YouTube Video Games Blog – Indie, Switch 2, and More
Back in Time
Author: Sally Mettson
Video producer, writer (and I dabble in social media too) for Nitchigamer. Having completed Fire Emblem Awakening, I'm now onto Sacred Stones - I'm just a little bit in love with it...
The superhero team, The Teen Titans, are coming to the wonderful world of LEGO Dimensions. The new trailer released today shows off Raven, Beast Boy and Starfire.
Takeaways:
There are new looks available for Robin and Cyborg (as a Robin fan, I approve)
A brand new adventure world is coming
There are new battle arenas to fight in
Buying either the ‘Fun pack’ or ‘team pack’ unlocks an exclusive in-game episode
The game is released in a few months on September 15th
You can find the new trailer below. I’m just happy we get to see Robin in a (slightly different) outfit. What about you? Let us know in the comments below, if you please.
Starting this week, we’ll be doing a ‘Tune of the Month’ feature based on our favourite game songs. This won’t just be modern games either, we’ll be going right back to the conception of gaming.
What’s my pick for this month? A modern classic by the band Anamanaguchi.
What’s it from? Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: The Game
Year: 2010
Platform: PS3 and Xbox 360 (specifically the PSN and XBLA stores)
Composed by: Anamanaguchi
Gaming context: This badass, retro-sounding theme plays when you’re facing Ramona’s first ‘Evil Ex’ boyfriend Matthew Patel.
Starting this week, alongside our ‘Tune of the Month’, we’ll be doing a game ‘Quote of the Month’ as well. We’ll be going right back to old games, as well as modern ones.
This Month’s quote:
“For centuries we have waited and lurked from the shadows and now we will make ourselves known…”
What’s it from? Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
Year: 1996/7
Platform: PS1 and PC.
Gaming context: Nadia, (Stalin’s advisor) has betrayed him, she utters these words with scorn as Stalin lies dead in front of her, only to be shot herself seconds later by the notorious Brotherhood of Nod leader, Kane, who’s somehow mastered time travel…
You can hear it at 2:30 in the video below, (which showcases some gloriously hammy acting).
There have been some great indie games released on Steam, here’s a few we selected for this week. You might discover a wonderful experience in this mix:
Flood of Light
A lovely hand-drawn 2D RPG adventure game with a beautiful soundtrack. Play as a mysterious girl in a raincoat – stop the rain, save the city with the power of light and discover her story.
A fresh artsy take on point and click games with a mosaic pixel art, 2.5D graphics and a philosophical story full of twists and turns. If you like Poe-esque and Victorian inspired horror fiction, this game is definitely for you!
Manipulate time and cheat death in this fast-paced, jam-packed action shooter platformer. Choose from 4 unique weapons, 7 enemy types, basically adapt to your surroundings quickly or it’s game over…
Let’s go to a dark, cutesy pixelated classroom where you learn, share, grow and survive. Alter your choices for different outcomes and plotlines – Kill or be killed in this colourful puzzle adventure game.
Surf, jump, bunnyhop, (there are many disciplines to master) in this jump and run puzzle-platformer hybrid. Play against the clock with other players or play how you want in this free indie game!
A unique, hand-drawn on paper style side-scrolling narrative-driven game. Play as a nine-year old girl named Robin and explore childhood, fear and relationships in this short, yet beautiful experience.
An 80’s inspired retro bullet-hell with a twist, players are connected by a ‘Lazer Tether’. The best way to destroy enemies is to wrap your ‘Lazer Tether’ around them, then watch them explode into pieces. Very satisfying. Play with up to 4 buddies on co-op or go solo.
A sharp-looking, first-person, voxel real-time strategy game. Micromanage, multitask, command, build and defend your colony against the monsters that come at night. Oooh… and there is also multiplayer and co-op modes.
‘An evil dragon appeared bringing chaos and destruction’, cue the Fire Emblem Warriors announcement trailer at Nintendo’s Spotlight E3 conference.
Let’s face it, Fire Emblem fans have been spoilt for choice this year with Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (on Nintendo 3DS), the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes and now Warriors. I’m all for more Fire Emblem as a fan, but is it too much at once?
