The other day we saw a coop game on sale and decided to get it. My partner and my son aren’t fans, but I think it is just challenging enough for pick up and play.

Snow Bros. Wonderland is the game. An attempted reboot of the single screen platformer by TOAPLAN.

This game is hampered by input lag and frustrating platforming, nobody else wants to finish it, but I will because now I’m so pissed off at it that I need to rage-complete it.

It is the Mark Carney speech from the WEF meeting on 2026-01-20

The transcript is here https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-by-mark-carney-prime-minister-of-canada/

That was cool. I didn’t know about the final digit in the score thing. Now I want to play Gunbird 2 before heading to work…

I liked Bionic Commando, even the 2009 version (Mike Patton doing the voice helped). The 2 Rearmed entries were good couch coop fun.

Nice work. I didn’t get 100% yet. I went back to play the first Prime. I’m with you opinion-wise.

Arte is full of surprises, and there are dozens of apps for it. I use the Kodi plugin on my rpi and it also works with yt-dlp.

I was a latecomer to the Switch. Those vouchers never seemed like a good deal. I feel like they’re a trap for newcomers and a way to make sure first-party games stay at the top of the most-sold list.

When I saw the voucher offer for the first time, I thought to myself: “I’ll do that when I want to buy some Nintendo games like Mario Kart or Metroid.”

Nope.

Not once.

In my region most of the games on the list are 49.99 so a 99.99 voucher for two isn’t worth it. I could save a little if I bought the newest games on the list, but they are cheaper in the brick-and-mortar shops but a couple Euros.

Finished a first playthrough of Metroid Prime 4. Now I’ll get back to shmupping… I see some things on sale that I want but I can’t decide.

The Toaplan collections are 30% off. Gradius Origins -50%. ZOE Begone -30%… Hard to choose.

Pis Jean Leloup aussi et Beau Dommage ou Harmonium, Malajube… Pierre Lapointe, Jamil (l’album Pitié pour les femmes)

Les Cowboys sont parmis mes artistes préférés. Je pleurs un peu quand je les écoute maintenant.

Y’a Mes Aïeux et Les Colocs qui sont bien. Marie Annick Lépine aussi.

I’m about to finish Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It was a gift I wasn’t expecting and I really enjoyed it. I will play it again but it makes me want to play the first Prime again, so that’s my plan once I’m done with Beyond.

I’ll probably buy a few of the games that are on sale too: Zoe Begone could be good, or the Toaplan Collections. I have a stack of unfinished games, which is always good to have.

Hey. Metroid Prime 4 was under the tree for me. Not sure why people are eager to hate it. It isn’t as good as Super Metroid or even the first Prime, but after the development hell it went through I’m surprised how well it turned out!

Looks great, plays great (I still have Switch 1), and has an amazing soundtrack. The bosses are great too. Is it like a short Zelda game? A little. I don’t care, I’m just happy to have more Metroid.

Ça existe…

https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/gp/aw/d/B0CTKRKC4W

Did they make it a gacha game?

The author only lists RayCrisis and Galaga (and the Capcom Arcade Stadium)

Getting stuff ready for that holiday over here too. In between I’m browsing year-end best-of lists and tricking my kid into watching films that he says he doesn’t want to watch. He likes cartoons, but if I can get him about 10 minutes into a live action film he’s the one who doesn’t want it turned off. Last night we watched the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch and he nearly choked laughing.

Cool. I’d play it if it ever goes on sale.

Alex Karp and Peter Thiel are odd and dangerous folks to do business with.

I live in France. One thing that comes to mind is hesitancy to report it due to parents not taking their children to hospital.

The other thing is that there is a lot of pressure put on children starting in middle school.

I teach at a business school and the students tell it like this:

• growing up their parents sign them up for extra curriculars, usually 2 days a week;
• starting middle school, they must cope with the joys of adolescence on top of extracurriculars and teachers telling them that the brevet is the most important thing ever;
• the brevet is a test that helps determine their parcours, or education path;
• getting into a good high school is very important for some students;
• once arriving in high school they begin to prep for the final exams, the baccalauréat (the Bac);
• there is a very poorly designed thing called Parcoursup that determines post-secondary education choices…

Basically, students are told again and again that everything they do is the most important thing.

Some of my students are still so traumatized that they cry if they get below 75% (15/20). To underline how things have changed, in 2006 (when I moved to France) students used to applaud each other for getting higher than 60% (12/20) but now everything is ranked. Add in hormones and social media and anxiety… Lots of burn out and depression.

I still haven’t played Deathsmiles despite hearing about it at least once a week since I discovered the joy of shmupping.

(Side note: I got my first true 1cc yesterday. Yay me! I say true because some games let you change the number of extends.)

This weekend we’re finally replacing a dresser that literally fell to pieces. I’m pretty happy that my socks will get a new home.

I’m also making a list of blogs that I plan on supporting over ko-fi or liberapay because I think a lot of bloggers deserve a tip from time to time.