Japanese Switch eShop releases for the week of October 12th, 2023
Here comes Sonic!
It’s time once again to take a look at the games heading to the Switch in Japan. Here’s what’s slated to hit the system for the week starting October 12th, 2023. Remember, this isn’t the final list, as there’s always some surprises each week.
- A Boy and His Blob: Retro Collection
- Astebros
- Company of Heroes Collection
- Dino Ranch: Ride to the Rescue
- Haunted House
- Break the Glass Cup: Breaking Physics Puzzle
- Rear Sekai
- Red Raptor
- River City: Rival Showdown
- Sonic Superstars
- Survival Quiz City
- Tin Hearts
Sea of Stars dev on the magic of capturing nostalgia
A retro balancing act
Sea of Stars is clearly captivating gamers the world over, as the game managed to surpass sales expectations within its first week of release. Developer Sabotage Studio is quickly making a name for themselves as a developer who not only loves the retro gaming days, but is eager to build upon them as well. That approach is evident in pretty much every area of Sea of Stars.
Nowadays, it’s not enough to just look or sound the part when it comes to making a retro-influenced game. A developer has to go beyond and provide something new while also recapturing the magic of a bygone era. In an interview with Eurogamer, Sea of Stars director Thierry Boulanger explains how his team strives to achieve that.
“We don’t make it a super strict mandate that it has to be something that could technically have worked in the past. But rather, it has to feel like what we remember of those games. There’s not a clear set of rules - if we’re not feeling it, we re-work things here and there. We really make sure it doesn’t feel like a game from this year, but rather it takes you back while you’re playing.”
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak x Nissin Curry Meshi collab revealed for Japan
Hunting monsters works up an appetite!
Capcom and Nissin Foods teaming up for a Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Curry Meshi lottery campaign, and it kicks off in Japan on October 31st, 2023.
Those in Japan who purchase 2 Nissin Curry Meshi products have a chance of being 1 of 200 people to receive a Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak-themed lottery prize. 100 winners will get the Curry Meshi Original Wooden Jug, and the other 100 winners will receive the Curry Meshi Original Weapon Spoon. To enter, you must upload your receipt to the Nissin Curry website.
This collaboration will also see the release of a special Cup Noodle & Curry Meshi Gaming Set, which comes with a Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak-themed multi-use cloth and 3 packages of the following meals: Nissin Curry Meal Beef, Nissin Curry Meal Seafood, Nissin Gaming Curry Meal Energy Ginger Jerkima Curry, and Nissin Gaming Cup Noodles Energy Garlic & Black Pepper Yakisoba.
Gravity Circuit has been updated to Ver. 1.0.8. You can see the patch notes for this update below.
Speedrun Mode Unlocked!
- Ready to take on the challenge of speedrunning? Now you can with our new Speedrun mode!
- To unlock this feature, either finish the game with cleared save data or enter a cheat code at the File Select screen: Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Right, Up, Down, Burst!
- Speedrun mode allows you to skip various cutscenes and interactions for a smoother gameplay experience.
- You have full control over when to toggle this mode, and it works seamlessly with both new and existing save files.
Loadout Customization
- Introducing the ability to create and switch between three unique loadouts, complete with booster chips and techniques, right from the pause menu!
- Now you can tailor your loadouts to suit different situations!
Stage-Specific Civilian Tracker
- Keeping track of your heroic endeavors is easier than ever before! Check out the new in-stage tracker in the pause menu, which shows how many civilians you have rescued in a particular stage.
- No more guessing – quickly identify which rescues you might have missed to ensure no one is left behind.
Training Room
- Get ready to level up your skills with some exciting Training Room opportunities! You can seek the room out at the HQ.
Performance Enhancements:
- We’ve also included various small stability improvements to make your gaming experience even smoother.
Lunistice has been updated to Ver. 1.05b. You can see the patch notes for this update below.
