Cliff Hanger

If you get a chance to play the PS360 Splatterhouse, do it. It's janky and sleazy and dumb, but it's fun as hell despite being a C+ in every way that SHOULD make for a great game. As far as smashy smashy button mashy combo brawlers go, I get more joy out of that than I do a lot of objectively better games. It also has the uncut version of the arcade game (both the Namco Museum and Arcade Archive releases for Switch have green blood) and both Genesis sequels included as unlockables.

So does the late Drew Gulak stay on the roster page forever like Brodie Lee at AEW, or is this just until they find the corpse or the police call off the search? This show wasn't as much fun as the last couple, but I was glad to see a few new directions etc. Dijak being the victim of a long, slow heat segment during a picture-in-picture break was downright weird, but it feels like they kind of HAVE to turn him if he's staying in Orlando because the Loyal Perverts love him too much. (Not that I blame them). Very interested to see who wins the women's belt next week and who gets pinned. Didn't they used to be better about setting up both weeks of the Double Digests before the first one? Or am I misremembering? I guess the Draft Sandwich nature of the event means there will be people competing on the second show who were on a touring roster the Tuesday before, which may be why Natalya v Vice is the only week 2 match so far. We're clearly getting Axiom/Frazer v Authors on night 2, I just hope it doesn't end up being a 3 week reign.

Announced for NXT tomorrow: Trick Williams v Carmelo Hayes, steel cage match Dijak v Noam Dar Thea Hail v Tatum Paxley Sol Ruca v Lola Vice Joaquin Wilde v Ridge Holland Malik Blade and Edris Enofe v Authors of Pain Also announced: Tony di Angelo returns from Boca after his loss to Ilja I have high hopes for those first 2 matches.

RIP to the Rawbot and Smackdrone

Especially since they are always incredibly careful to call the boss Paul "Triple H" Levesque in similar releases

Perfect Dark is probably the best single-stick FPS ever made, but be aware that if you don't have an N64 Expansion Pak you will only be able to play deathmatch mode, not the story. There's a solid stack of missions where you play vs bots a la the Unreal Tournament games or the Dreamcast version of Quake 3, but you will be missing out on the main piece of solo content

By betting enough money to sink the school, the literal most important thing in Thea's life, he (a) risked her future and dozens if not hundreds of others to enrich himself financially, (b) made it her responsibility to save the school without knowing it was even at risk, (c) took it upon himself to lose the school FOR her by throwing in the towel against Stratton out of guilt and fear, and (d) all of those things led to her falling in with Jacy, who fucked with her head for giggles. Of course, this wasn't an intentional arc for either of them (it's backfill and apophenia,) and ascribing genuine humanity to such goofy one-note characters is giving the writers too much credit, but this is way more dark than when we thought he'd lost it all on craps and horse racing and shit. Andre never acted from a place of malice, but even with such a goofy story that would be a lot to ask someone so naive and trusting to forgive on the spot.

I think it's really interesting that NXT's next Archie Double Digest is (a) only 2 weeks after S.A.D. and (b) making a Draft Sandwich--the first half will be 4/23, then the Draft on 4/26 and 4/29, then Spring Breakin' II: Electric Underpants on 4/30, leaving us with the suspense of whether certain people will get called up or sent down in between. Show was pretty good, though I know I'm easier on it than many of you. I liked both title matches, the final segment and Je'Von Evans's debut quite a bit, and Dijak getting angry at Meta 4 for dressing as him and invading his torture closet/office made me smile, and the other 2 tag matches were at least fun. I had forgotten about Rizzo's blackmail material, that felt like it was eight months ago (I think it was February.)

Finished the "Unleashed" story. The final act really wanted to bring some genuine emotion, but really did not earn it. I'm also annoyed that only the men's story unlocks the unique Wrestlemania set--the women's final boss fight just happens at WM39. Oh well, at least I got a few neat costume pieces and the fictional indy arenas from last year. Game goes on the shelf for a while now, I'm a little wrestlinged out.

Chelsea also has the very best part of the very goofy women's story mode in this year's WWE game, in a side story where

The first 2 matches are full of crazy astonishing shit, Roxy/Lyra isn't a great match but was emotionally satisfying, Trick v Melo was better than Roxy/Lyra and also emotionally satisfying. Skip the trios and Ilja v Tony D.

Has anyone played that Atom Eve game? I snagged it when it was free on Epic because it was free and I love Invincible, but it came out of nowhere

It's impossible to miss, but locker code WRESTLEMANIAXL gets you Cody and Bayley cards and a pack of skill boosters. A big step down from last year's offering, which had 2 packs of the Wrestlemania cards. The entire life of MyFaction has been 2k Games saying "well, we gave them too much good shit for free and so they spent less money." In 22, every DLC character got an Evolution card, which meant you could grind them out over time and not feel tempted to spend real money. Last year, they were cut back to non-grindable cards but were mostly good enough to get you thru all the content for the first 6 months. This year, all the options, both RMT and earned currency, are way more expensive, the free cards are lower tier, and for the first time it's entirely possible to save earned points for 2 weeks, buy a limited edition booster, and not get any of the limited edition characters. I really want Shield Rollins and Toy Hogan, but I feel more and more like I'm gonna tap out before those things are winnable. Fucking around in Universe continues, and I noticed something that isn't huge in the grand scheme but is the right kind of dumb to piss me off: i booked a match between Fallon Henley and Ivy Nile, and both of them brought their tag teams with them (the roster having been finalized before Briggs and Brooks broke up.) In both cases, the trio came out as though it was a tag match--the men's music and chyron, Alicia announcing the men, the women doing their "manager" entrances instead of their "combatant" ones.

That was a fun show even though, aside from the tag title match it was pretty predictable. I had a tiny twinge in the back of my mind when I saw the Wolf Dogs had merch that they might retain, but I was still shocked. But the match was everything I wanted it to be. I knew he wasn't gonna, but I wanted Dijak to win the NA title. I cannot believe they did the office chair spot, that was stupid as hell but it looked great. Trios match was fine. I think all 3 members of the face team are gonna be huge if they're properly cultivated, but I'm never sure they will be. Waaaay too many long breaks. If you're gonna sell ad space on the barricades, why is this the only PPV that doesn't have LED monitors in the barricades? Women's match was probably the best Valkyria has looked. I think it's absurd that Perez wasn't called up in last year's draft and won't be again this year, but if they're gonna keep her on NXT another year then making her a messy-ass heel is the right way to do it. Dragunov/Di Angelo was good, but never really blew me away or took me out of the Intellectual "well, if Tony wins then Ilja's getting drafted." Main was pretty much what I expected; a good match elevated by the emotion.

Having a blast with Theatrhythm and, while I had planned to finally make a run at DQ11 after Infinite Wealth and Spidey 2, I'm leaning toward an FF instead now since most of the modern ones are on PS+ and I have 7 Remake PS5 but never got far into it. Also, I have finally opened the copy of Dissidia NT that I bought like 6 years ago on Prime Day and never took out of the wrapper.