It’s unfair to judge the state of Japanese role playing games as stagnant or irrelevant. Over the last four years games like Persona 4, Radiant Historia, Lost Odyssey, and, yes, Final Fantasy XIII have demonstrated a willingness to blend new ideas into a genre defined by its rigidity. And yet, none of these titles seemed to push the needle far enough to completely satisfy either critics or f...[Read More]

Years later, a step in the right direction.

  Nintendo seems to really have found a frequent cycle to their release of Pokémon titles. In just the past year, we saw 5 different Pokémon themed titles hit stores in Japan and 3 in America (whereas Poképark 2 was delayed till 2012 for the states).  However, along with the high frequency of releases, a drop-off in spin-off quality has certainly been seen over the years. I remember when the RPGs ...[Read More]

  If there’s one thing I remember most about my time playing games in the NES days, it’s that perseverance always lead to the greatest sense of achievement. From Ninja Gaiden to Castlevania 3 & Battletoads, difficulty was something that many old school gamers have learned to embrace and relish over the years (granted, I never could conquer a few of the games but they were rewarding nonetheles...[Read More]

Before I got my hands on Fortune Street, I really had little knowledge of its premise. Seeing as the Itadaki Street series (one consisting of several games since 1991) has only been existent in Japan up until now, my first impressions of the series came at E3 earlier this year in the form of a promotional video that looped on the screens at the Nintendo booth. As I waited in a few of the lines to ...[Read More]

The next timeless classic has arrived.

Kirby's back for another round in Dreamland.

It's like the 1990s all over again.

Another mini-game compilation on the Wii? This one does come with a controller, but still...

The Conduit is filled with cheese.

Four is better than one?

Lost in Shadow struck gold at E3; almost overnight it went from a little known title to a critical darling. Its rich presentation and promising puzzle/platforming mechanics earned the praise of blogs and high profile gaming sites, including Digital Chumps’ own Chris Stone and featured writer Ricardo Trejo-Castro. It even created a feel good story for Hudson, a smaller Japanese publisher most...[Read More]