Destructoid

Yacht Club Games reminded us today to not sleep on Cyber Shadow, the ninja-led platformer revealed last March from Mechanical Head Studios (specifically Aarne “MekaSkull” Hunziker).

By way of their second Yacht Club Games Presents stream, Cyber Shadow just got a new trailer as well as a release window: fall 2020. As a reminder this high-octane platformer is due out on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch, with concessions for Xbox Game Pass on PC and Xbox One. Oh, and there's one other surprise: amiibo support! Shovel Knight line amiibo (Shovel Knight, Specter Knight, Plague Knight, King Knight) will interact with the game in the form of summoning little avatars.

So far it looks fantastic, especially in regards to the heavy emphasis on narrative beats that the trailer teases. We also get to see a few formidable bosses (that seem to have a lot of variety, with bestial foes and humanoid enemies on display) as well as some tricky platforming sequences. I eat these kinds of games for breakfast, and the Game Pass participation makes it even easier to partake.

Big news morning for Platinum Games. Not only have we seen the kaiju-kapers of the newly announced Project G.G., but we now have an official release date for the first release of the "Platinum4": The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which will launch in North America and Europe in May before heading to Japan in June.

The revamped edition of the 2013 Wii-U adventure launched on Kickstarter to instant success, pulling in some $1.6 million in crowdfunding. This mighty total has guaranteed  new extras including a Time Attack mode and an added side-quest: Luka's First Mission.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered launches on PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch on May 19 in North America, May 22 in Europe, and June 11 in Japan. Pre-orders are open now, with the lively title expected to retail for around $40.

When I first played Warframe back in 2013 on the PS4, I never would have thought it would eventually be ported to a Nintendo system, much less be featured in a new Super Smash Bros. iteration. But here we are!

Announced this week by way of the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate account, new spirits will be making their way into the fray for the classic five-day weekend spirit event. This time in addition to several Pokemon, Game & Watch sprites, Mario enemies and Infinite from Sonic Forces (the creepy guy in the bottom left), the Lotus spirit (as well as transformed Natah) will appear.

Lotus is actually a character from Warframe that serves as a guide of sorts, like the Stranger from Destiny. The event will start on February 28, and again, will run for five days. In case you're curious, appearance times for Lotus have been revealed: 03:00, 09:00, 15:00, 21:00.

SmashBrosJP [Twitter]

Who would've thought it? It was already something of an odd undertaking to drop a Sonic the Hedgehog movie long, long after the character's peak popularity. Then there was the unforgettable controversy that followed the initial trailer, seemingly writing the project's epitaph. And yet here we are, just a fortnight after release, and Sonic the Hedgehog has grossed over $210 million USD to date.

Launching on February 14 - adding a Valentine's Day premiere to the list of odd decisions - the Blue Blur's cinematic debut raked in over $58 million in its opening weekend, smashing the "video game adaptation" record set by the wonderful Detective Pikachu just last year. Since then, Sonic the Hedgehog has gone from strength to strength, with Sega proudly denoting the movie as "a new page in the history of video game films."

While the movie, which stars James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, and Jim Carrey, didn't wow critics, fans have clearly been eating it up, with its genuine success seemingly in spite of its earlier controversy, rather than because of it. Carrey has since noted that he would gladly return for a potential sequel which, given the film's current momentum, seems inevitable.

Find out what our CJ Andriessen and Dan Roemer thought of the movie in this edition of Podtoid.

Sonic the Hedgehog is in theatres now.

[Update: Platinum Games has updated the Platinum4 website and released a teaser trailer for Project G.G., which you can check out at the foot of the article.]

Platinum Games has dropped new, mysterious information regarding the second title of the fabled "Platinum4." As revealed in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, "Project G.G." will be a brand new video game directed by industry legend Hideki Kamiya.

The new endeavour is set to be the third and final entry in Kamiya's "Hero Trilogy," with the first two entries presumably being 2003's Viewtiful Joe and 2013's The Wonderful 101 (which Platinum is currently remastering as the first Platinum4 release).

