Author: Colin Buchanan

With a release window set for this summer and a brand-new gameplay trailer having just dropped, Whitethorn Games and solo developer Steven Kaule’s new title Magical Delicacy is looking like an enticing experience stuffed to the gills with deliciously baked goods and platforming aplenty. I got to play this at PAX last year, and here’s why the game already has me hooked. Magical Delicacy takes place in the island town of Grat, a harbor city built on a series of cliffs. The verticality of many Castlevania titles translates very well to the vibe of this quiet burg, populated by both…

Indie publisher Whitethorn Games has announced that its witchy exploration-platformer Magical Delicacy will be coming to Xbox One and Series consoles, and PC via Xbox and Steam, this summer, as well as debuting a new gameplay trailer. The title stars Flora, a young witch striking out on her own on an island populated by both humans and animal-folk, and trying to establish herself in the community with her magical cooking. The game feels like a traditional “Metroidvania” title without the action element that typically takes the focus in that genre, which is replaced by an Atelier-esque cooking and gathering system.…

Introduction to Homeworld 3’s Revival As often as we’re getting new properties in the 2020s, entertainment companies are seemingly even more eager to reboot and revive older franchises from the 90s and 2000s, if not even older, hoping that the existing audience investment will lead to a solid return. However, for every rare success story that results from resurrecting a dead series, it seems like there are a dozen utterly failed attempts that end up losing millions of dollars. The lesson to be learned from these failures is clear – if you’re going to bring back a classic franchise with…

Introduction to Fallout 4’s Remastered Version Fallout as a franchise is in a tremendously weird place right now. It’s more popular than it’s ever been, thanks to an instant-hit TV adaptation driving interest back to the franchise. Still, it hasn’t had a new game release in almost an entire console generation’s worth of time, and Bethesda’s next new title is sometime in the distant future, so far away that it almost doesn’t even feel like it’s happening. And even considering Fallout 76’s launch in 2018 and Fallout 4’s in 2015, the last game in the series widely regarded as worthy of its name…

Rediscovering Arcade Joy: An Introduction to Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom The 2020s have proven to be a golden age for 90s and early nostalgia, and both large and small game developers alike have rushed to give the market what it wants. One particular point of interest to many gamers my age is the legendary SEGA arcade title Crazy Taxi. This score-chasing driving game saw players rushing to deliver passengers in their allotted time by any means necessary, with a soundtrack to match the insanity. SEGA themselves have recently iterated on the title with a minigame in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and…

Discovering Botany Manor: A New Puzzle Adventure Awaits Do you know those mobile game ads that are clearly targeted at women and show off puzzle games about mysterious mansions that could hold tantalizing secrets? At least, in my experience, every single one of those games ends up being a greedy merge game or a generic Candy Crush-esque Match 3 in a flowery box. Still, none of them have any satisfying stories or puzzles to solve. If you’ve felt betrayed by the promise of these ads, I am thrilled to tell you that Botany Manor may be exactly the game you’re…

A Crossover Event Like No Other Final Fantasy XIV Director-Producer Naoki Yoshida has grand plans to get fans excited to return to Eorzea before the fifth expansion, Dawntrail, this Summer. Those plans began to materialize at last year’s Las Vegas Fan Festival, where not only was said expansion revealed, but the keynote closed with the announcement that he’d finally worked out a deal with Final Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida to bring the worlds of the two games together in a special crossover event that would see the player fighting Ifrit alongside XVI protagonist Clive Rosfield. Naoki Yoshida unveils grand plans with…

Rediscovering Star Wars: The Ambition Behind Battlefront Classic Collection As the person who covered the announcement of Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection only a few weeks ago during Nintendo’s Partner Showcase, I had a lot of questions running through my head at the time. These two sixth-generation titles, particularly Battlefront II, are among the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, and they’ve also been available on Steam for quite some time. The publisher, Aspyr Media, is still facing backlash from their Nintendo Switch port of Knights of the Old Republic II, which was so poorly handled that it was…

I was intrigued when I first saw The Thaumaturge on the show floor at PAX West last year. Coming from publisher 11bit Studios, it was definitely unlike any of their most famous titles in form (being a top-down, choice-driven adventure RPG). Still, it carried the personality that saturates many other titles that come to us out of Poland. The setting – Warsaw, a decade before World War 1 and during Russian annexation – was politically fascinating, mainly when mixed with an urban fantasy detective story. Of course, all I got there was a brief taste, but it left me excited…

Developer Aspyr Media revealed an upcoming remastered collection of the classic Pandemic Studios Star Wars: Battlefront titles, coming to all platforms, during the February Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase. The original games were released in 2004 and 2005, for the original Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC. The games feature large-scale battles that recreate famous combat scenes from the films, with the second game in particular being one of the most well-loved titles across the entire Star Wars franchise. Both games feature single-player campaigns, both quick-play and customizable multiplayer options, and Galactic Conquest mode, where the player is placed in charge of…

