I'm becoming increasingly aware that a lot of my articles are about retro or classic games. Well, I am monstrously old, after all. And on that note, if you want a more modern version of the beloved 90s RTS game Dungeon Keeper, look no further.

KeeperFX is a fan project that aims to keep Bullfrog's legendary strategy game alive and well. The website says the aim is to "preserve and expand upon the original," while bringing with it improvements to the visuals and new features.

It does require an official copy of Dungeon Keeper in order to play the FX version – either through a disc (remember those?) or a downloaded copy of the Gold Edition – but the fan project itself is free.

What's featured?

Here's a quick list of what you'll find in KeeperFX:

• Windows 7/10/11 support
• Higher screen resolutions
• Modernized controls
• Many bugfixes [sic]
• Additional campaigns and maps
• New level script commands
• New creatures, textures and sprites
• Multiplayer
• And much more!

In short, it retains the general look and feel of the ol' D-to-the-K, but with some modern overhauls.

Some of you may already be aware of KeeperFX as it's technically been around since 2008. However, the latest download represents build 1.0.0, aka the "first full version." According to the site, "all original Dungeon Keeper code has been rewritten" and it's a fully open-source standalone game.

For those with nostalgia on the brain, this sounds like a neat way to experience a gaming relic of the past. And let's be honest, we haven't had much luck from the series since that awful, awful, Dungeon Keeper mobile game.

The post KeeperFX is a fan project that’s keeping Dungeon Keeper alive appeared first on Destructoid.

Where would we be without Steam? It's easily the most popular way to download and play PC games in the current climate. The developer Valve also treats us to numerous events and sales throughout the year, and the next one is just around the corner.

If you like strategy games, then get ready for Steam Strategy Fest. As the name implies, this will be a celebration of all things tactical. A recent promo video gives a brief hint at what's to come.

https://youtu.be/xYp3ugqPxiA

The event will kick off Monday, August 28 at 10AM Pacific and will go on until September 4, so that's a week in which to get your strategy on (that's a saying, right?)

What's to be expected?

As always, Steam isn't saying absolutely everything about Strategy Fest. Suffice it to say, you can find demos and discounted games on sale throughout the week. As for what's going to be on offer, it's hard to say, but the short video above outlines a few titles that are likely to be included, such as Dune: Spice Wars and The Riftbreaker. Essentially, if this is a genre you're into, you're bound to find something you like.

Considering that we recently had the Visual Novel Fest, and before that the Stealth Fest, Valve does a good job of making sure we all stay tuned into its gaming platform. We can't help ourselves. There's usually something for everyone at these sales events. They make our Steam libraries look nice and bulky, even if they have the opposite effect on our collective wallets and digital bank accounts.

The post Steam Strategy Fest begins next week, celebrates…well…strategy games appeared first on Destructoid.

It was dated today

So we've already gotten three waves of DLC for Fire Emblem Engage, all of which take place in the Paralogue Islands. Think of these like a "DLC paradise" of sorts, where you'll meet with more all-star members of the Fire Emblem cast and acquire more spirits to play with. Well, Wave 4 is a little bit meatier.

Instead of character DLC, this time Nintendo is billing it as a "new story scenario." Titled "Fell Xenologue," you'll acquire new party members, and will adventure through new locations and maps (plural), as you attempt to potentially wrap up this game's universal storyline. Thanks to a new trailer from Nintendo, we do have a date for all this: April 5.

This is a pretty quick turnaround, when everything is said and done! Note that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 came out in mid 2022, and still hasn't hosted its big story DLC release yet. That's still coming in late 2023. Granted, story DLC for a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is going to be even meatier than a Fire Emblem game: but it's nice that Engage fans don't have to wait that long.

Provided the DLC is worth it, at least. Hopefully it delivers!

All the details you need for Wave 4 of Fire Emblem Engage's DLC:

• It's a new story scenario called Fell Xenologue
• It includes new characters, locations, and maps, as well as more class types
• It's out on April 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_oeDuN3i6M

The post The big story DLC for Fire Emblem Engage is out in April appeared first on Destructoid.

Multiverse of madness

We're almost at Wave 3 of the season pass for Fire Emblem Engage, and wow, that time has just flown by.

As revealed in the February Nintendo Direct, Hector, Soren, Camilla, Chrom, Robin, and Veronica are all coming to the game in spirit form. Chrom and Robin happen to be the newest kids on the block, and they actually launch on March 8. Thanks to the official Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter account, we have some footage of what that meeting actually looks like, and how the pair operate in battle.

You really can't go wrong with releasing all-star former series cast members as DLC, I have to say. Although not every facet of the fandom is going to be thrilled with "X or Y" inclusion, you're going to hit some superfans, and dropping them in duos is a great way to split the difference. So far the character DLC has been a great appetizer for the main course. About that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-M-DxcQ4Q

What's next for Fire Emblem Engage DLC?

As a reminder, Wave 4 is the big one. That includes the Fell Xenologue chapter, which is a new story sequence.

Most of the other DLC takes place in the Divine Paralogue islands, which is the core DLC destination.

Meeting Chrom and Robin in Fire Emblem Engage

https://twitter.com/FireEmblemJP/status/1632652380964802562

Chrom and Robin combat footage

https://twitter.com/FireEmblemJP/status/1632655445696614400

The post Chrom and Robin are coming to Fire Emblem Engage this week appeared first on Destructoid.

Give it a try

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope kind of came and went for a lot of folks, but it made a good impression all the same. Odds are you were either on the fence about it or just had a lot going on four months ago (I know most of us on staff did with all the games that were being dumped!), but now you'll have a chance to check it out for free.

As of now, a demo is out on the Nintendo Switch eShop. The demo itself is fairly meaty, providing a glimpse of the intro to the game, as well as a chunk of the first area (Beacon Beach). This game still has life in it yet, as the Tower of Doom DLC is actually out today. More DLC is on the way too, including a Rayman add-on later this year.

If you do decide to pick it up as a result of the demo, you also have the benefit of post-launch patches, which have smoothed over some of the game's bigger glitches (including a progress-halting bug for 100% completion).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjpbDzGz67U

Where to download the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope demo

Head to this eShop listing page, and click the "download demo" icon below the title, and above the digital price text

The post A Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope demo is out now on Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

No need to double the file size day one

Day one patches, especially on systems like the Switch where you might be running low on space to hold your games, can be infuriating. Although there is a host of post-launch content on the way, Fire Emblem Engage doesn't seem to be party to that yet.

As shared on the official Japanese Nintendo Switch support site, Fire Emblem Engage will be updated to "version 1.1.0" today, essentially for the Japanese launch (and global launch on January 20). You can find the full translated patch notes below.

Fire Emblem Engage launch patch notes (Ver.1.1.0)

In short, the update patches in the DLC/season/expansion pass (which you'd need internet access for anyway), both in terms of the content itself, and the functionality from the main menu. It also has the added bonus of "update benefits," which typically includes minor gift-like items that are collected en masse through a menu. You'll get them automatically after reaching Chapter 5 in the game (the chapter you're on is visible whenever you save, so it'll be easy to spot), after manually visiting the Somniel: the hub zone of Fire Emblem Engage.

The post The Fire Emblem Engage launch patch is thankfully small: here are all the updates appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a lot there, especially when it comes to character customization

Fire Emblem Engage is out on January 20, and I can't wait until everyone rushes in and the impressions start flying out. Fire Emblem games have waltzed with relationship aspects for some time now, and although some folks have gotten used to them, others have rebuked the mechanic. Since Engage is heavily going to cater to the latter category, it's bound to get a wide variety of reactions.

For now, there's this gigantic eight minute trailer from Nintendo that might help you decide whether or not this entry is for you. Given that this trailer is all gameplay pretty much, it's a great thing to watch before you decide to drop $60 on it.

