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Shovel Knight’s King of Cards and Showdown expansions will be released on December 10
Yacht Club Games has announced that the first chapter of the Shovel Knight saga is finally coming to a close after four expansions and five glorious years (though you’ll need to tack on an additional year if you want to go all the way back to the Kickstarter campaign). Yesterday, the developer confirmed that Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown will both be released on December 10.
King of Cards is a followup to Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment, and it’ll be the final side-story starring a member of the villainous Order of No Quarter. Meanwhile, Showdown breaks from tradition and isn’t a platformer at all. Instead, it’s a multiplayer fighting game that features the franchise’s entire cast, along with a huge single-player adventure.
Fans who originally backed the Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight, or who own the Treasure Trove bundle, will receive both expansions for free. The King of Cards expansion will be available for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One, while Showdown will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, and Xbox One.
Yacht Club will also release King of Cards and Showdown as standalone downloads for fans who are digging into the franchise for the first for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Finally, the developer will try to also take over your favorite game store on December 10th with the release of a pair of Amiibo sets (a Treasure Trove 3-Pack and a Gold Edition Shovel Knight), as well as a Physical Edition of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (which includes the original game and all four expansions) for the Switch and Xbox One. A PS4 version of the Physical Edition will follow in 2020.
Whew, that’s a lot of Shovel Knight. But don’t forget, Yacht Club is also hard at work on a 16-bit-styled sequel/spin-off known as Shovel Knight Dig.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight Showdown, Shovel Knight: King of Cards
Paramount debuts Sonic’s redesign in a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
Paramount has been plugging away on a Sonic the Hedgehog movie for a few years now, and they gave us our first look at the Blue Blur’s cinematic debut back in April. While the clip was “endearingly goofy,” Sonic just didn’t look like Sonic… and the response from fans was brutal.
But rather than take their lumps and release the movie as is, Paramount delayed the theatrical release of Sonic the Hedgehog into next year and promised to rework the character’s design. This morning, the production company unleashed the first trailer featuring the redesigned Sonic… and it’s actually pretty great.
Sonic’s redesign gave the character his gloves back, and he now looks much closer to his Genesis counterpart in every way. Paramount even winked at their earlier misfire in the opening seconds of the clip (“I’m Sonic, a little ball of super-energy in an extremely handsome package.”). But best of all, the same goofy energy that pervaded the first trailer is still there in the new trailer, and Jim Carrey is still doing his crazy Jim Carrey thing as Robotnik.
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie will be out in theaters on February 14, 2020. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog
Square Enix’s Romancing Saga 3 is now available in English for the first time
It’s been a struggle for RPG fans in North America and Europe to experience Square Enix’s long-running Saga franchise over the years. While the earliest Saga games were brought West under the Final Fantasy Legend banner, many of the later entries were only released in Japan by the publisher.
Thankfully, Square Enix has recently begun filling in those missing piece with a handful of Saga-related re-releases, including today’s launch of Romancing Saga 3.
Originally released for the Super NES in 1995, Romancing Saga 3 follows eight different protagonists, “each with their own motives and unique personalities.” This HD remaster of the game will give players outside of Japan their first chance to try out the turn-based RPG, which will include upgraded graphics, new areas to explore, and a New Game+ option:
Romancing Saga 3 gives players the freedom to forge their own path, choosing to play through eight different narratives led by eight protagonists, each with their own motives and unique personalities. Developed by industry veterans, including renowned developer Akitoshi Kawazu (Final Fantasy, Romancing SaGa, SaGa Frontier), this HD remaster will feature optimized graphics, a new dungeon called the Phantom Maze to explore, and a New Game+ function. Romancing Saga 3 adds new storylines to the game original game, making it the perfect time for both new and veteran players to experience the SaGa series.
Romancing Saga 3 is now available to download for the PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One, and mobile devices. A Launch Trailer for the RPG re-release has been embedded above.
Bandai Namco wants you to “Join the Pac” for Pac-Man’s 40th Anniversary with a new theme song
Pac-Man will be celebrating his 40th Anniversary in 2020, and publisher Bandai Namco wants to start getting fans involved now.
Way back in Pac-Man’s heyday, Buckner & Garcia borrowed a few blips and boops from the beloved mascot to rule the music charts with “Pac-Man Fever.” Well put on your dancing shoes, because Bandai Namco has commissioned a new theme song for Pac-Man from Japanese techno artist Ken Ishii. Known as “Join the Pac,” it combines some of Pac-Man’s signature sounds with a nice techno beat, and you can even check out a music video for the song embedded above.
