new DLSS-5, and has a really insightful piece that cuts past the obvious outcry to examine what this issue is at its core.

• Everything could be cheaper: beleive’s Nintendo could be selling games for less and still be making money, tbf thats the case of more capitalist companies, but they have a good point with ole Nintendo.

• Child Prodigy: SuperJump Magazine, interviews 16-year old game developer about his up-and-coming game, Astrolander.

Fun Tidbits

• Japan-Only Sequel To “Crap In A Box” Action RPG ‘Blaze & Blade: Eternal Quest’ Is Now Playable In English

• HYTE’s Collaboration Involving Honkai: Star Rail’s Firefly Is Now Live

• Classic Cute ‘Em Up Series ‘Cotton’ To Celebrate Its 35th Anniversary With New Japan-Themed Entry

• Basketball Classics Brings Backboard-Breaking Retro Hoops To All Modern Consoles Today

• The ZX Spectrum Classic ‘Jetpac’ Has Been (Unofficially) Remade

• Lies Of P Franchise Celebrates 4 Million Copies Sold

• You Can Now Sail Zelda: Wind Waker’s Oceans In Your Web Browser

• Alan Hazelden’s Thinky Third Thursday — March 2026

• “I’m Officially Debunking The Myth” - Homebrew Dev Thinks A “Faithful” SNES King Of Fighters Is Possible

Well it’s official, I live in Melbourne, Australia now! It’s been a busy and stressful few months, and I have a few more ahead of me with finding a job and an apartment etc etc, but I’m already loving my time here, and have met some truly amazing people.

If you are new here, this is the Reconnect Recap, a newsletter dedicated to recapping some of the best articles to feature on my website, Reconnect, over the past week!

Reconnect is a video games writing discovery platform boasting nearly 300 blogs and nearly 40,000 articles, so if you’re ever in the mood for some light reading head on over and check it out.

This weeks issue has us celebrating the return of video game magazines, thoughts from IGF, the history of crash bandicoot, relaxing on the road and much much more, so enjoy!

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Subtle Pause: explains that an Ico game isn’t minimal to save on processing power, but as a deliberate exercise in design.

• Brewing the Bandicoot: TimeExtension has the deep dive history on the artists who brought Crash Bandicoot to life and what lessons they learned the hard way.

• Is Print back, down-under?: talks about CONTINUE, an Australian video game magazine that’s absolutely smashed it’s funding goal, is print back?

• IGF Retrospective: AuraRambles was judging the Independent Games Festival this year and has some thoughts that might help you out of you are looking to submit for next time.

• Casino-Core: We hate loot-box gambling, but we love Balatro gambling, what gives? Game-Wisdom explains the indie scene made gambling the new trend.

• Reminds me of the PS3: This week played a new JRPG that reminded them a lot of how those style of games used to be back in the PS3, X360 era.

• Huntin’ Nazis: The Indie Informer got a look at an upcoming game all about killing Nazi’s, this isn’t your classic Wolfenstein it’s got more heart.

• Making the most of the Music: What happens when a band that broke up years ago, does a one time concert in Fortnite? What’s the point? What’s the impact? takes a look at Daft Punk’s post retirement tie in.

• Loving the run: Seasoned Gaming is having a surprising time with Bungie’s Marathon, and like many people are hoping for a bright future.

• Country Road, take me home: As someone who used to unwind flying spaceships for hours on end in Elite Dangerous, I can relate to ’s relaxing experience in Trucking Simulator.

• What is perfect?: Chasing perfection can be a fruitless endeavour, but it’s a concept in gaming that is often explicitly outlined for you. walks through some of the common tactics games use to get you to ‘perfect’.

Fun Tidbits

• “This Time, You Are Dracula” - ReVamp Is “Castlevania In Reverse”

• NVIDIA Release RTX Powered Godot Fork

• “The Sega Saturn Was Truly Ahead Of Its Time” - Here’s Why Modern Games Use ‘Dithering’ Instead Of Transparency

• 35th Anniversary Sonic Dreamcast Shells

• “That’s My Fault” - If This Elder Scrolls’ Dungeon Made You Want To “Tear Your Eyes Out”, Here’s Who To Blame

• Want to Feel Old? GameStop Says PS3 and Wii U are ‘Historic Artifacts’

• “We Know People Love It. We Know They Want It” - The Simpsons Showrunner Doesn’t Rule Out ‘Hit & Run’ Remake

• ASUS ROG Flow Z13 — KJP Review — For Ludens Who Don’t Care What They Spend

• Bleem Creator Says Sega Was “Thrilled” At PlayStation Games On Dreamcast, But Didn’t Want “A Big Legal Battle With Sony”

• “I Could Not Give Less Of A S**t If Anyone Else Plays Them” - Developers Behind ‘Pointless’ Homebrew Ports Defend Their Work

It’s been a week of console news, Sony is probably not going to release on PC anymore, and Microsoft is going to become a PC, more so than ever. Nintendo, on the other hand just caused a bunch of people to FOMO buy their console whilst simultaneously suing the government over tariffs.

Me, i’m still on my little road trip visiting family before I make the move to Australia. Which is a reminder that there won’t be a Reconnect Recap next week, i’ll be nursing a hangover from Linkin Park in Sydney and landing in Melbourne trying to get my new life set up. I’ll be back the following week with a vengeance however, so don’t fret.

As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, your weekly newsletter that gives you the lowdown on some of the best articles to come out in the week that’s been. As a reminder, Reconnect is a website, stand-alone from Substack. It operates like a mini Reddit, aggregating nearly 300 blogs work for you to load up and look at anytime you like.

This week we’re diving into Police Raids, DMCA take downs, AI, James Bond and much much more.

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Sonic Raids: Remember when Sega utilised the police to raid a shipment of SEGA dev kits going somewhere they didn’t want? GamersNexus did a documentary on it, and it’s pretty cool!

• The Cookie Troll: For some odd reason, a copyright troll was wreaking havoc on any content about an extremely obscure game nearly none of us have heard of, abusing the UK’s DMCA automated systems. The Video Game Foundation actually stopped this person in their tracks.

• Dopamine Farming: Game-Wisdom explains how nearly all games are built to target our dopamine receptors.

• Ubi-oops: At this point we’re all looking at Ubisoft and going “HOW???”, a notoriously poorly run company with a release strategy that hasn’t made sense for a decade, explains how we got here.

• More Cat Fucking: Sorry, I can’t help myself whenever Mewgenics comes up to not say “Cat-Fucking” but has more restraint than me and gives their early impressions on the game.

• I walk a lonely road: goes DEEEP into the Breath of the Wild well, giving us an insight into what the game means to play and experience. It’s a great read for those who loved the game.

• Ninten-don’t-care: takes us back to when Sega was actually a player in the console market and their advertising campaign that targeted Nintendo directly.

• Silent Running: I didn’t realise that was a fellow SuperJump alumni, but I love their recent piece on a retro submarine game because my dad was obsessed with these games. He was ex-navy and got me into video games, our first proper gaming rig was so that he could play the latest Subhunter game with proper graphics.

• Making Money: has the latest figures on what games are making the most moolah in the early months of this year.

• Empty Words: If an AI said some words in a forest and no one hears them, does the water still get used? Silly analogy but drives home the idiocracy that is AI writing game reviews, and my motto with AI has always been “If you are not going to put the effort into making it, i’m not going to put any effort into consuming it”.

• Shaken not stirred: We’re getting a new Bond game soon, but the franchise has a rich history of titles, just none in the past decade, so looks at one of the games they feel is the best Bond game.

• Graduation Anticipation: answers the question, should you get a degree in video games?

• Blank Space: enjoys an old-school RPG, and the reason is not what you think.

Fun Tidbits

• “We Need As Many Hands As Possible” - There’s A New Volunteer-Driven Effort To “Preserve Myrient’s Legacy”

• The delicious conundrums in Where’s My Egg? will make a believer out of even the most cynical Sokoban sceptic

• Japanese PlayStation Exclusive ‘70’s Robot Anime Geppy-X’ Is Coming To Modern Systems

• The developer of Strange Jigsaws and 20 Small Mazes has announced a new game, and you’ll never guess the title

• Hyper Sentinel Fusion Ships On A “Floppy Disk” And Is Now Live On Kickstarter

• Show Report — Bristol Video Games Expo 2026

• “Lara Is Coming Back Home” - Tomb Raider II Is Coming To Sega Saturn, 30 Years After Sony Blocked It

• Why I Finally Understand Why Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Are $19.99

• “Why Bother If You’re Not Going To Do It Properly?” - Why SEGAGAGA’s AI Translation Is Upsetting So Many People

• PicoIDE – A New Open Source IDE/ATAPI Drive Emulator For Vintage Computers

• This Dreamcast VMU Supports Wireless Game Boy Multiplayer, Because Why Not

• Duke Nukem: Zero Hour’s Work-In-Progress PC Port Just Got A Promising First Person Mod

• Shigeru Miyamoto Predicted Animal Crossing’s Appeal Over A Decade Before It Launched

I’m writing this ‘on-the-road’ per se, I’ve packed up my entire life into two suitcases and travelling for the next few weeks before settling into my new country. For the first time in my adult life, I’m homeless and jobless.

