Oh yeah, Mario time? Not quite yet, as according to a new report, Universal Studios Japan has delayed the opening of its Super Nintendo World area because of COVID-19 concerns. This is despite the section of the park being almost completely finished, but fans will have to wait to collect coins and race around the Mushroom Kingdom.

According to the Business Times, an official announcement will come this week and the plan is still for the area to open before the end of 2020. The park is based in Osaka, and Nintendo is hoping to have it open before the Tokyo Olympics begin. These were also delayed from Summer 2020 to 2021 well before Nintendo's reported delay.

Universal Studios Japan's Nintendo park is not the only one being built. There will also be areas built at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood, though they may not have the exact same attractions. Mario Kart and Yoshi rides appear to be part of the attractions, and there are also spinning coins that you can "collect" with a magnetic bracelet. There will likely be some sort of interaction with your Nintendo Switch console after collecting these coins, as well, but it hasn't been detailed yet.

Microsoft has dismissed claims that the recent registration of the Twitter accounts for the games Perfect Dark and Fable are indicative of potential new games.

As reported by our pals at VGC, Xbox has been forced to quash the rumours ignited when fans noticed two new Twitter accounts - one for Fable, one for Perfect Dark - had recently been registered. Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg replied with: "I know everyone is hungry for news, but sorry to get your hopes up. These accounts have been inactive for years, it's standard practice to secure social handles for our IP."

However, Verge journalist Tom Warren points out that the accounts were registered only recently - the Fable one in March, and the Perfect Dark one earlier this month - and one is reportedly registered to a Microsoft email account.

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Hasbro Games Tiger Electronics Transformers Edition | $15 | Amazon

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Like Brett, I was obsessed with the Goosebumps books as a kid. Growing up, that obsession pretty much never died.

I've caught most of the TV shows (even Haunting Hour), the two recent Jack Black feature films and pretty much everything in-between. But even as a Goosebumps diehard, you'll want to skip the hastily adapted Dead of Night.

During the 20th Anniversary Memories Off series livestream, Mages announced SINceMemories, a game in the series that's a brand-new start.

The post SINceMemories is a Brand-New Start in the Memories Off Series appeared first on Siliconera.

Universal Studios Japan has reportedly postponed plans to open its Nintendo theme park due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

While official confirmation of the delay has yet to be made, according to Business Times and sources "familiar with the matter", the developers of the theme park - which is own by Comcast's NBCUniversal - is expected to formalise its plans publicly soon, possibly as early as this week.

That said, construction of the new area is "nearly complete" and Comcast still hopes to launch the park later this year, although with the delay of the 2020 Olympics that had been scheduled to take place this summer in Tokyo, it's still possible the opening may be pushed back until next year.

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The Memories Off series is getting a collection titled Memories Off Historia, which collects the first seven mainline games in the series.

The post Memories Off Historia Collection Announced for Series’ 20th Anniversary appeared first on Siliconera.

After a few years back in dry-dock, Tales Of Monkey Island has returned to the open sea. Following Telltale Games’ infamous scuttling back in 2018, many of the story-driven studio’s works were taken off sale – going down with the ship, if you’ll pardon. Slowly, tales of shamblers and caped crusaders have resurfaced, and now Guybrush Threepwood’s 3D follow-up has found its way back onto Steam and GOG.

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Ubisoft has reportedly put two senior executives and "several other employees" on leave as it begins investigating claims of misconduct.

As Tom summarised in the week, since last weekend, multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment have been made against a number of Ubisoft employees, including Tommy Francois, Maxime Béland, and Andrien "Escoblades" Gbinigie.

Bloomberg now reports that anonymous sources close to the situation have confirmed that both Tommy Francois and Maxime Béland - both of whom are members of Ubisoft's high-level editorial team and each "faced at least three claims of misconduct" - have been placed on administrative leave.

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After a year of tearing up the same turf, it’s time to take the shakedown to another store. Following last year’s debut on the Epic Games Store, Retro City Rampage follow-up Shakedown: Hawaii is bringing its playful, parodical GTA-esque sandbox to Steam this August. But first, developers Vblank Entertainment are once again taking a brief detour towards some rather unexpected ports.

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Among Trees has some of the prettiest sunrises and sunsets I've ever seen in a video game.

I'm not sure how in the mood everyone is for another Early Access survival game right now, especially one as unfinished as Among Trees, but it clicked with me. Its vibrant art direction is so endearing – so visually arresting – that I didn't even mind the sparse mechanics, limited content, and occasional bugs.

This one's a simple pleasure through and through. Every unscripted moment could be a wallpaper.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back at the best community offerings from the previous week. Goodness, this was certainly a week. I will avoid repeating what has already been said by the staff. However, please be aware that the staff and moderation team endeavor to listen, reflect, and get better as a result of what has come to light. You have our most sincere promise to continue to make this site a safe place worth coming back to years upon end. With that in mind, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping.

