News:: Animaniacs is getting two new seasons courtesy of Hulu

Well, I was wrong. Back in May, we heard that Animaniacs was looking to make a comeback, with both Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation on board for its revival. I was sure they would pick Netflix, but it looks like Animaniacs is being resurrected on Hulu, and with two new seasons to boot.

This news comes after the Peabody Award-winning show has been off the air for two decades. And new episodes aren't the only thing coming to Hulu either; the streamer has acquired the rights to stream Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain in their entirety. Maybe we'll see more Warner Bros. programs on Hulu in the near future.

Unfortunately, there is going to be a wait. It seems that Warner Bros. Animation is shooting for a 2020 release date, so we won't be seeing any new material until then. However, the complete libraries of Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain are available to stream now if you need your fix.

Everything seems to be in place for a big comeback. Steven Spielberg is executive producing, and with many Warner Bros. cartoons coming to Hulu, there must be a lot of faith in this deal. Still, until Rob Paulsen and Jess Harnell are confirmed to be returning to their roles, I'm going to temper my excitement. 

'Animaniacs' Revived at Hulu With 2-Season Order [Hollywood Reporter] 

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News:: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy creative director leaves Naughty Dog

News:: Here's a game from the confused perspective of an abandoned pet

This one could be a tear-jerker and a heart string-puller. Till the Dawn, Waiting is about a situation that none of us can personally empathize with. It's a story that's told from the perspective of a dog that has been abandoned by its owner.

Till the Dawn, Waiting is described as a "narrative-based experience" as it runs through the human emotions that a discarded pet might feel. It's less Homeward Bound because there's no re-unity on the horizon. It's just thrown away and left behind as man's best friend tries to cope with separation. Innate feelings of loyalty offset by a very real sense of betrayal.

Whether or not Indian developer UnderDogs can make good on this lofty interspecies premise, I don't know. But, it's a concept that's inherently appealing because it's a specific kind of melancholy that has an infinite sadness about it. Till the Dawn, Waiting releases on Steam on January 11 for $4. Hug your good doggo extra tight tonight.

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News:: NBA Playgrounds gets an 'Enhanced Edition' on Switch

NBA Playgrounds has just received a massive update on Switch. Now dubbed the "Enhanced Edition," this new version features over 100 new players, a three point contest mode and a completely overhauled rebound system.

The update will be available for free to previous owners, though it requires a separate download and installation. Once you do so, you'll be free to delete the previous version as all saves are compatible with the new one. If you don't already own the title, it is now 50% off to celebrate the launch of this new version.

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News:: 2005's Star Wars Battlefront II is still being updated

It was a pleasant surprise to see multiplayer return in 2005's Star Wars Battlefront II, both because people still cherish that game and, well, 2017's Battlefront II didn't pan out how we would've liked.

Better yet, that work hasn't stopped. This week brought another albeit more minor update for Battlefront II (2005) on PC. Along with bug fixes and optimization, the patch promises:

• Lobby functionality has been improved
• Steam usernames should now display correctly
• Ping calculations are more accurate

Is this a sign of more to come? Hope so! Aside from continuing to smooth out online play, it seems the big fan request is to add Steam Workshop support. It's never too late.

Star Wars Battlefront II (Classic, 2005) Multiplayer Patch Update [Steam]

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News:: Capybara's new game OK K.O.! is out this month

I've missed Capybara these past few years. With Below still indefinitely delayed, the next project we'll see out of the studio is OK K.O.!: Let's Play Heroes, a beat-'em-up based on Cartoon Network's video-game-inspired animated show. It's coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on January 23.

I haven't watched the show itself but I'm digging the art here, for sure. The game also looks like it'll have some decent hooks with the whole card collecting and leveling aspect on top of the brawling.

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News:: Tell EA to piss off with this pink Darth Vader mod

Battlefront II is going to forever be associated with some bone headed decisions by EA and DICE. One of the more baffling statements regarding cosmetic microtransactions was that a pink Darth Vader would be in violation of canon, which we all know is something that EA is taking very seriously.

So since EA won't be providing us with an official pink Darth Vader, the task has been shifted over to modders. We can finally have our dreams come true thanks to Destauch over on NexusMods. With his "Darth Vader in Pink" skin, you can give EA the finger and take out some rebel scum while Darth looks fabulous.

