by Kathryn Hemmann | Aug 19, 2024 | Roundtables, Video Games
How much time is too much time to spend playing a game? How short can a game be while still feeling like an interesting and realized world? These questions, oriented around the subjective experience of play, are not the kind typically brought up on the website formerly known as Twitter every time a new $14.99 indie game becomes the subject of… spirited… debate. Have no fear, though: the Sidequest gang has put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard to inject enough nuance into the subject to stop it from being a debate at all.
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Madison Butler is Sidequest’s self-proclaimed jock editor. She co-founded the blog Critsumption and once got really into powerlifting via Fitness Boxing for the Nintendo Switch. She posts about fiber arts @maddilo.bsky.social.
by Kathryn Hemmann | Aug 5, 2024 | Lists, Video Games
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is the perfect game in the series to play over the summer while waiting for the release of the upcoming Echoes of Wisdom. Summer is a great season for spooky video games, when a chill of unease can help alleviate the lingering heat. In his 2022 video essay “Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda,” Jacob Geller draws out the sinister currents of the Legend of Zelda series. Instead of forcing the player to confront psychological trauma or hidden histories, however, A Link Between Worlds delights in a colorful aesthetic of spookiness in ten ways that resonate with novelty and nostalgia alike. (more…)
Kathryn is a writer and comic artist who lurks at the center of a digital labyrinth in Philadelphia. They post about books, plants, and video game villains as @kathrynthehuman on Bluesky.
by Kathryn Hemmann | Jul 8, 2024 | Roundtables, Video Games
I would apologize that I seem to always start these by talking about the weather, but this month in my region of the Pacific Northwest is looking a lot more like March, by which I mean it’s been windy and rainy and “underwater” as a theme is feeling a lot more like scraping mud off my sandals than blissful swimming in a lake.
But hey, there’s room for all kinds of interpretations! Let’s talk about water, being underwater, and everything in the undersea (or lake, or river—you get it) domain. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Kathryn Hemmann | Jun 3, 2024 | Art Books, Roundtables, Tabletop Games, Video Games
Welcome to June, Sidequest readers! This month, we’re talking about collecting. As a person with more books than is probably good for me, as well as an extensive amount of movies and little trinkets, I would happily identify myself as collecting positive. I just love an item!
This is something games are all too happy to indulge me in. Analog games have new editions, new books, minis, maps, and more. Video games have a million little digital things to collect, some for actual rewards, some just for the sake of having them. How does the Sidequest crew feel about all this? Are we keeping our own dragon hoards of gaming items? Or are we tossing out everything that doesn’t spark joy? Let’s discuss! (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Kathryn Hemmann | May 27, 2024 | Mobile Games, Reviews, Video Games
Neko Can Dream is a nonviolent, narrative-focused Game Boy-style adventure game available on both mobile platforms and in a physical cartridge for the Game Boy itself. Players take on the role of a cat-eared young woman who wakes to find herself in a strange city. An avian yakitori restaurant owner offers her a job, asking her to capture and can the dreams of the city’s sleeping residents. In order to secure these cans, the young woman must enter three dreams, each of which contains a complete story. While referencing classic games through original scenarios, Neko Can Dream expertly guides the player from one scene to the next as it reflects on the refuge that the fantasy world of dreams offers people who find themselves alienated from the real world. (more…)
Kathryn is a writer and comic artist who lurks at the center of a digital labyrinth in Philadelphia. They post about books, plants, and video game villains as @kathrynthehuman on Bluesky.
![A screenshot from the Cozy Grove press kit overlaid with "GET YOUR GAME ON" and "[COZY GAMES]".](https://sidequest.zone/wp-content/uploads/wordpress-popular-posts/107896-featured-200x0.jpg)
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