Author: Brandon Lawson

Developer & Publisher: Gamuzumi Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch There are times when satire and homages can blend into something really joyous and fantastic. Games like Turnip Boy Commits Tax Fraud are clearly so over-the-top in parody and ideas that they translate into fun times top to bottom. But sometimes parody is lazy and just an excuse to not fully deliver on one concept in favor of playing it off like a joke. In the case of Fingun, I’m sorry to say that the winks and nods overshadow the complete lack of gameplay. The idea isn’t a…

Developer: Nameless XIII Publisher: Dear Villagers Genre: Adventure Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch The concept of group survival as a game has been the backbone of gamers born in the late 70s to early 80s, and it’s clear to see why. The inclusion of The Oregon Trail as a teaching tool inadvertently got players hooked to three separate concepts: tactical calculations, sacrificial decisions, and the unfairness of random chances. Anyone who had to look at an Apple IIe will understand the frustration of careful, meticulous use of resources and pathways being all for naught as dysentery destroys a whole family less…

Developer: Toppluva AB Publisher: Microids Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch Also Available On: PC, Mobile The success of mobile games is sometimes misconstrued as the success of the game itself and not the convenience or happenstance around it. For example, one of the first games to ever come out on the App Store, a simple tank game called iShoot, was able to generate something like $500,000 profit for the developer. This dude immediately decided that he was a design God, quit his job and then reinvested most of that money into developing a second shooting game, only this time it was a…

Developer: Studio Voyager, Iguanabee Publisher: Untold Tales Genre: Adventure, Platform, Puzzle game Reviewed On: Also Available for: PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox one Nintendo Switch, Windows We’re going to be seeing a lot of stuff about the Multiverse in the coming years’ thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and perhaps rightfully so. The String Theory is a fascinating one that gives limitless possibilities to philosophy, theoretical physics, and “what ifs” of all shapes and sizes. Naturally, this gives an in for video game developers to create new ideas, and Studio Voyager, along with Iguanabee and Untold Tales, has used this…

Developer: WayForward Publisher: Arc System Works Genre: Beat-‘Em-Up Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch When River City Girls was released by WayForward a few years back, it was honestly one of the best entries to the Kunio-Kun series that I had ever played. Besides incorporating a lot of the brawl work and well designed room combat, it took the pixel art game and elevated it to something really special, as well as having amazingly fluid animation for everything from fights to placeholder bouncing. It was fun, it was frantic, it was a perfect blend of homage to the classics while…

Developer: KANAWO Publisher: PLAYISM Genre: Adventure Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch Also Available On: PC The way that Western players support Japanese indie devs is always an interesting one. Usually, for the most part, the developers will decide to go ahead and change up their release style: they migrate to border storefronts, invest in some PR people and localizers, and now the game is for the world, not just for Japan. There are, however, some that take a wildly different approach. PLAYISM, the publisher behind such titles as La-Mulana and the recent Bright Memory Infinite, has a history of taking…

Developer: Neon Doctrine Publisher: Creative Games Computer Graphics Corporation Genre: Action Reviewed On: PC Also Available On: Nintendo Switch A great side effect of the video game revolution is the greater reach of players and developers looking to share their stories. It’s been a wonder to see so many smaller groups or even individuals decide to take their unique experiences and turn them into games as the desired medium to reach out and say “this is important to me.” Sometimes it’s something magnificently massive, like Undertale or Lisa, and other times it’s minor ideas, like Wheels of Aurelia, Drowning…

Developer & Publisher: Funky Can Creative Genre: Beat-‘Em-Up Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch Ah, to be the hero of a 90s cartoon or video game again. Things were simpler and also kind of stupid, but who didn’t love it? You go forward, you fight the bad guy, and you win. Nowadays, there’s often a twist where the bad guy is someone’s father, or they’re doing the wrong thing for the right reason, and all the plot and motivation gets tangled up. So it’s nice to have a straightforward path to getting from point A to B in terms of villainy and…

Developer: Nuke Nine Publisher: BlitWorks Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch Also Available On:  PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Sometimes, living up to the paths carved by previous games is a chore unto itself. When you think about the success of Hades, you first need to consider the Supergiant line of titles (Bastion, Transistor) and figure out how the narrative style of Hades builds on these games to compare in terms of storytelling. In the same vein, when we see games like Void Bastards, you need to think about other FPS roguelites (Immortal Redneck, Paranautical Activity) and consider the strengths and weaknesses…

Developer: ZOO Corporation Publisher: EastAsia Soft Genre: Action Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch Also Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S Baumkuchen. The ring cake of Germany. Equal parts a simple dessert and expressive centerpiece, this lovely sweet has somehow become a staple of Japanese cafes and bakeries across the country, to the point where it’s found in almost every convenience store and snack stand. It’s great enough that Zoo Corporation, who are best known for making Mahjong games with busty anime girls, said “We need to make a game about these cakes.” So they forewent the…