Bandai Namco is also planning to host a series of “engaging events around the globe” in honor of Pac-Man’s anniversary, and you can keep track of all the big news at PacMan.com:
Born on May 22, 1980, Pac-Man immediately rose to meteoric popularity, first in video game arcades, then through an array of branding and entertainment appearances. With a brand recognition rate of 90% around the world, Pac-Man’s image is one of the most recognized on the planet and is as strong as ever as he enters his 40th year of entertaining fans of all ages.
The last time Pac-Man celebrated a milestone anniversary, Bandai Namco released Pac-Man 256 in 2015 for mobile devices… and it was awesome (or righteous or bodacious or any other synonym for “good” you want to pull out of your 80s dictionary). So let’s hope we’re in for another surprising new game launch in 2020, though nothing has been officially announced as of now.
NBA 2K20 is the best-selling game from September 2019
It long ago become an annual tradition, but the latest entry in 2K’s NBA 2K franchise absolutely dominated the sales charts in September. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), NBA 2K20 was not only the best-selling game from last month, but it also currently sits atop the list as the best-selling game for all of 2019 (dethroning Mortal Kombat 11).
But it’ll face some stiff competition throughout the rest of the year as a big batch of new releases took over the Top 10 including Borderlands 3 (#2), FIFA 20 (#3), The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (#4), Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (#6), Code Vein (#8), and NHL 20 (#9). Microsoft’s Gears 5, which was also available to download through the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, managed to make its way onto the list at #7.
However, the most surprising addition to this month’s list might be EA’s Plants Vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville, which is currently only available as an Early Access download on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. We can expect it’s profile to rise next month as the game will make its retail debut on store shelves tomorrow.
You can find a full list of best-selling games from last month after the break. (more…)
An animator is making a game based on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show with his kids
Jesus Lopez is a game animator with an extensive resume of impressive titles, including DuckTales Remastered, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. But the projects he works on in his spare time (with his kids) are equally impressive, as YouTube user SwankyBox recently discovered.
In the video embedded above, SwankyBox delves into Lopez’s hobby of remaking World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. in the hand-drawn art style of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. The late 80s/early 90s cartoon was well-loved partly because of each episode’s live-action introduction from Captain Lou Albano (as Mario) and Danny Wells (as Luigi). But the weird and wild animation of the main story segments also created new corners of the Mushroom Kingdom that the games would never explore, such as the Pasta Land that Mario and friends visit in the first episode.
It’s this locale (with its “trees” made of forks and spaghetti) that Lopez is attempting to recreate, and he’s been documenting his progress sporadically over the years in a five-part video series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5). While the game hasn’t progressed beyond World 1-1 just yet, Lopez would like to create a series of original levels after he perfects the animation.
Lopez has been working on this project (again, with his kids as co-developers) for the past three years and he has no plans to release it for public consumption. But I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Bumblebee’s Travis Knight is the latest director to sign on for the Uncharted movie
Sony Pictures has spun the Wheel of Fortune one more time and come up with another new director for their film adaptation of the Uncharted franchise.
Dan Trachtenberg, who is best known for directing 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, previously occupied the director’s chair for Uncharted: The Movie, but according to a report on Deadline, he has decided to step down. Thankfully for Tom Holland, who will play a younger version of Nathan Drake in the film, Sony Pictures has already recruited a replacement… Travis Knight, the director of 2018’s Bumbleebee and 2016’s Kubo and The Two Strings.
As long as nothing else goes wrong with the Uncharted adaptation, filming is still expected to begin early next year. But the movie’s previously-announced December 18, 2020 release date will most likely have to change.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Madden NFL 20 goes back-to-back as the best-selling game of August 2019
The month of August was fairly light on new releases, so naturally, it looks like the game industry went through a lighter period on the business side of things as well.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), EA Sports’s Madden NFL 20 topped the list the best-selling titles for the month, repeating its victory from July (I guess you could say the developer went for two). The rest of the Top 20 was littered with repeat entries, but most surprisingly of all is that Minecraft earned the #2 spot, more than seven years after its retail debut.
The other big story to come out of the Top 20 was Nintendo’s continued dominance of the Summer. The consolemaker placed nine Switch games in the Top 20, including Platinum’s latest project, Astral Chain, at #10. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (#4), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (#5), Super Mario Maker 2 (#6), Mario Kart 8 (#7), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#12), Super Mario Party (#16), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (#17), and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (#18) were the other Nintendo titles to crack the list.
However, the overall industry felt a bit of a dip in August 2019, totaling $666 million in sales, an 18% drop versus August 2018.
You can find a full list of best-selling games from last month after the break. (more…)