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Review – Sin & Punishment
Every once and a while, you may hear me gush about Japanese developer Treasure, creators of such treats as Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga. None of their games crack the loose inventory of my favourite games, but every time I play one, I’m always stricken by the sheer imagination that’s always on display. They’re weird, but not necessarily in a quirky…
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Review – Super Dodgeball
I absolutely love the Kunio-Kun series. Over here, we got about 5 titles on the NES, all confusingly branded differently, whereas over in Japan, they got about a dozen, all confusingly branded differently. The unified artstyle, the cartoonish violence; the Kunio-Kun series is a special series for me for quite a few reasons. Super Dodgeball is also pretty special to…
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Review – Pilotwings
When the Super Nintendo finally landed on Western shores in 1991, it brought with it three games. Super Mario World and F-Zero have gone on to be legends in their own rights, but the third game is a little more obscure. Pilotwings may seem like the less exciting choice when stood up next to a Mario game and a hyper-fast…
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Review – Earthbound Beginnings
It’s tough to be a fan of Earthbound. The series has been almost aggressively neglected by Nintendo, despite having an incredibly dedicated fanbase. Ask any fan how long they’ve been waiting for an official Mother 3 localization, and with eyes that still twinkle with hope, they’ll probably tell you some multitude of years. It’s been, over a decade since Mother…
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Review – Pocky & Rocky With Becky
I’ve been revisiting the Kiki Kaikai series as part of research for another article I wrote. While digging up details on some of the games I know less about, I encountered the fact that the sole Gameboy Advance game in the series, Kiki Kaikai Advance — otherwise localized as the bizarrely named Pocky & Rocky with Becky — was released…
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Review – Pikmin
Nintendo has maintained a reputation as a company that never releases new properties. The common thought is that they only constantly rehash their staples: Zelda, Mario, and some others that variables that change over time. That’s never been very accurate, and it seems to be a little less repeated these recent years, but to demonstrate how long this belief has…
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Review – Demon’s Crest
This is the oddly named third game in the Gargoyle's Quest series. Demon's Crest ditches the more cartoonish aspects of the previous game and goes full horror. Firebrand is also a hot piece of toast, and people don't read this far down in these excerpts, do they? That would be embarrassing.
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Review – Super Castlevania IV
I don’t think I’ve really had the chance to hammer home the point that I absolutely love Castlevania, but don’t worry, those days will most likely arrive. Love bloomed late, however, as I never really played the inaugural game until I was in my twenteens. I did have one experience with the series, and that was back in my childhood.…
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Review – Gargoyle’s Quest II
In the twilight years of the NES, Capcom made what are arguably some of the best action platformers of the time. Using lessons learned from their time designing Mega Man, games like Duck Tales and Yo! Noid were tight games that felt solid and satisfying. Even on their worst days, Capcom typically came along with something at least playable. Gargoyle’s…
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Review – Mega Man X3
I often regard the six original Mega Man games as sort of one single game. They were all basically the same title, with small tweaks and additions made throughout. You get a power-slide in 3, a chargeable buster in 4, and so on and so forth, but otherwise they were essentially interchangeable. This ended when Mega Man X hit the…
