IGN has shown off 15 minutes of new gameplay from Wii U port New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on the Switch.
The internet got itself into a bit of a dither when Nintendo first showed Toadette being transformed into Peachette. You can see her in action below:
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe launches January 11th and includes New Super Luigi U — an expansion starring Mr Green Stache himself.
We’ll be seeing more of the anxious brother next year in Luigi’s Mansion 3.
The neon platformer RAZED, a game that ‘rewards quick thinking, precision and creativity’, is out today for Switch and PS4.
The title sees you rush through levels, dodge obstacles and fight your way to the top spots in international online leaderboards. It combines boss fights, unlockable abilities and the option to quickly reset your runs as well.
Additional features include:
With today’s two releases, RAZED, from UK developer Warpfish Games, is now available for Steam, Xbox One, Switch and PS4.
The release date, for the second episode of Life is Strange 2, has been revealed as January 24th.
The new episode titled ‘Rules’ will see Sean and Daniel’s difficult story continue. On the run from the police following a tragic incident in Seattle and the manifestation of a strange supernatural power, the two brothers struggle against the cold.
Daniel gets increasingly ill and Sean decides that they must take the risk and make their way to their distant grandparent’s house to recover and seek shelter.
‘The reaction to episode 1 has been fantastic and it has been great to read all the comments and feedback from players.
‘So many people are falling in love with Sean and Daniel, and we’ve only just begun their journey. There’s so much more to come in Life is Strange 2.’ Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet — Co-Creators.
We’ve also been treated to a new live action trailer for the game, which you can watch below:
There’s a bit more available on the story for episode 2 as well, but why not just play it when it releases instead?
VR adventure game A Fisherman’s Tale will launch on PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality on the 22nd January next year. Luckily for us, it sounds rather intriguing too.
In A Fisherman’s Tale, you live a cosy, isolated life — until one day, you realise you’re just a little wooden puppet trapped inside the model of a lighthouse.
Worse yet, the model is replicated inside and out on an infinite recursive loop. You quickly find out you can collaborate with none other than yourself to solve the multi-dimensional riddles that pave the way to discovering your true reality. You can check it out here in a 360° video:
A Fisherman’s Tale is developed by Innerspace VR — we’re already loving the premise of this.
A new Nintendo Minute has been released which features hosts Kit and Krysta joined by the one and only (Nintendo of America’s) Reggie Fils-Aime.
In the video, Reggie reacts to some of the key moments of Ultimate’s marketing campaign, from the initial reveal of the game to its release. Light-hearted takeaways include:
Time to get some practise in, Reggie.
The remake (yes remake, not remaster) of MediEvil on PS4 has finally shown itself. The game is a complete transformation of the PS1 classic from the ‘grave up’. It’s certainly been a long time coming:
Impressive, right? MediEvil is out next year, but that’s all we know for now. We’ve been told to expect more details in the coming months. Stay tuned and Happy Halloween!
Variety is reporting that TV network AMC, and Korean developer Smilegate, were in funding talks with Telltale Games shortly before the mass layoffs — that have shocked the games industry — occurred.
It’s said that Telltale even held a meeting to tell its employees that negotiations with AMC ‘were going well’. Both companies ended up backing out for unknown reasons.
AMC itself declined to comment to Variety.
Capcom has announced, via their TGS stream, that the original Ace Attorney trilogy is coming to Switch, PS4, PC (Steam) and Xbox One.
A great time to jump in if you haven’t already, the trilogy will feature upgraded HD graphics and is set for release early 2019:
In other Ace Attorney news, Capcom announced the Ace Attorney Concert 2019 and showed off a new trailer for the second season of the anime — which is looking vastly improved from the enjoyable first season — based on the third game in the series. Godot, of course, makes his entrance in a suitable style. The broadcast begins October 6th (via CloverWorks), here’s the teaser:
Although, disappointingly, there was no Ace Attorney 7 to show. Capcom seems to be saving that title for another day…
Capcom has teased Ace Attorney fans by saying the panel at the Tokyo Game Show this year is something they will definitely want to see.
The panel for the sublime legal series will be held on Saturday the 22nd of September from 16.00 JST (3.00 EDT, 00.00 PDT, 8.00 in the morning BST) and will last for around 40 minutes. Capcom said the panel is simply:
“Unmissable for Ace Attorney fans.”
What’s more, Ace Attorney series producer Motohide Eshiro and game designer Shinsuke Kodama will indeed be attending.
With 40 minutes to play with, Capcom will most likely bring some goodies along. Those goodies are expected to be the first six games in HD, across two compilations, serving as an introduction to those unfamiliar with the series, followed by what sounds like Ace Attorney 7.
