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Whatcha Playing, Geekly? December 2025

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Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here! Today, our writers share the games (video games and board games) they’ve been playing over the past month. Feel free to share which games you’ve been playing this past month, because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll start off this post with what I’ve been playing this past month.

Kyra’s Video Games

I received Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles two weeks ago. Thank you, Season. And it didn’t take me long to finish the game and earn the platinum PlayStation trophy. Oh, yeah!

I’ve played most–if not every–rendition of Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s one of my favorite video games of all time, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles does a fantastic job of updating this classic. Let’s begin with some of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles’ best new additions.

It’s easier than ever to see turn order during combat. Character portraits line the left-hand side. Numbers show whose turn is coming next. When you choose an action that requires any charge time, like a spell or jumping as a Dragoon or aiming as an Archer, you’ll see where your action would fall in turn order, should you choose to pick it. I love this update. In an instant, I can see if I want to commit to an action or not. While many of the charge times have been reduced (making some classes like Dragoon and its jump viable and borderline overpowered), the Archer’s aim ability still takes too long. Better luck next time, Archers.

I went into Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles knowing I would enjoy the game’s combat (and mix-matching job abilities, like dual-wielding monks), but I didn’t anticipate how this version would step up the game’s story. I always liked Final Fantasy Tactics’ story, but with The Ivalice Chronicles’ “State of the Realm” interactive map, I can better follow the story. If you’ve ever struggled to keep Final Fantasy Tactics’ political intrigue clear, The Ivalice Chronicles may be the perfect edition. Throw in some great voice acting–by whom my spouse dubs as out-of-work Shakespearean actors–and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles elevates a story that may resonate more today than when the original was first released in 1997.

Even with all the great additions Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles brings to the table, I do have some gripes. I loved the War of the Lions’ cutscenes. The art is unique and has an ethereal quality. These cutscenes are available in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, but gamers need to surf submenus to find them. I don’t think many gamers will do this. I would prefer an option to insert these cutscenes during my playthrough. This could be included in a simple update. Speaking of simple updates, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles brings back all original unlockable characters and jobs. I’d like the game to include all the unlockable characters and jobs from every version, making Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles a definitive version.

I could go on with other nitpicks. I love the fast-forward option, but I’d like it as a toggle button, not as something I need to press and hold down, and there are a handful more, but Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles does more things right than things wrong. If you’ve been holding off playing this classic, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is the closest to a definitive version of the game. And I’ve heard that Square Enix may release a sequel if Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles does well. Fingers crossed!

Auto Chess just had a major update (November 30, 2025, literally a few days ago). When this update posts, I’ll still be trying to understand all the balance changes. In short, I’m not enjoying this new update. Egersis is eliminated from the normal unit pool, but you can still gain Egersis units through a relic. That’s kind of good. Unfortunately, a couple of unit types have gained similar abilities to Egersis, so effectively, Auto Chess has quadrupled down on the game mechanism I hate. Great!

Certain units (like the Hill Clan Swordsman or the God of War) would dominate Auto Chess lobbies in the early to mid-game before this patch. After the patch, these units may have gained more power. Again, I haven’t had much time to play this new major patch, but there are far too many match-ups where I don’t know why I lost. That’s bad. I should at least know why I’m losing. Maybe I have inferior units or poor synergies or fewer units in general. But during the early stages of this latest patch, I’ve lost to opponents who had no synergies (poor or not), cheaper units, and fewer units. Evidently, my seven great units with six good synergies can’t defeat a team of four weenies with no synergies. I’m left scratching my head with Auto Chess.

Maybe I didn’t add the correct weenie.

Kyra’s Board Games

This past month, I’ve played board/card games I forgot I enjoyed. I rediscovered some favorites. The first of these favorites is Rüdiger Dorn’s Las Vegas. I remembered shockingly little about Las Vegas’s scoring rules. Lol! Players roll standard six-sided dice, take turns placing all the dice of one number on one of six casinos (numbered 1-6, corresponding to the numbers players can roll). Whoever has the most dice in a casino wins the pot. The player with the most money after four rounds wins.

And that’s how to play–for the most part. Las Vegas has simple to learn rules but offers plenty of strategy. After playing Las Vegas for the first time in years, I remembered why I love it so much. It’s a game I love bringing on road trips. In fact, I believe I brought Las Vegas to my Vegas trip almost ten years ago. Who needs to gamble when you can play Las Vegas?

Wolfgang Kramer’s 6 nimmt! is another classic I played this past month. I’m going to take this moment to thank one of our game night regulars (Kenneth) for remembering how to play Las Vegas and 6 nimmt!. 6 nimmt! was another game where I could remember how the game was played but forgot to explain specific rules or edge cases. In 6 nimmt!, points are bad. You want the fewest points. Small bullheads (shown in the middle of the top and bottom of each card) score players points at the end of each round. Every round, players are dealt 10 cards. You will be playing all cards. Players simultaneously pick one card to play and then, in number order, play those cards to rows. If a row gets filled (has five cards and you would then play a sixth card), you claim all five cards in that row and start a new row with the sixth card you played.

6 nimmt! is another easy to learn game with plenty of strategy. Who am I kidding? 6 nimmt! is pure chaos. You may attempt to play a card, squeezing it into a tight window of numbers, only to find someone else played a card that torpedoed your plans. And that’s the fun.

There are equal parts strategy and luck with 6 nimmt!. Are you the least bullheaded?

Those are the games I played this past month. Let’s see what Season has been playing.

Season’s Video Games

I’ve been getting into Fallout lore lately, so I decided to try the first Fallout game. I know Wasteland came before Fallout, but I’ve yet to check it out.

Fallout was a different experience from other games of the franchise after Bethesda took over. I like the isometric movement. It’s definitely reminiscent of earlier computer games. I get distracted easily in video games, so side questing and taking my time to explore the world is what I’m used to. I wasn’t anticipating being put on a timer to find the water chip. I think this adds to Fallout’s replayability. If I don’t get to everything, I’ll definitely play again.

What have you been playing, Skye?

Skye’s Video Games

Mass Effect is my newest video game obsession. “Obsession” is the right term. Mass Effect suddenly fell into my lap. I’m lucky enough to have a copy of the Legendary Edition, which contains the three games from the original Mass Effect trilogy. I’m fully submerged in the Mass Effect rabbit hole, and I don’t expect to be out until mid-2026. Especially since, if I really like a game, I’ll grind until I get all three Platinum Trophies. Wish me luck!

Skye’s Board Games

I played Castle Panic during this week’s game night, and it was a fun and engaging experience. I enjoyed the amount of planning and collaboration involved, which made each of our team members feel important. A lot of what happens in Castle Panic is discussion about which threats are the most pressing and how to deal with them. In a way, Castle Panic felt like we were all military commanders deliberating in the war room. Despite the good experience I had with Castle Panic, I can see how the game can turn sour. Castle Panic could suffer from Alpha Gamer Syndrome (one player making decisions for everyone). Remember to stay calm, work together, and get rid of those monsters. The kingdom is at stake!

And I’m hungry now. Pizza Roles is a party game that leans hard into its premise. The game is quick and entertaining. While I don’t see myself regularly playing Pizza Roles, I’d be happy to argue with a large group of friends about which toppings do and don’t belong on pizza. In a lighthearted way, of course. Since Pizza Roles can be played competitively or cooperatively, one can tailor the game to almost any friend group. Just make sure you order pizza.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here again! Those are the games (video games and board games) our writers have played over the past month. Let us know what you’ve been playing in the comments, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Cozy Video Game Review: Dorfromantik

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Inspired by tile-laying board games, Dorfromantik offers the relaxing gameplay of creating a pastoral landscape of trees, villages, water, railroads, and fields. Designed by four German and Swiss students (Timo Falcke, Sandro Heuberger, Luca Langenberg, and Zwi Zausch) in a game design master’s program at HTW Berlin, Dorfromantik is a peaceful, minimalist game that lives up to the title, cozy. Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re back with another cozy video game review. Even though Dorfromantik has crossed over into an award-winning board game, we’ll be discussing the equally stellar indie video game by Toukana Interactive. Get ready to build a gorgeous landscape with Dorfromantik.

