Candian Studio, Liquid Media Group, has reportedly acquired the rights to 65 Acclaim Entertainment video game properties for $1 million. The fellow Canadian company, Throwback Entertainment, originally bought the collection of titles from Acclaim after its collapse in 2004.
Website Geekwire has published the full list of properties acquired by Liquid Media. More than half of the games listed are sports titles. This includes a variety of racing games and multiple entries in the NBA Jam series. There are also plenty of NFL and baseball titles. Beyond sports series, the list features Bubble Bobble (Taito) and the video game adaptation of Street Fighter: The Movie (Capcom). As noted by Eurogamer, Liquid Media does not own the actual rights to either of these franchises and only has access to the stock-keeping units (SKUs), originally published by Acclaim.
In a press release, Liquid Media discussed the recent trend of reviving retro games while citing the success of Nintendo’s very own miniature consoles. The plans are to remaster the “beloved” classics with improved graphics that build upon the original releases. And for anyone wondering about Rare’s 1987 NES release, Wizards & Warriors, here’s the official word from Throwback Entertainment via Twitter:
Were you a fan of Acclaim Entertainment back in the day? Have you played any of the listed games before? Would you like to see anything, in particular, get revived? Tell us in the comments.
This month is another hectic period for the Nintendo Switch, with 11 amazing new games releasing on the platform. Still, that doesn’t mean you should overlook what’s coming to the 3DS. Nintendo will be releasing its modern classic, Luigi’s Mansion, next week in North America.
The game was originally released as a launch title on the GameCube in 2001 and was followed by a sequel in 2013 on the 3DS. There’s now a great excuse to play the original game with the recent announcement Luigi’s Mansion 3 is on the way to Nintendo Switch in 2019.
In the lead up to the re-release of the original game in the US on 12th October, Nintendo has uploaded a short commercial for the spooky title. The same game will be released in Europe on 19th October. Take a look at the video above and tell us if you’ll be picking up this classic when it arrives on 3DS.
When games are successful, naturally sequels are expected. The insanely popular Minecraft appears to be taking a different approach. When Microsoft forked out a whopping $2.5 billion for the franchise in 2014, analysts expected the company would quickly churn out a sequel to make it a worthwhile transaction. It’s now 2018 and the original game by Mojang is still being supported. So what’s going on?
Although we’ve heard it previously, Microsoft’s Minecraft boss Helen Chiang recently issued a reminder during an interview with Business Insider, that a sequel to Minecraft would not make sense. The reason why is because it would fracture the community.
Minecraft has more than 91 million monthly active players – which is reportedly ahead of the 78.3 million players in Fortnite. If Microsoft was to release a second Minecraft game, it would presumably split the community. Even though it sounds like a good idea from a financial standpoint, Chiang says it’s not worthwhile:
We’re trying to keep our community together…That’s why our updates [are] free. We don’t want to ask [players] to move from Minecraft 1 to Minecraft 2. We want them to just enjoy Minecraft. And there’s other ways that we can expand that are more meaningful and authentic to what we want to be, rather than just releasing another iteration in the way that most other franchises do.
Despite Microsoft’s decision to not release a sequel to Minecraft, it’s still happy to grow the brand in other ways – with games like Minecraft: Story Mode and the recently announced Minecraft: Dungeons for PC now on the way.
What do you think about Microsoft’s current stance? Do you agree a sequel doesn’t really make sense for a game like Minecraft? Or would you like to see one in the future? Tell us below.
Sensor Tower has revealed the new Nintendo-published mobile game Dragalia Lost has grossed an estimated $3.5 million over its first five days. Data based on the limited launch – which included the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau – revealed more than 800,000 installations across the App Store and Google Play.
To illustrate how Dragalia Lost has performed compared to existing Nintendo-published mobile games, Sensor Tower put together a graph based on data from the US and Japanese markets. As can be seen, it’s trailing behind every other release, with about $3 million spent on the game so far.
As Sensor Tower notes, Dragalia Lost is a completely new IP with nothing to its name other than it being a Nintendo-published title. It’s made a quarter of the revenue of Nintendo’s most successful mobile title, Fire Emblem Heroes – which made 13 million in the first five days in the same markets. Even compared to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Dragalia Lost has made 1.6 million less.
At this point in time, the Cygames release is the 11th ranked iPhone game in terms of revenue within Japan. In the US it sits in the 55th place. In contrast, it’s 3rd on theGoogle Play list in Japan and is in the 35th spot in the US.
