Wednesday, December 27, 2017

News:: Remembering the Wii U: Nintendo's Dreamcast

[The Wii U is one of those consoles I always wanted to buy, but could never bring myself to dropping the cash on for the luxury of playing just a handful of admittedly-awesome games. OmegaSiets sends off the recently-Old-Yeller'd console with a nice little retrospective paying tribute to some of its finer games. Are there any he may have missed? Tell us in the comments below! - Wes]

With the Switch now officially launched and several months into the next generation of Nintendo games, I thought it might be a good time to look back on its troubled older sibling. Nintendo certainly has been quick to sweep the Wii U under the rug following the Switch's release, and who could blame them given how abysmally it under-performed? The system struggled immensely out of the gate, with Nintendo heavily banking on the repeat success of the Wii by using the same branding and packing in another party game in the form of Nintendo Land. Unfortunately as we all know, it backfired spectacularly on them, with Nintendo vastly underestimating consumer fatigue toward the Wii brand and running a lackluster marketing campaign that failed to communicate what the system even was.

However as the Dreamcast has demonstrated, just because a console wasn't popular doesn't mean that it wasn't good. In fact, over time the Wii U brought out some of the best in Nintendo, perhaps serving as an important learning experience that helped them in some ways rediscover their roots. As time progressed, it seems Nintendo was forced to reconsider their strategy and recognize that they could not take the core market for granted anymore. Whereas the Wii often took classic Nintendo franchises and tried to make them more accessible to casual audiences by sacrificing depth and challenge, the Wii U instead opted for tried-and-true easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay, or in some cases just outright demanded your full commitment with no hand-holding whatsoever. Their philosophy had shifted toward the idea that ultimately challenging but rewarding gameplay will speak for itself, and you don't have to sacrifice challenge in order to be fun or accessible. After all, the original Super Mario Bros. was a brutally difficult game, and that game sold like...well, Super Mario Bros. Which is to say, it sold a lot of fucking copies. So people can handle more heat than we give them credit for.

Remembering the Wii U: Nintendo's Dreamcast screenshot

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News:: Super Mario Land 2 lives on in an unofficial DX colorized form

The Super Mario Land series is pretty special to me. Played countless times on car trips (along with the first Kirby game), I had every level burned in my mind, but most of the people I knew only played the "main" console games. Super Mario Land 2 was also a bit of an odd duck on its own, but 25 years later, fans have preserved the memory of the 6 Golden Coins with a colorized ROM hack.

Known as Super Mario Land 2 DX (as was customary for Game Boy Color games with official Nintendo nomenclature), it's basically the same thing just with full color (not the re-purposed broad hues that would be found on Super Game Boy and the like). Its creator Toruzz just dropped a new trailer to gander at, which you can check out below.

Super Mario Land 2 lives on in an unofficial DX colorized form screenshot

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News:: Japanese GoldenEye 007 Wii servers will close in Spring 2018

It may be the end of the road for Mr. Bond, as the Japanese servers for the Nintendo Wii remake of GoldenEye 007 will be closing in 2018.

The Wii re-release of Rare's 1997 classic has been used for almost eight years now to keep budding agents online, recalling the heady days of intense Golden Gun and Slappers Only battles. Just four Oddjobs, running around like madmen, chopping the hell out of each other.

At 10:00 JST on March 30 2018, the Japanese servers will be no more. There is no word yet whether the West will follow suit, but we'll keep you updated. Then it'll be back to gathering friends around the trusty N64, which purists would argue is the only true way to play GoldenEye's multiplayer at all.

Japanese GoldenEye 007 Wii servers will close in Spring 2018 screenshot



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News:: Final Fantasy Explorers-Force delayed into 2018

Final Fantasy Explorers-Force, a sequel for the 3DS Explorers that was announced earlier this year (and one I completely forgot about), has been delayed. That's probably going to surprise all 10 of you that knew it was a thing, and the small group of you that played Explorers and are now realizing that this exists.

Explorers-Force wasn't a full-on 3DS follow-up though -- this was a mobile sequel that was due sometime this year, but has now been delayed into spring 2018. Square Enix cites a feedback survey as a reason for the bump, hinting that they need to improve its overall quality before it ships.

That's a perfectly good reason for a delay! When spring 2018 does arrive, it'll drop on Android and iOS.

