Game Bites: Lovish

Developer: LABS Works
Publisher: DANGEN Entertainment

3 stars out of 5

Lovish is a delightful little throwback to action platformers of the 8-Bit era, reminiscent of NES classics like Fire n' Ice and the Adventures of Lolo.

The game has players aiding Sir Solomon as he fights through the various rooms of Devil Lord's castle to save his beloved Princess Tsuna. Except Solomon has fired the rest of his crew and maybe Princess Tsuna doesn't really want to be saved? 

Stages are short, usually taking only a minute or so to complete. Between stages, players are treated to a variety of cut-scenes and minigames. Players can collect coins to upgrade Sir Solomons jumps and attacks, opening even more of each room to explore. Its the usual mechanics of the genre and its all implemented very well. Controls are tight and acquiring upgrades is very satisfying.

Book Bites: All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Given how often "All Boys Aren't Blue" is challenged and removed from school and public libraries, George Johnson's coming of age memoir as a gay black young adult is surprisingly chaste, family-affirming and, dare I say...normal? Outside of a (very frank) chapter showing how conservative mis-teaching of sexuality and reproduction leads to predatory behaviors and fumbling sexual encounters--especially so among queer youth--Johnson's book mostly centers on the importance of family and how utterly affirming it is to be allowed the space and grace to grow and make mistakes and learn. It is ironically because of wine-moms (who, by the way, read just the dirtiest smut) and lifted-pickup-truck-dads (with toxic browser histories), who are constantly trying to silence Johnson's voice, that this touching and honest queer coming-of-age story is so important.

View all my reviews

Book Bites: Super Nintendo

Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play by Keza MacDonald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Super Nintendo is an enjoyable history of video game giants Nintendo through the lens of some of the company’s greatest games. MacDonald clearly knows her stuff and by dissecting hanafuda cards, Super Mario, Pokémon or Splatoon, deftly shows the collaborative, goofy environment that has allowed Nintendo to flourish while competitors—Atari and Sega and now even Microsoft—have come and gone. 

There’s lots of fun trivia to surprise even hardcore gamers.  Although, let me push up my nerd glasses here and say there are a few factual slips; Kirby's Adventure is misattributed to the SNES and the text omits that the  Donkey Kong arcade game began its life as a Popeye game that Nintendo couldn't secure the rights to. The text also hints toward Shigesato Itoi and Mother/Earthbound without ever really discussing the game, and I'm not sure if this is some sort of oversight or a sly in-joke at Nintendo's own attitude toward the Mother game series. 

Accessible and breezy, the text, much like Nintendo itself, should be pick up and play fun for even casual video game fans.

View all my reviews

Book Bites: Bunny

Bunny by Mona Awad
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bunny is an intentionally confounding bit of sad girl dark academia. The story follows loner Samantha as she navigates her second year of graduate study in a top-flight Creative Writing MFA program…by joining a coven of barbies who magik campus bunnies into malformed, brainless men to serve at their beck and call (and sometimes be axe-murdered). However; the text is so full of sly references to schizophrenia and meta-commentary on fiction that the line between what is real and what is not in the world of the book becomes blurry bordering on nonexistent. Awad gleefully plays with themes of belonging, of the love/hate relationship between art and money, of generational trauma, all while dousing the reader in buckets of blood and gore. It's an admirable effort, but the text is averse to endorsing any one reading to the point that no single punch really lands. Bunny is an interesting book, that, by design, spins a hollow-feeling narrative.

View all my reviews