Amnesia Lane: Greatest Hits
Not to just drop this on you suddenly, but next year I plan on demoting myself to an Onion Knight freelancer. There won’t be new material from me every single Drewsday and I also won’t be streaming as often anymore following Final Fantasy III (though I’ll also miss a week or two anyway as I travel for the holidays).
Part (but by no means anywhere near all) of this decision stems from the impression that I have simply not been doing much of my best writing this past while. I’m starting to write because it’s Tuesday, not necessarily because I have something meaningful to say. (And yes, I know today is Wednesday, but I didn’t want to bury Alex’s post right after he published it.) This idea (and my nostalgic nature, as seen last week) does raise a question: What do I think is my best work?
I thought I’d take my last post before Naughty and Nice season kicks in to explore that question at the risk of this turning into the blogging equivalent of a cheesy clip show. I suppose such a thing would be more fitting for an outright retirement, but if I wait until then it might never happen.
Having started with 60 nominations and excluding streams, Fantasy/Aftermarket Soundtracks and GDQ roundups and grinding the list down, I couldn’t help but notice that the list of noteworthy blog posts and well-crafted posts didn’t line up very well. There were some that were in and of themselves important to me, but could hardly be considered my highest quality output. And vice versa, of course. Though none of these articles land in what is apparently the Platonic ideal of a Drewsday post: A nostalgic retelling of personal experience followed by a review roundup.
So what I’ve ended up with through that effort is a list of 18 articles that mostly fall to one side or the other… and a lucky few that do both. These are presented in chronological order, as it was too damn much work to establish the field, let alone agonize over ranking them. And for some reason, no articles from 2010 or 2020 made the cut, which is an odd coincidence.
June 2011: Khan Minus Khan
With a library consisting of oh, so many times I have treated Damage Control as a personal blog, this was a rare outlier. What looks on the surface as simply a new point of view on an all-time greatest genre movie is actually one of those posts in which I talk about myself. Illustrating what insight I gain and feelings I find by a deep dive into a movie can tell you a heck of a lot more about me than reminiscing about TV dinners ever could.
August 2011: The Era of Disposable Games is Already Here
This subject has only gone on to gain more prevalence in the 12 years since writing this. While it was a cold take at the time in 2011, the passage of time makes it look more like a tremendous prediction. Though Diablo III was perhaps a bad example, given how long the series went before Diablo IV came along. It still bears repeating, though, that we can only play either game until Blizzard decides to turn the lights off.
January 2012: Eternally Waiting for the PS3
This is the post I link back to far and away more times than any other, and it simply seemed wrong not to link to it again here. You can also see the seeds of a certain narrative style that will be perfected later on in this list.
April 2013: CES Completed
While I claimed that the three-part 999 diatribe was our first blog-based Let’s Play, the truth is I had forgotten about this much earlier example. And also a second one.
And, honestly, this one works better because I put so much more into it (well, not words, but effort). It was for a game that many more people were familiar with and could follow along. I made some videos to illustrate some of the more unusual twists and turns the CES Challenge threw at me. And it’s not written in a stream-of-consciousness style, so it just plain works better as a blog post.
May 2014: One Reason I Watch Anime
In perhaps the shortest manifesto ever written, I attempt to put a pure emotion into words using niche pop culture as a lens. This was by no means Pulitzer-worthy; it’s one of the purest examples of an “important to me” post on this list.
August 2014: Thoughts on Robin Williams
Contrast the previous post with this one. It has a deeply personal angle, but also a sensitive subject, a timely piece of news and a criticism of something I am eminently qualified to criticize: journalism.
April 2015: Simon Belmont Raises the Stakes!
First off, respect the double pun in the headline. My best work this side of “The PS5 Makes for a Shady Slim” or “NoA: NA is N/A.”
Second off, this one was the REAL Nostradamus post, even though it would take an extra game to be realized. I mean, read that and then look at the announcement video:
April 2016: If You Had One Year of Games…
Of all the features I came up with to inflict on the other writers at Damage Control, this one is my favorite. It doesn’t have the potential for evergreen production of content like Naughty and Nice and console retrospectives do; just a one and done, really. But it was the project I had the most fun putting together. And it was simply a delight that everyone landed on different years.
September 2016: “The Man Trap” Review
On the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, I reviewed the very first episode as though I was seeing it for the first time. It was not a very objective execution, given that I went way out of my way to call out every way the episode differed from what would become standards for The Original Series. But it was a very enjoyable exercise and I hope a rather amusing read for the fans.
February 2017: The Curious Case of Ralph Wiggum
Okay, too many of these have segued too well into each other. From one overexamining of a TV show to put it in a new perspective to another? Strange as it may seem, any and all finalists that might have existed between these two selections were expunged without a care in the world as to how it would affect the order.
I think pieces like this one are nostalgic posts done best: With the focus on the media property, and elevating parts of it you forgot or never noticed into your present view.
August 2017: Total Eclipse of the SNES Classic
This isn’t just an all-time me post. This is an all-time Damage Control post. It also helps illustrate how posts with a theme to their subheadlines tend to be among my best.
July 2018: Graffiti of Blog Generation
I’m using the alternate title for this post because it captures its spirit better. No review of my work on Damage Control could ever be complete without the secret origins issue that came out for DC’s 10th anniversary.
December 2018: Why Wasn’t the PlayStation Classic a Vita TV?
While writing a headline ending with a question mark that can’t be answered with “no” (or even demands the article that follows even answer it) isn’t as hard as people make it look, but it’s noteworthy none the less.
It’s a solid breakdown of how Sony somehow tired too hard and not enough at the same time, which is also a noteworthy accomplishment for them.
May 2019: Gaming Disorder Isn’t What You Think it Is
This is, simply put, easily my greatest piece of both media criticism and education. If I was bothering to rank these posts, it would be a strong contender for No. 1.
August 2021: Evangelion 3.0+1.01 review
No cheesy title for a review this time, just me pouring out everything I got after being wowed by a movie that was so long in coming that it shouldn’t have been capable of meeting any expectation. And yet somehow it was a satisfying and thorough ending to one of Anime’s most convoluted stories. And I just couldn’t stop writing. I seem to be happiest with my longest reviews, and we’ll see one more example of this before we’re done.
December 2021: My Game of the Year
This was my second-most favorite feature project which simply started as a way to snark at The Game Awards and also poorly addresses how Damage Control has never done a (serious) annual award. I enjoyed it so much, I followed it up last year and then followed up the follow up. And I get more satisfied with it every time. No pressure for the 2023 installments, me.
May 2022: Killing the Walkman Killer
In contrast to some other thoughts I’ve had on the subject of nostalgic posts, I still refuse to resist writing personal narratives that are merely related to the subject matter. However, I think this piece struck a really nice and effective balance in its approach: It’s about the history of a tech gizmo and how my life grew along side it.
July 2023: Persona 4 Golden Reflections
While I felt a stronger affinity for Persona 3, Persona 4 was absolutely no slouch. And while I had a fair bit to say on the former, it was like the answers were just flowing out of my keyboard while I was writing about those Golden days. I think I very clearly expressed the themes of Persona 4, perhaps even better than the game itself. While I don’t know if Atlus was actually trying to make a point or if it was just the consequence of tight design, you can get a much more actionable message out of Persona 4.
About The Author
Drew
Features Editor | Drew started behind the 8(bit)-ball in the video game world. He first became interested in anime by chance exposure on the Sci-Fi channel. Drew's the creative force behind blog-wide features, works the movie and food beats, and pioneered Damage Control’s entry into video, podcasts and streaming.
