Fringe Busters

The dual-stick shooter genre has seen a resurgence in recent years, thanks to Geometry Wars. While frantic, top-down shooters can be addictive, they never managed to draw me in, due to the reflexes required; I just can’t keep up.

Sometimes I wish I could just say, “Go play this,” and let you guys experience something without my rambling, inarticulate initial impressions muddying up the waters. The game is sometimes so beautiful and simple that spending too much time describing it really dilutes the experience. If you’re the type that’s going to go play the game anyway, just go play it now before reading the rest.

I am now to the point where I cringe when I see a dialog box pop up in a game. Usually the writing is mediocre at best, your choices are meaningless and there's just mountains and mountains of text to wade through before you can move on. However, my major exception to this rule is a monologue.

White-knuckled, close range dogfighting is not a common theme for video games. Most flight sims from the ancient times of computing would try to simulate flight more than combat, and those that did simulate combat strove for realism - which left little room for intense dogfighting action. Very few have ever even tried, Crimson Skies being the most notable and recent example.