The doors open this December.
Super Nintendo World’s new themed area Donkey Kong Country opens this December in Japan, and ahead of this, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has taken fans on an exclusive tour. Here’s the full rundown of this latest Nintendo Direct. Enjoy!
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Absolutely bananas.
Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo have lifted the lid on the upcoming Donkey Kong Country expansion, coming to Super Nintendo World in Osaka, Japan. And in today’s Nintendo Direct, we finally know when the expansion is opening to the world — 11th December 2024.
We’ve had a few teasers sneak peeks at the park over the years, but this Direct gave us a really good look at what to expect. If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan when it opens, well… we’re pretty jealous!
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The Steam Deck OLED – which is like a Steam Deck but better in almost every way – is getting a new, if potentially more smudge-susceptible Limited Edition. A successor to the translucent version that only went on sale in the US and Canada last year, the Steam Deck OLED: Limited Edition White offers both a snowy look and, for those of us outside North America, the chance to actually buy one. It’ll go on sale November 18th, in all the countries that the Steam Deck currently ships in.
Scarf out loud.
Sonic Boom was one of the most ambitious projects Sega has ever undertaken with Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a full-throttle attempt at creating a brand-new sub-franchise for the blue blur, complete with new world, radically different character designs, and an accompanying animated series.
Nintendo fans certainly had a lot to be excited about; the games would be Nintendo exclusives!
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Let’s get this out of the way – if you haven’t played Case of the Golden Idol yet, you really should do that (hint: it’s on Game Pass). Developer Color Gray’s debut game is one of the most smartly conceived, intriguingly told puzzle games of recent years. Spinning the story of a seemingly magical artifact through a series of murder-mystery tableaus, you amass clues in each scene, then literally piece the story together yourself, word-by-word – revealing an incredible fantasy-history tale of national conspiracy, political wrongdoing, and dangerous technology in the process. There was simply nothing quite like it – until now.
The sequel, Rise of the Golden Idol (which arrives on Xbox Series X|S tomorrow) is left in a pretty unique position as a result.
How do you follow up a beloved one-off – retaining what made it special, but expanding its world and ideas meaningfully? Color Gray has managed a truly deft balance here – this is effectively the game you know, but a setting you really, really don’t. Far from continuing where we left off, Rise picks up whole centuries after the events of the first game, in this world’s equivalent of the 1970s. For fans of Case, it means that, even if you have all the backstory, you’re just as lost in the context of this world, giving you the thrill of putting all the pieces back together once again.
This is a world where the very real Idol of the first game has not only become a myth, but been physically broken into pieces – and we discover what happens when people begin putting them back together again. To give away any more would spoil the surprises, but it’s safe to say that while it deals in similar themes to the first game, this is a very different story.
On first glance, you might assume that this is a very similar game, however. The basic formula remains – each level gives you a look at a very specific (almost always violent) moment in time, and offers the option to click on the people and objects in that moment, picking up clues.
These could be names, objects, or associated verbs. In each scene, you’re given distinct puzzles – figuring out who each character is, what their jobs might be in that moment and, almost always, a final conclusion as to what’s happened in the run-up to the scene. Almost every one of the dozens of interactive elements will be relevant to that final conclusion, and you’ll need to use the bulk of the words you’ve amassed to put that together.
Despite an upgraded art style – retaining the Hogarthian caricatures of characters, but placing them in a grubbier urban context – it’s very familiar. Until you reach the end of a chapter.
This is Rise of the Golden Idol’s key new feature – every chapter contains multiple scenes but, once you’ve completed them all, you’re given an overarching meta-puzzle. Using all the information you collected from each scene, you then need to work out the story of what was going on around the full chapter itself – often revealing twists you’d never have expected.
You’ll likely need to revisit each scene to do so, jumping from moment to moment (and perhaps even the cutscenes and clues presented between those moments) to re-establish whether, say, that particular item – which felt like a red herring at the time – was actually a major clue you didn’t know you needed.
It’s a truly smart piece of extra design – nothing that you loved about the first game has been changed, there’s just way more of it all of a sudden. That’s also a summation of the game as a whole, and perhaps the greatest recommendation I can give for Rise of the Golden Idol. It’s a brilliant sequel to a brilliant game – when something was this good already, who wouldn’t want more of it?
The post Rise of the Golden Idol Is a Fitting Sequel to One of the Best Puzzle Games of Recent Years appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Overwatch 2 is taking a page from WoW Classic and returning to the beginning, announcing a brand-new Overwatch Classic mode featuring the original 21 heroes and 12 maps from the 2016 release.
The nostalgia mode, which launches Tuesday and continues over the course of three weeks, will feature key moments from Overwatch history, Blizzard says. It’ll begin with the original 1.0 version from launch, with no limits on which characters you can pick, meaning you can theoretically have a team full of tanks or Torbjörns. And yes, it will be 6v6, though Blizzard says it’s unrelated to its experiments with bringing the format back to Overwatch 2.
