This review—which I will be keeping relatively short (under thirty pages)—is for X-Fusion (2025), a "total conversion" romhack [1] for Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid Fusion (2002) by Metaquarius . It is not a thematic analysis of the game or its textual elements (for that , refer to my series of essays, " X Marks the Spot ," 2025). Instead, it covers the base game; i.e., as something to play and watch, and in similar ways to the old interviews I conducted for my initial PhD research (re: " Mazes and Labyrinths ," 2021). While I have played the game, myself, much of this review was gleaned by watching a variety of Metroid speedrunners suffer on YouTube and Twitch (the three primarily featured here being CScottyW , Oatsngoats and Shiny Zeni ); i.e., because I am not a speedrunner but do research Metroidvania as games to speedrun. As for the game its...
This interview is for "Hailing Hellions," a Q&A series where I interview sex workers (or ex-sex workers) who have modeled for me and my Sex Positivity* book project. Today's guest is Goddess Asterin ! This is the SFW version; click here for the SFW-version interview compendium! *The longer title being Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art (2023). Part of an overarching movement that connects sex positivity to what I call "Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism," Sex Positivity essentially provides a hybrid; i.e., one established between academic (Gothic, queer, game and Marxist) theories, and wherein applied theory towards universal liberation is achieved by challenging Capitalist Realism (the inability to imagine a world beyond Capitalism) at a grassroots level. To it, Gothic Communism specifically occurs through direct mutual worker actio...