Month: August 2021

Boosie Badazz has made no secret of his feelings about Lil Nas X’s popularity. Despite the backlash over his previous comments in which he called Nas several slurs in defense of DaBaby, Boosie doubled down in a recent interview with New York’s The Breakfast Club. The show, which can be a controversy magnet at the best of times — sometimes even courting it on purpose, as it seemingly did with this booking — brought him on to address his criticisms and the reaction they prompted on social media.

When host Angela Yee asks whether he thought his words went “too far” — which, come on, man — Boosie argued that they did not. “I’ve gotta speak up because, as far as straight people in the world, you don’t have an opinion no more,” he said.

“Everything is harm,” he complained, providing a supremely questionable example. “If you say anything [like], ‘I like women,’ it’s vulgar.” To the hosts’ credit, they did push back on that assertion, Boosie was undeterred, insisting that the entertainment industry is “ran by” queer people (objectively not true; also, so what if it was? You can have an opinion — you aren’t entitled to sharing that opinion, especially if it’s peppered with derogatory slurs and the same rhetoric that gets used to justify oppression and violence against minority groups).

Boosie seems to be completely missing the point of the backlash against him and The Breakfast Club‘s hosts seem ill-equipped to convey it to him. The whole exercise feels a little … pointless. Meanwhile, Lil Nas X is getting huge opportunities like a creative role at Taco Bell even as hateful rhetoric like Boosie’s forced him to hire security. It looks like that the effect of all this will continue to be lost on some folks, which is a shame because there can’t be that much money in hating.

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 5 — “Rainbow”

HONORABLE MENTION: Isaac (good lad); Jamie Tartt (nothing to do this week but I assume he’s still on the right path); Nate’s cranky dad (he’s not a dog, Nate); Jade Anniversary (good fake name); Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds (need a Mythic Quest / Ted Lasso crossover ASAP); Wario (I need to hear Roy pronounce the names of all the characters in the Nintendo universe, starting with Yoshi); The Rolling Stones (I assume they all bought new boats with the checks they got for the use of a huge chunk of “She’s Like a Rainbow”); Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Drew Barrymore, various Kates, etc. (do anything in your life as well as they’ve done rom-coms and you’ll be just fine)

10. Higgins (Last week: Unranked)

I had been getting a great deal of pleasure from plopping Higgins in the Honorable Mentions section every week, regardless of what he did, in part because it felt right given his role on the show and in part because I am a child who cannot do a simple weekly rankings post without creating bits to entertain myself. But I had no choice here. I had to slide him into the listings proper. Between the line in the screenshot above and the thing where the entire climax of the episode — I cried, again — was a reference to the ringtone he uses for his wife, which is itself a reference to their first big date… yes, Higgins has entered the top ten.

9. The surprisingly helpful kebab shop owner (Last week: Unranked)

Pretty nice of him to give a seemingly unrelated speech about doing what you love just as Ted was trying to convince Roy to come back and help coach the team. Almost like it was written into the script that way for a reason. Hmm. But as a guy who has a law degree and now spends most weekdays writing nonsense rankings and taking screenshots of friendly fictional kebab chefs, I suppose I really can’t run around poking holes in any of this. It checks out. And now I want to eat a kebab. Vicious cycle, really.

8. Ted Lasso (Last week: 9)

Another week, another player helped through Ted’s brand of folksy therapy, this time Isaac, who learned to be less cranky and have more fun with a nudge from Roy Kent, who also succumbed to Ted’s little Benevolent Jedi routine. And he got to sneak out that “wigwam inside a teepee = two tents / two tense” line, which has to be pretty thrilling for him. I bet he’d been sitting on it all week just waiting for his chance to slide it into the conversation. Good for him.

That said, it does remain my position — and I haven’t watched the screeners ahead of this episode because I am not a cheater — that there is still a big sit-down with Dr. Sharon coming, one that is going to wreck Ted and me equally. I am looking forward to it and dreading it all at once. And there’s also the phone thing, which we’ll get to in the section on Rebecca. We really need to talk about that.

7. This kid (Last week: Unranked)

Love this guy. Look at his little face. Adorable.

6. Keeley (Last week: 5)

Three things here, regarding Keeley:

• I love the relationship she and Rebecca have, kind of equals as friends, kind of employer-employee, kind of mentor-life coach, kind of, in a way, mother-daughter, even though Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple are only 14 years apart in age
• The “let’s invade France” line was terrific and perfectly delivered
• It still cracks me up that everyone on this show has an open door policy and spends entire workdays role-playing as restaurant hostesses to help other team employees

I want her and Roy to have a baby, mostly so I see can what kind of person they’d create. Make a spin-off about this hypothetical child and set it 30 years in the future. I am serious.

5. My sweet prince Dani Rojas (Last week: 8)

I need to see Dani Rojas absolutely flying on cold brew and sugar. I had not even considered this as a thing I might want until this week. I had kind of assumed he already was flying on caffeine and sugar all the time, like a kid who got into the Mountain Dew at a sleepover. But now that I know this is him in his natural state… I must see it. Give him a Red Bull. Give him a Four Loko. This is science now. I’m doing science. I will document my findings and everything. Someone get me a lab coat and a clipboard and enough sugar-y energy drinks to launch a horse into orbit. Dani Rojas and I have work to do. I bet he’d be able to bench press the team bus.