Final Fantasy Explorers-Force [Twitter via Siliconera]

Final Fantasy Explorers-Force delayed into 2018 screenshot



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News:: Hackers say Nintendo’s hidden golf game on Switch is gone

Back in September, intrepid hackers prying into the Nintendo Switch found a game hidden in the system's code: FLOG, a version of the classic NES title 'Golf.' After further examination, the dataminers found that you could only access it on July 11th, and guessed that the game was a tribute to the late, great Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who passed away on that day earlier this year. In other words, you could play it if you fudged the date on your console and didn't connect it to the internet -- until now. Hackers reported that the latest Switch update (4.0.0) wipes FLOG from the console's firmware.

Via: Polygon

Source: SwitchBrew



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News:: World Health Organization planning to recognize 'Gaming disorder' as a mental health condition

The World Health Organization is currently working on the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, with a planned release of 2018. The last revision of this important document was back in 1990, and it is used by 117 countries around the world as a standard diagnostic tool for various purposes. Sharp-eyed observers of the early drafts have noticed a new addition to the various diseases and conditions listed, one that has become very relevant as time has gone on.

Gaming disorder is set to be officially recognized by the organization.

World Health Organization planning to recognize 'Gaming disorder' as a mental health condition screenshot

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News:: Civilization VI is getting a second leader for India, and he's a lot meaner than Gandhi

For the upcoming Rise and Fall expansion of Civilization VI, developer Firaxis is showing us a different side of India. Traditionally, Mahatma Gandhi is the Indian leader. As this video points out, Gandhi's nation prospers in times of peace since, you know, Gandhi is kind of the de facto ideal of nonviolent resistance.

With Rise and Fall, there's a new sheriff in town. Chandragupta is being added as India's second leader and he's not shy about spilling blood. That's why he has war elephants working on his side. Those are not stomps of peace.

Further evidence: Chandragupta's unique ability involves declaring territorial wars in the pursuit of expansion (after researching the military training civic). Contrary to all that aggressive stuff, Chandragupta actually gave up his throne and become a Jaina monk before he fasted to death. That's probably not how your Civ VI Indian empire will end, though.

Civilization VI is getting a second leader for India, and he's a lot meaner than Gandhi screenshot



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News:: Okubo discusses Soulcalibur's Sophitia in character trailer

Bandai Namco have released a short video dedicated to Soulcalibur VI's swashbuckling poster girl Sophitia, with Director Motohiro Okubo briefly discussing her design in the upcoming sequel.

Sophitia, along with Mitsurugi, were the first two characters designed and revealed for SCVI. This is likely due to their recognition faction, as both fighters have been with the sword and sorcery franchise since the original Soul Edge, released in arcades and for the PlayStation back in the mid-90s.

Sophitia sometimes suffers in battle due to her short-range but, once things get up close and personal, the Athenian warrior is famous for her graceful, almost balletic combos, as she slices and dices her opponents with ease.

Soulcalibur VI is scheduled for release for PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2018.

Okubo discusses Soulcalibur's Sophitia in character trailer screenshot

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News:: PlayStation Plus scores Deus Ex, Batman, and Psycho-Pass in January

Sony is starting off next year's PlayStation Plus lineup on a pretty good note.

Come January 2018, the service will offer: Deux Ex: Mankind Divided and Batman: The Telltale Series on PlayStation 4, hack-'n'-slasher Sacred 3 and point-and-click adventure The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 on PlayStation 3, and visual novel Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness and pixel-art survival horror title Uncanny Valley on PlayStation Vita. Also, those last two games include PS4 copies thanks to Cross-Buy.

Despite liking Human Revolution, I haven't tried Mankind Divided. And despite really liking Batman, I haven't gotten into Telltale's adventure series yet either. How does this lineup fare for you?

PlayStation Plus: Free Games for January 2018 [PlayStation Blog]

PlayStation Plus scores Deus Ex, Batman, and Psycho-Pass in January screenshot



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News:: Bass' 2017 personal picks for 2017 video games in 2017

The Bass Awards are back! What the heck are those, you ask? Then you should have checked the blog section more last year! Basically, they're like the Game Awards, even down to the inclusion of exclusive video game reveals... Except only I get to decide the winners.

