When Metroid Prime 4 was announced earlier today during the Nintendo E3 Spotlight, I naturally assumed it was Retro Studios' big project it has allegedly been working on since the launch of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Turns out I was wrong.
IGN confirmed that during a group interview, Nintendo's Bill Trinen announced the developer is not working on the game. Instead, it's being handled by a "talented new team" under the supervision of longtime producer Kensuke Tanabe.
Hopefully, we'll get a good look at Metroid 4 sometime before the new year because the excitement from that announcement teaser has already subsided in me. Also, there are two days left in this bad boy. That's plenty of time for Nintendo to show us exactly what Retro has been up to these past few years.
Start saving up for an impromptu trip to Tokyo. On July 14th Bandai-Namco is opening Japan's largest virtual reality arcade ever, located near the red light district in Shinjuku. They're building new attractions on top of their sold-out VR Zone experiments, which we previewed last year where I almost saved a kitty cat from a skyscraper and then we both plummeted to our death. They're doing Mario Kart this year! Video below.
The new VR cabinet games include Dragon Ball VR “Master the Kamehameha”, Evangelion VR “The Throne of Souls”, Ghost in the Shell Arise: Stealth Hounds and (sic) MARIO KART ARCADE GP VR. There's also a restaurant on location and the company hired a projection mapping specialist NAKED (great name) to make the place look super futuristic and magical. The other Project i-Can games will also be there, so you can easily drop $100 and spend a very dizzy afternoon. The arcade primarily uses Vive headsets with custom camera rigs and Bandai-Namco's arcade cabinetry know-how. Their other games like Hanechari (winged bike) and Dinosaur Jungle Run of Despair also look like irresistible.
Today at E3 2017, GungHo Online Entertainment CEO Kazuki Morishita spoke with Destructoid about the company's upcoming title for the Nintendo Switch. According to Morishita, the game will be an "action game for all ages with a lighter, comical tone."
Morishita could not compare the unannounced game to anything on the market right now, and confirmed it would be a new IP. "No direct comparison exists," Morishita said. "It's a gameplay style that has not been seen before." The game will feature both a multiplayer and single-player component.
Mystery GungHo Switch Game (not the official branding) did not start as a Switch title, having been kicked around for about "4-5 years" before coming to life in its current incarnation.
If you want to play retro Atari 2600 games, you're not short of options. There's eBay for the original console of course. You can play some on mobile, or buy one of those "Flashback" all-in-ones, or splurge on the ultimate man/woman-cave table. But for those that have the original cartridges, but don't want to keep an old console on permanent life support, or tinker with modifications under the hood, your options aren't so good. Enter the RetroN 77 -- the 2600 reimagined for the modern age. Importantly, it plays most, if not all of the original game cartridges in glorious 1080p, at a modern aspect ration right out of the box.
The metroidvania genre brings to mind quite a few things: wide exploration, backtracking, and a hearty level of difficulty. But what you don't imagine is that someone could mix it with a completely different style of gameplay. Before playing Yoku's Island Express, I never realized how much the pinball and platforming genres had in common.
Like how the marriage of peanut butter and chocolate changed lives for the better, the strange and miraculous fusion of pinball and metroidvania styles has the potential to do the same.
You've probably never heard of the game studio Lienzo or their new game Mulaka, but once you see the trailer you'll likely keep it on your radar. If I had to describe it to someone in an elevator I might say that Journey and Colosse had a gorgeous low-poly baby. You play as a warlock that, through gifts of the demi-gods, gains the powers of animals and other spirits to grow stronger. Your mission is to convince the mighty heavenly Gods that the human race isn't total dog shit worth flushing. I would hate do have that job. Have you met the people that work at the DMV? After raising some cash on Kickstarter they're now wrapping up development.
Duck Season brings back the classic NES light gun that holds a special place in any DuckHunt fan's heart -- but with a dark VR twist. Duck Season is heading to the HTC Vive "very soon," complete with an updated version of the NES blaster, turned into a motion-tracking controller via the Vive tracker. Its core gameplay is essentially an upgraded, 3D version of Duck Hunt, though the story runs much deeper than it initially appears.
