Zombie apocalypses make me care about Sonic

 I have never actually had much interest in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Most of my knowledge of platforming games comes from my wife and son and they prefer Mario. However, when I saw that Humble Bundle had a Sonic comic book bundle, I was interested enough to pick it up.

You see, one thing that I do know is that Sonic the Hedgehog had the longest running comic book based on a video game. Archie Comics ran their title for twenty-four years. And I had heard about this because the series developed both a big fan base and a lot of legal issues. Quite frankly, I suspect that reading about all the behind-the-scenes events might be more entertaining for me than the actual comic book.

And here's the kicker. The bundle (and I knew this going in) is a completely different series produced by IDW. However, I felt it would be still worth my while because I knew the older series would influence the newer one (I believe it even has some of the same creative staff) and IDW has a pretty good track record with IPs.

One thing that was very clear, albeit not remotely surprising, is that Sonic has a lot more personality than Mario lol I think that was Sonic's selling point from the get-go, that he had more attitude than Mario. My family loves Mario games. As the RPGer, I played though Super Mario RPG partially for my family’s entertainment (I was entertained too) and it was good fun. However, Mario is clearly what Scott McCloud referred to in Understanding Comics as a mask, a blank slate we can project ourselves onto. (Works even better as a concept in video games than comic books) Having character works against the purpose of Mario.

Also, as someone who only knew about Sonic and Tails and Knuckles and Shadow (and some of them only thanks to movie trailers), I had no idea how ridiculously big the Sonic cast was lol

The bundle's graphic novels largely consist of the first two story arcs for IDW's version of the comic book. And, boy, are they the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

spoilers

The first arc was about Sonic and his friends thwarting a big bad who was trying to gather the setting's McGuffins, the chaos emeralds so thru can  conquer the world. It was boilerplate action storyline and I would not be surprised if it was an adaptation of a video game and I just didn't know it. Amusing but forgettable.

The second, longer story arc was the Metal Virus Saga, a zombie apocalypse. Now, instead of dying, the cute critters of Sonic's world were getting coated with metal. Apart from that, pure zombie apocalypse. For an all ages comic book, it was surprisingly dark and emotionally mature about the crisis.

Pretty much right off the bat, Sonic gets infected. He can fight it off with his hyper metabolism but it is a gradually losing battle. Issue after issue of Sonic trying to save the world while he can't save himself. Might not be deep but it definitely drives tension and emotional weight.

The MVP for the arc goes to Cream, a bunny rabbit who turns out to actually be from the games and who feels like a replacement for Tails when they wanted to age him up.  (Total guess on my part)  While introduced as a beacon of optimism, she has to watch her family succumb to the plague as she struggles to help the survivors. Good job,IDW, getting me emotionally invested in a character.

The single scene that stayed with me was a nameless infected civilian sneaking into the resistance shelter because they didn't want to be alone when they, for all intents and purposes, died. And, yes, it went horribly wrong. It was a surprsingly emotional scene for an all ages work.

I haven’t become a Sonic fan from this experience. However, I was surprised at how good the Metal Virus Saga was. 

Interesting ideas don’t always lead to satisfying Sudoku

I let Dicember be an excuse to go through my Roll and Write files and look for odds and ends. That’s how I ended up playing Dicedoku.

Yeah, it’s a Sudoku as a dice game. It’s not even the first time I’ve seen that (we will get back to that)

Like other games like it, it uses two by three boxes to form the collection of grids because you are only using six numbers. And it’s a two X three grid of those boxes so it’s a six by six larger grid.

And, yeah, if that doesn’t make sense, it will with one glance at the board.  

Here’s the clever bit. Each turn, five dice get rolled. You use one of them to select a Tetris shape. Then, you make that shape with the other four numbers and put that number-shape into the grid.

I’ve seen similar mechanics. Mosaix, which is from 2009, has a similar idea. But I can’t think of seeing this exact mechanic before. And I do think it is interesting. 

Unfortunately, I found the actual game to be mildly annoying and I kept wishing the mechanic had been put to a more interesting use. It wasn’t the worst game I learned for Dicember 2024 but I can’t say I want to play it more.

A year or so ago, I learned Sudoku Rush, which is speed sudoku. The idea isn’t as clever but the execution is more fun. The fact that I can say that isn’t good for Diceduko.

Diceduko has an interesting core mechanic but applying to Sudoku just makes me want to do regular Sudoku puzzles.

Does Orchard:Recipes do enough?

 Orchard was a game that revised my ideas about what you could do with nine cards. While I had played multiple tile-laying games that had only eighteen cards, I felt nine cards wouldn’t leave enough decisions. But Orchard did it.

And Grove took that formula and elevated it. And a major way that it did it was to add Sprawlopolis-style goals with scoring targets. And while I did still play Orchard, I liked Grove more.

Orchard:Recipes is an expansion that adds those goals to Orchard.

