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.
For one year, one month and two days, Sonic the Hedgehog had a genuinely good mobile game. Sonic Runners, developed by Sonic Team itself, launched worldwide on 25 June 2015 — two days after the charac
Most hotel amenities are forgettable by design: a kettle, a trouser press, a television bolted to the wall. The Cherry Blossom Inn in Blackpool went a different way. Tucked inside the hotel was the Ti
Licensed games usually begin with a film, a cartoon or a comic. This one began with pencil cases. Pocket Zaurus: Swords of the Ten Kings was a Famicom action platformer published by Bandai in February
PC players upgrade classics like Duke Nukem 3D with high-resolution texture packs — so why can’t Amiga games do the same? The honest answer involves fixed chipsets and hand-drawn pixels, plus the upgrade paths the Amiga actually got: WHDLoad, AGA remakes and source ports.
Clone consoles usually promise more than the original: more games, more outputs, fewer scruples. The Retrospex 32, announced in June 2015 by the British outfit Retrospex International, managed the opp
In June 2015, word spread that the Sonic amiibo would unlock a Sonic Yoshi in Yoshi’s Woolly World — and the news carried a small, perfect detail: the yarn hedgehog version of Yoshi would wear Sonic’s
In June 2015, Retro Gamer magazine faced the happiest problem in games journalism: its new issue carried a feature called “The Greatest Multiplayer Games Ever”, and someone had to research it. The tea
There is a parallel history of gaming in which Mario and Sonic never stopped being rivals — they just agreed to settle it every four years with a hurdles race. Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Ga
Expansions were supposed to be simple: the game sells, the add-on follows, the register rings. The Shadow Warrior Twin Dragon expansion for 3D Realms’ 1997 Build-engine shooter broke every part of tha
At a glance: Console: SNES · Developed by LucasArts · Published by Konami · Released: September 1993 · Players: 1–2 (co-op) ·…