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The post VGCC Episode 279: Big Gulp appeared first on Gamesline.

They opened with Overwatch on Switch, because they have to open with the weakest news. Whatever. It’s coming October 15th if you’re still interested, and sorry I’m cracking on your game, but c’mon.

Next, there was a little new information on Luigi’s Mansion 3. They showed a few new themed floors like a pyramid, a disco floor, and a pirate floor. There’s also a 4 v 4 battle mode for catching ghosts and gathering coins. Luigi’s Mansion 3 drops October 31st.

Return of the Obra Dinn is getting a Switch port, releasing this fall. Nothing else to say except hey, that’s a great game and I’m glad it’s getting released on Switch!

Game Freak’s new non-Pokemon title, Little Town Hero, got its time to shine. The combat seems a bit bland, with standard rock-paper-scissors play and some janky UI, but the music is being done by Toby Fox of Undertale fame, so it’s got that going for it. The twist for this title is that it all takes place in one town, as the residents aren’t allowed to leave. Little Town Hero releases October 16th.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions, the solid Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (okay, mostly Persona, but I digress) crossover, is getting airlifted with a Switch port after getting stranded on Wii U. The new Encore edition will have new music and some new playable characters and is releasing January 17th, 2020.

Swery65 has returned to Francis York Morgan, as Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise was announced. York, as well as a new character named Aaliyah Davis, will be tackling a brand new case that is related to the events of the first game. DP2 will come out in 2020, but a port of the original is out right now on Switch.

Pete Hines from Bethesda appeared on the Direct, announcing that Doom 64 would be released on Switch November 22nd. This isn’t just the an N64 version of Doom, but is instead a completely separate Doom game cut from the same cloth as the original two.

Some new Pokemon Sword and Shield news hit, with details on new ways you can interact with your Pokemon. You can set up camp anywhere in the overworld, and while in the camp, you can interact with your party Pokemon and cook curry for them. Players can even visit other players’ camps while travelling and play with their Pokemon. There were also new customization functions shown off, so you can really deck your trainer out instead of picking between four haircuts and ten shirts. Plus, new Pokemon, such as Polteagiest, a teapot Ghost-type that has the ability Weak Guard. Cramorant was also introduced, which is a Water/Flying Pokemon that gets to attack again after using Surf or Dive by launching a fish from its mouth with its effect Gulp Missile.

Finally, Super Nintendo games are coming to Switch Online. Luckily, the price isn’t going up, so count your blessings there. Twenty SNES titles are dropping tomorrow:

• Super Mario World
• Super Mario Kart
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Super Metroid
• Stunt Race FX
• Kirby’s Dream Land 3
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
• Star Fox
• F-ZERO
• Pilotwings
• Kirby’s Dream Course
• BRAWL BROTHERS
• Breath of Fire
• Demon’s Crest
• Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics
• SUPER E.D.F. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE
• Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
• Super Puyo Puyo 2
• Super Soccer 
• Super Tennis

Nintendo is also releasing a Super Nintendo controller for the Switch, and this time it’s a standard USB controller that can also work wirelessly. For 30 USD, it better be really nice, because you can get an 8bitdo controller for about that much that’ll also work on PC and other consoles. Also, it’s only available if you’re an online member!

Both Jedi Knight games are getting ported to Switch, and they’ll both have online multiplayer. Currently only Jedi Outcast has a date (September 24th), but they are both coming out. I promise

An extensive Animal Crossing: New Horizons trailer was shown, detailing the crafting mechanics, money-making ventures, and hey, you can make curved paths and move tress without chopping them down in this one. New Horizons releases March 20th, 2020.

To round out the main Direct, Nintendo announced a full remake of Xenoblade Chronicles, called the Definitive Edition, running on the sequel’s engine. The remake is due next year.

If you want to see the rest of the Direct, here’s the full thing!