Kamiya - along with Platinum Games Studio Head Atsushi Inaba - notes that Project G.G. is in its pre-development stage, and that it is expected to launch on "all existing platforms." The duo also says that Project G.G. is a "giant hero-esque title" that will "go against user expectations in a good way." Asked what genre the title would fall into, Kamiya says he'd put it in the "something-something action something-something" genre, as it is not a game solely focused on action.

Project G.G. is the second entry of the Platinum4, the third and fourth announcements will be revealed at some point in the future. Inaba notes that the final announcement, in particular, will be "very Platinum and interesting."

Earlier this morning, online retailer Amazon France opened a listing for a PC edition of Guerilla Games techno-adventure Horizon Zero Dawn, which has won the hearts of many a PS4 owner since its exclusive release back in 2017.

As is often the case with these surprise situations, Amazon took the page down in the blink of an eye, but not before word had gotten out on social media, appearing on the Twitter accounts of @Nibellion and @Wario64.

This is obviously no guarantee whatsoever that robot-stalker Aloy is headed to the PC platform - it could be a simple error after all - but it's enough to set tongues wagging, and hopefully we'll receive confirmation either way from Guerilla Games or Sony Interactive soon.

Horizon Zero Dawn is available now on PS4.

Although Rock Band has been their main squeeze since 2015, Harmonix has been churning out several other projects since then, like an Amplitude revival, DropMix, Super Beat Sports and Audica: Fuser is the latest in the line of more experimental music-based projects.

Developed by Harmonix themselves and published by NCSoft, Fuser will feature music from artists like "Billie Eilish, The Chainsmokers, Imagine Dragons, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Migos, Post Malone, and many more (based on a screenshot provided by Destructoid, that "more" seems to include 50 Cent, The Clash, Warren G & Nate Dogg and Smash Mouth). In all there's going to be "more than 100 songs."

Harmonix describes it as "the next evolution of interactive music gaming," allowing players to fuse songs together. A huge part of the game seems to be social sharing, as Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak explains that part of the allure of the game is to "share hit music with your friends," and there's functionality to view performances online. Having played DropMix, it sounds a lot like a digital DropMix.

It's coming this fall on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch, but you can try out a demo at PAX East this week.

In today's contest, we're giving away PC copies of World of Horror!

I'm going to brag about this -- I wrote about World of Horror nearly two years ago, talking about how incredible and terrifying it looked. And look at me now! Here I am featuring it in its very own contest so you guys can get scared shitless with me!

Without further ado, we're giving away Steam Early Access keys to MS Paint-based adventure/horror game World of Horror. Yessssssss. But also a little bit of nooooooooo.

Here is a Doom Eternal advertisement that does exactly nothing to capture why people are so enraptured by Doom. For a marketing effort whose sole purpose is to sell the game, this commercial manages to make Doom Eternal look far more bland and watered-down than it is.

And maybe that's because it has to really rein in the violence for television approval, a tough feat for a game that is aggressively violent. Not a single gun is fired (although maybe there's a shotgun blast at the 20-second mark, but it doesn't seem to kick at all). It's mostly just the Doom Slayer standing around, synced to an ill-fitting soundtrack.

Weird misstep but far from damning. Everything else about Doom Eternal has been promising and exciting. It'll take more than a misguided commercial to kill that momentum ahead of its March 20 launch.

I'm fine with fighting creatures in Stardew Valley as a means to an end, but I know plenty of players who would prefer not to engage with the mines if given a satisfying alternative. A new mod for the PC version of Stardew Valley, Pacifist Valley, is an on-brand solution – a way to progress but not skip.

The mod doesn't let you talk to monsters, become friends, and form alliances, but you can hug them. It "replaces all weapons with hearts, feathers, stuffed animals, and other nonviolent love devices."

According to creator aedenthorn, the goal is to "turn Stardew Valley into a more peaceful place by removing deadly violence from the game." With the mod installed, you'll "attack" with "kissing and heart emoting," and "slain" monsters will fall in love with you (while still awarding XP and item drops).

