Super Mario Maker 2 was well-received, but it’s gone several months without a promised post-launch feature. That has now changed, as the new 1.1 patch adds online multiplayer modes with your friends, instead of restricting it to random players. The new update adds a few other new features and tweaks as well.
According to the announcement, Version 1.1.0 lets you play with people on your friends list for both versus and co-op modes, for courses uploaded to Course World along with anything saved to Coursebot. The update also adds voice chat support for the mobile app, so you can talk with your friends while running courses too. Nintendo notes that a Switch Online membership is required.
A few other additions were included in the update as well. The “Nearby Play” function now lets you play in co-op mode as well, and if you play a Coursebot stage the host system doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet. It also added an Official Makers list so you can more easily find levels made by Nintendo. Finally, it adds a Play Together option directly from courses uploaded to a player’s profile, Maker Profiles now include more info, and you can play with a horizontal Joy-Con in all modes.
“The Mario series is worth all the admiration it gets, and Super Mario Maker 2 is an excellent tool for picking it apart by pushing its enemies, mechanisms, and Mario, to their limit,” Peter Brown said in GameSpot’s review. “I’ve yet to make a stage of my own that I think is worthy of sending out to other players, but I’m committed to getting there. Whether exploring the full potential of a single element or throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, I’ve got the itch to join the creator’s club. Mario Maker 2 makes the learning process intuitive and enjoyable. Most importantly, it’s enabled designers amateur and professional alike to share their creativity with the world. The community is off to a great start, and thankfully, the fun has only just begun.”
AlphaDream, the developer of the popular Mario & Luigi RPG series, has filed for bankruptcy, according to reports.
Yahoo Japan states the studio filed the claim on October 1 following years of financial difficulty. As of March 2018, the company’s debt stood at ¥465m (approximately $4.3m US).
AlphaDream was first formed in 1991, then working as a construction firm. In the 2000s the company’s focus shifted to video games. It produced multiple Japan-only titles as well as the critically acclaimed Mario & Luigi series.
The team told ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) that it hopes to put the game on PS4 and Xbox One before moving to its next project, but it didn’t specify release plans. It also said on Twitter that it is “still chewing” on the idea of a mobile version and would have to figure out how to make the game work with touch controls.
We’re still chewing on this. It’ll take a lot of design work to make a version that works good for touch controls!
Still, the official site acknowledges that it is actively working on bringing the game to other platforms. The same support page also notes it has no plans for a physical release.
Untitled Goose Game is still on sale on both the Eshop and Epic Game Store, with a Steam release planned for next year. The simple concept puts you in the role of a goose, who causes mayhem around a small town because geese are jerks.
“The important thing is that Untitled Goose Game is a hoot,” James O’Connor wrote in GameSpot’s review. “It’s a comedy game that focuses on making the act of playing it funny, rather than simply being a game that features jokes. Wishing that it was longer speaks to how much fun I had with it. There’s nothing else quite like Untitled Goose Game; it’s charming and cute despite being mean, and both very silly and very clever. It’s also probably the best non-racing game ever to feature a dedicated ‘honk’ button.”
You spend almost all your time in Neo Cab sat behind the wheel of a cab, but as a player, you never get to steer it. Instead of choosing routes and getting to destinations quickly, you’re deciding which passengers to pick up and how you’re going to talk to them. It’s the near future, and the game’s protagonist, Lina, has just moved to the “automated city” of Los Ojos, California, a glittering, impersonal metropolis surrounded by desert. Lina, who is planning to move in with her best friend Savy, is one of the few drivers in a town that now runs mostly on self-driving cars owned and operated by Capra, a monolithic tech giant (and clear Tesla/Apple analogue) that has fundamentally changed American life. These are Neo Cab’s best features–its examination of what it means to live in futuristic cities and the value of the human connections Lina manages to forge makes for a compelling experience.
