Category: Retrospective

Thoughts on a studio closure – Zachtronics and their legacy

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I’m Kinglink.  Let’s take a break. My channel for the last year has been Game Pass reviews, and Humble Choice reviews, and I’m not planning a major change, but something happened.  About a month ago I saw an article that shook me.  I’m not going to drag it out, it’s probably in the title and on screen, Zachtronics is shutting down. 

Zachtronics is probably not well known as a studio, but it’s a game studio I love, perhaps more than any other, and that includes RGG, who makes the Yakuza games.  Zachtronics is the studio that makes me feel seen, it’s a studio that makes games specifically for me, and while there are other games that I might be in the minority opinion on like Lawn Mowing Simulator, Zachtronics is just different. 

So with their closing, I figured I would try to eulogize them, similar to Kongregate, which is still running so eulogies are a relative term, but I’m not sure I can.  I could make this a long dive into who they are, but instead, I’d rather spend the time telling you about Zachtronics and getting you to check out their games.  

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Sonic 2 Retrospective Review – When Sonic becomes American

Kinglink
The following is a script for the youtube video below.  Feel free to read or watch the video as you prefer.

Hello, I’m Kinglink and it’s finally time to talk about Sonic 2. This game was made by Sonic Team and published by Sega, but that’s not the whole story. We are going to get there though.

So with the original Sonic the Hedgehog game out of the way, I wanted to immediately talk about Sonic 2 for a few reasons. I think in a lot of ways this is THE game in the franchise that defined what Sonic was. There are no massive changes here, but there are quite a few important changes for the series, such as the addition of the spin dash, but we get there as well.

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Overload Retrospective – Bringing back Descent once more

Kinglink
Played on Windows
Also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, and macOS.

In 1994, Descent came out, and it was unlike most games at the time as the industry was slowly moving towards 3d shooters in the wake of Doom’s success. However, Descent made a name for itself as a game where not only were you able to shoot 3d enemies, you were also able to move and look in all three directions but you were able to rotate your ship around on any axis, allowing you to fully explore the mines in which you’ve found yourself in.

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