Rundown (6/08/2025) Segmented Summer Showcases 2025 – Slice 1

This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Segmented Summer Showcases 2025 – Slice 1
• The State of Play Rundown (And MORE Ranting About PlayStation’s Lack of Legacy)
• The State of Play Miscellaneous Announcements (It’s Silly Having 30 Subheaders, Aight?)
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Announced (STOP BLURRING SPRITES, IDIOT!)
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Announced (And It’s About Time Too!)
• Pragmata Re-Announced (Pragmata is NOT Dead!)
• Romeo is a Dead Man Announced (Grasshopper is NOT a Dead Studio)
• Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement Announced (Bloodstained 2 Bay-Bee!)
• 007 First Light Announced (Of Course It’s a James Bond Origin Story)
• Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Announced (Mahvel 4, Hold The Capcom)
• Switch 2 Bad Publicity (Switch 2 Came Out to Zero Reviews)
• Summer Game Fest Rundown (Keighley’s Summer Game Adverts VI)
• Sonic Racings CrossWorlds Is A Crossover Racer (And All The Children Screamed)
• Code Vein II Is REAL! (My Suspicions Were Right! RIGHT!)
• Killer Inn Announced (Where is My Deception V? I was Promised Deception!)
• Lego Voyagers and Lego Party Announced (Double Lego Toil & Trouble!)
• Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver Announced (Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck Wit!)
• Project Century Is Stranger Than Heaven (And It’s (Probably) a 100 Year Saga!)
• Resident Evil 9: Requiem Announced (And Not Much Else)
• The Miscellaneous Announcements! (There are Too Many Games!)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Segmented Summer Showcases 2025 – Slice 1

You know what I liked about classic E3? Everything happened on a Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, meaning it was easy to cover in a single Rundown. Admittedly, I would always break it up across multiple smaller bonus Rundowns, but it was easy to cover in one consistent blast. Nowadays, with The Keighley Summer Game Adverts by Geoff “Dr. Vadeo Gimes” Keighley, everything is all segmented and the schedule is unclear. You have oodles of smaller showcases taking up shop around this time, hoping that their showcase of 40 indie games will attract an audience, when it only vaguely does. Big media events and direct-to-consumer product showcases have the opportunity to help promote and highlight certain games, but that depends highly on their ability to attract an audience.

Nintendo Directs attract an audience because Nintendorks are creatures of Throbbing Excitement, and streamers like reacting to them. They like the promise of surprise reveals, orgasmic revivals, and Brand New Nintendo games. They do not really care about the latest zany multiplayer goofball ’em up, but they do care about their Chi-Chi-Scrimblos. But there is a reason game specific showcases are glossed over and why minor showcases have always drawn in crowds the fraction of the size of something from a big publisher.

Don’t get me wrong, I look at something like Wholesome Direct as a good thing that promotes a wider variety of games than the combat-oriented affairs filling up most showcases. And I think it is good that the Summer Games Fest brand is being used to promote things like “women-led games” and games from Latin America and Southeast Asia. These developers need whatever publicity and promotion they can get. However, I have seen the view counts they accrue, and they are pretty paltry. They do not have the impact or cultural panache to feel like part of an E3 successor. Which is what I want. I want there to be hype, for things to feel like a big party, and for excitement to waft throughout the year as gaming fixates on a core culture.

However, the idea of core gaming culture is an increasingly contentious topic that I should talk about in the future— along with what I half-jokingly refer to as the Video Game Canon. Really, there is no core gaming identity. It’s just something that was made up by a bunch of inscrutable dorks who would want to talk to people about video games on the internet, but only wanted to talk to people with the same general temperament as them. It’s all made up shit by dorks, for dorks, and with the rise of live services that fragment the gaming landscape, this identity is becoming increasingly hard to grasp. Hell, it has been falling apart ever since the KEY HISTORICAL EVENT of GamerGate, which was the actual start of the rise in internet-based fascism we’ve been ‘enjoying’ for the past decade. Seriously, any textbook on the 21st century that does not mention GamerGate is objectively wrong.

Ugh. No wonder some people want to remain politically ignorant. This knowledge does not set you free, it just makes you realize how broken the world, culture, and industry à la carte truly are. …Anyway, time to talk about video games!

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The State of Play Rundown
(And MORE Ranting About PlayStation’s Lack of Legacy)

I always go on about this, but I am consistently impressed by how State of Play just morphs into an announcement vehicle whenever I try to think back to the event itself. Nintendo has a clear identity, Nintendo Directs have consistent iconography, and the company has a clear legacy, heavily rooted in the Japanese games industry. None of which are particular strong suits for PlayStation, whose biggest claim to fame is being the better of the two main dedicated home consoles on the market. The publisher has largely discarded its legacy prior to 2013, only ever bringing it back for nostalgic retreats or throwbacks that are remarkable for being unlike their modern catalog. Which largely consists of a collection of first-party studios who release a realistic looking single-player third-person action adventure game every 3 to 6 years. …Except for San Diego Studio, they do baseball every year. (I went to a baseball once. I ate like six hotdogs, ate half a pound of Lego candy, and played Metroid Zero Mission.)

This is, naturally, not all they put out, and what they put out is not bad. It’s just boring and bereft of variety. A lot of announcements over the past year or so should have felt distinctly PlayStation. Monster Hunter Wilds. Dynasty Warriors Origins. Lunar Remastered Collection. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered. The latest RPG from the Wild Arms developers. Yet, I simply do not view these as PlayStation anymore. Monster Hunter and any game targeting the Chinese audience is a de facto PC game in my mind, because that is where a huge core of the userbase is. Remasters of old-ass PS1 games that were distinctly PS1 games— even if they came out on the Mega CD or Windows 98— feel more appropriate on Switch nowadays, even if they have never touched a Nintendo platform before.

Even if these games ultimately sell more on a PlayStation than another system, that’s more due to the sheer number of PlayStations out there, not because it fits a brand identity. Because the brand identity for the PS5 is… just modern AAA video games, I guess. Most of which are on PC. And most of which are on Xbox. Respectively, a system whose identity is being deliberately broad and malleable, reshaped into being all things video games after the rise of Steam throughout the 2010s. And a system whose identity was borked up by Don Mattrick, never to recover. Maybe modern PlayStation’s identity will become clear as time goes on and the industry changes, but… I am not expecting good things from this industry for the next ten years. There have been too many canceled games and too many layoffs for that to happen.

…Well, I say that, but then Sony floors me by doing one of the best showcases they have since they started this format. However, that was largely in spite of Sony’s stuff, as they barely showed anything. Just a teaser for a Ghost of Yotei State of Play next month and some Astro Bot DLC. Everything noteworthy they showed off is launching day and date on other platforms. So, not really a Sony showcase in my mind, but I’m just here for the games and the stories they represent. So let me start with the announcements worth noting, but not big enough to warrant their own header.

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The State of Play Miscellaneous Announcements
(It’s Silly Having 30 Subheaders, Aight?)

Lumines Arise was announced to kick off the presentation, which is… a choice. Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (2004) was a killer app launch title for the PSP for being a sensually rich puzzle game with gorgeous visuals, especially for a handheld game, a banging soundtrack, and gameplay that allowed one to enter the zone as they played. Pretty much a perfect game to play while trying to forget about the world around you.

