Monthly Archives: July 2017

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Review @ School Library Journal

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The Crash Bandicoot franchise kicked off a new wave of platformers in the late 90s and helped put Naughty Dog on the map. But after Vivendi Universal took over the franchise in 2000, a string of middling-to-poor entries forced the franchise to go on hiatus after the release of 2008’s Crash: Mind Over Mutant.

But that was then, and this is now. Today, Crash Bandicoot has returned thanks to the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a remastered compilation of the first three games in the series. Even though the original games are over 20 years old, Teen Librarian Alanna Graves highly recommends the N. Sane Trilogy in a review on School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox:

Crash Bandicoot is a 3D platform jumper where on some levels Crash has to run left to right and some are bottom to top. While players can simply beat the levels, each level has bonus items like gems for completing unique challenges like destroying all of the boxes in one life or a relic for beating the level under a time limit. I have forgotten how insanely difficult this game is, especially the first one! My favorite game in the trilogy is Crash Bandicoot Warped (the third one), because it adds more moves like double jump, belly flops, and BAZOOKAS.

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This game is great for kids around 8+, families, and teens. I also think this game is great for grown ups like me who played the original in the 90s!

The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is currently available only for the PlayStation 4.

A Weeklong Series at Waypoint Examines Gaming in Prison Libraries

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Waypoint (the video game arm of Vice) has announced plans to publish “At Play In the Carceral State,” a series of articles this week about the intersection of gaming and prisons. It’s not a corner of the games culture that you hear much about, and part of their focus will be devoted to the way prison libraries play a role in giving inmates access to games during their incarceration.

Waypoint’s Editor-In-Chief, Austin Walker, laid out their mission for the series in a letter to the site’s readers:

When I’ve explained this series to people, one of the most common responses has been a sort of awkward bewilderment. Games and… prisons? Play and the… ‘carceral state’?

On first blush, they’re an odd pairing, but a closer look reveals that games are a natural locus for this contention. They are concerned with boundaries, limitations, and rules—the hand of cards you’re dealt; the empty energy meter that prevents you from using your powers; the invisible walls and infinite, uncrossable seas which border otherwise vast open worlds. Yet they also enable players to experiment, explore, and defy expectations as they respond to those limits. And it’s that tension where games are at their most powerful—perhaps even their most utopian.

The first article from “At Play In the Carceral State” is Inside the Gaming Library at Gitmo, America’s Controversial Military Prison, a look inside the Detainee Library at Guantanamo Bay by Muira McCammon:

Over the past 15 years, many detainees have requested and read books from the Detainee Library. Journalists have actively documented what titles appear on the shelves, and in recent years, the inventory has grown to include not only DVDs, but also PS3 games.

But the library remains a labyrinth, a facility full of thorny questions. This summer, Waypoint sent me to the Detainee Library, to figure out what happened to the games at Gitmo.

New articles will be added to the series all week.

Stardew Valley Review @ School Library Journal

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Stardew Valley is a retro-styled farming game that first appeared on the PC in February 2016. Since then, it has also cultivated a large fanbase on the PS4 and Xbox One. The serene simulation is the work of a single developer, Eric Barone, and it was hugely inspired by the Harvest Moon franchise.

Teen Librarian Alanna Graves recently reviewed Stardew Valley for School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox, and she was quickly entranced by the game’s rural rhythms:

There isn’t a good or bad way to play Stardew Valley. Players generally try to fix up the Community Center because they can get special items and unlock special areas around town. The second thing players try to do is get married. There are certain villagers whom you can marry if you have enough friendship hearts, and it doesn’t matter what gender the player is. I chose to marry Elliot, a sensitive soul who lives on the beach who is trying to finish writing a novel.

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Like any role-playing game, Stardew Valley will have a niche audience because it is a slow paced, relaxing game. If you are a gamer who liked Harvest Moon, I highly recommend Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is currently available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game will be released for the Nintendo Switch sometime this Fall.

Max Brooks’s Minecraft: The Island Novel is Now Available

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Mojang teamed up with Max Brooks (the author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) to create the first official tie-in novel based on Minecraft. Titled Minecraft: The Island, the book is targeted at a younger audience and it’s available on store shelves today.

When writing Minecraft: The Island, Brooks found inspiration in classics like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe to tell his own tale of survival and mystery:

Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!

The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island… like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.

In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.

You can read the first chapter right now at Random House Books.

ALA Games and Gaming Round Table’s Report from ALA Annual 2017

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The American Library Association’s ALA Annual Conference traveled to Chicago this year, and there was quite a bit of discussion about games and gaming.

The ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table highlighted some of the events as part of a report for the ALA’s Games In Libraries page:

This year’s ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, was brimming with opportunities to experience and learn about games. The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) started with Escape to the Library, a pre-conference about escape experiences and breakouts in the library. Attendees at this sold out event received an overview of escape rooms and breakouts, experienced three different custom breakouts, and received guidance in approaching the design process.

The Games and Gaming Round Table also looked at several other topics in their report. The ALA Play event, where game publishers and distributors demo their products, was a bit hit. As was Conference Sessions that discussed enhancing discovery of game collections and active learning through games. Sharing Sessions looked at “Teen Driven Game Programming” and “Using LibGuides to Promote Your Game Collection,” and a huge panel about “Tabletop Gaming 101” closed out the gaming portion of ALA Annual 2017.