4. Rebecca (Last week: 2)

Plenty of ways we could go with the Rebecca chat this week, whether it’s her strategy of making herself big before scary social situations or her turning to her own employees for advice on her love life. But I think we need to focus on the Bantr of it all. How she’s been chatting with some charming mystery man. How she’s giggling and blushing like a teen at their little conversations. How the episode cut from the image in the screencap above, where she sent the mystery man another personal note, straight to this…

This is happening. I think this is happening. I do not know if I want it to happen. But something is coming here. Ted and Rebecca are both recently divorced middle-aged people who spend a lot of time together and enjoy each other’s company. In a way, it was bound to happen at some point. I kind of can’t wait to see their faces when they realize that what I think is happening here is, in fact, happening. It would be a whole thing.

3. Nate (Last week: Unranked)

It was nice to see Nate get a win this week, with the whole table business. He’s had a weird run so far this season, stuck in limbo between having authority as a coach now (and tormenting the new kit man with this new power) and still being the low man on a new totem pole (lowest ranking coach). He’s a sweet man, sometimes too sweet, so I got a legitimate belly laugh out of the thing where he spit at the mirror after saying the line in this screencap. I hope this becomes a thing. I hope, for the rest of the season, just at random, the action cuts briefly to Nate sitting in a restaurant by himself at the best table at the house, just confidently cutting and eating a steak and making eye contact with the server and other staff.

What I’m saying is that it would be funny if this show slowly, over the course of many seasons, turns Nate into James Bond.

2. Roy Kent (Last week: 3)

This episode, as you probably realized early into the proceedings, was chockablock with references to various romantic comedies. There was plenty of When Harry Met Sally in there, some Bridget Jones, some Notting Hill and Pretty Woman, and a slew of others. Then there was this one right at the end, the “you had me at coach” twist on the famous Jerry Maguire line. I wasn’t joking earlier: I did straight-up start crying when Roy walked onto the field to raucous cheers from the crowd. This is because I’m a crier, just generally, but also because the episode followed the classic rom-com structure that has conditioned humans to start crying at pivotal moments. It’s almost diabolical, really.

Two thoughts, in closing:

• I will, once again, for what feels like the fifth week in a row, restate my pitch that Roy Kent should host a daytime talk show where he gives blunt but helpful life tips, like he did to the guy who helped him get to the stadium by dropping the “You’ve got to date your wife” line he stole (with credit) from Nikki Sixx
• I will miss him as a pundit very much, both because he was hilarious in that role and because he did this little eyebrow-raise before he’d start talking and I found it to be maybe the funniest thing on the show

But him becoming a coach feels right, even if Nate seems a little uncomfortable about it all. We’ll have to monitor this situation over the next few episodes. And while we’re doing that, in the interim between this episode and the next, I would recommend doing a little “right-click / save as” move on the following screencap…

… just because I feel like we could all get some use out of it going forward. Roy Kent is a good man, much to his chagrin.

1. Coach Beard (Last week: 1)

Sometimes when I’m watching an episode take a long ride with a particular character — Nate at the restaurant, Roy at the restaurant, really any time anyone is at a restaurant — my mind will drift off and start wondering what Coach Beard is up to in that exact moment. It could be anything. Nothing would surprise me. He could be skydiving or exchanging gold bars for marble sculptures or cooking a perfect soufflé. He fascinates me.

But, and this is important, and I’ve said it before, I absolutely do not want to ever actually find out. To paraphrase another good show about personal growth amidst odd circumstances, let’s just let this mystery be.

Fox News continues to be very upset over President Joe Biden’s handling of the evacuation in Afghanistan, but their faux outrage’s latest political target is a surprising one.

During a segment on Sunday, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy seemed to place much of the blame for the chaos in the Middle East squarely on First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s shoulders. Despite Dr. Biden having held no cabinet position or really being involved in the decision-making process when it comes to America’s military presence overseas, Duffy was adamant that the buck should stop with the First Lady, suggesting that it was her job to curb her husband’s bad decision-making.

“You wonder who are the people responsible for putting someone this incompetent and frankly this, you know, mentally frail in this position?” Campos-Duffy said (via Raw Story). “I’m sorry, as a political spouse, I can’t help but look at Jill Biden.”

Oddly enough, Duffy never blamed former First Lady Melania Trump for some of Donald Trump’s most humiliating failures while in office. “Where was Melania when Trump was chatting it up with the Taliban?” is a question we would’ve never heard a year ago. Still, Duffy appeared absurdly upset over that Dr. Biden hasn’t diagnosed her husband with a mental condition — she’s a Doctor of Education, not medicine — and her refusal to step in when it became clear the president had bungled the situation in Afghanistan.

“No one knew better his state of mind than Jill Biden, Doctor Jill Biden,” Duffy emphasized. “If you ask me, the most patriotic thing Jill Biden could’ve done was tell her husband … to love her husband and not let him run in this mental state that he’s in. I think she failed the country as well.”

(Via Raw Story)

Much of Jake Tapper’s recent CNN airtime has been devoted to coverage of the Afghanistan debacle, but on Sunday, the anchor took time to air a dying wish from former Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI), who passed away about a week ago following a battle against cancer.

