I’ve been wanting to play Shredder’s Revenge for over a year now. It’s available on Linux via Steam so I looked into it. You can’t buy a physical copy and what’s “sold” is a license. They also have a bundle with a soundtrack. I’m interested. Is that a physical CD? Or a file download? MP3? FLAC? What do you get? I get no answers from the product listing. I have to go to the Steam forum or subreddit to find out how this works. The soundtrack is a download alongside the game available within the Steam client. There’s no DRM (great) and you can easily copy the files over somewhere else if you want to. While this would have certainly been the cheaper option overall, I wanted a physical copy so now I needed a new console.

Consoles

The choice was simple. PlayStation. The hybrid form-factor of the Nintendo Switch isn’t for me as I never game with a portable or mobile. Xbox is out because I hate Microsoft. Sony isn’t a perfect company either¹ but it’s basically the least worst option for me. Also, I already have a PS2 and PS3 so being able to play everything from PS1 through PS5 is cool. I got the one with the disc drive, of course, and just the fact that there’s two models with and without it makes me sad about the outlook of physical games going forward. The little conveniences you get from digital isn’t enough to justify removing the physical option. Physical gives you more sense of ownership, control, and the ability to sell your copy of a game.² I’ll never understand gamers arguing for the removal of physical options. The only point I see they have is having to pay for a disc drive they’ll never use. Well that issue is solved as there’s a digital-only console variant just for them. There’s definitely some pros to digital but that’s a different discussion than arguing why physical needs to be removed. I’ll always be a proponent of the disc drive but that’s not to mean we should remove the digital options. Of course not. I say we should keep and maintain both.

PS5 Slim

This was announced while I was making my decision. Images surfaced soon after and my reaction was that it looks cheap. All I see is cost cutting and increasing profit margins. The kickstand for the console’s horizontal orientation looks comically bad. As does the sharper protrusion of the disc model. It is smaller but it still wouldn’t fit anywhere else in my TV console compared to the original model. They also moved some buttons around and changed some ports, which I’m indifferent to. The only pro for me is the increased storage (1TB vs 825GB). Not good enough so I’m sticking with the original.

PS5

This is the biggest console I’ve ever owned and it didn’t fit anywhere but on the top of my TV console. The UI is nice and the screen recording function is pretty cool. I was anticipating being forced to use their app or cloud to get the clips onto my computer but there’s a Copy to USB option which worked great. Compared to the older controllers, the new one is loaded with stuff. It has a built-in speaker and microphone (ugh), which I don’t think I’ll ever use. I put the console on a separate vlan.

Shredder’s Revenge

This was a great throwback to old school beat ’em up games. The art style, the gameplay, the music. Everything was 🔥. I particularly liked the alternate color palettes available for the turtles. As this is modern gaming, there are upsells. One for PS Plus to get online multiplayer and another for a survival mode DLC.

It could be considered a little short story wise, but the replayability factor is there. Just like with Turtles in Time, I see myself coming back to this often. The wife and I have been playing it together. She likes Donatello.

I mentioned earlier that I was interested in the soundtrack. Well I was happy to find the physical CD available on Bandcamp, which also includes a FLAC download. #cowabunga