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Game Updates

Q-UP is a coin flipping eSports game that prides itself on its fairness that might be gaslighting me

by admin September 27, 2025

I think Q-UP might be gaslighting me. It most certainly is a real video game, I played it myself. And yet it presents an entirely different vision of reality where it is the coin flipping eSport of choice. The worst part is that it nearly convinced me that such a reality is a pretty good one. Perhaps even more than half!

Here’s the strange lowdown. Q-UP is the latest game from Universal Paperclips and Babble Royale designer Frank Lantz through his family-run studio Everybody House Games. In it, you flip a coin, which the game describes as being the fairest of games because it is always a 50/50 chance that you will win. There are two teams, Q-Side, and Up-Side. Imagine you’re on Q-Side for a moment, and the coin lands Q-Side up. It does that two more times and you’ve won, a first to three type deal. That’s the game! And also it’s not the game at all.

Q-UP is coated from head to toe in the aesthetics of something like Overwatch. There are different heroes you can choose from with different skills that affect how much XP you earn, which is what the actual game is. You are trying to game the game so that you get as much XP as possible, whether you lose the coin flip or not, mixing and matching these skills so that they react with one another based on the results of the flip, or even just when the flip happens itself.

You can really rack up some XP too! I somehow managed to get over 200,000 points in one round, going up an entire rank in the game’s demo, and let me tell you, the rush I felt was unlike anything any game that Q-UP is satirizing has given me before. I truly mostly don’t care for games like Overwatch, the shooting just doesn’t appeal to me and I don’t like being called slurs by children even on a good day. But a game where I can just cut all of that out and get straight to the heart of it all, which is making number go up? That’s a thing of beauty.

You can also genuinely play this game online, seemingly with strangers or your own friends. If that’s not your bag there’s a single-player option too.

Even in just its demo, Q-UP is a fascinating deconstruction of what makes eSports works, and also where it fails. Sometimes you’ll have a match where you lose three flips in a row, and you’ll get an email from the developer apologising for getting it wrong, offering you some currency to make up for it. Other times you’ll spend 50 gold on the chance of pulling a literal whale, with the game outright telling you it’s a 0% chance. And you’ll do it multiple times anyway just to check.

Subtle, Q-UP is not, but it is genuinely fun, and somehow manages to capture that “one more game” quality that the best eSport games have. There’s no release date for it just yet, though you can give it a go yourself by checking out the demo on Steam.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Minecraft Welcomes You To The Copper Age

by admin September 27, 2025

When copper debuted in Minecraft on June of 2021, it was immediately a block with tons of potential, thanks to the ability to age the material into a variety of different shades. Now, though, copper is finally living up to all that potential in Mojang’s upcoming update, The Copper Age, which brings a bunch of new options to put all that copper in your storage chests to use. The Copper Age update drops next week, on Septemer 30.

First (and finally), you’ll be able to wear and carry copper. Copper armor, which sits between leather and iron armor in terms of durability and protection, includes the full suite of armor, plus armor for your horse. You’ll also be able to create a full set of copper tools. These items won’t oxidize, and they’ll be more durable than stone tools, but less so than iron.

The copper chest, copper armor, copper lanterns, and other copper tiles.

This update also adds copper chests, golems, and golem statues. You’ll get your first copper chest when you create a copper golem (combine copper blocks and a carved pumpkin to make this new friend-shaped mob). Then, you can put items into the copper chest, and the copper golem will sort those items into normal chests around your base. Additionally, when one of these little guys meets an iron golem, legend has it that something super adorable happens.

Copper golems become golem statues when they fully oxidize. If you chip the gunk off with an axe, the golem will wake up again, and of course you can use wax to stop the oxidation indefinitely. As a statue, though, copper golems have other uses. Like an armor stand, copper golems have a set of different poses that you can toggle through by interacting with the statue. Give your base the right vibe with a welcoming or fearsome golem statue. That’s not all, though. Copper golem statues also work with redstone, with each pose emitting a different signal when they connect to a redstone comparator. We can’t wait to see what clever redstone engineers do with this, seriously.

