Fitting for this, the year of Luigi I quite liked the firstMax and the Magic Marker. It was a cute little 2D game that let me draw things and crush enemies with them. I was surprised to hear of a sequel,Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, especially as one of the only smaller games Microsoft trumped up at its E3 conference this year. Of course, this isn’t exactly a small game. In fact, it’s practically an entirely different game, and not just because of the jump to 3D graphics....

The cat’s pajamas Once upon a time, many moon ago, Microsoft was adamant that Kinect was an integral part of the Xbox One. Then, when Xbox One didn’t sell all that well, partially because of the $100 markup necessitated by the Kinect, the Xbox One was perfectly capable of functioning without the camera peripheral. Crazy how that works, eh? Microsoft’s still beating that drum, albeit significantly quieter.Major Nelson writes todaythat Kinect owners routinely report the highest level of customer satisfaction, as if they found religion or marital bliss....

And yet it features more realistic proportions than the last There’s a newDragon’s CrownAmazon figure coming courtesy of Empty and it’s some how more fan service-y than theSorceress. She’s straight up pole dancing on her axe for no reason. You can findmore shots here. It’s better thanthe last Amazon figure, which is so terrifyingly warped in its proportions that you might think Rob Liefeld drew it. She looks like a chair....

Maybe it still is… Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moonwas one of the games that helped turn the 3DS around back when it was struggling to inspire sales. It’s a fantastic game, one of the best on the console. Sadly, it may also may be part of why we haven’t gotten a newMetroidgame on the handheld yet. A former artist for Next Level games posted this art in his portfolio. It was reportedly part of a pitch Next Level games put to Nintendo requesting to make a newMetroidgame....

It’s ready to go After learning thatApex Legendswas going to arrive on Switch, we got yanked around a bit on the release date. Of course Respawn had to put on the finishing touches (launching it with cross-play couldn’t have been easy), but for weeks on end we got comments like “soon,” or “any day now!”Finally, we got confirmation of “full feature parity”and a March 9 release date earlier this month....

We already know thatAbe’s OddyseeandStranger’s Wrathwill get HD remakes and hit consoles as well as PC. Fans of the series will be pleased to know, however, that yet more goodies are on the way — specificallyMunch’s OddyseeHD for PSN (and unconfirmed platforms), andHand of Oddfor tablets. Munch’s Oddyseewas one of only two sequels to continue the Oddworld Inhabitants’ original plan of having five distinct games based on five original characters — the incompletion of which still disturbs me today....

Konami’s Xbox 360 shooter,Otomedius X (Excellent),was already a big deal. It finally got a release date of March 24 recently, but perhaps even more exciting than the final release date is the composer line-up for the soundtrack. Instead of just a one or two people on the soundtrack, 28 people from all over the world are coming together to make the music. OSV has the exclusive list of composers, which you’ll find below the jump....

Til death do us Partitio Partitio is the Merchant ofOctopath Traveler 2. This is one of the least traditional jobs in the game, as Partitio’s combat abilities often involve receiving bonus money or Job Points from enemies. That said, the Merchant has unique utility in donating Boost Points to other party members and exponentially bolstering their potential. This synergizes well with Partitio’s other abilities that increase his Boost Point acquisition rate....

Are you counting down the days until the release of a Devolver Digital-published game? If so, you might be tacking on some more waiting, since tomorrow will mark the return of Devolver Delayed,the streamin which the publisher announced which games aren’t going to hit their planned release date. ‘Tis the season, by which I mean, it’s nearing the end of 2024. Games marked “Coming in 2024” are running out of year to push things out the door....

Try before you buy! Still not totally sold onRagnarok Odyssey Ace? Well then, pensive reader, it might delight you to hear that XSEED has a demo up its sleeve ready to play on May 13. In the meantime, the action role-playing game is being kitted out with free downloadable clothes. Starting today, you’re able to dress your avatar inSoul Sacrifice-themed garb. Next week there’ll be someEmil Chronicle Onlineregalia on offer, followed by a set ofPuzzle & Dragonsgear the week after....

Gonna be a borstal breakout Fans of those schoolyard roustabouts, the River City Girls, will be pleased to hear that the pugilistic duo’s series debut,River City Girls Zero, will be making its impact felt on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox this month, following on from its release on Nintendo Switch back in March of this year. As a quick cram session,River City Girls Zerois a revamped remaster of the 1994 Super Famicom titleShin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, which is the first title in theKunio-kunfranchise to introduce Kyoko and Misako as playable characters....

Specific dates are still unconfirmed With the recent news thatPersona 5would be debut on thesame day in both Europe and the U.S, I was hoping that the days of having delays for Atlus’ games imposed on European and Australian fans would be over. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case. Deep Silver, the publisher currently responsible for the distribution of Atlus’ games in Europe and Australia, has confirmed on their YouTube channel thatShin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypsewill be released in winter 2016....

The Vita will never die! Publisher SODESCO has announced that it will be producing a physical edition ofTeslagradfor both the Switch and PlayStation Vita. You read that last part right: the Vita will be getting another boxed game in 2019! The world isn’t ending, I promise. Releasing on July 24, 2025, the physical edition will be a limited print run that comes with exclusive artwork. A special edition version of the game will also be available for mega fans from Limited Run Games....