[Originally posted on PopMatters] In 1987, just a year after Nintendo released Super Mario Bros.for the NES, Time Warp Productions developed The Great Giana Sisters, a 2D platformer with more than a passing resemblance to Nintendo’s flagship title. Eventually, Time Warp surrendered to legal pressure from Nintendo and stopped producing units of their game and immediately … Continue reading Review: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
I haven’t disappeared. Really. In fact, I just wrote a piece on Dragon Age for PopMatters (“The New Age: Reflections on the Dragon Age series.” Oct 30 2012). In the article I take a brief retrospective of the first two games in the series. Details of Dragon Age: Inquisition are still pretty sparse so there isn’t … Continue reading Some Notes on Games Journalism
[Originally posted on Medium Difficulty] [This piece was written as a part of Critical Distance‘s January 2013 Blogs of the Round Table feature] Back when Twilight Princess was first released, my girlfriend—who has liberated Hyrule almost as many times as it’s needed it—had only one complaint: it was too easy. The puzzles were well enough designed … Continue reading Challenge is Conflict: How Difficulty Makes Game Narratives Work
[Originally posted on PopMatters] Last month, Bioware officially announced that they will be releasing Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. The mix of life-like feudal politics with high fantasy tropes seems to have created the series that keeps on giving, which Bioware no doubt intends to keep up with. Dragon Age is one of the better narrative experiences in … Continue reading Reflections on Dragon Age
[Originally posted on PopMatters] Marvel vs. Capcom Origins is the re-release of the classic arcade fighters, Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom. Both games come from a time when every corner had an arcade, busy with players taking on challengers for the right to keep playing. But since this is no longer a time when … Continue reading Review: Marvel vs. Capcom Origins
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