Not every game appeals to the same audience, so my feelings towards this year's releases are split neatly into a variety of categories, which you'll find just below. Each features a runner-up and a winner. In most cases, winning is a good thing, but not always.

  • Action game
  • RPG
  • Platformer
  • Music
  • Visuals
  • Writing
  • Multiplayer
  • Indie
  • (Worst) Monetization
  • (Worst) Regret
  • Overlooked
  • Anticipated 2018 game
  • Overall favorite

Before watching the actual awards just below, I invite you to post your own picks in the comment section below -- or guess what I'm going to pick, whatever tickles your fancy. You might be surprised at how difficult it is to decide in some of these categories!

Bass' 2017 personal picks for 2017 video games in 2017 screenshot

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News:: Hamster hope to release 800 titles in the Arcade Archives range

2017 saw a huge performance increase for old-school studio SNK, who have walked the razor's edge for years. This was partly due to flagship title King of Fighters XV being pretty dang good. However, a lot of their coffers came from Hamster's ever-expanding catalogue of arcade and Neo Geo re-releases, dubbed the "Arcade Archives" range.

The range saw a huge assortment of SNK's fighters, shmups, platform adventures and sporting titles (almost always set in the future) ported to the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Though fairly bare-bones in presentation and features, the titles are well-emulated and usually featured online play.

According to JapaneseNintendo, Hamster CEO Satoshi Hamada, speaking with Famitsu, announced that they are to continue releasing classic titles under the Arcade Archives banner. In fact, when all is said and done, they aim to have put out 800 releases.

Now, if my facts are right, there were around 150 Neo Geo games in all. So even if Hamada is counting individual platforms in this estimate -- taking it to roughly 450 -- this still leaves a deficit of around 350 titles. Maybe Hamster are considering bringing more studio's arcade catalogues on-board, and/or expanding onto new platforms?

Either way, the Arcade Archives and Neo Geo ACA ranges have proven a cheap and cheerful way to have some quality retro fun at the cost of just a few bucks, long may it continue, into 2018 and beyond.

Hamster wants to release 800 Arcade Archive titles [JapaneseNintendo]

Hamster hope to release 800 titles in the Arcade Archives range screenshot



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News:: The WHO may add video games to its list of recognized addictions

The World Health Organization's ICD, or International Classification of Diseases, is used by medical professionals, scientists, researchers and more to define and classify diseases around the world. It's currently in its 10th revision (ICD-10), but the 11th revision has been in the works for years. Now, a draft for the ICD-11 has been released online (the final version is due in 2018), and it recognizes video game addiction on its list of conditions.

Via: Popular Science

Source: ICD-11 Beta Draft



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News:: Rich Meister's personal picks for Game of the Year 2017

2017 has been one hell of a year for games. While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One continue to hit their software strides, the Switch is bringing Nintendo back to its glory days. PC gaming remains stronger than ever and I can't think of a year I've had a harder time making one of these lists.

It's my first Game of the Year list at Destructoid so it's nice that my biggest issue is trying to keep it at ten games. Without further delay let's take a look at my favorite games of 2017. 

Rich Meister's personal picks for Game of the Year 2017 screenshot

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News:: Nintendo is delaying the Switch's 64GB game cards

To get around the Switch's current 32GB limit on game cards, Bethesda spilt Doom into two parts. The campaign is what shipped on the game card, and multiplayer was a separate download. It sounds like that might be the norm for a bit longer. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nintendo won't start supplying 64GB game cards until 2019, around six months later than the original mid-2018 target. The reason? Those pesky "technical issues" cropped up again, according to WSJ's sources, and Nintendo wants to ensure that product quality is up to snuff.



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News:: Those free Zelda: Breath of the Wild gifts keep coming, and this one is useful

I honestly thought Nintendo would wrap up the Zelda: Breath of the Wild "gift channel" idea in a few weeks, but they've been pumping them out for months on end at this point. Four months to be exact, and as one of the only people I know who is even aware of this concept, much less actually following what the gifts actually entail, it's even more surprising that this is still going on.

So once again, to recap -- if you've never clicked on a news channel on your Switch before, they're basically a way for Nintendo give give you updates on any given game. Most of them are centered around huge franchises, most notably, Zelda. If you tap a channel for it there's a little button to get a free gift; an exercise that you can repeat ad naesum. Some range from usleless little trinkets or bits of food, and others are genutinely impressive.

