Reviews

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us As I played Belle Boomerang, my husband looked over my shoulder and asked if it was difficult. “Yes,” I replied, “but I have it set to retro difficulty.” He asked if I was going to review it, which I confirmed. “Why would you make it...

Just call me the testi-killer The Sniper Elite series really hit gold with its X-ray kills. Being a sniper is satisfying and all, but killing Nazis at a distance just lacks intimacy. With the “X-Ray” cam, you get that up-close and personal touch, and watching your shot tear through the innards of Germany’s footsoldiers is...

All right, cutter. Time to polish this tap shoe Do you remember the opening cutscene to Starcraft? No, not the one where Gerard DuGalle watches from a battlecruiser as a Zerg swarm overruns a colony. That’s what you get when Brood War is installed. No, I mean the one where a group of space hicks...

Join Us. No one would deny that the (once) cult horror franchise that is The Evil Dead is deserving of its legendary status, but it also cannot be denied that its frequent entries into the video game world have certainly left something to be desired. While each movie, from Sam Raimi’s seminal 1983 classic to...

It’s pronounced “Kay Oh” Kao the Kangaroo, somehow, eluded me all these years. I know! You’re talking to the person who would rent every single mascot platformer they could get their hands on from a young age. Aero the Acro-Bat? Yes please. Jersey Devil? You know it. Despite it being around since the year 2000,...

What exactly is Touken Ranbu? Originally released in 2015, Touken Ranbu is a free-to-play browser game where players take up the role of a Saniwa who has the power to turn historical, mythical, and even a few imaginary swords into pretty boy warriors known as “Touken Danshi”. The Danshi are mankind’s greatest weapon against the...

Don’t make a bloody mess Ambitious, brooding, stylish, and messy, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong feels right at home with the eternal undead it follows. It takes the narrative adventure style, mixes it with tabletop RPG and some pen-and-paper puzzle solving, and comes away with something fresh. It just also stumbles a few times on...

I have a good feeling about Hundred Heroes now Sometimes when games hit Kickstarter, I completely tune them out. I mean a few of them don’t even see a hint of progress for years, but Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (read: the “main” game due in 2023) seems to be in good shape if the Eiyuden...

How do you improve on perfection? Where do I even begin with this? You can’t review The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe like a normal game — no, not even close. Sure, you can call it an open-ended walking sim with multiple endings, but while that may be true, it doesn’t even come close to doing...

Like Kurosawa I make mad films, ‘kay I don’t make films Yomi is a concept that is so depressing, that it’s largely not followed in contemporary Japanese society, even among those that still observe the rituals of Shinto. It doesn’t matter what you do in your life, the mythology says you were sent to the...