Fire Emblem Heroes, Mobile and Casual Gaming

March 28, 2017 Casey Moore, Host   There’s been an interesting trend with the video game market in the United States in recent years: namely, the burgeoning market for casual mobile games.  What began with Angry Birds evolved into Candy Crush and has extended so far as to include even big name companies like Bethesda …

Kingdom Hearts and Multi-directional Evolution

March 28, 2017 Casey Moore, Host *Image courtesy of Tetsuya Nomura Kingdom Hearts has had no short supply of airtime in the gaming press world lately, between the release of Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, the re-re-remakes of the original games (as well as Birth by Sleep and Chain of Memories), and the long …

Breath of the Wild: the Dissonance of Silence

Breath of the Wild is, for all intents and purposes, the first main Zelda release to feature full voice acting. But Link doesn’t have a voice.

Pokemon 21st Anniversary

February 28th, 2017 Casey Moore, Host February 27th, 1996 saw the Japanese release of Pokemon Red and Green versions, igniting a fire in the hearts of youth the world over.  It became a playground staple in the States and a cultural surge that has yet to stutter in Japan, boasts loads of regional and national …

Revisiting Bloodborne and Tackling The Old Hunters

February 21, 2017 Casey Moore, Host   Earlier this February, with Nioh on the cusp of release, it occurred to me that I hadn’t yet played the DLC for From Software’s Bloodborne, The Old Hunters.  I’d read about the new content – weapons, monsters, and locales – and listened to the music (glorious Ludwig’s theme), …

My Time With Melee

February 14, 2017 Casey Moore, Host   Esports (competitive video gaming) has evolved long past being simply a hot topic – it’s a tried and true phenomenon.  League of Legends tournaments rival the Super Bowl.  Dota 2 was featured on ESPN.  Nintendo is sponsoring their own titles at EVO. Gaming for the sake of anything …

Fire Emblem Heroes: Compromised Design of Free-to-Play and Player Subversion

February 7, 2017 Casey Moore, Host   Complaining about mobiles games is nothing new but by golly am I going to do it anyway. Boy oh boy am I a sucker for Fire Emblem.  I started playing it when I was 13 and for the last 8 years, I don’t think there’s been a point …

The Death Stench Creeps: “Gyo” Similarities in “Death Stranding”

January 31, 2017 Reva Short - Host Today, January 31st, is one of my most anticipated days of 2017.  There’s one reason for this:  Junji Ito’s newest work, Dissolving Classroom, is being released in the US. Ito, for the uninitiated, is one of the masters of horror manga, and arguably, horror as a genre.  If …

The Issue of Digital Distribution and Library Longevity

January 24, 2017 Casey Moore - Host About a decade ago, services like the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade began offering digital games to be downloaded to your consoles, which were sometimes exclusive releases such as Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Scott Pilgrim: The Movie: The Game but more often classic games like Jet …

The Plight of the JRPG – From Genesis to Glory

January 17, 2017 Casey Moore, Host   (Oh look, Casey's talking about JRPGs again) In the pre-Famicom boom era in Japan, RPGs took off with titles like Black Onyx and Tower of Druaga, making a significant enough cultural impact to propel them into being mainstays on both consoles and the early gaming computers such as …