Reviews by Josh Higley
60 reviews · showing 1–20
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Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive
Antipole review
The gimmick is simple. Go to the right and win. You can jump, you can shoot, and you can invert gravity within a certain radius of the character. And that's it. There's no plot or villain, just you, a plasma rifle, and a hellish maze of…
Josh Higley · February 22, 2011
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Reader PlayStation 2 HG exclusive
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 review
Think back to a normal day in high school. Specifically, remember the routine. Every day, you wake up, you go to class, eat lunch, take tests, talk to friends, and do the same thing you've done a thousand times in real life. Yet through…
dragoon_of_infinity · January 8, 2011
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Reader PC HG exclusive
Saira review
Nifflas makes a very specific kind of game. You can generally pick them out at a glance, it's the kind of game you can sum up in a single sentence. "Everyone is gone, but where?" Oh sure, there's a little more to it than that. Something…
dragoon_of_infinity · October 3, 2010
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Staff PlayStation 3 HG exclusive
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger review
Somehow, this deceptively simple fighter with fewer than 10 moves per character has the depth of an ocean. Even the story mode is deceptively complicated, and all the more rewarding for it. Moreover, the combat is complex, and the…
Josh Higley · May 8, 2010
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Reader Wii HG exclusive
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars review
Capcom has always kind of been the premier name in fighting games thanks to Street Fighter, but I've never thought that was their biggest strength. There are plenty of other games, each with their own merits that make them debatably better…
dragoon_of_infinity · February 28, 2010
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Aion: The Tower of Eternity review
A persistent question throughout both Aion's beta and the early days of live was "Will this game kill WoW?" It popped up in the world chat channel more often than "Can I borrow 10 gold?" That by itself is pretty mind blowing, but really…
Josh Higley · October 30, 2009
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Staff PC HG exclusive
East India Company review
It frequently surprises me just how broad the range of concepts are that get made into full fledged games now, especially on the PC. It probably shouldn't anymore, but if I was asked, I would probably list concepts for new games for…
Josh Higley · September 6, 2009
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Reader PlayStation HG exclusive
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete review
Modern day RPGs could stand to learn something from Lunar, though it's not immediately obvious why. It's a PSX remake of a game with graphics that would be embarrassing on the Super Nintendo, and a battle system that was already standard…
dragoon_of_infinity · August 20, 2009
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Reader PC HG exclusive
Knytt Stories review
Knytt Stories is a little hard to define because it's not technically a game. In actuality, it's a custom made level editor built by freeware genius Nifflas, the guy behind Within a Deep Forest and the original Knytt. He then used that…
dragoon_of_infinity · July 1, 2009
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Stalin vs. Martians review
But anyway, the game is an RTS in the same way that margarine is butter, which is to say it's not, but it looks similar! The overhead camera is old hat to the genre. The piles of units marching together toward their objective is familiar…
Josh Higley · June 4, 2009
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Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive
Star Ocean: The Last Hope review
Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the type of game that can have you reaching to play it again even though you just beat it a half-hour before, just for the opportunity to rough up some more monsters. The number of RPGs that have that kind of…
Josh Higley · April 6, 2009
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 5: 8 Bit is Enough review
All in all, it's a pretty great ride, but it's somewhat telling that even Strong Bad seems bored when you go to pick up the metal detector and shovel for the fifth time. There's plenty of more standard and less inventive ambling about…
Josh Higley · March 14, 2009
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Mount & Blade review
Really, it's just a matter of what you want. Anyone with the right mindset and a pinch of imagination can get swept away in the world of Mount and Blade, and create something that is unique and epic to them. That one aspect, in spite of…
Josh Higley · March 6, 2009
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Staff PlayStation 2 HG exclusive
Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica review
Ar Tonelico 2 took me by surprise. It feels weird to say that given that I played the first one, and I can't really say that the two are all that different. Gust is infamous for making the same game repeatedly but somehow, it just gets…
Josh Higley · February 20, 2009
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Reader Xbox 360 HG exclusive
Sonic Unleashed review
It's not really going to surprise anyone when I make the claim that Sonic Unleashed is a bipolar title. The entire gimmick the game is built around is that half of the levels feature Sonic being the fastest thing alive. The games have…
dragoon_of_infinity · January 31, 2009
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 - The Criminal Projective review
From the very beginning, it had to be coming. I knew it, probably everyone who knew of Homestar Runner before the games knew it as well. Dangeresque 3. Those of you who know what that is have probably already skipped the rest of the review…
Josh Higley · December 26, 2008
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Staff DS HG exclusive
Ninjatown review
Everyone knows about Ninjas. Their infamous reputation precedes them everywhere. If you close your eyes, you can probably picture one in your mind. Clad entirely in black, they're a short, round people with no discernible hands or feet…
Josh Higley · December 8, 2008
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Reader Xbox 360 HG exclusive
Castle Crashers review
Flash games have become a kind of champion of lost productivity. Whether using them to milk the clock at work or to avoid that pesky learning thing in school, a massive time sink is perpetually just a click away. Utterly simplistic, these…
dragoon_of_infinity · November 14, 2008
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands review
It was somewhere around the middle of Baddest of the Bands that it became obvious the series was almost more sitcom than game. At the time, I was attempting to set a car on fire, so that I could take a picture of it for an album cover…
Josh Higley · November 8, 2008
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Staff PC HG exclusive
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free review
In essence, this game makes the entire first game feel like a lengthy tutorial, familiarizing you with the characters and the locations and the flow of gameplay. It was as much a learning experience for the developers as it was for the…
Josh Higley · October 26, 2008
