games

For many players, publishers, and pundits, casual gaming is the wave of the future. Characterized by a pick-up-and-play mentality and often released on a variety of multipurpose devices, casual games bring freedom, speed, and ease not associated with traditional consoles or the modern AAA game experience. However, casual gaming has been around for quite some time, and even major publishers tried years ago to capture the simplicity of small games like Solitaire and combine them with the deeper gameplay and established franchises of traditional games. One example in particular, Star Wars: Yoda Stories (along with its sister title, Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures), contained many concepts that were ahead of their time, and which could well be revisited in the relatively new mainstream gaming market.

This fall will bring the release of Pokemon Black and White Version 2 in North America, marking the first numbered sequels in the main Pokemon series. Black and White were fairly innovative entries themselves,, modernizing the graphics and introducing a suite of online features as well as placing a greater emphasis on storyline and character interactions throughout the game. While the sequels will likely not contain innovations as noticeable or as numerous as those, there are a few new elemente and improvements on current ones that I would love to see introduced to make these games even better than their predecessors. Pokemon has always thrived on pushing the limits of technological connectivity and the social dimension of handheld gaming, and it would be great to see the new games leverage that history and the natural evolution of its features to become even better.

KIRAKIRA is not only one of the few all-ages visual novels currently available on the English market, also one of the most accessible. It features likable characters, an engaging and usually lighthearted plot, well-drawn art, and audio befitting a game that revolves around bands and music. KIRAKIRA is also one of the best-distributed VNs around, available on the iOS App Store as well as direct download and disc-based versions for Windows.

Bungie and Microsoft's Halo franchise is one marked by innovation and impact, from its revolutionary take on FPS gameplay to its role in launching the Xbox platform into mainstream popularity. Halo has spawned a number of tie-ins ranging from Halo 3's Game Fuel soda to multiple lines of action figures, toy vehicles, and even board games. One of the key defining features of the series, however, is the vast universe crafted through Halo’s novels, comics, and short films. Like no video game franchise before it, Halo has created a multimedia phenomenon of the kind scarcely seen since Star Wars pioneered the concept of an “expanded universe” several decades ago.

2011 has marked by many major franchise anniversaries, but one that is particularly important to me has also been one that attracted fairly little press coverage and even less attention from its producers: Castlevania. The original game’s horror movie-themed atmosphere, with its gothic castle and familiar creatures from mythology and popular culture, was a stark contrast to the cartoonish nature of Super Mario or the fantasy theme of Zelda-- but it would have fallen flat without the solid game that lay beneath the surface. Over the years, that gameplay has evolved, but Castlevania games remainas well-designed and fun to play as ever.