10. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
The 32-bit era has long since passed, so it’s not every day that we are blessed with a big-budget, high-profile JRPG. These days, even longstanding titans of the genre are relegated to portable releases almost exclusively. Clocking in at over 50 hours of gameplay, offering a stunning art direction thanks to the masterminds at Studio Ghibli and supported by the strong foundation of Level-5’s role-playing expertise, Ni no Kuni satisfied a desire that fans of the genre have been craving for a long while. READ MORE
2012’s Dust: An Elysian Tail was a downloadable gem, and a labor of love for its creator, Dean Dodrill. We talked to him about his experiences making the game, thoughts on game design and what he’s working on now.
Snackbar Games: Everyone starts off somewhere. Which games influenced you the most when you first started playing? You have mentioned that Ys Book I & II for the TurboGrafx-CD in particular is your favorite game of all time. What drew you to it?
Dean Dodrill: I’ve been gaming for a long time, ever since we got our first standalone Pong machine. My earliest gaming experiences were on the TI-99 4a computer, but it wasn’t until the NES came along when a video game ignited my sense of wonder. I still remember watching a friend play Super Mario Bros. for the first time, and being blown away by the fact that you could climb into the clouds. READ MORE
Digital distribution has opened up a far wider spectrum of games to be commercially released. In generations past, we could only ever see big-budget retail releases and freeware PC games on the other end of the spectrum, with little to fill the gap (other than, arguably, portable games). Jett Rocket II is a game that simply would not survive in a modern market under the old business model. It is a game with a very specific set of goals, meant to appeal to its own niche and do so with a reasonable price tag. Was developer Shin’en able to create a quality budget platformer for the still-burgeoning eShop? READ MORE
Even the biggest name in gaming let its whimsy get the best of it, and how it managed to release one of the most confounding pieces of gaming hardware ever conceived is a bit difficult to untangle. But to understand how the Virtual Boy was ever released, you first have to understand the economic, political, and social factors of the turbulent mid-1990s that culminated in its release. READ MORE
There is far more that can be done with video games than simply challenging reflexes. One of the best examples of this realm of possibility is Capcom’s Ace Attorney, a series that, now going into its third generation on Nintendo handhelds, brings with it a legacy of brain-bending mysteries and colorful characters. By offering something so different from the standard fare, Ace Attorney has been able to carve out a viable niche and ensure its place as a landmark of the adventure genre. READ MORE
