The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region.As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Switch Retail – New Releases
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe(Nintendo, €59.99 / £49.99) – Run, leap and stomp your way through more than 160 2D side-scrolling courses in traditional Super Mario style with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for Nintendo Switch! Up to four players can work together to grab coins and topple enemies on their way to the Goal Pole, or see who can nab the most gold in frantic, friendly – and above all, fun – competition! – Read our New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe review
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition(BANDAI NAMCO, €49.99 / £39.99) – Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tales of Vesperia and the return of this fan-favourite with the Definitive Edition! A power struggle begins in a civilization dependent on an ancient technology, the blastia, and the Empire that controls it. The fates of two friends travelling separate paths intertwine in an epic adventure that threatens the existence of all. Dive into the Definitive version of this game with updated full HD graphics, brand-new music tracks, exciting mini-games, bosses, and a collection of unreleased costume DLC! – Read our Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition review
Switch eShop – New Releases
SEGA AGES Out Run(SEGA, €6.99 / £5.99) – The 3D driving game that launched a legacy returns on Nintendo Switch! Featuring new motion controls, newly added music tracks, and a new ranking system. Speed through the streets of SEGA AGES Out Run, the award-winning title that paved the road for the racing genre. Your favourite stages and soundtrack are back. Do you have what it takes to beat the clock?
Caveblazers(Yogscast, €10.39 / £9.59) – Caveblazers is an action-focused platformer roguelike set in a fantasy world. Each game is unique with procedurally generated levels to explore and a massive amount of items, weapons and equipment to discover. As you delve deeper into the cave, you’ll discover new areas to explore, new weapons and new monsters to try them out on.
Battle Princess Madelyn(Causal Bit Games, €14.99 / £13.49) – Battle Princess Madelyn is a game that follows the journey of a young knight in training, Madelyn, and her ghostly pet dog, Fritzy. They set out on a journey to save her kingdom and her family from the clutches of an evil wizard. – Read our Battle Princess Madelyn review
GEM CRASH(DOUBLE DRIVE, €3.34 / £3.00) – The game is played simply by rotating the map’s outer ring. Bounce the ball and destroy the gems within the time limit. If you manage to destroy the PRISM GEM, you will go into Fever Time. This will trigger an opportunity to destroy a BONUS GEM to get bonus points! Try to improve your score by upgrading the ball and by using items!
Neko Navy – Daydream Edition(Fruitbat Factory, €10.99 / £9.89) – Flying cats versus 10,000 soothing characters! What awaits them beyond all those furious midair fights…? Witness the world’s most shocking ending for yourself! Shoot, evade, and detonate Bombers! “Neko Navy” is an exhilarating horizontal scrolling shooter where you can shoot them up with easy controls.
ACA NEOGEO KIZUNA ENCOUNTER(HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – “KIZUNA ENCOUNTER” is a fighting game released by SNK in 1996. Create a team of two fighters and use weapons and your fists to win in single-round sudden death tag-team matches! Experience the feel of an advanced battle system that pairs mid-battle character change-ups and easy commands leading to rush combos!
A Ch’ti Bundle(Seaven Studio, €15.99 / £14.49) – Get the two successful and award-winning games Ethan: Meteor Hunter + Inside My Radio in this discounted bundle!
Apocalipsis Wormwood Edition(Klabater, €7.99 / £7.19) – In Apocalipsis Wormwood Edition the static woodcuts from the Middle Ages start living their own life, but the medieval philosophy and occult symbolism go beyond the visuals and inspire the story itself. In this game, the music and the graphics work in perfect tandem to immerse you in this bizarre, dreary world. Wormwood Edition also contains One Night in the Woods, which is a prequel to the story known from Apocalipsis: Harry at the End of the World.
Big Crown: Showdown(Sold Out, €12.99 / £9.99) – Big Crown: Showdown sees friends become foes as they compete for the crown in 4-player local and online multiplayer combat, set over 3 wacky worlds full of medieval shenanigans. Avoid perilous hazards and engage in frantic fights as you attempt to knock your opponent’s off 15 crazy courses in the ultimate royal battle!
BQM -BlockQuest Maker-(Wonderland Kazakiri, €12.99 / £11.99) – Create & play! New dungeon RPG “BQM -Block Quest Maker” has come to Nintendo SWITCH! BQM enables you to create your very own dungeon RPG, packed with puzzles and traps. Secret doors, falling rocks, strong mobs – challenge them all and level up. What lies within the box? Unveil the secrets or… create them! But wait. Isn’t the stage design difficult? No, not with this maker! With simple controls of “construct” and “connect”, it’s easy like playing with blocks. Commands may be easy, but dungeons you create can be as canny and deadly as your imagination dictates. Just use your head and BQM’s traps and gimmicks. Be it puzzle, action or story – which dungeon will you make? Share maze of your design with players all around the world and challenge them to beat your wit.
Bubble Shooter DX(EntwicklerX, €2.99 / £2.69) – Bubble Shooter Deluxe (DX) is a classic bubble shoot game. This addictive classic bubble blast match-three game comes with clean and modern graphics, hundreds of great challenging levels and some nice special items for a better game experience in harder levels.