This success was then followed by a couple ports, console spin-offs, a numbered sequel, and mobile adaptations. However, the series was left by the wayside as designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi pursued other ventures. Like Child of Eden (2011) (it’s okay, nobody remembers it) Since then, Mizuguchi has mostly been working on a few remasters and VR titles like Rez Infinite (2016) and Tetris Effect (2018). So the idea of him, and his team of developers at Enhance, making a new VR-based Lumines makes perfect sense. However, I do need to express some skepticism with the game’s ability to function as a puzzle game, due to how busy the visuals are, eschewing the clean display of the original titles in favor of something more busy. While this worked for Tetris Effect, as Tetris does not need color, Lumines is a color matching game. …But I could just be being pedantic. We’ll see how Lumines Arise fares when it launches for PS5 and PC. …Or when the demo releases sometime this summer.

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Hirogami is the latest oddball ‘sure why not’ title from Bandai Namco. A fixed perspective third-person action game set in a world made entirely out of origami, with characters made of origami who can refold themselves into other creatures. It looks like a solid modest budget title with a striking art style, nifty paper-based transformation mechanics, and a good amount of gameplay variety. To further this aesthetic, it also has a faux stop-motion frame rate on certain character actions, but in a way that does not look detrimental to the game, which ultimately runs at 60 fps. Really, this is something I think studios should put out more frequently so that the developers learn how to finish a game, and gain needed skills to work on larger, more imposing projects. But I guess that only juggernauts like Bandai Namco can support such ventures.

Hirogami is coming out September 3, 2025, where it is only arriving on PS5 and PC. Which strikes me as a missed opportunity, as this looks like it would be a great Switch or Switch 2 game, as Nintendorks love crafts-based platformers. (Golly, could you imagine if Tearaway was ported to Switch?) Instead, it’s just these two systems… and it’s not even being published by Bandai Namco? How does that work?

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Despite Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo being busy with oodles of other projects, including Ninja Gaiden 4, they announced [Nioh 3](### Nioh), continuing this cult hit soulslike series. …Which is all I really have to say, as I never really followed Nioh. I know that it is a mission-based venture with a lot of upgrading and replayability, while offering fantastical samurai action fare. But this seems like the sort of series you need to play to really ‘get.’ As for how Nioh 3 changes things, the biggest alteration is the introduction of a character creator, meaning you don’t need to play as a Caucasian Samurai, and the removal of the mission-based structure, instead taking a more open approach. …Which makes sense, as they probably want to capture the lucrative Elden Ring market.

For those curious, a demo dropped right after State of Play, but for those inclined to wait, Nioh 3 is set to release sometime in 2026 for PS5 and PC.

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Sword of the Sea was announced as the latest game from Abzu and The Pathless developer Giant Squid and… it’s basically a sequel to the indie hit Journey (2012). So much so that I genuinely thought it was the next game from Thatgamecompany, but instead it’s just from a bunch of people who worked on Journey and wanted to make a cooler successor. One that ditches the atmospheric desert for something more abstract and fantastical, with gushing rivers and flying fish. And ditches walking and hopping for a rocket-propelled sword skateboard you can do tricks on. Hell yeah!

It still has a similar ethereal atmosphere, but the speed, mobility, and camp that come with a sword skateboard all make this a very different type of game, and I frankly welcome that. We’re kind of past the point where the artistic merits of games need to be proven. Sword of the Sea is coming to PS5 and Steam on August 19, 2025.

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After being cast by the wayside, subjected to a middling reboot, and then left to be forgotten, the Thief series is coming back with a brand new VR spin-off by the name of Thief VR: Legacy of Shadows. A distinctly cool idea, as VR stealth is a genre with a lot of potential, but I find this to be a hard sell on its face. Thief fans would want another old school style PC game like the ones they played when they were wee lasses with JNCO jeans stained by Josta and semen. And what are the odds that a PS VR2 owner would want to play a game based on some 90s PC stealth series that was only received a single Xbox port.

…And that was for Deadly Shadows (2004), which is often brushed aside for being a lesser sequel that suffered from similar problems as Deus Ex 2: Invisible Wars. …Including getting a pretty alright reboot by way of Eidos Montreal. But whereas Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) struck a chord with people, including me, Thi4f (2014) had the impact of a wet towel. With experienced VR dev Maze Theory and niche publisher Vertigo Games handling the project, I’m sure it will be a fine title when it launches in 2025 for VR platforms. …But I don’t think this will be much more than a novelty, I hate to say.

…Nightdive should do remasters of the first two Thief games and port them to consoles for the first time ever. That would be dope.

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Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Announced
(STOP BLURRING SPRITES, IDIOT!)

I get so frustrated when certain game studios want to bring back old games, as I feel their management sometimes psychologically cannot respect the original’s art direction. Sprites looked a certain way for a reason, and even if you think you know how to make it look better, don’t. Just don’t. …Unless you are one of those sprite wizards at Tengo Project. In which case, you have the right to do whatever you want! However, I look at remasters like the Tactics Ogre: Reborn as not getting the bloody point and ruining something that was deliberate. DO LESS WORK TO MAKE THE PRODUCT BETTER!

As such, I was crestfallen when I saw the announcement trailer for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. Because the game looked like ass. The original sprites and jagged 3D environments were all plastered with this fuzzy Vaseline-like filter, demolishing the original texture work, and adding a depth of field effect. The entire game has a fuzz filter applied to it to make it look like it is being projected on a tapestry, which is a stupid idea. You don’t project films onto brick walls, you bumbling fools! And original artwork used for summons just looks like it eaten by a dog and pulled outta her wormy ass.

I was pissed upon seeing this, but then I saw that the game actually does contain a classic mode. One featuring the old UI, original sprites, and some terrible black borders that are meant to obscure how this is a 4:3 game, but… don’t. It just draws attention to it. So, yes, you can play the game, how it was on PS1, but with the War of the Lions (PSP release) translation. …OR you could play a version with visuals approved by a soulless hack, but good, respectable UI with oodles of modern features, voice acting, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. You CANNOT mix and match these features, just one or the other.

Just… wow, Square Enix. You just do not understand how to re-release a Final Fantasy game at this point. The Pixel Remasters were maddening due to their terrible launch UI, disgraceful recolorings of certain sprites, and needless gutting of content later added in re-whatevers. It is such a mess that I would easily recommend someone play the GBA versions of all of those games instead. Though, of course, they should instead just get the PC version and mod them with features that Square Enix should have shipped with these 30-year-old games in the first place

This is an improvement. This is putting this game, as it was, on modern hardware. But… project management could NOT have been stupid enough to think this was sufficient. Or, if they were, they should be demoted to custodians or something. I was a custodian once. It was a respectable trade.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be released for all relevant systems. PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and Steam on September 30, 2025. I’d hope that everybody would just get the PC game and mod it after a few months, but I just know people are going to buy this on Switch and settle for whatever they can get.

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Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Announced
(And It’s About Time Too!)

And now to talk about a re-release that actually knows what it’s doing. Digital Eclipse is one of the few companies you can trust for a quality re-release, and they announced Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. A kompilation kontaining the first four Mortal Kombat games, and a documentary kontaining interviews, production materials, and an oral history from developers who worked on the original titles. The full extent of the kollection was not detailed, but it will contain arcade, konsole, and handheld versions of the first four Mortal Kombat games along with the GBA releases as well. All konsole and arcade versions will contain online multiplayer with rollback netcode. And while this sounds pretty darn good, I cannot hear this news without being reminded of how awkwardly the original Mortal Kombat games have been handled over the past 15 years.

