The PS4’s Spectacular Dreams Game Is Hurting From A Lack Of Players

When LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule launched the game-as-an-engine PlayStation 4 exclusive Dreams into early access in April 2019, I remember feeling a cautious optimism. The technology behind the game was impressive, letting people make their own music, games, and artwork with its robust toolset, then share it for others Dreamers to play within the platform.…

Hi Kotaku, as always, it’s been a huge honor getting to be the guest writer for the weekend. I love reading the comments and so many of you share so many awesome things, I always feel I’m learning so much (and also getting some really cool game recommendations). Please have a safe holiday season and…

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

I asked this same question last year and looking back on the list of games I hoped to finish, I actually am surprised I got to quite a few of them. That includes Deadly Premonition, Radiant Historia, Pikmin 3, Link Between Worlds, Trace Memory, and No More Heroes. The link between them all is that…

Lost Odyssey’s Ending Felt Like A Bittersweet Farewell To The JRPGs Of Old

I wish I were immortal just so I could play all the games on my backlog. Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360 is about immortals who’ve lived over a thousand years and they’ve experienced a lot. Maybe too much. Life has taken its toll and the only thing that’s made it bearable is the involuntary…

The Week In Games: Birds

It’s a pretty quiet week for game releases. Look at it as a chance to catch up on your backlog. Monday, December 28 Quell Reflect | Switch Cube Raiders | Switch Void Source | Switch Professor Lupo: Ocean | Switch Dungeon Limbus | Switch Hell Sports | Switch Tuesday, December 29 Wingspan | Switch Back…

How The Past Year Got Me Thinking Of Post Apocalyptic Games In A New Light

Almost every day, I go for a walk with my kid. She’s just over two. There’s a strange serenity in the isolation of entire city blocks when there’s so few people out and about. In the first few months of the pandemic, it felt like we were walking through an abandoned city. I’ve lived in…

Peter Tieryas’ Top 5 Games Of 2020

I can’t believe the year is almost over. 2020 has felt interminable. Between work, taking care of my kid, a new book release, various writing assignments, and all that life has thrown at me, my free time has been really limited. I usually only get a chance to play games after my kid falls asleep…

I Didn’t Expect To Like Deadly Premonition So Much

I crashed eight times during my playthrough of Deadly Premonition on the Switch, often at critical moments. In a game with long load screens, this seemed like an unforgivable sin. “So good it’s bad,” was testing my patience, even if I knew coming in that Deadly Premonition was a flawed cult classic. This wasn’t the…

Phantasy Star III Is A Flawed, But Ambitious, Entry Into The Series

Phantasy Star III was a game I wanted to love, especially since its predecessor was a science fiction classic and arguably one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis. I still remember when I first heard about Phantasy Star III, which released for the Genesis in 1991, I was blown away by the idea…

The Fascinating Visual Novel About Time Travel From One Of The Creators Of Suikoden

In Time Hollow, time travel is a painful, convoluted, and sloppy mess that makes history worse with every intervention. A spiritual successor to another game I enjoyed called Shadow of Memories, it actually took me a while to track down this obscure Nintendo DS visual novel that was published in 2008 from Konami. When I…

Who’s The Strongest Video Game Character?

If all the video game characters ever created got together in a big rumble, who’d come out on top? Kratos, the one who took down the gods of Olympus? What about Asura who fought off a deity the size of a planet? What about the ancients who wore Majora’s Mask and caused so much havoc,…

The Brilliant 16-Bit JRPG About The Death And Rebirth Of The World

Considered part of the Quintet Creation Trilogy, Terranigma was the culminating tour de force from the Japanese studio behind 16-bit games like Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, and Robotrek. It was never released in North America (though it received a translated version in PAL), explaining why most of us here in the States, including myself, never…

7 PS4 Horror Games That I Hope Get PS5 Sequels

The PS4 had some great horror games. The best had a way of creeping into my mind subconsciously, lingering until a vulnerable moment and striking terror when I least expected. It’s interesting that with the increase in graphical power, the games that scared me most last gen weren’t necessarily the best looking ones; sometimes, that…

The Video Game Music That Helped Us Through 2020

2020 was tough. There were nights we wondered where and how this year would end. Just when things seemed like they couldn’t get worse, they did time and again. On every level, it was difficult just to get through the day. One of the things that helped us through was music. Specifically, video game music.…

How A Dark Time-Traveling Fantasy Game Became the Original Fallout

The end of the world was both darker and more humorous than anyone could have imagined, and in the original Fallout, released for the PC in 1997, gamers got to experience the apocalypse firsthand. The iconic, “War, war never changes,” introduction set the somber mood, which was written, strangely enough, during an episode of The…

Ys VIII’s Compelling Story Makes You Care About Every NPC

I always approach classics with a certain sense of trepidation, especially if I’m playing them outside of their original release window. Games that might have truly been remarkable in their day and age might come across antiquated and difficult to endure in the present, especially with how much game design has changed over the years.…

An Ode To The Games It Took Us Forever To Finish (Or How It Took Me Over Twenty Years To Finally Finish The First Suikoden)

Hi Kotaku! The last time I was a weekend editor for Kotaku was way back in February and honestly, that seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then that even looking back at my old articles feels like I’m peeking at a time capsule from a different age. I’m honored, as always,…

Ari’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

The past year has been one endless, pitch-black night with a single burning, incandescent star: video games. I mean, can you imagine what 2020 would’ve been like without video games? I, for one, cannot. Better yet, it’s not like the annual release calendar was a dry spell, either. From tip to tail, the hits kept…