This Week in Games

Nintendo Direct March 2025

Welcome back, folks! For the past few months, I've been Storytelling a Mage: The Ascension campaign for a pair of buddies over Discord. Now, my reference pool is a bit... esoteric, I'll admit; a combination of my weird range of tastes (from Pedro Almodovar to tokusatsu), plus having watched anime for longer than many anime fans today have even been alive means that when I present my players with the Awakened robotic investigator "I," I totally don't expect them to recognize him as a Robot Detective K knock-off. (Incidentally, I cannot show my friends Shin Ultraman without my players catching on that that one well-dressed side-character with a lot of favorite sayings is an evil interdimensional life-form.) But the age gap and cultural gap really smacked me in the face last session when I had my players deal with a mysterious figure wearing a trenchcoat. He was flanked by a creepy black stag with red eyes (which one of my players dispatched quite creatively). The trenchcoat man was, not happy with that turn of events, and my players noted that he seemed effected by the stag's condition. Long story short: my players think Nrvnsqr Chaos from Lunar Legend Tsukihime is a shapeshifter. Like... don't kids like Nasu? Haven't they played Melty Blood... ? Isn't it sad, Sacchin...?

Last week was Digimon Con, Bandai Namco's annual event where they promote a ton of new goodies for Digimon. The past few years have been a bit... uninspiring. Bandai has a long history of fumbling their franchises some, and Digimon especially suffers. But a lot of Digimon fans, from what I could see, were very happy with this year's convention--we got a lot! Further details were revealed on the upcoming Godzilla × Digimon virtual pet. The device was announced last year, as part of Godzilla's 70th anniversary. While we knew in advance that it would feature a unique "G-Erosion" version of WarGreymon, whose design reflects a partial mutation into a Godzilla-esque form, three more unique promotional monsters infected by "G erosion" have also been revealed: MetalGreymon, SkullGreymon, and Machinedramon. Plus, we're getting a slew of variants on The Big Man™ himself and his kaiju enemies. These will include tons of favorites like Gigan, Biollante, Rodan, King Ghidora, Godzilla Junior, Space Godzilla, Burning Godzilla, and Destoroyah.

There are layers to the kaiju chosen; way back in the '90s, the original Digital Monster version 5 pet introduced a handful of unique Digimon with, shall we say, "familiar" designs. As I understand it, Bandai had the rights at the time to make a Godzilla-themed virtual pet (see: the Mothra Tamagochi). But at some point the deal fell through, so Bandai was left with a ton of sprites and no device to use it on. Hence the Digital Monster Version 5, which repurposed various Godzilla kaiju as new Digimon. Their official art did a lot of heavy lifting to separate the sprites from their kaiju origins; hence Bandai managing to pass off King Ghidora's sprite as "Deltamon" or Space Godzilla as "Tuskmon." The Digital Monster Color version 5 kept the sprites, but its color screen was able to further maintain the divide courtesy of the colored sprites. With the Godzilla/Digimon pet, those same sprites can now be recolored and used for their "original" intent. And wouldn't you know, the sprites still work. Also, for some trivia: fans were able to uncover a mystery that was hidden in plain sight. As it turns out, the sprite used for Ex-Tyrannomon was actually for the 1998 American Godzilla (known not-so-affectionately as "Zilla"). In hindsight, bent wrists are a dead giveaway, and the timeline checks out; the 1998 Godzilla movie premiered in May of 1998, and the Digital Monster v5 vpet released in August of that same year.

The Godzilla/Digimon virtual pet is currently available for pre-order; anyone so inclined can likely get one through their preferred middleman service. But the official Digimon Twitter account has also announced that there will be a release "overseas," "later on." I'm glad to hear it; it's been pretty high-and-dry for American fans of the Digimon vpets ever since the Digital Monster X pets were released.

