A beginner’s guide to Puyo Puyo
Is Puyo Puyo eSports the best starting point for digging into the venerable puzzle series? If not, where should you start? We’re here to help with a new player’s guide to the Puyo Puyo franchise as a whole.
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Author: Graham Russell
Video: Tetris Kiwamemichi’s existence is its own tale
It’s Tetris! You’ve played Tetris. So why do you need this one? Well… maybe you don’t, but it’s worth looking at Tetris Kiwamemichi as a historical curiosity that says a lot about the quirks of its time and place.
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A definitive guide to the Picross timeline
It’s always a great time to jump into the Picross puzzle game series! But what about the lore? It’s true, the deep, complex narrative of the Picross games can be a bit difficult to sort out, so we’re here to help with this guide to the timeline of Jupiter’s long-running franchise.
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Review: Disgaea 1 Complete is back to the old grind
A breakout hit that turned into a long-running franchise, the first Disgaea game still holds a certain charm for those who discovered it. Nippon Ichi Software knows it, too: it’s re-released it on tons of platforms and even developed the peculiar Disgaea D2 that was built explicitly as a response to the fandom surrounding the original. Now, that’s led to Disgaea 1 Complete, a release that remasters the visuals of the original while painstakingly retaining the systems and limitations of the debut.
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Valkyria Chronicles 4 unit guide: how to build the best squad
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is out now in the West, and it’s your time to jump in and build the best Squad E that you can! Here’s a beginner’s guide on assembling an optimal crew. You’ll definitely find your own strategies as you play, but this should be a good starting point!
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Video: Calcolo! is a puzzling import shoot-’em-up
Most games make you choose between shooting ’em up or matching ’em together, but not Calcolo! This obscure import tries to do both at once, and… it actually works, for the most part! Check out our video for a quick overview.
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Video: Dropping blocks and breaking hearts in Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle Dama
The enormous popularity of Puyo Puyo in Japan caused many, many competitors to try their hand at creating a falling-block puzzle franchise, and there weren’t many to find as much success in gameplay and domestic longevity as Taisen Puzzle Dama, Konami’s attempt in the genre. Let’s take a look at a signature entry — one tied to another Konami franchise that found a lot of fans in its home country!
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Review: Valkyria Chronicles 4 refines the art of war
After two PSP sequels and middling success in the West, there was a long period of quiet for Valkyria Chronicles. Revered by those who played it, it was set to fade away like so many franchises before it. Thankfully, it found a larger audience on PC and PS4, and this unlikely fourth game became reality.
There’s a lot of pressure on a project that comes about like this, and the first Valkyria Chronicles casts a long shadow. Thankfully, Valkyria Chronicles 4 more than lives up to the legacy.
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Review: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy’s “fetishism explosion” is full of polarizing choices
The appeal of a fighting game can be all sorts of things. It can be about mechanical complexity, gorgeous animation, intense matches, speed or big combos, as well as any number of other aspects of the game. The importance of the appeal, though, is that the rest of the game builds around it, and that it’s indelibly defined by this one particular selling point. The game is its appeal.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy certainly isn’t an exception, but its chosen appeal is… something.
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