SOLO GAMING #4: GAME OF SHADOW PROJECTION!

 by William D. Tucker

Whenever you see shadows, project yourself into them. 

You may make of yourself a menace, if that pleases you, or you may make of yourself a benign observer, and/or you may simply regard your time in shadows as a vacation. I'll leave it to you. 

You may find that shadows encourage transformation, metamorphosis. 

You may find that shadows are more of the same. Maybe you already spent most of your time in the dark.

It is also possible that you do not like being in shadows at all.

You may conclude the game of shadow projection at any time and for any reason without incurring any wrath, penalty, punishment, or scorn whatsoever. It's just a game. 

Maybe the shadows change you, show you new powers, give you new purpose(s), or even porpoise(s).

Maybe shadows are just, y'know, kinda boring. Shadows don't have screens. They are not generally understood to be capable of directly inducing orgasm. Nor have shadows been known to offer unlockable achievement messages. It could well be argued that shadows are kinda lame. Stupid, even.

Hey, I'm not trying to be mean to shadows or anything. But there's a definite subset that holds to what could be broadly construed as 'Shadows Suck Ideology.' So, y'know, it's got to be considered as in-the-mix. 

However you choose to do it, go ahead and project yourself into shadows if only for a little while. Or you may do it for a lotta while. Write down your experiences in as much detail as you want, and then set aside this account which shall be called your Shadow Projection Chronicle. Maybe tend to some laundry or clean your bathroom or take a fat shit or go for a walk or get back to work or shirk your obligations or try to bully your defense advisors to go along with your dreams of a pre-emptive nuclear strike or pet your dog or marvel at your cat's quirky way of jumping into a cardboard box and just settling there for forty-five minutes or order the decapitations of your political rivals or do some yoga or catch up on your Watch Later playlist of insipid BookTube content or make those cuts to the education budget you've been daydreaming about or pick up some scratchoffs on your way back to the house or browbeat yourself into reading the first chapter of War and Peace or finally check out that REDACTED video on the Dark Web your old college buddy texted you about or order a pizza or trim your nails or invest in robotic warfare futures or just don't step on that spider for once 'cause it ain't bothering you and it's au naturale pest control and maybe you'll take up breeding spiders right here in your apartment and then go around seeding them all throughout the building 'cause there's no one to stop you and you mostly wake up not giving a fuck these days so why not do something with that feeling for once in your life or you could step on the spider and be done with it or you could unplug this weekend and let email keep 'til Monday morning but you never have the willpower for that or you could spend some time doing Sudoku. Whatever you end up doing, you must stay away from your Shadow Projection Chronicle and be wholly absorbed in some other activity and/or endeavor. Now, it's possible you entirely lose track of time. You may not get back to your Shadow Projection Chronicle for an entire day. Or more! But when you do pick it up again, read it carefully. 

Ask yourself, "Do I wish to do more Shadow Projection? Or have I experienced more than enough of Shadow Projection? Do I have any sure way of knowing for sure? Can I trust my own opinion or do I need to submit to the opinion of another? Would anything be gained or lost if I combined my opinion with another's opinion? Do I need to cite sources to render my own opinion more credible? What if I started screaming uncontrollably? Would I be expressing frustration or joy? Are my feelings real? Are feelings real? If I enjoyed Shadow Projection overmuch am I at risk for uncontrolled Shadow Projection at inopportune times? Will I not be able to help myself from compulsive Shadow Projecting? Is there no escape? Did I desire escape in the First, Middle, or Last Place? If I hated Shadow Projection then why not make war upon Shadow Projectors and all their works? Am I so insubstantial that I would merely accept continued existence upon the same planet where My Enemy also dwells? Could I live with such dishonor? And what of True Love? Where does that belong in a world of Eternal Conflict? Am I still upset about all those people hoarding toilet paper? Or was I always more of a corncob type of person anyways? Do I only feel clean if it gets a little bloody? Did I think on corncobs during my time in shadows or was I free of such workaday desires? Am I free? Is freedom free? Can I phone a friend?"

Once you have interrogated yourself unto exhaustion, close your eyes, and sit quietly in willful darkness for as long you're able. Try not to think. Make no noises of your own if you can help it. Stay like this for as long as is comfortable . . . then supersede all limits! You may very well find yourself Shadow Blasting once you've superseded all limits. If so, you are now playing with Tremendous and Terrifying Power. Nothing will be likely to stop you except for a Rival Shadow Blaster. Be on your guard as you stride boldly into a New Reality. 