Copper torches and copper bars.

You can also make copper lanterns, torches (which glow green), chains, and bars to give your hideout a new look, including choosing the patina that matches your preference. Lightning rods will oxidize now, too.

One of the most interesting new additions is the shelf. Shelves are blocks that hold three items that you can use to swap items quickly in and out of your hotbar. Place powered shelves next to each other and employ some redstone, and you can swap out your entire hotbar. Set up shelves with your spare equipment, loadouts for specific types of expeditions, and so on.

The new shelf block.

Lastly, this update will change the dye icons out to make them easier to identify for better accessibility.

Also announced at Minecraft Live are the holiday 2025 update Mounts of Mayhem, the educational Friendly Fishing add-on, and an upcoming Dragon Ball Z collaboration.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

If you miss how much Hornet used to scream and shout, there’s a Hollow Knight: Silksong mod you’ll shaw-ly want to pick up

by admin September 27, 2025

Have you, like me, been unable to get that one TikTok sound out of your head that mixes Anri’s iconic anthem I Can’t Stop The Loneliness with the screams of Hollow Knight’s very own Hornet ever since Silksong came out? It’s a surprisingly good combo, but it also serves as an unintended reminder for something: these particular screams of Hornet’s are nowhere to be found in Silksong. You know, the classics, like “SHAW,” and “Adino!” not to mention the unforgettable “Hegale!” So of course there’s a mod for that.

For whatever reason, Team Cherry decided to opt for Hornet taking a quieter approach to her attacks and special abilities compared to the boss version of her you fight against in the original Hollow Knight. I can only assume that’s because spending upwards of 20 hours getting to just the default ending of the game would surely result in “SHAW” getting a bit grating for some people. That doesn’t mean folks haven’t been missing these sounds though, and coming in to save the day is modder Nai, who made a mod simply titled “HK Hornet Voice Restored.”

As you can probably guess, this mod replaces the sounds she makes using her silks skills with the sounds she emits in Hollow Knight as a boss (thanks, GamesRadar). It’s obviously quite a simple mod, though I am quite charmed by it. Sometimes sequels receive such tiny, most inconsequential changes that actually mean a lot or stick out to the people that played the original, so it’s always fun to see how people adapt to them.

And then sometimes people just want to be horny about the bug girl. Go figure!

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will finally be getting its online Fox Hunt mode next month

by admin September 27, 2025

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will finally be getting Fox Hunt – it’s online PvP mode – on the 30th October.

This mode, absent from the launch version of the game, will be available to owners of the game across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. This online mode is a competitive “hide-and-seek” style PvP mode where players have to find and take each other out using any tools they can find.

Up to 12-players can take part in a match at any one time, though according to the official Konami press release crossplay is still not supported.

Here’s the launch trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake EaterWatch on YouTube

There are two available game modes: Survival Capture and Survival Intrude. The first is a capture the flag style mode where players must secure a dwindling number of cute green Kerotan, and the latter a battle royale style mode where players must battle over a shrinking play area.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has proven popular, selling over a million copies on its launch day earlier this month. Since its launch the game has received a variety of patches to improve stability and performance, some good news for those who were waiting to give it a try.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is itself a fantastic recreation of the original game. In Eurogamer’s review it’s described as “an achievement for the development team behind Delta too, some of whom were original staff from the Metal Gear Solid 3 team. The legend of Metal Gear Solid 3 has been brought back to life thanks to their efforts, and the experience of playing it has put me in a position I could not have foreseen just a few years ago.”

