PixlBit

Babysitting with Yoshis – 2014 edition.

I’m the type of guy that doesn’t think its fair to compare one game to another, but in the case of Yoshi’s New Island, an exception has to be made. It’s the second follow-up to the SNES classic, Yoshi’s Island, and Yoshi’s Island is a very tough game to top. On the positive side, Yoshi's New Island does a lot of things better than the previous entry in the series, Yoshi’s Island DS, like getting rid of the annoying baby-switching mechanic and doling out some clever levels. On the other hand, it adds some new, underutilized mechanics, disappointing boss battles, and turns a definitive ability into a shallow gyroscope mini-game.

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We wouldn’t be here without all of you.

We throw around the word “community” in the video games arena without a second thought. Even small enthusiast sites have community managers and a myriad of other ways to strengthen and connect people who are passionate about games. If it weren’t for several key creatives that helped form the gaming landscape through the decades, though, we might not have the communities we all take for granted. Dungeons & Dreamers’ updated second edition guides us on a journey that shows how communities became so important to gaming. It’s an intriguing thesis that is hammered home with a continuous chain of examples that make it undeniable how integral community has always been to video games.

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Crush my brain with an anvil.

It’s hard to believe that a quaint game concept where you play the part of an apprentice arms dealer in an RPG could lead me to a dark place, but it happened. Weapon Shop de Omasse, with its cute exterior, forces you to spend time between intended-to-be-comical character interactions pounding away at the most laborious, repetitive, and malformed rhythm game ever created.

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