The Wednesday letters page asks why so many Marvel video games don’t sell, as one reader wonders if 2K will ever make a FIFA game.
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More to come
It has its faults, but I am now settled with Mario Kart World and while it’s not as good as Mario Kart 8 it’s definitely a good game. The empty open world is much less of a problem if you treat it as a failure of marketing rather than game design and I agree that they should’ve never hyped it up and, if they do have plans for DLC, they should’ve told us about it already, at least roughly.
The fact that Donkey Kong and Pauline only have one skin is super suspicious but if that’s connected to Bananza they’re not exactly in a rush to tell us about it. I’m guessing there was no talk of it at GC’s preview?
My guess would be that the first DLC will be new costumes for Donkey Kong and Pauline and perhaps a new character of young (not baby) Pauline. The question for me is whether there’ll be anything more than that? Would they add a new area to the map? That seems like too much effort for free DLC.
Maybe they’d add a little Donkey Kong themed village or something in an existing space? There are a lot of empty plots in the game, and you could easily imagine them doing a little pop-up area to promote a new game. But is that really what they’re going to do? As usual with Nintendo, we just have to wait and see.
Onibee
GC: There was no mention of Mario Kart at the preview, no.
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No competition
I’ve been playing Rematch and it is quite fun, but at the end of the day it’s an arcade style game and it has very little in common with actual football. It may become popular but there’s no way it can work as a serious replacement for EA Sports FC.
The problem is that nothing can without the official licences and while EA has those it’s basically untouchable. I’m not clear how many of them are exclusive, given Konami does use some, but nobody has ever been willing to step up and spend the money necessary to compete.
There were rumours that 2K were going to get the FIFA licence next but if that’s happening they’ve still not said anything about it. The FIFA licence alone won’t help them though, they need all the clubs and players too. If that doesn’t happen, given how rich 2K are, then that means EA Sports FC is never going to have anything to worry about.
RInce
It’s-a not me
Nice preview of Donkey Kong Bananza. It looks and sounds pretty good, but I can’t imagine I’m the only one that wouldn’t have preferred a 3D Mario instead. It’s over eight years since Super Mario Odyssey and we still have no clue about what comes next.
I really hope Bananza is the B-team or whatever, just so that we have a chance of getting a new Mario before the Switch 3 arrives. I know the theory about a movie tie-in next year, but I have a feeling that’s more likely to be a 2D game, just to make it as a casual friendly as possible.
We’ll see I guess, but if Bananza is the only game we’re getting from Nintendo’s top team this gen, or close to the end, I’m a little underwhelmed.
Korbie
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Who’s on third?
Was Donkey Kong Bananza being developed by the Super Mario Odyssey team really a surprise to yourselves? After that DK Direct I kind of knew instantly, it looks extremely similar to Odyssey’s aesthetic. The wardrobe for gear changes is copied pixel for pixel, for one, and the vistas when burrowing deeper into the earth is very reminiscent of traveling to new worlds in Odyssey.
In fact, I’d likely guess that DK himself was originally Mario and Pauline was his whatever gimmick ‘sentient gloves’ to help him smash and bash the world around. Which is no bad thing, it was after all, Super Mario Odyssey that prompted the purchase of my Switch in the first place.
big boy bent
GC: Yes, and it should’ve been a surprise to you too, because if they’re making Bananza who’s making the next 3D Mario? There are now three options to explain it: someone completely different is making it, there isn’t going to be one for circa five years, or Nintendo stretched the truth as to what it means by the same team. The latter seems the most likely.
Halo finite
I don’t want to dunk on Halo anymore than Microsoft already has but I will be shocked if there’s any real interest in a reboot or whatever they’re planning. You’d have to have had a long period of time without it for people to start to miss it, and want it to come back, but Halo Infinite is still being played online and it was less than four years ago it was out.
That was meant to be a forever game, but it was dead on arrival and never really had a chance. I remember when Halo was the biggest thing in gaming, but the second Bungie left it all fell apart. It’s been bad for too long now and I really don’t think there’s any coming back.
Ragman
Superhero fatigue
It always seems weird to me how a lot of Marvel games don’t sell. Basically, only Spider-Man does well and it’s not a question of quality but people just not being interested in playing anything to do with the Marvel universe, beyond that and the Lego games. And Marvel Rivals, but that’s free and I’m sure it wouldn’t be as popular if it wasn’t.
I wonder if it’s because they’re not part of the MCU, but I doubt that would really make much difference. We’ll see with the Iron Man game, which I assume is going to work at least somewhat similarly to Spider-Man. If that’s a flop, then you can wrap it because nothing else is ever going to sell. Especially not Captain America x Black Panther.
Funny thing is, all these failures came before the current superhero fatigue at the cinema. People just weren’t interested at any time, for any reason. I don’t pretend to understand it, but after hitting your head against the wall so many times, at some point you’ve just got to give up and accept things are the way they are.
I think the only game we know of that has any real chance is the Wolverine game. I’m not sure what that’s taking so long, because of the hack I guess, but whatever special sauce Insomniac have will definitely be put to the test with that and if even that isn’t a major hit then it’s definitely just Spider-Man and no one else.
Vector
Old Vegas
Thinking of that Fallout deal in the Steam sale, it reminded me that we still haven’t got a remaster of Fallout: New Vegas! I really can’t believe that hasn’t happened after all that time, it’s such a licence to print money, especially after the Oblivion remaster.
I don’t care what they say, I think Bethesda definitely resent it being the most popular and are upset that they didn’t have anything to do with it. I bet you if there is a Fallout remaster it’ll be number 3 and they’ll pretend that it’s because it’s chronological order that they had to do it first.
Cole
Mild approval
So we’re about a month into the Switch 2 and I’m, I don’t know, content with it?
My partner and I play a lot of Mario Kart World now, instead of Mario Kart 8. I was addicted to Devil May Cry 3 for most of June, although that was on my Switch 1, and now Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom has its claws in me again and I’m loving the graphics upgrade.
Hardly a monumental change from my previous set-up but novel enough, I suppose.
My feelings are similar to those when I got my PlayStation 5, in that it was a bit of a chore to pay for one and set it up, but I needed it badly as my old launch PlayStation 4 stopped playing discs and was ready for the bin.
I’m still glad I got the Switch 2, because it’s a nice new way to play the games and there will be lots of new software for it in the next few years, but I definitely feel like new consoles are less of a big deal than 20 years ago – the upgrade from N64 or PS1 to new hardware was huge and I don’t get that feeling anymore.
But ultimately there’s no loss for me to get one at launch, because it’s not like the old days where a console would shed £100 after a year (if anything they are more likely to increase in price).
So yeah, a nice piece of kit that will hopefully serve me well until I have to buy a Switch 3 in seven or eight years, and I’m looking forward to playing Donkey Kong Bananza and Metroid Prime 4 over Christmas.
ANON
Inbox also-rans
I hear today is the day that Microsoft is going to announce its new round of layoffs, so best of luck to everyone working for them in the UK today. I know they have a number of game developers here.
Focus
David Dastmalchian as M. Bison in the new Street Fighter movie is definitely a choice. He’s no Raul Julia but here’s hoping he understand the amount of cheese necessarily to make it work.
shadow_ninja
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