Suffice to say i’ve not had too much time for games. My partner and I have managed to squeeze in some Baldurs Gate time, we completed Act 1, and I’ve been playing some Pokemon Rom Hacks on my iPhone. Though I accidentally lost a bunch of progress and that’s always a bit disheartening.

If you’re new here, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter for Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform. It refreshes several times a day and has words written by nearly 300 different blogs. Feel free to drop by any time you’re in the mood for some great games journalism.

This week, we’re talking about character design, January’s numbers, mobile games, music and much much more.

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• PC-FLOP: The PC-FX was a Japan only console, which naturally makes us in the west curious, however, the PC-FX wasn’t as successful as its predecessor and flopped pretty badly, TimeExtension gives us the run down.

• Insider Trading: Aftermath plays a new game all about gaming the stock market and still can’t make heads of tales of how the market works.

• Advertising works: explains how indie darling Gun Nose improved their fundraising with a well executed advert.

• Pass the numbers: has the numbers for Game Pass from January and I’m very happy to see a game I liked that everyone was shitting on get nearly 600k new players.

• A long nose: What does Pinocchio and Baby Steps have in common? Bullet Points Monthly explains.

• Going back to a galaxy far far away: As part of their MMO a month series, dives into SWOTOR, which I just remember how amazing the cinematic trailers were for those games and how disappointing the actual game’s visuals were.

• All the answers: Every month I get an urge to write a tell-all article kinda covering off the common questions I see uttered every where about where the industry is going. has done what i’ve been too lazy to do and has published an epic document really looking at some of the ways we know where the industry is going.

• The small screen: Given i’m travelling, i’m a bit more interested in mobile gaming. Whilst I do have a ROG Ally X Its not always what I can fit in or are in the mood for, so I was very much in the mood to read mobile game recommendations.

• What ya playing?: of Game Dev Reports has the January numbers and how well it’s doing in comparison to last year, is this year doing better than last?

• Peak behind the curtains: shares how they are designing the characters in their current game, and a peak inside the technical side of the process.

• Studying Games: is a game studies scholar and is answering some questions about what its like to teach gaming in academia.

• Blue Point, what does it mean: breaks down what the closure of BluePoint means amongst Sony’s efforts of preservation.

• The difference a sound makes: reminds us how important and impactful music is in games. How impactful the well thought out those specific choices were.

Fun Tidbits

• This Long-Awaited Mega Man-Inspired Metroidvania Is Getting Its Own Free Tie-In For Game Boy

• Inspired by the classic DOOM RPG, the Dungeons of DUSK demo is out now

• Mortal Kombat Made An Unexpected Appearance At This Year’s Winter Olympics

• Widelands, the open source Settlers-like, devs plan to ban all AI generated contributions

• The Turrican Collection (Evercade) - A Proper Anthology

• Death Stranding 2 PC specs have been revealed, along with a “Portable” preset for handhelds

• “This Is What AI And Greed Does” - Video Game ‘Preservation Service’ Myrient Is Shutting Down

• Vampire Crawlers from the Vampire Survivor dev is promising but not quite there yet

• Japanese PlayStation Exclusive ‘70’s Robot Anime Geppy-X’ Is Coming To Modern Systems

• Lost Atari 8-bit Harlequin Software artwork recovered!

• Hyper Sentinel Fusion Ships On A “Floppy Disk” And Is Now Live On Kickstarter

• Atari 8-bit version of Trap recovered

• Wanderburg is a delightful twist on Vampire Survivors

• Reanimal climbs the UK chart while Mario Tennis Fever loses its grip

• Paint your way across a pretty pastel landscape in platforming puzzle game Colorbound

• Segagaga has Finally Been Translated into English — Here’s How to Play It (and How it was Achieved!)

• snakes.run: multiplayer snake over ssh

Phil Spencers 38 year tenure at Xbox came to a close this week, in a similar vein my 29 year tenure in Wellington, New Zealand will also come to an end this week. I’ve still got things to pack, stuff to sell, and items to dispose of. But the end is nigh and i’m quite excited. I don't expect my move to have too much of an impact on the newsletter with the exception of the issue due 17th of March, i’ll be taking that week off to sort out my new home.

If you’re new here, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter for Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform. It refreshes several times a day and has written words by nearly 300 different blogs. Feel free to drop by any time you’re in the mood for some great games journalism.

This week, we’re getting very meta about how video games impact our health, our brains, our mood, and our desires, not to mention some fun absurd stuff, the odd guide and plenty more!

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Check out the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Teddy Bear Kaiju: takes us into the world of one of the most absurd playstation games to ever exist.

• Time to be an adult: explains that all too familiar paradox of not knowing what to play in our precious few hours we have spare as an adult.

• Who is Zelda: Thrilling Tales of old video games dives into the name ‘Legend of Zelda’ and digs through history to work out who the series was actually named after.

• Toxic Culture: Superjump Magazine recounts the youthful experience of discovering video games, but then tracks it through to the inevitable conclusion for most people; anger. They remind us how to best keep the magic of games and the culture around it, healthy.

• Reverse Engineering: walks us through how they handle feeling jaded by games and finding the right game to bring you back to the hobby you love.

• Do we need another gen?: With the rising expenses of video game consoles and the lack of games actually utilising the added headroom, asks the question, do we need a a PS6?

• Nailing the Pixel: Pixel art is synonymous with game dev and resident game dev guru explains how to grow your pixel art skills.

• Retro museum in a game: GameAsylum explains how High on life 2 (yes they made a second one) contains a series of interesting retro games that you can play inside the game.

• Dark Tidings: Games that Weren’t has another dive into a game that was never released, a promising Diablo like announced in 1996.

• Oops we made a game: As Indieformer explains, most games are made from a pitch, this game came about from a misunderstanding.

• Cost to Attend: looks into how much it costs to attend game events and how free events are on the decline.

• Should you get a PS2 in 2026: argues that there isn’t a good reason for owning a PS2 in 2026, it’s simply too good a deal.

• Staring at it for too long: explains the paradox of incorporating feedback into a game. Go it alone, or keep it in house and your team become blind to certain issues. Open the door wide open and you risk loosing sight of the games core. All in all we’re going blind apparently.

• Health supplements: Are games bad? Do they cause violence? But don’t they also cure PTSD and help with problem solving? But don’t they also cause addictions and death threats? , a real scientist, gives us a more measured view.

Fun Tidbits

• This Side-Scrolling Action RPG Is Giving Us Serious Princess Crown And Dragon’s Crown Vibes

• Dual Screen Emulation Finally Caught Up

• Castlevania’s Fanmade Sega Master System Port Just Got Its First Proper Demo

• Space strategy game Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes has a demo out now

• Why Should Sega Have All The Fun? Looks Like The SNES Is Getting A Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night Port, Too

• Free and open source RTS 0 A.D. release 28 “Boiorix” is live

• A New Custom Build Of BSNES Has Been Released, Featuring Multitap Support

• Big Hops doco chronicles six years of development

• “A Woefully Underrated N64 Underdog” - Treasure’s Bangai-O Gets Not One But Two New English Translations

• Take Out A Line of Credit For These Stern Pokémon Pinball Machines

• Rockman.EXE Phantom Of Network Has Just Got An Unofficial PC Port, Finally Making It Playable Without An Emulator

• Paint your way across a pretty pastel landscape in platforming puzzle game Colorbound

• A New Game Boy Advance Shoot ‘Em Up Is Releasing On Cartridge This March

• Final Fantasy IV Translation Comparison Stream Series

For many its been a week of Super Bowl and Olympics memes, for others its been a week of frantically getting two cats to fuck, but for me its been more packing for my move and doing my annual tradition of trying to find a specific type of game to scratch an itch.

I do this every year. I’m a sci fi fan but also like chill pick up and put down games. I’m basically looking for Fields of Mystria type game but set in space, with space things. It’s a pretty niche genre, and I undoubtedly always just end up reinstalling No Mans Sky and sinking a few hours into that, but until I give in, i’ll keep hunting.

