Playing Mario Chase with Nintendo’s biggest fan

When people think “Nintendo,” a well-spoken and stylish African American man wearing a Powerglove is usually not the first thing that pops into their heads. A man named TriForce is working to change that. He’s a mainstay at Nintendo events, being the first person in the United States to purchase both the Wii and the 3DS. He’s also a fighting game tournament organizer, and a huge fan local competitive gaming in general....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 232 words · Carolyn Davis

Pokemon Sword and Shield is running another free mystery gift promotion

It’s good through today There’s anotherPokemon SwordandShieldgift afoot, and this one is celebratingthe North American International Championshipsand participant Eric Rios. Specifically, it gifts players a level 50 “sassy” Gastrodon, with the ability storm drain, the leftovers held item, and earth power, ice beam, yawn, and protect moves. You’ll be able to pick it up via the mystery gift menu with the code “ER1CSGASTR0D0N” throughout today, and note that as of this morning, it was still live....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 171 words · Christine Reid

Pre-orders open for Starbound, beta due this year

Both of these things make me happy After recently being reminded by Darren whyStarboundismuch more than“Terrariain space,” I’m inclined to throw money toward the general direction of the game’s developers. With the arrival of pre-orders for this sandbox-style 2D adventure title, fans have the opportunityto do exactly that. “We’re financing the game out of our own pocket and a couple of our team members have had to take on second jobs,”reads a responseon the Q&A page....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 162 words · Micheal Clark

PSA: Snowballs are currently crashing Helldivers 2, so don’t even think about it

Throwing snowballs inHelldivers 2was just a little bit of fun before diving into the firing line and getting chewed up by Automatons, but now it could break the game. While taking the fight to whichever enemy is Super Earth’s current primary target, players can indulge in playfighting with snowballs if they make a snowball and throw it. This requires the Helldiver to stand still for a couple of seconds, so it’s an interaction some players may not even have seen....

July 4, 2025 · 3 min · 480 words · Joyce Perez

PSA: Still don’t have a full Pokemon Sword and Shield Pokedex in 2020? Try changing your system date to game the Wild Area

The first of each month So it’s July 01, 2025! Lucky you, you’ve entered the sweet spot forPokemon SwordandShield‘s weather patterns. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, you’re able to easily go into the Switch’s system settings and swap the date around to manipulate Wild Area spawns. It’s simple: each day the Wild Area changes its weather patterns for individual zones in a bid to get you to come back and play regularly....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 147 words · Kristina Stephenson

Randy Solem of Video Game DC fame passed away in March

It’s always disheartening to learn that one of your cherished icons has passed on, but it’s even more disheartening to discover their death months after the fact. Randy Solem, creator of Video Game Director’s Cuts and the “Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom” Flash series,passed awayat age 36 on Jul 17, 2025, due to a negative reaction to his heart medications. He was one of the great legends from the early days of Newgrounds as well astheguy who almost single-handedly popularized “sprite films,” Flash movies that use old videogame graphics, typically from the 8- and 16-bit eras....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 362 words · Tiffany Henry

Review: Analogue Duo

Before they offered to send me a unit for review, I had the Analogue Duo preordered. It would have been the first of the company’s consoles that I ponied up for. That’s because, beyond just being a very nice boutique console, it solves a few problems for me. The Turbografx-16 is anightmare to collect for. Sketchy capacitors mean that a lot of them just die on the shelf, and the typical price of a Turbografx game is ridiculous....

July 4, 2025 · 9 min · 1745 words · Holly Lopez

Rogue Light Deck Builder is not about the kind of deck you’re thinking of

Roguelite deck builder is pretty far from my favorite genre. I’ve enjoyed some of them, but I wouldn’t actively seek out a new one.Rogue Light Deck Builder, on the other hand… That’s becauseRogue Light Deck Builderis about building a deck. Not a deck of cards, but more like something you’d put furniture on so you can stare at your neighbors. However, there are roguelite elements. You’re given $1,000,000, a hammer, and a husband....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 311 words · Donna Bishop

Sakurai wasn’t teasing the return of an old Smash 4 stage in Smash Ultimate

It was a dev build All eyes are on Masahiro Sakurai, father ofSmash. Pretty much everything he says is micro-analyzed by theSmashcommunity, includinga recent tweetthat containedthe oldSmash 4“Battlefield” arenawith the Inkling fighter, who is exclusive toUltimateThe catch? Battlefield isn’t actually inSmash Ultimate. While many of us assumed that this was some sort of developer tool and wasn’t actually coming toUltimateproper, Sakurai had to take to Twitter directly in English (something he doesn’t normally do) to squash these rumors....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 178 words · William King

Scram, Skedaddlers all secrets in Super Mario Bros. Wonder

An early level inSuper Marios Bros. Wonder, Scram, Skedaddlers is one of the first ones where it’s easy to miss a secret element or two. So let’s take a look at how to find every secret in Scram, Skedaddlers. Check out the contents below if you know what you’re missing. Scram, Skedaddlers – 10-Flower Coin 1 There’s a lot of chasing in Scram, Skedaddlers as some pesky chipmunks run away from you and fire nuts that cause damage....

July 4, 2025 · 3 min · 489 words · James Bernard

Sega turned Tails into a VTuber, like Sonic before him

Our little Tails is all grown up At this point of late-stage-capitalism internet, nothing surprises me anymore. When I saw that Sega had turned precious little Tails into a Vtuber I was like, “of course they did.” There’s also the fact that Sonic got thesame treatmentlast year, so we really should have seen this one coming. He’s going to have his own show called TailsTube, and while all we know so far is that the first episode is dropping sometime next week, there is a teaser up on the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter to give us a small taste of what we’re in for....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 338 words · Karen Beasley

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero sets sights on PS Vita, Vita TV

More platforms added to Kickstarter Wii U, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Steam. Let’s go ahead and add PlayStation Vita and Vita TV to the list of platforms forShantae: Half-Genie Hero. Clearly, WayForward doesn’t sleep. In a Kickstarter update, the studio wrote that folks have been asking about Vita support, and I can’t blame them — the game deserves to be seen on the handheld’s OLED screen. “As it happens, the landscape of gaming has shifted somewhat today with Sony’sVita TV announcement....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 147 words · Denise Cole

Shovel Knight’s second expansion will launch in spring 2017

Specter of the night [Header courtesy of DeviantArt userseraharcana] Yacht Club Games has taken to Twitter to show off a small teaser image for the upcomingShovel Knight: Specter of Torment. It looks like the second expansion will be coming out in spring 2017. No specific date was given nor was the mention of the rest of the DLC. An update on the studio’s officialblogfrom June of this year mentioned that while the King Knight expansion would not be launching at the same time, one of the extra multiplayer modes would....

July 4, 2025 · 1 min · 197 words · Cody Morales