Late to the Game(s) - Retro! Reissued! Remastered! Oh my!

Exploring the myths and legends of India Some games are hard to put down. You know you have work to do. You know you have limited time to finish it. But you want to try just one more time to take down that boss before you take a break.  Raji: An Ancient Epic is one of those games. Available now on the Nintendo Switch , and launching later this year on other major platforms , Raji is one of the more compelling button smashers I've played in a while. It tells the story of our eponymous hero, the acrobat Raji, and her brother Golu, a puppeteer. The carnival performers are in the midst of celebrating the feast of Rakhsha Bandhan when the story Golu has been telling, about the rise and  fall of a race of demons, comes to life. Golu, wearing a demon mask to startle the other children watching his puppet show, finds himself swept up by actual demons who are stealing away the children for an as yet unnamed purpose. It's then that our heroine is chosen by the goddess Durga to fight ...

Battle Planet – Judgement Day a fun and challenging rogue-lite shooter Sometimes you want a deep story in a video game. Sometimes you want a challenging puzzle. And sometimes, well, sometimes you just want to shoot things and watch them blow up. If that's what you're looking for Battle Planet – Judgement Day – a twin stick shooter, top down, rogue-lite – delivers in spades. The game isn't hard to grasp, but it does take time to master. Different game modes require the player to wipe out all the enemies on the screen, fend off enemies while defusing bombs before they can blow up a significant portion of the plant, or to beat bosses at the end of a planet level. Along the way you pick up various power-ups and weapon mods that can help you stay ahead of enemies or wipe them out in large swathes of death and destruction.  Boss fights are how you unlock new characters, like the Spy. The level-end boss fights, which pit you against various types of new and unique enemies while a...

A family friendly adventure game Sometimes it seems like it's difficult to impossible to find a game that you can find compelling for you, as an adult, and that you don't mind having your kids watch you play, or allowing them to play. I mean, sure, there are the classic platformers for Nintendo featuring a well-known pair of Italian plumber brothers, and the adventures of a certain blue track-star hedgehog who zips around like he's had one too many espresso shots. The Lego games are good for some family couch co-op – and the ones based on popular film franchises give you a fun take on those stories. But even those games have some elements of violence, be it smashing sentient mushrooms underfoot or – literally – knocking the block off a Lego enemy. Sure, there are puzzle games and rhythm games and racing games, but if you want something with a bit of a story line, they're even worse than the E rated platformers.  So, what if I told you there was a game that could appeal ...

Broken Lines brings engrossing TRPG to PC and Switch Just because it's available on Nintendo Switch doesn't  mean    Broken Lines   is  a  kid-friendly game.  The game  play, dialogue  and  story are aimed at adults. Tactical role playing games (TRPGs) are an interesting genre. Usually aimed at the “hard core” gamer demographic, at higher levels and harder settings they can require chess-like planning, forethought, and troop coordination. Resource management, party makeup, and terrain advantages can all play into a successful campaign, or lead to a crushing defeat. It's the kind of game that appeals to those who love to crunch numbers and consider strategy. These aren't the types of games where you go in swinging a sword and screaming “Leroy Jenkins!” You have to think about how a fight could play out, and set it up in advance so that it plays out to your advantage. Sometimes, though, you just want to see a story play out and ...

It's always dangerous to go alone. Always!   So, I'm well into my second week of furlough. I should be trying a little harder to look for other jobs. Or, I should be writing new content (like this post) for the blog. Since I noticed yesterday that the company not only took down the website for my old newspapers and redirected all links them to the closest daily paper they still operate, but also haven't (yet) migrated the content from that site, I should be posting all the relevant content here – things like my coverage of Bigfoot sightings and UFO reports, and video game reviews and esports stories. Instead, I've been playing a lot of NES and SNES era Legend of Zelda . See, a while back I got a year of free Nintendo online service for the Switch. I used it a little. I tried to get my stepson interested in playing the old school Super Mario Bros. titles with me, which resulted in much eye-rolling and pleas to play Super Mario Odyssey instead, "Alone, pleas...