Not content with simply making the best third party controller for the Nintendo Switch (and other systems), 8bitdo has announced a few new products to aide gamers in their quest for an actual d-pad on Nintendo's portable console. Along with revamped versions of their SNES style pads comes a fucking rad looking arcade stick and a pair of Bluetooth speakers (with optional aux input) fashioned with Nintendo d-pads on them!
While Sony had made an announcement about "PlayLink" last night, they didn't share any of the details about the program. I wondered if it was some kind of push into the mobile market for Sony, but the reality is different. PlayLink refers to a new initiative to make games more social, citing Until Dawn as inspiration. Through PlayLink, you and a few friends will use your smart devices to control a variety of different games.
In the introduction video to Hidden Agenda, one of the few games that is heading to the service, Will Doyle (director for Hidden Angeda) mentions that Sony noticed how people were playing Until Dawn on streaming sites and wanted to better integrate viewer feedback into a playthrough. Instead of simply asking an audience to makes choices for you, PlayLink will allow multiple people to use their smart devices to sort of direct the action.
Housemarque (Super Stardust, Resogun) is continuing its trend of throwing as many colorful projectiles as possible at players with a new shooter, Matterfall. The 2D action platformer pits you as a Crysis-cosplayer in a futuristic robo-scifi world under siege by all kinds of mechanical monstrosities.
I got to go hands on with the game at E3 and, after a bit of learning curve, was enjoying how frenetic things got. You run left, right, jump and double jump your way through the environment per genre standards, but also have a dash (which also goes upward for a triple jump). The dash doubles as a way to phase through blue objects in the game, including platforms you activate with your gun. On the other hand, ruby red matter will mess up. Outland connections abound.
Shooting is mapped to the right stick and you can -- and will have to -- shoot in all directions while keeping on the move, because Matterfall throws a lot of bullets your way. You can also dash through enemies to temporarily freeze them. Aside from the standard gun, you unlock new weapons, like a meaty grenade launch and some wild homing bullets, all of which should prove invaluable given how busy things got just in the early levels.
In a boss fight against a giant wasp-looking thing called the "Autonomous Hunter-Killer" whole sheets of projectiles were wiping across the screen at a given time, while zero gravity segments have your character free-floating around obstacles, shooting all the while. Matterfall is the kind of game Housemarque is good at making and should be worth a look when it comes to PS4 on August 15.
Have you wanted to relive Tron's light disc battles through CCP Games' Sparc (aka Project Arena)? You're about to get your chance... although you may have to switch platforms to get it soon. CCP has revealed that Sparc will launch in the third quarter of the year for PlayStation VR. The developer stresses that this is only a temporary exclusive (it's arriving "first" on PSVR), but that still means you'll have to forego any near-term dreams of virtual arena battles on your Vive.
I ended up really liking Uncharted 4: A Thief's End because of its story. The wild action setpieces were well paced and there were plenty of smaller, quieter moments that resonated. Everything felt in service to a story about people and their relationships, the same threads that underpin classics like Indiana Jones.
When Sony announced the standalone, Chloe-led Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, the trailer seemed a bit different from Uncharted 4.
But between last night's trailer and the 15 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay I saw in a meeting on the E3 showfloor, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy actually looks a lot like its predecessor. Chloe and Nadine still use the grappling hook that added a new wrinkle to A Thief's End's platforming. At one point the floors breaks away under Chloe and she goes careening down a mud hill with an "Oh shiiit," which I hope is her "Crap! Crap! Crap!"
Even the giant armored vehicle with a mounted heavy gun that menaces Drake in the last game almost like Friday the 13th's Jason is back. There was a lengthy shootout deep in India's the Western Ghats mountains where one of those trucks managed to find enough traction in the rubble of ancient civilization to keep busting through walls like the Kool-Aid mad trying to fuck up Chloe and Nadine's day.
Actually the presentation peaks with the pair, after escaping briefly combat in an aqueduct, getting roughed up by that truck when busts through another wall. In a cutscene, the truck door opens and the game's bespectacled villain, Asav, exits to reclaim an artifact Nadine and Chloe knicked and deliver a menacing monologue about war and sacrifice.
The demo ended with a quick cut to black after he points a gun at Chloe's head, presumably about to kill her, though that feels a bit dramatically inert given that she's the main character. A Thief's End did add enough to the gunplay and its pacing that The Lost Legacy will probably be fun enough to play, but it's going to be Naughty Dog's story that puts it over the top if anything. We'll find out in August.
