Author: Chris Ryan

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TGS Recap: Here’s what we’ve learned

Although the Tokyo Game Show ended last week, there was a lot of information to keep track of while event was going on. Now that it’s over, we’ll go over as much as we can just incase you missed anything. Most of the information that’s directly relevant to North American and European gamers came from Sony’s press conference which took place two days before the actual convention.

Bloodborne DLC, The Old Hunters, will be available November 24th, 2015.

Gravity Daze/Gravity Rush PS4 remaster will be released in Japan December 12, 2015. In the mean time, the rest of the world will have to wait for both the remaster and the sequel until Spring 2016.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’s DLC will take place 20 years after the main game and will be themed around Jack the Ripper. You can buy the DLC as a stand-alone purchase or get it as part of the season pass.

In celebration of its 10 year anniversary, the Yakuza series has two entries coming to Sony platforms. A remake of the original Yakuza called Yakuza Kiwami that will be released on the PS3 and PS4 in Japan January 21, 2016.

The game will also come with a limited demo download code for the upcoming Yakuza 6 scheduled later that year. Information on when and if the game will come to the West has yet to be disclosed.

Dark Souls III was officially announced to be released on March 2016 in Japan while North America and Europe will get it April 2016.

Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue set to be come out some time next year. As of right now, it seems that it will only be available on the PS4.

This title will have the HD version of the 3DS game Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover which are the cinematics from the Japan only web browser/mobile game Kingdom Hearts χ, and Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep–A Fragmentary Passage which is the final chapter that will link directly into the events of Kingdome Hearts 3.

Although this is the only information out for this game, Danganronpa 3 will eventualy be playable on the PS4 and PS Vita.

A new IP currently being developed by Koei Tecmo called Nioh makes it’s debut. This PS4 exclusive will come out sometime during 2016.

It’s been 5 years since the last entry of the King of Fighters franchise and now SNK Playmore has a new one coming 2016. King of Fighters XIV will be the first game in the series that will deviate from being 2D fighter. Watch the trailer to see how the game may make it’s transition to 3D.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps is a digital only online third-person shooter running on the Unity engine which is coming out early 2016 for PS4 and PC. Although it will only be known as Umbrella Corps in the West, America and Europe will also be getting the game for half the price of a standard retail game.

Konami also showed some new footage of what players can expect from the long awaited MGSV: Phantom Pain version of Metal Gear Online. The video goes over some of the basics like classes, missions, and map locations that will be accessible when the free update goes live on October 6, 2015.

This was only some of the information that the Tokyo Game Show had to offer. There were many more games shown that will probably make its way to the West while others will most likely stay exclusive to Japan and other Asian territories. However one thing is certain, 2016 will be a busy year with many big titles coming out in the first half of the year.

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Adorable Venom Snake Nendoroid pre-orders open now

If you never thought adorable could be used as a word to describe Big Boss, think again. Good Smile Company is making a Nendoroid version of Venom Snake in his sneaking suit outfit. Although the mini-figure won’t ship until April 2016, you can reserve the “perfect soldier” before it’s no longer available. Here are some pictures from the product page.

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The package will set you back ¥5,500 or $45.92 USD as of today’s current exchange rate. Despite charging their items in Japansese currency, there is no need to worry because the company does ship to North America. Keep in mind that you only can pre-order your mini-figure of Big Boss from Good Smile Company’s online shop starting from Sep. 17 until October 14, 2015 21:00 JST or 8:00pm EST.

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Witness ‘The Witness’ on the first month of 2016

Used as a majoring selling point for Sony when the PS4 was about to debut in store shelves yet remained silent since it’s delay from its original 2015 launch schedule, gamers had been wondering “what happened to The Witness?” That question has just been answered.

Coming straight from Jonathan Blow, the designer of Braid, The Witness will finally be playable on January 26, 2016.

