Graceful Explosion Machine Review: Colorful Arcade Shooter Pops On Nintendo’s Switch

When your brand new console launches with a single marquee game, you need to do something in the ensuing weeks and months to hold the interest of all those early adopters. Most Nintendo Switch owners (approximately 89%, according to GameStop) are busy exploring every corner of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but the consolemaker’s “Nindies” program has also given the eShop a boost in these early days thanks to exclusive and semi-exclusive software like Snipperclips, FAST RMX, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, and Blaster Master Zero.

Available today, Vertex Pop’s Graceful Explosion Machine is the latest title to join this steady stream of smaller Switch launches.

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Activision is working on at least three movies in a connected Call of Duty Cinematic Universe

Activision first began discussing the possibility of a “Call of Duty Cinematic Universe” shortly after opening their film division, Activision Blizzard Studios, a few years ago. Earlier this week, a new profile in The Guardian has revealed that the studio is already working on three separate films:

“We have plotted out many years,” [Co-President Stacey] Sher tells the Guardian. “We put together this group of writers to talk about where we were going. There’ll be a film that feels more like Black Ops, the story behind the story. The Modern Warfare series looks at what it’s like to fight a war with the eyes of the world on you. And then maybe something that is more of a hybrid, where you are looking at private, covert operations, while a public operation is going on.”

According to The Guardian, Activision would like to start filming the first entry in the “Call of Duty Cinematic Universe” sometime next year, with a theatrical premiere planned for “a couple of years after” that.

Sher and her Co-President, Nick Van Dyk, also have ambitions beyond traditional motion pictures. The pair has already partnered with Netflix to produce Skylanders Academy, and they’re also envisioning a Call of Duty-branded series that focuses on historical conflicts such as World War II and the Vietnam War.

Sher also wants fans to know that, above all else, Activision Blizzard Studios wants to make good movies: “If you just chase the empty blockbuster, and have nothing to say in the genre, forget about it.”

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Captain Cold does his best Sub-Zero impression in this Injustice 2 trailer

Just as we suspected when he was first unveiled in the “It’s Good To Be Bad” trailer, Captain Cold’s Injustice 2 incarnation owes a lot to Sub-Zero. The Mortal Kombat mainstay is the master of ice and cold, and it makes perfect sense that NetherRealm Studios would want to recreate his moveset for DC’s icy villain.

Sworn to ending all crime, the Regime hunted down and brutally executed every member of the Rogues, including Captain Cold’s sister. Using his skills as a thief and his iconic Cold Gun, Cold now seeks his vengeance. He’ll gladly use the Society to achieve it.

Captain Cold uses his Cold Gun to shoot icy projectiles across the screen. He can also freeze his opponents for a free hit or drop an Ice Ball on the ground as a trap. The supervillain even makes use of the Lin Kuei ninja’s Cold Shoulder charge.

Injustice 2 is just a little over a month away, and it’ll launch for the PS4 and Xbox One on May 16.

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This News Is On Fire… NBA Playgrounds will be available for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One in May

IGN is reporting that Saber Interactive will team up with the National Basketball Assocation to release NBA Playgrounds for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One this May.

NBA Playgrounds is following in the footsteps of the wild antics and insane dunks that NBA Jam and NBA Street pioneered more than a decade ago. Midway and EA Big may both be defunct, but their love of an over-the-top arcade basketball experience definitely lives on in 2017.

The game will feature 2-on-2 matchups with players from all 30 NBA teams, as well as a deep bench of retired legends such as Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, and more. And as you might expect, players can pick up and play NBA Playgrounds in single-player or multiplayer (local and online) modes.

NBA Playgrounds will be available next month exclusively as a digital download, but do not miss the game’s debut trailer, which has been embedded above.

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Slash the Roller Queen brings back the 90s in the latest Quake Champions trailer

You might have to be one of those crazy “90s Kids” to understand, but rollerblading was an extremely popular pastime during Quake III Arena‘s heyday. So it makes perfect sense that id Software decided to make Slash the Roller Queen a prominent playable character in the game.

With Quake Champions set to launch later this year, Slash will return for an encore performance in the Arena. And as part of their latest weekly reveal, the developer has given us a sneak peek at the “X-TREME” character:

Slash (Roller Queen)
It was her grandmother’s music box. Its tiny ice-skater twirled to Swan Lake. She loved it. She couldn’t sleep without hearing its tune. Then she heard it in her dreams. Then always. She would become a skater herself. She would twirl and twirl until the music stopped. But it never stopped. She began to see dark, spidery things. When the clozapine didn’t help, she turned to heroin. In the shooting gallery she met Anarki. He saw things, too. They became inseparable… until the things they saw became real.