The Xbox One X is aspirational in the purest sense of the word. It's Microsoft's direct response to people saying that the standard Xbox One wasn't powerful enough in comparison to Sony's PlayStation 4. With six teraflops of processing power and a raft of other specs that have already given fanboys plenty to brag about, that's no longer the case. But what's it like to actually play around with the console? Well, I can't tell you. Microsoft's "Xbox One X Experience" at E3 this year was a hands-off theater presentation. The company had mock-up consoles outside its demo area, but inside, everything ran on developer kits. Yes, those really cool looking white boxes with the LCD display on the front of them.
While I didn't get to pick up a gamepad myself, Microsoft tried wowing the press in its hands-off demo area with Forza Motorsport 7, Gears of War 4 and Minecraft running in 4K. The most impressive of the trio wasn't car porn, however, nor did it involve chainsawing aliens in half. Forza and Gears look great, but the same can be said for their 1080p counterparts too.
Knack 2 feels like a fever dream. I missed the initial reports and I missed the Knack 2 announcement. I did notice it become something of a meme online. "Knack 2" people yelled, excitedly, a self-contained joke that might have already morphed into genuine affection for Sony's latest attempt at a mascot platformer. It only ramped up leading up to E3. The Knack 2 tweets poured in. I didn't know it was already real.
Then I found myself at a Sony event a couple hours before their E3 presentation. I ambled around the room with a small plate: a tiny hot dog in a pretzel bun and covered in jalapenos, fries but made out of mushrooms, some other fried dough filled with molten mac and cheese. I saw a TV set up. Above it a sign read "Knack 2." It's 2017 and jokes are real.
There were two levels playable for Knack 2. One focused on combat. Watching a golem made out of seven thousand fidget spinners punching shirtless humans wielding sticks like Donatello is funny, I have to admit.
In a gladiatorial arena, a woman chides Knack, "All you know is three punches and a kick." She explains the "relic energy" that binds him together and suggests he focus it. He learns how to do an Inspector Gadget extendo-arm punch. He's like pointy Dhalsim. He beats up more Knack-like creatures with bright green eyes. They look like Bionicle.
The second level is more platforming heavy, as the Johnny Quest-knock off kid, scientist, and burly uncle quest into the forest in search of magic science. There's drop-in, drop-out co-op (a blue Knack monster emerges from the red one's body; he phases back in and disappears during cutscenes). It's fine.
The enemy animation has some cute idiosyncrasies if you look closely, but a lot of the things I punched were tiny. The one wrinkle to the otherwise standard platform jumping was sometimes having to shed some of Knack's bulk to become little Knack in order to walk along a narrow ledge or lip in the environment. Mitigating the frustration of co-op platforming, a single button press will teleport either player right behind the other.
Maybe the story, which I didn't get much of, is worthwhile this time around. Maybe more move unlocks will make the combat more exciting. I was able to parry an arrow with well-time block, but it didn't feel necessary. It's probably a good game to play with your youngest children, but I'm still surprised Sony is even making a new Knack.
Forza Motorsport has hit that sports game level of iteration. Things like Madden and FIFA were excellent many many years ago; now it's all about inching ever-closer to perfection. The seventh installment of Forza Motorsport is right there, now focused mostly on nailing the smaller details that might hold it back.
That's what the hardcore racing community wants from Forza Motorsport at this point -- to make it feel more like real racing. That has always been the simulation-heavy Motorsport's angle. Horizon's tasked with sucking in the more casual fan.
Developer Turn 10 has a very important addition to Forza Motorsport 7 for Windows 10 PC players. In an E3 behind closed doors appointment, we were told that this new game will support all fan-requested racing wheels on the market. If you have a favorite wheel, it sounds like it'll work with Forza Motorsport 7.
Creative director Bill Giese made it seem as if Xbox One players will have comparable racing wheel support, but the specifics of that were left hanging. Even if the compatibility is impressive, it's tough to imagine that it'll be as open as on PC. It should be robust, regardless.
