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Step by Step
May 7 Reviews

Step by Step

What's within this haunted house? And is it worth exploring with your own two feet? Jon Irwin wonders about the architecture of tedium as he explores Kinect title Haunt.

Why Grow Up?
Apr 18 Interviews

Why Grow Up?

We talk to PopCap's Jeff Green about the end of text adventures, why Bookworm succeeded where other word games failed, and how game journalism needs to evolve.

The Edible History of Games
Apr 12 Essays

The Edible History of Games

In common parlance, tastes change. But this is no mere truism; when technology moves with the times, so does what we find palatable. We look at the history of videogames through the surprisingly familiar lens of food.

A Kind of Gathering Panic
Mar 29 Reviews

A Kind of Gathering Panic

Two recent apps bring human beings in close contact. Runaway iOS hit Draw Something has strangers competing for bombs and profit, while Nintendo's Swapnote has more volume and humanity. 

Review: Fishing Resort Casts a Deep Spell
Feb 14 Reviews

Review: Fishing Resort Casts a Deep Spell

Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka continues to defy expectations with Fishing Resort, a Wii game that moves at the pace of nothing. Jon Irwin explains why watching the water poses a deeper challenge than the average game.

Review: Mario Kart 7
Jan 26 Reviews

Review: Mario Kart 7

Do multiplayer games bring us closer together, or push us farther apart? Now on its seventh lap, the Mario Kart series introduces some bits and pieces of social networking to mix things up. Jon Irwin recalls furiously racing against friends after school in the original Mario Kart, and wonders what it means that this has been replaced with the ephemeral connections of his StreetPass.

Profile: Matt Boch
Jan 18 Profiles

Profile: Matt Boch

What does it mean be a rock star? We sit down with Matt Boch, who tells us about designing controls for Rock Band sequels and other interactive projects as a musician and how a rock song compares to a sandwich.

Review: Rayman Origins
Jan 9 Reviews

Review: Rayman Origins

The return of Rayman turns the simplicity of moving left and right into a platform for ornate, surreal—and very French—beauty. Jon Irwin finds the game cause for celebration.

Review: Super Mario 3D Land
Dec 6 Reviews

Review: Super Mario 3D Land

A new Mario game is an event, but rarely one like 3D Land—which throws Jon Irwin's experience of Mario in sharp relief and leads him to reexamine the whole thing anew, beginning with the joy of jumping.

Review: Triple Town
Dec 5 Reviews

Review: Triple Town

We review a novel new match-3 game playable on Facebook, a social network that has arguably revolutionized the way we think about the people and places around us, though where that sits in the larger view of history is up for debate, when you think about it...

Review: Kyotokei
Oct 27 Reviews

Review: Kyotokei

If a game was made by the same people who design video surveillance software, does it matter? Jon Irwin investigates.

Reset: Xevious
Oct 7 Reviews

Reset: Xevious

With its 3D Classics series, Nintendo is bringing its classics into the third dimension. In our second Reset article, Jon Irwin reexamines vertical shooter Xevious and the importance of clouds.

In Search of Gaming's Worst
Oct 4 Articles

In Search of Gaming's Worst

Dave Carter began the Computer and Video Game Archive at the University of Michigan. But this isn't your typical archive of gaming's greatest. It seeks out the forgotten and worst bits of gaming, too—the Philips CD-i, the Atari 7800 controller, the doll that came with Babysitting Mama. Here's why. 

Neo-Location
Sep 28 Articles

Neo-Location

Two D.C. musicians take the avatar approach to the National Mall and New York's Central Park.

Looking Alive!
Aug 26 Articles

Looking Alive!

Jon Irwin experiences the tactile, analog joy of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum's many oddities and anachronisms. Leave modern day gizmos at the door and discover what it's like to be roasted by an animatronic alien, to test your mettle with the "Three Trials of Terror, and why Marvin Yagoda's entertainments of yesteryear deserve your quarters. 

Reset: Excitebike
Aug 19 Reviews

Reset: Excitebike

Jon Irwin renews his love for the simple yet perfect mathematics of Excitebike for 3DS, which, despite new bells and whistles, is still the same old classic at its core. 

Review: Gesundheit!
Aug 10 Reviews

Review: Gesundheit!

Jon Irwin can't find a cure for the mechanical sniffles in Gesundheit!, an otherwise healthy iOS title. 

These Private Realms
Jun 15 Articles

These Private Realms

Can the provocative underage anime girls of Dead or Alive: Dimensions make us desire something more dangerous? Jon Irwin takes a peek at the game's polygonal nymphs, and wonders what banning a game for questionable content says about our own sexual insecurities. 

Scenes: The End of E3
Jun 13 Articles

Scenes: The End of E3

On his last day at E3, Jon Irwin chooses Nintendo—above all else. The final installment of this four-part series.

Scenes: The First Day of E3
Jun 7 Articles

Scenes: The First Day of E3

Kill Screen staff writer Jon Irwin attends his first Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. In this dispatch, holding hands with mutants and reading into attire.

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