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Preview: Mario Kart 8′s tracks drive you up the wall
Before E3 even started, we knew we’d see the new Wii U Mario Kart. Now that we have, it’s clear that it doesn’t stray too far from the series’ past, but it does add a new element that can turn things...
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Interview: A Hat in Time is reviving the collect-a-thon
A Hat in Time, a new 3D platformer from Gears for Breakfast, is in the final hours of its Kickstarter campaign. The game’s big hook? It aims to bring back the collect-a-thon subgenre, popularized by...
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Mystery Machines: Gizmondo’s squandered potential
Gaming hardware history can arguably be broken down into three distinct categories. First, we have the victors, the ones that rose above the competition to become timeless titans that will remain...
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Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix: Upscaled, not upscale
Kingdom Hearts is a concept that ostensibly shouldn’t work, but does anyway. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but the level of care and love that went into crafting it is so...
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Interview: WayForward’s Matt Bozon talks Shantae
WayForward’s Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Kickstarter campaign comes to a close this week, having already reached its needed total and heading toward stretch goals. We talked to Matt Bozon, series creator...
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Rune Factory 4: Harvesting the fruits of franchise labor
Given how well the simulation and role-playing genres work together, making the easygoing farming experience of Harvest Moon more engaging by adding RPG elements turned out to be developer Neverland’s...
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Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies: Beyond reasonable doubt
There is far more that can be done with video games than simply challenging reflexes. One of the best examples of this realm of possibility is Capcom’s Ace Attorney, a series that, now going into its...
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Mystery Machines: Virtual Boy: how a titan stumbled
Even the biggest name in gaming let its whimsy get the best of it, and how it managed to release one of the most confounding pieces of gaming hardware ever conceived is a bit difficult to untangle....
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Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai: Just like old times
Digital distribution has opened up a far wider spectrum of games to be commercially released. In generations past, we could only ever see big-budget retail releases and freeware PC games on the other...
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Interview: Dust’s Dean Dodrill on crafting an indie gem
2012′s Dust: An Elysian Tail was a downloadable gem, and a labor of love for its creator, Dean Dodrill. We talked to him about his experiences making the game, thoughts on game design and what he’s...
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Gravity Rush: Turned inside, outside and upside-down
It doesn’t take a genius to see that Sony’s new PlayStation Vita is going through a rough patch as of now. Low sales and waning interest in the handheld make it a tough sell for the time being. Sony...
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Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013: Tapped in
As a kid, I loved trading card games such as Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! or Nintendo’s Pokémon, playing matches with other kids at school, trading on the playground and arguing over the best cards and...
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Datura: Wandering through the disorienting fog
Datura is named after genus of plant life that is known for its hallucinogenic properties, which is a perfect way to describe the game: A hallucination. The PSN title never really clues you in as to...
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Record of Agarest War 2: More grind than a peppermill
It’s tough to be a console JRPG in the West in this day and age. The genre just doesn’t hold the same industry clout that it did in the 16 and 32-bit eras. So, if nothing else, I commend Aksys for...
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Interview: S2′s Shawn Tooley on the state of Newerth
S2 Games has been in the industry for nearly a decade, making a name for itself with its FPS/RTS mashup series Savage. In 2010, they broke into the burgeoning multiplayer online battle arena genre...
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Tiny Troopers (PC): It’s a lovely little war
Back in the early ’90s, there was an interesting little tactical shooter called Cannon Fodder. In it, you commanded a small squad of soldiers by clicking around a battlefield, commanding them when to...
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Chris Dominowski’s favorite: Kingdom Hearts
You’ve had it happen to you before, right? I’m sure every gamer has at one point or another. That one moment when a single game, out of nowhere, hits you like a brick, and you just know that it’s the...
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Crazy Taxi: It all just happens again, way down the line
The delightfully wacky premise, exemplary and addictive arcade gameplay and an overarching sense of style that make Crazy Taxi a crazy-fun game that could have only come out of the bright-burning...
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Ragnarok Tactics: You’ve played this one before
The PSP has seen a surplus of off-kilter RPGs in the twilight of its life, even in America, where it is no longer even considered a viable platform in the eyes of the general public. This is due...
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Persona 4 Golden: Worth its weight in, well, you know
Not often can a game earnestly tout itself as a nigh-perfect package of gameplay, audiovisual presentation and narrative and, even if it can, there is usually some other critical flaw that it faces...
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Get in the holiday spirit with these festive game levels
Trees are decorated, delicious cookies are baked, tacky sweaters from your grandmother are worn mainly to not look like a jerk, gifts are given and multicolored lights make certain neighborhoods...
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Snackbar’s 2012 Staff Picks: Chris Dominowski
10. Persona 4 Arena Turning an RPG into a fighter is inherently an interesting prospect from a design perspective, since you have lots of things like status ailments, critical hits and different...
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The Games that Weren’t: Sonic X-Treme
Many retro game fans like to theorize and fantasize about what might have saved Sega. Many say that it was the Sega CD and 32X that undermined consumer confidence in Sega. Others say that it was the...
