Japan Gaming Guide

The Astro City Mini, a new mini-console, is on the way from Sega and it looks like being a must for all you classic arcade fans.

The news was unearthed by SEGADriven.com, but their Japanese source seems to have been pulled, so let’s hope a more concrete announcement appears soon. They did find a fair bit out about the system though.

It is expected to have 36 games, with these titles mentioned so far:

Alien Syndrome
Alien Storm
Golden Axe
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Columns II
Dark Edge
Tant R
Viruta Fighter
Fantasy Zone
Altered Beast

Some of these games are classics. Who doesn’t like a bit of Golden Axe? Columns and Virtua Fighter are well worth having in your collection and Altered Beast, Alien Syndrome and Alien Storm are worth a revisit.

We’re not sure about the others, but look forward to giving them a try. We’d love to see Outrun, Space Harrier or Power Drift on there, but we’ll have to wait and see what turns up. The most advanced title on the list is Virtua Fighter, which is based on Sega’s Model 1 arcade board. That opens up the intriguing possibilities of seeing Virtua Racing or Star Wars Arcade, but there may be licensing issues with the latter, and Virtua Racing has just seen an outstanding re-release on Switch.

The system features a mini-screen, but there’s an HDMI out so you can hook it up to your TV. There are also ports for extra controllers. You’ll need to power it via micro-USB socket. It also has its own micro-switched joystick and six fire buttons, along with stereo speakers so you don’t need any extras to play on it.

It follows on from the many similar systems such as the NES and SNES Mini that have been doing the rounds lately and selling like hot cakes.

The Astro City Mini releases in Japan for Y12,800. An overseas release will hopefully follow on from that.

Top Five Super Mario Games

Mario has been jumping on heads, climbing down pipes and launching systems for several decades. The moustachioed plumber has been around since 1981. Beginning his career by taking on the mighty Donkey Kong, Mario soon turned his attentions to defeating the plans of the evil Bowser, but has appeared in over 200 games over the years.

We’ve sifted through the many adventures and picked out the best, our favourites in one of the top series in gaming, so here are our top five super Mario games.

Our list features the main entries in the series, maybe we’ll look at the spin offs another time.

Mario 64

As one of the Nintendo 64 console’s only two launch titles, Super Mario 64 had the double tasks of selling a new system, as well as making the platform formula work in 3D. It wasn’t the first 3D platform game, but was such a successful translation of Mario’s formula that it showed beyond any doubt how well 3D could work and was arguably the best game of its generation.

Set in Peach’s castle, the game’s setting is a puzzle in itself. Cleverly, levels are accessed by jumping into paintings on the castle walls, with stars acquired in the levels opening up new areas and giving you access to more of the game. Of course, there are secrets galore, and plenty to do after Bowser has been defeated.

The first 3D Mario game set the format for those that follow. Finishing the regular game is fairly straightforward, an easy challenge for the kids, but finding all the stars is a daunting mission that will test older players to the limit.

As well as being a great game in its own right, Mario 64 was an early benchmark that showed how well 2D games could work in 3D. N64 games had a more solid feel to their Playstation and Saturn competitors and seeing Mario’s cartoon world rendered in solid 3D felt spectacular. It’s difficult to imaging looking at it now, but this game was a technical marvel on release and had many a Playstation owner casting an envious glance at Nintendo’s new machine.

If Mario 64 hadn’t been a hit, the series may have petered  out, but Mario nailed 3D on his first try and is still going strong over twenty years later.

Format: Nintendo 64

Year: 1996

Best place to play now: A Switch remake is on the way. Until then, Super Mario Odyssey has some interesting secrets to find.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the second Mario game on the Wii and, as its name suggests, sees you gallivanting about the stars, in a spaceship. Levels are made up of spherical planets, which you can run round and jump between, leading to some fabulously original level design and allowing Nintendo’s designers to go crazy.

We weren’t the biggest fans of the first Super Mario Galaxy, finding it meandered a bit. That might be down to playing it in Japanese before we’d learned the language, but we also found it unbalanced, with long easy stretches broken up by sudden difficulty spikes.

