SuperHarman’s February Journal

A note on my rating system. If something is bad, I feel there’s not much room to move there so I came up with a simple 5 star rating system where there only “bad” rating is 1 star. Here are how you should take any rating below:

= Bad, * = Okay, *** = Good, **** = Great, ***** = Exceptional

Featured Game: Siltterhead

For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated things like urban decay and abandoned spaces, the signs that our impactful imprint on the world is slowly crumbling. I’d actually never heard of the Kowloon Walled City until playing Shenmue II sometime in the early 2000s but in the game, that area really touched on my fascination and caused me to do a lot of reading about the former city, all this is to say, when I heard that Slitterhead was set in a version of Kowloon, despite the average to bad reviews, I picked it up when it went on sale. In a way, I get the bad reviews, if I had to play this game over a weekend, I’d probably feel it was a bit repetitive and in turn, gloss over some of the side activities. I spaced out my playing of the game though and hey, I’m not here to tell you this is a “great” game, but I am here to try and explain how it’s a great game.

At its core, Slitterhead is a story of the end times for this city, you play a disembodied ghost like being who takes control of humans in the street so you can fight the corruptions known as Slitterheads, beings like The Thing in that they take on the form of a human but can turn into giant monstrosities which make up the game’s boss battles. Okay, simple enough premise, this changes though when you jump into the character of Julee who is a rarity, a character that is able to detect the being’s presence and work with them. Julee brings a bit of humanity to the game which is in direct contrast with the second rarity Alex who, though Julee is presented as the main character, Alex really embodies the thematic drive of that game, destruction of the self which is in turn the destruction of the Slitterheads at any cost. It says a lot that one of the first powers you learn with Alex is a suicide bomb where you’re encouraged to enter the body of a civilian set a bomb, run up to an enemy and then jump out of the civilian just before they blow up…it’s messed up.

That messed up stuff is where the game finds a lot of its levity, like leaving a regular human stranded on a high up overhanging sign just so you can reach another person on a far roof and imagining the life of that human from there. I particularly enjoyed the chase scenes where, in order to catch up to a running enemy, you’d jump into a body ahead of them and it was here where I kind of marveled at how effortless all of this was, how games have these wild and fun mechanics that I feel like we take for granted.  You do come across more rarities through the game too and again, you’re given a bit of levity with the other characters beyond the very serious nature of the two mains. Ever wanted to beat up some enemies with a weirdly powerful old lady who uses her can as a weapon? One of my personal favourites was Tri, a seemingly regular lady in a hijab who just lays out enemies with her fists.

The repetitive nature of the game comes from the fact that there aren’t that many locations in the game, about 4 or 5 that you’ll revisit often, but going back to my original point, this was never an issue for me because I loved the locations. I don’t know what it is but there was just something about existing in the space that just increased my desire to completely explore it all. As a result of this I did end up unlocking everything in the game and I enjoyed all the additional context and felt the vignettes between levels were a good way to deliver story and character in a game that was clearly made on a lower budget.

I mentioned that I got Slitterhead in a sale, about $40 Australian, however the game renewed my interest in urban decay, abandoned spaces and the Kowloon Walled City to such a degree that I recalled a hard cover book called City of Darkness that had been re-released a couple of years ago. I managed to track down a copy at a local specialist bookstore…for $180. I don’t regret that purchase just like a don’t regret my time with this game, just funny that this $40 game cost me about $220 in the end. There is a core dichotomy to the game and it relates back to the decay inherent in the world, how we fix the problem is not an easy answer ****

Other games Finished:

Love Eternal: I love a challenging platformer and this one pushed me to my absolute limits. There were some screens in this game that took me more than half an hour to get through but getting past them always felt like a great accomplishment. Couple this with a dark and intriguing story that really goes places, I was hooked by this indie gem. ****

SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato: I’d been playing this on an off for a couple of months which for a short game, may sound bad, but whenever I finished a chapter I’d just put the game down and then come back to it when needed. It’s an exceptionally charming game steeped in South American culture which I love and some amazing single scene characters. Some of the games technical limitations though did get to me a bit but it was a good breezy adventure game. ***

Silent Hill: Combined with playing through Slitterhead and having played the 2nd games remake and f last year, I decided I wanted to look into this series more while also getting a better idea of Keiichiro Toyama’s oeuvre. The game is a classic for a reason and even the dated controls and the often frustrating combat didn’t deter me from loving this one. I might have a lot more to talk about with this one, especially if I work through some of Toyama’s other games. *****

Pointing and Clicking - February

I have a goal to play through 26 Point and Click Adventure Games by the end of the year…and I’m well on my way now with 6 in the bag though this month’s selections were up and down.

