iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

For this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Adventures of Dino Riki, a mixture of vertically-oriented running and gunning and platforming with a cute caveman theme placed on top. It doesn't work all that well, but I have a soft spot for it, and its connection to Japanese wrestler Riki Choshu is fascinating

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SnowyAria (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧🏳️‍⚧️ @snowyaria.goodorevengreat.games · 02/10/2026

The tower calls out to the sinners of Neverland. It's time to repent. It's time to climb. Spectral Tower - English patch, out now!! Translation - Quade Hacking - Tasos500 Graphics - NicheTopic FMV Translations - SnowyAria (No AI was used for this patch) github.com/Yoshimanix/s...

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LAKESPIRIT @lakespirit.love · 02/10/2026

lakespirit.love/posts/2026-1... NEW ARTICLE!! STREETS OF RAGE 2, FINAL FIGHT, THE FLOOR, THE CEILING LETS TALK BEAT EM UP FUNDAMENTALS i establish a basis thru the latter, and get into the nuances thru the former. its a long one!! intended to inspire curiosity

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You can't drive a car with boxing gloves on, that's dangerous

In Dudley's ending for Street Fighter III: New Generation, Dudley wins back the family car and drives it home, but he still wears his boxing gloves while doing so

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Puke is already a Halloween Name @puke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I've wanted to do a series for all the lesser games I play for ages, since it's most of what I own. I was initially trying to do it with a different game, but playing Pocket Racers was the perfect excuse, because I wanted to talk about it more Sharing is caring etc 💜 medium.com/@daavpuke/ga...

medium.com

Games No One Likes: Pocket Racers (PSP)

Pocket Racers from 2006 got destroyed online and now I'm playing it

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I keep meaning to do stuff, but then I'll tell myself "let me get a little Fire Emblem in first" and then 5 hours pass and nothing gets done Fortune's Weave, it's real good!

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Misty De Méo @cdrom.ca · 01/10/2026

Kicking off a new series over at CD-ROM journal: covering Daiso’s ¥100 ultrabudget game series. Just how much game can you even get for ¥100? You’d be surprised! Some really interesting stuff in here - for less than a dollar a game, they couldn’t afford to be picky. cdrom.ca/games/the-ga...

cdrom.ca

An Intro to Daiso's The Game Series (Trump 1, Nekomata Tanteisha, Nyanpoline, TechnoSylph: vsys gaiden)

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I know this would be a terrible idea, but it'd be really funny putting the small child in the big armor Do I dare?

The character Peter (a small child with orange hair) is normally an archer in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, but you can change any character to any class, so it's possible to make him a Dreadnought and wear a massive suit of armor

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Gabriel Jones @pepsimanvsjoe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Today's look is at Tecmo's Secret of the Stars. pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2026/09/supe... oof #retrogaming #snes

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Super Nintendo Look - Tecmo's Secret of the Stars

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Marc Normandin @marcnormandin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sokoban is a game series and a genre, one developed by Thinking Rabbit in the early 80s that later spread to other studios and other countries besides Japan. One such international release in the influential series is Boxyboy on the Turbografx-16. It's classic Sokoban gameplay, only more of it.

retroxp.beehiiv.com

Retro spotlight: Boxyboy, aka Sokoban World

One of the earliest console releases in the hugely important and influential Sokoban series, as well as one of the first released in North America.

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New blog post time! This week's game is Cheese Chase, arcade maze action from Art & Magic, makers of the Amiga owl shmup Agony. You can see glimmers of potential with the focus on turnstiles and manipulating hazards, but the zoomed in camera and slippery movement really let it down: #blog #gaming

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Cheese Chase

That’s the unfortunate thing with Cheese Chase. Most of the time, it’s just a bit too much of a pain to play, but when it calms down a bit and/or tries certain gimmicks within more reasonable envir…

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Cheese Chase

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pang @birthbydrip.neocities.org · 29/09/2026

a late one for you tonight... monkey ball is one of the most elegantly designed precision arcade games ever made, a game that takes a design staff primed on racers and lets them create economic geometry puzzles, only building towards alien grandeur in their structures at the end. link below!

first few paragraphs: Sega was the master of exaggerated, nuanced physics engines, and Monkey Ball fits that mold to a T. There’s three stylistic inaccuracies that sew Monkey Ball’s unique physics together:

Friction is present as a constant inhibiting force, but in a sense this helps hold the monkey on downward slopes. This gives Monkey Ball a “sticky” quality.