The second Super Mario Galaxy game was a triumphant return to form, however. Nintendo’s endless ability to innovate sees them introducing ideas faster than you’d think possible in a series with this much history, it’s designers always coming up with a new twist or way to make the game interesting.

Though finishing the game isn’t too difficult, its later secret levels include some fearsome challenges, and the final one is the hardest we’ve encountered in a Mario Game.

This game also makes use of the Wii’s motion controls, letting you fire collectable star bits at the screen. What really makes the game though is its sense of fun and ability to continually throw different things at you without feeling gimmicky or dull. It is one of the most consistent games in terms of quality, despite its variety.

Format: Wii

Year: 2010

Best place to play now: A Wii or Wii U

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is the most recent entry in the main Super Mario series, and it’s a cracker. It feels like a more modern game than its Wii predecessors, with its huge levels full of things to find and do.

It is also a return to form after the Wii U’s Super Mario 3D World, which felt enjoyable but had a by the numbers feel to it at times.

It successfully introduces online features, with Luigi’s balloon popping game, speed runs against Koopas and leaderboards for in-game challenges fitting in seamlessly with the rest of the game.

It is also a game that knows its history, with nods throughout to Mario’s former incarnations, particularly the first NES outing and Mario 64. Series veterans will find plenty to smile at, but the game is welcoming to newcomers, with its many challenges offering plenty for players of all levels to enjoy.

With its marriage of old and new it feels almost like the quintessential Mario game and the question we have to ask is where can the series go next after such a celebration of everything in its history?

We should get an answer to that soon as a rumour has it a new game is on the way, though it may not be out for a while.

Format: Switch

Year: 2017

Best place to play now: Switch

Super Mario World

Super Mario World is the first 16-bit incarnation of Mario and the shift to the Super Famicom saw a leap in graphical quality, booming bass sound, and, crucially, the ability to save your progress.

That meant the game could be bigger and more packed with secrets than ever and Mario World was the first to introduce the idea that the game was only really complete when you had discovered every level hidden on its map, a challenge achieved long after consigning Bowser to the dust.

It also developed many of Mario 3’s ideas, with a minigame to play if you collect stars at the end of each level, as well as our favourite ever power up, the cape feather, which turns you into a super hero and lets you fly to the top of the screen, where of course plenty of secrets are hidden.

There are the mysterious ghost houses, that make you think carefully about how to get through them, along with the bosses, who take advantage of the Super Famicom’s mode-7 effects, which were hugely spectacular at the time.

If you’re signed up to Nintendo’s online service for Switch, you can find Super Mario World included on the Super Famicom app, along with many other classics. The game is also included on the SNES mini, along with its sequel, Yoshi’s Island.

Format: Super Famicom / SNES

Year: 1990

Best place to play now: Switch Super Famicom app. SNES Mini.

Super Mario Land

The latest Mario games have hardly stagnated, but they all stick closely to series tropes. Going back to revisit Mario on the gameboy and it is surprising just how weird the game can be.

The Gameboy version of Mario has aged a little, but is still worth playing. It is good, but doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s one of the shortest games in the series.

Mario Land, along with Tetris really helped put games back at the heart of popular culture, after the 8-bit days. It even spawned a hip-hop track in the UK and its sound effects and music are some of the most iconic in gaming, perhaps because a generation of schoolkids grew up hearing them in the classroom whenever the teachers were out of earshot.

Format: GameBoy

Year: 1989

Best place to play now: Nintendo 3DS

Near Misses

The Mario series is unique in that it has gone on for over 30 years without ever having a bad entry. The closest thing to a low point would be Mario 2, originally a conversion of a completely different game, but even that isn’t exactly a bad game, though it hasn’t aged well. Super Mario Sunshine wasn’t particularly well received but is a good game in hindsight and took flak for not being as ground breaking as Mario 64, as well as deviating too far from people’s expectations. The 3D World entries don’t really push the series forward, but are still spectacular, shiny playthings that blow most other platform games out of the park.

