We’re excited to introduce readers to some of the new(ish!) names to the Punished Backlog community. Shout-out to founding editor David Silbert for managing our new writer recruitment, editor Amanda Tien for organizing this round-up, and editor Sam Martinelli for creating the questions in the first place and always being the first to ask newcomers, “What are your top five favorite games?” Welcome to the crew, new writers!
Oh, also, there have been some long-stay writers in our community who have never been formally introduced, so we’ve highlighted them here as well. See? New… ish.
– The Editors
Darcy Maunder (She/Her)
Surrey, United Kingdom | Joined TPB in Summer 2025
Favorite games: Minecraft, Fields of Mistria, Pokémon (any), Final Fantasy XIV, and Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m generally very flexible with games and will happily try anything — bonus points if I get a good story, cute pets, or a fantasy-book-eque sword!
Articles Darcy wants to write: While I still enjoy playing games alone, I have the most fun playing with friends. The pieces I’ve written so far have both been on solo games (Fields of Mistria and the Dressmaker demo), but I’m currently working on an op-ed for the best goofy party games! I also love to bring any attention I can to indie devs, so I’d love to continue to focus on reviews for lesser-known games in the future.
Other hobbies/interests: I’m a bit of a serial hobby-finder! My most time-consuming one is gaming, but I also enjoy reading, playing the piano, singing, drawing, writing, and occasionally crocheting. Really, I think I’m just finding all the best ways to procrastinate.
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? I’d love to make a huge RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3-style, with detailed character customization, breathtaking storytelling, and NPCs you can get concerningly attached to. It would be third-person (or first-person for better immersion), open-world, and offer both solo play and multiplayer. And it’d have a Lord of the Rings-level soundtrack. It would be a nightmare, if not downright impossible, to develop, but I would never stop playing it.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: Turn-based combat is the worst kind of combat; you do one attack and then have to wait 10 minutes to punch the same guy again. I just want to run around and whack people with my sword.
- Least favorite game(s): Rocket League — I don’t have the spatial awareness for it, so I just fly past the ball and crash a lot.
- Favorite console/generation: I’m very much a PC gamer nowadays, but my first console was the Wii, so it has a special place in my heart!
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Not technically a dead game series, but I miss the first Overwatch!
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Charmander.
Jason Toro (He/Him)
Boston, MA | Joined TPB in September 2019
Favorite games: Hades, Risk of Rain, Final Fantasy XIV, Darkest Dungeon, Gunfire Reborn. In my recent gaming years, I’ve learned just how much I adore roguelikes. But I also love story-driven games (as of writing, I’m currently trying to punch through the Final Fantasy series for the first time!). Hades is the ultimate culmination of the two genres, which is why it genuinely tops my list.
Articles Jason wants to write: I’m a mechanics-head, so a lot of my pieces have been focused on how game mechanics influence the experience of enjoying games. In fact, my 2023 look-back article was all about game mechanics I love! I also do enjoy touching on game storylines and offering my personal constructive criticism on games I adore, like FFXIV.
Other hobbies/interests: I am… too addicted to games. When I’m not playing video games, you can find me either shopping for Yu-Gi-Oh! decks I’m totally going to bring to a local store for a tournament someday, or playing Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder 2E with my friends.
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? I’ve been working on a concept for a game for a while (though it’s never left the design doc phase). You and your friends play as a royal family ousted from your home and looking to get back. It’s essentially Divinity 2, but combat works like Worms. So, instead of being a top-down CRPG, combat plays with angled ranged attacks, magic that works like dropped missiles or molotov cocktails, and really explosive melee combat that requires coordination and careful positioning. I’d also love the story elements to be expansive, with a slowly shifting morality system that locks your choices to three of 12 options, though that’d be hell on the narrative team (me, I’m the narrative team).
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: Steam reviews are among the least reliable narrators for a game’s quality.
- Least favorite game(s): Anthem for giving me any sort of hope and delivering a dull experience.
- Favorite console/generation: Either now (PC) for the deluge of amazing indie games or seventh-gen (DS).
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Kid Icarus: Uprising was great and should be brought back!
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Bulbasaur.