Bury me, my Love(Plug In Digital, €4.99 / £4.49) – Bury me, my Love tells the story of Syrian refugee Nour and her husband Majd, as Nour undertakes a perilous journey to safety in Europe. Bury me, my Love is a Text Messaging Adventure game about Nour, a Syrian migrant trying to find her way to Europe. Her husband Majd, who remains behind in Syria, communicates with Nour through a messaging app, advising her as best he can so that she reaches her destination safely.
Clock Simulator(Kool2Play, €3.99 / £3.59) – One of the most original game concepts is now available on the Nintendo Switch! Clock Simulator is a minimalistic rhythm game. It puts the player in the role of the clock itself to explore the concept of time in a whole new way and offer challenge, relaxation, or plain and simple fun. All that a clock needs to do is to advance precisely once every second. Second, after second, after second, after second … Sounds simple enough? But could YOU take over and do it? Calm down. Relax. Focus on your inner rhythm. Click once a second. Every second. You are the clock.
Combat Core(MABManZ, €17.60 / £15.79) – Combat Core is a 3D arena fighting game sporting a colourful mix of modern aesthetics and futuristic cyberpunk. Fighters from across the galaxy have gathered to compete in the Combat Core League! The fighting mechanics focus on fast-paced combat, strategic use of your environment, and weapons in the arena. Fight against challenging AI or your friends, online or offline!
Double Cross(Headup Games, €14.99 / £13.49) – Double Cross is an exciting action adventure game that has players take on the role of Zahra, an agent of R.I.F.T. (Regulators of Interdimensional Frontiers and Technology) whose job it is to maintain peace and order between all dimensions. A recent attack on R.I.F.T. headquarters thrusts players into a thrilling new case where they must use their R.I.F.T. developed gear to sling, swing, fight and investigate across distinct dimensions. – Read our Double Cross review
Elli(BandanaKid, €19.99 / £17.99) – A whimsical hand-crafted single-player adventure filled with a variety of puzzles and exciting platforming. Watch your step, there are many dangers to overcome! Discover a delightful world, inhabited by the playful and usually helpful Mandragora. Journey from lavish beaches, through ancient temples, mountain tops and caverns filled with forgotten Mandragora technology, and more. A vast and ever-changing soundtrack, beautifully blending the themes of the world and underscoring Elli’s adventure.
Ethan: Meteor Hunter(Seaven Studio, €7.99 / £7.19) – Your name is Ethan, a rat that got touched by meteorites giving him the power of telekinesis: freezing time and moving objects around him. Manipulate the world with endless possibilities: build the solution YOU want where nothing is scripted and levels can be solved in multiple ways. With its unique blend of precision platforming and time-stopping physics-based puzzles, you may die repeatedly and feel like a hero when you succeed.
Inside My Radio(Seaven Studio, €7.99 / £7.19) – Journey as a green LED mysteriously trapped inside a dying boombox and play the ultimate musical experience: bring electro, dub and disco music back to life!
Everything(David Oreilly, €12.99 / £11.69) – Everything is an interactive simulation game where every single object in the Universe is a playable character, from atoms to animals to planets to galaxies. The player can manipulate the world in infinite ways and construct their own, while exploring the interconnected relationships between everything. Narrated by the late British philosopher Alan Watts.
Grab Lab(Forever Entertainment, €4.49 / £4.04) – Something’s wrong with the gravity, something’s wrong with the laboratory and the whole world! Magnetic anomaly, weather anomaly, gravity anomaly – oh, I’ve done a mess… Let’s fix it. Help me in collecting all vials and all parts of my time machine to save the world. Rescue my lost friends – scientists and celebrities! Grab Lab is a crazy mix of puzzle and arcade game. Complete all unique levels – from simple to extremely advanced and demanding. Save the world – fix the gravity and rules of physics.
HoPiKo(Merge Games, €6.99 / £6.29) – The evil Nanobyte virus is out, gaming is over… It’s time to hook up your power gloves and save your HoPiKo brothers! HoPiKo is an intense speed run platformer where you get to save gaming. Jump from platform to platform avoiding death, exploiting shortcuts and ripping through 100s of hand-crafted levels, each one dropped into a 5-stage mini-run designed to break your mind! – Read our HoPiKo review
Knock ‘Em Down! Bowling(D3 Publisher, €14.99 / £13.49) – Ten-pin bowling, candlepin bowling, duckpin bowling… All kinds of popular bowling styles are included in Basic Mode. Play with 4 players and 1 Joy-Con! Try fun game modes like split screen, team matches, no gutters, and more! Also includes Variety Bowling where roulette decides the rules! The roulette wheel will have you bowling with strange items like a curling stone or a soccer ball!
Left-Right : The Mansion(Triple Boris, €4.49 / £4.00) – Left-Right: The Mansion is a little game about a boy, Billy, whose dog named Gigi ran away inside a big mansion. He must journey through this mysterious place, where he will have to find and remember the right path in order to find her. Every room will challenge him with a simple choice to make: left or right. Two doors, yet only one will make him go forward; the other one will bring him back to the beginning.
