All Griller, No Filler (August 2025)

So yeah, Took a lot of time off on this whole monthly blog thing. To be honest, a lot of last year, especially the latter end, killed a lot of my motivation for blogging, but since the summer started, I've had my groove back in some capacity. And so I feel the need to bring this concept back to summarize an honestly okay August when it comes to my media consumption and other things that interested me. So let's pump out a thousand or so words about it.

I got the Switch 2 at the end of last month. Had to sell off a bit of stuff to get it, but I figured that the time was right to finally get it out of the way before the inevitable price hike for an already insanely priced console. And after a month of playing I feel that the console is... decent. It feels like what I feel people were hoping the rumored Switch Pro would be. A console that can play more current gen games at 60fps both docked and undocked. I've mostly been playing WWE 2K25 with it, since new console or no, I'm always more interested in screwing around with a wrestling game than anything else. And 2K25 is okay at best. Doesn't help the most recent patch broke all commentary and ring announcing audio, which even if it's annoying given WWE commentary in a nutshell, having it be taken away via a glitch is still awful. It was resolved later in the month at least. Played a bit of Donkey Kong Bananza (need to get further into it) and Mario Kart World with both being fun games. Though the issues people have with MKW I definitely see now.

Speaking of Nintendo there were a lot of presentations the past couple months. Granted, not the big Direct people were hoping for (I expect it in September at the earliest), but plenty of stuff for both Switch and Switch 2. A partner showcase, a Pokemon Presents, a 47-minute direct by Masahiro Sakurai focused entirely on Kirby Air Riders, and an Indie World, which featured some decent games, but saved the best for last, literally in the form of a few seconds on screen. At long last, UFO 50 is finally on Switch. I don't really bother with Steam so I held out on it, and that waiting thankfully wasn't as long as I feared. 

And finally playing it, my feelings are very positive, even though I don't care for a good majority of the titles. But I think that's also the point, given that this is a game collection focused on variety, and it won't please everybody with every game. But I think there's something for every retro gaming fan with how many unique genres there are. RPGs, puzzle games, action games, sports games, beat-em-ups. It definitely gives the feeling of classic video gaming. My personal favorites so far have been Party House, Velgress, Ninpek and Kick Club, as each play into my love of 8-bit action platformers and the occasional deck builder. So, it's definitely a strong bargain and is a great pickup for the Switch. It should hold people over at least until Silksong finally releases next month. 

Time to talk about wrestling in August. There's stuff I care to talk about and stuff I really don't. The "really don't" being Brock Lesnar's return to the WWE, which should surprise nobody given the company has seemingly actively branded themselves as the "shitty people magnet" as of late. The Raja Jackson situation with him beating Syko Stu half to death is another thing I don't want to talk about given just thinking about it pisses me off. And honestly WWE as a whole feels like it's stagnating in terms of anything interesting going on storyline wise so thankfully I can avoid them and just move on to AEW. Last time I covered AEW in a blog, my feelings with them were not good, given it came after the infamous airing of the CM Punk/Jack Perry scuffle. I felt like a fan who was embarrassed to be a fan. Now at this point in time, I'm in a better place with AEW than I was. 

It helps that I do feel so much of the product has improved since then. Hangman being AEW champ again helps, as does a much stronger women's division. And the fact that they still hold up in terms of delivering Pay Per Views. Forbidden Door was this past weekend and I feel that it was one of the company's better showings. Not as great as July's All-In Texas, but still very strong. With the biggest issue coming out of it is AEW losing Swerve and Ospreay to injury. But I think the company will keep trying to improve over the next few months to keep going without losing two of the new pillars of the company in the past year. Hope to follow up with ordering All Out Toronto since, no WWE, you can fuck right off with thinking I want to see Brock Lesnar wrestle. AEW could pull out an awful show in Toronto and I'd still be down for that more. 

After 15 years, King of the Hill finally returned for its fourteenth season via Disney Plus/Hulu. And I have been enjoying it a lot. A lot of people, myself included, worried at first if a revival would work or if it would fall into the many failed revival attempts. Of course, once Beavis and Butt-Head returned, I realized that there's no real chance for King of the Hill's return to suck, and I was right. Mike Judge gets how to revive his shows. Hell, if he tried, I'm sure he'd be able to make The Goode Family work this time if he brought that back. It's also a rare example of a time skip for an animated series working out. Being able to update the series with a now retired Hank and Peggy and an older, robata chef Bobby. Setting the plots now more around Hank and Peggy dealing with how the world (more importantly, Texas) has changed while Bobby deals with running his restaurant and his love issues, which culminates in eventually getting back with Connie, which I feel is doomed to fail, but we'll see with new episodes. 

But what I feel works about the reboot and King of the Hill in general, is that it feels like the last bastion of the "sane" conservative, which with 15 years elapsing since the show's initial end feels more like a parody. The show will sneer at a lot of modern changes, but never feels like it does so in a cruel way. Hank is a character who is reserved and doesn't like change, but can be open to change eventually, like Bobby using charcoal instead of propane for example. These were things the original run were also very strong towards and they feel the same with this series. Although if I had to gripe, a lot of the new voices aren't gelling that well. I get the need for the changes, but it always takes me out of the show just a little. And these being the final roles for Jonathan Joss and Johnny Hardwick before their deaths doesn't help either. I just felt depressed hearing Johnny speak as Dale because you could tell he wasn't well. That aside, a solid ten episodes back and hopefully many more to come. 

I've also spent the majority of 2025 watching Popeye cartoons. Having finished the Fleischer and Famous cartoons earlier this year. So next was the King Features cartoons, which I finally finished in August. And I honestly love them. The animation is horrible, some make zero sense, and you could tell how cheaply made they are. But I felt a lot of them did have fun stories and do still feel like Popeye stories. It's also most notably the Brutus era of the series, where King Features didn't know they actually had the rights to the Bluto character. And if you follow me online and wonder where my avatar on some places come from, it's based on Olive Oyl's beatnik design from the short "Coffee House". I have the Hanna-Barbera stuff next and finally Popeye and Son, so I don't know if I'm due for better content or worse. 

Pickups this month was slimmer pickins than usual. Due in part to selling stuff for the Switch 2 and all. The end of August was better on it with me managing to pick up a few of the games I previously sold back (namely a bunch of CIB Sonic games for Genesis). Speaking of Sonic, I am back on the hunt for Sonic comics, with me getting about 10 or so Archie sonic books. I grew up with the series and it was the perfect replacement for me, a fan of Sonic SatAM forever burned by the show's cancellation. I remember burning out around the 60th issue or so, so this is more a case of rebuilding and eventually picking up where I left off. I also found an Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog VHS with Robotnik Express and Tails' New Home on it. I believe this was the tape I got as a kid, which served as the very little AOSTH stuff I had experienced a kid, having not seen the full show until decades later. I'm also still drawing, but not as frequently as I was months ago, though I do intend to get back on the horse once the weather starts to cool down. 

And that's pretty much my August experience in a nutshell. A month mostly spent on Nintendo Switch 2 consumption, but still had enough time to enjoy some stuff. Hopefully September gives me more to talk about, especially in the wrestling department. But given we're expected more Brock Lesnar, maybe the wrestling department can also fuck right off.