Instead of leveling up the usual combat skill, you'll become more proficient at cuddling.

The more I think about it, the more I could see Eric Barone offering his own version of this one day. The Stardew Valley creator has his hands full and then some, but it seems like something he'd be super into.

Scorned Ghost Recon Breakpoint players are waiting for that signature "Ubisoft rebound" – substantial updates that'll help salvage the game – but it's been slow-going, even with tempered expectations.

After gathering feedback from players last year, Ubisoft has latched onto the idea of a survival-oriented "immersive mode" in Breakpoint. (One of the community's most-requested changes, apart from AI squadmates, was removing Gear Score and tiered loot.) It was going to launch in February, but the immersive update has slipped to "spring 2020," and we're now supposed to hear more on March 5.

"The complexity of integrating this new mode has proven to be a challenge and we want to ensure that the experience will be a great one when it releases," Ubisoft noted in a blog post this week.

"We understand that you have been requesting more transparent communication and we aim to provide this whenever possible. There are a lot of moving parts in development which has made locking in dates challenging so we haven’t been able to communicate as much as we would have liked."

As it stands, the immersive mode and hacking-centric Engineer class will join Ghost Recon Breakpoint at the same time. The developers "are hoping to release Episode 2 with this Title Update as well."

In a cruel Monkey's Paw twist of fate, Commander Shepard and company have finally made their way to the Nintendo Switch. However, it's not in the long-requested remaster of the original Mass Effect trilogy. It's in a Minecraft character pack.

Microsoft and Mojang have reprised the Mass Effect Mash-Up Pack, a collection of 36 character skins featuring all sorts of intergalactic favorites like Garrus, Wrex, Liara, and Shepard him/herself. It's selling for for 990 Minecraft Coins (about $6) on PC, mobile (iOS and Android), PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

This isn't the first time Mass Effect has made a Minecraft cameo. This exact pack was released in 2014 but was seemingly only available on Xbox One. Now, it's accessible on all of Minecraft's most current platforms.

Call me a dreamer, but someday I'm going to get to run that headline without the parenthetical. Just you wait.

Mass Effect Mash-Up Pack [Minecraft]

As we've covered extensively in the past, GameStop is in dire straits. The brick-and-mortar games retailer has been hemorrhaging money, as it posts net losses and watches year-over-year sales revenue tumble. Although GameStop brass is fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, most onlookers have accepted that it's a matter of when rather than if the company will finally go under.

GameStop has hatched a new plan to hopefully get people back in the store on a recurring basis. There has been an overhaul to the Rewards Pro membership program. Subscribing to the $15-per-year program (or $20 a year if you prefer a physical copy of Game Informer rather than digital), will net you $65 in GameStop rewards certificates.

There's a catch, though. You get $5 immediately upon signing up, and then $5 each month for the whole year. The coupons aren't stackable, however; they have to be used within the 30-day period they're distributed.

GameStop has been playing around with rewards tweaks for its Pro membership for a while now. These changes were technically announced last May, but only a handful of test stores were included. Now, it's being rolled out across all stores. It's also worth noting that this new structure does away with the 10 percent off used games and accessories that Pro subscribers used to get.

After a troublesome delay, Two Point Studios' medical management sim Two Point Hospital is finally available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, following its initial launch on PC back in the summer of 2018.

Blending building layout, budget management, and staff and patient relations with an upbeat, quirky sense of humour, Two Point Hospital is the natural evolution of Bullfrog's 1997 classic Theme Hospital. In fact, Two Point Studios features several notable members of the former Bullfrog team, so anybody who lost many an evening to '90s management sims will likely find Two Point Hospital the perfect cure for what ails them.

It's the engineers versus the artists in Hazel Sky, the left-brainers against the right-brainers. But, the engineers are described as "honored," while the artists are called "reviled." This is a society that's very much governed by science.

