Into The Spine

Tales about video games and their lasting impact.

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Turn It Down - Into The Spine

2 months ago | intothespine.com | Mikhail Madnani

Editor’s note: Spoilers for Paranormasight’s opening hours to follow. Several days after my birthday in early 2023, a review code found its way into my inbox. It was for Square Enix’s new mystery-adventure Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. Considering this happened amidst a busy work period as press, I didn’t expect to be able to afford too much time on it. A fourth-wall break moment early on, however, quickly changed my mind.
On Gardening - Into The Spine

Jan 13, 2025 | intothespine.com | Autumn McGarr

In 2002, a ballistic Hail Mary port from Sega lands Sonic Adventure 2 in the hands of kids whose parents asked the Circuit City guy which console has the least violent games. In 2002, I’m the sort of girl who’s too old to wipe her nose on her sleeves but does it anyway. There’s a vast and murky expanse of river between 11 and 12 and I’m still stood on the bank catching frogs. There’s a sister, younger but somehow not, and a baby we didn’t ask for.
Stories of 2024 - Into The Spine

Dec 30, 2024 | intothespine.com | Diego Nicolás Arguello |Diego Nicolás Arguello

The thing that excites me most about art is specificity. Small truths which can only come from lived experience. Sorry We’re Closed was a dangerously potent dose of specificity. Set amidst the impoverished (though naturally stylish) queer scene of London, where angelic and demonic forces clash, and being single means being trapped in a survival horror game. For anyone dating in 2024, romance and horror are hardly surprising bedfellows.
Please Stop Giving Wizards Guns

Nov 24, 2024 | intothespine.com | Dayten Rose

Tactical Breach Wizards is an easy game to like. It’s well-designed, and funny in a slickly cynical way. Its portrayal of cops is careful, if funambulatory. But something about it has nagged me from the beginning. Why should a game about creative problem solving underpinned by actual magic employ the most tired imagery in gaming? Games have a checkered history with guns.
My Gender is Liberty

Nov 9, 2024 | intothespine.com | Megan Wells

It is the early 2000s. You are a teenage girl. You love to play shooters. Your playable character options in these games are Guy and Slightly Different Guy. It is 2009. You’ve branched out into RPGs and online games, including World of Warcraft. Your playable character options have expanded, too: now you get Guy, Slightly Different Guy, Nerdy Guy, and Girl. Playing Guy feels right — it’s familiar, and it’s the default setting for the game, so you don’t get any weird story moments.
Heralding the Light

Oct 31, 2024 | intothespine.com | Conor Killmurray

It’s easy to get lost in the dark places of our mind. The negative thoughts guide us along a downward spiral, and it’s difficult to know where to look for the way out. This is why we need reminders that we innately know where to search for the light — even if those reminders come from a live-action rock opera musical inside a video game.
Glance at a Wounded Painting

Aug 19, 2024 | intothespine.com | Samiee Tee

My mom always used to call video games “commercial art.” A copy of a copy of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, cut out of an introductory textbook and used as a template for an Etsy listing, the centerpiece of a coffee shop, or a commentary in framing. For me, I’ve always been one to defend video games stature as “art”. It’s a tale as old as Pong, with both sides bolstering their argument with equal amounts of passion and derision, although in its infancy, both sides still lack maturity.
To Be Worthy of Who You Love

Jul 21, 2024 | intothespine.com | Kyle Tam

Editor’s note: Spoilers for Persona 3‘s ending to follow. The final day of the school year. I’m on the rooftop with my friend, Hidetoshi Odagiri. My vision is pink: pink UI, pink tint, pink everything. But of course it is — this is Persona 3 Portable, and I’m the female protagonist. I maxed out Hidetoshi’s Social Link three months ago, and all I have to do now is hear his confession out. But he doesn’t confess to me. Not quite.
View to Kill - Into The Spine

May 25, 2024 | intothespine.com | Stephen Wilds

In a constantly evolving ‘live’ game, it’s no surprise that certain seasons favor some and spurn others. Fortnite lives and breathes off its continually changing sets of weaponry, but for most players, these alterations are minuscule – a slight tweak in the meta. As a legally blind user, however, I distinctly remember “Chapter 4 Season 3: Wilds,” not just for copying my last name, but because it finally molded me into a proper hunter. It made me the Predator.
I'm Gonna Marry a Mayor

Mar 10, 2024 | intothespine.com | Lena Wilson

I knew my girlfriend, Nadine, was marriage material when I got COVID. Not because she took care of me, buying me Gatorade and walking my dog so I could sleep for 20-hour stretches, but because of how seriously she took Animal Crossing: New Leaf. With little more to do than lie down, I knew I’d spend much of my convalescence slaying Bokoblins on my new Switch Lite. So I gave Nadine my old 3DS and New Leaf to pass the time while I rested.