RR529

I've heard that this movie is going to run at a stuttery 24FPS, and I for one think that is an outrage in 2022! It should be 60FPS minimum, but it's not even a highly advanced animated film like a Pixar or WDA, so they should even be able to run it at 120FPS.

Looks like it could be good. Will keep an eye out.

I really don't get this. I've played a Yakuza game, and while yes it had some drama & was a game centered around criminal narrative elements, it had so much goofy humor as well (and as far as I can tell that's a theme that runs through the series).

No way it's more inappropriate for the audience than SMTV, Bayonetta (other SEGA owned properties), Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, or Ninja Gaiden, and he absolutely knows that.

Definitely looks a bit goofy (my mind immediately went to "Joy Con" instead of toothpaste, but whatever). However the art style & other character design in general looks good. Love the brighter colors in comparison to Three Houses.

With Fatal Frame, Return to Dreamland Deluxe, Pikmin 4, Tales of Symphonia Remastered, & of course Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom there was just enough there to make me excited, even if not all the announcements were for me.

It was nice to get a sneak peek at the next MK8D wave too, and XC3 swimsuits!

Will the swimsuits be locked behind completion of the challenge battles?

Japan - It (and Europe) feature the better artwork, but it's composed better on the JPN box. The Famitsu advertisement either a sticker or added to later print runs, and it sucks that NL chose an image with it, because it'll probably rob it of the win.

Definitely one of the best games of 2019 (Definitely my favorite Switch game of the year).

I'd love to see a sequel.

I'll agree with the poster above. The artwork (particularly the environments) looks lovely, but the character animation looks very stiff. That said, I'm not a fan of the enemy design either.

I think the actual art piece on the US version is much more interesting & relevant to the theme of the game itself, but I'm not at all a fan of how it's framed with all that black boarder & labels.

The JPN art piece is much more generic (I think they even used the turtles in that exact same pose in another box art this site featured, I think a Game Boy game), however it's still a nice looking piece & the arrangement is much cleaner than the challenger's.

This was a tough one, but I went with Japan.

Note: I've never really been into this franchise, though.

This one was actually a tough choice between the US & JPN covers. I ended up going with JPN, but I like both about the same.

@Bass_X0, as the commenter above me stated, Shin Chan is a relatively tame family show in Japan, while western localizers rewrote it to be much more South Park like.

The game probably has a more accurate version of the character than the version of the show you're probably familiar with.

This one was tough, I actually think EU has the best art, but all that text slapped on it ruins it, IMO, so because of that I barely prefer the US version. JPN is certainly unique & I almost voted for it, but I think I slightly prefer the more adventurous take on the western boxes (though if the background lore/scroll text is holographic, which looks like it could be but is nearly indecipherable with still pics like this, I'd have easily gone with it).

As it stands I went with US/EU.

Pretty surprised to see a UFC game on the charts. I could be mistaken, or things could have changed over the years, but I was under the impression that the brand has super niche appeal outside of the US (kinda like the NFL).

I just remember an article I read over on Digitally Downloaded (an Australian site, I believe) that claimed Bruce Lee would be rolling over in his grave after he was included in some manner in one of the UFC games, and that most of the martial arts world looks down on the brand & what it represents.

EDIT: Found the article(s), but they're nearly 10 years old (man, time flies, it felt like yesterday), so things have indeed likely changed. That, and the author clearly has some sort of anti-American (or at least anti culturally American) bias looking back over the articles over the years.

As I said in the forum post on the topic, this is absolutely terrible.

I don't think I've ever really talked to him, but I remember him being a really big contributor to the site when I first joined in 2011 (sometime after the 3DS launch).

Condolences to his family.

@Not_Soos, it's an optical illusion and isn't stereoscopic 3D.

Most noticeable in the Pokemon one, you can see that the "box" the Pokemon are in/come out of isn't the entirety of the screen, and that the part of the skyline they're popping out over is actually part of the screen as well. The screens also bend over the side of the building, and the illusion looks the best if you're looking straight at the corner.

Not saying these don't look cool as heck though.

@NDragon1412, In Japan, where this announcement was given, the series isn't even called Xenoblade Chronicles, just Xenoblade, so they probably don't mean it as the end of the "Chronicles" line, since it wasn't called that in Japan in the first place.

@Azuris, as far as I'm aware it IS a children's property in Japan, but when it came to it's US release the licensor decided to give it a raunchy, South Park-esque, dub.

Maybe something similar happened in Germany?

Good set of tracks (though I'm kinda disappointed that they're not going with SNES Mario Circuit 2, as I always liked the little jump at the end of it). Really excited to try out New York Minute.

Absolutely loved the first two, so I'm definitely excited for this!

Nostalgia probably plays a part as it was my first, but this is definitely my favorite FF. Replayed it when the HD version released on Switch (though I haven't touched X-2 yet), and I loved it just as much as I did on PS2. So, I say a well deserved congrats!

Totally forgot about this, but I'm totally interested (will probably play on PC though).

I've been playing LEGO Star Wars for about a month & a half now (going through it really slowly, trying to nab all the collectables I can between missions) and am finally almost at the end (only one story mission left in Rise of Skywalker).

While I don't think it's my favorite game of the year (the story missions, while they can be fun are very brief & abridged), it's very chill when you're just exploring the different planets (which are wonderfully realized) completing side objectives (even if they get a bit samey after awhile).

This is a tough one.

