QCF: Entwined

hether you choose to side in the camp that video games are art, or sit with the folks who think they’re too dumb to be art, there’s generally one consistent consensus that both parties can agree to; gamers from either belief can attest to playing at least one game in their life that made them feel something.

Granted, while there are few games where a majority of people can civilly agree on the game’s merit to elicit whatever emotion they felt, these game do in fact exist, and some of them share even considerably larger common ground within the gaming community than most would accurately presume; some games just have that it factor.

Entwined is such a game, one that’s entirely capable of rendering any who play it into puddle of feelings that they can’t quite explain articulately into words, but can’t deny that the presence of them either.

I’m going to try my best TO articulate these feelings, and why it’s important that Entwined brought them out of me, and became a memorable experience in the process.

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Bullet Heaven HD, Episode 101 - R-Type Dimensions

-Type has been around for ages and has several sequels and spinoffs under its belt as a series. Originally seeing release in 1987, R-Type and its 1989 sequel R-Type II would see release in HD as R-Type Dimensions in 2009 on the Xbox 360. On May 20, 2014 it finally made its way to the PS3... but how does it stack up? 

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QCF: OlliOlli

he snap of your deck as the concave flips around your feet, and the shock of landing clean against the ground, sending tremors through the soles of your feet; these are one of the few highs that skateboarding can induce, and it’s been some time that it’s been relevant in video games. While The Birdman took a stab at endorsing the concept of a plastic peripheral that was intended to heighten the appeal skateboarding in video games through physical simulation, the results were far less than stellar, and EA has done little to nothing with its SKATE series since the last entry underperformed in sales back in 2010.

Leave it to an independent studio by the name of Roll7 to introduce one of the most graceful return-to-forms for the genre; OlliOlli is one of the best thumb-twitching reasons to own a Vita.

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QCF: Thunder Wolves

elicopters! Hell yes! Nothing beats a game that lets you lay down constant fire against your unsuspecting enemies, especially when you can do it hovering motionless in the air. Or so it would seem. I dig chopper-based games as much as the next guy: Desert Strike, Choplifter, and Under Defeat HD all come to mind as vastly different cousins with a central helo-based theme. So I was genuinely excited when Thunder Wolves was announced for PC, XBLA and PSN.

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QCF: Corpse Party: Book of Shadows

e all know making video games is hard. The sheer amount of talent, money, time, passion and luck it takes to get a video game made is mind-boggling. It’s truly a Herculean effort to make a game at all, let alone a good one. But it must be even harder to make a sequel. You walk the line of introducing new ideas, while having enough of the previous installment’s DNA to please fans of the series. We all want something new from a sequel, but stray too far from the first game and you lose what originally made it special and fun. In that case, why even make a sequel? Corpse Party: Book of Shadows on the surface is recognizable as another Corpse Party game, but does its departure in gameplay and genre conventions lose what made the first iteration enjoyable? Read on to find out.

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QCF: Bit Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

"
ove at first sight” is such a cliché. I've never been one to fall for such a ridiculous notion, nor have I ever admitted to its true existence. Sure, you can like how something looks, but usually there's something underneath what can only be seen that's actually quite ugly. However, I was proven wrong on this theory when, at Logan International Airport in Boston after PAX East 2012, I booted up a copy of Bit.Trip Saga and played Runner for the first time. The delightfully retro visuals, silky game play and unbelievable sound had me seriously hooked. It was love at first sight. At that very moment I had a very sudden lamentation; Runner 2 was at the show, and I totally missed out.

After travelling across the entire continent to Seattle for PAX Prime 2012, I finally got to play the follow up of Runner, and it was definitely worth the journey and the wait. Fast forward to today, and it's finally almost time for Runner 2 to drop across multiple platforms. And let me tell you, this is a game that everyone – absolutely everyone – should be playing.

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QCF: Labyrinth Legends

’m going to try carefully describing Labyrinth Legends to you. So you know what a dungeon crawler is? Alright, you’ve pretty much got a good idea of what you’re in for with this game.

In Labyrinth Legends, the player controls a knight on a quest to save a princess. On his quest he’ll pick up loot like armor and gold and fight hordes of zombies while traversing cavernizzddiuhihuihuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii--WHA! What? What just-- oh it appears that I fell asleep at my desk while typing that sentence. Where was I?

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QCF: Sonic: The Fighters

hat pops into your head when you see these next three words?

"Sonic the Hedgehog."

Were you thinking about a fighting game? Probably, because you've more than likely seen the title of this article, and you're reading this review. But hold on there, did you think of a good fighting game? Probably not, right? Well, buckle up, because this could be an interesting ride.

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