Oliver Shellding
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WayTooManyGamesLatest Reviews
It’s important to remember that supergroups still work and produce excellence. Not everyone is emphatic about Temple of the Dog or The Highwaymen, but they should be because the result is incredible. Did ya’ll forget that ABBA is a supergroup? The point is, when you bring top talent together in a collaboration, what comes out is, more often than not, absurdly interesting. I’ve already done my due diligence in gushing over Uchikoshi Kotaro this year with the releases of Never 7 and Ever ...
It’s been said, by many people, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To some degree, that can be true: after all, if a product, design or style wasn’t worth copying, then it would be ignored. As KMFDM put it: Let’s stop saying, “Don’t quote me,” because if no one quotes you you probably haven’t said a thing worth saying. But when you seem to lose your own personal mark in the quest to imitate, then you’ve totally lost the thread. For Star Overdrive, an ambitious a...
The irony of Undying exists in its very title and premise. As a whole, the zombie genre has seen its birth, death and rebirth in an almost phoenix-like cycle as media continues to stagger forward. In my lifetime, I’ve bore witness to The Walking Dead, Left 4 Dead, and the madness of One Cut of the Dead. In that same vein, I’ve also watched crafting and survival games plumb the depths of human patience as we get another and another title promising to be something unique, while still asking...
There are movies from the 80s and 90s that are delightful because of how unrepentantly dumb they are. Take, for example, Predator 2. Dissecting the plot will leave you deeply confused, as it insinuates a single Danny Glover is equal to an entire squad of highly trained military officials, but that’s not the point. It’s loud, bombastic, and it’s pure fun from start to finish in terms of sci-fi action and one liners. In the same respect, Blade Chimera, the pixel perfect Metroidvania from ...
When crafting a game, it’s important to be aware of one’s audience. You don’t want to make an easy, approachable Dark Souls game anymore than you want a gritty, realistic Paw Patrol adventure (though the latter would be a remarkable exercise). You not only need to consider the current fanbase, but your potential as well. So I understand that the creators of Mario and Luigi: Brothership needed to consider the Nintendo Switch market as a whole. Given that the last new entry was nearly ten...
Very often, it bothers me when people recommend going into a game blind. The concept is clear: you want to make sure someone experiences a grand, epic revelation without spoilers or another person’s influence. But some people need to at least have a rudimentary idea of what to expect when they set out on any sort of new engagement. If someone told my daughter to go into a Thai restaurant blind, she’d get carted out in an ambulance due to a massive nuts allergy. If I told literally anyone ...
Mario Party is my far and away favorite franchise, to the shock and dismay of my 15 year old self. As much as I adore JRPGs, I’ve had too many games that disappoinetd me. Yet even, the most banal Mario Party title has enthralled me in one way or another. Even mediocre titles like Island Tour gave me some handheld fun with my wife, and Super Mario Party looked wonderful, even if the boards were limited as hell. The last Switch entry, Mario Party Superstars, let Nintendo know that fans liked ...
JRPGs are a genre where I feel the middle ground might as well be the bottom. As much as I love them, you either find games that are exceptional and stick with you forever or ones that simply don’t. The reason that people keep circling back to Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are that they have elements and characters that stick with you throughout eternity. But, when a game doesn’t leave a lasting impression, positive or negative, it just fades from memory. I know, for a fa...
The tanuki is Japan’s perfect hero vessel. You’ve got a mythical beast that’s also a real animal, but given plenty of mythical properties in lore and stories. Shapeshifting is so underrated, and giving that ability to an entire tribe of cunning bastards is the best bad decision I’ve seen since allowing polar bears to drink and wear armor. The tanuki do best as either side characters or anti-heroes, as their cunning and perchance for self-indulgence makes them better assists than mains...