The last notable release of the first three games was the less than robust Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (2011), but that was not an ideal re-release, and it was delisted on certain platforms. This kollection was originally intended to be a larger, more ambitious project dubbed Mortal Kombat HD Arcade Kollection, but that was kanceled. And in a rare instance of lighting striking twice, a similar project was pitched by developer Blind Squirrel Games, but that was also kanceled. I’m sure that Digital Eclipse would have done a great job, but the idea of a ‘real’ HD version of Mortal Kombat 1 to 3 would have been dope to see.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is koming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and Steam sometime in 2025.

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Pragmata Re-Announced
(Pragmata is NOT Dead!)

Pragmata was announced aaallll the way back in June 2020 as Capcom’s next big new next gen IP. Something that people seemed to want, despite the fact that Capcom is sitting on a goldmine of underused IP, and only really focuses on a handful. After being indefinitely delayed, the game was finally given a new trailer, and the first one showing a facsimile of gameplay. What will this bold new AAA idea with bizarre imagery hold? What gameplay innovations will it breed and how will it change— Oh. it is a fairly standard-looking third-person over-the-shoulder shooter where you fight slow, imposing, and brooding humanoid enemies. …So, Resident Evil? Well, because of the sci-fi moonbase setting, maybe Dead Space (2008) would be a better comparison.

Regardless, the key difference is that the spacesuit-clad protagonist, who I don’t believe is named, is joined by a little girl with floofy blonde hair and a blue jacket named Cassie Diana. Because she’s some manner of experiment, she’s able to hack into and manipulate the cyborg enemies the player must fend, allowing the spaceman to shoot their weaknesses and such. It’s a fair enough gameplay system, but just seeing this makes me think that the story behind what was planned before the latest development reboot might be more interesting than the game itself. Either way, Pragmata is coming out in 2026— for real this time— in 2026, launching for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

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Romeo is a Dead Man Announced
(Grasshopper is NOT a Dead Studio)

Grasshopper Manufacturer is a truly fascinating company to look at. They started as a weird developer of adventure games for weirdos before somehow cutting a deal with Capcom to make Killer7 (2005), which became an immediate cult classic upon its release. The success of this game attracted attention from other publishers, and they spent the entire 7th generation pumping out a crazy quantity of quality games. No More Heroes 1 (2007) and its sequel, Fatal Frame IV (2008), Shadows of the Damned (2011), Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Killer Is Dead (2013), Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day (2014), and that’s not even bringing up their downloadable titles. They even made a damn Kinect baseball game about demonic mascot characters! Afterwards, something happened, the studio was bought by GungHo, and their output slowed drastically, only putting out three new games since 2014. Let It Die (2016), No More Heroes Gaiden: Travis Strikes Again (2019), and No More Heroes III (2021).

Since then, the studio has been bought out by NetEase, meaning I have been worrying somewhat about its future and if they would be allowed to make a new game. Fortunately, they are, and it’s another eccentric gore-riddled action title by the name of Romeo is a Dead Man. Revealed with one of the most bizarre openings to a trailer I have ever seen, the title is presented as a fairly standard zombie and monster slaughter ’em up with guns, swords, and assorted weaponry, set in mundane-looking environments. …And then the trailer shows a deluge of different art styles, gameplay styles, and mini-games with such veracity that I doubt this game is even close to what it seems to be at a glance. Which… is probably what you want from a Grasshopper joint. Weird freak shit for weird freak people! I’m sure more details will be revealed leading up to the hype cycle, and we’ve got quite a bit of time, as Romeo is a Dead Man is not hitting PS5, Xbox Series, and PC until 2026.

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Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement Announced
(Bloodstained 2 Bay-Bee!)

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) is a title that I feel warrants its own retrospective. The game was announced via a Kickstarter when the Konami hate train was steaming through the village of Gamindustri. I invested $150 into the title, even though I just wanted a dang Steam code, and eventually played it after its release, finding it to be a good title, but not as great as some of its predecessors. Some were far more critical. Especially after the demo with its pretty bad graphics, but in the ensuing few years, the game received a positive deluge of post-launch support. New characters, new modes, various refinements, and a lot of little things that I think made the base game better, but I’m not entirely sure. Still, I’m glad that the game exists, and have been waiting patiently for a sequel to be revealed. …And much to everybody’s surprise, it was revealed here of all places.

Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement is a prequel— not that it really matters— following a pair of two new warriors who venture into a demonic castle and have their fates bound together. Forcing these fighters of different companies to rally together, learn how to cooperate, and triumph over the the resident Demon Lord, named… Elias. Also, I would like to note that the two aforementioned fighters are Leonard Brandon and Alexander Kyteler. Whose names imply that they are both men, but they are so androgynously attractive that I simply cannot tell what their genders are. …Which is pretty dang Castlevania now that I think about it.

This dual protagonist system leads into a buddy system that I immediately want to compare to the one from Portrait of Ruin (2006). However, rather than swapping characters, both are present at the same time, attack enemies together, and presumably have unique abilities. With said abilities immediately taking on a more fantastical bent, with oodles of spells, finishers, and special moves. The store page calls this the Eiphany Combat System, claiming that you discover new moves as you battle. Which sounds… like a wild level of versatility, but sure, why not. As to be expected, the world is also considerably bigger than the already heftily dense Ritual of the Night, and will be further expanded with a day/night cycle. Probably because the dev team put in a lot of work getting the new lighting system working to make the game look better.

Ritual of the Night was many things, but it has a certain impreciseness with its presentation, particularly with certain lighting and shading effects, which Scarlet Engagement aims to fix. While the character models have a light anime-esque shading applied to them, the backgrounds are realistic, gushing with careful details, and look like a generational leap over RotN, because it is. Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement will be released for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC sometime in 2026. And I’m pretty much obligated to give it a go when it does. Yes, yes, even though my ‘Metroidvania lover’ street credit is in the toilet after failing to pursue the latest hotness over the past few years.

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007 First Light Announced
(Of Course It’s a James Bond Origin Story)

IO Interactive, developers of gold star kusoge Kane & Lynch 2: Shanghai Dawg Days (2010) and the beloved stealth mess that was Hitman: World of Assassination (2023?) finally revealed their James Bond project to the world. Dubbed 007 First Light, the title is an origin story of sort for a rebooted and reimagined modern day James Bond, which was kind of expected. And it will be a third-person social stealth action fare with obvious parallels to Hitman, but a greater focus on gunplay and action set pieces. Again, as expected.

I expected there to be a proper gameplay trailer shown at IO Interactive’s showcase after Summer Game Fest, but it would up being a nothingburger, so all we have to go on are cutscenes and heavily curated in-engine snippets. So… let’s talk about James Bond game history.
While there were various PC affairs released throughout the 80s and 90s, the IP did not make a splash in the gaming world until GoldenEye (1997), and you don’t need me to tell you why. It made a huge impact, but rather than have Rare make a sequel, the IP fell under EA’s tutelage, where the series had a pretty solid run of games. They were not always great, but they were a respectable series of action games that came out annually for seven years straight.

However, when the HD generations kicked off and publishing rights fell onto Activision, things got remarkably worse, remarkably quickly. Treyarch’s Quantum of Solace (2008) was a sauceless shooter about as long as the two films it adapted. The folks who made Blur (2010) made the well-intentioned but average Blood Stone (2010). Eurocom wanted to make a remarkable anniversary title with 007 Legends (2012), but due to Activision’s meddling, the game was shipped unfinished and got delisted after three months. …The GoldenEye reimagining was fine though. It was a fun Wii shooter.

