Five Night’s at Freddy‘s has grown quite a bit as a franchise. What started with some PC-only releases has expanded to other consoles, VR’s Help Wanted spinoff, an upcoming PS5-exclusive sequel, and even an augmented reality mobile game. The latter has introduced quite a few crazy additions to the franchise and it looks like you’ll soon be able to collect your favorite ones. Instagram user mariobros612, who also leaked the What If…? Funko Pops, offered a new update for some new FNAF collectibles.
In his latest list, he shares that the seventh series of Funkos will include varuizs fugzres tgat glow-in-the-dark, as they are inspired by the mobile AR game titled Five Night’s at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery. The list includes VR Toy Freddy, System Error Toy Bonnie, High Score Toy Chica, Radioactive Foxy, and Toxic Springtrap. The only non-glowing inclusion is the Irish inspired Shamrock Freddy.
The characters introduced in Special Delivery are some of the most creative designs introduced in the franchise. This list also confirms that the upcoming PS5-exclusive Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach will not get its own Funko’s anytime soon. The game still has no release date, as it was originally going to release late 2021. As it’s already October, the game might either have gotten delayed or we might get an announcement earlier rather than later.
It’s not been an easy time for the popular Chucky Cheese-inspired franchise, as the film has also recently lost its director Chris Columbus due to creative differences on the script. Even after creator Scott Cawthon worte up ten different drafts, he still hasn’t signed off on a project for Blumhouse Productions to bring it to life. Ever since the controversy surrounding the creator’s political stance made its way online, the franchise has taken a hit and news became quite sparse.
Nintendo has some of the most famous franchises in the world. Yet, it manages to leave some of its most iconic franchises in the dust while focusing on the most profitable. We’re about to get our third Splatoon entry but haven’t had a new game in the franchise since 2010. The only true releases were the spinoff in 2016’s Metroid Prime: Federation Force and a remake of the original Metroid II: Return of Samus for the 3DS. Yet, the core story surrounding Samus Aran was last told in the prequel Metroid: Other M. Suddenly, Nintendo unveiled a new entry titled Dread that would continue where 2002’s Fusion left off. The only question remains, was it worth the wait?
Metroid Dread is a project that has existed for around 15 years, as revealed by the series producer Sakamoto Yoshio. It continues a story that has laid dormant for 19 years and sees the bounty hunter Samus Aran return to an unlikely mission. Even players that never tackled the franchise get a quick run-up of the story and Samus’ ongoing battle with the Metroids and X Parasites. After believing she ended them in Fusion, footage has found its way into the galaxy alarming the Galactic Federation of their imminent threat. Suddenly, a routine mission ends up with our hero trapped on an unfamiliar planet, once again stripped of her abilities.
Ignoring the franchise cliché of Samus always losing her base abilities, the game’s opening leaves us with quite a few interesting questions. What seems to begin as the usual “landing on a planet” storyline, you end up waking up in the underground of the planet after a sudden attack by a powerful Chozo. The twist adds to the Dread subtitle, as you are completely lost with one clear goal: get back to your ship. As you climb back up, you get a clearer picture of the truth to your mysterious attacker, why Samus was left alive, and the truth to that X Parasite footage.
The game doesn’t reinvent the wheel on what makes a Metroid game what it is. It goes by the “don’t fix what isn’t broke” rule and simply expands upon the past and brings it into a new age. We’ve seen many indie developers tackle the Metroidvania genre, which makes the originator’s return an even bigger challenge for the developers. Yes, we get a few new challenges and a very complex map to keep us on our toes, but there’s one strongly advertised aspect that truly makes the game stand out.
The EMMI units are Samus’ most challenging threats. These robots were sent by the Federation to take care of the X threat but suddenly went offline. Once you make your way upwards, you learn fast they are very much active and also don’t care who is friend or foe. They are relentless chasers and there’s only one weapon that can take them down, but you’ll have to find the necessary power source first.
The only relief you have is that they can only operate within a limited area. You would think that you have options to avoid them, but the layout of the map is your biggest enemy. You’ll often notice that as you progress, things start changing in unique ways. Often some roadblocks can only be solved later on that force you into the EMMIs area. The game uses its environments to force you into those situations and I found myself dying quite frequently due to a wrong move, or bad reaction. Their presence is always there and even trying to take them down is no easy feat.