Here's everything that the Fire Emblem Engage overview trailer runs through:

• A reminder that there's "over 30 characters" to play as (who have backstories that can be viewed in-game)
• An emphasis on how you can swap classes freely, with the example of an early-game mage-like character swapping into a monk, and dealing big damage to an elite enemy
• A good overview of the battle system, from team composition to the intricacies of the turn-based combat system (including counters to each combat type, which might be helpful to jot down before you play)
• The trailer highlights some useful battle info, including the fact that before actually triggering an attack, you can see who will go first in the bottom middle of the screen: also, a suggestion to let lower-level characters deliver the final blow to enemies when leveling
• Footage of the Time Crystal in action, which lets you rewind turns
• A brief overview of the world map system, and the Somniel hub
• An explanation on how to grow bonds to trigger support conversations (fight close together, or heal each other)

Unlike a lot of other overview videos which are mostly filled with fluff, this one has a few good pointers! In that sense, it's great for complete newcomers as well as returning Fire Emblem veterans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCOoTp6v5I

The post This eight minute Fire Emblem Engage trailer will tell you everything you need to know about the game appeared first on Destructoid.

Yeah, I'd say it's engaging

It was crazy to see the moment when Fire Emblem really started to make it big out of Japan. I've said it often, but growing up with people who constantly questioned where Marth and Roy were from in Smash Bros., witnessing the star power of this series (to the point where it has multiple spinoffs) from every angle has been something else. And now that it's more in the public eye, it's also subject to quite a bit of scrutiny.

I don't think people will object to much in Fire Emblem Engage, though.

[caption id="attachment_358177" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Fire Emblem Engage (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: January 20, 2023
MSRP: $59.99

As I talked about in my preview session, I was immediately enamored by the tone of Fire Emblem Engage. The sense of whimsy and wonder it has resembles Lunar: The Silver Star Story and other bygone JRPGs, which is a wonderful thing. It has the "badass that's also goofy" trope, the aloof hero, the unflappable confidant: the whole nine yards. That might not be a lot of people's cup of tea, but I found myself remembering and connecting to character names more in Engage than most past entries, even as I amassed a bigger and better party as time marched on.

The premise is very familiar fantasy: a great warrior and Divine Dragon named Alear by default (that's you!) defeated a fell dragon a thousand years ago, and the battle subsequently put you in a deep sleep. Fast forward to the timeline of the game, and your dragon mom (for real) senses a great evil again (that's the part where you wake up). Of course there's twists and turns along the way, as well as the humanistic angle of how this world's citizens live in the wake of the divine: which means there's plenty of political intrigue and clandestine machinations to be had.

I also bought into the "chosen one" conceit, because Alear has just enough characterization to feel like a part of the world, but not so much that they dominate the storyline. Some absurd looking costumes aside, this universe is full of interesting characters, and as I mentioned above, I got attached to quite a few of them. Not everything lands, and the story is predictable in chunks (especially toward the beginning), but it has so much energy (and the game has so much to do) that it's easy to keep moving forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJrItZRyALY

The other strong pillar of Engage is the fan service, which is mostly muted in the form of bonds through Emblem Rings. Point blank, this is an excuse to get people to connect to their favorite old Fire Emblem characters (like Roy and Marth), but the team went above and beyond in terms of how everything is actually implemented. While those spirits are heavily integrated into the actual plot (gathering all the Emblem Rings is the initial quest), they serve a mechanical purpose, and do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to party customization. At first it seemed like another "multiverse" style cash grab, but I was pleasantly surprised after seeing how it actually worked.

On top of the typical class swapping and advanced classes, you can pair up a character with a spirit via an Emblem Ring. This not only grants that party member bonuses, but it also allows them to merge into a super-charged form throughout the battle for a limited amount of turns. Bonds have a multifaceted impact throughout the game, allowing spirits to pass on passive skills, bond and interact through very short cutscenes on top of the normal bonding system (with the classic A, B, C level ranks), and of course, do cool stuff during combat like unleash a giant flame attack that hits multiple squares. You also have the option to "re-engage" as it were once the meter is full again, so there are strategic considerations with this system.

In Engage, you're constantly upgrading things that matter. Your equipment loadout can be changed, as well as your skillset, class, bond, and a lot more. As you progress with the story more options will be unlocked through the typical in-game shops, as well as the chance to create miniature rings that confer bonuses on party members who don't have an all-powerful Emblem Ring equipped.

From a strategic standpoint Fire Emblem Engage plays out like past entries, and like many famous strategy RPGs (SRPGs). There's a grid-based system, a rock-paper-scissors gear mechanic (swords beat axes, axes beat lances, lances beat swords), a party to manage and kit out, and enemies to defeat or objectives to tackle. With no durability there's a lot less worrying about upkeep and more of a focus on loadouts: which matter quite a bit, since you can "break" enemy counterattacks for a turn with a hard weapon counter.

[caption id="attachment_358178" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The battle maps in Engage are interesting, particularly with the placement of copious amounts of items, buff-inducing squares, cover, and bond bonuses: which grant you full bond charge after ending your movement on them. Even in some of the easier encounters the layouts do some heavy lifting to keep things moving along. Things move pretty fast, too.

The core flow of the game is effortlessly fun. After finishing a mission generally you get the chance to lightly explore a very small little zone (imagine freeing a town, then talking to the townsfolk after), then you go back to the world map and choose what to do next. If you were annoyed at the pacing of Three Houses, Engage should be a breath of fresh air. As much as I did like those pitstops in the hub in the last main entry, the freedom that Engage allows strikes a great balance. After completing a mission, in most cases, you have the option to move on through a world map to the next story bit: or take a break and do some paralogues (side missions)/head back home to the Somniel hub.

You have the choice to go back to the hub, talk to everyone, do all the minigames, fish, spend time with your mystical pet, spar, change up the hub zone music, rewatch story bits in your room: you get the point. There's a lot to do if you want to stop and smell the roses, or you can just go full throttle and continue the narrative chapter by chapter. It's refreshing, because I'd constantly change up how I played based on how a particular mission went.

[caption id="attachment_358179" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

If things felt dicey, I'd look at all of the upgrades available and spend some time reconfiguring my party. Sometimes I'd do three or four chapters at a time without stopping. And in some cases, I'd spend a few hours at the hub just messing around, donating to allied countries' war efforts, combing through the achievements I hadn't unlocked yet (which grant bond fragments, which can be used for bond bonuses), looking at the animals I adopted from the story zones, that sort of thing. There's just enough to do where things matter, but not so much that you'd feel like you're missing out if you don't grind out a particular fishing segment.

I was also able to do some light testing of the online trial system before launch, and while I likely won't be playing it full time, it does seem like a nice diversion. The two main modes involve a relay race against other players on the same map, and the ability to create your own (or play other) challenge maps online. You can even "take over" someone's run in the relay mode, which I did every so often just to try out different party builds and see if I could optimize something myself. As a completely optional diversion, I'd say it's a welcome addition.

When Fire Emblem Engage was first announced I was wary of the visual style, but it grew on me once I saw it in action. The strategic bits are smooth, the customization element is deep, and I'm a sucker for the tasteful fan service that we're getting with the appearance of past franchise heroes. If you were overwhelmed by Three Houses, this is a great follow-up that doesn't just follow that same formula: and in many ways, gets back to Fire Emblem basics.

The post Review: Fire Emblem Engage appeared first on Destructoid.

Things are looking up

Fire Emblem Engage is nearly here, and we talked quite a bit about it (and the expectations therein) recently in a preview article. At this point the only thing left is a few odds and ends, as the game is set to launch just next week on January 20, 2023.

Until that time, there's a few minor commercials that have popped up on Nintendo's YouTube channel, which provide a closer look at some of the game's major mechanics, and cast.

Fire Emblem Engage Commercial 1

The first commercial provides a brief look at the setup of the narrative, which you're probably going to be skipping if you're going in blind. The fantastic elements and the more grounded kingdom hopping angle are briefly mentioned too, as well as quite a few closeups of bond system (including Alear, the main character, and Marth), and some combat animations. It's short, but to the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4yHLTCd9Y

Fire Emblem Engage Commercial 2

The next commercial focuses more on the party members/Emblem Ring conceit, and has a short "tactics" section that gives us some brief strategic gameplay. The core of this video lies in the opportunities to customize your party, which includes class types and Emblem Ring/Engage pairings (read: equipping party members with the spirits of classic Fire Emblem characters).

