Let's face it, he's required to be playable in every other Mario RPG series.

After a year of silence, the curtain has been pulled back on Mario + Rabbids: Stars of Hope.

The Ubisoft strategy sequel was shown during the Direct Mini today with a release date of October 20. In addition to showing off the gameplay, it also revealed Bowser as playable at some point in the game.

Make a cake joke in the Talkback and you'll get launched into SPAAAAAAACE.

The eShop is going to be busy today with two new titles and a demo for one of next month's releases.

And you wonder why there's chip shortages, Capcom's hoarding them all.

The next Mega Man Legacy Collection is one of its biggest - even though it's only covering one platform.

Capcom have announced a Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection for 2023 release in the Direct Mini. All ten of the games will be included in the retail package, though the digital version will be divided as with the original and X collections.

A busy month for 2017 Games of the Year, it seems.

Glory to mankind will soon be found on Switch.

Nier Automata will launch on Switch natively on October 6. The Switch version will include previously included DLC as well as new exclusive content.

Set in the far future, Nier Automata was originally developed by Platinum Games and directed by mercurial Square Enix producer Yoko Taro.

"I accept three hundred hours of JRPG of my own free will."

The 25th anniversary of Persona is going to include three Switch releases.

During the Partner Showcase, previously announced versions of Persona 3 Portable (2010, PSP), Persona 4 Golden (2012, Vita) and Persona 5 Royal (2020, PS4) were confirmed for Switch release, with 5 Royal coming first on October 21.

Emphasis on PARTNER, so presumably no Zelda.

Nintendo's June event will be a bit tinier than last year's.

A Partner Showcase Direct Mini has been announced to air tomorrow at 9 a.m. EDT / 6 a.m. PDT / 1500 CET. It will run for 25 minutes and be focused on third party titles for Switch.

The "Partner Showcase" title was previously used in... Read more...

It's looking to be another one of those "refractory period" weeks if you're not into expanding games for more frustration.

Things we missed last week: Archives title Soldier Girl Amazon.

At the end of last week's column I mentioned that I was getting charged for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak - and even though it's an expansion, it's still the headlining release this week as for the first time I can recall in English... Read more...

How can an infinite number of planets run on Switch? We'll find out in early autumn.

After dropping Taiko no Tatsujin's release date last night, Bandai Namco have given another release date for a game from the February Nintendo Direct.

No Man's Sky, the space flight sim announced earlier this year, will release physically and digitally on October 7. Bandai Namco is distributing the physical version.

Hey, did the Cruel Angel's Thesis ever get defended? Asking for a friend.

The next round of Taiko fun will start along with the autumn.

Bandai Namco released a trailer tonight confirming that Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival would release on September 23. Announced in the February Nintendo Direct, the rhythm title has added "Cruel Angel's Thesis" - the opening theme song to the 1995 Neon Genesis Evangelion anime - to the song list, which previously confirmed Legend of Zelda tracks and Undertale's "Megalovania".

Party of six... or is it seven... no waiting.

The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct confirmed new details for the game including its expansion plans.

Included in the Direct were broad strokes about the story, as well as the game's party composition and other elements of the battle system. Characters can be placed in specific classes and combine to form "Ouroboros", while "hero" characters will provide a seventh character for the battle party and can be met during the story.

This was the Wednesday Direct you were looking for, right?

More information about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be coming directly on Wednesday.

Nintendo have announced a Xenoblade 3-devoted Nintendo Direct will air on June 22 at 10 am E.T., 1400 CET, and 2300 JST. The presentation will run roughly 20 minutes.

A similar presentation was held for Xenoblade 2 in November 2017 during which the game's DLC expansion pass - including the Torna: The Golden Country expansion - were announced.

The number of games Donald wants this week is somewhat close to the Three Hopes body count.

Things we missed last week: Omori, the PC RPG that was the "One More Thing" in the December Indie World presentation, dropped on Friday in everywhere besides Canada due to presumed localization issues.

Oh boy, where to begin with this week? We've got the second worst class reunion in history with... Read more...

Gotta snap... about a third of 'em.

The last of the announced N64 games for the Switch Online Expansion Pack will be out on a very busy day.

1999's Pokemon Snap will be released on June 24 (or late June 23 in North America based on prior releases). The original Poke-photography game only received a sequel on Switch last year.

With... Read more...

As far as reunions go, this is one of the better ones.

The 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII is going to have part of its celebration on Switch.

Square Enix have announced a remastered version of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core will be released on Switch this winter. Known as "Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion", the game remasters the 2007-08 PSP RPG which focused on the story of Zach prior to the events of the original FF7.

For those wondering why a certain game gets re-released, well...

A slow month for new releases all around meant surprising strength for recent Nintendo releases in the latest NPD survey results for the United States.

All data based on dollar sales from May 1 - 28 unless otherwise noted; digital sales for third party titles are counted but not Nintendo first party.

The news desk is currently having flashbacks to the 4 Ultimate endgame

Capcom's showcase has given some new information about the June 30 Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise, including an opportunity to try the new features out early.

A demo for Sunbreak will be available tomorrow on the eShop which will include training modes and four monsters to fights including... Read more...

Mikey has the best pair of nunchucks that don't involve chaining two religious teachers together.

Things we missed last week: The parade of shows brought us Lost Ruins and LumbearJack.

Since we don't have trade shows to deal with for this week, some pretty big titles have chosen to come out instead. The pair of headliners - which we found out about last Thursday, thank you Geoff - are speedrun... Read more...

The 2023 release might be closer to Devil Survivor in inspiration.

Although not as rich as last year, there was one major item for Switch at the 2022 PC Gaming Show.

Developer Necrosoft (Gunhouse) and publisher Ysbyrd (YIIK) have announced Demonschool at the show. A "school life" RPG with tactical RPG combat, the battle system will feature rewinds in combat and an expansive story with side quests and daily planning.

And since we know the source, we can narrow that range down slightly.

Minecraft has announced its second spinoff, this time a take on action and strategy games.

During the Microsoft showcase, a trailer ran for Minecraft: Legends - the spinoff followup to Minecraft Dungeons. It will launch in 2023 on Switch among its other platforms, according to the YouTube description for the game's trailer (below) with a target of the first half of 2023.

And there's your obligatory Xbox event news post for the year.

Microsoft of all people has helped narrow down the release window for one of the most demanded titles for every Nintendo video presentation.

During their June showcase today, Microsoft ran a trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and later confirmed that every game shown in the presentation was slated... Read more...