Back to Fire Emblem Warriors for a second. It’s being developed by Intelligent Systems, and Koei Tecmo and it’s an homage to fans of the franchise, chock-full of easter eggs and characters (Marth and the lovely Chrom to name but a few) from different worlds and time periods. It’s a hack and slash action game much like Hyrule Warriors in terms of gameplay and the fact you’ll be taking on hordes of enemies.
The weapon triangle, leveling up, special moves/critical hits and the pairing of characters, which are famous in the series, are back in Warriors. Aesthetically, the special moves look glorious as you slaughter enemies with sword strokes (obviously this will depend on your character!).
The story follows two twin siblings, embarking on a journey to kill an evil dragon in order to protect their people. Standard stuff, but it’ll work. Here’s Nintendo’s short synopsis on the E3 Trailer:
Clash with legions of soldiers and fierce monsters as Marth, Xander, Corrin, and other Fire Emblem heroes unleash over-the-top-powerful Dynasty Warriors-style moves.
I’m happy to see Warriors shaping up so nicely and I think it will be great fun to play, although, again, I’m surprised at how quickly they got this game out (granted that it’s not your average FE). Hopefully, the Fire Emblem series won’t be churned out every year like some franchises though…
I understand that Fire Emblem is a big IP for Nintendo (now it is, thanks to Awakening), but what about other grid-based games and IPs? A new Advance Wars game would be welcomed and I’d like to see Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. on the Switch too. Can you imagine how good that would look? Drools. (Maybe that’s just me?) I think it’s time to take a few more risks again basically – the biggest strength the company has is their creativity and innovation after all.
Overall, I was very pleased with Nintendo’s E3 Spotlight, it must be said. I just want to see Nintendo go full-out with their creativity, and hopefully that’s the path they’re going down. Maybe less Fire Emblem in the future and more Advance Wars (something, please!) would scratch my itch.
What do you think? Am I right to worry about the Fire Emblem IP being used to much? Let me know in the comments below.
Fire Emblem Warriors will be released on Nintendo Switch in Fall 2017.
Marvel’s Spider-Man, by Insomniac Games, closed Sony’s E3 conference and it looks stunning – the most lifelike version to date. It was an unexpected ending as most people (myself included) were expecting Last of Us 2 to be shown, but you can’t rush art, and gamers are insatiable (we always want more).
Let’s get back to Spider-Man. I have to say I am happy to see the new game somersaulting and diving through the E3 conference. We saw Spider-Man in the air brandishing his web shooters, saving people from helicopters, scaffolding and all sorts of debris falling from the sky. Beautiful chaos. It looked very polished with slick fighting mechanics to boot.
And then there were the wisecracks we all know and love:
Saving bad guys from other bad guys – not how I thought my day would go.
With an original story as well, not taken from the films or comics, I eagerly await a fresh take on Peter Parker’s antics.
The PS4 exclusive is due to be released in 2018 on PS4 and PS4 Pro. As you can tell, I’m pretty stoked about the game. What about you?
A remake of the first ever Mario & Luigi is coming to the 3DS. Nintendo decided to randomly announce the news at their Treehouse event, after the main E3 Spotlight conference. (Didn’t see that coming!).
The remake of the GBA game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions, will feature enhanced graphics and a new mode.
It was the return of Reggie Fils-Aimé at Nintendo’s E3 Spotlight show, who quite magically entered the stage, that hyped our anticipation of what to expect this year.
He excitedly began:
Fun and battle always lock together
Reggie talked about gaming as a journey and a ‘passport to new worlds’. This nicely tied into some stunning footage from Monolith Soft’s epic new game Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
This writer instantly recognised the distinct, beautiful and ethereal sound from Xenoblade Chronicle’s composers: Yasnori Mitsuda, ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo ‘Chico’ Yamanaka), Kenji Hiramatsu, and Manami Kiyota who have returned to compose the game’s soundtrack. Yasnori Matisuda has stated that, upon completing the soundtrack, it brought him to tears. We can hope that there’s a deluxe version of Xenoblade 2 which includes the music, fingers crossed…
From the trailer we can hear that the voice actors are British (again!) and Australian, which is always nice to see in a massive Japanese sci-fi RPG (and given that D-pad Joy is a UK site, it feels closer to home).