The Witness is a first-person adventure game where you explore an island and solve puzzles. According to Blow’s blog post, he claims that the game can be beaten from 8 to 12 hours but completionists or people who want more can get up to 80 or 100 hours of gameplay. PS4 owners will be the first to play this long anticipated game with an eventual release on Windows and iOS.

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Persona 5 Delayed for 2016

The long awaited Persona 5 has had its release date pushed according to Atlus’ twitter page. There will be a simultaneous Japan & North American release but will take place in 2016. To reassure fans, Atlus has decided to give fans another gameplay video that shows new additions to the franchise such as an actual city to travel through, platforming, and jumping into paintings.

In the same vain of its predecessors, Persona 5 is a dungeon crawling role-playing game that has you living out a year in the life of a high school boy who receives the ability to summon facets of his psyche known as personas. Personas often take the form of gods, demons, spirits, and legends from various religions and folklore from around the world. 

After the PS2 entries Persona 3 (2006), which became a cult classic in the west, and Persona 4 (2008), often dubbed “the best game ever” by hardcore fans, Atlus has been able to release multiple spin-off iterations from the two titles’ success. Each game has had a remake on PSP/Vita, a directors’s cut version of Persona 3, spawned two fighting games, a cross-over between the two functioning like an Etrian Odyssey game, and an upcoming rhythm game called Persona 4: Dancing All Night coming out this September 29, 2015. The franchise’s fanbase has been growing strong with each year and the success from these games is proof of that.

Persona 5 is generating a lot of expectations since it is the first true sequel of the franchise in seven years. If Persona 5 did come out in 2015, it probably would have been the biggest RPG release after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Fallout 4. It’ll be interesting to see how successful the game will be and whether or not the changes and additions Persona 5 makes will be accepted.

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Play Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows on September 17

Yacht Club Games has finally declared when Shovel Knight’s DLC will be released. Every version of Shovel Knight, which includes the 3DS, Wii U, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, and PC, is receiving a free update that will add a new campaign for the game called Plague of Shadows on September 17, 2015.

Read information about the game that Yacht Club Games has on their blog below.

Description

sk_PlagueOfShadows_02Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows is a free expansion for Shovel Knight, a sweeping classic action adventure game that won over 70 Game of the Year Awards in 2014. You play as Plague Knight, the villainous master of alchemy, in a quest all his own. Using his maniacal scientific mind, Plague Knight is seeking to concoct Serum Supernus, the Ultimate Potion. However, to retrieve these ingredients, he must extract them from his
former allies… the villainous knights of the Order of No Quarter! World class platforming, music, storytelling, and art all return in Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows; an explosive quest with a new play style, new story, new bosses, and more!

Features

An adventure featuring a New Star: Plague Knight!plagueKnight010

  • See your favorite game from a new point of view! Play as the explosive trickster Plague Knight with new story and gameplay!
  • Join Plague Knight on his quest to overthrow the Order of No Quarter! Become the ultimate alchemist… and maybe find some romance, too…

New Gameplay

  • Explode onto the scene as Plague Knight! Use explosives, bomb jumps, and alchemy to blast your way through the game in a whole new way!
  • Crafting Comes to Shovel Knight with the Alchemy System! Collect loot and use alchemy to craft equipment and power-ups
  • Collect new recipes and reagents to become the master of disaster!

Remixed Game Content

  • New objectives and enemies!
  • Brand new areas and new paths through classic levels!
  • New bosses!
  • Is your science up to snuff? Take on Plague Knight specific challenges with new Feats!
  • Prove your mettle in Challenge Mode. Take on speed run challenges, boss rematches, and other rule-benders… and expect some tricky puzzles too!

monaPotionarium480Yacht Club Games has also mentioned that you will need to complete the original game before you will be able to play the new campaign and Challenge Modes. However, if you have lost a save file or have repurchased the game on another platform, the developers are willing to offer a special code that unlocks the new content.

