Datasets:

arjunpatel

/

best-selling-video-games

like 0

Marvel's Spider-Man

Action-adventure

Marvel's Spider-Man is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, it tells an original narrative that is inspired by the long-running comic book mythology, while also drawing from various adaptations in other media. In the main story, the super-human crime lord Mister Negative orchestrates a plot to seize control of New York City's criminal underworld. When Mister Negative threatens to release a deadly virus, Spider-Man must confront him and protect the city while dealing with the personal problems of his civilian persona, Peter Parker. Gameplay is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Spider-Man's traversal and combat abilities. Spider-Man can freely move around New York City, interacting with characters, undertaking missions, and unlocking new gadgets and suits by progressing through the main story or completing tasks. Outside the story, the player is able to complete side missions to unlock additional content and collectible items. Combat focuses on chaining attacks together and using the environment and webs to incapacitate numerous foes while avoiding damage. Development of Marvel's Spider-Man, the first licensed game by Insomniac in its then-22-year history, began in 2014 and took approximately four years. Insomniac was given the choice of using any character from Marvel's catalog to work on; Spider-Man was chosen both for his appeal to the employees and the similarities in traversal gameplay to their previous game Sunset Overdrive (2014). The game design took inspiration from the history of Spider-Man across all media but Marvel Comics and Insomniac wanted to tell an original story that was not linked to an existing property, creating a unique universe (known as Earth-1048) that has since appeared in novels, merchandise, and comics. Marvel's Spider-Man was released for the PlayStation 4 on September 7, 2018. The game received praise for its narrative, characterization, combat, and web-swinging traversal mechanics, although some criticized its open-world design for lacking innovation. Marvel's Spider-Man received a number of accolades including being named as one of the best superhero games ever made. It became one of the fastest-selling games of the year and one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games of all time. Insomniac supported the game extensively after launch, releasing a three-part story expansion titled The City That Never Sleeps and several new alternate costumes for Spider-Man. A remastered version of Marvel's Spider-Man, featuring all previously released downloadable content, was released for the PlayStation 5 in November 2020 and for Microsoft Windows in August 2022. The game's success launched the identically named video game series, beginning with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a spin-off focused on Spider-Man's protégé Miles Morales, in November 2020. A sequel, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, is scheduled for release in 2023. == Gameplay == Marvel's Spider-Man is an open-world action-adventure game set in the borough of Manhattan in a fictionalized version of modern-day New York City. It is presented from a third-person perspective showing the playable character and allowing the camera to be rotated freely around them. The primary playable character is the superhero Spider-Man, who can navigate the world by jumping, using his web shooters to fire webs that allow him to swing between buildings, running along walls and automatically vaulting over obstacles. The player can precisely aim webs to pull himself towards specific points. Physical objects are required to attach webs to for swinging, and momentum and speed of the swing can be controlled by releasing the web at specific points to gain height or move more quickly. The game features an optional fast travel system that uses the New York City Subway system.Combat is enacted using three buttons; one for dodging, one for physical strikes, and one for web-based attacks. Webbing can be used to incapacitate enemies and stick them to nearby objects, immediately removing them from battle. Enemies who are knocked from great heights are automatically stuck to a nearby surface in a web-cocoon, preventing death. Spider-Man can also use the environment to fight, jumping off walls and throwing objects like manhole covers, grenades and webbing-restrained enemies.Successful and consecutive attacks build "Focus", which can be partially used to heal Spider-Man, while full Focus allows special finishing attacks to take down an enemy instantly. Spider-Man possesses "spider-sense", which is shown as a white icon around the character's head, indicating an incoming attack that can be dodged. A precise dodge performed just before the attack hits allows Spider-Man to retaliate with webbing against the enemy. Some enemies must be overcome using different approaches. Melee-weapon-wielding enemies must be knocked into the air and shielded enemies must be attacked from behind. Enemies armed with whips will drag Spider-Man out of the air and require a counterattack to fight effectively. Other types of enemy include heavily armored agents who can take more damage, brutes, and jetpack-wearing enemies who remain airborne.Spider-Man has access to a variety of gadgets that can be deployed in combat; these include electric webbing, concussive blasts, and impact webbing that launches enemies backwards and can stick them to a nearby surface. Gadgets are unlocked by progressing through the game and can be accessed from a radial menu. Spider-Man has several unlockable suits that are based on existing versions of the character in media; there are also original suits created for the game. Many of these offer special abilities that can aid in combat, such as increasing Focus gain, reducing gravity, enhancing stealth, making the player invulnerable, and unleashing an electromagnetic pulse to disable enemy weapons. Once unlocked, suits and powers can be freely combined. Stealth combat involves Spider-Man moving around raised locations using gadgets or webbing to neutralize isolated enemies. Leveling up allows the player to unlock skills from three different specialties, focusing on ground combat, aerial combat, and traversal.Suits, suit mods, gadgets, and their associated upgrades are purchased with resources called Tokens, which are awarded for completion of specific tasks. Each unlockable item requires different quantities of each Token type: Challenge Tokens for completing Taskmaster's time-and-skill based combat, stealth, and traversal missions; Backpack Tokens for locating Spider-Man's old backpacks containing mementos from his past; Research Tokens for completing research station missions, science minigames, and the collection of pigeons; Crime Tokens for stopping ambient crimes; Base Tokens for clearing out enemy bases; and Landmark Tokens for taking pictures of specific locations around the city. There are also minigames that are rewarded with experience points and research tokens including Circuit Puzzles that require the arrangement of an electric grid and Pattern Puzzles that require the recreation of a specific pattern using composite parts. Radio towers in different areas can be unscrambled, highlighting collectable objects, missions, and active crimes.Some sections of the game are played as Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker, his friend Mary Jane Watson, and ally Miles Morales. Peter's sections often involve puzzle-solving, while Mary Jane's and Miles' segments focus on the use of stealth to avoid enemies. The game originally featured three difficulty levels; Friendly (easy), Amazing (normal), and Spectacular (hard). A post-release update added a fourth "Ultimate" difficulty that increases enemy damage and health while decreasing Spider-Man's, and a "New Game Plus" option that allows the player to start a new game using all of the suits, powers, gadgets, and suit mods unlocked in a previous playthrough. The game includes accessibility options, enabling players to skip the puzzle minigames, enable larger subtitles, automatically complete quick time events, and replace button tapping with holding. A photo mode allows the player to take pictures of Spider-Man using a variety of image filters, frames, and stickers for customization. The camera can be used to take selfies and can be freely moved around Spider-Man to capture him in action. == Synopsis == === Characters and setting === Marvel's Spider-Man features a large ensemble cast of characters drawn from the history of Spider-Man comics. Peter Parker (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) is a 23-year-old research assistant, who gains superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically modified spider. Assuming a secret identity as the superhero Spider-Man, Peter uses these abilities to protect the residents of New York City. Eight years into his superhero career, Peter has become an experienced crime fighter but struggles to balance his superhero and personal lives. Peter is assisted by Daily Bugle reporter Mary Jane Watson (Laura Bailey), his ex-girlfriend, and NYPD captain Yuri Watanabe (Tara Platt). In his civilian life, Peter is supported by his Aunt May (Nancy Linari) who volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T. homeless shelter run by philanthropist Martin Li (Stephen Oyoung). Peter is employed by his friend and mentor, the respected scientist Dr. Otto Octavius (William Salyers).Spider-Man's adventure brings him into contact with other characters, including Miles Morales (Nadji Jeter) and his parents, NYPD officer Jefferson Davis (Russell Richardson) and Rio Morales (Jacqueline Pinol), Oscorp CEO and New York mayor Norman Osborn (Mark Rolston), and Silver Sablinova (Nichole Elise), leader of the private military company Sable International. Spider-Man's mission brings him into conflict with several supervillains, beginning with his longtime foe and Kingpin of crime in New York Wilson Fisk (Travis Willingham), and a supernaturally powered gang called the Inner Demons who begin dividing the city for Mister Negative, who can corrupt people through his touch. Spider-Man must also confront Electro (Josh Keaton), Rhino (Fred Tatasciore), Scorpion (Jason Spisak), Vulture (Dwight Schultz), Shocker (Dave B. Mitchell), Taskmaster (Brian Bloom), Screwball (Stephanie Lemelin), and Tombstone (Corey Jones). Several other characters—including Peter and Mary Jane's childhood friend Harry Osborn (Scott Porter), who is supposed to be vacationing in Europe, and anti-Spider-Man podcast host J. Jonah Jameson (Darin De Paul)—have voice roles in the main game. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee appears in a cameo role as a short-order cook. The game's downloadable content features appearances by master-thief Black Cat (Erica Lindbeck), Maggia mobster Hammerhead (Keith Silverstein), and Felicia's father Walter Hardy (Daniel Riordan).Marvel's Spider-Man depicts fictional locations and entities from the Marvel Comics universe, including Avengers Tower, the Wakandan Embassy, the Symkarian Embassy, the Sanctum Sanctorum, the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Alias Investigations, Rand Enterprises, the superhero cleanup company Damage Control, the Roxxon Energy Corporation, and Empire State University. It also features real-world locations including the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Madison Square Garden, and Chrysler Building. === Plot === Following the capture of Wilson Fisk by Spider-Man, a masked gang known as the Inner Demons begin seizing Fisk's illicit assets. Mary Jane and Spider-Man learn that the Demons are seeking something called Devil's Breath. With the aid of Officer Jefferson Davis, Spider-Man thwarts a Demon attack. Davis is lauded for his heroism at a re-election event for Mayor Norman Osborn. The Demons attack the event, killing Davis and many other attendees. Peter witnesses Martin Li transforming into their leader, Mister Negative, but is knocked unconscious before he can intervene. Following the attack, Osborn hires Silver Sablinova and Sable International to supplant the police. Peter befriends Davis' son Miles and persuades him to volunteer at F.E.A.S.T. Peter and Otto Octavius continue their research into advanced prosthetic limbs, but Osborn withdraws their funding in an attempt to force Octavius to work for his mega-corporation Oscorp. While searching for Li, Spider-Man discovers that Devil's Breath is a lethal, virulent bioweapon inadvertently created by Oscorp while developing a cure for genetic diseases. Li locates and steals the only sample of Devil's Breath and threatens to release it unless Osborn surrenders to him. Mary Jane and Spider-Man foil Li, who is subsequently incarcerated at a nearby maximum-security prison called the Raft, while the Devil's Breath is secured. Meanwhile, Octavius obsesses over creating enhanced limbs that exceed the human body's limitations, creating four mechanical tentacles operated from his back and mentally controlled via a neural interface. He reveals to Peter that he is suffering from a neuromuscular disease that will inevitably immobilize him and that enhanced limbs will allow him to continue his work when his body fails. Peter warns Octavius that the interface could impact his mind and personality. Octavius continues its use in secret, overcome with anger at Osborn. While investigating a breakout at the Raft, Spider-Man learns that some of his greatest enemies—Li, Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion—have escaped. They subdue Spider-Man and present him to Octavius, now "Doctor Octopus," who warns the beaten Spider-Man not to interfere before retaking the Devil's Breath and releasing it in Times Square, causing a mass outbreak that infects numerous people, including Aunt May. New York descends into chaos while Octavius' team attacks the city. Osborn declares martial law and blames Spider-Man for the incident, branding him a fugitive. Spider-Man gradually takes back the city, defeating Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion. Mary Jane infiltrates Osborn's penthouse and learns that Oscorp developed Devil's Breath to cure Osborn's terminally ill son Harry. As a child, Li was a test subject for the cure, gaining his abilities in an explosion of energy that also killed his parents and caused his hatred for Osborn. She also learns that an antidote for Devil's Breath exists and that Li has stolen it. Spider-Man tracks down and defeats Li, but Octavius arrives, brutalizes Spider-Man, and escapes with the antidote and Osborn. While Spider-Man recovers, Miles is bitten by an Oscorp genetically modified spider that Mary Jane unknowingly carried from Osborn's penthouse.Wounded, Peter builds himself an armored suit and confronts Octavius atop Oscorp Tower, rescuing Osborn. Octavius reveals that he knows Peter's secret identity, and a battle ensues. Spider-Man retrieves the antidote and defeats Octavius, leaving him to be arrested. Peter is forced to choose between using the limited cure to save May from her imminent death or synthesize a vaccine for the infected masses; he decides to save everyone. Before she dies, May reveals that she knows he is Spider-Man and is proud of him. Three months later, New York has returned to normal, and Peter and Mary Jane rekindle their relationship. Miles reveals to Peter that he has gained spider-like powers, prompting Peter to reveal his own. Having resigned as mayor in disgrace, Osborn enters a secret laboratory where Harry is kept in stasis with a black, web-like substance. As Osborn places his hand on the tank, the substance reacts and copies him. == Development == Spider-Man came about after Sony Interactive Entertainment's Vice President of Product Development Connie Booth visited Insomniac Games to speak with CEO Ted Price. Insomniac had recently released its Xbox One-exclusive game Sunset Overdrive; without a formal agreement in place, discussions about the potential new project were held off the record. Booth mooted the idea of Insomniac working on a game based on a Marvel Comics property. Price recalled having a "fairly neutral" response, as Insomniac had only developed original properties, but his developers were enthusiastic about the project.The project marked a change in Marvel's video games strategy; Jay Ong, Senior Vice President of Marvel Games, said Marvel had previously released software based on or tied to the release of films based on their properties, but this meant game developers did not have time to create impressive products. Publisher Activision had been responsible for Spider-Man games since 2000; Ong said this would no longer be the case and future Spider-Man games were in the hands of Sony and Insomniac. Marvel did not want the game to be based on an existing movie or comic book story, and allowed Insomniac to choose a character with which to tell an original story; the team chose Spider-Man, saying they related to the dynamic between the heroic Spider-Man and his everyman alter-ego Peter Parker.Creative director Bryan Intihar said "I feel like he's the most relatable of the heroes. As much as I love Tony Stark, it's harder to identify with a billionaire. As much as I love Thor, it's hard to identify with a god. Peter makes mistakes, he has ups and downs in his career, his relationships, his family. I think we can all relate to that." Price said, "He's so human, and he's so relatable. He's also the most popular Marvel character in the world, I think". Price also considered the technical benefits; Sunset Overdrive has a dynamic traversal system that could be built upon for Spider-Man. Spider-Man became the first licensed property developed by Insomniac in its 22-year existence.While initially excited, team members found the project daunting because of Spider-Man's popularity and the wealth of existing stories and versions of the character. Art director Jacinda Chew saw opportunity in the character's extensive history, and consulted online references and Marvel staff with extensive knowledge of the character.Spider-Man uses Insomniac's proprietary engine that was previously used in Sunset Overdrive and modified to support 4K resolutions and HDR for their 2016 game Ratchet & Clank. The game was announced in June 2016 at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. After approximately four years in development, Spider-Man was finalized on July 30, 2018, when it was released to manufacturing. Insomniac has refused to confirm a sequel to Spider-Man but Intihar said the developers wanted the audience debating what they might do. He said they wanted to keep players engaged, starting with the Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps downloadable content (DLC), whose story continues after the conclusion of the main game. === Writing and characters === Intihar worked with a team of writers, under lead writer Jon Paquette to create an original version of Spider-Man that remained true to the original. Alongside Paquette, the story was written by Ben Arfman and Kelsey Beachum. Christos Gage co-wrote the script and Dan Slott provided additional story contributions. Insomniac researched iterations of the character to understand the elements that make a compelling Spider-Man story, after which Paquette wanted to avoid drawing too much influence from any single version. The team learned that whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter Parker loses, and vice versa. Intihar said that from conception, the game was designed to be as much Peter's story as Spider-Man's. The team avoided retelling Spider-Man's origin story, reasoning that it was common knowledge.Yuri Lowenthal provides the voice of Spider-Man / Peter Parker. Working with voice director Kris Zimmerman, Lowenthal tried to differentiate his voices for Peter—where he is gentler—and as Spider-Man, where he is more confident, but thought the voices should not be completely different and spent a large amount of time practicing his performances to achieve a balance. Paquette persuaded the studio to cast him in the role because he trusted Lowenthal's acting ability and would not have brought him up otherwise. Multiple versions of the same conversation were recorded for Spider-Man's open-world dialogue for his at-rest state and that of exertion; for instance in combat or web-swinging. The recordings can switch mid-conversation if Spider-Man switches from resting to being in combat. Lowenthal worked with two stunt coordinators during the game's development.Peter's relationship with Otto Octavius came from a desire to give him a job that embraced his intelligence. The writers considered ways to make that job interesting; they thought of having him work for Otto and be partly responsible for creating one of his greatest nemeses. Paquette emphasized the pair's relationship, aiming to make Otto a tragic figure, optimist, and mentor to Peter instead of the more traditional megalomaniac. Paquette said that he wanted to detail their friendship to give Otto's transformation into Doctor Octopus more meaning. Chew researched Otto's historical comic-book depiction and design, noting his bowl cut hairstyle and green glasses, but chose to modernize his appearance to make him balding and nerdy. Intihar described Otto and Peter as parallels of each other in many ways, particularly their intelligence and compassion.When depicting Peter's relationship with Mary Jane Watson, the writers wanted to demonstrate that she has her own skills that allow her to be a hero in her own right, requiring Peter to learn not to be overprotective of her and to rely on other people. Arfaman said Mary Jane was his favorite character to write for; her new job as a reporter allowed her more agency and to be an active partner to Spider-Man. Miles Morales was added as a younger character with whom younger audiences could identify when it was decided to use an older Peter Parker. The death of Aunt May at the end of the game was considered vital to Peter's growth and a challenge because May has a large role in historical Spider-Man stories; Paquette said the moment had to be earned. Marvel initially vetoed her death but its opinion changed as the development of the game progressed.Early in the story, May advises Peter that he is only human; Paquette said the message she gives is to not take on too much himself and learn to rely on other people. By the game's third act, Peter learns to rely on Mary Jane and Miles, though by this point it is too late to save everyone and Peter is given an "impossible choice". Paquette described this as the heroic sacrifice that reveals something deep about the character and what he really cares about. May's death was described as an echo of Peter's Uncle Ben's, who dies because Peter makes a selfish decision; May dies because he makes a completely selfless one. As a result, Peter will feel mixed guilt. A bittersweet but happier scene between Peter and Mary Jane was inserted to end the game on a more positive note. His ally police chief captain Yuri Watanabe was written as a kindred spirit who shares with Spider-Man a sense of responsibility to protect the city and its inhabitants regardless of the personal cost.Paquette described Mister Negative as the hero of his own story; his origin is designed to give purpose to both Norman Osborn—who is doing bad things with the goal of saving his son—and Otto. Mister Negative's alter ego Martin Li was given connections to both Aunt May and Peter to add more stress to Peter's life. Many of J. Jonah Jameson's podcast rants were written by Gage, who said he related to being a grouchy, middle-aged man. Gage considered that despite repeatedly blaming Spider-Man for events, the podcasts give the player insight to city residents' thoughts about Spider-Man and current affairs. Silver Sable was added because Gage felt that a force to increase the stakes as events in the city turn dire was needed. The in-game social media posts were written by members of Insomniac staff and Sony's QA department. === Design === To present the vast New York City game area, the map was divided into 800 square sections, each representing approximately 128 m2 (1,380 sq ft). As the playable character moves through it, out-of-view tiles are unloaded from memory and are replaced with tiles in view. Chief architect and core director Mike Fitzgerald said that when moving at Spider-Man's top speed, a new tile is loaded every second. For swinging, the team wanted to create a fun experience without making the physics too realistic. They combined camera movements, character animations, and field of view to make movement feel more heroic. To swing on webs, each web strand must be able to connect to a physical object. All architecture in the game world contains numerous anchor points; the ideal point is selected to maintain current momentum and direction. Each character has a high-quality model for closeups, cutscenes, and scripted sequences, possessing approximately 60,000 vertices. The game's final boss is rendered with a million polygons, the most Insomniac had used to render a character at that time.Insomniac wanted to modernize Spider-Man's costume while paying homage to the original design by Steve Ditko. The new design features a large, white spider symbol that stretches across the torso, gauntlet-like gloves, and a sneaker-style design based on athletic-wear rather than knee-high boots. Chew said the design goal was to create clothing a "23-year-old, would-be superhero" would wear in 2018 New York City. White was added to the traditional, red-and-blue color scheme. Chew compared the outfit to compression wear and said each color represents a different material; blue is the most flexible and is where Spider-Man requires the most flexibility, such as his limbs. The red material is flexible but is thicker for protection from minor scuffs and scrapes, and the white, which is similar to carbon fiber and offers the most protection, is positioned on the chest, hands and feet. Each costume features custom web-shooters unique to the suit for which they were designed. Unlike previous incarnations as a model or nightclub owner, this version of Mary Jane is an aspiring reporter who wears a smart, sensible, and stylish outfit to reflect her modeling history. Chew said they aimed to use many body types for female characters. Mister Negative was initially designed as a young rebel wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses; the progression of the story influenced the character and the decision was made to better reflect his true nature, giving him a black-and-white suit showing his human and transformed negative-photo-effect persona.The game's third act following the Raft escape was originally much bigger and included separate battles with the Vulture and Electro. Intihar said the game in this form was not working and they had to cut things, which they found difficult because it deviated from their intended vision. An unknown person had the idea of merging the Vulture and Electro fights, assembling a short demo to show it working as an aerial battle, which is how it appears in the finished game. === Sound === The game's music was composed by John Paesano. He worked on the project for over two years, beginning during the writing phase. The aim of the score was to make it its own character and to create a cinematic ambiance rather than being simply present in the background. The main theme took approximately two months to finish; this was then split off for other segments of the score for other characters. While Paesano was influenced by Spider-Man music from other media, he focused on the slightly older age of the game's Spider-Man, adding more gravitas to the score. He scored it more from the perspective of Peter Parker than Spider-Man to emphasize the character's humanity over his role as a superhero. Paesano aimed to keep the score simple and recognizable; he retained the same Spider-Man/Peter Parker theme throughout but modified it by using different instruments and arrangements. He wanted to avoid problems he perceived in films belonging to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which the many different character scores could get lost in each other. The central theme is even interwoven with villain scores—a technique Paesano compared to composer John Williams' work on Star Wars—to remind the audience that everything is part of Peter's story. == Release == Spider-Man was released worldwide on September 7, 2018, exclusively for PlayStation 4. Customers who pre-ordered the game were given instant access to some unlockable, in-game features, including alternative costumes (Spider-Punk, Iron Spider, and the Velocity Suit, the latter designed by comic book artist Adi Granov), skill points to unlock abilities, the spider-drone, a Spider-Man theme featuring artwork by Granov, and a user avatar for the PlayStation software. Special versions of the game were also made available; the "Digital Deluxe" version includes access to The City That Never Sleeps' three story-based DLC chapters and a limited-edition Spider-Man pin for pre-orders of this version in the U.S. and Canada. The Collector's Edition includes The City That Never Sleeps DLC, a custom steelbook case for the game, an artbook containing concept and unreleased art, a white spider sticker, and a Spider-Man statue created by Gentle Giant. Sony also released a limited-edition red PlayStation 4 Pro bearing the Spider-Man emblem and including the standard version of the game. Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition was released on August 28, 2019, containing the game and The City That Never Sleeps DLC.The game has been referenced or promoted in various other media. "Be Greater", a 90-second advertisement highlighting Spider-Man's battle against foes including Rhino and Scorpion was run during the 2018 NFL Kickoff Game, which had approximately 19.5 million viewers. PlayStation marketing head Eric Lempel said it was among the most expensive advertisements the company had ever run. In addition, videos showing features of the game narrated by characters including J. Jonah Jameson were released and artist Alex Ross was engaged to paint a custom cover for an issue of Game Informer. In New York City, a subway train was fully converted with Spider-Man marketing materials, including a full advertisement across the exterior, Spider-Man chairs and posters, and advertisements for the Daily Bugle. Shortly before the game's release, some fans were critical of marketing images of an early and later build of the game, both of which showed the same scene but the latter showed a smaller puddle of water than the former. Insomniac community director James Stevenson personally replied, confirming that there was no visual downgrade. Insomniac later parodied the criticism by offering cartoon puddle stickers for use in the game's photo mode. Shortly after release, Jacinda Chew offered to remove an in-game marriage proposal requested by a fan after it was revealed the relationship had since ended. The fan chose to retain the message, saying "I just want to see someone get married, through that thing". === Tie-in media and merchandise === Titan Books published two tie-in books for the game. The first, Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover, was released on August 21, 2018. Hostile Takeover, which was written by David Liss, is about Spider-Man's conflict with the Kingpin as he attempts to blackmail Mayor Osborn into making him the city financier and the end of Peter and Mary Jane's relationship due to Peter's overprotectiveness; and introduces the game's version of Echo, a deaf, female martial artist who joins forces with Spider-Man, and Blood Spider, a villain given superhuman abilities by Oscorp, and employed by Kingpin. The second book, Marvel's Spider-Man: The Art of the Game, is written by Paul Davies and contains the game's concept art, blueprints, and designs.The game's version of Spider-Man appears in the 2018 comic book story Spider-Geddon written by Gage, a sequel to 2014's Spider-Verse that brings together Spider-people from different Marvel realities. Spider-Geddon issue #0 (released September 26, 2018) follows the Superior Spider-Man (an alternate universe version of Otto Octavius in Peter Parker's body), as he travels to the game's Earth (designated Earth-1048) to recruit the game's Spider-Man. The story of Spider-Geddon takes place after the events of the game, and also introduces the Earth-1048 version of Tarantula. Insomniac artists provided variant comic-book covers for the series. A six-issue comic miniseries book titled Spider-Man: City at War was released beginning in March 2019. It follows the events of the game and introduces some new events. The series is published by Marvel, written by Dennis Hopeless, and includes art by Michelle Bandini and variant covers by Clayton Crain, David Nakayama, Gerardo Sandoval and Adi Granov. A second miniseries, Spider-Man: Velocity, was released in August 2019. Also written by Hopeless, with art by Emilio Laiso, the miniseries takes place after the events of the game, detailing Spider-Man's encounter with the supervillain Swarm, and Mary Jane's work with reporter Ben Urich. A third miniseries, Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes, was released in January 2020. Written by Hopeless with art by Luca Maresca, the miniseries adapts the events of the downloadable content The City That Never Sleeps while elaborating upon Spider-Man and Black Cat's relationship.In 2019, Diamond Select Toys and Sideshow Collectibles released, respectively, a 10-inch statue of Spider-Man and a 1/6 scale statue based on the in-game Spider-Punk costume, including a guitar and spider-drone. Various Funko Pop! Vinyl figures have been released, based on different characters and designs from the game. The advanced suit created for the game appears in the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse among the suits collected by the Peter Parker of Miles Morales' universe. === Downloadable content === A story-based three-episode downloadable content (DLC) pack collectively known as Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps was developed for Spider-Man. Each episode includes new story missions, challenges (hosted by Screwball), enemies, and trophies. The first episode, "The Heist", was released on October 23, 2018; set several months after the end of the main game, the story follows the return of Spider-Man's ex-girlfriend Black Cat to New York for a heist, which draws him into a conflict with the Maggia crime families. "The Heist" DLC expansion includes three unlockable costumes; Spider-UK, Scarlet Spider II, and the Resilient Suit—an original design by artist Gabriele Dell'Otto. Episode 2, "Turf Wars", was released on November 20. The story follows Spider-Man's and his ally Yuri Watanabe's efforts to stop Hammerhead taking over the Maggia crime families and seizing control of crime in New York. "Turf Wars" includes three new costumes; Mangaverse Spider-Man, the Iron Spider, and the Spider Armor MK I.The final episode, "Silver Lining", was released on December 21. Its plot features Silver Sable's return to New York City to reclaim her technology that has been stolen by the Maggia. She teams up with Spider-Man to confront Hammerhead, who has used her technology to make himself virtually indestructible. "Silver Lining" adds three new costumes; Into the Spider-Verse (based on the depiction of the alternate Peter B. Parker in the concurrently released film), Cyborg Spider-Man (based on the design from Spider-Man #21) and the Spider-Man armor created by Aaron Aikman—an alternative version of Spider-Man featured in the crossover story "Edge of Spider-Verse". The Spider-Man costume used in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy was released separately in December 2018, dubbed in-game as the "Webbed Suit". Two more costumes were released in January 2019; one is based on his Future Foundation costume and the other, titled "Bombastic Bag-Man Suit", is based on issue 258 of The Amazing Spider-Man (1984), in which Spider-Man is forced to wear a Fantastic Four costume and a brown paper bag to conceal his identity. A further two suits were released in July 2019, based on Spider-Man: Far From Home: the Upgraded and Stealth suits. === Spider-Man Remastered === Spider-Man Remastered, a remastered port of Spider-Man, includes the original game and its free downloadable content, The City That Never Sleeps paid downloadable content, three additional suits, further trophies and new additions to the photo mode. These three additional suits include the suit worn in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) film and two original suits designed by Insomniac, the Arachnid Rider suit, and the Armored Advanced suit. Players can also transfer their save files from the PlayStation 4 version, allowing them to carry over their progress to the remaster. It also features many of the updated textures, graphical and performance improvements from Spider-Man: Miles Morales, support for the console's 3D audio capabilities, "near instant loading" and support for the DualSense controller's haptic feedback. The remaster also changes the facial model for Peter Parker from John Bubniak to Ben Jordan to better match Yuri Lowenthal's facial capture.Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered was released for the PlayStation 5 in select territories on November 12, 2020, with a wider release on November 19. It was only available as part of the Ultimate Edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, while a paid digital upgrade of the standard edition also being available. On December 6, 2021, Insomniac announced two new suits for the version, both based on the suits worn in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which would be available on December 10 via updates. A port of Remastered for Microsoft Windows developed in collaboration with PlayStation sister studio Nixxes Software, was released as a standalone title for Steam and the Epic Games Store on August 12, 2022. == Reception == Spider-Man received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game received praise for its gameplay, graphics, narrative, and characterization, but was criticized for its familiar open-world tropes and lack of innovation. Critics called Spider-Man one of the greatest superhero games ever made. VentureBeat called it "the best Spider-Man game ... and one of the best super hero games ever", while Game Informer wrote, "Like Batman: Arkham Asylum before it, Spider-Man raises the bar for one of the world's most beloved heroes".Reviewers praised the gameplay mechanics; the web-swinging traversal, in particular, received unanimous acclaim. EGMNOW said it was a more streamlined version of the physics-based system used in Spider-Man 2 (2004), while Game Revolution praised the way it conveyed speed and movement. Game Informer said web-swinging was so much fun that they never used the game's fast-travel system. PC Gamer found that the mouse and keyboard controls on Windows were comparable—and, in some cases, superior—to the PlayStation controller.The combat was praised for its speed and fluidity while presenting a range of gadgetry and environmental options to execute attacks. Game Informer highlighted its efficient use of the environment, while Game Revolution applauded the combat as some of the best they had experienced in a game. IGN found that after gaining access to more abilities, combat allowed for an array of improvization. EGMNOW wrote that the combat offered many different options, but had little depth. They noted that their only gripe was that they felt using the in-game gadget-select menu disrupted the game's flow. EGMNOW and GameSpot compared the movement system with the Batman: Arkham series; the latter wrote that the inspired combat "suitably characterizes Spidey's acrobatic nature". USGamer, however, said the Arkham comparisons were unfair and that the extent and capabilities of the gadgets on offer made it unique from the Arkham series, as well as other Spider-Man games. They disliked only the auto-lock system for making it difficult in larger enemy groups to hit the intended target. IGN wrote that Spider-Man's stealth scenarios perfectly highlighted Spider-Man's talents—especially his love for designing gadgets—saying that there was a "methodical thrill" in stalking enemies. EGMNOW said that while the stealth options were "a bit shallow", they were "never unpleasant and rarely mandatory".IGN praised the "gorgeous" skyscrapers and wrote that "swinging around at dusk as the calm oranges of the setting sun hit the reflective glass ... evoked some of the most calming, zen-like gameplay sessions I've experienced in a while". They found that while the faces of the main characters were well animated, those of minor characters were often unimpressive. GamesRadar+ called it a "lovely looking game" and said, "It's rare to see something this big and detailed consistently look so good, with the very final story moments, in particular, some of the most spectacular looking stuff I've seen in a while".The story received positive reviews. USGamer said it was the best aspect of Spider-Man and generally praised the handling of the cast. GamesRadar+ described the characters as "being voiced and performed with a depth and charisma I wasn't expecting". Game Revolution noted it presents many familiar tropes, but featured enough new ideas to keep things interesting. IGN wrote that despite having a moderately slow start, the story "consistently delivers that sense of weight and impact". They praised the focus on Peter Parker and highlighted voice actor Yuri Lowenthal for having "an emotional honesty" in this version of Spider-Man that made it one of their favorite portrayals of the character. Similarly, EGMNOW praised the game's characterization and understanding of Peter, which they found was better than almost any comic adaptation, and commended the supporting cast for having "crystal-clear" motivations and acting "as a foil or mirror for [Peter's] altruistic approach to heroism". Some critics appreciated Insomniac's decision not to portray an origin story in the game. EGMNOW was disappointed that the side missions were not of the same quality as the main story quests; VideoGamer.com wrote that many of the side missions felt unnecessary in the overarching plot.IGN wrote that the boss fights were "big and exciting ... full of tense action"; they criticized a few, however, for feeling simplistic and said that because of their focus during the beginning and end of the story, there were large portions in the middle where boss fights were noticeably absent. GameSpot praised the ability to use different suit powers independently from their original outfits. Game Informer said the stealth sections that include the ability to play as Mary Jane Watson and Miles Morales "bring variety in fun ways, including solid stealth mechanics and clever puzzles". GameSpot said that while they felt the mechanics were not particularly demanding, they thought the segments featured "some memorably tense scenarios". In contrast, VideoGamer.com described them as "a bit hit-and-miss ... and a bit grating at times".The game world received criticism that focused on Spider-Man's inability to innovate as an open-world game, instead relying on familiar and repetitive tropes found in other free-roaming titles. Game Revolution disliked the way many of the side activities became monotonous after a short time and criticized the lack of variety in the collectibles quests. EGMNOW wrote that they were more tolerant than most for collectibles and side-content but thought there was still too much of it in Spider-Man. Reviewers were disappointed with the game's inclusion of towers that reveal portions of the map and identify waypoints, which had become standard features in a number of earlier open-world games. === Sales === Spider-Man sold 3.3 million units—including those bundled with the PS4 console—in its first three days of release, making it the fastest-selling first-party video game release in Sony's history, narrowly beating God of War's 3.1 million. USA Today estimated the game made at least $198 million during this period, surpassing the $117 million North American opening-weekend box office take of the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming, though units sold with the console would likely inflate this figure. According to sales projections by The NPD Group, Spider-Man's release-month sales were 37% higher than the combined release-month sales of all Spider-Man games released since the group began tracking figures in 1995. By November 2018, it became the fastest-selling superhero game in the U.S.; by July 2019, it had become the best-selling.In the United Kingdom, Spider-Man became the fastest-selling game of 2018 in terms of physical units, overtaking Far Cry 5—which was released on three other platforms and itself had sold double the number of units as God of War. It was also the fastest-selling Marvel-branded game, beating Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013) by a wide margin, and the fastest-selling individual format game since 2017's Call of Duty: WWII. It sold less than the fastest-selling superhero game of this generation, Batman: Arkham Knight (2015), which was released on more platforms. Figures exclude digital sales in the UK. Spider-Man remained the top-selling video game for three consecutive weeks until it was replaced by the multiplatform title FIFA 19. It was the second best-selling game of September, finishing behind FIFA 19—which had only been on sale for two days—and exceeded the first-month sales of PS4 exclusives Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (44% increase), Horizon Zero Dawn (94%), and God of War (138%). It remained in the top-ten-selling games until January 3, 2019, lasting 13 weeks.In Japan, approximately 125,154 physical units were sold during its first week, becoming the top-selling game of any format, and by its third week it retained that position, selling a cumulative total of 244,051 units. The game also became one of the best-selling Western-developed PS4 titles there, being surpassed only by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Minecraft, and the best-selling Western-developed, Sony-funded title since 1998's Crash Bandicoot: Warped for the PlayStation. Spider-Man had sold over 9 million physical and digital units worldwide by November 2018, increasing to 13.2 million units by August 2019.The Marvel's Spider-Man series has sold over 33 million units by May 2022. === Accolades and recognition === Spider-Man appeared on several lists of the top video games of 2018, including first place by Wired, second place by Time, third place by Push Square and Zero Punctuation, fifth place by EGM, ninth place by Polygon, and tenth place by The Daily Telegraph. Shacknews and The Verge named it "Game of the Year" and Eurogamer listed it as one of the top-30 games of the year. A poll of 128 Japanese game developers by Famitsu magazine named Spider-Man as their game of the year. In 2019, GamesRadar+ listed it as the seventy-fifth best game of the decade. == Legacy == === Sequels === An additional game centered on Miles Morales, titled Spider-Man: Miles Morales, was announced in June 2020 and released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 worldwide on November 12, 2020; it was released for Windows on November 18, 2022. The story takes place roughly a year after the first game's conclusion, with players controlling Morales, as New York City's only Spider-Man while Peter has travelled to Symkaria as a photographer to cover an ongoing civil war.Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was announced in September 2021 and is scheduled to be released in 2023 for PlayStation 5. Intihar and Smith will return as creative director and game director, respectively. Lowenthal and Jeter reprise their roles as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, with Tony Todd voicing the character Venom. === Related Marvel games === Alongside Spider-Man 2, Insomniac Games also announced a standalone game titled Marvel's Wolverine, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and also in development for PlayStation 5. It is intended to share continuity with the Spider-Man games, with the game being co-directed by Brian Horton and Cameron Christian, the creative director and game director of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, respectively. == Notes == == References == === Citations === === Works cited === == External links == Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC page: MS-M, MS-MR Insomiac Games page: MS-M, MS-MR Nixxes Software BV page (MS-MR) Spider-Man at IMDb

PS4

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Action-adventure

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fourth main entry in the Uncharted series. Set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, players control Nathan Drake, a former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother Samuel. With Nathan's longtime partner, Victor Sullivan, they search for clues to the location of Henry Avery's long-lost treasure. A Thief's End is played from a third-person perspective, and incorporates platformer elements. Players solve puzzles and use firearms, melee combat, and stealth to combat enemies. In the online multiplayer mode, up to ten players engage in co-operative and competitive modes. Development of Uncharted 4 began in 2011, soon after the release of Uncharted 3. It was led by creative director Amy Hennig and game director Justin Richmond. Development was hampered in 2014 due to Hennig and Richmond's departure from Naughty Dog; they were replaced by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley. The team sought to incorporate elements of open-world gameplay, with larger levels to encourage free-roaming exploration and combat. The relationship between Nathan and Elena was central, and Naughty Dog attempted to humanize them more than in previous games. A Thief's End was released in May 2016 for the PlayStation 4. It was the first Naughty Dog game developed specifically for the PlayStation 4. The team took advantage of the hardware to process larger dynamic environments. Following its announcement in November 2013, A Thief's End was widely anticipated. The game was acclaimed by critics, praising its gameplay, narrative, emotional depth, visuals, and multiplayer. Several reviewers found the game a worthy conclusion to Nathan's story. Considered one of the greatest video games ever made, it won year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, critics, and award ceremonies. With over 15 million copies sold, it is the highest-selling Uncharted game and one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. A standalone expansion, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, was released in 2017. A remastered version, alongside The Lost Legacy as part of the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, was released in January 2022 for PlayStation 5 and October 2022 for Windows. == Gameplay == Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, with platforming elements. Players traverse several environments, moving through locations including towns, buildings, and wilderness to advance through the game's story. Players use firearms, melee combat, and stealth to combat hostile enemies. For most of the game, players control Nathan Drake—a treasure hunter who is physically adept and can jump, sprint, climb, swim, scale narrow ledges and walls, swing with a rope, use a grappling hook and perform other acrobatic actions. Players also drive vehicles during some gameplay segments. In combat, players can use long-ranged weapons, such as rifles and shotguns, and short-barreled guns such as pistols and revolvers; handheld explosives such as grenades and dynamite are also available. The game's melee combat system was also reworked to avoid the presence of quick time events. The grappling hook allows players to leap over gaps, often giving them a tactical advantage in combat. Though players can attack enemies directly, they have the option to use stealth tactics to attack undetected or sneak by them. While the game is linear, environments feature multiple paths for players to explore; maps are significantly larger than earlier entries in the series.The game features an artificial intelligence system in which hostile enemies react to any combat situation they are placed in; they respond to players' actions, coordinate tactics, and cooperate with each other. Players' companions are also controlled by artificial intelligence. The game introduces a dialogue tree, allowing players to decide the outcome of some conversations, though it does not affect the story's progression. Extra visual filters and modes, such as a zero-gravity mode, bullet time gameplay, and a cel-shaded art style, can be unlocked by using points players collected in the main game. === Multiplayer === The game's online multiplayer allows up to ten players to engage in competitive gameplay in recreations of multiple single-player settings. Players control different characters from the series, and are tasked to defeat their opponents. The game features five multiplayer game types: Command, in which players capture sites to attain points; Ranked and Team Deathmatch, which are deathmatch game types where players kill their opponents; Plunder, a capture the flag game mode in which players seek the idol; and Trials, where players cooperate to defeat non-player characters. Treasures can be found in all maps, which can be used to purchase items and weapons. Multiplayer features "Mysticals"—supernatural power-ups that boost players' ability; for example, the "Wrath of El Dorado" damages all opponents standing next to it, while the "Cintamani Stone" can heal both players and their teammates. Companions, known as Sidekicks, can be summoned to assist players, and have different functions: Hunters immobilize their closest opponent for an easier kill, Saviors provide medical support and ammunition to players, Snipers defend locations with a sniper rifle, and Brutes attack enemies using a heavy machine gun. A cooperative survival mode, released in December 2016, features three players fighting against waves of enemies that continually increase in difficulty. == Synopsis == === Characters === The main character of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is Nathan "Nate" Drake (Nolan North), a veteran adventurer and explorer who, following the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011), has retired from fortune hunting alongside his wife Elena Fisher (Emily Rose), a journalist, to a more normal life, and taken up employment with a salvage company in New Orleans. The game introduces Samuel "Sam" Drake (Troy Baker), Nate's older brother, who was presumed dead. Drawn back into his old life of adventure by his brother, Nathan is aided by his long-term friend, fellow adventurer, mentor and father figure Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Richard McGonagle). Their journey to find and recover the long-lost treasure of pirate Henry Avery brings them into conflict with wealthy and dangerous businessman and treasure hunter Rafe Adler (Warren Kole), his partner Nadine Ross (Laura Bailey) who runs the private mercenary group Shoreline, and drug lord Hector Alcazar (Robin Atkin Downes). The child versions of Nate and Sam are portrayed by Britain Dalton and Chase Austin, respectively. === Plot === Several years before the events of the first game, Nate and Sam hunt for the treasure of pirate Henry Avery, who plundered a fortune during the 1695 Gunsway heist. Alongside Rafe, the Drake brothers infiltrate a Panamanian jail to access the former cell of Avery's first mate, where Nate discovers a hollow St. Dismas idol. When the prison warden who aided them demands a cut, Rafe impulsively kills him, triggering a frantic escape. Nate and Rafe successfully escape, but Sam is shot by guards and presumed dead. Fifteen years later, following the events of the previous game, Nate has retired in New Orleans with his wife Elena but misses the excitement of his old life. He is visited by Sam, who survived the gunshots and has spent the intervening time incarcerated. He explains that he escaped with drug lord Hector Alcazar, who demands that Sam find Avery's treasure or be killed. Nate agrees to help Sam, lying to Elena that he has accepted a salvaging job in Malaysia which he had refused. Aided by Sully, the Drakes steal a duplicate Dismas idol from an illegal auction in Italy, bringing them into conflict with South African mercenary boss Nadine Ross and her employer, Rafe, who is still searching for Avery's treasure. A map inside the idol leads the Drakes to St. Dismas' cathedral in the Scottish Highlands. There, they discover a hidden temple and a map highlighting King's Bay in Madagascar. In King's Bay, the Drakes and Sully learn that Avery, Thomas Tew, and ten other pirate captains pooled their treasures. Following clues to a tower in the city, Nate uncovers a map to Libertalia, a fabled pirate utopia founded by the other captains. The group returns to their hotel to find Elena waiting. Upset at Nate's deception and the appearance of Sam, whom Nate had never mentioned, Elena leaves. Nate sends Sully after her. The Drakes follow the map to an island and discover Libertalia. They find evidence of a civil war; the founders stole the city's treasure and moved it across the island to New Devon, an extravagant and well-fortified town built for them. The brothers are cornered by Rafe, who reveals that he released Sam from jail two years ago and that Sam's Alcazar story is a lie, he actually double-crossed Rafe to resume the search with Nate. Deciding that he needs Sam, Rafe prepares to shoot Nate; Sam shields him, but Nate is knocked off a cliff and falls unconscious. Elena rescues Nate, who reveals his past: as teenagers, he and Sam discovered that their mother, a brilliant historian, was researching Libertalia. The boys, after nearly being caught by cops due to breaking into the house of the person associated with their mother, decided to start new lives by changing their surname to Drake to honor their mother's theory about Francis Drake's descendants. In New Devon, Nate and Elena learn that Libertalia descended into conflict over the treasure. Tew and Avery poisoned the other founders and absconded with the hoard, but Tew betrayed Avery. The group rescues Sam and convinces him to escape with them, but he soon decides to pursue the treasure. Following Sam's trail, Nate finds Avery's treasure-laden ship in a cavern. Having collected a large amount of treasure, Nadine refuses to risk more of Avery's traps, but Rafe coerces her by bribing her men. Aboard the ship, Sam triggers a trap, starting a fire and pinning him beneath rubble. Nate confronts Rafe and Nadine in the ship hold, where the skeletons of Avery and Tew lie, having killed each other over the treasure. Nadine betrays Rafe and leaves him with Nate and Sam to die. Rafe challenges Nate to a sword fight. Nate drops a bundle of treasure on Rafe, killing him, and frees Sam. The pair return to Sully's plane, and the group escapes. Sam and Sully team up for a new job while Nate and Elena return home. Elena explains that Sam recovered some of the gold and gave it to her. Realizing that they both need adventure in their lives, she buys the salvage company for which Nate worked, installing Nate as the owner, and plans to revive her old exploration show. Years later, Nate and Elena have become successful salvagers. After their teenage daughter Cassie (Kaitlyn Dever) discovers relics from their adventures, Nate decides to tell her their story. == Development == Naughty Dog began developing Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in 2011, following the release of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. The developer had split into two teams in 2009, to develop Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us concurrently; the former team, led by creative director Amy Hennig and game director Justin Richmond, began preliminary work on Uncharted 4 in November 2011. Hennig and Richmond led development for several years until they departed the company in March 2014. Shortly after, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley were working on the game as creative director and game director, respectively; Druckmann and Straley had previously led the development of The Last of Us. Initial reports claimed that Hennig was "forced out" of Naughty Dog by Druckmann and Straley, though co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra later denied this. After taking over development, Druckmann and Straley scrapped about "eight months of [Hennig's] story". They faced great difficulty after Hennig's departure, due to the more limited development time and significant story changes.Druckmann co-wrote the story alongside Josh Scherr. Tom Bissell and Ryan M. James also provided additional writing on the game, particularly contributing to companion, enemy, and multiplayer dialogue; Bissell and James also performed the game's historical research. The writers challenged themselves to "tell a meaningful human story with complex relationships ... in this more lighthearted drama". The narrative pacing of the game was seen as a benchmark for several of its environments and gameplay beats. Despite adding some nonlinear gameplay allowing freedom and player decisions, the writers wanted to tell a specific story and explore specific emotional moments, avoiding features such as multiple endings. The game explores the theme of family: both Nathan's surrogate family in Elena and Sully, and his blood family in Sam.The relationship between Nathan and Elena was a central focus of the game's development, as Naughty Dog attempted to humanize the former more than in previous games. The team considered Nathan as a reflection of their own mentalities; as they have grown older and matured, Nathan has also matured in age and wisdom. The game's actors regularly contributed to the development of the characters; Druckmann found that the actors were more familiar with the character motivations, and took their advice while writing. Straley wanted to explore character relationships deeper than previous Uncharted games, taking inspiration from the story of The Last of Us. The announcement of Laura Bailey, a white actress, portraying the character of Nadine Ross, who is of Black South African descent, led to some backlash. Druckmann explained that when the character was conceived, her ethnicity was not yet determined; Bailey was chosen from the audition of casting calls from actors of several heritages. Druckmann also noted that a Caucasian character in the game is voiced by a black voice actor.Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was Naughty Dog's first original game developed for the PlayStation 4, having re-released The Last of Us for the console as The Last of Us Remastered in July 2014. Remastered allowed the team to become accustomed to the architecture, having previously suffered great difficulties switching from PlayStation 2 hardware to PlayStation 3 during development of Drake's Fortune. The game's texture resolution is at least four times larger than Uncharted 3's. While the team initially aimed for the entire game to run at 60 frames-per-second, restrictions in the environment limited the single-player mode to 30 frames-per-second; the multiplayer mode runs at 60 frames per second.For the game's environment sounds, the team performed outdoor recording; they ensured the environments "felt alive but not overbuilt" by introducing several ambient changes as players progress through the locations. The variation of in-game locations introduced several challenges for the team, as they attempted to make each location very different for players to feel as if "they were being propelled to different locations across the world". The game also uses quadraphonic sound, which senior sound designer Jeremy Rogers described as more "intricate" than previous games, due to availability of memory while developing Uncharted 4. The game's original score was written by Henry Jackman, with additional music by Alex Belcher, replacing former series composer Greg Edmonson. == Release and promotion == Uncharted 4 was announced on November 14, 2013, alongside its debut trailer. The full title was unveiled on June 9 at Sony's E3 2014 press conference. The announcement ignited widespread anticipation within the gaming industry, which journalists owed to Naughty Dog's reputation and the series' significance. The game missed its original projected release date of late 2015, pushed several times to May 10, 2016 for further polishing. Naughty Dog announced single-player downloadable content, due to the success of The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014). Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a stand-alone expansion, was released in August 2017 for PlayStation 4, featuring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross. Uncharted 4's multiplayer received several updates and free downloadable content after release, including Lost Treasures in June 2016, followed by Bounty Hunters in September, Survival in December, and King of the Hill in March 2017.To promote pre-order sales, Naughty Dog collaborated with several retailers to provide special editions of the game with extra content. The game received several trailers, which debuted at events such as Paris Games Week, The Game Awards, and PlayStation Experience, as well as preceding select screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and 10 Cloverfield Lane (both 2016). After the release of the game's story trailer, Ubisoft's Aymar Azaïzia noticed the use of a piece of art from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013); Naughty Dog replaced the art in a new version of the trailer, and released a statement apologizing to Ubisoft.In May 2021, it was reported that the game would be released for Windows, according to an investor presentation by Sony. In September, a remastered version of the game for PlayStation 5 and Windows was announced as part of the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, with The Lost Legacy. It was released for PlayStation 5 on January 28, 2022; the Windows version, developed in collaboration with Iron Galaxy, was released on October 19, 2022. Owners of either original games on PlayStation 4 can upgrade on PlayStation 5 for US$10 or €10. Purchasing or upgrading the game in some regions through the PlayStation Store granted a voucher code for a ticket to the film Uncharted (2022). A launch trailer for Legacy of Thieves Collection was released on January 21, 2022. == Reception == === Critical response === Uncharted 4: A Thief's End received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic. It is the joint sixth-highest rated PlayStation 4 game on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the gameplay mechanics, narrative, emotional depth, visual design, and the multiplayer mode. IGN's Lucy O'Brien wrote that the game is "a remarkable achievement in blockbuster storytelling and graphical beauty"; GameSpot's Mike Mahardy similarly named it a "breathtaking marvel of a game". GamesTM considered it "a masterful piece of storytelling", and Electronic Gaming Monthly's Nick Plessas declared it "a true work of art".Giant Bomb's Dan Ryckert considered the game's graphics to be the best on any console, particularly praising the character details and open environments. Steven Hansen of Destructoid described the art direction as "stunning", while Andrew Reiner of Game Informer described the game as "a work of art". GamesRadar's Leon Hurley praised the minute graphical details that made the game's characters feel more alive. GameSpot's Mahardy noted that the game's cinematography, both in gameplay and during cutscenes, "amplifies the wonder of this gorgeous world". The Escapist's Liz Finnegan described the game as "painfully beautiful", and Sam Loveridge of Digital Spy lauded Naughty Dog's ability to create "cleverly crafted stunning vistas".Griffin McElroy of Polygon felt that the game's narrative was nuanced in contrast to its predecessors. Destructoid's Hansen praised the game's writers for bringing the narrative to a cohesive conclusion. Game Informer's Reiner particularly appreciated the writing for Henry Avery, lauding the writers for turning his secrets into "tantalizing story material"; conversely, Ars Technica's Kyle Orland found that the enthusiasm of the characters "fails to be infectious for the player". Mahardy of GameSpot wrote that the game's set pieces are the best in the series and among the best in video gaming. Finnegan of The Escapist felt that the "action never feels unnaturally halted in order to relay relevant pieces of the story". Plessas of Electronic Gaming Monthly found enjoyment in the game's subtler interactions more than the overall narrative. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club lauded the game's dramatic moments. Steven Burns of VideoGamer.com felt that, while the game's story was better than its predecessors, it had too much padding that slowed it down. The game's characters and relationships received particular praise. Hansen of Destructoid felt that the character relationships were not overshadowed by the game's action, particularly praising the performance of Emily Rose as Elena for "perfectly and subtly conveying the intricacies of her relationship". Polygon's McElroy felt that the chemistry between the two characters was at its best in Uncharted 4. Giant Bomb's Ryckert echoed this sentiment, adding that the conversations between Nathan and Sam Drake felt "more natural than hammy". GameSpot's Mahardy wrote that the additional details revealed about Nathan are "painfully human", helping to bring the characters to life. Hurley of GamesRadar felt that the addition of Sam and his backstory crowded the narrative and that removing the character would have improved the game. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku considered Sam to be "more of a plot device for others to react to than a compelling character on his own".Mahardy of GameSpot wrote that the game's action "flows seamlessly alongside its narrative", praising the addition of stealth combat and its similarity to The Last of Us. Giant Bomb's Ryckert felt that the player's companions were more fleshed-out than in previous entries. Tom Hoggins of The Telegraph described the game's firearm gameplay as "punchy and pleasing", appreciating the fast pace of combat scenarios. Destructoid's Hansen described the game's puzzles as "fluid and dynamic", particularly lauding the addition of the grappling hook. Game Informer's Reiner echoed the latter sentiment, noting that the grappling hook enhances exploration and combat, but felt that the game's set pieces delivered less exciting moments than in previous games.Game Informer's Reiner wrote that the game's "environments are so vast that they take on the illusion of open worlds". IGN's O'Brien found the addition of choices in the game refreshing. Hoggins of The Telegraph felt that the game's open environments make the player feel like "more of an adventurer". Loveridge of Digital Spy appreciated the additional freedom granted by the new combat options, allowing the player to map their tactics in advance. Hurley of GamesRadar praised the improved gameplay, but felt that some nonlinear moments such as optional interactions and dialogue were "a little overcooked" in comparison to previous entries. Keith Stuart of The Guardian found the game's linearity to be immersion-breaking, particularly criticizing the repetition in traversal. USgamer's Mike Williams felt that the open driving level "robs the game of its pacing" despite granting the feeling of a larger scale.Critics shared generally positive reviews for Uncharted 4's multiplayer component but felt that the single-player mode took precedence. O'Brien of IGN wrote that the multiplayer game types "embody the series' most enjoyable qualities", while Hurley of GamesRadar felt that it benefited from the new mechanics introduced in the single-player story. Polygon's McElroy considered the multiplayer mode "extremely easy to pick up on", and Loveridge of Digital Spy found the multiplayer approachable and enjoyable. Game Informer's Reiner described the multiplayer combat as "fevered" and exciting, but encountered issues with loading matches. Giant Bomb's Ryckert considered the multiplayer "basic", noting that players are unlikely to return for long. === Sales === Within seven days of its release, Uncharted 4 sold over 2.7 million units, making it the fastest-selling first-party PlayStation 4 game. Three weeks after its release, the game had grossed over $56 million in digital sales. By December 2016, the game had sold 8.7 million copies, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. By May 2019, the game had sold over 15 million copies. In the United States, it was the best-selling retail game in May 2016. In the United Kingdom, the game topped the charts, achieving the strongest debut of the series with a 66% increase in first-week sales over Uncharted 3. In Japan, the game topped the charts in its first week, with over 128,000 units sold; it remained atop the charts the following week, with an additional 21,000 units sold. === Accolades === Following its previews at E3, Uncharted 4 was nominated for numerous awards, including Best PlayStation Game from several gaming publications. After its release, the game garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with particular praise for its gameplay mechanics, narrative, emotional depth, visual design, and multiplayer. At The Game Awards 2016, Uncharted 4 was nominated for eight awards, winning two: Best Narrative and Best Performance for North. The game received ten nominations at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards and four awards, including Adventure Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story. It was nominated for four awards at the 6th Annual New York Video Game Awards and seven at the 17th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.The game won Outstanding Character Animation in a Video Game at the 44th Annie Awards, Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project at the 15th Visual Effects Society Awards, and Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing at the 67th Writers Guild of America Awards. At the 2017 SXSW Gaming Awards, the game won five awards out of eight nominations, including Video Game of the Year, Excellence in Narrative, and Most Memorable Character. The game received eight nominations at the 13th British Academy Games Awards, ultimately winning Best Game. == In other media == The 2022 Uncharted film takes inspiration from A Thief's End. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

PS4

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Action role-playing

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 2015 action role-playing game developed and published by CD Projekt. It is the sequel to the 2011 game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the third game in The Witcher video game series, played in an open world with a third-person perspective. The games follow the The Witcher series of fantasy novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. The game takes place in a fictional fantasy world based on Slavic mythology. Players control Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer for hire known as a Witcher, and search for his adopted daughter, who is on the run from the otherworldly Wild Hunt. Players battle the game's many dangers with weapons and magic, interact with non-player characters, and complete quests to acquire experience points and gold, which are used to increase Geralt's abilities and purchase equipment. The game's story has three possible endings, determined by the player's choices at key points in the narrative. Development began in 2011 and lasted for three and a half years. Central and Northern European cultures formed the basis of the game's world. The game was developed using the REDengine 3, which enabled CD Projekt to create a complex story without compromising its open world. The music was primarily composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz and performed by the Brandenburg State Orchestra. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2015, with a Nintendo Switch version released in October 2019, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions titled The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition which is planned for release in December 2022. The game received critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, narrative, world design, combat, and visuals, although it received minor criticism due to technical issues. It holds more than 200 game of the year awards (until The Last of Us 2 (2020) with 300) and has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Two expansions were also released to critical acclaim: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. A Game of the Year edition was released in August 2016, with the base game, expansions and all downloadable content included. The game shipped over 40 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. == Gameplay == The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing game with a third-person perspective. Players control Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer known as a Witcher. Geralt walks, runs, rolls and dodges, and (for the first time in the series) jumps, climbs and swims. He has a variety of weapons, including bombs, a crossbow and two swords (one steel and one silver). The steel sword is used primarily to kill humans while the silver sword is more effective against creatures and monsters. Players can draw out, switch and sheathe their swords at will. There are two modes of melee attack; light attacks are fast but weak, and heavy attacks are slow but strong. Players can block and counter enemy attacks with their swords. Swords have limited endurance and require regular repair. In addition to physical attacks, Geralt has five magical signs at his disposal: Aard, Axii, Igni, Yrden and Quen. Aard prompts Geralt to unleash a telekinetic blast, Axii confuses enemies, Igni burns them, Yrden slows them down and Quen offers players a temporary, protective shield. The signs use stamina, and cannot be used indefinitely. Players can use mutagens to increase Geralt's magic power. Geralt loses health when attacked by enemies, although wearing armour can help reduce health loss. Health is restored with meditation or consumables, such as food and potions. Players occasionally control Ciri, Geralt's adoptive daughter who can teleport short distances.The game has responsive, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and dynamic environments. The day-night cycle influences some monsters; a werewolf becomes powerful during the night of a full moon. Players can learn about their enemies and prepare for combat by reading the in-game bestiary. When they kill an enemy, they can loot its corpse for valuables. Geralt's witcher sense enables players to find objects of interest, including items that can be collected or scavenged. Items are stored in the inventory, which can be expanded by purchasing upgrades. Players can sell items to vendors or use them to craft potions and bombs. They can visit blacksmiths to craft new weapons and armorers to craft new armour with what they have gathered. The price of an item and the cost of crafting it depend on a region's local economy. Players earn experience points by completing quests. When a player earns enough experience, Geralt's level increases and the player receives ability points. These points may be used on four skill trees: combat, signs, alchemy and general. Combat upgrades enhance Geralt's attacks and unlock new fighting techniques; signs upgrades enable him to use magic more efficiently, and alchemy upgrades improve crafting abilities. General upgrades have a variety of functions, from raising Geralt's vitality to increasing crossbow damage.The game focuses on narrative and has a dialogue tree which allows players to choose how to respond to non-player characters. Geralt must make decisions which change the state of the world and lead to 36 possible endings, affecting the lives of in-game characters. He can have a romantic relationship with some of the game's female characters by completing certain quests. In addition to the main quests, books offer more information on the game's world. Players can begin side quests after visiting a town's noticeboard. These side missions include Witcher Contracts (elaborate missions requiring players to hunt monsters) and Treasure Hunt quests, which reward players with top-tier weapons or armour. The game's open world is divided into several regions. Geralt can explore each region on foot or by transportation, such as a boat. Roach, his horse, may be summoned at will. Players can kill enemies with their sword while riding Roach, but an enemy presence may frighten the horse and unseat Geralt. Points of interest may be found on the map, and players receive experience points after completing mini-missions in these regions. Players can discover Places of Power for additional ability points. Other activities include horse racing, boxing and card playing; the card-playing mechanic was later expanded into a standalone game, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. == Synopsis == === Setting === The game is set in the Continent, a fictional fantasy world based on Slavonic mythology. It is surrounded by parallel dimensions and extra-dimensional worlds. Humans, elves, dwarves, monsters and other creatures co-exist on the Continent, but non-humans are often persecuted for their differences. The Continent is caught up in a war between the empire of Nilfgaard—led by Emperor Emhyr var Emreis (Charles Dance), who invaded the Northern Kingdoms—and Redania, ruled by King Radovid V. Several locations appear, including the free city of Novigrad, the Redanian city of Oxenfurt, the no man's land of Velen, the city of Vizima (former capital of the recently conquered Temeria), the Skellige islands (home to several Norse-Gaels Viking clans) and the witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen.The main character is the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle), a monster hunter trained since childhood in combat, tracking, alchemy and magic, and made stronger, faster and resistant to toxins by mutagens. He is aided by his lover, the powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Denise Gough), his former love interest Triss Merigold (Jaimi Barbakoff), the bard Dandelion (John Schwab), the dwarf warrior Zoltan Chivay (Alexander Morton), and Geralt's Witcher mentor Vesemir (William Roberts). Geralt is spurred into action by the reappearance of his and Yennefer's adopted daughter, Ciri (Jo Wyatt). Ciri is a Source, born with innate (and potentially vast) magical abilities; after the apparent death of her parents, she was trained as a witcher while Yennefer taught her magic. Ciri disappeared years before to escape the Wild Hunt, a group of spectral warriors led by the King of the Wild Hunt: the elf Eredin, from a parallel dimension. === Plot === Geralt and his mentor Vesemir arrive at the town of White Orchard after receiving a letter from Geralt's long-lost lover Yennefer. After defeating a griffin for the local Nilfgaardian garrison, Geralt accompanies Yennefer to the city of Vizima, where they meet with Emperor Emhyr. Emhyr orders Geralt to find Ciri, who is Emhyr's biological, and Geralt's adopted daughter. Ciri is a Child of the Elder Blood, the last heir to an ancient Elven bloodline that grants her the power to manipulate time and space, and is being relentlessly stalked by the enigmatic Wild Hunt. Geralt learns of three places Ciri was recently seen: the war-ravaged swamp province of Velen, the free city-state of Novigrad, and the Skellige Isles. In Velen, Geralt tracks Ciri to the fortress of the Bloody Baron, a warlord who recently took over the province. The Baron demands that Geralt find his missing wife and daughter in exchange for information about Ciri. Geralt learns that the Baron drove his own family away with his drunken rages; while his daughter fled to Oxenfurt, his wife Anna became a servant of the Crones, three malicious witches that watch over Velen. He also discovers that Ciri was briefly captured by the Crones, but escaped to the Baron's stronghold before continuing on to Novigrad. At Novigrad, Geralt reunites with his former lover Triss Merigold, who has gone underground to escape persecution by the Church of the Eternal Fire. He learns that Ciri and his old friend Dandelion ran afoul of Novigrad's powerful crime bosses while seeking to break a curse related to a mysterious phylactery. With the help of Triss and several old acquaintances, Geralt rescues Dandelion, who tells him that Ciri teleported to Skellige to escape pursuit by guards. Geralt sails to Skellige and reunites with Yennefer, who is investigating a magical explosion near where Ciri was last seen. They discover that Ciri visited the island of Lofoten, but when the Wild Hunt attacked again, fled in a boat with an unidentified elf. When the boat returned to shore, its only occupant was Uma, a deformed creature Geralt previously saw living with the Bloody Baron. Deducing that Uma was the victim of the curse Ciri tried to lift in Novigrad, Geralt collects Uma in Velen and takes him to the nearly abandoned witcher school at Kaer Morhen. Working with Yennefer and his fellow witchers, Geralt breaks the curse and restores Uma's true identity: Avallac'h, Ciri's teacher and the elf seen with her on her travels. Avallac'h tells Geralt that he placed Ciri in an enchanted sleep on the Isle of Mists to keep her temporarily safe from the Wild Hunt. Geralt finds Ciri on the Isle of Mists and learns from her that Eredin, the leader of the Wild Hunt, wants her Elder Blood powers to save his homeworld from a catastrophe known as the White Frost. They return to Kaer Morhen and fortify it against the inevitable arrival of the Hunt. In the battle that ensues, Vesemir is killed, causing Ciri to unleash her uncontrolled power and temporarily send the Hunt into retreat. Realizing that the Hunt will never stop, Ciri and Geralt decide to fight Eredin at a time and place of their choosing. While Triss and Yennefer reform the Lodge of Sorceresses to aid in the fight, Geralt recovers the Sunstone, an artifact that can communicate between worlds. Using the Sunstone, Avallac'h lures Eredin to Skellige, where Geralt defeats him in combat. As he dies, Eredin tells Geralt that Avallac'h has betrayed him, and plans to use Ciri's power for his own ends. As the White Frost begins to encroach on the Continent, Geralt and Yennefer pursue Avallac'h, but find Ciri alive and well. She tells Geralt that Avallac'h is not a traitor, and has only ever intended to fight the White Frost. Thinking back on her relationship with Geralt, Ciri finds the strength to stop the cataclysm; if Geralt patronized and protected her throughout the game, she dies in the attempt, but if he guided her to mature and make her own choices, she survives. The player's choices can lead to several different endings. If Ciri survives after defeating the White Frost and Geralt took her to meet her father, she will become the Empress of Nilfgaard. If Ciri survives but did not meet the emperor, Geralt helps her fake her death, and she becomes a witcher. If Ciri is killed in her confrontation with the White Frost, the story ends with Geralt retrieving her medallion from the last remaining Crone. The player's choices also determine whether Geralt ends up in a romantic relationship with Yennefer, Triss, or neither, and how much of the North is ultimately conquered by Nilfgaard. == Development == Although the game was planned to begin production in 2008, CD Projekt Red's preoccupation with Rise of the White Wolf pushed it back to 2011. The company developed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with a self-funded budget of US$81 million over three-and-a-half years. The project began with 150 employees, eventually growing to over 250 in-house staff. 1,500 people were involved in the production globally. While the game is based on Andrzej Sapkowski's novels, it is not an official continuation of them and Sapkowski's involvement with the game was limited to the creation of its in-game map. The game was localised in 15 languages, with a total of 500 voice actors. The game was scripted concurrently in Polish and English to alleviate difficulty in localisation. According to Side (the company which handled voice casting and recording), the 450,000-word script had 950 speaking roles. The voices were recorded from late 2012 to early 2015. CD Projekt Red wanted the game to be free of any digital rights management (DRM) due to the developer's unsuccessful control of piracy with its predecessor, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, whose DRM also made it run slowly.The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was created with the REDengine 3, CD Projekt Red's proprietary game engine designed for nonlinear role-playing video games set in open world environments, aided by the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles and prepared for use in October 2014. The first play-through indicated to the developers that the open world, despite its content and generation around the quests, seemed empty. As a solution, they added points of interest. The game had 5,000 bugs that December, which (with a launch date of February 2015) necessitated its postponement. Like the previous two Witcher games, players are given a complex story with multiple choices and consequences. Unlike other game engines, REDengine 3 permits a complex storyline without sacrificing virtual world design. The user interface was made more intuitive with grid-based solutions. The camera system was improved to use long shots for battles with multiple enemies and close-ups for more-intimate confrontations. More animations were used for combat sequences than in The Witcher 2, with each lasting less than one second for quick succession. Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and senior game designer Damien Monnier cited Dark Souls and Demon's Souls as influences on Wild Hunt's combat system, and level designer Miles Tost and senior environment artist Jonas Mattsson cited The Legend of Zelda series and Red Dead Redemption as influencing the game's level designs and environments.Months before its release date, the game's economy, crafting, and inventory systems were incomplete and apparently unable to meet the deadline. Senior gameplay designer Matthew Steinke thought of a remedy and drew up a system context diagram. To allocate prices, Steinke wrote a formula based on rate of damage, defence, or healing. Polynomial least squares were used to determine its efficacy, and it was found to eliminate bugs from the system and reduce loading times. Each character was given a unique personality to contrast the fetch-quest system typically used in video games. It was decided early that the writing would be witty, with metaphors and implied meanings. The dialogue was limited to 15 lines, with occasional exceptions, to retain content originality. Player options were written as morally ambiguous, reflecting real life and Andrzej Sapkowski's original Witcher series. Alcoholism, abuse and sexuality, depicted as normal parts of the medieval world, were incorporated into the story for authenticity. Areas of the open world were based on Poland, Amsterdam, and Scandinavia. Objects were modelled by hand.Storylines such as Yennefer imprisoning Geralt on an island and Geralt's covert recruitment to the Wild Hunt were discarded to make the game smaller and avoid splitting it into two parts. The card game Gwent was preceded by other mini-game proposals, including a drinking game, knife throwing, and ice skating. A re-enactment of the Battle of Grunwald was recorded for the sounds of battle, marching, blacksmithing, and the firing of arrows. Recording the knights' voices for post-processing, the speakers wore helmets for an authentic sound. Marcin Przybyłowicz was the game's music director and composer, with additional music contributed by Polish folk band Percival. According to Przybyłowicz, working with Percival was a challenge; he expected an academic approach before learning that most of the group were not formally trained, and much of the music was improvised. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Jaworski of the folk band Żywiołak recorded lute, Renaissance fiddle, bowed gusle, and hurdy-gurdy sections. The score was performed in Frankfurt an der Oder by the Brandenburg State Orchestra, conducted by Bernd Ruf. == Release == The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was announced in 2013, then to be released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One the following year. The release date was later delayed from the third quarter of 2014 to February 2015. After missing its planned release date of 24 February, CD Projekt Red confirmed in April that the game was released to manufacturing. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released worldwide on 19 May 2015. Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and President Bronisław Komorowski visited CD Projekt Red to celebrate the launch. As with the second game, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Bandai Namco Entertainment each handled physical distribution of the game in North America and Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand respectively. In addition to the standard edition, players can also purchase the Collector's Edition, which includes the base game and items such as an artbook, a statue of Geralt fighting against a griffin, and a Witcher medallion. At E3 2019, a port for the Nintendo Switch, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, was announced. It was developed in cooperation with Saber Interactive, and was released on 15 October 2019. The port features slight graphical downgrades to compensate for the Switch's less powerful hardware, but is otherwise identical to existing versions.CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński listed three pillars that he considered integral to marketing: game quality, a "gamer-centric value proposition", and communication with fans. To achieve the second, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was marketed as "Skyrim in a Game of Thrones sauce". The third explained in detail the visual downgrade from earlier promotional footage to the finished product, which Iwiński thought effective. The logo was re-designed to make it less obvious that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a sequel; the number three suggested a claw mark or mask to an audience unfamiliar with the series, while fans would recognise it as the mark of the Wild Hunt. === Downloadable content === The developer studied Witcher forums and websites such as Reddit to predict what players generally desired from downloadable content (DLC). A collection of 16 free DLC was released, as announced before release by the developers. They included cosmetic and additional gameplay content and the New Game Plus mode. CD Projekt Red announced two expansion packs: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Hearts of Stone was released on 13 October 2015, and Blood and Wine on 31 May 2016. Hearts of Stone follows Geralt as he contacts a mysterious entity known as the Man of Glass and an immortal man, Olgierd von Everec. The expansion was critically acclaimed, rated a 9/10 by IGN and GameSpot. The second expansion pack, Blood and Wine, follows Geralt as he travels to Toussaint (a Nilfgaardian duchy untouched by war) to track down a mysterious beast which is terrorizing the region. It was also critically acclaimed, winning the Best RPG category at The Game Awards 2016. A Game of the Year edition, with the base game, both expansions and all DLC, was released on 30 August 2016. === Re-release === The publisher announced a re-release of the game planned for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. The game will be available as a free upgrade to existing owners on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, or to purchase separately. It is expected to include faster loading times, ray tracing, and all previously released downloadable content. In 2021, video game news site Kotaku reported that the game would include content from mods produced by fans; "HalkHogan", creator of a mod that improves the game's textures, announced that the developer had entered talks to include content from "The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project" in the release. CD Projekt Red confirmed to Kotaku that they had entered talks with mod creators, prompting discussion about why the company, which earned $300mil in 2020, sought out community assistance. The release was scheduled for the second half of 2021, but was later delayed to the second quarter of 2022. The game is being developed by Saber Interactive, the developers responsible for the game's Nintendo Switch port. The company confirmed the re-release would feature downloadable content based on the TV series adaptation. The company's lead quest designer stated that players "might be able to wear Geralt's armor inspired by the Netflix series". It was later announced that this content would also be made available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions. On 13 April 2022, CDPR announced that its in-house development team would be taking over the remaining work on the re-release, and that its Q2 2022 release date would be postponed. In May, CDPR announced that the re-release would launch in Q4 2022. In November, a release date of 14 December 2022 was announced. == Reception == === Critical reception === The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt received "universal acclaim" for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions, and "generally favorable reviews" for the Switch version, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics agreed that it was an ambitious action role-playing game which was grand in scale, but marred by technical difficulties and a lack of innovation. GameSpot and Eurogamer gave the game their highest rating. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been considered one of the greatest games of all time.The game world received widespread praise from critics. Kimberly Wallace of Game Informer called it "immersive", and was impressed by its attention to detail. Destructoid's Chris Carter praised its size, which he found enormous and would take players hours to explore. Jonathon Leack, writing for Game Revolution, praised the game's effective use of its large world. Leack wrote that every region had quests and activities for players to try, although he thought that much was filler which extended its length. Tom Senior of GamesRadar praised the open world's variety, describing it as an "exciting realization of the Ronin fantasy". GameTrailers' Daniel Bloodworth praised the game for encouraging exploration; many quests would only become available to players after they met non-playable characters in different parts of the world. Vince Ingenito of IGN and Shaun Prescott of PC Gamer were impressed by the game's scenery and its day-night cycle, with Ingenito saying that it highlighted the game world's authenticity.Its narrative received critical acclaim. Carter praised the cast of characters, which he called unique and interesting. He considered the narrative more involving, with players witnessing key events and making consequential choices. Wallace praised the game's dialogue and its side-quests; each was similar to a short story, and player decisions in the quests would influence the state of the world. She liked the main quest, which added more character to Geralt, and said that the romance options were a significant improvement over its predecessors. However, she was disappointed with the quality of the game's endings. Kevin Van Ord of GameSpot echoed Wallace, noting that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's story had more characterisation for Geralt than the previous games. He welcomed the change, since it gave players emotional connections to the in-game characters. Senior enjoyed the side-quests, calling them "a compilation of dark fantasy short stories" which overshadowed the main quests. Ingenito was disappointed with the main story, saying that there was too much padding and too many dull quests. PC Gamer's Shaun Prescott agreed, saying that the narrative would have felt rote if the side content was not engaging. Van Ord, Wallace and Brett Phipps of VideoGamer.com praised the voice acting, with Wallace calling it the series' best. Arthur Gies from Polygon criticized that some of the female characters are overly sexualized and that there are no people of color in the main game.The game's combat had a generally-positive reception. Bloodworth found Geralt more mobile and agile with the new climbing and swimming mechanic. Carter said that it was significantly streamlined and its predecessors' strategic elements removed, but appreciated its action. Wallace wrote that with a simplified alchemy system, a decent user interface and diverse difficulty settings the combat was more accessible, although she disliked the disruptive weapon-degradation system and unrefined crossbow shooting mechanic. Leack thought the system lacked complexity and criticised its lack of polish, caused by the unreliable lock-on system, camera issues and excessively-long combat animation. Senior noted that some gameplay mechanics, such as rolling and dodging, were inconsistent and made the system feel unfair. Ingenito praised the combat, describing its fluidity as a significant improvement over its predecessors.Other gameplay aspects received mixed reviews. Van Ord praised the game's customisation and upgrade system (which offered players a sense of progression), since it hardened as the story unfolded. Ingenito called its upgrade system deep and flexible, since players have considerable freedom when customising Geralt's skills. Leack disliked the upgrade system, calling it "unexciting". Carter was disappointed with the Witcher Senses, finding it repetitive, but Senior considered them superior to objective markers—the norm for role-playing games. Prescott disliked the user interface for its clumsiness and tedium. Senior found the Gwent card game an addictive minigame.The game was criticised for its technical issues. Carter called its climbing animations stiff, noting that some gameplay bugs would hinder player progress. According to Wallace, the game's load times were too long. Leack noted that the game had a graphic downgrade, and the actual game did not look as good as the 2013 demonstration. Senior, Phipps and Ingenito noted frame rate issues; although Ingenito thought it did not impact the gameplay, Phipps called it a persistent problem which overshadowed many of the game's achievements. === Sales === Before its release, over 1.5 million people pre-ordered the game. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt debuted atop the UK software sales chart in its first week, when it earned 600 percent more than predecessor The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. It was the best-selling video game of the year in the UK, breaking the record held by Battlefield Hardline. It debuted atop the Japanese video-game sales charts, selling 67,385 copies in its first week. Four million copies of the game were sold in its first two weeks of release.By June 2015, over 690,000 players had activated the game through GOG Galaxy. The game sold over six million copies in the next six weeks, and the studio made a profit of $63.3 million in the first half of 2015. In March 2016, CD Projekt Red reported that the game had shipped nearly 10 million copies worldwide. By the end of 2017, the series as a whole had sold over 33 million. By June 2019, that number had risen to over 40 million, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt accounting for over half of that figure.Following the release of the first season of Netflix' television series The Witcher in December 2019, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had a 554% increase in sales that month compared to December 2018. By December 2019, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had sold over 28 million copies worldwide. And by April 2021 it had sold over 30 million copies, while the series as a whole had sold over 50 million. By April 2022, the game had sold 40 million copies. === Awards === The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt received pre-release awards at E3 in 2013 and 2014. It was voted the best role-playing game at the IGN Best of E3 Awards in 2013 and 2014. It won IGN's E3 People's Choice Award in 2013 and 2014, GameSpot's E3 People's Choice Award in 2014, and the Most Wanted Award at the 31st and 32nd Golden Joystick Awards. It was the Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards 2014 in Las Vegas. It received 260 game of the year awards and was the most awarded game of all time until 2021, when it was overtaken by The Last of Us Part II. By August 2016, it had received over 800 awards. On 2020, Gamesradar listed it as the top game of the generation.Its accolades are from several events, including the Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, SXSW Gaming Awards and the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards. The Witcher 3 was recognized as game of the year by IGN, GameSpot, Game Informer and other gaming publications. The game received a Golden Joystick Award for Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design and Best Gaming Moment, and the Game Awards for Best Role-Playing Game and Studio of the Year for CD Projekt Red. It won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Outstanding Technical Achievement and Outstanding Achievement in Story at the D.I.C.E. Awards, and won the Game of the Year and Best Technology awards at the 16th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at MobyGames

PS4

The Last of Us Remastered

Action-adventuresurvival horror

The Last of Us is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective. Players use firearms and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps. In the online multiplayer mode, up to eight players engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay. Development of The Last of Us began in 2009, soon after the release of Naughty Dog's previous game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. For the first time in the company's history, Naughty Dog split into two teams; while one team developed Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, the other half developed The Last of Us. The relationship between Joel and Ellie became the focus, with all other elements developed around it. Actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson portrayed Joel and Ellie, respectively, through voice and motion capture, and assisted creative director Neil Druckmann with the development of the characters and story. The original score was composed and performed by Gustavo Santaolalla. Following its announcement in December 2011, The Last of Us was widely anticipated. It was released for the PlayStation 3 in June 2013. It received critical acclaim, with praise for its narrative, gameplay, visuals, sound design, score, characterization, and depiction of female characters. The Last of Us became one of the best-selling video games, selling over 1.3 million units in its first week and 17 million by April 2018. The game won year-end accolades, including multiple Game of the Year awards, from several gaming publications, critics, and game award ceremonies. It has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Naughty Dog released several downloadable content additions; The Last of Us: Left Behind adds a single-player campaign following Ellie and her best friend Riley. A remastered version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2014, and a remake, The Last of Us Part I, was released in September 2022 for PlayStation 5, and is in development for Windows. The game's success spawned a media franchise, including a comic book in 2013, a live show in 2014, a sequel in 2020, a television adaptation by HBO in 2023, and upcoming tabletop games by CMON and Themeborne. == Gameplay == The Last of Us is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The player traverses post-apocalyptic environments such as towns, buildings, forests, and sewers to advance the story. The player can use firearms, improvised weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. For most of the game, the player takes control of Joel, a man tasked with escorting a young girl, Ellie, across the United States. The player also controls Ellie throughout the game's winter segment, and briefly controls Joel's daughter Sarah in the opening sequence. In combat, the player can use long-range weapons, such as a rifle, a shotgun, and a bow, and short-range weapons such as a handgun and a short-barreled shotgun. The player is able to scavenge limited-use melee weapons, such as pipes and baseball bats, and throw bottles and bricks to distract, stun, or attack enemies. The player can upgrade weapons at workbenches using collected items. Equipment such as health kits, shivs, and Molotov cocktails can be found or crafted using collected items. Attributes such as the health meter and crafting speed can be upgraded by collecting pills and medicinal plants. Health can be recharged by finding edible items or through the use of health kits.Though the player can attack enemies directly, they can also use stealth to attack undetected or sneak by them. "Listen Mode" allows the player to locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness, indicated as outlines visible through walls and objects. In the dynamic cover system, the player can crouch behind obstacles to gain a tactical advantage during combat. The game features periods without combat, often involving conversation between the characters. The player can solve simple puzzles, such as using floating pallets to move Ellie, who is unable to swim, across bodies of water, and using ladders or dumpsters to reach higher areas. Story collectibles, such as notes, maps and comics, can be scavenged and viewed in the backpack menu.The game features an artificial intelligence system by which hostile human enemies react to combat. If enemies discover the player, they may take cover or call for assistance, and can take advantage of the player when they are distracted, out of ammunition, or in a fight. Player companions, such as Ellie, can assist in combat by throwing objects at threats to stun them, announcing the location of unseen enemies, or using a knife and pistol to attack enemies. === Multiplayer === The online multiplayer mode, called Factions, allows up to eight players to engage in competitive gameplay in rearranged versions of multiple single-player settings. The game features three multiplayer game types: Supply Raid and Survivors are both team deathmatches, with the latter excluding the ability to respawn; Interrogation features teams investigating the location of the enemy team's lockbox, and the first to capture said lockbox wins. In every mode, players select a faction—Hunters (a group of hostile survivors) or Fireflies (a revolutionary militia group)—and keep their clan alive by collecting supplies during matches. Each match is equal to one day; by surviving twelve "weeks", players have completed a journey and can re-select their Faction.Players earn "parts" by marking or killing enemies, healing or reviving allies, crafting items, and unlocking the enemy lockbox. Parts can be spent mid-match on weapon upgrades and armor, and are converted to supplies at the end of the match; additional supplies can be scavenged from enemies' bodies. Players also earn points as they play, which can be spent on weapons or skills to create custom loadouts. Players could originally connect the game to their Facebook account, altering clan members' names and faces to match their Facebook friends. Players have the ability to customize their characters with hats, helmets, masks, and emblems. The multiplayer servers for the PlayStation 3 version of the game were shut down on September 3, 2019. == Plot == In 2013, an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus ravages the United States, transforming its human hosts into aggressive creatures known as the Infected. In the suburbs of Austin, Texas, Joel (Troy Baker) flees the chaos with his brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) and daughter Sarah (Hana Hayes). As they flee, Sarah is shot by a soldier and dies in Joel's arms. Twenty years later, civilization has been decimated by the infection. Survivors live in totalitarian quarantine zones, independent settlements, and nomadic groups, leaving buildings and houses deserted. Joel works as a smuggler with his partner Tess (Annie Wersching) in the quarantine zone in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. They hunt down Robert (Robin Atkin Downes), a black-market dealer, to recover a stolen weapons cache. Before Tess kills him, Robert reveals that he traded the cache with the Fireflies, a rebel militia opposing the quarantine zone authorities. The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene (Merle Dandridge), promises to double their cache in return for smuggling a teenage girl, Ellie (Ashley Johnson), to Fireflies hiding in the Massachusetts State House outside the quarantine zone. Joel, Tess, and Ellie sneak out in the night, but after an encounter with a government patrol, they discover Ellie is infected. Symptoms normally occur within two days, but Ellie claims she was infected three weeks earlier and that her immunity may lead to a cure. The trio make their way to their destination through hordes of the infected, but find that the Fireflies there have been killed. Tess reveals she has been bitten by an infected and, believing in Ellie's importance, sacrifices herself against pursuing soldiers so Joel and Ellie can escape. Joel decides to find Tommy, a former Firefly, in the hope that he can locate the remaining Fireflies. With the help of Bill (W. Earl Brown), a smuggler and survivalist who owes Joel a favor, they acquire a working vehicle from Bill's neighborhood in Lincoln. Driving into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Joel and Ellie are ambushed by bandits, and their car is wrecked. They ally with two brothers, Henry (Brandon Scott) and Sam (Nadji Jeter). After they escape the city, Sam is bitten but hides it from the group. As his infection takes hold, Sam attacks Ellie, but Henry shoots him dead before taking his own life. In the fall, Joel and Ellie finally find Tommy in Jackson, Wyoming, where he has assembled a fortified settlement near a hydroelectric dam with his wife Maria (Ashley Scott). Joel decides to leave Ellie with Tommy, but after she confronts him about Sarah, he lets her stay with him. Tommy directs them to a Fireflies enclave at the University of Eastern Colorado. They find the university abandoned, but learn that the Fireflies have moved to a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two are attacked by bandits, and Joel is severely wounded while escaping. During the winter, Ellie and Joel shelter in the mountains. Joel is on the brink of death and relies on Ellie to care for him. Hunting for food, Ellie encounters David (Nolan North) and James (Reuben Langdon), scavengers willing to trade medicine for food. After David reveals that the university bandits were part of his group, Ellie becomes hostile. She manages to lead David's group away from Joel, but is captured; David intends to recruit her into his cannibal group. Refusing, she escapes after killing James, but David corners her in a burning restaurant. Meanwhile, Joel recovers from his wounds and sets out to find Ellie. He reaches her just as she kills David with a machete, an act that traumatizes her, and Joel comforts her before they flee. In the spring, Joel and Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City. Ellie is rendered unconscious after almost drowning before they are captured by a Firefly patrol. In the hospital, Marlene tells Joel that Ellie is being prepared for surgery: in hope of producing a vaccine for the infection, the Fireflies must remove the infected portion of Ellie's brain, which will kill her. Unwilling to let Ellie die, Joel battles his way to the operating room, kills the lead surgeon, and carries the unconscious Ellie to the parking garage. He is confronted by Marlene, whom he shoots and kills to prevent the Fireflies from pursuing them. On the drive out of the city, when Ellie wakes up, Joel claims that the Fireflies had found many other immune people, but were unable to create a cure and that they have stopped trying. On the outskirts of Tommy's settlement, Ellie expresses her survivor guilt. At her insistence, Joel swears his story about the Fireflies is true. == Development == Naughty Dog began developing The Last of Us in 2009, following the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. For the first time in the company's history, Naughty Dog split into two teams; while one team developed Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011), the other began work on The Last of Us. Game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann led the team responsible for developing The Last of Us.While at university, Druckmann had an idea to merge the gameplay of Ico (2001) in a story set during a zombie apocalypse, like that of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), with a lead character similar to John Hartigan from Sin City (1991–2000). The lead character, a police officer, would be tasked with protecting a young girl; however, due to the lead character's heart condition, players would often assume control of the young girl, reversing the roles. Druckmann later developed it when creating the story of The Last of Us. Druckmann views The Last of Us as a coming of age story, in which Ellie adapts to survival after spending time with Joel, as well as an exploration of how willing a father is to save his child.A major motif of the game is that "life goes on"; this is presented in a scene in which Joel and Ellie discover a herd of giraffes, which concept artist John Sweeney explained was designed to "reignite [Ellie's] lust for life", after her suffering following her encounter with David. The Infected, a core concept of the game, were inspired by a segment of the BBC nature documentary Planet Earth (2006), which featured the Cordyceps fungi. Though the fungi mainly infect insects, taking control of their motor functions and forcing them to help cultivate the fungus, the game explores the concept of the fungus evolving and infecting humans, and the direct results of an outbreak of this infection. The relationship between Joel and Ellie was the focus of the game; all other elements were developed around it. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson were cast as Joel and Ellie, respectively, and provided voice and motion capture performances. Baker and Johnson contributed to the development of the characters; for example, Baker convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness, and Johnson convinced Druckmann that Ellie should be stronger and more defensive. Following comparisons to actor Elliot Page, Ellie's appearance was redesigned to better reflect Johnson's personality and make her younger. The game's other characters also underwent changes. The character Tess was originally intended to be the main antagonist, but the team found it difficult to believe her motives. The sexuality of the character Bill was originally left vague in the script, but later altered to further reflect his homosexuality.The Last of Us features an original score composed primarily by Gustavo Santaolalla, along with compositions by Andrew Buresh, Anthony Caruso, and Jonathan Mayer. Known for his minimalist compositions, Santaolalla was contacted early in development. He used various instruments to compose the score, including some that he was unfamiliar with, giving a sense of danger and innocence. This minimalist approach was also taken with the game's sound and art design. The sound of the Infected was one of the first tasks during development; the team experimented with the sound in order to achieve the best work possible. To achieve the sound of the Clicker, they hired voice actress Misty Lee, who provided a sound that audio lead Phillip Kovats described as originating in the "back of the throat". The art department took various pieces of work as inspiration, such as Robert Polidori's photographs following Hurricane Katrina, which were used as a reference point when designing the flooded areas of Pittsburgh. The art department were forced to negotiate for things that they wished to include, due to the strong differing opinions of the team during development. Ultimately, the team settled on a balance between simplicity and detail; while Straley and Druckmann preferred the former, the art team preferred the latter. The game's opening credits were produced by Sony's San Diego Studio.The Last of Us game designer Ricky Cambier cited the video games Ico and Resident Evil 4 as influences on the game design. He said the emotional weight of the relationship needed to be balanced with the tension of the world's issues, stating that they "wanted to take the character building and interaction" of Ico and "blend it with the tension and action of Resident Evil 4." The team created new engines to satisfy their needs for the game. The artificial intelligence was created to coordinate with players; the addition of Ellie as artificial intelligence was a major contributor to the engine. The lighting engine was also re-created to incorporate soft light, in which the sunlight seeps in through spaces and reflects off surfaces. The gameplay introduced difficulty to the team, as they felt that every mechanic required thorough analysis. The game's user interface design also underwent various iterations throughout development.The Last of Us was announced on December 10, 2011, at the Spike Video Game Awards, alongside its debut trailer. The announcement ignited widespread anticipation within the gaming industry, which journalists ascribed to Naughty Dog's reputation. The game missed its original projected release date of May 7, 2013, and was pushed to June 14, 2013 worldwide for further polishing. To promote pre-order sales, Naughty Dog collaborated with several retailers to provide special editions of the game with extra content. === Additional content === Downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released following its launch. The game's Season Pass includes access to all DLC, as well as some additional abilities, and the documentary Grounded: Making The Last of Us; the documentary was released online in February 2014. Two DLC packs were included with some of the game's special editions and were available upon release. The Sights and Sounds Pack included the soundtrack, a dynamic theme for the PlayStation 3 home screen, and two avatars. The Survival Pack featured bonus skins for the player following the completion of the campaign, and in-game money, as well as bonus experience points and early access to customizable items for the game's multiplayer. Abandoned Territories Map Pack, released on October 15, 2013, added four new multiplayer maps, based on locations in the game's story. Nightmare Bundle, released on November 5, 2013, added a collection of ten head items, nine of which are available to purchase separately.The Last of Us: Left Behind adds a single-player campaign which features two storylines—one set after the prologue of The Last of Us, and one before the Winter chapter—following Ellie and her friend Riley. It was released on February 14, 2014 as DLC and on May 12, 2015 as a standalone expansion pack. A third bundle was released on May 6, 2014, featuring five separate DLC: Grounded added a new difficulty to the main game and Left Behind; Reclaimed Territories Map Pack added new multiplayer maps; Professional Survival Skills Bundle and Situational Survival Skills Bundle added eight new multiplayer skills; and Survivalist Weapon Bundle added four new weapons. The Grit and Gear Bundle, which added new headgear items, masks and gestures, was released on August 5, 2014. A Game of the Year Edition containing all downloadable content was released in Europe on November 11, 2014. === Remaster and remake === On April 9, 2014, Sony announced The Last of Us Remastered, a remastered version of the game for the PlayStation 4. It was released in July and August 2014. Remastered uses the DualShock 4's touchpad to navigate inventory items, and the light bar signals health, scaling from green to orange and red when taking damage. In addition, audio recordings found in the game world can be heard through the controller's speaker; the original version forced players to remain in a menu while the recordings were played. The game's Photo Mode allows players to capture images of the game by pausing gameplay and adjusting the camera freely. In the menu, players have the ability to watch all cutscenes with audio commentary featuring Druckmann, Baker, and Johnson. Remastered features improved graphics and rendering upgrades, including increased draw distance, a higher frame rate, and advanced audio options. It includes the previously released downloadable content, including Left Behind and some multiplayer maps. The development team aimed to create a "true" remaster, maintaining the "core experience".The Last of Us Part I, a remake of The Last of Us, was released for PlayStation 5 on September 2, 2022; a Windows version is in development. It features revised gameplay and controls, improved performance and lighting effects, and new accessibility options. On PlayStation 5, the game supports 3D audio, as well as the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller. Development of The Last of Us Part I was led by game director Matthew Gallant and creative director Shaun Escayg. The game was completely rebuilt to take advantage of the updated PlayStation 5 hardware, requiring new art direction, animation, and character models. The technological and graphical enhancements were intended to align with the vision of the original game's development team. Escayg wanted each element to make the player feel grounded and immersed in the game world. Gallant collaborated with a specialized team at Descriptive Video Works to create audio descriptions for cutscenes. The vision for the original game was to emphasize the beauty of the world, as opposed to a visually dark and dystopian image. Reactions to the remake's announcement were mixed, with some journalists and players considering it unnecessary due to the age of the original and the existence of The Last of Us Remastered, as well as questioning its US$70 price point. Upon release, the game received positive reviews, with praise for its graphical enhancements, updated facial animations, improved enemy and character AI, and its added accessibility, audio, and controller options, though the response to its gameplay and level design was mixed. == Reception == === Initial release === The Last of Us received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic, based on 98 reviews. It is the fifth-highest-rated PlayStation 3 game on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the character development, story and subtext, visual and sound design, and depiction of female and LGBT characters. It is considered one of the most significant seventh-generation video games, and has been included among the greatest video games of all time. Colin Moriarty of IGN called The Last of Us "a masterpiece" and "PlayStation 3's best exclusive", and Edge considered it "the most riveting, emotionally resonant story-driven epic" of the console generation. Oli Welsh of Eurogamer wrote that it is "a beacon of hope" for the survival horror genre; Andy Kelly of Computer and Video Games declared it "Naughty Dog's finest moment".Kelly of Computer and Video Games found the story memorable, and IGN's Moriarty named it one of the game's standout features. PlayStation Official Magazine's David Meikleham wrote that the pacing contributed to the improvement of the story, stating that there is "a real sense of time elapsed and journey traveled along every step of the way", and Destructoid's Jim Sterling lauded the game's suspenseful moments. Richard Mitchell of Joystiq found that the narrative improved the character relationships.The characters—particularly the relationship between Joel and Ellie—received acclaim. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer wrote that the relationship felt identifiable, naming it "poignant" and "well drawn". Eurogamer's Welsh wrote that the characters were developed with "real patience and skill", appreciating their emotional value, and Joystiq's Mitchell found the relationship "genuine" and emotional. PlayStation Official Magazine's Meikleham named Joel and Ellie the best characters of any PlayStation 3 game, while IGN's Moriarty identified it as a highlight of the game. Kelly of Computer and Video Games named the characters "richly painted", feeling invested in their stories. Philip Kollar of Polygon felt that Ellie was believable, making it easier to develop a connection to her, and that the relationship between the characters was assisted by the game's optional conversations. The performances also received praise, with Edge and Eurogamer's Welsh noting that the script improved as a result.Many reviewers found the game's combat a refreshing difference from other games. Game Informer's Helgeson appreciated the vulnerability during fights, while Kelly of Computer and Video Games enjoyed the variety in approaching the combat. IGN's Moriarty felt that the crafting system assisted the combat, and that the latter contributed to the narrative's emotional value, adding that enemies feel "human". Joystiq's Mitchell reiterated similar comments, stating that the combat "piles death upon death on Joel's hands". Welsh of Eurogamer found the suspenseful and threatening encounters added positively to the gameplay. Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot wrote that the artificial intelligence negatively affected the combat, with enemies often ignoring players' companions. Polygon's Kollar also felt that the combat was unfair, especially when fighting the Infected, and noted some inconsistencies in the game's artificial intelligence that "shatters the atmosphere" of the characters. The game's visual features were commended by many reviewers. The art design was lauded as "outstanding" by Computer and Video Games' Kelly, and "jaw-dropping" by Eurogamer's Welsh. In contrast, Mc Shea of GameSpot identified the visual representation of the post-apocalyptic world was "mundane", having been portrayed various times previously. The game's graphics have been frequently named by critics as the best for a PlayStation 3 game, with Helgeson of Game Informer naming them "unmatched in console gaming" and Moriarty of IGN stating that they contribute to the realism. Destructoid's Sterling wrote that the game was visually impressive but that technical issues, such as some "muddy and basic" textures found early in the game, left a negative impact on the visuals.The world and environments of the game drew acclaim from many reviewers. Kelly of Computer and Video Games stated that the environments are "large, detailed, and littered with secrets", adding that The Last of Us "masks" its linearity successfully. Edge repeated similar remarks, writing that the level design serves the story appropriately. Helgeson of Game Informer wrote that the world "effectively and gorgeously [conveys] the loneliness" of the story. IGN's Moriarty appreciated the added design elements placed around the game world, such as the hidden notes and letters. The plausibility of the infection was commended by Scientific American's Kyle Hill.Reviewers praised the use of sound in The Last of Us. Eurogamer's Welsh felt that the sound design was significantly better than in other games, while Game Informer's Helgeson dubbed it "amazing". Mc Shea of GameSpot stated that the audio added to the effect of the gameplay, particularly when hiding from enemies. Kelly of Computer and Video Games found that the environmental audio positively impacted gameplay, and that Gustavo Santaolalla's score was "sparse and delicate". Both Game Informer's Helgeson and Destructoid's Sterling called the score "haunting", with the latter finding that it complements the gameplay.The graphic depiction of violence in The Last of Us generated substantial commentary from critics. Engadget writer Ben Gilbert found the game's persistent focus on combat was "a necessary evil to lead the game's fragile protagonist duo to safety", as opposed to being used as a method to achieve objectives. Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton wrote that the violence was "heavy, consequential and necessary", as opposed to gratuitous. USgamer's Anthony John Agnello wrote that the game consistently reinforces the negativity associated with violence, intentionally making players feel uncomfortable while in violent combat. He stated that the deaths within the game were not unnecessary or unjustified, making the story more powerful. Kelly of Computer and Video Games stated that, despite the "incredibly brutal" combat, the violence never felt gratuitous. Eurogamer's Welsh echoed similar remarks, stating that the violence is not "desensitized or mindless". Matt Helgeson of Game Informer observed that the game's violence leads to players questioning the morality of their choices. Joystiq's Mitchell wrote that the violence is "designed to be uncomfortable", stating that it contributes to Joel's character. Prior to the release of the game, Keith Stuart of The Guardian wrote that the acceptability of the violence would depend on its context within the game.Many critics discussed the game's depiction of female characters. Jason Killingsworth of Edge praised its lack of sexualized female characters, writing that it "offers a refreshing antidote to the sexism and regressive gender attitudes of most blockbuster videogames". Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson praised Ellie as "sometimes strong, sometimes vulnerable, but never a cliché". She felt that Ellie is initially established as a "damsel in distress", but that this concept is subverted. GameSpot's Carolyn Petit praised the female characters as morally conflicted and sympathetic, but wrote that gender in video games should be evaluated "based on their actual merits, not in relation to other games". Chris Suellentrop of The New York Times acknowledged that Ellie was a likable and "sometimes powerful" character, but argued that The Last of Us is "actually the story of Joel", stating that it's "another video game by men, for men and about men". The Last of Us was also praised for its depiction of LGBT characters. Sam Einhorn of GayGamer.net felt that the revelation of Bill's sexuality "added to his character ... without really tokenizing him". American organization GLAAD named Bill one of the "most intriguing new LGBT characters of 2013", calling him "deeply flawed but wholly unique". A kiss between two female characters in Left Behind was met with positive reactions. === Remastered === Like the original version, The Last of Us Remastered received "universal acclaim" according to Metacritic, based on 69 critics. It is the third-highest-rated PlayStation 4 game on Metacritic, tied with Persona 5 Royal and behind Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2.The game's enhanced graphics received positive reactions. Colin Moriarty of IGN felt that the graphical fidelity of Remastered was an improvement over The Last of Us, despite the latter being "the most beautiful game [he'd] seen on any console". GamesRadar's David Houghton echoed this statement, calling the visuals "jaw-dropping". VideoGamer.com reiterated the graphical improvement over the original game, particularly praising the increased draw distance and improved lighting technology. Liam Martin of Digital Spy also felt that the lighting system improves the gameplay and makes the game "feel even more dangerous". Game Informer's Tim Turi stated that the game is "even more breathtaking" than The Last of Us. Matt Swider of TechRadar appreciated the minor detail changes and the technical improvements. The Independent's Jack Fleming felt that the original game's visual flaws were enhanced in Remastered but greatly complimented the updated graphics regardless.Many reviewers considered the technical enhancements, such as the increased frame rate, a welcome advancement from the original game. Turi of Game Informer felt that the frame rate "dramatically elevate[s]" the game above the original. Jim Sterling of The Escapist complimented the upgraded frame rate, commenting that the original frame rate is a "noticeably inferior experience". IGN's Moriarty stated that, though the change was initially "jarring", he appreciated it through further gameplay. Tom Hoggins of the Daily Telegraph echoed these statements, feeling as though the increased frame rate heightened the intensity of the gameplay. Philip Kollar of Polygon appreciated the game's improved textures and loading times.The addition of Photo Mode was well received. TechRadar's Swider named the mode as a standout feature, while IGN's Moriarty complimented the availability to capture "gorgeous" images using the feature. The adjustment of the controls received praise, with Moriarty of IGN particularly approving of the DualShock 4's triggers. Swider of TechRadar felt that the additional controls result in a better functioning game, while Digital Spy's Martin felt that it improves the game's combat, commenting that it "increase[s] this sense of immersion". Reviewers also appreciated the inclusion of the DLC and the audio commentary. These features led The Escapist's Sterling to dub Remastered as "the definitive version of the game". === Accolades === Prior to its release, The Last of Us received numerous awards for its previews at E3. It was review aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings' second-highest rated for the year 2013, behind Grand Theft Auto V. The game appeared on several year-end lists of the best games of 2013, receiving wins from the 41st Annie Awards, The A.V. Club, the British Academy Video Games Awards, Canada.com, The Daily Telegraph, Destructoid, the 17th Annual DICE Awards, The Escapist, GamesRadar, GameTrailers, the 14th Annual Developers Choice Awards, GameRevolution, Giant Bomb, Good Game, Hardcore Gamer, IGN, IGN Australia, International Business Times, Kotaku, VG247, VideoGamer.com. It was also named the Best PlayStation Game by GameSpot, GameTrailers, Hardcore Gamer, and IGN. Naughty Dog won Studio of the Year and Best Developer from The Daily Telegraph, Edge, the Golden Joystick Awards, Hardcore Gamer, and the 2013 Spike VGX.Baker and Johnson received multiple nominations for their performances; Baker won awards from Hardcore Gamer and the 2013 Spike VGX, while Johnson won awards at the British Academy Video Games Awards, DICE Awards, VGX 2013, and from The Daily Telegraph. The game's story also received awards at the British Academy Video Games Awards, the DICE Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, the Golden Joystick Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards, and from GameTrailers, Giant Bomb, Hardcore Gamer, and IGN. The sound design and music received awards at the DICE Awards, the Inside Gaming Awards, and from IGN. The game's graphical and artistic design also won awards from Destructoid, the DICE Awards, the Golden Joystick Awards, and IGN.The Last of Us was awarded Outstanding Innovation in Gaming at the DICE Awards, and Best Third Person Shooter from GameTrailers. The game received Best New IP from Hardcore Gamer, Best Newcomer at the Golden Joystick Awards, and Best Debut from Giant Bomb. It received Best Overall Sound, Best PlayStation 3 Multiplayer, and Best Action-Adventure Game on PlayStation 3 and overall at IGN's Best of 2013 Awards. It also won Best Action-Adventure Game at the British Academy Video Games Awards, and The Escapist, as well as Best Action Game from Hardcore Gamer and Adventure Game of the Year at the DICE Awards. The game was nominated for Best Remaster at The Game Awards 2014, and received an honorable mention for Best Technology at the 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The game was named among the best games of the 2010s by The Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Metacritic, and VG247. == Sales == Within seven days of its release, The Last of Us sold over 1.3 million units, becoming the biggest video game launch of 2013 at the time. Three weeks after its release, the game sold over 3.4 million units, and was deemed the biggest launch of an original game since 2011's L.A. Noire and the fastest-selling PlayStation 3 game of 2013 at the time. The game became the best-selling digital release on PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3; this record was later beaten by Grand Theft Auto V. The Last of Us ultimately became the tenth-best-selling game of 2013. In the United Kingdom, the game remained atop the charts for six consecutive weeks, matching records set by multi-platform games. Within 48 hours of its release, The Last of Us generated more than the £3 million earned by Man of Steel in the same period. The game also topped the charts in the United States, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Spain, and Japan.The Last of Us is one of the best-selling PlayStation 3 games, and Remastered is among the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. By August 2014, the game had sold eight million copies: seven million on PlayStation 3 and one million on PlayStation 4. By April 2018, the game sold 17 million copies across both consoles. According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the game had sold over 20 million units by October 2019. == Adaptations == A four-issue comic book miniseries, The Last of Us: American Dreams, was published by Dark Horse Comics from April to July 2013. Written by Druckmann and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, the comics serve as a prequel to the game, chronicling the journey of a younger Ellie and Riley. On July 28, 2014, the cast of the game performed a live reading of selected scenes in Santa Monica, California, with live music by Santaolalla. The performance was hosted and directed by Druckmann, with graphics by Alex Hobbs. On The Last of Us Day in September 2020, CMON announced it was developing The Last of Us: The Board Game, a tabletop game based on the series intending to focus on exploration, narrative, and survival elements. A different tabletop game, The Last of Us: Escape the Dark, was announced in November 2022, produced by Naughty Dog and Themeborne. The game will allow up to five players to control Joel, Ellie, Tommy, Tess, Bill, or Marlene and try to reach safety from enemies such as Hunters and Infected while exploring locations from the game, including the sewers, suburbs, and university. It will be funded by a Kickstarter campaign, which begins on November 8. === Canceled films === On March 6, 2014, Sony announced that Screen Gems would distribute a film adaptation of The Last of Us, written by Druckmann and produced by Sam Raimi. By January 2015, Druckmann had written the script's second draft, and performed a read-through with some actors. Very little work occurred following this, as Druckmann stated in April 2016 that the film had entered development hell. In November 2016, Raimi stated that the film was at a standstill after Sony had a disagreement with Druckmann. Druckmann stated in a 2021 interview that the film fell apart as there was too much studio focus on making big action set-pieces, a concept that he felt did not work well for the nature of The Last of Us which he felt was better approached as a smaller indie film. Actress Maisie Williams expressed enthusiasm in playing Ellie, and was in talks with both Druckmann and Raimi to take the role. In January 2020, images surfaced of an animated short film adaptation of The Last of Us by production agency Oddfellows. The 20-minute film was intended to "serve as a strong bridge" between the game and its sequel and would "reinterpret each of the chapters of the game with a unique visual treatment" but was canceled by Sony. === Television series === In March 2020, a television adaptation of the game was announced in the planning stages at HBO; it was formally greenlit in November 2020. Druckmann and Craig Mazin wrote and executive produced the series, and both directed episodes; Ali Abbasi, Peter Hoar, Liza Johnson, Jeremy Webb, and Jasmila Žbanić also directed episodes, while additional executive producers include Carolyn Strauss and Rose Lam, Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, and PlayStation Productions's Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan. The show is a joint production between Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, The Mighty Mint, and Word Games; it is the first show produced by PlayStation Productions. Santaolalla will compose the score. The show will star Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, respectively. Gabriel Luna will play Tommy, Merle Dandridge will reprise her role as Marlene, and Anna Torv will play Tess. Druckmann noted that some of the show's scripts borrow dialogue directly from the game, while others deviate more significantly; some of the game's action-heavy tutorial sequences will be changed to focus more on the show's character drama, at the request of HBO. Filming for the series took place in Alberta, Canada, from July 2021 to June 2022, and it will debut on HBO and HBO Max on January 15, 2023. == Sequel == In February 2014, Druckmann said Naughty Dog were considering a sequel but needed to find a story "really worth telling, and that's not repeating itself". In September 2015, Druckmann stated that a small team had begun building prototypes but shifted development to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, released in May 2016. Sony announced The Last of Us Part II at the PlayStation Experience event on December 3, 2016. The story takes place about five years after the first game; Ellie and Joel return, with players controlling Ellie. Santaolalla returned to compose the music, and Druckmann returned to write the story alongside Halley Gross. Straley did not return as game director. It was released on June 19, 2020, to critical acclaim and was praised for its performances, characters, visual fidelity, and gameplay, though the narrative polarized critics and players. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website The Last of Us at IMDb

PS4

Star Wars Battlefront

First-person shooterthird-person shooter

Star Wars: Battlefront is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods of the Star Wars universe. The series was launched in 2004 by LucasArts with Star Wars: Battlefront, developed by Pandemic Studios for LucasArts. The game received positive reviews and sold well. In 2005 Pandemic developed a sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, which was also critically and commercially successful. The games were followed by Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (2007) and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (2009) for handheld game consoles and Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons (2009) for mobile devices. LucasArts made several attempts to develop a third major Battlefront game but no projects were released before The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of LucasArts. Subsequently, EA DICE acquired a license to develop a new game, titled Star Wars Battlefront which was released on November 17, 2015. A sequel, Star Wars Battlefront II, was released on November 17, 2017, and was developed by EA DICE, Criterion Games, and Motive Studio. == Gameplay == Games in the Battlefront series normally revolve around two armies – the Galactic Republic versus the Confederacy of Independent Systems or the Galactic Empire versus the Rebel Alliance or First Order versus the Resistance – fighting each other on various maps. Maps take place in the Star Wars galaxy, with battlezones varying in theme and size. Across the battlefield are multiple "command posts" (objectives) that act as spawn points, and can be controlled by either the player or the computer. Units can spawn from any friendly command post, and vehicles regularly spawn at their respective command posts when destroyed. Units can capture neutral or hostile command posts by approaching them and standing within the immediate vicinity for about 30 seconds. The time to capture quickens with more friendly units within the capture zone. Some vehicles act as mobile command posts, and must be destroyed as they can not be captured. On some maps (such as Hoth or Endor), certain structures also act as command posts that can not be captured. Command post capturing works differently on certain campaign missions as well. Playable heroes and villains play a significant role in changing the course of battles. The objective of most matches is to eliminate all of the opponents' reinforcement tickets or to capture the command points, to slowly chip away at their tickets. Reinforcement tickets are used whenever a unit is killed, or when one faction controls a majority of the command posts on the map (usually when the losing faction only has 2-3). Only one objective needs to be completed. When all command posts are captured, the team with no command posts has twenty seconds to recapture or neutralize an enemy command post. If the team cannot take over a post in this time, the match is over. Certain campaign levels and multiplayer have requirements that differ from the general game play, however the general structure remains the same. The game's "Conquest" mode is vaguely based on the Battlefield game mode of the same name. === Playable characters === Numerous characters from the movies, TV series and other games have been available to play as, which include: == Development == The first console games of the series were developed by Pandemic Studios, and since 2015, a second series of console Battlefront games has been developed by EA DICE. Battlefront II (2017) is the first in the series to accurately follow the canon of the films, while the games developed by Pandemic Studios were relegated to Star Wars Legends non-canonical status, along with all of the games in the series released before November 2015. == Star Wars: Battlefront (Pandemic Studios) == === Star Wars: Battlefront === Star Wars: Battlefront is the first installment in the Battlefront series. It was released on September 21, 2004, with a Mac port by Aspyr released in July 2005. The game is available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac OS, and mobile phones. Jedi are not playable in this game without the help of modified files unsupported by LucasArts. Other NPCs made playable by similar files include, but are not limited to, Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea of Tatooine, Ewoks of Endor and Gungans on the Naboo plains. === Star Wars: Battlefront II === Star Wars: Battlefront II is the second installment in the Battlefront series, released in Europe on October 31, 2005 – for the PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, and Windows – and in North America one day later. There are some significant differences between Battlefront and Battlefront II. Battlefront II includes playable Jedi characters, space battles, and story campaigns, as well as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith-related content. The release date of Battlefront II coincided with the release of Revenge of the Sith on DVD. The game is now an Xbox Platinum Hits game, a Sony Greatest Hits game in North America, and an Xbox Classics and PlayStation Platinum game in Europe. Battlefront II expands upon the original game's single-player experience with mission-based objectives drawn from the first six Star Wars films. It has a story-based campaign which revolves around the 501st Legion (AKA "Vader's Fist") and its evolution from a legion of clone troopers serving the Republic during the Clone Wars to Imperial stormtroopers. Many maps from Star Wars Battlefront make a second appearance, and the game adds new locales such as Coruscant and Utapau. The game also introduces "heroes" – playable characters based on iconic characters from the Star Wars films who are much more powerful than regular soldier (and were also present in the original Battlefront, but only as NPCs that spawned randomly on the battlefield); the hero roster includes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi and Aayla Secura (as well as Kit Fisto, available only on the Xbox version of the game via the Xbox Live patch), whereas the villain roster includes Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Boba Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Jango Fett, and Anakin Skywalker (as well as Asajj Ventress, also available only via the Xbox Live patch). There are more modes in this game, such as Conquest, Hunt (where players fight as natives on planets against other natives or certain troopers in an army, such as Wampas vs. Rebels on Hoth or Tusken Raiders vs. Jawas on Tatooine, to earn 50 points first), Capture the Flag (both with one and two flags), Assault (which, on Tatooine only, is also available as Heroes vs Villains, where one team plays as the heroes and the other one as the villains in a race to rack up points by defeating enemies) and space battles. === Canceled sequels === ==== Star Wars: Battlefront III ==== On September 29, 2006, Computer and Video Games made an unconfirmed claim that Free Radical Design was developing the third game in the Star Wars: Battlefront series, titled Star Wars: Battlefront III. In June 2008, Kotaku allegedly received information from a former LucasArts employee that Star Wars: Battlefront III was in the creation process. On October 2, Activision Blizzard filed a classification with the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification listing Star Wars: Battlefront III for the Nintendo DS with a PG rating (E10+ equivalent) for mild animated violence. However, that same month, Free Radical Design announced that they lost the rights to develop Star Wars: Battlefront III; the game at that point had been in development for two years. Several years later, Free Radical Design co-founder Steve Ellis said Battlefront III was "pretty much done" in 2008, but that it was effectively canned when LucasArts could not commit to "spend big" on marketing it. However, GameSpot quoted an unnamed LucasArts employee involved with the project who said Free Radical could not devote sufficient resources to the game and regularly missed deadlines. A former Free Radical Design employee said some of the technology Free Radical developed for the game, specifically the contiguous game environment from planet surface into space, "is dying with us".During and after the game's development, screenshots, and gameplay footage became accessible to the public. In December 2008, Star Wars character renders bearing a Battlefront III watermark surfaced from a laid-off Free Radical employee. The following month, gameplay footage was leaked from a November 2008 Free Radical in-house showing of Battlefront III footage. The footage was pulled from IGN after LucasArts demanded its removal. On April 1, 2012, a user on the game journalist website Betagames discovered Star Wars models and textures buried in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City's archives; PC Gamer's Tom Senior speculated that these could have been from Battlefront III. Also in April 2012, Past to Present revealed pre-alpha footage of Free Radical Design's Battlefront III. YouTube videos showing the game's rough state received media attention from outlets such as Joystiq, Kotaku, and Shacknews. ==== Star Wars: Battlefront Online ==== Star Wars: Battlefront Online was rumored to be the next installment in the series. On January 28, 2010, Kotaku reported that SOCOM developer Slant Six Games was working with LucasArts to develop an online-only Battlefront title due in 2011. The game was said to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was also stated that this game may have been the source of the Star Wars: Battlefront 3 concept art renders. However, the game has been canceled after the studio was unable to meet its 2010 release deadline. ==== Star Wars: First Assault and Version Two ==== Star Wars: First Assault was to be a downloadable multiplayer shooter for Xbox Live Arcade. Digital Trends speculated that Star Wars: First Assault might help LucasArts recover some of their previous investment in Battlefront III and other projects in the franchise. Speaking to Kotaku an anonymous insider noted that the game was to be "step zero" towards a third Battlefront game. When footage of the game was leaked onto YouTube Tech site TechnoBuffalo noted that the gameplay very closely resembled that of the Call of Duty franchise. Alongside First Assault, LucasArts was also working on a separate game titled "Version 2", which was, reportedly, a code name for Battlefront III. ==== Star Wars Battlefront IV ==== In 2018, concept art surfaced of a canceled Battlefront IV, rather than attempting to fit within the previous games and films' continuity, concept art showed the game was meant to focus on an alternate reality where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker fell to the dark side, instead of Anakin Skywalker. === Handheld and mobile only games === ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is a handheld game released in North America on October 9, 2007, and in Europe three days later. The game was released only for the PlayStation Portable. Renegade Squadron is also available in a bundle pack with the then-new white PSP redesign featuring Darth Vader on the back. Aside from new heroes and vehicles, such as the Millennium Falcon, a new feature is the ability to create a character, allowing the player to adjust the character's features such as weapon, appearance, and speed. However, the character will be vulnerable due to the lacking of certain aspects that will be replaced by others. For example, the character may be fast but weak or have good weapons but no stamina and speed. Before the game's release, LucasArts had stated that over one million different customizable options would be present. Another new feature allows players to enter asteroid bases on some space maps. Commander Col Serra describes the forming of Renegade Squadron in the beginning cutscene of campaign. Then the player starts a series of missions ranging in objectives while including cut scenes between each mission. The final mission includes the Battle of Endor, in which the objectives are similar to the footage of Return of the Jedi. ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was released on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. This marks the third Battlefront game on the PlayStation Portable and the first on a Nintendo console. The game was originally discovered through its ESRB rating on the official ESRB website which has since been taken down. It follows in the same vein as its predecessors with space, land and new air battles. Elite Squadron is most notable for featuring simultaneous space and ground battles in Instant Action, and is the only game in the series with this feature. Players usually play in a third person perspective, but in the PSP version, they can also switch to a strategy based mode where they may build troops and upgrade armies. ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons ==== Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons is a mobile game developed by THQ Wireless. It was released on April 2, 2009. The game features a persistent online community, and has three character classes. The gameplay is a first person perspective shooter that can use the touch features of a phone, although the player has no control over movement. == Star Wars Battlefront (EA DICE) == === Star Wars Battlefront (2015) === At an Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conference on June 10, 2013, EA DICE (whose parent company, Electronic Arts, had recently acquired a multi-year license to produce Star Wars video games), unveiled a teaser trailer for a new Star Wars: Battlefront game, built on the Frostbite 3 engine. The teaser showed a first-person view of the Battle of Hoth, including a crashing Snowspeeder and the foot of an AT-AT. DICE showed additional development footage at the 2014 E3 conference. The game's title was eventually announced as Star Wars Battlefront. In April 2015, EA announced a release date of November 17, 2015 at Star Wars Celebration. The game is a reboot of the series, focusing on capturing the look of the films. At launch, four planets were confirmed - Hoth, Tatooine, Endor, and Sullust. Unlike its predecessors, Star Wars Battlefront does not feature the Clone Wars era found in the prequel films, nor does it feature content from The Force Awakens; as a result, the hero and villain roster is also limited, at launch including only Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Boba Fett. Free downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released in December 2015, featuring the planet of Jakku with two new maps and a new multiplayer game mode. The game also features both first and third-person gameplay perspectives, similar to its predecessors. A gameplay trailer involving the Hoth battle debuted at E3 on June 15, 2015. The game features a pseudo-campaign — a cooperative experience allowing the player to experience gameplay with one or two players and computer-controlled allies and opponents. "Outer Rim" is the first DLC pack for the game and was released on March 22, 2016. It adds new heroes Nien Nunb and Greedo to the game, four new maps set in Jabba the Hutt's Palace (Palace Garage and Jabba's Palace) on Tatooine and a factory area on Sullust (Sorosuub Refinery and Sorosuub Pipelines), and a new mode called "Extraction". The DLC is available for free to all players who have purchased the game's Season Pass, otherwise costing $10. The second expansion pack is titled "Bespin" and allows players to fight in the setting of Cloud City, released in September 2016. The expansion added more maps along with an additional game mode titled sabotage and new heroes Lando Calrissian and Dengar. The third expansion pack, titled "Death Star", was released in September 2016 as well and added the long-awaited Death Star to the game, along with new heroes Chewbacca and Bossk. The fourth and final DLC pack was released on December 6, 2016. It is based on characters and locations from the film Rogue One, and includes Jyn Erso and Orson Krennic as new playable heroes, and a new game mode set both above and on the planet Scarif. === Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) === Blake Jorgensen of Electronic Arts mentioned a sequel in November 2016, and Star Wars Battlefront II was announced in March 2017. The game was released on November 17, 2017. Since the restructuring of the Star Wars canon, Battlefront is the first game with a storyline that is considered canonical to the film series. Star Wars Battlefront II features both single-player and multiplayer game modes, a customizable character class system, and content based on all Star Wars movies up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (with content for the other movies, as well as television series being added later on via free DLC). A Celebration Edition was released in December 2019. DICE announced that Scarif from Rogue One would be the last content update released for the game. === Canceled spin-off === In 2019, EA was in the process of developing a game code-named Viking, designed as a spin-off of the Battlefront series with open-world elements. The game was originally planned for release in fall 2020, coinciding with the next generation of video game consoles, but was canceled in late 2019. == Cultural impact == === Fan-made sequel games === ==== Galaxy in Turmoil ==== On January 25, 2016, Frontwire Studios began an attempt to produce an unofficial Battlefront installment called Galaxy in Turmoil. The fan made game was in production using Unreal Engine 4 and was based on the canceled Star Wars: Battlefront III by Free Radical Design. Although early versions of the game contained assets from Free Radical Design, they soon became "place holders" as the full game planned to be released using assets and music made from the ground up. On June 4, 2016, Galaxy in Turmoil gained a distribution deal through Valve and was planned to be released for free on Steam which generated a fair amount of attention.On June 22, 2016, Lucasfilm requested the production of Galaxy in Turmoil be halted. On July 31, 2016, Frontwire Studios announced the cancellation of the game was due to the "possibility of Galaxy in Turmoil taking away attention from Electronic Arts's Battlefront franchise". Proposals of Galaxy in Turmoil falling under the paywall of Electronic Arts, and ideas of Lucasfilm giving Frontwire Studios a Star Wars license were both rejected due to an agreement between Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm. Although Frontwire Studios may have fallen within Fair Use laws, legal conflict was avoided and the project was canceled. There is a playable alpha that contains assets from Free Radical Design that was released to the public then removed early within Galaxy in Turmoil's lifetime. Galaxy in Turmoil is now planned to be redeveloped as a brand new cyberpunk-themed IP without any Star Wars references, but still with Battlefront III-inspired mechanics including space-to-ground battles.On March 23, 2022, Frontwire Studios announced that they had cancelled development on the game, citing a lack of funds, as well as the team going their own separate ways. The Frontwire Studios name had lapsed, though someone re-registered the name on March 19 and put up a rough version of the old website. == See also == List of Star Wars video games == References == == External links == Official website

PS4

Ghost of Tsushima

Action-adventurestealth

Ghost of Tsushima is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The player controls Jin Sakai, a samurai on a quest to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan. Jin must choose between following the warrior code to fight honorably, or using practical but dishonorable methods of repelling the Mongols with minimal casualties. The game features a large open world which can be explored either on foot or on horseback. When facing enemies, the player can choose to engage in a direct confrontation using Jin's katana or to become a legendary warrior known as "the Ghost" by using stealth tactics to assassinate opponents. A multiplayer mode titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends was released in October 2020 and made available separately in September 2021. Sucker Punch began developing the game after the release of Infamous: First Light in 2014, as the studio wanted to move on from the Infamous franchise to create a game with a heavy emphasis on melee combat. The studio collaborated with Japan Studio and visited Tsushima Island twice to ensure that the game was as culturally and historically authentic as possible. The team was heavily inspired by samurai cinema, particularly films directed by Akira Kurosawa, as well as the comic book series Usagi Yojimbo. The game's landscape and minimalistic art style were influenced by Shadow of the Colossus, and locations in the game were designed to be "the perfect photographer's dream". While the in-game landmass is similar in shape to Tsushima Island, the team did not intend to create a one-to-one recreation. Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi composed the game's soundtrack. The game was released for PlayStation 4 in July 2020, and an expanded version for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, subtitled Director's Cut and featuring the Iki Island expansion, was released in August 2021. The game received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the game's melee combat, story, characters, performances, and music, though it received some criticism for its implementations of stealth gameplay and open world structure. The game was a commercial success, selling more than 9.73 million copies by July 2022 and was one of Sony's fastest-selling original games. It was nominated for several end-of-the-year awards, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2020. A film adaptation is in development as of 2022. == Gameplay == Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. The player has a variety of gameplay options to reach objectives they are given. They can engage in a direct confrontation with enemies using their katana, called a standoff, which can result in a series of fatal strikes against a number of different enemies. In combat, Jin adopts different combat stances when facing different types of enemies: stone stance for hostile swordsmen; water stance for shielded enemies; wind stance for spearmen; and moon stance for brutes. Eventually the player unlocks ghost stance, which makes Jin invincible and allows him to kill enemies with a single hit for a limited period of time. To activate ghost stance, players must kill a number of enemies without taking any damage or assassinate a Mongol leader. The player needs to stagger enemies or land a successful parry to break their defense before attacking to deplete their health. The player has access to bows, which can fire multiple types of arrows. At certain points in the game, Jin must duel against non-playable characters (NPCs) who act as bosses with unique offensive tactics and attack animations. The game's highest difficulty is a more realistic mode in which the player and enemies do large amounts of damage to each other, with all non-boss fights ending in one or two successful attacks.Alternatively, using stealth allows the player to evade enemies and strike them silently. As the player progresses in the game they can unlock chained assassination, which allows Jin to strike several enemies consecutively. To this end, Jin has a large arsenal of ghost weapons. These include firecrackers and wind chime bells to create distractions, smoke bombs to disorient alerted foes, kunai for striking multiple enemies, and explosives to kill groups of enemies. Players will eventually unlock a blowgun that allows them to shoot poison darts and causes victims to hallucinate and attack their peers. When the player restores Jin's health or uses special combat techniques, they deplete their "resolve", which is gained by performing feats of finesse such as assassinating or parrying an enemy.The game features a large open world which can be explored with or without guidance based on wind direction. The three islands of Tsushima are unlocked gradually as the player progresses. The island of Izuhara is unlocked first, followed by Totoyama and Kamiagata. Players travel to different parts of Tsushima on horseback and can use an item that acts as a grappling hook to access difficult-to-reach areas. As the player explores the world, yellow birds will guide Jin to locations of interest. These include hot springs which increase Jin's maximum health, "Bamboo Strikes" which increase Jin's maximum resolve upon completion, "Pillars of Honor" which contain additional cosmetic designs for Jin's weapons and armor, and locations in which Jin will meditate and compose haiku. By following torii gates and completing a platforming challenge, the player will find Shinto shrines and unlock charms that grant the player passive perks such as decreasing damage taken, reducing enemy detection speed, and increasing how much health is recovered when healing. Foxes will also lead Jin to Inari shrines, which increase the number of charms Jin can equip.The game features side quests and NPCs with whom the player can interact. Players can also liberate Mongol-controlled villages and camps by eliminating all the enemies stationed in the area. Combat stances are unlocked after Jin observes or kills Mongol leaders. Completing side quests or helping NPCs grants players minor charms and gifts which can be collected at altars. In particular, completing "Mythic Tale" side quests will unlock unique armors and special combat techniques. Each armor set has different properties that provide various benefits during combat. Most sets of armor and clothing can be upgraded by collecting materials found in the game's world. Jin's appearance can also be further customized with masks, helmets and headbands. === Multiplayer === A multiplayer mode titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends was released in late 2020. Players can access this mode from the menu or by reaching the NPC Gyozen the Storyteller in the single-player campaign, which will transport the player to Legends multiplayer lobby. Unlike the single-player campaign, Legends is based on Japanese mythology, featuring otherworldly realms and supernatural enemies. Legends features four classes: The samurai is the group's tank character who can deal and sustain a large amount of damage, the hunter is the group's sniper who specializes at using ranged weapons such as bows and arrows, the rōnin has the ability to summon dogs to aid combat and revives the group, and the assassin can deal a massive amount of damage with one attack and has the "Shadow Strike" ability which allows them to teleport short distances. As the player plays more matches and progresses in the game, they will earn "rank" which allows them to unlock class-specific upgrades and cosmetic items. A player's combat performance is dictated by the "Ki" level of their gear. The higher the player's overall "Ki" level, the more lethal they are, making them better at completing missions with higher difficulty levels. Legends features a variety of game modes: Story: In story mode, two players can complete narrated quests and objectives together. As the player progresses in the game, they will be able to unlock additional difficulty levels, new objectives, and rewards. In October 2020, the team introduced "The Tale of Iyo", a three-chapter raid mode described as the "culmination of the story" in Legends. Designed for experienced players, this mode supports a squad of four, stresses teamwork and coordination, and introduces puzzles that need to be solved cooperatively. Survival: In survival mode, four players can work together and fight against 15 waves of enemies. As the player's squad survives and completes objectives, they may gain access to powerful abilities which include summoning a spiritual bear to assist in combat and igniting enemies. Rivals: In rivals mode, two teams of two players each must compete against each other in survival mode. The objective is to progress faster and kill more enemies than the other team. As a team defeats enemies they earn "Magatama", an in-game currency which can be used to purchase perks and curses that disrupt the progress of the other team. Once a team has spent enough "Magatama", the final wave is unlocked and the team must complete it faster than the other team in order to win the match. == Synopsis == === Characters === The protagonist Jin Sakai (Daisuke Tsuji / Kazuya Nakai) is the head and sole remaining member of Clan Sakai and a samurai warrior. He is the nephew and ward of Lord Shimura (Eric Steinberg / Akio Ōtsuka), the jitō of Tsushima. He meets several friends and companions, including a thief named Yuna (Sumalee Montano / Yu Mizuno), her blacksmith brother Taka (Eddie Shin / Kappei Yamaguchi), a female warrior named Lady Masako Adachi (Lauren Tom / Mabuki Ando), renowned Kyūdō archer Sensei Sadanobu Ishikawa (François Chau / Shigeru Chiba), merchant and con artist Kenji (James Hiroyuki Liao / Setsuji Sato), Buddhist warrior monk Norio (Earl T. Kim / Mitsuaki Kanuka), Clan Sakai's elderly caretaker Yuriko (Karen Huie / Yuri Tabata), and Jin's childhood friend and leader of the infamous Straw Hat rōnin, Ryuzo (Leonard Wu / Youhei Tadano). The main antagonist is the ruthless and cunning General Khotun Khan of the Mongol Empire (Patrick Gallagher / Tsutomu Isobe), cousin of Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. === Plot === In 1274, a Mongol fleet led by Khotun Khan invades the Japanese island of Tsushima. Local samurai Lord Jin Sakai and his uncle Lord Shimura lead the island’s samurai in an attempt to repel the invaders. However, the battle ends in disaster with the samurai killed, Shimura captured, and Jin severely wounded and left for dead. He is found and revived by Yuna, a thief, who informs him that the island has fallen to the invaders. Jin storms Khotun's stronghold at Castle Kaneda in an attempt to rescue Shimura, but is defeated by Khotun in combat and thrown off of the castle bridge. Realizing he cannot defeat the Mongols alone or with traditional samurai tactics, Jin travels around the island to recruit allies and learns guerilla warfare. He recruits Yuna, her blacksmith brother Taka, sake merchant Kenji, master archer Sadanobu Ishikawa, female samurai Masako Adachi, and his mercenary friend Ryuzo along with Ryuzo's Straw Hat rōnin. As Jin disrupts Mongol activities and liberates villages across the island, the people begin to refer to him as "The Ghost", a samurai spirit that has risen against the Mongols. Taka crafts a grappling hook for Jin to scale Castle Kaneda’s walls, and Jin attacks the site with his allies. Destitute and starving due to harsh wartime conditions, Ryuzo and the Straw Hats betray Jin to collect the bounty issued on him by Khotun. Jin manages to fend them off, free Shimura, and retake Castle Kaneda. Despite their victory, Khotun has already left to conquer Castle Shimura with Ryuzo. To retake Castle Shimura, Jin recruits Norio, Norio's warrior monks, and the Yarikawa Clan. He also recruits local pirate Goro on Shimura's behalf to carry a petition for reinforcements and a request to be adopted as his heir to the Shogun. With a new army being assembled, Jin recovers his family's ancestral armor from caretaker Yuriko, who teaches him how to create poison. Under orders from Shimura, Jin and Taka try to infiltrate a fortress where Ryuzo is located but are ambushed and captured by Khotun. When Jin refuses to submit to his rule, Khotun kills Taka. Jin then escapes with Yuna’s help. The Shogun's reinforcements arrive and Shimura leads the assembled army in an assault on Castle Shimura, driving the Mongols into the inner keep. As the Mongols retreat, they detonate explosives on the bridge leading to the inner courtyard, inflicting huge casualties on the advancing samurai. Knowing that another frontal attack would only result in more losses, Jin decides to infiltrate the keep and sneak poison into the Mongols' airag. He also encounters and kills Ryuzo after he refuses to surrender. However, he again misses Khotun, who has left to campaign further north. Despite the castle being taken without the samurai suffering any further losses, Shimura is furious with Jin, as his actions have severely violated the samurai code of honor. Knowing the Shogun will have Jin executed for insubordination, Shimura urges him to use Yuna as a scapegoat, but Jin refuses and embraces his persona as "The Ghost". Shimura regretfully has Jin arrested for treason. With some help from his remaining allies, Jin manages to escape captivity, but his horse is fatally shot by archers in the process. Jin travels north and learns that the Mongols have learned how to craft his poison, which they intend to use in their assault on the Japanese mainland. Before gathering his allies and assaulting Khotun's final stronghold in Port Izumi, Jin leaves a note for Shimura in his castle asking him to join the effort with the samurai, which he does. With the bulk of the Mongol forces distracted, Jin infiltrates the port and kills Khotun on his flagship. With Khotun dead, the Mongol invasion loses its momentum and the tide turns in favor of the samurai. Shimura informs Jin that the Shogun considers him a threat to the island's stability and status quo of obedience of the people to their leaders. He states that the Shogun has therefore disbanded Clan Sakai and ordered Shimura to kill Jin. Reminiscing about what they have both lost, Jin and Shimura reluctantly duel each other, with Jin emerging victorious. Jin has the option to either kill Shimura to give him a proper warrior's death or to completely abandon the samurai code and spare his life. Regardless of the decision, Jin becomes the enemy of the Shogun. === Iki Island === Sometime after his duel with Shimura, Jin comes across a community of villagers who have been driven insane by a poison described as "sacred medicine". It was administered to them by a warband of Mongols whom Jin has never previously encountered: members of the Mongolian Eagle Tribe, led by Ankhsar "The Eagle" Khatun (Anzu Lawson). Defeating the warband, Jin learns that Khatun is engaged in a conquest of Iki Island, where his late father Kazumasa had once led an unsuccessful military campaign against the island's raiders. The samurai withdrew from the island after Kazumasa was ambushed and killed by the raiders. Jin was there during the campaign as a boy; he witnessed his father's death and still blames himself for not saving him. Made cognizant of this new threat to Tsushima, Jin sails to Iki Island to stop Khatun and face his past. A thunderstorm destroys Jin's boat, but he survives and eventually arrives on Iki. Discovering Khatun's base to be his father's former stronghold, Fort Sakai, Jin storms the fort but is subdued and captured by Khatun's second-in-command, Khunbish. He and Khatun force-feed Jin the "sacred medicine" in an attempt to convert him into one of the tribe's shamans. The poison causes Jin to frequently hallucinate visions of Khatun, his deceased father, and many of his past failures. He is rescued by the raider Tenzo, who reluctantly accepts Jin's help and takes him to the raiders' leader, Fune. Jin works with the raiders to weaken Khatun’s hold over the island, eventually retaking Fort Sakai and killing Khunbish. After fending off retaliation by Khatun’s forces, Jin hears Tenzo say "may your death benefit all beings" to a dying Mongol — the same phrase a masked raider spoke to Kazumasa before killing him. Realizing that Tenzo killed his father, Jin nearly kills Tenzo before controlling his anger. He proposes re-enacting the ambush that killed his father in order to lure out Khatun and ultimately kill her. Although suffering from near-continuous hallucinations, Jin overcomes the effects of the "sacred medicine" by acknowledging his father's faults and at last coming to terms with his death. Jin kills Khatun in a duel, turning the tide in the raiders' favor. Jin and Tenzo forgive each other before parting ways. == Development == Ghost of Tsushima was developed by Sucker Punch Productions, which had a staff count of 160 at the time of development. Development of the game started in 2014 after the studio completed Infamous Second Son and its expansion, First Light. After working on the Infamous series for nine years, the studio believed that it was time to create something new. During the conceptualizing phase, the studio decided to create an open world game with a heavy emphasis on melee combat. Before deciding on the setting as feudal Japan, Sucker Punch considered various other settings and themes such as pirates, Scottish outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor, and The Three Musketeers. They later found a historical account of the Mongol invasion of Tsushima in 1274 and "the entire vision clicked into place." In 2020, a prototype for one of Sucker Punch's cancelled projects, Prophecy, was leaked. Set in a steampunk setting, Prophecy featured gameplay elements that were later carried over to Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch worked on the game for six years, the longest ever for a game developed by the studio. The game's development was completed on June 22, 2020, with Sucker Punch confirming it had been declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for release. Nate Fox served as the game director, while Jason Connell was the creative director and art director. === Setting and narrative === The Mongol invasion of Tsushima was chosen as the setting because the conflict was "easy for people to immediately conceptualize". As the Mongols at the time had the world's most advanced military, there were high stakes that required Jin, and therefore the player, to intervene. To ensure that the game's world was authentic, the team consulted SIE Japan Studio, a fellow Sony game development team, early in the game's development. Japan Studio was excited about the idea and helped fly approximately 10 members of Sucker Punch to Japan and Tsushima Island for a 10- or 11-day guided tour with a historian. The team visited Japan twice to research Tsushima, once during the summer and again in November, during the anniversary of the invasion. Japan Studio also helped connect Sucker Punch with historians who the team consulted on the history of the invasion and local Japanese customs and traditions. Experts on Japanese dialects, religions during the 13th century, and the recreation of 13th century kanji were also consulted. The team invited Ide Ryusetsu and Kuwami Masakumo Shike, experts from a samurai martial arts school, to perform motion capture for the game and advise the team on sword-fighting. Seattle-based historical sword fighting expert David Ishimaru was also involved in the creation of the game's combat style. While the team initially considered introducing real-life historical figures into the game, they refrained from doing so after being told by experts that it would be insensitive. Jin's samurai armor and katana are not historically accurate, with his armor based on that of the Sengoku period during the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Chris Zimmerman, one of Sucker Punch's cofounders, samurai armor from the 13th century was "jarring looking" and did not align with players' expectations of what samurai armor would look like. The katana was included in the game since it was considered to be the "quintessential icon of samurai". One of the game's Japanese localizers also suggested to the developers that the game's "haiku" side quest be replaced with a less anachronistic waka side quest, but this was rejected based on the relative recognizability of haiku outside Japan.One of the core objectives of the developers was to have strong and well-developed characters. Unlike the Infamous games, Ghost of Tsushima does not have a character karma system. Its absence allowed the team to tell a more cohesive story which better reflected Jin's transformation from a honorable samurai to a legendary warrior who must sacrifice everything he knows about honor and tradition in order to save Tsushima. Instead of the player being presented with binary choices as in Infamous, the world and characters react dynamically to Jin's choices in the story, either disapproving of his actions or encouraging them. The team believed that the story would be relatable, as they considered Jin's journey of relinquishing who he was to "become something new" a universal message that would resonate with modern-day players. Despite this, the player can still switch between the ghost style and samurai style seamlessly, as Jin's roots as a samurai do not change despite his transformation to become the ghost. While the game does not have a karma mechanic, the weather in Tsushima Island becomes more stormy when the player uses ghost techniques more frequently. The game's antagonist, Khotun Khan, does not undergo any transformative change. While he is a ruthless invader, he has a "bureaucratic aspect" as he attempts to conquer Tsushima Island with minimal bloodshed. Patrick Gallagher joined the cast in 2017 and prepared for the role as Khotun Khan by watching The Godfather and drawing on his experience portraying Attila the Hun in Night at the Museum. While Fox said that the game was "entirely grounded in reality", the team took the liberty to create a fictional narrative. The initial real-world Mongol invasion was foiled by a hurricane, and the team acknowledged this with Jin's katana which is engraved with storm wind designs. 13 Assassins from Takashi Miike and films directed by Akira Kurosawa such as Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Red Beard, and Ran, served as major sources of inspiration for the team. The ending of Sanjuro directly inspired the game's "standoff" gameplay feature, in which a warrior must wait for their counterpart to make their first move and then kill them with one strike. The team tried to replicate the samurai code depicted in Seven Samurai in the game. Additionally, the team reached out to the Kurosawa Estate in order to use the director's name for their black-and-white gameplay mode. The comic book series Usagi Yojimbo, which features a soft-mannered rabbit samurai solving various problems for ordinary citizens, also influenced the team. Fox read this comic series when he was working on the Sly Cooper games. The last name of the game's protagonist was a tribute to Stan Sakai, the creator of Usagi Yojimbo. A number of video games also inspired the development team: many of the game's items were inspired by Tenchu, while the option to play as both the ghost and an honorable samurai was influenced by Onimusha: Warlords. Karateka and Red Dead Redemption were also cited as sources of inspiration. === Gameplay === Ghost of Tsushima was designed to be a challenging game. Jin is frequently outnumbered by his enemies, and basic enemies can kill Jin fairly quickly. The team hoped that through the game's difficult combat, players would grow more appreciative of minor incremental growth. Fox stated that the three pillars of the game's combat were "mud, blood, and steel". The team wanted the game to be grounded, visceral and challenging. Fox added that they strove to keep swordfights deadly so that each combat encounter would be reminiscent of those seen in samurai movies. The combat system was reportedly the most difficult feature to implement in Ghost of Tsushima, as the team had to build multiple versions of it and modified its design frequently during the game's development. Early playtesters complained that the enemies were "sword sponge" (i.e., they absorbed a large amount of damage before they died), breaking immersion. The team responded to this criticism by adding "hit points" and "armor points", but ultimately decided that all enemies would be defeated within a certain number of hits. Health of enemies would not change regardless of the selected difficulty. Instead, enemies would adopt more defensive tactics such as parrying and blocking at higher difficulties. Early prototypes of this design was described as overkill, as enemies would deflect all attacks. As a result, the stagger system, which allowed players to break their enemies' defenses while remaining offensive, was introduced. The team allowed combat to take longer in the game's 1v1 duels, as players likely expected them to be boss fights and these encounters could not end too quickly. The ghost weapons were designed to be "exceedingly lethal" and generally more effective than the samurai weapons. This further complemented the story and Jin's emotional dilemma between maintaining samurai honor and saving the island through dishonorable means. While players may enjoy playing the ghost path, the narrative would remind them that these techniques are dishonorable and loathed. Fox compared the Mongol enemies to packs of wolves which attacked the players from all sides. He further likened the game's combat to a dance, in which the player must seamlessly "weave between Mongol swords" as multiple enemies attack simultaneously.One of the goals of the studio was to create a "beautiful, serene, and nature-filled open world feudal Japan". During the game's reveal at Paris Game Week, Connell went off the script to announce that the game would not feature any waypoint mechanics and that the game's exploration would be primarily driven by the player's curiosity. This announcement was unexpected to the team, and they had to add additional features in order to fulfill Connell's promise. Sucker Punch strived to ensure that the game had moments of calm in which players can slow down and be fully immersed in the world. This is achieved through having a minimalistic head-up display, nature-guided objectives, and relaxing open world activities that are not tied to progression or the overarching story. Side-quests in the game were likened to an anthology of stories, and Jin meets characters who are simply trying to survive the brutality of war. Connell added that ultimately, the studio wanted players to get lost in the team's recreation of feudal Japan. === Art and world design === The team decided early on that "wind blowing around literally everything in the world" would be Ghost of Tsushima's "visual calling card". This was inspired by early Chanbara samurai films, which often feature movement in the background in the form of dust, smoke and wind. The team took one and half years to ensure that foliage other objects would react properly to wind. The team initially added icons and a compass to the game to aid the player's navigation, but they realized they spent an excessive amount of time looking at them and ignored the in-game world itself. The team then decided to use wind to guide players to their objectives, forcing the player to observe the world. The team took about a week to create the feature and spent roughly another year further refining it. While implementing the feature, they were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, in which the player is shown the direction of their objectives when they hold up their sword. Connell added that "nature is a symbol for Jin's home", and guidance using wind served as an important tool for players to "connect" with Jin's home. According to Fleming, guiding winds also evoked a feeling that "nature herself is on [the player's] side". This aligned with real-world history as well, as Mongol forces were decimated by a typhoon that was seen by the Japanese as "divine wind" sent to protect their home. Many of the game's particle effects and systems were imported from previous Infamous games. The team did not intend to create a one-to-one recreation of Tsushima Island. While the in-game landmass is geographically the same shape as that of Tsushima Island, Sucker Punch took the liberty of creating the game's individual biomes, ensuring that each region is artistically distinct. This allowed the team to create a unique identity for each area, allowing players to recognize them easily even when viewed from afar. This is achieved through the use of bold and vibrant colors when modelling nature. The team also chose the dominant foliage in each area and significantly exaggerated its presence, creating "little pockets of massive boldness and beauty". For instance, the team focused on orange and yellow hues for the trees when they were creating the Golden Forest, one of the game's locations, instead of including all the types of trees that would realistically grow there. Connell described these locations as one's imagination of what an area would look like and "the perfect photographer's dream". Fox added that the landscape featured in the in-game island is more diverse than its real-world counterpart, as the team also incorporated the aesthetics of mainland Japan when they were recreating Tsushima Island.According to Fleming, "everything in Japan tends to celebrate negative space". As a result, the team pushed for simplicity from the design of the game's architecture and interiors to the minimalistic HUD. Connell added that the art and environment teams had a hard time switching to Ghost of Tsushima after working for nine years on the Infamous games, which features a "punk rock" visual style. Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild both inspired the game's minimalistic landscape and aesthetic, though the team strived to have more photorealistic visuals to highlight the game's picturesque setting. Much of the game was designed to be "serene" and "tranquil" so that it more sharply contrasted with moments of violence throughout the game's combat and story. The game also features a black-and-white filter mode named "Kurosawa mode" in order to pay tribute to the late director. To design this mode, the team playtested the game repeatedly using features commonly found in accessibility modes designed for colorblind individuals.Jin's armors were heavily inspired by the armor designs of the Kamakura and Heian periods. These armors were designed to be bulky and colorful, radiating "a sense of regality" while contrasting with the darker and more agile ghost outfit. The team intentionally avoided the traditional assassin design in which characters are dressed in all-black fully-cloth clothing for the ghost outfit in order to make it appear more realistic. Parts of some outfits, such as capes and tassels, respond to the wind, further connecting the player and Jin to the game's world. Peasant recruits wear leftover armor and have a more ragtag appearance than typical samurai characters. Peasants frequently wear clothes with geometric patterns that reflect their origins. For instance, people living on Northern Tsushima wear clothes with snowflake patterns. The game's antagonist, Khotan Khan, has two armors, one of which is completely void of color and angular in shape to further signify his oppression and brutality. === Audio and music === Brad Meyer served as the game's audio lead. To record the sound of swordfighting, the team used sword blanks previously used in recording sessions for God of War, which was developed by Santa Monica Studio, another Sony developer. According to Meyer, the team spent a lot of time "scraping them against each other, clanging them together, swinging them, suspending them from the ceiling and spinning them around" in order to record interesting sounds. The team also used them to cut through fruits, vegetables, and cloth to create the sound of a sword cutting through a human body. Combat sounds are deemphasized when the player is exploring and not engaged in combat. Jin's wind chimes were recorded using a Japanese fūrin. The black-naped oriole was chosen as the game's guide bird because it can be found in Japan and Meyer had the opportunity to record its sound during a vacation in Sri Lanka in 2018. The audio and music system was initially based on that of Infamous Second Son, in which combat music will gradually intensify over three different states. However, due to additional gameplay elements found in Ghost of Tsushima such as ghost stance and standoff, the team was required to create additional states for the combat music.British composer Ilan Eshkeri wrote the game's music. Eshkeri extensively researched Japanese musical styles in the 13th century, including Gagaku, Shōmyō Buddhist chanting, and the biwa hōshi. A group of consultants also helped translate lyrics written in English to Japanese. Eshkeri was approached by the team after they listened to his work on Coriolanus. The team was particularly impressed with how he was able to recreate Japanese music using western instruments. Eshkeri was initially hesitant since he was not familiar with scoring music for fighting games, but he agreed after being briefed on the game's narrative. Eshkeri learned Japanese scales, played Japanese instruments, and listened to music from Tsushima Island. He also met with Junko Ueda, one of the few surviving musicians who can play a biwa, an instrument used by samurai in the past. It was used in the recording of "The Way of the Ghost", Jin's personal theme. Several ancient Japanese melodies, including The Tale of the Heike, were also quoted and rearranged by Eshkeri. However, he deliberately avoided listening to the musical scores of Kurosawa's films in order to keep his music original. The most difficult track for Eshkeri to write was the one for the final battle, as the track needed to be simultaneously action-packed and emotional. Eshkeri ultimately wrote double the amount of music that was actually needed. The game also features five musical suites by Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi, who was responsible for creating the game's exploration music. The full soundtrack of the game was released on July 17, 2020. A four-track remix EP titled "Sound of the Storm – Ghost of Tsushima Soundtrack: Reimagined" features contributions from TOKiMONSTA, Tycho, The Glitch Mob and Alessandro Cortini. It was released on July 10, 2022, via Milan Records. == Release == The game's marketing campaign began in October 2017 when a trailer was shown at Sony Interactive Entertainment's Paris Games Week press conference. Sony opted not to announce the title too early since many of the game's systems were tentative and subject to change. A gameplay demo was shown at E3 2018 along with a live shakuhachi performance by Cornelius Boots. The game was released for PlayStation 4 on July 17, 2020, having been delayed from its original June 26 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sucker Punch announced four editions: standard, digital deluxe, special, and a collector's edition. Different editions came bundled with different collectors' items as well as in-game items, equipment, and unlocked abilities, in addition to a bonus for pre-ordering the game. Sony also partnered with the Tourism Board of Tsushima Island and the Nagasaki Prefecture to launch a website that educates readers on the history and culture of the real-life Island. Art prints, produced by Cook & Becker, were released in November 2020.A multiplayer expansion titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, was released on October 16, 2020, alongside the addition of a new game plus feature to the base game. Unlike the main game, Legends features prominent supernatural elements drawn from Japanese mythology. While Legends was introduced as a post-launch update, Sucker Punch decided early on that some form of cooperative gameplay would be included in the final game. Development of the mode started in 2016, and the studio experimented for six months to a year when designing the multiplayer mode. The team ultimately chose supernatural elements as the focal point of Legends, which gave the team more creative freedom when they were designing the characters and their abilities. A storyteller character was introduced to tie the mode thematically back to Jin's journey and the world of Tsushima. According to Darren Bridge, the senior game designer leading Legends's development, the visual style of Legends was unrefined until the final nine months of the expansion's development. The final boss fight was also completed relatively late in the game's development, with the team once considering delaying its addition or completely removing it from the game. In December 2020, Legends introduced four character outfits based on other PlayStation franchises: Bloodborne, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Shadow of the Colossus. Legends received a standalone release on September 3, 2021, and was one of the free games offered to PlayStation Plus subscribers in March 2022.Sucker Punch released Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on August 20, 2021, for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 5 version includes exclusive features such as full Japanese lip sync, haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support, 3D audio support, dynamic 4K resolution, and decreased loading times. The PlayStation 5 version also includes an expansion in which Jin visits Iki Island to stop a Mongol tribe led by a shaman named Ankhsar Khatun. The size of Iki Island is similar to Act One of the main game, and players can access the island once they have reached Act Two of the main story. Iki Island is drastically different from Tsushima Island as it is mostly populated with bandit, raider, and criminal NPCs. When designing Iki Island, the team continued to use bold colors, though it used a different color palette so that players could easily differentiate between it and the main Tsushima Island. According to the team, the story also delves into Jin's past and the history of Clan Sakai, exploring a different viewpoint of the Mongol invasion. Iki Island also added new combat skills, such as the ability for the player's horse to charge at enemies, new side quests and open world activities including visiting animal sanctuaries where Jin can pet various animals, and music composed by Chad Cannon and Bill Hemstapat, both of whom had previously worked with Umebayashi for the arrangement and orchestration of "Tsushima's suite". An armor set inspired by Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West was added to Director's Cut in February 2022. In April 2022, Sucker Punch announced that they have stopped working on further patches and updates for both the main game and Legends, as the studio shifted developmental resources to other projects. == Reception == === Critical reception === The game received "generally favorable" reviews according to the review aggregator Metacritic. It received a combined 40/40 score from four editors of the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, the third Western-developed game to do so. It also received praise from Toshihiro Nagoshi, the director of the Yakuza series, who applauded Jin as the game's protagonist, adding that Japanese studios were unlikely to greenlight a game starring a middle-aged man due to marketing reasons. Fox and Connell were named as tourism ambassadors to Tsushima Island in March 2021 for spreading "the name and history of Tsushima through their works".The story received a generally positive reception. Matt Miller from Game Informer wrote that Ghost of Tsushima offered "a tale about the contradictory ideals of honor and revenge", praising the side quests for offering a somber contemplation on the brutality of war and how it affects the everyday life of ordinary peasants. IGN's Mitchell Saltzman praised Tsuji and Gallagher's performances. He described Jin's struggles as "compelling", and called Khan a memorable antagonist whose "soft intensity" is "oddly calming despite his terrifying intentions". Critics applauded the game's cast of side characters, adding that their personal stories impacted the overall story and Jin's own character development. The side quests, however, were largely considered to be repetitive and forgettable. Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell compared them unfavorably to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and considered them to be an "afterthought", criticizing their basic framework and inadequate rewards for completion. While the performance of the voice cast was praised, several reviewers noted the lack of lip-syncing for the Japanese audio, which was later rectified in the Director's Cut version of the game. Edmond Tran, writing for GameSpot, noted that the characters have a "noticeable lack of bodily expression", hindering the delivery of certain emotional scenes, but remarked that the emotional impact of these scenes was frequently heightened by the game's musical score and cinematography. In a negative review, Keza MacDonald of The Guardian felt that the story lacked intrigue and wrote that Ghost of Tsushima adhered "so closely to the tropes and storylines of classic samurai fiction that it sometimes forgets to have a personality of its own".Critics generally praised the gameplay. Miller enjoyed the variety in enemies and added that combat remained challenging and riveting even when the player was approaching the end of the game. He felt that the game's two playstyles were both satisfying, and lauded Sucker Punch for allowing players to freely choose their approaches to objectives and missions. Writing for GamesRadar, Rachel Weber agreed that the game was challenging. She added that it "flowed like a dance" and remarked that the combat had a large emphasis on the timing of attacks and parries. Standoffs were particularly praised for evoking the feelings of Japanese samurai movies. Saltzman appreciated the combat system and compared it to the early Assassin's Creed games, the Batman Arkham series, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. He also enjoyed the progression system, as players are not required to grind for experience to level up and difficulty does not suddenly ramp up as the player progresses. Mike Williams from USgamer felt that combat was "decent", but the camera angle and the lack of a lock-on system mean that players cannot easily control the battlefield as opponents swarm in on Jin from various directions with different styles of attacks. Several critics were disappointed by the stealth gameplay as they felt it was too rudimentary. Both Williams and Saltzman noted that the artificial intelligence was inadequate.Weber described the game's world as a "work of art", Miller described it as a "painter’s vision of feudal Japan", and Saltzmann wrote that its visual landscape was one of the best ever for an open world game. Critics particularly praised how the game used elements of nature like wind and birds to guide players to their objectives, with Williams describing the guiding wind system as a "major innovation". Tran wrote that guiding wind encouraged players to explore the game world and made them more likely to "follow winding roads around mountains and along river bank" instead of simply choosing the most direct route. Critics also enjoyed the way that the game offered moments of relief and calmness. Miller liked the world design for encouraging players to explore, but lamented that some of the platforming sessions were too static and limiting. Chris Carter, writing for Destructoid, enjoyed some of the open world activities, singling out the composition of haiku and bathing in hotsprings as examples of unique optional content; conversely, Tapsell was disappointed by the game's open world structure and found it to be unimaginative and outdated. Tapsell added that the side content and points of interest lacked variety and a sense of mystery. Andrew Webster from The Verge felt that these repetitive open world activities undermined the game's innovative ideas. Kirk McKeand from VG247 also criticized the game's open world activities for hindering the pacing of the story and deemed the structure of some quests "archaic". === Sales === Ghost of Tsushima was the best-selling physical game in its debut week of release in the United Kingdom and sold 373,473 copies in the country by the end of 2020. It was also the best-selling physical game in July 2020 in the US and became Sucker Punch's fastest-selling game there. The game also topped the download charts in both Europe and the United States. It went on to become the seventh-best-selling game of 2020 in the US. The Director's Cut version was the best-selling game in the UK in its week of release and the second-best-selling game in the United States in August 2021 behind Madden NFL 22. Worldwide, the game sold through more than 2.4 million units in its first 3 days of sales, making it the PlayStation 4's fastest-selling first-party original IP debut. It was reported in November 2020 that it had sold over 5 million copies. By July 2022 the game had sold 9.73 million copies.In Japan, the game was also the best-selling game during its debut week, with 212,915 copies being sold. The game was out of stock in some stores in Japan during its launch month. The game remained in the top 30 best-selling video games in Japan for more than 15 consecutive weeks, totaling over 412,000 copies sold. It had the second-highest lifetime sales for a Sony first-party video game, only behind Marvel's Spider-Man. === Awards === In addition to the following awards, the game was selected by PlayStation Official Magazine – UK and Hardcore Gamer as their Game of the Year. == Film adaptation == On March 25, 2021, Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions announced the development of a film adaptation of the game, directed by Chad Stahelski. The film will be produced by Stahelski, Alex Young, and Jason Spitz of 87Eleven Entertainment alongside Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions. Sucker Punch will serve as executive producers, with Peter Kang overseeing production on the studio's behalf. On April 12, 2022, Takashi Doscher was brought on to write the screenplay. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Ghost of Tsushima Tour travel guide from Wikivoyage

