• Enter to Win a Nintendo Switch

    NIS America is doing a big contest, called the The Great Disgaea Switch-Stakes. Seven (7) lucky people will win a Nintendo Switch bundled with Disgaea 5 Complete. Here’s what they have to say. With this amazing bundle, gamers will be able to enjoy the latest game in the legendary strategy RPG series, Disgaea 5 Complete, at home or on the go when it launches for the Nintendo Switch on May 23 in North America. The sweepstakes runs for three weeks from 10:00 AM PST, April 18 to 11:59 PM PST, May 9. The sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States and Canada. Some restrictions apply, void where prohibited. For…

  • Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

    I wanted to talk about this game the minute I started playing it, but I knew a lot of people had just gotten into the first game to play them in order. Since it’s nearly impossible to talk about this game without discussing the ending of the first, I decided to wait a long time before I gave my final verdict. I originally wanted to do this in two parts. The first part was going to be how I felt about the game during the beginning chapters where Rean is searching for his classmates. The second was going to be how I felt about the game after pushing through to…

  • Atelier Shallie Plus

    Atelier Shallie Plus is a handheld version of Atlelier Shallie with all of the DLC packed in, much like all the previous “Plus” versions of the Atelier games have done. I have not played the console version of Shallie or any other Atelier games, so my review is based entirely on the Vita version. Let me start with some less flavorful notes. The frame rate is appalling most of the time. While not entirely gamebreaking, there are a few moments when the game seems to really chug along. The characters are all highly detailed and look great. Even the backgrounds are pretty nice considering other games on the Vita in…

  • Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~

    I wasn’t a fan of the original DS in the least. I felt that the second screen would rarely be utilized and only serve as lost potential and extra battery drain. Turns out I was only mostly right. One group of developers got it right on two different occasions. The first was Trace Memory and the second, Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Both of these games were a delight to play and really tried to capture the heart of what the DS was about. I remember a puzzle in Trace Memories where your character picked up a rubber stamp pad and you had to close the DS’s lid to press the…

  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

    As a fan of the SMT games and a die-hard fan of their spin-off Persona games, I wanted to like SMTIV:Apocalypse, but I just can’t get into it. I played a bit of the first SMTIV and really didn’t care for it. This game is more of the same, but with less likable characters. I love the post-apocalyptic setting and the imagery, however the NPCs that you share living space with are completely devoid of character other than their names/descriptions like as “irrational woman” or “grizzly man”. No joke, these are the game’s style of naming unimportant NPCs. I guess it gives the idea that there are more people living…

  • Now Playing 9/18/2016

    Between going back to work as a bus driver and the rather large number of games I’ve received to review, I’ve been pretty swamped. Were it just simple games, this wouldn’t be too difficult of a task to bear, but I’ve been handed quite a few, very long RPGs, including Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Trails of Cold Steel II, God Eater 2, and Attack on Titan. I have all of these great RPGs to play, but I just want to play Monster Hunter Generations with my friends. Still, I have been making my way through these games. I’d really like to know who decides when to release games like…

  • King of Fighters 14

    When the first trailer for KOF14 was released, there was a strong reaction in the gaming community as most people said it looked like a Playstation 2 game. SNK assured fans that it was still early on and that it would be much better looking in the final build. Trailer after trailer, the ugliness gradually faded, but it still isn’t the most gorgeous game. By switching to polygonal models, SNK left behind the absolutely gorgeous 2D graphics of the previous game. Many fans, myself included, were not expecting much from this game. We’ve seen what happened that last time they attempted to use polygonal models. KoF Maximum Impact, and it’s…

  • Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

    Originally released on the PS2 half a year after the PS3 came out, Odin Sphere launched with much fanfare. It’s music, art direction, and gameplay was just what everyone needed at the time. 2D beat-em-ups had all but gone the way of the dodo, but Vanillaware showed us that we needed them in our lives. With all of it’s beautiful environments and colorful characters, the game was a success with the niche market, and even got some positive mainstream press. Much of that praise came from lead designer George Kamitani’s animation decisions. I’ve always enjoyed his art style as well as his animation techniques. Using multi-sprite bosses where each body…

  • Mighty No. 9

    After numerous delays, and 3 years of development, Mighty No. 9 has finally released to the public. As you may know, I was extremely excited for this game, and even backed it. It’s been a long time since a new Mega Man game was released, and that’s why the Kickstarter fared so well. Perhaps this very reason is why I enjoyed Mighty No. 9 so much. Truth be told, MN9 hasn’t done so well in reviews. I’d like to talk about why that might be. MN9 is not a bad game, but it is a budget game. One with a very high budget for a an “indy” title. I think…

  • Monster Hunter Generations

    Anyone who knows me probably knows how much I adore Monster Hunter. I’ve played well over three thousand hours between the different games. I skipped Monster Hunter Tri and only played a little bit of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. I was not fan of the decision to bring the games exclusively to Nintendo platforms, but eventually I accepted it and bought in. I doubled down with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate by buying the *New* 3DS XL and I haven’t regretted doing so one bit. The right analog nipple is a godsend for these games. Here we are just over a year after that game and Capcom has graced us with…