Nintendo has announced that Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Volleyball, and City Connection will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online NES game library this month.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge originally released in arcades in 1988 and was ported to the NES in 1990. Nintendo’s official description is as follows;
Billy and Jimmy Lee, the Double Dragons, are back to avenge the loss of Marian. In their quest to defeat the evil Shadow Warriors, Billy and Jimmy must complete nine missions, facing deadly street gangs, ninjas and huge mutant fighters. Can Billy and Jimmy contend with the enemies placed before them and ultimately save the world?
Up until now, the Halo series had been on a semi-regular release schedule with each title in the main series launching within three years of each other, and sometimes faster. But it’s been almost four years already since the release of Halo 5: Guardians in 2015, meaning fans have had to wait longer than ever for Halo Infinite. Why is it taking so long for the game to come out?
Halo transmedia boss Kiki Wolfkill explained to GI.biz that one of the reasons is because the team at 343 Industries has spent a lot of time working on “retooling” the franchise’s infrastructure. That probably is a reference to the brand-new Slipspace engine that Microsoft showed off at E3 2018.
“Part of why there’s been that span of time between Halo 5 and Infinite is the retooling of the infrastructure to give us the flexibility to do whatever we wanted with that game,” she said.
In addition, Halo Infinite marks the “next generation of Halo,” Wolfkill said. As such, and because the game is a “spiritual reboot,” Wolfkill said the team is taking extra time to make sure Infinite is a game that newcomers can also play and enjoy.
“But it’s also about setting off the next generation of Halo,” she said. “We want people to be able to come into Halo Infinite who may not have played any other Halo game before.”
Part of Wolfkill’s job as the leader of the Halo transmedia team is to find ways to expand Halo’s profile and reach. There is a new Halo TV show coming, and this, as well as the other Halo transmedia efforts, might help draw in new players for Infinite.
“Part of what my role is and my goal with the transmedia pieces is, how do we start to engage new audiences and bring people into the universe so that when Infinite comes out, maybe people who haven’t played before are interested in playing,” she said.
It’s official, Captain America loves Rick and Morty.
Chris Evans, who has played Captain America since 2011, took to Twitter to share his love for the Emmy-winning show, saying “There isn’t another show on television like @RickandMorty. It’s a true original. And it’s awesome.”
Wander around Elsweyr—the ancient homeland of the cat-like Khajiit people—and you’ll find fascinating vistas around every corner. Windswept deserts lie on either side of the bridge-crossed canyons known as the Stitches while untamed jungles flourish to the south. In every region, Khmer-inspired ruins litter the landscape and hint at ages past when the Khajiit weren’t as disliked as they are now. You’ll also find exceptional sidequests and play as the outstanding new Necromancer class, and all of that makes up for the fact that the dragon-centric main storyline is a big letdown.
Something as inherently awesome as invading dragons should make for a strong questline, especially when there are also Necromancers and their undead minions running around, to say nothing of an Imperial takeover of a key city that has left the poor Khajiit second-class citizens in their own land. But the way Elsweyr crams all of this in is the root of its problem: there’s so much going on that it can’t focus. So disjointed is the pacing, in fact, that my questing buddy and I sometimes got the impression that the main story was finished before it actually was.
There is a ridiculous number of cool details to break down from the newest Monster Hunter World: Iceborne story trailer, but there were a few moments that especially stood out. Here are seven of the most important new details we noticed from the newest Monster Hunter World: Iceborne story trailer, including Tigrex gameplay, a Glavenus tease, and much more.
Watch the full trailer below!
1. Monster Hunter Generations’ Glavenus is Teased
At the end of the story trailer, a hunter confronts a Rathian. Behind the hunter, you can just make out the feet of another monster in the back right corner. The screen cuts to black before we can get a clear shot, but the subsequent roar and fiery sword slice can only belong to Glavenus.
Nickelodeon is moving forward with a SpongeBob Squarepants spinoff. The network announced today that it’s given the green light to a spinoff series with the working title Kamp Koral.
The show focuses on a 10-year-old SpongeBob, and specifically his adventures at the sleepaway camp called Kamp Koral. Nickelodeon is producing 13 episodes for the animated series first season. Production is beginning this month, though there is no word yet on when the show will premiere.
“SpongeBob has an incredible universe to expand upon and the greenlight for Kamp Koral is a testament to the strength and longevity of these characters known and loved by generations of fans around the world,” Nickelodeon animation boss Ramsey Naito said in a statement.
In the show, SpongeBob and friends will do all sorts of wild and weird things like “building underwater campfires, catching wild jellyfish, and swimming in Lake Yuckymuck at the craziest camp in the kelp forest, Kamp Koral.”