Multiple heroes from prior Fire Emblem games are teased as well toward the end of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5D8Qakq0GM

While short, these clips get the gist of the new entry across. Now all you need to do is wait for some impressions, or for January 20 to hit so you can dive in.

The post These Fire Emblem Engage commercials are likely our last look before launch appeared first on Destructoid.

Pre-orders are up now, too

By way of a new trailer, Capcom has confirmed that Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is out on April 14.

Amazingly, the extent of the collection's online play has been revealed (Netbattle), with support for private and public matches. This is in addition to chip, style, and program trading (which will only be supported in Mega Man Battle Network 3 "and beyond"). As previously confirmed, the collection series will also have "over 180 songs" to listen to, as well as "over 1,000 images" to peruse in a gallery.

You can pre-order it now on PS4, PC (Steam) and Switch, via a $60 bundle that includes both collections (the physical version has "one game card" if you were wondering). Individual collections will be available "separately at launch" for $39.99 each. In the meantime, here's some more info, and a recap of what each collection actually entails.

When this was announced it was completely unexpected, but I'm stoked this happened. My original copies of every game are readily available in every collection, but this series deserves to live on through a new generation. While Capcom is no stranger to pushing out Mega Man collections instead of new releases: it's good enough for me, so long as said collections actually have a good amount of love and care put into them. So far, this packed Legacy Collection seems to be heading down the right path.

Here's a look at the online systems revealed this week

[gallery link="file" ids="354136,354137,354138,354139,354140,354141"]

Here's a new Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADBHfvEWNNk

Mega Man Battle Network Switch Volume 1 game list:

• Mega Man Battle Network
• Mega Man Battle Network 2
• Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue
• Mega Man Battle Network 3 White

Mega Man Battle Network Switch Volume 2 game list:

• Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun
• Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon
• Mega Man Battle Network 5 Team ProtoMan
• Mega Man Battle Network 5 Team Colonel
• Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar
• Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Falzar

The post Save the date: Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is out on April 14 appeared first on Destructoid.

I like it 3000

When Firaxis Games has anything in the hopper, I perk up. Hell, even 2013's now-defunct Haunted Hollow was fun. So when Marvel's Midnight Suns was announced, with no "co-developed" chicanery, I was in.

What I got was a fun little romp that's very different from many games they've made in the past, XCOM included.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (PC [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K
Released: December 2, 2022 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S) | TBA (PS4, Switch, Xbox One X)
MSRP: $59.99

Most of the XCOM comparisons started to wane as more footage showed up: and I'm entirely OK with that. Midnight Suns is really more akin to Fire Emblem than anything else, complete with a (friendship) relationship minigame between party members, and a literal abbey that serves as your hub. Yes, you're going to be rubbing elbows with big-name Marvel heroes like Blade and Iron Man, but you're also going to be controlling an original character named "The Hunter," who serves as a blank slate fish out of water pen that inks the overarching story as you go along.

It's a veritable who's who of Marvel heroes and villains: big and small. The reliable heavy Crossbones is one of the first characters you even see, amid a sea of Hydra soldiers and mystics. In a very Indiana Jones opening sequence, Lilith (a powerful demon and main big bad) is awakened, and is immediately bad news. Cue Doctor Strange and Iron Man, who try to unite the clans and stop her. Amid a roster of big name heroes, most of which have headlined feature films, you also get to create the aforementioned Hunter that's part of the Midnight Suns: the magic-backed resistance effort against Lilith.

It's a clever move by the storytellers to provide the "chosen one" trope that all of the big stars play off of: but it in turn leads to some predictable beats. More than I anticipated, there's some real ham-fisted dialogue, but the boot can fit standard the MCU has set. By any standard, it can be cornbally. Like many games with huge casts, a lot of the better moments are in the quieter moments: though there are some character intros that are pop-worthy, and will elicit audible gasps or cheers from Marvel fans playing along.

Those little moments? They center around some of the light dialogue choices when talking to people, to drill down aspects of their personality, or the mission at hand. Midnight Suns also has a cute little social network for heroes: which you know some writer was completely jazzed about working on. You aren't just selecting missions from a menu either (Midnight Suns has a war table where you do do that!). There's full-on RPG elements, like map exploration (with your avatar), crafting, party management, quests, and a hub (the abbey). The abbey is just big enough where it has a decent amount of things to do; without feeling so sprawling that there's a lot of wasted space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Icc7o0ex4

So how do you actually play? Cards!

In Midnight Suns, card types include attacks, skills, and heroics. Each card costs a unit called a "card play," which you'll use to actually enact actions. You get three card plays per turn, barring special abilities that can refund them, or grant more plays on future turns (banking). There's more! Attacks charge your heroism, which can be used for more powerful heroic card effects (which might blast every enemy on the battlefield, for example). Skills are classified as support and buff effects, including card draw. You can also use the environment on occasion, at the cost of heroism. Playing a quick card lets you refund a card action on a KO (meaning, it's perfect to save to clear out fodder).

Lesser minions can be killed instantly (they don't have a health bar), and elites need proper damage to kill. Some effects have bonuses like knockbacks, which you can aim. It's a smart system that keeps things quick, while maintaining the theme of stepping into the role of powerful larger-than-life heroes. Some missions have constant reinforcements coming in, which ensures that Midnight Suns isn't a cakewalk on higher difficulties.

Nothing is strictly grid-based. Battlegrounds are more like a loose arena with guidelines, littered with objects like dumpsters and power transformers stuffed in that you can slam enemies with (or into). There's light movement considerations, which can matter for positioning, range, and some moves that knock enemies into each other.

Once you pick it up, it's easy to get in the groove, especially on PC with quick clicks. I was impressed at how the game carried itself as soon as I shot my first repulsor blast. The effects are awesome looking in the literal sense, at least on PC: I can see why the team opted to forgo previous generation console releases for the time being. The combat banter is fun to listen to as well, especially with characters who don't like each other: it's all playing off that small-time dialogue strength that so many modern RPGs are good at, like most of the Dragon Age series.

The more you play and the more cards you get, the more interesting the mechanics kind of layer on top of one another. Do you KO weaker enemies and clear the board or soften up elites? I started to spot environmental objects with a keener eye, attempting to weave together combos that could take out bigger enemies in one turn, rather than one and a half. It's fun, it's fast, and it's all in the moment.

Where Midnight Suns faltered a bit for me was with what I'd call "fluff" missions. Things can get samey, especially when fighting repeat enemy types like Hydra Soldiers with standard tactics. The action is great, even after seeing the same animations and dialogue cues over and over, but the enemy layouts and arena-based formula don't always hold up, and are conducive to taking breaks between sessions (or spending more time in the abbey). Some story missions have required heroes (the Hunter included), but others let you mix in your favorites, so you can change things up that way.

Crazily, there are eight difficulty levels: easy, normal, three versions of heroic (billed as an "increased challenge") and three levels of an ultimate tier ("a serious challenge"). Most of the nuances include bonus hero XP and mission bonuses at the cost of higher enemy health. Every single one of these barring easy and normal are locked at the start, asking players to "complete missions and collect star ratings" to earn them.

If you're wondering about any 2K-related meddling, there's a "NightStalker Blade" newsletter skin, and a marketplace for special skins [suits] was open, but we were provided with all of them. A few look like palette swaps, and several are extremely transformative, like Fallen Hulk for Hulk. So far, this seems to be the main premium content push (knock on wood).

In several respects, Midnight Suns reflects the tendencies of the more streamlined, popcorny, and entertaining MCU films. It isn't what I expected, in a good way. It's incredibly easy to recommend to any Marvel fan, and is simple enough to pick up and play for strategy newcomers. Although the highs aren't as high as some of Firaxis' past work, those of you who latch onto the relationship building, social network, and silly moments will find a lot of joy here: I absolutely wouldn't be surprised to see Hunter cosplay at future conventions.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Marvel’s Midnight Suns appeared first on Destructoid.