Lightseekers(Playfusion, Free) – Epic battles await: Take the role of a powerful magic hero and play the multi-award winning Trading Card Game, now on Nintendo Switch. With hundreds of cards available, each deck is unique and represents your personal play-style. Collect and trade cards to become the ultimate hero of Tantos.
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight(DANGEN Entertainment, €13.99 / £12.59) – Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, the critically and publicly acclaimed action-platformer from Bombservice, has finally made its way to Nintendo Switch! Lead Kaho, a priestess from the village of Lun, as she seeks an audience with the Queen of Karst who can surely lift the curse from the land.
Snowboarding The Next Phase(RedBullMediaHouse, €9.99 / £9.99) – Stomp tricks, play against your friends, and make the dream of becoming the greatest boarder of all time come true. Challenge your friends with split-screen multiplayer. Try to keep your high scores on top of the worldwide leaderboard in Arcade Mode, or find the best solo lines in Career Mode. Feel like a pro with our easy-to-learn intuitive Nintendo Switch controls, but there are hours of challenges and tricks to master.
Voxel Sword(SAT-BOX, €5.40 / £4.95) – Voxel Sword is an easy to play action game, set in an adorable toy fantasy world, where you can wield various weapons to defeat monsters. This is our toy fantasy world, Voxel. Since ancient times, humans and monsters have worked together and coexisted in peace. However, one fateful night that equilibrium was suddenly shattered…
Fragment of Marine(Mediascape, €4.40 / £3.99) – Traverse circles in a mysterious ocean world, and search for your lost memories and your body! Checkpoints are spread out generously throughout the stages, so that even beginners can play the game, whereas special challenges like the Time Attack mode or clearing the whole game without dying ensure that also game veterans and achievement hunters have a good time.
Hive Jump(GRAPHITE LAB, €9.99 / £9.99) – You and your friends assume the role of JUMPERS, and blast your way through subterranean alien hives in chaotic run-and-gun 2D platforming action. Up to 4 Players band together (Local Multiplayer) to kill aliens, avoid traps, collect treasures and lost relics. Win the final battle against the hive queen to save the galaxy! Action Platforming: Engage swarms of aliens in frenetic combat. Avoid traps, withstand ambushes, discover treasures, rescue survivors, and more.
Stellar Interface(ImaginationOverflow, €12.99 / £12.99) – Fight In Ever Changing Space Battles! Run through the universe, discover the numerous perks/consumables and their synergistic effects. Explore the randomly-generated galaxy to find merchants, unlock spacecrafts, collect StellarNetES Cartridges, checkmark your kills of the various galactic overlords.
Switch eShop – Demos
Pic-a-Pix Pieces Demo(Lightwood Games, Free) – Pic-a-Pix is a picture logic game, sometimes known as Picross, Nonogram or Hanjie, where whimsical pixel-art pictures are created by solving puzzles. In Pic-a-Pix Pieces, large pictures have been split into a number of smaller pieces. Each piece is a puzzle grid, and by solving them all you’ll form a mosaic that reveals a spectacular final image.
Retimed Demo(Stray Fawn, Free) – Challenge friends and family to awesome and fast-paced arena battles. Choose between chaotic team matches and intense free-for-all fights. Dash and dodge bullet clusters in nerve-wracking slow-motion moments. Use different surroundings to outplay your opponents and enjoy the colourful world of Retimed!
3DS eShop – New Releases
Azure Snake(RandomSpin, €0.99 / £0.89) – Azure Snake is a beautiful snake in the world of light.
Wii U eShop – New Releases
Azure Snake(RandomSpin, €0.99 / £0.89) – Azure Snake is a beautiful snake in the world of light.
Switch eShop – Pre-Orders
Old School Racer 2(Riddlersoft Games, €4.34 / £4.01, pre-order from 07/01/2019) – Hey there all you dirt bike fans welcome to the world of Old School Racer, race through a 2D retro world, across 60 unique and amazing levels with twists and turns everywhere. We have a brand new mechanic added to the game……MORPHING! The world will literally morph at times creating extra paths, platforms, jumps and drops to help or possibly hinder your performance. Gravity modifications once again returns, redefining what you will call the ground, soon you will be racing upside down, up sheer walls or flying through the sky.
Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 2(Milestone, €59.99 / £49.99, pre-order from 10/01/2019) – Live like a champion with the updated career mode and set weekly activities in your agenda: new challenges, sponsors and incredible prizes all await you! Train in the Compound. Ride freely or put your custom rider’s skills to the test, competing against rivals on four different tracks. Learn to control your bike when leaning, starting, braking, cornering and scrubbing.
Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Nitro Ball(FTE Games, €7.99 / £7.10, pre-order from 10/01/2019) – Join the game show and blast your way through 5 intense levels gathering power-ups and special weapons, including a special super power.