Earth Must Die: Sigh, this is more my fault that the games which is well designed with some good puzzles and scenarios, I just really struggled to care. While I did find some bits in this game genuinely funny, it just really wore on me and playing a main character so devoid of any redeeming qualities just wasn’t something I was into. There are some great voice performances from comedians I like and the animation is solid but the whole game felt like a slog to get through largely because it wasn’t for me. **

Foolish Mortals: I went into this game with very high expectations, this had been getting some rave reviews in the adventure game community, so it was a bit of a surprise that when I started to get into the meat of the game, I was like, “this is it huh?” Not to diminish it, this is a really well produced game in the genre with some good puzzles, solid voice acting and it also looks great though I did feel some of the close ups lost a bit too much detail and the character animation also felt a bit paper doll. I think my main issue with this one is just the number of homages there are to the Monkey Island games, when I got to the final puzzle in the game my reaction was, “are we really doing this?” I enjoyed my time with it and was never bored, but I wanted a lot more. ***

The Dark Rites of Arkham: I’ve never read the works of H.P. Lovecraft, I’ve read my fair share of historically problematic authors, but I think the combination of not being a big reader of the horror genre along with everything said against him has pushed me away. I have found myself often drawn to interpretations of his work though in various mediums and this was part of the reason I picked up this game. What I found was a neat adventure game that has a fun style with characters you can get behind. There was one particular scenario in the game that was so damn wild that I’m still thinking about it. The lack of voice acting might be a sticking point for some but it wasn’t an issue for me as I worked my way through this well realised world. ****

Other Media:

Movies – February is Dad month

February is the anniversary of both the month of my father’s birthday and also his passing in 2007. In 2021 I decided to watch four films over the four weekends in February that I had good memories of seeing with him. These were Master and Commander, Star Trek VI, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and finally, The Blues Brothers which was his favourite film. The second year and every year since I decided to keep The Blues Brothers as the ender and I’d come up with a random theme for the three other films.

2022 was films that I remember drawing my Dad in for their soundtracks, 2023 was westerns I saw with him, 2024 were Bond films and then I hit a bit of a speed bump in 2025, I decided to watch bad films he took me to see when I was a kid…it was rough. So I decided to change it up this year, instead of watching films I have specific memories of seeing with him, I decided to watch a film from 1951, the year of his birth, one from 1961 when he would have been 10 and one from 1971 and of course, end with The Blues Brothers.

The African Queen: I knew my Dad was a fan of Bogart so this one seemed like one as good as any to start with. There were dated elements here that I found myself cringing at a little but overall, it’s a strong adventure story with the “two people from different worlds,” dynamic that is cliché, but cliché can be good, especially if it works and it does here. ***

The Guns of Navarone: This film would’ve come out when my Dad was 10 and though I don’t know if he actually saw it at that age, if he did I can easily see this being a childhood favourite for all the same reasons kids of my generation were obsessed with Star Wars and 80’s action movies. An incredible execution of the WWII men on a mission genre that is always exciting up to the last couple of minutes of tension that no doubt George and Marcia Lucas paid close attention to in editing Star Wars. Some great Nazi kills in this one too, always a bonus. ****

The Last Picture Show: Watching this film after thinking so much about urban decay and ideas of abandoned spaces really hit for me. An amazing journey through the end of childhood that in turn is the end of everything you knew and held on to. It says a lot when I finish a film and my general thought is that it might be an immediate favourite, it makes sense though, I can see so much of Richard Linklater in this film and I don’t know if he’s specifically sighted this film as an influence, but being a fan of his work, I saw so much of how he approaches film here. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time and will hopefully revisit it often. *****

The Blues Brothers: Look, I’ve seen this film so many damn times, I grew up on it, I love it. That being said, watching it in the state of the emerging theme of February, I’ve become increasingly fascinated with the location shots in this film and absorbing the background noticing that (buzz word) urban decay. It really is a wild journey through those spaces of the late 70s coming into the 80s. Nothing but love for this one and I hope to always find something new with each year’s viewing. *****

Books

Jingo by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #21): It’s funny that going into Jingo I didn’t know what to expect, even as one in the series of popular Watch novels, I hadn’t heard it discussed a lot. So it was a bit of a shock to find one of the better books in the series though it does play into a number of interest areas for me (though no urban decay), particularly in its political satire. At a point where I thought I might be bouncing off the books a little (I’ve been alternating between a Discworld book and Literary Fiction for a while now), this re-energised me. ****

On The Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle: This continues to be an incredible journey that keeps layering on new elements. This latest volume introduces the idea of other characters also stuck in the same time loop and it’s fun to see how Balle continues to make this very literary and lucid journey so engaging. I’m eager to get to the fourth volume which is due to be released in April. *****

March Plans

Games: I’m getting close to finishing Resident Evil Requiem, working my way through Pokemon Legends Z-A and have also started Planet of Lana II. I’m hoping to make a start on Pokopia but that will largely depend on how I go with Z-A which I’d like to finish off first.

Movies: A sort of Dumas month, I’m going to watch the two recently released French adaptations of The Three Musketeers, I also have two adaptations of the Man in the Iron mask lined up. Hoping to go to the cinema a couple of times too.

TV: No updates, a lot of anime is still going and I’m trying to find time to get to other things.

Books: I’m about to finish the 22nd Discworld Book, The Last Continent and I was given a pre-release copy of a book at work (perks of working in book publishing) called Mantle by Romy Ash so that's next up.