Giese went so far as to suggest that players could actually race with most USB devices, if they wanted to put themselves through that. He mentioned that Turn 10 had a day recently where employees brought in whatever gaming peripherals they had at their homes. You could rip around the track with a Guitar Hero controller if you wanted; Giese did this and says that he may not have won, but at least he looked the most stylish.
Supplementing the racing wheel support is a new viewing mode that's wheel-less. For those players who have their car's steering wheel is right in front of them, this view is to keep them from seeing it twice. It's another one of those little touches. Again, this is about getting as close to real racing for a lot of people. Turn 10's getting there, steady as she goes.
Microsoft's announcement that Minecraft would be getting unified servers for almost every version was huge for fans of the game. It meant that there were no longer going to be separate eco-systems and that friends could enjoy the game regardless of their platform of choice. It's a similar story to what developer Psyonix has done for Rocket League, allowing PC, Xbox One and Switch players to all play together while PS4 users are left in the dust (although they can play with PC users on separate servers).
One would imagine that Sony would cross-network functionality on PS4 want, since people buying games for their system is a priority. Apparently, that isn't the case. In an interview with Eurogamer, Sony's global head of sales and marketing, Jim Ryan, gave a pretty silly answer with regards as to why Sony isn't allowing more flexibility with PSN.
"We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft - the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe," Jim stated. "Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."
That certainly is a load of nonsense, especially when Nintendo (a company built on a family friendly image) is allowing the game to interact with other platforms. Ryan continued to give some generic PR language to defend the decision, but did end up saying, "It's certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this. We've done it in the past. We're always open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it."
I guess that means if someone is willing to pony up enough cash, Sony will open the flood gates for other platforms. Regardless of what the true answer is, it seems we won't be having a unification of online games with Sony anytime soon. I guess when you're selling 60 million consoles, you don't need to care about anyone else.
Bandai Namco released the first trailer for its upcoming action-RPG game Code Veinjust last month, but it couldn't exactly let E3 come and go without spilling a few more beans now, could it? We're no closer to a concrete release date, with 2018 still as definitive as it gets, but we do now know what platforms the third-person, anime-esque title will be available on. Bandai Namco previously said Code Vein would be hitting "major home consoles" next year, but it's now clarified the title is headed to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PCs too, via Steam.
At the tail end of their Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions stream, Nintendo showed off two new amiibo -- the Koopa and Goomba, that will presumably be launching with the game. As usual no details were given, but the Boo amiibo will also work with the game.
Given the huge minion angle that the "plus" portion of the game entails (with a new battle system to boot) I can see these being innocuous little power-ups.
I can get used to all of these great announcements rolling out all day from Nintendo.
Direct from the Treehouse stream, the Big N showcased Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions for the 3DS. It's It's a remake of the turn-based Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which was released in 2003 on the GBA, but with new content -- hence, the "plus."
This was rumored roughly a month ago but that leak did not account for the Bowser's Minions portion, which has a new hero "Captain Goomba," a brand new battle system, and an extended story.
If you've ever played Forza Horizon, then Need for Speed Payback will seem very familiar. They're both open-world driving games set in the desert, they both feature a stunt chain system that doles out experience based on how well you do for how long, and both games have derelict old cars hidden around the world that you can fix up. None of those aspects are exclusive to Horizon, but they work in concert to make Payback a recognizable experience.
But the glue that holds Payback together is the game's sense of flair – something Horizon had in spades. Whereas Horizon was set in and around a neon-tinted Coachella-esque music festival, Payback follows three car-based criminals as they take down a group of worse criminals, who also do a lot of car stuff.
So if Forza Horizon is the video game equivalent of this Pepsi commercial, Payback is a full-length Fast and Furious game.
While consoles hog the bulk of the spotlight at E3, PC gaming is still a big part of the convention. Intel held its first E3 event ever yesterday, where it announced the VR Challenger League, an eSports competition dedicated solely to virtual reality games like The Unspoken and Echo Arena. It's partnering with Oculus and ESL to make that happen, so it actually has a shot at making VR eSports a thing.
During E3's PC Gaming Show yesterday, we saw some long-awaited upgrades for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (vaulting and weather, oh my!), and Microsoft unveiled Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a completely remastered version of its classic RTS. Additionally, we caught glimpses of Battletech, the new strategy game in the MechWarrior universe, Cliff Bleszinski's multi-player shooter Lawbreakers and Total War: Warhammer 2.
