‘Chrono Trigger’ and Coping with Pandemic Trauma through Video Games
Coping with the COVID-19 shutdown via a video game, where I have control over the apocalyptic outcome, was what I needed. Chrono Trigger delivered.
View ArticleFound in Translation: A Journey into Adventure Game Heaven’s Vault
In the adventure game Heaven’s Vault, learning an ancient language is akin to discovering and shaping history; you decide how it is written and interpreted.
View ArticleBlack Sorcerers in the Trenches of David Diop’s ‘At Night All Blood Is Black’
David Diop’s At Night All Blood Is Black is a terrifying fable whose haunting imagery explores the traumas of empire, colonial thought, and masculinity.
View ArticleOpen Mike Eagle on Capturing Hip-Hop’s Oral History via Podcast
Open Mike Eagle’s podcast What Had Happened Was is an enchanting and illuminating appreciation of hip-hop. This passionate, energetic, and prolific man talks with PopMatters.
View ArticleHow Moebius’ Psychedelic Fantasy / Surrealist Art Influenced Video Games
French artist Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, inspired his peers and mass media. In video games especially, his psychedelic fantasy/surrealist art may live on forever.
View ArticleNintendo Makes Binge Eating Fun in Kirby’s Dream Buffet
Nintendo's multi-player Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a playful indulgence for those with a big appetite for quick, colorful, and approachable games.
View ArticleGlee and Melancholy in Drnaso’s Graphic Fiction ‘Acting Class’
In our age of constant performance, Nick Drnaso’s work of graphic fiction, Acting Class, is not an escape, it's hyperreality.
View ArticleToo Powerful to be Merely Entertainment: Video Games and the Work of Nicholas...
Video game designer Nicholas O'Brien creates and curates in a medium starving for critical conversation.
View ArticleCultural Self-Aggrandizement Has Us ‘Playing Oppression’
In Playing Oppression, scholars Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson lay bare the colonialist origins of board games.
View ArticleHow Pokémon and Japanese Media Created a Generation of ‘Monster Kids’
In Daniel Dockery’s Monster Kids Pikachus usher the pandemonium of Pokémania into the US, but his account of the phenomenon leaves readers wanting more.
View Article‘Sink: A Memoir’ Shuns Respectability Politics
Sink is more than an ethnographic memoir. It’s a harrowing glimpse into an omnipresent but often unseen Americana.
View ArticleThe Fun of “No-Fun” in ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’
The creators of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have created a video game worthy of Kant’s maxim, "have the courage to use your own intelligence."
View ArticleThe “Roll” of Life in ‘We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie.’
We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is as accessible as it is attractive. Its bright art style and jubilant music make the gameplay deliriously uplifting.
View Article‘Sundial’ Is Noname’s Contribution to the Current Golden Era of Rap
On Sundial, Noname raps like her voice is holding the sky from falling. Love of oneself and one's community is a struggle front and center on the album.
View ArticlePrepare to Get Slayed and Played by ‘Vampire Survivors’
Vampire Survivors' time-sucking qualities reveal the insidious aspects of the best video games and what players want from them.
View ArticleNostalgia in Lieu of Substance: ‘A Handheld History’ Plays It Safe
Good looks can’t save the book A Handheld History: A Celebration of Portable Gaming from being a trivial account of video game history.
View ArticleThe End Is Only the Beginning in Literary Game ‘Saltsea Chronicles’
Die Gute Fabrik’s Saltsea Chronicles is a poetic journey through emotional waters that the literary cognoscenti mustn’t ignore.
View ArticleThe Best Video Games of 2023
PopMatters' best video games of 2023 are important cultural artifacts. These games also stand out for their artistry, innovation, and accessibility.
View Article‘Pedro Páramo’ Is a Masterpiece that Resurrects and Welcomes the Dead
In our world, we irrevocably control the dead and their narrative. In Juan Rulfo's masterpiece Pedro Páramo, however, the dead control their narrative.
View Article‘Bahnsen Knights’ Game Revels in ’80s Pulp Fiction
Bahnsen Knights' story is an intersection between violent fanaticism and German expressionist philosophy. The clue is in the game’s title.
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