Nintendo has typically taken a grab-bag approach with the Splatoon franchise, mixing different modes of gameplay together into a single package -- single-player, PvP multiplayer, co-op base defense, and more -- but with the upcoming Splatoon Raiders, they're taking more of a focused approach. This spinoff is primarily a single-player adventure (although there is the option to play co-op) that zeroes in on combat and a looter-shooter-style progression system. Is Splatoon Raiders a successful expansion of this fishy series? Or has Nintendo gone and painted themselves into a corner? Swim on to find out... Splatoon Raiders casts players as the […]

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Nobody makes games quite like Amanita Design, the scrappy Czech indie studio responsible for beautiful, meticulously-crafted adventure games like Machinarium, Botanicula, and Creaks, and now they're about to launch possibly their most ambitious project to date. Phonopolis, which spent over a decade in development, sports a unique cardboard diorama look, with the folks at Amanita creating real-life cardboard props that were then scanned into the game (this is also Amanita's first 3D title). Is Amanita Design's latest still a cut above? Or is Phonopolis not worth the cardboard it's printed on? Adventure onward to find out. Phonopolis takes place in […]

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Nintendo has two sides -- there's the company that makes broadly appealing, polished entertainment like Mario and Zelda, and then there's that weird side that makes stuff like Tomodachi Life. While the last Tomodachi Life was a surprising success, moving nearly 7 million units on the 3DS, not many expected a follow-up to the Mii-focused life sim, as it kind of felt like the series’ time had come and gone. There's no keeping the weird side of Nintendo tamped down, though, and so, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, a game in development in one form or another for nine years, […]

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Like its predecessor, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie seems destined to go down as one of this year's most divisive films, which is kind of odd when you think about it. These generally inoffensive crowd-pleasing movies based on a near-universally-beloved IP, carefully shepherded by Shigeru Miyamoto himself, probably shouldn't be getting folks so riled up, and yet! Following in the footsteps of 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, professional reviews for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie have been witheringly negative, and to listen to some folks, the flick represents nothing less than the demise of cinema. An egregious example of […]

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A new year means a new WWE 2K game, and I recently made the trip to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to go hands-on with WWE 2K26 (read more about that here). As has become tradition, I also sat down with longtime WWE 2K series creative director Lynell Jinks and gameplay producer Bryan Williams to take the current temperature of the series. We delved into a lot of topics, including WWE 2K26’s changes to the series’ core stamina and reversal mechanics, the game’s massive 400 slot roster, added match types, new “Ringside Pass” approach to DLC, why Visual Concepts knew The Island wouldn’t wow everyone […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/wwe-2k26-interview-gamelay-changes-cutting-last-gen-the-island/

Last year’s entry in the WWE 2K series left some, including me, wanting. After several years of steady piecemeal improvement, WWE 2K25 went all-in on The Island, a new cosmetic-festooned online hub similar to NBA 2K's The City, with most other aspects of the game falling by the wayside. Was this just a one-year misstep, or the beginning of a new direction? Last week, I traveled to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to go hands-on with WWE 2K26 and was surprised to find I could test pretty much the entire game (in years past, journalists were typically given a curated list of […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/wwe-2k26-hands-on-impressions/