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

The 26-Year-Old Mystery Behind A Missing RPG Sword Has Been Solved

by admin September 27, 2025

Vandal Hearts II is an obscure strategy RPG sequel produced by Konami at the end of the PS1’s life. Few played it but many who did will cherish it forever. Now its oldest and weirdest mystery has finally be solved. A reference to Konami’s classic shoot ’em up series Gradius mentioned a special sword in the game’s files that no one could ever get to spawn without hacks. Fans thought up all sorts of wild theories about the “intended” way to unlock the secret, including maybe needing very specific save files from other Konami games like Suikoden. It turns out that they actually needed a super-rare demo disc.

The Gradius Sword in Vandal Hearts II isn’t just a fun little Easter egg. The weapon contains a powerful spell called “Ripple Laser” that summons an actual 3D model of Gradius‘ ship, the Vic Viper, to fly across the battlefield and blow up enemies. It’s pretty powerful and has a surprisingly ornate animation for something that no one was ever able to discover in the game naturally. The result has been decades of random threads across message boards like GameFAQs and elsewhere as fans tried to figure out what you could actually do in the game to trigger the Gradius Sword to appear.

Three years ago, the tiny YouTube account Dragon Quarter reposted footage of the Ripple Laser skill in action that was originally uploaded in 2010. Then last night, Dragon Quarter returned with a major update. “After getting a tip from a follower (who I realize now got their tip from a recent post on GameFAQs) of Twitch streamer Karkalla, who is currently playing through Vandal Hearts II for the first time, I have confirmed the Gradius Sword was originally unlocked by downloading a special save data file from Dengeki PlayStation D22 (SLPM-80471), a demo disc included with Dengeki PlayStation Magazine Issue 116 (dated 1999-09-24),” they posted on ResetEra on Friday.

According to GameFAQs user Kern, the discovery came after finding a reference to the demo disc on an older Japanese site. “Someone on a discord who had some old discs found the file on the D22 disc (which you can get from ebay),” they wrote. “I wasn’t able to verify it personally myself but he posted images of the file, and he was able to open the save file on an English copy and the Gradius sword was available for purchase.” Dragon Quarter has since confirmed it as well.

This is the kind of deep gaming lore I thrive on. For years, random players on forums have claimed to have found the weapon early on in Vandal Hearts II just by chance. Is it possible there’s some one in a million chance for it to just spawn randomly without the demo disc data? Who knows. It seems clear that Konami at least intended for it to be an exclusive bonus for owners of the demo disc, similar to the deluxe edition pre-orders of today that let players begin a game with unique upgrades and gear.

The most absurd theory by far was that you needed to have a final Gregminster save point from the original Suikoden on a memory card to get the Gradius Sword to appear in the shop. When that was debunked a couple of years ago, many players had resigned themselves to the weapon only being available via some hacked save file from “Jean” that was uploaded to GameFAQs over a decade ago. Now players can get it the “official” way by downloading a copy of the demo disc save and using a PS3 memory card converter to get the data onto a PS1 memory card.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

EA Nearing $50 Billion Deal With Saudi Arabia And Other Investors To Go Private – Report

by admin September 27, 2025

EA could reportedly go private with a $50 billion deal to be revealed as early as next week between a group of investors, which includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to The Wall Street Journal.

Alongside PIF, according to people the WSJ said are familiar with the matter, private-equity firm Silver Lake is also reportedly involved with the deal. While EA has a market value of approximately $43 billion, two people told the WSJ that the behind-closed-doors discussions have valued the sports-sim maker closer to $50 billion.

According to the WSJ, if the deal comes together and goes through, this will be the “largest leveraged buyout of all time.” The last mega-buyout was in 2007, when Texas-based utility company TXU was purchased by a group of private-equity firms for about $32 billion.

Sadia Arabia has made a few investments in the games industry over the last few years. The country’s mobile developer Scopely–which the Saudi government owns through PIF–scooped up Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s gaming division for $3.5 billion in March 2025. The country also has stakes in both in Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, Embracer, and Nintendo, and currently holds a 2.6% stake in EA.

