Max Frequency

Happy six year anniversary to the reveal of PS5 boxes! Who would have suspected that this would be the last time?

"Paper Plates is an unofficial, fan-made hardcover cookbook inspired by the fantastical world of Paper Mario, featuring 35 delicious, charming recipes and full-color art by Matthew Taranto, creator of Brawl in the Family." This a seriously Max-coded product. I have vivid memories of printing off a 100% recipe guide for Zess T.'s cookbook in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as a kid. It's one of my first 100% obsessions in games. You should give this project a look. Even though the…

Cibby is an app built for people who love physical games. Explore and rediscover your collection in stunning interactive 3D. If I wasn't building out my own personal collection database, I'd take a hard look at Cibby. This little teaser video does more for me than the apps I looked at years ago before settling on a spreadsheet.

👋🏻 My latest essay was not the one I envisioned writing or publishing next. I was in full swing on what you might think of as "mythical" Memento/TLOUPII essay and found out Abby and I were expecting a new baby. That turned into a miscarriage, right around when I was eager to distract myself from the essay and life. Marathon also came out and we all know how that went for me. In that season of excitement and a new kiddo though, I got this idea about legacy and what we leave behind for our kids.…

A sneaky crew of thieves sets out to reclaim Sly Cooper's family tome—The Thievius Raccoonus. Slink and steal your way across the globe against a colorful cast of animal characters in this captivating 3D platformer. You ain't ever heard a bass line like those in the game. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 7/3/26 Beat: 7/6/26 Total Playtime: 7~8 hours Legacy Unique, suave, bold, and the birth of my favorite PS2 mascot 3D platformer. A series with a strong fanbase, but never the…

Nick "Woz" Wozniak of Yacht Club Games catches up with Max to share lessons from delays, restrictions, and new adventures hot off the heels of releasing Mina the Hollower. Download (31MB) — Episode Transcript Show Notes Welcome BTP3 - Yacht Club Games on Kickstarter and the Future of Shovel Knight

👋🏻 I know it has been quite around these here newsletter parts. The reason why was I have been working through another pair of miscarriages with my wife and they drained my desire to create. Then I felt a call to write about them. And so I worked through a new essay called "Moments." I hope you go give it a read. I'll share more about the process soon. I just wanted to poke my head up in your inbox and let you know I didn't stop, I just needed to make this one behind closed doors. Until next…

An Essay About Lessons through Games and Miscarriages Spoiler WarningThis essay talks about key moments in the following games. If you haven't played them and wish to do so unspoiled, what are you waiting for?Go play them! I'll be here. Journey by thatgamecompany Outer Wilds by Mobius Digital Tunic by Isometricorp Games Pierce Brown, Light Bringer"To those who wrote that we might read, to those who fell so we might walk, to those who came before so we might come after, gratitude." There's a…

This morning Sony decided to keep up with the Joneses over at Xbox and announce a double whammy of bad news—the PS3 and Vita PSN stores are shutting down for real this time and there will be no more physical games produced for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028. Here's Sid Shuman on the PlayStation Blog: After nearly two decades of supporting the PS3 console generation, we wanted to let you know we will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita... ...As a result,…

We are going back to Raccoon City! So pack your zombie survival kits and uncover the mysteries with Max Roberts and Logan Moore alongside special guests Michael Ruiz and Ricky Frech! Can action and horror be perfectly balanced or are those ambitions better off buried like RC was nearly 30 years ago? Download (53MB) — Episode Transcript

"Pixel Symphonic is a show about video game music. We’re here to learn and talk about it with the people who make it, the people who listen to it, and everything in between." I was perusing the Original Soundchat podcast feed the other day, as one does, and was shocked to see a new episode for a new podcast by Joe DeVader—published back in March 2026! Oh the delight I felt when seeing the episode and the new show's first guest. I'm half way through the catalog already and if you are like me and…