Hazel Sky tells the story of Shane, a junior engineer on the flying City of Gideon who has to prove himself worthy of being a man of the machines. The process is more grueling than some written exams. Shane has to track down defunct planes across the island, fix them up, and take to the skies.

There's an unmistakable adventuring quality to Hazel Sky. It looks in the vein of something like Uncharted, sans all the shooting. Ziplining, rope-swinging, dangerous rock-sliding -- it's all quite reminiscent of Nathan Drake, especially considering how Shane's out to uncover the city's mysterious roots.

However, there's another analog to draw, and that's to 2016's indie sensation Firewatch. Shane strikes up an "illicit friendship" with fellow trainee Erin, and it all takes place over a two-way radio. It begs for comparisons between Henry and Delilah's non-physical tryst in Firewatch.

If you aren't yet sold, Hazel Sky is yet another indie game with a folksy acoustic soundtrack, except you can be the one who plays the guitar.

The latest in-game challenge for Overwatch, Ashe's Mardi Gras Challenge, is live until March 9, 2020.

Similar to prior "remember me!" mini-events in Overwatch, you'll earn cosmetic rewards for winning matches in the Quick Play, Competitive, or Arcade modes. This time, the rewards are Ashe and B.O.B. player icons (three wins), a Gold Mask spray (six wins), and a Mardi Gras Ashe skin (nine wins).

As an Ascendant Zenyatta player, I'm enamored with B.O.B.'s bright white plating.

After wracking up those nine wins, you might want to check out the newly-added Experimental Card – the anything-goes testbed for Overwatch features that might not ever end up in the live game. The current experiment is a Triple Damage (one Tank, three Damage, two Support) team composition.

Blizzard is also encouraging players to tune into various Twitch streams for several new Sprays that are so precious, I'm considering leaving my browser running to get them. You'll need to watch six total hours between February 25 and March 9 to collect 'em all. The Twitch schedule is over here.

Ashe's Mardi Gras Challenge is running on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Bethesda is doing everything it can to make sure that everyone is in a Doom state of mind. Last week, we learned that Doom 64 will launch on March 20 alongside Doom Eternal, and it'll have a standalone price of $5. Super reasonable!

In the meantime, Bethesda's looking to drum up some extra Doom sales by marking down the ported classics by 70 percent on Switch. The original Doom is $1.49, Doom II is $1.49, and Doom 3 is $2.99. That's as good as gold. You don't need to be a big-brained Mastermind to know these are fantastic deals.

For the math fiends, that's about $6 for the classic Doom games. Add in Doom 64 in March and it's $11 for the quadrilogy -- unless, of course, you get Doom 64 for free as part of the Doom Eternal pre-order bonus. Hell razing has never been cheaper or more abundant.

Doom, Doom II, Doom 3 [Nintendo eShop]

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows will finally arrive later this week, bringing the escapades of Saitama, along with his friends and enemies, swinging wildly on PS4, PC and Xbox One. Publisher Bandai Namco has released one final trailer to get those knuckles cracking before the big day.

And, you know what? It does exactly as it says on the tin, as One Punch Man lays waste to almost the entire roster with a simple cocking of the fist, taking down Vaccine Man, Crablante, Terrible Tornado and more with a gentle straight jab. Y'know, people complain a lot about OP characters in fighting games... I'm pretty sure Saitama puts all those complaints to rest.

We're long overdue a solid Samurai Jack video game. It's too early to say if Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time will be the series' shining star – bearded Jack is a good start! – but I'm at least listening. Another promising sign: the hack-and-slash game's script is being penned by head writer Darrick Bachman.

Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is in production at Soleil Ltd., the Tokyo-based studio behind Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker. The developer also contributed to Travis Strikes Again and Devil's Third.

The game "ties into the epic series finale," and it has allies like The Scotsman and Sir Rothchild (the lovable canine archeologist), but it's described as "an untold Samurai Jack adventure." The short gameplay clip in the announcement trailer shows a few weapons and enemies – nothing fancy.

We'll learn more about the project at PAX East, direct from Bachman and series creator Genndy Tartakovsky. If you're curious, the Adult Swim Games panel starts at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, February 28.

