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Most Recent: Reviews
Double Dragon: Neon Review: WayForward Has The Touch
The developers at WayForward have built a career out of resurrecting old franchises and giving them a new coat of paint for these modern times. A Boy and His Blob, BloodRayne: Betrayal (that one didn’t turn out so great), Contra 4… the list goes on and on. They’ve taken another stab at it with Double Dragon: Neon, an I Love the 80s-worthy compilation of the franchise’s best moments. (more…)
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Double Dragon: Neon
Dust: An Elysian Tail Review: Usagi Yojimbo Would Be Impressed
Dean Dodrill’s Dust: An Elysian Tail was announced as the winner of the second annual Dream.Build.Play Challenge in 2009 and, after securing a publishing deal with Microsoft, he spent the next three years designing and coding it himself. With the game finally complete, it recently took its place as the finale to this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion.
So… one man development team… critical acclaim… and a big push from Big Redmond itself… can a side-scrolling action RPG really live up to all that? (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Dust: An Elysian Tail
Fortress Review: Giving Solitaire A New Coat of Paint
Fortress is a little indie game on the App store made by Ray Merkler, a game designer in the Philadelphia area. Painstakingly crafted with love, Fortress is a one- or two-player game that recreates solitaire as a war game, giving it far more personality and fun. It doesn’t hurt that it’s cute, colorful, and pretty darn addictive. So what makes Fortress so special? (more…)
Splice: Tree of Life Review: Tricking You Into Liking Science
Splice is another addition to the growing list of unique and interesting games by Philadelphia-based Cipher Prime. The player must solve puzzles using molecules to build DNA strands. Each level adds another layer of complexity to the puzzles. The game was released on the PC initially, but was added to the App Store for the iPad just as PAX Prime opened its doors. In fact, Splice was chosen as one of the PAX 10 this year, on the show floor for both PC and iPad. Does the conversion to iPad work for this clever puzzler? (more…)
Posted in Mobile, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Splice: Tree of Life
New Super Mario Bros. 2 Review: My Interest Is In Another Castle
Most of the time, Nintendo knocks it out of the park when it comes to great ideas and innovation. From game systems to fun and entertaining franchises, the brains at Nintendo know what people like. But other times, they fall flat, regurgitating overused gameplay elements and stale characters. Sadly, New Super Mario Bros. 2 falls into the latter category. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged New Super Mario Bros. 2
Sleeping Dogs Review: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wei
Some people like to refer to Sleeping Dogs as “Grand Theft Auto: Hong Kong.” While that’s close to being true – you do steal and drive a lot of cars, and there’s a huge amount of missions you can take on – there’s far more to the game than just a reskinned GTA in a new location. There’s the undercover cop trope, giving it a detective feel. There’s the constant and very robust melee system, bringing in a lot of fun combat. And, of course, there’s fantastic character development, from Uncle Po to Broken Nose Jang to Wei Shen himself. No, this isn’t just GTA in Hong Kong. This is Sleeping Dogs, and it’s an animal all its own. (more…)
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 Review: Welcome Back Tycho and Gabe
Someday, songs will be written about the development of Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3. In the nearly four years since the release of Episode Two, the third game in Penny Arcade’s episodic RPG series underwent both a developer and art-style change in its journey to a download service near you. Gone are the Gabe-inspired character designs and modern graphics of the previous episodes. In their place are the 16-bit stylings of Zeboyd Games and a part three that, at times, feels like both a brand new game and a continuation of the adventure thus far. (more…)
Posted in PC, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
Generation Xbox Review: Movies and Games Sitting in a Tree…
I’m always baffled when academics or authors choose a single video game platform as the voice of a generation. Take Generation Xbox, for example. The Xbox 360 has been extremely successful over the last seven years and will likely go down as the system that everyone remembers from this era even though the Wii was more popular and the PS3 was more powerful. In addition to that, the title doesn’t even have anything to do with the content of the book.
Thankfully, the book’s subtitle, How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, lays it all out for you. And if you’re interested in the continuing convergence of games and movies, then Generation Xbox might just be the book for you… even if you’re a PlayStation gamer. (more…)