Erik Fredner
As I argued before, I think it's still likely that Nintendo will profit from the intellectual labor players invest in Maker, and that we'll see the fruits of the community's work in the next Mario game. That said, Nintendo isn't Facebook. Maybe it's better to think about it in terms of participation and collaboration than the work of the many in thrall to the few.
In a series underwritten by amnesiac orphans, Fire Emblem Fates breaks away to tell a story about memory, family, and the self, meditating on the decisions that define us and how we regret them.
In a series underwritten by amnesiac orphans, Fire Emblem Fates breaks away to tell a story about memory, family, and the self, meditating on the decisions that define us and how we regret them.
In a series underwritten by amnesiac orphans, Fire Emblem Fates breaks away to tell a story about memory, family, and the self, meditating on the decisions that define us and how we regret them.
Splatoon, then, makes me optimistic about what games can do not with pastiche or duplication-as-serialization, but with sampling. We don't have a genre convention to slot Splatoon into, and that's a rare and wonderful thing.
Titan Souls gives you the opportunity to feel that success first-hand, a joy forged in the crucible of failure.
The defining characteristic of Yoshi's Woolly World—teed off by that alliteration in the title—is its aesthetic: yarn and glue. That woolliness bridges the gap between stereotyped gifts from grandma and the twee squeak most every Etsy storefront seems to be trying to wring out of you. This game is bright, soft, fuzzy, and unabashedly so.
The world of The Magic Circle is a jumbled mess of half-finished ideas, overblown ambitions, long boardroom meetings, and the conflict between whiteboard and what can really be done.
Before you start, you have to make a tacit agreement with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: This is one of those times where you'll gaze into the abyss, and the abyss will gaze into you.
You can't shake the feeling that it's also an unending gyre of game loops.
Material and the diegetic real come into interesting conversations throughout Paper Jam, but that is the reach of the game's ambition. As with many Nintendo games of the last few years, its gameplay elements are immaculately designed but risk nothing.
Kirby is cushy and kid-proof.
If NES Remix were a DJ, it wouldn't be Danger Mouse tearing up The Grey Album—it would be that guy in your dorm who insisted on DJing at college parties but couldn't bear to play a single song all the way through.
Look closer and the connections between "the daily grind" and this form of "play" multiply, spiral out, form fractals.
[Y]et the most frustrating thing about Heroes is that the problem it addresses doesn't even need to be solved. Zelda's solitariness isn't lonely. It's directly in line with the tradition of the epic (if somewhat scaled back for our postmodern skepticism of metanarrative).