Ace Attorney 7 is rumoured to star the one and only Phoenix Wright back in the driving seat – perhaps with a more central focus on the character this time.
Both the HD collection and AA7 are expected to hit the Switch in the not too distant future. Hopefully Capcom doesn’t disappoint…
Nintendo Direct’s featured a terrific one-two last night, starting with the unexpected announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 3 and ending with the insidious Tom Nook rather effectively revealing Animal Crossing for Switch.
Between these two points, games like Diablo 3: Eternal Collection, Game Freak’s new RPG, simply called Town, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Starlink: Battle for Atlas and Daemon X Machina all impressed. That wasn’t the problem.
The Nintendo Switch Online service launches next week, September 19th in the UK, and this was the company’s chance to really sell it to us, to convince the sceptics. Unfortunately, as some might have expected, Nintendo proved once again that their understanding of the online space is limited — to say the least.
The Direct, essentially, gave us a few new details on the basic features. Firstly, it’ll cost £17.99 a year or £3.49 a month and for that:
So, let’s examine each of these:
That’s a good price. Xbox Live comes in at £39.99 and PS Plus at £49.99 for a year. But…
Nintendo has taken its time to launch the service, so, by removing something people have already grown accustomed to — playing games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Tennis Aces online for free — they are almost always going to feel cheated unless value is added elsewhere. Does the extra cost improve the online gameplay with better servers, for example? We don’t know and we should do by now.
Cool? I find it hard to believe, considering the duration the service has been worked on since the Switch’s launch, that NES games are all Nintendo can offer here. The idea of playing ‘80s games with added netcode is novel but hugely insignificant in this day and age. Nintendo has the option to create a low-cost Netflix-style service with access to an incredible library of games across the SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii etc. Few could do that, and yet here we are.
What’s more, you’ll need to connect at least every week in order to guarantee access to these NES games — even if your subscription is a long way from expiring. It’s just not practical for travel at all. PS4 and Xbox let you play offline as long as the games are downloaded first.
A welcome, modern addition in line with PS Plus and Xbox Live… that is, until Nintendo revealed that not all games could be backed up. The reasoning behind this? Fundamentally, they don’t want people to cheat in games like Dark Souls or Pokémon. Scratching your head like me? Take Splatoon 2, Nintendo stores the save data locally instead of online, meaning cheaters do and will prosper with a backup feature. Separating the single player and multiplayer save data in games like Splatoon 2 is the easy fix here.
What’s more, Nintendo will not keep your cloud save data if your online plan runs out. These are kept for six months after a user’s subscription lapses on PS4. Xbox goes one better and keeps them indefinitely.
You need a companion smartphone app for voice chat. It’s awkward and overly complex. Enough said really.
Sounds good, like discounts on games? What are they? ‘We’ll have more to announce in the future’. But it launches next week, shouldn’t some offers be ready to announce? ‘Here are some NES Controllers’.
I feel like the Nintendo Direct, instead of selling the online service, reinforced the idea that it offers little of value, and that’s probably why it’s cheap. In that case, what’s the point of it other than for a quick monetary boost?
Let’s alternatively, pretend, that Nintendo offered the following service:
Does all of that sound entirely unreasonable, given the time they had? I personally don’t believe so. They could even raise the price to reflect this — most would pay a little bit more for it, I would think. I’m aware that all of this could be added in the future without much difficulty, but I get the feeling we’ll be waiting an awfully long time. And they’ve had plenty.
The truth is: I’m not even particularly bothered by online services in general. When I get chance, I spend a great deal of time playing deep single player games, or games locally with others. It’s more the fact the offering from Nintendo is so uncharacteristically poor when compared to their usual workmanship.
I imagine Nintendo to be a master artisan when designing games; inspiring, bold, passionate perfectionists that are almost peerless in their craft. It’s telling that the video they presented to us, with the use of Mario characters to explain the online service, was, on a creative level at least, the best part; Bowser and his son playing together, Lakitu being the literal cloud save data:
The Switch itself is a smart portable, a cool slice of tech for console quality gaming out and about. It’s a great proposition and the sales show people are engaged with it. When it comes to online infrastructure, however, I imagine Nintendo as a bumbling, misplaced clown that has lost the ability to make people laugh. Genuinely speaking, I don’t understand why they find it so hard to get right. It’s like the department for online services at Nintendo is from a different company altogether, with computers still running Windows XP.
The internet is an entitled, odd place. It has its daily, often wild rants, the mutterings or cries of ‘I want this’, things are either absolutely terrible or absolutely amazing. There’s no real logic or sense of balance. I could digress. In a nutshell: this piece shouldn’t come across as one of those — I’m just stating it would be really quite nice to see an online service worthy of Nintendo’s name.
