Oliver Shellding
This author account hasn't been claimed yet. To claim this account, please contact the outlet owner to request access.
Writing For
WayTooManyGames Latest Reviews
Ya’ll, PopCap is dead and they’re not coming back. The maker of beloved puzzle games was absorbed by EA a while ago, and the franchises that we played to avoid doing work back in high school and college now no longer exist. It’s why we have things like Bejeweled Stars and why Bookworm hasn’t been heard from since Obama took office. But the core franchise, Plants vs. Zombies, still gets acclaim and occasional pushes to make it a thing again. Garden Warfare was decent, that weird mobile...
The resurgence of the beat-em-up in the last few years is so damn refreshing for adolescent me. Even though the graphics, techniques and boss difficulties have improved a lot since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, there’s still the core idea of raging on a group of baddies (or one big bad) with people by your side. I think we all applaud the design and power of Shredder’s Revenge for bringing the genre back into the limelight, and Dotemu was at the helm there as they are now...
When I spoke with Baiyon last summer at BitSummit about his upcoming game, Dreams of Another, my takeaway was one of fascination and confusion. While he had explained the concept well – and my hands on with the demo gave me a general idea – the execution of it all seemed abstract, at best. Using guns and grenades to create instead of destroy, to interact with objects and glean their stories just for the sake of hearing, and focusing on your own perspective instead of the game’s narrativ...
When you hear “on rails shooter,” there are a number of great titles that come to mind, putting you back in the shoes of Agent G for House of the Dead 2, or flying through the skies of Panzer Dragoon. It’s a fantastically wide genre that gives a bit for everyone in everything, if that makes sense. I really like shooting things, but it can be cumbersome to need to constantly spin around and see if I’m about to get knifed in the back during Wolfenstein or Blood. Candy Rangers seeks to t...
With the absolute domination of the streaming era, even people in their late 30s have begun to forget what channel surfing was like. Being insomniatic at 1 AM, trying to find something to lull you to sleep. Sure, you can throw on an terrestrial signal and hope for the best with your HD antenna nowadays, but it’s not even remotely the same. The mystery of it all is gone. If you end up seeing people acting wild on public access, it’s because you know what’ll be happening. Even services li...
With the absolute domination of the streaming era, even people in their late 30s have begun to forget what channel surfing was like. Being insomniatic at 1 AM, trying to find something to lull you to sleep. Sure, you can throw on an terrestrial signal and hope for the best with your HD antenna nowadays, but it’s not even remotely the same. The mystery of it all is gone. If you end up seeing people acting wild on public access, it’s because you know what’ll be happening. Even services li...
Reader warning: this amount of content will make your head explode.
It never occurred to me that people would make such a big deal out of a half naked genie, but I also didn’t know that people would end up watching Japanese horse racing more than most sports. People tend to gravitate towards characters and ideas if they give them something to look at that sparks a particularly funny feeling in their brain. For the half-genie character Shantae, her powers and unique storyline are often overlooked because she’s curvy, wears little clothing and…that’s ba...
Very few arcade titles have a place in my heart like House of the Dead 2. While I’ve done my fair share of cabinets, only House of the Dead 2 got me to dump literally twenty dollars worth of quarters into it so I could play, from start to finish, with a friend one faithful summer. It was such dumb fun, and I cherish that memory as only an arcade kid could. That kind of glowing memory is what compelled me to pick up House of the Dead 2: Remake. In spite of a less-than-stellar review of the f...
You can really tell how anime a game is going to be based on the length of the title. While I enjoy simpler things like Limbo or Braid, having something that infuses too many adjectives and verbs into saying a game’s name tickles a special part of my brain. No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES isn’t even a close contender to the longest one I’ve found, but it has some important aspects. One, anyone reading this who hasn’t played the previous titles will mispronounce...