Sunday, February 27, 2022

Pokemon Scarlet & Pokemon Violet announced!

Today, the Pokemon Company hosted Pokemon Presents as part of Pokemon Day, where they talked about upcoming news and updates for various games such as Pokemon Go, Pokemon Cafe Mix, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The stream ended with the reveal of the 9th generation of the Pokemon games: Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet!

From what can be seen in the trailer, the games appear to be following up on the open-world gameplay that Pokemon Legends: Arceus built. The trailer showcased a few areas, such as some grassy plains, a forest, a desert, a beach, and a town. Some familiar Pokemon from past titles were also seen during this, such as Starly, Hoppip, Petilil, Bounsweet, Driftloon, Meowth, and of course, Pikachu.

But speaking of Pokemon, it also showed off the new three Starter Pokemon! A green cat called Sprigatito, a duck with what appears to be either a hat or some stylish hair called Quaxly, and a red crocodile-pepper-thing called Fuecoco.

The trailer also showed off what appears to be the protagonists. Unlike the Pokemon, their names were not revealed. (Though following Pokemon tradition - mainly the naming conventions that the Pokemon Adventures manga goes with - the boy's placeholder name will be Scarlet, while the girl's placeholder name will be Violet) Notably, their designs resemble how the humans looked in the spin-off game, New Pokemon Snap.

You can watch the trailer here! The game is planning to release in late 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.

Digimon Adventure: 2020 anime will receive an English Dub!

Yesterday, it has been confirmed that one of the recent anime of the Digimon franchise, Digimon Adventure: - and yes, the colon is part of the name, though it's easier to just refer to it as Digimon Adventure 2020 - will be receiving an English dub, though when it will be released is unknown.

For those who don't know, Digimon Adventure 2020 serves as a reboot of the classic 1999 Digimon Adventure show. Set in more modern times, the series sees Tai, and his friends - Matt, Sora, Mimi, Izzy, and Joe - getting transported to the Digital World, where they meet Agumon and his friends - Gabumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, and Gomamon. Together, they must work together to stop the evil Digimon, who's relentless attacks on the Digital World are causing disastrous effects in the Real World.

When it comes to the voices, it's been confirmed that all of the characters will be receiving new voice actors. However, only Tai's and Agumon's new voices have been revealed. Tai Kamiya will be voiced by Zeno Robinson, who notable works include voicing Hawks from My Hero Academia, as well as Genya from Demon Slayer. Agumon will be voiced by Ben Diskin, who previously voiced Shoutmon from Digimon Fusion. Both voice actors appeared in a video message to the fans, with Robinson commenting that he had grown up with the original show and was honored to be voicing the series' main character.

Following this news, some fans wonder if the current Digimon anime, Digimon Ghost Game, will be dubbed as well, though nothing was said about it.

Are you excited to see this? Would you have preferred if some of the original voice actors returned? Let us know in the comments!

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Kirby gets new powers in the Kirby and the Forgotten Land!

A new trailer shown in the Nintendo Direct goes into more depth with Kirby and the Forgotten Land... including a new power for Kirby called Mouthful Mode!

When Kirby tried to inhale certain objects - such as the car pictured above - he'll be able to get them in his mouth, but won't be able to fully swallow them, hence the name "Mouthful Mode." During this, Kirby will gain access to new abilities. In Car Mouth mode, Kirby can race around at high speeds, jumping over ramps and ramming into enemies!

Other new Mouthful Modes include Arch Mouth, allowing Kirby to glide through the air; Cone Mouth, which slows him down greatly, but allows him to poke through certain terrain; Light-Bulb Mouth, which can allow Kirby to brighten up dark rooms, at the cost of moving slower while doing so; and Vending Mouth, which allows Kirby to shoot juice cans at his foes.

Another thing new to the game is upgrading Copy Abilities! During his adventure, Kirby can visit Waddle Dee's Weapon Shop to evolve his Copy Abilities into stronger forms, and each one appears to have three levels of evolution. An example given of this was the Fire ability, which can evolve into Volcano Fire, than then mighty Dragon Fire! Each upgrade costs a certain amount of stars to evolve them.

