Exciting news, Xenosaga fans — and no, it’s not a remaster of the PS2 trilogy. The world still lacks an accessible modern way to play these games, but what IS on the way is a new piano album from Wayo Records called Across The Kosmos that rearranges the score from Episode 1. It’s officially licensed from Bandai Namco and its Kickstarter campaign is live today.
We don’t know when the next Shantae game will be announced, but we do know one nobody’s seen before is coming out. There was a long wait between the release of the original Game Boy Color game and the first sequel, and that’s because no market existed yet for a small company to release an independent creation on a modern console or handheld.
Yesterday was Mario Day (March 10, or MAR10) and Nintendo announced, among other things, that three Mario games would be added to Nintendo Switch Online…not on that day, but two days later on March 12. They seem to have moved it up a day because they’re live now.
I feel like I’ve been stabbed right in the childhood because one of the legends who shaped my younger days is now gone. Akira Toriyama, the man behind anime and manga like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Blue Dragon, and Dr. Slump, has passed away at the age of 68. He died inside his studio, doing what he loved. Dragon Ball is one of the most influential anime today, probably the reason why most shonen anime have very flashy fight scenes and even influenced Western animation in some ways. It has become so legendary that even people who have never read a Dragon Ball manga or watched a Dragon Ball anime know who Son Goku is. When Toriyama is still Alive, He is not full time writing anymore. He just give ideas to his apprentice Toyotaro. Hopefully Toyotaro can continue the legacy.
Anime wasn’t always on top of the world. Let this old timer tell you of an age long ago when that genre was new to America, obscure and confined to the corners of video stores and, largely, to the realm of bootleg VHS tapes with unpaid amateur subtitle attempts. It was undeniably worse than it is now, but there’s a certain appeal to the whole grungy aesthetic of it.
Last year the charity marathonners of Games Done Quick launched a sub-marathon for female gamers exclusively. They call themselves the Frame Fatales, except in winter when they call themselves the Frost Fatales. The 2024 marathon just started and it runs all week. Proceeds benefit the National Women’s Law Center.
Toys For Bob, the video game development studio praised for their work on Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro trilogy, announced today they’re departing the company that owns those characters and becoming independent. “We believe that now is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level,” say studio heads Paul Yan and Avery Lodato. “This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.”
Lente, a young video game developer from The Netherlands, grew up in and around boats. While entering college, she purchased her own small boat to live on and reduce her cost of living. And while on that boat, she began work on Spilled!, a game about the floating structures that have defined her life. Now the crowdfunding campaign for the game is live.
Nintendo is still keeping mum about their future plans (almost like they’re saving them for a future console) but this morning’s Nintendo Direct proves there will still be plenty to play this year from companies that aren’t them.
You play as either Gabriel or Lyria, cursed knights from the Far East who are fighting to save the Lands of Exilia from invading samurai and hideous monsters. Each boss you defeat will earn them a power-up that will let them take on the next set of challenges, but that won’t make things easy. Two additional game modes, Speedrunner and Bosh Rush, are unlockable after you beat the game as Gabriel.
The Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered collection launches this week on consoles and PC; it’s basically the intact classic version of Lara Croft’s first three adventures with some cosmetic upgrades. It’s not a full-on remake like FF7 is currently doing; all the environments are as charmingly blocky as they’ve always been, just with improved textures and a higher polygon count on Lara herself. The tank controls, which were a pain in 1996 and even worse to deal with now, are also gone (but you have the option of bringing them back).