Author: Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

[ad_1] One of my great childhood milestones was learning the level-select cheat for Sonic 2. It transformed the game from a left-to-right narrative of mounting industrial peril into an album of killer vibes. No longer would I have to sweat through Chemical Plant Zone before tasting the glories of Casino Night. No longer would…

[ad_1] A serviceable restoration of one of the best and strangest games in Squaresoft’s back catalogue. Chrono Cross is a time travel tale but it often feels more like a ghost story, albeit one rendered in dazzling, oceanic colours that give every pre-rendered backdrop the ambience of a tropical reef. Teenage protagonist Serge…

[ad_1] The Old West has always been weird, hasn’t it? A bloody daydream of plunder and desolation, heroism and nihilism, reincarnated in a thousand motley forms across generations of books, films, folk songs and campfire stories. Videogames have certainly taken it in some peculiar directions. Think of Media.Vision’s Wild Arms series for PS1, where six-shooters…

[ad_1] I was a hearty 40-year-old when I walked into the Museum; a spry 68 when I walked out. No, I am not Dorian Gray. This is Sifu, a China-set martial arts revenge fable from French developer Sloclap, in which every “death” shaves another few years off your life, care of an enchanted pendant. In…

[ad_1] I’ve been fascinated lately by micro-RPGs, and specifically micro-JRPGs. Typically crafted in RPG Maker and published on Itch.io, these clever miniatures run a wide gamut, as I learned from a Twitter chat with sraëka-lillian, creator of the experimental OI series. Some, like GeaSaga from Ka·in Works, are full-scale distillations of classic role-playing narrative structures,…

[ad_1] You might expect the nastiest thing about SWOTS – ugh, what an acronym! Like the slap of a thrown liver – to be the organs themselves. They are indeed pretty grim. See how they spin in your cargo hold, all glisten and pixel; blanched neon veins and ventricles pulsing under your cursor. They look…