The Shin Megami Tensei series is one of the longest lasting JRPG franchises around, complete with several main games and a slew of popular spin-offs. While these titles have been around since the days of the NES, they never really found their way to North America until the late ’90s and eventually became more recognized with the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Several years (and games) later, Atlus has revived one of the most beloved games in the venerable franchise, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, and brought it to an English speaking audience for the first time.
While Soul Hackers probably won’t attract anyone who isn’t already familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei-style of RPG, it does a fine job of reminding those acquainted with its mature brand of role-playing what makes the series so special to begin with.
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Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger is a tower defense game with something to prove. Reinforce, rather, being a sequel. The idea here is that we have a tower defense game, something traditionally passive in nature, but with a more personal action-oriented twist. Dillon, a cool Django-esque armadillo, must physically manage the battlefield while simultaneously acting as the primary offensive/defensive force. This new angle on an established formula gives the genre a freshness and vitality that it sorely needed. READ MORE
I tend to stay away from topical discussions. I prefer writing pieces about games that are at least a few years old. It gives me adequate time to think about them, and reflect on how the game left an impact on the industry (if at all). Any high emotions experienced can subside, and let me look at the game with more sober eyes.
Recently on the podcast, we’ve been discussing future consoles and digital downloads. It’s a fun topic; many of the Snackbar staff have bought at least one (or 50) games from XBLA, PSN, the Wii Shop, Steam, Origin, you name it. It’s all very futuristic; we all knew that physical copies of games would eventually go away, but that reality was always down the block and out of sight. Now that it has come into view of our front door, we’re not sure what to think. READ MORE
Long study sessions in public libraries seem to entail equally-long tedium after suffering the effects of cerebral overload. Hours of hunching over the old computers of the place soon gained me an acquaintance: a cheerful girl who shyly admitted her inexperience in all things gaming. She told me this with the eyes of a puppy, as if she expected a scolding. In her mind, I was the guy who owned 200 cartridges and spent his time playing evening-long board games of Roman politics and railroad operations, and wrote about them for a foreign website. She thought we had no common ground, that she would disappoint me were we to play together.
Nothing could be further from the truth! You just have to pick the right title. READ MORE
The Atelier series has always had a bit of difficulty making its way across the pond. Starting from humble origins on the Sega Saturn, it never saw an English release until seven years later with Atelier Iris on the PlayStation 2. These days, the series is finally seeing regular localizations. The latest in the series is Atelier Totori Plus, a Vita port of the PS3 original of the same name, with a little extra content thrown in for good measure. Is this new port worth your time, or is it just more of the same? READ MORE