Battle Through Time is launching this summer on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. At the risk of being presumptuous, I wonder what sort of price point this game will hit. $60? $40?

Animal Crossing: New Horizon's whole shtick is having players board a plane and discover a new island to make their home, which allows for all sorts of thematic artwork and fan creations. This one from redditor T0Rtur3 (with designs by Celesmeh) takes the cake.

The concept is very simple but effective, and a great way to pass the time between groups of Animal Crossing friends before New Horizons arrives on March 20. You put in your name, location (with abbreviation) and seat number in the online app, and it creates a cute fake boarding pass for you that you can print or share online.

This is the sort of promotional material that Nintendo could have created!

Boarding Pass Generator [Dodo Airlines]

Platinum Games has updated its curious "Platinum4" website with a new date, revealing that the second of its four mystery announcements will be made tomorrow, February 26. Within the same 24-hour period, Japanese magazine Famitsu launches its newest issue, and it's expected that these two events will align to deliver the previously-teased "major" news.

While there is currently no info - not even a hint - of what Platinum has in store, we know that the first release of the Platinum4, a remaster of Wii U classic The Wonderful 101, went down an absolute treat with fans. Hopefully whatever the Bayonetta and NieR: Automata producer has up its sleeve will be equally exciting.

Of course, we will bring you all the details as soon as they hit the airwaves, so don't touch that dial. In the meantime, you can check out the resounding success of The Wonderful 101 Remastered's crowdfunding campaign over at Kickstarter, where the project has raked in a cool $1.6 million USD.

Bandai Namco's excellent Dragon Ball FighterZ has now been updated to Season 3 on all platforms, bringing new, game-changing mechanics, moves and characters to Arc System Works' popular anime fighter.

First and foremost, the all-new "Z-Assist Select" mechanic is now in play, offering a choice of assist attacks for every member of the DBFZ roster, ala Marvel vs. Capcom. This seemingly small change is positively huge, allowing the opportunity for players to create lengthy, bespoke combos for their chosen team of fighters.

Maybe you'll choose to bring in a partner for an extended juggle, or perhaps for a powerful projectile ender, with a little experimentation and practice, Z-Assist Select will bring the creativity that much of the fighting game scene is missing in its current "optimised combo only" form, and will make for some very exciting battles.

That's...a lot of colons!

Games with Gold is getting silly and melancholy next month, as the four new games run the full gamut of emotions. On the former side you have Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero and Sonic Generations, and on the latter there's Batman: The Enemy Within and Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. What a wonderful mix, despite Lords of Shadow 2's faults. So let's talk about them a bit.

Lords of Shadow 2 is free from March 1-15, and is probably the most complicated game of the four as it came at an odd time where Konami had no clue what to do with the Castlevania franchise in 2014. It had just hosted the mostly liked Lords of Shadow four years prior and released the polarizing Mirror of Fate, which brought the series back to its 2D platforming roots, a year before. In the end, Lords of Shadow 2 had some neat ideas but never managed to get the series back on track, and it's been dormant ever since.

Batman: The Enemy Within, which is free from March 1-31, was a completed swansong for Telltale of sorts, as the company went under several months after Enemy Within was released. Although the last season of The Walking Dead was finished posthumously, some of the work was done by Skybound Entertainment. Enemy Within is actually the second [and currently, last] season for the Batman subseries, focusing mostly on The Joker.

CD Projekt Red has been duking it out with the big boys for the past 10 years and it paid off, literally: they are now considered one of the club.

By way of a new market valuation for the company, CD Projekt Red is now valued at $8 billion, a stark jump from its $6.8 billion valuation just four weeks ago. As RPS points out this figure is very liquid, but the mere fact that the studio is even fighting at this weight class is impressive, and shows how far they've come with The Witcher property alone.