But if you do not supersede . . . well, y'know, maybe it's high time you got back to your grind. Maybe that's all you're good for, after all. 

In some ways, y'know, failing to supersede might actually be better. Certainly, it's more intriguing.

You'll constantly be wondering, "What would my life have been like if I had managed to supersede?"

It'll end up being a kind of . . . X-Path, one that's forever out of reach . . . that never stops tantalizing you . . .

LOADING SCREEN WISDOM #1:

MOVEMENT ALLOWS YOU TO EXPLORE AREAS. BE SURE TO MOVE IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 

POETIC VIDEO GAME REVIEW #27: NINJA GAIDEN (1989)

you're the side story

a shadow 

of a shadow warrior

is the title a cruel joke about being abandoned by your ninja dad?

'cause that's what happens in the game

your ninja dad walks out to do dirty deeds not so cheap for some cackling mad robed occultist

ninja dad even goes Full Vader,

dons a mask,

you gotta strike him down in a one-on-one duel,

tearful deathbed redemption speech,

Full Vader

but ninja

well, 

daddy's little side story swings a sword real good

adios, pops

and that robed occultist asshole?

I guess he was somebody's corrupt daddy object, too?

yeah,

well, 

he died real good, too,

not even his final demon summon gimmick counted for much in the end

robed occultist's crib goes Full Dracula's Castle, crumbling apart, what you get when you go with the lowest bidders

daddy's little side story even hooks up with the hot older CIA agent lady in the final cut scene

heh, heh, heh,

so fuck all the fathers

and for futue reference?

when you walk out the door?

make sure you stay gone

if you enjoy keeping your original head on your neck,

okay?

but, hey

we're all video game avatars around here

gettin' a new head is a zero biggie,

it's fine,

we live,

we die,

we live again,

unless we get super-frustrated with the difficulty level,

in which case

we switch off

return to real life,

meatspace,

the land of the living dead,

the land of the nonheroic,

Middlemarch forever in all directions,

childish things put away,

here comes respectability like a bulldozer,

check out my stain routine,

barely anything left of me,

wholly absorbed into this or that consumer quadrant,

not even a shadow of a shadow,

shadows are too fanciful,

too artsy,

doesn't jibe with the ultracasual Netflix palette/frame/formula,

you must watch

but not watch

ye must distract

from other distractions

ninja dad knows about that

's why you're here

heh, heh, heh-

piercing sound of drawn steel

foley of raw meats sliced

it's a bit much

-January 2021-April 2022

POETIC VIDEO GAME REVIEW #26: BLASTER MASTER (1988)

this is the one with the jumping future tank

your pet frog runs away from you

into a mysterious underground kingdom of Enemy

you chase your beloved amphibian beneath the earth

only to find a jumping future tank all gassed-up and ready-to-go

fate has given you the tools to obliterate Enemy

or, y'know, we kick things off with an act of Grand Theft Jumping Future Tank

fate or crime

you now get to rampage through the underground kingdom of Enemy

maybe even get your pet frog back

once you're in the kingdom of Enemy

you have to maneuver your jumping future tank around obstacles

and blast Enemy military assets

you even get to drive your jumping future tank underwater

yes, friends

your jumping future tank is a proper Bond Car/Batmobile/S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercar

all-in-one

all-terrain, loaded up with exotic beam weapons and missiles and, eventually, flight capabilities,

of course

you must fight and kill your way into the advanced features

your jumping future tank grows as it is fed the blood and circuits of Enemies 

meats and robo

you have to get out of your tank to sally forth into bleak Enemy bases that resemble Amazon Warehouses: full of bland boxes, mostly automated but with a complement of pissed-off, overworked conscious ones who are compelled to defend their turf unto death,

every now and again

one of these Enemy bases has a room in the back of absolute darkness,

a room of void

and from this void

manifests

a mutant abomination

tentacular, cyborgian, massive,

I guess it's a warehouse/logistics officer

a fight to the death ensues

obvi

I was always frustrated that I couldn't just crash my tank into the Enemy bases. Game forces you to get out of your tank and hoof it into the hostile installations. If you were just able to do what you wanted, and have fun all the time then we would live in Utopia, I guess. It's fine. 

look,

I gotta level with you

I didn't give a shit about the frog

I loved that jumping future tank

I loved its power

I loved its jump

I loved its cannon

I loved its death lightning

I loved its missiles

I loved how it wrecked shit

I got inside that tank

I found home

I never wanted to leave

I would annihilate the underground kingdom of Enemy, gladly, and then find a new Enemy to zap

or

if necessary

find a Friend and just decide they work better as Enemy, and zap them,

it'll be fine

I was the serene obliterator

I was the heart/soul/brain of the jumping future tank

I became the jumping future tank

I never wanted to come back

Maybe I didn't.

