Update for July 1st (our last update!): Here are the last couple of showcases to finish things off :)
Annapurna Interactive Showcase
- Lushfoil Photography Sim – I don’t know if I’d actually be any good (I feel like I’d just get lost), but it looks really pretty.
- ??? – Whatever the project is, it does look interesting, but hard to say anything without seeing more from it.
- To a T – This seems very odd, but I also very cute. It looks like a fun slice-of-life-esque game at least. Kind of concerned about his arms though.
- Flock – This just looks really cute and I always prefer more relaxing collection-esque games.
- Ghost Bike – I’m curious how more of the game mechanics work, but I’m already pretty intrigued.
- Storyteller – Excited to see it getting updates! I still really need to pick the game up.
Sonic Central
Honestly, there wasn’t too much to comment on here. Most things we heard of at this point, but I liked the Koco’s in their party hats for the birthday update. There was also so many references to Chao and SA2 and I still wish we could get a Chao Garden game…
Update for June 21st: And of course, we have another last second announcement from Nintendo! So, Nintendo Direct time.
Nintendo Direct
- We kicked things off right away with stuff for the new Pokemon DLC. While I wouldn’t say this is my favorite game (And I still need a 3 segment Dudunsparce…), I am looking forward to more Story stuff. Still hate the uniforms though and am genuinely annoyed there’s no skirt option. I haven’t actually played the game in ages– just burnt out on Raids and everything :/
- The customization in Palia looks interesting, but I just… I genuinely miss when not every simulation game had to have farming, crafting, and/or cooking. Ignoring that most cooking minigames aren’t that fun, I’ve never enjoyed the other two aspects in games and having them be a forced part of most simulation games now, to the point where even Animal Crossing added them, has been super discouraging for me. It’d be one thing if it was just another option to earn money similar to foraging, but it’s often such a requirement with many things locked just to those options. I miss when there were specific genres for these types of things.
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- A NEW PRINCESS PEACH GAME!! We got barely any information, but it looks pretty awesome.
- Silent Hope isn’t really my kind of game, but I like some of the character designs.
- I feel like this trailer has made me less interested in Fae Farm… I still like the My Sims vibes, but the combat and having to decorate for your starts really rubs me the wrong way. I love interior decorating and having it stat based sucks– that kind of thing is what killed Mario Kart and other games for me. My preferred options rarely coincide with my playstyle.
- Manic Mechanics looks pretty fun, but I would guess it’d have the same issues as other Overcooked-esque games if you don’t have people to play with.
- Every time I see Pikmin, I just feel like I’d enjoy a relaxed version of the game. Where you don’t have to worry about being murdered and seeing all your Pikmin die.
- Fashion Dreamer got a release date in Japan’s Nintendo Direct!! November 2nd. I hope it won’t be too late for North America… :( Switch is region-free, but I won’t be able to read it…
- Most of my affection for Mario Kart kind of died between the unlock system in this version and the customization tied to stats problems (plus drifting being more of a thing– if you’re bad at drifting like me, you will struggle), but some of those new courses look fun. I wish the game was still fun for me to play because I’d genuinely like to play them :/
- I love Wario Ware, but I feel like this requires so much more movement and I’ll be absolutely terrible.
- And a new 2D Mario to go with that new 2D Sonic. It honestly looks pretty good, but part of me is still kind of burnt out on them and everything. THE FOUNTAINS ARE SO PRETTY THOUGH… And I can play as Peach so yay.
Sad no Fashion Dreamer trailer for the English Direct though. Doesn’t bode well for the releases to be super close, but it still says “2023” on our end and November is already pretty late in the year so maybe :/
There were a handful of things only shown in the Japanese Direct for some reason– some we have seen already recently, but I really hope we can see more things getting localized.