PS4

Infamous Second Son

Action-adventure

Infamous Second Son (stylized as inFAMOUS Second Son) is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is the third installment in the Infamous series. The game was released worldwide on March 21, 2014. The player-controlled protagonist possesses superpower abilities that players use in combat and when traveling across the city. The story follows protagonist Delsin Rowe fighting the Department of Unified Protection (D.U.P.) in a fictionalized Seattle. Over the course of the game, Delsin acquires new powers and becomes either good or evil as player choices influence his morality. Sucker Punch began planning the game as early as 2011, when they began discussion with Sony to bring the Infamous series onto a new generation of hardware. They provided feedback to Sony on what hardware evolutions they would like to see on PlayStation 4. Sucker Punch considers Second Son a fresh start for the series because it features a new protagonist. Delsin's powers were designed to feel fluid and suited to the open world design. Infamous Second Son was met with generally positive reviews; critics praised its gameplay, combat, visuals and design, while criticism was aimed at the game's morality system, which some found to be dated and binary, as well as the game's repetitive side missions. The story was met with a mixed response, with some critics finding the narrative and characters to be a step backwards from previous installments in the series, while others viewing the writing as an improvement over its predecessors. Infamous Second Son was a commercial success, and sold over a million copies within nine days, making it the fastest-selling entry within the Infamous franchise and one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. == Gameplay == Infamous Second Son is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Players control the main character Delsin Rowe, who can parkour-style climb vertical surfaces like high-rise buildings. Delsin is a Conduit, which allows him to use superpower abilities by manipulating materials such as smoke, neon, video, and concrete. These materials can be weaponized (such that Delsin can perform melee attacks or fire projectiles from his fingertips) or used to deftly navigate the game world (such as using neon to dash up buildings). Using powers depletes a meter in the head-up display (HUD), which can be replenished by drawing from power sources such as smoke from exploded vehicles. Delsin earns new powers as he progresses through the story, which sees him fight against the Department of Unified Protection (D.U.P.) during missions. Each time Delsin gains a new power set he must destroy D.U.P. Core Relays to learn the basic abilities that correspond to it. Delsin upgrades and acquires new abilities by spending Blast Shards that have been collected, they are scattered throughout Seattle. Players become more powerful in combat by expanding Delsin's suite of abilities.Players may choose to act in either a good or evil way. Examples including healing civilians, doing drug busts, and stopping suspect brutality for good, or killing innocent civilians and killing instead of apprehending enemies. Several times throughout the story, Delsin finds himself in a scenario where he must make a good or evil choice, such as whether to encourage Conduit vigilante Abigail "Fetch" Walker to stop slaying drug dealers, or to train her to become a more prolific killer. Player choices influence outcomes in some later missions. In combat, Delsin may use his abilities to incapacitate foes or obliterate them with headshots. He may choose to open fire on innocent civilians. Delsin's choices manifest in a logo displayed on his jacket and the HUD, which features a blue (good) and red (evil) bird. Performing actions that are villainous gradually change the logo so that the red bird dominates the other, with the opposite happening with heroism. This is a visual representation of Delsin's Karma level, that increases as good or evil depending on his choices. As his Karma level increases, Delsin can acquire new powers that correspond to his play-style (e.g. very destructive powers with high levels of evil Karma) and his jacket also changes. If you have good karma, the jacket completely changes white whereas if evil the jacket turns red. A continual streak of either good or evil actions fills up a bar in the HUD, which then lets Delsin perform a powerful finishing move called a Karma Bomb.When not completing story missions, players can explore the city and complete activities such as tagging graffiti spots or killing D.U.P. secret agents. The city is split into districts that are all initially controlled by the D.U.P., but Delsin gradually liberates each district by completing activities. When D.U.P. control of a district falls below 30 percent, Delsin can enter a District Showdown that requires him to eliminate a wave of D.U.P. forces, eradicating D.U.P. presence there. == Plot == === Setting and characters === Second Son takes place in 2016, seven years after Infamous 2's Conduit protagonist Cole MacGrath sacrifices himself to cure humanity of a plague and destroy The Beast. Cole uses the powerful Ray Field Inhibitor weapon, which kills him and most of the other Conduits. The U.S. government establishes the D.U.P. to hunt down and capture the world's remaining Conduits, dubbing Conduits with the pejorative "Bioterrorists". The protagonist is Delsin Rowe (Troy Baker), a 24-year-old graffiti artist and local delinquent of the Akomish reservation. Delsin has the unique Conduit ability of Power Absorption, allowing him to absorb and copy the powers of any Conduit he comes into contact with. His brother, Reggie (Travis Willingham), is the local sheriff, and often arrests Delsin for his acts of vandalism. Both are Akomish Native Americans, whose territory lies at the shore of Salmon Bay, Washington. The antagonist is Brooke Augustine (Christine Dunford), the director of the D.U.P. and a Conduit with power over Concrete. Her actions in the Akomish reservation drive Delsin to travel to Seattle, now under lockdown by D.U.P. forces. Delsin and Reggie encounter three other Conduits: Henry "Hank" Daughtry (David Stanbra), a convict with control over Smoke; Abigail "Fetch" Walker (Laura Bailey), an ex-junkie who uses her Neon powers to hunt down illegal drug dealers in Seattle; and Eugene Sims (Alex Walsh), a reclusive video game addict who uses his Video (digital materialization) powers to save suspected Conduits from the D.U.P. === Story === Reggie catches Delsin vandalizing a billboard in their Salmon Bay hometown, but their subsequent argument is interrupted when a military truck carrying three Conduit prisoners crashes on the Akomish reservation. Two of the Conduits escape, but Delsin manages to pull the third one, Hank, out of the wreckage, inadvertently absorbing his smoke powers in the process. Shocked and frightened, Delsin pursues Hank to figure out what has happened and how to control his new powers. However, they are both cornered by Brooke Augustine. She encases Hank in concrete and questions Delsin, suspecting him of hiding something. Delsin can choose to either tell Augustine the truth about his powers or say nothing. Regardless of Delsin's choice, Augustine knocks him out before moving on to the other tribe members.Delsin awakens a week later and discovers that Augustine has brutally tortured the rest of the tribe in an unsuccessful bid to gain information. However, she has left them to gradually die from concrete shards fused into their bodies, including their leader Betty (Karen Austin). Reggie, who was spared from the torture, learns that the only way to remove the shards is to use Augustine's power on them. Delsin realizes that he can absorb Conduit powers and resolves to go to Seattle to take Augustine's powers and save the tribe. Reggie reluctantly accompanies Delsin to keep an eye on him. They reach Seattle and find that it has been put under strict martial law by the D.U.P. to find other escaped Conduits. With Reggie's help, Delsin battles D.U.P. forces and tracks down core fragments to develop his powers. He eventually encounters the other two escaped Conduits, Fetch and Eugene, and absorbs their powers. After both confrontations, Delsin defends the Conduits from Reggie, who initially views them as "freaks" and can choose to either redeem or corrupt them.Now possessing three powers, Delsin encounters Hank, who has escaped again. Hank tells Delsin that Fetch and Eugene have been captured by the D.U.P., and are being held on an artificial concrete island in Puget Sound. However, the situation turns out to be a trap set by Augustine. Reggie appears and rescues Delsin with a rocket launcher. While the brothers free Fetch and Eugene, Augustine encases Reggie's feet in concrete and blasts them off the platform. As they dangle above the ocean, Reggie realizes that Delsin cannot save both of them, tells him that he is proud of him, and lets Delsin's hand go, falling to his death. Distraught and enraged, Delsin climbs back onto the platform and battles Augustine, and the ensuing fight destroys the island.Augustine flees back to the D.U.P. headquarters while Delsin tracks Hank down to the docks, where he is fleeing from D.U.P. forces. Hank begs for forgiveness, saying that he only worked with Augustine because she had his daughter in her custody. Delsin can choose to either kill Hank out of revenge or let him flee Seattle with his daughter. Aided by Fetch and Eugene, Delsin rallies an assault on the D.U.P. headquarters. After breaking through the building's defenses, Delsin confronts Augustine and reveals to her that he has figured out she staged the Conduit escape at Salmon Bay to instill fear in the population and give the D.U.P. a reason to continue their regime. Augustine lets Delsin absorb her powers and tells him she wants to save the Conduits by imprisoning and protecting them from the population. However, Delsin points out that all she did was take away their freedom, and people should live their own lives. Delsin battles and eventually defeats Augustine.If Delsin has good Karma, he spares Augustine and exposes her crimes to the public. She is arrested and the D.U.P. disbands. Delsin, Fetch and Eugene successfully champion for peaceful co-existence with the Conduits, starting the Second Age. All of the imprisoned Conduits are freed from Curdun Cay. Delsin returns to the reservation and heals the tribe members with his powers, then paints a mural in Reggie's honor.If Delsin has evil Karma, he kills Augustine and, together with Fetch and Eugene, takes control of Seattle. He releases all of the imprisoned Conduits and absorbs their powers. Upon returning to the reservation, Delsin is met by Betty, now in a wheelchair, who exiles him from the tribe for the killings in Seattle. Shocked and angered, Delsin destroys the entire reservation. == Development == === Origins and PlayStation 4 === Sucker Punch Productions began to develop Second Son while the PlayStation 4 was still being designed. Having finished work on Infamous: Festival of Blood, they began to plan a new entry in the Infamous series under the working title Infamous 3. As early as 2010, they discussed with Sony their desire to bring Infamous to a new PlayStation platform.Sucker Punch were in close connection with the PS4's lead system architect Mark Cerny, who visited the studio several times. They gave Cerny feedback about how much power a new PlayStation system would require to render their ideal open world, how fast it would be capable of doing so and to what degree of texture detail. "We had some experience there that was useful for that team when they were planning some aspects of the hardware design", producer Brian Fleming explained. He found that during the PS4's development, there was a great level of interactivity between the system's designers and game developers such as Sucker Punch.Sucker Punch made suggested improvements they would like to see for the DualShock 4 gamepad. Second Son's designer Jaime Griesemer traveled to Sony's headquarters in Japan to discuss such improvements. The developers found they were able to adopt the DualShock 4's touchpad into Second Son's gameplay (for example, players emulate the in-game fingerprint scanner using the DualShock 4 touchpad).The game was envisioned to take full advantage of the hardware, without the imposition of porting to older platforms like the PlayStation 3. The hardware let developers improve the particle system that lights Delsin's face up while he draws neon power from billboards and add detailed reflections to the game world. The increased memory bandwidth let the team render characters with higher fidelity. They found the PS4's simplified architecture so easy to work with that they were able to reach very high graphical quality even though the hardware was new.Over 110 developers worked on the game, a number that director Nate Fox considered small. He felt that working with a small team necessitated having a defined vision for the game from the outset, "to answer those first questions about what you want your game to be". Sometimes, ideas came about during development that would have to be thrown out for not fitting with the game's original vision. "We kill our darlings at Sucker Punch. It's not easy; it's necessary", Fox explained. Second Son displays a native resolution of 1080p at 30 frames per second. === Design === Sucker Punch elected to set Second Son in their hometown of Seattle as they could draw from their personal experiences in the open world's design. During early development when team members debated where Second Son would be set, Seattle rated high on a list of possibilities. Fleming considered that the city had not been featured in many games prior to Second Son and so would not be "overblown", and felt that Seattle's weather and mixture of "old and new" architecture would make it an interesting setting. The team conducted fieldwork in Seattle's nearby forests with audio and video equipment, which was used to reproduce local flora and the chirping sounds of local American robins. Seattle landmarks such as Pioneer Square, the Space Needle and Elephant Car Washes feature in the game. The developers licensed logos and signs from local businesses. Griesemer called the game world an "abstraction" of Seattle rather than a re-creation since its layout did not suit Second Son's gameplay and required the team to make necessary changes. The team wanted to thematically explore Seattle's heritage of Pacific Northwest, Native American tribes in the game.The designers used graphic sliders in the game engine to determine the amount of water covering the streets. Like Seattle, rain is frequent in the game. The lighting effects (such as neon light from Delsin's powers) coupled with reflections help bring color into Seattle's dark and rainy atmosphere. Because of the move to the PS4, Sucker Punch were able to render more open world than what was possible in previous Infamous games. "You get a better feel of the city when you can see more of it", said Griesemer.After deciding on Seattle for the setting, the developers began to think about the superpowers that Delsin would possess. They added neon lighting to the city to amplify the "beautiful reflective streets", and subsequently decided to make neon a source of power for Delsin because of its prevalence. Animation director Billy Harper considered Delsin's smoke powers challenging to design, as the team wanted to make powers feel more fluid than in previous Infamous games. They removed Cole's "contorted hand poses" to improve the connection between Delsin and his powers. Fox felt that smoke helps Delsin deftly navigate the game world by letting him zip up buildings and through enemies. Griesemer (who previously worked with Bungie on the Halo series) wanted to bring the fluidity of first-person shooters to Second Son's combat. The team reviewed the control scheme of previous Infamous games and "removed some of the complexity that was preventing people from interacting with the game".Griesemer said that a recurring theme throughout Infamous games that they wanted to continue with Second Son was the idea of "modern elemental powers", variations on commonplace powers drawn from the game world. Producer Brian Fleming found that the graphical effects helped to inform players of the amount of power Delsin possesses. "This is a game about super powers, so for us, the way the effects look tells you a lot about how you're playing the game", he explained. Fox considered that the game world's resemblance to Seattle helped the superpower elements feel authentic. "Because we have that sweet foundation of plausibility, you buy into the super-powered element", he explained. === Character development === Second Son's premise is built from the ending of Infamous 2 that sees protagonist Cole MacGrath sacrifice himself to save humanity. They looked at Trophy data and found the majority (78%) of Infamous 2 players chose this ending, and concurred with the popular choice. This allowed them to create the new protagonist, Delsin, from scratch. "Moving forward onto [Second Son], we said 'Alright, Cole's dead. People have voted for this. Let's make a new hero'", Fox explained. Griesemer felt that taking the Infamous series to the PS4 signified a new era, and that departing from the story of previous games would help them reach new audiences. "We needed a new entry point, and Delsin was the first step for that", he explained. The idea to move away from Cole's story came about during pre-production staff meetings, and was confirmed after discussions both internally and with Sony Computer Entertainment. Griesemer described the contemporaneous sentiment as "It's going to be new hardware, a new platform and we're going to have a new audience". Delsin's Native American heritage came from the game's setting in the Pacific Northwest, which features a large Native American population. Delsin wears a beanie inspired by one that Harper would wear around the studio (Harper recounted one particular staff meeting where four of the six team members were wearing hats). Delsin's character was inspired by United Kingdom street artist Banksy, as the development team appreciated Banksy's clandestine, satirical work. Developing Delsin's personality, the team posited the hypothetical: "What if Johnny Knoxville had powers? What would he do with it?". Harper considered Delsin "full of reckless abandon", the kind of character that would, upon gaining superpowers, jump off a cliff to see what happens. Fox considered Delsin "flawed in a way I think a lot of us can relate to", trying to live up to his successful brother Reggie. He called the game's story a "hero's journey".Digital Domain were brought on board for the motion capture work. Fox helped direct the actors' performances, but found that they did not need much guidance for their roles. "You need to let them understand what you need from a scene, but the actors are so much better equipped to deliver that than me", he explained. Fleming considered that using motion capture added authenticity to the characters. "The ability to capture [Delsin's] facial reaction when he's like 'Oh, shit', but doesn't say 'Oh shit'—that's a big deal", he explained.Most of the non-player characters (NPCs) that inhabit the open world were motion captured. The developers contacted casting agencies, and asked their friends and families if they would like to appear as extras in the game. Over 75 people were scanned in a three-day period. They were seated in chairs and told not to move or smile, and a high-definition digital camera captured a 3D model of their faces. The camera sent out strobe light patterns to capture the volume and shape of each face. A 360-degree setup captured the actors' moving bodies, but mannequins were also used to help capture different clothing styles. Data collected from the cameras was used by the designers to render digital models, each composed of roughly 1.4 million polygons—any blank spots on the models would be digitally filled in by the designers. To render the models in the game, the data would be compressed by reducing the polygon count. == Release == On February 20, 2013, Sony held a conference in New York that announced the PlayStation 4. Fox appeared on-stage during the conference and recounted participating in an anti-globalization protest in Seattle in 1999. He announced Second Son, and a debut trailer was shown that introduced the game's premise and lead character. The game was privately demoed at E3 2013, and its March 21, 2014, North American release date was confirmed during a PS4 launch event on November 14, 2013. By February 25, 2014, Second Son went gold (finished development).On March 8, it was announced that Second Son's pre-order sales had surpassed those of The Last of Us in the United Kingdom. Two special edition versions of the game were produced; pre-ordered and first-run copies of the game received the Limited Edition, which includes the Cole's Legacy mission pack that explain story events between Infamous 2 and Second Son. The Collector's Edition includes a unique box cover, a replica of Delsin's beanie, eight pins from his vest, an exclusive in-game vest, and a D.U.P.-themed patch. All pre-ordered copies of the game included four in-game vests for Delsin. === Downloadable content === Paper Trail is a free downloadable content (DLC) with alternate reality game features. The story is split into six parts, with the first being available after reaching a certain point in the main story. Each subsequent part was made available each Friday from March 28, 2014, in North America and, concluding with the release of the final part on April 25, 2014. At E3 2014, the DLC package Infamous First Light was announced and was released on August 26, 2014, in North America and August 27, 2014, in Europe. In First Light, the player controls Fetch. It is a stand-alone expansion and Second Son is not required to play the game, but ownership of Second Son grants players access to exclusive content and music. The track "Sanctus Immortale" composed and produced by Menelik Eu'el Solomon also features on the exclusive content pack. Infamous First Light received mixed to positive reviews from critics. == Reception == The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.IGN's Vince Ingenito recalled being left "staring slack-jawed" at the visuals and praised the impressive lighting effects in the "beautifully and diversely realized" open world. GameSpot's Tom Mc Shea called the visuals "incredible". Eurogamer's Oli Welsh praised Seattle's art direction and consistent draw distances and frame rates. Though impressed with the high-definition graphics, PlayStation Official Magazine (OPM)'s David Meikleham cited occasional frame rate dips during intense combat. He enjoyed roaming Seattle and levelling its destructible environments. Computer and Video Games (CVG)'s Tamoor Hussain praised graphical details like the particle and lighting systems. He said the game is "colorful, rich in detail and has some of the best effects we've seen on console".GameSpot's Mc Shea noted the combat's balance between Infamous's slower pace and Infamous 2's frenetic action. Destructoid's Chris Carter considered the combat's simplicity its strength and found Delsin easy to control during play. Underwhelmed with the opening chapter's "skittish" parkour, Edge noted the game became more fun when Delsin gained powers and reached Seattle. They felt enemies were clever enough to make combat challenging and that missions were "for the most part well designed and generously proportioned". IGN's Ingenito found each power set enjoyable and "strong enough to hang an entire game on". He felt the power upgrades kept combat fresh and made for good replay value. Polygon's Phillip Kollar favored neon, but noted the balance and variety between all sets made combat "a hell of a lot of fun". Eurogamer's Welsh found the combat imperfect yet fun and thought the skill upgrades made minimal difference to gameplay.Destructoid's Carter was invested in the story as Delsin's charm succeeded "wooden" Cole's listlessness. IGN's Ingenito thought the chemistry between Delsin and Reggie helped pique player interest. He found Troy Baker's performance "[imbued] with a charm and youthful abandon that keeps it from feeling tropey [sic] or overwrought", but thought supporting characters like Fetch were underdeveloped and the narrative too straightforward. Although calling the characters clichéd, Edge felt they were written and acted well. GameSpot's Mc Shea found Delsin annoying and immature, and that the gameplay bettered its "tired" story. Eurogamer's Welsh considered that "inconsequential MacGuffins" drove the plot to a rushed ending but praised its concise scope. Polygon's Kollar felt the lackluster examination of surveillance and security-over-freedom diminished the story's impact. He was disappointed with the narrative despite the better character writing over previous series entries. OPM's Meikleham was put off by Delsin's arrogance and lamented the story, but praised the quality of the motion capture performances.Edge and Eurogamer's Welsh faulted the morality system's lack of story influence. IGN's Ingenito called it "woefully outdated" as evil choices jarred with Delsin's character. He found the system redundant because Delsin's power peaked when he strictly adhered to good or evil play-styles, rather than crossing in-between. GameSpot's Mc Shea felt the binary system lacked a "moral gray area" between good and evil. Polygon's Kollar struggled to connect to his choices as they were polar opposites on a moral compass. OPM's Meikleham found the system had "little to no impact on gameplay". Joystiq's Danny Cowan thought the well-balanced system had equal incentive and drawback tied to Delsin's choices.GameSpot's Mc Shea found Second Son's open world beholden to a dated formula. He described Seattle as "a playground for you to go nuts in" instead of "a living, breathing world", with its citizens existing merely as player fodder. CVG's Hussain said the "hauntingly empty" Seattle's sparse NPCs behaved inanimately. He felt the open world's lifelessness was its biggest detractor, a dichotomy against Grand Theft Auto V, Sleeping Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's superior worlds. Eurogamer's Welsh felt Second Son did not innovate the genre as well as it could have as it leaned too heavily on tropes. Polygon's Kollar felt missions and activities lacked variety, as "virtually all culminate in the goal of beating up more soldiers or thugs". Edge saw little merit in a second play-through as the scarce content was repetitive. "Approach [Second Son] as an action game that just happens to be set in a nonlinear environment and it makes more sense", they wrote. Destructoid's Carter found the amount of content ample, and enjoyed liberating the city and collecting Blast Shards. Tom Watson wrote in New Statesman that Second Son was his £20-£40 game of the year, and justification for his purchasing PlayStation 4 after owning Xbox 360. === Sales === The game sold over one million copies in nine days after its launch, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games as well as the fastest-selling installment in the series. As of June 2019, the game has sold an estimated 6 million copies. == References == == External links == Infamous Second Son entry at PlayStation.com Infamous Paper Trail, an alternate reality game Infamous Second Son at MobyGames Infamous Second Son at IMDb

PS4

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Action role-playing

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a 2020 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. It is the first in a planned trilogy of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. Set in the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar, players control the mercenary Cloud Strife. He joins AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group trying to stop the powerful mega-corporation Shinra from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. The gameplay combines real-time action with strategic and role-playing elements. Remake was announced in 2015 following years of speculation. Several key staff members returned, including character designer Tetsuya Nomura as director, director Yoshinori Kitase as producer, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima as story and scenario writer, event planner Motomu Toriyama as a co-director, and composer Nobuo Uematsu who returned to write the main theme. The staff redesigned the characters to balance realism and stylization. Remake was released for the PlayStation 4 in April 2020. It received positive reviews, with praise for its graphics, gameplay, narrative, and music. Critics praised the expanded story and the updated battle system for its strategic elements and visual flourishes, but the linearity and repetitive sidequests received criticism. Final Fantasy VII Remake became one of the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 games, selling more than 3.5 million copies within three days and over five million by August 2020. An enhanced version, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, was released for the PlayStation 5 and Windows in 2021. A second game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is scheduled for late 2023 or early 2024 for PlayStation 5. == Gameplay == Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first in a planned series of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. It covers the first section of the original game, set in the metropolis Midgar.Players control Cloud Strife, a former Shinra soldier turned mercenary who joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to fight the Shinra Corporation, who have been draining the planet's life energy. Every element has been remade, using real-time polygonal graphics as opposed to the pre-rendered environments of the original. The story includes major expansions to character development and some notable plot additions.Exploration and battle mechanics both take place in real-time, like Final Fantasy XV. The game features an altered Active Time Battle (ATB) system from the original, which gradually fills up slowly, or can fill faster with attacks. Once it is filled, the player can halt the action and use special abilities such as magic, items, and special moves. The player can assign these special abilities to shortcut buttons, allowing them to play in real-time without pausing. Each special ability uses up a segment of the ATB bar. The player can switch between party members at any time during battle. Each party member has their own individual skills, such as Cloud's close-quarters melee attacks and Barret's long-range distance attacks. Players are able to use magic and summons of large creatures, and a Limit Break gauge allows characters to perform more powerful attacks once charged. While the game has more real-time elements, strategic elements still remain, such as selecting weapons and magic for each character to wield. == Plot == Cloud Strife (Cody Christian/Takahiro Sakurai) is a former member of SOLDIER, the elite warriors of the Shinra Electric Power Company. Shinra uses Mako, a refined form of the Planet's spiritual energy harvested by massive reactors, to power the metropolis of Midgar and develop cutting-edge technology. Disillusioned with Shinra, and at the request of his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart (Britt Baron/Ayumi Ito), Cloud takes a mercenary job for Avalanche, an eco-terrorist organization, led by Barret Wallace (John Eric Bentley/Masahiro Kobayashi). Barret believes excessive Mako harvesting harms the planet, leading a bombing attack on a Mako reactor. In the aftermath, Cloud is haunted by memories of Sephiroth (Tyler Hoechlin/Toshiyuki Morikawa), an enigmatic former SOLDIER member, and meets the florist Aerith Gainsborough (Briana White/Maaya Sakamoto). Strange ghost-like entities, who alternately help and hinder Cloud throughout the game, cause him to be recruited for another attack, in which he goes missing in action. Cloud meets Aerith again and protects her from Shinra forces. After they reunite with Tifa, the trio learns that Shinra plans to collapse a piece of the "plate" onto the Sector 7 slums. Avalanche fails to stop Shinra's plan, and the plate falls. Aerith helps most of the population and Barret's daughter Marlene evacuate in time, but is captured by Shinra. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret infiltrate Shinra headquarters and rescue Aerith from being used as an experiment by Shinra scientist Hojo (James Sie/Shigeru Chiba). She reveals that she is the last descendant of the Cetra, a near-extinct precursor race who resided in a "Promised Land", which Shinra covets for its boundless Mako reserves. The group meets a talking wolf-like creature called Red XIII (Max Mittelman/Kappei Yamaguchi), who explains that the ghostly entities are called Whispers. They exist to ensure that the course of destiny is not altered, by correcting any deviations from this course. Meanwhile, Sephiroth infiltrates Shinra and steals a mysterious entity known as "Jenova", connected to the extinction of the Cetra. In a confrontation at the top of Shinra headquarters, Sephiroth murders the president of Shinra. Shinra's son Rufus (Josh Bowman/Tōru Ōkawa) assumes control of the company and fights Cloud, but is defeated. Cloud and his allies flee the scene via the Midgar Expressway, but find Sephiroth waiting for them at the end. After defeating Whisper Harbinger, an entity formed by an amalgam of Whispers, Cloud's group battles Sephiroth. Sephiroth separates Cloud from the group, asking him to join him and defy fate. Cloud refuses and fights Sephiroth, but is defeated, although Sephiroth spares him and departs. Meanwhile, as Cloud's group leaves Midgar to stop Sephiroth, SOLDIER Zack Fair (Caleb Pierce/Kenichi Suzumura) defeats an army of Shinra forces, and departs with Cloud to Midgar.Intergrade adds additional ending scenes showing Cloud and his group arriving at the village of Kalm after hitching a ride with Chocobo Bill, and Zack entering the Sector 5 church searching for Aerith. === Intermission === Shortly after the bombing of Mako Reactor 5, Yuffie Kisaragi (Suzie Yeung/Yumi Kakazu), a ninja working for Wutai, arrives at Midgar and meets up with her partner Sonon Kusakabe (Aleks Le/Yoshimasa Hosoya) in order to steal Shinra's "Ultimate Materia". With the help of a local Avalanche cell, Yuffie and Sonon infiltrate the lab under Shinra headquarters and fight through Shinra's forces before discovering that the Ultimate Materia is not yet complete. As they try to escape, they are confronted by a Shinra supersoldier named Nero (Sean Chiplock/Ryōtarō Okiayu). Outmatched, Sonon sacrifices himself to ensure Yuffie can escape. She leaves Shinra headquarters just in time to see the Sector 7 plate fall. Some time later, Yuffie has left Midgar and muses that in order to achieve her desire to see Shinra's downfall, she will need a team to help her. == Development == === Background === Final Fantasy VII was developed by Square for the PlayStation console and released in 1997. Its staff included producer, co-writer and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, director and co-writer Yoshinori Kitase, artist Yusuke Naora, character designer and co-writer Tetsuya Nomura, and writer Kazushige Nojima. The game was a critical and commercial success, and established the Final Fantasy series as a major franchise. It was expanded through the multimedia project Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, comprising additional games, films, and other media.In the early 2000s, Square announced a remake for PlayStation 2 alongside Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX, but nothing further was heard of the project. It was abandoned because of the increased challenge of developing on new hardware and would have necessitated cutting content. The staff were preoccupied with developing Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels, and Remake would have been an equally large or larger project hard to undertake at the same time. Once the XIII series ended, the team was free to pursue other projects. Kitase claims that since the XIII, he had been asked multiple times about developing this game. Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi was originally just a fan of the game so he was glad about his inclusion into the core development team.Demand for a remake grew following a PlayStation 3 tech demo at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, showcasing the opening of Final Fantasy VII with Square's new Crystal Tools engine. Further demand came during the game's impending tenth anniversary in 2007. On both occasions, Square denied that any remake was in development, for reasons including their focus on new games, the necessity to cut elements to make a remake manageable, the difficulty of developing for modern hardware, and the amount of development time it would require.The Remake project began when Final Fantasy producer Shinji Hashimoto broached the subject to Kitase, Nojima, and Nomura. All three were reaching a stage of life that they defined as "that age": all felt that if they waited much longer, they might not be alive to or would be too old to develop a remake, and passing the project on to a new generation did not feel right. Another reason for developing the remake was that Square Enix was creating a growing library of PlayStation 4 titles, and the team hoped to increase the console's popularity. Nomura was appointed as director much to his own surprise when it was decided to create the remake but he was busy with the making of the video game Kingdom Hearts III at that time. === Design === The game entered full production by late 2015, led by Business Division 1, an internal production team within Square Enix. While Nomura was involved with the project from the start, he only discovered he was the director after seeing himself credited in an internal company presentation video, as he had expected Kitase to fill the role. Nomura filled the role director for both Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III concurrently. Another project leader was Naoki Hamaguchi, who had previously served as a programmer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project lead for Mobius Final Fantasy. Square Enix approached developing Remake at the same level as a main numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series.While the team had the option of simply remastering Final Fantasy VII with better graphics as many fans had requested, they noted that its graphics and many of its mechanics had become dated by modern standards. With this in mind, they decided to do a full remake, rebuilding the game systems to suit contemporary tastes and using current gaming technology to recreate the world. An overarching goal of the project was to make the game feel both "new and nostalgic" for players of the original game while exemplifying the idea of Final Fantasy VII for new players. This decision led to the creation of Remake's action-based battle system, which draws from that action-based style of Dissidia Final Fantasy. Teruki Endo, who had previously worked on Monster Hunter World, served as battle director. The team aimed to retain all of the gameplay mechanics popular in the original game, including Active Time Battle, while merging them with the action-based system.Rather than using the character models and graphical style of Advent Children, which by that point had been developed using ten-year-old technology, the team decided to create new designs and models for characters: Nomura wished to balance the realism of Advent Children with cartoon stylization. Nomura was in charge of the revamped main character designs, while designer Roberto Ferrari was in charge of designs for secondary characters. Character modeling was supervised by Visual Works, Square Enix's CGI development branch. Cloud Strife's initial redesign for Final Fantasy VII Remake departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's original concept. Tifa Lockhart's original appearance was changed to make her look more realistic as members from the staff realized her design would not fit fight scenes.Instead of creating a new engine, Square Enix licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 to develop the game, with Square Enix and Epic Games Japan working together to optimize the engine for Remake. The team received technical assistance from the developers of Kingdom Hearts III, as the latter game was developed using the same engine. The game's lighting is augmented with the lighting engine Enlighten. To help with the action gameplay and video quality, Square Enix originally partnered with video game developer CyberConnect2, with the two companies keeping in close contact due to different development styles.In 2017, the game's development focus shifted from being developed with external partners to being a primarily internal project. When the company first started the Remake project, the team had to decide the entire scope of the project. There were two directions possible: expand upon the original with multiple releases or include the entire scope of the original game in a single release. The team starts by investigating what were the essential parts of the original and what parts are what the fans absolutely had to see; they quickly decided that there were so many parts that are essential and the fans would be upset if the team had to cut out anything. A single release with more depth would not be possible without cutting out parts of the original story. In the end, the team decided the best option for the project was to go for the highest level possible (such as within the city of Midgar, which was mostly inaccessible in the original) with an expanded story in multiple releases. Each game is planned to be on a similar scale to Final Fantasy XIII. The first part focuses on the city of Midgar due to its iconic status among the Final Fantasy community.Regarding the scope for the first part of the Remake, Nomura mentioned that many were worried about how the company would be able to make a whole game based solely on Midgar, but he didn't think it would be a problem. Nomura said it takes about 7 hours to go through the Midgar section in the original game. Going through the same gameplay in the Remake with 3D map in Midgar and new scenario, plus the time it takes to go from one point to another adds up. So the overall gameplay of the Remake would be well enough to cover a whole game. The story and scenario writer, Nojima, also added that stopping the game at the end of Midgar would also allow for an adequate amount of story scenarios to be put in as well. Nomura further added that level designs would have to change again after the party leaves Midgar. If the developers were to do that, they would also have to split up other scenarios and even if they add new gameplay, it would have to end in an abrupt point of the story. That’s why they felt that if they had everything focused in Midgar, they wouldn’t have to split up any of the story elements that happen there. === Scenario === While developing the scenario, the team needed to work carefully, so the game did not appear too nostalgic. They needed to make decisions about what could be carried over from the original and what needed adjustment due to changes in social norms since the original's release. Despite there already being a story in place, which greatly simplified production on some fronts, Nojima was brought back in to create new story material. The scenario for the first part was completed in December 2015, covering the beginning of the game to the escape from Midgar. Kitase observed that despite 23 years passing since the original game was released, the themes of economic inequality, corporate monopoly, and environmentalism were still relevant to the current day. Nomura expressed regret that other areas of Midgar, such as the upper plate, were inaccessible in the original game and wanted to address that in Remake in order to give players a better sense of the city and its culture. The roles of previously minor characters were also expanded for this purpose.Despite being marketed as a remake, the narrative has multiple changes from the original game, such as Barret being attacked by the antagonist Sephiroth and saved by a Whisper. Sephiroth appears during the Midgar scenario despite not being properly introduced until a flashback Cloud experiences. Vice noted that Cloud sees the future of Aerith in the original 1997 game, leaving her fate unknown to returning fans. Yoshinori Kitase refrained from explaining the reason for the changes from the narrative: "I want to let you know is that all of the lore from the works created after the original game, the [Compilation of Final Fantasy VII], that's all very much in the base of the canon for the remake, and going forward it will be too."The main characters were adjusted in various ways for Remake. Rather than the "cool and collected" Cloud as seen in other games, Remake depicts his apathetic attitude as a façade to mask his insecurities. Nojima wanted to convey that his standoffishness could be seen as lame. Cloud's initial redesign for Remake departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's design. Tifa's desire for revenge against Shinra is complicated by her reluctance to enact violence. Barret's passion and charisma rallies other characters to follow his lead. Nojima worked hard to make the interactions between these three natural. It was important to Hamaguchi to include a scene wherein Cloud has an intimate conversation with one of his teammates based on the player's choices in homage to the "date" scene from the original game. The development team avoided playing favorites between Tifa and Aerith, treating them both as main heroes. In addition to returning characters, the team decided to expand the role of minor characters and write new characters. Cloud's interactions with AVALANCHE members Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie further his character development and deepen the world of the story. Sephiroth was initially intended to be a looming presence, inspired by the shark in Jaws, to mirror his role in this section of the original game. However, Kitase reasoned that the original's Jaws-like approach would be ineffective because even new players were too familiar with the character. Hamaguchi pitched an alternate ending in which Cloud faces off with Sephiroth, which led to him appearing more and more in the remake.The game is fully voiced, with the original plan being for the voice actors from the CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children to reprise their roles. Ultimately, the English characters were recast for Remake. According to Kitase, choosing a new generation of voices for the characters was part of the game's rebirth as Remake. The Japanese voice actors remained the same with Takahiro Sakurai being surprised by this younger take on Cloud, having not played Cloud in the original unvoiced PlayStation video game. For the English dub, Cody Christian commented on replacing Steve Burton voicing Cloud, stating, "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy" and thus wanted to not let Burton down with his take on the character. John Eric Bentley voiced Barret, a character he admired when he played the 1997 game. He felt his familiarity with the original work improved his performance, aided by the translators who explained the context for his scenes. He wanted his portrayal of Barret to be multifaceted and serve as a positive example of Black representation in games. Briana White (Aerith) studied Maaya Sakamoto's acting in order to appeal to fans. Meanwhile, Britt Baron had little knowledge of Tifa when being cast but grew to like her character. Other prominent actors include Erica Lindbeck (Jessie), Gideon Emery (Biggs), and Matt Jones (Wedge). The game employs an algorithm to adjust characters' facial motions while speaking in order to automatically match lip syncing and emotion in every language. === Music === The game's soundtrack consists primarily of arrangements of pieces Nobuo Uematsu wrote for the original Final Fantasy VII, with original tracks by several other series veterans, such as Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki. Uematsu contributed one new track: the theme song for the game, "Hollow". It was the first time Uematsu and Kitase had worked together since Final Fantasy X (2001), with Kitase initially believing Uematsu would refuse as he had long since left Square Enix and found success as an independent composer. Nomura intended "Hollow" to reflect Cloud's state of mind; he wanted it to be a rock song with male vocals and an image of "rain". It was performed by Yosh, the vocalist for Survive Said the Prophet. Hamauzu also expressed honor in doing the music alongside Uematsu, as the original game was his first exposure to the series. Suzuki stated that the themes for Wall Market, Honeybee Inn, and Midgar Highway were among his favorite contributions.Remake employs adaptive music in its gameplay wherein multiple arrangements of a particular track are played simultaneously, which fade in and out with the player's actions, such as entering or exiting a battle. Arrangements also shift within a battle depending on the emotions the developers wanted players to experience from moment to moment. Because cutscenes in Remake have voiced dialogue, the sound team needed to rearrange some tracks to accommodate this change but they were careful to preserve the original melodies. == Release == Following years of rumors and fan requests, Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced during Sony's conference at E3 2015. Visual Works created the announcement trailer. Square Enix's stock prices rose to their highest rating since November 2008, and the YouTube release of the reveal trailer garnered over 10 million views in the following two weeks. The game was next showcased at the 2015 PlayStation Experience, demonstrating cutscenes and gameplay from the opening sequence.During the Final Fantasy 30th anniversary opening ceremony event hosted by Square Enix in Tokyo on January 31, 2017 – the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII — the game's first piece of CGI key art was unveiled, along with announcements for a collaboration event with Mobius Final Fantasy. On February 18, Nomura revealed two screenshots, showing off the updated HUD. Due to its lack of footage since 2015, switch to internal development, and other projects Nomura was involved in, there were concerns about the status of the project. Speaking following E3 2018, Nomura stated that the game was in development, with his full attention shifted to it when Kingdom Hearts III was completed.After years without substantial footage, a teaser trailer was shown during PlayStation's May 2019 State of Play broadcast. Kitase announced that the team had wanted to "try something new" on the State of Play broadcast by showing the trailer. The release date, March 3, 2020, was revealed the following month in a second teaser trailer during an orchestral concert dedicated to the music of Final Fantasy VII in Los Angeles. Further release details were announced at the company's E3 2019 press conference, including different editions of Remake. Kitase later clarified at the event that Square Enix had yet to determine the number of games in the Remake series, adding that they were in the process of planning the second installment.An extended gameplay showcase and demo was playable at E3 2019, demonstrating parts of the opening mission, including some of the exploration, combat system, and first boss battle. The playable demo received positive reception in early previews, with praise towards the graphics, gameplay and combat system. At E3 2019, it won three awards at the Game Critics Awards for Best of Show, Best Console Game, and Best Role-Playing Game, as well as the best looking Unreal Engine game at E3 2019. Extended footage of the demo, as well as an additional trailer, was featured at the 2019 Tokyo Game Show. In December 2019, it was announced that the game would be a timed PlayStation 4 exclusive until 2021, with no further details about its release on other platforms. In January 2020, the team decided to push the release date back from March 3 to April 10, 2020. A demo was released on the PlayStation Store on March 2, 2020, covering the first chapter.On March 30, 2020, Square Enix announced that Europe and Australia would receive physical copies of Final Fantasy VII Remake early, due to growing concerns of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on distribution. This did not apply to downloads, as they were not directly affected by the global supply chain. Artwork of Cloud was used on buildings in Los Angeles to promote the game.In June 2020, a scene from Final Fantasy VII Remake was reproduced for the 8-bit NEC PC-88 computer by Japanese programmer Soba P.On February 25, 2021, as part of Sony's State of Play stream, Square Enix announced an upgraded version of Remake for the PlayStation 5 titled Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, including improved visuals and shorter load times, to be available at no additional cost to owners of the PS4 version. Also announced was a PS5-exclusive expansion titled Episode Intermission featuring the playable character Yuffie Kisaragi, who does not appear in the Midgar segment of the original game. The expansion is included with the purchase of Intergrade, but must be purchased separately if using the free upgrade from the PS4 version. Intergrade adds the ability to use traditional turn-based controls while in the game's normal difficulty mode, a photo mode, and better overall performance in framerate and resolution; it was released on June 10, 2021.In May 2021, news outlets reported that Square Enix was in the midst of making a Final Fantasy VII anime series in partnership with Netflix. No release date was mentioned in the reports.At The Game Awards 2021, Square Enix announced that a port of Intergrade would be released for Windows on December 16, 2021, via the Epic Games Store. While anticipation was high, the port was heavily criticised by players and critics alike due to lacklustre setting customisation and severe stuttering, both stemming from a lack of optimisation. It was released on Steam on June 17, 2022.In June 2022, Square Enix announced that Remake was the first in a planned trilogy of games remaking Final Fantasy VII; the second part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is planned for late 2023 or early 2024. Additionally, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion was announced, which is a remaster of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII; it is considered a prequel to the larger Final Fantasy VII Remake project, and will be released in December 2022. == Reception == Final Fantasy VII Remake received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic, with critics praising its faithfulness to the original game. Tamoor Hussain of GameSpot states that, while Remake is only the initial entry in a full reimagining of the original game, "It is rich in details that were previously unexplored, realizes new storytelling ambitions with confidence, and presents fresh perspectives that feel both meaningful and essential." To summarize, he says it "tells a smaller, more personal Final Fantasy 7 tale and marries it with a smart mashup of action and RPG gameplay to deliver a must-play experience." Tom Marks of IGN calls the game a "complete reinvention", praising the combat system. Nahila Bonfiglio of The Daily Dot regarded it as one of the best games of 2020 based on multiple aspects that would appeal to the audience. EGM claimed the game was captivating like the original. Eurogamer also highly regarded the remake, to the point of finding it superior to the original title.The narrative was praised for the characters and their arcs. IGN called its "story fleshed out with real emotional arcs", praising its nostalgic feel, but criticized the game for having "filler" and sometimes convoluted new plot points and side missions. The reviewer stated that "Final Fantasy VII Remake's dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own." Shacknews stated the story in the remake is one of the strongest ever achieved by the company. Despite noting his antisocial attitudes in the remake, IGN and GameSpot commented that Cloud has the most notable arc in Remake, with Cody Christian's performance helping to improve his appeal. His interactions with the cast and the expansion of the minor characters in Avalanche was also well received by Easy Allies. The idea that there are four characters with Sephiroth's name led VG247 to note the remake still had its own mysteries that even players of the original would not know. Destructoid agreed about the cast, most notably Aerith, noting her fun characterization. The handling of the city of Midgar was praised by Game Informer due to the presence of the company of Shinra and the poor status of civilians, while expanding on the lore of the original game. EGMNOW praised the themes of ecoterrorism and war and the prominent role Midgar played in the storyline, while also exploring Avalanche's minor characters. The reviewer also felt the antagonist, Sephiroth, was more menacing in Remake, due to his constant threats towards Cloud. Eurogamer noted the new narrative elements of the title, but was uncertain whether these changes would be for better or worse.Critical response to the combat has been positive, partly due to the strategy needed and the distinctive fighting style of each playable character, such as Cloud wielding a sword, in contrast to Barret's shooting from afar. Destructoid also praised the gameplay for using a new system, rather than relying on nostalgia mechanics. GameSpot praised the evolution of the gameplay features from the 1997 original by the addition of new elements. GamesRadar also praised the combat for the strategy required, due to each enemy having a weakness, and the variety among the characters thanks to their unique traits. RPGamer praised both the return of Materia used to provide magic attacks and the addition of upgradeable weapons in order to let players decide which equipment they want to use. RPGamer felt that Remake relied on "padding" to expand on the areas of the game, which they considered linear for the genre. Game Informer agreed, as although Cloud is initially the only playable character, Tifa can also be controlled and execute her own techniques. They also praised the balance between strategy and style.GamesRadar criticized some of the sidequests in the game as lackluster. While noting the linearity of Midgar, Game Informer praised the fact that the players can interact with citizens. EGM claimed that some quests had too much padding, citing an example where the player has to constantly change the playable character to open multiple doors in the Shinra headquarters. Easy Allies said that despite the linear gameplay, the reviewers finished the game in 38 hours, and still had plenty of quests left to complete. Shacknews said that despite the linear nature of the game, he appreciated the warnings the game gives to the players when they are about to irrevocably move on with the main quest, allowing them to still complete sidequests instead. The Daily Dot praised "the exquisite level design with seamless mechanics, addicting gameplay and rousing battles". === Sales === Final Fantasy VII Remake sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide within three days. This made it one of the biggest launches for a PlayStation 4 game and the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive, surpassing the launch sales of Marvel's Spider-Man (3.3 million; 2018) and God of War (3.1 million; 2018). By August 2020, that figure had increased to over 5 million on PS4.In Japan, Final Fantasy VII Remake sold over a million copies during its first week, with the game sold out in many stores.In North America, Remake was the top-selling game of April 2020 and the third best-selling game of 2020, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020). It became the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title in the franchise's history, surpassing the launch record previously set by Final Fantasy XV (2016), and was the most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in the United States.In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at the top of the weekly sales chart, selling an estimated 60,000 physical copies in its first weekend. German trade association GAME announced that it took Final Fantasy VII Remake only a few days to sell more than 100,000 units within Germany, for which it won a Gold Sales Award. It was the fourth most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in Europe. === Awards === Final Fantasy VII Remake won the overall "Game of Show award" from E3 2019. After its release, the game also won the Editors’ Choice awards from PlayStation. In the CEDEC Awards, the game won in the "Excellency Award for Sound" category. It was later nominated for six awards at The Game Awards, including Game of the Year. It won in the two categories "Best RPG" and "Best Score/Music". It also won IGN Japan's Game of the Year in 2020. Both Anime News Network and Siliconera and RPG Site also listed it as one of the best games from its year.Final Fantasy VII Remake also won the "Soundtrack Album of the Year" award at the 35th Japan Gold Disc Award, and the "Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. == Further reading == Final Fantasy VII Remake: World Preview. El Segundo: Square Enix. 2020. ISBN 978-16-4609-084-6. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Material Ultimania. El Segundo: Square Enix. 2021. ISBN 978-16-4609-121-8. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Material Ultimania Plus. El Segundo: Square Enix. 2022. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Intergrade Official website Final Fantasy VII Remake at IMDb

PS4

Monster Hunter: World

Action role-playing

Monster Hunter (モンスターハンター, Monsutā Hantā) is a Japanese media franchise centered around a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game Monster Hunter for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms, including personal computers, home consoles, portable consoles, and mobile devices. The series is developed and published by Capcom. The games are primarily action role-playing games. The player takes the role of a Hunter, slaying or trapping large monsters across various landscapes as part of quests given to them by locals, with some quests involving the gathering of a certain item or items, which may put the Hunter at risk of facing various monsters. As part of its core gameplay loop, players use loot gained from slaying monsters, gathering resources, and quest rewards to craft improved weapons, armor, and other items that allow them to face more powerful monsters. All main series titles feature multiplayer (usually up to four players cooperatively), but can also be played single player. As of September 30, 2022, the game series has sold 88 million units worldwide, and is Capcom's second best-selling series following Resident Evil. The early games in the series principally sold well in Japan and other Asian countries, popularized by the series' use of ad hoc multiplayer features on portable consoles. Monster Hunter has been critically well-received in Western markets, but had generally languished in sales, in part due to the game's steep learning curve. However, with Monster Hunter: World (2018), Capcom aimed to attract a global audience using the power of advanced home gaming consoles and computers and released the title simultaneously worldwide. World became the best-selling Monster Hunter game within three days of its release, and became Capcom's single best-selling video game of all time with 21 million sales as of July 5, 2022, including more than 70% outside of Japan. In addition to games, the franchise has an anime based on the spinoff game Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village, Monster Hunter Stories: Ride On based on the spinoff title Monster Hunter Stories, a manga Monster Hunter Orage, and a book Monster Hunter Episode. A feature film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson was released on December 3, 2020. An animated film, subtitled Legends of the Guild, was released on August 12, 2021 on Netflix. == Setting == Monster Hunter takes place in a shared low fantasy setting, where the human-like species have a pre-industrial level of technology such as steam power, but continue to study the ruins of a long-past advanced civilization. In the setting's less populated regions, monsters roam the landscape and threaten small villages or research bases that have been established to study the ruins and these monsters. Players take the role of a Hunter that serves to help protect the villages and bases from these monsters, typically aiding in researching these. == Gameplay == The core feature of Monster Hunter is its compulsion loop. Unlike traditional computer role-playing games, a player's Hunter does not grow and has no intrinsic statistics or attributes whatsoever. Rather, the Hunter's abilities are instead defined by the specific weapons and armor selected. The player can equip weapons, armor, and items most beneficial towards completing a given mission, and if successful, the Hunter is awarded in both in-game money ("zenny") and loot representing parts from the monster. These parts, along with other resources collected while on missions or through mission rewards, can be used to forge or upgrade new weapons and armor which then can be used in against more powerful monsters and tackle more difficult missions, completing the compulsion loop. Harder missions are typically restricted by a hunter's rank, which cumulatively increases as the player completes specific missions designated by the quest giver. Mission rewards are often generated randomly, often requiring the player to grind the same monster repeatedly to get the right parts. Weapons and armor have intrinsic bonuses or penalties towards certain types of elemental or physical damages, and may provide special skills which can be fine-tuned through the mix-and-matching of equipment pieces.The games feature a variety of different weapon classes, ranging from swords, hammers, and bows, with the most recent titles (Generations, World, and Rise) having a total of fourteen classes. Each weapon class has a unique set of combat maneuvers and reflect a number of different play styles based on speed of attack, damage strength, range and the application of buffs and debuffs to monsters and allies. Monster Hunter games use an "animation priority" combat, committing the player to a move until the animation is completed and leaving them potentially vulnerable to a monster's attack. Further, players are encouraged to watch their Hunter's health and stamina. Losing all health will force a retreat to a base camp, and after three such retreats, the mission is deemed a failure. Performing most combat actions consumes stamina, which recovers in a short amount of time; once exhausted of stamina, the Hunter becomes vulnerable as they pause to catch their breath. Monsters and other environmental hazards can also inflict blights and other negative status effects that impair combat abilities. Combat is centered around watching for a monster's tells prior to an attack to be able to dodge it and/or make a counterattack, and looking for openings to unleash strings of attack combos, depending on the Hunter's current weapon. Unlike most other action games, Monster Hunter fights have been compared to a series of boss fights.Nearly all Monster Hunter games have a single-player mode; in these, the Hunter is often accompanied by a Felyne or Palico, a sentient cat-like creature that provides support and limited offensive abilities in combat. Most Monster Hunter games released with support for four-player cooperative online modes, allowing the group to hunt down stronger versions of monsters, though this support has since been disabled in older games. The games typically have a main quest line, frequently called "Low Rank" or "Village Quests", which can take up to fifty hours to complete. Once completed, the game opens up with new "High Rank" or "Gathering Hall" quests, featuring stronger versions of monsters they have previously faced, as well as new monsters are yet seen and unique variants of these foes, all of which provide better components for more powerful weapons and armor sets, providing hundreds of hours of potential gameplay following the main quest. Most, if not all titles have a third rank of difficulty ("G Rank" or "Master Rank"), released after the base game. These add more monsters, locations, weapons and armour sets to the game. == History == The first Monster Hunter game was one of three titles Capcom had developed to take advantage of the processing power and online capabilities of the PlayStation 2, which according to Ryozo Tsujimoto, who has been the series' producer since Monster Hunter Freedom 2, had begun to match arcade games in capabilities; the other two such titles were Auto Modellista and Resident Evil Outbreak. Tsujimoto considered Monster Hunter to be the culmination of the work of these other two titles once it was released. He also felt that the game was intended for such cooperative play so that players of any skill level, working with others, could feel accomplished in taking down giant creatures. Monster Hunter proved a success, selling over 1 million copies, principally in Japan. Enhanced versions of the early games, adding more difficult monsters and end-game quests, were released with a "G" affixed to the end (such as Monster Hunter G for the first such game); for those titles that were released in Western regions, these were often, though not always, affixed with the Ultimate moniker. A second team worked to develop a series for the PlayStation Portable. These games often had a more lighthearted tone and expanded upon the palicoe system. In Japan, these games were released under the "Portable" title, while in the west they were released under the "Freedom" title. Even after these naming conventions were abandoned, this established the general tradition of one team releasing games for home consoles and a separate team releasing a portable game a few years later.The series took off explosively in Japan with Monster Hunter G and Monster Hunter Portable/Freedom on the PlayStation Portable and even more so once its sequels Monster Hunter Dos, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd/Freedom 2 and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G/Freedom Unite were released which supported up to four players. Handheld systems are generally more popular in Japan and due to the country's high population density, it was easy to find players to hunt cooperatively with, making it a phenomenon there. James Miekle, writing for PC Gamer, had worked for Q Entertainment and lived in Japan during the release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, which was the best selling PlayStation Portable game of all time and described how even during work, impromptu Monster Hunter sessions would break out between employees and there was extensive marketing of Monster Hunter branded consumer goods.While Monster Hunter had been successful in Japan, its popularity in Western markets (primarily North America and Europe) languished. In contrast to the Japanese culture, Western markets favored home consoles and computers during the mid-2000s and because of a thinner population density, most players relied on Internet-based gaming rather than local ad hoc networking. The series also struggled with a difficult learning curve that had made the games off-putting in Western markets.The series had little popularity in the West until the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Nintendo 3DS, a console that had gained a sizable foothold in Western markets. While Monster Hunter's popularity in the West was still to a niche group, Capcom saw the potential for more growth there and took steps to better localize the next few titles to make the series more attractive; Monster Hunter 4 was the first game in the series to break one million sales in Western markets. Capcom recognized there was still room for further growth of the series there; in an October 2016 interview, Capcom chairman Kenzo Tsujimoto said they were looking towards increasing the popularity of the games in the Western markets, recognizing that gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have dominance in these regions over handhelds. Monster Hunter: World, the series's first major entry targeting home consoles and computers, was developed to be more alluring for Western markets without trying to make the game simpler. A number of changes in gameplay were made that took advantage of the consoles' new technology; notably, while the prior games had split each hunting area into different zones as necessitated by limits of the console hardware, World's used seamless zones and several changes to gameplay were made to account for this. World became the series' best selling game, achieving more than 21 million units sold by 2022 and making the Monster Hunter series Capcom's best-selling series following Resident Evil.With the success of the changes to the formula defined by World, Capcom decided to continue this approach with the series' next major title, Monster Hunter Rise for the Nintendo Switch. == Games == Below is a list of games in the Monster Hunter main series. Each generation has a number of entries that are derivative of the original release. While the first four main titles were numbered, the subsequent installments, starting with World, use a keyword instead of a number to reflect a central concept for that game. === Main series === === Spinoffs === == Reception == Since the series debuted, Monster Hunter has sold 88 million units across all titles by September 30, 2022. It is Capcom's second highest-selling series, following Resident Evil. Total worldwide sales for Monster Hunter games exceeding 1 million units, through September 30, 2022. are listed below: == Other media == === Video games === A female Monster Hunter appeared as a playable character via downloadable content in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. The game also features a stage called "Valkanda", which combines Val Habar from the fourth installment with Wakanda from the Marvel universe. Rathalos and Tigrex, two of the series' flagship monsters, make a cameo appearance in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on hunting missions. Rathalos appeared as a special event monster to fight in Final Fantasy XIV as part of a cross-promotional event with Monster Hunter: World, with the Behemoth appearing in World in return. In 2018, Rathalos also appeared as a boss character and a summonable Assist Trophy in the crossover fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while several Mii Fighter costumes based on Monster Hunter were added post-launch in March 2021 a few weeks ahead of Rise's release. In 2020, Rathalos made a limited appearance in Cygames' mobile title Dragalia Lost as part of an in-game event.The Monster Hunter games themselves have offered crossover events with other Capcom and third-party properties, allowing users during the event to earn armor and weapons inspired by the other property. For example, Monster Hunter World has had promotional events that include Resident Evil, Mega Man, Assassin's Creed, and The Witcher series. === Anime === A series of anime shorts titled MonHun Nikki Girigiri Airū-mura Airū Kiki Ippatsu (ja:モンハン日記 ぎりぎりアイルー村) was broadcast beginning August 10, 2010. A sequel, MonHun Nikki Girigiri Airū-mura G, was produced. An anime series based on the franchise premiered on October 2, 2016. === Manga and comics === A manga titled Monster Hunter Orage was published jointly by Kodansha and Capcom in April 2008. The author of the manga is Hiro Mashima. There are four volumes total with the last volume published on May 4, 2009. An English release of Monster Hunter Orage first took place on June 28, 2011. Elements from Monster Hunter were later included in the Worlds Unite comic crossover from Archie Comics, which featured several other Capcom and Sega franchises making guest appearances in the previously running Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man comic lines. === Card game === A trading card game titled Monster Hunter Hunting Card was released in October 2008 with periodic updates planned. === Film === A film based on the series has been in conception since 2012 by director Paul W. S. Anderson. The film was formally announced by Capcom in October 2018, with production starting that month with Impact Pictures and Constantin Film and was released in the United Kingdom and China on December 4, 2020. The film is based on a United Nations task force falling into an alternate dimension where Hunters fight off monsters and the force joins the Hunters to prevent monsters from returning through the portal to Earth. The film starred Milla Jovovich, Ron Perlman, T.I. Harris, Diego Boneta and Tony Jaa. === Animated film === In 2018, Capcom and Pure Imagination Studios announced that they are working on a 3D animated film Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild. The special was written by Joshua Fine, and features a fledgling hunter taking down an Elder Dragon. Originally slated for a 2019 release, the film was released on August 12, 2021, on Netflix. == See also == List of Japanese role-playing game franchises God Eater, a video game franchise with a similar gameplay mechanic Freedom Wars Horizon Zero Dawn Soul Sacrifice Toukiden Dauntless, a free-to-play game with a similar gameplay mechanic == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website MonHun Nikki Girigiri Airū-mura Airū Kiki Ippatsu (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

PS4

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Platform

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a 2017 platform game developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision. It is a compilation of remasters of the first three games in the Crash Bandicoot series: Crash Bandicoot (1996), Cortex Strikes Back (1997), and Warped (1998); which were originally developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation. The game was released as a timed exclusive for PlayStation 4 in June 2017, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One being released in June 2018. It received positive reviews from critics, and sold over 10 million copies by February 2019. == Gameplay == Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the Crash Bandicoot series; Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped. Each game features Crash Bandicoot traversing various levels in order to stop Doctor Neo Cortex from taking over the world. Like in the original games, Crash uses spinning and jumping techniques to defeat enemies, smash crates, and collect items such as Wumpa Fruits, extra lives and protective Aku Aku masks. The trilogy adds new features across all three games, including unified checkpoints, pause menus and save systems, including both manual and automatic saving, time trials, which were first introduced in Warped, and the ability to play most levels in each game as Crash's sister, Coco. It also features remastered audio and cutscenes, including new recordings of the games' dialogue given by the franchise's more recent voice actors. == Development and release == Prior to the announcement of the N. Sane Trilogy, the Crash Bandicoot franchise had been on hiatus for approximately six years, the last entry being released in 2010. In a Kotaku interview with then-Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg regarding the future of the Crash series, he said, "I don't have anything official to announce, but I can speak as an individual, I love Crash Bandicoot. Those were some of my favorite video games growing up. And I would love to find a way to bring him back, if we could." Andy Gavin, cofounder of Naughty Dog and co-creator of Crash Bandicoot, has said that he would love to see an HD version of the marsupial's first four games, or even a full blown reboot. Fellow co-creator Jason Rubin, said he was hopeful that Activision would "Bring Crash back to their glory days and that the character is still very dear to fans between 18–49 years". In June 2013, Andy Gavin suggested ways to revitalize the series. "Crash needs a total reboot. There's an opportunity to reset the history, and go back to his creation story and the original conflict with Cortex. In that context, you could reprise classic Crash 1 and 2's settings and villains. It would make sense to use a more modern, free-roaming style. I would concentrate on Looney Tunes-esque animation and really addictive action. That's what we did with the original Crash, and there's no reason it couldn't be done today. Given the current Crash games, people forget that he was once cool. Our Crash had a certain whimsical edge to him. Sure, it was goofy – but it wasn't dumb."In July 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House revealed that they had thought about reviving the Crash Bandicoot series, saying "It's never off the table." At E3 2016 during Sony's press conference, Crash Bandicoot made his return when it was announced, in a timed partnership with Activision, that the first three games from the original PlayStation would be remade from the ground up. Crash would also be a playable character in Activision's then-upcoming toys-to-life game Skylanders: Imaginators, released on October 16, 2016. It was announced at Gamescom 2016 that Dr. Neo Cortex would also be playable in Imaginators, and that a Crash-themed level was created for the game, "Thumpin' Wumpa Islands". The remakes of the original trilogy were developed by Vicarious Visions under the title Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and were released for PlayStation 4 on June 30, 2017. Vicarious Visions has also expressed interest in making a new Crash Bandicoot game following the N. Sane Trilogy's release.Vicarious Visions coined the term "Remaster Plus" to describe the collection, as they did not fully remake the original games, but rather used Naughty Dog's original level geometry to rebuild the gameplay from scratch. As the levels were coming together, they added their own art, animation, and audio. Almost none of the source codes for the original games were available to the developers, as the game engines were specially written for the original PlayStation and Vicarious Visions could not find a way to use it on more powerful systems. Sony and Naughty Dog were able to provide various polygon meshes from the original, although many important elements from these were missing and the team found that "they were compressed in some wacky format that we had to decode". Vicarious Visions looked at various internet communities to make sure they had essences of the games captured. The team had some fans test the game and give notes about it compared to the originals. In April 2017, there was a contest for fans to submit ideas for idle animations for the character, with the winners announced the following month. Two additional levels were added as post-launch downloadable content: Stormy Ascent, a level originally designed for the first game but was cut due to its difficulty, and Future Tense, a brand new level created by Vicarious Visions for the third game. After one year of timed exclusivity, the N. Sane Trilogy was ported to Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on June 29, 2018; which were developed by Iron Galaxy, Toys for Bob, and Vicarious Visions, respectively. The Switch port in particular was not originally intended until a lone engineer at Vicarious Visions successfully ported the game's first level to the platform, proving it was feasible to port the entire trilogy. Sega published the Japanese Switch version on October 18, 2018, while Sony Interactive Entertainment published the Japanese PlayStation 4 version. == Reception == Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy received "generally favorable" reviews from critics across all platforms on which it was released, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised multiple aspects, such as the upgraded graphics, unifying gameplay aspects, and overall faithfulness to the originals. Jonathon Dornbush of IGN lauded the graphics as having "the glow of a Saturday morning cartoon", and noted the addition of time trials to the first two games as a welcome change that "offer[s] plenty of new challenges." Andrew Reiner of Game Informer also praised the addition of time trials, along with the ability to play as Coco and the unified autosave system; additionally, the review noted the technical feat of remastering the games "from the ground up" without the use of Naughty Dog's original source code. Jeuxvideo called the ground-up production "[a] real performance" while also praising "the nostalgia factor" and the rerecorded music.Criticism of the game centered around aspects such as character controls and the original trilogy's pitfalls. Justin Clark of Slant criticized the trilogy as "stultifying in [its] need for absolute precision" and stated that achievements provoked "little reward". Dornbush was less critical of the level design, but noted that the first game was "easily the weakest" for its limited move set, while Ashley Oh of Polygon found some design choices "unforgiving and frustrating" and agreed that there was "no margin of error" in much of the platforming. === Sales === Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was a commercial success, selling over 2.5 million copies in the first three months of its release, increasing to ten million by February 2019. In the United Kingdom, the N. Sane Trilogy was the best-selling game for eight consecutive weeks since its initial release. Its release also saw the biggest launch of a game in the first half of 2017, behind Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. It was also the second-best-selling game in its first month in the US. === Awards === The game won the award for "Best Remake/Remaster" at IGN's 2017 awards, while the readers and staff of Game Informer voted it as the "Best Remastered Action" and "Best Remastered/Remade" game in theirs. It was also nominated for the Tappan Zee Bridge Award for "Best Remake" at the New York Game Awards 2018, and won the award for "Game, Classic Revival" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, whereas its other nomination was for the "Original Light Mix Score, Franchise" category. It was also nominated for "People's Choice" at the Italian Video Game Awards. == Notes == == References == == External links == Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy at MobyGames

PS4

Final Fantasy XV

Action role-playing

Final Fantasy X is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth main entry in the Final Fantasy series. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, the game was re-released as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, for PlayStation 4 in 2015, Microsoft Windows in 2016, and for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019. The game marks the Final Fantasy series transition from entirely pre-rendered backdrops to fully three-dimensional areas (though some areas were still pre-rendered), and is also the first in the series to feature voice acting. Final Fantasy X replaces the Active Time Battle (ATB) system with the "Conditional Turn-Based Battle" (CTB) system, and uses a new leveling system called the "Sphere Grid". Set in the fantasy world of Spira, a setting influenced by the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan, the game's story revolves around a group of adventurers and their quest to defeat a rampaging monster known as Sin. The player character is Tidus, a star athlete in the fictional sport of blitzball, who finds himself in Spira after Sin destroyed his home city of Zanarkand. Shortly after arriving to Spira, Tidus becomes a guardian to summoner Yuna to destroy Sin upon learning its true identity is that of his missing father, Jecht. Development of Final Fantasy X began in 1999, with a budget of more than $32.3 million ($52.5 million in 2021 dollars) and a team of more than 100 people. The game was the first in the main series not entirely scored by Nobuo Uematsu; Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano were signed as Uematsu's fellow composers. Final Fantasy X was both a critical and commercial success, shipping over 8.5 million units worldwide on PlayStation 2. It is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. On March 13, 2003, it was followed by Final Fantasy X-2, making it the first Final Fantasy game to have a direct game sequel. As of September 2021, the Final Fantasy X series had sold over 20.8 million units worldwide, and at the end of March 2022 had surpassed 21.1 million. == Gameplay == Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X is presented in a third-person perspective, with players directly navigating the main character, Tidus, around the world to interact with objects and people. Unlike previous games, however, the world and town maps have been fully integrated, with terrain outside of cities rendered to scale. As Tidus explores the world, he randomly encounters enemies. When an enemy is encountered, the environment switches to a turn-based battle area where characters and enemies await their turn to attack.The gameplay of Final Fantasy X differs from that of previous Final Fantasy games in its lack of a top-down perspective world map. Earlier games featured a miniature representation of the expansive areas between towns and other distinct locations, used for long-distance traveling. In Final Fantasy X, almost all the locations are essentially continuous and never fade out to a world map. Regional connections are mostly linear, forming a single path through the game's locations, though an airship becomes available late in the game, giving the player the ability to navigate Spira faster. Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X features numerous minigames, most notably the fictional underwater sport "blitzball". === Combat === Final Fantasy X introduces the Conditional Turn-Based Battle system in place of the series' traditional Active Time Battle system first used in Final Fantasy IV. Whereas the ATB concept features real-time elements, the CTB system is a turn-based format that pauses the battle during each of the player's turns. Thus, the CTB design allows the player to select an action without time pressure. A graphical timeline along the upper-right side of the screen details who will be receiving turns next, and how various actions taken will affect the subsequent order of turns. The ordering of turns can be affected by a number of spells, items, and abilities that inflict status effects upon the controlled characters or the enemies. The player can control up to three characters in battle, though a swapping system allows the player to replace them with a character outside the active party at any time. "Limit Breaks", highly damaging special attacks, reappear in Final Fantasy X as "Overdrives". In this new incarnation of the feature, most of the techniques are interactive, requiring button inputs to increase their effectiveness. While initially the Overdrives can be used when the character receives a significant amount of damage, the player is able to modify the requirements to unlock them.Final Fantasy X introduces an overhaul of the summoning system employed in previous games of the series. Whereas in previous titles a summoned creature would arrive, perform one action, and then depart, the "Aeons" of Final Fantasy X arrive and entirely replace the battle party, fighting in their place until either the aeon wins the battle, is defeated itself, or is dismissed by the player. Aeons have their own statistics, commands, special attacks, spells, and Overdrives. The player acquires five aeons over the course of the game through the completion of Cloister of Trials puzzles, but three additional aeons can be obtained by completing various side-quests. === Sphere Grid === As with previous titles in the series, players have the opportunity to develop and improve their characters by defeating enemies and acquiring items, though the traditional experience point system is replaced by a new system called the "Sphere Grid". Instead of characters gaining pre-determined statistic bonuses for their attributes after leveling up, each character gains "Sphere Levels" after collecting enough Ability Points (AP). Sphere Levels allow players to move around the Sphere Grid, a pre-determined grid of interconnected nodes consisting of various statistic and ability bonuses. "Spheres" are applied to these nodes, unlocking its function for the selected character.The Sphere Grid system also allows players to fully customize characters in contrast to their intended battle roles, such as turning the White Mage-roled Yuna into a physical powerhouse and the swordsman Auron into a healer. The International and PAL versions of the game include an optional "Expert" version of the Sphere Grid; in these versions, all of the characters start in the middle of the grid and may follow whichever path the player chooses. As a trade-off, the Expert grid has fewer nodes in total, thus decreasing the total statistic upgrades available during the game. === Blitzball === Blitzball is a minigame that requires strategy and tactics. The underwater sport is played in a large, hovering sphere of water surrounded by a larger audience of onlookers. The player controls one character at a time as they swim through the sphere performing passes, tackles, and attempts to score. The gameplay is similar to that of the main game in the way that the controlled character moves through the area until they encounter an enemy. In this case, the enemy is a member of the opposing team. Status effects are also implemented in the minigame as each player can learn techniques that are equivalent to abilities in the main game.Blitzball is first introduced in the beginning of the game during one of the early cinematic sequences in which Tidus, the main character who is described as a star blitzball player, is part of an intense game. It is the only minigame that plays a role in the overall plot line as it is not only a main part of Tidus's character, but it's also in the first scene where the game's main antagonist, Sin is shown. Unlike with the other minigames, playing blitzball is mandatory near the beginning of the game, but it is later optional. == Plot == === Setting and characters === Final Fantasy X is set in the fictional world of Spira, consisting of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands. It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands, to the temperate Mi'ihen region, to the frigid Macalania and Mt. Gagazet areas. Spira is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names.Although predominantly populated by humans, Spira features a variety of races. Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive green eyes and unique language. The Guado, which are less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other arboreal features. Still less human are the lion-like Ronso and the frog-like Hypello. A subset of Spira's sentient races are the "unsent", the strong-willed spirits of the dead that remain in corporeal form. In Spira, the dead who are not sent to the Farplane by a summoner come to envy the living and transform into "fiends", the monsters that are encountered throughout the game; however, unsent with strong attachments to the world of the living may retain their human form. Other fauna in Spira, aside from those drawn from real animals, such as cats, dogs, birds, and butterflies, include the gigantic, amphibious shoopufs (which are similar to elephants); and the emu-like chocobo, which appears in most Final Fantasy games. There are seven main playable characters in Final Fantasy X, starting with Tidus (James Arnold Taylor/Masakazu Morita), a cheerful young teenager and a star blitzball player from Zanarkand, who seeks a way home after an encounter with Sin transported him to Spira. To do so, he joins Yuna (Hedy Burress/Mayuko Aoki), a summoner on a journey to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat the enormous whale-like "Sin". Journeying with them are: Kimahri Ronso (John DiMaggio/Katsumi Chō), a young warrior of the Ronso tribe who watched over Yuna during her childhood; Wakka (also DiMaggio/Kazuya Nakai), a blitzball player whose younger brother was killed by Sin; and Lulu (Paula Tiso/Rio Natsuki), a stoic black mage close to Yuna and Wakka. During the journey, they are joined by Auron (Matt McKenzie/Hideo Ishikawa), a former warrior monk, who worked with both Tidus' and Yuna's fathers to defeat Sin 10 years prior; and Rikku (Tara Strong/Marika Matsumoto), Yuna's cousin, a perky Al Bhed girl and the first friendly person Tidus meets upon arriving in Spira. === Story === Tidus waits with his allies outside the ruins of an ancient city. He narrates the events that led to the present, spanning most of the game's storyline. It begins in his home city, the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand, where he is a renowned blitzball player and son of the famous blitzball star, Jecht, an abusive father who disappeared 10 years prior. During a blitzball tournament, the city is attacked by an immense creature that Auron, a man not originally from Zanarkand, calls "Sin". Sin destroys Zanarkand and takes Tidus and Auron to the world of Spira. Upon arriving in Spira, Tidus is rescued by Al Bhed salvagers, with the young Rikku says Sin destroyed Zanarkand 1,000 years ago. After Sin attacks again, Tidus is separated from the divers and drifts to the tropical island of Besaid, where he meets Wakka, captain of the local blitzball team. Wakka introduces Tidus to Yuna, a young summoner about to go on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin with her guardians Lulu, a mage of black magic, and Kimahri, a member of the Ronso tribe. The party travels across Spira to gather aeons, defending against attacks by Sin and its "offspring" called Sinspawn. Tidus meets Auron again, who convinces Tidus to become Yuna's guardian upon revealing that Jecht is Sin's true identity. Ten years ago, Auron and Jecht bodyguarded Yuna's late father Braska to defeat Sin but Jecht became a new Sin. As Yuna's party continues their pilgrimage, Tidus reunites with Rikku, who the party learns is Yuna's cousin.When the party arrives in the city of Guadosalam, the leader of the Guado and major clergy member Seymour Guado, proposes to Yuna, saying that it will ease Spira's sorrow. At Macalania Temple, the group discovers a message from the spirit of Seymour's father, Lord Jyscal; he declares that he was killed by his own son, who now aims to destroy Spira. The group reunites with Yuna and kills Seymour in battle; soon afterward, Sin attacks, separating Yuna and sending the others to the arid Bikanel Island. While searching for Yuna at the island's Al Bhed settlement, Tidus has an emotional breakdown when he learns that summoners die after summoning the Final Aeon, leading to his desire to find a way to defeat Sin while keeping Yuna alive. The group finds Yuna in Bevelle, the center of the clergy’s power, where she is being forced to marry the unsent Seymour. They crash the wedding, after which Seymour reveals his plan to become Sin with Yuna's help. The party defeats him a second time and escapes with Yuna. The group heads toward the ruins of Zanarkand, seen in the introduction of the game.Shortly before arriving, Tidus learns that he, Jecht, and the Zanarkand they hail from are summoned entities akin to aeons based on the original Zanarkand and its people. Long ago, the original Zanarkand battled Bevelle in a machina war, in which the former was defeated. Zanarkand's survivors became "fayth" so that they could use their memories of Zanarkand to create a new city in their image, removed from the reality of Spira. Once they reach Zanarkand, Yunalesca—the first summoner to defeat Sin and unsent ever since—tells the group that the Final Aeon is created from the fayth of one close to the summoner. After defeating Sin, the Final Aeon kills the summoner and transforms into a new Sin, which has caused its cycle of rebirth to continue. The group decides against using the Final Aeon, due to the futile sacrifices it carries and the fact that Sin would still be reborn. Yunalesca tries to kill Tidus' group, but she is defeated and vanishes, ending hope of ever attaining the Final Aeon.After the fight, the group learns that Yu Yevon — the deity of the Yevon religion who was a summoner from Zanarkand before losing his humanity and mind — is behind Sin's cycle of rebirth. This leads the group to infiltrate Sin's body in order to find Yu Yevon. Inside Sin, the party finds the unsent Seymour, who had been absorbed by Sin and intends to control it from within. Yuna defeats him for the final time before sending him to the Farplane. Shortly after, the group reaches the core of Sin and finds Jecht's imprisoned spirit. Tidus and Jecht finally come to terms with the latter’s abuse. Jecht transforms into his Final Aeon form, asking the party to defeat him and end the cycle; they do so. With Sin's host defeated, Yuna summons and the group defeats each aeon after Yu Yevon possesses each one until finally they vanquish Yu Yevon himself.Sin's cycle of rebirth ends when Yuna sends Sin and the Aeons to the farplane, and the spirits of Spira's fayth are freed from their imprisonment. Auron, who had been revealed to be unsent, is sent to the Farplane. Dream Zanarkand and Tidus disappear, now that the freed fayth stopped the summoning. Afterward, in a speech to the citizens of Spira, Yuna resolves to help rebuild their world now that it is free of Sin. In a post-credits scene, Tidus awakens under water and swims towards the ocean surface. == Development == Final Fantasy X's development began in 1999, costing approximately ¥4 billion (approximately $32.3 million, or $52.5 million in 2021 dollars) with a crew of over 100 people, most of whom worked on previous games in the series. Executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi has stated that although he had concerns about the transition from 2D to 3D backgrounds, the voice acting, and the transition to real-time story-telling, the success of the Final Fantasy series can be attributed to constantly challenging the development team to try new things. Producer Yoshinori Kitase was also the chief director of Final Fantasy X, while the direction of events, maps and battles was split up between Motomu Toriyama, Takayoshi Nakazato and Toshiro Tsuchida, respectively. The development of the script for the game took three to four months, with the same amount of time dedicated to the voice recording afterwards. Tetsuya Nomura and Kazushige Nojima collaborated with Daisuke Watanabe, Toriyama and Kitase on writing the scenario for Final Fantasy X. Nojima was particularly concerned with establishing a connection in the relationship between player and main character. Thus, he penned the story such that the player's progress through the world and growing knowledge about it is reflected in Tidus' own understanding and narration.According to the Square Enix companion book Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume III, 17 SEVEN TEEN was a temporary title early in Final Fantasy X's production. 17 SEVEN TEEN's story differed from the final version: the protagonist, who looked strikingly similar to Tidus, traveled the world seeking a cure for a pandemic that killed people when they reached the age of seventeen. === Influences === Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has identified the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan as major influences on the cultural and geographic design of Spira, particularly concerning the geographic location of the southern Besaid and Kilika islands. He has also said that Spira deviates from the worlds of past Final Fantasy games in the level of detail incorporated, something he has expressed to have made a conscious effort to maintain during the design process. Kitase felt that if the setting went back to a medieval European fantasy, it would not seem to help the development team advance. While he was thinking of different world environments, Nojima suggested a fantasy world that incorporated Asian elements.Sub-character chief designer Fumi Nakashima's focus was to ensure that characters from different regions and cultures bore distinctive characteristics in their clothing styles, so that they could be quickly and easily identified as members of their respective sub-groups. For example, she has said that the masks and goggles of the Al Bhed give the group a "strange and eccentric" appearance, while the attire of the Ronso lend to them being able to easily engage in battle. Tidus was originally envisioned to be a plumber as to connect to the underwater elements used in the game, according to Nojima, but they later made him into a Blitzball athlete, helping to distinguish his character from prior Final Fantasy protagonists; Tidus' final outfit still incorporated elements of the original plumber outfit they had designed for him.Tidus' relationship with his father Jecht was based on "stories throughout the ages, such as the ancient Greek legends." This would eventually reveal the key of Sin's weakness and eventual defeat. Auron was intended to be silent throughout the game but became a voiced character as they developed out the Guardian storyline between Tidus and Yuna. Although Final Fantasy X was originally centered on the relationship between Tidus and Yuna, the addition of Jecht's character and his feud with his son was added later in the making of the game to provide more focus on how the father and son produce a bigger impact in Spira's history rather than the romantic couple. Kitase found the story between Tidus and Jecht to be more moving than the story between Tidus and Yuna. === Design === Final Fantasy X features innovations in the rendering of characters' facial expressions, achieved through motion capture and skeletal animation technology. This technology allowed animators to create realistic lip movements, which were then programmed to match the speech of the game's voice actors. The cutscene of Tidus and Yuna kissing was developed by Visual Works, a subsidiary of Square Enix. Many of the animators were not experienced with romance scenes - Visual Works director Kazuyuki Ikumori stated that the animators sought feedback from younger staff at Square Enix, as well as female members of staff. The scene was remade multiple times after receiving responses that earlier drafts were "unnatural" and "not believable."Nojima has revealed that the inclusion of voice acting enabled him to express emotion more powerfully than before, and he was therefore able to keep the storyline simple. He also said that the presence of voice actors led him to make various changes to the script, in order to match the voice actors' personalities with the characters they were portraying. The inclusion of voice, however, led to difficulties. With the game's cutscenes already programmed around the Japanese voice work, the English localization team faced the difficulty of establishing English-oriented dialogue and the obstacle of incorporating this modified wording with the rhythm and timing of the characters' lip movements. Localization specialist Alexander O. Smith noted that they had to keep the localized sound file within the duration of the original Japanese, as longer files would cause the game to crash. He described the process of fitting natural-sounding English speech into the game as "something akin to writing four or five movies' worth of dialogue entirely in haiku form [and] of course the actors had to act, and act well, within those restraints."The game was initially going to feature online elements, offered through Square's PlayOnline service. The features, however, were dropped during production, and online gaming would not become part of the Final Fantasy series until Final Fantasy XI. Map director Nakazato wanted to implement a world map concept with a more realistic approach than that of the traditional Final Fantasy game, in line with the realism of the game's 3D backgrounds, as opposed to pre-rendered backgrounds. Battle art director Shintaro Takai has explained that it was his intention that battles in Final Fantasy X come across as a natural part of the story and not an independent element. Features would have included wandering enemies visible on the field map, seamless transitions into battles, and the option for players to move around the landscape during enemy encounters. However, hardware limitations resulted in these ideas not being used. Instead, a compromise was made, whereby some transitions from the field map to the battle map were made relatively seamless with the implementation of a motion blur effect that would happen at the end of an event scene. The desire for seamless transitions also led to the implementation of the new summoning system seen in the game.As a player of the games in the Final Fantasy series, battle director Tsuchida wanted to recreate elements he found interesting or entertaining, which eventually led to the removal of the Active Time Battle system, and instead, incorporated the strategy-focused Conditional Turn-Based Battle system. Kitase has explained that the purpose behind the Sphere Grid is to give players an interactive means of increasing their characters' attributes, such that they will be able to observe the development of those attributes firsthand. At the time of the game's development, Nojiima had been reading about cryptography, and thus created the means to decode the Al Bhed language within the game, albeit simpler than initially planned. === Music === Final Fantasy X marks the first time regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu has had any assistance in composing the score for a game in the main series. His fellow composers for Final Fantasy X were Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. They were chosen for the soundtrack based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style while still being able to work together. PlayOnline.com first revealed that the game's theme song was completed in November 2000. As Square still had not revealed who would sing the song, GameSpot personally asked Uematsu, who jokingly answered "It's going to be Rod Stewart."The game features three songs with vocalized elements, including the J-pop ballad "Suteki da ne", which translates to "Isn't it Wonderful?". The lyrics were written by Kazushige Nojima, and the music was written by Uematsu. The song is performed by Japanese folk singer Rikki, whom the music team contacted while searching for a singer whose music reflected an Okinawan atmosphere. "Suteki da ne" is also sung in Japanese in the English version of Final Fantasy X. Like "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII and "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX, an orchestrated version of "Suteki da ne" is used as part of the ending theme. The other songs with lyrics are the heavy metal opening theme, "Otherworld", sung in English by Bill Muir; and "Hymn of the Fayth", a recurring piece sung using Japanese syllabary.The original soundtrack spanned 91 tracks on four discs. It was first released in Japan on August 1, 2001, by DigiCube, and was re-released on May 10, 2004, by Square Enix. In 2002, Tokyopop released a version of Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack in North America entitled Final Fantasy X Official Soundtrack, which contained 17 tracks from the original album on a single disc. Other related CDs include feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus which, released in Japan by DigiCube on October 11, 2001, featured tracks based on Tidus' and Yuna's characters. Piano Collections Final Fantasy X, another collection of music from the game, and Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection, a compilations of exclusive character dialogues and songs were both released in Japan in 2002.The Black Mages, a band led by Nobuo Uematsu that arranges music from Final Fantasy video games into a rock music style, have arranged three pieces from Final Fantasy X. These are "Fight With Seymour" from their self-titled album, published in 2003, and "Otherworld" and "The Skies Above", both of which can be found on the album The Skies Above, published in 2004. Uematsu continues to perform certain pieces in his Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy concert series. The music of Final Fantasy X has also appeared in various official concerts and live albums, such as 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy, a live recording of an orchestra performing music from the series including several pieces from the game. An odd note; the unreleased/promo CD-R (Instrumental) version of Madonna's "What It Feels Like For A Girl" done by Tracy Young was used in the blitzball sequences. Additionally, "Swing de Chocobo" was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for the Distant Worlds – Music from Final Fantasy concert tour, while "Zanarkand" was performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in the Tour de Japon: Music from Final Fantasy concert series. Independent but officially licensed releases of Final Fantasy X music have been composed by such groups as Project Majestic Mix, which focuses on arranging video game music. Selections also appear on Japanese remix albums, called dojin music, and on English remixing websites. == Versions and merchandise == The Japanese version of Final Fantasy X included an additional disc entitled "The Other Side of Final Fantasy", which featured interviews, storyboards, and trailers for Blue Wing Blitz, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, as well as the first footage of Final Fantasy XI Online. An international version of the game was released in Japan as Final Fantasy X International in January 2002, and in PAL regions under its original title. It features content not available in the original NTSC releases, including battles with "Dark" versions of the game's aeons and an airship fight with the superboss "Penance". On September 2, 2003, Final Fantasy X was released as Greatest Hits in North America. The Japanese release of Final Fantasy X International also includes "Eternal Calm", a 14-minute video clip bridging the story of Final Fantasy X with that of its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2. The video clip was included in a bonus DVD for Unlimited Saga Collector's Edition under the name Eternal Calm, Final Fantasy X-2: Prologue. It was first released in Europe on October 31, 2003, and featured English voice-overs.The international and PAL versions include a bonus DVD called Beyond Final Fantasy, a disc including interviews with the game's developers, and two of the game's English voice actors, James Arnold Taylor (Tidus) and Hedy Burress (Yuna). Also included are trailers for Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, a concept and promotional art gallery for the game, and a music video of "Suteki da ne" performed by Rikki. In 2005, a compilation featuring Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 was released in Japan as Final Fantasy X/X-2 Ultimate Box.Square also produced various types of merchandise and several books, including The Art of Final Fantasy X and three Ultimania guides, a series of artbooks/strategy guides published by DigiCube in Japan. They feature original artwork from Final Fantasy X, offer gameplay walkthroughs, expand upon many aspects of the game's storyline and feature several interviews with the game's designers. There are three books in the series: Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania, Final Fantasy X Battle Ultimania, and Final Fantasy X Ultimania Ω. On December 18, 2012 the game was re-released as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box release. === HD Remaster === On September 13, 2011, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy X would be re-released in high-definition for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, in celebration of the game's 10-year anniversary. In January 2012, production of the remaster had started. Producer Yoshinori Kitase was once again involved in the production, wishing to work on its quality. On February 18, 2013 the first footage of the PlayStation Vita version of Final Fantasy X HD was released, showing off HD models of Tidus, Yuna, Bahamut and Yojimbo. On March 19, it was confirmed that the PS3 version of the game would also include its sequel X-2, and that it would be remastered in HD. The two HD remastered games for the PS3 were released under the title Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on a single Blu-ray Disc game, and was sold separately on game cartridges on Vita in Japan and sold together in North America, Europe and Australia as a set, with FFX being on a cartridge and FFX-2 being included as a download voucher. Downloadable versions are available for both systems. Square Enix launched an official website for the two HD remastered titles in March 2013. The games contain all the content found in the International version, including Eternal Calm and Last Mission.During the PlayStation China press conference that took place in Shanghai on December 11, 2014, Square Enix confirmed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster would be released for the PlayStation 4 in Spring 2015. It was released in North America on May 12, Australia and Japan on May 14, and Europe on May 15, 2015. It included enhanced graphics in full HD (1080p), the option to switch to the original soundtrack and the ability to transfer save files from the PS3 and PS Vita versions. One year later on May 12, 2016, it was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam. It includes an auto-save feature, 5 game boosters, 3 parameter changes, the option to skip FMVs/cinematics, 4K resolution support, audio settings and graphic options. A version for the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One was released on April 16, 2019. == Reception == Final Fantasy X received critical acclaim by video game critics. The Japanese video game magazine Famitsu and Famitsu PS2 awarded the game a near-perfect 39/40 score. Another Japanese gaming magazine, The Play Station, gave the game a score of 29/30. Famitsu, Famitsu PS2, and The Play Station expressed particularly favorable responses toward the game's storyline, graphics, and movies. The game maintains a 92 out of 100 on Metacritic. Producer Shinji Hashimoto stated that the overall reception to the game was "excellent", having received praise and awards from critics.IGN's David Smith offered praise for the voice actors and the innovations in gameplay, particularly with the revised battle and summon systems, the option to change party members during battle, and the character development and inventory management systems. He also felt that the game's graphics had improved on its predecessors in every way possible, and that the game as a whole was "the best-looking game of the series [and] arguably the best-playing as well". Greg Kasavin of GameSpot praised the game's storyline, calling it surprisingly complex, its ending satisfying, and its avoidance of role-playing game clichés commendable with Tidus viewed as an appealing protagonist. He also lauded the music, feeling it was "diverse and well suited to the various scenes in the game". Similarly, GamePro described its character building system and battle system as "two of the best innovations in the series". The visuals of the game were commended by GameSpy's Raymond Padilla, who referred to them as "top-notch", as well as giving praise to the character models, backgrounds, cutscenes, and animations. The voice casting was praised by Game Revolution who noted most of them were "above average" and called the music "rich".Edge rated the game considerably lower, criticizing many aspects of the game for being tedious and uninnovative and describing the dialogue as "nauseating", particularly panning Tidus. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer criticized the game's linearity and that players were no longer able to travel the world by chocobo or control the airship. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell noted that the game's puzzle segments were "depressing" and "superfluous", and that although the Sphere Grid was "a nice touch", it took up too much of the game. The linearity of the game was positively commented on by GamePro who stated that a player would not be required to participate in side-quests or the mini-game to reach the game's conclusion, finding some of them unappealing. Game Revolution complained that cutscenes could not be skipped, some even being too long. === Sales === Square initially expected the game to sell at least two million copies worldwide owing to the reduced PlayStation 2's fanbase, making it smaller than the last three released titles. However, within its first day of its release in Japan, more than 2.14 million units were shipped, including 1.4 to 1.5 million pre-orders. A million units were sold within hours, and first-day shipments were expected to generate ¥17.6 billion or $145,000,000 (equivalent to $222,000,000 in 2021) in sales revenue. These figures exceeded the performances of Final Fantasy VII and IX in a comparable period, and Final Fantasy X became the first PlayStation 2 game to reach two million and four million sold copies. In October 2007, the game was listed as the 8th best-selling game for the PlayStation 2. Final Fantasy X sold over 2.43 million copies in Japan alone in 2001.By June 2002, it had sold 5.07 million units worldwide, including 2.76 million in the Asia-Pacific region, 1.47 million in North America, and 840,000 in Europe. By March 2003, the game had sold 5.89 million units worldwide, including 2.87 million in Japan and 3.02 million abroad. It sold 6.6 million copies worldwide by January 2004. By July 2006, it had sold 2.3 million copies and earned $95 million in the United States ($128 million in 2021). Next Generation ranked it as the 11th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. As of March 2013, the game had shipped over 8.5 million copies worldwide on PS2. As of 2017, the PS2 version of the game has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.The "Ultimate Hits" bargain reissue of the game in September 2005 sold over 131,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006. In October 2013, Square Enix announced Final Fantasy X and its sequel Final Fantasy X-2 have together sold over 14 million copies worldwide on PlayStation 2. === Awards === Final Fantasy X received the Best Game Award from the Japan Game Awards for 2001–2002. In GameSpot's "Best and Worst Awards" from 2001, it came seventh in the category "Top 10 Video Games of the Year", and won the "Best Story" and "Best Role-Playing Game" awards. The game also received a PlayStation 2 Game of the Year award nomination at the 2002 Golden Joystick Awards, but lost to Grand Theft Auto III. Readers of Famitsu magazine voted it the best game of all time in early 2006. Final Fantasy X came in fifth on IGN's "Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time" list in 2007 and sixth in "The Top 10 Best Looking PS2 Games of All Time". In a similar list by GameSpy, the game took the 21st place. 1UP.com listed its revelation during the ending as the third-biggest video game spoiler, while IGN ranked the ending as the fifth best pre-rendered cutscene. In a Reader's Choice made in 2006 by IGN, it ranked as the 60th-best video game. It was also named one of the 20 essential Japanese role-playing games by Gamasutra. It also placed 43rd in Game Informer's list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time". In 2004, Final Fantasy X was listed as one of the best games ever made by GameFAQs, while in November 2005 it was voted as the 12th "Best Game Ever". In a general overview of the series, both GamesRadar and IGN listed Final Fantasy X as the fourth best game. At the sixth annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2003, it was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" and "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year". Readers from GameFaqs also voted it as Game of the Year during 2001. In 2008, readers of Dengeki magazine voted it the second best game ever made. It was voted first place in Famitsu's and Dengeki's polls of most tear-inducing games of all time. Both Tidus and Yuna have been popular characters in games in general due to their personalities and their romantic relationship. == Legacy == Due to its commercial and critical success, Square Enix released a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X in 2003, titled Final Fantasy X-2. The sequel is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy X, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. Although the sequel did not sell as well as the original, 5.4 million units versus over 8 million units, it can still be considered a commercial success. As a result of the title's popularity, Yoshinori Kitase and Kazushige Nojima decided to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII, another well-received Final Fantasy game. In 2013, after the release of the HD Remaster, Nojima stated that he would like to see a second sequel to X, and if there were demand for it, it could happen. The minigame of blitzball has made it into other games, such as Final Fantasy X-2, and was mentioned as a possibility for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.The advancements in portraying realistic emotions achieved with Final Fantasy X through voice-overs and detailed facial expressions have since become a staple of the series, with Final Fantasy X-2 and other subsequent titles (such as Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XII, XIII and its sequels, and XV) also featuring this development. Traversing real-time 3D environments instead of an overworld map has also become a standard of the series. Final Fantasy X can be considered a pioneer in 3-D RPG maps. The Sphere Grid system of Final Fantasy X had an influence on the action role-playing game Path of Exile (2013), along with the Materia system of Final Fantasy VII.According to Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, cosplays of the characters have been popular. Takeo Kujiraoka, director from Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, regarded Final Fantasy X as his favorite game from the franchise based on its emotional impact on the players as well as the multiple amount of playable content that surpasses 100 hours. Kujiraoka noted that the staff received multiple requests by fans to include Tidus' and Yuna's Will look as an alternative design but Nomura said it was not possible as the company would first need to develop Final Fantasy X-3. == Further reading == Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive. Vol. 3. Milwaukie: Dark Horse Comics. 2019. ISBN 978-15-0670-801-0. == See also == List of Square Enix video game franchises == Notes == == References == == External links == Official Final Fantasy X website Archived August 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine (European) Final Fantasy X at IMDb

PS4

Persona 5 Royal

Role-playingsocial simulation

Persona 5 is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. It takes place in modern-day Tokyo and follows a high school student known by the pseudonym Joker who transfers to a new school after being falsely accused of assault and put on probation. Over the course of a school year, he and other students awaken to a special power, becoming a group of secret vigilantes known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. They explore the Metaverse, a supernatural realm born from humanity's subconscious desires, to steal malevolent intent from the hearts of adults. As with previous games in the series, the party battles enemies known as Shadows using physical manifestations of their psyche known as their Personas. The game incorporates role-playing and dungeon crawling elements alongside social simulation scenarios. Persona 5 is the sixth installment in the Persona series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in September 2016 and worldwide in April 2017, and was published by Atlus in Japan and North America and by Deep Silver in Europe and Australia. An enhanced version featuring new content, Persona 5 Royal, was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in October 2019 and worldwide in March 2020, published by Atlus in Japan and by franchise owner Sega worldwide. Royal was later released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in October 2022. Persona 5 was developed by P-Studio, an internal development studio within Atlus led by game director and producer Katsura Hashino. Along with Hashino, returning staff from earlier Persona games included character designer Shigenori Soejima and music composer Shoji Meguro. Preparatory work began during the development of Persona 4, with full development beginning after the release of Catherine in 2011. First announced in 2013, Persona 5 was delayed from its original late 2014 release date due to the game not being fully finished. Its themes revolve around attaining freedom from the limitations of modern society, while the story was strongly inspired by picaresque fiction; the party's Personas were based on outlaws and rebels from literature. Persona 5 won several awards and has been cited as one of the greatest role-playing video games of all time, with praise given to its visual presentation, gameplay, story, and music. Including Royal, it has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling entry in the Megami Tensei franchise. Several other related media have also been released, including two spin-off games, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona 5 Strikers, as well as manga and anime adaptations. The game's cast has also made appearances in other games, such as Joker appearing as a playable character in the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. == Gameplay == Persona 5 is a role-playing video game where the player takes on the role of a male high school student, codenamed Joker, who lives out a single year while attending school in modern-day Tokyo. The game is governed by a day-night cycle and weather systems that determine general behavior similar to a social simulation game. The year is punctuated by scripted and random events as Joker attends school. He can perform part-time jobs and pursue leisure activities or create battle items. These various activities raise character attributes, which grant passive buffing effects during battle. When in the real world, the main protagonist can develop character relationships known as Confidants; an evolution of the Social Link system from Persona 3 and Persona 4. With this system, the main protagonist can converse with and improve his relationship with other characters he meets, with some leading to possible romances. Improving Confidant ranks with party members unlocks various abilities for use in combat, such as the "Baton Pass" ability, which allows the player to directly select another character after a critical hit while granting a temporary attack boost. Improving ranks with non-party Confidants grant other bonuses, such as giving access to new items and equipment and boosting experience point and yen gain.Alongside the normal school life is dungeon crawling gameplay of two different types within a realm called the Metaverse: story-specific dungeons called Palaces and a multi-layered, randomly-generated Dungeon called Mementos. Both are populated by Shadows, physical manifestations of suppressed psyches that are modeled after mythological and religious figures. Within Mementos dungeons, the party can fulfill requests from non-playable characters (NPCs) received from Confidant links. While navigating, the party can use stealth to avoid enemy Shadows, and some areas hold puzzles that can be solved using an insight ability known as "Third Eye", which highlights interactable objects and enemy strength compared to the party. When exploring story-centered Palaces, a "Security Level" is present, where the party being spotted or fleeing combat results in security being raised. If security reaches 100%, the party is forced to leave the Palace. The security level can be lowered by launching surprise attacks on and eliminating enemies, and also lowers automatically overnight. Throughout Palaces are locations known as "Safe Rooms". In them, the player can save their game, heal their party, and fast travel to other safe rooms within the Palace. As with previous entries in the series, the game uses a turn-based combat system. Battles can be initiated when the party runs into an enemy, or they can launch a surprise attack known as an "Ambush" and gain an advantage in battle. In battle, the party has access to melee and ranged weapons, in addition to being able to summon Personas. Personas are manifestations of the main characters' inner psyche and used mainly for special attacks. If a character strikes an enemy's weakness, they knock the enemy down and are awarded an additional turn known as a "1 More". If all enemies are knocked down, a "Hold Up" is triggered. During one, the party can launch a devastating "All-Out Attack", demand money or items, or enter a negotiation. Negotiation allows Joker to win the selected Shadow over to their side to become a new Persona, though they can only be persuaded to join if Joker is their level or higher. Similar to previous entries, party members can be knocked out, and if the main character is knocked out, the game ends. At times, if a party member is knocked out, they can be captured by enemy Shadows, and is unable to return to the party if the resultant negotiation fails.New Personas can be gained from battle through successful negotiation, and different Persona types are represented through different arcana linked to Confidant links. Personas can be combined, or "fused", or otherwise further manipulated within the Velvet Room, a realm Joker visits as part of his journey through the story. In the Velvet Room, Personas can be fused with "Guillotine" fusion processes, with the resultant Persona inheriting skills and stats from its parents. The more skills a Persona has, the more are passed on to the fused Persona. How powerful Personas are through fusion depends on how advanced its associated Confidant link is. Also, Personas can be sacrificed in various ways, also styled after styles of capital punishment. "Hanging" grants a sacrificed Persona's experience points to another chosen Persona, and "Electric Chair" sacrifices one to create a high-end item. A Persona can also be sent into "Solitary Confinement", where they undergo intensive training and gain additional skills quicker than normal. The number of days a Persona must remain to gain strength lessens based on its arcana strength.Minor multiplayer elements are incorporated through the "Thieves Guild" feature. Similar to the "Vox Populi" system from Persona 4 Golden, players have the option of seeing what activities other players did during any given day. Players can send messages to each other, in addition to affecting the Alertness meter in the player's favor, and aiding in battle when a party member is taken hostage by an enemy. == Synopsis == === Setting and characters === Persona 5 takes place within the Persona universe, revolving around a group of high school students who harness Personas, physical manifestations of their inner psyche. The story begins in April 2016 and spans roughly a year. Persona 5 is set in modern-day Tokyo with navigable real-world locations within the city, including Akihabara, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. Alongside larger environments, there are specific locations that the protagonist can enter, such as shops, restaurants and movie theaters. A major setting throughout the game is Shujin Academy, a high school the protagonist attends. The second major location is the "Metaverse", a supernatural realm consisting of the physical manifestation of humanity's subconscious desires. In the Metaverse, people with corrupted enough desires form their own unique "Palace," which is modeled after their distorted perception of a place in the real world, along with a Shadow version of themselves (their true self) possessing a "Treasure" symbolic of their desires. Returning from earlier entries is the Velvet Room, a place that exists for the growth of Persona users that shifts appearance depending on the current guest; in Persona 5, it takes the form of a prison.The player character is a silent protagonist, a commonplace feature in the Persona series, codenamed Joker. He becomes the leader of a vigilante group known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, who change the hearts of criminals and other malevolent people through the Metaverse. He forms it together with school delinquent Ryuji Sakamoto, fashion model Ann Takamaki and Morgana, a mysterious cat-like creature. More people join the group throughout the game, including art prodigy Yusuke Kitagawa, student council president Makoto Niijima, hikikomori computer hacker Futaba Sakura, and cultured corporate heiress Haru Okumura. Also interacting with Joker are high school detective Goro Akechi, public prosecutor and Makoto's older sister, Sae Niijima, and the residents of the Velvet Room, Igor, and his two assistants Caroline and Justine. === Plot === Much of the story is told through flashbacks while Sae Niijima interrogates the protagonist. After the protagonist defends a woman from assault, he is framed for assaulting the man responsible and put on probation, resulting in expulsion from his school. He is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must be rehabilitated to avoid future ruin and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads him into the Metaverse and the Palace of the school's abusive volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida. The protagonist meets Morgana, who informs him of the ability to change wicked people's hearts by stealing their "Treasure," the emotional root of their behavior and desires, from the Palaces ruled by their Shadow selves. The protagonist assumes the codename Joker and, together with Morgana and his friends Ryuji and Ann, reforms Kamoshida. The group forms the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, stealing corruption from the hearts of adults to reform the city, slowly learning of a broader conspiracy to influence the hearts of Tokyo. They are joined along the way by Yusuke Kitagawa, whom they help to reform his corrupt teacher Madarame; Sae's sister Makoto, who is initially assigned to spy on them but joins after being blackmailed by criminal boss Kaneshiro; Sojiro's adopted daughter Futaba, who sunk into a depressed state after the conspiracy murdered her mother and redirected the blame to her using a forged suicide note; and Haru Okumura, who rebels against her billionaire father's attempts to control her life and his mistreatment of his employees. As the number of the Phantom Thieves' members and successes grows, they attract the public's attention and the police, including Sae and Akechi. The Phantom Thieves' popularity plummets after they are framed for causing Haru's father to go into a fatal mental shutdown by a black-masked assassin, who was mentioned by other targets. Pursuing the conspiracy, the group is joined by Akechi, who convinces them to change Sae's heart. After infiltrating Sae's Palace, Joker is captured by the police. Akechi is revealed to be the assassin and attempts to kill Joker, but the Phantom Thieves have already discovered his betrayal and use the Metaverse to fake Joker's death. Aided by Sae and Sojiro, the Phantom Thieves go undercover and deduce the conspiracy's leader to be politician Masayoshi Shido, who has been using Akechi's ability to infiltrate the Metaverse to remove obstacles from his path toward becoming Prime Minister and imposing his reforms on Japan, as well as being the one who framed and pressed charges against Joker. When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace, they face Akechi, who reveals himself as Shido's illegitimate son and plans to get revenge on Shido for abandoning him and his late mother. Once defeated, Akechi sacrifices himself to protect the Phantom Thieves from a group of enemies, allowing them to ultimately defeat Shido. Despite Shido's arrest and confession, the public's opinion of him remains primarily unchanged, and Shido may be released through the manipulation of his allies. The Phantom Thieves make a final heist to infiltrate the depths of Mementos, the Palace of everyone's hearts, to steal the Treasure at its core. Inside, they discover that the public is in chaos and has chosen to give up their autonomy. The Phantom Thieves are ejected from Mementos by the Treasure itself and vanish after witnessing the Metaverse merge with reality. Waking in the Velvet Room, Joker confronts Igor, Caroline, and Justine. Caroline and Justine regain their memories and integrate into Lavenza, their proper form. Lavenza reveals the Igor that Joker has been seeing in the Velvet Room until this point is actually Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, who imprisoned the actual Igor. Yaldabaoth, Mementos's Treasure made sentient, was created from humanity's wish to give up control and be free from suffering. Through a wager made with Igor over humanity's goals, Yaldabaoth had given Joker and Akechi their abilities to see the influence of their actions on society while steering the wager in his favor. Joker rejects Yaldabaoth's offer to return to his world at the cost of his freedom, and he, along with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, fights him. Joker's confidants rally the support of the people, rebelling against Yaldabaoth's control and allowing Joker to awaken his ultimate persona, Satanael, to destroy Yaldabaoth and the Metaverse. After Yaldabaoth's defeat, Joker turns himself in to the police for Shido to be prosecuted. While Joker is incarcerated, the rest of the Phantom Thieves and his confidants successfully help secure evidence of Joker's innocence in the assault charge, leading to his conviction being overturned. By spring, Joker's friends drive him back to his hometown. ==== Royal ==== In Persona 5 Royal, two new characters interact with the Phantom Thieves: Kasumi Yoshizawa, an accomplished rhythmic gymnast who transferred to Shujin at the same time as Joker, and Takuto Maruki, a school counselor hired after Kamoshida is exposed. Kasumi awakens to her Persona after calling Joker to a new Palace in Odaiba. Maruki, in turn, talks to each of the Phantom Thieves, learning their deepest wishes. After defeating Yaldabaoth, a still-living Akechi turns himself over to Sae in Joker's place. At the beginning of the following year, Joker finds reality distorted; Akechi was released without reason, and each Phantom Thief has had their deepest wish granted. Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi investigate the Palace in Odaiba and learn that its owner is Maruki, a Persona-user able to alter reality. Using Yaldabaoth's leftover power, Maruki gained control over Mementos, determined to create a world where everyone's dreams become a reality. Maruki reveals that "Kasumi" is actually her twin sister Sumire; the latter has been impersonating her to cope with her death. Maruki gives Joker time to choose whether to accept his idealized reality. Joker reminds the Phantom Thieves and Sumire of their real lives, and they agree to change Maruki's heart. Joker learns from Maruki that Akechi is only alive in the altered reality due to Joker's desire to save him and that whether he continues to live depends on Joker accepting Maruki's world. Joker refuses his offer, and the Phantom Thieves defeat Maruki the following day. Reality returns to normal, and with Akechi missing, Joker finds himself back in prison, but as with the original game's story, he is cleared and released. At their final meeting, having reflected on their rejection of Maruki's reality, each member of the Phantom Thieves chooses to pursue their own future. On the day he is due to return home, Joker escapes tailing government agents with help from both the Phantom Thieves and a reformed Maruki, who is now a taxi driver. At the station, Sumire finds him and bids him farewell. A post-credits scene achieved through specific gameplay requirements shows a person resembling Akechi passing by the window on Joker's train ride home. == Development == The game was developed by P-Studio, an internal development studio within Atlus dedicated to handling the Persona series. Preparatory development began in 2008 following the release of Persona 4, with full development beginning following the release of Catherine in 2011. Development lasted five years. Series director Katsura Hashino was only fully involved in development after Catherine was finished, later calling the latter game a test for the next Persona game's development. Persona 5 would be Hashino's last game in the series as the leader of P-Studio, as he would afterwards form a separate internal team called Studio Zero. When production started, the staff consisted of around 40 people. During full production, this number expanded to 70 with 15 planners, 15 programmers, and between 30 and 45 designers. These included lead designer Naoya Maeda, who had previously done modeling work for the Trauma Center series. The general development was a challenge for the team, as they intentionally changed their development structure due to the more powerful hardware they were working with.While the final game retains the turn-based battle system from earlier entries, one of the early design drafts was for an action-based system incorporating real-time elements foreign to the series. This idea was ultimately scrapped, but real-time command elements were introduced into the battle system, allowing the gameplay to evolve without extensive changes to the core system. One major new addition was unique dungeons with locked layouts as opposed to the predominantly randomly generated dungeons of previous Persona games. This was done to better emulate the game's themes and provide veteran players with something different. A returning feature from both earlier Persona games and the mainline Megami Tensei series was Negotiation. As it was considered a key part of the overall franchise by fans, Hashino decided to reintroduce it after being absent from the previous two mainline entries. The Negotiation system for Persona 5 was tied into the origins of Shadows as suppressed psyches within the Collective Unconscious. The "Hold Up" function was inspired by scenes in films where the antagonist would hold people at gunpoint and make demands. These functions were incorporated due to the game being in part a celebration of the series' history. In-game weather and environmental elements were all designed to reflect the real world. Dungeon layout was split into three distinct types: the Tokyo overworld environments, "institutions" such as Joker's high school, and dungeon environments. Some segments take control away from the player aside from limited dialogue choices; this was chosen as it reflects the controlled environment of Japanese high schoolers.While Catherine used the third-party Gamebryo game engine, Persona 5 uses a specially-created engine. Hashino believed that the new engine would make rendering their ideas much easier, although it would result in a long wait by fans for the game. The event scene software was also developed internally by Atlus, with an estimated 1,160 scenes being included in the final game. The tools for developing and handling them were greatly expanded over the previous two entries so as to better utilize the more advanced hardware. Character modeling, in general, was handled with a specially-developed cel-shader which helped properly translate the character designs into the game, while also allowing for easy adjustment of shaders and lighting effects during fine-tuning. The characters were originally rendered realistically like in Catherine, but the team felt that it was "wrong" for the Persona series. With this in mind, the team did some trial and error before finding a style that satisfied them, doing something similar for the interface and menu design. In contrast to Persona 4, which has a general deformed look due to the PlayStation 2's hardware limitations on the variety of body shapes, the technology available to the team for Persona 5 enabled unique customization for all relevant character models. Two different models were used for members of the main cast: a detailed model for real-time cutscenes, and a general-use model for general event scenes and gameplay. Persona 5 marked the first time a large number of Personas had been rendered in high definition, something which proved a grueling challenge for the team. === Story and themes === The original story concept was written by Hashino, while the scenario was co-written by Shinji Yamamoto and Yuichiro Tanaka. The initial concept was for a storyline that diverged from the established paths of Persona 3 and 4, with "self-discovery" and "journey" being its keywords. Originally using the concept of a backpacking trip around the world as a framing device for the story, Hashino decided to refocus on Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. More specifically, it has been noted that the Japanese government's actions in response to the earthquake and tsunami's fallout, along with Japanese citizens' reactions to how the government acted during that time, may have served as partial influences on the game's themes. Following that crisis and seeing how people were bonding in the face of it, Hashino decided to have the story take place solely in Japan, with the journeying being done through the ever-shifting Palaces. Ultimately, the story's central concepts were inspired by equivalent social changes he saw in modern society, particularly in Japan. Hashino also described the central theme of the game as being about freedom and how the characters attain it. He wanted to make the game more "thematically approachable" for newcomers to the series, and to be an emotional experience that left its audience with a strong sense of catharsis and the inspiration to take on problems in their lives.The narrative of Persona 5 was designed like an omnibus, with the antagonists pursued by the party changing regularly. The development team has cited three main stories as inspiration, the Chinese novel Water Margin, the Japanese crime movie Hakuchuu no Shikaku, and the Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes. Furthermore, the setting and style was compared to picaresque fiction; the team originally asked the question of how a character like Arsène Lupin III might win appeal in modern society. This picaresque theme was carried over into the aesthetics of Persona fusion and sacrifice, which were themed after styles of capital punishment. Having a more "stereotypical" theme enabled the team to create surprising story developments, mixing contemporary drama with the setting of the Persona series. The series' recurring motif of "masks" was used more overtly in the game's plot than previous entries as well, and the game's main locations were based heavily on their real-world counterparts.The main characters, according to Hashino, share a mindset that they "no longer have a place where they belong in society", though the events of the game give them a sense of belonging. Hashino stated that while the last few games were about the protagonists chasing the antagonists, Persona 5 would instead more prominently feature the antagonists and phenomena caused by them chasing the protagonists during the latter's activities. The characters have been described as "juvenile academics," with their activities as thieves being part of the way they break from societal norms and express themselves. Adhering with this concept, the game's main aim was to show the characters finding the courage to go outside the normal limits of society as set by previous generations. In contrast to previous Persona casts, the party of Persona 5 willingly embrace the unfolding unusual events in their role of masked vigilantes rather than being dragged into them. The cast was originally going to be larger with character Hifumi Togo becoming a Phantom Thief, but as the story was already very large, she was relegated to an optional role as part of the Confidant system. Technological advances such as smartphones and the use of social media were integrated into both the story and gameplay due to their growing prevalence in modern society and how the public responds to real-world scandals.The characters' initial Personas (Arsène, Captain Kidd, Carmen, Zorro, Goemon, Johanna, Necronomicon, Milady, Robin Hood, and Cendrillon) were themed after outlaws and picaresque heroes to reflect the function and dominant suppressed passions forming the Palace, and also represent aspects of their owners' personalities. Joker's initial Persona was originally the German demon Mephistopheles, but was changed to Arsène as the latter character better fit the game's themes. The cast's ultimate Personas (Satanael, Seiten Taisei, Hecate, Mercurius, Kamu Susano-o, Anat, Prometheus, Astarte, Loki and Vanadis) were based on mythical beings who act as tricksters or rebels. The three main inspirations behind Joker's alter ego were Arsène Lupin, The Fiend with Twenty Faces, and Japanese outlaw hero Ishikawa Goemon. The name of Joker's high school, "Shujin", was chosen because it was a homonym of Shūjin (囚人), the Japanese word for "prisoner". Following a trend from earlier entries, the Velvet Room assistants are named after characters from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.The use of adults as antagonists was a more overt expression of narrative elements previously explored in Persona 4. The relation to police activities was also carried over from Persona 4, but this time with the role of protagonists and antagonists reversed. Several writers have highlighted the parallels between the game's various antagonists with real incidents and figures in different sectors of Japanese society (e.g. political, corporate, academic), and how the game's story and characters serve as social commentary on life in Japan. The game's villains and protagonists were also constructed to be parallels of each other, both groups being misfits trying to shape a world they saw as unsatisfactory or corrupted. This was intended to create moral ambiguity about the Phantom Thieves' actions, causing the player to question their concept of justice and their mission as a whole. In addition, the way a vocal minority online could draw attention to and shift public opinion on events and scandals in the news was cited as an inspiration for the ambiguous nature of the Phantom Thieves' actions. === Art design === The art director was Masayoshi Suto, whose most notable work on earlier games included the user interface (UI) displays. Shigenori Soejima, who had worked on the last two main-series Persona games, returned as character designer. The art design reflects the picaresque theme aimed for by the rest of the team. Aesthetically, the team felt that they were picking up where Persona 4 left off. Its styling presentation was an unintentional reflection on the hurdles the team needed to overcome during development. The teaser image used for the game's announcement was designed to convey a sense of the main characters' being chained down by the rules of the modern world. Soejima designed the logo to convey the high-speed existences of the young cast, while elements such as Joker's Persona Arsène were designed to appear old-fashioned by comparison. This presented challenges as Soejima needed to balance this with a strong sense of style.Soejima was working on prospective designs for the game while Persona 4 was still in development, with his designs evolving as the story for Persona 5 came together. The first character sketches were submitted in 2012. Soejima worked closely with Hashino so the characters and environments reflected the game's themes. Due to being high school students, Soejima found it difficult to make each main character's uniform design distinctive, so he expressed their individuality through their thief costumes. Joker's design was cited by Soejima as his most challenging recent work. Joker needed to both convey a taste of the game's overall art style and to act as an avatar for the player. As the main theme and narrative of Persona 5 revolved around crime and vigilantes triggered by Joker voluntarily choosing that path, Soejima needed to convey this while allowing the character to suit whatever dialogue choices the player decided upon. Due to these difficulties, Joker was given multiple designs in a trial and error process to find the best one. As the "phantom thief" premise was a common stereotype in fiction, Soejima initially drew Joker and the main cast in a style similar to shōnen manga, but these designs were scrapped as they clashed with the Persona series' realistic aesthetics. As with previous entries, the protagonist is a silent character, so Soejima had to work out a way Joker could communicate without dialogue. His solution was to imagine him as the type of person who made plans but did not share them with others. The Persona designs, being based on characters from literature, were intended to evoke both familiarity and surprise from players. Once the names were chosen, Soejima designed the Personas based on that character. The main aim for the game's environments was to create a sense of realism, with its version of Tokyo being modeled after real world locations.As the team considered previous Persona games to be "fun" but not well marketed, the UI was designed in such a way as to attract a larger, more mainstream audience. When creating the UI, Hashino wanted to demonstrate how a shift in perspective could alter a dull life into an exciting one in the context of the story. Early UI designs were so "aggressively animated" that it obscured what was happening in the game. As a result, the animations were toned down and text orientation was altered, toning down the UI's graphical elements to present a balance between user-friendliness and style. Following the respective thematic coloring of Persona 3 and 4's blue and yellow, Persona 5 uses red, which was chosen to a harsh feeling. Because of this, Suto tested multiple font colors until settling on black and white, as it stood out best against it. Rather than the use of sub-colors like earlier entries, the UI uses only the primary red, black and white colors aside from health and magic point meters, with the menus using a special moving 3D model of Joker which changes position depending on the selected menu.The game's animated cutscenes were produced by Production I.G and Domerica, and were directed and supervised by Toshiyuki Kono. Kono was contacted three and a half years before the game's completion by Hashino. Faced with the project, Kono felt a great deal of pressure in his role. Persona 5 was the first time Production I.G had worked on the series, though many staff at the studio were fans. Despite this, the studio did not change their standard animation process, focusing on characters as they had done for many of their previous projects. The most important part of the cutscenes was getting the character's expressions right, particularly when it came to the general-mute protagonist. The animated opening sequence was directed by Sayo Yamamoto. The concept behind the characters figure skating around the environment was done as a visual symbolization of the overall theme of breaking free of an oppressive force, and was similar to her work in Yuri on Ice. The scene where Joker first summons his Persona was requested by Atlus to appear "wild", which was difficult as Joker's purpose is as an extension of the player. The blue flame effects related to the Persona were not created with CGI, but hand-drawn by the animators. All the anime cutscenes together were estimated to consist of over an hour of footage. === Music === The score was composed, performed, and produced by series sound director Shoji Meguro. Further contributions, among other general sound design, was handled by Toshiki Konishi, Kenichi Tsuchiya, Atsushi Kitajoh, and Ryota Kozuka; all of them having previously worked on the series as well. Meguro was given full creative freedom to work on the soundtrack and over a roughly three year period produced about 80% of the total tracks. Seven tracks were performed in English by Lyn, a jazz and soul music singer. Her first performance in a video game, Lyn claimed that the most difficult part of her contributions was performing a rap segment in the opening theme, "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There". The lyrics were written by Benjamin Franklin, while the ending song, "Hoshi To Bokura To", had lyrics written in Japanese by Shigeo Komori.To express the game's mood, Meguro incorporated strong acid jazz elements into the score. He also wanted to make the music sound more realistic than previous entries, aiming to match the visuals. Meguro also changed the way the music flowed when compared to the last two Persona games. Instead of the opening and ending themes being conglomerates of the overall score, he described the entire score as a single continuous work. A recurring musical element was described as a "do-la" syllable; the opening uses "so la re mi" on strings as a hook, which then leads into the "do-la" syllable for other tracks, including the normal battle theme. While he was creating the music, Meguro received positive comments from Hashino when he made early tracks created for an internal demo.A three-disc soundtrack was released in Japan by Mastard Records on January 17, 2017. Upon its debut, the album reached fifth on the Oricon charts with sales of over 29,000. The album features 110 tracks with commentary from the sound team, while the cover and liner note artwork were designed by Soejima. In addition to the soundtrack, a 19-track disc featuring a selection of the game's main themes, Persona 5: Sounds of the Rebellion, was released as part of the North American and European collector's edition bundle. The complete soundtrack later received a localized English release on iTunes on April 18, 2017, and on vinyl later that year by iam8bit. == Release == Persona 5 was first announced with a teaser trailer in November 2013, alongside spin-off games Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona 4: Dancing All Night, and the PlayStation 3 port of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. The game was originally announced for a late 2014 release exclusively for the PlayStation 3. During a Sony press conference in September 2014, it was announced that the game would also be released for the PlayStation 4 and that it had been delayed into 2015. According to director Katsura Hashino, the game was delayed to fully develop for the PlayStation 4, and improve the general quality of both versions. The first gameplay trailer was shown during a special livestream on February 5, 2015. The song used in the first gameplay trailer is an instrumental version of the main theme. A Blu-ray Disc containing an exclusive trailer was bundled with first print copies of Persona 4: Dancing All Night in Japan on June 25, 2015. During a special livestream at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, it was announced that the game would be delayed to late 2016. Speaking in a staff interview, Hashino apologized for the delay and stated that it was necessary to deliver a high-quality product without having to hold back in terms of content.In April 2016, Atlus launched a countdown that ran until May 5, 2016. Shortly after, a special livestream was announced titled Take Tokyo Tower, which coincided with the countdown date. During the Take Tokyo Tower livestream, a trailer revealed the game's final release date. Persona 5 was released in Japan on September 15, 2016. Along with the standard edition, a 20th Anniversary Edition was released, which features all downloadable content (DLC) based on Persona 3 and Persona 4, a five-CD best-of album set featuring music from all six main games in the series, and the official artbook for the game by Soejima. In honor of the game's Japanese release, the series-focused variety show Persona Stalker Club featured a new programming block titled Persona Stalker Club V. To promote the game in Japan, Atlus partnered with AKG Acoustics to release limited edition wireless headphones based on the one Futaba wears in-game. The headphones were released in December 2016 and came with box art designed by Soejima, as well as a music CD featuring two remixed tracks from the game by Meguro and Kozuka. Certain in-game character apparel, such as jackets and tote bags, were also released in Japan in February and March 2018.Following its release, character costumes and additional Personas were released as paid DLC. The costumes include those incorporated into the 20th Anniversary Edition based on Persona 3 and Persona 4, in addition to new costumes based on the characters of Revelations: Persona, the Persona 2 duology (Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment), Shin Megami Tensei If..., Catherine, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, Persona 4 Arena, and Dancing All Night. The costumes are accompanied by arranged battle music from each costume set's respective game, which replaces the default battle theme based on what costume Joker wears. Some of the key Personas from Persona 3 and Persona 4 were released in bundles that include a new design and the original design of each. In addition, PlayStation 4 themes and avatar sets were released based on the central characters of Persona 5. An additional difficulty setting known as "Merciless" was also released as free DLC.Pre-order bonuses and its initial North American release date of February 14, 2017 was announced a week before E3 2016. Its release in Europe and Australia set for the same date was announced the following August. In November 2016, its release was pushed back two months to April 4. The stated reason was that Atlus wanted the game to be at its highest possible quality. Atlus USA published the game in North America. In Europe and Australia, it was published by Deep Silver. As with previous Persona games, the English localization was handled by Atlus USA and led by Yu Namba. According to Namba, the team began with a "blank slate" when choosing the English voice cast, as it was a new setting for the Persona series. Localizing Persona 5 was described by Namba as a massive project with the largest staff yet dedicated to the series. As project lead, Namba made the final call on issues brought up by the team during the localization process. The localized script was estimated as being 50% bigger than that of Persona 4 Golden. In English-speaking regions, the "Shin Megami Tensei" moniker was dropped from the title. For the English release, the Japanese dub was made available as free DLC.Upon its worldwide release, Atlus published a set of guidelines for streaming footage of the game, noting that streamers who shared footage past a certain in-game date "[did] so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension". The guidelines were widely perceived as threatening, and were criticized by many in the games press and streaming community. About three weeks later, Atlus apologized for the tone of its original guidelines and revised its policy, extending the amount that could be streamed considerably, though some critics continued to argue that even the revised streaming policy remained unfriendly to the game's fans and counterproductive to its success. === Persona 5 Royal === Persona 5 Royal, released in Japan as Persona 5: The Royal, is an enhanced version of the game, in a similar vein to Persona 4 Golden. This version features an additional Phantom Thief member named Kasumi Yoshizawa, a new Palace, a new area of the city (Kichijōji), new music, additional plot and social elements, a playable third semester, and support for the PlayStation 4 Pro, alongside many other changes and additions. In a first for the series, Royal features subtitles in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. It features a new opening sequence directed by Yuichiro Hayashi and produced by MAPPA, and as with the original game, Domerica co-produced the new anime cutscenes. Atlus first teased the game as Persona 5 R in December 2018, with a full reveal in April 2019. It was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan on October 31, 2019, and worldwide on March 31, 2020. The game also released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 21, 2022. Player save data cannot transfer between platforms. These versions were ported by Atlus owner Sega.Sega published Royal in Europe and Australia, taking over from Deep Silver who published the original in those regions. Additionally, Sega handled the game's conversions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Upon release, Royal received numerous character costume sets and Personas as paid DLC. Costumes include those based on the characters of Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, and of the characters from the Velvet Room. Additionally, Kasumi received costumes matching all previously released cosmetic DLC as part of her own bundle. Personas added include those from Persona 3 and 4 and a new one created for Persona 5 Royal. The returning Personas include a new design and the original design of each. A Battle Bundle was also released that, aside from including items to assist in combat, also features a challenge battle mode. All DLC from the original game was also made available as a free download for owners of Persona 5 Royal. The paid DLC created for Royal was included for free in the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions. == Reception == Persona 5 has been cited as one of the greatest role-playing games of all time, receiving "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic. Famitsu gave it a positive review, with the game garnering a near-perfect score. PlayStation Official Magazine – UK described it as "an unabashed masterpiece". IGN's Andrew Goldfarb said Persona 5 "stands out as an extraordinary, memorable experience and easily one of the deepest JRPGs of the last decade". RPGamer said that "With Persona 5, Atlus has once again proven that it is the master of the modern JRPG. With terrific style, addictive gameplay, and an engaging, thought-provoking story". One of the aspects that was highly praised was its graphical style and art direction. IGN listed it as one of the best contemporary role-playing games.The quality of the English localization was one of the few aspects singled out for criticism, with Polygon describing it as "aggravatingly mediocre". Another was its treatment of LGBT topics. Kenneth Shepard noted in Paste that the only characters to exist outside of the game's thoroughly heteronormative setting are a "lecherous" gay couple who are treated as a joke, which led him to conclude that Persona 5 sees gay men "at best as a joke and at worst something revolting to be feared". These scenes' dialogue were altered in the Western version of Persona 5 Royal. Writing for Gayming Magazine, Shepard opined that Royal's localization changes were appreciated, but the game was still broadly uninclusive to LGBT identities. === Royal === Persona 5 Royal received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, garnering an even higher score than the original. The game is the third-highest-rated PlayStation 4 game on Metacritic alongside Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Remastered. Famitsu praised Persona 5 Royal's newer elements. Michael Higham of GameSpot lauded the new music, characters, and the added third semester, saying that it solves one of the original game's shortcomings of ending abruptly. He concluded his review saying that Royal refines an already great game and builds on what was best about it with a great new story and that it is "an unforgettable and empowering RPG that should be recognized as one of the best games of our time." IGN's Leana Hafer said Royal is "a living master class in how to take an already amazing game and amp it up to the next level." She commended the improvements to the Mementos dungeons saying "The fact that Atlus has made Mementos feel so much more alive is a massive improvement by itself." === Sales === The game received a boost to pre-order sales following the delay of Final Fantasy XV, which was originally scheduled to release the same month as Persona 5. Sales went up on Amazon Japan by 450%, bringing it to second place in their best-seller charts behind Tales of Berseria. In its first week of release, the PS4 version reached first place with sales of 264,793 copies, while the PS3 version reached second place with 72,974, resulting in total sales of 337,767 copies. This made Persona 5 the fastest-selling title in the series' history, surpassing Revelations: Persona, and together with Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 pushed sales of the PS4 up significantly over the previous week. It was later reported by Hashino that combined physical shipments and digital sales had reached over 550,000 copies by September 2016. Within three weeks of its launch in Japan, the game became Atlus' best-selling game in the country.Outside of Japan, it was the biggest debut for any Persona game to date, with packaged sales five times better than Persona 4. On the PlayStation Network in April, the game topped the PS4 charts, and was third on the PS3, with Atlus announcing that it had shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide. By November 2017, that number had risen to over two million, which made it the best-selling game in the series. The success of Persona 5 contributed to increasing annual revenue for Sega, the owner of Atlus, in 2017. At the 2018 PlayStation Awards, it received the Platinum Prize for topping a million sales in Asia. Worldwide sales had risen to over 3.2 million copies by December 2019, not including Royal.Persona 5 Royal shipped over 400,000 copies in Japan by December 2019. This brought total sales of Persona 5 and Royal to over 3.6 million copies worldwide by December 2019. In February 2020, Royal topped the Media Create sales charts in South Korea and Taiwan. In the United Kingdom, Royal debuted at number five on the sales chart. Royal had sold over 1.4 million copies by July 2020, bringing the total sales of Persona 5 and Royal to over 4.6 million. As of June 2021, the game has sold over 5 million copies worldwide, including 1.8 million Royal copies.When the game launched on additional platforms in October 2022, the Nintendo Switch version placed in second at 45,998 physical copies sold, and PlayStation 5 version placed in seventh at 5,051 units during the week from October 17 to October 23, according to Japanese publication Famitsu. In the United Kingdom, the re-release of Royal debuted at number six on the sales chart, with 79% of the launch week sales coming from the Nintendo Switch version. By November 30, 2022, the PlayStation 4 version of Royal had sold 2.3 million copies, and the ports to other platforms had sold a combined one million copies, bringing total sales of Royal to 3.3 million copies, and combined sales of all versions of Persona 5 to 6.5 million copies.Total combined sales of Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal, and the spin-offs Dancing in Starlight and Strikers totaled 8.3 million by November 2022. === Awards === Persona 5 won two awards at the Japanese 2016 PlayStation Awards. At The Game Awards 2017, it was nominated for the show's "Game of the Year", "Best Art Direction", "Best Score/Music", and "Best Role Playing Game" awards, winning "Best Role Playing Game". It was named the second best game of 2017 by GameSpot, behind The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In IGN's 2017 end of year awards, it won "Best RPG", and was also nominated for "Game of the Year", "Best PlayStation 4 Game", "Best Art Direction", "Best Story", and "Best Original Music". The game was also nominated for "Best International Game" at the 2017 Ping Awards, and for the "Best Music" and "Best Style" awards by Giant Bomb.It was ranked as one of the best games of 2017 by Eurogamer, Polygon, The Verge, GamesRadar+, and Electronic Gaming Monthly's end of year lists. Ray Porreca of Destructoid named it his fifth favorite game of 2017. The website also nominated it for "Best PS4 Game" in its 2017 Game of the Year Awards. Staff of Game Informer named it 2017's "Best Role-Playing Game", as well as "Best Narrative" and "Best Cast". In their reader's choice awards, it was voted "Best Role-Playing Game" and came in second for "Best Sony Game" and third for "Game of the Year". The game won the Tin Pan Alley Award for "Best Music in a Game" at the New York Game Awards 2018. It was also nominated for the "Best Visual Art" award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In addition, it was nominated for "Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and for "Excellence in Musical Score" and "Excellence in Art" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards. The game was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 2019 G.A.N.G. Awards.Persona 5 Royal won the award for "Best Music" at the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2019, where it was also nominated for "Best RPG". It was nominated for "Best Role Playing Game" at The Game Awards 2020, but lost to Final Fantasy VII Remake. == Legacy == Prior to release, a standalone anime special titled Persona 5: the Animation -The Day Breakers- aired on Japanese television on September 3, 2016. Created by A-1 Pictures, The Day Breakers is set during the events of the game, being portrayed as a "sub event" separate from the main narrative. A manga adaptation by Hisato Murasaki began serialization online from September 15. Persona 5: The Animation, an anime television series based on the game's events, was produced by CloverWorks and began broadcast in April 2018. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, a rhythm game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, features the main cast of Persona 5 and was released in 2018. The cast is also featured in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth for the Nintendo 3DS, also released in 2018. Alongside teasing Royal, Atlus also announced Persona 5 Strikers, a hack and slash game developed by Koei Tecmo's studio Omega Force, with gameplay based on their Dynasty Warriors series. It was released in Japan for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2020 and worldwide in 2021 for those platforms and Windows. Its plot acts as a direct continuation to Persona 5. Stage play adaptations under the title Persona 5: The Stage have been performed in Japan, with original music composed by Atsushi Kitajoh.Joker appears as a playable character via downloadable content (DLC) in the 2018 crossover fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, is a fan of the Persona series and stated that Joker was emblematic of the approach that he wanted to take with Ultimate's DLC, adding that he wanted characters that were unique and fun to use within the Super Smash Bros. environment. Other characters and series elements have also made appearances in Dragon's Dogma Online, Phantasy Star Online 2, Lord of Vermilion Re:3, Sonic Forces, Puzzle & Dragons, Granblue Fantasy, Catherine: Full Body, Star Ocean: Anamnesis, Another Eden, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore, Dragalia Lost, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, Alchemy Stars, Soul Hackers 2, War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and NieR Reincarnation. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Official website (Persona 5 Royal 2022 release)