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American made Castlevania anime will be “super-violent” says Adi Shankar

“It’s going to be dark, satirical, and after a decade of propaganda it will flip the vampire sub-genre on its head.”   – Adi Shankar

American film producer and director Adi Shankar, who’s known for The Grey, The Lone Survivor, or the more recent Power/Rangers Unauthorized from his Bootleg Universes shorts, announced on facebook that he would be working with Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde of Frederator Studios (Adventure Time, Fairly OddParents, etc.) to create an animated short-series based on Konami’s Castlevania game franchise.

According to an interview conducted by Collider, Shankar reveals more information into what the mini-series will entail. Firstly, the animated series will be based off of the 1989/1990 Famicom/NES game Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Unlike most of the other Castlevania games, this one featured three new playable characters including the debut of Dracula’s son, Alucard.

The producer also noted that he would include easter eggs that only people who have played the games would know in addition to using the synthesized heavy metal electric guitar quality that the earlier games were notorious for having.

When asked what kind of violence or gore the mini-series would have, Shankar replied

“There will be a lot. The goal is to bring hard hitting anime to the America and be America’s first animated series for adults.”

Shankar will be taking influences from classic animes like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll as well as the recently cancelled Young Justice.

Having a larger cast of characters to work with is probably why Dracula’s Curse was chosen over other titles; as it would be a more interesting feature to watch four personalities take on a menacing threat instead of one. If your wondering whether or not this mini-series will be as bloody and violent as it is suggested, let’s just say that every other work that’s associated with Adi Shankar has been rated R and does everything it can to justify it’s rating. Hopefully this will be an adaption that can be appreciated by both longtime fans of Castlevania and non-gamers alike.

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The year is 1476, and Count Dracula has started to ravage Europe with an army of monsters. The Belmont family of vampire hunters, once exiled from Wallachia, are called into action by the Church. They feared the Belmonts’ “super-human” power, but with Dracula menacing to swallow Europe in darkness, they are left with no choice but to call Trevor Belmont, current wielder of the Vampire Killer Whip.  -Wikipedia

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Mario, Yoshi, and other new Amiibos coming from Nintendo

Gamers have already been aware of some of the amiibos that are debuting this Fall but when those amiibos will come out and which ones will be apart of a bundle have been left unanswered until now.

On September 11, the Classic Mario amiibo will retail as a separate release from Super Mario Maker at $12.99, while the 30th Anniversary Mario Modern Color amiibo will only be available from the Super Mario Maker Wii U bundle for $299.99.

amiiboMario Maker Wii U bundle

October 16 will have a Yoshi Woolly World bundle that will come with the green Yoshi Yarn amiibo at $59.99. The pink and light-blue Yoshi Yarn amiibos can be purchased separately at $16.99 each.

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The Mega Yarn Yoshi can be scanned by placing one of Yoshi’s feet on the Wii U gamepad.

In addition to that, a Mega Yarn Yoshi, a giant green Yoshi amiibo made of yarn, will go on sale November 15 for $39.99. When the amiibo is scanned wile playing Yoshi’s Woolly World will activate:

  • Double Yoshi, a second Yoshi to use at any point in the middle of a stage
  • the ability to save a player’s favorite Yoshi pattern to the amiibo.

These are the same features that are also enabled by the standard Yarn Yoshi amiibos.

More characters from Super Smash Bros. are continuing to come out like the 3-pack of Mii Fighters on November 1 for $34.99, the Mewtwo amiibo being sold on November 13 at $12.99, and the Falco amiibo launching on November 20 at $12.99.

For Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, Nintendo will have Isabelle, Digby, K.K., Reese, Cyrus, Tom Nook, Mabel, and Lottie all become amiibos. As of right now both the game and the amiibos will be purchasable Holiday 2015 but a specific date has yet to be disclosed.eeeeeeIncluding the Yoshi variants, Nintendo will have 28 new amiibos this Fall and Winter which is 10 more than what was released last year during the same time. Amiibo collectors may have a more difficult time keeping track of store exclusives, bundle exclusives, as well as amiibos that become inexplicably hard to find. For those attempting ‘catch ’em all’, good luck.

