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New York Comic Con 2013: A Brief Recap and Photos

New York Comic Con felt smaller than the previous year but was no less crowded.

Games

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

The Great Giana Sisters might have been created to capitalize on the voracious popularity of Mario, but that was then. Now it seems like the fabled plumber could learn a few things from his one-time disciples.

Games

Wii-U Impressions and Why It’s Okay to Forgive Nintendo

The problem with feelings of nostalgia is that they invoke such polar reactions. After all, when you feel let down by such a revered icon as Nintendo, it feels like an attack on your very childhood.

Eric Kravcik

Games

E3 2012: The Crowd, the Blood, The Screen

Pay attention to the rumblings of E3 2012 and you'll hear what may be a series of forthcoming storms.

Jorge Albor and Scott Juster

Games

The Undead Author: Artistic Ownership of Games

If, as Roland Barthes writes, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author,” than what happens when the author can return to life?

Games

The Limits of Retro Gaming Experiences

Ice Climber is the game that I might rank as my favorite game that lacked an end-goal, that created an arcade-like experience in which the player kept climbing for the sake of climbing and for, of course, the sake of points. Though that was not the only reason that one climbed.

Games

You Can't Go Home Again: Why Nintendo Shouldn't Grow Up

You can't go home again. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Games

'Game Over': A Look at Nintendo's Past and Future

For a long time, Nintendo has been an 800-pound gorilla of a business influenced by whimsical artists and run by proudly stubborn businessmen. David Sheff's work proves that Nintendo has exerted considerable influence over the medium's history, and the subsequent years have shown that the company will continue to do so for many years to come.

Games

Does Silence Speak in the Loudest Voice?: Misconceptions about Silent Protagonists in Video Games

Granted, Link does “hiyah,” “eyah,” and “ahh” his way through all of his post-64-bit adventures, but no amount of elfish interjections can change his status as a silent protagonist. Is a failure to communicate much, a failure to communicate?

Kevin Dickinson

Reviews

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword marks the point where the Zelda formula finally reaches its expiry date.

Games

Kirby: Mass Attack

Kirby: Mass Attack is both a celebration of nearly 20 years of great games and a fresh take on Nintendo's platforming history.

Reviews

The Undiluted Promise of Comics as Vanguard for 21st Century Media

Sometimes, rarely, a work is so good (so well-conceived, so well-executed) that it simply breaks our traditional expectations of comics literature. And this breaking allows us to glimpse the true, rare promise of what the industry can achieve. Davids Lapham and Aja's Wolverine: Debt of Death is this work.

Reviews

Nintendogs + Cats

Anyone with an affection for cute pets will find something to like about Nintendogs + Cats, but its longevity as a title is questionable.

Arun Subramanian

Reviews

Dead or Alive: Dimensions

Fighting games seem to be making the most noise in the 3DS's rather lackluster launch line-up and it stems from the perfect marriage between fighter and level as a definition of depth.

Eric Kravcik

Reviews

Pokemon Black and White

As a formula, Pokémon succeeds in being many things to many people. But the series is also characterized by a deceptively deep RPG experience.

Games

Ghosts of Presents Past: The 1990s

Here’s a look at gifts from more than a decade ago.

Reviews

Kirby's Epic Yarn

The unapologetic sugary sweetness of Kirby is both attractive and resistant, depending on your age and possibly your gender.

Games

Nintendo's Niceness Problem

Nintendo might do well to remember that we, as gamers, crave a challenge every once in a while.

Reviews

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

Surely, after almost four years of the DS being on the market, even the big N must realise that drawing circles on the screen is only fun, like, maybe twice?

Reviews

Mother 3

Like No More Heroes, this is a game where your own reactions and views are being toyed with. Unlike that game, however, this one is willing to do so with both humor and tragedy.

Games

Art Style: Rotohex

For all intents and purposes, Art Style: Rotohex is Tetris with triangles.

Games

WiiWare: Tetris Party

A look at the latest iteration of Tetris via Nintendo's WiiWare.

Reviews

Wii Music

Where Miyamoto says you're creating music, you're actually just creating varying rhythms, stringing together eighth and sixteenth notes.

Reviews

Art Style: Orbient

How does one evaluate the challenge of a game that features an entirely unique play style?

Reviews

Mario Super Sluggers

With the baseball postseason in full swing, Mario Super Sluggers steps up to the plate with a typically psychedelic take on America's pastime -- and hits an RBI triple.

Music

Adventure: Adventure

Carpark continues to document Wham City's enchantment with juvenalia, this time taking on some chiptune teenage victory songs.

Reviews

Wii Fit

L.B. Jeffries offers his experiences with eight weeks of Wii Fit training.