Speaking of, the game does offer quite the challenge. The subtitle is well-deserved with how it forces your hand to learn and adapt fast. Dread‘s various larger encounters start to escalate as you make your way upwards. At a certain point, you’ll encounter some familiar faces and callbacks to previous entries that up the challenge in new ways. It’s not an easy game, and the challenge adds to the experience. Luckily, you aren’t punished when you die as you don’t have a limited amount of lives and will commonly return near your death. They knew you’re going to die frequently.
The game’s look has gotten quite polished, especially with the details surrounding Samus’ new suit. It feels like the perfect blend between Fusion‘s outfit and the one we grew up with. The game found a way to make many moments quite cinematic, as sudden events will trigger. It adds to the atmosphere when the game takes control away from you, as a menacing threat looms above you. They make it feel organic, as you then seemingly jump back into the action, and sometimes even have to be vigilant in case the villain goes for an attack.
Metroid has made a grand return and left quite the imprint. It acts as the end of a saga and pushes forward into many more games. Metroid Prime 4 is still in development and will continue the first-person experience of this franchise. If they continue building upon the template that the EMMI introduced, we could see quite some challenging encounters in the future. The franchise has returned in style and hopefully has a birth future ahead. It’s strange to see a game subtitled Dread would be such a shining light for the franchise’s future.
It’s been rather quiet when it comes to Square-Enix’s gamble that was Marvel’s Avengers. We had a roadmap showcase that only confirmed one piece of content arriving this year alongside the long-teased Spider-Man. The developers have made quite a bit of fuss about their first attempt at a raid but the uncertainty surrounding its release and general lack of insight on the rework has left fans wanting more. The only real ongoing update surrounded the game’s paid marketplace and the latest may have left a sour taste with players.
It’s gone through a rocky road ever since its launch. There have been many questionable decisions throughout its development, but the release of Black Panther and Hawkeye as free playable characters were quite some highs. Marvel’s Avengers‘ latest move to add payable consumables was hinted at once it got its subsection last week. Still, the sparse marketplace being taken over by them without any warning hasn’t been met with open arms.
In their latest blog, they included a mention of the various payable consumables, as they moved away from their promise these would remain as free additions. The timing of pushing them alongside the Xbox Game Pass seems deliberate as new players joined it after a Quad XP event this weekend. It seems that it’s overall a bad day for Looter games, as Destiny 2 has also announced that its paid DLC Forsaken will get archived for the upcoming The Witch Queen expansion. So, even if you invested money into acquiring it, it won’t be available moving forward. There are general expectations with these games and content draught adds to that very tension.
It’s crazy to see Sora from Kingdom Hearts officially joining Super Smash Bros. Not only did we find out he was the most requested character long before the current entry, Ultimate, ever released. the game’s director Masahiro Sakurai has always followed one strict rule when adding new fighters. They always originated from a video game. Sora surprisingly matches that bill, as he’s a Square-Enix character that enters Disney worlds. Yet, the fact he is part of this massive franchise is a bigger miracle than you might consider at first.
So, the bizarre aspect about Sora is the legal nightmare behind it. Yes, the game was produced by Square-Enix but in conjunction with Disney. As such, it technically belongs to both companies from a licensing perspective. If you noticed, there are no single Disney characters included or referenced in the preview. The only distinction is the Mickey Mouse symbol on his keyblade. Donald and Goofy didn’t even get to join Sora in his Final Smash. They’re also excluded from the Hollow Bastion stage, as they are normally present in the Dive to the Heart section. So, there were certainly cuts that had to be made throughout the process.
Sakurai also highlighted the difficulties of adding the character was only possible with help to make this a reality. Hell, they couldn’t even announce the most popular character due to fears of legal troubles. Supposedly, rumors are pointing to the rights having been completely taken over by Disney at some point with Square-Enix primarily acting as the game’s developer. Still, they’ll need a sign-off from both companies and their legal teams to include him in a third-party project. Our first hint at this complexity came to light in an interview with FinalFantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida. He offered some insight after interest rose due to the Nier tie-in event.
As for a Kingdom Hearts crossover, for this idea, one of the troubles is that we have to coordinate with Disney, and so I feel that there would be so many hurdles and challenges around working with them, so I try not to think about a crossover with Kingdom Hearts.