Active Ability – Plasma Trail: Activating Slash’s Active Ability leaves a bright trail of destruction in her wake, inflicting damage on enemies careless enough to pass through the wall of pain. Players can also choose to hit their ability button again, causing the trail to explode, inflicting massive damage to Champions in the area. Cut off key paths or encircle enemies or power-ups in a crushing barrier of suffering.

Passive Ability – Crouch Slide: Slash is already super mobile, but by crouching while running, she’ll use her skates to go into Crouch Slide, allowing her to move full speed while crouching and whip around corners smoother and faster than other Champions.

Access to Quake Champions’s Closed Beta will be available for the first batch of selected participants beginning tomorrow. If you’d like a chance to receive an invitation sometime in the future, be sure to sign up for the game’s Closed Beta at Quake.com.

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Xbox Store Today: Enter the Gungeon, Lego City Undercover, Use Your Words, more

Today’s Xbox Games Store update features guns, bricks, and words. Are you ready?

After launching exclusively for the PS4 last year, Dodge Roll’s Enter the Gungeon makes its Xbox One debut today. The twin-stick shooter asks players to delve deeper and deeper into a procedurally-generated “Gungeon” in search of the Gun That Can Kill the Past. Featuring hundreds of guns and dozens of bosses, Xbox One owners who purchase Enter the Gungeon will also receive access to the game on Windows 10 thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere program.

Xbox One owners looking for some action might also want to explore the open world of Lego City in Lego City Undercover. Now available to download, Lego City Undercover stars Chase McCain, a police officer who’s been tasked with going undercover to hunt down the notorious criminal Rex Fury.

Finally today, Smiling Buddha Games will launch Use Your Words for the Xbox One. Use Your Words is a party game that asks players to respond to a variety of mini-games and prompts with “the funniest answers they can think of.”

More information on all of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store can be found after the break.

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Cars 3: Driven To Win will be released for every available console on June 13

WB Games and Avalanche Software have announced that the Cars 3 video game, Cars 3: Driven To Win, will be released for the PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on June 13.

Taking place after the events of Disney/Pixar’s upcoming film, Cars 3: Driven To Win will ask players to master advanced racing abilities such as “Drifting, Turbo, Two-Wheel Driving, Driving Backwards and Side-Bash” as they rise through the ranks of the Piston Cup. Naturally, the game will also feature splitscreen multiplayer for competitive and cooperative modes:

Picking up after the final big race in the film, Cars 3: Driven to Win extends the storyline of Cars 3 with all-new action packed adventures and takes players through a high-speed competition that is filled with both familiar and new faces. Players will be able to join Lightning McQueen and Cruz Ramirez as they prepare to take on rival racer Jackson Storm. The game features more than 20 customizable playable characters including popular heroes from the Cars franchise and next generation racers. Players can also select their favorite race environments from a series of iconic settings from the film, such as Radiator Springs and Florida International Speedway, with over 20 unique tracks to choose from across 13 different locations.

We also got a glance at the first trailer for Cars 3: Driven To Win, and its been embedded above.

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Persona 5, Drawn to Death, PaRappa the Rapper Remastered, more added to PS Store

After nearly a decade of waiting, Atlus has delivered Persona 5 to fans. The RPG is now available to download for the PS4 and PS3, and it gives players the chance to live a double life… first as a regular high school student by day, and then as a member of the heroic Phantom Thieves at night.

Speaking of long-awaited returns, developer David Jaffe is back with his latest game on the PS4 this week. Featuring an art style culled from the notebooks of weirdo teens everywhere, Drawn to Death is a multiplayer shooter that also mixes in “the nuance of a fighting game.” Best of all, it’s a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Finally this week, the PlayStation Store is now home to a trio of PS4 re-releases that’ll bring old favorites to a new group of gamers. First up is PaRappa the Rapper Remastered, Sony’s attempt to rebuild one of the world’s first rhythm games. It’s joined by People Can Fly’s weird and wild first person shooter, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, and Lego City Undercover, a family-friendly open-world action game from WB Games.

You can learn more about all of these games (and the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store) after the break.

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