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Nintendo Direct: Nindies Spring Showcase — All Switch Games And News
On Wednesday, Nintendo hosted its annual Nindies Spring Showcase. Running for nearly 30 minutes, the Direct-style video presentation provided us with a look at a bunch of new games headed to Nintendo Switch this year, including a couple that are available right now.
Among the highlights of the event was word that Cuphead, previously an Xbox One and PC exclusive, is headed to Switch. We also learned of a Zelda-themed successor to Crypt of the NecroDancer called Cadence of Hyrule. Below, you’ll find a roundup of all the games and news from the event, along with many of the best new trailers. For more, check out our coverage of the new Switch game sale that’s now live on the Eshop in the US.
Also of note, this presentation didn’t include all of the day’s Nintendo Switch news. Separately, during Epic’s GDC keynote, publisher Funcom and developer The Bearded Ladies announced that XCOM-like game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden will release for Switch on June 25. It will launch alongside a new DLC expansion.
Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda
Brace Yourself Games is making this spin-off follow-up to its 2015 indie hit. Cadence of Hyrule takes the familiar rhythm gameplay from Crypt of the NecroDancer, but this time Cadence finds herself in the land of Hyrule, assisted by Nintendo’s Link and Zelda. It’s coming this spring.
Switch Gets Zelda-Themed Crypt Of The NecroDancer Crossover This Spring
Cuphead
The acclaimed 2D action game Cuphead, noted for its gorgeous 1930s cartoon-style visuals and brutal difficulty, is officially coming to Switch. Notably, the Studio MDHR-developed game was previously an Xbox One and PC exclusive. The showcase specifically shouted out Nintendo’s “friends at Microsoft” for helping to make this port possible. The game releases on April 18.
Cuphead Coming To Nintendo Switch Next Month
Stranger Things 3: The Game
The retro Netflix show is getting a game to match, with this co-op action game that sports a 16-bit style. In Stranger Things 3: The Game, you can fight your way through Hawkins and the latest threats from the Upside Down as one of 12 playable characters. It will release alongside the Season 3 of the show (which just got a new trailer) on July 4.
Red Lantern
Red Lantern is set against the harrowing backdrop of the real-life Alaskan Iditarod race. As the Musher for a team of five sled dogs, you’ll have to contend with bears, frostbite, and catching food to survive as you navigate the wilderness and make your way back home. It’s coming this year.
Rad
Double Fine is teaming up with publisher Bandai Namco for an action roguelike called Rad. A post-apocalyptic wasteland is crawling with monsters and mutants, but you’ll develop your own mutations to unlock new powers and attacks as well. It’s coming this summer.
Katana Zero
Devolver Digital’s stylish action-platformer Katana Zero arrives in the Switch Eshop on April 18. As an assassin known enigmatically as “The Dragon,” you’ll cut your way through side-scrolling levels, using your precognitive powers to see into the future and manipulate time. You’ll need to tread carefully, however, as a single hit from an enemy will be enough to bring you down–but even if you fall in battle, you’ll rewind to the beginning of the level and get another chance.
Nuclear Throne
Vlambeer’s Nuclear Throne is out today for Switch. The roguelike-style shooter first launched for PS4, PS Vita, and PC in 2015, but is now available for download on Nintendo’s hybrid console.
Super Crate Box
Another Vlambeer game coming to Switch is Super Crate Box, which releases in April. It’s a single-screen action game in which you fight off an endless horde of enemies and collect weapon crates in an attempt to set a high score. On Switch, there will be exclusive multiplayer modes for two players, with co-op and competitive options available.
Vlambeer Arcade with Ultrabugs
Whereas the previous two Vlambeer games are existing ones, the third is something new and different. Vlambeer Arcade will serve as a collection of “bite-sized games” that will expand over time. The first of these games it will include is Ultrabugs, an action game in which you kill enemies using a spaceship but then have to deal with the additional enemies those spawn when defeated. Vlambeer Arcade is slated to launch with Ultrabugs later this year.
My Friend Pedro
My Friend Pedro is a quirky balletic action game that has you running and gunning and pirouetting through a series of gangsters, with the help of a talking banana named Pedro. The game from Devolver Digital and developer Deadtoast is coming this June.
Creature in the Well
This dungeon-crawler gets an unlikely influence from pinball games. In Creature in the Well, you’ll make your way into a haunted mountain and charge energy orbs, ricocheting them to solve puzzles, uncover gear, and make your way to a deadly creature dwelling inside. It launches this summer.
Blaster Master Zero 2
Blaster Master Zero II is another of the games that is already available for download from the Switch Eshop. It’s a sequel to the 2017 3DS platformer Blaster Master Zero, itself a remake of the NES’s 1988 title Blaster Master.
Pine
Described as a primeval fantasy, Pine stages a war between anthropomorphized moose, foxes, and alligators. Five different factions do battle across six biomes, and you’ll have to harvest and craft your wares to take on the other tribes. It launches in August.
Bloodroots
Bloodroots is a top-down action game built around pulling off combos and using every tool in the environment to your advantage. The fast-paced revenge tale launches this summer.
