In Henry Halfhead, you play through the life of a person named Henry. But there are a couple twists. Henry is only half of a head – just eyes, ears, nose, and the top of their head – meaning they move around by sliding on the floor and jumping up and down. Also, Henry can […]
In case it wasn’t clear, The Last of Us made it obvious: at their very best, big-budget video games should be comparable to prestige television, so much so that adapting one for HBO is a relatively straightforward affair. This bar-setting exercise is further exemplified by other PlayStation franchises marching toward adaptation: Ghost of Tsushima is […]
I would not call the time I’m having with Hollow Knight: Silksong “fun,” and yet I’m still playing. In the depths of The Marrow, the second major area of Silksong, there’s a particularly nasty midboss. I eventually beat him, but my reward wasn’t a new ability, item, or a bench where I could rest and […]
I love me a stupid-ass action movie. Something where the plot is thin while the muscles and accents on all the henchmen are thick as hell. Think Broken Arrow or Eraser – movies that were artistically and sometimes commercially terrible but nevertheless thrilling watches that you forgot about almost immediately after leaving the theater. Borderlands […]
Herdling is a slow game about herding fuzzy animals through a vibrant natural world. That may not sound particularly exciting, but I found it to be a perfect game to unwind with after a stressful day. In Herdling, you play as a kid who makes friends with and shepherds large fluffy creatures called Calicorns, which […]
The opening hours of Hell Is Us are brilliantly confusing. The game tasks you with getting up to speed on a complicated civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians. A deluge of proper nouns is unleashed: Lymbic weaponry, Guardian Detectors, and more. But the clearest way the game communicates that you should feel utterly dumbfounded […]
There’s a pleasing rhythm to cozy life sims. The virtual days pass, filled with chores of tending crops or running a business, punctuated by strange mysteries or evolving relationships. At their best, these games merge busywork with exploration and storytelling, in a way that makes them hard to step away from. Discounty, from developer Crinkle […]
So I heard you want to play Kirby on hard mode: tough bosses, tricky platforming, complicated puzzles, hidden collectibles, and maybe even punishments for failing. The Star-Crossed World expansion in Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Switch 2 edition certainly introduces new challenges. There’s pressure from time constraints and consecutive platforming sequences, multistep puzzles, and bosses […]
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater seemed to be designed specifically for me, at first. I’ve played and loved nearly every entry of the Metal Gear Solid series, and the original MGS is one of my favorite games of all time. These weird, third-person stealth action games feature bizarre characters and scenarios that have lingered […]
Ninja Gaiden is having a renaissance. The last mainline entry was originally released more than a decade ago, but by the end of 2025, there will be three new Ninja Gaiden titles. Two are 3D: Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a modern-day remaster of Ninja Gaiden II released earlier this year, and Ninja Gaiden 4, co-developed […]