By Ronald Gordon

Hello and welcome once again to the Roundup! Much has happened regarding news both inside and outside of the Circle, most notably being our successful August 16th Charity Livestream. Review-wise, we have what life is like as the perfect shape in To a T, a Switch remake of a classic DS farming game, Totilo’s coverage of a naughty case of copyright infringement, 90’s cult classic Hot Shot Golf revived once again, Metal Gear maniac Tony Polanco’s thoughts on Snake Eater Delta, Harold Goldberg’s New York Times reviews of Sword of the Sea, and so much more! 

To start us off, Theresa Afful speaks volumes on Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, a remake of a classic cozy title from the SNES days. Simulation games are the pinnacle of games that’ll put you at ease, and in the desperate search for more routes to escape life’s pressures, there may be no better place to look than the past. Luckily, there are developers that think in this same way, choosing to revitalize older titles to be bigger and better than they were before. Theresa experiences the joys of one such remake, relating her thoughts as she writes, “The artwork is very cute and its anime nature fits the genre. The design and artwork of the game have come a long way from how it was in Harvest Moon DS: Grand Bazaar which was released over 16 years ago. There have been many noticeable changes to the game’s artwork  and design over the years. One of them being the grass. In the Harvest Moon DS edition the grass remained still and didn’t stand out as much (although breeze moved the tree branches). In the remade Grand Bazaar, the grass is much brighter and moves along with the wind which stands out a lot and gives me a feeling of reality.”

Jatin Gundara talks about the perplexing puzzles within Kaizen: A Factory Story, a fun, albeit sometimes monotonous, puzzler. Technology is complex, and when Jatin places more than a few moving parts that can work together, it’s back to the drawing board, especially when, say, a robot, which has many parts. Luckily, games like Kaizen are there to make the process of crafting complex things feel a lot smoother, and a lot more enjoyable more often than not. Despite this, Jatin says the game became a bit infuriating after some playtime, stating “I spent enough time struggling with solving these manufacturing problems to confidently say that Kaizen certainly isn’t for everyone. I found that on the more difficult tasks, it became frustrating trying to find a solution as there were many times where I could assemble the first part of a product only then realizing that it was impossible to complete it with the way I had arranged things. There were many instances where I had to scrap all my progress due to the fact that it became incredibly difficult to simply tweak a part of the timeline (due to the physical aspect of the tools placed on the grid). This aspect of trial and error isn’t necessarily a flaw in the gameplay, but it detracts from the flow of problem-solving.”

The ever-talented Jade Entien is a seasoned horror veteran, and yet the terrifying sights within Luto put them into the fetal position. Their review starts with praise for the developer, stating, “As a debut title, Luto is an excellent introduction to what the Broken Bird Games development team is capable of. Within the first hour of gameplay, I was flinching from my screen, anticipating the next terror. Luto isn’t just a story; it’s an experience.” Broken Bird Games refused to pull any punches in Luto, terrifying players with nearly inescapable hauntings that all come from the protagonist’s own mind. Stuck within the feelings of dread and vulnerability, Jade recounts their thoughts on their playthrough, writing, “‘Just run through, it’ll be over within seconds,’ I told myself, my finger on my left tab ready to run. Suddenly, a ghost-like figure covered in a white bed sheet pursued me down the hallway. I paused the game, shivering as I fought back tears. ‘WHY DO THEY DO THIS?’ I cried before unpausing and continuing, with my back turned to the ghost, I started to run. I don’t like ghosts OR being chased in horror games because, unlike in horror movies, this feels real.”

Fighting games and Nintendo consoles are two of Isaac Espinosa’s favorite facets of gaming, so you can believe him when he says that SF6 is surprisingly playable on the Switch 2, with some caveats of course. After giving some context on Street Fighter as a whole, and relating the fact that Street Fighter 6 has already been out for two years, Isaac cuts straight to the meat of the matter as he states, “While not as graphically brilliant as the PS5 or PS5 Pro, Switch 2 still runs this battler like a dream, moving at a clean 60 FPS throughout most matches, with no noticeable instances of flicker in between.” Anyone within the fighting games sphere will tell you: Frames are everything at higher levels of play, and being able to run a high octane fighter like SF6 at a consistent 60 FPS is a stellar achievement of Nintendo’s newest console. Yet another add on to the Switch 2’s capabilities is staying consistent throughout crossplay, and Isaac says, “The game is available as cross play with these other systems, an impressive feat for Capcom and Nintendo. I would consistently run games against a friend of mine that ran SF6 on PC, and neither of us had any connection issues or instances of rollback making us teleport around. Even when not docked, Switch 2 manages to run at a consistent 60 FPS (while, of course, making graphical shortcuts to make this happen).”