• Jeff's statement on recent events.
• Abby will be taking the week off and when they return they will log off from social media entirely. Please respect their decision to do so on the site.
• If you are one of the many users still drooling over Cyberpunk 2077, then you should check out the video Jeff Bakalar recorded with the GameSpot crew detailing his impressions of what he played of the game.

Tweets Of The Week

Author's Note: So..... it appears Jeff saying "BIGGER" has become a meme, and most of the people creating videos like the last two you will find have no idea Giant Bomb is even the source. Don't you love the internet?

Square Enix will announce its games that were originally planned for E3 2020 in July and August.

The post Square Enix Will Announce Games That Were Planned For E3 2020 in July and August appeared first on Siliconera.

A ridiculously ambitious fan translation effort for the late 90s Digital Devil Story TCG has been announced on ResetEra. Hot dang!

The post An Ambitious Fan Translation Project is Underway for the Digital Devil Story TCG appeared first on Siliconera.

The Legend of Peach, the pending title for this new Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time mod that ports over the Super Mario 64 maps into the Zelda game, looks absolutely amazing.

The mod, created by @MelonSpeedruns, puts the Super Mario 64 map in Ocarina of Time. So far the short demo only includes the castle ground, the main castle interior, and the Bob-Omb Battlefield area.

Even though structurally it’s the exact map from Super Mario 64, it’s made within the game and engine of Ocarina of Time. Things like trees, walls and floors, bridges, and enemies are from Zelda but have been placed to mirror Mario 64.

There are even rupees instead of coins!

MelonSpeedruns is also trying to recreate the game’s soundtrack by creating the classic Super Mario 64 tunes using the typical instruments used in old-school Zelda games.

In very Zelda fashion, there are areas that are not accessible yet and will require you to get items like the hook-shot in order to nab things like heart pieces.

Summer is finally here. Turn on those fans, jump into a river, or go buy some ice cream. In honor of the hottest time of the year, I asked you folks to show how video game characters are enjoying the summertime.

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This week, Sega released info on Sega Ages Herzog Zwei, a port of one of the first real-time strategy genre games from Sega Genesis.

The post Sega Ages Herzog Zwei Brings Back a Genre Pioneer Onto Nintendo Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

The Japanese arm of PlayStation has been pushing Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima quite strongly, and today we get another trailer.

The trailer is very brief, only clocking at about twenty second, but it’s still quite epic, focusing on small glimpses of the story. 

Among the images Japanese text describes the story mentioning that as the Mongol Empire invades Japan, a lone man abandons the honor of a Samurai to face them, ending with “open-world, historical drama, action-adventure.”

You can check it out below. 

Ghost of Tsushima has recently been slightly rescheduled to release on July 17, 2020, exclusively for PS4. That being said, it has already gone gold, so there won’t be any more delays.

Jupiter announced Picross S: Mega Drive & Mark III Edition at BitSummit Gaiden.

The post Picross S: Mega Drive & Mark III Edition Seems Like a Club Nintendo Picross Successor appeared first on Siliconera.

This week on Snapshots: Some more (non-spoiler) Last of Us 2 photos, one of the coolest Spider-Man pics I’ve seen, some lovely plants, a creepy tree, a nice sit on a bench and a flamethrower.

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NBA Jam was one of my favourite games on the SNES. It's 2v2, over-the-top, arcade basketball action fuelled me during the mid-Nineties, and I loved playing against friends. Back then, NBA Jam felt like a fun, fair game of virtual basketball. It turns out that was not the case.

At least, it was not the case when two specific teams played each other - and in one specific circumstance.

In a fun video interview with Ars Technica, below, NBA Jam designer and lead programmer Mark Turmell reveals the ugly truth: the Detroit Pistons would cheat against the Chicago Bulls.

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The animation industry is currently going through a small reckoning as it finally, finally, really, finally seems to realize that its characters of color could be voiced by actors of color just as easily as white ones.

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It's probably best not to teabag in Call of Duty: Warzone - as this wonderful couple of clips prove.

Twitch streamer Webzy thought he had the game in the bag. He had downed the last enemy and moved in for a cheeky teabag.

But, mid-teabag, his opponent sprung back into life to fire back. Webzy couldn't react quickly enough and died, handing the Warzone win to his opponent.

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Earlier this week, Microsoft abruptly announced that its game-centric livestreaming platform, Mixer, is not long for this world. After paying top dollar to scoop up household names like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek last year, Mixer will be no more as of next month. Suddenly, streamers who’ve…

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Darius Cozmic Collection is available as part of two lineups focusing on arcade and consoles, but the problem is that one is just better.

The post Darius Cozmic Collections Provide a Rather Unbalanced Experience appeared first on Siliconera.

Today Tencent announced a brand new partnership with SNK for a mobile Metal Slug game code-named Metal Slug Code: J. 