Right now, they're just behind Ubisoft in the European rat race, which is valued at $9.6 billion. Still, that $8 billion triumph puts them just behind Ubisoft and makes them the second largest European game studio right now. This is before The Witcher Netflix series grows even more with at least another season on the way (likely more), and before Cyberpunk 2077 arrives. If it's a hit, that figure could change.

CDPR's market valuation surpassed $8 billion [Reddit via RPS]

As the hype continues to build for Capcom's Resident Evil 3, the RE marketing team has just announced that a demo is incoming very soon, giving us our first opportunity to take nu-world Jill Valentine for a spin around the re-imagined hellhole of Raccoon City.

A succinct tweet on the official Resident Evil Twitter account simply reads "It was written in the STARS... A Resident Evil 3 demo is on the way. We'll have more details in the near future!" In addition, several news outlets have released previews of the survival horror sequel.

Given that Resident Evil 3 is launching on PS4, PC, and Xbox One as soon as April 3, chances are you won't have to wait too much longer before you can try out the grim-looking adventure out for yourself. We'll keep you up to speed as and when these new details are released.

Marvelous Europe finally has a release date for the European and Australian editions of Granblue Fantasy: Versus. The gorgeous looking 2D fighter will be hitting the continents on March 27, just a couple of weeks after its March 3 North American street date.

Unfortunately, in a statement on its official website, the publisher also announced that plans have been cancelled for the physical Premium Edition, previously expected to be a Marvelous Europe Online Store within Europe. Marvelous puts the cancellation down to "ongoing time constraints and production issues."

Red Dead Redemption 2 has one of the biggest open world sandboxes yet, but the thing that sets it apart is how full of life it really is.

Foxes diving into the snow, dogs who are left in the rain, birds eating leftover carcasses: these are things you may have noticed in your playthrough, or missed entirely. Given how expansive this world is, either could be true. YouTube channel Red Dead Online Guides is starting a new series called "Animals," that shows off some of the game's higher points.

They also provided a side-by-side GIF of the former aforementioned fox and a few other animals, comparing the real-life versions and their made-up video game ones. It's a breezy Tuesday morning watch, that's for sure!

Electronic Arts has announced that it will not be present at the GDC 2020 event to be held in San Francisco next month. In a statement to GameSpot, the long-time publisher announced that it was cancelling its attendance in the wake of the global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus - more commonly referred to as the "Coronavirus."

"Having closely followed the global situation with Coronavirus and with the recent escalation of cases in new regions, we have decided to take additional steps to protect the wellbeing of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel," said an EA spokesperson in the statement. "As a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate."

Electronic Arts joins a number of high-profile companies limiting their appearances at upcoming events such as GDC and PAX East, including PlayStation, Oculus, and Kojima Productions. Recent statistics point to around 80,000 confirmed global cases of the Coronavirus, though only 53 of these are located in the United States.

GDC 2020 takes place in San Francisco between March 16-20.

EA is dropping out of GDC 2020 due to the coronavirus [GameSpot]

Nintendo has been slow and finicky with its Super Nintendo game rollout for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. We're still waiting on big-hitters like EarthBound, Super Mario RPG, and the Donkey Kong Country series, to say nothing of countless other gems that would be just as enjoyable to play now – in 2020, on Switch – as they were back in the '90s on SNES. It's a frustratingly avoidable situation.

That said, I can't help but feel like too many of us slept on the most recent batch of games – the titles added to Nintendo Switch Online on February 19, 2020. Pop'n Twinbee, in particular, deserves more buzz. It's a shoot-'em-up that people who rarely dip into the genre can have a good time with, and it gets bonus points for clever two-player co-op in which you can strategically hurl a friend at foes.

Did I mention your ship has arms? I should mention that your ship has arms. Every ship should!

Pop'n Twinbee drew me in with its cute-'em-up aesthetic, but what I like most about the game is having to juggle power-ups before they fall off-screen while also dodging incoming fire, clearing out foes in the air, and chucking bombs at land-based threats, some of which are giant, goofy, waltzing pineapples.

In today's giveaway, we're giving out beta keys to bitchin' card battler Monster Train!