This is just too much. Yet another amiibo reveal just happened on the Nintendo E3 Treehouse show -- two more figures for Fire Emblem Warriors.
As you can probably tell it's Chrom and Tiki, which will both interface with the upcoming Koei Tecmo/Nintendo production. No direct details were confirmed, but the figures themselves were shown during the stream.
Not keeping count? That's 11 new amiibo confirmed today. Need a full up to date checklist for all things amiibo? We have you covered.
Few things in life are as uniquely stressful as pulling into first place in Mario Kart, only to hear a Blue Shell hurtling at you from behind. There's no escape -- all you can do is close your eyes and accept your inevitable defeat. That experience is going to get infinitely more dreadful for players who visit the VR Zone in Shinjuku, Japan: Bandai Namco has developed a version of Mario Kart for the HTC Vive, complete with the tiny pseudo-cars for players to plop down into.
Nintendo had more new games than you'd expect, eh? Kirby, Yoshi, Metroid -- most of Nintendo's big names seem like they'll have a Switch title not long after the console releases. Didn't really expect that much fire out of a 30-minute video.
It looks like most of that new stuff already has listings on Amazon, too. So, anyone who wants to reserve a spot in line for things like Metroid Prime 4, here's an opportunity to do so. You do you, friend.
Ubisoft gave us the rundown on its library of upcoming games yesterday at E3 and there was a lot of news packed into the briefing. If you missed it, don't worry. We've trimmed down the event into a much shorter clip so you can catch up in less than 10 minutes. There's plenty of Far Cry 5, Assassin's Creed Origins, Mario + Rabbids and Beyond Good and Evil 2 news to catch up on. Spoiler alert: Skull & Bones makes doing battle on the high seas very fun.
In addition to teasing the fourth installment of the Metroid Prime series at E3 on Tuesday, Nintendo also announced that the armored space heroine will be returning to the 3DS in a 2.5-D side-scrolling adventure titled, "Metroid: Samus Returns".
Took the right kool-aid this morning and bought into the E3 Hype? For PC gamers looking for E3 announced games with a pre-order discount, you won't be disappointed. While publishers are still clamping down on pre-order deals compared to years past - there are some a few notable hot deals out there while the buzz is at its peak.
Perhaps the best example is Total War: Warhammer II at GamesPlanet. The game received a new trailer and a September 28 release date at E3 and is now available at various retailer, including Steam Store for $59.99.
Thanks to favorable currency conversion rate, you can pick up the Steam key at GamesPlanet for £37.99 (5% off the full £39.99 list price in the UK) - this translates to about $48 in USD, a solid 20% discount with accompanied pre-order bonuses. We've broken the deals below down by retailer and ordered by release date. If you spot a dead deal, let us know and we'll update accordingly.
From above, Warner Bros. Middle-earth: Shadow of War has its best price on PC at DLGamer at a 22% discount. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was a "sleeper hit" back in 2014, and it'll be interesting to see if the sequel replicates that success.
GMG also has a horde of E3 announced games with the various degree of incentive from as little as 12% off to the usual 20% off discount. These discounts may not be as high as the other two aforementioned deals, but they are in many cases the only discounts available for those titles on PC (e.g., you won't find a deal on The Fractured But Whole anywhere else legitimate as of writing).
No expiration date exist for the deals above if you're not the type to play Day One - we'd suggest sitting back to wait for bigger price cut months after release (and of course when reviews are in).
Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.
As Microsoft shows off its new Xbox One X at this year's E3, Sony's presentation focused primarily on its lineup of games. That's because its own powered-up console, the PlayStation 4 Pro, already debuted last fall to good reviews (with one big caveat). While many players will base their purchases this holiday season on each system's titles and online services, there's still a lot to be learned in comparing the two system's specs -- especially if you want something to play on a 4K TV. Check out our chart below, and stay tuned for when we put the new Xbox through its paces closer to launch.
Nintendo wasn't kidding when it said it had more "surprises" after their big Spotlight presentation.
In addition to three new amiibo, they also showed off Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of the second Game Boy Metroid game. Now we know why they were so pissed at the fan remake.
