Monster Hunter games have always been for a very particular audience. While the marketing behind the franchise’s more contemporary releases would have you believe that accessibility has been a key focus for developer Capcom, the reality of the final products often couldn’t be further from those claims. 2021’s Monster Hunter …
Few games establish a sense of flow quite like OlliOlli. The combination gnarly skate tricks, wild combos, high-speed traversal, and platformer level design—Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater by way of Rayman Origins, if you want to get reductive—is a rush that only ramps up as you master its intricacies. This is …
I tend to be wary of “roguelike shoot-’em-ups”. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I like the appeal of a classic arcade shmup: five handcrafted levels (and maybe a second loop), with consistent enemy layouts and meticulous patterns that you can practice, master, and build a strategy around. I like roguelikes …
Halfway through the third stage of Castle of Shikigami 2, a boss called “Freyr” shows up. With a name like that, shoot-’em-up genre conventions, and the few other bosses under your belt by that point establishing the game’s dark fantasy style, you’d probably expect some huge, threatening mech or a …
Blue Reflection was one of the most uplifting, joyous—dare I say wholesome—games of 2017, even if that point seemed to get lost on a lot of folks. A story about an aspiring ballet dancer who suffers a career-ending injury, and then finding new meaning in a life that she’s mostly …
A young woman wakes up in a strange place, her long, braided red hair flailing in the wind despite the numerous ribbons that bind it. Broken eggshells, large enough to house a person, lie scattered around, and an even larger sword towers over her. “Am I free? No. Still inside. …
Ghostrunner’s blend of free-running and action is refreshing because the latter is incorporated into the former. It’s a platformer first and foremost but the action itself remains exciting due to two reasons: most enemies die from a slash of your sword and ALL enemies kill you in one hit. By …
Five years ago, Mimimi Games breathed welcome new life into the tactical stealth genre with the excellent Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. Following in the footsteps of games like Commandos and Desperados, it reminded the world how captivating a finely-tuned blend of squad-based tactics and stealth can be, especially …
I appreciate where Memories of East Coast is coming from. I’ll always admire the DIY spirit it takes to just get stuck in as a solo developer, and I welcome, on principle, any effort to earnestly explore questions of guilt and grief. But actually delivering is another challenge entirely, and …
Last month, The Pokemon Company continued its tradition of remaking earlier Pokemon games with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Fifteen years after their original release, these remakes of Pokemon’s fourth generation seek to catch the zoomer nostalgia wave and re-establish the Sinnoh region ahead of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. But do …
