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Battle Princess Madelyn will be released on December 6
Causal Bit Games has announced that Battle Princess Madelyn, their side-scrolling platformer that was partially designed by the Creative Director’s daughter, will be released on December 6.
Battle Princess Madelyn is a modern-day homage to Capcom’s Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and will be available for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The game is also in the works for the Wii U and Vita, and both of those versions will launch sometime in 2019.
Causal Bit’s Christopher Obritsch is incredibly proud that Battle Princess Madelyn has reached this point and can’t wait for the public to play it:
“It’s been an exciting, exhaustive, stressful, enjoyable, [and] frustrating period over the last two years developing Battle Princess Madelyn and I would do it all over again. The feedback that has been given in the creation of the game, the positive remarks, the way social media [and] the specialist gaming press have supported the game throughout this long period has been nothing short of remarkable. The end result is a game the team are all proud of and went beyond what was envisioned. Within a very short time gamers will be able to play Battle Princess Madelyn. I hope it will give them as much enjoyment as it has to the team that created it!”
In case you missed it, Casual Bit unveiled a new trailer for Battle Princess Madelyn a few weeks ago.
The first Detective Pikachu: The Movie trailer is here… and it is appropriately nuts
I still can’t believe we live in a world where there’s going to be a live-action Pokemon movie, but that world moved a bit closer to reality today with the release of the first trailer for Detective Pikachu.
Based on the 3DS game of the same name, Detective Pikachu stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokemon, and Justice Smith as the only human being who can understand him (everyone else hears the customary “Pika Pika!”). They’re teaming up to find a missing private eye who also happens to be Smith’s father:
The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokemon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokemon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokemon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokemon universe.
The hyper-realistic style is not at all what I was expecting from a Pokemon movie, nor was I expecting to see Pikachu threaten to murder someone… and that happens twice! Also, what is Ken Watanabe doing in this trailer? He’s gotta be the bad guy, right?
I’ve never played a Pokemon game before, so I’m not the target audience for Detective Pikachu at all, but it actually looks kind of fun.
Detective Pikachu will open in theaters on May 11, 2019. I’m still as baffled by that as you are.
Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, News
Tagged Detective Pikachu
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Crashlands, Road Redemption, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
More than 30 new games will be added to the Switch eShop this week, so let’s once more dive into Nintendo’s newest digital offerings.
Available to download next Tuesday, November 13, is SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. Now known for its huge stable of fighting games, this compilation goes further back into SNK’s legacy and plucks out a few gems such as Crystalis and the Ikari Warriors trilogy.
Other games of interest in this week’s eShop update include Crashlands, an adventure game about an intergalactic delivery driver who took a wrong turn; Road Redemption, a racing game about post-apocalyptic motorcycle gangs; and Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft’s side-scrolling story of “friendship, love, sacrifice, and tragedy” centered on World War I. All three games are now available to download.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Astebreed, Forgotten Anne, Syberia 1 & 2, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Crashlands, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Valiant Hearts: The Great War
The NPD Group shares list of best-selling games on PS4, Xbox One, and Vita… also the Saturn, PS1, N64, GBC, and Dreamcast
The NPD Group has never been too keen on sharing their historical lists of best-selling games, but that might be changing. Using data from the analyst firm’s vast archive, Mat Piscatella recently tried to pull back the curtain a little bit by sharing the list of best-selling games on several legacy consoles (the Saturn, the original PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Color, and the Dreamcast) and a nearly defunct handheld (the Vita). He also examined the best-selling games through September 2018 on two modern consoles (the PS4 and Xbox One) and published a list of the top-selling titles for each year from 1995 to 2017.
It’s a very interesting collection of information, and the lists provide our best window yet into what games were considered popular in the United States in the 1990s and into today. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Retro, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Crash Bandicoot, Grand Theft Auto V, NPD, Super Mario 64, Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Call of Cthulhu, The Quiet Man, Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum Session, more coming to PS Store this week
“If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.”