Additions
- Added ”Smooth Camera”option to the Camera menu. This will smooth out horizontal camera movement overall, which should (hopefully) lead to a much more controllable character and reduced motion sickness for many people. This option is active by default on fresh save files only and can be deactivated at any time to restore the camera to its old behaviour
- Added UI elements for tracking your progress in Stage 5-2
Changes
- Overhauled camera snapping (left trigger button). Instead of using Hana’s view direction for recentering it’ll now take player input into account (when moving). This means that the camera should now snap to where you want to go, not where the character’s currently looking at
- Removed a bunch of enemies from Toree’s levels. Mind you, Toree is still considered the de facto “hard-mode” of the game and you will have to do some “weird” jumps, but most if not all of the really unfair enemies should be gone now
- Rebalanced final section of Stage 2-1
- Very slight rebalancing of Stage 2-2
- Rebalanced Stage 4-2. Again
- Very slight rebalancing of Stage 5-2
- Made hitboxes on rolling pin stage hazards much more lenient
Fixes
- Fixed Stage 5-2 music
- Fixed being able to trigger the final platform in Stage T with less than 4 switches
- Fixed music not pausing when collecting level secrets
- (Hopefully) fixed camera randomly facing the wrong direction when spawning at checkpoint
- Fixed being able to easily bypass a certain part of Stage 7-2
- Fixed weird collision on the final parts of Stage 6-1 where you could lose your double jump easily
Cassette Beasts has been updated to Ver. 1.5. You can see the patch notes for this update below.
New Additions:
- Added a button to view the names and descriptions of status effects in battle when using a controller. This was previously only possible if you were using a mouse.
- Added a colour-blind accessibility option to change health bars from green/red to blue/orange.
- Added an audio setting to mute transformation sound effects.
- If you have more than 200 items in a single tab in the inventory, the tab will be automatically split into pages of 50 items each to aid in navigating large numbers of stickers.
- Several filtering options have been added to the sticker inventory: Name, Rarity, Category, and Elemental Type.
- A Bulk Recycle button has been added to the sticker inventory. It can be used when a filter is set, and recycles every sticker that matches the current filters.
Fixed:
- Fixed Intercept not affecting team-target attacks affected by Unitarget.
- Fixed status effects ticking down twice on the round that you fuse.
- Fixed an NPC in Harbourtown who sometimes spawned underground.
- Fixed Kayleigh’s name not being displayed when she talks for Barkley in post-boss cutscenes set in the cafe.
- Fixed inconsistent music near the Cherry Meadow cave.
- Fixed monsters with Vampire healing from 0 HP when they should be defeated.
- Fixed Ghostly and Gambit killing player characters if they record a monster while the status has 1 turn left.
- Fixed Resonance not overloading if you use Dog Years to double it.
- Fixed some geometry that could get a player temporarily stuck under a walkway in the Abandoned Mine in the marsh.
- Fixed Viola’s quest not becoming complete if you defeated the story’s final boss before finishing it.
- Fixed player characters’ sleeves periodically resetting to long sleeves regardless of selected top.
Other Changes:
- Controls in the inventory have been changed to LB/PgUp and RB/PgDn to switch tabs, to become consistent with other tabbed UIs. Left/Right can be used to jump up and down the list like PgUp/PgDn used to.
- Added some text to the controller select screen to help new players figure out what they need to do to enable and start local co-op.
- Added a dialog to confirm the player’s decision to flee before actually attempting to flee.
- Added a hard limit of 2500 to the number of stacks of stickers players can keep in their inventory. This should help keep memory use from getting so large it causes saving to fail. Any stickers you pick up past that limit, that don’t stack with stickers you already have, are dropped until you’re back under the limit. This won’t automatically erase any stickers you already have past the limit when you load a file, but you will need to recycle some to be able to pick up more stickers.
- The game now keeps 2 previous versions of each save file in addition to the current file itself. If it detects that the most recent version is corrupt, it will automatically attempt to load one of the backups instead.
