Christmas, 1998: my brother and I unwrapped a Sony PlayStation, and it became one of the best gifts of my childhood. My brother and I had spent months deliberating over what should become our first video game console: the Nintendo 64, or the Sony PlayStation. At the time, both consoles seemed equally matched. The Nintendo … Continue reading An Ode to the Sony PlayStation and Crash Bandicoot 2
Stray is a 3D Platformer game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. It was released in July 2022 for PlayStation and PC. MSRB is $30. I played the PC version. I've long envied my cat's dexterity. She could effortlessly strut on top of a fence. She could make any mistake look intentional. … Continue reading Stray Review: Paw-sitively Adorable
Back in January 2019 I was enjoying my SNES Classic and decided I should investigate games I'd never played before. I mashed Right on the D-Pad in a kind of "Retro Roulette" I'd made for myself. I landed on Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. I booted it up, died about 20 times without even finishing the … Continue reading How to Make Difficult Video Games Fun
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a Visual Novel / Strategy RPG developed by Vanillaware and published by Atlus. It was first released on the PS4 in September 2020 and later released on the Nintendo Switch in April 2022. MSRB is $60. I played the Nintendo Switch version. Ever since I played their games Muramasa: Rebirth … Continue reading 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Review – A Love Letter to Classic SciFi
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a remastered compilation of 6 games in the acclaimed first-person shooter series, including Halo 1 through 4, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach. It was first released on the Xbox One in November 2014, then later on the PC in December 2019, and finally on the Xbox Series X … Continue reading Halo: The Master Chief Collection Got Me To Like First-Person Shooter Games
As a hobbyist game journalist / game reviewer, I try to research how the “professionals” do their job and learn something new from every person I come across. As I listen to them I ask myself questions such as, “How does this critic ‘show and not tell’ with their writing?”, “How do they stand out?”, … Continue reading My Top 5 Video Game Reviewers
As we discussed in a previous post, Hideo Kojima is the first game designer to create a Postmodern video game. Postmodernism is an artistic movement that began in earnest in the late 20th Century, though its roots go all the way back to the 1910s with Dadaism and Surrealism, such as Rene Magritte's The Treachery … Continue reading Hideo Kojima, Part 3: Deconstructing Video Games
In 2012, Kojima said in an interview with The Guardian that he has a highly active imagination, and that even in adulthood he has to keep his mind from wandering off and making its own stories. He even paused during the interview to discreetly share what was going through his head at that very moment … Continue reading Hideo Kojima, Part 2: The Surreal Art of the Visual Metaphor
Hideo Kojima's Instagram bio states, "Game Creator: 70% of my body is made of movies." As we've recently learned, Kojima's love for movies runs deep into his childhood. It has stayed with him through difficult times like when his father passed away, or when he was striving to make it as a game designer. They … Continue reading Hideo Kojima, Part 1: How a Film Geek Makes Video Games
The 1963 film High and Low begins with a renowned Japanese shoemaker, Mr. Gondo, sitting in a luxurious living room. He is surrounded by his fellow company shareholders. Dozens of shoes pile up on the center table. Between puffs of cigarettes, the men discuss how to move their shoe company forward, and the conversation quickly … Continue reading The Life and Times of Hideo Kojima
Hookshot, Charge Beam, Revive 