On the Japanese side of things, it was announced that the cult classic PS1 game “Moon” will be finally heading westwards. Plans to release Moon in the west fell through in 1997 and none of the other games by developer Love-de-lic were ever exported afterwards. Since then, however, it developed a cult following as an “Anti-RPG”.

You may be wondering where the Smash news is. That gets its own section. It was revealed that Banjo and Kazooie, the third DLC character, will be released tonight. Also, the fourth character was announced, and surprise surprise, it’s Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard.

Later, during the Banjo and Kazooie detailed reveal, Sakurai announced the music and detailed how Banjo played. Alongside the new character, there were some new costumes for the Mii Fighter and one of them, I swear to god, is Sans from Undertale. Not only that but buying the Sans costume gives you a brand new remix of Megalovania made by Toby Fox. Also hey, Home Run Contest. The entire thing is worth a watch, because Masahiro Sakurai is a baller.

And that’s it, how’d you like the Direct?

The post Holy Shit, That Nintendo Direct appeared first on Gamesline.

The Missing isn’t a game I would’ve expected from the notorious game director SWERY. Responsible for quirky and eccentric games like D4 and Deadly Premonition, the Osaka based developer has never exactly made his reputation on serious topics and ideas. It’s not that The Missing isn’t like those other games- it has surrealism in spades- and it’s not because of any other reasons I could have ever guessed. The Missing is surprising, because it’s a game about me.

On the surface THE MISSING: J.J. Macfield and The Island of Memories seems like a simple puzzle platformer. Similarly to games like Limbo or Inside, the player moves left to right in a continuous stream of environments and situations with little to no interruption. The Missing, however, has the player solving puzzles not just through basic environmental interaction, but through various forms of bodily harm. With the ability to constantly regenerate yourself with the press of a button, the game presents you with dozens of complex puzzles, where the solutions can be anything from dismemberment to self-immolation.

From the outset I was incredibly into the concept of a game about solving puzzles via loss of limbs and other torturous concepts. When I first heard about the game NeverDead back in 2012, I couldn’t get it out of my head how novel of an idea it was (though its implementation left a lot to be desired). Seeing a game actually manage to pull these concepts off inventively and entertainingly is incredibly satisfying, and all the different ways that The Missing is able to create interesting scenarios out of grisly situations in its short playthrough time (about 6 hours) gives it plenty of points for creativity.

Though it seems at first that the game is purely based on the novelty of this core gameplay conceit, The Missing is primarily a story driven game. In the shoes of J.J. Macfield, you’re stuck stranded on an island off the coast of Maine (the titular Island of Memories). Though you came there with your Close Friend™ Emily, you quickly get seperated, and have to navigate through the very lonely and very dangerous island to try and find her.

Most of the story of the game is told through text messages, mostly inspired by the sticker messaging app LINE, where you get to see past conversations between J.J., her mother, Emily, and various other friends. Through these conversations the game gradually shows the sort of life and relationships that J.J. typically has, and you’re able to gradually learn more and more about her. There’s also short sequences with more surrealist tones involving conversations with J.J.’s stuffed animal F.K., and a mysterious deer headed doctor that often appears in pseudo-Lynchian fashion.

Throughout most of the game it seemed to me like The Missing would just be another one of those lesbian subtext games; the type of story where I end up wishing the characters were gay and smooching by the end of it, though the subject matter would never say. I never had expected that the game would slowly show to me the types of situations that I’ve had to experience throughout my life, and in so many of my relationships. I really didn’t think The Missing would transform from a simple eccentric puzzle game, into a metaphorical narrative about what it means to struggle and live as a transgender woman.

As it’s slowly revealed through in-game conversations, J.J. is trans, and closeted at that. As the game continues to explore this, the conversations that you’ve been reading through, and the game as a whole, suddenly take on incredibly different meanings. From the distant way J.J. talks with her friends, to the reluctance in her relationship with Emily, everything suddenly made a lot more sense, in a completely new way.

