Pads & Panels

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Hi, everyone! My name is Jason King, and I’ll be doing some reviews for you. I currently teach math and geography at a community college. It is wonderful being around students; they have wonderful ideas for new games that sometimes fall off my radar.

I’ve been playing video games since I was about 5, and reading comic books since I was in my teens. Playing Sid Meier’s Civilization I inspired me to get a degree in history and, for awhile, I taught high school history. I don’t know what inspired me to teach math, but I don’t think Puzzle Quest hurt! (more…)

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Title: Half-Minute Hero

Platform: PSP

ESRB: E

Publisher: XSEED Games

Developer: Marvelous Entertainment

Rating:

Review by: John Gustafson

Exercises in game design experimentation are shockingly rare these days, and when they are pursued they typically originate from Japan. Half-Minute Hero is such a title, taking a satirical and over-the-top look at JRPGs by making the playtime 30-second “digestible” installments in an 8-bit world. Gone are the lengthy, self-absorbed plots concerning stereotypical character archetypes battling in grind-fest combat systems, and in their place is a one-premise story with simple characters fighting on autopilot.

As the Hero, players have 30 seconds to save the world before, well… the end. The catch is that time can be rewound, but only to 30 seconds before destruction. By reliving the same 30 seconds, Hero levels up, traveling to new areas and addressing whatever new problem presents itself as the be-all to end-all. It is an interesting idea, but limited in presentation and execution. (more…)

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