Mitchell, who spoke with Tapper from a hospice bed, expressed his desire to only have this interview aired following his death. The interview was an emotional one on both ends with the frequently (and necessarily) stoic Tapper expressing sadness over Mitchell’s terminal condition, and Mitchell (who retired in December 2020) making a plea for bipartisanship to finally happen, even as Democrats and Republicans find themselves increasingly at odds. It’s a phenomenon that isn’t new, although it’s clear that the pandemic has only exacerbated existing fissures with Mitchell noting (on the subject of vaccines), “It’s ‘I won’t talk to you.’ It’s breaking up families.”

“There’s value in people you don’t agree with. It’s easy to find people you agree with. There’s value in people that you may disagree with on something strongly, but it doesn’t inherently make them a bad person,” Mitchell further declared to Tapper. “Learn to understand people and judge less and love more and let’s have less hatred. It’s destroying our society.”

Sage words that will hopefully be heeded. Watch the video below.

It’s been a few years since Kacey Musgraves secured several Grammys for her hit 2018 album Golden Hour. Since then, the singer has gone through several transitions in her life, including a divorce, but she’s now preparing for the release of her upcoming album, Star-Crossed.

Musgraves officially announced Star-Crossed Monday, saying it will arrive in early September alongside a film on Paramount+. She also recently sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to discuss her LP. While writing music for the album, Musgraves was at first worried that she didn’t yet have a concept and that it was just “going to be a bunch of sad songs.” But then, she started learning about the structure of old Greek theater and realized her Star-Crossed album is a “modern tragedy in three acts.” Because of this, Musgraves is giving her own modern-day definition of “star-crossed”:

“It’s to be f*cked by love or luck. You’re ill-fated, it’s just not written in the stars. It is not for you. And everyone puts out their highlight reel, nobody’s putting out their f*ck ups. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s daunting. But I’m excited to share ‘star-crossed’ just because people know me to be a songwriter that writes about what I’m going through. And I think it would have been extremely awkward if I just acted this last chapter didn’t happen for me. So I think you saw my highlight reel with Golden Hour and this is the other side of that. And I mean there are beautiful parts of that too.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Musgraves said there are some parts of the record that sound more country than Golden Hour, but her album is also meant to be theatrical. “I always love when something classic or something traditional, something futuristic kind of meet,” she said. “I just, I’m always intrigued by that. Whether it’s in fashion, etc. I think that there are certain aspects of this record that sound a little bit more country, I guess than Golden Hour. I don’t know. But at the same time, I feel like I’m tapping into more influences on this, widespread influences on this album.”

Watch Musgraves’ full interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Star-Crossed film trailer above. See her Star-Crossed album artwork and tracklist below.

1. “Star-Crossed”
2. “Good Wife”
3. “Cherry Blossom”
4. “Simple Times”
5. “If This Was A Movie..”
6. “Justified”
7. “Angel”
8. “Breadwinner”
9. “Camera Roll”
10. “Easier Said”
11. “Hookup Scene”
12. “Keep Lookin’ Up”
13. “What Doesn’t Kill Me”
14. “There Is A Light”
15. “Gracias A La Vida”

Star-Crossed is out 9/10 via Interscope Records/UMG Nashville. Pre-order it here.

Last summer, Yesenia Aguilar was walking on a sidewalk five minutes from home in Anaheim, California when a drunk driver jumped the curb with her Jeep and struck her. The vehicle narrowly missed her husband, James Alvarez, who was walking beside her. Aguilar was 35 weeks pregnant at the time.

Tragically, Aguilar died at the hospital, but the couple’s baby, Adalyn Rose, was delivered via cesarean section and survived. For the past year, Alvarez has poured himself into being a good dad to Adalyn while processing the grief and trauma of witnessing his wife be killed right in front of him.

The story was widely covered in the news and many people have followed Alvarez as he shares his life with Adalyn on social media. It’s now been a year since the accident, and the birthday photos Alvarez has shared of Adalyn’s first birthday are touching people deeply.

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With the help of X & V Photography, Alvarez has recreated a photoshoot he and Aguilar did not long before the accident. Aguilar was dressed in a pink gown, with her baby bump featuring prominently in the photos. In the new shoot, Alvarez dressed Adalyn in a pink dress as well and posed her in the places her mother was in the previous one.

The effect is sadly touching and achingly beautiful—a reminder of the gift of life.

It’s hard to imagine what range of emotions this shoot brought up for Alvarez.

It’s also hard to imagine how Adalyn will process the whole story when she’s old enough to understand.

But what a beautiful tribute to the woman who gave her life before hers was taken.

“Adalyn, I know if your mommy was here, she would have been the happiest person alive,” Alvarez wrote in an Instagram share of the photo shoot. “She would be so excited to celebrate your birthday. That’s why, I’m making sure I fulfill her wishes and wish the happiest birthday ever baby. Your mommy and daddy loves you.”

It’s the hardest thing to make beauty out of tragedy, but these photos prove it’s possible. Happy birthday, little Adalyn.

When my daughter started seeing a therapist for anxiety, I went to several of her sessions. Holy moly. Even though I don’t struggle with mental health issues, I got so much out of her sessions just observing and listening. I came to the conclusion that every one of us could benefit from seeing a therapist.

We have regular checkups and basic exams with a regular doctor for our physical health. Doesn’t it make sense that we could use a regular checkup for our mental health as well, even if just for maintenance?

