Imagine you’re delving into a dark labyrinth. You’re exploring the endless hallways, looking for a path leading deeper into the ruin when you’re ambushed by a dozen demons both ahead and behind. You’re certain this is the end… but then you realize your partner was trailing a ways behind you, and by now she should …
Author Archive
Let Us Cling Together: The joy of playing games cooperatively
Monday, January 22nd, 2007 by chrisBest Game Ever – Cave Story
Monday, January 8th, 2007 by chrisWhen I was considerably younger, I had no disposable income but way too much free time. So I did what any sensible young gamer would do: I looked for free games on the internet. Back then, pickings were pretty slim, and the only downloadable games worth playing were severely limited shareware. Most of those, if …
Lament of a lost developer
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 by chrisOnce upon a time, there was an innovative game design company. Though they tended to use mainly the historical as backdrops for their titles, they came out with a wide range of interesting games and managed to release them for several platforms despite fairly intense console rivalry. It was clear there were individual designers in …
Fear the Mystic Balloons
Thursday, December 7th, 2006 by chrisI find most freeware games to be temporary distractions, but every once in a while I get hooked on one longer than usual. Such is the case with Mystic Balloon. Originally a cooperation between two Japanese developers, this puzzle game was translated a few days ago by Derrick Sobodash.
Mystic Balloon’s plot is simple, as …
Series Retrospective: Wild Arms
Monday, December 4th, 2006 by chrisAs far as RPG series go, one of the smaller ones you don’t hear too much about is Wild Arms. They are the only RPGs I’ve heard of that try to tackle the Wild West as an overall theme, and tend to blend in fantasy and science fiction elements to keep the game interesting for …
Faxanadu and Crystalis
Thursday, November 30th, 2006 by chrisI’d like to bring a couple of old games to your attention. To me, these games pioneered the Action/RPG genre, which sadly has not received the attention it deserves.
First on the list is Faxanadu. An offshoot of the Dragon Slayer series in Japan (of which we received Faxanadu and Legacy of the Wizard), Faxanadu has …
A brief survey of localiztions
Monday, November 13th, 2006 by chrisEver since the first text-based game came from Japan to American shores, those playing have wondered, “What did the original text say?”
…Well, I have, at least since I was old enough to tell the difference between “A winner is you” and real English. Hearing about and playing odd translations of games is a bit of …
Stop mixing my drinks
Friday, November 10th, 2006 by chrisSo I was playing Final Fantasy XII for the first time when I noticed the game had a lot of concepts that look like they came from science fiction. Ships looking like they came from Star Wars fly around in the intro, shield-like barriers are being used to protect cities, that kind of stuff.
This wouldn’t …
The beginnings of a Culdcept addiction
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 by chrisI first saw Culdcept a while back, when it was just released. The back of the box made it seem pretty interesting, but the price just wasn’t right for the game – I’d seen maybe one review and it was lukewarm at best.
The other day, though, I saw it for $10 and thought, “Perfect.” …
Chris loves Jesus part 2
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 by chrisContinued from Part 1
The casual (or obsessive?) reader may ask, “How does one foster a personal relationship with Jesus?” The best way for me was to translate it.
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