New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Review – Not New, But Still Super
As the most recent entry in the modernized 2D platforming series, New Super Mario Bros. U provided a wide array of fun, colorful stages for you to run, jump, and explore through. The post-release add-on New Super Luigi U added a second campaign featuring shorter levels and a light speed-running element. With New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Nintendo bundles these two campaigns into one package and adds a new playable character to give Switch owners the best way to experience this fan-favorite platformer from the Wii U era.
With both the base and downloadable content in tow, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe delivers a substantial 164 levels to play through. Mario U’s story houses standard series fare, letting you take your time scouring for hidden locations, while New Super Luigi U gives you less time to run through levels designed for Luigi’s high jump and slippery controls. With each level holding myriad secrets to uncover, both stories give you reason to revisit ones you’ve already completed. Discovering every tucked-away area is exciting, but my favorite reason to keep playing is to collect the star coins hidden in each area, as they unlock bonus levels.
Click here to watch embedded videoThe story modes start out simple, but up the ante as you approach the final showdown; simply jumping from ledge to ledge while stomping enemies in the early goings quickly escalates to dodging fireballs and invincible baddies while riding a snaking platform through a mid-game castle. Regardless of the difficulty, I had a blast platforming through the thoughtfully crafted challenges, never feeling overwhelmed by the task in front of me.
Playing using the original lineup of Mario, Luigi, and Toad offers a fun, satisfying challenge. When New Super Luigi U first released as DLC for Mario U, it added the pseudo-antagonist Nabbit as a playable character. While a new character is always a welcomed addition, Nabbit is impervious to any damage from enemies, so it felt more like a cheat code than a new way to experience the game. Nabbit is still available for the least experienced players, but Deluxe introduces Toadette, who controls and takes damage normally. She is also the only character who can pick up the Super Crown power-up, which transforms her into a Princess Peach-like character known as Peachette. As Peachette, you can float gently to the ground, covering large distances, and double jump, making sequences a bit easier. Toadette is a great in-between character for players who want to experience the stages with a bit less difficulty, but don’t want to breeze through as Nabbit.
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Outside of the main stories, you can also complete challenges to earn medals. These act primarily as diversions to the main attraction, but trying to beat your time in a speedrun or topping your score of bouncing off of strategically placed enemies is addicting. You can also play Boost Rush, where you collect coins to increase the auto-scroll speed, and Coin Battle, which pits you against friends to see who can grab the most coins in an area.
One of the big draws for the New Super Mario Bros. series is its fun local cooperative play. Sitting next to friends and running through the stages is always fun, even if things get increasingly chaotic the more players you add; if you want to make real progress, you should probably steer clear of four-player mode, but inadvertently bouncing off each other’s heads and into enemies or lava pits always results in laughter. Each player uses a single Joy-Con, so you need to buy extra if you want a third or fourth person to your co-op chaos.
With so many stages to explore and master, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is a terrific way to experience this game again or for the first time. Toadette is a good addition for less-experienced players, and she makes some of the star coins easier to reach. While I’m disappointed that this release doesn’t include more additions to the original package, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is still a great game at its core.
Summary: This port doesn't add a ton of new content, but it's still the best way to play an already fun platformer.
Concept: Bring a 2D Mario game from Wii U to Switch, along with all its DLC and a new playable character
Graphics: New Super Mario Bros. U’s modern take on classic characters still looks great on Switch
Sound: From reimagined classic tunes to original compositions, the music is catchy and upbeat in all the right ways
Playability: Well-designed stages provide just the right amount of challenge, but if you have trouble, the addition of Toadette alleviates some of the struggle without making it a walk in the park
Entertainment: This platformer was fun on Wii U, and the Deluxe version gives the game a well-earned extra life on Switch
Replay: Moderately high
Nintendo's paid online for Switch comes with NES games added to the library every month, but January is the first month that Nintendo had not already announced the games yet. Thus, today's announcement of The Legend of Zelda II: Adventure of Link and Blaster Master are the first unrevealed NES games since the paid online launch in September.
Click here to watch embedded videoIt's definitely an interesting choice, to the point where I wonder if Nintendo intentionally themed the two games together. Both Zelda II and Blaster Master switch between top-down and side-scrolling sections as their main gimmicks. Both are also known as fairly difficult games, so they're not going to be a walk in the park.
Oddly, the Japanese Switch Online service is also getting Joy Mech Fight, a Japanese-only NES release starring Sukapon, which Americans might know as a Smash Bros. assist trophy. This is odd mostly because this game isn't replaced in other regions with a different game, Japan just gets three while America gets two. Usually Nintendo also puts out surprise releases on the day the games get uploaded, though, but it has always been an edited version of an existing game on the service.
Are there any specific NES games you're still waiting to hit the service?
In an odd bit of late-day press releasing, Nintendo has given dates to Yoshi's Crafted World and the equally-crafted Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn.
The Switch Yoshi game, which was revealed at E3 2017, has had scattered showings since its initial announcement. It re-emerged after a recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct as Yoshi's Crafted World with Nintendo adjusting the release date to 2019. They have now confirmed that the game will be launching on Switch on March 29. You can check out the newest trailer for the game below.
Click here to watch embedded videoKirby's Extra Epic Yarn is an enhanced port of the Wii game Kirby's Epic Yarn, a yarn-based co-op platformer released originally in 2010. The 3DS game was announced last year and adds Metaknight and King DeDeDe to the campaign. The title is releasing on March 8.
