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pasadena little shop is brilliant

just watched the 🥾🦵on yt. i am generally of the opinion that the directors cut is the best version of the show out there, but this was Different, and i love that

i like the design of the plant, it feels very alien and disconcertingly enticing. the actual puppetry or lack thereof is a little disappointing—the shadow effects are neat but i'd rather see the actual performer. the concept of the plant being an unknowable horror and/or not real is interesting, but it's hard to feel as impacted when the 'fight' scenes are like, disembodied floppy branches slapping people. for legal reasons i'm sure it's untenable but mean green mother is so much better as a final fight than seymour awkwardly batting at tendrils. amber riley's performance is great though—it's what you want from the role but she still makes it her own in a really compelling way.

the tone is the biggest swing in this production and i don't hate it. some of the jokes feel out of place within how seriously it's played, especially with orin, but most of them work in a smile-through-the-tears sort of way. it's shocking how you can translate a tragicomedy to a psychological horror tragedy without changing the script.

the performances are great across the board. george salazar is predictably the perfect seymour, you're rooting for him while increasingly aware he's not the sweet little guy you thought he was; also, his singing is so good ofc. but for me the real headliner is michaela jaé rodriguez. she kills it. i don't click with most audreys, i just can't with the plaintive put-on breathy tone, so seeing the role performed earnestly, so sweetly melancholy, ever ill-fated yet ever hopeful... she's incredible. the tone of the production would feel like self-indulgent *artiste* bs if she didn't make audrey feel so real.

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Des Reviews: The Lamplighters League AKA anticolonial Indiana Jones, or we have Fire Emblem at home, or a game fully carried by its artists and writers

There is a lot to love about The Lamplighters League. The setting is brilliant: set in the 1930s and inspired by adventure stories of the time, with magic, ghosts, and steampunk-esque technology. It's one of few games I've experienced where it truly feels worldwide, with each character shaped by a unique background and culture. Though a few of the playable characters didn't appeal to me, most did, which is pretty impressive for the size of the cast. Conversations at the hideout between your crew, your employer Locke, and other NPCs were the highlight of the game for me, and I'd trudge through missions just to unlock more.

Which brings me to my least favorite part of TLL: the actual gameplay. The real-time stealth segments are clunky and monotonous, with all of your varied characters having one of only three different abilities to use out of combat. Whether you get caught felt like luck of the draw, with some enemies oblivious to gunfights about 30 feet away, and some enemies alerting 20 more across the map because you stepped in a puddle. With that unpredictability, what should've felt like a satisfying puzzle was often an annoying tedium. Worse, getting spotted would trigger turn-based combat mode which would often be inescapable, even when the enemies fully lost sight of you and went back to their usual patrols.

The turn-based combat is generally better, but still mediocre. You have far more unique abilities to play around with, but good luck using them when you have to burn one of (usually) two action points moving a couple feet over, reloading, standing up, or using any item—especially when certain debuffs or getting knocked out will halve your action points. Combat has the potential to feel exhilarating and triumphant, but too often it's just a drag, made worse by the very small number of maps and often generic goals.

Back at the hideout, you have to choose missions to gain allies, story progress, or resources while juggling three Doomsday Clocks representing when each antagonist can take over the world. It's a fun idea to add stakes to every choice, though in practice, it can encourage you to do bland radiant missions to balance threat levels rather than prioritizing interesting and unique missions. The Breakpoints, where each clock passes a certain threshold unlocking new enemies and enemy abilities, are a great addition though. Otherwise, the progression felt fine, with different resources gained from each mission going into items and ability upgrades. The Undrawn Hand is a very neat way of building up characters over time and I love the variety of abilities you can add and upgrade, as well as the creative debuffs you incur when your characters suffer too much Stress. I do wish you could save certain cards for characters not on a particular mission, though.

The overall story is intriguing and held my interest. Locke is a fascinating central character, unraveling the past of the Lamplighters League is exciting, and each antagonist feels very different while all being fun to hate. The ending was a tad abrupt, and I would've loved to see a bow tied on some unanswered questions and a New Game +, but I respect when a game actually follows through on consequences of a big choice. (Wouldn't have argued with an epilogue like Fire Emblem: Awakening to lighten the mood slightly, though.) The optional lore around the ending was confusing, but the climax itself wasn't held back by it. I feel a bit cheated that it doesn't seem to matter if you kept your Clocks low or if you were barely scrapping by, but I'll forgive it for a high stakes finale.

Overall... 5/7 goldfish angels

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Des Reviews: Little Kitty Big City

I got a free month of GamePass so let's bash out some games?! 100%'d this in 14 hours over the past week.

It’s cute! You play as a kitty cat in this cross between Untitled Goose Game and Stray, causing chaos and helping animal friends as you find your way back home. It’s more or less a puzzle game, but not particularly difficult.

