Genres

In the gaming days of yore, things like tutorials, objective markers, and pop-up hints were very uncommon. For some, these forms of guidance take away exploration, self-discovery, and challenge, and they yearn for more titles to be like those of old. The developer duo Kazuya Asano and Takemaru Abiko apparently agree, because that's the basis for Starship Damrey, their entry in Level-5's Guild02 compilation.

It's difficult to write about Sonic games. Depending who you ask, the only good titles in the franchise in the last decade have been re-releases of Mega Drive/Genesis titles. It seems popular to knock the Blue Blur, and it's fairly easy to pick out the commentators that haven't actually played the games they choose to badmouth at every turn.

Remember what it was like being a kid? Playing outside, making up weird games with friends, being confused by everything that grown ups do, and having an overactive imagination? If so, good, because that's exactly the nostalgia Japanese developer Millennium Kitchen taps into in Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale.

Street Fighter X Tekken was kind of a big deal when it was first announced, and perhaps even helped the Mortal Kombat remake to herald in a new wave of fighting titles. Along with its companion title, the long presumed dead Tekken X Street Fighter, Street Fighter X Tekken was going to combine two of the biggest names in fighting, dozens of the most recognisable characters, all within a blended style that meant you'd never see the seams. In the end, this worked out rather well. It's still just a fighting game, no different from other entries in the Street ...

Level-5's Guild series is an interesting concept. Released in physical format for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, both Guild01 and Guild02 contain games developed by famous Japanese developers. Strangely, none of the games go together, and each offers a completely different experience. It's an eclectic assortment of titles, to be sure, and thankfully most are available in the West via the 3DS eShop. All are worth playing, but the worst of the bunch is easily Keiji Inafune's Bugs vs. Tanks.

Gone Home is special. A creation designed to grasp the industry and its fans by their collar, and show them how a mature and painfully honest story should be told. While some games are set in fantastical worlds, such as a floating city or an apocalyptic world, Gone Home prides itself on its simplicity and intimacy. And like any good novel, Gone Home’s strength is the way it rewards people once they uncover and solve the game’s many metaphorical and clever puzzles. It isn’t fantastical by any means, nor is it complex mechanically, but it is immeasurably genuine.

Alli took a look at Ethan: Meteor Hunter a few months ago, ahead of it being finished, and found a game that had a lot of potential. Now, fully released on PlayStation 3 and PC, you can now play through the whole time-stopping adventure to your heart's content. Does it manage to live up to the potential we saw when we first saw it?

Following the success of The Walking Dead, developer Telltale Games continues its trend of churning out compelling narrative experiences with the recent release of The Wolf Among Us. Based off of the Fables comic book series created by Bill Willingham, which follows recognizable fairy tale characters living in 80s New York, The Wolf Among Us is a delightful prequel that beautifully introduces the creative world Willingham was able to forge back in 2002.

One of the biggest problems with Puppeteer, at least in my experience, is that people go in expecting it to be a lot like LittleBigPlanet. Some people I've spoken to about it have dismissed it entirely, thinking that is had been developed by Media Molecule. That crowd cheers and changing sets make up a huge part of its aesthetic mean that some are quick to point out the similarities.

Platform games are having something of a return to popularity, and it's about time. While Mario and Sonic remained regular parts of the gaming community, the likes of Rayman disappeared completely for a while. Even Donkey Kong - one of Nintendo's most recognisable characters- was resigned to guest appearances, mini-games, bongo playing and Super Smash Brothers.