PS4

Killzone: Shadow Fall

First-person shooter

Killzone Shadow Fall is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is the sixth game of the Killzone series and the fourth game of the series for home consoles. Killzone Shadow Fall was released on 15 November 2013 as a launch title for the PlayStation 4 in North America and 29 November 2013 in Europe. Taking place 30 years after the events of Killzone 3, Shadow Fall follows a new set of characters, putting players in the role of Lucas Kellan, a "Shadow Marshal", who is investigating a rising threat in the continuing war between Vekta and the Helghast. As the first game in the series made for Sony's next-gen console, Killzone Shadow Fall received a number of changes to the series formula. The single-player campaign is more open-ended and stealth-based than its predecessors, and the multiplayer modes feature new customization options for weapons. The game also introduced a new proprietary in-house game engine called Decima. The game received mixed reception overall; it received praise for its visuals and multiplayer modes, while criticism was directed towards the game's single-player mode and several gameplay features, although several critics appreciated the game's attempt to change direction from its predecessors, as well as its more open-ended level design. Critics also criticized the title's lack of innovation as one of the first eighth generation games. As of January 2014, the game has sold over 2.1 million copies, making it the first PlayStation 4 game to surpass the million copy mark and one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. == Gameplay == Like its predecessors, Shadow Fall is a first-person shooter in a science fiction setting. Staple weapons such as the M82 Assault Rifle, stA-52 Assault Rifle, and stA-18 pistol return from the earlier Killzone games, albeit in new forms and variations. New weapons include the LSR44, a recoil-free, hybrid assault/charge sniper rifle that functions much like a miniaturized rail-gun, and the OWL, an advanced hovering attack drone (used by the Shadow Marshals) that can attack/stun when it is adjacent to an adversary, as well as deploy an instant zip line, protect the player from enemy fire with an energy shield, and hack/scan terminals and enemy alarms to prevent reinforcements from arriving.While the previous games in the Killzone series portrayed a large war-zone with numerous allies by the players side at any given time and an overall linear design, Shadow Fall opts for a more open-ended level design and allows players to utilize stealth to approach their missions in addition to engaging in direct confrontations with enemies. Levels are much more open than in previous games, allowing for multiple ways/routes to complete objectives. Also in Shadow Fall, for the first half of the campaign, the player is alone in firefights, with the OWL as the player's only "companion", which is able to lay down cover fire, among other abilities. During the second half onward, the player is occasionally joined by Echo as an ally, where she is able to snipe enemies marked by the player. Multiplayer shipped with 10 maps. Users are encouraged to create their own custom map presets called "Warzones", which then can be shared with others or promoted by the Killzone community. Classes, abilities and weapons are unlocked from the start. The class system has been simplified to just three: Assault, Scout and Support (with some medic abilities from previous games now subsumed under "Support"). The player unlocks skill enhancements based on completing challenges unique to his class. Alongside competitive multiplayer, a 4-player online co-operative mode was introduced with the Intercept expansion pack, released on 24 June 2014. == Synopsis == === Setting === Following the Petrusite detonation that rendered the planet Helghan uninhabitable in Killzone 3 (an event now referred to as "The Terracide"), the ISA grants refuge to the Helghast survivors on the planet Vekta, allowing them to colonize half the planet, with that half of the planet dubbed New Helghan. A massive security fortification called The Wall is constructed to separate the two civilizations from each other, due to the resentment they bear over the previous war. Both the Vektans and Helghast routinely perform covert operations against each other in the hope of finishing the war each claims the other started. The majority of the game takes place in Vekta City, home to the Vektan Security Agency (VSA) headquarters, as well as a prison in New Helghan, and Helghan, the original homeworld of the Helghast, now dead and shattered due to the Petrusite detonation. === Plot === The game begins in the year 2370, several years after the construction of "The Wall", during the forced relocation of Vektans out of New Helghan. Michael Kellan and his 5-year-old son, Lucas, attempt to sneak through New Helghan to The Wall. Along the way, they meet Sinclair, a Shadow Marshal, who aids them in making it through to safety. Just as the group makes it to The Wall, Helghast forces spot them and kill Michael. After Sinclair dispatches the remaining forces, he promises Lucas that he will look after him. A brief cutscene plays, showing Lucas rising through the ranks of the Shadow Marshal Academy, eventually becoming a full-fledged Shadow Marshal and working under Sinclair's command. 20 years later, tensions between the Vektans and Helghast have reached a boiling point. Kellan, who let himself be captured by the Helghast as part of an investigation, is being brought across The Wall as part of a prisoner exchange for a Helghast agent named Echo. After the exchange, Kellan is ordered to return to the Helghan side of The Wall in order to retrieve classified data. Kellan recovers the classified information and makes a bold escape out of the area. Using the recovered data, Sinclair sends Kellan to the ISC "Cassandra", a classified research ship, to destroy evidence of a bio-tech weapon being created by head scientist Dr. Hillary Massar and send the "Cassandra" into the nearby sun. Once on the station, Kellan encounters Echo, who escapes with Massar in tow; while Kellan makes it off the ship just as it drifts into the sun. Upon arriving at VSA headquarters, a massive explosion rips through the building, killing several civilians and soldiers. Through the confusion, Kellan meets up with Sinclair; just as a broadcast comes through from Vladko Tyran, leader of "The Black Hand", a paramilitary terrorist group claiming responsibility for the attack. As a result of the terrorism, all Helghast citizens residing on the Vektan side of The Wall are deported to New Helghan. Sinclair sends Kellan under-cover with the rest of the refugees in order to locate Tyran. Eventually he finds Tyran and learns that he is working for Jorhan Stahl (having survived the events of Killzone 3), who plans to use Massar's bio-tech weapon that has been altered to target Vektans. Shortly after, Kellan is taken captive. Kellan is approached by Echo in his cell. He informs her that Stahl plans to use Massar's bio-tech weapon to kill Vektans and half-breeds alike, including Echo (who is half-Vektan, half-Helghast). Echo, who is revealed to be Lady Hera Visari's daughter, is displeased with Visari for being in league with Stahl and planning to ignite another war. She helps Kellan escape his cell and returns him to the Vektan side of The Wall in order to convince the VSA to stand down. Upon his return, Sinclair ignores Kellan's pleas to stand down, outraged that he is siding with Echo. Instead, Sinclair informs him that the VSA have tracked Massar to a massive mining spire in orbit over the planet Helghan, and dispatches him to recover the doctor. Kellan infiltrates the main spire and finds Massar. She states that the bio-weapon is now with Stahl, being prepped for its final test. Sinclair orders Kellan to take Massar into custody, but Echo arrives and kills Massar as Kellan watches on. Now viewed as a traitor by Sinclair, Kellan teams up with Echo, and the two descend to Helghan to stop Stahl. Once the duo arrive on the destroyed surface of Helghan and head to Stahl's base, they confront and defeat Tyran. Kellan then radios Sinclair, warning him to abort the ISA assault on Stahl, but Sinclair ignores him. As the ISA begin their attack on Stahl's base, Stahl activates Massar's weapon, destroying all of the ISA ships. Echo and Kellan are separated in the chaos. Finally, Kellan reaches Stahl himself, strapped to a life support system due to his advanced age (and presumably due to Petrusite exposure). Stahl claims that the Terracide happened because the weak had to be destroyed, and that it is Vekta's turn to share the same fate, but is suddenly shot dead by Sinclair, who enters the room and also shoots Kellan. As Kellan dies, Sinclair states that with the newly reacquired weapon, they can end the Helghast threat forever. Sinclair then apologizes to Kellan before killing him. A mid-credits scene lets the player take control of Echo, sneaking into Vekta City to assassinate Sinclair during a speech he gives to the Vektans, calling for war against the Helghast. Echo comes to a perch overlooking the ceremony, lines up her shot with a sniper rifle and quietly says "For Kellan..." before pulling the trigger, killing Sinclair and preventing a new war from beginning. == Development and release == Killzone Shadow Fall was seen by Guerrilla Games as an opportunity to revitalize the franchise, since it was established early in development that they would be working on a new platform. The main point during development was to give players more options on how to proceed, particularly during the single-player mode. According to Guerrilla Games, the original size of Killzone Shadow Fall was 290GB because the game has no assets designed for lower spec systems.The demo shown during the PlayStation 4's announcement only used 4GB of memory – not the full 8GB GDDR5 RAM available to developers in the final hardware, Guerrilla has revealed. According to the studio, 3072MB (3GB) of the PS4's 8GB were dedicated to video resources powering the demo, with 1,536MB used for system resources. A further 128MB were shared between the two. Of the 3GB reserved for video memory, 1,321 MB were used by non-streaming textures. According to Guerrilla, the demo featured 8200 physics objects, 500 particle systems and real-time reflections - which include "a lot of Guerrilla secret sauce". Guerrilla's decision to stick with 4GB suggest that the developer may not have been aware of Sony's decision to include 8GB in final retail hardware – something Just Add Water CEO Stewart Gilray told VideoGamer.com had been kept secret from third-party developers until the console's announcement. "We were told [PS4] was 4GB originally and we first knew it had 8GBs when Mark said at the event's stage, 'And it has 8GB of memory'. We'd had kits at that point for a good while."The game ended development and "went gold" on 21 October 2013. The game was released on 15 November 2013 in North America, and was released on 29 November 2013 in Europe, and on 22 February 2014 in Japan, as a launch title for the PlayStation 4. Participating retailers offered the Shadow Pack as a pre-order bonus. It included three exclusive skins for the OWL combat drone, the MP Spotlight Move (a special victory move to humiliate fallen opponents in multiplayer), and the official soundtrack. === Soundtrack === Killzone Shadow Fall is the second game in the series in which Joris de Man did not compose the score, following the PlayStation Vita title Killzone: Mercenary. For Shadow Fall, Tyler Bates and electronica artist Lorn were hired to compose music for the Vekta and Helghan missions, respectively. The style of the soundtrack is vastly different from previous installments, favoring ambient soundscapes and beat-driven electronica over orchestral arrangements. The official soundtrack for the game received two releases: first, as a standalone app on the PlayStation 4, released on 31 December 2013, and then as a digital download on iTunes, released on 16 September 2014. == Reception == === Critical response === Killzone Shadow Fall received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was mostly praised for its visuals and multiplayer mode, but criticism was directed at the game's story and AI problems. Destructoid's Dale North was very positive of the game; he scored it a 9/10 and said: "I like Killzone: Shadow Fall for its change of direction from previous series games, as well as its change of pace over other first-person shooters. Guerrilla has tried a few new things this time around, and should be commended as such. I welcome the almost sandbox-ish level approach, and the stealth segments did a nice job of breaking up the standard shooting action. It's really nice when gameplay concepts win out over big set pieces and cinematic events. Oh, and it's beautiful. A stunner. Killzone: Shadow Fall is the game that will make you happy to own a PS4."Oli Welsh's review for Eurogamer scored a 7 out of 10. He praised the visuals, gunplay, movement, level design, and multiplayer, as well as the OWL, which was called a "fun tactical toy". Welsh said "It's a game that any new PlayStation 4 owner will be proud to show off - but it won't be one they remember by the time PS5 rolls around."In his review for Game Informer, Dan Ryckert scored the game an 8/10 and stated: "When you look past the gorgeous visuals, Killzone: Shadow Fall is a competent shooter in terms of both campaign gameplay and multiplayer offerings. It may not be the most innovative title on the market, but it's certainly one of the top stars of the PlayStation 4's launch lineup."Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot scored the game a 7 out of 10 and said: "As much as I enjoyed my online time with Killzone: Shadow Fall—and as much as I will enjoy lots more time with it, unlocking perks that allow me to personalize my weapons—I missed Killzone 3's jump pack, which brought a nifty nimbleness to the battlegrounds. I missed it in Shadow Fall's disappointing single-player campaign, too, which sorely needed a shot of adrenaline. Where I look back fondly on Killzone 2's finest single-player moments, the moments I recall here are those in which I wandered through corridors and rocky meadows wondering where the bad guys were. Luckily, Guerrilla Games remembered what drew me and many others to the front lines of online war, and it's here that Shadow Fall emerges from the rubble and flies into the electric skies."GamesRadar's Ryan Taljonick gave the game a positive review. He scored it a 4/5 and stated: "Killzone: Shadow Fall is an excellent way to kick off the eighth console generation. Sure, its characters may not be all that convincing, and its multiplayer is more a well-crafted distraction than a long-term destination, but the game as a whole contains plenty of unexpected surprises that make it worth your time. The open-ended missions, though not as plentiful as you might like, are made even better thanks to the awesome tools at your disposal, and its story has some powerful moments that are sure to catch you off guard. And even when it hits lulls, you'll still have a great time shooting to your heart's content."Colin Moriarty of IGN gave a generally positive review, with a score of 8 out of 10. He called it "great", praised the "stunning" graphics, said the multiplayer was "fun" and liked the gameplay improvements. Some negative comments were made concerning the AI and level design. Moriarty summed up the review by saying "There's never been a better time for everyone to be paying attention to the Killzone franchise, because Shadow Fall is a step in an all-new, very welcome direction."Polygon's review was more harsh, with Arthur Gies giving the game a score of 5 out of 10. Gies praised the visuals but said the game is filled with "shooter cliches" and is marred by poor execution. "Shadow Fall looks like the future, but it's stuck in the past," Gies said. "In a launch lineup crowded with shooters, Killzone: Shadow Fall sits at the bottom."The game received several awards after its release, including the Best PS4 Shooter and Best PS4 Graphics by IGN. It also received the People's Choice awards on both categories. === Sales === The game was a commercial success, selling almost 800,000 copies as of 25 December 2013. As of 2 March 2014 it has sold over 2.1 million copies. === Lawsuit === On 5 August 2014, Sony was sued for $5 million in a class action lawsuit. Sony was accused of "deceptive marketing" because the game's multiplayer mode does not run at the resolution advertised. The case was dismissed on 22 April 2015. == References == == External links == Killzone Shadow Fall at MobyGames

PS4

Grand Theft Auto V

Action-adventure

Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips—and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas' open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles. The game is played from either a third-person or first-person perspective, and its world is navigated on foot and by vehicle. Players control the three lead protagonists throughout single-player and switch among them, both during and outside missions. The story is centred on the heist sequences, and many missions involve shooting and driving gameplay. A "wanted" system governs the aggression of law enforcement response to players who commit crimes. Grand Theft Auto Online, the game's online multiplayer mode, lets up to 30 players engage in a variety of different cooperative and competitive game modes. The game's development began around the time of Grand Theft Auto IV's release and was shared between many of Rockstar's studios worldwide. The development team drew influence from many of their previous projects such as Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 and designed the game around three lead protagonists to innovate on the core structure of its predecessors. Much of the development work constituted the open world's creation, and several team members conducted field research around California to capture footage for the design team. The game's soundtrack features an original score composed by a team of producers who collaborated over several years. It was released in September 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in April 2015 for Windows, and in March 2022 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Extensively marketed and widely anticipated, the game broke industry sales records and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days. It received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its multiple protagonist design, open world, presentation and gameplay. However, it caused controversies related to its depiction of violence and women. It won year-end accolades including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, and is considered one of seventh and eighth generation console gaming's most significant titles and among the best video games ever made. It is the second best-selling video game of all time with over 170 million copies shipped, and as of April 2018, one of the most financially successful entertainment products of all time, with about $6 billion in worldwide revenue. Its successor is in development. == Gameplay == Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a third-person or first-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of the missions, players may freely roam the open world. Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area, including the fictional Blaine County, and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. It may be fully explored after the game's beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content. Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the world. To accommodate the map's size, the game introduces vehicle types absent in its predecessor Grand Theft Auto IV, such as fixed-wing aircraft. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system may be used as assistance against enemies. Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate to its halfway point. Players respawn at hospitals when their health depletes. If players commit crimes, law enforcement agencies may respond as indicated by a "wanted" meter in the head-up display (HUD). Stars displayed on the meter indicate the current wanted level (for example, at the maximum five-star level, police helicopters and SWAT teams swarm to lethally dispatch players). Law enforcement officers will search for players who leave the wanted vicinity. The meter enters a cool-down mode and eventually recedes when players are hidden from the officers' line of sight that displays on the mini-map for a period of time.The single-player mode lets players control three characters: Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips and Franklin Clinton—criminals whose stories interconnect as they complete missions. Some missions are completed with only one character and others feature two or three. Outside the missions, players may switch between characters at will by a directional compass on the HUD, although this feature becomes restricted at various points throughout the story. The game may switch characters automatically during missions to complete specific objectives. A character's compass avatar will flash red if he is in danger and needs help, and flash white if he has a strategic advantage. Though players complete missions as any of the three protagonists, the more difficult heist missions require aid from AI-controlled accomplices with unique skill sets like computer hacking and driving. If an accomplice survives a successful heist, they take a cut from the cash reward and may be available for later missions with improvements to their unique skills. Some heists afford multiple strategies; in a holdup mission, players may either stealthily subdue civilians with an incapacitating agent or conspicuously storm the venue with guns drawn.Each character has a set of eight skills that represent their ability in specific areas such as shooting and driving. Though skills improve through play, each character has a skill with expertise by default (e.g. Trevor's flying skill). The eighth "special" skill determines the effectiveness in performing an ability that is unique to each respective character. Michael enters bullet time in combat, Franklin slows down time while driving, and Trevor deals twice as much damage to enemies while taking half as much in combat. A meter on each character's HUD depletes when an ability is being used and regenerates when players perform skilful actions (for example, drifting in vehicles as Franklin or performing headshots as Michael).While free-roaming the game world, players may engage in context-specific activities such as scuba diving and BASE jumping, and visit businesses such as cinemas and strip clubs. Each character has a smartphone for contacting friends, starting activities and accessing an in-game Internet. The Internet lets players trade in stocks via a stock market. Players may purchase properties such as garages and businesses, upgrade the weapons and vehicles in each character's arsenal, and customise their appearance by purchasing outfits, haircuts and tattoos. == Plot == In 2004, Michael Townley, Trevor Philips, and Brad Snider partake in a failed robbery in Ludendorff, North Yankton, resulting in Michael being presumed dead. Nine years later, Michael lives with his family in the city of Los Santos under the alias Michael De Santa, having made a secret agreement with the Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) agent Dave Norton to stay hidden. Across town, gangster Franklin Clinton works for a corrupt car salesman and meets Michael while attempting to fraudulently repossess his son's car. The two later become friends. When Michael finds his wife sleeping with her tennis coach, he and Franklin chase the coach to a mansion, which Michael destroys in anger. The owner of the mansion, drug lord Martin Madrazo, demands compensation. Michael returns to a life of crime to obtain the money, enlisting Franklin as an accomplice. With the help of Michael's old friend Lester Crest, a disabled hacker, they rob a jewellery store to pay off the debt. Meanwhile, Trevor, who lives in squalor on the outskirts of Los Santos, hears of the heist and realises it was Michael's work; Trevor had believed the FIB killed Michael in the Ludendorff heist. Trevor finds Michael and reunites with him, forcing Michael to reluctantly accept him back into his life. As time goes on, the protagonists' lives spiral out of control. Michael's criminal behaviour prompts his family to leave him. When he later becomes a movie producer, he comes into conflict with Devin Weston, a billionaire venture capitalist and corporate raider, who attempts to shut down Michael's studio. Michael thwarts his efforts and inadvertently kills his assistant, causing Devin to vow revenge. Meanwhile, Franklin must rescue his friend Lamar Davis from their former friend and rival gangster Harold "Stretch" Joseph, who attempts to kill them to prove himself to his new gang. Concurrently, Trevor tries to consolidate his control over various black markets in Blaine County, waging war against The Lost outlaw motorcycle club, Latin American street gangs, rival meth dealers, private security firm Merryweather, and triad kingpin Wei Cheng. Having broken his agreement with Dave by committing heists again, Michael is coerced by Dave and his superior, Steve Haines, to perform a series of operations alongside Franklin and Trevor to undermine the International Affairs Agency (IAA). Under Steve's direction and with Lester's help, they attack a convoy carrying funds for the IAA and steal an experimental chemical weapon from an IAA lab. As Steve comes under increasing scrutiny, he forces Michael and Franklin to erase evidence against him from the FIB servers. Michael takes the opportunity to wipe the data on his activities, destroying Steve's leverage over him. After reconciling with his family, Michael starts planning his final heist with Trevor, Franklin, and Lester: raiding the Union Depository's gold bullion reserve. However, Trevor discovers that Brad was not imprisoned as he was led to believe, but killed during the Ludendorff heist and buried in the grave marked for Michael. Deducing that the heist was a setup and that he was supposed to be killed in Brad's place, Trevor feels betrayed and leaves Michael for dead following a standoff with Cheng's henchmen. Although Franklin rescues Michael, Trevor's anger towards the latter causes friction within the group and threatens to undermine their plans. Meanwhile, Steve betrays Michael and Dave, and they become caught in a Mexican standoff between the FIB, the IAA, and Merryweather. Michael and Dave are rescued by Trevor, who decided to partake in the Union Depository heist and part ways with Michael afterwards. The heist is successful, but Franklin is afterwards approached by Steve and Dave, who contend that Trevor is a liability, and Devin, who seeks revenge on Michael. Franklin has three options: kill Trevor, kill Michael, or attempt to save both in a suicide mission. Should Franklin choose to kill either Michael or Trevor, he ceases contact with the man he spares and returns to his old life. Otherwise, the trio, aided by Lamar and Lester, withstands an onslaught from the FIB and Merryweather before going on to kill Cheng, Stretch, Steve, and Devin. Michael and Trevor reconcile, and the three protagonists cease working together but remain friends. == Development == Rockstar North began to develop Grand Theft Auto V in 2008, around Grand Theft Auto IV's release. Development was conducted by a team of more than 1,000 people, including Rockstar North's core team and staff from parent company Rockstar Games' studios around the world. The proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) was overhauled for the game to improve its draw distance rendering capabilities. The Euphoria and Bullet software handle additional animation and rendering tasks. Having become familiar with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 hardware over time, Rockstar found they were able to push the consoles' graphical capabilities further than in previous games. Analyst estimations place the game's combined development and marketing budget at more than £170 million (US$265 million), which would make it the most expensive game ever made at that time.The open world was modelled on Southern California and Los Angeles, and its design and in-game render constituted much of the game's early work. Key members of the game world production team took field research trips throughout the region and documented their research with photo and video footage. Google Maps projections of Los Angeles were used by the team to help design Los Santos' road networks. To reflect and reproduce Los Angeles' demographic spread, the developers studied census data and watched documentaries about the city. The team considered creating the open world the most technically demanding aspect of the game's production.A fundamental design goal from the outset was to innovate on the series core structure by giving players control of three lead protagonists instead of one. The idea was first raised during Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' development, but contemporaneous hardware restrictions made it infeasible. Having developed two Grand Theft Auto IV episodic expansion packs featuring new protagonists in 2009, the team wanted to base Grand Theft Auto V around three simultaneously controlled protagonists. The team viewed it as a spiritual successor to many of their previous games (such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3), and designed it to improve upon their gameplay mechanics. They sought to improve the action gameplay by refining the shooting mechanics and cover system and reworked the driving mechanics to correct Grand Theft Auto IV's awkward vehicle controls.After an audition process, Ned Luke, Shawn Fonteno and Steven Ogg were selected to portray Michael, Franklin and Trevor, respectively. Their performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology, but dialogue for scenes with characters seated in vehicles was recorded in studios instead. The game features an original score composed by a team of producers collaborating over several years. Licensed music provided by an in-game radio is also used. The team licensed more than 241 tracks shared between fifteen radio stations, with an additional two stations providing talk radio. Some of the tracks were written specifically for the game, such as rapper and producer Flying Lotus' original work composed for the FlyLo FM radio station he hosts. === Release === The game was first announced by Rockstar Games on 25 October 2011. They released its debut trailer one week later, with an official press release acknowledging its setting. Journalists noted that the announcement ignited widespread anticipation within the gaming industry, which they owed to the cultural significance of the series. The game missed its original projected Q2 2013 release date, pushed back to 17 September to allow for further polishing. To spur pre-order game sales, Rockstar collaborated with several retail outlets to make a special edition with extra in-game features. They ran a viral marketing strategy with a website for a fictional religious cult, "The Epsilon Program", that offered users the chance to feature in the game as members of the cult. A re-release of the game was announced for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One at E3 2014. This enhanced version features an increased draw distance, finer texture details, denser traffic, upgraded weather effects, and new wildlife and vegetation. It includes a new on-foot first-person view option, which required the development team to overhaul the animation system to accommodate first-person gameplay. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released on 18 November 2014. The PC version, initially scheduled for simultaneous release with the console versions, was delayed until 14 April 2015. According to Rockstar, it required extra development time for "polish". The PC version is capable of 60 frames per second gameplay at 4K resolution, and the Rockstar Editor lets players capture and edit gameplay videos. Plans to develop single-player downloadable content were later scrapped as the team focused resources on Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2.A new version, commonly referred to as "Expanded & Enhanced", was announced in June 2020. Released on 15 March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, it features technical enhancements and performance updates. A trailer released for the new version in September 2021 was met with negativity, becoming one of the most-disliked videos on PlayStation's YouTube channel; journalists noted that fans were frustrated by Rockstar's continued focus on the game instead of other projects such as a new Grand Theft Auto game, as well as the lack of apparent new features demonstrated in the trailer. === Grand Theft Auto Online === Developed in tandem with the single-player mode, the online multiplayer mode Grand Theft Auto Online was conceived as a separate experience to be played in a continually evolving world. Up to 30 players freely roam across the game world and enter lobbies to complete jobs (story-driven competitive and cooperative modes). The Content Creator toolset lets players create their own parameters for custom jobs, like racetracks and deathmatch weapon spawn points. Players may band together in organised player teams called crews to complete jobs together. Rockstar Games Social Club extends crews formed in Max Payne 3's multiplayer mode to those of Grand Theft Auto Online. Players may create their own crews and join up to five total. Crews win multiplayer matches to earn experience points and climb online leaderboards.Grand Theft Auto Online launched on 1 October 2013, two weeks after Grand Theft Auto V's release. Many players reported connection difficulties and game freezes during load screens. Rockstar released a technical patch on 5 October in an effort to resolve the issues, but problems persisted the second week following launch as some players reported their character progress as having disappeared. Another technical patch was released on 10 October combating the issues, and Rockstar offered a GTA$500,000 (in-game currency) stimulus to the accounts of all players connected to Online since launch as recompense. Because of the widespread technical issues present at launch, many reviewers bemoaned their Grand Theft Auto Online experience but generally recognised its open-ended exploration and dynamic content as strengths.Post-release content is continually added to Grand Theft Auto Online through free title updates. Some updates add new game modes and features, and others feature themed gameplay content, such as the Independence Day Special update that added patriotic-themed content on 1 July 2014. The widely anticipated Online Heists update launched on 10 March 2015 and suffered some initial technical difficulties due to the increased user load. Shortly after the game's PC release, some players reported being banned from Grand Theft Auto Online for using field of view and cosmetic mods in single-player. Rockstar stated in their official blog that nobody had been banned from Online for using single-player mods, but that recent updates to the PC version had the "unintentional effect" of making such mods unplayable. They stated that mods are unauthorised and may cause unforeseen technical problems and instabilities. == Reception == === Initial release === Grand Theft Auto V received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, based on 50 reviews for the PlayStation 3 version and 58 reviews for the Xbox 360 version. The game is Metacritic's fifth-highest rated, tied with several others. Reviewers liked the multiple lead character formula, heist mission design and presentation, but some did not agree on the quality of the story and characters. IGN's Keza MacDonald called Grand Theft Auto V "one of the very best video games ever made", and Play considered it "generation-defining" and "exceptional". Edge wrote that it is a "remarkable achievement" in open-world design and storytelling, while The Daily Telegraph's Tom Hoggins declared it a "colossal feat of technical engineering". It became the second-ever western developed game to be awarded a perfect score from the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu.CNET's Jeff Bakalar felt that the game encouraged players to engage with all three characters. Edge found that switching players helped avoid long travel times to mission start points. Because of the switching mechanic, Game Informer's Matt Bertz noted that players are kept "in the thick of the action" during shootouts. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell wrote that switching added a tactical element to shootouts as characters set up in strategic outposts would cause fewer "shooting gallery" situations than previous instalments. IGN's MacDonald felt the switching feature gave players more choice in their approach and made missions less predictable.Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann considered the heist missions a welcome deviation from series typical mission structure. Eurogamer's Bramwell likened them to "blockbuster set-pieces", and GameSpot's Carolyn Petit cited the 1995 film Heat as a stylistic influence on their design. Joystiq's Xav de Matos felt creativity and methodical approaches were encouraged. Polygon's Chris Plante likened rapid character switching during heist missions to "film editing, with the player serving as editor, switching rapidly to the most interesting perspective for any moment". Computer and Video Games' Andy Kelly felt that overall mission design was more diverse than and lacked the escort errands of its predecessors. Edge praised the game's graphical fidelity and absence of load screens. Play complimented the draw distances and weather and lighting systems. Eurogamer's Bramwell considered the lighting system to be the game's most significant advancement. Official Xbox Magazine (OXM)'s Mikel Reparaz thought that the game was "probably the Xbox 360's greatest technical achievement", and was surprised that the open world could render on the console. Reviewers lauded the open-world design, some further complimenting the game for streamlining Los Angeles' geography into a well-designed city space. GameTrailers' Brandon Jones considered the Los Angeles emulation authentic and the open world "full of voice and personality". IGN and PlayStation Official Magazine (OPM) made favourable comparisons between Los Santos and Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City. OXM's Reparez felt Los Santos surpassed the "grey and gritty" Liberty City. Reviewers praised the world's satire of contemporary American culture—OPM's Joel Gregory opined that "the scathing social commentary is, of course, present and correct".Destructoid's Jim Sterling called the sound design "impeccable" and praised the actors' performances, original soundtrack and licensed music use. IGN and Giant Bomb commended the music selection and felt that the original score enhanced dramatic tension during missions. GameSpot's Petit wrote that the score "lends missions more cinematic flavour". Edge said that the licensed music enhanced the city's "already remarkable sense of space" and that the original score improved the atmosphere of the gameplay. They summarised the game as "a compendium of everything Rockstar has learnt about the power of game music in the past decade".Many reviewers found the land-based vehicles more responsive and easier to control than in previous games. Game Informer's Bertz explained that "cars have a proper sense of weight, while retaining the agility necessary for navigating through traffic at high speeds". In addition to the vehicle handling, most reviewers noted the shooting mechanics were tighter than they had been in previous games, but Destructoid's Sterling felt that in spite of the improvements, auto-aim was "twitchy and unreliable" and cover mechanics "still come off as dated and unwieldy". Some reviewers felt the game solved a persistent problem by adding mid-mission checkpoints.The story and characters—particularly Trevor—polarised reviewers. Some felt that the narrative was not as well written as previous Rockstar games and cited Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption's plot strengths. Others thought that the protagonists' contrasting personalities gave the narrative tighter pacing. GamesRadar's Hollander Cooper thought the game negated inconsistencies in the story of previous entries, whose single lead protagonists had muddled morality. GameSpot's Petit considered Trevor, in particular, a "truly horrible, terrifying, psychotic human being—and a terrific character". Eurogamer's Bramwell found Trevor "shallow and unconvincing", and felt that his eccentricities hurt the narrative and overshadowed Michael and Franklin's character development. Joystiq's de Matos faulted the protagonists' lack of likability for him, and found the ambivalence between Michael and Trevor a tired plot device as their conflict grew into a "seemingly endless cycle". The Escapist's Greg Tito had difficulty connecting with the characters' emotions since they acted out of greed with no sense of morality and thus gave players little reason to support them. === Re-release === Grand Theft Auto V's re-release, similarly, received critical acclaim. It is the highest-rated PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game on Metacritic alongside Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2, and the second-highest rated PC game alongside several others.Game Informer's Andrew Reiner considered the addition of first-person "another significant breakthrough for the series" in the vein of Grand Theft Auto III's shift to third-person from Grand Theft Auto's bird's-eye view. GameSpot's Mark Walton found that playing in first-person heightened the impact of Grand Theft Auto V's violence, which made him reflect on morality and character motivation more than before. VideoGamer.com opined that players feel like inhabitants of the world, rather than "guns attached to a floating camera". IGN's Dan Stapleton found the game more immersive in first-person, creating a "surprisingly different experience". VideoGamer.com praised the "finer details" in first-person animations like camera lean when players take corners on motorcycles, or the navigational instruments in plane cockpits. Reviewers found playing the game more difficult in first-person, but Game Informer's Reiner preferred the challenge.GameSpot's Walton thought the graphics improvements made the open world "even more spectacular", especially because of improved spatial anti-aliasing. Of the first-person view, he said that "at ground level everything looks bigger and more imposing" because of the improved graphics. IGN's Stapleton favoured the PlayStation 4 version's graphics over the Xbox One but thought both consoles rendered the game well and maintained mostly consistent frame rates. He praised the increased frame rate and graphics options offered in the PC version. VideoGamer.com called the console version's frame rate so consistent it was "scarcely believable", although GameSpot's Walton cited occasional frame rate dips. GameSpot's Peter Brown opined that the PC version let players "witness the full extent of Rockstar's admirable handiwork", but noted that it "retains evidence of its last-gen roots ... with simple geometry". VideoGamer.com praised the Rockstar Editor's accessibility on PC but criticised some of its limitations, such as camera angle restrictions. IGN's Stapleton appreciated the PC version's customisable controls, and GameSpot's Brown felt that constant switching between the mouse and keyboard and a gamepad was necessary for "the best experience". PC Gamer's Chris Thursten called the game "the most beautiful, expansive and generous" of the series.On the game's multiplayer, IGN's Stapleton reported low player counts in matches, long wait times in lobbies, server disconnection and occasional crashes. "Because of that," he wrote, "I can't strongly recommend ... the multiplayer experience alone". VideoGamer.com found online character progression streamlined by comparison with the original version. According to them, the "grind of just doing PvP until co-op Jobs arrive with regularity" was lost, and newcomers would likely find multiplayer enjoyable and balanced. However, they wrote of frequent server disconnection, especially during load screens. GameSpot's Walton thought that Grand Theft Auto Online "still suffers from a lack of direction" for its open-ended and frenetic gameplay, but still is fun. Game Informer's Reiner reported "minimal lag or issues in the expanded firefights and races".The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series releases received tepid responses from critics, who questioned the value proposition of a new version of the ageing title. While the improved visual fidelity was singled out for praise, reviewers generally found the core gameplay, storytelling and character models dated. Hardcore Gamer's Chris Shive thought the lack of new content made the upgrade difficult to recommend to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players. GamingBolt's Shubhankar Parijat was apathetic towards the visual enhancements but praised the increased accessibility for Online newcomers. Jeuxvideo.com's Nicolas Dixmier thought the release offered the supreme console experience and highlighted the improved graphics and load times. Push Square's Sammy Barker faulted the antiquated humour but thought the visual and technical enhancements gave the "sunny sandbox a new lease of life". === Awards === Grand Theft Auto V received multiple nominations and awards from gaming publications. Before release, it won Most Anticipated Game at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. The game was review aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings' highest-rated for the year 2013. The game appeared on several year-end lists of 2013's best games, receiving Game of the Year wins from independent journalist Tom Chick, CNET, Edge, the 31st Golden Joystick Awards, the 5th Annual Inside Gaming Awards, the Spike VGX 2013 Awards, Slant Magazine and Time. It was named the Best Xbox Game by Canada.com, GameSpot, and IGN, and the Best Multiplatform Game by Destructoid. Rockstar Games and Rockstar North won Best Studio and Best Developer from Edge, and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the 10th British Academy Video Games Awards.Various in-game elements were recognised with awards. Trevor was named Best Character for the Official Xbox Magazine's Game of the Year Awards 2013, while Lamar Davis won the Best New Character award from Giant Bomb. The music received awards from Spike VGX, Hardcore Gamer and The Daily Telegraph. Grand Theft Auto Online won Best Multiplayer from GameTrailers and BAFTA, and Best Xbox 360 Multiplayer from IGN. Online was also nominated for Biggest Disappointment by Game Revolution and Hardcore Gamer. Grand Theft Auto V won Best Technical Achievement in the Telegraph Video Game Awards, and Best Technology at the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The graphical and artistic design received awards from IGN, The Daily Telegraph and BAFTA, and a nomination at the Game Developers Choice Awards.The game received numerous other awards. It was awarded the title of Most Immersive Game at the Inside Gaming Awards. The general public voted for the game to win the User Choice Award at the PlayStation Awards 2013 and the Community Choice award from Destructoid. The game received the Platinum Award at the PlayStation Awards and was named the Best British Game from BAFTA. At IGN's Best of 2013 Awards, it earned multiple wins, including Best Xbox 360 Graphics, Best Xbox 360 Sound, and Best Action Game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and overall. === Controversies === The game has generated several controversies related to its violence and depiction of women. The mission "By the Book", which requires players to use torture equipment in a hostage interrogation polarised reviewers, who noted its political commentary but felt that the torture sequence was in poor taste. The mission also received criticism from politicians and anti-torture charity groups. The game became subject to widespread online debate over its portrayal of women, particularly in the wake of the backlash against GameSpot journalist Carolyn Petit when she claimed the game was misogynistic in her review. After Petit's review webpage received more than 20,000 mostly negative comments, many journalists defended her right to an opinion and lamented the gaming community's defensiveness towards criticism. Television personality Karen Gravano and actress Lindsay Lohan both filed lawsuits against Rockstar in allegation that characters in the game were based on their likenesses. Their lawsuits were later dismissed. Australian department store Target pulled the game from their 300 stores following a Change.org petition against depictions of violence towards women in the game. == Sales == Within 24 hours of its release, Grand Theft Auto V generated more than US$815 million in worldwide revenue, equating to approximately 11.21 million copies sold for Take-Two Interactive. The numbers nearly doubled analysts' expectations for the title. Three days after its release, the game had surpassed one billion dollars in sales, making it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history. Six weeks after its release, Rockstar had shipped nearly 29 million copies of the game to retailers, exceeding the lifetime figures of Grand Theft Auto IV. On 7 October 2013, the game became the best-selling digital release on PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3, breaking the previous record set by The Last of Us, though numerical sales figures were not disclosed. It broke seven Guinness World Records on 8 October: best-selling video game in 24 hours, best-selling action-adventure video game in 24 hours, highest-grossing video game in 24 hours, fastest entertainment property to gross US$1 billion, fastest video game to gross US$1 billion, highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours, and most viewed trailer for an action-adventure video game. A digital version was released on 18 October for the Xbox 360, which went on to become the highest-grossing day-one and week-one release on Xbox Live. By May 2014, the game had generated nearly US$1.98 billion in revenue. As of August 2014, the game has sold-in over 34 million units to retailers for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. By December 2014, the game had shipped 45 million copies, including 10 million copies of the re-released version. By April 2018, the game had generated about $6 billion and was estimated by MarketWatch to be the most profitable entertainment product of all time. As of September 2022, the game has shipped over 170 million copies worldwide across all platforms; more copies were sold in 2020 than any other year since the game's launch in 2013.In the United Kingdom, the game became the all-time fastest-selling game, selling more than 2.25 million copies in five days. This broke the record set by Call of Duty: Black Ops at two million copies over the same period. It broke the day one record by selling 1.57 million copies and generating £65 million. In two weeks, the game sold more than 2.6 million copies and generated £90 million, which accounted for 52% of games sold in September 2013. After three weeks on sale, it beat Grand Theft Auto IV's lifetime sales in the United Kingdom. In its fourth week, it became the fastest-selling title to break the three million barrier in the UK, thus overtaking Black Ops II's lifetime sales. In November 2014, the game became the best-selling game of all time in the UK, overtaking Black Ops. The game was similarly successful in North America: it was the best selling game in September, representing over 50% of software sales and boosting overall software sales by 52% compared to September 2012. == Legacy == Critics agreed that Grand Theft Auto V was among seventh-generation console gaming's best and a great closing title before the eighth generation's emergence. Polygon's Plante observed that the game would "bridge between games' present and the future", and declared it "the closure of this generation, and the benchmark for the next". VideoGamer.com's Simon Miller considered it "the ultimate swansong for this console cycle" that would "cast a long shadow over the next". Three days after its release, the game ranked second on IGN's "Top 25 Xbox 360 Games" list. Editor Ryan McCaffrey considered that the open world's scale and detail succeeded the majority of other Xbox 360 games. He called the game "a triumph both for gamers and for the medium itself, and it deserves its runaway success". In November 2013, Hardcore Gamer placed the game third on their "Top 100 Games of the Generation" list. They cited its improved shooting and driving mechanics over its predecessors, and considered the multiple protagonist design "a welcome change of pace" that could become an eighth-generation gaming benchmark. In December, The Daily Telegraph listed the game among their "50 best games of the console generation". They called it a "cultural behemoth" that "will be Rockstar's lasting legacy".In January 2014, Computer and Video Games ranked the game fourth on their "Games of the Generation" list. Editor Rob Crossley said that for the first time, Rockstar created an "utterly beautiful" open world. He found that the game did away with Grand Theft Auto IV's repetitive mission design and focused instead on fun gameplay. In May, IGN ranked it eighth on their "Top 100 Games of a Generation" list and called it a "huge, raucous, and wildly ambitious bridge towards the [eighth] generation of console gaming". The next month, it placed third on IGN's "Games of a Generation: Your Top 100" list as voted by the site's readers. In August, Game Informer ranked it third on their "Top 10 Action Games Of The Generation" list. They compared the game's quality to that of its predecessor but thought that its ensemble character set-up, varied missions and multiplayer superseded Grand Theft Auto IV's placement on the list. They wrote of the story's absurd drama and the open world's vastness, and did not "regret a single second" spent playing the game. In November, Edge named it the fifth-best game of its generation and commented that "no other game studio is even daring to attempt an open world game in its tradition because there is simply no possibility of measuring up to [its] standards." In 2015, the publication rated it the second greatest video game of all time. The game ranked high on several best game lists determined by the public; it featured eighth on Empire's "100 Greatest Video Games Of All Time" list, and fifth on Good Game's "Top 100 Games" list, as voted by the magazine and programme's respective audiences. It was the most tweeted game of 2015, despite being released over a year earlier.Development of the as-yet untitled next main entry in the series was confirmed by Rockstar in February 2022. == Notes == == References == === Bibliography === == External links == Official website

PS4

Bloodborne

Action role-playing

A blood-borne disease is a disease that can be spread through contamination by blood and other body fluids. Blood can contain pathogens of various types, chief among which are microorganisms, like bacteria and parasites, and non-living infectious agents such as viruses. Three blood-borne pathogens in particular, all viruses, are cited as of primary concern to health workers by the CDC-NIOSH: HIV, hepatitis B (HVB), & hepatitis C (HVC).Diseases that are not usually transmitted directly by blood contact, but rather by insect or other vector, are more usefully classified as vector-borne disease, even though the causative agent can be found in blood. Vector-borne diseases include West Nile virus, zika fever and malaria. Many blood-borne diseases can also be contracted by other means, including high-risk sexual behavior or intravenous drug use. These diseases have also been identified in sports medicine.Since it is difficult to determine what pathogens any given sample of blood contains, and some blood-borne diseases are lethal, standard medical practice regards all blood (and any body fluid) as potentially infectious. "Blood and body fluid precautions" are a type of infection control practice that seeks to minimize this sort of disease transmission. == Occupational exposure == Blood poses the greatest threat to health in a laboratory or clinical setting due to needlestick injuries (e.g., lack of proper needle disposal techniques and/or safety syringes). These risks are greatest among healthcare workers, including: nurses, surgeons, laboratory assistants, doctors, phlebotomists, and laboratory technicians. These roles often require the use of syringes for blood draws or to administer medications.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) prescribes 5 rules that are required for a healthcare facility to follow in order to reduce the risk of employee exposure to blood-borne pathogens. They are: Written exposure control plan Engineering controls (Sharps containers, detachable and retractable needles, syringe caps, etc.) Safe work practices and safety devices Hepatitis B vaccine available to employees Education and post-exposure follow upThese controls, while general, serve to greatly reduce the incidence of blood-borne disease transmission in occupational settings of healthcare workers. There are 26 different viruses that have been shown to present in healthcare workers as a result of occupational exposure. The most common blood-borne diseases are hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Exposure is possible through blood of an infected patient splashing onto mucous membranes; however, the greatest exposure risk was shown to occur during percutaneous injections performed for vascular access. These include blood draws, as well as catheter placement, as both typically use hollow bore needles. Preventive measures for occupational exposure include standard precautions (hand washing, sharp disposal containers), as well as additional education. Advancements in the design of safety engineered devices have played a significant role in decreasing rates of occupational exposure to blood-borne disease. According to the Massachusetts Sharps Injury Surveillance System, needle devices without safety features accounted for 53% of the 2010 reported sharps injuries. Safer sharps devices now have engineering controls, such as a protective shield over the needle, and sharps containers that have helped to decrease this statistic. These safer alternatives are highly effective in substantially reducing injuries. For instance, almost 83% of injuries from hollow bore needles can be prevented with the use of safer sharps devices. == Blood transfusions == Blood for blood transfusion is screened for many blood-borne diseases. Additionally, a technique that uses a combination of riboflavin and UV light to inhibit the replication of these pathogens by altering their nucleic acids can be used to treat blood components prior to their transfusion, and can reduce the risk of disease transmission.A technology using the synthetic psoralen (amotosalen HCl) and UVA light (320–400 nm) has been implemented in European blood centers for the treatment of platelet and plasma components to prevent transmission of blood-borne diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and protozoa. == Needle exchange programs == Needle exchange programs (NEPs) are an attempt to reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases between intravenous drug users. They often also provide addiction counseling services, infectious disease testing, and in some cases mental health care and other case management. NEPs acquired their name as they were initially places where intravenous (IV) illicit substance users were provided with clean, unused needles in exchange for their used needles. This allows for proper disposal of the needles. Empirical studies confirm the benefits of NEPs. NEPs can affect behaviors that result in the transmission of HIV. These behaviors include decreased sharing of used syringes, which reduces contaminated syringes from circulation and replaces them with sterile ones, among other risk reductions. == Prevention == Follow standard precautions to help prevent the spread of blood-borne pathogens and other diseases whenever there is a risk of exposure to blood or other bodily fluids. Standard precautions include maintaining personal hygiene and using personal protective equipment (PPE), engineering controls, and work practice controls among others. Always avoid contact with blood and other bodily fluids. Wear disposable gloves when providing care, particularly if you may come into contact with blood or bodily fluids. Dispose of gloves properly and change gloves when providing care to a new patient. Use needles with safety devices to help prevent needlestick injury and exposure to blood-borne pathogens.A hierarchy of controls can help to prevent environmental and occupational exposures and subsequent diseases. These include: Elimination: Physically remove hazards, including needles that lack a safety device. Additionally, eliminate the use of needle devices whenever safe and effective alternatives are available. Substitution: Replace needles without safety devices with ones that have a safety feature built in. This has been shown to reduce blood-borne diseases transmitted via needlestick injuries. Engineering controls: Isolate people from the hazard by providing sharps containers for workers to immediately place needles in after use, which means putting them within arm's reach of wherever patient treatment occurs, such as in every physician's exam room, every draw station in a medical lab, and every bedside in a hospital ward or wing. Administrative controls: Change the way people work by creating a culture of safety such as avoiding recapping or bending needles that may be contaminated and promptly disposing of used needle devices and other sharps.Personal protective equipment: Protect workers with PPE such as gloves and masks to avoid transmission of blood and other bodily fluids. == See also == BTSB anti-D scandal Contaminated haemophilia blood products Contaminated blood scandal in the United Kingdom Hematology HIV-tainted blood scandal (Japan) Infected blood scandal (France) Plasma Economy Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada == References == == External links == Selected EPA-registered Disinfectants—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard (BBPS) Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention, from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Training Antimicrobials Information—National Pesticide Information Center Professor Andrew Speilman, Entomologist, Harvard School of Hygiene and Public Health Freeview Malaria video by the Vega Science Trust. Rob Hutchinson, Entomolgoist, Mosquitoes London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases. Freeview video by the Vega Science Trust. "CDC—Healthcare-associated infections—HAI". cdc.gov. Retrieved 2014-03-01. NIOSH Bloodborne Infectious Diseases Topic Page

PS4

Knack

Platformbeat 'em up

The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column runs the length of the back and creates a central area of recession. The breadth of the back is created by the shoulders at the top and the pelvis at the bottom. Back pain is a common medical condition, generally benign in origin. == Structure == The central feature of the human back is the vertebral column, specifically the length from the top of the thoracic vertebrae to the bottom of the lumbar vertebrae, which houses the spinal cord in its spinal canal, and which generally has some curvature that gives shape to the back. The ribcage extends from the spine at the top of the back (with the top of the ribcage corresponding to the T1 vertebra), more than halfway down the length of the back, leaving an area with less protection between the bottom of the ribcage and the hips. The width of the back at the top is defined by the scapula, the broad, flat bones of the shoulders. === Muscles === The muscles of the back can be divided into three distinct groups; a superficial group, an intermediate group and a deep group. ==== Superficial group ==== The superficial group, also known as the appendicular group, is primarily associated with movement of the appendicular skeleton. It is composed of trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboid major, rhomboid minor and levator scapulae. It is innervated by anterior rami of spinal nerves, reflecting its embryological origin outside the back. ==== Intermediate group ==== The intermediate group is also known as respiratory group as it may serve a respiratory function. It is composed of serratus posterior superior and serratus posterior inferior. Like the superficial group, it is innervated by anterior rami of spinal nerves. ==== Deep group ==== The deep group, also known as the intrinsic group due to its embryological origin in the back, can be further subdivided into four groups: Spinotransversales - composed of splenius capitis and splenius cervicis. Erector spinae - composed of iliocostalis, longissismus and spinalis Transversospinales - composed of semispinalis, multifidus and rotatores Segmental muscles - composed of levatores costarum, interspinales and intertransversariiThe deep group is innervated by the posterior rami of spinal nerves. === Organs near the back === The lungs are within the ribcage, and extend to the back of the ribcage making it possible for them to be listened into through the back. The kidneys are situated beneath the muscles in the area below the end of the ribcage, loosely connected to the peritoneum. A strike to the lower back can damage the kidneys of the person being hit. === Surface of the back === The skin of the human back is thicker and has fewer nerve endings than the skin on any other part of the torso. With some notable exceptions (see, e.g. George "The Animal" Steele), it tends to have less hair than the chest on men. The upper-middle back is also the one area of the body which a typical human under normal conditions might be unable to physically touch. The skin of the back is innervated by the dorsal cutaneous branches, as well as the lateral abdominal cutaneous branches of intercostal nerves. === Movement === The intricate anatomy of the back provides support for the head and trunk of the body, strength in the trunk of the body, as well as a great deal of flexibility and movement. The upper back has the most structural support, with the ribs attached firmly to each level of the thoracic spine and very limited movement. The lower back (lumbar vertebrae) allows for flexibility and movement in back bending (extension) and forward bending (flexion). It does not permit twisting. == Clinical significance == === Back pain === The back comprises interconnecting nerves, bones, muscles, ligaments, and tendons, all of which can be a source of pain. Back pain is the second most common type of pain in adults (the most common being headaches). By far the most common cause of back pain is muscle strain. The back muscles can usually heal themselves within a couple of weeks, but the pain can be intense and debilitating. Other common sources of back pain include disc problems, such as degenerative disc disease or a lumbar disc herniation, many types of fractures, such as spondylolisthesis or an osteoporotic fracture, or osteoarthritis. == Society and culture == The curvature of the female back is a frequent theme in paintings, because the sensibilities of many cultures permit the back to be shown nude - implying full nudity without actually displaying it. Indeed, the practice of showing explicitness on the lower back has been performed for centuries. Certain articles of clothing, such as the haltertop and the backless dress, are designed to expose the back in this manner. The lower back is typically exposed frequently by many types of shirts in woman's fashion, and even the more conservative shirts and blouses will reveal the lower back. This happens for a variety of reasons- the lower waist area is a pivot point for the body and lengthens and arches as a person sits or bends. Secondly, woman's fashion typically favors tops that are waist length, allowing the back to be left bare during slight movement, bending or sitting. The back also serves as the largest canvas for body art on the human body. Because of its size and the relative lack of hair, the back presents an ideal canvas on the human body for lower back tattoos, mostly among young women. Indeed, some individuals have tattoos that cover the entirety of the back. Others have smaller tattoos at significant locations, such as the shoulder blade or the bottom of the back. Many English idioms mention the back, usually highlighting it as an area of vulnerability; one must "watch one's back", or one may end up "with one's back up against the wall"; worse yet, someone may "stab one in the back", but hopefully a friend "has got one's back". The back is also a symbol of strength and hard work, with those seeking physical labor looking for "strong backs", and workers being implored to "put their back into it". Historically, flagellation of a person across the back with a whip was both a common form of punishment of criminals, and a common means of forcing slaves to work. As well, self-flagellation, as in self punishment, may include the use of whipping oneself. This is one method of mortification, the practice of inflicting physical suffering on oneself with the religious belief that it will serve as penance for one's own sins or those of others. While more moderate forms of mortification are widely practiced—particularly in the Catholic Church—self flagellation is not encouraged by mainstream religions or religious leaders. A well-known instrument used for flagellations is the infamous Cat 'o Nine Tails, a nine-corded whip with one handle enabling a much more effective whipping than would be possible with only one lashing at a time. == References ==

PS4

Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition

Sandboxsurvival

Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being fully released in November 2011, with Notch stepping down and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten taking over development. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2021, and has been ported to several platforms. In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally generated 3D world with virtually infinite terrain and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and simple machines. Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Game modes include a survival mode (in which players must acquire resources to build in the world and maintain health) and a creative mode (where players have unlimited resources and access to flight). There is also a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Minecraft received critical acclaim, winning several awards and later being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions played prominent roles in popularizing the game. The game has also been used in educational environments to teach chemistry, computer-aided design, and computer science. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Several spin-offs have also been made, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Earth, and the upcoming Minecraft Legends. == Gameplay == Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game that has no required goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. However, there is an achievement system, known as "advancements" in the Java Edition of the game, and "trophies" on the PlayStation ports. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of a third-person perspective. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can "mine" blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. The game world is virtually infinite and procedurally generated as players explore it, using a map seed that is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). There are limits on vertical movement, but Minecraft allows an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane. Due to technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached, however, there is a barrier preventing players from traversing to locations beyond 30,000,000 blocks from the center. The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players are nearby. The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and bodies of water/lava. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes. When starting a new world, players must choose one of five game modes, as well as one of four difficulties, ranging from "Peaceful" to "Hard". Increasing the difficulty of the game causes the player to take more damage from mobs, as well as having other difficulty-specific effects. For example, the Peaceful difficulty prevents hostile mobs from spawning, and the Hard difficulty allows players to starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted. Once selected, the difficulty can be changed, but the game mode is locked and can only be changed with cheats. New players have a randomly selected default character skin of either Steve or Alex, but the option to create custom skins was made available in 2010. Players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively.Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the Overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End. The Nether is a hell-like dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the Overworld, due to every block traveled in the Nether being equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the Overworld. Water cannot exist in the Nether, as it will vaporize instantly. The Nether is mainly populated by pigman-like mobs called piglins and their zombified counterparts, plus floating balloon-like mobs called ghasts. The player can also build an optional boss mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether.The End is reached by underground portals in the Overworld. It consists of islands floating above a dark, endless void. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which upon entering cues the game's ending credits and a poem written by Irish novelist Julian Gough. Players are then teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. === Game modes === ==== Survival mode ==== In survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game (except in peaceful difficulty). If the hunger bar is depleted, automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete. Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful difficulty.Players can craft a wide variety of items in Minecraft. Craftable items include armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or axes), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or hoes), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. Players can construct furnaces, which can cook food, process ores, and convert materials into other materials. Players may also exchange goods with a villager (NPC) through a trading system, which involves trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa.The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be reset by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they disappear or despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, breeding animals, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. ==== Hardcore mode ==== Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant that is locked to the hardest setting and has permadeath. If a player dies in a hardcore world, they are no longer allowed to interact with it, so they can either be put into spectator mode and explore the world or delete it entirely. This game mode can only be accessed within the Java Edition of Minecraft. ==== Creative mode ==== In creative mode, players have access to nearly all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or remove them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. ==== Adventure mode ==== Adventure mode was designed specifically so that players could experience user-created custom maps and adventures. The gameplay is similar to survival mode but with various restrictions, which can be applied to the game world by the creator of the map. This forces players to obtain the required items and experience adventures in the way that the map maker intended. Another addition designed for custom maps is the command block; this block allows map makers to expand interactions with players through scripted server commands. ==== Spectator mode ==== Spectator mode allows players to fly through blocks and watch gameplay without directly interacting. Players do not have an inventory but can teleport to other players and view from the perspective of another player or creature. === Multiplayer === Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, LAN play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own servers, use a hosting provider, or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live. Single-player worlds have local area network support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not normally possible. ==== Minecraft Realms ==== In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use IP addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. === Customization === The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as minimaps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) which often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new advancements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, world generation settings, and biomes‌.The Xbox 360 Edition supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contain additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combines texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016. A mash-up pack based on Fallout was announced for release on the Wii U Edition. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would only run when the image containing the skin itself was opened.In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update" to the Bedrock version of the game. The update includes a new map, a new game mode, the "Marketplace", a catalogue of user-generated content that gives Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game", and more. == Development == Before coming up with Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer with King through March 2009, at the time serving mostly browser games, during which he learnt a number of different programming languages. He would prototype his own games during his off-hours at home, often based on inspiration he found from other games, and participated frequently on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One of these personal projects was called "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but as an isometric three dimensional game like RollerCoaster Tycoon. He had already made a 3D texture mapper for another zombie game prototype he had started to try to emulate the style of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Among the features in "RubyDung" he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper but at the time, felt the graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, but otherwise kept working on his prototypes.Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, sparked Persson's inspiration for how to take "RubyDung" forward. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements.The original edition of Minecraft, now known as the Java Edition, was first developed in May 2009. Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of Minecraft. The base program of Minecraft was completed by Persson over a weekend in that month and a private testing was released on TigIRC on 16 May 2009. The game was first released to the public on 17 May 2009 as a developmental release on TIGSource forums. Persson updated the game based on feedback from the forums. This version later became known as the Classic version. Further developmental phases dubbed as Survival Test, Indev and Infdev were released in 2009 and 2010.The first major update, dubbed Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later quit in order to work on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version of the game expanded. Persson continued to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. These updates included new items, new blocks, new mobs, survival mode, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g. how water flows). To back the development of Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned from the game. Mojang co-founders included Jakob Porser, one of Persson's coworkers from King, and Carl Manneh, jAlbum's CEO.On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft was entering its beta testing phase on 20 December 2010. He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular "Bukkit" developer API for Minecraft, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod which enables the use of Bukkit, although the validity of this claim was questioned due to its status as an open-source project with many contributors, licensed under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License.On 15 September 2014, Microsoft announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the Minecraft intellectual property. The deal was suggested by Persson when he posted a tweet asking a corporation to buy his share of the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end user license agreement (EULA), which had been present in the EULA in the prior three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires".Since the first full release of Minecraft, dubbed the "Adventure Update", the game has been continuously updated with many major updates, available for free to users who have already purchased the game. Early updates frequently introduced gameplay-altering mechanics while more recent updates tend to enhance the game through additional content or tweaks to existing features. The most recent major update to the game was "The Wild Update", which released in June 2022 and added new creatures, biomes, and items.The original version of the game was renamed to Minecraft: Java Edition on 18 September 2017 to separate it from Bedrock Edition, which was renamed to just Minecraft by the Better Together Update.The Bedrock Edition has also been regularly updated, with these updates now matching the themes of Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game such as the various console editions and Pocket Edition were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and as such have not received further updates.On 16 April 2020, a beta version of Minecraft implementing physically based rendering, ray tracing and DLSS was released by Nvidia on RTX-enabled GPUs. The final version was released on 8 December 2020. === Minecraft: Pocket Edition === In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Xperia Play on the Android Market as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011. An iOS version of Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. The port concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game and does not contain all the features of the PC release. On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten said that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is written in C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java. However, there now exists a way to play Java Edition on both Android and iOS devices.On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 19 December 2016, the full version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Pocket Edition was replaced by Minecraft: Bedrock Edition in 2017, enabling cross-platform play with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch Editions. === Legacy Console Editions === An Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, was released on 9 May 2012. On 22 March 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called Arcade NEXT. The game differs from the home computer versions in a number of ways, including a newly designed crafting system, the control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and the ability to play with friends via Xbox Live. The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls. The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC versions, but was gradually updated to bring it closer to the current PC version prior to its discontinuation. An Xbox One version featuring larger worlds among other enhancements was released on 5 September 2014.Versions of the game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively. The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed. A version for PlayStation Vita was also released in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.On 17 December 2015, Minecraft: Wii U Edition was released. The Wii U version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America, in Japan on 23 June 2016, and in Europe on 30 June 2016. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop on 11 May 2017, along with a physical retail version set for a later date. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is only compatible with the "New" versions of the 3DS and 2DS systems and does not work with the original 3DS, 3DS XL, or 2DS models.On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update was released on the Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile versions of the game, which used the Pocket Edition engine to enable cross-platform play between each of these versions. This version of the game eventually became known as the Bedrock Edition. Shortly after, the Bedrock Edition was also ported to the Nintendo Switch. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as Legacy Console Editions.The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft was updated in December 2019 and became part of the Bedrock Edition, which enabled cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. === Minecraft: Education Edition === Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of the base game, designed specifically for use in educational establishments such as schools, and built off of the Bedrock Edition codebase. It is available on Windows 10, MacOS, iPadOS and Chrome OS. It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack, free lesson plans on the Minecraft: Education Edition website, and two free companion applications: Code Connection and Classroom Mode.An initial beta test was carried out between 9 June and 1 November 2016. The full game was then released on Windows 10 and MacOS on 1 November 2016. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that the Education Edition would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. === Minecraft China === On 20 May 2016, Minecraft China was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile version is based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 300 million players by November 2019. === Other PC versions === Apart from Minecraft: Java Edition, there are other versions of Minecraft for PC, including Minecraft for Windows, Minecraft Classic, Minecraft 4K, and a version for the Raspberry Pi. ==== Minecraft for Windows ==== Minecraft for Windows is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on July 29, 2015.After nearly one and a half years in beta, Microsoft fully released Minecraft for Windows on December 19, 2016. Called the "Ender Update," this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. This version has the ability to play with Xbox Live friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of Minecraft on other Bedrock platforms. Other features include the ability to use multiple control schemes such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for Microsoft Surface and other touchscreen-enabled devices). Virtual reality support has been implemented, as well as the ability to record and take screenshots in-game via the Windows built-in GameDVR.As of 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft for Windows were merged into a single title for purchase; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game modes would otherwise remain separate. ==== Minecraft 4K ==== Minecraft 4K is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the Classic version that was developed for the Java 4K game programming contest "in way less than 4 kilobytes". The map itself is finite—composed of 64×64×64 blocks—and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick. ==== Raspberry Pi ==== A version of Minecraft for the Raspberry Pi was officially revealed at Minecon 2012. The Pi Edition is based on an alpha version of Pocket Edition with the added ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open the game code and use the Python programming language to manipulate things in the game world. It also includes a scripting API to modify the game, and server software for multiplayer. The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off. It was officially released on 11 February 2013. Mojang stopped providing updates to Minecraft: Raspberry Pi Edition in 2016. It is preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS and can be downloaded for free from the official Minecraft website. === Music === Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. The background music in Minecraft is instrumental ambient music. On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. In addition to Rosenfeld's work, other composers have contributed tracks to the game since release, including Samuel Åberg, Gareth Coker, Lena Raine, and Kumi Tanioka. === Variants === For the tenth anniversary of the game's release, Mojang remade a version of Minecraft Classic in JavaScript and made it available to play online. It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. Environmental hazards such as lava do not damage players, and some blocks function differently since their behavior was later changed during development.Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, there had been collaboration between Mojang and The Lego Group to make a Lego brick-based Minecraft game to be called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1x1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson had worked on the preliminary version of this game, which he had named "Project Rex Kwon Do" based on the joke from Napoleon Dynamite. Lego had greenlit the project to go forward, and while Mojang had put two developers on the game for six months, they later opted to cancel the project, as Mojang felt that the Lego Group were too demanding on what they could do, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. The Lego Group had considered buying out Mojang to complete the game, but at this point Microsoft made its offer to buy the company for over $2 billion. According to the Lego Group's Ronny Scherer, the company was not yet sure of the potential success of Minecraft at this point and backed off from acquisition after Microsoft brought this offer to Mojang. ==== Virtual reality ==== Early on, Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a port of Minecraft. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled plans noting "Facebook creeps me out." A community-made modification known as Minecraft VR was developed in 2016 to provide virtual reality support to Minecraft: Java Edition oriented towards Oculus Rift hardware. A fork of the Minecraft VR modification known as Vivecraft ported the mod to OpenVR, and is oriented towards supporting HTC Vive hardware. On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for Minecraft on Windows 10. Upon its release, the Minecraft VR mod was discontinued by its developer due to trademark complaints issued by Microsoft, and Vivecraft was endorsed by the community makers of the Minecraft VR modification due to its Rift support and being superior to the original Minecraft VR mod. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 version of the game would be getting PlayStation VR support in the same month. The only officially supported VR versions of Minecraft are the PlayStation 4 version, Minecraft: Gear VR Edition and Minecraft for Windows 10 for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. == Reception == === Critics === Early versions of Minecraft received critical acclaim, praising the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have praised Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands.IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste".A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds.The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations.The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds.Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. === Sales === Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it the best-selling video game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 300 million players by November 2019. By April 2021, Minecraft sold more than 238 million copies worldwide.The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014, the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter.The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. === Awards === In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2022. === Controversies === ==== 2014 EULA changes ==== Microsoft and Mojang announced in 2014 that it would be changing the Minecraft End-user license agreement (EULA) to prohibit servers from accepting donations or payments in exchange for the donating or paying players receiving in-game advantages on such server, essentially banning servers from enacting "pay-to-win" (PTW) servers. Mojang spokesperson Owen Hill provided examples of what it would and would not allow, saying company would allow for pay-to-play servers in which a player is required to pay a fee to access the server, or for cosmetic enhancements (such as in-game costumes or pets), but that Mojang would be cracking down on paying to obtain powerful swords or potions. The new crackdowns were supported by Persson, citing him receiving multiple emails from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners, however, heavily despised the new change in enforcement and protested en masse, which included comparing Mojang to monolithic video game publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision, gaming companies often criticized online for their highly restrictive digital rights management and user license agreements. Many argued that the crackdown would force smaller servers to close their doors, and some blamed the crackdown on Mojang attempting to suppress competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. ==== Account migration ==== In 2020, Mojang Studios revealed that it would begin the process of requiring that Microsoft accounts be used in order to log into the Java Edition of the game, and that older Mojang Studios accounts would be sunsetted. The move to Microsoft accounts also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang Studios defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, which included Java accounts being able to use two factor authentication, players could block cyberbullies in chat, and improve parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash against this announcement, particularly taking issue to the various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of March 10, 2022, Microsoft requires all players to migrate in order to access the Java Edition of Minecraft. ==== Java Edition chat reporting ==== In June 2022, Microsoft and Mojang Studios announced it would be releasing a player reporting feature in all future builds of Java Edition. In earlier development builds, players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages that are prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language, substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity, though Microsoft in later builds has since excluded the profane language category from the player reporting feature. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, the player would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature was released on 27 July 2022.Microsoft and Mojang Studios received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, sparking some to dub the version "1.19.84", in reference to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. == Cultural impact == In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of (the first two decades of) the 21st century, and in November 2019 Polygon called the game the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In December 2019, Forbes gave Minecraft a special mention in a list of the best video games of the 2010s, stating that the game is "without a doubt one of the most important games of the last ten years." In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally.Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Other well-known YouTube personalities include Jordan Maron, who has created many Minecraft parodies, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single "Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper Psy. Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthrough of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. YouTube later announced that on December 14, 2021, the total amount of Minecraft-related views exceeded one trillion since the game's inception in 2009.Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, FTL: Faster Than Light, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the lattermost of which features a downloadable character and stage based on Minecraft. It was also referenced by electronic music artist deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. "Luca$", the seventeenth episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, and "Minecraft is for Everyone" by Starbomb was inspired by Minecraft. === Applications === The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap.In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In 2013, Stuart Duncan, known online as AutismFather, started a server for autistic children and their families, called Autcraft. The server was created because the public servers had many bullies and trolls that made the autistic kids angry and feel hurt. It was constantly monitored to help players and prevent bullying. The server had a whitelist that only allowed approved players, of which there are 8,000 players worldwide in 2017. The server had a unique ranking system based on the attributes of the player, offering titles such as "Player of the Week" and "Caught Being Awesome". The server was called "one of the best places on the Internet" and was a subject of a research paper.In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 metres (561 ft) (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft is around 192 metres (630 ft) above in-game sea level.Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders have used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people.Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft has also become a popular game for speedrunning, where players time themselves from being dropped into a new world generated by a random seed to reaching "The End", and defeat the boss known as the "Ender Dragon". While the speedrunners that get the most attention use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus to get world records, other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. ==== Education ==== Minecraft has also been used in educational settings. In 2011, an educational organization named MinecraftEdu was formed with the goal of introducing Minecraft into schools. The group works with Mojang to make the game affordable and accessible to schools. The version of Minecraft through MinecraftEdu includes unique features to allow teachers to monitor the students' progress within the virtual world, such as receiving screenshots from students to show completion of a lesson. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to Minecraft through the company. A wide variety of educational activities involving the game have been developed to teach students various subjects, including history, language arts and science. For an example, one teacher built a world consisting of various historical landmarks for students to learn and explore. Another teacher created a large-scale representation of an animal cell within Minecraft that student could explore and learn how the cell functions work. Great Ormond Street Hospital has been recreated in Minecraft, and it proposed that patients can use it to virtually explore the hospital before they actually visit. Minecraft may also prove as an innovation in Computer Aided Design (CAD). Minecraft offers an outlet of collaboration in design and could have an impact on the industry.With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical circuits, users have been able to build functional virtual computers within Minecraft. Such virtual creations include a working hard drive, an 8-bit virtual computer, and even a smaller-scale version of Minecraft that's playable and able to be built completely in survival mode with no external modifications. In at least one instance, a mod has been created to use this feature to teach younger players how to program within a language set by the virtual computer within a Minecraft world.Another computational mechanic in Minecraft is the command block, a block that is only accesible in creative mode and can alter game logic. It has been used to create emulators for the Atari 2600 (including one by YouTube personality SethBling) and the Game Boy Advance.In September 2014, the British Museum in London announced plans to recreate its building along with all exhibits in Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public. Microsoft and non-profit Code.org had teamed up to offer Minecraft-based games, puzzles, and tutorials aimed to help teach children how to program; by March 2018, Microsoft and Code.org reported that more than 85 million children have used their tutorials. === Clones === After the release of Minecraft, other video games were released with various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones". Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, and Total Miner. David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms to not officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming.Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. === Minecon === Minecon is the official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft annually. The first one was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, the following years featuring annual livestreams instead. == Notes == == References == === Further reading === Gallagher, Colin (2014). Minecraft in the Classroom: Ideas, Inspiration, and Student Projects for Teachers. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. ISBN 978-0-13-385801-3. Garrelts, Nate (2014). Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community and Possibilities. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-7974-0. Goldberg, Daniel (2013). Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game That Changed Everything. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-60980-537-1. == External links == Official website Minecraft Classic

PS4

Nier: Automata

Action role-playing

Nier:Automata is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. It is a sequel to Nier (2010), itself a spin-off and sequel of the Drakengard series. The game originally released for PlayStation 4 and Windows via Steam, with an Xbox One port being published the following year with the subtitle Become as Gods Edition. A Nintendo Switch port was released in 2022, subtitled The End of YoRHa Edition. Set during a proxy war between alien-created machines and human-crafted androids, the story follows the trials of combat android 2B, scanner android 9S, and rogue prototype A2. The story requires multiple playthroughs, each unlocking additional story elements. Gameplay combines role-playing elements with action-based hack and slash combat, and features switching between video game genres similar to that of Nier with elements ranging from shoot 'em up to text adventure. Production began in 2014, with series creator Yoko Taro, producer Yosuke Saito, and lead composer Keiichi Okabe returning to their respective roles, and artist Akihiko Yoshida taking charge of character design. The goal was to make a Nier game true to the spirit of the original, while simultaneously crafting a better combat system. As a project entirely new to PlatinumGames, its staff faced multiple challenges when developing the gameplay and open world environment. The story, written by Yoko, references several philosophies and explores themes of finding value in life and the reasons people kill. Announced at E3 2015, Nier: Automata received media expansions to its world and narrative, and both downloadable content and crossovers with other games post-release. The localization was handled by 8-4, translators of the first Nier. The game was praised for its story and themes, gameplay, and music. Criticism was leveled at some visual and technical problems. The PC release saw a mixed response due to technical issues that were not officially addressed immediately after release. An official patch released in 2021 addressed a portion of these issues. Sales surpassed expectations, and as of November 2022 the game has shipped seven million copies worldwide. == Gameplay == Nier: Automata is an action role-playing game (ARPG) in which players take the role of combat androids from the YoRHa units across an open world. In addition to standard navigation on foot, using a special item allows the player to summon a wild animal to ride, and in some scenarios pilot a flying mech to fight enemies. As with Nier (2010), during navigation in some environments, the camera shifts from its standard third-person perspective to an overhead or side-scrolling view. Some areas also include platforming elements, requiring the player to navigate by jumping between platforms or over obstacles. The player can complete side quests for non-playable characters (NPCs) found throughout the world. Shops available in hub locations allow the player to purchase items, including consumables that recover health. Automata features 26 different endings; five main endings lettered A to E, and 21 additional endings lettered F through Z. These additional endings act as game over events triggered by performing certain actions, not progressing the narrative, or losing certain battles.Combat is hack and slash action-based, with the player fighting enemies in real-time in a variety of in-game environments. During battle, the player can use light attacks—which are fast but weak—and heavy attacks—slow and more powerful. The player can evade enemy attacks and, with successfully timed button presses, can gain temporary invulnerability and launch a counterattack that deals heavy damage. The player is also assisted by a Pod, a flying robot assistant that can launch customizable ranged attacks varying from simple gunfire to heavy-hitting hammer attacks. Pods can also shield the player from harm in various ways. At different points, the gameplay changes to reflect different video game genres, ranging from shoot 'em up to text adventure segments.The player is able to bring two melee weapons in combat. While attacking, the player can alternate between both weapons and attacks to create combination attacks. There are four different classes of weapons available: short swords, long swords, bracers, and spears. Attacks with different weapon types can also be charged and launched for increased damage. Weapon Stories, a recurring element in both Nier and the Drakengard series, where weapons found throughout the world have unique stories attached to them, are also featured. Each character has a different style; initial lead 2B is an attacker with two weapons available, second protagonist 9S has only one weapon and specialises in hacking into enemies to deal high damage, and later character A2 plays similarly to 2B with an added ability to briefly boost attack power by sacrificing health.As characters progress, they gain experience levels, increasing their health, defence, and attack power. Character customization is handled through Chips, items installed into the player characters that adjust some of their attributes; these chips can do thing such as alter the HUD to show enemy health and damage and grant status buffs to the player characters. The number of Chips that can be installed at any one time are limited by how many slots a character has. Chips can either be purchased at shops or picked up from defeated enemies. If the player character dies, they respawn at their previous save point. The player character can then find their original body and either retrieve items and experience left with it to gain a bonus, or attempt to repair it. If successful, the body is resurrected as a temporary ally, but if unsuccessful, it becomes an enemy the player can defeat for an extra bonus. With online features enabled, the bodies of other players can also be retrieved or revived at the location where they died. == Synopsis == === Setting and characters === Nier: Automata shares the post-apocalyptic setting of Nier, taking place thousands of years after the original game's events. The universe of Nier takes place in an alternate timeline within the Drakengard series. While carrying over the Drakengard tradition of a dark atmosphere and branching storylines, no direct narrative connection is shared between Nier: Automata and the rest of the series. Set in the year 11945 AD, the story revolves around a proxy war between the human-made androids and the machine army of invaders from another world. Lacking both emotions and true names, androids have particular attitudes that distinguish them from their fellows. The "YoRHa" android forces are commanded from the Bunker, a reconnaissance base in orbit above Earth. They fight alongside the pre-YoRHa androids on Earth (known as the Resistance) to drive back the Machines.The initial protagonist is 2B (short for "YoRHa No. 2 Type B"), a YoRHa combat android whose main traits are her calm and composure. 2B is accompanied by 9S (short for YoRHa No.9 Type S), a male "scanner" android who displays more emotion than the other YoRHa units. Eventually another playable character is introduced: "A2", an obsolete attack android with a taciturn personality who often chooses to act alone. The androids are supported by Pod 042 and Pod 153, floating box-like robots that act as ranged weapons. The primary antagonists of the game are Adam and Eve, twin controllers of the Machine Network; and the Red Girls, a construct within the Machine Network. Other characters include the YoRHa's top officer, "Commander"; the resistance leader, Anemone; Pascal, a machine who dislikes conflict and wishes for peace; Devola and Popola, androids who aid the resistance and are of the same model as a similar pair from Nier; and the original Nier character Emil, who has lost his memories in the intervening years after the original game. === Plot === The first and second playthroughs follow the respective views of 2B and 9S during an initial invasion. After opening a route for future missions, they are sent to clear out machine threats for the Resistance, led by Anemone, who provides the two with support. During their missions, 2B and 9S discover that the machines are exploring human societies and concepts. The two work with a pacifist machine group led by Pascal; battle Adam and Eve, physical manifestations of the machine network who reveal that their creators were destroyed centuries ago; and encounter A2, a rogue android on the run from YoRHa. Adam is killed by 2B after he captures 9S. During his recuperation, 9S discovers a glitch in YoRHa's servers when syncing himself and 2B, and learns that humanity was extinct long before the alien invasion. Their last remnant is a Moon-based server holding humanity's incomplete genome remains. YoRHa perpetuates the myth of their survival to maintain morale and give androids a "god" to fight for. With Adam dead, Eve goes mad with grief and drives the machines under his command into a frenzy. 2B and 9S kill Eve to end the rampage, but 9S becomes infected with Eve's logic virus, forcing 2B to kill him. However, 9S's consciousness survives within the local machine network. The third playthrough begins as YoRHa launches a full-scale invasion. A logic virus attack—enabled by the "glitch" that 9S previously discovered—corrupts every YoRHa unit including those in the Bunker, except for 2B and the restored 9S. 2B and 9S are separated in the aftermath, and 2B is infected with the logic virus. Discovered by A2, 2B uploads her memories into her sword and asks her to look after 9S. An ignorant 9S witnesses A2 mercifully killing 2B and furiously swears revenge on her. Simultaneously, a tower created by the machines rises from the land, separating the two before they can fight. The perspective splits between A2 and 9S a fortnight after these events. A2—the survivor of a test run for YoRHa—finds herself empathising with the machines; she witnesses Pascal's village being destroyed, then its "children" committing suicide out of fear when attacked. Pascal begs A2 to either wipe his memory or kill him; A2 can perform either task or leave him. An increasingly-unbalanced 9S investigates the tower's resource-gathering platforms, fighting machine remnants and learning the tower is designed to launch a missile at the Moon server. Both eventually enter the tower, with Devola and Popola sacrificing themselves to open it. During these events, it is revealed that YoRHa was always designed to lose and to perpetuate the myth of humanity, with the Red Girls in the Machine Network using them to further their evolution; each side trapped the other in an eternal cycle of war. It is also revealed that 2B's real designation was "2E", an "executioner" unit assigned to repeatedly kill 9S whenever he discovered the truth about humanity, and that 9S was aware of this. Separate arcs play out for returning characters Emil, and Devola and Popola. Emil lost his memories due to copying himself to fight the aliens. A group of those copies, gone mad after losing their sense of self, act as a secret boss battle. After the current character wins the fight, Emil dies after remembering his reason for fighting. Devola and Popola were ostracized and programmed to feel endless guilt after their model series caused humanity's extinction in Nier. They stay at the Resistance camp doing the riskier jobs, and aid the YoRHa androids until helping 9S at the tower. At the top of the tower, the two androids confront each other; 9S, now insane and infected with the logic virus, challenges A2 to a fight, prompting the player to choose a character. If A2 is picked, she saves 9S and sacrifices herself to destroy the tower. If 9S is chosen, the two androids kill each other; in his final moments, the Machine Network offers him the chance to join them, as the tower has changed its function to fire an ark containing the Machine memories to find a new world. Once both of these endings are unlocked, Pods 042 and 153 defy their orders to delete YoRHa's data, prompting the player to destroy the credits in a shoot 'em up section. Despite the possibility that the restored 2B, 9S and A2 would repeat everything, the Pods hold faith that they will forge a new future for themselves. The player is then given the option to sacrifice their save data to help other players. == Development == After the release of Nier, both director Yoko Taro and Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito wanted to create a sequel. When Saito spoke to assistant producer Yuki Yokoyama, he was unwilling due to the original game's low sales. After the positive fan reception of the original Nier, however, both Square Enix and the lead staff who worked on the original game were willing to continue the Nier IP, but also wanted to create a better, more action-oriented gameplay experience. As a result, they contacted PlatinumGames, which had developed a reputation for high-quality action games such as Bayonetta (2009) and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013). The collaboration was agreed upon on two conditions: that Yoko become director, and that he be present to help with production. The latter condition necessitated a move by Yoko from Tokyo to Osaka where PlatinumGames was located. Although Taro was initially uneasy about the collaboration, the staff at PlatinumGames had been wanting to work on a Nier game since its release, and their enthusiasm and wish to remain faithful to the original assuaged his doubts. Designer Takahisa Taura also wished to create a sequel to Nier prior to Square Enix approaching the company. PlatinumGames handled primary development of the game, while Square Enix supervised and gathered many staff members and worked on the sound environment.The original plan was to make the game for mobile platforms or PlayStation Vita—Yoko claims that they intended for it to be similar to the farming simulator Farmville (2009)—but it was soon decided to develop the game for PlayStation 4 instead. The game was co-produced by Saito and Eijiro Nishimura. Production began in 2014, including six months of pre-production. It included many of the staff from the original Nier. The early relationship between Yoko and PlatinumGames staff was fraught, mainly due to differing daily schedules due to Yoko's freelancer status. A system of "free time" was developed where Yoko could come in when possible without clashes, smoothing out the difficulties. During production, the team took into account both fan and critic feedback on Nier and later opinions on the game. The points they felt needed addressing ranged from character designs to gameplay to graphics. While improving on these points, they also carried over aspects that were well-received, such as the complexity of story and the game's music. The majority of development was handled by PlatinumGames at its offices in Osaka and Tokyo, while outside staff such as Yoko were also brought in. === Scenario and themes === Yoko was the primary writer of the game's scenario, and ended up working much more on the script than his previous games, and delivered it four to five months late. After delivery, the overall narrative remained the same with only small-scale adjustments taking place during development. Two subwriters were Hana Kikuchi, who worked on the scenarios of Nier and Drakengard 3 (2013), and Yoshiho Akabane of external company Highestar. When creating the story, Yoko was hesitant about adding Devola and Popola to the story due to their integral role in the original game, but eventually decided to feature them. According to Yoko, while the scenario of Nier was "wet" in its emotional content, for Nier: Automata he aimed for a "dry" narrative concerning the world's inherent unfairness and the prejudices the characters are forced to confront. He also wanted to balance how he portrayed the protagonists and antagonists, feeling he had gone too far when humanising the antagonists of Nier, and leave the player more room to interpret the story as they chose. According to Saito, a lot of time and effort went into creating the story and character interactions so they would match up to the original Nier. As with the original Nier, multiple endings were created, but the conditions for reaching them were not as stringent as the first game. Yoko's desire was to make the game's conclusion happy, which prompted scepticism from other staff members when reviewing his story.The happy ending from Yoko's perspective was the fifth and final ending. According to Yoko, the fifth ending did not come to him for some time as he was focusing on other aspects of the story. He felt that the characters he was developing were naturally leading him towards that ending rather than him designing it for them. The final ending featured a shooting sequence where the player fought their way through the closing credits; this was symbolic of the player and characters breaking out of a known system to find the hope of a new future. Yoko said this was representative of the story's focus on the future and systematic elements. The ability for players to aid each other through the closing credits segment was inspired by a publicity stunt by Coca-Cola, where two machines in India and Pakistan—countries with a long history of mutual conflict—were connected via livestreaming in special drink dispensers. Yoko was deeply impressed by this, but pulled away from his initial concept of having messages appear only from countries at war with the home of each player. The team also included the option for players to delete their save data, a mechanic used in the original Nier. This feature, where players sacrificed their save data to aid other random players in finishing the bullet hell sequence at the end of closing credits, was implemented midway through development.The team defined the game's central theme as "agaku", a Japanese word meaning to struggle out of a bad situation. Another theme Saito pointed out was love, which he stated was unusual given that all the central cast were robots, which were not normally associated with emotions. Yoko also used the androids' and Machines' reverence for the long-extinct humanity to show how people's sense of self and worth is necessarily founded on belief in something else. The negative influence of human history on the factions also reflected his views on how people continue to fight and create boundaries between themselves despite their advancement. A recurring element from Yoko's earlier work was his examination of why people kill, and the impact of killing on others—this stems from his observation of people coming to enjoy killing enemies encountered in games, which suggested to him that something was wrong or missing inside them. The darkness of the narrative was explained by Yoko as reflecting the inherent darkness of reality. The narrative makes reference to numerous influential philosophers and thinkers, with some Machine characters being named after them such as supporting character Pascal (Blaise Pascal), boss character Simone (Simone de Beauvoir), and NPC Jean-Paul (Jean-Paul Sartre). Yoko used books by Will Buckingham and Nigel Benson, which respectively explained philosophy and psychology in understandable language, as a reference for the narrative. === Art and game design === As Nier: Automata was an RPG as opposed to Taura's previous pure action games, the development presented new challenges for him. While Taura handled the action combat system, designer Isao Negishi created the RPG elements. According to Negishi and programmer Ryo Onishi, a major difficulty was creating a title faithful to Nier, which required a shift away from the style of their earlier titles. While designing the game's RPG elements, the staff at PlatinumGames were partially inspired by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) in the design of their sidequests, which they felt they would never be able to match. The sections where the camera shifted to a side-scrolling perspective were inspired by the Castlevania series, of which Taura was a fan. For the final boss where the player chooses between 9S and A2, each was supposed to lose important elements (weapons and items for A2, experience points for 9S), but this was dropped.For the combat system, the team took the systems used in Nier and infused elements from other titles by PlatinumGames. Taura's main concept was that the combat system improve on the original and weave into the story. An additional consideration was the inclusion of mechanics that would allow both casual and hardcore action gamers to enjoy playing. It was also the studio's first attempt at an open world game: while its previous titles had used a story-driven linear structure, Nier: Automata boasted large environments linked by seamless transitions. A particular element noted by Negishi was the lower concentration of enemies in the world compared to that usually found in PlatinumGame titles, a necessity due to the game's open nature. This was part of their efforts to fulfill Yoko's creative vision: by including fewer enemies, the team gave players the opportunity to "enjoy the still beauty of the game's desolate world". Required inclusions were the shooting elements, compared by staff to bullet hell titles, and combat that switched camera perspectives. The plug-in chips were an updated version of the Words used in Nier, only themed around the premise of androids. Cooperative and player-versus-player multiplayer modes were suggested, but never got beyond the concept phase.Using feedback about the original characters designs, Akihiko Yoshida was brought on as main character designer. Saito originally wanted to invite D.K, character designer for Nier, to return. However D.K had broken his elbow and was unable to draw, so referred the team to Yoshida. While the team thought he would refuse due to his busy schedule, Yoshida was willing to join the project as a number of staff members at his company CyDesignation were fans of Nier. Yoshida joined a little later than usual in the process, so Taro gave him a general guideline of sleek designs with black as the dominant color. As opposed to the original Nier, which was released in two versions with a different version of the main protagonist for western tastes, the team decided to have the game feature the same protagonist in all versions, focusing on creating a high-quality Japanese RPG rather than making adjustments for its western release. This wish for a uniform international appearance was another reason why the team brought in Yoshida. The Commander, Adam, and Eve were designed by Yuya Nagai. Square Enix artist Toshiyuki Itahana handled the redesigns for Devola and Popola. The enemy concept art was handled by Hisayoshi Kijima, while environmental artwork was done by Kazuma Koda, Yasuyuki Kaji, and Shohei Kameoka: environmental design was a collaborative effort with Yoko, and the team strove to make the environments appear like places players would visit in the real world. One of the challenges faced when creating the character models was making them seem alive despite their mechanical nature. === Audio === Composer Keiichi Okabe, who worked on both Nier and Drakengard 3, returned as lead composer with his studio band Monaca, alongside fellow members Keigo Hoashi, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and Kakeru Ishihama. The score was influenced by classical music, while recalling elements used for Nier such as the overall sense of melancholy. A change from the previous score was a shift to portraying a more mechanical and brutal theme and environment than Nier, which had focused on grasslands and villages. Another factor was the open world environment: rather than a single looping track, Okabe created multiple hard and soft tracks that transitioned into each other depending on situation and environment. Balancing of the music was carried out using the digital audio workstation (DAW) Pro Tools. Another prominent return was Emi Evans, who provided vocals for the first game's soundtrack. Additional male vocals were provided by Shotaro Seo. In addition, a theme song was created for the game, with versions sung by both Evans and new singer J'Nique Nicole. Nicole and Nami Nakagawa joined with Evans to form a three-part chorus for some of the musical work, including a boss theme featured in the game. Several songs from the Nier soundtrack were arranged for Nier: Automata.The general sound design was handled by Masato Shindo, who was faced with a challenge new to the PlatinumGames staff: in their previous projects sound echoes had been handled by individual settings created by the team, but that would not work properly in an open world setting due to its scale. Instead, Shindo designed a realistic soundscape using a system to manage echoes in real time, determining how much reverberation to generate based on current surroundings. Sound implementation was handled by Masami Ueda, and it was a greater amount of work than he had experienced on any previous project. One of the factors that helped with the smooth implementation was Ueda's previous encounters and good working relationship with Okabe.An official soundtrack album was released on March 29, 2017. An additional sixteen-track album subtitled Hacking Tracks, containing musical variations for hacking segments, was bundled with first-print copies of the soundtrack. == Release == In January 2014, after the release of Drakengard 3, Yoko expressed an interest in making a second spin-off from the Drakengard series, but did not specify whether it would be related to Nier. He later confirmed in December of that year that he was working on a new game, but did not reveal any more details. Nier: Automata was first announced at Square Enix's press conference at E3 2015 under the provisional title Nier New Project. Its official title was kept secret at the time as it would have spoiled aspects of the game's plot. An official title was also undecided at this point. Yoko originally wanted to call it Nier: Android, but Square Enix rejected that title due to a possible trademark conflict with Google's Android operating system.At the time it was announced, the game was 10% complete. Its official title, along with a gameplay trailer and prospective year of release, were revealed at the 2015 Paris Games Week trade show. A2's playable role was not intended as a surprise reveal. The team did use her long-haired design for footage from a late-game boss fight where in-game she had short hair, making her change in appearance less obvious. Initially planned for release in November 2016, Square Enix delayed release as there were concerns about its commercial performance against other prominent titles: it was decided that a Q4 or Q1 release would give Nier: Automata more of a chance for commercial success. The delay gave the developers additional time to improve the quality and gameplay balance. The delay was appreciated by Yoko as it gave the team more time for polishing. === Localization === Localization for the English version was handled by 8-4, the same company which had localized of the original Nier. According to Yoko, 8-4 changed elements of the script for each region, as some of the concepts in the Japanese script were difficult to understand if translated directly. The aim was to create a script that would appeal to players around the world. As 8-4 had worked with Yoko before on Nier and Drakengard 3, they were familiar with his writing style and found it easy to ask clarifying questions during translation. 8-4's biggest issue was writing the android characters; while ostensibly emotionless, they had distinctive personalities and much of the relationship between 2B and 9S revolved around emotion. While 9S was already written to be more emotive in Japanese, 2B had to be rewritten so she came off as "droll" rather than emotionless in English.The team had notes about how to write each character; for example 9S, would speak about things at length, while 2B would be more crisp. The team also needed to make decisions about the voice acting, ranging from potential regional accents to altering voice types. A cited example was changing a character with a high-pitched child's voice to a more mature one so as not to grate on players. They also needed to do research on the various philosophical themes so as not to make a mistake in their writing. One problem that emerged was the naming of the character Jean-Paul, who in Japanese was named Sartre. As the estate of Jean-Paul Sartre would not have allowed the philosopher's name to be used in this context outside Japan, Yoko reluctantly allowed the name change at Square Enix's request. English dubbing was handled by Cup of Tea Productions, which had previously worked on both Nier and Drakengard 3. === Versions and additional content === The game released in Japan on February 23, 2017. A limited Black Box Collector's Edition was created, featuring the game, a figurine of 2B, a special release of the Nier: Automata live concert, an artbook, a download code for a special item, and a prequel novella. The novella, which retells the events of Nier from the perspectives of characters Devola and Popola, was written by Jun Eishima, a regular collaborator for supplementary material related to the Drakengard series, in collaboration with Yoko. In addition, Square Enix collaborated with Japanese rock band Amazarashi to produce a new single, "Inochi ni Fusawashii", inspired by the game's world. Amazarashi's lead singer Hiromu Akita was a fan of Nier, facilitating the promotion. The music video for "Inochi ni Fusawashii" was supervised by Yoko.In the West, the PS4 version released in North America on March 7, and in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on March 10. In addition to the standard version, there was a Day One edition that featured reversible cover art featuring artwork by Yoshida, and a version of the Black Box Collector's Edition featuring the Day One edition with added accessory content, the 2B figurine, an artbook, and a 13-track soundtrack including tracks from both Nier and the earlier Drakengard games.The game was announced for a digital release on Windows platforms through Steam. A concern for both Square Enix and PlatinumGames with the PC version was potential piracy, which was expected to delay its release. When handling this problem, the teams considered using Denuvo digital rights management. The PC version was released on March 17, 2017. A fan patch fixed two major problems of the PC version that were not addressed by Square Enix; an error in the resolution setting and general performance problems even with beyond requirements hardware. The game was review bombed in April 2017 by Chinese players demanding a translation of the game to Chinese.In November 2016, Saito stated that an Xbox One version was up for consideration, and announced that the game would support the enhanced PlayStation 4 Pro model. Saito later confirmed that an Xbox One version was not being developed due to low sales of the console in Japan, in addition to focusing on a single console so as not to compromise the game's quality. An Xbox One version was eventually announced, and released subtitled as Become as Gods Edition. It released worldwide on June 26, 2018. The Become as Gods edition was also ported by QLOC for Windows through the Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass on March 18, 2021. This release featured improvements unavailable in the Steam version, including HDR content and AMD's FidelityFX suite. Those features were patched into the Steam version on July 15 of that year.A Nintendo Switch port, handled by Virtuos, was released on October 6, 2022. The port included new in-game items and costumes, and reversible cover art featuring a new illustration by Kazuma. For the Switch port, Virtuos wanted to preserve the game as much as possible, but capped the frame rate at 30 fps and adjusted a racing-based side quest to be less difficult. Sound compression was a challenge, with the team optimizing both the sound and graphics engine to allow for the highest quality transfer onto the Switch's weaker hardware. The team did scene-by-scene comparisons during their work to ensure the final product was as close as possible to the other console versions.A downloadable content (DLC) pack titled 3C3C1D119440927, was released on May 2, 2017, and features additional costumes and accessories based on the original Nier, aesthetic hair customisation options, new battle colosseums, and boss fights with Square Enix and PlatinumGames presidents Yosuke Matsuda and Kenichi Sato. It is unlocked in-game from the chapter selection screen, and requires save data from a completed playthrough. The DLC was included in the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch releases, and in the Game of the YoRHa Edition released for PlayStation 4 and Windows on February 26, 2019. == Reception == The original PS4 release of Nier: Automata received "generally favorable reviews" on review aggregator Metacritic, based on 101 critic reviews. The PC version also received favorable reviews, based on 12 reviews. The Xbox One version received "universal acclaim", earning a score of 90 from 30 reviews. The Switch port saw favourable reviews, earning a score of 89 based on 34 reviews.Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave it a near-perfect score, lauding most aspects of it despite one reviewer finding customisation cumbersome. Miguel Concepcion of GameSpot praised every aspect of the game apart from its side quests, referring to its gameplay as "the closest thing there is to a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance". Eurogamer's Jeffrey Matulef called the game "the most captivating game I've played in ages" despite rough edges. Mollie Patterson, writing for Electronic Gaming Monthly, praised it as a highly enjoyable experience as both a player and reviewer. Destructoid's Chris Carter lauded the title as a competent blend of action game and RPG. Game Informer reviewer Joe Juba wrote that a lot of enjoyable elements within the game's narrative and gameplay were obscured by confusing or obtuse mechanics.GamesRadar+'s Sam Prell was enthusiastic about the narrative, blend of gameplay genres, and overall quality. Meghan Sullivan of IGN called Nier: Automata "a crazy, beautiful, and highly entertaining journey full of nutty ideas and awesome gameplay". PC Gamer's Andy Kelly was positive about the game, but felt the PC port was lacking due to its graphical and technical issues. Janine Hawkins of Polygon lauded the game's sense of scale and willingness to make players feel small in the face of its content. Thomas Whitehead, writing for Nintendo Life, was positive about its presentation and design, but noted some gameplay elements that did not work as expected or lacked depth. Nintendo World Report's Matthew Zawodniak, giving the game a perfect score, described it as one of the best games ever made due to its narrative and gameplay design.The story and narrative themes met with general acclaim, though some found its pacing or presentation lacking. Both Sullivan and Matulef found the android protagonists hard to identify with. The gameplay was enjoyed overall, but several found a lack of depth in combat compared to previous PlatinumGames titles. The game's visuals were generally praised, despite comments regarding occasional low environment quality or visual spectacle. Recurring complaints arose from technical issues such as graphical pop-in, frame rate drops, and long loading times. By contrast, the music received unanimous acclaim. Reviews of the Switch port highlighted it as one of the best ports to the system, despite noting some expected performance issues and downgraded graphics. === Sales === The game sold 198,542 copies during its first week of release in Japan, topping the charts and significantly exceeding the sales of the original Nier in 2010. In April 2017, the game was reported to have sold over 500,000 copies in Japan and Asia, including both physical shipments and digital downloads. According to the NPD Group report for March 2017, reached ninth place in overall sales, and sixth in the PS4 chart. In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at sixth place in the general software charts. By May 2017, the game's physical and digital versions across PS4 and PC had reached 1.5 million copies. The majority of sales during that period came from overseas, and was seen as a surprising success compared to the low sales of the first Nier. By May 2019, the game had reached worldwide shipments of four million copies, with an additional 500,000 units selling by March 2020; the latter was attributed to steady sales of the "Game of the YoRHa" edition. The game greatly exceeded Square Enix's sales expectations, and made them consider Nier as a possible franchise. The strong sales, in addition to the positive critical reception, was cited by PlatinumGames as saving the company and revitalising general interest in their products after several disappointing game releases. As of November 2022, all versions of the game have shipped over seven million copies worldwide. === Accolades === Nier: Automata was nominated for and awarded several different industry awards across 2017 and 2018, including awards of acclaim from CEDEC and the Game Developers Conference. It was also awarded or nominated in several "Best of" lists for 2017 by gaming websites. == Additional media == Prior to the release of Nier: Automata, Yoko scripted a musical stage play called YoRHa, which was performed in 2014. Set in the same universe as Nier: Automata, it acts as a backstory for the characters A2 and Anemone. The play was born during the game's six month pre-production period. While the stage play predated the reveal of Nier: Automata, the play's writer Asakusa Kaoru stated that it would not exist without Yoko's vision for the world of Automata. Yoko created the basic scenario while the script was written by Kaoru. For later productions, Yoko made revisions to Asakusa's script to simplify the plot. He described the stage play as a spin-off of the overall universe. Later, new revisions to the original stage play, a spin-off, a musical version, and an all-male spin-off play were produced over the next few years.Multiple novels were also created based on the universe, written by Yoko and Eishima. Long Story Short acts as a novelization of the game's main events with additional commentary from the characters through monologues. Short Story Long is a compilation of previous short stories in the Nier continuity, along with new stories related to the characters of Automata. These two novels were published in North America by Viz Media. YoRHa Boys, based on the male spin-off stage play, was written by Eishima and supervised by Yoko; it follows a group of male YoRHa units put into an experiment to collect behavioural data.A manga adaptation of the YoRHa stage play, titled YoRHa Pearl Harbor Descent Record, began serialization on Square Enix's Manga UP! online manga service. Megumu Soramichi illustrated the manga with Yoko supervising the story. Square Enix will publish the manga in North America in volumes from December 2022. During the fifth anniversary livestream of Nier: Automata, an anime television series based on the game was announced. It will be produced by Square Enix and Aniplex, and animated by A-1 Pictures. The series, the title of which was later revealed as Nier: Automata Ver1.1a, is set to premiere in January 2023. A figurine based on 2B, 9S and A2 was released. === Collaborations === In October 2018, 2B was announced as a playable guest character in Bandai Namco's fighting game Soulcalibur VI. Released on December 19, the DLC features a scenario around the character, themed moves and weapons, and an alternate white variation dubbed "2P". Given the inverted colour scheme of 2B when playing as a second player, the name "2P" was adopted as a play on being player two, and it sounding similar to 2B. Yoko Taro jokingly suggested the P stands for Panasonic. Characters from Nier: Automata were incorporated into a content patch in Shadowbringers, the third major expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Titled YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse, the scenario was outlined by Yoko, then given to other writers. The three episodes of YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse are "The Copied Factory", released in the first narrative patch Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty; "The Puppets' Bunker", released alongside the game's third major patch Reflections in Crystal; and "The Tower at Paradigm’s Breach" with the first part of its penultimate update Death Unto Dawn. A crossover event with Square Enix's SINoALICE mobile game was announced in April 2017. The event consisted of a game level in SINoAlice titled "Nier: Automata: Memory of Dolls", whose story was written by Yoko Taro, and ran for a limited time. DLC costumes and promotional appearances based on the characters of Nier: Automata have also featured in Gravity Rush 2 (2017), Star Ocean: Anamnesis (2018), Phantasy Star Online 2 (2020), and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (2020). == Explanatory notes == == References == === Citations === === Game quotes === == Further reading == NieR:Automata World Guide. Vol. 1. Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Comics. 2019 [2017]. ISBN 978-15-0671-031-0. NieR:Automata World Guide. Vol. 2. Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Comics. 2020 [2017]. ISBN 978-15-0671-575-9. Turcev, Nicolas (2019) [2018]. The Strange Works of Taro Yoko: From Drakengard to Nier: Automata. Foreword by Yoko Taro. Toulouse: Third Éditions. ISBN 978-23-7784-048-9. == External links == Official website

PS4

Battlefield 1

First-person shooter

A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops covering broad geographic areas. Although the term implies that battles are typically fought in a field – an open stretch of level ground – it applies to any type of terrain on which a battle is fought. The term can also have legal significance, and battlefields have substantial historical and cultural value—the battlefield has been described as "a place where ideals and loyalties are put to the test". Various acts and treaties restrict certain belligerent conduct to an identified battlefield. Other legal regimes promote the preservation of certain battlefields as sites of historic importance. Modern military theory and doctrine has, with technological advances in warfare, evolved the understanding of a battlefield from one defined by terrain to a more multifaceted perception of all of the factors affecting the conduct of a battle and is conceptualised as the battlespace. == Choice of battlefields == The occurrence of a battle at a particular location may be entirely accidental, if an encounter between hostile forces occurs with neither side having expected the encounter. Typically, however, the location is chosen deliberately, either by agreement of the two sides or, more commonly, by the commander of one side, who attempts to either initiate an attack on terrain favorable to the attack, or position forces on ground favorable to defense, if anticipating an attack. === Agreed battlefields === Although many battlefields arise in the course of military operations, there have been a number of occasions where formal conventions have ordained the nature and site of the battlefield. It has been suggested, on the basis of anthropological research, that ritual warfare involving battles on traditional "fighting grounds", bound by rules to minimise casualties, may have been common among early societies.In the European Middle Ages, formal pre-arrangement of a battlefield occasionally occurred. The Vikings had the concept of the "hazelled field", where an agreed site was marked out with hazel rods in advance of the battle.Formal arrangements by armies to meet one another on a certain day and date were a feature of Western Medieval warfare, often related to the conventions of siege warfare. This arrangement was known as a journée. Conventionally, the battlefield had to be considered a fair one, not greatly advantaging one side or the other. Arrangements could be very specific about where the battle should take place. For example, at the siege of Grancey in 1434, it was agreed that the armies would meet at "the place above Guiot Rigoigne's house on the right side towards Sentenorges, where there are two trees".In a pitched battle, although the battlefield is not formally agreed upon, either side can choose to withdraw rather than engaging in the battle. The occurrence of the battle therefore generally reflects the belief by both sides that the battlefield and other circumstances are advantageous for their side. === Geography and the choice of battlefield === Some locations are chosen for certain features giving advantage to one side or another. In the 1820s, General Joseph Rogiat, of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée, spoke at great length of the circumstances that make for a good battlefield. He divided the battlefield in two: one favorable for attack and one for defense, and argued that the greater the benefit of one over the other, the stronger a position was. He went on to say that easy movement of troops to the front, and distribution of forces across the front, was also important, since this allowed support and reinforcement as needed. He mentions the high ground as a means of observing the enemy, and concealing friendly forces; while this has been mitigated by aerial reconnaissance, improved communication (field telephone and radio), and indirect fire, it remains important. (For instance, "hull down" firing positions for tanks were desired well into World War II.) Rogiat also discussed cover, in reference to exposure to cannon fire; in earlier times, it would have been to slingers (in Ancient Greek and Roman times) or archers (such as the Welsh longbowmen or Mongol horse archers) from ancient times well into the 1400s, while slightly later, it would be to riflemen.) Rogniat describes a "disadvantageous field of battle" as one: which is everywhere seen and commanded from heights within cannon and musket shot, and which is encumbered with marshes, rivers, ravines, and defiles of every kind. The enemy moves upon it with difficulty, even in column; he cannot deploy for the contest, and is made to suffer under a shower of projectiles without being able to return evil for evil. This may be called an ideal defensive position, however. He then advises that troops should be situated so that the ground they defend is favorable, while the ground through which the enemy must advance is unfavorable: A position which combines these two kinds of fields of battle is doubly strong, both by its situation, and by the obstacles which cover it. But if it fulfils only one of these conditions, it ceases to be easy of defence. Suppose that a position, for instance, offers to the defenders a field of battle well situated, but admitting of easy access upon all points; the assailants, finding no obstacle to their deployment for the contest, will be able to force it in a tolerably short time. Suppose another position presents to the assailants a field of battle abounding with obstacles and defiles, but without offering at the same time, in the rear, favourable ground for the deployment of the defenders; these could then only act upon it with difficulty, and would be forced to fight the assailants in the defiles themselves, without any advantage. In general, the best positions are those, the flanks of which are inaccessible, and which command from their front a gently inclined ground, favourable for attack as well as defence; farther, if the lines lean on villages and woods, each of which forms, by its saliency, a sort of defensive bastion, the army becomes almost impregnable, without being reduced to inaction. During World War I, for instance, the An Nafud behind Aqaba seemed impassible, until a force of Arab rebels led by T. E. Lawrence successfully crossed it to capture the town. In World War II, the Pripyat Marsh was an obstacle to vehicles, and the Red Army successfully employed cavalry there specifically because of that, while in North Africa, the Qattara Depression was used as an "anchor" for a defensive line. The belief that a location is impregnable will lead to it being chosen for a defensive position, but may produce complacency. During the Jewish Rebellion in 70 AD, Masada was thought to be unassailable; determined Roman military engineering showed it was not. In World War I, Aqaba was considered safe. During World War II, Monte la Difensa was revealed to be vulnerable by the First Special Service Force. (All three instances would later be used in films.) Crossing obstacles remains a problem. Even a seemingly open field, such as that faced by George Pickett at Gettysburg, was broken by fences which had to be climbed—while his division was constantly exposed to fire from the moment it left the trees. On modern battlefields, introducing obstacles to slow an advance has risen to an art form: everything from anti-tank ditches to barbed wire to dragon's teeth to improvised devices, have been employed, in addition to minefields. The nature of the battlefield influences the tactics used; in Vietnam, heavy jungle favored ambush. Historically, military forces have sometimes trained using methods suitable for a level battlefield, but not for the terrain in which they were likely to end up fighting. Mardonius illustrated the problem for the Ancient Greeks, whose phalanges were ill-suited for combat except on level ground without trees, watercourses, ditches, or other obstacles that might break up its files, a perfection rarely obtained. Rome had the same preference. By the 20th Century, many military organizations had specialist units, trained to fight in particular geographic areas, like mountains (Alpine units), desert (such as the LRDG), or jungle (such as Britain's Chindits and later U.S. Special Forces), or on skis. Others were trained for delivery by aircraft (air portable), glider, or parachute (airborne); after the development of helicopters, airmobile forces developed. The increasing number of amphibious assaults, and their particular hazards and problems, led to the development of frogmen (and later SeALs). These specialist forces opened up new fields of battle, and added new complexities to both attack and defense: when the battlefield ceased to be physically connected to the supply base, as at Arnhem, or in Burma, or in Vietnam, the geography of the battlefield could not only dictate how a battle was fought, but with what weapons, and both reinforcement and logistics could be critical. At Arnhem, for instance, there were failures in both, while in Burma, aerial supply deliveries enabled the Chindits to do something that would otherwise have been impossible. Armies generally avoided fighting in cities, when possible, and modern armies dislike giving up the freedom of maneuver; as a result, when compelled to fight for control of a city, such as Stalingrad or Ortona, weapons, tactics, and training are ill-suited for the environment. Urban combat is the one specialty that has not yet arisen. === Technology and the choice of battlefield === New technologies also affect where battles are fought. The adoption of chariots makes flat, open battlefields desirable, and larger fields than for infantry alone, as well as offering opportunities to engage an enemy sooner. During the American Civil War, rail transport influenced where and how battles would be, could be, fought, as did telegraphic communication. This was a major factor in the execution of the German invasion of France in WW1: German forces could only travel as far from railheads as their ability to transport fodder allowed; the ambitious plan was doomed before it launched. Single battles, such as Cambrai, can depend on the inception of new technology, such as (in this instance) tanks.The synergy between technologies can also affect where battles take place. The arrival of aerial reconnaissance has been credited with the development of trench warfare, while the combination of high explosives in ammunition and hydraulic recoil mechanisms in artillery, added to aircraft observation, made its subsequent spread necessary, and contributed to the stalemate of WW1. The proliferation of tanks and aircraft changed the dynamics again in WW2. In both Burma in World War II, and in Vietnam, air supply played an important part in where battles took place. Some, such as Arnhem or the A Sầu, would not have happened at all, absent the development of aircraft and helicopters. So, too, has the introduction of landing craft; combined with naval gunfire support, they have made beach landings the site of battles, where, in ancient times, the very idea of contesting a landing was unheard of. The Vietnamese preference for ambush against a more sophisticated opponent was a function of less access to sophisticated technology. As much as technology has changed, terrain still cannot be ignored, because it not only affects movement on the battlefield, but movement to and from it, and logistics are critical: a battlefield, in the industrial age, may be a railway line or a highway As technology grows more sophisticated, the length of the "tail", upon which the troops at the front depend, gets longer, and the number of places a battle can be decided (beyond the immediate point of contact) grows. === Legal implications === The concept of the battlefield arises at various points in the law of war, the international law and custom governing geographic restrictions on the use of force, taking of prisoners of war and the treatment afforded to them, and seizure of enemy property. With respect to the seizure of property, it has been noted that in ancient times it was understood that a prevailing enemy was free to take whatever was left on the battlefield by a fleeing enemy—weapons, armor, equipment, food, treasure—although, customarily, "capture of booty may take place some distance from the battlefield; it may transpire a few days after the battle, and it may even occur in the total absence of any pitched battle". == Historic battlefields == === Location === The locations of ancient battles can be apocryphal. In England, this information has been more reliably recorded since the time of the Norman conquest. Battles are usually named after some feature of the battlefield geography, such as the name of a town, forest or river, commonly prefixed "Battle of...", but the name may poorly reflect the actual location of the event. Where documentary sources describe a battle, "whether such references are contemporary or reliable needs to be assessed with care". Locating battlefields is important in attempts to recreate the events of battles: The battlefield is a historical source demanding attention, interpretation and understanding like any written or other account. To understand a battle, one has to understand the battlefield. === Battlefield preservation === Many battlefields from specific historic battles are preserved as historic landmarks. The study area of a battlefield includes all places related to contributing to the battle event: where troops deployed and maneuvered before, during, and after the engagement; it is the maximum delineation of the historical site and provides more of the tactical context of a battle than does the core area. The core area of a battlefield is within the study area and includes only those places where the combat engagement and key associated actions and features were located; the core area includes, among other things, what often is described as "hallowed ground". A battlefield is typically the location of large numbers of deaths. Given the intensity of combat, it may not be possible to easily retrieve bodies from the battlefield leading to the observation that "[a] battlefield is a graveyard without the gravestones". Ammunition remains and war material are still found today on battlefields and front lines from World War I and II. In particular, the battlefields and positions in the Alps from World War I, which were often exposed, were only partially cleared and fatal accidents continue to happen because mountaineers and climbers collect ammunition. === Battlefield commemoration === Battlefields can host memorials to the battles that took place there. These might commemorate the event itself or those who fell in the battle. This practice has a long history. It was common among the Ancient Greeks and Romans to raise a trophy on the field of battle, initially of arms stripped from the defeated enemy. Later these trophies might be replaced by more permanent memorials in stone or bronze.Another means by which historic battles are commemorated is historical reenactment. Such events are typically held at the location of the original battle, but if circumstances make that inconvenient, reenactors may replicate the battle in an entirely different location. For example, in 1895, members of the Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteers reenacted their famous stand at Rorke's Drift in Africa, 18 years earlier, with the reenactment occurring at the Cheltenham Winter Gardens in England. The first documented Korean War reenactment was held in North Vernon, Indiana, by members of the 20th Century Tactical Studies Group portraying Canadian and North Korean troops, on March 15, 1997. == Gallery of battlefield images == == See also == Battlefield archaeology Battlespace Virtual battlefield == References ==

PS4

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Role-playing

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The eleventh entry in the long-running Dragon Quest video game series, it was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4 in July 2017 and worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in September 2018. An enhanced version, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition, was released for Nintendo Switch by Nintendo in September 2019; for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in December 2020; and for Stadia in March 2021. One of the first games announced for the Switch, the game was originally conceived to be fully open world, but the idea was discarded when it conflicted with the story the developers wanted to tell. To increase the awareness of the Dragon Quest franchise in the west, support for Microsoft Windows and features such as voiced English dialogue and 4K resolution were included. Elements added later included an expanded plot and an option to listen to an orchestral version of the score. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim for its story, characters, narrative, and localization, though its design was criticized for being overly traditional. The game shipped over six million copies by September 2020. The protagonist, the Luminary, has also been featured in crossover media such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. == Gameplay == Dragon Quest XI continues the gameplay of previous games in the series, in which players explore worlds and fight against various monsters, including the ability to explore high areas. The Nintendo 3DS version features a different style to the other versions, showcasing 3D graphics on the top screen and 16-bit styled sprites on the bottom screen. Outside of battle, players can freely toggle between the 3D and 2D graphical styles. Like with Dragon Quest IX, on land, the game's battle system features no random encounters and shows all enemies on the overworld. The battle system also adds a free-form camera option inspired by the MMORPG Dragon Quest X that allows players to move around the enclosed battlefield, although it is purely visual and provides no other benefits to gameplay. == Plot == The game is set in the world of Erdrea and begins as the kingdom of Dundrasil is invaded and destroyed by an army of monsters. The protagonist, an infant during the attack, survives and is found floating down a river by an old man named Chalky in the village of Cobblestone. The protagonist is adopted by Chalky's daughter Amber and raised in the village. After the protagonist's coming-of-age ceremony, Amber reveals the truth to him about his birth and adoption and sends him to meet King Carnelian of Heliodor. However, the king accuses him of being an evil entity and throws him into the dungeons. Imprisoned, the protagonist meets a thief named Erik who reveals that he was sent to meet him, as the mark on his hand is proof that he is the Luminary, a legendary hero chosen by the world tree Yggdrasil to save Erdrea from evil. The pair escape and evade capture, later joined by two mages: Veronica, who is trapped in a child's body due to a curse, and her twin sister, Serena. On their quest to help the Luminary reach Yggdrasil, they gain three other companions: Sylvando, a traveling entertainer, Jade, the exiled princess of Heliodor who helped the infant protagonist escape during the attack of Dundrasil, and Rab, the former king of Dundrasil and the protagonist's grandfather. The party eventually arrives at the heart of Yggdrasil, which contains the Sword of Light, the Luminary's destined weapon. However, just as the Luminary is about to take it, he and the party are intercepted by Carnelian and his retainers Jasper and Hendrik. It is revealed that Carnelian was possessed by an evil sorcerer known as Mordegon, also was responsible for Dundrasil's destruction, and Jasper is Mordegon's agent. The two subdue Hendrik and the Luminary's party, with Mordegon taking the Sword of Light, corrupting it into the Sword of Shadows, and absorbing the heart of Yggdrasil, destroying the tree and plunging the world into an age of darkness. Separated from the others, the Luminary returns to Cobblestone, turned into a fortified refuge for Heliodor citizens led by Carnelian and Hendrik, who apologize to the Luminary for all the troubles they caused him. Hendrik joins forces with the Luminary, and together they reclaim Heliodor from Mordegon's forces. At one point, a dark spirit summons a mysterious orb called Erdwin's Lantern, however Mordegon destroys it so no one stands in his way. After reuniting with the rest of the party, except for Veronica, who perished saving the others during the fall of Yggdrasil, the Luminary obtains the means to forge a new Sword of Light, which they use to defeat Jasper and Mordegon, restoring Yggdrasil and the world. Afterwards, the party discovers the means to bring Veronica (and other people who perished) back within the Tower of Lost Time. There, they meet the Timekeeper, who gives the Luminary the power to go back in time and defeat Mordegon before he can steal the Sword of Light and Yggdrasil's heart, thus saving Veronica from sacrificing herself and preventing Mordegon's dark age. However, due to Mordegon's absence, Erdwin's Lantern wasn't destroyed, thus the dark spirit is able to merge with it and awaken as the game's other main antagonist: The Dark One, Calasmos. The party learns that a prior Luminary named Erdwin was betrayed and killed by his mage companion Morcant, who absorbed Calasmos' powers and transformed into Mordegon. Since he could not be destroyed forever without the power of the Luminary, Serenica, Erdwin's former sage companion and lover, then sealed the weakened Calasmos within Erdwin's Lantern and attempted to return to the past at the Tower of Lost Time, but was turned into the Timekeeper instead. The party then confronts and destroys Calasmos, before the Luminary entrusts his mark to Serenica, who reverts to her original form and uses it to return to the past and reunite with Erdwin. Accompanied by Veronica and Serena, he also returns the Sword of Light to Yggdrasil, who reveals itself to be Yggdragon, an ancient dragon of light who was defeated by Calasmos ages ago, whose body transformed into the tree Yggdrasil and gave life to Erdrea. Yggdragon bestows upon the Luminary the title of "Erdrick", the mightiest of all heroes, and keeps the Sword for the day when a new hero will need it to defend Erdrea from evil. In the mid-credits, Serenica reunites with Erdwin in the past, while after the credits, a young mother, after reading the Luminary's story in a book, wakes up her child from bed, setting up the beginning of Dragon Quest III. == Development and release == Dragon Quest XI started development in 2013, with it being announced in 2015 for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch. It was one of the first games announced for the Nintendo Switch, which was known under the codename of Nintendo NX as it had not been fully revealed at the time. Initially, the team considered making the game fully open world, but decided against it as it would have led to issues telling its story. The PlayStation 4, Windows, and Switch versions use the Unreal Engine 4 game engine and had developmental assistance from ORCA Inc, while the 3DS version had assistance from Toylogic Inc. The 2D mode that was present in the Nintendo 3DS version and Definitive Edition was developed by ArtePiazza.In April 2017, Square Enix held a special presentation for the game, where the release date for the PlayStation 4 and 3DS versions of the game in Japan was revealed to be July 29, 2017. The same month, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Nintendo unveiled special editions of their PlayStation 4 Slim and New Nintendo 2DS XL hardware for Japan to tie into the game. Coinciding with the release, lead designer and scenario writer Yuji Horii announced that an international version, localized in five separate languages, would be released in 2018. The exact date was later revealed to be September 4, 2018, along with a version for Windows via Steam, a first for the main series. It includes voiced English dialogue, a first-person camera option, support for 4K resolution, and an additional "Draconian Quest" hard mode difficulty feature, among other minor changes. Square Enix stated they wanted to expand the Dragon Quest brand outside of Japan, which they believed that these features, in addition to having a Windows version, would assist it.The international PlayStation 4 release also saw a special collector's edition, titled Edition of Lost Time, which includes the base game, a set of bonus in-game items, a 128-page hardback art book featuring original character design concepts from Akira Toriyama, a two-disc soundtrack featuring orchestrated versions of the game's music by Koichi Sugiyama, a cloth map of the game's world, and a steelbook case. The 3DS version was not localized outside of Japan, and the Switch version was delayed while the team updated it to a newer version of Unreal Engine 4 that the system supports. The Switch version was re-announced at Tokyo Game Show 2018. Known as Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition, it was released worldwide on September 27, 2019, and features English and Japanese voice acting, with the English voice acting being available as an add-on in the Japanese Switch version, a 16-bit graphical mode adapted from the 3DS version, an option for orchestral music (with "Overture XI", a version of the series' main theme, from the game's opening movie, being re-orchestrated, which was taken from the orchestrated soundtrack, as with the other tracks in the game), and expanded plot elements. Dragon Quest XI S was also released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on December 4, 2020. It was also released for Stadia on March 16, 2021. == Reception == Dragon Quest XI received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic, with critics praising it for its visuals, traditional turn-based combat, plot, and characters. The expanded re-release (XI S) received "universal acclaim" according to Metacritic. Multiple publications called it the best game in the Dragon Quest series, as well as one of the best contemporary JRPGs. Kotaku's Tim Rogers, a long-time player of the series, called it one of the best games of all time. USgamer considered the game to be the natural followup to Dragon Quest VIII, the last main-series console game to be released outside of Japan, and an ideal entry point for newcomers to the series. PC Gamer praised the English localization, calling it "the most brilliant, underappreciated writing of the year."Despite the common praise, some critics regarded the conservative approach to the game as a detriment. Polygon stated that the upgraded visuals and presentation were "grafted onto a frail and aging skeleton" and that it was unlikely to bring in any new fans to the series due to its non-evolving nature. PC Gamer agreed, noting that while the Windows port ran without issue and "looked great," they believed the game itself was "disappointingly safe." IGN criticized some sexualized elements in the game, included a quest to dress up a female character in a bunny outfit, as well as the series' usual "puff puff" content. Some critics also wrote that the game's non-orchestrated, MIDI-synthesized soundtrack was often at odds with the game's visuals. For the Windows version, fans released a mod that replaced it with existing orchestral recordings. An orchestral soundtrack was later included in the Definitive Edition, although the original soundtrack was also available. === Sales === The game sold over two million physical copies on its first two days of sale in Japan; the Nintendo 3DS version sold 1.13 million, while the PlayStation 4 version sold 0.95 million. In North America, the game had the best launch month in series history, doubling the dollar sales of the previous best, Dragon Quest IX. By November 2018, it had shipped over four million copies worldwide. Dragon Quest XI S sold 303,204 physical copies in its first week in Japan in its Switch version. The 3DS, PS4, and Switch versions sold a total of 5,000,000 units in Japan. By December 2021, the game had shipped over six million copies worldwide. === Awards === == Legacy == The Luminary appeared as a playable character via downloadable content in the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Yggdrasil's Altar is his related stage and comes with several music tracks from the series. In addition, a Luminary Amiibo was released in October 2020. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

PS4

Gran Turismo Sport

Racing

Gran Turismo Sport is a 2017 racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is the 13th game in the Gran Turismo series, the seventh game in the main series. One of Gran Turismo Sport's main focuses is competitive online racing, supported by the international governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), and serving as the platform for the FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships. The game launched with 168 cars and 29 tracks; post-launch game updates have brought the count to 338 cars and 82 track configurations as of July 2021. The free updates also added a more traditional single-player campaign mode to the game. == Gameplay == Similar to its predecessors, Gran Turismo Sport is a racing game and includes two game modes: "Sport Mode" and "Arcade Mode". Online racing is also featured in the game and saving is only allowed in online mode, unlike its predecessors. The game has been described as different from the "Prologue" titles seen in the past in the series and features more content. Unlike Gran Turismo 5 and 6, the game does not feature a dynamic weather system or day-night cycle, but players still have the option to modify the race's time of day before entering the race. It includes 338 cars and 82 configurations in 32 locations to race on as of July 2021.For the first time in the series, the game features Porsche vehicles included in the game after Electronic Arts' licensing rights to the Porsche brand had expired (previous Gran Turismo installments included Ruf cars as a substitute). === Sport Mode === Sport Mode consists of three daily races that reset every week. Each individual player is assigned a Driver Rating (DR), based on the player's overall skills, and a Sportsmanship Rating (SR), based on the player's attitude on the track, such as avoiding contact and obeying racing flags. The highest generally available levels are A+ for Driver Rating and S for Sportsmanship Rating, with the lowest being E for both, but the Driver Rating cannot exceed the Sportsmanship Rating. There is also a special S Driver Rating reserved for players ranked in the top 200 worldwide. Car performance within each category is equalized using Balance of Performance (BoP), which makes adjustments to the weight and power of each car to ensure a balanced gameplay. ==== FIA Gran Turismo Online Championship ==== Gran Turismo Sport also features two championships held simultaneously throughout the year: the Nations Cup, in which players represent their respective countries, and the Manufacturers Cup, in which players represent automobile marques of their choice. The FIA manages the series directly as they would with any of their other race series. The winners of the championships are honored at the FIA's annual prize-giving ceremony in Paris.The winner of the inaugural FIA GT Sport Nations Cup in 2018 was Americas regional champion Igor Fraga (Brazil, IOF_RACING17). European regional champion Mikail Hizal (Germany, TRL_LIGHTNING) finished 2nd, while Asia-Oceania regional finalist Cody Nikola Latkovski (Australia, Nik_Makozi) ended in 3rd. The year's Manufacturers Cup was won by Lexus, represented by their top drivers Tyrell Meadows (USA, GT_Academy2013), Vincent Rigaud (France, Oscaro_SkyPikmin), and Kanata Kawakami (Japan, Kawakana222), while Toyota (Agustín Cajal (Argentina, ORMA_Aspicito), Rayan Derrouchie (France, RC_Miura) and Tomoaki Yamanaka (Japan, YamadoRacing38)) and Aston Martin (Jonathan Bucha (USA, hendrix323), Thomas Compton-Mcpherson (Great Britain, cubertom) and Yoshiharu Imai (Japan, legacy0193)) took 2nd and 3rd respectively. The live streams of the World Finals in Monaco exceeded a total of 3 million viewers across multiple channels. === Car categories === Car categories are a new gameplay concept introduced in GT Sport. Cars in the game are divided into seven categories: Gr. 1 - LMP and Group C race cars, including a few homologated variants of Vision Gran Turismo cars Gr. 2 - Super GT GT500 race cars Gr. 3 - GT3, GTE/GT2 and GT1 race cars, including a few homologated variants of Vision Gran Turismo cars Gr. 4 - GT4 race cars Gr. B - Group B rally cars N Class - Real-life road cars, spanning from the Mazda Roadster S (ND) to the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport 16.4; this category is further split into 10 sub-categories based on maximum power output (rounded up or down to the closest multiple of 100, for each 50 HP; e.g. the Mercedes-AMG GT S, with maximum power of 503 HP, is in the N500 category, while the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, with maximum power of 411 HP, is in the N400 category) Gr. X - Concept cars (including Vision Gran Turismo cars), as well as every other car that does not fit into any of the above categories (such as electric cars, safety cars, and track day cars) === PlayStation VR support === Gran Turismo Sport was originally announced to be fully compatible with Sony's virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR. However, VR support was later announced to be limited to a dedicated VR Tour Mode. A subsequent game update also added the ability to play the time trial game mode within VR. == Development and release == Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi mentioned that "Gran Turismo Sport would be coming to the PlayStation 4 console, possibly "in a year or two [from 2013]". He also mentioned that it will be based on the same physics engine that Gran Turismo 6 uses. Yamauchi also spoke of the release sometime in 2016 or 2017 and how much more powerful the game will be on PlayStation 4 and how much easier it is to develop on the console versus Gran Turismo 6 on the PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo Sport was officially announced at the 2015 Paris Games Week. Sony originally claimed that Sport is a separate entry, but Yamauchi later confirmed that it is a main entry in the series.The developer Polyphony Digital expected Gran Turismo Sport to have much improved gameplay elements due to the enhanced processing power of the PlayStation 4. The game is the first in the Gran Turismo series to support the virtual reality headset PlayStation VR. A beta was scheduled to take place in the first and second quarter of 2016 before a full release on November 15, but Sony later announced that the beta had been cancelled so as to prevent the game from being delayed to 2017. On August 30, 2016, it had been announced that the game will be delayed to 2017 to further polish the game. Despite the cancellation of the beta for the game in 2016, a closed beta was confirmed for March 17 following year for selected users in the United States and Europe to experience the game's features prior to its release.Kamui Kobayashi was one of the drivers who provided technical assistance in the game. The inclusion of Porsche automobiles was announced on April 11, 2017. Following expiration of Electronic Arts' exclusive licensing to Porsche, Gran Turismo Sport marked the first appearance of Porsche in a Gran Turismo title. Three time F1 world driver's champion, Lewis Hamilton, became the "maestro" of the series. Furthermore, his Time Trial Challenge DLC pack was released on November 28, 2019. === Open beta and release === In 2017, the game was given a release date of October 17 in North America. A free demo launched on October 9. Lasting five days, the open beta allowed a limited amount of in-game progress to carry over to the full release on October 17. The demo included all three modes: arcade, campaign, and sport. PlayStation Plus members could pre-load the demo on October 7. While the game is the first in the franchise to connect to PlayStation VR, the demo did not include that feature. The demo also had the livery editor for customizing vehicles and Scapes photo mode. More than a million people played the beta. Lotus was planned to appear in the game, with the Lotus Evora (making the series' debut in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue) being playable in the closed beta, but was removed from the final game due to licensing difficulties. == Reception == Gran Turismo Sport received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.Eurogamer's Martin Robinson described GT Sport as a deviation from past games in the series, by cutting the vast car collections of its predecessors and placing a sharper emphasis on competitive online driving: "There are no lunar rovers, no 19th century single horsepowered wagons and not even anything by way of an open wheel racer to be found in its car list at launch. Yet, conversely, this is possibly the most focused, directly enjoyable game Polyphony Digital has put out since the heady days of Gran Turismo 3". Robinson praised the improved sound design and addition of a livery editor that allows players to create and share their own designs online. The website later ranked the game 21st on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017".IGN likewise noted that GT Sport's garage and track selection is smaller when compared to other racing games, a decision they found impossible to forgive, but described the shift to online racing as serious, sensible, and well-structured: "That PvP online environment, or Sport Mode as its dubbed, is where developer Polyphony Digital has gambled all its chips. The good news is that it has indeed created a sturdy online racing venue". Luke Reilly observed the introduction of a Sportsmanship Rating that, over time, separates poor drivers from good ones, and while less than perfect "rewards clean sectors, fair overtakes, and respectful racing".Ray Carsillo of Electronic Gaming Monthly considered the game to be visually gorgeous and thought the cars handled well, "easily the strongest aspect of the game", but was scathing in his assessment of the always online approach to play: "If you don't play the game online, you can't save the game, and most of the games features–only single arcade races are available offline–are locked away". Carsillo awarded the game a 6/10 concluding it will disappoint anyone hoping for a more traditional Gran Turismo experience.Jason Faulkner of Game Revolution was equally critical of the game, devoting a large portion of his review to observing the differences between GT Sport and racing games of rival color: "You'll get a lot more feeling of the weight of the cars as you drive them in this game than you do in Forza, but there's still something lacking when compared to Project Cars 2". While the cars are stunningly recreated with excellent handling, Faulkner said there simply aren't enough of them, especially when contrasted with the two aforementioned titles: "The track list is sparse as well. There are only 17 locations available in GT Sport, with variations bringing the total number of circuits up to 40". Faulkner lamented the loss of single-player content in favor of GT Sport's new online mode, which no matter how well crafted, would be unavailable when not connected to the servers.Justin Towell of GamesRadar awarded GT Sport 4/5, citing superb tracks, solid controls and incredible handling nuance across a range of high powered vehicles. Towell said that although the game continues to offer an educational single player experience with a collection of scenarios to overcome, it's somewhat "pedestrian" and not a patch on Forza 7's career mode. Instead, the central pillar of GT Sport, and the game's main selling point, are the FIA-recognised online game modes: "Winning a slipstreaming race around an oval against real opponents is far more exciting than any offline mode. And with the real-world calendar of events taking place at set times, it all feels like it really means something". Towell noted the inconvenience that can arise when players lose internet connection but presumed the measure was "to keep an eye on cheaters".In Game Informer's Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game came in second place for "Best Racing Game". It was also nominated for the same category in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.As of January 2018, Polyphony Digital has implemented a traditional single-player mode (akin to previous entries in the series) in Gran Turismo Sport. Since its addition, more single-player content has been added via free updates. This is not accurately reflected in most professional reviews, which were written at the time of the game's release and do not account for any of the free content updates released in the years since. === Sales === Gran Turismo Sport topped the UK all-formats physical sales charts for one week, selling nearly three times as many copies as Forza Motorsport 7. It did the same in Japan and New Zealand, and ranked number 2 in Australia. During its first week on sale in Japan, Gran Turismo Sport sold 150,286 copies, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart.The game reached number one on the Japanese download sales charts, number two in Europe, and number five in the United States.By May 2018, the game had sold around 3.3 million copies worldwide. As of December 2018, the game had around 7.5 million players worldwide. By June 2019, Gran Turismo Sport had sold an estimated eight million copies. === Accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

