Lonesome Village Brings a Sense of Home to a Quaint Setting

 In Lonesome Village community is key. This particular one, the Ubhora village was once thriving and happy, but is now empty,  victim of a cult devoted to an ancient god who kidnaps and locks up every villager in the ancient…

SkateBIRD captures the arcade-y nature of Tony Hawk games

The resurgence of skating games brings me a lot of joy. When I first encountered Glass Bottom Games’ SkateBIRD at PAX East 2019, I was enamored by the jolly and goofy take on the skating game as someone who played…

Turnip Boy Learns the Wrong Lessons From The Legend of Zelda

If I never played a game with a ghostly maze forest in it again, I would never miss it. There’s nothing really fun about them. Even the more benign lost woods varieties, that are just straight up mazes, really just…

The Mellow Vibes of Skate City

For full disclosure, the PR representative of this title is a personal friend of the writer. Skating was more than doing tricks for me, it was a mode of transportation and a part of my identity. I have so many…

My Mind is a Prison, My Cellmate is Loop Hero

I’ve probably spent more hours playing Loop Hero over the past few days than I have any game that I’ve played for leisure in a similar span of time. I’m seeing pixelated ratwolves in my nightmares. I hear one of…

30XX Impressions – Jump’n and Shoot’n Still Feels Great In This Roguelike Sequal!

Battery Staple games were released 20XX back in 2014. This game took the historic gameplay of Capcom’s legendary Mega Man X franchise and infused it with the rogue-like genre’s essence. The result was an incredibly fun action platformer roguelike that…

Voidigo Mixes Ratchet and Clank and Monster Hunter to Break Away From the Roguelike Pack

It was around my third or fourth run, while I was trading fire with a strange flower with a hunting rifle while a pair of pig men with shotguns closed in, that I realized that Voidigo might be special. The…

I’ll Take One Nagoriyuki, Please

My relationship with Guilty Gear has always gone the same way for the past almost 20 years. A game gets announced and looks incredible. I consume every bit of media I can about it up to launch. I buy the…

Skul: The Hero Slayer’s Roguelike Mechanics are Terminally Old School

I’ve become quite infatuated with SouthPAW Game’s and Neowiz’s Skul: The Hero Slayer. As a roguelite, the die-till-you-win grind is front and center, but the simple side scrolling beat-em up gameplay makes hopping back into each run a breeze. It’s…

Final Fantasy XV & The Open Road

“It’s not about the destination, but the journey along the way.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson The open road is one of my favorite places to be: listening to music, wind blowing through my hair, and smelling the local scents. One…

Mobius Front 83′ Reimagines the Cold War as a Grueling Sci-fi Civil War

Often hiding in the “tactical wargame” subgenre of strategy are games that are less likely to make you feel like a battlefield commander and more likely to make you feel like you’re solving a puzzle cube. Whereas XCOM is the…

Grindstone is Still Very Good in 2021

As games about blood-raging berserkers go, Grindstone is probably the most brain-tickling. Kratos never spent much time plotting his next move. Conan was never concerned about his killstreak. Jorg, with skin covered in ice and demeanor covered in gloom, is…