This makes Yoshi's Crafted World the first Nintendo-published Switch game to have a date after January, leaving February oddly open. The felt-textured Yoshi is also an alternate costume for the character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Metro Exodus is only a few weeks away, so players don't have to wait too long to venture out to the surface and feel the harsh winter on their cheeks, at least in-game. A new story trailer for the game shows you the odds you'll be up against, which aren't just environmental and monstrous, but fascistic, as well.
Check out the Metro Exodus story trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded videoThis isn't to say there aren't monsters to fight as well, as the trailer has no problem showing you some of the creeping and crawling grotesqueries ready to jump out from the darkness right in your face. The year-long journey from Moscow is going to put the crew of the Aurora to the test.
Metro Exodus releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15.
Cory Barlog, the director behind Game Informer's Game of the Year God of War, was recently on video game personality outlet Kinda Funny to talk about all things Kratos. While speaking to hosts Greg Miller, and Tim Gettys Barlog was asked about God of War and DLC plans. The single-player epic really did not receive much in the way of post-launch content outside of a New Game Plus mode. The problem, Barlog said, was that the DLC he wanted to do was too huge.
"I had a really fun idea for a DLC that I only regret because I would love to have done that," Barlog said. "But it was too ambitious."
According to Barlog, the proposed DLC would have gone from a small downloadable piece of extra content and venture into a standalone campaign like Uncharted: Lost Legacy or inFamous: Second Son's First Light DLC. This dramatically outpaced the scope for what they expected to do with the DLC, thus it put the brakes on God of War DLC.
"Rightfully so, everybody said, dude, this is crazy, this isn't DLC, this is a little too big," Barlog explained. You can find the full interview here to listen to more of what Cory Barlog has to say about God of War's development.
Marvel is dedicating this week to The Fantastic four, offering reveals oriented around Marvel's First Family throughout the next few days. At the end of a two-hour livestream highlighting some of the changes coming to its mobile titles, the company dropped a quick hint about the company's recent multi-million selling hit, Spider-Man.
"Something 'Fantastic' is coming to Marvel's Spider-Man real soon," Marvel's Ryan Penagos said as the company was wrapping up the stream. No further details, such as a date for the next announcement, or whether it would be story-based DLC or a costume, were offered.
To read our review of the base game, head here.
You might remember Wandersong, the cute little indie platformer from developer Greg Lobanov, when it came out last year. We did a review on it. It's neat. Valve is, for some reason, currently investigating whether it is a real game.
When Valve threw the doors open on the Steam store last June, they said they plan to remove games that are "illegal, or straight up trolling." The latter descriptor is intentionally broad and, in the ensuing six months, has come to include games that may exist simply so Steam cards can be mined and sold from it. When a game like that is being investigated by Valve, a little message appears on their store page saying that certain features, like earning cards or getting achievements, will be limited or turned off. The game will appear in your library, but won't add to the total number of your games, either.
Basically, if something is weird with your game, Valve's algorithm wants to know why.
These restrictions have been on Wandersong since the game's release and still seemingly ongoing, for reasons that haven't been explained to Lobanov. He tweeted about it being a strange aberration in October, but it still remains an issue today.
Wandersong's steam reviews are so good that Valve doesn't necessarily believe it's a real game, and still haven't enabled many basic features for us in case it's a bot trick. BUT IT'S REAL. https://t.co/wRZVo1LKtL pic.twitter.com/XqEzQKKP5x
— WANDERSONG (out now!!!) (@Wandersong_game) January 8, 2019"We’re just so statistically anomalously popular with users, Valve’s algorithm thinks we might be a scam game that hacked hundreds of accounts to make it look like we’re this popular,” he told Polygon. “It’s a good-ish problem to have."
Lobanov says that it's Steam's algorithm that decides this and there's no chance of getting someone to look at it until the algorithm declares it fine. It's not clear if a person ever looks at each game Steam flags or if some number has to pass a certain threshold to fix it. Until then, Wandersong can still be sold and still remain so popular that Valve's software can't really figure out if it's a bot.
[Source: Polygon]
The 2D skateboarding series OlliOlli is heading to Switch next month, and you can grab both games in one package.
OlliOlli: Switch Stance brings OlliOlli and OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood to Nintendo's hybrid console. The games will come bundled as part of one special edition, the price of which has not yet been announced. Switch Stance launches on February 14.
For more on the OlliOlli games, check out our reviews for OlliOlli and OlliOlli 2.
Everyone gets along pretty well here at Game Informer. And then it’s time for our annual Game of the Year awards. At that point, it all falls apart. Friendships are tested, reputations are ruined, and most of us walk away with the sneaking suspicion that our co-workers might actually be dumb and bad. And then we move on with our lives until the next December rolls around.
People will always tear our picks to shreds (and some of that criticism may be coming from inside the building), but we make a point of letting readers get involved in our annual (you guessed it) reader poll. How closely did the collective voices match up with ours? Did they get it right in those few cases where a person could make a convincing argument that we completely missed the boat? As usual, there were plenty of solid picks across the categories, as well as some surprises and what were undoubtedly troll contributions from budding class clowns.
Read on for the complete results in all categories, as well as some (hopefully) interesting context that makes it a bit more engaging than reading through a bunch of poll-based blurbs. And be sure to check out our game-of-the-year picks, too.
The mighty Kratos had an appropriately mighty showing in the Best Sony Exclusive category. About 65 percent of you thought it was the best PlayStation exclusive in 2018, beating out Spider-Man’s second-place showing with 23 percent of votes. Detroit: Become Human garnered about five percent of votes, which was enough to snatch third place. And it looks like there are 21 comedians out there who said the PSVR exclusive horror game The Inpatient was the best thing to hit the console last year. Or perhaps those votes were cast in all sincerity. Sorry?
