iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Was there a particular year in which every film did not have to start with the loudest brass fanfare you've ever heard in your life?

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 23h

Well Dweller🟩 Reeeeally nicely paced. You're never *drowning* in options, but there are always corners of the map to explore and points of interest you've meant to revisit. Engaging without ever being frustrating; it's a much smoother ride than Silksong. And the upgrades are creative and unexpected.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Pearl Forrester is the MVP of the MST3K reboot.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This is not worthy of a notification!

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

RiffTrax MST3K: Sting of Death What's going on at 20:05? Did the filmmakers have to paint over something they weren't allowed to film in the background? There's definitely some background bushes that aren't a part of the filmed material. Weird wobbliness in motion.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Onibaba, The social Reckoning, Strange Days, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later #LastFourWatched letterboxd.com/insrtcoins/

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Reposted by Ryan Zhao

Hunter Felt @hunterfelt.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I enjoy D4 a lot. It's a weird game made to show off gestural interactions with the Kinect in a bizarre (and never-finished) detective mystery adjacently related to the world of Deadly Premonition. But it was an oddity at the time, and virtually *no one* was talking about it four years later.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I've always been amused by the titling for these games. The first is a parody of Swery65's D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (a wild pull for a game that debuted *four years* afterwards). The sequel is a D4-by-way-of-Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice parody. Ultimate hat-on-a-hat joke writing. I respect it.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The advantage of the MST3K style is that they're able to be more esoteric. Since nothing is delivered like "a joke", you don't feel like you've missed anything if you don't understand one Since RiffTrax riffs are hard-delivered, they're tailored to the majority of the audience getting *all* of them

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amber @bloodberrytart.bsky.social · 13/09/2023

the opening paragraph to Nintendo Power's July 2000 reveal of Kirby 64 is insane

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Also, the fictional setting of MST3K in a theater creates the atmosphere for quietly tossing back and forth inside jokes with friends. Or is it just an evolution of the style? Do they just prefer the bolder, more vaudevillian delivery? Will find out tomorrow whether they readopt the old style.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

RiffTrax jokes all tend to be "sold" quite distinctly and directly. It's more of a performance than a hangout. I've always wondered if this was because there's no visible presence on-screen. Even in silhouette, MST3K performers get to use some body language which RiffTrax performers cannot.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I'm interested to watch the MST3K RiffTrax Experiments tomorrow to settle a long-running hypothesis. RiffTrax humor has evolved into something very different from what MST3K humor was. MST3K had a lot of "throwing the joke away", muttering to a friend; a more intimate feeling of low-profile delivery

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Cosmo D @cosmoddd.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

New locations. New systems. More trouble. Moves of the Diamond Hand - Chapter 3 - October 26 store.steampowered.com/app/2778210/

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It's maybe the most impressive movie I've ever seen, from a craft perspective. And I believe it can be found in full on YouTube.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Oh! It has to be The Wolf House. Shout-out to Mad God as well.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Really enjoying Star Wars: Galactic Racer so far but struck with the realization -- these familiar locations are battlefields. Like, the movies are about people dying here. In-universe, does anyone feel weird about holding sporting events at major sites of armed conflict?

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droqen and 24 others @droqen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

hello i guess all the news is AI this morning but why not play the nice game-thing i finished last night instead? i am proud of the ladder climbing integration with platformer controls, and also i like how you are a tiny lil guy. droqenstudies.itch.io/35a4

droqenstudies.itch.io

35A4 by droqen studies in colour

Play in your browser

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Why don't people talk about William Powell anymore?

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Particularly satire -- it gives us the catharsis of seeing a story neatly wrapped up with perfect hindsight, but in doing so it disconnects it from the ongoing material reality it contributes to. It's asking "we had a century of satire examining Hitler, how did we still end up with Trump?".

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I think it's a satire aimed not at oil and tech CEOs (because Iñárritu assumes we're literate enough to know the problem already) but at those responsible for cultural mythmaking. Is there a degree to which storytelling externalizes our perception of evil and placates our desire to take action?

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I hear the complaint that it's pitched as such a broad satire (on world-destroying capitalists and the short-sighted systems that empower them) but failed to meaningfully point fingers at any real-world analogs in a way that encourages action. I think the film is actually doing something else...

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I have to say that I ended up really enjoying Digger. The Brechtian stuff had me really locked in.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

@playstation.com How's that Bloodborne patch coming? Need some help with that?

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Reposted by Ryan Zhao

izzy curse-trel @iznaut.com · 06/05/2025

pokémon npcs before they challenge you to a fight:

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Are bishops in chess named as such because bishops are not Cardinals and thus move non-cardinally? 🤯

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In Chinese, The Three Stooges are known as the Three Smelly Shoemakers (三個臭皮匠). It derives from a quote from Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "Three smelly shoemakers [are enough to] overcome one Zhuge Liang".

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Casey S. Pumpkins 🎃 @caseyexplosion.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Desperados 3 is a tremendously good strategy game, I think I recommend one of Mimimi's stealth tactics games nearly every steam sale, but for damn good reason. Nobody did it like them. Take your posse of cowpokes on elaborate murder-puzzle stages in a genuinely epic revenge narrative.

store.steampowered.com

Save 75% on Desperados III on Steam

Desperados III is a story-driven, hardcore tactical stealth game, set in a ruthless Wild West scenario. Play smart if you want to succeed. A good plan can make the difference between survival and find...

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I've still been glued to Cursed Words lately. A chaotic word game that eventually becomes a more abstract routing exercise not as much grounded in words as maximizing the probability that assortments of random tiles may form word-like structures.

store.steampowered.com

Save 10% on Cursed Words: The Word Game That Isn't on Steam

From letters to lunacy, Cursed Words is a roguelike chasing ever-stronger synergies. Start with simple words like BUY or THIS or GAME, then use game-altering combos to break the rules. Before long you...

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Sonic Advance🟩 There are some nice extra animation touches on the character sprites, and the level design is intelligent and layered, like you'd expect, but the extremely-limited FOV (to be readable on the GBA screen) exacerbates the series' most consistent ongoing problems. Visibility issues.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The PS Vita retains its charge for years. I can boot it up now and it'll be at the same % it was four years ago. But the iPad Pro, dead after four days of non-use.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My one wish is that all of my devices wouldn't be at 0% battery every time I want to use them even when I left them at 100% last week.

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RTL3 @russelllatshaw.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

Nobuhiko Obayashi on the special effects of House

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

showing the children Come and See so they can emotionally prepare for Avengers: Doomsday.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Verity, Goodbye Dragon Inn, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Inferno #LastFourWatched letterboxd.com/insrtcoins/

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

tbh my favorite sabrina carpenter is harrison ford

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My wife has been so excited to see Verity. Every day this week, she's been asking "when can we see Verity?" "what time are the Verity showings?" 🙂 Not going to mention that reviews are a bit middling because it's really fun to see the enthusiasm. She usually doesn't latch onto new releases this way.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

@tcgs.co In this week's podcast, as Dave was introducing Well Dweller, I kept hearing "World Weather". Was very confused for a bit.

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Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

what kind of preparation is necessary?

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Cane and Rinse @caneandrinse.com · 30/09/2026

New podcast: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Join Brian, Chris, Leah and Ryan as they navigate one of the handheld games in the series, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – a game with a story as convoluted as the title. Available now for free most everywhere, including Spotify, YouTube etc.

caneandrinse.com

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - The Cane and Rinse podcast

Join us as we navigate one of the handheld games in the series, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a game with a story as convoluted as the title

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