I am in awe. In all of my time playing videogames I thought I had seen everything from the surreal to the technically executed masterpieces. All of them pale in comparison to the genius of Better Call Saul DS. Every possible emotion a videogame can evoke and more are expertly weaved into this 100 hour epic, utilising every technique and technology thus developed for videogames in the short time our medium has existed. Normally I would find this to be too long but somehow BCS continues to reinvent itself enough every hour that I almost couldnt believe it had been that long after finishing, after which I had to take painkillers cause the emotional blow of no longer playing it almost meant the end of me.

From the mode 7 sprite rotation level at the Mesa Verde offices trying to get the Papers to Wachtell to the Fixed Camera survival horror section in Chuck's House and most impressively the open world sandbox of the desert inspired by Breath Of The Wild where you must continually drink piss until you are ready to face Mike Erhmantraut. I especially enjoyed the Wario Ware inspired Chicanery section where you must use the DS Mic and stylus touchscreen simultaneously to plant the battery on Chuck's person before the Chicanery setpiece. You'd think so many mechanics and gamemodes would make it feel bloated and unfocused but somehow it all works seamlessly together, a testament to its design brilliance

If there's any flaw I would say perhaps its the fact that it has made conventional videogames very boring in comparison. BCS has finally solved the "Detective Game Problem" of making sure you understand everything the game throws at you during the investigation sequences and cant cheese them. Its nothing short of genius. It does however mean all my favourite Detective games have become obsolete ; I have lowered my score of Ace Attorney and Obra Dinn retroactively to one star.

Better Call Saul DS is a tour de force of the medium that will redefine how we think about Videogames for decades to come and I am glad to be alive at the time of its initial release to the world. It has the potential to finally convince the skeptics of Videogames' status as art. I showed this to my uncle who hates videogames and the mere touch of the DS with the game up and running killed him instantly, exploding into a shower of viscera and then it Fired a giant blue beam that travelled around the world and resurrected Roger Ebert just so it could kill him again. I weep, because there will never be a game like Better Call Saul again.

Everyone knows Mario is cool as fuck. But who knows what he's thinking? Who knows why he touches flowers? And why do we think about him as fondly as we think of the mystical (nonexistent?) Dr Pepper? Perchance.

I believe it was Kant who said "Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play." Mario exhibits experience by tushing flowes all day, but he exhibits theory by stating "Lets-a go!" Keep it up, baby!

When Mario leaves his place of safety to grab a flowey, he knows that he may Die. And yet, for a man who can purchase lives with money, a life becomes a mere store of value. A tax that can be paid for, much as a rich man feels any law with a fine is a price. We think of Mario as a hero, but he is simply a one percenter of a more privileged variety. The lifekind. Perchance.

A genuine love letter to gaming - specifically the fifth and sixth generations - that champions the virtue of video games as social conduits without ever making it explicit in its text. It Takes Two is perhaps the apex of Girlfriend Gaming, but also acknowledges the general magnetic pull of video games as shared experiences that draw us together - and this is an experience that can be easily enjoyed with partners, pals and family.

The story seems to be getting a rough reception from players here, but I appreciated a new game that isn’t yet another low-fantasy fable about finding the Amulet of Kwisatz-Haderach to prevent The Third Reckoning or whatever. Sure, other games have tried the romance genre on for size, but it’s almost always about the early blossoms of teenage and pseudoteenage lust-love affairs - Twitter oft-demonstrates that games writers and “narrative designers” are still emotionally and intellectually 15 years old, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that divorce and parenthood are still remote concepts for video game stories. As a bumbling stay-at-home dad partnered up with a 12-hour-working doctor who’s constantly on a career-induced brain-edge, perhaps my girlfriend and I are just easy marks for this slight, specific Mrs. Doubtfire-esque story about a long-term adult relationship struggling to keep its flame alive, but I thought it was softly thoughtful, sincere and well-intentioned. I agree that the dialogue is over-resplendent with Uncharted-isms (“No no no NO!” “Oh ya GOTTA be kiddin me!”), but please give Hazelight some credit for managing to fill a 12-hour experience with a near-constant stream of dialogue that doesn’t often make you wanna claw your ears out - a rare, praiseworthy feat for any video game.

Reviewing the “gameplay” here is nigh-on impossible - taking this thing apart would be like individually analysing the content of every microgame in a WarioWare title - so I’ll just echo the general consensus and say that it’s incredibly impressive how freely this thing leaps branch-to-branch in a wide, shallow forest of genre and styles filled with obvious but welcome homage. As a long-term gamer working side-by-side with a new recruit, I took a lot of pleasure in telling my partner about Mario Sunshine and Diablo II and Dance Dance Revolution. FULL JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY DISCLOSURE: When I found the Ocarina of Time room, Josef Fares may as well have handed me a crisp $100 bill, patted me on the arse and sent me on my way. I’m an easy mark.

Was this thing too corny? Probably. Is it too long? Definitely. Did I have a lot of fun sharing a video game with some I care about? Absolutely - and that’s more valuable than what I thought of the dialogue or specific mechanics. I think this is a perfect example of a game that defies rational critique by virtue of its virtues and a commitment to doing things a little bit differently - and in the midst of a medium that’s constantly trying to deconstruct and twist and prove its own maturity by doing the same thing for Sad Dads again and again, something that speaks sincerely holds genuine, unironic value to me.