If it had any other theme, over 4,000 backers (myself included) probably wouldn’t have even noticed Boss Monster, the first offering from indie developer-publishers Brotherwise Games. But the love Johnny and Chris O’Neal have for the retro video games of our shared youth had infused their creation with the right amount of nostalgia to catch the attention of enough to completely destroy their funding goal, earning nearly 18 times their desired target. The pixel-art aesthetic extends beyond mere card art, as even the box design, instruction manual and PDF “strategy guide” are reminiscent of old-school NES offerings. Playing Boss Monster might not feel like playing a tabletop version of a video game, but it certainly looks the part from head to toe. READ MORE
The Best to Own Forever series isn’t about what’s great right now. It’s about what will be great in 10 years, even though there will be better-looking games and later sequels, and what will keep you pulling that dusty old console out of the closet every once in a while. This time, we pick the best of the heavily third-party-driven Xbox 360 library. READ MORE
The Operation Rainfall fan support campaign may or may not have been the sole reason Western players were able to enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, but there’s no denying that it certainly helped. It’s important to remember, though, that these three Wii games weren’t exactly the first to be withheld from the West. In fact, though the history is rich and diverse, it just so happens that each of the three Rainfall studios had previously developed deep, nuanced DS games for Nintendo, and we didn’t get those either! READ MORE
The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief is as much an interactive detective mystery as it is a point-and-click adventure game. Pairing an interactive crime story like this with an adventure game used to be common, and The Raven does it well enough to show why. READ MORE
At this point, we should all know what to expect from Dynasty Warriors: Chinese history, the video game interpretation of the deification of said history’s most famous warriors and more cheesy guitar riffs than in Dragonforce’s entire discography. Tearing through thousands of grunts like butter isn’t for everyone, but the fan base is there, and with each entry Koei has gone to great lengths to deliver the goods. This time around, we have one of the most complete, robust entries in the series, with enough interesting content and meaningful mechanical tweaks to keep fans happy for a long time. READ MORE