LEGRAND LEGACY: Tale of the Fatebounds(Another Indie Studio, €15.99 / £14.39, pre-order from 10/01/2019) – Welcome to Legrand, a beautifully hand-drawn world riddled with curious creatures, devastating wars, and intriguing tales of vengeance and redemption. Embark on an epic adventure through this sprawling fantasy universe and fight alongside the Fatebounds as they attempt to bring peace to Legrand! But be careful who you trust because everyone has a secret to hide…
Mecho Wars: Desert Ashes(Arcade Distillery, €7.99 / £7.19, pre-order from 10/01/2019) – In the aftermath of a great flood, a vengeful leader threatens to conquer the world with the aid of a once lost technology, and only a small but determined army stands in their path. Mecho Wars: Desert Ashes is the definitive release of the 2009 turn-based strategy classic, Mecho Wars. Fully remastered in high definition, it features new hand painted art, new visual effects, an expanded single-player campaign and six previously unreleased multiplayer maps.
Mega Mall Story(Kairosoft, €10.00 / £8.99, pre-order from 10/01/2019) – Design a towering mall of mega proportions! Attract droves of customers and elevate yourself to 5-star status in this mall management simulation game! Add anything from fast food joints to sushi restaurants, stairs and elevators–even a heliport–all with a touch of the finger!
Flowlines VS(Baltoro Games, €4.99 / £4.49, pre-order from 11/01/2019) – We want players to solve puzzles, to compete with others while doing so, and to play – everywhere and with everyone. Pair up all the matching sockets on the board by drawing continuous lines, without crossing over other lines or branching off. Cover the entire board while connecting all of the sockets! Keep an eye out on time-limited stages, or on the limit on moves you can make per stage!
Video: Action-RPG Dragon: Marked For Death Gets An Epic Official Music Video
If the recent news of Dragon: Marked for Death‘s unfortunate delay on Nintendo Switch has been getting you down, fear not: this new music video hopes to drum up the hype once more ahead of its release.
Originally due for release on 13th December, but delayed for unknown reasons just weeks before that very date, this game sees players team up with three others to take on 30 quests, all wrapped up in a story fueled by revenge. The game’s set to be released both physically and digitally, with the digital option actually splitting into two separate purchases.
The video above has been shared by Inti Creates, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Dragon Marked for Death’s orchestrated soundtrack and doubling up as an ‘Official Music Video’. The game’s soundtrack features 77 songs in total, portraying the various scenes present in the game’s five countries; the footage shows how orchestras from Boston, Prague, Kuala Lumpur, and Okinawa recorded the soundtrack simultaneously.
The game is still scheduled to arrive on 31st January. Will you be picking up a copy?
Looks Like Retro-Bit Is Resurrecting Sega’s Switch-Like Handheld, The Nomad
Retro-Bit – the company behind a series of clone systems and repackaged classic games – has already confirmed that it is working with Sega to produce a series of officially-licenced accessories for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive and Sega Saturn. The company is showing these products off at CES right now, and they look so close to the real thing it’s actually impressive (whether or not they feel as good is something we’ll be investigating when we get our hands on them).
However, Retro-Bit has something else at CES which is even more interesting – it’s showing off a prototype of what appears to be a reborn Sega Nomad. If you didn’t know already, the Nomad was Sega’s ill-fated attempt to turn the Mega Drive into a portable system – if was kind of like the Switch before the Switch existed. It ran all Mega Drive (well, Genesis) games and could be connected to the TV for the full home console experience. While it was impressive for the time, it ate batteries like nobody’s business and didn’t really find the audience it perhaps deserved.
Fast forward to the present day, and modern rechargeable batteries and LCD screens should make this a more viable proposition, and the rumoured price point of around $80 would also make it pretty appealing. It’s worth noting that a lot of speculative hardware gets shown off at CES, and seeing as both of the units shown lack Sega’s branding, it could be that these units have yet to meet with the company’s approval.
We already have the Hyperkin Supa Boy, so it would be great to have a ‘new’ (and more importantly, decent) Mega Drive portable. Sega fans have had to endure some real stinkers in the past, with the decade-old GenMobile being the last notable system that actually allowed you to use original carts on the move.
Review: Double Cross – An Enjoyable But Sadly Unmemorable Mega Man Clone
Back in darker times for Nintendo during the lifetime of the Wii U, the eShop was characterized by enormous content droughts where few worthwhile games were popping up between the major first-party releases. This opened plenty of space, however, for previously unknown indies to get a larger share of the spotlight, giving their releases the opportunity to generate a cult following. One of these successes was 13AM Games’ Runbow, a fun competitive platformer that featured a memorable colour-switching mechanic. Now, 13AM has produced its follow up, Double Cross, which drops the multiplayer focus in favour of a single-player platforming experience that pulls from a variety of genres for its inspiration. The final product, however, doesn’t quite live up to expectations, offering up a decent but flawed experience that falls short of greatness.