Collisions can and often do pop the monkey up in the air, where speed is uncapped. This, and the fact that the collisions seem relatively elastic,1 make collisions actually a boon for gaining speed rather than a total obstacle.

It’s a common misconception that Monkey Ball has the player control the tilt of the stage, letting the monkey freely roll throughout it. Instead, the player is actually controlling the direction of gravity, offering very similar effects to stage-tilting while also providing essential air control to the monkey.

The three of these combined make Monkey Ball an intuitive, forgiving engine that encourages aggressive play.2 Speed gains are always at the player’s fingertips and rely heavily on environmental awareness. With that intrinsic concentration in the engine, the stage design can then follow suit. Monkey Ball’s stages are focused and brief; many stages have a max time limit of only 30 seconds, intend for you to beat them in less than half of that, and have a theoretical lower bound of only a couple seconds. While the stages are static and encourage memorization, the short length and nuanced physics put the micro-movements front-and-center in comparison to broader routing, and this creates its own form of complexity-oriented dynamism for those who can’t memorize frame-perfect input strings.

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Me when someone asks what they should get with their chips

Bartz says "Salsa?". In the English PS1 translation of the game, Faris's real name of Sarisa was translated as "Salsa", so he's actually referring to her and not the food

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

On this rainy and windy #RandomGameSaturday, I have Psychic Storm, a shoot 'em up with a strong presentation and a cool ship transformation gimmick. I've always really liked the use of color on this case, it catches your attention while stylishly highlighting the game's four playable characters

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Kaius ⛔ @kaius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Everyone in this damn game for some reason: hey bird... is it OK for me to be divorced? am i a bad person for being divorced Eshmel:

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I went to Clown Valley and everyone knew you

A list of levels in Bomberman Hero, one of which is called "Clown Valley".

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faea @faearie.neocities.org · 13/09/2026

Pop'n TwinBee is a somewhat oddball shmup that rejects genre tradition in focus of resource-driven, mechanics-laden chaos. I take a look at the implications of its unusual design priorities and how it slants an unsuspecting format into a lovely co-op experience. faearie.neocities.org/posts/popn-t...

faearie.neocities.org

Pop'n Twinbee, Chaos, and Co-Operation

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Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 @hg101.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Jaleco's Rushing Beat (AKA Brawl Brothers AKA Rival Turf AKA The Peace Keepers) beat-em-up series returns, revived with polygonal visuals and a deep reverence for its lore. www.hardcoregaming101.net/rushing-beat...

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

New blog post time! This week's game is Janggun-ui Adeul, a beat 'em up for the Sega Master System and one of two games based on the influential South Korean movie General's Son. The game does little with that, but it's a fascinatingly janky experience with a solid presentation: #blog #gaming

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Janggun-ui Adeul

That’s kinda the thing with Janggun-ui Adeul. It’s hard to fully express through words, but it’s the kind of game that seems like janky fun at first, but if you take it seriously and try to get bet…

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Janggun-ui Adeul

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Aaron 🐙 @scabshack.lol · 21/09/2026

Nothing makes me happier than reading about obscure Xbox exclusives ❤️‍🔥

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

For this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Rascal, a PS1 platformer notorious for several reasons, such as an unwieldy camera and controls that don't fit the action well. For some reason, I've always wanted to play through this, but I've never had the guts to sit down and do it. Maybe that's for the best?

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

War of the Worlds (2025) starring Ice Cube is not a real movie, it's in front of me right now but I won't accept it, it simply cannot be

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Hey look, I'm in this cool issue! If you've ever wanted to hear about Lost in Shadow, one of Hudson Soft's last games and a real interesting (and kinda grueling...) experience, I've got you covered!

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Chat, should I use 215,425 mana to bind a contract with #1 Women Respecter?