Yeah, this was worth bringing back again

It's hard to really stress how incredible Tactics Ogre's legacy is. Originally debuting in 1995 in Japan, it gained a lot of traction in 1997 on PlayStation with a North American release. While I can distinctly point to January of 1998, and Final Fantasy Tactics, as the time where I went "yeah, I'm pretty into SRPGs," Tactics Ogre really was the genesis of it, beyond what I had dabbled in before it. It was the talk of my friend groups, and got so many people into the genre. So when, out of nowhere, I learned that it was coming back in 2022 (beyond the PSP edition) as Tactics Ogre: Reborn, I was ecstatic.

Yes, let's rediscover one of the most interesting SRPGs ever made, through a modern lens, with a completely new audience in play. This "final trailer" that arrived today on Square Enix's YouTube shows off what we can expect before it hits on PC, Switch, PS4, and PS5 on November 11. It's basically an overview of the themes and mechanics of the game, but if you want to completely skip most of the story beats (as vague as they may be), I recommend watching everything 1:30 on.

As a reiteration, here's everything Square Enix is touting as new:

"Based on the 2010 release, the game features improved graphics and sound, as well as updated game design, bringing to life a new Tactics Ogre that remains true to its roots. Tactics Ogre veterans will experience a game that surpasses their fondest memories, while players new to Tactics Ogre will discover a game unlike any they've ever played. Reborn and deeper than ever, the game enables players to immerse themselves in the world and intrigue of Tactics Ogre like never before."

To stress again: definitely put this on your radar. Tactics Ogre is an evergreen story, and one that should live on through as many platforms as possible. The easier it is to experience this vision, the better: especially given that the PSP storefront is dead. Thankfully, at the very least, PSP copies are fairly cheap, running folks around $40 on average.

See, I'm already prepping you for picking up every version of this game early!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNyoeik0ig

The post Tactics Ogre: Reborn still looks dope as hell in final trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Deadpool and Venom are among them

It's a 2K game, so of course the Midnight Suns season pass is a thing. Announced this week via the below trailer (presented by Deadpool), it'll bring more characters into the fray.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blw2Q0YZI_E

Here's what we have so far for the Midnight Suns season pass:

• DLC Content Pack 1 - Deadpool - A foulmouthed mercenary with a heart of gold, Deadpool has a penchant for grisly violence and lighthearted, fourth-wall breaking wisecracks.
• DLC Content Pack 2 - Venom - Spider-Man’s nemesis and one of the main game’s bosses, Venom turns playable hero in DLC #2, armed with all of the same symbiote attacks that once threatened the lives of the Midnight Suns.
• DLC Content Pack 3 - Morbius - One of the original comic book Midnight Sons, Morbius is an accomplished biochemist who, in an attempt to cure his own rare blood disease, turned himself into a living vampire.
• DLC Content Pack 4 - Storm - A powerful member of the X-Men, Storm has the ability to generate and manipulate wind, lightning, rain, and other types of weather to her will.

Yes, Deadpool makes a "Morbin' Time" joke in the video.

According to 2K, the pass will also be sprinkled with additional content beyond the characters; like more levels and items. Midnight Suns is still slated for a December 2 release on PC, PS4, PS5, and Series X/S. The Switch version and prior generations are allegedly coming later, though there's no date in sight, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were canceled.

As one of the last big games of 2022 , I think I speak for strategy and Marvel enthusiasts alike when I say that I hope this one is worth it. With Firaxis at the helm it's really hard to go wrong, but putting big characters like this behind a season pass doesn't inspire confidence.

The post The Midnight Suns season pass will have a few heavy-hitting characters appeared first on Destructoid.

He needs no introduction

It's hard to believe that Fire Emblem Engage is already coming in January, but Nintendo seems dead set on that soonish release date: and is steadily showing off more of the game (albeit on the official Fire Emblem Japanese Twitter account). Amid the sprinkling of gameplay (more so than the trailer) we've gotten so far, the latest set of clips includes gameplay of a series star. New Fire Emblem Engage Marth footage is out thanks to the series' Twitter account, and gives us a better look at the hero in action.

Here is the full introduction/mini character bio from the inaugural tweet (translated/cleaned up), which also reveals his Japanese voice actor:

"Marth (CV: Hikaru Midorikawa) is commonly known as 'The Beginning Heraldry', and is a noble and charismatic hero among heroes. He is the prince of the Altea Kingdom, located in the alien continent of Archanea,"

We get to see how guest characters seem to appear in Engage, and Marth is reconfirmed as a sword user in this entry. There will also be some story elements involved with the summoned heroes, including the below conversation with the main character.

If Engage pulls this off, and manages to bring in some of the most celebrated characters in this series' lengthy history, it could lead to some explosive moments. Ideally the team actually manages to make these portions sing: and elevates them over a fanservice-like inclusion.

Fire Emblem Engage Marth footage:

https://twitter.com/FireEmblemJP/status/1575757841809408000

The post Nintendo shows off Marth in Fire Emblem Engage appeared first on Destructoid.

"We will announce the new date once it has been determined"

As you may recall, we reported six months ago that Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp (a remake of Advance Wars 1 and 2 with extra features on Switch) had been delayed due to recent world events. Since then we haven't heard an official statement from Nintendo; and even during the Nintendo Direct this week, the publisher remained silent on when it may see the light of day.

That silence has been broken via a statement from a Nintendo rep, who spoke to Stephen Totilo from Axios this week. Here's their full reply:

"The release has been delayed. We will announce the new date once it has been determined."

Totilo had asked if the game had been fully canceled, which it doesn't seem to be at this time, given that it's "still delayed" as of this week. Beyond current events, Nintendo also has several considerations when it comes to determining the Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp launch date. The game is fully completed, and they can stick it into any schedule lull they so choose. They could also use the opportunity of an event or stream to "re-announce" it to the world.

With that in mind, given the bevy of strategy games we're going to see on the Switch based on the Nintendo Direct presentation alone, there's plenty of other things to play in the meantime, even if Advance Wars 1+2 continues to be delayed. Strategy game fans are seeing a renaissance of sorts, and the Switch is a great fit for many titles that would have previously been relegated to handhelds.

The post Nintendo says it hasn’t canceled Advance Wars 1+2 for Switch, though it remains delayed appeared first on Destructoid.

A trio of Front Mission Remake projects are coming to Switch

Nintendo gave us the rundown on the trio of Front Mission Remake titles today during this morning's Nintendo Direct. Wait, three? Yep!

The initial remake (titled Front Mission 1st: Remake) is out in November (originally slated for "summer" of 2022), with the sequel coming "next year." These were already announced. However, there's also a Front Mission 3 project announced "for the future."

Here's a recap of what to expect from Nintendo: "You’ll pilot giant machines called Wanzers in tactical turn-based combat. As you progress, you’ll obtain Skills that can help you gain the upper hand against opponents. Continue the battle in the sequel, Front Mission 2: Remake, previously unreleased outside of Japan! Take advantage of additional features, like more terrain effects, weapon and armor attributes, and over 80 new skills. You can also test your mettle at the Colosseum and use the Network system to gain intel on events as they unfold."

There's no shortage of strategy games available on the Switch, whether it's restored classics or brand-new projects. The third game, however, is really the one I'm waiting for. It's one of my all-time favorite strategy games, and that box art is burned in my mind. I mean, it's just a mech and a brown color scheme! But it stuck with me.

The post Front Mission Remake dates announced, Front Mission 3 Remake confirmed appeared first on Destructoid.

Become a politician; without selling your soul

Ever since Paradox Interactive announced Victoria 3, I've been in a state of semi-disbelief. It was a strategy game in-joke for so long that I couldn't believe it was really happening. I was provided a preview build of the upcoming socio-economic grand strategy game thanks to Paradox. To quote Sidra Holland and Jackie Chiles, it's "real, and it's fantastic." And soon, you too can politick to your heart's content when the game releases on October 25, 2022.