As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to my website, Reconnect. A games writing aggregation platform, think Reddit, but it only has games articles written by real people about a variety of topics.

This week we’re talking about swear words, Bethesda, Sega, portable consoles and much much more!

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Hit up the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Secrets in Redemption: This Week In Video games follows the community hunting for the last hidden easter egg in Red Dead Redemption 2 and how Westworld their efforts are feeling.

• Tales from the Vault: talks to the team running Fallout 76 and explores how the TV show is bringing new players into the franchise and the efforts they are making to flesh out the game.

• Reviewing anything at CEX: claims they will review anything and that’s our fault, but this week they visited a Complete Entertainment Exchange and looked at all the retro games and consoles they had on offer.

• Cross Platform Profiling: talks with three developers who made a plugin for the Snowdrop engine that uses AI to profile how games will work on devices of different specs.

• The swear jar: dives into a new topic doing the rounds on the internet, could some games have an option for removing swear words?

• Chatting with Fang: TimeExtension interviews Shinichi "Touma" Higashi, the designer of Fang, from Sonic. They talk about his reverence for the forgotten character and his endeavours designing other characters like Batman.

• Stressed in the cold: SuperJump Magazine jumps back into playing Frostpunk and expresses what makes the game hard and pensive, still an enjoyable game by all means, just not a chill cozy vibe.

• Apples to Oranges: argues that comparing the PSP with the Vita isn’t a fair argument. If you are looking to buy one today, its not a case of getting the ‘newer’ or ‘better’ one its a case of understanding the different methodologies each handheld represented.

• Wishlist success: Its great to see more Game Analytics blogs starting up, no shade to those who were here on Substack first, but i’ve really been enjoying who is a recent entry into the space. This week they look at the most wish listed games for 2026.

• Prototyping Success: tells us the fastest way to get your game idea off the ground and into the hands of players who can give you real actionable feedback.

• Rise of Co-op: analysed the data of the most common words used in Steam Game Descriptions and there are some exciting keywords having a meteoric rise.

• Missed out on the money: gives us an insight into Australia’s largest indie gam organisation and how they’ve been recently impacted by a lack of government funding.

• Back off, Bethesda: argues that Bethesda doesn’t need to remaster Morrowind, the industry is feeling the fatigue of the constant recycling of old games, and that the community does a far better job than these companies could ever do.

Fun Tidbits

• Sega Celebrates Its 65th Birthday With This Fancy Seiko Wristwatch

• Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown demo upgraded with voice-over

• Check Your VHS Tapes - You Might Be In Line For A Small Reward If You Can Find This Elusive ‘Games World’ Footage

• In the deck-builder Voraxis you’re a parasite that eats through a living planet

• Terarin Games Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With ‘Blaze Of Storm’, Coming To Steam & Switch Later This Month

• You can now add hardware details to Steam reviews, and give more feedback on Steam Deck Verified

• AYANEO’s Xperia Play Successor, The Pocket Play, Will Pack A MediaTek Chipset And 165Hz OLED Screen

• Toyota made a game engine

• “A Bit Insane” - Fan-Made Parodius Port For Genesis / Mega Drive Just Gets Better And Better

• ‘Gordon & Daxter’ Is A Ridiculous New Half-Life-Themed Mod For Jak & Daxter’s Unofficial PC Port

Despite a busy home life of trying to get packing for my move I was able to finish off Fallout S2, play a decent amount of Megabonk, start a new run in Baldurs Gate 3 with my partner, and sink about five hours into Jedi Survivor. So needless to say, the packing isn’t going well.

Its another week of the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the website that houses forty thousand games articles and updates multiple times a day all in the name of creating a discovery space for writers across the internet.

This week we’re talking a lot about the ends of games, talking plenty about the perspective you look at a game, four articles about the PS2, and heaps more!

Let’s dig in.

• ⌛️ Hit up the archive to see older issues.

• 🧠 Read my occasional thoughts on the industry, here.

• 🦋 Follow Reconnect on Bluesky

• 🔗 Hit up my Linktree to see my other work

Great Write Ups

• Nailed the landing: Despite thinking their overrated, Big Nerd Gaming, shares their top 10 video game endings, and I’m quite miffed that RDR2 ending isn’t on there, nor in first place. But maybe it’s because it’s so good it deserves its own seperate article.

• Sticking the landing: dives into their thoughts with Baldurs Gate 3 with their own Review, for the most part its a positive piece, but Cat touches on the ten million dollar question, how does a game with that much choice and bravado stick the landing?

• Didn’t stay for the landing: Kimimi the game eating she monster, wins the award for best blog name, hands down, but they also remind us that you don’t need to finish the game if you’re no longer having fun.

• Topping the Charts: has the sales figures for games sold on Playstation in January.

• Gamings, Yellow Pages: & have created an exhaustive list of those on Substack writing about video games, tabletop games, the industry and everything in between. Such a mammoth effort from the two and it’s well worth having a look. Of course if you think you should be on there, let them know!

• A changing landscape: reminds us all how game discovery has changed, when once we used to read magazines and wait outside stores, we now do everything digitally.

• The Good, the bad, and the ugly: I’m not a fan of fighting games, they don’t float my boat, but they do float the boat of over at ‘From the Desk of Chaos’ who has written up a piece of which trends in fighting games are working and what isn’t plus some novel ideas.

• I hardly ever went home: TimeExtension talks about the absolute mammoth work that brought XenoGears to the US.

• What am I looking at?: explains how to give your UI structure and clarity and how to avoid cognitive overload.

• Traveller Tales: gives their review of Octopath Traveller 0 and how it’s refreshing once and a while to play a truly deep and long game.

• Mario is a flaccid standee: Oh … You have an absolute way with words. I don’t care for Mario, no Smash Bros, but your steadfast defence of Mario’s honour in the most confusing fighting game on the planet was a pleasure to read.

• Isometric pre-rendered fakery: Before games could be powerful enough to render 3D objects in real time, games had to fake it by pre-rendering objects to give the feel of 3D. takes us on exercise in doing that today to understand more about how it works.

• Isometric Art is stunning: It seems like and Practice Flip are thinking the same way at the moment. Trip explains how Isometric design works, how it came about and how it has evolved to create some stunning scenes.

• Fear, Fear Never Changes: We are all back on the Fallout buzz at the moment, i’ve jumped back into FNV for a bit and had some intentions to play FO4 but alas life got in the way, so I’m settling for consuming Fallout through other mediums like ’s walk through of the three scariest places in FO4.

Fun Tidbits

• This week went H A R D on the PS2:

  • Why Was the PS3 $599 at Launch?

  • What is PS2 Recomp?

  • The PSP was never ‘basically a PS2’

  • Complete List of all PS2 Models

• Strong Museum Of Play Acquires “Comprehensive Collection Of Atari Materials”

• Learn Godot in 2026 Humble Course Bundle

• Operation Highjump seeks to continue Metal Slug’s comical running ‘n gunning

• “We’ll Never Be Able To Reach That Level” - Final Fantasy Legend Nobuo Uematsu’s Reaction To Yuzo Koshiro’s SNES Debut

• Various Game Boy Advance prototypes

• Here’s Why Official Dreamcast Magazine Never Got A Proper Final Issue

• Factory 95 is a retro Windows inspired automation sim about making a slide-show factory

• Getting Personal with the Game Bub

• Abxylute E1 - A $70 Dual-OS Handheld That Sadly Fails To Impress

• Tomodachi Life Living the Dream finally lets you be queer

• Horizon Hunters Gathering is a co-op action game set in Aloy’s world

• “Built On Theft And Plagiarism” - A Growing Number Of Game Developers Are Sick To Death Of Generative AI

Well it’s February already, and while some people might relish the fast passing of time, I’m not ready for it to be February already. That means I have only a few weeks to clear out of my apartment and plan a move to another country.

Needless to say, I’m feeling slightly stressed, but if everything goes to plan then I will no longer by penning this newsletter from Wellington New Zealand, instead I’ll be writing it in Melbourne, Australia. I’m trying not to panic too much.

In the meantime I have another Recap for you! Yes that’s right it’s your weekly edition of the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.

This week we’re diving into Nintendo, 2025 analytics, writing trans characters, escapism, and so much more!

Let’s dig in.

If you missed an issue or just can’t wait until next week, feel free to dive into the archive. I also occasionally write my own thoughts on the industry which you can find here,

If you’re interested in seeing my other work, like my management blog, or following Reconnect on Bluesky, check out everything else that I do on my linktree.