Another anniversary announcement is one I've been excited to see for a while; they're remaking the old D-3 toys! Based off of the Digivices from Digimon 02, the new version of the D-3 will feature color screens, the original line-up of Digidestined and their partners (Davis and Veemon, Yolei and Hawkmon, T.K. and Patamon, Kari and Gatomon, and Cody and Armadillomon), plus Ken and Wormmon and Wallace and Terriermon as unlockable characters. The D-3 Color will have a new feature where you can train your pet to earn points to find new Digi-Eggs to unlock new forms, along with little animations for digivolution and a handful of songs from the anime. There will also be a lot of voice lines for the Digimon and their human partners, as well as 120 announced Digimon. Now, this last one has me rather on-edge; folks might be familiar with the Armor Evolutions from the show, like Flamedramon or Submarimon. What they might not know is that each Digimon has forms for all of the Digi-eggs, like Veemon using the Knowledge Digi-Egg to become Honeybeemon, or Wormmon having his own slew of Armor Evolutions. None of these alternate forms were in the show, but they're still canon--and the 15th Anniversary version of the D-3 toy featured them all. But with all of those forms (plus each Digimon's normal Champion and Ultimate forms) accounting for 90 Digimon alone, it's pretty likely we'll only see the forms from the show. I'm still excited for the D-3 Color; I wanted a D-3 rather desperately when I was in middle school, so it'll be a nice treat to myself. This is also currently available for pre-order.

We also saw the announcement of Digimon Alysion, a mobile app based off of the currently-running Digimon Trading Card Game. We used to be able to get these games as bespoke video games on console (see: the Pokémon Trading Card Game on Game Boy), but these days they gotta be put on mobile in order to make bank on the microtransactions. Hey, whatever you gotta do to get that bag while people thirst after Angewomon. Snark aside: I'm glad they're doing this. The Digimon TCG is a lot of fun; I got into it as of a few months ago, and I appreciate its many features like the way it incorporated aspects of the Digimon virtual pets as a mechanic (raising baby Digimon into stronger forms separate from the main playing field). The push-and-pull of Memory Points as a resource and your turn indicators also gives the gameplay a unique dynamic, encouraging you to play conservatively or else your Memory goes into the negative--and the lower your Memory, the more Memory your opponent has to play stronger monsters during their turn. We currently don't have a release date for Digimon Alysion, but I think it's worth keeping an eye out for, especially since it appears to revolve around an in-game story, unlike the Pokémon trading card game app.

Finally, there's the news on Digimon Story: Time Stranger! We glossed over most of it last week as a tidbit, but we can go a bit more into detail here. First off: I was right on the money! As I originally predicted, the Olympos XII (a group of twelve Digimon based off of Greco-Roman deities) are a major factor in the story. You've probably seen a few of them in previous Digimon games before, but the Olympos XII haven't been explored much as a team. Provided, few of the Digimon "groups" have gotten explored all that much outside of the Warrior 10 (which you'd have seen in Digimon Frontier) or the Devas (Digimon Tamers).

There's a lot of lore in Digimon involving all of the unique Digimon "groups" like the Three Musketeers, the Seven Great Demon Lords--or, as I mentioned earlier, the more exotic Armor evolutions. About the only way you'd ever see these Digimon would be in lorebooks, encyclopedias, or virtual pets, many of which have only been released in Japan. It doesn't help that the various anime have lore of their own that often doesn't fit with the series lore at large, to say nothing of the other shows! Imagine making a Pokémon game with either Groudon or Kyogre, but not both; with a roster featuring Eevee, but only two of its evolutions are attainable (and neither of them are even a new one); and where Brock and Misty just straight-up don't exist--not because they're simply not in the game, but because Gym Leaders at large don't exist! This is the kind of limbo a lot of Digimon lore can find itself in, which is one of many reasons why Digimon has the impression of being so impenetrable and confusing.

All this to say, I appreciate the attempt at display here. Digimon Story: Time Stranger's story is attempting to tie into more of a prolonged history for Digimon where they have existed as entities long before the Internet was ever a thing, inspiring stories and myths. According to the Digimon Con presentation, Time Stranger will also feature actual travel into the actual Digital World, not just Cyberspace. This game is also set to feature the largest starting roster for a Digimon game at 450 monsters. For comparison, the Cyber Sleuth game and its expansion ended up with a roster in the ballpark of 330.

