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First full-length footage of Stranger Things 3: The Game recreates the show’s brilliant trailer

Posted on April 4, 2019 by John Scalzo

Netflix revealed a few months ago that a game adaptation of Stranger Things 3 was in the works and scheduled to launch this Summer, but the developers at Bonus XP needed a little extra time to filter the third season’s brilliant trailer through the game’s glorious pixelated hues. The result was certainly worth the wait and this Teaser Trailer has been embedded above.

Stranger Things 3: The Game is an isometric brawler with a 16-bit art style for up to two players, and it’ll be released alongside the premiere of the show’s third season on July 4 for the PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and mobile devices.

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God of War wins “Best Game” at 2019 BAFTA Games Awards

Posted on April 4, 2019 by John Scalzo

It’s a clean sweep for Sony Santa Monica’s God of War. The highly-acclaimed title collected the “Best Game” statuette at this morning’s BAFTA Games Awards ceremony, and the developers can now add it to a stuffed trophy shelf that also includes “Game of the Year” honors from the GDC Awards, SXSW Gaming Awards, DICE Awards, and the Game Awards.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts bestowed four more awards on Kratos’s latest adventure throughout the ceremony, including “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” “Narrative,” and “Performer” (to Jeremy Davies for his portrayal of The Stranger).

Nintendo marched to the stage multiple times during the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards to collect statuettes for Nintendo Labo in the “Game Innovation” and “Family” categories. Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn also won two awards, “Artistic Achievement” and “Game Design.” And this year’s BAFTA for “Best British Game” was given to Playground Games’s Forza Horizon 4.

The complete list of winners at the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards can be found after the break. (more…)

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Yacht Club Games will publish Mekaskull’s Cyber Shadow

Posted on March 27, 2019 by John Scalzo

In addition to their role as the steward of the Shovel Knight franchise, Yacht Club Games has previously worked as a publisher to help bring two games in the Azure Striker Gunvolt series to retail shelves. Earlier today, the developer confirmed they’re getting back into the publishing game to assist Aarne “Mekaskull” Hunziker with the release of Cyber Shadow.

The developer describes Cyber Shadow as an “NES-style game that had the level design principles of Mario, the skills and action of Ninja Gaiden, the enemy designs of Contra, and the dark visual aesthetic of Batman.” The team at Yacht Club Games was drawn to these retro-inspired qualities, and they all certainly shine through in the game’s Announcement Trailer, which has been embedded above.

Cyber Shadow has been in development for more than two years, and will offer players a new take on the “Ninja Action” genre:

Description
In Cyber Shadow the world has been taken over by synthetic lifeforms. A desperate plea for help sets Shadow on a journey to uncover what set the world on the path to perpetual ruin. Slash through techno hordes, leap past traps, and nimbly navigate the ruins of Mekacity. Only you can unlock the secrets to your clan’s ancient powers in Cyber Shadow – a quintessential take on the ninja action genre.

Features

  • Dash, slice, and leap through masterfully designed levels filled with sharply honed ninja platforming action.
  • Authentic 8-bit presentation with hand-crafted sprites, a detailed pixel aesthetic, and perfect controls. Modern touches like fluid animation, multi-layered parallax backgrounds, and evolved game design.
  • Take down more than a dozen apocalyptic bosses, from enormous war machines to your synthetic clan rivals.
  • Relive the authenticity of classic 8-bit challenge or experience it for the first time… with an added convenience or two.
  • Rescue your clan to unlock permanent Ninjutsu skills and abilities, combining them seamlessly as only the warrior of legend could.
  • Search for secrets as you explore the ruined world. Return to your old haunts to find supplies, items and upgrades.
  • Experience the gripping story, told both in-game and through animated cinematic story scenes between the action. Who can be trusted? How far will Shadow go to protect his clan and the one he loves?
  • Pulse-pounding soundtrack by Enrique Martin, produced by Jake Kaufman.

Cyber Shadow is currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. A release date wasn’t announced, but Yacht Club and “Mekaskull” will bring a demo of the game to this weekend’s PAX East convention for fans to try out.

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Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch on April 18

Posted on March 20, 2019 by John Scalzo

Nintendo uploaded their first Nindies Showcase of 2019 earlier today and they kicked things off with an absolutely huge announcement. Studio MDHR will bring their side-scrolling platformer, Cuphead, to the Switch on April 18. Featuring gameplay that pays homage to the Contra franchise, as well as a hand-drawn animation style inspired by cartoons from the 1930s, and a jazzy original soundtrack, Cuphead was originally released to great acclaim in 2017:

Cuphead, the all-cartoon Magical Wondergame, is coming to Nintendo Switch! Play as Cuphead or Mugman (in single player or local co-op) as you traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and discover hidden secrets while you try to pay your debt back to the devil!

