Onde is a difficult game to describe. It’s a puzzle platformer of sorts, I guess, but far from a typical one. There’s a musical element to it, but it’s not really a rhythm game. It has flashes of puzzle and action games, even a little bit of arcade influence, but …
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. …
From LittleBigPlanet and Kirby’s Epic Yarn to Yoshi’s Woolly World and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, it seems like “textile-themed platformers” are becoming a genre of their own—as oddly specific as that may seem. It’s this trend that Where’s Samantha? jumps on, and while it lacks the budget and refinement of …
Every year, Nippon Ichi Software holds an internal event encouraging all staff to come up with ideas for a new game, with one such submission guaranteed to get picked up for development and eventual release. It’s an avenue expressly designed to encourage creativity and to involve staff not usually involved …
Content warning: The Missing—and, by extension, this review—deals extensively with themes of self-harm, suicide, bullying, and discrimination against queer people. “This game was made with the belief that nobody is wrong for being what they are.” This message is one of the first things you see when you load up …
Review by Dylan Bishop Ports are a curious thing, as some games seem to hit new consoles a mere year or so after their original release. They never ripen or mature in the minds of their audience, but instead demand attention shortly after they’re left alone. Thankfully, Playdead’s original title, …
The first rule of making a platformer is: you need to have reliable controls. This is true of most game genres, of course, but for platformers it’s critical – when level design and puzzles are built around precise movements and strict timing, the controls need to allow the player to …