Kei Isobe (He/Him)
Bedford, MA | Joined TPB in August 2017
Favorite games: I went back and looked at my submissions for the site’s Top 50 Games of All Time list from back in June: Super Smash Bros. Melee, Shadow of the Colossus, Nioh 2, Furi, and Sifu. Has anything happened in the last 12 months for me to supplant any of those? (Submissions for the list happened in January.) Not quite, but after sitting on it for a few weeks, Lies of P: Overture has definitely snuck into my top 10: an absolutely fantastic expansion that ties together so many of the mysteries of the base game while having almost all bangers for the bosses (with one exception: Tyrannical Predator’s arena is just way too small).
Articles Kei wants to write: That’s a good question. I tend to write quite sparsely, insofar as there’s a certain level of thoughtfulness or quality I feel I have to achieve to actually be worthy of submitting to the editorial team. I got inspired during a co-working session some of the other writers held the other day, and I’ve got something on my mind for the end of the year about superhero culture.
Other hobbies/interests: I’ve gotten into Magic: The Gathering recently after playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for a long time. I don’t think Magic is a better game than Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it’s certainly more alive in-person in my area, so it is what it is.
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? An almost line-for-line remake of Super Smash Bros. Melee with good netcode on a system that doesn’t have to be connected to a CRT.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: I think most consumers interface with video games through gameplay, but most writers interface with video game writing through, well, every aspect of a game that isn’t gameplay. A better way of saying this, I think, is that for most people, gameplay makes up a large amount of what makes a game worth playing, but video game writing is mostly focused on everything else that isn’t gameplay, which makes for a fairly severe disconnect in terms of supply vs. demand. Secondarily, I think being good at a game is critically important to reviewing it. I often find myself reading a review after beating a game, realizing that the reviewer really did not understand the game they were playing at all.
- Least favorite game(s): Florence. I despise this game, and it is the antithesis of everything good. (Editor’s note: This is an inside joke… or at least we think it’s a joke.)
- Favorite console/generation: The current one.
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Super Smash Bros. Melee. Just to be clear, we are currently on Super Smash Bros. Brawl 3. Melee 2 would be sick.
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Charmander.
Lauryl Fischer (She/Her)
Georgetown, ME | Joined TPB in May 2025
Favorite games: Fall Guys, Hades, Hades II, Limbo, and Webbed.
Articles Lauryl wants to write: I got to publish the piece I was most passionate about, which was an op-ed called “A Case Against Fall Guys’ New Randomized Challenges,” arguing against separate quests as it stops online friends from being able to make progress together.
Other hobbies/interests: I’m a writer who splits my time between writing sci-fi/fantasy middle-grade projects and participating in my text-based literary role-play! I also love listening to podcasts/audiobooks while taking long walks.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: A game doesn’t have to be hard to be good!! Is this a hot gaming take? Not sure; this seems like a pretty lukewarm take but it’s how I feel.
- Least favorite game(s): Rhythm games — I simply get too overwhelmed. (Maybe my hottest take is that Overcooked is actually a rhythm game and therefore Overcooked stresses me out!!!)
- Favorite console/generation: The OG Game Boy Color really saw me throughout childhood.
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Charmander!
Matt Plaus (He/Him)
Queens, NYC | Joined TPB in November 2025
Favorite games: It’s always hard for me to choose a list of all-time favorites of anything. I feel like I’m going to leave something deserving off and kick myself later. But if you put a metaphorical gun to my head, here it goes: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Slay the Spire, Bloodborne, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and Disco Elysium. Whether it’s through difficult gameplay, complicated puzzles, or a thought-provoking story, I love games that push me to my limit and force me out of my comfort zone.
Articles Matt wants to write: This is my first crack at games journalism, so I’m still figuring out exactly what I want to write about. Right now, I’m just chasing the feeling you get when you finish a game and need to gush about it to your friends. Next up: trying to put that experience into words on a page. In my first article, I talked about my love of puzzle games and why I had a particularly great experience with Opus Magnum.
Other hobbies/interests: I love staying in shape through all kinds of fitness activities like running, lifting weights, and practicing yoga. I’m also a big reader, and I just started the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: The Nintendo 64 controller is not a stupid design for three-armed freaks. It was a smart design that allowed you to switch between two different styles of controller, whether you were playing a 2D or 3D game.
