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There’s a saying that goes  “Everything old is new again.”  In the gaming world, this could not be more evident. From remakes of Bionic Commando and Street Fighter 2 to sequels like Mega Man 9 and the upcoming Sonic 4, people’s taste for nostalgia in games is at an all-time high.  It makes a lot of sense, though, when you think about it.  According to the ESA, the average age of gamers is 35  and many of them grew up on gaming.  It makes sense that they would want to re-visit their childhood.

Now I’m 23, so there were a lot of games that I missed out on.  While I played the original Legend of Zelda, my mind was far too under-developed to actually grasp much of what was going on.  To be fair, though, even now the original Legend of Zelda confuses me.  I love the series, but unless you’ve got a map and a clue about what you are doing, you’re likely to be lost for a long time.

So when I found out that the same minds behind Demon’s Souls were making what was nearly a remake of Legend of Zelda, I knew that this was one challenge I’d have to take on if I ever wanted to defend my nerd-cred.  To be fair, I was terrified of the idea of trying to beat a game by the same company that made Demon’s Souls, but I knew I at least had to try.  So how does 3D Dot Game Heroes measure up to the competition?

Use a hook-sho… I mean, Anchor Rod to cross the jump.

This review is a co-project between Addam Kearney and OneDiverseKid.

Ladies and gentlemen, we here at Talking About Games are proud to bring you our latest video review.  This venture has been a while in the making and only recently have we finally been able to make good on it.  So, without further delay, we present a Retrospective Review of Pixeljunk Shooter, available for the Playstation Network.

(Music: Hidden Foto Banks by High Frequency Bandwidth)

Episodic gaming rarely pans out, the primary reason being that it’s hard for companies to set themselves to a specific timeframe for completing games.   Any number of problems can arise in any number of areas, which can mean that games that are meant to come out on a regular basis can be delayed plenty of times before seeing the light of day.

The most notable of these failures if the episodic sequels of Half-Life 2.  While Half-Life Episode 1 and Episode 2 were great games in their own right, Episode 3 has yet to see the light of day.  Being that the last Episode was released over 2 years ago, it’s easy to see why some don’t believe that there will be an Episode 3.

If Valve is the epitome of why episodic gaming doesn't work, then the proof that it can work is Telltale Games.  I’ve already reviewed the first installment of their latest series of episodic installments of Sam and Max, and a month after the release of The Penal Zone, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak has been released to the world.  How does this episode fare?

Jump to the third movie reel to find out.

I’m willing to admit, albeit begrudgingly, that at one point the film series SAW had some real potential.  The original film, while being labeled as one of the early examples of modern “Torture Porn,” was a decent thriller that had a surprisingly well done twist at the end.  The second film… well, it was all right, though parts of it were far too cringe-worthy for me to enjoy.  From this point on, the series had a steep decline into mediocrity and, eventually, became just flat out terrible.

Despite the films’ flaws, the series has developed a sort of cult following.  While I might completely disagree with fans of the series, it’s hard to not see why they’re attracted to SAW.   As the series progressed, the story got more convoluted than a video game by Hideo Kojima, so the way that people were killed became the big drawing point of the films.  At one point in my life, I was actually dating someone who actually thought that this series was one of the best film series of all time.  Needless to say, this relationship didn’t go far.

As with any film that has popularity, a video game tie-in was released that coincided with the most recent release of SAW VI.  As I was sifting through the clearance bin at a local Gamestop, this title caught my eye.  I paid my $17 for a new, unopened copy, headed home and hoped that this wouldn’t be nearly as bad as the films had become.  So, is SAW: The Video Game  an exercise in torture, or is it a box full of syringes and other surprises?

I want to play a game after the jump.