2010 Wii title Epic Mickey is getting a fresh coat of paint in 2024, coming to Nintendo Switch as Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. The original title was directed by Deus Ex creator Warren Spector during a short-lived partnership with Disney, as part of an initiative to reintroduce a grittier, more mischievous side of Disney mascot Mickey Mouse. The title was an action-platformer where the player was tasked with restoring a world full of Disney’s oldest characters, slowly losing its color and ink, called the Wasteland and based on a twisted, macabre reimagining of the Disneyland theme park. Mickey was given a…

Developer Aggro Crab’s Another Crab’s Treasure received both a launch date and a trailer during the February Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase. The game is a “soulslike” title featuring the player controlling a hermit crab named Krill at the bottom of the ocean, fighting his way through bigger and more intimidating foes with the player being able to use different powers based on what object they are currently wearing as a shell. We previewed the game last year, and the developer highlighted their goal to create a soulslike that anyone would be able to have fun with through a range of…

During the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase from February 21, the first two games from Xbox’s recently-announced multiplatform strategy were officially revealed, and surprisingly, despite many leaks indicating that Hi-Fi Rush would be on its way in the first wave, it was not one of them. Additional platforms have yet to be announced, but Obsidian’s excellent Pentiment is coming to the Switch tomorrow, with their other Xbox-exclusive title Grounded being released on other consoles on April 16. While it is still possible that Hi-Fi Rush is coming at a later date, it may not receive an announcement in a major presentation,…

A tweet from developer Sting Entertainment’s official account has revealed a release date and list of platforms for the previously-announced remaster of Riviera: The Promised Land, the debut entry of the Dept. Heaven series. The tweet was only posted in Japanese, but translated, reads as follows: “Previously developed for the Wonder Swan, GBA, and Playstation Portable, this time you will be able to enjoy Riviera on the Nintendo Switch, smart phones, and PC! First planned for distribution on the Nintendo Switch!!” The game will be releasing on Nintendo Switch on February 29, interestingly the same day as Final Fantasy VII…

In one of the strangest moves ever made in the industry, publisher Bushiroad has announced that the long-awaited Global version of Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! will be finally arriving next month in February…and then close at the end of May, with the Japanese server closing in March. School Idol Festival 2 is essentially an updated replacement game for the original School Idol Festival, which launched in 2013 in Japan and 2014 worldwide, but was discontinued last year. A Global launch was initially set for last year, but was delayed for previously unknown reasons, and in the…

After almost eight-and-a-half years of weekly content releases, Harmonix has announced that January 25 will mark the final song update for Rock Band 4, which launched all the way back in October 2015. The game was supplemented by the Rivals expansion, which added competitive multiplayer elements and seasonal content rewards to the game’s online play and over forty new songs from independent artists. Since the launch of the base game, the team has launched at least two new tracks every single week from artists ranging from small indie metal bands to hitmakers like Dua Lipa. Over three thousand songs have…

As has been tradition for this promotion cycle, Tokyo’s Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest event kicked off with an expanded trailer for Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail that prominently showed off both of the biggest reveals for this event: the new Pictomancer job, demonstrated by Krile, and female Hrothgar. https://youtu.be/kgiuQwzB6aU?si=BhUXQd1vx-vC8hQ8 Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida announced that the development team is deliberately holding off on announcing a release date to prevent the chance of a delay, as Endwalker was delayed by several weeks a short time before its launch. A job trailer for the Pictomancer job was shown. Pictomancer will be…

Lorenzo Redaelli’s psychedelic-psychological-thriller visual novel Mediterranea Inferno has announced a launch and release date for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series X and S versions of the game. The PC version was released on Steam in August of this year and revolves around three friends in Italy who had been inseparable before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and have not seen each other since, reuniting for a weekend in a small beach-side village. The story quickly proves itself to be less than straightforward as the main characters are thrust into a series of sacrilegious hallucinations, twisting and turning…

You definitely don’t need me to tell you that 2023 was a ridiculously good year for gaming unless you literally live under a rock (which, I’m not judging; I bet the rent is affordable!). Where last year, I struggled to name five titles and ended up putting Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, of all things on the list, I could probably name a top fifteen this year without breaking a sweat. But, in the interest of fairness, everyone else gets five, so I do, too. Lots of games got cut, such as Final Fantasy XVI, Street Fighter 6, Hi-Fi Rush, and Like…

Don’t Nod’s new Montreal studio, the staff of which is best known for developing the Life is Strange series and published by Square Enix, announced a new project called Lost Records: Bloom & Rage at the 2023 Game Awards. The game follows four characters, Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat, who experience an unforgettable summer in 1995 and then do not speak to each other again for twenty-seven years. They’re forced to reunite in order to face the secret that caused them never to want to speak again, in a story-driven adventure through time. The Lost Records universe is a new…