Great Write Ups

• Talking, Pokemon: This week in Video Games has a column called Parallax: Japan, all about Japanese culture. Their latest piece talks is about how Japans strongest cultural exports like Pokemon, have become so strong that they become a universal language.

• Staff retention: Without a doubt Nintendo is one of the best gaming companies on the planet, I don’t even like Nintendo games and I can see that they are firing on all cylinders. But how? Well Aftermath has one of the key reasons…

• From the Ashes: Splatoon is rare gem, it’s a new IP for Nintendo, comparably, and it’s been quite successful. But it wasn’t their first attempt at the game, TimeExtension explains how 20 years before, the seeds of Splatoon started.

• A Swan Song: I try not to dwell on the negative of the industry, but no one has quite encapsulated one of the key issues we are experiencing like , they have accurately outlined one of the key pillars that’s currently crumbling.

• Rollin’ on: recaps the history of Katamari and answers the question, does it still hold up? (OFC it does who doesn’t like rolling around).

• From the Inside: I would argue that making 3D landscapes are easier than 2D, with anything less than 3 dimensions you really have to work hard to create depth and environment for players without it looking flat. dives into some great 2D game interiors.

• Working Backwards: explains all about how the PS1 backwards compatibility worked on the PS2 and all the hoops, foibles, and issues one may run into today.

• MMO Hunting: is on the hunt for a new MMO, and is giving us an insight into there progress. Staring with turtles….

• Writing Trans Characters: Harris Powell-Smith shares their process, and how it’s changed over time, on writing trans characters.

• The year that was: has the full numbers for 2025, how much money was made, what games sold the most, and what games made the most.

• Positive Escape: Fergus Halliday interviews Anna Zou, lead developer at Lemon Jolly Games to talk about their new game, Apothecary of City X. They dive into escapism and how the game serves as a way to make the player appreciate reality.

Fun Tidbits

• The free and open source Godot Engine 4.6 is out now with major upgrades

• 52% of Game Developers Say Generative AI Is Having Negative Impact On Industry, Says 2026 GDC Survey

• Nubeo’s Latest Watch Pays Tribute To The Atari 2600

• STAR WARS Battlefront II private server and mod launcher KYBER goes open source

• “Hail To The King, Baby” - Duke Nukem 3D Has Officially Turned 30 Years Old

• Vampire Crawlers from the Vampire Survivors dev poncle gets a new trailer and upcoming demo

• Apparently, The PSP Counts As A Failure To Some People Now

• Stop Killing Games final verified vote count for the EU petition is just under 1.3 million

• “Miyamoto-San Was A God To Us” - Richard Honeywood On The Raiden Project, Working With Iwata, & Turning Down Pokémon

• Netflix Animation Studios are now funding Blender development

• ‘Leaps + Bounds’, A Visual Journey Through Nine Console Generations, Launches Next Month

• Sonic the Hedgehog is Getting an Audio Drama Series With The Chaotix Casefiles, a Narrative Detective Podcast Releasing on January 27

It feels like only yesterday I was penning last weeks issue of the recap, but I’m back at it again. Been sick all week, went a little bit too hard on my holiday, so i’ve been binge watching tonnes of TV and pouring hours and hours in Mega Bonk. Quite a productive week if you ask me.

If you are new here, this is the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform. Reconnect houses tens of thousands of games articles from hundred of blogs and every week I bring you some of the highlights from the past seven days.

This week, we’ve got a vast variety of stories, From the Switch, to the 2DS, to the virtual boy. From tips on how to improve your barks, to backlogs, to mods, and AI. It’s probably one of the most diverse recaps I’ve put together, so there is bound to be something for everyone!

Let’s dig in.

If you missed an issue or just can’t wait until next week, feel free to dive into the archive. I also occasionally write my own thoughts on the industry which you can find here,

If you’re interested in seeing my other work, like my management blog, or following Reconnect on Bluesky, check out everything else that I do on my linktree.

Great Write Ups

• Like mother, like son: dives into the relationship, SmallAnt has with his mom, who has followed in his footsteps as a streamer.

• Remembering the wedge: TimeExtension takes us back to the 2DS wedge and spells out what it meant to Nintendo.

• Outlaw Torn: The Ubisoft Star Wars game from 2 years ago now is still on my ‘go back to that list’, and definitive review isn’t helping my guilt of not getting back to it.

• Nagging away: teaches us how to make in game ‘nags’ and ‘hints’ interesting to the player.

• Mod-’n-it: walks through how to mod your game and the potential pitfalls of modding a game.

• 6 month switch: gives their 6 months review on the Switch 2.

• Where it all started: We are deep into a market rich with handheld gaming options, there are big and small players in the field, but who started this all, Superjump Magazine explains.

• Guild Wars again: explains why Guild Wars’s HD update, released last year, is worth playing if you’re a lapsed player or curious.

• Backlog 2025, reviewed: goes through their list of games they crossed off the backlog in 2025, and some insightful thoughts.

• Organ Trading: is playing a slew of different games every week, this weeks edition is about a sci fi trading arcade game all about trading…. organs.

• There’s a man for everything: Mario, Gex, Sonic, there’s a mascot for everything. Apparently there was a Domino Man also, explains the game from the 80’s.

• Data Driven Madness: I run Reconnect as a way to escape my day job, Data, so colour surprised when decides to write up an article, admittedly around data, AI, and Games, but its filled with all the sore points I have to deal with at work. PTSD much! But like everything SuperJoost does, it’s incredibly accurate and on point.

Fun Tidbits

• Steam Deck hits 25,000 games Valve have rated Playable or Verified

• Big Nerds WAY too early 2026 Game Awards Nominees.

• New Video Reveals The Inner Workings Of Nintendo’s Ill-Fated Virtual Boy

• Square Enix announced that a new Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack Vinyl LP Box will launch this year.

• Celebrating Two years of Game File.

• Valve tweak Steam AI disclosure form for developers to clarify it’s for content consumed by players

• A New Framework For Making Sonic Fangames Is Currently In The Works, From The Creator Of Sonic CDX

• Kensuke Tanabe Reportedly Announces His Retirement From Nintendo

• Fan Passes Torch on Riglordsaga 2 English Translation Before Losing Battle With Cancer

• Top 15 Best iPad Games with Controller Support (2026 Tier List)

• Bungie Flaunts Over 30 Notable Voice Actors For Marathon Cast

• An Obscure Piece Of Japanese Action-RPG History Has Just Dropped On The Nintendo Switch, In The Form Of ‘Courageous Perseus’

It’s a new year and a new recap! Apologies for the delay on publishing this one, I was having too much fun on my holiday and extended my trip, leaving me no time to meet the deadline I had advertised for well over a month. Looks like I’m starting off my year with broken promises.

If you’re new here, this is the Reconnect Recap, a companion newsletter for my website Reconnect, a discovery platform just for games writing. It features hundred of blogs, tens of thousands of articles and updates multiple times a day ensuring it’s always up to date.

This week we’re covering funding games, closing stores, games analytics, a bit of game dev, and much much more.

Let’s dig in.

If you missed an issue or just can’t wait until next week, feel free to dive into the archive. I also occasionally write my own thoughts on the industry which you can find here,

If you’re interested in seeing my other work, like my management blog, or following Reconnect on Bluesky, check out everything else that I do on my linktree.

Great Write Ups

• End of an Era: For those of us in kiwi-land we’re saying goodbye to EB Games, our version of GameStop, who is closing their doors after 25 years. Yeah Nah gaming has a little goodbye letter to them, pictured is the store down the road from my house.

• Scream Time: writes about being a new parent struggling to figure out the balance of screen time.

• Celebrating Ten years: Seasoned gaming reflects on ten years of games journalism. Quite a feat considering what the industry has been going through.

• Souls-like by the numbers: looks into the numbers around the soles-like genre. How the genre has boomed and who's the top seller.

• Getting Funded: walks through the process they follow on choosing which games to fund.

• Returning to Castlevania: wanted to return to where the genre began, and dives into the 1986 NES original, Castlevania.

• Handling the tail: looks into the companies who manage long-tail revenue services for games. The strategies they use to ensure games that are no longer evergreen are still making a profit.

• Occlusion Highlighting: has just learned about Occlusion Hightlighting and had a go at implementing it.

• 10 Cozy Recommendations: Love a Cozy Game, Her Cozy Gaming loved Winter Burrow and has made ten recommendations for us to try. So I now have 11 games to play.

• Waiting for it: reflects on that feeling when your waiting for the I tetronimo to show up and your making space for it.

