Salads

I can't stand SRPGs, and considering the gargantuan state of my backlog and how long the things take I have no great inclination to try and change that. That said, Into the Breach is one of the best games I've ever played so I'm definitely seconding that. Three controllable units, an 8x8 grid and minimal gear/exp modifiers prevented me from feeling bewildered at having a billion possible moves at my disposal like I normally would. I can actually sit and analyse the board like it's a game of chess before making my moves (which I assume is what normal people can do with regular SRPGs) and r

When Mox challenged Nagata it seemed like he was crossing off a name on his fanboy wishlist to give people like us something to talk about. Now it's happening on Dynamite it looks like a Saudi Prince booked it.

No way was I expecting Shingo to get this much backing when he came in. I wonder how Sanada feels being the #4 guy in LI even after Evil left. > Comes in > Wins jr tag title after three months > Is undefeated for the best part of a year > Sets a points record in his only BOSJ > Loses final, immediately promoted to heavyweight > First ever double-NEVER champion (for seven months!) > Spends 294 days as a heavyweight singles champ > Needs Tanahashi to prise the NEVER title away from him, then a New Japan Cup final > Loses NJC final, then does an Ibu

After years of 'why haven't New Japan made Naito / Ibushi / whoever the guy yet' it turns very quickly to 'now what?' once delivered when the same guys are still facing the same guys. You mentioned Naito as an example of creating a new star, but I'd also use him as an example of reinventing one. Every now and again (Chono, Mutoh, Makabe, Nakamura, Naito... or Yano!) NJ have someone who's already up there as a mainstay but an almost US-style gimmick repackaging not only makes them more popular but is effectively a new character helping rematches feel fresh. If you can get that right it's pricel

Seconding that Okada dropping the belt was the start of the downfall rather than Omega leaving. No way you can include the build to Omega/Tanahashi in NJPW's 'golden age', the Ibushi/Cody three-way seemed like an open admission that booking had been replaced by pandering and it's clear that Omega's attitude/leaving threw a giant spanner into the planning that had previously been working well. It was hardly a Rikio but in hindsight still a waste of and step down from Okada's reign. Will defend EVIL's title win. I've seen both New Japan and NOAH crash and burn after peaks and I don't think

Transformers Devastation reminds me of those old licensed games where they'd throw a license drape (or three) over whatever game template they had ready to go. In a good way. It doesn't really fit (why are the Autobots using swords?) but I bought it for 'Transformers + Platinum' and that's what I got. High sequel potential with I think only about five controllable characters which won't happen due to licensing, but can't fault Activision for having the license in the first place and putting their money on 'like Bayonetta but with vehicle form hit and runs for wicked weaves'.

As someone who had an accusation made of them at work involving a colleague of the opposite sex comprehensively debunked later down the line but still gets soul-chilling moments when considering there may be people out there who only knew of the first part, it's scary how absent the developments from late last year are when this topic comes up. Teflon above deciding against trusting it is fair enough it's not like we can be 100% either way, but considering the level of Britwres sleaze we've seen I'm disappointed seeing Will widely described as a Scurl-tier offender based primarily on an indivi

Okada is also a colossal dork, but his game face is firmly on when the show starts. Similarly when most people find out Misawa was a big Kamen Rider fan they are surprised because Kamen Rider Fan was most definitely not his gimmick (though dressing as an anime character in-ring for several years should have been a clue). It seems that Kenny doesn't have the right dork flavour to resonate with fans the way Hangman can, but isn't able to mask it like the biggest names can. At least I enjoy the stories Kenny tells even if I don't buy them. I remember people not being able to get into the Roc

Suzuki (currently 52), Tanahashi (44) and Ishii (45) are the 'gotta be up there' 2021 entrants to this topic from NJPW's side.

If it weren't for most of the library managing to later find a larger, more appreciative audience I'd probably be bitter and raving about the Wii U on street corners. It was always destined for failure which made the press assasinations seem needless. Right now it's primarily a great way to grab virtual console (esp GBA, DS and Wii) games digitally, affordably and permanently possibly for the last time.