Mechanisms

Game Mechanisms: 7/10

Dorfromantik takes a simple concept of tile laying and does it exceptionally well. I’d wager the idea of Dorfromantik stemmed from playing board games like Carcassonne. Dorfromantik’s game mechanisms lend themselves well to board games, so there is an excellent, cooperative board game by the same name. Sometimes, you don’t need an elaborate set of mechanisms to make a game sing. Sometimes, you just need to do a simple concept well, and Dorfromantik does just that.

Chain similar land types with each other to gain points and finish goals (that the game presents) to score even more points and to increase the number of tiles you have to draw from. Dorfromantik can be played competitively–there is a leaderboard–or you could watch the countryside bloom as you place tiles. Dorfromantik‘s ability to make me invested in a landscape reminds me of another cozy video game we covered, Terra Nil.

Gameplay Loop: 9/10

Whether you play Dorfromantik to get the highest score possible or casually place tiles and find your Zen, you can’t deny Dorfromantik’s gameplay loop. Once you get started, you won’t build just one pastoral scene. You’ll want to go farther with your next run, reveal new tiles like the windmill (pictured above), or watch your boats and trains traverse the landscape. And yes, the scene above is animated. It’s so neat watching your creation come to life.

Because the tiles can come out in different orders, no two scenes in Dorfromantik are exactly the same. This adds spice to the simplistic gameplay. Dorfromantik is an easy game to get into, but a difficult one to master if you want to climb that leaderboard. Or you could be like me. I just want to discover new tiles and watch my landscape get bigger and more diverse. I’m so glad Dorfromantik has been ported over to the Switch. It’s the perfect game to play on the go.

Story or Narrative

Narrative/Storytelling: 1/10

I should’ve excluded this element, but I didn’t with other video games that had little to no story, so narrative/storytelling is staying in the lineup. Let us know what you’d replace this element with for games that have little to no story. Dorfromantik has no story to speak of, so it receives a low mark in this category.

User Interface: 10/10

Dorfromantik has a stripped-down but effective user interface. The tiles feel great to manipulate. They almost feel like placing a board game’s tiles. The picture above shows how Dorfromantik will highlight the spaces where a tile can be placed. Gamers can only place the tile on top of the draw pile. Dorfromantik does an excellent job of not only showing where a tile can be placed, the callouts show where you can gain extra points, and whenever you hover a tile over a space and begin rotating it, Dorfromantik will make the matching tiles shimmer.

Dorfromantik’s elegant and minimalistic user interface makes it accessible. Like I said, Dorfromantik may use a familiar board game mechanism in tile placement, but every element Dorfromantik adds is handled with care and purpose. I had to give Dorfromantik top marks for user interface.

Graphics: 8/10

Dorfromantik has excellent graphics for a top-down isometric video game. The art style works well, and I appreciate the small details. Look at the clock towers, cottages, and windmills in the image above. Like I mentioned before, Dorfromantik uses small animations to denote movement. The boats (if you’ve unlocked the boats) move along the waterways. Smoke puffs from chimneys. While all of this is great, Dorfromantik does venture into cartoony graphics.

These cartoony graphics work well when one zooms out and sees more of the landscape, so I understand why Dorfromantik chose a minimalistic, cartoon-like art style. Players are meant to take a macro view of their village. But I dock Dorfromantik a point or two for graphics because the game doesn’t quite hold up on closer inspection.

Audio: 7/10

Dorfromantik’s music exudes the concept of a cozy game. I’ve listened to Dorfromantik’s soundtrack to fall asleep. It’s that soothing. Unfortunately, the game’s sound effects detract from this calm. The clacking and clicking of the tiles often takes me out of the game’s vibe. I would’ve preferred more pastoral sound effects accompanying the mechanical sounds of turning and placing tiles on the board. Yes, I could reduce the sound effects’ volume or turn them off altogether, but that would eliminate half of Dorfromantik’s audio. We’re grading the game’s entire audio. If we were only grading Dorfromantik’s soundtrack, its audio would score much higher.

Replay Factor: 10/10

Dorfromantik has an addictive gameplay loop, so the replay factor is through the roof. I can see myself playing Dorfromantik on my Switch while waiting in line. Heck, I’m surprised Dorfromantik hasn’t yet made it to the mobile game space. I could see plenty of people playing Dorfromantik on their phones. It may be an even better game for smartphones. The Switch tends to be a game’s first foray into mobile gaming. Fingers crossed that this cozy game classic makes it onto more mobile devices.

Aggregated Score: 8.6

Sure, I gave Dorfromantik a story/narrative score, but I’m not including that score with its aggregated score. Sometimes you need a cozy video game to find your Zen. Dorfromantik is a great game for that. I’m hoping more gamers will have the opportunity to play Dorfromantik on other platforms soon.

Video Game Review: The Survivalists

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Team 17 produced The Survivalists as a cooperative adventure game set in the Escapists universe. The player wakes up marooned on a mysterious island. You must adapt to your new surroundings. Prepare your defenses against island threats. Explore, hunt, build, craft, and train monkeys with up to three friends as you do your best to survive.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Today’s post is a follow-up of sorts. Months ago, I mentioned during one of our Whatcha Playing segments that I’ve been playing The Survivalists. I finished the game and figured I’d share my thoughts. I played The Survivalists on PlayStation (so most of my comments will reflect that), but The Survivalists is also available for Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Typically, it retails for about $25, but The Survivalists tends to go on sale for as low as $5. I snagged a copy when it was this cheap. Let’s see how The Survivalists measures up in our review criteria.

Mechanisms

Mechanisms: 8/10

Full disclosure: I’m not the biggest survival game fan; that’s more Skye’s video game genre. Survival games often frustrate me. It takes a while to make progress (I’m impatient), and your progress can be foiled with a single false move, which causes the game to devolve into a frustration simulator. I usually like to chill whenever I play video games. Most survival games have no chill. That’s where The Survivalists is different.

The Survivalists takes a laid-back approach to the survival game genre. Sure. You can–and most likely will–die in the game, and after respawning, you’ll have to travel back to where you lost your belongings, but The Survivalists is more forgiving. Upgrades don’t take as long, eliminating one of the barriers for me. If you train monkeys, these upgrades take a fraction of the time. Monkeys are The Survivalists’ single best addition. It took me a while to figure out how to train a monkey (the controls are a little wonky), but once you get the knack, you’re no longer alone on this island. Even if you play The Survivalists solo, you have allies.

The Survivalists’ monkeys element is enough to give it an above-average score in mechanisms, but the game doesn’t add too much to the survival video game genre, so I couldn’t give it higher than an eight out of ten. Still, I enjoyed my time with The Survivalists, and the game’s mechanisms kept me engaged.

Gameplay Loop

Above Image from GameDesigning.Org

Gameplay Loop: 8/10

The Survivalists has the same addictive gameplay loop as most survival games. While I love the addition of monkeys, you can get stuck waiting for your monkeys to finish constructing key materials. That holds back this score a bit. The missions can also get too specific; one also doesn’t receive credit for a task unless they have the mission in their questline. The Beast Master is notorious for this. Kill 10 Bats. I already have; I guess I must hunt for 10 more. And the Beast Master’s questlines (in particular) don’t appear to have a linear progression. You can go from slaying a mid-level boss to hunting wolves, and then to taming animals, which transitions to killing warthogs (an equivalent animal to wolves). These mission progressions tend to be head-scratching.

Still, The Survivalists has a satisfying gameplay loop. The world resets after every few days (after a blood moon). So, if you must hunt wolves for their pelts (or to finish a quest), you may need to wait for them to respawn after a blood moon. The morning after a blood moon, you’ll be attacked by natives. Perishing during one of these raids isn’t too big of a deal, provided you’re at or near one of your camps. You’ll lose the items in your inventory, but your attackers will vanish, and you’ll respawn at your nearest camp. Easy.

Sailing can be tricky to master. I was fifteen hours into the game before I could navigate the waters well. Once you get the hang of sailing, exploring becomes a blast. I couldn’t wait to discover a new island or the materials I could find on the island. This is a hallmark of survival games. Perhaps I should give more of them a try.