This led to the end of James Bond games for a decade, only returning with the sufficient re-release of GoldenEye (1997) for Switch and Xbox. …And the announcement of this project back in 2020. Grief. Games just take too long to make nowadays.

Also, since when else will I bring this up, I may as well briefly talk about my thoughts on the Bond IP. My dad gave me a pirated DVD collection of all the movies when I was a teenager, and I think I watched half of them. I distinctly remember watching modern ones, like GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), with my buddy Matt, while also watching the older ones, like Dr. No (1962) and Octopussy (1983) with my dad. However, I remember basically none of it, and when I think of James Bond, the first thing I think of is Dr. No’s army of Chinegros, with the sly of the Chinaman and the cunning of the Negro. …I have been carrying that cursed knowledge for over a decade, and I FINALLY published it. Hooray~!

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Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Announced
(Mahvel 4, Hold The Capcom)

Serving as the final announcement of the showcase, Arc System Works announced their next big fighting project, and… I don’t think anybody could have expected this. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls! A brand new Marvel tag-team hyper-fighting game that, naturally, follows in the footsteps of Marvel vs. Capcom, but is firmly its own thing, and I mean that in every way. Rather than sticking to standard corporate-assumed designed, every character has been given a distinctly anime-ified design that, while keeping them immediately recognizable, give the game a distinct and palpable look. The animation and presentation as a whole are an evolution of the excellent look ArcSys had codified over their past decade of titles, delivering something that looks spectacular on every level. The movement, character switch-ins, the impact of each blow, the robustly detailed and shifting backgrounds, littered with NPCs, and of course the delightfully lavish supers the characters throw out.

The construction of the trailer itself is fantastic, revealing the initial characters as tag-team assists. The picks start pretty standard before throwing in characters not previously seen in the MCU, reassuring viewers that there are no pesky corporate limitations on who can join the roster, unlike the ill-fated Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (2017). I have nothing but positive things to say because of this, and can already tell it will be a colossal hit, even though most people buying it won’t know what a Tokon is.

Akumako: “It means fighting spirit.”

…So the title is Marvel Fighting Spirit: Fighting Souls?

Akumako: “Basically, yeah.”

Huh.

Anyway, I’m notoriously terrible at fighting game, on every level, but I do know that, even if people are lukewarm towards the MCU after a decade of overexposure, this game will due massive numbers. Marvel Rivals (2024) showed how much people will flock to a game if it is good, accessible, and has Marvel characters. Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018) sold over 10 million units, showing that even hyper-fighting romps can rack up eight digits with the right IP. And when these two factors cross over… I can see this being one of the best-selling fighters of all time. I’m talking about Mortal Kombat numbers, bay-bee!

Am I right? Am I wrong? We’ll have to wait and see, as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is coming to PS5 and PC sometime in 2026. Straight up skipping Xbox, as Sony is probably funding the production of this title.

Akumako: “Does that make this a first-party live service game?”

…Can you play fighting games offline?

Akumako: “Generally, yeah. Tournaments wouldn’t work otherwise.”

Then it’s not a live service, you silly boob! Also, first-party means it comes from a studio owned by Sony. Get yo facts straight, gurl!

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Switch 2 Bad Publicity
(Switch 2 Came Out to Zero Reviews)

This past week was home to the launch of the Switch 2, but the launch was distinctly different from any console launch that came before it. Well, maybe not any, but at least most. Normally, console manufactures like to ship consoles to the games press EARLY to analyze them, get a handle on them, and publish reviews for launch day in order to benefit… all parties involved.

For the games press, this gives them the ability to publish articles and videos about the new hardware and its games, generating a bunch of clicks, views, and revenue for the outlets. This in turn provides customers with a deluge of information, encouraging them to buy the new hardware, games, or just talk about it on social media. For console publishers, this extra attention helps them both in the short-term and long-term, as if people see others talking about something, they’ll probably want to buy it. And for publishers, this is just free publicity for their launch titles.

Rather than follow this decades-long tradition, Nintendo opted to just not distribute any consoles ahead of launch. Meaning every publication that wants to report on the Switch 2, do a review of a Switch 2 game, has had to wait. Furthermore, they will need to compete with each other to get their coverage out first. Which sure sounds like a recipe for crunch, bad takes, sloppy reporting, and poor writing overall. All while staff is trying to report on all the announcements at some of the biggest gaming events of the year. Like, who the hell thought that launching a console on the week of S3 was a good idea? This all sounds like a recipe to build animosity between creators and Nintendo, and allow the worst people to get the first say.

…But Nintendo knows it’s going to sell out of these things in a few hours, tops, so they do not care. The reviews will be there eventually. Nobody is holding off on buying Mario Kart World unless it gets above an 85 on Metacritic. Now all publications could do to ride on the hype is write articles on how the era of the Switch is over, which I think is just dumb in a climate where the PS4 is still receiving games 5 years after the launch of the PS5. Consoles don’t die like they used to, ya stinky clams! This ain’t the GameCube or Wii U, chumps!

I wrote those first three paragraphs on June 3rd, sensing a shitstorm coming. So, was I right?

…Eh, kinda. The blow out of information was nowhere near as coordinated as it was for other console launches, but it also felt like it did not really matter. The Switch 2 was sold out before launch. Those who bought it just spent the day playing it. Content creators were rushing to get out cheap and low effort content. Comparison videos, unboxings, first impressions spat straight off the dome, exaggerations to appease people who are gullible to that sort of thing. All stuff that would have happened no matter how the launch was handled.

Apparently every Walmart shipped the Switch 2 in reusable bags along with a Coke and Pringles. Which is pretty random, but makes them seem like the good guys on social media, and distracts from the fact that they’re increasing the prices of a lot of goods by up to 38%. A move that… I think I appreciate, as I want Americans to be shocked and appalled as prices go up drastically and suddenly due to the spike in standard expenses, because it will spur actions or turn people away from MAGA.

I saw a lot of hubbub about how the Switch 2 improves the performance on oodles of Switch games, which is good, as approximately 27% of the gaming audience values performance over game design. In all seriousness though, there are people who are committed to bespoke gaming hardware, value the flexibility of a Switch, and have been hankering for a performance boost for years upon years. These people are the enthusiast day one buyers who are committed to being Switch gamers, and… they bought the thing that did what they wanted.

Others got it for Mario Kart World because it’s Mario Kart and boasts quality first-party Nintendo game design, not that there was ever any doubt. Again, it does not need reviews from major publications. Unfortunately, this is bad news for nearly every other game on the system.

Fortunately, most of the launch titles are ports and re-whatever, so people generally know what is and is not good. However, there have not been proper assessments of these releases, people testing them to see how well they fare on this new hardware. People just need to search around on social media, see if people are talking about it, or check some random-ass YouTuber or streamer to learn about these games. We don’t have deep dives into Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, what it adds, and how it fares as a retreat. Pretty much nobody has completed Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster and gauged how it fares as a remaster.

A lack of centralized information discourages exploration, encourages people to stick with what they know, and now it will take a few weeks before publications can put out their reviews for games like Fast Fusion by Shin’en Multimedia. …Or maybe Nintendorks who bought the system will just spend money like crazy, buying whatever on the eShop, because it actually functions now.

Personally though, I’m just unfazed by the Switch 2’s launch. It helped me realize I realized that I am simply not interested in as bespoke gaming hardware anymore. Gaming consoles are just stripped down computers, but with their own bespoke UI, software that takes the form of revocable licenses, and subscriptions that you need to buy to unlock back catalogs and assorted features. My pessimism is furthered by the conceited effort by publishers to devalue physical games, introducing physical cards that are merely a license to download a game. I was never a big physical media pundit, but I do not trust Nintendo to honor digital licenses in the long-term.