Naoki Yoshida
If not even an in-house developed game like FFXIV won’t touch the franchise, it’s probably a legal nightmare for external developers to include him. There were many debates about who the final character might end up being and if it would be satisfying enough. Yet, the fact that the most popular voted character and one that seems like a statistical anomaly to ever find its way into another franchise like this is the perfect way to cap off the monolith. Plus, Mario being the one to bring him into the franchise is a beautifully poetic moment, as Kingdom Hearts came into existence the moment Square-Enix’s Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi discussed Super Mario 64.
It’s October and with Halloween a few weeks away, it’s always the perfect time to revisit some horror legends. Oddly enough, it seems that a new rumor is doing the same thing. Since April, there has been a rumor surrounding a potential return of Silent Hill, which may be one of the most iconic horror franchises. Announcement after announcement, the hope for its reveal started to dwindle. Suddenly, a new report hints at remakes of classic Konami franchises resurface, such as Metal Gear Solid 3. So, there’s hope once more that it’s actually happening. A new potential leak on Gematsu may have given us the name of the studio working on it.
According to a posting on Resetera, it seems that the next entry in the Silent Hill series may have found its way to Sony Interactive. It’s been long rumored it would end up as a PlayStation exclusive, but it seems they may have passed it on to the studio of non-other than Hideo Kojima. Yes, the man who originally envisioned Silent Hills, whose cancellation led to him leaving Konami might have gotten a second shot at the franchise. There are no details if he is once again tackling Silent Hills, but only that his production company Kojima Productions is supervising the project.
The original pitch for Silent Hills eventually would morph into Death Stranding. While the game concept evolved into something rather unique, the original P.T., or playable teaser, ended with Norman Reedus appearing as our main protagonist. At the time, he was working alongside Guillermo del Toro and horror mangaka Junji Ito, who both had cameos in Kojima Production’s first game. It was a promising pool of talent that was wasted due to internal politics. Still, if this rumor turns out true, we might finally see Kojima’s approach to horror after all.
Marvel Games has been quite busy expanding its gaming repertoire. Guardians of the Galaxy will soon release and they are already busy promoting their supernatural-based Midnight Suns. The tactical RPG will explore a group of unlikely heroes from various corners of the Marvel universe alongside a new character known as “Hunter” that is the child of the Mother of All Demons, Lilith. It looks like she might not be the mastermind though as a new care package for Midnight Suns revealsanother classic Marvel villain.
Twitter user @CabooseEK shared a package they received from 2K that features various metal cards of the titular heroes. It does reveal that two more additions are going to arrive in the future. The thing that stands out is that they also noticed a rather curious detail on the back cover of these cards. When connected correctly, they unveil an ominous visual with a Cthulu-like creature. There’s a chance that this might’ve unveiled that the Dweller-in-Darkness will appear in the game. Yes, the same one that appeared in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but with a much closer design to his comic origins.
HOLD UP! If you flip the metal cards over and connect them, you almost get a full look at this 😳😳 Hoping to get the last 2 cards when the characters are revealed so I can see the full artwork! #DarknessFalls#NextMakerspic.twitter.com/sG2XpcyJoi
The main reason it seems likely it is Dweller-in-Darkness is his overall design and reference to “Darkness Falls” as a tagline. In the comics, unlike his recent Shang-Chi appearance, he’s a bipedal being with the head of Cthulu. There’s also the chance the character is an amalgam that is inspired by another Lovecraft-inspired character known as Cthon. He has a strong connection to the Darkhold, as he is the one that created it. His design in the comics has changed through the years, but he has had some Lovecraftian elements at times. No matter who it turns out to be, it’s a clever way to tease the larger mythology of this game and the threat this unlikely group will have to face.
After a long wait, the sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man game finally got its first trailer. Not only that, we even got a good look at the long-teased antagonist, Venom. Of course, his inclusion raises a lot of questions about what we can expect from the sequel. Luckily, Vice President of Marvel Games, Bill Roseman, teased that the sequel might be a darker story from the previous entry. In the latest podcast entry of This Week in Marvel, he briefly touched upon the upcoming sequel and compared it to the original Star Wars trilogy.
