Few games sparked my imagination when I was a kid as much as The Incredible Machine did. There was something unique, something inherently appealing about that game that I didn’t quite find in any other titles of the genre and, until recently, I couldn’t even say what it was. READ MORE
Last October, Activision released Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, a game that combined video games and collectibles in the form of small figures that unlocked additional playable characters within the game. The frenzy created by the availability of these additional figures led to blockbuster sales, with over 30 million Skylanders figures flying off the shelves by March. As supply slowly met demand, sales naturally slowed, but Activision has something planned to return gamers to that frenzied state: Skylanders Giants.
I do my best to not bring my Magic: the Gathering experience to this space. For one thing, the barrier to entry is so immense that they have actually (eventually) designed an entirely separate (video) game just to introduce new players to how Magic works, the latest in several attempts to make this process easier over the game’s nearly twenty-year history. Then there’s the commitment factor, especially when it comes to acquiring chase rares to make your deck as competitive as it can be.
Even playing casually demands more of an investment (in both time and money) than I feel is appropriate for this column. That said, there is definitely an overlap between collectible card game (CCG) players and social boardgamers, and that overlap is where Fantasy Flight Games and their “Living Card Game” (LCG) model come in. READ MORE
There was once a time when we had an abundance of new open-world action games released every few months. It seemed like we couldn’t escape them. Thankfully, the releases of have slowed significantly in the past year, leaving us with only a select handful every so often. The games we do see released are often unmemorable, with the exception of a few excellent action titles that excel beyond their basic premises. Sleeping Dogs is one of those games, taking the best of the best and adding a little bit of new, exciting flavor to the mix. READ MORE
Nintendo is a company that people love. The company’s games are, whatever issues you may have with them, consistently some of the best, most happiness-inducing games available, and it has found a way to strike a balance that allows it to continue iterating on its classic series without totally running them into the ground. People love Nintendo for this.
At least in North America, though, as much as people love Nintendo, sometimes it’s hard to like the company very much. Why? It’s all a matter of communication.