Double Cross follows the story of Zahra Sinclair, a peppy, Shantae-esque agent working for R.I.F.T. (Regulators of Interdimensional Frontiers and Technology), a sort of governmental organization that maintains order across the multiverse. After another routine day on the job, R.I.F.T. headquarters are attacked by a mysterious terrorist called “Suspect X” and it’s soon after revealed that the attack was orchestrated by somebody within the organization. Not entirely sure who to trust, Zahra sets out on a mission to learn the truth, while also neutralizing the unrest and conflicts in the dimensions she visits.
It’s certainly a fascinating premise and the writing, though often keeping to a lighthearted and humorous tone, can sometimes surprise with the depth that it reaches. At key points in the story, the idealistic Zahra comes to realize that R.I.F.T. isn’t nearly the shining beacon of justice that it’s made out to be, and moral shades of grey are filled in where her enemies are shown to have understandable cause for their actions. These moments do a great job of showing how morality isn’t always as cut-and-dried as we’d like it to be, and while that element of the storytelling is notably strong, the individual characters leave something to be desired.
Zahra herself is an interesting enough character, but the supporting cast is filled with a relatively forgettable lineup of cliché heroes and villains that seldom rise above the obvious functions that they serve in moving the plot forward. Ordinarily, this sort of thing would be more forgivable for a sidescroller, but Double Cross clearly makes an above-average effort in its storytelling, yet it still falls a little short. What’s on offer here is fine, and serves its purpose well enough in providing adequate context for all the action to follow, but it’s unfortunately nothing particularly memorable.
Gameplay could most closely be likened to a Mega Man X game with the combat system of Guacamelee; levels are laid out in a non-linear fashion and allow for a fair bit of exploration, even as they more or less keep you on a single path. Zahra’s signature ability can be found in her ‘Proton Slinger’, a handy tool that functions like a grappling hook which can affix to various points throughout the levels. It takes some getting used to, but the Proton Slinger feels wonderfully organic once you get the hang of slow-motion slingshotting from point to point. It can also be used to snatch certain projectiles out of the air, creating seamless sequences where you can launch Zahra across the screen while dispatching an enemy or two mid-air with dexterous movement.
Unfortunately, the combat that typically accompanies this movement system doesn’t hold up nearly as well. Opting for a close-quarters focused combat style, Double Cross comes off as feeling a bit like a watered-down Guacamelee in how battles play out. Zahra has a series of punches, kicks and rolls that can be chained together to put enemies in the dirt, and each felled foe drops energy orbs that can then be used to fuel a few special moves that bolster Zahra’s offensive capabilities or offer up some on-the-spot healing. All the elements of a solid combat system are in place, but they never quite come together to form something that’s more than the sum of its parts; combat is okay, but the pacing of fights is rarely exciting and encounters pop up a little more often than we’d like.
On the flipside, level design in Double Cross is remarkably strong, with each new stage introducing a new gameplay gimmick or hazard to keep things fresh or interesting. One stage may have you playing around with different forms of bouncy goo while another has you being pulled along by grapple points attached to rails; there’s no predicting what gimmick may come next and even within a level, the developers find ways to surprise you with how that stage’s unique feature can be implemented. Levels are conveniently marked by difficulty, and the curve is exceptionally well judged; usually, the gimmicks introduced in the first three levels of a world are combined in the fourth level, demanding that the player apply everything they’ve learned in a final gauntlet before the boss at the end.
To add in some much welcome replayability, each stage is also littered with ‘Upgradium’ fragments that act as the main driver of character progression. These little rocks are almost always hidden in secret side-caves or at the end of a particularly difficult platforming section that’s separate from the main path; you’re almost sure to miss several of these in your first run through each level, encouraging you to go back and scour every corner. Upon completing a level, all Upgradium is dumped into Zahra’s upgrade path, with each new level gaining her a new skill or combat ability. When you get back to R.I.F.T. headquarters or to one of the many generous checkpoints scattered throughout the level, you can then choose to equip any three of the skills on offer, giving Zahra a range of potential ‘builds’ to run with. One ability helps her recover health faster, while another bolsters her energy reserves for special moves; though we would’ve liked to have seen a little more depth in the skills being offered, there’s still enough here to allow for plenty of mix and matching.
Though there’s potential in this idea, the skills system is sadly undermined by the weak combat mechanics; it’s neat that you can spec Zahra according to your playstyle, but the relative easiness and monotony of combat makes the differences in builds feel marginal. This, in turn, makes the overall character progression lose its allure; unlocking new upgrades by levelling up isn’t very exciting when you’re not feeling a noticeable bump in power or ability. The more we experimented with this whole RPG-lite system, the more it seemed like Double Cross would’ve been a much stronger game had it focused on pure platforming; these combat and skill systems are okay, but they don’t really add much to the experience and feel a bit out of place.
Speaking of ‘out of place’, there’s a rather forgettable investigation system underlying your progress through all the levels that feels tacked on and hinders one’s active enjoyment of the game. Upon completing most levels, Zahra will find some sort of item or document that offers up a clue about Suspect X and whatever conflict is happening locally in that dimension. That object you find must then be shown to one of the support characters back at headquarters to trigger a conversation that expands more on the item; after you’ve done this three or four times, the case file is complete and you unlock the boss level for that world.