For those of you present who aren't cool enough to know what the Victoria series is all about, an introduction is in order. Victoria is a grand strategy game series aptly set during the Victorian era. Whereas other entries in the Paradox family of grand strategy games focus on war or lineage, Victoria's focus lies in economics and the changing political landscape of the dawning Modern age. Starting in 1836, you control a country and all of its economy and laws while trying to improve the lives of your citizenry. You know how you always scream at your screen that you "can do better" whenever some talking head politician messes everything up? Victoria allows you to put your money (or national credit) where your mouth is.

The problem with the Victoria series is that we've been devoid of a new entry since 2010 and the last entry is a notoriously hard nut to crack for various reasons. From the Version 0.1 build that I played, I can safely say that Victoria 3 is well on its way to addressing many of the barriers to entry that its previous entries had.

Bringing the Modern Age into the Digital Age

The first improvement that stood out to me was the UI/UX design, even compared to games as recent as Imperator: Rome. At a closed-door press demo, game director Martin Anward emphasized that while Victoria 3 would be easier for new players to get into, it would not come at the expense of complexity but through streamlining how information is presented. Your basic menus where you take the various temperatures of your nation are all still present, but sorters and filters have been given big buttons to help you get to what you need quickly.

On top of menus, important overlays of the map have also been given big buttons at the bottom of the screen to show you the big picture of how your empire (and anyone else on the map) are doing in regards to metrics such as production and consumption, quality of life, what have you.

Additionally, nearly every term, metric, item, and country has been given what is called a nested tooltip. Those who have played Crusader Kings III will recognize the feature as it is used in the base release of that game as well. By hovering over a color-coded word in a menu, you will get both a breakdown of what it means, as well as a look at how well you are doing in terms of said metric. After a few seconds of hovering over the term, the tooltip window will soft lock on your screen and you can then navigate to a nested tooltip within your nested tooltip. I think I maxed out at three tooltip windows as I was delving deep into my economy. It did start to get a bit crowded for simple mouse movement, but I had all the information I needed, and it didn't require going to the Official Victoria wiki.

I know what you're thinking, "menu design, what a place to start for a preview" — but all of your decisions and actions will be made through menus, so it's nice to see that a concerted effort has been made to streamline the intake of information for a topic as complex as economics and how that affects your populace. But fine, if you want something juicier than menu improvements, how about an actual developer-made tutorial mode?

Ooooh, teach me, Amadeus.

With nearly every previous Paradox grand strategy game, you were given a very base tutorial that mostly entailed how to navigate menus and complete actions. Past that point, you were left to your own devices to figure out how to succeed which at the time meant digging into double-digit hours of YouTube videos. Victoria 3 has not only a tutorial mode but also an objective mode that guides you with completing nations such as a hegemonic ruler or an egalitarian utopia.

In said tutorial mode, you are given a breadcrumb trail that acts as an interactive Econ and Poly Sci 101. Various objectives such as "grow your GDP" or "make a political party that doesn't like you happier" are presented to you and you are given the option of being shown why you should do that, and if you want to be truly handheld, how you can go about it. However, sometimes the objectives were a bit redundant. It got annoying when they were trying to make me placate a social group that stood in staunch opposition to the policies I was trying to enact. But the game never yelled at me for ignoring it. Even with the redundancy of one or two objectives, I was able to get my economy into working order thanks to training mode. Before this in Victoria 2, I had considerable trouble achieving it.

It could be easy to handwave away something as simple as an objective or tutorial mode, but when it comes to the Victoria series, it's incredibly welcoming to players who don't have an established knowledge of something as complex as statesmanship (i.e., most people). This addition is not only huge for the Victoria series, but also for the greater Paradox grand strategy library. Is a tutorial also not doing it for you? How about a map improvement?

The map is alive with the sound of social upheaval

Also new to the Paradox grand strategy library as a whole is a new "living map."

Previous entries of the map interface were pretty much just colors and lines akin to political maps. In Victoria 3, the map has received a major update to show how your country is evolving through visual cues. You can now see new cities and factories popping up along with infrastructural changes such as trains running in your states. The neat thing about this new feature is that it isn't just arbitrary additions on the map — you can see that new building you built on the map. It's a little touch but it helps in helping drive home the connection between you and your populace.

While the addition of the living map is nice, it did adversely affect performance on my Ryzen 7 3700/RTX 2070 Super build. The development team did assure us at the conference that it was a preview build of the game and improvements would be implemented before launch, but it was still noticeable enough to lead to brief slowdowns and even a crash once.

War, (HUH), what is it good for?

One of the main concerns that arose since the announcement of Victoria 3 was the perceived absence of autonomy for war and how it is waged. Whereas every other Paradox game allowed you to wage war as you saw fit, Victoria 3 has done away with direct control of your armies and is instead leaving this task up to generals and admirals that you assign to your armed forces and waging war based on their characteristics. While the loss of autonomy in warfare is felt, you have other ways of interacting with foreign nations through the use of hostile diplomacy in what is being referred to as diplomatic plays.

In a diplomatic play, you can attempt to force a foreign government to change one of its policies to something that you deem more fit for your liking. At this point, a battle of the wills pops up between the two nations. Demands and possible concessions are laid out by both sides, with the opportunity for allies and even regional neighbors to get involved in the diplomatic battle. Anyone who gets involved can do anything from simply getting their toes wet with economic support, all the way up to committing troops to a potential conflict (with demands of their own to be met by the main player they are siding with). If something can be worked out, great, all parties walk away (mostly) unscathed. But if talks fail to reach a compromise, then the two sides will escalate to war. War is then conducted through the use of high-level strategic choices that you dictate such as assigning generals to armies and placing said armies along fronts.

The developers have essentially taken the war goal/casus belli mechanic from every other game in their repertoire and expanded it for the purposes of diplomacy. I will admit that the only action I saw in diplomatic plays was sitting on the bench waiting to be called up by a larger country as repayment for a good deed they did for me earlier. I did come close to forcing a change from an isolationist trade policy to an open market, but peace won.

Fun with finance (and flags)

I've been waiting for Victoria 3 for what seems like forever. By the time I returned to PC gaming in the mid-2010s, Victoria 2 was already falling out of date as Paradox refined its craft and had begun to make its games more easily palatable to the uninitiated. I've always been a closet political junkie, and I'm a big enough nerd to love the concept of economics and international trade. So it was all about waiting for my turn in the sun. After a week and a half with the preview build, I can tell that my turn is coming.

The entire time I had with the preview, I was having a blast. The game sucked me in, grabbed hold of my attention, and refused to let go. I couldn't stop thinking about my long-term goals and would frequently boot up the game to implement a policy change I thought of while doing real-world stuff. One evening, my poor partner came rushing into our computer room thinking something was gravely wrong with me because I was muttering curses at length. America had cut off my supply of small arms, and my economy took a turn for the worst because of it. I wanted America's head, and I was ready to back anyone who felt the same way but was limited by my size. I was promptly called a loser and left to smolder in my rage.

Victoria 3 is, without a doubt, not for everyone. It also has some ways to go before it is street-ready. But for a preview build, it ran pretty well most of the time. Even with the times where it stumbled, Victoria 3 was the most fun I've had with a grand strategy game ever. There is no greater joy than growing your economy while also increasing your infrastructure. I can't wait to get back into the big chair and bring my nation into a prosperous new era of social equality.

Victoria 3 will release for PC on October 25, 2022.

The post Impressions: I got to play Victoria 3 and so can you this October appeared first on Destructoid.

Legion of Doom

Fans of veteran tactical combat series Jagged Alliance are already getting their gear together for the long-awaited sequel Jagged Alliance 3, which is currently in development at studio Haemimont Games. Publisher THQ Nordic released a new trailer for the RTS title during this weekend's Digital Showcase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah9O1LQXIvE

Once again set against the backdrop of Grand Chien, Jagged Alliance 3 sees the fictional republic overthrown by a dangerous paramilitary force following the mysterious disappearance of its president. As "The Legion" embeds itself within each and every sector of the troubled nation, the family of its missing ruler reaches out to the clandestine Adonis corporation to send its best team of black ops mercenaries to locate the president, defeat The Legion, and restore Grand Chien to its former state of (relative) order.

