Month: January 2020

In 2020, there is no shortage of ways to play retro video games. Whether it’s with micro-consoles from Nintendo and Sega, remastered re-releases, or RGB-modded consoles, there’s never been a better time to enjoy the games of our past. However, when it comes to recreating our days in the local arcade, bringing old cabinets into your home can be an expensive, time-consuming hobby–not to mention the space you need to house them. Sure, you can play old arcade games on most modern platforms, but the feeling of competing for a high score just isn’t the same on a DualShock 4. This is where Arcade1Up comes in, and for the past couple of years, the company has released 3/4-scale cabinets of some of video game’s biggest classics, including Mortal Kombat, Rampage, and now, BurgerTime.

Arcade1Up’s latest is a limited-edition BurgerTime cabinet, which also includes a number of other Data East classics: Karate Champ, Caveman Ninja, and Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. After building the cabinet–which is about as relaxing as building IKEA furniture–the unique shape of the BurgerTime machine is particularly striking. Arcade1Up did a good job in making BurgerTime feel like you’re bringing the actual cabinet home. For the first time, the company has created panels that more closely resemble the original machine–nearly all of Arcade1Up’s cabinets before this have shared the exact same physical design. BurgerTime’s rounded panels give the cabinet more character, excellently paired with the panel art featuring Peter Pepper.

It’s not an exact copy of the original cabinet’s design, however. In fact, the Arcade1Up machine features more stylized curves than the original. This feels important in evoking the original, as the rest of the machine is like any other Arcade1Up cabinet. The original 1982 cabinet features a screen that’s flush with the control board, asking the player to look downward at the screen. Arcade1Up’s rendition will have you looking straight ahead, much like the rest of the company’s line-up. And of course, Arcade1Up cabinets don’t utilize CRT monitors, instead opting for modern flat screens. The Arcade1Up display looks great, but if you are looking for that exact original experience, it will be different than you remember.

Otherwise, Arcade1Up’s BurgerTime cabinet is gorgeous. The colours are bright and emulate the original design, with a light-up marquee that makes the machine pop in a dimly-lit room. It’s a beautiful cabinet, and thankfully, games are well-emulated to help make it a great experience.

Ported by Other Ocean Interactive–with assistance from Digital Eclipse, which is known for its excellent work on classic game compilations like Mega Man Legacy Collection and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition–the games play, look, and sound great. The joysticks are responsive and feel sturdy, while the buttons are satisfying to click when you need to pepper a living sausage or kick a ninja. The control board includes two joysticks and two buttons per player, giving you everything you need to play each game the way they were made to be played–the dual joysticks are for use with Karate Champ, the game that kickstarted the fighting game genre as we know it today. It’s a good selection of games, especially if you have a friend to enjoy them with.

Everything about Arcade1Up’s BurgerTime cabinet works great. It’s as simple as putting it together, plugging it in, and playing. The simplicity is also its downside, however. Arcade1Up’s machines don’t offer anything beyond the means of actually playing the games. There aren’t any video options, sound settings, art galleries, or anything in between–something as simple as scanlines or a sound test would be appreciated. It’s also important to note that there’s no official way of obtaining new games for Arcade1Up’s cabinets.

Arcade1Up makes excellent machines. The BurgerTime cabinet is exemplary of the company’s dedication to create experiences that–while not exactly as they were back in the day–are roughly as good as you remember. But at the end of the day, the $399 price tag is a lot to ask for from most people. Arcade1Up’s 3/4-scale cabinets are awesome machines, but they’re only for those who are most passionate about the featured games. Thankfully, Arcade1Up treats those games with the respect they deserve, and anyone who cares about Data East’s classic games will find a lot to love in the BurgerTime cabinet.

The BurgerTime cabinet is sold exclusively on Arcade1Up’s website for $399, and it’s only available for a limited time. If you order before January 31, you’ll get guaranteed shipping by March 1.

Arcade1Up recently announced a series of smaller, more affordable products at CES 2020. These include classic micro-consoles and new plug-and-play systems for classic series like Mega Man, DuckTales, and Pac-Man. You can see all of the retro gaming hardware we loved at CES 2020 right here on GameSpot.