It’s a cool idea that has some potential, but the implementation feels half-hearted and the concept is rather awkward in an action platformer. Considering there aren’t very many characters at headquarters to begin with, completing a case file usually becomes a simple game of trial and error where you show the item to characters that you think might have something to say until you finally find the right one; it doesn’t feel very rewarding, and it just gums up progression. For context, imagine if you defeated all the Robot Masters in a Mega Man game, but before you could take on Wily, you had to go to the lab and solve an easy but tedious puzzle segment centred around several dialogues with Roll, Auto, and Dr. Light. It’s a concept that could potentially be interesting if it had been fleshed out more as a side mode or as a separate game, but it feels jarring and ill-fitting in a title that clearly isn’t focused on that slower, more methodical pace.
Presentation is another aspect that disappoints somewhat, landing squarely in the realm of “good enough, but not great”. Though 13AM deserves credit for trying something other than the pixel style that so many indies are enamoured with these days, the existing art style could have used a bit of a tune-up. Though characters are strongly drawn, animations are choppy and environments feel lifeless and uninspired; we can’t think of any moment that Double Cross wowed us with its visual flair or sense of style. Like much of the rest of the game, the art style isn’t terribly memorable; even if it doesn’t do anything that looks outright bad, there isn’t much here that sticks out in one’s mind. The same goes for the soundtrack, which consists of a rather bland, ’80s-sounding sci-fi inspired set of tunes that adequately match the action, but without making much of an impression.
It bears mentioning, too, that we noticed some particularly rough performance issues, bugs and general blemishes that make Double Cross feel a bit sloppy. We ran into several instances (docked and undocked) where the framerate stuttered considerably, even when the action on screen didn’t seem to justify such a noticeable drop. There were a few instances, too, where we found ourselves trapped in a wall or some other level geometry and had to back out of a stage altogether to escape. It’s little problems and things like this, none of which are too significant on their own, that come together to make Double Cross feel rough around the edges.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-11-2019, 02:25 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
The future of fashion and retail
The secret to brand and retail success? Treat every customer like a VIP We all like feeling special. When our needs are met, when our voices are heard, and when we’re being paid attention to, we feel positive. These are the feelings retailers and brands must invoke in customers, if they wish to remain competitive.This theme of treating every individual as VIP is a prevalent trend in the retail industry, and applies across all brands, especially in the luxury sector. We’ve worked closely with various partners, brands, and retailers to discuss their most important insights, and have shared them below. Whether you’re a retailer or a brand, we’re all in this together – transformation is an evolving journey, not an end goal.
Digital glamour: Wolford uses Azure and AI to deliver luxury online service Founded in the Austrian city of Bregenz in 1950, Wolford is the global market leader for luxury legwear and bodywear. Over its 68-year history, the company has established a strong reputation for delivering both high-end products and customer service. To deliver the same high standard of service online as its customers have come to expect in its boutiques, the company used Microsoft Azure Bot Service, Cognitive Services, and Bot Framework to develop an AI-powered chatbot. Wolford online shoppers now get instant answers to questions around the clock and receive personalized “Style Me” product recommendations, while the company lives up to its reputation for exceptional service.
Building a sustainable fashion ecosystem: Meet Natasha Franck Natasha Franck isn’t as interested in fashion as she is in trash. In the early days of her company EON, it was almost an obsession: “I read everything I could about waste and possible solutions to this global epidemic.” After learning that the fashion industry is one of the largest industrial polluters, Natasha became determined to do something about it. “In fashion, where there are 150 billion articles of clothing made every year, and 90% of these textiles are ending up in a landfill—the consumption of resources and production of waste is never-ending.” says Natasha. “And when burning trash is still the main means of disposal, we’re left with some serious air quality concerns worldwide.”
As Vincent, a man recently succumbed to the irresistible beauty of the game's titular diversion, players find themselves swept into a treacherous love triangle. Catherine's core themes those of free will, of the delicate nature of relationships and the choices we make within them, marry perfectly with the intense, terrorfilled gameplay that serves to accurately reflect Vincent's growing sense of anxiety. It is an experience wholly unlike any to come before it, and is certain to leave gamers talking and thinking about Vincent's tribulations long after the credits have rolled.
Hyundai Joins AGL and Other Automotive News from CES
This week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has been even more dominated by automotive news than last year, with scores of announcements of new in-vehicle development platforms, automotive 5G services, self-driving concept cars, automotive cockpit UIs, assisted driving systems, and a host of electric vehicles. We’ve also seen numerous systems that provide Google Assistant or Alexa-driven in-vehicle interfaces such as Anker’s Google Assistant based Roav Bolt.
Here we take a brief look at some of the major development-focused CES automotive announcements to date. The mostly Linux-focused developments range from Hyundai joining the Automotive Grade Linux project to major self-driving or assisted ADAS platforms from Baidu, Intel, and Nvidia.