Overland
The squad-based survival game Overland is coming to Switch this fall. The procedurally generated levels will get increasingly hazardous as you make your way westward, in a post-apocalyptic roadtrip.
Darkwood
Darkwood is a survival-horror game played from a top-down perspective. It doesn’t feature a single linear path and is said to not rely on jump scares to terrify you. The game is set in a European forest where evil is abound, and you’re forced to fight back by injecting an “essence” from mutated plants into your blood to obtain new powers. It releases in May.
Neo Cab
Neo Cab is a narrative-driven survival game from Fellow Traveler and Chance Agency that puts you in the shows of Lina, the last human rideshare driver in a city driven by automation. You’ll need to pick up fares and control your emotions while searching for your missing friend. It’s coming this summer.
Swimsanity
Swimsanity is a side-scrolling multiplayer shooter that is set underwater. You can play with a total of four players (or bots) through online and local multiplayer in co-op and competitive game modes. Based on what we saw, the game has a vaguely Castle Crashers-like vibe to it. It releases this summer.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-direct-nindies-spring-showcase-all-switch/1100-6465723/
Red Dead 2 Online’s Next Big Update Releases This Spring
Red Dead Redemption 2 released to a wave of positive praise. However, its online mode, Red Dead Online, hasn’t been met with the same positive reception. With outlaws incessantly griefing players out in the Wild Wild West, Rockstar Games has tasked itself with addressing the problem in a new update releasing later this spring.
Alongside the release of a new game update, a blog post on the official Rockstar website details some of the additions and changes coming to the game. Keeping in line with anti-griefing methods implemented in February, Red Dead Online will add a hostility system. Players who defend themselves against attackers won’t receive a bounty or an increase in their hostility meter as long as they don’t initiate the gunfight. If you happen to gun down your griefer, your hostility meter won’t increase. The hostility meter won’t affect Free Roam events and missions, Showdowns, Races, and other structured events either.
Rockstar acknowledges not every cowboy’s an outlaw. “Some players just want to immerse themselves in the world, riding, hunting, and fishing in peace,” the post reads. To this effect, the developers are including two modes of play: Offensive and Defensive. Offensive play lets players interact with the world however they see fit, like the current Free Roam mode. Defensive play is, according to Rockstar, “a more evolved version of the Passive Mode concept,” giving players access to the entire open world while de-emphasizing conflict.
Choosing to play in Defensive changes some of the game’s mechanics. For example, Defensive players can’t be lassoed, but if you, in Defensive play, lasso a player, you’ll be removed from the playstyle with a “significant Hostility level increase.” Further, you won’t be able to lock-on to players in Defensive play. But in the same token, players can’t lock-on to you either. Sounds like a fair trade-off for those looking to bask in the world a little longer.
Additionally, this Red Dead Online update will bring about new A Land of Opportunities missions, more Free Roam missions, an introduction to dynamic events (ambushes, resues, etc.), and more. And another Red Dead Redemption classic weapon, the LeMat Revolver, will make its way to the game with this update.
In our Red Dead Redemption 2 review, we called the game “an excellent prequel, but it’s also an emotional, thought-provoking story in its own right, and it’s a world that is hard to leave when it’s done.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-2-onlines-next-big-update-releases-this-s/1100-6465724/
The Latest Free Game From The Epic Store Is Out Tomorrow
In case you haven’t heard: The Epic Games Store is giving away a free PC game every two weeks this year to celebrate its first 12 months in business, and all you have to do is create a free Epic account to claim it. For the past two weeks, Epic members have enjoyed free access to Slime Rancher, a charming game about collecting slimes and running a farm–but starting tomorrow, Slime Rancher will be replaced by Oxenfree, a supernatural mystery game from Night School Studio. Oxenfree will be available for free from March 21 to April 4–and once you claim the game during that time period, it’s yours to keep forever. You don’t even have to install it.
Oxenfree is a story-driven adventure where you play as a teenage girl named Alex on a weekend trip with her friends to an island. After they accidentally trigger the release of a supernatural force, Alex and her friends must find a way to set things right and escape with their lives. Alex has free rein to explore the whole island, and the main gameplay centers around dialogue bubbles that appear above her head as she talks–at any given time, you have multiple dialogue choices to pick from, or you can choose to say nothing at all. Player choices have a significant impact and multiple endings are possible.
“The rabbit hole of influence goes deep in Oxenfree–from playing matchmaker among Alex’s friends to destroying or strengthening her own relationships with them–and it’s entertaining to repeat it all in an effort to learn what could be,” wrote Alexa Ray Corriea in GameSpot’s Oxenfree review. The game received an 8/10 for its amazing dialogue, unpredictable story, fantastic soundtrack, and deep influence of player choice.
Oxenfree generally sells for $20 on PC, so don’t miss this chance to pick it up for 100% off. And if you fall in love with its style and story, keep an eye out for the next game from Night School Studio, Afterparty, which is set to release this year.
Get Oxenfree for free in the Epic Games Store »
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-latest-free-game-from-the-epic-store-is-out-to/1100-6465713/
