Now that we’ve done the best, it’s time for the worst. Most “worst box art” round-ups just post a bunch of funny-looking covers that lend themselves to a single sentence of snarky commentary. But not this one.* Our list aims to point out box art that’s bad from a design perspective, and attempts to explain why.
*On the other hand, if you were funny-looking images with snarky commentary is what you were looking for, there’s also a little of that at the end of the article. Continue reading »
Welcome back to the only annual box art round-up that attempts to explain why each image is successful from a design perspective. They say you shouldn’t judge a book (or movie, or videogame) by its cover, but that doesn’t keep us from doing it anyways. Not everyone keeps up with the daily videogame news and reviews, and for them a striking or intriguing image is the quickest way to get them to check out the back of the box – or to click for more information. A good cover will at least get someone to look into whether a game is good or bad, while a bad cover can cause a lot of people to completely overlook a good game.
Here are ten covers that are both stylish and attention-getting. Continue reading »
Recently I’ve been playing 2009′s Wolfenstein, the most recent game in the classic Wolfenstein series. Or no, wait. It’s a remake. Or… is it a reboot? Either way, the game is… alright. The game still takes place in World War II and you’re still shooting Nazis. The story is like something out of a pulp fiction comic, the pseudo open world mechanic doesn’t come off nearly as smoothly as it should, the boss fights are stupid, and the acting is dumb. However, two things game this game worth playing: the explosions, and the weapons. In this article I’m going to detail what exactly about these two aspects made this game so enjoyable.
After reading an article on Rock Paper Shotgun, I became compelled to give Davioware’s superhard platformer TowerClimb a try. What I found was a surprisingly engrossing, atmospheric game crammed into a little 16-bit indie game. TowerClimb stresses that taking things slowly and not rushing is the only way to survive, and boy does it drive that point home. Continue reading »
Apple Jack 2, the sequel to the incredible Xbox Live Indie Game Apple Jack, will be coming out sometime “early 2012.” Creator Tim Sycamore of My Owl Software was able to take some time away from development of Apple Jack 2 to answer some questions.
Yes, we realize you’ve already seen almost everyone’s Game Of The Year, but be kind to us; it’s our birthday.
January 1st not only marks the beginning of a brand new year, but also one full year since Critical Hit! began. Here’s a list of our favorite games that were released during that year. Continue reading »
We’ve covered the worst box art of the year, now it’s time to look at the best. An effective videogame cover does two things: it stand out on a shelf next to other box art, and it gets across the general tone or concept of the game. The following covers are ones that I think accomplished this in the most stylish and eye-pleasing way. Continue reading »
It's about dogs that play football.
Like Jerry Rice & Nitus’ Dog Football (click to enlarge). Bad? I can’t help but consider the cover brilliant, in how perfectly conveys the absurdity of the game’s concept. They’ve even included a poodle and a chihuahua, so you know they aren’t being serious.
Instead, I want to focus on ten covers that are especially inept from a purely design standpoint. Which I hope will be equally entertaining.
But if it really was the doubleyew-tee-eff covers that you came here hoping to see, fear not! I have included a set of those as well, following the main entries. Continue reading »
L to R: Takamaru (Murasame Castle), Devil (Devil World), Marth (Fire Emblem), and Lucas (EarthBound 2).
Xenoblade Chronicles. The Last Story. Pandora’s Tower. Three games with one thing in common: Nintendo has the worldwide publishing rights, but won’t release them in the US. A popular story earlier this summer was how an organized fan effort called “Operation Rainfall” was going to great lengths to try and convince Nintendo Of America to release the games, only to receive a response that there are still no plans—despite the games being translated into English for European release—but “thanks for being such great fans!”
While I was a little taken aback by the borderline-trolling response from Nintendo Of America, I can’t say I was surprised by their continued lack of interest (or outright opposition?) in releasing these games in the US It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo decided to leave their US fans out of the equation. Or the fiftieth.
The truth is, Nintendo has a long history of holding games back from US release. The reasons sometimes vary (when reasons are given), but it’s a practice that goes all the way back to the early days of the NES.
To give you a small glimpse of what you’ve been missing, I’ve compiled a list of the twenty non-US first-party Nintendo games that struck me as being the most important, most interesting, or most potentially fun to play. I’ve limited it to mainly console releases (as opposed to handheld) in order to narrow things down. Now, allow me to guide you on a journey into the forgotten past… Continue reading »
Like Bizarre Creation’s Blur, Brink is a fun yet flawed multiplayer game that was released with major online connection problems, instantly crippling its chances of success.
But where the company line for Blur was that the connection problems were “isolated issues”—insisting that the online was working fine for the majority players, but that they were looking into it—Bethesda refreshingly acknowledged Brink‘s at-times nearly unplayable multiplayer almost immediately. Not only did they announce a series of patches, but also that there would be free DLC arriving in June.
Eventually June became July, and July became August. Friends became less patient and traded the game in while it still had value, or considered doing so, but I held onto it. And now here we are: it’s the first week of August, and the patches and free Agents Of Change DLC are finally here. So what’s the verdict? Continue reading »
