SuperStingray

It seems more of a parody of the Sonic fanbase than the games themselves. The tumblr page and game script is pretending that it's a leak, so I think the idea is it's pretending that Sega hired a group of deviantArt-types to make Sonic games back in the late 90s and tried to sweep it under the rug after seeing what they were actually making. Which is frankly fucking hilarious to think about.

So it's a year old by now, but I just watched No Game No Life and have to gush about it. I went in with some skepticism, thinking that it would be just yet another gamer-pandering series that just builds jokes and plotlines around video game tropes, but was surprised to find it wasn't so much about video games as much as proper game theory. If you haven't seen it, basically two NEET siblings, Sora and Shiro, are invited to live in a world where all conflict is resolved through games rather than violence. Thing is, their combined pool of natural talent and lifetime of practice already puts them ahead of the general population, so they rise to power almost exponentially. I'd almost criticize them for being Mary Sues if it weren't for that A: they're so entertaining to watch and B: the series hinges on the premise that they simply never lose. Most of the games either have some weird rule to make it interesting or the opponent is cheating somehow, but the siblings figure out some ABSOLUTELY INSANE gambit to use that rule/cheat in their favor. And when I say insane, I mean you should keep an eye out for the odd, seemingly trivial decisions that Sora makes because I can guarantee it will become pivotal one or two episodes later. After a while, you realize what makes the show interesting isn't the uncertainty of whether they'll win so much as HOW they'll find a way to win, whether it's by predicting their opponent's thought process or exploiting outside factors. The only honest downside is that the rulesets and gambits were sometimes so complex that I had to rewind several times just to keep up with the thought process, but to me that only shows how intelligent the show is. (Well, there is also a lot of fanservice, but it felt more goofy and all in good fun than cheap and sexy, although there are some pretty uncomfortable moments between Sora and Shiro. And not to spoil anything, but one character's panties are responsible for a major turning point in one of the games. ) Also, the crazy oversaturated art style is amazing, but may leave you puking rainbows by the end. But I'm serious, this is probably the most entertaining anime I've watched all year, perhaps in my all time top 5. The sense of ascending stakes and magnitude with each successive episode scratches an itch that hasn't been scratched this well since Gurren Lagann, and I can't wait for the second set of episodes.

I'm more disappointed for their reason behind not releasing Disaster in America. The voice acting and script was laughable? Yeah, no shit, it's an arcade rail shooter. If it doesn't have cringey, poorly delivered dialogue, they're doing it wrong.

Wake me when they announce Ryotaro or Funky Student.