Neo Cab has the framework of a mystery, and its initial hook is that you’re solving the case of your best friend’s sudden disappearance. But ultimately, the search for Savy takes a back seat to, well, the people in your back seat. This is a game about the susceptibility of people working within a gig economy, what happens when a single company is given too much power, and how humanity can and will adapt to the changes that seem to be on the horizon. It’s a clever examination of the world we live in today and the world we could find ourselves in 10 years from now. Neo Cab is well-written and enjoyable, and it’s consistently engaging despite some presentation issues.
For each night that Lina works, you’re given a few choices that dictate how the story unfolds. You get to choose which passengers you’re going to pick up from your map, and once they’re in your car, you get to make choices during your conversations with them. Those choices will affect how the conversations go, what state of mind Lina will find herself in afterwards, and–crucially–what rating your customers will give you at the end of the ride. A few passengers are “Prime” members who will only ride with you if you have a five-star average, and the average is seemingly calculated based on the last few rides rather than your lifetime performance, so a single unhappy customer can tank it and impede your search for Savy.
It’s a familiar gameplay model, but thanks to strong writing, interesting characters, and the script’s willingness to dive into the complexities of the technology and social issues it explores, Neo Cab’s choices consistently feel significant. Neo Cab’s greatest success is in how it feels simultaneously futuristic and of its time. Although Neo Cab has some fun with its world (there’s talk of infinite timelines and giant worms that roam below the city), it’s also depicting a world you can easily imagine living in, one that is more convenient but also less personal, where privacy has eroded and the job market demands intensely specific specialization. Lina’s outsider perspective in the city makes her a perfect player surrogate, meaning that I found myself wondering how I would respond to the questions my passengers posed, not just how Lina might feel.
The conversational options you can choose from are dictated by Lina’s mood. Early on, Lina is gifted a “Feelgrid” wrist strap, which glows different colors depending on how she’s feeling. The Feelgrid can indicate if certain options are going to be opened up or closed off; if Lina’s in a good mood, the green glowing light on her wrist will prevent her from being able to choose aggressive or angry responses, or if she’s got a blue light to indicate that she’s sad, it might allow you to pick a downbeat dialogue option. It’s not the deepest system, but it’s an interesting approach that gives you a clear sense of how Lina is reacting at any given moment, and the in-game discussions around the ramifications of openly sharing your feelings at all times are interesting, too.
You might expect a game set predominantly inside a car would eventually grow tedious or samey, but the stream of characters that step into the Neo Cab keeps the game interesting. The way each passenger is animated tells you something about their lives; some won’t crack a smile, while others will immerse themselves in screens the moment they step into the car, while a few more outlandish figures are used to build up Neo Cab’s increasingly strange world. There’s the young girl who has spent her life locked into a horrifying suit of armor for her own “protection”; the gold-hearted ex-con with a secret; the German pals who are convinced that Lina is a robot. The passengers not only help to flesh out the politics of the game world, but often offer discussions that will force you to confront numerous life philosophies. Some characters worship technology, while others go so far as to condemn cars entirely; many relish human interaction, while others prefer to be driven by a machine. The most consistent feeling is isolation, and Neo Cab does a great job of examining the straightforward benefits of simply talking to others without putting too fine a point on it.
Like the passengers in the back of Lina’s car, every player is going to have their own thoughts and feelings on automation, capitalism, and the way technology can and will alter our lives. As such, the game presents multiple perspectives while also suggesting that we should be wary of any company that aims to build a monopoly, and it gives players the options to explore the grey areas in their conversation options whenever possible (which isn’t to say the game is impartial; by the ending, it has taken a clear stance on the dangers posed by Capra). Some passengers can become friends with Lina, or at least begrudging acquaintances, and developing these relationships and learning the ins and outs of how these characters operate–and how living in an automated city has shaped them–is a pleasure that builds over time. Neo Cab is, ultimately, a hopeful game; it’s about the importance of human connections in a world that has made it easier to stick to yourself.
