Scanline Talks

Systems are such a special part of games. Sets of rules and features that turn into engines to produce unique outcomes as they crash together. And the mechanics that make up these systems can stand out as truly remarkable. Here are our favorites from the last year. The Nominees Are: Weather (Death Stranding 2: On the Beach) Highroller (of the Devil) Media Literacy Quizzes (of the Devil) Smashing Everything (Donkey Kong Bananza) Duels (Dynasty Warriors: Origins) Voltage / Last Resort (The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy) Team Up Specials (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment) Live Combat (Pokémon Legends Z-A) Weapon Schools (Rise of the Ronin) Back-to-basics Skating (Skate Story) The Grand Bazaar (Story of Seasons: The Grand Bazaar) Reloading Rules (Suit for Hire) Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2025 is Lay back by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from GOMA on Bluesky.

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 5-6, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 5-6, Kamen Rider Blade 5-6 Pretty Cure has a new villain for us. Dekaranger has things to say about capitalism's hunger for oil. Blade has decided to just acknowledge what's going on, and not insult our intelligence. All-in-all, a solid week here on Sunday Henshin Time, where three lineups of transforming heroes face the problems of the week, and rise above. Mostly. Garren does get his butt kicked pretty often. The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas! To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link! Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 1-2, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 1-2, Kamen Rider Blade 1-2 Here comes a new story. Or three, to be more precise. With our Journey to the Worst in the bag, Kyrie and I leave Dragon Ball behind for the moment, and head to new territory. But what could we possibly cover where we'd have that same magic combination of undercovered work that we can act as experts about, and that we're very passionate about? It's a short list, I think. But you know? Pretty Cure, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider? Yeah, I think that makes the cut. We're starting Sunday Henshin Time with the first two episodes of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, and Kamen Rider Blade. And we're riding this baby all the way. I suspect we'll die before we fully catch up XD but enjoy the ride until then! The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas! To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link! Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

Games. Turns out, you tend to play them. In years past, we have often tried to talk about the elegance of particular systems and mechanics before, but we never had a category exclusive to that. Debuting this year, we wanted to award our favorite mechanics from 2024. The Nominees Are: Mind Chess (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit) Learning Languages (Chants of Sennaar) Bullet Guidance (Children of the Sun) Lane Rails (Deadlock) Memories (Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake) Pawns (Dragons Dogma 2) Bravery Points (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Stratagems (Helldivers 2) Bond (Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom) Team Up (Marvel Rivals) The Car (Pacific Drive) The Starry Expanse (Riven [2024]) Fast Talk (Star Wars Outlaws) Possession (Slitterhead) Rewind (Tetrachroma) Guard Thrust (Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]) Tactics (Unicorn Overlord) Special Training Plan (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

You know, despite our ambitions of being a gaming coverage site, we talk about a lot of anime. Our most frequent and consistent shows are about anime and manga, so of course we had to dedicate a category to it. In one of our more prestigious awards, we discuss our favorite anime and manga of the year from 2024. The Nominees Are: BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!! (Anime) Delicious in Dungeon (Anime) Dragon Ball (Manga) Dragon Ball GT (Anime) The Elusive Samurai (Anime) Heterogenia Linguistico (Manga) Martian Successor Nadesico (Anime) Our Dreams At Dusk (Manga) Overman King Gainer (Anime) Ranma 1/2 (2024) (Anime) Turn A Gundam (Anime) Wind Breaker (Anime) Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Manga) Yotsuba& (Manga) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

Music is a weird category for us, or rather pair of categories thanks to it being split in twain. We aren't music crits, and we don't cover the music industry or its releases. Instead, we discuss music via its presence in other things we cover- games and anime. Anime openings and closings, themes in games, that sort of thing. We'll leave the record industry to the experts. The Nominees Are: Haruhikage by MyGO!!!!!! (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) Hitoshizuku by MyGO!!!!!! (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) seisyun complex by kessoku band (Bocchi the Rock!) Otonoke by Creepy Nuts (Dandadan) Jaka Jaan by Zedd feat. C&K (Dragon Ball Daima) Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku by Field of View (Dragon Ball GT) Plan A by dish// (The Elusive Samurai) VERSUSIA [Versusia's Theme] by Tsutomu Narita (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Welcome to the PARADE! [Vikala's Theme] (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Radiant Dawn [Queen Dizzy's Theme] by AISHA (Guilty Gear -Strive-) Symphony [A.B.A.'s Theme] by Naoki Hashimoto (Guilty Gear -Strive-) King Gainer Over! by Yoshiki Fukuyama (Overman King Gainer) It's Going Down Now by (Persona 3 Reload) Iinazukkyun by ano (Ranma 1/2 2024) Beneath the Purple Cherry Blossoms Once Again by 二色幽紫蝶 (Touhou Mystia's Izakaya) Turn A Turn by Hideki Saijo (Turn A Gundam) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. Hironobu Kageyama

From Best Character, two phantoms were born. The spotlight-haver and the supporting act shouldn't be fighting with each other. It's not right. But I'll let the supporting acts brawl amongst themselves, that's just entertainment. The Nominees Are: Eustace Winner (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosector's Gambit) Larry Butz (Ace Attorney Movie) The Para Para Brothers (Dragon Ball GT) Genba (The Elusive Samurai) Tsubasa Fukuyama (Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club) Nemesis (Hades II) Maria Campanella (The House in Fata Morgana) Byron (I Am Your Beast) Eislein Burchelli Meijal Hulkenberg (Metaphor: ReFantazio) Lacey (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: The Teal Mask) Straight Cougar (s-CRY-ed) Nix (Star Wars Outlaws) Profi (Stella of the End) Knights of the Rose (Unicorn Overlord) Hayato Suō (Windbreaker) Billy (Zenless Zone Zero) Lucy (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is City of Reason by Alkemie from Pentiment, whose character Andreas won Best Game Character in the Gimmick Awards 2022.

"Action Toolkit" is the best phrasing we could come up with, but it's like... you know when you play a game, and you push buttons, and it feels good? Yeah. That. A nice wall jump, a cool counter, a great set of tools that come together to form a playstyle and concept that feel good and engage your brain. Not everything on here is an action game. It does kinda exclude turn-based games, however. The Nominees Are: Madeline (Celeste 64) Globule (Decline's Drops) Kez (Dota 2) Thief (Dragon's Dogma 2) Witch's Staff (Hades 2) Doctor Strange (Marvel Rivals) Jeff the Land Shark (Marvel Rivals) Luna Snow (Marvel Rivals) Peni Parker (Marvel Rivals) Engage Gundam Booster (Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2) Yi (Nine Sols) Pepper (Pepper Grinder) Darkrai (Pokemon Unite) Ho-Oh (Pokemon Unite) Psyduck (Pokemon Unite) Sargon (Prince of Persia The Lost Crown) Night Owl (Slitterhead) Burnice White (Zenless Zone Zero) Miyabi Hoshimi (Zenless Zone Zero) Tsukishiro Yanagi (Zenless Zone Zero Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is Pizza Deluxe! from Pizza Tower, whose main playable character Peppino won our Best Action Toolkit category in the Gimmick Awards 2023.