PS4

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Action-adventurestealth

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a 2015 stealth game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami. Directed, written, and designed by Hideo Kojima (as his final work at Konami), it is the ninth installment in the Metal Gear franchise, following Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, a stand-alone prologue released the previous year. Set in 1984, nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes, the story follows mercenary leader Punished "Venom" Snake as he ventures into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Angola–Zaire border region to exact revenge on those who destroyed his forces and came close to killing him during the climax of Ground Zeroes. The game is played from a third-person perspective in an open world which can be explored either on foot or by modes of transport. Snake can use a wide repertoire of weapons and items and several companions that allows the player to combat enemies either stealthily or directly. Enemy soldiers and resources found in the world can be transported to Snake's headquarters, allowing for its expansion and the development of further technology. The game includes two separate multiplayer modes, Metal Gear Online and Forward Operating Bases, created by the player which can be invaded by other players. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on September 1, 2015. It received critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, player freedom, open world, graphics, themes, and performances; its narrative and certain changes to the series formula divided critics, while the appearance of the character Quiet drew criticism. The game's repeated missions and ending that left plot points unresolved, attributed with conclusive evidence of removed content, led some to label the game unfinished. The Phantom Pain shipped 6 million units by December 2015. It received several awards and has been considered as one of the greatest stealth games of all time. Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, a bundle that includes both The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes, along with all additional content for both games, was released in October 2016. == Gameplay == Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a stealth game in which players take the role of Punished "Venom" Snake from a third-person perspective in an open world. Gameplay elements are largely unchanged from Ground Zeroes, meaning that players must sneak from several points in the game world, avoiding enemy guards, and remaining undetected. Included in Snake's repertoire are binoculars, a variety of weapons, explosives, and stealth-based items such as cardboard boxes and decoys. Following one of the series traditions, The Phantom Pain encourages players to progress through the game without killing, using non-lethal weapons such as tranquilizer darts to subdue enemies. Players may traverse the game world with vehicles such as jeeps and tanks, in addition to traveling on foot or on horseback, and as certain locations are mountainous, occasionally, players can opt to go rock climbing as a shortcut. They may call for helicopter support against enemy soldiers or request airstrikes that can bomb the target area or change the weather. Snake can call on AI "buddy" companions—including Quiet, a silent female sniper with supernatural abilities; D-Horse, a horse capable of wearing armor and hiding Snake during travel; D-Walker, a manned, highly agile mobile weapons platform that can provide heavy weapons support; and D-Dog, a wolf pup raised to assist him in the field. The companions' abilities and their effectiveness depends on the player's relationship with them. There is a large emphasis on tactics in The Phantom Pain. As in Peace Walker, The Phantom Pain features a base-building system that allows players to develop weapons and items from their headquarters, Mother Base. Recruitment of enemy soldiers and prisoners has returned for this purpose, allowing the base to grow through organization. The player is given the option to access their base from their real-life smartphones and other devices via a companion app. Unlike in Peace Walker where players can only see Mother Base from the air, The Phantom Pain allows players to control Snake as he explores the complex on foot. The Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, an item introduced into gameplay in Peace Walker, returns as well, with players able to transport captured soldiers and other objects such as animals and vehicles back to Mother Base. An in-game currency called GMP is used for upgrading Mother Base's defenses and technology, and can be collected from objects found all over the map, such as rough diamonds, shipping containers, and special blueprint boxes, as well as sending recruited soldiers on combat missions around the world. The income is invested in upgrades to the appearance and abilities, weapons and equipment of Snake, his AI companions, and vehicles. For example, Snake's prosthetic arm can be modified with a taser, echolocation function, or remote controls that allow it to fly as a drone.Game design direction allows the player to choose in what order the story events take place by selecting missions in any order they like, and yet still "understand the encompassing message by the end". The enemy AI has improved in terms of situational awareness. If players frequently use particular weapons or tactics to subdue enemy soldiers, enemies will increase in number and be outfitted with better equipment; for example, frequent use of headshots will result in enemy soldiers donning metal helmets to make targeting the head harder. Other actions from the player can affect the wider game world further; for example, sabotaging a radar installation will open up new entry points.The game has a dynamic weather system and day-night cycle that runs in real-time. The cycle is able to be fast-forwarded when Snake lights a "Phantom Cigar", a type of electronic cigar; a digital silver Seiko watch panel appears on screen to denote time. The passage of time enables players to analyze the movement of marked enemy forces in the area, such as shifts in sentry patrols and individual patrol routes. Weather effects, such as sandstorms and rain, affects the gameplay environment by reducing visibility or masking the sound of footsteps. === Multiplayer === Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain includes two multiplayer modes: first, the new Metal Gear Online, developed by Kojima Productions' newly formed Los Angeles division (now known as Konami Los Angeles Studio). The second multiplayer mode is an extension of the Mother Base base-building feature. Players are able to expand their operations to include "Forward Operating Bases" which can be used to generate resources and income for the single-player campaign. These facilities can be attacked by other players, making a player-versus-player mode available whereby the attacking team attempts to steal resources and/or soldiers and the defending team tries to protect the Forward Operating Base from the intruder. Defenders are able to call on their friends to aid in the defense, especially if their Forward Operating Base is attacked during a story mission. Players are able to customize the security, staffing, and layout of their Forward Operating Bases, allowing for a large number of compound configurations. Following the success or failure of the intrusion, the location of the attacking player's Forward Operating Base is revealed to the defending player; however, defending players can only launch a retaliatory strike if the attacker was discovered during their infiltration. The Forward Operating Base feature is a separate multiplayer experience to Metal Gear Online and is needed to increase the number of combat units the player can deploy. == Plot == === Premise === In the aftermath of the events of Ground Zeroes and the destruction of Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF), Big Boss (Kiefer Sutherland/Akio Ōtsuka) falls into a coma. Nine years later, he awakens and helps lead a new mercenary group, Diamond Dogs. Adopting the codename "Venom Snake", he ventures into Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War and the Angola—Zaire border region during the Angolan Civil War to track down the people responsible for MSF's destruction. Along the way, he becomes reacquainted with his former rival Ocelot (Troy Baker/Satoshi Mikami) and encounters Quiet (Stefanie Joosten), an assassin and sniper with supernatural abilities. While he and Kazuhira Miller (Robin Atkin Downes/Tomokazu Sugita) are initially driven to exact revenge, Snake unearths a plot by the Patriots organization to develop a new model of the Metal Gear system known as the ST-84 "Sahelanthropus". === Characters === In contrast to previous Metal Gear installments, Kojima Productions conducted the voice acting and motion capture with English-speaking actors and stuntmen first. While facial motion capture was used before for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, it was done separately from the actual voice acting. The Japanese voice acting was dubbed over the English cast's performance afterward, in contrast to previous releases in the series since Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which had the characters' vocal and facial expressions lip-synched specifically to both, Japanese and English voice acting. At E3 2013, Konami confirmed that actor Kiefer Sutherland would provide Snake's voice and motion capture work for the game, taking a role over voice actor David Hayter. Kojima's reason for replacing Hayter was to "have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words", and that he "needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s". Hollywood producer and director Avi Arad suggested to Kojima that Sutherland could fulfill his requirements. Akio Ōtsuka was unaffected by this casting change and continued to voice Snake in the Japanese version. On March 4, 2015, Kojima revealed that Snake would have less dialogue in The Phantom Pain than previous installments. The reasoning behind it was to make Snake come across as an extension to the player and that he "will act based on [player's actions] rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women."Other members of the voice cast include Troy Baker as Ocelot, Jay Tavare as Code Talker, James Horan as Skull Face, Robin Atkin Downes as Kazuhira Miller, Christopher Randolph as Dr. Emmerich and Piers Stubbs as Eli. The Japanese dub features Tomokazu Sugita as Miller, Hideyuki Tanaka as Emmerich, Takaya Hashi as Skull Face, Satoshi Mikami as Ocelot, Osamu Saka (whose previous roles include Sergei Gurlukovich in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and The End in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) as Code Talker, and Yūtarō Honjō as Eli. Dutch model Stefanie Joosten provides the likeness, voice and motion capture for the new character Quiet, a mute sniper with supernatural abilities who may assist Snake on missions depending on the player's actions during a certain mission. She provides the vocals for "Quiet's Theme". === Story === In 1984, nine years after the destruction of MSF, Big Boss awakens from a coma in a hospital on a British military base in Cyprus. Quiet, a Cipher assassin, attempts to kill him, but he is rescued by a heavily bandaged man called Ishmael. The pair escapes the hospital while evading pursuit from Cipher soldiers and two superhumans, the "Third Child" and the "Man on Fire". Big Boss loses Ishmael, but is recovered by Revolver Ocelot and brought aboard Diamond Dogs, a new mercenary group founded by Kazuhira Miller on an offshore platform near Seychelles. Big Boss adopts the code name "Venom Snake" and begins searching for Cipher. Snake becomes involved in the Soviet–Afghan War and the Angolan Civil War. He recruits the superhuman mute sniper Quiet; scientist and MSF associate, Dr. Huey Emmerich; and Code Talker, a Navajo expert on parasites forced to work for Cipher. Snake captures Eli, a British child believed to be a clone of Snake and leader of several child soldiers; a DNA test confirms that Venom Snake and Eli are not genetically related. Snake learns that Cipher's leader Zero was usurped and XOF, a rogue faction of Cipher, was responsible for destroying MSF. XOF's leader Skull Face considers Cipher's plan for world peace akin to making it culturally American, and intends to release a parasite that kills anyone who speaks English. A modified parasite gave Quiet and XOF's elite soldiers, the Skulls, their unusual abilities. After releasing the English strain parasite, Skull Face plans to use the threat of the latest Metal Gear "Sahelanthropus" to make nuclear weapons desirable, believing that nuclear deterrence will attain world peace while protecting other cultures; in secret, he will retain remote control of the weapons. Skull Face refuses to use an AI for Sahelanthropus, so is dependent on the Third Child's psychic abilities. During a test, the Third Child betrays Skull Face, having Sahelanthropus seriously wound him and crush the Man on Fire. Snake defeats Sahelanthropus, and recovers one of Skull Face's three parasite vials; one is missing and the other is taken by the Third Child and given to Eli. Skull Face is left to die by Snake and Miller, but Huey executes him. Sahelanthropus is returned to Diamond Dogs' base. Eli, the Third Child, and the child soldiers later steal Sahelanthropus and flee. It is revealed that the Third Child's powers enthralled him to the will of the most vengeful person nearby, meaning Sahelanthropus' attack was instigated by Eli. An epidemic of parasites occurs on base, forcing Snake to kill many of his men to contain it. To honor them, he has their cremated remains turned into diamonds to carry into battle. Huey is accused of causing the epidemic while attempting to mutate the parasites to sell as weapons. Alongside suspicion of his role in MSF's destruction and evidence that he murdered his wife Dr. Strangelove for using their son Otacon in experiments, Snake exiles him from Diamond Dogs. Quiet disappears in Afghanistan. Code Talker reveals that Quiet was infected with the English parasite to spread it within Diamond Dogs, but her allegiances shifted and she remained silent to prevent an outbreak. Huey's mutation of the parasites convinced Quiet that she could not guarantee the group's safety. Snake finds her and helps fight off Soviet forces before they hide. Quiet is forced to speak to summon Diamond Dogs when Snake is bitten by a venomous snake, and flees to avoid causing another epidemic. It is revealed that Venom Snake is not Big Boss, but an MSF medic caught in the explosion that injured Ishmael, the real Big Boss. During his coma, the medic was transformed via plastic surgery and hypnotherapy to serve as a decoy for Big Boss while he wages a covert war against Cipher. Venom Snake goes on to set the events of the Outer Heaven uprising in motion. After his death, Big Boss resurfaces during the Zanzibar Land disturbance. Miller and Ocelot discuss Big Boss' plans to create Outer Heaven. While Ocelot remains supportive, Miller is disgusted at his former ally's deception and vows to assist Venom and Big Boss' son Solid Snake in hopes of contributing to Big Boss' downfall. == Development == === Marketing === In February 2012, a site owned by Konami, "Development Without Borders", promoted development for a new Metal Gear title, for "The "next" MGS". The site was recruiting staff for the 2012 GDC pavilion in March, and requested applications for several positions for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for "high-end consoles" and "next-gen Fox engine". As the year went on, screenshots and videos of the newly announced Fox Engine were unveiled by the team. This media demonstrated many random settings and characters, although none related to the Metal Gear series. Certain screenshots, however, were noted to feature a character who resembled the Big Boss character of Metal Gear, walking up to a Stryker AFV previously seen in Metal Gear Solid 4.Konami unveiled Ground Zeroes at a private function celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Metal Gear series on August 30, 2012. The game made its public debut two days later at the 2012 Penny Arcade Expo. Kojima revealed very little detail about the project at the time other than it was a prologue to Metal Gear Solid V, and that it would be the first game to use the Fox Engine, a game engine developed by Kojima Productions. In January 2013, Kojima revealed that Ground Zeroes would be the first title in the series to be subtitled in Arabic, a feature the team had planned for previous games. He also confirmed that the length of the cutscenes was reduced, as he believed that long cutscenes had become outdated.In an interview with VG247, Kojima expressed concerns over whether or not Ground Zeroes would be released. He claimed that his aim was to target taboos and mature themes, which he considered to be "quite risky", adding that his roles as creator and producer were in conflict with one another; as creator, Kojima wanted to take the risk of exploring themes that might alienate audiences, but as producer, he had to be able to tone down the content in order to sell as many copies of the game as possible. Ultimately, the role of creator won out, and Kojima described his approach as "prioritizing creativity over sales". At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2012, a teaser trailer for a game known as The Phantom Pain was shown, credited to a new Swedish developer known as Moby Dick Studio, and was described as being "100% gameplay". Allegedly led by Joakim Mogren, the studio's mission statement read that it aimed to "deliver an uncompromising, exciting, and touching game experience to people all around the globe." After the presentation, commentators speculated that The Phantom Pain was actually a Metal Gear game, noting the protagonist's resemblance to Big Boss, graphics similar to those produced by the Fox Engine, the quote "V has come to" at the end of the trailer, and that the title Metal Gear Solid V fits in the negative space and indentations of the game's logo when using the same font. The name "Joakim" was an anagram of "Kojima", the domain name for the studio's website had only been registered about two weeks prior to the announcement, and that several people wearing Moby Dick Studio shirts were sitting in a VIP area intended for Konami staff. Kojima stated he was impressed by the trailer and how Mogren was inspired by Metal Gear.An actor playing a heavily bandaged Mogren appeared in an interview on the March 14, 2013 episode of GameTrailers TV; while stating that he could not reveal many details, he confirmed that more details about The Phantom Pain would be revealed at the upcoming Game Developers Conference, and showed a series of screenshots on an iPad to the show's host Geoff Keighley. After Keighley pointed out the Fox Engine logo in the screenshots, Mogren appeared nervous and the segment abruptly ended.On March 27, 2013, at GDC 2013, Kojima confirmed that his studio was behind the trailer, and announced that Metal Gear Solid V would be two separate games; Ground Zeroes would now serve as a prologue for the main game, which was officially announced as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He subsequently presented a trailer for the game and showcased the Fox Engine. The trailer featured the song "Not Your Kind of People" from Garbage's 2012 album of the same name.In an interview with GameTrailers on March 29, 2013, Kojima revealed that The Phantom Pain was initially presented as an independent game so as to assess the public and industry response to the Fox Engine, as he felt that announcing the game as part of Metal Gear Solid V would bias reactions to the engine. He stated the idea had been conceived and planned with Keighley over the course of two years and was designed to encourage social media activity from fans.While the official trailer announcing the game was running on a PC, the game was released for the seventh and eighth generations of video game consoles. In an interview during E3 2013, when asked about a PC release Kojima stated "We are making it, and it will be on par with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions." However, he made it clear that the PC port was not their priority. Kojima confirmed that the visuals seen in the trailer would look close to those in the final game. He also stated that he would like Metal Gear Solid V to be his final Metal Gear game, noting that unlike previous titles where he had announced that he had finished making games in the series, only to return for subsequent games, his involvement with the franchise would be over this time around. Although the trailer had Snake suffering from hallucinations in the form of a flaming whale, Kojima assured that there would be a balance in realism.At E3 2013, a fourth trailer was shown at the Microsoft press conference, demonstrating the new gameplay mechanics, as well as the cast of characters. The development of an Xbox One version was also announced at the conference. The PlayStation 4 version was announced the following day when Konami uploaded the red band version of the trailer on their YouTube channel in addition to the standard green band version.The trailers for Metal Gear Solid V showed the game running on a PC hardware, but according to Kojima with textures and character models somewhat based on seventh generation hardware. The developers aimed to improve the technical quality for the versions released for the eighth generation of consoles. Kojima alluded to the game possibly being "too big to clear", adding that the game is "200 [times larger] than Ground Zeroes". He spoke about the restrictive nature of previous Metal Gear Solid titles, saying that they "set [the player] on one rail to get from point A to point B, with a certain amount of freedom between". In stark contrast, The Phantom Pain offers players new ways of traversal and sneaking methods, such as taking a helicopter to the mission area. Players are able to traverse the game world or deploy directly to landing zones that allow for different approaches. A video published after the E3 2015 convention showcased this, with the same mission played four times in a number of different ways: with the player opting for stealth, launching a direct assault via helicopter gunship, attempting to assassinate a target with a sniper rifle, and smuggling an explosive device into an enemy base by way of an unsuspecting patrol vehicle crew. Weapons are unlicensed and fictional in The Phantom Pain, just as they were in Ground Zeroes. It was confirmed that players who have previously played Ground Zeroes are able to import save data into The Phantom Pain and gain special perks.Kojima wanted the player to connect with Snake in The Phantom Pain. To accomplish this, the loss of Mother Base, which the player developed throughout Peace Walker, would serve as motivation for revenge for both Snake and the player. Kojima also tried making Snake relatable to newcomers of the series by making him unaware of what happened in the nine years during which he was in a coma.At E3 2014, a fifth trailer featuring Mike Oldfield's song "Nuclear" was shown, unveiling more plot details surrounding the Diamond Dogs and Snake's antagonistic descent. It was leaked a day earlier, due to an accidental post from Konami's YouTube channel. Alongside the new trailer, the website for Metal Gear Solid V was updated and included new information and images such as the developmental progress of the in-game map and the evolution of Snake's design across all games in the series. On August 25, 2015, Kojima released a launch trailer showing "Metal Gear's Evolution and Harmony" with clips from the previous games along with the reveal of the new "Metal Gear Sahelanthropus".The first footage for The Phantom Pain's multiplayer was revealed in December 2014. While originally set for launch alongside the release of the game, Metal Gear Online was postponed to October 6 for consoles and January 2016 for Windows.During development, Kojima Productions and Konami attracted criticism for their decision to include microtransactions; a system that allows players to pay for access to content in the game. However, a spokesperson for Kojima Productions confirmed that the system was included to benefit players who may not have the time to complete the game, given its scale, and that no content would be available exclusively through microtransactions. Further controversy emerged following the publication of an article claiming that the Forward Operating Base mode was behind a paywall, which Konami refuted saying that microtransactions acted as an accelerator rather than a paywall.Over $80 million was spent on the development of the game. === Music === The music of The Phantom Pain was produced by Harry Gregson-Williams, making it his fourth Metal Gear title, and composed by Ludvig Forssell, Justin Burnett, and Daniel James. Also featured in The Phantom Pain are collectable music tapes the player can listen to in-game, with a mixture of licensed music from the era, and music from past Metal Gear titles. Metal Gear Solid V Original Soundtrack was released on September 2, 2015, containing 50 tracks selected from both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. Following this on December 23, 2015, was Metal Gear Solid V Extended Soundtrack, containing 114 tracks again selected from both Metal Gear Solid V games. Metal Gear Solid V Original Soundtrack The Lost Tapes was released on March 30, 2016, primarily consisting of tracks written by Ludvig Forssell for the in-game cassette tapes. The latter two releases also include music that went unused in the game, with Metal Gear Solid V Extended Soundtrack in particular containing two tracks from the cut "Mission 51: Kingdom of the Flies". The game's soundtrack later won the award for Best Score/Soundtrack at The Game Awards 2015. The event had Stefanie Joosten, Quiet's voice actress, on stage performing "Quiet's Theme". === Konami–Kojima dispute === In March 2015, Konami announced plans for a corporate restructuring that saw them part ways with Hideo Kojima and his development studio Kojima Productions. As part of the separation, Kojima's name was removed from the game cover, all of its associated paraphernalia and future releases of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection. A Konami spokesperson stated that Kojima would still be involved with Konami and the Metal Gear franchise, and despite the dispute, the company expressed confidence that the game would be declared Game of the Year.In July 2015, series composer Rika Muranaka told Fragged Nation in an interview that over 30 commissioned songs for the series were never used, with Muranaka believing that Kojima has a lack of business sense that played a part in his split from Konami. == Release == Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released in different editions. Special Day One editions of the game for each platform featured downloadable content (DLC) vouchers for special weapons and Metal Gear Online experience points. The North American Collector's Edition (which was available for PS4 and Xbox One) comes with a steelbook and a small-size replica of Snake's bionic arm; the Premium Package for the Japanese release (which was available for PS4, PS3, and Xbox One) features a full-size replica, which was also sold separately in May 2016. Sony released a PlayStation 4 bundle with the unit painted in the colors of the arm. The physical PC release of The Phantom Pain only includes a CD key and a disc with a Steam installer contained within. Game files are not included on-disc and must be downloaded.Tie-in products were released for the game. Sony Mobile Communications released special edition Walkman, Xperia Z4, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, and Xperia J Compact devices, each featuring Outer Heaven emblems, soundtrack audio, and wallpapers. Watch manufacturer Seiko released a digital watch, resembling Venom Snake's watch from the game. Eyeglasses maker JF Rey produced themed eyewear patterned after what Kaz and Ocelot are wearing in the game. Japanese toy company Sentinel, which previously made an iDroid casing for the iPhone 5 and 5S, produced a transformable figure of the Sahelanthropus, while Kotobukiya readied a 1/100 scale kit of the unit. Sports apparel company Puma joined the project through a line of sports jackets, T-shirts, and footwear, including Snake's sneaking boots.Square Enix's PlayArts Kai figure line featured several of the game's characters, while Kaiyodo produced Venom Snake and a Soviet Army soldier for the RevoMini figure category. A Japanese language novelization of The Phantom Pain was written by author Kenji Yano (under the pen name Hitori Nojima) and published by Kadokawa Shoten in bunkobon and e-book formats on October 25, 2015, following the author's two part novelization of the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty published the prior two months. An art book, titled The Art of Metal Gear Solid V, was published by Dark Horse Comics on November 2, 2016.A complete edition of the game, titled Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam on October 11 in North America, October 13 in Europe, and November 10 in Japan. The bundle includes the Ground Zeroes prologue and The Phantom Pain in one package, along with all previously released downloadable content for both games. === Removed content === Following the release of The Phantom Pain, buyers of the Collector's Edition found that the bonus disc included development details of an unreleased in-game mission, "Episode 51: Kingdom of the Flies", that took place after the end of the campaign. The story ending was criticized for feeling abrupt, and critics agreed that Episode 51 would have given the game a more satisfying conclusion, due to it resolving several plot threads. Others also felt it allowed certain characters further development that tied into their previous appearances in the series.Some critics found fault with The Phantom Pain's structure, particularly during its second half. The requirement that players replay past missions to progress resulted in theories that they had been used in place of original envisioned content that had not been incorporated due to time constraints. This assumption was supported by further evidence of removed content: shortly after the discovery of Episode 51, Facepunch forum users who had been extracting data from the game's PC version found evidence of another story chapter, titled "Chapter 3: Peace", that was not included in the final version. The game's producer Kenichiro Imaizumi refused to comment on fans' enquiries, while Metal Gear Solid community manager Robert Allen Peeler refuted the possibility of story downloadable content for The Phantom Pain. Some fans theorized a link between Chapter 3 and Konami's "Nuclear Disarmament Event", which was opened shortly after launch with the goal of revealing a secret in the game once all in-game nuclear weapons that had been manufactured by players were disposed of; a cutscene that would seemingly be released once the event had finished had been discovered by data miners some days after the game's release. Robert Allen Peeler did not deny that further events may occur once the disarmament had concluded, but stated that "the simplest answer is... the correct one, no need to overthink it." On February 2, 2018, the completion of the Nuclear Disarmament Event was triggered prematurely on the Steam version of the game, despite there being over 9000 player nukes in existence at the time, resulting in the release of the previously uncovered cutscene. After investigation, Konami announced that this was the result of a technical error owing to the game's servers being sent incorrect values. Similarly, the event would apparently go on to be achieved by players of the PlayStation 3 version of the game on July 27, 2020, although in October 2020 Konami clarified this had been the work of a cheater.Critics attributed the missing content to the disclosed tensions between Konami and Kojima during development; the general consensus was that Konami had given deadlines for the game's release, owing to Kojima's increasing spending on development. Data miners uncovered numerous other examples of content that had not been included in the game, ranging from gameplay features to audio files, although Jorge Jimenez of PC Gamer wrote it was possible that content had been cut for other expected reasons. Due to the perceived narrative flaws and evidence of removed story content, the game was labeled by critics as being unfinished. Conversely, GamesRadar+'s Dan Dawkins argued that what fans saw as being unfinished could have been deliberate on Kojima's part, and wrote that claims of the game being incomplete were neither right nor wrong. Speaking to IGN, Kojima stated that the new intellectual property he was developing since leaving Konami (later revealed as Death Stranding) would be "a complete game". After the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience in 2016, which would include all previously released downloadable content, several fans took this as an opportunity to voice their concerns via Twitter about the missing content that had been uncovered, particularly with regards to Episode 51. Konami responded that Episode 51 had been removed in the early development stages of the game as it had not been intended to be a pivotal ending to the story, and that there were no future plans to have the mission available to play. In 2021, PC Gamer's Jorge Jimenez and Collider's Ernesto Valenzuela expressed the desire for a director's cut of the game that would include the removed content, though feeling that the possibility of one would be very unlikely. == Reception == Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was praised for its varied gameplay mechanics, level of player freedom, open world design, visual fidelity, mature themes, and cast performances, though critics were divided on its narrative and certain changes to the series formula. Reviewers considered it to be one of the best Metal Gear games, and it has been cited as one of the greatest stealth games ever made. Rich Stanton of Eurogamer wrote that "every hand-polished element slots together into a head-spinningly ambitious structure and they combine into something you can only call visionary." IGN's Vince Ingenito felt they had never expected a game to exist "where every minute gameplay detail has true purpose", and Spencer Campbell of EGM described The Phantom Pain as "changing the idea of what can be accomplished with an open world game, both narratively and mechanically." GameSpot's Peter Brown wrote that there had never been a Metal Gear game "so consistent in tone, daring in subject matter, and so captivating in presentation [...] with such depth to its gameplay, or so much volume in content." The Phantom Pain was the twenty-third game—and the third in the Metal Gear series—to receive a perfect 40/40 review rating from Japanese magazine Famitsu.Critics lauded the gameplay systems and mechanics, controls, and open world design. GameSpot's Brown wrote that playing was an "engrossing and varied experience", calling the gameplay "near-impeccable" and discoverable scenarios "the third pillar" of the world design. Stanton of Eurogamer commended how the open world felt alive through "density and intimacy" over scale, making tasks like crossing a guarded bridge "thrilling". Writing for Time, Matt Peckham described the world as an "unparalleled tactical toybox", a sentiment echoed by other critics; Game Informer's Joe Juba likened each mission to a playground that encouraged players to experiment with tools. Destructoid's Chris Carter noted the "hundreds" of loadout variations to confront scenarios in "completely different ways". Some praised the artificial intelligence of enemies, and how their tactics changed to combat the player's favored playstyles. David Roberts of GamesRadar+ felt that the game's handling of its systems respected the player's intelligence during mistakes. Conversely, USgamer's Kat Bailey wrote that the game was sometimes too unforgiving in its room for error. Ingenito of IGN thought that, unlike other stealth games, deviating from stealth never felt like the "wrong" approach. The action set pieces were praised as "exhilarating" by PC Gamer's Jorge Jimenez, and "terrifying" for their consequences by Eurogamer's Stanton, though some voiced frustration at encounters with the Skulls. Campbell of EGM noted that attacks on the player's Forward Operating Bases could interrupt and distract from completing story missions. Time's Peckham found the requirements to unlock the fast travel system excessive.The narrative divided critics. EGM's Campbell praised it as "one of the strongest yet" in the Metal Gear series, writing he had never been as moved by entertainment as the game's final moments. Polygon's McWhertor described it as "captivating" but often "a bit messy". Brown of GameSpot was similarly captivated by the story and characters, and lauded the tonal consistency and handling of mature themes. Other critics echoed praise of the latter aspect; Eurogamer's Stanton commended how the theme of war was used to explore subject matter, contrasting with other game series "in thrall to the military". Conversely, IGN's Ingenito felt the subject matter was only acknowledged, while plot-related questions were answered in a "rushed and unsatisfying" way. Roberts of GamesRadar+ described the narrative as "a whole lot of nothing happen[ing] in between quick bursts of exposition", and criticized the game's handling of its villains. Jimenez of PC Gamer called the story "aimless" and the worst in the series, due in part for its "mostly dry" script and reliance on "boring" audio logs. Jason Schreier of Kotaku considered the story "damn unfulfilling", criticizing its pacing, dialogue, and characterization, and asserted the game was incomplete. Reviewers disapproved of the requirement that missions were replayed on higher difficulty settings to unlock the final missions; some felt that it added unnecessary padding to the most emotional section of the plot.Brown of GameSpot thought the voice acting alternately met and exceeded standards of film and television, making "extraordinary" characters seem believable. Ingenito of IGN praised the "workmanship" performances from the cast, while Eurogamer's Stanton commended the "leap in voice talent" over the game's predecessors. Kiefer Sutherland was praised for his performance as Venom Snake by critics, though some expressed bemusement at his minimal dialogue; Kotaku's Schreier and IGN's Ingenito wrote that Snake's silence during emotional cutscenes was "jarring", the latter feeling it went beyond "mere stoicism".PC Gamer's Jimenez found the ending twist that the player character is not Big Boss as "one perfect moment in a bad story". He felt that by removing the identity of Big Boss, the epilogue became "a perfect thematic match" for the game by reflecting the player's own gameplay experience. Carter of Destructoid wrote that the series had always "dabbled in the concept of "the legend" being stronger than the actual person", but was disappointed that the game's ending was not a remake of the original Metal Gear. Kotaku's Schreier and GamesRadar+'s Roberts commended a player-created avatar for Big Boss as "neat" and "purely and distinctly Metal Gear", respectively, but that the reveal raised questions under scrutiny; Schreier thought that experiencing a character arc that was not Big Boss' cheapened the rationale behind many of the plot events, and that the story failed to explain how Venom Snake and Big Boss would become villains. Roberts felt that the reveal lacked closure and caused the story to feel "hollow" because of the "slapped in" ending and repeated missions.Many noted changes to typical traits of the series. USgamer's Bailey felt it was the right approach that risks were taken to distance The Phantom Pain from the usual Metal Gear formula. Jimenez of PC Gamer described the boss fights as being "pretty dull" to previous installments, but appreciated the lack of an "overbearing mythos" in the story; Polygon's Michael McWhertor and Eurogamer's Stanton praised the shorter length of the cutscenes. Conversely, Ingenito of IGN felt they would have preferred "too many" cutscenes and emotional moments that they thought Guns of the Patriots had suffered from. Some criticized the choice to include story information in optional audio logs, noting it left certain plot points without necessary context. Others commented on the game's more serious tone; Roberts of GamesRadar+ wrote that the "brilliantly horrifying and bizarre-even-by-Metal-Gear-standards" prologue establishes an "equally harrowing plot". PC Gamer's Jimenez was disappointed in the tone and reduced humour, and that the story felt non-canonical as a result.Carter of Destructoid praised the power of the Fox Engine, calling the graphical rendering "beautiful" and the sound design "impeccable". Schreier of Kotaku lauded the game as being "exceptionally polished" and looking "phenomenal", praising Snake's character model and animations. USgamer's Bailey similarly wrote that D-Dog "exhibits almost Pixar-like levels of detail" in its movement and interactions. GameSpot's Brown and IGN's Ingenito described the cinematography as "top-notch" and "beautiful", respectively. Juba of Game Informer felt that the visuals were "great", though noted some occasional texture pop-in. Critics praised the game's performance as "smooth" in spite of its high graphical fidelity. === Portrayal of Quiet === Before the release of the game, the presentation of the female character Quiet became a topic of controversy concerning her appearance. Halo content producer David Ellis criticized her for being oversexualized and a negative affirmation of the stereotype of the game industry as "full of man babies". Kojima and Konami released Quiet figurines in May 2015 as part of the game's promotion. The figure's soft, pliable breasts were criticized by some in the West in social media and in the press. The finished game drew more criticism of Quiet's portrayal in both reviews and opinion pieces. GamesRadar+'s David Roberts described Quiet as "one of the most complex and conflicted characters in MGS5", but that her depiction was an example of a "juvenile approach to sexuality" that typifies Kojima's work and the Metal Gear series as a whole. Michael McWhertor of Polygon described the justification for Quiet's lack of clothing as "inextricably tied to the game's convoluted story", and criticized how the game similarly presented other female characters by "zeroing in on their jiggling breasts and panning across their asses in a silly, oversexualized way."On the other hand, GameZone's James Wynne felt that the game's story explanation was a valid enough reason for her scantily-clad appearance and succeeds in Kojima's aim to make Quiet "a true antithesis to sexy-just-because female characters." He wrote that "Fan service doesn't erase the fact that Quiet is a strong, well-written character that doesn't need a man to save her. That puts her on a level comparable to The Boss, who was the most impressive female character to ever grace a video game." IGN's Ingenito called Quiet the most interesting character in the game, writing that her "warm, childlike sincerity and battlefield ferocity cause her to steal every scene she's in." However, he felt disappointed that she was also "required to be a lust-object." === Sales === Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain shipped 3 million physical copies within its first five days of release, across all platforms. On its release date, the game grossed US$179 million, higher than the combined opening day box office of the films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World. The Phantom Pain debuted at number one on the United Kingdom charts. It became the third biggest video game launch of 2015 in the UK, behind Batman: Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Phantom Pain was the most successful launch for the series in the UK, beating the previous record holder, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, by 37 percent. The game sold 411,199 physical retail copies on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 within the first week of release in Japan, topping the Japanese software sales charts that week.In the United Kingdom, the game sold noticeably more on the PlayStation family of consoles than the Xbox. Excluding computer sales, The Phantom Pain moved approximately 72 percent of copies on PlayStation 4, roughly three times the amount sold on the Xbox One, which accounted for 22 percent of sales. three percent of sales were on PlayStation 3, and two percent on Xbox 360. By the end of September 2015, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain had shipped over five million copies worldwide, which had raised to over six million by December 2015. === Awards === Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was awarded Game of the Year from several publications, including PC Gamer, Game Revolution, GamesRadar+, and Entertainment Weekly. It also won the Critic's Choice award at the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards, and the awards for Best Action/Adventure and Best Score/Soundtrack at The Game Awards 2015. == Notes == == References == == Further reading == Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Strategy Guide, Gamer Guides, 2015 The Art of Metal Gear Solid V, Dark Horse Comics, 2016 Amy M. Green, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Trauma, and History in Metal Gear Solid V, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 == External links == Official website

PS4

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Role-playing

Final Fantasy XII is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The twelfth main installment of the Final Fantasy series, it was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open world; a seamless battle system; a controllable camera; a customizable "gambit" system, which lets the player control the artificial intelligence (AI) of characters in battle; a "license" system, which determines what abilities and equipment can be used by characters; and hunting side quests, which allows the player to find and defeat increasingly difficult monsters in the game's open world. Final Fantasy XII also includes elements from previous games in the series, such as Chocobos and Moogles. The game takes place in Ivalice, where the empires of Archadia and Rozarria are waging an endless war. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, is caught between the warring nations. When Dalmasca is annexed by Archadia, its princess, Ashe, creates a resistance movement. During the struggle, she meets Vaan, a young adventurer who dreams of becoming a sky pirate in command of an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies; together, they rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire. Final Fantasy XII was both a critical and commercial success, earning several Game of the Year awards and selling over six million copies on the PlayStation 2 by November 2009. In 2007, a sequel titled Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings was released for the Nintendo DS, and the same year, an expanded version of Final Fantasy XII, titled Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, was released on the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan. A high-definition remaster of the International Zodiac Job System version, The Zodiac Age, was released worldwide for PlayStation 4 in July 2017, for Microsoft Windows in February 2018, and for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in April 2019. == Gameplay == Throughout the game, the player directly controls the on-screen character from a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies. Unlike previous games in the series, the player can also control the camera with the right analog stick, allowing for a 360° view of the surroundings. While in towns and cities, the player may only see from the perspective of Vaan, but any character may be controlled in the field. The world of Final Fantasy XII is rendered to scale relative to the characters in it; instead of a caricature of the character roaming around miniature terrain, as found in the earlier Final Fantasy games, every area is represented proportionally. The player navigates the overworld on foot, Chocobo, or by airship. Players may save their game to a memory card using save crystals or gate crystals, and may use the latter to teleport between gate crystals. An in-game bestiary provides incidental information about the world of Final Fantasy XII.Final Fantasy XII restructures the system of earning gil, the currency of the Final Fantasy games; instead of gil, most enemies drop "loot" which can be sold at shops. This ties into a new battle mechanic which rewards the player with improved loot for slaying a particular type of enemy multiple times in a row. Selling different types of loot also unlocks a bazaar option in shops, which provides items at a lower cost, or items exclusive to the bazaar. === Battle system === Excluding the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XII is the first entry in the main Final Fantasy series not to include random encounters. Instead, enemies are visible in the overworld and the player may choose to fight or avoid them. Battles unfold in real time using the "Active Dimension Battle" (ADB) system. Battles begin when the party comes within range of an aggressive enemy, the party attacks an enemy, or a story event initiates a confrontation. When a character or enemy begins an action, target lines connect characters to other party members or enemies; different colors represent the different types of action. The player may swap to and issue commands to any of the three characters in the party, but guest characters are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). Battle commands are initiated through a series of menus, and include Attack, Magicks, Technicks, Mist, Gambits, and Items. The player may switch any active character with an inactive character at any time, unless the active character is targeted by an attack or ability. Characters who are knocked out may also be substituted. A new feature in Final Fantasy XII is the "gambit" system, which allows the player to program each character to perform certain commands in battle in response to specified conditions. Using gambits, the player may set reactions to different stimuli for each character. Each gambit consists of three parts: a target, an action, and a priority. The target specifies which ally or foe to act on and the condition for applying the action. For example, the target "Ally: HP < 70%" causes the character to target any ally whose hit points have fallen below 70%. The action is the command to be performed on the target. The priority determines which gambit to perform when multiple gambits are triggered. These heuristics guide the characters when acting autonomously, though player-directed commands are always given top priority.In Final Fantasy XII, a mysterious phenomenon known as "Mist" is the key energy which allows characters to cast summoning magic and perform "Quickenings". After defeating an Esper in combat, the player will be able to summon it to the battlefield. Similar to Final Fantasy X, the summoned creatures become active participants in battle, as opposed to the cinematic attacks seen in previous games in the series. Unlike Final Fantasy X, however, Espers follow hidden gambits, rather than the player's direct command. The summoner remains an active member in the fight, able to attack and cast support magic, instead of leaving the party or standing idle while the summoned creature fights. An Esper will leave the battle if either the summoner or itself is knocked out, its time limit expires, or it executes its special attack. Some Espers have origins in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and others are derived from the final bosses of previous Final Fantasy games such as Chaos, the final boss of the first Final Fantasy, and Zeromus, the final boss of Final Fantasy IV. Final Fantasy XII introduces "Quickenings", a new Limit Break system unique compared to those in previous games in the series. Characters learn Quickenings by progressing to specific panels on the License Board. Each character can learn three Quickenings, which are unique to that character. Characters may string together Quickenings into large combo attacks, called Mist Chains, via timed button presses. If a Mist Chain reaches a certain length, a final strike will be initiated at the end of the Quickening cycle, called a Concurrence. === Growth system === As in many role-playing games (RPGs), characters "level up" each time they earn a set number of experience points from defeating enemies; each level gained increases the character's statistics and improves performance in battle. Statistics include hit points, the amount of damage a character can receive; strength, the power of the character's physical attacks; and magic, the potency of the character's magical spells. In addition to leveling up, players may improve their characters via the License Board. The License Board is an array of panels that contain "licenses" which allow a character to perform certain actions. The board is split into two parts; the upper part comprises Magick, Technick, Accessory, and Augment (stat increases and other permanent buffs) licenses, and the bottom part comprises mostly Weapon and Armor licenses. To use a Magick, Technick, or piece of equipment, the character must obtain its corresponding license by spending the required amount of LP (License Points). LP are earned in battle along with the experience points. Like the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X, all characters may obtain all licenses on the board; however, each Quickening and Esper license may only be activated by a single character. == Plot == === Setting === Final Fantasy XII is set within the land of Ivalice during an age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magic-rich mineral, is commonly used in magic spells and in powering airships—a popular form of transportation in Ivalice. Ivalice is divided into three continents: Ordalia, Valendia, and Kerwon. Ordalia is located in the western part of Ivalice. The Rozarrian Empire makes its home in the vast inland plains of this continent as the eastern portion of it is largely desert and "jagd"—lawless regions so rich in Mist, the ethereal manifestation of magicite, that airships cannot function. Valendia is the home of Imperial Archadia, where lush highlands dot the landscape. Central to the story is Dalmasca, a small kingdom between the two continents and empires. Located in the middle of the Galtean Peninsula of Ordalia, Dalmasca is surrounded by an expanse of desert. The temperate climate of Dalmasca differs from the cold environs of Kerwon to the south and the lush plains of Valendia and Ordalia. During this time, Ivalice is beset by the pending war between the forces of Rozarria and Archadia. Caught between the two powerful Empires, Dalmasca and a number of smaller nations have already been subjugated by Archadia two years before the game begins. === Characters === The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy XII are Vaan (Bobby Edner/Kensho Ono), an energetic orphan of Rabanastre who dreams of becoming a sky pirate; Ashe (Kari Wahlgren/Mie Sonozaki), a determined princess of Dalmasca who lost her father and her husband in the Archadian invasion; Basch (Keith Ferguson/Rikiya Koyama), a disgraced knight of Dalmasca charged with treason for slaying the king; Balthier (Gideon Emery/Hiroaki Hirata), a gentlemanly sky pirate who pilots his airship, the Strahl; Fran (Nicole Fantl/Rika Fukami), Balthier's partner and a Viera exile whose knowledge extends to legends and myths; and Penelo (Catherine Taber/Marina Kozawa), Vaan's childhood friend who accompanies him on journeys to "keep an eye on him".The Archadian Empire is ruled by House Solidor, headed by Emperor Gramis (Roger L. Jackson/Hidekatsu Shibata). The emperor's sons are Vayne (Elijah Alexander/Nobuo Tobita) and Larsa (Johnny McKeown/Yuka Imai), the former a military genius and the game's main antagonist, and the latter a charismatic seeker of peace. Judge Magisters, upholders of Archadian law, protect House Solidor and execute every command issued by the ruling family. The technological marvels of airships and synthetic nethicite—a form of magicite that absorbs Mist—are thanks to Doctor Cid (John Rafter Lee/Chikao Ōtsuka), a prominent researcher from Archadia. The Resistance against Archadia includes Dalmascan knight Vossler (Nolan North/Masaki Terasoma), an ally of Basch; Marquis Halim Ondore IV (Tom Kane/Akio Nojima), the game's narrator and ruler of the skycity Bhujerba; Reddas (Phil LaMarr/Takayuki Sugo), a sky pirate based in the port at Balfonheim; and the Rozarrian Empire, of which Al-Cid Margrace (David Rasner/Norio Wakamoto) is a prince of the ruling family. The mythos of Final Fantasy XII revolves around a character known as Dynast-King Raithwall, a man who once united Ivalice to create the Galtean Alliance in ages past. === Story === In Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre, Princess Ashelia (Ashe) of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia have just wed, as the Archadian Empire invades the two countries. Rasler is killed in the war, the city of Nabudis is destroyed in a single explosion, and the Dalmascan King Raminas is assassinated moments after signing a treaty of surrender. Marquis Ondore announces that the assassin was Dalmascan captain Basch, who has been sentenced to death, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide.Two years later, Vaan, a Rabanastre street urchin, ignores his friend Penelo's objections and infiltrates the palace during a dinner celebrating the appointment of Archadian prince Vayne Solidor as consul. In the treasury he finds a piece of magicite, a powerful magical crystal. He is discovered by Balthier and Fran, a pair of sky pirates looking for the magicite. The three escape as Dalmascan Resistance forces assault the palace, and in the sewers they meet the Resistance leader, Amalia, before being captured by Archadian forces. In the dungeons they meet Basch, who was imprisoned but not killed, and who states his twin brother Gabranth was the one to kill the king. The four then escape together back to Rabanastre. There they discover Penelo has been kidnapped and taken to the floating city of Bhujerba. In Bhujerba, they meet Lamont, a curious boy who is Vayne's younger brother, Larsa, in disguise. After they rescue Penelo, Basch confronts the Marquis over his lies, but the party is captured and detained aboard the Archadian airship Leviathan, headed by Judge Ghis. On the Leviathan, the party is reunited with Amalia, who is revealed to be Princess Ashe. Ghis takes the magicite, which is revealed to be a royal Dalmascan artifact, "deifacted nethicite". The party escapes, but as Ashe had planned to use the magicite as proof that she was the princess, the group journeys to collect another of the pieces of nethicite, the Dawn Shard. They are again captured by Ghis; when he tries to use the Dawn Shard in the Leviathan rather than the "manufacted" (artificially made) magicite it normally uses, his entire airship fleet is destroyed in a mirror of the destruction of Nabudis, and the party flees again. They encounter Larsa, who seeks a peace treaty between Dalmasca and the empire. The group and Larsa go to Mt. Bur-Omisace to seek the Gran Kiltias Anastasis, Ivalice's religious leader, and beg his approval of Ashe as queen of Dalmasca. There they also meet Al-Cid Margrace, who is in talks with Larsa to avert a war between Rozarria and Archadia. Their plans are curtailed when Anastasis is killed by Archadia, and soon afterwards the Archadian emperor Gramis dies and Vayne ascends the throne.The party journeys to Archadia, where they discover Doctor Cid, the creator of manufacted magicite, who directs them to go to Giruvegan to find the source of nethicite. In Giruvegan, Ashe encounters the makers of nethicite, the immortal Occuria, who "pull the strings of history"; they give her the Treaty Blade to cut new pieces from the Sun-cryst, the source of all nethicite and its power. She learns that Venat, one of the Occuria, has defected to put the "reins of History back in the hands of Man", manipulating Vayne in his quest to conquer Ivalice and leading Cid to create manufacted magicite to reduce the relative power of the Occuria.Ashe and the party journey to the Sun-cryst, where she decides not to take her revenge by following the Occuria's wishes, but instead destroy the Sun-cryst. The party defeats Gabranth, who reveals that he killed King Raminas, and destroys the crystal. Al-Cid tells them that the Dalmascan Resistance, led by Ondore, is about to fight Archadia in Rabanastre, but the Archadian forces now include the Sky Fortress Bahamut. They infiltrate the Bahamut, and find Larsa failing to dissuade his brother Vayne from his plans for war. They defeat Vayne and Venat, and Ashe and Larsa announce the end of the conflict to the battlefield. Larsa becomes the Archadian emperor and Ashe the Queen of Dalmasca; Basch replaces his brother Gabranth as Larsa's protector; Vaan and Penelo fly an airship to meet Balthier and Fran for another adventure. == Development == Development for Final Fantasy XII began in December 2000 and was headed by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno and Final Fantasy IX director Hiroyuki Ito. Matsuno provided the original concept and plot but was forced to bow out a year before release due to health concerns. The team was restructured as a consequence: the new directorial duo consisted of Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa, while Akitoshi Kawazu of SaGa series fame became the game's executive producer. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was disappointed by Matsuno's departure and declined to play the game beyond its introduction.The desire to move away from random encounters was present since the beginning of development. This desire fueled the development of the Active Dimension Battle system so players could seamlessly move from battle to exploration. The gambit system was conceived early on as a way to facilitate this change. Battle system designer Hiroshi Tomomatsu said that it gradually moved away from a complex and rigid formula to the more flexible form seen in the final version of the game. Ito drew inspiration for gambits from plays in American football where each team member has a specific job to do based on the conditions and desired outcome. As for the license system, he explained that needing "licenses" to perform certain actions was a natural extension of the rigid structured society of Archadia, as epitomized by its Judges.At the early stages of development, Minagawa revealed that numerous ideas and features were planned for the game, but were dropped from the final stages due to certain constraints and hardware limitations. Some of these included the ability for a second player to join in the gameplay, enabling a two-player mode. Another idea that was given a considerable amount of thought was the ability to recruit non-player characters to join in the mob hunts. Due to the technical limitations of the console and multiple number of characters joining the fray, the development phase took longer than expected, causing delays.Design inspiration came from a mix of medieval Mediterranean countries as demonstrated by the architectural styles found throughout Ivalice along with many of the races populating the region. The art team, led by art directors Hideo Minaba and Isamu Kamikokuryō, visited Turkey, which influenced the game's Mediterranean-style setting. The developers also used styles and deco from other sources including areas in India and New York City. Of note is the use of Sanskrit in the city of Bhujerba. Phrases such as "svagatam" (welcome) and titles like "parijanah" (guide) are lifted directly from Sanskrit. Minaba mentions that the team tried to bring out Arabic culture in the design of the game. War is a prominent theme of the game and the developers stated that the cutscene battles are influenced by Ancient Rome. When asked to comment on the fan observation of Star Wars similarities, Minaba replied that although he was a fan of the series, it was not necessarily an influence to the game's designs. It has also been noted that the similarities originate from The Hidden Fortress, the 1958 Akira Kurosawa film that inspired Star Wars.Basch was initially meant to be the main protagonist of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo. The team's previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist, had been unsuccessful and unpopular; as a result, Final Fantasy XII was changed from focusing on a "big and tough" protagonist to a more youthful one. For a time, Vaan was even more feminine than he was in the final game, but with the casting of Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive". Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments. The designers stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game, which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.Miwa Shoda wrote a storyline for the game premised on the basis of the cutscenes and world setting that had already been finished when she joined the team. Scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe in turn fleshed out Shoda's plot into a script. During the English localization process, Alexander O. Smith, who had previously worked on Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy X, acted as producer and translator. While still preserving the meaning behind the Japanese script, Smith made the decision to use different dialects of English to reproduce the regional differences in pronunciation found in the Japanese version. He also tried to distance the game from the "flat reads" found in other dubbed work by casting voice actors who had experience in theatre work. In terms of general changes, the localization team introduced widescreen 16:9 ratio support and reinserted scenes that were left out of the original Japanese version for political reasons and to preserve an "All Ages" CERO rating.On November 15, 2005, a playable demo of the game was shipped with the North American release of Dragon Quest VIII. To commemorate the release of Final Fantasy XII, playable demos of the English version were available at DigitalLife's Gaming Pavilion in New York City on October 11, 2006, a day dubbed "Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day". Additionally, Square Enix gave fans the chance to cosplay as characters from Final Fantasy XII. Each person was asked to show Square Enix three photos of his or her costume for a chance to win a trip to New York and participate in the Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day event.Final Fantasy XII once held the Guinness World Record for longest development period in a video game production, with a total of five years, spanning from 2001 until its release in 2006. At a Final Fantasy XII "postmortem" at MIT in March 2009, Hiroshi Minagawa mentioned that several years of production were devoted to the creation of custom tools used for the development of the game. It was also listed as 8th on the Guinness top 50 games of all time in 2009. === Music === Hitoshi Sakimoto composed and arranged most of the game's soundtrack, with Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata creating seven and two tracks respectively. Nobuo Uematsu, following his departure from Square Enix in 2004, only contributed the ending song, "Kiss Me Good-Bye". Sakimoto experienced difficulty following in Uematsu's footsteps, but he decided to create a unique soundtrack in his own way. "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was performed in both English and Japanese by Angela Aki. Aki's style of playing the keyboard while singing reminded Uematsu of his childhood idol, Elton John, which was one of the reasons he chose her. The English version of the song was featured in both the Japanese and North American versions of the game. In addition to the theme song, violinist Taro Hakase co-composed, arranged, and performed the game's ending credits theme, Symphonic Poem "Hope", along with Yuji Toriyama.Two promotional soundtracks were released before the original soundtrack, Symphonic Poem "Hope" and The Best of the Final Fantasy XII Soundtrack, on March 1 and 15, 2006, respectively. The former contains all the music used in the game's trailer performed by Taro Hakase, including Symphonic Poem "Hope". The original soundtrack itself was released in Japan on May 31, 2006. It consists of 4 CDs with 100 tracks, and includes promotional tracks not in the final version of the game. The CD single for "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was released on the March 15, 2006. A limited edition was also released, featuring a DVD containing the music video for "Kiss Me Good-Bye". Tofu Records has released an abridged version of the original soundtrack, which contains 31 songs, including "Kiss Me Good-Bye". == Merchandise == On March 16, 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan released a special Final Fantasy XII package, which contained a PlayStation 2 game system, the Final Fantasy XII game, a standard DualShock controller, and a vertical console stand. The Japanese third-party manufacturer Hori also released Final Fantasy XII memory cards on the day of the game's release; stickers of Final Fantasy XII characters are included. Game peripheral maker Logicool (Logitech's Japanese branch) released a special edition Final Fantasy XII controller on the same day. Suntory produced "Final Fantasy XII Potion"—a drink containing such ingredients as royal jelly, chamomile, sage, thyme, and marjoram. The drinks became commercially available in Japan on March 7, 2006. Suntory also released a Final Fantasy XII Premium Box, which came with a Final Fantasy XII collector's card. The Potion was a limited edition product and is no longer available. Final Fantasy XII was also adapted into a manga by Gin Amou. Square Enix published the series in a total of five tankōbon volumes from December 22, 2006 to August 22, 2009.Studio BentStuff published three Ultimania books: Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania and the Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania on June 16, 2006, and Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Ω on November 24, 2006. The Battle Ultimania provides a description and analysis of the new battle system and its components, and developer interviews. The Scenario Ultimania describes the main scenarios in the game, profiles on the characters and areas in Ivalice, developer interviews, and details on each location. The last guide, the Ultimania Ω, includes voice actor interviews, the complete story of Final Fantasy XII including additional character profiles, a collection of artworks and illustrations, the complete play guide, and a novella written by Benny Matsuyama, author of Hoshi wo Meguru Otome from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω Guide. Another Ultimania edition, the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania, was released on September 6, 2007, as a guide book for the International Zodiac version of the game. On December 18, 2012 the game was re-released as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package.For the North American release, a "Collector's Edition" was available through GameStop and EB Games. This edition includes the original game packaged in a metallic case along with a special bonus disc, which contains Final Fantasy XII developer interviews, an art gallery, U.S. and Japanese trailers, and a featurette, "History of Final Fantasy", which gives a brief overview of Final Fantasy games. On January 26, 2007, Square Enix Product Blog revealed full-color Gabranth, Ashe, Balthier, and Vaan figures.In 2007, Balthier was featured in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions as a playable character. == Reception == Final Fantasy XII received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was the sixth game to receive a perfect score from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. It is also the second Yasumi Matsuno game to garner a perfect score, the first being Vagrant Story. The game was praised for its graphics, scenarios, game system, and the freshness it brought to the Final Fantasy series. It was praised for its seamless transitions between full motion video segments and the in-game engine, and was voted number one for Best Art Style on IGN's weekly Top Ten. Newtype USA named Final Fantasy XII its "Game of the Month" for November 2006, praised the gameplay, graphics, and story, and called it "the best RPG to have been released for any Sony platform".Although GameSpot lauded the gambit and license systems as an innovative and in-depth way for the player to control the characters, it criticized them for being too complicated and difficult to adjust to, especially for newer players of the series. The reviewer also criticized the sometimes tedious back and forth travel. On the other hand, GameSpot took particular note of the "excellent" voice cast. IGN praised the game's rich storyline and artistic direction, shown through its "sheer depth of character". It also assuaged criticism that the gambit system would "let the game play itself", countering that gambits do not function without a player. However, IGN wrote that while "still extremely strong", Final Fantasy XII has one of the series' weaker soundtracks.Executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased by Famitsu's rating but admitted that he thought the game was not perfect; he felt that the storyline did not meet some fans' expectations. Kawazu expressed his frustration and regrets regarding the storyline, citing creative differences between the PlayOnline and Final Fantasy Tactics members of the development team.Final Fantasy XII was named best PlayStation 2 game and best RPG by numerous video game journals and websites, including GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN. Both Edge and Famitsu awarded it Game of the Year 2006. The Japan Game Awards 2006 honored Final Fantasy XII with their "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" and the PlayStation Awards 2006 bestowed the "Double Platinum Prize". It was selected for the list "Top 100 New Japanese Styles", a list of "products and services originating in Japan to serve as a mark of excellence". Final Fantasy XII also received nominations in such categories as best RPG, story, art direction, character design and original musical score at the Interactive Achievement Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, BAFTA Video Games Awards, Spike Video Game Awards, and the Satellite Awards. === Sales === Final Fantasy XII sold more than 1,764,000 copies in its first week in Japan, almost equaling the sales of Final Fantasy X in its first week. A Square Enix conference report stated that Final Fantasy XII sold more than 2.38 million copies in Japan in the two weeks since its March 16, 2006 release. In North America, Final Fantasy XII shipped approximately 1.5 million copies in its first week. It was the fourth best-selling PlayStation 2 game of 2006 worldwide. As of March 2007, the game had shipped over 5.2 million copies worldwide. By November 2009, over 6 million copies of the game were sold worldwide on PlayStation 2. As of October 2017, The PlayStation 4 remaster shipped over one million copies worldwide. == Sequels and rereleases == === International Zodiac Job System === An expanded version of the game, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, was released in Japan on August 10, 2007. It includes twelve license boards (instead of the original game's one), each corresponding to a different Zodiac sign and job. The player can control guest characters and summons, and hold L1 to double the game's running speed. There is also a "New Game+" option, a "New Game- (minus)" option (in which characters do not gain experience), and a "Trial Mode" in which the player hunts monsters in 100 different maps to gain items and money. The game also includes the western version's English voices and widescreen 16:9 support, and a bonus DVD. === Revenant Wings === A sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2007. It takes place one year after the events of Final Fantasy XII and follows the adventures of Vaan. The game is one of four in the Ivalice Alliance series, which also includes International Zodiac Job System. === Fortress === Fortress, a spin-off action game developed by Grin, was to have been a spin-off game that took place following the events of Revenant Wings. Square Enix cancelled the project after six months of development. === The Zodiac Age === In July 2017, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, a high-definition remaster of the Japanese-only International Zodiac Job System for the PlayStation 4. It adds trophy support, a remastered soundtrack with a few new tracks, and improved technical performance. The Zodiac Age was nominated for "Best Remake/Remaster" at IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, and won "Best Remaster" at Game Informer's Best of 2017 Awards and 2017 RPG of the Year Awards. The remaster also received favorable reviews. The Zodiac Age was largely developed by Virtuos, who previously developed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for Square Enix.A version for Windows was released via Steam on February 1, 2018. The port included support for higher display resolutions and 60 frames-per-second rendering, options to switch between three different versions of the soundtrack, and immediate access to the post-game modes. Versions for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One were released on April 30, 2019. == Legacy == The gambit system inspired similar systems used in other games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Pillars of Eternity II. Final Fantasy XIV also used the gambit system as a base for its "Trust System", a mechanic that pairs online players with story characters controlled by artificial intelligence. The game also incorporated several regions and characters from Final Fantasy XII into its game world, alongside other games from the Ivalice universe with Yasumi Matsuno as a guest creator. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the translation director of Final Fantasy XIV indicated in an interview that the team have a lot of people who worked on Final Fantasy XII and "is one of the games they wanted to borrow heavily from because they thought it was really cool, and they really liked the imagery and lore that it had". Astria Ascending used its job system seen in later re-releases as a source of inspiration for its gameplay system. The Diofield Chronicles used the game as one source of inspiration for its controls and player movement. The localization of Final Fantasy XII was praised as a high point of the series and video games as a whole. Lead localizers Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder went on to collaborate again on Tactics Ogre: Wheel of Fortune, the remake of a previous Yasumi Matsuno game, with its localization also receiving high praise. Producers of The Zodiac Age stated they were considering another game set in the Ivalice universe, adding that earlier projects faded away due to original development members working on other games. == Further reading == Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive. Vol. 3. Milwaukie: Dark Horse Comics. 2019. ISBN 978-15-0670-801-0. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

PS4

Kingdom Hearts III

Action role-playing

Kingdom Hearts II is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Buena Vista Games for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to Kingdom Hearts, and like the original game, combines characters and settings from Disney films with those of Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. An expanded re-release of the game featuring new and additional content, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, was released exclusively in Japan in March 2007. The Final Mix version of the game was later remastered in high definition and released globally as a part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix collection for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch. Kingdom Hearts II is the third game in the Kingdom Hearts series. It picks up one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Sora, the protagonist of the first two games, returns to search for his lost friends while battling the sinister Organization XIII, a group of antagonists previously introduced in Chain of Memories. Like the previous games, Kingdom Hearts II features a large cast of characters from Disney and Square Enix properties. Concepts for Kingdom Hearts II began during the end of development of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, with the game entering full development in 2003 and being announced at Tokyo Game Show 2003. Most of the first game's development team returned, including director Tetsuya Nomura, with the game being developed concurrently with Chain of Memories. In developing Kingdom Hearts II, the development team sought to address user feedback from the first game, give the player more freedom and options in combat and present a deeper and more mature plot.The game received critical acclaim, as it earned several awards upon release, receiving critical praise for its story, gameplay, characters, graphical improvements, and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. In both Japan and North America, it shipped more than one million copies within weeks of its release, with over four million worldwide by April 2007. == Gameplay == The gameplay of Kingdom Hearts II is similar to the action RPG and hack and slash gameplay of the first Kingdom Hearts game, though developers made an effort to address some of the complaints of no map and camera bugs with the previous game. The player directly controls Sora from a third-person camera angle, though first-person perspective is available via Select button. Most of the gameplay occurs on interconnected field maps where battles take place. The game is driven by a linear progression from one story event to the next, usually told via cutscenes, though there are numerous side-quests available that provide bonuses to characters. Like many traditional role-playing video games, Kingdom Hearts II features an experience point system which determines character development. As enemies are defeated, the player and allies culminate experience to "level up", in which the playable characters grow stronger and gain access to new abilities.Combat in Kingdom Hearts II is in real-time and involves heavy hack and slash elements with button presses which initiate attacks by the on-screen character. A role-playing game menu on the screen's bottom left, similar to those found in Final Fantasy games, provides other combat options such as using magic or items, summoning beings to assist in battle, or executing combination attacks with other party members. A new feature is the "Reaction Command", special enemy-specific attacks that are triggered when the player presses the triangle button at the correct time during battle. Reaction Commands can be used to defeat regular enemies or avoid damage, and are sometimes necessary to complete a boss battle. In addition to the main character, two party members are usually present who also participate in combat. Although these characters are computer-controlled, the player is allowed to customize their behavior to a certain extent through the menu screen, such as attacking the same enemy Sora targets. In response to criticism, the "Gummi Ship" feature of the first game was re-imagined to be "more enjoyable". Although retaining its basic purpose of travel, the system was completely redone to resemble a combination of rail shooter and "Disney theme park ride". In the world map, the player must now control the Gummi Ship from a top-down view and fly to the world the player wishes to enter. Worlds are no longer open from the beginning—the player must unlock the routes to them by entering a new level, controlling the ship from a third-person point of view, and battling enemy ships. After the route is opened, travel to the world is unimpeded, unless it is blocked again due to a plot-related event. The player may also gain new Gummi Ships from completing routes, which is also a new feature from the first game. === Drive Gauge === One of the new features is a meter known as the "Drive Gauge". The Drive Gauge has dual functions: to transform Sora into a "Drive Form" or to summon a special character. While in a Drive Form, Sora bonds with party members to become more powerful and acquire different attributes; all but two Forms also allow the use of two Keyblades. When a Drive is executed, Sora's combat statistics are heightened. Drive Forms also give Sora new abilities that can be used in normal form, called "Growth Abilities." Sora's first two Drive Forms only combine power with one party member; later-obtained Drive Forms require him to bond with both party members. When allies are used in a Drive, they are temporarily removed from battle for its duration. Unlike the HP and MP gauges, the Drive Gauge is not refilled at save points.Like in the first game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle. Summons will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows, or until Sora's HP runs out. Instead of being limited to only one action, Summons now have a menu of their own and are capable of performing solo or cooperative actions with Sora. These actions are performed by pressing the triangle button. The Summon ability and each Drive Form are leveled up separately and by different criteria; obtaining higher levels allows for extended use and in the case of Drive Forms, access to new abilities. == Plot == === Setting === Kingdom Hearts II begins one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories. The game's setting is a collection of various levels (referred to in-game as "worlds") that the player progresses through. As in the first game, the player can travel to various Disney-based locales, along with original worlds specifically created for the series. While Disney-based worlds were primarily derived from the Disney animated features canon in the first game, Kingdom Hearts II introduces worlds that are based on live-action franchise Pirates of the Caribbean as well. Each world varies in appearance and setting, depending on the Disney film on which it is based. The graphics of the world and characters are meant to resemble the artwork style of the environments and characters from their respective Disney films. Each world is disconnected from the others and exists separately; with few exceptions, players travel from one world to another via a Gummi Ship. Some worlds featured in the previous games reappear, but with new and expanded areas. There are also new worlds that are introduced, including the Land of Dragons (based on Mulan), Beast's Castle (Beauty and the Beast), Timeless River (Steamboat Willie), Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Pride Lands (The Lion King), and Space Paranoids (Tron). Twilight Town, an original world first seen in Chain of Memories, has a greater role as the introductory world. The World That Never Was is a new world that serves as the headquarters of Organization XIII. === Characters === The three protagonists of the game are Sora, a 15-year-old boy chosen as a wielder of the Keyblade, a mystical key-shaped weapon that can combat darkness; Donald Duck, the court magician of Disney Castle; and Goofy, the captain of the Disney Castle guards. Both Donald and Goofy are under orders from their missing king, Mickey Mouse, to accompany Sora and his Keyblade. Other original characters include Riku, who is briefly playable at the game's climax, and Kairi, Sora's friends from his home world of Destiny Islands; Roxas, a boy who can also wield the Keyblade and is playable in the game's beginning sequence; Naminé, a girl with the power to manipulate memories; and DiZ, a man in red robes with a vendetta against Organization XIII, who is later revealed to be Ansem the Wise, the mentor of Xehanort. As in the previous games, there are numerous appearances of characters from both Disney and Square Enix works. While some make a return from Kingdom Hearts, new characters from Disney fiction are also introduced, such as Scar from The Lion King and Scrooge McDuck. Pete appears as a persistent enemy who works with the resurrected Maleficent. Nearly twenty characters from Final Fantasy games appear, notably Auron of Final Fantasy X, Tifa from Final Fantasy VII, and the return of Squall Leonhart, Cloud, and Sephiroth. It was stated that although the first game strictly stuck to characters Tetsuya Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks", implying that characters not directly designed by Nomura might make an appearance. Other new characters to series are Vivi of Final Fantasy IX, Seifer Almasy of Final Fantasy VIII and Setzer of Final Fantasy VI. The various worlds that Sora explores often have an optional party character from the film on which the world is based. Such party members include Fa Mulan, the woman who passes as a man in order to take her ailing father's place in the army; Jack Sparrow, a pirate who seeks to reclaim his ship, the Black Pearl; Simba, the self-exiled lion who is the rightful king of the Pride Land; and Tron, a security program in Hollow Bastion's computer network who seeks to end the dictatorship of the Master Control Program.Organization XIII, a group of powerful Nobodies—the "empty shells" left over when a strong-hearted person becomes a Heartless—introduced in Chain of Memories, is established as the primary group of antagonists early on. Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, serves as the main antagonist and final boss of the game. Villains unique to the worlds are still prevalent, and are often presented as challenges that Sora's group must overcome. === Story === Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been in suspended animation for the past year to regain their lost memories. Roxas, Sora's Nobody, is trapped in a virtual simulation of Twilight Town created by DiZ to merge him with his original self to restore Sora's power. DiZ's plans are threatened when Nobodies led by Axel, Roxas's former friend in Organization XIII, infiltrate the virtual town to extract Roxas. However, Roxas is able to repel the Nobodies and finally merge with Sora. Sora, Donald, and Goofy awaken in the real Twilight Town and meet King Mickey and Yen Sid, who send them on another journey; their goal is to find Riku and uncover the Organization's plans. Afterward, Maleficent is resurrected and joins with Pete to continue her quest for power.Sora travels to familiar and unfamiliar worlds, where he resolves several problems caused by Organization XIII, the Heartless, and various local villains. During a visit to Hollow Bastion, they reunite with Mickey, who explains that the Heartless "Ansem" they defeated is an imposter named Xehanort, whose Nobody, Xemnas, is the Organization's leader. The Organization also reveal that they seek the power of Kingdom Hearts, creating one from the hearts Sora has released from the Heartless with his Keyblade, to regain their lost hearts; in addition, Sora discovers that the Organization is holding Kairi hostage to force him to comply. Sora revisits the worlds to solve lingering problems and new complications while seeking a path to Organization XIII's base of operations in the World That Never Was. Throughout his endeavors, Sora is secretly aided by a hooded figure whom Sora believes to be Riku.Following a lead, Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter a passageway to the World That Never Was through Twilight Town, where Axel sacrifices himself to give them safe passage. Sora finds Kairi and Riku, the latter of whose appearance has been changed to that of Xehanort's Heartless after using his power to capture Roxas. Mickey encounters DiZ, who reveals himself to be the true Ansem, Xehanort's mentor. Ansem uses a device that dissipates some of Kingdom Hearts' power, but a system overload causes the device to self-destruct, both engulfing Ansem and miraculously returning Riku to his original form. Atop of the Castle That Never Was, Sora and company battle Xemnas, who uses what remains of Kingdom Hearts to fight them. After Sora and Riku destroy Xemnas, the two become trapped in the realm of darkness, where they discover a portal to the realm of light in a bottled letter sent by Kairi, allowing them to return to the Destiny Islands and reunite with their friends. In a post-credits scene, Sora, Kairi, and Riku receive and read a letter from Mickey, the contents of which are hidden from the player. == Development == Development plans for Kingdom Hearts II began around the completion of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, but specific details were undecided until July 2003. Nomura noted several obstacles to clear before development could begin on a sequel. One such obstacle was the development team's desire to showcase Mickey Mouse more, which required Disney's approval. The game was developed by Square Enix's Product Development Division-1, with most of the original staff from the first game. The game was originally supposed to have been released after Kingdom Hearts. Nomura had planned for the sequel to take place a year after the first and originally intended for the events of that year to be left unexplained. To bridge the gap between the two games, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was developed. To explain the loss of all the abilities from the first game at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, Nomura had Sora's memories scrambled in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Many aspects of the gameplay were reworked for this sequel. Some changes were made due to user feedback and others were meant to be included in previous games but were omitted either because of time or technological constraints. The camera was switched to the right analog stick of the DualShock controller instead of the shoulder buttons and the Gummi Ship travel was reworked. The combat system was completely redone and did not use any animations from the first game. Because Sora had matured, Nomura wanted his fighting style to reflect that. Other changes included more integration between exploration and battles. The variations in combat styles associated with each Drive Form and the introduction of the Reaction Command were added to give players more choices in battles. The inclusion of worlds based on live-action Disney films was aided by technology that generated the character models from live-action pictures. === Audio === ==== Musical score ==== Like the first game, Kingdom Hearts II features music by Yoko Shimomura and Hikaru Utada. The Original Soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts II was composed by Shimomura and released on January 25, 2006. The opening orchestration and ending credits theme were arranged and orchestrated by Kaoru Wada and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The main vocal theme for the original Japanese release was "Passion", written and performed by Utada. The English version of "Passion", "Sanctuary", was used in the Western releases. Utada's involvement was announced on July 29, 2005. According to Nomura, the vocal theme ties in even more closely with the game's story than "Hikari" ("Simple and Clean") did with Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The CD single for "Passion" was released on December 14, 2005 and "Sanctuary" was first previewed on MTV's official website in early 2006. ==== Voice cast ==== Kingdom Hearts II features well-known voice actors for both the Japanese and English versions. Many of the original voice actors from the first Kingdom Hearts reprised their roles; Miyu Irino and Haley Joel Osment as Sora, Mamoru Miyano and David Gallagher as Riku, and Risa Uchida and Hayden Panettiere as Kairi. New voice actors included Kōki Uchiyama and Jesse McCartney as Roxas, Iku Nakahara and Brittany Snow as Naminé, and Genzō Wakayama and Christopher Lee as DiZ. A special effort was made to preserve the official voice actors from the Disney movies used in Kingdom Hearts II. Many actors reprised their Disney roles for the game, including Ming-Na Wen as Mulan, James Woods as Hades, Bruce Boxleitner as Tron, Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington and Zach Braff as Chicken Little. Some voice actors from the related television series or direct-to-video sequels were chosen over original voice actors where applicable, such as Robert Costanzo as Philoctetes rather than Danny DeVito or Cam Clarke as Simba instead of Matthew Broderick. Some characters were given new voice actors in the English version; Ansem, Aerith, Leon, Sephiroth and Hercules, who were originally voiced by Billy Zane, Mandy Moore, David Boreanaz, Lance Bass, and Sean Astin respectively in the first game, were voiced by Richard Epcar, Mena Suvari, Doug Erholtz, George Newbern, and Tate Donovan (Hercules' original voice actor), and newcomer Tifa was voiced by Rachael Leigh Cook. === Content editing === Besides English translation and localization, the international version of Kingdom Hearts II differs from the original Japanese version in the content of gameplay and several scenes. The Hydra boss in the Hercules-themed world Olympus Coliseum had its green blood from the original Japanese version (which was taken from the film) changed into black and purple smoke in the English version. In one cutscene, Hercules fights the Hydra and uses his sword on its head, which eventually releases green blood from its mouth in the Japanese version; this was later changed into drool in the English version. There is also a scene in Disney Castle where, after chasing Donald around for missing a date, Daisy Duck pounds him on the backside in the Japanese version, whereas she merely tells him off inaudibly in the English version. Xigbar's telescopic sight was changed from a crosshair and black shading around the sides to three glowing circles. An attack animation was also altered; in the Japanese version, Xigbar combines his two hand-held guns to create a sniper rifle, which is used to shoot the player's party during the telescoping sight sequence. In the English version, Xigbar does not combine his guns, but twirls them around and shoots at Sora with a single gun. The death of Organization XIII member Axel was slightly edited; in the original, he bursts into flames during his suicide attack, while in the English version he simply fades away after using up all of his power. Port Royal, based on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, contains the most content edits. Cutscenes were edited to remove some of the violence, such as William Turner threatening to commit suicide while aiming a gun at his neck, as in the film. Unlike the Japanese version, the undead pirates do not catch fire when affected by Fire magic, and their muskets were modified to resemble crossbows, though the crossbows still fire with an audible musket shot sound effect. === Promotion === An unlockable trailer in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix hinted at the possibility of a sequel. Rumors for a sequel on the PlayStation 2 were spurred in Japan when the video game website Quiter stated that "an internal (and anonymous source) at Square Japan" confirmed that development of Kingdom Hearts II had begun. It was not until Kingdom Hearts II was announced, along with Chain of Memories, at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2003 that rumors were confirmed. Initial details were that it would take place some time after Chain of Memories, which takes place directly after the first game. Other details included the return of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, as well as new costumes. Information about Mickey Mouse's involvement was kept to a minimum.At the 2004 Square Enix E3 Press conference, producer Shinji Hashimoto said that many mysteries of the first game would be answered. Square Enix launched the official Japanese website in May 2005, followed by the English website in December 2005. The websites featured videos and information regarding characters and worlds. Commercials were aired in Japan which highlighted the numerous Disney characters in the game. Although the game was announced in September 2003, a release date for the game was not set until two years later. Nomura admitted that the game was announced too early and information regarding the game was not released until a debut period was in sight. == Release == Within a week of its Japanese release, Kingdom Hearts II shipped one million copies, selling almost 730,000 copies. The NPD Group reported that Kingdom Hearts II was the highest-selling console game in North America during March 2006 with 614,000 copies. In the month after its release in North America, Kingdom Hearts II sold an estimated one million copies. GameStop listed the game as their best-selling title for the first quarter of 2006. The game was also on IGN's "Top 10 Sellers in 2006". By December 2006, over 3.5 million copies of Kingdom Hearts II had been shipped worldwide with 700,000 in PAL regions, 1.1 million in Japan, and 1.7 million in North America. By March 31, 2007, Square Enix had shipped over 4 million units worldwide. == Reception == Kingdom Hearts II received critical acclaim upon release, garnering positive reviews. The game received numerous awards and high ratings among reviews including a Satellite Award in 2006 for "Outstanding Game Based on Existing Medium". It tied with Resident Evil 4 as Famitsu's "Game of the Year" 2005. Famitsu's readers ranked the game 29th on their "All Time Top 100" feature, ten places below Kingdom Hearts. It was ranked number one on IGN's 2006 "Reader's Choice" for PlayStation 2 games. Eurogamer ranked it 34th on their "Top 50 Games of 2006" list. Video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded it "Best Sequel" of 2006, and Game Informer listed it among the "Top 50 games of 2006". VideoGamer.com featured it 10th in their article "Top 10: Role playing games". GamePro named it the 25th best RPG title of all time. Kingdom Hearts II also received a near-perfect score, 39/40, from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.Critics commended many aspects of the game. GameSpy praised the quality of the voice acting and cited the graphics as "on par with the best of Square's productions to date." They also commented on the realistic and accurate character models for the characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. IGN rated the graphics a 9/10 and stated that the "worlds look very much like their filmed counterparts." Japanese gaming site Gpara.com also praised the look of the worlds. G4 awarded Kingdom Hearts II "Best Voice Over" and "Best Soundtrack" in their 2006 G-Phoria awards show.Like its predecessors, the gameplay received mixed reviews. Many compliments were directed at the new camera controls and combat interactions between party members. GamePro stated that the beginning was "sluggishly slow", but praised the action-oriented combat. GameSpot said that the fixed camera system and new gameplay dynamics improved the experience, but they felt the game was far too easy and that there was too much button-mashing. IGN also commented on the button-mashing aspect of the gameplay and criticized the party member's artificial intelligence, citing it as "absolutely terrible", but praised the story, presentation, and new battle features. Gpara.com had positive comments about the ease of combo attacks and complimented the steady pacing of the story and gameplay.The game was ranked the 16th greatest console video game of all time in a 2021 Japanese poll conducted by TV Asahi which surveyed over 50,000 respondents. == Versions and merchandise == Kingdom Hearts II has been released in four different versions. The first three are the normal regional releases in Japan, North America, and PAL regions, which only differ nominally in content editing and localization. The European and Australian PAL releases were reformatted to run at 50 Hz to fit the definition size of PAL encoding systems. The fourth version has additional content and was released under the title Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. Like the previous titles, both Square and Disney released numerous types of merchandise before and after the game came out. Merchandise ranged from toys and figurines to clothing items and books. The game has also been adapted into both manga and novel series. Prior to the game's release, an Ultimania book titled Kingdom Hearts Series Ultimania α ~Introduction of Kingdom Hearts II~ came out. It provides extended information on the first two Kingdom Hearts games, as well as information on the unreleased Kingdom Hearts II. After the release of the game, Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania, which focuses on the game itself, came out. Another book, titled Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ Ultimania, was released after the Final Mix version came out. Released along with Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts -Another Report- was a hardback book which includes game information, visuals by Shiro Amano, and a director interview. In North America, BradyGames published two strategy guides—a standard guide and a limited edition version. The latter version was available in four different covers and included a copy of Jiminy's Journal along with 400 stickers. === Final Mix === Because the first game was re-released, there was speculation whether Tetsuya Nomura would do the same with Kingdom Hearts II. In a Weekly Shōnen Jump interview with Nomura, he expressed interest in a possible international version of Kingdom Hearts II, although there were no definite plans. He said that should a "Final Mix" version arise, he had a "trump card" in mind, with such features as the Mushroom Heartless found in the first Kingdom Hearts game. In September 2006, Square Enix announced Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, featuring new scenes and gameplay elements. Like the first re-release, this version would combine English audio with Japanese text and also use the "Sanctuary" theme song instead of "Passion". New cutscenes, however, used Japanese voice acting, as they mostly featured Organization XIII members from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories who did not yet have English voice actors; these scenes were later re-dubbed into English for the HD 2.5 Remix release. Kingdom Hearts II was re-released in Japan on March 29, 2007 as a 2-disc set titled Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+. The first disc contains Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix with a new secret movie and additional battles and items. The second disc contains Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, a 3D PlayStation 2 remake of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories with extra scenes and voice acting. The battle system maintains the card gameplay, with the addition of Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II. Like the first game's Final Mix, the two games serve as a canonical update to the series. The book Kingdom Hearts -Another Report- was included along with the game for those who reserved a copy. Based on Amazon.com figures, Final Mix+ was the number one PlayStation 2 game in sales during the week of its release in Japan. Nomura cited the presence of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories to explain why Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ was so popular. Nevertheless, in a Famitsu poll in July 2011, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix was voted the most popular entry so far.It was released for the first time outside Japan as part of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix. === Printed adaptations === A manga series based on the game started its serialization in the June 2006 issue of the magazine Monthly Shōnen Gangan, published by Square Enix. The artist is Shiro Amano, who also did the Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories manga series. The first volume was released in Japan in December 2006. As a result of Amano working in the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days manga, the series has been on hiatus and resumed publication in October 2012. Tokyopop licensed the manga and released volume one in North America on July 3, 2007. The second volume was released the following year. The game has also been novelized by Tomoco Kanemaki and illustrated by Shiro Amano. The first volume, titled "Roxas—Seven Days", was released on April 22, 2006 and covers Roxas' story to when Sora wakes up and leaves Twilight Town. The novel depicts extra scenes that were added in the Final Mix version, such as interaction between Organization XIII members and between Axel, Naminé and Riku. The second book, "The Destruction of Hollow Bastion", was released on July 16, 2006, the third book, "Tears of Nobody," revolving around Roxas' past, was released on September 29, 2006, and the fourth book, "Anthem—Meet Again/Axel Last Stand," came out in February 2007. === HD 2.5 Remix === In the credits of HD 1.5 Remix, clips of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix were shown, hinting at its inclusion in another collection. On October 14, 2013, Square Enix announced Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix, a second compilation exclusively for the PlayStation 3 after HD 1.5 Remix, that includes both Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix in HD and trophy support. Additionally, the collection includes HD cinematic scenes from Kingdom Hearts Re:coded and was released in Japan on October 2, 2014, North America on December 2, 2014, Australia on December 4, 2014, and Europe on December 5, 2014. == See also == List of Disney video games == Notes == == References == Citations == External links == Kingdom Hearts II official website (in Japanese) Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ official website (in Japanese) Kingdom Hearts II at IMDb

PS4

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Kart racing

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a 2017 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo and released for the Nintendo Switch. The game is an expanded and enhanced re-release of the 2014 game Mario Kart 8. Deluxe follows the same gameplay as Mario Kart 8 and the rest of the Mario Kart series, where players race in go-karts while trying to sabotage each other with items. Players can control one of several characters from the Mario franchise and other Nintendo franchises, with several additional characters being added in Deluxe. The game also introduces a revamped battle mode, featuring five sub-modes and eight battle courses. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was first teased in October 2016 during the Nintendo Switch reveal trailer, and was fully revealed during the Nintendo Switch Presentation in January 2017. Deluxe released on April 28, 2017, and was both a critical and commercial success. Critics widely considered it to be the definitive edition of Mario Kart 8, and some considered it the best game in the Mario Kart series or one of the best racing games of all time, while some criticized the lack of significant new content compared to the original. As of September 2022, Deluxe has sold over 48 million units, making it the best-selling Nintendo Switch game and one of the best-selling games of all time. Since launch, Deluxe has received several software updates. One such update edited a gesture performed by the Inkling Girl that was likened to the bras d'honneur, which is considered offensive in certain areas and cultures. Additional updates introduced compatibility with the toys-to-life concept Nintendo Labo. In February 2022, Deluxe was announced to be receiving paid downloadable content known as the Booster Course Pass, which features 48 additional race courses split into six waves, set to be released by the end of 2023. == Gameplay == Like previous entries in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a kart racing game that sees players controlling characters from the Mario franchise racing in locations inspired by the Mario universe while trying to sabotage other players with items. Also similar to previous Mario Kart games, players can choose to play competitive free-for-all or team-based multiplayer. Up to four players can play together on a single system, up to eight can play together with a local wireless connection, and up to twelve can play together via online multiplayer.Deluxe includes all downloadable content (DLC) released for Mario Kart 8, including characters, courses, and vehicle components. Unlike Mario Kart 8, all characters and courses in Deluxe are accessible from the start, without needing to be unlocked. In total Deluxe includes 42 characters with several new characters—including Bowser Jr., Dry Bones, King Boo, and the Inklings from Splatoon, one of multiple crossover elements in Deluxe. Several vehicle customization options are also included in Deluxe, including kart and bike bodies, wheels, and gliders—when combined with a character's weight class, the customization options determine a player's stats. 48 race courses are present in the base version of Deluxe, though the game will have 96 courses after all waves of the Booster Course Pass DLC release. Returning from Mario Kart 8 are courses that make use of anti-gravity, which allows players to drive on walls and other surfaces, as well as the underwater driving and air gliding features from Mario Kart 7. In the Booster Course Pass, some courses have layouts that differ between laps, condensing multiple variations of a course into one. Races can be played in one of four speed classes, with each speed class being considerably faster than the last. Deluxe also includes "Mirror Mode", which flips course layouts by 90 degrees. Players can also participate in Time Trials, which see the player compete a course as fast as possible, and the ability to participate in Time Trials in an additional speed class was added in Deluxe. Deluxe includes several changes to gameplay. In Deluxe, players can hold the drift button for longer to receive a larger boost—in Mario Kart 8, this could only be done using glitches. Players can also hold up to two items, with the second item held in reserve. Deluxe reintroduces two items from previous entries in the series: the Boo, which steals an item from another player and grants temporary invisibility when used; and the Feather, a battle mode-exclusive item that allows the player to gain a small boost in height when activated. Several accessibility features were also added in Deluxe to assist newer players. One of which is Start Steering, which prevents the player from veering off course when enabled, and the other is auto-acceleration, which accelerates the user's vehicle without the need for a button to be held. The largest addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the revamped battle mode. Deluxe includes eight battle mode-exclusive courses, three of which are adapted from previous Mario Kart games. These battle mode courses are designed specificsally for the mode, rather than repurposing standard race courses like Mario Kart 8. In Deluxe, battle mode is composed of five unique sub-modes: Balloon Battle sees players using items to destroy other players' balloons, though unlike the mode's previous incarnations, the mode is point-based rather than last-man-standing, meaning the winner is the person who destroys the most balloons during the time limit, with players respawning when defeated, rather than being permanently eliminated. Bob-omb Blast is a variation of Balloon Battle, though all items are replaced by Bob-ombs. In Shine Thief, players must maintain control of a Shine Sprite for as long as possible, while preventing opponents from gaining control. Each player—or team, depending on the settings—has an amount of time that they need to be in control of the Spine Sprite in order to win. Coin Runners sees players compete to have the most coins in their possession by the end of the match, with players gaining points by finding coins in the courses or stealing them from other players. Renegade Roundup, a mode introduced in Deluxe, involves a team of "renegades" trying to avoid opponent "authorities" armed with Piranha Plants, a play on the children's game "cops and robbers". Captured renegades can be freed if their teamates activate a switch near in person in which the captured renegades are held, though if all renegades are captured, the authorities emerge victorious. However, the authorities will lose if all renegades have not been captured by the end of the time limit. == Marketing and release == On October 20, 2016, in the initial reveal trailer for the Nintendo Switch, a brief glimpse of a Mario Kart game for the system was shown, though it was unclear at the time whether it would be a new entry in the series or a port of Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. Three months later, at the Nintendo Switch Presentation on January 12, 2017, the game was formally revealed as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It was announced that Deluxe would feature all content—including DLC—from Mario Kart 8, as well as a revamped battle mode, crossover elements from Splatoon, new mechanics, and a release date of April 28, 2017. One day after, Nintendo revealed a steering wheel accessory for the Switch's Joy-Con controllers to be used with Deluxe for motion-controlled steering. Nintendo released an overview trailer for Deluxe on March 10, showcasing the game's battle mode, including battle mode-exclusive courses and the return of the Shine Thief mode from Mario Kart: Double Dash. After the trailer, several internet memes circulated surrounding Donkey Kong appearing to perform a celebratory dab.On April 12, 2017, Nintendo's Russian storefront revealed a bundle containing the Nintendo Switch and a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, though a representative of Nintendo claimed the company had no plans at the time to release the bundle outside of Russia. Once the bundle was introduced to international audiences in 2018, it has been promoted every year since for Black Friday. === Fan response === Several mods have been created for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In February 2022, a mod was created that added Kirby's Mouthful Mode car transformation (colloquially known as "Carby") from Kirby and the Forgotten Land as a selectable kart and character. In June 2022, a mod was published that added Green Hill Zone from the Sonic the Hedgehog series as a course. === Sales === Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 459,000 copies in the United States on its launch day, making it the fastest-selling entry in the Mario Kart series, ahead of 2008's Mario Kart Wii by 25,000 units. Roughly one year after launch, Deluxe had sold 9.22 million copies. It surpassed Super Mario Odyssey as the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch in 2019, and Mario Kart Wii as the best-selling Mario Kart game in 2021. Since its release in 2017, Deluxe has been a consistent top-selling game on the Nintendo Switch. As of September 30, 2022, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 48.41 million units, making it the best-selling Nintendo Switch game, as well as one of the best-selling games of all time. == Updates and downloadable content == On May 18, 2017, Nintendo released a software update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe that changed one of the victory gestures done by the Inkling Girl. Prior to the update, the Inkling Girl performed a gesture that consisted of placing her hand on a flexed bicep and pumping her fist into the air. In Japan, the gesture means something similar to "bring it on!", though in European and Latin American countries, it was likened to the bras d'honneur, an offensive gesture that can be interpreted as "up your ass", "fuck you", or similar meanings. After the update, the Inkling Girl no longer clenches her fist around her flexed arm, instead simply performing a "fist pump", though the rest of the gesture was unchanged.On June 25, 2018, an update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe added compatibility with Nintendo Labo, a toys-to-life concept that utilizes cardboard and the technology of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. The first update introduced the option to use the Toy-Con Motorbike as a controller in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, allowing the player to control the game using the physical throttle, handlebars, and gyroscope present on the Toy-Con Motorbike, while actions like braking, drifting, and item pickups are still performed using the standard controller buttons. On August 24, 2018, it was announced that the Toy-Con Car, Pedal, and Key would become compatible with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when they launched on September 14. Using the Toy-Con Car, Pedal, and Key allow the player to control their character using physical controls—including actions like braking and drifting, as well as use the horn on the steering wheel to launch items.On July 20, 2018, an update was released that added several elements from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—including the motorbike from the game's The Champion's Ballad DLC, as well as an outfit for Link in which he wears the Champion's Tunic from Breath of the Wild. === Booster Course Pass === During a February 2022 Nintendo Direct, it was announced that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would get a paid downloadable content season pass called the Booster Course Pass. Courses in the Booster Course Pass are largely remastered from their incarnations in previous Mario Kart games. The Booster Course Pass is set to release in six waves, with each wave containing eight courses split into two cups, totaling to 48 additional tracks to be released by the end of 2023. The first wave of the Booster Course Pass was released on March 22, 2022, containing the Golden Dash Cup and the Lucky Cat Cup. Wave 2 of the Booster Course Pass released on August 4, 2022, containing the Turnip Cup and the Propeller Cup. Wave 2 also included Sky-High Sundae, an original course not introduced in a previous Mario Kart game. Alongside the release of Wave 2, Nintendo released an update to the Wave 1 course Coconut Mall that changed the cars at the end of the course to move in donuts, rather than remain stationary, except for Time Trials. This change was widely praised, especially after many were disappointed that the cars were stationary in the Booster Course Pass to begin with. Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass is set to release on December 7, 2022, containing the Rock Cup and the Moon Cup. == Reception == === Critical reception === Mario Kart 8 Deluxe received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregate website Metacritic. Many reviewers considered it to be the definitive version of Mario Kart 8, as well as one of the best games in the Mario Kart series or one of the best racing games of all time. Some reviewers also consiered the game to be an essential purchase for Nintendo Switch owners. However, many reviewers criticized the lack of new content in Deluxe compared to Mario Kart 8.The core racing mode present in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was praised. The rubber-banding mechanics present in the game's AI competitors was criticized, though Game Informer noted that "fans accepted that pitfall as a series mainstay long ago", and that Deluxe is still "the same great title from the Wii U". GameSpot and Nintendo Life also considered Deluxe's core gameplay to be as strong as the original. GamesTM's reviewer disliked the return of sponsored crossovers, despite otherwise appreciating the return of all content in Deluxe. The mechanical changes in Deluxe also received praise. The ability to hold two items in Deluxe was praised, with many liking how it added more strategy to Deluxe's item play, as well as making gameplay more exciting. Kotaku and Eurogamer both appreciated the change, though they felt that the change wasn't major. Accessibility options like Smart Steering and Auto-Acceleration were also praised. Many felt that the additions made Deluxe the most accessible Mario Kart game, and others appreciated how they helped less experienced players enjoy the game, despite making the game too easy for veteran players. However, some reviewers disliked how Smart Steering was enabled by default upon first launching the game. Other reviewers disliked the accessbility mechanics' implementation, saying that they would sometimes overcorrect, or otherwise lack precise control.Deluxe's revamped battle mode received wide acclaim. Easy Allies and Kotaku claimed that the new battle mode far outshined the original game, and Pocket Gamer said that Deluxe returned battle mode to its "original arena-battling glory". GamesRadar+ found that the quality present in Deluxe's battle courses "ranges from solid to excellent", with VentureBeat saying that they remedied the issue with the original Mario Kart 8's battle courses. However, Electronic Gaming Monthly said that the improved battle mode was "not so much a point for Deluxe that these modes are included as it is a retroactive demerit for the original Mario Kart 8". Many critics considered Renegade Roundup to be the best of Deluxe's battle modes, though GameRevolution and USgamer said it was their least favorite of the battle modes.Reception towards Deluxe's single-player and online multiplayer offerings was mixed. 4Players said that those playing alone or online "should think twice" about buying the game, calling the game's single-player options "unimaginative", and Nintendo World Report felt that Deluxe was lacking an important element. IGN called Deluxe's online multiplayer "as barebones as ever", though Kotaku felt that it was "as solid as its ever been".The graphics and soundtrack of the game was praised by critics. Many described the game's graphics were 'gorgeous' or 'beautiful', with some saying that the graphics of Deluxe were an upgrade from the Wii U original. GamesTM praised the "incredible" lighting of Deluxe, saying that courses like Rainbow Road and Electrodrome stood out as "fantastic showcases for the Nintendo universe and its creative spirit", as well as praising the game's sound design. IGN felt that the "great art direction" in 8 and 8 Deluxe was largely responsible for the game's graphical quality, and PCMag described the game's performance as "consistently solid", aside from the lowered framerate when playing in four-player split screen. Easy Allies called Deluxe's soundtrack "something special", saying that its renditions of both original and returning songs were "fantastic and downright catchy". Eurogamer called the game's soundtrack "outrageously upbeat", and that Deluxe's "definining moment" was perhaps the game's live band rendition of Super Mario Kart's main theme. ==== Booster Course Pass ==== Upon announcement, the Booster Course Pass received mixed reception from fans. Many fans disliked that additional content for a previous game was being prioritized over a new entry in the series, citing how it had been nearly eight years since Mario Kart 8 first released on the Wii U. The graphics of the courses in the Booster Course Pass were also a point of contention, with some saying that they fell short of the standards set by Deluxe.After release, critics were mixed—according to Metacritic, Wave 1 received "mixed or average reviews", and Wave 2 received "generally favorable reviews". Criticism focused on the graphics, which were lower in detail compared to courses from the main game. Digital Foundry attributed this to the courses being built upon their versions from Mario Kart Tour. On the other hand, many reviewers felt that the courses that originated in Tour were among the best gameplay-wise, and Ninja Hideaway in particular was praised as a highlight of Wave 1. Some courses in Wave 2 were lauded, with Nintendo Life calling Waluigi Pinball's graphics "stunning". Another common disappointment was that many courses did not include Mario Kart 8's signature anti-gravity or underwater features. GameSpot lamented how the Booster Course Pass only introduced new courses, rather than new characters or customization parts. Nintendo Life praised the audio design, calling it "stellar" and "a delight", and Destructoid called Sydney Sprint's soundtrack "the best" music of the Booster Course Pass. The addition of courses that vary every lap was praised by critics, with Nintendo Life wishing it would become a "mainstay" feature of the series. === Accolades === Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been nominated for multiple awards. The game was nominated for "Best Switch Game" and "Best Remake/Remaster" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. Destructoid nominated the game for its "Best Switch Game" in their Game of the Year Awards in 2017, and the game was awarded "Old Game of the Year" at Giant Bomb's 2017 Game of the Year Awards. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Social simulation

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a 2020 social simulation game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch; it is the fifth main entry in the Animal Crossing series. In New Horizons, the player controls a character who moves to a deserted island after purchasing a getaway package from Tom Nook, accomplishes assigned tasks, and develops the island as they choose. They can gather and craft items, customize the island, and develop it into a community of anthropomorphic animals. New Horizons began its development in 2012. The game director, Aya Kyogoku, retained old content from previous games to keep fans happy and also ensured that the game was simple enough to appeal to newcomers. With art and graphics, the developers used the concept of "trigger of play" and the "imagination gap", where the former kept the gameplay simplistic and easy to pick up while the latter kept the art style simple for the player to imagine the rest. The game was announced at E3 2019 via a Nintendo Direct and after an extended development period, released worldwide March 20, 2020. New Horizons received acclaim from critics, who praised its gameplay and customization options and called it the best game in the Animal Crossing series. The game was nominated for over a dozen awards and was a contender for Game of the Year. It was a major commercial success, selling over 40 million copies worldwide and breaking the console game record for most digital units sold in a single month. It is the best-selling game in the Animal Crossing series, the second best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, the best-selling game of all time in Japan, and the 16th best-selling video game in history. Its commercial success has been attributed in part to its release amid global stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game has been used as a substitute for social interactions such as weddings and graduation ceremonies, as well as political campaigning and virtual protests. The game also inspired fan creations, such as a trading website, a talk show, and other comics and merchandise. It also received major updates adding new content until November 5, 2021. == Gameplay == As in previous Animal Crossing games, New Horizons is a life simulation game played in real time. Weather also adjusts to the seasons of the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, depending on the player's real-world location, a first for the Animal Crossing series. The game follows a villager customized by the player, who, after purchasing a getaway package from Tom Nook, moves into a deserted island. After Tom Nook gives the player essentials, such as a tent, the game proceeds in a non-linear fashion, allowing for the player to play the game as they choose. The player is given open access to natural resources such as fruit and wood, which can be collected and crafted into a variety of items and furniture known as D.I.Y. crafting. Alongside this, they can catch bugs and fish, plant and grow trees and flowers, extract natural resources such as rocks, and swim in the ocean. The island gives open space for placing items and decorating as the player chooses. Certain content available, such as organisms, are season-dependant and only appear for a limited time of the year. Doing simple tasks rewards the player with "Nook Miles", which in return can purchase premium rewards in Resident Services. The other currency "Bells", a staple in the Animal Crossing franchise, can be used to purchase other goods and services. Another feature offered early on is the "Dodo Airlines", an airport; through Dodo Airlines, and tickets purchased through Nook Miles, the player can visit other vacant islands to harvest resources, and meet other villagers. The player can invite other villagers they meet to their island if they choose.The player starts with two other random anthropomorphic villagers that also purchase the getaway package; these villagers will live alongside the player and can be interacted with, building relationships. When the player has made sufficient progress in the game, Tom Nook gives more freedom of expanding as a village. Other shopowners will visit and settle on the island; museum-owner Blathers, who will display fish, bugs, sea creatures, fossils, and art captured by the player; sisters Mabel and Sable, who sell clothing and other player-created accessories; and Timmy and Tommy, who run a store that specializes in selling furniture and other quality-of-life items, eventually expanding to sell more items per day. Eventually, the main area will expand to a Town Hall, run by Tom Nook with the help of Isabelle; other buildings and villagers will populate the community, and old tents and shops will grow into a more permanent structure that can still be moved if the player chooses. From there, the island will be given a star rating out of five, usually starting off at a one-star rating. As the island is further developed, the island's star rating will increase. When a three-star rating is achieved, K.K. Slider, a popular musician, will visit and perform a concert at the island, marking the "end" of the game as the credits roll. However, more options for island customization are given to the player for further community growth, such as the ability to construct and destroy cliffs, bodies of water and paths, colloquially referred to as terraforming.The game supports one island per Switch system. Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports both local and online co-op gameplay, with up to four players locally and eight players online able to occupy an island at any given time, an option available through the Dodo Airlines. The game supports amiibo cards and figures from the Animal Crossing series, which can be used to invite a villager to the island temporarily that can be convinced to join the island. Nintendo Switch Online cloud saving was added during a late July 2020 update, allowing users to recover game data if their Switch is broken or lost. Additional free content was added every few months, added on every update by downloading the latest update from Nintendo, but major updates ceased with the release of the version 2.0 update on November 3, 2021. === Updates === Since the game depends on seasonal changes, New Horizons receives frequent updates, adding new seasonal items, events, and sometimes new gameplay features. Most updates are loosely based around national holidays, with the first update being themed around "Bunny Day" in April 2020 and based on Easter. Other seasonal updates followed, being "Nature Day" (Earth Day), May Day, Halloween, "Turkey Day" (Thanksgiving), and "Toy Day" (Christmas). Other popular seasonal events, such as summer, also came with new items. Each respective update also featured popular characters from past Animal Crossing games. With each update, the island changed in look, and the player's island is often decorated for the occasion. Alongside seasonal changes, Nintendo has also released themed items from other popular media, such as Mario outfits and decor in celebration of the franchise's 35th anniversary.In an October 2021 New Horizons-focused Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced the version 2.0 update would be released the following month and would be the final major free content update for the game. The update added returning characters Kapp'n and Brewster, both bringing new activities and locations to the game, as well as the ability to fund permanent locations for the game's random visiting vendors. Alongside other quality-of-life improvements, it also included new purchasable items, such as furniture and music, new villagers, and the ability to cook food via farmed crops. Announced alongside the update was paid downloadable content, entitled Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise; similar to the 2015 spinoff Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, the expansion allows players to visit a distant island and design vacation homes for villagers, and adds new customization options that can also be used on players' personal islands once learned. The version 2.0 update released on November 3, 2021, and the Happy Home Paradise add-on released on November 5, 2021. == Development == Development of a new main series Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo Switch was confirmed in a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2018, with an unspecified 2019 release date. Although the game was announced in 2018, game director Aya Kyogoku confirmed that the game had begun development in 2012, shortly after the original release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan; she stated how concepts for the game were forming long before ideas for the Nintendo Switch had even existed. Hisashi Nogami and Katsuya Eguchi reprised their roles as the game's producers.Nintendo released the game's title and first trailer at its E3 2019 Nintendo Direct on June 11, 2019. The game was delayed until March 20, 2020, with Yoshiaki Koizumi stating that in order "to ensure [that] the game [was] the best it [could] be, [Nintendo had to] ask that [players] wait a little longer than [Nintendo itself] thought." Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser cited a desire to avoid crunch and maintain a healthy work–life balance for Nintendo employees as the primary reason for the delay. Nintendo's stock market value posted a 3.5% loss in reaction to the delay, amounting to a total loss in value of more than US$1 billion.Kyogoku stated that the success of the Animal Crossing series was due to the fact that the developers make each game different enough from the last, to bring appeal to newcomers yet keep the core concept for returning players. Kyogoku and Nogami stated that they selected a deserted island as the game's setting to differentiate it from previous Animal Crossing games, which are set in established villages, and to allow greater freedom to customize the game's world. Additionally, a deserted island took away established parameters in the series to allow for different ideas and player interactions. Other concepts, such as the internet and multiplayer, were able to be implemented, unlike previous games due to advancing hardware. Kyogoku made sure to keep balance of introducing new and fresh ideas while retaining core elements to satisfy long-term fans of the series.The developers were very disappointed when the game's release cycle overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to quarantine during the pandemic, Kyogoku hoped that the game would be an "escape" for fans at the time. They emphasized a global release to allow for international connections between the players. === Game mechanics and concepts === The developers made sure to make the game not only welcoming new players but to also retain core concepts from the previous games to keep older fans of the series happy. A crafting system was implemented to allow the player to keep the player from running out of things to do after the in-game stores close. She mentioned how the D.I.Y. crafting system would keep players in theme with the game by interacting and using the natural environment to their advantage. Kyogoku took note of players who began playing Animal Crossing games via mobile apps, such as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, by implementing the Nook Miles feature which would show the player what kinds of activities and concepts they can achieve by rewarding them to do so. The Nook Miles system also rewards the player for doing common tasks and collecting materials that would sell for cheap to keep the player from only tediously searching out expensive materials. Furniture and clothing accessibility and customization were emphasized for multiplayer so players could show pride in their islands.Additionally, the developers noticed that players would repeatedly restart games in the previous series over and over, in hopes to get an island shape that they want. Because of this, landscaping was implemented to allow for easy shaping of the island. Another issue they noticed was "time-traveling"; due to the game running in real-time, players would change the clock on the console to put themselves further into the future so they don't have to wait in real-time. To help avoid this, they made sure landscaping and crafting did not have any wait-time restrictions. They also tied seasonal events to updates instead of implementing the content into the game from the beginning so players could not skip ahead and retrieve exclusive items. The interest rate in the game's bank system was also decreased to lower the incentive of time-traveling. Although the developers intended no time-traveling to be the ideal way of playing, they did not shun the concept entirely. === Art and graphics === The game's art director, Koji Takahashi, went under the philosophy of "trigger of play". The concept makes sure there is something within the player's field of vision or grasp that would want them to explore the concept. With this, the island was designed from a 45-degree angle similar to that of a cylinder, or a "curved" perspective, where the player could view other content occurring in the background that would "trigger" them to investigate further or interact. By making an everyday concept simple and easy to grasp, it would cause the player to explore it further and be able to easily pick up the new material. If the game's art was complicated and realistic, according to Takahashi, the player would possibly receive too much information and make progression difficult. The simple design allowed for a multiple of one object to be stacked close to each other, such as flowers, or allow for simplistic objects to compliment others.By leaving empty space and with a simplistic design, with simple graphics and little nature complexity, Takahashi explains how it would have the player attempt to fill in that gap with their own perspectives and ideas, called the "imagination gap", and further motivation to create their own designs and space with the features available. In the game, the grass is designed to look like that of a checkerboard. Although this concept was in prior titles due to a lack of hardware complexity, the concept remained because it could be used as a form of expression for the player and allow them to conceptualize ideas with the "imagination gap".Art designer Hiromi Sugimoto made sure furniture would lead to motivation and hard work, and thus make the player want to connect with others to show off their achievements. He made sure the furniture could be customized by the player to ensure the difference between islands that would motivate visiting others and seeing unique ideas. Each furniture model was designed to have a "likeness" to it which would show exactly what to expect and what the player envisions; the pieces of furniture and items implemented various portions on how players view an object to look like and combine the commons ideas into one model. From there, using the "imagination gap", the player could fill in the smaller nitpicky info they would expect and further imagine how they could use the item. === Release === The March 20, 2020, release date for New Horizons came to coincide with that of id Software's Doom Eternal. Due to the demand expected for both games, and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, GameStop decided to begin selling Doom Eternal one day earlier, on the 19th, to minimize crowding. The stark contrast in tone between both games, combined with them being released on the same day, prompted fans of both series to celebrate the coincidence by creating light-hearted crossover art featuring Doom's Doomguy and Isabelle as "best friends". When New Horizons released on March 20, 2020, video game retailer EB Games attracted criticism for allowing fans who pre-ordered the game along with Doom Eternal to line up at its flagship Canadian location on Yonge Street, Toronto amid a COVID-19 pandemic in the country, when all levels of government urged the public to close non-essential businesses and maintain social distancing.Touching on New Horizons in a December 2020 interview with Polygon, Doug Bowser stated the game sold "well beyond expectations", and applauded the developers for their efforts. He noted the game would continue to see updates all throughout 2021. == Reception == Animal Crossing: New Horizons received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic, becoming the highest-rated game in the series on the website. However, the game has been subject to review bombing due to its handling of Switch profiles and multiplayer. The game was cited to be the best in the series, and was given a perfect score by Nintendo Life and Pocket Gamer.Most enjoyed the Nook Miles system, stating that it gave the player something to do and a goal to reach. Dann Sullivan, writing for Pocket Gamer, liked how it gave the player "optional direction". USGamer also joked how nobody can complain how there is nothing to do. The D.I.Y. system was also praised, with Nintendo Life taking note of how no resource is useless. Polygon's Russ Frushtick lauded the ability for unrestricted creativity that allowed for the player to design the island with furniture and building layout, leading to a "true representation of the player who created it." Eurogamer Deputy Editor Martin Robinson stated that, the game has some very impressive improvements which allowed for a much clearer and more defined structure overall that gave the game play a better feel and cohesion than ever before.Critics from GameSpot and Game Informer praised the creative freedom and control offered by the game, such as being allowed to choose where buildings and bridges are placed. In particular, the Island Designer App was lauded with its ability to create natural structures, although there were minor complaints about how the player could not expand the island and could only reshape it. GamesRadar+ appreciated the retaining of old characters and concepts with the addition of new gameplay mechanics.Slant Magazine's Steven Scaife was more critical of the game, arguing that "By consolidating so much power in the hands of an individual player, New Horizons threatens to upend the Animal Crossing vision of community living."Many had complaints about time restrictions in the early phases of the game. Since the game runs in real-time, most of the resources available replenish the next day, and reviewers were left with little to do in the beginning. IGN's Samuel Claiborn refused to time travel in prior titles, but ultimately was tempted into putting the system's clock ahead 15 days in when more tools were unlocked and to begin what he believed was when the game had faster pacing. 4Players enjoyed the lack of time-related pressure and the option to time travel if preferred.Outside of gameplay itself, New Horizons received acclaim for the timing of the release, coming out just as stay-at-home orders were being fortified. Reviewer Louryne Strampe of WIRED found that the game was exactly what she needed for her mental health and added that she and her colleagues find solace when visiting each other's respective islands. Due to online multiplayer options, it also gave critics the opportunity to play with friends during quarantine.The downloadable content expansion, Happy Home Paradise, was well received. Lisa Segarra of Kotaku found the prompts for designing villager homes to be "exhilarating" and that it "sparked inspiration". She found that the update brought "so much new life into the game". Kate Gray of Nintendo Life described the new content in both the expansion and the free update as being comparable to "a big lick of paint over the whole game". The depth and quantity of new content were praised, and minor improvements were deemed to "really make it worth sticking around", though the finality of the update was criticized. === Retrospective === Due to the seasonal and real-time connection in New Horizons, the game saw multiple second opinions by critics and fans as new content was released, usually of positive to mixed reception. According to Vice Media and VentureBeat about 6 weeks after the release date, players who played the game for large amounts of time shortly after its release tended to suffer from burnout and play significantly less by the time the game had been released for six weeks. Vice Media noted how the game wasn't designed for people to be playing all the time and was rather intended for distraction, but "the pandemic isn't giving people much of a choice"; they reflected on the nature of the Animal Crossing series and how the game is better enjoyed at a slower pace of action. Venturebeat's Jeff Grubb was able to recognize smaller hindrances and slow-paced gameplay that became increasingly frustrating the more he had to use them. Despite this, both reviewers continued to play and looked on the game positively by April 2020.A year later, past reviews were revisited by Andrew Webster and Brendan Lowry, writing for The Verge and iMore respectively, and both expressed similar thoughts of what the game had become; they both agreed the lack of island progression not continuing beyond a few months made returning difficult to enjoy, with iMore expressing concerns for the lack of upgrades to components such as buildings and shops, and The Verge considering the Nook Miles system to be "an afterthought" rather than goals to look forward to. Both still continued to enjoy daily tasks of tending to the island, however, with both citing how it gives the player something to do and offers a small distraction from the real world. By the release of the November 2021 update, fans were torn on restarting their island entirely to recapture the experience, as highlighted by Nicole Carpenter, writing for Polygon. === Sales === Animal Crossing New Horizons sold over 1.88 million physical copies at launch in Japan, breaking the record held by Pokémon Sword and Shield for biggest Switch game debut in the region. The game sold 720,791 physical copies in its second week in Japan, selling more than Animal Crossing: New Leaf did in its first week. As of 26 April 2020, the game has sold 3,895,159 physical copies in Japan. In North America, it was the best-selling game of March 2020, becoming the second-bestselling game of 2020 and surpassing the lifetime sales of all previous Animal Crossing games. New Horizons generated the third highest known launch month sales of any Nintendo-published game (since The NPD Group began tracking video game sales from 1995), after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008). In the United Kingdom, the physical launch sales were roughly quadrupled than those of New Leaf, making it the biggest Switch game launch in the region. It also sold triple the units of the second-bestselling game, new entry Doom Eternal. In Germany, New Horizons sold more than 200,000 copies after a few days of release, for which it has been certified with a Platinum Sales Award by German trade association GAME.Nielsen division SuperData Research estimates that New Horizons sold five million digital copies worldwide in March 2020, setting a new digital sales record by selling more digital units in a single calendar month than any other console game in history. It surpassed the previous record set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018). Nintendo reported that 11.77 million units were sold within 12 days by March 31, 2020, and a total of 13.41 million units after six weeks on the market, making it "the best start ever for a Nintendo Switch title" by the end of its 2019 fiscal year, as well as one of the best-selling games on the console and the best-selling game of the Animal Crossing series. It later sold 22.4 million units worldwide after three months by June 2020 and 26.04 million units after six months by September 2020.On August 9, 2020, it was reported that Animal Crossing: New Horizons became the second-highest selling game of all time in Japan, only after Pokémon Red and Blue. It was also reported in November 2020 that it was the fastest game to sell over six million copies in Japan. It was the year's best-selling game in Japan, second best-selling game in the United Kingdom, and third best-selling game in the United States. The game grossed $654 million in global digital sales by the end of 2020, making it the year's seventh highest-grossing digital premium game worldwide. In January 2021, The NPD Group revealed the best-selling games of 2020 in the United States. New Horizons was ranked third behind Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The publication revealed that New Horizons was the best-selling Nintendo game in terms of physical copies in the US since 2010's Wii Fit Plus. It was also the second best-selling game of the year in physical copies in the United Kingdom, behind FIFA 21.By March 2021, the game had sold 32.63 million units, making it the second best-selling Nintendo Switch game, behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The game had grossed an estimated $2 billion in its first year as of March 2021, the fifth highest first-year revenue for any video game. After the 2.0 update in November 2021, Nintendo revealed in a financial report that game sales reached 34.85 million units sold. A February 2022 report revealed that the game had sold 37.62 million units, selling more than the rest of the Animal Crossing games combined. As of June 30, 2022, total sales reached 39.38 million copies. Total sales reached 40.17 million by September 30, 2022. === Awards and nominations === New Horizons has won numerous awards; the game won the categories for "Best Game in China" and "Game of the Year" at the Famitsu Dengeki. Additionally, the game also was nominated for "Game of the Year" as well as the best multiplayer and family game at The Game Awards 2020, and ultimately won the "Best Family Game" category. At the Japan Game Awards 2020, the game was nominated for the "Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award" as well as "Game of the Year", and won both categories. The game received an "Award for Excellence" at the event. New Horizons was nominated for similar categories at the Golden Joystick Awards 2020 and won the "Nintendo Game of the Year" category. The game was nominated at the 2021 Kids' Choice Awards for Favourite Video Game. The game won the "Game Beyond Entertainment" and "Best Multiplayer" categories at the 2021 British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA) and was nominated for four others. The Game Developers Choice Awards saw nominations for Best Design alongside Game of the Year. == Impact and legacy == Reviewers and news organizations highlighted the game's sense of escapism, in contrast to the COVID-19 pandemic, as attributing to its success. An NBC News op-ed declared, "[New Horizons] is the coronavirus distraction we needed" at a time of widespread social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Imad Khan of The New York Times called the game a "phenomenon", and stated that "with the world in the grip of a pandemic, the wildly popular game is a conveniently timed piece of whimsy, particularly for millennials." Many people have utilized the game in different ways for business and/or socialization. Funerals, weddings, and graduations were held in the game, with even a talk show spawning, titled Animal Talking. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, California, during the COVID-19 pandemic, has regularly held live streams of animal feedings. Twitter revealed, in early January 2021, that Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the most tweeted-about game in 2020.The Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign released official digital yard signs for use in the game that players could use to decorate their islands. The game was also used by democracy activists in Hong Kong, including Joshua Wong, as a platform to protest virtually. In reaction, the game was removed from online stores in China such as Taobao where it had been available on the grey market. Nintendo announced on November 19, 2020, a new set of guidelines for using the game, including the ban on using it for political activities.In March 2021, the National Videogame Museum kept a record of the game and its impact during the COVID-19 pandemic, titled the "Animal Crossing Diaries". The records contain visuals, audio, interviews from players throughout 2020, who kept track of their progress and reflected on their experience and how it affected them. According to Lex Roberts, the curator, the goal was to encapture what made the game so popular, alongside its cultural impact, to players who enjoyed the game after COVID-19 restrictions settled. They were requested by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to "collect the history as it’s happening", and they were funded by the charity to do so. The website containing the records opened in September 2021, and covered the 18 months after the game's release. === Related media === A tie-in manga series, Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori: Nonbiri Shima Dayori (あつまれ どうぶつの森〜のんびり島だより〜, lit. "Get Together: Animal Forest ~Carefree Island News~"), began serialization in the manga magazine Ciao on December 28, 2019. The series is written and illustrated by Minori Katō, and follows a villager named Hana who moves to an unpopulated island. Another manga series, Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori: Nonbiri Shima Diary, launched in the June 2020 issue of Coro Coro Comics. The first volume was published in English as Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Deserted Island Diary on September 14, 2021, by Viz Media.Nook Tails, a tie-in comic strip series by Cho Hanayo featuring the characters Tom Nook, Timmy, and Tommy, began serialization on the game's Japanese website on October 15, 2019. An English-language translation of the series has been posted on the game's English Twitter account beginning on March 4, 2020. Multiple guide books have been released in Japan, some with well-over 1000 pages. These guides have been greatly popular in the country, with large queues (despite shelter-in-place orders), and prompting mass reselling online.In March 20, 2020, Nintendo released a Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing: New Horizons Edition system.In January 2021, ColourPop released a makeup collection inspired by the game's characters. In March 2021, Build-A-Bear Workshop announced an Animal Crossing: New Horizons collection of plush toys. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Fighting

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a 2018 crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, succeeding Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The game follows the series' traditional style of gameplay: controlling one of the various characters, players must use differing attacks to weaken their opponents and knock them out of an arena. It features a wide variety of game modes, including a campaign for single-player and multiplayer versus modes. Ultimate features 89 playable fighters, including all characters from previous Super Smash Bros. games alongside newcomers. The roster ranges from Nintendo mascots to characters from third-party franchises. Planning for the game had begun by December 2015, with full development starting after the completion of 3DS/Wii U's downloadable content (DLC). Series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai returned along with Bandai Namco Studios and Sora, the studios that developed 3DS/Wii U, with the return of the studios speeding up the preparation process. Sakurai's goal with Ultimate was to include every character from previous games in the series despite the various development and licensing challenges this would present. Several well-known video game musicians contributed to the soundtrack, with Hideki Sakamoto writing the main theme "Lifelight". Nintendo first teased Ultimate in a Nintendo Direct in March 2018 and fully revealed it at E3 2018 the following June. It later received two additional Directs before it was released on December 7, 2018. The game received universal acclaim, with some critics calling it the best of the series. They praised its amount of content and fine-tuning of existing Smash gameplay elements, although its online mode received criticism. Ultimate is the best-selling fighting game of all time, having sold over 28 million copies as of June 2022, and is a popular competitive fighting game. The game received downloadable content adding new fighters, stages, and other content from its release until October 2021. == Gameplay == Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a platform fighter for up to eight players in which characters from Nintendo games and other third-party franchises must try to knock each other out of an arena. Each player has a percentage meter, which raises when they take damage, thus increasing the knockback they take and making them easier to launch in the air and out of the arena. Standard battles use one of three victory conditions: Timed, where players aim to win the most points by defeating opponents within a time limit; Stock, where players have a set number of lives and must aim to be the last player standing; and Stamina, where players must simply reduce their opponent's health down to zero to defeat them. Players can adjust the rules to their liking and save them as presets for future matches.Players can also enable various items to attack enemies or grant them power-ups, along with Poké Balls and Assist Trophies, which respectively summon Pokémon and other non-playable characters to assist them in battle. In Timed matches, certain Assist Trophies can be attacked and defeated to earn points. Each character also possesses a powerful Final Smash attack, which can be performed either by obtaining a Smash Ball or by filling up a special meter, both of which can be toggled on and off. The game features 104 different stages included in the base game, with additional ones coming packaged with DLC fighters. They can all be played in alternative Battlefield and Omega forms or can be toggled to remove stage hazards. A new feature called Stage Morph allows players to select two stages that the game alternates between at certain intervals during a match. Other tweaks include new icons and gauges for character-specific abilities, such as Cloud's Limit gauge.In addition to returning modes such as Classic, Special Smash, and Home-Run Contest, new modes added to the game include Smashdown, where each character can only be played once; Squad Strike, where players battle in teams of multiple characters; and a tournament mode that allows up to 32 players to battle in playoff brackets. === Spirits === Another set of modes revolves around a new mechanic known as spirits, which replaces the collectible trophies from previous games. Each of these spirits, based on a crossover character, can be used to power up a fighter with unique abilities, which can be used to fight against human or computer opponents and earn new spirits. Players gain spirits through pre-made challenges known as "Spirit Battles" that capture the theme of the character depicted by the spirit, embodied by one or more of the game's fighters and other specific level effects; for example, the spirit battle of Rayquaza, a flying dragon Pokémon, requires players to defeat a large version of Ridley with added wind effects. A separate Spirit Board mode presents a rotating set of spirit battles for players to gain spirits from. Spirits have a growth and evolution system similar to Pokémon games, leveling the Spirits to gain more powerful effects or means of merging core abilities into a new Spirit. Nintendo offers limited-timed Spirit events in cross-promotion with other games and franchises, where a number of them are only available to collect during the event. Eventually these spirits make their way into the general rotation and can be found on the spirit board. ==== World of Light ==== The spirit mechanic is prominent in the game's single-player adventure mode, World of Light. The mode's narrative begins with an evil entity, Galeem, destroying the Smash Bros. world, vaporizing almost all of the fighter characters and placing them under his imprisonment; only Kirby, due to his Warp Star, evades this attack. Players must explore the ruined world to rescue captured fighters and spirits by completing marked challenges. Players can use regained allies and spirits to overcome certain challenges on the map and eventually defeat Galeem. However, after Galeem is defeated, a new enemy, Dharkon, takes over and, after being defeated, wages war against Galeem, and players must destroy both of them. If just Galeem is defeated, Dharkon will engulf the world in darkness, but if just Dharkon is defeated, then Galeem will cover the universe with light. However, there is a path that allows players to defeat both of them at once. When done so, the spirits are freed from the fallen deities' control and return to the real world. === Multiplayer === The game supports local multiplayer, local wireless with other systems, and online play via Wi-Fi or LAN connections. By defeating players online, players can earn tags which can be traded for in-game currency to buy new spirits, music, and Mii Fighter costumes. The game is compatible with Joy-Con controllers, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and GameCube controllers via the use of a USB adapter. Like in the previous entry, amiibo figurines can be used to create AI-controlled Figure Players that can be trained to become stronger. Sometime after the game's release, a service for the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app, known as "Smash World", was launched, which allows players to check their game statistics in addition to sharing images and videos captured from the game to social media. Ultimate features over 900 music tracks, which can be played through the Switch's handheld mode while in standby mode. Version 3.0 of the game, released in April 2019, adds a Stage Builder allowing players to create their own custom stages, and which they can share or download through the Switch Online service. The update also includes a replay editor that allow players to edit stored replays and share online with the community or download to other devices. These will be also available within the Smash World app. An update in May 2019 provided limited support for the virtual reality VR Kit of Nintendo Labo, allowing a player to view computer-only matches in VR or playing in a 1-on-1 mode against the computer. An update in September 2019 added the Home-Run Contest mode from previous Smash games. === Playable characters === Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as with other games in the Super Smash Bros. series, features a crossover cast of fighters from several different Nintendo franchises, as well as fighters from series by third-party developers such as Konami, Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Square Enix, PlatinumGames, Atlus, Microsoft, SNK, Mojang Studios, and Disney. The base game features 74 playable fighters, consisting of all 63 previous fighters from past entries and 11 new ones: the Inklings from Splatoon; Princess Daisy from the Mario series; Ridley and Dark Samus from the Metroid series; Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont from the Castlevania series; Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening; King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series; Isabelle from the Animal Crossing series; Ken Masters from the Street Fighter series; and Incineroar from Pokémon Sun and Moon. When starting the game, players only have access to the eight starter characters of the original 1999 Super Smash Bros. game and must unlock the rest by completing the game's Classic mode, playing through World of Light, or fighting a certain amount of battles.Certain characters whose movesets are directly based on other characters in the game are now classified as "Echo Fighters", possessing similar movesets and proportions to the fighters they are based on, but with their own unique animations and gameplay differences. On the character selection screen, these characters can either be listed individually or stacked with the fighters they are based on. Select characters also have alternative skins featuring different genders or sometimes other characters, such as Bowser Jr. who has a selectable appearance to be any of the other Koopalings but otherwise have identical animations and abilities. Several returning characters received updates to their appearances, such as Mario having Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey accompanying him and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's incarnation of Link replacing the one from Twilight Princess.Additional fighters have been added to the game via post-release downloadable content (DLC). The first of these, Piranha Plant from the Mario series, was released in January 2019 and made available for free to those who purchased and registered the game with a My Nintendo account before the end of that month. Additional fighters, each coming with a unique stage and related music, have been released both individually and as part of two Fighters Pass bundles. The first Fighters Pass consisted of five characters: Joker from Atlus' Persona 5, released in April 2019; the Hero from Square Enix's Dragon Quest series, released in July 2019; Banjo & Kazooie from Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series, released in September 2019; Terry Bogard from SNK's Fatal Fury series, released in November 2019; and Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, released in January 2020.The second Fighters Pass, titled Fighters Pass Volume 2, consisted of six additional fighters and was the final content planned for Ultimate. The first character in this collection, Min Min from ARMS, was released in June 2020. Steve, the default player avatar from Mojang Studios' Minecraft, was released in October 2020. Sephiroth, the antagonist from Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII, was released in December 2020, with players able to unlock the character a few days early by defeating him in a limited time boss battle known as the "Sephiroth Challenge". Pyra and Mythra, a dual character from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, were released in March 2021. Kazuya Mishima from Bandai Namco's Tekken series was released in June 2021. Sora from the Disney and Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts was the final fighter to be added in October 2021. == Development == Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., the same studios that developed Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, for the Nintendo Switch, with series creator Masahiro Sakurai returning as game director. Unlike previous Super Smash Bros. games, the team was not assembled from the ground up, which sped up preparation time. The project plan for the game was in the works by December 2015, when the DLC for 3DS and Wii U was in development, and finished after it was completed. Staff gathering was done soon afterward. The development period was shorter compared to previous entries in the series. Hatena also assisted with the development of some elements.According to Sakurai, producing a Super Smash Bros. game for the Switch was the last request that former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had given him before Iwata's death in 2015, leading Sakurai to feel compelled to make the game the best possible product he could to respect him. Sakurai sought to include every character from previous games, as to not disappoint fans. However, he knew this would be a complex problem for both development and licensing; it would also drastically increase the cost of development. The return of Bandai and Sora made it easier for this to happen. Sakurai also wanted to adjust character abilities as to speed up the game, although not to an extent to which it would alienate players unfamiliar with the series. Sakurai knew that Ultimate was a core game for Nintendo and that it had a dedicated player base that he did not want to disappoint, and believed that completing this goal was necessary to satisfy the fan base. Sakurai was also faced with the decision to create a completely new game system or build off of pre-existing ones; he chose to build off pre-existing ones because there would only be about a third of the characters he desired in the final game. All the returning characters' abilities had to be re-balanced so they could work in Ultimate. Originally, gameplay would differ between the Switch's docked and handheld modes, but Sakurai scrapped this because the system's screen in handheld mode was better than he thought. Sakurai believed this would be the only Smash game to have the full roster of returning characters, calling the effort to include the characters, music, stage settings, and other elements as "unprecedented", and cautioned that future series games would likely be smaller in scope. However, Sakurai wants to add as many fighters as possible within Ultimate through DLC.Voice lines recorded by David Hayter for Snake were re-used for Ultimate, despite Hayter having been replaced in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Xander Mobus, who provided the voice of Crazy Hand, Master Hand, and the announcer in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U also made a return with new voice clips, in addition to reprising his voice role as the downloadable content (DLC) character Joker from Persona 5. The addition of Ridley from Metroid as a playable character has been something that the Super Smash Bros. community had been requesting from the series for some time. In 2008, Sakurai had said that he knew Ridley was a high-demand character but thought that he was "impossible" to add unless they were able to sacrifice the character's size for balancing purposes. So Ridley could be included in the game, Sakurai studied the art of the character and redesigned him so he could stand upright. All characters were chosen at the beginning of development except Incineroar, who had not been created yet; the team instead left a space open for a Sun and Moon Pokémon. The Inklings' ink mechanic proved challenging to implement due to the way it interacts with environments.The team built Ultimate from scratch with new assets and content. Localization manager Nate Bihldorff stated that the game significantly upgraded lighting effects and texture rendering from the game engine of the Wii U version. The new World of Light mode was inspired by Brawl's (2008) Subspace Emissary, and Sakurai chose to start it with a cataclysmic event because he thought it would leave a greater impact on players. The team conceived the Spirits mechanic because they wanted to create an enjoyable single-player mode but did not have enough resources to create character models. While it did not let them tell stories for individual fighters or create new locations and rules, the Spirits let them use a variety of characters and assets. One part of the team chose Spirits to include in the game and had to thoroughly research them. According to Sakurai, the Spirits mode was essential for using various franchises. === Music === Like previous games in the series, Ultimate features several well-known video game music composers and arrangers providing a mix of original music and rearrangements of various tracks for the represented franchises, with over 1,000 tracks in total. New to Ultimate is the tying of tracks to franchises instead of individual stages, as well as the ability to create custom playlists to listen to outside of the game when the Switch is in handheld mode. Sakurai stated that he began contacting composers over a year before release, providing them with a database of over a thousand suggested track ideas. In addition, he allowed them to submit their own personal favorites, with those choices being given priority for inclusion. While Sakurai oversaw the process and preferred that the music retain the spirit of the original games, the direction of them was generally handled by the composers themselves. The main theme, "Lifelight", composed by Hideki Sakamoto, is the basis of most of the game's original music. === Downloadable content === As with previous entries, Nintendo planned to offer new fighters through DLC; however, unlike with the previous 3DS and Wii U versions where players could request which characters they wished to see in the game, Nintendo chose which characters they would add by November 2018. Like the previous title, additional Mii costumes were released as paid DLC. Certain costumes also added new music tracks to the game. Sakurai believed that despite characters like Joker, the first announced DLC fighter, not necessarily being from games usually associated with Nintendo, they were added due to being "emblematic" of the types of characters they wanted to add to Ultimate, adding that they "bring just a whole different level of fun and enjoyment for players". The Piranha Plant was chosen as a DLC character because Sakurai wanted to add diversity to the roster. Nintendo met with Rare studio head Craig Duncan at E3 2018 to discuss the possibility of including Banjo and Kazooie as downloadable content; Duncan, believing it to be "a great opportunity", agreed and connected the two development teams for further discussions. Sakurai noted that Banjo and Kazooie were the second most requested character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in a Nintendo-sanctioned fan vote in 2015, and that the addition of Banjo and Kazooie happened "quite easily", despite the property being owned by Microsoft through its acquisition of Rare, with Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, stating that negotiating their inclusion was "an easy deal to make" thanks to Microsoft's strong partnership with Nintendo.The development of Fighters Pass Volume 2 was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Due to stay-at-home orders in Japan, Sakurai and his development team had to work remotely. According to Daniel Kaplan of Mojang Studios, early discussions between Nintendo and Microsoft including Minecraft content in the Super Smash Bros. series had begun roughly five years prior to Steve's addition into the game. The character's inclusion required the development team to rework every stage in the game in order to accommodate Steve's gameplay mechanics. Sakurai had wanted to include Sora from Kingdom Hearts in the game because Sora was the top fighter requested for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in the 2015 fan vote, but initially thought the legality around the intellectual property with Disney would be insurmountable, and thus they had originally planned for only five fighters in the second pass. However, Sakurai met a Disney representative at an award venue, which facilitated the start of negotiations for Sora's inclusion. Nintendo, Disney, and Square Enix saw towards including Sora in the game and overseeing all aspects related to his inclusion, with several limitations and guidelines they were required to follow. The Sora Challenger Pack featured a promotional tie-in with the 2020 rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory: players with Melody of Memory save data on their Nintendo Switch would unlock the music track "Dearly Beloved -Swing Version-" for use in Ultimate. == Release == Ultimate was teased during a Nintendo Direct presentation on March 8, 2018, under the working title Super Smash Bros., with the release year shown to be 2018. Nintendo formally announced the game at E3 2018, revealing that the full roster of characters from past games would be included, as well as its release date. Demo versions were playable at E3 in June and at the San Diego Comic-Con the following month. IGN nominated Ultimate for its Best Game of E3 2018 award; the game won Best Nintendo Switch Game from both IGN and Gamescom. Two Nintendo Direct presentations in 2018, one on August 8 and another one on November 1, were devoted to the game, revealing new characters, stages, and game modes.Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. Ultimate worldwide on December 7, 2018. In addition to the standard retail version, a special edition containing a Super Smash Bros.-themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and a Switch with a download code was also released. An additional special edition contained a pair of Super Smash Bros.-themed Joy-Con as well as a Switch console, a Super Smash Bros.-themed dock, and a download code for the game. A GameCube controller with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate logo was released on November 2, 2018.One of the game's new additions had the character Mr. Game & Watch assuming the appearance of a feather- and loincloth-wearing Native American when using one of his attacks—a reference to Fire Attack (1982), in which players controlled a cowboy defending his fort from attacking natives. Some series fans saw this as racist, leading to Nintendo apologizing and removing the animation in an update shortly after release. Two weeks before its release, a leaked copy of the game was distributed across the internet. Nintendo took steps to issue copyright strikes on YouTube videos using data mined content, while fans worked to isolate spoilers, particularly the World of Light story mode, from those that had played the leaked version. == Reception == Ultimate received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to the review aggregator platform Metacritic. The French video game website Jeuxvideo.com called it the best game in the series, praising the improved gameplay, larger cast of characters, stages, options, soundtrack, which "brilliantly mix gargantuan content with nostalgia". Tom Marks of IGN agreed and called it the most complete Super Smash Bros. yet. Critics lauded the huge cast of characters and levels, new game modes, and combining of the best elements from its predecessors. However, the game's online mode received criticism for its technical performance and matchmaking. Many players found significant lag affecting their games, even when using wired connections over wireless, while the game's matchmaking features did not adhere to players' criteria, with players frequently playing matches with rule sets they did not choose. The matchmaking process was further criticized for making it difficult for friends to join matches over random players, and not allowing multiple local players to join in online matches. There had been so many complaints on Ultimate's subreddit that the administrators forwarded all complaints to a separate thread. === Sales === In November 2018, Nintendo announced Ultimate was the most pre-ordered game for the Switch and in the series. The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment reported that Ultimate was the fastest-selling Switch and Super Smash Bros. game in the United Kingdom, with physical launch sales 302% higher than those for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, 233% higher than those for 3DS, and 62.5% higher than those for Brawl. In its first three days on sale in Japan, the game sold 1.2 million copies, outselling Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the region.Within 11 days of its release, Ultimate had sold more than three million copies within the United States, making it the fastest-selling Switch game in the country. It was similarly the fastest-selling Switch game as well as the fastest-selling game for any Nintendo console in Europe based on the first 11-day sales. It was estimated that the game sold and shipped over five million copies within its first three days of release. Within three weeks, Ultimate became the fifth best-selling Switch game in the United Kingdom, surpassing the sales of Splatoon 2. In January 2019, Amazon reported that Ultimate was their highest selling video game product of 2018, with Nintendo officially announcing that the game had shipped over 12.08 million copies worldwide. Ultimate was also Nintendo's fastest-selling game of all time until being surpassed by Pokémon Sword and Shield in 2019. By September 2020, the game had sold over 21.10 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling fighting game of all time, surpassing the record of Street Fighter II, and became the third-best-selling Nintendo Switch game, only behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. As of June 30, 2022, total sales reached 28.82 million. === Awards === The game won the award for "Best Nintendo Switch Game", "Best Fighting Game", and "Best Multiplayer Game" in IGN's Best of 2018 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year" and "Best Video Game Music". == Esports == EVO 2019, held on August 2–4, 2019, featured Ultimate as one of its main events. It was the largest offline Smash Bros. tournament of all time, with 3,534 entrants signed up. It set a new record for EVO concurrent viewership, with over 279,000 viewers during Top 8. On May 8–10, 2020, top Super Smash Bros. Melee player Hungrybox partnered with NFL running back Le'Veon Bell and esports organization Team Liquid to host The Box, an online tournament with a $10,000 prize pool. With over 8,000 entrants, it was the largest online Smash Bros. tournament of all time.In February 2020, it was announced that the Smash World Tour would feature both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Smash Bros. Ultimate players for a grand prize pool of $250,000. The tournament would have included international qualifiers, with the grand finals' location to be in the United States. However, the COVID-19 pandemic quickly led to several of the qualifiers getting either postponed or canceled. The Smash World Tour was successfully relaunched in 2021, featuring a mix of online and offline qualifiers and culminating in a final offline championship. == Notes == == References == == External links == Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at MobyGames Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at IMDb Official website

Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Action-adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles. The game is an installment of The Legend of Zelda series and is set at the end of its timeline. The player controls an amnesiac Link, who awakens from a hundred-year slumber, and attempts to regain his memories and prevent the destruction of Hyrule by Calamity Ganon. Similar to the original 1986 Legend of Zelda, players are given minimal instruction and can explore the open world freely. Tasks include collecting various items and gear to aid in objectives such as puzzle-solving or side quests. The world features minimal structure and is designed to encourage exploration and experimentation, and the main story quest can be completed in a nonlinear fashion. Development of Breath of the Wild took place over five years, following the responses from some fans who wanted a larger game world to explore. Wanting to rethink the conventions of the series, Nintendo introduced elements such as detailed chemistry and physics engines. Monolith Soft, known for their work on the open world Xenoblade Chronicles series, assisted in designing landscapes and topography. The game was originally planned for release in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive but was delayed twice. Released on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild was a launch game for the Nintendo Switch and the final Nintendo-published game for the Wii U. Two waves of downloadable content were released in 2017 via an expansion pass. Breath of the Wild received universal acclaim, with praise for its open-ended gameplay, open world design, and attention to detail, although it received minor criticism for its technical performance at launch. It won several Game of the Year awards and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Breath of the Wild is also the top selling game in the series and one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling more than 27 million copies by 2022. A spin-off, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, was released in 2020. A sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, is scheduled for 2023. == Gameplay == Breath of the Wild is an open world action-adventure game. Players are tasked with exploring the kingdom of Hyrule while controlling Link. Breath of the Wild encourages nonlinear gameplay, which is illustrated by the game's lack of defined entrances or exits to areas, scant instruction given to the player, and encouragement to explore freely. Breath of the Wild introduces a consistent physics engine to the Zelda series, letting players approach problems in different ways rather than trying to find a single solution. The game also integrates a "chemistry engine" that defines the physical properties of most objects and governs how they interact with the player and one another. For example, during thunderstorms, metal objects will attract powerful lightning strikes; during a storm, therefore, a player must be careful not to carry metal, but may also throw metal objects at enemies to draw lightning to them. These design approaches result in a generally unstructured and interactive world that rewards experimentation and allows for nonlinear completion of the story.As Link, players can perform actions such as running, climbing, swimming, and gliding with a paraglider, although Link is limited by his stamina. Link can procure items from the environment, including weapons, food, and other resources. Unlike previous Zelda games, weapons and shields degrade through use, eventually shattering. Many items have multiple uses; for example, wooden weapons can light fires, wooden shields can collect incoming enemy arrows, and shields can be used as makeshift snowboards. Players can obtain food and materials for elixirs from hunting animals, gathering wild fruit, or collecting parts of defeated enemies. By cooking combinations of food or materials, the player can create meals and elixirs that can replenish Link's health and stamina, or provide temporary status bonuses such as increased strength or resistance to heat or cold. An important tool in Link's arsenal is the "Sheikah Slate", a magical stone tablet which can be used to mark waypoints on the in-game map and take pictures of materials, creatures, and enemies. These pictures are stored in an in-game compendium that can be used to locate valuable items. The Sheikah Slate also gives the player the ability to create remote bombs, manipulate metal objects, form ice blocks on watery surfaces, and temporarily stop objects in time. In combat, players can lock onto targets for more precise attacks, while certain button combinations allow for advanced offensive and defensive moves. Players may also defeat enemies without weapons, such as by rolling boulders off cliffs into enemy camps. Besides exploration, players can undergo quests or challenges to obtain certain benefits. Activating towers and shrines will add waypoints to the map that the player may warp to at any time. Activating towers also adds territories to the map, although location names are not added until the player explores that area. Dotted throughout Hyrule are shrines that contain challenges ranging from puzzles to battles against robotic opponents. Clearing shrines earns Spirit Orbs; after earning four of these orbs, they can be traded for additional health or stamina points. When Link has at least 13 hearts, he can reclaim the Master Sword in the Korok Forest. The Master Sword is the only unbreakable weapon in the game, but it can run out of energy after extended use, requiring a 10 minute recharge. Scattered across Hyrule are small puzzles that reveal Korok Seeds, which can be traded to expand inventory size for weapons, shields, and bows. Towns serve as hotspots for quests, sidequests, and shops selling materials and clothing. Hikers and other travelers offer sidequests, hints, or conversation. Additionally, players can scan Amiibo figures against their controller to summon items or call Link's horse Epona from previous Zelda games and Wolf Link from Twilight Princess. == Plot == Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of the Zelda timeline in the kingdom of Hyrule. In ancient times, the ancient Sheikah race had developed Hyrule into an advanced civilization, protected by four enormous animalistic machines called the Divine Beasts and an army of autonomous weapons called Guardians. When an ancient evil known as Calamity Ganon appeared and threatened Hyrule, four great warriors were given the title of Champion, and each piloted one of the Divine Beasts to weaken Ganon while the princess with the blood of the goddess and her appointed knight fought and defeated him by sealing him away.Ten millennia later, the kingdom of Hyrule had since regressed to a medieval state. Reading their ancestors' prophecies, the Hylians recognized the signs of Ganon's return and excavated surrounding areas to uncover the Divine Beasts and Guardians. During this time, Princess Zelda trained vigorously to awaken the sealing magic needed to defeat Ganon while trying to maintain her personal research. In the meantime, a knight was appointed to protect her: Link, who was chosen due to his ability to wield the Master Sword, also known as "the sword that seals the darkness". After being sought out by Zelda, the Champions—Mipha, princess of the aquatic Zora; Revali, archer of the birdlike Rito; Daruk, warrior of the mountainous Gorons; and Urbosa, chief of the desert-dwelling Gerudo—assembled to pilot the Divine Beasts (Vah Ruta, Vah Medoh, Vah Rudania, and Vah Naboris, respectively) while Zelda and Link would face Ganon directly.However, on Zelda's seventeenth birthday, Ganon possessed the Guardians and Divine Beasts, turning them against Hyrule. King Rhoam and the Champions were killed, the castle town was destroyed, and Link was gravely wounded protecting Zelda while on their way to Fort Hateno. Zelda had Link taken to safety for him to heal, hid the Master Sword in Korok Forest under the protection of the Great Deku Tree, and used her light magic to seal herself and Ganon in Hyrule Castle. This cataclysmic tragedy came to be known over time as the Great Calamity. A century after being placed in a healing chamber in the Shrine of Resurrection, an amnesiac Link awakens in a now-ravaged Hyrule. He meets an old man, who eventually reveals himself as the lingering spirit of King Rhoam. Rhoam explains that Ganon, sealed in Hyrule Castle, has grown stronger; he pleads for Link to defeat Ganon before he regains his full strength, breaks free, and destroys the world.Link travels across Hyrule, returning to locations from his past and regaining his memories. With the help of Hyrule's people, he boards the four Divine Beasts and purges them of the Ganon Blights (Waterblight Ganon, Windblight Ganon, Fireblight Ganon, and Thunderblight Ganon), releasing the spirits of Hyrule's former champions and allowing them to pilot the Divine Beasts once again. After obtaining the Master Sword from Korok Forest, Link enters Hyrule Castle and confronts Ganon. The Divine Beasts weaken him, and after Link defeats him, he transforms into Dark Beast Ganon in an attempt to destroy the world. Zelda gives Link the Bow of Light, which allows him to weaken Ganon enough for Zelda to seal him away, restoring peace and allowing the spirits of King Rhoam and the Champions to depart to the afterlife. Sensing their presence, Link and Zelda smile fondly. If players have found all thirteen memories in the "Captured Memories" main quest, they unlock a post-credits cutscene in which Zelda declares that Hyrule must be rebuilt and that she and Link must begin the process by themselves. As Link and Zelda survey Hyrule and embark to restore it to—and perhaps beyond—its former glory, the princess confides in him that she may no longer possess any supernatural power, yet has come to terms with it. == Development == Nintendo EPD, an internal division of Nintendo, developed Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U. According to series producer Eiji Aonuma, the development team aimed to "rethink the conventions of Zelda". Development started immediately upon the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011). Aonuma received comments from players who wished to see a more interconnected map to explore the locales between the gameplay areas. In 2013, Nintendo experimented with nonlinear gameplay in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which was a common point of praise from many outlets. At E3 2014, Aonuma said he planned to reform dungeons and puzzles, two of the series' major gameplay elements, and redesign the game to allow players to reach the end without progressing through the story. As Nintendo had never developed an open-world game on the scale of Breath of the Wild, they looked at The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus, the latter of which had some similar climbing mechanics and whose creator, Fumito Ueda, was friends with Aonuma. For the art style, the team drew inspiration from various Japanese anime which they had grown up watching, suspected to include Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki productions, among other anime. Series protagonist Link was redesigned for the game, with Aonuma purposely making him more gender neutral so that players could more easily relate to him.Before full development, the developers designed a playable 2D prototype similar to the original Zelda to experiment with physics-based puzzles. The final game uses a modified version of the Havok physics engine. At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, technical director Takuhiro Dohta, and art director Satoru Takizawa held a presentation titled "Change and Constant – Breaking Conventions with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", during which they demoed the prototype. Aonuma called the physics engine in Breath of the Wild a major development for the Zelda series, saying that it "underpins everything in the world" and makes things operate in a "logical and realistic way", allowing players to approach puzzles and problems in different ways. He expanded on the difficulty in developing this system, recalling how one day during development he entered an area in the game and found that all the objects had been blown away by the wind. In the early stage of development, the game was to include "double hookshots", a variation of the hookshot present in previous Zelda games, that would let players swing "like Spider-Man". It ended up being removed after the developers found it gave the player too much mobility and broke the climbing mechanic. As previous Zelda games increased the amount of actions Link could perform, the development team realized that having too many actions would complicate the controls, so instead of adding more actions, they increased the number of events the player could interact with in the world. The game was built and demonstrated with touchscreen features for the Wii U, but the developers found that "looking back and forth between the Gamepad and the screen" distracted from the game. The features were removed when the game moved to tandem development across the Switch and Wii U. The Wii U GamePad also affected animation; although Link is canonically left-handed, he is right-handed in the game to match the GamePad's control scheme, which has its sword-swinging buttons on its right side. The Switch version performs better than the Wii U release when docked to a television, although when undocked, both run at the same resolution. The Switch version also has higher-quality environmental sounds. Aonuma stated that the art design was inspired by gouache and en plein air art to help identify the vast world. Takizawa has also cited the Jōmon period as an inspiration for the ancient Sheikah technology and architecture that is found in the game, due to the mystery surrounding the period. The game's landscape was based on locations in and around Kyoto, the hometown of game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and was partially designed by Monolith Soft, who assisted with topographical level design. The game's initial area was made a plateau so that players can see the world's expansive environments. Breath of the Wild was the first main Zelda game to use voice acting in cutscenes, although Link remains a silent protagonist. Aonuma was affected by the first time he heard a character with a human voice in-game, and wanted to leave a similar impression on players. The team decided to record voice-overs for all cutscenes instead of only the key scenes, as originally planned. Nintendo provided voice-overs and subtitles in eight languages. Initially, players were not able to mix and match the languages of voices and subtitles, but Nintendo later released an update in May 2017 that allowed players to choose the voice-over language. After five years of development, the game went gold, with Nintendo holding a wrap party to celebrate. Coinciding with the game's launch in Taiwan and South Korea in early 2018, Nintendo introduced a patch worldwide adding traditional and simplified Chinese and Korean translations for the Nintendo Switch version.The original score was composed by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, and Hajime Wakai. Kataoka and Wakai had previously worked on the Zelda games Spirit Tracks and The Wind Waker respectively. The soundtrack was primarily written and performed on a piano, with a focus on ambient music and sounds rather than melodic and upbeat music as seen in previous Zelda games. According to Wakai, this helped add "authenticity" to the environments and was taken on as a challenge by the rest of the sound team. == Release == Aonuma originally teased the game for the Wii U in January 2013 during a Nintendo Direct presentation. The game, he continued, would challenge the series' conventions, such as the requirement that players complete dungeons in a set order. The next year, Nintendo introduced the game's high-definition, cel-shaded visual style with in-game footage at its E3 press event. Once planned for release in 2015, the game was delayed early in the year and did not show at that year's E3. Zelda series creator Shigeru Miyamoto reaffirmed that the game would still release for the Wii U despite the development of Nintendo's next console, the Nintendo Switch. The game was delayed again in April 2016 due to problems with its physics engine. Nintendo let attendees play the game's Wii U version at E3 convention, where they also announced its subtitle, Breath of the Wild. It was listed among the best games at E3 by several publications.Breath of the Wild launched for both the Wii U and Switch on March 3, 2017. It was the last Nintendo game released for the Wii U. The Switch version was available in limited "Special Edition" and "Master Edition" bundles, which both included a Sheikah Eye coin, a Calamity Ganon tapestry with world map, a soundtrack CD, and a themed carrying case for the Switch. The Master Edition also included a figurine based on the Master Sword. An "Explorer's Edition" was released for the Switch on November 23, containing a two-sided map and a 100-page book of story information. In Europe, the game used unique packing artwork. A five-disc, 211-track soundtrack was released in Japan on April 25, 2018. === Downloadable content === During 2017, Nintendo released a "season pass" for two bundled downloadable content (DLC): The Master Trials and The Champions' Ballad. The Master Trials, released in June, adds gameplay modes, features, and items. In the "Trial of the Sword" challenge, the player faces three trials, consisting of twelve, sixteen, and twenty-three rooms respectively. Each room is full of enemies which the player must defeat before proceeding. Every room must be completed before the player can claim their reward. The player begins with no equipment and will lose all progress if they receive a game over. At the end of each trial the player's Master Sword has its attack power upgraded by ten points and the blue sheen of its blade grows slightly. By the end of the third trial, the Master Sword will have doubled in attack power and will glow blue. The pack also adds an option to play the game at a higher difficulty level, called "Master Mode", which adds faster rank leveling and raises the ranks of enemies by 1. The enemies are more perceptive when Link sneaks near them and slowly regenerate health in battle. New floating platforms throughout the land offer enemies to battle and treasure as a reward. The Hero's Path feature draws the player's path on the game's map, designed to help players determine places they have not visited. The player can also find the hidden Travel Medallion to save Link's current position as a single waypoint to which the player can transport Link at any time. New items include the Korok Mask, which alerts the player when a Korok is nearby, and other themed cosmetics related to previous Zelda games.The Champions' Ballad was released in December. It added a new dungeon, additional story content, new gear, and additional challenges, as well as the Master Cycle Zero, a motorcycle-like vehicle that Link can ride upon completing the quest line.A "Complete Edition" containing all DLC on the game card was released in Japan on October 8, 2021. == Reception == Breath of the Wild received "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. The game is the highest-rated of 2017 on Metacritic, and holds the largest number of perfect reviews of any game from any year. Several critics called the game a masterpiece.The open-world gameplay received praise. Jose Otero of IGN described it as "a masterclass in open-world design" and "a wonderful sandbox full of mystery, dangling dozens upon dozens of tantalizing things in front of you that just beg to be explored". GameSpot called it the most impressive game Nintendo had made, writing that it "takes designs and mechanics perfected in other games and reworks them for its own purposes to create something wholly new, but also something that still feels quintessentially like a Zelda game ... It's both a return to form and a leap into uncharted territory, and it exceeds expectations on both fronts". Edge wrote that the game world was "an absolute, and unremitting, pleasure to get lost in" and that "the magic of being given all the tools in the opening hour is the knowledge that the solution to any problem is already at your disposal, and you can always change tack". According to Digital Trends, the ability to climb any surface and glide across the map gave players freedom of movement that "broke the genre open, pushing developers to rethink how players interact with the world" and putting extra thought into vertical design. In contrast to "Ubisoft-style" games that filled the game's map with points of interest and objectives, Breath of the Wild's free-form exploration encourages players to set their own objectives, marking the map with discoveries that serve as a record of what players have accomplished.According to Kyle Orland of Ars Technica, the game with its open-world design reinvented Zelda formula, in comparison to other entries of the franchise. Journalists commented on unexpected interactions between game elements, with serendipitous moments proving popular on social media. Chris Plante of The Verge predicted that whereas prior open-world games tended to feature prescribed challenges, Zelda would influence a new generation of games with open-ended problem-solving. Digital Trends wrote that the game's level of experimentation allowed players to interact with and exploit the environment in creative ways, resulting in various "tricks" still discovered years after release.Reviewers lauded the sense of detail and immersion. Kotaku recommended turning off UI elements in praise of the indirect cues that contextually indicate the same information, such as Link shivering in the cold or waypoints appearing when using the scope. Reviewers also commented on the unexpected permutations of interactions between Link, villagers, pets, and enemies, many of which were shared widely on social media. A tribute to former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who died during development, also attracted praise.Jim Sterling was more critical than most, giving Breath of the Wild a 7/10 score, criticizing the difficulty, weapon durability, and level design, but praising the open world and variety of content; Sterling's website was targeted by DDoS attacks from fans of the game as a result. Other criticism focused on the unstable frame rate and the low resolution of 900p; updates addressed some of these problems. === Sales === Breath of the Wild broke sales records for a Nintendo launch game in multiple regions. In Japan, the Switch and Wii U versions sold a combined 230,000 copies in the first week of release, with the Switch version becoming the top-selling game released that week. In the UK, Breath of the Wild was the second-bestselling retail game its week of release behind Horizon Zero Dawn, and became the third-bestselling Zelda game behind Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. In the United States, Breath of the Wild was the second-bestselling video game during its month of release behind Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. Nintendo reported that Breath of the Wild sold more than one million copies in the US that month, 925,000 of which were for Switch – a 100% attach rate. In April 2017, Nintendo reported it had sold 3.84 million copies of Breath of the Wild worldwide by the end of March, 1.08 million for Wii U and 2.76 million for Switch, surpassing the Switch's global sales of 2.74 million for the same period. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said that the attach rate of Breath of the Wild to the Switch was "unprecedented". By March 2019, the game sold 14.27 million copies worldwide, 12.77 on the Switch and 1.61 on the Wii U, making Breath of the Wild the best-selling game in the franchise. Total sales for the Switch version reached 26.55 million by March 2022. It has sold 1.69 million copies on the Wii U. By August 2022, the Switch version had sold 27 million copies. === Awards === Following its demonstration at E3 2016, Breath of the Wild received several accolades from the Game Critics Awards and from publications such as IGN and Destructoid. It was listed among the best games at E3 by Eurogamer, GameSpot, and GamesRadar+. In late 2016, Breath of the Wild received two awards at Gamescom, and won the award for Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards 2016.After its release, Breath of the Wild won multiple awards at the Game Awards 2017, including Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, and Best Action/Adventure Game, and was nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Score/Music, and Best Audio Design. At the 2018 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, it won Game of the Year among other awards. Industry publications including IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, Entertainment Weekly, Eurogamer, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamesRadar+, and Game Informer ranked Breath of the Wild the best game of 2017. According to Metacritic, Breath of the Wild topped 18 lists of the decade's best games, more than any other game of the 2010s. The game also ranked high in several lists of the greatest video games, including The Guardian, IGN, Edge Magazine, and Famitsu. In a 2021 poll conducted by TV Asahi, polling over 50,000 Japanese users, Breath of the Wild was voted the best console game of all time, above Dragon Quest V at number two. == Legacy == Shortly after Breath of the Wild's release, journalists and video game industry figures discussed how it would influence future open-world games and the Zelda series. Benjamin Plich, designer of Assassin's Creed: Unity and For Honor, said that he believed developers would take inspiration from its focus on experimental and emergent gameplay, such as "the ability to experiment with things more freely, in an open way" and having a sense of autonomy and experimentation with the environment and the tools at their disposal. Damien Monnier, designer of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, said Breath of the Wild managed to bring classic open world mechanics together while not relying on them to guide the player through its world, encouraging players to go and explore anywhere in the game. Its "reactive physics" sandbox design was "a revelation for the open world genre at large" according to Screen Rant, and the game was noted for its experimental chemistry engine, emphasizing chemistry as much as physics. PC Gamer wrote that the game set a new standard for its genre and the future games to come.In the years since its release, multiple games and developers have cited Breath of the Wild as an inspiration. These include Genshin Impact, Ghost of Tsushima, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Telling Lies, Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and Forspoken. Similarities have also been noted between Breath of the Wild and other open-world games since its launch, including Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Sonic Frontiers and Horizon: Forbidden West. According to Digital Trends, Breath of the Wild has become a popular point of comparison among open world games.The game's success sparked increased interest in the Wii U emulator Cemu, as the Cemu developers rapidly updated the software to run the game at a steady frame rate within weeks of release.Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a hack and slash game in the style of Dynasty Warriors series, following 2014's Hyrule Warriors, is a spin-off of Breath of the Wild, with the story set 100 years before. The game was released on November 20, 2020, on the Nintendo Switch. === Sequel === A sequel was announced at E3 2019 with the title later revealed to be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It was conceived during planning for Breath of the Wild's DLC; the team came up with too many ideas, some of which could not be implemented due to technical constraints, so used them for a new game. According to Aonuma, the sequel will build atop the original's world with a new story and gameplay elements, and is inspired in part by Red Dead Redemption 2. Fujibayashi will reprise his role as director. Originally set to be released in 2022, the game was delayed to early 2023. The game is scheduled to be released on May 12, 2023. == Notes == == References == The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Creating a Champion. Dark Horse Books. November 20, 2018. ISBN 978-1-50671-010-5. Stark, Chelsea (November 11, 2019). "Breath of the Wild is one of the best games of this decade, and perhaps the most impactful of the next decade". Polygon. Retrieved November 13, 2019. == External links == Official website The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at MobyGames The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at IMDb

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Role-playing

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are 2019 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. They are the first installments in the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and the second in the series, following Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, released on a home game console. Originally teased at E3 2017 and announced in February 2019, Pokémon Sword and Shield were released in November 2019. The games received two downloadable content expansion packs through an expansion pass with The Isle of Armor, released in June 2020 and The Crown Tundra, released in October 2020. A physical bundle including both expansion packs with the base games was released in November 2020. Sword and Shield's concept planning began immediately following the completion of Pokémon Sun and Moon in 2016, while full production began a year later in September 2017. Like previous installments, they chronicle the journey of a young Pokémon trainer aiming to become the Pokémon Champion, this time in the new Galar region, which is based on the United Kingdom. The main objective of the games is to dethrone the Pokémon League Champion, Leon, in a tournament that various other Gym Leaders and rivals also take part in, whilst dealing with Team Yell and a nefarious conspiracy within the League. Sword and Shield introduce 81 new Pokémon- 88 in total including later DLCs- alongside 13 regional forms of pre-existing Pokémon; Dynamaxing, which increases the size of Pokémon under certain conditions; Gigantamaxing, which additionally changes the form of certain Pokémon; and the Wild Area, which is a large, open-world area with free camera movement that contains co-op raid battles. The two games also reintroduce features previously seen in Sun and Moon and Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, such as regional forms and roaming Pokémon depicted in the overworld. When the decision to not include all pre-existing Pokémon from Sword and Shield and onward was announced, it was met with backlash from a segment of the fan community, resulting in a controversy known as "Dexit" (referencing the Pokédex and Brexit) and calls for a boycott months ahead of their release. Despite this, Sword and Shield received generally positive reviews from critics. Particular praise was aimed at the creatures design, new features, and the emphasis on simplicity, player freedom, and streamlined encounters, although some criticized the game's smaller Pokédex and a perceived lack of polish or depth. By March 2022, Sword and Shield had sold more than 24.27 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the fastest-selling games on the Nintendo Switch, and are currently the fifth-best-selling games on the Switch and second-best-selling titles in the Pokémon series. == Gameplay == Pokémon Sword and Shield are role-playing video games with adventure elements and in most cases are presented in a fixed camera, third-person perspective; in certain instances free camera movement is available. The player controls a young trainer who goes on a quest to catch and train creatures known as Pokémon and win battles against other trainers. By defeating opposing Pokémon in turn-based battles, the player's Pokémon gains experience, allowing them to level up and increase their battle statistics, learn new battle techniques and in some cases, evolve into more powerful Pokémon. Players can capture wild Pokémon, found during wild encounters, by weakening them in battle and catching them with Poké Balls, allowing them to be added to their party. Players are also able to battle and trade Pokémon with other human players using the Nintendo Switch connectivity features. As with previous games in the series, certain Pokémon are only obtainable in either Sword or Shield, with players encouraged to trade with others in order to obtain all Pokémon from both versions.Sword and Shield takes place in the Galar region, which is based on the United Kingdom. As with all regions, Galar consists of a number of cities and towns connected by "Routes"; however, there is also an open world area in the center of the region known as the "Wild Area", a concept new to the series. Random encounters with wild Pokémon may take place in tall grass or in bodies of water along routes or in the Wild Area. Wild Pokémon may also be encountered outside of tall grass and elsewhere in the environment and may chase or run away from the player depending on their disposition. The player occasionally battles Trainers in cities, towns, along routes and in the Wild Area. The driving force bringing the player to travel around the Galar region is to take part in the "Gym Challenge", an open-tournament to decide the greatest Pokémon Trainer in the region, dubbed the Champion. Eight of the game's cities and towns are homes to stadiums housing "Gym Leaders", powerful Trainers specializing in certain types of Pokémon; beating a Gym Leader gives the player a "Badge". After attaining eight Badges the player will be able to take part in the "Champion Cup", where they will face off in a single-elimination tournament against the previously faced Gym Leaders and other Trainers remaining in the Gym Challenge. After emerging victorious the player will face the Champion of the Galar region, Leon. === New features === The games introduce several new features to the series. These include cooperative raid encounters, the Wild Area, and "Dynamaxing" and "Gigantamaxing", both of which temporarily allow Pokémon to grow to larger sizes. The Wild Area is a fully explorable open world area with free camera movement and dynamic weather, which has implications on which Pokémon species appear at a given time. Gigantamaxing is limited to select Pokémon and feature different forms from the Pokémon's normal appearance and also giving the Pokémon an exclusive G-Max Move that Dynamax versions of the Pokémon cannot used. A new mechanic called "Poké Jobs" tasks the player's Pokémon with completing requests, such as assisting in construction or cooking, to gain experience or rare items. Pokémon Gyms make a return after being absent in Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. As is typical with the series, the two games have version-exclusive content such as certain Pokémon and, for the second time, Gym Leaders. A new 'Camp' mode allows the player to interact and play with their Pokémon and cook different types of curry to provide them with bonuses. New customization options for the player character have been added, like outerwear and other accessories. In most instances, the Pokémon box can now be accessed outside of Pokémon Centers. Like with Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokémon previously introduced in older games, such as Weezing, gain regional Galarian Forms with new typings, stats and appearances. Some Pokémon, such as Linoone and Meowth, even gain regional evolutions, a first in the series. === Connectivity === Internet connectivity to other players is supported for functionality such as trades, battles, and encountering other trainers in the Wild Area; these functions however require a paid subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. Sword and Shield only support direct game-to-game connectivity between themselves. The games are also compatible with Pokémon Home, an online cloud storage service for storing Pokémon, released in February 2020. Supported Pokémon can be transferred to the games from the Nintendo 3DS app Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Go and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! via Pokémon Home. Home is the only path to bringing Pokémon from previous games into Sword and Shield. == Plot == === Setting === Sword and Shield take place in the Galar region, a large, narrow expanse of land and one of many regions in the Pokémon world. Game director Shigeru Ohmori described it as a more modern setting. The region itself is inspired by Great Britain, with its many landmarks resembling places such as the Houses of Parliament and the Cerne Abbas Giant. Within the Galar region lie countryside towns featuring cottages and Victorian architecture to the south. An Industrial Revolution-like city with steampunk-style elements populates the center of the region, known as Motostoke in the game, which is based on Manchester. Many of the region's towns and cities feature Pokémon Gyms stylized like football stadiums, which show off both Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing, implemented by the Galar Pokémon League Chairman, Rose. Snow-covered mountains dominate much of the northern areas of the region. Encompassing a large portion of the south-central part of the region is the Wild Area, an open world area with numerous roaming Pokémon species. Weather across the Wild Area changes regularly. === Story === Similar to many previous entries in the Pokémon franchise, players embark on a journey across the region to become the strongest trainer, fighting eight powerful trainers called Gym Leaders and eventually the region's Champion. The player and their best friend, Hop, receive one of three starter Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble from Leon, Champion of the Galar region and Hop's older brother. Afterward, the two explore a forest called the Slumbering Weald but are driven off by a powerful Pokémon. During their subsequent visit to the region's Pokémon Professor, Magnolia and her granddaughter Sonia, they convince Leon to endorse them to take part in the Gym Challenge. After traveling to the next city to register for the Gym Challenge, they encounter rivals Bede and Marnie along with Team Yell, a devout group of hooligans who act as Marnie's unintentional fanbase and are determined to stop anyone else from completing the Challenge. The player also meets Chairman Rose, who, in addition to endorsing Bede as a Gym Challenger, presides over the Galar Pokémon League and the region's main energy company, Macro Cosmos. As their quest continues, the player assists Sonia in her research on two Legendary Pokémon who saved Galar from an ancient crisis called the Darkest Day and deduces that they are the same Pokémon previously encountered in the Slumbering Weald. After beating the eight Gym Leaders, including Piers, Marnie's older brother and the leader of Team Yell, the player makes their way to Wyndon where they win the Champion's Cup, earning an opportunity to battle Leon. Hop and the player then head to a hotel to meet with Leon, but he does not come. With help from Piers, Marnie, and Team Yell Grunt they get the keys from Chairman Rose' guard and make their way to Rose Tower. They reach the top of Rose Tower and battle with Rose' assistant, Oleana, and find Leon who is talking to Rose. Rose reveals his intentions to trigger the Darkest Day to solve a power crisis "thousands of years in the future." Leon, Hop, and the player head home. The next day, before the battle between the player and Leon can commence, Chairman Rose awakens the legendary Pokémon Eternatus in an attempt to harness its power to provide unlimited energy to Galar, purposefully triggering a second Darkest Day. The player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald and secure the aid of the legendary Pokémon, Zacian and Zamazenta, through a sword and shield they find in the ruins, to defeat Chairman Rose and Eternatus, after which the player catches Eternatus and Rose hands himself over to the authorities. Three days later, the player faces and defeats Leon in a battle and becomes the new Champion of the Galar region. After defeating Leon, the player and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald to return Zacian and Zamazenta's artifacts to their rightful place. The two also meet Sonia, who has become the Galar region's new Pokémon Professor. However, they are confronted by Sordward and Shielbert, two brothers claiming to be descendants of ancient Galarian kings. The two steal one of the relics and begin forcing innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. The player, Hop, and Piers work with the Gym Leaders to subdue the Dynamax Pokémon and then track down and confront the brothers. Once both the player and Hop corners the brothers in the Hammerlocke Power Plant, they then explain why they forced many innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. They forced innocent Pokémon to Dynamax as experiments on what would happen if Zacian/Zamazenta was to be sprinkled with Galar particles. The brothers' ultimate goal is to reveal the true barbaric and brutish nature of Zacian or Zamazenta, because Sonia thought that the two heroes who stopped the Darkest Day were Pokémon rather than humans. They use Dynamax energy to drive Zamazenta (in Sword) or Zacian (in Shield) berserk, and the player drives them off with the help of Zacian (in Sword) or Zamazenta (in Shield). They then are challenged to a battle by the Legendary Pokémon and allowed to catch it, while Hop follows Zamazenta/Zacian back to the Slumbering Weald and calms it down, being chosen by it as its Trainer. The player and Hop have a final battle, after which Hop decides to be a Pokémon Professor and becomes Sonia's assistant. == Development == Development of Pokémon Sword and Shield began immediately following the completion of Sun and Moon in the months preceding their release in November 2016. Shigeru Ohmori, who previously directed Sun and Moon, formed a team who begun thinking about ideas for the title. Kazumasa Iwao, director of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon later joined the project as planning director and full production started in September 2017. One of the first ideas the team had was making Pokémon giant as the game could be played on a large screen, thanks to the Switch's ability to connect to a television. Ohmori then thought about having a sword and a shield Pokémon to defeat the giant Pokémon; that's how the games' titles were decided.Approximately 1,000 people from multiple companies were involved in the development, marketing, and public relations associated with Sword and Shield. Approximately 200 Game Freak employees worked directly on the games while around 100 Creatures Inc. employees worked on 3D modeling, with an additional 100 involved in debugging and game testing. Junichi Masuda estimated the total number of people involved to be 50% greater than previous Pokémon titles. The idea of strength and striving to be the greatest and strongest was one of the core themes that Game Freak used in designing the games. This is expressed through the Nintendo Switch's status as the most powerful console to run a Pokémon game, with features such as Dynamaxing, and references to British folklore. The games' soundtrack is inspired by British rock music. One track was composed by Toby Fox, best known for being the creator of Undertale as well as Deltarune. The Switch's ability to render larger Pokémon models and better show size differences between species is the root of the Dynamax feature. The idea of "growing and evolving" is a core concept of the games—for both the trainer and their Pokémon—stemming from producer Junichi Masuda and director Shigeru Ohmori's experience with the franchise. === "Cutting" Pokémon === Unlike other core Pokémon games, not all existing Pokémon species appear or are usable in Sword and Shield. Masuda addressed this as a potential issue in a 2018 interview with GameSpot, at which point he said that "it does get complicated when you talk about the details and we're still figuring it out, but we do have plans to find ways to let players use their Pokémon in the next game." By 2019, Masuda explained that the sheer number of species, combined with the need to produce assets relating to new features such as the Dynamaxing system, preserve game balance, and maintain a degree of quality made it infeasible to include all existing Pokémon without extensively lengthening development time. As such, only Pokémon that appear within the Galar region are transferable from previous titles via Pokémon Home with few exceptions. Furthermore, according to the developers, the higher fidelity models, which were designed to be more "expressive," had to be built from the ground up as simply transferring existing ones produced for the 3DS platform was not possible. Masuda confirmed that all three companies involved in the development, Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company, agreed to cut down the games' Pokédex. == Release == The games were originally teased through a special message by The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara during Nintendo's E3 2017 presentation, where Ishihara mentioned that Game Freak was working on a new core series Pokémon role-playing game for Nintendo Switch but that it would not be released for more than a year. During a press conference held by The Pokémon Company in Japan on May 30, 2018, Junichi Masuda confirmed that the next Pokémon core series games would release on Switch in the second half of 2019. Ishihara also assured that the then-upcoming titles would not have influences from Pokémon Go like Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! had and that it would introduce many new Pokémon and polished graphics.Sword and Shield were fully unveiled in a special Nintendo Direct presentation on February 27, 2019, introducing the games' region and starter Pokémon. The presentation coincided with Pokémon Day, a fan celebration of Pokémon on the anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Green. A second Nintendo Direct about the games was held on June 5, 2019, which revealed some of its new features, characters, and Pokémon, including the legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta, which appear on the box art. The release date of November 15, 2019, was also announced as part of this presentation. Game Freak intentionally limited the number of new Pokémon revealed through promotional material to encourage players to discover them in-game.A promotional crossover between Sword and Shield and Tetris 99 occurred from November 8–11, during which a limited-time unlockable theme based on the games was available. A web app was also released, allowing the viewer to explore the Wild Area online. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, an online tournament themed around Pokémon was held from November 15–18 to promote Sword and Shield's release, while a spirit event occurred from November 22–27, with some Pokémon being available as collectible spirits. === Expansion packs === During the Pokémon Direct on January 9, 2020, a pair of expansion packs were announced which were released throughout 2020 as part of an expansion pass. The first pack, The Isle of Armor, was released on June 17, 2020, while the second pack, The Crown Tundra, was released on October 22, 2020. A physical bundle including both expansion packs with the base games was released on November 6, 2020. The expansion packs introduce new Legendary Pokémon such as Kubfu and its evolved forms in The Isle of Armor and Calyrex in The Crown Tundra, along with new regional forms for pre-existing Pokémon such as Slowpoke. Between both expansion packs, they add more than 200 pre-existing Pokémon that aren't available in the base game. The explorable area introduced in The Isle of Armor draws inspiration from the Isle of Man while the area in The Crown Tundra is based on Scotland. == Controversy == The decision not to include all pre-existing Pokémon in the games drew criticism from many fans, who referred to it as "Dexit", a portmanteau of "Pokédex" and "Brexit" (tying in with the Galar region's British theme), and used the hashtag "#BringBackNationalDex" to discuss the matter on social media. Fan backlash focused on the removal of a long-standing aspect of the franchise, the discarding of its former English tagline "gotta catch 'em all," and a perceived lack of improvements in other areas of the games, such as graphics and animations. Some fans called for the games to be delayed until all of the Pokémon could be added. In an interview with Famitsu, Shigeru Ohmori stated that models for Pokémon appearing in Sword and Shield were being made again from the ground up.Writing for Polygon, Patricia Hernandez commented that "to some degree, the backlash makes sense" while adding that it had "gotten out of hand". Alex Donaldson of VG247 noted that feature creep—where an increase in new features over time may lead to removal of previous ones—had finally reached Pokémon, and long-overlooked design shortcomings of Game Freak were brought to the forefront as a result. Kotaku's Gita Jackson summarized the backlash as "the tension of a desire to indulge in nostalgia against a desire to experience more complexity." Joe Merrick, the webmaster of fansite Serebii, considered the controversy to have caused the most unrest among Pokémon fans since the troubled launch of Pokémon Bank in 2013.Masuda formally responded to the criticism on June 28, 2019, two weeks after it erupted, expressing appreciation for the love and passion shown by fans. He reiterated that the removal of certain Pokémon was a difficult decision to make and that they would be available in different games in the future. Michael McWhertor of Polygon noted that while Masuda's statement acknowledged the fans' discontent, it "[did not] amount to much".After the game's release, fans who were in support of "Dexit" strongly criticized the games for its graphics, story, and characters. Further criticism came from the fact that data miners discovered that some models and animations used in the games were the same as the 3DS games, resulting in the games being review bombed on Metacritic and the hashtag #GameFreakLied being a trend on Twitter. The announcement of the Isle of Armor & Crown Tundra expansion packs drew further outrage, with some fans believing that the packs should have been free or part of the base game due to "Game Freak's actions". == Reception == === Critical response === Upon release, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised the games' simplicity, new elements such as Dynamaxing, and streamlined battle encounters but criticized the incomplete Pokédex and not taking full advantage of the games' potential. Brian Shea from Game Informer particularly praised the new Dynamax feature for being visually and strategically exciting without being overused: "while the Dynamax mechanic has the potential to disrupt the flow of any battle, it doesn't factor into most encounters, since it can only be used in Gym battles and select other situations". Casey DeFreitas for IGN also praised Sword and Shield for their fun gameplay and lack of monotonous activities, while criticizing aspects such as cutscenes and lack of a full Pokédex. Writing for GameSpot, Kallie Plagge also praised the pair for easy-to-understand game systems and a sense of freedom stating, "you're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokémon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way." Conversely, Chris Tapsell for Eurogamer criticized the games, commenting that they lacked substance and did not live up to previous titles in the series. Tapsell commented "this is a new generation of Pokémon games that promises much, with brilliant new Pokémon, a raft of intricate system-tinkering for long-term fans and a series-first stab at an 'open-world' area. But all that's new seems to have come at a cost – and the cost is almost everything else in the game." James Grebey and Tom Philip of GQ also felt somewhat underwhelmed, praising the Wild Area but stating that the games were "satisfying but pedestrian" and feel like "proof of concept [with] another stage of evolution left for console Pokémon games". They also said that "there is... a lot in Sword and Shield that doesn't feel like it couldn't have been achieved on the Nintendo 3DS." === Sales === In Japan, Sword and Shield sold two million copies during their first three days on sale, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the fastest-selling Switch games in that region. In the US, they sold more than two million copies in their opening weekend. By November 21, 2019, Sword and Shield had sold more than six million copies worldwide, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the fastest-selling Switch games. By June 2022, the games had sold 24.50 million copies worldwide, and is the second-best-selling titles in the franchise, behind Pokémon Red and Blue. === Awards === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Super Mario Odyssey

Platformer

Super Mario Odyssey is a 2017 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. An entry in the Super Mario series, it follows Mario and his new ally Cappy—a sentient hat that allows Mario to control other characters and objects—as they journey across various kingdoms to save Princess Peach from his nemesis Bowser's plans of forced marriage. In contrast to the linear gameplay of prior entries, the game returns to the primarily open-ended, 3D platform gameplay featured in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. In Odyssey, Mario explores various kingdoms and collects Power Moons hidden inside them, used as a fuel source to power an airship known as the Odyssey to travel to new locations. Cappy's main function is the "capture" ability, letting Mario possess enemies and other objects, helping him solve puzzles and progress in the game. After completing the main story mode, other post-game kingdoms are unlockable and an additional minigame, "Luigi's Balloon World", is playable. The game supports multiplayer and virtual reality with a Nintendo Labo virtual reality kit. Developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development division, Odyssey entered development soon after the release of Super Mario 3D World in 2013. Various ideas were suggested during development, and to incorporate them all the team decided to employ a sandbox-style of gameplay. Unlike previous installments such as New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario 3D Land, which were aimed at a more casual audience, the team designed Super Mario Odyssey to appeal to the series' core fans. The game also features two voiced theme songs, "Jump Up, Super Star!", and "Break Free (Lead The Way)!" Odyssey was released on October 27, 2017. It received universal acclaim, with praise for its inventiveness, originality, and for improving on concepts introduced in prior Mario games. Odyssey is cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. The game won several awards and has sold 23 million copies, making it one of the bestselling Switch games and the fastest-selling Super Mario game. == Gameplay == Super Mario Odyssey is a platform game in which players control Mario as he travels across many different worlds, known as "Kingdoms" within the game, on the hat-shaped ship Odyssey, to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who plans to forcibly marry her. The Kingdoms in the game return to the exploration-based level design featured in Super Mario 64. Each Kingdom has Mario searching for and clearing various objectives in order to obtain items known as Power Moons, which are the power sources of the Odyssey and grant access to new Kingdoms. Checkpoint flags littered throughout each Kingdom allow Mario to instantly warp to them once activated. Certain levels feature areas called "flat" zones, where Mario is placed in a 2D side-scrolling environment similar to his appearance in the original Super Mario Bros.In addition to his existing moves, like triple-jumping and wall-jumping, Mario can throw his cap, the physical form of a hat spirit named Cappy, in multiple directions to attack enemies and use as a temporary platform. When the cap is thrown at certain objects, enemies, or non-playable characters, Mario is able to take possession of them, referred to as "capturing", allowing him to use unique abilities. For example, Mario can capture a Bullet Bill to fly across large gaps, a Tyrannosaurus to trample things, a bolt of electricity called a Spark Pylon to climb up electric wires, and a tank called a Sherm to fire at enemies and break blocks for passage. Some actions can be accelerated by using motion controls in the Joy-Con controllers, but the game is otherwise fully playable when the Joy-Con are attached to the Switch console. Throughout the game, Mario can pick up coins, including purple ones unique to each kingdom, to spend on items such as new hats and outfits, some of which are required for completing certain objectives. The game uses a health system similar to the Super Mario Galaxy games, although Mario has unlimited lives; the only penalty for dying is paying up to ten coins. The player can also collect items known as 'Life-Up Hearts' which grant three extra hit points. The game also features cooperative play, in which a second player takes control of Cappy and can attack enemies independently of Mario.The game requires a minimum number of Power Moons to be collected from each Kingdom to move onto the next, though these may be obtained from any source, making major objectives largely optional. Once Bowser is defeated, each kingdom is repopulated with more Power Moons. Collecting enough Power Moons allows for additional outfits to be purchased and unlocks two bonus areas. One of these areas is a boss rush called Dark Side, with 250 Power Moons required to enter. The other is a level called Darker Side that combines many elements of the game, and requires 500 Power Moons to enter. In addition to this, there is also a level based on Peach's Castle from Super Mario 64 unlocked by beating the game. This level allows Mario to face harder versions of previously defeated bosses and earn additional Power Moons by completing in-game achievements.The game features a photo mode that allows players to use a free-moving camera to take and save screenshots, with additional options such as filters and stickers. Use of the Odyssey-themed Mario, Peach, and Bowser Amiibo figurines allow for special in-game abilities and unlocking special costumes which are otherwise unavailable until after the player completes the game and collects enough Power Moons. Other Amiibo can be scanned to provide hints to finding Power Moons.The game was updated in 2019 to be compatible with the Nintendo Labo virtual reality kit. In this mode, Mario must complete challenges in a number of Kingdoms to recruit musicians and give them instruments by completing tasks related to musical notes. === Luigi's Balloon World === A hide-and-seek minigame, called "Luigi's Balloon World", was released as part of an update on February 21, 2018. In it, players have 30 seconds to hide a balloon somewhere in a kingdom, which is then able to be played by others attempting to find it. A leaderboard system ranks the players who have found the most balloons. == Plot == Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach from the Mushroom Kingdom and takes her aboard his airship, intent on forcibly marrying her. Mario, also aboard, attempts to rescue her but is knocked off the ship by Bowser's hat and falls into the neighboring Cap Kingdom. With Mario gone, Bowser stomps on Mario's cap and lets it drift into the ship's rear propellers, shredding it to pieces. A piece of the hat is grabbed by Cappy, one of the Cap Kingdom's sentient hat-like creatures called Bonneters. The two meet, and he explains to Mario that Bowser also kidnapped his sister, Tiara, to be used as Peach's wedding tiara. Cappy joins Mario and takes the shape of Mario's cap, providing him with the ability to throw his cap and temporarily capture other creatures and objects and utilize their abilities. They travel to the nearby Cascade Kingdom, recover an airship called the Odyssey, and begin hunting Bowser down. Mario and Cappy explore the various kingdoms to collect Power Moons to fuel the Odyssey and battle the Broodals—a team of anthrophomorphic rabbit wedding planners hired by Bowser—who steal items including a dress, a cake, and a bouquet from each kingdom to set up Bowser's wedding. Eventually, they catch up to Bowser in his own kingdom; however, Bowser subsequently departs for his wedding on the Moon and leaves the two to fight the Broodals in their Mecha-Broodal. They defeat them and follow Bowser to the Moon. Mario and Cappy fly the Odyssey to the Moon's surface and confront Bowser inside a cathedral. The two battle in the Moon's interior, where Bowser is defeated and Mario frees Peach and Tiara, but the cavern begins to collapse. Using Cappy, Mario takes control of an unconscious Bowser and escapes to the surface with Peach and Tiara. Back on the surface, Mario prepares to propose to Peach, but Bowser regains consciousness and proposes as well. The two fight over her hand in marriage before an overwhelmed Peach demands they stop, and she boards the Odyssey with Cappy and Tiara. The rivals are both heartbroken until Peach tells Mario to come home with her. Mario boards the ship just in time, leaving Bowser stranded on the moon. In post-game content, Mario and Cappy collect more Power Moons that were released from Moon rocks to traverse other parts of the Moon, known as "Dark Side" and "Darker Side", to complete other challenges. Meanwhile, Peach and Tiara travel the world on their own terms, and meet up with Mario along the way. == Development == Super Mario Odyssey was developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development division, with additional assistance from 1-Up Studio. The game was produced by Yoshiaki Koizumi and Koichi Hayashida, the same producers behind Super Mario 3D World, and directed by Kenta Motokura. Shigeru Miyamoto reassumed his role of what he calls the "Creative Fellow", and the developers gave him concepts and he gave feedback in return. According to Koizumi, Miyamoto "left us to our own devices quite a lot."Odyssey was designed to appeal to Mario's core audience—a departure from the series' then-recent focus on casual players; the game focuses more on dense, open-world exploration rather than the linear gameplay recent Mario games have taken, following instead the format of games such as Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine.According to Miyamoto, after Super Mario Galaxy and 3D World, linear gameplay was focused on less and the game would "go back to the roots, to Mario Sunshine". The game did intend to have camera control that was much easier to use than Sunshine, however. The first concept that came to be for Odyssey involved Koizumi using motion controls; he pictured motion actions that the Joy-Con controllers could be used for, and the most natural fit was throwing an object. To create a sense of connection to this gimmick, Mario's own hat was the object chosen to be thrown. === Design === In an interview with Koizumi, he stated that every core gameplay concept was decided on very early into the game's development cycle, with the philosophy of creating an entirely new experience for the series; these ideas consisted of traveling between kingdoms, collecting Power Moons, and other settings. Cappy was also created in the first prototype, and motion controls were built off of this. Another goal was keeping the game running at 60 frames per second. Certain locations, such as New Donk City, contained realistic looks and humans; this design choice was to emphasize the feeling of a new location that is different from the normal.One of the main aspects considered was the Switch's capabilities of portability and TV docking, which affected how the game could be played. Motion controls were also implemented, being able to use the two controllers in each hand. The developers were careful in making sure the game was fun to play in these distinct ways. To bridge the two, the game was balanced to allow gameplay in short bursts or long sessions to satisfy both fields. Kenta Motokura mentioned at an interview at E3 that the game was made possible to play in these two ways; the player has the choice of either following a set storyline or can find power moons simply by exploring. They also made sure each platforming stage had numerous ways of completion.A game the designers considered when designing Odyssey was the sandbox video game Minecraft. They initially believed a game that had camera movement would be difficult to use amongst children, but they later passed this as sufficient due to Minecraft's popularity and excessive use of camera control. === Setting and characters === The developers constructed prototypes of gameplay gimmicks or platforming stages first; from there, they would discuss what kind of setting or theme the prototype would best fit within, and the locations would be constructed second. Thirdly, the locations would be taken and more ideas were designed specifically for them. The game's locations were built around the themes of journey and surprise, according to Kenta Motokura. The kingdoms have purchasable souvenirs to help make them more relatable and easier to connect to. Since the kingdoms were also open-world areas, the developers filled them with diversity and small details to give them a sense of empathy by making the player feel connected to them. Each kingdom was based on personal experiences from the designers, and they built off these locations by experimenting with how Mario could interact with them. The ability to take in-game screenshots was also considered by the team to be a natural fit. Cappy was created into a character a little later after the hat throwing mechanic was introduced because the developers wanted a "buddy" to travel alongside Mario. The developers prioritized the city environment when selecting which environments to represent in Odyssey. They wanted a familiar aspect from the series to anchor players in the novel setting, and so chose Pauline, a character who first appeared alongside Mario in Donkey Kong, to be the mayor of New Donk City. === Music === While doing character work for Pauline, they gave her an interest in jazz music. This led her to becoming a singer, with the inclusion of the song "Jump Up Super Star!" Super Mario Run had previously featured a track with vocals that was added in an update released one month prior to Odyssey. A swing music-inspired song, "Jump Up Super Star!" was composed by the game's lead composer, Naoto Kubo, with vocals by Kate Higgins. The song's chorus was made simple to be memorable and easy to sing along to. Lyrics were written in Japanese by Nobuyoshi Suzuki and translated to English by Rob Heiret. Another theme song, "Break Free (Lead the Way)", followed a similar process. Other music was written by Shiho Fujii and series sound director Koji Kondo. A sampler album containing 12 tracks from the game was released on iTunes in December 2017. A four-disc soundtrack containing 136 tracks was released in Japan in 2018 by Being Inc. The soundtracks include English, Japanese, and instrumental versions of "Jump Up Super Star!" and "Break Free (Lead the Way)". The discs also include commentary from some of the development staff. == Release == The game was teased via the Nintendo Switch console announcement trailer in 2016; in January 2017 during a Nintendo presentation, Odyssey was formally announced to be in development, and was followed shortly after with gameplay footage. A section at E3 2017 was themed around New Donk City, and was filled with kiosks that allowed people to play a demo. The announcement at E3 2017 was the most popular part of the presentation on social media and was considered the best part of the show by other attending developers. Critics also noted the game's density of secrets and noted the format of open-world exploration.Two weeks before the game's release, Nintendo uploaded a Broadway inspired promotional music video of "Jump Up Super Star!", which featured live-action dancers alongside a CGI animated character of Mario. The song was released on the digital music storefront iTunes shortly after and became one of the top 40 best sellers in the United States.The game officially released October 27, 2017, alongside Amiibo of Mario, Peach, and Bowser in their respective wedding attire. In addition, a limited-time Odyssey themed Nintendo Switch was released, containing the console, Joy-Con reminiscent to the color of the character Cappy, a Switch console carrying case, and a Nintendo eShop digital download code for Odyssey. Later that December, Nintendo partnered with food manufacturing company Kellogg's to release a limited quantity breakfast cereal ⁠—"Super Mario Cereal"⁠— in the United States. The back of the box contains an NFC tag that can be scanned like an Amiibo toy, which provides exclusive in-game extras. == Reception == Super Mario Odyssey received "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. As of 2022, review aggregator Metacritic ranks Odyssey as the joint third highest-rated game of all-time.Andrew Webster of The Verge thought that the structure of the game lent itself well to the portable nature of the Switch, which players could play for either long sessions in order to follow the missions, or in short bursts while collecting "Power Moons", which the author compared to the "shrines", or hidden mini-dungeons, which were scattered throughout Breath of the Wild. Despite the praise, Webster noted that the motion controls "felt frustratingly imprecise", preferring the accuracy of standard controls. The ability for Mario to turn into his 2D Super Mario Bros. form in certain constrained segments was compared to the puzzles featured in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, while VentureBeat made note of the game's similarities to the Sonic the Hedgehog series.Edge praised the inventiveness of the game's new ideas and the risks Nintendo had taken to deviate from the established formula of Mario games, which they believed had paid off. They likened the game to Super Mario 64 and called it the spiritual successor that had previously not yet been achieved. The magazine also complimented the introduction of Cappy and the capturing mechanic, which they called the most versatile ability in the Mario series to date, and enjoyed how the ability allowed Nintendo to reinvent a number of their favorite gameplay activities. Famitsu gave the game a score of 39/40, the same as Super Mario 64 and the highest score for a 3D Mario game since then. Perfect 10/10 scores were also awarded by IGN and GameSpot, who both praised the game's originality.In contrast, Ian Dallas, the creator of What Remains of Edith Finch, gave Super Mario Odyssey a lukewarm review. He explained, "My problem with Super Mario Odyssey is that it's not actually satisfying to finish. This is not to say it isn't worth playing; it absolutely is. I just don't think it's worth finishing". Phil Hornshaw of Digital Trends gave the game 4/5 stars, saying that "Mario's first turn on the Switch is fun, but lacks the innovation and creativity of Nintendo's best." Hornshaw also noted that the "Controls and camera can be imprecise" and "frustrating".The song "Jump Up, Super Star!" debuted at number 33 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the week of November 11, 2017. In Japan, the song reached No. 1 on the Japanese iTunes Store. On the US iTunes Store, the song debuted at 25 in the "All Genres" category. Kate Higgins performed "Jump Up, Super Star!" live at The Game Awards 2017 ceremony. === Sales === Three days after release, more than two million copies of the game were sold worldwide, with 500,000 in Japan. During its launch week, the game competed with Assassin's Creed Origins, which it was narrowly outsold by in the United Kingdom. In the United States and Europe, it became Nintendo's fastest-selling Super Mario game ever, with 1.1 million copies sold in the US within five days. According to the NPD Group, the game was the best-selling video game of October 2017, and was listed by Amazon as the online retailer's highest-selling game of the year. By December 2017, Super Mario Odyssey had sold 9.07 million copies worldwide, making it the bestselling game for the Switch at that time. By August 2022, it had sold 23 million copies. === Awards === Entertainment Weekly and Giant Bomb both ranked the game second in their list of the "Best Games of 2017", and GamesRadar+ ranked it fourth on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017, while Eurogamer and Polygon ranked it third on their lists of the "Top 50 Games of 2017". Ars Technica ranked the game as their Game of the Year, while The Verge named it as one of their 15 Best Games of 2017. Readers and staff of Game Informer voted it as the best platforming game of the year, while the former also voted it as Game of the Year, along with Best Nintendo Game. EGMNow also ranked the game at #4 in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017.The game won the award for "Best Switch Game" in Destructoid's Game of the Year Awards 2017. It also won the awards for "Best Platformer" and "Best Original Music" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year" and "Best Switch Game". It was also nominated for "Switch Retail Game of the Year" and "Overall Game of the Year" by both reader and staff votes in Nintendo Life's Game of the Year Awards. The game won the Game of the Year award at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers award event, where it won all but one of the categories it was nominated for. Odyssey also won the awards in IGN's Best of E3 for "Best Platformer", "Best Nintendo Switch Game", and "Game of Show"; and in Destructoid's Best of E3 for "Best of Show". == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Role-playing

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl are 2021 remakes of the 2006 Nintendo DS role-playing video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. The games are part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and were developed by ILCA and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. The games were released on 19 November 2021. They were announced as part of the 25th anniversary event, alongside Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl received mixed reviews from critics, who praised aspects of the gameplay but were divided over certain changes made to the original, the games' visual design, and lack of features and Pokédex from Pokémon Platinum. == Gameplay == Gameplay of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is similar to the original Diamond and Pearl games, comparable to previous remakes such as Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The games are presented in a top-down isometric third-person perspective, though with a distinct visual style. == Setting == As with the original games, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are set in the fictional region of Sinnoh, an island based on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. == Development and release == Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were developed by ILCA; as such, they are the first main-series Pokémon games to have a different company as the lead developer instead of Game Freak. They were directed by Yuichi Ueda from ILCA and Junichi Masuda from Game Freak, the director of the original games.Possible development on remakes of Diamond and Pearl had been leaked on 15 January 2021, when a "diamondpearl" subdomain of the Pokémon website was registered and published. Shortly after, the domain was taken offline. On 26 February 2021, the day of the Pokémon 25th Anniversary Pokémon Presents presentation, several leakers claimed that the upcoming livestream would announce remakes of Diamond and Pearl, titled Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, alongside an action role-playing game also set in the Sinnoh region, later revealed to be Pokémon Legends: Arceus. During the Pokémon Presents, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced for the Nintendo Switch with a tentative late 2021 release date.On 26 May 2021, a release date of 19 November 2021 was announced along with a reveal of the games box art. During the reveal of the Nintendo Switch OLED model on 6 July 2021, footage displaying improved visuals for the games was shown. A Pokémon Presents presentation on 18 August 2021 showed new features including character customization, the return of The Underground which is now called The Grand Underground, Poké Ball decorations (now renamed Stickers rather than Seals), the Union Room, Super Contest Shows, and Pokémon being able to follow the player. It was revealed that a Pokémon egg of the Mythical Pokémon Manaphy would be available from Mystery Gift as an early purchase bonus until February 21, 2022.On 28 September 2021, on the 15th anniversary of the original Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, a new trailer was released showcasing the Pokétch with Hidden Moves, Poffins, Pokémon party following the player in Hearthome City's Amity Square, STAT trainers Cheryl and Riley, and Eterna City Gym Leader Gardenia. On 26 October, another trailer was released featuring Snowpoint City Gym Leader Candice and Sunyshore City Gym Leader Volkner; Team Galactic Commanders Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and Team Galactic Boss Cyrus; and the three Legendary Lake Pokémon Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie. Moreover, it was announced that the outfits of the protagonists Lucas and Dawn from Pokémon Platinum would be available from Mystery Gift as an early purchase bonus until February 21, 2022. An overview trailer summarizing the main features of the games was released on 5 November 2021 on the official Japanese Nintendo YouTube channel.Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been described as having a "litany of glitches", with numerous glitches discovered within weeks after release. This includes the ability to walk through walls to catch the Mythical Pokémon Shaymin, access the location for the Darkrai event location early and to speedrun the game in 23 minutes, as well as an exploit to duplicate multiple Pokémon at a time along with their held items. Several of these glitches were fixed in version 1.1.2 released on December 1, 2021. == Reception == === Pre-release === After the announcement, fans were divided on the new chibi art style shown in the trailer. Opponents argued that the graphics were a downgrade compared to the two previous Pokémon remakes (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!). Proponents argued the new look stays faithful to the original 2D games while making the leap to 3D. === Critical reception === Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game earned a 34 out of 40 total score from Japanese magazine Famitsu based on individual scores of 8, 9, 8, and 9.Rebekah Valentine of IGN gave the games an 8 out of 10, stating: "Like the themes of its story, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are solid and enduring – leaning on the past, with all of its triumphs and tripwires." They would ultimately declare that "If a good remake is defined by its loyalty to the original, then Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are very good remakes indeed," but lamented that they "weren’t braver in how they improved upon the originals in the same way other Pokémon remakes were." Game Informer's John Carson likewise called the titles "faithful remakes" of the DS games, but that they "deviate from the mechanical blueprint, with varying degree of success." He would go on to praise the graphics engine which was "mostly free of framerate drops or the slowdown that plagues other 3D entries in the series," and declare the games "a welcome throwback to a simpler time when I felt completing a Pokédex was a somewhat realistic task to undertake."While the games' stylized chibi art style was mostly praised by IGN with the exception of certain story sequences meant to be taken seriously, others such as Destructoid's Chris Carter felt that the visuals took some getting used to. He said that while the region can be a "joy to explore", developer ILCA tried to stick too closely to the originals while adding a few new features on top, leading to a disjointed experience. In addition, the inability to turn off the Experience Share feature can result in the player's Pokémon being over-leveled for the majority of the game, making battles with NPCs "a chore" rather than a legitimate challenge. Jordan Middler from Nintendo Life declared the change in art style to be "for the worse" and that the characters resembled "emotionless Funko Pops", but the correctly proportioned character models in battles were considerably better. ILCA's decision to exclude story elements and features seen in Pokémon Platinum was also seen as a detriment, but the inclusion of the new Grand Underground area made up for the otherwise limited selection of Pokémon originally included in Diamond and Pearl. GameSpot's Steve Watts praised the chibi art style and quality-of-life improvements while criticizing the franchise's lack of evolution and difficulty spike the Elite Four represented. Takuya Watanabe of IGN Japan gave the games a 5 out of 10, criticizing them for staying overly faithful to Diamond and Pearl, noting the awkward appearance of the chibi characters in closeup, and concluding that the games would mostly appeal to players with nostalgia for the originals. === Sales === Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl sold 1.39 million copies in its first three days in Japan alone, surpassing the launch sales of Pokémon Sword and Shield in the same period in that region. It became the second-biggest launch for a Switch release in Japan after Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020, and the second best-selling game launch of 2021 in the UK behind FIFA 22. The games collectively sold 6 million copies worldwide one week after release. As of June 30, 2022, the games had sold 14.79 million copies worldwide.In Spain, the games sold 228,000 copies in 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Ring Fit Adventure

Exergamerole-playing

Ring Fit Adventure is an exercising action role-playing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The game comes with two physical components: the Ring-Con, a Pilates ring that the user holds and one Joy-Con slots into, and a Leg Strap, a piece of fabric affixed to the user's leg that holds the other Joy-Con. The game's main mode has the player complete a turn-based role-playing game, where player movements and battle actions are based on performing certain physical activities using the Ring-Con and Leg Strap, with the motion controls within the Joy-Con sensing the player's movement, and a strain sensor in the Ring-Con detecting bending of that accessory. Other modes include general guided fitness routines and party-style games. These activities are centered around common fitness exercises, making the game part of Nintendo's "quality of life" goals in line with a similar game of theirs, Wii Fit. The game was released worldwide on October 18, 2019, and received generally positive reviews from critics. As of June 30, 2022, the game has sold over 14.54 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the system. Demand for the game increased drastically during 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related closures of gyms and other exercise facilities, causing shortages in many countries. This led to resellers in America selling the game for over $300, up from its retail price of $80. == Gameplay == Ring Fit Adventure ships with the Ring-Con and Leg Strap, which have docks to hold the Switch's Joy-Con. These accessories are required to play the game, as the player's interactions with them are tracked by the motion controls built into the Joy-Con.The game's main mode is a role-playing game, in which the player takes the role of a young athlete that meets a sentient Ring, and they team up to take down an evil, bodybuilding dragon named Dragaux. The player moves their character across the game's overworld and into various dungeons, where they encounter monsters to fight. Moving across the game world is similar to a rail shooter; the player moves along a fixed path by running in place, jumps over obstacles by squeezing and releasing the Ring-Con, and can fire projectiles at items by squeezing the Ring-Con in the target direction. When the player encounters monsters, the game uses turn-based combat as in many role-playing games. The player attacks the enemies by performing one of about thirty different exercises, with the amount of damage they deal based on how effectively they completed the exercise. When the monsters attack, the player can defend by pressing and holding the Ring-Con into their abdomen for as long as possible during the attack. Defeating monsters earn the player-character experience points, and as they level up, they can unlock additional exercises with more potent damage. Exercises are classified by color, each color corresponding to a general part of the body the exercise is geared towards: red for arms, blue for legs, yellow for core muscles and green for yoga positions. Monsters are also marked by colors, and exercises of the same color are more effective against them, but only after that specific ability is unlocked early in the game.In addition to the adventure mode, the game includes a general fitness routine mode that allows one to perform the exercises, assisted by the game, but without the gamification elements. The game also has several mini-games based on certain exercises, which can be used by a single player to challenge themselves or can be used with multiple players each taking a turn to beat the others. An update in late March 2020 also added a "Rhythm Mode", which allows the user to move along to soundtrack from the game. This mode also includes some music from other Nintendo games such as Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, and Wii Fit. The game includes the option to enable only quiet exercises to avoid disturbing others nearby. For example, in quiet mode, the running-in-place in the adventure mode is replaced by performing squats. == Development == The game was first teased in early September 2019 with a video showing people using the Ring-Con and Leg Strap without showing the game, with a full announcement of the game a week later.Several journalists observed that the game fits into Nintendo's long-running "quality of life" program, to introduce more physical activity into the playing of video games, that had been started by Satoru Iwata with the introduction of the Wii console, particularly in the game Wii Fit. Parts of the design of the Nintendo Switch had been from player feedback from Wii Fit looking to make the controllers smaller so they could be strapped to the body and used in more possible ways.Ring Fit Adventure was released in North America on October 18, 2019. The game, shipping with the Ring-Con and Leg Strap, costs slightly more than a typical game.On March 26, 2020, a free update was released, adding a rhythm game mode. == Reception == Ring Fit Adventure received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic, with a score of 83/100. It has also been rated on IGN as 7.8/10. Many critics agree that while Ring Fit Adventure is not designed for strength training, it is effective exercise for maintaining fitness. The RPG elements of the game are very simplistic, which allows casual players to play the game with ease, but which can be disappointing for fans of RPGs who want more of a strategic challenge. === Sales === Ring Fit Adventure debuted at #3 in the UK, and #1 in Japan and South Korea. In Japan, it sold 68,497 copies within its first week on sale, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart. By December 2019, the game had shipped 2.73 million units worldwide.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for the game increased significantly, creating shortages.On June 18, 2020, it was confirmed that Ring Fit Adventure had sold over one million copies in Japan, where it shipped a total of 1,006,069 copies across the region.From launch to September 2020, the game has sold 5.84 million units worldwide.By March 31, 2021, sales reached 10.11 million copies.As of March 31, 2022, the game sold 14.09 million copies making it one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games.By June 30, 2022, 14.54 million copies of the game were sold. === Awards === The game was nominated for "Best Family Game" at The Game Awards 2019, for "Family Game of the Year" at the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and for "Game Beyond Entertainment" at the 16th British Academy Games Awards. === Potential benefits of Exergames === Exergames such as Wii fit, Kinect, and Ring fit itself have received research in recent years due to their potential for therapeutic aid and for heath benefit. Studies have shown potential use of exergaming in lowing B.M.I and improving mobility especially in older individuals. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website (UK) Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!

Role-playing

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! are 2018 remakes of the 1998 Game Boy role-playing video game Pokémon Yellow. They were developed by Game Freak and jointly published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Announced in May 2018, Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! were released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on 16 November 2018. The games are part of the seventh generation of the Pokémon video game series and are the first main series installments to be released for a home game console. They feature connectivity with the mobile game Pokémon Go and support an optional controller, the Poké Ball Plus. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! were first announced at a Japanese press conference in May 2018, with the intention for the games to bring in newcomers to the series as well as cater to old fans. They were also meant to appeal to a younger audience; for this reason, the games incorporate elements from the anime, similarly to Pokémon Yellow. They received generally favorable reviews from critics, with praise directed to the accessibility and charm, while criticism was directed towards the motion controls. The games have combined worldwide sales of over 14 million as of December 2021, making them one of the best-selling games for the system. == Gameplay == Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! are set in the Kanto region and include the original 151 Pokémon in addition to their respective Mega Evolved forms from Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and their Alolan Forms from Pokémon Sun and Moon. Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! feature common elements of the main series, such as battling non-player character Pokémon Trainers and Gym Leaders with caught Pokémon creatures. However, when facing wild Pokémon, instead of battling them with the traditional battle system like in past games, the catching of Pokémon uses a system that is reminiscent of the mobile spin-off game Pokémon Go. By using the motion controls of the Joy-Con controller or Poké Ball Plus peripheral, players can throw berries to pacify a Pokémon or Poké Balls to attempt to capture it. The action can also be performed with a button press when the Joy-Con controllers are docked to the console or in handheld mode, but this still requires using motion controls to aim. If a player uses motion controls, the catching of Pokémon is based on the player's timing rather than accuracy. Although it is possible to miss a throw, the ball is almost guaranteed to make contact with the Pokémon. One notable difference in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! is that wild Pokémon are visible from the overworld, rather than as random encounters in grass or in caves like in previous main series Pokémon role-playing games. To start an encounter with a wild Pokémon, the player must simply approach the Pokémon in the environment.The games' control scheme is designed to only require one Joy-Con per player, and the games support cooperative multiplayer. If another player shakes a second Joy-Con, they can join the current player and are able to participate in battles with Pokémon Trainers and wild Pokémon encounters, allowing them to aid the catching of wild Pokémon. When playing multiplayer, Trainer battles become battles of two Pokémon against one, and in wild encounters, there is the possibility for each player to throw a Poké Ball at the same time, doubling the chances of capturing the Pokémon. Depending on the version, players start with either a Pikachu or an Eevee, which sits on the player character's shoulder in the overworld. This mechanic is similar to the "walking Pokémon" mechanic first introduced in Pokémon Yellow, in which Pikachu followed behind the player character throughout the game. The player's partner Pokémon wiggles its tail when they are near a hidden item, and it can be dressed up for further customization. Similarly to Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, players may also choose a Pokémon to follow them, and some larger Pokémon can also be ridden, a mechanic first seen in Pokémon X and Y and later expanded on in Sun and Moon. Since Pokémon X and Y, experience points are rewarded to Pokémon not only by defeating opponent Pokémon but also by catching wild Pokémon. However, in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! experience points rewarded by catching wild Pokémon are affected by various multiplier bonuses depending on the timing of the throw and the technique used to throw the Poké Ball, such as performing an overarm or underarm throw. The games also introduce new items called "candies," which are used to power up a Pokémon's statistics, such as hit points (HP), Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Different types of candies are awarded to players who transfer their Pokémon to Professor Oak via an in-game storage box. "Combat Power" (CP) also returns from Pokémon Go.The evolution mechanic from previous games returns in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. However, as with Pokémon Yellow, the player's starting Pikachu or Eevee cannot evolve; only other Pokémon that the player has caught, including ones of the same species as the partner Pokémon. Some features, like Pokémon breeding and HMs, are absent from the games. === Connectivity === Players can trade Pokémon and battle other players both locally and online, with online features being simplified in comparison with previous games. Some features—including the Global Trade System, Wonder Trade, and Battle Spot—are absent from Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. In order to connect with others to trade or battle online, players must use a code composed of three Pokémon glyphs, selected from a total of eight. When two players enter the same code, they are connected to trade Pokémon with or battle each other. A subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online service is required to use online functionality.Although Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! feature integration with Pokémon Go, this is optional. Players can transfer the original first generation Pokémon and their respective Alolan Forms from Pokémon Go to Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee!. They then appear at the Go Park—an in-game location where the player can explore and interact with or catch Pokémon that are walking around. Pokémon with higher CP or levels are harder to catch, in that the catch attempt has a higher chance of failing. Users are also able to exchange unspecified "gifts" between Pokémon Go and Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee!. === Poké Ball Plus === The games support the Poké Ball Plus, an optional controller shaped like a Poké Ball which features an analog stick, motion control support, HD Rumble feedback, and lighting effects. The analog stick doubles as a capture button in case the player does not wish to use the motion controls. Pokémon can also be transferred to it, in a similar way to the Pokéwalker. During Nintendo's E3 2018 Nintendo Direct presentation on 12 June 2018, it was revealed that the Poké Ball Plus would come with a Mew that can be transferred to the games. == Plot == The setting and story remain largely the same as Pokémon Yellow, complete with the inclusion of anime-exclusive characters. The eight Gym Leaders and the members of the Elite Four return, as well as the antagonist faction Team Rocket, including Jessie, James and Meowth, from the anime series. Unlike the anime series, Meowth cannot speak the human language and is given his own Meowth cry. == Development == Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! were unveiled during a press conference in Japan on 30 May 2018. They are primarily aimed toward a younger audience and those who are new to the Pokémon franchise. At the time of announcement game director Junichi Masuda mentioned that the games had been in development for around two years. Masuda also stated that he considered the games to be remakes of Pokémon Yellow, explaining that Yellow "resonated" best with younger players because it incorporated elements from the Pokémon anime television series. According to Masuda, he decided to make Eevee the mascot of the other game due to its popularity and abundance of fan art. He had previously considered Psyduck but ultimately changed his mind, stating that it was due to Psyduck being the same color as Pikachu. == Release == The games were released internationally on 16 November 2018. Bundles of the games with the Poké Ball Plus controller were announced, as well as a Nintendo Switch console bundle, including the games, brown and yellow colored Joy-Con, and a dock with artwork of Eevee and Pikachu. On 21 September 2018, Amazon began offering pre-orders for the Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! Switch bundle. == Reception == Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics applauded the gameplay, nostalgia, accessibility to new players, and charm of the games, while criticising its motion controls. IGN's Miranda Sanchez praised the game's catching mechanic which drew inspiration from the gameplay of Pokémon Go. She mentioned that she could "prioritize catching the Pokémon I actually wanted" and avoiding undesired ones thanks to the games' new overworld view of the Pokémon.The implementation of the motion controls has been criticized by some sources for reducing accessibility to some players with fine-motor or physical disabilities. === Sales === In Japan, Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! topped the software sales chart and sold 661,240 physical retail units in their opening weekend, and were responsible for almost quadrupling Nintendo Switch hardware sales for the week. They remained at the top of the Japanese charts in their third week, bringing its physical retail sales to 1,012,247 units in Japan by 9 December 2018. By 16 December 2018, the games had sold 1,121,020 physical retail units in Japan. As of 6 January 2019, the games have sold 1,399,595 physical retail units in Japan.The NPD reported the launch sales of Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! in North America as being positive and described it as "the most important launch" of the year. On streaming site Twitch, the games were the most-viewed titles on launch day with 125,457 viewers, above Fortnite. Within ten days of release, the games sold over 1.5 million units in the United States, as of 26 November 2018. As of 18 December 2018, the games had sold 2 million units in the US. They had the second highest launch month ever in dollar sales for the franchise in the US, behind only Pokémon Stadium.In the United Kingdom, Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! launched with 116,000 physical retail sales in their opening weekend, becoming the top-selling games of the week, despite competition from new releases such as Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Fallout 76 and Hitman 2. They also had a positive impact on Switch hardware sales, which in turn boosted sales of other Switch games including several Mario games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Just Dance 2019. Individually, Let's Go, Pikachu! debuted at third place in the UK's all-format sales charts, and Let's Go, Eevee! placed sixth on the same chart. UK sales were down 60% on the sales of Pokémon Sun and Moon, the preceding games in the franchise, due to the Switch having a smaller install base than the Nintendo 3DS and stock problems. The games sold over 338,270 physical retail units in 2018, making them the year's eleventh best-selling retail games in the UK.On 22 November 2018, The Pokémon Company announced that the games had sold over 3 million units worldwide in their first week on sale, making them the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch titles. By the end of December 2021, total worldwide sales have reached 14.33 million copies. === Awards === == See also == Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Pokémon Yellow == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Action role-playing

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. It is part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and serves as a prequel to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006). The game was first announced as part of the Pokémon 25th Anniversary event in February 2021, and was released worldwide on 28 January 2022. The game follows the protagonist, sent back through time, as they travel through the Hisui region based on the island of Hokkaido during early Japanese colonization. Centered around exploration of the region's several open areas populated with Pokémon, the game's objective is to complete a roster of the region's Pokémon, known as the Pokédex. Pokémon Legends: Arceus received generally favorable reviews and was a commercial success, having sold over 12 million copies. == Gameplay == Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an action role-playing game that preserves the core gameplay of past entries in the mainline series. The player is able to roam freely across the game map, divided into five large areas of individual biomes. Each time the player enters such areas, they spawn in a camp, and can fast travel to other camps in the same area. Outside of traversing the landscape on foot, the player can unlock rideable Pokémon which can travel faster, swim across bodies of water, climb cliffs, or fly. In each area, Pokémon wander the landscape, being found in certain habitats and will interact with both the player and their environments. Some will actively avoid the player while others act aggressively, and some exhibit other specific behaviors. A number of "Alpha" Pokémon - larger, more powerful versions of the Pokémon - can also be found in the areas. The multiple areas and the hub system instead of a fully open world gameplay resulted in reviewers comparing Legends: Arceus with the Monster Hunter series. Reviewers also drew comparisons between Pokémon Legends: Arceus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, noting apparent similarities in both gameplay and art style.Unlike in previous titles, the player character themselves can be attacked and harmed by wild Pokémon. If enough damage is taken, they will fall unconscious and reappear at the base camp. Players can capture wild Pokémon in the overworld without engaging in battle, though some must still be battled before being caught. Battles can be initiated by releasing captured Pokémon near a wild Pokémon. While the turn-based battle system of the prior titles is retained in the game, an additional feature is added which allows players to trade attack damage for more turns and vice versa. Outside standard battles, the game also introduces special boss battles where the player character has to dodge and attack powerful Pokémon, regular turn-based battles being included during the fights as opportunities to stun the bosses.By battling, capturing, or engaging with other interactions with Pokémon, players obtain progress in completing their Pokédex entries. Players can also take on and complete side quests given by NPCs in the game. In total, the game featured 242 Pokémon on release, including 7 new species and 17 new iterations ("forms") of existing Pokémon. At the start of the game, three starter Pokémon are available: Rowlet (from Sun and Moon), Cyndaquil (from Gold and Silver) and Oshawott (from Black and White). Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first mainline game to feature starter Pokémon from different regions together. While players can trade Pokémon online, Legends: Arceus does not feature multiplayer battles, unlike previous installments in the series. == Plot == === Setting === The game is set in a bygone era of the Sinnoh region's history, when it was known as the Hisui region, long before the events of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and their remakes take place. Hisui is based on the real-life island of Hokkaido during the Muromachi period, when it was still known as Ezo, with new settlers from other regions interacting with natives in a parallel with the interaction between Hokkaido's Ainu people and Japanese settlers. Ainu groups are represented in the game by the Diamond and Pearl clans, while new mainland settlers are represented by the Galaxy Expedition Team.The vast majority of the region is covered in sparse, open wilderness populated with wild Pokémon, with only one significant settlement in addition to a number of small campsites. Unlike in the setting of previous Pokémon games, Pokémon are treated as wild animals or forces of nature instead of as companions or partners. Poké Balls in the game are made of "Apricorn" fruit and puff steam when a Pokémon is caught, instead of being presented as high-tech devices like in previous installations, while the Pokédex is a paper notebook. === Story === The game begins with the player speaking with a disembodied voice, identified as Arceus, the creator deity of the Pokémon-Universe, which tasks the player with encountering all Pokémon in the Hisui region before transporting the player there through a rift in spacetime. The player is found by Pokémon researcher Professor Laventon, who brings the player to a local settlement named Jubilife Village. There, the player is recruited into the Survey Corps of the Galaxy Expedition Team, a group that has arrived in Hisui to chart and study the region. After receiving their starter Pokémon, the player proceeds to travel the Hisui region to complete the Pokédex. Throughout the player's journey, the spacetime rift they had been transported through results in several powerful "Noble Pokémon" venerated by the local Diamond and Pearl clans turning berserk through powerful lightning, forcing the player to engage them in battles using 'balms' to calm them down. After the player defeats five noble Pokémon, the spacetime rift begins to worsen rather than calm down as per the Galaxy Team's expectations and the sky turns an ominous red color. Blamed for the instability, the player (who came through the same rift) is banished from Jubilife Village by Commander Kamado, leader of the Galaxy Team, and forced to travel the region again to address the cause of the rift. Working with either the Diamond or Pearl clans and under the care of a folklore researcher called Cogita, the player travels to the three major lakes of the region to encounter the legendary Pokémon Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie, the three beings that embody willpower, emotion & knowledge respectively. Once the player passes their trials, the three provide materials to craft the Red Chain needed to stop the rift. After defeating Commander Kamado at the summit, the player reaches the peak of Mount Coronet: The Temple of Sinnoh, at the center of the region. Depending on the clan the player worked with, either Dialga (Diamond Clan) or Palkia (Pearl Clan) appears first, breaks the Red Chain, and is caught by the player before their enraged counterpart emerges. Using the fragments of the Red Chain, a special Poké Ball capable of capturing the other legendary Pokémon is crafted. The player battles the legendary Pokémon in its Origin Forme and captures it, sealing the spacetime rift. In the post-game, the player teams up with Volo, a member of the Gingko Guild merchant group who assisted the player throughout the game, to seek out all of the Plates associated with Arceus. Through this journey, the player encounters a number of other legendary Pokémon, each one holding a Plate. Arriving at the Temple of Sinnoh for the last plate, Volo betrays the player and attempts to steal the Plates from the player to draw out Arceus and subjugate it to make a new world. Volo also reveals he allied himself with Giratina to open the spacetime rift in a failed attempt to drive out Arceus, sending the legendary caught at the end of the game mad. The player defeats both Volo and Giratina, securing the final Plate and transforming the player's Celestica Flute item into the Azure Flute. Once all other Pokémon (excluding Shaymin and Darkrai, which are only obtainable with save data from other games) have been captured, the player can play the Azure Flute at the Temple of Sinnoh to encounter Arceus. After the player proves themselves in battle, Arceus bestows upon them a part of itself, so that it may explore the world that it created by the player's side. == Development == Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first known project by Game Freak in the action role-playing subgenre. === Marketing and release === Pokémon Legends: Arceus was first revealed in the Pokémon Presents on 26 February 2021 alongside Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as part of the Pokémon 25th Anniversary celebration. According to the official Pokémon Twitter account, it serves as a "premake" to Diamond and Pearl. During a Pokémon Presents on 18 August 2021, new trailer was revealed with a focus on exploration and story background, as well as new Pokémon. On 28 September 2021, a new trailer showcased some of the game's customization, menus, characters, and Kleavor, a new Pokémon. On 19 October 2021, an artificially corrupted "found footage" CGI video was showcased teasing new Pokémon. Two days later, it was confirmed that the obscured Pokémon were regional forms of Zorua and Zoroark. On 9 December 2021, the official Pokémon Twitter account teased a Poké Ball-related announcement for Legends: Arceus. The next day, a regional variant of Voltorb, a Pokémon based on Poké Balls, was announced. On 15 December 2021, a new trailer showcased several factions present in the game, as well as their leaders. On 7 January 2022, an overview trailer was released in Japanese, showcasing the world, people, and Pokémon. However, the trailer was not localized into English until 24 January 2022.The game was released worldwide on 28 January 2022. Exclusive in-game and physical bonuses were given out to those who pre-ordered the game digitally or physically. In Japan, those who pre-ordered Pokémon Legends: Arceus received a gold holographic artbook along with a limited edition Arceus promotional trading card. A free content update, Daybreak, was announced and released on 27 February 2022. ==== Tie-ins ==== Announced in April 2022, an ONA webseries tie-in, titled Pokémon: Hisuian Snow, debuted on YouTube and Pokémon TV on 18 May 2022.A limited 4-episode ONA webseries tie-in, titled Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles, debuted on Amazon Prime Video in Japan in January of 2022 and debuted on Netflix in September 2022. == Reception == === Critical reception === Pokémon Legends: Arceus received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Andrew Webster of The Verge praised the game's overhaul of the Pokémon formula, particularly the world design and Pokédex challenges, writing that it was "the biggest overhaul to the Pokémon formula since the series debuted". Despite criticizing the battle system, Ryan Gilliam of Polygon liked the open world and how simple catching Pokémon was compared to previous entries, saying: "It's so easy and fluid to just grab a Pokémon and add them to my party while I'm exploring the game's verdant fields or snowy tundra".Jordan Middler of Nintendo Life praised Pokémon Legends: Arceus for its "rewarding" exploration, "addictive" catching mechanics, quality of the Pokémon roster, and its "genuine sense of scale", while stating that "Pokémon Legends: Arceus is quite simply one of the greatest Pokémon games ever made". Jessica Scharnagle of Dot Esports stated that many of the tedious mechanics and forced activities in prior games were better simplified or removed to give the players more freedom in gameplay, while criticizing the game's performance.Chris Tapsell of Eurogamer enjoyed the new animations and art for the Pokémon in Arceus, saying "The way wild Pokémon, more vibrantly animated here than in any previous game, are all hops, rolls, lumbers. All splashes, naps, growls, and waddles. The way they exist so unelaborately but with so much personality is such a simple treat". Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica disliked the graphical style and lack of new Pokémon, but felt the battle system and open world exploration mixed well together, saying: "And when the battle is over, you can go right back to exploring or catching other Pokémon, with no pauses for level-ups or learning moves [...] once you learn the ropes, it's easy to lose yourself in the rhythm of sneaking, catching, battling, and exploring". Tom Regan of The Guardian praised the exploration and the changes in gameplay compared to earlier entries in the franchise, saying: "For arguably the first time since the series began, everything feels fresh, and thrillingly unpredictable", but criticized the quality of the game's visuals, comparing it unfavorably to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. === Sales === As of 31 March 2022, the game has sold 12.64 million copies. Nintendo reported that the game sold 6.5 million copies worldwide within a week of release, outpacing other Nintendo Switch Pokémon titles such as Sword and Shield and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.In Japan, it sold 1.42 million physical copies within three days, and another 645,000 throughout February to top sales charts in both months. It sold 125,851 units in March, making it the second best-selling game of the month (below Kirby and the Forgotten Land).In the United States, Legends: Arceus (excluding digital downloads) was the best-selling video game in January 2022. It was the second best-selling game the following month and sixth in March, making it the second best-selling game during the first quarter of 2022 (second only to Elden Ring). === Accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website (US) Official website (in Japanese)

Nintendo Switch

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Platformer

New Super Mario Bros. U is a 2D side-scrolling platform video game developed and published in 2012 by Nintendo as a launch game for the Wii U. It is the fourth entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series, and is the first mainline Mario game to be released in high-definition graphics. The game is a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) and a follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012). As part of the "Year of Luigi" campaign, a downloadable expansion to the game, New Super Luigi U, was released in June 2013. A standalone retail version was released the following month and later copies of the base game included the expansion on disc. The game received generally positive reviews and is one of the best-selling games on the Wii U. An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch, titled New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, developed by the successor to Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development, was released on January 11, 2019. As of December 2021, the Switch version had sold 12.72 million units worldwide. Between both versions, a total of 18.53 million units have been sold worldwide. == Gameplay == New Super Mario Bros. U iterates on the gameplay featured in New Super Mario Bros. Wii with additional features. The objective of each level is to reach the goal flag at the end of each level while avoiding enemies and hazards. The game can be controlled either using Wii U Pro Controllers, Wii Remotes, or Off-TV Play using the Wii U GamePad, where the game can be played solely on the GamePad's screen. Four players each using a controller play as a different character, being Mario, Luigi, Yellow Toad, and Blue Toad. In the "Boost Mode" feature, a fifth player using the Wii U GamePad can interact with the environment, such as putting blocks down that can be stepped on or stunning enemies by holding down on them. Certain game modes also allow players to play their own custom Mii characters. Bowser, The Koopalings, Kamek, Boom Boom, and Bowser Jr. appear as the game's main villains. Nabbit is a new antagonist who is chased after stealing a item from Toad. Once Nabbit is caught, Toad rewards the item to the player. Along with returning elements such as Ice Flowers and Yoshis, the flying squirrel is new a power-up that allows players to glide across long distances or slowly descend down vertical paths and cling to the side of the walls. Additionally, Baby Yoshis are an item can be carried by a player, with each baby Yoshi having a special ability dependent on its color, such as inflating in midair or illuminating dark areas. Some older power-ups also have new abilities, such as the Mini Mushroom now allowing players to run up walls. New Super Mario Bros. U features one large map containing all the game's worlds and levels, similar to that of Super Mario World. Some levels have multiple exits that lead to the different areas on the map.The game features two new modes of play, "Challenge Mode" and "Boost Rush". Challenge Mode adds restrictions and conditions, such as clearing levels with a short timer. Boost Rush takes place on an automatically scrolling level which increases in speed as players collect coins, with the goal of clearing the stage as quickly as possible. "Coin Battle" from New Super Mario Bros. Wii also returns, with the player now being able to customize the battles with the GamePad to place the coins and Star Coins on the course. The Super Guide, which takes control of the player's character and moves it automatically through a level, is available in case the player has failed a level multiple consecutive times. The game originally utilized the now defunct Miiverse, which allowed players to share comments about particular levels with one another. == Plot == Princess Peach is held captive in her castle by Bowser, Bowser Jr., and the Koopalings who invade and use a giant mechanical arm to throw Mario, Luigi, and two Toads far away. Mario and friends must now travel across this new land returning to Peach's castle in order to save her. On the way, they encounter seven Koopalings each controlling their own worlds, plus Kamek, Nabbit, Bowser Jr., and many minor enemies like Goomba. By conquering them, they get closer to Peach's castle, which has been transformed into an evil reflection of Bowser. By defeating Bowser, the castle returns to normal. As the heroes celebrate, Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings attempt to escape, leaving Bowser behind. He manages to jump up onto the airship, but his weight causes it to crash, and they are forced to flee on Bowser Jr.'s Koopa Clown Car. == Development == Development of New Super Mario Bros. U started shortly after the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and spanned three years. The game, initially titled New Super Mario Bros. Mii, was first revealed at E3 2011 as one of several tech demos demonstrating the capabilities of Wii U. The demo's visual style duplicated New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but with high-definition graphics, and playable Mii characters alongside Mario and Luigi. Shigeru Miyamoto later announced that the Mario demo would be released as a full game for the system, and would be demonstrated in its revised form at E3 2012. There, the new game, New Super Mario Bros. U, was revealed as a launch game for the upcoming Wii U console.Producer Takashi Tezuka explained he had created the game to take advantage of the Wii U hardware, focusing on the GamePad, for which Boost Mode was created. He explained that levels were created for single-player mode, without much thought of multiplayer during creation. He did not think too much about level design because he thought it would keep the players in a controlled experience, and decided to keep it more open. He was comfortable giving the player open access to placing blocks.Creating new concepts, Tezuka created the flying squirrel suit to allow for open movement in the air. However, he kept it partially limited to keep the player from over-using it. The power-up glides horizontally to differ it from the propeller suit in New Super Mario Bros. Wii which can fly vertically. The developers used an open world map layout due to nostalgia for Super Mario World. Tezuka wanted a feature where players can interact worldwide, so Miiverse functionality was implemented. He added playable Mii characters to differentiate onscreen players, and HD graphics to help make each character more recognizable. == Spinoffs == === New Super Luigi U === To celebrate the Year of Luigi, Nintendo announced DLC titled New Super Luigi U on February 14, 2013. The content is similar to the original game, but with level design focused and revolved around Luigi. The DLC was released on June 20, 2013, and as a standalone game on August 15, 2013. === New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe === An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch was announced in the Nintendo Direct from September 13, 2018 and released worldwide on January 11, 2019. Prior to its announcement, rumors of a Switch port had surfaced stating that the game will be re-released and include both the original game and the New Super Luigi U campaign, with "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" as the pending title. The game was upgraded to run at native 1080p instead of 720p and now features HD Rumble support throughout. Toadette and Nabbit are introduced as playable characters, with the former gaining access to a brand new power up called the Super Crown and the latter now being playable in the original campaign instead of being exclusive to New Super Luigi U. Blue Toad was downgraded to a color variation of Yellow Toad. Boost Mode was also removed, along with its associated challenges in Challenge Mode. == Reception == New Super Mario Bros. U was positively received by critics, with most praise going towards gameplay. GamesMaster magazine called it "a great excuse for families to gather round the TV, and an enticing glimpse of Mario's HD future". IGN stated that "Nintendo's approach here strikes a great balance in all areas, ranging from its difficulty to design to enemies and bosses". Joystiq commented "There's a sense of wonder again, of exploration and discovery. I'm not quite prepared to say New Super Mario Bros. U fully recaptures the spark of Mario's 2D heyday, but it's an impressive step in the right direction". Game Informer considered it the best game in the New Super Mario Bros. series, saying it had "Some of the most creative NSMB levels Nintendo has created". Many critics like the jump from regular graphics to HD, and enjoyed the visuals. GameSpot observed how "It's a challenging platformer, an excellent recreation of Mario's best moments, and it's the perfect way to kick-off Nintendo's journey into HD." SupeReal Media gave the game an 'A' Grade, praising the versatility, and stating that Mario has never looked so good. Destructoid stated that however there isn't as much charm as past games, HD graphics was a key feature.Giant Bomb was slightly more critical, noting "Everything about New Super Mario Bros. U is pretty exciting, except the game itself. Is it possible that this is the best game in the 'New' series to date—not to mention one of the best exclusive Wii U games on the market, by default—and at the same time kind of flatly uninteresting? Apparently so. The game is perfectly well made for what it is, and I had plenty of fun playing it in short bursts here and there, but at this point the series' by-the-numbers design philosophy is starting to lend the name 'New Super Mario Bros.' a degree of unintentional irony".New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe also received positive reviews, with a score of 80 on review aggregator Metacritic. === Sales === As of March 31, 2021, New Super Mario Bros. U has worldwide sales of 5.81 million units.New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe yielded sales of 455,006 physical copies within its first month on sale in Japan, outperforming its Wii U counterpart. As of December 2019 more than 747,589 physical copies have been sold in Japan., and in January 2021, it was reported that Japanese sales figures had surpassed one million. Deluxe also debuted at the top of the charts in the United Kingdom, with 56% more units in its first week than when the Wii U version launched, and remained the UK's best-selling game in its second week on sale. As of March 31, 2021, 12.72 million copies of Deluxe have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch; both versions of the game have sold a combined total of 18.53 million copies. === Awards === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Splatoon 2

Third-person shooter

Splatoon 2 is a 2017 third-person shooter game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on July 21, 2017, and is a direct sequel to Splatoon, which includes a new story-driven single-player mode and various online multiplayer modes. An expansion pack for the single-player mode titled Octo Expansion was subsequently released as downloadable content (DLC) on June 13, 2018. The game received generally positive reviews upon release. As of March 2022, Splatoon 2 had sold over 13.3 million copies worldwide, selling more than twice as many as its predecessor and making it one of the best-selling Switch games. A sequel, Splatoon 3, was released on the Nintendo Switch on September 9, 2022. == Gameplay == Like its predecessor, Splatoon 2 is a third-person shooter in which players control characters, known as Inklings and Octolings, and use colored ink as ammunition. Ink is also used to cover the ground, or any paintable surface, in order to swim or refill their ink tanks. Inklings and Octolings can morph between humanoid, or kid form, where they switch from walking and shooting, into squid form where they can quickly swim through ink of their own color, and replenish their ink supply, as well as return to full health. The sequel adds new main, sub and special weapons, including dual-wield pistols called Dualies that allow the player to perform dodge rolls, shotgun-like weapons called Brellas that enable defensive maneuvers with folding shields, and jetpacks known as Inkjets. Like the previous game, it features the standard Turf War mode for Regular Battles, in which two four-player teams have three minutes to cover the most turf with their color of ink. Splatoon 2 also maintains the first game's rotation of Splat Zones, Tower Control and Rainmaker for Ranked Battles, which is unlocked when you reach level ten, while also adding a new Clam Blitz mode. League Battles allow players to form teams with friends playing the same modes as in Ranked Battles, however, they removed tri-squad as a possible team option, making it so you can only create teams of two or four and for ranked battles the time limit is five minutes instead of three. A new mode, Salmon Run, allows up to four players to team up cooperatively to tackle waves of enemies called Salmonids and collect Boss Salmonids' eggs.Once per month until July 2019, a "Splatfest" event was held in which players could choose one of two teams, usually based on common debates such as heroes versus villains and pancakes versus waffles. In addition, there were two collaborations during these Splatfests: Nickelodeon's Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Splatfest themes were usually announced two weeks in advance, and players were given the ability to choose their team in the game's lobby. Themes were usually region-specific and happen at different times of the month. The only mode available in a Splatfest was Turf War, but players could choose between normal and pro modes. Winning battles awarded 'clout' to the winning team, and at the end of the Splatfest, the winning side was decided by evaluating popularity and clout earned in both battle modes. All players who participate earn rare rewards, but players on the winning team receive a slightly higher cut. In July 2019, Nintendo announced that the final regular Splatfest would be held that month. However, bonus rematches of previous Splatfests were held in May 2020, August 2020, and October 2020. A Splatfest celebrating the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary was held in January 2021.The game features a single-player campaign called Hero Mode, in which the player rescues captured Zapfish across various levels while fighting off evil Octarians. Unlike the previous game's single-player campaign which had a pre-determined weapon set, the player can now earn various weapons, some of which are required when playing levels for the first time. In addition to Sunken Scrolls that unlock artwork and in-game lore, players can collect Power Orbs to upgrade their Hero Mode weapons, and tickets that can be exchanged for temporary reward boosts in multiplayer battles, such as increased experience to level up quicker or more in-game money. Using a single weapon to beat all of the Hero Mode levels grants the player a Hero Weapon Replica (identical to the campaign weapon) to use in multiplayer matches. Players can also play multiplayer online through an internet connection or play locally, although local play requires multiple consoles and copies of the game. The game also features LAN support with an adapter accessory for local private tournaments. The game supports amiibo figures, which allow players to store their character's custom look and unlock additional content. Free post-release updates and events are ongoing. == Plot == Splatoon 2 takes place approximately two years after the final Splatfest event of the first game, in which the pop idol Marie defeated her cousin and fellow Squid Sister, Callie. After having drifted apart in the months following the event, Marie worries that Callie was negatively affected by the result. After leaving Inkopolis to see her parents, Marie returns home to discover that the Great Zapfish that powers the city has gone missing again, as has Callie. Fearing that the evil Octarians are once more involved, Marie takes up her role as Agent 2 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon and recruits an Inkling from Inkopolis Square, the player character, to become Agent 4 and investigate.With assistance from Marie and weapons expert Sheldon, Agent 4 makes their way through Octo Canyon fighting Octarians and recovering several stolen Zapfish, including ones powering the Octarians' war machines. They discover that Callie herself has sided with the Octarians after being brainwashed by their leader, DJ Octavio, who has escaped his imprisonment after his defeat in the first game and once more is using the Great Zapfish to power his new DJ stage, the Octobot King II. Marie arrives with Sheldon and frees Callie from her mind control, allowing them to help Agent 4 defeat Octavio. With the Great Zapfish safely returned to Inkopolis, the Squid Sisters happily reunite and resume their musical career. == Release == A limited-time global multiplayer demo for the game, known as the "Splatoon 2 Global Testfire", was released in March 2017. A special edition of Nintendo Treehouse Live was streamed during the first session, in which members of the Nintendo Treehouse participated in the demo. Similarly to the demo of the original game, it was only available to play for a specific time period, across six one-hour play sessions in one weekend. Another demo session demonstrating the game's Splatfest events was held on July 15, 2017.The game was released worldwide on July 21, 2017. In Japan and Europe, neon-green and neon-pink Joy-Con controllers and Splatoon-themed Pro Controllers were released alongside the game. A game card-free version, which features a download code inside a game case instead of a game card, was also released in Japan, as well as a Switch hardware bundle including a download code for the game. A similar bundle was released in the United States as a Walmart exclusive.New Amiibo figures of new Inkling Girl, Boy and Squid designs from Splatoon 2 were released alongside the game. These figures, alongside previous Splatoon figures, unlock exclusive in-game clothing and music tracks and allow the player to save a loadout of weapons and clothing to the figure so they can be readily accessed at any time. Characters with these saved load-outs can be posed alongside the player for taking screenshots. Amiibo figures of Pearl and Marina from Off the Hook were released on July 13, 2018, and feature similar functionality to those already released, while a final trio of figures of Octoling Girl, Boy and Octopus designs were released in Japan and Europe on November 9, 2018, and in North America on December 7, 2018.Like the previous game, Splatoon 2 was continually updated post-release with free content. From launch, at least one new weapon was added to the game almost every week, while new stages and game modes were added at irregular intervals. In late April 2018, this changed to having a large group of weapons added every month instead, with new stages continuing to be added until October 2018. While these regular updates were originally due to continue for around a year after the game's launch, with monthly regional Splatfest events being held for around two years, the regular updates were later extended to last until the end of 2018. An expansion pack for the game's single-player mode, titled Octo Expansion, was released on June 13, 2018.The game's content update in December 2018 was announced as the final one, albeit with balancing patches and Splatfest events due to continue into Summer 2019, but it was later revealed that more smaller updates would release until July 2019. === Promotion === Prior to Splatoon 2's reveal, clips of the game were featured in the announcement trailer for the Nintendo Switch. Its unanticipated appearance led to speculation by the media and public over whether or not the footage shown was that from a port of Splatoon or a sequel. It was also presented in the trailer in a way that promoted the game as an eSport, following investments by Nintendo in Splatoon eSport tournaments in late 2016.Splatoon 2 was officially unveiled to the public during the Nintendo Switch reveal presentation held in Tokyo on January 13, 2017, where it was announced for release in Q2/Q3 2017. The reveal was accompanied by a trailer featuring the game's new maps and weapons, and an on-stage appearance of producer Hisashi Nogami in-character as a scientist from the Squid Research Lab, a fictional scientific group from the game, which appeared in various promotional material for the original Splatoon.Similarly to the first game, Splatoon 2 features Splatfest events that include crossovers with other brands, both from other Nintendo properties such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and third-party franchises including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, McDonald's, Uniqlo, Nike, Sanrio, Meiji, and Pocky. === Other media === A manga series based on the game and illustrated by Sankichi Hinodeya began serialization in Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic magazine in May 2017. It was published in North America by Viz Media in late 2017. A motion comic adaptation of the manga was announced in July 2017 and released on YouTube the following month.Splatune 2, a two-disc official soundtrack featuring music from the game by Toru Minegishi, Ryo Nagamatsu, and Shiho Fujii, was published by Enterbrain in Japan on November 29, 2017, debuting at number eight on Billboard Japan's Hot Albums chart. A second soundtrack album, Octotune, was released in Japan on July 18, 2018. This album features tracks added in the game's Octo Expansion DLC and other post-release updates, as well as a recording of the game's first live concert. It peaked at number five on the Hot Albums chart.Similarly to the first game, a series of real-life virtual concerts featuring the game's signature band Off the Hook have been performed in various locations. Their first concert was held at Tokaigi 2018 in Japan on February 10, 2018, a second was performed at Polymanga in Switzerland on March 31, 2018, a third concert which featured a new song, "Nasty Majesty" from Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion, was performed at NicoNico Chokaigi in Japan on April 28, 2018, a fourth concert was performed at Tokaigi Game Party 2019 in Japan on January 26, 2019, which featured more songs from the Octo Expansion, and was the first concert to only feature Pearl and Marina, and a two-day concert featuring both the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook was performed at Nintendo Live 2019 on October 13–14, 2019, which featured performances based on previous concerts. == Reception == Splatoon 2 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics stated that Splatoon 2 retained what was great about the original game while adding new features to keep the game fresh. Nintendo Life praised the improved single-player campaign. Destructoid and Game Informer criticised the accessibility within the game's multiplayer modes—weapons couldn't be changed between matches at that time (though this was added in a later update), no split-screen play, and the Salmon Run mode is only playable online at certain times—but praised the new weapons and gameplay. The Verge blamed the lack of a built-in voice chat feature and ease of viewing the map for taking away from the multiplayer experience, yet still calling the game an improvement over the original. GameSpot cited Splatoon 2 as "a fresh take on the already unique shooter" but pointed out that using a mobile app for voice communication made multiplayer more complicated than it needed to be. Game Revolution and GamesRadar both praised the colorful artstyle and depth of the multiplayer combat. IGN gave the game a score of 8.3/10—higher than the initial score of the original game but lower than its re-review—praising the "addicting" Salmon Run mode and improved graphics, while making similar complaints about the game's matchmaking system. Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo World Report both stated that the game felt "more like Splatoon 1.5" than a true sequel to the original, but nonetheless complimented the game's new additions.Eurogamer ranked the game 17th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017", while Polygon ranked it 43rd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The Verge named Splatoon 2 as one of their 15 Best Games of 2017. The game was nominated for "Best Switch Game" in both Destructoid's Game of the Year Awards 2017 and IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the latter of which also nominated it for "Best Shooter" and "Best Multiplayer". === Sales === Splatoon 2 debuted second on the UK software sales chart in its launch week, behind Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. It had 59% better first week sales than Splatoon and became the third biggest launch of a Switch game in that country. In Japan, Splatoon 2 sold roughly 648,000 copies at retail within the first few days of its launch. Including download copies, the game had sold over two million in Japan by early 2018, making it the first home console game to do so in the country since 2010's Wii Party. The game shipped 1.56 million copies in Japan and 3.61 million copies worldwide in its first fiscal quarter on sale. By June 2020, the game had sold 10.71 million copies worldwide, making it the ninth best-selling Switch game worldwide. As of March 2022, ''Splatoon 2'' had sold over 13.30 million copies worldwide, selling twice as much as its predecessor, and making it one of the best-selling Switch games. === Awards === == Sequel == On February 17, 2021, during a Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced a teaser trailer for Splatoon 3, also being released for the Switch and was set to be released on September 9, 2022. The teaser trailer revealed gameplay similar to that of Splatoon 2, and revealed new items, weapons, and abilities, including an Ink Bow and a new apocalyptic design. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Splatoon 2 at MobyGames Splatoon 2 at IMDb

Nintendo Switch

Luigi's Mansion 3

Action-adventure

Luigi's Mansion 3 is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third main installment in the Luigi's Mansion series following Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The game sees players taking on the role of Luigi who must explore a haunted hotel, incorporating different themes on each floor, and rescue his friends from the ghosts that inhabit it, after the group is tricked into visiting it for a vacation by King Boo. Alongside a number of returning gameplay elements from the previous installments, the game incorporates new features, including additional moves for ghost catching, an ectoplasmic doppelgänger assistant known as Gooigi, and expanded multiplayer functionality that allows for players to engage in cooperative and competitive gaming both locally and online. The game received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for several awards, winning the award for "Best Family Game" at The Game Awards 2019. The game has sold 11.43 million copies as of March 31, 2022. == Gameplay == Luigi's Mansion 3 is an action-adventure game, in which players control the character of Luigi from a fixed third-person perspective, as they capture ghosts across a large hotel setting. The game features two modes of gameplay – a single-player story mode, and a set of multiplayer game modes – in which ghost catching functions in the same manner as previous installments: players stun ghosts with Luigi's Strobulb, snag them with his Poltergust, and weaken their health down to 0 in order to capture them. === Single-player === In the single-player story mode, players explore a large hotel with 17 floors – each floor consists of a different theme and atmosphere, and a variety of ghosts, including a boss ghost that the player must defeat. Some of the first floors, such as Floor 2, do not have a theme. Unlike the story mode of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, which focused on pre-defined mission structure of gameplay across several mansions, Luigi's Mansion 3 is more open-ended allowing for greater exploration of the game's setting, with the only restriction being that players cannot explore floors in the hotel via the elevator until they have found the button that allows access to it; the hotel's main lobby and basement are the only floors to have a staircase between them that circumvents the need for the elevator. Treasure can be found during exploration of the hotel's floor from various objects and solving some puzzles. Luigi can find coins (worth 1), banknotes (worth 5), gold bars (worth 10), and pearls (worth 100) as well as bags of money containing many hundreds of coins. He can also find special gems on each floor, alongside the capture of Boos, a regular enemy in the Mario series, while Luigi can find hearts to recover health lost from the attacks of ghosts and other environmental hazards. Some of the features introduced by Dark Moon are available in the game, including a stun charge function that can make ghost catching easier, and the Dark-Light Device, a blacklight function that can reveal objects that have become invisible (after capturing Spirit Balls, which cause the invisibility) and animate certain portraits. It can also bring possessed items, such as possessed chests or rubbish bins, back to normal. New to the series include new functions to the Poltergust – an area burst attack that can help keep multiple enemies back, as well as blow away furniture to reveal treasure; a suction cup attachment, which allows the player to fire a plunger onto obstacles and then remove them by using the Poltergust on the cup's cord; and a slam attack, which allow players to repeatedly smash ghosts they are capturing to the ground, both for greater damage as well as a weapon to hit other ghosts around them. The most notable addition to the game is Gooigi – an ectoplasmic doppelgänger of Luigi previously introduced in the 3DS remake of the original Luigi's Mansion. Gooigi can conduct similar moves to those of his real counterpart, and can be controlled by the player (switching between Luigi and Gooigi) or a second player in local co-op. Gooigi can be used by the player to help in battles and with solving some of the game's puzzles, some of which require the use of Gooigi and Luigi to complete. Unlike Luigi, Gooigi can squeeze through gaps in vents and grills, and walk across spiked floors, but is weaker than his real counterpart and will instantly lose his physical form if he comes into contact with water or fire. === Multiplayer === The game's multiplayer mode allows for up to eight players to play together locally and online. In this mode, players can engage in cooperative gameplay through "ScareScraper", a returning feature from Dark Moon, or competitive team matches in "ScreamPark". Both modes use the same style of controls in the single-player mode, with players able to control four colour variations (green, purple, orange, or blue) of Luigi or Gooigi. ScareScraper focuses on cooperative team work between players to clear out each of the 5 or 10 floors of a randomly generated high-rise building by seeking out the ghosts hiding on each floor. "ScreamPark" focuses on team-based matches - one side as Team Luigi, the other as Team Gooigi - and scoring points in three different match types: Ghost Hunt, in which teams score points by catching ghosts, with tougher ghosts worth more points; Cannon Barrage, in which teams score points by securing cannonballs, some held by ghosts, loading them into a cannon and firing them at targets, with trickier targets scoring more points; and Coin Floating, in which teams use inflatables to collect coins that drop in a pool, avoiding mines that are dropped as well or lose the coins in their possession and pop the inflatable making them need to blow another one up allowing their opponents to steal them. == Plot == Luigi, his pet ghost dog Polterpup, his brother Mario, Princess Peach and a trio of Toads have been invited to The Last Resort, a luxurious art deco high-rise hotel nestled in a mountainside area, and decide to visit it for a vacation. After arriving and settling in, Luigi wakes up during the night to find the hotel deserted, transformed into a haunted building and the others missing. He discovers that the hotel's ghostly owner, Hellen Gravely, had lured the group to the hotel as part of a trap by King Boo, whom she had freed from Professor E. Gadd's custody after his recapture in the previous game. King Boo announces his plans to exact revenge on Luigi and his friends by imprisoning them in portraits, but Luigi either narrowly escapes to the hotel's lower floors through a laundry chute or gets imprisoned in a portrait by King Boo along with the rest of his friends. With the help of Polterpup, who also avoided capture, Luigi, should he also avoid capture, explores the basement and comes across an old red car in the underground garage carrying a new Poltergust vacuum model. Using it, Luigi follows Polterpup to the lobby and finds that E. Gadd was also captured. Searching the lobby, Luigi comes across the professor's Dark-Light Device in a safe and uses it to free him. Setting up a portable lab in the garage, E. Gadd explains how he was also tricked into visiting the hotel and captured by Hellen, who had stolen his latest ghost collection from him to staff the building. Believing that Luigi's friends are likely trapped on the upper floors, E. Gadd recommends that Luigi finds the elevator buttons for the upper floors that had been taken from the main elevator after he secures two from a ghost he had defeated earlier. While exploring the floors, each featuring a different theme to them, Luigi is aided further by E. Gadd with two new gadgets: the Virtual Boo, a communication device based on the Virtual Boy, and Gooigi, an ectoplasmic doppelgänger of Luigi. Left with no choice, Luigi begins his search for the missing elevator buttons in order to visit each of the hotel's many floors. As Luigi makes his search, he comes across and defeats a variety of different ghosts while reclaiming the elevator buttons and rescuing the Toads from their portraits, much to Hellen's anger and frustration. After rescuing the Toads, he reaches the top floor where he confronts Hellen, who he manages to defeat before rescuing Mario. Luigi then follows him to the hotel's roof where they find Peach's portrait. Upon freeing her, the group is confronted by King Boo, having lost faith in Hellen and the ghosts earlier and prepares to imprison them, E. Gadd, and the Toads in a single giant portrait. After being inadvertently saved by Polterpup at the last second, Luigi finds himself forced to defeat King Boo once again, while aided by Gooigi. During the battle, King Boo enlarges the portrait's frame in an attempt to pull in the whole hotel with Luigi still on the roof. Luigi defeats King Boo and manages to recover the portrait moments before the hotel collapses into a ruined mess. After freeing his friends from the portrait, the ghosts Luigi had captured escape from their imprisonment and attempt to attack, but they become social when the jewel from King Boo's crown vanishes, implying that they were all brainwashed. E. Gadd, seeing the ghosts upset over their home's accidental destruction, elects for the group to build a new hotel, while the recaptured King Boo is returned to his custody along with Hellen. Depending on how much money Luigi collected throughout his adventure, the new hotel (built in E. Gadd's version) will be different in size. After the grand reopening, Luigi and his friends depart for home. == Development == Luigi's Mansion 3 is developed by Next Level Games, who previously developed Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and is published by Nintendo. The game was originally planned as a Wii U title, with early prototypes introducing the Slam and Burst as new abilities; however, development started for the Nintendo Switch system in earnest following the completion of Next Level Games' Metroid Prime: Federation Force. The change in setting from a mansion to a hotel was done so that players could have "three-dimensional exploration" with Kensuke Tanabe explaining that they "wanted players to be able to visualize how the hotel was set up". Despite the new setting, the team deliberately made the choice for some of the settings to "make it as unexpected and even un-hotel-like as possible". The team noted that as long as they connected the settings through a traditional hotel setup they could get away with the diverse settings. Some features that were previously present in or planned for the Nintendo 3DS remake of the original Luigi's Mansion were expanded on for the third installment, such as same screen local co-op play and the aforementioned new abilities. Prior to the game's formal announcement, Luigi's new gadget, the Poltergust G-00, was shown for the first time in the August 2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct as part of the trailer announcing Castlevania content for the game. The Poltergust G-00 was also incorporated into Luigi's moveset, now being able to grab opponents from a distance with the Suction Shot and pull opponents in with it for his Final Smash.Luigi's Mansion 3 was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on September 13, 2018, with the title at the time being listed as tentative and planned for release in 2019. The game was a part of Nintendo's E3 2019 showcase, with a new trailer highlighting the premise, gameplay mechanics, and game modes, including the return of the online multiplayer mode, ScareScraper. A demo was also made available to play on the show floor. Nintendo of America's Nate Bihldorff stated that the game's primary campaign would be longer than that of Dark Moon. He also stated that the finalized title was changed to a simple number "3" rather than a subtitle because the time gap between the second and third installments was much shorter to the point of calling the series an established franchise, as opposed to the 12-year gap between the first and second installments. A new trailer shown during the September 4, 2019 Nintendo Direct showcased some areas of the hotel setting and debuted the ScreamPark, a new party-oriented game mode for up to eight players on a single console. Luigi's Mansion 3 was released on October 31, 2019. == Reception == Luigi's Mansion 3 received generally favourable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Chelsea Stark of Polygon praised the use of Gooigi, as well as the variety of levels throughout the game, saying that "this is our scaredy-cat hero’s best adventure yet". Ryan McCaffrey at IGN also praised the level design and variety, saying "Luigi's Mansion 3 is so fun, charming, and smartly designed that I hope we get more than three of these every 20 years." === Sales === By March 31, 2022, Luigi's Mansion 3 had sold 11.43 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games for Nintendo Switch. === Awards === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Role-playing

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are 2022 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. They are the first installments in the ninth generation of the Pokémon video game series. First announced in February 2022, they were released on 18 November 2022. Unlike the previous installments in the Pokémon franchise, Scarlet and Violet take place in an open world, similar to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The games take place in the Paldea region, based off of the Iberian Peninsula. There are three separate stories the player can take. Scarlet and Violet introduce 103 new Pokémon, alongside 4 new regional forms, and the Terastal phenomenon, which allows a Pokémon to transform into its exclusive Tera Type. The games also maintain features from previous modern Pokémon games, including large open areas and Pokémon appearing in the overworld. Scarlet and Violet received mixed reviews from critics. The games were praised for the open world formula and new designs, while its graphics and technical problems at launch received criticism. The games sold over 10 million copies in their first three days, making them Nintendo's biggest launch of all time. == Gameplay == Pokémon Scarlet and Violet largely follow the same basic gameplay structure of previous Pokémon games, where players obtain creatures known as Pokémon, primarily through catching and trading and use them to explore the world and battle other Pokémon trainers.Scarlet and Violet have open worlds, which include both urban areas and open wilderness without borders between the two, unlike previous installments in the Pokémon series. In addition to this, progression through the games are up to the players, with three routes available to choose from, Path of Legends, Victory Road, and Starfall Street. Each route covers a different storyline.The games introduce three new starter Pokémon, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly; and two new legendary Pokémon, Koraidon and Miraidon. To assist in travel, Koraidon (in Scarlet) or Miraidon (in Violet) can be used to traverse the environment. A mechanic called "Let's Go" will allow the player to send out a Pokémon to roam the overworld and automatically battle wild Pokémon. In addition, co-op play with up to three other players is included.Scarlet and Violet introduce the Terastal phenomenon, which gives Pokémon a crystalline appearance, as well as changing a Pokémon's type to match that Pokémon's "Tera Type", as well as unlocking special moves such as Tera Blast, which, when used by a Terastallized Pokémon, becomes a move of the same type as the Pokémon’s Tera Type. == Plot == === Setting === Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set in the Paldea region of the Pokémon universe, which appears to be loosely based off of the Iberian Peninsula. The player visits the Naranja (in Scarlet) or Uva (in Violet) Academy in time for the annual Treasure Hunt, where the rival character, Nemona, encourages the player to explore Paldea and find their own treasure. From there, three stories open up for the player to experience. Starfall Street has the player facing off against a gang of rebellious students called Team Star, Path of Legends has the player team up with Arven to explore the Paldea region to fight giant Pokémon called "Titan Pokémon" and obtain the Herba Mystica, and Victory Road follows the series tradition of fighting the region’s eight Gym Leaders in order to face the Champion and become the best Pokémon Trainer. Unlike previous titles in the mainline games, there is no set order for the player to face the Gym Leaders. === Story === At the beginning of Scarlet and Violet, the player is given three stories to complete, Victory Road, Path of Legends, and Starfall Street. These stories can be completed in any order or simultaneously. After finishing all three stories, the player will gain access to the secret final story, The Way Home. The player also encounters the Legendary Pokémon Koraidon (In Scarlet) or Miraidon (In Violet), who lost their ability to use their battle mode in the beginning. Their Poke Ball is given to the player, and the Legendary joins the player on the Treasure Hunt, acting as their Pokémon bike mount. ==== Victory Road ==== Victory Road sees the player travel across the Paldea region completing eight Pokémon Gyms, whilst repeatedly encountering their rival, the Champion-ranked trainer Nemona, as per the main gameplay of the Pokemon franchise. Once all eight Gyms are defeated, the player can take on the Elite Four, as well as the region's Champion, to become a Champion ranked trainer. Once the champion is defeated, the player can engage in one final battle with Nemona. ==== Path of Legends ==== In Path of Legends, the player aims to defeat five giant and powerful Pokémon known as "Titan Pokémon" scattered about Paldea. At each encounter with a Titan Pokémon, the Titan consumes a Herba Mystica, recovering health. The player works with a boy named Arven, the son of Professor Sada (in Scarlet) or Professor Turo (in Violet), to collect all five Herba Mystica in hopes that it will restore the health of his pet Mabosstiff, which was injured under mysterious circumstances in the crater at the center of Paldea. Upon defeating the Titans, collecting all five herbs, and restoring Mabosstiff's health, Professor Sada/Turo calls the player and requests that Arven unlock the entrance to their laboratory. Once there, the Professor encourages the two to head to the Great Crater of Paldea and to bring Koraidon/Miraidon and the Scarlet/Violet Book with them, as well as any needed allies. The player and Arven choose to go, but after one last battle with Arven, he decides they need extra help and encourages the player to get some allies. ==== Starfall Street ==== In Starfall Street, the player aims to defeat Team Star, a group that has caused some bullying at the adademy. They are enlisted by Cassiopeia, an anonymous voice whose identity is initially kept secret, and are tasked with defeating the bosses of all five Team Star squads, and as per protocol, when a boss is defeated, they are forced to resign, and Cassiopeia hopes that the group will be forced to disband once all bosses are defeated. Assisted by the shy and anxious student Penny and Clavell, the academy's director who is disguised as a student named Clive and aims to discover more information about Team Star's formation, the player learns that Team Star was founded to counter bullying, and the group fought back against their bullies roughly two years before the events of the games. After the confrontation, Team Star's bullies dropped out of school, and several staff members of the academy—including the previous director—resigned from their positions in recognition of their failure to handle the situation. After defeating all bosses, Cassiopeia, revealing she founded Team Star, and the one who tricked the bosses into "Operation Starfall", requested that the player meet them in the schoolyard. Later, they confront Cassiopeia, who reveals herself to be Penny. Upon Penny's defeat, Clavell, revealing his identity, announces that he has reconsidered his previous stances and offers peace with Team Star, though he subjects the members of Team Star to community service due to several violations. ==== The Way Home ==== After completing all three storylines, the professor requests the player's assistance in their laboratory located in the Great Crater. Alongside Arven, Nemona, and Penny, the player travels to Area Zero, located inside the Crater. Inside, they encounter Paradox Pokémon—relatives of preexisting Pokémon from the ancient past (in Scarlet) or the far future (in Violet). After being attacked by several Paradox Pokémon, the player encounters the professor, who reveals themself to be a A.I. substitute for the true professor, who died in a laboratory incident before the events of the game. The A.I. professor also revealed that the original professor created a time machine to access the period in which the Paradox Pokémon originate, and their A.I. substitute is to maintain it at all costs. However, acting of its own volition, the A.I. notes that if the Paradox Pokémon escape the Great Crater, they will harm every ecosystem in Paldea. The player uses the Scarlet/Violet book to shut down the time machine at the request of the A.I., though it warns them that they will be overtaken by the self-defense protocols surrounding the time machine, and will battle the player. Upon their defeat, the A.I., now the Paradise Protection Protocol, sent out their own Koraidon (in Scarlet) or Miraidon (in Violet) and locks the player from using their own Pokémon, although the player's Koraidon/Miraidon manages to escape its Poke Ball, transform to battle mode, and defeat the A.I. for good. This shuts down the machine, and the group escapes. After returning to the academy, Nemona organizes an Academy Ace Tournament, and she's assisted by Geeta, who agrees to help if the player inspects and battles all previous Gym leaders. The tournament involves various faculty and students the player can battle, and in the end, the player emerges victorious. == Development == Pokémon Scarlet and Violet started development in late 2019, around the time that Pokémon Sword and Shield released. Toby Fox assisted in composing some of the music featured in the games. === Marketing and release === Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were announced as part of a Pokémon Presents presentation on 27 February 2022, through a partially live-action trailer. Throughout the games' pre-release marketing, several in-universe videos have been published by The Pokémon Company, such as a camera trap to reveal Grafaiai, a web seminar to reveal Wiglett, a livestream to reveal Bellibolt, and a short found footage trailer to reveal Greavard.On 1 June 2022, a second trailer was released, showing the two box cover legendary Pokémon along with more gameplay footage, three new Pokémon, and new characters.On 3 August 2022, a third trailer was released alongside an overview trailer during a Pokémon Presents. These trailers revealed two new Pokémon, the return of regional variants as showcased with Paldean Wooper, the name of the region, a new battle mechanic known as the Terastal Phenomenon, as well as other details.During the closing ceremony of the 2022 Pokémon World Championships on 21 August 2022, a new trailer was released that showcased a new Pokémon, Cyclizar, as well as new items and abilities to be used in competitive play.A fourth trailer, released on 7 September 2022 and titled "Seek Your Treasure!", detailed the three stories that the player can experience, as well as three new Pokémon. Characters such as Mela, Brassius, and Geeta also made their debut in the trailer.On 29 September 2022, singer Ed Sheeran released a song titled "Celestial" in collaboration with The Pokémon Company that is set to appear in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.On 6 October 2022, a 14-minute trailer was released, highlighting the unique gameplay between four different players, each going on a different "path" in the story, as well as Farigiraf, Girafarig's evolution.A special edition Nintendo Switch OLED model with themed artwork was released on 4 November 2022.On 11 November 2022, a week before the games come out, a Splatfest themed around the three starter types was held in Splatoon 3.Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were released worldwide on 18 November 2022.On 1 December 2022, Nintendo has apologised for the issues players have encountered, with the announcement of the 1.1.0 update. == Reception == === Critical response === Scarlet and Violet received "mixed or average reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Publications criticised the games for suffering from graphical glitches and poor performance. The graphics were also considered to be lackluster, with unfavorable comparisons to other Nintendo Switch titles such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Eurogamer writer Oliver Mackenzie called the games "comprehensive technical failures", criticising the games' poor texture quality and crudely modeled environments. Due to the performance issues, some players began requesting refunds of the games soon after launch, to which Nintendo obliged for in some cases, but not others.The open world gameplay was praised. GameSpot writer Jeff Dekker regarded the non-linearity of the games as their "strength", while Nintendo Life described the experience as capturing the "real magic" of the first Pokémon games, Red and Blue. === Sales === According to The Pokémon Company, Scarlet and Violet are the most pre-ordered titles in the series' history. Within three days of its release, the games had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, including 4.05 million in Japan alone. The sales figure was the highest of any software on any Nintendo platform within three days, and the best launch of any console-exclusive game in history. == See also == List of generation IX Pokémon == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

Platformer

Bowser's Fury is a 2021 platform game bundled in with the Nintendo Switch release of Super Mario 3D World, titled Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. The player controls Mario through Lake Lapcat to complete challenges and collect items to dispel a black sludge that is infecting the land and free Bowser from its control. Bowser's Fury's gameplay is based on Super Mario 3D World. == Gameplay == Bowser's Fury is an open world platform game in which the player, as Mario, completes challenges to collect Cat Shines in order to free Bowser and Lake Lapcat from the control of the black sludge. Its core gameplay is similar to that of the 2013 platform game Super Mario 3D World, while also adopting elements introduced in Super Mario Odyssey.Eurogamer noted the influence of Super Mario Sunshine on Bowser's Fury, from its scrappy approach to new concepts to its use of Bowser Jr. and debt to Shadow Mario challenges. GameSpot described the concept of Bowser's Fury as having put elements of Super Mario 3D World into the structure of Super Mario Odyssey. The player character Mario jumps between platforms and obstacles in a 3D environment. Each area of the world features a new gameplay twist. Mario collects bodysuit power ups that grant him special abilities, such as Fire Mario, Tanooki Mario and Boomerang Mario. In each area of Bowser's Fury, Mario collects Cat Shines by completing challenges less than 10 minutes in length, such as traversing platforms or collecting shard fragments of a Cat Shine. There are 100 Shines to collect in the game, and each self-contained area has five, displayed in a lighthouse. After collecting a Shine, the game reconfigures the area's environment to set up the next Shine's challenge. As the player progresses through the game, more areas open to the player. Mario rides the dinosaur Plessie to navigate between each island area of the archipelago and to reach Shine challenges throughout the lake's waters, outside the island areas. Unlike other Mario games, all areas of Bowser's Fury are openly accessible without use of a hub world—traditional Mario levels connected without loading screens or boundaries. Also unlike Super Mario 3D World, the player has full, unfixed camera control in Bowser's Fury and is not restricted to a limited number of "lives"—instead, when Mario dies, the player loses 50 coins from their counter, which gets reset every 100 coins due to granting Mario a power-up.Every few minutes, Bowser's fury transforms the daytime setting of Lake Lapcat into an apocalyptic nighttime setting, with fireballs raining down toward the player. The Godzilla-esque fury event can interrupt the player's activity every few minutes, but also gives new gameplay opportunities, such as generating new platforms in the sky and using the ability to bait Bowser's fiery breath to destroy otherwise indestructible obstacles. The player can end the storm by collecting a Cat Shine, activating a lighthouse to pierce the darkness. Alternatively, the player can wait out the event or, with enough Cat Shines, choose to directly confront Bowser in a kaiju-esque battle set in a reduced scale version of Lake Lapcat. After the fury, Bowser returns to the sludge and slowly begins to rise, indicating the timing of the next fury event, as the fury event does not occur on a predictable interval. Mario is joined by Bowser Jr., whom the player can direct to interact with wall markings and, optionally, can be configured to assist the player in attacking enemies and collecting coins. Alternatively, a second player can control Bowser Jr., with the same limited ability set. Bowser Jr. also stores power-ups for the player, and allow the player to swap between the item abilities as needed.The basic game lasts about four hours for an average player, with an additional four hours of gameplay for players interested in collecting all 100 "Cat Shines" tokens. Visually, the game displays at a reduced framerate when played in handheld mode, with drops in frame rate during chaotic on-screen action. == Plot == While on a walk, Mario discovers a mysterious black sludge M (resembling Shadow Mario's logo from Super Mario Sunshine) in the Mushroom Kingdom. After being absorbed by it, Mario finds himself in an archipelago of cat-themed islands called Lake Lapcat that have become overrun with black sludge. Upon his arrival, Mario encounters Fury Bowser, a dark version of Bowser that has grown to colossal size. Mario collects a Cat Shine, causing Bowser to retreat. Bowser Jr. appears and pleads for Mario's help to restore his father to normal, and Mario reluctantly agrees. The two travel across Lake Lapcat in order to obtain Cat Shines, aided by Plessie the aquatic dinosaur. After obtaining a certain number of Cat Shines, Mario gains access to the Giga Bell, a super-powered variation of the Super Bell. The Giga Bell transforms Mario into Giga Cat Mario, a colossal version of his regular cat form, allowing him to battle Fury Bowser. After using the Giga Bells to fight Fury Bowser several times, Bowser is drained of the sludge which transformed him. Despite this, he remains colossal and out of control, and steals the three Giga Bells. Mario manages to retake the Giga Bells, using all three to turn Plessie into a giant and crush Bowser. Bowser is returned to his normal size, and Bowser Jr. breaks off his alliance with Mario as the two retreat. Mario and the cats of Lake Lapcat celebrate their victory atop the still giant Plessie. A series of paintings by Bowser Jr. shown during the credits explain that he was responsible for accidentally creating Fury Bowser, having painted Bowser's face with his magic paintbrush while he was sleeping as a prank. == Development == Bowser's Fury was developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development division. == Marketing and release == Bowser's Fury was first teased at the end of a trailer advertising a Super Mario 3D World re-release on Nintendo Switch during a Nintendo Direct on September 7, 2020. At The Game Awards show in December 2020, a new commercial was showcased, though it didn't reveal any new footage of Bowser's Fury itself. On January 12, 2021, a new trailer showcased the theming, story, and gameplay of Bowser's Fury. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch on February 12, 2021. As of August 2021, the game had sold over 6 million copies. == Reception == Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was the best-selling game for February 2021 in the United States.Reviewers noted the game's "experimental" nature, both in its inventive approach to the series' first fully open world, foretelling future Mario games, and its lack of technical polish relative to the series' standards, exemplified by its noticeable drops in framerate and unperfected ideas. The game's foray into a fully open world challenged the Mario tradition of leisurely, "meticulously designed obstacle courses", wrote Polygon, and instead presented as an improvisational rumpus room filled with colorful distractions, messy and warm. On the technical end, the game's framerate drops made Kotaku's reviewer desire for more powerful hardware.Some reviewers were vexed over frequent interruptions of the game's fury event, especially towards the end of the game, but others felt an adrenaline rush at the event's added challenge and unpredictability. After a few hours, Ars Technica found the game repetitive and sparse, returning to the same areas for some challenges with only minor novelty. GameSpot too acknowledged a number of uninspired repeat challenges, exacerbated by the fury event's intrusion while pursuing some of the harder Shine tokens. Polygon appreciated the fury countdown's visibility, likened to the Mario level timers of prior games.The game was nominated for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2021. == Notes == == References == == Further reading == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Mario Party Superstars

Party

Mario Party Superstars is a 2021 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the twelfth home console installment in the Mario Party series, and the second for the Nintendo Switch following Super Mario Party (2018). It was released on October 29, 2021.The game features five remade boards from the original Nintendo 64 trilogy and a total of 100 minigames curated from previous entries in the series, similar to the Nintendo 3DS game Mario Party: The Top 100 (2017). Unlike Super Mario Party, Superstars can be played with button controls. Upon release, Mario Party Superstars received mostly positive reviews from critics. == Gameplay == Mario Party Superstars features gameplay similar to the first eight entries in the Mario Party series, without the vehicle mechanics from the previous two numbered console games. Four characters, played by either humans or AI, traverse one of five boards in the game, collecting coins and stars. The player with the most stars at the end of the game wins. Stars are bought for twenty coins from Toadette, though can also be obtained via other methods. During a turn, each player rolls a die, enabling them to move the result of the roll - one to ten. Additionally, items may be used to affect themselves or other players. Between every round of four players moving, a randomly-selected minigame of 100 is played. All 100 minigames are taken from the previous entries in the series, 55 of which originate from the original N64 trilogy. "Mt. Minigames" is another mode, allowing players to freely play minigames without boards. == Release == Nintendo revealed the game on the Nintendo Direct at E3 2021 on June 15. The presentation revealed and featured remakes of the boards "Peach's Birthday Cake" from Mario Party and "Space Land" from Mario Party 2. Polygon's Ryan Gilliam noted that the boards included events not seen in the original versions; moreover, he commented that the game borrowed assets — such as the user interface — from its predecessor Super Mario Party. The presentation also confirmed that Birdo will return as a playable character for the first time since Mario Party 9 (2012). The third game board announced was "Woody Woods" from Mario Party 3, which was revealed on the game's official website. During a Nintendo Direct broadcast on September 23, the final two boards were revealed, being "Yoshi's Tropical Island" from Mario Party and "Horror Land" from Mario Party 2A few minigames from the original Mario Party which required players to rotate the analog stick as fast as they could make a return in Superstars; these minigames feature a warning not to rotate the analog stick with the palm of the hand. This was due to incidents where players sustained hand injuries from using the analog stick in this way. Overall, the game features 100 minigames, 55 of which originated in the first three games of the series. == Reception == Mario Party Superstars has an average score of 80/100 based on 88 reviews on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".Mitchell Saltzman of IGN gave a favorable review, stating: "Mario Party Superstars is an amalgamation of some of the best boards, minigames, mechanics, and quality of life improvements from the whole series, resulting in the best Mario Party has been in a very long time."It sold 163,256 physical copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country. As of December 31, 2021, Mario Party Superstars had sold 5.43 million copies worldwide. === Awards and accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website www.nintendo.com/e3

Nintendo Switch

Splatoon 3

Third-person shooter

Splatoon 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Like its predecessors in the Splatoon series, the game consists of online multiplayer (PvP and PvE) alongside a story-driven single-player mode. The game was released on 9 September 2022 and received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of 30 September 2022, Splatoon 3 has sold 7.90 million copies worldwide, making it the fastest selling game in the franchise and one of the best-selling Switch games. == Gameplay == Like its predecessors, Splatoon 3 is a third-person shooter. Players choose to be either an "Inkling" or "Octoling" as their player character. Both wield weaponry that shoots colored ink. Weapons are diverse in ability and imagery, with most resembling household objects. For example, Rollers are large paint rollers that can cover large amounts of area in ink but are generally limited to close-range combat. At the same time, Chargers are sniper rifle-like weapons with a long range for sniping opponents but are less effective at painting the ground. Splatoon 3 expands upon this by adding new main and special weapons to the game. Inklings and Octolings also have the ability to morph into a squid or octopus form respectively. This form is referred to as the "swim form", and can be used to climb ink-covered walls or swim through ink faster than the humanoid forms can walk. Weapons have a finite amount of ink ammunition, and submerging in ink via the swim form replenishes it quicker than in humanoid form. All basic weapons from the prior Splatoon games return in Splatoon 3. === Modes === ==== Competitive ==== Returning from its predecessor as a playable online multiplayer game mode is Regular Battle, known as Turf War. In Regular Battles, two teams of four players compete to cover the most amount of the map's area in their respective ink color. Each team can cover over an area covered by the opponents with their color in return, and the opposing team's ink slows movement, gradually deals damage and prevents the use of the player's swim form. Each player is equipped with a weapon set, chosen before each match, and each set comes with additional secondary and special weapons in addition to its main weapon. Secondary weapons provide alternate forms of attacking the other team and inking the ground; for example, Splat Bombs that explode a second after contact with a surface and Burst Bombs that explode upon impact. When enough ground is covered in a player's ink, they may use a special weapon, which are primarily used to attack the opposing team. Weapons and other forms of attack can deal damage to opposing players; when enough damage is given, they will "splat" their opponent, forcing them to restart from their starting location. Matches last three minutes, and whichever team covers a higher percentage of the field at the end of the match is declared the winner. Once a player gains enough experience points to reach level 10, or by transferring save data from Splatoon 2, they gain access to a ranked mode called "Anarchy Battles", featuring several different battle types. Clam Blitz sees players collect golden clams and deposit them in the opponent's goals, with the team who deposited the most clams by the end of the match declared the winner. In Splat Zones, two teams aim to control "splat zones" for a set amount of time. The splat zones are considered "controlled" when they are 70% covered in a single team's ink. Similarly, Tower Control requires a team to control a moving tower. When the tower is controlled by one team, it moves toward that team's goal line, passing checkpoints along the way, with a team winning when the tower reaches their goal line. In Rainmaker, players attempt to carry the rainmaker item from the center of the map to a pedestal on the opponent's side of the map.The game also features monthly "Splatfests", where players choose to join one of three teams (compared to two in the previous games) over a particular theme and over two days engage in matches to gain the most points for victory. In Splatoon 3, a "Tricolor Turf War" can occur during the second half of a Splatfest, where the team currently in the lead plays a defensive role, in which they aim to prevent two players from each of the other teams from taking control of the Ultra Signal located at the center of the map. ==== Salmon Run ==== The co-op PvE mode Salmon Run also returns, titled "Salmon Run Next Wave". Salmon Run Next Wave follows the same basic gameplay as it does in Splatoon 2, where the player, employed by Grizzco Industries, teams up with three other players to fight waves of enemies known as "Salmonids". The main goal is to collect Golden Eggs, obtained by splatting special enemies known as "Boss Salmonids", and carry them to a basket. Each "shift" typically lasts three waves, though, in Next Wave, a fourth "Xtrawave" sometimes occurs, where players team up to fight a King Salmonid. By successfully meeting the quota of golden eggs for all waves in a shift, the player can increase their rank within Grizzco. Next Wave adds the ability to throw golden eggs along with new enemies and new "Known Occurrence" events. Salmon Run is also no longer limited to certain times of day; players are able to access Salmon Run 24/7, even during Splatfests. A new addition to Splatoon 3 is "Big Run", an event mode where Salmonids invade the city of Splatsville, set to occur once every few months. ==== Tableturf Battle ==== A new mode present in Splatoon 3 is Tableturf Battle, a digital collectible card game in which players build a deck composed of collected trading cards. In Tableturf Battle, each card can be used to apply a pattern to a grid, and after a "special attack" is charged, it can be used to place a pattern that overwrites the opponent's patterns. == Setting == The Splatoon games take place on a version of Earth set far in the future after the extinction of humanity, where much of ocean life has evolved to live on land. Splatoon 3 takes place five years after the events of Splatoon 2 (specifically, the events of Splatoon 3 actually take place parallel to the real world, similar to real time) in the Splatlands, a sun-scorched desert inhabited by battle-hardened Inklings and Octolings, and Splatsville, a city of chaos that seems to have developed rapidly since the last Splatfest, Chaos vs. Order. The main hub world of Splatoon 3 is known as "Splatsville", nicknamed "the city of chaos", and is located in a different region from the previous two games' hub of "Inkopolis" known as "the Splatlands". The story mode of Splatoon 3, titled Return of the Mammalians, is set in a new location called "Alterna". It focuses on the reappearance of mammals, which have been long-extinct. === Plot === Upon following the elderly squid Craig Cuttlefish down a sewer, the player and their Smallfry friend, known as "Little Buddy", find themselves in a crater covered with a lethal, fuzzy ooze and must fight Octarians covered in fur; Smallfry is able to eat and destroy some of the ooze. Cuttlefish enlists the player as Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon and tasks them with recovering the once-again-missing Great Zapfish, which powers Splatsville. As they travel down the crater, they attempt to contact Agents 1 and 2, Callie and Marie of the Squid Sisters, to pick them up. However, their conversation is wiretapped by Octarian leader DJ Octavio, who accuses Cuttlefish of taking his Octarian warriors and denies taking the Zapfish. After defeating DJ Octavio, the ground breaks open, sending Agent 3 and Smallfry falling into the remains of an underground city known as "Alterna", also covered with the fuzzy ooze and containing a massive rocket at the center. They meet Callie, Marie, and the Captain (the player protagonist of the first game), who ask them to explore the city and find Cuttlefish. Aided by an artificial intelligence called O.R.C.A, they explore the city, which the fuzzy Octarians have turned into a base. They are forced at times to fight the Splatlands idols, Deep Cut (composed of Frye, Shiver, and Big Man), who claim the city contains valuable treasure (which appears to be nothing but piles of junk) and want it for themselves. As Agent 3 explores, they discover that Cuttlefish has been captured by Grizzco CEO Mr. Grizz, who has also stolen the Zapfish and the Octarian army. The New Squidbeak Splatoon deduces that Cuttlefish must be on the rocket and constructs a lawnmower using the treasures, which they use to cut the fuzzy ooze around the rocket. Deep Cut, who had been searching for the treasure to help out the citizens of Splatsville, are given the treasure without a fight as the New Squidbeak Splatoon no longer needs it. They form an alliance with the New Squidbeak Splatoon and become the Squid Sisters' employees. Agent 3 climbs the rocket, reaching a dehydrated and dead Cuttlefish and Mr. Grizz, who is revealed to be a massive bear and one of the only remaining mammals left. Grizz explains that, powered by the Great Zapfish and golden salmon eggs, the rocket is rigged to explode and cover the entire Earth in fuzzy ooze, reviving mammal life at the expense of all marine life. While Cuttlefish is revived in primitive squid form by the Captain's tears, Grizz launches the rocket, but Deep Cut provides Agent 3 a lift onto it with help from their tamed eels and shark. Agent 3 and Smallfry defeat Mr. Grizz, who attempts to crash into the planet as a last-ditch effort. However, DJ Octavio arrives in an upgraded mech and assists Agent 3 in vacuuming up the fuzzy ooze, while Smallfry, powered by a new rendition of the "heavenly melody" Calamari Inkantation, transforms into Hugefry and battles Mr. Grizz atop the rocket. Agent 3 ultimately defeats Grizz and destroys the rocket with a massive blast of Grizz's own fuzzy ooze, leaving him to come to terms with his defeat before the rocket explodes. Agent 3, Smallfry, and Octavio return to Earth with the Great Zapfish, and Deep Cut continues working with the Squid Sisters and premiers their latest single. During the credits, Grizz is shown to have survived and is seen floating in space. == Development == Splatoon 3 was developed by Nintendo EPD, with additional work done by Monolith Soft, who also assisted in the development of previous Splatoon games. The game makes use of NLPN, Nintendo's in-house server system, which supports expanded lobby features and better matchmaking.At E3 2019, after the announcement of Splatoon 2's final Splatfest, "Chaos vs. Order", Splatoon producer Hisashi Nogami stated that a third entry in the series was not currently in development. In an "Ask the Developer" interview on Nintendo's website, it was revealed that the direction of Splatoon 3's world was decided after Team Chaos won Splatoon 2's final Splatfest, with the developers planning for both outcomes before the Splatfest winner was decided. == Marketing and release == Splatoon 3 was first announced with a teaser trailer in a Nintendo Direct on 17 February 2021. The trailer revealed new items, weapons, abilities, and a new apocalyptic design. More details were revealed later that year in September, including the name of Splatoon 3's single-player mode, Return of the Mammalians.A trailer for Splatoon 3's co-op mode "Salmon Run" premiered at a Nintendo Direct on 9 February 2022. On 22 April 2022, Nintendo uploaded a video to YouTube showing gameplay of the "Turf War" game mode, as well as providing an exact release date. Additionally, Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion was announced to be included with the Expansion Pack tier of Nintendo Switch Online. In July 2022, Nintendo announced a special edition Nintendo Switch OLED model themed on the game, with a release date of 26 August 2022. In addition, the company also announced a Splatoon 3-themed Pro Controller and carrying case, which released alongside the game.On 10 August 2022, Nintendo broadcast a Splatoon 3-focused Nintendo Direct, revealing the date for the game's Splatfest World Premiere. Nintendo also announced that the game would have amiibo support, with several new figurines that can be used to take photos with the characters in-game and receive special gear items, similar to past Splatoon titles. It also introduced 3 new "idol" characters known Big Man, Shiver, and Frye, collectively referred to as "Deep Cut". On 25 August 2022, a Nintendo Treehouse Presentation was broadcast which showcased the single-player story mode, the multiplayer lobby, alongside weapons, and multiplayer maps.The pre-launch Splatfest World Premiere event was held on 27 & 28 August 2022 with a rock-paper-scissors theme, with Team Rock being the winner in all regions.The game was released worldwide on 9 September 2022. In a trailer on 11 October 2022, it was announced that the Splatoon 3 amiibo would launch on November 11. Announced in the Splatoon 3 Nintendo Direct, the game is set to receive both large-scale paid DLC and two years of support via free software updates.During Nintendo Live 2022 on 9 October, a Splatoon 3 concert was held starring Deep Cut. == Reception == === Critical reception === Splatoon 3 received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. IGN reviewer Brendan Graeber called 3's multiplayer "more than just a simple upgrade", citing its additional maps, weapons, bosses, and customization, as well as its revamped lobby system. However, he criticized the game's lack of a "huge addition" similar to Splatoon 2's Salmon Run. Reviewing the game's single-player mode, he appreciated the new take on the series' hub world, as well as the returning ideas from Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion. He praised the story mode's lore, as well as its characters, while lamenting the reuse of enemies from previous games. He also reviewed Tableturf Battle, calling it a "lackluster card game" that "consistently ends with a whimper instead of a bang".Destructoid's Chris Carter praised how Return of the Mammalians interacted with the game's multiplayer modes, by both teaching the player important mechanics and rewarding them with useful items, as well as appreciating how the story mode was tailored for speedrunning.Martin Robinson of Eurogamer criticized the lack of significant new content, saying that even the largest new additions are not something "that can be applauded too enthusiastically", and other features "basic [ones] you'd expect of a contemporary online multiplayer game". However, he called the Splatoon series "one of the most polished, playable and impeccably executed series" from Nintendo. He also compared the game's story mode to the Mario franchise, saying that while it evoked some of the best parts of Super Mario Sunshine, the abstract nature of the levels failed to meet the best Mario levels.Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez lamented the amount of disconnections while playing online, saying that it is "inexcusable".Brian Shea of Game Informer praised the larger amount of content available at launch compares to previous entries in the series, as well as how the game blended new and returning content, calling it the series's "best entry to date". He also praised the game's movement, saying that "few games match the smooth, intuitive mobility Splatoon gives you while submerged and cruising through a map".Wired's Reid McCarter praised Splatoon 3's praised the game's original, cartoony characters rather than brand crossovers and realistic graphics. === Sinsogumi livestream incident === On 8 October 2022, reports emerged that the Japanese VTuber group Sinsogumi were broadcasting pornography by chroma keying ink in Splatoon 3 in a competition to not be banned from YouTube. In response, Nintendo issued copyright strikes to the videos, and the channels were subsequently terminated, as well as reiterating their policy of the use of screenshots or videos of Nintendo games on their corporate Twitter account. Members of Sinsogumi later apologized, with the group's leader, Ikinone Tomeru, doing so in a dinosaur costume. === Sales === On 12 September 2022, Nintendo reported that Splatoon 3 sold 3.45 million copies domestically within the first three days of launch, making it the second fastest-selling video game of all time in Japan (surpassing the previous record holder Pokémon Black and White), as well as one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch. Shares of Nintendo were noted to have increased by 5.5% on the Tuesday following the announcement, the largest increase since December 2020. Splatoon 3 debuted at the top spot on the UK boxed charts, where it remained for three weeks until being pushed to second place by FIFA 23. As of 18 October 2022, Splatoon 3 was reported to be the highest-selling video game of 2022 in Japan, just over one month after its release. === Accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Super Mario Maker 2

PlatformerLevel editor

Super Mario Maker 2 is a 2019 side-scrolling platform game and level creation system developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the sequel to Super Mario Maker and was released worldwide on June 28, 2019. The gameplay is largely retained from that of its predecessor, in which players create their own custom courses using assets from various games across the Super Mario franchise and share them online. Super Mario Maker 2 introduces new features and course assets, including a single player story mode and new level assets based on Super Mario 3D World. Like its predecessor, the game was met with positive reviews from critics, who praised its user interface, course editing tools, and music, although issues with the online multiplayer mode were criticized. As of December 2021, the game has shipped over 7.89 million copies, making it one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch. == Gameplay == Like its predecessor, Super Mario Maker 2 is a side-scrolling platform game in which players create their own courses using assets from across the Super Mario series and publish them onto the internet for others to play. Players can choose from a selection of prior Super Mario games to base their courses' visual style and gameplay on, including Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U, and the newly introduced Super Mario 3D World theme, which has been retooled to 2.5D to fit with the game's platforming style. Gameplay mechanics and enemy behaviors can vary between the styles, with some elements being limited to specific styles.The sequel adds various assets and tools, including assets and a course theme based on Super Mario 3D World. This theme is especially different from the four others, with many features and gameplay mechanics unique to it. Due to the difference from this style to the others, the course has to be reset in order to switch to this style. This sequel also brings along the new vertical course feature giving creators the ability to raise the vertical height limit. It also introduces local and online multiplayer modes including co-op course creation, where up to 2 players can locally create stages together at the same time; as well as allowing up to 4 online players to complete user-made courses, cooperatively or competitively.The game also features a World Maker mode, where players create their own overworld maps, creating the equivalent of their own Super Mario game, called a Super World. The world style is locked as Super Mario World, but the courses themselves can be any style. Up to six Super Worlds can be saved but only one can be uploaded. One world can have up to five levels, including a castle, and a single Super World can have up to eight separate worlds. A world can also feature Toad houses, where the player plays minigames for extra lives, and Warp Pipes to get around the world quickly. Super Mario Maker 2 also features a new single player campaign known as Story Mode. The story follows Mario, Toadette, and several other Toads helping to rebuild Princess Peach's Castle, which had accidentally been reset by Undodog, a non-playable character. Players must traverse through over 100 Nintendo-created courses in order to collect enough coins to rebuild the castle. Non-player characters also offer players extra tasks and jobs throughout the mode.A Nintendo Switch Online subscription is required in order to access any online functionality in the game, including accessing player-created levels. == Development and release == Developed inhouse at Nintendo's Kyoto Development Center, planning for Super Mario Maker 2 began alongside development of the Nintendo Switch hardware itself. Most of the original development team reprised their roles for this sequel, including producer Hiroyuki Kimura, director Yosuke Oshino, and planner/game designer Shigefumi Hino. Nintendo's producer Takashi Tezuka stated that the theme for the sequel was to expand on what could be done compared to its predecessor and try new things, which took the form of new course elements and new side content in the form of a full-fledged single player campaign. Tezuka also stated that as players continue to upload levels, he and the development staff would use these creations as a reference for adding content after launch, viewing the dynamic as a give-and-take between developers and consumers. Longtime Super Mario series composer Koji Kondo served as the game's sound director and composed some music. Additional music was composed by Atsuko Asahi, Toru Minegishi, and Sayako Doi.Super Mario Maker 2 was revealed during a Nintendo Direct presentation on February 13, 2019. It was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2019. Another Nintendo Direct was broadcast on May 15, 2019, which provided more information about new and returning features, gameplay modes, and pre-orders.In Europe, a capacitive stylus was included as part of the limited edition bundle of the game for customers who pre-ordered.Three major content updates were released for the game: The first update, released on October 2, 2019, added more multiplayer options, including playing with friends on local area networks or nearby networks. The second update, released on December 5, 2019, added an extra mode themed around speedrunning Nintendo-created courses, with "ghost" images of the best timed performances shown for the player to know how well they compare against. Additional parts were added, such as a Master Sword power-up that Mario can pick up to become Link and gain a different set of moves, ice-encased coin blocks, platforms that greatly increase the player's speed, and invisible "P" blocks that are triggered by a "P" switch. Spikes and Pokeys were also added as new enemies. The third and final update, released on April 22, 2020, added the ability to compose worlds to hold multiple courses, akin to the presentation of Super Mario World with up to eight different worlds and up to forty levels. A new power-up gives Mario the ability to pick up and throw objects as in Super Mario Bros. 2. Additional power-ups added in this update include the Frog Suit for the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, the Power Balloon for Super Mario World, the Super Acorn in the New Super Mario Bros. U style, and the boomerang flower for the Super Mario 3D World game style. Five other new power-ups were added to the Super Mario 3D World style as well, including the Propeller Box, the Bullet Bill Mask, the Goomba Mask, the Red POW Box, and the Cannon Box. The Koopalings and Mechakoopas were added as new enemies, along with red-colored keys guarded by Phanto (an enemy from Super Mario Bros. 2) and new ON/OFF Switch-triggered blocks and mushroom trampolines in the Super Mario 3D World game style. == Reception == Super Mario Maker 2 received generally favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The online multiplayer feature, however, was criticized for its performance issues. GameSpot, who gave the game an 8/10, stated that online lag frequently ruined the experience. === Sales === It was the best-selling game in Japan during its first two weeks of release, selling 279,357 physical copies. By the end of March 2021, the game had sold over 7.15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Super Mario Maker 2 had sold 7.89 million units, as of December 31, 2021. === Awards === == Footnotes == Notes References == External links == Official website Profile at Nintendo.com

