Video Game Deep Cuts: SpongeBob's Death Come True 2

Death Come True (Switch, iOS, Android) is a demise-heavy FMV adventure and the newest title from Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka. 

The deranged but amazing-looking Hylics 2 (PC) feels like a long-lost RPG from the 1970s. 

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox) is selling remarkably well, but is a pretty slavish update of the 2003 original. 

Ninjala (Switch) is a Splatoon-ish looking free to play multiplayer brawler with cosmetics and a modicum of charm. 

The Almost Gone (PC, Switch, iOS, Android) is a puzzle-box game which has you poking and prodding at beautiful miniature dioramas of homes. 

Why The Last Of Us II is a “narrative experiment depicting what would actually happen if a real human being behaved like a video game character.” 

This 10-year journey of an indie game dev from the Philippines is personal, interesting, & has twists and turns. 

Bot mafias have been wreaking havoc in World Of Warcraft, leading to 75,000 player (well, bot!) bans in the last month. 

How Magic: The Gathering’s biggest fan landed the role of a lifetime as its head designer. 

What famous game logos look like in Arabic (extremely good, actually). 

Deus Ex at 20: The oral history of a pivotal PC game. 

A great Shinji Mikami interview about 1999’s Dino Crisis, “about horror game design, difficulty, and how to engage players on a deeper level”. 

The real story of the people who legally changed their name to Turok. 

A new prototype of (the Western-developed) Mario Artist: Paint Studio for the Nintendo 64 DD has surfaced. 

Topdown GTA-a-like Shakedown Hawaii is coming to the Wii U and Wii later this year, because the dev really converting to odd, defunct platforms! 

A great video essay on the strange reality of Rollercoaster Tycoon. 

Robert Yang’s new game Hard Lads is typically outrageous and thought-provoking. 

Don’t generally link to previews, but found this piece on what it’s like to actually play Cyberpunk 2077 very useful. (It’s as expansive a game as billed.) 

On LGBT+ video game streamers and the importance of communities. 

Huh, Island Saver (a Top 20 free game in both Europe and the U.S. on Switch) is an educational game commissioned by a UK bank and has a 'tax bot' in it.