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Roundtable: The good, bad and complications of DRM
Digital rights management (DRM) methodology is one of the most hotly-debated topics in the industry. As games get bigger and more expensive, companies do more and more to lock their products down in...
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Ys I & II Chronicles+: Adol’s third trip to Steam is a hit
There’s something very fulfilling about the Ys series returning to PC, and it’s all the better that English-speaking gamers are getting in on the action. As one of the very, very few semi-major...
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A Valley Without Wind 2: Get lost in a world of strategy
There will always be games that are more well-suited to one platform or another. Portable games designed for quick, pick-up-and-play action and collaboration. Console games are best-suited for a big...
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Atelier Totori Plus: Head outside for alchemy adventure
The Atelier series has always had a bit of difficulty making its way across the pond. Starting from humble origins on the Sega Saturn, it never saw an English release until seven years later with...
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Reus: Working to oversee a dynamic domain
The strategy genre seems to be one of the more fertile grounds for innovation in all of gaming. Since its inception, designers have actively sought out all the varying avenues of possibility for...
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Snackbar’s 2013 Staff Picks: Chris Dominowski
10. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch The 32-bit era has long since passed, so it’s not every day that we are blessed with a big-budget, high-profile JRPG. These days, even longstanding titans of...
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Mystery Machines: N-Gage: jumping the gun
Being too far ahead of its time is a common way for a product to fail, especially in the technology business. This is often the most tragic kind of failure, because it is not the result of apathy or...
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Tales of Symphonia Chronicles: Unpolished diamonds
There’s a growing trend in game remakes that has proven to be somewhat of a double-edged sword. A lot of games are being remastered in high definition, and released with a sequel or two on the same...
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Mystery Machines: Atari Jaguar: nine lives, all used up
While we must not mistake correlation for causation, no top-selling game system of any generation so far has been the highest technical performer. Alas, history has a tendency to repeat itself....
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Conception II: Chunsoft’s weird world of star child labor
The JRPG is going through an oddly fruitful point in its life right now. On one hand, it is undeniable that the genre lacks the cachet that it had during the 32-bit era, and it is doubtful it will...
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Is Goat Simulator the most important game of the year?
If we expect gaming to grow into its own as a medium to stand among literature, film and music in terms of cultural relevance, we can’t dismiss any work’s artistic merits. If we don’t take our medium...
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Mystery Machines: Pippin: Too far outside the box
In the early ’80s the home computer market flourished, with dozens of machines from myriad manufacturers, each with unique hardware gimmicks and software libraries. It was the Wild West of computing,...
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Opinion: On Sunset Overdrive and overwhelming power
One of the biggest headline Xbox One exclusives shown off by Microsoft this week was Sunset Overdrive. The main reasons the game has been getting attention are its bright color palette and energetic...
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Preview: Wii U Smash Bros. makes moves toward Melee
After months of brief gameplay teasers at previous press events, Nintendo finally allowed fans and media a shot at playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for themselves. We tested out the new title to...
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Interview: Laura Kate Dale on games, writing, diversity
Laura Kate Dale is a games journalist, co-founder of the website IndieHaven and creator of the upcoming title You Are The Reason. Staff writer Chris Dominowski talked to her about the state of gender...
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From Pixels to Polygons: The Tales series
In From Pixels to Polygons, we examine classic game franchises that have survived the long transition from the 8- or 16-bit era to the current console generation. This time, Chris Dominowski and Jeff...
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From Pixels to Polygons: The Rayman series
In From Pixels to Polygons, we examine classic game franchises that have survived the long transition from the 8- or 16-bit era to the current console generation. This time, Chris Dominowski and...
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Mystery Machines: Atari Lynx: This kitty still purrs
The Mystery Machines series looks at platforms that didn’t stay around quite long enough for most to know their stories. For more, check out the archive. Portable gaming has always been an anomaly...
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QP Shooting: Dangerous!!: A little slice of bullet hell
Rumors of the death of the shoot-’em-up has been greatly exaggerated. In the aftermath of the Japan-exclusive gold rush of shooters for the Xbox 360, we are starting to see the market stabilize a bit...
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Snackbar’s 2014 Staff Picks: Chris Dominowski
10. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse 2014 was a great year for WayForward, continuing its tradition of releasing uncharacteristically good licensed titles, and having a highly successful Kickstarter for...
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Flame Over: We didn’t start the fire (but we’ll put it out)
With the rise of mobile and handheld gaming encouraging novel, bite-sized experiences that are still capable of taking creative risks, roguelikes have seen a return to prominence in recent years....
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The Ouya may have flopped, but its spirit lives on
It promised a revolution. It promised a common consumer’s upheaval to the traditional console market: taking down the last stronghold against democratizing the creation and sale of video games, the...
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Steven Universe: Attack the Light: Mobile done well
There has been a bit of a renaissance in American animation lately: shows are being aired that take more chances and explore more complex themes and characters. As with every new generation of talent,...
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The Pioneer LaserActive: Nasty, brutish and massive
One of the biggest mistakes a console maker can make is putting a technological gimmick before the hardware itself. The dawn of optical media was a perilous point in games hardware history, with...
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