The Blog

Chaosmonger has announced that Schizollama will see the light of day after all. If you don’t recall, this project was put up on Kickstarter but was unable to meet it’s goal but it seems Chaosmonger have found a way to make the project work after all.

The 2D pixel art run-and-gun platformer is now in active development and planned for release on Switch. Featuring procedurally generated levels, upgradable weapons, and lots of humor Choasmonger studios hopes this will be a game that can entertain all ages.

While a specific release date has not been finalized yet we do have an overview for the game that you can read below.

If you know your Indie gaming history then you know the Shantae series had a rocky start. The very first game released on Gameboy Color at the very end of it’s lifecycle condemning it to obscurity and it’s sequel on the Gameboy Advance was cancelled when it was nearing completion. Despite the odds, Shantae fought on to not only become WayForward’s mascot but a beloved indie series with several titles under her belt and with that success even her earlier titles are getting the chance to shine again.

Thanks to Wayforward’s partnership with Limited Run Games the original Gameboy Color game was reprinted and the cancelled Gameboy Advance sequel is also getting a shot at redemption under the name Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. While this is all great news for the series a recent Interview with WorthPlaying revealed that these re-releases were even more successful than previously thought.

Below is a snippet of an Interview between WorthPlaying, Shantae’s creator Erin Bozon, Shantae series’ director Matt Bozon, and Limited Run Games’ VP of Marketing Alena Alambeigi.

It seems that the re-release of Shantae GBC outsold the 10,000 copies of the original release though it’s not stated by how much. Given the fact that the game released on digital platforms as well as the reprinted cartridges this was not impossible but still surprising. If anything, this news is a testament to how much the series has grown, that it’s obscure first release can break 10,000 copies in the modern day.

WorthPlaying then goes on to ask if WayForward would be interested in making more original Gameboy Advance titles in the future and Matt Bozon says that it’s certainly something he is interested in.

Matt then ends the interview by reminding all that the physical release of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution is available for pre-order until April 7th and that anyone interested should pre-order now as there are no plans to reprint the game.

There were some other interesting tidbits that we didn’t mention so we’ll link to WorthPlaying’s full interview down below if you want to check it out for yourself.

QUByte Interactive have announced that MARS 2120 has been delayed to the second half of 2024. Originally slated for release on March 28th of this year the game has been pushed back for better optimization.

Alongside the delay a 4-part documentary entitled “Journey to MARS” chronicling the game’s development has also been announced. The first episode of Journey to Mars is coming sometime in April 2024, you can watch the trailer for the series above.

You can read further details on MARS 2120 down below.

It’s been announced that Earthbound USA will be available for digital purchase April 5th.

While the beloved independent documentary about EarthBound’s impact on the Western Market was only available for digitally renting or physical purchase those who want a digital copy will be able to get theirs through services like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and VUDU.

EarthBound, USA is a movie about discovering the power of online community, butting heads with corporate goliaths and your own looming adulthood, and dealing with your fan site becoming the cult behind one of the most infamous cult-classic videogames of all time, all set in the Wild West of Web 1.0.

EarthBound USA began life in 2013 as a passion project started by writer & director Jazzy Benson. Inspired by the internet folklore surrounding EarthBound ’s U.S. fanbase, and from hearing the insider stories behind Starmen.Net’s legendary petitions and letter-writing campaigns, Jazzy aimed to create a documentary that evokes the atmosphere and environments of a passionate fan community growing up online from one decade to the next.

This independent feature-length documentary of epic proportions was a featured component of Fangamer’s “You Are Now EarthBound” Kickstarter in 2014. Over the years the production staff grew from one to seven people, and the team worked to track down the story of EarthBound ’s release and revival by speaking with the unique voices that experienced it firsthand. Interviews with the game’s creator, former Nintendo employees, members of the 90s gaming press, and the webmasters and community behind Starmen.Net, have been combined with period-appropriate sets, quirky performances, and fast and surprising narrative techniques to present over 20 years of history and personal connections.

