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#oot
Reboot!!
A great tragedy has befallen PixlBit. Through the instability and craziness that is technology, all previous episodes of Push Start to Continue have been lost. This calamity not only affects the denizens of PixlBit, but is considered a great loss to humanity as a whole. We are all a little worse off because of it.
Errbody inna arcade get tipsy!
This is a video game site, and you are a video game fan, but sometimes it’s important to look at games that have no video at all. These games appeal to players for the same reasons we pump thousands of dollars into our hobby and can give us great insight into some fundamentals of the latest modern console releases. Mechanical games are still around, mainly spitting out tickets at Chuck E. Cheese’s, but I want to explore some classics too. Whenever possible I plan to look at some of these games and discuss how they operate, why they’re fun, and if there’s a way to simulate playing them without too much trouble.
Tomb Raided!
Games evolve quickly. Despite a trilogy of quality releases ending only five years ago, Tomb Raider was already starting to get left behind by the genre it helped to create in 1996. Now the industry’s best-known heroine is back and reinventing action-adventure once again.
What will the fans think?
We give Square Enix some friendly tips for keeping the Fantasy alive.
When Jesse Miller, our resident features guru, asked if I would be interested in doing a Final Fantasy retrospective for the series’ 25th anniversary last year my answer was a resounding “yes!” In the months that followed, I poured all of my love and dedication into a five part series detailing the 14 core Final Fantasy games. It was a labor of love for me; no series of games has been more influential or important to me as a gamer. I’m a staunch defender of these games, even when they go into weird territory like iOS time-wasters. That doesn’t mean that I’m blind to the fact that the series isn’t what it once was, however. As excited as I am for the future of Final Fantasy, I think that the fine folks over at Square Enix need to take a good long look at where the series stands. To that end, I have 5 things that I think could help immensely as we move forward into the next generation.
If you didn't have enough stress at your day job…
If you noticed the developer on Aero Porter, your interest may have immediately piqued. Vivarium, which should be synonymous with Yoot Saito, helmed creation of this second entry in Level5’s Guild01 series. Like his previous works, Seaman and Odama, Aero Porter is an odd beast that’s fascinating in concept, but rather painful in execution. Aero Porter is not fun – but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to be. Saito pulls no punches; he’s very up front with the fact that you’re going to be running the baggage sorting at an upstart airport and it’s very much your job. And jobs entail work, which is exactly what Aero Porter feels like.
It's hard to see the line when it's drawn in the shifting sand...
When the creative minds of game designers come up against the practical, business-focused minds of game publishers it can lead to endless frustration. This frustration is shared by the consumers, wanting a unique gaming experience but also needing that experience to be something that they can instantly click with. This frustration is the crux of my feelings for Spec Ops: The Line, a game that pushes narrative into some refreshingly interesting places, but stumbles with game mechanics that smack of publisher homogenization.
The brightest stars burn out first.
Roughly one year ago, German developer Shin’en released the latest entry in the “Nano” series and what turned out to be the first in the Nano Assault series. Nano Assault Neo recycles some of the content from that release, but removes the Star Fox-like levels and shifts all of the focus to the pure twin-stick shooting levels. This new focus proves to be a big success, but the shortened selection of levels (16, down from 32) leaves something to be desired.