-February-March-April 2022

SOLO GAMING #3: WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE

 by William D. Tucker

This product is designed for use with Advanced X-Path Tantalization. Any and all other uses are not authorized.

You are diligently following the precepts laid out in Advanced X-Path Tantalization when a thought occurs to you, "What if I were to deviate from the precepts laid out in Advanced X-Path Tantalization?"

This is the question.

Here is the answer: nothing or everything or just a little bit or even a lotta bit or whatever else you may conceive. Advanced X-Path Tantalization may be used however you desire. No God above to blast you with thunderbolts or spray thee with lava(not the soap). No Devil below to poke your hemorrhoids with a pitchfork. No one is looking over your shoulder. I am not looking over your shoulder . . . but if I was, you would only know me as a random sensation of prickling upon your back, or a fleeting-yet overwhelming-presence that you might convince yourself you could catch out if you but turn around fast enough-but no. You are never fast enough. And now your room is unusually cold, but this, too, gradually resolves itself, nothing that will stick in your memory, so no worries. No one is observing you. Honest.

And this is good, right? To be free of surveillance and harsh judgment and asinine rules and, yes, even the very precepts of Advanced X-Path Tantalization-why not cast it off, as well, just another bullshit system, right?

Well . . . you may be one that agrees with all of this.

Or . . . you may feel dizziness at the prospect of such freedom. A certain nausea. Or outright paralysis by rising terror. All sense of direction and purpose and meaning and right and wrong-there it goes! Swirling away down the toilet of Too Much Choice and Too Many Options! 

Bye-bye-bye . . .

Well, I offer you a solution. I offer you the WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE, which is an entity born of myself that you may incorporate into your very being if you're in need of a Master, a Supervisor, a Boss to keep you in line with the precepts of Advanced X-Path Tantalization. The WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE is a faith-based technology that uses your own being to discipline you whenever you stray from the precepts. 

Here's how it works.

Behold this image-

IMAGE REDACTED

-now focus your willpower to accept it into your deepest heart. Let it situate. Now feel it settling itself into your heart. You may experience some discomfort as it shifts its ass around, getting comfy, and this process of ass-shifting shapes your heart into a kind of throne perfectly suited to the shape of its ever-shifting ass. Now you will experience bizarre tingling and stinging sensations as it launches ass tentacles deep into your innermost being all the better to anchor itself. Many users report intense feelings of abject terror and some even attempt to tear out their own hearts in wretched attempts to extract it usually resulting in serious injury or death, but the survivors also usually end up with memorable anecdotes for sharing in-person or via social media. Other users report no problems whatsoever, but this outcome may also be accompanied by a gnawing emptiness due to the lack of memorable anecdote formation. In any event, if you survive, the instalation process of WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE is complete-A.F.

What this means is this: a fearsome judge now sits inside your heart to steer you back on the road when ye begin to drift from the precepts of ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION. A judge that does what God and the Devil cannot do. A vengeful God fries you with lightning, afflicts you with plague, glazes you with lava, or demands that you attend His solo theatrical spoken word monologue play. An angry God destroys you with an ostentatious display of destructive power that exposes His own brittle ego for all to see-like, why that much output of force for just one disobedient human?-or He numbs you into zombiehood with His pretentious bloviations that are all doomed to be mistranslated, misinterpreted, and repackaged as overpriced hardback volumes for sale at your local chain bookstore. The Devil offers the false freedom of lancing your piles with a sure, swift thrust of his pitchfork-but what kind of liberation is that, hm? The narrowing of the way offered a kind of rigourous 'dump ethic,' that required one to sit with agony and all the ruminations and meditations that pain inspires-and, now, post-pile-lancing, you've nothing but the free and easy flow of 'nihilistic dumps,' totally devoid of all effort, all struggle-be not led into temptation, Dear Solo Gamer! 

WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE provides a truly sublime service. You see, any time you are tempted to deviate from the precepts of ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION the judge that now sits inside your heart really starts throwing its ass around-like, just ridiculous amounts of ass-shifting which, at first, you'll be able to ignore. It's just someone trying to get comfortable, right? Whoopteefuckingdoo. Ah, but this is the real magic. For as long as you keep deviating or contemplating deviation from the precepts of ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION, that ass-shifting simply will not stop. And you're not gonna be able to ignore it forever, Solo Gamer! You're eventually gonna be pretty pissed off with this passive aggressive shit-the judge'll also start sighing loudly and elaborately like it's bored and just wants to leave-and this is usually when you yell, "STOP SHIFTING YOUR FUCKING ASS ALL AROUND INSIDE MY HEART THRONE! I'M TRYING TO DEVIATE FROM THE GODDAMN PRECEPTS OF ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION AND I DON'T NEED ANY OF YOUR PASSIVE AGGRESIVE BULLSHIT! SIT STILL! SHUT UP! AND JUST LET ME GET ON WITH DEVIATING FROM ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION! JESUS CHRIST!"

This, of course, is but the prelude. 

As the minutes and hours pass you by, the ass-shifting kicks into a higher gear: full on ass-throwing. The judge is really rocking and rolling that heart throne all over your chest cavity, my friend, and it will drive you to distraction. Not to mention the judge will start saying things like, "Breaking the rules is so booooooooring! Everyone in a corrupt world breaks the rules just to fit in. Why not have some fun and actually obey the precepts of ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION, hmmmm?! You're just a fake rebel with all your disobedience, doncha know?! Why not be a for real rebel and submit to the system, hrmmm?! Why you gotta be such a fake asshole, eh, why you gotta be such a fake asshole forever, hrrrmmph?!"

Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, Solo Gamer.

Not many survive this escalation of annoyance. 

Many resort to simply ripping out their own hearts, and thereby finding peace.

A proud few have been known to will themselves into spontaneously combusting.

I say, "Don't be a hero."

Once you decide to submit to obey the precepts of ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION . . . well, it all gets a lot calmer. A lot smoother. The ass-shifting becomes a kind of metronome regulating your play, observing now the letter and then the spirit of the law. One cheek is the letter, the other the spirit if you like. The shifting is the dance between the cheeks one could say.

The judge never leaves you. It guides you on a path of NEVERENDING X-PATH TANTALIZATION . . . what fun!

POSTSCRIPT: WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE WAS DISCONTINUED IN THE YEAR 20XX FOR BEING TOO MAGNIFICENT FOR THIS WRETCHED WORLD. TOO MANY SOLO GAMERS REPORTED TOO MUCH EXCELLENCE AT SUCH LEVELS OF SEARING INTENSITY THAT THEY SIMPLY BURNED FREE OF THE DAY-IN-DAY-OUT TO DWELL FOREVER IN THE REALM BEYOND THE X-PATH.

SO, THE WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. YOU'VE NO CHOICE BUT TO MAKE YOUR OWN CHOICES FOR YOUR OWN REASONS. NOW. AND FOREVER.

OF COURSE, YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF FANTASIZING ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE TO HAVE A WDT2099 HEART JUDGE MODULE INSTALLED . . . YOU MAY EVEN FIND YORSELF . . . TANTALIZED BY THIS PROSPECT . . .

IF SO . . . YOU ARE SURELY WALKING . . . THE X-PATH!!!

Cars and anger . . .

 . . . 'til a day came

post-anger

allegedly

but this was such obvious rhetoric

in any case

much anger had been spent

sure things were calmer

a lot less driving for one thing

but now you have

all these abandoned cars

allegedly 'self-driving'

bumping into each other

and sitting idle for long periods

to horde what's left of what they got

and, yes, lamentably,

sometimes shouting paranoid slogans,

profane insinuations,

and vile accusations against their former 'hearts and minds' that so cruelly abandoned them

and now amble and stroll and frolic by, free and easy, gathering in various configurations to sport or fuck or knit or pontificate or shoot the tires out of some especially odious automotive harasser

laughing and pointing and gesturing lewdly at an especially sad minivan expending its very last drop trying to flatten its bipedal tormentors even as its rims scrape the asphalt

yes,

there is still cruelty and anger in a world where the hearts and minds have finally freed themselves of their pitiable cage-veyances,

it is still the world . . .

