Shooting Stars makes me feel like a 90 year-old who has ventured onto the internet for the first time. The game’s pixelated visuals do a convincing job of mimicking the decline of visual acuity. The ...

While it’s refreshing to see franchise like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm and Warriors variants shirk the confines of consoles, PC ports of high-profile games aren’t a guaranteed slam dunk. Both publishers have struggled to ...

Back in 2006, Nintendo and Tommo teamed up to create Jump Ultimate Stars, a DS-based title which assembled dozens of beloved manga protagonists for a behemoth-sized battle royal. Understandably, obtaining licenses for Naruto, Bleach, Death ...

Not long ago, message boards were proclaiming that the death of the Japanese role-playing game was imminent. Stagnancy seemed to be the genre’s unassailable final boss, and developers had run out of creativity-restoring potions. But ...

Sporadically, role-playing games make fleeting, fourth-wall breaking references to the game industry. But 2010’s Hyperdimension Neptunia was the first franchise to construct an elaborate allegory for our precious pastime, imagining a realm where four goddess ...

Just a few weeks ago, the quality of quantity of new game releases was discouraging. But coinciding with February’s arrival, a number of notable titles are due to hit digital storefronts and store shelves. From ...

Like many situation comedies, Strawberry Vinegar’s tranquil suburban setting offers a context for the peculiar. The tale’s opening moments introduces readers to Sakuraba Rie, an articulate school girl with little interest in maintaining a social ...

As successful game series spawn sequels, the push toward conceptual innovation becomes stronger. But one of the tragedies born of this ambition happens when imprudent mechanics are shoe-horned in to offset stagnation. Too often, these ...

From the Avenger’s assembly for another iteration in the prolific LEGO franchise to Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel’s congregation of otaku favorites, this week’s schedule of new game releases offers a number of notable appearances. ...

Few development teams have a body of work as bold and imaginative as Santiago, Chile-based ACE Team. Formed by a trio of brothers who crafted a Doom II mod, the studio garnered mainstream attention with ...