Game Informer
Over 30 years celebrating the best of games in print and online.
Latest Reviews
In the heyday of the tennis-sim video game genre, Top Spin and Virtua Tennis were the best players in the crowded space. However, in the time since the genre’s boom settled, the offerings have fallen off considerably, with both franchises going more than a decade without a new release. TopSpin...
Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade’s opening minutes are an apt encapsulation of the game ahead. A beautifully rendered but confusing cinematic sets up big sci-fi stakes. A splashy character intro moment focuses on the lead character’s sex appeal. A bombastic action sequence leads into a stylish and visually arresting boss battle. It’s truth...
Sand Land
Sand Land is experiencing an oddly timed resurgence. Its creator, Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), recently passed away unexpectedly, effectively pointing a spotlight on his 24-year-old creation just as it was being adapted to film, anime, and video game. The video game has been my entry point into this world with...
In Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the debut game from Surgent Studios, the use of the word "Tales" is more literal than it initially seems. To kick off the events of the game, protagonist Zuberi reads a book written by his late father about a place called Kenzera. He uses fiction...
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” A small child dressed as legally distinct Sailor Moon chirped this trite little phrase at me about an hour into Rabbit and Bear’s Suikoden successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I’m not sure when I realized the adage applies to Hundred Heroes itself as...
Children of the Sun is hellbent on occupying your mind. During the six hours it took me to hit credits, I was engrossed in mastering its simple, yet wonderfully executed central mechanic. At first, taking down dozens of cultists with just one bullet was a fun gimmick to tinker with....
Once a tentpole franchise in the popular run-and-gun subgenre of action games, Contra has experienced a stark downturn in recent decades. Konami's (mostly) side-scrolling shooter franchise has often gone long stretches without a release, and the games that have come out in recent years range from middling to downright bad....
Sometimes, all it takes to get started on a great game is to come up with a compelling mechanic, and Pepper Grinder is a prime example. The titular grinder is as powerful as it is versatile, able to drill through the ground and power all sorts of wacky devices. The...
MLB The Show’s commitment to nuance, iteration, and diversity is what sets it apart. Since the long-running series arrived on Xbox in 2021, the baseball sim has recontextualized sports games – emphasizing the purpose of communities while fitting in new features like Pinpoint Pitching, custom stadiums, and online ranked co-op....
We’ve played as Peach in plenty of Mario-starring games through the years, but not since 2005’s Super Princess Peach has the artist formerly known as Princess Toadstool been the exclusive protagonist of her own journey. Princess Peach: Showtime is a wholly original adventure with an impressive amount of unique mechanics,...
“In a mad world, only the mad are sane,” a stirring line from Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 samurai epic Ran, urges us to remember that in times of chaos, strange or unconventional ideas may actually be wise. In Rise of the Rōnin, I argue Team Ninja exemplifies that madness with an...
Creating a sequel to a 12-year-old game is never an easy task. Recapturing the magic of the original while implementing modern technology and design strategies can mangle the core values that made the original special. Dragon’s Dogma 2 never loses sight of its roots, and constantly finds big and small...
