A bulb-backed dinosaur, a flame-tailed salamander, and a bubble-blowing turtle — can any pocket monster match the iconic looks of Pokémon Red and Blue’s starter trio? Some players would argue no, believing that modern Pokémon designs have taken a turn for the worst. Sentient ice cream cones and literal piles of garbage just don’t make the kids excited like the critters of yore, they say. But what if we take nostalgia out of the picture? What if Pokémon designs really are different from how they used to be, for a reason? What if the Pokémon of today are instead being designed with a different goal in mind?

Character movement in Smash Bros. is central to the series, and has evolved with each release. Ahead of Ultimate's launch, we look back at how the mechanics have shaped the game as we know it today.

Donut County, a 2018 game by Ben Esposito, is overflowing with dumb jokes, an aspect of the game I was immediately taken with. Its music, dialogue, and even “Trashopedia” are full of obscurity just for the hell of it. Donut County leans into its nonsense, and in doing so, speaks directly to a nonsensical audience: my generation, “the Millennials.”

West Virginia falls victim to a great deal of stereotypes. It’s ‘filled with obese miners’, ‘overrun with redneck opiate addicts,’ or tarnished by another honest blemish the wondrous coal state owns. As a native of Ironton, Ohio, a small town just outside of Huntington in West Virginia, it’s disheartening that these tidbits are extrapolated to represent the whole region.

Earlier this month, pro Dota 2 player Peter “PPD” Dager announced a surprising new venture: he’s forming a Dota league. Dubbed , the organization shifts the focus away from the upcoming International Dota 2 Championships, if only for a moment. And while third-party leagues already exist in the Dota scene, the NADCL hones in on an aspect that most others don’t.

There’s an age-old discussion about whether games are truly art. Or rather, there’s an argument that wonders if that conversation should be continued. Video games are art, that much is sure. The more interesting dissection, then, is how certain experiences are artful. Gone Home was a master-class in emotional, thoughtful, environmental storytelling, as was Journey. 2016’s Doom was a fine-tuning of decades-old shooting mechanics, contorting them into something new yet familiar. It could be said that most games are works of art with their own specialty; you just need to turn your head and find the perfect angle to see.

“Inside the human body, roughly 37.2 trillion cells are working hard every day.” So begins the introduction of Cells at Work, an anime that turns complex medical concepts, scenarios, and organisms into interesting situations and characters. Seeing as I work extensively with these little friends, allow me to introduce you to the true cast of Cells at Work.

Chances are you’ve caught wind of Minit between its initial release and the clamor for a Switch port. It’s a wee, wonderful, one-bit adventure where, thanks to a cursed blade, you die every 60 seconds. While it’s a romping hoot of a game, it also blatantly wastes your time. I mean that in a good way: Minit tosses away precious seconds with so many fun, sincere, and clever tactics that this shines as a pro, not a con.

One of my fondest memories from Red Dead Redemption 2 is from my first play session with it, almost four months ago. It was just past midnight, and I had no earthly idea where my horse had run off to. Hoping not to lose my way in the wilderness, I kept close to the train tracks outside Valentine. It’s there I noticed something hanging in the support beams beneath—a body, crucified and missing a head.