The final shot of the trailer shows more members of the Beast Pack, who are the antagonists of the game. It also shows King Dedede is with them as well, though whether he's working for them, commanding them, or being mind-controlled is currently unknown.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land will release on March 25, 2022.

New race tracks heading to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!

While the news may disappoint some fans hoping for a Mario Kart 9, those who don't mind may be excited to hear that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch is receiving 48 new courses via the Booster Course Pass!

The Booster Course Pass will be sent out in 6 waves, with each wave having two 2 Cups that have 8 race tracks each. All of the tracks are picked from previous games in the series, as well as some courses from the Mario Kart Tour mobile game!

The Golden Dash Cup contains Paris Promenade (Mario Kart Tour), Toad Circuit (Mario Kart 7), Choco Mountain (Mario Kart 64), and Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii). Lucky Cat Cup contains Tokyo Blur (Mario Kart Tour), Shrom Ridge (Mario Kart DS), Sky Garden (Mario Kart: Super Circuit), and Ninja Hideaway (Mario Kart Tour).  Wave 1 will be released on March 18, 2022.

The Booster Course Pass costs $24.99. Even if you don't buy the DLC. you can still race on these new courses with others in the online mode, as long as one of the players your up against has purchased the DLC. You just won't be able to race on them whenever you want offline.

What are your thoughts? You excited for this upcoming DLC? What courses are you hoping make the cut? Tell us in the comments below!

Master Splinter joins the battle in TMNT: Shredder's Revenge!

As revealed a few days ago, the Ninja Turtles sensei, Master Splinter, is the fifth playable character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge! Though the initial reveal trailer teased this, this is outright confirmation of it.

Compared to his rambunctious kids, Splinter is more calm and stoic. As the one responsible for teaching the turtles the art of ninja, you can expect him to be quite the powerhouse. Along with attacking foes from afar with his walking cane, he can also use powerful ninjutsu techniques to overwhelm the various Foot Soldiers Shredder has sent out to gain up on our heroes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is planning to release sometime in 2022.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

EarthBound and its prequel finally arrive on Nintendo Switch!

It took a while, but it's finally happened: EarthBound has finally arrived to Nintendo Switch's SNES online service! Not only that, but it's prequel, EarthBound Beginnings, tags along as well on the NES version of the online service!

EarthBound stars a young boy named Ness, who is awoken from his sleep from a meteorite landing near his house. From the meteor emerges a small bee-looking creature named Buzz-Buzz, who warns Ness of an upcoming disaster that will be caused by an evil being called Giygas. Ness isn't alone, as he'll meet some new friends along the way on this trip, such as the kind Paula, the nerdy Jeff, and the stoic Prince Poo. Can Ness and his friends stop this evil alien's upcoming invasion?

EarthBound Beginnings is a prequel to EarthBound, and stars Ninten. Bizarre things are happening in his hometown of Podunk, so he decides to go out and investigate. This eventually leads him to the magical world of Magicant, where he meets the Queen, who asks for his assistance in locating the eight melodies. Along with some new friends - such as the shy Lloyd, the adorable Ana, and the rough 'n tough Teddy - Ninten will have to scour the land as he tries to locate the melodies and discover the source of all this weirdness going on!

These games will be available to play for as long as your subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online service.

If you would like some in-depth info on the character of Ness, click here! Be warned: there are spoilers.

Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club gets her own Nendroid figure!

As confirmed on the official Twitter account, GoodSmile has opened up a pre-order page for their upcoming Nendroid figure of Monika from the hit visual novel/horror game, Doki Doki Literature Club. (And on Valentines Day no less, which is quite fitting.)

The nendroid comes with various accessories, such as her pen, a desk, a chair, some dialogue boxes with some choice quotes from the game, and one of Monika's special poems! She also comes with additional hand and leg parts, so that she can hold her pen and poem, as well as sit on her chair.

Monika also comes with three face plates. Her default one is an innocent smile. Another shows a more focused and mischievous expression. Another one is based on a unique scene that occurs in the middle-half of the game if you're streaming it.

As previously mentioned, Monika is available for pre-order at about $70, and will ship out sometime in December, 2022.

What do you think? Will you be picking one up? Are you hoping that Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri will get one as well? Tell us your thoughts below!