I actually think Game Key Cards are actually worse than a code in a box. Because these cards that are not clearly differentiated from real game cards at a glance. You have a little key icon, but why not make them a different color, or give them a stripe on the cartridge itself. It just devalues the physical object while demanding the use of download cycling. While the 256 GB of internal storage is not egregious, the fact that a 1 TB Express MicroSD Card costs around $200 is. The fact that a damn controller costs $85 is. And the fact that games will launch at $70 to $80 and preserve their price, as we are supposed to “respect the value” is. That is all egregious. It’s all so expensive. And most of it does not need to be. (Okay, maybe the MicroSD cards need to be, but I think they are just profiting off of early adopters to recoup R&D costs.)

…And the sad thing is that, even though I know all of this, I am probably going to wind up buying a Switch 2 next year just so I can play the 2026 Pokémon game. And I really don’t want to. Because that would be nearly $700 spent just so I could play one bloody game with a real controller. [The math is ($450+$80+$85)*1.1025 = $678.]

Edit 6/8/2025: I forgot to include the world EARLY in the first paragraph, so I added that. As far as I can tell, nobody received the Switch 2 early.

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Summer Game Fest Rundown
(Keighley’s Summer Game Adverts VI)

I have been reporting on Geoff Keighley’s showcases for over a decade, but I can never remember how to spell this man’s surname. It just phonetically does not make sense to me, does not conform to the dog-quality rules of spelling in the English language, and I keep thinking that it should be spelled Keyleigh or something. It looks more correct in my mind. But no, Keighley is as English as can be!

Anyway, Summer Game Fest is something that people just accepted as an E3 substitute after the initial showing in 2020, and has it has taken hold because of Keighley’s connections and ability to draw in a crowd. As I said before, no one man should have all this power, and Keighley is a corporate shill who will, at most, offer lip service to issues plaguing the industry. But would I rather have him run the show, or have the American Corporate Entity of Malice that is the ESA run the show? Hell no!

The ESA has gone to court to fight against game preservation, are choosing to allow gambling in games rated E for Everyone, and exists to protect the biggest names in gaming above all else. They were a necessary coalition at some point, back when gaming need to establish itself. But if I could press a button to disband and erase the legal organization and all their assets, would I? …I mean, yes, but would that be a smart idea? NOPE!

Tangent aside, This show felt oddly balanced, with far too many live service trailers trying to get people’s attention, minor, random updates for select games, and announcements that lack a certain hook. All of which are just thrown into a blender with trailers for real Canonical video games, creating a disparate show that, unlike the State of Play earlier this week, was full of downtime for people to check their phones. To hit up Brisky or Diskorb or WitCh@ or whatever the 40-year-old children of today are using to commune with their peers.

Akumako: “WitCh@? WitCh@?”

Yeah! The de facto global communication system WeChat, created by the One World Order Superpower of Blessed Christ’s China. But but WiiChat, because ‘we’ = ‘Wii.’ Then you replace @ replacing the ‘at’ and transform from ‘wiich’ to witch, because that just makes sense! Also, capital-C lower-case-H means channel. And wit means smarts. So it is a place for smart witches. …I came up with it in seven seconds.

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Sonic Racings CrossWorlds Is A Crossover Racer
(And All The Children Screamed)

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds was given another trailer, revealing it to be… effectively, the third Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing game. One featuring the like of not only forgotten bird-children Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross, but other Sega friends. Like the de facto biggest pop star in human history, Hatsune Miku. The greatest gacha game character of all time, Ren “Joka” Amamiya from co-savior the only Gamindustri capable of artistic expression, Atlus and Aya Nishitani’s Shin Megami Tensei: Revelations’ Divine Persona Vth (2016). Ichiban Kasuga from Like a Dragon 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness in Another Yakuza, which helped further the series by establishing a fresh entry point and more accessible gameplay. Also, it had very strong promotion.

This news, knowing that this can be Sega’s very own Super Smash Kart, immediately makes this game far more attractive than Yet Another Sonic Kart, and raises questions about just how much support this game will have. While, Mario Kart Race World Tour has been doing as well as a launch game could do, there ultimately is a market for more than one kart racing game, and with enough support, and oddball picks, I think Sega could make this work.

Also, if the leaks from my toilet are any indication… they are aiming for some wild picks, and Scrimblos. My fla-vor-ite! This crossover appeal, combined with the fact that the game will launch for every meaningful gaming system, and the Xbox One, with crossplay, means this game has a good chance of succeeding on a broader level. But, as I am legally obligated to say by the Divine Masters of IRiS, we will need to wait until September 25, 2025 before we can assess the Critical, Commercial, and Communal success of this new entry into the girth-some annals of Gaming Canon. They are even doing a Minecraft world, and Minecraft… is part of The Canon!

Akumako: “Natalie, you cannot keep saying shit like this. It is maddening to read, and you are just lying when you use terms like de facto. I know you thought it was the funniest shit the Button Boys did shit like this when you were in your 23, but you have a responsibility to—”

Brap Brap Brap

The Ghost of Akumako: “Ah drats! I am dead now! Killed by cartoon gunshots. Goodbye until next week! Nywweeeeiiiiihhhh!”

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Code Vein II Is REAL!
(My Suspicions Were Right! RIGHT!)

See! I’m not crazy! I’m sane! SAAAANNNNEEEE!

Back when Freedom Wars Remastered (2025) was announced in September 2024, I did some diehard musings on the future of the God Eater developers Shift Inc after their edgy vampire soulslike banger Code Vein: Prepare to Dine (2019). While not a huge success, it did big numbers by publisher Bandai Nacmo standards. And it would have done even more if they ported the game to Switch, like I thought they did, but that was a hallucination. To me, a sequel seems logical, so the fact that we had not heard of one after 5 years was weird. However, Shift Inc likely faced setbacks due to the pandemic, being a smaller Japanese company. Plus, if you want to make a game nowadays, and it’s not an iterative sequel, you are legally obligated to undergo at least one development reboot. I didn’t make the law, I just reiterate it.

As such, I was surprised but not surprised when the trailer for a new Bandai Namco action RPG with an edgy gothic urban art direction wound up being Code Vein II. Though… I’m not really sure how to interpret this trailer. While I never played Code Vein— it’s on my list, alright? What struck me about the first game was its fixation on edge, on being God Eater X Dark Souls, and featuring a cast of buddies who the player could choose while traversing through an expansive cityscape that blended old and new with the fantastical. Code Vein II represents a significant artistic deviation, with even the enemies seen in the trailer looking like they could be from a different IP altogether.

The fixation on the color red as an accent to flourishes and red blood flowing from enemies was strangely replaced with yellow fluid, golden weapons, and enemies fading away into gold. The entire game is centered around traveling through time, specifically two different types of apocalypses. This is facilitated through the aid of a seemingly fixed companion character. Along with a white-haired girl with an open chest and golden heart who can golden time gates. There are clear similarities to the predecessor, but there are enough differences that I was thinking this had to be a new IP. Especially when I saw the protagonist’s motorcycle.

Needless to say, I’m confused as to what warranted this change in direction, and curious as to see how Code Vein II fares. The game is slated for release on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam in 2026, which I think is a tad strange, as… why wouldn’t you want to put a game like this on Switch 2 as well? It was a mistake to not port the first one, as it could have probably run at 720p 30 fps per the PC requirements, if not better. Honestly, I think any Japanese game would be crazy to not be supporting Switch 2 at the moment, but why would Gamindustri ever listen to little old me?

