Peter Tieryas

Rygar Is A Non-Linear 8-Bit Masterpiece

I had no idea what I was getting into when I first put Rygar into my NES. I had borrowed the game, released in 1987 by Tecmo, from a friend who couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. He wished me better luck. I didn’t realize I was going to experience one of my very…

Thanks as always Kotaku for letting us host the site for the weekend! Hope you enjoyed our thoughts on Animal Crossing, the Xbox, Starfleet, Trails, the Famicom, robot revolutions and more. While all good things do come to an end, sometimes they can come back in mysterious forms. Cing, the developers behind Last Window and…

Who’s Your Favorite NPC In A Game?

NPCs can make or break a game. My PC introduced me to some of my first NPCs. In Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, a variety of NPCs were there to test your morals and virtues so you could grow as an avatar; as a kid, I really thought I was helping people by giving…

‘Shop Contest: Gaming Valentine’s Day Cards

This upcoming Friday is Valentine’s Day and Nintendo released a bunch of Animal Crossing inspired Valentine’s Day cards. I’ve never played Animal Crossing on Valentine’s Day, or any day for that matter, but these cards have me curious what this game is about and how groovy my day will go if I actually received one…

Starfleet, You’ve Changed

The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “All Good Things…” was the best way to finish one of my favorite shows of all time. So I was thrilled, but also wary, of revisiting these iconic characters again. For the most part, I’ve been happy with Picard so far. The acting is superb, the…

Lost Odyssey Brilliantly Explores The Tragedy Of Being Immortal

Last month, I wrote about the first leg of Lost Odyssey and how much I was enjoying it. The second disc and first half of the third have been even better. The worldbuilding is mysterious and intriguing, with each new section making me want to know more about the immortals I’m playing as. The narrative…

The Brutal Lessons Gaming Taught Me About Revolutions, Robots, And War

I recently had lunch with a friend who works in tech and he posited to me the ethical question of how we should treat AI as they get more and more sophisticated. He mentioned how machine learning and AI has progressed in ways that would push even science fiction authors to disbelief. As their thought…

‘Shop Contest: Speaking Simulator Winners!

Hi everyone! I’m back to judge the shop contest for this week! Last week, Zack asked everyone to create some photos featuring the dude from Speaking Simulator. He’s on break this weekend and graciously asked me to come in a guest judge again. As I was going through the entries, I realized I was receiving…

Last Window Is One Of The Best Murder Mysteries In Gaming

The duology of Last Window and Hotel Dusk has become my favorite series on the original DS. The two games are noir at their best, involving murder, robbery, and explorations of the sordidness of human nature. They’re also some of the best written games I’ve ever played. It’s been a few weeks since I finished…

An Ode To The NPCs We’ve Robbed

Hi Kotaku! It’s Ben, Narelle, and Peter back as your guest writers for the weekend. It’s been too long! Since we were last here, we’ve traveled to many worlds, visited countless cities, and met some of the most unique NPCs in gaming. The one factor that they all share is that they have items, gold,…

What Games On Your Backlog Do You Want To Finish This New Year?

Every December, I wonder where the year went. Every week before January 1st, I wonder what games from my backlog I will finally get to in the New Year. There’s so many games I need to tackle, going all the way back to the PS2. Suikoden V, Rogue Galaxy, and Valkyrie Profile call out to…

Lost Odyssey Is A Moving Story About Immortality, Memories, And Loss

There’s a game I keep coming back to every few years. It’s Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. Developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker Studios, it’s basically Final Fantasy mixed with the old show about immortals, Highlander. The first two times I played it, I got to the White Boa, then stopped. Life just got in…

One Punch Man Is About The Plight Of Being Too Powerful

What’s it like to be the strongest person on the planet? If you answered that it’d be a boring depressing state of existential dread, then you’d empathize with the hero of One Punch Man One Punch Man is a superhero anime based on the Manga of the same name that combines action, comedy, and satire…

The Story Behind Solomon’s Key, One Of The Most Challenging NES Games

Constellations, block puzzles, magic, and a Taoist monk collide in this odd but extremely difficult puzzle game called Solomon’s Key. Published by Tecmo as an arcade game in 1986, it was ported to the NES in 1987. Michitaka Tsuruta was the main designer and he explained over email how he drew the original inspiration for…

The Weird But Memorable Sidequests Of Yakuza 0

I loved Yakuza movies growing up, and the Yakuza series reminds me of the best of them. I actually enjoyed films like Sympathy for the Underdog, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, and Sonatine more than their mafia-themed cousins we have here in the west. So when Luke wrote his great review of Yakuza 0, I…

Thunder Force IV Was One Of The Best Shooters Of The 16-Bit Era

Thunder Force IV is the ultimate adrenaline rush and hands down one of the best shooters on the Sega Genesis. It also had one of the most depressing endings on a 16-bit era game. Developed by Technosoft in 1992, it was renamed Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar in the US. I got it as…

‘Shop Contest: Black Friday

This past Friday was Black Friday and had a splurge of gaming and electronics deals. I saw lots of people looking for new TVs. I still remember when flat screens were thousands of dollars and can’t believe so many high quality TVs are on sale now for only a few hundred. Of course, with new…

Hi Kotaku! I’m signing off for the weekend and wanted to give a big thank you to all the readers for taking the time to read my retrospectives/essays and leaving some very interesting comments over the Thanksgiving break. I try to read as many as I can as I always learn really fascinating things and…

I Wish All RPGs Had A New Game Plus

When I was younger, dropping hundreds of hours on a RPG was no problem. It was actually something I was proud of. I spent so much time on RPG series like Might and Magic, Ultima, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy, it felt like a rite of passage. Part of what makes the RPG experience so…

What’s Your Favorite Video Game Soundtrack?

Whenever I got a new Sega Genesis game, I used to plug in the earphones to the console’s headphone jack to play it. I felt an invisible bubble form around me as the game started and I listened to the music in stereo sound. It was like I’d jacked into my own private universe. There’s…