Samurai Warriors 5, the latest entry in the musou Samurai Warriors series, is coming to the Nintendo Switch sometime this summer.
During the latest Nintendo Direct presentation, we got our first look at the new entry in the spin-off Dynasty Warriors franchise from Koei Tecmo, which once again takes place in the Sengoku Period of Japan and will follow historical figures Nobunaga Oda and Mitsuhide Akeshi.
The last mainline Samurai Warriors title, Samurai Warriors 4, launched originally back in 2014 in Japan for PS3 and Vita, and was since brought to the PS4 and given multiple expansions, the most recent of which landed in 2016. It featured over 50 different playable characters across its various renditions.
It also received an updated version called Samurai Warriors 4 DX for both PS4 and Nintendo Switch in 2019, but this version was only released in Japan.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
For the first time since September 4, 2019, a brand-new Nintendo Direct has arrived. Here is every new announcement from the Direct, including Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Pyra and Mythra joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Pyra and Mythra Join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in March 2021
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (sold separately) are both being fully localized for the Nintendo Switch.
Mario Golf was announced for Nintendo Switch, and it will be released on June 25, 2021. Featuring Speed Golf, motion controls, a Story Mode, and so much more.
Tales From the Borderlands Announced for Nintendo Switch
Capcom Arcade Stadium Surprise Releasing on Switch Today
Stubbs the Zombie Will Shamble Its Way to Switch in March 2021
No More Heroes Arriving on Switch in August 2021
No More Heroes 3 will be released on the Nintendo Switch on August 27, 2021.
Neon White Announced for Nintendo Switch
Become an assassin of demons in heaven in this first person card battler coming to Nintendo Switch.
DC Super Hero Girls Teen Power Announced for Nintendo Switch
Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for the Neighborville Is Coming to Switch
Nintendo 3DS Title Miitopia Arriving on Switch in May 2021
Nintendo Items Will be Added to Animal Crossing: New Horizons This Month
Mario’s 35th anniversary celebrations continue, as a new Mario sports title has been announced. Return to the greens in Mario Golf Super Rush/
As revealed during the latest Nintendo Direct, Mario Golf Super Rush is the newest Mario sports game from Camelot. Mario Golf Super Rush can be played with both the controllers or even motion controls.
As suggested by the subtitle, characters will rush from one hole to the next and race to different holes with power-ups. There will also be a dedicated Story Mode which can be played with your Mii.
Mario Golf Super Rush will come to the Nintendo Switch on June 25 and a demo will be available after today’s Nintendo Direct.
Mario’s last sports outing on the Nintendo Switch was 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces, which our review called ” an extremely fun arcade tennis experience, colorful and dazzling to look at and smartly balanced in its back-and-forth play.” Mario’s sports lineage is of course a long one, with members of the Mushroom Kingdom having played golf, tennis, soccer, and much more in various spinoff titles throughout the decades.
The classic Square RPG Legend of Mana is coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Legend of Mana, the beloved PlayStation RPG returns for the first time in over 20 years on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo announced the remaster in Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct event.
The game’s music has been rearranged for the remaster, and players will be able to alternate between the original soundtrack and the rearrangement. Players will also have the option to turn off enemy encounters. A new mini-game dubbed “Ring Ring Land” is a Tamagotchi-esque side activity players can also partake in.
After debuting to smash success on PC and as a PlayStation Plus launch game on PS4, Devolver Digital and Mediatonic’s Fall Guys will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch. Announced during the February 2021 Nintendo Direct, no specific release date was given, but the port will be launching sometime this Summer.
Fall Guys is currently in the midst of its third season, with the recent Season 3.5 update offering a new level, new variations to existing challenges, and much more. The battle royale launched in August of 2020, becoming the most downloaded PlayStation Plus game. And since its launch, Fall Guys has seen plenty of crossovers with famous franchises, including a Sonic the Hedgehog skin, a licensed Godzilla costume, and more.
Outer Wilds has been announced for the Nintendo Switch.
Mobius Digital’s time-loop sci-fi game will be released for the Switch this Summer. The announcement was made during the Nintendo Direct that aired today. A price was not announced, but in previous releases, it was sold for $24.99. It doesn’t appear like any new features will be coming to the game with this Switch version nor was anything not present in previous releases of the game mentioned during the Direct.
Outer Wilds was previously released on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was published by Annapurna Interactive. They are also publishing the Switch variant of this game.
Outer Wilds is a 22-minutes-at-a-time sci-fi game about trying to discover why the Sun explodes every 22 minutes and you’ll learn more about your character’s existence in the process. You’ll need to fly a spaceship around the galaxy while dodging space’s many dangerous elements, which can be tough but IGN’s official walkthrough for Outer Wilds will guide you from start to end.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s newest DLC character is Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Revealed during the February 2021 Nintendo Direct, Pyra a character from Monolith’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Pyra will be coming to the fighter sometime in March.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is Monolith’s last RPG. A sequel to Xenoblade on the Wii, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes place in a fantastical world where Blades are summoned from “Core Crystals.” Pyra is a blade and partner of the hero, Rex.
A prequel DLC called Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country was released in 2018. Read IGN’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 review here.
Details are incredibly sparse thus far, including casting details, but the well-received franchise will continue with Heyday Films, the production studio behind the first two Paddington films, as well as the Harry Potter universe films.
Rumors of a third Paddington film kicked off last week when, in an interview with BBC Radio 2, Paddington star Hugh Bonneville said there was “forward momentum” on the production.
Paul King, director of the first two Paddington films, has previously said he will not return to direct a third, but will still be involved in some capacity.