I don't like framing Digimon as competition to Pokémon. Partly because I hate the notion that "Pokémon needs competition" (which is usually said by people who will never play a second of Cassette Beast or Monster Rancher), but partly because I never felt like either one stepped on each other's toes. The two franchises represent different yet complimentary childhood fantasies. Pokémon represents the fantasy of traveling all over the world and experiencing new places and sights for the first time with childlike wonder, the idea the next hill is a new adventure and new friends to make. Digimon represents the fantasy that somewhere out there, your best friend has been waiting to meet you for your whole life. And they're your friend, and you're always going to play Mario Kart together and eat snacks together until they wheel you away to the retirement home. And your friend might change in ways you didn't expect, or because of mistakes you made--but so will you, and they'll be around with you regardless. I loved both as a child and I still love both as an adult, and I feel hopeful that Time Stranger might do a better job of helping to sell people on the world of Digimon. You'll be exploring all kinds of weird trans-dimensional phenomena, encounter bizarre lifeforms that likely inspired human mythology—and maybe make friends with a big-eyed fire-breathing dinosaur that turns into a recolored King Ghidora. And that's how we bring a discussion full-circle!

Digimon Story: Time Stranger doesn't have a release date yet outside of a vague 2025 window. We'll keep you posted on further developments.

Well, this isn't one I'd ever expect to see happen. With all of the rampant closures and layoffs in the gaming industry at large, we've seen countless developers with decades of experience left in the lurch. Sadly, this applies to games media as well; writers and critics have fewer and fewer platforms to write on. So it was that we lost Game Informer last August; after almost 30 years, GameStop shuttered the magazine. Well... I guess tiny miracles can come to magazines, too! Put another one on the board!

Courtesy of Gunzilla Games, Game Informer has been relaunched, top-to-bottom. More importantly: in an unprecedented move, all of Game Informer's previous staff have been brought back. Matt Miller has returned as Editor-in-Chief, as well as the numerous writers and editors under him. Best of all, as illustrated by Miller in his opening letter, the team at large also kept busy during their down-time; anyone interested in reading their reviews of the recent major releases like Metaphor: ReFantazio or Avowed that released during their hiatus can check them out. They'll also be working on revamping the physical magazine for its relaunch.

There has been some consternation over the news, largely because Game Informer's new owners Gunzilla Games have their hands in the NFT market. Now, to be clear: That Bitch™ hates NFTs. While Gunzilla Games has promised to allow Game Informer their independence, I don't blame people for being more than a little suspicious. Smarter people than myself have pointed out that it's not really possible to launch a major platform like Game Informer without having your hand in some particularly nasty pies. It's along the lines of why laid-off writers can't just come together to make their own new website—that stuff takes a lot of capital that a lot of writers don't have, and can't exactly afford to gamble on.

There's a lot of suspicion towards gaming press. And sure, a healthy degree of skepticism is always merited. But the industry still needs folks in games press; too many of the bigger voices in the gaming community are a bit too focused on the here-and-now, and might suffer from rose-tinted goggles with regards to the past (anyone who tells you older DOS-based PC games in the 90s ran better than modern PC games is selling you a bridge). And online discussion of games is too ephemeral, based entirely upon the whims of exterior platforms. There's no archival, and it's really easy for discussion to be simply forgotten within a month or so. Worse still, there aren't many platforms for people with specialized knowledge. Sure, there are plenty of online streamers who are all-in on, say, rogue-likes—but think of how many of them have the kind of reach of a major website's review of a new Shiren the Wanderer game.

We can take this as a victory for the industry at large. It's not often we get good news like this, it's nice to hear that folks were able to come back like this.

Fighting games have had plenty of weird cameos or characters in their rosters. The Warden from For Honor in Samurai Shodown, Ryu and Chun Li in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, the Hornet from Daytona USA in Fighters Megamix... Cameo fighters are a good chance to have fun with a roster and maybe even play into real-world in-jokes. Folks in the know get really excited at hearing Richard Epcar voice both Raiden and The Joker in Mortal Kombat 11. So when I say that this announcement from SNK has confused folks, I hope people understand the scope of what I mean. SNK has announced a new character for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. And it's a football player (read: I mean non-American football). And I don't mean "Oh, he's a character whose gimmick is playing football," I mean an actual real-world football player.

The new character is real-world football player, Cristiano Ronaldo. If you've never heard of him, Ronaldo (or "CR7", as his fans refer to him) is one of the biggest football players worldwide, big enough to compete with football superstar Lionel Messi. Is he a big fan of Fatal Fury? Not as far as I can tell! But he's captain of the Saudi Arabian football club Al-Nassr. Combine that with SNK being owned by Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the cameo starts to make sense.