The game’s conceit of self-harm puzzle solving becomes less of a gimmick and more of a metaphor through this lens. The Missing has J.J. go through extreme physical pain in order to solve every problem she runs into. Though the game displays this through what seems like extreme sacrifices, they can be representative of the small ways that transgender people have to hurt themselves everyday just to get by. Whether it’s dealing with things like being misgendered, having to operate under a dead name, or even just the anxieties of what other people might think, being transgender often involves suffering, and too often it can make us feel like we’re the ones doing it to ourselves.

J.J., however, always bounces back and recovers to keep moving forward, just like anyone has to. Everytime she hurts herself, every time she’s hurt by the world around her, she forces herself to pull everything back together, to get up and continue going on. She does this not just for herself, but because she wants to find Emily, she wants to find the person she cares about the most in this world, even if she can’t parse all of the feelings she has for her. She fights through and past her depressions, she overcomes all the obstacles even if it hurts because it’s for the one person in the world who accepted her as she was.

When I was first coming to terms with being transgender, I went through a lot of the exact same feelings that I saw portrayed in the game. Every action felt like suffering, the people around me quickly abandoned me, rumours were whispered about me, and I felt myself collapse more and more into myself. Throughout that though, I was able to confide in and find respite in my girlfriend, and I kept pushing through day to day because I loved her. I knew that persevering meant that I would get to spend another day loving her, and feeling her warmth made all the conflicted parts of me feel at ease.

Though media has come a long way in the last decade in terms of representation, there have been so few stories about transgender characters, let alone ones done right, that I had never really let myself have high hopes for one. There was a feeling that was incredibly difficult to parse as I played through the game, that I gradually realized is probably natural for so many people, that I really felt wholly for the first time as I played. The Missing is an uplifting game about people like me, it’s a game that operates by all accounts under the same rules and ideas that so many other games have, but this time it’s about an element of my life I never really explore because no media ever really considers it valuable outside of a shock or jeer.

While I would normally feel some trepidation at the way the game almost treats J.J.’s identity as a twist, I think that it’s done in such a respectful and affecting manner that I can hardly take umbrage with it. Throughout The Missing, I cried multiple times as I reflected on the experiences in my own life, and how they were actually being talked about for what felt like the first time ever. To some it might just be another video game with compelling reveals, but to me, The Missing is about me, and that’s not something I could’ve truly said about a game before.

The post THE MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (Switch) Review appeared first on Gamesline.

Day 360, Unfortunately I retired from Access Games after all. However Don’t worry, because my health condition is getting be fine. Love you! pic.twitter.com/xBaLRVApqE

— SWERY (Swery65) (@Swery65) October 31, 2016

Early last year SWERY had announced he was taking a leave in order to recover from reactive hypoglycemia, so it’s not too surprising to see this news. While the fate of a follow up to D4 are up in the air, at the very least SWERY seems confident that he will return.

I hope I will be back. Because I AM “SWERY65”. #SWERISM #lifeisbeautiful https://t.co/BMwRup99qi

— SWERY (Swery65) (@Swery65) October 31, 2016

The post SWERY65 Has Left Access Games appeared first on Gamesline.

Follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @JohnMichonski, @Lauren_Boley, @NiallVGCC, & @finaldasa.

#CrushIt via iTunes, Hipcast, or Direct Download.

The post VGCC Episode 92: #CrushIt appeared first on Gamesline.

The set is being made by NIS America in collaboration with Rising Star Games. As you can see, there’s a lot of stuff included, like a soundtrack CD, an art book, a deck of cards, DLC codes, and of course, the Director’s Cut of the game itself. Of course, there may be changes in design prior to release, especially considering that neat map is being more or less used without permission. Whoops.

Right now, the set is $49.99 and available for preorder directly from the NISA website. A release date is set for November 24th and it looks like it’s only coming for PS3.

I had joked about doing a “five years later” retrospective article on Deadly Premonition, but maybe this set will actually justify it. Then again, you never need a reason to play your favorite game again, right Zach?

The post Deadly Premonition “Classified Edition” Announced appeared first on Gamesline.