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Killer Inn Announced
(Where is My Deception V? I was Promised Deception!)

Square Enix announced another live service nobody wanted, and I do not quite understand it on a broader level. Killer Inn is a 24-player multiplayer social stealth action game about killers and targets wandering around a mansion trying to avoid being killed or killing their targets. …Except rather be subdued or comparable to, say, the multiplayer mode from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (2010), the game is also a shooter with melee combat, and people are just killing each other in the open.

It all makes sense until you see the gameplay, where it just looks like a multiplayer shooter mode for a single-player action game. Characters jump around. Bodies are shot and left in the open in a plainly obvious manner. We see the POV character pick up clues from dead bodies, but also just walk past characters killing other characters, like it’s no big deal. Killer Inn also does not seem to tell the player who their teammates are, and the goals, however cutely presented, are ultimately just kill your opponents before they kill you. …Or say to hell with this game and try to escape.

This is a social simulator where you are encouraged to chat with other people, but also one where you are supposed to loot chests for armor and grenades. The trailer sounds like it is for a fake game, based on a premise generated by an AI or an ‘ideas guy’ who does not know the first thing about writing a game design document, much less developing one. No shade toward the developers at Tactic Studios, but this game sounds like a mess. It may be a good mess, or it may be a mess that just does not come together, at all. And because Square Enix is involved… I’m sorry, but the latter is almost a certain.

Killer Inn will have a closed beta for PC via Steam sometime Soon™.

…Also, I have to give this game negative points for the tagline “In Deception We Trust.” For a minute, I thought this was going to be a new Deception game from Koei Tecmo. And my GOD do we need more of them “Anime Loonie Tunes Femdom simulators” about being a goth vampire-looking babe using traps to incapacitate men as they try to venture through her castle. That’s an erotic fantasy for like 5% of the global population. We do not have any of those games nowadays, and we need them. A game like that would save the lives of at least 5,000 men!

The Ghost of Akumako: “What does that even mean?”

FIGURE IT OUT!

Also, yo, Koei Tecmo, where’s Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess Remastered at? You bamboozled a generation by not porting it to PC!

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Lego Voyagers and Lego Party Announced
(Double Lego Toil & Trouble!)

Ever since The Lego Group decided to branch out, there have been all manner of ‘sure why not’ Lego games hitting the market. Lego Worlds (2017), Lego 2K Drive (2023), Lego Fortnite (2023), all while licensed Lego games have been going by the wayside, for shame. However, Lego weirdly got not one, but two new games announced this showcase. The first being Lego Voyagers, a two-player cooperative adventure game about two Lego studs embarking on a grand voyage, where they need to build pathways and work together. It’s likely inspired by the success of Hazelight’s multiplayer efforts, and this seems like a perfect game for Lego likers of all ages. More somber, subdued, and with the prestige quality I would expect from Annapurna Interactive. …Who are still around despite having been losing all their staff a few months back. Still, it would be a nice game to play with Cassie, as I don’t play enough games with her.

On the other end of the spectrum Lego Party is basically Mario Party, but with Lego. With customizable characters, big boards, oodles of wacky events, and 60 mini-games to play while collecting stars golden pieces. The trailer’s a bit too… try-hard for my liking, and I’d worry if this game were too committed to being a childless cartoon-masturbating 45-year-old’s idea of wacky, but this is a perfectly good idea for a Lego game, and the sort of thing I’m surprised they weren’t pumping out 15/20 years ago.

Lego Voyagers is coming out for Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, and PC SOON™, while Lego Party is hitting Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC in 2025.

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Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver Announced
(Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck Wit!)

Renown New York rap group, The Wu-Tang Clan, is… you know what, we’re in too deep for a history lesson on the group. You’ll just have to rely on Wikipedia and not WikiNat for that. Point is, they are an old and prolific group rappers, beat makers, and performers who, like many men of their era, were also into video games and even licensed their likeness to Activision, which led to the creation of Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (1999). A 4 player arena fighter for the PlayStation that was kinda janky, awkward, and busted in a way common for the era. This was not Power Stone. But is interesting for three reasons. One, a rap group got a damn PS1 game, and that’s hilarious. Two, the game was actually a conversion of Thrill Kill, a bloody 4 player area fighter designed to be the most violent game ever created. …But because it was too violent, it could not be sold in stores, and was never releases. Well, officially. You can search Thrill Kill ROM and get a near final version if you want to. Three, the game came with a PS1 controller designed like the Wu-Tang logo. To nobody’s surprise, it was the worst officially licensed PS1 controller ever released, but it sure looks nifty!

In the ensuing decades however, Wu-Tang has become rap music for 40-year-olds who know what Wu-Wear is, and a few select songs from the 90s. The living members are not particularly prominent in 2025, and there is really no demand for a new Wu-Tang game. …What am I saying? Everything that was big 30 years ago is ripe for exploitation, so of course they are making a Wu-Tang action game, dubbed Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. Only seconds of gameplay were shown, but the store page says it’s a “co-op action RPG with anime-style fighting and afro-surrealist aesthetic.” Which, yeah, no, that sounds pretty ideal. …And I just remembered that RZA did the music for Afro Samurai (2009). God, that game needed to be ported to PC a decade ago.

I’d like to say something optimistic about the team behind Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver, but they did not name anyone on the main dev team, there’s no release date, and everything shown looks like it could be from an alpha build. So… hoping for the best.

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Project Century Is Stranger Than Heaven
(And It’s (Probably) a 100 Year Saga!)

Project Century was one of the more interesting reveals at The Game Awards 2024. A seemingly new IP from RGG Studios, set in 1915 Japan during the turbulent times of The Great War. When Japan was rapidly modernizing, but also was in the midst of occupying the Korean peninsula so they could be just like the great world powers who forced them to open their borders. I thought it was a fresh new direction for the studio to explore. A game in a time period that global-facing Japanese media tends to not explore this era all too often.

…Which is why I was surprised to see the Project Century again, but in a different time period, 1943! …What the fuck? 1943 was when the Japanese government was fully committed into thinking they could become the de facto leaders of East Asia, occupying every country they could find, while funneling everything into the war machine! It was not as bad as 1945 and the years afterward— those were horrible— but it is not a time most Japanese people, or people in general, look at fondly. Because Japanese soldiers were doing a lot of murdering, and a lot of rapings!

However, it is wrong to look at an entire nation as what their military did, even in wartimes, and this is something that I, and many other Americans in particular, struggle to really understand. While healthy virile men are at war, the nation keeps on moving. Performers, craftsmen, petty criminals, and all the elements that go into creating a thriving nightlife continue. The red-light district’s lights stay on. And I have to imagine that the tension, concern, and sheer rage surrounding a genocidal conquest would make for an interesting setting to explore at a human level.

All of which is captured in this latest trailer, showing off a world that, while likely small in scale, is highly involved, varied, and detailed, taking the more ‘cinematic’ elements of Like A Dragon and pushing them in a bizarrely western AAA direction, but one that I think works well. …At least per the heavily curated footage before me.

I still barely know what form this game will take, but from what was shown, Project Century, now named Stranger Than Heaven, looks dope! …And the best part is that this game is definitely going to take place over the entire 20th Century, covering a few key eras. Meaning we are going to get a post-war era where Japan is being reconstructed in the 60s or 70s— a super interesting time— and probably a bubble year era to cap off things in the 80s or 90s. As a fan of longer, generational, narratives, and a strong believer that the 20th Century is the most interesting time in human history, I’m really looking forward to this one. …I say as a Like A Dragon virgin. I really need to fix that.

