I’ve played some weird games over the last few years, but this one has an element I’ve come to be familiar with. Mitchell Corporation, the driving force behind the original Puzz Loop that started it all and the Magnetica games that appeared on both the DS and Wii, bring a lot of that gameplay to the company’s eShop debut. But Tokyo Crash Mobs brings the marble-matching game to a level I never would have imagined. READ MORE
Before I get started here, I need a moment. Just a moment. I am sitting here, in a fairly comfortable reclining chair, preparing to write a critique piece on a game that I honestly did not expect to be able to play. My Vita, resting on a table for the time being, contains not only a digital copy of Team GrisGris’ anime-inspired splatterfest Corpse Party, but also one of its follow-up: Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. READ MORE
Any gamers worth their salt will scoff at the notion that graphics are the most important part of a game. Many of us grew up on the older systems: Atari, NES and the like. Even at the time, we knew the graphics weren’t the most amazing thing ever. They were, at the time, but we knew that things could get better.
Graphics are important. They can affect us emotionally in the same way that characters, storytelling and music can. They pretty much have to; you can’t taste a video game, nor can you touch or smell it. You can’t feel it physically. It’s merely graphics and audio and your input changing them, so it’s not a surprise that one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever seen in a game is almost purely due to graphics. Not just that; anything this affecting has to come from more than photorealistic models and dynamic lighting effects. It is a scene made possible by two games’ worth of storytelling. It is a result of dozens of hours of curiosity, perseverance, appreciation, fear and wonder. It is my favorite moment of the BioShock series, and it comes in the form of you playing as a Little Sister in BioShock 2. READ MORE
I’ve never understood any real-time strategy game.
I just haven’t. As much as I loved Red Alert and spent half of my early Internet days playing Age of Empires and Starcraft, I realized that I didn’t understand the games I was playing. Sure, I built units, chopped down trees and made a coordinated attack on the enemy base with a quite-brilliant paratrooper plan, but at no point did I question what I was doing or even cared about the options the game was giving.
Total Annihilation was the first time I was told that having options without understanding them is as good as not having any. And I loved every second of it. READ MORE
The original Fluidity is still one of the best original titles to appear on WiiWare, so when I first heard about a 3DS eShop sequel being planned, I was certainly looking forward to it. That sequel, Fluidity: Spin Cycle, arrived in late December. Some cosmetic changes have been made that make the game appear like some sort of mascot platformer if you don’t see any actual gameplay images, but rest assured: this is still the same splashing, freezing, and lightning-blasting Fluidity puzzle-platforming. READ MORE