“Overwatch Classic is separate from our broader 6v6 plans. Overwatch Classic is meant to be a nostalgic experience, taking heroes, players, and the game back to moments in the game’s history for limited time events,” Blizzard explains in its official FAQ about the event.
Overwatch Classic’s gameplay will largely match up with the original game’s mechanics, with characters regaining their original abilities and Ultimates charging up much more quickly. However, maps like Dorado, Numbani, Route 66, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar will retain their changes from Overwatch 2, including match timing and how elevator platforms work.
As the event progresses, Blizzard plans to progressively layer in changes, including single hero limits. Future updates will return to “popular moments in the game’s history,” with Blizzard citing the 2017 Moth Meta — in which Mercy was one of the most powerful characters — and the triple-tank, triple-support style of “Goats” as two examples.
Fans for their part have been generally positive about the news. Over on Reddit, one player joked, “Mass rez is back, I’m scared mom come get me.” Others are asking for it to be a permanent arcade game mode, though Blizzard is being cagey about its plans for the future, saying it plans to measure player response.
Overwatch Classic officially commences on November 12 and will continue until December 2. It’ll be playable as a mode within the standard Overwatch 2 client, and will not include legacy features like loot boxes, the original UI, or the Competitive mode. Available modes include Assault, Escort, Hybrid, and Control.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Potentially the best Black Friday deal on a high-end OLED gaming TV is already avaialble. Right now, Best Buy, Amazon, and Samsung are offering the 65″ Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for just $999.99 after an absolutely massive $1,600 price drop. This is an excellent TV to pair up with your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. In fact, some critics rate the S90C as a better gaming TV than the LG C4. RTINGS writes that “the LG (C4) is noticeably dimmer in Game Mode while the Samsung (S90C) isn’t, making the Samsung the better choice for gamers.”
Note: The best vendor to get this TV from is Samsung because you get a bonus $50 Best Buy gift card. However, most zip codes show this TV is out of stock. If so, then get it from either Amazon or Best Buy.
The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung’s proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times.
OLED technology aside, the Samsung S90C also has all the features you’d want in a gaming TV. It has a native 120Hz panel that can be pushed to as high as 144Hz (rare in a 2023 TV) as well as four total HDMI 2.1 ports for running 4K at 120Hz on a PS5 or Xbox Series X. The S90C also supports variable refresh rate and auto low latency mode. This is an especially good complement to the Playstation 5 Pro console that was just released.
Although this is an extremely good discount for one of our favorite gaming TVs, you may be wondering if you should wait until Black Friday to make a purchase. Black Friday 2024 will definitely have more options available, but if you’re looking for a 65″ OLED TV, this is an outstanding deal and we doubt you’ll find anyhthing better. It’s the best TV deal right now and I bet it will be one of the best TV deals for Black Friday as well.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
The Persona 5 battle theme, officially called Last Surprise, has been nominated for a Grammy award thanks to a cover by jazz orchestra The 8-Bit Big Band.
Charlie Rosen, who arranged the cover alongside Jake Silverman, celebrated the nomination on X/Twitter. “Just nominated for my fourth Grammy in a row,” he said. “So thrilled to be nominated alongside [Silverman] for our co-arrangement of Last Surprise from Persona 5 for The 8-Bit Big Band. Long live video game music.”
Last Surprise has been nominated for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals and is up against the likes of John Legend’s Always Come Back, Willow’s Big Feelings, and more. The winner will be announced on February 2.
Fans of Persona 5 will be familiar with Last Surprise because, as mentioned, it is the main battle theme of the 100 hour plus role-playing game. Those who’ve played through even a small portion of it will therefore recognise its jazzy beats, and it’s also featured in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona 5 Strikers.
Persona 5 arrived in 2016 and, despite its critical acclaim, with the enhanced version being dubbed a masterpiece in IGN’s review, developer Atlus hasn’t released another entry since. The team behind Persona 3, 4, and 5 did recently release Metaphor: Refantazio, however, a very Persona-esque RPG set in a fantasy world.
Nothing has been announced regarding the next mainline Persona game, but a somewhat bizarre and incredibly subtle tease seemingly alludes to a green color theme for the next game.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
In the bag.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD‘s 16th January 2025 release date might still feel like a long way off, but the new year is rapidly approaching and Nintendo is getting the hype train a-moving with a first look at some pre-order bonuses.
My Nintendo Store UK has today provided a peek at some of the merch that will come bundled with DKCRHD (nobody’s abbreviating it to that, right?) pre-orders and it looks really rather sweet.
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The post The Call of Duty Endowment Celebrates 15 Years of Veteran Impact with Anniversary Bundle appeared first on Xbox Wire.
