A beginner’s guide to Dr. Mario
Hey, there’s a new Dr. Mario game! But perhaps you’d be more interested in checking out the classic gameplay than its mobile spinoff? Here are the Dr. Mario games to play.
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Author: Graham Russell
Sega Saturn imports guide: the best Japan-only games to play
Fans of Japanese import games know the Sega Saturn to be a rich platform for colorful experiences that never made it to the West. But where should you start? Here are the most promising releases for the system for those just getting into the scene.
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The Westerner’s guide to getting into Sakura Wars
The Sakura Wars franchise is making its way to the West once again next year after a less-than-successful attempt nearly a decade ago, and it’s a great time to get caught up on it to be ready for the new release. Unfortunately, Sakura Wars doesn’t make it easy on you if you don’t know Japanese. Here’s our guide for, well, doing the best you can!
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Review: Judgment makes a case for your free time
While there are many forms of critique, for many, the purpose of a game review is essentially binary: should you play the game? It’s something you have to decide for yourself, after absorbing all the information you can to make your decision the most accurate and fair one. So in a way, what you read should be presenting the best case for each outcome, letting you make the final…
Yeah. Judgment. You knew where I was going with this. Let’s get to it.
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Every starter Pokémon ever, ranked (by how much we want to hug them)
The Pokémon series has given us lots of great choices for starters over the years, and it’s a long-debated topic about which is the best. We’re here to sort that out once and for all. Here’s a definitive ranking of the series’ introductory creatures!
Oh, and our criteria were entirely based around how much we’d enjoy hugging ’em.
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Preview: Judgment, the Yakuza team’s latest, works to build a Kamurocho shared universe
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the team behind the franchise known in the West as Yakuza, attempted to walk a fine line when building Judgment. It’s an entirely new type of game, except for when it’s not. It’s got a brand-new cast of characters, except for when it has some existing characters. It’s meant to be a fresh start for the team, but it’s set in freaking Kamurocho, the place players know like the back of their hands. So it makes more sense to think of it not as a new series on its own, but instead part of a constantly collaborating shared-universe project.
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Game Boy Advance imports guide: the best games to play
Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance is a friendly, capable handheld with a wealth of great games that just didn’t make it to America. Its combination of power and relative simplicity means that there are some interesting experiences you can have and they’re not as text-heavy as more modern platforms’ offerings. Here are the best of the best!
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Review: Slash, spend, get a head in Lapis X Labyrinth
The latest release from the team behind the Disgaea series, Lapis X Labyrinth is a different sort of game for the studio, but one coated with similar trappings and aesthetics. It’s an action game in which you’ll make timed runs through areas to get loot and defeat enemies, but you’re still managing equipment with effects and maneuvering around a hub world taking the place of a more efficient (but perhaps less evocative) menu system. It’s got meters for special moves, reward-multiplying “fever time” and direction-based attack inputs, but you’re ultimately still equipping a small team of customized units and bringing them to a place to slash at gems and take out specifically-marked bosses.
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The unusual fun of Japanese golf games
For most fans of Japanese releases, there are two words as reviled as any others: “sports game.” They’re likely to make the most open-minded player tune out at a moment’s notice, simply because of how they don’t generally line up with their basic sensibilities.
That’s not true about all sports, though. There’s one sport that Japan gets very, very right: golf.
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