Update 1 has been released for Quake II, and you can find the patch notes for this update below.
Quality of Life Improvements
-All Platforms-
General Gameplay
- Added controller vibration effects when taking damage
- Restored Always Run in the Input Options menu, with separate options for controller and keyboard
- Save and load menus will now indicate which campaign a save is from
- The Compass, Drop CTF Tech and Use Grapple actions can now be mapped as custom binds from the Input Options menu
- Added toggle for Underwater Warp in the Gameplay Options menu
- Increased the window in which input is disallowed after disengaging the weapon or inventory wheel to prevent erroneous look input or accidental item/weapon deselection
- Disabling View Bob in the Gameplay Options menu bobbing results in fewer residual head bobs
- Added missing Tank animation
- Improved Compass objective navigation throughout various places in Quake II, The Reckoning, Ground Zero, and Quake II 64
- Skipping cinematics now requires the Action key/button to be pressed instead of any key/button
- Added an extra chain segment to the Plasma Beam and Grappling Hook when using higher FOVs
- Improved cases where momentum would be lost when traveling up stairs
- Proper drowning sounds are now used based on selected player model
Multiplayer
- Added ability to load quick saves and manual saves in online co-op without having to back out to the lobby
- Bot chat can now be disabled from Multiplayer Options menu
- Added match browser filters and the ability to sort by ping in the Multiplayer/Online/Join Match menu
- Raised the maximum number of visible matches in the Multiplayer/Online/Join Match menu from 20 to 50
- Excluded full servers from visible matches in the Multiplayer/Online/Join Match menu
- Disabled Quake II 64 physics changes when playing Quake II 64 multiplayer maps
- Enabled Spawn Furthest by default in competitive game modes
- Enabled Auto Join Teams by default for team-based game modes
- Raised default Frag Limit to 30
- Set multiple cvars as cheat-enabled, disallowing hosts to use them when cheats are disabled
- Updated Q2CTF2 (Stronghold Opposition) and Q2CTF3 (The Smelter) to better reflect the original versions of these Capture the Flag maps
Balance Changes
-All Platforms-
General Gameplay
- Increased Railgun damage from 100 to 125
- Monsters will no longer dodge shots coming from the side or behind
- The slime and lava traps in The Slimy Place and The Frag Pipe can no longer be avoided
- Turrets no longer do extra damage when blind firing
- Killing a Brain while its chest is open will now always count as a kill
- Monsters will no longer open nearby doors immediately after spawning
- Fixbots will abort healing when staggering from pain
Berserker:
- The Berserker’s attack can be dodged by jumping when the slam occurs
- Added a visual tell to indicate when the Berserker’s jump is being charged up
- Added an additional 100ms delay before the Berserker jumps after it is fully charged
- Reduced slam attack damage
Multiplayer
- Removed ladder sounds from multiplayer for balance reasons
Bug Fixes
-All Platforms-
General Gameplay
- Reduced vision cone size on monsters waiting in ambush to fix some cases of accidental trap activation
- Power shield will no longer reactivate after picking up ammo if it was manually turned off
- Power-ups will no longer leave a phantom pickup after a player dies
- Fixed crash when a soldier tries to use a run attack against no player
Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation breaks 500k sold
Worth of some pat-pat shakin'
Developer/publisher neos has announced that Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- has reached a major sales milestone.
As of today, neos has confirmed that Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- has sold a whopping 500k worldwide. To be more specific, the game has managed to move 504k thousand units since launch. Looks like there’s a pretty notable fanbase for Shin chan the world over!
neos pointed out that Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- continues to sell at a decent clip, and the most recent boost came from the game’s physical release in North America and Europe. It appears that release alone added another 55k to the total since launching in July!
Aeternum Game Studios have announced that they’ll be celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Aeterna Noctis in a very special way.