H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu is now available to download for the PS4, and this adaptation of Chaosism’s tabletop RPG might make a nicely spooky companion for tonight’s Halloween festivities.
For more seasonally-appropriate thrills, Square Enix and Human Head’s The Quiet Man will be available to download for the PS4 beginning tomorrow. Taking place over the course of a single night, players will take control of a deaf man named Dane as he attempts to figure out why a singer was kidnapped by a “mysterious masked man.”
Other new PS4 launches of note this week are Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum Session, the next entry in Bandai Namco’s unique rhythm franchise, and Dream Daddy: Dadrector’s Cut, the dad-dating simulator that took the indie community by storm in 2017.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Call of Cthulhu, The Quiet Man
Full PlayStation Classic lineup includes a lot of the platform’s earliest hits
When Sony first unveiled the PlayStation Classic, they said their microconsole would feature a total of 20 games, including Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms. Today, the consolemaker confirmed the identities of the remaining 15 titles.
Culled mostly from the early days of the console (likely due to the lack of analog sticks on the included controller), the PlayStation Classic will include another early 3D fighter (Battle Arena Toshinden), a pair of car combat games (Destruction Derby and Twisted Metal), and a few 3D action games (Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil: Director’s Cut), all of which helped define the PlayStation’s style in its fight against the Nintendo 64. But Sony will also reach way back and resurrect Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto and Atlus’s Revelations: Persona for the PlayStation Classic as well.
The microconsole’s lineup is so heavily skewed towards the PlayStation’s 1995-1997 era, that I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony is planning to release an updated edition of the PlayStation Classic for fans in the future. But that’s just speculation on my part, so for now, here’s a look at all 20 titles set to be included on the microconsole:
PlayStation Classic’s Full Lineup of Games
- Battle Arena Toshinden
- Cool Boarders 2
- Destruction Derby
- Final Fantasy VII
- Grand Theft Auto
- Intelligent Qube
- Jumping Flash
- Metal Gear Solid
- Mr. Driller
- Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
- Rayman
- Resident Evil: Director’s Cut
- Revelations: Persona
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Syphon Filter
- Tekken 3
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
- Twisted Metal
- Wild Arms
The PlayStation Classic will be priced at $99.99 when it launches on December 3, and will comes packed with two controllers. A new trailer for the microconsole, showcasing all 20 games, has been embedded above.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Final Fantasy VII
New Retail Releases: Call of Cthulhu, Diablo III: Eternal Collection, Lego Harry Potter Collection, More
It’s All Hallows Eve Eve Eve, and while you might assume that that’s the perfect time to unleash a terrifying new survival horror game on the populace, you’d be (mostly) wrong. Instead, game publishers are following up last week’s launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 with a slew of re-releases and a smattering of smaller games.
But don’t worry fright fans, a monstrous entity from beyond our human comprehension will also make an appearance on store shelves this week…
H.P. Lovecraft’s greatest creation, the elder god Cthulhu, will return to video games this week with the release of Call of Cthulhu from Cynaide Studio. The PS4 and Xbox One game is based on the popular tabletop RPG, players must infiltrate an island of “unfriendly locals” and thread the needle between “sanity and psychosis” to uncover the truth. Call of Cthulhu will also be available to download for the PC.
Another fictional godlike being drives the story behind Blizzard’s Diablo III: Eternal Collection, which makes its way to the Switch for the first time this week. The Eternal Collection includes the original Action RPG, as well as the Reaper of Souls expansion, the Rise of the Necromancer Pack, and an exclusive Ganondorf Armor Set.
A very different set of magical spells will be cast in the Lego Harry Potter Collection, which will be released for the Switch and Xbox One this week. The compilation includes both Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7.
And speaking of compilations, Square Enix will package together the entire Kingdom Hearts saga this week for the PS4 with Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far.
Finally this week, we loop back around to a scary sight with Digital Dreams Entertainment’s Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition, a retail release of the supernatural sports sim for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
A complete look at all of this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)