A Hell Hound named "#1 Women Respecter" in Disgaea Mayhem (this was randomly generated by the game, not done by me)

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Lumin 🔜 Eclipse [1st Cour] @screwy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

thanks for reminding me to repost agreeable grunt

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Whoever wrote the item descriptions in Disgaea Mayhem was clearly having a lot of fun with it

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I finally played through this and I was right to make this joke, I took so many Ls doing it lol (good game tho!) I'm going to take it up with the "Exective Derector"

During the credits sequence of L-Dis, there's a credit for "Exective Derector"

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

New blog post time! This week's game is New Legends, an OG Xbox exclusive made by former employees of LucasArts. The first half promises a breezy martial arts adventure across China, but it's let down by a second half that leans harder into gunplay and ridiculously oversized levels: #blog #gaming

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

New Legends

I think New Legends is pretty bad, frankly, but I also think it has some cool ideas and in a different world, there would be a way to iterate upon them. It’s not a game I can recommend in the sligh…

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

New Legends

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InnerSpiral (the scary version) @innerspiral.lol · 15/09/2026

What happens when a game explains too much, and what do we gain when it leaves something unresolved? #blog #gaming

innerspiral.lol

The Gaps We Leave

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Marc Normandin @marcnormandin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Happy 25th birthday to the GameCube, you should celebrate by reading about and then playing one of its finest games: Chibi Robo! Plug Into Adventure! Underrated and under-played then and now, but you can do something about both of those problems in the present, whether via Switch 2 or [redacted]

retroxp.beehiiv.com

Past meets present: Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!

One of the GameCube's final classics is also one of the best Nintendo games going.

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Yes, I will form a contract with Halitosis, it is my friend now

In Disgaea Mayhem, you can form bonds with monster you defeat to use them as an ally. In this case, I am forming a contract with a Prinny that happens to be named "Halitosis".

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pang @birthbydrip.neocities.org · 13/09/2026

been a while since my clear so I went back and re-familiarized myself with the original puzzle bobble! it's arguably the most influential true arcade puzzler of all time (tetris and puyo were pc games!) and stunningly unique on every level. link to my review below!

It’s hard to imagine that Puzzle Bobble arose from nowhere in particular, but none of the post-Tetris random-piece puzzle games that came prior resemble it: it’s match-three, but the board is designed by-hand and drops from the ceiling, crumbling only as the player shoots bubbles into it. One might surmise that, in an alternate universe, a continuous lineage from Breakout and Arkanoid to Puzzle Bobble exists, with some intermediary game that blends the real-time paddle of the former with the match-three of the latter, yet none exists. The key genetic trait retained here are the ricochets, a dollop of the basic kinetics from the block-breakers injected into the more modern puzzle concepts. Puzzle Bobble combines this with a hexagonal grid to create craggy playfields where one can sneak bubbles into crevices.

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Might want to double check that name tag, buddy

A MetalMamemon says "I'm MetalMamemon, unbeaten in ninety nine battles! You will be one hundred!". However, the part of the text box where its name goes is incorrectly labeled "MetalGreymon"

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

For this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner, a PSP RPG produced by Kouji Okada of SMT fame that also apparently had a ridiculously stacked composer list. Shinji Hosoe, Yoko Shimomura, Kenji Ito, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yasunori Mitsuda! ...I remember it being a fine enough game

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In the Game Gear version of Foreman for Real, you can get a cheesy win against George Foreman himself by punching him once and then holding block for 3 minutes per round He can't break your guard and he'll lose stamina, so you'll win by decision (footage sped up in an emulator for obvious reasons)

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Panic Restaurant (Permanent Deltarune Brain Edition) @panicrestaurant.northsky.social · 10/09/2026

Walking around in circles, muttering “Gungrave Roblox” to myself over and over before breaking into hysterics and slumping to the ground

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I missed this amongst all the Nintendo Direct stuff, but I really hope these get an English localization too, I'd love to play them all! I covered the first one earlier this year and it's one of the more interesting and ambitious Game Boy RPGs I've encountered:

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Kininkou Maroku Oni

I wanna say Kininkou Maroku Oni is greater than the sum of its parts because it is, but at the same time, it also isn’t? I don’t know, man, it’s a weird one! I really like a lot o…

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Nintendo has FORGOTTEN about Mario... but they haven't forgotten about Torneko, really makes u think

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

New blog post time! This week's game is Warriors of Might and Magic... for the Game Boy Color! This unique take brought to you by the developer of Sudeki offers a different story and 2D gameplay closer to that of Zelda. Weak combat and instant death pits do ruin the fun, though #blog #gaming

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Warriors of Might and Magic (GBC)

I wish the rest of the game was more compelling so I could at least try to make a case for pushing through, but I just can’t. Seriously, it’s extremely rough out there and I can’t in good conscienc…

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Ephemeral Enigmas @ephemeralenigmas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com

Warriors of Might and Magic (GBC)

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