Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 6 to 10

Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!


Great New Games Spotlight 2023

Great New Games Spotlight has officially kicked off and we’re excited to bring you a ton of games every week for the next six weeks — more than 100+ new games will launch on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One between February 28 and April 10 – and if you spend $50 on eligible games and movies, you can receive 2,500 Microsoft Rewards points! Get more details here.


Romancelvania Box Art Asset

Romancelvania – March 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S

Take a bite into Romancelvania, a darkly comic genre mashup, combining side-scrolling action and tongue-in-cheek romance into one completely absurd and unforgettable adventure. Play as a lovelorn, brooding Drac who, after a century of moping around post-heartbreak, is thrown into a monster reality-dating show, hosted by the Grim Reaper.

Sentry Paragon Box Art Asset

Sentry Paragon – March 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

In this isometric action game where enemies are coming at you in droves, try to defend yourself and survive against the growing and strengthening threat by making the right strategy and moves.

Caverns of Mars: Recharged Box Art Asset

Caverns of Mars: Recharged – March 8

Descend into tunnels beneath the surface of Mars in a mad dash to destroy the reactor and furthest depths of the enemy’s base. Dodge debris, clear out obstacles, and blast enemies, all while conserving ammunition as you descend at high speed into enemy territory.

Cions of Vega Box Art Asset

Cions of Vega – March 8
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Guide a father as he searches the countryside and a mysterious cult-like town in hopes of bringing his daughter home. Accompanied by his brother, Logan, you’ll need to search for notes, drawings, keys, and other clues along the way.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Box Art Asset

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse – March 8
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Originally released in Japan in 2008 as the fourth game in the Fatal Frame series, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse returns for current-gen platforms with upgraded graphics along with new modes and costumes. After returning to Rogetsu Isle following a supernatural event when they were younger, a group of teenagers will learn to rely on the Camera Obscura, a camera with the power to capture and seal away unthinkable horrors, as they attempt to discover the truth of their haunting past.

KartRider: Drift Box Art Asset

KartRider: Drift – March 8

KartRider: Drift is coming to Xbox with free-to-play online cross-platform kart racing and deep customization. Race in a variety of modes on different tracks with players across the globe in this latest entry to the KartRider series.

Monster Energy Supercross 6 Box Art Asset

Monster Energy Supercross 6 – March 8
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Mud, sweat, fun and adrenaline: find the rider in you and jump into the action with Monster Energy Supercross 6. Live all the emotions of the Monster Energy Supercross 2022 Championship with the official bikes, riders, and tracks. Take advantage of the wide range of settings to customize every detail of your game experience, freely choosing the amount of realism and riding ease.

Super Arcade Football Box Art Asset

Super Arcade Football – March 8

A fast-paced football game where you don’t get to catch your breath. With simple controls that let anyone pick up and play, online and local multiplayer, and more, every match is sure to grab your attention from kick-off until the final whistle.

Super Arcade Racing Box Art Asset

Super Arcade Racing – March 8

A retro-inspired racing game with an intriguing story, online and local multiplayer, and more than 80 unique tracks with full car customization.

Zapling Bygone Box Art Asset

Zapling Bygone – March 8
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Play as an alien hive-mind who murders bosses, steals their abilities, and wears their skulls. Zapling Bygone is a twisted metroidvania where you murder your foes and steal their abilities by wearing their skulls. Make every inch of the alien planet your playground as you learn its secrets and use them to your advantage.

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos Box Art Asset

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos – March 9
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Play as Pseudo, a master of martial arts who lives as a recluse in the strange land of Zenozoik. When you cross paths with the Boy, a small creature whose mysterious powers have attracted the attention of Gemini, the Mistress of the Artifacts, you decide to protect him, unaware that much greater forces are involved.

Figment 2: Creed Valley - Box Art Asset

Figment 2: Creed Valley – March 9
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Nightmares have shattered the Moral Compass, making The Mind unable to function properly. Dusty and his ever-optimistic sidekick, Piper, must travel to Creed Valley, where The Mind’s ideals are formed to restore peace. A journey filled with musical showdowns and mind-bending puzzles await in this action-adventure game set in the human mind.

Papetura Box Art Asset

Papetura – March 9

Papetura is a labor of love and a love letter to both the craft of paper modeling and to old-school adventure games. Let the game transport you into a world of imagination and immerse yourself fully in paper fantasy as the soft and fragile music of Floex sets the mood for your journey.

Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home - Box Art Asset

Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home – March 9

A 2.5D adventure platformer that immerses the player in a deep, emotional plot, and lets them explore new planets and interact with alien civilizations. A story about self-exploration, transformation, and understanding of the world around us.

Transport Fever 2: Console Edition Box Art

Transport Fever 2: Console Edition – March 9
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

The classic transport simulation genre has a new gold standard with Transport Fever 2. Discover a whole new world by navigating transport routes through land, water, and air. Provide the world with the transport infrastructure it needs and make a fortune with custom-made transport services. Carry people on their way to work or play and be the reason cities grow and thrive.

Titanium Hound Box Art Asset

Titanium Hound – March 9

A retro-looking cyberpunk game where you pilot a huge and agile exoskeleton to crush hordes of crazed security drones and abominations while working to uncover a global conspiracy.

Volley Pals Box Art

Volley Pals – March 9

Simplified arcade volleyball where you hit the ball and pass it to your opponent’s field. However, in Volley Pals, you can also do many other interesting things including but not limited to: invading your opponent’s area, using your opponent’s service before they do, increasing the height of the net, playing rock/paper/scissors, and various other things.

Zombie Derby: Pixel Survival Box Art Asset

Zombie Derby: Pixel Survival – March 9
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Get in the driver’s seat and put the pedal to the metal! Smash your way through hordes of zombies and countless obstacles in a rip-roaring racing arcade. Experience the zombie apocalypse like you’ve never seen it before.

EvilUP Box Art Asset

EvilUP – March 10
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

An adventure for roguelike and RPG fans. Fight with bloodthirsty monsters, explore the dark corners of the labyrinths, and improve your skills and character development with challenging quests, various equipment, numerous types of enemies, and random generation of levels that will make your every attempt unique.

Flashout 3 Box Art Asset

Flashout 3 – March 10

Take part in an exciting, head-to-head fight to the finish in Flashout 3, featuring ultra-fast ships, loops, jumps, and razor-sharp turns! Test your skills on the most impressive sci-fi racing tracks and try not to fall behind by unleashing rockets, guns, bombs, and mines to help you level your competition.

Related:
How Clash: Artifacts of Chaos Uses Traditional Techniques to Look Like an Animated Illustration
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
The KartRider: Drift Closed Beta 3 begins Dec. 8th!

Nintendo Takes Wii U Versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon Offline Over Security Issues

Nintendo has taken the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon offline as it attempts to fix a security issue “related to online play”.

As spotted by VGC, the following maintenance post related to the Wii U games’ online functionality appeared on the Nintendo website at 4:30 GMT (8:30 PT) on Friday, March 3.

“This network service is currently unavailable due to urgent maintenance required to fix a vulnerability related to online play,” it said. “We do not yet have information on when network services can be restored. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

At the time of writing both games are still offline, and no timetable has been given for when the issue will be resolved.

Nintendo did not identify the cause of the security concern. However, established dataminer OatmealDome suggested in a tweet that the games could have been taken offline out of fear of a network vulnerability called ENLBufferPwn.

According to the twitter thread, the insidious vulnerability allows attackers to take over another player’s console simply by connecting to them online via multiplayer matchmaking.

OatmealDome notes that multiple Wii U, Switch. and 3DS games have been patched to protect users from attack, but that “Splatoon 1 and Mario Kart 8 did not receive any”.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires’ 1.0 release shows that hubris is good, actually

Total War: Warhammer 3? What’s next, a title screen review? A lengthy personal essay about an attract mode clip? Can my cat get a review? First off, yes. Captain Waffles is a visceral tour-de-force that no fan of the genre should miss. 10/10. Secondly, you should know that Immortal Empires is, as far as Total War: Warhammer goes, the game mode. More importantly, this ridiculously expansive, years-spanning grand-strategy project exists as tangible proof that sometimes, the limitless hubris of man is actually rad as hell, despite what the ancient Greeks said. Euripides nuts, more like.

Read more

Metroid Fusion Joins Nintendo Switch Online Next Week

Metroid Fusion is joining the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library next week.

Exactly when the game will arrive is a little unclear, however, as a tweet from Nintendo (below) has a March 9 release date, while a press release from the company states March 8. IGN has reached out for clarification on this release date.

Metroid Fusion will be the first additional Game Boy Advance game added to the Switch Online collection after Nintendo launched the service alongside six titles in February. As the fourth game in the 2D Metroid Saga, the entire collection will now (sort of) be available on Switch, with the exception of the original game’s remake Zero Mission.