The ones that narrowly missed out on the top 5 are 6 Golden Coins, a brilliant game on the tiny Gameboy, which had the same sense of adventure and strong world building that Mario 3 started off with. Yoshi’s Island 2 is a fantastically weird game, with tons of replayability across its surprisingly challenging levels. The original Super Mario Bros still holds up well today, as does Mario 3, which is many people’s favourite, though we’ve always preferred the secrets of Mario World.

In Conclusion

Those are our favorite games in one of the most consistent series out there. It was hard to pick the best, any of the top four could really have taken it, but Mario 64 is a worthy winner, and still a terrific game today.

We’re looking forward to see what happens in the next game, and how it builds on Odyssey, which has an end of an era feel to it.

That concludes our list. If you feel differently or have a favourite of your own, let us know in the comments.

Let’s step back in time to the Super Famicom era now. In this Pop’n TwinBee review, we’re looking at the classic SNES shoot em up. The game is about to get a new audience when it comes to the Switch, free for online subscribers.

Pop’n TwinBee is a vertical shooter released for the Nintendo Super Famicom way back in 1993. It was the sixth entry in the long running TwinBee series, published by Konami. The most recent entry came out for mobile a few years ago, so check it out when you’re on the train next.

Graphics and Sound

It’s much cuter than most shooters, with a fluffy, cartoony aesthetic. You are attacked by all kinds of cuddly things. It’s almost a shame to blow them up. You don’t have much choice though, as if you let the enemy count build up, you’ll soon be overwhelmed by their firepower.

Some of these cute looking games are brutally tough, but unusually for a Japanese shooter, Pop’n TwinBee is as gentle as it looks, making it perfect for those that usually avoid this style of game.

Pop’n TwinBee’s  friendlier approach also extends to the sound. A cheerful tune plays throughout, though it’s fair to say the music isn’t the game’s strongest point. There are a few hurried speech samples for power ups though, letting you know what goodies you’ve picked up.

Gameplay

You have a couple of basic weapons at your disposal, which can be swapped with power ups. You can also launch bombs at ground based enemies, which occasionally drop health. There are shields, drones and smart bomb pick-ups too.

The power up system is unusual. Baddies drop bells, which you need to shoot a few times to turn them into something more interesting than the points bonus they start as. Once you do, it can be tricky to pick them up without shooting them again. Juggling and managing these is a key part of the game, as is knowing when to use each type of weapon. You also have to be careful not to power up your speed too much, or you’ll be slowed down again.

The game works best in two player mode with Twinbee and Winbee, the two player controlled aircraft fighting together against the various colorful enemies. It still works well as a single player game, though.

Pop’n TwinBee is not an especially challenging game, but does have a tough final boss. In fact we breezed through the entire game on our first go, only to be thwarted at the last hurdle several times, so the challenge isn’t exactly balanced. There are variable difficulty settings though, so you can tune the challenge up or down according to your preference.

Overall it is a nice diversion and a good introduction to the shooter genre for those that mostly find them too hard, or prefer games that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Where to find it

Pop’n TwinBee comes to the Switch on February 19th. Until now, it hasn’t been re-released on Nintendo systems, but did see the light of day on the Playstation Portable. Side scrolling spin off Rainbow Bell Adventures was released on Virtual Console though, and the NES original, Twinbee is also available there and on the Switch.

Much as we love the bullet hell shooters of the world, we don’t want every game we play to beat us in the face with its difficulty and Pop’n TwinBee is a nice easy way to spend a couple of hours blasting up the screen.

Its gentle challenge and sense of fun are welcome alternatives in a genre that has become a little too niche. It remains an interesting example of the 90s shooter and a good example of what Japanese developers could do with a 16-bit system. If you want a retro shooter that won’t take an age to master, this is a great pick.

We’re taking a look at an older Switch game today, in this Lumines Remastered review. Lumines is a puzzle game from the brilliant mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, creator of Rez, Space Channel 5 and the more recent Tetris Effect.