I learned about how the brain works and how thoughts and feelings and behaviors play off of one another. I learned about what things we actually have control of and which things we don’t. I learned a hundred little things that have helped me process daily living in the increasingly chaotic world we live in. Five stars for therapy. Highly recommend.

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Of course, not everyone has easy or affordable access to mental health care (which is a whole other article) so we have to glean what we can, where we can. And thanks to Twitter user @drivingmemadi, we can all glean some therapy insights from a thread she started this summer.

if everyone drops one thing they learned in therapy we can all gain insight from this thread

— ꧁Madimoiselle꧂ (@drivingmemadi)
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People shared just one thing they learned from therapy, and the collective wisdom is simply awesome. Check out these gems:

We tend to gravitate toward the familiar, even in people we date, which isn’t necessarily a good thing if what’s familiar to us is unhealthy.

@drivingmemadi This really blew up, so I wanted to add that THIS IS NOT PREDETERMINED.

You obviously CAN choose to… https://t.co/ESLzfvWa2H

— my tweet button is broken and I dont know how to f (@alliepi314)
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Someone else will always have it worse, but that doesn’t mean your pain or trauma isn’t real and valid.

Anger usually stems from a different emotion.

@YeehawScout @drivingmemadi One I heard in therapy that rocked my world was “Anger is sadness’ bodyguard”

— Stephanie 🌱 (@steph_anie_bee)
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Be intentional about joy. (But also recognize there’s a difference between general unhappiness and clinical depression.)

A different perspective on perfectionism…

@_dhanum @drivingmemadi why does it feel like these words are being screamed at me i-

— capricorpse (@crying_zeros)
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Don’t judge your past self so harshly.

@haleighavila27 @drivingmemadi One might have more experiences, knowledge, and maturity in future, to look at a dec… https://t.co/GKOQXE16x1

— Suraj Ajay Dwivedi (@SaDuvadi)
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Our negative thoughts were a protection mechanism we needed as children, not as adults.

@CambriaDenim @drivingmemadi Ok this is making me tear up, I’m not sure why but thank you for this 🥺🥰

— ktrap 💡✨ (@K_Trappp)
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Other people might not handle your self-improvements well if they are stuck in unhealthy patterns themselves.

@squirrelshorts @drivingmemadi Oh my gosh I absolutely feel this in my soul. This last year I’ve gone through so ma… https://t.co/2aTJADzxsA

— Linz ✨🥀 blm (@trumaddeepinluv)
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You can’t control what others think of you and shouldn’t even try.

@kacchakofest @drivingmemadi A former boss who had been through therapy herself told me that other people’s opinion… https://t.co/xPcgfLA9sI

— Jennifer S. Hyk 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏴💙🌎 (@JenHyk)
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Other people’s actions and reactions are not usually about you anyway.

@thatdutchperson @drivingmemadi I always blame myself for the moods and reactions of my loved ones cause I’m always… https://t.co/wYqoTJ7iKw

— Jaya (@LifeofJ101)
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Observe intrusive thoughts like a spectator.

@slizagna @drivingmemadi Right right right.
Your mind is a machine that makes thoughts. You can inspect those thoug… https://t.co/FJDPS1M8i2

— Corn in Stool (@beed_ck)
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Pay attention to how your body is holding your emotions.

@gayspyalex @drivingmemadi I used to be so tense all the time that my body just felt like it ached everywhere. My t… https://t.co/N9Wvps0hlZ

— Jasmín . . ☾ (@BigMammaJay)
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Choose to let your trauma make you a better person instead of a worse one.

@stfujujubean @drivingmemadi A few years ago I realized that I was thinking like the second person and it’s taken m… https://t.co/GH05vqTteJ

— ( . ) ( . ) (@nothinknoam)
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Name your emotions specifically.

@jessicaaaeakin @drivingmemadi My therapist says “If you can name it, you can tame it.”

— FRITZ is back at the drawing board 🖋️ (@tawnyfritz)
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Celebrate your successes.

@drivingmemadi great job, know that they mean that. Just because they only saw you succeed and didn’t see how many… https://t.co/SFwvdUk3UZ

— Lex (@clanlextine)
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You are not a burden to your loved ones.

@hellawretched @drivingmemadi @spookysydney I have a similar thing where I don’t talk with my friends about my litt… https://t.co/Cvcbv4yini

— Yume (@yumetnn)
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Work on making your brain a nice place to be.

@jamie_crispin @NilaJones3 @drivingmemadi @HanahStringer The (ex) president of Bryn Mawr once said the point of col… https://t.co/tvKQkr3YvY

— smellsofbikes (@smellsofbikes)
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It’s okay to grieve the loss of relationships that weren’t good for you.

@drivingmemadi Grieving doesn’t have to mean you want it back. It doesn’t mean you SHOULD go back, either. It just… https://t.co/YOAZ4EEYoc

— 💙🏳️‍⚧️ Little Loki 🏳️‍🌈💙 (@inksingerr)
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Boundaries are important, even if people don’t like them.

@hayisforhailey @drivingmemadi YES! Recently heard, “People do not need to agree with your boundary, and probably w… https://t.co/2LwDzbGzgX

— ✨wren✨ (@wrengee)
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You are responsible for your adult self, no matter what happened in your childhood.

