Van Dennis, Author at Unwinnable

Exploits Feature

Andor

By Van Dennis • November 3rd, 2025

You are never safe from Imperial disposability.

Exploits Feature

The Animated Robots of 2024

By Van Dennis • April 1st, 2025

What’s suddenly relevant about cartoon robots right now?

A screenshot of Driveclub with a slick gray audi on the left and a red and black mercedes on the right both up close and flying down a mountain street

Driveclub Might Not Deserve Reverence, But It Should be Revisited

By Van Dennis • October 2nd, 2024

Driveclub is still one of the most frustrating racing games I’ve ever played… and yet, it somehow also makes me wistful, as it’s a game I could see doing very well today if it had gotten a second chance.

Feature Story

Art showing the titular beast from Kaiju No. 8 has the giant creature looming over a scene packed with people fleeing his approach. As our perspective is closer to his, they look like bugs.

Making a Mess in Kaiju No. 8

By Van Dennis • June 25th, 2024

Kaiju No. 8 is a wonderfully refreshing series: a show about someone in their early 30s who finds out that their dream is still achievable, even if it’s by unconventional means.

Exploits Feature

The Century-Long Humanification of King Kong

By Van Dennis • March 1st, 2024

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

A screenshot from Aggretsuko with Retsuko herself in her death metal face on a big screen on a building over a bunch of commuters going on with their day

Aggretsuko’s Excellence Was Hidden in Plain Sight

By Van Dennis • January 26th, 2024

Just as Retsuko herself has a hidden personal life that surprises other characters, Aggretsuko’s supporting cast all have personalities that make an office comedy about animal people feel grounded and astonishingly well thought out.

title card for The People You're Paying to be In Shorts, with Michael Jordan holding back some tears front and center and many images of basketball players in various stages of jump and throw behind him

The People You’re Paying To Be in Shorts: Dorktown on the 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats

By Van Dennis • October 17th, 2023

Dorktown’s strengths are on full display here yet again: surprisingly little footage of actual people on the court, a superb soundtrack, and a completely honest appreciation of the men in the titular shorts whose job(s) it is to go out and get their asses handed to them.

Exploits Feature

Mechanical Sympathy

By Van Dennis • May 1st, 2023

“…you learn to care for a machine to the point where you see it as more than just metal.”

Screengrab for the title card of Dorktown's The History of the Seattle Mariners documentary, with the title at the top with "The supercut by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein" below and a chart of years, baseball players, graphs, and various other data spread below

It Just Continues: Dorktown’s The History of the Seattle Mariners

By Van Dennis • April 6th, 2023

Despite going over 40 years without ever reaching the mountaintop, the Mariners have a history worth recognizing, and one that can make you reconsider what a team “means.”

Cover images from the three big shooters of 2012, with Spec Ops Warrior on the left, Halo doing the superhero landing in the middle, and Nacho Varga pondering his two guns and a severed head on the right

2012: The Shooter’s Overlooked Apex

By Van Dennis • January 4th, 2023

While 2012 didn’t quite have one singular release that set the world on fire or dominated the discourse, it still stands out because of just how many gems it had that’ve aged incredibly well and continue to affect the medium and industry a decade later.