The original version debuted back in 2004. Since then it has been released on every platform under the sun. This new release features improved visuals and support for higher resolution screens, making the game look better than ever. We’re looking at the Switch version, but Lumines Remastered is also available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

The game, like the best puzzlers, is simple in concept but hard to master. Blocks of four squares fall from the top of the screen to the bottom. Squares come in two colours, and if you can create areas of four small squares made up of a single colour, they dissapear.

Getting into it takes a little more time than Tetris or Puyo Puyo, but after a few goes you’ll be figuring out patterns and building your skill so you can cope with the game at faster and faster speeds. That’s the key to making it to the end of the challenge mode, the main single player game.

There’s plenty else on offer, with other game modes and rewards offered for completing its various stages. Rewards take the form of avatars and skins. Skins combine a music track with a graphical style. You’ll come to recognize these and love or hate them as you encounter them in the challenge mode. The changes in speed and tone that each introduce take time to deal with.

The challenge mode is the standard game, which has you trying to survive 100 increasingly tough levels. The pace increases as you progress, putting you under more and more pressure to build patterns before the play area fills up.

Away from the challenge mode there is a puzzle mode, which sets you different tasks, such as building a particular shape. The vs CPU mode see you trying to expand your territory, with an ever shifting line dividing the play area between you and your opponent. There’s also the skins mode, where you can set up playlists from the tracks you’ve unlocked.

This is a game where your memories of playing it will be forever tied up with its tunes. From the opening “mondo grosso” track to the relief when the game slows down two thirds of the way through, to the gradual ramping up of pressure until the end of the challenge mode, the game and its music are inseparable.

Mizuguchi san is known for his interest in synesthesia, making the sounds and visuals work in tandem to pull the player in, creating an almost trance like state when playing the game. Get sucked into Lumines and you’ll begin to understand just what that means.

The biggest downside is it takes a long time to play. Once you get good at the challenge mode it can take upwards of an hour for a single game.

That makes it perfect for switch however, as the system’s portability makes it easy to start and stop games in mid-play. While it looks great on the big screen it is also a perfect game to play on the go.

Overall, this is a brilliant puzzler, sure to pull you in and stretch your brain in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions. We’d recommend it to all puzzler fans and gamers in general.

PC gamers in Japan have something to look forward to next year. A new E-sports hotel will open in Osaka. Opening in April 2020, it will be the first hotel dedicated to e-sports in Japan and will offer gamers somewhere to sleep, as well as play. With over 70 high end PCs available, it will doubtless become a venue for gaming tournaments, too.

The hotel will open in the geek-friendly Nipponbashi district, full of game shops, such as Super Potato, bars, and host to an annual cosplay parade. The concept images shown here look pretty exciting.

E-sports is getting more popular in Japan, with the Red Bull gaming sphere opening in Tokyo last year. We’ll try and check e-zone out when it opens.

Read more in Japanese at FashionSnap, via TechSpot.

Dark Souls 3 is the third entry in From Software’s brutal action RPG series. After its iconic debut, many felt the second entry dipped a little, but the final game is a stonking return to form. Let’s take a closer look in this Dark Souls 3 review.

Essentially a hack and slash ’em up with RPG underpinnings, Dark Souls 3 sees you fighting your way from place to place through a strange and forbidding world.

You pick a character from a number of preset classes and then slowly grow your stats as you level up. The game is more flexible than its predecessors. Being a jack of all trades is more achievable, even if not ideal.

Different play styles are possible, with magic users having a very different experience to out and out brawlers. The game rewards multiple play-throughs and is full of secrets.

Famously, Dark Souls is a difficult series, but one that pulls players up with it and demands they play at its level. Baddies that would be grunts in most other games demand concentration and precision.

There is little margin for error. This is a game where you need to ruthlessly exploit the mechanics to eke every advantage you can over the obstacles in your way.

Indeed, to progress through the normal game you’ll need to know the lie of the land more thoroughly than in perhaps any other game.