@tibartoletta @drivingmemadi @JWLevitt Amen. I saw a pattern in my family being handed down from generation to gene… https://t.co/RxqkStxAmp

— Anne #EOISCANON Bensler 🏹👑 (@Anne_Bensler)
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Watch out for thought traps.

@macybowles11 @drivingmemadi Ooh, are you able to elaborate on these “thought traps”? I’ve been experiencing extrem… https://t.co/lxws7t3AD9

— Megan March (@JazzyHufflepuff)
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You don’t have to accept what your brain automatically says. Question it. Challenge unhelpful thoughts.

@JazzyHufflepuff For you/anyone (& me!) who finds themselves stuck inside painful thoughts, I google searched “cogn… https://t.co/woLFRO8dBK

— 🧂Salted Caramel Doublespeak🍯 (@afulltimedogmom)
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So many helpful mental and emotional health tips. Highly recommend every human being go to therapy if they are able. We all have things we might need help processing, and the world would be a whole lot better place if everyone dealt with their pain, trauma, worries, etc. in a healthy way.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Twitterland.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System turns 30 years old today (at least in North America, where it was released on August 23, 1991). Even now, its influence is omnipresent in gaming: Aside from franchises like Mario and Zelda still pumping out hit titles, countless new games today continue to be inspired by the aesthetics and gameplay of beloved SNES-era favorites.

The console had a ton of games released in North America (720 of them, Wikipedia says), and they sure have been ranked a lot over the years. Most of these rankings reflect how editorial staffs feel about these games, and while it’s great to have experts weigh in, critical opinions often don’t reflect how the majority of people think (for better or worse). Look at the Fast & Furious franchise: On RottenTomatoes, almost all of the movies have a substantially higher audience score than they do critic score (for better or worse). For the latest, F9, about 20 percentage points stand between the thoughts of the Professional Film Critic and the fervent moviegoer who catalogs user ratings on RottenTomatoes.

Furthermore, reviews of SNES titles were mostly published when the games came out, so they don’t indicate how gamers today feel about these games. Given the radically dissimilar context in which retro games are consumed now vs. how they were enjoyed before they were retro, there’s some noteworthy dissonance between reception then and now (especially with one game in particular, as we’ll get to later on). Not to mention, SNES games are too old to appear on most modern review aggregator websites, so it’s hard to find quantified critical consensus.

So, as the SNES turns 30, I decided to come up with definitive, data-driven, crowd-sourced rankings of which games are the most popular and beloved among modern players, the games people are actually still playing and enjoying decades later. I didn’t need to create a poll and drum up interest for that myself, though, as thankfully, the data I wanted already exists in droves and has been collected over the course of many years.

To make this list, first, I browsed the SNES games listed on the websites Emuparadise, Grouvee, IGDB, and HowLongToBeat, all of which feature an average user rating for just about every SNES game ever released and indicate how many users rated the game. For all the North American releases that had at least 100 cumulative ratings across all the sites, I entered them in a spreadsheet. For each game, I added the number of ratings from all the sites, what those ratings were, and calculated an average rating.

The scores that resulted from this process reflect the game’s average ratings, but not how many ratings it had, aka how many people are actually playing the game these days. For our purposes, that’s a problem: a game that one person thinks is a 100 isn’t more popular than a game that ten thousand people rate a 99. So, to take that into account, I used a mathematical formula based on ones concocted by people who know more about numbers than I do. The final score that results from this (which is based on a 0-100 scale) takes into account both how many ratings the games have and what those ratings are.

All of these sites are at least a decade old, and in total, 217,464 total user ratings for 221 games were collected (between July 16 and 18) for this list. Emuparadise launched in 2000, while the SNES was discontinued in North America in 1999, so it could be said that these ratings represent how gamers have felt about the SNES and its games ever since the console went off the market. (That’s assuming Emuparadise featured user ratings since its inception, which I was unable to verify. Either way, we have some finely aged data here.)

To reiterate, these rankings have nothing to do with my opinions or those of anybody else at Uproxx. They would look a lot different if they did; Kirby’s Dream Course and Super Bases Loaded, which would both be somewhere in at least the top 20 of my personal rankings, didn’t even make this list. Rather, these rankings intend to accurately represent how appreciated these games are now based on the thoughts of over 200,000 gamers, not just one or a few.

Now that we’ve established the method used to create the list, let’s get into it, starting with 100 and working through the ranks before getting into more detail with the top 10 games.

• 100. Looney Tunes B-Ball
• 99. Knights Of The Round
• 98. Breath Of Fire
• 97. Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle
• 96. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy
• 95. Battletoads In Battlemaniacs
• 94. Side Pocket
• 93. Kirby’s Dream Land 3
• 92. The Adventures Of Batman & Robin
• 91. Aero Fighters
• 90. Castlevania: Dracula X
• 89. Wolfenstein 3D
• 88. ActRaiser
• 87. International Superstar Soccer
• 86. Arcana
• 85. Secret Of Evermore
• 84. NBA Jam
• 83. Congo’s Caper
• 82. Final Fight
• 81. Prince Of Persia

• 80. R-Type III: The Third Lightning
• 79. Marvel Super Heroes In War Of The Gems
• 78. Hagane: The Final Conflict
• 77. SimCity 2000
• 76. The King Of Dragons
• 75. Robotrek
• 74. Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons
• 73. Final Fight 3
• 72. Earthworm Jim
• 71. Prehistorik Man
• 70. Ogre Battle: The March Of The Black Queen
• 69. Breath Of Fire II
• 68. Mega Man 7
• 67. Super Bomberman 2
• 66. Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge
• 65. E.V.O.: Search For Eden
• 64. Gradius III
• 63. F-Zero
• 62. Illusion Of Gaia
• 61. Sid Meier’s Civilization