Paramount Plus have posted a new video to their YouTube channel promoting ARK: The Animated Series.

Entitled “Creatures of ARK” this 5 minute video discusses some of the wildlife found on the ARK in the style of a nature documentary, you can watch the full video above.

Paramount+ today announced that the first six episodes of ARK: THE ANIMATED SERIES, an all-new original series based on the hit adventure video game ARK: Survival Evolved, are available to stream now exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Canada. The series will debut in all other Paramount+ international markets starting Friday, April 19. Part two of the season will debut with seven new episodes at a later date.

The animated series voice cast includes Oscar® winners Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)and Russell Crowe (The Loudest Voice), Gerard Butler (Plane), David Tennant (Doctor Who), Oscar nominees Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) and Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy), Madeleine Madden (The Wheel of Time), and Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious franchise).

An animated adaptation of the hit video game featuring Yeoh, Butler, Crowe and Diesel, ARK: THE ANIMATED SERIES is a sweeping saga spanning eons of human history. When 21st century paleontologist Helena Walker (Madden) finds herself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated by prehistoric beasts, she must learn to survive with new allies from throughout time, while trying to uncover the true nature of their strange new world.

A production of Lost Continent Entertainment and Lex + Otis, ARK: THE ANIMATED SERIES is executive produced by Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, alongside Marc Diana, Doug Kennedy, Jay Oliva, James Baldanzi, Vin Diesel and Samantha Vincent for ONE Race Films; Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel for G-Base Entertainment; and Russell Crowe. Stieglitz, Oliva, David Hartman and Sebastian Montes serve as directors, and the series is co-written by Marguerite Bennett and Kendall Deacon Davis. ARK: Survival Evolved is an original creation of game developer Studio Wildcard.

Hollow Knight: Silksong has been the white whale of the Indie game scene for quite some time. Every time a Nintendo Direct or some other type of showcase drops fans are always hoping for news on the Hollow Knight sequel and are often left disappointed. Today of all days however, it seems we have new info about Silksong that might suggest new info is coming soon.

As reported by Wario 64, it seems that Hollow Knight: Silksong now has a listing on the Xbox store.

As Wario 64 makes mention of in their post, listings for Silksong already appear in places like the Nintendo eShop or Steam but this listing seems to be brand new.

Adding further fuel to the fire is Xbox Portfolio Sr. Content Planning Manager Nick Zuclich bringing attention to the listing as well. While this could just be Zuclich teasing a highly anticipated game it’s also possible he is teasing news for Silksong may be imminent, but that’s diving into speculation territory.

Whether news on Silksong comes next week or next year you better believe we’ll be here to report on it.

Nintendo of America have posted two more Nintendo Switch commercials to their YouTube Channel.

The First, seen above, focuses on a shy boy bonding with his family over Mario Kart.

The second, focuses on a boy and sister bonding over baking a cake in real life as well as in the newly released Princess Peach: Showtime! You can watch that commercial down below.

The Switch firmware has been updated to Ver. 18.0.0. You can see the patch notes for this update below.

As for the patch notes that Nintendo didn’t list, they’ve once again made more tweaks to the profanity list:

• Blocked some censor-evading death threats in Japanese.
• Blocked all input starting with the word “penis”.
• Blocked “penls” (with a lowercase L).

These past few years have been quite busy for Sonic, with multiple games and other multimedia projects in the works one would think the blue blur should be slowing down soon. As we all know though, Sonic is not one to slow down, and if current rumors are true another big project is in the works.

Known insiders Zippo, Necro Felipe, and Midori are now reporting that a Sonic Heroes Remake is in the works for the Switch Successor.

To give a full rundown of the events it all started with Zippo, who initially claimed that SEGA was planning a remake of a “big, important, seminal” 3D Sonic game in Unreal Engine 5.

