From a game design perspective, God of War (2018) knocks it out of the park. Yet while the elements that make up its story are touching, the way the emotional story beats hit the player largely contradicts the actual gameplay of the experience. The end result? The whole game feels worse than the sum of its parts.
Last year, I decried the overuse of gaming terms like “metroidvania,” as often such words and phrases do little to actually describe the experience any game presents. While I understand why someone might lean on a certain vernacular when describing various works, the time has come for us to rethink how we talk about games in order to describe them in a more accurate manner. I’m not calling for the obliteration of such terms, either; I just believe we should know what we’re saying when utilizing these words.
Here are five particularly notable examples.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will not only entertain its audience in the immediate aftermath of its launch, but promises to keep players coming back to team up and take on any challenges thrown at them. Read on for our extended impressions.
I’m sure we’ve all been “addicted” to a game before — playing the newest gaming release into the waking hours of the morning. Maybe you’ve even taken the day (or week) off work to grind out levels or get to the end of your playthrough. Yet, while depictions of gaming addiction may seem exaggerated, the disease is not a fantasy: It is a life-ruining curse, and can also be a sign of deteriorating mental health.
It’s no secret that anime game adaptations tend to be mediocre, but fear not! Here are some of the finest “traditional” video games that, with an open mind and a little ingenuity, you can find for your favorite anime.
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.
I would like to introduce the uninitiated to Over the Garden Wall, a cartoon miniseries for all ages that is best watched huddled comfortably around a screen, wrapped in a cozy blanket, as the slow-roasted warm tones of the changing leaves outside are lost in the darkness of night and stolen away from their trees by the cool, crisp autumn air.
Fear is something that can excite and terrify gamers, be it the fear of losing to a boss on your final life, or fear that the creature stalking the halls will find you. Fear is something most modern day horror games claim to be able to invoke in their audience; however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Today I’d like to propose that a more sinister horror become more prevalent in gaming: cosmic horror, made popular by author Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I’m happy that, as of late, a few developers have taken the plunge into Lovecraftian horror and seen great success as a result.
Three months after the 24th anniversary of its North American release, we’re celebrating EarthBound and its 25th anniversary in Japan.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Team Ninja’s latest crack at the long-dormant Ultimate Alliance series, is far from a perfect game. Still, the game as a whole just works, and not merely in the sense that its mechanics and systems function as intended; everything comes together conceptually, with the tone of the story and art style perfectly matching the chaotic ebullience of the gameplay. The game combines basic brawler systems with a cartoonish presentation and doesn’t try to be much more than that. Simply put, the game knows what it is and stays true to itself at all times.
