Monthly Archives: September 2015
Super Mario Maker Players Have Uploaded Over 1 Million Courses
Fans of the recently-released Wii U exclusive Super Mario Maker have been staying busy creating and sharing levels.
According to Nintendo's Japanese Twitter account, the company claims over 1 million user-created courses in Super Mario Maker have been uploaded and shared with users worldwide.
In Super Mario Maker, players are given tools and assets from different Mario games which they take and use to create their own levels. Much like the user-generated content in PlayStation's LittleBigPlanet series, these unique levels can be shared with other players once they've been created.
Super Mario Maker is Nintendo's latest release for the Wii U home console, and has made enough waves with fans that it will soon be getting its own Super Smash Bros. stage. Read IGN's Super Mario Maker review to learn how you can craft devilishly difficult levels.
This Week in the Nintendo eShop
The most interesting thing out this week might be Shovel Knight's free update, which adds in a brand new playable character (Plague Knight) and a new challenge mode. But aside from that, this week has a few other standout games, such as Year Walk, the celebrated iOS release coming to Wii U, and the quirky Wii U Virtual Console release of the little-known GBA game Car Battler Joe.
Year Walk ($6.99)
Year Walk, first released on iOS in 2013, is a unique adventure game where you journey through a dark woods inspired by Swedish folklore. On Wii U, the GamePad is integral, as players can use it in conjunction with the TV to solve puzzles, unravel clues, and more.
7 Things You Need to Know About Umbrella Corps
Capcom announced Biohazard: Umbrella Corps at TGS 2015 this week, and the competitive multiplayer shooter set in the Resident Evil universe has tons of promise and some significant problems. It’s clever and innovative in many ways, and deeply troublesome in others.
Let’s go down the list.
Shooters, not surprisingly, live and die by the way their guns feel. Umbrella Corps’ weapons feel weak, too similar, and all around ineffective. Characters don’t respond appropriately to getting shot so it’s challenging to know whether you’ve made your mark. I was surprised every time a character died. This was true of zombies, as well. Delayed reactions to headshots left me uncertain that I was doing anything. In a competitive environment, not knowing whether your next shot is a guaranteed kill is the difference between your own life and death.
Robert Kirkman’s Invincible Delivers a Shocking Twist
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Invincible #123!
In a series already characterized by shocking twists and big status quo changes, Invincible dropped another bomb in this week's new issue. In the final pages of issue #123, main hero Mark Grayson found himself thrown back in time to the very beginning of the series.
This twist came as Mark and his brother Oliver joined in the manhunt for the rogue villain General Thragg. While investigating a cave near Thragg's abandoned base, Mark encountered a strange, glowing creature. No sooner did he touch the creature than Mark woke up in his younger body around the time of Invincible #1. His memories are intact, but now the past several years of his life (including his marriage to Atom Eve, the birth of his daughter, and the various trials and tribulations he's faced as a superhero) are wiped away.
The Witness Gets a Release Date in New Trailer
Before today, the most recent trailer for Jonathan Blow's open-world puzzle game The Witness was two and a half years old. Now there's a new trailer, viewable at 4K and 60fps, that grants us an updated look at the mysterious island where The Witness takes place. It also has a release date: January 26, 2016 on PC and PlayStation 4.
The diverse locations across the island are on full display in this new trailer: colorful gardens and beaches, crumbled ruins and abandoned laboratories, strange observatories and underground corridors, all with their own maze-like puzzles to solve. Check it out below.
In a post on the PlayStation blog, creator Jonathan Blow discusses how players might expect to play for about 80 or even 100 hours depending on how much of a completionist they are. That's 10 times the length Blow originally expected when The Witness first entered production, but Blow also assures, "For people who don’t want to go quite that far, the game’s still got plenty for you."
Report: Fox Engine Overseer Julien Merceron Quits Konami
Julien Merceron, the man responsible for overseeing Konami's Fox Engine, has reportedly parted ways with the studio.
The news was first announced by Gameblog, though independent sources have since confirmed it to IGN.
For those unaware of who Merceron is, he joined Konami back in 2013 as the company's worldwide technology director, and it was during his tenure that the company's bespoke game engine was put into use on both Metal Gear Solid V and the most recent Pro Evolution Soccer titles.
Before that, he spent seven years working in and around Square Enix, including as CTO at IO Interactive, Eidos and Crystal Dynamics before ascending to the rank of global technology director at Square Enix itself.
The Last Witch Hunter Poster and Trailer Debut
Vin Diesel's next big screen adventure is The Last Witch Hunter, and today we have not only the latest poster for the film but also the exclusive new trailer!
The trailer, titled "Awakening," features a cover of the classic Rolling Stones song “ Paint It Black” recorded by Ciara exclusively for the movie. The new poster is below (click for hi-res version):
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Delay for New Mode, Polish
A new mode, polished scenes, and more gameplay will be added to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 with the delay, CyberConnect2’s Hiroshi Matsuyama said in an interview with IGN.
Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 was originally scheduled for release in fall 2015, but developer CyberConnect2 delayed it to February 2016 back in August.
As this is the first game of the Ninja Storm series on the new console generation, Matsuyama said the CC2 team wanted to get the game “powered up more.”
This includes general animation improvements, such as creating different damage animations for individual characters when they’re attacked by an opponent’s secret technique as opposed to all characters performing the same animation. In addition, CC2 is polishing boss fights and other elements.
Up Close With Metal Gear Solid 5’s Stunning New Figures
Konami has new Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain toys on display at its Tokyo Game Show booth, and fans of Big Boss, Sahelanthropus, and the Chicken Hat are definitely going to want to spend some money.
Check out our gallery below for an up-close look at the terrific new toys, some of which appear complete while others are clearly in a prototype stage. Also be sure to check out 10 minutes of new Metal Gear Online footage.
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No word yet on pricing or release. We'll have more for you as we have it. For all our news, previews, interviews, and more coverage from Tokyo Game Show, check out IGN's TGS 2015 Hub.
Latest New Xbox One Experience Preview Update Issues
Microsoft has warned gamers that a selection of games and apps may be affected by the latest Xbox One Experience preview test.
Though testers enrolled on the Xbox One Experience Preview program are to expect some issues/errors as part of any beta/preview program, the latest update may have a significant impact on games, apps, and even hardware.
Destiny: The Taken King, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Elder Scrolls Online and Forza 6 have all been affected by graphical, connection and/or stability issues.
D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, Elite: Dangerous, Guacamelee: SCTE, Pool Nation FX, Skylanders, Unmechanical, and Xbox Fitness are also unable to load, while a selection of apps -- ABC News, BlinkBox, Every Street United, Overdog, ReddX, Showtime Anytime, SlingTV, TWC TV, VUDU and WWE -- may fail to open.