With a film adaptation now in theaters, Sony and Insomniac Games remade the original Ratchet & Clank for a new generation of players on the PS4. Teen Librarian Alanna Graves recently reviewed the game for School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox and found a great platformer/shooter for all ages:

I think this game is great for all ages. It is a great selection especially for kids because it’s a shooting game that isn’t overly violent, it’s funny, and players can select their difficulty before playing the game. As for teens, I think they would enjoy it because it’s one of those “classic” game series that has persevered over the years but doesn’t have a large mainstream presence (that is, until the movie comes out).

Developers have been mixing puzzle-solving elements into their action games for quite a while now, and the last few years have produced a ton of titles that fit this template. More recently, two titles have really pushed the “puzzle action” genre to new heights.

Superhot is a shooter that takes place in slow motion, while The Witness is a return to the exploratory puzzle-solving that was very popular in the mid-90s.

Both games (which are only available as digital downloads) were reviewed yesterday by M. Brandon Robbins at Library Journal:

Most video games have some puzzle elements, with many challenges calling for identifying patterns and creating cause-and-effect reactions. Puzzle games use this mechanic as its sole driving force, with little room for combat or exploration, and they have been some of the best over the past several years.

Recently, however, two games have changed the landscape of puzzle games in a very real way. They will be influential for years to come, and making them available to your patrons should be a major priority.

I’ve been playing a lot of Superhot lately, and even though you can’t add it to a circulating game collection, I agree that it’s an excellent choice if you have a PC set aside for gaming. Solving the “puzzle” of how to survive each level requires quick thinking and stringing together a series of winning moves makes you feel like a superhero. Highly recommended.

The Street Fighter franchise has been going strong for 25 years, and Capcom released Street Fighter V for the PC and PS4 earlier this year. Teen Librarian Alanna Graves recently reviewed the game for the School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox and found it to be a good one-on-one fighter for fans of the genre:

Last week, I reviewed a fighting game called Pokken Tournament. This week, I’m reviewing Street Fighter V, which if you can’t tell by the title, is another side-scroller fighting game. It’s difficult to compare the games because Pokken Tournament is Pokemon’s first stab at a fighting game, whereas Street Fighter is one of the most popular/classic fighting games. If you want one quote that accurately describes Street Fighter, it’s “The essence of the fist is the core of fighting.” *plays heavy metal music*

Released last year for the PS4, Tearaway Unfolded is a 3D platformer from the creators of LittleBigPlanet that takes place within a papercraft world.

Regina Townsend recently reviewed Tearaway Unfolded for Teen Services Underground, and she was very impressed by the game’s epic story, along with the unique way players interact with the touchpad and microphone on the PS4’s controller:

Tearaway is an epic story, told in three parts, about a message/messenger named Atoi (or Iota if you choose to have a male character). The world of Tearaway is made entirely of paper, and when a hole appears in the sky, the inhabitants are able to see out into our world (literally, if you have the PlayStation Camera). They decide that they must get a message to The You, and send Atoi, an adorable envelope to deliver it. Guided by two playful and at times mischievous characters, The Green Man and The Fortune Teller, Atoi must encounter various obstacles that threaten the colorful world. As The You, you’re able to use every part of the controller to help her along the way. Rubbing a finger along the touchpad can send wind into the world, or flashing the controller’s light can help brighten dark places and fight the Scraps, dangerous pieces of newspaper that want to destroy the world.

Tearaway Unfolded also includes unlockable patterns to teach players how to create many of the game’s papercraft animals. So it would be easy to use it to plan a combo “Play the Game/Fold the Papercraft” program.

Typically, a major “AAA” title like Fallout 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) will spend years in development after it’s announced. But Bethesda chose to officially unveil the game during this Summer’s E3 Expo, which was just a few short months ago, so open-world RPG fans didn’t have to wait very long before getting the chance to begin their post-apocalyptic adventure this past November.

Regina Townsend recently reviewed Fallout 4 for Teen Services Underground, and found a lot to like about the game:

So, while I have seemingly found NO time to actually READ more than two books in the past few weeks, what I have found more than enough time for apparently has been playing (and beating) Fallout 4. If you’re unfamiliar, Fallout 4 is the latest installment of the Fallout Series, a post-apocalyptic RPG set in the United States. I could write out the history for you, but why re-invent the wheel when there is a perfectly good wiki to do it for me?

The review warns about the game’s Mature-rated violence, but recommends Fallout 4 for teens (and everyone) due to the interesting moral dilemmas it raises and the choices players are asked to make.

This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on November 14, 2008.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has done pretty well for itself on the sales charts, but it has been coming up a bit short amongst the rank and file of gamers who hound game forums. Complaints of poor camera control, unfair enemy attack patterns, lame boss fights, loads of bugs and just plain unsatisfying gameplay abound. But I’m here to say that they’re all wrong. So very, very wrong. The Force Unleashed is a fantastic action game and one of the best Star Wars titles in a long time.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the second Star Wars “media project” from LucasArts. The previous project, Shadows of the Empire, was built around a novel set in between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The game, which was initially exclusive to the then new Nintendo 64, was a bit of an afterthought to LucasArts, but loved by most N64 owners. This time around, the PS3 and Xbox 360 game (along with DS, PS2, PSP and Wii ports) is the focal point and the novel is an afterthought. Amazing what a decade (and several billion dollars in sales) will do for a medium, isn’t it? Continue reading →