Final Destination (Melee – Ultimate)

Just because Final Destination is the first stage on this list doesn’t mean it’ll just be competitive stages. All 15 of these Super Smash Bros. stages are fun for their own reasons and Final Destination just happens to be a fun stage that also sees a lot of competitive play.

It’s a common misconception among those outside of the competitive scene that FD is an equal playing ground for all characters. That’s hardly the truth, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a fun stage to play on competitively or for fun. There’s just something special about the wide-open space, uninterrupted by platforms, obstacles, or stage hazards.

Brinstar Depths (Melee, Ultimate)

Brinstar Depths is one of the most hectic stages to play on in Smash Bros. and it makes for some crazy matches. We all have Kraid in the background to thank for that fun. That giant monster slashes at the stage periodically and causes it to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.

The constant shifting of this stage opens up plenty of spots to camp. But you better know the risks since many of these crannies only have enough space for one character. The best one is the single platform that always starts to the bottom right of the main stage. It’s always a blast fighting for that spot with friends.

Battlefield (Melee – Ultimate)

Like FD, Battlefield has gone through multiple iterations throughout the generations. The Melee version has ledges that are notoriously hard to grab in certain situations. And the other versions have ledges that are ridiculously easy to grab. Both situations are annoying for their own reasons.

While Cyberpunk 2077 was recently delayed yet again, CD Projekt Red have settled on only one delay for Night City Wire. Their livestreamed notE3 presentation was pushed back two weeks to Thursday the 25th, and will be at 6pm CEST (that’s 5pm here in the UK, 9am Pacific). It’ll be 25 minutes long, show some new gameplay from the RPG, and chat with devs about digital dreams. To occupy your cyberhands until then, they’ve bundled up 4GB of concept art, posters, screenshots, and more for your persual. Too bad they slapped the game’s logo on everything, the rats.

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Tencent and The Pokemon Company have unveiled Pokemon Unite, a new free-to-start MOBA for smartphones and the Nintendo Switch. ...

A little witch with different sorts of spells is heading into dangerous castles to find out who she is in Little Witch Nobeta.

The post Little Witch Nobeta Is a Magical Girl Souls-like Now in Early Access appeared first on Siliconera.

With the sun beating down hard on much of the world right now, its the perfect time for a spot of photosynthesis. In keeping with the summer season, spirited "plant girl" Kanna is getting set to bring some flower power to Inti Creates' Blaster Master Zero II.

Revealed during yesterday's New Game+ Expo presentation, the Kanna Raising Simulator DLC will add a brand new mini-game to BMZ II. Players will be charged with blastin' baddies and collecting bonuses in order to provide fertiliser and nutrients to young Kanna, helping her bloom and grow through a variety of different forms. According to the leafy lady herself, the game is "totes bonkers", so go ahead and check out the action in a new trailer below.

The Kanna Raising Simulator DLC will be available to purchase from June 29 on all platforms for just a couple of bucks. Blaster Master Zero II will also launch on PS4 the same day.

A quick review of this month’s new, original Netflix offerings quickly reveals my personal biases.

For example, I’m well aware of the geek-friendly properties, both new and returning: Season two of The Umbrella Academy, based on the comic by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá; the premiere of Cursed, based on a YA novel…

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Yostar released a new trailer of its popular shipgirl-focused game Azur Lane focusing on the brand new update releasing today.

We get to see the full lineup of race queen skins that fans have been waiting for a long time because the art was showcased on itasha (cars decorated with otaku imagery) that appeared during official events dedicated to the game.

On top of that, we also get to see skins for Shangri-La and Independence coming with the Air Raid Drills with Essex event. 

You can check it all out below.

Subscribers get access to Observation, Night Call, The Messenger, and Streets of Rogue this month

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As a Pathfinder main, I'm still reeling from the last major change to the Apex Legends meta, which saw the poor robot get his wings clipped after his grapple ability was nerfed. And next to get a nerf is Wraith: another player favourite thanks to her ability to quickly duck out of a firefight. Until now, that is, and it looks like Octane and Lifeline are moving up the ranks instead.

As part of the Lost Treasures Collection Event update, Respawn is shaking up the meta with some tweaks to several characters. As a character with an "exceedingly high win rate and kill rate", Respawn had previously attempted to weaken Wraith by increasing the cooldown on her tactical ability phase walk, but this seemingly wasn't enough. Instead of it being a "get out of jail free" card, Respawn wants this to be used as a repositioning and scouting ability: meaning phase walk will now take 1.25 seconds to enable. Wraith will also receive a 20 per cent move slow while activating the ability - but on the plus side, she'll be 30 per cent faster when actually in phase walk, and she'll be able to see other players while in the void.

One of the big winners of the update is Octane, whose tactical will now remove any movement-impairing effects, and allow him to sprint 10 per cent faster. His ultimate, meanwhile, sounds like it will now allow for some true aerial acrobatics - with the ability to double jump and change direction mid-air.

