Controller Connected

SEGA has just shown off new summer themed sonic merchandise on Twitter source: twitter.com/SegaShopEurope SEGA continue to produce quality merchandise for fans. This time the merchandise is quite special though, as it calls back to the Sonic The Hedgehog ice cream lolly. This set of merch has particularly caught my eye with it's cool little designs. As you can see from the image above, there are four types of merch here, glasses, hats, flasks and a shirt. All of the items here are £20 or below so a fairly decent price. You can currently pre order any of these here. This is one of two different new ranges of Sonic merch on the SEGA shop, the other being the Sonic Shonen range. The Shonen range can also be found on the SEGA shop for pre order. It mostly has the same types of merch, though there is also a pin set in that range.  So, if you are wanting to add some new merch to your collection I feel these two ranges are a great way to do that. If these aren't your thing SEGA shop h

SEGA's summer sale is here with many discounts on new games and more source: twitter.com/SEGA Just like many other companies, SEGA have just launched a summer sale. This sale can be found over on Steam. Many of their new titles are featured in this sale. You can save up to 85% in this sale, most titles are 50% or less though. The popular titles currently on sale are as follows: - Total War Hammer 3 @ 29.99 (40% off) - Sonic Frontiers @ 24.99 (50% off) - Two Point Campus @ 16.74 (33% off) - Football Manager 2023 @ 22.49 (50% off) - Persona 5 Royale @ 29.99 (40% off) - Like A Dragon: Ishin! @ 38.49 (30% off) - Company Of Heroes 3 @ 44.99 (10 % off) -  HUMANKIND @ 7.99 (80% off) There are several other smaller titles on sale too as well as DLC's for the listed games. If you would like to take a look for yourself then you can use this link here. That's it for this blog, stay connected!

Not sure who asked for this but it's happening source:  www.oreo.com/supermario Nintendo has just announced on Twitter that they will be teaming up with Oreo to bring limited edition Mario Oreo's to the people. There will be 16 different designs featuring all of the main protagonists from the Mario series as well as other things like coins and mushrooms. These Oreos will also come in a specific packaging featuring Mario art. You can expect to see these cookies available online and in stores from the 10th of July. You can currently pre order them on the Oreo site too for $4.99 each. On the collab page, it also states that you can use the cookies to complete a challenge and defeat bowser, though I am not sure at all what this means.  While this is a nice little cross over, it's not very high effort. I feel there should have been a new flavour or at least some different flavours representing different characters. The art on the cookie is nice but it's something you will ea

Sonic Frontier's second update introduces several good changes and additions source: www.youtube.com/@SonictheHedgehog On the 24th of June a new update went live for Sonic Frontiers. This update added the second wave of free DLC to the game. Along with the update we got a bunch of quality of life features too. While it isn't the major update wave 3 will be, this is a bigger update than wave 1. The key standouts of this update are the addition of action chains, the spin dash and the new koko.  Let's start off by talking about the action chains. These can be found all over the different islands and are time based challenges were you must get as many points as you can in a set time. You can get points from many things, such as, grinding a rail or defeating an enemy. Figuring out how to S rank these can provide a decent challenge. Though, it is a bit annoying how you can have a run get destroyed because of a nearby enemy. Some enemies when you get close lock you into fighting t

The latest Sonic Central delivers the expected but didn't have any surprises source:  www.youtube.com/@SonictheHedgehog This latest Sonic Central gave us a lot of what was expected, it does makes sense though, with the amount of Sonic content we have and will get this year. Sonic already has Sonic Origins Plus and Sonic Superstars as well as DLC for Frontiers for 2023. The show was a total of 20 minutes which is double what the previous one was and had quite a lot to it. As for what was in the showcase here is a full list: - Sonic Origins Plus - Sonic Frontiers Update 2 - Sonic Speed simulator Roblox - Sonic Prime new episodes  - Sonic Prime Dash - Super Silver in Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces (Mobile) - Lancelot for Sonic Dash and Sonic Dash Plus - Classic Sonic joining several mobile games - Several sonic music tracks in Samba De Amigo - Sonic Symphony concert locations - Tails Tube further episodes - Several new pieces of Sonic  merchandise  - 5 new LEGO playsets - Sonic Superstar