Neo Cab’s conversations provide a rich tapestry of lives that show how inescapable Capra’s influence is, but while you can build a picture of the city in your mind easily enough, the focus on the cab means that Los Ojos feels visually underdeveloped. Whenever the camera cuts to outside your car for a moment, assets will pop in from nowhere on the side of the road as you drive past, and the streets you see are all functionally identical and empty, meaning that sometimes characters will describe an area in a way that does not match up with what you see. The dissonance between how the city is described and how it’s visualized can be isolating, and I found myself having to actively ignore any imagery I saw of the city itself, focusing on the game’s words over its visuals.
There are a few additional technical issues in Neo Cab that can take away from the experience. Animations don’t always match up to text; during one conversation, the dialogue told me that a character had fallen asleep, but their avatar was visibly awake, their open eyes darting around. The driving animation is canned, too, which means that Lina might reference taking a left during conversation, but you won’t see her make the turn. Neo Cab often requires you to fill in the blanks, but these stumbles often make the game world and characters, which are fleshed out so well in text, feel more artificial.
There are other issues with the game’s presentation that are inconvenient, or take away from the experience. There’s no conversation log, which means that if you skip something accidentally or miss a piece of conversation, you can’t go back to see what it was–a real possibility, especially since there’s no voice acting. There are also very few music tracks in the game, and hearing them loop became tiresome by the game’s ending. The autosaves are weird, too; after the game ended I wanted to jump back to a specific point to check out a passenger I hadn’t collected the first time, but found that the game had saved frequently up until the halfway point and then stopped, so aside from my most recent save right near the game’s ending, everything else was from hours earlier. These are not game-breaking by any means, but the game is lacking a few basic gaming creature comforts.
Neo Cab’s interactions still manage to be interesting and feel important despite these issues. While I didn’t feel like the decisions I made had a tremendous impact on how the game ended, the experiences I had through the six in-game days that led up to the conclusion felt personalized to how I played. Certain characters that were name-checked never appeared within my game, or plotlines that started up were never finished, but I always had some idea of what I could have done differently to see these things through.
The overarching mystery plot isn’t so great, and once the credits rolled it felt like certain things I’d done, and the strict budgeting of my limited income, were far less important than the game had made me think they were. But Neo Cab’s main appeal is in the side-stories presented by your passengers, and in the relationships that form between them and Lina. Most passengers can be collected multiple times, and stories will play out across several trips. I jumped back into Neo Cab after the credits rolled not to see if I could change the ending, but because I wanted to delve deeper into the lives of the people I had met and try to follow up on the storylines I hadn’t seen all the way through in a single playthrough.
Neo Cab might suffer from inconsistencies and presentation issues in some places, but as a depiction of a near-future society corrupted by tech fetishization, and an exploration of how humans are adapting to automation and the rise of the gig economy, it’s got plenty to say about how important it is that we all look out for one another. This is a forward-thinking game, but the issues it explores are extremely relevant in 2019, which makes for an engaging, stimulating narrative experience, even if the central mystery of your friend’s disappearance is not particularly interesting.
The Home Alone reboot has found a director. Collider reports that Dan Mazer, who is known for writing the Sacha Baron Cohen movies Borat and Bruno, is in talks to direct the film. Mazer also wrote Bridget Jones’s Baby and Office Christmas Party. He earned an Oscar nomination for Borat.
The movie is being written by Mike Day and Streeter Seidell, who currently write for and act on the popular NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live.
The story of the new Home Alone movie is a little different than the MaCaulay Culkin original. According to Collider, the reboot will tell the story of a “married couple who go to war with a young boy who has stolen something from them.”
The original Home Alone’s story was about a young boy who must fight off thieves after his parents accidentally leave him …. home alone.
