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OpinionImpressionsIn Afterparty, You Die As You Lived: Confused But Happy To Take A Beer
Afterparty, the latest from Oxenfree developer Night School Studio, is out October 29 (and rated M for Mature, like all the best night clubs). It’s a story-based adventure game written in the snarky spirit of its point-and-click predecessors, full to bursting both with witty one-liners and signs that the writers maybe got a smidge too…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published March 6, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThere’s Not A Lot Of One-Punch Man In The One-Punch Man Game’s Story Mode, Thank Goodness
One-Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is not a video game about uber-powerful anime sensation One-Punch Man. It’s the story of a player-created character operating in One-Punch Man’s orbit. The single-player story mode battles last much longer that way. In One-Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows’ three-on-three competitive fighting mode, Saitama (AKA One-Punch Man) takes…
By Mike Fahey Published March 6, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBeing The One Human In A World Of Pokémon Is Pretty Cool
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, the enchanting remake of a pair of Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS games coming out this week for the Switch, the human player wakes up in a world populated by talking pocket monsters, reborn as one of their own. Living and working alongside Pokémon as an equal…
By Mike Fahey Published March 6, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBloodroots Is A Western Brawler Where Everything Is Your Weapon
I can’t remember the last time I hooted and/or hollered at a video game as much as I did during the first 15 minutes of Bloodroots It’s a fast, stylish brawler with one very cool hook: you don’t have a single weapon, you have everything. The game’s world is littered with swords, hammers and guns,…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 5, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSludge Life Feels Like Playing Hooky From Late Capitalism
One of my favorite Onion articles of all time is titled “Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back.” It was published five years ago, back when I still worked at an office job I hated where I frequently daydreamed of doing exactly as the Onion health experts advised. But where…
By Ethan Gach Published March 5, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsIt’s Literally Just Mowing (And Microtransactions, Ads, And Loot Boxes)
As soon as I heard about the game It’s Literally Just Mowing, I was like, “Hell yeah!” Unfortunately, the game is not literally just mowing. It’s Literally Just Mowing, which arrived on iOS and Google Play last week, has been promoted as being about mowing some lawns, and that’s it. But once I played it,…
By Ian Walker Published March 5, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsIf You Like Picross You’re A Good Person And Will Probably Enjoy Depixtion
Picross is a wonderful series of games in which players use logic to create dubious pixel art using numbers and grids. In Depixtion, recently released for the Nintendo Switch, each level is three Picross-style puzzles of varying colors and shades coming together to create dubious pixel art. It’s deep dish Picross with a twist. A…
By Mike Fahey Published March 5, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsHands On: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Will Put You Right To Work
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a hard game to demo, but Nintendo invited me to try to do it anyway last weekend at PAX East. I came away from my brief trip to its deserted island impressed by how pretty everything looked and eager to continue toiling away on its beaches, in its fields, and…
By Ethan Gach Published March 5, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsCloud And Sephiroth Face Off Again In The Final Fantasy VII Remake Card Game Set
With only the first installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake coming in April, who knows when the video game will get to the final confrontation between Cloud and Sephiroth. The Final Fantasy Trading Card Game wastes no time getting to the good bits, with a special two-player starter set that allows players to relive…
By Mike Fahey Published March 4, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsCall Of Duty: Modern Warfare Gets A Knock-Off Tamagotchi
Of all the things they could have added to Call of Duty, a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet is not one that I would ever have imagined. And yet, here we are. Call of Duty gets needy virtual pets in this week’s Modern Warfare store update, testing a player’s ability to multitask killing while caregiving. The Call…
By S.E. Doster Published March 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsCurse Of The Dead Gods Is A Roguelike Roguelike Likers Will Like
Curse of the Dead Gods, available today on Steam, punches all the roguelike buttons. It features most of the hallmarks of the classic dungeon hack while also including several mechanics that are obviously inspired by contemporary spins on the genre. It’s almost as if Curse of the Dead Gods has been playing through a roguelike…
By Ian Walker Published March 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsA Trippy Game Where You Solve Puzzles With Perspective
I don’t do drugs, so I’m not about to make any bold proclamations about the mind-altering properties of Infini, a new puzzle game out tomorrow on Steam from developer Barnaque. But the game is grotesque, thoughtful, overwhelming, and altogether trippier than any other game I’ve experienced. Infini tells the story of Hope, a being lost…
By Ian Walker Published March 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsKnuckle Sandwich Is An RPG That’s Like EarthBound Meets WarioWare
In Knuckle Sandwich, I stumble into a restaurant and the next thing I know my boss is barking at me to bring customers their burgers. A minute later, after barely passing a customer satisfaction survey, I get jumped in the alleyway while taking out the garbage by a green guy in a leather jacket. A…
By Ethan Gach Published March 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsGame Jam Combines Fishing And Horror Genres To Great Effect
Video game curators Horror You Haven’t Played recently tasked the independent development community on itch.io to create horror games with fishing as the unifying theme. This call to action produced seven games of varying lengths and styles, all of which do an excellent job of adding a sinister edge to life below the waterline. Fishing…
By Ian Walker Published March 2, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBroken Lines Is A Tactical Breath Of Fresh Air
You think you’ve played one turn-based tactics game you’re played them all. Then along comes Broken Lines to remind us all that, hey, there are more ways to put a group of units into combat that simply lining up to take turns. Set in an alternate, BPRD-meets-Dirty–Dozen take on the Second World War, Broken Lines…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 2, 2020 -
OpinionImpressions3 Hours With Final Fantasy VII Remake: Thrilling, But Jarring
If you’ve played Final Fantasy VII, you’re probably familiar with the Air Buster, a floating robot who resembles a vacuum cleaner. Air Buster, the game’s second boss, takes roughly two minutes to kill. He’s more of a tutorial on enemy weak points than a genuine threat (hint: use the Bolt spell). So it’s more than…
By Jason Schreier Published March 2, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsOverwatch‘s New Experimental Card Turns Tanks Into Powerhouses
It’s a longtime dream of mine to be extremely large and basically unkillable. I’ve yet to accomplish my goal in real life, but I will—mark my words. Until then, I’ve at least got Overwatch’s new experimental card, which turns tanks into nigh-unstoppable meat walls, to help me imagine a better world. The experimental card, which…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 28, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsCrossy Road Castle Is Out For Apple Arcade, And It Is Splendid
I guess we finally know what Crossy Road’s blocky little animals were trying to get. Hipster Whale, the developers behind the most compelling road-crossing game since Frogger, have turned their technicolor talent toward multiplayer platforming in Crossy Road Castle, out now for Apple Arcade. Crossy Road Castle is not at all what I was expecting…
By Mike Fahey Published February 28, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsNew Modern Warfare Mode Offers Large-Scale Battles With No Pesky Tanks
New limited-time modes are giving players more options for large-scale warfare in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The February 25 update for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC game brings the new “Bazaar” Gunfight map, new cosmetics for purchase, and the usual host of general tweaks. But the most notable additions are the new…
By S.E. Doster Published February 26, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Latest Lego Game Is A Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes Clone, And That’s Fine
Released on iOS and Android in 2015, EA’s Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a role-playing game in which players collect Star Wars characters, form teams, and fight in short but satisfying turn-based battles. Lego Legacy: Heroes Unboxed, launching this Thursday for iOS, Android, and Windows, is the same thing, only we’re collecting Lego minifigures.…
By Mike Fahey Published February 25, 2020