The new sequel, which will arrive a full two decades on from 1999's Jagged Alliance 2, will feature the tactical engagement and strategic gameplay of its predecessor, powered by a brand new engine and modern-day mechanics. A huge cast of new and familiar mercenaries will be made available for the player's home-grown militia, given access to a huge arsenal of weaponry, equipment, and explosive, town-rattling gear. Battle The Legion's forces, train local insurgents, and retake the Grand Chien street-by-street in explosive campaign action alone or with co-op support.

Jagged Alliance 3 is currently in development for PC. A release window has not been announced.

The post Jagged Alliance 3 gameplay trailer spotlights calculating RTS action appeared first on Destructoid.

The Subnautica studio has a new IP on deck for Opening Night Live, and it's turn-based

As August ramps up, more pieces in the Gamescom puzzle are falling into place. Subnautica and Natural Selection creator Unknown Worlds has already locked in the reveal of its next game — a turn-based sci-fi strategy game that's a part of a "new IP."

We'll learn more about this strategy game during the Geoff Keighley-hosted Gamescom: Opening Night Live streaming showcase on August 23 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

According to Krafton, Inc., "Unknown Worlds co-founder and game director, Charlie Cleveland, will officially reveal a new IP set in a sci-fi world that features imaginative turn-based gameplay. Striking Distance Studios' CEO Glen Schofield will also take the stage at Opening Night Live to share a new look at The Callisto Protocol, the upcoming next-generation survival horror game that is set to launch on Dec. 2, 2022."

"So excited to finally share what I've been obsessed with, and working on every day, for quite a few years," tweeted Cleveland. "OBSESSED."

"We'll show you lots of gameplay too," Keighley added.

[caption id="attachment_338829" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Krafton's Gamescom 2022 crew.}[/caption]

I honestly keep forgetting that Krafton owns Unknown Worlds, but this reveal should be a firm reminder. Previously, the pair described the new game as "genre-defining" and suggested it would have an Early Access launch; par for the course for this team.

Unknown Worlds has also been hiring for more Subnautica, so don't sweat it

What about the next Subnautica? I'm all riled up thinking about the possibilities.

Last we heard, the team was looking for a senior narrative designer to take point on "the next game in the Subnautica universe." Some of the most memorable moments are also the most terrifying, and while it's good to have a wide appeal, freaky ocean exploration sets this series apart. Of course, it can't be unsettling the whole time — calmer, quieter breaks need to be there too. There are a lot of directions the story can go from here.

Unknown Worlds has quite a bit of goodwill to spare, so whether it's this new sci-fi strategy title or another Subnautica, they've got our attention. See you at Gamescom?

The post Unknown Worlds is bringing a new sci-fi strategy game to Gamescom appeared first on Destructoid.

You can also pick up Recompile

A StarCraft: Remastered free download is front and center for this newest Prime Gaming update: set to arrive at the start of August.

As Prime Gaming continues to shuffle in new games alongside of other publisher-driven services, Amazon Prime subscibers have new games to claim. Several are relatively unknown, a few are higher-profile indies (comparatively), and the one Amazon chose to put front and center is StarCraft: Remastered. Not paying for a Blizzard game sounds pretty great right now to a lot of people, I bet.

If you need a refresher, here is what StarCraft: Remastered does differently:

• Full graphical upgrade of the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion
• Widescreen UHD support for up to 4K resolution
• New matchmaking and leaderboards
• Player profiles that track individual statistics
• Cloud saving for campaign progress, hotkeys, and replays
• Higher fidelity music and sound
• Switch between Remastered and the original StarCraft

Beyond StarCraft: Remastered, you can find the full free lineup below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BzNM2pyzW8

August 2022 free games with Prime month:

• • StarCraft: Remastered

  • Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

  • Beasts of Maravilla Island

  • Recompile

  • ScourgeBringer

  • Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises

August 2022  new in-game content with Prime: 

• • • Apex Legends

    • Call of Duty

    • Destiny 2

    • Fall Guys

    • Grand Theft Auto Online

    • League of Legends

    • World of Warcraft

The post The August Prime Gaming free lineup curiously involves StarCraft: Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

I have to stress: the original

Warcraft III turns 20 years old this week: just let that sink in. The strategy classic originally arrived on July 3, 2002, and changed the genre (and eventually, other subgenres) forever.

I can vividly recall when Warcraft III came out, as a friend of mine took off school for several days, and declined to hang out with my gaming group that weekend in favor of playing through the entire campaign. That act of isolation ensorcelled me into running out and buying it, and once we had a LAN setup going at his house, the rest was history. By then Warcraft III had fully caught on in the zeitgeist, and was on its way to becoming one of the most popular strategy games of all time.

Before long, we were playing hundreds of hours of custom games. Entire weekends were spent (with Diablo 2 hell mode breaks) trying to find the best custom games possible, and we'd all go out in these little individual excursion missions downloading them before taking turns presenting the group with the coolest, most-lasting maps to play. Eventually, someone found DOTA, and that turned into its own game (and genre) — but you know that story!

Years later, when we met my wife, one of the first things we did was surf custom games together (lots of tower defense!). It's been a unifying element throughout my entire life as long as it has existed.

All of the above is why it's such a shame that Reforged replaced the original client going forward. While the re-release did finally get an update recently, it's not only too little too late, but it's not enough. Hopefully if Blizzard hasn't gotten around to it but the time Microsoft takes over, the new owners will make it right. If all else fails, just de-couple Reforged entirely: the classic version of the game deserves to live on beyond file sharing.

The post Warcraft III turns 20 this week, and the original left quite the legacy appeared first on Destructoid.

With real-time skirmishes

Our first game reveal of Summer Game Fest 2022 involved Xenomorphs, and that had to be on someone's bingo card, right? Tindalos Interactive and Focus Entertainment showed off a cinematic trailer for Aliens: Dark Descent with soldiers facing a seemingly hopeless situation — you know the one! — and a sneaky bit of isometric gameplay footage at the end. It's a (single-player) squad-based action game. Not what I was expecting, at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W_fIqBj3gc

The game's official site fills in more info, with a mention of "permanent" death, "shortcuts" and "safe zones," and "setting up motion trackers in a persistent world where your actions impact levels forever." Aliens: Dark Descent will have threats like Facehuggers, Alien Queens, rogue humans, and a "host of horrifying creatures new to the Alien franchise." On that note, this is an "original" story, so things could get... experimental.

As little as the trailer gives away, I like the sound of needing to manage "health, resources, and sanity, to avoid permanent team losses and mental breakdowns" between missions. Granted, I'd do a terrible job if games like XCOM are any indication, but this alien-infested train could derail in a memorable way. Can I name my squad after friends and family?

Fly me to the moon, Lethe

"The gameplay we have developed is unique, inspired from our favorite tactical and CRPG games and packaged in nerve-wracking, real-time action," said Focus Entertainment managing director John Bert. The lighting looks good, I will say. Here's another screen:

While this might not be the Alien: Isolation sequel we've all been waiting for, and the story trailer does little for me, the actual gameplay foundation here seems like a potentially strong setup. Until proven otherwise, I think it's a decent use of the license. Part of it is going to come down to the controls, though, so we'll see how it turns out.

Aliens: Dark Descent is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.

The post Aliens: Dark Descent is a squad action game inspired by CRPGs appeared first on Destructoid.

It was the blurst of times...

Publisher Raw Fury, in association with developer Fury Studios, has opened up its neon yellow bum-bag and pulled out a teaser for the next entry in the strategy/building Kingdom series: Kingdom Eighties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srq0fgpX9F0

Currently in development for "the coolest platforms," Kingdom Eighties: Summer of Greed will see that series visit the manic, Day-Glo vibe of 1980s Americana, utilizing a wild, Saturday Morning Show vibe to backdrop its latest bout of exploration, world-building, and conquest. While Raw Fury is keeping tight-lipped on the details, we do know that the premise of Kingdom Eighties concerns a rag-tag gang of kids and their efforts to save their neighborhood from the mysterious and titular "Greed."