On November 9th, 2023, Aeterna Noctis will be receiving the Virtuoso DLC. Virtuoso is a boss rush mode that allows players to face the bosses they already defeated during the base game, but including new difficulty modes, combat patterns, and behavior.
The Collector has new challenges for the King of Darkness, some of them known, others not so much… Will you answer his call? You can snag the Virtuoso DLC on November 9th, 2023 for $5.
Pokémon GO's Harvest Festival is Just Around the Corner
Catch some Pokémon in the crisp air
Trainers, celebrate the changing of the seasons with the Harvest Festival event in Pokémon GO! Keep an eye out for Grass-type Pokémon and more. The Harvest Festival kicks off Thursday, October 12, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. and runs to Tuesday, October 17, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. local time. You can see a complete breakdown of everything it has to offer below!
Smoliv, the Olive Pokémon, and its Evolutions will make their Pokémon GO debuts! You can use 25 Smoliv Candy to evolve Smoliv into Dolliv and you can use 100 Smoliv Candy to evolve Dolliv into Arboliva.
The following Pokémon will appear more frequently in the wild.
- Bellsprout
- Exeggcute
- Sunkern
- Wurmple
- Combee
- Sewaddle
- Cottonee
- Petilil
- Red Flower Flabébé^
- Blue Flower Flabébé^ -Yellow Flower Flabébé^
- Pumpkaboo
- Bounsweet
- Smoliv
Harvest Festival–themed Field Research tasks will be available! The following Pokémon will be available to encounter when you complete Field Research tasks!
- Plant Cloak Burmy
- Sand Cloak Burmy
- Trash Cloak Burmy
- Pumpkaboo
- Smoliv
Harvest Festival Collection Challenges are coming! Complete the Harvest Festival Collection Challenges to receive XP, Stardust, and Mossy Lure Modules.
Event bonuses
- Mossy Lure Modules activated during the event will last for two hours.
- Mossy Lure Modules have a higher chance of attracting Pumpkaboo.
- Trainers will receive additional Pumpkaboo Candy for catching Pumpkaboo during the event. PokéStop Showcases
Be on the lookout for Showcases at select PokéStops during the Harvest Festival event where you can enter Smoliv, Pumpkaboo, or Gourgeist!
Ticket of Treats paid Timed Research: You’ll be able to access event-exclusive paid Timed Research as a part of the Ticket of Treats starting October 12, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. local time. You can purchase the Ticket of Treats in the in-game shop for US$5.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency).
Complete the research tasks to earn a Mossy Lure Module and encounters with Pumpkaboo!
Please note that Timed Research expires. The tasks associated with this Timed Research must be completed and their rewards must be claimed before Tuesday, October 31, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. local time.
Trainers will be able to purchase and gift tickets to any of their Pokémon GO friends that they have achieved a Friendship level of Great Friends or higher with. Please note that purchases—including those made for other Trainers—are non-refundable (subject to applicable law and the exceptions set forth in the Terms of Service). Tickets cannot be purchased with PokéCoins.
The Ticket of Treats is a special ticket that provides access to four separate Timed Research opportunities during events in October.
Just last month, the official Japanese website for Super Mario RPG opened, and it brought with it another round details on the upcoming RPG remake. Among those details was a very interesting tidbit about the game’s soundtrack.
For those who missed the news the first time around, Super Mario RPG will let you change the soundtrack on the fly. If you’d like to play the Switch remake with the new orchestrations created for this version, you can do so from start to finish. If you’d rather enjoy the new visuals with the classic 16-bit soundtrack, a quick flip in the options menu will make that possible.
In a new clip released by Nintendo today, we get to see the music-swapping option in action. The quick video showcases two different areas in Super Mario RPG, each with an iconic tune. Watch as Nintendo shows how you can swap between the new versions of these classic tunes and the original SNES melodies with ease.