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Resident Evil 9: Requiem Announced
(And Not Much Else)

Before getting into this, I need to give big ups on Capcom for how they handled this reveal. They first paid for time to announce their annual early June sale. When… it’s a sale, people who want to buy your games know about it. Then they said that they are hard at work on the next Resident Evil game, but were not able to show anything quite yet. …Only for them to, twenty minutes later, end the showcase by announcing Resident Evil 9: Requiem. …Get it? Because a lower-case Q looks like a 9! req! RE9!

Resident Evil 9: Requiem will take players back to Raccoon City which, while overused, is the setting for Resident Evil, and this time it’s after the bombs have dropped. The city is dead, a no man’s land, sealed off from the rest of the world, and has been for eight years. At least before the FBI— yes, just the FBI— sends in agents to investigate disturbances. Naturally, that does not go as planned, and bad things happen as zombies and other monstrosities are discovered, and the agents are put in a genre-appropriate quantity of peril.

As for the protagonist, I was expecting it to be either posterboy Leon Kennedy or an all-grown-up Rose Winters. But instead it is… Grace Ashcroft, daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft. …You know, a character from Resident Evil Outbreak (2003), a largely online Resident Evil game released exclusively for the PS2! …A system you had to buy a damn modem for!

Moving onto how the game plays… we don’t know. Capcom wanted to just announce the game, and will let people play a demo at Gamescom, before releasing the title on February 27, 2026, for PS5, Xbox Series, and Steam. I don’t even know if this will be third or first person! However, Capcom did make it clear that this would be a reinvention of Resident Evil and… I’m just kind of annoyed at how often Capcom feels the need to ‘reinvent’ this series.

The reinvention of Resident Evil 4 (2005) was the result of Shinji Mikami being given multiple times to redo his work and determine his vision. It was necessary after the dwindling relevance of the series, and I think we can all say RE4 was good for gaming as a whole. Resident Evil 6 (2012) was a reinvention, and not a good one. They wanted to turn a survival horror game into an internationally acclaimed action shooter and, while they succeeded to some extent, diehard fans largely hated it and it was too Asian to do Call of Duty numbers.

Resident Evil VII: Biohazard (2017) was a reinvention that did something wildly different, but was still distinctly Resident Evil, despite being the most Americanized game in the series. Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019) was another reinvention, but that’s because they had to make a new foundation for the over-the-shoulder combat after RE6 was RE6.

Resident Evil VII was built upon in Village (2021). The mold of RE2R was followed through the next two remakes. And I don’t think the series really needs a big reinvention. The only dud in the past few years was the Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020), and that’s because it was too short and cut elements from the original game. There is nothing wrong with the form or formula, you just need to figure out how to make games regularly and keep them distinct.

…Also, we all know that remakes of Resident Evil 0 and 1 are in development, and those are also going to be ‘reinventions.’

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The Miscellaneous Announcements!
(There are Too Many Games!)

Okay, those were the big ones, and we are already at nearly two dozen topics this Rundown, so I’m just going to breeze through the other games that warrant a mention!

Felt That: Boxing was announced as a random oddball tile. A story-driven boxing game about Sesame Street style puppet characters. A mature comedy following a teenage orphan picking up boxing in order to win money to keep his orphanage from being foreclosed. Complete with the grouchy veteran coach with unorthodox methods. Intimidating opponents presented with a blatant disregard for things like weight classes. And gameplay that appears to be inspired by Punch-Out, though that may be a stretch. It is a visual spectacle, producing graphics I did not think were possible in an Unreal Engine 5 game running in real-time. However, the language is too naughty for it to not be distracting, and much of the experience is set to be a cinematic one, so… I don’t know who this is for, other than the people making it. No release date was given, and the only announced platform is PC via Steam.

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Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny was announced as the latest entry in Nickelodeon’s… curious handling of licensed games over the past few years. Despite the brand of Nickelodeon being on the decline with… the death of cable television, the company has adopted a decidedly liberal approach to licensing their older IPs. It’s how the world got three Nickelodeon racing games, two Nickelodeon Smash Bros clones, and that Rugrats platformer. New SpongeBob games make all the sense in the world, as SpongeBob is a cultural institution that has been on the air for 25 years. But everything else is a nostalgia grab, the prime era of Nicktoons ended about a 20 years ago, and the main people who would care would be people on the sunny side of thirty. Like me! …However, if GameMill wants to use these licensed IPs to produce a 2.5D Diablo like for at least a couple of thousands of people. …Sure, why not?

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Fractured Blooms is a psychological horror farming game about an anime girl gradually going insane and possibly breaking reality. It looks like a freak game for freaks, and you know how I feel about those. One with reality warping, plant monsters, and presumably some religious hoopla, given the capital-H He’s. The developer/publisher is Serenity Forge, who have been involved in a lot of cult hit games like Slay the Princess and the Lisa series. However, there is a major gap in the reception to some of their titles and, with them boasting so many different art styles, it is hard to grasp a consistent identity, or tell how much staff carries over from project to project. …Either way, I’m going to wishlist this and hope for the best.

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Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is a gorgeous looking isometric roguelike action game (Hades-like) in a fantastical world drenched in Japanese mythology from developer Brownies Inc. A lesser known successor to Mother 3 (2006) developer Brownie Brown (now 1-Up Studios), founded by Mana character designer Shinichi Kameoka. Since their formation, they worked on a bunch of mobile games and Doraemon: Story of Seasons (2019), but this is their first original ground-up console game, and I’m already impressed with its production values. With endearing, if eccentric, designs, robust animations, and a sufficiently vivid world with a good deal of variety. Gameplay was barely shown, as they had to show off animated sequences instead, but as a Hades-like, I’m sure it will play well enough when it launches on September 18, 2025, for Switch, PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

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Gaucamelee developers Drinkbox announced Blighted. A title I initially assumed to be another Hades-like based on it isometric perspective, 2D backgrounds, and 3D character models. However, upon further inspection, this appears to be a heavier overhead action RPG with an emphasis on dodging, deliberate attacks, and careful blocking of enemy attacks, all while going on a flesh quest in flesh world. Rather than trying to save the world, the world is already a psychedelic hellscape of organ pillars and monstrosities, and all the protagonist wants is more power. Power they amass by eating their brains for their succulent knowledge and memories. Which… yes. Yes to everything about that. No release date was given, and it was only announced for PC.

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Acts of Blood is the latest small independent venture with production values so high that I’m left confused as to why AAA ventures need teams of hundreds. Developed by a solo Indonesian dev— and his nine friends— Acts of Blood is a contemporary urban brawler slash playable action movie, and while I originally wrote something based on this trailer, I later found out this game had a demo, revealing the title to basically be a spiritual successor to Sleeping Dogs (2012), but with a fixation on straight-up murder! There’s a kill counter and everything!

This infusion of video game-y elements is furthered with things like floating icons over attacking enemy’s heads so you can make like Batman and counter them. Breaking open a safe with a knife and Dead Rising-ly picking up the fallen cash. Or just entering a glowing rage mode. Yet it still maintains a grounded setting, directly based on a town in modern Indonesia. It’s the type of AA production value experience that I love to see smaller ragtag devs pursue, and I hope this exposure will allow the game to succeed and come to consoles when it releases in summer 2026.