Capcom's action and horror gameplay mash up like never before with the split campaign of Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy. Flexible perspectives and scenarios makes for a nostalgic, celebratory title. It felt more like a "cover album" to me though than a "Greatest Hits" sort of compilation. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 2/27/26 Beat: 3/16/26 Total Playtime: 12:07:16 Legacy Overall Pre-release wishes in our hopes and dreams episode Ensemble cast. Legacy characters to return. Jill…

Video essayist Kohana joins Max to have a retrospective chat about the June 2026 Nintendo Direct before diving into the differences between a review and a retrospective, good/bad thumbnails, and then their own reviews of Mina the Hollower. Download (40MB) — Episode Transcript Show Notes Nintendo's June 2026 Direct Nintendo Direct June

The pinnacle of Pokémon design, story, and gameplay. A honest RPG with the grind to prove it with ties and lore so perfectly seeded over the years. A masterful remake and an unforgettable experience. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 8/14/22 Beat: 11/8/22 Total Playtime: Johto on 10/8/22 at 31:32 total time Kanto/Red on 11/8/22 at 59:01 total time Legacy How on Earth did Peter stay friends with me… (regarding BOPIIAC clip) Iwata It took me back. I was printing out webpages, writing…

The first direct Pokémon sequel and it came out after the 3DS was in the world (can't ignore that DS install base). Game Freak really explored the narrative potential and space beyond the usual and I think it works well enough. The world and activities with Pokémon were also diverse and a real lived in feel. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 11/26/23 Beat: 12/23/23 with 21:41 on the clock Total Playtime: 22:19:00 Overall The game only feels like a sequel in the sense that characters…

Truths and ideals are put to the test in one of the Pokémon franchise's most philosophical entries. The DS style was cemented and Game Freak really tried to expand and evolve the formula. You'd be hard pressed to find more robust entries. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 2023-10-05 Beat: 2023-11-18 Total Playtime: 41:35:00 hours Legacy HOPES. DREAMS. DISCOVERIES. Legacy issues with gear/wireless features. C-Gear in this case, but prevalent in the older games. Design and support of…

I finished 007 First Light yesterday at 2:00 AM and after coming down from the endgame high, my thoughts went back to a lingering question—what does John Gruber think about this new Bond game? Long time readers of Daring Fireball will know that John is quite the fan of 007. That also includes the stone cold classic GoldenEye 007 on the N64. Heck, he once had a software company named Q Branch with a notes app called "Vesper." Like many, Gruber was nervous about the creative rights to the iconic…

007 First Light Notes A breath of fresh air—for the game industry, IO, me, and Bond himself. A stylish, confident, slick first outing that will usher in a new era of Bond video games. Earn the number indeed. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 6/7/26 Beat: 6/17/26 Total Playtime: 14~ hours Legacy The beginning of a brand new era of Bond video games to be sure after the Activision hiatus. A welcome new beginning to be sure, especially when the films are also in a lull. Overall I did…

"...But this time around, now that I have a tool installed that warns me if a game or demo includes generative AI content, Steam Next Fest has become a very depressing experience, one in which more than half the games I checked out featured an AI content disclaimer... ...I sympathize with indie devs trying to create something cool and then having to dedicate even more of their limited time and resources to making a demo that might not even get seen because Steam is flooded with new games every…

This year at Xbox's Games Showcase, new CEO Asha Sharma made the announcement that Gears of War: E-Day would be an Xbox console exclusive.1 And that reminded me of an Xbox Gamescom announcement 12 years ago with another console exclusive—Rise of the Tomb Raider. And because I am now old enough to have been blogging that long, my well thought out opinion on that matter lives forevermore. "Game exclusivity blows. Today’s Tomb Raider news at Xbox’s Gamescom press conference was the straw that…