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It’s called Movie Nite and players in the US will get to watch Inception

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Best Buy have knocked $100 off the price of Samsung’s ludicrously wide CHG90 gaming monitor as part of their latest PC Gaming sale at the moment, bringing this once $1000 gaming screen down to $900. That’s still a sizeable chunk of change, of course, but this is the cheapest this monitor’s been since mid-March, making it a good time to pick up this jumbo gaming display. Plus, there are loads of mice, keyboards and headsets on sale, too, to complete your PC upgrade. Read on below for our top highlights.

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The Warcraft movie could have been a trilogy - if it hadn't been for the film's poor box office performance in the US.

The 2016 CGI-fest based on Blizzard's fantasy universe revolved around the orcs, who portal to the world of Azeroth under the influence of fel magic.

Warcraft ended up grossing $439m worldwide, but it only managed $47.4m in the US, which pretty much ended any hope of a sequel.

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PlayStation 5 Finally Revealed! | Final Checkpoint Podcast Ep. 41 Read More »

In the last few years, few shows have skyrocketed to success like Dan Harmon’s philosophical sci-fi adult cartoon Rick and Morty. The show centers around a mad scientist, Rick, who drags his grandson, Morty, on crazy sci-fi adventures, usually resulting in harmful consequences for their whole family.

The show is much more than just zany adventures and meta-commentary, though, and you can really tell when you look at the detail that goes into it. Numerous different plot lines, references, and other background gags take place alongside the main story, creating a world unlike any other in cartoons.

In order to celebrate Rick and Morty’s success, we’ve created a trivia quiz that we think would impress even a Cromulon. So do you think you’ve got what it takes?

Show me what you’ve got!

(Images courtesy of Warner Bros.)

Cinemas may be set to re-open soon in England, but Fortnite is screening a Christopher Nolan classic in-game this weekend for you to enjoy at home.

The battle royale game's hangout Party Royale mode will screen one of three Nolan films this Friday, 26th June, depending on which region you live in.

Here in the UK, we get The Prestige (nice!) showing at 5pm UK time (okay, a little early). The US gets Inception, while elsewhere gets Batman Begins. To find out what's showing in your country, Epic's Party Royale site has the full details.

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Just a friendly reminder that SSBU update 8.0 will arrive alongside Min Min, so make sure you have room and your replays backed up.

The post Reminder: SSBU Update 8.0 Is on the Way appeared first on Siliconera.

During yesterday's New Game+ Expo presentation, Arc System Works graced us with some fresh gameplay footage from its heavy metal slapfest Guilty Gear Strive, which is headed to PS4 in 2021.

While the new video did not, unfortunately, reveal any new characters or features, we did get to see two of GG's finest - classy assassin Millia Rage and master of the Forbidden Beasts Zato-1 - engage in a knock-down, drag-out brawl, giving fans their first in-depth look at the two roster veterans in action. Millia demonstrates her excellent rushdown potential, accompanied by a wild variety of weaponised hairstyles, while Zato-1 shows off his ability to control the entire playing field, with help from his nightmarish demon pal, Eddie.

Original Cast Album: ‘Company’ is finally streaming, now on the Criterion Channel

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Today Sega released a new trailer of Phantasy Star Online 2 showcasing a brand new raid boss. 

The trailer is actually related to the Japanese version of the game, so it’s likely that release windows won’t match. 

The boss will be released in September in Japan, but the western servers are likely going to get it later considering that they’re still catching up with content already released in Japan.

You can check it out below.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is currently available in the west for Xbox One and PC for Windows 10. More PC platforms have been promised with a recent trailer.

That being said, Xbox division head Phil Spencer himself went on record mentioning that the game will likely make it to other platforms, even if no further information was shared on that topic.

Join us tomorrow, June 25 at 6PM CEST, at https://t.co/cBU8yS6pfc for the first, 25 minute episode of #NightCityWire, where we are going to show you a brand new trailer, present fresh gameplay footage and chat with the devs in detail about one of the game features, braindance. pic.twitter.com/2RReyCMkce

It also has snorcs, or shark orcs

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Unity has decided to make its Learn Premium educational platform free to everyone, which is good news for developers looking to get to grips with the game engine. ...

Good news for those interested in SINoALICE for the NieR and Yoko Taro connection. The SINoALICE NieR events will start almost immediately.

The post SINoAlice NieR Automata and Replicant Events Will Kick Off in July and August appeared first on Siliconera.

Rebellion has released the third and final chapter of Zombie Army 4: Dead War's story expansion Hell Cult. Available to purchase now on all platforms, Deeper Than Hell adds a new story chapter, new weapons, and an all-new difficulty setting for hardened zombie-poppers.

Following on from the previous chapter, Blood Count, Deeper Then Hell sees our mob of ragtag heroes travel into a subterranean archaeological dig, where it appears The Reich had been attempting to tap into some great evil from generations past. Not only will players have to contend with armies of rotting Nazis, but it seems that the guardians of the ruins themselves are none-too-pleased with this violent incursion into their resting place. It's been a long and frightening journey, soldier, but the end is in sight. Fight on.