EA doesn’t need much of an introduction, but the company is best known for its widely successful sports-sim franchises like FIFA, Madden, and NBA. The latest release by the publisher has been Skate, the newly revamped, free-to-play skateboarding sim that will get its first official season on October 7.

The country’s Public Investment Fund has also attracted significant controversy as its chairman is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. One of the most powerful people in Saudi Arabia and the de facto ruler of the country, he’s now widely considered to be responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The country has been accused of a wide range of human rights violations, as well.

Saudi Arabia has been significantly involved in sports over the last several years, including forming the LIV golf organization, which caused major controversy after several PGA golfers jumped ship. The two organizations laterannounced plans to merge, but this has not happened.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

We may never get a Dead Space 2 remake, but this huge community patch fixes a lot of the PC version’s problems

by admin September 27, 2025

I don’t massively feel the need for a new version of Dead Space 2, even following EA’s posh remake of the first, but if you’ve been dreaming of another visit to the game’s sprawling interstellar necropolis, you could do worse than to check out the community-brewed Marker Patch.

Primarily created by Wemino, whose other projects include tune-ups for bullet-time shooter F.E.A.R. and American McGee’s Alice, it’s a cure-all bundle of fixes for various issues with the game’s PC release, including problems created by running it at higher frame-rates on heavier-duty 10 core PCs. Vemino has also increased the max number of genuinely dead Necromorphs that can be present in the environment, forced anisotropic filtering throughout, and added options to stop the game automatically connecting to online services that are no longer offered by EA.

You can find the Marker patch on Github. It’s compatible with both the Steam release and the EA app version, with instructions for getting it working on Steam Deck or Linux. Here is a compressed/curated rundown of the contents I have produced by running my Plasma Cutter crudely over the Github page:

Stabilizes physics behavior at high framerates to eliminate the annoying flying corpses and limbs
Prevents the game from crashing on systems with more than 10 CPU cores
Corrects the VSync implementation to use the refresh rate selected in the game’s settings instead of locking to 30 FPS
Fixes the tracking of Zealot and Hardcore difficulty completions to properly unlock rewards
Resolves item database conflicts where certain DLC suits incorrectly share IDs with other suits
Prevents crashes that can rarely occur when the game enumerates save files
Scales subtitle text appropriately for high resolutions
Implements proper raw mouse input to fix sensitivity issues
Blocks all DirectInput devices except mouse and keyboard to prevent unwanted camera spinning from devices like racing wheels, flight sticks, and other peripherals
Forces anisotropic texture filtering on all textures to improve clarity at oblique viewing angles
Forces proper trilinear filtering for smoother texture transitions between mipmap levels
Prevents connection attempts to EA servers at startup and prevents error messages from appearing
Increases the maximum number of bodies that can remain in the environment
Automatically sets the game to your screen resolution on first launch instead of defaulting to 1024×768
Bypasses the EA/Visceral Games intro video on launch [when you enable this option]
Control which DLC items appear in the store

The patch also does funky stuff with dinputto8 for mod compatibility. I say “funky stuff” because I don’t know what a “dinputto8” is. It could be incredibly routine and entirely non-funky. For all I know, I’m basically saying “the patch does funky stuff with running on computers powered by electricity”. Anyway, all the features can be customised individually. “The patch uses sensible defaults that work for most users, but allows fine-tuning of every aspect,” writes Wemino.

The odds of a full Dead Space 2 remake seem low at this stage. In April 2024, the rumour was mongered that EA had cancelled such a project in light of the original remake’s sales. EA have denied this, and we’ve heard barely a squeak of Dead Space since.

