Kalise Pritchard

Nintendo is now comfortably into its fourth year of offering the Nintendo Switch Online service (NSO) to its users. Since its launch in late 2018, one of the main selling points of the subscription service has been unlocking access to a library of classic titles from previous Nintendo software; NES, SNES, N64 and even SEGA Genesis titles are now at the players fingertips, with a somewhat steady stream of updates adding more and more games to each collection.  Iconic games such as Mario 64, Kid Icarus and Metroid are readily available across both the Eastern and Western versions of the…

Let’s take a look at some of the wrestling games we can look forward to in the near future. 

Night Trap is essentially an interactive movie – a fairly unique concept for a video game, even by today’s standards. The story is presented using…

When it comes to video games, “Shovelware” is used to describe those made with a low budget, inevitably leading to even lower quality.

Last time, I opened with a line about how “the grind just doesn’t stop”. Nowhere is this statement truer than in regard to the speedrun we will be talking about today. We’ve already talked about ‘Shadow the Hedgehog’ and its 100% speedrun in part one of the series, so that won’t be discussed here. If you want to learn more about the insane feat, check out part one of the ‘Strangest Speedruns’ series here. For the sake of continuity and convenience, you can find part two – where I discuss some of the ‘shortest’ speedruns recorded – here. So, we’ve…

Merch – I love it. You love it. Your mother, who has seen ‘Friends’ a thousand times over, loves it. It’s a great way for fans to feel more involved with a product or piece of media. When video game merch is done right, we get fun, stylish ways to show off our love for a series. When it’s done wrong, we get controversy at the worst, and something to scratch our heads and laugh at, at the best. And when it’s done weird, writers like me get paid to scratch our heads and laugh. Super Mario Bros. Telephone Admittedly,…

Where would we be without YouTube? Probably outside.  Or on Netflix.   But what the great outdoors, and an awkward session of “Netflix and Chill” don’t seem to offer us, is some good old gaming content.  Netflix gets close, offering us fantastical worlds to get lost in, and gripping stories to enthral us. But watching an e-sports tournament, or play-through of a video game on YouTube, allows us all to share in the player’s accomplishments. To see their reaction to graphics. To story. To the nightmarish possibilities within a character customisation suite.  This is a letter of love to the creators,…

The Umbra Witch is coming back to the Switch.  A lot has happened at Nintendo since Bayonetta 3 was teased at The Game Awards back in 2017; the OLED Switch model was released, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wrapped up their roster, and Reggie Fils-Aime, the COO and now ex-president of Nintendo of America, resigned from the company.  But in 2021, Nintendo revealed that Bayo had spent the last few years getting more than just a sweet new hairstyle.  Mercifully, fans were treated to a gameplay trailer of the high-speed-beat-em-up during the September 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation, and with studio PlatinumGames…

The grind just doesn’t stop. Welcome to Strangest Speedruns: Part Two. Reading the first part is not essential to understanding this article, but if you’ve got the time, why not check it out here. Today’s focus will be on a select few of the “shortest” speedruns out there. Runs that will make beating Super Mario Bros. in 4:54 seem like a marathon to sit through. For the benefit of those who have not read the previous installment – or if you just fancy a refresher course on the subject – we will recap what a speedrun is, and a handy ‘Speedrunner’s…

Booting up a game should feel good. It should make you feel good. Whether that “good” feeling equates to fear, excitement or intrigue, depends largely on the nature of the game itself, but that feeling should be present regardless, when the title screen hits. A lot goes into creating the intended atmosphere in a video game, and I believe that the building of said atmosphere should begin… well, at the beginning. We’ll start by using ‘Cuphead’ as an example. For those who don’t know, Cuphead is a ‘run-and-gun’ platforming game, that adopts the ‘Rubberhose’ style of illustration – Think of…