IGN awarded Metroid Fusion a 9/10 in our review, and we also placed it on our Top 25 Nintendo Game Boy Advance Games of All Time list.

“Intelligent Systems put together a fantastic adventure on the Game Boy Advance that not only will please those Samus fanatics that were itching for a continuation of her 2D adventures, it will most likely generate interest in gamers unfamiliar with the series to seek out Samus’ previous games,” we said at the time.

Users will need both Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack before they’re able to download Metroid Fusion and the rest of the Game Boy Advance Games, but all of this can be done from the Switch Online app on the console itself.

Also available in the collection is Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega MicroGames, Kuru Kuru Kuruin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Blumhouse are adapting Dead By Daylight into a film

Dead By Daylight is apparently coming to Hollywood in the form of a new film adaptation. The two production companies involved are longtime horror fixtures Atomic Monster (who have made The Conjuring, Annabelle, and Malignant) and Blumhouse (the company behind Paranormal Activity, M3GAN, and Get Out.) The film doesn’t have any talent attached right now, but the two companies are currently looking for a director and a screenwriter. Blumhouse says, “it’s imperative we find someone who appreciates and loves the world as much as we do, to help us bring the game to the big screen”.

Read more

Guide: 50 Best Nintendo Switch Games So Far

The very best Switch games ever (so far).

Friday 3rd March 2023 marks the sixth anniversary of Nintendo Switch’s launch. The console has built a remarkable library of software old and new in that time, so — as Switch enters its seventh year — we’re republishing this reader-ranked list of the 50 best games on the system.

A game needs a minimum of 50 user ratings to become eligible. Once it reaches that threshold, anything is fair game. Enjoy!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Amazon Basics enters PC hardware with a familiar CPU cooler

air cooler. Judging from the manual it supports the very latest socket types for Intel and AMD’s gaming CPUs, and being under the Amazon Basics brand, it’s dirt cheap at £21 / £27.

It’s unlikely, though, that Bezos and the gang have been secretly funding R&D into an all-new line of PC gear. As Tom’s Hardware spotted, the Amazon Basics Computer Cooling Fan appears to simply be an existing budget cooler, the Cooler Master Hyper H410R, without the CM badge.

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The Next Pokémon Joining Pokémon Unite’s Roster Is Goodra

Bolstering the roster later this month.

Following the news earlier this week that the Sword legendary Zacian would be joining Pokémon Unite, it’s now been revealed Goodra will be added to the game on 16th March. This pocket monster made its debut in the Ruby & Sapphire generation and takes on the role of a ‘Melee Defender’ in Unite.

It’s part of the rumoured leaks, which also suggested Chandelure, Tropius, and Inteleon would be added to the line up (@ElChicoEevee via The Gamer).

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Capcom ‘Spotlight’ Broadcast Announced, Airing Next Week

Expect updates on Mega Man, Ghost Trick & more.

Capcom is hosting its own special ‘Spotlight’ next week on 9th March. Fans can look forward to a 26-minute broadcast covering all the company’s major IP and upcoming and existing releases.

Some of the titles you can expect to hear more about include Resident Evil 4, Exoprimal, Monster Hunter Rise, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. There’ll also be a special “pre-show” before the main event.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Minecraft 1.20 Update Titled Trails and Tales, Gives Us Camels

Minecraft has revealed new details about its upcoming 1.20 update, which is now titled Trails and Tales.

The new version is set to introduce a handful of fresh features, including a new biome, a new friendly mob, and more. The developers said this expansion is “all about self-expression through representation, storytelling, and worldbuilding.”

Arguably the biggest addition is the Cherry Blossom Biome, a new biome bringing a matching colored wood set and leaves along with it. Pigs, sheep and bees will inhabit the Cherry Blossom areas.

Beyond that, Trails and Tales will introduce a new friendly mob in the form of camels. Players will be able to ride camels and use their Dash ability to cover ground quickly. Plus, two players can ride a singel camel at the same time. There’s also a brand new ancient animal called the Sniffer, which will sniff out buried seeds and help players find decorative plants.

The new items in Trails and Tales largely revolve around customization. Players will be able to create hanging signs, chiseled bookshelves, armor trims, and more to reflect their own personal style. The developers also hinted that the new archeology system could uncover “exciting hints of a forgotten past”, meaning this could be a lore-heavy expansion. Version 1.20 is set to come out sometime in 2023.

For more, check out the 10 best Minecraft house ideas to build yourself, or read our list of the 10 best survival games.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.