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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (2010) is a strange cultural artifact that, in order to unpack, one would need to analyze the rise in gaming nerd culture throughout the late 2000s, the retro revival boom, and the strange confluence of its creation. Because I cannot think of a reason why Ubisoft Montreal was ever allowed to make a retro style multiplayer beat ’em up movie/comic adaptation with gorgeous spritework from an art team led by the renowned Paul Robertson. But it happened, the game was beloved, and it was deleted from storefronts before it ever got a PC release. At least until Ubisoft re-released it just shy of its tenth anniversary.

It was a pretty random release at the time, but became somewhat prophetic after the 2023 animated alternate revival sequel thing, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. A release that brought the cultural artifact of Scott Pilgrim into relevance again, while expanding upon it in ways that I’m not privy to. …But now, by way of Tribute Games, the folks behind Mercenary Kings (2014) and Shredder’s Revenge (2022) are making a sequel to the 2010 game and the 2023 animated series, dubbed Scott Pilgrim EX. …And it looks like everything one could expect or want. A side-scrolling brawler with brand new animation, the return of Paul Robertson, a more exploration driven River City Ransom (1989) esque structure, and a story about saving the beloved bastion of Toronto. All coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC via Steam in 2026.

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Progress Report 2025-06-08

Y’all remember Loggerzed? He’s an old school 3D TSF comic creator who used ComiPo and Miku Miku Dance to make some of the most captivatingly bizarre TSF comics I could find back in the 2010s, and I still think back to his work from time to time. He stopped producing new stories in 2018, and the only sign of activity he’s had in the past 7 years has been his reposts of older FTF disguise comics. I’m actually glad he reposted those, as it was a sign of life and as a “Russian guy,” I was worried he was conscripted to military service and died. Yeah, I know that’s morbid, but that would not be out of the question.

Much to my surprise, I saw that he returned a new work the past week… and it was with a mid-ass AI generated comic. Orz. I can understand the intention of AI comics like this and, at best, I view them as analogous to making a TG caption. I didn’t pay to get all those busty candids I used back when I ran VD Captions. However, it’s kinda crummy to see an artist you enjoyed come back… and take a lazier approach. Like, you don’t even need to DIG for good images. You just tell a dang machine what you wants, and it does it for you. Where’s the fun in that?! You want to know why I stick with writing? One, I’m too lazy for anything else. Two, I enjoy the process of doing things. I like finishing things, having a collection of past works I can point at and say I DID THAT. But I cannot do that if I used AI, because, objectively, I did not do that.

Also, this week I read Jigoku Ane by Yuu Yoshidamaru. A manga was recommended to me by Natalie.TF reader Ouran Nakagawa, sponsored by Azerbajian Technology, who ran the comic through IchigoReader’s AI translator, as they thought it would be a good fit for TSF Showcase.

In short, the manga is about a teenage girl, Mahiro, who gets possessed by an unknown person and proceeds to torment Mahiro’s younger brother, Hiroki. The story has a decently sized cast, but the crux is Hiroki dealing with his sister acting strangely, more aggressive, outspoken, and generally masculine, rather than being a more kind, protective older sister. That is a good premise for a TSF story, and I like the idea of not making the possessor the protagonist, forcing a powerless kid to just deal with someone wearing a family member’s body.

Having read all 24 chapters, I think it is a perfectly good manga, and I can see why it would have resonated with Ouran, especially since they read it back when they had to only go off of moon runes. However, I don’t think it would be a good fit for a TSF Showcase. And I have a few reasons why.

One, because I could not grasp the full extent of the story because of the poor translation. If a story is poorly translated, I cannot analyze it on a higher level, and find it to be a less enjoyable read than even a mediocre fan translation. Just casually reading it, there were plenty of things I did not fully get because of the translation quality.

Two, it lacks the TSF genre essence that I often want to highlight in TSF Showcase. While Mahiro is clearly possessed by someone, and that someone appears to be a man, they don’t really act like a guy in a girl’s body as much as I would expect. The story is from Hiroki’s perspective, so what is going on in the possessor’s mind is a mystery to the reader, and it’s not even clear if it is a possession throughout the entire story. With characters theorizing that this new person could be an alternate personality, or perhaps a PTSD coping mechanism. Simply put, the story is more interested in the idea of an older sister undergoing a personality change and tormenting her younger brother than it is with much else.

Three, I’m not too keen on a lot of things about the manga in general. I think that a lot of the additional characters as perfunctory and don’t really add much, existing because the author thought they were neat oddballs to include. I feel that the justification of the possession, and overall conclusion, is simultaneously lurid for such a reserved work and too mean-spirited for a slice of life romp. While the relationship between the possessor and Mahiro never feels quite right. The possessor is an unknown entity, Hiroki’s legal guardian, and Hiroki just kind of tolerates it for the most part. Things get worse, but never that bad, and the tension of tension is deliberately underplayed.

Weirdly, I would argue that the series is actually a better transgender manga than it is a TSF manga. With chapters 15 to 17 telling a story arc about a trans girl who was (spiritually) disowned by her family and went to reinvent herself in Tokyo before moving back to her hometown. It came out of nowhere, but it’s actually pretty good for a side story. And I’ll happily take good trans representation whenever it shows up. I’ll eat that shit for breakfast, brunch, and linner!

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2025-06-01: Watched movies and anime with Cassie and Shiba for like 5.5 hours, and did dumb banking work. So I only spent the evening working on the Press-Switch v0.6c review, creating a complete draft that I will edit and get ready for posting tomorrow. Writing the ending wat a tear-jerker, but I pulled through. I will edit it and grab the images tomorrow.

2025-06-02: Edited the P-S v0.6c review and grabbed the images. Very sad that I had to do this, but now it’s done. If I want, I can always do a big blow out where I talk about how cool EVERYTHING in Press-Switch is. Though, I think that should be a video. Too bad I can’t do video stuff and don’t got the time for that! also, wrote 4,500 words of my Tribe Nine review. I just started talking about the gameplay. Cripes, I need to stop writing such lengthy shit.

2025-06-03: I wanted a break from staring at Obsidian, so I did some CPE today. Or that was the plan. But then I had to work, get groceries, and watch Higurashi with my friends. I love Higurashi, it’s great! Wound up grabbing 6 credit hours. That’s a fourth of what I need in a year. Imma productiv-a-lie! Wrote 1,400 words for the Rundown ahead of time, as I gotta prepar-a-lie! 1,800 words for the Tribe Nine review before I ran out of steam.

2025-06-04: 2,500 words for Tribe Nine review, wrapping up a 10k word draft. It’s very long because I also included a 3,000 word plot synopsis, written in my Signature Double-N Style. Also, 1,000 words of development history and commentary. Wrote and proofed 3,800 words for the State of Play Rundown.

2025-06-05: Edited and got images for Tribe Nine. Wrote 1,200 word Nintendo Switch bit. Came to an impasse of things to do in the late evening, so I started reading stuff for TSF Showcase 2025-07.

2025-06-06: Did more stuff for TSF Showcase 2025-07, wrote the 800 word introduction. I slept badly last night, so it was harder for me to do a write-up of Summer Game Fest, which I keep calling Summer Games Fest, as it is a better name. 4,700 words written before time for beddy bye.

2025-06-07: Edited the last of this Rundown and got it ret-2-post. Wrote 3,400 words for TSF Showcase 2025-07, which only covered the first 75 of nearly 600 pages. OOF! But at least I’ll be able to breeze past most of those. I wanted to write more, but I was getting tired.

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