I love PaRappa the Rapper, so I hate to have to say this, but PaRappa the Rapper Remastered is even more broken than the 20-year-old original. I love PaRappa the Rapper. It was one of my favorite games as a kid. I played it to death on PlayStation, and did …
Toukiden 2 makes a strong case for changing the term “Monster Hunter clone” to “Toukiden clone”, setting a new bar for the Hunting RPG genre. I propose that from here on out, “Monster Hunter clones” be referred to as “Toukiden clones”. True enough, the original Toukiden drew heavily on Monster …
LEGO Worlds has (almost) all the fun and excitement of playing with LEGO, and none of the limitations that come with the real-life, physical toys. I need to get something out in the open: I don’t really like Minecraft. I like the idea of Minecraft, and I think it’s a brilliant …
Atelier Firis gives the Atelier series a new focus on a connected world and a transitory story, perfect for a delightful coming-of-age story like this. I haven’t played an Atelier game since a brief stint with Atelier Iris on PlayStation 2. It’s not that I don’t like the series; I …
Horizon Zero Dawn is a remarkable achievement in world-building, but it undermines that with a weak story and too much open-world bloat. If you want to get the most out of Horizon Zero Dawn, my advice is to avoid all main story content as long as possible. Just take every …
Sniper Elite is my guilty pleasure. I know, conventional wisdom says there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure – “like what you like, without guilt”. There’s an element of truth in that, but it’s a more complicated issue and one that’s worth unpacking. Sniper Elite 3 was a game …
When it first came out, Gravity Rush was one of the most original, unique takes on the action-adventure game. In a genre so bloated, it takes something special to stand out, and Gravity Rush had that in spades, with its clever gravity shifting mechanic and beautiful world. There hasn’t been …
Cross-post from DigitallyDownloaded.net. “Joe’s Diner is scary.” That’s a message I sent to DigitallyDownloaded.net’s editor-in-chief not long after starting up the game. It was late at night, I was home alone, and there was a weather bomb outside making all kinds of ghoulish noises. A brief opening had introduced me …
Pinball FX 2 VR is one of the best virtual reality games I’ve played. There’s a beautiful irony that: VR, with all its futurist appeal, shines brightest when it’s used to recreate one of the precursors to modern video games. By having you stand over a pinball machine, looking down …
There’s a moment not long into Shantae: Half-Genie Hero that gave me chills. As usual, Half-Genie Hero opened with Shantae’s longtime arch-nemesis Risky Boots attacking Scuttle Town. I was running through Main Street, hair-whipping Tinkerbats left and right, enjoying the pumping soundtrack, when suddenly… vocals. This is the first Shantae …