Everything else from the last week:
And so we continue with the rest of the showcases for June! As always, same things as my previous posts apply :D I will say one sad thing about mostly digital performances is you can’t really talk about silly stage stuff anymore…
Xbox Games Showcase
- Sea of Thieves Secret of Monkey Island – I actually really enjoyed what I played of Sea of Thieves once I figured out what I was doing, but it’s a game I do think is most fun when you have friends to play with and I’ve just never really had tons of free time. This looks really neat though so if I do ever have the time, I’d like to check it out.
- Overwatch 2 – I’m not sure if there’s many other examples where a lot of my interest got lower with each update/announcement which is a shame because I really like the characters. Doing the “play every week” change to events was what initially lessened my Overwatch 1 playing with only deciding to just wait until Overwatch 2 because of the addition of PvE Story Content which I really liked from some events, even if the difficulties felt frustrating at certain points. Unfortunately, that was cancelled (and I also just… do not like some of the character redesigns either) so I don’t know if I’ll ever bother again at this point. That said, considering the cancellation, I feel very confused on what that trailer even was about.
- Jusant – I don’t think this will be my type of game at all, but I love the cute little blue pet so much. Would be a squishy plushie of it.
- Starfield – Honestly, I think the Character customization has been the most interesting thing to me. The ship customization also seems pretty neat, as someone who usually likes ships that remind me of animals in the first place.
PC Gaming Show
- Stampede: Racing Royale – In general, I don’t know if I’d necessarily play it as I feel like I’ve had less and less fun with a lot of Kart Racers, but it definitely looks interesting.
- Critter Cove – Even though I am still not a fan of crafting, everything they showed looked really interesting and fun.
- Hidden Door – It feels like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” that you can do with friends which sounds pretty cool, but not really fond of the AI usage. :/
I didn’t really have much of anything to say for Ubisoft Forward or the Capcom Showcase unfortunately.
I would say the only things I could really say for Capcom are:
-I had hoped the Capcom Town thing would’ve been similar to the Toyko Game Show Experience thing, but it’s just a webpage. Still really neat, but not as fun.
-Ghost Trick is such a good game and I highly recommend it to everyone. The Missle voice was top tier and Missile truly is the very best. I want a Missile Plushie so badly.
I know a lot of people want a sequel for the game, and I mean, maybe they CAN pull off a sequel in more of a spiritual spin-off with the same characters and stuff, but everyone had such good well-rounded endings and it just felt satisfying. I don’t want these characters getting hurt again. Like if I had a “sequel”, I’d want to just have more scenes extending past the end of the game of everyone happy together.
But I would be 10000% onboard for more games in the same style, but I am curious what reasoning will be given for it because so much of the game’s mechanics are fully tied to the plot. It’s hard for me to imagine how it could be separated.
Xbox Games Showcase Extended
- Towerborne – Despite the combat maybe not really being my thing, it does look like it could be pretty fun, especially with a friend.
- Little Kitty Big City – Still really interested in the game, but hope I don’t have to actually hurt anything for food…
- Mineko’s Night Market – I just still can’t get over how close it is after waiting for so long.
Guerrilla Collective, Dames 4 Games, and Black Voices in Gaming
- Wrestle Story – Something about the way you can customize your own story through the game is what really grabs me, even if I don’t think it’d really be my type of game normally. It looks fun though.
- Everholm – Definitely intrigued by the story. I also really love the art style.
- This Bed We Made – I do love mysteries. I just hope it doesn’t have a horror aspect built in…
- RollerGirl – This genuinely looks like a lot of fun.
The UploadVR Showcase
Before starting, I’ll just say any game that is VR only, I really wish had another way to play. It’s to be expected with a VR showcase, but as someone who just… will not play VR, there’s still games I would love to just play with a mouse on PC.
- Little Cities
I didn’t really have too much to say which is why I ended up grouping everything together ^^; I sadly had nothing to add at all for the Grasshopper Direct either…
I know there is one more direct later this month so I will edit this post with it over making a new one. And of course, we’re only halfway through June so maybe there are still a few more showcases that will show up.
We also have Steam Nextfest starting on the 19th and I’ll definitely be checking out a bunch of demos then– though, I don’t know if I’ll make a post on it or not ^^; We’ll have to see!