I’ve played many free mobile games that function almost exactly like Pokémon Café Mix, but none that prominently feature a super-adorable Charmander who I would follow anywhere and give my life to defend.

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Some games just scream summer - maybe summer's on my mind as I'm writing this in my shed while the sun sears down - and Ninjala's surely one of them. Colourful, upbeat and brimming with energy, it feels like the perfect accompaniment to long June afternoons, so the timing of its release on Nintendo Switch this week - a few weeks later than originally planned due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, though now coming in the middle of a heatwave in the UK - couldn't be more perfect.

At Ninjala's developers GungHo Online, it's the next step in some three years of development since the project's genesis. "A very long time ago I wanted to make something themed around ninjas," GungHo Online CEO Kazuki Morishita tells me over Zoom from the Tokyo office the team has just returned to. "I saw some kids playing around with sticks - it's called chanbara in Japanese - and I asked myself why do people do this? When they pick up a stick, why do they start fighting like it's a sword - it's almost like a natural instinct!"

It's an instinct I'm sure is shared across the globe - even at my tender age I'm still likely to do the same when I pick up a stick, though I'm also likely to accompany it with some improvised lightsaber noises too. "In Japan every kid does that," Morishita continues. "When you're a little kid, we used to play as ninjas - so that, combined with chanbara, that's where it all comes from.

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Since its rocky reveal last year, Marvel's Avengers has stayed relatively quiet outside of a delay announcement and a few short teases of what's to come when the game launches on September 4, 2020. That all changes today, though, as Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix will reveal new trailers and a first-look at some fresh co-op gameplay during its War Table digital event.

Join Ben Reeves, Leo Vader, and me as we watch along and react to all the new footage live with the Game Informer community!

We went live earlier, but you can watch the full stream archive above! And remember to subscribe on YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, Twitter, and Facebook to get notified when we go live.

Hope you like red, white, blue, and fireworks. Independence Day has come to #PSO2, and it'll stick around for a while.

The post The Fourth of July Lasts About a Month With the PSO2 Independence Day Event appeared first on Siliconera.

Back in the noughties, video game publishers Acclaim were masters of the scandalous PR stunt. For Shadow Man 2, they offered to pay funeral costs to put ads on tombstones. They offered to pay speeding fines on Burnout 2’s launch day. They wanted bus shelter posters leaking fake blood. They claimed they had pigeons spraypainted with Virtua Tennis 2 logos to fly around Wimbledon. In a bit of pointless investigative journalism of the very best kind, Connor Makar on VG247 has probed their 2002 stunt of promoting Turok 4 by offering £500 if you legally changed your name to ‘Turok’. Go read it, yeah?

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Ubisoft has lost the captain of its big Viking warship. Ashraf Ismail, the creative director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, has abandoned the project.

Ismail has stepped down from leading Valhalla a little earlier today with the following tweet:

During last week's Pokémon Presents, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company Tsunekazu Ishihara followed up the announcements of New Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Café Mix, and other announcements by teasing more big news today. That "big project" Ishihara teased turned out to be Pokémon Unite.

The game is created in partnership with Tencent Games and TiMi Studios. Pokémon Unite is a 5v5 team-based game with a focus on being highly accessible while also delivering depth. The game features MOBA-style gameplay with various moves and score locations. Player-controlled Pokémon can explore the lanes of the battlefield to capture wild Pokémon to score and evolve to improve their stats. Of course, you can also expect to clash with opposing players on the battlefield.

Pokémon Unite is a free-to-start game coming to Switch, iOS, and Android.

Tencent studio TiMi is working on a free-to-play Pokémon MOBA named Pokémon Unite.

A five-versus-five team battler, it sees squads of players with their own Pokémon battling it out in an arena dotted with control points on various lanes.

As your Pokémon level up and evolve, they'll gain new moves - some unique to Unite which can deal damage to multiple Pokémon nearby. The aim is to hold as many of these as possible, scoring points, before time runs out.

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It’s cross-platform, too

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Riot intended to add a ranked “Competetive Mode” to Valorant, but they found a last-minute bug and so they’re holding it back – probably “for a day or two”. That’s OK. Numberwang can wait, because yesterday’s patch also added a surrender option. That’s a big deal, and I for one welcome it. It does mean you’ll sometimes wind up with unpleasant teammates who insist on giving up on games that can still be won, but it also means you don’t have to sit around allowing unpleasant teammates to make you miserable.

Riot have also tweaked the maps a bit, changed lots of abilities, and adjusted the slowing effect when you get shot “in part to up your chances of escape if you’re near cover”. It’s a big old patch, even without ranked.

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Pokemon Unite, from Tencent, Timi Studio, and The Pokemon Company, was revealed for the Switch and mobile devices.

The post Tencent’s Pokemon Unite Will Be a Team-based Battle Game appeared first on Siliconera.