See my initial thoughts for the Game Library Project here.

Videoverse is another in an increasingly popular genre of "fake OS" simulators that I think was really made popular by Hypnospace Outlaw. It's really a visual novel wrapped up in a retro computer interface, in the vein of the Emily is Away games. Like those games, this one was really relatable for me as a kid who spent much of the early and mid-2000s online.

Videoverse is centered around a small community of fans of a fictional gaming console, the Shark, that is slowly being phased out in favor of the new console, the Dolphin, and the community is being shut down. You play as Emmett, and post in little forum communities and have friends you DM and even dabble into romance. It's a concept I think anyone who's between the ages of around 28-35 can really relate to if you were a fan of nerdy things as a young teenager. I myself spent a ton of time in gaming forums and in chatrooms like MSN Messenger, and while many of those services have shut down or are ghost towns these days, those memories are still important to me and I think have influenced my life and career choices as an adult.

Videoverse does a great job of capturing that sense of nostalgia for me, maybe the best of all these types of games. The story is a little too sweet, a bit saccharine, but it's earnest and relatable and doesn't overstay its welcome.

If you have any nostalgia for hanging out in forums or chatting with your online friends on MSN, check this one out. It's only a few hours long and well worth a few bucks. In this age of everything being on Discord and the near-total mingling of our personal and online lives (a total departure from back then - remember when you weren't even supposed to give out your first name online?), Videoverse is a nice trip down memory lane, especially for people of a certain age and interests.