After Play Came Gamefan

For the past couple of years Play Magazine has been my go-to magazine when it comes to videogames. It was always beautiful in terms of format and had a more literary, or scholarly, approach to its content. Ok, videogames might not be art, but the excellent writers always treated them like they were, no matter what Brother Ebert might say. Unfortunately the mag ceased publication, and a hole formed in my blocked up artery heart because of it.

I might have died an early death from a lack of good videogame writing, but from the ashes of its death, Play has risen from the ashes. Dave Halverson, the publisher of Play, has gotten a lot of the writers together from his previous magazine to work on a new one. It's called Gamefan. Actually, it's two magazines in one. Or one magazine in two. The other half, facing the opposite way, is called Moviefan. I don't know if it makes much sense to have two covers. In the end, it's really just Play Magazine by a different name. It's about the size of Newtype Magazine, if you remember it.

Play and Gamefan have a huge slant towards Japanese developed games and the indie market while also covering anime, manga, and more offbeat US comics and graphic novels. Actually, when I first got into anime about 6 years ago, I had no inkling of what shows were supposed to be good and worth buying. Remember, back in 2004, you had to actually buy anime on dvds and had no clue if it was going to be any good or not. Reviews were much more important to me back then. Pretty much all of my first anime dvds came off of the Play Magazine best anime of the year list. So, really, Play was responsible for me getting into anime.

What I liked about Play and now, Gamefan, is the fact that they are not afraid to put smaller market games on their cover. I remember Muramasa, Bayonetta, and Magna Carta 2 being cover stories. The cover of the second issue, which is the first I've picked up, is Sin and Punishment Star Successor. Gamefan likes to review games like Deathsmiles, Cave Story, and 3D Dot Heroes rather than Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. You should definitely check it out if you want to read about videogames and other pop culture that is not puked out by an "Official" game company mag.

Their website is currently under construction but you can look at a 20-page preview of their third issue, which they say is on newstands now:

http://gamefanmag.com/