Author: Keisuke Isobe

Stellar Blade is a very fun game, but is it worth it to take some of its more questionable choices seriously?

In our Final Fantasy VII Rebirth review, learn whether Cloud and company’s latest reimagined adventure lives up to its own ambitions.

In our Baldur’s Gate 3 review, learn whether the latest CRPG epic from Larian Studios is a critical hit or a natural 1.

For this week’s Friday Fortissimo, we’re celebrating a track from a game well-heralded for its soundtrack: Shadow of the Colossus.

Mango wins The Big House 9, and the Melee community rejoices. On Mango, Melee, and what it means to love a game that seems eternal and forever.

The Book of Melee is the perfect primer for those interested in the story of the competitive scene, from triumphs to turmoils, over the course of 18 years.

PAX East has come and gone. In the days following the trade show, The Punished Backlog’s Kei Isobe sat down with fellow writer David Silbert to discuss the good, bad, and ugly of this year’s show.

Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate Can, and Should, Sustain Each Other Going Forward Genesis 6, the latest in the long-running Super Smash Bros. super-major series, came to a close at 3 a.m. Eastern on…

The Allure of AAA Pulls Me Back In 2018 was an atypical year for me in media consumption. I took a bit of a sabbatical from playing games for the first half of 2018 and…

Meet the Newest Generation of Platform Fighters The “platform fighter” genre has existed for decades, even if the specific phrase to describe them didn’t reach mass relevance until years later. For the longest time, it…