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1 week ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
Phantom Breaker was a fighting game from the mid-2010s for the Xbox 360. There’s a good chance you might not have heard of it because it didn’t exactly take off in the EVO scene and was relegated to Xbox Live Arcade only. This was a very weeby fighter that emphasized weapon combat and stances like Last Blade, but with more thigh high stockings and frilly skirts. At some point in the 2010s, beatem-ups became popular again.
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1 week ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
Xenoblade Chronicles X was one of the last Wii U exclusives to make the jump to Nintendo Switch, leaving Devil’s Third and Sonic Lost World as Wii U’s strongest warriors. This was after the smashing success of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, but before the sequel divided fans. Being on the maligned Wii U guaranteed a lot of gamers would never get a chance to play Xenoblade Chronicles X.
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1 week ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
The original Lunar games on the Sega CD were the flagship JRPGs for the console. These were big deals back in the day and were instrumental in helping anime penetrate the West. While the Sega CD faded and both Lunar games became cult classics, they got a second chance with remakes on the PlayStation.
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1 week ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
One of the greatest strengths of the metroidvania subgenre is how efficient it can be at telling a story without interrupting the player. To this day, Super Metroid is the gold standard of telling a story with almost no cutscenes or interruptions. As metroidvanias evolved over decades, developers have become less shy about the narrative bearing heavy on the gamaplay. Even the latest Metroid Dread succumbed to intrusive cutscenes, and it still managed to be one of the best examples in the genre.
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2 weeks ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
Rendering Ranger: R2 originally was meant to release in all territories on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but when the time came, it was already late in the console’s lifecycle. The PlayStation was already out at the time Rendering Ranger was due for release and only a Japanese publisher was willing to distribute it, and with only a small print run. Rendering Ranger inevitably became rare and obscure, but not so obscure that ROM sites and emulation enthusiasts took notice.
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2 weeks ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
The Disney company was always built on fantasy. Walt Disney’s vision of Main Street USA was founded on his nostalgia for an idealized America that never truly existed. Despite the company’s leadership changing several times over the last hundred years, nothing has changed. They’ve rarely produced anything genuine that crystalizes a greater truth, which is ironic since Disney Villains Cursed Café is all about bad guys who can redeem themselves.
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3 weeks ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
When we first reviewed Cookie Cutter when it came out on PlayStation 5, it was in a weird state. It felt like it was incomplete due to a lopsided story presentation and the gameplay could have used some finesse. After some time in the market, it was time for Cookie Cutter to find its way to the Nintendo Switch. This was already a solid metroidvania that boasted technically impressive HD art, but converting it to a handheld console would come with compromises.
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1 month ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
If you were a weeb in the 90s, you were basically from another planet. It was a subculture that was like an ant in the afterbirth, barely able to stand and all alone. If you saw anything in the world that acknowledged anything weeb-related, it was like coming home. Weebs today have it good. Thanks to the way the internet connected the world, weebs everywhere share their love for anime and memes for decades. It has become to ingrained in internet culture that it’s easy to take it for granted.
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1 month ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
Assault Suit Valken Declassified was an awesome restoration of a 16-bit classic. It was uncensored and included a wealth of extras and a fully translated guide decked out with lovingly shot models and miniatures. As great as it was, fans couldn’t help but feel that it was a tad overpriced for one 16-bit game, but there was hope that more of the Assault Suit titles would follow. In my Valken review, I hoped that Leynos 2 would get a chance to come to the West, and those prayers have been answered.
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1 month ago | 
nichegamer.com | Fingal Belmont
The 2024 Oscars came and went. Like clockwork, they awarded a film nobody cared about and will instantly forget while snubbing the actual best film of the year. As time goes on Hollywood gets gayer, more woke, more insane, and more insufferable. You can’t count on them to produce anything watchable. In the heart of France, Coralie Fargeat, a fresh and hungry visionary, sucker-punched the entire film industry with her satirical body horror movie.
