Could an American Version of Bakuman Work?

Bakuman is a manga series from Death Note creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata published in Weekly Shonen Jump that follows a pair of young manga creators. It's known for it's realistic and accurate portrayal of the highs and lows of the manga industry and for bringing Jump's behind the scenes operations into the public. It's also damn good. Every time I read it I ask myself the same question: could an American version of this work?

The Case for Linear Gameplay

These days, video games are all about two things: open world, and open ended. In the old days, almost every game ever made was played on a straight line. While I think we can all agree that more open games are a great thing, they shouldn’t be the only thing on the table. We shouldn’t abandon linear games altogether.

One Year with the Shonen Jump App

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Viz Media's unprecedented Shonen Jump app. Since it's been a little over a year since I first downloaded the app, I thought I'd take a look at how the experience has been. I like reading comics digitally, but how does Shonen Jump compare to the something like Hoopla or other apps I use?

REVIEW: Fossil Hunters

Next up from itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Fossil Hunters. Developed by Reptoid Games, Fossil Hunters is a casual action-adventure game about digging for fossils and building your own dinosaurs. Every kid's wildest dream!

The Pulls: Spider-Man, Power Rangers, and More

There isn't a whole lot coming out this week that I wanted to review. That doesn't happen a lot, especially when you get as many review comics as I do. Whenever this happened back when I was doing This Week In Comics, I'd just skip the week. But this is The Pulls and oh my god guys I actually went to a comic shop and picked stuff up this week! Check them out after the jump.

Saturday Morning Update: Sept 5th

Well. Here we are again. TMG lore buffs will know I have had a few versions of this site over the years. When I stepped away at the end of May I was certain things were done for good. I was too depressed too blog anymore. After a month, I was too depressed to not blog.

REVIEW: Orion Trail

Back in June we purchased itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality which included 1,741 items in one bundle with proceeds donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. A lot of those items were assets for developers and PDFs for tabletop RPG modules and campaigns. But a significant chunk of them were indie games which means I'm pretty much set on review material for a while. Here's my first review of Orion Quest, developed by Schell Games right here in Pittsburgh.