Hyundai jumps on AGL bandwagon
Just prior to the launch of CES, the Linux Foundation’s Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) project announced that South Korean automotive giant Hyundai has joined the group as a Bronze member. The news follows last month’s addition of BearingPoint, BedRock Systems, Big Lake Software, Cognomotiv, and Dellfer to the AGL project. In October, AGL announced seven other new members, including its first Chinese car manufacturer — Sitech Electric Automotive.
Hyundai’s membership does not commit it to using the group’s Unified Code Base (UCB) reference distribution for automotive in-vehicle infotainment, but it’s another example of the growing support for the open source, Linux-based IVI stack. Several major carmakers are members, including Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi Electric, and Suzuki, yet Toyota is the only AGL automotive manufacturer to ship IVI systems based on UCB in most of its major models, from the Camry to its Lexus luxury cars. In June, AGL announced that Mercedes-Benz Vans was using UCB for upcoming vans, and we can expect more AGL commitments in 2019.
At the Westgate Hotel Pavilion (booth 1614) in Las Vegas this week, AGL is showing off a 2019 Toyota RAV4 equipped with AGL systems, and AGL members are offering demonstrations of AGL-based connected car services, audio innovations, instrument cluster, and security solutions.
Baidu releases open source Apollo 3.5 self-driving software
AGL is not the only automotive project offering an open source solution. For the past year, Chinese search and cloud giant Baidu has been developing its Linux-driven Apollo stack for self-driving cars. At CES, it announced Apollo 3.5, with new support for “complex urban and suburban driving scenarios.” A hardware platform is available with an Intel Core based Neousys industrial computer equipped with an Nvidia graphics card, among other components including Baidu’s own sensor fusion unit.
Baidu also announced an Apollo Enterprise platform built on top of Apollo designed for autonomous fleet operations. In addition, it revealed an open source OpenEdge cloud-enabled edge computing platform with development boards based on NXP and Intel technologies. The latter is designed for in-car video analytics and incorporates Intel’s Mobileye technology. Details were sketchy, however.
Intel AV
At CES, Intel unveiled an Intel AV compute platform aimed at autonomous cars. It features a pair of Mobileye EyeQ5 sensor processing chips and a new Intel Atom 3xx4 CPU.
The Intel AV system provides 60 percent greater performance at the same 30W consumption as Nvidia’s automotive focused Jetson Xavier processor, claims Intel, The Mobileye EyeQ5 processors are each claimed to generate 24 trillion deep learning operations per second (TOPS) at 10W each. Volkswagen and Nissan have announced plans to use the earlier EyeQ4 processors when it launches later this year. The new EyeQ5 chips are due in 2020.
The Atom 3xx4 chip, meanwhile, borrows high-end multi-threading and virtualization technologies from Intel’s Xeon processors for running different tasks simultaneously on different systems around the car. We saw no mention of OS support, but we would be surprised if Linux was not supported.
Nvidia Drive Autopilot
Intel is playing catchup with Nvidia in the autonomous vehicle computer contest. In recent years, Nvidia has increasingly focused on the automotive business, launching one of the first independent self-driving car computers with its Drive PX Pegasus based on its newly shipping, octa-core Arm-based Jetson AGX Xavier module. At CES, it followed up with a Xavier-based Nvidia Drive Autopilot system.
Unlike the fully autonomous, “Level 5” Drive PX Pegasus, the Drive Autopilot is designed for Level 2 assisted ADAS systems. Due to ship in vehicles in 2020, the system features a claimed 30 TOPS AI performance and provides “complete surround camera sensor data from outside the vehicle and inside the cabin.” Drive Autopilot integrates a new Drive IX software stack that can map and memorize typical routes to improve performance in the future. It also provides driverless highway merge, lane change, lane splits, and as well as driver monitoring and AI copilot capabilities. We saw no OS details, but presumably Drive Autopilot runs the Tegra4Linux stack used on other Xavier based systems.
Pumped BMX Pro Tricks Its Way Onto The Switch Next Month
It’s been an extreme week of announcements for Switch owners in more ways than one. Following on from Roll7’s OlliOlli: Switch Stance reveal for Nintendo’s hybrid platform, Curve Digital and Yeah Us! Games has now unveiled Pumped BMX Pro (the sequel to Pumped BMX+) will also be arriving next month.
Pumped BMX Pro rides onto the Switch exactly a week before the release of the OlliOlli double pack, on 7th February. If you missed the original outing available from the Wii U eShop in 2015, the second entry is more of the same – a momentum physics-based BMX freestyler. Here’s a description from Curve Digital’s YouTube channel:
Choose from 15 riders with pre-designed bikes, or come up with your own in the easy to use bike creator. Once you’re ready to hit the tracks, get creative with more than 40 trick options and combo your way through over 60 insane levels, maintaining your flow to ensure you reach the next obstacle wheels first instead of face first. For the best riders out there, there are over 200 challenges to beat. Have you got what it takes to go pro? High score chasers can compete on the global leaderboards, to see if they can thrash at the same level as the best riders in the world!
