Featured

After over two years, the BlazBlue series has finally returned. BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (or BB:CP for short) is the latest in Arc System Works’ excellent 2-D fighting game franchise. Released just a few short months ...

Not long ago, it was nearly impossible for Westerners to play a localized visual novel. As former Nippon Ichi Software president (and now CEO of Idea Factory International) Haru Akenaga once explained, SCEA wasn’t interested ...

The on-rail shooter genre is a particularly contentious genre. While some take pleasure in the adrenaline rush derived by using potent weaponry to plow through processions of angry foes, others have little patience for linear ...

The old cliché “variety is the spice of life” has been the driving concept behind in a number of noteworthy games. Early coin-ops such as Tron or Gorf were conceived around the notion that an ...

Although Nippon Ichi’s internally developed titles span a wide swath of genres, they habitually abide by one near-universal principal. While seemingly simple on the surface, each game conceals an enormous amount of intricacy. The latest ...

While online gaming forums might be fueled by contention, there’s one premise that almost all players maintain: our games have become dramatically easier over the years. Whereas failure could once be measured by the rapid ...

Pundits who claim that the plotlines of Japanese role-playing games have atrophied into a puddle of tired tropes likely overlooked 2010’s Hyperdimension Neptunia and its two sequels- subtitled Mk2 and Victory. Throughout the imaginative franchise, ...

As the world’s most prolific golf franchise, Electronic Art’s PGA Tour series has gone through a number of noteworthy phases. The franchise’s inaugural entry, 1990’s PGA Tour Golf, strove to simulate the sport by not ...

Periodically, it seems developers enjoy putting players in embarrassing situations. From Feel the Magic: XY/XX’s simulated CPR, which prompted gamers to blow into their DS microphones to No More Heroes’ beam katana recharges that forced ...

Not long ago, the shooter genre teemed with technological innovation. Although Halo 2 didn’t invent the concept of regenerating health (credit can be given to the 1984 JRPG Hydlide or inaugural deathmatch title MIDI Maze/Faceball ...