Posts By Julian Titus
Ninja Theory sure has a thing for redheads don't they?
We're digging into another game from our backlog: Ninja Theory's Enslaved. We start by getting Julian's take on backlogged games from 2012, then we talk about what kind of a game Enslaved is.
You can do it, U-1! Believe in yourself!
With all my love for RPGs, fighting games, and big dumb action titles, it would probably come as a surprise that I have a large part of my heart reserved for music games. I’ve spent countless hours honing my skills on PaRappa the Rapper, Bust a Groove, and of course Guitar Hero. I even owned Britney’s Dance Beat because it was the closest thing Americans could get to a Bust a Groove 3, having been developed by the same team. However, one music game stands above them all in my eyes, and it’s the one that criminally never got a sequel. That game is Gitaroo Man, and I’m spending this edition of MIA to give some much needed love to a true diamond in the rough.
This is a natural 20 of arcade goodness.
Former arcade rats and fans of old school beat ‘em ups have something special to look forward to in the near future. Capcom is slated to unveil ports of their Dungeons & Dragons arcade games for PSN and XBLA at the upcoming PAX East. The two side scrollers were somewhat of a rarity in arcades, most likely due to the immense popularity of the fighting game genre, leading to arcades doubling down on those types of games at the expense of others. Now, though, players who missed out will finally have a chance to play these lost gems.
No, seriously-- where are you, Yuzo Koshiro?
People complain about the plethora of Modern Warfare first person shooters these days, but those same people forget that every few years there’s some genre that dominates the gaming landscape. We’ve gone through the survival horror phase, the RPG obsession, the fighting game craze, and of course the beat ‘em up era. During that time, one of the most popular and legendary brawlers was the Streets of Rage series. It’s been nearly 20 years since Sega’s personal head crackers had a new adventure, so it’s time to dust off this franchise and resurrect it.
We give Square Enix some friendly tips for keeping the Fantasy alive.
When Jesse Miller, our resident features guru, asked if I would be interested in doing a Final Fantasy retrospective for the series’ 25th anniversary last year my answer was a resounding “yes!” In the months that followed, I poured all of my love and dedication into a five part series detailing the 14 core Final Fantasy games. It was a labor of love for me; no series of games has been more influential or important to me as a gamer. I’m a staunch defender of these games, even when they go into weird territory like iOS time-wasters. That doesn’t mean that I’m blind to the fact that the series isn’t what it once was, however. As excited as I am for the future of Final Fantasy, I think that the fine folks over at Square Enix need to take a good long look at where the series stands. To that end, I have 5 things that I think could help immensely as we move forward into the next generation.
We think the PS4 sucks...NOT!
Hello again! This week on Nerds Without Pants Julian and Patrick give all of their love to the PlayStation 4. There’s been a ton of negative talk swirling around the new Sony console, and the Pantsless Ones bring a refreshing amount of positive vibes to the discussion. But before that—games!
Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Gear?
Spinoffs can be a dicey proposition. There’s a real danger of diluting the name of the original franchise by slapping it on a bunch of games that are only somewhat related, and if the spinoff isn’t a quality game to begin with it can cause brand degradation. When a spinoff succeeds though, it can lead to an entirely new franchise that runs parallel with the source material, slicing and dicing its own path to popularity. I’m happy to say that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is just that type of game; something that can stand on its own as a great action game while still fitting into the convoluted Metal Gear universe. But this isn’t your daddy’s Metal Gear; if Solid Snake is a little bit country, Raiden is 100% metal.
Sayonara, Rob-san!
Welcome to another edition of Nerds Without Pants! No, this show isn't about an epic wrestling match between Antonio Inoki and Great Baba.This time, we revisit a topic that we talked about when we were still the Tri-Force crew on PixlTalk: Japanese games. Instead of rehashing material we take advantage of the fact that we’re nearing the end of the console cycle and grade major Japanese developers on their performance. Before that, we talk about what games we’ve been playing.
WWE '14 hits shelves this fall.
We followed the slow and tragic decline of THQ here at PixlBit over the past year, and a few of us talk about it at length in the current Darksiders episodes of Backloggers Anonymous. As you no doubt know, the core THQ properties were auctioned off recently, but two franchises were noticeably absent from the big sell-off. Those would be the aforementioned Darksiders and the WWE license, which THQ had held the rights to since the release of WWF Smackdown for the PlayStation in 2000. We now know the fate of the WWE video game license, and it has fallen into the hands of 2K Sports. So what does that mean for the gamer itching to simulate Cena vs. Punk in a TLC match?
The controversial Japanese game developer leaves a legacy of genre bending titles.
Last week was kind of a crazy week of news for video game fans of all walks of life. Naturally the PS4 announcement took up the lion’s share of the attention, and with good reason considering how long the current console generation has lasted. Obviously big and sad news hit a lot of people close to this website with the announcement that 1up would be closing, and some excellent writers getting laid off. With all of that commotion it’s easy to forgive if you didn’t realize that Kenji Eno died last week, as well. You can also be forgiven for asking who that is, because although Eno was a legendary game designer to a lot of people, he was also an enigma that hadn’t been in the gaming news for over a decade.