• 60. Doom
• 59. Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts
• 58. Tetris & Dr. Mario
• 57. Strike Gunner S.T.G
• 56. Star Fox
• 55. Lufia II: Rise Of The Sinistrals
• 54. Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel
• 53. SimCity
• 52. Harvest Moon
• 51. The Lion King
• 50. Aerobiz Supersonic
• 49. Mortal Kombat 3
• 48. Street Fighter Alpha 2
• 47. Super Double Dragon
• 46. Goof Troop
• 45. Tetris Attack
• 44. Top Gear 3000
• 43. Drakkhen
• 42. Super Bomberman
• 41. International Superstar Soccer Deluxe

• 40. Dragon View
• 39. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
• 38. Rock N’ Roll Racing
• 37. Super Street Fighter II
• 36. Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting
• 35. Sunset Riders
• 34. Super Punch-Out
• 33. Super Castlevania IV
• 32. Mega Man X3
• 31. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
• 30. Mortal Kombat II
• 29. Secret Of Mana
• 28. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!
• 27. Top Gear
• 26. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
• 25. Kirby Super Star
• 24. Contra III: The Alien Wars
• 23. Ultimate Fighter
• 22. Final Fantasy IV
• 21. Mega Man X2

• 20. Mortal Kombat
• 19. Shaq Fu
• 18. Killer Instinct
• 17. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
• 16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
• 15. Disney’s Aladdin
• 14. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
• 13. Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
• 12. Final Fantasy VI
• 11. Super Mario Kart

10. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Release Date: October 4, 1995
Final Score: 64.39
Average Rating: 88.38/100 (19th)
Total Ratings: 4,712 (10th)

Yoshi’s Island was one of the best-looking SNES games when it came out in 1995, and it remains so now thanks to its casual, hand-drawn art style that has aged better than the crayon scribblings of my youth. Aside from that, though, the gameplay is really unlike many other games that were out during the SNES era or are available now (save for the Yoshi games that followed it, like the superb Yoshi’s Wooly World).

The egg mechanic is all its own, and Baby Mario essentially serving as a hybrid health-meter/death countdown/escort mission hasn’t to my knowledge been duplicated since, or at least not as well as it’s done here. Meanwhile, the game’s level designs are engaging and intuitive, the world and those who inhabit it are vibrant and beautiful, and that final Bowser fight was one of the most intimidating and epic moments of my childhood… and it’s honestly still a thrilling nail-biter.

9. Top Gear 2

Release Date: August 8, 1993
Final Score: 68.08
Average Rating: 96.77/100 (1st)
Total Ratings: 4,629 (11th)

Admittedly, this one was, to me, a surprise entry on the list, especially this high up; It’s the only one in the top 40 or so that I had never heard of. Regardless, the game today has a relatively large fan base who feel passionately about it. Actually exploring the game, it makes sense that that’s the case.

Based on my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the swath of SNES racing games, Top Gear 2 has to be one of the most intricate. Even just when first booting up the game, players can choose whether they want an automatic or manual transmission, or miles or kilometers per hour for the speed display. There are five control schemes available to pick and even different engines from which to choose. As far as SNES driving experiences, it appears this is as deep as they get, a thinking man’s answer to the more cartoony Super Mario Kart.

8. Super Metroid

Release Date: April 18, 1994
Final Score: 72.72
Average Rating: 90.04/100 (10th)
Total Ratings: 7,118 (8th)

Remember this summer, when the Nintendo fan community collectively lost its sh*t over the announcement of Metroid Dread, the first new 2D Metroid game in some time? A big reason for that is the legacy and expected level of quality that Super Metroid helped establish.

Perhaps more than any game on this list, Super Metroid was critical in the creation of a genre that’s still prevalent today. Heck, the genre is partially named after the game: Metroidvania. Super Metroid is all about exploration, and it offers quite the world to peruse. Combine that with a fun-to-control protagonist in Samus, a gorgeous art style that still looks surprisingly modern, and other superlative elements not mentioned here, and you have a game that’s — and this isn’t hyperbole — genuinely timeless.

7. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

Release Date: April 13, 1992
Final Score: 75.86
Average Rating: 90.85/100 (6th)
Total Ratings: 8,125 (7th)

The Nintendo Entertainment System title Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link is a definite outlier in the Zelda series, as it notably boasts side-scrolling platforming gameplay, which isn’t all too common in Hyrule. Nintendo made a return to the top-down RPG format, though, with its follow up, A Link To The Past, and what a return it was; Any game that introduces an item as iconic as the Master Sword is a non-debatable winner. On top of that, it has one of gaming’s greatest secrets/Easter eggs, the Chris Houlihan room.

The game is one of the best-selling in the SNES library, and thusly, its legacy has been well-preserved over the years with its Game Boy Advance port, current presence on Nintendo Switch Online, and various tributes and honors prior and in between. Based on the elements of the game that live on today, and just how good the game is, Link To The Past could be considered the defining entry in the storied franchise.