Fun Tidbits

• The PS2 Game ‘Fate/stay night Réalta Nua’ Is Now Playable In English

• Steam Frame and Steam Machine will be another good boost for Flatpaks and desktop Linux overall too

• “We’re Not Okay Shipping It” - Hyperkin Explains Why Its Handheld Sega Genesis, The Mega95, Has Been Delayed

• Taito’s PS2 Remake Of ‘Ys V’ Is Now Fully Playable From Start To Finish In English, Thanks To A New Fan Translation

• Dev of Steam game ‘Hardest’ will delete it after new girlfriend made them realise AI is bad

• The Zelda Adventure Nintendo Would Rather Forget Is Getting A Fan-Made Remaster

• ‘About Fishing’ Is What You Get When You Combine Shenmue With Sega Bass Fishing, Apparently

• This Promising New Action-Platfomer Is Built From The Ashes Of A “Massive” Unreleased ROM Hack For An SNES Classic

• A Fool’s Errand Is The Kind Of Addictive Brilliance You Can Only Find On Playdate

• “It Feels Very Natural To Grow In That Direction” - The Newly Independent GOG On Potentially Following Nightdive’s Example

• “Not A Single Pixel” Of The New Ecco Game Will Be Generated By AI, Insists Series Creator

Whilst I’m technically on my holiday right now, I though’t I’d surprise you with something I’m shocked I’ve not done before, a Reconnect Recap for the entire year that’s been.

Before we dig into the spoils I just wanted to reflect on past twelve months.

At the start of 2025, I had 100 subscribers to this newsletter, at time of writing i’m just under 650. Whilst some of this can be attributed to keeping the newsletter consistent and a very favourable mention by The Verge, I have to say that I notice the most uptick in subscribers when one of you lovely people shares the newsletters or mentions me in a post.

For that I am very thankful and I’m consistently blown away by the community here and those who reach out to get their blog or a blog that they know of added to the site.

This special edition of the Recap comes in two parts.

The Top 20, that’s derived from my own analytics in the back-end of the website, these are the articles that have been clicked on the most this year. Please don’t take it too personally if one of your best articles isn’t on here. This is simply what I can see has been clicked on the most from the site. Many people access the articles via other avenues I can’t count.

It also should be pointed out that the 200k visitors the site got from the Verge might sway these numbers. This is just a bit of fun, nothing to be taken too seriously.

But what has surprised me running the site this past year, is the amazing diversity of writers and what they are bringing to the user base. I always feared that the flavour of the month game would always sway the sites traffic but it’s actually those writing about unique topics and their niches that stand out the most.

The second section of the Recap is my honourable mentions, as someone who has read through hundreds of articles every week of the year, there are always ones that pique my personal interest, and deserves a shout out in this edition.

As always let’s dig in, and I hope that you are enjoying your holiday season.

Reconnects Top 20 for ‘26

1. Indieformer: He Set Out to Make a Roguelike. Then He Played Pokémon

2. : Hobbits and ninjas

3. Alex Rowe: The Fumbled Game Reboot That Buried an Iconic Developer

4. No Escape: Part 1.6: No More Diversions

5. Game-Wisdom: Peaked Content in Live Service Games

6. : Emulators I Have Loved And Lost: The Definitive Review

7. : What is Roblox & Why Xbox’s Strategy Shift Feels Like Giving Up

8. : Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (PC, 1996)

9. 70% Complete: Clean Up Earth might be just what I crave

10. Alex Rowe: The Top 5 Games of 2025 (So Far)

11. : Hideo Kojima Speaks: The Extended Cut

12. Gamesasylum: Most Played: The Last Oricru – The Final Cut

13. : Gaming’s Dirty Little Secret

14. Aftermath: I Also Have A USB Stick Full Of Game Ideas, But I Will Share Them With You Before I Die

15. Game by Mistake: These are the Best 2D-Platformers on the Nintendo Switch I’ve Played

16. : No One Wants to Die on Gooner Hill

17. : Nathan Drake’s Wet Pants Showed Me the Future

18. CRPG Addict: Pathways into Darkness: Let Hitler Have It

19. : The One Game I Can’t Stop Playing

20. : Ten Games I’m positive people are Lying about finishing

Honorable Mentions

• : From Bastion to Hades: How Supergiant Games Became Masters of Indiedev.

• : Gamers Aren’t Real

• : Women in Video Games

• : Healing Pokémon, Healing Myself

• : Are Technical Issues Ignored In Game Reviews?

• : Finding Comfort in Non-Cozy Games - Cyberpunk 2077

• : Do we REALLY need a section?

• : Why You Should Make A Steam Curator Page Right Now

• : I’m turning 35: Here’s how my lifelong gaming preferences have changed

• : Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gave me a feeling I thought I’d lost

• : I flew 2400 kms to not talk to Hideo Kojima

• : How much room is there for optimism in games media?

• : How Gamefaqs changed RPG consumption - an history of RPG walkthroughs, from clue books and hearsay to the digital age

• : Gaming Needs More Historical Fiction

• : Fallout 4 | The Cozy Experiences of Post-War Settlement Building

• : Hobby Spaces Have a Transphobia Problem

• : The biggest burnout I’ve ever had with a game: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

• : Thoughts: Is liking something uncool now?

• : Shiny Pokémon Don’t Exist Anymore

Welcome to the last Reconnect Recap of 2025, or is it……

I’ve spent the last week tinkering with my new ROG Ally X, been loving playing some Destiny in bed, and whilst I did sink some decent hours into Outer Worlds 2, It just didn’t catch me, so instead I installed the Wabbajack edition of Fallout New Vegas and been having a blast.

As always this is the Reconnect Recap, your companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.

This week, we’ve got new handhelds, games analytics, narrative design, composers, emulation, and much much more.

Lets dig in.

Holiday Note: I’ll be taking a month off over the Xmas / New Year period and so the last Recap of the year will go out on the 16th of December, the first one of the 2026 will go out on the 20th of January.

Great Write Ups

• I object!: TimeExtension dives into the journey Masakazu Sugimori went through to create the iconic Phoenix Wright soundtrack, and it was not an easy ride.

• November Indies: SuperJump Magazine does a monthly Indie round up, I really enjoyed this latest edition and I recommend you keep a watch out for future editions.

• Autism at risk: Stevivor writes up a recent discussion by Tony Attwood, a specialist in autism, who expresses concern over the growing risk of gambling in video games and the impact to those with Autism.

• Starting Solo Dev: has 5 things to know before starting solo game dev.

• Adults Plight: connects with the stress that adulthood brings and the guilt that comes with having some personal gaming time.

• A need for speed: Games are getting faster, faster to get into, faster to complete and faster to hold our attention. But what’s being sacrificed here? Game-Wisdom explains.

• The beast: games sits down the developers of Amnesia The Bunker to explain how the monster of the games AI works.

• Narrative AMA: shares her nearly 20 years of experience in narrative design and answers one of the most common questions she gets asked.

• Panic about Horses: It’s just a game, an art form, as dives into the recent controversy.

• Deck Emulation: who loves her Steam Deck a lot, has taken the next logical step we all do with our handhelds, and dipped their toe into Emulation.

• How games are helping the youth: We like to think we grew up on games, but Gen Alpha really are growing up with games integrated in their lives, and explains the benefits it’s having.

• Ignoring the games: dives into the new Warner Bros acquisition and notes the lack of interest by either parties in the games division.

• 2025 Graduates: takes a look at all the games that came out of early access this year and how they did.

Fun Tidbits

• Psikyo’s Delisted Shoot ‘Em Ups Are Coming Back To Steam, Rights Holder Confirms

• The Legend Of Zelda Meets Mad Max In New Car-based Dungeon-dwelling RPG ‘RoadOut’

• A Fan Translation Is Currently In The Works For A Sega Dreamcast Game Based On The Japanese Anime ‘Love Hina’

• The AYANEO Pocket Play Takes Inspiration From Sony’s Failed “PlayStation Phone”

• Modder Creates Switch-Style Dock For The Nintendo 3DS

• More Old Capcom Mobile Games Have Been Saved From Digital Oblivion, Including A Breath Of Fire IV Card Game

• These Fan-Made WipEout Lego Sets Are Amazing, And You Can Build Them Yourself

• Xbox Prototype Follow-Up

• Shenmue Fangame ‘Dreams Of Saturn’ Is Getting Another Christmas Update & It Looks Like A Total Fever Dream

• “Never Played A Game Like It Before” - John Romero’s New FPS Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Smaller

• Xbox Hardware Outsold by Motion Controlled Nex Playground During Black Friday

• After 34 Years, This Abandoned NES Game Is Finally Getting A Cartridge Release

• Atari’s Lost ‘80s Precursor To Beatmania Has Been Recovered

• Yuzo Koshiro’s Failed Streets Of Rage 4 Pitch Was Inspired By Team Fortress Classic

• Analogue 3D Is Getting Some “Funtastic” Case Options

• Unofficial Dreamcast Port Of Star Fox 64 Now Available

• “That’s Something That I Would Definitely Like To Revisit” - Suda51 Wants To Revive One Of Grasshopper’s Early PS2 Titles

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

Well I went out and bought the ROG Ally Xbox handheld and I’m loving it as a great upgrade to the Steam Deck. Being able to play games like Destiny 2 and Outer Worlds 2 has really transformed my gaming experience. Sure Windows is horrible, but the work they have done to hide that garbage OS is very welcome and I’m really enjoying being able to play these more demanding games, and has me convinced I can now sell my rarely-used gaming laptop. I think I’m a handheld gamer for life now.

