Game collections are all the rage these days, and are becoming increasingly something that goes beyond just the game. Retro collections aim to be museums as much as things you play, with Digital Eclipse in particular mastering the “interactive museum” format. Riki 8Bit Game Collection isn’t really a “retro collection,” though it looks like it from the screenshots. Rather it’s…
Idea Factory International is bringing otome visual novel Battlefield Waltz to the West over a decade after its original Japanese launch. First announced during IFI’s Summer Festival 2024, the game will be available in physical and digital editions.) It follows a young woman named Lan on her journey as the…
Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly catch-up news feature, the catch-up coffee. I…
Koei Tecmo’s JRPG house, Gust, is a factory for the genre. It’s…
Affordable Acquisition, a first-time game development studio, has been working on a brand-new twin-stick tower defence title under the name of ‘Slaycation Paradise’, and now it has a release date. Although there is very little meaningful documentation on Affordable Acquisition across the internet, it seems as though the company has…
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So, as it turns out, if you take the raging, rancid, unapologetic nationalism, historical revisionism, and military hero worship out of an FPS, and instead drop in a really pretty girl with a bikini costume option and pink gun skin, then I go from hating the genre to loving it.…
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Prinny Presents NIS Classics is a series I can really get behind. Bringing older generations of games to current consoles is never a bad thing for a couple of reasons. One, archiving! Two, it introduces new players to the games that influenced what they may currently be playing. For example,…
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There are a lot of big, world-shattering things that go on in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and yet the best parts of it are the interactions between the small, close-knit group of characters that form the core of the story. This was much the same with the two immediate predecessors, but…
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It was first announced last April, but we finally have a release date for Wylde Flowers on PC and Nintendo Switch – this September! I cannot tell you how many hours I put into this game; I went full on Animal Crossing and had spreadsheets of things to remember and…
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In most cases, I play JRPGs for the narrative. I want to be lost in the characters, setting, plot and world. I like when it’s supported by quality gameplay mechanics, of course, but the frameworks and structures that support that narrative are less of a focus for me than that…
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Pascal’s wager, the philosophical concept, is an excellent thought exercise that considers that humans play a simple game, not unlike the Prisoner’s Dilemma, on whether we should believe God exists. It breaks down like this: If God does not exist, then whether you believe in him or not is irrelevant…
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We rarely see indie developers tackle the rhythm genre, and for understandable reasons. It’s not a genre with mass market appeal, but it’s also one filled with established franchises backed by more budget and polish than an indie studio could muster. And with simple mechanics that aren’t easily innovated upon,…
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There are a few genres that simply don’t age well. A good JRPG is timeless, as are platformers, brawlers, fighting games and SHMUPs or side-scrolling shooters. Sports games and FPSers, however, don’t. With FPSers, if you strip the nostalgia out of even the mighty Doom or Duke Nukem, I would…
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What’s the result of combining cryptids, retro graphics, and pulp fiction? Why, Mothmen 1966 of course! It is the first title in what is already being called the Pixel Pulp series, by LCB Game Studio. I feel a bit bad for those I’m close with, as I’ve been rambling about…
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