From what I can tell, reactions to Ronaldo's announcement have been rather negative among fighting game fans. Besides his model looking rather ugly and his design clashing with the other characters, Fatal Fury isn't really known for mixing in real-world cameos like this; at most, characters have been ersatz versions of real-world celebrities (like Billy Kane having been based off of Emilio Estevez circa the 1990s comedy, Men At Work). So Ronaldo's presence charitably feels like an ego-thing. It doesn't help that there are tons of other SNK characters fans would have preferred seeing, like Duck King. Adding to the controversy is the long list of Ronaldo's brushes with the law, ranging from a 2017 conviction for tax evasion to three allegations of sexual assault. I say again: Duck King was right over there, guys!

For what it's worth, Ronaldo won't be voicing himself in-game. English acting for him will be supplied by Juan Felippe Sierra--who does not, by any means, deserve any backlash for the reaction to a character he isn't responsible for making or inducting into Fatal Fury. Japanese voice acting will be handled by Masaaki Mizunaka. It's gonna be weird to see if this cameo sticks in Fatal Fury lore and Ronaldo has to be renamed into a new character going forward.

Time to look back into Genshin Impact! When we last left them off, Genshin Impact was introducing the Natlan region, a setting based off of Meso-American mythology that featured no characters of color (even if they were named after Meso-American deities). Trouble is brewing again in Natlan, courtesy of one of the newer characters: Kinich. For this, we have to step back a bit: see, voice actors in America are currently on strike over a failure for the industry to negotiate proper protections against voice actor or motion capture data to educate generative AI. The strike started this past July and has continued until the time of this writing. It has affected some video games, hence why some new content for games like Destiny 2 have launched without actual voice acting. Provided, many games have been able to continue as usual in the meantime courtesy of signing Interim Agreements with their cast, allowing the cast members to continue to work while the strike is on-going. It's a show of good faith, standing by your voice talent as well as the community you've grown around your game and characters off of the back of your voice talent.

Earlier this week, voice actor John Patneaude announced that they had been recast in their role as Kinich. miHoYo has also corroborated the recast, confirming that Kinich's new voice actor will not only perform in new content featuring Kinich going forward but that all older content will be re-recorded. (Funnily enough, the new voice actor still isn't Latin American.)

The decision has been met with a lot of disappointment on behalf of the voice acting community. miHoYo is a major player in gaming at the moment, given the runaway success of games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. The constant creation of new characters also means that they're a very reliable source of employment for voice actors. You'd think a company that makes so much money off of the backs of so many voice talents would be able to sign interim agreements... but there you go.

The other disappointing side of this story is the sheer amount of disinformation that has flown around in the wake of the voice actor strike; there's a vocal contingent of fans that are happy over the recasts, thinking that the voice talents are being greedy in their fight to protect their performances from being strip-mined by AI. It's a sad state of affairs for the industry, both from an industry that doesn't support or respect its talent or from members of a fanbase that also devalue the talents that make their games possible. As mentioned earlier, there's a lot of misinformation going around regarding the strike, especially with regards to non-union talent. This is especially relevant to miHoYo, as many of their vocal talent are non-union. Regardless, there are figures within SAG-AFTRA fighting to ensure protections apply to non-union members. The same cannot be said for studios like miHoYo which do not sign interim agreements for their vocal talent.

We can only hope that miHoYo grows a conscience and does right by both their community and the many people who've made their games the successes that they are. In the meantime: folks interested in supporting their favorite vocal talents have options. You can (respectfully) contact relevant studios over social media, encouraging them to sign the interim agreements. You can also donate money to any voice actor funds like GoFundMe, given the lack of work they're undergoing. As a last note: I haven't mentioned their name because I don't want a spotlight shone on them, but please don't send hate towards Kinich's new voice actor. They're not responsible for miHoYo's bad decisions.

Well, this one took all of us by surprise. We already new that Nintendo was planning a Direct for this April 2nd, dedicated in its entirety to the Nintendo Switch 2. But then Nintendo just up-and-announced a Direct this week, about games to be released on the Switch. A bit puzzling, but I think it's a good show of faith. Remember, all of our Switch games are going to be backwards-compatible on the Nintendo Switch 2. So it's not like releasing Switch games is still a zero-sum game or anything.