At first, obtaining a new monkey can be exciting, but you’ll end up with well over 15 monkeys. That’s a lot of monkeys. The number of monkey companions will become unruly, and monkeys have a range limit. The Survivalists doesn’t do a good job of marking this range. I lost count of the times I’d task a monkey to do something like chop down trees, only to see the monkey skip a tree to knock one farther away. Make the monkey’s range make sense. I’ll also get a monkey falling me a little too long, and then they’ll randomly swim on the beach on a foreign island. It’s a good thing monkeys can’t die.

Story or Narrative

Narrative: 6/10

The Survivalists has a basic premise with little story beyond that, but it doesn’t need a lot of story beyond a person marooned on a distant island. I do enjoy the ending. It’s not a true ending, because you can continue playing after this moment, and the credits roll. I won’t spoil what happens here, but The Survivalists has an adorable cutscene after the player rebuilds the Galleon and sets off for home.

Storytelling

Storytelling: 7/10

Even though The Survivalists has little story, the story it has is done well. Flavor snippets from the labyrinths and vaults sprinkled through the various islands do a lot to build The Survivalists’ world. My favorite parts of The Survivalists’ story are piecing together a story from the random objects I encountered. This game allows players to fill in certain blanks in its story. As of writing this post, I have yet to play The Escapists. I’ve heard that there are references from the previous games set in this universe. If so, that’s fun.

User Interface: 9/10

The Survivalists’ user interface works well. With few exceptions (I mentioned a lack of showing the player their monkey’s range), the game provides ample information in a digestible manner. The volume of information a survival game needs to convey is staggering. Players can get lost in menus and submenus. While that can happen occasionally with The Survivalists, it doesn’t happen as often as other survival video games. This contributes to The Survivalists‘ ease of play.

The well-laid-out GUI gives players the information they need. Yes. I could locate my missing monkeys if I wanted; I just didn’t want to retrieve them. The map allows for customized markers, which makes remembering where things are easy enough. Furthermore, you don’t really need too many personalized markers because the taskmasters have unique markers, and they spawn on the game’s five islands: Mysterious Strange at the player’s island, Beast Master at the Badlands, Survival Gourmand in the Swamp, The Collector at the Volcano, and The Salesman at the final island shaped like a skull and is a combination of all the biomes. The Survivalists also labels all the labyrinths and vaults, so the randomized map is clearly marked.

One can also mark a recipe and know when they’ve collected the necessary materials. I only have a few gripes, like the lack of a monkey range display. The Survivalists did their homework and included enough features from other survival video games to make playing this game enjoyable.

Graphics: 9/10

In keeping with The Escapists’ universe, The Survivalists uses a cute pixel art style. I don’t tend to like pixel art because the art style sacrifices detail for the sake of the designer not wanting to include detail (it tends to be cheaper), and it taps into nostalgia. A stripped-down look is a key feature of pixel art; it makes the art more abstract, which can allow players to see themselves in the graphics. Somehow, The Survivalists’ graphics maintain a level of detail despite using pixel art. That’s impressive.

As you can see in the image above, The Survivalists uses a mock 16-bit art style, but the shadows from the trees have detail, the water ripples, and the grass shifts. The Survivalists has enough detail to make its world breathe, but it has enough abstraction for players to see themselves in their protagonist. This is pixel art done right.

Audio: 8/10

Truth time. I predominantly played The Survivalists muted. The times when I had the sound on, the effects sounded natural. The music is solid and suitable, except for the sailing tune. That song alone raises the audio score a full two or three points. I would sail from island to island just to hear this tune. The Survivalists’ sailing music feels like an adventure, and that’s what I wanted from this game. Don’t believe me? Check out the audio on YouTube. The track is titled “Adventure Awaits.” That’s so fitting. I can almost smell the salt from the ocean.

Replay Factor: 8/10

The Survivalists’ ability to be played cooperatively raises this score a lot. I don’t know how often I’d play it as a solo experience. If you have no desire to play The Survivalists in co-op mode, I could see you dropping this score a point or two, but I do like playing this game as a co-op experience. Since the game randomly generates the islands each time, The Survivalists becomes a different puzzle. During my solo play, I had plenty of rocks for masonry but not enough trees for lumber at the game’s start. The inverse was true during my co-op playthrough. Plenty of other game elements, like the labyrinths and vaults, change too, so each play of The Survivalists is different.

I enjoyed my time on the island and wouldn’t mind returning after several months. If you need me, I’ll be listening to “Adventure Awaits” while heading out on a road trip.

Aggregated Score: 7

Geekly Tunes: November 2025

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Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Today, our writers share what they’ve been listening to over the past month. Feel free to share what you’ve been listening to, Geekly Gang. I’ll begin by sharing my monthly tunes.

Kyra’s Tunes

Typically, I don’t pay much attention to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but this year’s class was an interesting one. Headliners include Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, The White Stripes, Chubby Checker, Outkast, and Warren Zevon. Wow! What a group! I’m surprised it took Warren Zevon over 30 years to make the Hall. Notable exclusions like the Excitable Boy himself are the biggest reason why I don’t pay much attention to the Hall’s Inductees. Zevon’s Excitable Boy is a hallmark Rock album. “Ah-woo! Werewolves of London.” And I love “Lawyers, Guns, and Money.” The latter song is as pertinent today as it was when it was first released.

Many members of this inductee class are no longer with us, so several other artists paid tribute. Iggy Pop was hilarious when he sang the beat of The White Stripes’ “Seven-Nation Army.” The entire crowd joined the fun. And while there was a great version of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Lily Cornell Silver’s rendition of “Fell On Black Days,” with a picture of her father (Soundgarden’s lead singer, Chris Cornell) over her shoulder, sends chills.

While “Black Hole Sun” is a banger, I much prefer “Fell On Black Days.” It better explores Cornell’s range. Both Cornells. Lily did her father proud.

I’m getting choked up again. Chris Cornell (and his close friend Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington) was always upfront about his depression. We lost Cornell and Bennington too soon.

My second entry pulls double duty: it’s a meme and a song. The Remix Brothers did a great job poking fun at President Trump’s Autism announcement from a handful of weeks ago. Here’s a link if you’d like to check out the remix. In short, the study President Trump references during this announcement says the exact opposite of what Trump declares. There is no correlation between Tylenol and Autism. Autism is hereditary. I’m a good example of the rise of Autism diagnoses. My daughter was diagnosed. I had some markers, and there’s a biological component to Autism, so I got checked myself and was diagnosed later in life. Tylenol is the only safe fever reducer pregnant women can take. Unchecked fevers can lead to issues far worse than Autism. Don’t listen to Trump. Returning to The Remix Brothers’ video, it’s eerie how they’re able to make Trump sound like Eminem. The Trump in this video has flow.

Sometimes one must laugh at the Idiocracy The United States has become. The Remix Brother’s “Trump Autism Remix” does a great job of doing that. Trump doesn’t need a third term. Can we get Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho as the 2028 Republican candidate for President?

That’s all I have for this month. Let’s check in with Skye.

Skye’s Tunes

It’s been a minute since I first heard The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and I was happy to revisit it this month. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Listening to songs like “Femininomenon,” “After Midnight,” “Pink Pony Club,” and “Casual” reminds me of why this album is in my vinyl collection. I specifically own the Peaches & Cream version, which contains the songs “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” “HOT TO GO,” “My Kink is Karma,” “Picture You,” and “Kaleidoscope.” While it’s nice knowing I’m lucky to have bonus content, it feels weird having an album with an odd number of sides. I need to remind myself that the D Side is blank, and I’m worried one of these days I’m gonna scratch it by accident.

Despite my love of upbeat pop songs, I enjoy mellow vibes and soothing tracks. Enter The Very Best of Roberta Flack. Songs like “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Where Is the Love,” and “If I Ever See You Again” are great for soothing vibes. Some people say that a nap is all you need after a long day of work, but The Very Best of Roberta Flack is all I need. I’ve been meaning to pay homage to Roberta Flack after her passing earlier this year. We’ve lost too many legends recently. Rest in peace.

On a lighter note, Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR has been another of my staples this month. Rodrigo’s musical stylings are easy to jam to. I get lost in the melodies of songs like “Traitor,” “Drivers License,” “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” and “Enough for You” while I’m busy working on projects. I can’t deny that part of me is transported back to my teenage years whenever I pop in SOUR. I can’t imagine why that is. I still relate to many themes present in SOUR. Wherever Olivia is, I hope she’s okay.

