Nobody buys a video game for its soundtrack, but, as the Game Boy’s Robocop made achingly clear, sometimes that soundtrack ends up being the most memorable part of the game. The rush of nostalgia that accompanies the pixelated tunes playing beneath The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. is enough to summon any…
The Super Mario universe is full of mysteries, like why Mario and Donkey Kong are friends now, whether or not their names are really Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, and why some of the characters from Super Mario Bros. 2 can pop up in other games if that whole adventure was a dream, but one mystery has divided the entire…
Nintendo fans spent this week in a tizzy as rumors of a Nintendo Direct newscast announcing an updated slate of 2018 games began to build. Those whispers turned out to be true, and the company published a 14-minute “Nintendo Direct Mini” this morning, unveiling a handful of titles and giving updates on several more.…
You’ve already heard from us about our favorite games, but we also wanted to dig deeper and applaud some of the most memorable sequences that helped make 2017 such a tremendous year. After all, every game contains multitudes of moments and decisions, and even a mediocre release can occasionally come together into…
Every December, instead of searching for a group consensus, Gameological looks back at the year in games through individual perspectives. These are the staffers’ personal takes on a few games that have stuck in their minds for whatever reason—big or small—and does not represent any sort of institutional expression.…
Keyboard Geniuses is our weekly glance at a few intriguing, witty, or otherwise notable posts from the Gameological discussion threads. Comments have been excerpted and edited here for grammar, length, and/or clarity. You can follow the links to see the full threads.
Earlier this year, I threw a temper tantrum. I was mid-way through Horizon Zero Dawn, a game of dazzling polish and exciting potential, and after a few hours of streamlined, mildly inspired introduction, I viewed with horror what the remainder of my time with the game would be: It was to be, yet again, a map game. I…
Stop what you are doing, immediately, and watch the above video by the fraternal rap duo The Hoodies. It will be the best six minutes you’ve spent on the internet in months. The pairing of 11-year-old Young Poppa and his older brother E Class results in some of the most exuberant, funny, wise, and technically…
Keyboard Geniuses is our weekly glance at a few intriguing, witty, or otherwise notable posts from the Gameological discussion threads. Comments have been excerpted and edited here for grammar, length, and/or clarity. You can follow the links to see the full threads.
Welcome back to our Super Mario Odyssey Game In Progress review. This second and final installment discusses everything in the game, including its many post-credits secrets. If you’re looking for a more spoiler-free discussion, check out the first part of Matt’s review.
Generally speaking, there has only been one way to beat a Mario game. For the old 2-D games, this is literal—you run to the right—but it’s even true of the more elaborate 3-D games, too. Super Mario 64 and the Galaxy games featured different ways to replay their individual levels, but depending on which one you chose,…
Keyboard Geniuses is our weekly glance at a few intriguing, witty, or otherwise notable posts from the Gameological discussion threads. Comments have been excerpted and edited here for grammar, length, and/or clarity. You can follow the links to see the full threads.
“The second season of Stranger Things—or Stranger Things 2, if you must—goes bigger: a bigger threat to its sleepy Midwestern setting, a larger playing field, and an expanded roster of players that includes erstwhile Weyland-Yutani stooge Paul Reiser. It’s not going to convert skeptics who dismissed the first season…
For many people, the question of whether or not Mario has a penis is moot. These beautifully small-minded souls either assume that Mario is a doughy little man, and so of course he has a penis, or they think that he is a fictional character designed to entertain children, and so of course he does not have a penis.
Welcome to part one of our Super Mario Odyssey Game In Progress review. This first of two installments covers the entirety of the game’s main storyline, but avoids details about specific surprises and late game levels. Part two will cover the huge amount of game that’s left explore after the credits roll.
Halloween draws nigh, and with it the annual parade of ghosts and goblins, trolls and Trumps, pumpkins and David S. Pumpkins, and other, equally obvious guises drawn from the well of contemporary pop culture. But you read The A.V. Club (or, at least, you scroll past it on the way to the comments). Your refined tastes…
The upcoming Super Mario Odyssey looks dazzling, transplanting Nintendo’s beloved ex-plumber into a modern open-world setting that retains the series’ typically surrealist touchpoints while also expanding on them in ways that have been delightfully discomfiting. People are still getting used to the idea of doughy…
The opening scenes of Super Mario Sunshine are some of the weirdest Nintendo has ever produced. Upon arriving at the tropical Isle Delfino for a rare, well-earned vacation, Mario, Peach, and Toadsworth, the princess’ heretofore unseen mustachioed servant, discover the island’s graffiti problem. A mysterious…
Keyboard Geniuses is our weekly glance at a few intriguing, witty, or otherwise notable posts from the Gameological discussion threads. Comments have been excerpted and edited here for grammar, length, and/or clarity. You can follow the links to see the full threads.
The humdrum showings from its competitors left the door wide open for Nintendo to tear the house down, and to most people’s surprise, the company had the goods to take advantage. Of course, the mere mention of the words Metroid Prime 4 set the internet on fire, but the unquestionable star of Nintendo’s E3 2017…