Street Fighter 6 Mid-Season Tier Shakeup Explained
We walk through the balance changes that pushed three characters up a tier and knocked two long-standing favorites down.
Metroidvania Maps and Fighting Game Tier Lists, Dissected
Long-form breakdowns from Port Said, Egypt on map design, character tiers, and the arguments that keep our comment section alive.
Browse ArchiveFrom the Archive
Recent pieces our readers keep coming back to
Mapping Axiom Verge's Backtracking Problem
A route-by-route look at how Axiom Verge handles backtracking, and where its map design rewards patience versus where it just wastes your time.
Tekken 7's Forgotten Mid-Tier Cast
Revisiting the Tekken 7 characters who never cracked the top tables but quietly carried entire regional scenes for years.
Environmental Storytelling in Hollow Knight's Map
How Hallownest's cartography tells its own story through elevation, dead ends, and the pins players leave behind for each other.
Guilty Gear Strive: A Tier List Six Patches Later
Tracking how the Strive tier list shifted across half a dozen balance patches, and which characters never left the bottom rungs.
The Underrated Map Logic of Blaster Master Zero
Why this NES-inspired sequel's interlocking vehicle-and-foot map deserves more credit in Metroidvania design discussions.
Ranking KOF XV's Teams Beyond the Obvious Picks
A rankings piece that looks past the usual suspects to cover the King of Fighters XV teams competitive players actually rely on.
Fresh From the Desk
New rankings, guides, and analysis published this month
Ori and the Will of the Wisps Map Breakdown
A section-by-section read of how the game layers traversal upgrades onto its map without overwhelming new players.
Reading a Metroidvania Map Like a Cartographer
Practical tips for spotting sequence breaks, hidden rooms, and softlock traps just from studying the in-game map.
Port Said's Local Fighting Game Circle, One Year In
A look back at how a small group of regulars turned casual matches into a recurring weekly tier list debate night.
Building Our Metroidvania Ranking Database From Scratch
Behind the scenes of how we score maps for backtracking, clarity, and reward pacing across dozens of titles.
What Sets This Blog Apart
Map-First Analysis
We treat Metroidvania maps as a design discipline of their own, not an afterthought to combat or story coverage.
Tier Lists With Reasoning
Every ranking comes with the frame data, matchup notes, or design logic behind it, not just a placement on a chart.
Port Said Roots
Written by a small crew based in Port Said, Egypt, drawing on local fighting game meetups and shared match footage.
Living Database
Our gaming database gets revisited after major patches and re-releases so rankings stay tied to the current version of a game.
Think Our Tier List Has It Wrong?
Read the breakdown, check the reasoning, then tell us where your map or matchup ranking would differ.