Xenoblade 2 follows the main character Rex on a quest to find Elysium. Here’s Nintendo’s blurb:
Explore an endless ocean of clouds, where the last remnants of civilization live on the backs of colossal beasts called Titans. Experience the story of Rex and his new friend, Pyra, a mysterious being known as a Blade who grants him tremendous power. Together, search for Pyra’s long lost home Elysium, the ultimate paradise for all of humanity.
The visuals look clean with the change to a more Chibi art style (in manga and anime, these are child-like cutesy versions of characters).
Narrative wise, we can expect that they’ll follow on in this game with some humorous moments, contrasting heavily with very serious emotional scenes that drive the characters forward. No doubt they’ll throw in a lot of unexpected twists into the story too!
We’ll be able to play in many different ways: with the Joy-Cons or with the Pro controller, away and at home – so this will be very unique when experiencing a huge RPG like Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Unexpectedly announced for Holiday 2017 (which is sooner than we anticipated and just in time for Christmas), Xenoblade 2 will no doubt provide hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Are you surprised about the announcement and the release date? Will you be buying Xenoblade Chronicles 2?
The impressive looking God of War 4 was shown off during Sony’s E3 conference in a new trailer today.
The father and son adventure sees Kratos struggle to master his rage while trying to raise his son Atreus and teach him how to survive the dangerous world they both find themselves in.
God of War hits the PS4 and PS4 Pro in early 2018. Are you looking forward to playing Sony’s latest blockbuster?
TVs within TVs, within TVs, within TV… Where do I begin? Transference is a new IP that was announced at Ubisoft’s E3 conference. It’s all about immersion and pushing the boundaries of storytelling:
You can for the first time as a player feel like you are in a movie. That’s a really good word for it, we want you to take the gear and still feel unsettled.[…]
Transference was produced by Elijah Wood’s team at SpectreVision. Here’s what they had to say:
We stumbled across some fascinating research that had begun in the late 90’s. Essentially, neuroscientists had figured out a way to upload brain data, trauma, emotions memories to digital space. Now we’ve gone and taken the next logical step, and with Ubisoft, we’ve created in virtual reality one such test subject. So we’d like you to come join us and experience the Walter Test Case for yourself.
The trailer instantly reminds me of The Matrix, with Master Reboot’s narrative (but in an everyday setting) and a slice of Black Mirror for good measure. Transference to me looks more scary than any sci-fi thriller/ horror game I’ve played as it sounds (we didn’t see much gameplay, they kept their cards close) unnerving and uncanny – I predict that it will be a mindf**k of a game and an experience to remember (especially as it’s for VR!).
According to the E3 announcement we can expect the mysterious game to come out Spring 2018.
What are your thoughts – is the idea of the game too scary? Or like me, can you simply not wait?
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus’s reveal trailer was showcased at Bethesda’s E3 conference – just in case you’ve missed the news (I don’t blame you, there’s a lot going on this week)…
MachineGame’s The New Colossus has been announced with a release date of the 27th October for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The game takes place in a parallel world, one in which the Nazis have won and have occupied America – it’s set in 1961. B.J. Blazkowicz returns once more as the resistance fighter that’s got to recruit other members and overthrow the Nazis, (everyone loves a badass).
Here’s Bethesda’s official blurb:
Your assassination of Nazi General Deathshead was a short-lived victory. Despite the setback, the Nazis maintain their stranglehold on the world. You are BJ Blazkowicz, aka “Terror-Billy,” member of the Resistance, scourge of the Nazi empire, and humanity’s last hope for liberty. Only you have the guts, guns, and gumption to return stateside, kill every Nazi in sight, and spark the second American Revolution. Equip an arsenal of badass guns, and unleash new abilities to blast your way through legions of advanced Nazi soldiers, cyborgs, and über soldiers in this definitive first-person shooter.
The story nods to The Man in The High Castle and to some extent 11.22.63 – you could easily mistake the trailer for an S-tier TV show (I would argue, like others have, that games are the future of storytelling).
I’m excited about the game, and truth be told I’ve never played any of the Wolfenstein series. Are you hyped about the reveal trailer and the soonish release date?
Project Scorpio, now called the Xbox One X (not the best name ever) will be released worldwide on the 7th November.
The new 4K console will set you back £449 in the UK, or $499 in the US. As a bonus, all Xbox One accessories and games will work with the new Xbox One X. It’s also pretty small.
Will you be buying the new console? Or will you wait for the inevitable successor? Let us know in the comments below!