The recent Nintendo direct was good for Mario content but lacking otherwise source:  www.youtube.com/@NintendoUK The direct showed off many new games, with most of them coming out this year. Previously Nintendo's line-up for the rest of 2023 was looking a bit empty but thanks to this direct it is now looking better for the rest of the year. This is what was revealed/shown in the recent direct:  - Pokémon DLC - Sonic Superstars - Palia - Persona 5 Tactica - Mythforce - The latest Splatoon 3 splatfest - Detective Pikachu Returns - Super Mario RPG - A new Princess Peach game - Luigi's mansion 2 HD - Batman Arkham trilogy - Gloomhaven - Just Dance 2023 - Silent Hope - Fae Farm -  Hot wheels unleashed: Turbo charged - Manic Mechanics - Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC  -  DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince - Pikmin 4 - Pikmin 1 + 2 HD - METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION Vol.1 - Vampire Survivors   - Headbangers Rhythm Royale - Penny's Big Breakaway - Mario Kart 8 DLC wav

Sonic The Hedgehog's twitter page has announced a new Sonic Central for Sonic's birthday source: twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog On Sonic's birthday  (June 23rd) we will be getting a bunch of Sonic news in the form of a Sonic Central. It has been a while since the last Sonic Central, with the last one taking place over a year ago on June 7th 2022. The tweet states that we can expect sneak peaks at projects, partnerships and events. The time it will air is @4pm BST . It will be live on both YouTube and Twitch on the official channel for Sonic The Hedgehog. There is no duration stated for this presentation, though the last one was 10 minutes. So, this one might run for around 10 minutes too.  As for what we could see, I think we could more information on Sonic Superstars with a possible demo announcement. We should also hear about the second wave of DLC for Sonic Frontiers since part of that is a birthday celebration. A mobile game is usually featured with a new update and Sonic

Nintendo has just announced that a new direct will be airing tomorrow source: twitter.com/NintendoUK Over on Twitter Nintendo has just confirmed the rumoured Nintendo direct for this week. The direct itself will be roughly 40 minutes long, featuring the latest details on Pikmin 4 and more. As for the airing time, the direct will air at 3pm BST. We knew Pikmin 4 would most likely be featured in the next direct, but other than that there aren't any other big releases from Nintendo coming soon. This means we will be in for many new announcements. It is also possible we will finally get a release date for Metroid Prime 4, though this could be a title for the next Nintendo console now. I think we have the chance to see quite a bit of DLC here too, with Splatoon 3's Side order and possible Tears of the Kingdom DLC being the big ones. Some other games have been rumoured recently like a 2D Mario game and a SNES game remake and they do come from a leaker who has gotten things right befo

  A game with an interesting narrative, that is held back by some poor design choices source:  personacentral.com Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a 2D action RPG game set in a fantasy world. It came out in 2016 for the PS3, PS4 and PSvita. This game is a remake, the original game, simply titled, Odin Sphere was a PS2 game that came out in 2008. I had this game on my backlog for a long time. I have finally got around to playing it and I have many thoughts about it. I have finished all stories including getting both the good and bad endings so my opinion is solidified.  Let's start off with the positives. Odin Sphere has a great overall narrative which is deep and thought invoking. I was very invested in the story wanting to find out what was going to happen next. The way the story is told is that, each character you play as continuously adds to the overarching narrative. This lets you slowly piece things together and see things from other peoples perspectives, which makes it easier to di

  Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade will be playable soon for expansion pass owners source:  www.pinterest.co.uk Through a new trailer we now know Nintendo's next expansion pass game. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is a GBA game originally released in 2003. It features 3 main characters, those being, Lyn, Eliwood and Hector. Each character has a path in the game, though Lyn's is a tutorial and the other two paths act essentially as difficulties. Eliwood being the normal mode and Hector being the hard mode of the game. There are a few differences between Hector and Eliwood's paths though, with whomever you choose having more screen time as well as some of the maps being different. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is a great game and one of the best fire emblem games so it's great more people will be able to play it now. I first played this game on Wii U's virtual console and had a lot of fun with it. The game will be available to play through the service on the 23rd of Ju

  Nintendo will be going around the USA with this new tour source: twitter.com/NintendoAmerica This tour will take Nintendo summer of play around different shopping malls in the USA. There are a total of 9 malls that will be hosts for this tour. The tour will be from June 15th till August 28th which is quite a lengthy tour.  As for what to expect at this summer of play tour, just like the image shows, there will be small environments constructed for you to take pictures in as well as kiosk for you to play games. For right now the only game Nintendo has confirmed you will be able to play at the event is the recently released Tears of the Kingdom. As for environments they have confirmed an Animal Crossing New Horizons one featuring Tom Nook and Isabelle as well as a Pokémon Scarlet and Violet one where you can take a picture with Pikachu.   This will be a nice summer event for Americans to take part in, hopefully they bring this tour to other places in the future. It is almost guaranteed