The Paddington movies, based on the 1958 children’s storybook character, proved to be box office successes, pulling in $280 million and $225 million. The films have been equally praised for their message of acceptance of outsiders (Paddington is canonically from Peru) and their dismissal of cynicism, with some even regarding the films as anti-Brexit and pro-immigrant. Even Metal Gear Solid series director Hideo Kojima, a notorious cinephile, has listed it as one of his favorite films in recent history.
You can check out our positive reviews of Paddington and Paddington 2, which we we said “successfully balances its Monty Python-esque brand of humor along with the kind of heart and sense of adventure found in its source material.”
HBO Max’s animated Gremlins prequel series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, has officially set its voice cast.
According to Variety, Ming-Na Wen (The Mandalorian, Mulan) will voice Fong Wing, a doctor of Chinese medicine who is said to be “resourceful, slyly funny and fiercely protective of her family,” while BD Wong (Jurassic Park, Mr. Robot) will voice Hon Wing, a character described as a “calm rock” who “never believed his father-in-law’s tales of magic and adventure.”
Together, they will portray the mother and father of 10-year-old Sam Wing, aka the future antique shop owner from the 1984 live-action movie, who will be voiced by Izaac Wang (Raya and the Last Dragon, Clifford the Big Red Dog). Sam’s worldly-wise grandfather will be voiced by James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Mulan), while Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason) has been cast as the villain.
Rhys’ character, Riley Greene, is described as a “power-hungry English industrialist and treasure hunter who wields black magic that is determined to stop at nothing in his pursuit of Gizmo and the mythical treasure of the Mogwai.” Gizmo will be voiced by A.J. LoCascio, while Sam’s friend Elle will be voiced by Gabrielle Green.
Set in 1920s Shanghai, the animated television adaptation will tell the story of how Sam Wing met the young Mogwai called Gizmo. Sam and Gizmo, together with Elle, will take a perilous journey through the Chinese countryside, encountering, and sometimes battling, colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore. However, on their quest to return Gizmo to his family and uncover a legendary treasure, they will be pursued by Riley Greene and his growing army of evil Gremlins.
Tze Chun is writing and co-executive producing the 10-episode series for HBO Max, though there is no official release date yet. For more on Gremlins, check out our Gremlins Blu-ray review, which we called “Great,” saying, “Director Joe Dante’s token sense of humor, seen in his earlier films like The Howling or Piranha, is perfectly blended with the amusing, and surprisingly scary horror elements, creating a fine horror-comedy genre-bender in a similar vein to something like An American Werewolf in London.”
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Xbox has been embracing backwards compatibility in a big way and it has become a major part of the platform’s identity and appeal, especially going into the new generation with the Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft has been open about the ways it’s trying to enhance backwards compatibility with a new, powerful console, and the latest feature is FPS Boost. It comes as a free update for specific games, and increases the frame rate at which those games run.
The rollout of FPS Boost starts today with updates to just a handful of games: Sniper Elite 4, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs 2, UFC 4, and New Super Lucky’s Tale. However, this is just the start–there are plans to bring this feature to other Xbox games. There’s currently no word on which games will receive future FPS Boost updates or when exactly those updates will go live, but Microsoft says that more are coming soon and in the coming months. It’s worth noting that in October last year, an Xbox blog post first mentioned this feature and used Fallout 4 as an example to show it in action.
For games that receive FPS Boost, you’ll be able to play them running in 60 frames per second as opposed to 30fps, making for a much smoother gameplay experience. In a few cases, such as New Super Lucky’s Tale, frame rate will be boosted to 120fps to take advantage of the platform’s 120Hz capabilities (if you have the proper display).
We’ve been able to access this first wave of games receiving FPS Boost to get hands-on with how it changes the experience–and it pretty much works as advertised. Increasing the frame rate provides a very noticeable improvement to a game such as Sniper Elite 4, which is a third-person shooter–the smoother frame rate makes precision aiming easier, the action more manageable, enabling an overall better gameplay experience. In the case of New Super Lucky’s Tale, it’s another opportunity to put the 120Hz capability to use if you have the right setup–it’s great to see 120fps in action, but it’s not exactly the type of game that showcases the benefits of an ultra-high frame rate.
The power of the Xbox Series X’s GPU and CPU affords games the opportunity to run better than they did in the past. In some cases, you can experience better and more stable performance without the need for updates, depending on the game. But in games with a locked frame rate, work needs to be done in order to see the type of benefits FPS Boost provides.
Speaking with Xbox program management director Jason Ronald, he explained that Xbox has an internal technique that gets these games running at double the frame rate, and that the work is done on Xbox’s end. This means FPS Boost doesn’t require any work from the original developers, but thorough testing is done and publisher approval is required.
“When we came up with the technique, we realized there was a pretty large set of titles we believed we could make this work on,” Ronald explained. “But that’s also why we do all the testing we do. We don’t just want to enable it and hope for the best. It’s really important that we always respect that original intent of the creator, do our due diligence, and provide access to our partners.”
In the top right corner, you can see FPS Boost enabled for Watch Dogs 2.
When digging deeper into the limitations of implementing FPS Boost, Ronald said, “The technique doesn’t work on all titles. A lot of it really hinges on how the engine or the game was originally designed, and how they manage clocks within the game engine. There are some games we’ve seen where it looks beautiful and plays buttery smooth at 60fps, but we’d discover that the animations were running twice as fast or maybe the physics calculations were running so fast that it broke the physics model. In those cases, and since [FPS Boost] is done with no work by the developer, we can’t enable this feature on these titles.”
An update set for this Spring will let you better handle these features with a new Compatibility Options tab in the Manage Games section of the Xbox. FPS Boost and Auto HDR will be options you can toggle on and off before launching the game, so the original experience would still be available.
