The Advance Wars series is one that I remember fondly for introducing me to the world of strategy games. When Nintendo first iced the franchise, I was deeply disappointed. But the more I thought about it over the years, the more I was okay with letting it go.
I think the fundamental reason why its sibling franchise Fire Emblem took off but Advance Wars didn’t was that the former was built around characters with names, faces, and a progression from beginning-to-end (assuming they didn’t die). The latter used nameless soldiers and disposable units. After a few iterations, Nintendo hit a wall with what they could do in digital version of Chess, ultimately pushing forward with a gritty tonal shift that failed to appease existing or new players while adding little to the tired tactics that had worn out its welcome.
With time and advents of game design on its side, the creators of Wargroove leveraged the modern design trope of hero units as a means of adding personality and emotional weight to the moment-to-moment tactics without going full-RPG. It may not seem like much, but it makes a tangible difference towards my enjoyment of the game.
With the shocking news of Samus not coming back anytime soon, now’s a great time restart the Metroid Prime series from the top! Join me for this spirited live stream where we play through the opening sequence of Metroid Prime twice for hilarious reasons, along with a great discussion with viewers throughout!
Once upon a time, dual analog controls for first-person shooters wasn’t a thing. Even in an era where we had dual-analog controllers, it would take a number of years before developers would come up with that scheme and make it the standard. Going back recently to play Metroid Prime on the GameCube, its lack of dual-analog control has proven to be really jarring.
Gris was a game that was not on my radar. Due to my past negative experiences with games cut from a similar cloth such as Journey, I wasn’t planning on picking up Gris. However, the game received some strong buzz close to home. Kris and Rachel from Double Jump loved it, with Rachel going so far as naming it her game of the year. As a nod to my friends while also taking the opportunity to expand my horizons, I found myself falling into the world of Gris.
Shovel Knight breaks out of his 8-bit world to star in the anime crossover fighting game Blade Strangers! Watch him fight his way up the arcade mode ladder! Full review coming soon!
This is it! Does Madeline have what it takes to finally reach the peak of Mount Celeste? And what will she do if she gets there?! One more time in the world of Celeste let’s go!
Admittedly, I haven’t followed the Power Rangers since their original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers run in the early 90s. Having said that, I know the franchise continues to thrive with new stories being told in that universe all the time on TV, in comic books, and even in the theatres. As far as games go, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars has been a popular mobile fighting game for some time.
Now the Power Rangers are jumping back onto home platforms, and hopefully leaving the most broken fighting game character of all-time behind. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a 3v3 tag fighter that stars a whole bunch of rangers from different generations. I have my concerns, but I also have hopes that this won’t be terrible.
I like the idea of this being a tag fighter. The Power Rangers fight as a team, so of course they would team up. This looks to borrow the basic framework established by the Marvel vs. Capcom series, where you control one “point” character, while the others can be called upon to perform assist moves.
From the little we’ve seen in the trailer, it looks like the game is going to make good use of this mechanic. In this one GIF above, the classic red ranger does a move that allows him to dash behind his opponent, while his yellow ranger assist continues to hit him from the front. Classic tag fighter tactics right there.
However, the animation of the game gives me pause. Movements look stiff in a way that is jarring to my eye. Combine that with the game’s overall pedestrian presentation, and I’m a bit concerned with how the game is shaping up.
POWER RANGERS FIGHTING GAME!!!!
Here is a fun fact about this game
I am currently helping balance the game and making sure this game is AWESOME! Please tell me how awesome my balancing skills are when you try this game out
At the very least, I’m glad to see the developers taking this game at least somewhat seriously. Fighting game legend Justin Wong has announced that he’s involved in the project in a consultant role. Not sure what his abilities are as a fighting game designer, but he’s phenomenal at playing them, even if he did lose to me once (and no, I will never let him live that down). Hoping his expertise helps take the project to the next level while possibly opening up more career opportunities for him!
We won’t have to wait too long to see how Power Rangers: Battle of the Grid turns out. The game is set for release this spring. Fingers crossed that it shapes up to be a quality fighter!
Years after the Toys-to-Life bubble burst, Ubisoft took the bold step into the deserted space with Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Unlike Skylanders or Amiibo figures, Starlink takes a modular approach with its toys. As such, you can customize your loadouts by strapping a unique pilot, ship, and weapons to your controller before entering warp speed. It doesn’t hurt that the Nintendo Switch version gets access to console-exclusive Star Fox content, including a sweet-looking Arwing toy. Is the game worth the trouble of slapping all of this extra plastic onto your Joy-Con controllers?
After a lovely fireside chat with Theo, Madeline directly confronts Part of Me. Is she making the right choice by attempting to divorce herself from her other half? Join me for the penultimate level in Celeste!
Originally released in 2003, the self-titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube does not have the pristine legacy of Turtles in Time. To its credit, it also doesn’t carry the infamy of their NES debut. Though I don’t know for certain, I get the sense that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) is one of many forgotten games with the Ninja Turtles name that probably deserves to be left behind.
That said, life has a funny way of digging up the past. Join Kris, Rachel, and I as we talk about our separate histories with the game and how they collided in 2018!
In Third Person 