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Review: Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards (Nintendo Switch)

June 3, 2021

action RPG/Nintendo Switch/Reviews/RPG/South America/Switch Review

Review by Matt S. I knew that I would love Aluna from its opening moments. The game kicks off with a cutscene talking about Zeus and Hercules, before saying (and yes, I am paraphrasing here) “but you know what? Let’s talk about this South American goddess and her daughter instead”.…

samsungs-new-mascot-is-just-well-she

June 3, 2021

character/mascot/News/Samsung

News by Matt S. Creating mascots to represent technology and ideas is all the rage now. Hatsune Miku started that off, with Crypton turning some really simple voice software into a worldwide phenomenon by giving that software an adorably cute mascot. Three billion fan arts, video games, music CDs and…

Review: Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (Nintendo Switch)

June 2, 2021

action game/Earth Defense Force/humour/Nintendo Switch/Reviews/satire/Shooter/shooters/Switch Review

Review by Matt S. If you take Starship Troopers, and add a Japanese kaiju aesthetic, you get Earth Defense Force. If you then put it through a voxel art machine so it looks like LEGO, you get World Brothers. After Iron Rain from a couple of years ago did something…

worlds-end-club-vs-sumire-not-every

June 2, 2021

Video/Video review

Video by Matt S. I’ve been playing two games that are entirely narrative-driven back-to-back recently; World’s End Club and Sumire. They’re thematically different, but structurally both games exist exclusively to tell a story. The difference? World’s End Club, which is lovely, undermines itself by forcing “gameplay” bits on players. Sumire…

Review: Wicce (Nintendo Switch)

June 2, 2021

Indie/Korea/Nintendo Switch/platformer/Reviews/Switch Review

Review by Harvard L. Wicce is, unfortunately, not good. It’s got a lot of things going for it at first – a pleasing, hand-drawn art style, engrossing monster design and a captivating dark fairytale aesthetic. But its main problem is its strict adherence to being a standard platformer/brawler, partaking in…

On the making and value of Sumire

June 1, 2021

Art Game/Indie/Interview/Interviews/JRPG/Nintendo/Nintendo Switch

Interview by Matt S. Sumire is one of the biggest surprises and biggest delights of 2021. This heartfelt (and heartrending) little story about a girl filled with regrets and hurt is a powerful reflection on spirituality, humanity, sadness, warmth and hope. It’s a game that will make you cry, but…

June 2021 Podcast: JRPGs, JRPGs and MORE JRPGs!

June 1, 2021

Digitally Uploaded/digitallydownloaded.net/E3/JRPG/podbean/podcast/the games of June

We have a special themed podcast episode this episode! With special guest, Jay from JayRPG, we talk on for over an hour and a half about JRPGs – what we love about them, what we’re looking forward to from the genre this year, and we take a deep dive into…

Gadget Review: EPOS B20 streaming microphone

June 1, 2021

EPOS/Gadget/Gadget Review/Hardware/Hardware Review/microphone

Review by Matt S. I’m doing more and more streaming and video work these days. It’s difficult to engage with video games without doing some of it, and I figure, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I’ve also been using an “old faithful,” decade-old Blue Snowball microphone to do…

Review: Sumire (Nintendo Switch)

June 1, 2021

adventure game/adventure games/Art Game/casual game/Indie/Nintendo Switch/Reviews/Switch Review

Review by Matt S. In the two hours that it takes to complete Sumire, you will be reduced to a blubbering mess. Over, and over, and over again. For a game that has a profoundly potent message of hope sitting at its core, there’s also an emotional intensity in getting…

on-house-of-ashes-and-how-dark-pictures

May 31, 2021

Horror/Interview/Interviews/Supermassive Games/Survival Horror/The Dark Pictures

Interview by Matt S. One of the more enjoyable horror experiments in recent years has been the Dark Pictures Anthology. Developer, Supermassive Games, committed itself to a series of horror experience that shares some things in common – a cinematic approach to horror and some standard gameplay conventions – while…

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