Have you downloaded Dragalia Lost on your mobile device? Have you spent money on the game? Do you even play mobile titles? Tell us in the comments.
Nintendo Labo Creators Contest No.2: Winners Announced!
We’re happy to announce that the winning creations for Best Toy-Con Musical Instrument and Best Gaming Experience using Toy-Con Garage have now been selected.
Let’s take a look at the winning entries. The Grand Prize winner for Best Toy-Con Musical Instrument was kimobe, for the Pocket Floor Piano, a portable instrument that you can even hang on the wall.
Looking for more DIY projects? The Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit is now available! Make, play, and discover with a Toy-Con Car, Toy-Con Submarine, Toy-Con Plane, and more! Learn more on the official site.
Nintendo throws a Super Mario Party with Lunchables this fall
Nintendo is teaming up with Lunchables to add a little more fun to kids’ lunch breaks. Timed to kick off with the launch of the Super Mario Partygame for the Nintendo Switch system on Oct. 5, the promotion adds imagery of the iconic characters from the game to select Lunchables packaging on store shelves across the U.S. Plus, Lunchables is giving fans the opportunity to win special Super Mario Party prize packs throughout the delicious promotion, which lasts through December.
“This partnership with Lunchables is another exciting way for us to expose even more people around the country to the world of Nintendo,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “This program is a perfect opportunity to kick off the celebration of Super Mario Party by combining the game’s love for unpredictable fun with Lunchables’ love of letting kids make their own fun with their favorite foods.”
“We are excited to bring Lunchables and Nintendo – two iconic, kid-favorite brands – together with this promotion,” said Greg Guidotti, Head of Marketing for Oscar Mayer. “Lunchables is all about bringing mixed-up fun to lunchtime, making it a perfect fit with the endless multiplayer fun of Super Mario Party.”
Along with the on-pack promotion, each Super Mario Party branded Lunchables box will contain a unique code to give fans a chance to instantly win one of 500 Super Mario Party prize packs in an online sweepstakes*, making lunch an even more rewarding experience. By visiting http://www.Lunchables.com/MarioPartySweepstakes, fans of Nintendo and Lunchables can enter for a chance to win a Nintendo Switch system, the Super Mario Party game, an extra pair of Joy-Con controllers, a branded Nintendo Switch carrying case and My Nintendo points. Specially marked packages of Lunchables Fun Pack and Lunchables with 100% Juice are available on store shelves nationwide now through December – just in time for the holidays.
Super Mario Party is the newest game in the long-running Mario Party series – and the first on Nintendo Switch. In the game, the much-loved four-player board game mode is back with new features like character-specific Dice Blocks that add strategy to each roll. Players can compete in dozens of minigames that use the Joy-Con controllers in fun ways, as well as new ways to play like the cooperative River Survival mode. For the first time in series history, party-goers can play sets of minigames online with other players (Nintendo Switch Online membership is required and sold separately). And in the new Toad’s Rec Room mode, two players that each own Super Mario Party can pair their Nintendo Switch systems, lay them flat and participate in some mode-specific minigames that combine both screens in creative ways.
*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MANY WILL ENTER, FEW WILL WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. OPEN TO RESIDENTS OF 50 U.S. (D.C.) 6 YEARS AND OLDER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Ends 12/31/18. For Official Rules, alternate method of entry, prize descriptions and odds disclosure, visit Lunchables.com/MarioPartySweepstakes. Sponsor: Kraft Heinz Foods Company, 200 E Randolph, Chicago, IL 60601. Nintendo is not a sponsor, co-sponsor or administrator of this sweepstakes.
Can you believe it? The month of October has arrived. As we move closer to the holiday season, it’s probably going to become harder and harder to decide what games are worth your time during this busy period.
To make things just a little easier, the lovely Alex has compiled a list of 11 amazing games due out this month. We’ve got challenging platformers like Mega Man 11 to look forward to, multiplayer madness in Super Mario Party and the tactical RPG Disgaea 1 Complete to anticipate.
If that’s not enough, there’s a chance to check out The World Ends With You if you missed it the first time or go on a space adventure with Fox McCloud and his co-pilots in Ubisoft’s Starlink: Battle for Atlas on the 16th. If you’re perhaps looking for a more punishing experience Dark Souls: Remastered is on the way, and for the competitive player, the cult classic Windjammers is making a comeback.
