Over the last couple of years, the relationship between platformers and narrative has gone in some rather interesting directions. While the basic “damsel in distress” trope is effective enough for games like Super Meat Boy or your favourite Mario title, games like Braid and Thomas Was Alone have turned heads…
Read MoreThe Great Giana Sisters originally hit stores in the 80s and, as the amusingly plagiaristic title implies, put its own little “spin” on the Super Mario Bros. formula. Its tweaks were deemed insufficient by Nintendo’s legal department though, leading the publisher to eventually withdraw copies from sale. The series returned…
Read MoreIt’s a little sad seeing Mickey’s second “Epic” outing ported to the Vita, given that the original console release was such a failure that the team that made the game no longer exists. It’s like the port is a virtual obituary to the developers: “here is the last game of…
Read MoreI grew up on platformers, which are often a test of several things – reflexes, memorisation and in no small part – patience. There are a lot of things that can ruin the experience for players, making platforming titles on of the tougher genres to ‘get right’.Rush Bros is a…
Read MoreFor some reason I missed the original Wii release of Donkey Kong Country Returns. I’m not sure if it just released at a really busy point in time, of it I was broke, or if it was some other reason, but despite loving Rare’s Super Nintendo trilogy, I skipped the…
Read MoreSuper Little Acorns 3D Turbo is yet another in an increasingly long line of App Store to eShop ports. Of course, since the 3DS is quite a different beast from the iOS line, there’s another set of expectations associated with a title released on Nintendo’s dedicated game device. If the…
Read MoreI’m the kind of person who like games with strong characters. Thomas Was Alone stars, literally, coloured shapes. Plain geometric shapes; they have no faces and in fact barely any animation, and yet I struggle to think of characters that I have connected with more in any game I’ve ever…
Read MoreSomewhere along the line, Mirror of Fate lost me. I’m not quite sure exactly where that was, and I did manage to struggle on despite not really engaging with the experience, but there was definitely a point where this game went from being filled with potential to being a startlingly-simple…
Read MoreI’ll put this out there before I point out that I really do enjoy this game; a year from now (if not sooner), no one is going to remember Kung Fu Rabbit. This is a port of a mobile phone game that is being sold for three times the price…
Read MoreIt’s difficult to understand what Game Freak was trying to do with HarmoKnight. Here is a company best known for Pokemon (in fact, that is entirely what the company is about) producing a casual-play rhythm game. Was it just that Game Freak wanted to do something different to prove it…
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