Truth to tell, the biggest effect Orchard:Recipes had me was appreciate other elements of Grove (and later Forage when I learned that game) Mind you, I do like having a clear win-lose condition in solitaire games because it creates a clear goal beyond ‘beat your own score’ or ‘just do this activity’ So Orchard:Recipes does improve the game for me.

Grove has glades, which are effectively blank squares. They add a lot of flexibility to your ability to place tiles. They make the game sort of easier but also more interesting.

In comparison, Orchard is a lot less forgiving. Every square has a type of tree and that makes placement a lot more restrictive. Having a way to get bonus points and a point goal doesn’t change that.

I am glad I made and tried Orchard:Recipes. However, I still prefer Grove (and Forage)

The Magnus Archives - my choice of horror for housework

The Magnus Archives is a horror podcast that I have been listening to off and on for the last few months. I only listen to podcasts when I'm doing something else. A quote that has stuck with me from My Brother, My Brother and Me is that podcasts are the mustard of life. They add some spice but you don't eat them by themselves.

So, the Magnus Archives are for cooking and cleaning. I add cosmic horror to folding the laundry.

The framework is that we are listening to recorded statements from the archives of the Magnus Institute, a paranormal research center in London. The primary voice actor and creator of the series is a guy called Jonathan Sims, who has a voice like Vincent Price after one too many cups of coffee. He named his character after himself, which had to be creepy at times.

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Initially, the Magnus Archives seems like a monster-of-the-week job. Urban fantasy and modern horror. However, as the podcast goes on, there is a broader story revealed. Not only is there a bigger picture, there aren't any actual monster-of-the-week stories. Everything ties together. Every story is a mythology story, to use a term I'm pretty sure the X-Files coined.

More than that, the Magnus Institute isn't an impregnable fortress. The first season has the institute almost destroyed by a literal supernatural infestation, as the statements start coming from inside the institute itself. There are ongoing characters who are being pulled into the nightmare hellscape that is the true reality of the setting. Oh, that was fun to write.

Okay, full disclosure, I haven't come close to listening to all of the Magnus Archives. However, I have read up on it so I am familiar with the overall setting and story arc. And it's an almost Lovecraftian cosmic horror. The supernatural horror all comes from the Powers, the manifestation or the origin of human fears. (Which is why I feel it isn't full Lovecraftian since it does directly connect to humanity. Cthulhu doesn't care about us. The Powers do) And their influences and actions are disturbing, often visceral and ultimately inescapable. Good stuff.

Jonathan eventually learns that he is becoming the avatar of one of the powers, the Eye, the fear of being watched. An incredibly amusing aspect of this is that people who give him testaments are compelled to be truthful and coherent. Thus, there is an in-story justification to why all the statements are structured to be good stories.

I don't listen to a lot of podcasts, let alone horror ones. So I don't know how the Magnus Archives measures up. However, I am enjoying myself

Very, very early thoughts on 52 Kingdoms

It is human nature to give added weight to something for arbitrary reasons. For example, I try to make the first game I learn in a year one I think will be a good one. For 2025, I taught myself 52 Kingdoms: Adventures.

It is from Postmark Games, a game publisher that I fell in love with last year. And it fits most of the basic parameters of their other games. It only exists as a Print and Play game and doesn't require any construction. Print out a couple of play sheets and you are good. However, instead of using dice as the random element, 52 Kingdoms uses a standard deck of cards.

It is also a dungeon crawl, a genre I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I cut my teeth on Dungeons and Dragons back when dungeons crawls were its basic format. I have played more dungeon crawls than I can remember. On the other hand, I have seen just so many. It's hard for me to get excited by one now.

Each game consists of two sheets of paper. One is of the dungeon map, which honestly bring back memories of old Dungeon magazine, which isn't a bad thing. The other is a choice of two characters to play. You slide the character sheet under the map so you only see one character. The reason I phrase it that way is because there are two maps and two sets of characters... so far. More are yet to come.

I'm not going to go through the rules. Honestly, after I've played a lot more of 52 Kingdoms, I plan on coming back to it and giving a more nuanced review. What I will say is that cards serve as special items, equipment, loot, wounds, monsters, and a randomizer. While far from the most complex dungeon crawl I've ever seen, I do feel like 52 Kingdoms packs a lot into its small space. 

I feel two dangers micro dungeons crawls can fall into are being too simple or too finicky. 52 Kingdoms avoids the latter through graphic design. The play sheets have clear areas for you to place each type of card. There are clear tables for monsters and curses. Good graphic design makes a huge difference between confusion and good game play.

One weakness that 52 Kingdoms has is that, sometimes, the bookkeeping overcomes the theme. I stop feeling like it's about magic and monsters and dungeons and I feel like I'm doing some accounting with a deck of cards rather than a calculator. That said, I think abstraction is inevitable when you're scaling down a concept.