What game are you looking forward to in the month of October? Take a look at the video above and tell us below.
Nine months after release on competing platforms, Dragon Ball FighterZ has finally made its way to Switch. Back in January, when our sister site Push Square reviewed the original release, they gave it a glowing 9/10 score, and for good reason. Even by PlayStation 4 standards, FighterZ is breathtaking. So, how does one of 2018’s standout titles fare on Nintendo’s portable? Exceedingly well, it turns out.
The Switch version of FighterZ is simply stunning; in motion, it’s truly a sight to behold. Arc System Works has done an amazing job bringing the anime to life, and if you didn’t look at the PS4 version side-by-side with the Switch version, you’d likely have a difficult time finding the trade-offs made to make such an impressive-looking game run on hardware that is significantly less powerful.
All of the cinematic ultimate moves such as Gohan’s one-handed Kamehameha from the Cell saga, or Buu’s, “You know what… I hate you!” move have been recreated on the Switch with all of their screen-filling effects in place. Similarly impressive are the match-ending Destructive Finishes, which show cities or landscapes being destroyed, sometimes even from space. Sending an opponent flying into a nearby mountain to see it crumble from the force of their impact is immensely satisfying and looks stunning to boot. Finishing opponents with a heavy attack in certain stages will cause the fight to move to a completely different locale as well, which the Switch version manages without skipping a beat.
What’s more impressive is that we couldn’t detect even a hint of slowdown, even when multiple massive attacks were being fired off at once. It truly appears that no corners were cut in the making of this unbelievable port. The work done to fit this game on the Switch may not seem as impossible as what Panic Button has done with DOOM and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, but it’s still an impressive showcase of what the Switch is capable of nonetheless.
Of course, FighterZ’s beauty is more than skin-deep. Under all that polish is an incredibly competent fighting game, capable of dethroning Capcom’s long-running Marvel Vs. Capcom series. In fact, FighterZ was the most popular title at EVO 2018, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, according to a tweet from the tournament head.
The comparison to the Marvel Vs. Capcom series is useful for more than the game’s popularity as well, as FighterZ plays similarly to Capcom’s now-maligned crossover game. In it, each player builds a roster of three Z-fighters from a roster of 24 characters (30 if you purchase the six DLC characters separately.) During fights, you can freely switch between your characters or call them in for a quick assist. Combos are relatively simple and mashing either the X or Y buttons will give you a full combo, but those that master the system and switch between high and low attacks and make use of their friends to tag in at opportune moments can perform high-flying stunts that will endlessly juggle their opponents. The result is a combo system that is surprisingly easy to get started with but offers enough scope to make it hard to fully master. It feels great in practice and is welcoming to both seasoned fighters and novices alike; there are few fighting games that can say the same thing about.
Fights are also littered with awesome fanservice moments, provided you know Dragon Ball’s lore well and can recreate moments from the series. For instance, if Goku and Frieza face off on Namek and Krillin isn’t in either team, the match will open with the evil emperor killing Krillin in front of Goku, causing him to become a Super Saiyan for the first time. It’s cool things like this that show just how much the team at Arc System Works care for Dragon Ball, which is a great thing as the series enjoys one of the most fervent fan bases anywhere.
There’s more to FighterZ than just mindlessly brawling, however. Included is a story mode which includes three arcs focusing on the Z warriors, the series’ villains, and a newly introduced character, Android 21. The story is delivered through cutscenes interspersed between fights and can last quite a bit of time, well over 12 hours by our estimation, assuming you take on and complete all the side fights on offer. The cutscenes that deliver the narrative are gorgeous but run at a much lower framerate than that of the actual game. While you might think this is a technical issue, the issue exists on other platforms; we assume it’s an attempt by the developer to replicate the often-stuttery animation seen in the original anime.
We found the narrative itself to be interesting, but the story modes feel like a bit of a grind as the fights aren’t all that difficult, but you’re often forced to get through five or six of them to get another bit of the story and move on to another map. About halfway through each arc we found ourselves just mindlessly beating opponents to get to the next map, no longer caring about completing everything. You have to do this to unlock Android 21 however, which is a mechanic that feels a bit antiquated in the face of online play becoming increasingly important.
