Paul Werkema
LightNews LightNews
banner
paulwerkema.bsky.social
Paul Werkema
@paulwerkema.bsky.social
180 followers 53 following 500 posts
Avid Reader, Gamer, and hiker. I write about retro and indie video games, and books about video games.
Blog: paulwerkema.com
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@paulwerkema?si=1yNPp3bS90VU73ie
Posts Replies Media Videos
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/27/i...
Ikari Warriors II is Better than the first game - Talking Pixels
Victory Road was renamed Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road in the US. It was released in Japanese arcades in 1986 and in North America in 1987. The NES port of the game was released in 1988. It takes th...
paulwerkema.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:33 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
This was a fun puzzle.
January 27, 2026 at 3:58 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Ikari Warriors on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/26/i...
Ikari Warriors on the NES, Not as Good as Commando - Talking Pixels
Ikari Warriors is one of the games that I remember playing when I was in high school. A friend of mine kept describing this game as something completely different from what it was. It was very cheap w...
paulwerkema.com
January 26, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Paul Werkema
thevideogamelibrary.org
1782. WHAT VIDEO GAMES HAVE TO TEACH US ABOUT LEARNING AND LITERACY

👉 www.thevideogamelibrary.org/book/what-vi...

Author and educator, James Paul Gee, looks seriously at the good that can come from playing #VideoGames.

#Games4Ed #EdTech #Gaming #Booksky
Cover of the Revised and Updated Edition of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee. The top features green pixel-style text on black, followed by a red banner, a quote from Henry Jenkins, and the author’s name in bold black against a light blue background.
January 23, 2026 at 7:11 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Demonschool. I really wanted to like the game more than I did.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/21/d...
Demonschool is an Great Tactical RPG - Talking Pixels
Demonschool is one of the games I was looking forward to from last year. The release slipped past me, and I ended up playing it a few months after it was released. From what I remember of the demo, th...
paulwerkema.com
January 21, 2026 at 7:52 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Phantasy Star III and Sweet Home.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/18/w...
Which is Better? PS III or Sweet Home - Talking Pixels
Phantasy Star III and Sweet Home are wildly different RPGs. Both of them are fairly unique when I compare them to the other RPGs I’ve played. There are a few similarities, but these games have far mor...
paulwerkema.com
January 18, 2026 at 9:50 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I compared Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/17/w...
Which Final Fantasy is Better? NES or Mystic Quest - Talking Pixels
Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest are closer than you might think. While the graphics and gameplay are different, the stories are shockingly similar. I was very surprised to see how close t...
paulwerkema.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:39 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I compared Phantasy Star III to Destiny of an Emperor.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/16/w...
Which is Better? Phantasy Star III, Destiny of an Emperor - Talking Pixels
Phantasy Star III and Destiny of an Emperor are very different games. One is a more traditional RPG, while the other has a little strategy to its gameplay that you won’t find in other games from this ...
paulwerkema.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:23 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
He's so tired that he couldn't make it to his bed.
January 13, 2026 at 2:42 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I feels like a simplified version of the first game.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/12/t...
The Much-Maligned Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Better than you think - Talking Pixels
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is a starter RPG that was supposed to help introduce the genre to North America. At the time it was released, RPGs weren’t as popular as they are now. I’ll be looking forwar...
paulwerkema.com
January 12, 2026 at 9:37 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I compared Dragon Quest II with Dragon Quest III.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/11/w...
Which is Better? Dragon Quest II vs III - Talking Pixels
Between Dragon Quest II and III, Enix made a few significant changes to the core gameplay of their RPG series. Both games are improvements over the first game in the series. They have similar settings...
paulwerkema.com
January 12, 2026 at 12:53 AM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest III.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/10/w...
Which is Better? Dragon Quest vs Dragon Quest III - Talking Pixels
The Dragon Quest series usually makes minor changes from game to game while keeping the same general style. Looking at the third and first games, you can see how much the series changed in a few short...
paulwerkema.com
January 10, 2026 at 9:09 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Dragon Quest III on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/09/d...
Dragon Quest III: The Greatest Game in the First Trilogy - Talking Pixels
Dragon Quest III is one of the many games that I first played on an emulator back in the mid 1990s. After playing it, I picked up the game when I was collecting retro games in the 2000s. I really didn...
paulwerkema.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:27 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Gotcha! The Sport! On the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/07/g...
Gotcha! The Sport! One of LJNs Better Games - Talking Pixels
Gotcha! The Sport! is a 1987 light gun game developed by Atlus and published by LJN. It is based on a 1985 movie and used as a vehicle to promote LJN’s paintball guns. When I started to look into this...
paulwerkema.com
January 7, 2026 at 5:05 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Fire'n Ice on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/05/f...
Fire’n Ice: The Best Puzzle Game on the NES - Talking Pixels
Have you ever bought a game, set it on a shelf, and then forgotten about it? Well, that is what I did with Fire’n Ice. I have no idea when I got this game or how long I’ve owned it. Fire’n Ice is a pu...
paulwerkema.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:08 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Showdown: Legends of Wrestling on the PS2.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/02/s...
Showdown: Legends of Wrestling is Good but Not Great - Talking Pixels
Showdown: Legends of Wrestling was released in 2004 and was the last game in the series. It is also one of the last games that Acclaim released before it went bankrupt. This little tidbit made me want...
paulwerkema.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:05 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Legends of Wrestling II on the PS2.

