PixlBit

This is a natural 20 of arcade goodness.

Former arcade rats and fans of old school beat ‘em ups have something special to look forward to in the near future. Capcom is slated to unveil ports of their Dungeons & Dragons arcade games for PSN and XBLA at the upcoming PAX East. The two side scrollers were somewhat of a rarity in arcades, most likely due to the immense popularity of the fighting game genre, leading to arcades doubling down on those types of games at the expense of others. Now, though, players who missed out will finally have a chance to play these lost gems.

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Beloved classic ideas merge together to form: Pure Evil.

I’m a sucker for retro. Give me some faux-8-bit graphics and some simple game mechanics and I’m hooked.  Make the game challenging where I have to force myself to hone reaction times and I’ll put in hours to rack up high scores.  Combine two classic game types into some new great thing and I’m likely to be smitten for months.  Enter Wizorb with its Dragon Warrior RPG aesthetic and Breakout style battles, and I was drooling. That was months ago.  My drool has long since dried, and now so have my tears as I’ve come to accept that Wizorb is just too damn difficult.

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You spin me right 'round baby, right 'round...

If you’ve read my reviews for Guardian Heroes and Golden Axe, it’s pretty clear that I’m a big fan of the classic arcade-style beat ‘em up. Many critics will say that this genre is an irrelevant dinosaur and has no place in modern gaming, but I disagree. While the old “quarter muncher” design philosophy no longer works today I truly believe that the side-scrolling brawler can still be a viable genre with the right updates to the formula. WayForward comes frustratingly close to bringing this genre into the modern age, but doesn’t quite get the job done with Double Dragon: Neon.

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The video game industry's doctors are moving on.

Hot on the heels of the huge announcement for Dragon Age 3: Inquisition came some sobering news that nearly eclipsed that previous story: the founders of Bioware, Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Musyka confirmed that they are leaving the company. This isn’t simply a matter of the doctors making a smooth exit from EA to form a new independent video game label—they are leaving the industry entirely and moving on to new ventures.

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