Review by Matt S. I never did review the original Curious Expedition. But I did do a video on it. In that video, I called it a “cracking roguelike.” Given that Curious Expedition 2 is better than the original, I guess that makes this game “cracking+”. It could have gone…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Hades has ruined me. Zengeon is a perfectly competent roguelike action game, but it’s not the kind of genre-transformative experience that Hades is, and that leaves it feeling a (very) distant second in 2021. The first issue is the narrative itself. Zengeon has a perfectly adequate…
Read MoreThe roguelike is a hot topic again, thanks to the “AAA”-roguelike, Returnal, exclusive to PlayStation 5. We chat about that this month on the podcast. We also have a good chat about photography in games, thanks to New Pokemon Snap bringing out the wildlife photographer in us… and then we…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. “But optimism dribbles away when horror repeats.” I have no idea how good Tim Reed’s novel, Spider from the Well, is, but I came across this quote from that novel when researching Returnal, and I think it’s a perfect encapsulation of that game. Returnal is a…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Cute little blockies bouncing around will never get old, and the studio behind BQM – BlockQuest Maker – is back with more of that exact aesthetic, with Dungeon & Gravestone, coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The game launches on April 23, and…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. While the roguelike genre is well overplayed at this point, enjoyable examples of the genre do deserve to be noted as such. Curse of the Dead Gods is an enjoyable roguelike, but being too stylistically similar to last year’s breakout super-hit, Hades, won’t help its cause,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The kind of experience that Dungeon Nightmares 1 & 2 champion is the kind of thing that goes down really well with YouTube and Twitch. Do a search for either title and you’ll see a wall of “OH! LOOK HOW SCARY IT IS!” and “SCARIEST GAME…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Rhythm Fighter suffers from excess. In trying to be so many mechanical and structural elments, and then backing it up with so much happening on screen at once, it loses any sense of balance that it might otherwise have had. While it’s a noble and even…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Shiren the Wanderer has finally landed on Nintendo Switch, and brought with it the very most classical interpretation of the roguelike genre that you can imagine. It’s turn-based, procedurally-generated, tough-as-nails and unforgiving stuff. I love it. I’ve done this video to look at the expanded way…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It is appropriate to make the core motif of a Shiren the Wanderer game – a genuine pioneer in the now saturated roguelike genre – that of fate and fortune. The roguelike, after all, depends entirely on the metaphoric roll of the dice, to determine everything…
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