Marathon Notes Marathon (2026) is a live service extraction shooter from Bungie. Load into a shared map with other "Runners," grab the loot, and get out alive—die and you lose whatever you brought along for the run. It's miraculous and I love it. You can read my full thoughts on Marathon in my review. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 2/26/26 Beat: Never Total Playtime: 80~ hours Legacy Overall Become attached to classes, not gear. Marry the glass, date the camera. Marry the shell,…

Mina the Hollower is a modern fusion of Game Boy Color games like Link's Awakening, platform action adventures like Castlevania titles, and modern "Soulslike" ideas all gelled together with Yacht Club's signature retro-inspired, modern-infused design principles. It's difficult and quite expansive, often to its detriment. It is YCG's Zelda as Shovel Knight is their Mario. You can read my full review for my thoughts on the game. WarningSpoilers below! Stats Started Playing: 5/19/26 Beat: N/A…

The E3 dust is settling and there was a lot announced this summer. The final announcement of them all was one we heard about back in March—a full remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And as the Direct came faded out, my reaction was not one of celebration, but a frustrated cry of "that's it?!"1 I was living out what I wrote about when the leaks occurred and the "rumors" of Super Mario Titans: It is far less exciting when the leak is just a statement on a podcast. If Star Fox is…

There has been a vocal sentiment in video game production over the past few of years that only seems to be getting louder as more companies use AI. That's right. The AI corpos have come for Tomb Raider, Crazy Taxi, and maybe even Kingdom Hearts.1 The knee-jerk response I see every time this kind of information is discovered is "The devs used AI? I'm out! Nope! Never!" This reaction, as far as I can tell, is always in regard to visual art assets; something the player could see or hear or…

Review Code Provided by Yacht Club GamesA copy of Mina the Hollower (MSRP $19.99) was provided for review on PlayStation. While I am grateful and humbled, this opportunity did not influence my review of Mina. Yacht Club Games did not see this review before publication or offer any guidelines beyond a standard embargo. Thank you for understanding. Spoiler WarningI do talk about the way to access the final level of the game, which may be considered a spoiler by some. But if I were you, I'd want…

"3Beans emulates the 3DS at a low level, which means that it runs the entire OS as if it were on real hardware. It can boot the home menu and launch some games, but it's still young and has plenty of issues. It has both software and hardware GPU rendering, but CPUs are still fully interpreted." First emulator of its kind that I have seen. 3DS is a tricky one and when Citra got shut down a couple of years ago, I stopped looking at the scene. Apparently, there are quite a few 3DS emulators out…

Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac Will Soon Stop Letting You Edit Documents by Tim Hardwick at MacRumors via 512 Pixels Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite's expiring digital certificate... Microsoft has actually renewed the suite's certificate, but the fix can only be delivered through a software update. That means users of Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 are in the clear –…

This article has sat as an open tab in my mobile browser for I guess nine years now. Time to finally share it. "Last weekend’s New York Times profile of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had plenty of important revelations about Kalanick and the company he runs, both of which have been facing some tough PR lately. But there was one incidental, almost throwaway line buried in the piece that made me stop in my tracks: “In other personal pursuits, he once held the world’s second-highest score for the…

"Designed in California is a podcast dedicated to telling stories from across the whole scope of Apple history, hosted by Myke and Jason. We have been discussing Apple current events in depth on the Upgrade podcast since 2014! Now it's time to consider the bigger picture." Recent guest on The Max Frequency Podcast and friend of the blog, Myke Hurley, is making a new podcast alongside Jason Snell. It's a fusion of Upgrade and their favorite podcast The Rest is History. I am eager to give it a…

Thanks to Jason Kottke, I came across this art project. Each window is a story. It's fun to see the trends too. I noticed tons of nature, as if the residence are trying to escape the concrete jungle. Plenty of Asian massage parlors and feet. This particular one of a billboard for the law firm Morgan & Morgan being warped in glass actually is an accurate representation of how I perceive John Morgan. I do find it disappointing that there is some sort of crypto/NFT angle to the art. Somehow, it…