Sublime is another classic album from my childhood. Understandably, my parents never shared the entire album with me and my sister, but certain (clean) songs quickly became staples. We would sing “Santeria” or “What I Got” as loud as we could. Being a kid, I never understood anything these songs were saying, but I loved them just because we were having fun. I love the nostalgic feelings I get from this album.

That’s all we have for this month’s Geekly Tunes. Let us know what music you’ve been listening to over the past month, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Geekly Casting: Mega Man Film

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Happy Monday, Geekly Gang! We’re bringing back the Geekly Casting series, and today’s subject is a live-action Mega Man film. There were talks about a Netflix Mega Man film, but we haven’t heard much about this project since late 2021. A lot has changed since then. Mega Man even had an episode in Amazon Prime’s Secret Level series, a television series based on random video games. But the Blue Bomber deserves a big screen adaptation. Kyra Kyle here. As usual, I’ll start this post and share modern actors who could play the various roles, and Skye, our movie geek, will search Hollywood’s past and present for the best possible actors to play each role.

Our first order of business is figuring out which characters we need to cast. We’ll keep Rock’s supporting cast short: Dr. Light, Roll, and maybe another character or two. We won’t bother casting Rush. He’ll be a robo-dog, so they’ll record random dog noises. Dr. Wily’s an obvious inclusion. We’ll skip casting Yellow Devil; he’ll mostly grunt. The Robot Masters pose a difficult challenge. Skull Man must make the cast because he was a main antagonist in Mega Man’s manga, but the other Robot Masters should have a balanced power set and come from popular games in the Mega Man series. This is a tall order. We’ll do our best.

Mega Man/Rock: Cameron Crovetti

I considered several actors to play the title role in Mega Man. Malachi Barton’s range intrigued me. I could even see an unknown take on the role, but I landed on Cameron Crovetti.

Crovetti is best known for his role on the Amazon Prime series The Boys. He portrays Homelander’s son, so Crovetti has experience with characters with questionable backgrounds. While Mega Man doesn’t go as dark as The Boys, Rock has a conflicted relationship with humanity. Crovetti has several comedic roles under his belt, too, so he has range. I could see him portray the Blue Bomber.

Honestly, the Crovetti family could sport more than one role in Mega Man. Cameron’s twin brother, Nicholas, portrayed Max Wright in Big Little Lies. If Mega Man included Copy Robot, and the production company wanted to avoid using CGI to make Copy Robot look eerily similar to Mega Man, Nicholas Crovetti makes sense. The Crovetti brothers have an older sister, Isabella, who could portray Roll. Roll and Rock (Mega Man) are considered siblings in the Mega Man universe, so it makes sense for Isabella Crovetti to play Roll, but let’s go with a different actor.

Roll: Lulu Wilson

Lulu Wilson is best known for horror films and television series like Ouija: Origin of Evil, Annabelle: Creation, The Haunting of Hill House, and Fall of the House of Usher. Wilson even portrayed a young Gloria Steinem in The Glorias. Despite a short career, she has an impressive filmography. Wilson also has a handful of comedic roles under her belt, specifically the dark comedy Wyrm. So, Wilson has the range to pull off Rock’s older sister Roll.

Typically, Roll comes off as compassionate and patient, but Mega Man 11, the most recent entry in the mainline Mega Man series, shows her giving Auto (another Mega Man side character who could make an appearance) a hard time. Let’s face it. Roll can be brutal toward Auto in Mega Man 11. Roll also doesn’t mind joining Rock (Mega Man) in battle. Lulu Wilson could pull off a Roll who looks overtly demure, but has a hidden edge, begging to be set free.

Dr. Thomas Light: Pierce Brosnan

Honestly, I could’ve gone with the Mega Man fan consensus and picked Jeff Bridges. Bridges has been the lovable bearded man for decades; he would make a great Dr. Light. Instead, I’m going with Pierce Brosnan. Mega Man depicts Dr. Light as a kind-hearted father figure and little else. After all, Light created Rock, Roll, and X. Brosnan has portrayed father figures in the past, but he may bring another layer to the character that a generic fatherly actor wouldn’t. Don’t ask me what that layer is. That’s up to Brosnan to pull deep from his acting experience.

Dr. Albert Wily: Willem Dafoe

Willem Dafoe as Dr. Albert Wily may be typecasting. Who cares? I went off-center with Brosnan as Dr. Light; Dafoe is at his best when his character has a tenuous grasp on reality. Whoever portrays Dr. Wily needs a disconnect with reality. Only a madman would put the world at risk by turning robots (who were minding their own business) against humanity. Dafoe could easily pull off an unhinged Dr. Wily.

Skull Man: Javier Bardem

We’ve reached the Robot Masters. Woo hoo! Whoever fills these roles won’t need to match the look of their counterpart. The Robot Masters will predominantly be CGI.

We begin with Skull Man. Unlike most Robot Masters, Skull Man was designed specifically for combat. Dr. Wily built Skull Man to take down Mega Man. While other Robot Masters have personalities outside of “must destroy Mega Man” (other Robot Masters are coerced or brainwashed), Skull Man is a killer who will stop at nothing to end Mega Man. Again, this may be typecasting, but Javier Bardem has been that level of cold-blooded killer.

Skull Man shows little emotion. He struggles to make a connection with any of the other Robot Masters. He has a hollow, inhuman affect. Like many other actors on this list, Bardem would give Skull Man an extra layer of character.

Metal Man: Peter Dinklage

Even when he isn’t brainwashed, Metal Man is a jerk. Sarcasm is Metal Man’s first language. He treats the other Robot Masters like buffoons, cracking jokes at their expense. To be fair, few of the other Robot Masters figure out they’re the butt of Metal Man’s joke. Yep. Peter Dinklage could easily pull off an affable, wisecracking Metal Man. Dinklage could find the perfect blend of fun and danger. Couldn’t you see Dinklage tossing saw blades like they’re Frisbees?

Splash Woman: Kristen Bell

Splash Woman first appeared in the Mega Man comic book. She began as a hero. The Mega Man comic built up Splash Woman’s stakes ahead of Mega Man 9, so when she gets brainwashed in the game, players would care. Splash Woman is Mega Man’s karaoke-loving bestie. She may have been constructed for underwater repairs, but musical theater is Splash Woman’s passion. Kristen Bell has the musical training and comedic timing to pull off Splash Woman. Bell’s Splash Woman could be a villain in the first Mega Man film, or she could be converted in the sequel. Hmm.

Fire Man: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage could have a mini Game of Thrones reunion. That would be fun. It would also be fun to watch Coster-Waldau take on Fire Man, a Robot Master who believes he’s the hero. That’s right. Fire Man suffers from main character syndrome. Game of Thrones had several “main characters,” so Coster-Waldau as Fire Man works on a meta storytelling level. I can see Mega Man jokingly follow Fire Man as the main character for a scene. I can also see Nikolaj Coster-Waldau playing a hot-headed–a little on the nose–Fire Man.

Elec Man: Joaquin Phoenix

Were some of these Robot Masters brainwashed, or were they nudged? Conceited and egotistical, Elec Man walks a tightrope between kindhearted and sadistic freak. Joaquin Phoenix has portrayed his fair share of characters like Elec Man. I can hear Phoenix pull off a line like, “To watch my beautiful bolts fly to the top of your head. To hear your delightful shrieks.” Woah! Elec Man may have some issues.

Ice Man: Neil Patrick Harris

Ice Man loves to show off for the crowd. The world’s a stage, and he’ll give Splash Woman a run for her money as Mega Man’s best singer. Neil Patrick Harris has a flair for the dramatic. I’ve heard he’s a good singer, too. Wink. Harris’s Ice Man and the actor who I have playing Bomb Man could have more than one musical number. One of them needs to be a Mega Man variant of “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.” Make it happen.