If the first Spider-Man game was Star Wars, Spider-Man 2 is [our] Empire Strikes Back.
It’s certainly a tall order to compare it to The Empire Strikes Back. The sequel became the modern standard for what any franchise tries to accomplish. Not only does it continue the story, but it pushes our heroes to a brand new breaking point. There’s no true hope that it’ll end on a positive note. So, who knows what the future has in store for Miles Morales and Peter Parker as they face off against Venom.
It’s crazy to think that the sequel would be even darker than the first. Peter had to make the most depressing decision he ever had at the end of that game, which might be the toughest sacrifice we’ve ever seen a version of this hero make. The game showcased who is the host for the Venom symbiote, which also makes his inclusion quite a personal story once he realizes who it is.
Marvel’s Avengers had given its players various bonuses throughout the past month to celebrate its anniversary. We also had a free weekend for players from PlayStation, Stadia, and Steam to give the game a test run. Yet, there’s a surprising lack of announcement regarding Xbox. Even with the PS-exclusive Spider-Man on the horizon, the game is meant for all consoles. Well, it seems the reasoning for that silence has arrived as the game is heading to Xbox Game Pass as of September 30th. It’ll include all four story campaigns and players can jump directly into the War for Wakanda expansion. They also confirm future updates are also included for Xbox Game Pass members.
The Xbox Series X or Series S players will also receive the optimized version of Marvel’s Avengers. So, it’s not restricted to a specific version of the game. The timing is also perfect as the One-Year Anniversary Celebration is coming to an end, as pointed out by the Crystal Dynamic’s Hunter Wolfe, as they’ll offer a Quad XP bonus from September 30th to October 4th. So, it’s a great opportunity for new and old players to catch up on leveling their heroes. This move also includes PC players, which may help push its numbers on the platform it seemed to struggle the most with a steady player base.
It’s a big move by Crystal Dynamics, but the timing is fitting. They’ve just dropped their biggest DLC yet, and are currently reworking the base game. Once the raid starts, the Game Pass offering allows players on Xbox and PC to play with each other, which has been a challenge for players via Steam. As they are connected through the Xbox account, it’s a big step forward for the game and could boost it going into Year 2.
Marvel Games has been busy expanding with recent announcements for Insomniac’s Spider-Man sequel and even a brand new Wolverine game. 2K has been busy working on a tactical RPG titled Midnight Suns and Square-Enix continues development on Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy‘s upcoming release. It looks like they might have even more in store, as a new rumor is hinting at a Marvel-based multiplayer game being in some form of development.
The news comes from the latest episode of XboxEra Podcast, where co-host Nick Baker teased a potential multiplayer game based on Marvel. The only thing he was able to tease was that it’s going to be a console exclusive release for the PlayStation 5. Of course, due to Insomniac’s history, theories are pointing to them developing the project but Sony has a long list of subsidiaries that could tackle such a project. The statement of a “multiplayer” game is also quite broad as it includes a variety of genres.
Still, it’s great to see Marvel Games expanding their ventures to utilize the different corners of the diverse brand. They’ve had quite a lot of experience with fighting games throughout the ages, and Marvel’s Avengers also offers players the chance to play their favorite heroes with friends. The X-Men brand does seem like the perfect fit for a multiplayer experience given its gaming history. If the rumor pans out, it’ll be interesting to see what else Marvel Games has in store for players in the coming years.
It looks like Marvel’s Avengers next Marvel Cinematic Universe-inspired skin has accidentally gotten leaked by Square-Enix. They send out a weekly newsletter highlighting the latest updates alongside recommendations for the players. They recently showcased a new 2008 skin that adapts the original Iron Man armor in the game. To every player’s surprise, we also got a look at a brand new Captain America skin from Avengers: Infinity War. You can check out the first look at the skin here from the latest newsletter:
The game is currently building up to its first raid and the focus has shifted to reworking its core mechanics. We’re seeing developments regarding its gear structure and gameplay loop. Crystal Dynamics continue to provide events and paid skins for those interested, as we receive free DLC. Black Panther was the latest release that offered an entire expansion with Spider-Man on the horizon for PlayStation players. They’ve also teased a big 2022 ahead, which will continue to build upon the game’s core narrative as they prepare for the invasion of the Kree Empire.
Source: Square-Enix Newsletter
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