This latest one is firmly rooted in the latter category, as it provides an Ancient Shaft, arrow, and two Ancient Screws, which is exactly enough to craft an Ancient Arrow. If you haven't tried this gimmick out yet or just got Zelda as a gift, give it a go.

Those free Zelda: Breath of the Wild gifts keep coming, and this one is useful screenshot



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News:: Mark Hamill regrets being honest because no one listens

Mark Hamill had an awesome press tour for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Why? Because he effing talked about making Star Wars: The Last Jedi honestly, which meant his struggles with taking Luke in a new direction. Of course "fans" picked up on that and decided he hated the film, despite the fact that in every interview he did he also said that he came to terms with that direction and realized it was a fantastic way to go. Seriously, I've watched and read a ton, and he repeats this over and over. 

But we live in a soundbite era and that soundbite didn't include the latter information evidently so now Hamill has to apologize for discussing the making of the film honestly meaning one of the last actors to speak more than PR talk about a film is cowed into doing nothing but PR talk from here on out. This, of course, is another example of us ruining exactly what we say we want. We claim we want honesty, but then twist and turn things so that honesty always backfires for whomever is speaking it.

Look, I'm not saying that The Last Jedi didn't have flaws -- in fact I point them out in my review -- but I've seen too many folks point to Hamill's quotes as evidence of Luke's character being one of them, and it just isn't. Not even Hamill thinks that. Of course now we'll probably never know what he truly thinks. 

Mark Hamill regrets being honest because no one listens screenshot



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News:: What was the UK Chart's Christmas No.1?

In what's been a forgone conclusion for weeks, Activision's military-shooter Call of Duty: WWII fought back a bevy of contenders to lay claim to the Christmas #1 slot in the UK charts.

The top three has been etched in stone for some time, with FIFA 18 taking second place and controversial space-shooter Star Wars: Battlefront II holding fast at third. Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy made a final grasp for the brass ring, successfully climbing back to sixth place in what has been an amazing six months for the PlayStation remake.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is celebrating a second week in the big leagues, and The Sims 4 also made re-entry, landing at number nine. Elsewhere in the charts, Blizzard's Overwatch shot straight back up the rankings, moving from thirty-two to eighteen. As always, Christmas has put driving games in top gear, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Need for Speed: Payback, Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo: Sport all making the top fifteen.

What was your game of choice this festive weekend?

What was the UK Chart's Christmas No.1? screenshot

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News:: Nintendo's eShop and network capabilities back online after a holiday beating

As expected, most networks are under a heavy load on the holidays. You have thousands, potentially millions of new users worldwide, and the network isn't ready to take that kind of beating on the spot.

On Christmas morning Nintendo reported that there were myriad issues with their online capabilities, ranging from eShop connection problems to general network/online play snafus, and that status persisted into the day after Christmas with intermittent disconnects.

Now, it's stabilized, possibly just because people are going back to work.

Network [Nintendo]

Nintendo's eShop and network capabilities back online after a holiday beating screenshot



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News:: Sega release gameplay footage of Valkyria Chronicles 4

During a Japanese live stream earlier today, Sega revealed the first gameplay footage of upcoming strategy sequel, Valkyria Chronicles 4. The video featured some of the game's new characters in action, as well as refreshing us all on some of the series' classic mechanics.

The video contains footage of the game's all-new Grenadier class as well as the game's customisable vehicles. We can also see the classic Command Point system in effect, all of which is showcased in the game's iconic watercolour aesthetics and "Photo Album" presentation-style. A trademark of the series.

The live stream is part of Sega's huge marketing drive on the title, which has seen numerous features in Japanese publications such as Famitsu, intended to familiarise fans with the new heroes, villains, classes and medical doggos of Valkyria's latest entry. Now that there's some footage out there for fans to get their teeth into, what do you think? do you like what you see?

Valkyria Chronicles 4
is scheduled for release on PS4, Xbox One and Switch in 2018.

Sega live stream Valkyria Chronicles 4 gameplay [Dualshockers]

Sega release gameplay footage of Valkyria Chronicles 4 screenshot

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News:: The Morning After: Wednesday, December 27th 2017

Hey, good morning!

And we're back! If you had the last few days off, we hope you enjoyed them. If you were working through, well, we can sympathise. Here's what we've been working on over the last 24 hours.



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