Microsoft had one third as many exclusives as Sony or Nintendo, which makes it easy to run down the top three. Forza Horizon 4 took the lead position with 67 percent of votes, followed by Sea of Thieves (21 percent) and State of Decay 2 (12 percent).
In another absolute drubbing, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate took the top Nintendo exclusive prize with more than 71 percent of reader votes. Old-school RPG Octopath Traveler was a distant second, with 13 percent, followed up with Super Mario Party’s 9 percent.
On the PC front, things were a little closer. About 100 votes separated first and second place. Ultimately, Civilization VI: Rise and Fall took the win with 19 percent of reader votes, followed by World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth with 18 percent. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire was a fairly close third, with 15 percent.
Now that platform exclusivity is out of the way, things start to get interesting. Actually, we take that back. God of War handily took the Best Action Game prize, despite it being a PlayStation exclusive. Red Dead Redemption II took second, but its 24 percent couldn’t compete with God of War’s 41. Another PlayStation exclusive, Spider-Man, snagged third place with 10 percent of votes. And we see you, Dauntless fans. More than 500 of you guys rallied together, and while it wasn’t enough to edge past Monster Hunter: World or Mega Man 11, it was still a respectable showing. Quick note: This was also the most popular category overall.
Quantic Dream’s “robots as a racial allegory” made it an easy target for online snark, but Detroit: Become Human clearly had its fans. Forty-one percent of respondents named it their favorite adventure game for 2018, ahead of Subnautica (21 percent) and Batman: The Enemy Within (13 percent). Life is Strange: Before the Storm snagged one solitary vote, which was kind of weird. Keep flying that freak flag, lone voter, and stay strong!
Nintendo included an ambitious single-player mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but who cares? It seems you guys are more interested in beating the pastel-colored stuffing out of each other. Ultimate was the victor when it came to best competitive multiplayer, scoring about 23 percent of the vote. Call of Duty eschewed the campaign altogether, but it only took second with 19 percent. And even though it was only in beta, Red Dead Redemption II’s online component impressed enough of you guys to put it in the third-place position. Yee haw!
The field for co-op games was as tight as we’ve seen so far, with the top three winners barely edging past the other candidates. Red Dead Redemption II squeaked by to a first-place finish, with 15 percent of votes. A Way Out was next with 14 percent, and Monster Hunter: World’s 13 percent helped it take the third spot. Three of you cast your votes for Echo Combat, so there’s that.
Pretend the debate over whether Smash Bros. games are technically fighting games isn’t a thing for a second. Okay. Good. That’ll make it easier to accept that our readers overwhelmingly say it was the best fighting game of 2018. Nearly half of you gave it a respectful nod, beating out Dragon Ball FighterZ (23 percent) and Soulcalibur VI (15 percent). We’re assuming items are off and all that business.
The best racing game category was another absolute blowout. Forza Horizon 4 took the checkered flag pole position first place with 66 percent of votes, followed by the Crew 2’s 9 percent. Third place went to Hello Kitty Cruisers with five percent because y’all are hilarious.
Ubisoft Quebec said it was going full RPG with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and that decision clearly paid off. Odyssey was your favorite RPG for 2018, with more than 36 percent of respondents casting their vote for the adventures of Alexios/Kassandra. Next up was Kingdom Come: Deliverance, with 15 percent, and Octopath Traveler, with 13 percent. Fourth place was close enough to mention: Lost Sphear took that position, with 11 percent.
Let’s face it: This is a weird category. The top vote-getter was the fiendishly difficult Celeste, with 32 percent of votes. Then it bounced over to our pink friend, Kirby, who sucked up 14 percent. PSVR exclusive Astro Bot Rescue Mission was a close third, with 12 percent of votes – 44 votes ahead of Unravel Two, who had to settle for fourth. Sorry, Yarny.
You like puzzles? Apparently not. This category was the most-skipped one among respondents, with more than 6,000 of you passing by without bothering to vote. So don’t come crawling back to us if you don’t think Tetris Effect was the best puzzle game for 2018 and you weren’t among the 50 percent of voters who did. After that, Return of the Obra Dinn took second with 14, while Donut County was in third with 11 percent. Seriously, more people voted for VR games. What gives, guys?
There were only two candidates in this category, and it was a close race. Ultimately, 52 percent of you picked The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset over World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. Even though we know you guys don’t like puzzles, we’ll let you do the math and figure out what percentage of the vote Blizzard’s game received.
This was another close one, but someone has to win. This time around, it was Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Treyarch’s game was five points ahead of Far Cry 5, which took second place with 24 percent of votes. Battlefield V rounded out the top three with 17 percent.
You guys really like this Civ thing, eh? About a third of you chose this one, but that’s not the most interesting part. Frostpunk and Jurassic World Evolution took second and third place, respectively, with a measly five votes separating their positions. Your vote counts, people, don’t let anyone try and convince you otherwise. Oh yeah, the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit was after that, with 11 percent.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 was the favorite here, but that’s not the most interesting part. Wait, did we already do that? Rats. Regardless, the sentiment still stands. You think five votes is close? That’s nothing! A single vote gave Into the Breach the lead over Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Crazy, right?
Nintendo fans strike again. Remember Mario Tennis Aces? Apparently, a lot of you do. About a quarter of you thought it was the best sports game of 2018, which is certainly a choice. After that came FIFA 19, with 18 percent of votes. Inexplicably, 51 of you cast your votes for RBI Baseball 18. Weird!
