Review by Matt S. Three years ago, when Idol Manager popped up on Kickstarter, and promised to give you the opportunity to manage your own AKB48-style J-Pop idol group, I assumed that it would all be something of a joke. I assumed it would be focused on fanservice, with very…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Like most people, I wasn’t sure how a sequel to The World Ends With You would work. Like most, I wanted one, but the original game was so noteworthy because of the integral way that it used two screens on the Nintendo DS. That is something…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The Ace Attorney series has always been one that you can look at two ways; you can chuckle at its eccentricities and either enjoy it or dismiss it as an example of “weird Japan” (you’d be wrong either way), or you can look at these as…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. One of the great problems we come across as game critics is what we do with games that are indistinguishably similar to something that’s come before. I don’t just mean “inspired by” or “a homage to,” and I don’t even mean superficially different. I mean the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Bustafellows is right up there with the best crime fiction works I’ve ever read. Not just in terms of visual novels, or broader video games. I’m talking across all media. Bustafellows is every bit the page-turner of a Conan Doyle or Christie novel. It’s as interesting…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Samurai Warriors 5 is exactly what Koei Tecmo needed to do with their venerable series. It balances out every quality that fans have come to love about the series, while restructuring it in a meaningful manner. It offers a slice of historical drama (deeper…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. To save Akihabara – nay, the whole world! – from a growing vampire threat, you’ve got to suit up, hit the streets, and rip the skirts off school girls. Okay, you’ve got to rip the pants off businessmen and the shirts off tourists too, but we…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Red White Yellow is a useful game because it highlights some realities about game design – sometimes some of the simplest elements that melt right into the background really do help a game shine. Red White Yellow is so closely inspired by Lumines, and yet not…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. It’s weird that for as long as The Legend of Zelda has been a series, we still don’t have a defined term for that game’s genre. Internet commenters frequently debate whether Zelda should be considered an RPG, and the official title of “action-adventure” is so vague…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It’s rare that we get a JRPG that can be considered to be genuinely innovative. Cris Tales might have been inspired by the genre’s classics, but it’s a far more modern and bold game than I think even the developers realised they were making. It all…
Read More