EA is bringing Plants Vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville Complete Edition to Nintendo Switch next month. The game arrives on Nintendo’s hybrid console on March 19 and boasts all of the content from previous versions as well as some features tailored for the platform, including motion controls.
Complete Edition features 23 playable characters, along with a swathe of missions to complete and outfits and other cosmetic items to earn. EA says players will be able to unlock all of these items strictly through playing “without any premium store or currency.” The game also features both offline and online modes and features the option to play with motion controls.
“The Switch’s motion controls allow us to try a fresh new take on Neighborville, and with its docked and portable play, we have the ability to bring the game and its characters to life in ways that weren’t possible before,” PopCap producer Melvin Teo said in a press release.
Battle for Neighborville Complete Edition will retail for $40 USD when it launches on Switch next month. As EA notes, it’s the first game developed on the Frostbite engine to release on the Switch.
Battle for Neighborville is the third 3D shooter spin-off of the Plants Vs. Zombies series, following 2014’s Garden Warfare and its sequel, Garden Warfare 2. The game originally launched in early access back in September 2019, with its full release following a month later. The final content update for Battle for Neighborville was released in September 2020.
After a nearly seven-year wait, Mario Golf returns this summer on Nintendo Switch. Announced during the latest Nintendo Direct presentation, Mario Golf: Super Rush releases for Switch on June 25, marking the first Mario Golf game for a home console since 2003’s Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for GameCube. Mario Golf: Super Rush is available to preorder now on the eShop, and physical preorders are starting to pop up at retailers like Best Buy.
Developed by Camelot, Mario Golf: Super Rush has the standard three-click swing system as well as optional motion controls. Super Rush, as the name suggests, offers a twist to the formula. In Speed Golf, you race against your opponents between shots, nabbing power-ups and coins along the way.
There will also be a story mode starring a created Mii character. In story mode, you’ll work your way up the ranks, completing challenges and upgrading your character’s stats.
During the latest Nintendo Direct, it was confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is coming to the Nintendo Switch, but we also learned of a new pair of themed Joy-Cons launching alongside the new port. The Zelda-themed Joy-Cons take after the iconic Master Sword and Hylian Shield, bearing each valuable tool’s iconography. The Zelda Joy-Cons release on July 16 alongside Skyward Sword.
New Zelda-themed Switch Joy-Cons will release on July 16.
The Zelda Joy-Cons are a deep royal blue, adorned with Zelda-style symbols placed delicately around the buttons and analog sticks. The left Joy-Con features the eagle and Triforce seen on the Hylian Shield, while the right features the Triforce design seen on the Master Sword. In the trailer that revealed the new controllers, it appears the controllers may be two slightly different shades of blue.
Players will be able to use these Joy-Cons in Skyward Sword with two different control methods. The first method will emulate how Skyward Sword was on the Wii, with motion controls for swinging the sword, aiming the bow, and almost every other action. Alternatively, players will be able to play in a buttons-only mode that maps sword slashes to the right analog stick.
DC Super Hero Girls is an ongoing DC franchise aimed at a younger audience, following teen versions of DC’s iconic superheroes as they attend “Super Hero High School.” DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power, the game announced in Nintendo’s latest Direct, is the first game to be announced for the franchise, and it’s due out on the Switch on June 4.
The trailer for Teen Power showcases combat as Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman, while Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz), Bumblebee, and Zatanna are also shown to be part of the main team. As well as combat, the game is set to have social RPG elements, with the characters also navigating high school life, buying new outfits, and taking pictures for an in-game social media network.
After launching in 2015 as a web series, DC Super Hero Girls has since seen a rebooted TV show led by Lauren Faust of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fame. Season 1 ran for 52 episodes between March 2019 and December 2020, and a second season is due out sometime in 2021.
DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power is due to release on June 4 on the Nintendo Switch.
The old is new again, as Bungie just introduced Destiny 1’s first strike, The Devil’s Lair, into Destiny 2. But what kinds of differences can you expect in terms of improvements?
In a new video, we take a look at the strike in its original form in Destiny 1 and compare it to how it looks in Destiny 2. As you’ll see, there are some differences you may want to be aware of. Check out the full video to get a closer look at the new version of The Devil’s Lair and soak in the nostalgia of seeing the original Destiny strike inside Bungie’s sequel.
Expect a lot more Destiny 2 coverage from GameSpot now and in the future, as we’ll have lots more to share and cover on the Season of the Chosen.
We got our first look at how Apex Legends plays on Switch during Nintendo’s February Direct. You can check out Apex Legends’ Switch gameplay in the trailer embedded below. Apex Legends releases for Switch on March 9.