This was another close one. Beat Saber had 31.73 percent of votes, while Tetris Effect managed to connect with 31.12 percent of you. Astro Bot Rescue Mission was a bit further behind, netting about 22 percent of votes. It looks like Astro Bot has some kind of third-place curse going on.
Hello again, Beat Saber! It’s hard not to notice you standing over there with your 50 percent of votes. That’s way more than Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight could muster, with its 22 percent. You’re doing all right for yourself there, Just Dance 2019. Sixteen percent ain’t nothing. Who did you piss off, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight? You’re in second-to-last place for some reason. Okay then.
You know who likes Shadow of the Colossus? Aside from just about everybody else? Why, it’s you guys! 23 percent of you said the PlayStation 4 remake was as good as it got in 2018, nearly twice as many as did Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Evee. Keeping things Switchy, 10 percent of you thought Dark Souls was pretty okay on Nintendo’s portable thankyouverymuch.
Yeah yeah, we can hear the groans from all you serious gamers. You may not personally like the dances and the back bling and the base-building that Fortnite offers, but you know who does? Nineteen percent of your fellow readers. That’s more than the people who rooted for Overwatch (13 percent) and Rainbow Six Siege (10 percent). A special shout-out goes to the 21 of you who lent their support to Ghost Recon Wildlands. That game is super great, right? You’re not alone.
Finally, it’s the big one. How did you guys do? Oh. I see. It looks like 34 percent of you thought God of War was game of the year. Fair enough. No judging. It’s a great game, after all. Good stuff. Some cool moments. After that was Red Dead Redemption II, with 27 percent of votes. Then it gets weird. Kingdom Come: Deliverance fans knew how to mobilize, getting enough votes for a third-place finish – eight votes ahead of fourth place Spider-Man, in fact. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came in fifth after that, with about four percent. And more than 400 Dauntless fans pushed the button for that game – several hundred more than Monster Hunter: World managed. Heh.
Finally, a whole slew of games managed to get exactly one vote. Whether by mistake or pure passion, we’ll never know. But let’s all join in for a moment of silence to honor the following games. You might not have won a game of the year award, but you have earned the deep respect of at least one reader. Unless, again, it was by mistake, in which case I don’t know what to tell you.
39 Days to Mars Agony Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers Earthfall F1 2018 Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Frozen Synapse 2 H1Z1 House Flipper Just Dance 2019 Little Dragon’s Café Mario Tennis Aces MLB the Show 18 Moss NASCAR Heat 3 NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 Nintendo Labo Variety Kit Onrush Overkill’s the Walking Dead Pokemon Quest Return of Double Dragon Runner3 Super Daryl Deluxe Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! The Crew 2 The Room: Old Sins The Swords of Ditto Timespinner Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr Way of the Passive Fist
Every year the video game industry somehow seems to up the ante on the breadth and quality of experiences it provides to players, and 2018 was no exception. Fans of triple-A blockbusters were consumed with the massive open worlds of games like Red Dead Redemption II, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Spider-Man. Multiplayer fans shot, slashed, and punched their way through the competition in Black Ops 4, Monster Hunter: World, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And perhaps most importantly, titles like Fortnite, Overwatch, Destiny 2, and many others continued to blur the line between old and new by offering a steady stream of game-changing updates and seasonal content to keep gamers playing well after launch.
While the latest issue of Game Informer contains the full rundown of our 50 favorite games of 2018 (plus a ton of Top 10 lists highlighting the best characters, moments, dorks, etc.), we’ve also got a host of year-end awards to share, which you can check out right here. From the best platform exclusives to genre leaders to the illustrious Game of the Year award, here is the best of the best that 2018 had to offer.
Check out all the award winners below, and then see how they stacked up to the results of the Reader’s Choice Awards.
Sony had no shortage of hit exclusives this year, from a slew of Yakuza titles to the best Spider-Man game to date. However, none of them could fend off the legendary return of Kratos. Santa Monica Studio didn’t just stop at offering fans the most gorgeous visuals and polished combat of the series. Instead, they transformed Kratos into one of the most intriguing characters of the year by reframing him as a reluctant father, weaving a more meaningful and heartfelt story than anyone expected. In a year with plenty of must-plays for Sony fans, God of War still came out on top.
Microsoft may not have the breadth of exclusives that Sony and Nintendo enjoy, but that doesn’t diminish the first-place finish Playground Games pulled off this year. Forza Horizon 4 turns Great Britain into an open-world racing nirvana for gearheads. With a nearly endless stream of cars, races, and customization options, racing fans may never wave the checkered flag on Forza’s latest entry.
Bookending your game title with “Super” and “Ultimate” is more than a little cocky, but damned if Nintendo and Bandai Namco didn’t pull it off. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate brings back every fighter from the series’ long and illustrious history, along with almost every stage, giving players a ridiculous amount of depth and replayability. The massive new World of Light mode also keeps solo players entertained for hours on end. If you’re a Switch owner who likes fun, SSBU is a no-brainer.
PC has always been home to intriguing indie experiences, and 2018 was no different. Lucas Pope delivered the best of the best this year with his 1-bit hit, Return of the Obra Dinn. The monochromatic puzzler doesn’t just rely on its striking visuals to enchant players; the challenging puzzles and intriguing murder mystery will keep you enthralled from beginning to end.
Every now and then a game stands out from the sea of free-to-play microtransaction traps that plague the mobile platform. What Florence lacks in gameplay it more than makes up for in its story; a simple but appealing art style brings Florence to life as players experience her everyday routine and navigate the highs and lows of love in a thoughtful and authentic way.
