Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone Short Review

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By: RJ (@rga_02)

  • Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone
  • Developer - SEGA
  • Publisher - SEGA
  • PlayStation 4 (and your local arcade)

Miku seems to be poised to be the new mascot of SEGA overtaking the likes of Sonic or Sega Sanshiro. I’m kidding of course, but she has had wonderful reception in the Western World as of late. Her games are being localized, appearing on late night talk shows, and she happens to be friends with Scarlett Johansson. It’s only natural for her to get a new game. 

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Dariusburst CS: CAVE DLC Review

by Omar (@siegarettes)

  • DoDonPachi, Deathsmiles, Ketsui add-ons for Dariusburst
  • Developer- Pyramid, Chara-Ani
  • Publisher- Degica
  • Steam, PS4

Not content with simply remixing its parent series, Dariusburst has been consistently expanding and branching out into others with its impressive suite of DLC. While some like the Taito pack already made sense given its heritage, the SEGA and now CAVE were a little more unexpected given the format of their original games. This round of DLC includes appearances from DoDonPachi, Deathsmiles, and Ketsui. While Deathsmiles already followed a similar horizontal format, It’s a bit strange to see DoDonPachi and Ketsui running sideways. Despite that, the DLC adapts the mechanics of those games faithfully.

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Trillion: God of Destruction PC Review

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by: David (@friendshipguy_)

• Trillion: God of Destruction
• Developer - Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Preapp Partners
• Publisher - Idea Factory
• PC/Steam
• Rating - T

Strategy role playing games aren’t my natural forte; I lend my skills to twitchier, action oriented games which Trillion: God of Destruction is most certainly not. My only experience with sRPG’s to date are the Fire Emblem series which I’m not innocent from save scumming, and watching a few friends mill through Final Fantasy Tactics on a whim. Compile Heart takes some bold steps with their title, and throwing in rudimentary visual novel dialogue here and there certainly makes for a compelling mix of genres, but there’s a lot that is left to be desired with Trillion that asked me if I was really being rewarded for my efforts, and if the unique concepts they threw in really made up for it.

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The Games We Played: The Darkest Dungeon

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by Shonté (@JohnnyxH)

For the end of the year, we take a look at the Games We Played, and the effects they had on us. Today we bring in poet, writer and friend of the site Shonté Daniels, whose other work can be found at http://shonte-daniels.com/.

Games are no stranger to the disposable body. Difficulty-driven titles like Super Meat Boy or Darkest Dungeon rely partially on the notion that characters will always die as part of their appeal. Darkest Dungeon plays with this, though, by giving characters agency and emotion. Adventurers feel less like dominos planted to fall, and more like living beings whose physical and mental wellness determine the success of the game.

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THE iDOLM@STER: PLATINUM STARS REVIEW

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By: RJ (@rga_02)

  • THE iDOLM@STER: PLATINUM STARS
  • Developer - Bandai Namco
  • Publisher - Bandai Namco
  • PlayStation 4
  • Rating - CERO B

I’ve owned Platinum Stars since launch but I’ve never gotten to write anything about it. It wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy it – in fact I loved it. If PES 2017 and World of Final Fantasy didn’t come out this year this game would be my GOTY. I loved it so much that I’ve forgotten to write anything about it until I asked to do so.

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The Games We Played: Becoming a Taiko Drum Master

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by Omar (@siegarettes)

Between spending more time in the arcades of Yakuza 5′s Kamurocho, and a general renewed interest in Wii games, I finally returned Namco’s Taiko no Tatsujin series in a big way. Taiko is dead simple, a rhythm game in the strictest sense. There’s one lane, and only two ways to hit a note, inside or outside, red or blue. After all, it’s meant to imitate the performance of Japan’s traditional festival drums of the same name. 

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Small Radios Big Televisions Short Review

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by Omar (@siegarettes)

  • Small Radios Big Televisions
  • Developer- Fire Face Corporation
  • Publisher- Adult Swim Games
  • PS4, PC (Steam)

Small Radios, Big Televisions leans heavily into the contemporary digital aesthetic, taking several popular trends and exaggerating them until they’re blown out. Tilt shift blur gives its structures the presence of a diorama and chromatic abberation blows out its edges into distorted colors. The buildings themselves are stark, with strong edges and geometry that owes a lot to the low-poly movement. The colors are heavy on the saturation, with an emphasis primary colors, flat and artificial. Its exteriors give a sense of being manufactured, purpose built, with little texture other than those of the distortions brought upon by the photographic effects of the post-processing.

The artificiality begins to break down in its interiors, where machinery sits alongside graffiti and painted graphic work. Go a little further, play a little in its corridors, and you’ll find a set of tapes. These are the real interiors of Small Radios. 

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