In Super Mario RPG, team up with an oddball group of heroes to save Star Road and stop the troublemaking Smithy Gang. This colorful RPG has updated graphics and cinematics that add even more charm to the unexpected alliance between Mario, Bowser, Peach, and original characters Mallow and Geno. Enter (or revisit) this world of eccentric allies and offbeat enemies in an RPG for everyone.
Fans vote “Objection!” from Ace Attorney as Capcom's greatest catchphrase
No objections here!
Capcom recently held a public vote to find out which catchphrase from their various game franchises was head-and-shoulders above the rest, the the people have spoken.
In the public vote, Capcom has fans to pick which catchphrase they felt was the best from Capcom’s lineup of games. The catchphrases included are as follows:
- “Objection!” from Ace Attorney
- “Itchy. Tasty.” from Resident Evil
- “So tasty” from Monster Hunter
- “Let’s party!” from Sengoku Basara
- “Tiun Tiun” (the death sound effect) from Mega Man
The winner, far and away, was “Objection!” from Ace Attorney, which managed to snag a whopping 52% of the vote. In honor of the decision, Capcom released a variety of images showcasing other iconic Capcom characters shouting the famous phrase out. You can see those images in the gallery below. (h/t VGC)
Nintendo reveals a whole line of wind-up Pikmin toys
4 in the works so far
Pikmin 4 appears to be the best-selling Pikmin game of the entire franchise, and by a sizable margin. You all know what that kind of success means. Here comes the Pikmin merch train, and Nintendo is kicking things off with a special line for Japan.
Just last week, Nintendo showcased a wind-up Bulborb toy that would be sold at Nintendo Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Turns out that was just the beginning of things, as Nintendo has since shared a look at 3 more wind-up Pikmin toys in the works.
We now know that an Orange Bulborb, Yellow Wollyhop and Iridescent Flint Beetle will be getting the wind-up toy treatment along with the previously-revealed standard Bulborb. Unfortunately, we still have no idea when these toys are going to release or if they’ll be made available outsidse of Japan. Should Nintendo share any insight on those fronts, we’ll make sure to bring the details to you.
Five Nights at Freddy's movie gets 4 new commercials
Looks HORRORble
This Halloween, Freddy and the gang are dying to meet you. Five Nights At Freddy’s - is in theaters and streaming on Peacock October 27th, 2023. Get a good look at how the film is coming along with four new commercials in the video above.
The terrifying horror game phenomenon becomes a blood-chilling cinematic event, as Blumhouse— the producer of M3GAN, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man— brings Five Nights at Freddy’s to the big screen. The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
The film stars Josh Hutcherson (Ultraman, The Hunger Games franchise), Elizabeth Lail (You, Mack & Rita), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy, Unstable), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have a Ghost, 9-1-1), with Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot, Fried Green Tomatoes) and Matthew Lillard (Good Girls, Scream). Five Nights at Freddy’s is directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Blood Moon) and is written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi and Seth Cuddeback.
The film’s iconic animatronic characters will be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Five Nights at Freddy’s is produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon. The film’s executive producers are Bea Sequeira, Russell Binder, Marc Mostman and Christopher H. Warner. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse production, in association with Striker Entertainment.
Super Mario 64 gets fan-made elephant mod
Look at the junk in that trunk!
Super Mario Bros. Wonder wowed Nintendo fans with its debut trailer, but the most talked-about moment was no doubt the reveal of Elephant Mario. That power-up has led to all sorts of fan-art and memes in recent weeks, along with amazing tributes like the recent NES-style take on Elephant Mario. Not surprisingly, the creativity doesn’t end there either.
Modder Koop the Koopa was inspired by Elephant Mario to the point that he wanted to bring the character to some classic Mario adventures. That led to the latest mod for Super Mario 64 that adds Elephant Mario to the mix. You can get a look at the Super Mario 64 version of Elephant Mario above, and in our opinion, it looks good enough to be an official Nintendo creation!
If you’d like to learn more about the Elephant Mario mod for Super Mario 64, you can check out the YouTube video’s description for all sorts of details.