A lot of the praise heaped on the new God of War has focused on the thoughtfulness and maturity of its storytelling – so much so that it’s easy to forget that Santa Monica Studio has still crafted one hell of an action game. From a shack-smashing encounter with a mysterious stranger to a dance with a dragon, Kratos undertakes some of his biggest and most memorable boss fights in 2018’s reboot. Even the lowliest Draugr provides a satisfying target for your magical axe thanks to the polished combat mechanics and an in-depth, RPG-style progression system.
Captain Spirit may be a prelude for the latest Life Is Strange, but it stands just fine as its own adventure. Seeing the world through the eyes of an imaginative boy named Chris makes thoroughly exploring each environment worthwhile, as does learning more about his life and relationship with his troubled father.
Call of Duty haters scoffed at the idea of Treyarch jumping on the battle-royale bandwagon, but the results promptly shut them up. The venerable series brings a silky-smooth framerate and a gigantic bucket of polish to the winner-takes-all genre, and incorporating fan-favorite areas into the larger map gives the mode its own identity. COD’s classic multiplayer options also don’t disappoint this year, snagging Black Ops 4 top honors for our competitive multiplayer award.
The only thing better than taking down a towering beast with a comically oversized melee weapon is doing it with three friends at your side. Monster Hunter: World takes the long-running series to new heights with its gorgeous open-world zones, complex creatures, and dizzying progression systems. The fact that it is all built with multiplayer in mind makes the monster-slaying co-op action more accessible and entertaining than ever.
One look at Dragon Ball FighterZ’s striking visuals makes it easy to forget the anime’s rocky history with video games. Thankfully, the beauty isn’t just skin deep – Arc System Works put its decades of experience to good use, striking the perfect balance between being newcomer-friendly and providing the strategic depth hardcore fighting fans demand. The ability to blow enemies to kingdom come doesn’t hurt either.
Playground Games’ open-world offshoot of the Forza series shows no signs of slowing down. Horizon 4 is the most impressive entry to date, boasting 400+ cars to collect, route-creation tools, and changing seasons that affect road conditions. The arcadey racing action is where the rubber truly meets the road, however, and has kept us coming back for one challenge after another.
No, that’s not a typo: Ubisoft Quebec’s decision to double down on the RPG elements of Assassin’s Creed Origins has transformed Odyssey into a true role-playing adventure, and we couldn’t be happier with the evolution of the series. Whether hunting down elusive cult members, snagging rare and exotic loot, or childishly dangling from anatomically correct marble statues, Odyssey gives players a massive and fascinating rendition of ancient Greece to lose themselves in.
Tough-as-nails indie platformers are everywhere these days, but Celeste leaps to the head of the pack by constantly plying players with new ideas and gameplay twists along their adventure. An innovative assist mode ensures struggling gamers can still enjoy the experience, but those looking for a challenge will be kept busy with a boatload of devilishly hard level variations as they overcome Celeste’s inner demons on a mountain-climbing adventure that our thumbs won’t forget anytime soon.
Obra Dinn’s visuals may be simple, but the logic puzzles you’re tasked with solving are anything but. Deducing the identity and fate of each crew member on the doomed ship is no easy feat, but it is a fascinating one, plunging you further and further into the strange and fantastical world that Lucas Pope has crafted.
World of Warcraft’s latest expansion may not clear the high bar Legion set in 2016, but it still gave fans plenty of reasons to return to the 14-year-old MMO. A wealth of new quests, dungeons, and warfronts have kept the battle between the Alliance and Horde raging all year. Even an “okay” expansion from Blizzard is still a great time.
We’ll be honest: We missed having a bombastic story campaign to blast our way through in this year’s COD. On the other hand, G.I. editors are still playing Black Ops 4’s myriad multiplayer offerings almost nightly. Treyarch’s ability to faithfully transplant COD’s rock-solid gunplay into 100-player battles on a humongous open-world island is a noteworthy achievement and blows the doors wide open for the future of the series.
Plenty of city-building sims task you with leading your own civilization – but rarely do they make you question your morality and competence as a leader. Frostpunk challenges players with an endless series of impossible choices as they try to survive a second ice age, sparking a level of self-reflection games rarely achieve.
Most mech-versus-kaiju showdowns favor brawn over brains, but not Into The Breach. Underneath the cutesy pixel-art aesthetic lies a serious strategy behemoth. Coordinating your crew’s unique abilities to beat down an onslaught of towering beasts is only half the battle – figuring out how to minimize casualties and manipulate your foes into attacking each other adds a whole new complex and satisfying layer to unravel. Basically, Into The Breach is like chess, only with way more explosions.
NBA 2K19’s microtransactions may still rub some fans the wrong way, but you can’t argue with the sheer amount of content and polish Visual Concepts offers would-be ballers. NBA 2K19’s MyCareer, Neighborhood, MyGM, MyLeague, and MyTeam modes all received meaningful improvements, giving fans an unprecedented number of avenues to interact with their favorite sport.
VR is still struggling to find a larger audience, but those who have already bought into the technology enjoyed an audio-visual experience like no other in 2018. Beat Saber transforms the rhythm/music genre into a full contact sport, as players slice their way through neon-hued blocks in time to the music. It may not quite rise to the level of killer app, but if you haven’t played Beat Saber yet, you’re missing out.
Seriously, were you not listening when we said Beat Saber was an “audio-visual experience like no other” and that it “transforms the rhythm/music genre into a full contact sport?” That’s high praise! Beat Saber players can also download thousands of user-made tracks to popular songs for free if you're playing on PC, making it an easy recommendation if you’ve already got a VR rig that needs some more love.
