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When Nintendo does HD, my god do they do it right.
If you’ve played any recent edition of Mario Kart, you pretty much know what to expect from Mario Kart 8. Nintendo has added a few new wrinkles to give the racing more depth and, of course, a set of 16 new tracks (and 16 remastered ones), but the vast majority of the experience has carried over from Mario Kart 7. There’s no question that Nintendo is justified in not fixing what ain’t broke, but it would’ve been nice to see them not only polish the gameplay and graphics to a sheen, but shake-up the single player formula, offering a product that’s a bit more robust than its 3DS counterpart.
Super reductive description of this game: bros, babes, Bermuda shorts.
It's time for another three parter here at Backloggers Anonymous! Angelo is joined by Jaime and Julian to talk about a pretty big game that two thirds of the cast have never played: Final Fantasy X. Now, after a three hour FF episode of Nerds Without Pants you might think that Julian doesn't have much more to say about fantasies that are final, but you would be wrong. Seriously, we can't get this guy to shut up!
Nearly a hole in one.
After Mario Tennis Open, I was a bit weary of the next Mario sports game to hit the 3DS. It looked the part, but it didn’t have the same heart and soul of past entries in the series. Thankfully, Mario Golf: World Tour has restored my faith in the series as it carries that undeniable charm and addictiveness that makes the Mario sports games so enjoyable. However, it’s not without its share of ugly blemishes, namely a thin single player mode that feels like it was chopped in half for the sake of DLC – something I never would’ve expected from Nintendo.
It’s a curse to play such horrible garbage.
Imagine for a moment that you’re the world’s perfect predator, and you have an open and sprawling city that is now your playground after being at rest in the shadows for hundreds of years. You’re sneaking up on your prey, salivating at the heartbeat that is about to feed you when you suddenly step on a twig. The echo of this twig somehow alerts every known enemy of yours, and you’re suddenly flanked and flayed mercilessly without ever being given the chance to fight back. This is Lords of Shadow 2: everything sounds great in theory, yet nothing works the way it’s intended to do so.
Babysitting with Yoshis – 2014 edition.
I’m the type of guy that doesn’t think its fair to compare one game to another, but in the case of Yoshi’s New Island, an exception has to be made. It’s the second follow-up to the SNES classic, Yoshi’s Island, and Yoshi’s Island is a very tough game to top. On the positive side, Yoshi's New Island does a lot of things better than the previous entry in the series, Yoshi’s Island DS, like getting rid of the annoying baby-switching mechanic and doling out some clever levels. On the other hand, it adds some new, underutilized mechanics, disappointing boss battles, and turns a definitive ability into a shallow gyroscope mini-game.
We wouldn’t be here without all of you.
We throw around the word “community” in the video games arena without a second thought. Even small enthusiast sites have community managers and a myriad of other ways to strengthen and connect people who are passionate about games. If it weren’t for several key creatives that helped form the gaming landscape through the decades, though, we might not have the communities we all take for granted. Dungeons & Dreamers’ updated second edition guides us on a journey that shows how communities became so important to gaming. It’s an intriguing thesis that is hammered home with a continuous chain of examples that make it undeniable how integral community has always been to video games.
Hold the Jason.
Chris Iozzi here, while Jason was at work I snuck into PBJ Headquarters and did a little podcast of my own! Don't tell him, he's kinda funny about people touching his stuff.
Follow me into the green pipe.
Another year, another Skylanders game.
Three years later and the Skylanders craze is still in full swing. From kids to adults, it seems that everyone loves collecting and playing with these colorful characters. The latest iteration of the series brings a new wrinkle to the toys as well as to the game, but neither truly changes the tried-and-true formula. Platforming mechanics add a bit more depth to the traversal and combat mechanics, while the swap ability makes it a bit more fun to play with the physical toys by mixing and matching tops and bottoms. There’s no doubt that the whole kit is quite nifty, but as a game, Skylanders Swap Force still leaves something to be desired.
