About "Critical Kate" Willaert

Now that we’ve done the best, it’s time for the worst. Most “worst box art” round-ups just post a bunch of funny-looking covers that lend themselves to a single sentence of snarky commentary. But not this one.* Our list aims to point out box art that’s bad from a design perspective, and attempts to explain why.

*On the other hand, if you were funny-looking images with snarky commentary is what you were looking for, there’s also a little of that at the end of the article. Read More

Welcome back to the only annual box art round-up that attempts to explain why each image is successful from a design perspective. They say you shouldn’t judge a book (or …
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It’s become a recent trend in the age of Metacritic for gamers to question critics’ reviews. Why do so many reviews read like opinions, shouldn’t they be more objective? When …
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Not to be confused with last year’s retail release Cave Story 3D, the new eShop release of Cave Story for the Nintendo 3DS might be the definitive way to play …
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Publisher: Majesco Entertainment / Developer: WayForward / Platform: PSN, XBLA

Back in the NES days, Double Dragon was possibly the most rented game in my household. When the Fighting Force games tried to revive the beat-em-up genre, I thought, “someone needs to make a new Double Dragon.” When Rockstar released the ode to beat-em-ups The Warriors, I thought, “someone needs to make a new Double Dragon.” WayForward’s Double Dragon Neon isn’t quite the game I’d been waiting for, but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own way. Read More

The oddly named New Super Mario Bros. 2 is actually the third installment in the series. What’s more, the game makes no reference to either the Japanese or American versions …
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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment / Developer: Minority / Platform: PS3

“To my mother, brothers, and sister, with whom I survived the monster in my father.” –Vander Caballero

So begins Papo & Yo (roughly “Papa & Me”), immediately followed by a scene where a young boy hides in a closet from his abusive alcoholic father before escaping into a fantasy land. At this point I braced myself for a game that was either going to be an important statement or an uncomfortable mess. Read More

There are only 3 days left to help fund Project Giana on Kickstarter. But who are the Great Giana Sisters, and why should you care?

Before first person shooters became the “default” videogame genre, that title belonged to platformers, thanks in large part to Super Mario Bros. The phenomenal success of Super Mario Bros. led to an endless string of imitators that continues even to this day, to the point where people no longer bat an eye – it’s only considered a rip-off until it becomes so common that it’s considered a genre. A such, the earliest games to jump on the bandwagon tend to have a tougher time of it.

That’s what happened to The Great Giana Sisters, a game that was meant to be the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum’s answer to Super Mario Bros.. Unfortunately, despite introducing unique power-ups and blocks in later levels, the earlier levels and core game borrowed a little too heavily from Super Mario Bros., and Nintendo took legal action. All copies were immediately recalled from store shelves in the UK, and possibly never even made it to shelves in the US. Read More

Publisher: Zen Studios / Developer: Game-Ever / Platform: Nintendo 3DS eShop

I know what you’re thinking. If there’s one game that didn’t need a 3D makeover, it’s Solitaire, right?. But if you want to play Solitaire on the go via your Nintendo 3DS, why not drop $2.99 on the fanciest version available? Read More

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Portal when playing Quantum Conundrum, a first person physics-based puzzler from Portal co-creator Kim Swift. In fact, it almost seems at times as …
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