Even the earliest enemies will take advantage of any flaw in your defenses and leave you reeling. You soon learn not to stop blocking for any reason, until you figure out that that cripples your stamina recovery, so start doing it more sparingly.

The challenge is brutal, but the sense of achievement when downing a boss is a fist-pump moment not many games can do. Getting stuck can be demoralizing, but you can always pull in a friend, via the co-op system if you really can’t make progress. Trying to do the game without assistance though, takes the game to another level of challenge.

The sound complements the game perfectly. The gentle whistle as you absorb the souls of a fallen enemy is an understated, if creepy celebration of each victory. Play with headphones and the bloodied gurgles of the fallen make the game all the more unsettling.

The dialogue, giving you snippets of vague advice and drips of plot, is also outstanding. Delivered in a strange, rhythmic monotone, the words of bosses and shopkeepers will linger long in your memory, partly because its so hard to be sure what they mean.

Many of the characters have a backhanded jibe at you or a contemptuous cackle that hints at the precariousness of your position in the game’s world.

The original Dark Souls was a curious beast graphically. Appearing in a period when Japanese games were behind the curve technically, it had the look of a game that wasn’t really pushing the boat out, while actually being quite advanced in the way it delivered its seamless world.

Artistically of course, it had quality in spades. The third entry is a much more impressive game on the surface, though its world isn’t as interconnected. It can be magnificent at times however, not least in its architecture. Like the characters and enemies, buildings seem to be there for a reason and have their own history. Many will be familiar from the other games, but have often changed over the years. You’ll also notice that statues resemble familiar characters, if you pay attention.

Enemy design is detailed and meticulous. The various beasts all fit in with their environments and the attention to detail is great. You get the feeling From have thought long and hard about everything – what the creatures are doing there, where they come from. It all ads up to a curious sense of believability about them and the strange world they inhabit.

The bosses are where the bulk of the challenge lies and are where you’ll mostly get stuck. The first Dark Souls had more of a balance between the open sections and the boss fights, but here the bosses are the most serious challenges you’ll face, by far.

The game is full of hidden things to find, some more obscure than others. There are hidden walls and items in hard to reach places. Problems that seem insurmountable can often be solved with a switch of loadout or a dexterous maneuver.

The online messaging system comes in to play here. You can leave messages that appear in other player’s worlds. You build messages from a limited vocabulary, so can’t give things away entirely but there is plenty of scope for assistance and creativity. Messages are hugely helpful, but may not always be honest.

The plot is obscure and the details the subject of much debate among the game’s community. You aren’t given much to go on, but the basic thrust is that you need to bring five lords to their thrones in order to link the flame.

One lord has volunteered, leaving you effectively, with four major bosses to hunt down in order to complete your quest. As with much of the game, it isn’t clear exactly why you are trying to link the fire, or if it is a good thing.

Dark Souls 3 launched in 2016, but is still going strong and has plenty of people playing online. To discuss the multiplayer is almost a spoiler, because the mystery of the mechanics is such a key part of the game. Suffice to say other players appear in your game in various ways. If you don’t consult a guide you could easily go through the whole game without understanding exactly what is going on and we’re not going to spoil things here.

What Dark Souls does is impressive though and pretty much unique. The optional co-op parts provide a real sense of team spirit and a welcome respite from the bleakness of the rest of the game. If you haven’t played a game in the series, you might be wondering which to go for. Well, the first is the classic, though is harder to figure out than 3, which feels more conventionally structured.

Having said that, the interlinked map of the first game and the way everything hangs together is a unique piece of game design that this game doesn’t recreate, despite the exquisite design of individual areas. Our advice would be to start with the third, but the first is a good choice, too.

There are two pieces of downloadable content. There is no shortage of things to do in the main game, but if you want even more to do these are well worth it and include some of the game’s toughest bosses.

The game is available for PC, Playstation 4 and XBox One. The PS4 version is currently on Amazon for $19.99. That’s well worth it if you haven’t played it, and we recommend anyone that likes a challenge to pick it up.