- Least favorite game(s): Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is my most regretted purchase. No shade to people who enjoy these games, but I genuinely don’t get them. The combat is uninteresting, the story is silly, and the repetitive voicelines made me want to throw my Switch out of a moving bus.
- Favorite console/generation: Nintendo 64 for nostalgia. Xbox 360 for games.
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Portal. I miss Cave Johnson.
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Squirtle!
Mark Bowers (He/Him)
Somerville, MA | Joined TPB (officially) in July 2024
Favorite games: Red Dead Redemption 2, Pokémon Silver, Super Mario 3D World, God of War Ragnarök
There is no theme to my favorite games; they’re simply the ones that have made the biggest impact on me, one way or another. Red Dead Redemption 2 stands tall — the world, the characters, everything about it made me fall in love with it. God of War Ragnarök may not even be superior to its predecessor (and I will be the first to tell you that), but my goodness is the gameplay satisfying. Pokémon Silver, on the other hand, was my first favorite game. It may have been the first game I ever beat — so many good memories with it (and Soul Silver)! And finally, Super Mario 3D World. Yes, you read that right. No, it isn’t the best Mario game, but it does one thing that few others can, which is throw endless and near-perfect quick-hit levels at you. To me, that’s the true sign of a great game.
Articles Mark wants to write: I started writing occasional guest op-eds (such as ranking Super Bowl Half-Time Shows in 2019 and about Horizon Forbidden West in 2022) until David finally convinced me last year to join as an official writer. Since then, I’ve written about games I am passionate about but also pushed my boundaries and dabbled in reviews. I really like to write about whatever piques my interest. There is one article I have been meaning to get to for some time, though. Not to spoil it, but check back on May the Fourth for more (yes, editors, I know I know; this next May the Fourth will be the one)!
Other hobbies/interests: Outside of gaming and writing for The Punished Backlog, I love skiing and getting outdoors. I make an effort to get in 10-15 days on the slopes every ski season. I’m also an avid fan of all Boston sports and my Villanova Wildcats! Finally, I love spending time with my dog, Maple, who keeps me busy when the days are slow!
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? I am going to cheat on this and flip it. In line with my favorite game, I would love to make a big-budget prestige Red Dead Redemption television series. I think the story is perfect for a Sunday night HBO slot (instead of The Last of Us), and you can absolutely build on the world that Rockstar has given us. Who knows, with infinite time, maybe I can even finish the series before we (finally) get Grand Theft Auto VI!
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: The games that stick with you the most aren’t always the best quality; they’re where you have the most fun. To this day, I still pick up random rounds of Star Wars: Battlefront II (the OG, of course). Not because it’s an elite game, but because I have so many great memories playing it. I will always pick up a legacy game if it’s special.
- Least favorite game(s): I don’t have a specific answer for this, as I rarely give a lot of time to games that don’t resonate with me, but I do have some least favorite tropes. As someone who has always loved open-world games, I am begging developers to STOP making every mission the same! You have a whole world to build on… get creative! I don’t want to climb to various waypoints just for something to do. Make it meaningful!
- Favorite console/generation: The PlayStation 4 is hard to top for me… God of War, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3… so many gems. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Sucker Punch, can we PLEASE get another Infamous??? I’ll even accept a remake. It deserves one. Bring Cole back!
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Squirtle! I had Pokémon Blue, so of course my five-year-old brain assumed I needed the blue Pokémon. Turned out to be a critical life decision — I am team water all the way!
Scarlet Hardy (She/They)
West Yorkshire, United Kingdom | Joined TPB in November 2025
Favorite games: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) has to take the top spot. It’s the game that made me want to write about games, because I loved the narrative and puzzle designs so much (to the point where I even got a tattoo inspired by the game!). For the rest of my favorite games, I have to go with Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Articles Scarlet wants to write: I love achievement hunting as well as fantasy and horror games, so anything combining those interests is right up my alley. I also really enjoy doing deep dives into games and their lore, so you can expect those kinds of things from me.
Other hobbies/interests: I spend a lot of my free time writing scripts, as well as painting Dungeons & Dragons minis with a film on in the background. I also enjoy occasionally playing the violin, reading, and baking!
