Game review

After the success of Life is Strange and especially Life is Strange 2, Dontnod Entertainment has become the sort of developer where the studio name alone can be enough to get people’s attention. So Dontnod announced Twin Mirror, a psychological thriller surrounding a small-town murder, it caught folks eyes, mine …

It’s hard to imagine what the videogame landscape would look like without 3D Mario. Super Mario 64, especially, influenced the entire direction of 3D games, and the likes of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy made big impacts of their own. Such historically significant games need to be preserved …

There’s no shortage of great shoot-’em-ups on Switch, but few compare to Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion. Originally released in 2011 (with a couple of revisions since then), this indie gem has rightfully earned a spot at the same table as the DoDonPachis and Ikarugas of this world: bullet hells are …

Haven is something truly special. Videogames seem to struggle with meaningful depictions of romance anywhere outside of the otome and dating sim niche—and as much as I love otome games, romance is something that should be far more universal, and there’s a lot of untapped potential in approaching romance through …

The Whitlock Mansion is a strange, eerie place. Monsters called Chaos Servants stalk the halls, attacking anyone with whom they cross paths, a strange spirit haunts the eldest daughter, and the lord and lady of the manner seem to have more than a few secrets of their own. On her …

As a general rule, I don’t care a whole lot about photorealism in videogames. For me, compelling art direction is always going to trump realism, and where a lot of people look to a new console generation to make games more lifelike than ever, but I’m far more interested in …

Taiko no Tatsujin may be best known for its arcade-style rhythm game action, but it’s also a series with a long history of RPG-style story modes, at least in its console releases. Meccha! Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Great Adventure of the Seven Islands! established a RPG-rhythm mash-up formula that’s been …

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that The Falconeer was built almost entirely by one person. Tomas Sala, best known for the “Moonpath to Elsweyr” mod series for Skyrim, has poured his heart, soul, and years of his time into The Falconeer, and it shows. This …

“Shoot-’em-up mixed with a match-four puzzle game” isn’t a concept I never would have expected to hear before Galacide came along. I can’t think of two genres that, at least on the surface, are further removed from one another, but as it turns out, this is a mash-up that can …