Sega has offered series fans a criminal cornucopia of Yakuza titles over the past few years, but even the remakes have been chock full of new and entertaining content. Yakuza Kiwami 2 doesn’t just rehash the events of the second game in the series – it also adds a whole new story campaign focused on Goro Majima, an updated combat system, and fan-favorite mini-games from recent entries. If every remake turned out as good as Yakuza Kiwami 2, we wouldn’t even need new games anymore!
Regardless of the fact that it launched in 2017 or that it’s still technically an early access title, Fortnite was the defining game of 2018 for millions and millions of gamers. And we can’t blame them – from a mystery involving a giant purple cube to a celebrity cameo by Thanos(?!), Fortnite constantly surprised and delighted players with new content throughout the year. In the nuclear arms race of games-as-service titles, Fortnite remains an ambitious frontrunner.
You know it’s been a good year for games when giving top honors to a title as flawlessly executed as God of War can be considered contentious. While G.I. has a posse of irate cowboys ready to declare mutiny over the decision, even they can’t argue against God of War being a modern-day masterpiece. Santa Monica Studio’s reinvention of the series has made Kratos relevant to new and old audiences alike, and is backed up by superb visuals, combat, writing, voice acting – the list goes on and on. Even for a god slayer, taking down this year’s phenomenal competition was a herculean task, but Kratos proved a worthy champion.
Yesterday, Blizzard released a new short story set in the Overwatch universe, detailing some of Ana's past, titled "Bastet." Today, the company announced you can earn a skin based on that short story starting right now.
To earn the skin, which is only available until January 21, you'll have win nine times across quick play, competitive, or arcade. Along the way, you'll earn Bastet player icon at three wins, and a win pose at six wins.
You can also earn a total of five sprays by watching certain Twitch streams of Overwatch throughout the event. To earn all of the sprays, you'll have to watch a total of six hours, though you get sprays at two and six hours. For a list of which streams you need to watch and when, as well as how to link your Twitch and Blizzard accounts so you can log your hours, head over here.
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As I watched the first 10 episodes of Star Wars Resistance, Lucasfilm’s latest animated series, I was periodically reminded of Skies of Arcadia, a great Dreamcast RPG from yesteryear that had a vibe of its own, but sadly didn’t get the attention it deserved. There isn’t a clear through line between the game and show, but their characters, set up, and charm sit in the same murky territory of pirates being handled in a slightly different way than we’re accustomed to.
Star Wars Resistance follows a misfit named Kazuda Xiono, who becomes a part of the Resistance and is tasked to identity First Order spies on an ocean-based aircraft refueling platform named Colossus. The platform functions like a small tourist town with pilots stopping by for short periods of time as their ships are refueled or repaired. The platform is also visited frequently by air pirates, who swoop in, attack, and try to make off with whatever valuables they can.
Skies of Arcadia follows a misfit named Vyse, who is a part of the Blue Rogue air pirates, a group that resists the movements of the Valuan Empire, attacks them, and, well, tries to make off with whatever of its valuables it can.
Hmmm. So maybe there’s more of a through line than I originally thought. The big difference is the pirates in Resistance are as evil as the First Order, whereas the pirates in Skies are essentially the Resistance. Make sense? I hope so. I’m starting to confuse myself.
A story focusing on a small group of rebels overthrowing a large governing body is nothing new, especially in the worlds of Star Wars and role-playing games, but it’s a formula that works well. We love the underdog, and a coming-of-age story. The show and game make your rally around someone who is on the verge of doing something great.
That said, this article is not an endorsement for Resistance. Yes, I enjoy the show, as I do most stuff bearing the Star Wars name, but it has some serious issues and is occasionally lost at sea with its direction. The show is at its best when it is focusing on the people who live on Colossus, and at its worst when it’s trying to shoehorn in familiar Star Wars themes and characters.
During a couple of episodes, I questioned if the show was originally penned as a game. Xiono is sometimes tasked to fetch items, which doesn’t scream of intrigue as a plot point, but is something games continue to throw at us even though we all know there are a billion other things we could do than fetch quests.
If anything, I want this wordy Science-Fiction Weekly intro to remind Skies of Arcadia players of just how special that game was. Sega and developer Overworks made a hell of an adventure, and I just wish we could have revisited that world in a sequel. Shenmue is making a comeback, so maybe there’s hope for Skies down the road.
If I did pique your interest in Resistance, the first two episodes are available to watch on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. The first episode is below.
Click here to watch embedded videoAnother show to put on your radar is HBO's adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen comic book series. DC Comics' continued tinkering with Watchmen's universe has produced mixed results over the years. I wasn't onboard with the idea of this alternate universe intersecting with Superman and Batman's, but the current Doomsday Clock limited series has been great. I'm looking forward to seeing what HBO does with it. Even without seeing any of the footage or knowing anything about what HBO is doing, there's reason to be excited: the show is in Damon Lindelof's hands. He's one of the key guiding voices behind Lost and Leftovers – two of my all-time favorite series.
HBO says this series will "embrace the nostalgia" of the comic series, and will "attempt to break new ground of its own." You can get a small taste of it in the sizzle reel below, which provides a look at a number of HBO's 2019 series.
Click here to watch embedded videoI'll leave you today with a look at one of the most impressive fan projects I've ever seen. YouTube channel Star Wars Theory created a live-action prequel movie for Darth Vader called Shards of the Past. This 16-minute film often looks as good as the real deal. The takeaway here is that Star Wars Theory believes Vader was haunted by thoughts of Padme in his early days as The Emperor's right hand. The talented folks at Star Wars Theory nailed the look and sound of Vader, and their take on The Emperor is damn impressive as well. The story gets a little long in the tooth at times, and some of the flashback imagery is a little cheesy, but it still entertained the hell out of me. It just goes to show you that passionate people are capable of amazing things.
