At New York Comic Con, we took the newest Paper Mario game for a spin, and one thing’s clear: it’s veering away from the RPG roots in which it was conceived. It’s no Super Paper Mario; the game still takes a story and intersperses it with turn-based combat against enemies. But Mario’s all alone this time, and he doesn’t level up. READ MORE
Hotline Miami is not a comfortable game.
This isn’t due to the game’s controls; the WASD-and-mouse setup works about as well as it usually does. No, Hotline Miami causes so much unease because of its dichotomous pacing, contrasting moments of extreme, bloody violence with ones of walking down empty hallways and checking answering machines. READ MORE
The last time we saw much about the lesser Mario Brother and his upcoming sequel was at last year’s E3, when Graham got a little bit of hands-on time with the then-named Luigi’s Mansion 2. A year later, the title has received an official title and is nearly ready for release. I recently had a little bit of hands-on time with the game, and it’s got me considering finally purchasing a 3DS. 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.
You’d think a portable version of a console game as ambitious as LittleBigPlanet would have to make some compromises in the transition. That was certainly the case with the PSP port, as while the game was an admirable effort, it certainly didn’t have the capabilities of its big brother. LittleBigPlanet for the Vita, on the other hand, seems to be equally-capable, if not more so, thanks to developers Tarsier and Double Eleven taking advantage of the hardware’s strengths. READ MORE