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Confirmed: the Wii U will have Pokkén Tournament

Confirmed during the Pokémon World Championship in Boston, Pokkén Tournament will be playable on the Nintendo Wii U Spring 2016. Pokkén Tournament is currently playable on arcades in Japan only but it has been mentioned that the game would be tested in the United States at specific Dave & Buster’s locations. Vice President of Dave & Buster’s, Kevin Bachus, had stated during a Reddit AMA in July,

“Yes. We will be testing Pokken. Candidly both NAMCO and I are more optimistic about that title and our typical guests than Tekken.”

The Dave & Buster’s locations that will be testing Pokkén Tournament still have yet to be disclosed, so Pokémon fans will have stay alPT Machampert for more information.

You can watch a Pokkén Tournament Championship that is currently taken place in Boston at twitch.tv/pokemon.

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The Sony Empire Strikes Back with Limited Edition PS4 Bundles

On November 17, 2015, the Playstation 4 is getting another limited edition console that features the glorious face of Darth Vader. Announced during the D23 Expo in Anaheim, the Limited Edition Star Wars Battlefront PS4 Bundle will come with:

  • a custom 500GB PS4 of the CUH-1200 series(that’s the re-modeled PS4 with the mechanical buttons and increased power efficiency) with Darth Vader on the top of the console,
  • the Darth Vader Edition Dualshock 4 that’s designed to resemble Darth Vader’s chest plate which makes this the most asymmetrical PS4 controller to date,
  • Star Wars Battlefront Deluxe Edition,
  •  a download voucher for four classic star wars titles – Super Star Wars(SNES), Star Wars: Racer Revenge(PS2), Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter(PS2/Xbox), and Star Wars Bounty Hunter(PS2/GC) – with enhanced graphics and trophy support.

Not only that, Disney Infinity has their own Star Wars bundle that’s coming out in November.

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The Limited Edition Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars PS4 Bundle will also include the 500GB custom Darth Vader Playstation 4(CUH-1200 series), Darth Vader Edition Dualshock 4, the download voucher for the four classic Star Wars games, as well as the Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars Edition PlayStation Exclusive Hardware Bundle Kit. The kit includes:

  • a physical copy of Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition
  • the Disney Infinity Base
  • the Rise Against the Empire Play Set Pack (featuring Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa figures, as well the Rise Against the Empire Play Set piece)
  • the Boba Fett figure, exclusive to PlayStation through this holiday

A standard edition bundle will also be available with the standard Playstation 4(CUH-1200 series) and Dualshock 4 with Star Wars Battlefront Deluxe Edition and the four classic Star Wars games.

2015 seems to be the year of the special edition consoles for Sony, starting with the Batman LE console in June; the Japan, Europe, and Australia exclusive Metal Gear Solid V LE console in September, a new Destiny LE console also in September, and now a Star Wars LE console in November. Perhaps another limited edition console will appear in December during the Playstation Experience.

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Killer Instinct season 3 and Rash from Battletoads

Microsoft had a few things to talk about their Xbox One and soon to be Windows 10 exclusive, Killer Instinct, during the Xbox Gamescom 2015 briefing.

First was the fact that Killer Instinct Season 3 will start in March 2016 with Xbox One and Windows 10 cross-platform play. All controllers and fight/arcade sticks that work on the Xbox One will also be compatible with Windows 10.

Rash in Battletoads & Double Dragon (NES)
Rash in Battletoads & Double Dragon (NES)

However the last but most surprising information was Rash, from Rare’s Battletoads seires, was stated to be a new playable character starting today.

It seems that Microsoft’s constant flow of new content to support the game and the very passionate community that Killer Instinct has is benefitting them greatly. And with the appearance of Rash in Killer Instinct, is there a possibility of other Rare characters like Banjo-Kazooie or Conker entering the fight? Surely more cross-overs from other Rare titles would be well appreciated, especially from long time fans of Rare.