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If you're a digital subscriber to Game Informer, you now have a ton of information about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at your disposal. Following today's cover reveal, our digital issue is now live on web browsers and will be coming to iPad/iPhone later in the day. You can download the apps to view the issue by following this link. All of these digital options are included in a standard subscription.
The issue launches later this week on our third-party subscription apps including Google Play, Kindle, and Nook.
Not a digital subscriber yet? Convert your existing print subscription here or start a new subscription here.
Click on the banner below to visit our coverage hub for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and check back throughout the month for new, exciting stories and info.
The next major update for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which launches on January 10, will let you set how intense the enemy scaling is, among various other additions.
Along with a look at the next installment in some of the game's new and ongoing DLC questlines, the update adds a few new quality-of-life features. Hephaistos's Workshop lets you review any engravings you've found or purchased before, while also buying new ones and enhancing current ones from Tier 6 to 7. He can be found in the Myson Cave in Malis.
You can now also tailor the enemy scaling to your liking. Across four settings, you'll be able to set how intensely enemies scale to your level, ranging from heavy ("all enemies remain at your level") to very light ("content is around four levels below your level"). The option won't be available on the nightmare difficulty model, however.
The update also adds two new mercenary tiers make it an even tougher challenge to climb to the top of the ranks, a new boss fight against Arges the Cyclops (who drops a legendary weapon when defeated), Aya as lieutenant for the Adrestia, and more. Check out the full details here.
For more on Odyssey, check out our full review.
After the initial reveal of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, we quickly learned it would lack online multiplayer – a first for the developer’s major titles since Demon’s Souls. As part of our visit to the studio for our cover story, we asked them to elaborate on why that was the case.
Past From games have had an idiosyncratic take on online multiplayer. Players could leave each other notes throughout the world, warning each other of dangerous surprises or goading them into hazards. One player could summon another to help them with a difficult section, but risk being invaded and attacked by another.
From Software isn’t necessarily abandoning that part of its legacy, but it is taking a bit of a detour for now. “Of course, we at From, we love those online elements,” says Yasuhiro Kitao, manager of marketing and communications at From. “We love to create our own characters just as much as everyone else. We hope players are looking forward to something in the future where we might go back to that, but for now, Sekiro is very much its own thing.”
Not having an online component has its upsides, however. For one, players who’ve longed for an honest-to-goodness pause button (who first got a taste with the Switch version of Dark Souls) finally have that option. It also means players don’t have to worry about being invaded during tense encounters. And without co-op, bosses can be designed with a single player in mind.
Finally, it frees From up to let loose their creativity when creating Sekiro’s map. “When creating these playspaces, we don’t have to take into consideration how players will operate with one another in these maps, or how they may exploit the playspace by cooperating or something like this,” Kitao says. “So it allows us, again, to hone in on the player experience, and really capitalize on that lack of restriction that comes with creating a multiplayer-based game, and let our imagination run wild in these places.”
For more on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, check out our breakdown on how its progression works, or head over to our hub to see all of our coverage throughout the month.
One of the ways Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice marks a departure for From Software is in how your character becomes stronger. In other From games, you tailor your character by pouring points into different stats like strength, dexterity, and intelligence, depending on whether you want to fight as a brute, archer, or wizard, respectively. Shadows Die Twice won’t have that breadth of customization, as your character, The Wolf, is a shinobi through and through. That doesn’t mean you can’t tailor him to fit your playstyle, though.
A major departure hardcore From fans may scoff at is the lack of corpse runs. Though you gain experience from defeating foes in Shadows Die Twice, that experience is now divorced from currency; gold now drops from enemies as well, and you won’t lose either when you die. If you’re afraid that change might upset the balance of tension and accomplishment that have come define From games, there’s hope: Director Hidetaka Miyazaki says death will have a detrimental effect, but wasn’t willing to tell us what that might be.
Instead, progression in Shadows Die Twice is slow but steady, as the experience points you gain from killing enemies fill a bar that eventually provides you with a skill point that, you guessed it, you can spend in a skill tree. But it wouldn’t be a From game if there wasn’t a catch: Before you can invest in a skill tree, you have to unlock it by finding a particular item as you explore the world.
Once you’ve unlocked a skill tree, you can invest skill points at Sculptor’s Idols (Shadows Die Twice’s take on bonfires). From showed us a few skill trees for The Wolf; one based on shinobi arts, one around samurai arts, and another based on building up the prosthetic arm. Along with passive buffs and improvements to your basic moveset, you can also unlock special moves called combat arts, activated by pressing both front shoulder buttons and which must be equipped separately. These moves are meant to be periodic rewards that let you invest in a particular playstyle “just to give you something to make you feel like you’re roleplaying in a certain way,” says Yasuhiro Kitao, manager of marketing and communications at From Software.
Each of these trees is catered to a different playstyle. The samurai skill tree, for example, resembles the common warrior archetype, which relies on overt, grounded aggression. The shinobi tree is more evasive and lets you control crowds, with skills like a spinning slice attack that deals damage in an area and the ability to step over enemy spears. Finally, the prosthetic tree offers multiple more ways to approach different encounters, with the option to upgrade your shuriken throw with a follow-up attack that closes the distance between you and your opponent, or to let you throw multiple shuriken.
What we saw of these trees was fairly simple, though they weren’t final. We saw about three or four pathways to take our skill tree, with the final tier of skills requiring four skill points. How long these skill points will take to earn is still up in the air, however. The goal is to allow you to be “more creative and find your preferred ninja style, so you’ll have to specialize and think [about] which path you want to take,” Kitao says.
