Back on the Wii one of my favorite pickups was No More Heroes. Putting you in control of Travis Touchdown, an up and coming beam katana assassin climbing the ranks of killers, it was a strange game where you spent time dumpster diving and mowing lawns to raise up some…

The most upsetting kind of game is not one that’s catastrophically awful, or aggressively mediocre, but rather one that should by the sum of its parts be an unmitigated wonder, only to fall short of its own promises due to flaws of its own making. A game that’s truly horrible…

Not a lot of people understand just how much I owe to Fitness games. While it’s easy to discount these types of games as shovelware or a cash grab (depending on the player), they can mean a whole lot more. In fact, about 11 years ago, I sat down and…

Video game re-releases are happening all the time these days, and while some bring back lost gems and others add new and exciting features, other times they right wrongs. Tales of Vesperia released back in 2008 exclusively for the XBox 360, serving as one of the most notable releases for…

The question of “can video games be art?” is long past us, as it has been fairly, definitively proven that the medium has the power to move, to inspire, and to resonate with players and our culture at large. But our understanding of gaming as an art form is ever…

Katamari Damacy is a franchise known for its legacy of weird gameplay, weirder characters, and one of the weirdest plots in video game history. For many, it’s a guilty pleasure; a cult classic that is unmatched in its unabashed uniqueness. For others (including myself) it’s simply a classic: a game…

When it comes to any sequel, there is the inevitable question of just how much should be changed or kept from the original title. Change too much, and you run the risk of losing what made the original so great; change too little, and you’ll make the player wonder why…

Over the years, Sega has been serious about preserving its legacy. From the Dreamcast’s early Genesis ports to the modern day Sega Ages efforts on Switch, there have been many ways to dive into the company’s impressive back catalogue. This latest effort, however, puts most of them to shame, at…

No matter your thoughts on it, Pokémon GO changed the way people think about Nintendo’s long-running monster catching series. People have dreamed of catching Pokémon in the real world for years, and for a while the mobile game felt like the best way to encounter ‘mon. You’re able to grab…

If I were to list the ten most influential, important, and outstanding game franchises of my childhood, nine out of those ten series would be Nintendo made — or at least prominent on Nintendo systems. The odd duck out would be Sid Meier’s Civilization: a titan of PC strategy gaming…

Arcade games coming to home consoles has been a part of this industry for decades. You can play Pac-Man on practically anything (heck, even Google) and compilations of classics are par for the course. These bastions of flashing lights aren’t so common in America, but in Japan they never really…