If pink isn't your style, then why not check out "Darth Vader in White"? That skin is based on yet another quote that EA's Blake Jorgensen assumed fans wouldn't want, but that I think looks pretty damn sweet. It is also kind of odd since the first EA Battlefront game had unlockable skins, though nothing as outstanding as a pink Vader.

Sadly, these are limited to just the PC version of Battlefront II. While that is understandable, it would be nice to have our console brethren get in on the corporate protest. At least we have some video of pink Vader being amazing.

Darth Vader in Pink [NexusMods]

Darth Vader in White [NexusMods]

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News:: This amazing archive lets you revisit Miiverse

Miiverse may be dead but it's not gone. Nintendo shut down its bizarre and lovable social network service last month, and in the lead-up to that closure, app developer Drastic Actions got to work archiving as much content as possible for posterity. The open-source end result, Archiverse, is staggering -- both in its breadth and its ease of use. It works just as you'd hope.

You can dig up user accounts, posts, replies, and whole game communities. There are even search options to show just drawings or just user-taken screenshots. It's like the memes never left!

Okay, everyone, I have now launched https://t.co/K3Hy7fLwKp, your guide into the Miiverse Archives!

216,901,986 Replies
133,003,599 Posts
75,955,135 Screenshots
72,135,190 Drawings
8,278,693 User Profiles

That's nearly 17 terabytes of data saved by @archiveteam! http://pic.twitter.com/K0oFtuIIKn

— Drastic "MAGfest" Actions (@drasticactionSA) January 3, 2018

This isn't a full archive, but it's huge. "While we attempted to download and store as much as possible, given the amount of time to do the archive and the crawling we had to do to get what we ended up with, there is no way to know precisely how much we missed. From Miiverse administrators deleting users and posts, users who hid their profiles, new communities created after the shutdown notice went out, to stability issues with Miiverse itself, many things would stop a complete archive of the site."

But enough talk. Go relive the silliness that was Miiverse.

Drastic Actions [Twitter]

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News:: Furi hits the Nintendo Switch eShop next Thursday

The Game Bakers is bringing its boss-rush action game Furi to Switch next Thursday, January 11.

The Switch port is priced at $20 and includes bonuses like the "One More Fight DLC, the option to speedrun its ultra-challenging Furier difficulty mode (never before available on console), and all improvements and updates previously added to the game [since its original release on PC and PS4]."

Something to tide us over until Bayonetta 1 and 2 make it to Switch next month.

Furi confirmed for release on Nintendo Switch Thursday January 11th, 2018 [The Game Bakers]

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News:: Kevin Mersereau's Top Five Games of 2017

It’s officially the year 2018 and not a whole lot has changed so far. I’m still a bald, broke, and excessively sweaty college student with an unhealthy obsession for video games. Luckily, that means I actually took the time to play quite a few of them.

There were a ton of great games last year, but I had to whittle this list down to just five entries that really left a lasting impression. These are the releases that, at the end of the day, left me rock hard and wanting more. 

Read more...

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News:: Mad Catz is back, and its factory workers made it happen

This cat has at least two lives. Mad Catz, a long-time gaming peripheral company that shut down in March 2017, has been improbably resurrected. 

Ahead of next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mad Catz has announced that it's back with a new line of accessories. Its (re)debut products are called: RAT (a mouse), STRIKE (a keyboard), FREQ (a headset), and GLIDE (a gaming surface). No new FightStick was revealed, but the brand was acknowledged in a press release; it seems as if this revived Mad Catz wants to focus on more traditional gaming peripherals at first.

More interesting than its products is the story of how Mad Catz was saved. According to CNET, it's employees at a Mad Catz factory in China that led the charge to salvage it from bankruptcy. They formed a holding company and now they'll be working for themselves. Quite literally, the people who were making the peripherals are the ones who bought the company. This new Mad Catz is officially named Mad Catz Global Limited, and its headquarters is in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

It's widely accepted that Mad Catz's downfall was tied to a single ill-fated business decision: To co-publish and manufacture the peripherals for Rock Band 4. With that seemingly squarely in the past, it'll be interesting to see what Mad Catz can do now that it has a second chance.