Also in the trailer, Nintendo announces that the Switch version of Apex Legends will come with a brand-new, never-before-seen legendary skin for Pathfinder. The trailer doesn’t show off what the skin looks like though.
Given that it’s coming out weeks after the start of Season 8: Mayhem, the Switch version of the game will set you up with a 33-level head start on the battle pass for free. This is around where most players on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC will be in mid-March, so you won’t be left behind if you start playing on Switch.
Additionally, players on Switch will earn double experience for the first two weeks following Apex Legends’ launch on Nintendo’s console, making it easier to level up in the battle pass.
Apex Legends Season 8 Coverage:
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Constantine is hardly DC’s highest-profile character, but he’s apparently one of the most adaptable; HBO Max is prepping a new series for the character in partnership with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company, according to a report from Deadline.
The series will focus on a slightly younger version of John Constantine, the lead character from the Hellblazer comics. The creators are apparently looking for a non-white actor for the role. According to the report, the show will focus on the comic’s horror roots more than the religious focus that previous incarnations have generally focused on. Newcomer Guy Bolton is writing the pilot script, and the series will reportedly connect to HBO Max’s planned Justice League Dark, which Abrams is also producing.
John Constantine, DC’s master of the dark arts, first appeared in Saga of the Swamp Thing #37 in 1985, with his appearance based on British musician Sting. He appeared in live action first in the 2005 film Constantine, played by Keanu Reeves and laid dormant for almost a decade before NBC revived him for a television show of the same name. There, British actor Matt Ryan portrayed a more comics-accurate version of the character in the one-season show. After its abrupt cancelation, the CW worked out a deal to bring the character and actor over for a single appearance on Arrow, where he helped Sara Lance reclaim her soul after being revived in a Lazarus Pit. The character was popular enough that the CW’s timey-wimey superhero show DC’s Legends of Tomorrow brought Ryan on to reprise the character in season 3, and he’s been with the crew since.
DC previously preferred to keep its live-action incarnations to one actor playing one character, but the success of the CW’s The Flash weakened that resolve, and the on-screen appearances of three different Barry Allen Flashes and three Supermen for the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover all but shattered it. While it’s uncertain whether the HBO Max version of Constantine and the CW’s version will both air at the same time, its absolutely possible (though its unlikely that they’ll cross over).
The show is in the early stages of planning, so we don’t know when it’ll premiere, but when it does it will join HBO Max’s growing list of dark DC Comics shows alongside the likes of James Gunn’s Peacemaker, Justice League Dark, and DC Universe shows Doom Patrol and Titans, along with more traditional superhero fare like the announced Green Lantern show.
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One of the biggest surprises from February 17’s Nintendo Direct was the announcement of Splatoon 3. The multiplayer-shooter series moves away from Inkopolis to a new region in 2022. That’s quite a ways away, and while there likely won’t be any Splatoon-related shortages, you can reserve your copy of the squid-ink shooter at Best Buy right now.
While there aren’t many details about Splatoon 3, we do know a few things. For one, the game is set in the Splatlands region as well as one of the region’s most populated cities, Splatsville. Nintendo says “battle-hardened Inklings and Octolings” call this metropolis home. The desert motif gives me Mad Max vibes, but you likely won’t be driving any cars with blades and spikes attached to them.
In addition to the new setting, Nintendo has teased a number of other details. The trailer showed an Inkling (sporting a new braid hairstyle) accompanied by a Salmonid, which were enemies in Splatoon 2’s co-op mode. Additionally, the traditional 4v4 Turf War mode was shown taking place in the Splatlands desert. Things kick off with the Inklings in some sort of aerial drone before they choose where they want to land and head into battle.
Nintendo also detailed two new movement mechanics and a new weapon. The first movement technique is the squid roll, which Inklings can use in squid form. This gives them the ability to launch out of their ink and twirl through the air. Squid surge, on the other hand, quickly shoots players up walls and launches them at the top. As for the new weapon, it looks like a bow that can shoot three strings of ink. A number of classic weapons also make appearances with unique looks.
When 2020 passed without a single Marvel Cinematic Universe release, fans were anxious for the next piece of the massive puzzle. The releases of Black Widow and Eternals on the big screen were delayed, while Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier was pushed after production was halted during the pandemic. Then, at long last, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. WandaVision became the first MCU Phase 4 entry and, it should be argued, it’s also one of the strongest projects Marvel Studios has released yet.
Not only did WandaVision end the drought of MCU entries, but it’s helping to redefine what a live-action Marvel story can be. On one hand, WandaVision is a celebration of TV history, with different episodes paying tribute to different eras of family sitcoms–from 1950s shows like I Love Lucy to early-’00s favorites like Malcolm in the Middle. Each episode has painstakingly recreated the shows it’s inspired by, from the ridiculously silly special effects of old sitcoms to the fourth-wall-breaking moments of later eras, in which characters speak directly to the camera–not to mention a new era-appropriate theme song each week.