Furthering corroborating the rumor was Necro Felipe of Universo Nintendo who clarified that the game in question was in fact Sonic Heroes. According to Universo Nintendo’s sources the game is planned for release on all modern consoles including the long-rumored Switch Successor. Necro Felipe also goes on to speculate that the game might release in 2025 but that is purely speculation.

Adding further fuel to the fire was Midori or @MbKKssTBhz5 on Twitter/X who has correctly leaked information on the Persona series in the past. They backed up Zippo and Felipe’s claims and also added that remakes of the Sonic Adventure games are not in the works right now.

While it would seem odd for SEGA to opt for remaking Sonic Heroes over the Adventure titles, given SEGA’s recent initiative to push Sonic’s friends into roles of prominence (Knuckles getting his own streaming series and Shadow receiving a new story in Sonic X Shadow Generations) it would make sense that they would want to highlight a game with a lot of characters like Sonic Heroes.

As with all rumors take this with a grain of salt but we will be sure to keep you posted on any updates on this or other Sonic news as it becomes relevant.

Square Enix have posted a new interview with Shaun Conde, voice of Genesis in Crisis Core: FInal Fantasy VII Reunion. In it, Conde sits down with Megan and Miguel of Square Enix to discuss his roots as a voice actor and his performance as Genesis.

The full 50-minute interview is posted for your viewing pleasure above.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is available now for Nintendo Switch.

Ready to start your engines? LEGO Fortnite has announced that the new Mechanical Mayhem update brings vehicles to the game March 26th.

Three free vehicle builds are being added, the Speeder, the Offroader, and the Hauler, you can take a look at these sweet rides down below.

This update also brings new parts and toys to make custom vehicles as well as new LEGO styles and a variety of bug fixes.

If you want a breakdown of everything included in the update as well as learning how to snag these vehicle builds for yourself in game then we recommend checking out LEGO Fortnite’s Blog post which we will link below!

TYPE-MOON and Aniplex have announced that visual novel Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon will release in the west on Switch come June 27th.

The companies have also announced that a $79.99 limited physical edition is now available for Pre-order.

A full overview of the game is available down below.

Late last year Nintendo announced that online support for Wii U and 3DS would be ending in April 2024. The announcement would mean that titles like the original Super Mario Maker would no longer be able to receive new fan made levels.

This announcement encouraged a community known as Team 0 Percent to rise to action and clear every uncleared level in Super Mario Maker. What seemed like an impossible feat soon rallied support from Mario Maker players all around the world and now the final uncleared level has been finished.

“The Last Dance” was the fittingly named final course cleared for Super Mario Maker by @Yamada_SMM2. With this Super Mario Maker can now be officially considered 100% complete!

This isn’t the end of Team 0 Percent’s efforts however, as they also wish to achieve a similar feat for Super Mario Maker 2. If you want to join the cause boot up your copy of Super Mario Maker 2 and try to clear some uncleared levels.

While it’s sad to see Mario Maker 1 ride off into the sunset it’s incredibly touching that the community could come together to give it the sendoff it deserves.

Sky and natural beauty go together like butterflies and the Prairie Elder, but every year we set aside an entire event as a special celebration of nature in Sky. And that means it’s time for Days of Bloom—a dazzling (and now electrifying!) three weeks that transforms Prairie Peaks and maybe even Sky children themselves.

From 00:00 March 25th through 23:59 April 14th (all times PDT, UTC -7), travel to Sky’s wildest lands to experience the core of this year’s event.

The latest review scores from EDGE magazine have come in, and there’s a lot of Switch games covered, including the Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC. Check out the full score rundown below from issue 396, all Switch titles are displayed in BOLD.

• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth- 9
• Unicorn Overlord - 9
• Helldivers 2: 8
• Skull and Bones: 5
• Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story: no score
• Penny’s Big Breakaway: 5
• Foamstars: 3
• Splatoon 3: Side Order: 7
• Inkulinati: 8
• Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior: 5