Mike Schiller is a software engineer in Buffalo, NY who enjoys filling the free time he finds with media of any sort—music, movies, and lately, video games. Stepping into the role of PopMatters Multimedia editor in 2006 after having written music and game reviews for two years previous, he has renewed his passion for gaming to levels not seen since his fondly-remembered college days of ethernet-enabled dorm rooms and all-night Goldeneye marathons. His three children unconditionally approve of their father’s most recent set of obsessions.
Features
Friday, January 4 2008
David Bowie and the Crisis Pentalogy
The recently-released David Bowie Box documents the ten years or so before Bowie's heart attack, during which he worked his way through his midlife crisis.
Thursday, August 23 2007
Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape
For anyone who experienced the heyday of Nirvana, it's still surreal that the lanky, string-haired drummer is the guy who'd be on magazine covers and writing #1 rock radio hits 15 years later.
Thursday, July 6 2006
We Can Rebuild Him: Bionic Commando
Open-ended gameplay, environmental interactivity, bionic arms, and exploding Nazis... on the Nintendo Entertainment System? Mike Schiller explains why the old-school classic Bionic Commando had it all.
Tuesday, October 4 2005
Moon Musick: Coil's Musick to Play in the Dark
In which Schiller discovers beauty and majesty that he never thought possible in experimental electronic music.
Wednesday, May 4 2005
Akron/Family
Akron/Family creates a world of sonic pastiche so carefully crafted that the band had to develop their own philosophy/creed just to categorize it for themselves, and the result is a gorgeous and complicated exploration of song and sound.
Columns
Tuesday, November 11 2008
Retro-ing Games
The disparity in the approaches Capcom took to Mega Man 9 and Bionic Commando beg the question: what do we want out of a "retro" experience?
Wednesday, September 17 2008
But Where is the Art?
They might make you think, they might make you cringe, they might inspire revulsion or admiration, but are they "art"? A look at some borderline videogames.
Tuesday, June 3 2008
Zarathustra-speak
Let's set aside judging a game purely by the game play or plot, and analyze the actual experience of the game, instead.
Thursday, May 1 2008
The Game World / Real World Interface
"Interfacing" is Moving Pixels' way of taking a look at the tenuous relationship between the gaming world and the real world, and the awkwardness and enlightenment that the intersections between the two can achieve.
Reviews
Friday, May 17 2013
Papo & Yo
Papo & Yo is an exorcism of sorts, a way for a survivor of childhood abuse to deal with his demons. This is a game as therapy.
Wednesday, May 1 2013
Darkstalkers Resurrection
The Darkstalkers series allowed Capcom to experiment without the risk of sullying its flagship fighting franchise.
Wednesday, April 24 2013
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory
There's an uncomfortable dissonance between the way the developers seem to want us to feel about the game and what we're actually feeling as we play through it.
Friday, April 19 2013
Capcom Arcade Cabinet: 1985-1 and 1986 Packs
These were games designed to punish you, games that didn't care how many quarters you put in.
Friday, March 29 2013
SimCity
While it's easy to look at and lament the limitations placed on your cities, the actual creation of your city is a very living and involving process.
Blogs
Monday, December 20 2010
Uncharted 2: Game of the Year Edition
Uncharted 2: Game of the Year Edition [$64.95]
Wednesday, December 15 2010
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (Nintendo DS) [$29.99]
Tuesday, October 19 2010
Sacrificing Horror for the Sake of Human Competition
Contextually, multiplayer doesn't make much sense in a game like Dead Space, so the context needs to change.

