6. Donkey Kong Country

Release Date: November 21, 1994
Final Score: 75.86
Average Rating: 88.31/100 (22nd)
Total Ratings: 8,622 (4th)

In 1994, Donkey Kong Country looked stunning, and honestly, it’s still impressive today. That’s thanks to the game’s sprites and visual assets that were made to look like 3D models, which made the game appear as futuristic as any console game at the time.

Good graphics are great, but if the gameplay isn’t there, then who cares? Donkey Kong Country is of course a stellar platforming experience that, like its visuals, holds up in 2021. Aside from the game’s inherent value, it’s also the seed for other phenomenal side-scrolling Donkey Kong games, like the SNES Donkey Kong Country sequels and the more recent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

5. Super Mario All-Stars

Release Date: August 11, 1993
Final Score: 77.26
Average Rating: 88.36/100 (20th)
Total Ratings: 9,187 (3rd)

Just because the NES came to an end and was followed by an advanced new console, that didn’t mean fans were totally over the original Mario adventures. Those NES games were still fun and worthwhile in the ’90s, so Nintendo kept them alive during the decade with Super Mario All-Stars, a compilation that went on to become the SNES’ second-best-selling game.

If you know the original Super Mario Bros. games, there’s not much need to explain the appeal of All-Stars. The collection isn’t entirely a re-hash, though, as it features Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, which previously wasn’t released in North America because Nintendo thought it would be too challenging for US players and therefore not a welcoming direct sequel to the original SMB.

4. Mega Man X

Release Date: January 19, 1994
Final Score: 77.55
Average Rating: 92.78/100 (3rd)
Total Ratings: 8,406 (6th)

Mega Man was one of the defining and omnipresent franchises on the NES, thanks to the six games that were released on the platform. When it came time for Mega Man to establish itself on the SNES, though, it did so with a left turn: Mega Man X.

The game was a departure for the franchise, but one that paid off big time. Aside from key plot changes — the game has a new protagonist and futuristic setting — the game offered players more mobility thanks to X’s ability to scale and jump off walls. That said, the game didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken: The new elements keep it interesting, but at the core of Mega Man X is the classic Mega Man gameplay that made it a hit.

3. Chrono Trigger

Release Date: August 11, 1995
Final Score: 78.60
Average Rating: 94.22/100 (2nd)
Total Ratings: 8,536 (5th)

Chrono Trigger was positioned for success even before it was released: It was helmed by a three-person team consisting of Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series), Yuji Horii (creator of the Dragon Quest series), and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Quest‘s character designer and the author of the Dragon Ball manga series). Yeah, that’s a lot of game-making firepower.

Indeed, the game was a success upon release and has resonated consistently over the years since: The 2008 port for the Nintendo DS is one of the platform’s most highly rated games, and fans were excited to hear music from the series played during this year’s opening ceremony at the Olympics. Chrono Trigger may not have the name recognition of Mario or Zelda among casual gamers, but it is nonetheless an essential SNES experience that continues to excite players a quarter of a century later.

2. EarthBound

Release Date: June 5, 1995
Final Score: 83.58
Average Rating: 92.21/100 (4th)
Total Ratings: 11,150 (2nd)

If, a year after its release, you told SNES fans that EarthBound would become one of the platform’s most beloved games, you’d have raised a lot of eyebrows. While players today know that the game is a favorite, it actually wasn’t a hit in the US when it was initially released. It sold poorly, but as the years went on, a fervent legion of fans helped the game earned its deserved acclaim, and now it routinely appears near the top of lists like this one.

The game stands out because it’s not like most other RPGs of its era. It’s comedic in tone and based on regular American life, meaning it’s not so steeped in RPG tropes like dragons and spells and whatnot. It’s a unique and refreshing entry in the SNES library and it’s no wonder why it is beloved today, despite being unjustly undervalued in its time.

1. Super Mario World

Release Date: August 23, 1991
Final Score: 94.91
Average Rating: 90.46/100 (7th)
Total Ratings: 18,762 (1st)

I’m far from the first person to toot Super Mario World‘s horn. It’s regarded as one of the greatest games ever and is far and away the best-selling title on the SNES: It sold over 20 million copies, and that’s not even counting the 5.7 million copies the Game Boy Advance port (Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2) moved. To put that into perspective, the next best-selling SNES game, Super Mario All-Stars, sold about 10.5 million units. (That actually closely mirrors the difference in Total Ratings between SMW and All-Stars on this list, too.)

It spawned an animated TV show and a manga series. It’s a major part of the foundation for Super Mario Maker 2, one of the most popular Nintendo Switch games. It’s one of the most active games in the world of speedrunning. There’s an active community of fans who warp the game into their own original playable Mario adventures.

None of those things would be possible if there wasn’t a fantastic game behind the hype, and SMW‘s gameplay is still so tight and fun today. There’s a reason virtually every new platformer today is modeled at least in part after SMW and its predecessors on the NES. So many SNES games have aged poorly, but Mario and his world remain super.

If you want to see that list again in infographic form, here you go:

Off hand, I used to be able to tell you how any movies have been in the MCU without looking. Then, at some point in Phase 3, I used to have to stop and count, but I could still do it. Now, especially with the Disney+ entries added in, I’m not convinced I can do it without missing something. I guess my point is, here’s a movie series that is so long now I can no longer tell you how many entries there are off the top of my head, yet the latest entry, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, still has to use a remarkable amount of exposition to explain so much.

