claire

So i went to the Dentist for the First Time in like Two Decades?? cause i thought i chipped a Tooth on a Nacho, and the Dentist was all like "Jen your Teeth are Super Scrunkled" and zey Showed me a Picture and i was like "Huh Yeah i guess they Are" and Long Story Short i have Braces now

City Connection's latest emulated Saturn reissue has been announced: Assault Suits Leynos 2, Masaya's Japan-only sequel to their influential side-scrolling mecha action games Assault Suits Leynos (Target Earth) and Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator) One of the comments I saw in reaction to this announcement is that "it's the best hardcore 2D mecha action game ever made, right until the fighting starts" and while I think that's overstating just how unfun it actually is, it definitely tries to split the difference between the previous two games and instead embodies the worst elements of both, and it strikes me as practically unfinished.

(It was also a product of a completely different team than the prior games; the people behind those games split to form their own studio, and their first game was Front Mission: Gun Hazard aka Valken-but-Square-owns-it.)

It'll be out on PC/PS/XB/Switch next year, and aside from the basic emulator functionality—save states, rewind, etc—it'll include some simple tweaks like an extra durability toggle and hint displays for the missions, but they're not going all-out like they did with Batsugun.

That said, they are going to the effort of translating it for the first time, which they decided not to mention in their announce but instead left to a random dev to tease on twxtter; City Connection has a very flaky history with teasing but not delivering localisations of their vintage reissues, so it's nice to have this hard-confirmed right away:

City Connection's locked down a release date for Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute: it'll be out on April 25 in Japan, and it's getting a couple of different physical packages for PS5 and Switch—a standard physical version that comes with a sticker (¥3850), and a special-edition box that comes with an official fan book, an OST with the music from both Leynos games and another reversible jacket with illustrations from 4 as-yet-unidentified guest designers (¥7150). There's also a bunch of retailer tchotchkes that I don't care to list, including the customary Famitsu DX mega-set with a big tacky crystal whatever. (The standard digital release is priced at ¥2980.)

Leynos 2's a very sloppy game and I don't know that it's going to be able to withstand the added performance hit inherent to City Connection's emulator, but I'm still glad the series has some sort of momentum... the Leynos remake's nearly a decade old, after all.

I'm on the lookout for your games to stream, review & maybe interview you to feature on my queer games project, Digital Diversity.

If you're interested, read on
Sharing very much appreciated

Digital Diversity is about spotlighting the work of queer game devs that don't get attention from mainstream media, I've been running the project since 2018 and I like to think it's made a difference.

Sharing your stories, and hearing your experiences firsthand has always been the goal. Especially in a world that undervalues queer rep of every kind.

The queer stories we see in games bring validation & affirmation to many, they deserve to be seen 💜

If you're queer & you have a game to share, be they queer in theme or otherwise fill in the form below to express your interest in taking part:

Game submission form

I'm planning to start things up in the new year, with regular streams and interviews. So please step up and help me share your stories.