Recently released games that make intelligent use of past design choices or that I find fascinating
Ah the good ol’ times of the beat ’em up, how I miss thee. Pump in your quarters and immediately get compensated with violent, in-your-face, stress relieving all-around good time. The 2D sidescrolling beat ’em up genre had its golden age in the early 90s, with smashing titles by Sega and Capcom, among others. But,…
For some reason, the first time I fired up Grapple Dog, my mind wandered back to Wonder Dog, a quite obscure 1992 Sega CD platformer by Core Design, made to promote the failed Sega Genesis Karaoke/CD machine, the Wondermega. I wasn’t exactly sure why I went back so far in time, but I was on the…
The point and click adventure genre, while not as being the main narrative genre that it used to be in the early 90s, is still pretty alive and well. Proof is that each year there is an onslaught of titles released, from the ultra professional and always well done adventures published by Wadjet Eye, to…
Writing a 2021 lookback definitely confirmed that it was a strange year for gaming. Well, to be fair, it was a strange year overall, but for me doubly so since it was also the first where I managed to be – for the most part – concentrated on the industry. In a way, it felt…
While playing games centered around illegal activities, especially ones that feel definitely very very far out in the underground world, I have found that the approach that works best for me is usually that of having a firm tongue-in-cheek, while also taking the situation at face value. Honestly, I have always found “realistic” approaches, like…
While I never was a Stranger Things fan, especially cause I tend to not really follow any kind of “modern tendencies”, I sure can relate to most of the inspirations that led to Netflix producing a 80s children pseudohorror series and, well, to Echo Generation as well. I have always had quite the soft spot…
Playing If On A Winter’s Night Four Travelers, reminded me of something. Many years ago, when I was just a young boy my mother told me about a movie, of which she couldn’t remember the title and that I would, years later, identify with Dr Terror’s House of Horrors. Anyway, the story goes that there…
Reviewing is an easy task, or at least, so it might seem from an external point of view. Just slap together some nice-sounding adjectives, a couple of hyperbole, some light sprinkling of sarcasm and voilà: done. Personally, since I consider that the end product should be useful for the reader, I find it one of…
The discussions on storytelling and emotions in video games, especially that around its inherent value, seem to be centered around whether interactivity seems to, somehow, lessen the value of such kind of fiction. Still, as early as the mid-60s, interactive fiction emerged as one of the earliest forms of gaming, going on to enjoy great…
