After your plane crashes, you find yourself in a lost world full of magic and monsters. People from the outside world like you are called “Strangers” and are generally stronger than the regular inhabitants of Sword City.  So it’s up to you to form a party to defeat monsters and gather crystals to gain power and save the day…somehow.  Stranger of Sword City is a PS Vita RPG dungeon crawler that’s very similar to classics like Wizardry.

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Tags: Game Reviews

In the distant future after the apocalypse, a new energy source emerges and cities are constructed around these spots so people can mine there and eke out a living. But these new energy sources also have attracted giant creatures who attack the cities (think Pacific Rim).  In the game Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault, you are a commander of a city and must build it up so it can withstand the onslaught of monster attacks.  Kind of like a cross between SimCity and a tower defense game.  It’s available for Sony’s current game consoles, but reviewed on PS3 here.

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Tags: Game Reviews

Picross is a picture logic puzzle game where you use number clues on rows and columns of a grid to fill in squares to make a picture. And now you can play this brain teaser favorite as a downloadable game on your Wii U with PixlCross.

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Tags: Game Reviews

I’m not too big on first person shooter games. There’s nothing wrong with them, but I’m not very good at them.  Plus, most FPS games are about war and darker themes that I’m not too terribly interested in.  I have dabbled in a few early FPS games that were a bit more whimsical, like Chex Quest or Faceball 2000, but those are few and far between.  So when Lovely Planet, a downloadable game for Wii U, Xbox One, and PC came along (Wii U version reviewed here), I was intrigued.  Here was a FPS game with visuals that looked like Katamari Damacy meets Doom.  Or “Katamari Doom-acy,” as I called it (I’m so clever).  So will Lovely Planet get me into FPS games?  Read on to find out!

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Tags: Game Reviews

For a limited time, Sonic Drive In restaurants now have toys based on Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam in their kids meals. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is a 3DS RPG featuring a crossover between the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series, and it was released earlier this year.  Click here for more details on the toys featured in this promotion.

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Tags: Misc

Super Arc Light is a simple, downloadable arcade style shooter for iOS devices and Google Play (reviewed on iPad here). It’s similar to classic 80’s shooters like Gyruss or Tempest, where you zap enemies in a circular fashion.  But what makes Super Arc Light unique is that you only need to tap the screen to control all functions of your ship!

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Tags: Game Reviews

Ever since I got the original Shantae title on Game Boy Color (still have my boxed copy), I’ve been a huge fan of the Shantae series. In the game, you play as Shantae, a half-genie half-human girl who can attack with her hair and dance to transform into animals to help her get around, like a wall-climbing monkey or an elephant that can bash rocks.  You explore various 2-D platforming locations, similar to classics like Castlevania or Metroid.  Years later, the folks at WayForward made a downloadable sequel on DSiWare.  And now you can play an improved version on the Wii U, PS4, and PC (Wii U version reviewed here).

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Tags: Game Reviews

Hey folks. Got another batch of amiibo figures that I thought I’d share with you.  This time it’s three amiibo figures whose names start with the letter R, and three new Animal Crossing amiibo figures.  Let’s check them out!

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Tags: Misc

Yo-Kai Watch is a super-popular 3DS video game and cartoon about a boy who meets and befriends spirits and mythical monsters called “Yokai,” and calls upon them with a special Yo-Kai Watch on his wrist when he needs their help to solve problems. The franchise has been a huge hit in Japan where it originated, and last fall the first 3DS video game was released in the US and the cartoon started airing on Disney XD.  And now there is a brand new Yo-Kai Watch game you can play, too!  This one’s called Yo-Kai Watch: Wibble Wobble, and it’s available to download for free on iOS and Android devices (reviewed on iPad here).  It’s an action-puzzle game with RPG gameplay elements and characters straight from the original 3DS entry and cartoon!

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Tags: Game Reviews, Television

Nintendo and Namco have worked together a lot in the past. Namco’s good at making arcade baseball games, so Nintendo had them do some Mario baseball titles.  Namco’s Taiko drum music games were a hit in Japan, so Nintendo had them do Donkey Konga.  And Namco also is known for racing and fighting games, so they helped Nintendo with the arcade Mario Karts and recent Smash Bros. games.  So when Nintendo wanted to make a Pokémon fighting game, Namco was up to the task again, since they are known for fighters like Tekken.  In fact, that’s why the Pokémon fighter is called Pokken, as a combination of Pokémon and Tekken.  So I thought in this blog we’d take a quick look at the game and check out which Pokémon you can play as!

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Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television