Daily Gaming News: June 24, 2020

In unrelated gaming news, I had to stop playing The Last of Us Part II due to nausea. You might be able to argue that it was caused by all this running and gunning, but I’d say it was due to this one especially awful cutscene. TLOU2 seems to be filled with those.

Pokémon Company News: Pokémon Café Mix Free-to-Play Game Released, Pokémon Unite 5v5 MOBA Announced for Nintendo Switch and Mobile

Well, I for one sure didn’t expect a new Pokémon title so soon after the Pokémon Snap announcement, much less TWO. And yet here we are.

First up is the fairly inoffensive Pokémon Café Mix, a cutesy puzzle game where you manage a café filled with your favorite pocket monsters. The puzzle element has you chaining together little Pokémon tokens by tapping and dragging around the touch-screen. It’s like a kiddie version of the Match 3 games, and it’s available on Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS.

And now we have what will probably go down as the most polarizing announcement in The Pokémon Company’s history. Pokémon Unite, a new MOBA [mobile online battle arena – think League of Legends] developed by Timi and published by Tencent Games was also announced for the Nintendo Switch and mobile. The game is a five-on-five team battle where each side tries to score the most points by capturing areas on a map that looks suspiciously like Runeterra.

Instead of fighting creeps that spawn from a base, you go around fighting wild pokemon around the map to get money and experience, which you can use to upgrade your pokemon’s moveset.

The internet’s reaction?

Fortnite to Stream Three Nolan Films for Party Royale

I have to hand it to Epic for managing to take a struggling game and turning it around into one of the most popular online experiences of all time and a multi-billion dollar business. Sure, part of it was being at the right place at the right time, but Epic’s willingness to try new things has been a huge factor.

As part of Party Royale, a “new experimental and evolving space” that launched back in May or so, Epic will stream three movies by Christopher Nolan: Inception, Batman Begins, and The Prestige. Inception’s the first one up and will be available in the USA on Friday, June 26 at 8:00am, 8:00pm, and 11:55pm. All times are in EDT.

Source: Epic Games

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Announced for PC, PS4, Xbox, and PC

I’d never heard of yesterday’s NEW GAME+ EXPO, and I was a little intrigued after seeing that it was focused on Japanese developers. Alas, most of the titles were either ports or re-releases or just not all that interesting.

However, there was a world premiere trailer for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. This is the sequel to a game which actually started as a stretch goal for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series by Koji Igarashi]. In Curse of the Moon 2, you play as one of four characters (and you can switch them in and out at will) in an 8-bit styled side-scroller that’s remeniscent of the original Castlevania for NES.

I’ve never played any of the Bloodstained series, but I’m already liking a lot of the boss designs in this game.

Torchlight 3 Actually Has a Class Where You Can Spawn a Train that Rolls Around and Shoots Stuff

Man, I don’t know how I missed this. Thanks to Polygon, I’m now aware that Torchlight 3, which is in early access includes a class where you build train tracks and you can summon a train that rolls along with you. Best of all, the train can be built to blast enemies like a turret, or project a shield.

I love stuff like this, when developers take chances with new ideas rather than reuse the same classes over and over and over again.

Source: Polygon