I read somewhere a long time ago that Samuel L. Jackson refused to do Snakes on a Plane if they cut his monologue and made the movie PG-13. It led to one of the greatest moments in cinematic history.

This has nothing to do with the topic at hand, of course, but I just like that story. There are monsters on this train, however, so I guess it's close enough. So experience the monstery train in Monster Train, and play the beta so everyone knows how dedicated you are to eliminating pests from public transport vehicles.

_{[Uber-popular Fortnite streamer Ninja set a cat among the gaming pigeons several days ago with his comments regarding how players react and respond to defeat in games. In this community blog, Destructoid reader Chris Bradshaw weighs in with his personal opinion on this latest talking point.]}

In the morning, between Monday to Friday, you’ll find me on the train riding to work and checking my Twitter feed. I just joined the social media site a year ago, and while I don’t have too much in the way of followers, or even people that I follow, I am usually able to read everyone’s tweets in a matter of minutes most of the time. Once Twitter is done showing me most of the tweets from who I follow, it’ll begin to show me topics that I may be interested in.

Electronic Arts hasn't been shy or merciful when it comes to shutting down Star Wars games. Last month, we got word the Star Wars game that was codenamed Orca (and was an evolution of Visceral's project codenamed Ragtag) was canceled. Now, another Star Wars title has been canned, even though it was supposed to be the substitute for Orca.

Kotaku reports that EA has canceled the codenamed Star Wars Viking, a Battlefront spinoff that had open-world systems. Viking was in development at EA Vancouver and had Criterion (now the full-time Need for Speed studio) as support. EA had hoped to have Viking in stores alongside the launch of new consoles this holiday.

Viking had to be a smaller-scoped game to fit into that timeline, and it seems as if the developers all had lofty ambitions. Kotaku's sources point to a "too many cooks in the kitchen" mentality, with Criterion insisting on strong narrative and characters in ways that didn't really mesh with EA Vancouver's prototyping. Additionally, the schedules of a west coast studio and a UK studio made coordination even tougher.

EA saw the writing on the wall -- mostly that this game would never be finished by Holiday 2020. Without that PS5/Xbox Series X launch in its sights, EA didn't see a reason to continue development on a game that couldn't fulfill its original need. Viking was canceled in the first half of 2019, although its story is being told nearly a year later.

Just because the Time Pieces were recovered, didn't mean Hat Kid's work was done. The wonderful little mascot platformer A Hat in Time got significant post-release support in the form of a couple of add-ons: Seal the Deal and Nyakuza Metro. They're currently available on PC and Switch, but not PS4 or Xbox One.

A Hat in Time developer Gears for Breakfast hasn't yet taken its timecard and punched out. It's still working on getting those DLCs ported over to PlayStation and Xbox. In a tweet today, the developer dropped a "steady as she goes"-type update, revealing that the ports are still underway and promising-seeming but without a release date.

Nintendo pulls off memorable expo booths like few others in the gaming space. This year for PAX East, the company is setting up a "full-scale immersive experience" for Animal Crossing fans with scenery and costumed characters from New Horizons. If you've ever wanted to get your picture taken with K.K. Slider or Isabelle – or give Tom Nook a piece of your mind – the Boston Convention Center is your chance.

If you're attending PAX East 2020 (February 27 - March 1), you can get a taste of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in a hands-on demo and even earn a Tom Nook tote bag if you're quick enough.

Other playable Switch games at Nintendo's booth include Pokémon Sword and Shield (with a postcard booklet and pin), the ScreamPark mode in Luigi's Mansion 3, and the silly co-op title The Stretchers.

Nintendo will once again offer a free Warp Pipe Pass for priority access. To get your pass for the first day of PAX East, head to this site on February 25 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern with a Nintendo Account.

One last note: if you're a collector, try to stop by and check-in with your My Nintendo QR code – you'll get an Isabelle pin (while supplies last). I never know quite where to put them, but I love 'em.