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? I have a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I wrote a while ago that I would love to turn into a game if I had unlimited time and resources. I can picture it having very Skyrim-esque gameplay and graphics.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: Resident Evil Re:Verse (2022) was actually a pretty fun game!
- Least favorite game(s): Unfortunately, I just cannot get myself to enjoy multiplayer first-person shooters like Valorant or Overwatch (Sorry, esports fans).
- Favorite console/generation: I’m primarily a PC gamer now, but I have a soft spot for the Nintendo DS, because it’s what I grew up playing! I was obsessed with Fashion Designer: Style Icon (2007), and obviously Nintendogs (2005).
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: I would have loved to see another game in the Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk series, but I can completely understand why it would be left as just a duology. (Also worth noting to check the trigger warnings before playing either game!)
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Bulbasaur, 100%.
Sean Cabot (He/Him)
Holliston, MA | Joined TPB in November 2025
Favorite games: Resident Evil 4 (original or remake, doesn’t matter to me), The World Ends With You, Bloodborne, Tales of Vesperia, Xenoblade Chronicles X. I’m definitely an RPG buff, though I do notice a slight underdog theme in all of them, whether it’s humanity vs. a harsh new planet in Xenoblade, the ragtag crew of Vesperia, or the lone hunter of Bloodborne.
Articles Sean wants to write: I’m mainly interested in deep-dive thematic analysis in the vein of my debut article on LIVE A LIVE. I also have an interest in mapping the branching influences of various works, which is in and of itself a narrative. And finally, I want to bring obscure or underappreciated topics to our readership’s attention — notable fan projects, other related subcultures and how they intersect with gaming, obscure cult hits, etc.
Other hobbies/interests: I’m deeply into anime and manga, having been a lifelong fan. I got into American comics in the last few years, as well as Magic: The Gathering in the last few months. Each hobby has proved to be its own uniquely stressful financial burden.
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? If I’m being given a licensed title, a Yakuza-style Baccano! game. As for an original idea, though, I would make a party-based action RPG, preferably with a large cast of original characters of eclectic origin. In the same vein as something like Evilzone, they would be characters derived from various genres duking it out. I would want a down-to-earth human side to the story as well.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: Kid Icarus: Uprising’s control scheme isn’t bad, actually. You just have to have the proper grip.
- Least favorite game(s): World of Kungfu: Dragon & Eagle. Buggy, unfinished, and robbed me of my party members.
- Favorite console/generation: I know it gave rise to a lot of bad practices, but the increase in availability of games during the eighth generation, combined with a lot of my favorite series getting their due, makes it my favorite. So many of my favorite games are from this gen that it’s kind of absurd. This is purely subjective; I get that sixth probably has better quality proportional to the amount of games being released, but I am admittedly biased.
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: Ace Attorney or Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Probably Dissidia because at least Ace Attorney got some recent re-releases, so I feel like it’s got some legs. Dissidia had one underwhelming game a while ago, and Square Enix gave up on it. Really, I’d just be fine with a remake of Duodecim, but a sequel would be appreciated.
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Charmander.
Vaughn Hunt (He/Him)
Kalamazoo, MI | Joined TPB in July 2024
Favorite games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Dark Cloud 2, Tekken 5
Articles Vaughn wants to write: I’ve been writing for the site since last July and have a couple of articles I’m really proud of. I wrote a retrospective looking at 30 years of Tekken, which was a fun nostalgia piece for me since that’s my holiday game. The other piece I’m really glad I wrote was the Wuxia genre one, especially now that I’ve played half the games on the list in some form. I’ve got several pieces I’d like to finish before the year is out, including a piece discussing Sony’s history with demos, an anime retrospective, and maybe another review or two.
Other hobbies/interests: I love to write fiction (when I can finish something lol). I used to be big into running, but mainly I like fitness in general. I love soccer and basketball as sports, and would love to pick up guitar eventually.
You have an infinite budget and infinite time. What kind of video game do you make? There are about six games I could easily rattle off making, but I’ll go with a horror-action game featuring two protagonists in a made-up Pacific Northwest town. The game would focus on exploring a plethora of different global cultural stories and the occult, while featuring a rich combat system with the speed of quick-time events but the button-mashing of a fighting game. If you took Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and combined it with Princess Resurrection (the manga, to be clear), you might land somewhere close.
