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Marathon Review — This Starship May Not Be for Everyone, but It’s a Unique and Thrilling Marathon Nontheless

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review — From Blockuza to Brawler: Kiwami 3 Breaks the Guard with Dark Ties

Simogo Legacy Collection Should Be Core Curiculum For GameDev Students

Simogo Legacy Collection is an anthology of some of the earliest games from Sayonara Wild Hearts devs Simogo, and it's a great example of how to make good games at a small scale. Their scopes are more narrow and you can see genuine creative vision- free of more boring metrics like visual fidelity or sequel bait.

Once Upon a KATAMARI Is How You Do Quirky Right

Once Upon A Katamari may be one of the most genuinely bizarre and quirky games I've played, and all in a really endearing way. It's astounding how well the game feels quirky in a really timeless way. I was really preparing for some sort of weird zoomer take on the King of All Cosmos as he tries to be a Twitch streamer or something. Instead, what I got was a charmingly timeless sense of humor- he's just a weirdo.

Kizuna Encounter Super Tag Battle Feels Light In All The Best Ways

With the re release of Kizuna Encounter Super Tag Battle, you can now go back to a time where that wasn't necessarily the case. Kizuna Encounter feels very much like a bizarre proto mesh of all the things SNK would later become known for- specifically in really fun and cool ways.

Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 Is A Game That Understands My Specific Need For Action

One thing about older fighting games is that you can tell which principles they’re built around. While Street Fighter and the games inspired for it tend to be on the slower, more patient side, games like Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 kind of laugh in that direction. With the game shadow-dropped at TGS I’ve got [...]

Silent Hill f Shows All Horror Games Needed Was Visual Novel Magic

One of the hardest things a game needs to do for its audience is convince them to accept its perspective. Many modern games do this by simply watering it down to the simplest, most basic views. Monsters bad, good guys good, etc. Some feign intellect by saying “What if monsters good?” but never do anything [...]

Sonic Racing Crossworlds Teaches Me The Joy Of Being A Hater

Since the last beta, I've been very excited for Sonic Racing Crossworlds. It's a kart racer with attitude, after all- mixing up a tried and true formula with some really clean bells and whistles.

Robocop Rogue City Unfinished Business Reminds Me How Important Expand-alones Are For The Ecosystem

We don’t talk eonugh about expand-alones, and maybe we should. Halfway between DLC and Sequel, they’re for people who want more of something, but in a smaller, bite-sized chunk. They’re a kiss on the lips the morning after, or a smaller box of fries as a chaser to that large one you ate like a [...]

Shadow Labyrinth Shows How Cool It Is To Change Up Things You Know

Shadow Labyrinth is one of those games that feels like it came from my high school sketchbook. It’s a dark, gritty take on Pac-Man, for crying out loud. Put that on 2010s YouTube and watch the money roll in while you embrace a time where the site wasn’t filled with AI slop. Yet, it’s also [...]

Rainbow Six Siege X Review — Ubisoft’s Tactical Shooter Gets a New Lease on Life, Refreshing but Not Revolutionary

Since its debut in 2015, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege has evolved over a full decade into a more complete, deeper tactical shooter. So when Ubisoft’s Montreal studio announced a free-to-play, large-scale revamp — Rainbow Six: Siege X — the player community naturally held its breath in anticipation. From the high-octane action scenes in its [...]

Sedap A Culinary Adventure Shows You Can Have Fun While Being Stressed

I’ve tended to avoid co op games like Sedap A Culinary Adventure. Not just because I’m lonely, but because my rejection-sensitive tendencies mean that something as simple as telling someone to do something can feel unnecessarily mean, causing me to have to replay a whole 10 minute level because I couldn’t grow a spine. Previously, [...]

Raidou Remastered The Mystery of The Soulless Army Is The FireRed Of A Niche But Beloved MegaTen Game

There was a point in time where Shin Megami Tensei was more genre than game- ATLUS was exploring just how many games could have a devil-summoning main character, applying it at different intensities across games like Persona, Digital Devil Saga and the mainline SMT games. Well, it looks like those times are upon us again. [...]

