Reviews
God of War III Review: Olympus Falls at Full Scale
Boss fights the size of levels, a Titan you platform across, and the tightest combat of the classic series: Santa Monica’s trilogy finale is the PS3’s definitive spectacle.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Metal Gear Solid 4 Review: The Farewell the PS3 Kept for Itself
Old Snake’s final mission was the PS3’s first system-seller and stayed exclusive for the console’s whole life. Kojima’s sprawling, sentimental, mechanically brilliant finale, reviewed.
Reviews
The Last of Us PS3 Review: The Farewell Masterpiece
Joel and Ellie’s year-long crossing of a broken America pushed the PS3 past its limits and closed the console’s story with its greatest game. The original 2013 version, reviewed.
Reviews
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review: The Perfect Blockbuster
A train hanging off a cliff, a city collapsing in real time and the greatest set-pieces of its generation: Naughty Dog’s 2009 sequel remains the best Uncharted and the PS3’s definitive action-adventure.
Reviews
Demon’s Souls PS3 Review: The Brutal Blueprint That Changed Games Forever
FromSoftware’s murky, magnificent 2009 original invented the Souls formula on the PS3 — stamina, corpse runs, invasions and all. Our full review of the source code of modern action design.
Features
Every Virtual Boy Game Ever Released: The Complete Library, Ranked
All twenty-two commercial Virtual Boy games — the complete library, from a licence-game shipwreck to Atlus’s red masterpiece — ranked worst to best.
Features
Virtual Boy Hidden Gems: The Japan-Only Releases the West Never Got
Eight games crossed the Pacific in only one direction. From a Lovecraft horror adventure to the rarest cartridge in the library, these are the Virtual Boy’s Japan-only hidden gems.
Features
Gunpei Yokoi’s Last Gamble: The Man Who Bet on Red
Gunpei Yokoi built Nintendo’s handheld empire on ‘lateral thinking with withered technology’ — then staked his reputation on the Virtual Boy. The man, the philosophy and the machine that ended his Nintendo story.
Features
Still Red After All These Years: Inside the Virtual Boy Homebrew Scene
The Virtual Boy sold for barely a year. Its homebrew community has now been building games for it for decades — new engines, new cartridges, even finished versions of games Nintendo cancelled. Inside the scene.
Features
Seeing Red: How the Virtual Boy’s LED Display Actually Worked
No screen, no pixels in rows — the Virtual Boy drew its images with one column of red LEDs and a vibrating mirror. The ingenious display technology behind the red, explained.