paulwerkema.com/2026/01/01/l...
Legends of Wrestling II: Better than the First, still not Great - Talking Pixels
Legends of Wrestling II was released in 2002. The first game in the series was decent, but it had quite a few problems. I played the GameCube versions of the first two games, and the PS2 version of th...
paulwerkema.com
January 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Paul Werkema
mikedrucker.bsky.social
One of the coolest things I got to do all of last year
gameinformer.com Game Informer @gameinformer.com · 26d
We connected King’s Quest creator Roberta Williams to comedy writer @mikedrucker.bsky.social, who may be her biggest fan, for a conversation about the series’ legacy and a generation’s connection to it.

The full article has been moved from behind the paywall! gameinformer.com/feature/2026...
January 1, 2026 at 6:16 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Legends of Wrestling on the PS2.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/30/l...
Legends of Wrestling on the PS2: An Odd Game - Talking Pixels
A while ago, I looked at the GameCube wrestling games, and two of them stood out as being better than I was expecting. The Legends of Wrestling games were surprisingly fun to play, especially after ge...
paulwerkema.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:54 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/28/t...
Tecmo Super Bowl: One of the Best NES Games - Talking Pixels
Tecmo Bowl holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first football games I ever played, and something that I enjoyed with my friends when I was a kid. The second game in the series, Tecmo ...
paulwerkema.com
December 28, 2025 at 8:08 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII on the PS2.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/27/r...
RoTK VII: The Best Game in the Series - Talking Pixels
Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII might sound like an odd choice for a game to look at. It is right in the middle of the series, and much of what it does has been improved on. The game was released in...
paulwerkema.com
December 27, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Paul Werkema
bossfightbooks.com
Get on our mailing list for sales, discount codes, & announcements!

I pride myself on being not too spammy about it. The soft sell is the only sell I can live with, and that's... the Boss Fight difference

7bc1fc7c.sibforms.com/serve/MUIFAO...
Boss Fight Newsletter Sign-up
7bc1fc7c.sibforms.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:30 AM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about some video games I played during Christmas when I was a kid.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/22/t...
The Best Retro Games as Christmas Presents - Talking Pixels
Christmas is a fun time of the year. It was one of two times a year that I would get new video games when I was a kid. Not only that, but it was a welcome break from school. At times, I dreaded going ...
paulwerkema.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:43 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about Home Alone on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/19/h...
Home Alone on the NES: Not that Great - Talking Pixels
I recently took a look at the Genesis version of Home Alone, and I wanted to look back at the NES version. This is a game that I have a vague memory of playing. From what I remember, I played it at an...
paulwerkema.com
December 19, 2025 at 9:04 PM
paulwerkema.bsky.social
I wrote about The Punisher on the NES.

paulwerkema.com/2025/12/18/o...
One of the Best LJN NES Games - Talking Pixels
The Punisher on the NES really stands out from the other games in the LJN library. A big reason for this is that it is a good game. In this case, the developers took Marvel’s property and turned it in...
paulwerkema.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:48 PM