JDM Japanese Drift Master Is The Game That's Gonna Make Me Love Cars

Cars are one of those things I just never got into. To me, cars are simply objects that take me to offices, drive-thrus and dates. They look cool, sure, but it’s hard to appreciate a car’s aesthetics when it’s going so fast your eyes blur and your ears pop from the sound of it. This [...]

Elden Ring Nightreign Shows RNG Is The Most Terrifying Souls Boss Of All

From Software are geniuses. Their workflow and game structure are unmatched from a production standpoint- the Souls formula is like the development equivalent of the Piraka torso piece from Bionicle- simple, but can be built into so many cooler and more elaborate things that you’d still see it years later. The latest twist on this [...]

Doom The Dark Ages Is A Lot Of New, Whether You Like It Or Not

The modern DOOM series has had a weird identity crisis. 2016 was a tonal masterpiece, bringing one of hte most iconic first-person-shooters into the modern age, bucking trends for a fast and aggressive shooter in its brutalist sci-fi world. On the other hand you had Eternal, a much more hyper entry that seemed to almost [...]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Is About Life In The Face Of Death

RPGs are weird, man. It feels like nowadays every turn-based RPG is trying to either be Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, I mean, it’s no one’s fault in the last decade we’ve largely focused in on what we want out of a turn-based experience: even the really unique ones are more about building on a [...]

Fatal Fury City of the Wolves Is Almost Old-School In How New It Feels

Against all odds, we’ve got a new Fatal Fury game. While Garou Mark of the Wolves is something I’m only used to people talking about in the past tense (usually for street cred), the clouds have parted and a celebrity-rich sequel in Fatal Fury City of the Wolves. Fatal Fury is one of those series [...]

Mandragora Whispers of The Witch Tree Is All The Joy Of A Metroidvania With The Freeform Combat Of A Souls Like

Despite not being a 100% freak, I really dig metroidvanias. They deliver dopamine like those dog enrichment toys, making you feel good for finding clever shortcuts and secrets. Mandragora Whispers of the Witch Tree posits an interesting solution to the inherent flaws of the genre, though: while more classic entries are overly married to your [...]

Review: I'm Not Mad That The Devil May Cry Netflix Series Changed Things, I'm Disappointed That It Did So In The Most Boring Way Possible

I’m going to take this chance to say I’m not one of those nerds who thinks every adaptation has to adapt as little as possible to be good. “Canon” leaving the realm of church and entering fandom is one of the worst modern developments, a series of self entitled whiny fanboys stifling creativity because they [...]

Bleach Rebirth of Souls Is One Of The Most Stylish And Competent Anime Tie-Ins

Cards on the table: I never got into Bleach. It was one of those things that just kinda went over my head growing up, and by the time I’d met people I wanted to impress who liked Bleach, there was so much to catch up on when all I wanted was to watch Kill La [...]

Assassin's Creed Shadows Might Be The Most Stylish The Series Has Been Since Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed is one of those series where you kind of always know what you’re going to get with every entry. You go into an Assassin’s Creed game usually wanting a handful of experiences, and the success of the game is more about how well they make you feel you’ve earned those experiences. Yet, with [...]

Two Point Museum Shows That A Little Bit Of Spice Is Good For Management Sims

Management sims are one of those genres that’s really hard to innovate. People like their numbers and their spreadsheets, and that means there’s a certain level of stability expected of that genre. And yet, with a lot of management-related innovations, Two Point finds a way. I really like the Two Point series insistence that you [...]

Monster Hunter Wilds Is A Delight For Fans Old And New

Monster Hunter Wilds is an absolute thrill. Far and away my most anticipated title for 2025, the game has built on the success of Monster Hunter World before it, creating what may actually be the perfect jumping on point for Capcom’s diamond series. Yet despite this, it’s not like the game itself is perfect. As [...]

GQuuuuuux Beginning Feels Like The Studio Khara Special, But Not The One You're Thinking Of

There’s few phrases more loaded than “Studio Khara is working on this project”. While I don’t think it’s fair that the entire studio is often chalked up to the efforts of Hideaki Anno, its creative vision is pretty uniform- you can smell Khara’s influence a mile way. Yet, it’s that Studio Khara touch that makes [...]