Sure, it's always sad when games get delayed, and if it happens several times, it gives a feeling that everything is not right and that it's a project in chaos. But even with that said, yesterday's delay of around two weeks for Terminator 2D: No Fate was a mere trifle.

It will be released and hopefully it will be really fun. I think I can now also see that a new trend is crystallising. After 2022's smash hit for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, we've got Power Rangers Rita's Rewind and G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra - and around the corner awaits He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction, Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Toxic Crusaders.

All of them are very retro-inspired action games, and I really love this. Instead of trying to make AAA out of them - which requires them to be adapted for everyone and at the same time hardly even share the source material more than in name - these games are really made for the fans. And the fans seem to love this, because they were there when it happened. These had been luxury arcade games in the late 80s and early 90s.

Suddenly it is possible to make the games almost exclusively for this niche audience, base them on a classic gameplay loop and release them at a fairly fast pace. The low price and short running time also make them projects you can finish.

I believe and hope that this will be a long-term trend and not something that disappears. For that to happen, however, the games must be good and that they sell. But luckily, it seems to be working very well on that front so far - and there is no shortage of reports of younger gamers discovering both beat 'em ups and classic comics thanks to the games.

May this trend continue, this is an excellent way to manage 80's phenomena. Next up I hope for Brave Starr, Mask and Robotech. What do you think about this reconnaissance?

My experience with the Dragon Quest world of Alefgard is actually quite limited. When I was most into Japanese RPGs (during the 90s) they barely even had releases, and Final Fantasy dominated in the West. That's why I've missed a lot and was unreasonably happy when Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was released last year.

Partly because it gave me the chance to keep up from the start, and partly because it was a damn good game – without losing that charming simplicity that made the originals so loved. The HD-2D style is also like a loving hug from the past, with pixel perfection meeting modern lighting effects and animations that make castles, caves, and slime nuggets sparkle.

Yesterday I finally got started with Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, which despite the name is part two of this series (part III is a prologue to I & II), and although it's way too early to say anything concrete, it's hard not to smile from ear to ear when you hear the classic victory fanfare after yet another win against a blue Dracky. A reminder of why we once fell in love with the genre.

I'll be back with my complete review of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D in a week or two (but you can read our review here), but let me say right now that those who want something heartwarming and cozy in a sometimes hard and cold age, this seems to be the right way to go. And sometimes that's just what you need.

Don't forget to play III before I & II if you haven't already.

It can certainly be argued that I would be extremely amused and you should preferably not laugh at your own jokes (unless your name is Peter Wahlbeck, of course). Fixed... The joke, on the other hand, is not mine, and actually it is probably most tragic. But as I laughed today when I wrote the news about the artist Soulja Boy's new console.

For almost ten years, this gentleman has regularly tried to launch his own consoles, and always chooses something that stretches the laws, complete with extortionate prices and then spices it up with statements that have made countless sloppy politicians appear as the greatest truth-tellers of all time. Like the time it was Soulja Boy's hardware that made Reggie Fils-Aime resign from Nintendo, or that time when Atari wanted to give him one and a half billion dollars, or when he said that his pirate devices are legal stuff.

Every time he's been on the go, it's shut down very quickly, and once he almost got Nintendo on his neck, which is something you should definitely watch out for. Their patience with copyright infringement is something you are best measured in nanometers.

Now he's on the move again and has taken the Retroid Pocket Flip 2, without their knowledge despite it being a patented device, and says it's his console - whereupon the price has more than doubled. And it apparently has "Sonic, TikTok, Instagram and everything ya need."

Retroid has of course not approved of this and I guess that the device SouljaGame Flip, which he calls "his" stolen model, will soon go up in smoke - as will all his other ventures. And probably it's only a matter of time before he's up and running again, and I get the pleasure of laughing to report on yet another China device he claimed as his own, dusted at a completely obscene price on and then sold to his fans via social media. I'm already longing.

It doesn't sound like Soulja Boy will take over the gaming world this time either. But maybe next time (picture from his website where you can buy the device for over twice the normal price)?

Most people probably agree that social media is a rather dysfunctional phenomenon, even those who spend hours scrolling their feeds every day and taking photos of everything they eat.

I guess I myself to some extent belong to this category, even though I've slimmed down my time on social media greatly in the last two years. But I have a lot of nice people I keep in touch with this way, and it's also a good way for me to be able to share articles I've written and the like.

However, there is one phenomenon that annoys me with bile fever... and that's AI. I don't really have anything against AI (quite the opposite, actually) - as long as it's transparent or obvious that it's just AI it's about. But so much on social media today is just fake stuff, which is shared and discussed extensively.

Clips of funny animals today feel completely harmless as well as videos of most things actually. Everything feels like AI, and everything feels quite tragic. People uncritically share videos of old buildings, cats scaring bears, sailors helping killer whales, people balancing along cliff edges, and unusually creative dishes. Or why not "heroes" who save animals?

At the same time, the services do nothing to eliminate these AI lies, on the contrary, they get traffic and discussion (look at the post I linked above - even though people point out that it is fake), so therefore they stay and seem to be even encouraged. My hope is that Bluesky, Facebook (and thus Instagram and Threads), Tiktok and X and others introduce an automatic AI review - ironically... perhaps? - which tells me whether clips are fake or not and lets me choose the drill to see them.

... and I want to add again that I'm not anti-AI, on the contrary, a lot of fun, interesting and thought-provoking is made. But the attempts to trick into creating clicks should preferably stop immediately.

It is not possible to take a single video in social media seriously today, assume that everything is fake. And the platform owners do not want to change this.

Halloween I always think is a highlight. I like horror movies and autumn, and the decorations with Jack-o'-lanterns and all sorts of occult stuff are wonderful. Getting an extra good excuse to watch one of the many horror movies that are usually released, eat snacks, watch zombie walks in the city and be visited by happy children who give the ultimatum "trick or treat" - are things that contribute to the well-being.

This year, the day fell on a Friday, and I would think that was why this year's Halloween was the most successful in Sweden in a very, very long time. Often it falls in the middle of the week, but we don't have any red weekdays in the second half of the year from Midsummer, which usually leads to a diluted Halloween. Some come and beg for candy the weekend before, some come on the right day and some come the weekend after (personally I only give to those who come on the right day). And there will be no parties because people have to work.

My bell rang constantly, and the giant sack of sweets I had bought - the leftovers of which I thought I would have to munch on myself - was almost completely consumed. And I was just happy about that. For this, I had time to both arrange and be at a nice Halloween event, and I had time to play some horror with my partner (the highlight Little Nightmares 3) and also watch some horror on TV.

All in all, very successful.

Next year it's Halloween on a Saturday, which hopefully means more nice celebrations.