While the skill tree lets you build out The Wolf in various ways, upgrading his other stats will require more attentive eyes. As you venture through Shadows Die Twice, slay enemies and bosses, and find hidden rooms, be on the lookout for prayer beads, four of which will increase your overall health and posture (The Legend of Zelda’s heart pieces come to mind). You might also find tools to upgrade your prosthetic arm with new abilities, such as a shuriken launcher, an axe, or a flame vent, granting you access to new abilities to take with you on the battlefield. There might even be ways to build on the resurrection mechanic, From tells us.
All of these options make for one well-equipped character instead of several kinds of specialized warriors. From says this style of progression, which streamlines options at the cost of variety compared to Dark Souls and even Bloodborne, lets them focus on offering more overall depth to individual encounters, as From can more easily tailor encounters around your character’s skillset. “This is actually using Miyazaki-san’s own words – You could think of the previous Souls games as more expanding laterally, and adding breadth to these various options and builds,” Kitao says. “While you are a fixed shinobi protagonist, you do feel like there’s a sense of progression, there’s a sense of building your own character and finding your own playstyle, and experimenting with this throughout the game.”
For more on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, make sure to check Game Informer throughout the month, as we’ll have stories outlining various aspects of the game, like why it doesn't have online multiplayer, all this month. Click on the banner below to see all of our coverage.
From Software has been around forever, but is best known for its suite of action RPG games beginning with Demon's Souls. Between Dark Souls titles and Bloodborne, From has explored atmospheric dark fantasy and cosmic horror, and now they head to feudal Japan for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. We spent over two hours with the game in Tokyo and picked From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki's mind to get all the details on the upcoming game, from progression systems to traversal. Check out the cover for the February issue of Game Informer!
Join us to discover what makes Sekiro different from From's suite of existing games as well as why fans of Souls games have a lot to look forward to. The February issue doesn't stop there, and is dedicated to the top games of 2018, including our expansive top 50 list, game of the year award, and our top picks for each category. You'll also find our choices for top dorks, characters, publishers, and more, including an interview with the director of the 1994 Double Dragon movie!
Click here to watch embedded videoPrint subscribers can expect their issues to begin arriving in the coming weeks. The digital edition of this issue launches today for PC/Mac, iOS, and Google Play. You can also get the latest issue through third-party apps on Nook and Kindle later this week. To switch your print subscription to digital, click here, or to create a new subscription to the digital edition, click here.
Click on the banner below to visit our coverage hub for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and check back throughout the month for new, exciting stories and info.
As part of its slew of announcements at CES this week, Razer fully unveiled its Turret keyboard, which it's working on with Microsoft to bring PC-like controls to the console. In promoting the games you'll be able to sue the keyboard with, Razer also confirmed Gears 5 will be compatible with the setup.
We already knew a number of titles that would be getting mouse and keyboard support as part of the initiative, but Razer's listing most adds Gears 5 and Sea of Thieves to the mix, among others. It also seems to reveal that Gears Tactics, which was previously announced as only coming to Windows 10, will be headed to Xbox One as well (with mouse of keyboard support, of course). We've reached to Microsoft to confirm whether this is the case.
Gears 5 is scheduled to release sometime in 2019
Capcom has announced a demo for Resident Evil 2 is coming this Friday, but you're not going to want to screw around in this one.
The "1-Shot Demo" for Resident Evil 2, which hits on PS4, Xbox One, and PC January 11 and expires January 31, has you playing as Leon "as he arrives at Raccoon City Police Station in the ultimate worst first day on the job." You have 30 minutes mow down a few zombies, solve a few puzzles, and get out of the station.
Here's the catch: Once that timer expires, you can't play the demo anymore. If you die during the demo you're free to restart, but that timer carries over between tries. If you beat the demo, you're free to run through it again until the timer expires. But ostensibly, those 30 minutes are all you have.
Beating the demo also nets you what Capcom is calling an exclusive trailer only for those who finish the demo. You can watch that trailer as many times as you want.
Resident Evil 2 is out January 25 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Capcom's hack & slash RPG Dragon's Dogma has won over many fans over the years thanks to its great combat and pawn systems. Those who have not acquainted themselves with the game have a brand new reason to: Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is coming to Switch.
It's unclear if this version of the game contains the improvements of the recently released remaster for PS4 and Xbox One. The Switch version will be out on April 23. You can watch a trailer right here:
Click here to watch embedded videoFor more on Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, read fellow editor Joe Juba's feature about why you should check the game out.
You can't build your own sim-empire overnight, and the same applies to making a game like Tropico 6. Today publisher Kalypso Media announced that it is giving developer Limbic more time to incorporate fan feedback into areas such as multiplayer as it moves to a new release date of March 29.
"Over the holidays," reads a blog post from Simon Hellwig, owner and managing director of Kalypso, "I have played Tropico 6 for many hours and really liked what I saw. But, in my humble opinion, it is not enough to like a game – I want to love it! And Tropico 6 is good, but not very good [emphasis Hellwig's], or outstanding. Yet."
Hellwig says the dev team is currently addressing community feedback from the beta, and specifically says that Limbic is also working on improving the game's pathfinding, multiplayer, the overall game economy, and the simulation of the individual Tropicans.
To make this delay up to anyone who pre-ordered the title, Hellwig says Kalypso is giving away the game's first DLC – planned for the second quarter of this year – to pre-order fans for free.
For more on the game, check out Brian's previous preview.
[Source: Kalypso Media]
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