Using the extensive research method of looking at what I have, I'm surprised how little there actually is on the download side once the virtual console is taken out of the equation. - Mighty Switch Force and The Gunman Clive games are good stuff but have since been ported to Switch. Similarly, I have Fast Racing NEO in my backlog but I think Switch's Fast RMX is an expansion of the same thing. - Severed is available on other systems, but I would think best played with a stylus. - The NES Remix games have some content not included in the later 3DS compliation port. - Star Fo

In my experience, I have it on decent authority that just about any controller can work with PC, but they won't. Spent far too much of my life pissing around buying adapters, downloading drivers, configging everything button by button etc and I think the best I managed was 'my PC knows the controller is there, and if I run this program in the background beforehand I can use it without analogue control but only if I bought the game on Steam'. Obviously my failings don't mean you won't have great success but for peace of mind just grab any Xbox controller (well, 360 and newer) and it'll always w

I used to be irritated with how revered his ratings were until he broke through the five star barrier making it clear he agreed. I forgot all about him handing out a seven, which remains tremendous. Surprisingly I only count 4 for the Bucks. There's a list on wikipedia with a handy league table of the top ***** earners at the bottom. Appropriately it goes up to 11.

I was thinking that being in five star matches on consecutive days has to be a first, but thanks to rating escalation over recent years this is by my count the fourth time and the second for Ibushi. Speaking of escalation, how's this for a five star rating scoreboard: AEW - 6 The 2000s - 7 Ospreay - 13

'Near or at the end of their careers' can get confusing in the world of pro wrestling where a career can have multiple endings or cameos extending decades beyond full-time activity. WOR Dave recently described Minoru Suzuki as having the best year of work by a 52 year old in history. I thought that sounded like a cool spin on the wrestler of the year debate format - 'Wrestler of the Age'. Competition would be too crowded in the middle of the bell curve, but working in from the edges might be interesting.

This is great stuff but is spread across many pages (one per week), so not easy reading. And it's chronological so people may not get past the 'tell us about your childhood' material, so I've broken it down a bit. Childhood 'This is kinda embarrassing but I went back to visit Gifu recently, and my old school friends told me when I was a kindergartner I would constantly be trying to lift up girls’ skirts. ' Love life Discovering Pro Wrestling Including his favourite match as a fan. Being a fan 'No, we just wore costumes. I took a sharpie and wrote KENTA KOBASH

Hope this hasn't been posted but I stumbled across the following picture showing some G1 stats for this year's entrants. The bits that stood out to me were EVIL already having a positive win/loss record going in, and 50/50 booking giving all five men who debuted in last year's tournament identical results. Also of interest (to me at least) are the previews NJPW are putting up on their site (like this) showing the singles and G1 singles record for individual match-ups. Every match on night 6 has someone who has yet to beat their opponent in a G1, for example.

Out of context it would sound like the work of some kind of sinister COVID-spreading cult if they weren't so well behaved. Thousands of people attend a public event and at one previously-coordinated point expel the virus into the air with the full force of their lungs and the words 'become the wind'.

I thought the Xbox One name was confusing because of how the Xbox became retroactively referred to by some as the Xbox 1 after the 360 came out (like the 'PS1'). I thought it was some kind of brand reboot to simplify things going forward, but without an Xbox Two why stick the word One after your third of four systems? 'XBox Series' should logically refer to the series of XBoxes that have been released, of which the first one has no name that can refer to it by itself and the second one has a 3 in its name. It's all mental.

Clearing the slate at the end of every year is actually a great way of avoiding WK influencing the booking like it does the G1. In the same way it also enables its crowning to be something of note for the tail end of the calendar when they are usually treading water (sorry tag league).

I had the exact same plan. I don't really do tv so I set myself a target of about one per working day. I'm currently up to episode 23 and there may be another pandemic before I finish.

Infamous 2 popped up in my backlog roulette and a couple of hours in I'm still struggling to not be amused by how Cole the superpowered movieman handles the same as Sly the thieving raccoon. Congrats to Sucker Punch for breaking a twenty year habit assuming the same is not the case for Ghost.

The IWGP so transparently having to change trajectory in early 2019 after Kenny neglected to mention his plans to leave makes it easy to forget how much of a let down his 'me against my friends' 2018 reign was after being so hot chasing and how badly the dome main event was sabotaged. The US expansion could never have existed and AEW turning Kenny's ear would still be looked back on as the point when New Japan's recent golden age came to an end. They've yet to regain that lost momentum.

Best bit was him pointing out that his down-throw was from Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition just to out-dork everybody who thought they didn't need a lesson. Never thought I'd see a Pic-a-Pix Color mention here! It was my pre-bed chill for a bit. First puzzle reveals the picture, then the second is a desperate few seconds trying to work out what the hell the picture is meant to be before the punchline of the game telling you.