As those living in Japan enjoy the annual week-long vacation period known as Golden Week, those of us living in other parts of the world are enjoying some perks of our own in the form of game deals across several digital stores. The PlayStation Store and Steam have both launched Golden Week sales recently, and now Nintendo is getting in on the fun with a publisher sale from Nippon Ichi Software, the developers behind games like Disgaea and Phantom Brave. It’s a small sale, with only 18 games, but there are some decent deals here worth checking out.

Disgaea 1 Complete and Disgaea 5 Complete are marked down–the classic strategy RPGs are currently selling for $40 and $30, respectively. Disgaea 1 Complete has been remastered to match the quality of Disgaea 5 for the Nintendo Switch, with improved sprites, character portraits, and backgrounds, as well as a new playable character and a few other UI tweaks. Disgaea 5 Complete comes with all DLC content, including eight bonus scenarios and more characters and classes.

You can grab Yomawari: The Long Night Collection for just $30 on Switch; the bundle includes both Yomawari: Night Alone and Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. Each game has a unique story, but in both you’ll play as young girls making their way through a bizarre, spooky rural Japanese town at night. Another solid deal: The Longest Five Minutes, a game about a hero who loses his memories in the last five minutes of a final boss fight, which is available for 50% off ($20).

Nintendo’s Golden Week Sale is running through May 7 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 3 PM GMT (1 AM AET on May 8), so you have about a week to claim these deals. According to an NIS America blog post, the sale is available in the US, Europe, and Australia Eshops (prices may vary).

SHOP NINTENDO’S GOLDEN WEEK ESHOP SALE »

And see the full list of game deals below:

Switch

• Disgaea 1 Complete — $40 (20% off)
• Disgaea 5 Complete — $30 (25% off)
• Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory — $30 (25% off)
• God Wars: The Complete Legend — $30 (25% off)
• Happy Birthdays — $30 (25% off)
• Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk — $40 (20% off)
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince — $15 (25% off)
• The Longest Five Minutes — $20 (50% off)
• The Lost Child — $25 (50% off)
• Penny-Punching Princess — $20 (50% off)
• Touhou Genso: Wanderer Reloaded — $30 (40% off)
• Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle — $12 (40% off)
• Yomawari: The Long Night Collection — $30 (25% off)
• Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana — $42 (30% off)

3DS

• Culdcept Revolt — $21 (30% off)
• Rodea the Sky Soldier — $10 (50% off)
• RPG Maker Fes — $21 (30% off)

3DS deals exclusive to UK/AU

• Etrian Mystery Dungeon — 25% off
• Etrian Odyssey Untold — 25% off
• Etrian Odyssey II Untold — 25% off
• Legend of Legacy — 50% off
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker — 25% off
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers — 25% off
• Stella Glow — 50% off

Wii U

• Rodea the Sky Soldier — $10 (50% off)

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-eshop-launches-golden-week-game-de/1100-6466555/

Kart racing games are back, baby. By the time Team Sonic Racing launches on May 21, it will have been almost seven years since the last game in the series, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, graced our consoles. In that time, only one kart racing franchise of note has stuck around: Mario Kart.

Compare that with the glory days of the early 2000s and you can see the contrast: Looney Toons Racing, Toy Story Racer, Digimon Racing… I could go on, but you get the point. Around this time, every major franchise had a kart racing spinoff, and while these attempts persisted half-heartedly into the early 2010s–ModNation Racers and LittleBigPlanet Karting, we hardly knew ye–the genre has all but died off save for Nintendo’s frontrunner, which continues to dominate. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on Nintendo Switch with nearly 17 million copies shifted. Mario Kart 8 was also the best-selling game on Wii U with 8.5 million units sold.

That’s all well and good, but it’s a five-year-old game, and there’s only so many times I can go round Mario Kart Stadium (and only so many times I can bear getting hit by a blue shell). I need some new challengers.

Luckily, Sumo Digital and Beenox are entering the fray with their own respective kart racers: Team Sonic Racing and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. They’re each their own experiences, of course, but it’s encouraging seeing more developers and publishers greenlight these kinds of projects. As Mario Kart’s success shows, there’s a huge audience for kart racing games out there.

Derek Littlewood, studio design director at Sumo, agrees. “I don’t think the market for great karting games has ever gone away,” he tells me. “I think part of the success we had with a game like [Sonic & All Stars Racing] Transformed was … because it was a cracking game, but it was also because those people were there, and they wanted that game. And they didn’t have Nintendo systems and they weren’t playing Mario Kart. [Transformed] did really well on Nintendo systems as well, which just says even those people who are playing Mario Kart are still saying, ‘I want more of this.'”

