September 2012

11 Bit Studios’ Anomaly: Warzone Earth has certainly seen success prior to its most recent PlayStation Network release. The iOS version was our iOS Game of 2011, and the game’s been released on PC, Mac and XBLA as well. The last stop on the console carousel is the PS3, but being last has its advantages with an added co-op mode. READ MORE

FTL represents the end result of one of the first really successful Kickstarter campaigns. Its author asked the public for $10,000, and ended up earning ten times that amount. Designed to be a roguelike in space, FTL delivers on this promise and more. Gone are the randomly generated hallways, though the sense of the unknown remains. Also gone is the knowledge that you can take time and explore, as the enemy moves when you do; you can’t stop and poke around every system, as the enemy will eventually overwhelm and destroy you. READ MORE

Playing with Transformers toys was a big part of my childhood. I don’t know what generation mine were, but turning Megatron into a space shuttle and Optimus Prime into a semi was great. It got me interested in figuring out how things work. They were fun to play with from an engineering perspective, and they were fun to play with in conjunction with G.I. Joes, Centurions and Ghostbusters. My house was home to some great mash-ups between my brother’s and my differing tastes. As I grew up, Transformers became less prevalent and I forgot about them. Then Michael Bay started making movies, and they came back into popular culture prominence. Thank goodness he did because, while the movies aren’t great, some of the games that have come to fruition as a result are. READ MORE

Will there be a new PlayStation in 2013? How about a new Xbox? Oh, and is Half-Life 3 going to be an open-world experience? READ MORE

When you think about what made the Double Dragon series great, it’s hard to come up with anything that would really work by today’s standards. With rare exceptions, beat-‘em-ups don’t really have much of a place in gaming today simply due to the nature of the genre’s mechanics. They are a relic from a much different time in gaming history, and because of that, new games in the genre almost never succeed. WayForward, a developer with experience in the ways of bringing back old franchises, presents us with Double Dragon: Neon, a game that attempts to revive a once-beloved series with mixed results. READ MORE