Aside from story mode, there’s also Arcade mode, which gives you the standard progression-based experience fighting game fans are used to, in that opponents become gradually more difficult as you climb the ladder to your final fight. There’s no narrative to speak of in this mode, but you can unlock Super Saiyan Blue (still called SSGSS in this game) Goku and Vegeta by completing certain conditions. Again, we’re not sure how we feel about characters being locked in fighting games in 2018, but there you have it. Arcade mode is a fun way to test your skills, offering several different difficulty tiers that’ll provide a challenge to most.
To navigate all these modes, you get dropped into a lobby where you’ll select a chibi version of one of the game’s many characters to run around and interact with other players. Even if you’re playing the game offline, you’ll still be in a version of this lobby. We like it, but we would’ve preferred a menu-based approach when playing offline. Playing any mode earns you Zeni which can be used to purchase new lobby characters. As with most online Switch titles, there’s no voice chat here, so you’re forced to communicate using stamps and preset phrases. Each of the game’s stamps features a character from the Dragon Ball universe, along with a phrase. These phrases can be used independently of the stamps, but in our experience, there was no need to really use these as most players are going to queue up for one match type or another.
Online play was fairly painless as well. Once paired up with an opponent for a match, we found very few issues with lag, and when we did it was easy to attribute the issue to a spotty WiFi connection. During online matches, you’ll see a display at the top of the screen telling you how bad the frame delay is between you and your opponent. For us, anything under a five frame delay seemed to be quite manageable, though obviously, your mileage may vary.
Bandai Namco has made much of the game’s potential for local play too, even showing off footage of a single Joy-Con per player being used. It’s perfectly possible to enjoy the game in this way, but the lack of buttons on the controller means that certain commands become button combinations (Dragon Rush becomes Light Attack + Media Attack, for example, while normally this would be mapped to the R button). Even so, being able to face off against a human opponent whenever the mood takes you is a real bonus.
Conclusion
Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Switch is, simply put, the best fighting game we’ve seen on the system yet. Arc System Works went the extra mile in capturing the essence of the source material and distilled it into an incredible brawler that has lost nothing in the transition to Nintendo’s hybrid console. The stunning visuals, intense action and easy-to-master controls make FighterZ a game all fans of the genre should have in their library. If you only play this kind of game casually, it remains a must-own.
Last month finally saw the launch of Nintendo’s shiny new online service, with fans of the company having to pay for their online gaming for the first time. We’re still yet to find out how well this service is performing from a Nintendo revenue point of view, but a major Japanese retailer seems to believe that things are going pretty well.
Tsutaya, a nationwide chain of video rental stores, has shared some recent sales information regarding various products within the gaming world. One such product – or two, technically – is the Nintendo Switch Online service prepaid card option, where customers can get their hands on a code for a subscription through a retailer, rather than using a bank account inside Nintendo’s own eShop.
The store offers both the 3-month and 12-month options, and (via a translation from Nintendo Soup) the prepaid cards have reportedly been “selling extremely well”. The 12-month plan has proven to be the most popular choice, with Tsutaya citing the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a potential reason behind this – a 3-month card wouldn’t cover users for much online play with that title should they purchase it now.
As we mentioned above, data has yet to be shared surrounding the number of players who have signed up to the new online service, or indeed if the change has been successful for Nintendo financially, but this would certainly suggest that many have been willing to cough up the necessary funds.
Have you subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online? Did you choose the 12-month option? Let us know below.
Spanish studio, Grimorio of Games, has revealed that it will be bringing its recent action-platformer Super Hyperactive Ninja to Nintendo Switch later this month.
Described as a “hardcore platformer”, Super Hyperactive Ninja is a 2D experience developed with the likes of speedrunners in mind, or even just those who like to give themselves a real challenge. The evil Shogun has stolen all the coffee from the secret ninja village of Kohinomura and it’s up to you to recover it before you fall asleep. The news comes from Grimorio of Games’s Twitter account.
Playing as Kohimaru, the last of the Coffee-Nin, you need to defeat the Shogun’s army of evil ninjas and samurai, and his great yokai generals. You can use the power of caffeine to enter Hyperactive Mode along the way, allowing you to run faster and kill enemies, but you won’t be able to change direction while in this state so you need to use it wisely.
Features: – More than 50 levels of fast paced hyperactive action – Difficult and challenging, but fair – Speedrun friendly – Discover new ways to play and secret paths using the unlockable items and characters – Hidden 2-player fighting mode – Guest characters from awesome indie games
The game is set to release on 25th October, with a 40% off presale taking place from the 11th.
Do you like the look of this one? Have you played it on other platforms? Tell us below.
