Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
Well, fellow Final Fantasy fans, here’s our chance. For years now we’ve been begging Square Enix for a new 2D, pixel-based Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Resonance isn’t Final Fantasy XVII, but after the success of the Octopath Traveler series and Dragon Quest remakes, it’s pretty clearly an effort by the company to see just how much appetite there is for…
A persistent issue I have with video game adaptations of stories from other mediums is that the developers might latch on to the characters and setting of the base material, but almost inevitably the game lacks any understanding of the themes and depth of meaning that made the original work…
For some time, Konami has followed the trend with its Castlevania series,…
Time really does fly. If you had asked me when Earth Defence…
As a leading art form, video games can be – and should be – used to convey more than entertainment. Just as film and television have documentaries and writing has non-fiction, video games offer an opportunity to share real and important stories. Indeed, the interactive nature of games, and the…
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Nintendo, Platinum and SEGA have joined forces once again to give us the biggest of big action, and we’ve had a chance to get hands-on with it. Here’s the thing – you probably already know this, but you should be *really* looking forward to this game. Here are our initial,…
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If you enjoyed the very famous Steins;Gate, or the much loved Robotics;Notes, then chances are you’ll like Chaos;Head Noah. It’s certainly a more extreme experience than those two, but this was the very first entry in the “Science Adventure” series, and it offers excellent, intense storytelling similar to its later…
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As anyone that follows me on Twitter knows, it’s not just that I just have an interest in politics, but I’m also quite certain that politics in the world is fundamentally broken. In most countries around the world, the political sphere is dominated by two or three neoliberal parties that…
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A game where you control the platforms instead of the character? Oh, how the tables have turned! With the adorable Pompom: The Great Space Rescue, it’s only going to take one quick glance to feel a wave of retro-platformer gaming wash over you, but this game does have a creative…
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It’s difficult to write within the fantasy genre in 2022. On the one hand, it’s painfully easy to write something so self-serious and overwrought that it comes across as a desperate and doomed effort to channel Tolkien. Writing fantasy that people will take seriously is monumentally difficult because fantasy by…
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Rabbits are the best pets. They’re fluffy and funny and it’s only when you have them as pets that you realise they’ve got big personalities that fill the home with their energy. We don’t get anywhere near enough games that make rabbits the focus, and many of those that do…
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After a five-month break from streaming (how time flies!) I’ve finally got my act together and I’ve found some time in the week to stream. On Monday evenings (and possibly Saturday mornings), Australian time, I’ll be doing an hour or two stream again. You’ll be able to watch them live…
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I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive,…
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Valkyrie Elysium isn’t for everyone. The game has a specific tone and structure that has ensured that it will only ever appeal to a small, niche demographic. And yet it shares structural, thematic and aesthetic similarities with, in one way or another, the likes of Chaos Legion, NieR (original, not…
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