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Simon Parkin

Simon is a freelance journalist and the Observer's games critic. He is the author of Death by Video Game: Tales of Obsession from the Virtual Frontline. Twitter: @SimonParkin

July 2024

  • gangway going out to a semicircular building and the sea

    Simon Parkin on games
    Riven review – ponderous yet powerful remake of the 90s island classic

    This satisfying reboot of the sun-baked puzzle adventure now features VR clifftop walks, new solutions and star turns from fan Ronan Farrow and more

June 2024

  • Animal Well game

    Simon Parkin on games
    Animal Well – beautifully wrought indie underground adventure

    A shimmering subterranean world reveals itself bit by bit to you, an amorphous blob, in this enchanting, intricate game

May 2024

  • A character running across a bridge in a Japanese-style city-scape

    Simon Parkin on games
    Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes review – rip-roaring adventure from the late Yoshitaka Murayama

    Head into battle with your own turbo-charged squadron in this crowd-funded Pokémonesque sequel to the the Japanese designer’s classic Suikoden series

April 2024

  • a woman and a man smiling and laughing as they play a video game (out of shot)

    Simon Parkin on games
    Now Play This 2024 review – the eccentricity is the point

    A world away from Fortnite and Call of Duty, the UK’s biggest festival of experimental games celebrates quirky one-offs and making it up as you go along

March 2024

  • Supermarket Times game

    Simon Parkin on games
    Supermarket Times review – surrealist adventure in a store of secrets

    On this delightfully silly journey your challenge is to explore the supermarket aisles, meet the staff – and freezer goblin – and buy alcohol for teenage loiterers. Cheers!

February 2024

  • A character lying on a couch speaking to a psychiatrist.

    Simon Parkin on games
    Of Two Minds review – a curiously satisfying psychological mystery

    Fusing real movie footage and interactive free-association components, this is a compelling and at times enlightening experience

January 2024

  • The cover of a edition of Mean Machines.

    Pushing Buttons newsletter
    Pushing Buttons: The video game magazines of our youth are disappearing

  • Vincent Van Gogh's Self-Portrait, 1889; Adrian Lester in Renegade Nell; Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie; Taylor Swift on stage; Matt Smith in An Enemy of the People; the Royal Ballet's Manon; New York City Ballet. Centre: Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers

    2024 culture preview
    From Bong Joon-ho to Van Gogh: Observer critics’ culture highlights for 2024

December 2023

  • ‘Dazzling’: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

    Observer critics' review of 2023
    Games: Simon Parkin’s five best of 2023

  • Persona 5 Tactica Scythes of Eternal Darkness Screenshot

    Simon Parkin on games
    Persona 5 Tactica review – Famous Five-style Jungian urban warfare anyone?

November 2023

  • Spraying for victory … Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III review – exhilarating multiplayer combat rescues a tired format

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s campaign is a queasy anachronism

    Simon Parkin
  • Visitors pose with a mascot during the preview day for the Tokyo Game Show

    Power up: will Chinese financing be the saviour of the Japanese video game industry?

  • Frog Detective standing in an office while on the phone to the supervisor.

    Simon Parkin on games
    Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery review – whimsical whodunnits

October 2023

  • Detail from the puzzle game Finity.

    Finity review – inventive tile puzzle leaves precious room for manoeuvre

    A tile-moving game with a twist, Finity only allows so many moves before it hits gridlock, demanding chess-like foresight

September 2023

  • Starfield screenshot – a figure standing in a rocky ravine with a planet in the sky above

    Starfield review – an exquisite, electric, faintly rickety universe of possibilities

  • Dave the Diver goes underwater

    Simon Parkin on games
    Dave the Diver review – an irresistible deep-sea adventure

August 2023

  • a watercolour painting of a girl peaking round a doorway into a colourful living room, in the game Dordogne.

    Simon Parkin on games
    Dordogne review – storybook game paints misty watercolour memories

    Cédric Babouche’s exquisite landscapes evoke the lost land of childhood as a woman in her 30s explores her late grandmother’s home

July 2023

  • Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

    Pushing Buttons newsletter
    Pushing Buttons: Why it’s getting harder to play your old favourite games

  • Diablo IV.

    Simon Parkin on games
    Diablo IV review – spellbinding crusade against the forces of evil

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