I have been playing games of all types my whole life. My first experience with video games was playing Pong at a friend's house when I was about four years old. Up until the last generation, I was an unapologetic Nintendo fanboy, but my love for the games themselves has expanded my horizons to enjoy all current systems.
As far as my personal life goes, I am a teacher and technology coordinator for a small rural school district in Missouri. I'm married to a lovely woman, and we have two boys, ages 14 and 7. My sons are my co-op partners, and the biggest chunk of my playtime is with them. Other interests of mine apart from video games are watching movies, NFL football, and collecting comic books and Transformers toys. (This is pretty much exactly what I was doing when I was ten, it seems.)
Unsurprisingly, one of my biggest interests in gaming is the classics. Nostalgia is a very powerful factor for me. Some of my favorite gaming moments ever are the times when I have played an old favorite game of mine with my kids. Games like TMNT IV and X-Men: The Arcade Game are every bit as good now as they were the first time I played them!
The latest game in the “toys to life” genre twists the formula: the toys aren’t required at all! Starlink: Battle for Atlas gives gamers the choice to play digital only, or with the (admittedly) very nice toys. Underneath the shiny ships, weapons, and pilots, there’s a very fun open world exploration game to be found. Starli...
I’ve been a fan of Power Rangers since the franchise started back in the 90s. Throughout the years, my sons and I have watched countless episodes. We bought the ranger action figures, the giant robot toys, a whole mess of morphers, Halloween costumes, and plenty of video game tie-ins. Upon hearing the news of a new Power Rangers game, a retro...
Developer Dreamloop Games has released a major update to Stardust Galaxy Warriors, now called Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax, and we decided to take this new version for a little co-op test spin....
I have been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for decades now, long enough to have read the comics before the iconic 80s cartoon. The franchise has had a long and generally successful history, and video game tie ins are a big part of that. Turtles in Time is in my top five arcade games of all time, and between me and my two boys, we’v...
If you are anything like me, you are approaching the level of burnout with zombie themed games. From board games to video games to comics and TV, zombies are literally everywhere. There are several co-op board games featuring zombies, including three we have already covered in this column: Zombies Keep Out!, Dead Panic, and Zombicide. What does Dea...
I've been a contributor at Co-Optimus since 2008. I can hardly believe it's been that long! Through the years, I wrote dozens of reviews and features, as well as hundreds of news articles. Being a part of Co-Optimus awakened a passion for writing in me, and I took that to the next step last year when I wrote my first book, I Was Geeky When Geeky Wasn't Cool. Now, my second book is available!
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void is the latest expansion to the extremely popular RTS giant. In addition to wrapping up the Starcraft II storyline, Legacy of the Void brings with it not just one but two cooperative gameplay modes. Co-Op Missions and Archon mode are vastly different from one another, and both have their own strengths and weaknesses....
One of the first cooperative board games we ever covered here at Co-Optimus was Castle Ravenloft. Released in 2010, this vampire-themed tabletop dungeon crawl was the first of the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System games. It was quickly followed by two more games in the series, Wrath of Ashardalon and Legend of Drizzt. Fans thought the series ...
Way, way back in the prehistory of the Tabletop Co-Op column, more than six years ago, we covered our very first cooperative board game here at Co-Optimus: Pandemic. In the time since that first article ran, Pandemic has become one of the most popular board games in the world, spawning a dice game, an upgraded reprint, and several expansions. Last ...
For Tabletop Co-Op today, we are taking a look at a board game based on a beloved movie series. In 1984, Ghostbusters was released to theaters, and became one of the biggest comedies of all time. The titular theme song raced to the top of the charts. Blending comedy with light horror elements and great special effects, the film would become a major...
The Warhammer 40,000 setting should be familiar to most gamers. From the popular tabletop miniatures game to all manner of video games, including Space Marine, Kill Team, and the Dawn of War series, the grimdark future is everywhere. Today, we will take a look at a rare cooperative board game offering from Games Workshop, set in the 40K universe: A...
It has been just under five years since we started the Tabletop Co-Op column here at Co-Optimus. Even before we looked at Space Hulk Death Angel the card game back in September 2011, we had covered other co-op tabletop games like Pandemic and Castle Panic in the now-retired Co-Op Casual Fridays column. We’ve taken a closer look at more than f...
