The Thursday letters page asks if Total War: Star Wars will be announced today, as one reader is impressed by the new Mario Kart World update.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Coming soon
After the upset around Metroid Prime 4 I tried to look on the positive and see what Nintendo had coming up next, but it’s not very encouraging.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but their first game of next year is the Switch 2 version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and then it’s Mario Tennis Fever in February, and then Pokémon Pokopia in March.
That’s it for games with a date, but you’ve also got that new Yoshi game and the Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Then things get really sketchy, with The Duskbloods and Fire Emblem maybe sometime in 2026.
I know they probably have plenty of things they haven’t announced (Splatoon Raiders doesn’t seem to be down for any particular year) but I hope that do that sooner rather than later because while the disappointments this year may have been relatively small, they’re still disappointments and I don’t need the Switch 2 to turn into another PlayStation 5 situation.
Connor
GC: You left out Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Rhythm Paradise Groove, but then they are Switch 1 games.
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Undead old school
Excited to hear that proper zombies are going to be in Resident Evil Requiem. I would’ve actually guessed the last time they were in a mainline game was Code: Veronica, but I guess they were also in Leon’s bits in Resident Evil 6. That game was so terrible, my brain has tried to save me but making me forget most of it. It’s so bad I think Resident Evil 7 is a bit underrated for how much it turned the series around.
Everything I’ve seen and heard of Requiem looks great and I am absolutely on board for it already. I just hope they manage to get the cheese right too. I enjoyed the Reader’s Feature about trying to make a straight-up comedy and while I wouldn’t go that far it is important for me that the game shouldn’t take itself completely seriously.
It’s difficult though, because the original’s was all unintentional and trying to copy that comes across as cringy. Hopefully they figure out something.
Janson
Retro definition
I am so over the HD-2D style from Square Enix. It was a fun gimmick at first but it’s actually pretty ugly and always seems to be too dark. I’m seeing rumours of a Chrono Trigger remake or sequel and at first I thought it might be good to do it in that style. But it really wouldn’t.
I know that Dragon Quest one was apparently good but a game of the quality of Chrono Trigger deserves a more personal touch. I don’t mind keeping kind of a retro look to it, but it shouldn’t just be a cheap job with the HD-2D engine, they need to maybe make something in 3D, maybe with voxels, to make it look unique. I’m not hopeful though.
Shatner2
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Don’t please everyone
I think we’re all going to be sick of hearing about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by the end of this month, since it’s obviously gong to sweep The Game Awards, but while we’re still this side of it I’d just like to say I think the game deserves all the praise it’s going to get.
I get that it’s not for everyone but I think that’s one of the great things about it being so successful. We need more games that aren’t for everyone. The very worst games are those bland, artless ones that are specifically designed to appeal to the lowest common dominator and end up doing nothing worthwhile or interesting, no matter how expensive they are.
It may sound odd, but I hope that whatever the next breakthrough hit is, it’s not my cup of tea. Just to prove that I’m not saying that because it happens to be something I like. Keep knocking out new and interesting games, that’s all I want. And I’ll probably buy them, to try them, even if I don’t think they’re my thing. I just appreciate the effort.
Cranston
Better late than never
Never played a Metroid game before but it’s still a shame to see a Nintendo game getting disappointing reviews. Personally, I think they’ve spread themselves too thin, given the amount of games released this year, and I think that’s very obvious in something like Drag x Drive, which was a fine enough idea but was so bare bones there was never a chance anyone was going to care about it.
I think it’s probably a mix of wanting to get as much out there as possible for the launch year and maybe having trouble adapting to a more powerful machine. That said, I’m not very confident that the new Fire Emblem will be anything special and nothing else from Splatoon has been very good in single-player so I’m not too excited about Splatoon Raiders either.
The Switch 2 could end up being a bit of a late bloomer.
Hannibal
Total secret
Just a heads-up for those that care, but there’s a Total War livestream today (Thursday) at 4pm for them to unveil new ‘historical and fantasy’ games. I know there’s been a lot of rumours of Total War: Star Wars but that doesn’t really sound like what they’re trying to hint at.
Star Wars gets called space fantasy a lot, rather than actual sci-fi, so they could be riffing on that, but we’ll see. Funny thing is, it seems to rule out Warhammer 40,000 as well – which was the other rumour. I guess you could also call that fantasy as well, but I don’t think anyone ever really does.
They could just mean fantasy in the sense that it’s not real or historical, but I guess it depends how desperate they are to put people off for the next 12 hours or whatever.
I’ve always liked the Total War games, even as someone that’s not usually that big into strategy, and the Warhammer ones have been easily the best for me, so I’m happy to see more fantasy ones.
It’s an interesting series too, because it’s one of the few that is still PC-only and given the controls and the horsepower it needs is probably always going to stay that way.
I hope whatever’s revealed today is interesting and hopefully a setting they haven’t done before.
Torsman
World of difference
Thanks to that Mario Kart World update I have finally unlocked all the bad guy characters – the ones you can only get from the Kamek power-up. I followed your advice and made it the only power-up that appears in a Vs Race and it became a lot easier to get them all.
Not only that but playing the game like that is wild. I advise anyone who has it to give it a try, as it constantly fills the course with giant obstacles, like dozens of Thwomps or giraffes or Chomps. It makes races even crazier than usual and it’s also impressive that the Switch 2 can do it all without even a hint of slowdown.
Onibee
Everybody hates Myles
Sad to see Metroid Prime 4 turn out to be only okay but I can’t say I’m very surprised. Like the other reader said, Nintendo has made almost no effort to promote it, so they obviously don’t think it’s going to do very well. More importantly, while it’s developed by Retro Studios there’s not many people left there that worked on the original.
The director left ages ago and I believe two of the tech leads died, which is sad. Sounds like they still did a good job in terms of the graphics and mimicking the originals, but not when it came to adding anything new.
I think the problem is that Nintendo doesn’t really get Metroid and if it was as niche in America as it is in Japan it would’ve been mothballed years ago. They definitely don’t know what to do with Samus Aran but it sounds like the story in general is very childish and basic, which is the opposite of what fans like me would like.
I’ll see what it’s like for real when I get my hands on it, but I’m expecting to be as frustrated as I am entertained. Although at this point I think I know what to expect, including hating Myles MacKenzie.
It really is so strange how he and the others have been added. You would’ve thought the first thing they’d identify is that that’s not what fans want, but they went ahead anyway.
Chaser
Inbox also-rans
I keep forgetting that Sega has announced Alien Isolation 2, which seemed a pipe dream for so long. Am I right in thinking they haven’t shown anything of it yet, though?
Cospe
GC: Yes, not a thing has been said or shown of it, other than saying it exists. Technically developer Creative Assembly does have a showcase planned for today, as mentioned by a reader above, but as far as we know it’s only for Total War.
I did not know they did that mech suit thing with shorter characters in Fortnite. I get why, but that is a really ugly solution to the problem. Reminds of playing as Oddjob in GoldenEye 007.
The Bishop
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