Gungnir, the latest in Atlus and Sting’s Dept. Heaven series, is supposed to be bizarre. It is, after all, Episode IX of a series that, while jumping and skipping around rather than releasing sequentially, is supposed to be further and further from normal the higher that episode number gets. It’s five installments crazier than Knights in the Nightmare, a game that put bullet-hell mechanics into a tactical RPG.
As it turns out, though, Gungnir is relatively traditional. It’s a strange choice, but one that results in a game that’s more accessible and still fun. READ MORE
PlayStation Minis, like Xbox Live Indie Games, have been a way for smaller developers to get their games out to the masses at an affordable price. Every so often, you stumble across a game on one of these services that surprises you. Despite its best efforts, Idiot Squad is not one of those games. READ MORE
Occasionally, I see a game and I wonder why it even exists in the first place. Very rarely do I ever get to play the game in question. One of those games would be Hungry Giraffe. While it’s not a terrible game by any stretch, it’s definitely quirky. READ MORE
Otome games aren’t exactly the standard fare we get in the US. (For publisher Aksys Games, it’s probably the craziest localization idea they’ve ever done, and we’re including Fate/Extra.) Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom takes place during the chaotic Meiji restoration era of Japan, where you follow the lives and circumstances of the men of the Shinsengumi, a group of soldiers following the command of the Tokugawa shogunate. Biggest plus of the game? It’s one of the few localized Idea Factory titles that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to play in public. READ MORE
We don’t see many titles these days that truly embrace the values of a good horror game. For all the praise games like Dead Space get, their style of horror is mostly limited to some cheap scares via clever monster placement or gratuitous amounts of gore. Games like Siren and the Fatal Frame series are rarer than they were last generation, and even series that used to play up the horror to some degree have mostly ditched that for a shot at the action genre. Enter Corpse Party, a game that truly embraces the values of a good horror game. Jump scares only make half the game, after all. READ MORE
