2020’s been rough, but I distracted myself a bit by doing some cool stuff on this blog and elsewhere.

No new comics; I have a project ticking over slowly in the background, and some others planned. Look forward to it. Game club continues to throw me interesting curveballs, like Bucky O’Hare and Panzer Dragoon. And I’m still doing podcasts: another 11 episodes of the Arcade Era Power Hour with my friend Gibbon (with another on the way), and seven Eurovision commentaries with family.

I’m satisfied with my pixel art projects this year. I drew all the modern Doctor Whos and spinoffs, Jet Set Radio and Chrono related casts, and some larger ones for Animal Crossing, Necrodancer, and the Star Wars sequel trilogy, among several others. Not to mention my favourite, a massive collection of dolphins and other aquatic video game heroes. Check them all out here.

My regular streams (Wednesdays 1pm Australian Eastern time) continue to be a lot of fun. This year I did several “grab bags” of thematically linked games from itch.io which was a fascinating dive into eclectic indie development. I also did themed stretches around cats, mermaids, and Donkey Kong Country fangames and bootlegs. My brother also gifted me his old, obsolete Windows PC which opened up the possibilities for stuff I could play! Check out the archives here.

As for game reviews, which is the majority of content here, well. We got a new Apple TV and I used Apple Arcade to try out some cool stuff, including my new favourite game Sayonara Wild Hearts. I also used it to round out my journey through WayForward’s catalogue with Shantae 5 (before which I played the related Shovel Knight trove and Konjak’s fantastic softography) and to embark on an exploration of undersea diving games. I cleared out some of my Wii U and 3DS backlogs, and borrowed a Japanese 3DS to begin trying out some exclusives. Also, a bunch of indie games on PS4! I guess I played fewer retro games this year, but I did check out some lost classics with Star Fox 2 and Pokemon Picross GBC. And I finally finished (and loved) Chrono Cross!

Now some awards.
“Best Physics Simulation”: What the Golf?, with runner-up Snake Pass.
“Most Crying”: Sayonara Wild Hearts.
“Best Mobile Game”: Final Fantasy Dimensions II, with runner-up Rockman X Dive.
“Best Unofficial Donkey Kong Game”: The DK Bay.
“Most Aesthetic (aka the Vaporwave Award)”: Seaquest 1992.
“Coolest Competitive Game”: Lethal League Blaze.
“Game that Caused Me Most Physical Pain”: Crypt of the Necrodancer.
“Game that Caused Me Most Emotional Pain”: Star Fox Zero.
“Best Co-op”: a hotly contested category, I’m going to give it to Risk of Rain 2.

Thanks so much for reading, and see you next year!