Now, don’t get me wrong, when the story is moving and not explaining, it really moves. The fight scene on the bus that’s been heavily used in the marketing (and comes surprisingly early in the movie) is dynamite. And star Simu Liu, who, let’s say, over the past year has expressed confidence on social media about his performance (a confidence, I should add, I’m quite envious of), well he backs up in the final product. He has both a swagger of a screen presence and pulls off some nifty stunt work that makes the action in Shang-Chi the best I’ve seen in an MCU movie. In that there is actual action going on in this movie, as opposed to just CGI action. (Though there’s plenty of that, too. At one point Simu Liu rides a dragon and I’m guessing that’s not a practical effect.)

Shang-Chi opens in San Francisco with pals Shang-Chi, who is using the name “Shaun” (Liu), and Katy (Awkwafina), just kind of stumbling through life: working as valets, taking the cars they were supposed to be parking on joy rides, then hitting karaoke until dawn. I honestly could have watched an entire movie about this. (Strangely, the film abruptly loses the lighthearted tone after the first act.) Shaun and Katy are on the bus when Shaun is attacked and Katy is forced to drive the bus (there’s a lot of Speed in this scene) and Katy is bewildered that Shaun knows how to fight very well.

So here’s when things get tricky. Shaun tells Katy his actual name is Shang-Chi and he tells her his whole life story about his father, Wenwu (Tony Leung, who is unsurprisingly amazing), being the leader of an international crime organization called the Ten Rings and how he had been trained since a little boy to take over the operation – to the chagrin of his now-estranged sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), who feels she was ignored by her father because of her gender. (Wenwu is a new character because the comic book history of Shang-Chi’s father is, well, complicated and bad and you can go read all about that if you want.) Shang-Chi and Katy then set off on an adventure to find his sister to warn her that their father’s army just attacked him and will probably come after her next. (Katy is a weird character here in that there’s really absolutely no reason for her to be put in the danger she’s put in throughout this movie since she’s just a regular person with no fighting skills and no superpowers, other than being a good driver. Yet Awkwafina brings so much life to every scene, I also understand why every excuse possible is made to make sure she’s in every scene she’s in.)

But this movie also delves into the Ten Rings (which, yes, is right there in the title of the movie), but in the comics that was associated with the Iron Man villain, The Mandarin. Obviously, we saw a version of The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, who turned out to be an actor named Trevor (plays with delight by Ben Kingsley). So we’ve got a new hero that has a backstory that needs explaining and we have the Ten Rings, which need a lot of explaining. (You see, the Ten Rings is both a criminal organization and literally ten rings that give its owner superpowers. Oh, also, the rings are sentient.) So, as you might expect, there’s a lot of exposition in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and, for the life of me, I don’t really know how the movie could get around that and still introduce two huge plot elements that have to be explained. (And not to get too deep into the plot of this movie, but it then, about halfway through, introduces a third huge thing that needs a long explanation.)

It’s a stark juxtaposition, the long periods of exposition, then the story jumps back to life with beautiful set pieces and intense action. (There’s a scene set on the scaffolding of a skyscraper that is, again, dynamite.) And when the characters are just being the characters, instead of listening to exposition, this is a really fun movie. (And Destin Daniel Cretton excels at characters.) It’s all here. And it’s why I’m really looking forward to the next chapter now that we got all the explaining out of the way. Because the movie ends with the same lighthearted tone that it started with, and it hit me, oh yeah, that would have been nice if the whole movie could have been like that.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Whenever a pair of rappers occupies a relatively similar lane stylistically, vocally, or even physically, hip-hop fans often pit them against each other or they just naturally end up at odds — see Future and Rich Homie Quan or any new female rapper and Nicki Minaj. With the release of the deluxe version of Rod Wave’s No. 1 album SoulFly, fans have detected another potential beef of this nature brewing in one of the lines on the new song, “Get Ready.”

“Labels used to look past me, now they trying to remake me,” Rod croons. “Grab a fat n**** out the trenches and replace me/Tryna duplicate me, can’t be.” While rappers have often lamented the transient nature of stardom in hip-hop, it’s Rod’s choice of words that has fans on high alert looking for a feud. “Trenches” is, of course, the title of one of North Carolina rapper Morray’s breakthrough singles, on which Morray laments rap’s focus on so many negative aspects of lower-income upbringing.

As both rappers share a melodic flow, alternating between the singsong raps that are popular today and outright belting, as well as a husky physique and a rags-to-riches survival narrative, fans have interpreted the line as a shot at Morray (they were even both featured on XXL’s Freshman covers — Rod in 2020 and Morray this year). Further exacerbating the issue, rap manager Benjamin Rainwater, who managed the late Dallas rapper Mo3, made it clear in a recent interview that while the posthumous track “In My Blood” was to initially feature Rod Wave but replaced him with Morray, who Rainwater called “somebody genuine” — implying that perhaps Rod was not.

Perhaps everyone’s reading too much into things, but as it stands, Rod Wave at least has the grounds to be a little salty about Morray taking at least one opportunity from him. However, given that his latest album was able to top the Billboard 200, it’s probably better for him to remain focused on his own success. Meanwhile, with a tour with J. Cole coming up, Morray has his own rising profile to worry about.

Listen to “Get Ready” above.