SpongeBob series producers Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are Kamp Koral’s co-executive producers.
Kamp Koral is the first SpongeBob TV show spinoff. Further spinoffs focused on other SpongeBob characters are coming, according to Deadline. Additionally, a new movie called It’s A Wonderful Sponge will premiere in 2020.
Ubisoft has confirmed that Watch Dogs Legion will be revealed at E3 2019.
The official Watch Dogs Twitter account, which is now fully branded for and named Watch Dogs Legion, posted a cryptic teaser with a new logo. Accompanying the video were the words “God Save the NPCs. Reveal at E3. #WatchDogLegion #UbiE3”
For being one of the X-Men’s most notoriously complicated mutants, Jean’s story actually has a relatively simple start. She’s one of the original team members, introduced back in the very first issue back in 1963. She was the token girl on the otherwise all-male team back in the day, and the only mutant with telekinetic powers in the mix–the others, Iceman, Psyclops, Beast, and Angel all had largely physical powers. For years, this was as tricky as Jean got. She was known as Marvel Girl, and she could move things with her mind–no fuss, no frills.
Becoming The Phoenix
The simplicity didn’t last, however. Over time, more of Jean’s origin was revealed to be a somewhat insidious effort by Charles Xavier, who had clocked her as an up-and-coming telepath with potentially dangerous abilities. As she was enrolled in Xavier’s Academy For Gifted Youngsters, Xavier placed special telepathic blocks in Jean’s brain to limit her mutation to just telekinesis at first.
After a considerable amount of training and practice, her telepathic powers were eventually unlocked, allowing her to grow that particular skill as she participated in missions with the team–but eventually, Xavier’s fears began to become realities. It started slowly at first: During a mission set in space, Jean was forced to sacrifice herself to save her teammates, but in doing so, sent a massive telepathic plea out into the universe itself–a plea that was answered by a cosmic power known as the Phoenix Force, the manifestation of the power of creation and life itself in the universe.
The Phoenix Force took up residence inside of Jean, saving her from the near-death experience. She emerged with a new look and codename: Phoenix.
For a few fleeting moments, it actually seemed as though that was all there was to it. Jean seemed mostly fine, despite the trauma, and her revival was mysterious but not completely unheard of in superhero comics. But after some time, the truth came to light–sort of. The Phoenix Force had actually taken over Jean’s body and mind, creating a duplicate body to house her consciousness and the Force itself, along with Jean’s memories, while Jean’s real body was placed in a special stasis pod/cocoon to be healed.
Yeah. Look, X-Men stories are a lot of things, but simple ain’t one of them.
Enter Dark Phoenix
So anyway, Phoenix Jean–who, for all intents and purposes, was Jean, or at least, completely believed herself to be Jean–eventually started to experience strange visions of a past life where she was known as Lady Grey, the nefarious Black Queen of a group of evildoers called the Hellfire Club. The story of Lady Grey was, in fact, a complete fabrication by a villain known as Mastermind, who was specifically working to undermine Jean’s sanity. And that’s exactly what he was able to do. As the visions increased in frequency and intensity, Jean eventually accepted them as reality and succumbed entirely to a new evil alter-ego: Dark Phoenix, the full, unbridled potential of the Phoenix Force unchecked and given horrifying, hedonistic purpose care of the false Hellfire Club memories.
Dark Phoenix promptly became the single most powerful and deadly psychic in the universe–and we mean that in the most literal and comic book-y way possible. After turning on her friends and team, Dark Phoenix opted to leave Earth, getting herself pinged on the radar of a handful of alien races and committing a handful of casual planetary genocides on the way–you know, like you do–which specifically got her noticed by the Shi’Ar Empire, who deemed her a greater threat to the galaxy than Galactus himself.
The conflict eventually escalated so dramatically that the Shi’Ar nearly enacted “Plan Omega,” which would evolve destroying the entire solar system in an effort to destroy Dark Phoenix, but thankfully the X-Men were able to head things off before they went that far. After briefly regaining her sense of self and her human memories, Jean heroically sacrificed herself, forcing the Phoenix Force out of her body and saving the universe.
The cycle of death and rebirth
But things don’t end there. Remember the original Jean Grey body that was left in a healing stasis? The disembodied Phoenix Force tried to possess that version of Jean–it doesn’t work, but it does bring that Jean back into play, prompting her to wake up and begin a new life with no memory of any of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix events at all. Meanwhile, another, totally different duplicate Jean, a clone made by the villain Mr. Sinister, isn’t so lucky. A portion of the Phoenix Force found a home in that body and creates another version of Jean altogether, known as Madelyne Pryor.