Climbing/platforming feels like Assassin's Creed, where you ask you PC to jump and they choose a point in the general direction, though this game does have a precision jump when you need to be more exact. It’s fun to find your way up structures the first time, but because there’s only one way up to a given spot, you’ll quickly get tired of doing the same thing over and over, especially if you’re going for achievements and need to keep coming back to the same areas. Would be nice if the fast travel points weren't all ground level.

The characters are charming and adorable, the hats are delightful, and it's fun to discover new ways of causing problems. I did wish there were more objectives that took advantage of the different environments and objects; it feels a bit of a waste to let you rob cash registers, steal different produce from the market, or find new toys from attacking briefcases when none of those objects are actually used for any quest. Let me bring a plushie to a baby animal, let me bring the NES and GameCube controllers to a game collector!

All in all, it's what it says on the tin, and a good bit of fun for it. I recommend trying it if you want some light antics, and it's definitely a good gift for kids!

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denim death to ducks and chain bastard wish you a happy halloween!

inspired by the taskquerade ball costume contest

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The Structure of a Successful Game Changer pt. 1 - Make Some Noise

An analysis of the stages comprising an entertaining and innovative Game Changer episode, explained by breaking down the episode Make Some Noise.

Stage 1: Our contestants have no idea

With prompt "cow," Josh responds "cow." Sam replies, "I'm sorry, that is not the answer I was looking for."

Often only a turn or two, this first stage is comprised of the players identifying the core mechanic of the episode—getting a basic understanding of what each question will ask of them and how they might earn points or advance further. Other examples: the first forays into navigating the Jeopardy board, or Sam’s opening instructions for “Sam Says” demonstrating an instruction not preceded by “Sam says” should not be followed.

Stage 2: You all understand

With prompt "duck," Zac responds "quack quack" and receives a point. Josh comments "Okay I see, I see what this is about, okay."

Here the players realize the structure of each question, and witness some behaviors receiving points while others do not (excluding non-point-earning episodes.) Sometimes, this is all the players need to understand the fundamental premise (mimic the sound produced by the prompt) while sometimes unraveling the mystery of the premise is the overall conceit of the episode (tell us about yourself, yes or no.)

Stage 3: Escalation of Rules

After Zac's response to "frog," Sam says "I'm gonna toss it up to the other two contestants [to steal the point.] Brennan, give me your best frog."

An expansion to the initial rules is revealed, allowing players to further advance/gain points beyond the initial bounds of the premise. Here, the escalation is that players may steal prompts from each other—others include incorporated phrase bonus points from The Official Cast Recording and the hidden immunity loop-de-loops from Survivor.

Stage π: Departure

Sam says "We are now headed into our first mini game." Each player attempts to recreate a melody on an otamatone.

This optional stage, typically presented as a “mini game,” is thematically connected to the premise but operates on its own rules. Make Some Noise iterations typically include a mini game where contestants are provided a prop and must mimic a given sound with that prop—no spoken entries qualify. Similarly, A Sponsored Episode and its continuations feature a mini game of providing commercial voice-overs for stock footage (where non-commercial interpretations are not rewarded,) and a mini game of identifying brand taglines/logos.

Stage 4: Escalation of Concept

Sam introduces the next prompt, "Your word is jack hammer." Josh makes a jack hammer sound, bouncing with a hand above his head and explaining "that's him keeping the hat on."

While Stage 3 adds on to the rules of the episode, Stage 4 applies the same rules to something new—here transitioning from animal calls to all manner of sound effects. Escalation of concept can be clearly demarcated, as this example is, or more gradual, like the escalations from common animal calls to obscure animal calls or from physical prompts to intangible prompts like “anguish.” What matters is that escalations continue to push the format to new heights and prevent the conceit from stagnating.

Stage 5: Expansion of Concept

The prompt is a stock photo of a smiling young adult white man. Brennan roleplays the man arrogantly describing his improv group, ending with "This date's going well."

Though similar to Stage 4, I characterize this stage as a dramatic alteration to the format of prompts—here from text prompts to image prompts. This can be for several turns, as it is for MSN, or just one, such as “go” from Sam Says or the cockroach union from “Do I hear $1?” This builds a finale that presses the bounds of the format to their limits, capping off the episode.

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Lethal Company enemies drawn by memory!

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my take on @immortalarizona's sporeborn sarith!

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@layton-npc-appreciation-week

miss makepeace! (just in time)

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@thatspecificanomaly:

i thought about it and what if you just pikminify your oc just make them into a Pikmin what if you just do that and then show them off doing some random things

i made some dnd characters as pikmin!

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caustic

sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way / used to chemically cauterize skin, providing hemostasis or permanently destroying unwanted tissue --

these are sarith and rue, belonging to @ritelli-main! sarith is my dnd boyfriend so i love to draw him getting better... and suffering in the meantime. and rue is precious!

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