Take a look at the above trailer and tell us if you’ll be picking up this BMX sequel on Switch in February.
One of the great things about Rebel, Inc. is that while gameplay is relatively light on interaction, its systems hide a surprising amount of depth. Later maps and higher difficulty levels can provide a huge challenge to even the most seasoned player.
On the surface, Rebel, Inc. looks a lot like a military strategy game, but the most important things are going on behind the scenes. It’s easy to get distracted by chasing insurgents around zones trying to trap them when your real mission is to build up support with the local population. Zones with high levels of support and especially those already secured are very difficult for rebels to pop up in. Make sure to take some time to pause the game and check on your levels of corruption and stability and make sure you are adding new developments continuously.
Here are some of the more advanced secrets to putting down an insurgency that may have slipped by you:
Location Location Location
The first thing to do is make sure your operation has an amusingly incongruous name, like Volcano Tornado. Then, at the beginning of any map, base location is vital. There are three things to consider. Firstly, you’re going to want a lot of infrastructure and connected cities.
This speeds up deployment of your developments, since they spread outward from your main base. Sticking your base right in a corner means development can only spread in one direction, which slows you down in building support with the population overall. For controlling insurgents, however, being pretty close to a corner can be a big benefit. If they appear in that area, you can easily wipe them out. Additionally, quickly controlling one side of the map reduces the likelihood of insurgents catching you in the middle and forcing you to split up your military forces.
Services
Initially, you’re going to want to start with providing basic Services that have fast roll-outs and do well with hostile population: education and healthcare. But don’t get Core Health or any vaccinations right away, because you can get a big support boost by immediately responding when people complain in an event later. A few government improvements also have a stronger effect at the beginning of the game:
PR will multiply your support gains.
Effective Procurement will keep each of your following improvements from generating too much corruption.
District Representatives will speed up intel collection.
Once some basic Services are in place, Developments will solidify your hold on provinces where you have a positive reputation, making it difficult for insurgent groups to rise up there.
Watch your inflation level and notice when it makes prices rise. When the difference is only one dollar, it’s usually better to go ahead and implement the policy to get its benefits started earlier. After that, prices will spiral out of control, hurting your ability to respond to emergencies. It only takes a few months for things to settle down, so then it’s better to wait.
COIN
With military action, your goal should be to keep the insurgents on the run, since you start losing reputation as they take hold of regions. Don’t spend too much on units to try to trap them early in the game–better to build local support and make it harder for insurgent groups to appear. A well-supported unit that can push insurgents out before they take hold is better than two units that get bogged down and let the insurgents grab more territory.
Early military improvements (translators and the ghoulishly-named ‘Human Terrain System’) should help gather Intel and gain support of the locals, since your units will be operating in more distant locations. After that, garrisons are easily the most effective military advancement once you’ve started recruiting your first National soldiers. Once purchased, they will pop up regularly, usually in a useful province, essentially giving you a cheap and instantaneous stationary support army.
Drones should also not be underestimated. Before a military unit can engage the enemy, they have to gather intelligence about the region, which slows them down massively and lets rebels spread quickly beyond your capabilities. Drones also help you find insurgent bases and are necessary on Brutal difficulty. Speaking of which…
Brutality
Brutal mode makes the game more difficult by increasing the rate of appearance and strength of the insurgents. Your first instinct might be to rapidly deploy Coalition soldiers to try and corner the rebels. This strategy works well at standard difficulty and can clear maps very quickly, but on Brutal you’ll have to play a longer game. There are simply too many rebels to successfully defeat them purely through tactics.
As a result, you’ll need to focus your development on improvements that will also help your soldiers or undercut the insurgents from the very beginning. Local Representatives and the Census will improve intelligence-gathering. Dirt Roads will let soldiers move more quickly into rural areas. Requesting help from an NGO, taken as cash delivered over time, serves as an investment that can pay off later when money is tight. Security improvements will make it more difficult for rebels to take hold of a province. On Brutal, directly building support becomes less important than keeping the support you have from being lost due to rebel activity.
One of the biggest differences in Brutal mode is the higher rate of insurgent bases appearing. These need to be taken out as quickly as possible because they will spawn new insurgent groups and give bonuses to the ones that are already out and around. On Brutal, don’t be shy about using drones and airstrikes freely to take out those bases–they will also help defeat insurgent groups.
Peace in Our Time
When you get the opportunity to negotiate with the rebels you are in the endgame. Keep in mind any territory they still hold will hit your reputation hard, so it is often better to take a small reputation hit in negotiations if you have a better military position so you can focus on pushing them back. In a very strong military position, it’s better to not enter negotiations, since it’s likely to cause more insurgents to spawn, and you can win the game by stabilizing all regions without declaring peace.
Hope this helps your mission to bring stability to [unnamed country]! Has a different strategy worked better for you? Let us know in the comments!
Odium to the Core is a single-button, music-based challenging side-scroller game with a beautiful but dark monochromatic art style. Guide Odium through dangerous and intense music-fueled levels to fight and stop the spreading corruption. Reach the core and save the world.