Retro-releasers Hamster - amidst its run of classic SNK fighters and arcade shmups - occasionally drop a title that's a little more niche in its appeal. Perhaps the ultimate example of this is the publisher's latest Arcade Archives release: a mid-'80s arcade port of Japan-exclusive Famicom release Vs. Mah-Jong, now available to download on Nintendo Switch.

Vs. Mah-Jong is the arcade edition of the Famicom title of the same name and is, as you'd expect, a digital representation of the traditional tabletop game, first developed in China back in the 1600s. Mahjong features small, individual playing pieces, each emblazoned with intricate designs or characters. The goal of Mahjong is for players to draw and discard tiles from the central stack in order to be the first player to complete a winning "hand".

Microsoft is ever-so-slowly lifting the lid on the Xbox Series X. Earlier today, we got a new round of bullet-pointed information -- again, less a confirmation of actual specs, and more a bunch of promises about what it'll be able to do. Still, things like hardware-accelerated raytracing and backward compatibility that stretches back to 2001 are alluring features.

Easy to overlook in the flurry of tech jargon is a new compatibility tool that Microsoft is calling Smart Delivery. This is essentially a way for games to determine whether you're playing on Xbox One or Xbox Series X, and run an appropriate version.

Here's why that's important. Microsoft's primary goal with the next generation of consoles is to blur the lines between machines. There won't be first-party Xbox Series X exclusives (for a while anyway); they'll be playable on Xbox One too. Similarly, Xbox One accessories will work with the Series X. Microsoft is approaching the Series X as simply another option to play Xbox games -- alongside Xbox One, PC, and mobile devices through Project xCloud.

Not enough video games try to capture the trap-filled tension of the 1997 movie Cube. That's where I'm at this morning after watching the trailer for Disc Room, a gauntlet-survival game from Jan Willem Nijman and Kitty Calis (Minit), Terri Vellmann and Doseone (High Hell), and publisher Devolver Digital.

Disc Room is about a scientist trying to investigate an "intergalactic slaughterhouse" orbiting Jupiter in the year 2089. The only way to make sense of the saw-filled maze is to delve deeper, and the only way to keep our little scientist pal alive is to learn through a whole lotta gruesome trial-and-error.

Along the way, you'll pick up new abilities – an invincibly dash, time bending, and cloning – "as you become one with the disc." Corralling cloned characters to solve puzzles is one of those things I'll always struggle with in games, but I'm curious to see how some of these concepts are layered in.

Disc Room will launch in 2020 on Steam with plans for a "console" release too.

Like spice, the Mario 64 mods must flow.

There's no stopping the influx of reworks, fan creations and mods for what is ostensibly one of the most iconic platformers ever made, and that includes this new creation called "Mario Party 64." Shared by YouTuber Mr.Comit, the mod (which is now at version 1.02) contains 70 Stars to collect, and allows you to play Mario Party 64 platformer style, in the same vein as Mario 64 proper.

Pretty much everything is in play here, from enemy character models to caps. The modder recreated all eight boards and "over a dozen minigames," so this is pretty much a full-on brand new game. Some of the jumps look pretty tricky, even if I have those physics committed to muscle memory!

You can find the mod in the video description here.

Bandai Namco has returned from its latest soiree across the seven seas, bringing with it treasure in the form of four new trailers, each representing a playable character in the upcoming hack 'n' slash adventure One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.

Joining the sequel's ever-expanding roster are the stunningly beautiful-but-villainous Boa Hancock, dangerous clown warlord Buggy, Gothic swordsman Dracule Mihawk, and finally androgynous miracle worker Emporio Ivankov, who rounds out this group of scurvy dawgs.

Open your mind and embrace the wackiness below. Character profiles for this quartet, (along with the rest of the revealed roster), are viewable on the official site. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 launches on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch March 27.

Every week, dozens of mobile games are released with little to no fanfare, pushed into a marketplace very few are capable of surviving. I'd like to change that, which is why I'm introducing Mobile Monday. Each week, this feature will focus on a handful of interesting mobile titles that go beyond the usual dreck clogging up the app stores.