Cuphead’s Switch debut was partly made possible with an assist from Microsoft, and the they confirmed on the Xbox Wire that a variety of Xbox Live features will soon be accessible on the Switch through Studio MDHR’s ultra-hard shooter:

We are partnering with Studio MDHR to investigate bringing Xbox Live features beyond Xbox and PC to Nintendo Switch. Yes, this means that fans will now have the opportunity to experience Studio MDHR’s award-winning debut game on Nintendo Switch with Xbox Live! We’ll be working with Studio MDHR to implement Xbox Live features into Cuphead on the Nintendo Switch in the coming months. Given the early stage of our work with Studio MDHR, the Xbox Live features will appear in a post-launch update to Cuphead on Nintendo Switch. We’d like to thank Studio MDHR and Nintendo for their help in this investigation!

In addition to bringing the game to Nintendo’s newest console, Studio MDHR is also hard at work on The Delicious Last Course, a new expansion for Cuphead that’ll launch for the PC and Xbox One (and presumably, the Switch) later this year.

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Blazing Chrome’s new Boss Trailer confirms the shooter is also coming to Xbox One

Posted on March 18, 2019 by John Scalzo

The Arcade Crew and JoyMasher have unveiled a brand new trailer for Blazing Chrome that shines a spotlight on the side-scrolling shooter’s towering bosses.

But prospective players won’t just get a peek at the game’s rampaging robots and messy monsters. The publisher and developer also used the short clip to confirm that Blazing Chrome will be released for the Xbox One (in addition to the PC, PS4, and Switch) later this Spring:

New video shows off the terrible bosses you will have to fight to save humanity from extinction.

Blazing Chrome is a throwback to the golden days of side-scrolling shooters with modern touches ensuring its gameplay feels as precise as it does authentic to the era it channels. Players can tear through six highly-varied stages filled with deadly, bullet-spewing AI as Mavra, a lone human resistance fighter, or the rebellious robotic insurgent Doyle.

Blazing Chrome was heavily inspired by games such as Contra and Metal Slug, and while a final release date hasn’t been locked down yet, it should be available “soon.”

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New Retail Releases: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, More

Posted on March 18, 2019 by John Scalzo

From Software is back in the spotlight this week, but it’s not for a new game in the Dark Souls franchise (or even the oft-requested Bloodborne 2). Instead, the famed developer will bring an entirely original game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, to the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on Friday. Published by Activision, Sekiro’s players will take control of a disgraced warrior (the “One-Armed Wolf”) and attempt to rescue a young lord from the clutches of the Ashina Clan.

Speaking of ninjas, GameMill Entertainment will release American Ninja Warrior Challenge for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One this week. This game adaptation of the over-the-top athletic contest will feature more than a dozen obstacles, a Character Creator, and a Course Creator.

Elsewhere on store shelves, SNK will launch the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection for the PS4. Compiling 24 games from SNK’s earliest days, fans will be able to replay Crystalis, the Ikari Warriors trilogy, P.O.W., and more.

And finally this week, Marvelous will release Fate/Extella Link, the latest action-adventure addition to the franchise, on the PS4 and Switch.

A smattering of new games will also be available to download through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop later this week, and some of them will surely feature even more ninjas.

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God of War captures “Game of the Year” at 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards

Posted on March 18, 2019 by John Scalzo

Sony Santa Monica’s God of War continued its award-winning ways this weekend with a trio of wins at the 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards. The action-adventure title was awarded “Game of the Year” by SXSW’s Gaming Advisory Board, as well as “Excellence In Design” and “Excellence in Visual Achievement.”

The rest of the 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards were spread out among a large number of games, and like Kratos, several managed to secure multiple victories. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only other game to win in three categories, and it took home some hardware as the “Trending Game of the Year,” along with “Excellence in Technical Achievement” and “Excellence in SFX.”

Insomniac’s Spider-Man won two awards (“Excellence in Convergence” and “Excellence in Animation”), as did Epic’s Fortnite (“Most Promising New Esports Game” and “Excellence in Multiplayer”) and Beat Games’s Beat Saber (“VR Game of the Year” and “Most Promising New Intellectual Property”).

Congratulations to all the winners, and you can find a complete list of every award-winning game from the 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards at Video Game Canon.

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Yacht Club is bringing “something new” to PAX East 2019… and it looks like a post-apocalyptic ninja game

Posted on March 16, 2019 by John Scalzo

Yacht Club Games originally released Shovel Knight in 2013, and the developer has spent the half-decade since producing multiple expansions for the game to fulfill promises made during its Kickstarter campaign. The final two expansions, King of Cards and Showdown, will be available later this year, and now it looks like Yacht Club is getting ready to move on to their next project.

Yesterday, the developer uploaded a stunning bit of artwork to their Twitter account, while also confirming that they’re bringing “something new” to PAX East 2019:

Unlike the medieval aesthetic found in Shovel Knight, this new project looks to feature a more post-apocalyptic vibe as a ninja stands amongst the rubble of a modern skyline.

Yacht Club’s new game is obviously a bit of a mystery, but we’ll all find out what they’re cooking up in just a few weeks. PAX East 2019 kicks off later this month in Boston on Thursday, March 28.

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