Stefan Feld is having a crazy 2013, with four new titles hitting shelves this year. One of these, Rialto, is an elegant card-driven design for two to five players. Rialto, published in the U.S. by Tasty Minstrel Games, plays out over six rounds, with each round having three phases. The first phase features players selecting a hand of cards from a number of face-up rows of six, then drawing two additional cards from the deck before discarding one. This hand of seven cards will be played out during phase two, which is where most of the action happens. READ MORE
The Mario & Luigi series technically started on the GBA with Superstar Saga, but the argument could be made that the series is the successor to the SNES’s Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The battle systems are similar, the aesthetic is familiar and the Paper Mario series is definitely off doing its own thing. Either way, Dream Team lives up to the legacy laid out by Superstar Saga, Partners in Time and Bowser’s Inside Story before it. READ MORE
I moved recently, which gave me the opportunity to look through my old valuables. I say valuables, but these things are more like “junk that told a story:” an old action figure my uncle gave me, a cheap ring that represents an old relationship or even a scrap of a paper I thought I threw away laying out my plans for a weekend gathering with friends. If you live in a place for long enough, that place will begin to gather more than dust; it will gather memories. The first game from the Fullbright Company, Gone Home, gives you the opportunity to examine the lives of a family by simply letting you explore their home. As a result, it spins a meaningful yarn that pushes the art of storytelling in games forward. READ MORE
Hatsune Miku is not real.
That’s the first thing you really have to get out of the way when introducing people to the world of Miku, but it’s possibly the least relevant. Behind the computer-generated voice and appearance are actual songs by real creators, making Hatsune Miku and her “vocaloid” colleagues much like a Japanese spin on Gorillaz. READ MORE
Divinity: Dragon Commander is a game that flew under the radar for quite a while, but it offers an interesting blend of strategy mechanics, both in and outside of missions. Divinity is an established, long-running RPG franchise, but Dragon Commander is an experimental first foray into strategy. READ MORE