The new game will represent the fourth release in the franchise, following on from Kingdom (2015), Kingdom: New Lands (2016), and Kingdom: Two Crowns (2018). The new game will retain all of the resource-management, base-building, and combat of its predecessors, but is simply choosing to set the action in an entirely new world, one of arcade games, weekend adventures, and Denver the Last Dinosaur. Just remember to trade in your trusty steed for a BMX and you'll be golden.

Kingdom Eighties is currently in development for PC and consoles. It is scheduled to launch in 2022.

The post Kingdom Eighties is the next retro-themed entry in the Kingdom series appeared first on Destructoid.

Sweaty men not included

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp since its announcement. I’ve loved the series since I first played it on Game Boy Advance back in 2001. At the time, I had no idea that the games date back to the Famicom, and, for some reason, Advance Wars was just the first we got in North America. When I started collecting for the Famicom, it was one of the first games I looked for.

I wound up with Daisenryaku due to a strangely worded listing. The collector’s market was kind of weird back then.

I did eventually land what I was looking for. I had the privilege of trying it out with a friend of mine who also loves the series. As it turned out, there was some to be had. Nothing that hasn’t been antiquated by later games in the series, but fun nonetheless.

I want to talk about the box art to Famicom Wars because it’s one of the strangest I’ve ever seen. Forget about bearded fellows playing the banjo or horrible Sega Master System covers, Famicom Wars decided to promote itself using a row of sweaty boot camp trainees screaming at the camera. I honestly cannot fathom the discussions that went on around the use of it. Was Nintendo happy? Was the development team happy? Did the company that put this together ever find work again?

Those sweaty men don’t feature within the game. Instead, it’s the same bizarre light-hearted approach to war that we’re used to from the series. Okay, there’s no dialogue, so we don’t get COs patting each other on the back for the great battle that resulted in untold collateral damage and lives lots, but it’s still presented in an off-puttingly goofy fashion. Forget the horrors of war, just focus on the strategy.

Perhaps predictably, Famicom Wars is the formula distilled down to its purest elements. You’ve got the Red Star and Blue Moon armies. They’re evenly matched, and the COs are just generic army dudes. However, the main gameplay elements are all here. Grid-based, units with strengths and weaknesses, terrain that offers defensive cover, and capturing cities for a better daily income. If you know how to play Advance Wars, then you’re all set here. If you don’t, then just know it’s a simple take on the tactical war genre.

Many of the units that would be carried through the Game Boy Wars games and into Advance Wars existed here. Tanks and artillery in light and heavy flavors, infantry, bazooka infantry, battleships, and bombers. The big difference is that APCs and supply trucks are separate units. The supply trucks deserve special mention because they’re very unintuitive. When in a group of units, they always resupply the unit closer to the enemy. They would also sometimes just refuse to resupply for reasons I couldn’t discern. Maybe if I had the instruction manual.

One feature that I wished was carried over to later games in the series is the persistent campaign. There’s no story mode, but there’s a series of islands to be taken over. If you’re playing a 2-player campaign, then you’re essentially fighting to see who can capture the most islands. There’s a battery backup in the cartridge, which means that you can keep the campaign going over multiple play sessions. Unfortunately, the battery in my cartridge died. Have you ever tried opening a Nintendo-type Famicom cartridge? There are no screws, just plastic clips. Taking them apart without breaking those clips is a harrowing experience.

There are some drawbacks. The AI takes all the time to make its moves as a human player would, but without the conversation and smack talk. It’s not bad in early maps where there aren’t many units fielded, but in the bigger maps, I would literally walk away from the game and come back after a few minutes to find that they were still thinking about moving units. This was a problem with a lot of early turn-based strategy games. SD Gundam World, for example, or even Game Boy Wars.

It’s also a rather unbalanced game. I recall a match where I was being trampled by a friend of mine in 1v1. I was on the ropes, but I turned the whole battle around because I was the first one to drop the money on a battleship. Those beasts hit anything; land, sea, air. They’re the ultimate artillery and I can’t think of a single strategy that could defeat a blockade of those things. Of course, I’m no, uh… Captain Picard. I’m drawing a blank here on actual military leaders.

I had to bring up that time I won because he was always better than me at strategy games.

It’s somewhat important to note that, while both games are similar, Famicom Wars predated Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light by about two years. Both were designed by Intelligent Systems, or perhaps more accurately programmed by Toru Narihiro. While Fire Emblem is a much more advanced game with its narrative, persistent unit death, and RPG elements, there’s a lot of Famicom Wars DNA in there, and it’s unlikely it would exist without its predecessor.

It’s easy to say that Famicom Wars was made obsolete by later games in the series, but I think it’s more important to appreciate how fun it still is. Even back in 1988, the foundation of the series was pretty strong. I just wish we got it over here.

Nintendo did recently go to the effort of localizing the original Famicom version of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, though they only offered it for a limited amount of time and then, mystifyingly, pulled it from stores. However, they tend to have more respect for the Fire Emblem series since the western audience latched onto it and turned it into a million-seller. Maybe if Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp succeeds, we’ll finally see a localization. On the other hand, you could just use the map editor to remake all the Famicom Wars maps, so what do I know?

As for what’s there now, if you’re brave, you can poke around with the Japanese menus and try to figure things out. Otherwise, you need to know the language. There’s no story, but there are a lot of stats and unit types. Luckily, there is a fan translation available. Maybe check it out if you’d like to see where this series spawned.

Check out previous Famicom Fridays right here.

The post Famicom Wars was already a solid foundation for Advance Wars appeared first on Destructoid.

Do as Arnold says and get your ass to Mars

This week on the Epic Games Store, board game purveyor Asmodee Digital is giving out Terraforming Mars for free. Just claim the PC game by May 12 to lock it up in your library.

As a quick aside, this music puts me in a real Commander Shepard state of mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92a3TUwPBgc

Terraforming Mars is an adaptation of Jacob Fryxelius' 2016 strategy board game, and like its award-winning source material, you'll try to forget all of the terrible stuff you saw in Total Recall and Red Faction as you work to bend Mars to your will. Progress must be made!

Corporations clash as you and your big-business rivals "transform Mars into a habitable planet by spending vast resources and using innovative technology to raise temperature, create a breathable atmosphere, and make oceans of water" to pile up Victory Points.

The PC game has single-player support if you want to really take your time, or you can compete under pressure with five others, whether that's AI opponents or real players.

I wasn't there at launch, but looking through the user reviews, Terraforming Mars was in dire need of bug fixing and other fine-tuning and it has gotten better with updates.

"As an avid fan of the board game, I can recommend this game for new and experienced players," noted a player who goes by nimrod. "The way it keeps track of your points and cards is super convenient and the interface is easy to learn. If you enjoy a nice calm game to play alone or with friends that wracks your brain a lil bit, this one's for you."

If you ever need a feel-good palette cleanser, keep an eye on Terra Nil, too.

[caption id="attachment_219643" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Prey (2017).}[/caption]

Next week's free games are Prey and Jotun

Terraforming Mars will be free to claim and keep until May 12, at which point the Epic Games Store will swap in Jotun: Valhalla Edition and Prey until May 19. Arkane's paranoid space-station FPS with immersive-sim tendencies gets a lotta love around here.

The post Terraforming Mars is free on the Epic Games Store appeared first on Destructoid.

Hmmmm

For weeks now Blizzard has been teasing a mobile entry in the Warcraft franchise, which was built up as an Earth-shattering reveal. That time has come, and it's called Warcraft: Arclight Rumble.

Described as "Warcraft at your fingertips," this new game is a "mobile action strategy game" that looks very similar to a lot of other competitors on the market. It'll sport a "massive single player campaign," as well as head-to-head PVP, prompting players to control armies and heroes to take on "bosses and characters from the Warcraft universe." You'll also "collect over 60 minis" as part of the game's progression system, across the playable factions of Alliance, Horde, Beast [Gnolls are seen in the trailer], Undead, and Blackrock. "Raids" and co-op play with guilds are teased.

