Gaming Reviews

If anything, it should be clear by now that Pokemon Sword and Shield represent some big departures for the series in general. For starters, they’re the first main-series games on a home console. Then we had the whole Pokedex controversy and the fact that a significant number of Pokemon were culled - the first time in the series that has happened. Now, for the first time ever, we have DLC, which seems to be taking the place of the “enhanced edition” we’d typically see release after paired games (à la Pokemon Yellow after Pokemon Red and Blue or Pokemon Platinum after Diamond and Pearl).

Continue Reading

Pokemon Quest is an extreme rarity of a smartphone game. It's a mobile game that doesn't stay in business by getting users addicted to "chasing the dragon." You can actually beat this game. You can beat this game faster if you buy things with in-game purchases, but you absolutely, positively do NOT need to spend real money to play comfortably and have a good time passing your time. This game is fun, simple, and is available right now for Android, iOS (iPhone, iPad), and Nintendo Switch.

Continue Reading

If you've read or watched anything related to Animal Crossing: New Horizons over the past month, you've probably heard people say that it's a remedy for a world in crisis. Indeed, it almost seems like the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was perfectly timed, giving fans a much-needed escape from the uncertainty and tension of day-to-day living during a pandemic.

Continue Reading

At this point, I think it’s safe to say that Pokemon Sword and Shield are the most controversial Pokemon releases we’ve ever seen. Game Freak’s announcement that Sword and Shield wouldn’t feature a full national Pokedex was the straw that broke the camel’s back for a lot of people, and after that, we saw a wave of criticism coming from longtime Pokemon fans online. By the time these games launched, taking a look at fan communities online would have someone who was out of the loop to believe that no one was buying these games.

Continue Reading

When this Google Stadia Review was first posted, the service hadn't yet formally launched. Google sent the Founders Package to a set of sources that got an early look and were invited to review the game streaming system before the official Google Stadia release date of November 19, 2019. As such, we gave the service an early once-over review with what we'd experienced thus far. As the service evolves, we'll be updating this review accordingly - so stay tuned!

Continue Reading

I owned a fair number of games for the Sega Genesis when I was a kid, but two that will forever stick out are The Lion King and Aladdin. Though I played both games for hours on end, I’ve only ever managed to actually beat just one of them: Aladdin. Aladdin was a game that was difficult enough on its own, but it didn’t hold a candle to the sadistic challenge of The Lion King. I have seen the end of The Lion King, but I didn’t get there through determination and skill. No, I had to use a Game Genie to get infinite lives and invincibility or to skip levels. Despite the amount of time I sunk into that game, I never managed to beat it legitimately.

Continue Reading

Though I count The Legend of Zelda as one of my favorite game franchises, I’ve never properly played Link’s Awakening. When I was a kid, my Game Boy served mostly as a vehicle for Pokemon, and though I’d always heard good things about Link’s Awakening, I never actually gave it a decent chance. Luckily for me, Nintendo has remade the game for the Switch, giving me a chance to play it without having to bust out a decades-old handheld. For those who may be in the same boat, is Link’s Awakening a safe buy on the Switch?

Continue Reading

The Switch Lite is something that most of us probably assumed was inevitable. Nintendo loves to iterate on its consoles with new models - handhelds especially - so a hardware revision for the Switch is something that was bound to happen. Now that the Switch Lite is here, is it worth buying in place of the standard Switch? Is it worth trading in your Switch and downsizing to this newest model?

Continue Reading

How on earth are you supposed to review something like World of Warcraft Classic? Not only are MMOs hard to review in the first place given their emphasis on community, but WoW Classic is already a known quantity. We already played this game 15 years ago - or, more specifically, 13 years ago as WoW Classic is based on patch 1.2 for vanilla WoW, which didn’t ship until 2006. Regardless of the specific moment in time WoW Classic captures, many of us have played this before, and we all likely have an opinion on how good this game is.

Continue Reading

The Nintendo Switch isn’t hurting for quality first-party games, and arguably hasn’t been since the day the console was released. In an effort to make sure the Switch doesn’t turn into another Wii U, Nintendo has tapped nearly all of its franchises for Switch titles, and the latest series to arrive on the Switch is Fire Emblem. It’s been a long, long time since there was a proper Fire Emblem game on home consoles, because in recent years, the series has been exclusive to Nintendo’s handhelds. Given the Switch’s hybrid design, putting a Fire Emblem game on it was a no-brainer.

Continue Reading

If there was any reason at all to own a Wii U, Super Mario Maker was it. Super Mario Maker was so unique and so popular that I think if it would have been a launch title, the Wii U may have succeeded despite all that was working against it. Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch, then, was inevitable, and if you’re looking for more of a good thing, you’ll definitely find it here. Unfortunately, it isn’t all sunshine and daisies in the world of Super Mario Maker 2, as the consistent problems with Nintendo Switch Online hold this game back from achieving true greatness.

Continue Reading

Even though Yoshi is one of the best things about the Mario franchise, our green dinosaur friend is often times relegated to the role of sidekick. Every once in a while, though, Yoshi gets to star in a game of his (its?) own, starting with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island way back in the days of the SNES. Since then, a variety of games starring Yoshi have been launched for various Nintendo platforms, most recently with Yoshi's Crafted World on the Nintendo Switch.

Continue Reading