Retro Reflections by Matt S. Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer’s Call (or Nocturne, depending on the country you hail from), is a very special game to me. It was, in fact, my first Shin Megami Tensei game, and would kick off a fascination I’ve had with the dark fantasy JRPG series…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. Like many in the English-speaking world, my first experience with Fire Emblem was a Game Boy Advance title simply called “Fire Emblem.” That implies that it was the first in the series (and indeed, in the English speaking world it was), but in Japan it…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Namco Museum Collection isn’t what you’d call essential, were it not for one little thing. This package of 11 games from yesteryear is nothing that you haven’t had the opportunity to play, and consume, a hundred times over by now. A couple of the games are…
Read MoreList by Matt S. Since getting my arcade machine cocktail cabinet, I’ve been spending a lot of time playing old games from yesteryear, be that arcade games, or old classics on NES, Mega Drive, and so on. In doing so I’ve been reminded of so many really wonderful games and…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. The last couple of weeks I’ve been catching up with a gothic adventure game so brutally difficult that I want to break down and cry. I’ve never actually finished this game; though I find its moody atmosphere and gorgeous depictions of decrepit, crumbling castles and…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. The last couple of months has brought us a pretty substantial influx of tactics RPGs. On the Nintendo Switch there was the excellent port of the excellent Disgaea 5, the 3DS got a remake of one of the early Fire Emblems in Fire Emblem Echoes,…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. Strategy games tend to age horribly. It’s not so much the visual side of things – because let’s fact it, strategy games have very rarely been leading visual experiences anyway. No, what makes the strategy genre one that ages horribly is a game’s ability to…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. With the Super Nintendo Mini being announced this week, I thought I’d take a look back on a game that will never appear on that console’s list of games. It’s a game that has been all but forgotten, and will likely never be resurrected. It’s…
Read MoreHistory by Matt C. Aside from the various players of the Sengoku era, there few people in Japan’s history that command as much pop cultural fascination as the Shinsengumi. A small group of rōnin charged with policing Kyoto during the violent final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Shinsengumi quickly…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. Everyone knows Pac-Man. Even people who have never played a game in their lives will recognise Pac-Man. That distinctive yellow pie with a slice cut out of it is surely one of the most renowned and important videogame characters ever made. But in that early…
Read More