With Sony already announcing that they will skip E3 for the second year in a row, the ESA and its annual trade show, E3, haven’t had the best start to 2020.

But in the wake of Sony withholding the PS5 from the show, the ESA is determined to convince press and attendees that this year will be different. In a new statement, the ESA details how it’s listening to criticism from last year’s show and teaming up with new partners to “shake things up” in 2020.

“You’ll be happy to know that we’re not producing E3 2020 in a vacuum,” the statement reads. “For E3 2020, we’re collaborating with industry insiders and new creative partners, including the tastemakers at iam8bit.com, to reinvigorate the show and, frankly, to shake things up.”

The ESA also addresses the issue of data integrity, following last year’s embarrassing leak of attendee information via its website. In order to protect registration information in 2020, the ESA states that it has overhauled its registration process to only require the minimum amount of information required from attendees while also securing captured data far more securely.

“Earning back your trust and support is our top priority,” the statement reads.

The rest of the statement, which you can read in full on the ESA’s website, again mentions new attendee attractions and shows in vague terms, reiterating ideas around high-profile guests, stage experiences, experiential zones, and more that will “delight the senses.” The statement notes that more concrete details will be revealed in the near future.

Microsoft will be attending E3 2020 despite Sony’s absence, with Phil Spencer confirming that the Xbox Series X will be the highlight of their show.

Nintendo can’t stop selling Switch consoles, and its latest financial earnings results are another strong sign of that. Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo Switch has now sold over 52 million units, taking it past the overall sales figures of the SNES.

The Nintendo Switch has now sold a total of 52.48 million units as of December 31, 2019, with the large majority of those being made up of the original Switch model. The original Switch (which includes the latest model with improved battery life) accounts for 47.3 million of overall sales, while the Switch Lite, which launched in September last year, has already reached 5.19 million units sold.

Nintendo noted that sales during its last financial quarter were particularly strong, with 10.8 million consoles sold in this period alone. This has led the company to increase its sales projections for the rest of its financial year, from 18 million to 19.5 million by the end of March.

The total confirms that the Switch has now surpassed lifetime sales of one of Nintendo’s most popular home consoles. The SNES, which originally launched in 1991, went on to sell 49.1 million units, and has now been surpassed just 34 months into the Switch’s lifecycle.

It’s not all hardware though. Switch software sales have been equally strong too, with Pokémon Sword and Shield already boasting over 15 million units sold just a month and a half after launch.

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It might have had a delayed release and complete redesign of its main character, but the Sonic the Hedgehog movie finally arrives next month. A new trailer is set to screen during the Super Bowl this weekend, and it has now been released online.

The new Sonic trailer starts with a series of high-profile sports stars–footballers Michael Thomas and Christian McCaffrey, sprinter Allyson Felix, and stock car racer Kyle Bush–talking about the incredible athletic ability of the legendary hedgehog. The rest of the trailer delivers lots of funny and action-packed clips from the film–check it out below:

Sonic the Hedgehog is directed by Jeff Fowler and hits theaters on February 14, 2020. Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation), with Jim Carrey as the evil Dr. Robotnik. Westworld’s James Marsden will feature as a state trooper who catches onto Sonic’s super speed. Early box predictions suggest that the film will have a strong opening weekend at the box office.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has gone through a turbulent production, with a full character redesign being commissioned after the film’s disastrous first trailer. Thankfully, a team led by Sonic comic illustrator Tyson Hesse gave gaming’s premiere hedgehog a much more lovable look.

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to all the Super Bowl commercials released so far. You can also read our list of the biggest upcoming movies of 2020.

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Nintendo has released its latest financial statements for the quarter ending December 31, 2019, with continued booming success for its console-portable hybrid, the Nintendo Switch. Alongside the financial data is the company’s updated list of its best-selling first-party software, and two new additions–Pokemon Sword and Shield and Luigi’s Mansion 3–have each made big entrances that have pushed other, older games off the top ten.

The biggest new addition is Pokemon, which rocketed to the number five spot despite being on the market for just six weeks. That strong start of 16.06 million has already almost caught up with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which has been out since the Switch launch. It also rose above several games that have been out much longer, like Splatoon 2. The other new addition, Luigi’s Mansion 3, made a respectable debut in tenth place with 5.37 million since its Halloween launch.