As always this is the Reconnect Recap, your weekly newsletter that aggregates all the amazing article to feature on Reconnect over the past week.

This week we’re….. ⚠️

Lets dig in.

Holiday Note: I’ll be taking a month off over the Xmas / New Year period and so the last Recap of the year will go out on the 16th of December, the first one of the 2026 will go out on the 20th of January.

Great Write Ups

• Could have been the Game Boy killer: Time Extension has the story on how SEGA looked to dethrone the Game Boy with a planned follow up to the Game Gear.

• November Numbers: has the industry sales and play numbers for November.

• Tokyo Game Dungeon: Indie Tsushin visited Tokyo Game Dungeon 10 and has a great write up on some of the new indie titles shown off at the event.

• Girl Gamer: has been diving into Women in gaming lately, and has given us her thoughts on the moniker of ‘Girl Gamer’.

• Back to Jak: has an existential crisis about LinkedIn messages and getting older whilst they reminisce about Jak II.

• Standing Alone: Super Jump Magazine gives their review of Ghost of Yotei and marvels at how it’s not trying to be the sequel to Tsushima.

• Getting Frosty: Frosty Game Fest is a dedicated space for Australian and Kiwi developers to showcase their games during the Summer Games Festival, let’s ignore the fact that it really doesn’t get frosty here. Multiplier has an interview with Amy Potter-Jarman, the founder of the Fest to learn more about the initiative.

• Dispatching some thoughts: gives us their very in depth thoughts on Dispatch, a game I have heard so many things about. I think after reading Cats thoughts you can tell it was originally meant to be a show, and not a game.

• But do they get it?: It’s been six months since the Switch 2 launched, and as far as Nintendo is concerned, it’s a successful launch, but muses on the future, as Nintendo still struggles with some core elements of being an ecosystem owner.

• AI AI OH: says they stay clear of talking about AI, but 2000 words later they have put together quite a level headed explanation of how AI is impacting games.

• Bungie in trouble: I’ve written extensively over the years about Bungie, they have such an unfortunate run of bad luck marred with bad decisions, but as they struggle to keep Destiny 2 afloat (that Star Wars season is fun though) and ramp up towards Marathon, TWIV writes about how the writing may already be on the wall.

• Indie Christmas: Thinking of buying your loved ones some video games this year? has a indie xmas buying guide.

• Conquering Brazil: Many aren’t aware just how weird a gaming history Brazil has due to tariffs and certain laws. Time Extension has the story about how a small local toy company made SEGA a massive success in Brazil.

• Princess of the Night: For their final retro review of 2025, dives back into Twilight Princess and explores that nostalgic feeling.

Fun Tidbits

• N64 Cult Classic Body Harvest Is Now Available On Polymega

• “AI Is Gonna Eventually Eat Itself... Like When We Fed Cows With Cows And Got Mad Cow Disease”

• “I Do Have Some Regrets” - How The Creator Of Counter-Strike Gave Up A Money-Making Behemoth

• Pocket Codex Will Change The Way You Use Game Guides Forever

• The Modern FPS Classic ‘Dusk’ Is Getting A Retro-Inspired RPG Spin-Off

• The First Demo Of Pokémon New Frontiers Is Now Playable

• Turrican And Taito Collections Are Coming To Evercade

• I Waited Over A Year For These Dreamcast Trading Cards

• ModRetro’s M64 Console (& Controllers) Will Have Replaceable Shells

• A Fan Translation Patch Is In The Works For ‘Gunslinger Girl’, A PS2 Rail Shooter Based On The Popular Anime

• One Of The Rarest Sonic Arcade Cabinets In The World Is Going Up For Auction This Month

• GAMEKIDDY’s Next Handheld Could Be A GKD350H Remake

• Former Rare Designer Pranks Everyone With Doctored Fax From Miyamoto On Banjo-Tooie

• Sony to publish Bad Robot Games four-player shooter from Left 4 Dead creator

• Speculation For A New Chrono Trigger Game Rises After An Elusive Developer Interview

• Now You Can Smell As “Good” As Snake With These Official Metal Gear Solid Delta Toiletries

• Cancelled RPG Splatterworld Discovered After 32 Years & Now Has An English Translation

• Artist who had work “lifted” by Bungie for Marathon says matter is “resolved”

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

Well I did what we all did and bought a heap of new games on the Steam Sale, and whilst I do have a gaming laptop, I tend to prefer my SteamDeck and now I’m eyeing up a more powerful handheld to really experience these games in all their glory. So watch this space, maybe by the next newsletter I would have made some really poor financial decisions.

As always this is the Reconnect Recap, your weekly newsletter to covering off all the great articles to feature on Reconnect, in the past week.

This edition is absolutely jam packed, we’re talking about backlogs, censorship, courtrooms, retro games, and plenty of analytics.

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• Backlogs part one: Seasoned Gaming takes us down memory lane to back to when you would buy a game everyone was excited for and it wasn’t for you, so it sat in your backlog taunting you.

• Backlogs part two: also takes a look at the backlog problem and poses a different way to think about it.

• Russia censors Queer games: reveals how Steam censors LGBTQ+ content in Russian on behalf of the Russian Government.

• Global Insights: has the insights from the AudienceNet Study, which surveyed 24k active players, and has the breakdown of demographics, interests, and gameplay patterns.

• Courtroom History: Geoffray Brunaux wrote a book about the history of the video games industry, told not through the normal means, but instead courtroom battles, has a great write up on the French book.

• Orange is the new cube: Toomanywires has a SPICE orange Gamecube and matching four controllers and recounts what it took to get the set and how they plan on keeping their retro library going.

• Get Curating: explains why one of the best things you can do is create a Steam Curator Page to help drive traffic to your content.

• Games are a goldmine: TWIV explains why Hollywood is suddenly obsessed with mining video games for ideas.

• Gaining Steam: GamingOnLinux details the work Igalia, an open source consultancy is doing with Valve to make the next Steam hardware a success.

• Steaming Ahead: writes about how the Aussie game development scene is excited for Valves upcoming new machines.

• Inspiring Fantasy: Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games explains where Final Fantasy pulls there inspirations from.

• Are Steam Prices Dropping?: What is the median price of a Steam Game, does the slew of Indie hits change the equation? dives into the numbers to answer the question.

• Playstation on Steam: How much money has Sony made by launching their games on Steam, and which Studios are doing the best? explains.

• Polygonal Action: goes back in time to the original Tomb Raider game and views it through the lens of today.

Fun Tidbits

• This Gamer Is Creating A Tool To Automatically Make Any GBA Game Work On Game Boy Color

• The C64 Mini - Black Edition - Commodore’s Beloved Home Micro Gets Shrunk Down (Again)

• Netflix’s Castlevania: Nocturne Is Getting An Art Book

• Here’s Super Mario 64 Running On PlayStation

• The TimeSplitters Series May Be On Ice, But This Impressive Fan Project Will Help Soothe The Pain

• The Games Industry In Canada Has Grown Nearly Double In A Decade

• A WonderSwan RPG Based On The Anime ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’ Is About To Get A Fan Translation

• Remember When Games Came With Instructions? This Guy Does, And He Wants To Find The Heaviest PS1 Manual

• “We Are Actively Investigating Your Feedback” - R-Type Delta HD Boosted Publisher Delivers Statement On The Port’s Timing Issues

• DSpico Is The World’s First Open-Source Nintendo DS Flash Cart

• 2005 Resident Evil Rival ‘Cold Fear’ Joins The GOG Preservation Program

• Balatro And Scrabble Just Had A Baby, Thanks To Two Of The Legends Behind GoldenEye And TimeSplitters

• Following Doom & Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D Is The Latest Classic FPS To Get A Voxel Transformation

• “It May Be The First Video Game About The Beatles” - Before Rock Band, There Was Beat the Beatles

• Spyro The Dragon On N64 Is The Crossover Nintendo Never Thought Would Happen

• This ZX Spectrum LEGO “Tribute” Set Really Needs To Become A Reality

• “No One Outside Of Our Company Was Very Excited By It” - Former GTA Boss On The Third Game’s Amazing Success

• Feed IT Souls Is A Game Boy Metroidvania That Pokes Fun At Annoying “Techno-Feudalists”

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

I’ve had a busy week and a blast at Metallica, did I get around to playing the Outer Worlds 2? No, again, but I randomly picked up Fallout New Vegas on my travels, it’s basically the same thing.

