About "Critical Kate" Willaert

Not to be confused with last year’s retail release Cave Story 3D, the new eShop release of Cave Story for the Nintendo 3DS might be the definitive way to play …
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Publisher: Majesco Entertainment / Developer: WayForward / Platform: PSN, XBLA

Back in the NES days, Double Dragon was possibly the most rented game in my household. When the Fighting Force games tried to revive the beat-em-up genre, I thought, “someone needs to make a new Double Dragon.” When Rockstar released the ode to beat-em-ups The Warriors, I thought, “someone needs to make a new Double Dragon.” WayForward’s Double Dragon Neon isn’t quite the game I’d been waiting for, but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own way. Read More

The oddly named New Super Mario Bros. 2 is actually the third installment in the series. What’s more, the game makes no reference to either the Japanese or American versions …
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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment / Developer: Minority / Platform: PS3

“To my mother, brothers, and sister, with whom I survived the monster in my father.” –Vander Caballero

So begins Papo & Yo (roughly “Papa & Me”), immediately followed by a scene where a young boy hides in a closet from his abusive alcoholic father before escaping into a fantasy land. At this point I braced myself for a game that was either going to be an important statement or an uncomfortable mess. Read More

There are only 3 days left to help fund Project Giana on Kickstarter. But who are the Great Giana Sisters, and why should you care?

Before first person shooters became the “default” videogame genre, that title belonged to platformers, thanks in large part to Super Mario Bros. The phenomenal success of Super Mario Bros. led to an endless string of imitators that continues even to this day, to the point where people no longer bat an eye – it’s only considered a rip-off until it becomes so common that it’s considered a genre. A such, the earliest games to jump on the bandwagon tend to have a tougher time of it.

That’s what happened to The Great Giana Sisters, a game that was meant to be the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum’s answer to Super Mario Bros.. Unfortunately, despite introducing unique power-ups and blocks in later levels, the earlier levels and core game borrowed a little too heavily from Super Mario Bros., and Nintendo took legal action. All copies were immediately recalled from store shelves in the UK, and possibly never even made it to shelves in the US. Read More

Publisher: Zen Studios / Developer: Game-Ever / Platform: Nintendo 3DS eShop

I know what you’re thinking. If there’s one game that didn’t need a 3D makeover, it’s Solitaire, right?. But if you want to play Solitaire on the go via your Nintendo 3DS, why not drop $2.99 on the fanciest version available? Read More

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Portal when playing Quantum Conundrum, a first person physics-based puzzler from Portal co-creator Kim Swift. In fact, it almost seems at times as …
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There’s been a lot of discussion lately about rumors that the next Xbox and PlayStation will both have some sort of system in place that keeps them from playing used games. Unsurprisingly, gamers have reacted mostly negatively to the idea of having the new-or-used choice removed from them. But I’d like to play devil’s advocate for a moment, and ask: could gamers potentially benefit from consoles that don’t play used games? Read More

It has been out for quite some time now, and it has taken me about two years to get around to finishing it, but I have finally completed the Xbox …
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One game is the nostalgia-filled Nintendo 3DS outing of an iconic character with a long-running series, that incorporates elements from various installments in the character’s history, and was released …
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