Our enjoyment of a game relies on the context in which we experience it just as much as the actual quality of the product. Games are a product of their time — one even a few years older can reflect different trends and ideas of the world around it. And…

Real talk. I like my vidja games ‘gamey’. Not the ‘strong flavor’ kind associated with eating tainted meat. I’m talking the quarter pumping, joystick grinding kind. The kind that pushes one’s reflexes to their limits and hands towards carpal tunnel. Story, character development, graphics (heck, even grammar) can all take…

It’s been over seven years since Bastion released, making its mark in the gaming world. Now it’s time for it to build up that reputation further, making its Nintendo debut on the Switch. I played through it myself back on PC and fell in love with the game. It offers…

The number of fighting games available for Switch has been growing at a great and steady rate. Big names like Capcom, Arc System Works, and soon Bandai Namco are complemented by plenty of indie efforts and first-time forays, like Nicalis’ Blade Strangers. Now a new challenger enters to similarly bridge…

Grid-based strategy games may have two Nintendo flagships in the form of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, yet it’s still not a genre I see fully represented all that often. Mario + Rabbids was a nice surprise, but it didn’t get my own gears turning the way the aforementioned titles…

Despite not starting on Nintendo consoles, Monster Hunter has built up a relationship with the company, with the 3DS in particular home to the series for almost a decade now. Even though its latest release (the massively popular Monster Hunter World) isn’t abiding by that, Switch owners finally have a…

It feels like the Switch is getting new fighting games fairly regularly, usually in the form in re-released classics or spinoffs of existing franchises. Nothing new had cropped up and caught my eye, until out of nowhere during E3 2017 when Nicalis started showing off this unheard of fighting game…

Regardless of what types of games I played growing up, sprites are always going to define “video game” for me in a visual sense. There’s something so pure to the medium about pixels coming together — you can even guess when a game was created based on how it looks…

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of both Metroidvanias and roguelikes ever since I was a old enough to coddle a controller. Like peanut butter and chocolate I’d always imagined the two could go together smoothly, despite their conflicting concepts around general progression and character growth. Games…

The joy of simulation games comes not from blood-pumping action, but laid back passivity. Whether it’s farming, management, or whatever the heck you do in Animal Crossing (debt payments?), a good simulation game can entice you with simple core gameplay loops and relaxed atmospheres. However, the line between lax and…