Lightning Round!
- Hottest Gaming Take: Bring back fighting games where characters can remove 40%-90% of your health in one well-timed attack instead of a long combo.
- Least favorite game(s): Call of Duty, mostly due to the series’ infinite spam of empty content.
- Favorite console/generation: I’m always going to say the current one because I can cop out and enjoy all of the past ones simultaneously. PS2/GameCube/Xbox for the sake of argument.
- Presumed dead game series you’d like to see make a return: I’ve never touched Castlevania, but it’s embarrassing the IP hasn’t had an entry in 10-plus years despite a stellar Netflix series. If Konami can capitalize on that (which I thought was the point), they’ll have a smash hit.
- Gen 1 starter Pokémon: Yellow was my first Pokémon game, so always Pikachu, but I know the question is meant to be one of the classic three, so I’ll go with Bulbasaur.
Get To Know The Punished Backlog
- Check out our Punished Favorites series, which invites writers from the site to weigh in on a prompt, like the best PlayStation 2 games of all time or nine polarizing video games we still love.
- Take a listen to our companion podcast, The Punished Podcast, and hear from us, literally.
- Did you enjoy the questions? They were written by Sam Martinelli, one of the editors here. Amanda Tien, another editor, organized this edition of the round-up and made the graphics. Founding editor David Silbert manages all of our recruitment. Explore our masthead to get to know more of our writers.
- Interested in writing with us? Consider joining us!
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Darcy loves anything fantasy, sci-fi, or adventure. Her dream is to finish her degree and write her own fantasy book, hopefully squeezing in a few games as she goes. She’s a big fan of games where she gets to fight with cool swords, befriend cute animals, and get lost in the story.
You can read more of her writing on her website: https://darcymaunder.com/
Jason graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in English and Game Design. For him, video games are not just an art form, but one of the greatest mediums to tell a story.
When not perpetuating the game journalist stereotype of being awful at a game and blaming the game for it, Jason likes writing short fiction novels that never get past chapter two, and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Huge video game, comic book, and anime fan. Spends way too much time watching things he doesn’t like. Hates Zack Snyder. Mains Falco.
Lauryl loves exploring storytelling in all its forms—books, movies, TV, and video games! She can be convinced to try any game once, but has a soft spot for indie puzzle platformers with distinctive art and accessible games that foster community. When not working her day job in K-12 educational publishing, she roams from cafe to cafe in search of perfect writing ambiance.
Matt has loved video games since he played Super Smash Bros. on an Nintendo 64 in the year 2000. Today, the games he plays most often are puzzlers, Souls-likes, and roguelikes, but he really loves any single-player game that's challenging and/or has a great story.
When he's not gaming, Matt's a public policy nerd who will talk your ear off about how well-designed government forms are the lost gateway to utopia.
Mark is a contributor to The Punished Backlog, often promising articles and occasionally delivering when he actually commits to it. Mark games mainly on his PS5 and his Switch, and some of his favorite games include God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and his all time favorite, Red Dead Redemption 2. When not gaming, Mark is an avid fan of all Boston sports teams and his Villanova Wildcats. He also loves hiking, skiing, and traveling across the U.S.
Scarlet (she/they) is a U.K.-based writer who recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and film from Manchester Metropolitan University. She loves a wide variety of games, but has a soft spot for horror games and cozy indie games. She loves achievement hunting and
is passionate about queer stories being told in video games. She primarily plays games on PC, but sometimes dabbles in console gaming, usually on the Nintendo Switch with games like Animal Crossing and Mario Kart.
Sean Cabot is a graduate of Framingham State University, where he also wrote articles for the student paper before writing for RPGFan. In addition to gradually whittling down his massive backlog, he enjoys reading comics, playing Magic the Gathering, watching as many movies as possible, and adding to his backlog faster than he can shrink it.
Vaughn Hunt is writer who has loved video games since he picked up a controller. His parents wouldn't let him buy swords as a child (he wanted the real ones) so he started writing, reading, and playing video games about them. A historian at heart, you'll often find him deep into a rabbit hole of culture, comics, or music.
