Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is an enormously important game – arguably, you could trace the lineage of so many puzzle blend RPGs back to Puzzle Quest (Puzzle & Dragons, for example). The game itself, released way back in 2007 on the PSP and Nintendo DS by the same guy behind the Warlords series (an Aussie, Steve Fawkner!) was…
Lego Party is a Mario Party clone. Let’s not beat around the bush about that. It is what it is, and the development team at SMG isn’t for a second trying to claim otherwise. The problem is that Mario Party is a pretty challenging formula to get right, and… well,…
Let’s get this out of the way up front: Varlet very badly…
Of all the many golf properties out there, Everybody’s Golf has reliably…
“Princess Maker-likes,” like Lair Land Story, are a niche within a niche, but it’s a genre that can be oddly compelling. They’re spreadsheet simulators, in which 90 per cent of the game involves carefully managing a girl’s development by carefully selecting her daily activities. But while that might sound dull,…
Read More
Super Bullet Break is a happy, colourful thing. I know it’s going to rankle some to suggest that as overtly fanservicey as it could be “wholesome” or “innocent,” but that’s what Super Bullet Break is; a happy, high-energy, bubbly and wholesome thing. The game is a combination of two things.…
Read MoreWhile Game Freak continues to try and innovate within the Pokémon property, and find its next hit evolution (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t resist), there is still a loud demand for the “classical” monster-collecting formula. I feel that myself – I often find myself booting up my 3DS for…
Read More
Admittedly I wasn’t following Digimon Survive too closely in the leadup to release, however, I did know it was going to be a tactics JRPG featuring collectible monsters. That in itself was exciting given that I have fond memories of Pokémon Conquest back on the DS. What I was not…
Read MoreForget the absolutely dismal Dark Alliance dungeon crawler that was released last year. There was a time where “Dungeons & Dragons” and “Dark Alliance” put together was something worth getting excited about. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was a series of just two games, but they remain two of the better…
Read More
So, as it turns out, if you take the raging, rancid, unapologetic nationalism, historical revisionism, and military hero worship out of an FPS, and instead drop in a really pretty girl with a bikini costume option and pink gun skin, then I go from hating the genre to loving it.…
Read MoreThere are a lot of big, world-shattering things that go on in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and yet the best parts of it are the interactions between the small, close-knit group of characters that form the core of the story. This was much the same with the two immediate predecessors, but…
Read MoreIn most cases, I play JRPGs for the narrative. I want to be lost in the characters, setting, plot and world. I like when it’s supported by quality gameplay mechanics, of course, but the frameworks and structures that support that narrative are less of a focus for me than that…
Read MorePascal’s wager, the philosophical concept, is an excellent thought exercise that considers that humans play a simple game, not unlike the Prisoner’s Dilemma, on whether we should believe God exists. It breaks down like this: If God does not exist, then whether you believe in him or not is irrelevant…
Read MoreWe rarely see indie developers tackle the rhythm genre, and for understandable reasons. It’s not a genre with mass market appeal, but it’s also one filled with established franchises backed by more budget and polish than an indie studio could muster. And with simple mechanics that aren’t easily innovated upon,…
Read More