I’ll cut right to the chase: Battle Chef Brigade is my second favorite game of 2017. First is Breath of the Wild, and a close third is Super Mario Odyssey. In late December, however, I downloaded Battle Chef Brigade on a whim and it swiftly shot to the top of…

This is the fourth and final part of our Xenoblade Chronicles 2 review. For further context and thoughts on the game, check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. It took over a hundred hours, but my Xenoblade Chronicles 2 experience is over and done with. And what an…

The old gaming gods are dead. Once worshipped in ancient arcade altars and offered countless quarters by a loyal congregation of followers, these dark deities preaching scriptures of local competitive play have long since been snuffed out by the celestial light of modern technology. Replaced by the almighty Internet and…

This is part 3 of our ongoing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 review. For further context on our thoughts on the game so far, check out Part 1 and Part 2. Sometimes, we find games that are nearly perfectly crafted, yet we simply don’t seem to resonate with them. Maybe it doesn’t…

As my Switch library’s grown I started to feel like something was missing. Every one of my favorite genres was represented in some way except for one crucial piece: a rhythm game. There were options, sure — and nothing against them — but it wasn’t until Floor Kids threw down…

Guns and video games — a marriage seemingly as old as Father Time himself, feared by moms and demonized by politicians the world over. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, these controversial pickups remain one of the most diverse and useful tools in the game designer’s box, providing countless creative gameplay…

This is Part 2 of our ongoing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 review. Check out the first part of our review for context and thoughts on the earlier parts of the game. My Xenoblade Chronicles 2 experience has continued on for another few dozen hours, and while there have been some more…

Call me strange, but I love a good title screen. A lot of my favorites — Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VI, EarthBound — have intros that leave an impression, backed by a nice tune or jingle. When I played the first Xenoblade Chronicles over five years ago, I was…

If you’ve been gaming in any capacity for the past decade you’ve no doubt played one of TT Games’ Lego-branded licensed adventures. Like clockwork, the company has pushed out at least one game every year since 2005, usually with the same basic mechanics and structure. Unfortunately, they quickly became hit-or-miss,…

The Nintendo Switch is quickly becoming my go-to place to feed my appetite for punishingly hard platformers. Back in August the boldly bouncy Slime-san wormed its way into my brain, followed more recently by the gravity defying visionary VVVVVV. Soon we’ll see legendary game designer Edmund McMillen’s meaty mascot beefing…