Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is officially being released for the Nintendo Switch / Xbox One on March 26, 2019, while its expected to arrive in Europe on March 28, 2019 for the PS4 – April 2, 2019 for PS4 in North America. If you’re waiting for the Steam version, expect it some time during Summer 2019. This fighting game features 3-on-3 tag team matches similar to the Marvel vs. Capcom series as well as cross-play across all platforms except for the PlayStation 4 version. Read more for an extended gameplay video.
Noob Saibot originally debuted as an unplayable hidden character in Mortal Kombat II, in which he was a black silhouette of the game’s other male ninjas, and his name actually consists of the surnames of Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias spelled backwards. Mortal Kombat: Deception established him as being the original Sub-Zero, who had been killed by his nemesis, Scorpion, during the events of the first Mortal Kombat and then resurrected as a vengeful revenant. Read more to watch his Mortal Kombat 11 gameplay reveal trailer.
Many gamers still enjoy playing NES classics even though there haven’t been any official releases for over two decades now. Fortunately, there’s a way to try out new games to this day, thanks to something called “NESMaker”. Think of it as Unity or GameMaker, complete with various modules that enable you to make platformers, shooters, action adventure, etc. games, without any coding experience. You’ll be able to design your own art, adjust the physics, and if you have the technical know how, even modify the code, all the while running on actual NES hardware. The end result is an .nes ROM file that runs on any emulator, or you can just use the “Burn” function with the cart flasher to create a functional game cartridge. Read more for a video showcase of some of the games made with NESMaker.
Studio MDHR announced today that Cuphead will officially hit the Nintendo eShop on April 18, 2019, and is available for pre-purchase starting today for: $19.99 USD, $25.99 CAD, £16.99, and 19,99€. Aside from the game’s Switch launch, a major free content update is going to be made available for all versions of Cuphead (Xbox One, PC, Mac) on the same day with several new features, including: a playable Mugman in single-player, new fully animated cutscenes, never-before-seen art and fight intros, ten additional languages, a plethora of bug fixes, and plenty of secrets for players to discover. Read more for another video and additional information.
Gamer “Silius” has probably seen a fair number of custom NES consoles over the years, especially from Ben Heck, but instead of trying to recreate one, they decided to built one based on an actual Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition to a flip-up screen, it still takes cartridges rather than just emulate them, which means it retains most of the original hardware. “The carts are inserted like into a normal unit. It has volume control and the display attributes can be adjusted. I’ve found the screen on eBay and it fits really well. I’m still working on it but it’s been running perfectly so far. I want to cover the circuit board with a painted aluminium plate and maybe I manage to make some bezel for the screen as well,” said its creator. Read more for a video showing exactly what’s going on inside the NES and additional pictures.
Google officially unveiled today their Stadia cloud gaming service at the 2019 Game Developers Conference. It’s designed to run on PCs, Macs, Android devices and even Google’s Chromecast devices. Launching some time this year, it will run a collection of current PC games on Google’s centralized servers that can be played with a new game controller (or existing ones), Just press the “play now” button on any web browser, and the game begins “in as quick as five seconds…with no download, no patch, no update, and no install.” Read more to watch the entire reveal summed up in a five minute video.
Photo credit: Mineral Blu
Carolina Ravassa is a Colombian actress and producer best known for her voice over work in television series and video games, most notably Sombra from the video game Overwatch. Instead of just voicing the character, she decided to cosplay as Sombra for Katsucon, an annual three-day anime convention, complete with a custom costume made just for her. Read more for another video and additional information.
Google teamed up with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, owner of the Carmen Sandiego brand, to bring the “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” franchise to the internet, with “The Crown Jewels Caper.” Available on the Google Earth app, it’s very similar to the original 1985 game where the user travels to international landmarks, interacts with locals and collects clues to track jewel thief Carmen Sandiego’s next location. Players will have opportunities to learn about geography and different cultures along the way. Read more for a short playthrough video if you’d like a preview before trying it out yourself.
The Simpsons producers consulted with League of Legends maker Riot Games for their upcoming Esports episode to “help ensure “the experience depicted in the episode was authentic to the players, fans and coaches who compete professionally in League of Legends,” according to LCS commentator David “Phreak” Turley. That’s not all, The Simpsons writer Al Jean Tweeted a screenshot from the episode and also noted that Bart won’t be playing Bonestorm or Super Slugfest, but rather a six-player game called Conflict of Enemies. Read more for the Tweet and additional information.
Microsoft announced today that the entire Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam. This will occur in stages with each title being released individually over time, enabling the development teams to ensure each game is perfect, while giving players a chance to jump in right away, rather than having to wait for the entire suite. It will kick off with Halo: Reach with the rest of the titles following in chronological order thereafter – Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4. Read more for a more in-depth video and additional information.