Everything you've heard about the writing in 1000xRESIST is true. An amazing story that echoes the best of writers like Yoko Taro without being a simple facsimile those works.
If you're a SpongeBob fan and/or enjoyed Battle for Bikini Bottom this is the game for you. Purple Lamp builds on their remake with an original 3D platforming adventure. The Cosmic Shake lacks much of the polish you'd find in its contemporaries (Mario Odyssey, Crash Bandicoot 4), but the foundation here is solid enough. The developers opt for fewer, but deeper levels compared to Battle for Bikini Bottom, which gives stages a higher and more consistent quality. The writing is quite good as well; the main story might be simple but the jokes are very well done, and the game even imitates the gross-up close-ups found in the cartoon. Overall, it's a good time for SpongeBob fans, but if you don't have much attatchment to the series or previous SpongeBob platformers you may come away less impressed than I did.
"The Making of Karateka" is the first installment of Digital Eclipse's Gold Master series. It builds off the studio's work on "Atari 50". That collection took a more holistic look at Atari's history, while here the focus is on "Karateka"; a pioneer for cinematic games that has become a foundational influence for many developers; as well as its developer, Jordan Mechner. Digital Eclipse needs to be applauded for the work they've done both here. "The Making of Karateka" is flush with design documents, video retrospectives, developer testimonies and many playable versions of both "Karateka" and the unreleased "Deathbounce." It's a treasure trove of gaming history, one that preservationists and fans of the classics will love.