Aeth Finch covers a strange game called To a T, all about living as the perfect shape. While it may be a new and bizarre concept, To a T comes from the familiar mind of Keita Takahashi, the same director as the world renowned game of rolling Katamari Damacy, which means it’ll bring a beautiful narrative behind whacky antics. Aeth references this staple of Takahashi’s works, writing, “In To a T, you play as Teen, a character whose arms are locked into a T-shape. The game tells a coming-of-age story with the character accepting joy in the unexpected and unconventional. The character has a physical disability of not being able to adjust their arms, and is forced to go throughout daily life – school, home life, and social awkwardness – without the ease everyone else has of being able to move their arms with full motion. T is bullied for being different, or is looked at with a mix of curiosity and sympathy.” Behind its curious gameplay mechanics, To a T is a great example of how life features turmoil, and turmoil can be overcome, especially when you’re in the most perfect shape there is. Aeth walks away from the game with one lesson in mind, stating “In the end, To a T is mainly about being in someone else’s shoes, and the experience that comes within that. Seeing games like these about a disability can make those who are abled want to help out those who are disabled even more.”

Founder Harold Goldberg wrote about the brilliance of Diablo II for The New York Times to commemorate the game’s 25th anniversary. Diablo II set the bar for RPG and was the first to add skill trees as a feature. For a touch of more modern brilliance, he wrote about Sword of the Sea, created by some of the makers of beloved indie Journey. Harold writes, “Sand moves as if it were the sea, swirling, undulating and roiling like enchanted Atlantic storms. In the majestic game Sword of the Sea, which offers no audio dialogue and minimal readable text, it’s moving from the very beginning. A glowing blue whirlpool fills the screen and swirls hypnotically.”

Stephen Totilo reports on a strange situation: Naughty Dog is fighting a legal battle against an ironically named copycat company. Trademarks are a tricky thing, sometimes a company can exist for years before they realize their trademark is being utilized for someone else’s gain. In the case of Sony’s award winning developer Naughty Dog, they’ve found themselves knee deep in legal battles against a mobile game developer going by Naughty Cat, a not so subtle trademark encroaching title. Stephen references Sony’s claims, writing, “‘The first, dominant element of the two marks, NAUGHTY, is identical,’ stated a claim from Sony Interactive Entertainment that was filed in early June to the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.” While it may be quite a leap to associate PlayStation dev Naughty Dog with mobile game dev Naughty Cat, it’s an even larger leap to overlook the glaring similarities between the names. Although reports on if things will move towards a trial in the future are scarce, it’s almost satirical to see both companies fighting like cats and dogs.  

What a thrill! Tony Polanco gets to gush about the amazing Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and how it serves as a beautiful remaster to a classic masterpiece. After being originally skeptical of the announcement of MGS3: Snake Eater, Tony swallows his doubts with pride, expressing his enjoyment as he writes, “I initially balked at the idea of an MGS3 remake, fearing that Konami would change too much of what made me fall in love with the original. Even something in the vein of the fantastic Resident Evil 4 Remake wouldn’t be acceptable. Again, this is my all-time favorite title, and any changes could have potentially ruined the game for me. But now that I’ve completed it, I can say that my fears were unfounded.” Any unseasoned fan of the Metal Gear Solid franchise can rejoice in knowing that MGS Delta is veteran approved, with Tony singing its praises at the end of his article stating, “Konami pulled out all the stops with this release, and as a long-time fan of this game and franchise, I couldn’t be happier with the overall package. Right now, this is the definitive way to play Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s worth your time to try it out to see why this game is so highly regarded. It’s a thrill!”

Giovanni Colantonio, who’s now writing for Polygon, brings news of a blast from PlayStation’s past, the ever changing sports staple that is Hot Shot Golf. Despite knowing that he would be one of the few that is actually interested in the game’s release, Giovanni still takes the time to explain that Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots, isn’t actually a brand new IP, but a revival of a cult classic from the PS1 era. He offers the reader a brief history of the game as he writes, “It was developed by Camelot, the studio behind Nintendo’s Mario Golf series, and published by Sony as a first-party PlayStation release. A sequel followed a few years later, but development moved to Clap Hanz. That studio would slowly hammer out the series’ identity over two decades, doubling down on its precise golfing and guiding the series toward an anime art style. That’s important to know, because your idea of what a Hot Shots Golf game actually is can be completely different depending on where you came into it.” If you, much like myself, had never even heard of Hot Shot Golf before this, Giovanni offers you valuable nuggets of context to understand just how important this series is to golf games as a whole. 

Beyond The Circle

Silksong crashed the Steam store page upon release, blowing the previous Day One sales of 2025 out of the water, thanks to its ardent fans. Hollow Knight fans are some of the most dedicated out there, keeping a consistent amount of hype around Silksong since its announcement back in 2019. Finally, with time and effort, its release shows exactly how rabid the fans are, as even Steam, the staple marketplace for PC games, had potential buyers stuck on the checkout screen from the sheer volume of people purchasing the game. Luckily, the page is back up and every Steam user can now once again seamlessly purchase one of the most anticipated games of 2025, and possibly one of the most anticipated indie games ever made!

Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member and Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.

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