Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle
Founded in 2007 and positioned to deliver four unique games for Sega by 2010, PlatinumGames needed to make a statement and establish a distinctive identity. Between oddball curiosities MadWorld and Infinite Space, PlatinumGames’ prized creative leads Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami delivered Bayonetta and Vanquish to execute those goals. The former was an evolutionary leap from Kamiya’...[Read More]
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
When Kentucky Route Zero’s first act debuted in 2013, its opening scene established a premise that it respected through its fifth and final act in 2020. Kentucky Route Zero presents the player with an objective, but not an imperative. Choice is omnipresent, but its reflection may not be apparent. Plunging past dire circumstances hits identically to moving through soothing places. You can see...[Read More]
Eric Layman’s Top Ten Games for 2019
Hello. Here are the best videogames from 2019. SAYONARA WILD HEARTS Simogo Sayonara Wild Hearts features a sequence where a skull-faced opponent belches an ocean of neon teal vomit that must be surfed with a motorcycle and improvised as pathway to fight a rapidly evolving demon succubus. This will be the most amazing thing you have ever seen. Sayonara Wild Hearts’ rapid fire d...[Read More]
Wattam
A portal opens out of the ether. Everyone is afraid. Out of the portal emerges a giant kitchen table, which is alive and named Thomas, and on top of it are a salt shaker, pepper, forks, and a mouth named Caleb, all of which are also alive. I become Caleb. I use Caleb to eat an apple who then transforms into a pile of poop. I am poop and I jump in the toilet, Charlie. This transaction makes everyon...[Read More]
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
For older members of the game space, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 came to life when its August 20th trailer debuted a collection of retro-themed Olympic events. The Mario & Sonic team-up (itself unfathomable to a generation of players) was at home on the Wii in its 2008 debut. As time went on, and after a sound rejection of motion controls, its presence and power diminishe...[Read More]
Valfaris
Valfaris brands itself as a heavy metal infused 2D action-platformer. Nothing is misrepresented. This is exactly what Valfaris is. Your grizzled and vomitus-looking protagonist Therion could stand in on the cover of any heavy metal album released in the last thirty years. His always-angry opposition is composed of rabid wolves, decaying organic creatures, and several varieties of filthy robot or h...[Read More]
Resident Evil 5 (Switch)
In its time, expectations could not have been higher for Resident Evil 5. Four years before its release, Resident Evil 4 defined the third-person shooter after Capcom bet Resident Evil could make as much room for action as it could survival-horror. It was the antidote to the generation’s malaise of miserable action games, inventing a new control scheme and complimenting it with a lingering, game-s...[Read More]
Untitled Goose Game
I deal with a gaggle of geese every day. They’re in my way either on my suburban running route or near where I park my car at work. Despite the distance between those two locations, it is the exact same group of delinquent vagabonds. I know this because there is exactly one white goose among the dozens of Canadian geese. I have evidence the white goose is the leader. Recently, when I got too...[Read More]
SEGA AGES: Ichidant-R
Contrary to popular belief, orderly batches of frenzied minigames were available before Nintendo’s beloved (and now dormant) WarioWare initiative. Sega’s Panic!, Komani’s Bishi Bashi series, and the Nintendo 64DD’s Mario Artist: Polygon Studio created arguments for quantity and variety as sufficient substitutes for complexity and depth. It was like you were playing a succes...[Read More]
Neo Cab
I enter the city of Los Ojos as one its last human cab drivers. My first passengers include a quantum physicist with eccentric curiosities, a worm-worshipping leader of a burgeoning pain cult, and an anarchist revolutionary who despises vehicles like mine. My world is dominated by Capra, a massive oligarchy masquerading as a vital corporation. My guide is Savy, my estranged best friend, who inexpl...[Read More]
Daemon X Machina
Genres die. Rail-shooters like Starfox and Panzer Dragoon struggled for relevance at the turn of the century. Point-and-click adventure games disappeared for ten years. Call of Duty 4 killed the conception of a first-person shooter. Affordable creation tools and the flourishing independent development scene have assured a revival, of sorts, for practically every weirdo style of game imaginable, bu...[Read More]
Astral Chain
Playing Astral Chain is like playing PlatinumGames’ greatest hits all at once. Bayonetta’s stylish action is the cornerstone of its melee combat. The Wonderful 101’s ability to accentuate and extend that combat through novelty companions mirrors Astral Chain’s formation of parallel player-controlled characters. Precision cutting calls to mind Revengeance, weapon upgrading r...[Read More]