So to recap, there are three Jeans in the mix here: the original Jean who was stuck in a healing coma for the events of the Phoenix saga, the duplicate Jean who was the embodiment of the Phoenix Force who became Dark Phoenix and died, and the clone of Jean who became the second Phoenix Force host, Madelyne Pryor.
Remember what we said about X-Men comics not being simple? Yeah. We really meant it.
After the Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean’s life never really went back to normal. She and her on-again-off-again flame Scott Summers were married for a while (though Scott also had a thing with Madelyne Pryor, too, which is a whole other can of worms) but their relationship eventually began to fail with a little help from the villain Apocalypse, who temporarily killed Scott and Emma Frost, with whom Scott engaged in a “psychic affair.”
Sometime later, Jean was killed yet again–this time by a former teammate named Xorn (who was actually Magneto, don’t worry about it)–only to be revived by the Phoenix Force all over again–sort of, at least. There are some alternate timeline shenanigans at play here that both do and do not negate her death. Ultimately, it was revealed that Jean bonded to the Phoenix Force to become a god-like entity known as the White Phoenix Of The Crown, and completely ascended to a higher plane of existence known as the White Hot Room, an extra-dimensional nexus that served as a sort of hub for the Phoenix Force and its hosts, rendering her somewhere between life and death. Though, as far as anyone was concerned on Earth, she was just the normal sort of dead.
She actually stayed dead for a while this time–kind of, at least. While Jean was technically dead for all intents and purposes, her consciousness still resided in the White Hot Room and would occasionally come into play in the form of psychic messages and manifestations (also through her various clones and time traveling pseudo-descendants like Hope Summers).
What about now?
That’s how things stayed for some time until she was finally resurrected again, by way of uh–an egg. Get it? Because the Phoenix is a bird? She even briefly had her very own team of X-Men after her resurrection, who acted as a sort of top secret mutant black ops unit trying to “heal” the world of its anti-mutant sentiments.
Oh, and there were a couple of time-displaced versions of her running around too, including the child version of herself brought to the present alongside all her original X-Men teammates. Kid Jean even got her own solo series for a while, which is something the adult version of herself never managed to nail down.
So what does this say about Jean’s turn as the Phoenix in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix live action movie? We can guess based on trailers that we’re going to see a pretty villainous turn for Jean on the big screen as is par for the course in the source material, but it’s difficult to guess just how this particular incarnation of the Phoenix Force is actually going to work. It seems like a safe bet to expect a major self-sacrifice moment from Jean by the end of the movie, but with news that the ending has been reshot, where things will end up is really anyone’s guess. It’s pretty unlikely that we’ll see big screen versions of any of Jean’s clones, though, if only for the fact that this particular arm of the X-Men cinematic universe is likely coming to a close thanks to the Disney/Fox buy out. But hey, anything’s possible.
While surprising at first, vampiric heartthrob Robert Pattinson (Twilight, High Life) is officially the Dark Knight. With news that Pattinson will lead a trilogy of Batman films, how he landed the role was “quicker than normal,” according to a Warner Bros. insider.
In a Hollywood Reporter post, director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) had a few actors in mind when penning the script. Among those actors was 33-year-old Pattinson, who has since disappeared into smaller movies after stealing teenage hearts in the Twilight series of the late 2000s. The Batman’s script called for a Bruce Wayne in his 30s. The story would focus more on how Wayne becomes the genius detective he is, instead of rehashing his origin story or displaying his later years as a grizzled crimefighter.
And so, according to sources familiar with Reeves and his thinking, the American director was attracted to Pattinson because the English actor deliberately sought out more lowkey roles in lesser-known movies. Despite ultimately winning the role as the Caped Crusader, Pattinson still had competition.
Reeves was also considering 29-year-old Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, The Favourite), who’s most known as the furry blue Beast in the X-Men franchise. THR notes that nothing prohibits Marvel actors from appearing in DC/Warner Bros. pictures and vice versa, but the cross-pollination could cause confusion between branding and characters. Though Hoult wasn’t eliminated because of this potential issue, what seems to have secured Pattinson the role as Batman was how convincing he was in the suit during screen tests.
Both Hoult and Pattinson put on a previous Batman suit, common in the Bat-test–Christian Bale wore Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever suit before landing Batman Begins–and what Reeves was looking for were answers to a series of questions: Did they embody the character? How did their eyes look and act? Is there a specialness to them?
As one insider put it, “(Reeves) wanted very specific things. He knew what he was looking for.”
The Batman is scheduled to hit theatres on June 25, 2021.