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch Sports

Sports

Nintendo Switch Sports is a sports simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the latest entry in the Wii series of games and the fourth game of the Wii Sports sub-series, as well as the first to replace the "Wii" title. The game was released on April 29, 2022, and received generally mixed reviews from critics. Nintendo Switch Sports has sold over 4.8 million copies as of June 30, 2022, making it one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games. == Gameplay == Nintendo Switch Sports is set in a fictional multi-sport facility named Spocco Square, which contains three sports from previous installments (tennis and bowling from Wii Sports and swordplay from Wii Sports Resort; known as chambara within the game), and three new sports (soccer, volleyball, and badminton). Another sport from a previous installment, golf, was announced as well and was issued in a free update on November 29, 2022.Players utilize the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con in a similar manner to the other Wii Sports games, positioning them in a manner resembling the actual sport. The gyroscope functionality embedded within the Joy-Con are used to simulate motion in-game, compared to the usage of the Wii Remote (and occasionally the Nunchuk) to simulate motion in the other games in the series.Alongside Miis, new avatars called "Sportsmates" have been introduced, which have more detailed hair and faces as well as arms and legs. Additionally, the Leg Strap accessory introduced in Ring Fit Adventure is included in the physical copy of the game and is usable in Football. At launch, the leg strap only worked for Football Shootout Mode. As of the Summer update launched in July 2022, the leg strap can now be used for all Football match types. The game has multiplayer available both locally on the same system and online. Online allows play with friends and random matchmaking. == Development == The game was announced in a Nintendo Direct on February 9, 2022, with a release date of April 29, 2022. A free-to-play online playtest of the game to test functionality and stability was available to register on February 15, 2022, for those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. The playtest was available to play during specific times on February 18 to 20, 2022.Takayuki Shimamura, who directed all of the Wii Sports series, returned to this title as producer, Yoshikazu Yamashita, who directed Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, returned as director. The project started a while after the Nintendo Switch system was released. Yoshiaki Koizumi, Senior Executive Officer, Deputy General Manager of Nintendo EPD and general producer of the Nintendo Switch, called Yamashita and requested the development of a Nintendo Switch title in the Wii Sports series. According to Yamashita, 90% of the members of the development team were new members who weren't part of the past Wii series titles.Development of post-release content has faced setbacks. In September 2022, Nintendo announced that the golf game mode, which was previously targeted for release in fall 2022, would be delayed to winter. In October 2022, an update intended to address cheating in online play was released with a bug that caused the game to crash in both online and offline modes, forcing Nintendo to stop distributing the update and take the game's servers offline until a solution could be found. == Reception == According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game received "mixed or average" reviews from critics upon release.Nintendo World Report praised the minigames for being easy to pick up, but criticized the Joy-Con motion controls, saying that it had "removed a little bit of variance and nuance". GamesRadar+ liked the new soccer mini game, writing that it was "brilliantly chaotic when another human player gets involved in local multiplayer". While enjoying the game for family-friendly entertainment, The Guardian disliked volleyball, stating, "the pace is slow and the movements too obvious". VG247 felt that the motions used in each game captured the feeling of the sports, even if they were only approximations.Game Informer enjoyed the gear unlock system in the game, "this simple progression system kept me engaged and eager to dive back into the action". On the other hand, Destructoid criticized it for being too online-centric, "all of the game’s long-term reward systems are directly linked to online play... For a game that made its money on local play, this seems like a bummer". IGN liked the flexibility of badminton, and called attention to its use of HD Rumble, saying that the Joy-Con gave off "precise haptic feedback that I could feel in my hand whenever the racquet connected with the birdie to make a satisfying *ting* sensation". The Verge disliked the simplicity of the racquet-based sports, "The games are still fun, but I wish I could have had more strategy to play them than 'swing your arm and pray'". The Washington Post felt that the AI partner could make it too easy on the player, writing, "My ever-flexible AI partner could work around just about anything to bail me out. I don’t think I ever really lost unless I completely whiffed on an attempt".Nintendo Life wrote that the game suffered from a lack of content outside the main sports, "If you want to play one of the six sports, you're golden. If you want anything to spice it up, you're more than likely going to be left wanting. We know we were". GameSpot criticized the lack of single-player options, saying "It quickly began feeling repetitive... If playing Nintendo Switch Sports with others is a joyous communal experience, playing alone is a depressingly isolating one". Polygon felt it captured the joy of the original Wii Sports, but noted that the motion controls felt like a step down from Resort. === Sales === The game sold nearly 190,000 copies in its first week in Japan, topping the weekly sales chart. Similarly, the game topped the weekly sales chart in the UK, South Korea and Taiwan. In the United States, it charted at number 5 for the month of April based on physical sales alone, becoming the second best-selling new release of the month, behind Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.As of June 30, 2022, Nintendo Switch Sports has sold 4.84 million copies worldwide. == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Action-adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a 1993 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the first installment in The Legend of Zelda series for a handheld game console. Link's Awakening is one of the few Zelda games not to take place in the land of Hyrule, and it does not feature Princess Zelda or the Triforce relic. Instead, the protagonist Link begins the game stranded on Koholint Island, a place guarded by a whale-like deity called the Wind Fish. Assuming the role of Link, the player fights monsters and solves puzzles while searching for eight musical instruments that will awaken the sleeping Wind Fish and allow him to escape from the island. Development began as an effort to port the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to the Game Boy, developed after-hours by Nintendo staff. It grew into an original project under the direction of Takashi Tezuka, with a story and script created by Yoshiaki Koizumi and Kensuke Tanabe. The majority of the Link to the Past team reassembled for Link's Awakening, and Tezuka wanted the game world to feel like the television series Twin Peaks. After a development period of one and a half years, Link's Awakening was released in Japan in June 1993 and worldwide later in the year. Link's Awakening was critically and commercially successful. Critics praised the game's depth and number of features; complaints focused on its control scheme and monochrome graphics. An updated rerelease, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1998 featuring color graphics, compatibility with the Game Boy Printer, and an exclusive color-based dungeon. Together, the two versions of the game have sold more than six million units worldwide, and have appeared on multiple game publications' lists of the best video games of all time. A high-definition remake for the Nintendo Switch was developed by Grezzo and released worldwide in 2019. == Gameplay == Like most games in The Legend of Zelda series, Link's Awakening is an action-adventure game focused on exploration and combat. The majority of the game takes place from an overhead perspective. The player traverses the overworld of Koholint Island while fighting monsters and exploring underground dungeons. Dungeons steadily become larger and more difficult, and feature "Nightmare" boss characters that the player must defeat, taking different forms in each dungeon, and getting harder to defeat each time. Success earns the player heart containers, which increase the amount of damage the player character can survive; when all of the player's heart containers have been emptied, the game restarts at the last doorway entered by the character. Defeating a Nightmare also earns the player one of the eight instruments necessary to complete the game.Link's Awakening was the first overhead-perspective Zelda game to allow Link to jump; this enables sidescrolling sequences similar to those in the earlier Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Players can expand their abilities with items, which are discovered in dungeons and through character interactions. Certain items grant access to previously inaccessible areas and are needed to enter and complete dungeons. The player may steal items from the game's shop, but doing so changes the player character's name to "THIEF" for the rest of the game and causes the shopkeeper to knock out the character upon re-entry of the shop.In addition to the main quest, Link's Awakening contains side-missions and diversions. Collectible "secret seashells" are hidden throughout the game; when twenty of these are found, the player can receive a powerful sword that fires energy beams when the player character is at full health, similar to the sword in the original The Legend of Zelda. Link's Awakening is the first Zelda game to include a trading sequence minigame: the player may give a certain item to a character, who in turn gives the player another item to trade with someone else. It is also the first game in the Zelda series in which the A and B buttons may be assigned to different items, which enables more varied puzzles and item combinations. Other series elements originating in Link's Awakening include fishing, and learning special songs on an ocarina; the latter mechanic is central to the next Zelda game released, Ocarina of Time. == Synopsis == === Setting and characters === Unlike most The Legend of Zelda titles, Link's Awakening is set outside the kingdom of Hyrule. It omits locations and characters from previous games, aside from protagonist Link and a passing mention of Princess Zelda. Instead, the game takes place entirely on Koholint Island, an isolated landmass cut off from the rest of the world. The island, though small, contains a large number of secrets and interconnected pathways. Within the Zelda timeline, Link's Awakening takes place after Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past, but before Oracle of Seasons and Ages.In Link's Awakening, the player is given advice and directions by non-player characters such as Ulrira, a shy old man who communicates with Link exclusively by telephone. The game contains cameo appearances by characters from other Nintendo titles, such as Wart, Yoshi, Kirby, Dr. Wright (renamed Mr. Write) from the Super NES version of SimCity, and the exiled prince Richard from The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls. Chomp, an enemy from the Mario series, was included after a programmer gave Link the ability to grab the creature and take it for a walk. Enemies from Super Mario Bros. such as Goombas and Piranha Plants also appear in underground side-scrolling sections; Link may land on top of them much as with Super Mario Bros., or he can attack them in the usual way: the two methods yield different bonuses. Director Takashi Tezuka said that the game's "freewheeling" development made Link's Awakening seem like a parody of The Legend of Zelda series. Certain characters in the game break the fourth wall; for example, little children inform the player of game mechanics such as saving, but admit that they do not understand the advice they are giving. === Plot === After the events of A Link to the Past, the hero Link travels by ship to other countries to train for further threats. A storm destroys his boat at sea, and he washes ashore on Koholint Island, where he is taken to the house of Tarin by his daughter Marin. She is fascinated by Link and the outside world, and tells Link wishfully that, if she were a seagull, she would leave and travel across the sea. After Link recovers his sword, a mysterious owl tells him that he must wake the Wind Fish, Koholint's guardian, in order to return home. The Wind Fish lies dreaming in a giant egg on top of Mt. Tamaranch, and can only be awakened by the eight Instruments of the Sirens. Link proceeds to explore a series of dungeons in order to recover the eight instruments. During his search for the sixth instrument, Link goes to the Ancient Ruins. There he finds a mural that details the reality of the island: that it is merely a dream world created by the Wind Fish. After this revelation, the owl tells Link that this is only a rumor, and only the Wind Fish knows for certain whether it is true. Throughout Koholint Island, nightmare creatures attempt to obstruct Link's quest for the instruments, as they wish to rule the Wind Fish's dreamworld. After collecting all eight instruments from the eight dungeons across Koholint, Link climbs to the top of Mt. Tamaranch and plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish. This breaks open the egg in which the Wind Fish sleeps; Link enters and confronts the last evil being, a Nightmare that takes the form of Ganon and other enemies from Link's past. Its final transformation is "DethI", a cyclopean, dual-tentacled Shadow. After Link defeats DethI, the owl reveals itself to be the Wind Fish's spirit, and the Wind Fish confirms that Koholint is all his dream. When Link plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish again, he and the Wind Fish awaken; Koholint Island and all its inhabitants slowly disappear. Link finds himself lying on his ship's driftwood in the middle of the ocean, with the Wind Fish flying overhead. If the player did not lose any lives during the game, Marin is shown flying after the ending credits finish. == Development == Link's Awakening began as an unsanctioned side project; programmer Kazuaki Morita created a Zelda-like game with one of the first Game Boy development kits, and he used it to experiment with the platform's capabilities. Other staff members of the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development division joined him after-hours and worked on the game in what seemed to them like an "afterschool club". The results of these experiments with the Game Boy started to look promising. Following the 1991 release of the Super NES video game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, director Takashi Tezuka asked for permission to develop a handheld Zelda title; he intended it to be a port of A Link to the Past, but it evolved into an original game. The majority of the team that had created A Link to the Past was reassembled to advance this new project. Altogether, it took them one and a half years to develop Link's Awakening. Tezuka recalled that the early free-form development of Link's Awakening resulted in the game's "unrestrained" contents, such as the unauthorized cameo appearances of characters from the Mario and Kirby series. A Link to the Past script writer Kensuke Tanabe joined the team early on and came up with the basis of the story. Tezuka sought to make Link's Awakening a spin-off, and he gave Tanabe instructions to omit common series elements such as Princess Zelda, the Triforce relic, and the setting Hyrule. As a consequence, Tanabe proposed his game world idea of an island with an egg on top of a mountain. Tezuka recalled that it felt as though they were making a "parody of The Legend of Zelda" rather than an actual Zelda game.Later on, Yoshiaki Koizumi, who had previously helped with the plot of A Link to the Past, was brought into the team. Koizumi was responsible for the main story of Link's Awakening, provided the idea of the island in a dream, and conceived the interactions with the villagers. Link's Awakening was described by series producer Eiji Aonuma as the first Zelda game with a proper plot, which he attributed to Koizumi's romanticism. Tezuka intended the game's world to have a similar feeling to the American television series Twin Peaks, which, like Link's Awakening, features characters in a small town. He suggested that the characters of Link's Awakening be written as "suspicious types", akin to those in Twin Peaks—a theme which carried over into later Zelda titles. Tanabe created these "odd" characters; he was placed in charge of the subevents of the story and wrote almost all of the character dialog, with the exception of the owl's and the Wind Fish's lines. Tanabe implemented a previous idea of the world ending when a massive egg breaks on top of a mountain; this idea was originally meant for A Link to the Past. Tanabe really wanted to see this idea in a game and was able to implement it in Link's Awakening as the basic concept.Masanao Arimoto and Shigefumi Hino designed the game's characters, while Yoichi Kotabe served as illustrator. Save for the opening and the ending, all pictures in the game were drawn by Arimoto. Yasahisa Yamamura designed the dungeons, which included the conception of rooms and routes, as well as the placement of enemies. Shigeru Miyamoto, who served as the producer of Link's Awakening, did not provide creative input to the staff members. However, he participated as game tester, and his opinions greatly influenced the latter half of the development.The music for Link's Awakening was composed by Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa, for whom it was their first game project, and Kazumi Totaka, who also was responsible for the sound programming and all sound effects. As with most Zelda games, Link's Awakening includes a variation of the recurring overworld music; The staff credits theme, "Yume o Miru Shima e" was later arranged for orchestra by Yuka Tsujiyoko and performed at the Orchestral Game Music Concert 3 in 1993. Super Smash Bros. Brawl includes a remix of the game's "Tal Tal Heights" theme, which has since returned in subsequent Super Smash Bros. titles. In an interview about the evolution of the Zelda series, Aonuma called Link's Awakening the "quintessential isometric Zelda game". At another time, he stated that, had the game not come after A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time would have been very different. Tezuka said that he prefers the game over A Link to the Past, as he enjoyed the challenge of making a similar game on lower-specced hardware. Several elements from Link's Awakening were re-used in later Zelda titles; for example, programmer Morita created a fishing minigame that reappeared in Ocarina of Time, among others. Tanabe implemented a trading sequence; Tezuka compared it to the Japanese Straw Millionaire folktale, in which someone trades up from a piece of straw to something of greater value. This concept also appeared in most sequels. == Release == To support the North American release of Link's Awakening, Nintendo sponsored a crosscountry train competition called the Zelda Whistle Stop Tour. The event, which lasted three days, allowed select players to test Link's Awakening in a timed race to complete the game. The event was meant not only to showcase the game, but also the Game Boy's superior battery life and portability, the latter of which was critical to the accessibility of a portable Zelda title. The company-owned magazine Nintendo Power published a guide to the game's first three areas in its July 1993 issue.In 1998, to promote the launch of the Game Boy Color, Nintendo re-released Link's Awakening as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. It features fully colorized graphics and is backward compatible with the original Game Boy. Link's Awakening DX contains a new optional dungeon, with unique enemies and puzzles based on color (due to this, the dungeon cannot be accessed on the earlier non-color Game Boy models). After completing the dungeon, the player may choose to receive either a red or blue tunic, which increase attack and defense, respectively. The DX version also allows players to take photos after the player visits a camera shop, its owner will appear in certain locations throughout the game. A total of twelve photos can be taken, which may be viewed at the shop, or printed with the Game Boy Printer accessory. For Link's Awakening DX, Tezuka returned as project supervisor, with Yoshinori Tsuchiyama as the new director. Nobuo Matsumiya collaborated with Tsuchiyama on applying changes to the original script; for example, hint messages were added to the boss battles. For the new dungeon, Yuichi Ozaki created a musical piece based on Kondo's dungeon theme from the original The Legend of Zelda.Nintendo later re-released DX version on the Virtual Console of the Nintendo 3DS on June 2011. In July 2013, Link's Awakening DX was offered as one of several Virtual Console games which "elite status" members of the North America Club Nintendo could redeem as a free gift. A high-definition remake was developed by Grezzo and released for the Nintendo Switch on September 20, 2019.Link's Awakening was included in a Zelda-themed Game & Watch console alongside The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It was released on November 12, 2021. == Reception == === Sales === In Japan, the game topped the Famitsu sales chart in June 1993. In North America, it was the top-selling Game Boy game in August 1993. Link's Awakening sold well and helped boost Game Boy sales 13 percent in 1993—making it one of Nintendo's most profitable years in North America up to that time. The game remained on bestseller lists for more than 90 months after release, and went on to sell 3.83 million units by 2004. The DX version sold another 2.22 million units. The Virtual Console release of Link's Awakening DX was the top-selling downloadable Nintendo 3DS game of 2011, selling over 338,700 units, or an estimated $2.3 million in gross revenue. === Reviews === Link's Awakening was critically acclaimed, and holds an average score of 90% on aggregate site GameRankings. In a retrospective article, Electronic Gaming Monthly writer Jeremy Parish called Link's Awakening the "best Game Boy game ever, an adventure so engrossing and epic that we can even forgive the whole thing for being one of those 'It's all a dream!' fakeouts". Game Informer's Ben Reeves called it the third best Game Boy game and called it influential. The Washington Post's Chip Carter declared that Nintendo had created a "legend that fits in the palm of your hand", and praised its portability and depth. An Jōkiri of ITMedia echoed similar comments. A writer for the Mainichi Shimbun enjoyed the game's music and story. Multiple sources touted it as an excellent portable adventure for those without the time for more sophisticated games.Complaints about the game included its control scheme and monochrome graphics; certain critics believed that they made it difficult to discern the screen's contents, and wished that the game was in color. Critic William Burrill dismissed the game's visuals as "dim Boy graphics [that are] nothing to write home about". Both Carter and the Ottawa Citizen's Bill Provick found the two-button control scheme awkward, as they needed to switch items on almost every screen. The Vancouver Sun's Katherine Monk called the dialogue "stilted", but considered the rest of the game to be "ever-surprising".Link's Awakening DX also received positive reviews with multiple critics highlighting the color graphics as an improvement; based on ten media outlets, it holds an average score of 91% on Game Rankings. IGN's Adam Cleveland awarded the game a perfect score, and noted that "throughout the color-enhanced version of Zelda DX, it can easily be inferred that Nintendo has reworked its magic to fit new standards", by adding new content while keeping the original game intact. Cameron Davis of GameSpot applauded the game's camera support and attention to detail in coloration and style, while reviewers for the Courier Mail believed that the camera added gameplay depth and allowed players to show off trophies. The Daily Telegraph's Samantha Amjadali wrote that the addition of color made the game easier by reducing deaths caused by indistinct graphics. Total Games noted that the new content added little to the game, but found it addictive to play nonetheless. === Accolades === The game won several awards. At the Golden Joystick Awards, it won two awards, for Game of the Year (handheld) and Best Advert of the Year. It also won the Game Boy categories for Graphics and Sound, Challenge, Theme and Fun, Play Control and Best Overall in the reader-chosen 1993 Nintendo Power Awards. It was awarded Best Game Boy Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked the Game Boy version the 28th best console video game of all time, saying it ended up "beating out the Super NES Zelda in both size and scope". They also lauded its humorous dialogue, hefty challenge, and incorporation of the best gameplay mechanics of its predecessors. Nintendo Power later named it the fifty-sixth best Nintendo game, and, in August 2008, listed the DX version as the second best Game Boy or Game Boy Color game. IGN's readers ranked it as the 40th best game of all time, while the staff placed it at 78th; the staff believed that, "while handheld spin-offs are generally considered the low point for game franchises, Link's Awakening proves that they can offer just as rich a gameplay experience as their console counterparts". In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the DX version of the game 25th in a list of the greatest Nintendo games, calling it "an absolute masterclass in handheld game design". == References == === Citations === === Notes === == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Platformer

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a 2022 platform video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the thirteenth mainline installment in the Kirby series, as well as the first game in the series in full 3D, excluding spin-offs. The player controls Kirby in an adventure through the titular forgotten land called the New World to rescue Waddle Dees kidnapped by the ferocious Beast Pack. To complete each stage to save the Waddle Dees, Kirby can use a wide range of copy abilities to help battle enemies and progress. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was well received by critics, praising its graphics, level design, collectibles and upgradable copy abilities, with some calling it the best game in the series. Minor criticism was directed towards Kirby's movement and repetitive mini-bosses. As of September 30, 2022, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has sold over 5.2 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game in the series as well as one of the best-selling games on Nintendo Switch. == Gameplay == Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the first platform game in the series with full 3D gameplay, where the player must guide Kirby through various different stages to save the Waddle Dees at the end. As in most Kirby games, Kirby can jump and slide as well as inhale enemies and objects which he can either spit out like projectiles or swallow to gain a copy ability. Alongside returning copy abilities, this game introduced two new copy abilities in the form of Drill and Ranger, as well as an upgrade system for copy abilities and a new "Mouthful Mode" where Kirby can swallow and control larger objects, such as cars and vending machines. Similar to Kirby Battle Royale and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, a second player can join in and play as Bandana Waddle Dee, who uses a spear as his main form of attack.The goal of each stage is to rescue the Waddle Dees, who are freed by finding them trapped in cages, as well as by accomplishing certain goals specific to each stage. Once rescued, they are returned to Waddle Dee Town, the main hub of the game. As the player rescues more Waddle Dees, the town size increases as well as unlocks minigames that the player can compete with others online for the top score. The game also supports Amiibo functionality. == Plot == One day on Planet Popstar, a dark vortex appears over Dream Land, sucking up everything in its path into an abandoned civilization called the New World. Kirby is among those sucked into the vortex and also finds himself in the New World, where he discovers that the Waddle Dees from Dream Land are being kidnapped by the native wildlife, the Beast Pack. Eventually, he finds the destroyed Waddle Dee Town and a chinchilla-like creature called Elfilin, who helped the Waddle Dees settle within Waddle Dee Town. After being rescued from the Beast Pack, Elfilin explains to Kirby that he and the Waddle Dees attempted to fight back but were overwhelmed. Kirby offers to help Elfilin rescue the missing Waddle Dees, and the two set off together. As Kirby and Elfilin make their way through the New World, save Waddle Dees and defeat the Beast Pack's high council members, the two discover that Kirby's longtime rival King Dedede is helping the Beast Pack for unknown reasons. After being defeated, Dedede captures Elfilin and escapes, with Kirby in pursuit. Kirby frees Dedede from the Beast Pack's mind control and ascends into their center of operations, Lab Discovera, to find Elfilin while Dedede stays behind to hold off the remaining Beast Pack members. The lab's pre-recorded narration explains that a powerful extradimensional being dubbed ID-F86 tried to invade the New World, but was captured by the planet's inhabitants and placed in the lab, where its ability to create space-time rifts was researched. Thirty years after research began, ID-F86 split into Elfilin and Fecto Forgo during a "warp-experiment incident" to which Elfilin escaped in the chaos, while Fecto Forgo was placed in permanent suspended animation within Lab Discovera's Eternal Capsule. Kirby then meets the leader of the Beast Pack, a lion named Leongar, who is holding Elfilin captive. Leongar explains that the previous inhabitants of the New World used ID-F86’s power to depart for "a land of dreams," and that he intends to do the same by reuniting Fecto Forgo with Elfilin. After Leongar is defeated, Fecto Forgo awakens; speaking through Leongar, they reveal that they had formed the Beast Pack by controlling Leongar, possessed King Dedede, and kidnapped the Waddle Dees in order to resume their invasion. They break free from the Eternal Capsule and absorb Leongar, the Beast Pack, and Elfilin to become their original form, Fecto Elfilis. Kirby manages to weaken Fecto Elfilis enough to free Elfilin, but Fecto Elfilis creates a large portal back to Popstar, planning to crash the two planets into each other. Kirby narrowly defeats Fecto Elfilis by ramming a semi-trailer truck into them; he and Elfilin then find themselves back in Dream Land, where the portal is still open. Using all his power, Elfilin seals the rift between the two worlds, with himself in the New World. In the credits, though, it is revealed that Elfilin is able to open rifts to Popstar, and the inhabitants of the two worlds have become friends. However, Leongar's soul remains trapped in an alternate dimension called Forgo Dreams, created by Fecto Forgo's great psychic power and populated by phantoms generated by their memories of the Beast Pack. Kirby and Elfilin travel to this dimension and rescue Leongar, who is possessed by Soul Forgo. Kirby defeats the possessed Leongar, separating Soul Forgo from his body. Before they can attack Kirby, a scarlet butterfly flies into the lab, absorbs them, and transforms into Morpho Knight, a valkyrie-like warrior who delivers souls to the afterlife. Kirby defeats Morpho Knight and Leongar, now Leon, is properly freed, though Soul Forgo partially absorbs Morpho Knight's power and vanishes in the aftermath. A mysterious portal opens within Waddle Dee Town's colosseum, and in an optional final encounter, Kirby combats the phantoms of Forgo Dreams before confronting the newly formed Chaos Elfilis. He defeats Chaos Elfilis in a final battle, and a lingering remnant of their soul approaches Elfilin. He accepts it into his heart, allowing his two halves to finally become whole. == Development == HAL Laboratory had begun teasing a new Kirby game since 2020. General director Shinya Kumazaki described it as the "new phase" for the series and that it will "culminate the best aspects of Kirby". Game director Tatsuya Kamiyama explained how the team focused on making the game approachable even with change of perspective to 3D, while at the same time making it satisfying to play to the player. The 3D transition was described as very challenging, as HAL Laboratory struggled with several failed attempts to bring the Kirby series into 3D, extending back to the 2000s — during early development of what became Kirby's Return to Dream Land. Kamiyama ultimately created a detailed pitch for a 3D Kirby game that presented solutions to the issues that HAL Laboratory had faced, including character design, gameplay and many other aspects, finally allowing for development to begin on a 3D title. Vanpool assisted in development of the game.Early on, play testers at Nintendo felt that the wide 3D environments made gameplay too easy as players could simply step away from enemy attacks. They suggested that enemy density be increased, but HAL Laboratory declined, saying they did not want to "torment" Kirby or prevent players from peacefully exploring the game world. To mitigate issues with depth perception, the hit detection was altered so that an attack from Kirby will hit an enemy if it looks to have done so from the player's perspective, even if the attack did not actually connect.A month before the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, the official Kirby website updated with placeholder text, further implying there was a new game coming soon. The game was first officially revealed in the Nintendo Direct on September 23, 2021, having been prematurely shown off on the Nintendo website six hours beforehand. A second, more in-depth trailer was shown on January 12, 2022, which announced more features of the game as well as the release date of March 25, 2022. A free-to-play demo was made available on March 3, 2022. == Reception == Kirby and the Forgotten Land received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics hailed it as one of the best Kirby games ever made.Several reviewers gave high praise to the exploration-based level design, citing the optional challenges, collectibles, and Treasure Road as elements that gave each level a substantial feel. The upgradable copy abilities and Mouthful Mode were also heavily praised for the gameplay variety they provided while remaining a part of the game's core design, making the combat and platforming consistently interesting as a result. Boss fights were also lauded for requiring the utilization of copy abilities, with several praising the increased difficulty of Forgotten Land in comparison to previous entries in the franchise. The game's visuals and level themes were similarly commended, with the post-apocalyptic aesthetic of the game being cited as creative. Local co-op was praised for being fun and seamless while accommodating younger players. The Waddle Dee Town hub was praised for encouraging player exploration and was deemed a substantially rewarding experience.Minor criticism was directed towards the movement of Kirby for feeling limited and "sluggish", grounded environments, and the recurring mini-bosses that some found stale. === Sales === Kirby and the Forgotten Land launched at #1 in the UK, becoming both the series' first chart-topping debut and fourth best-selling Kirby game in the region. The game also launched at #1 in Japan with the series' best physical debut, at 380,060 copies sold in two days. The game sold 2.1 million units in two weeks.As of September 30, 2022, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has sold 5.27 million copies worldwide. === Awards === Kirby and the Forgotten Land was one of ten games to receive an Excellence Award at Japan Game Awards 2022, and has also been nominated for Nintendo Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards, and for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2022. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Mario Tennis Aces

Sports

Mario Tennis Aces is a 2018 tennis game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The game is part of the Mario Tennis series and sold over four million copies by the end of 2021, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch. == Gameplay == The gameplay of Mario Tennis Aces consists of playing matches of tennis with various characters from the Super Mario series. Players can pick from Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach, Waluigi, Daisy, Rosalina, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Toad, Toadette, Chain Chomp, Bowser Jr., Boo, and Spike. New characters are added by participating in monthly tournaments, or are added to the roster the following month if the player does not participate. Numerous characters have been added in the game such as; Koopa Troopa in July 2018, Blooper in August 2018, Diddy Kong in September 2018, Birdo in October 2018, Koopa Paratroopa in November 2018, Petey Piranha and Shy Guy in December 2018, Luma in January 2019, Boom Boom in February 2019, Pauline in March 2019, Kamek in April 2019, Dry Bones in May 2019, Fire Piranha Plant in June 2019, and Dry Bowser in July 2019.Similar in fashion to previous installments of the series, Aces incorporates many techniques, such as "topspins", where the ball travels parallel to the direction hit, "slices", where the ball curves to one side when hit, and "lobs", where the ball travels upwards.Aces adds several new mechanics to the Mario Tennis series. Using the motion controls of the Joy-Con, the player is able to initiate a "zone shot", where the player can aim directly where the ball will go while the game enters a paused state. If the opponent counters the zone shot, their racket will take damage. When a racket is hit with a zone shot three times, it will break, forcing the player to forfeit the match if it is their last one. Players have multiple rackets to use each match. However, players are able to counter a zone shot without taking damage using a "block", which can be performed by hitting the ball with perfect timing. Another new addition in Aces is "zone speed". When a player activates zone speed, the match goes into slow-motion, but their character moves at normal speed, making it so faraway shots are easier to reach. The zone shot and zone speed moves use up part of the players' energy gauge, which is filled and depleted throughout the match. To refill the gauge, the player must keep a rally going with the opponent or use the trick shot ability.The trick shot ability enables the player to quickly travel to where the ball will land. If the trick shot succeeds, then the player's energy gauge will increase dramatically. However, it is easy to misjudge the timing and therefore is a risky move to make. Another ability available to players at the cost of their energy gauge is the special shot. To activate it, the player must have a full energy gauge. The ability unleashes an extremely powerful shot that has the power to break the opponent's racket regardless of its current damage. However, the special shot can be blocked similarly to the zone shot. Aces also has a "simple rules" mode, where only simple shots are allowed and zone shots, zone speed, trick shots, special shots and the energy gauge are nonexistent.The game also features an online multiplayer mode, where tournaments can be set up, as well as singular matches. Players can unlock additional outfits and characters by participating in special online Tournaments held by Nintendo. Another gameplay mode is "swing mode", where players are able to swing the Joy-Con controllers to simulate hitting the ball with a tennis racket, similar in fashion to Wii Sports and the New Play Control! version of Mario Power Tennis. In addition to regular tennis matches, the game offers a story mode similar in fashion to Mario Tennis: Power Tour. == Plot == Wario and Waluigi are mining at the Temple of Bask when they discover a treasure chest containing Lucien, a magical racket said to be legendary to those who would possess it. The duo perceive themselves as displaying pride at matches using Lucien, and open up the treasure chest to unveil it. Just as they obtain Lucien, the racket unveils its power and shocks the duo. The duo soon emerge at Marina Stadium, immediately following a championship match in which Mario and Peach won against Bowser and Bowser Jr. The duo attempt to offer Lucien to Mario, but Luigi snatches it up, after which it begins to take possession of him, Wario, and Waluigi, through use of its grip tape. Mario and Toad then embark on a journey to destroy Lucien and save Wario, Luigi and Waluigi, on Daisy's promise that Luigi will be brought back safely. Mario and Toad soon arrive at the Bask Ruins, where they meet Aster, guardian of King Bask and watcher over Lucien. Aster tells the backstory of Lucien and how many years ago, King Bask stripped Lucien's power and divided it among five Power Stones hidden on the island, and years later the room fell to ruin, breaking the seal and allowing the racket to fall into new hands. Aster requests that Mario find the Power Stones to end Lucien, once and for all. Mario obtains the first three Power Stones by defeating Petey Piranha in Piranha Plant Forest, The Mirror Queen in Mirage Mansion, and the Snow Ogre at the summit of Snowfall Mountain respectively. Mario tries to claim the Power Stones in the Savage Sea and Inferno Island, but they are claimed by Wario, Waluigi, and Luigi. Wario and Waluigi decide to settle the score at Marina Stadium; whoever wins receives all five Power Stones. The Princesses take on Wario and Waluigi while Mario takes on Luigi, with slight power given to the Princesses and Mario by Aster, respectively. They win, allowing them to receive the Power Stones, but Bowser gets ahold of Lucien before this can happen, and makes off to the Temple of Bask with it. Mario confronts him inside the Temple and not only defeats him, but breaks Lucien causing the entire Temple to collapse. With the spirit of King Bask now able to rest in peace, Aster thanks Mario for his heroism throughout the quest. Back outside, everyone celebrates Mario's victory in banishing Lucien and saving Luigi, Wario and Waluigi, although the latter two are shamed by Daisy for attempting to use Lucien to be the best tennis players. The gang agrees that getting stronger is better than trying to control others. == Release == The game was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation in January 2018. A free online tournament using a demo version of the game was held from June 1–3, 2018. == Reception == Mario Tennis Aces has an aggregate score of 75/100 on Metacritic.IGN felt that Mario Tennis Aces was "an extremely fun arcade tennis experience, colourful and dazzling to look at and smartly balanced in its back-and-forth play." Although praise went to its new mechanics for making the game "far more fun, well balanced and less gimmicky brand of superpowered tennis than that of its disappointing Wii U predecessor, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash," Aces' adventure mode was criticized for feeling underdeveloped and not having enough replay value (such as harder versions of challenges after completing it) or unlocks, and that the main multiplayer modes lacked court selection and local tournament functions. GameSpot felt that Mario Tennis Aces "does what this series has done best, and improves what it's rarely gotten right prior", and arguing that the adventure mode was a good way for existing players to learn the new mechanics of Aces, but that the Swing Mode had imprecise motion detection, and that the game's multiplayer modes were lacking in options, and did not display stats for opponents. === Sales === Aces sold 247,161 physical copies within its first month on sale in Japan. By March 2019, total sales had reached over 2.64 million copies, making it the best-selling Mario Tennis game. As of March 2019, it has sold 550,000 copies in Japan. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Mario Tennis Aces had sold 4.28 million units, as of December 31, 2021. === Accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics

Tabletop game

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, known as 51 Worldwide Games in Europe and Australia, is a party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. This game is a successor to Clubhouse Games (2005) for the Nintendo DS and is a compilation of board, card, tabletop, and toy sports games from around the world. It was released worldwide on June 5, 2020, and more than 4.22 million copies have been sold worldwide by April 2022. == Gameplay == Upon starting the game, the player chooses a toy figurine as an avatar and assigns a favorite game to it. This allows other players to see a globe where they can pick that game. These figurines act as guides for the games and offer trivia on the game, such as its history.The compilation of 51 games includes a variety of board, card, tabletop, and toy sports games such as Yacht Dice, Four-in-a-Row, Backgammon, Renegade, Checkers, Chess, Dominoes, Hanafuda, President, Golf, Fishing, Bowling, Darts, and Toy Baseball. Additionally, there is a bonus Piano game included. Various games allow for motion control through the use of the Joy-Con controllers. In solo play, the player plays against CPU opponents if required and can change the difficulty accordingly. An unlockable Mario-themed card deck can be used for certain card games. Multiple games allow for motion control with the use of the Joy-Con. In solo play, the player plays against CPU opponents (if the game requires them) and can change the difficulty accordingly. Multiplayer games can be played locally in single-system play (with some exceptions) or via local wireless depending on the game. A multiplayer mode called "Mosaic Mode" allows for multiple Nintendo Switch consoles to link together to display one larger multi-monitor picture in games like Slot Cars, where one track is displayed over four screens. Most of the games included can be played online, either with matchmaking modes or lobbies with friends. "Clubhouse Games Guest Pass", known as "Local Multiplayer Guest Edition" in PAL regions and "Pocket Edition" in Japan, is a free application on the Nintendo eShop which includes all 52 games but with only Dominoes, Four-in-a-Row, President, and Slot Cars available in single player mode. It allows players to create lobbies with others who own the free application, and it allows them to join lobbies hosted by players who own the full game and play any of the multiplayer games available. === Game list === == Development == Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics was developed by NDcube, who had previously developed Super Mario Party for the Nintendo Switch. The game was announced in a Nintendo Direct Mini presentation held on March 26, 2020, with a trailer revealing the complete list of games featured in the compilation. A follow up overview trailer was released in Japan on April 28, 2020, and in North America on May 18, 2020. Certain game elements resemble those seen in the Wii U's E3 2011 reveal trailer, in which Renegade, Checkers, and Chess were shown on the Wii U GamePad. The courses in Golf are recreations of the nine holes from Wii Sports, which themselves were inspired by the courses from Golf for the NES. == Reception == On July 13, 2020, Nintendo published the global popularity statistics of each game, with 1.5 million players of Dots and Boxes as of July 7, 2020. The game received generally positive reviews, mostly attributed to the presentation, the selection of games available, the large focus on single player content, online features, and matchmaking. The AI for the game was also praised as surprisingly tough. Ben Kuchera of Polygon praised the game selection in a simple package and the tutorials. Christian Donlan of Eurogamer praised the presentation, polish, and atmosphere. Chris Scullion of Nintendo Life commended the online matchmaking's attempt to not keep players waiting by cuing other players in on what games they selected. Common complaints included a lack of 3-to-4 player multiplayer game options, omissions of certain games, obnoxious dialogue and voice acting, and a lack of support for all Nintendo Switch play styles. === Sales === The game reached the top 10 of sales charts for the week of June 1–7, 2020 in Japan with 64,443 copies sold, placing second behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo revealed that total worldwide sales had reached 4.22 million copies as of March 31, 2022, making it the 21st best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Platformer

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a 2014 platform game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii U console. The fifth installment in the Donkey Kong Country series, Tropical Freeze is a direct sequel to the 2010 Wii game Donkey Kong Country Returns and was released in February 2014. An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch was released in May 2018. Donkey Kong and his family must venture across five islands to save their home, Donkey Kong Island, after it is frozen over by the villainous Snowmads—a group of invaders from the northern seas. Like its predecessor, the game received mostly positive reviews. Praise was directed at the level design, gameplay, and soundtrack, although its high level of difficulty received more mixed opinions. == Gameplay == The game continues on from the side-scrolling platform gameplay of the Donkey Kong Country series and sees Donkey Kong and his friends traveling through seven different islands in order to defeat the Snowmads. Controls are similar to the previous game, with the addition of being able to pluck items from the ground and pick up and throw stunned enemies, and various controllers can be used with customizable controls. Like the previous game, players primarily control Donkey Kong who is assisted by a companion, who either provide additional abilities to Donkey Kong, or can be controlled individually by a second player. Along with Diddy Kong, who returns with his barrel jet pack for crossing large gaps, two additional characters are added; Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong. Dixie has the ability to spin her ponytail into a propeller and slowly descend through the air, with an initial boost in height at the start, allowing her and Donkey Kong to fly up out-of-reach platforms or items. Cranky, in a similar mechanic to the DuckTales video game, can use his cane to bounce on dangerous surfaces such as spiky thorns and reach higher areas and defeat certain enemies the other Kongs cannot. Filling up a 'Kong-POW' meter allows Donkey Kong and his partner to perform a special move which defeats all on-screen enemies and converts them into items depending on the partner.The Super Guide from the previous game is absent and is replaced by an expanded shop, run by Funky Kong, offering various support items such as temporary invincibility. Like the previous game, each level contains various Kong letters and puzzle pieces, some of which require specific partners to reach, which unlock various bonuses and hidden levels. The Time Attack mode also returns, now featuring online leaderboards, allowing players to view video replays of the top ranked players. The Nintendo Switch version of the game features Funky Kong as a new playable character. In the optional easier NEW FUNKY MODE, Funky Kong is playable with no possible companions, along with an option to switch between him and Donkey Kong. Unlike Donkey Kong in the game's normal mode, Funky Kong comes with five hit points instead of two, while he is also able to double-jump, hover in mid-air, stand on spikes and breathe underwater for an unlimited time. When DK is played, he can gain a companion and each Kong has three hit points. == Plot == As the Kongs celebrate Donkey Kong's birthday, their island is attacked by the Snowmads, arctic invaders. Their leader, Lord Fredrik, blows a horn that creates frozen winds and an ice dragon. The Kongs are blown away and the Snowmads seize the frozen Donkey Kong Island. The Kongs traverse a series of islands and make their way back to Donkey Kong Island. They make their way through the frozen fortress until they encounter the leader of the Snowmads, Lord Fredrik, who challenges them to a battle deep in the depths of the volcano. Donkey Kong delivers the final punch to Lord Fredrik, who crashes into the Snowmad ships, defeating the Snowmads. Donkey Kong blows into Fredrik's horn, producing a breeze that thaws Donkey Kong Island. === Characters === The game's story focuses on the Snowmads, a group of Viking-themed arctic animals such as walruses, owls and penguins that invade Donkey Kong Island, forcing Donkey Kong to go against them with the help of his friends Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Cranky Kong. This is Dixie Kong's third appearance in the main series and the first since Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, released in 1996. This is also Cranky Kong's first appearance as a main playable character in the Donkey Kong Country series, although he was previously playable in minigames in the Game Boy Advance versions of Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 and 1984's Donkey Kong Hockey (when he went by the name of Donkey Kong). == Development and release == The game was first announced during Nintendo's E3 2013 Nintendo Direct presentation on June 11, and was produced by Kensuke Tanabe who, having previously worked on Super Mario Bros. 2, has incorporated some elements from that game. Originally to be released on December 6, 2013, Nintendo pushed back the release date to February 21, 2014, citing the need for more time to optimize the game.The soundtrack was primarily composed by David Wise, who previously contributed music for the original SNES Donkey Kong Country games. Additional music was provided by Daisuke Matsuoka, Minako Hamano, Shinji Ushiroda, and Riyu Tamura under the supervision of Kenji Yamamoto. The development team designed the gameplay to be similar to that of previous series games, apart from a few new features. Retro Studios president Michael Kelbaugh told Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé that production started on Tropical Freeze because the team "had a lot of gas left in the tank" after finishing Returns, wanting to include underwater levels and 3D camera work, and to use the Wii U hardware to do "a lot of really new cool tricks". The addition of camera work was the team's biggest change. The dynamic camera swings from a side to a fully 3D view, bringing depth to obstacles in the characters' path. Additionally, Tropical Freeze adds Dixie Kong as a partner character, who has a mid-air hover ability that affects how players access platforms. The developers also added "plucking" objects out of the ground, similar to the game mechanic in Super Mario Bros. 2, on which Tropical Freeze's producer had also worked. Due to Donkey Kong series creator Shigeru Miyamoto being protective over the series, Retro Studios had to prove their ability to handle the license. Miyamoto influenced the game's "ground pound" design and gave other small tips, but was otherwise not involved in its development. Michael Kelbaugh of Retro Studios had worked on Donkey Kong Country series games in various capacities since the first release.An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch was released on May 4, 2018. It was developed once again by Retro Studios and includes support for new control schemes and an easier difficulty option, "Funky Mode", which introduces Funky Kong as a playable character. == Reception == Like its predecessor, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze received "generally favorable reviews" from critics.Destructoid gave the game a perfect 10 out of 10. GamesRadar gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, praising its presentation and challenge whilst criticising the co-operative multiplayer. Game Informer gave it a 9.25 out of 10 for the levels, gameplay and graphics, while also noting the game having a fewer levels than Returns. GameTrailers gave the game a 9.1 out of 10, praising enhancements made to the gameplay, and the "stellar" soundtrack. IGN gave the game a 9 out of 10 for the game's challenge, level design, and boss battles. Gamnesia's Colin McIsaac chose Tropical Freeze as a Game of the Year, calling it "a masterpiece of mechanics and level design" and citing the level Grassland Groove as the best platforming level of the game.GameSpot, however, gave the game a 6 out of 10, saying that interesting boss battles and vehicle segments did not make up for "clunky, repetitive level design" and poor implementation of new mechanics. GamesTM, who gave it a 7 out of 10, found the game to be as difficult as its predecessors, citing the enemy and obstacle placements, and the difficulty of boss battles.In their review of the Nintendo Switch version, GameSpot gave Tropical Freeze a more favorable assessment, awarding the game a 9 out of 10. IGN stood by their 9 out of 10 score, remarking that the addition of Funky Mode makes the game more accessible without reducing the formidable platforming difficulty.The game was nominated for Best Visual Design and Best Audio at the 2014 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as for Best Nintendo Game at the 2018 event. === Sales === In Japan, the Wii U version of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze sold over 70,000 copies during its first month of release. During its first eight days of release in the United States, the game sold an estimated 130,000 units. This game, along with its predecessor, were added to the Nintendo Selects label on March 11, 2016, in North America. According to the 2021 CESA Games White Papers, it went on to sell 2.02 million units on the Wii U, as of December 2020.In addition to reviewing better, the Nintendo Switch version of Tropical Freeze had stronger sales. In Japan alone, the game sold roughly 88,421 units in the first five days of release, more than doubling its debut on Wii U. By December 2018, the game had sold 2.08 million copies worldwide on the Switch, bringing total sales to over 4 million units across both platforms. As of March 2019, the title has sold over 2.25 million units worldwide on the Switch, including 290,000 copies in Japan. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that the Nintendo Switch version had sold 4.12 million units, as of December 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Hack and slash

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, known in Japan as Zelda Musou: The Calamity's Apocalypse, is a hack-and-slash game developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and by Nintendo internationally for the Nintendo Switch in 2020. In the story, set 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link and Princess Zelda must gather allies across Hyrule to fend off forces led by the evil Calamity Ganon, who is attempting to revive himself and destroy the kingdom. Like the original Hyrule Warriors (2014), Age of Calamity is a crossover mixing the world and characters of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series with the gameplay of Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series. Upon release, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity received positive reviews for its gameplay, varied character playstyles, amount of content, visuals, soundtrack, characterization, and expansion of the Breath of the Wild setting. However, some criticized the technical performance, chiefly its inconsistent frame rate, and the story drew mixed responses, particularly the use of time travel elements. Age of Calamity shipped over 3 million copies worldwide in its first four days, making it the best-selling game in the entire Warriors franchise. == Gameplay == Like the previous Hyrule Warriors game, Age of Calamity mixes the hack-and-slash gameplay of Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors franchise with the characters, locations, and other elements from Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series. The basic gameplay is participating in large-scale battles against enemies, while also completing objectives and taking strategic actions such as capturing bases and commanding troops.In addition to retaining the combat, material crafting, and weapon-upgrade systems from Hyrule Warriors, the game incorporates environmental puzzle solving and the use of the Sheikah Slate tool and paraglider from Breath of the Wild. Players can upgrade their characters, complete missions and challenges, use resources to access new areas, build weapons, and cook foods that can be used as buffs. Weapons in this game are invulnerable and will not break over time, unlike in Breath of the Wild. The game's map is similar to the one for Breath of the Wild. Players can choose stages from it and use the Sheikah Tower to explore between regions. The game features 18 playable characters; 14 are obtained via progression in the main story, while four can be unlocked by completing various side quests. Besides the characters, players are also able to control the gigantic Divine Beasts to destroy large numbers of enemies.The game also features compatibility with Nintendo's Amiibo figures, with the figures of the Four Champions relaunching alongside the game. == Plot == During the Great Calamity, a small Guardian awakens within Hyrule Castle. It escapes the destruction through a time portal but is followed by a portion of Calamity Ganon's Malice. Arriving in an alternate timeline before the Calamity began, the Guardian is reactivated by Link and Impa during a battle. They take it to engineers Purah and Robbie for study and learn that it came from a future in which Ganon reawakens and destroys Hyrule. To prevent this, King Rhoam assembles four pilots for the recently-discovered Divine Beasts – Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali – and commands them, Link, and Zelda to find the Master Sword in Korok Forest. The Champions encounter the dark prophet Astor, who seeks to revive and control Calamity Ganon, corrupting the Forest, but Link draws the Master Sword and forces him to withdraw. Purah's research reveals the presence of Sheikah transport towers hidden underground, and the Champions reactivate them and use them to lead a preemptive strike on the Yiga Clan's hideout in Gerudo Desert. Learning from the Guardian's records that Calamity Ganon will return on Zelda's seventeenth birthday, King Rhoam sends her to train in hopes of awakening her sealing magic in time and deploys the Divine Beasts to prepare for the Calamity's impending return. Robbie and Purah are captured by Yiga spies while restoring the Guardian's memory, but it escapes with the Sheikah Slate and delivers it to Zelda just as the Calamity arrives. With Hyrule Castle besieged and the Sheikah Towers shut down across Hyrule, the Champions are ambushed in their Divine Beasts by Calamity Ganon's Blight Ganons, and King Rhoam seemingly sacrifices himself as Link, Zelda, and Impa escape the Castle. The Guardian summons Sidon, Yunobo, Riju, and Teba from the original timeline to assist Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali, respectively, buying Link enough time to destroy the Blight Ganons. With the Champions saved and the Divine Beasts restored, they begin to clear the way to Hyrule Castle. To stop the timeline from changing, Astor kills many of the Yiga Clan and uses their life force to resurrect the four Blight Ganons, causing Yiga Clan leader Master Kohga and his right-hand-man Sooga to fight back against him. In Fort Hateno, Link is cornered by the revived Blights, but Zelda finally awakens her sealing magic to save him, forcing Astor to retreat. Master Kohga and the remnants of the Yiga Clan defect to Zelda's side in a bid to seek revenge against Astor, and on the Great Plateau, the group also discovers that King Rhoam survived. After Zelda and King Rhoam reconcile, Purah uses the Sheikah towers to transport all their allies to Hyrule Castle for a full-scale assault against Calamity Ganon. Although the Divine Beasts weaken Ganon's spirit form, Astor arrives with Harbinger Ganon, the small Guardian from the current timeline infected with the Malice from the original timeline. After being defeated by Link, Zelda, and the Champions, Astor is consumed by Harbinger Ganon, who transforms into Calamity Ganon. Calamity Ganon corrupts the little Guardian and turns it against the group, forcing them to destroy it. Upon its defeat, Zelda remembers she activated the little Guardian as a child and named it Terrako, but Rhoam took it away so she would focus on her training. Zelda and her allies confront Calamity Ganon but are unable to damage him until Terrako uses the last of its strength to self-destruct, weakening Calamity Ganon. Now vulnerable, Calamity Ganon is defeated by Link, and Zelda uses her power to permanently seal him away. The future heroes are returned to their timeline while Link, Zelda, and their allies look out at the now peaceful Hyrule. In a secret ending, Purah and Robbie repair Terrako, reuniting Zelda with her friend. == Development == Age of Calamity was revealed in a trailer that was released in September 2020, presented by Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi. The game features the same art assets as Breath of the Wild, but uses the more combat-focused gameplay style of the previous Hyrule Warriors game. More information was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show on September 26.The game came into fruition when Breath of the Wild's director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and art director Satoru Takizawa pitched the idea to Aonuma, who liked the idea and after discussions. Aonuma then approached Hayashi, a producer from Koei Tecmo, to make a new Hyrule Warriors about the events of the Great Calamity, which were mentioned but not properly shown in Breath of the Wild. Aonuma felt that the battles would complement well with the style of a Warriors game. Nintendo's Zelda developers worked more closely with the development team at Koei Tecmo than on Hyrule Warriors, providing advisement and assistance with gameplay, graphics, world, and dialogue.During Nintendo Treehouse Live gameplay presentation on October 7, Nintendo stated that the game will explore more backstories and relationships between characters, aspects that were not thoroughly examined in Breath of the Wild. At the end of that month, the demo became available to download from the Nintendo eShop, which includes the first chapter of the game. Kotaku noted from the demo that the game felt more connected to Breath of the Wild than to a Warriors title. === Downloadable content === Downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released throughout 2021 via an "Expansion Pass". A purchase bonus was made available on May 28, featuring a new weapon and costume for Link. The first wave of content, titled "Pulse of the Ancients", was released on June 18, and features an additional playable character (Battle-Tested Guardian), new weapon types for Link and Zelda, new challenges in the Royal Ancient Lab, and newly-added challenging enemies. The second wave of content, titled "Guardian of Remembrance", was released on October 29, and adds new story stages set during the events of the main game. "Guardian of Remembrance" also adds new battle skills for existing characters, and two additional characters: Purah and Robbie, who function as a single unit, and Sooga. == Reception == === Critical response === Age of Calamity holds a score of 78 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".Four reviewers for Famitsu gave the game a total score of 36/40, the second-highest score for a 2020 Nintendo Switch game at that point of the year (with Animal Crossing: New Horizons receiving 38/40 in March of the same year). TJ Denzer of Shacknews gave the game a 9/10 rating, giving high praise to the gameplay, differences between character playstyles, and story; they called Age of Calamity as the most fleshed out and well-crafted Dynasty Warriors-style game. They claimed that the game expands upon Breath of the Wild masterfully in both the iconic battle locations of the game and the soundtrack that accompanies them.Giving the game a 4/5 rating, Scott Baird of Screen Rant stated that the game "offers a fascinating look into the world of Breath of the Wild alongside great gameplay", praising the combat system which rarely feels repetitive or dull, the differences between the character playstyles, the "hundreds of hours worth of content", and the character development. However, he criticized the camera, which "tends to get stuck during the indoor stages, which is especially frustrating when trying to dodge enemy attacks". While Baird praised the game for offering "a fascinating look at the world of Breath of the Wild", he also pointed out that the setting "severely limits the types of enemies that the players will encounter [compared to the first Hyrule Warriors], and the few additions to the lore (like elemental variations of monsters) feel less than impressive". Michael Goroff of Electronic Gaming Monthly also gave the game a 4 out of 5 review, praising the game's gameplay, and use of the universe, style, and gameplay elements from Breath of the Wild, but was critical of the story's choice to feature time travel. In his review, Daniel Dell-Cornejo of Nintendo Wire gave Age of Calamity an 8.5, praising the gameplay, art style, cutscenes, music, and large roster but expressed disappointment with the story direction and occasional drops in framerate. === Sales === In the United Kingdom, the game placed sixth in physical sales during its launch week, selling nearly 324% more copies than Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition during the same timeframe in 2018. It also sold 173,215 physical copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the second best-selling retail game of the week in the country. It was ultimately the 16th highest selling game in Japan for 2020. In the United States the game was the sixth best-selling game during its launch month.Four days after its release, Koei Tecmo revealed that the game has shipped over 3 million digital and physical copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling Warriors game of all time and outselling all previous games in the entire Warriors franchise including all Dynasty Warriors games and their spin-offs, Fire Emblem Warriors, and the previous Hyrule Warriors games. The game has shipped over 3.5 million copies by the end of 2020. As of April 2021, the game has sold over 3.7 million units. As of January 2022, the game has sold 4 million units worldwide, making it one of the best-selling Switch games. == Legacy == Starting in January 2021, Impa, Master Kohga, and the Diminutive Guardian from Age of Calamity have cameo appearances as collectable Spirits in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. == Notes == == References == == External links == Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity at MobyGames Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity at IMDb Official website

Nintendo Switch

Kirby Star Allies

Platformer

Kirby Star Allies is a 2018 platform video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The twelfth mainline installment in the Kirby series, the player controls Kirby in his quest to prevent a priest named Hyness from reviving a dark force to destroy the universe. Kirby must complete each level by jumping, inhaling enemies, and using his array of abilities to progress. Development of the game began during the 25th anniversary of the Kirby series. The developers later added additional content for the game for the sake of adding more references from past games in the franchise. The game also features more emphasis on higher definition graphics by making the screen more spread out. Star Allies initially received mixed reviews, with praise directed towards the game's graphics, mechanics and soundtrack, and criticism directed toward its lack of depth and low level of difficulty. General reception was later re-evaluated as positive after free additional content was later added, being praised for adding a new layer of difficulty. The game has sold 3.98 million copies as of December 31, 2021, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch. == Gameplay == Kirby Star Allies is a 2.5D platform game played from a side-on perspective. Players control the series' titular protagonist Kirby who can be accompanied by up to three companions. Kirby can throw hearts at enemies to turn them into allies. The game can be played alone with the game's AI controlling companions or cooperatively with other players controlling companions. When Kirby has companions, new special attacks become available which allow Kirby to combine his abilities with those of his allies', a feature not seen since Kirby: Squeak Squad. The elemental fusions last for as long as the power is held or until a new element is introduced over it, while some of the combinations are single-use moves that bear more of a resemblance to the combinations found in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. When Kirby has three allies, they can perform "Friend Actions" on specific stages, like "Friend Train" and "Friend Star." Players start with a certain number of lives and can earn more lives by getting extra lives or by collecting 100 stars. Kirby will lose a life if he falls into a bottomless pit or his health bar is depleted. The game ends when the player runs out of lives, although the player can continue the game from the most recent save point by selecting "Continue". The game also introduces the "Dream Friend" system, which allows the player to call upon characters from past Kirby games as special allies with expanded movesets. Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and Meta Knight can all be unlocked as Dream Friends through progression in Story Mode. Additional Dream Friends have been added via software updates. == Plot == On the Jambandra space station far away from Kirby's home planet Popstar, a dark crystal heart explodes due to an imperfection in a mysterious ritual, sending its numerous fragments, Jamba Hearts, hurtling into deep space. Many characters, including King Dedede and Meta Knight, are possessed while investigating the hearts that land on the planet. A heart hits Kirby, but it instead gives him the ability to befriend enemies by throwing hearts. Kirby notices many Waddle Dees bringing food to Castle Dedede and decides to investigate. After Kirby defeats Meta Knight and King Dedede and frees them from the Jamba Heart's influence, a large fortress known as Jambastion lands on Popstar. After defeating three generals of ice, fire, and electricity, Francisca, Flamberge, and Zan Partizanne, respectively, Kirby and his friends fly to the far reaches of space. Kirby and his friends connect a path to Jambandra Base and breach its defensive barrier. They battle Zan once again before meeting Hyness, an evil cleric who is planning to restore a dark force, Void Termina, to full power using the Jamba Hearts. After being defeated, Hyness sacrifices the generals and himself to subsequently revive Void Termina. Kirby and his friends use a Friend Pedestal to summon the Friend Star but it transforms into the Star Allies Sparkler via the power of the four Heart Spears that were stuck in the prison of Void Termina. After overcoming its humanoid body, also regurgitating Hyness, Francisca, Flamberge, and Zan Partizanne in the process, and defeating its bird form, it is revealed that its true form is a purplish pink cluster with three dark eye-like spots that can arrange themselves to resemble Kirby's face. Kirby then destroys Void Termina with the Star Allies Sparkler, summoning friends in the process. The Sparkler is destroyed by the resulting explosion, but Kirby uses a Warp Star to return himself and his friends safely home. Through a series of pause screens in various boss fights, it is explained that Void Termina, Kirby, and various bosses from previous games are likely reincarnations of the godlike being known as Void. When they come in contact with high concentrations of energy, they reincarnate into a new form, with this being's personality determined by whether this energy is positive or negative. During the battle against Void Termina, as well as the non-canon Void Soul fight in the True Arena on Soul Melter difficulty, several attacks are reused from past Kirby bosses, suggesting that the bosses mimicked are also forms of Void. After the release of the extra content, a new "Soul Melter EX" difficulty of the True Arena was added, which replaced the Void Soul battle with a battle against Void themself. Once Void is defeated, they seem to smile, as they are finally free to reincarnate into a new, happier form. == Development and release == Kirby Star Allies was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The game is thought to be based upon the first incarnation of the cancelled Kirby game for the GameCube, the trailer for which shows Kirby making multiple helpers, akin to the fundamental element of Star Allies. Development of the game began during the 25th anniversary of the Kirby franchise. The game was initially teased under the tentative title Kirby during E3 2017. In September 2017, the game's official title was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch game console on 16 March 2018. On 3 March 2018, a free demo of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop showcasing two of the game's stages.HAL Laboratory developer Shinya Kumazaki went over the world map concept, and the ability of creating more open, higher resolution imagery with the Nintendo Switch console. They swayed to making the screen more spread out in contrast to Kirby, as they could make Kirby smaller but still retain shape, while being able to present more of the background at one time. The more extended background helped the player from getting lost, as they could see more on screen at one time.The idea for the downloadable content was to help give attention to past Kirby games, and the series as a whole. The developers, rather than focus on an existing narrative, wanted to create a new experience for the characters. Kumazaki noted how if they were to rather focus on an intricate story, it would ruin the fun of the adventure. When discussing the lack of other popular characters from the franchise, he said that there were certain characters he wanted to appear, such as Galacta Knight from Kirby Super Star Ultra. They created a development rule, where they would only select one character from each game to represent the main series. == Reception == Kirby Star Allies received a "mixed or average" rating according to video game review aggregator Metacritic, based on 83 critic reviews. The game was nominated for "Family Game of the Year" at the D.I.C.E. Awards.The game was praised for its visual appearance and strategic elements. Mitch Vogel from Nintendo Life called the visuals "top notch", but yearned for a more distinctive design. Destructoid reviewer Chris Carter praised the "gorgeous rendered backgrounds", and stated how recruiting enemies to your team "goes beyond an adorable gimmick." EGM appreciated the friend concept, and said it kept puzzles and game elements fresh throughout gameplay. Brendan Graeber from IGN liked the layer of strategy and the concept of re-arranging the friends for different puzzle solutions. He stated how puzzles were intriguing and unique, as they always had the player re-arranging their team. Critics also appreciated the accompanying soundtrack, calling it catchy and praising its gradual change. Peter Brown from GameSpot praised the visuals, and called the aesthetic "perfectly executed". He liked how the soundtrack would "ample motivation and entertainment", and enjoyed the gimmick of teaming up with enemies.Critics complained of a lack of difficulty, which they felt induced a sense of being uninvolved. Polygon reviewer Jeremy Parrish called the game predictable and familiar, and wrote how the game "plays things incredibly safe", compared to recent titles such as Kirby: Planet Robobot. Kyle Hilliard from Game Informer summarized his review by noting that the game was forgettable, and how the difficulty made him feel as if he was barely playing the game at all. === Post-launch === At the release of the game's final post-launch content, some critics reevaluated the game, finding that the additional content resulted in an improved experience. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku commented that, while the main game was "a cakewalk", the additional Heroes in Another Dimension mode was "a head-scratcher and a reflex-tester", stating that Star Allies was "one of the most-improved Nintendo games on the Switch roster." Another review, by Sean Anthony of Gaming Trend, also praised the creative level design and difficulty of the new game mode, and additionally complimented the added "Soul Melter EX" difficulty level, concluding that "Kirby Star Allies is finally a complete game." === Sales === Upon the game's launch, Kirby Star Allies became the fastest selling Kirby game in the United Kingdom. The game sold 222,031 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart. By the end of March, it had sold over a million copies. As of March 2019, Kirby Star Allies has sold 2.56 million copies. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Kirby Star Allies has sold 3.98 million copies, as of December 31, 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

Action-adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a 2011 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. A high-definition remaster of the game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, was co-developed by Tantalus Media and released for the Nintendo Switch in July 2021. Taking the role of series protagonist Link, players navigate the floating island of Skyloft and the land below it, completing quests that advance the story and solving environmental and dungeon-based puzzles. The mechanics and combat, the latter focusing on attacking and blocking with sword and shield, are reliant on the Wii MotionPlus peripheral. A mainline entry in The Legend of Zelda series, Skyward Sword is the first game in the Zelda timeline, and details the origins of the Master Sword, a recurring weapon within the series. Link, a resident of a floating town called Skyloft, sets out to rescue his childhood friend Zelda after she is kidnapped and brought to the surface, the abandoned lands below the clouds. Development took around five years, beginning after the release of Twilight Princess in 2006. Multiple earlier Zelda games influenced the developers, including Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Many aspects of the game's overworld and gameplay were designed to streamline and populate the experience for players. The art style was influenced by the work of impressionist and post-impressionist painters, including Paul Cézanne. The implementation of Wii MotionPlus proved problematic for the developers, to the point where it was nearly discarded. It was the first Zelda game to use a live orchestra for the majority of its tracks, with music composed by a team led by Hajime Wakai and supervised by Koji Kondo. First revealed in 2009, it was initially planned for release the following year before being delayed to 2011 to further refine and expand it. The game was a critical and commercial success upon release, receiving perfect scores from multiple journalistic sites, winning and receiving nominations for numerous industry and journalist awards, and selling over three million copies worldwide. The 2021 remaster sold a similar number on the Nintendo Switch. Feedback on the game later influenced the development of the next entry for home consoles, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. == Gameplay == The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is an action-adventure video game in which players take on the role of series protagonist Link through a series of overworlds populated by monsters and navigating dungeons featuring puzzles and further enemies including dedicated bosses. Link is controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and the Wii MotionPlus expansion device is required to play. The greater majority of gameplay mechanics revolve around use of motion controls: these include camera control with the Nunchuck and general hotkey actions and movement linked to the Remote. Jumping across gaps and scaling ledges happen automatically within context. The Nunchuck is also used to make Link perform a forward roll. In addition to his standard pace, Link can sprint for short distances. Sprinting and other actions such as climbing and carrying heavy objects is limited by a stamina meter, which recharges after a few seconds when not performing actions that drain it. When depleted entirely, Link's movement speed is reduced and he is left vulnerable until the metre refills. Standard navigation takes place from a third-person perspective, while the Dowsing search function switches to a first-person view: Dowsing scans an area for a selected object, with new Dowsing objectives appearing depending on game context.Fighting enemies, which appear in both the overworld and dungeons, relies on Link's use of his sword and shield. Link's sword movements are mapped to the direction the Wii Remote is flicked by the player, and other moves include a forward thrust and a stab. Enemy movements are designed to anticipate and block Link's combat movements. By raising the Wii Remote, the sword gathers energy which can be unleashed in a Skyward Strike. Skyward Strikes are also used to trigger environmental elements such as magical switches. The shield is controlled with the Nunchuck: when the shield is raised, it can be used to reflect attacks. Spin attacks and Finishing Blows are activated by swinging both the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Link's health is represented with Hearts, with Link taking damage whenever he is hit: if he loses all Hearts, the game ends.The game is set on the floating island of Skyloft and surrounding airborne islands, and the three Surface overworlds where the majority of the main adventure takes place. Side quests for the town's citizens are unlocked as the game progresses. The different areas of the Surface are accessed through portals in the clouds. Side quests for characters of the Surface are also available and are sometimes mandatory for completing the main quest. The sky is navigated with a Shoebill-like bird called a Loftwing, while the Surface is navigated on foot. Beacons can be set on the map for Link to follow, and save points in the form of statues preserve Link's progress up to that point. During his quest, Link is aided by the sword spirit Fi, who can give hints to the player for both environmental elements and enemies: for example, when an enemy is targeted and Fi is summoned, she will give the enemy's characteristics and weaknesses.Traditional series items such as Bombs used for demolition and the Bow and Arrow for ranged attacks are available as Link progresses through the game, along with new additions such as a mechanical Beetle that flies to areas beyond Link's reach for a variety of actions including activating switches: and a whip for grabbing otherwise-unreachable objects and levers. Some items and equipment will degrade and eventually break depending on their use, such as the shield taking damage when blocking fails. Items and equipment can be optionally upgraded using materials gathered from defeated monsters and within each overworld environment. In addition to consuming resources, Link must also pay for the upgrade with Rupees, the game's currency which is scattered throughout the world. == Plot == Skyward Sword takes place at the beginning of the Zelda continuity: according to legend, three ancient Goddesses bestowed a great wish-granting power: the Triforce. The Demon King Demise, a deity who had conquered time itself, laid waste to much of the land seeking to take the Triforce. The Goddess Hylia gathered the survivors and sent them into the sky, allowing her to launch a full-scale offensive against Demise. She was victorious, but the land was severely damaged. Uncounted years later, the outcrop is known as Skyloft, and its people believe the surface below is a myth.In the present, knight-in-training Link passes his final exam despite attempted interference by his class rival Groose, who considers himself a romantic rival for Link's childhood friend Zelda. After passing the exam and on a celebratory flight together, Zelda is whisked away below the clouds by a dark tornado. After recovering back on Skyloft, Link is led into the island's statue of Hylia to the Goddess Sword by Fi, the spirit of the sword who resides within it. Link draws the sword, showing himself to be the prophesied hero who will finally destroy Demise. Opening a way through the clouds to the surface, Link is guided by Fi to the Sealed Temple, where he meets an old woman who tells him to track Zelda: this leads Link across the regions of Faron Woods, Eldin Volcano, and the Lanayru Desert. While he catches up with Zelda, he is prevented from returning her to Skyloft by Impa, a young woman guarding and guiding Zelda. Link also encounters Ghirahim, a self-proclaimed Demon Lord working towards freeing Demise. At the Temple of Time in the Lanayru Desert, Link defends Zelda and Impa from Ghirahim, buying the two enough time to depart through a Gate of Time into the past, which Impa destroys as they pass through. Returning to the Sealed Temple, Link is followed by Groose and the two end up on the surface together. Link then has to defeat the Imprisoned, a monstrous form of Demise attempting to reach the Sealed Temple, after the old woman shows him a second, albeit dormant, Gate of Time. With the Imprisoned defeated, Link sets out to strengthen the Goddess Sword by passing trials set by the ancient Goddesses and using their gifts to find Sacred Flames to purify and strengthen the blade so the Time Gate can be awakened. Returning to find the Imprisoned attempting to break free, Link reseals it with help from Groose. Activating the Gate of Time and traveling to the past, he finds Zelda and learns that she is the mortal reincarnation of Hylia; Hylia could not kill Demise and was too weakened from their battle to fend him off again, so she created the Goddess Sword and reincarnated as a mortal to find someone who would fulfill her duty by using the Triforce to wish Demise's destruction, as only mortals can use the artifact. Zelda then seals herself inside a crystal to strengthen Demise's seal, granting her power to the Goddess Sword and upgrading it into the Master Sword.Link locates the Triforce on Skyloft and uses it to destroy Demise. With Demise dead, Zelda is freed, but Ghirahim arrives and kidnaps Zelda: though Demise is dead in the present, Ghirahim intends to use Zelda as a sacrifice to resurrect him in the past. Link pursues Ghirahim into the past and fights through his army. He then defeats Ghirahim, who turns out to be the spirit of Demise's sword but is unable to prevent Zelda from being used to reincarnate Demise's humanoid form. Groose guards Zelda's body while Link challenges Demise: Link triumphs and absorbs Demise's essence into the sword, but not before Demise curses Link and Zelda's bloodlines to be haunted by his reincarnated rage. To complete the sword's seal, Link drives it into a pedestal in the Sealed Temple, with Fi accepting eternal slumber as a result. Groose, Link and Zelda return to their time while Impa remains behind and destroys the Gate of Time, as she is a person of that time and must watch over the Master Sword. In the present, the old woman greets them one last time before she dies and vanishes, revealing that she was Impa. The game ends with the surface now freely accessible to the residents of Skyloft, while Zelda decides to remain there to watch over the Triforce; she and Link together establish the kingdom of Hyrule. == Development == Skyward Sword's development began in 2006, after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube and Wii. It was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, a development division of series publisher Nintendo. They were assisted in development by the Kyoto branch of Monolith Soft. Its producer was Eiji Aonuma, a major contributor to the Legend of Zelda series. His main preoccupation during these early stages was whether the developers could continue creating The Legend of Zelda games using the same development mindset that had been used up to Twilight Princess. The game's director was Hidemaro Fujibayashi: previously working as assistant director on The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS, Skyward Sword was his first project for home consoles. He began work on Skyward Sword after finishing Phantom Hourglass, and continued working on the game alongside his work on The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. When Spirit Tracks was finished, Fujibayashi and the game's development team transferred back to working on Skyward Sword.According to Aonuma, the team's starting point for development was the Wii version of Twilight Princess: feeling they had not fully realized their goal of creating a vast and realistic world with Twilight Princess, they used their previous work as a foundation for the next game. They also sought to create a memorable experience equivalent to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, by that time considered the series' most memorable game. Development lasted around five years, and according to series producer Shigeru Miyamoto, the game's budget was considered quite high for a Nintendo project. The development time was initially estimated at three years, but difficulties and changes in the game's development extended development time by a further two years: despite this, Miyamoto felt that this was not wasted development time as the first two years went into experimentation. By June 2011, the game was complete aside from fine-tuning and balancing its mechanics. === Scenario === The script for cinematic scenes was written by Naoki Mori, who joined the project for one and a quarter years in his role: the cinematic director was Shigeki Yoshida, who was brought on at the same time as and worked on the storyboards with Mori. The initial script was proposed by Fujibayashi based on his perception of the game's structure. As the game's theme was the use of the sword, and the sword most associated with the series was the Master Sword, the team decided to make it an origin story for the weapon. An early element was whether to incorporate the creation of Hyrule, while also needing to explain the creation of Skyloft: this initial stage of story development ended up being difficult as their initial story plans were full of contradictions to established series lore due to them wanting to create an origin story for the entire series. These issues were further complicated by the third year of development with the necessity of finalizing the gameplay and environments. Feigning illness, Fujibayashi shut himself away in a hotel room and wrote the synopsis in a single day. Mori wrote the dialogue based on Fujibayashi's synopsis, who needed to work out the fine details with Fujibayashi. A scene Fujibayashi was intent on including was where Zelda jumped from the edge of Skyloft and Link caught her: this was fitted in for the two characters after the end of Link's exam. The early part of the story was quite different from earlier Zelda games, playing out in a similar way to a school drama. Once the script was finished, it was handed to Yoshida so his team could create the cinematics. The total number of cinematics was estimated as 79, coming to over 120 minutes.The relationship between Link and Zelda was quite different from earlier incarnations, in particular the fact that Zelda was not royalty. According to Aonuma, a recurring difficulty was how contrived the necessity for Link to rescue Zelda became with each passing installment, as their contact may only have been fleeting beforehand. In response to this, the team considered how to make the player care about Zelda and want to rescue her. Having the two characters as childhood friends served this purpose and cut down on extraneous plot elements. They continued to encourage the player by having Link only just miss her on her early travels across the Surface. Mischievous elements were also added to Zelda's personality by her pushing Link over a ledge: initially intended as a rule of three-style gag, it was cut down to two during development. The figure of Hylia was a new addition to the world's lore, although her existence was linked to Zelda, with the two being essentially the same character known under different names in subsequent ages. Groose, who acted as Link's rival, was introduced to make the story more interesting within the school setting. Groose's maturation during the story was intended to help convey Link's parallel growth as a character as he was otherwise mute and static.Fi was created before the implantation of Wii MotionPlus when she was going to be part of some different undefined gameplay concepts unrelated to motion control. Her design was based on the design of the Master Sword, referencing her origins as the sword's spirit. She also served as an alternate explanatory voice as Link was a silent protagonist. According to staff, Fi's technical dialogue for each area of the game was written by different people, verbal inconsistencies arose that needed addressing, so Fujibayashi adjusted them all so she sounded consistent. Nearly all of Fi's dialogue was ultimately written by Fujibayashi. Ghirahim was designed to be similar to the Dark Link character from Ocarina of Time: he could read Link's movements, requiring players to think strategically to defeat him rather than simply swinging Link's sword around randomly. Character designs were far more detailed than in previous Zelda games. Clothing was frequently designed to complement backgrounds, such as Zelda's pink and red dress in the opening. The game's use of warm colors and brushstroke-like aesthetics was inspired by impressionist artwork, pioneered in the 19th century by painters such as Claude Monet: a particular element cited by Miyamoto was the sky, which he called a tribute to post-impressionist Paul Cézanne's work. The basic starting point for the art style was that it was a fantasy world. The final version was referred to as a balance between the cartoon styling of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, where the cartoon shading was transferred onto an older version of Link. The team settled this art style as it would properly portray the more exaggerated actions of some characters and general swordplay while preserving Link's mature appearance. === Design === During development, the team faced a lot of problems when designing the game so it would be both familiar for series fans and fresh to old and new players. The pieces of gameplay experimentation meant that the development was "a more fundamental ground-up process" than earlier games such as The Wind Waker. Their earlier games had involved lifting elements from earlier games and pasting them into a new entry, but for Skyward Sword the developers wanted to add a new play structure to avoid fans seeing it as more of the same. The original concept for gameplay using the Wii MotionPlus was proposed by Fujibayashi at a point when the team was already developing the gameplay around the console's standard Wii Remote and Nunchuk control scheme. When first proposed, Aonuma was highly enthusiastic, and his wish to change to Wii MotionPlus meant that work on the game needed to begin all over again. The use of Wii MotionPlus proved challenging for the developers to implement, to the point where at one point Aonuma seriously considered dropping it from the game entirely. After the release of Wii Sports Resort, the team saw how motion controls could be used for swordplay: after talking with the development team, they were able to borrow the technology and used it to create the motion-driven swordplay. The implementation of Wii MotionPlus meant that the enemy artificial intelligence needed to be able to counter it, adjusting their stances depending on the position of Link's sword.When creating Link's sword movements, the team initially wanted them to be as realistic as possible, but because it was detrimental to the character's portrayal, they had to include unrealistic movements to preserve the atmosphere. The Skyward Strike was initially born from Aonuma thinking up a possible mechanic of holding the sword above Link: these also gave rise to the game's title. Having sword fighting relying on Wii MotionPlus freed up other buttons on the controller, allowing the addition of the Dash sprinting option. So as not to interrupt the flow of gameplay, they incorporated other elements into the Dash function, such as scaling walls rather than just slamming into them. The Dowsing mechanic was created early on, based on the gameplay themes of discovery and exploration. Due to the introduction of Dowsing, the team did not have to create environmental landmarks for places and objects of importance as they had done in previous games. So players would not get lost in the terrain, they also introduced the marker beacons. Items were designed so they could be visible in any area, such as the bright blue Bombs. They were also designed based on their original location: those from Skyloft used a bird motif, while those from other Surface regions used more intricate designs. The Beetle acted as a replacement for the boomerang, as the team wanted an item that players could control. The Beetle and other pseudo-technical items gave rise to the ancient mechanical theme that appeared in the Lanayru Desert region. At Miyamoto's insistence, the more desirable items that were normally placed towards the end of a campaign were made available to players from an early stage. When designing items, the developers were faced with the usual problems of the interdependence of items and dungeons creating a chicken-and-egg scenario for the developers. The menu for Item access was also redesigned around the use of Wii MotionPlus.In past Zelda games, the team had made numerous new fields for player exploration, but this time they limited the number of overworlds to three and expanded their content so players would be able to fully appreciate them through repeated visits. The team also created the world based on their experiences with Twilight Princess: feeling that the overworld and dungeons were too large with puzzles too thinly dispersed, the team both sought to compact areas and have environmental puzzles in the overworld. The biggest difficulty was ensuring that players could reach areas quickly while still discovering new features and puzzles. The creation of the Skyloft overworld was due to difficulties connecting the three Surface-based overworlds due to drastically contrasting environments. The sky was initially going to be presented similar to the course selection screen from the Super Mario series, but this was changed to an overworld with its own quests and population so Link had a place where he could prepare for his adventures. An initial idea, when jumping down from the sky seemed unlikely to be approved, was to have a huge tower acting as a central hub, with the height at which Link jumped lengthening the duration of his free fall. Once the concept of traveling from the sky had been chosen instead, the Loftwing mounts were created so it looked and felt more rational to players. These overlapping gameplay mechanics triggered the creation of Skyloft, along with elements of the early game such as the Knight Academy. The continual movements and routines of Skyloft's people were modeled after similar time-driven mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, with similar links between character-specific side quests and the main narrative. Despite the aerial element, the mechanics necessary for free navigation meant a Loftwing racing minigame could not be implemented.Each Surface overworld had a specific theme: the forest overworld revolved around landforms altering gameplay, the volcano overworld focused around changing the rules of gameplay, while the desert overworld was themed around duality between past and present. The first areas, the Sealed Grounds and Faron Woods, were created so players could be eased into the game's mechanics and navigation. While the forest areas were made to be mostly flat, the Eldin Volcano overworld was made with height differences in mind to provide a greater challenge. Elements in the volcano terrain included areas of lava and slopes where Link's sprinting ability would become necessary for reaching new areas. For the Lanayru Desert, the team created three different overworld zones due to its unique time-shifting mechanics, triggered with Time Shift stones: this shifting between different zones was inspired by similar systems in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. The portable Time Shift stones were one of many ideas included in the desert overworld as they did not fit with the forest or volcano environments. A difficult feature to include naturally was the remnants of Lanayru's Ancient Civilization, which used electricity to power both its technology and citizens. Enemy types that recurred in all Surface-based overworld areas were given slightly altered designs so they would be unique to each overworld. The Silent Realms were created as a new mechanic, filled with enemies that could not be defeated and relying on Link's sprinting ability rather than his weapons or items. While they had experimented with indestructible enemies in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, but this time it was changed by restricting Link's options and actions. They also created a time limit for added strategy, as knowledge of the areas where the Spirit Realms were located was key to completing them. This was also why they were set up in areas players would already be familiar with. They were originally in the form of special dungeons, but this was discarded in favor of the familiar areas. === Audio === The game's sound team consisted of ten people: five handling general sound design, and five handling music composition. Hajime Wakai acted as the game's sound director and lead composer, with the other composers being Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota, and Takeshi Hama. Longtime series composer Koji Kondo had a supervisory role, only composing a single piece by himself: the music accompanying the prologue video describing the mythical origins of Demise and Hylia. He also helped in arranging the other composer's pieces, using an electric piano and a Mac computer. Fujii was responsible for the music focused on environments, dungeons, boss battles: among her work was the music for Skyloft. She used art and environmental assets so that her compositions would fit in with their environments. A first for the Zelda series, the music was performed using a live orchestra rather than synthesized instruments. It was the first time Nintendo EAD had used a live orchestra. Any previous orchestral elements in Twilight Princess, which amounted only to one track, were handled by their Tokyo division. Due to his experience, the department's musical lead Yokota was brought on to help orchestrate the score. Aonuma initially did not think of using an orchestra and was still sure the score would remain synthesized even after Wakai asked him about it. An orchestra was finally chosen after Miyamoto insisted upon it, a decision which surprised the entire team.Using the orchestra enabled a greater expression of emotion, which meant that they used it when creating scores for environments, cinematic scenes, and emotional moments within the story. Conversely, the team was given less freedom to adjust tracks as they had been able to with synthesized tracks. Something new they did for Skyward Sword was producing unique themes for specific characters such as Link and Zelda. They also added people singing songs, another element new to the series. One notable element was the game's main theme "Ballad of the Goddess", which was a retrograde version of the recurring tune "Zelda's Lullaby". Due to the use of an orchestra and the sheer amount of extra work going into the sound design, the music team doubled in size from the standard five-person group, and became the largest sound team at the time to have worked on a Nintendo game. The positive reception of the orchestral score within the company led to the creation of The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony Concert, a celebratory concert featuring orchestrated versions of classic Zelda themes. Music was also woven into the story and gameplay through the use of the harp Link receives, using a recurring theme within the series of music being a central part of the experience. In contrast to previous games, the instrument could be played at any time rather than at specific times and places. == Release == A new Zelda game was first hinted at in April 2008, when Miyamoto stated that the Zelda development team were reforming to create new games. Miyamoto later confirmed at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that a new Zelda was in development for the Wii. The game was unveiled at E3 the following year, although its title remained unknown. Due to its in-development state, Miyamoto could not show off gameplay as he had wished. Instead, he showed promotional art featuring Link and Fi. He also announced the game's use of Wii MotionPlus, along with its planned 2010 release window. In a later interview, Aonuma's comments on the game's playability brought this release window into doubt. He also noted that his wish to focus on the new game meant that the release date of Spirit Tracks was shifted to the end of 2009 rather than its initial projected release in early 2010. The game's title was announced at the event, along with its revised release period in 2011 and a playable demonstration. According to Miyamoto, the game was delayed from its planned 2010 release window as the staff felt that they would be releasing an unfinished product if they put the convenience of the company ahead of creating a quality experience. They used the extra year to both finish the core elements and polish up the game as a whole.Multiple promotional elements were created: a five-part online comic was written and illustrated by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik under their Penny Arcade Presents series, and television commercials featuring actor and comedian Robin Williams and his daughter Zelda were made, playing on the actor's stated love for the series. Skyward Sword was released in all regions in November 2011. The game was released as both a standard edition and a limited deluxe edition that included a gold Wii Remote Plus. An anniversary CD was included with both editions containing orchestrated versions of various iconic musical pieces from the series. Following its release, a glitch was discovered that corrupted save files if three late-game events were taken in a certain order. Once revealed, Nintendo issued instructions on avoiding it and set up a special channel on their Wii site in Japan to gain feedback, along with offering to manually repair corrupted save files. The game was later re-released for the Wii U via the Virtual Console on September 1, 2016, as part of the series' 30th anniversary celebrations. === Skyward Sword HD === The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, a high-definition remaster for the Nintendo Switch, was released on July 16, 2021. A Joy-Con pair themed after the Master Sword and Hylian Shield from the game was released separately on the same date.Aonuma stated in June 2016 that it might be possible to create an HD remaster of Skyward Sword for then-current hardware. Years prior, during the development of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo experimented with an HD version of Skyward Sword running on Wii U development kits when trying to settle on a graphical style for the new game. This ultimately led to the production of The Wind Waker HD, whose success encouraged the Zelda team to pursue other high-definition remasters. Aonuma recognized the interest in a Skyward Sword remaster, though a spokesperson from Nintendo would later clarify to Eurogamer that there were no plans to bring the game to the Nintendo Switch at that time. In August 2020, Amazon UK had listed a Nintendo Switch version of Skyward Sword, though it was delisted soon after.The remaster features high-definition graphics and now plays at 60 frames per second. The remaster features two control schemes, one of which aims to replicate the functions of the Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuck through the motion controls of the Joy-Con, while the other aims to replicate a traditional control scheme by using the right analog stick to control the previously motion-controlled sword. This secondary control method allows the game to be played in handheld mode, on a Pro Controller, and on the Nintendo Switch Lite.Other quality of life features added include autosave, the ability to save to any of the three save files instead of just the original file (which also now includes giving Hero Mode its own slot upon unlocking it as a New Game Plus feature when saved into a file), many of Fi's hints now being optional, the ability to skip dialogue boxes and cutscenes, and item descriptions no longer appearing after the first encounter with an item, with the Gratitude Crystals being the lone exception. One Amiibo figure is supported, being a figure depicting Zelda and a Loftwing enabling fast travel between the sky and the surface. == Reception == Skyward Sword received critical acclaim from multiple journalistic magazines and websites upon release; it received a score of 93/100 on aggregate site Metacritic based on 81 reviews. It was the site's 10th highest scoring game of 2011, and also ranked as the 6th best-reviewed Wii game of all time. It received perfect scores from multiple publications: Famitsu, IGN, Eurogamer, Game Informer, Edge Magazine, and VideoGamer.com. In the case of Famitsu, Skyward Sword was the third Zelda game and sixteenth video game in the magazine's history to be given a perfect score at that time.Famitsu was highly positive, praising the overworld and gameplay: one reviewer felt that it would form the new standard for both the Zelda series and video games as a whole. Edge was highly positive about all aspects of the game aside from the player-driven upgrade system, and even then it was not enough to spoil the experience for the reviewer. Nintendo Power gave it similar praise, saying that "it's truly worthy of being called 'epic'". Ray Carsillo of Electronic Gaming Monthly appreciated the game's nostalgic value, but found the motion control difficult to handle and kept the game from being truly great. Jose Otero, writing for 1UP.com, praised the developers for putting effort into moving away from Zelda tradition and called it one of the better games in the series, but said that those detrimental elements that remained such as side quests and some item usage made Skyward Sword "a weird middle ground filled with genuine surprises, inessential carry-overs, and copy/paste quest structures".GameSpot's Tom McShea was notably less positive than other critics, praising the storyline, dungeons, enemies and visuals while faulting the controls for being unreliable and feeling that most of the experience felt both unnecessary and overly familiar. Destructoid's Jonathan Holmes called Skyward Sword his new favorite 3D game from the series, but noted that its exclusive use of motion controls would put off potential players. Oli Welsh of Eurogamer was highly positive, praising the controls, gameplay experience and additional elements such as upgrades: he gave particular praise to the game's visuals, which were impressive despite hardware limitations. Game Informer's Phil Kollar echoed both general praise of the gameplay and presentation, and minor issues experienced with the motion controls: he concluded by saying that Nintendo had fulfilled its initial promises for the Wii with Skyward Sword. GamesRadar's Carolyn Gudmundson called it "perfectly balanced mix of innovation and classic Zelda gameplay" despite minor control issues.GameTrailers noted that, despite its many strengths such as a believable relationship between Link and Zelda, Skyward Sword represented the series' "first gray hairs" due to some of its mechanics feeling dated in the modern gaming landscape. IGN's Richard George felt that the game returned The Legend of Zelda to being a revolutionary series in the gaming industry, praising almost every aspect of the game except for the soundtrack, which he felt did not live up to series standards despite its quality. Joystiq writer Griffin McElroy noted that a lot of the game's content seemed unnecessary and extravagant, but said that beneath this surface lay "the best Zelda game of all time". Steve Hogarty of Official Nintendo Magazine shared many points of praise with other positive journalist reviews, calling it the greatest game in the series to date. VideoGamer.com's Chris Schilling called it one of the best Zelda games, praising its motion controls, narrative and treatment of series tradition. === Awards === Following its release, Skyward Sword won numerous awards. At IGN's "Best of 2011" awards, it was awarded "Best Game", "Best Graphics", "Best Sound" and "Best Story" in the Wii category. It was also given the "Reader's Choice" award in the "Best Overall Game" category: it was also among those nominated as the site's "Game of the Year". In Digital Trends' similar awards, it was named as "Best Action-Adventure" and "Best Wii Exclusive", and was nominated for the site's "Game of the Year" award. RPGamer's own "Best of 2011" awards named Skyward Sword "Best Console and PC Game" and awarded it for "Best Music". It also received "Game of the Year" awards from Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameSpot, Edge and Nintendo Power. It received "Excellence" and "Most Valuable Character" awards from Famitsu, the latter being awarded for the protagonist Link. It received multiple nominations in 2012 at the Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), Game Developers Choice Awards and the BAFTA Games Awards. At Spike, the game won awards for "Best Wii Game" and "Best Motion Game". Skyward Sword has since been ranked among the best games developed for the Wii. === Sales === Upon its Japanese debut, Skyward Sword sold nearly 195,000 units, reaching the top of sales charts. Sales quickly declined, dropping out of the Top 20 within a few weeks. By the end of December, it had sold less than 320,000 units: this was below equivalent sales for other recent home console and portable Zelda games. The game's sales were strong overall going into January 2012, with its largest sales coming from North America. Its first month sales in North America came to around 600,000 units, nearly double its Japanese sales. In the UK, Skyward Sword was the seventh best-selling game of November in the multiformat charts, stated as impressive given the waning popularity of the platform. It was also the region's top-selling Wii game during its week of release, supplanting the previous week's top seller Just Dance 3. It failed to reach the top-five best-selling Wii games for that year. Its total worldwide first-week sales came to 919,119 units. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, Skyward Sword was the fastest-selling game in the series at that time. As of March 2012, the game has sold 3.52 million units worldwide: 360,000 of these units were sold in Japan while 3.15 million units were sold overseas. ==== Skyward Sword HD ==== Pre-orders for Skyward Sword HD sold out on Amazon.com and it was listed as the best-selling game on the US version of the site. It sold 159,089 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country.As of March 31, 2022, Skyward Sword HD has sold 3.91 million units worldwide. == Legacy == While critical reception of the game was very positive overall, fan and retrospective opinions were far more mixed due to its highly traditional and linear structure. When development started on the next home console Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the developers wanted to improve on what they had achieved with Skyward Sword and the feedback it received from both fans and critics, along with creating a non-linear world based on player complaints about the linearity of Skyward Sword. Aonuma and Fujibayashi both returned respectively as producer and director. Aonuma's said that his wish with Breath of the Wild was "to expand and make a better Skyward Sword". == Notes == == References == === Primary references === Nintendo EAD (2011-11-18). The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii). Nintendo. == External links == Official website The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword at MobyGames

Nintendo Switch

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Tactical role-playing

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo's Kou Shibusawa and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is released worldwide on July 26, 2019. It is the sixteenth installment in the Fire Emblem series and the first one for home consoles since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, originally released in 2007. Three Houses is set on the continent of Fódlan, divided between three ruling powers currently at peace. These nations are connected through the Garreg Mach Monastery, which houses a church and an officer's school for students from each nation. Taking the role of Byleth, a former mercenary with a mysterious past and the academy's newest professor, the player must choose a class to lead and guide their students through a series of battles. The game maintains the turn-based tactical gameplay of the previous Fire Emblem titles, while incorporating social simulation and time management elements. The game's production was challenging for Intelligent Systems, who attributed its success and timely release to Koei Tecmo, who had previously partnered with the company for Fire Emblem Warriors. The staff wanted something entirely new for the franchise's debut on high-definition home consoles, birthing the school life mechanics and expansions to battle. Chinatsu Kurahana was responsible for creating the character designs and illustrations. The game's school system and a time skip later in the story took inspiration from the fourth installment, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. The game received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising the integration of the school system and battalion mechanics, narrative, characters, soundtrack, and replay value. Minor criticisms were directed at the game's easier difficulty compared to past installments as well as some visual and technical problems. The game would go on to win Best Strategy Game and the Player's Voice Award at The Game Awards 2019. As of December 2021, the game has sold 3.82 million copies worldwide, making it the single best-selling game in the franchise. A Warriors-style spin-off, entitled Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, was released for the Nintendo Switch on June 24, 2022. == Gameplay == Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game in which players control a player character whose gender and name are chosen at the beginning of the game. During the opening hours, the player character is asked to teach at the Garreg Mach Monastery, which acts as a hub for game activities. Choosing a particular house to teach impacts the narrative from that point on. The player's time is divided between story-based battles that advance the main narrative, and periods in Garreg Mach where they interact with students and staff members there. While the opening half of the game focuses on this school system, the story skips ahead five years and focuses more on battle, with the player being locked to the house they chose during the opening half.During the periods between storyline battles, the player has a set number of days marked on a calendar, which can be used for a variety of activities from teaching classes and field exercises to planting seeds in the greenhouse and fishing in the pond. The player also has free time events, where they can socially interact with students and build up relationships with them. Building a relationship is done through Support actions, with actions and dialogue choices impacting a character's Support level. If the relationship is strong enough, this can lead to the two marrying after a story-based time skip event. By raising particular attributes through actions in battle and within the Monastery, the player can recruit students from other houses, alongside other characters. Each action during the academy section costs a set number of time points, with a limited number of time points available each day and more activities than can be covered by the points available. The player must choose which events to trigger, losing access to others in consequence. Network play and Amiibo functionality are also supported, with network play allowing players to passively visit other players' monasteries online, and compatible Amiibo figures to be scanned for additional materials and bonus music tracks for scanning Fire Emblem-specific Amiibo.As with other Fire Emblem games, Three Houses uses a turn-based battle system; players take control of a set number of unique units. They move across a grid, transitioning from a top-down perspective to a third-person view when a battle is triggered. A new feature to the series allows player to hire Battalions, additional troops that can support a chosen unit. Battalions have passive abilities which grant character buffs to the lead unit, and can perform special moves called Gambits, which can range from healing multiple units to stunning powerful enemies. Players can also zoom in on the battlefield to assess individual battalions. As with other entries, there is a "Classic" mode where characters who fall in battle are subjected to permanent death, and a "Casual" mode where fallen characters are revived after each battle. After a certain point in the story, players can rewind and undo a set amount of turn actions per battle using the "Divine Pulse" ability.Every unit is assigned a character class, which can be customized. While characters have starting abilities which naturally grant them a class, they can be taught additional skills which alter their class. Class changes are available upon a student's "certification" during the school segments, with certain prerequisites recommended to have a higher chance at passing the corresponding certification exam. Prior to starting a school week, lesson plans can be put into place to individually manage a unit's growth, build Support between two classmates by engaging them in group assignments, or simply instruct the class automatically with a passive "auto-instruct" feature. Rather than the previously-established Weapon Triangle of earlier Fire Emblem games, different units have weapon-based skills called Combat Arts they can be taught during the school segments. Weapons have a set number of uses before they degrade and have their stats reduced. Combat Arts are learned by becoming proficient in a type of weapon; they deal higher damage than standard attacks in exchange for a large chunk of a weapon's durability. == Synopsis == === Setting and characters === Three Houses takes place on the continent of Fódlan. The landmass is divided into three rival nations who are now at peace: the Adrestian Empire to the south and west, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to the north, and the Leicester Alliance to the east. The Church of Seiros, based at Garreg Mach Monastery at the continent's center, is the region's dominant religion and is an influential power in Fódlan in its own right. In ancient history, a war raged between the Church's titular founder Seiros and the "King of Liberation" Nemesis, an era which also saw the establishment of the Empire by Seiros. In the thousand years since then, the Kingdom split away from the Empire, then the Alliance declared its independence from both powers. A prolonged conflict ensued, with the Church being responsible for keeping peace. The nobility of Fódlan frequently bear Crests, sigils passed down through families that grant magical powers. Bearing a crest greatly influences dynastic politics, with nobles inheriting Crests valued far above those who lack them. Those who have Crests can also wield powerful artifacts called Hero's Relics. The series's titular "Fire Emblem" appears as the "Crest of Flames", the Crest associated with the Progenitor God.Players take on the role of the main character, called Byleth by default and who can be either male or female. A mercenary by trade, they become enrolled in the Officers Academy of Garreg Mach Monastery as a teacher. During their journey Byleth is aided by Sothis, a strange and initially-amnesiac girl who appears in their dreams and can only be heard by them. At Garreg Mach Monastery, Byleth chooses one of the three school houses, each aligned to a different nation of Fódlan. They are the Black Eagles led by Edelgard, imperial princess and heir to the Adrestian throne; the Blue Lions, commanded by Prince Dimitri of the Kingdom; and the Golden Deer led by Claude, heir to the Alliance's leading family. The Monastery's staff includes those who directly work for the Church, some of whom are recruitable by the player. Other characters include Jeralt, father of Byleth, and Rhea, archbishop of the Church. === Plot === White Clouds (Academy phase)One night, Byleth and Jeralt rescue three young nobles, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude from bandits, greatly impressing them. During the attack, Byleth is saved by the mysterious Sothis, who remains within them. Jeralt and Byleth are summoned to Garreg Mach Monastery, the home of the Church of Seiros, Fódlan's dominant religion. Jeralt reluctantly rejoins the Church's military arm, the Knights of Seiros, while Byleth is made a professor of the monastery's Officers Academy. Jeralt privately warns Byleth not to trust the Church's archbishop, Rhea. Byleth is then given the choice of leading one of the academy's three houses: the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, or the Golden Deer, each populated by students from the Empire, Kingdom, and Alliance respectively. Byleth assumes their duties as teacher for their chosen house, training their students and leading them in battles on behalf of the Knights of Seiros. Byleth and their students discover frightening hints on the nature of Relics and Crests, such as a Relic thief transforming into a monster. Various conspiracies meddle with the monastery and plot against the Church: masked warriors called the Flame Emperor and the Death Knight, the Western branch of the Church, and a hostile cult known as "those who slither in the dark". Byleth thwarts an attempt to steal a powerful Hero's Relic, the Sword of the Creator. Unexpectedly, the Sword activates when Byleth holds it, and Rhea allows them to keep it. Jeralt is murdered by an agent of "those who slither in the dark". Reading Jeralt's diary, Byleth discovers that Jeralt fled from the Church due to Rhea's plans for Byleth when they were born. The "Sothis" within Byleth is the original Progenitor God, implanted by Rhea into Byleth as a baby so that Sothis would be reborn. Byleth pursues the cultists responsible for Jeralt's death. A magical attack by one of their leaders forces Sothis to merge with Byleth, allowing them to survive and defeat the cult members with a newly empowered Sword of the Creator. Rhea makes a futile attempt to awaken Sothis within Byleth, but the Flame Emperor attacks the ceremony with allies from the Adrestian Empire. The Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard, who like Byleth bears the Crest of Flames; she accuses the Church of being corrupt. If Byleth sides with Edelgard, they help her lead an assault on Garreg Mach. If they side with Rhea, Dimitri, or Claude, then they help in the defense of the monastery; Rhea is also revealed to be a dragon. Regardless of the side chosen, Byleth is knocked unconscious at the end of the battle and wakes up five years later, discovering that Fódlan has plunged into war as the Empire, Kingdom, Alliance, and Church battle each other. The routes then diverge. Verdant Wind (Golden Deer route)Byleth reunites with Claude, and they rally their students and the remnants of the Church to stand against the Empire. Gathering allies and support, Byleth and Claude invade the Empire. As they confront Emperor Edelgard and her forces, a Kingdom army led by Dimitri also arrives, resulting in a massive battle. Edelgard is forced to retreat while Dimitri is killed. Byleth and Claude press on towards a strategic Empire fort, and receive aid from the foreign nation of Alymra. Claude admits he secretly opened relations with Almyra, and announces his desire to open Fódlan's borders to the outside world and end the continent's isolationism. Byleth and Claude attack the Empire capital, where they defeat and kill Edelgard. Byleth and Claude learn "those who slither in the dark" have been manipulating both the current war and the original war a millennium before. Claude's army defeats the cult in their secret underground city Shambhala. Their leader attempts to destroy them with a rain of missiles, but Rhea intercepts the missiles in her dragon form. Meanwhile, Nemesis is awakened from his tomb by the cult; he and his Ten Elites were a band of thieves who took power from Sothis and her dragon kin after they were slain by the cult in the ancient era. This power was the source of the nobility's crests. Byleth and Claude destroy Nemesis and his undead army. In the aftermath, Fódlan is united under Byleth's rule as they and Claude open its borders and start relations with foreign nations. Azure Moon (Blue Lions route)Byleth reunites with Dimitri, who has been ousted from the Kingdom due to a coup from pro-Empire nobles. Dimitri has become bitter, disillusioned, and unstable as he is haunted by visions of his deceased family and driven to kill Edelgard at any cost. Byleth's students and the remnants of the Church ally with Dimitri despite his erratic behavior. Dimitri eventually forces a massive battle between his own army, the Empire, and the Alliance, resulting in heavy losses on all sides. One of Dimitri's trusted vassals sacrifices himself to protect him from an assassin, which combined with Byleth's guidance causes Dimitri to abandon his desire for revenge. After securing his own lands, Dimitri rescues Claude from imperial forces. Claude dissolves the Alliance and cedes its lands to Dimitri before departing Fódlan. Dimitri then marches for the Empire capital itself. Wanting to make peace with Edelgard, Dimitri arranges a meeting with her and suggest they join forces to realize their goals; Edelgard refuses. Dimitri is able to defeat Edelgard and once again offers her mercy, but is forced to kill her when she attempts to attack him. In the aftermath, Fódlan is united under the Kingdom with Dimitri as its ruler, while Byleth becomes the new archbishop of the Church when Rhea steps down. Crimson Flower (Black Eagles route)If Byleth sides with Edelgard on this route, they reunite with their students and find that the Kingdom has allied with the Church while the Alliance remains nominally neutral. Edelgard and Byleth attack and seize the Alliance capital and eliminate Claude from the war, either through killing or exiling him. They then advance into the Kingdom, taking a vital fortress. In retribution for Edelgard interfering with their schemes, "those who slither in the dark" arrange for the fortress to be destroyed. Edelgard keeps the truth a secret and tells the others that the fortress was destroyed by Church weaponry. Edelgard continues to lead her armies to the Kingdom's capital. Dimitri meets Edelgard in battle, but is defeated and killed. The Kingdom army is routed and Rhea withdraws to the Kingdom capital with her Knights. In her madness, Rhea sets fire to the city, forcing Edelgard to attack to put a stop to her. Byleth and Edelgard are able to kill Rhea. Byleth nearly dies, but Sothis's Crest Stone embedded in their heart dissolves, reviving them. In the aftermath, Edelgard unites all of Fódlan under the Empire and abolishes both the Church and the nobility. Silver Snow (Church route)If Byleth sides against Edelgard after having joined the Black Eagles, a similar scenario to the Golden Deer route plays out with Byleth allied with Church remnants and the Black Eagle students against the Empire. After defeating Edelgard in the Empire's capital and "those who slither in the dark" in Shambhala, Byleth learns the full truth of their origins from Rhea, and is then forced to defeat her after she is driven berserk due to wounds sustained in Shambhala. Fódlan is subsequently unified under the Church with Byleth as its new leader. Cindered ShadowsByleth pursues an intruder into a hidden underground complex called Abyss, discovering a secret house called the Ashen Wolves; originally hidden through a secret truce, mercenaries have begun raiding Abyss. Byleth and the students agree to help defend Abyss. Aelfric, the Church's liaison to Abyss, warns Byleth that factions within the Church would like to see Abyss purged. Aelfric theorizes that the mercenaries are looking for the Chalice of Beginnings, a key object in a ritual attempted during Garreg Mach's early days with the aim of resurrecting Sothis. Aelfric is captured and ransomed for the Chalice, which Rhea reluctantly agrees to hand over believing the ritual lost. The Ashen Wolves also privately admit to Byleth that they are descendants of the four who performed the ritual, ordered by the Church to keep their bloodlines secret. Aelfric is revealed to be the mastermind, capturing the Ashen Wolves and preparing to use the Chalice to resurrect Byleth's mother Sitri, for whom he held a secret love. Byleth rescues the Ashen Wolves, and when he attempts the ritual anyway Aelfric is transformed into a monster and killed. The Ashen Wolves are disbanded and allowed to leave Garreg Mach, with the four members to return to help each other and Byleth if needed. == Development == Following the unexpected success of Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS—which helped save the series from cancellation after flagging sales of earlier entries—the Fire Emblem series gained renewed commercial value and prompted developer Intelligent Systems and publisher Nintendo to bring the series back to home consoles for the first time since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn in 2007. Concept development for Three Houses began in 2015 following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS. The team originally planned for Three Houses to be another 3DS title. This was scrapped when production began on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, resulting in Three Houses being briefly put on hold. When the team learned of the Nintendo Switch, they decided to make the game for home consoles. The team wanted the game to be the biggest and best in the series, and due to it being for home consoles they felt they could not make it alone. With this in mind, they decided to bring in help from Koei Tecmo. At this time, Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo were collaborating on the spin-off game Fire Emblem Warriors. After consultation, Koei Tecmo's internal team led by Kou Shibusawa was recommended to them. The biggest challenge for the developers was bringing the series to a high-definition console, a first for the series. Koei Tecmo was deeply concerned in this aspect of development. Full production began in 2017 when Shadows of Valentia was finished, with Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota—respective directors for Intelligent Systems and Nintendo EPD— returning to direct the game.The game's scenario was written by Koei Tecmo's Yuki Ikeno, Ryohei Hayashi and Mari Okamoto. All three previously worked on the scenario for Warriors and were brought onto the development of Three Houses to help assist Intelligent Systems in writing the social segments of the game. The narrative was written in the vein of a dark fantasy, with the mature aspects of the narrative showing through the conflict between the three factions. The first storyline conceived was the Black Eagle House, with Kusakihara and the other scenario writers building and expanding on the world and characters from that starting point. Voice recording took three months; Kusakihara estimated the amount of voice acting for the Japanese version as five times that of Fire Emblem Echoes. Two key parts of the game, the school sections and a time skip late in the story, were directly inspired by the 1996 entry Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War; the narrative in Three Houses of characters who were friends in their youth coming into conflict during their older years was almost directly lifted from Genealogy of the Holy War. Kusakihara also admitted influence from the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Koei Tecmo's adaptation of it in the Dynasty Warriors game series; this came about after Intelligent Systems looked at the narrative and world designs used by the Kou Shibusawa unit. The game's chosen subtitle in Japan was "Fūkasetsugetsu", a yojijukugo of the four seasons to represent the narrative's four branching paths. As it translated awkwardly, it was replaced by the subtitle "Three Houses" in English.While Intelligent Systems staff handled the weapon and world design, freelance illustrators were brought in for other parts. The team wanted a new artistic image for the series. Character designs and illustrations were handled by Chinatsu Kurahana, known for Uta no Prince-sama and Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters and who was the main character designer of the game. Kazuma Koda, who had worked on both Bayonetta 2 and Nier: Automata as a concept artist, was contracted to provide concept art for the game. Kurahana was in talks with Intelligent Systems prior to development, and the final decision was made as Kusakihara felt she could best illustrate the "glamorous, aristocratic society" portrayed in the game. Her influence was particularly noted in the hairstyles of characters, which differed from those seen in earlier Fire Emblem leads. The anime cutscenes were directed by Takashi Sano and produced by Sanzigen, noted for their cel-shaded 3D CGI animation. The music was composed by Fates composers Takeru Kanazaki and Hiroki Morishita, and Awakening composer Rei Kondoh.Kusakihara and Yokota stated in an interview that Three Houses in its released form would have been difficult or impossible to make without Koei Tecmo's help. The directors particularly cited Koei Tecmo's experience developing large-scale battles for their Dynasty Warriors franchise. This experience allowed large numbers of characters to be shown on screen in battles for the first time in the series. While Koei Tecmo helped with much of the technical and programming side, Intelligent Systems still took the lead on design and other core aspects of development. The new school setting allowed the team to considerably expand the series' RPG mechanics beyond the typical tactical battles which had dominated the series up to that point. The social aspects went through multiple unsatisfactory builds before some team members suggested a calendar system and ability points. This version finally satisfied the team.The Weapon Triangle, a recurring system for most of the series, was discarded due to it being a "stylized" system. The new weapon-based skill system was designed to be more realistic and increase player choice. Due to its status as the first home console entry in twelve years, the team were under pressure to create something new and exciting. This led to the creation of Battalions in battle and the teaching segments. Time limits were suggested by Kusakihara, who was inspired by Nintendo's Pikmin franchise. The skill growth system drew inspiration from Zill O'll, a role-playing series developed by Koei. The team toyed with the idea of including child characters from romantic supports for the story's second half, a feature from Genealogy of the Holy War which they had used extensively in Awakening and Fates. They soon decided against this, opting for a support experience based around character maturation and platonic relationships. While online features such as seen in the "My Castle" feature from Fates were considered, the Monastery was so expansive and its history deep enough that such customization and sharing options would be impractical to implement, so it was left out. == Release == Nintendo first announced that a new mainline Fire Emblem game was in development for the Nintendo Switch in January 2017 during a Nintendo Direct focused on the series, with a projected release date in 2018. More information was revealed during Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation, showing gameplay and even the finalized title. However, it also confirmed that the release date would be pushed back into early 2019. In February 2019, the game was showcased in another Nintendo Direct displaying new gameplay and story details, including a second delay with the game's release date falling on July 26, 2019 and the confirmation of Koei Tecmo as the co-developer. Another story trailer was showcased at the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation with additional gameplay being shown at Nintendo Treehouse Live later in the week.In July, Nintendo revealed that the game would be receiving an Expansion Pass that would contain downloadable content for the game that would be released from the game's launch until April 2020. The first wave of DLC added a new "Maddening" difficulty mode, made to address concerns about the game's low level of challenge on "Hard" mode, as well as various cosmetic options. It also patched in a new voice actor for Byleth, replacing Chris Niosi with Zach Aguilar following Niosi's admissions of emotional and physical abuse. The admissions included violation of a non-disclosure agreement with Nintendo about his role as Byleth. Later waves of DLC added additional playable characters, additional actions within the monastery, and the Cindered Shadows storyline. == Reception == Fire Emblem: Three Houses has received "generally favorable" reviews holding an aggregate score of 89/100 on Metacritic, based on 102 reviews. According to the site, it is the fourth highest-scoring Switch game of 2019, and the highest-rated Switch exclusive.The four reviewers for Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu all gave praise, with one giving it a perfect score of 10 and the others a 9. Eurogamer's Martin Robinson said that it "really is a game of two halves, but they come together to make one incredible whole." Kimberley Wallace, writing for Game Informer, praised the game's ambition and willingness to take risks with the series formula, being surprised by how willing she was to begin a new game after finishing the campaign. Aron Garst of GamesRadar gave Three Houses a perfect score, praising how the game kept him invested in its characters, with his main criticism of the gameplay being its low difficulty.GameSpot's Kallie Plagge did not like the need for multiple playthroughs to see the entire narrative, but was otherwise enthusiastic about the game's story and gameplay; she called it "the kind of game that's hard to put down, even when it's over". Brendan Graeber of IGN felt that its depth of characters and tactical options more than justified multiple playthroughs, particularly praising its narrative as being superior to that of Fire Emblem Fates. Nintendo World Report's Daan Koopman said that, despite finding the finales of some acts disappointing, the overall narrative and gameplay kept him invested.The scenario was met with praise, being cited as a mature and ambitious narrative with strong character interactions, with many lauding the difficult choices presented when picking a side in the first half of the campaign. The two interacting gameplay styles were also positively received, with many noting the social elements as a welcome tactical addition. The game's graphics saw a mixed response, with several websites faulting them as low-quality despite strong artistic design. The music and voice acting met with a strong positive response in both versions. === Sales === Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the best-selling game during its first week on retail sale in Japan, with 143,130 copies being sold. The game was also the best-selling physical game in the United Kingdom that same week, selling twice as much as its second place competitor Wolfenstein: Youngblood. SuperData Research estimated that Three Houses sold 800,000 digital copies through the Nintendo Switch eShop in its launch month of July 2019. In August 2019, the NPD Group shared the ranking of best-selling games for the month of July in the United States, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses was in second place counting only physical sales. As of March 2020, the game has sold 580k copies in Japan and 2.87 million copies worldwide, making it the single best-selling game in the Fire Emblem franchise. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that the game had sold 3.82 million copies, as of December 31, 2021. === Awards === The game won the award for "Best Switch Exclusive" and its People's Voice at the IGN Game of the Year Awards 2019, whereas its other nominations were for "Game of the Year" and "Best Strategy/Tactics Game". == Legacy == Characters from Three Houses were added as playable units in the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes shortly after the game's release. A costume based on Three Houses was included in the Nintendo Switch port of Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE. Byleth appears as a playable character in the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, being released as downloadable content on January 28, 2020. Both male and female versions of Byleth are present as alternate costumes for the fighter, whose attacks are based around the use of four of the game's weapons. The Byleth DLC also includes Garreg Mach Monastery as a new stage, as well as a selection of eleven music tracks from Three Houses. An Amiibo figure of Byleth was released on March 26, 2021. A Three Houses-inspired tea drinking minigame was included in the 2021 video game WarioWare: Get It Together! for Nintendo Switch.In February 2022 during a Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo announced a spin-off of Three Houses for the Nintendo Switch entitled Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, a hack and slash game in the style of Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series and a successor to 2017's Fire Emblem Warriors, which was released on June 24, 2022. It is set in the same universe as Fire Emblem: Three Houses along with the same cast of characters, but features an alternative story where Byleth does not come to teach at the monastery, along with a completely new protagonist and scenarios. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Fire Emblem: Three Houses at MobyGames Fire Emblem: Three Houses at IMDb

Nintendo Switch

1-2-Switch

Party

1-2-Switch is a party game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch, which was released worldwide on March 3, 2017. The game extensively uses the system's Joy-Con controllers, with players facing each other performing various minigames. By the end of 2021, it sold over 3.63 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the platform. == Gameplay == 1-2-Switch is a party game in which players do not usually rely on what is happening on-screen, but rather make use of audio cues and the functionality of the Switch's Joy-Con controllers to play in several different games. It features 28 different minigames, most of which involve two players, who each use one of the Joy-Con controllers and are often encouraged to look at each other during gameplay. Aside from tutorial videos for each game, players mostly rely solely on audio cues and feedback from the Joy-Con's rumble feature to indicate how well they are performing. == Development == After Nintendo announced the game at the Nintendo Switch event in January 2017, Nintendo showed off six of the minigames to the public. The game was also unveiled to show off Nintendo's innovative Joy-Con capabilities, through the HD Rumble and IR Motion Camera features.As a way to promote the milking minigame and the Nintendo Switch, several representatives of Nintendo of America took part in a cow milking competition at a dairy farm in Woodstock, Vermont. Grey DeLisle appears on the cover, albeit with her nose being doctored to look larger. == Reception == 1-2-Switch received "mixed" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.Upon the release of its initial trailer, several commentators compared the game to the WarioWare series. Ben Skipper of the International Business Times made note of the game's sexual innuendos.Nintendo's decision to release the game separately from the system was criticized by several commentators, arguing that the game would be better off as a pack-in game, similarly to Wii Sports, although Nintendo stated that they opted to allow consumers to select a game to purchase rather than bundling one and increase the Switch's price so as to not disinterest consumers and compromise the console's sales. Cory Arnold of Destructoid criticized the lack of a true single-player mode, and went as far as to say that the minigames were worse than what was included in Wii Sports, arguing that they lacked any sort of progression. === Sales === By April 2017, Nintendo reported that 1-2-Switch had shipped nearly a million copies worldwide. By March 2018, that number had risen to over two million. By June 2019, total sales reached 3.01 million. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that 1-2-Switch had sold 3.63 million units, as of December 31, 2021. === Accolades === == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa Mo Teiban!

Board game

Momotaro Dentetsu (桃太郎電鉄, Momotarō Dentetsu, Momotarō Electric Railway) (also known by the abbreviated name Momotetsu) is a long-running board game-style video game series in Japan; in which players travel by rail, ship, and airplane; attempting to acquire wealth through business transactions buying properties; and dealing with rival entrepreneurs and nemeses such as the God of Poverty (貧乏神, Binbōgami). The game mechanics are often compared to the board games sugoroku and Monopoly. Started in 1988, the series was initially produced by Hudson Soft. The rights to the series are now owned by Konami Corporation, who absorbed Hudson in 2012. This series is spin-off from another video game series by Hudson Soft, Momotaro Densetsu. The project supervisor for the series is Akira Sakuma, with illustration by Takayuki Doi (土居 孝幸) and main music production by Kazuyuki Sekiguchi of Southern All Stars. In some works, Kazuaki Miyaji (宮路 一昭) and Takeshi Ike (池 毅) (composer of "Makafushigi Adventure!", opening theme song of the Dragon Ball anime) also participate in music production. From 2004, for many years promotional marketing for the series featured the pairing of comedian Tomonori Jinnai and gravure idol/tarento Chinatsu Wakatsuki.In June 2015, creator Akira Sakuma stated "I'm announcing here that Momotaro Dentetsu is officially done. Ishikawa at Konami squelched everything." However, in July 2015, Konami lends the license to Nintendo for an unspecified amount of yen.After 7 years of no release, a new version of the game was released, exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS. Momotaro Dentetsu II released in the US on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. == Titles == === Console games === Momotaro Dentetsu (桃太郎電鉄) (Famicom: 1988-12-02) Super Momotaro Dentetsu (スーパー桃太郎電鉄) (PC Engine: 1989-09-15, Game Boy: 1991-03-08, Famicom: 1992-03-20) Super Momotaro Dentetsu II (スーパー桃太郎電鉄II) (PC Engine: 1991-12-20, Super Famicom: 1992-08-07, Game Boy: 1994-02-18) Super Momotaro Dentetsu III (スーパー桃太郎電鉄III) (Super Famicom: 1994-12-09) Super Momotaro Dentetsu 3 (スーパー桃太郎電鉄3) (Sega Game Gear: 1995-12-15) Super Momotaro Dentetsu DX (スーパー桃太郎電鉄DX) (Super Famicom: 1995-12-08) Momotaro Dentetsu HAPPY (桃太郎電鉄HAPPY) (Super Famicom: 1996-12-06) Momotaro Dentetsu 7 (桃太郎電鉄7) (PlayStation: 1997-12-23) Momotaro Dentetsu jr.: Zenkoku Ramen Meguri no Maki (桃太郎電鉄jr. 〜全国ラーメンめぐりの巻〜) (Game Boy: 1998-07-31) Momotaro Dentetsu V (桃太郎電鉄V) (PlayStation: 1999-12-16) Momotaro Dentetsu X: Kyushu Version (桃太郎電鉄X 〜九州編もあるばい〜) (PlayStation 2: 2001-12-13) Momotaro Dentetsu 11: Black Bombee Arrives (PlayStation 2 & GameCube: 2002-12-05) Momotaro Dentetsu 12: All Aboard for Western Japan! (PlayStation 2 & GameCube: 2003-12-11) Momotaro Dentetsu USA (桃太郎電鉄USA) - (PlayStation 2: 2004-11-18) Momotaro Dentetsu G: Make a Gold Deck! (桃太郎電鉄G 〜ゴールド・デッキを作れ!) (Game Boy Advance: 2005-06-30) Momotaro Dentetsu 15: Godai Bombi Toujou! No Maki (桃太郎電鉄15 〜五大ボンビー登場!の巻) (PlayStation 2: 2005-12-08) Momotaro Dentetsu 16: Moving in Hokkaido! (桃太郎電鉄16 〜北海道大移動の巻!) (PlayStation 2: 2006-12-07, Wii: 2007-07-19) Momotaro Dentetsu 16 GOLD (桃太郎電鉄16 GOLD) (Xbox 360: 2007-12-06) Momotaro Dentetsu DS: TOKYO & JAPAN (桃太郎電鉄DS 〜TOKYO&JAPAN) (Nintendo DS: 2007-04-26) Momotaro Dentetsu 20th Anniversary (桃太郎電鉄20周年) (Nintendo DS: 2008-12-18) Momotaro Dentetsu 2010: Sengoku Ishin no Hero Daishūgō! No Maki (桃太郎電鉄2010 〜戦国・維新のヒーロー大集合!の巻) (Wii: 2009-11-26) Momotaro Dentetsu Tag Match: Yūjō Doryoku Shōri No Maki (桃太郎電鉄タッグマッチ 友情・努力・勝利の巻!) (PlayStation Portable: 2010-07-15) Momotaro Dentetsu World (桃太郎電鉄WORLD) (Nintendo DS:2010-12-02) Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon!! (Nintendo 3DS: 2016-12-22) Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa Mo Teiban! (Nintendo Switch: 2020) === Feature phone games === Momotaro Dentetsu TOKYO (桃太郎電鉄TOKYO) (i-mode: 2005-02-07, EZweb: 2006-01-26, Yahoo! Keitai (Yahoo!ケータイ): 2007-04-02) Momotaro Dentetsu JAPAN (桃太郎電鉄JAPAN) (i-mode: 2005-11-01, EZweb: 2006-08-10, Yahoo! Keitai: 2007-04-02) Momotaro Dentetsu JAPAN Deluxe (桃太郎電鉄JAPAN 豪華版) (i-mode: 2007-01-04, EZweb: 2008-04-03) Momotaro Dentetsu WORLD (桃太郎電鉄WORLD) (i-mode: 2006-04-01, EZweb: 2007-02-01, Yahoo! Keitai: 2007-09-03) Momotaro Dentetsu WORLD Deluxe (桃太郎電鉄WORLD 豪華版) (i-mode: 2007-07-01) Momotaro Dentetsu WORLD Remote Play (桃太郎電鉄WORLD 遠距離対戦版) (i-mode: 2009-08-03) Momotaro Dentetsu CHUBU (桃太郎電鉄CHUBU) (i-mode: 2006-11-01, Yahoo! Keitai: 2007-09-03, EZweb: 2007-09-06) Momotaro Dentetsu KANTO (桃太郎電鉄KANTO) (i-mode: 2007-05-01, EZweb: 2008-01-31, Yahoo! Keitai: 2008-02-01) Momotaro Dentetsu TOHOKU (桃太郎電鉄TOHOKU) (i-mode: 2007-11-01, Yahoo! Keitai: 2008-09-01, EZweb: 2008-09-04) Momotaro Dentetsu TOHOKU Deluxe (桃太郎電鉄TOHOKU 豪華版) (i-mode: 2008-01-04) Momotaro Dentetsu HOKKAIDO (桃太郎電鉄HOKKAIDO) (i-mode: 2008-06-01, Yahoo! Keitai: 2009-02-02, EZweb: 2009-02-12) Momotaro Dentetsu KYUSHU (桃太郎電鉄KYUSHU) (i-mode: 2009-02-01) Momotaro Dentetsu SETOUCHI (桃太郎電鉄SETOUCHI) (i-mode: 2009-09-01) Momotaro Dentetsu KINKI (桃太郎電鉄KINKI) (i-mode: 2010-03-01) Momotaro Dentetsu AOMORI (桃太郎電鉄AOMORI) (i-mode:2010-11-01) Momotaro Dentetsu SHIZUOKA (桃太郎電鉄SHIZUOKA) (i-mode:2011-05-01) Momotaro Dentetsu TOKAI (桃太郎電鉄TOKAI) (i-mode:2012-02-01) === iOS games === Momotaro Dentetsu JAPAN+ (桃太郎電鉄 JAPAN+) (iPhone/iPod touch: 2011-02-17) == Sales and popularity == The series is popular in Japan.Momotaro Dentetsu 7 sold over 500,000 copies in Japan. Total shipments exceeded 12 million units by 2011. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the series, Hudson collaborated with the financially troubled Chōshi Electric Railway Line, operating a train on the railway decorated with a Momotaro Dentetsu motif. Opening on April 25, 2007, the train ran until its third anniversary. In June 2009, two Momotetsu-themed restaurants opened at Japanese railway stations: one at Haijima Station, and another at Kaminagaya Station. == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Paper Mario: The Origami King

Role-playingaction-adventure

Paper Mario: The Origami King is a 2020 action-adventure role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. It is the sixth game in the Paper Mario series, which is part of the larger Mario franchise. The story follows Mario and his friends as he sets out on a journey to prevent the Mushroom Kingdom from being transformed into origami. To do so, Mario must free Princess Peach's castle from five decorative streamers that extend across the kingdom. The Origami King features cross-genre gameplay, blending elements of action-adventure, role-playing (RPG), and puzzle games. Controlling Mario, the player explores a large overworld and fights enemies in a turn-based style that uses a ring-based puzzle system. In combat, enemies are scattered on a circle stylized like a dartboard separated into four rings and additional columns. The player can rotate the rings horizontally and vertically to organize the enemies into patterns that result in being able to clear them more quickly. The Origami King's development team emphasized innovation to a greater extent than previous games in the series. Anticipating an inability to satisfy every fan, Intelligent Systems gravitated towards creating entirely new concepts. Origami and confetti were used as new variants of paper-themed concepts. The developers changed the traditional linear gameplay to an open world format and used enemies uninvolved with the Mario franchise. Nintendo intended to announce the game at E3 2020 as part of the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. (1985), but due to the cancellation of the expo, the game was revealed separately from the anniversary celebrations. The ROM file of the game would also be leaked ahead of launch. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the game's writing, design, characters, music, and game mechanics, and criticized it for straying from the series' original role-playing style. Critical reception of the combat system was mixed; while praised for its innovation, there was criticism for its lack of difficulty and purpose. The game had sold three million copies by September 2020, two months after release, making it the fastest-selling game in the series and also one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch. The game was nominated for three awards and was listed among the best games of 2020 by multiple critics. == Gameplay == The Origami King is a cross-genre video game, containing elements from action-adventure, RPG, and puzzle games. The player controls a two-dimensional paper version of Mario and explores a linear open world designed to look like paper and cardboard. The player's goal is to destroy five decorative origami streamers created by King Olly, the game's main antagonist. Throughout the game, the player sets out to follow each of five streamers, which occupy wide open areas for exploration. These areas contain puzzles the player will need to complete to proceed. Along the way, Mario can collect coins used to purchase items for use in combat, and hidden treasures to display at a museum. Among these hidden collectibles are Toads, which are either folded into origami or creased and crumpled. Mario can interact with non-player characters, some of which will join the player's party temporarily and can assist Mario in combat or interact with obstacles in the overworld. In certain areas of the game, Mario can use an ability known as the "1000-Fold Arms", that can tear back parts of the paper environment to reveal secrets. Mario can fill holes in the environment using a bag of confetti. The player fights enemies using a turn-based battle system. When Mario encounters one or more enemies in the overworld, the game transitions to a battle screen. During battle, Mario stands at the center of a dartboard-like arena divided into four ring-shaped sections with 12 radial slots; each enemy occupies a different slot. At the start of the player's turn, they can slide the rings horizontally or vertically to position enemies so that several of them can be attacked at once. The player is allotted a limited amount of time and number of rotations. Once the player has finished shifting the enemies, they can attack with a hammer, which targets enemies in a two-by-two section of the grid adjacent to the center, or with boots, which target a one-by-four line of enemies. The player can use items with varying power to attack enemies, or increase their heart points. Their attack power is boosted during a turn if the number of enemies targeted is maximized. If the player needs additional help, any Toads Mario saves from being folded will either deal some damage or help with the puzzle by partially rotating the rings. The amount of help they provide varies based on how much money Mario gives them. Any remaining enemies will then attack Mario before the game switches back to the player's turn. If the player wins the battle, they are awarded coins.Boss battles follow a similar pattern of ring-style combat but place the enemy in the center and Mario on the outside. Players can rotate the rings horizontally or vertically; arrows on the ground mark the path Mario is going to follow. Mario starts with the arrow placed in front of him and will follow the rings until reaching an endpoint, which are attack tiles or magic circle tiles. The player can activate battle tiles by passing over them, while magic circle tiles need to be activated by passing an "ON" tile. Additional items are scattered on vacant tiles, such as health points and coins. To defeat each boss, the player must follow specific rules. These vary depending upon the enemy Mario is fighting. For example, the Earth Vellumental has five exposed body parts, and Mario needs to attack each one and cause them to retract before being able to do major damage. == Plot == Princess Peach invites Mario and Luigi to an Origami Festival near her castle in Toad Town, which has mysteriously been abandoned. When they enter Peach's Castle to find where everyone went, they discover that she has been turned into origami and brainwashed by King Olly, a sentient origami figure. Having met a similar fate, many of Bowser's minions have been transformed into origami enemies called Folded Soldiers. Bowser has been folded and stapled into a square. Mario rescues Olly's sister Olivia (who was imprisoned for her betrayal) and eventually Bowser, and the three attempt to escape. However, Olly wraps the castle in five multicolored streamers and rips it off its foundations, transporting it to a nearby volcano. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser barely escape but a streamer strikes them, causing them to separate. Landing in Whispering Woods, a forest near Toad Town, Mario and Olivia find many of the Toads have been folded into origami by the Folded Soldiers. They rescue Luigi, who sets off to find the key to Peach's Castle. Mario and Olivia must follow and destroy each streamer until they reach the end. At the end of the red streamer, they discover Colored Pencils, a member of Olly's "Legion of Stationery", a group of six anthropomorphic office supplies working for him, five of which guard each streamer. The two head to unravel the blue streamer, and along the way, they meet an amnesiac Bob-omb without a fuse that Olivia nicknames "Bobby". Celebratory fireworks are launched after they defeat Rubber Band and clear the blue streamer, causing Bobby to regain his memory. The three head to Scorching Sandpaper Desert to unravel the yellow streamer but soon encounter Olly, who blocks the path with a giant boulder, trapping Olivia under it. To save her, the two travel to the ocean liner The Princess Peach, where Bobby retrieves an item which is later revealed to be a fuse. He lights it so he can sacrifice himself to destroy the boulder pinning Olivia. A distraught Olivia breaks down, but Mario is able to cheer her up. After defeating Hole Punch, Tape, and Scissors, clearing the yellow, purple, and green streamers, they rescue Bowser from Scissors before the three head to Peach's Castle. Luigi returns, sadly claiming he could not find the key, but soon discovers that it was stuck in his car. As they enter, Olly refolds Peach's Castle into the Origami Castle; the trio, excluding Luigi, traverse through it, defeating Stapler and returning Bowser to his original form. The three confront King Olly, who reveals he has folded 999 paper cranes, one away from the 1,000 needed to grant him ultimate power to create his origami kingdom and turn all Toads into blank paper. He says that his hatred of Toads comes from the Origami Craftsman who created him by using a forbidden "Fold of Life" technique, which Olly himself later used to bring Olivia to life. However, the Craftsman wrote words on Olly's paper, which Olly took as a disrespect of the art. A fight ensues, and Mario, Olivia, and Bowser defeat Olly. As he dies, Olly apologizes for his actions. Olivia reads the writing on his body, which reveals the Toad was only giving Olly his blessing to rule as King. Olly realizes his mistake, and at his request, Olivia folds him into the 1,000th crane after his death. She uses her ultimate wish to undo all the origami King Olly has folded, which unfortunately includes herself. The game closes with a celebration of the Origami Festival. == Development == Intelligent Systems, the creators behind the earlier Paper Mario games, developed The Origami King. While Shigeru Miyamoto was involved initially with the Paper Mario series, producer Kensuke Tanabe claimed he was barely involved in its creation, and that Nintendo gave the developers "almost complete control" over the game's direction. Producers also included Atsushi Ikuno and assistant producer Risa Tabata. Masahiko Nagaya served as the lead director, who originally worked as an artist for Paper Mario: Color Splash. Lead designers also included Yukio Morimoto and Shingo Igata, programmer Tadao Nakayama, artists Isamu Kamikokuryo and Benoit Ferrière, and writer Taro Kudo. The lead composers and sound designers were Yoshito Sekigawa, Shoh Murakami, Yoshiaki Kimura, Hiroki Morishita, and Fumihiro Isobe. According to Eurogamer, Nintendo had intended to announce the game at E3 2020 as part of a presentation celebrating the Super Mario series' 35th anniversary.Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe, the game's producer, said he, "challenge[d himself] to create something new" by innovating different concepts than those used in other games in the series. He explained that The Origami King's gameplay differed from Color Splash because he did not believe in repeating identical concepts from a previous game. He would use the same concept, but would develop it until it eventually reached its maximum potential. To establish a new non-Mario direction for the game, confetti and origami became The Origami King's two major themes. Tanabe thought of paper-based ideas that had not been used in the series, and came up with origami, while Intelligent Systems had the idea for confetti. === Characters === Since the release of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, new characters in the Paper Mario series could not be modified versions of existing characters, such as a change in age or gender, and any original characters had to have had no previous involvement with the Mario universe. Character designs went through a critical review by Nintendo's intellectual property team, although the designers were allowed to give Toads different outfits. On June 12, 2020, Nintendo released another trailer revealing partners that will join Mario on his adventure and help complete tasks, such as aiding in combat. Although the feature had remained absent from the games since Sticker Star, critics were still disappointed that the allies did not seem to have much functionality; some were hoping for partners that would help solve puzzles and progress in skill alongside Mario.Tanabe intended the origami Princess Peach to have an inhuman aura which he used to appeal to a more adult audience. He visualized her approaching Mario while she turned into an origami form; the game's opening sequence eventually used this action. To ensure characters would still be recognizable in their origami form, the artists analyzed each character to determine "whether a side-on or front-on view would be best to bring out their individuality". They created real-life mock-ups to make sure the in-game forms would be similarly realistic. The Legion of Stationery is an example of the concept of having characters not involved with the Mario franchise. The developers chose "objects that everyone will have interacted with at some point in their lives" for these roles. Tanabe referenced his childhood to develop these characters imagining what their weaknesses would be based on their function, such as hitting the backside of the hole punch during its boss battler to knock out previously punched paper. He also conceptualized their attacks based on childhood imagination and how children pretend what objects could do. For example, colored pencils act as missiles in-game because of their shape.Mario's first partner conceptualized for the game was Bobby. He was conceived with the intention of providing more memorable events tied to specific areas, rather than having a complicated story. The Origami King established characters that would appear alongside Mario and Olivia as the game progressed. In an interview with Video Games Chronicle, Tanabe claimed Bobby became just as memorable as Olivia. Deciding upon other additional characters, he added "we chose the characters that would be the best fit for the events in each stage of the game". Bowser Jr. "was an exception"; the team added him as a character before they had figured out what role he would play because Masahiko Nagaya, an Intelligent Systems director, "had strong feelings about including a storyline where a son sets out to save his father".When developing Olivia, the creators aimed to give her as much personality as possible. Tanabe said most characters that aid the protagonist tend to be guides or teachers and have little personality. He wanted to have a female character with as much of an outgoing personality as possible. He modeled her on "a certain Japanese actress". Initially it took a lot of effort to write her dialogue, but toward the end of development, it became rather easy. Tanabe felt she was almost "writing her own lines". === Design === The world design and the game's locations were created before the writers produced any dialogue. During the development of a scene, and the events that were unique to each section, the creators determined the emotion these should evoke in the player such as "astonishment or enthusiasm". They decided whether a scene should be shown as a "cutscene, dialogue or as a playable mini-game". The creators worked closely with Nintendo as they produced the game's many mini games so that the rules and the degree of difficulty matched the game's intended "emotional flow". Tanabe spoke with the director of Color Splash, Naohiko Aoyama, who wanted "a battle system in which the enemies surround Mario to attack from all sides". They collaborated to form the game's ring-based combat, and Tanabe later implemented the idea of being able to slide enemies across the circles. He compared the idea to a Rubik's Cube saying, "it worked well. That is the moment I was convinced we'd be able to build our battle system." To demonstrate his idea for boss battles, Tanabe "drew concentric circles on a whiteboard, put mock-ups of some panels using magnets with arrows and other things drawn on them". He noted boss battles were designed to be "the opposite of regular battles" and worked with Tabata to simulate how the battles would work in-game, then proposed the idea to Intelligent Systems.The Origami King uses open world navigation, as opposed to the linear-based style of previous Mario games. Tanabe recalled the design team were "careful [...] to make sure there is always something in the player's field of vision to catch their attention". When asked if they had considered using a party-based system in The Origami King like the first three Paper Mario games, Tanabe replied that he never considered the idea. "[W]e chose the characters that would be the best fit for the events in each stage of the game". He felt that having partners exclusive to certain areas "create[s] more memorable moments".Responding to criticism over the game's lack of several RPG elements, Tanabe commented on the difficulty of being able to satisfy fans who prefer the RPG genre. Not wanting to ignore casual players, he implemented several puzzle solving elements hoping to satisfy the franchise's core fans. He explained that "players need to guess the weak points of bosses based on their characteristics and search for the solution to defeat them, otherwise they won't be able to win these battles. This is an adventure game after all, so it wouldn't be right if the battles didn't also have some kind of puzzle solving element!" When asked if he was aware of the criticisms of the previous games, Tanabe replied that he could not address every fan suggestion. Instead, he challenged himself to move towards new and innovative concepts, and focus on them so a large audience can enjoy them. He said he had not decided whether the series will return to the original RPG style.Tose contributed to design and audio in the development of the game. === Promotion and release === The game was leaked online a week prior to the game's launch, where players started spreading unannounced content, such as other characters and dialogue, with other people playing the game using PC emulators. Nintendo released a trailer announcing The Origami King on May 14, 2020, alongside promotional pamphlets produced exclusively for Japan, before they released the game on July 17. The trailer announcement, released on YouTube, appeared without the traditional two-day notice that Nintendo had given previously. VentureBeat wrote that the sudden announcement came because Nintendo was still adjusting to the transition of having employees working from home. Alongside the physical copy, pre-purchases of the game at the Nintendo UK store came with a bonus pack of origami sheets and magnets. After release, players discovered multiple glitches in the game that prevented the player from progressing; Nintendo resolved these on August 5. On August 28, Nintendo added Olivia, King Olly, and Origami Princess Peach as collectible spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.In the game, the first trapped Toad Mario and Olivia discover complains that they have been poorly treated. The character says, "What do they have against Toads! It's not fair! Toads have rights! This is Toad abuse!" When translated into Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, the quotes about rights and freedom were removed and replaced with, "Return the smooth appearance to Toads! Give back the easy life to Toads!", referring to his paper body. People who responded to the discovery on Twitter considered the change "unspeakably strange", and some wondered if Nintendo had made these changes because of the Hong Kong national security law. The original poster of the comment has received some criticism from people arguing that China could not have interfered and the translation could be a pun. Nintendo released no comments about the situation. == Reception == Paper Mario: The Origami King received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. The website calculated an 80/100 score based upon 114 reviews.Critics praised the game for its unique writing, appreciating each character's unique, comedic dialogue. Some critics praised Olivia in particular for her personality and humor. Bobby has received critical attention for his role in the game. Beth Elder of Gizmodo noted the strength of storytelling in video games; she said they "can make us truly connect with their characters". Electronic Gaming Monthly praised each Toads' witty dialogue, noting how it kept the overall hunt fresh. However, Suriel Vazquez's GameSpot review criticized the game's character designs for being less charming than early entries in the series.In addition, critics praised the world design and mechanics for their innovation. Many of them enjoyed the paper-style worldbuilding, saying it topped the game off and paired well with the storyline. The game's linear open world design was compared to the likes of The Legend of Zelda series. Some critics appreciated how the world is interactive, with characters, collectible treasures, and that it seems there is something interactive almost everywhere. Critics found it fun to explore and discover hidden Toads in the environment, calling the experience entertaining on its own. Reviewers called the soundtrack calming and catchy and appreciated the gradual change during progression throughout each world.The game was praised for its design and concept, but criticized for dropping the role-playing elements present in previous Paper Mario titles. Critics indicated that the game was a new and unique experience, but thought the action-adventure style of gameplay did not reach the heights of previous games, such as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The game was commonly criticized for lacking an experience point (XP) system. ESPN's Sean Morisson missed the "satisfying progression" from XP, but considering other good concepts from the game, was split on "whether it mattered all that much."The combat mechanics' reception was mixed. Many reviewers described the fighting style as innovative, a fun twist on basic formats, with boss battles being particularly praised. GameSpot called the new combat system clever, stating how it "[turned] the series' Achilles' heel into one of its biggest strengths". Multiple reviewers from Famitsu enjoyed the combat, appreciating how the style was a strong puzzle element. However, several critics judged the combat to be unrewarding, and at times, either frustrating or lacking any challenge. Although Cam Shea of IGN thought the new concept was innovative, he felt the combat lacked meaning, an inconvenience rather than challenging. Chris Kohler agreed in his review on Kotaku, appreciating how the reward of coins sometimes made battles worth it, but that they did not amount to much compared to XP. === Sales === The Origami King launched at number two in the United Kingdom behind Ghost of Tsushima, and sold 109,092 copies in its first week in Japan, making it the second best-selling game in the nation. The game placed third on the July 2020 NPD charts, setting a launch month sales record for the series, and doubling the physical launch sales of Super Paper Mario in the U.S. In July 2020, the game became the bestselling Nintendo Switch game on Amazon. By December 2020, the game had sold 3.05 million copies, becoming the fastest selling game in the series and one of the best-selling games on the Switch. By March 2021, the game has sold 3.12 million copies. As of December 2021, the game has sold 3.34 million copies. === Awards and nominations === In 2020, the game was nominated for Best Family Game and Nintendo Game of the Year categories in the Golden Joystick Awards, but lost to Fall Guys and Animal Crossing: New Horizons respectively. In addition, the game lost to New Horizons in the Best Family Game category in The Game Awards. VentureBeat, Polygon, Kotaku, and EGM listed the game as one of the best releases of 2020. Nintendo Life and IGN rated the game among the best Nintendo exclusives of 2020. The game was one of the best RPGs of 2020 by score, according to GameSpot. == See also == Paper Mario Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Official Japanese website Paper Mario: The Origami King at Nintendo of America

