Console

Customarily, game design employs an additive approach, progressively inserting new mechanics into each new sequel. It’s a method that’s helped Nintendo build an empire, with each new iteration of Mario Kart, Kirby, or The Legend ...

One of the peculiarities of next-generation libraries is how the current selection of software often feels like a subset of titles from the previous era of consoles. Beyond a strong emphasis on sequels to popular ...

In the grand pantheon of arcade shooters, few are more prestigious than 1981’s Defender. While the William Electronics-developed coin-op wasn’t an immediate success (creator Eugene Jarvis has blamed the groundbreaking five-button control method), the game ...

In an era when the industry generates grandiose narratives filled with motion capture from Academy Award-winning actors, it’s easy to lose track of where games got their start. Across arcades, bowling alleys, and pool halls, ...

Years from now, when pundits are discussing the consummate titles which defined the seventh generation of console gaming, Grand Theft Auto V will undoubtedly rank at the top of the list. Narratively, the game conspicuously ...

In Japan, Hatsune Miku is an unqualified sensation, with the anthropomorphized singing synthesizer dominating music sales charts, video sharing service Nico Nico Douga, as well as serving as an ambassador for brands such as Louis ...

Over the last few years, it seems like role-playing mechanics have seeped into every conceivable genre. From the inclusion of MyGM mode in the NBA 2K series- where players make decisions via branching dialog trees ...

In the East, the amnesiac hero is a pervasive trope, showing up reoccurring in the role-playing genre. As an expositional device, the method can be effective, with the player’s gradual discovery of the world mirroring ...

While the desire for innovation is a virtuous ambition, some developers would rather pursue perfection- offering a succession of sequels aimed at the realization of a specific genre. Such is the path plotted by Phoenix-based ...

While Metal Gear Solid 4 once asserted that “war has changed”, Fallout 3 proclaimed that “war never changes”. The Call of Duty franchise has contently existed somewhere in the middle of those two contradictory tenets. ...