The game will be developed by Tencent’s studio TiMi, which you recently heard about for also being behind the newly-announced Pokemon Unite. Among the studio’s resume, we also find Call of Duty Mobile.

The title is still a working one, so the final game will likely be named something else. 

We also got a trailer, which you can watch below. 

The press release included a comment by SNK Producer Yasuyuki Oda, who calls TiMi a “strong developer” and mentions SNK is working “closely” with the studio.

“Metal Slug has such an amazing history of great action and gameplay so we’re proud to bring this to mobile gamers around the world.

We’re happy to work closely with such a strong developer as TiMi Studios on this latest Metal Slug title.” 

We also get a comment from TiMi J1 studio Winco Qin 

“Metal Slug is one of the great arcade franchises and a perfect fit for mobile play.

The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection original soundtrack has been released across various streaming platforms.

You can listen to composer Frank Klepacki's wonderful 90s-infused video game music on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

There are 46 tracks for Tiberian Dawn and 51 tracks for Red Alert. Frank Klepacki and his band The Tiberian Sons recorded 22 new renditions in a separate playlist. That's a lot of Command & Conquer music!

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The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki got a new trailer that showed off the three stories and the True Reverie Corridor bonus dungeon.

The post The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki Shows Off Team-ups and the True Reverie Corridor appeared first on Siliconera.

Every Pokemon is interesting and worth talking about. I don’t play a ton of Pokemon, but I do enjoy the universe and I love learning more about the creatures in it. So, Here’s Another Pokemon! It’s Shiftry!

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Today, during a broadcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beloved visual novel series Memories Off, Mages had a couple of juicy announcements to share.

First of all, the original team behind Memories off is back at work on a new game titled SINce Memories, defined as a completely new title. 

Secondly, a port of the first seven mainline Memories Off games (up to Memories Off: Yubikiri no Kioku, excluding the latest game Innocent File) has been announced, and will be gathered in a released titled “Memories Off Historia.”

No platforms or release windows have been provided, but the original games range from the first PlayStation to the PS3/Xbox 360/PS Vita generation, so they could certainly use a refresh. The developers joked about having to work with really old data. 

Microsoft will close its physical stores across the world, it has announced.

It said it will "reimagine" its flagships (London, New York City, Sydney, and its Redmond campus location), as Microsoft Experience Centers that do not sell products. But Microsoft's 80+ standard retail units will close.

The company said its retail staff will work from Microsoft's corporate facilities to provide sales remotely, as well as training and support. According to a report by The Verge, no layoffs are planned.

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Sources close to Universal Studios Japan reveal that the Super Nintendo World section's opening is being delayed to prioritize coronavirus measures.

The post Super Nintendo World Opening Delayed to Prioritize Coronavirus Countermeasures appeared first on Siliconera.

It was the biggest match of Leaf's Super Smash Bros. career, and her Lucas was one of the best in the game. All that stood in her way on the path to the tournament crown was a nasty Ridley player in a two-stock match. Leaf quickly dispatched Ridley's first life by luring them to the map's edge. But, immediately after respawning, Ridley knocked Lucas off the stage in a bold attempt to even the odds. Ridley then rushed forward to try and spike Lucas into oblivion, but whiffed the killing blow. Leaf quickly readjusted Lucas and gave Ridley a spike of their own, sealing the first-place finish.

Leaf, who prefers to go by her in-game tag, claimed victory in the Smash tournament, but she didn't actually play in the match--her Amiibo did. Leaf is an Amiibo trainer: she "trains" an AI-controlled fighter, Lucas in this case, by playing against it in matches. But when Lucas competes in tournaments, it does so all on its own. Leaf can only watch and hope she's prepared her Amiibo enough ahead of time whenever it goes to battle in the small, weird world of competitive Amiibo fighting.

The original Nintendo Wii was launched all the way back in 2006. And now, 14 years later, indie developer Vblank Entertainment is releasing Shakedown: Hawaii on the old console and also bringing the game to the WiiU too.

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Today Tencent Games hosted its annual conference, and it announced a new cyberpunk-style project code-named “SYN.”

The game is in development at Tencent’s Lightspeed & Quantum Studios and it’s an open-world FPS for both PC and consoles. There was no mention during the presentation of which consoles are being targeted specifically.

That being said, it was mentioned that the game will be “globally marketed” and the trailer was in English, which means that we can expect it to come to North America and Europe.

The trailer itself was defined a “tech demo” for the game and it was really impressive, not to mention a bit crazy.

We get to see rather imposing cybernetic animal pets and character creation featuring really beautiful hair achieved in collaboration with Epic Games.

The pet themselves can be customized both in looks and traits. The video then features vehicles, that can be personalized as well in real-time while rendered in the game’s open-world.

If you want to see “SYN” for yourself, you can check out the video below. Everything is work-in-progress, so the game may change quite a bit before it sees the light.

We’ll have to see how this progresses down the line, but it certainly appears to be interesting for those who love first-person shooters.