Ah, Crayon Shin-chan. In Japanese: a wholesome manga-series-turned-anime for viewers of all ages. In the English dub: a wholesome anime edited and dubbed into a farcical, adult-oriented comedy bearing exceedingly little resemblance to its original source material. The release we’ll be taking a look at today is of course regarding the original version: Shin chan:
Kill Knight is a title that immediately jumped out at me when it came across my virtual desk. For the absolutely radical name, yes, but also for far more than that: the isometric viewpoint, the chunky original PlayStation-esque aesthetic, the apparent emphasis on tight mechanical execution and strict resource management… Everything about it screamed the
Throne and Liberty’s trek toward release has been a long and winding one. Originally announced all the way back in 2011 as Lineage Eternal, the title has run the developmental gamut of changing engines, changing names, and even the excision of its connection to its parent series before settling on its October 1st, 2024 launch
Say what you will about the towering monolith that is The Walt Disney Company and its interesting history in their early years (especially when you deep dive into EPCOT). But there’s a reason why their properties are so beloved, and studio after studio has tried to capture the same magic that’s captivated audiences for well
To say that Behaviour Interactive’s Dead By Daylight has had some staying power would be underselling things by a pretty significant margin. Now in its eighth year of operation, the title has expanded by leaps and bounds thanks to a dedicated fanbase, consistent updates, and a plethora of crossovers with major players in the horror
Star Wars video games have covered an awful lot of ground in their forty-odd years of existence. From its first platformer in 1987’s aptly titled Star Wars, to its first FPS in 1995’s Dark Forces, its first MMORPG in 2003’s Star Wars Galaxies… The list could go on ad infinitum, but suffice it to say,
For many years after the early console generations, there was a trend in the gaming industry to dial back game difficulty to enable more players to enjoy them (and therefore make more money). But in 2011, one game would interrupt that trend a bit. You might have heard of it: Dark Souls. This was an
I have to admit to no small amount of surprise that I’m penning a review for Volgarr the Viking II, the source of which is twofold. Firstly, because its predecessor was a highly punishing, highly niche indie title that hooked its claws into me personally for its particular brand of arcade-style gameplay and required precision
Have you ever found yourself ugly crying after finishing a particularly emotional piece of media? If I’m being honest, there haven’t been a lot of those for me, but recently I was brought to that point by Polychroma Games’ Until Then. Until Then is a 2-D interactive visual novel that centers around Mark, a boy
When talking about the most impactful video games of all time, it’s hard to understate the importance of 1993’s Myst. A seemingly simple-looking point-and-click adventure on the surface, the game went on to be the top selling PC game for nearly a decade, only being thrown off its throne by The Sims in 2000. The
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of The Chinese Room? Not the thought experiment, of course, but the development studio. If you’ve been around for a while, you might think of Dear Esther, the Half-Life 2 mod eventually remade into a full release, or its spiritual successor Everybody’s Gone to
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a game that immediately intrigues. If not for the gunpowder-and-magic stylings of its world, then certainly for the blend of two somewhat disparate gameplay genres. Ostensibly Flintlock reads as a Soulslike, but then you begin to take note of the protagonist’s high mobility, the number of tools at her
Have you ever wondered why there seem to be so much people with titles like “Big Fish” or “The Final Fish” that also happen to be sporting some shiny ultimate weapons? Or why a lot of people on Final Fantasy XIV-adjacent Discords, forums, or social media that seem to always make jokes about fishing being
“The pride and joy of our studio.” “Kind of our crown jewel.” This is how CEO and Co-founder of studio Cyan, Rand Miller, described their 1997 release, Riven. The sequel to arguably one of the most well-known and impactful PC games of the 90s, Myst, Riven is held in even higher esteem by many gamers
Allow me to tell you (briefly, I promise) about a little game called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Released by soon-to-be Dishonored developer Arkane Studios in 2006 and powered by Valve’s Source Engine, it’s a first-person action adventure game with light RPG mechanics spun off of the greater Might and Magic series of RPGs.
When it comes to writing reviews, a concept that consistently crops up is the notion of a game being greater than the sum of its parts. For me, this particular abstraction does a lot of heavy lifting to establish that while a given title may have some lackluster execution in certain areas, the experience of
The much anticipated sequel to Slay the Spire was just announced by team Mega Crit, with the last major communication being about the sequel title no longer being developed in Unity after the controversy surrounding the engine’s monetization shift. We have since learned that the game will be developed and released on the open-source engine
Every once in a blue moon, an upcoming game release will immediately grab my attention. Be it a snappy title, a striking visual style, or an intriguing gameplay mechanic, any combination of them are more than enough to drive me to take a closer look at a game. On even rarer occasions, a new release
Ah, South Park. Throughout the span of the late nineties and early aughts, it was a show that was hard to avoid, what with quotes and catchphrases from the show abounding on the campuses of middle- and high-schools. It was a series that was never very far from sight in its heyday, and this is
Manjuu, the developers behind Azur Lane, have released promotional materials for their new open world RPG title, Azur Promilia. From just from a quick glance at the promotional materials, the art direction is very heavily inspired by Genshin Impact’s artistic styling, not only in the character and mob designs, but also in the overworld design,