SOLO GAMING #2: ADVANCED X-PATH TANTALIZATION

 by William D. Tucker

You will need something to write with, and something to write upon, anything will do. Pens. Pencils. Paint. Crayons. Voice dictation. Paper. Canvas. Napkins. Toilet paper. Stone tablets. Whatever works for you. 

You must think of an imaginary setting you would like to roleplay within, either of your own creation or an established world you like from gaming, fiction, myth, TV, cinema, etc. I think it's always more interesting to create your own world, but I leave it up to you.

Now, create a character for you to roleplay within this imaginary world. Once again, you may use a character that already exists, but I recommend you create an original. Think of how your character exists in this world, and how they perceive the world around themselves. What are their likes? Their dislikes? Their abiding loves? Their undying hatreds? Do they live inside their heads? Do they have a strong connection to the land? Are they a robot? Do they know their creator? Do they live as an outsider? An insider? Are they the ruler of this world?

On the basis of your world and your character write a scene in first person perspective that ends with them having a choice of what to do. Even if you already know what you want your character to do you must write down at least one other option. And then you decide which way your character goes. Remember, even if you already know, you must at least consider one (or more) other option(s) and write them all down. Once you've made your decision, you write down the next scene which must also conclude with at least two choices for your character to make.

Once you’ve written down your third scene, you must now write an X-Path Scene before you make a decision about the fourth scene. This X-Path Scene must be in a completely different spirit than your character up until now. If your character is violent, they must be peaceful. If peaceful, then violent. If they are contemplative, now they are brash; or if brash, now contemplative. If they happen to be a cyborg, then their X-Path version could be a plant person, or vice versa. If flying, now burrowing. If burrowing, now flying. Once you have written this X-Path Scene, you may now return to your third scene, make a choice, and proceed to the fourth scene. However, your character must incorporate some awareness of this other self from the X-Path Scene, perhaps as cognitive dissonance, or as someone they hear about on the radio, or even as someone they meet in real life. It isn't so much that your mainline character changes into this other X-Path Scene person, so much as there is bleed from this other realm of possibility. Even if you are to encounter this other character along the mainline path, you must maintain a state of tantalization as opposed to certainty about who or what this other is in relation to yourself. 

You must create an X-Path Scene for every three mainline path scenes you write, incorporating more elements from the X-Path Scene as you go along. Do this until you are no longer having fun. Or, if you prefer, you may flog yourself with this process well past the reasonable as a kind of Protestant Work Ethic torture regimen disguised as something enjoyable.

If you find your way to a satisfying conclusion for your character, then you may stop. Or, alternatively, you may proceed as follows:

Once you have concluded your character's story, return to the first scene, read it over carefully, and now write a New First Scene that views your character from the perspective of an omnipresent surveillance system that is tracking your character for some reason or set of reasons. This could be an undercover police operation. A repressive secret police scenario may be appropriate, including the assessment of various social credit rankings and privileges. Perhaps, your character is being tracked for marketing purposes, the better to sell them-or people like them-products and services. You could just be a stalker creep. Or this could be a scary slasher and/or giallo scenario. If you're super-ambitious you could attempt to combine all of these possibilities-and more-into one Ultra-Stalker Scenario in which the state, the "Free" Market, idiosyncratic psychopathic obsessions, and a burning need to punish the character for real and/or imagined sins combine into one very complicated situation. You could do this, or opt for a more streamlined rationale for surveiling your player character. In any case, you must write up a detailed surveillance chronicle in the voice and style of whatever you choose-secret police, creep, slasher, Satan, marketing robot, recruiter for a cabal of masked heroes who combine into a larger masked and/or unmasked hero, etc. 

Once you have written your surveillance report, you have some decisions to make. First, if the character died as a result of their adventures you must determine if this is acceptable and/or permanent. If death is irreversible, then you must write a conclusion as to why this perma-death is or is not acceptable. If death is reversible, then you must write a compelling argument either in favor of leaving them in the grave or bringing them back to life. 

If it is possible to bring the character back to life, you may write a scene in which this happens, and you are now 'operating' your back-from-the-dead character in either a first person POV of the surveillance master or a third person narrative voice. You get to write a Second Adventure, a kind of New Game+ in which you decide what purpose the surveillance entity/entities wish to impose upon the resurrected character and if the resurrected character goes along with your schemes. If you like, you may roll a six-sided die to determine if the resurrected character cooperates each time you make a choice. A one, two, or three means cooperation; a four, five, or six means disobedience. 

