An early vampire tale, abandoned just like Lady Caroline Lamb — This review was originally posted to Twitter on January 28th, 2019 Initial publication: 1819 (without permission) Author: Lord Byron Most people who’ve read Frankenstein know the story behind it, that fateful rainy summer trip to Geneva where Mary not-yet-Shelley and her friends wrote scary stories. But while her story was the most important to come out of that…

Brain-bending monochrome adventure for a new era — This review was originally posted to Twitter on January 27, 2019 Initial release: 2018 Platform: PC Developer: Lucas Pope Once in a while a game is so utterly aggressively retro that it upends the conventions of both modern and retro games. Return of the Obra Dinn is a 30-year-old Macintosh adventure game in all but age. Deliberately evoking…

A fascinating spinoff of Roger Corman’s Poe cycle — This review was originally posted to Twitter on January 25, 2019 Initial release: 1963 Director: Roger Corman and several others (uncredited) Roger Corman is a legend; not only for his reputation for schlocky, low-budget cult classics, but also for his ability to wring every last dollar out of a budget. His 1963 gothic schlock classic The Terror is the ultimate…

From “Classicvania” to cultural phenomenon — This review was originally posted to Twitter on January 21, 2019. Initial release: 1997 Platform: Playstation Developer: Konami DIE, MONSTER! And thus begins one of the most celebrated games ever made. If you’re over 20 and you’ve played just one Castlevania, it was probably this one. This is the landmark. I can’t overstate how important this game…

Castlevania spiritual sequel semi-prequel gets semi-sequel… or something — Initial release: 2020 Developer: Inti Creates Platforms: Playstation 4, XBox One, Switch, PC When Koji Igarashi, after having left Konami, announced that he was going to put out a spiritual successor to Castlevania, the franchise he had been the showrunner on for years, the fandom rejoiced. A successful Kickstarter later and… not much happened for a number of years. However, during the long…

Odd as it may seem, they’re out there — but are they any good? — The conventional wisdom, such as it is, when it comes to military shooters (especially the multiplayer ones) has long been that trying to make an FPS out of combat scenarios prior to the end of the first world war (though more realistically the onset of the sequel tends to be…

An original idea for an adaptation, but Haytham deserves better — Initial release: 2012 Author: Oliver Bowden The idea of a “tie-in” novel is, on its surface, a bit of a strange concept. Though essentially glorified fan-fiction, some franchises have embraced the tie-in and built entire extended universes on them: Star Wars, Aliens (many of which are themselves adaptations of Dark Horse comic book storylines) and of…

Beginnings and endings, revolutions and evolutions, fathers and sons in this American Assassin adventure — Initial release: 2012 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Platforms: Playstation 3/XBox 360/PC/Wii U The history of the world, to a cynical eye, must read like a laundry list of wars, conquests and atrocities. New nations must naturally be borne out of old, emerging awash in blood and smoke. The American Revolution, the origin of the nation’s founding myths, was no different: a civil…

Before Symphony of the Night, there was Rondo of Blood… but not for Americans. — This review was originally posted to Twitter on January 15, 2019 Initial release: 1993 Developer: Konami Platform: PC Engine Super CD-ROM If there’s a holy grail for Castlevania fans, this game is it. Released only in Japan for the PC Engine (the original Japanese version of NEC’s cult favorite console TurboGrafx-16), it was a turning point for Castlevania as a…