The years really do fly by. Happy 20th, Shadow the Hedgehog.

It's nice that the public reception surrounding this game's tone has cooled down and we can all see it with more level heads. Shadow the Hedgehog 2005 has a MUCH more interesting narrative than Shadow Generations, and through that lens, it has far more value than many of us thought back in the day.

The new art is bonkers good, Sam. 👍

I've been looking at that. Seems promising and might fit the bill.

The Swans Live Rope album "review" I posted on SputnikMusic last year is probably my favorite piece of music writing I've ever published in my 15+ years in the field. It's really an essay about what live albums accomplish and how they artistically compare to actually seeing an act in concert.

I don't know how many people would read a blog, but I talk a lot about music on Bluesky, where word and character bandwidth is at a severe limit. I've recently criticized music communities very harshly, so I'd like to be part of the solution. A more prose-focused music criticism blog could be cool.

"Bleats" sounds way better. I hate the term "skeets" so much, man. It sounds like something you'd see in a Borderlands game, something that Randy Pitchford would think is soooo funny.

Honestly thought you'd say Donkey Kong, but Sonic is admittedly my favorite series, so it checks out.

I still remember the Persona 4 stream and I'm so happy you remember it too, because that's essentially how we met and became friends. Thank you so much for this.

You know those posts you see every now and then about how you should "experience [insert media] yourself instead of parroting what a video essayist says about it?" These communities totally skipped class on that. They'd rather complain about a Pitchfork or Fantano take than actually listen to music.

I mean, Journey got nominated for a Grammy before games music even had a dedicated category, so I can't say Wintory is that new to this happening.