So far, I've found 52 Kingdoms interesting but I haven't really been drawn into it. But here's the thing. I haven't explored even half of the content has been released and I know there will be more maps and characters released. And I am interested to keep on going and see the whole scope of the system.

The potential is there and I feel positive about that.

I also want to note that, when I first saw the name of the game, I was hoping that 52 Kingdoms would have a greater scale than a dungeon. However, its called 52 Kingdoms: Adventures, which gives me hope that this is just the first game in a series that uses this basic system.

Jardin Japones - planning ponds in zen gardens

Jardin Japones/Japanese Gardens is a Roll and Write where you draw a Zen garden on a grid, the garden features and locations determined by dice rolls. Honestly, that is such a very common mechanic in R&Ws. However, Jardin Japones does get some credit for embracing its theme.

Mechanically, you are working with a six by six grid. Each turn, you roll three dice. One die will determine the row or column you will be working with. The other two dice determine what two garden features you add from a table. You also can fill in one of the three branches on your convenient bonsai tree to ignore the dice and place one garden feature of your choice anywhere. After twelve turns, you’re done.

The most novel element of Jardin Japones is ponds. Every fourth turn, you draw in a pond, outlining one or more spaces. The only restriction is ponds can’t be next to each other. (Otherwise, they’d be one big pond) Some elements have to be in ponds, like bridges, but you can draw a bridge in first and draw a pond around it.

As I mentioned earlier, Jardin Japones has some solid theming for so slight a game. Lanterns need to be far from each other. Bridges need to be in ponds. Bamboo has to be in a group. And so on. 

You can violate the placement restrictions but that will affect scoring. At the very least, an item will score no points. A bridge on dry land or a lantern in the water will score you negative points though.

Ultimately, the two things that give the game interest to me are the possibilities that drawing ponds unlock and the fact that you will get a drawing of the Zen garden at the end of it.

There are advanced rules that… actually make the game more interesting. Some of the scoring is made a touch more intricate, forcing you to be a little more specific in your choices. But, more importantly, it adds bonus points. These give more focused goals for your play.

Jardin Japones does remind me of an older roll and write game, Yard Builder, where you create a backyard. I do find Yard Builder to be the stronger game because it has more elements for you to work with and your choices are more flexible.

Jardin Japones is ultimately in the hinterlands for me. It is enjoyable enough that I can see myself adding it to the regular rotation. At the same time, it has enough in common with other games that I play that it doesn’t really stand out.

Waystation is a quiet, perhaps lost, gem of science fiction

Last year, I decided to try reading Clifford D. Simak for the first time since I was a teenager. I enjoyed City enough that I decided that I would keep reading Simak. I don’t plan on doing an exhaustive study of his work but I do want hit what has been decided are his highlights.

Waystation won the Hugo Award for best novel in the 1964. And, having now read it, yeah, I can see why.

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Waystation is about Enoch Wallace, an American Civil War veteran, who serves as operator for an intergalactic teleportation station. In this setting, you can only teleport so far so intergalactic civilization needs junction stations. The waystation is located in rural Wisconsin so it’s off the beaten path. Enoch doesn’t age when he’s in the station so a hundred years pass without much change.

Then everything changes.

Earth is on the verge of a nuclear war that will wipe everything out. Surprisingly sympathetic government agents have accidentally desecrated an alien tomb, starting an intergalactic incident which is fascinatingly openly admitted to being actually political. And we learned that intergalactic civilization is having serious issues as well.

Basically, not only is Enoch about to lose everything, everyone else is in pretty bad shape too.

What might be the biggest knock against Waystation, everything ends up working out. A powerful artifact that is required to help restore civilization(all of them) ends up in Enoch’s station and the mysterious local deaf-mute girl turns out to be the one who can use it. 

Having said that, all of that is methodically set up throughout the book. It’s not a Deux ex Mechina.  I am sure that the next generation of science fiction authors would have written the same idea a lot bleaker. But, even as it stands, Waystation is still ultimately a bittersweet work.

And that bittersweet element is why the book works. Enoch is a sympathetic and decent person, but he is also flawed. His experiences have left him apart from the rest of the human race. And, while things work out, so that, you know, civilizations don’t end, there is a cost to it, and he is part of that cost. 

Waystation is a thoughtful work. There is some fascinating elements of alien culture and technology. Teleportation leaves a dead husk behind, which Enoch has to dissolve in acid tanks below the house (Star Trek never showed us that) He has been given gifts of alien items that he never learns what they’re for.

And the book spends a lot of time on alien in philosophy. Quite frankly, it never really conveys it very well, but I do like that Enoch is convinced that thinking differently is going to be the real game changer, not advanced technology.

At times, Waystation can be meandering and slow. It might be a short book, but it takes its time getting to its point, letting ideas simmer. As a teenager, it would have confused me. However, it works for me now.