Let's skip over the American titles, as usual. Disney Villains Cursed Café comes off as a Disney take on VA-11 Hall-A, without the quarter-life crises or the PC98 visuals or cyberpunk trapping. You start a café visited by Disney's villains as you prepare drinks for them, exploring their storylines. Kudos for stuff like bringing Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove) or making Gaston a preppy golf-jock, but this feels like a gentrified coffee-shop AU. Cozy witch-academy sim Witchbrook is confirmed for this holiday season and showed off some neat co-op gameplay. The Eternal Life of Goldman is a very pretty-looking 2D action-platformer, reminds me a little of Harry Hatsworth. Rift of the Necrodancer is out at the time of writing, a Guitar Hero-esque take on the Necrodancer formula--and with a DLC featuring music from Celeste. Monument Valley showcases lovely little diorama-esque stages and M.C. Escher-esque level design, it's a neat pick-up-and-play puzzler. The first two will release on Switch this April 15th, and a third game launches later this summer. Marvel: Cosmic Invasion seems to be a Marvel-take on the recent retro-IP-fueled beat-'em-ups like Shredder's Revenge or Rita's Rewind. I dig the visuals and I love the roster so far (Nova is in there, that's a nice deep cut). But I hope Dotemu doesn't get pigeonholed into making these.

Okay, fun stuff! We already knew that Dragon Quest 1&2 HD-2D was in the pipes, intended to release sometime after the much-beloved Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D. So far, so good: we got to see a great deal of the classic Dragon Quest moments that show off the games' new aesthetic and graphics. Having cut my teeth on the Dragon Warrior 1&2 collection on GameBoy, I definitely had some nostalgic pangs when I saw the three Luminaries jumping off of the tower while wearing the Cloak of Wind. That said--there's a twist in here! Footage from the Dragon Quest 2 game featured what seems to be a new character that'll join the Prince of Midenhall, the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke.

The first Dragon Quest was an important title, given its synthesis of RPG mechanics on a console and its timeless Akira Toriyama character designs. Dragon Quest 2 delivered more of the same, but on a much larger scale, giving players three characters to use in a party, each with designated roles. While not as iconic as the roster from Dragon Quest 3, the Luminaries are still quite the package deal; adding a new character to their group could be as big a deal as introducing Sumire in Persona 5... or go as badly as introducing Elmira to Pinky and the Brain.

Great news for people whose brains have been infected by the virus known as Kaname Date! A spin-off of the beloved AI: The Somnium Files is on the way, titled No Sleep for Kaname Date. This game features everyone's favorite lout and his AI companion as they try to rescue an idol from an escape room. Now, there's a bit of consternation with this one: the Kaname Date games are famously written by Kōtarō Uchikoshi, better known for his work on the Virtue's Last Reward games or Ever17. The scenario for No Sleep for Kaname Date sees Uchikoshi only working in a supervisory role. Writing for the game is instead being handled by Kazuya Yamada, who directed AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative. Uchikoshi has given the project his blessing, which I think is good enough for me.

Hey, here's a deep cut! Longtime Shin Megami Tensei fans might remember the Raidou Kuzunoha games on PlayStation 2; a pair of action-RPGs set in the Taisho era starring the esteemed Devil Summoner (whose heir would also play into Soul Hackers). Turns out, we're getting the first Raidou Kuzunoha game remastered for modern consoles!

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army has you playing as the titular Devil Summoner in 1930s Japan. Instead of using computers to store and fuse demons, Raidou uses little bottles to store them and summon them at will. Encountering new demons in the wild allows you to fight them in realtime, with Raidou himself taking up sword and pistol to fight alongside his demon partners. Demons also factor into puzzle-solving, using their skills to futz with the environment in a variety of ways. Better still, this isn't just a graphical upgrade; eagle-eyed fans have noticed that the battle system in Mystery of the Soulless Army seems to have been replaced with a system more akin to the second Raidou Kuzunoha title, Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abbadon. It's for the best, as the first game was rather clunky. News has also come that Raidou Remastered will be getting a special-edition release courtesy of Limited Run Games, which I'm not a fan of. I miss when Atlus used to handle these in-house... Also, shout-out to Hungry_Clicker, who responded to the news of Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army with brand-new art of Raidou, delivered with their trademark speed!

