Featured content

The Nintendo DS is one of my favorite consoles, if not my favorite console, ever. Very functional, slick design, a nice duration to its battery, ergonomic, plenty of functionalities, buttons that feel good… Just a excellently designed piece of hardware. And very durable, too! Mine fell on the floor a bunch of times and still works wonders! I did have to change the circuit for the trigger buttons, but the rest works magnificently. Aside from being a good console, it has one of the most...

If you ask the average gamer what the first big survival horror game was, there’s usually one of two answers. It's either Resident Evil, or Silent Hill. While both of those are of course valid answers as they are obviously some highly influential and successful horror games, there was something that predates them, something further back that arguably originated the genre that never gets its due; I'm referring, of course, to Atari’s 1982 2600 masterpiece, Haunted House. Gaze upon the spooky...

Fire Emblem is one of the first instances of strategy RPG ever (I think). The first entry originally released in 1987 for the FAMICOM, but the series wouldn’t get a release outside of Japan until the seventh entry on GBA, which would be released in both Europe and North America as simply Fire Emblem (its true name is Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade). Before that, the characters Roy and Marth made an appearance as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but just like with Lucas in Brawl...

Intro Consumer arcade sticks have come in many designs with a variety of functions. From original console manufacturers to third-party companies, arcade sticks have ranged from questionable quality to simply functional builds. Early on, bringing the full arcade experience home was hindered by the lack of the tangible experience that a basic controller could not satisfy. A few companies like Nintendo, ASCII, and Hori were among the early names attempting to bring a proper arcade panel to a...

How Can a Single Letter Mean So Much? D was a strange FMV-based game for PlayStation that didn’t get much attention or very good reviews. D-2 is a spiritual successor to that game with more gameplay and stunning visuals, but it still has its fair share of issues. This is by far one of the strangest games I have ever played, and being my first Dreamcast game, it helped put the system into perspective. You play as a woman named Laura Parton, who is a flight attendant and is on a plane that...

INTRODUCTION In 2002, 2 years after the launch of the legendary PS2, two Disney' employees were talking in an elevator. Until one of these employees comes up with a crazy idea... "What if we combined Disney characters with Final Fantasy characters and made a game about it?". Well... although the idea may seem strange, that's where one of the best JRPG franchises of all time was born... Kingdom Hearts. STORY On an isolated island called Destiny Islands, 3 young people live. These are Sora...

Welcome to the first installment of From The Depths, where I get my figurative tentacles all over something obscure from the far and deep waters of the past (get it? It took me ten seconds to think of this). These will be one-off reviews of specific games I’ve encountered and dragged up that I feel deserve to see the light of day; either because they're forgotten but great, or forgotten because they're terrible. Who knows what's hidden behind the shifting tides of time, ebbing underneath the...

An N-Gaging Experience October 7, 2003, was a day to remember or completely forget, depending on who you were. The original N-Gage model sold for $299 ($462 adjusted for inflation) and was a graphical powerhouse on par with the original PlayStation. While the seven original launch titles were all ports from GBA and PlayStation, they ran from very well to questionable, and the system showed a lot of promise. I remember seeing the N-Gage in GameStop as a broke 13-year-old, wishing I could get...

To Resident Evil, Or Not to Resident Evil Resident Evil significantly established the benchmark for survival horror games and 3D gaming in general. Games were still trying to figure everything out. Camera angles, movement, pacing, and combat. It was up to these developers to pioneer 3D games for the next 20 years. Parasite Eve may have been a short-lived franchise, but it made a lot of advancements in the 3D action/survival horror genre that Resident Evil was quickly trying to dominate...

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (also known as Thracia, Fire Emblem 5 or simply FE 5) is probably the most challenging title in the series, because of its map design and inherent mechanics, despite the fact that enemy units are actually the weakest in the series. It’s also the most evil of the bunch, but also the apex of strategy in the franchise. Due to this, knowing who your best units are is crucial, as they help alleviate the load that this game provides on the player. In comparison to the...

When digital cameras broke out in the 1990s, that was thought to be the last evolution for photography; finally, you didn’t need film, you could store your photos on the camera itself and even transfer and print them from a computer! While a generally antiquated idea by today’s standards, digital cameras were nonetheless a huge deal for the consuming public, and it wouldn’t take long for game companies to notice. Released in 1998 as a tie-in with the printer accessory, the Game Boy Camera...

Saroasis Studios recently announced Fate Trigger: The Novita, an anime hero-based tactical shooter set for release in 2025. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, this free-to-play game will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and mobile devices. The game’s setting is a visually stunning world of floating islands, where players, known as “The Awakeners,” engage in intense battles with a variety of physics-based weapons and specialized skills. In Fate Trigger: The Novita, players must...

Released in 1999 by Square Enix (then Squaresoft), Threads of Fate is a unique action RPG for the PlayStation that stands out as a hidden gem from the golden era of JRPGs. While overshadowed by more popular titles like Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross, Threads of Fate offers a distinct and memorable experience, primarily due to its dual-protagonist storytelling and charming world. The game centers around two protagonists, Rue and Mint, each with their own narrative and motivations. Rue is on...