Still, it’s strange–though pleasing–to see two big names in the genre returning so close to one another: Crash Team Racing’s remaster will launch just exactly a month after Sonic’s new car-focused adventure. That’s before you get to Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo’s first mobile kart racer, which is also scheduled to launch this summer.

Of course, each game offers different flavours, and Team Sonic Racing’s distinguishing features offer a surprising amount of depth. The game is centered around team play–even if you play alone, you’re put into a team with two other Sonic heroes. Each team member contributes to a shared ultimate meter, which when filled can be activated to accelerate your team and sharpen up their handling. You fill the ult meter by performing team-oriented actions, such as helping them up when they spin out–passing close to them will get them back in the race more quickly–or slipstreaming behind teammates to gain a small boost.

This focus, Sumo says, was decided by Sonic Team head Takashi IIzuka, who wanted a game he could play with his kids where they could all contribute to a shared success. Littlewood, however, says Team Sonic Racing isn’t just family-friendly fodder: “I think the unique thing that the team play allows us to do is make the game more accessible for less skilled players, because you can play with someone who is better than you at the game, and they can help you be better at it, rather than you always competing with each other. But at the same time, we’ve added a lot of depth to the different team actions and team play in general that allow high-level players to get more out of it.”

Sumo clearly believes this is enough to set Team Sonic Racing apart from its competition. The inclusion of such iconic characters also helps, of course, but there’s no doubting TSR’s team play and kart customization, which allows you to tweak the stats of each character to make them quicker or easier to handle, for example, provide a decent amount of depth. The different classes–speed, technique, power–and their respective strengths of speed, handling, and offroading, do the same.

Tracks are a joy to race around, too, with some beautifully diverse styles and different optimal routes depending on which class you opt for. Sonic, for example, is best staying on smoother roads and racing in straight lines wherever possible. Tails, as a technique character, can slalom around obstacles, but Knuckles is best equipped to power straight through them.

However, at the preview stage at least, Sonic Team Racing lacks the shine of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Power-ups don’t feel quite as fun to play with, and handling is currently less satisfying thanks to a somewhat loose-feeling drift. There is a story mode–which is the justification for excluding non-Sonic characters after Transformed–but is a text-based narrative much of an attraction for players, or would they rather skip it and get back to the racing?

I’m skeptical the game can unseat Mario Kart as the reigning champion of the kart racing genre, but perhaps overtaking Nintendo isn’t the point. “For people who are fans of that kind of game, they each offer something different,” says Littlewood. “The moment-to-moment gameplay of our game is different enough from Crash or Mario Kart that we don’t really think about it in terms of competition. In my mind they have completely different pace and feel. We’re happy there’s more for fans to play.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/team-sonic-racing-and-crash-team-racing-signal-a-n/1100-6466537/

May is almost upon us and Microsoft has announced a new slate of Xbox Game Pass titles joining the subscription line-up over the course of the month. As usual this initial burst of announcements covers the first half of May, with more announcements likely to come later and fill out the remaining days.

First, on May 2, Game Pass subscribers will get access to Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. The first-person shooter inserts you deep into Nazi-occupied America with a cast of colorful characters at your side. That same day the service will also add Wargroove, the retro turn-based strategy game reminiscent of Advance Wars.

On May 9, the service will add the resource management sim Surviving Mars and Tacoma, the sci-fi narrative adventure game from the makers of Gone Home, along with the MMORPG Black Desert. The strategy RPG For the King is being added as well, and while it officially launches on May 10, Game Pass subscribers get it three days early on May 7. As detailed in a separate announcement, the rogue-like Descenders will also leave early access and launch on Game Pass (and Steam) on May 7 as well.

Finally, on May 16, Game Pass will add tough sci-fi Souls-like The Surge along with the notably more family-friendly Lego Batman 3.

This month will also get a little bonus benefit outside of the slate of included games. Rocket League, which is already included in Game Pass, is launching an Xbox Customization Pack with in mid-July. Game Pass members get the pack early, and free.

Xbox Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat subscription service for $10 / £7.99 / AUD $10.95 per month, offering full game downloads. This is separate from Xbox Live Gold, which just outlined its own free games for the month of May. The two also recently got an “Ultimate” bundle that packages them together. If you haven’t tried out Game Pass yet, you can sample it for cheap for a limited time. The offer gives you 3 months for just one buck.

