Thanks the the overwhelming success of the Street Fighter IV series, producer Yoshinori Ono has taken his place as de facto head of fighting game development within Capcom. He’s not the only one within the company fighting for the cause, as Marvel vs Capcom 3 producer Ryota Niitsuma is also on board, but Ono-san has effectively set himself at the forefront. From his regular attendance at major tournaments to his constant connection to the players via Twitter and a mini-Blanka, ..read more

For those who haven’t been keeping close track, a reimagined Mortal Kombat is now less than a week away. The game has fans in a hype frenzy the likes of which has not surrounded the brand in years, and is poised to mark an absolute return to form, if not a magnum opus, for Ed Boon and his team at what is now known as Netherrealm Studios. MK will undoubtedly be a big seller for Netherrealm and parent company Warner ..read more

At Captivate 2011, Capcom treated us to more information on a pair of highly-anticipated fighting games, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Street Fighter X Tekken. The wealth of solid info on these two titles stole the show for a lot of us, and basically made Captivate a winner despite the bizarre omissions of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, Mega Man Legends 3 Project, and DmC: Devil May Cry. Not to take anything away from Asura’s Wrath ..read more

While the players and owners do as much as possible to make sure that we will have a terrible NFL season ahead of us, EA is keeping our fantasy football hopes alive with the Madden 12 Cover Vote that pits 32 potential cover athletes against each other in a March Madness-style tournament to determine who will be on the cover this year. We are now in the semifinals with four remaining athletes that include some expected players and ..read more

Occasionally you want to play a game to help you relax. Chime Super Deluxe is just the sort of game you’ll want to have on hand for those occasions. It’s not an immersive military shooter, it doesn’t reproduce the feeling of driving at one hundred eighty miles per hour. What it does do is provide and fun way to chill out.

What Is It?

Chime Super Deluxe is an expanded and extended version of the 2010 game developed by ..read more

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I am not a game developer.

If I had that ability, I believe it would win out over game journalism as my industry job of choice. I have plenty of good, feasible, marketable ideas in my mind, just no way of putting them in actual coded form, nor the time or money needed in order to get the needed education. What I can do, however, is use the Smashpad soapbox to explain what ..read more

Not since its debut in the early 90s has the Bust-a-Move series ever released an anticipated entry.  A version of the popular puzzle series has come out on virtually every major game system since then, but the result has been the same; there hasn’t been an effort to take the game to the next level.

What’s It About?

Starring the popular blue and green dragons Bubble and Bobble, Bust-a-Move is a puzzle game that requires players to rid the board of its ..read more

Developed by feelplus, this addition to Square Enix’s growing DLC library has received a fair amount of attention namely for being dubbed the “Strider of the 21st century.”  After quite a bit of time with the game, such a statement might need some revising even with Strider’s great Koichi Yotsui at the director’s chair.

What Is It About?

Originally known as Necromachina, Moon Diver is an action-packed sidescrolling beat-em-up that is just about as forgiving as a dictator enforcing stupid rules.  The ..read more

Nintendo has two kinds of franchises; the ones that get used a couple times a year to maximize sales, and the ones that see such little time in the spotlight that you have to stop and wonder if they’ll ever be seen again. Pilotwings is, without a doubt, one of the most underutilized of all. Prior to its unlikely appearance as Nintendo’s front-and-center offering on the 3DS launch, it had only appeared twice before, both times in that decade that ..read more

The classic Ridge Racer series has been around since 1993, and has been a part of more system launches than it has missed since it made its console debut as part of 1995′s Sony PlayStation launch. However, Nintendo fans have just as traditionally been given the short end of the stick when it comes to Ridge Racer, receiving only a dismal spinoff from Namco in the form of R: Racing Evolution on the GameCube. The only title to bear the ..read more

The hardworking hustle-and-bustle lifestyle that citizens everywhere experience make it constantly harder to own a pet.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons virtual pets continue to remain popular worldwide, especially in places with large and condensed metropolitan areas.  With that in mind, what better game to include in the launch lineup for a developer and publisher that literally controls the handheld gaming market?

What Is It About?

“Nintendogs” has been one of Nintendo’s most popular and profitable collections of games ever ..read more

The Nintendo 3DS is upon us, and in somewhat of a surprise move, Street Fighter is along for the ride as the franchise makes only its second system launch appearance in history (Street Fighter EX3, PlayStation 2) in the form of Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition.

What’s it about?

Like pretty much every game in the series to come before it, 3D Edition is about two players picking characters from a larger roster and battling it out in a best-of-three-rounds match ..read more

After releasing Ghostbusters: The Video Game in June 2009, Atari is back with the follow-up effort Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime on the XBLA and PSN. An arcade “shooter”, it offers an original story. However, with no Ghostbusters movie release or anniversary to provide a reason for this game’s release, does it have enough to stand out on its own? What’s It About? Sanctum of Slime’s story follows a group of rookie Ghostbusters instead of the characters from the movies. So instead of ..read more

“Red, Blue, Green, Gold, Silver… Watch, I bet they’ll even come out with a Black and White version!”

Odds are that’s something you said in the cafeteria during your lunch in grade school.  Some fifteen years later, it actually happened. With the never-changing formula, one would think Pokemon would have gotten stale by now.  Sure, it’s no longer the fad that it was over a decade ago, but to this day, the flagship Pokemon games remain as solid as ever with ..read more

Across the world, everyone is mourning the tragedy in Japan. Maybe you’d like to help too, but you’re broke and not exactly in a position to lend a hand to the rescue efforts.

Well, Mastiff Games, a small niche-market publisher, wants to help you help Japan. For every 100 people that “Like” them on Facebook between today and the end of April, they will donate an additional $100 atop their already generous $25,000 to the Red Cross for Japan relief.

Call ..read more

With pitchers and catchers having reported in mid-February, we have baseball video games to help tide us over until the regular MLB season begins. Unfortunately, MLB 2K11 decided to release a game they should send back down to the minors.

What’s It About?

With the NFL and NBA both threatening lockouts, Major League Baseball felt jealous of the massive attention. So the league called upon All Star pitcher Roy Halladay to rally the players together and threaten their own strike. What the ..read more

eastasiasoft and SideQuest Studios, the publisher and developer of the Soldner-X games on PSN respectively, have announced a new game for PlayStation Network called Rainbow Moon. Rather than make another shooter, Rainbow Moon is instead a strategy RPG that is an interesting new project for a developer that’s known for quality shooters. The story stars a man named Baldren, who has been warped to a beautiful planet called Rainbow Room by his arch nemesis. The dimensional gate that brought ..read more

In 2009 a little PC game called Torchlight was released via various digital distribution outlets. The game had very low system requirements which allowed it to run on almost any PC. It became quite a popular game in the months since its release so developer Runic Games has decided to bring the game to a new audience.

What’s It About?

Torchlight is an action-RPG set in the town of the same name. The key fixture of the town is ..read more