I do generally prefer anime styled box arts (particularly for Japanese games, as it makes me think that's the intended look/vibe for the game) so perhaps should have gone with The New Challengers (Mega Drive), but I'll admit nostalgia took over and I voted for The World Warrior (SNES).

Yes, they did "de-anime" it, which is a practice I complained about a coup!e weeks ago (so I'm a hypocrite, lol), but they still retained the core look of the characters even in the westernized art style & it is a pretty kinetic/action filled piece.

Definitely worth a watch every few years, with some absolutely stunning fight choreography.

Disappointing, though predictable, that the shower scene has already become a contentious topic here already though. Sure, it's a bit gratuitous, but it's not like it gets in the way of showing what a powerful character Chun LI is.

This is sad to hear.

I haven't been into Yu-Gi-Oh! in years, but it was a big part of my life back in middle school (I remember watching new episodes every Saturday morning & playing the card game with my friends), so he will be missed.

I've really got to go with Japan.

The US one certainly is more dynamic, however it's a glaring example of the trend of the time of trying to de-anime/de-Japanese game box art making them feel more western, which is an instant disqualifier IMO, making the game into something it was never supposed to be.

The JPN box is certainly more restrained (and maybe a bit derivative), but darned if those mech designs don't scream cool, like real heavy pieces of military equipment.

Will definitely get it at some point, it looks great.

I really haven't completed that many games this year (on any platform), much less games that have released this year.

That said, Kirby & the Forgotten Land was an absolute delight, with LEGO Star Wars: the Skywalker Saga (which I'm playing on Steam) probably coming in at #2, though I'm not finished with it yet. Behind those would be Ys: Memories of Celceta (Steam) & Famicom Detective Club: the Girl Who Stands Behind, neither of which released this year.

I would have never guessed this as a Japanese game (let alone one that's a crossover of actual manga properties) based on that art style.

Looks too western (like a western animation maybe sort of influenced by anime, but still clearly western).

This was probably the biggest surprise of the Direct for me. Looking forward to it.

Going with Japan myself. I think the slightly darker color palette (compared to EU) works better for a gritty box art like this.

Really surprised NA went with the anime art though, especially when JP didn't take the same angle.

@Ryu_Niiyama, I think "professional fishing" has been a thing for decades (even as a kid I think I remember my dad watching it from time to time).

Not terribly interested in it (or the game) myself though.

Still need to play IX. Got into it with VIII (on Switch) which I thought was great, and then went back & played Seven & Memories of Celceta (on Steam) which I liked as well but not quite as much.

The closer we get to this the more excited I become. Probably my most anticipated game of the year.

Not a huge fan of the character designs (probably because everyone needs to be able to mix & match those "class" jackets), but it's not a big deal. Some of those "Hero" helpers look cool.

While I'd love a general Direct, I can't say I'm hurting for upcoming releases (though it helps that I also have a laptop & PS4, though I barely use the latter these days).

Heck, XC3 alone will probably take me 2-3 months to clear, and then there's stuff like Stray, Elec Head & the Crisis Core remake that have my eye. One Piece Odyssey too, though I'm not sure if that's this year or next.

Bought it on Steam recently and it's very good. You could probably finish it rather quickly if you ran straight from story event to story event, but each planet has at least one (sometimes more) open world environment absolutely filled to the brim with collectables to obtain that are really addicting to collect (it has 1200 "Kyber Bricks" to obtain, which is higher than the number of "Moons" in Odyssey, not that I plan on getting them all).

Space battles & even the pod race have no right to be as fun as they are either. While it's true the combat on the ground is a bit basic, anything in the air (or space) feels like a step or two above.

Japan easy. Now that's a cover that puts the "art" in box art.

Probably the most interesting looking shooter revealed over the past week, and it wasn't even in any of the main presentations as far as I'm aware.

The Japanese one looks perhaps a bit too understated, but I had to go with it.

While the NA version is iconic (and I'm sure it'll win), looking back it looks surprisingly cheap & slapdash.

Lil Gator Game & Here Comes Niko look like they could be pretty good, though I think we've known about them for a bit.

The Spirit & The Mouse as well, though I'm much more interested in Stray (which wasn't featured here).

Yeah, this confused me at first until others mentioned the whole Rare angle, given they were the ones to introduce our current version of DK (so a near little nod, to be sure).

Especially confusing though, given that the original Donkey Kong (& I guess DK JR?) were set in New York (though have since been retconned to be New Donk).

Given how Tennis Aces & Golf Super Rush were mainly disliked for their relatively thin story modes, I wonder how this one will ultimately fare given it's leaning even more into the online multiplayer side of things than those games were.

Just purchased LEGO Star Wars: the Skywalker Saga myself. Really just started it, but it seems to run fine on my laptop which is good.

Going with JP/EU this time, for the same reason I went with NA/JP last time.

Haven't really followed Pokemon in ages, but why does one of them have jet engines?

Then again, I guess we had the likes of Porygon & Magnemite back in the day...

Yeah, definitely going with the NA/JP art on this one. While they're both good, that one better captures the chaotic action I hear the series is supposed to have.

I think Pirate Warriors should be higher, but then again I've only played that, FEW, & the first Hyrule Warriors.

I think they both look fine, so it's more of a style preference (I went for Japan).

If Persona 5 Strikers counts, shouldn't Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 as well?

Just like P5S it was developed by the Warriors team at KT, and from what I understand P5S deviates from the standard gameplay loop just as much as MUA3 does.