More footage was revealed for Shadow Labyrinth, the dark (if not a bit silly) reimagining of Pac-Man. Most of the new footage revolved around revealing a new form for Swordsman No. 8: GAIA, a giant robot (with a big Pac-Man in the chest). There was also the reveal that eating enemies will grant you materials that you can use to buy new skills that modify Swordsman No. 8's abilities. I went over some of the buckwild things Shadow Labyrinth is doing to tie into deep lore from other Namco games like Xevious back when Shadow Labyrinth first debuted; in spite of everything, I'm finding myself genuinely intrigued by Shadow Labyrinth. Look forward to it this July 18th.

Hey, so let's talk exclusives for a bit. A while ago, I saw some buddies of mine over Discord shaking their fists at Nintendo because Nintendo still dares to have console exclusives in 2025. Where Microsoft has made massive inroads to make its formerly-exclusive titles available on every platform, Nintendo still plays its cards close to its chest. My reasoning is that exclusives are a sign of a healthy company and a platform with actual value; I doubt Microsoft would be so generous if its consoles were selling well (or if its games were turning an actual profit). A lot of people really want to be able to buy a game and play it wherever they want, but I'm not so keen on this--if only because an industry that's platform-agnostic means that someone will eventually impose some kind of soft monopoly some other way. Sure, buying all major consoles for their exclusives is expensive--but so is having to buy those top-of-the-line graphics cards that ensure the newest games run even remotely passably. There's also something to be said about the Nintendo Switch's library being massive to the point where it effectively is the everyconsole--and it's still cheaper than a Steamdeck, which will deter anyone but the most dedicated of gaming enthusiasts.

So with that out of the way, my jaw dropped when we saw that Patapon and Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots are coming to the Switch. Patapon was famously a series of 2D rhythm-action games on PSP wherein you played as a divine figure, beating drums and setting a rhythm for the charming little Patapon tribesmen to march and attack enemies on hunts. (The title is a gag; "Pata" and "Pon" are onomatopeia for beating on a drum.) Famously, Sony hasn't really done anything with Patapon in a dog's age, leading series creator Hiroyuki Kotani to make a spiritual successor in the form of Ratatan. Patapon 1+2 Replay is being produced by Bandai Namco on Sony's behalf, and collects the first two games--along with tons of improvements like HD visuals and a bevvy of options. Notably, it'll include modifiers for input delay, a must for any rhythm game.

Similarly, a new Everybody's Golf is coming to the Switch, also courtesy of Bandai Namco. Folks might recognize the series best as Hot Shots Golf, hence the title for this game doing a Resident Evil VII: Biohazard gag of including the localized title as the subtitle. Everybody's Golf is an endearingly fun golf game with more of an arcadey twist, allowing not only for zany golf moves like making balls spin backwards upon landing but also featuring a beloved character creation mode. You'd think Sony would go all-in on playing this one close to their chest, given how much success Nintendo has with Mario Golf--especially since the PS5 really doesn't have enough of these homegrown arcadey experiences anymore. It's nice that Bandai Namco is taking up the slack and producing more of these games, especially since they're putting them on the Switch (which is where the lion's share of the audience will find them)... but also: Sony, you're gonna give us stuff to play on your console too, right? See, this is what I mean with exclusives: even if you were a die-hard Final Fight lover on SNES, you could get excited at the idea that Sega had Streets of Rage. Even Nintendo fans were jonesing for Astro Bot. An industry without exclusives is an industry without competition!

We have a new Story of Seasons remake coming! Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is a remake of a DS-era Story of Seasons game. There are two central gimmicks to this one: wind, and the bazaar. The wind lets you do neat things like jump around or use a paraglider to float around town—useful if you want to travel in a hurry. The bazaar itself is the central gimmick of the game, giving you a means to directly sell your crops to the public in a fun rhythm game. We might have some goodies related to this game coming down the pipeline; stay tuned for more!

For folks who have no object permanence and were convinced Nintendo had cancelled Metroid Prime 4, we got another look at the game while seeing further details on some gameplay mechanics. The Direct showed Samus exploring a forest location, debuting new psychic powers that let her interact with the environment in new ways to solve puzzles. The clip also ended debuting a snazzy new form for Samus' Power Suit, done up in a nice candy-apple red. Not much more to go on, though, we'll have to wait out the rest of 2025 for further details.

