Tag: earthbound

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Ikenfell will let you relive your childhood dreams of going to magic school

Like any human being who was between the ages of three and 30 when the Harry Potter books were coming out (we’re talking 1997 here), I always wanted to be a wizard. Besides the obvious advantages of being magic, so much of that world was impossible to resist, from Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans right down to the Quidditch pitch and those terrible screaming bowling balls that broke Harry’s arm that one time. I was entranced, up until my 11th birthday, where an empty mailbox single-handedly destroyed all my faith and childhood wonder (it happens to all of us.) Still, I…
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Knuckle Sandwich shows us how to fight boxing bees and giant noses

As most of your teenage or 20-something friends can probably tell you, working in food service isn’t exactly the most rewarding way to spend your time. Customers will yell at you for mistakes you didn’t make, your manager will ask you to work overtime just as you’re heading out the door, your coworkers will come in having skipped one too many showers, and you’ll have to clean up more than your fair share of mystery slimes throughout your illustrious career. But hey, when you get home, you can always relax with a nice videogame, right? Just turn it on, pick…
Knights and Bikes
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Knights and Bikes weaves a tale of childhood, medieval legends, and geese

It’s strange to me that Knights and Bikes is set in the 1980s on a remote (fictional) island off the cold coast of Cornwall, UK. It’s a place where I spent some of my childhood, exploring damp sea caves when the tide was out and mostly being terrified of the pulsating purple jellyfish all around. There are the legends, too: the Beast of Bodmin Moor is the one that haunted me, a supposed wild cat that roams the Cornish grasslands, always conveniently out-of-sight so that cameras only capture a black shape with piercing eyes. There’s also a history of druids and…
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It’s all cults and charming co-workers in Knuckle Sandwich’s new trailer

A shitty job is a rite of passage. You move away from home, maybe go to college, and get a lame job to pay all those pesky bills and rent. Juggling the taxing reality of ten-page essays and “clopening shifts” (in which you work a closing and opening shift… in a row) becomes second nature. Your colleagues often become the confidants you so desperately need, the voids for bemoaning the woes of being a young, broke, and most of all bored adult. Such is the theme of Knuckle Sandwich, the latest in a recent slew of quirky JRPG-inspired games, this…
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Kill ’em with kindness and love in Undertale, an RPG unlike most others

Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Undertale (PC, Mac)  BY Toby Fox You might say Undertale is unique due to its passive battle system. Certainly, allowing you to choose whether to flirt or fight with every monster you encounter is unconventional for an RPG. But what makes Undertale a truly notable title is how it makes metaphors out of mechanics. Most videogames give you a sword, creatures to kill, and a reward for doing so. There’s not a lot of room for interpretation. Undertale, mimicking real life, renders conflict a puzzle to be finessed and solved…