Mad Catz, maker of gaming peripherals, is back from the dead [CNET]

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News:: Feudal Alloy is a Switch-bound Metroidvania with Fishbowl-powered medieval robots

Toby: The Secret Mine wasn't a massive hit critically for Attu Games, but they're trying again with a more original looking concept -- Feudal Alloy.

Described as a Metroidvania with "fishbowl-powered medieval robots," their newest project is set to arrive on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch at some point in the third quarter of 2017. Based on the description it will have multiple questlines, lots of loot to plunder, and a "huge interconnected world."

The designs remind me of something akin to an offbeat deckbuilding game, which is nice, but the trailer hasn't quite sold me gameplay-wise.

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News:: Destructoid's 2017 Community Choice Award!

Crazy. There's no better word to describe 2017. It was a crazy year. Good crazy in some places, like video games, and bad crazy in others.

Over the past few weeks, the community has been hard at work voting for their favorite games released in this wild, wild year... Also, hard at work reminding me that Doki Doki Literature Club should have been an option. Sometimes, people chose to vote multiple times for the same game, which made tallying pretty tricky. You know who you are. But now, the results are finally in.

For those wondering how their voting power was used, here's a quick rundown. Basically, one point was given to a game for each fifth-place vote, two points for each fourth-place vote, four points for each third-place vote, and so on. Amusingly, the top 5 you'll find below would have been the same if I just ranked the games by their number of first place votes...

I guess that makes these rankings extra valid!

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News:: Zelda: Breath of the Wild fans keep finding creative little ways to make me want to replay it

I've shared little Zelda: Breath of the Wild clips here and there for nearly a year now, and each month I find something so unique it makes me want to try it myself.

That's definitely the case here with highwindstryker, who uses Revali's Gale to swoop up into the air to launch apples from a tree -- and immediately engaging in a made-up minigame of sorts to shoot them all. It's such a little exercise but it's one worth sharing!

The open-ended physics system is something that might be returning when Zelda's next game comes along, as Nintendo has promised that they'll retain the "freedom" of Breath of the Wild.

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News:: Luca Blight's Bizarre Awards of 2017

[He's at it again! Last year Luca Blight wrote his 2016 blog for excellence in stupidity, making it one of my favorite GOTY blogs ever. This year, he's written a follow-up, making this one of my new favorite year-end traditions. Join him as he doles out awards for the bizarre and arcane acts of 2017! And if you think something got snubbed for one of his awards, feel free to disagree in the comments. Personally, I think I got snubbed for best Destructoider. I'll get you one day, MATT DAMON! - Wes]

Note: Minor spoilers in the blog.

It's back! And just like any Ubisoft game there's always a sequel - and boy did we have a bizarre year. Hollywood couldn't keep their hands in their own pockets, and is aiming for the lowest record of attendees for the Oscars. The land of the free tried their hand in making the internet not free, and we've been taken over by our Canadian overlords. But hey at least the games were great this year. Nintendo had one of the best launch years of all time for the Switch with big hitter games and strong third-party support, Sony released quality games throughout the year to compete with Nintendo, and Microsoft tried their best.

Here at Luca Blight's Awards I like to give out some bizarre awards that you most likely won't see in any other game awards roundup because for some reason the world seems unaccepting of a mass genocide warlord hosting an award ceremony. But nevertheless the show must go on, so let's begin.

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News:: The Messenger is a rad looking Ninja Gaiden-esque platformer that swaps from 8 to 16-bit

This was a great thing to wake up to.

Although Team Ninja's modern Ninja Gaiden series has become wildly popular in recent years, and along with Devil May Cry set the gold standard for action, it all started with Tecmo's original trilogy on the NES (which would later be immortalized with an SNES collection).

Sabotage Studio seems to be tapping into that legacy with The Messenger, a new project that's hitting PC and "consoles" in 2018. It already has a Steam page and a trailer, and the concept involves a mix of an 8-bit platformer and a 16-bit Metroidvania style of play, with "silly" villains and bosses.

Yep, this thing is right up my alley.

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News:: Nintendo Download: Kirby Battle Royale Demo

Nintendo preceded this issue of Nintendo Download with a "Happy New Year!" greeting, which is perhaps more exciting than the actual lineup of games this weel.

