Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Gaming Roundup!

This week, the Mario movie, smashed tournaments and a console for dogs??

Mario Movie Gets New Trailer

Nintendo have unveiled another trailer for the Super Mario Bros Movie, this one a little more in depth than the previous one. In it, we see a nervous Luigi tortured by Bowser, a Princess Peach who’s managed to avoid becoming a damsel, Rainbow Road from Mario Kart and Mario taking a beating from Donkey Kong.

It looks surprisingly decent, all things considered. There are a ton of references to the games themselves, and the plot suggests a confused Mario being trained up by Peach to become the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. And most of the performances seem to be shaping up to be something special. Except Chris Pratt, who still sounds like he’s phoning it in and making Mario the least likeable character in his own movie.

There’s an interesting release schedule happening too, as the initial release confirmation was the US release date of 7th April, but later confirmations seem to suggest the US may be one of the last countries to see it. Here in the UK, we’re getting it on 30th March alongside Australia and most of South and Central America, while other European countries are getting it a few days before. Japan appear to be getting it last on 27th April, which feels weird considering Nintendo is a Japanese company.

Smash Bros Tournament Shut Down, Allegedly By Nintendo

Nintendo are alleged to have shut down a Super Smash Bros tournament, according to claims from the organisers.

Smash World Tour, a tournament in San Antonio, Texas, was set to go ahead on the 9th to 11th December, but the organisers this week have confirmed its cancellation. They claim that this is due to a last minute decision by Nintendo to refuse a license for the tournament, and that a rival tournament run by esports organisation Panda Global was partly responsible for the decision.

Nintendo have refuted the allegations, claiming that while there were issues with granting a license for 2023 (no further details were provided on what these issues were), there was no decision to cancel the 2022 event, not least because it was so soon. Panda Global have not responded to the allegations.

I’m not fully up on the Smash competitive scene (I play it as a party game full of nerdy references to other games) so I don’t fully understand the full story behind these organisations, but it’s still sad to hear that a popular tournament has received a last minute cancellation that’s likely to have costed many people a lot of money.

What Is This? A Games Console For Dogs?!

In the weirdest story of the week, a startup company has announced that it’s making a games console for dogs. Yes, you read that right.

The company, Joipaw, is developing a system that functions with a touch screen to allow dogs to interact with some basic games featuring concepts they’re likely to understand. Games include a whack-a-mole challenge and a bubble-counting challenge, and performing well at the games will see the console dispensing treats as a reward.

It’s designed to try and keep dogs mentally active for times when their owner is unable to keep them occupied. It’s hoped that the device could help prevent canine dementia in later years, based on a study from 2017.

It’s a strange choice, but it’ll be interesting to see how well this works out.

New Releases

New releases this week start with a remake. Front Mission 1st Remake (Switch) is a reworked version of Front Mission, a tactical RPG released for the Super Famicom in 1995. It’s set in a future world where warfare is conducted in mechs known as wanzers, a name you really don’t want to misspell.

Moonshine Inc (PC) is a management game where you can live out your dreams of running an illegal hooch farm in the deep South. The game splits its gameplay between managing the production of your illegal moonshine and doing everything you can to avoid being caught by the authorities.

The Knight Witch (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is an indie Metroidvania which also adds in bullet hell and deck builder mechanics. It’s got some cute hand-drawn visuals and looks to be deceptively tricky.

Warhammer 40k: Darktide (PC) is yet another game from the never-ending licensing bonanza by Games Workshop to put their war games in digital form. Unlike other Warhammer games that tend to head straight to strategy, this is a first-person shooter set in the grimdark Warhammer 40k universe featuring an ever-evolving narrative.

Speaking of properties that refuse to give anyone a break from them, Marvel Midnight Suns (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) is what happens when you take the Avengers and co and combine them with XCOM. It’s even made by Firaxis, so it is quite literally XCOM with superheroes.

Released with absolutely no fanfare from EA to the point where it almost didn’t end up in this roundup, Need for Speed: Unbound (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) sees Criterion somehow escape the Battlefield mines to make a new instalment in the beloved street racing franchise. This one’s going for a cel-shaded style and leaning into a graffiti angle alongside the illegal night races, making it look rad as hell.

Game of the Week

Game of the Week this week is The Callisto Protocol (PC, PlayStation, Xbox), the spiritual successor to Dead Space.

Set on one of the moons of Jupiter (guess which one!), you play as a pilot of a transport ship that crash lands and gets incarcerated in a prison colony which gets infected by a mysterious space disease that drives its victims mad. The rest of the game is a fight for survival through the colony while trying not to get ripped into gory bits.

Basically, this is Game of the Week because Glen Schofield, co-creator of Dead Space, made his own studio specifically to make a new Dead Space with the IP filed off. Every bit of gameplay I’ve seen of this so far indicates this is a more refined Dead Space, with all the things that made that series cool still present. Expect plenty of gore and dark metal corridors full of screams. Perfect for the festive season, I’m sure you’ll agree.