Those two new additions displaced a few other games that had appeared in last quarter’s charts–namely, Super Mario Maker 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As of September 30 they had sold 3.93 million and 3.13 million, respectively. They’ve certainly added to those totals since, but with something less than Luigi’s 5.37 million. Nintendo noted in its earnings statement that Mario Maker 2 has sold more than 5 million.

Strong sales for Pokemon aren’t surprising, though, as the long-running franchise often dominates Nintendo’s best-seller charts. The 3DS charts, for example, show Pokemon composing three of the top five all-time best-sellers. Notably, the top-selling 3DS Pokemon game is Pokemon X/Y with 16.44 million, which means Sword and Shield almost caught up with its lifetime sales after just six weeks on the market.

All of the 3DS Pokemon games are topped by Mario Kart 7, similar to how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has remained steadily atop the Switch charts. But with such a strong debut, Sword and Shield may eventually topple it.

Best-Selling Switch Games (As of December 31)

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — 22.96 million
2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 17.68 million
3. Super Mario Odyssey — 16.59 million
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 16.34 million
5. Pokemon Sword/Shield — 16.06 million
6. Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee — 11.76 million
7. Splatoon 2 — 9.81 million
8. Super Mario Party — 9.12 million
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe — 5.85 million
10. Luigi’s Mansion 3 — 5.37 million

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A reboot movie starring the demonic comic book anti-hero Spawn, directed by creator Todd McFarlane, has been in the works for many years now. Despite the announcement of high-profile producers Blumhouse Pictures and stars Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner, it doesn’t seem to be getting any closer to happening, but McFarlane himself has now provided an update on the project.

Speaking to Newsarama, McFarlane revealed that the success of Joker has started things moving on Spawn once more. “When I was at New York Comic Con, Joker came out and Hollywood has a penchant for looking at what works, then doing it 10 times over,” he said. “This movie opened up, then made a billion dollars which is still 33% bigger than any other R-rated movie in the history of cinema. So, Hollywood is on the go for R-rated comic book stuff, right? The phone has been ringing and I’ve got lots of people thinking about Spawn now. There’s a different momentum happening right now and in the next month, I should have another big announcement about the movie.”

However, McFarlane also stated that unless the film can start production in 2020, he is likely to walk away entirely. “Hopefully we can start production this year, because if we don’t, I probably won’t make it,” he stated. “The window is open right now and if I can’t pull it off this year, it’s only going to get harder, right? I’m confident enough that it’s going to work, but give me a month, and I’ll get back to you.”

This isn’t the first time that McFarlane has spoken about abandoning the Spawn movie. In May last year, he revealed that script agreement between the film’s financiers was proving to be an issue, and that he’d rather quit than “change it too much.”

In 2017 it was reported that the film would be produced by horror specialists Blumhouse, and that the budget would only be around $10 million, in order for McFarlane to make the dark film he wants. Foxx was announced in the lead role in May 2018, while Jeremy Renner joined as Detective “Twitch” Williams in July. It’s unknown if Blumhouse or the two stars are still attached to the movie.

The Spawn comic book was first published in 1992 and was massively popular, with the first issue selling 1.7 million copies. However, the 1997 film adaptation received a negative critical reception and underperformed commercially.

The Might & Magic franchise is back–but perhaps not in the way you’d expect. Ubisoft’s newest entry into the high fantasy series is a free-to-play auto-battler called Might & Magic: Chess Royale where you compete in one-on-one matches against 99 others until one person wins.

In a new video feature, Jess McDonell talks about why she’s happy to see the Might & Magic series continue, but cautious as to whether the auto-battler genre is the right path forward.

Chess Royale is in an early access state right now on PC, iOS, and Android, and it currently feels shallow and lacking for a variety of reasons that Jess explores in the video.

That being said, Jess also talks about how Chess Royale has some redeeming qualities, and with the barrier to entry at $0.00, you might want to at least have a look.

Check out the full video above, and be sure to let us know if the draw of red dragons and harpies is enough for you to want to try this one out, if you’ve tried out the auto battler genre, or if you’re still holding out hope that it isn’t the end of the line for the Might & Magic franchise’s mainline entries.