Today's Document
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Sade Olutola
No title available
izzy's playlists!
Noah Kahan
Origami Around
if i look back, i am lost
Stranger Things
pixel skylines
★
The Stonewall Inn
Show & Tell
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Misplaced Lens Cap
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mike Driver
No title available
oozey mess
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from India
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Kuwait
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Japan
seen from France
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seen from France
seen from Ecuador
@squareblind
“Gibberish about shells” – a life spent ‘Mario Karting’
By Neil Merrett A barely two-minute monologue by UK comedian and performer Johnny White Really Really captures the absurdity and significance of Mario Kart as a cultural currency in millions of lives In a summer where it can feel too hot to want to do anything, it’s important to be reminded – or perhaps forced – to do something, or be somewhere with someone. This is not to say there isn’t…
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The Ninja Turtles ‘do a Hades’ – forging modern mythologies in videogames
By Neil Merrett Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate, developed by Super Evil Megacorp, released on Nintendo Switch in 2024 & Hades 2, developed by Supergiant Games, released on Nintendo switch 2 in 2025 The ancient myths of Greek legend and the modern storytelling of American comic books prove an equally strong basis for game worlds seeking to talk about power, hubris and explosive…
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Death as both concept and ‘final boss’ in Vampire Crawlers
By Neil Merrett Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors, released on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, developed by Poncle While ‘death’ is not officially a final boss or task in the game, Vampire Crawlers’ focus around deck building and power building aims to let the player play around with outrunning the game and life’s one inevitability Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from…
Putting your feet up in a digital world can offer its own form of therapy for a player in need of some real-world perspective and downtime......
Vampire Crawlers: a sequel seeking to shift perspective
By Neil Merrett Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors, released on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, developed by Poncle Three years after the original Vampire Survivors built a uniquely intense 2D demon slaying experience, a sequel seemingly shifting to 3D seeks to take a very different approach to game design The release and success of Super Mario 64 in the mid-1990s seemed to…
What we leave behind - a player's legacy in Death Stranding 2’s digital world
By Neil Merrett Death Stranding 2, released on PlayStation 5 in 2025, developed by Kojima Productions & Death Stranding, released on PS4 in 2019, developed by Kojima Productions The 2025 sequel to the highly unique sci-fi future delivery and survival simulator poses interesting questions via its partially shared world about our responsibility to other gamers we may never meet Death Stranding 2…
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – the shared visual artistry of cartoon and game design
By Neil Merrett The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, released in cinemas in 2026, distributed by Universal Pictures While computer generated and hand drawn animation were once classified as distinct and separate artforms, digital technologies are now essential to the world of animation. It is no coincidence that this shift has occurred alongside a similar visual development in the design and style of…
Does Tron work as an actual videogame? 44 years of ‘fighting for the user’
By Neil Merrett Tron: Catalyst, released on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, developed by Bithell Games The Tron series has long played around with the idea of players becoming lost in videogames and digital worlds. Yet beyond its fanciful and stylistically retro world of neon super soldiers keeping out of our screens, it isn’t a million miles from conveying the complexity of our current real-world…
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A few thoughts on Marvel's Midnight Suns and the evolution of superhero games to talk about the human fallibility beyond the powers, all while married to a turn-based, deck builder.
Four Player Games Season – multiplayer ‘Avenging’ in a wireless era
By Neil Merrett The move to wireless controllers and online gaming has changed the game in terms of the number of opportunities for multiplayer gaming, whether in a living room or with individuals around the world Within the usually colourful world of superheroes and villains, what does it take to be considered an ‘Avenger’? The simplest answer is getting together a group of super-powered or…
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Four player games season – Companionship in the ‘multi tap’ era
By Neil Merrett Even with the exciting development of blockbuster CD-based consoles as the ‘90s progressed, gamers would still need to invest in a four-player multi tap adaptor in the hope of engaging in the exotic spectacle of four player gaming By the mid-1990s, the majority of games consoles were provided with just two controller ports . This was perhaps the clearest reflection of an…
Four player games season – the lonely Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle of the 1990s
By Neil Merrett Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, released on PlayStation 4 in 2022, published by Konami When the initial Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles game were released on consoles, it was seemingly not possible to let four players collectively work together as part of an reptile superhero team. However, the intervening decades have seen the concept of multiplayer games…
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Stranger Things 3: The Game – 16-bit-style adventures in a virtual Hawkins
By Neil Merrett Stranger Things 3: The Game, released on Nintendo Switch in 2019, developed by BonusXP A 2019 attempt to build a virtual Hawkins is a charming yet simplistic attempt to build a virtual Hawkins for the player to play hero in. Yet as the source show drew to an end at the tail end of 2025, the game’s focus on style over narrative or substance was perhaps a fitting digital…
The Year in Squareblind 2025: July – December
By Neil Merrett For the last six months of 2025, Squareblind looked to embrace the concept of a more open-world Mario Kart, while also contemplating the geopolitical significance of a nation state owning gaming brands such as the Sims and EA Sports FC game series – previously known as FIFA. July One of the standout moments from Nintendo unveiling its Switch 2 console in January was the…
The Year in Squareblind 2025: Jan – June
By Neil Merrett The first part of our look back at the blog’s coverage this year looks at how the Amiga was able to handle a tie-in video game for a 1990s environmental superhero, and some of the real world historical lessons that we might take from real time strategy titles. January Squareblind’s coverage of 2025 began with a look at the initial reaction to the unveiling of Nintendo’s latest…
From Breakout to Ball X Pit – further gamifying a digital world
By Neil Merrett Ball X Pit, released on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, developed by Kenny Sun and Friends As the availability of portable computing devices and apps continues to blur the lines between real world interaction and videogames, the appeal of gamification is harder to ignore as a means of motivation in our lives. The concept of gamification posits the idea that some of the core risk and…
A year in the life - levelling up a gamer in the real world
By Neil Merrett It might be easier to understand and measure our progress in life if we could just have a nice numerical improvement system, afforded by videogames. A nice birthday might just have to serve the same purpose instead. The concept of ‘levelling up’ mechanics in games has evolved over decades to try and give players a clear and ordered sense that they might be adapting, learning…
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