Filming on the new Home Alone will begin in the first three months of 2020, according to Collider. Actress Melissa McCarthy is said to be in consideration for one of the parent roles, with Will Ferrell reportedly in talks for the other. The role of the child is reportedly written for a boy, though it’s unknown who will play the part.
The 1990 original Home Alone was directed by Christopher Columbus, who would go on to direct multiple Harry Potter films. Culkin starred in the original film and its 1992 sequel, Lost in New York. A third movie, Home Alone 3, premiered in 1997, but the movie focused on a new boy played by a different actor. Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002) and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012) followed later as made-for-TV movies.
The Home Alone franchise was produced by Fox. Following Disney’s acquisition of Fox and the majority of the company’s entertainment assets, the new Home Alone movie is being developed for Disney streaming service Disney+. Disney is also making a reboot of Night at the Museum, which was another Fox property before the Disney acquisition.
Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, meanwhile, has an idea for another Home Alone movie called “Stoned Alone.” In this movie, Reynolds misses his flight and then goes home and gets baked. He becomes paranoid when he hears someone breaking into his house. Someone actually is, and then Reynolds must defend his home while stoned.
Blizzard’s popular hero shooter Overwatch comes to Nintendo Switch on October 15. It’s the first new platform for the title since its release across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC back in 2016. It’s also a new challenge of sorts for Blizzard, as Nintendo’s hybrid system is relatively less powerful than the other hardware
Ahead of the launch of Overwatch for Switch, GameSpot spoke with the title’s principal producer, Wes Yanagi, about a variety of topics related to the game, including the internal playtest that convinced Blizzard that bringing Overwatch to Switch was a good idea.
“Working closely with a set of developers on the Overwatch team, we eventually got to a first fully playable version of the game. The game was still in a buggy state and we had work to do on performance, but at the end of that playtest, everyone had an excited look on their face,” Yanagi said. “It was at that playtest where we all concluded, ‘Wow, this is amazing, and we have to make this happen.'”
Outside of those topics, Yanagi also told GameSpot that Blizzard is thinking about how to potentially bring cross-play to Overwatch, though it sounds like it won’t happen soon. “The truth is that implementing cross-play for Overwatch is more difficult than people realise,” he said.
Finally, Yanagi spoke briefly about the possibility of Overwatch coming to mobile platforms down the road. You can read GameSpot’s full interview below.
What was the reaction internally when you got Overwatch running on Switch? At what point did you decide you wanted to pursue it beyond an internal test? What convinced you?
Our team started discussions to bring Overwatch to the Nintendo Switch a little over a year ago as the Switch version of Diablo III was getting ready to launch. The developer, Iron Galaxy, did such an amazing job on the Diablo III port, and being huge fans of the Switch, we decided to reach out to them and go through the evaluation process of what it would take to bring Overwatch to the Switch.
Working closely with a set of developers on the Overwatch team, we eventually got to a first fully playable version of the game. The game was still in a buggy state and we had work to do on performance, but at the end of that playtest everyone had an excited look on their face. It was at that playtest where we all concluded, ‘Wow, this is amazing, and we have to make this happen.”
Will Overwatch for Switch have all the same heroes, maps, modes, and updates as the other versions?
That is absolutely our goal. We want to bring the authentic Overwatch experience to the Nintendo Switch. All 31 heroes, 28 maps, game modes, etc. will be on the Switch. The one caveat is we are not enabling Competitive Play until the start of Season 19. This will allow time for players to migrate into their natural skill bracket for more even matches.
What resolution and frame rate can players expect from Overwatch on Switch for docked versus tablet?
Resolution for this version is 900p docked and 720p undocked, with both running at 30 FPS.
What were some of the technical challenges of bringing the game to Switch, given the console’s relatively lower power and feature profile compared to Xbox One, PS4, and most PCs.