Let's talk some surprise remakes! A lot of whippersnappers didn't seem to care much about these, but M2 is giving us a phenomenal Gradius collection. Gradius Origins compiles 17 versions across Gradius' six different entries, including spin-offs like Salamander and Lifeforce. More importantly, Gradius Origins also features the debut of Salamander III--the first entry in the Salamander series since 1996.

The Gradius games are a series of punishingly-hard shooters with a novel gimmick: shooting down enemies grants you pick-ups that can be redeemed during gameplay for power-ups, like options that trail your ship and shoot extra shots, shields, faster movement, or even different weapons entirely. But you need more pick-ups to choose power-ups that are further along in your selection meter, forcing you to be tactical in your decision making. The difficulty comes in the punishing cost of failure: if your ship is shot down mid-stage, you lose all of your power-ups, which can make continuing far more difficult than just starting the entire game over!

I'm a little disappointed that this collection doesn't include any of the goofy Parodius titles, or even Otomedius (a version of Gradius where all the ships are replaced with anime girls in power armor). But given the wealth of games on display, I'll let 'em have it. You've also got a bevy of options like rewind, hitbox displays, and others. This is a must for shoot-'em-up fans.

Similarly, for the real RPG sickos out there, we have SaGa Frontier 2 getting a remaster. The SaGa games are Akitoshi Kawazu's babies, featuring genre-defying conventions like randomized skill learning or other such bizarre ideas. SaGa Frontier 2 tells the story of two protagonists, royal prince Gustave and treasure-hunter Wil, as they experience history-changing events. The focus is on being able to view the major story beats from a number of perspectives; SaGa games love giving you alternate story paths or even alternate story beats. There's definitely a lot to love here, especially with some of the new character progression mechanics on display. A quick glance at what some of the series vets have to say involve hopes that the final dungeon is majorly rebalanced (you'd get stuck at a point of no return, it seems). The remaster also includes luxuries like a library of all of the lovely art produced by series artist Tomomi Kobayashi. And you can play it right now, if you're not afraid of a little turn-based RPG!

Tamagochi fans can look forward to Tamagochi Plaza, a new mini-game collection featuring tons of the cute blobby critters. There are also some options for expanding the Wonder Shops through progress in the minigames; doing so unlocks more of the 100 Tamagochi, including a brand new critter made just for the game. I wonder if Bill is coming back...?

Pokémon Legends: Z-A got a bit of love this Direct, mostly going over a minor feature; it seems Lumiose City will have a day-to-night system, with trainer battles happening in certain areas at night. This opens the door to the Lumiose City tournament, where trainers battle each other to rise through the ranks (from Z to A) in order to get a single wish granted. Consider it part of the drip-feed of information as we await Pokémon Legends: Z-A's release later this year.

Let's end with the two heavy-hitters of the Direct! Fans of rhythm games have been waiting for a new Rhythm Heaven game, Nintendo's series of addicting rhythm games with absolute ear-worms for music. These minigames are always wrapped up in some manner of goofy story, ranging from a trio of big-mouthed kids in a glee club to the mating rituals of bizarre desert reptiles to a kid trying to confess to his crush while protecting her from incoming soccer balls from off-screen. We haven't had a Rhythm Heaven game since 2015's Rhythm Heaven Megamix--but the wait is over! Details are scarce, and we'll have to wait until 2026 for this new game, titled Rhythm Heaven Groove. But hey, series composer Tsunku♂ is back to handle the music after dealing with their cancer diagnosis. I will say, I'm a mite disappointed that the series used an AI generated voice for the cutesy robot introducing the direct. I hope this isn't a main feature in the game itself...

Finally, we have news on a new Tomodachi Life! Tomodachi Life is a beloved oddball of a series, akin to a Sims game featuring Nintendo's Miis. The recent Miitopia had whet many appetites for a new Tomodachi Life, and it seems we'll be getting a new one with 2026's upcoming Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream!