It’s another week, so it’s another edition of the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to the games writing discovery platform, Reconnect.

This week we’re talking about Fonts, Fallout Mods, Crash Bandicoot, lots of numbers, and much much more.

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• War never ends: Superjump Magazine follows a prolific Fallout New Vegas modder whose storylines blossomed into full fledged fan fiction.

• Times are changing: Once upon a time, a review on IGN would rocket your game to success. explains how things have changed by looking at how The Drifter went about advertising their game.

• Bold Decision: We all know that Comic Sans isn’t a good font for anything, provides a guide for picking a font for your game.

• Siren Call: Team Siren was a pivotal moment in Esports history, at the time I knew it meant a lot, what I didn’t know, due to being AMAB, was how much it meant to the women in the industry, and I’m very pleasantly please to hear ’s take on it.

• Money Money Money: Despite constant layoffs and failed games it can be easy to think that the industry is struggling, but has all the numbers to show whose making all the money.

• Away with words: Literature based video games are on the decline, dives into the deep history of the medium and looks into why.

• Awards by the numbers: Well we got the nominees, but how well did those games sell to warrant the nom? has the numbers.

• Broken Silk: No Escape is done with Silksong, they enjoyed the game, but can’t quite get past the birds.

• Willie the Wombat: Many of us Millennials played Crash Bandicoot, it’s a staple in our gaming history, but explains its wild backstory and how the game came to be.

• Getting caught in the loop: Gaming backlogs can be stressful, we all get caught up in the obligation of it all, walks through the feeling of handling their backlog.

Fun Tidbits

• Interviewing The Owner Of Two Of The Rarest GBA SPs On The Planet

• “That Was A Strong Influence” - Rare Legend Explains GoldenEye 007’s Impact On Banjo-Tooie

• Cozy exploration-trading game Townseek arrives Spring 2026 with a fresh demo

• BrickBoy Reveals Arcade Edition After Passing €500,000 On Kickstarter

• “It’s Like Time Travel” - Nightdive’s Studio Head On Resurrecting Outlaws, LucasArts Forgotten FPS Western

• AYANEO Finally Shows Us The Pocket Vert Handheld

• “There Weren’t A Lot Of Extras, So It Had To Be Done Right” - Fallout Co-Creator Reveals What Modern Game Devs Can Still Learn From The ‘80s

• Discover The Power Strip Inspired By The Nintendo Famicom

• Unity and Epic Games Announce Partnership

• The Best GBA Flash Cart’s New Feature Makes A Hideo Kojima Classic Playable

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

Did I get back to playing Outer Worlds 2? Nope, did I unlock new game plus in Ball X Pitt, yes, so that’s a win in my book. The recent Bethesda wet-fart of an announcement did get me craving to play a fallout game, but when you think about it, Outer Worlds is a fallout game, so that should bring me back. Though I have a Metallica concert this week, so that will come first.

Welcome to yet another edition of the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to the games writing discovery platform, Reconnect.

This week we’re talking about Fortnite, engagement, loving games, not loving games, lying about games, and motion in games.

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• Jumping the Shark: I accept that Fortnite’s madness is part of its schtick but according to the new sidekicks crossed the line.

• Lying about the finish line: We’ve all lied about doing something hard in a video game, but thinks many of us are lying about finishing certain games.

• Blast from the past: dives into all the classic references Obsidians latest title puts on show.

• Dispatch Showtime: I’ve heard a lot about this new game Dispatch, and Big Nerd Gaming makes a compelling case for an experience that is more like a great TV show than a video game.

• The box is a lie: As a Steamdeck fan I’m quite excited by the Steam Machine, but has a word of warning for those who are considering the new Gabe-Cube.

• On the move: A direct quote: “I can’t remember the last game I played where simply pushing up on the analog stick gave me such a massive dopamine hit.” from about Sword of the Sea, well i’m sold.

• Knowing what you love: Not all games are for everyone, I know what I like in games, so no matter how popular a game is, i.e Elden Ring, I know I won’t enjoy it. explains what games aren’t for them, some I agree with, some I don’t.

• Unlikely connection: Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games is filled with deep dives on fun facts, in their latest piece apparently Super Mario Bros 2 and Chrono trigger have an interesting link.

• Celebrating 14 years: Whilst it feels like the next Elder Scrolls is 14 years away, Skyrim is actually 14 years in the rear view mirror, reflects on the smash hit success.

• Understanding Engagement: It’s the hot word on every greedy executives lips, engagement. does what no executive will do, and looks into the research of what good engagement is.

Fun Tidbits

• “I Probably Wouldn’t Do That Again” - Outlaws Level Designer Shares The Story Behind Its Most Infamous Level

• Undertale Gets The Game Boy Color Treatment In This New Demake

• ‘Final Fantasy Mystic Quest’ Just Got A New Playable Demo For Your Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

• New ROM Hack Pokémon Lazarus Releases Next Week

• Konami’s 1985 Mech-Based Fighting Game ‘Galactic Warriors’ Is Coming To Consoles

• PicoIDE – An ODE and Hardisk Emulator for Retro PC’s

• Henshin, A Slice Of Japan On The British High Street

• One Man’s “Life-Long Dream” Of Creating A Physical WipEout Race Track Is Complete

• The Evercade is set to gain five new cartridges this month

• RV There Yet? Review: The Chaotic Co-Op Game That’s About Finding Your Way Back On The Road

• The Darkest Files is a powerful and compelling detective game that asks you to question truth and justice

• “Games Were Pretty Hostile” - Duke Nukem Co-Creator Reveals How The Bitmap Brothers Turned Him On To Cheat Codes

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

This week I started the Outer Worlds 2, then life got in the way, so I’m keen to get back to that, as long as I can pull my eyes and attention away the upcoming Lego Enterprise.

As always, this is the Reconnect Recap, your weekly newsletter recapping some of the best gaming articles to feature on Reconnect in the past week.

This week we’re learning a lot about game development, digging deep into some classic games, getting the latest on sales numbers, and so much more!!

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• Stranger Danger: Roblox is a threat to kids, but also it’s a great platform for kids who are flocking to individual games in numbers higher than the top played Steam games. So what do you do when your kid argues, quite rightfully, that to play the games properly they need to be able to chat to a stranger online?

• Lesson’s learned: shares how their approach to playing games has changed over the course of their life.

• Testing what makes the game fun: What is the point of prototyping a game? explains the process and what lessons are attempting to be learnt.

• Loving lying: What’s not to love about a puppet fighting there way through a magical realm? shares there in-depth review of Lies of P and it sounds like they had a freaking blast!

• 12-step program: Game design can be a complicated beast, so Raph Koster, famous game designer has detailed out a 12-step program for understanding the practice.

• Calling gaming childish, is childish: touches on a familiar topic for all of us, you are never too old to play games, you’re an adult, do whatever makes you happy.

• Practice makes perfect: In what seems to the the lesson, the industry refuses to learn, looks into those studios who are gaining success through honing their craft.

• The numbers: Another issue of details the sale figures for the latest Pokemon, Ball X Pitt, Duckov, and plenty more.

• Voyaging into the unknown: I love Star Trek, but have never touched a game. I’m very much interested in the up-and-coming Voyager game, and the latest article by has only increased my excitement.

• Neuromoding: I loved the Dishonoured games but never really got into Prey, maybe because it was a bit too scary. But C.C. Rayne over at Sidequest has played it many times and absolutely sings its praises, I might have to check it out (I think I own it already).

• What is evil, anyway?: dives deep, and I mean deep, into the understanding of evil in KOTOR 2, and how that plays out across its light vs dark familiar setting.

• Did you like Blue Prince?: If you liked the puzzle game from the beginning of the year, then Aftermath thinks you’ll enjoy The Seance of Blake Manor more.

• Changing Turns: Once a game is juggling multiple mechanics, its can be hard to tune your game to make things harder without effecting enjoyment. has four ways you can tweak a turn-based game to make improvements to the gameplay, or make it worse. Your choice.