The theme is extremely zany, in a completely over-the-top fashion (a little too much upfront) as was evident from the developer reveal. Warcraft: Arclight Rumble is set to debut this year, and pre-registrations are already live now on Android (it's also coming to iOS). You can find the full website for the game here.

While I'll wait to play it to judge, this entire thing felt like it was done under duress at the behest of Activision.

The Warcraft: Arclight Rumble reveal trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6LYBW8cH4c

The Warcraft: Arclight Rumble screenshots:

[gallery ids="319917,319918,319919,319920,319921,319922"]

https://www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7095836488310525190?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7052788164067706373

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Also known as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 day

That long-delayed tactical Digimon game with the fancy character art is finally coming home. In a succinct video message, producer Kazumasa Habu announced that Digimon Survive will release on July 29, 2022, across PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

"The Digimon Survive team is planning to deliver more exciting news to you in all forms," said Habu. "Please look forward to it and stay tuned. We are almost there!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q_KGjmtoXQ

If that date sounds strangely familiar, well, you might also be a Xenoblade fan. In a rare move, Nintendo recently pushed Xenoblade Chronicles 3 up a couple of months to July 29.

Digimon Survive is a turn-based strategy RPG with "anime-style storytelling," as publisher Bandai Namco puts it. Playing as Takuma Momozuka, you'll make tough choices and fight alongside fellow students to escape a dangerous world and return home. The game is balancing elements from different genres, and I hope it all clicks in a fresh way.

It's hard to think of a more-frequently-delayed video game than Digimon Survive, at least around these parts and in recent memory. At one point, the game was expected in 2019 — then in 2020, 2021, and now 2022. To that end, I literally wrote an article on this site with the headline "This is hopefully the last time Digimon Survive will be delayed."

So while its launch alongside Xenoblade Chronicles 3 isn't ideal if you're in the wider Switch RPG audience, it's sure nice to see this long-awaited game solidify its timing.

As much as I've drifted away from the Digimon series at large, I have fond memories of watching the show on Saturday mornings, and Andromon still randomly drifts into my mind. I hope Digimon Survive does well so we'll see even more types of Digimon games.

The post After all the delays, Digimon Survive locked in a July 29 release date appeared first on Destructoid.

From the creative director of Hitman GO

I'm in the mood for good, clean tower defense, and Isle of Arrows — from Hitman GO and Lara Croft GO creative director Daniel Lutz — could easily be it. The game's slick style got its foot in the door long enough for me to want to dig into its roguelike-meets-board-game format with randomized tile draws informing what can be built, and when.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU9G025thbM

Isle of Arrows is a think-on-your-feet game about building up a fortress one tile at a time, so you'll want to pray to the RNG gods and strategize at least a few moves ahead.

According to Lutz, there are 50-plus tiles ranging from Towers to fend off invaders, Roads to snake them around your structures, Flags to extend the play space, Gardens to generate coins used to skip unruly tiles, and Taverns to boost adjacent archers.

Giving the draw-build-defend format a bit more spice, there are bonus cards for "resources, upgrades, and buffs," as well as four guilds with "their own playstyle."

Sometimes you just want a proper campaign

Also worth mentioning: Isle of Arrows has a Campaign, Gauntlet, and Daily Defense mode, so even if there is some of that "endless" roguelike appeal, it sounds like there will be clear goals to work toward and it can be more... finite, if you want it to be. I know I do.

[caption id="attachment_317208" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{More examples of tiles that can be drawn in Isle of Arrows, including an Ice Trap and Cannon Tower.}[/caption]

The pieces are all there for this to be a cool little twist on the tower defense genre, and I like the idea of having to switch my strategy up. Too often in these games, I find my favorite few towers and brute-force my way to victory with them and only them.

Isle of Arrows will be playable on Steam, iOS, and Android this summer.

While we wait, have you played any good tower defense titles worthy of a nod lately? I'm in such a rut! I've been meaning to revisit Immortal Defense, one of my all-timers.

The post Isle of Arrows is a stylish tile-drawing tower defense game appeared first on Destructoid.

With options ranging from "idyllic" to "brutal"

Grim Dawn ended up hitting spot for a lot of action-RPG fans, and this year, Crate Entertainment is coming for all of the city-builders in the room. The studio's next project is Farthest Frontier, a game about starting a town "at the edge of the known world." We've seen screenshots on Steam before, but today, there's a cozy gameplay trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWnAItzIWtc

As the trailer footage shows, your colony will start off very small — and very vulnerable to the elements. One moment, your villagers are chopping trees, growing crops, and fishing; the next, there's a bear attack. And a raging house fire. And a brutal winter.

That's just the eye-catching stuff they're showing us now, too. Think about all of the long-term threats to a quiet village life that are lurking beneath the surface, simmering.

Before you panic — admittedly, I'm starting to! — there will be options. As the Steam listing for Farthest Frontier explains, "customizable difficulty options allow players to turn off features like invaders and disease, for a more tranquil experience or max out difficulty to truly test their town-builder prowess." I'll avoid the latter at all costs, thanks.

Some of these bullet-points really are worth a look, whether it's talk of avoiding "old-timey diseases," planning out "crop rotations to maintain soil fertility," and developing an economy with the right mix of raw materials. There's plenty to consider beyond just which specific road should go where and who's responsible for what duties.

If you're curious why everyone is constantly running around, Crate Entertainment says that "villagers actively live their lives and perform their jobs in real-time." The hustle!

When does Steam Early Access start?

[caption id="attachment_310400" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Stocking up for a long winter.}[/caption]

Farthest Frontier will be playable on PC sometime in 2022, but it's kicking things off with a Steam Early Access launch. From there, the road to a 1.0 release is expected to last "probably 4-8 months, depending on how much we feel the need to alter gameplay systems or add to the scope of the game before we're ready to call it finished."

As it stands, the game will have "four tiers of town-building" and "10+ hours of gameplay," with "all listed features [working] when we release in [Early Access]."

It may look very familiar, but I don't consider that a knock against Farthest Frontier.

The post Farthest Frontier looks like comfort food for city-builder fans appeared first on Destructoid.

It's time to complete your SteamWorld collection

We're nearing a new month, and that means it's time to hear about some free games on the horizon across multiple platforms and subscriptions. In the case of Prime Gaming, Amazon Prime members can claim seven PC games in March, a few of which stand out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-zlQL3OFsk

These games will be free with Prime Gaming on March 1:

• Madden NFL 22
• SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
• Surviving Mars
• Crypto Against All Odds
• looK INside
• Pesterquest
• The Stillness of the Wind

Those first three are the big boys, so let's run through 'em.

Madden NFL 22 might be worth a look if you're able to push through ongoing issues and do your thing in Franchise mode, although there is always that lingering sense that there's clear room for improvement, and that can be distracting. I mean, you know the drill. That's the annual sports game life. It's worth noting that if PC isn't your preferred platform for Madden, the Xbox version is currently a part of EA Play / Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

I'm sure plenty of us who loved SteamWorld Dig and even SteamWorld Heist have not taken the time to check out SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech. It's a turn-based RPG with card battling, which is not everyone's cup of tea, myself included. That said, I feel like the SteamWorld charm can do some heavy lifting here, and I think a decent chunk of players have gotten more comfortable with card mechanics from games like Slay the Spire.

As for Surviving Mars, it's a chance to build the (probably) ill-advised colony of your dreams. One of my favorite facets of management/builder sims is the ever-present threat of shit going real bad, real fast, and the need to adapt to situations on the fly.

[caption id="attachment_310022" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The Stillness of the Wind.}[/caption]

What about the other four games?

Crypto is a tower defense game with "hackers and other blockchain threats," while Pesterquest is a visual novel for Homestuck fans, and looK INside is a point-and-click adventure that's a family affair. Of the lesser-knowns, I'm most curious about The Stillness of the Wind — that palette is such a mood, and the solitary homestead premise is unique.

That's it for March, but it's not too late to grab Stellaris if you missed it earlier this month.

The post Amazon Prime Gaming has seven free games to claim in March appeared first on Destructoid.