In the words of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Tomodachi Life is less of a game and more of an exercise in playing with one of those paper fortune teller games. Miis you create can be given personalities and goofy synthesized voices, then set to mill about on an island where they daydream about the Virtual Boy, sing karaoke, have inane arguments, and maybe even fall in love and have kids (with the kids being uncanny synthesizations of the parent-Miis). The previous Tomodachi Life became a fan favorite after its release in 2014, even if fans were very disappointed in the lack of gay marriages in the game (hopefully, that gets fixed in this new game). The aesthetic and voices of the game also featured heavily in Nintendo's first mobile app, the defunct Miitomo. If folks need a better vertical slice of what Tomodachi Life entails, you can check out the old 2014 Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct, hosted by Nintendo's very own @ventcard.bsky.social. I will not be held responsible for any tears shed at the sight of the belated Satoru Iwata-Mii playfully romping around with Mii versions of Reggie Fils-Aime or Eiji Aonuma.

The Japanese Direct featured a trailer for a new Super Robot Wars game, which was curiously omitted from the English Direct. Curiously, Bandai Namco released an English version of the trailer on their own, anyway! Super Robot Wars Y's trailer didn't go over many new features--but let's be real, it's the robots people are here for. Returning favorites include Combattler V, Aura Battler Dunbine, Majestic Prince and Mobile Fighter G Gundam. And for folks who care about the details, the fanservice in these games is unparalleled--Domon's Burning Gundam still has the tiny glowing "G GUNDAM" logo in its blade when he swings it around. A handful of series new to the console Super Robot Wars games are inbound, including Getter Robo Arc, while one of the flat-out new-new series to debut include Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury (specifically, the first season). If the roster seems paltry, it's because there are more unnanounced series that will be revealed in time. (I really hope they bring back Gaogaigar, SSSS.Gridman, Martian Successor Nadesico or Tekkaman Blade...) Look forward to bashing these robots in the proverbial bathtub on Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Steam later this year.

Finally, Nintendo wrapped up the Direct with two bits of news. First up, Nintendo introduced the Virtual Game Cards system. This allows you to transfer digital games between consoles, as if they were physical cards you could move around. This does require the consoles to be in proximity with each other (sure wish this could be done online), but it also allows you to "lend" games between accounts on a shared Nintendo Switch Online Family Plan, albeit temporarily. And best of all, any progress made on a "loaned" game crosses over if you buy a copy for yourself. It's something of a clunkier version of Steam's Family Sharing, but it's a good addition, I think. Also, it'll work on the Nintendo Switch 2...

Nintendo also introduced Nintendo Today, a news app dedicated to informing players about upcoming Nintendo products. I'm sure I'm part of a large group when I say I think this is a bit weird... but as I saw someone point out on Bluesky, it's also very likely the result of Nintendo having been burnt so badly by social media courtesy of Elon Musk's chicanery on Twitter that Nintendo finds it more useful to just handle their own outreach. I remember hating the social media features on video game consoles until I realized how much being able to directly post screenshots from a game you're playing helped extend word-of-mouth for these games—especially for smaller titles. Man, what a loss.

Look forward to more information next week!

We've got an Atelier crossover two-fer! First, Atelier Yumia will be featuring a crossover with Tekken 8, as seen with this neat trailer. (Yumia doing the Kazuya smirk is weirdly cute, as is the Mishima Puni.) Second, Reisalin Stout from the Atelier Ryza games will be joining the army of warriors in Warriors Abyss as free DLC this March 28th!

After tons of mysterious teasing in some of their social media, Sega has finally introduced a new character to the Sonic the Hedgehog universe via their Tailstube videos: Professor Victoria, who's rumored to be Maria Robotnik's baby sister and the "Torii" referenced in Japanese who gave Gerald Robotnik's journal to G.U.N. member Abraham Tower. Lots of Sonic Unleashed references in that Tailstube video, too...

Major players in the video game industry including Nintendo, Microsoft and EA have united to form the "Accessible Games Initiative." The effort will implement tags on video game cases to illustrate elements that might be useful to players with disabilities, ranging from subtitles in large, readible fonts to narrated menus to customizeable inputs. This has been a long time coming; it already took ages for subtitles in cutscenes to become industry standard!

That'll do it for this week! This was a bit of a weird week to cover, since I had to get a tooth extracted on Tuesday. The good news is, this let me stay home long enough to catch up some on Xenoblade and cover the Direct from home. The bad news: I can't eat popcorn. I'm jonesing something horrible. Enjoy your snacks, folks, you don't know when they might be forbidden to you. And look forward to next week's coverage of the Switch 2 Direct! I'm sure I won't have to lose sleep over that one. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven!

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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