Fun Tidbits

• Taiwanese Gamer Finally Completes Famicom & Super Famicom CRT Project After 5 Years

• The Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Series ‘Psyvariar’ Is Finally Getting A New Sequel After 22 Years

• Namco’s 1996 Coin-Op Tokyo Wars Is Coming To Consoles For The First Time Ever

• IGF Games I Want To Talk About 2026

• This Couple Have Played Mario Kart 64 Every Day For Over Two Decades For One Important Reason

• Eternal Hunters Is A New SNES Action RPG That Looks Part Secret Of Mana, Part Chrono Trigger

• You’ll Have To Wait Even Longer To Get Your Hands On This Miniature Version Of The PC-88

• Rockstar Co-Founder Says Open World Is Why Cancelled ‘Agent’ Didn’t Work

• ‘30 Years Of Worms’ Celebrates The Impact Of Team17’s Famous Series

• AYANEO Finally Reveals Luxurious Metal “Pocket Vert” Android Handheld

• Nintendo’s Making More Movies, So Place Your Bets on What’s Next

• Caves of Qud Wins Top Video Game Prize at the 2025 Hugo Awards

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

Well it’s already November, my how time flies when you're enthralled by the joys of games, writing, and other media.

I’ve finished putting countless hours into Ball X Pit, I do very much enjoy this genre, as it allows me to binge watch television while I play. Whilst I played it I basically watched all of 911, which I loved so please don’t judge me. I’ve also just blasted through the new season of the Witcher which always has me hankering to go back to the Witcher 3 and do another run through, but I just bought Outer Worlds 2 so that will take my attention for the next week or so. I’ll let you know how I get on.

This week we’re talking about Halo, Vanquish, Ninja’s, Destiny and plenty more.

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• Difficulty with difficulty: has their own take on letting hard games be hard.

• Losing their grasp on reality: I’ve heard an awful lot about ‘And Roger’, a powerfully moving game about loss, Remap has a very compelling write up about this wonderful indie title.

• Slide Shot: I’m in full agreement with Aftermath on this one, if you have $20 to spare and want to play a great action game, Vanquish is an amazing game everyone should play if they haven’t.

• The OG: Before the cottage industry of irate video game YouTubers there was Angry Video Game Nerd, the founder of the genre, Other Strangeness by Merritt K gives a the full history of the famous content creator.

• After everything they’ve done: give us a bit of a history lesson about everything Xbox has given the industry and what Halo on playstation means.

• Throwing bad money after bad: Surprise, surprise, apparently AI development tools are costing EA more money than it’s supposed to save.

• Katamari 2.0: of Good Game Lobby reviews the spiritual successor to Katamari, and it sounds very fun.

• Tactical Politics: I’m not good at picking up on subtext, I tend to take things at face value. SuperJump Magazine explains how the new and old Final Fantasy Tactics games reflect an entrenched social system designer, Matsuno, wanted to write about.

• Year of the Ninja: This Week in Video Games gives a great write up on how Ninjas became one of the gamings most famous archetypes.

• It’s Destiny: I’m a lapsed Destiny Fan, I’ve done my dash for over five years and have just lost interest, but I have been side-eying the new mobile title. gives a glowing review of the mobile spin off and maybe i’ll give it whirl.

• If everything is green, nothing is green: Steve Wright of Stevivor explains how now that ‘everything’ is an Xbox, they don’t need one any more.

Fun Tidbits

• ThinkyCon 2025 line-up revealed! See the full schedule of gamedev talks for our all-digital conference next week

• MicroProse’s Desert Strike Homage ‘Cleared Hot’ Takes Flight This November

• Castlevania’s Enhanced Fan Remake For Amiga Gets A CD32 Version In Time For Halloween

• ‘The Last Ninja Collection’ Sneaks Out Of The Shadows Onto Steam Next Month

• Tired Of “The Usual North American Perspectives”, This New Book Aims To Offer A Global View Of Game History

• Don’t Nod Announces Netflix Partnership for New Narrative Game

• 25 Years Later, King of Fighters: Battle de Paradise Gets Translated Into English

• ZSNES Creator Explains How He Achieved ‘Rollback’ Netcode On Dial-Up Connections In 1997

• “No One Ever Told Me Such A Conversation Had Taken Place” - Kojima Wasn’t Aware Of The Wachowskis’ Matrix Game Offer

• Crash Bandicoot Is Coming To Netflix In A New Animated Series

• SNES-Inspired RPG ‘Kingdoms Of The Dump’ Is A Game About Trash From “Those Who Sweep Your Floors”

• GameStop Drops A Clanger After Declaring The Console Wars “Over”

• Persona and Hades Are Both Hosting Live Concerts In London Next Year

• Game Boy Coding / Assembly Book

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.

Another week, another issue of the Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.

This week we’re diving into Gamescom, Xbox, Steam Next Fest, and tonnes of ports and game stats.

Lets dig in.

Great Write Ups

• Second World: I’ve been eagerly looking forward to the next Outer Worlds and Console Creatures review has me thinking it will be a fun time.

• Calming Joker: Somehow found Balatro to be a relaxing experience, I’m not sure I share the same feeling.

• Gamescom Asia: Living at the bottom of the world, I don’t get to enjoy things like E3, Gamecom, or PAX, so its fun to read write ups like this one from SuperJump, the event sounded amazing.

• Life after Live: interviews editor of GadgetGuy, Chris Button, and discusses the impact of live service games and the mark they are. leaving on the industry.

• Mario’s dead: I didn’t know that Marios death animation was trademarked, Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games explains.

• Profit Margin: We know its not good for Xbox at the moment, and the higher ups agree, according to this week in video games reports that Xbox is being forced to achieve a 30% profit on the platform.

• Not an Xbox, but a good handheld: I’m not leaving my Steamdeck anytime soon but the positive points about the ROG Xbox Ally X as reviewed by Stevivor have me curious.

• Playing 11 demos an hour: To play all the demos in the Steam Next Fest, would be difficult but Kimimi has done the math.

• Running through Hell: If you haven’t been following ‘s run through Supergiant’s games, you’ve been missing out, their latest piece is on Hades, I wonder which game will be next.

• Make the worst version and enjoy every moment: Sidequest looks into the Pretentious Game Jam which challenged participants to make the game of their dreams no matter how shit it turns out.

• Yotei kills the competition: In the latest we have the sales figures on Yotei on PS5 in comparison to it’s competition.

• Xbox players play more games?: According to the latest , Xbox players play more games per month than anyone else.

• Not agreeing with GOTY: Big Nerd Gaming disagrees with ten of the Games Awards winners, here’s why.

Fun Tidbits

• Fan Finishes Port of wipEout to Dreamcast

• “This Is Where The Game Truly Begins” - The Secret Weapon Behind Nintendo’s Most Iconic Box Art

• Taito’s First-Ever Flight Sim Comes In For Landing On Modern Consoles Later This Week

• “They Didn’t Even Bother To Look At My Skills” - One Of Japan’s RPG Pioneers Struggled To Find Work In His 50s Due To Ageism

• Six PC Engine Games From Telenet Japan Are Being Reissued On Nintendo Switch Early Next Year

• Valve doing more of a Steam Deck push with their Steam Deck Verified game pages

• THRASHER the mind-melting follow-up to Thumper releases November and Steam Deck optimised

• Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu Has Never Used AI, “And Probably Never Will”

• After 40 Years, This Iconic Japanese Arcade Is Closing Its Doors For Good

• Parody Game ‘Escape From Duckov’ Explodes in Popularity on Steam

• Everyone Else Is Wrong, Tales of the Shire Is Fun

• Classic Valve Title Portal Gets Reimagined As A 16-Bit Game

Housekeeping

• 🟨 Want to see more? Visit Reconnect and bookmark it, the site is updated multiple times a day.

• ⏰ Missed a previous Recap? Check out the full catalog here.

• ✍️ Like how I write? I occasionally write my own thoughts on the games industry, find those articles here.

• 🦋 On Bluesky? Give me a follow, I share all the best articles on my profile every day, if you’re curious about following more games writers, I’ve made a starter pack so that you can follow all the Reconnect writers in one spot. Not 100% complete yet but I’ll keep adding to it.

• 📘 I pen another newsletter, called Barely Managing, that is a survival guide for new and up and coming managers. Check it out!

• 💸 I develop, and pay for the costs of hosting Reconnect out of my own pocket, and everything I do from managing the site and writing these articles are things in do in my personal time. If you're feeling generous feel free to give me a tip.