Triangular Pixels‘ PS VR multiplayer game Smash Hit Plunder is getting a physical release, via Perp Games, this year.
The multiplayer adventure features up to 4-player versus for friends and family while sitting in the same room. While also a solo adventure, Smash Hit Plunder is also the first — officially — ‘co-op narrative campaign adventure game’ for PS VR.
In singleplayer or co-op, you have to help the VR Mage through the main campaign and battle each other in versus modes using an alternate view of the world; specially designed for the TV screen while playing with the DualShock 4 controllers:
Smash Hit Plunder will be available for PS VR in a physical form at some point soon. The first playable public demo will be at this years’ EGX.
Sometimes you play a game that oozes a certain type of magic. It’s not always immediately clear why it does so either, but you succumb to the feeling nevertheless as it draws you into its intricate web of splendour. It’s a rare feeling, one in which only a handful of games have given me — admittedly — but it’s one I experienced while playing Subset Games’ Into the Breach. A strategic indie title that has, to some surprise, arrived on the Nintendo Switch without forewarning.
It’s tempting to say that the Switch finally has a new Advance Wars, at long last, but that wouldn’t really give Into the Breach credit. While obviously similar in its turn, grid-based gameplay, Subset Games offers its own unique take on the winning formula. No longer do you have command of an almost endless supply of troops and tanks to manoeuvre across the battlefield… Instead, you defend earth from the Vek — enormous creatures that are breeding beneath the planet — with just three ‘mechs’.
Each mini battle that takes place is essentially a fight for survival, a ‘hold them off until they decide to run affair’, across a number of different turns. During these battles, your job is to effectively minimise the damage to your power grid, protect your pilots and complete the available objectives in the smartest way possible. The penalty for a destroyed power grid is a literal Game Over and pilots killed in combat will not return. Buildings on the map are integral to powering the grid, so guarding them is important, but you also need to push back the Vek and smash those bonus objectives too — success here bestows reputation (upgrade) points, life is tough without them. In other words: your movements are very limited, yet there’s an awful lot to do.
Yes, much like XCOM, Into the Breach does a remarkable job of making you feel helpless and guilty against your determined attackers. Every resource counts, every decision is questioned, every movement potentially your last. You did well, but remember that single building that was destroyed? Well, hundreds perished inside of it. It’s this state of vulnerability that makes it so thrilling as you just about pull off a victory, allowing you to ever so slightly upgrade your mechs with greater durability or additional moves.
Subset Games ensures a punishing sci-fi journey then; Into the Breach won’t be for everyone, even on the easier settings provided. However, like great strategy titles before it, precision, intelligence and skill are rewarded. Of course, losing to the Vek, as your precious power grid is depleted, isn’t the end of days when the majesty of time travel is involved. Upon defeat, your mechs are transported back through time, to before the point you were overwhelmed, and you can do it all again. The extra catch involved here? One, and only one, of your experienced pilots, can come with you. That’s multi-timeline Ralph for you (my longest serving pilot).
Making your way through each of the islands in Into the Breach demands you learn the mechanics thoroughly. You can reverse a move once per battle, true, but that really serves as a warning that you should be doing better. A large portion of the strategy focuses on using your environment and the unique abilities of the mechs. In lieu of directly attacking a Vek, a more efficient move might be to push it into the sea and drown it. Setting alight the monsters will perhaps validate a long game approach, but, alternatively, maybe you should have shunted two of them into one another. It’s a combined game of chess and billiards, and this is partly where that aforementioned magic starts to reveal itself.
Naturally, with a game of this calibre, the magic transpires in other more observable places too: the simplistic, retro visuals impeccably crafted and synthesised with the harps, cellos and sullen electric guitar riffs of the soundtrack — which composer Ben Prunty describes as his, perchance, most ‘personal’ of all. One thing is for sure, the end of the world has seldom been this wholesome or inventive.
The even better news is that once you’ve vanquished the aliens and saved the earth, there’s so much more to see. New mech squads are available to purchase, think of them as extra chess pieces, which can radically change how you play. There are multiple pilots to recruit each with individual skills, a hard mode that demands just shy of perfection, and earning achievements serves a real, tangible purpose: it’s the currency used to buy these fresh squads. Numerous run-throughs are inevitable and encouraged.
The Switch version of Into the Breach is close to identical to its PC brother. It’s distinct, clear and attractive on the screen, with the UI from PC making it over in a rather perfect fashion. There’s some added HD Rumble support, for good measure, that subtly enhances the overall effect, but everything else is exact. Regardless, whatever platform you play Into the Breach on, quite simply, you should just play it. Did I mention that it’s a masterpiece?
