Five Games That Demonstrate Why 2017 Was An Amazing Year For Video Game Storytelling

This was an especially fun one to write. 2017 felt like a hallmark year for storytelling in games and I had a great time highlighting some of my personal favorites. Titles like Nier: Automata, Yakuza 0, Wolfenstein II, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Night in the Woods offered a diverse medley of ideas delivered in …

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Review – A Lover Letter to Castlevania

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a Kickstarter phenomenon, promising the type of side-scrolling Metroidvania experience that gamers expect from Symphony of the Night director Koji Igarashi. As somewhat of an afterthought, one of the incentives for backers was a smaller spin-off game inspired by the earlier, more linear Castlevania entries. Described as a “mini-NES” game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon stands on its …

God of War Review: A Herculean Feat

Games are growing up. It’s hard to think of a better representation of this rapid maturity than the recently released God of War, a complete shift for the series in terms of its storytelling. Carrying on the tale of the endlessly enraged Kratos, we find the Ghost of Sparta a stranger in a strange land. …

Cuphead Review: The Epitome of Cool

There’s cool and then there’s Cuphead. Drawing inspiration from the surrealist non-children’s cartoons of Fleisher Productions and their 1930s contemporaries (besides the gratuitous racism), Studio MDHR’s freshman effort is an astounding aesthetic achievement. The hand animated stages and enemies are bursting with such an imaginative energy that the uphill battle against its brutal enemies are …

Sunshine Blogger Award

Thanks a bunch to Benjamin Ferrarini for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Over on The Glitch he writes review/editorials on games, TV, and movies. Check out his review of the new Netflix series Lost in Space here. The Sunshine Blogger Award is a way for bloggers to recognize and promote new blogs. It allows the community of …