Why does more Ghostbusters always provoke such anxiety?
Every rebooted franchise plays off our longing for the past—the implicit promise that it can make us feel just like we…
MST3K, Turkey Day, and 30 years of taking over the world before pie is served
“Thanksgiving’s always been a little bit bewildering to me because it’s not a religious holiday,” Mystery Science…
Fembots, dancing queens, and love fools: 60 minutes of Swedish pop
A 2013 article in The Atlantic asked a very good, non-rhetorical question: “Why is Sweden so good at pop music?” The…
10 episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law to watch before the new special
It’s easy to forget in the age of Rick And Morty, Too Many Cooks, and Family Guy reruns, but the original Adult Swim…
Weird Al emerged, post-punk exploded, and DJing matured in 1981
1. Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes”
2. Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, “Endless Love”
3. Kenny Roger, “Lady”
4. John Lennon,…
Octopath Traveler melts the JRPG down to its pure, comforting core
Underneath all the melodramatic cutscenes and ornamental belts, even today’s flashiest JRPGs are often built on a…
Psychedelic
dystopias, Wario’s wares, and lots more games to play in August
With new games of all sizes filling real and digital shelves every week, it can be near impossible for anyone to keep…
Christopher McQuarrie on the perils of practical action and Henry Cavill’s pesky mustache
Note: This interview discusses plot points of Mission: Impossible—Fallout.
30
years ago, Bionic Commando proved video game grappling hooks are
awesome
Bionic Commando was a game that flew in the face of its own era. When it reached Nintendo’s Famicom on this day in…
Let us consider Toad, whatever the hell he is
We turn today to Toad. He is some sort of mushroom man? This is about as legit a description as exists in Super Mario’s …
The scam industry: How the hip-hop boom sets hopefuls up for failure
The venue’s security checked the guest list one more time. HG Locks wasn’t on it. It slowly began to sink in: No one…
Red Faction:
Guerrilla embraced players for
what we are: total assholes
Playing the recently released remastered—excuse me—“re-mars-tered” edition of Red Faction: Guerrilla hammers home just…
Ask an indie rock veteran: What’s the best bad Bob Dylan album?
I asked some friends to help me piece this together—or at least, make a reasonable guess for a song like this. Get…
The Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, and Blondie were ready to rip up 1976
1. Wings, “Silly Love Songs”
2. Elton John & Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”
3. Johnnie Taylor, “Disco Lady”
4. The…
Wacky cartoon pool,
a beautiful throwback RPG, and more games to play in July
With new games of all sizes filling real and digital shelves every week, it can be near impossible for anyone to keep…
Our scary-good favorites from this year’s Cinepocalypse genre film festival
The Cinepocalypse film festival descended once more upon Chicago’s Music Box Theatre this past week, providing seven str…