Pour one out for the unlucky drummer on Danmaku Unlimited 3’s soundtrack. It’s beastly, machine gun-like musical work, keeping pace with the fraying bullet patterns and explosions of this taut shooter. Danmaku Unlimited 3 fundamentally changes the relationship between villain bullets and hero ship, necessitating a cozying up between the two. Let bullets pass close… Continue reading Danmaku Unlimited 3 (Switch)
Sea of Thieves joins a new genre – the spectator game. It’s one where players experience Sea of Thieves through a bevy of shared .gifs, YouTube videos, Twitch highlights, and social media posts, then spend hours in the game wondering why none of that cool stuff happens to them. Reality says that Sea of Thieves… Continue reading Sea of Thieves (Xbox One)
It’s odd to see so many bullets, explosions, and laser beams treated so leisurely. Sky Force Anniversary pushes along without much energy or interest in the greater events. Sky Force Anniversary doesn’t even carry a storyline. Maybe it’s aliens. Assume it’s aliens. Dawdling pace does fit this SHMUP, a grinding march toward offensive solvency. In… Continue reading Sky Force Anniversary (PS4)
Of course a Kirby adventure allows players to throw shimmering hearts at enemies to make them friends. This is the same series that traveled to softened yarn worlds and set its conflict in squishy clay realms. Kirby is always happy. Hearts make it more so. Star Allies fits into the media rush of stories about… Continue reading Kirby Star Allies (Switch)
It’s as if Hideo Kojima designed another Metal Gear game, but his confused verbosity were replaced by electronically braying tutorials and the enemies were replaced by shimmering, rocky undead. Also, Kojima’s story is taken to an alternate universe, an excuse for the pallid aesthetic, but not enough so to where real world American dollars couldn’t… Continue reading Metal Gear Survive (PS4)
A wonderfully anachronistic samurai-era Japanese shooter with an abundance of saturation and playful cultural jabs. Samurai Aces blends an affection for Japanese mecha with historical lore and cultural quirks, set in the skies at a time when Japan was locked in its feudal era. Wacky flying machines and machine guns in 1500 AD? Sure. The… Continue reading Samurai Aces (Switch)
The cover art – and even the loading screen – of Dynasty Warriors 9 seen above depicts a warrior on horseback, spear held high, leaping from a cliff into an encirclement of enemies. It’s a spectacular image. It also represents what Dynasty Warriors is, a fluent, wild, exotic story of military history, flush with flamboyant… Continue reading Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4)
