TGO Daily | February 11, 2021 | Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
February 11, 2021
In The News
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury Reviews
Source: opencritic.com
The review embargo has lifted for Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, which is the original game from the Wii U paired with a whole new section of game. When it first released in 2013, many people called it one of the best Mario 3D platformers of all time.
By all accounts, this is a successful re-release, and is apparently worth double-dipping for if you’ve already played it. It helps that this will be an all new title for most people, considering how badly the Wii U flopped. It also has 4 person online multiplayer, which is nothing to sneeze at!
The unique feature of the game is the new addition: “Bowser’s Fury.” It is a heavy departure from 3D World, and is mostly referred to as a separate game by reviewers (it wouldn’t have been out of place if it were a standalone game). Being something more akin to Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey, or even Breath of the Wild — it’s open-world Mario. The player is plopped onto a huge map with a giant Godzilla-like Bowser placed in the middle, and is sent on their way. There’s been a lot of positive feedback on it.
The game releases this Friday on the Nintendo Switch.
If you’re interested in an entertaining review, read Polygon. For a more critical take, read Kotaku. For a balanced take from a great reviewer, read VG247. (Or any others! Those are just my recommendations).
What is Valheim?
Source: polygon.com
An Early Access game called Valheim has been exploding on Steam recently, consistently hitting the best sellers list and reviewing extremely well. It’s an open world survival game ala Rust, but has found an early audience for how well it executed on the concept. In fact, they already sold over a million copies in its first week.
Visually it’s Runescape character models meet modern environments and shading — it’s an interesting aesthetic. Apparently the game has a clear progression system that feels natural, with survival elements that don’t feel punishing. QoL things like food not expiring and PvP being optional make for an attractive purchase. As Polygon puts it:
It is, in short, an early access crafting and survival indie game that actually works. There isn’t anything ridiculously flashy or totally new, but developer Iron Gate has created a solid foundation. All of the mechanics here have been done before in games like Ark or Conan Exiles, but the hard edges and frustrating grinds have been sanded down and smoothed away. In a genre so crowded with derivative, opaque, and downright broken titles, Valheim stands out by simply working well and making sense.
Valheim is $20 USD on Steam. It’s refreshing to hear about a game like this — I might just have to check it out.
Tales from the Borderlands Returns!
Following the shutdown of Telltale Games in late 2018, most (if not all) of their titles were taken off of digital storefronts. Slowly, over the course of the last few years, the titles have been reappearing thanks to the rights to their IPs being picked up by a company called LCG Entertainment.
Today, they announced that Tales from the Borderlands will be available for purchase starting next week!
This is by far one of the funniest games I’ve ever played, and is probably the best one that Telltale ever made (though The Wolf Among Us was my favourite). Definitely give it a look if you haven’t!
DualSense Drifting?
Source: kotaku.com
It looks like only 3 months after releasing, the PlayStation 5’s controller is having stick drift issues. Despite being one of the main selling points of the console, people are already having to replace the DualSense.
Apparently these kinds of issues are covered under warranty, but it’s a massive headache to get repairs. Much like Nintendo’s Joy-Cons, it doesn’t seem like this is a big priority for Sony at this point (although Nintendo is facing dozens of lawsuits over Joy-Con drift, so maybe it should be).
For those of you lucky enough to own a PS5, be diligent in taking care of it!
The Grab-Bag
Mask of the Rose, the romantic visual novel set in the Fallen London franchise, has been successfully funded on Kickstarter. This is the same universe as the Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies games. Super cool concept.
Epic announces MetaHuman Creator — a cloud-based tool to make super realistic character models. This could change the face of indie gaming forever, if its affordable.
Hearthstone going back to it’s roots, adding a new mode that reverts to June 2014.
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