We spent a lot of time working on getting performance to a solid place where players would feel like they were playing Overwatch. Most people think of graphics when talking about performance, but there are a lot of other systems like audio, physics, hero abilities, and animation that contribute to the overall frame rate. We spent a lot of effort profiling and optimising all those areas to make Overwatch perform smoothly on the Switch.
“The truth is that implementing cross-play for Overwatch is more difficult than people realise.” — Yanagi
Can you talk about your working relationship with the developer, Iron Galaxy? Why did you choose them and how involved is Blizzard in the game’s production?
Iron Galaxy has been an awesome partner to work with on this project. They have a group of super talented developers with lots of Switch dev experience. Overwatch connects to many different systems like the game servers, Battle.net, and Nintendo servers, so we have a core group of Overwatch devs that were involved with the game’s development to help with those efforts.
Are you using the Nintendo Switch’s dedicated app for voice chat?
All versions of Overwatch are using the same voice chat system that runs through Blizzard servers. If you have a headset with a microphone, you can just plug it into your Switch and start chatting.
Will the Nintendo Switch version have any exclusive content or Nintendo-themed content?
There’s nothing exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version. We want to keep the core features the same between all the versions of Overwatch, but I’ve seen some amazing fan art and movies produced by the community in the last few weeks.
The Switch version of Overwatch has gyro-aiming; can you talk about what this is and how it works? Will players using gyro aiming play against those with traditional inputs?
First of all, gyro-aiming is completely optional, but I think if you dedicate a couple of hours to learning it, you might find you prefer it. One way to use gyro-aiming is to primarily use the right stick to aim and slightly nudge your aim to get a more accurate shot. Most players will probably use this method. You can also use it in detached Joy-con mode, where you point the Joy-con at the screen like a laser pointer. In this mode, some players are able to crank up the sensitivity and get almost mouse like aim. I’m excited to see what really good players can achieve with this.
What are your thoughts on cross-play and cross-saves? With the Switch version, it seems like this could be particularly helpful for people to be able to play wherever they want.
Cross-play is something that would definitely be compelling for players, and as a player, I would love to see it happen. The truth is that implementing cross-play for Overwatch is more difficult than people realise. We are exploring how to bring this to Overwatch, but do not have anything to share at this time.
With the Switch version, Overwatch is now a mobile game of sorts, but have you thought about adapting the game for smartphones and tablets, too?
Briefly, but my brain exploded when thinking about how to map all the controls to the touch screen. It sounds like a fun idea, but a very challenging one for Overwatch.
Now that Overwatch is coming to Switch, people will surely begin to speculate about Overwatch characters in Smash Bros. What do you think about that?
As a player and big fan of the game, I think that would be awesome. It would be an honour if Nintendo chose to bring one of our characters into Smash Bros.
<><>
Overwatch launches for Nintendo Switch on October 15. The boxed version will include a download code for the game as well as a three-month subscription for the Nintendo Switch Online service. Those who pick up and log into the Switch version by December 31 will receive a Golden Loot Box that contains at least one guaranteed Legendary item.
The new comic book movie Joker has generated lots of buzz and controversy since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in July. Now, star Joaquin Phoenix has weighed in on the debate and discussion surrounding one of his most talked-about films, while the movie’s director, Todd Phillips, spoke about what he sees as “woke” Hollywood culture.
He told Vanity Fair that he “didn’t imagine that it would be smooth sailing” as it relates to the reaction by press to Joker. “It’s a difficult film. In some ways, it’s good that people are having a strong reaction to it.”
Phoenix went on to say that he sees both sides of the coin as it relates to how people may interpret Arthur Fleck/Joker and his motivations.
“There’s so many different ways of looking at it,” he said. “You can either say here’s somebody who, like everybody, needed to be heard and understood and to have a voice. Or you can say this is somebody that disproportionately needs a large quantity of people to be fixated on him. His satisfaction comes as he stands in amongst the madness.”