  Pre orders are now open for a Knuckles figure by GoodSmile source: goodsmileshop.com GoodSmile are one of the best places to get video game figures from. While they are not cheap from there, they give you a very high quality figure that is somewhat customisable. Each figure comes with some parts you can use to customise them. Listed below is what you will get with this figure. Eye parts: -Forward-facing -Glancing right -Glancing left Mouth parts: -Grinning -Closed -Gritted teeth Optional parts: -Chaos Emerald Source: goodsmileshop.com These parts will allow for some great expressions and the chaos emerald is a nice little item you can add in his hand if you wish. As always the figure comes with a stand as these figures are rarely able to stand on their own. Overall, I think this figure is good though it is lacking in extras. The Sonic GoodSmile figure comes with a chaos emerald as well as a ring, item box and a checkpoint. So, they could have added in a few more extras, which would h

  Many games over the past few years have received digital deluxe editions and it needs to stop source: store.playstation.com Recently, I saw that the new sonic game may have a deluxe edition, so I wanted to discuss why they shouldn't exist. Digital deluxe editions include things that should be included with the base game. DLC is a great way to expand on a game but it shouldn't be used in a way that takes basic features and items away from the base game for no reason. Digital deluxe editions do just that. source: @sonicstadium  One of the more notable offenses in recent years is the Sonic Origins digital deluxe edition. Making "character animations" part of a pack you need to buy is very greedy, there is no reason these should not have been included in the base game. Additional music is another thing that is really puzzling, people can just listen to these tracks online anyway why would they pay to listen to them in game, especially when you can't even do somethin

  At Summer Game Fest the upcoming Sonic Superstars was announced source:  www.youtube.com/@SonictheHedgehog A brand new 2D sonic adventure will be heading to all platforms very soon. With sonic origins plus coming in June I did not expect this at all. In the trailer the major standout we see, is the gorgeous new art style that will be featured in this game. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose have been confirmed playable. Co op is shown quite a bit and looks like it might be more than just the standard 2D sonic co op, allowing up to 4 players at once. New powers are also shown in the trailer. You can see a new water ability, some type of swinging ability that happens in a 3d space and an ability that allows sonic to summon many copies. Just before the new powers section, we see some type of pixel mode where the players turn into jellyfish and float around, not sure what this is, could be a new ability too or a separate mode. Whatever it is, it looks fun. source:  www.youtube.com/@Soni

  Splatoon 3's seasons are a nice change to how Splatoon is updated source: @SplatoonNA Seasons were the way to go for Splatoon 3 in my opinion. I feel there is many benefits to having seasons over the previous update approach. I will go through some of the reasons why I think seasons are the best update method for Splatoon.  More organised So this one is pretty simple, we know exactly when things will be coming to the game even when they are not announced. This makes it so you can plan better rather than if two stages get dropped randomly like Splatoon 2. This is nice if you are trying to arrange something with your friends or family. Bigger incentive to return With a huge amount of content being dropped at once it is definitely more appealing for players to  come back to the game. Splatoon 2 would sometimes drop a stage or weapon by itself which I didn't feel as much incentive to return as I normally waited for a weapon and stage at the least.   More likely to try other new s

  Summer Game Fest gets new video source : twitter.com/summergamefest Summer Game Fest hosted by Geoff Keighley will be live this Thursday, June 8th as announced a few days ago. The event will be streamed everywhere @  3pm ET / Noon PT / 9pm CEST.  Currently, other than a showing for the recently revealed Mortal Kombat remake, there are no details as to what to expect from the show. However, in a follow up tweet to the video post, Geoff states we will find out soon. In that same reply he also says what you see in the video is not indicative of what we will or won't see. So it serves as just a little mind refresher for some of the new games this year. Link to the video can be found here  SGF video I will be watching this event, but I will have my expectations set very low. Previous summer game fests have not been that interesting so I expect this one to follow suit. Though, with E3 not being a thing anymore officially, it could mean we get more at this show. That's  it for this

  DLC for Tears of the kingdom could happen but I don't think it's likely Source: Author's edit I want to start off by saying I do not think this game needs DLC at all, though it would be welcome. Breath of the Wild had an expansion pass with 3 waves of content. Looking at the contents of that could give us an idea about what a Tears of the Kingdom expansion pass could look like. The first wave (Expansion pass purchase bonus) was available at the games launch and included the following: - 3 new treasure chests This was a very small wave featuring 3 chests of goodies. The biggest thing from this was a Nintendo Switch shirt link could wear. It was a nice little extra to start the game off with but definitely not the defining content of the pass. Moving on, The second wave (DLC pack 1) offered a lot more in terms of content, with it offering these following things: - Trail of the Sword - Master mode - Heroes path mode.  This wave offered many things to test the players skills,