BOOTLEG STAR FOX 2
The game release that was decades in the making, Star Fox 2 for the SNES, finally dropped on Friday with the release of Nintendo’s SNES Classic Edition. And it did not take long for bootleg SNES cartridges of the game to appear for sale online. The same day the SNES mini console was available in stores an eBay seller had already sold a handful of these homemade carts. So if you couldn’t find an SNES Classic or if you’re not satisfied playing Star Fox 2 through emulation and desperately want it on original hardware there may still be hope. You just have to be willing to pay for it.
XBOX WATCH
Can you imagine having Xbox connectivity from your wrist? Well apparently Microsoft could but perhaps didn’t think consumers would. A prototype for what is being called a Xbox Watch has surfaced online. It’s unknown what the precise functionality of the watch would have been. The rumour is that the device was in development in 2013 which means it would have begun development even before the Xbox One was released. Perhaps once the console was released into the wild it took a direction away from a wristwatch peripheral. We may never know.
SNES CLASSIC HARDWARE SPECS
Despite the fact that Super NES represented a significant advance in video game consoles over the NES the same cannot be said for its classic edition. Eurogamer.net carried out a full tear down of the SNES Classic and compared its hardware to that of the NES Classic and they’re “almost a complete match.” Seeing as how the NES Classic was promptly hacked after its release we can probably expect news sooner rather than later that the almost identical SNES mini has been cracked as well.
Wii SHOP CLOSING ITS DOORS
Nintendo announced on Saturday that the Wii Shop Channel will be going offline on January 30, 2019. If you have Wii Points cards hanging around that you haven’t redeemed yet then your call to action is March 26, 2018, other wise known as the day you will no longer be able to add Wii Points. So if there’s anything you want downloaded to your Wii off the Wii Shop, maybe something you can’t get anywhere else, you have until 2019 then it’s lights out.
PAC-MAN BATTLE CASINO
It’s not a new trend for casino electronic games to be based off of popular franchises across all media. But how about the casino game actually being a video game? Gamblit Gaming will be bringing Pac-Man onto casino floors in 2018. Pac-Man Battle Casino, developed in partnership with Bandai Namco, will be demoed at the Global Gaming Expo this week in Las Vegas.
SHENMUE 3 PROGRESS
The team working on Shenmue 3 released a progress report on YouTube last week highlighting character facial animations. This was a little over a month after their first teaser trailer for the game hit the internet. Fans were not enthused. A major criticism of the trailer, and something that raised concerns in the game’s Kickstarter backers, was the lack of animations in the characters’ faces. It did not show the technical savvy that fans were expecting from this highly anticipated title. Hopefully some of those fears have been allayed with this new update from the development team.
DARKEST DUNGEON COMING TO SWITCH
Another indie title has been announced for the Nintendo Switch. Red Hook Studios announced last week that their title Darkest Dungeon will be getting a release on the Switch. No date has been given yet. However the fact that the announcement was paired with video of the game playing on a Switch gives fans hope that it won’t be too far off. The game was previously released for PC, XBox One, PS4 and PS Vita in 2016.
SONY RELEASING NEW PSVR HARDWARE
This week Sony announced that they are releasing an updated version of the PSVR headset. The new release comes as a surprise to most gamers as the PSVR is still relatively new on the market, other older headsets like the HTC VIVE have gone without any hardware refreshes at all. The new model will feature a “slimmer, streamlined” connection cable and allow the user’s stereo headphone cables to be integrated into the headset. The new model will also come with a new Processor Unit that will allow HDR pass through. Good news for PSVR users who want to take advantage of HDR features on their PlayStation console without disconnecting their headset’s Processor Unit. The new hardware will be available in Japan this month with a North American date still to come.