Stephen Kleckner
VentureBeat
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, United States
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Past articles by Stephen:
This Resident Evil 3 feels more like a reimagining, not just a remaster
Resident Evil 3 Remaster tightens up so much of the charming funkiness of the Capcom's original, and it feels like a different game. → Read More
Final Fantasy VII Remake resurrects my interest in Square Enix’s flagship series
Final Fantasy VII Remake is so impressive that it may bring in new fans ... or old ones who have wanted more action in their Japanese RPGs. → Read More
New operators Iana and Oryx helped me dust off Rainbow Six: Siege
New operators Iana and Oryx show that now is a fantastic time to dive into Rainbow Six: Siege for the first time ... or come back to Ubisoft's first-person tactical shooter. → Read More
Alien: Blackout review — This is how you do a mobile spinoff
Alien: Blackout is a cleverly crafted piece of work that shapes itself around the limitations of its mobile canvas. → Read More
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes review — all love with a flawed heart
The outer layer of Travis Strikes Again is an amazingly experimental and superbly executed dive into the complicated relationship betwwen gaming and Suda. → Read More
Alien Blackout hands-on: Don’t assume mobile is a bad idea
With Alien Blackout, developers Rival Games and Theory Interactive and publishers FoxNext/D3 Go! remind us that the platform doesn't dictate the quality. → Read More
Swery on crafting Japanese indie The Missing’s narrative puzzle design
Preview In the niche world of celebrity Japanese game designers, Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro‘s up-and-coming status can seem a bit out of left field for Western audiences. His resume is full of strong titles that just barely skirt under the radar compared to his more recognizable contemporaries, such as a Yoko Taro or Hideo Kojima. I would … → Read More
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle review — an accessible gateway to anime fighters
I’ve been playing fighting games longer than some of you have been alive. Do you know which fighting games are most intimidating for me to approach? Nope, it’s not 3D fighters like Tekk… → Read More
Tournament Battle is Capcom’s gift to Nintendo Switch Street Fighter fans
If you’re a Street Fighter fan, yet you don’t own a Nintendo Switch, the upcoming Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection may trigger you. Capcom is adding one slightly rare chapter of the Street Fighter series to the 30th Anniversary Collection, Super Street Fighter II : The New Challengers – Tournament Battle … and it’s a Nintendo Switch exclusive. → Read More
How Arc System Works is aiming for a simpler fighter with BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
When I think about Arc System Works, my brain can’t help but make the comparison to 1990s’ Capcom. And it isn’t because they are both the source of great 2D fighting games. → Read More
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition review — how the fighter should have launched
I’ve been thoroughly invested in Street Fighter V for the last two years. It’s my “main game.” The thing I play when I am done doing adult stuff, usually involving other games. It’s to the point where I run a local tournament dedicated to Street Fighter V every week. → Read More
SmartBoy review: Turning your phone into a GameBoy is cool, but it’s also a pain
The Nintendo GameBoy library is a sweet chocolate box of retro gaming: little cartridges containing quaint, meticulously machine-coded 8-bit treasures. It would be a shame to see these games become lost and forgotten in time. → Read More
Balrog’s back: 5 minutes with Street Fighter V’s boxer
Like most Street Fighter V fans, I'm not exactly shocked that Balrog, the mad Boxer, is coming soon. Except unlike everyone else, Balrog's release elicited a feeling of dread for me, as opposed to excitement. → Read More
Street Fighter V finally gets the story Capcom promised
If you walk up and tell me that narrative is the most important part of Street Fighter, I won't be able to control the violent spray of spittle flinging from my lips as I make the most condescending raspberry known to humankind. Yet Capcom painted itself into a corner when it showed footage of an involved 3D animated narrative mode for Street Fighter V, and wound up releasing, well ... awkward… → Read More
Street Fighter V shows how Capcom wants to make fighting games — and players — better
Eight years ago, I sat in a hotel room with Seth Killian, then the community manager at Capcom, where he had invited me to get an early peek at the first build of Street Fighter IV. What I played that night was extremely different from what the Japanese publisher would release 12 months later in 2009, but it didn't matter if that was for better or worse. The community, industry, and pop… → Read More
Street Fighter V round 3: Yoshinori Ono dishes on the comeback mechanic
Game design is full of creative people who apply chunks of themselves into their work. A game's structure can say as much about what a developer values, as much as how a film is edited says something about the film maker. → Read More
Street Fighter V round 3: Yoshinori Ono dishes on the comeback mechanic
Game design is full of creative people who apply chunks of themselves into their work. A game's structure can say as much about what a developer values, as much as how a film is edited says something about the film maker. → Read More
Street Fighter V round 2: Yoshinori Ono, Matt Dahlgren take on monetization
Street Fighter V is just around the corner, and it's one of Capcom's biggest, if not most important, releases of 2016. As the company's flagship title, it's crucial that Capcom finds a way to mold Street Fighter around modern trends, and that means adopting new ways of monetizing the series. → Read More
Street Fighter V’s Yoshinori Ono has more energy than a Ryu fireball
The game industry is full of interesting real-life characters. Street Fighter V producer Yoshinori Ono is one of them. → Read More
The virtual reality headsets that will rock your 2016 — and beyond
As press at CES, you don't so much cover the entire show floor like at other events, as much as you lay claim to a specific chunk of turf and roam that section for the entire duration of the show. If you're lucky, by the end of the week you'll have seen 1/10th of what CES has to offer. This year, seeing as almost no gaming stuff was going down at CES, I claimed the virtual reality section as my… → Read More