Hate the Empire, Love the Game By Levi Rubeck • January 28th, 2020 We were blown away by not only how easy It’s a Wonderful World was to pick up and learn, but by how much fun it was despite the lack of any deep interpersonal activity.
Lo, the X-Men are Reborn By Levi Rubeck • January 16th, 2020 Jonathan Hickman has given the X-Men new life, but how long will it last?
Hungry for Fresh Chavez Every Day By Levi Rubeck • December 19th, 2019 Cockfighters isn’t enough. I’m hungry for fresh Chavez every day.
Brain Burpies with Obelisk Overthrow By Levi Rubeck • November 7th, 2019 The elegance of Obelisk Overthrow inspires me to think harder, as if clenching my jaw was what keeps me from conceptualizing a plan and executing it.
The Ancestors of the Children of Morta By Levi Rubeck • October 17th, 2019 Families that fight together…fight together in fairly unsurprising ways.
Clacking Out a Few Kind Words By Levi Rubeck • October 10th, 2019 Levi plays Kind Words, a game about comforting and being comforted.
Cribbage With Grandpa and Dad By Levi Rubeck • September 26th, 2019 Levi plays Cribbage With Grandpas, a game that conjures surprising memories of his ailing father.
Portrayal of Guilt and the Gift of Concision By Levi Rubeck • September 12th, 2019 Portrayal of Guilt wants to understand the nature of this grief, to luxuriate in totality of experience, which requires a balance—dissonant plucked chords and surgically precise blast beats.
The Blackout Club and the Perils of Being Seen By Levi Rubeck • August 29th, 2019 Levi checks out Blackout Club and delights in the frights of being seen.
The Last Softball Player By Levi Rubeck • August 15th, 2019 “When he suggested we attend a baseball game, I wasn’t shy in my disinterest. We lost touch immediately after that.”
Does die Hoffnung Get Played at Emo Nights By Levi Rubeck • August 1st, 2019 Love Songs, by die Hoffnung, inspires Levi Rubeck to poetry.
Craig Finn’s Love for Scoundrels By Levi Rubeck • July 26th, 2019 I Need a New War makes its way with people that are difficult and neigh impossible to love, but demands that we do so anyways with a kind of firm tenderness.
A Joyous Insignificance Among the Stars By Levi Rubeck • July 18th, 2019 Will future generations know about the simple technologies we take for granted but have a high likelihood of getting lost in the oncoming floods?
Freedom is the Lance By Levi Rubeck • July 12th, 2019 I dream of the actual sense of commanding space and time through piloting a vehicle
When the World was Ready, Jawbox Returned By Levi Rubeck • June 27th, 2019 Intricate while free of self-indulgence, threaded with pop structures but heated up and twisted into gnarly, liminal forms, Jawbox was music that forced you to pay attention.
Running the Void Beyond Bitmaps and Chiptunes By Levi Rubeck • June 20th, 2019 Benjamin Soulé’s Voidrun expertly navigates limitation, inspiration, and curse-sputtering difficulty.
Ferocious Spells, Winding Sigils By Levi Rubeck • June 13th, 2019 Building off similar grunge and noise-rock vibes as Made Out of Babies, Elizabeth Colour Wheel builds out from that frame.
Finding Worth in Space Servitude By Levi Rubeck • June 6th, 2019 Joy in this game is finding solace in purgatory, stealing time from your corporate overlords, demanding value in one’s self not because of what you produce for your British AI warden.
Five More From PAX East 2019 By Levi Rubeck • May 23rd, 2019 Cutting through my notes of PAX East 2019 (and earlier, gulp) to drop a few thoughts on small, punchy games coming forth hopefully soon.
Chasing Pinballs Through the Earth By Levi Rubeck • May 16th, 2019 Creature in the Well is a sly title that purports that everything’s all been laid out.
The Beatdown is Coming Back By Levi Rubeck • May 9th, 2019 Streets of Rage 4 is as much a mixtape rhythm game as it was a brawl simulator.
Cuter Than a Cat in a Bowtie By Levi Rubeck • May 2nd, 2019 There’s more to Outerloop Games’s Falcon Age than the titular falcon.
Looking Ahead to Panzer Paladin as it Looks Back By Levi Rubeck • April 25th, 2019 A pinch of Titanfall, a little Mega Man, a fair shake of a couple Zelda’s, all coming from the well-seasoned sprite chefs at Tribute, I was already on board with Panzer Paladin.
So the Katana is Back By Levi Rubeck • April 11th, 2019 Like black clothes and classic jams, some things never go out of style, and we might as well just pin ninjas to the list now and forever.
Let Jawbreaker Live By Levi Rubeck • April 4th, 2019 They were young, money and booze and tour life made things shitty, then it all fell apart, it’s nothing really new or altogether special.
The Sax Always Brings Me Back By Levi Rubeck • March 28th, 2019 Angel Du$t fooled the old fans by daring each to hate this laser-beam of everything they’ve ever worked towards.
Let the Hero Speak By Levi Rubeck • March 21st, 2019 Fiction finds common ground by showing us the ubiquity of life’s specificities—I may not have lost my hometown, but I can relate to the loss of loved ones.
Never is that Brief Flash Resented By Levi Rubeck • March 14th, 2019 When a relationship is sent crashing, the unmoored self can be so easily thrashed upon the rocks—it’s necessary to reaffirm that sense of self, to rejoin that once-blended ego.
New Street Fighter for Old Hands By Levi Rubeck • March 7th, 2019 A lot of games try to replicate, if not exactly duplicate, the inherent friction and flow of what’s splayed on screens, but not Street Fighter Exceed.
The Slither and the Bop By Levi Rubeck • February 28th, 2019 While there are many bands I love that I feel don’t get their due, I’m particularly chapped that I can hardly find mention of Just a Fire online
Improving Your Headspace with Blades By Levi Rubeck • February 22nd, 2019 It is nice to be someone else for a while, even if that somebody is a scoundrel.
They Killed the Mechs so that the Pilots Might Live By Levi Rubeck • February 14th, 2019 Apex Legends is still fresh from the wrapper, but the squad communication, weapons, and range of tactical options already serve up a delectable sushi of hide-and-seek with bullets.
Now You’re Playing with Potential By Levi Rubeck • February 7th, 2019 As an early access cyberpunk game, 2084 currently floats on mists of possibility.
In Memoriam: Keiji of Celene, Drow Ninja By Levi Rubeck • January 31st, 2019 I want to lower my head for all the dead and abandoned characters we’ve lost
Artificial Interpersonal Relationships By Levi Rubeck • January 24th, 2019 CrossCode tingles with succulent friction and the loops carry me along on a raft that feels like home, even if I’m unsure where I’m going.
In the Trenches with Root By Levi Rubeck • January 17th, 2019 Where Root delightfully succeeds is melding the central conceits of territorial control games like Risk with resource management sims like Settlers of Catan, all blended with the exceptional art of illustrator Kyle Ferrin bringing in a whiff of Mouse Guard.
To Better Know that Death By Levi Rubeck • January 3rd, 2019 Gather round, lay out the tarot and find out the manner of our end.
Escape from the Sweet Board Game Bubble By Levi Rubeck • December 20th, 2018 There’s a bubble brewing around board games.
When I Flip a Card, I Hear the Sounds of Transforming By Levi Rubeck • December 13th, 2018 The Tranformers CCG is…more than meets the eye. (not sorry)