You may also decide that this resurrected character now has the qualities of the X-Path Scenes from the First Adventure. You may write an explanation for this, or allow it to go unexplained. 

If the character did not die during the First Adventure, then you must describe the process by which you approach this person and use your surveillance chronicle to coerce/convince them into working for your operation. Be sure to use your comprehensive knowledge of them to appeal to what you have come to understand as their core values and/or deepest desires. You may also use shame and/or threats. Appeals to patriotism and/or nationalism may also be appropriate. Maybe it's all about money. You may incorporate dice rolls to randomize this process however you see fit, or not at all. Write down the details of their resistance and/or compliance. They may resist you on some demands, and comply with you on others. 

When you arrive at a reasonable and/or unreasonable conclusion for your surveillance/stalking/recruitment project you must do the following:

Consider deeply what you, yourself, have lost and/or gained by surveilling/stalking/recruiting the target character. Write down what you think and feel about all this. And then think about what your life would be like if you had chosen to leave this person alone. Describe in detail what you would do instead, how you would spend your minutes, hours, days, weeeks, months, and years if you were not obliged to pursue/surveil your target. Once you have done all of this, you must do the following:

Gather all of your writings you have done up until now, and read them over. Think about them. And then, make a huge cartoonish explosion sound effect, or you can just imagine it if that's better, or you can write the words 'KABOOM!' or 'KER-FUJA-BLAST!' or whatever suits you-'BLAMMMO!' is also acceptable-and this is meant to simulate global nuclear annihilation. 

If you wrote down everything on paper or notecards go ahead and rip them all to shreds and scatter them about, then start picking up the pieces. Every other piece you must permanently discard. With the pieces you have left, put them inside a hat, mix then up, and then draw them out at random. This randomized succession of fragments becomes the New Order. Make of it what you will. Use it as the world setting for a post-apocalyptic survival combat game, or a new religion, or a magic liturgy that, when recited, returns you to the Real World, whatever that may mean to you. The point is that Things Have Been Lost and, also, Things Are Different Now. You are free to continue on with this New Order, or end the game however you see fit . . . GAME OVER. OR NOT. PLAYER'S CHOICE. 

If you wrote everything down in electronic format then pretend that all your writings are totally obliterated without trace . . . GAME OVER. YOU ARE FREE OF HISTORY. MOVE ON TO OTHER ACTIVITIES. 

If you wrote nothing down, just kept it all in your head, then think thoughts of peace and serenity . . . GAME OVER. YOU ARE FREE OF HISTORY. MOVE ON TO OTHER ACTIVITIES. 

. . . in any case, however it ends-or doesn't end-you will probably be left wondering, "How could it all have played out differently? Where did it all go wrong and/or right?"

This, of course, is the nature of Advanced X-Path Tantalization . . .

POETIC VIDEO GAME REVIEW #24: TIME ACE DS (2007)

It's not any good.

It's not even so bad it's good.

It's generically crappy.

It's driving in the exact center of the road.

Which some say is the worst place to drive.

Centrists catch all the hell in times of discontent. 

There's something about time travel.

It's sorta like Starfox, but you're trapped on Earth, no talking animal people that I could find, and the soundtrack leaves no trace upon the memory. 

Do you like games with planes which emit projectiles?

There's a chance

that if human civilization self-immolates

that this could be one of the surviving remnants

of video game culture 

of, y'know, culture in general

and maybe the Space Brothers would find it,

fuss with it,

think,

"No great loss. Maybe such mediocrity is exactly why they chased a nuclear weapon-environmental death wish. Maybe it's an actual flight simulator made by idiots. It wasn't just a symptom of the losing side. Maybe humanity was just a complete, dumbfuck Ultra-Loser

collectively, 

individually,

systematically, 

militarily,

ecologically,

psychologically, 

spiritually, 

politically, 

economically, 

artistically,

poetically, 

literally, 

legally,

illegally,

just a great big pants-shitting Voltronic Florida Man."

In other words,

Time Ace DS is probably too good of a final remnant for us, when you think about it.

The Space Brothers toss Time ACE DS back on the fused and twisted mountains of rubble, and zip off in their psionically powered flying ziggurat. 

Roll credits.

Post credits scene reveals that the Space Brothers all died slow, agonizing deaths due to exposure to Ultra-Loser Florida Man radiation. 

Production logo.

MPAA rating banner in blue and white.

House lights come up.

You exit the theater

into the mysterious night.

-March-April 2022