Detective Pikachu came out in cinemas last week, and for audiences, it’s doing well at catchin’ ‘em all. It’s taken the title of strongest opening weekend for a movie based on a game in the US,. Beating the previous record set by 2001’s Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movie. It took in $58m compared to Tomb Raider’s $47m, although that’s not adjusted for inflation.

It’s impressive stuff, especially as Detective Pikachu is such a rare occurrence anyway – it’s a good video game movie. I’ve posted my full thoughts HERE, so you can see why!

Speaking of Nintendo, and back to the world of games, this week saw a short presentation of Super Mario Maker 2, coming to Switch next month. Have to admit I wasn’t too bothered by this one, as I couldn’t see how they’d add much more to the previous Wii U level builder.

I’m shocked see how much they’ve added, and I’m a lot more interested now.

Speaking of announcements that got me a lot more interested in games. Developers working on Wolfenstein: Youngblood stated they’ve taken some inspiration from fellow Bethesda stablemates, Arkane Studios. This means Youngblood will feature more open-ended levels with many solutions, like Arkane’s Dishonored games.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood will be out on 26th July for all major systems except Switch.

A month after Youngblood launches, Blizzard are set to launch World of Warcraft Classic. In celebration of the truly massive MMORPG’s 15th anniversary, World of Warcraft Classic is a rollback of the game to its v1.12 build from 2004. With a much sparser world and some very different quests. It’s nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It wouldn’t suprise me if current players get a little disappointed with rolling the game back so much. But it’s always nice to get a peek at gaming history and see how far these things have come.

It launches in August and will be available as part of a standard WoW subscription. Although existing subscribers have access to the beta right now.

We’ve already had the BAFTA Gaming Awards this year, but BAFTA have announced that they’re giving a special achievement award to Epic Games. This is an ill-timed announcement. Coming hot on the heels of criticism of their exclusivity purchasing, as well as reports of poor workplace conditions.

It’s generally accepted that Black Flag is the best Assassin’s Creed. It’s likely for this reason that Ubisoft announced a game that took all the piratey joy of that game and removed the Animus and other assorted lore. But, Skull & Bones is going to take a little longer to arrive than anticipated.

Saints Row: The Third saw a Switch port last week, but it’s not had the best reception. Widespread reports of game-breaking bugs, frame rate issues and input lag, making the game worse to play than any of its other variants.