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…
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…
In the 80s, while dice-and-paper D&D based RPGs were slowly being introduced to a bigger audience, teenagers who didn’t have friends to play with found companionship in gamebooks. Among the first examples of these RPG influenced Choose Your Own Adventure experience, was the classic Fighting Fantasy series was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, originally written…
It is kind of reassuring how gaming is slowly going back in time in regards to technology, because sure one could argue that games need fancy graphics, multiplayer components and breakneck action to be considered of interest for the general public at large. But, if the objective is just tugging at one’s heartstrings, then visual…
Amanita Design should definitely be a familiar name for adventure games fans: the Czech studio has been around since the early 00s, even though they only recently managed to break through and reach a bigger audience, also through smaller titles like Pilgrims. Machinarium, probably their biggest hit so far, has been a clear inspiration for…
I’ve always had a soft spot for claymation, the animation technique that uses stop motion and clay, especially since it seems to easily be synonymous with “weirdness”. In cinema, one of the masters of claymation is Jan Svankmajer, in gaming most people would refer to The Neverhood series of titles (provided that few people know…
There are have been many examples of games where the player’s input is not essential, especially in the last few years where interactivity has become less and less important. Walking simulators easily come to mind, along with visual novels, even though, in both genres, one is supposed to be reading, clicking along and… well, walking.…