Before this, Phillips reacted to the controversy surrounding the movie. He said he was “surprised” to see some negative reactions to a film that is getting people to talk about gun violence and other important, relevant issues. The director went on to talk about why he thinks people are eager to pile on to Joker.
“I think it’s because outrage is a commodity,” he said. “I think it’s something that has been a commodity for a while. What’s outstanding to me in this discourse in this movie is how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. It’s really been eye opening for me.”
In the same Vanity Fair story, Phillips spoke about his own personal pivot from making comedies (he directed The Hangover trilogy, Old School, and Road Trip) to more drama-focused stories like Joker and his 2016 film War Dogs.
He said he’s less inclined to try to make comedies today because of the “woke” culture in Hollywood. Making Joker was in direct response to this. He said he wanted to make an irreverent movie outside of the comedy space, and that’s where the idea for Joker came from.
“Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” he said. “There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore–I’ll tell you why, because all the f**king funny guys are like, ‘F**k this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’ It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can’t do it, right? So you just go, ‘I’m out.’ I’m out, and you know what? With all my comedies–I think that what comedies in general all have in common–is they’re irreverent. So I go, ‘How do I do something irreverent, but f**k comedy? Oh I know, let’s take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this.’ And so that’s really where that came from.”
Earlier this month, the families of victims killed in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theatre shooting reached out to Warner Bros. to ask the film studio to help use their influence to make safer communities with fewer guns. The shooting took place during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
In response, Warner Bros. said, “Gun violence in our society is a critical issue, and we extend our deepest sympathy to all victims and families impacted by these tragedies. Our company has a long history of donating to victims of violence, including Aurora, and in recent weeks, our parent company joined other business leaders to call on policymakers to enact bi-partisan legislation to address this epidemic.”
Warner Bros. stands by Joker, and added that it does not endorse violence of any kind.
“Warner Bros. believes that one of the functions of storytelling is to provoke difficult conversations around complex issues,” thew statement said. “Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”
Joker premieres on October 4. For more, check out GameSpot’s Joker review, which awarded the film a 10/10 rating.
Apex Legends Season 3: Meltdown is now live, adding a new character (Crypto) and many gameplay changes to the battle royale. With the new season comes a brand-new battle pass, the rewards of which are similar to what was found in Season 2’s pass. However, there are a few cool additions. Some hot ones too. All of the Rare, Epic, and Legendary unlocks are outlined in the following gallery.
Meltdown takes Apex Legends to the new World’s Edge map, which is designed around the clashing forces of ice and fire. The new battle pass reflects that theme. The two Legendary skins this time around are for Pathfinder and Lifeline. Pathfinder’s Iced Out–unlocked at battle pass level 25–gives the bot a yellow shell and encases him in spiky blue icicles. Meanwhile, Lifeline’s From the Ashes–unlocked at battle pass level 53–transforms the murderous medic into a fiery demon. Caustic, Mirage, Bloodhound, and Octane all also get new Rare skins.
Fans who climbed up Apex Legends Season 2’s battle pass ladder will recognize most of the remaining unlocks in Meltdown’s pass. There are new loading screens, music packs, skydive emotes, Legend banners, weapon skins, Crafting Metals, XP boosts, Apex Packs, and Apex Coins. There are some new rewards this time around, though. You now also unlock character quips in the battle pass, which can be equipped to be used in-game at any time with the ping wheel. Meltdown’s battle pass also has gun charms in it, letting you further customize your favorite firearms with your own personal style.
Like in previous seasons, Meltdown’s battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins. At level 1, you’ll automatically unlock the new skins for Mirage, Bloodhound, and Octane as well as a Legendary skin for the DMR Longbow, Reckoner. If you want a head start, you can drop 2,800 Apex Coins to unlock the battle pass and boost your level to 25–netting you every reward up to that point, including the Legendary Iced Out Pathfinder skin. For the rest of the season, battle pass levels can be earned by completing daily and weekly challenges or be bought for 150 Apex Coins each.