A new Nintendo store will open in Tokyo this year, the first of its kind in Japan. Nintendo already have a store in New York. As well as selling consoles, games and accessories the store will be used for events and promotions. The new store will take up a floor of a Shibuya department store. If you’re a Nintendo fan it will be an essential place to visit.

As Switch sales begin to slow down, we’re interested in seeing what direction Nintendo go in next. There are rumours of a new, portable only Switch coming out this year, but also murmers Nintendo are going to focus more on mobile, or e-sports. Regardless, the shop sounds like a fun place to visit when you’re tired of Akihabara.

We’re taking a look at Mario’s latest, greatest adventure today, in this Super Mario Odyssey review. Yes, we know. It’s been out a while, but we’ve just gotten around to playing it through. We’re very glad we did, as it is a stonking return to form for the little plumber after a couple of good, but not that good outings on Wii U.

The headline feature, of course, is the hats and the ability to body swap with various creatures. There is a surprising range of these. Right from the start you’ll be inhabiting frogs, dinosaurs and chain chomps and as the game progresses the feature is used extensively.

Soon, it will be second nature to take over your enemies and exploit their unique abilities to overcome the game’s many challenges. Seasoned players may well find themselves banging their heads against a brick wall trying to reach a hidden item, only to find it can be acquired easily by taking over the appropriate creature.

There are all sorts of hidden things scattered around as you’d expect. 2D murals of old Mario games are painted on walls and in a lovely touch you can jump into them and start playing retro style. This feature is used to climb walls and hide a few cunning secrets, too.

It does look slightly technically dated in places, with limited textures and occasional frame rate drops, even when docked. At first it gives you a sense that Nintendo aren’t quite as perfect as usual.

Artistically though, the graphics are phenomenal, and that’s what matters. Insects flit about here and there, rainbows shimmer in the spray from waterfalls. Flying from place to place in the Odyssey is a joy too. Nintendo have packed the game’s worlds with little details and added a sense of spectacle, with grand vistas and epic sights appearing regularly.

Mario’s new move set can feel a bit clunky at first, but soon starts to gel. The different play styles have been exploited in full by Nintendo and allow the designers to mix up the gameplay. Odyssey feels like more of a departure from the formula than recent entries, the quirkiest game since Mario Sunshine in some respects, though it deviates from the formula more successfully.

The gameplay of course, is second to none. There are plenty of surprises which we’d love to talk about, but feel they’re best left for the player to discover themselves. At times it recalls Sonic Adventure, Majora’s mask and Mario 2. Ideas old and new are packed side by side and cast into a huge range of challenges. Mario games are never short of things to do, but this one is more crammed than ever with hundreds of moons to collect.

There are some surprises in tone, not least of which is the presence of other human beings. Curiously, these look, well, like normal people in contrast to Mario. When you arrive at New Donk City, you’ll find it full of suited citizens going about their business. It feels unusual but is more interesting than weird and makes a nice change to the mushroom kingdom we’re so familiar with.

As well as people you’ll also travel to a level that looks like Dark Souls, a food themed area and many other weird and wonderful locations. The game feels more experimental than the last few entries in the series but the weird diversions never undermine the solidity of Mario’s universe.

The game offers a decent amount of challenge too. Recent Mario games have seen Bowser fall very easily with the challenge for older players coming from unearthing the game’s well hidden secrets. It may be old age creeping in, but we found ourselves dying a few times, even in the game’s early sections – a welcome change from the overly easy opening levels of Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World.

Post game there’s plenty to do too, but again, we’ll leave you to discover that for yourselves.

The game also has a rather nice snapshot feature, which enables you to position the camera independently of the game and apply a range of impressive filters. Cleverly, these include a few based on old Nintendo consoles, so if you want to see how the game would look using the Gameboy’s colour palette, you’re covered.

The map is presented as a travel guide, with the Dark Souls like area’s entry reading like an affectionate satire of From’s epic series.

The levels contain a number of hidden moons, which you collect to power your ship and allow it to reach the next stage. Moons are easier to come by than the stars and shines of Mario’s previous adventures, but there are more of them to collect.

