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Jumpgrid Review – Pac-Man + Super Hexagon = An Addicting Action Puzzler
All the way back in 1980, Pac-Man took the world by storm with its grid-based gameplay around dodging ghosts and munching dots. A little over 20 years later, Terry Cavanagh helped kickstart the fledgling mobile game boom with Super Hexagon, his geometrically-based keepaway game.
And now here we are in 2019, and Australian developer Ian MacLarty has combined the two into a wonderful little gem known as Jumpgrid. (more…)
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
Excelsior!
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
Bot Gaiden Is A Side-Scrolling Platformer With Style: An Interview With Doug Pohl of SwordSwipe Studios
MetroidVanias rose to fame in the 80s and 90s thanks to the popularity of the Metroid and Castlevania franchises, but the genre went dormant in the 2000s as developers pushed pixels aside for polygons and aspired to create sprawling 3D worlds. After being rediscovered and remixed by the indie community, the MetroidVania is finally having its moment here in 2018.
But what if you’re looking for something else from a side-scroller? What if you want the fast action and self-contained levels that characterized the Ninja Gaiden and Contra franchises? Enter SwordSwipe Studios, and their upcoming game, Bot Gaiden.
The gameplay style and artistic inspirations for Bot Gaiden came to us straight from the 80s, but unlike most side-scrollers now on the market, SwordSwipe’s platformer doesn’t look like it came from the 80s. We sat down with Doug Pohl, one of the developer’s co-founders, to find out exactly how he’s bringing back the fast action and precision platforming of those classics in a new package. (more…)
A Few Hours With… Graveyard Keeper
I have no idea what the daily grind of being a medieval graveyard keeper actually entailed, but I somehow doubt it involved digging up bodies to appease an angry ghost and helping an Inquisitor hunt down witches. Thankfully, Lazy Bear Games wasn’t striving for accuracy when they developed Graveyard Keeper, or “the most inaccurate medieval cemetery management sim of the year.”
I’m not sure “inaccurate” goes far enough to describe the events of Graveyard Keeper, but after spending a few hours with the game, it’s weirdly absurd world is starting to grow on me. (more…)
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Graveyard Keeper, PC, Xbox One
Limited-time Avengers: Infinity War crossover event is now available in Fortnite
Avengers: Infinity War is the hottest ticket in movies right now, so it seems only natural that Marvel is teaming up with Epic Games to bring Thanos to Fortnite. Fortnite players will be able to take control of “The Mad Titan” in the limited-time “Fortnite X Avengers Mode,” which is available now on the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices:
Wield true power… the Infinity Gauntlet. Starting now, you can become Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup.
Drop in Solo as you hunt for and fight over the Infinity Gauntlet. The first to equip the Gauntlet will transform into the mighty Thanos and wield the Gauntlet’s power! You will need some serious firepower to take down Thanos. Only Rare, Epic and Legendary weapons appear in this Limited Time Mashup. Take down Thanos, equip the Gauntlet and claim Victory!
It’s unknown how long “Fortnite X Avengers Mode” will be available, but a short trailer teasing the crossover event has been embedded above.
Bethesda will bring “a big mix of stuff” to E3 2018
Bethesda held their first E3 Press Conference in 2015, and they managed to instantly win over the crowd by showcasing the first teaser trailer for Doom. In the years since, the publisher has doubled down on this strategy, and continued to focus on spectacular sequels and expansions to their biggest franchises.
And it sounds like 2018 won’t be any different.
DualShockers tracked down Bethesda’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Pete Hines, at PAX East 2018, and asked him what we can expect from the company’s E3 showcase. As in years past, Hines promised that fans will see “a big mix of stuff” that won’t be limited to one kind of game or genre:
[W]e have a lot of new stuff to talk about at E3. Whether or not folks realize it, this is the hell on Earth time for us with E3. We are in the midst of so much planning and work for all of that content but I’m really excited.
I think we have a lot of stuff that folks are going to like. To my earlier comment, it’s going to be a big mix of stuff that’s all over the place. It’s not going to be like all [one] kind of game or genre. It’s going to be a lot of stuff in a lot of different areas and hopefully, there’s something in there for everybody.
Bethesda always has a lot of irons in the fire, but aside from the constant drumbeat of The Elder Scrolls VI (and the two “big and crazy” projects that will precede it), we don’t have any idea what the publisher is working on.
I guess we’ll all find out together during Bethesda’s E3 Showcase, which will be held on June 10 at 9:30 PM (Eastern Time).
You Don’t Know Jack will return in Jackbox Party Pack 5
Jackbox Games will bring back “You Don’t Know Jack” in this Fall’s Jackbox Party Pack 5 on the PC, consoles, and other “major digital platforms.”
An announcement on the developer’s official website lays out all the details, and it looks the trivia game will include many of the features and question types that fans have come to expect. But it’ll also get a change of scenery so that Jackbox can mock “binge” culture:
We didn’t want to do another YDKJ just because we could. We wanted to wait until we had a fresh take on the classic formula. This version sees the game (and Cookie) acquired by the friendly corporate overlords at Binjpipe, your premiere media bingeing streaming service. It’s a big scenery change that’s led us to update the game in really fun ways, and given us a ton of new stuff to make fun of.
“You Don’t Know Jack” will also include support for up to eight players, as well as “new question types, audience integration, brand new fart sounds, a lot of old fart sounds too, streaming features, begrudging meme references,” and “more than one Frasier joke for some reason.”
Like the previous Jackbox Party Pack collections, Jackbox Party Pack 5 will also include four other games that’ll be announced at a later date. For now, check out the C2E2/PAX East Trailer embedded above. It’s a hilarious takedown of binge-y buzzwords.
The Video Game Canon: 2018’s “Version 2.0” Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The Video Game Canon has been upgraded to “Version 2.0” thanks to the addition of four new lists that were published throughout the last year. Edge Magazine’s “100 Greatest Videogames” issue, Jeux Video’s “Top 100 Best Games of All Time,” Polygon’s massive “500 Best Games of All Time,” and Stuff UK’s “50 Greatest Games of All Time” have reshuffled the ranking in a big way.
Let’s take a look…
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.