In our Dead Space remake review from January 2023, Liam Richardson (RPS in peace) summarised it as “luxuriously improved in small but considered ways”. I myself enjoyed EA Motive’s fancy reinterpretation of original developer Visceral’s spacecraft setting, but found a lot of it to be adding widgets and sparkle for the sake of it. In particular, I found Isaac Clarke more compelling when he couldn’t speak.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Marvel’s Wolverine Comes Out Swinging In Gameplay Trailer

by admin September 27, 2025

Today’s State of Play offered some fresh looks at a number of games, but one of the most exciting appearances was for Insomniac’s hotly antipated Wolverine game. The newly revealed trailer offers plenty of action to sink one’s claws into, and also hints heavily at some of the characters and locations that will play a central role.

The development studio that brought us the Marvel’s Spider-Man games is clearly taking a very different direction with Wolverine as it relates to mature content. Specifically, Wolverine is, without a doubt, an M-rated title that includes some extreme levels of brutal violence. Logan is seen throughout the video using his claws to dismember, stab, and otherwise eviscerate his foes, and it’s clear that Insomniac has invested heavily in creating believable tech around the battles, including the lifelike appearance of blood.

Evidently, the mutant warrior will be taking on a globe-trotting adventure, as we see locations as far-flung as a Japanese cityscape, the wilds of Canada, and the mysterious land of Madripoor – a fictional mainstay of Wolverine adventures in the comic books. We also see several familiar faces show up, including the likes of Omega Red and Mystique.

After revealing the trailer, Insomniac introduced us to the man who’ll be voicing Wolverine this time around. Liam McIntyre is set to bring Logan’s gruff but emotionally fraught persona to your gaming screen. McIntyre is best known for his work on the Spartacus TV series, but he also has video game experience, having played JD Fenix in Gears of War 4 and 5. He’s also done voice work in various animated properties.

Marvel’s Wolverine is still a good way off from its release on PlayStation 5 in the fall of 2026, roughly a year from now. However, Insomniac made a point to call out plans to share more about the game this spring. Until then, we’ll all have to be the best there is at what we do: waiting for more details.

Check out the full trailer above, and a breakdown of what was shown in the “Behind the Claws” video below.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review – an exquisite handling model saves an overly disruptive karting offering

by admin September 27, 2025

A fun arcade karting experience is often too chaotic for its own good, but a tight handling model with a high skill ceiling offers surprising depth.

I’ve recently decided to embrace my interests more, so I binned all my old polo shirts that made me look like a lower-middle class wannabe golf pro who works as the manager of a regional carpet store. To replace them I bought a Pac-Man baseball cap and a truckload of image-heavy t-shirts, most of which make references to video games, films, and popular culture. OK, so this sounds like I’ve become the fashion embodiment of Ready Player One, but some of these shirts are pretty nice. Long story short, my daughter wanted me to buy a Sonic the Hedgehog shirt to match her Sonic hoodie. I did. I am a Sonic fan – there, I’ve admitted it!

Sonic Racing: Crossworlds review

A side-effect of this is how popular I am at parties for pre-schoolers – an age group that, it seems, absolutely adores the Blue Blur. A few months back I happened to wear my Sonic t-shirt, completely coincidentally, to a Sonic-themed birthday party, and at points I was more popular than the magician. Kids parties are always a lot, but this one had an extra level of chaos. Not dissimilar, then, to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, a kart racer that has the unpredictable energy of someone unintentionally wearing themed merch to a five-year-old’s party. To use a phrase that probably died off at least two generations ago: this pops off.

CrossWorlds at its core is as you’d expect a fun-focused kart racer to be: you pick your character and vehicle (cars and hoverboards) to determine your basic stats, such as how strong you are, your top speed, acceleration, and all the rest, and then duke it out over a grand prix of four races alongside 11 other racers. Speed and a good racing line only go so far, with there rarely being more than a few seconds between power-up attacks or on-course obstacles. So far, so kart racer… but one that’s even more unrelenting than the norm with its power-up fueled carnage.