Nintendo Switch

Minecraft

Sandboxsurvival

Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being fully released in November 2011, with Notch stepping down and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten taking over development. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2021, and has been ported to several platforms. In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally generated 3D world with virtually infinite terrain and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and simple machines. Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Game modes include a survival mode (in which players must acquire resources to build in the world and maintain health) and a creative mode (where players have unlimited resources and access to flight). There is also a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Minecraft received critical acclaim, winning several awards and later being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions played prominent roles in popularizing the game. The game has also been used in educational environments to teach chemistry, computer-aided design, and computer science. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Several spin-offs have also been made, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Earth, and the upcoming Minecraft Legends. == Gameplay == Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game that has no required goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. However, there is an achievement system, known as "advancements" in the Java Edition of the game, and "trophies" on the PlayStation ports. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of a third-person perspective. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can "mine" blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. The game world is virtually infinite and procedurally generated as players explore it, using a map seed that is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). There are limits on vertical movement, but Minecraft allows an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane. Due to technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached, however, there is a barrier preventing players from traversing to locations beyond 30,000,000 blocks from the center. The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players are nearby. The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and bodies of water/lava. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes. When starting a new world, players must choose one of five game modes, as well as one of four difficulties, ranging from "Peaceful" to "Hard". Increasing the difficulty of the game causes the player to take more damage from mobs, as well as having other difficulty-specific effects. For example, the Peaceful difficulty prevents hostile mobs from spawning, and the Hard difficulty allows players to starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted. Once selected, the difficulty can be changed, but the game mode is locked and can only be changed with cheats. New players have a randomly selected default character skin of either Steve or Alex, but the option to create custom skins was made available in 2010. Players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively.Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the Overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End. The Nether is a hell-like dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the Overworld, due to every block traveled in the Nether being equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the Overworld. Water cannot exist in the Nether, as it will vaporize instantly. The Nether is mainly populated by pigman-like mobs called piglins and their zombified counterparts, plus floating balloon-like mobs called ghasts. The player can also build an optional boss mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether.The End is reached by underground portals in the Overworld. It consists of islands floating above a dark, endless void. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which upon entering cues the game's ending credits and a poem written by Irish novelist Julian Gough. Players are then teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. === Game modes === ==== Survival mode ==== In survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game (except in peaceful difficulty). If the hunger bar is depleted, automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete. Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful difficulty.Players can craft a wide variety of items in Minecraft. Craftable items include armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or axes), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or hoes), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. Players can construct furnaces, which can cook food, process ores, and convert materials into other materials. Players may also exchange goods with a villager (NPC) through a trading system, which involves trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa.The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be reset by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they disappear or despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, breeding animals, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. ==== Hardcore mode ==== Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant that is locked to the hardest setting and has permadeath. If a player dies in a hardcore world, they are no longer allowed to interact with it, so they can either be put into spectator mode and explore the world or delete it entirely. This game mode can only be accessed within the Java Edition of Minecraft. ==== Creative mode ==== In creative mode, players have access to nearly all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or remove them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. ==== Adventure mode ==== Adventure mode was designed specifically so that players could experience user-created custom maps and adventures. The gameplay is similar to survival mode but with various restrictions, which can be applied to the game world by the creator of the map. This forces players to obtain the required items and experience adventures in the way that the map maker intended. Another addition designed for custom maps is the command block; this block allows map makers to expand interactions with players through scripted server commands. ==== Spectator mode ==== Spectator mode allows players to fly through blocks and watch gameplay without directly interacting. Players do not have an inventory but can teleport to other players and view from the perspective of another player or creature. === Multiplayer === Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, LAN play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own servers, use a hosting provider, or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live. Single-player worlds have local area network support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not normally possible. ==== Minecraft Realms ==== In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use IP addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. === Customization === The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as minimaps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) which often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new advancements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, world generation settings, and biomes‌.The Xbox 360 Edition supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contain additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combines texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016. A mash-up pack based on Fallout was announced for release on the Wii U Edition. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would only run when the image containing the skin itself was opened.In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update" to the Bedrock version of the game. The update includes a new map, a new game mode, the "Marketplace", a catalogue of user-generated content that gives Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game", and more. == Development == Before coming up with Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer with King through March 2009, at the time serving mostly browser games, during which he learnt a number of different programming languages. He would prototype his own games during his off-hours at home, often based on inspiration he found from other games, and participated frequently on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One of these personal projects was called "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but as an isometric three dimensional game like RollerCoaster Tycoon. He had already made a 3D texture mapper for another zombie game prototype he had started to try to emulate the style of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Among the features in "RubyDung" he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper but at the time, felt the graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, but otherwise kept working on his prototypes.Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, sparked Persson's inspiration for how to take "RubyDung" forward. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements.The original edition of Minecraft, now known as the Java Edition, was first developed in May 2009. Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of Minecraft. The base program of Minecraft was completed by Persson over a weekend in that month and a private testing was released on TigIRC on 16 May 2009. The game was first released to the public on 17 May 2009 as a developmental release on TIGSource forums. Persson updated the game based on feedback from the forums. This version later became known as the Classic version. Further developmental phases dubbed as Survival Test, Indev and Infdev were released in 2009 and 2010.The first major update, dubbed Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later quit in order to work on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version of the game expanded. Persson continued to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. These updates included new items, new blocks, new mobs, survival mode, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g. how water flows). To back the development of Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned from the game. Mojang co-founders included Jakob Porser, one of Persson's coworkers from King, and Carl Manneh, jAlbum's CEO.On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft was entering its beta testing phase on 20 December 2010. He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular "Bukkit" developer API for Minecraft, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod which enables the use of Bukkit, although the validity of this claim was questioned due to its status as an open-source project with many contributors, licensed under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License.On 15 September 2014, Microsoft announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the Minecraft intellectual property. The deal was suggested by Persson when he posted a tweet asking a corporation to buy his share of the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end user license agreement (EULA), which had been present in the EULA in the prior three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires".Since the first full release of Minecraft, dubbed the "Adventure Update", the game has been continuously updated with many major updates, available for free to users who have already purchased the game. Early updates frequently introduced gameplay-altering mechanics while more recent updates tend to enhance the game through additional content or tweaks to existing features. The most recent major update to the game was "The Wild Update", which released in June 2022 and added new creatures, biomes, and items.The original version of the game was renamed to Minecraft: Java Edition on 18 September 2017 to separate it from Bedrock Edition, which was renamed to just Minecraft by the Better Together Update.The Bedrock Edition has also been regularly updated, with these updates now matching the themes of Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game such as the various console editions and Pocket Edition were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and as such have not received further updates.On 16 April 2020, a beta version of Minecraft implementing physically based rendering, ray tracing and DLSS was released by Nvidia on RTX-enabled GPUs. The final version was released on 8 December 2020. === Minecraft: Pocket Edition === In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Xperia Play on the Android Market as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011. An iOS version of Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. The port concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game and does not contain all the features of the PC release. On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten said that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is written in C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java. However, there now exists a way to play Java Edition on both Android and iOS devices.On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 19 December 2016, the full version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Pocket Edition was replaced by Minecraft: Bedrock Edition in 2017, enabling cross-platform play with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch Editions. === Legacy Console Editions === An Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, was released on 9 May 2012. On 22 March 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called Arcade NEXT. The game differs from the home computer versions in a number of ways, including a newly designed crafting system, the control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and the ability to play with friends via Xbox Live. The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls. The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC versions, but was gradually updated to bring it closer to the current PC version prior to its discontinuation. An Xbox One version featuring larger worlds among other enhancements was released on 5 September 2014.Versions of the game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively. The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed. A version for PlayStation Vita was also released in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.On 17 December 2015, Minecraft: Wii U Edition was released. The Wii U version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America, in Japan on 23 June 2016, and in Europe on 30 June 2016. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop on 11 May 2017, along with a physical retail version set for a later date. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is only compatible with the "New" versions of the 3DS and 2DS systems and does not work with the original 3DS, 3DS XL, or 2DS models.On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update was released on the Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile versions of the game, which used the Pocket Edition engine to enable cross-platform play between each of these versions. This version of the game eventually became known as the Bedrock Edition. Shortly after, the Bedrock Edition was also ported to the Nintendo Switch. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as Legacy Console Editions.The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft was updated in December 2019 and became part of the Bedrock Edition, which enabled cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. === Minecraft: Education Edition === Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of the base game, designed specifically for use in educational establishments such as schools, and built off of the Bedrock Edition codebase. It is available on Windows 10, MacOS, iPadOS and Chrome OS. It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack, free lesson plans on the Minecraft: Education Edition website, and two free companion applications: Code Connection and Classroom Mode.An initial beta test was carried out between 9 June and 1 November 2016. The full game was then released on Windows 10 and MacOS on 1 November 2016. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that the Education Edition would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. === Minecraft China === On 20 May 2016, Minecraft China was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile version is based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 300 million players by November 2019. === Other PC versions === Apart from Minecraft: Java Edition, there are other versions of Minecraft for PC, including Minecraft for Windows, Minecraft Classic, Minecraft 4K, and a version for the Raspberry Pi. ==== Minecraft for Windows ==== Minecraft for Windows is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on July 29, 2015.After nearly one and a half years in beta, Microsoft fully released Minecraft for Windows on December 19, 2016. Called the "Ender Update," this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. This version has the ability to play with Xbox Live friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of Minecraft on other Bedrock platforms. Other features include the ability to use multiple control schemes such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for Microsoft Surface and other touchscreen-enabled devices). Virtual reality support has been implemented, as well as the ability to record and take screenshots in-game via the Windows built-in GameDVR.As of 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft for Windows were merged into a single title for purchase; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game modes would otherwise remain separate. ==== Minecraft 4K ==== Minecraft 4K is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the Classic version that was developed for the Java 4K game programming contest "in way less than 4 kilobytes". The map itself is finite—composed of 64×64×64 blocks—and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick. ==== Raspberry Pi ==== A version of Minecraft for the Raspberry Pi was officially revealed at Minecon 2012. The Pi Edition is based on an alpha version of Pocket Edition with the added ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open the game code and use the Python programming language to manipulate things in the game world. It also includes a scripting API to modify the game, and server software for multiplayer. The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off. It was officially released on 11 February 2013. Mojang stopped providing updates to Minecraft: Raspberry Pi Edition in 2016. It is preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS and can be downloaded for free from the official Minecraft website. === Music === Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. The background music in Minecraft is instrumental ambient music. On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. In addition to Rosenfeld's work, other composers have contributed tracks to the game since release, including Samuel Åberg, Gareth Coker, Lena Raine, and Kumi Tanioka. === Variants === For the tenth anniversary of the game's release, Mojang remade a version of Minecraft Classic in JavaScript and made it available to play online. It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. Environmental hazards such as lava do not damage players, and some blocks function differently since their behavior was later changed during development.Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, there had been collaboration between Mojang and The Lego Group to make a Lego brick-based Minecraft game to be called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1x1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson had worked on the preliminary version of this game, which he had named "Project Rex Kwon Do" based on the joke from Napoleon Dynamite. Lego had greenlit the project to go forward, and while Mojang had put two developers on the game for six months, they later opted to cancel the project, as Mojang felt that the Lego Group were too demanding on what they could do, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. The Lego Group had considered buying out Mojang to complete the game, but at this point Microsoft made its offer to buy the company for over $2 billion. According to the Lego Group's Ronny Scherer, the company was not yet sure of the potential success of Minecraft at this point and backed off from acquisition after Microsoft brought this offer to Mojang. ==== Virtual reality ==== Early on, Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a port of Minecraft. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled plans noting "Facebook creeps me out." A community-made modification known as Minecraft VR was developed in 2016 to provide virtual reality support to Minecraft: Java Edition oriented towards Oculus Rift hardware. A fork of the Minecraft VR modification known as Vivecraft ported the mod to OpenVR, and is oriented towards supporting HTC Vive hardware. On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for Minecraft on Windows 10. Upon its release, the Minecraft VR mod was discontinued by its developer due to trademark complaints issued by Microsoft, and Vivecraft was endorsed by the community makers of the Minecraft VR modification due to its Rift support and being superior to the original Minecraft VR mod. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 version of the game would be getting PlayStation VR support in the same month. The only officially supported VR versions of Minecraft are the PlayStation 4 version, Minecraft: Gear VR Edition and Minecraft for Windows 10 for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. == Reception == === Critics === Early versions of Minecraft received critical acclaim, praising the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have praised Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands.IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste".A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds.The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations.The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds.Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. === Sales === Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it the best-selling video game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 300 million players by November 2019. By April 2021, Minecraft sold more than 238 million copies worldwide.The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014, the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter.The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. === Awards === In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2022. === Controversies === ==== 2014 EULA changes ==== Microsoft and Mojang announced in 2014 that it would be changing the Minecraft End-user license agreement (EULA) to prohibit servers from accepting donations or payments in exchange for the donating or paying players receiving in-game advantages on such server, essentially banning servers from enacting "pay-to-win" (PTW) servers. Mojang spokesperson Owen Hill provided examples of what it would and would not allow, saying company would allow for pay-to-play servers in which a player is required to pay a fee to access the server, or for cosmetic enhancements (such as in-game costumes or pets), but that Mojang would be cracking down on paying to obtain powerful swords or potions. The new crackdowns were supported by Persson, citing him receiving multiple emails from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners, however, heavily despised the new change in enforcement and protested en masse, which included comparing Mojang to monolithic video game publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision, gaming companies often criticized online for their highly restrictive digital rights management and user license agreements. Many argued that the crackdown would force smaller servers to close their doors, and some blamed the crackdown on Mojang attempting to suppress competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. ==== Account migration ==== In 2020, Mojang Studios revealed that it would begin the process of requiring that Microsoft accounts be used in order to log into the Java Edition of the game, and that older Mojang Studios accounts would be sunsetted. The move to Microsoft accounts also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang Studios defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, which included Java accounts being able to use two factor authentication, players could block cyberbullies in chat, and improve parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash against this announcement, particularly taking issue to the various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of March 10, 2022, Microsoft requires all players to migrate in order to access the Java Edition of Minecraft. ==== Java Edition chat reporting ==== In June 2022, Microsoft and Mojang Studios announced it would be releasing a player reporting feature in all future builds of Java Edition. In earlier development builds, players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages that are prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language, substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity, though Microsoft in later builds has since excluded the profane language category from the player reporting feature. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, the player would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature was released on 27 July 2022.Microsoft and Mojang Studios received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, sparking some to dub the version "1.19.84", in reference to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. == Cultural impact == In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of (the first two decades of) the 21st century, and in November 2019 Polygon called the game the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In December 2019, Forbes gave Minecraft a special mention in a list of the best video games of the 2010s, stating that the game is "without a doubt one of the most important games of the last ten years." In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally.Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Other well-known YouTube personalities include Jordan Maron, who has created many Minecraft parodies, including "Minecraft Style", a parody of the internationally successful single "Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper Psy. Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthrough of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. YouTube later announced that on December 14, 2021, the total amount of Minecraft-related views exceeded one trillion since the game's inception in 2009.Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, FTL: Faster Than Light, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the lattermost of which features a downloadable character and stage based on Minecraft. It was also referenced by electronic music artist deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. "Luca$", the seventeenth episode of the 25th season of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, and "Minecraft is for Everyone" by Starbomb was inspired by Minecraft. === Applications === The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap.In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In 2013, Stuart Duncan, known online as AutismFather, started a server for autistic children and their families, called Autcraft. The server was created because the public servers had many bullies and trolls that made the autistic kids angry and feel hurt. It was constantly monitored to help players and prevent bullying. The server had a whitelist that only allowed approved players, of which there are 8,000 players worldwide in 2017. The server had a unique ranking system based on the attributes of the player, offering titles such as "Player of the Week" and "Caught Being Awesome". The server was called "one of the best places on the Internet" and was a subject of a research paper.In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 metres (561 ft) (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft is around 192 metres (630 ft) above in-game sea level.Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders have used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people.Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft has also become a popular game for speedrunning, where players time themselves from being dropped into a new world generated by a random seed to reaching "The End", and defeat the boss known as the "Ender Dragon". While the speedrunners that get the most attention use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus to get world records, other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. ==== Education ==== Minecraft has also been used in educational settings. In 2011, an educational organization named MinecraftEdu was formed with the goal of introducing Minecraft into schools. The group works with Mojang to make the game affordable and accessible to schools. The version of Minecraft through MinecraftEdu includes unique features to allow teachers to monitor the students' progress within the virtual world, such as receiving screenshots from students to show completion of a lesson. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to Minecraft through the company. A wide variety of educational activities involving the game have been developed to teach students various subjects, including history, language arts and science. For an example, one teacher built a world consisting of various historical landmarks for students to learn and explore. Another teacher created a large-scale representation of an animal cell within Minecraft that student could explore and learn how the cell functions work. Great Ormond Street Hospital has been recreated in Minecraft, and it proposed that patients can use it to virtually explore the hospital before they actually visit. Minecraft may also prove as an innovation in Computer Aided Design (CAD). Minecraft offers an outlet of collaboration in design and could have an impact on the industry.With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical circuits, users have been able to build functional virtual computers within Minecraft. Such virtual creations include a working hard drive, an 8-bit virtual computer, and even a smaller-scale version of Minecraft that's playable and able to be built completely in survival mode with no external modifications. In at least one instance, a mod has been created to use this feature to teach younger players how to program within a language set by the virtual computer within a Minecraft world.Another computational mechanic in Minecraft is the command block, a block that is only accesible in creative mode and can alter game logic. It has been used to create emulators for the Atari 2600 (including one by YouTube personality SethBling) and the Game Boy Advance.In September 2014, the British Museum in London announced plans to recreate its building along with all exhibits in Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public. Microsoft and non-profit Code.org had teamed up to offer Minecraft-based games, puzzles, and tutorials aimed to help teach children how to program; by March 2018, Microsoft and Code.org reported that more than 85 million children have used their tutorials. === Clones === After the release of Minecraft, other video games were released with various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones". Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, and Total Miner. David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms to not officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming.Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. === Minecon === Minecon is the official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft annually. The first one was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, the following years featuring annual livestreams instead. == Notes == == References == === Further reading === Gallagher, Colin (2014). Minecraft in the Classroom: Ideas, Inspiration, and Student Projects for Teachers. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. ISBN 978-0-13-385801-3. Garrelts, Nate (2014). Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community and Possibilities. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-7974-0. Goldberg, Daniel (2013). Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game That Changed Everything. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-60980-537-1. == External links == Official website Minecraft Classic

Nintendo Switch

Yoshi's Crafted World

Platformer

Yoshi's Crafted World is a platform video game developed by Good-Feel and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The eighth main installment in the Yoshi franchise, it is the spiritual successor to Yoshi's Woolly World. The game was revealed at E3 2017, and was released worldwide on March 29, 2019. It follows the Yoshis as they venture to collect the scattered gems of the Sundream Stone, which has the ability to grant wishes, before Kamek and Baby Bowser can. Yoshi's Crafted World received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its visuals, level design and gameplay, although the game was criticized for its soundtrack and lack of difficulty. It sold over 1 million copies worldwide in three days and more than 3 million by December 2021, making it one of the best-selling games on the system. == Gameplay == The game is a side-scrolling platformer where 3D characters are moved on a 2.5D plane. The player is also able to move and interact in a third dimension, with travel forwards and backwards enabled in sections of levels, and the ability to throw eggs at scenery and other elements of the foreground and background. Outside of this new mechanic, the game plays similar to prior Yoshi games, where the player may use Yoshi's tongue to eat enemies or other objects, turn them into eggs, and throw them outwardly into the level. As in previous Yoshi games, flowers can be found in levels, which can be used to unlock paths on the world map. In addition to the frontside, each level also has a backside, which can be played after completion. Players must find up to three Poochy Pups there and bring them to the finish line, for which they receive one flower per returned Poochy Pup. If they succeed in doing so within the given time period, they receive another flower. The game features a two-player multiplayer mode, where each player maneuvers their own Yoshi through the game's levels. == Synopsis == The story begins with the Yoshis, who live peacefully on Yoshi's Island. At the topmost peak of the island sits a gem-set artifact known as the Sundream Stone, which possesses the power to "make anyone's wildest dreams come true". One day, when Kamek and Baby Bowser attempt to steal the stone, its gems are sent flying across the world, leaving Yoshi and his friends to recover them. For most of the game, the stone rests in a dark forest guarded by the Yoshis not exploring. When the Yoshis reattach a Dream Gem, the colors on the actual stone that is the color of the Dream Gem are restored. During the final level, the Yoshis find the last Dream Gem, only for Kamek and Baby Bowser to steal it and the Stone with the other four gems. Baby Bowser then uses the stone to create a robot named The Great King Bowser, the penultimate boss. After its defeat Kamek uses the stone to grow Baby Bowser giant, which leads into the final boss fight against Mega Baby Bowser. Afterwards, the Yoshis reattach the gems (which were detached again after the defeat of Mega Baby Bowser) and restore the Sundream Stone, which, with the Yoshis' dreams, creates an airship that is used to fly all of them back to Yoshi's Island. Following the completion of the story additional challenges and levels are unlocked for more gameplay. == Development == The game was announced at E3 2017 and was scheduled for a 2018 release. Footage of the game was shown during the Nintendo Treehouse Live event at E3 2017, where footage of the front and backsides of multiple levels were shown. The reveal footage showed the game taking a cardboard cutout-type art style for the game's graphics, similar to how Yoshi's Woolly World was themed around characters and worlds made out of wool and Kirby's Epic Yarn with its yarn-based themes. The game was built using Unreal Engine 4. In June 2018, Nintendo confirmed that the game was delayed and would be released in 2019. In January 2019, Nintendo announced in a standalone tweet that Yoshi's Crafted World would release on March 29, 2019. In the final game, it appears as though the ability to "flip" the world has been overhauled since its reveal, as overall emphasis on the mechanic has been lowered dramatically. Certain auxiliary mechanics shown off at the reveal, such as the ability to flip the viewpoint in multiplayer via a simultaneous ground-pound maneuver, have been removed completely, and instead the flipping mechanic exists as a second bonus "run" through a level, in which Yoshi must find several "Poochy Pups" and bring them to the goal. The game supports all Amiibo, most of them granting players random crafted costumes. Any Mario-related Amiibo, however, including the Yoshi soft dolls from Woolly World, granted players special costumes based on the character used. == Reception == Yoshi's Crafted World received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic, with a score of 79/100. Critics lauded the charm of the game with its level design and graphics, as well as its innovative gameplay formula, though the soundtrack and lack of difficulty was criticized. === Sales === Yoshi's Crafted World debuted at the top of the UK all-format and individual-format sales charts; the first Yoshi game to do so. The game also debuted first in Japan, launching with 53,327 physical sales; the best launch in the series since 2014's Yoshi's New Island. As of July 2019, it has sold over 150,000 copies in Japan. As of March 31, 2019, the game has sold 1.11 million copies worldwide. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Yoshi's Crafted World had sold 3.01 million units, as of December 2021. === Awards === == Notes == == References == == Further reading == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

New Pokémon Snap

Photography

New Pokémon Snap is an on-rails first-person photography game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. It is a sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 game Pokémon Snap. Announced in June 2020, it was released on April 30, 2021. Players travel in the Lental region using an on-rails hovercraft and research Pokémon by photographing them. Gameplay is similar to its Nintendo 64 predecessor, with the return of its island setting, the on-rails photography mechanic, unlockable stages, real-time interaction with the environment via unlockable items, and the ability to save photographs for later viewing. New Pokémon Snap's protagonist is guided by the Pokémon researcher Professor Mirror, who takes on the Professor Oak role from the first installment. Professor Mirror, who is joined by his assistants, offers not only the entire island for photography exploration, but also his research lab itself as an unlockable course. New to this installment is the option to view courses at different stages of day, such as daytime and nighttime, which offer the player chances to capture different Pokémon and poses not offered in the standard course runs. The player can also access "Illumia" stages that allow the player to capture photos of Pokémon in their Illumia form, a new feature unique to Snap. Pokémon photo scores have also been expanded upon, with letter rankings added for an additional challenge. Certain courses may only be unlocked by achieving a baseline score, and capturing Pokémon in specific poses, recorded in a journal, results in additional bonuses. == Plot == The game follows the protagonist, as he helps Professor Mirror and his associates to uncover the secrets of the Lental region, which is famous for its phenomenon of luminescent Pokémon. Researching five legendary species protecting the islands, they find out that they are linked to a local legend. 2000 years ago, they protected the island from a meteor strike under the guidance of Xerneas, who gave them their powers. == Gameplay == In New Pokémon Snap, the player is a Pokémon photographer who visits various islands in the Lental region to help the research studies of Professor Mirror and his assistants Rita and Phil. Todd from the original Pokémon Snap makes an appearance in this game. The research lab located in the Lental region is called the Laboratory of Ecological and Natural Sciences (L.E.N.S.). Taking photographs helps the player build a compendium called a Photodex; the game features over 200 different Pokémon for the player to photograph. In addition to adding photos to the Photodex, the player also helps investigate the Illumina phenomenon, where Pokémon and plants appear to have a special glow.For each research expedition, the player travels in an on-rails hovercraft, the NEO-ONE (an updated version of the ZERO-ONE from Pokémon Snap), to safely photograph Pokémon in their natural environments. With the new content update, aside from being able to travel underwater and faster, the NEO-ONE is capable of shrinking, along with its occupants. These habitats include jungles, deserts and beaches, which can be visited during daytime or at night in order to photograph different types of Pokémon. Each photo the player takes is graded by Professor Mirror on a scale of one to four stars based on how rare the current activity of the Pokémon is. Each photo is also given a score taking into account things like shot composition, how close the Pokémon is, and whether they are facing the camera or not. Players can decide to save those photos to the Photodex, which can hold up to four photos of each Pokémon (one at each rating). As players take higher-quality photos, they earn Expedition Points that go toward improving the Research Level of each area in the Lental region. Achieving higher research levels will open up more levels to explore in that area.To get better pictures, the player is encouraged to use various tools to coax out rarely-seen Pokémon reactions on camera. To lure Pokémon out, players can use a fruit called a fluffruit, or play a melody that can get some Pokémon to dance. They can also throw an item called an Illumina Orb to cause Pokémon to glow. The orbs serve to not only help the player take pictures at night, but also potentially change a Pokémon's behavior. Depending on the Pokémon, the Illumina orb can help wake up sleeping creatures, or even sometimes cheer them up. Players can find hidden Pokémon in the area by using their camera to scan for them.After Professor Mirror grades the player's photographs, players can retouch their photos using the Re-Snap feature. This allows the player to change parameters like zoom, blur, and brightness, as well as add photographic filters, photo frames, and stickers. These edited photos can be saved to a personal photo album separate from the Photodex. Players can upload their photos online to share with other players, who in turn can help get their favourite photos be featured in-game by liking them, known as giving Sweet! Medals. == Development == New Pokémon Snap was developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. Bandai Namco had previously developed the Pokémon fighting game Pokkén Tournament, in which Pokémon were depicted as part of an interconnected world, coexisting with humans. According to game director Haruki Suzaki, who directed both titles, it was this depiction of Pokémon that helped the studio earn the opportunity to work on New Pokémon Snap.Suzaki's vision for the game was to keep the basic gameplay from the original, while adding new features that reflected how people currently interact with photographs. He explained, "The result is a simple game of taking pictures in a world where Pokémon are alive and well in nature, but at the same time there is a variety of contemporary ways to play with photography."It was announced during the Pokémon Presents presentation on June 17, 2020, and was released on April 30, 2021, for the Nintendo Switch. An update released on August 3, 2021, adds three new areas to explore and 20 more Pokémon. == Release and promotion == New Pokémon Snap was released on April 30, 2021, in North America and Japan, about 22 years after the release of the original Pokemon Snap. To promote the game, Nintendo announced company collaborations. A Pokémon Go in-game event, held from April 29 to May 2, featured Pokémon from the Lental region. Nintendo also worked with Fujifilm to introduce a mobile app on launch day that lets players use a Instax Mini Link printer to print out screenshots stored on the Nintendo Switch, including photos taken in New Pokémon Snap. Before printing, the app allows users to decorate their photos with filters and photo frames inspired by the game, as well as from other games like the Mario franchise and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. == Reception == New Pokémon Snap received "generally positive reviews", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. === Awards and accolades === The game was nominated for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2021. === Sales === New Pokémon Snap sold 194,385 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the best-selling retail game of the week in the country. In the United Kingdom, it sold four times as many physical copies at launch as its predecessor game, also taking the number one place in sales. It had sold 2.07 million copies by June 30, 2021. It had sold 2.4 million copies as of December 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Arms

Fighting

An army (from Old French armee, itself derived from the Latin verb armāre, meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun arma, meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by possessing an army aviation component. Within a national military force, the word army may also mean a field army. In some countries, such as France and China, the term "army", especially in its plural form "armies", has the broader meaning of armed forces as a whole, while retaining the colloquial sense of land forces. To differentiate the colloquial army from the formal concept of military force, the term is qualified, for example in France the land force is called Armée de terre, meaning Land Army, and the air and space force is called Armée de l'Air et de l’Espace, meaning Air and Space Army. The naval force, although not using the term "army", is also included in the broad sense of the term "armies" — thus the French Navy is an integral component of the collective French Armies (French Armed Forces) under the Ministry of the Armies. A similar pattern is seen in China, with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) being the overall military, the land force being the PLA Ground Force, and so forth for the PLA Air Force, the PLA Navy, and other branches. By convention, irregular military is understood in contrast to regular armies which grew slowly from personal special forces, bodyguards, or elite militia. Regular in this case refers to standardized doctrines, uniforms, organizations, etc. Regular military can also refer to full-time status (standing army), versus reserve or part-time personnel. Other distinctions may separate statutory forces (established under laws such as the National Defence Act), from de facto "non-statutory" forces such as some guerrilla and revolutionary armies. Armies may also be expeditionary (designed for overseas or international deployment) or fencible (designed for – or restricted to – homeland defence). == History == === India === India's armies were among the first in the world. The first recorded battle, the Battle of the Ten Kings, happened when a Hindu Aryan king named Sudas defeated an alliance of ten kings and their supportive chieftains. During the Iron Age, the Maurya and Nanda Empires had the largest armies in the world, the peak being approximately over 600,000 Infantry, 30,000 Cavalry, 8,000 War-Chariots and 9,000 War Elephants not including tributary state allies. In the Gupta age, large armies of longbowmen were recruited to fight off invading horse archer armies. Elephants, pikemen and cavalry were other featured troops. In Rajput times, the main piece of equipment was iron or chain-mail armor, a round shield, either a curved blade or a straight sword, a chakra disc, and a katar dagger. === China === The states of China raised armies for at least 1000 years before the Spring and Autumn Annals. By the Warring States period, the crossbow had been perfected enough to become a military secret, with bronze bolts that could pierce any armor. Thus any political power of a state rested on the armies and their organization. China underwent political consolidation of the states of Han (韓), Wei (魏), Chu (楚), Yan (燕), Zhao (趙) and Qi (齊), until by 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇帝), the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, attained absolute power. This first emperor of China could command the creation of a Terracotta Army to guard his tomb in the city of Xi'an (西安), as well as a realignment of the Great Wall of China to strengthen his empire against insurrection, invasion and incursion. Sun Tzu's The Art of War remains one of China's Seven Military Classics, even though it is two thousand years old. Since no political figure could exist without an army, measures were taken to ensure only the most capable leaders could control the armies. Civil bureaucracies (士大夫) arose to control the productive power of the states, and their military power. === Sparta === The Spartan Army was one of the earliest known professional armies. Boys were sent to a barracks at the age of seven or eight to train for becoming a soldier. At the age of thirty, they were released from the barracks and allowed to marry and have a family. After that, men devoted their lives to war until their retirement at the age of 60. The Spartan Army was largely composed of hoplites, equipped with arms and armor nearly identical to each other. Each hoplite bore the Spartan emblem and a scarlet uniform. The main pieces of this armor were a round shield, a spear and a helmet. === Ancient Rome === The Roman Army had its origins in the citizen army of the Republic, which was staffed by citizens serving mandatory duty for Rome. Reforms turned the army into a professional organization which was still largely filled by citizens, but these citizens served continuously for 25 years before being discharged.The Romans were also noted for making use of auxiliary troops, non-Romans who served with the legions and filled roles that the traditional Roman military could not fill effectively, such as light skirmish troops and heavy cavalry. After their service in the army they were made citizens of Rome and then their children were citizens also. They were also given land and money to settle in Rome. In the Late Roman Empire, these auxiliary troops, along with foreign mercenaries, became the core of the Roman Army; moreover, by the time of the Late Roman Empire tribes such as the Visigoths were paid to serve as mercenaries. === Medieval Europe === In the earliest Middle Ages it was the obligation of every aristocrat to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers, and infantry. This decentralized system was necessary due to the social order of the time, but could lead to motley forces with variable training, equipment and abilities. The more resources the noble had access to, the better his troops would be. Initially, the words "knight" and "noble" were used interchangeably as there was not generally a distinction between them. While the nobility did fight upon horseback, they were also supported by lower class citizens – and mercenaries and criminals – whose only purpose was participating in warfare because, most often than not, they held brief employment during their lord's engagement. As the Middle Ages progressed and feudalism developed in a legitimate social and economic system, knights started to develop into their own class with a minor caveat: they were still in debt to their lord. No longer primarily driven by economic need, the newly established vassal class were, instead, driven by fealty and chivalry. As central governments grew in power, a return to the citizen armies of the classical period also began, as central levies of the peasantry began to be the central recruiting tool. England was one of the most centralized states in the Middle Ages, and the armies that fought in the Hundred Years' War were, predominantly, composed of paid professionals. In theory, every Englishman had an obligation to serve for forty days. Forty days was not long enough for a campaign, especially one on the continent.Thus the scutage was introduced, whereby most Englishmen paid to escape their service and this money was used to create a permanent army. However, almost all high medieval armies in Europe were composed of a great deal of paid core troops, and there was a large mercenary market in Europe from at least the early 12th century. As the Middle Ages progressed in Italy, Italian cities began to rely mostly on mercenaries to do their fighting rather than the militias that had dominated the early and high medieval period in this region. These would be groups of career soldiers who would be paid a set rate. Mercenaries tended to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces, but in Italy they came to dominate the armies of the city states. This made them considerably less reliable than a standing army. Mercenary-on-mercenary warfare in Italy also led to relatively bloodless campaigns which relied as much on maneuver as on battles. In 1439 the French legislature, known as the Estates General (French: états généraux), passed laws that restricted military recruitment and training to the king alone. There was a new tax to be raised known as the taille that was to provide funding for a new Royal army. The mercenary companies were given a choice of either joining the Royal army as compagnies d'ordonnance on a permanent basis, or being hunted down and destroyed if they refused. France gained a total standing army of around 6,000 men, which was sent out to gradually eliminate the remaining mercenaries who insisted on operating on their own. The new standing army had a more disciplined and professional approach to warfare than its predecessors. The reforms of the 1440s, eventually led to the French victory at Castillon in 1453, and the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War. By 1450 the companies were divided into the field army, known as the grande ordonnance and the garrison force known as the petite ordonnance. === Early modern === First nation states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire mercenaries to serve in their armies during wartime. Such mercenaries typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments. The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia. As late as the 1650s, most troops were mercenaries. However, after the 17th century, most states invested in better disciplined and more politically reliable permanent troops. For a time mercenaries became important as trainers and administrators, but soon these tasks were also taken by the state. The massive size of these armies required a large supporting force of administrators. The newly centralized states were forced to set up vast organized bureaucracies to manage these armies, which some historians argue is the basis of the modern bureaucratic state. The combination of increased taxes and increased centralisation of government functions caused a series of revolts across Europe such as the Fronde in France and the English Civil War. In many countries, the resolution of this conflict was the rise of absolute monarchy. Only in England and the Netherlands did representative government evolve as an alternative. From the late 17th century, states learned how to finance wars through long term low interest loans from national banking institutions. The first state to master this process was the Dutch Republic. This transformation in the armies of Europe had great social impact. The defense of the state now rested on the commoners, not on the aristocrats. However, aristocrats continued to monopolise the officer corps of almost all early modern armies, including their high command. Moreover, popular revolts almost always failed unless they had the support and patronage of the noble or gentry classes. The new armies, because of their vast expense, were also dependent on taxation and the commercial classes who also began to demand a greater role in society. The great commercial powers of the Dutch and English matched much larger states in military might. As any man could be quickly trained in the use of a musket, it became far easier to form massive armies. The inaccuracy of the weapons necessitated large groups of massed soldiers. This led to a rapid swelling of the size of armies. For the first time huge masses of the population could enter combat, rather than just the highly skilled professionals. It has been argued that the drawing of men from across the nation into an organized corps helped breed national unity and patriotism, and during this period the modern notion of the nation state was born. However, this would only become apparent after the French Revolutionary Wars. At this time, the levée en masse and conscription would become the defining paradigm of modern warfare. Before then, however, most national armies were in fact composed of many nationalities. In Spain armies were recruited from all the Spanish European territories including Spain, Italy, Wallonia (Walloon Guards) and Germany. The French recruited some soldiers from Germany, Switzerland as well as from Piedmont. Britain recruited Hessian and Hanovrian troops until the late 18th century. Irish Catholics made careers for themselves in the armies of many Catholic European states. Prior to the English Civil War in England, the monarch maintained a personal bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, or "gentlemen pensioners", and a few locally raised companies to garrison important places such as Berwick on Tweed or Portsmouth (or Calais before it was recaptured by France in 1558). Troops for foreign expeditions were raised upon an ad hoc basis. Noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scottish and English Armies would remain two separate organizations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707. The small force was represented by only a few regiments. After the American Revolutionary War the Continental Army was quickly disbanded as part of the Americans' distrust of standing armies, and irregular state militias became the sole ground army of the United States, with the exception of one battery of artillery guarding West Point's arsenal. Then First American Regiment was established in 1784. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was soon realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The first of these, the Legion of the United States, was established in 1791. Until 1733 the common soldiers of Prussian Army consisted largely of peasantry recruited or impressed from Brandenburg–Prussia, leading many to flee to neighboring countries. To halt this trend, Frederick William I divided Prussia into regimental cantons. Every youth was required to serve as a soldier in these recruitment districts for three months each year; this met agrarian needs and added extra troops to bolster the regular ranks. Russian tsars before Peter I of Russia maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps (streltsy in Russian) that were highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the armed forces were augmented by peasants. Peter I introduced a modern regular army built on German model, but with a new aspect: officers not necessarily from nobility, as talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included a noble title at the attainment of an officer's rank. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers. The term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years. In 1834 it was reduced to 20 years plus 5 years in reserve and in 1855 to 12 years plus 3 years of reserve.The first Ottoman standing army were Janissaries. They replaced forces that mostly comprised tribal warriors (ghazis) whose loyalty and morale could not always be trusted. The first Janissary units were formed from prisoners of war and slaves, probably as a result of the sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's booty in kind rather than cash. From the 1380s onwards, their ranks were filled under the devşirme system, where feudal dues were paid by service to the sultan. The "recruits" were mostly Christian youths, reminiscent of mamluks. China organized the Manchu people into the Eight Banner system in the early 17th century. Defected Ming armies formed the Green Standard Army. These troops enlisted voluntarily and for long terms of service. === Late modern === Conscription allowed the French Republic to form the Grande Armée, what Napoleon Bonaparte called "the nation in arms", which successfully battled European professional armies. Conscription, particularly when the conscripts are being sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies. In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, make mass conscription unlikely in the foreseeable future. Russia, as well as many other nations, retains mainly a conscript army. There is also a very rare citizen army as used in Switzerland (see Military of Switzerland). == Field army == A particular army can be named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general. For example, the First United States Army and the Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g. First Army), whereas lower formations use figures (e.g. 1st Division). Armies (as well as army groups and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Force, "Armies" could vary in size, but were subordinate to an Army Group-sized "front" in wartime. In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district. Viktor Suvorov's Inside the Soviet Army describes how Cold War era Soviet military districts were actually composed of a front headquarters and a military district headquarters co-located for administration and deception ('maskirovika') reasons. === Formations === In many countries, especially in Europe or North America, armies are often subdivided as follows: == See also == Army aviation Armored corps List of armies List of armies by country List of numbered armies List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel Military organization Militia Paramilitary == References == == External links == Media related to army at Wikimedia Commons

Nintendo Switch

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Action role-playing

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Released on December 1, it is the third installment in Xenoblade Chronicles and the seventh main entry in the Xeno series. Plans for the game began shortly before the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2014. Key developers from previous games returned, including franchise creator Tetsuya Takahashi, and directors Koh Kojima and Genki Yokota. The team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. The game was announced in 2017 with a worldwide release date planned for the same year. As with Xenoblade Chronicles, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe. In gameplay, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is similar to previous entries, but with an added summoning mechanic. It features a different setting and characters than the first Xenoblade Chronicles, and it marks the series' return to being story-driven, unlike the previous installment Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was focused on gameplay and open world exploration. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes place in Alrest, a world covered in a sea of clouds. Humans live on top of and inside large living creatures known as Titans. Some people known as Drivers can summon powerful beings known as Blades from crystals. After he is hired for a salvaging mission, a young salvager named Rex comes into contact with a legendary Blade named Pyra, indirectly becoming her Driver, and promises to take her to a fabled paradise called Elysium. Throughout their journey, Rex and his party are pursued by Torna, an organization set to take the power of Pyra for their own means. The game received generally positive reviews, with praise directed at its story, combat, music, environments, and amount of content. At over 2 million copies sold as of December 2020, it is the best-selling title in the Xeno series, and Monolith Soft's most commercially successful game. Downloadable content was released throughout 2018, and a story-focused expansion was released in September of that year. This side story, Torna – The Golden Country, is set 500 years before the main game and features new gameplay mechanics. A sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, released in July 2022. == Gameplay == Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an action role-playing game, the third title in the Xenoblade series. Similar to previous games, the player controls a main character out of a party of three. The game employs an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that often affects in-game events, including quests, enemy strength, and item availability. Unlike the two previous titles which consisted of a cohesive open world through which player could journey uninterrupted, the game takes place on several lands, between whom the player travels via a fast travel option.Different from prior titles, characters in the party also control additional beings known as Blades. Each character can only have three Blades active at a time, which determines the character's class, between offensive attacker, healer or defensive tanks. The game's Blades and skills are based on eight elements: fire, water, wind, ice, electric, earth, light and dark. There are a total of 40 distinctly unique "rare" Blades to collect throughout the base game with an additional 11 being obtainable either through downloadable content or New Game Plus in later patches. Most of the game's Blades are not a part of the main story, and can be assigned to any Driver; among those is KOS-MOS from the Xeno sub-series Xenosaga. === Battle system === Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has an action-based battle system, where the player manually moves the current lead character in real-time, and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Each character has skills called "Arts", that can be used to inflict status effects. Both party members and enemies have a finite amount of health points, and attacks deplete this value. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but the game is lost if the player's character loses all their HP and has no means of being revived. Health may be restored by the player by using healing Arts in battle, or the player may let characters' HP regenerate automatically outside of battle. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which allows the characters to grow stronger by leveling up and learning new Arts. Using Arts repeatedly allows use of special moves. Doing these special moves in the correct order creates a Blade combo, which does large amounts of damage and seals a form of damage against the enemy.A "Party Gauge" slowly fills as party members successfully land hits on the enemy players, and filling the gauge allows the player to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. Using a full Party Gauge allows the player to use all of the Blades to do a Chain Attack, which does extra damage as it destroys previously created seals. The three-tiered gauge gradually depletes outside of battle, and one tier is needed to either revive characters or alert a teammate to a vision. When all three tiers are full, the party can execute a chain attack. All party members have an "aggro ring" around them as well; the more actions a character performs, the larger it grows. Larger aggro rings lead enemies to focus their efforts on that respective character, leading to a strategic aspect of luring and diverting attention of enemies. == Synopsis == === Setting and characters === The game is set in the fictional land of Alrest, a sea topped with clouds, called the "Cloud Sea", inhabited by massive creatures known as Titans on which humanity lives. Legends claim humanity once lived atop the "World Tree", a massive tree in the center of Alrest in a paradise called Elysium with their creator, the Architect, but they were exiled for unknown reasons and given the Titans to live on. Blades are powerful beings summoned from "Core Crystals" who channel power into their weapons through a force called ether. Their masters are called Drivers; when a Driver dies, their Blade reverts to a Core Crystal and loses their memory. After some time, another Driver can awaken them so long as the crystal is intact. Due to the close spiritual bond between Driver and Blade, the personality of the former influences that of the latter. Two nations, Mor Ardain and Uraya are on the brink of war throughout the story. The main character is Rex (voice in Japanese by Hiro Shimono and English by Al Weaver), who is the driver of the Aegis, a powerful and legendary Blade. The Aegis has two personalities, Pyra and Mythra (Japanese: Shino Shimoji; English: Skye Bennett), who share conscience, but different abilities. As an orphan, Rex grew up in Fonsett village in the Leftherian Archipelago, a place on several Titans that are close together, which are connected by bridges and other structures. Rex became very accustomed to the Cloud Sea and would salvage parts found beneath. He is very close with Azurda, a Titan whom Rex calls "Gramps", where Rex lives a portion of his life upon. A group of Drivers called Torna set out to destroy the Aegis, leading Rex and party to flee and find a way to the World Tree, a legendary paradise. Other important characters include: Malos, another Aegis and main antagonist; Jin, a Blade from Torna who aids Malos; Nia, a rebel from Torna, and her Blade Dromarch; Tora, a Nopon specialising in artificial Blades, and his Blade Poppi; Mòrag, a feared Driver from Mor Ardain, and her blade Brighid; and Zeke, the prince of the hermit country of Tantal, and his Blade Pandoria. The downloadable content Torna – The Golden Country adds a new story, set 500 years prior. This focuses on Lora and her Blade Jin and allies in their battles against Malos in Torna, a country not accessible in the main game. === Plot === Rex, an orphaned salvager who collects treasure from below the Cloud Sea for money, is hired by Argentum Trade Guild Chairman Bana to aid the Drivers Jin, Malos, and Nia, part of a group named Torna, in the salvage of an ancient ship. In the ship, they find Pyra, a legendary Blade known as the Aegis. When Rex reaches out to touch Pyra's sword, Jin fatally stabs him. Rex awakens on a field with Pyra, who reveals they are in a memory of her old home Elysium. She asks him to bring her to Elysium and in exchange gives him half of her Core Crystal to revive him. With help from his Titan companion Azurda and Nia, who has defected from Torna, Rex escapes to the Titan Gormott, but Azurda is wounded and reverts to his larval stage. Soon after, they arrive in Gormott's capital Torigoth and are joined by the Nopon Driver Tora and his artificial Blade Poppi. The group try to get to Elysium, but are stopped by the artifice Ophion and swallowed by the Titan Uraya. After the group battles the mercenary Driver Vandham while escaping Uraya's stomach, he joins the party and Rex begins to look to him as a mentor. The group later learns that Jin and Malos are the leaders of Torna, a terrorist group named after a Titan destroyed in the Aegis War 494 years ago. Led by Jin, an embittered veteran Blade of the Aegis War, and Malos, later revealed as the other Aegis, they seek to destroy humanity by unleashing the artifice Aion on Elysium. During a battle with Malos and fellow Torna member Akhos, Vandham is killed and Pyra unveils her true form Mythra. They have shared memory and consider themselves sisters, switching back and forth as needed. The group's search for a way past Ophion leads them to join forces with Mòrag, special inquisitor of Mor Ardain and elder sister of the Ardainian Emperor, Niall; and Zeke, prince of Tantal. In Tantal, the group battles Jin, who forces Pyra to surrender. While Azurda leads the group to the third Aegis sword to save Pyra, Malos siphons Pyra's power to regain his full strength. After the group finds the third sword, phantoms of Pyra's former Driver nearly kill Rex, but he is deemed worthy of the third sword. The group confronts Jin and Malos at the Cliffs of Morytha, during which Rex unlocks Pyra and Mythra's true form Pneuma. Rex, now matched with Jin's power, forces Malos to summon Ophion, who knocks the group into Morytha, the devastated land beneath Cloud Sea. In Morytha, the group is forced to work with a weakened Jin. Malos' Driver, Amalthus attacks by controlling various Titans. The group severs his connection to the Titans, only for him to kill all Torna members except Malos and Jin, with Jin defeating Amalthus as he dies. The group arrives in Elysium and meet the Architect, a scientist named Klaus who explains that he had discovered a device that sends objects into different dimensions, the use of which split his body in two and destroyed the old world.Sensing that his other half is about to die, which will result in his own death, Klaus sends the group to stop Malos, who was corrupted by Amalthus's malice and has obtained Aion. After Malos's defeat and death, Klaus dies, but not before granting Rex and the party a "final gift". Klaus's death causes Elysium to begin crumbling. Pneuma helps the group escape, but sacrifices herself to detonate the World Tree, preventing its debris from destroying Alrest. The group barely survives when Azurda, thanks to Pneuma, returns to his adult form and flies everyone down to Alrest. On returning to Alrest, the Cloud Sea fades to reveal a rejuvenated world, the Titans merging to form a new landmass. Afterwards, Pyra and Mythra are revived in separate bodies and reunite with Rex. == Development == The game was developed for the Nintendo Switch by Monolith Soft and is the third entry in their Xenoblade Chronicles series, following the original Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Plans for the game began in July 2014, during the latter half of development of Xenoblade Chronicles X. While the original Xenoblade Chronicles followed the typical structure of a general story-driven JRPG, Xenoblade Chronicles X received far less emphasis on story, and was organized in more of a mission-based structure, focused primarily on exploring the game's massive open world. The development team were unhappy upon hearing the fanbase complain about the changes, and started work on another story-driven title. Because the gameplay was more of a continuation of the first game, they decided to title it Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 took shorter to develop than previous games, although development was difficult in the beginning due to a lack of finalization of the Switch's technical specifications. The architecture of Xenoblade Chronicles X was used for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to speed up development. Another motivating factor was the agreement made by the team with Nintendo specifically to deliver the game early on in the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle.One of Monolith Soft's objectives for the game was to give the characters a wider range of facial expressions compared to past Xenoblade titles. The lead character designer was Masatsugu Saito, who was designing characters for a video game for the first time. The developers chose him to give the protagonists a more expressive anime-like art style than prior Xenoblade entries, which featured a more realistic type of modeling that they found a bit too stiff. Square Enix artist Tetsuya Nomura was responsible for the characters within the Torna organization. Takahashi had wanted to work with Nomura, but as he was busy with other games at Square Enix, he hesitantly approached the company with the hopes of letting him work as a guest artist. To Takahashi's surprise, they accepted the negotiation. Other guest artists also contributed, such as Xeno series veterans Kunihiko Tanaka and Soraya Saga, who designed some of the game's Blades, weapon-like life forms. Tanaka designed a blade of KOS-MOS, one of the protagonists of the Xenosaga trilogy. The game's story was conceived by Takahashi, with assistance from screenwriters Yuichiro Takeda and Kazuho Hyodo. Takeda, who also worked as a writer on the last two Xenoblade games, stated that the writing techniques and workflow for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was similar to that of a movie. While it is a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, it features a new world and cast of characters. === Music === The game's original score was written by Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Hiramatsu, and Manami Kiyota and the duo of ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo Yamanaka). Mitsuda, who was also in charge of the audio budget, musician booking, schedule management, and sheet music proofreading, was first invited to the project by Takahashi in December 2014. Throughout the following year, Mitsuda and Takahashi held numerous meetings discussing the overall direction of the music, eventually inviting musical group ACE and Kenji Hiramatsu, who had also worked on the first Xenoblade Chronicles. At the meetings, each composer's contribution to the soundtrack was decided, with ACE primarily handling the field music, and Hiramatsu handling the battle music. According to Mitsuda, it was done in a way that would satisfy the fans, as they did not want to "ruin the image" that was set by the first Xenoblade Chronicles. With contributions from over 300 total musicians and 20,000 sheets worth of music, Mitsuda considered it the largest project he had ever worked on, with files and data from Pro Tools, his music production software, surpassing one terabyte in size. Overall, there were approximately 120 tracks recorded for the game, with around 25 of them being from Mitsuda.The soundtrack features performances from the Slovakian Bratislava Symphony Choir, as well as the Irish chamber choir Anúna. Mitsuda, who had always wanted to work with Anúna after becoming a fan in the 1990s, claimed that their performances for the game made him cry. Two tracks, including the ending theme written by Mitsuda, were sung by Jennifer Bird of the English acoustic duo Tomorrow Bird. Before recording, Mitsuda and Bird corresponded so that she could properly convey the characters' emotions through her singing. While recording, Bird was able to improvise melodic elements of her singing, something that did not usually happen with Mitsuda's arrangements. == Release == The game was announced in January 2017 as part of Nintendo's detailed reveal of the Nintendo Switch, with a gameplay trailer being released on the same day. Similar to the original Xenoblade, the title was announced as Xenoblade 2 in Japan, but had Chronicles added to its name in English-speaking regions. The game was also a part of Nintendo's presentation at E3 2017, where it was reconfirmed for release by the end of 2017.Like the original Xenoblade Chronicles, Nintendo's European division took up the reins for the English localization, who regularly communicated with Nintendo's Japanese and American divisions about decisions that could prove controversial, something that was previously an issue with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Unlike the first two games, the localization process took place during development rather than after and was ready in time for a simultaneous worldwide launch on December 1, 2017. Days before the game's launch, a promotional music video featuring a vocal track from the game by Mitsuda, "Shadow of the Lowlands", was uploaded onto Nintendo's official YouTube accounts. The video features a performance by Anúna, and was filmed and directed by Michael McGlynn, leader of the group. An official soundtrack, consisting of over a hundred tracks, was released in both physical and digital formats on May 23, 2018. Additional content was added through an expansion pass which released through 2018. Added content includes new items, quests, recruitable Blades, and a challenge battle mode. New story-based content, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country, was released digitally as part of the expansion pass on September 14, 2018, and as a standalone retail release a week later.A costume based on Rex was added to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a few weeks ahead of the game's launch. Characters from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 were considered for a position as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's initial roster, but they were ultimately passed over due to poor timing, as according to director Masahiro Sakurai the game was announced to the public far too late in the development of Ultimate. Pyra and Mythra were eventually added to the roster as a 2-in-1 fighter via downloadable content in March 2021, along with a new stage and several music tracks. While Rex was considered, Sakurai deemed it unfeasible to control both of them at the same time, likening the situation to that of the Ice Climbers, so he was reduced to supportive roles in Pyra and Mythra's moveset. == Reception == === Pre-launch === Some critics called the initial reveal of the game "unexpected", with Jeremy Parish of USGamer favorably comparing it to Chrono Cross. At the Gamescom event in August 2017, the game received positive early hands-on impressions from gaming sites, being praised for its streamlined combat system and environments. === Post-launch === Upon release, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator website Metacritic, which gave it an overall score of 83% on 93 reviews. The game's story, characters, complex combat system, soundtrack, amount of content, and the beauty and size of the environments were largely praised. John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report considered the game "one of the finest JRPGs of the generation and perhaps of all time" and was highly praising the music, "diverse world", "fresh and engaging combat", and "thrilling storyline". He also expressed doubt that there would be a better JRPG for the Switch. Game Revolution's Jason Faulkner called the game "a joy to review", stating that it was "full of wonder, exploration, and character". Hiroshi Noguchi writing for IGN Japan gave a very positive review, stating that it "offers a timeless tale of adventure and an incredibly deep battle system." Alex Fuller for RPGamer was enthusiastically supportive of the game, saying "2017 has been one of the greatest years in RPG history; Xenoblade Chronicles 2 caps that off in mesmerising fashion by being one of the finest titles of the year".Nadia Oxford of USgamer stated that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 "captures nearly everything that made the first game great, borrows the best elements from Chronicles X, and then improves on much of it. Though Blades change up how you fight in Chronicles 2, the game spills over with the traits that make the first Chronicles game a stand-out experience. More story, more enemies to scrap with, more landscapes to tread across. Chronicles 2 is a dialogue-heavy game, but there are many points where Monolith Soft lets its environments narrate the seriousness of Alrest's plight." She highly praised the game's story, stating "The narrative explores patriotism, war, environmental decline, refugees, and examines the little people who get caught in the crush when big powers scrap with one another. There are also a number of moral and philosophical questions raised about Blades [...] Are Blades humanity's partners, or their slaves?" GamesTM called the game the "apex of open-world design", and the exploration made up for any minor issues.Leif Johnson of IGN praised the game and called it a "standout RPG that manages to keep its story, combat, and exploration interesting over the course of at least 70 hours of adventure through an impressively varied and rich world", though conceded a few frustrations with the game, including a confusing minimap that sometimes led to the reviewer getting lost. Shubhankar Parijat of GamingBolt called it ""A must-play for all Nintendo Switch owners"" and "one of the best JRPGs of this generation" and calling its world "vast and beautiful", its story "complex and layered", and its combat "intricate and addictive", while also noting that the game was occasionally held back by "obtuse design choices" and "a simple lack of polish".However, the game did have its criticisms. Jason Schreier of Kotaku, who had also disliked the original Xenoblade Chronicles, gave a largely negative review, calling the game "dull, dreary, overly complicated, and unconcerned with wasting the player's time". He heavily criticized the writing, technical issues, pacing, as well as the gameplay, which he considered overly extensive and complicated as well as the "clunky" menus. He was also critical of the story, calling it "an unsubtle script that stomps all over even the most interesting story scenes". However, he praised the "spectacular" music and "beautifully realized" environments. Noguchi of IGN Japan criticized some of the game's mechanics not being well explained and the amount of bugs found in the game at launch, but was looking forward to the early patch of the game to fix many of these issues. Jed Pressgrove, however, writing for Slant Magazine was highly critical of the large amount of tutorials found in the game, stating "It's very difficult, if not impossible, to feel like you’re in a different world, much less experiencing a story, when such elements call attention to the contrived nature of the whole shebang." Pressgrove did approve of the game's "rousing soundtrack", however. Washington Post's Harold Goldberg found the "intricate, unfriendly gameplay" inaccessible, saying "A wondrous game lies in there somewhere.. it's too often too difficult to swim through", and that he wouldn't play the game again after completing it.Xenoblade Chronicles 2 won awards for excellence at both the 2019 Japan Game Awards and the 2018 Famitsu Awards. The game was also nominated for "Best RPG" at IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, and a nomination for game engineering at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewer Awards in 2018. === Sales === The game sold nearly 98,000 copies in its first week in Japan, and 168,000 after a month. In the United Kingdom, the game positioned itself at number 19 overall in its first week, which made it debut 9 places higher over Xenoblade Chronicles X. In the United States, it charted at number 16 for the month of December. Within a month, the game had sold over a million copies worldwide.By April 2018, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had become the best selling game in the Xeno franchise, and the best-selling game of Monolith Soft altogether. In September 2018, Takahashi stated: "Xenoblade Chronicles 2 exceeded my expectations. We really saw more people pick the game up and experience it in the North American and European territories than we thought would do so... the sales of the Torna DLC are exceeding our expectations as well." In an interview with 4Gamer, Takahashi revealed that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had sold 1.73 million units worldwide as of March 2019. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had sold 2.44 million units worldwide, as of December 31, 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Mario Golf: Super Rush

Sports

Mario Golf: Super Rush is a golf video game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. It was announced via a Nintendo Direct on February 17, 2021 and was released worldwide on June 25, 2021. It is the sixth installment in the Mario Golf series following Mario Golf: World Tour in 2014 and is part of the larger Mario franchise. The game features various characters from the Mario franchise competing in golf, with regular competition and other modes. Super Rush received mixed reviews from critics who praised the gameplay mechanics, new modes, controls, and visuals, but criticism was directed at the game's low amount of content at launch, while the adventure mode also received a mixed reaction. == Gameplay == The fundamental gameplay of Mario Golf: Super Rush is comparable to previous entries in the Mario Golf series. Through traditional golf rules, the player's primary objective is to get the ball into each hole with the fewest possible number of strokes, using the various golf clubs available to them. The player who completes the game with the lowest number of strokes is the winner of the match in the context of competition. Multiple tools are available to players for strategic benefit, such as the "Shot Gauge" showing the direction and the curve of the ball against slopes and the scan feature, which allows the player to better assess the elevation of terrain. The game offers both conventional button controls for taking shots and motion controls to simulate hitting the ball with a swing.Speed Golf, a newly introduced mode for the Mario Golf series, has players race to complete courses in the fastest time, rather than with the fewest strokes. After each swing, players must run across the course toward their ball to take their next shot, dealing with other players and obstacles along the way. Each character in the game's roster has unique Special Shot and Special Dash abilities to take advantage of. For example, Luigi has the ability to freeze the ground. Another new mode called Battle Golf also makes its debut. Battle Golf resembles Speed Golf mechanically but differs in that it takes place on a special arena-course where players have to sink the ball in any 3 of the 9 open holes first to win.Additionally, the game features a story mode titled "Golf Adventure" that includes role-playing game elements like gaining experience and stat progression. Players control their own customizable Mii as they become students in a country club, train, and face-off against classmates from the Mushroom Kingdom. == Development == Mario Golf: Super Rush is developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo; the game was announced during a Nintendo Direct on February 17, 2021, and it was released worldwide on June 25 of the same year. The people that pre-ordered the game also received an exclusive pin set. Though not detailed in the initial game announcement, fans spotted that King Bob-omb, a boss that originally appeared in Super Mario 64, was accidentally mentioned by Nintendo to be a playable character on the official game page before being amended. King Bob-omb's inclusion was later officially revealed in an overview trailer alongside Pauline, Chargin' Chuck, and others. == Reception == Mario Golf: Super Rush received "mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.The Speed and Battle Golf modes were highly praised by critics and fans alike, with many calling it chaotic and a lot of fun. The game also received praise for its new gameplay mechanics and the added element of motion controls, the latter considered to be precise, as well as the visuals. It did, however, receive criticism for its lack of content, only launching with a few courses, characters and other features, although Nintendo promised that they will continue supporting the game with more content after launch.The Golf Adventure mode received mixed reactions as well. Some were praising it for the open world and depth. Others, however, thought it was underwhelming and surprisingly short. Mario Golf: Super Rush was the best-selling retail game during its first week on sale in Japan, with 80,430 physical copies being sold. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pikmin 3 Deluxe

Real-time strategypuzzle

Pikmin 3 is a real-time strategy and puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U video game console. It is the sequel to the GameCube games Pikmin (2001) and Pikmin 2 (2004), and was released in Japan on July 13, 2013, and in all other regions within the following month. Shigeru Miyamoto announced Pikmin 3 on July 16, 2008, for the Wii console, later stating at E3 2011 that it had transitioned to Wii U. The game builds upon existing elements of the Pikmin series, adding more player characters, Pikmin types, and support for Off-TV Play and downloadable content. In the single-player campaign, the player controls three alien captains, who explore the surface of a planet they name PNF-404 in search of cultivable fruit seeds to save their home planet, Koppai, from famine. They befriend the Pikmin who assist them in combat, solving puzzles, and amassing resources. Pikmin 3 received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the gameplay, graphics and level design. Pikmin 3 Deluxe, an enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch, was released on October 30, 2020. A sequel, Pikmin 4, is slated for 2023. == Gameplay == The player controls a captain which commands a horde of up to 100 plant-like creatures called Pikmin, and uses their unique abilities to explore the world, combat enemies, solve puzzles, and amass treasures. Pikmin can be directed to accomplish various tasks, such as building bridges, destroying barriers, collecting spoils and defeating enemies. They come in various colors and different physical features that signify their special abilities or immunities to hazards. For example, Red Pikmin are immune to fire and can fight harder, Yellow Pikmin are immune to electricity and can be thrown farther, and Blue Pikmin are immune to water. The red, yellow, and blue Pikmin continue through the series, and Pikmin 3 introduces two Pikmin types: grey-colored Rock Pikmin, which can destroy tough barriers, and are immune to being crushed by heavy objects; and pink-colored Winged Pikmin, which can attack airborne enemies, carry items through the air, and travel over water.The player controls up to three new different captains over the Pikmin, one more than in Pikmin 2. The player can instantly switch between these groups in order to accomplish tasks more quickly or solve certain puzzles. The initial release of Pikmin 3 offers three control schemes: the Wii U GamePad, Wii U Pro Controller, or Wii Remote (Plus) with the Nunchuk accessory. In all cases, the Wii U GamePad has an overhead map on its touch screen. A downloadable update on May 30, 2014, adds stylus control on the GamePad. The GamePad is used to access the similar-looking KopPad, which the captain uses to view the map and other statistics, and for communication with the other squad members. The KopPad allows players to map the captains' routes, and to take photographs with detailed camera controls, which could be uploaded to the now-defunct Miiverse. Aside from a single-player story campaign, the game features a split-screen, competitive, two-player multiplayer mode called Bingo Battle. In this mode each player has a 4 by 4 grid of items to collect, and must compete to get four-in-a-row on their board. Mission Mode is a single-player or cooperative multiplayer experience where the players are presented with a task based on Pikmin fundamentals, which must be completed in a limited amount of time. There are three trials present within Mission Mode: Collect Treasure, where the players must collect all the fruit and enemies on the map using a set amount of Pikmin before time runs out; Battle Enemies, where the players must kill all the enemies on the map as quickly as possible; and Defeat Bosses, which allows the players to re-encounter the boss creatures from story mode. == Plot == The inhabitants of the planet Koppai are suffering from famine as a result of a "booming population, booming appetites, and a basic lack of planning". Having scouted multiple planets with their SPEROS ships, one returns positive after scouting the Pikmin planet, which they call PNF-404, that has an abundance of cultivable food. Three Koppaite explorer captains, Alph, Brittany, and Charlie, are sent to explore and retrieve food sources. Their ship, the S.S. Drake, malfunctions and crash-lands, separating the three. Captain Charlie falls to the Distant Tundra and meets the Yellow Pikmin, but is eaten by a monster. Alph wakes up in the Tropical Wilds and meets the Red Pikmin, who help him recover their ship. Alph learns that the "cosmic drive key" is required to warp back to Koppai. Alph finds Brittany in the Garden of Hope, and rescues her with the help of Rock Pikmin. The two captains rescue Captain Charlie, after the S.S. Drake crashes and Brittany discovers Yellow Pikmin. They retrieve some fruits for the food supply and harvest the seeds on their journey. The S.S. Drake and the Pikmin Onions ascend into low orbit each evening to avoid voracious nocturnal creatures. The trio recover one of Captain Olimar's lost data files, and suspect that he has the key and explore in his pursuit. Later, they mistakenly rescue Louie, who steals all of their food supply and escapes to the Garden of Hope. After retrieving them both, they restrain and interrogate Louie, who tells them that Olimar is at Formidable Oak. There, the captains and the Pikmin defeat a mysterious life form known as the Plasm Wraith, to save Olimar, who had taken the cosmic-drive key, thinking it is a treasure, and he gives it back. The explorers use the key for the ship, offering Olimar and Louie a ride back to Hocotate, and they return home as the Pikmin wave goodbye. The narrator speaks at the game's ending, which varies based on the number of fruit the player retrieved during the game. If the player collects a minimum amount of fruit, the narrator states the explorers feel "unease" over the possibility the seeds collected will not be enough to save Koppai. If the player collects a respectable amount of fruit, it is stated that careful planning will be required to save Koppai. If the player collects all fruits, the narrator states that the three have successfully completed their mission to restore life in Koppai and that the cause of the S.S. Drake's crash-landing may be on purpose. In a post-credits scene, some Pikmin see a flaming object falling to the ground and run to it. An additional story in Pikmin 3 Deluxe, "Olimar's Comeback", reveals the object to be a pod containing Olimar and Louie, who are sent back to the planet by the president of Hocotate Freight to repair and retrieve the damaged spaceship they left behind. == Development == Shigeru Miyamoto first hinted about the possibility of a new Pikmin game in a July 2007 interview with IGN, saying "I certainly don't think we've seen the last of Pikmin. I definitely would like to do something with them, and I think the Wii interface in particular is very well suited to that franchise." A later CNET.com interview in April 2008 reported that "For now, Miyamoto looks ahead to other projects for the Wii, mentioning his desire to continue the Pikmin series."A new Pikmin game was confirmed at E3 2008 during Nintendo's developer roundtable, in which Miyamoto stated that his team were working on a new entry in the series. Details concerning gameplay and development were left unmentioned. At Miyamoto's roundtable discussion at E3 2011, Miyamoto stated that Pikmin 3 development was moved to Wii U, the Wii's successor. He said that the Wii U's HD graphics and secondary-screen GamePad would work better for it. On June 5, 2012, Pikmin 3 was shown at Nintendo's press conference at E3. Some of the new gameplay aspects were demonstrated, including rock Pikmin and the GamePad controls. The company said that it would be released around the same time as the Wii U, but its release was later delayed until mid-2013. When questioned about the presence or absence of the purple and white Pikmin types featured in the second game, Miyamoto stated that "They're in there somewhere, just hidden...". A video released from Nintendo Direct confirmed that they would in fact be in the game, but only in the game's Mission Mode and Bingo Battle.In a Polygon interview, Miyamoto stated that he plans to have a series of animated Pikmin shorts released on the Nintendo 3DS prior to Pikmin 3's launch. The shorts went unheard of for months after the game's initial release, were eventually mentioned by Miyamoto a year later, and were announced to be released on November 5, 2014, on the Nintendo eShop. == Release == Pikmin 3 was released in Japan on July 13, 2013. The game was released in Europe on July 26, Australia on July 27, and North America on August 4.The Collect Treasure stage pack downloadable content (DLC) added four missions on October 1, 2013. Battle Enemies stage pack DLC added four missions on November 6, 2013. Released with the DLC was an update adding GamePad stylus control. A third DLC pack of new stages (rather than remixes of old stages as in previous DLC) was released on December 2, 2013. Four new Collect Treasure and four new Battle Enemies stages have been announced. An update added one free Collect Treasure and one free Battle Enemies mission. === Pikmin 3 Deluxe === Pikmin 3 Deluxe is an enhanced version for Nintendo Switch, released on October 30, 2020. Eighting handled the porting, planning, development, and coordination of new elements. The game features a new prologue and epilogue featuring Captain Olimar and Louie, multiple difficulty modes, cooperative play in the story mode, the reintroduction of the Piklopedia from Pikmin 2, and all DLC from the Wii U version. == Reception == The game received generally favorable reviews. Most reviewers praised its well designed levels, high-quality graphics, and gameplay. The four reviewers of Famitsu rated it 37/40 from three 9s and one perfect 10. The Sunday Times gave it 5 out of 5 stars. IGN scored the game 8.8/10, praising its design but stating that it was too short. ITF Gaming gave it a 9/10 for its lush, well-crafted environments. Ben Croshaw of The Escapist praised the graphics, controls, and incentive for urgency, but critiqued the Wii U for not initially utilizing the touch screen as a means of individually selecting targets. This feature was added in a later software update. === Sales === In Japan, Pikmin 3 became the best selling game of its launch week, with around 93,000 copies in two days and helping to sell 22,200 Wii U systems. In the UK, the game debuted at number 2 in the all-formats chart, behind the retail version of Minecraft for Xbox 360. In the US, it became the best selling game of its debut week, and according to the NPD Group, 115,000 units were sold in its first month, entering the all-formats chart at number 10. As of December 31, 2013, about 210,000 units had been sold in the US.Pikmin 3 Deluxe became the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 171,349 physical copies sold. As of January 18, 2021, 513,000 physical copies were sold in Japan, as the best selling Pikmin game in Japan. As of March 31, 2021, 2.04 million units of Pikmin 3 Deluxe had been sold. As of December 2021, Pikmin 3 Deluxe have sold 2.23 million copies worldwide. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Mario Strikers: Battle League

Sports

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a 2022 sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released worldwide on June 10, 2022. It is the third game in the Mario Strikers series. The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising its gameplay mechanics, multiplayer, and presentation, though it received criticism for its scarce launch character roster as well as lack of single player content. == Gameplay == Mario Strikers: Battle League is a five versus five soccer video game. The game shies away from realism, in favor of chaotic, over-the-top gameplay. The game maintains the main premise of the sport, where players maneuver players around a field in efforts to pass and shoot a ball into a goal to score points, with the team with the most points at the end of a game winning the game. However, the game takes many liberties with the sport. Aggressive tackles and attacks are completely allowed, though they give the opposing player "items" to use at their disposal. Items often function in the same way as Mario Kart or Mario Tennis - banana peels can be placed on the field and characters will slip on them, while shells can be shot at characters to temporarily knock them over. No "out of bounds" exists on the field, instead, an electric fence is placed around the field; players can check and knock opponents into this fence to stun them. Additionally, collecting a glowing orb that appears on the field allows the player to perform a "Hyper Strike" and score a 2-point goal if the move is charged up without interruption.In the game, the player picks a major Mario franchise character like Mario or Princess Peach - and a team of three other characters to round out the rest of the team. All characters have various strengths and weaknesses, and Battle League additionally allows for the customization of equipment on characters as well, affecting character's stats for things like speed, strength, and pass accuracy.Up to eight players can play local multiplayer matches, with players using just one Joy-Con each, allowing for four versus four game, with the computer handling goalkeeping. Online multiplayer is also available, including a "Club Mode" where groups of up to 20 players can create their own game season, with leaderboards tracking scores. == Development == The game was first announced during a Nintendo Direct on February 9, 2022. It is the third entry in the series, and the first new entry in almost 15 years, following a lengthy gap in releases after Super Mario Strikers (2005) for the GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged (2007) for the Wii. The game was developed by Next Level Games. == Reception == Mario Strikers: Battle League received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic.Destructoid praised the game's balance between maintaining depth while still remaining accessible for more casual players, and further praised the longevity added through the online and local co-op modes. Game Informer wrote favorably on the customization present in the Strikers Club mode and criticized the AI on harder difficulties for being inconsistent and frustrating to contend with. GameSpot liked Battle League's technically complex mechanics, visual personality, game-balancing Hyper Shots, and the Striker Club's sense of personalization, but took issue with imperceptible gear system upgrades and overwhelming tutorials. GamesRadar+ lauded the game's personality but disliked the limitations of the gameplay's realistic elements, the field's lack of visual clarity, and the static nature of the stages. IGN praised the addition of the online mode, saying, "the leap forward in supporting a competitive landscape is a massively unexpected delight," but criticized the lack of innovation upon prior entries. Nintendo Life gave Battle League 9 stars out of 10 and called it "a masterclass in competitive game design" while heavily lauding the core gameplay and the title's accessibility, depth, and visuals. Shacknews similarly gave praise to the game but lamented the disappointing unlockables, small character roster, and the regressive nature of mechanics that had carried over from prior entries.However, it was criticized for its lack of content upon release. Destructoid found the game more suitable for those who were able to easily participate in local multiplayer matches, writing, "The core loop is great, but confirmed solo players should keep an eye on post-launch content and keep this in mind before picking up the game early." GameRevolution called the lack of 4 vs 4 online matches a "glaring omission" and deemed the single-player modes "woefully undercooked" while expressing discontent over the lack of variety between matches. GameSpot and GamesRadar+ called Battle League a "slim" and a "thin" package, respectively, with GamesRadar+ in particular noting that, "The game mechanics don't change, it doesn't alter how you play, and 95% of the time you can't even see the Stadium you've chosen because you're looking solely at the pitch via a top-down perspective." IGN thought similarly, stating, "If you’ve played any games in the series before, there won’t be many surprises in store for you and the small roster of characters and game modes is definitely disappointing..." Shacknews thought Battle League was "merely an average Sunday game that's playing on Univision: good for a few hours of entertainment and little more than that." === Sales === Mario Strikers: Battle League sold 32,173 copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the second bestselling retail game of the week in the country. == References == == Notes == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Octopath Traveler

Role-playing

Octopath Traveler is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix, in collaboration with Acquire. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018, for Microsoft Windows in June 2019, for Stadia in April 2020, and for Xbox One in March 2021. It received generally favorable reviews, with praise for its presentation, music, and battle system, while its story received more mixed responses. The game had sold over 3 million copies worldwide by September 2022. A prequel, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, launched for Android and iOS in 2020 in Japan, followed by a worldwide release in 2022. A sequel, Octopath Traveler II, is set to be released worldwide for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows on February 24, 2023. == Gameplay == Octopath Traveler is a role-playing game that sports a graphical aesthetic known as "HD-2D", defined by the developers as combining retro Super NES-style character sprites and textures with polygonal environments and high-definition effects. Players start the game by choosing a protagonist from one of eight adventurers, each of whom begins their journey in different parts of the world. Each character is paired with a distinct character class ("job"). Once a protagonist character is chosen, they cannot be removed from the active party until their story arc, which consists of four chapters, is concluded. Any other character not chosen as the protagonist may be recruited at their starting locations. Each player character has a unique "Path Action" command that can be used when interacting with NPCs that are divided into two categories: Noble, the ability's effectiveness dependent by the character's level or amount of in-game currency, and Rogue, which has a risk of its user losing credibility upon other NPCs. When the player loses enough reputation in a given town, they can no longer use their Path Actions on any NPCs in that town. For example, the Warrior Olberic and the Hunter H'aanit can challenge characters; the Scholar Cyrus and the Apothecary Alfyn can inquire about certain bits of information that can be used for completion of quests or in the form of hidden items; the Merchant Tressa and the Thief Therion can acquire items directly from NPCs; and the Cleric Ophilia and the Dancer Primrose can guide NPCs and use them as guest summons. The game features a turn-based battle system, in which the player can attack using different kinds of weapons or elemental attacks, as well as use abilities and items. Each party member receives a Boost Point at the end of every turn, of which they can store up to five at a time. During their turn, a player can use up to three Boost Points to boost a command, allowing their character to attack multiple times, raise their defense, or increase the potency of an ability. A Boost Point is not gained the turn after using them. Enemies have a shield counter that lowers whenever they are attacked with a weapon or element they are weak against. When the counter is depleted, they enter a stunned state where they can receive more damage and lose a turn. == Synopsis == Set in the land of Orsterra, the Order of the Sacred Flame believed their world was created by thirteen deities. One of them, the fallen god Galdera, was sealed away within the afterworld by the other deities after he refused to relinquish what they created. The player follows the stories of eight heroes as they journey through Orsterra: Ophilia Clement, a priestess of the Sacred Flame who undertakes a religious pilgrimage; Cyrus Albright, a teacher at the Royal Academy who attempts to recover a stolen tome of dark arts called From the Far Reaches of Hell; Tressa Colzione, a merchant who is inspired to go traveling after acquiring a journal detailing a past adventurer's travels; Olberic Eisenberg, a former knight of the Kingdom of Hornburg seeking renewed purpose after his kingdom was destroyed in an attack by a sellsword named Werner; Primrose Azelhart, a dispossessed noblewoman seeking revenge against the Obsidians, a criminal organization that murdered her father; Alfyn Greengrass, a traveling healer inspired to take up the apothecary trade after a stranger saved him from a terminal disease as a child; Therion, a criminal tasked by a noble family to recover a set of dragonstones belonging to them; and H'aanit, a huntress who is tracking her mentor after he left their village to hunt a beast called Redeye. After progressing through all the characters' various stories, the heroes' quests become intermingled as Ophilia's enemy Mattias, Cyrus' enemy Lucia, the Obsidians, and Olberic’s enemy Werner are all revealed to have been under the employ of the immortal witch Lyblac. Revealed to be Galdera's daughter, Lyblac orchestrated the acquirement of From the Far Reaches of Hell and the dragonstones, along with the destruction of Hornburg, to unseal the Gate of Finis in order to access the afterworld. Using the Obsidians as her personal army to eliminate threats like Primrose's father, Lyblac also attempted to use Graham Crossford, the man who wrote Tressa's journal and saved Alfyn as a boy, as a vessel for Galdera to gain corporeal form due to his bloodline's ties to the god. Graham escaped from her clutches, but was mutated into H’aanit’s enemy Redeye. This forced Lyblac to seek out Graham's only living son Kit to complete the ritual. After tracking down the Gate's location in Hornburg, Lyblac fully resurrects Galdera and is absorbed into him. The eight heroes fight a vicious battle against Galdera, sealing him back into the afterworld and saving Kit, who receives closure with his father's spirit. == Development and release == Octopath Traveler was announced on January 13, 2017, under the working title of Project Octopath Traveler. The project was started by producers Masashi Takahashi and Tomoya Asano, who previously headed the Nintendo 3DS titles Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer. Acquire was chosen as development partner for the game based on their previous work on the What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? series. During the development process, various graphics options such as the depth, resolution, saturation, as well as other features such as whether water should be pixel or photorealistic are taken into consideration to perfect the "HD-2D" look. The eight main characters, four male and four female, are chosen to provide different party variations. All characters have different classes, and the character design, as well as the field commands, are based on different occupations in Medieval Europe. Each playable character is accompanied by unique themes during specifics sections of their story arcs. For example, Primrose's theme is intended to project a femininity that exudes sadness and melancholy. According to sound producer Yasunori Nishiki, the developers wanted to create a sense of wistfulness as well for her music theme even though her story is driven by revenge against her father's killers. Metallic sounds were incorporated into the theme to evoke a desert setting to reflect the beginning of Primrose's journey in the desert city of Sunshade.The game's first public demo was released on the Nintendo eShop on September 13, 2017, For the demo, Olberic and Primrose were chosen to be the protagonists due to the relative proximity of their stories' starting points, and the developers wanted people to be able to recruit the other character after beating the story. Consideration was also given towards presenting the appeal of the game's mechanics through these characters. The second demo was released on June 14, 2018 and included various tweaks and improvements gathered from surveying players, along with all eight playable characters and save data transfer to the full game. The second demo consisted of the first chapters of each character's story, with certain areas blocked off to the player, and also had a three-hour play time limit.Octopath Traveler was released worldwide on July 13, 2018. A special edition that includes the game's soundtrack, a replica of the game's in-game currency, a pop-up book, and a replica map of Orsterra was also released the same day. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on June 7, 2019. A prequel for Android and iOS, titled Octopath Traveler: Conquerors of the Continent, was originally scheduled to be released in Japan in 2019, but was delayed to 2020. A Stadia version released on April 28, 2020. The game was released for Xbox One on March 25, 2021, and added to the Xbox Game Pass service on the same day. According to Takahashi, no downloadable content or other large post-release content updates are planned for the game. == Reception == Octopath Traveler received "generally favorable" reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Polygon's Jeremy Parish hailed the game as "the magical RPG the Nintendo Switch needed". GameSpot's Peter Brown praised the game for its "innovative battle system", character progression and presentation but found that the main drawbacks were the stories of the eight playable characters, which he described as "lackluster" and "repetitive".The depiction of female characters in Octopath Traveler was met with a mixed response from critics. While some commentators singled out Primrose's story arc as a highlight of the game, others felt that it was cliched or mishandled due to its reliance on sexist tropes. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer found Primrose's gameplay mechanic of seducing people to help her in battle to be problematic due to Primrose's backstory of misogyny and sex trafficking. Jess Joho criticized the writers for exploiting the trauma experienced by its female characters like Primrose and Ophelia to give their thin characterization "some semblance of personality or depth". === Sales === Square Enix issued two apologies after many in Japan were unable to purchase a physical copy due to stock shortages the week, and the following week, of its release. The game sold 188,238 physical copies within its first two months on sale in Japan, and placed at number one on the all-format sales chart. By August 2018, the game had sold over a million copies worldwide. As of March 2019, the combined physical and digital sales of the game have exceeded 1.5 million copies worldwide. The PC version was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam. Square Enix wrote in March 2020 that combined retail and digital sales of Octopath Traveler had surpassed two million copies. As of February 2021, the combined physical and digital sales of the game have exceeded 2.5 million copies worldwide. === Awards === == Legacy == Three future "HD-2D" styled games have been announced as well: a new tactical role-playing game called Triangle Strategy and remakes of Dragon Quest III and Live A Live. Primrose and Olberic appears in Final Fantasy Record Keeper as part of a September 2018 crossover event.A prequel for Android and iOS, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, was released in Japan in 2020 and worldwide in 2022. A sequel, Octopath Traveler II, is set to be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows on February 24, 2023. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Action puzzle

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a 2014 action puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It is a spin-off of the Super Mario series which builds upon the isometric minigames starring Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D World. Enhanced ports were released for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch on July 13, 2018, including additional bonus levels themed around Super Mario Odyssey, but excluding the Super Mario 3D World bonus levels from the Wii U version. The Nintendo Switch port has sold over 1 million copies, making it one of the best-selling games on the system. A free update for the Nintendo Switch version was released on February 13, 2019, adding co-op multiplayer where another player controls a new purple Toad with white spots in the regular chapters alongside Toad/Toadette, and Toadette in the DLC Special Episode. Paid downloadable content for the Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on March 14, 2019, adding a new 'Special Episode' featuring new courses. Certain courses were designed for the newly introduced co-op mode. == Gameplay == The game builds upon the "Adventures of Captain Toad" levels in Super Mario 3D World, where the basic gameplay model had first been introduced. In the game, players control Captain Toad, a Toad, and his companion Toadette, attempting to safely navigate through various obstacles and reach a gold star at the end of each level. Completing the original version allows players to see the link between Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Super Mario 3D World, and having save data from the latter or beating Treasure Tracker allows players to play four 3D World levels as Captain Toad. Meanwhile, the Switch version has an updated ending linked to Super Mario Odyssey as well as two-player co-op multiplayer, and scanning the Wedding Amiibo unlocks four bonus levels adapted from Odyssey. These levels can also be unlocked after completing Chapter 3. The player can manipulate the camera to view levels and potentially reveal hidden areas containing bonus items. Both characters can be hit once before dying, but collecting mushrooms restores their health. As in Super Mario 3D World, Captain Toad can also walk and run, but cannot jump due to his heavy backpack. As in Super Mario Bros. 2, he can pull up plants from the ground, granting the player coins or turnips to throw at enemies. He can also use the Super Pickax to clear out enemies and obstacle blocks, similar to the hammer in Donkey Kong. The game makes use of the Wii U GamePad's features, as the player can touch the screen to manipulate platforms, blow on the microphone to activate certain platforms, and use gyroscopic controls to aim turnips while riding mine carts. The game makes use of Amiibo: using the Toad Amiibo places a "pixel Toad" in levels for Captain Toad to find; other figurines give the player extra lives. In the Nintendo Switch port, the hide-and-seek pixel toad challenges do not require a Toad Amiibo to play. == Plot == The game opens with Captain Toad and Toadette ascending a tower together to claim a Power Star. The villainous giant crow Wingo appears and steals the star, taking Toadette along with him when she grabs hold of it. The player guides Toad as he tracks Wingo down to his lair and rescues Toadette. In the second chapter of the story, the introductory scenario plays out again, but this time Toad is kidnapped and the player assumes control of Toadette. After Toad is rescued and Wingo reemerges again, Toadette is kidnapped again and Toad is knocked off of Wingo's tower. Then, the third chapter of the story begins, in which both Toad and Toadette venture through levels on their way to the showdown with Wingo, along the way defeating Draggadon, the king of Pyropuff Peak, for the third time. In the final scene of the game, the introduction to Super Mario 3D World plays out, and Captain Toad is seen following a falling Green Star into the glass pipe. For the Switch/3DS versions, the final scene shows Captain Toad following the Odyssey. == Development == Early in the development of Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo created prototypes of various gameplay ideas, including what IGN described as small "diorama-like levels the player could twist and turn." However, when the team added a character who could jump, they realized the levels would have to increase in size. They decided to keep the small-scale course design by eliminating jumping entirely, which also forced them to choose a player character other than Mario or Luigi. Director Shinya Hiratake suggested that Shigeru Miyamoto make Link from The Legend of Zelda a playable character, but Miyamoto instructed him to choose a different one. The developers then realized that Captain Toad, a background character from the Super Mario Galaxy games, would fit the role due to his heavy backpack, which they reasoned would weigh too much and keep him from jumping. Originally, the team thought the levels could form their own game, but instead a few were included in Super Mario 3D World. After 3D World was finished in late 2013, Miyamoto found that the Captain Toad levels reminded him of one of his earlier gameplay ideas inspired by the Rubik's Cube, so he suggested they create a separate Captain Toad game. The game also had developmental assistance from 1-Up Studio. == Reception == Treasure Tracker was well-received upon reveal at E3 2014. Calling it "the best Nintendo spin-off in years", Eurogamer described the game as the lead character's "proper introduction" and "the fully-realised experience that his earlier debut [in Super Mario 3D World] deserved." Polygon declared that the game "will make you fall in love with the mine cart level", comparing some levels to a "Super Mario desert environment," and others to a "Luigi's Mansion-style ghost house."The game received a positive reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Marty Sliva of IGN stated he enjoyed the sense of discovery when looking around stages with the right-stick-controlled camera, exploring every area, and finding what he could interact with using the GamePad's touch screen. Sliva thought the variety of stages kept the game "feeling fresh" during his entire playthrough. However, he found that the use of the controller's gyroscope would cause the camera to "[spin] out of control whenever [he] moved [his] wrists," and that paging through the storybook-themed menus to find optional objectives is needlessly time-consuming. Giant Bomb's Dan Ryckert thought the game was "plenty of fun" and greatly appreciated the replay value when finding the three optional Super Gems in each level, but he found the ultimate goal in each stage repetitive and that, even at an MSRP two-thirds that of a full-priced game, "the offering [felt] a bit thin." He awarded the game three stars out of five. Hardcore Gamer's Dermot Creegan gave the game a 4.5/5, calling it a "delightful experience" and praising the level design, creativity and art direction. He criticized the forced gyroscope functionality, but was more praising of the other Wii U features saying they "succeed in bringing a dash of extra variety and creativity from time to time." Nintendo World Report's Curtis Bonds liked the "very tricky and clever level design" and thought that finding all the collectibles in each level was "extremely satisfying." While the game made "clever" use of the GamePad, he found the gyroscopic camera controls "annoying" and was disappointed by the game's spartan menus in addition to assets recycled from Super Mario 3D World. === Sales === Approximately 250,000 copies were sold during its first month in the United States. In Japan, roughly 155,000 copies of the game had been sold by the end of June 2015. The Switch and 3DS ports of the game sold 108,698 and 42,818 physical copies respectively during their first two months on sale in Japan. As of March 2019, the Switch port has sold 240,000 copies in Japan, and 1.18 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the system. The 2021 CESA Games White Papers revealed that the WiiU version has sold a total of 1.37 million units, as of December 2020. It also revealed that the Switch version has sold a total of 1.77 million units, as of December 2020.The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that the Switch version of the game have sold 2.13 million copies as of December 2021. === Accolades === The game was nominated for "Best Puzzle/Adventure" and "Best Wii U Exclusive" at GameTrailers' Best of 2014 Awards. In addition, it won the People's Choice Award for "Best Puzzle Game" at IGN's Best of 2014 Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Best Wii U Game". The 3DS and Switch versions were nominated for "Nintendo Game of the Year" at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards, and for "Game, Franchise Family" at the 2019 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Tactical role-playing

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a turn-based tactics action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch video game console. The game is a crossover between Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchise. In Kingdom Battle, the story follows Mario, his friends, and a group of Rabbids who try to save the Mushroom Kingdom from invading Rabbids that accidentally misused a powerful invention and began to wreak havoc. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was conceived in 2014 by Ubisoft Milan creative director Davide Soliani and Ubisoft brand producer Xavier Manzanares. The design objectives emphasized the dissonance of both franchises and creating a strategy game that stood out with unique elements. Its visual elements and animation were casual and vibrant, and its music was composed by Grant Kirkhope. Although the game was met with poor reception when it was leaked, primarily due to the use of the Rabbids' franchise and weaponry, it was well received when it was officially announced at E3 2017. The game's critical reception was overall positive, with acclaim towards its characters and turn-based combat, and mixed responses to its puzzles and level-based combat. In 2018, an expansion pack for the game titled Donkey Kong Adventure was released as downloadable content. A sequel, titled Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, was released on October 20, 2022. == Gameplay == Gameplay follows Mario and a cast of other Mario and Rabbids characters of the player's choosing, including Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and four other Rabbids dressed up as a respective Mario character with exaggerated personalities. They are guided by a small robot named Beep-0. The campaign story mode is split up into four unique locations, or "worlds", each of which has a linear path to completion. In each world, some puzzles must be completed for progression, or give weapons and collectibles when solved. When a world is completed, Beep-0 learns a new ability to solve puzzles.If the team comes across territory inhabited by enemy Rabbids, a battle will commence. While the goal of each battle is usually to defeat every enemy on the field, some levels have a fixed objective, such as escorting a Toad to the end of the stage. The level is completed if all enemies are defeated or the fixed objective is satisfied; the player loses when all characters run out of health or fail to meet their goal. Before a battle, the player can choose to change their current selection of characters and weaponry; three out of eight playable characters can fight in a battle (Mario and at least one Rabbid being required), and each fighter can be equipped with weapons, each one dealing different amounts of damage or causing certain special effects that hinder the opponent. Battles are turn-based, and each character can perform up to three different options: they can move to a new location, with each character having a set distance they can travel; they can use a weapon, and have two choices of attack that vary per player; or they can use a special effect, with each character having different abilities that vary in function. If a player moves to a location where they are obscured to the enemy, the enemy's accuracy changes based on the cover's effectiveness. Characters also have movement abilities, where they can dash into an enemy to deal damage or be boosted by another character to travel a further distance. Some weapons have special effects; for example, the player can shoot a glob of honey at the enemy to restrict them from moving temporarily, or shoot an ignited bullet to burn an opponent and send them running around in a random direction in panic. Special effects also vary, such as a healing effect that restores some health to other characters, or a hypnosis effect that draws enemies towards the character that used it.Levels are divided into chapters, and each chapter usually contains three levels. When a chapter is completed, characters receive coins and "Skill Orbs", which can also be found by exploring the overworld, with greater rewards earned clearing battles within a certain number of turns with all characters intact. Skill Orbs can be used in each character's skill tree to grant them new abilities or increase stats such as health or movement distance. Coins can be used to purchase new weaponry and items. == Plot == A young inventor and avid fan of the Mario franchise invents a device known as the SupaMerge, a headset that can merge any two objects into a single entity, with the help of her virtual robot assistant Beep-0. Upon testing it, it successfully merges two items, but overheats. While the inventor is out of the room, a group of Rabbids arrive in their Time Washing Machine and begin playing with her belongings, annoying Beep-0. One of them puts on the SupaMerge and starts causing chaos, merging some of the Rabbids with various items in the room. While having fun with the SupaMerge, its beam accidentally hits the Time Washing Machine and causes it to malfunction, sucking everything in the room into an interdimensional vortex along with a Mario poster.A vortex appears above the Mushroom Kingdom during the unveiling of a large statue of Princess Peach and sucks up everyone, including Mario and his friends. They and the Rabbids are thrown across the Mushroom Kingdom along with the now-gigantic objects from the room. Beep-0, now a physical entity with Rabbid ears and teeth and has gained the ability to speak, discovers that the SupaMerge has fused itself with the Rabbid wearing it, who creates more chaos by accidentally merging some of the Rabbids with more objects. Beep-0 is nearly hit by the now-giant Time Washing Machine, but Mario saves him as it crash-lands near Peach's castle. While most of the merged Rabbids become hostile (due to the SupaMerge's power now being corrupted), Mario and Beep-0 encounter two Rabbids who are not: Rabbid Luigi and Rabbid Peach. Aided by a mysterious email contact known only as F.B., who provides them with weapons, the four join forces to put a stop to the chaos. As Mario's team travels across the Mushroom Kingdom, defeating the corrupted Rabbids while also encountering allies like Princess Peach, Luigi, Rabbid Mario, Yoshi, and Rabbid Yoshi, Bowser Jr. comes across the Rabbid fused to the SupaMerge, which he nicknames Spawny, and recruits him to cause more chaos. Resolving to recover Spawny so they can undo the damage he has caused, the team eventually learns that an entity known as the Megabug is behind the mysterious vortex–presumably created by the SupaMerge–which grows more powerful as they defeat more of the corrupted Rabbids. Mario's group recovers Spawny from Bowser Jr., only for him to get kidnapped by the Megabug, which has now assumed the form of a dragon. The Megabug merges with Bowser, who had just returned from his vacation, to create "MegaDragonBowser" and battle the heroes. Mario and his team defeat the Megabug, saving both Bowser and Spawny. As peace returns to the Mushroom Kingdom and all the Rabbids are restored to normal, the group celebrates by replacing the new statue of Princess Peach (which had been destroyed by the vortex) with Rabbid Peach instead. Meanwhile, Beep-0 realizes that F.B. is his future self, and uses the Time Washing Machine to help his comrades in the past by sending the same emails and weapons that his future self sent to his past self. === Donkey Kong Adventure === When Rabbid Kong, one of the merged Rabbids, fiddles with the Time Washing Machine, he, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 are transported to another dimension after getting close to the machine. Spawny and Bowser Jr. see this, when Spawny accidentally and unintentionally fires the SupaMerge into the Time Washing Machine before it teleports causing the washing machine water and the Rabbids who get sucked in it to be corrupted. They are marooned on Donkey Kong Island, and the machine is severely damaged. To get back to the Mushroom Kingdom, the two must find the machine's missing parts and reassemble it. After being attacked by the native islanders, they are saved by Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky, who were both transported to the island by the machine during the beginning of the game and agree to help. Rabbid Kong crash-lands in a temple and ends up becoming corrupted by a "Bad Banana", a banana contaminated with the Megabug's energy oozing from the Time Washing Machine water and becomes more powerful, turning into Mega Rabbid Kong. Seeking revenge against Rabbid Peach for his previous defeat, he starts a banana racketeering operation on the island to create more Bad Bananas to corrupt more Rabbids and takes over the island. The group fights a pair of powerful corrupted Rabbids working for Rabbid Kong to obtain the keys to Mega Rabbid Kong's lair. Shortly after arriving, the trio defeat Mega Rabbid Kong in two final battles, the first one in his lair, which is then destroyed by the corrupted water exploding, and then again on the beach, draining his powers and undoing the effects of the Megabug and the Bad Bananas on the island, restoring Rabbid Kong and all the Rabbids and bananas on the island. Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Kong make amends and the latter helps them rebuild the Time Washing Machine, sending it, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 back to the Mushroom Kingdom. In the post-credits scene, the inventor from the prologue returns and discovers Rabbid Peach's photos of the island. == Development and release == As a child, the game's Italian creative director Davide Soliani had always enjoyed playing Mario games. Soliani had met Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario franchise a handful of times in the past; on one occasion, when Soliani first met Miyamoto at E3 2014, he asked him to sign a copy of a Game Boy Advance remake of Disney's The Jungle Book, which Soliani developed in 2003.After a long run of Rabbids video games developed by Ubisoft meanwhile, Xavier Manzanares, a Ubisoft brand producer, thought about the future of the Rabbids series in 2013. Ubisoft began to talk with Nintendo about ideas for future Rabbids video games, but only really brought the concept of party games like the ones they made prior.Toward the end of the year, Manzanares began to conceptualize games that were not the typical genre they were familiar with. He teamed up with three others to plan a game, including Soliani, who later became the creative director of Kingdom Battle. Without any clear idea, their main goal was to combine the Rabbids and Mario franchises. When Soliani presented thirteen ideas to Manzanares, he abandoned the focus on combining the brands and shifted attention towards the game itself. Because the two franchises were very different from each other, they decided on the turn-based strategy genre because neither franchise had done anything in the field. Manzanares's ultimate goal was to design something surprising, even for Nintendo.According to Soliani, when presenting the idea to Miyamoto, the team worked hard on a prototype for presentation. They refrained from simply a discussion or visuals and concepts because Soliani "really wanted to show stuff instead of just talking". Miyamoto's major concern was giving Mario characters weapons, but he thought that Ubisoft "understands Mario as a character" and put trust in the company when details were fleshed out. The development team was equally apprehensive about featuring firearms in a Mario game; to alleviate this, they took inspiration from films with exaggerated weaponry such as The Fifth Element, which featured plasma-firing arm cannons. Nintendo permitted to let Mario characters use the guns. Early development of the game was tricky for Ubisoft, as they had to juggle using a new game engine, Snowdrop, and a genre and concept they had not officially defined. On multiple occasions, Nintendo directly asked Ubisoft to put more emphasis on the weirdness of the Rabbids; Miyamoto found the characters to be a unique source of humor unexplored in the Mario franchise. Nintendo's ultimate goal was to be surprised in what ways the Rabbids could bring gameplay elements that were not typical in regular Mario games, so they repeatedly asked Ubisoft to surprise them. === Design === Nintendo was always keen on ensuring their games were innovative and stood out. Knowing this, Ubisoft began production by brainstorming unique ideas to set it apart from other strategy games. Considering that many games of the genre were dull in color and slower-paced to emphasize strategy, Ubisoft conceptualized a colorful and fast-paced game, and the company used Nintendo's Mario Kart series as its main point of reference. The action was focused on moving around the battlefield instead of hiding for cover often, said Soliani. To make sure they balanced casual gameplay with the strategy genre, Ubisoft extensively playtested. They made sure the game was accessible and taught the player throughout their playtime. When it came to the level of difficulty, Soliani was surprised to see nine-year-old children pulling off stunts he believed would not work with a younger audience.An underlying goal of Ubisoft was to combine the two franchises to equally represent both. To emphasize a crossover, the company put effort into contrasting the two. Nintendo wanted a game that was built around the intellectual property (IP) of the Mario universe, while also emphasizing the anarchy of the Rabbids, which Nintendo set as a goal from the beginning. For example, Ubisoft wanted Rabbid Peach to not simply be a Rabbid in a Princess Peach costume, but rather to give her a personality that was similar in some ways yet stereotypically contrasting the original character. Rabbid Peach was in the base prototype and Nintendo found it to be a funny concept. While Nintendo gave Ubisoft a lot of open freedom, they made sure that they stayed faithful to the IP. Ubisoft received multiple notes about changes in the animation and looks in the Mario characters; in total, there were about 1,500 animations to fit. === Music === For the game's music, Soliani contracted Grant Kirkhope, a composer who had written the music for numerous critically-acclaimed games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Like Miyamoto, Soliani was a big fan of his works as he grew up with a Nintendo 64, which contained multiple games with music by him.Kirkhope received an email from Gian Marco, a producer at Ubisoft, in late 2014. It simply mentioned a game he could be interested in composing music for, so he signed a non-disclosure agreement and met with Soliani in Paris, France. Kirkhope believed he was simply working on a new Rabbids video game, as the tentative title at the time was Rabbids Kingdom Battle. He was confused about why a Rabbids game was being kept secret, and when he discovered the game was a crossover with the Mario franchise, he was left in shock; Soliani was worried that Kirkhope was disinterested. Eventually, he agreed to work on the game and built a strong connection with Soliani. It was difficult for Soliani to work with Kirkhope at first due to him having to give feedback to someone he admired. One of Kirkhope's biggest challenges was the quantity: he had to compose in total approximately 2.5 hours of music. Additionally, he and Soliani were located in Los Angeles and Milan, respectively; Kirkhope would sometimes accidentally call Soliani in the middle of the night asking for feedback. === Release, promotion, and additional content === Information on a crossover between the Mario and Raving Rabbids franchises was leaked as early as November 2016, although the title Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was first leaked in May 2017, before its official announcement during Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2017. The game was released in North America and PAL territories for the Nintendo Switch on 29 August 2017. It was later released in Japan and other East Asian territories on 18 January 2018, where Nintendo published and distributed the title for Ubisoft. A collector's edition was released, which came with a soundtrack CD, cards, and a Rabbid Mario figurine. Ubisoft released post-launch downloadable content (DLC) through a season pass, which includes new weapons, solo challenges, cooperative maps, and story-based content. On 26 June 2018, an expansion known as Donkey Kong Adventure was released, which features a new story featuring Rabbid Peach and Beep-0 teaming up with Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky to defeat Rabbid Kong, one of the bosses in the game's main storyline. Kingdom Battle was intended to be revealed at E3 2017, but some info was accidentally leaked before then. An image of Mario and Rabbid Peach posing with weapons was leaked. When the concept was met with negative reception, the development team became discouraged and lost morale, which caused Soliani to emphasize a unique experience because of it. Soliani was in a constant state of panic before its full reveal and urged his development team to not get their hopes up. When major details about the game were revealed at E3 2017, Miyamoto came and helped Soliani pitch the game to the audience. Upon seeing the game in full, fans showed curiosity and excitement in it. When Soliani saw the praise, he teared up on stage with excitement and relief, and his reaction became an internet meme. After the conference, Soliani received 37 awards for the performance. When he returned to work, the company's morale was greatly boosted.Ubisoft began to work on the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC shortly after the game's reveal at E3 2017. According to Soliani, the initial plan was to release about 1–2 hours of additional content. After the praise of the game after its reveal, Soliani decided to add as much content as possible, with cutscenes, worlds, and gameplay totaling about half of the base game. After the rework, the DLC was 10 hours in length. Kirkhope wrote an additional 45 minutes of music and the programmers completely redid the gameplay as Soliani wanted the new content to be completely offset from the original game.To advertise the game, the Ubisoft Instagram account was temporarily changed to appear as if it were Rabbid Peach's personal account, with posts and images being made as if they were coming from her perspective. == Reception == === Critical reviews === Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game debuted at number two on the UK physical video game sales charts. It was the best-selling physical video game in Australia in the week ending 3 September. It sold 66,692 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all-format sales chart. By September 2017, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle became the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch to have not been wholly published by Nintendo. On June 13, 2021, Davide Soliani announced that the game had been played by 7.5 million players.Most critical reviews opened by reaffirming the ludicrousness of the game's concept; Giant Bomb considered the idea a "bad, late-night message board conversation", and most critics had mixed to negative opinions of the Rabbids franchise as a whole, especially in comparison to the Mario franchise. When the game was released, reviewers were quick to reconsider how in-depth the game was, despite their preconceived notions that the game would be gimmicky or reliant on Rabbids-style humor. Some believed that the game's tone and writing mixed well with the Mario franchise; Wired's Julie Muncy observed that Mario often acts as a straight man to the Rabbids' childish behavior.The cast of new characters introduced in Kingdom Battle received a generally positive response. Rabbid Peach in particular emerged as a popular character with critics and players following an initially divisive reception before the game's release. Chris Bratt from Eurogamer found that the game's characters are an effective representation of its setting and humor; he singled out Rabbid Peach as having given him an initially crass impression from the game's leak, but grew to enjoy her antics when more of the game was shown, a sentiment fellow Eurogamer contributor Jeffrey Matulef shared. Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends regarded her as the standout of Kingdom Battle's cast, praising her for her humor and entertaining personality and suggesting that she should appear in the crossover video game series Super Smash Bros. Paul Tamburro of Game Revolution stated that she "steals the show" in Kingdom Battles, crediting her with giving the Rabbids mascot a personality. Critics were divided over Ubisoft's decision to center the game's promotional efforts on social media around Rabbid Peach; Kotaku's Gita Jackson found the change creepy due to its attempts to personify brands, and felt that the account mocked women on Instagram. Despite this, she still found the character cute. Writer Laura Kate Dale was more positive and commented that Rabbid Peach "stole the show" in Kingdom Battle, particularly citing her love for taking selfies on her mobile phone as a contributing factor.The game's simplified combat system and structure were revered throughout reviews. Polygon reviewer Russ Frushstick commented that although the game wasn't too bold in appealing to older audiences, it successfully made the tactical roleplaying genre appealing to unfamiliar audiences with its simplistic approach. PCMag considered this to be due to the lack of complex statistics and probability, and rather favored simplistic "coin-flip" chances. The Verge also praised its simplicity, and claimed that it blended well with the Nintendo Switch and its portable functionality due to the structured format. Various sites positively compared gameplay to the XCOM franchise.Puzzles in between the level-based combat received mixed opinions in comparison. Writing for Destructoid, Chris Carter found the space in between levels to be filler rather than a unique exploration feature, only used to hide collectible items. In addition, Jeff Marchiafava of Game Informer found certain collectibles, such as music and concept art, to be lackluster and not worth going out of the way to achieve, although the combat phases more than made up for it. Conversely, GameSpot enjoyed how it helped interconnect the environment to make it "seamless", and although some puzzles could be tedious it helped give a brief distraction once in a while. === Accolades === Kingdom Battle received numerous awards, generally in strategy game categories alongside several other nominations. The game won "Best Strategy Game" at the Game Critics Awards, Gamescom, and The Game Awards 2017, as well as the D.I.C.E. Awards the following year. Additionally, the game won "Best Original Game" at the Game Critics Awards, as well as the "Animation" and "Visual Design" categories at the 2018 Develop Awards. It was also nominated for several other miscellaneous categories, such as best casual game, best family game, and best of show; the game was surpassed only by other first-party games developed solely by Nintendo, being under shadowed by Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.Eurogamer ranked the game fifth on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017"; GamesRadar+ ranked it 13th on their list of the 25 best games of 2017; EGMNow ranked it 14th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017; Polygon ranked it 33rd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game won the award for "Best Strategy Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Best Switch Game" and "Best Original Music". == Legacy == In the 2018 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, three of the Rabbids appear as collectable Spirits using their artwork from this title: Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Kong. Rabbid Peach appears in Just Dance 2018 as the alternative playable mascot for Beyoncé's song "Naughty Girl".Connections forged from Kingdom Battle extend beyond Rabbids references. In January 2019, Kirkhope was asked by Soliani for his contact information on behalf of Nintendo, saying the company loved what Kirkhope had done for the Mario + Rabbids soundtrack and requested his help on an unspecified piece of music. Kirkhope was initially skeptical about the purpose of this offer but accepted it. Upon realizing that he was being asked to arrange music for Banjo and Kazooie's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he was excited for the return of the characters.A sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, was announced at E3 2021 and was released on October 20, 2022 on the Nintendo Switch. == See also == Rabbids Rayman == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Roguelike

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a video game series spin-off from the main Pokémon series developed by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Chunsoft). The games feature the fictional creatures called Pokémon who have the ability to speak human language navigating through a randomly generated dungeon using turn-based moves, indicative of Mystery Dungeon games. As of March 2020, there have been eleven games across five platforms, as well as several manga adaptations and animated specials. These games are based in dungeons (“mystery dungeons”) where a floor map is randomly generated. In the dungeons, players fight other Pokémon while obtaining items and finding stairs to the next floor, exiting the dungeon after a fixed number of floors. Across all installments, the series has sold over 17.15 million copies.[a] == Gameplay == Although there are different features in each of the titles, the major aspects of gameplay in each title are the same. The player assumes the role of a Pokémon that was transformed from a human, found by the player's Pokémon partner in the start of the game. Before the game starts, the player will need to go through a personality test; this will decide which Pokémon the player is in the game with the exception of the WiiWare games, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, where the player may choose their starter. In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, one can choose a Pokemon to be after the personality test. Gameplay is based on a classic roguelike game, with the player navigating the randomly generated dungeon with their Pokémon team. Movement and actions are turn-based; the player can use basic attacks, Pokémon moves, and items. The game starts with one partner Pokémon, but the player can recruit other Pokémon that they meet in the dungeon into their team soon after the first mission. == Development == Tsunekazu Ishihara has worked previously with Chunsoft. One of the company's work was Tetris 2 + Bombliss, where Ishihara was the game's producer and met Koichi Nakamura, who was the game's director. Prior to the development of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, Ishihara has played a few games from the Mystery Dungeon series, namely Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon, and was impressed with the genre's depth and quality. The game's development started after Seiichiro Nagahata and Shin-ichiro Tomie approached Ishihara and agreed with working on an easier version of the genre for the mainline Pokémon fans. During the development of Red and Blue Rescue Team, Kouji Maruta, one of the programmer for these two games, and contributed previously on EarthBound and Shiren the Wanderer 2: Oni Invasion! Shiren Castle!, stated the company went through bad business performance, as employees from Chunsoft would leave the company progressively due to this issue. The game's success not only helped giving more popularity in the franchise, it also helped Chunsoft avoiding bankruptcy. == Games == The games are developed by Spike Chunsoft, formerly Chunsoft before the merging in 2012, and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The first game released in the series was Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team in 2005 in Japan, then worldwide in 2006. The duo were released on two separate platforms; Red Rescue Team for Game Boy Advance; Blue Rescue Team for Nintendo DS. Two years later, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness for Nintendo DS were released in 2007 in Japan, then worldwide in 2008. Starting from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky in 2009, the sister game and enhanced remake of Explorers of Time and Darkness, the series would not be released in Taiwan and South Korea. Additionally, due to a production shortage, Explorers of Sky had limited circulation throughout Australia. Most retailers in Australia stocked UK-imported versions. Shortly after the release of Explorers of Sky in Japan, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Adventure Squad titles were released for the WiiWare exclusively in Japan. As such, they are the first and only Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games to never be released overseas. They were initially revealed as logos on pamphlets given out at McDonald's. These games utilize the 3D models from Pokémon Rumble and My Pokémon Ranch, making them the first games to use models instead of 2D sprites. This was done in an attempt to make "something that resembles a picture book". The three different versions have various differences, like starting points and initial Pokémon choices. There is a rescue feature where players can request for friends to revive their team. By using WiiConnect24, new missions are added to the game while the Wii is asleep, and players can share save data throughout all three games. In 2012, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, before being released worldwide in 2013. From there on, the series use purpose-made 3D models, as opposed to 2D sprites or 3D models from other spin-off titles. Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is the latest non-remake release in the series, released in 2015 on Nintendo 3DS, then in 2016 in PAL regions. Finally, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is the latest title in the series, simultaneously on Nintendo Switch in 2020. It is a remake of the original Rescue Team games on Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance, united as one game, with a complete overhaul of the graphics and reworked gameplay. == Comics == Manga adaptations of the series were made throughout the years. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team, a manga adaption of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blazing Exploration Team, a manga adaption of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, and Explorers of Sky. Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: Go For It! Novice Investigation Team!, a manga adaption of Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. == Notes == ^[a] 5.85 million copies sold from the Rescue Team titles, 6.37 million copies sold from the Explorers titles, 1.38 million copies sold from Gates to Infinity, 1.66 million copies sold from Super Mystery Dungeon, and 1.89 million copies sold from Rescue Team DX. == References ==

Nintendo Switch

Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!

Rhythm

Taiko no Tatsujin (Japanese: 太鼓の達人, Taiko no Tatsujin, lit. "Master of the drums") is a series of games created by Namco. In the games, players simulate playing a taiko drum in time with music. The series has released games for the arcade and for console and mobile platforms including PlayStation 2, Advanced Pico Beena, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android and Japanese feature phones. While the series is mainly designed for use within Japan, there are also localized versions for other regions, including English, Chinese and Korean-language versions. == Gameplay == === Objective === The main objective of Taiko no Tatsujin games is to hit a simulated Taiko drum following a chosen piece of music, corresponding to notes scrolling from the right. A song is cleared when the spirit gauge is filled past the target at the end of the song by playing accurately enough. === Controls === Arcade releases are equipped with simulated Taiko, which can register hits when played with drum sticks (bachi). Console versions mainly use buttons to play, while certain devices can support additional methods of input: A virtual Taiko drum is provided on devices with touchscreens (DS, 3DS, Wii U, iPod touch, smartphone, Nintendo Switch), played with either styluses or fingers. Dedicated peripherals simulating real drums can be purchased additionally for PS2, Wii, Wii U, PS4 or Nintendo Switch releases. Such a peripheral is included with the physical North American PlayStation 2 and European Nintendo Switch versions. === Notes === The variety of notes in the game consists mainly of red and blue markers. The red don (ドン) note requires a hit on the face of the drum, and the blue ka (カッ) note requires a hit on the rim.Other notes require quick consecutive hits on the drum. Types of such notes includes the yellow bar, the balloon note (called a burst note in Taiko: Drum Master) and the Kusudama ball (or the yam on older releases since PS2 Godaime, or the Mallet note in Drum Session! and Drum ‛n’ Fun!).Unlike other rhythm games such as Guitar Hero, the drum is an addition to the songs and does not limit an instrument being played whenever the notes are not hit, nor does it simulate an off-key sound when missed as the game allows the players to freely hit the drum wherever they want, so long as it isn't close to a note that could result in a penalty. === Difficulty === Most games in the franchise provide four difficulty levels for play: Easy, Normal, Hard, and "Oni", (known in English versions of Drum 'n' Fun and Drum Session as "Extreme") the highest difficulty. The sequence of the notes in a level is commonly referred to as a notechart. ==== Inner notecharts ==== Certain songs also have extra inner note charts in addition to the four standard levels. These are intended to be alternative takes on the regular set. Although not a main objective, most inner note charts are made more difficult than regular note charts. This later changed to being exclusive to the Oni/Extreme difficulty only.Some inner note charts work by changing to an alternative version of the song, or, exclusively in arcades, switching to a completely different song. As of the third-generation in 2011, these became separate songs. ==== Notechart branching ==== Some songs can feature notechart branching in certain difficulty levels. According to the player's performance, the notechart changes between Normal notechart, Professional notechart, or Master notechart. On certain songs, like Hyakka Ryoran, a drumroll appears at the start to allow the player to pick any of three notecharts. === Gameplay options === Various aspects of the game can be changed to the player's liking: Players can choose an alternate instrument or sound to play, instead of the classic Taiko drum. Players can apply modifiers to change aspects of gameplay, like increased note speeds, reversed notecharts (red and blue notes interchanged) or randomized notecharts. In console releases, players can choose to have the notechart played automatically and correctly. In console releases, players can choose to have the song end early as soon as they miss one note. == Releases == === Taiko no Tatsujin: Tatakon de Dodon ga Don === Taiko no Tatsujin: Tatakon de Dodon ga Don is the first official home console release in the franchise, it was released on the PlayStation 2 on October 24, 2002, in Japan. Tatakon de Dodon ga Don features 29 songs selected from first three arcade versions of Taiko no Tatsujin released (such as "Marionette" by Boøwy, "Traveling" by Hikaru Utada, "Pieces of a Dream" by Chemistry, and "Mr. Moonlight (Ai no Big Band)" by Morning Musume), Tatakon de Dodon ga Don also features new original songs exclusive for the PlayStation 2 version of the game ("Stepping Wind" from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil). === Taiko: Drum Master === Taiko: Drum Master is the first official North American release in the franchise, exclusively released for the PlayStation 2 on October 26, 2004, in North America and March 17, 2005, in Japan. Instead of Japanese pop and anime music, Taiko: Drum Master uses English-language pop music by artists including Queen and Madonna, and Western and Japanese animation theme songs from Dragon Ball Z, a Japanese anime that has been dubbed in English, and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. === Taiko no Tatsujin 13 === Taiko no Tatsujin 13 is the thirteenth arcade release of the series, with service commencing December 17, 2009. Taiko no Tatsujin 13 was used to hold the Japan-wide tournament Namco Presents Taiko no Tatsujin Nippon-ichi Ketteisen 2010: The Best Master is You! in early 2010. === Taiko no Tatsujin 14 === Taiko no Tatsujin 14 is the fourteenth arcade release of the series. With more than 150 playable songs, 14 inherits many features from previous releases. For a limited time, 14 participated as part of a collaboration with McDonald's. As part of the franchise's 10th anniversary celebration, an upgrade patch was made available for 14, adding five extra songs to the track listing. === Taiko no Tatsujin Plus === Taiko no Tatsujin Plus, also stylized as Taiko no Tatsujin +, is a video game application exclusively for iOS devices, released on May 28, 2014, in Japan. Plus is free to download but charges for purchasing additional music packs. In June 2015, Plus introduces the All-you-can-take Music service, allowing unlimited downloads of designated songs within a set time for a fee. Plus is chiefly controlled with a simulated drum surface on the device's touchscreen, but also supports Roland Corporation's V-Drums electronic drum sets with subsequent updates.In addition to typical Taiko no Tatsujin gameplay, Plus also includes the Fukubiki feature, where in-game points can be exchanged for rolls of lucky draw for randomly drawn prizes. === Taiko no Tatsujin (2011) === Taiko no Tatsujin is the fifteenth arcade release of the series. This release is significantly different from previous arcade releases, allowing players to store play data with Bandai Namco's Banapassport card, customizing player characters and by-player difficulty settings. The game can also receive online updates to add playable songs and features. Initially released exclusively in Japan, the cabinet has been released since January 2014 in Southeast Asian regions including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.Since its initial release in 2011, the game has received one or two major upgrades each year. Each release usually adds many new songs at once, implements modes exclusive to that release, as well as introduce new costume options and challenges in Ranking Dojo Mode. === Wadaiko Master === In May 2014, a number of Taiko no Tatsujin cabinets seemingly based on Momoiro Ver. were found in arcades in Brazil under the name of Wadaiko Master. These cabinets were translated into Portuguese and featured a significantly reduced song list, only containing 32 tracks including three Brazilian Music tracks exclusive to this edition. Wadaiko Master is offline-only, lacking network features such as Banapassport support and software updates present in other releases. Wadaiko Master is the only instance of Taiko no Tatsujin being officially released in arcades outside of Asia. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Nijiiro Ver. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Nijiiro Version, known officially as the March 2020 Version Renovation Kit, was released in Japanese arcades on 24 March 2020 and started the fourth generation of Taiko no Tatsujin arcade cabinets. Arcade operators upgraded this title from the 2011 game by purchasing a hardware renovation kit, which includes a brand new arcade board based on System BNA1, a 120 Hz monitor, and a QR code reader.Nijiiro Ver. features new elements such as the Donderful Combo Crown, obtained by clearing a song with the highest possible level of accuracy. The song settings menu has been updated to allow for more options, including more control over the notes' playback speed. The default scoring system has been changed significantly, as it no longer awards bonuses for long combos and instead focused on accuracy. The "Classical" and "Variety" song genres have been removed, with their songs being assigned to other categories. There is also a vast amount of graphical updates, notably with the inclusion of horizontal text on the song select menu, similar to Drum 'n' Fun. On a livestream at JAEPO 2020, Etou, the game's director, said that this is to prepare the game for "overseas players". An international version of Nijiiro Ver. was released for Asia and Oceania in Spring 2021. The game has seen a limited release in Australian arcades in October 2022. This version is multilingual and is playable in English, Traditional Chinese or Korean. Special, regional songs exclusive to the international version are also included upon release. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Wii U Version === Taiko no Tatsujin: Wii U Version is the first Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the Wii U, released on November 21, 2013, in Japan only. The game was said to carry 70 songs, and features appearances of Golden Bomber and Super Mario Bros., and a collaboration campaign with Japanese idol group Momoiro Clover Z.Wii U Version features the new gameplay mode Baton Touch Play, where multiple players alternately play a single song in a relay race-like fashion. The game also supports the Wii U GamePad with a touchscreen drum, and can be played with the GamePad alone without needing a television set.Both free and paid downloadable content, including outfit items and additional playable songs, are available via the Nintendo eShop. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 === Taiko no Tatsijin: Rhythmic Adventure 1, also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikū Daibōken, is the second Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS, released on June 26, 2014, in Japan only. The game includes a reported number of 60 songs, and guest appearance of Jibanyan from Yo-kai Watch, Airou from Monster Hunter 4, Funassyi and Kumamon.Rhythmic Adventure 1 features a main story plot in Space-time Adventure Mode, in which series protagonists Don and Katsu travel through time to different periods, encountering various friends and enemies. Players engage in random encounter drum-playing battles and gather befriended enemies as team members, similarly as in Pokémon games with added rhythm game elements. Both free and paid downloadable content, including additional quests for Space-time Adventure Mode, outfit items and additional playable songs, are available via the Nintendo eShop. Additional content can also be unlocked via scanning QR codes hosted at various other media and using Spot Access functionality at specific locations.Rhythmic Adventure 1 was later localized into a Korean-language version and was released on August 27, 2015. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Tokumori! === Taiko no Tatsujin: Tokumori! is the second Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the Wii U, released on November 20, 2014, in Japan only. The game boasts a collection of 100 playable songs, and features appearances of guest characters such as Funassyi, Kumamon and Hatsune Miku. Tokumori features two new modes: Mekadon Gasha, a capsule toy set-up for unlocking unlockable content, and Intro-don, a quiz mini-game that players would have to guess the intro of a song. Baton Touch Play Mode returns from Wii U Version. Both free and paid downloadable content, including outfit items and additional playable songs, are available via the Nintendo eShop.The game was removed from the Nintendo eshop. === Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version === Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version is a Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the PlayStation Vita, released on July 9, 2015. The game includes more than 80 playable songs, with a focus on anime, Vocaloid and video game music.V Version features a main story plot in Donder Quest, in which protagonist Don adventures with a young female named Maple to defeat Noise and the ancient dragon Revolution. The game also features the practice mode Taiko Training that can fast forward, rewind and change speed.A traditional Chinese version, with translated Chinese menu and dialogue text but retaining Japanese voice acting, will be released on the same release date in Taiwan and Hong Kong. This version is expected to feature Asia-exclusive playable songs, to be continually made available after release. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Atsumete ☆ Tomodachi Daisakusen! === Taiko no Tatsujin: Atsumete ☆ Tomodachi Daisakusen! is the third Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the Wii U, released on November 26, 2015, in Japan. Coinciding with the series' 15th Anniversary, the game includes an original 15th Anniversary short animation produced in collaboration with Studio Ghibli, and the first printing of the bundle version that includes additional 15th Anniversary branded goods.The game features the brand new Tomodachi Daisakusen! mode, with Katsu-chan befriending animals to become the most popular person in the neighborhood. Other modes from past Wii U titles also make a return. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 2 === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 2, also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Dokodon! Mystery Adventure, is the third Taiko no Tatsujin game exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS, released on June 16, 2016, in Japan. The game features over 70 songs and introduces a new Mystery Adventure mode, which adds an RPG adventure to the game. In this mode, Don-chan and Katsu-chan explore Mystery Spots around the world. As the players advance through the story, the player fights in battles and allies with characters. A party can have up to eight characters. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! === Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session!, also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Sesson de Dodon ga Don!, was released exclusively for PlayStation 4 in Japan and most parts of Asia on October 26, 2017 and in North America, Europe and Australia on November 2, 2018. Together with Drum 'n' Fun!, it is the first game of the series to be officially localized overseas in North America for over a decade, as well as the very first official European and Australian release from the series overall. The game is digital-exclusive for the NA, EU and AU markets, as opposed to both physical and digital for Japan and Asia markets. The game has the Friend Session Mode that lets players play against the online play data of other players, and the Guest Session Mode where players can challenge characters from other franchises. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! === Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!, also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version!, was released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was released in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea on July 19, 2018, and in Southeast Asia on August 9. It was released in the US, Europe and Australia on November 2. Together with the first PS4 Taiko game, it is the first game of the series to be officially localized overseas in North America for over a decade, as well as the very first official European and Australian release from the series overall. The game is digital-exclusive for the North America region, but available in both physical and digital in Europe as well as the bundle that also packages the Tatacon drum controller with the game. It makes use of the motion controls of the console's Joy-Con controllers to simulate the use of drumsticks. The game also features exclusive songs from Super Mario Odyssey, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, and Splatoon 2. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack, also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Dokodon RPG Pack!, is a re-release of Rhythmic Adventure 1 (Don to Katsu no Jikū Daibōken) and Rhythmic Adventure 2 (Dokodon! Mystery Adventure), bundled into one game and was released on the Nintendo Switch on 26 November 2020 in Japan and Asian countries and 3 December in Europe and North America. Rhythmic Adventure Pack is the first Taiko no Tatsujin game to feature a story mode translated into English. In addition to the two RPG modes, Taiko Mode was also included and featured 6 new songs not included in the original releases. The DLC songs from the original games are not included in the game. Rhythmic Adventure Pack is available physically in Japan and Asia; however, only a digital version will be available in Europe and North America. === Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master! === Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master! is the first title available exclusively for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows, offered as part of Xbox Game Pass and released worldwide on January 27, 2022. It contains over 70 songs and features local and online multiplayer modes. Paid downloadable songs are planned to be added in the future. === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival === Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is an entry for the Nintendo Switch that was released on September 23, 2022. == In other media == === Collaborations === Taiko no Tatsujin frequently hosts collaboration campaigns with other video game franchises and companies. Collaboration efforts include porting signature songs into Taiko no Tatsujin games, sometimes with special dancers and background designs. In return Taiko no Tatsujin elements are shown as guest appearances in other media. Notable entities collaborated with the series include: Ace Attorney Assassination Classroom Attack on Titan Chain Chronicle Doraemon Groove Coaster Hatsune Miku Hello Kitty The Idolmaster The Idolmaster Must Songs Presented by Taiko no Tatsujin Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Ghost Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Zi-O Kirby The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Mario Kart Arcade GP DX maimai Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Neon Genesis Evangelion One Piece Pokémon Puzzle & Dragons Sachiko Kobayashi Sound Voltex Splatoon Studio Ghibli Super Mario Tamagotchi Tekken 7 Touhou Project Ultraman X Ys I & II Chronicles Yo-kai Watch 2 Yo-kai Watch 3 === Spin-offs === From 2005, Kids Station broadcast 26 3-minute shorts of the Taiko no Tatsujin characters in clay anime. A manga version of the series was also serialized in Comic Bom Bom. Mini versions of the game appear in the Namco game Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 when the main characters is equipped with a costume resembling a drum, and in the Nintendo DS game Nodame Cantabile. Playable Taiko no Tatsujin machines also appear in Yakuza 5. == Reception == Taiko no Tatsujin games generally received favourable reviews from critics. Most published console and handheld releases received Famitsu Review Scores of over 30, out of a total of 40. Taiko: Drum Master attained a 77-point Metacritic score from 35 reviews.As of 2019, the game series has sold over 10 million copies on consoles. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website (in Japanese)

Nintendo Switch

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Action role-playing

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Released on July 29, it is the fourth installment of the open-world Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, and the tenth main entry in the Xeno series. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 depicts the consequences of the worlds featured in Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and concludes the trilogy's overall narrative. The development team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the first two entries in the series, while featuring content and combat gameplay from previous Xeno entries. The game was announced February 9th, 2022, and released July 29th the same year. Like the first two entries, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe.In gameplay, the game is similar in story writing, but very different to previous entries in a mechanic perspective. The game takes place in Aionios, where two warring nations, Keves and Agnus, engage in perpetual war with soldiers with ten-year lifespans. The story follows Noah and his two childhood friends from Keves, and Mio and her two fellow servicemen from Agnus, who all gain a mysterious power and decide to cooperate to find safety. Through this journey, they uncover the mystery behind this perpetual war and the nature of their world. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was received positively by critics, who praised its story, gameplay, music, characters, and scale, while criticism was focused on technical and graphical issues. By September 2022, it had sold 1.72 million copies. == Gameplay == Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an action role-playing game with a large open world to explore, being the sixth title in the Xenoblade series. Unlike previous Xenoblade series entries, the game allows for seven party members to participate in battles at once, including the main party and an additional "Hero" character. Up to 19 Heroes can be recruited to the party by completing story events or sidequests, each possessing different skills and abilities. Party members will also gain the ability to change their character class, granting them access to different abilities. Under certain conditions, specific pairs of party members—Noah and Mio; Lanz and Sena; and Eunie and Taion—can utilize the Interlink system to combine into an Ouroboros, a larger form with more powerful moves. Like the previous entries, the game employs an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that affects in-game events, such as the availability of quests and items. Similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, the game takes place on a continuous open world, featuring a fast travel option for players to travel more quickly through the largest open world map featured in the series to date. When traversing the map, players can now turn on a quest navigation mode that will mark a line on the ground to follow if they are unsure of how to reach their destination. === Battle system === Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has an action-based battle system, where the player manually moves the current lead character in real-time, and party members "auto attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Unlike past entries, players have the ability to swap between characters in the middle of combat. Party members use abilities called "Arts". Some Arts may deal bonus damage or inflict a status ailment, depending on a character's position in relation to the enemy. Each character has a starting moveset based on a Class. Classes consist of different styles of fighting, which feature different abilities. There are 24 total classes currently available in the game. As a character continuously uses Arts in battle they will fill up a special gauge called the Talent Gauge. Talent Arts are special moves unique to a character that can be performed once the Talent gauge is full. Talent Arts are all unique—some will grant bonus damage against a dazed enemy, and others will regenerate health for any allies within an area. In addition to Arts, the "Break, Topple, Daze" combo will temporarily stun enemies in combat.Every tutorial the player receives is archived under the Tips section in the options menu. The Training Drills feature allows people to redo any combat tutorial to ensure they understand a specific mechanic. This tutorial system is greatly improved from all previous installments in the series, guiding the player in the correct direction from the beginning of the game.Similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, this game features the "Chain Attack" mechanic. A gauge slowly fills as party members hit their opponents on the enemy players, and filling the gauge allows the player to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. This allows a player to select a special move on a menu with 3 options, with moves based on a character's current Class. After a player has selected one of the options, the Chain Attack turn begins. The goal of each turn is to get over 99 TP (Tactical Points). TP is rewarded on each move during the turn. The player is able to select a move from each character, where the game rewards the player by adding TP to the gauge for the current turn in the attack. TP is rewarded based on the current Class the character has equipped, the amount of times the character has been used during the chain attack, and various other conditions. By achieving over 99 TP during the turn, the attack ends for that turn. The attack goes on for as long as the party gauge is not empty. == Plot == === Setting and characters === Set after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles (2010) and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017), Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in the world of Aionios, where the mechanically proficient nation of Keves and the ether-oriented nation of Agnus are at constant war with one another. The world is divided into colonies, each with their own giant metal mech called a Ferronis, which trap the life force of fallen enemy soldiers in a Flame Clock. The wars are fought by engineered soldiers with artificially limited lifespans of ten years, as they fight to fill their colony's Flame Clock in hopes of receiving a Homecoming ceremony at the end of their term. Among both forces are "off-seers", soldiers who play special flutes in rituals to send off the dead, functioning as a short funeral. The game features six main characters, including two protagonists: Noah, a Kevesi off-seer accompanied by his childhood friends Lanz and Eunie; and Mio, an Agnian off-seer accompanied by fellow servicemen Taion and Sena. === Story === After a victorious battle against an Agnian colony, Kevesi soldiers Noah, Lanz, and Eunie, and their Nopon support, Riku, are given a special mission to intercept a mysterious airship. However, when they reach the area, they encounter an Agnian squad consisting of Mio, Sena, and Taion, and their Nopon support, Manana. As they battle, the airship's sole survivor, Guernica Vandham, intervenes and stops the fighting, claiming he knows their "true enemy." However, he is shot by Consul D, who is a powerful being known as a Moebius and part of an organization of the same name that controls the war between Keves and Agnus. D attacks Noah and Mio's teams, forcing Guernica to activate the Ouroboros Stone he was smuggling and imbuing Noah and Mio's teams with its power. D is forced to retreat, and a mortally wounded Guernica instructs the six to head for the "City" at Swordmarch, where they can find answers. Realizing that the Consuls have ordered both Keves and Agnus to hunt them down, Noah and Mio's teams are forced to band together into a single party and start making their way to Swordmarch, liberating colonies along the way by destroying their Flame Clocks with a sword called "Lucky Seven" given to Noah by Riku, hidden inside his normal weapon. The Queen of Keves attacks the party with the Annihilator, a weapon of mass destruction built into Keves Castle, and threatens to destroy the liberated colonies with it, forcing the party to detour to Keves Castle. At the castle, the group destroys the Annihilator and discovers that the soldiers of both Keves and Agnus are actually clones forced to fight each other. They are then confronted by Consul N, a man physically identical to Noah, and the Queen of Keves, Melia Antiqua, from Xenoblade Chronicles. The party defeats "Melia", who is revealed to be a robotic imposter. After escaping the castle, the party encounters the Lost Numbers, who are led by Guernica's daughter Monica. Monica leads them to the City, which is populated by humans with regular lifespans who oppose the Moebius as well. Monica explains that the war between Keves and Agnus is orchestrated by Moebius so they can harvest the life energy from the bloodshed to continue living, and then replace the losses with clones to repeat the cycle. The real Queens of Keves and Agnus created the power of Ouroboros to oppose Moebius before going into hiding. Monica then tasks the party to go to the prison underneath Agnus Castle and rescue a soldier named Ghondor, who is revealed to be Monica's daughter and knows the location of the Queens. The group stages a prison break, but they are ambushed by N and his partner Consul M, a woman physically identical to Mio; the party is defeated and captured, and only Ghondor escapes. The party is taken to Agnus Castle to be executed, where Noah lives through N's memories and learns that N and M lived countless lives failing to stop Moebius, leading him to accept a Faustian bargain with Moebius' leader Z to revive M and spend eternity with her; Noah and Mio are reincarnations of N and M. It is revealed that M used her psychic powers to switch bodies with Mio, saving her at the cost of her own life. The party drives off N and destroys the robotic imposter Queen of Agnus, then awakens the true Queen, Nia, from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. D ambushes them and wounds Nia, but the party kills him in battle. Nia awakens and explains that in the past, the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 were parallel universes after being split in two, but would inevitably merge back together, destroying all life on both planets in the process. In order to avoid this, Nia and Melia collaborated across the two universes to create Origin, which would act as an ark to store all the data and memories of both worlds and then rebuild them once the universes merged. However, Z captured Melia and hijacked Origin for his own ends, creating the current world where Moebius feeds off the endless warfare. With Nia's knowledge, the party storms Origin, defeating N and freeing Melia. They confront Z himself, who is a manifestation of Origin's digitized souls' fear of the future and desire to stay in the 'endless now'. N and M, who remained spiritually inside Noah and Mio, return in spirit form and sacrifice themselves to destroy Z for good. With Origin reactivated, Noah and the party decide to proceed with the reconstruction process for both worlds. However, this would require the people of Keves and Agnus to be separated and returned to their respective worlds. The Kevesi and Agnian party members say their farewells and Mio and Noah share a kiss with each other before the worlds separate, but promise to find a way to reunite one day. Melia looks fondly upon Shulk's Monado REX while Nia reunites with Poppi and looks upon a picture of her with her friends. In a post-credits scene, right after both universes have been split and rebuilt, Noah, Lanz, Eunie, and Joran are reincarnated in their world. As they head for a fireworks show, Noah hears the sound of Mio's flute playing and decides to follow the music. == Development == According to Tetsuya Takahashi, creator of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, the key visual depicting the broken sword of the Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles (2010) and the wounded Titan of Uraya from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017) was first conceived between the end of development of Xenoblade Chronicles and the beginning of development of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In May 2018, Takahashi pitched Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as a new game concept to Nintendo. The first production group of Monolith Soft, known for their work on the Xenoblade Chronicles series, started development on the game in August 2018 after Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country went gold. === Music === As with previous numbered games in the series, the game's soundtrack was written by Yasunori Mitsuda, Manami Kiyota, ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo "CHiCO" Yamanaka), and Kenji Hiramatsu. They were joined by Mariam Abounnasr, who arranged tracks for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In order to create a sound that had not been heard before, Monolith Soft had custom flutes created in different sizes and tuned to different scales resembling flutes from the game. The first track Mitsuda worked on for the game was "A Life Sent On", its main theme. Takahashi told Mitsuda in advance to interweave the two melodies of Noah and Mio into a single piece of music, and Mitsuda seemed to have thought that creating the flutes would enable him to express himself easier. As with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Irish choral ensemble Anúna assisted in recording vocals for the game. Members Aisling and Lauren McGlynn provided vocals for tracks themed around Ouroboros and Moebius respectively, while Sara Weeda sung 'A Step Away' and the ending theme, 'Where We Belong'. == Release == Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced in February 2022, and was initially set for release in September. It was later shifted to an earlier release date of July 29. The game is described as featuring a narrative that will depict the respective futures for the worlds of the previous two entries. Following the announcement, a blog post on the official Nintendo website revealed preliminary details about the game's development. Takahashi was confirmed to be working on the game in an executive director position, while various other returning staff members from previous Xenoblade Chronicles games were revealed to be reprising their duties, including the composing team behind the first two entries and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 lead character designer Masatsugu Saito, returning to work on the game's art alongside Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles artist Koichi Mugitani. === Special edition === A collector's edition was announced on April 19, 2022 to be sold exclusively on My Nintendo Store, following the announcement of the July 29th release date. The collector's edition contains an art book, a steelbook case, and an outer collectible packaging. Preorders opened on June 7, but due to unforeseen logistical circumstances, the My Nintendo Store crashed on that day, logging various users out, leaving many unable to preorder the game. Furthermore, as a result of the release date being moved up in the year, production for the collector's edition ended up being hindered, causing certain Nintendo stores to sell the contents of the collector's edition, minus the game, as a separate item in the UK, while the extra contents of the North American special edition were delayed to ship in Fall 2022. == Reception == Xenoblade Chronicles 3 received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.Nintendo Life enjoyed the changes to the combat system, specifically praising the new ability to combine character abilities, "Interlinking is a slick addition to the action here, it adds real drama and excitement to battles and is, most importantly, easy to get your head around." Destructoid liked the visuals, saying they were impressive despite the Switch's constraints, "Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is impressive looking by any standard. I took a ton of screenshots of this gorgeous world for fun." While feeling the ending didn't adequately resolve the story, Nintendo World Report wrote the game had the best balanced combat in the series, "It is challenging yet excellently paced. I rarely found myself over or underleveled." IGN criticized the pacing of the game, saying the included filler was unnecessary with the 150-hour runtime, "one section that has you go undercover to perform menial tasks, or another that has you trotting across the world to collect pieces of metal, and I often felt like my time wasn't being respected." GameSpot praised the new Master Arts for continuously evolving the combat system, "I am well over 120 hours in now and I am still unlocking new Master Arts, leveling up different classes, and uncovering powerful new tactics." Game Informer felt the world didn't have enough to do, and all of the biomes seemed to blend into each other at a certain point, "Beyond challenging monsters, collecting respawnable drops, and recruiting heroes at Keves or Agnus settlements, there's not much to do or see."PCMag wrote that the Switch seemed unable to keep up with the game's large vistas and combat, "here are noticeable resolution drops and object pop-in abounds. The frame rate isn't particularly steady, either, and the game can chug at times." Eurogamer praised the game for capturing the sense of freedom found in older JRPGs, "the sensation of running through endless fields of long grass with your companions, facing impossible odds with a spring in your step." Polygon liked the new optional content, feeling it was some of the series' best, "There are well over 100 side quests, and though their objectives could be rote, each told me something about how one lives in this world. It made me care about Aionios as an amalgamation of the land and its peoples." === Sales === Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 112,728 physical copies being sold. It was also the bestselling physical game during its first week of release in the UK, where it had the biggest launch for the entire Xeno franchise in terms of copies sold. As of September 30, 2022, it has sold 1.72 million copies. === Accolades === == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Miitopia

