by Melissa Brinks | Jun 18, 2019 | Features, Video Games
Around the time I was first kicking around the idea of this column, Austin Walker, in a 2018 Waypoint Radio episode, suggested that Marvel’s Spider-Man was the first real AAA example of young adult games, following on the industry’s obsession with dad games. After all, it follows a young man who must balance his heroics with real-world concerns like how he’s going to pay rent, his fraught relationship with his ex-girlfriend, and coming into his own as a real adult. He’s an earnest, unrepentant do-gooder, and as I’ve mentioned in previous entries of this series, that sense of earnestness, of doing good, is one of the main appeals of young adult fiction for me. (more…)
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
by Nola Pfau | Dec 11, 2018 | Features, Video Games
One of the first tasks you take on as you’re playing through Spider-Man for the PS4 is the collecting of backpacks webbed up in various locations. These backpacks contain some of Peter Parker’s old things; little artifacts of his life, both civilian and heroic. How those backpacks are staying webbed up when everyone knows Peter’s webs dissolve after an hour is a question for another time, though. Right now is the time for food, because one of the artifacts found those backpacks is an index card containing the recipe for Aunt May’s Famous Wheatcakes. (more…)
by Nola Pfau | Dec 6, 2018 | Essays, Opinion, Video Games
There was a little bit of a… thing back when the most recent Spider-Man game came about. Not a real backlash, just a bit of a kerfuffle, really, about how the game features Spider-Man assisting the NYPD in repairing a surveillance network that spanned the entire city. It’s the kind of thing that in real life would be pretty bad, but because this is a game, the system works perfectly and elegantly, only providing the locations of crimes in progress and not spying on the day-to-day lives of everyday citizens. (more…)
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