Rivals appear at the start of each race, smack talking in an age-suitable way. | Image credit: SEGA/Eurogamer

More options to shape your vehicle come from purchasable items (using the easily obtained in-game currency) that can be equipped in the customisation menu, plus a load of perk-like gadgets that give you stat boosts or special abilities. While these gadgets are simple at first and your options are limited, you’ll quickly unlock more and be able to equip extra in each race, making them more useful than they initially appear to be. While I found a gadget that gets you going quicker after falling off the track to be quite useful as I was learning the tracks, I ended up focusing more on stat boosts and didn’t tinker too much once I had a set I was happy with.

Classic karting is the core driving style, complete with power-sliding, boosts, slipstreaming, and more, but at points you’ll also transform into planes and boats. Planes are fine as brief moments of respite from the more frenetic grounded racing, but the boat sections are exceedingly flat in comparison. A tweaked boost mechanic while on water sees your craft also hop into the air, which does open up some shortcuts when used correctly, but compared to Mario Kart World’s boat sections this is less dynamic and is almost devoid of thrills.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is visually bright and bold, but it’s rough in places. | Image credit: SEGA/Eurogamer

The CrossWorlds from the title, then, might be the game’s headline feature, but while racing it doesn’t really add all that much to the experience. For the second lap of each three-lap race the leader gets to choose if they want themselves and the entire pack to be teleported (via a large golden ring) to either a specific CrossWorlds track (there are 15 of these that are separate to the core tracks found on the course selector) or a random track, in a left or right choice not dissimilar to the branching course selection in Out Run. There’s no obvious benefit to the leader, here, outside of some minor gains from having a vehicle potentially suited to what’s chosen, and the teleportation is handled in a rather unspectacular way, but it’s a neat enough gimmick and the CrossWorlds are enjoyably more on the novelty end of the course spectrum.

The same mechanic is used in the final of the four grand prix races, with the three laps comprising the trio of courses you’ve raced up to that point, the course changing as you teleport at the end of each lap. I don’t love repeating previous courses to end a grand prix, nor is the course-swapping handled in a particularly unique way, so I found myself zoning out during many of these final races – which cost me a win on a handful of occasions. A rival system, which pits you against a foe for increased rewards, adds some extra spice, but once I’d won each of the grand prix my interest quickly waned.

It’s all good fun, though, with the chaos made more enjoyable when playing against real people – either online or in local four-player split-screen. Multiplayer isn’t limited to grand prix, either, with a slightly oversold Race Park offering a bunch of team-based events that twist the races. One, for example, gives you a speed boost for driving into one of your team mates, another gives bonus points for rings collected, and another only includes the heavy power-ups. Rewards can be earned for performances against the other teams, but this is still essentially a set of custom game modes.

Make your choice over the CrossWorlds track you want to be teleported to. | Image credit: SEGA/Eurogamer

While I’m not bowled over by the Grand Prix mode (which, to be clear, is the key offering here – there’s no open world to explore, or story mode), there is a Time Trial mode complete with ghost racing against the world’s best players. I’m a sucker for these modes, and CrossWorlds offers a very tidy handling model that only really comes clearly into view when you aren’t swearing endlessly due to being knocked off your stride. I appreciate that purely racing for the fastest times isn’t for everyone, and highly likely not a reason most people care about kart racers, but there’s a lot to learn here if you are that way inclined.

Forget about the slower race speeds, though, as they can feel like you’re driving through treacle. Sonic Speed (the third option in most of the modes) and Super Sonic Speed are your only choices in Time Trial, which is fine as they are what I’d recommend you choose if you truly want to feel alive. Combine this speed with some high-level boost controls tied to drifts and tricks, circuit shortcuts, and optimal racing lines and you’ve got everything you’ll need for a jolly good time. Simply put, drifting builds your boost meter, to a maximum level of 3, but you can retain your boost meter while changing directions if you go from one drift directly into another, and also boost via simple tricks performed in the air. To get the best times you’ll need to know when to build a boost and when you use it, and when to take a route that offers trick potential, even if it’s not the most direct path forward.