Xbox Game Pass Games For May

• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (May 2)
• Wargroove (May 2)
• For the King (May 7)
• Surviving Mars (May 9)
• Tacoma (May 9)
• Black Desert (May 9)
• The Surge (May 16)
• Lego Batman 3 (May 16)

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/may-xbox-one-game-pass-lineup-revealed/1100-6466554/

A new update for Mortal Kombat 11 has arrived, and it’s a big one. The new update, which is available now on PS4 (and is coming to Xbox One, Switch, and PC soon), fixes exploits and issues, makes changes to matchmaking, introduces some AI adjustments, and a lot more. You can see the full patch notes posted at the bottom of this story.

In addition to the update, today marks the release of developer NetherRealm’s response to the Mortal Kombat 11 microtransaction controversy. The studio maintains that it does not want to artificially push people toward spending money on microtransactions.

And in a “thank you” effort and a measure of good faith, the company is releasing a free in-game currency bundle for all Mortal Kombat 11 players. This bundle–which includes 500,000 Koins, 500 Hearts, 1,000 Souls, and 1,000 Time Crystals. The bundle is coming to PS4 with the new update today, and should arrive on other systems soon.

You can see the full patch notes below, as posted by NetherRealm on Reddit.

“There’s a diverse roster of interesting characters and playstyles, and the story mode is an entertaining romp,” Edmond Tran wrote in GameSpot’s Mortal Kombat 11 review-in-progress. “The unfulfilling approaches to the game’s dynamic single-player content and progression may feel like they’ve totally whiffed (at least at this early stage), but Mortal Kombat 11 hits where it matters.”

Mortal Kombat 11 Patch Notes:

• Fixed an exploit that allowed for more than one variation of a character to be set as default, which could then result in an online desync when trying to select that character

• Fixed a rare issue that occurred if the user lost internet connectivity while customizing their character, which would sometimes result in that variation being saved with some items being locked

• Fixed a rare issue that was affecting some user progression after using Kenshi’s blindfold in the Krypt to fully drain their Soul Fragments

• Move list and frame data corrections

• Integrated launch day gameplay server-side data

• Tweaks to online matchmaking

• AI adjustments

• Fixed a rare crash involving trying to use quick moves list in story mode

• Fixed a rare crash in the Totem Pole tower in The Gauntlet

• Fixed a crash related to pausing and unpausing the game

• Corrected some incorrect instruction text in tutorial mode

• Enabled Dev Slayer functionality

• Kitana’s Fans will no longer sometimes remain invisible if she is interrupted out of Edenian Fade with specific timing

• Hotfix server data will no longer sometimes become invalid when the game is booted up online

• Fixed a rare crash involving using a consumable near a chest in The Krypt

• Increased rewards for breakables in The Krypt

• Adjusted rewards from AI Battle mode

• Increased Koin rewards for winning Ranked Matches

Towers of Time Adjustments

• Adjusted AI difficulty curve

• Further opponent health reductions in higher level Towers

• Performing a Fatal Blow while standing in an active modifier will no longer sometimes cause unexpected behavior or a crash

• Ice based modifiers will no longer attempt to freeze players during invalid states

• Adjusted and removed modifiers from many Daily Towers

• Increased Koin Rewards for kompleting Towers and Tower Platforms

• Increased Dragon Challenge Koin rewards

• Increased post fight Koin rewards

• Increased amount of Hearts earned from Fatalities, Brutalities, and Mercies

• Lowered modifier damage for many modifiers

• Adjusted the lifespan of several modifiers

• Dramatically increased cooldowns on Tag Assist modifiers

• Fixed a missing Reduced Damage modifier in The Gauntlet

• Several Gift/Curse Modifiers are now considered projectiles allowing them to interact with moves that effect projectiles as intended

• Adjusted Gauntlet difficulty and progression requirements

• Disabler Konsumables now work with all intended modifiers

• Improved targeting for several Konsumables

• Sektor Hunter Killer Protocol Modifier is now disabled by the Rocket Disabler Konsumable

• Corrected some multipliers on Augments for some characters which were inconsistent with others

• Fixed incorrect Armor interactions with some Modifiers

• Decreased Konsumable cooldowns for players

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-mortal-kombat-11-patch-out-now-heres-everythin/1100-6466546/