Death’s Door is far and away one of the best indie games of the year. As someone who grew up playing classic 2D, isometric, action-adventure titles on the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and a litany of other platforms, there’s a certain coziness about this game and its structure that I wasn’t expecting. While...
Superheroes from space descend on Santa Destroy in No More Heroes III, the long-awaited sequel to the action game series from Grasshopper Manufacture and its founder, Goichi “Suda51” Suda. Again, the game puts the players in control of Travis Touchdown, the otaku assassin who twice climbed to the top of the United Assassins Association rankings....
Many licensed video games, try as they might, prove underwhelming in one of two ways: They’re either too far off from the property being adapted to satisfy fans or they’re too so-so as games themselves to attract interest beyond the core audience. My hands-on preview of the game prior to reviewing it pointed towards the...
As a longtime fan of the original Psychonauts and its developer Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts 2 has proven to be everything that I hoped it would be. Despite this sequel coming about 16 years after the first installment, Double Fine has found a way to tap into the same energy and charm that made the...
The Madden franchise has been at somewhat of a standstill for a number of years. The series hardly changes from game to game, which causes plenty of frustration amongst fans, but those same fans still show up to buy the new edition year after year. There’s a lazy element of “if it ain’t broke, don’t...
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came at a weird moment for Nintendo. As the franchise’s sixth main entry, the Wii title debuted on November 11th for The Legend of Zelda‘s 25th anniversary. The game sought to tell the origin story of the hero Link and how his story began so long ago. Now, Nintendo...
Pokemon Unite is a solid MOBA-style game that serves as a gateway to the MOBA genre while also showing off the diverse abilities and personalities of Pokemon. The MOBA genre is one of the most popular video game formats in the world, with millions of players either participating in or watching games like League of...
The Ascent’s got plenty of exciting building blocks propping up its foundation. It’s a twin-stick shooter set in a sprawling cyberpunk landscape with promises of hordes of loot for players to acquire from chests, missions, and the remains of their inventories. Too often, however, the game’s more frustrating moments get in the way of the...
In today’s gaming landscape, there’s no shortage of love letters to classic console RPGs. From indie titles to triple-A projects like Bravely Default II, games of all sizes try to recapture the magic of sitting down in front of a CRT screen with a SNES controller to embark on an epic adventure. While these efforts...
Dynasty Warriors might be Koei Tecmo and Omega Force’s flagship action franchise, but through the years we have gotten to see different variations of the central 1 vs. 1,000 formula with not only anime and video game franchises like One Piece, Mobile Suit Gundam, and The Legend of Zelda, but with its own spinoff franchises...
