Henry Crouch

Pokémon takes on the typing-tutor game sub genre.

When I was a kid, nobody I knew actually learned anything from Mario Teaches Typing. It was the kind of lazily constructed, “edutainment” game that came pre-loaded on computers in my elementary school’s computer lab. Nobody played it to learn how to type— it wasn’t very useful in that regard, nor di

PAUSE: Check out these custom, steampunk-esque 3DS speakers.

Remember when the Game Boy was little more than a dot-matrix with stereo sound, and required wacky contraptions like this to be played and enjoyed under many circumstances? Perhaps that’s not the case today, but these custom speaker/amplifiers are awesome anyway.

Nintendo linked to Congo-warzone controversy.

When the mobile game Phone Story was banned from Apple’s app store, it raised further awareness about questions of human rights violation that encircled the production of iPhones, from outsourced labor in China to the controversial extraction of precious minerals from the Democratic Republic of Cong

Ukiyo-e Heroes is Japanese woodblock for the gamer set.

Earlier this year we posted about an awesome series of illustrations  depicting videogame heroes as japanese woodblock illustrations. Now Jed Henry, the man behind these illustrations, is raising money to actually print these illustrations through a traditional woodblock process, with the aid of Tok

Brian Ulrich’s dystopian photography reminds us of Fallout 3.

After the zombie infection spreads, after the atomic bomb drops, after the alien invasion: the auteur directors and game developers behind post-apocalyptic narratives often focus their attention to detail towards public and commercial spaces, rendering them vacant and decaying. Think of the establis

GaymerCon promises a fun and inclusive space for geeks of all types.

“Gaming is a common shared experience that helps us escape, educates us and helps to define who we are and want to be.”  According to their official website, Gaymercon is a new and upcoming videogame and geek-culture convention for LGBTQ and allied communities, which will be hosted on August 3rd and

Chris Marker: Open-World Pioneer

The late Chris Marker was a forerunner of experimental science fiction and transmedia practice. Today, Henry Crouch reflects on his contributions to art and the open-world game.

The surprisingly long history of live-action role-playing.

According to Lizzie Stark, author of a new book on the history of Live-action Roleplay (LARP), Leaving Mundania, the history of LARP dates back far beyond the era of Tolkein-esque fantasy to the Romans and Elizabethans: Queen Elizabeth I presided over some serious, and seriously expensive, larplike

EA joins a coalition to repeal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).

EA, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, hasn’t always been publicized in a positive light, but they continue to assert a supportive stance on LGBT diversity. As controversy around the Defense of Marriage Act— a law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman on a federal lev

Why modern HDTVs are ruining precision-based gameplay.

PaRappa the Rapper has always been a hard game, but now it may be harder than ever due to a common issue of display-latency in HDTVs. The HDTV’s fatal flaw lies in its many filters: deep-blacks, vivid colors and high-resolutions may look fantastic, but the amount of post-processing power required to

Eddo Stern makes art-games about game-life.

Eddo Stern is a multimedia artist working around the politics and philosophies of games, and the games of politics and philosophy. In a review of his recent exhibition at Young Projects in LA, Sharon Mizota makes note of two games displayed for public play, Darkgame and Goldstation, which touch on e

Rayman Legends hands players the baton, pushes composition over competition.

video At a recent press preview in NYC, I had a chance to demo parts of the upcoming Rayman Legends, a follow-up to 2011’s Rayman Origins. Legends‘ gameplay will be familiar to fans of Origins, only slicker: it carries on Origins’ distinct, painterly art style, now with even more refinement and the

Ghost Rules

When does the challenge of rules guide rather than impose in games as well as music? We talk to Will Wiesenfeld, aka experimental musician Baths, about the parallels between casual immersion in music and games, the results of demanding diversity in Mass Effect, and how to not break the “ghost rules.

Violence against games is the new violence in games.

According to a recent report from The New York Times, Resorts World Casino in Queens, NY is facing a continual slew of assaults by angry players against its gambling machines. “I lost $300 without a bonus, so yes, I broke the machine,” George Govan, a 56-year-old man from Brooklyn, told security gua

Is the art of videogame fragrance even a thing?

According to Epic Scents, a new company set to create air-fresheners of licensed videogame characters, Capcom’s Mega Man smells like “the essence of a boy put into a man’s role.” Um, ok. But what does that smell like? “There is a purity in him, he has a real pure heart,” Kavanaugh said, “but there i

Are players tourists or travelers?

“Whatever impels us to travel, it is no longer the oracle, the pilgrimage or the gods. It is the compulsion to be elsewhere, anywhere but here,” according to a recent piece by Ilan Stavans and Joshua Ellison in Opinionator. There are clear parallels to gameplay here— many gamers can attest to the da

Social gaming, brought to you by Japanese organized crime.

Jake Edelstein is an American journalist who has spent his career covering crime in Japan. He’s recently been published in an interview on Edge, where he speaks about the ties between organized crime and gaming in Japan. When asked about yakuza influence on the booming social gaming industry, he res

Divekick is a parody of your favorite fighting game, making its way to PC.

Divekick could be classified as a “minimalist” fighting game, or a fighting game parody. Or as just plain ridiculous. According to creator Adam “Keits” Heart, it started out as a joke, but grew into a seriously fun game. In Divekick, players only have two buttons: jump and kick. There is no means to

Fez’s soundtrack inspired by classical music.

video Fez‘s 8-bit visual aesthetic may be inspired by videogame history, but its soundtrack draws from a differing long-gone era: the romantic era of classical music. Listen to the above track from Fez‘s soundtrack, composed by Disasterpeace, and note that it is actually a synthesized version of Pré

Students are using touchscreen technology to better grasp museum practice.

Museums are incorporating technology into their many modes of public engagement like never before. Here is further proof: The University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies has partnered with The British Museum to create an interactive touchscreen app for students: The new app, used as part of a

Nintendo will release a Circle Pad Pro XL for the 3DS XL after all.

When Nintendo’s rumored 3DS reboot was officially announced last week, some remarked skeptically about a lack of dual circle pads. Nintendo fanboys rejoice: in speaking with Famitsu, Nintendo has announced that a Circle Pad Pro XL will be released at some point this year. They haven’t set an officia