Guts Man: Terry Crews

Built for construction, Guts Man takes his job seriously. While he may perform physical labor, Guts Man is smarter than he looks. He can be over-dramatic with a penchant for sudden outbursts, but Guts Man cares deeply for his coworkers. Underneath his bulky exterior, Guts Man’s a big softy, just like my pick to portray him, Terry Crews. Sure, I want to see Crews in more films. But you read Guts Man’s description. Tell me that doesn’t scream Terry Crews.

Bomb Man: Wayne Brady

Bomb Man is another Robot Master with a flair for the dramatic. While he doesn’t necessarily sing in the Mega Man series, who says he can’t in the movie? I have mixed feelings about How I Met Your Mother, but Wayne Brady and Neil Patrick Harris would be another fun reunion. Brady and Harris’s chemistry is undeniable, and I’d love to see how Bomb Man and Ice Man would interact with each other. They’re too similar, fighting for the same spotlight. Anything you can freeze, I can explode!

That’s the cast I have for Mega Man. Let’s check in with our film geek, Skye.

Skye’s Picks

I’m not well-versed in the Mega Man game series. I’ve beaten the first one and gotten halfway through the second, so my knowledge of the lore and characters is limited. Because of that, all my picks for this post were actors who made me giggle. My version of Mega Man is more kid-friendly and goofy. I hope these picks aren’t blasphemous. Either way, enjoy my picks for a Mega Man feature film adaptation.

Mega Man/Rock: Mark Hamill (Young)

Let’s see, someone who’s fresh-faced, eager to explore, lovable in his ignorance with just the right amount of whininess sprinkled in. I couldn’t help but imagine young Mark Hamill playing Mega Man. I’m unsure if that’s the best representation of Mega Man’s character (please refer to my intro), but it’s at least compelling. If nothing else, we know Hamill started his career playing that exact archetype. Seeing him learn and upgrade himself as he “cuts” (hehe) through the various bosses would be believable. With the tutelage of Obi-Wan–I mean Dr. Light–young Hamill could easily become another iconic sci-fi protagonist.

Roll: Dakota Fanning (Younger)

Roll was tricky for me to cast, but I remembered I had cast Fanning’s sister in a previous casting call (Geekly Casting: X-Men in the MCU). Since I prefer not to repeat actors I’ve already cast, why not Dakota? Like her younger sister, Elle, Dakota Fanning has had a storied acting career. I could see her pulling off Roll’s kind-hearted and bubbly personality. Since I cast young Mark Hamill as Mega Man/Rock, I thought it would make more sense to cast Fanning in her 20s. Rock n’ Roll are meant to be siblings, so it’d be a bit weird if they weren’t close in age. She’s got the look, style, and personality, so let’s give her the Roll. See what I did there?

Dr. Thomas Light: Patrick Stewart

I shouldn’t have to explain this one. Come on, it’s Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart is one of the go-to actors for good-natured, smart old dudes. Dr. Light would be no exception. Stewart has unrivaled on-screen charisma, a decades-long career under his belt, and the ability to make any movie he’s in better. Stewart works as Dr. Light. I won’t even bother naming them all, y’all already know. The only issue is his distinct lack of hair, but it’s Hollywood. They can figure out something.

Dr. Albert Wily: Ian McKellen

After casting Patrick Stewart as Dr. Light, it only felt right to go with Ian McKellen as Dr. Wily. If you’re a member of the Geekly Gang, you probably know why I made this choice. Not only are Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen two peas in a pod, but they work off each other in ways unlike any other acting duo in Hollywood. They’ve had several roles and done countless productions together, but the rivalry between Light and Wily is mostly why I went with McKellen. Given their past playing Professor X and Magneto, Stewart and McKellen would foil each other perfectly for the Light/Wily rivalry. Now, I badly want to watch this Mega Man movie. Make it so, Hollywood!

Skull Man: Ken Page (Posthumously)

If we’re going the kid-friendly and goofy route, Ken Page as Skull Man makes a marketable, mildly intimidating, and memorable choice. I admit it. I was thinking about Page’s role as Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Skull Man wouldn’t have to sing, per se, but Ken Page could still bring a unique voice to the character. I can easily imagine kids growing up watching this Mega Man adaptation and having their sense of villainy shaped by Page’s interpretation of Skull Man, like Oogie Boogie. Hopefully, Skull Man would receive more screen time, allowing Page to properly define his character. Rest in peace.

Metal Man: Robert Downey Jr.

Just lean into it. That’s the theme of my picks. Since Robert Downey Jr. is more available than he was 10 years ago, why not take the opportunity to be another metal man? This time literally Metal Man. As soon as I heard about a jerky robot in a metal suit, I picked Robert Downey Jr.. Downey Jr. has also shown interest in expanding his types of characters, as we’ve seen with his new role as Dr. Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Yes, join Ethan Hawke on the dark side. I hear they have cookies. If they do happen to make a legitimate Mega Man film adaptation, getting Robert Downey Jr. would also be a highly marketable first step. The kids would have to see it then!

Splash Woman: Halle Bailey

Anyone who’s forced to act in a Disney live-action remake deserves a better role. Is Splash Woman that role? Splash Woman could be a better role than Ariel in a live-action Little Mermaid. Splash Woman could also be a good opportunity to set the record straight for Halle Bailey and show how talented she is when Disney isn’t putting her on a self-righteous diversity pedestal. Imagine the not-so-subtle jabs Bailey could take at Disney in the role of a robot mermaid. I’m already laughing!

Fire Man: Jason Lee

This choice is difficult to defend, even for me. After researching boss robot personalities, Jason Lee came to mind. Fire Man is more of a wannabe hero with a short temper. Does that sound like Lee’s character from The Incredibles, Buddy Pines/Syndrome? Lee has experience. Also, Jason Lee hasn’t been given many major roles in recent years. Considering (arguably) his best role was Syndrome in 2004, I’d like to see him make a comeback. Like Brendan Fraser, he has untapped potential for high-profile films. I don’t want to remember him as Dave from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Can I get some brain bleach for those movies?

Elec Man: Tom Hiddleston

Like my last choice, Tom Hiddleston as Elec Man was a fitting conclusion after some light research. And why not one more Marvel actor? Elec Man is an arrogant, overdramatic narcissist, which sounds like Loki in the MCU. While Hiddleston has experience playing these character types, he’s been branching out. I’m confident that Hiddleston would give a good performance as Elec Man. Given my layperson’s perspective, Hiddleston seems like a good fit.

Ice Man: David Bowie (Posthumously)

Ice Man was a fun role to cast. Sure, I still don’t have a solid understanding of his character, but I got the idea after Kyra discussed their pick. They had chosen Neil Patrick Harris for the role in part due to Ice Man’s flair for the theatrical. It doesn’t get more theatrical than David Bowie. That and Ice Man would’ve been a great way to reintroduce Bowie to another generation as a kids’ movie icon. They would need to let Ice Man sing. Bowie would probably write the song too, and I’d buy the vinyl. Rest in peace.

Guts Man: André the Giant (Posthumously)

Here comes another choice influenced by Kyra’s pick. Thanks, Kyra. You helped me out a lot on this one. They described Guts Man as a lumbering meat-head with a soft and gentle side. If he was still with us, I would’ve enjoyed watching André the Giant in this role. The iconic ex-wrestler had both in equal measure, and that was depicted in his personality and role choices. I fell in love with André’s personality after watching The Princess Bride. If he brought the same energy to his portrayal of Guts Man, it would’ve been great. Who knows, he could’ve been as big a star as Dwayne Johnson is today if he were still with us. Rest in peace.

Bomb Man: Dwayne Johnson

Speaking of Dwayne Johnson, he happens to be my pick for Bomb Man. Like Guts Man, Bomb Man is a larger robot intended to carry heavy loads and work primarily in construction. Based on physique alone, Johnson is a solid fit. Although, I mainly picked Johnson for Bomb Man for his personality. Bomb Man seems like a lighthearted robot with a good sense of humor, which would make Dwayne Johnson a great choice. Bomb Man and Guts Man are also supposed to be close friends, because their abilities play off each other. I wanted Dwayne Johnson to play Bomb Man since I think he and André the Giant would make great on-screen friends. I struggle to process the cuteness.

Kyra Kyle here again. That’s all we have for today’s Geekly Casting. Who would you cast in the various roles, Geekly Gang? Would you like to see a part two for any of these castings? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1990s

Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1998

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 Tabletop Games throughout the years. 1998 saw the continued dominance of collectible card games (CCGs). Fewer CCGs were released this year, but established ones kept board game stores afloat. 1998 had a lot of great board games, but many of them didn’t have the same staying power as previous years in this series. There may be more than one forgotten gem on today’s list. We’ll get to the games in a minute, but first, let’s look at our criteria.

1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.

2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.

3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.

5: Kahuna (1998)

Kahuna fits the bill of a forgotten gem. This two-player game has players assume the role of ancient sorcerers of the Pacific. You compete for dominance of an archipelago consisting of twelve small islands. Players use cards to place bridges between islands and remove opponent’s bridges. If you get the majority of bridges around an island, place one of your marker stones on it and remove any of your opponent’s bridges to that island. This could, in turn, cause your opponent to lose a bridge majority on an adjacent island.

Kahuna plays in three rounds. A round ends when all cards from the face-down deck and the three face-up cards have been used. Kahuna is a fast-paced area control/majority game. It’s one of the better two-player games from this era, but Kahuna’s status as a two-player only game may have prevented it from seeing wider gameplay. Still, Kahuna was a finalist for the Spiel des Jahres (the German game of the year).

4: Elfenland (1998)

We go from a Spiel des Jahre finalist to 1998’s Spiel des Jahre winner, Elfenland. Elfenland is a redesign of the original White Wind game Elfenroads. The game is set in an elvish world. Players begin in the Elf capital, draw one face down movement tile, and are dealt eight transport cards and a secret “home” city card that they must reach at the end of the fourth round or lose points for each city space away from “home” they are at the end of the game.

Elfenland’s designer, Alan R. Moon (Ticket to Ride), has a knack for route-building games. Elfenland marks the first time Moon has made one of these lists. I may have just spoiled the game, but this won’t be the last time we’ll see Moon on one of these lists. Elfenland shares some similarities with Moon’s more popular Ticket to Ride. Elfenland is another forgotten gem.

3: Guillotine (1998)

Guillotine is yet another forgotten gem, and its theme is one of the most macabre and interesting of 1998. Players take the role of executioners during the French Revolution. In Guillotine, you’re doing your best to manipulate the execution line and score as many points, claiming the lives of nobles, clergy, and former military as you can. Off with their heads!

If you like Gallow’s humor, you’ll love Guillotine. I say this a lot, but this will not be the last Paul Peterson design to make one of these lists. Peterson has a knack for taking traditional card games in strange and exciting directions. Guillotine is bloody fun.

2: Cranium (1998)

Cranium marks the first mass market board game (a game one can find in department stores) to make one of these lists in several years. While it may have faded in popularity, Cranium took elements from various party games and formed what it claims is “the whole-brain” game. Cranium identifies four main party quiz game elements and gave them names: Creative Cat, Data Head, Word Worm, and Star Performer.

Creative Cat involves sculpting and drawing. Data Head is trivia. Word Worm has players unscrambling words, challenging them to spell a word, and guess definitions. And Star Performer includes whistling songs, impersonating a celebrity, or acting out a clue. Cranium managed to assemble as many party quiz game elements into one game as one can. In fact, I still don’t think a party quiz game has managed to include as many elements as Cranium’s into a single game design.

1: Through the Desert (1998)

Reiner Knizia takes another top spot on one of these lists with Through the Desert. Through the Desert is one of those games players remember fondly and hold in high regard. But I rarely see anyone playing Through the Desert, making it yet another forgotten gem on this list. I’d argue Cranium, despite its status as a mass market board game, is another forgotten gem. This entire list is made up of forgotten gems. Getting back to Through the Desert, it takes inspiration from the classic game of Go. Through the Desert also completes Knizia’s tile-laying trilogy of games: Tigris & Euphrates (1997), Samurai (1998), and Through the Desert (1998).

In Through the Desert, players attempt to score the most points by snaking caravan routes through the desert, trying to reach oases and blocking off sections of the desert. Two to five players control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. Strategy is key in building your tribe’s caravans. There are multiple paths to gain points, but Through the Desert manages to keep its cognitive load low, meaning it’s easy to learn but difficult to master. Through the Desert is deserving of its Spiel des Jahres recommended status.

Did we get the list mostly correct? Let us know which games you’d add in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Watching, Geekly: November 2025

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Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers share what they’ve been watching over the past month. You’re welcome to join the fun and share what you’ve been watching, Geekly Gang. I’ll get us started with the movies I watched.

Kyra’s Movies

All our geekly writers watched the two movies I’ll be discussing. I’d like to see what Season and Skye have to say about each of these films.

In short, Weapons had too many point-of-view (POV) characters. If you’re like me and you thought Weapons started strong, dragged in the middle, and found its footing at the end, that’s because the movie had too many POVs. The teacher made the best choice as the first POV. Good job there. The audience needed at least one parent’s POV. Great choice to include one, but I question this POV’s placement in the movie’s sequence. I didn’t like how the parent immediately followed the teacher. Director Cregger didn’t trust his audience to remember someone painting “Witch” on the side of the teacher’s car. This will be an ongoing issue.

Then, we get a few POVs we didn’t need. The cop adds nothing. The junkie actively made the story worse. How cool would it have been if the first time the audience saw the kids in the basement was when the father found them? Instead, a random junkie undercuts that potential emotional weight. And the principal’s POV is repetitive. And what was with making the principal gay? This inclusion reeks of tokenism. Within ten minutes of learning the principal is gay (which we only learn because we’re in his POV), the principal kills his husband. Hollywood needs to uphold the tired trope of Bury Your Gays.

Weapons gets back on track with the kid’s POV, and then it’s relatively smooth sailing–from a story perspective. Weapons is a good movie, but it’s overhyped. It doesn’t deserve a 93% fresh rating. Limiting Weapons to three POVs (the teacher, the kid, and the father, and in that order) and bouncing between the three would’ve given Weapons a chance to dig deeper into these characters. Weapons is praised as a “smart film,” but it treats its audience like imbeciles. Writer/Director Zach Cregger doesn’t trust his audience to piece together things, which is why the movie spells out everything in the principal’s POV, even when all the information delivered in the principal’s POV can be obtained through the other POVs. We’re left with puddle-depth characters and inconsistent world-building.

Oh, and what was with dropping the machine gun references and imagery outside of the teacher and father’s POV after the beginning? Again, if we only got three POVs (specifically, the three I mentioned), the idea that Weapons is a metaphor for school shootings would’ve been clearer.

Objectively, Weapons is a better movie than The Monkey, but I had a lot more fun watching The Monkey. Even though it’s a horror comedy, The Monkey does a better job setting up stakes for its characters (we actually have a ticking clock of the father losing visitation rights with his son after the weekend) and building emotional resonance than Weapons. So, maybe The Monkey is the better film.

Make no mistake. The Monkey is ridiculous. Its acting is over-the-top but in the best possible ways. I laughed out loud during Elijah Wood’s scene; he’s a treasure. Some of the lines and character choices are jarring, but in a deliberate, self-aware manner. I loved watching the Final Destination-like deaths occur, preceded by the titular wind-up monkey drumming its tune. I especially like the bus filled with cheerleaders at the movie’s end. I won’t say any more, but it’s hilarious. And the nods to other Stephen King stories were fun.

The Monkey doesn’t have a lot to say, but doesn’t need to have a greater message. Sometimes you just want–or need–a good laugh.

Kyra’s Show

I’m back to watching true crime. While writing this post, I’m eagerly awaiting the final episode of Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family. I first learned about the Murdaughs when Netflix released its documentary series years ago, so I was somewhat familiar with what to expect. But Hulu’s docudrama Murdaugh: Death in the Family lives up to the craziness surrounding this case.

I forgot a lot of the specifics for the Murdaugh Murders. I’m fighting the urge to rewatch the Netflix documentary before finishing Murdaugh: Death in the Family. Going in blind must be a treat. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the Murdaugh Murders are perfect fodder for true crime series, movies, and much more. There are so many elements to this story. Money laundering. Drug abuse. Infidelity. Wire fraud. Witness tampering. Wrongful deaths–plural. And this all happens before Mags and Paul Murdaugh are slain. The suspect pool for the Murdaugh Murders is limited to the entire state of South Carolina. Who wouldn’t be a suspect?

At least, that’s what I would’ve thought if I hadn’t watched the other content before watching Murdaugh: Death in the Family. If you haven’t seen anything else about the Murdaughs, refrain from doing so until after watching this series. The acting is on point.

That’s all I have for this month. What’ve you been watching, Season?

Season’s Movie

I’m going to be honest. I didn’t watch much this past month. I’ve been busy and haven’t had time to sit down and watch something. However, I do like to have something playing in the background while I fall asleep. For that, A Goofy Movie is perfect.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic, and I remember owning A Goofy Movie on VHS. I watched it so much, my mom eventually hid it. I remember jamming out to Tevin Campbell’s music (“I2I” and “Stand Out”), which was the main reason I watched A Goofy Movie. This time, I focused on the parent-child relationship. It holds up, even after removing nostalgia glasses. A Goofy Movie is a good watch for all ages.

What are you watching, Skye?

Skye’s Movie

The Monkey was my introduction to director Osgood Perkins. I’m not dissatisfied. Kyra came to me on Halloween and told me about this ridiculous horror comedy that had to be seen to be believed. Funny thing: I’ve seen it, but I’m still not sure I believe it. Did I enjoy The Monkey? Without a doubt, yes. The Monkey was the most insane horror comedy I’ve seen in recent years, which kept me laughing even when the screen was covered in gore. Yeah, this movie loves its body parts. Everything is just the right amount of wrong, and the fact it all revolves around a monkey doll turns the absurdity up to 11. I highly recommend The Monkey, just not too soon after mealtime.

Skye’s Show

Um, sure. Since I watched Monster: Ed Gein last month, Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer felt like the next logical step. Technically, Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer is better than Monster: Ed Gein, but that’s a low bar. Simply put, it’s obvious why people call Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer insensitive. It’s dead set on violating the stories of real-life murder victims, and some episodes were downright infuriating. True crime has always fascinated me, but there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. Monster: Jeffrey Dahmer is definitely the wrong way. If you’re curious about these true stories, it’s better to watch documentaries or read dissertations about them. Don’t be Ryan Murphy.

Kyra Kyle again. It looks like Skye enjoyed The Monkey. Yay! Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Holiday Helpers: Sugar Daddy

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Happy Turkey Day, Geekly Gang! Season here. Are you worried the food comas in your family will get too intense next week? Never fear! I’ve got the perfect solution to get you and your family active after next week’s feast. Or, at least, annoy the crud out of them. Let’s get smacking with this month’s plushie review: Sugar Daddy.

Before we begin, let’s review the categories. I’ll be looking at size, softness, kid-friendliness, and cuddliness. There won’t be an aggregated score.

Size

The Sugar Daddy plushie is more on the medium side. It’s slightly smaller than Chibithulhu and is perfect for whacking unsuspecting victims on the backside.

Softness Versus Firmness

Sugar Daddy has a bit of softness, but it isn’t a plush I’d recommend substituting for a pillow. It’s definitely a plushie I’d recommend hitting a wall with for stress relief. Also, definitely keep it out of arm’s reach from mischievous house guests.

Kid Friendly Versus Adult Only

I’m leaving this one in the middle. It’s really open to interpretation and how you use it. Kids and adults alike can have a lot of fun with the Sugar Daddy plushie. I recommend a scavenger hunt. Whoever finds the Sugar Daddy plushie gets to smack the person they want to hide it next. How would you use it, Geekly Gang?

Cuddle Buddy Versus Desk Buddy

Sugar Daddy is easy to cuddle with, but I wouldn’t recommend it due to its firmness. It’d make a great couch decoration, but I can also see someone keeping it locked away in a safe to avoid mischief. Honestly, I think Sugar Daddy makes for goofy decor anywhere in the house. It’s one of those things that makes people question why you have it. Keep them guessing.

Final Thoughts

Sugar Daddy is a fun plushie to have around. We’ve had many a giggle fit in my family whenever we chase each other around the house with it. I’m not sure if they’re in circulation anymore, but you can purchase a Sugar Daddy plush between $7 and $30 on eBay. I highly recommend getting one for fun, or if you’re a candy lover looking to add a Sugar Daddy plushie to your collection.

Do you agree with my assessment of the Sugar Daddy plushie? Would you like me to cover more candy/food-related plushies in the future? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading and have a relaxing time with your families.

P.S. This year, I’m thankful for all of you, Geekly Gang. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules to read our posts and leaving us likes and comments. I hope we can continue to bring you content you enjoy reading.

Geekly News: November 16, 2025, New Releases

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Happy Sunday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. I’m still on a pseudo-hiatus with Novel in November. I just shared a writing update a couple days ago, but this means that Geek News will mostly be video game and board game new releases. Let’s begin with board game new releases.

Exactly as Planned Sneaks Onto GameFound

I love it when a publisher/designer allows players to demo their game. Exactly As Planned offers a solo, cake-walk heist to whet gamers’ whistles. You can play the game by checking out Exactly As Planned’s GameFound page. And it won’t take long. Exactly As Planned lasts exactly 5-minutes. Gamers on the clock, attempting to play the correct cards to pull off their semi-coordinated heist.

I love Exactly As Planned’s box art. The off-centered “As” is hilarious. Once gamers become accustomed to Exactly As Planned’s ruleset, they can add a little spice to the proceedings. One team member may be speaking only in questions, a second might have to stare at the ceiling, and a third may be restricted to saying only “yes” and “no.” If Exactly As Planned sounds like chaotic fun, check out its GameFound page.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread Journeys to GameFound

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is another big box, fantasy, open-world, and open-ended exploration board game. So, what separates Arydia from other board games like it that we’ve covered over the past handful of months? Prowess.

Publisher Far Off Games and designer Cody Miller of Xia: Legends of a Drift System are well known for immersive, exploration board games. Despite being over a decade old, Xia maintains a top 200 spot on BGG. And Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread brings this same scale and grandeur to a fantasy setting. This GameFound campaign is Arydia’s second printing. The game sports a whopping 9.1 out 10 on BGG, where most games are lucky to get a 7. And I love the idea of a “green legacy” game. Far Off Games notes that Arydia features all the hallmarks of a legacy game–packages to open, hidden information, progression, discovery, and exploration–but allows you to reset the game when you complete it so that you can start again or pass it on to someone else.

We need more “green legacy” games. While it can be cool to burn your board game after playing (like I’ve seen others do with Pandemic Legacy), it’s also a waste. And look at the dice. I don’t know if the dice signal how a unit can move or where a spell casts its area of effect, but I’d like to find out. Arydia comes with plenty of detailed miniatures and other game components. If you’re interested in Arydia, check out its GameFound page.

Chants for the Old Ones Lurks on GameFound

Chants for the Old Ones is another second printing making its way onto GameFound, this time with two new expansions: The Eye of Dagon and The New Orders’ Reckoning. Players control unique cults with various paths to earn victory and unleash the power of the Old Ones. Perform dark rituals. Control key areas of the city. Do your worst in this deck-building and worker placement game set in the Cthulhu Mythos.

I like Chants for the Old Ones’ combination of deck building and worker placement. Those are two fantastic game mechanisms. Playing a Lovecraftian cult is a bonus. And I like how The New Orders’ Reckoning expansion adds a playable cult for the King in Yellow (Hastur) himself. If you’d like to get your Cthulhu on, check out Chants for the Old Ones’ GameFound page.

Elements of Truth Launches on KickStarter

Elements of Truth shakes up the traditional trivia game. The game includes four question types for each of its 250 cards: More or Less, Multiple Choice, Number Line, and True or False. Multiple Choice and True and False need no introduction. More or Less has players choose whether one “fill-in-the-blank” has more or less of something than another “fill-in-the-blank” thing. But Number Line has me most intrigued. Players write an answer on the (provided) whiteboard to see if they can get as close to the numerical correct answer.

Elements of Truth offers five expansion packs (four pictured above). Each question pack includes an additional 200 question cards in a particular subject. My history of playing Trivial Pursuit makes me wonder if gamers will want to pick up at least one of these expansion packs. 250 question cards are easy to memorize after a few plays. The base game pledge is $39. Players can get the first question pack (Veritasium, which isn’t pictured above) in addition to the base game for $59. Or go all-in for $99. If you’re interested in Elements of Truth, check out its KickStarter page.

Anno 117: Pax Romana Releases

The Anno series of city-building real-time strategy games continues with the earliest setting for the franchise. Gamers are given the choice to build the Roman Empire (Latium) or the Celtic kingdom (Albion). You’ll have the choice between paths of loyalty or rebellion. You can focus on military might or economic growth. And, for the first time, gamers will be able to play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person.

This option alone piques my interest for Anno 117: Pax Romana. I’ve played numerous city-building games and always wondered what it would be like to experience my city at ground level. Anno 117: Pax Romana has received good reviews from critics. Rome has been built (and torn down) in many video games. I may try my hand at building the Celtic Kingdom. Anno 117: Pax Romana is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Lumines Arise Releases on Steam and PlayStation

I’ve been a fan of the Lumines series ever since it was first released on the PlayStation Portable, and Lumines Arise is the first new title in the series since 2012. More than just a Tetris clone, Lumines gives the familiar formula a new twist. Every block is 2×2, but they contain up to two colors. The blocks slide into spaces left in the puzzle, and gamers must match colors (in 2×2 blocks or better) before they explode.

I’ve always enjoyed Lumines’s slick design. At first glance, you may find Lumines confusing, but you’ll get used to the game’s aesthetics soon enough. Lumines Arise includes numerous game modes, ensuring ample replayability. The classic Journey mode returns. Gamers will play over 35 stages, called skins. Each skin has its own theme with music and visuals to match the stage’s vibe. I love the themes that use vegetables. What?

After gamers complete the Journey, they unlock a new mode called Survival. Players play endlessly–or at least until they top out–with the skins transitioning as they reach certain milestones. That could get trippy with Lumines Arise’s bizarre skins. Lumines Arise also offers Training Missions, Challenges (various game states with goals and some variations on gameplay), Time Attack (clear enough blocks in the allotted time), and Dig Down where the blocks come from below. Trippy.

I can’t wait to get my hands on Lumines Arise. It’s received good to great reviews from most critics, with a slight edge given to the PlayStation 5 version over the PC version. Honestly, I always intended to pick up this title for PS5 anyway.

That’s all the Geek News we have for this week. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Quirky Video Game Review: Ratropolis

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Spooky Season, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here, and while Ratropolis doesn’t exactly fit the horror aesthetic for this month’s theme, it is an interesting blend of deck building, tower defense, and real-time strategy. That’s right, it’s time for another quirky video game review. Relatively new, Korean video game design group, Cassel Games, combines so many disparate themes and mechanisms that they couldn’t possibly work together. Could they? Let’s put Ratropolis against our video game review criteria.

Mechanisms

Game Mechanisms: 9/10

Ratropolis does manage to merge its separate parts into a cohesive whole, but I don’t imagine players unfamiliar with deck building to fare well. Sure, Ratropolis begins with slow waves of enemies. The deck-building is somewhat pared down, but this game retains most of a deck-building game’s complexity, and the time constraint can be intimidating. The real-time strategy meets tower defense work well together. They’re almost seamless.

The deck-building does get streamlined to a point. Ratropolis splits cards into specific leader types: Builder, General, Merchant, Navigator, Scientist, and Shaman. Each leader type has a male and female variant with their own special powers, so this specializes each potential deck even further. You begin the game with the Builder, which allows for upgraded buildings and extra building cards that provide sustained benefits, even resources over time. Ratropolis has addictive gameplay and since it offers so many avenues to customize your deck, once you get hooked, you’ll lose several hours and not even notice.

I can’t believe how well Ratropolis blends its various game mechanisms. Each leader takes advantage of different design spaces, and I love that. Different avenues for victory make a great deck-builder, and Ratropolis is a great deck-building game without the added wrinkles of an RTS and tower defense.

Speaking of tower defense, Ratropolis does an excellent job of ramping up its difficulty from one wave to the next. Gameplay balance like that is difficult to find. Each city run lasts up to 30 waves of enemies. The furthest I’ve ever gone has been level 25 or 27. Each new enemy type adds a new threat for the player to manage, and while these new challenges can feel unfair when first introduced, runs don’t take too long (players can even send in a new wave early to earn extra in-game money), and a quick look at Ratropolis’s card library should reveal a strategy to deal with each one. The only reason Ratropolis doesn’t get top marks in game mechanisms is that the deck-building can–at first–be overwhelming.

Gameplay Loop: 10/10

I spoiled this entry in the last one. Yes! Ratropolis has an addictive gameplay loop. I spent hours playing the game, not knowing I had spent hours playing the game. Not only does Ratropolis start players with one leader type, but you can unlock other leaders and extra cards for each deck by gaining experience. Ratropolis manages to add a little bit of Pokémon to its gameplay. Gotta catch ’em all! These new cards tend to be more complex, but they also break the game in fun ways. Ratropolis is one of those video games where you’ll be arguing to play one more game.

Story or Narrative

Narrative/Storytelling: 6/10

One wouldn’t think a deck-builder, real-time strategy, tower defense video game would have much of a story, but that’s not the case with Ratropolis. The game has a loose story that adapts to the events of your game. Did you recently have a lot of rat citizens die during an enemy raid? You may get approached by grieving parents who want burials for their children. You decide how your rat leader reacts. Do you give them a proper burial? Do you ask the parents for a death tax? Yikes! That got dark, but so does Ratropolis’s story. This game paints its story in its liminal spaces, but there isn’t much in the way of an overarching narrative.

User Interface: 7/10

Ratropolis’s user interface is well designed, but a lot is going on in this game. Too much. I don’t know how Ratropolis could fix this issue, but it is an issue and drags down the game’s user interface score a hair. Currently (I’m writing this review in June 2025), Ratropolis is only available on Windows (and by extension, Steam). I can’t imagine Ratropolis on a console or mobile device, despite deck-building games running well on smartphones. Information pockets form in all four corners. The screen is cut into two sections: the top is the city (which players can scroll from side to side, making this space even larger and unwieldy), and the bottom center shows the player’s hand. Many cards have extensive text, so that adds even more cognitive load (how much information one’s brain must compute at one time).

Throw in the random story elements, and Ratropolis can get overwhelming. Still, Ratropolis has a space for everything. It offers a clean interface for players to find most information. I don’t know how the game could improve on its UI design, but it’s missing something.

Graphics: 8/10

Ratropolis’s graphical details are fantastic. The images on the cards are cartoonish but have a well-defined style. Ratropolis is a pretty game. I may have lowered it to average if it wasn’t for the city, slowly building in the space above the cards. Look at the reflection effects in the water. You can see your entire ratropolis reflected in the river. Depending on the location you build your city (Ratropolis offers a handful of places, which can vary gameplay), you’ll be given flourishes that make every rat city unique.

Audio: 7/10

Typically, I play most video games with the sound off. That makes grading a game’s audio difficult. But I have heard plenty of Ratropolis’s audio, and it’s well above average. While the soundtrack does its job (it doesn’t stand out, but it serves the game well), the sound effects, especially the jingling of merchants entering your city or the growls and grumbles of various enemies invading your rat city raise this score. In fact, it’s these unique sounds–that I grew accustomed to–that made managing my city a lot easier. I won’t go as far as to say that you need to play Ratropolis with the sound on, but the sound mixing immerses me in the game’s world. And that’s what you want from a game’s audio.

Replay Factor: 10/10

Unlocking all the leader types, the cards, and the random city generator that makes each playthrough different gives Ratropolis an infinite replay factor. Not since Civilization have I felt this strong of an urge for “just one more turn” or game or unlock one card in my journey of mastering the Merchant leadership style. Ratropolis combines several game mechanisms that lend themselves to replay (deck-building, tower defense, and a varied enemy and environment for a real-time strategy). These mechanisms work together to form a game you won’t put down for hours.

Aggregated Score: 8.14

Ratropolis does the unthinkable and combines deck-building, tower defense, and real-time strategy into one addictive indie game package. This game may not appeal to everyone, but if you’re interested in two or more of the game’s three main mechanisms, you should try Ratropolis.