There are two currencies in the game, which allow you to purchase extra health and a moon for each level, as well as a selection of clothing. Some puzzles need to be wearing the appropriate outfit so these aren’t just cosmetic. Each level contains a shop for standard coins and one for the purple collectable coins unique to each area. There are a fixed number of these, and you’ll need to find them all if you want to buy everything.

There are no lives in the game. Fall to your doom and you simply lose 10 coins. This is the first time we can remember this happening in a Mario game, but it makes more sense than lives, which end up being fairly meaningless in long form games, where you rack up dozens of them fairly early.

Adding further variety are the skill challenges, with online leaderboards. These include jump rope, speed running and others. As well as being able to see your world ranking, you can win power moons by hitting particular times.

There is also the balloon hiding minigame, which has you hiding balloons round the level for other players to find and hunting the balloons hidden by other players. Coins are awarded generously for completing these challenges, giving you added motivation to play.

If you’re playing with a friend, then the second player takes control of your hat, making you a real team. This isn’t quite as effective as the multiplayer in Super Mario 3D World and is perhaps the only area where Odyssey is weaker. It’s still good fun though, but player two can feel like a passenger at times.

Control wise, the joycons, which we tested, work well, despite the disconnection issue occasionally rearing its head. One minor frustration is that in portable mode the game’s motion control features aren’t available. These can be seriously useful, especially in the game’s tighter moments, so losing out on them can be annoying. It isn’t a game breaker though.

Portable mode also looks fantastic, with the graphics looking more or less perfect on the small screen. This is by far Mario’s most visually impressive portable incarnation yet.

Is Odyssey Mario’s finest moment? It’s certainly up there. It can never be the game changer Mario 64 was, but it certainly feels like the most different Mario in a long time and Nintendo have drawn all their experience to produce this game that combines the epic with an eye for detail that few outside Kyoto’s finest posses.

A real Odyssey then, and a must buy for Switch owners.

10/10

Mario Odyssey is available to buy and download and is currently 6458 yen on the Japanese Nintendo e-shop.

A mini PlayStation is on the way with 20 classic games included.

Following in the footsteps of the many recent retro consoles, a new mini PlayStation is coming. The PlayStation Classic will include Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Wild Arms and Tekken III as well as several unannounced games.

Final Fantasy VII needs no introduction. The Tekken and Ridge Racer games are the final entries of those iconic series on the console and will no doubt appeal to most players.

Jumping Flash is an unusual 3D platformer and one of those early titles we had our eye on back in the day but will jump at the chance to try this time around.

Lastly, Wild Arms is a Western themed RPG which again, we’ve not played but would enjoy checking out.

The rest of the games have yet to be confirmed but are expected to vary between regions. Whether gamers will be able to add games from other regions as with the mini NES and SNES remains to be seen.

The new version of the system is 45% smaller than the original. Two classic controllers are included.

The Japanese launch price will be Y9980. Elsewhere the system will be around $100 or 100 Euros. You’ll be able to buy it on the 3rd of December. Best get writing to Santa now.

Game controllers can bring an added level of immersion to the gaming experience as well as improve your play. A flight stick can make all the difference when you’re angling to be top gun. Luckily then, Hori are bringing out a new controller to help indulge your fantasies. The Ace Combat Flight Stick for PS4 will launch alongside the forthcoming Ace Combat 7 early next year.

The stick and throttle are separate. There’s a stereo jack included too, if you want to put some headphones on for another layer of immersion. The stick has been designed to follow the HOTAS specification, just like a real flight controller. It vibrates too, for an extra sense of panic when you’re under fire.

This isn’t the only flight stick available on PS4 but it looks like a high quality unit. The stick is not just compatible with the PS4, it also works on PS3 and the PC. It is penciled in for a January 17th 2019 release date and will set you back Y19,980.

The Ace Combat series has been consistently good but we haven’t seen it in a while. Ace Combat 6 came out just over a decade ago. Let’s hope the new game will be a good one.

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