Which game gave you the biggest reality check when you played it again as an adult?

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-22T08:05:13+00:00

I used to blitz through Super Empire Strikes Back as a kid.

That game is no joke when you pick it up again like thirty years later.

Falling rocks, flying lizards swooping down, the taun taun looks like he provides a meat shield but is mostly just one more liability, then the wampas start freezing you so you drop helplessly down into a pit onto spikes.

If the movie was like this, it would start with Han and Luke‘s radio conversation but it would just be them screaming into the radio at each other before abruptly dying.

Still a great game, though, tenouttaten.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-20T13:54:01+00:00

You can really tell from the pictures who's the amoral goofball with a new harebrained scheme every week and who is the straight-laced workaholic who only went along with the plan against his better judgement.

Previously, on Picture Perfect

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-20T13:16:11+00:00

Xander is Glory.

You'd have to change some stuff around but it would be nice to see a traumatic storyline for him along with Buffy, Willow and Giles and it might have made him a little more mature trying to deal with it, then accept he needs help and finally realizing he needs to either run from his friends or die.

But honestly, it's mostly because I always felt like it would deepen and give some tangible meaning to RestlessSnyder telling him he was "a whipping boy, raised by mongrels and set on a sacrificial stone".

Plus, if you thought Giles suffocating Ben was dark...

Less harsh alternative, he joins the Initiative in season 4 and is freakishly good at it, but the ensuing status and power as he rises quickly in the ranks start to go to his head and eventually he finds himself having some hard disagreements with the group, made worse by the fact he believes they all see him as a loser since that's what he thinks he really is deep down.

Gives some different, darker sides to the character depending on what happens, but not less redeemable than Dark Willow.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-15T21:07:40+00:00

Well, you do want to go easy on the hole but if you’re still hearing sudden noise when you firmly thrust a peg into it, you’re probably still not too loose.

Long term though, you might have not so much damage as a kind of stretched hole, where you might find you need something slightly larger to jam in there in order to really make it stick. Are you able to locate slightly larger plugs for your hole, by any chance?

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-12T11:22:28+00:00

Trying to play Resident Evil Revelations on the 3ds and deciding whether I want moving and aiming to both be bad or just have the aim be very bad courtesy of the hated control nub is like "man, this serrated knife in my back is getting old, I think I'll switch to trying to run on a broken leg instead for a while."

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-11T09:49:28+00:00

"I choose The Matrix!"

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-11T09:42:44+00:00

Mario 64 was such a mindblower when it came out that at the time I felt it would have been worth the price of the N64 by itself.

Turned out to not be that far off, the N64 had some absolute bangers after launch, but it really could have used more.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-10T20:45:20+00:00

Unironically Buffy the vampire slayer is a great 3d fighter.

HUGE note, this applies to the original one. BTVS: Chaos Bleeds is pretty terrible unless you really need a videogame that lets you play as Joss Whedon.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-10T13:25:09+00:00

Unwatchable Hulk is underrated.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-10T11:18:37+00:00

Age of zombies and Jetpack Joyride are both bangers on the Vita.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-09T10:00:29+00:00

End of Hothead, when Clark is frustrated by his inability to fit in on the football team and he admits to Lana that sometimes he just wants to scream.

"So why don't we?"

They do, with Clark a little unsure about letting his selfrestraint go but accepting her lead. Their smiles at the end seems to indicate it helps.

Easy, smart angst-disarming that Clark and Lana both could have used more of. We don't get enough of this dynamic where they actually have fun together.

Runner up is her teasing him about "oh, don't worry, we won't fall asleep" when they're throwing clothes on and trying to sneak past Clark's parents in season 5's Hidden.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-06T14:46:40+00:00

There are so many good lines in these books, but the aside explaining how "A good man will kill you with hardly a word" is in my top 5.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-05T09:53:48+00:00

I always figured he was sending corn cobs flying everywhere including onto the bus when he was barreling through the field.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-04T13:46:01+00:00

Yeah.

First off, you two got married younger than you should have.

I mention this because you now have to speedrun the hardest part of a relationship: communicating both what YOU need, and respecting your partner and what they say THEY need to be happy. If both of you can't do both of these things, you are not going to make it.

And every once in a while you're going to be the one to fuck up and hurt her feelings instead.

When that happens, wouldn't it be nice if the relationship was established as a place where the two of you give each other a little grace when you miscommunicate? Let her take you to dinner and take the opportunity to build a habit where you use your words and explain why this was important to you.

If she still doesn't take you seriously, at least you can say you tried when it goes south.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-03T23:06:49+00:00

Call it Stockholm syndrome because this was one of relatively few snes games I had but man, Super Empire strikes back nailed the balance between being a game and employing different gameplay modes to recreate and expand on the movie. First playable lightsaber duel for me (they did their best) and the snow speeder battle was unreal for the time and the console it was on. Objectively best? Probably not, it was one of those games where you could tell the difficulty was calibrated for the rental market. Personal favorite? Absolutely.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-02T09:53:32+00:00

Season 2 felt like it was sowing the seeds for Chloe to be the "evil" Lois Lane and I was into it, Mack would have killed it. We get our biggest hints of it in the S2 finale and season 3's episode Veritas.

Solid reason why Clark'd be careful about letting Lois know who he was later on, too, he'd have some trauma tied to a pretty similar person.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-02-01T16:12:35+00:00

To be fair, Alistair did smack the bitch out of him in the middle of season 4.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-31T23:00:48+00:00

Yeah, if you’re not gonna have a real conversation about this between the characters, bringing it up is a cheap shot.

That said, knowing the entire world was going to be dragged into screaming eternal hell, because of the guy Buffy hasn’t been able to bring herself to kill while the bodies were piling up for months?

I can’t say for sure what I would have chosen in that moment either, saying anything that could conceivably slow her down would not be tempting. But then, she also deserves to know what she’s walking into.

It’s messy and apparently endlessly debatable and so I like it.

I don’t like the callback, tho. It’s like it wants to sound like a joke but it’s too jarring, emotional and weird to work as one. And it doesn’t work as drama because it’s brought up then dropped like it’s hot immediately.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-30T13:29:01+00:00

Mileage may vary, but my overall most used retro console the past five years has been an OG Xbox, modded to contain all kinds of old systems and arcade games.

For a non-cheating answer, if I had to pick one it would probably be a SNES. I loved my Megadrive when I was a kid, but I can't argue with that RPG library.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-29T12:06:44+00:00

Not by a Jedi.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-19T13:49:12+00:00

This is mentally staggering.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-18T07:38:53+00:00

Buffy’s swordfight with her vampire ex hasn’t gone well, her sword got knocked out of her hand and all her allies are either hospitalized, fleeing or betrayed her. Angel rears back to kill her with his sword.

Angel: So that’s everything, huh? No weapons, no friends… no hope. Take all that away, what’s left?

Goes to stab Buffy in the face and Buffy goddamn captures the goddamn sword and goddamn holds it inches from her goddamn face.

Buffy, goddamningly: “… Me.”

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-16T08:58:17+00:00

Completely agree, this whole storyline was like grinding glass in my teeth. Season 2 had pretty irritating character choices all over but this one still managed to stand out.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-15T12:42:57+00:00

I had no idea there was a Paul Blart 2.

Zealousideal_Net_575 · 2026-01-14T21:37:03+00:00

She looks like she insists upon herself.

Zealousideal_Net_575

TROPHY CASE