I really didn’t get on with the on-water sections, finding them dull compared to the rest of the racing, but the flight sequences are fun. | Image credit: SEGA/Eurogamer

Hardcore Sonic fans may wish ill on my Sonic t-shirt for saying this, but I’ve always found the modern soundtracks to be wildly uneven. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features a broad selection of classic songs which run the gamut from annoyingly catchy pops to almost causing actual damage to my ears. This inelegant mix is true of the visuals, too – the courses are big and bold, but details are rougher than I expected for a game releasing onto modern consoles in their fifth year on the market. Similarly, the aforementioned CrossWorlds portal rings are presented with lower frame rates than the rest of the game runs at, at a lower resolution, and end up feeling hamstrung by needing to function on the now ancient Switch hardware.

A small point, perhaps, but I’m also not enamored with the way all the crossover elements with non-SEGA games are tied to paid DLC. Pac-Man, Minecraft, and SpongeBob Squarepants are all announced, all tied to the Season Pass – racers and tracks. Free updates are coming from SEGA, but thus far that is only said to be new racers, including Joker (Persona), Ichiban Kasuga (Yakuza), and Hatsune Miku (not SEGA-owned but SEGA has developed games using the character). There’s not a shortage of tracks or racers in the core game, but the crossover courses look to be some of the more visually interesting of the entire lot.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds accessibility options

Subtitles,Steering assist, Auto-accelerate, Trick assist

How much you are going to enjoy Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds really depends on what you want from an arcade racing game. If Mario Kart (let’s say World, but all of them work) is Jaws, a refined and lauded take on the shark attack film, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is Under Paris, a more ludicrous entry in the genre that pushes excess without a modicum of restraint. That comparison might feel odd, given Mario Kart World is a rather joyous celebration of kart racing, but CrossWorlds at times feels like you’re playing a proper arcade game, strapped into the hydraulic moving seat, but also having to contend with the wheel being turned by an overly enthusiastic small child. A child that loves Sonic and anyone who happens to be sporting a high-fashion Sonic t-shirt.

A copy of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds was provided for review by Sega.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Nintendo exec dances with 3DS characters.

Game Updates

Watch Nintendo Of America’s New CEO Dance, Sing, And Cosplay

by admin September 27, 2025

Nintendo’s North American subsidiary is about to have some new leaders. One of them is Satoru Shibata, a longtime veteran of the company who will become Nintendo of America’s CEO in just a few months. Most players probably have no idea who he is, but long-time industry watchers and fans in Europe will probably be at least somewhat familiar with the executive thanks to an impressive library of colorful videos in which he can be seen dancing, singing, and talking about his favorite handheld games.

Here’s NoA’s new CEO singing “Call Me Maybe” to promote Nintendo’s Karaoke games (via Tiny Cartridge):

And here he is dancing to promote Yo-Kai Watch:

Here is Shibata cosplaying to announce Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:

The exec had a reputation for sending Swapnote messages directly to fans when he was head of Nintendo Europe:

He presented separate Nintendo Direct updates to fans throughout the early 3DS and Wii U days. In this one he traveled to a warehouse in Germany to show everyone where the games and consoles get packaged and shipped from:

And here’s the man’s 3DS collection. He says he’s bad at games and never beat Luigi’s Mansion 2, but his favorite way to relax before bed is playing Professor Layton. He had thousands of Miis stored in it, including one belonging to the now late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata:

Will modern Nintendo let this version of Shibata back out into the wild? Probably not. The company’s different now. So is the internet. But at least we have these time capsules from the past. Nintendo’s business strategy has always been a mix of ruthless and whimsical. Will see if more of the latter comes back again in the Switch 2 era. Shibata is joined by Devon Pritchard, who is taking over Doug Bowser’s role as President of Nintendo of America. You can go watch the latest Kit and Krysta podcast for an insider’s perspective on Bowser’s retirement and the new folks in charge.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments