Fragile Dreams isn't the best game you'll ever play, but it's one worth experiencing for what it does well.
RPG legend Nihon Falcom is celebrating their 40th anniversary. Whole chunks of their back catalog are not available for purchase, or even in English, but let's see how much we can solve for that.
The game seems, at first, like an overly simple puzzle platformer, but that quickly changes, and then changes again.
Story Mode: Video Games and the Interplay Between Consoles and Culture is available to purchase now, and so I spoke with its author at length about its messages and theories.
A classic shoot-em-up got the hi-def and quality of life treatment in 2021, making it even more playable than it already was.
It took a couple of decades, but Nihon Falcom finally made their own version of Ys IV, and it's great.
The shift to the sixth generation of consoles brought a number of overhauls in the Extreme G formula, but they worked.
Twinbee was a series of vertically scrolling shoot-em-ups, until Konami correctly decided it would also work as a side-scrolling platformer.
20 years and one day later, Rogue Leader is still a fantastic arcade flight game that the franchise hasn't managed to top for a number of reasons.
Final Fantasy VI's opera scene is much, much more than an unexpected set piece for a video game from 1994: it's a vital storytelling component, one that enriched both the game and its narrative.
The Neo Geo was not known for shoot-em-ups in the same way it was for fighters, but Blazing Star is one of the former that's still worth playing.
A masterpiece in a number of ways, but one that's largely unknown for just as many reasons. Lack of Love deserves a second chance in a time that might appreciate it far more.