Role-playing

Miitopia is a role-playing video game developed and published by Nintendo originally for the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS version was released in Japan in 2016 and worldwide the following year, with a remastered version being released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. The game features customizable Mii characters in a turn-based battle system, following the story of a group of heroes battling a character known as the Dark Lord who is stealing the faces of Miitopia's residents. The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising its creative life simulation elements and humor while criticizing its combat system and repetitiveness. == Gameplay == Miitopia is a role-playing video game with life simulation elements, starting with standard character classes or "jobs" such as warriors and mages; as the game progresses, more classes appear. Playable characters are created with Mii avatar and have certain personality traits which influence their role in combat. Similarly to Tomodachi Life, the relationships between Miis outside of combat affects the game: for example, Miis not getting along with one another can make combat more difficult. Miitopia supports the ability to import Miis and their trait settings from Tomodachi Life, as well as from a player's friend list. The game supports Nintendo's line of Amiibo figures, which allow players to use unique cosmetics on their Miis. The Nintendo Switch remaster also introduces a new makeup and wig feature which allows players to further customize their in-game characters, including options not available on the console's Mii Maker application. The Switch remaster also includes a horse that can help in combat, outings that let your characters gain relationship EXP, and a secret final dungeon after the Tower of Dread, the Tower of Despair, yet all of these are not included in the 3DS version. == Plot == The game begins with the main protagonist, a Mii of the player's choice, arriving in Greenhorne Town, which is soon attacked by the main antagonist, the Dark Lord, who wields the ability to steal faces from Miis and use them to control peaceful creatures, turning the creatures into monsters. The protagonist chooses a character class and is sent on a journey to stop the Dark Lord. Along their journey, the player creates more companions, meets the Great Sage, and reaches Greenhorne castle, continuing the quest after the Dark Lord steals the faces of the King and the Princess. Afterwards, the team enters the kingdom of Neksdor, only to be attacked by the Dark Lord, who steals the protagonist's companions and renders the protagonist without a class. After the guardian provides the hero with new powers, they head out through Neksdor, meeting three new companions and the Genie of the Lamp. The team continues to the Realm of the Fey, where the Dark Lord attacks again, stealing the hero's companions and their character class again, prompting the guardian to provide a new group of character classes. The hero is tasked with saving the three Fab Fairies of the Realm, who provide the team the way to the Dark Lord's castle in Karkaton. Before they can open the door, the Fab Fairies have their faces stolen by the Dark Lord. After retrieving their faces, the Fab Fairies open the door to Karkaton, and the team head out. Upon arrival, the Dark Lord attacks again, stealing the new companions, but failing to steal the hero's powers. The hero is tasked with saving all of their friends, with some help from the Great Sage. The team fights the Dark Lord, and upon defeating them, the heroes discover that the Dark Lord was a common Mii possessed by a small blue wisp known as the Dark Curse. Enraged, the Dark Curse tries to possess the player's Mii, until the Great Sage intervenes and becomes possessed instead, becoming the Darker Lord. After this you have the ability to swap between classes, which also includes classes that the Dark Lord had restricted your hero from. The hero and their team track down the Darker Lord through the lands of Powdered Peaks, Peculia and Nimbus, before reaching the Darker Lord's Domain in The Sky Scraper, fighting previous bosses along the way. Upon reaching the top of The Sky Scraper, the heroes go to the Otherworld for the final showdown against the Darker Lord. The hero and their team are then prompted to split up to fight the Darker Lord. Afterwards, the Darker Lord steals the faces of six heroes, evolving into the Darkest Lord for the fight with the last four members. After the Darkest Lord is defeated, the Great Sage is free. The Sage quickly traps the Dark Curse, and explains its history to the hero: it was once a normal Mii, rejected due to having a boring face, which they then decide to get rid of, and they faded away into a soul of hatred, malice and evil, which became the Dark Curse. The hero is given an opportunity to either destroy the Dark Curse or provide them with a new face and body. If the hero provides the Dark Curse with a new life, the Great Sage takes the Curse and travels with them to have them atone for their mistakes while the team is praised for saving Miitopia. If the hero decides to destroy the Dark Curse, they use their divine power to destroy the Dark Curse, in which they are also praised for saving Miitopia. After the credits, the player unlocks two post-game areas: Galados Isle and New Lumos. The player can also unlock the Elf and Vampire fighting class after doing certain quests. == Reception == Miitopia received mixed or average reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Famitsu awarded both versions a score of 31/40.Many critics have drawn comparisons between Miitopia and Tomadachi Life due to the two involving Miis and having similar mechanics, despite having different premises. Jeff Cork of Game Informer described Miitopia as a hybrid between Tomadachi Life and an old-school RPG, allowing for a "simple but effective" player experience. While Jonathan Leack from GameRevolution draws a similar comparison between Miitopia and Tomadachi Life, his opinion of the former was less favorable, noting that the interactions between characters in Miitopia were "let down by uninteresting writing", and were far less humorous as compared to Tomadachi Life.Another criticism of Leack's is the lack of player involvement. Due to a lack of player choices while exploring Miitopia's various game areas, Leack described feeling as though the game was on autopilot for the majority of its playtime. Similarly, Heidi Kemps of GameSpot felt as though Miitopia was a "slow slog you mostly watch rather than play", and Jon Mundy of Pocket Gamer discussed the lack of challenge and player input in the gameplay. Allegra Frank of Polygon agreed to an extent, saying that the game often let the Miis "do their thing", but found that this was often still enough to keep her entertained. Frank highlighted that the uninvolved segments of the game were balanced out by its overall dynamic nature, saying that the game periodically shaking up the entire cast, map, and combat occurred often enough to keep her engaged.Despite the combat being an essential part of the game, it was not universally praised. Leack criticized the unchallenging combat in the earlier stages, while Frank criticized the high frequency of battles leading to repetitive gameplay. The existence of an auto-battle mechanic mitigated this issue, but did not completely solve it. Equally criticized was the AI which controlled all the Miis in combat, save for the player's own Mii. Kemps and Frank both noted that a lack of player control over the battle party's actions could lead to frustrating gameplay. Nevertheless, Frank praised the creative "hidden intricacies" of the turn-based battle system, due to characters' jobs and personality traits having impacts on their combat style.Creativity is what most critics cite to be Miitopia's greatest asset. Cork, Kemps, Leack, and Frank agree that the creative spin on a more traditional RPG concept is ultimately the highlight of the game. == Sales == By February 2017, the 3DS version had sold over 168,000 copies in Japan.During its first week in the UK, the Switch port sold 36% more copies at launch than the 3DS version, debuting at #2 behind Resident Evil Village. In Japan, the Switch port launched at #2 behind Rune Factory 5 with 72,725 physical copies sold, three times the sales of the 3DS version. By its second week of release, the Miitopia Switch port surpassed competition to take the #1 weekly sales spot in Japan, with 34,451 physical copies sold. According to Media Create, the Switch port debuted at #1 in South Korea.As of March 2022, the Nintendo Switch version had sold 1.63 million copies worldwide. == Legacy == Two music tracks from Miitopia, "Boss Battle Time" and "Boss: The Darkest Lord", were featured in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A Nintendo Switch port of the game, developed by Grezzo, was released on May 21, 2021. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Action role-playing

Xenoblade Chronicles is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It is a part of the Xeno metaseries created by Tetsuya Takahashi, but was formed after Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft in 2007. The series began with the original Xenoblade Chronicles game, published for the Nintendo Wii in 2010; it was a critical and commercial success, and spawned sequels. The series has been both critically and commercially successful. Xenoblade Chronicles was well-received for its world design, music, and stories. The series has been represented in other gaming franchises, including the Super Smash Bros. and Project X Zone series. == Common elements == The stories and characters vary with each game in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, however series creator Tetsuya Takahashi believes that the series is defined by the players' desire to remain in the game world. The core concept of these games is to keep players immersed in these worlds, allowing them to freely explore. === Gameplay === The gameplay within the Xenoblade Chronicles series uses a real-time action-based battle system, where the player manually moves a character in real-time, and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Manually input attacks, called "Arts", may also be performed, but in a limited fashion. Battle Arts are only available after a "cool down" period that occurs after every use, while character specific "Talent Arts" only become available after enough auto-attacks are executed. Both party members and enemies have a finite number of health points, and attacks deplete this value. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but the game is lost if the player's character loses all their HP and has no means of being revived. Health may be restored by the player by using healing Arts in battle, or the player may let characters' HP regenerate automatically outside of battle. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which allows the characters to grow stronger by leveling up and learning new Arts. Arts for each character must be set by the player on their respective set up, called a "Battle Palette", outside of battles. Additionally, exploring large environments is a defining aspect of gameplay. === Setting === While the Xenoblade games do not share any setting directly, its universes are directly linked except for Xenoblade Chronicles X which is regarded as a spiritual successor. However, it is represented as a single episode in the overall universe. Two colossal titans known as the Bionis and the Mechonis serve as the setting for Xenoblade Chronicles; with the Future Connected epilogue taking place in a smaller area, the Bionis's shoulder. Xenoblade Chronicles X takes place on an alien planet known as Mira. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and its prequel Torna – The Golden Country take place in the world of Alrest, which contains several titans that house many different nations. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in the world of Aionios, a large continent made up of areas from Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. ==== Fictional chronology ==== In the series's fictional chronology, Xenoblade Chronicles is the first game to take place. Its epilogue, Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected is set one year after the events of the main game. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes place in a parallel universe, occurring simultaneously to the events of Xenoblade Chronicles. Its prequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country is set 500 years before the events of the game. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place an unspecified amount of time after the previous games, and depicts the future of the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. === Characters === Each game in the series introduces its own set of characters. There are a number of recurring character archetypes. Tracing back to Xenogears, the series has always included a character with the name beginning with "Van-". Vangarre appears in Xenoblade Chronicles, Jack Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles X, Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Guernica Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. There has been numerous callbacks to KOS-MOS from Xenosaga. She appears as a rare Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Her general appearance has been reflected in several characters' designs, including Elma's true form in Xenoblade Chronicles X and Poppi QTπ in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Additionally, Nia's awakening scene in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 bears a strong resemblance to KOS-MOS' introduction scene in Xenosaga Episode I. A race of small furry creatures known as the Nopon have appeared in every title in the series. In contrast to their appearances, the Nopon race, in general, tend to be greedy and selfish by nature. In every game, the names of Nopon non-player characters have been carried over to the next installment as the main Nopon character: Satata (Tatsu in Japan) from Xenoblade Chronicles appears in Xenoblade Chronicles X. The Xenoblade Chronicles X incarnation of Tatsu has a major rival known as Tora, who also appears in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as a playable Nopon character. == Games == There are four main games under the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Each game depicts a single episode within the flow of a larger time and space. Despite the loose connections between each entry, they each feature their own cast of characters, setting, and story. Xenoblade Chronicles Shulk and his friends embark on a quest to get revenge against the Mechon for the assault on their home. As they journey along the backs of the titans, they unravel the secrets of a powerful weapon known as the Monado. It was originally released on the Wii and later ported to the New Nintendo 3DS as Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, and remastered as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch.Xenoblade Chronicles X An interstellar war forces humanity to flee a destroyed Earth. After crashing on the uncharted planet Mira, Elma and her team race against time to retrieve the Lifehold, a structure that contains thousands of lives. It was released on the Wii U.Xenoblade Chronicles 2 In a world of dying titans, Rex meets the living weapon Pyra and promises to bring her to the fabled paradise Elysium. It was released on the Nintendo Switch.Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country Set 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Lora and Jin fight against Malos and his army before the inevitable fall of their kingdom, Torna. It was released on the Nintendo Switch as both a standalone game and as an expansion for Xenoblade Chronicles 2.Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected Set one year after the events of the main story in the original Xenoblade Chronicles. Taking place on the Bionis' Shoulder, an area not explored in the original game, Future Connected follows Melia, Shulk, and Riki's daughter Nene and adopted son Kino as they seek to reclaim the city of Alcamoth. It was released on the Nintendo Switch as part of the remaster Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in the world of Aionios, with two warring nations: Keves and Agnus. It features a narrative depicting the respective futures for the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Main protagonists Noah from Keves and Mio from Agnus must put aside their differences in order to face the larger threat. It was released on the Nintendo Switch. === Future === Xenoblade Chronicles 3's third and final wave of the downloadable content will include a major story expansion to be released by the end of 2023. Monolith Soft has teased that the volume could be as large as Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country.In regards to the future of the franchise, series director and producer Genki Yokota ensured that the series will go on and that they would like to keep it going for as long as possible. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the conclusion to the numbered trilogy, however Tetsuya Takahashi indicated that it is not the end of the series. He suggested that those who play the game and the stories in the expansion pass can imagine what lies ahead for the series. Series director Koh Kojima expressed an interest in making Xenoblade Chronicles X2. == Development == === Origin === The staff at Monolith Soft was left in a state of low morale after the commercial failure of the Xenosaga series which ultimately led to its premature end. In July 2006, Tetsuya Takahashi was struck by the idea of people living on top of enormous titans, so he wrote the concept down and turned it into a 3D model. The project was initially called Monado: Beginning of the World, but was changed to Xenoblade in Japan to honor Tetsuya Takahashi's previous work on the Xeno series and for his hard work on the game. Nintendo of Europe announced that they were publishing the game, adding Chronicles to Xenoblade. Due to no plans to release the title in North America, the fans launched a fan-campaign known as Operation Rainfall to convince Nintendo to bring Xenoblade Chronicles to North America along with The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. After months of silence, Nintendo of America confirmed that the title was headed for North America in April 2012.Monolith Soft began development of Xenoblade Chronicles, an action role-playing game for the Nintendo Wii that was released in Japan on June 10, 2010. The game was later localized by Nintendo of Europe and was released in Europe and Australia on August 19, 2011, and September 1, 2011, respectively. It was then brought over to North America as a GameStop exclusive on April 6, 2012. Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, a port handled by Monster Games, was released worldwide in April 2015 for the New Nintendo 3DS. == In other media == The Xenoblade Chronicles series has been represented in different mediums. Shulk appears as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Pyra and Mythra also appear as a dual character as downloadable content for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In addition to Shulk, Dunban from the original Xenoblade Chronicles as well as Rex and Nia from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 appear as Mii Fighter costumes in Ultimate. A Shulk amiibo figure was released in February 2015, which functions as an NPC opponent in Super Smash Bros. and unlocks costumes based on Shulk in Yoshi's Woolly World and Super Mario Maker. Fiora from the original Xenoblade Chronicles appears as a playable character in Project X Zone 2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild features the outfit worn by Rex in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.Good Smile Company has released several figures based on characters from the series, including Pyra, Mythra, KOS-MOS, Melia, and Nia. == Reception == Xenoblade Chronicles sold nearly 200,000 units in Japan by the end of 2013. In a later interview, the game sold better in the west than it did in Japan. As of December 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X sold roughly 377,000 units between Japan, France, and the United States. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sold 1.42 million copies as of June 2018, which became the best-selling title ever developed by Monolith Soft. Its sales performance exceeded the company's expectations in western territories. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country was also noted for surpassing their sales expectations in Japan as well. == Notes == == References ==

Nintendo Switch

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain

Puzzle

The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. Although the macrostructure of the two hemispheres appears to be almost identical, different composition of neuronal networks allows for specialized function that is different in each hemisphere. Lateralization of brain structures is based on general trends expressed in healthy patients; however, there are numerous counterexamples to each generalization. Each human's brain develops differently, leading to unique lateralization in individuals. This is different from specialization, as lateralization refers only to the function of one structure divided between two hemispheres. Specialization is much easier to observe as a trend, since it has a stronger anthropological history.The best example of an established lateralization is that of Broca's and Wernicke's areas, where both are often found exclusively on the left hemisphere. Function lateralization, such as semantics, intonation, accentuation, and prosody, has since been called into question and largely been found to have a neuronal basis in both hemispheres. Another example is that each hemisphere in the brain tends to represent one side of the body. In the cerebellum, this is the same body side, but in the forebrain this is predominantly the contralateral side. == Lateralized functions == === Language === Language functions such as grammar, vocabulary and literal meaning are typically lateralized to the left hemisphere, especially in right-handed individuals. While language production is left-lateralized in up to 90% of right-handers, it is more bilateral, or even right-lateralized, in approximately 50% of left-handers.Broca's area and Wernicke's area, associated with the production of speech and comprehension of speech, respectively, are located in the left cerebral hemisphere for about 95% of right-handers but about 70% of left-handers.: 69  Individuals who speak multiple languages demonstrate separate speech areas for each language. === Sensory processing === The processing of basic sensory information is lateralized by being divided into left and right sides of the body or the space around the body. In vision, about half the neurons of the optic nerve from each eye cross to project to the opposite hemisphere, and about half do not cross to project to the hemisphere on the same side. This means that the left side of the visual field is processed largely by the visual cortex of the right hemisphere and vice versa for the right side of the visual field. In hearing, about 90% of the neurons of the auditory nerve from one ear cross to project to the auditory cortex of the opposite hemisphere. In the sense of touch, most of the neurons from the skin cross to project to the somatosensory cortex of the opposite hemisphere. Because of this functional division of the left and right sides of the body and of the space that surrounds it, the processing of information in the sensory cortices is essentially identical. That is, the processing of visual and auditory stimuli, spatial manipulation, facial perception, and artistic ability are represented bilaterally. Numerical estimation, comparison and online calculation depend on bilateral parietal regions while exact calculation and fact retrieval are associated with left parietal regions, perhaps due to their ties to linguistic processing. === Value systems === Rather than just being a series of places where different brain modules occur, there are running similarities in the kind of function seen in each side, for instance how right-side impairment of drawing ability making patients draw the parts of the subject matter with wholly incoherent relationships, or where the kind of left-side damage seen in language impairment not damaging the patient's ability to catch the significance of intonation in speech. This has led British psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist to view the two hemispheres as having different value systems, where the left hemisphere tends to reduce complex matters such as ethics to rules and measures, and the right hemisphere is disposed to the holistic and metaphorical. == Clinical significance == Depression is linked with a hyperactive right hemisphere, with evidence of selective involvement in "processing negative emotions, pessimistic thoughts and unconstructive thinking styles", as well as vigilance, arousal and self-reflection, and a relatively hypoactive left hemisphere, "specifically involved in processing pleasurable experiences" and "relatively more involved in decision-making processes". Additionally, "left hemisphere lesions result in an omissive response bias or error pattern whereas right hemisphere lesions result in a commissive response bias or error pattern." The delusional misidentification syndromes, reduplicative paramnesia and Capgras delusion are also often the result of right hemisphere lesions. === Hemisphere damage === Damage to either the right or left hemisphere, and its resulting deficits provide insight into the function of the damaged area. Left hemisphere damage has many effects on language production and perception. Damage or lesions to the right hemisphere can result in a lack of emotional prosody or intonation when speaking. Right hemisphere damage also has grave effects on understanding discourse. People with damage to the right hemisphere have a reduced ability to generate inferences, comprehend and produce main concepts, and a reduced ability to manage alternative meanings. Furthermore, people with right hemisphere damage often exhibit discourse that is abrupt and perfunctory or verbose and excessive. They can also have pragmatic deficits in situations of turn taking, topic maintenance and shared knowledge. Lateral brain damage can also affect visual perceptual spatial resolution. People with left hemisphere damage may have impaired perception of high resolution, or detailed, aspects of an image. People with right hemisphere damage may have impaired perception of low resolution, or big picture, aspects of an image. === Plasticity === If a specific region of the brain, or even an entire hemisphere, is injured or destroyed, its functions can sometimes be assumed by a neighboring region in the same hemisphere or the corresponding region in the other hemisphere, depending upon the area damaged and the patient's age. When injury interferes with pathways from one area to another, alternative (indirect) connections may develop to communicate information with detached areas, despite the inefficiencies. === Broca's aphasia === Broca's aphasia is a specific type of expressive aphasia and is so named due to the aphasia that results from damage or lesions to the Broca's area of the brain, that exists most commonly in the left inferior frontal hemisphere. Thus, the aphasia that develops from the lack of functioning of the Broca's area is an expressive and non-fluent aphasia. It is called 'non-fluent' due to the issues that arise because Broca's area is critical for language pronunciation and production. The area controls some motor aspects of speech production and articulation of thoughts to words and as such lesions to the area result in specific non-fluent aphasia. === Wernicke's aphasia === Wernicke's aphasia is the result of damage to the area of the brain that is commonly in the left hemisphere above the Sylvian fissure. Damage to this area causes primarily a deficit in language comprehension. While the ability to speak fluently with normal melodic intonation is spared, the language produced by a person with Wernicke's aphasia is riddled with semantic errors and may sound nonsensical to the listener. Wernicke's aphasia is characterized by phonemic paraphasias, neologism or jargon. Another characteristic of a person with Wernicke's aphasia is that they are unconcerned by the mistakes that they are making. == Society and culture == === Misapplication === Terence Hines states that the research on brain lateralization is valid as a research program, though commercial promoters have applied it to promote subjects and products far outside the implications of the research. For example, the implications of the research have no bearing on psychological interventions such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and neurolinguistic programming, brain-training equipment, or management training. === Popular psychology === Some popularizations oversimplify the science about lateralization, by presenting the functional differences between hemispheres as being more absolute than is actually the case.: 107  Interestingly, research has shown quite opposite function of brain lateralisation, i.e. left hemisphere creatively and chaotically links between concepts and right hemisphere tends to adhere to specific date and time, although generally adhering to the pattern of left-brain as linguistic interpretation and right brain as spatio-temporal. === Sex differences === In the 19th century and to a lesser extent the 20th, it was thought that each side of the brain was associated with a specific gender: the left corresponding with masculinity and the right with femininity and each half could function independently. The right side of the brain was seen as the inferior and thought to be prominent in women, savages, children, criminals, and the insane. A prime example of this in fictional literature can be seen in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. == History == === Broca === One of the first indications of brain function lateralization resulted from the research of French physician Pierre Paul Broca, in 1861. His research involved the male patient nicknamed "Tan", who had a speech deficit (aphasia); "tan" was one of the few words he could articulate, hence his nickname. In Tan's autopsy, Broca determined he had a syphilitic lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere. This left frontal lobe brain area (Broca's area) is an important speech production region. The motor aspects of speech production deficits caused by damage to Broca's area are known as expressive aphasia. In clinical assessment of this type of aphasia, patients have difficulty producing speech. === Wernicke === German physician Karl Wernicke continued in the vein of Broca's research by studying language deficits unlike expressive aphasia. Wernicke noted that not every deficit was in speech production; some were linguistic. He found that damage to the left posterior, superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area) caused language comprehension deficits rather than speech production deficits, a syndrome known as receptive aphasia. === Imaging === These seminal works on hemispheric specialization were done on patients or postmortem brains, raising questions about the potential impact of pathology on the research findings. New methods permit the in vivo comparison of the hemispheres in healthy subjects. Particularly, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) are important because of their high spatial resolution and ability to image subcortical brain structures. === Movement and sensation === In the 1940s, neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield and his neurologist colleague Herbert Jasper developed a technique of brain mapping to help reduce side effects caused by surgery to treat epilepsy. They stimulated motor and somatosensory cortices of the brain with small electrical currents to activate discrete brain regions. They found that stimulation of one hemisphere's motor cortex produces muscle contraction on the opposite side of the body. Furthermore, the functional map of the motor and sensory cortices is fairly consistent from person to person; Penfield and Jasper's famous pictures of the motor and sensory homunculi were the result. === Split-brain patients === Research by Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Wolcott Sperry in the 1960s on split-brain patients led to an even greater understanding of functional laterality. Split-brain patients are patients who have undergone corpus callosotomy (usually as a treatment for severe epilepsy), a severing of a large part of the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain and allows them to communicate. When these connections are cut, the two halves of the brain have a reduced capacity to communicate with each other. This led to many interesting behavioral phenomena that allowed Gazzaniga and Sperry to study the contributions of each hemisphere to various cognitive and perceptual processes. One of their main findings was that the right hemisphere was capable of rudimentary language processing, but often has no lexical or grammatical abilities. Eran Zaidel also studied such patients and found some evidence for the right hemisphere having at least some syntactic ability.Language is primarily localized in the left hemisphere. While the left hemisphere has proven to be more optimized for language, the right hemisphere has the capacity with emotions, such as sarcasm, that can express prosody in sentences when speaking. According to Sheppard and Hillis, "The right hemisphere is critical for perceiving sarcasm (Davis et al., 2016), integrating context required for understanding metaphor, inference, and humour, as well as recognizing and expressing affective or emotional prosody—changes in pitch, rhythm, rate, and loudness that convey emotions". One of the experiments carried out by Gazzaniga involved a split-brain male patient sitting in front of a computer screen while having words and images presented on either side of the screen, and the visual stimuli would go to either the right or left visual field, and thus the left or right brain, respectively. It was observed that if the patient was presented with an image to his left visual field (right brain), he would report not seeing anything. If he was able to feel around for certain objects, he could accurately pick out the correct object, despite not having the ability to verbalize what he saw. == Additional images == == See also == == References == == External links == Left Brain, Right Brain? Wrong == Bibliography == == Further resources ==

Nintendo Switch

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

Kart racingaugmented reality

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a 2020 racing mixed reality game. It is the fifteenth installment in the Mario Kart series, announced in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Super Mario franchise. It was developed by Velan Studios and published by Nintendo released on October 16, 2020 for the Nintendo Switch. Its toy radio-controlled cars race around the player's house, streaming video from their onboard cameras into the video game. It received favorable reviews with 1.27 million copies sold worldwide. == Gameplay == Players build racing playsets around the house. The radio controlled cars are equipped with video cameras, controlled via the Nintendo Switch. The track has many traditional Mario Kart items. The game supports up to 4 players, either human or AI. The Grand Prix mode races the player against Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings, and unlocks new customization options and costumes for the playable characters. The level creation in Home Circuit is performed by placing guidance arrows along four gates to make checkpoints which advance the player through the five-lap race. == Development == Velan Studios developed the mixed reality prototype for Home Circuit, and demonstrated it to Nintendo staff, who were "thrilled" with "its potential". The game was primarily developed by Velan Studios, in collaboration with Nintendo EPD's Production Group No. 4, Nintendo European Research & Development and Nintendo PTD.Home Circuit was first revealed in a Nintendo Direct on September 3, 2020, to celebrate the Super Mario franchise's 35th anniversary, where it was scheduled for release on October 16, 2020, with a launch price of US$99.99. A toy set featuring Mario and another set featuring Luigi, including their respective drivers, four gates, arrow signs, and a charging cable, were also announced shortly after the Direct, and pre-orders became available shortly after.Velan Studios, stated that the controls were designed to be easy to understand, while remaining faithful to the Mario Kart series. == Reception == Soon after the game's reveal, Ollie Barder of Forbes praised the concept, saying he "practically jumped for joy" at the trailer.Metacritic rated the game 75/100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.Within its first week of release in Japan, 73,918 copies were sold, making it the best-selling retail game of the week in the country.It was nominated for the category of Best Family at The Game Awards 2020. == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Fighting

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Japanese: ドラゴンボールゼノバース2, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zenobāsu Tsū) is an action role-playing fighting game developed by Dimps and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment based on the Dragon Ball franchise, and is the sequel to the 2015 game Dragon Ball Xenoverse. It was released on October 25, 2016, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on October 27 for Microsoft Windows. In Japan, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was initially only available on PlayStation 4. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch in Japan on September 7, 2017, and later released worldwide on September 22, 2017. The game was released on Stadia on December 17, 2019.According to Bandai Namco, the game had sold over 9 million copies worldwide as of November 2022. == Gameplay == The game is very similar to its predecessor in terms of gameplay. It is primarily set in 3D battle arenas modeled after notable locations in the Dragon Ball universe, with the central hub being an expanded version of Toki-Toki City, known as Conton City. As reported by the creators of the game, Conton City is seven times larger than Toki-Toki City. Players are able to freely traverse the hub world, and in some areas are capable of flying, once they have unlocked the ability to fly. Players are also able to travel to other locations such as the Namekian Village and Frieza's ship. As in the previous games, some skills have to be learned through masters and other non-player characters, some of whom are found exclusively in those additional areas. Xenoverse 2 is the fourth Dragon Ball video game to feature character customization, and allows players to choose from five races: Humans, Saiyans, Majins, Namekians and Frieza's race, each with different strengths and weaknesses. The game also features race-specific quests, minigames, and transformations (the latter of which was available only to Saiyans in the first game via the Super Saiyan forms). Players also have a much greater role in the story, as their choices can affect how the story unfolds. Multiplayer servers hold up to 3,000 players at once. The game also has a training mode called Training School. The player can use different kinds of ki blasts (Power, Homing, Rush, Paralyze and Bomb), and the ki blast type depends on the player's race or Super Soul. Additionally, players are able to transfer their save data from Dragon Ball Xenoverse. This results in a projection of the player's custom character from the previous game appearing as Toki Toki City's "Hero" in the middle of the square. Players may also select a premade avatar to serve as the "Hero" if they do not transfer save data. == Plot == Two years after the events of Dragon Ball Xenoverse, the protagonist receives a mission from Elder Kai, which involves correcting history after it has changed. They meet the Supreme Kai of Time, a deity who watches over time, and her bird, TokiToki. After meeting Elder Kai, they are granted their first mission, which is to correct Goku's battle with Raditz after he's been enhanced by dark magic. Meanwhile, Towa and Mira, who've caused history to change, have gathered allies, from different parts of the timeline. During the Attack of the Saiyans Saga, Turles attempts to intercept Goku to prevent him from assisting the Z Fighters against Nappa and Vegeta, only to be stopped by the combined forces of the Time Patroller and Goku. During the battle, Trunks and his partner, the protagonist from the first Xenoverse game, try to capture Turles, but he escapes before the Time Patroller can stop him. The protagonist then returns to the Time Nest after defeating Great Ape Nappa and Great Ape Vegeta, and correcting history. There, they are introduced to Trunks and his partner, and it is announced that TokiToki is laying an egg, which gives birth to another universe. During the Namek Saga, the Time Patroller helps Gohan and Krillin from escaping from Dodoria and Zarbon. After the battle, the Time Patroller returns to the Time Nest only to find out that Captain Ginyu had switched bodies with Vegeta. The Time Patroller and Trunks attempt to fix this but in doing so, Ginyu switches bodies with Trunks. After the mishap, Ginyu finally switches bodies with Goku. After fighting the Ginyu possessed Goku, Ginyu returns to his body and attempts to switch bodies with the Time Patroller but Goku throws a Namekian frog in the beam, causing Ginyu to switch bodies with the frog. The Time Patroller must then help Nail fight Frieza in order for Gohan and Krillin to obtain the Dragon Balls, causing Trunks to intervene and help Gohan and the Time Patroller. During Goku's fight with Frieza, Cooler, Frieza's brother, arrives to help Frieza kill Goku, but is eventually defeated by the Time Patroller and Goku. In the Androids era, Trunks tries to help Gohan defeat the Androids once and for all, but is stopped by the Time Patroller. Trunks must take a break from time patrolling. The Time Patroller then travels to the Majin Buu era to fix the distortion in which Majin Vegeta sacrificed himself to defeat Majin Buu. Broly arrives, and attempts to kill Goku, Vegeta, and Buu, but is stopped by the Time Patroller. Vegeta sacrifices himself to destroy Majin Buu, restoring the current flow of history. The Time Patroller then goes to the timeline where Goku and Vegeta defeat Kid Buu. The Time Patroller chases after him and teleports to the era where Beerus and Goku are fighting. The Time Patroller defeats the Sayian, breaking his mask and revealing him to be Bardock. Mira arrives and engages in battle with the Time Patroller. Beerus interrupts the battle with the intention to destroy Mira, Goku, the Time Patroller, and Earth. Soon after, the Time Patroller travels to the Golden Frieza Saga, in which Frieza has been resurrected and wants revenge on Goku. During the battle, Cooler shows up again. Towa hacks into the Time Nest and tricks Beerus and Whis into leaving the battle, which allows Frieza to destroy the planet. Whis is able to rewind time and the Time Patroller, along with Goku and Vegeta, kill Cooler and Frieza. There are over 80 characters in the base game. == Development == The game was originally teased by Bandai Namco Entertainment on May 16, 2016, as a new "Dragon Ball project", with it being announced on May 17, 2016. A Bandai Namco spokesperson confirmed that the game would be released on the PlayStation 4 in Japan, and for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in North America and Europe. Bandai Namco announced at E3 2016 that the game would run at a frame rate of 60 frames per second on all three platforms, would have a hub city that is seven times larger than its predecessor, and would also feature a new transportation system.An open and closed beta for Xenoverse 2 was announced by Bandai Namco in August 2016. Both the open and closed beta were available exclusively on PlayStation 4. The closed beta began on October 8, and ended on October 10, and the open beta began on October 14, and ended on October 17.The Collector's Edition of the game includes the game disc, a soundtrack CD, a collector's box, an exclusive steelbook case, a Time Patroller's Guide artbook (including an exclusive manga illustrated by Toyotarou based on the game), and a statue of Super Saiyan Goku. It is available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.A Nintendo Switch port was revealed on January 12, 2017, in the Nintendo Switch's "Software Line-Up" Video.On March 20, 2019, a free-to-play "Lite Version" was released on PS4 and Xbox One with a subset of the full game's content and a lower level cap.The Stadia port was revealed on December 17, 2019, on the "Stadia Community Blog" by the official Stadia team and released three hours later. == Downloadable content == A series of downloadable content packs have been released, most of which include two to four characters, extra story mode missions, extra stages, new moves, skills, parallel quests, and other elements for the added characters. DLC Pack 1/Dragon Ball Super Pack 1 - Includes Frost and Cabba from Dragon Ball Super as playable characters. DLC Pack 2/Dragon Ball Super Pack 2 - Includes content from the Universe 6 Saga: Vados and God of Destruction Champa as playable characters, the Universe 6 Saga for story mode, and the Nameless Planet stage from DB Super DLC Pack 3/Dragon Ball Super Pack 3 - Includes Rosé Goku Black, Zamasu from Dragon Ball Super, and Bojack from the film Bojack Unbound as playable characters. DLC Pack 4/Dragon Ball Super Pack 4 - Includes content from Future Trunks Saga: Fused Zamasu and SSGSS Vegito as playable characters, the Warrior of Hope Saga for story mode, and the Future in Ruins stage from DB Super DLC Pack 5/Extra Pack 1 - Includes majin Buu (Gohan absorbed), Dabura from Dragon Ball Z's Buu Saga, and Android 13, Tapion from the films Super Android 13 and Wrath of the Dragon as playable characters. DLC Pack 6/Extra Pack 2 - Includes Goku (Ultra Instinct), Jiren, Android 17 (DB Super) from Dragon Ball Super, and an original character named Fu as playable characters, and a new extra mission "infinite history saga". DLC Pack 7/Extra Pack 3 - Includes Kefla (Super Saiyan) from Dragon Ball Super, and Super Baby 2 from Dragon Ball GT as playable characters. DLC Pack 8/Extra Pack 4 - Includes SSGSS Gogeta and Broly (Full Power Super Saiyan) from the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly as playable characters, and the Tournament of Power arena from Dragon Ball Super. DLC Pack 9/Ultra Pack 1 - Includes Ribrianne and SSGSS Vegeta (Evolved) from Dragon Ball Super, and another variation of Vegeta (Super Saiyan God) from the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly as playable characters. DLC Pack 10/Ultra Pack 2 - Includes Uub as majuub from Dragon Ball GT and Android 21 from 2018 video game Dragon Ball FighterZ as playable characters. August 2020 Free Update - Includes Supreme Kai of Time from "DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE" as a playable character in honor of the game selling 6 million copies worldwide. DLC Pack 11/Legendary Pack 1 - Includes Pikkon from the film Fusion Reborn and Toppo (God of Destruction) from Dragon Ball Super as playable characters, as well as two new expanded extra missions. DLC Pack 12/Legendary Pack 2 - Includes Kale (Super Saiyan 2), Caulifa (Super Saiyan 2), Jiren (Full Power) from Dragon Ball Super, and Gogeta (DB Super) from the 2018 film Dragon Ball Super: Broly as playable characters, and the Volcanic Wasteland stage from DBS Broly, as well as three new expanded extra missions. DLC Pack 13/Conton City Vote Pack/Awakened Warrior Pack- Includes Goku (Ultra Instinct - Sign-), Dyspo from "Dragon Ball Super", and Vegeta (GT) from "Dragon Ball GT" as playable characters, as well as two new expanded extra missions. DLC Pack 14/Hero of Justice Pack 1 - Includes Gamma 1, Gamma 2 & Gohan (DBS Super Hero) from the movie "DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO" as playable characthers. DLC Pack 15/Hero of Justice Pack 2 - To be announced. Masters Pack - Adds 5 Masters: Android 16 from the Android Saga, Bardock and Future Gohan from The Father of Goku and The History of Trunks television specials, Cooler from the film Cooler's Revenge, and Whis from Dragon Ball Super. Included with the base game on Stadia. Anime Music Pack 1 - Includes 11 songs from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. Not available in the Stadia version. Anime Music Pack 2 - Includes songs from Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Super, and extra songs from Dragon Ball Z. Not available in the Stadia version. Pre-Order Bonus - Includes Goku Black from Dragon Ball Super as a playable character and the Tao Pai Pai Stick as a hub vehicle. It is also included in the Nintendo Switch version and Stadia version. Legend Patrol Pack - Includes the entire story campaign from the "DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE", in addition to its GT story DLC campaign. Initially from Nintendo Switch exclusive, it released to PS4, XBOX ONE, PC & Stadia alongside the launch of the Conton City Vote Pack. == Reception == Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has shipped over 1.4 million copies worldwide. As of November 27, 2016, the PS4 version has sold 87,105 copies in Japan. The Nintendo Switch version debuted at number three on the Japanese sales charts, with 24,045 copies sold and later sold 500,000 copies worldwide, by 2018. Total sales reached over 5 million copies by the end of March 2019. Bandai Namco announced sales of 6 million copies sold worldwide in May 2020, over 7 million copies sold worldwide by December 2020, and Over 8 million copies were sold by November 2021.Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 received positive reviews. Critics praised the game's anime visual style, sound, and fighting gameplay but criticized the controls, repetitive nature and overall similarity to the previous installment. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version 72/100 based on 57 reviews.IGN awarded it a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is an ambitious, if rough-edged experience, with deceptively deep RPG and brawling elements." Hardcore Gamer awarded it 3 out of 5, calling it "a minimal improvement over its predecessor while sharing a lot of the same issues, but there's just something so endearing about how it all came together."Heidi Kemps of GameSpot awarded the game a 7 out of 10, praising the combat and fan service, while criticizing the combat for being repetitive and the missions with a non-combat focus as "generally poor". Kyle Hilliard of Game Informer also awarded it a 7 out of 10, praising the addition of Conton City, but criticized the combat system for being almost identical to the first Xenoverse game and the soundtrack as "consistently awful".Ashley Fonte from Games Mojo awarded it 4.3 out of 5 stars stating that "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is an exciting anime game with a unique and ambitious concept that is familiar to the fans of the Dragon Ball Z series and will give them an enjoyable playing experience." Alastair Stevensons gave a score of 3.5/5 on Trusted Reviews, and said that "Combat is fun if you know how Dragon Ball works, but newbies will struggle to get their bearings, as Xenoverse 2's tuition system is, at best, hit-and-miss". "Smoother combat and great multiplayer options make Xenoverse 2 worth a play for fans of the series" was Benjamin Shillabeer-Hall's conclusion on PlayStation Universe, with a score of 7/10. == References == == External links == Official website Official Bandai Namco website, includes manual for PS4 and Xbox One

Nintendo Switch

Pokkén Tournament DX

Fighting

Pokkén Tournament is a fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game combines gameplay elements from Bandai Namco's Tekken series and other fighting games, such as 3D and 2D movement, with characters from the Pokémon franchise. It was released for Japanese arcades in July 2015, and worldwide for the Wii U in March 2016. An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch, Pokkén Tournament DX, was released in September 2017. The arcade version was published by Bandai Namco, the Japanese console versions were published by The Pokémon Company, and the console versions outside of Japan were published by Nintendo. == Title == Pokkén (Japanese: ポッ拳, Hepburn: Pokken) is a portmanteau of Pokémon and Tekken. The Japanese characters ポッ拳 appear in the game's logo in both the Japanese version and the localized versions released in North America and Europe. The official German-language title of the game is Pokémon Tekken. The title change may be due to the similarity between Pokkén and the German word for smallpox, Pocken. == Gameplay == Pokkén Tournament is a fighting game in which two fighters battle against each other using various Pokémon, with gameplay shifting between "Field Phase" where the Pokémon move freely around the arena similar to Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, and "Duel Phase" where they move relative to each other similar to the Tekken games. Unlike most arcade fighting games, which use a traditional joystick and buttons, the arcade version is played using console-style controllers, which are designed so that players who are not used to arcade sticks can get into the game more easily.The game focuses more on action, as opposed to the more technical gameplay of Tekken, allowing both hardcore and casual fans to enjoy it. As such, players can perform various techniques taken from the Pokémon series, such as special moves and Mega Evolutions (which can be built up from attacks using a "Synergy Gauge"). Players can also use Support Pokémon to give them special benefits such as buffs in attack or defense. First-print Wii U copies of the game were packaged with a Shadow Mewtwo Amiibo card, which immediately unlocked the character for use. The title also features online play, where players can compete in two types of online battle modes called friendly battles and ranked battles, including matches between players with registered friend codes and players who enter the same VS Code as each other. == Pokémon == Across all versions of the game, there are 23 different Pokémon that appear as playable fighters, 16 of which appear in all three versions. == Development == Pokkén Tournament was first teased during a Pokémon Game Show event held in Japan in August 2013, with trademarks for the game filed the same month. It was officially announced at an event held by Famitsu on August 26, 2014. The Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara, Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada, and Soulcalibur producer Masaaki Hoshino attended the event, which was broadcast on Niconico, stating the collaboration came about from brainstorming ideas of new ways to play Pokémon. As the game was being developed, Ishihara wanted to feature primarily fighting-type Pokémon in the game, but Hoshino pushed back, and the game was released with Pokémon of many different types featured.At the 2015 Pokémon World Championships, it was announced that the game would be coming to the Wii U. A demo of the game was available for attendees to play at the tournament. In December 2015, Hori announced that a dedicated arcade controller would be released alongside the game in Japan. The game is known as Pokémon Tekken in Germany and Austria. In April 2016, Nintendo announced that another controller, inspired by Pikachu, would be released in Japan in June. In May 2016, GameStop announced that the Pikachu controller would be released in North America in August of that year in "limited quantities".In June 2017, an enhanced Nintendo Switch port was announced under the title Pokkén Tournament DX, which was released worldwide on September 22, 2017. The port includes the last four fighters added in the arcade version, along with an additional exclusive fighter and new game modes. In January 2018, two DLC packs were announced for the DX version. In Pack One, Aegislash is a fighter along with Mega Rayquaza and Mimikyu as support Pokémon, which was released on January 31, 2018. In Pack Two, Blastoise is a fighter along with Mew and Celebi as support Pokémon, which was released on March 23, 2018.In January 2021, Harada, in a response to a follower on Twitter, stated that while he would like to make a sequel to Pokkén, it was up to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to decide. == Reception == Amusement Fantasista, a video arcade in Kurashiki, Japan, planned to remove Pokkén Tournament machines in November 2015 due to lack of profitability. Chris Carter of Destructoid noted that in the arcade version, one game credit could last a player 45 minutes, yielding low profits for each machine. The Wii U version entered the Media Create sales charts as the highest-selling game in the region during its debut week, with 69,675 copies sold, and was credited for a marked increase in Wii U hardware sales in the same period; 13,000 units sold compared to the previous week's 4,000. The Switch version of Pokkén Tournament sold 53,395 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart.Western reviews of the console version were mostly positive, earning a 76 out of 100 average score from aggregate review website Metacritic. In the United States, the NPD Group reported that Pokkén Tournament outsold Street Fighter V by the end of April 2016. In August 2016, Bandai Namco announced that the game had shipped over one million copies worldwide.Pokkén Tournament was nominated for Best Fighting Game at The Game Awards 2016.The Nintendo Switch version received similar or slightly better reviews than the Wii U version, with praise towards the new characters and new modes, but criticising the new split screen mode, which had framerate issues. It had sold over a million copies by March 2018. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Action role-playing

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a 2019 action role-playing video game developed by Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third installment in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series, following 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and 2009's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, and the first Ultimate Alliance game produced without the involvement of previous publisher Activision, whose license to publish Marvel games expired in 2016. The game follows a new team of superheroes as they come together to save the universe from Thanos and the eponymous Black Order, who have launched a campaign to find the six Infinity Stones. Upon release, the game received mixed reviews from critics, who generally found the gameplay and storyline fun but were disappointed that the game did not improve much upon its predecessors. As of December 2019, Ultimate Alliance 3 has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. == Gameplay == Like the previous two entries, gameplay is reminiscent of a top-down dungeon crawler with an emphasis on cooperative play. Up to four players can play the game cooperatively locally either on the same screen with a single docked Nintendo Switch system or undocked with up to four systems, or online with friends or random player lobbies. Players choose four characters from various Marvel teams to traverse linear stages, fight enemies, and defeat bosses. Certain passive buffs are acquired with particular character combinations. Each character's controls are fundamentally identical; each has a jump, light attack, heavy attack, dodge, block, and four special abilities. Special abilities can be synced with the other three members for a synergy boost, with an especially powerful attack unleashed if all four party members sync up simultaneously. The combat system itself, as evident by the characters’ normal attacks and their damage properties, as well as lack of universal normal grab is similar to Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series. Additional characters are unlocked by story progression or optional Infinity Rift challenges, with more characters currently planned as free or paid downloadable content. Character progression is handled in a similar manner to traditional role-playing games, with party members leveling up by defeating enemies and bosses. In addition to stat increases, passive buffs can be attached to characters by equipping ISO-8 crystals. A sprawling skill tree is also present, which allows characters to gain permanent stat increases by acquiring and spending in-game currency. == Synopsis == The plot of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is an original story written specifically for the game and disregards the stories and continuity of the first two games in the series. While it takes inspiration with recently released Marvel projects such as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, both of which were inspired by the 1991 storyline The Infinity Gauntlet, the story was written to reflect its wider cast of characters and to stand apart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the comics, and other popularized versions. Additionally the game takes inspiration from various Marvel Comics storylines such as the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy series, Spider-Verse, New Avengers, the 2017 Defenders series, Shadowland, Avengers: Ultron Unlimited, X-Men, Avengers/Defenders War, Inhumans, Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther, Uncanny Avengers, The Infinity Gauntlet, Illuminati, Avengers Assemble, Infinity, Doctor Strange: Damnation, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga, and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. === Plot === The Mad Titan Thanos and his Black Order—Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, and Supergiant—attempt to collect the six Infinity Stones in order to achieve galactic conquest. Originally guarded by Nebula and Ronan the Accuser, the Guardians of the Galaxy stumble upon their attempt to hide them from the group and end up accidentally alerting the Order to their presence. In desperation, Star-Lord uses the Space Stone to scatter the other stones on Earth, and to get him and his team to safety. As S.H.I.E.L.D. detects their presence, Nick Fury Jr. unites the Guardians and Earth's heroes to find them. Together they are able to retrieve the Time Stone from the Sinister Six led by Green Goblin during a breakout at the Raft; the Mind Stone from Ultron when he assaults the Avengers Tower; the Power Stone from the Hellfire Club and then again from the Brotherhood of Mutants, who briefly steal it during a Sentinel attack set up by Ultron on Professor X's Institute for Gifted Youngsters; the Reality Stone from Dormammu in the Dark Dimension; and the Soul Stone from A.I.M., led by MODOK, during an attack on Wakanda. Along the way, they help the Defenders retrieve an ISO-8 crystal from the Kingpin and face the Hand at Shadowland; stop an attempted coup d'état by Maximus the Mad at the Inhuman city of Attilan; and form uneasy alliances with Venom, the Brotherhood, Loki, and Thanos' illegitimate son Thane. When the Black Order find them in Wakanda, Thane gives himself and the Infinity Stones over to them to ensure the heroes' safety, but Proxima Midnight nonetheless teleports them to Asgard, where they face Hela and Surtur, as well as HYDRA, led by the Red Skull, defeating them with the aid of the Valkyrie, Odin, and Loki. Odin then transports the heroes to Knowhere where the Black Order and the Nova Corps are waging war. The heroes battle the Black Order and manage to retrieve most of the Stones, but as they prepare to clash one final time, they are stopped by Thane using the Time Stone. While Thane is distracted trying to choose a side, Thanos attacks him from behind and places the Infinity Stones in his Infinity Gauntlet, transporting everyone to his throne for a final battle. However, Thane, now completely corrupted by the power of the stones, takes the Gauntlet from him and uses the Infinity Stones' power to don the Infinity Armor, planning to kill his father to prove his superiority and the heroes if they stand in his way. The group is transported into the Heart of Infinity, where the Infinity Stones were forged at the center of the universe, and the heroes aid Thanos in stopping the out-of-control Thane. Thanos reveals that the power of the Infinity Armor is too great for any mortal being, even Thanos himself, and pulls the gauntlet from Thane's hand, causing both to disappear and leaving the heroes and the Infinity Stones behind. Ebony Maw then attempts to take the Infinity Stones for himself but is arrested by Richard Rider and the Nova Corps, as Rider plans to have him and the rest of the Black Order imprisoned at the Kyln. The heroes affirm they will be ready should Thanos ever return and agree to separate the Infinity Stones, hiding them in distant corners of the universe for safekeeping. In a post-credits scene, a pair of eyes are seen above the Heart of Infinity. ==== Black Order Expansion Pass ==== Sometime after Thanos and Thane's disappearances, Doctor Doom attacks Wakanda, seeking the Soul Stone in Black Panther's possession. All the heroes reunite to stop him, but Doom transports them to the Negative Zone so he can continue with his plans unhindered. The heroes are overwhelmed by the Negative Zone's native Insectoids, but are rescued by the Fantastic Four, who are also being trapped at Negative Zone by Doom as well. The four join the heroes to find Annihilus, the ruler of the Negative Zone, and defeat him, obtaining his Cosmic Control Rod and using it to open an interdimensional bridge gate to escape. The heroes emerge from the gate in Latveria, discovering that many of its people have been absorbed into the Soul Stone. They make their way to Castle Doom, where Doom reveals that he is using his people's souls to resurrect a Celestial. The heroes defeat the Celestial, but Doom uses the cosmic power from the Soul Stone to transform himself into God Emperor Doom. The heroes ultimately triumph over Doom, freeing the souls of the Latverian citizens and reviving them. Afterward, Mister Fantastic reveals that Doom's plans were meant to protect the universe from unknown entities awakened by Thanos and Thane's clash, and the heroes, including Doom prepare to join forces once more against this new threat. === Playable characters === The game's features a base roster of 36 playable characters, including members of various superhero teams such as the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Defenders, and many others. Fourteen additional characters from Marvel Knights, X-Men, and Fantastic Four are featured as paid downloadable content via the post launch Expansion Pass. Two additional X-Men characters were also added via free updates. == Development == The game was revealed at The Game Awards 2018. The game was released on July 19, 2019. An expansion pass for the game was announced at E3 2019 which revealed plans for additional content, including story missions, modes, and characters from Marvel Knights, X-Men and Fantastic Four starting in fall of 2019. At San Diego Comic Con 2019, Marvel announced that additional characters Colossus and Cyclops from the X-Men would be added to the game via a free update, which was released on August 30, 2019, and revealed the four characters coming in the Marvel Knights DLC pack, "Curse of the Vampire", which was released on September 30, 2019. The contents of the X-Men DLC pack, "Rise of the Phoenix", were detailed at The Game Awards 2019 and announced to be released on December 23, 2019. The Fantastic Four DLC pack, "Shadow of Doom", which includes a new story set after the main campaign, was released on March 26, 2020. == Reception == Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order received an average score of 73/100 from review aggregator Metacritic, indicating mixed or average reception. Tom Marks of IGN called the game "a treat to play alone and with friends alike" in their review. Chris Carter of Destructoid said "There's plenty of room for improvement, but I had fun playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order." Game Informer Executive Editor Andrew Reiner noted that the game had enjoyable moments, but also moments where "it all falls apart", awarding the game a 7/10 rating. Nintendo Life writer Dom Reseigh-Lincoln mentioned that the game was fun, however also stating that "it doesn’t do anything particularly new or outstanding", giving it a "Great" score of 8/10. CNN's Jacob Krol called the game "An all-around enjoyable experience with few setbacks."It was the sixth best-selling game during its first week on sale in Japan, with 9,424 copies being sold. In August 2019, the NPD Group shared the best-selling games in the US during July 2019 and the game was 4th in the ranking, behind Super Mario Maker 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Madden NFL 20. By December 2019, the game had sold 1.02 million copies worldwide. As of December 2021, the game have sold 1.50 million copies. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website Official website (Japanese) Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit

Construction kit

Nintendo Labo is a toys-to-life concept developed by Nintendo and released in April 2018. Labo consists of 2 parts, where one part is a game and one part is multiple sheets of cardboard. The games come as kits that include cardboard cut-outs and other materials that are to be assembled in combination with the Nintendo Switch console display and Joy-Con controllers to create a "Toy-Con" that can interact with the included game software and vice versa. Nintendo designed Labo as a way to teach principles of engineering and basic programming. == Construction and gameplay == Nintendo Labo is released as individual Labo Kits, each containing a set of pre-made cardboard cut-outs and other materials, used to make one or more "Toy-Con", and a Nintendo Switch game card, which contains interactive instructions on how to assemble the Toy-Con and software that the Toy-Con can interact with. Once each Toy-Con is constructed, players insert the main Nintendo Switch display and/or one or both of the Joy-Con controllers according to the instructions. Each Toy-Con functions differently in the ways it interacts with either the Joy-Con or the main display. For example, the piano Toy-Con's keystrokes are read by the Right Joy-Con controller's infrared sensor to identify notes being played, while robotic Toy-Con move using HD Rumble from the Joy-Con controllers, which are controlled via the touchscreen. Players may freely decorate the cardboard parts using coloring pens, tape, and other materials, while more experienced users can invent new ways to play with each Toy-Con. The game software provides instructions on how the Toy-Con works with the Switch, such as describing the fundamentals of infrared sensing. === Toy-Con Garage === The Nintendo Labo software comes with a feature called "Toy-Con Garage", which allows users to create and program their own Toy-Con using simple programming commands, either starting with the available Labo kits, or with their own materials. Toy-Con Garage is based upon creating simple commands by connecting input and output nodes. When an input is performed, it will trigger the connected output event. Additional middle nodes can be added to modify the input. For example, an input node can be a specific button press or a controller movement, while the middle node can set a required number of presses in order for the output to occur. Output nodes range from vibrating the Joy-Con to lighting up the Console's display. Toy-Con Garage provides multiple options for customizing each node, such as adjusting the sensitivity and direction of the control stick as an input node. Multiple input-output commands can be used in combination to create more complex creations. In 2021, Nintendo released Game Builder Garage which is largely based on Toy-Con Garage. == Development == Labo was announced on January 17, 2018. The director is Tsubasa Sakaguchi and the producer is Kouichi Kawamoto. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé, "Labo is unlike anything we've done before", and was developed to extend the age-audience for the Switch. Nintendo said the product was "specifically crafted for kids and those who are kids at heart." The tagline for Labo is "Make, Play, Discover"; "Discover" refers to how the user of the Toy-Con can understand the fundamentals of physics, engineering, and programming that make the Toy-Con work through the act of making and playing with them. The product was not originally intended to be educational, though one of its goals was to "explain how the technology behind the Toy-Con creations works". The concept of Labo came from Nintendo when they asked their employees to come up with ways that the Switch's Joy-Con could be used; out of many potential ideas, the idea of building cardboard toys around the controllers held promise. According to Shinya Takahashi, the use of cardboard as part of playthings is common among Japanese children, and as they started prototyping ideas, they found the "trial and error" process of putting together the cardboard toys was "extremely fun". As the Labo concept was developed, they found it fit well within Nintendo's overall philosophy on innovating new ways to have fun, and had potential to introduce the Switch to more than just game enthusiasts.Nintendo Labo developers Kawamoto, Sakaguchi, and Ogasawara stated in an interview that their goal was to use the unique features of the Nintendo Switch in such a way that no other system could emulate. The Joy-Con were treated as a "bundle of sensors" that could be used in a multitude of ways by attaching them to different hardware pieces, focusing on the gyro motion-sensor, IR motion camera, and HD Rumble features. The team was tasked with exploring Joy-Con attachment and game prototypes during three weeks of brainstorming sessions, called "prototype parties." When asked about the choice of building material, the developers responded by saying that cardboard was chosen over plastic because the 3D printer they were using for prototyping was unable to keep up with their pace of testing; cardboard would also allow for the player to create, repair, and customize the project themselves. The initial construction designs were first thought as being simple to construct, but later proved to be complex and challenging when it was decided that no cutting or gluing would be required to assemble the kits. Improvements were made to the prototypes based on feedback from consumer and developer testing; this prompted the creation of the interactive instruction software, as well as favoring simplicity over appearance. During development testing—prior to the cardboard designs being finalized—photographs were taken and compiled into booklets to be used as temporary instruction manuals; these booklets ranged from 1,000 pages for simpler models to 3,000 pages for complex ones. While the cardboard Toy-Con are sturdy, Nintendo recognized that the cardboard can suffer wear and tear with time, and sells replacement sheets for individual Toy-Con through its online store. When asked about the durability of Labo during an interview with CNET, Yoshiyasu Ogasawara stated, "We tested their resilience to the same action through hundreds and thousands of repetitions, so we expect them to last a long time under normal use."Starting in October 2018, Nintendo worked with the Institute of Play to bring Nintendo Labo into elementary schools, with an initial goal to reach 2,000 students by the end of the 2018–2019 school year. Nintendo is providing the Switch and Labo kits, while the institute is developing the lesson plans for teachers. == Labo Kits == Two Labo Kits, Variety Kit and Robot Kit, were announced for launch in North America, Australia, and Japan on April 20, 2018, and in Europe on April 27, 2018. An accessory set containing stencils, stickers, and tape are available separately. Replacement packs for individual parts and Toy-Con are available for purchase on Nintendo's online store, while free templates for the cardboard cut-outs are also available for download. While Nintendo did not confirm any additional Toy-Con kits at launch, journalists observed that other Toy-Con configurations were shown in the announce trailer, suggesting that additional kits may be announced at a later date. === Variety Kit === The Variety Kit contains kits for five individual Toy-Con: Two remote-controlled cars, where the vibrations from the Joy-Con serve to provide momentum and steering to the car. The game software allows the player to control the car like a normal remote-controlled vehicle using the console itself as the controller. The software also allows for the car to follow targets using the IR motion camera of the right Joy-Con. A fishing rod where the Joy-Con sit in the reel and the handle of the rod. The game receives motion input from the Joy-Con to simulate a fishing game. A toy piano with a full octave of keys; the console sits atop this to serve as a music stand. A motorbike with Joy-Con inserted into the handlebars on either side of the Console for steering. The Toy-Con Motorbike is also compatible as a motion controller in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and in Moto Rush GT. A house containing a slot to insert different components that can interact with the game software on the Console's display.The kit comes with a game cartridge that contains interactive instructions of how to assemble each Toy-Con, and at least one software package to use the Toy-Con. Some Toy-Con have multiple programs; for example, the motorbike handles allow the player to race along a track in stunt bikes, and gives the player the ability to create new track layouts, or to use any object detected through the IR sensor to create a track based on that object. Similar IR sensing abilities allows the player to create new fish to catch in the fishing rod Toy-Con, or to create new waveforms to use on the piano Toy-Con. === Robot Kit === The Robot Kit includes parts to make a mecha suit that includes a visor which holds the left Joy-Con for motion sensing and a backpack that holds the right Joy-Con to read hand and feet swings. This allows the player to rampage through a virtual world presented on the screen. The software includes multiple game-modes: Robot, VS, Challenge, Robo-Studio, and the Hangar. Robot mode gives the player the ability to control the giant robot as it attacks targets across a cityscape, to control the robot as it flies over a city, and to transform in a tank. The two-player VS mode allows players to fight with their giant robots, though both players need a separate Robot Toy-Con for this mode. In Challenge Mode, the player can complete missions to unlock special abilities that can be used in the game's other modes. The Robo-Studio mode allows the player to insert the Console into the Toy-Con and play sound effects based on the player's movement, while the Hanger allows the player to customize the color and appearance of their virtual robot.Journalists noted similarities between this Kit and Project Giant Robot, a software title for the Wii U that had players use the motion sensing of the Wii U GamePad to control a robot and rampage through a city. Project Giant Robot was teased during E3 2014 and believed to be tied to Star Fox Zero, but was ultimately cancelled by Nintendo. Labo developers stated in an interview that the original prototype was a ground-based tank with interactive floor pedals, but risked being crushed by the user and did not utilize the potential of the Joy-Con's gyro sensor; to solve these issues, the prototype was modified to be worn as a "Carry-Con" on the user's back. === Vehicle Kit === Nintendo announced its first post-release Labo Kit in July 2018, which was released worldwide on September 14, 2018. The Vehicle Kit includes the cardboard parts to make three steering consoles, one for a car, one for a plane, and one for a submarine, each with a slot for a "key" that is built around a Toy-Con. The associated game allows players to control cars, planes, and submarines in game, switching between these modes by moving their Toy-Con key between units, and supports cooperative play with a second person using another Toy-Con. The kit also includes cutouts for a pedal Toy-Con to power each of the vehicles, two key Toy-Con, a spray can Toy-Con, and a stand for the console to sit atop the car Toy-Con. Included with the spray can Toy-Con are several "extra parts" made to aid in the Paint Studio, the mode made for it. === VR Kit === Released on April 12, 2019, the VR Kit centers around a cardboard pair of virtual reality goggles that allows players to view stereoscopic 3D images using the Switch console, similar to Google Cardboard. The main kit comes with parts to make five items, each of which can be attached to the VR Goggles: a Blaster, a camera, a bird, an elephant head, and a pinwheel. The parts to build a Wind Pedal that blows wind when pressed is also included with the main kit. A starter kit containing only the VR Goggles, pinwheel, and Blaster attachment is also available, with the other attachments to be purchased separately. === Interactions with other games === Following the release of Nintendo Labo, select software titles have received free updates giving them compatibility with certain Toy-Con. A free update to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in June 2018 allowed players to use the motorbike Toy-Con, from the Variety Kit, to control their racer in the game. In August 2018, Nintendo announced that the car steering wheel Toy-Con from the upcoming Vehicle Kit will also be compatible with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. After unveiling a tech demo in April 2018, in August 2018, Rayark announced that it would add a mode to its piano-based rhythm game Deemo in October 2018 to support the piano Toy-Con on selected songs, as the first third-party title to offer integration with one. In January 2019, it was announced that Fishing Star: World Tour would support the Toy-Con Fishing Rod in an issue of the Famitsu magazine. Nintendo updated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey in April 2019 to support VR game modes through the VR Kit, and introduced a limited VR mode for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the following month. The Nintendo Switch version of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker received an update on July 30, 2019, that added a VR mode allowing the user to play four levels and get a 360° view of the course selection screen while using the Toy-Con VR Goggles. Puchikon 4 SmileBASIC released on May 23, 2019, in Japan with support for the Toy-Con Piano, House, Fishing Rod, Motorbike, and Robot kits that could be used in games made in the program. On May 27, 2019, a Nintendo Switch version of Spice and Wolf VR with Toy-Con VR Goggles support was announced what would be released on September 5, 2019. Neonwall was updated with Toy-Con VR Goggles support in January 2020. == Reception == On the day after its announcement in January 2018, Nintendo's stock price jumped around 2.4%, representing about US$1.4 billion to their value. Analysis suggested that Labo was the type of unorthodox product that only Nintendo could develop and market, showing a further return to their more financially successful period about a decade prior, leading to the rising stock price.Nintendo Labo was received with praise for its unique take on video gaming and unconventional method of play, and its ability to encourage creativity and learning, especially in children. Reviewers primarily praised the enjoyable building experience and easy to follow step-by-step instructions; the rotatable camera and fast-forward/rewind features were appreciated, as well as the sense of humor that the instructions contain. Critics were initially concerned with the sturdiness of the cardboard, but were impressed with the durability of the assembled Toy-Con, also noting that the software contains tutorials with tips on repairing broken Toy-Con. Reviewers were mixed on the enjoyment and limited replay value of the software's gameplay, with Andrew Webster from The Verge saying "the games are perhaps the least interesting part of Labo." However, critics highlighted the seemingly unlimited options provided by Toy-Con Garage, and the possibility for the community to develop and share new creations. The Verge and CNET found Labo to be a clever utilization of the Joy-Con controllers' motion sensors, HD Rumble, and IR sensing abilities.Labo was featured in a May 2018 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande, and The Roots used various kits and Switches in a performance to premiere Grande's single, "No Tears Left to Cry". Some user have found ways to recreate the cardboard Toy-Con functionality with more sturdy versions using Lego bricks, otherwise retaining all the functionality of the original toys. === Sales === In Japan, the Variety Kit sold 90,410 copies within the first week, placing it first on the all-format sales chart. The Robot Kit sold 28,629 copies, placing it third, and the Vehicle Kit has sold 49,389 copies as of December 2018. As of March 2019, the Variety Kit has sold 330,000 units in Japan, and 1.09 million worldwide. As of 2018, all kits consolidated have sold 1.39 million units worldwide. The 2020 CESA Games White Papers revealed that the Variety Kit has sold 1.31 million units, as of December 2019. === Awards === == See also == Virtual Boy == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Astral Chain

Action-adventure, Hack and Slash

Astral Chain is a 2019 action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch. It was directed by Takahisa Taura, who was previously lead game designer for Nier: Automata, under supervision by Devil May Cry and Bayonetta series creator Hideki Kamiya, and character designs from manga artist Masakazu Katsura. Set in a dystopian future Earth, the game follows the events of a special police task force that protect remnants of humanity from interdimensional creatures and aberrations that invade the planet, with the story centering on the task force's two new twin recruits. Utilizing the titular "Astral Chain", the twins restrain and tether the creatures, employing them in combat and investigation, referring to them as "Legions". The setting of the game draws heavy inspiration from various cyberpunk manga and anime, while the gameplay combines hack and slash combat with role-playing elements and investigative adventure game sections. These segments revolve heavily around the simultaneous controlling of two characters; the player character twin and their Legion. Astral Chain was estimated to have had a five-year long development cycle and follows a slate of previous collaborations between PlatinumGames and Nintendo, with both companies having previously worked together on titles such as The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2. The game was announced February 2019 as a part of that month's Nintendo Direct presentation. Astral Chain received highly positive reviews from critics who praised its dual-character gameplay, world building, presentation, customization, and soundtrack, though it received some criticism for its usage of a silent protagonist. As of December 2019, the game has sold over a million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch. == Gameplay == Astral Chain is an action-adventure game where the player assumes the role of a detective from the "Neuron" special police task force, who are tasked with solving cases and investigating incidents that take place in "The Ark", the game's main world. Exploring the world, questioning non-playable characters and examining evidence yields clues and logic puzzles that become "leads" which further the investigation process. During the course of the game, the player will access the "Astral Plane"—an interdimensional area where they must traverse hazardous terrain, solve puzzles, and battle enemies, similar to that of traditional video game dungeons. Neuron officers are able to summon a tethered familiar known as a "Legion", bound by a chain that is the game's namesake. Legions come in various different forms sporting different abilities that are used both for puzzle-solving and combat. These include: a sword-based Legion with swift blade attacks that can be used to sever circuitry and interrupt enemy attacks, an archer Legion that can target weak points and distant switches, a Legion with powerful punches that can move large objects, an axe-based Legion which generates a shield and can destroy breakable objects and enemy shields, and a K9 Legion that can track scents, unearth hidden objects, and also be ridden for added mobility and evasiveness. The player begins the game with the Sword Legion, capturing the other four over the course of the game. Legions can be swapped at any time during battle, and can also be upgraded via experience points and unlockable skills. On top of the player's own health, Legions have their own individual health meter that gradually depletes while they are summoned, and they are also susceptible to enemy attacks, which depletes higher amounts of their health. Their health regenerates automatically when they're not active. If the entirety of a Legion's health is depleted, the player becomes unable to utilize it until it has restored all of its health. Combat takes place in real-time, both melee and ranged weapons are used to fight enemies, predominantly the malevolent race of "Chimeras". The player can summon the Legion during combat in order to have them automatically fight with the player to create combo attacks. The Legion can be manually directed with the right analog stick, allowing the player to position the Legion for more specific maneuvers. Each Legion also has a unique "Legion Action" that allows the player to take direct control over a Legion's signature ability, such as manually aiming and firing projectiles with the Archer Legion, or using the Arm Legion as protective armor that can hover over hazardous terrain and attack with a flurry of punches. Additional skills include being able to perform powerful health-restorative finishing moves, unchaining a Legion to summon multiple at once, using the chain that connects the player to the Legion in order to bind enemies—referred to as a "Chain Bind"—and also using the chain as a tripwire on enemies that attempt charging into the player—referred to as a "Chain Counter". The player is also able to utilize the chain in order to zip line out of danger through enemy crowds, as well as crossing gaps and bottomless pits between buildings and platforms. Completing combos, interrupting enemy attacks, restraining enemies, dodging, and deploying a Legion at the correct moment will offer the player a chance to perform a sync attack, requiring the player to press the left trigger at the right instant, similar to a quick time event. Sync attacks can extend combos, trigger special attacks, bind enemies, and help the player recover from a fall. After performing a large number of sync attacks, the player may fuse with their Legion for a short while to recover health and deal large amounts of damage. The game features four difficulty settings, allowing the player to switch difficulty between each chapter. The highest difficulty is only unlocked for a corresponding chapter once the player has beaten it once. When played on the two highest difficulties, the game ranks the player based on their individual case performance, giving the player an overall ranking at the end of each chapter. On the two lowest difficulties, the player will not be ranked. Early in the game players unlock the IRIS tool, a heads up display from which they can inspect the environment and search for clues, as well as save their progress, manage the inventory, customize in-game menus, view the level map, and manage orders (benchmarks and photo challenges that reward the player with items, crafting materials, XP, money, and photo filters). Previously completed chapters can be accessed and replayed via the player's desk at the Neuron Headquarters at the beginning of each new chapter. The player can also return to this area to maintain and customize their Legions, customize their character, and interact with other Neuron officers. Consumable items can also be obtained from vendors that can later be used for crafting, health recovery, or combat. == Plot == === Setting and characters === Astral Chain is set in the year 2078, where humanity is on the brink of extinction. The remnants of the human populace have retreated to a megacity called "The Ark", which rests on a massive artificial island. The world is under attack by interdimensional lifeforms called "Chimeras", which reside in the "Astral Plane"; a vast parallel dimension composed of crystallized data that is uninhabitable to humans. The Chimeras cause destruction, drag civilians into the Astral Plane via wormholes, and spread "red matter" that corrupts living things and humans. To combat the Chimeras, the "Neuron" Police Task Force is employed. They utilize "Legions"—subservient Chimeras that have been tethered to an officer via a psychic chain, utilizing them for combat and investigation.The player assumes the role of one of two twin police officers, who join Neuron early into the game as new recruits. The player-selected character has a custom identity, whereas their opposite-gender sibling becomes "Akira Howard". The two twins were adopted by the current Neuron Captain, Maximilian Howard. Other characters include Neuron Commander and scientific genius Yoseph Calvert; Chief Medical Officer and scientist Brenda Moreno; fellow veteran officers Alicia Lopez and Jin Wong who assist the players on the field; Neuron Dispatcher and former TV newscaster Olive Espinosa; and the Neuron Office Manager Marie Wentz. The Neuron officers are also assisted by a hacker named Harold "Hal" Clark, who pilots a modified field drone. === Story === The Player and Akira are dispatched to respond to an aberration attack, but are quickly outmatched by Chimeras. The twins are saved by Neuron officers Max, Alicia, and Jin, who wield Legions capable of fighting them. Yoseph assigns Legions to the Player and Akira, enabling them to repel the Chimeras. Afterwards, the twins are both formally inducted into Neuron. Their first investigation mission goes awry when the Player ends up being pulled into the Astral Plane, causing the rest of the squad to pursue them into the Astral Plane to save them. Due to prolonged Astral Plane exposure having the effect of weakening humans, the Neuron officers lose control over their Legions, causing them to break free and go berserk. In the end, only the Player is successful in subduing their Legion. Max battles the remaining frenzied Legions and sacrifices himself to allow the rest of the squad to escape. Meanwhile, Neuron's Legion production facility is attacked and put out of commission, leaving the Player as the only officer with access to a Legion. The Player is sent on further missions to respond to Chimera attacks, eventually recapturing the lost Legions in the process. During this time, the twins come into contact with Dr. Jena Anderson, a former pupil of Yoseph's who is instigating Chimera attacks and bears a grudge against UNION, the Ark's ruling government. She manages to critically wound Akira while evading capture, leaving clues to the Player to investigate Zone 09, a quarantined section of the Ark which Neuron officers are forbidden from entering. The Player goes undercover and explores Zone 09 with Hal, discovering that UNION developed a drug called Blue Evolve that could allow humans to fight Chimeras, which also carried the side effect of turning the users into Aberrations. After battling one of Jena's chimeric homonculi, they are saved by a recovered Akira, who has obtained a new Legion. As a result of entering Zone 09 without permission, the Player is jailed for insubordination, and Hal goes into hiding to avoid arrest. After another wave of Chimera attacks occur, Neuron is forced to provisionally release the Player to combat them. Jena stages a large scale invasion of the Ark, announcing her intention to save humanity by merging Earth with the Astral Plane, which serves as a collective memory bank of humanity. The skirmish leaves Neuron's headquarters defenseless, allowing Jena to infiltrate it and take Yoseph hostage. The twins arrive to rescue Yoseph, causing Jena to power herself up with Blue Evolve before battling the Player. During the battle, the Player unwittingly ends up fully merging with their Legion and goes berserk, attacking Akira. Jena distracts the transformed Player and sacrifices herself in the process, warning them that this is the true form of their Legion's power. Yoseph then calls in the Ravens—a newly created task force of Legion users—and orders them to kill the Player, causing them to fall off an overpass. The Player wakes up back in their human form, having been rescued by Hal and Olive, and brought into a hiding place in Zone 09. Hal explains that Yoseph has largely replaced Neuron with the Ravens and is actively hunting the Player, accusing them of treason. While carrying out a covert rescue operation to retrieve Brenda from Neuron, the crew are confronted by Akira, who tries to convince the Player to return to Neuron, but they are ambushed by the Raven unit, revealing themselves to be clones of Akira. The Ravens attack Akira, causing Akira to inadvertently merge with their Legion and go on a rampage. To stop Akira, the Player willingly merges with their own Legion and manages to knock Akira back into their human form. Wanting to find out and stop Yoseph's plans, the twins stage an assault on his lab. After being confronted, Yoseph uses the Ravens as a catalyst to create the ultimate Legion, Noah, and merges himself with it, intending to absorb all life on Earth in order to become a god. Akira ends up being absorbed into Noah while trying to protect the Player. The Player battles Noah and weakens him enough to allow Akira to temporarily seize control of Noah's body, allowing the Player to destroy Noah, but killing Akira in the process. Following Noah's destruction, Chimera attacks begin to decrease drastically, allowing humans to consider leaving the Ark and repopulating the Earth. Alicia and Jin put Neuron back together, with Olive as interim commander, and the task force continues to handle the few Chimera attacks that still occur on the Ark. Akira is also revealed to have survived through one of their remaining clones, having been transplanted memories by Brenda using traces found in the original's Legion. == Development == The development of Astral Chain preceded the release of Nier: Automata, with PlatinumGames estimating that the game had been in the works for roughly five years between its conceptualizing and eventual release. With the assistance of former Scalebound and PlatinumGames producer Jean Pierre Kellams, the game was pitched to Nintendo after the company requested the development of a new game with high difficulty. Despite comparisons to Scalebound's dual-character gameplay, PlatinumGames producer Atsushi Inaba has explained that the two games are very different in concept, and sees Astral Chain as an evolution of their previous action games. Internally, the company refers to the game as a "synergetic action game". Takahisa Taura was appointed as director due to his previous work on Nier: Automata, and the company's belief that they need to foster multiple directors that can bring a different flavor for each of their individual projects.Astral Chain was initially envisioned as a fantasy game where the player would utilize magic, however at Nintendo's recommendation the game was changed to a cyberpunk setting as they felt it would make for a more unique setting. Taura explained that the game's setting was inspired by various anime such as Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, as well as the works of Masakazu Katsura, who was hired to be the game's character designer. While the ability to play as male or female was always intended as an option, the game initially did not feature twin protagonists in the project's early stages. The decision to make the lead characters twins came about from ideas based on Katsura's concept sketches for the protagonists. The inclusion of character customization was also done to help the player immerse themselves into the world.The gameplay of Astral Chain is designed around controlling two characters at once, which Taura has said comprises the core of the game itself, comparing it to the way the "Wicked Weaves" ability is the core of Bayonetta. The developers also took plenty of inspiration from Libble Rabble with the dual-character concept. World building was considered important during development; the developers wanted to showcase the police performing day-to-day tasks and services beyond crime fighting, and built an expanded cast around such to accommodate. Taura noted that the main difference in approach compared to PlatinumGames' work on Nier: Automata was that Astral Chain had its scenario built around the gameplay rather than the other way around.When asked about the possibility of Astral Chain becoming available on multiple platforms in a February 2020 interview (focused on the then-recently announced Kickstarter campaign for the remastered The Wonderful 101), Inaba stated that "it's too early to say", and that "ultimately, it's Nintendo's call, not [theirs]". Fans had later noted in January 2021 that the game's copyright notice on PlatinumGames' website had changed to show Nintendo having full ownership of the title, despite previous claims that the property was co-owned. Inaba would confirm this change in an interview the very same month, stating Nintendo now have full ownership of the intellectual property, though they were not at liberty to disclose the specifics of the change. === Music === The score for Astral Chain was primarily written and produced by Satoshi Igarashi, who previously worked on Bayonetta 2. Igarashi revealed that the background music will change genres depending on the mood of the scene. For example, dramatic scenes will use orchestral music, scenes with more tension will start to use more metal music and the calm scenes are more likely to use electronic music.Nintendo proposed to PlatinumGames the idea of partnering with Avex Group to acquire vocalists for the game's theme songs. William Aoyama, of the Japanese pop group Intersection; and Beverly, who performed the theme song for the 2019 anime adaptation of Fruits Basket; were ultimately picked by Igarashi and Taura to perform vocals on three separate theme songs. The decision of hiring two vocalists was made to represent the game's dual protagonists. The opening theme song called "Savior" plays during the game's opening sequence, which Taura requested be made as an anime opening. "Dark Hero" serves as a featured song within the game, and "The Answer" acts as the ending theme song. == Reception == On Metacritic, Astral Chain holds an aggregated score of 87/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In a non-scored review, Eurogamer review editor Martin Robinson awarded the game with an "Essential" ranking, referring to the game as PlatinumGames' best game to date, citing that it "shines brighter than anything in the studio's past." Steven Petite of IGN praised the combat, commenting that "though Astral Chain lacks a deep combo system, it makes up for that and then some with its roster of Legions". Destructoid reviews director Chris Carter pointed out that while the game has a slightly slow start, he was "completely sold" once the game introduced customization, while also praising the bosses and the game's variety of enemies.The game received criticism for its use of a silent protagonist. Francesco De Meo of Wccftech concluded that the decision to have a silent protagonist "doesn't really work well in the context of the story, considering the same character is fully voiced if not picked as main character at the beginning of the game"; a sentiment that was echoed by Game Informer and GameSpot. Despite this, the game generally received praise for its side characters and world building. Writing for Polygon, Chris Plante highlighted the game's non-combat side activities that involves the player investigating and performing helpful tasks toward non-player characters, citing that the game is "a deeply human game about a group of people striving to do good—not just on the world-saving level, but on the minute-to-minute level, during a time when the future seems incredibly bleak", concluding by calling the game Nintendo's best new IP since Splatoon.The game became a target of review-bombing by Metacritic users, primarily for being an exclusive Nintendo Switch game. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, another title also published by Nintendo, was review-bombed at around the same time for similar reasons, with users countering the negative scores on both games with 10/10 scores. The review bombs on both Astral Chain and Fire Emblem: Three Houses were later removed by Metacritic. === Sales === Astral Chain launched at #1 on the UK physical charts, #2 on the Japanese physical charts, and #10 on the NPD charts for August. The game sold 46,875 physical copies within its first three weeks on sale in Japan. PlatinumGames tweeted a commemorative picture a week after launch, thanking fans for making the game a success. While full sales numbers weren't disclosed at the time, Taura mentioned in an interview with Famitsu that Astral Chain had outperformed the companies' sales expectations. As of March 2020, the game has sold 1.08 million copies worldwide. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Astral Chain had sold 1.28 million units, as of December 31, 2021. === Awards === The game won the award for "Nintendo Game of the Year", and came in tenth place for "Game of the Year" at the 2019 Edge Awards. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

WarioWare: Get It Together!

Party

WarioWare: Get It Together! is a party video game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the tenth installment in the WarioWare series, following WarioWare Gold (2018) for the Nintendo 3DS, and was announced at E3 2021 during the Nintendo Direct presentation. A demo of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop on August 19, 2021. The game was released worldwide on September 10, 2021. It sold 1.27 million copies worldwide. == Gameplay == Get It Together! continues the WarioWare series tradition of tasking players with completing sets of "microgames", which each require the player to clear an objective in just a few seconds. In this game, Wario and his friends have been sucked inside his latest gaming device, meaning they must participate in the microgames themselves.As such, the game has up to two players control a group of characters, randomly alternating between them in between Microgames. Characters are controlled using the directional stick and a single button, with each character behaving differently in how they move and what actions they can do. For example, Wario flies around on a jetpack and can perform a shoulder charge, Mona alternates between automatically riding her scooter and controlling a boomerang in the air, and 18-Volt fires CDs from a stationary position and can only move around by hooking onto rings. These unique abilities mean each character has different ways of clearing the same microgame. For example, a microgame that requires spinning a windmill around can be cleared by either pushing the windmill physically or hitting it with projectiles. Up to 20 different characters can be unlocked for selection. There are party-style minigames for up to four players outside of story mode. There is also a ranked mode in the game called the Wario Cup featuring various different challenges. The player can give presents (named prezzies in-game) to the various playable characters to level them up. Leveling up a character will result in the base score being raised in which can benefit the player in the Wario Cup. The player will also be able to customize the appearance of the playable character of choice. Prezzies can be obtained in the emporium and by other means. == Plot == The game begins with Wario and his friends at his company WarioWare Inc. when Wario finishes the game they have been developing. When he tries to start it however, the console does not turn on, much to Wario and his friends' confusion. Annoyed, Wario throws the console in the air and he, along with his friends, get sucked inside the game, and enter the world of games. When they wakes up, they discovers that their game has been invaded by endless colonies of "Game Bugs", which cause corruption and glitches within the game's levels. Wario and his friends have to defeat these bugs by beating their respective levels, by using their various game abilities they got when they entered the game. Eventually, the group defeat the game's final bug and the alpha of all the game bugs, the Wario Bug, a culmination of game bugs merged together that corrupts and possesses Wario and takes over the final level, until it's defeated, returning Wario back to himself. They then leave the game bugs alone after Wario gives the bugs a home in the final level. "The Supreme Developer", a god like figure with Wario's nose and mustache, appears to them after that and tells them that he brought Wario and his friends into the game to clear it of the game bugs. He then tells the group that they are free to go. When they return, Wario's friends ponder over what caused the game to become so bug-ridden. Wario then reveals to them that the bugs are a result of Wario's bad programming skills, and had noticed the bugs from the very beginning before forgetting about them and believing it to be gone, much to their anger. At that moment however, Wario notices that three of WarioWare's members (Red, Master Mantis, and Lulu) are still stuck in the game, and the group goes back into the game to find them. Upon re-entering the game world, the Supreme Developer tells the group that their friends have been captured, although it was done by a mysterious figure and not the Game Bugs. They then progress through a series of skyscrapers that their friends are trapped within, all three of which have treasure inside of them, much to Wario's glee. When all three pieces of treasure have eventually been collected, the group finds a note that dares them to combine the treasure. With the help of Penny, a character currently in the real world testing a water blaster that she uses as a jet pack, they combine the treasures which turn into a watering can that they use to grow a giant beanstalk, although it disappears once it is used (which upsets Wario). They climb the beanstalk and defeat the final boss, who turns out to be Pyoro, the main character of the game series Pyoro, who took up residence in Wario's game too because he wanted to have fun. Wario, annoyed, greedy and wanting treasure, begs Pyoro for more, and is distraught to find that he has no more, which he complains about before they exit the game and return home. == Reception == WarioWare: Get It Together! received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic.Game Informer liked the microgames calling them "creative", but felt the game's need to make each game playable by every character limited the gameplay variety. Praising the story mode, Nintendo Life found it helped introduce the player to each character and their abilities, writing that the use of characters "ups the ante in terms of the series' signature screwiness and the number of ways you've got to engage with it". Eurogamer liked the new micro-games, saying they switched from "line drawings one minute, anime the next, watercolours: it's a riot of imagination". Overall enjoying the co-op the game offered, The Washington Post wrote that some characters had better movement and abilities, describing it as not "long before I started sticking to the same three to four characters whenever possible, as those with a wider range of movement and access to projectiles definitely had an edge". TouchArcade was mixed on the game, liking the microgames and finale, but feeling there weren't enough collectibles or new games to unlock "The biggest bummer, for me, is the general lack of interesting unlockable minigames and toys... the absence of such in Get It Together! feels like a bit of a downer". GameSpot praised the art, especially the new character models, saying they were "brought to life here with new 3D models that maintain the look of the sprite-based artwork of their original incarnations while animating more fluidly". PCMag enjoyed the boss fights, feeling they were a good change of pace from the microgames, "Not only are these games hilarious, but they test your ability to quickly read a situation and intuit what to do". While praising the new co-op modes, VG247 disliked the limited single-player modes, writing "the length of the single-player options [is] a little lacking". Destructoid was positive on the idea of different characters, but wrote that many of them were very similar to one another, "I really wish more was done to differentiate a few characters, because the raw count is fairly high, but similar to “clones” in Warriors games, that number shrinks a bit in practice". The game was nominated for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2021.As of March 31, 2022 WarioWare: Get It Together! had sold 1.27 million copies worldwide. == Notes == == References ==

Nintendo Switch

Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch

Puzzle

Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch is an edutainment puzzle video game developed by Nintendo and indieszero and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth entry in the Brain Age puzzle video game series, based on the research of neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, whose avatar guides the player through the game. It was released on December 27, 2019 in Japan, January 3, 2020 in Europe and Australia, and July 1, 2020 in South Korea. Unusually, it was not released in North America. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch builds upon the previous installments by adding puzzles and mini-games to strengthen the player's memory and concentration skills. The game contains previous puzzles in the series, all of which are taught by Dr. Kawashima. Puzzles in the game take advantage of some of the Nintendo Switch's functionalities such as the gyroscope and IR sensors. Physical editions of the game include a stylus to aid its touchscreen puzzles as an alternative to using the fingers. The game received generally mixed reviews from critics with praise for the use of the Switch's technology, puzzles, and replay value, though many felt the game lacked innovation and variety. The game has sold 1.20 million copies as of December 2021. == Gameplay == The player is presented with two modes: Quick Play and Daily Training. This game is played mostly in handheld mode with barely any usage of the TV mode. The Nintendo Switch console is mostly held vertically during play for easier drawing and tapping on the touchscreen. In total, the game contains 24 unique puzzles, all of which utilize the console's technology such as the IR sensor in the right Joy-Con, the Joy-Con shoulder buttons, and the touchscreen. In Quick Play, mini-games can be played at the player's own pace, with each mini-game being unlocked daily. This mode allows for multiplayer, a new feature to the series. In Daily Training, the player has full access to a selection of puzzles, unlocking more puzzles the more days they play. The player can perform a "Brain Age Check", where the player performs three standard puzzles and their performance determines the "age" of the brain. Solving the puzzles speedily will result in a younger Brain Age. Once a day the player receives a stamp which allows playing more mini-games. This game features a championship mode, where players connect online to compete with players worldwide. This feature uses Nintendo Switch Online. The championship mode takes place every Saturday, where players have up to two attempts per Daily Training puzzle to solve as fast as they can. The fastest attempt is submitted to the championship, where players are read their results instantly after finishing. Players receive access to online players' performances every Monday. The championship mode also allows the user to send messages to other players and compare their results once a day. In July 2020, the mode was used for an event where players can compete with Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. == Development == The Nintendo Switch version was developed by most of the original developers of previous Brain Age games, led by producer Kouichi Kawamoto, who directed most of the series. Additional development was provided by indieszero.The game was announced on the Nintendo Japan YouTube account on September 30, 2019. Two weeks later, it was announced that the game would come to Europe and Australia on January 3, 2020. On December 27, 2019, the game was released in Japan. It has yet to receive a North American release. == Reception == The game received mixed reviews. Many praised the puzzles' quality and repeatability as well as the game making good use of Nintendo Switch technology. However, the game was criticized for being too similar to previous installments and a lack of variety. Some noted that the game was not suitable for the recently released Nintendo Switch Lite since the system does not have detachable Joy-Con or IR sensors. The game had also performed to the same quality of other Nintendo games with awkward handwriting recognition and a limited amount of puzzles.In the UK, sales charts showed that the game was number 14 in physical sales within its first week, the highest it has been in the series. As of February 2021, the game has sold over 367,198 copies in Japan according to Famitsu. As of December 2021, the game has sold 1.20 million copies. === Awards === In November 2020, the game was nominated for Nintendo Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards, however, it lost to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. == Notes == == References == == External links == Brain Training for Nintendo Switch website for the UK Brain Training for Nintendo Switch website for Australia

Nintendo Switch

Resident Evil: Revelations Collection

Survival horror

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is an episodic survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom as part of the Resident Evil series. The game is a follow up to Resident Evil: Revelations and Resident Evil 5. It marks the return of Claire Redfield as the protagonist, and the first time Barry Burton is a playable story character in the main series. The first installment was released in February 2015. The plot is set between the events of Resident Evil 5 and 6, in 2011. The story begins when Claire and her co-workers, including Barry Burton's daughter Moira Burton, are at a party in the headquarters of the NGO TerraSave, when they are attacked by unknown assailants and taken away to a deserted island in the Baltic Sea. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita in 2015 and for Nintendo Switch in 2017 along with the port of the first Revelations. The reviews were mixed to positive and the setting, story, characters and the co-op gameplay were praised, but the graphics and some technical issues were criticized. As of August 2022, the title reached a combined 4.4 million units sold (including the Switch collection), surpassing its predecessor. It is also the first Resident Evil game to not feature Alyson Court as the long time voice of Claire Redfield. == Gameplay == Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is set between the events of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Claire Redfield is the main protagonist and Barry Burton's daughter, Moira, plays a supporting role. In December 2014, a new trailer revealed Barry as another playable protagonist and he is joined by Natalia Korda, a little girl with supernatural abilities. The official cinematic trailer was released in December 2014. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is a survival horror game which supports cooperative gameplay. When played in single player mode, the player are able (and need) to switch characters to solve puzzle and do certain actions. The game has stealth elements as only two of the four playable characters use guns. The other two are more vulnerable, preferring to use weapons such as crowbars and bricks; they can also find hidden items with a flashlight or special senses. The game features a Raid Mode, which returns from the first Revelations game with new features, more missions and new playable characters. About 200 missions and 15 characters are featured, which span the entire game series, and there are also new scenarios and enemies from Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil: Revelations. In this mode, players can customize their skills and weapons, as well as buy new ones. Some enemies in Raid Mode have special abilities like extra speed or strength. This mode can be played either online or through split-screen local co-op. == Plot == The storyline is composed of four episodes divided into a past scenario with Claire and Moira Burton and a present scenario with Barry Burton. Episode 1 - Penal ColonyClaire Redfield and Moira Burton, daughter of Barry Burton, work for biohazard prevention agency TerraSave. While attending an office party, they and several other TerraSave members are captured by armed mercenaries. Claire and Moira are taken to a facility on Sejm Island, where they are attacked by the "Afflicted", mutated humans driven insane by torturous experiments. An unknown woman calling herself the "Overseer" watches via cameras and tells them the bracelets on their wrists record fear, as the pair try to find safety. Upon reaching a radio tower, they call for help. Responding to Moira's distress call, Barry tracks her to the island. He immediately meets Natalia Korda, a strange little girl with the ability to sense monsters before they become a threat. She accompanies him on the way to the radio tower, navigating through hordes of Uroboros-infected mutants. Upon reaching the tower, Barry realizes the distress call was actually made six months ago. After suffering a severe headache, Natalia claims that Moira is dead. Episode 2 - ContemplationClaire and Moira meet up with their co-workers, Gabriel Chavez and Pedro Fernandez, at the "Wossek", a derelict pub located in an abandoned fishing village. The Overseer explains that they have become her new test subjects for T-Phobos, a virus that responds to fear, for process of elimination. Gabe leads Claire to a broken helicopter he intends to repair in order to escape the island, but they are soon ambushed by a horde of Afflicted, separating Claire, Moira, and Pedro from Gabe and the helicopter; Pedro succumbs to fear and is transformed into a monster. Claire and Moira fend off both Pedro and the Afflicted until their boss, Neil Fisher, arrives to help them escape. They decide to make their way to the Overseer's tower, but are once again ambushed and Neil stays behind to lure the monsters away. Claire and Moira catch up to Natalia, who has been roaming the island alone, and they befriend her. Gabe fixes the helicopter and attempts to escape, but the Overseer remotely sabotages the controls, killing him. As Claire and Moira are distracted by the crash, Natalia is kidnapped and taken to the Overseer, who intends to transfer her consciousness into the little girl. Six months later, Natalia takes Barry to the Overseer's tower, the last place she saw Moira alive. Along the way, Barry learns Natalia is an orphan whose parents died in the Terragrigia incident, the trauma having left her immune to fear. Inside the tower, they find a portrait depicting Albert Wesker and a woman who Natalia identifies as Alex Wesker. The two are then ambushed by the Overseer, a grotesque hunchbacked figure who neutralizes Barry and is revealed to be Alex herself. Episode 3 - JudgmentClaire and Moira follow a note supposedly left by Neil to meet him at a nearby factory, only to walk into a series of traps they narrowly survive. After passing through the sewers, the pair gain access to the Overseer's tower, where they witness a meeting between Neil and Alex Wesker. It is revealed that Neil, a former member of the FBC, was behind his employees' abduction to aid Alex in exchange for a sample of the Uroboros Virus, intending to use it to restore the FBC. Alex injects Neil with Uroboros instead, causing him to mutate into a hulking monstrosity. Claire and Moira are forced to kill him. Six months later, Barry and Natalia escape from a mutated Alex and work their way from the sewer back to the surface. As they go, Barry tells Natalia about a tragic event concerning his two daughters; Moira accidentally shot her younger sister Polly when they were playing with one of Barry’s guns. Although the fault was his, Barry blamed Moira for the accident, causing a huge strain on their relationship. Polly survived, but Moira developed a fear of guns as a result of the incident. Afterwards, Barry and Natalia travel through a dilapidated mine infested with monsters. Alex ambushes them on the other side and throws Barry into a ravine, but when she tries to kill Natalia, the little girl impassively stares back into her eyes, causing Alex to withdraw in terror. Episode 4 - MetamorphosisAfter Neil's demise, Claire and Moira make their way up to the Monument to confront Alex, and the duo learn of her intentions to conquer fear and escape death. She shoots herself in the head, triggering a self-destruct sequence that causes Claire and Moira to flee. Unbeknownst to them, Alex experiences fear in her last living moments and begins to mutate. As they descend the crumbling tower, Moira sacrifices herself so that Claire can escape; she is rescued shortly afterwards. She regretfully tells Barry that she could not save Moira, but Barry refuses to accept his daughter's death and continues to search for her. Six months later, Barry and Natalia pass through several toxic mine tunnels before reaching Alex's research facility, disguised as a mansion. They make their way through as Alex taunts Natalia through the girl's bracelet. When the duo confront her, Alex injects herself with an Uroboros sample and mutates a second time to fight Barry and Natalia. After feigning her own death, Alex suddenly springs to life and incapacitates Barry. She grabs Natalia and once again attempts to kill her. At this point, the story proceeds to one of two endings. === Endings === In the canon ending, where Moira overcomes her fear of guns by shooting Neil, Moira survives the tower's destruction and arrives in time to save Natalia by temporarily repelling Alex with gunshots. Barry, Moira, and Natalia escape the area before being cornered by Alex. Claire arrives in a helicopter to rescue the trio and they manage to take down Alex with a rocket launcher. As they leave the island, Barry reconciles with Moira and expresses his intention to adopt and raise Natalia as his own daughter. In an epilogue, Claire is heading towards Barry's home while being informed that her brother is in China, to which she responds, "tell Piers to take care of him." At the Burtons' home, Natalia is surrounded by newspapers covering the events of Resident Evil 6. As she finishes reading Franz Kafka's The Zürau Aphorisms, she smiles ominously, revealing that Alex succeeded to some extent in taking over her body. In the bad ending, if Claire manages to kill Neil, Moira dies after being crushed by falling debris during the tower's destruction. Alex squeezes Natalia to death, only to re-awaken as Dark Natalia (imbued with Alex consciousness) and easily destroy her former, mutated body. She then mocks Barry, who cannot bring himself to shoot the little girl he has become attached to. Alex walks away, leaving him in despair. === Bonus episodes === "Little Miss"In this extra episode, set just before Natalia meets Barry, Natalia wakes up in a dream-like state, being greeted by Lottie, her favorite teddy bear. She then goes on a search for Lottie throughout the island infested by "Revenants" and "Glasps". Joining her is "Dark Natalia", a manifestation of Alex's mind whose ability to sense the monsters' presence allows Natalia to sneak past them through a somewhat Silent Hill-esque atmosphere. They find various postcards from Lottie scattered around and eventually find her near the seashore, but this turns out to be an attempt by Dark Natalia to take over Natalia's body. Dark Natalia tells Natalia that she will eventually be subverted, and Natalia snaps out of her lucid dream as Barry's boat approaches the island. "The Struggle"During the six-month gap between Claire's escape and Barry's arrival, Moira struggles to survive with the aid of an old Russian man named Evgeny Rebic, whom Moira had met once before at an underground sewer control room; Evgeny rescued her before the Overseer's tower collapsed. Despite their contentious relationship, food is very scarce, and the pair have to overcome many dangers together in order to survive. After defeating hordes of mutated monsters, they manage to find a letter from Evgeny's daughter. Upon learning of his daughter's fate, Evgeny loses his will to live and locks himself in his home to succumb to his illness, while encouraging Moira to escape the island without him. A heartbroken Moira ultimately decides to move on, and arrives in time to save her father and Natalia from Alex. == Development == Capcom announced that the team responsible for Resident Evil: Revelations would be responsible for the sequel and a playable version of the game would be seen at Capcom's 2014 Tokyo Game Show booth. It was stated not only would Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine not be part of Revelations 2, but the game would also not be tied to Revelations. However, the Revelations title would be used as its own series of games, existing to fill in gaps in the mythology of the Resident Evil series and expand upon lore for the main title series. During Tokyo Game Show, Michiteru Okabe explained further that the main Resident Evil series will remain more action-oriented, keeping it aimed at a wider audience to try and interest more people in the Resident Evil world. However, Revelations as a series will be fan-driven, intending to revel in the older horror style. With the side series, they hope to aim at their long-time fans and keep them supplied with something similar to the horror experience they fell in love with. During Tokyo Game Show it was announced that Yūdai Yamaguchi, a director and writer known for his mix of horror and "goofy gore" with manga-based inspiration, was brought on to the Revelations 2 team as cutscene director. Dai Satō, scene writer for Resident Evil: Revelations, returned for this game. Satō pushed for Claire Redfield's inclusion in Revelations 2, approaching Okabe and others with a number of ideas on how to include her. Alyson Court did not return to voice Claire (and would also not reprise her role for the later Resident Evil 2 remake), who was instead portrayed by an unknown woman (credited in-game as James Baker). According to Okabe, the reason for replacing Court was because they felt that her voice was too young for the older and mature Claire and could have caused confusion for players between the voices of Claire and the younger Moira Burton.The Czech novelist and story writer Franz Kafka was a major inspiration behind the game's plot, the idea influenced by Satō. Since the first Revelations used passages from Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, the team felt that would be a common element for the Revelations series, providing a deeper meaning for the themes explored throughout the story. Furthermore, Satō hoped it would allow players feel more immersed since a real writer became part of the setting. The titles of the game's four episodes are allusions to some of Kafka's works; referring to In the Penal Colony, Contemplation, The Judgment and The Metamorphosis, respectively. Familiar relationships was a significant theme for the game, approaching more personal elements for the story. Barry Burton's family has a great focus throughout the game's plot; Barry acts as a father figure for Natalia, who became an orphan due to the "Terragrigia Panic" explored in the first Revelations. On the other hand, Claire can be seen as an older sister figure for Moira, who has a strained relationship with her father. The concept of sanity is also of great importance for the setting of the story, as exemplified by the wristbands the characters wear that display their level of fear, some song titles on the soundtrack (Insanity or Despair), and the name of the main enemies of the game, the Afflicted (humans driven crazy by torture and experiments).Songwriter Kota Suzuki returned as the game's composer after working on other titles of the franchise such as Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, and Resident Evil: Revelations. According to him, for this soundtrack they decided to focus on the "duality of sound". Speaking about the concept of the sound design for Revelations 2 and his collaboration with Nima Fakhrara, he explained: "[Nima Fakhara's] productions possessed that particular element of darkness that worked perfectly with our[s]. After many brainstorming sessions, we decided to use ‘iron’ and ‘water’ as our concepts in creating new instruments. And, after recording, we edited and mixed the sound with other tracks to create a truly unique sound". === Release === Capcom released the game on February 25, 2015, in a weekly episodic format for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Once the final episode was released, a complete version was launched. Japanese rock band Dir En Grey was featured in some of the material promotion for the game. A full video of the song, Revelation of Mankind, featuring scenes of the band and the game was released in the middle of 2015. That music was also part of their last album, Arche. Sony Computer Entertainment published the PlayStation Vita version of the game. The port was developed by Frima Studio and released on August 18, 2015. The first episode of the game, Penal Colony, was made free to download for PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 18, 2015. After that, a collection was made for the Nintendo Switch containing both Revelations games, which launched at the end of November 2017. == Reception == Reviews for the game have been mixed to positive. There was praise for the setting, story, characters and the co-op gameplay, but the graphics and some technical issues were largely criticized. According to Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer, the game has crazy plot twists, laughable dialogue, and campy moments, all of which come together in a satisfying way. She also praised the characters, as well as their unique story arcs and development throughout the game. The chaotic moments and the boss battles were also well received. On the other hand, Wallace complained about the dated puzzles and backtracking in Barry's campaign, saying that "these places lose their mystery a second time around".Polygon commented that "Revelations 2 finds a focus that recent entries have sorely lacked", praised the game for including strong female characters, since three of the four main playable characters are female. Kollar was especially fond of newcomer Moira Burton, considering her a memorable and interesting character. However, he criticized the lack of horror, generic level design and the graphics. Destructoid's reviewer, Chris Carter, described the atmosphere of the first episode as well done, praising the creepy bloody dungeons and the dark forests of the island, they also speak well about the action and the fun co-op gameplay.GamesRadar+ gave the game a score of 4 of 5 and spoke positively about the collaboration and teamwork, saying that both character teams are complementary and make the game a fantastic cooperative experience. However, they found the Claire/Moira campaign to have an unsatisfying ending. IGN considered the game to lack the scares for which the series is famous for, while also criticizing the graphics and considering that the game provides an unmemorable experience. They nevertheless praised the elements of action-adventure, the co-op gameplay, the implementation of traditional puzzles and the interesting plot, which in the words of the reviewer, Lucy O'Brien, "kept me hooked right up until its finale". She also praised the bonus Raid mode.Many reviewers felt the third episode was the best one. Peter Brown from GameSpot considered the reason for this was the plot development and the presence of interesting puzzles, which were lacking in the first two episodes. IGN also had similar opinions, considering the balance between the action sequences and the puzzle solving to be exquisite. === Sales and accolades === According to Capcom, due to the variety of manners of selling, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 had a strong beginning and quickly become a million seller for the company. In Japan, in the first week of the release of the complete version, the game reached the second (PS3) and fourth position (PS4), selling 73,373 and 42,358 respectively. The PlayStation 4 hardware that week had a higher-than-normal sales, thanks to the releases of Resident Evil Revelations 2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. In Brazil, the full game version became the 9th best selling game on the PS4 during the month of April 2015. As a download content, the complete season reached the 6th position on the same platform. After that, in the same year, specifically in November, the second episode alone, Contemplation, was the 8th best-selling download content for PlayStation 3. A month later, the PS Vita version reached the 5th position.As of March 2020, the original release has reached 2.6 million units sold and, with that, Revelations 2 has possibly surpassed its predecessor and became the 26th best seller of the company. Furthermore, in the beginning of 2016, the title was selected by the readers of the Japanese game magazine Famitsu as the 9th most memorable game of the Xbox One. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Game Builder Garage

Programming

Game Builder Garage is a programming game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was announced on May 5, 2021, and released on June 11, 2021. == Gameplay == In Game Builder Garage, the player uses a visual programming language centralized on the concept of creatures called Nodon. The Nodon represent various facets of input, game output, logic, and on-screen objects, such as a Stick Nodon that reports input from the Joy-Con analog stick or a Person Nodon that represents an on-screen character. The player builds a program by adding Nodon and making connections between the various nodes on Nodon, such as connecting the Stick Nodon to the Person Nodon as to tie the analog stick to movement of the character on-screen. Nodon are available to interface nearly all features of the Switch and Joy-Con, including the infrared sensors and motion controls. The game features a lesson mode to guide the player through using the Nodon language and to help them understand some of the principles of game development though a series of seven built-in games that the player can create.Games built within Game Builder Garage can support up to eight different Joy-Con, effectively allowing up to eight-player local multiplayer games to be built.Game Builder Garage has a share function, that allows creators to upload their games and share them with other people. However, it does not feature a game browser, but rather a code has to be shared by the creator for other people to access it. Fans of the game have been creating their own platforms for sharing their games; the most popular one being MyGarage Games.The game also allows for the use of commercial USB computer mice. == Development == The game was announced on May 5, 2021, being released on June 11, 2021. Game Builder Garage was developed specifically by Nintendo EPD 4, the division behind games like Nintendo Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, 1-2-Switch, Miitopia and many more. The game was directed by Naoki Masuda, a programmer at Nintendo who had previously worked on Nintendo Labo and the Pikmin series.In a developer interview, Masuda and programmer Kosuke Teshima described the Nintendo Labo series, particularly the VR Kit, as a key inspiration for Game Builder Garage. After seeing non-programmer Nintendo employees using the Toy-Con Garage to create their own games, Masuda described that he wanted to "find a way to make it easier for people to have the fun of creating games through trial and error." The developers tested the game on elementary school students interested in programming to ensure the lessons were accessible to beginners. == Reception == Game Builder Garage received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Nintendo Life's Alex Olney praised the game's tutorials, but criticized the lack of visual options given to players. IGN's Seth Macy enjoyed the amount of options and tools the game gives to players. Game Builder Garage was described by Polygon as a followup to Nintendo Labo. It was also the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 71,241 physical copies being sold across the country. As of December 31, 2021, Game Builder Garage had sold 1.06 million units in total worldwide.Creators have recreated several notable games using the software, including recreations of Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, and Sonic the Hedgehog. == Notes == == References ==

Nintendo Switch

Enter the Gungeon

Bullet hell

Enter the Gungeon is a 2016 bullet hell roguelike game developed by Dodge Roll and published by Devolver Digital. Set in the firearms-themed Gungeon, gameplay follows four player characters called Gungeoneers as they traverse procedurally generated rooms to find a gun that can "kill the past". The Gungeoneers fight against bullet-shaped enemies, which can be fought using both conventional and exotic weapons found while playing. Enter the Gungeon features a permadeath system, causing the Gungeoneers to lose all obtained items and start again from the first level upon death. Between playthroughs, players can travel to an area called the Breach, where they can both converse with non-player characters and unlock new items that are randomly encountered while playing. Development on Enter the Gungeon started in 2014, when four Mythic Entertainment employees left the company to form Dodge Roll. Lead designer Dave Crooks gained inspiration for the term "Gungeon" after listing to the soundtrack for the game Gun Godz. Dodge Roll designed and playtested each individual room of the Gungeon's levels, and used procedural generation to randomly assemble them into a playable configuration. Many of the guns were inspired from earlier games such as Mega Man and Metroid, while other mechanics were implemented in order to encourage players to utilize the layouts of levels. Enter the Gungeon was released on April 5, 2016 for Linux, macOS, Playstation 4, and Windows 10, while ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch were released in April and December 2017. By June 2020, it had sold over three million copies. The game received positive reviews on release, with critics favorably comparing it to The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. Reviewers praised the creativity and designs of the guns, while also commentating on the game's difficulty. After launch, Dodge Roll developed and released several content updates. A platform game sequel called Exit the Gungeon was released in 2019. == Gameplay == Enter the Gungeon is a top-down bullet hell shooter with roguelike elements. The player takes control of one of four player characters, the Marine, Convict, Hunter, or Pilot (collectively called the "Gungeoneers"), who must reach the bottom of the Gungeon to find a magical gun that is described in-game as having the ability to "kill the past". Although each Gungeoneer starts out with items and weapons that are unique to the character, they can all shoot guns, knock over tables to provide cover, and dodge attacks by performing a "dodge roll" that allows them to be temporarily incapable of losing health. The player also has a limited number of "Blanks" which can be used to delete all enemy projectiles in a room. Combat is heavily reliant upon memorizing patterns of enemy behavior, and using both cover and dodge rolls to avoid bullets.The Gungeon is made up of five different floors, each having roughly twenty rooms inside. The layout and rewards of each level are procedurally generated from a number of pre-created rooms and are inhabited by bullet-shaped enemies called Gundead. To defeat Gundead, the player must use a wide variety of guns and items; they can be obtained by unlocking chests or through shops and boss fights. As players slay enemies, they occasionally obtain in-game currencies called bullet casings and keys; the former can be spent at shops in exchange for guns, and the latter can be used to unlock chests. Obtained guns can range from conventional pistols and rifles, to more exotic firearms such a unicorn horn that fires rainbows or a mailbox that shoots envelopes. Each level ends with a random boss that must be slain to advance to the next floor. Similar to other roguelikes, Enter the Gungeon has a permadeath system; If the player dies, they lose all items and guns obtained on a playthrough and must start again at the first floor.As the player progresses through multiple playthroughs, they may encounter non-player characters (NPCs) inside the Gungeon. Once encountered, NPCs either set up shop inside the Gungeon, or travel to the Breach, a hub world. At the Breach, the player can unlock new items that randomly generate inside the Gungeon, or can talk with NPCs to accept services and quests. Both actions involve spending an in-game currency acquired from defeating bosses, with unlocked guns increasing the weapon options available on a playthrough. == Development == Development on Enter the Gungeon started in 2014, with four Mythic Entertainment employees leaving the company to fulfill their own project just before the company would shut down later that year. According to developer Dave Crooks, he had been listening to the soundtrack to the game Gun Godz by Vlambeer, and the name "Gungeon" came to him the next day. Crooks presented the name Enter the Gungeon to his fellow team members, and they created the game's lore over a lunch meeting. They then spent the next few weeks developing prototypes of the game mechanics. Though Crooks stated that The Binding of Isaac was one of the game's biggest influences, they also were influenced by Nuclear Throne, Spelunky, Dark Souls, and Metal Gear Solid.Dungeons in the game are generated in a procedural manner, but Dodge Roll found it was better to handcraft the individual rooms, playtesting those individually, and then using their random generation to connect these rooms into a dungeon. The designs of the guns took place over the two years of development, with most of the designs by team artist Joe Harty; several of the guns are inspired by other video games and video game systems, including the NES Zapper and guns similar to those appearing in games such as Mega Man, Metroid, Shadow Warrior, and Serious Sam. The boss character designs were made by a combination of ideas from Crooks and Harty, which were then presented to the gameplay programmer David Rubel to determine appropriate bullet hell patterns associated with that idea.The dodge roll mechanic was inspired by trying to include a similar mechanic of Ikaruga that enabled a player to easily dodge numerous bullets simultaneously, and took the ideas used in the Dark Souls series to have the character dodge out of the way from attacks. The team loved this mechanic and decided to name their studio after it. Similarly, they included usable environmental features such as flipping tables or bringing chandeliers down onto enemies to encourage the player to interact with and use the environment to their own advantage. At one point Dodge Roll had included an active reload feature, similar to Gears of War in which pressing a controller button at the right time during a reload would increase the damage the reloaded bullets would do, but instead decided to limit this to a power-up that can be collected, finding that players were already distracted enough by everything else going on in the game and that felt the moment of tension when the player had to wait for the gun to reload was critical to gameplay. == Release == In December 2014, at PlayStation Experience, the game was officially announced and followed by an announcement trailer. Throughout 2015, the game went to multiple conventions, including E3 2015, where, during the PC Gaming Show, the co-op feature of the game was revealed. On March 2, 2016, it was announced that the game would release on April 5, 2016. The game was set to receive free post-release content, such as more weapons, enemies, and levels. The first of these, the "Supply Drop" update, which added several new guns, enemies, and room layouts, was released for free on January 26, 2017. A port to the Xbox One, including cross-buy and cross-play support for Windows 10, was released a year later on April 5, 2017. A version for the Nintendo Switch was released in North America and Europe on December 14 and 18, 2017 respectively. A second major update, "Advanced Gungeons & Draguns", was released on July 19, 2018 for all platforms, which among additional weapons and enemies, was aimed to provide means to play the game that are friendlier to inexperienced players, but still offer more challenge for others.While Dodge Roll had been working on a third major update, the team decided by November 2018 to cancel it so to focus their efforts on a new game. The developers stated that the amount of time they had to put into get "Advanced Gungeons & Draguns" brought the total time they had been working on the game to five years. Each new gun they added had to be tested against other effects already in the game, which also wore out the development team. Dodge Roll released a final free patch, "A Farewell to Arms", in April 2019 to fix lingering bugs and provide one last set of content updates. Versions for cloud-streaming services Google Stadia and Amazon Luna were released in December 2020 and in September 2021, respectively. == Reception == According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, Enter The Gungeon received "generally favorable reviews" Critics frequently compared the game to The Binding of Isaac, and Nuclear Throne. Destructoid drew comparisons between the dungeons of Zelda and the difficulty of Nuclear Throne, saying "While it doesn’t totally reinvent the twin-stick shooter, it has all but perfected it." Game Informer recommended the game to fans of both roguelikes and twin-stick shooters, saying it exceeded both The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. Nintendo Life called it one of the best indie games on the Nintendo Switch, while USgamer considered it one of the best roguelike twin-stick shooters.Reviewers praised the variety and creativity of guns and items, but were disappointed by the frequent generation of conventional weapons. Game Informer said that discovering new guns made each playthrough enjoyable, while Eurogamer called the guns "wondrously exotic" Although considering most conventional guns too similar to each other, IGN enjoyed the pop culture references, designs, and sound effects of the weaponry.The difficulty of the game was frequently mentioned. Destructoid said that the enemies of the lower floors were very challenging, and PC Gamer called the bosses "the hardest things I've ever encountered." The Escapist found the learning curb of the game's mechanics to be generally fair, but considered some of the enemies and bosses frustrating. While previously yearning for easier levels of difficulty, Electronic Gaming Monthly considered it helpful for teaching players how to improve their skills. Likewise, both Rock Paper Shotgun and Nintendo World Report considered their troubles with gameplay to be the result of a lack of skill, and accredited the game for not having its difficulty be based upon an imbalance of mechanics. === Sales === Enter the Gungeon sold more than 200,000 copies within its first week across all platforms, with Steam Spy suggesting that 75% of these sales were made on Steam. By January 2017, the game had sold more than 800,000 units across all platforms, according to Devolver Digital. Total sales across all platforms exceeded 3 million by January 2020. == Sequel and spin-off == A sequel, Exit the Gungeon was developed by Dodge Roll and originally released for iOS devices through Apple Arcade on September 19, 2019, Whereas Enter the Gungeon has the player attempt to reach the lowest level of the Gungeon, Exit the Gungeon requires the player to escape from the Gungeon as it is collapsing. The game plays similarly to Enter the Gungeon, but is based on a platform game rather than a top-down dungeon crawler. In 2019, the arcade spin-off Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead was announced, and was released in 2022. == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Hack and slashRole-playing

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and Nintendo internationally for the Nintendo Switch. Part of Fire Emblem series created by Intelligent Systems, it is both a spin-off of Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) and a successor to Fire Emblem Warriors (2017), similarly acting as a crossover between the mechanics of Fire Emblem and the Warriors franchise owned by Koei Tecmo (which Omega Force is a division of). The game is also dedicated to voice actor Billy Kametz, who died of cancer during the production of the work and was also considered to be his final role. The game was announced in a Nintendo Direct on February 9, 2022, and was released worldwide on June 24, 2022.Three Hopes is set in the same universe as Three Houses; although characters and story elements from the original game (including the Cindered Shadows DLC) are heavily featured, it takes place in an alternative timeline and features a new character named Shez as its protagonist. In Three Hopes, Shez, a mercenary whose team was decimated by Byleth in battle, joins the military academy of Garreg Mach Monastery and becomes a student in one of three classes, each including students from one of the three nations of the continent of Fódlan. Like in Three Houses, the game allows players to decide which class to join, leading to different story paths and playable characters. == Gameplay == Much like its predecessor, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a hack-and-slash action role-playing game with gameplay similar to the Dynasty Warriors series. Players will control characters from Fire Emblem: Three Houses including Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and a new character, Shez, who like most avatars in the Fire Emblem series, can be either male or female. == Plot == The game takes place on the continent of Fódlan in an alternative timeline to that of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In the tradition of Three Houses, the game has three unique storylines: Scarlet Blaze, Azure Gleam, and Golden Wildfire, each following one of the three house leaders. It diverges from the storyline of its predecessor game in that Byleth, the playable character of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, serves as an antagonist. Three Hopes introduces several new characters to fight alongside the cast of Three Houses, including Shez, a mercenary Byleth previously encountered, and Arval, a mysterious white-robed being who opposes Sothis in the game's cover art. === Synopsis === The mercenary Shez is defeated in battle by the Ashen Demon Byleth, vessel of the progenitor god Sothis, and their father Jeralt; Shez only survives due to the intervention of a mysterious being named Arval and swears revenge. Six months later, Shez rescues three nobles from a bandit attack: Edelgard von Hresvelg, princess of the Adrestian Empire, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and Claude von Riegan, heir to the leading house of the Leicester Alliance. As a reward, Archbishop Rhea of the Church of Seiros allows Shez to enroll in the Officer's Academy, an elite military academy for Fódlan's brightest students. Shez and their classmates rescue Monica, a former student who was abducted by "Those Who Slither in the Dark", a fanatical cult that seeks to conquer Fódlan. Afterward, the three lords are forced to depart the Academy when a crisis strikes their homelands. Edelgard launches a coup to overthrow Thales, the leader of Those Who Slither in the Dark who has taken effective control of the Empire; Dimitri suppresses a coup launched by his uncle and regent Rufus; and Claude defends Leicester's eastern border from an invasion by Shahid, an avaricious prince of the eastern kingdom of Almyra and Claude's half-brother. Shez accompanies their chosen lord and remains in their service for the next two years. All three lords are crowned leaders of their respective countries. Two years later, Edelgard declares war on the Church of Seiros, believing it to be corrupt. ==== Scarlet Blaze ==== Edelgard and her forces claim Garreg Mach for the Empire, forcing the Church of Seiros to seek aid from the Kingdom. The Empire manages to hold back troops from the Kingdom and Alliance to secure key locations in the west and east. Months later, Edelgard and Claude form a pact for the Empire and Alliance to work together to defeat the Kingdom and Church of Seiros. As their forces begin to surround the Kingdom, many Adrestrian territories are suddenly attacked by "Those Who Slither in the Dark" and a revolt led by Duke Aegir. Edelgard's army slays Duke Aegir and contains most of the chaos before advancing back to the Kingdom. While the Empire and Alliance fight the Kingdom and Church of Seiros in the north, Rhea uses a secret passage and leads her soldiers to reclaim Garreg Mach, which is also approached by Thales and "Those Who Slither in the Dark". Edelgard's forces manage to hold back both armies until Rhea and Thales seemingly kill each other. With their absences, the influence of the Central Church wanes, and "Those Who Slither in the Dark" vanish. There are two endings to this route that are determined by Shez deciding to recruit or kill Jeralt and Byleth. If they kill Jeralt, Byleth joins Claude and encourages him to break the pact with the Empire during the battle with the Kingdom and Church in the north; Claude's forces are defeated in a three-way battle, which causes all three ruling powers of Fódlan to return to war against each other with no end in sight. If they are recruited, Claude maintains the pact, and the Empire and Alliance prepare for their final battle with the Kingdom to bring an end to the war. ==== Azure Gleam ==== Dimitri chooses to provide asylum to the Church of Seiros and go to war against the Empire. As they attempt to reclaim western territories, they face a revolt from the traitorous former royal family mage Cornelia and the western lords. After they defeat her, Cornelia tells Dimitri that his stepmother, Edelgard's mother, was involved in the Tragedy of Duscur and encourages him to seek answers from Edelgard before dying. The Kingdom and the Empire face off in Arianhrod, with the Kingdom emerging victorious. Before Dimitri can kill Edelgard, Thales appears and attacks both of them. Edelgard reveals that he was responsible for the death of Dimitri's father before he uses his magic to subdue and put her under his control. With the Empire becoming more chaotic under Thales and Duke Aegir's leadership, Claude and Dimitri form a partnership so the combined forces of Leicester, Faerghus, and the Church of Seiros can take down Adrestia. After splitting up the Empire's western and eastern forces, Dimitri and his army successfully kill Duke Aegir and Thales and free Edelgard from Thales's mind control. This forces Adrestria back on all fronts and radically transforms the power structure throughout Fódlan as the allied forces press south to crush the Empire for good. ==== Golden Wildfire ==== Claude initially opposes Edelgard in defense of Leicester. However, an attempt to counter invade the Empire is interrupted when Shahid launches another attack on the Alliance, forcing Claude to break his momentum against Adrestia to repel and kill Shahid. Claude negotiates a ceasefire with Edelgard. Four months later, the Alliance is reformed as the Leicester Federation, with Claude as its first king. Claude, who agrees with Edelgard's belief that the Rhea is stagnating Fódlan, sets out to kill Rhea and cripple the Church's military and political power. Claude drives Dimitri to the capital of Faerghus but is forced to back down when those who slither in the dark incite civil unrest in Leicester. The Empire and Federation defeat the Kingdom and Church in battle, leading Dimitri to abandon the Church to protect Faerghus, allowing Claude and Shez to battle and kill Rhea. With his goal complete, Claude proposes an end to the war, although it is uncertain whether his words will be heeded. ==== Secret Chapters ==== In all three routes, Byleth and Jeralt are hired by factions opposed to Shez and hinder them throughout the war. If Shez kills Jeralt in battle, Byleth swears revenge and sacrifices their mortal body to Sothis. Sothis attacks Shez, but she and Byleth are killed in the ensuing battle, leaving Shez with regrets. If Shez convinces Byleth and Jeralt to surrender, the two are hired by Shez's faction. Shortly before the final battle, Arval possesses Shez and attempts to kill Byleth. When Shez's allies intervene, Arval banishes them, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude to another dimension using the Forbidden Spell of Zaharas. Arval is revealed to be the vessel for the soul of Epimenides, a powerful member of "Those Who Slither in the Dark" bent on killing Sothis. Shez and the three lords kill Epimenides and return to their world to continue the war. == Release == The title was initially revealed at a Nintendo Direct held on February 9, 2022 with a trailer revealing only the returns of Byleth, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude. On April 12, 2022, a trailer titled "Mysterious Mercenary" was released, announcing that Byleth would serve as an antagonist, Shez would be a new protagonist of selectable gender, Hubert, Dedue, and Hilda would be playable characters, and that the game would feature three diverging paths, similar to Three Houses. Over the course of May 2022, three trailers were released focusing on the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer respectively, with each revealing updated designs for all of the students from Three Houses. A final trailer was released on June 8, 2022 confirming the return of the Ashen Wolves characters from the Cindered Shadows DLC story in Three Houses. After the trailer was posted, a demo was released on the Nintendo eShop later that day, which allowed progression up to Chapter 4. == Reception == === Pre-release === Eurogamer, playing the demo, felt the game was "a significant improvement over the first Fire Emblem Warriors", citing deeper strategy and more polish. VG247 and Nintendo Life also praised the demo, calling it "the most fun [they've] had with a Nintendo Musou since the original Hyrule Warriors" and "set to improve everything about its predecessor", respectively. === Critical response === Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes received an aggregate score of 81/100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. While critics felt that Three Hopes improved upon its predecessor with good performance and increased depth and appealed to fans of the Warriors games, they noted that it would fail to compel those who did not favor its signature hack and slash gameplay.Destructoid lauded the title's incorporation of tension and technical nuance seen in the warp mechanic, micro-narratives, and last-second enemy ambushes, but concluded by stating, "There's flashes of mechanical brilliance in Three Hopes, that show how the game's combat could have further differentiated itself from the games before it; but [developer] Omega Force doesn't fully commit." Eurogamer recommended the title, calling it "an inventive twist on...the musou formula" and "a high point for the genre", while praising the satisfying exploration incentives, addition of strategy resources, and strategic gameplay elements. Game Informer said that the game was "a blast to play and packs a story just as thrilling as Three Houses" and praised the enemy variety, character interactions, and highly engaging narrative, but took issue with the subpar visuals, poor pacing, and late-game twists that lacked impact.GameSpot liked the addition of mid-battle fast-travel options, effective character development, and noted that it ran "surprisingly well with fast load times compared to past Musou games", but was critical of the "staggering amount of tutorials", unengaging political narrative, and bad placement of checkpoints. GamesRadar+ criticized the sidelining of the cast of characters from Three Houses but appreciated its influence on the gameplay of Three Hopes, writing, "Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes almost pulls off what should be an audacious crossover – frantic large-scale, Dynasty Warriors-style battles with some of the tactical depth which made Fire Emblem so famous." IGN similarly wrote in favor of the game but disliked its pacing, stating, "Three Hopes packs in too much filler even when you ignore everything optional, leading to some obnoxious repetition over the course of its 25-ish hours." Nintendo Life gave high praise to the improvements made to the story, performance, tactical depth, replayability, and relationship building upon previous titles but noted that the game faltered in terms of its pacing and occasional slowdown. === Sales === Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes sold 97,538 physical copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country. The game also topped the weekly sales chart upon release in South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.Within two months of release, the game had shipped over 1 million units worldwide. == Notes == == References ==

Nintendo Switch

Fitness Boxing

Exergamerhythm

Fitness Boxing is an exergaming video game developed by Imagineer and published by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was released on December 20, 2018, in Japan, December 21, 2018 in Europe and Australia and January 4, 2019, in North America.Fitness Boxing is the successor to the Shape Boxing trilogy released on the Wii, with the first two installments rebranded as licensed Gold's Gym fitness games in at least North America.A sequel, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise, released for Nintendo Switch on December 4, 2020.A spin-off sequel, Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star, was announced at a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2021, and will release in March 2023. == Gameplay == The gameplay involves using the Joy-Con motion controllers to perform punches and dodging maneuvers. The workouts recommend a full body stretching exercise both at the start and end of the workouts. The difficulty and complexity of the workouts increase gradually over time. Free exercises are always available, regardless of if daily workout has been completed or not. The score for each exercise (excluding the stretches) is determined by how precise the player is in performing their punches and maneuvers. Fitness Boxing comes with charts that determines estimated fitness age and calorie burn based on the height and weight of the player. The game will periodically request the player to update their height and weight. The routine, length and intensity of daily workouts can be adjusted by the player at any time. The default coach is Lin, and there is a total of 5 other coaches (3 female and 2 male), each with customizable appearances. New costumes can be unlocked by performing achievements. The coaches demonstrate every maneuver involved in each exercise, making them a visual guide for maintaining rhythm. They also provide the players tips both during and outside of the exercises. === Playlist === Fitness Boxing contains a playlist of instrumental versions of popular pop songs that is played with each workout exercise.The songs featured in the original Fitness Boxing are; "She Looks So Perfect" by 5 Seconds of Summer "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen "Baby" by Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera "Sugar" by Maroon 5 "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor "I'm In the Mood for Dancing" by The Nolans "Live While We're Young" by One Direction "Good Time" by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen "Timber" by Pitbull ft. Kesha "20th Century Boy" by T. Rex "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the MoonThe songs featured in Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise are; "Break Free" by Ariana Grande ft. Zedd "Castle on the Hill" by Ed Sheeran "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction "Beauty and a Beat" by Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj "Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj "Birdsong" (original composition) "Animals" by Martin Garrix "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf "So What" by P!nk "Sandstorm" by Darude "Venus" by Bananarama "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper "Alone" by Marshmello "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire "Can’t Hold Us" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "I’m an Albatraoz" by AronChupa "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry "Y.M.C.A." by Village People "Aim High" (original composition) "South Nocturne" (original composition) == Development == Fitness Boxing was first announced by Imagineer on June 14, 2018. It was developed by former Rocket Company members working for Imagineer. In late-September 2018, Imagineer revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for Japan and in early-October 2018, Nintendo revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for North America and Europe as well as screenshots of game play.In late-October 2018, Imagineer revealed the track listing for Fitness Boxing and uploaded the first game play video of Fitness Boxing to their YouTube Channel. == Release and promotion == On November 29, 2018, a Fitness Boxing demo was released on the European Nintendo eShop for the Switch and a demo was released on the North American eShop on December 13, 2018.Fitness Boxing was released both digitally and physically on December 20, 2018, in Japan, December 21, 2018, in Europe and Australia and January 4, 2019, in North America.On January 15, 2019, Nintendo held a promotional event for Fitness Boxing at Nintendo New York, which included a group of women led by Instagram fitness influencer Niki Klasnic playing the game. == Related media == On August 26, 2021, an anime television series adaptation produced by Imagineer and Story Effect was announced. This anime series is directed and written by Junpei Morita, with motion capture by SOLID CUBE and music composed by Yūsuke Shirato. It premiered on October 1, 2021, on Tokyo MX. == Reception == Fitness Boxing received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to Metacritic with a score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics.Nintendo Life gave Fitness Boxing a 8/10; calling it "no substitute for hard hours at the gym", but still recommended the game as a workout regimen for being energetic, entertaining, and cheaper than a gym membership. Nintendo World Report gave Fitness Boxing a 7.5/10; praising it for having multiple exercises for various skill levels, but criticized the limited number of musical tracks. Nintendo Wire gave Fitness Boxing a 7.0/10, praising it for having a "decent selection of punches to throw" and for allowing the user to track their progress day-to-day, but criticized the game for its "lack of variety" and for having "repetitive music and trainer dialog".DualShockers gave Fitness Boxing a 6.5 out of 10, saying that the game "just suffers from feeling inaccurate, even more so when punches and dodges aren’t correctly registered by the Joy-Cons", but praised the game for being "perfect for those who want to lead a healthy and active lifestyle". Destructoid gave Fitness Boxing a 7/10, saying that "There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."The Reno Gazette-Journal gave Fitness Boxing a 6 out of 10, saying that "Fitness Boxing works great as a fitness app but not so much as a game." === Sales === From January 7, 2019, to January 13, Fitness Boxing placed 20th on Japanese sales charts, selling 3,024 physical copies during that period.In February 2019, Fitness Boxing started experiencing shortages in Japan.In September 2020, Imagineer announced that the game had sold over 1 million copies worldwide. == References == == External links == Fitness website Fitness Boxing at MobyGames Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise at MobyGames

Nintendo Switch

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise

Exergamerhythm

Fitness Boxing is an exergaming video game developed by Imagineer and published by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was released on December 20, 2018, in Japan, December 21, 2018 in Europe and Australia and January 4, 2019, in North America.Fitness Boxing is the successor to the Shape Boxing trilogy released on the Wii, with the first two installments rebranded as licensed Gold's Gym fitness games in at least North America.A sequel, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise, released for Nintendo Switch on December 4, 2020.A spin-off sequel, Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star, was announced at a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2021, and will release in March 2023. == Gameplay == The gameplay involves using the Joy-Con motion controllers to perform punches and dodging maneuvers. The workouts recommend a full body stretching exercise both at the start and end of the workouts. The difficulty and complexity of the workouts increase gradually over time. Free exercises are always available, regardless of if daily workout has been completed or not. The score for each exercise (excluding the stretches) is determined by how precise the player is in performing their punches and maneuvers. Fitness Boxing comes with charts that determines estimated fitness age and calorie burn based on the height and weight of the player. The game will periodically request the player to update their height and weight. The routine, length and intensity of daily workouts can be adjusted by the player at any time. The default coach is Lin, and there is a total of 5 other coaches (3 female and 2 male), each with customizable appearances. New costumes can be unlocked by performing achievements. The coaches demonstrate every maneuver involved in each exercise, making them a visual guide for maintaining rhythm. They also provide the players tips both during and outside of the exercises. === Playlist === Fitness Boxing contains a playlist of instrumental versions of popular pop songs that is played with each workout exercise.The songs featured in the original Fitness Boxing are; "She Looks So Perfect" by 5 Seconds of Summer "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen "Baby" by Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera "Sugar" by Maroon 5 "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor "I'm In the Mood for Dancing" by The Nolans "Live While We're Young" by One Direction "Good Time" by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen "Timber" by Pitbull ft. Kesha "20th Century Boy" by T. Rex "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the MoonThe songs featured in Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise are; "Break Free" by Ariana Grande ft. Zedd "Castle on the Hill" by Ed Sheeran "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction "Beauty and a Beat" by Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj "Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj "Birdsong" (original composition) "Animals" by Martin Garrix "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf "So What" by P!nk "Sandstorm" by Darude "Venus" by Bananarama "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper "Alone" by Marshmello "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire "Can’t Hold Us" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "I’m an Albatraoz" by AronChupa "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry "Y.M.C.A." by Village People "Aim High" (original composition) "South Nocturne" (original composition) == Development == Fitness Boxing was first announced by Imagineer on June 14, 2018. It was developed by former Rocket Company members working for Imagineer. In late-September 2018, Imagineer revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for Japan and in early-October 2018, Nintendo revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for North America and Europe as well as screenshots of game play.In late-October 2018, Imagineer revealed the track listing for Fitness Boxing and uploaded the first game play video of Fitness Boxing to their YouTube Channel. == Release and promotion == On November 29, 2018, a Fitness Boxing demo was released on the European Nintendo eShop for the Switch and a demo was released on the North American eShop on December 13, 2018.Fitness Boxing was released both digitally and physically on December 20, 2018, in Japan, December 21, 2018, in Europe and Australia and January 4, 2019, in North America.On January 15, 2019, Nintendo held a promotional event for Fitness Boxing at Nintendo New York, which included a group of women led by Instagram fitness influencer Niki Klasnic playing the game. == Related media == On August 26, 2021, an anime television series adaptation produced by Imagineer and Story Effect was announced. This anime series is directed and written by Junpei Morita, with motion capture by SOLID CUBE and music composed by Yūsuke Shirato. It premiered on October 1, 2021, on Tokyo MX. == Reception == Fitness Boxing received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to Metacritic with a score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics.Nintendo Life gave Fitness Boxing a 8/10; calling it "no substitute for hard hours at the gym", but still recommended the game as a workout regimen for being energetic, entertaining, and cheaper than a gym membership. Nintendo World Report gave Fitness Boxing a 7.5/10; praising it for having multiple exercises for various skill levels, but criticized the limited number of musical tracks. Nintendo Wire gave Fitness Boxing a 7.0/10, praising it for having a "decent selection of punches to throw" and for allowing the user to track their progress day-to-day, but criticized the game for its "lack of variety" and for having "repetitive music and trainer dialog".DualShockers gave Fitness Boxing a 6.5 out of 10, saying that the game "just suffers from feeling inaccurate, even more so when punches and dodges aren’t correctly registered by the Joy-Cons", but praised the game for being "perfect for those who want to lead a healthy and active lifestyle". Destructoid gave Fitness Boxing a 7/10, saying that "There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."The Reno Gazette-Journal gave Fitness Boxing a 6 out of 10, saying that "Fitness Boxing works great as a fitness app but not so much as a game." === Sales === From January 7, 2019, to January 13, Fitness Boxing placed 20th on Japanese sales charts, selling 3,024 physical copies during that period.In February 2019, Fitness Boxing started experiencing shortages in Japan.In September 2020, Imagineer announced that the game had sold over 1 million copies worldwide. == References == == External links == Fitness website Fitness Boxing at MobyGames Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise at MobyGames

Nintendo Switch

Shin Megami Tensei V

Role-playing

Shin Megami Tensei V is a 2021 role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo Switch. It is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, the central series of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. Produced by Shin Megami Tensei IV director Kazuyuki Yamai, it was designed as a hybrid between Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Shin Megami Tensei IV, featuring returning gameplay mechanics such as raising and fusing demons. As of April 2022, the game sold over one million copies. == Synopsis == === Setting === Shin Megami Tensei V is a role-playing video game that is set in modern-day Tokyo and the Netherworld. It features returning gameplay elements from previous Shin Megami Tensei games, such as the ability to fuse demons, along with new mechanics. === Plot === The protagonist, an ordinary high-school student, and his school friends Yuzuru Atsuta and Ichiro Dazai are caught up in a mysterious earthquake and transported to Da'at; an alternative apocalyptic version of Tokyo amidst an almighty battle between angels and demons. As he travels in this world, he shortly becomes overrun by demons and is nearly killed, only to be saved by a god-like being, Aogami. Together, they fuse into a Nahobino, a forbidden being that is neither human nor demon, but more so a deity. The protagonist traverses Da'at, clashes with a man named Shohei Yakumo and his demon partner Nuwa, and discovers a terminal that returns him and his friends to Tokyo. There, he learns that Yuzuru and fellow classmate Tao Isonokami are actually operatives of a clandestine international organization called Bethel focused on keeping humanity out of the war between angels and demons. Ichiro volunteers to join Bethel while the protagonist is conscripted due to his newfound powers as a Nahobino. Two days later, demons from Da'at invade the protagonist's high school and abduct several of the students. The protagonist and his friends launch a rescue mission, during which Ichiro's self-esteem issues lead to him latching on to Bethel's angelic leader Abdiel. The protagonist rescues most of the kidnapped students, but Tao sacrifices herself to defeat the demons' commander, who was searching for (and manipulating) a human to merge with so it could become a Nahobino. In the aftermath, Bethel Japan's leader Hayao Koshimizu orders the protagonist and his friends to join a Bethel siege on the demons' stronghold in defiance of Abdiel's orders. The protagonist makes his way through the castle and kills the demon's leader, Arioch. Afterwards, it is revealed that the creator god is dead and that a Nahobino must take His throne. With their common enemy dead, the various factions of Bethel splinter in the hopes of taking the Creator's throne for themselves. Koshimizu reveals that his true identity is Tsukuyomi, leader of the Amatsukami, and that he desires to restore the world to the rule of the gods of old; he is joined by Yuzuru in this endeavor. Ichiro convinces Abdiel to join him in restoring the will of God to the world, while Shohei and Nuwa declare their intent to destroy the Creator's throne outright and leave humanity's fate in its own hands. The protagonist, joined by a reincarnated Tao, makes his way to the Temple of Eternity and may side with any of the three warring factions. In all cases, the other candidates for the throne are all slain and the protagonist is confronted by God's killer Lucifer for a final battle (unless he chooses to destroy the throne). After defeating him, the protagonist can reshape the world as he sees fit. If the protagonist elects to uphold God's order, he sacrifices humanity's freedom and self-determination to create a world of peace and harmony. If the protagonist elects to restore the old gods, he creates a world of freedom and potential that is wracked with strife and conflict. If the protagonist elects to destroy the throne, the conflicts that plague humanity and demonkind continue, although humanity's victory is inevitable. Additionally, if the protagonist has completed several optional sidequests and initially sided with Shohei, he can accept Nuwa's alternate proposal to create a world for humanity alone. The protagonist removes all demons and gods from the world, including Aogami, and restores his friends to life before overseeing his new creation from afar. == Development == Shin Megami Tensei V is developed by Atlus, and is produced by Kazuyuki Yamai, who previously directed Shin Megami Tensei IV. One of the development team's goals with the game is to depict and sympathize with modern issues, such as unemployment, unease about retirement, terrorism and nuclear weapons, and home problems. The game is developed as a hybrid between the "profound charm" of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and the demon-raising gameplay in Shin Megami Tensei IV. The game was developed using the game engine Unreal Engine 4, a first for Atlus; according to Yamai, moving to Unreal Engine 4 changed the way they create games, as the ability to create something and immediately see it within the game allows them to spend more time on trial and error and coming up with ideas. The decision to develop the game for the Nintendo Switch was made as Yamai liked its portability combined with its capability for high-definition graphics, although there were some challenges involved since Shin Megami Tensei V was Atlus's first time developing for the platform. The higher hardware capabilities of the Nintendo Switch meant that the demons in the game took approximately three times as long to develop when compared to previous Shin Megami Tensei games.The game was revealed in January 2017 as part of Nintendo's unveiling of the Nintendo Switch console, in the form of a teaser trailer featuring a destroyed office building and a number of demons. At the time of the announcement, development had just started, and the game was presented as Shin Megami Tensei: Brand New Title; the Shin Megami Tensei V title was announced in October of the same year, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original Shin Megami Tensei, along with a new trailer showing a modern-day Tokyo train station and a post-apocalyptic city scene. At this point, Yamai described development as not even far enough for Atlus to be able to say "coming soon". By February 2018, he described the project as having entered "full-scale development", with more and more Atlus staff joining the production. Although Atlus USA did not initially know whether they would get to localize the game for the Western market, they still sent out a press release about the game's announcement in January 2017; an international release was announced in November 2017. Responding to worries about the development's progress following a lack of status updates, Atlus reaffirmed in 2019 that the game was still in active development. == Release == Shin Megami Tensei V was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch in November 2021, launching in Japan on November 11, 2021 before debuting overseas the following day. It is the first Atlus and Megami Tensei title to receive a worldwide simultaneous launch. The game was published by Atlus themselves in Japan, while parent company Sega released the game in North America, and Nintendo distributed the game in Europe. Alongside the game's standard release, the launch was accompanied by the distribution of a first-print steelbook edition available to those who pre-ordered or bought the game during the week of release, in addition to the "Fall of Man Premium Edition", which bundled the game with specialized packaging, a sling bag, a handbook chronicling all the demons found in the game, a t-shirt modeled after the main protagonist's school attire, and the game's soundtrack on two CDs. == Reception == Shin Megami Tensei V received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic, and was nominated for best role-playing game at The Game Awards 2021, but lost to Tales of Arise. It debuted as the highest selling physical video game of the week in Japan, with an estimated 143,247 copies sold. It stayed in the top 10 for another two weeks and would go on to sell a total of 184,388 physical copies in Japan before dropping out of Famitsu's reports. In the UK, it debuted as the ninth highest selling, and outperformed other recent Japanese role-playing game releases in the region including Bravely Default II, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, and Tales of Arise. In a New Year's message published by Famitsu, Atlus announced that the game had sold 800,000 copies. In April 2022, Atlus announced that the game had sold over one million copies worldwide.Polygon praised the scale of the game's world and writing, stating that "Despite the performance issues, the bigger areas and new engine allow for some creatures to be truly breathtaking and terrifying". IGN's Leana Hafer liked the essence system, feeling that it was "possible to create some absurdly powerful and specialized teams that can take on almost any challenge". GameSpot enjoyed the tension of actions in the game, "Every action in SMTV has a weight to it, and that's what makes the game so fun and engaging". Game Informer said "Shin Megami Tensei V makes smart improvements to its already strong core, creating an entertaining and rewarding journey".George Yang of Bloody Disgusting gave the game a positive review, praising the modernity of the game, and the Tokyo setting, while calling it one of the best JRPGs of the year. Destructoid liked the fast-travel system, liking how the feature allowed players to teleport back before a boss or move between biomes easily. VG247 felt the refinements made to demon negotiation helped make the mechanic more understandable, with the reviewer stating "the tone of your answers when entering talks with a demon actually matter, and you’ll quickly build a familiarity with some of the more common personality traits of demons". Andrew Stretch of TechRaptor gave the game a very positive rating, summing up their review by saying "Shin Megami Tensei V understands its roots in RPG combat, demonic friendships, and plotlines about toppling gods. This new entry takes advantage of the next generation of Nintendo console and improves vastly in look, feel, and in world exploration".Nintendo World Report's Donald Theriault praised the move to open world environments, writing that, "every square inch of the thoroughly nuked Tokyo has spots to explore". == Notes == == References == == External links == Official website

Nintendo Switch

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Simulationrole-playing

The Story of Seasons video game series was originally produced by Victor Interactive Software (acquired by Marvelous Entertainment in 2002), with Natsume handling the English translation and distribution in North America. The series debuted in Japan on August 9, 1996 with Bokujō Monogatari (牧場物語-, lit. "The Farm Story"), which later was released in the North American and PAL regions as Harvest Moon. Story of Seasons is a series of farm simulation/role-playing video games where the main objective is to maintain a farm over a period of time, tending the crops and livestock throughout the seasons, while befriending the nearby townsfolk and getting married in some games. Story of Seasons titles have been released on numerous different video game consoles and handheld game consoles. Several titles have been re-released on multiple platforms as special editions which include an updated gameplay. Fourteen spin-off titles have been released, featuring related elements. One of these titles, Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, was released to mark the 10th anniversary of the Story of Seasons series. One reason the Story of Seasons series has remained popular is because of the unchanged core system of the games. According to Yasuhiro Wada, Story of Seasons' lead designer, it has been the development team's response to the audience's requests which has allowed the series to maintain its popularity.Due to Natsume keeping the rights to the Harvest Moon name when Marvelous decided to have their own American division, Xseed Games, take over North American distribution, the newer titles in the series had to be renamed to Story of Seasons while Natsume took the opportunity to start their own Harvest Moon series of similar games starting with Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. This has reportedly caused some degree of confusion among players and fans of the series. == Main series == == Related games == There are 14 spin-off games under the Harvest Moon series featuring related elements or characters. == See also == Legend of the River King, a fishing-themed role-playing game series also developed by Marvelous. == References == == External links == Official Natsume website Official Marvelous Interactive website (in Japanese)

Nintendo Switch

Thief Simulator

Stealth

Thief Simulator is an open-world stealth video game developed by Polish video game development studio Noble Muffins and released for Microsoft Windows on November 9, 2018, for Nintendo Switch on May 16, 2019, for PlayStation 4 on August 12, 2020, and for the Meta (Oculus) Quest 2 on July 8, 2022. == Synopsis == The player assumes the role of an unnamed thief, who works for the Lombardis Mafia after they paid his bail, guided by Vinny to commit crimes. At the end of the game's original story, Vinny attempts to kill the thief with a mail bomb, but fails. In a later update, the thief transverses between the industrial district's buildings to steal evidence implicating the Lombardis and explosive constituents. He then stashes the evidence in the garage and the explosive charge in the office before setting it off. Vinny is presumably killed as the mansion explodes. == Reception == Thief Simulator received generally favorable reviews and even made it to the top of Steam's list of best-selling games on its opening weekend. == References == == External links == Thief Simulator at Metacritic Thief Simulator at Steam

Nintendo Switch