As is becoming the norm these days the 3DS is mostly left out, hosting a sole Kirby Battle Royale demo that Europe got weeks ago. On Switch you can find Grand Prix Rock 'N Racing, which is nothing like Rock n' Roll Racing, as well as Pic-a-Pic Deluxe, NeoGeo King of Monsters, and Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure Deluxe.

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News:: Paladins gets a new 'Battle Royale' mode and the world keeps turning

Hi-Rez studios announced that its team based shooter, Paladins, will be getting a new "battle royale" mode called Paladins: Battlegrounds. Lack of originality aside, this new 100 man free-for-all will be the first "battle royale" to feature hero powers, which could make for an interesting twist on the sub-genre.

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News:: Tabletop Kickstarters soared over video games last year

Polygon managed to get some hard data from Kickstarter in the games sector, and it's pretty illuminating.

After being burned in the past so many times by video game Kickstarters, fans seemingly started to get burnt out on the idea of over-zealously crowdfunding. Although the amount of average funding grew a bit from $45,360 in 2016 to $48,184 in 2017 (marginal gains), the average in 2015, arguably right before the fail-bubble burst, was $110,962.

The tabletop scene has avoided that dark cloud however, and is responsible for most of the 30% overall growth in the game category on Kickstarter. It was up to $65,418 this year from $59, 181 in 2016.

What's the reason for this growth? Although there have been some snafus like late orders or shipments that have cleared retailers before backers, tabletop Kickstarters are in a better position to generally deliver what's promised, especially if they show prototype designs in the campaign itself.

They also have decades of board game marketing, development, and expertise to draw upon -- and don't go overboard with backer rewards. Often times in the realm of video game crowdfunding studios will undertake their first ever big budget project and become completely overwhelmed, whereas board game development can operate at a more tempered pace, almost functioning like a pure pre-order mechanism.

Tabletop games are exploding on Kickstarter, video games are flat [Polygon]

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News:: Reminder: Gravity Rush 2's online features will be shut down this month

Although we are not even a week into 2018, the first gaming disappointment of the year will be upon us this month. As we reported last year, the online portion of Gravity Rush 2 will be shut down on January 19. This in turn will mean some parts of the game will be forever lost, while others will have an extended grind.

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News:: The Great Retro Quiz! Results of 2017

I think I now know how Edward Nygma feels when he sets up an elaborate riddle to trap Batman, but Batman ignores the riddles and just socks him in the jaw. Unfortunately, this edition of the Great Retro Quiz had very low participation, and I'm not sure why. Was it the Twitter requirement, intended to keep people from just copy-pasting answers in the comments? Was it the long holiday weekend, and people just weren't online to play a silly quiz? Or were the questions too hard to figure out without Googling? (You can totally use Google to answer them. I won't know the difference.)

Whatever the reason might be, we only had three participants for 2017's look back at the year in gaming. For those who'd still like to try their luck before reading the answers you can do so here, but it's too late to enter for a chance to win the Steam credit. For the results, read on below.

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News:: Nintendo's Switch is the fastest-selling US console ever

The Switch has broken the US record for the fastest selling console ever, with 4.8 million units sold in just 10 months, Nintendo says. That shatters the previous record of 4 million US sales in the same time, also held by Nintendo with the Wii. Switch sales first opened on March 3rd, 2017, and it looks like strong holiday sales pushed the Switch over the top.

Source: Nintendo

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News:: Nintendo says the Switch is the fastest-selling console ever in the US, beats out the Wii

Nintendo is going to keep the momentum of the Switch going anyway it can. In addition to almost eclipsing the Wii U's lifetime sales in less than 12 months, the Switch has also reached the coveted spot of the fastest-selling video game system of all time, according to Nintendo of America.

In just over 10 months, the Switch has sold "more than 4.8 million units" in the US, which Nintendo says is "the highest total for the first 10 months of any home video game system in U.S. history." That beats out the Wii, which teetered around four million units in the same timeframe.

Nintendo has a really strong competitor in Sony this generation as they aim to push 100 million PS4s, but so far, so good.

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News:: The Morning After: Thursday, January 4th 2018

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

First things first: check your system for updates. Once you've got that sorted, we have plenty of pre-CES info to share including a new XPS 13 from Dell and a quick flyby video of SpaceX's big rocket.

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