Reviews

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Seeing Sonic and Mario alongside each other in the same game is still a synapse fryer along the lines of seeing Mickey Mouse guest star as a cadaver on CSI. Something about it just...ain't...right.

Reviews

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time / Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darknes

While it may be unfair to expect randomly generated dungeons to approach the kinds of visual variety found in Zelda games, it's a shame more of the Pokémon aesthetic couldn't be carried through inside the dungeons.

Reviews

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Even though many of the core game mechanics have not changed a jot from Melee, it's still almost impossible to return to the older game after seeing what the newer stages were capable of.

Brendan Lynch

Reviews

Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii has reached critical mass levels of madcappery.

Games

Accepting the Absurd via Super Smash Bros. Brawl

While video games will always adopt varying levels of verisimilitude, the Wii presents a novel challenge to the conventional consciousness, and that is an attack on realism.

Erik Hinton

Reviews

MetalMatters: The Best New Heavy Metal Albums of September 2020

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Features

20 Hits of the '80s You Might Not Have Known Are Covers

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PopMatters is moving to WordPress. We will publish a few essays daily while we develop the new site. We hope the beta will be up sometime late next week.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons suggests that player-NPC interactions can be the same regardless of gender. One can confidently earn the same friendship of an animal villager as male, female, nonbinary, genderqueer, or gender-nonconforming.

New York Comic Con felt smaller than the previous year but was no less crowded.

The Great Giana Sisters might have been created to capitalize on the voracious popularity of Mario, but that was then. Now it seems like the fabled plumber could learn a few things from his one-time disciples.

The problem with feelings of nostalgia is that they invoke such polar reactions. After all, when you feel let down by such a revered icon as Nintendo, it feels like an attack on your very childhood.

Pay attention to the rumblings of E3 2012 and you'll hear what may be a series of forthcoming storms.

If, as Roland Barthes writes, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author,” than what happens when the author can return to life?

Ice Climber is the game that I might rank as my favorite game that lacked an end-goal, that created an arcade-like experience in which the player kept climbing for the sake of climbing and for, of course, the sake of points. Though that was not the only reason that one climbed.

You can't go home again. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Granted, Link does “hiyah,” “eyah,” and “ahh” his way through all of his post-64-bit adventures, but no amount of elfish interjections can change his status as a silent protagonist. Is a failure to communicate much, a failure to communicate?

Skyward Sword marks the point where the Zelda formula finally reaches its expiry date.

Kirby: Mass Attack is both a celebration of nearly 20 years of great games and a fresh take on Nintendo's platforming history.

Anyone with an affection for cute pets will find something to like about Nintendogs + Cats, but its longevity as a title is questionable.

Fighting games seem to be making the most noise in the 3DS's rather lackluster launch line-up and it stems from the perfect marriage between fighter and level as a definition of depth.

As a formula, Pokémon succeeds in being many things to many people. But the series is also characterized by a deceptively deep RPG experience.

Here’s a look at gifts from more than a decade ago.

The unapologetic sugary sweetness of Kirby is both attractive and resistant, depending on your age and possibly your gender.

Nintendo might do well to remember that we, as gamers, crave a challenge every once in a while.

Surely, after almost four years of the DS being on the market, even the big N must realise that drawing circles on the screen is only fun, like, maybe twice?

Like No More Heroes, this is a game where your own reactions and views are being toyed with. Unlike that game, however, this one is willing to do so with both humor and tragedy.

For all intents and purposes, Art Style: Rotohex is Tetris with triangles.

A look at the latest iteration of Tetris via Nintendo's WiiWare.

Where Miyamoto says you're creating music, you're actually just creating varying rhythms, stringing together eighth and sixteenth notes.

How does one evaluate the challenge of a game that features an entirely unique play style?

With the baseball postseason in full swing, Mario Super Sluggers steps up to the plate with a typically psychedelic take on America's pastime -- and hits an RBI triple.

Carpark continues to document Wham City's enchantment with juvenalia, this time taking on some chiptune teenage victory songs.

L.B. Jeffries offers his experiences with eight weeks of Wii Fit training.

Seeing Sonic and Mario alongside each other in the same game is still a synapse fryer along the lines of seeing Mickey Mouse guest star as a cadaver on CSI. Something about it just...ain't...right.

While it may be unfair to expect randomly generated dungeons to approach the kinds of visual variety found in Zelda games, it's a shame more of the Pokémon aesthetic couldn't be carried through inside the dungeons.

Even though many of the core game mechanics have not changed a jot from Melee, it's still almost impossible to return to the older game after seeing what the newer stages were capable of.

Mario Kart Wii has reached critical mass levels of madcappery.

While video games will always adopt varying levels of verisimilitude, the Wii presents a novel challenge to the conventional consciousness, and that is an attack on realism.