Nathan Grayson

If Iron Chef Was Made By Studio Ghibli, And Was A Video Game

Battle Chef Brigade is a video game stew that’s one part Iron Chef, one part brawler, and one part Hayao Miyazaki. My childhood, basically. It looks glorious, and now I am very hungry. The game is on Kickstarter right now, but whatever—I’ll tell you about The Requisite Stuff in a moment. For now, just watch…

Okay, So It’s A… Narwhal Jousting Game

Starwhal is a narwhal jousting game. It’s set in an ’80s neon rendition of outer space. What more do you really need to know? Oh yes, and it has OVER 9,000 NARWHAL COSTUME COMBOS. Also it’s pretty fun. I guess that’s important too. For real though, Starwhal is a fun concept—flip-flopping physics-based unicorn fish combat—that’s…

Pokémon Would Make Awesome Monster Hunter Enemies

I feel like the Pokémon games’ assessment of what would happen if the world were overrun by giant super-powered creatures is a little… optimistic. DeviantArt user Arvalis—of Pokemon-as-giant-friggin’-dinosaurs fame—has taken to pointing a Monster-Hunter-fication beam at some of his favorite no-longer-pocket-sized monsters. The result? Creations like this awesome Charizard, a beast of majesty, harrowing size,…

I’m Glad That Vikings Have Taken Over Video Games

Seriously, between Skyrim, The Banner Saga, and now gorgeous-looking 2D brawler Viking Squad, they’ve been killing it lately. And people. They’ve been killing lots and lots of people. Viking Squad is a great-looking brawler coming from the presumably difficult-to-grip folks at Slick Entertainment. It’s got all the traditional staples of a good rough-’em-up-and-take-their-stuff: nice hand-drawn…

You Had Me At ‘Assassin’s Creed With Kittens’

Thank you, the Internet. Damn you to cat claw hell for this, but also thank you so much. The face that kitten in green makes when it’s about to catssassinate the first soldier. This face: The horror. And also everything else about this video. Assassin’s Creed Unity might have cool crowd tech and post-just-shanked-a-thousand-dudes fistbump…

The Slapstick Fighting Game That Took Over An Entire Festival

“I think the game is kind of horrifying,” one game developer tells me over drinks. “Its violence… the intent behind it, is a little too real.” His comments strike me as strange, given that Gang Beasts reminds me of watching slapstick comedy from The Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges as a kid. Gang Beasts…

Official Pokémon Card Game for iPad Just Launched On Canadian App Store

The Pokémon Trading Card Game just showed up on Canada’s iOS app store. This means that it’s likely heading to other territories soon too. The Pokemon Company announced it during the Pokemon World Championships last month. For now it’s iPad-only, but it syncs up with the long-running desktop version Here the first details of what…

PlayStation Home Finally Closing Down

Goodnight, sweet prince. You were… you, um… well at least you tried. PlayStation Home, Sony’s long-running (though never exactly beloved) attempt at creating a PlayStation 3 social hub one part Xbox Live and one part Second Life, is finally being put out to pasture. There, on March 31st, 2015, it will presumably be shot, with…

Hotline Miami Made Out Of Paper Is Still Extremely Bloody

Yeesh. The video, an ultra-snazzy paper send-up of top-down shoot, slice, and in all other ways dismantle-’em-up Hotline Miami, comes from Remuslab. It’s got bone (well, paper bone) crunching/tearing action, stylish cinematography, blood, and more blood. In other words, yep, that’s Hotline Miami Remuslab has been breathing life (followed by death) into paper renditions of…

New RPG Is A Love Letter To Fallout, XCOM & FTL

It’s called Bedlam, and it’s a post-apocalyptic RPG with Fallout‘s ramshackle vibe, XCOM-style gameplay, and gorgeously detailed animated art. There’s also permadeath, marauders, mutants, and cyborgs. I like all of those things! First up, here’s the elevator pitch—straight from a world where elevators may well have gone extinct centuries ago: “The player is cast as…

You, Too, Can Make A Car Look Like It’s Going Back To The Future

Crazy computerized effects? Back in Back To The Future‘s day, they didn’t have those. Only pluck and spirit (and time travel). That means that with a few lights and some clever camera work, you can make a toy car look like its blasting through the barriers of space-time at 88 mph. This video comes from…

There’s Gonna Be A Duck Dynasty Console Game For Some Reason

I mean, of course there is. I’m not actually surprised—or at least, I really shouldn’t be. You can watch a trailer of the newly announced Duck Dynasty console game on the show’s Facebook page Duck Dynasty is, of course, the massively popular “non-fiction” show about a family that runs a duck-hunting equipment based empire. There’s…

Chill out with Fallout. Creative YouTube person Ben MacB has been modding Fallout: New Vegas to look absolutely glorious and then showing off the dilapidated world’s wonders with delicious slow pans and soothing post-rock. I, um, really like watching these. They’re so pleasant. Here’s the rest of his series (so far): If you want to…

This Cartoon Is As Close To A New Jet Set Radio As We’re Gonna Get

Remember Jet Grind Radio/Jet Set Radio Future? The games that practically bled cool with rocket-powered roller blades, gorgeous graffiti, and hulking boomboxes far as the eye could see? Upcoming animated series Urbance claims them as big influences, and it looks stylish as fuck Urbance‘s plot—which centers around a city in which sex is illegal because…

I Wish More Shooters Looked Like This

I’m tired of gritty, grumbly first-person shooters. A game that mixes Tron‘s synth-y style and Bulletstorm‘s focus on creative kills, though? Now this I can get behind. The game in question is called Desync, and I can’t say I’ve seen another shooter that looks quite like it. The world is clean and easy on the…

A Remarkably Accurate Minecraft Recreation Of Halo 5‘s Trailer

Huh. Well thisseems fitting It’s exactly what it sounds like: Halo 5‘s dusty, burlap-sack-clad trailer done up in Minecraft style by way of animation program Maya. It’s basically shot-for-shot, near as I can tell. Damn impressive, in other words. For reference, here’s the original Halo 5 trailer: This project was actually created before Microsoft’s purchase…

Elite: Dangerous Is About To Get A Whole Lot Bigger

And when I say that, I mean “500 new star systems” bigger. You might remember Elite from our very own Kirk “No, Not That Captain Kirk” Hamilton’s two-week-long space odyssey, wherein he did a bunch of things both crazy and mundane. That’s kinda the point, though: Elite is a space sim, short for simulator. It’s…

League Of Legends Restricting Toxic Players From Ranked Games

League of Legends has been waging a war on player toxicity—that is, widespread misbehavior, not dangerously high levels of secreted poison—for years, and Riot’s latest attempt to rein in meanness has players talking. In short, poor sports can now be restricted not only from chat, but also from ranked play entirely. Ranked restrictions, which Riot…

People Are Already Abusing Steam Curations

Steam curations—which let people maintain custom pages of recommended PC games—are a great idea, but that doesn’t mean they’re water-tight just yet. People have figured out how to do downright mean/exploitative (and sometimes hilarious) things with them. Valve should probably unchain its moderation hounds. It’s not uncommon for new Steam features to be manipulated for…

The Challenges Of Letting You Be A Fat Video Game Hero

Zany open-world action game Sunset Overdrive—as its creators told me during a recent San Francisco preview event—is all about letting players be whoever they want. I made a very nice bearded lady with tiny mouths for eyes. I noticed something, though: you can pick your body type, but you can’t pick a heavy one. I…