Exactly two things got me through the darkest days of the pandemic. One was my family, and a careful consideration of hygiene and risks in equal measure. The other (without exaggeration) were the Jackbox Party Pack games. Related reading: Many years ago we reviewed the very first Party Pack. Our…
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There is nothing like Hello Kitty to up your happiness factor on a gloomy day, and there’s certainly been a lot of those lately. Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is what it sounds like: Hello Kitty and her friends dance to music in a super fun parade. The Nintendo…
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I don’t believe that games “age,” as new things come along to replace them. It’s a silly thing to suggest of an artwork. Is the Mona Lisa no longer relevant because people have Wacom tablets? Of course not. Is Shakespeare “dated” because Disney’s Marvel films are made on a bigger…
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It wasn’t so long ago that THQ Nordic dipped deep into its back catalogue of vintage PC games to release Risen on the Nintendo Switch. That Western RPG “classic” remained a fun time for its Caribbean-fantasy-with-pirates theme, despite being almost unplayable in places. Now it’s Gothic’s turn, and you’ve got…
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It’s hard to shake the feeling that with Super Bomberman R 2, Konami has finally got its groove back with its iconic mascot. This series is going to have a major audience again. And I’m not just saying that because just today I bought a pile of merchandise from a…
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It’s time for another Nintendo Direct! While it’s still September 14 in most of the world, it is now the 15th in Australia so that’s the date I’m sticking with. This article is based on the European 40-minute Direct, so there may be slight differences between it and other territories.…
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Samba de Amigo is a game of pure joy and high-octane energy (with some acid surely thrown in when it was being developed). It comes across as an even more explosive explosion of colour and humour than Bandai Namco’s excellent Taiko the Drum series. In the party context that this…
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Reality is increasingly uncertain, and this is fascinating. Anonymous;Code, the latest in the series that has brought us Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, is a play on this idea, and it, too, is fascinating. Quite possibly the most fascinating of all this series of visual novels, precisely because it is so…
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Back in June, Nintendo announced Super Mario Bros. Wonder through a Nintendo Direct. Today, Nintendo posted a 15-minute presentation solely for the game featuring new gameplay, new power-ups, and transformative Wonder effects from the upcoming Nintendo Switch game. It also announced a new Mario-themed OLED Nintendo Switch model.…
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There is something fascinating about how frequently the classic JPRG genre has become something that independent game developers have decided to pastiche. It’s more than perhaps any other genre. Yes, there are plenty of modern games that channel retro shooters like Doom, and many independent developers are inspired by Mario.…
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