Beyond that, though, WandaVision is a story of loss, trauma, and coping with post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s surprising given the characters of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) have more or less been third-tier players in the MCU. Now, they’re thrust to the forefront and given the kind of character development most of the MCU roster could benefit greatly from, telling a genuinely heartbreaking story.
Which is why it’s so surprising to find criticism of the show that calls it a Marvel movie stretched into nine episodes of television, or a series lacking a central villain that gives it the kind of depth people have come to expect from the MCU. Complaints like this are missing the point of WandaVision completely.
Make no mistake about it, while the show fits into the larger picture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and there is likely a “greater power” behind so much of the terror that’s unfolding (we see you, Mephisto), searching for a “big bad” on which to blame the events of the show is a waste of time, because it’s already been introduced. The trauma Wanda has experienced is the villain of this story.
This is a woman who was experimented on, watched her twin brother murdered in front of her, found herself responsible for an untold number of accidental deaths that led to the Sokovia Accords, then chose to kill the only being she loved to save the universe, only for Thanos to rewind time and kill him even more brutally in front of her, rendering what she did pointless.
Throughout each episode of WandaVision, this character is brought face-to-face with everything that haunts her, from the reappearance of her dead brother to seeing her beloved Vision as he was in death, to seeing this picture-perfect reality she’s conjured being ripped apart at the seams. What’s worse, this is all presented as torment she’s bringing upon herself, creating victims of not only the actual people of Westview but whatever’s left of Vision in the process.
It would be difficult to tell a story of this magnitude comprehensively in a single movie, if only because there’s so much to unpack. And now it’s being doled out in episodic doses every week, leaving viewers to sit with each installment for days, theorizing, discussing, and digging deeper while the anticipation builds for the next installment.
That might not be ideal for those trained to expect their MCU stories in larger chunks or even people accustomed to Netflix’s full-season releases of shows. However, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to entertainment. Different types of stories are told differently and releasing all of WandaVision at one time would not only be far less exciting, it would be a disservice to the individual episodes.
WandaVision is appointment TV. Every Friday (or Thursday night, depending on how late you stay up), the next chapter of the story unfolds. Sure, it would be great if the episodes weren’t dropping at midnight on the west coast, but having a new episode of the series to look forward to watching–and look forward to talking about–each week also keeps the MCU alive while movie theaters remain closed.
Beyond that, though, these episodic releases show WandaVision is in no way simply a Marvel movie’s worth of story stretched to take up an entire TV show. Having a season of TV allows for much more exploration of the characters and plot than you’d get in a single film. It makes for a richer experience, and it sets the tone for what’s to come in the MCU.
After all, following Endgame, in which the Avengers finally bested Thanos, saved the universe, and saw at least two core characters take their final bow, the future of the MCU is going to be different. There are new characters and teams on the way, the expansion of the universe through TV shows on Disney+, and years of new stories to tell. Kicking it all off is a show that has managed to spotlight underutilized characters, bring back seldom-seen fan-favorites like Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Agent Woo (Randall Park), set up future films like the next Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange movies, and also adapt tried and true TV formulas, some of which are over half a century old, making them feel new and fresh again.
After nearly a year of movie theaters being closed and so any blockbusters being delayed, getting a weekly dose of the MCU is a reason to celebrate. More than that, however, getting a weekly jolt to the system like WandaVision, a show that manages to expand the Marvel universe while focusing in on two characters, is a gift that should be hard to complain about.
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Knockout City is EA’s take on what a high-energy and high-flying take on dodgeball would be in the far future. Coming from Velan Studios, the game is a tactical team-based arena brawler that takes the concept of dodgeball and amps it up by several degrees. Described as a “dodge-brawler” by the developers, Knockout City puts you in the role of a newcomer to the big city who joins a gang and has to defend their new territory from rivals looking to take over. These engagements take place on several dodgeball arenas across the city, set in construction sites, rooftops of skyscrapers, and even on the busy streets of downtown.
We had the chance to get some hands-on time with Knockout City’s upcoming closed beta, which will occur on February 20th through the 21st. In the beta, players will be able to customize their “dodge-brawler” and join other crew members to face off against rivals in the Team KO match type, which is Knockout City’s take on the classic 3v3 team deathmatch mode. In this gameplay video, you can see all the different types of moves, team cross-ups, and tricks you can pull on your enemies to score a hit.
Coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch on May 21st, Knockout City is shaping up to be a fun and accessible take on classic multiplayer combat. We’ll have more on Knockout City coming up as we approach its launch.
