Retrospective archive

Hideo Kojima's stealth classic debuted on MSX on this day in 1987, and Kat and Jeremy return to Outer Heaven for a fresh take on a landmark classic.

By USgamer Team 6 1

The veterans who worked on X-wing remember when Star Wars was still a relatively blank canvas.

By Kat Bailey 7 2

The USG team recounts their personal favorite Star Wars through the years. Today: Mike on being a Jedi for the first time.

By Mike Williams 19 1

Game Freak's marketing juggernaut owes much of its success to its television spinoff. And it's still going.

By Kat Bailey 26 2

As the 2016 presidential election finally comes to a close, we look back on Japan's optimistic take on American electoral politics.

By Kat Bailey 8

How 2017's Western juggernaut can trace its family history all the way back to the frontier days of 1985.

By Jeremy Parish 3

The series' gradual genre shift may be unpopular, but it's not unprecedented.

By Jeremy Parish 7

Happy anniversary, Simon Belmont! Too bad your bloodline is as deceased as Dracula himself.

By Jeremy Parish 21 5

Capcom's take on Dawn of the Dead showed what the future would hold for last generation's consoles, even if few others would borrow its hardcore approach.

By Bob Mackey 10

Nintendo's 16-bit behemoth has hit the quarter-century mark, and we're celebrating with live streams of the system's 25 best games! Our anniversary showcase continues next week with EarthBound.

By Jeremy Parish 6

Nintendo's iconoclastic platformer defied expectations and became all the more memorable for it.

By Jeremy Parish 24

Without a multiplayer component, is there really much point to Pokémon?

By Jeremy Parish 4

The most technically impressive work ever to appear on Game Boy reveals a harsh truth about the realities of making games.

By Jeremy Parish 11

Why the classic brawler's handheld version was almost (but not quite) its best home port.

By Jeremy Parish 17 7

20 years ago, Nintendo's final cartridge-based console launched in Japan. The USgamer team reflects on what the system accomplished, what it meant, and how it struggled.

By USgamer Team 38 8

While this EarthBound sequel may never see an official English release, it still stands as one of Nintendo's greatest achievements.

By Bob Mackey 17 3

It might not have been the most faithful adaptation, but Link's animated adventures stood slightly above typical kids' TV dreck.

By Bob Mackey 25 10

COVER STORY: 30 years ago, a small team of Japanese game designers changed the way the world looked at role-playing games.

By Jeremy Parish 17 10

While it set us up for disappointment, this first Half-Life 2 episode remains one of the few treasures from Valve's most interesting era.

By Bob Mackey 10 3

This short-lived Nintendo series never escaped the 8-bit era, but its two games—now available on Wii U—bring plenty of memorable moments (and lots of pain).

By Bob Mackey 11 2

Things don't always go according to plan—especially when it comes to video games.

By Bob Mackey 16 1

The only thing truly "new" about Nintendo's DS blockbuster was the notion that maybe classic platformers still had a place in the world, but that was enough to make a difference.

By Jeremy Parish 22 18

When it comes to Peter Molyneux's brilliant RTS/god game mashup, close to two decades later, evil is still good.

By Bob Mackey 2 1

Square and Nintendo's 1996 experiment might have seemed strange at the time, but it birthed a long line of weird and wonderful RPGs.

By Bob Mackey 19 3

We all had to start somewhere—and these directors started in some pretty inauspicious places.

By Bob Mackey 13 3

Sony and Microsoft's plan to refresh their current consoles has become the industry's worst-kept secret, but they'll be fighting uphill against history.

By Jeremy Parish 36

While its intriguing premise isn't the only novel element this dungeon crawler brings to the table, it's ultimately business as usual.

By Jeremy Parish 8

An odd chapter in Nintendo's history is coming to a close. Here's how they ended up with the Mariners in the first place.

By Kat Bailey 10

Fifteen years ago today, Sega ended production of the Dreamcast. We talked to some of the people who witnessed its rise and fall firsthand.

By Kat Bailey 26 1