I know psycho-pass and cyberpunk 2077, but what’s Dark Rain?

Ha, I’m actually the one who recommended it to them on their discord. I just didn’t want to post here until I heard their thoughts. I’m glad you listen to that podcast too!

This is an awesome list and I just want to add a couple more. The SNES and Genesis each had a Shadowrun game but they’re totally unrelated. I think the Genesis version is better. Same with Pirates of Dark Water (I loved this show). The SNES and Genesis versions are completely different and I prefer the Genesis game.

Other than that, I really like Elemental Master. It’s a vertical shoot 'em up but you play as a mage, always walking up. So it’s kinda like the NES game Gun.Smoke if that means anything to you.

I’m the same way and that’s part of why I’m struggling with coming up with posts for this community. I’ve been trying to help kickstart things here but I assumed most steampunk fans were into the lighter and fantasy aesthetic of it, which I don’t personally care for. It’s fine for those who like it but I struggle to create posts for that audience because it feels inauthentic for me to do it.

Well now that’s interesting. I’m glad we’re finally moving past the -punk suffix essentially meaning “genre” at this point but I didn’t realize it was being replaced with -core as the new suffix. I’ve definitely seen some new -core genres spring up lately but I didn’t know we were getting some that were replacing existing -punk genres. Gotta love humanity’s desperate need to categorize everything…

Ahhh, that would make more sense. Thanks!

I wouldn’t have called Contra or Bionic Commando cyberpunk (although they are kinda sci-fi) but I’ve never heard of those other games so I’ll definitely check them out, thanks!

And yeah, I’m setting a pretty low bar here. “Futuristic urban decay” is close enough to cyberpunk that I’d be at least interested in playing those games.

That’s right, Smash TV! Good call, I always think of it as a SNES game but it did start out in arcades first.

Sorry, I was referring more to coin-op stand-up arcade games, not arcade-inspired indie games. But yes, Huntdown is a fantastic game and I’m looking forward to the roguelike sequel Huntdown: Overtime!

I don’t think they’re still in contact simply because their careers are keeping them both busy but in different directions. In January of this year TMZ asked Key and he said he’d be open to doing more Key & Peele. So I don’t think there’s any animosity between them at least.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/01/21/keegan-michael-key-talks-reunion-jordan-peele/

I should’ve read the youtube description before posting…

Here’s what it says regarding the co-op:

Master the new Shell System: switch characters mid-combat to exploit lethal synergies and tear through enemies. Play solo or coordinate the carnage in online co-op with up to three players.

So it sounds like the single-player mode will have you controlling all three characters simultaneously but you can go co-op to have friends manage the other characters. Interesting.

Wait, there’s a skypunk?? Man, I can’t keep up with these subgenres…

I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to solarpunk, but does it usually include fantasy elements? I mean… aside from the fantasy that the world could live in harmony (sorry, I’m primarily a cyberpunk guy). That is, I thought solarpunk was more of an aspiration for how technology could be used in harmony with nature. I didn’t think you could have solarpunk where you just say “magic did it.” Yet floating islands typically require some level of “magic did it.”

I’ve always viewed steampunk as a fantasy genre though, not sci-fi, which is probably why I can see floating islands fitting in a steampunk world. While they may be idyllic, I don’t think that would exclude them from steampunk.

I guess the question is: are you more likely to travel to a floating island on the back of a dragon or on an airship?

Not yet but it’s definitely on my list!

Good idea, I’ll do that!

It’s too bad the last post on there was 8 months ago. There’s no way I can prop-up another community in an attempt to keep it active. I should probably sub to that community just in case though…

EDIT: Oh, you’re the one already attempting to prop-up that community! Nice work, I’ll sub for sure!

I still really like Postmortal_pop’s explanation of how common the magic is. If it’s commonplace enough to be used as an energy source, it’s aetherpunk. Otherwise, if magic is uncommon or otherwise “special” then it’d still be considered steampunk. I like how that leaves some room for random unexplained phenomena to not change the genre.

That’s my expectation as well. I think most people are just here for the vibes/aesthetic and aren’t going to “well, ackshually…” at me. I might add an [aetherpunk] tag for the items I post that are closer to aetherpunk than steampunk, but I don’t think it’s going to prevent me from posting those items.

That’s an amazing explanation, thank you!

When did they move away from the skull logo? I expected the new logo on the SR4A version but I didn’t realize they’d already moved away from the skull logo in the original SR4.