PC fans of the excellent (and overlooked) Ys series will be sad to hear that the newest installment, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, has received a last minute delay on their platform of choice. Taking to the Steam forums, NIS America has announced that the game is being delayed until further notice to maximize the quality of the end product.

"We sincerely apologize to our fans who have been looking forward to this release," reads the post. "Ultimately, our goal is for fans to enjoy a high-quality game. We are providing the extra care in the PC development of the game by taking time to enhance the overall quality of gameplay."

In a surprising move, NIS will offer refunds to anyone who feels cheated or otherwise upset by this delay. I'm not sure why anyone would get mad at a developer and publisher for trying to work out the kinks, but I suppose the last minute part might be too sudden for some. If you pre-purchased the game from a digital retailer that isn't Steam, NIS will still grant the refund; you'll just need to contact the appropriate marketplace for assistance.

I can't say I'm not saddened by this, but I'd rather all games come out with as few problems as possible. If Ys VIII getting delayed ensures that its PC port is up to snuff, what is the true harm in the matter? I can wait a few weeks to experience the game.

PC Release Date Delay [Steam Community]

We've been tracking Heat Signature, the next game from Gunpoint creator Tom Francis, for a few years. Soon enough, you'll be sneaking your way onto ships, attempting to take out whole crews, dying, and doing it all again with a fresh would-be thief. The game launches for PC next Thursday, September 21.

This will be one of those games about getting yourself in (and hopefully back out of) chaotic jams. Aside from having certain game design expectations following Gunpoint, these bullet points paint a picture:

• Emergent gameplay: use gadgets like teleporters, stealth shields and subverters to invent your own solutions to tricky situations.
• No time pressure: you can pause any time and take as long as you need to plan, aim shots, and figure out your next move.
• Randomly generated missions: each one picks a random combination of guard kit, ship layout, and complications like space battles.
• Personal missions: every character has one grand heist to work towards: rescue their brother, steal their gun back, get revenge on their partner's killer.
• Full modular destruction of every spaceship: shoot a fuel barrel to blow up the room and be flung into space by the vacuum. Rip ships in half, destroy secure rooms to form new entrances to dock at.

Super Mario 64 Online, a romhack that lets 24 people get together and play Mario 64 together, looks fun as hell -- in a slightly broken, wholly entertaining way. It's downloadable here for free.

Online functionality would be cool in its own right, but this is Mario 64, after all. There's a wild scene of creative, dedicated, ingenious players surrounding this game. To that end, Super Mario 64 Online has emotes (wave, cry, sleep, get electrocuted) and cleverly-implemented new playable characters:

• Mario is normal
• Luigi jumps higher but skids more
• Yoshi can flutter jump but can't wallkick
• Wario takes less damage but is slower
• Peach can float like in [Super Mario Bros. 2] but can't grab onto ledges
• Toad is faster but can't jump as high
• Waluigi has a double jump but takes more damage
• Rosalina spins in the air like in [Super Mario Galaxy] if you press B, but this replaces her dive

Creators Kaze Emanuar, Melonspeedruns, and Marshivolt also have a short tutorial video here.

Dungeon crawling is inherently selfish. They're a bit of video game risk versus reward in the sense that they exist to test the player and (theoretically) leave them better equipped for future challenges. They play to a loop of constantly improving the hero so that they can take on tougher foes.

Moonlighter uses dungeon crawling in a different way. At night, protagonist Will takes to the randomly-generated enemy-laden dungeons in pursuit of loot -- just like in most other games. However, the aim isn't to finish the labyrinth. Instead, it's to extract before dying. That's because Will has big plans for that treasure. He's going to sell it.

Although he's a hero by night, Will is a shopkeeper by day. He runs a bustling general store in town, and he uses everything he collected in the dungeons to pad his bottom line. Talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. 

Prior to any of the expansions launching for Destiny, I gave the game an hour or so before I moved on, never to return. This weekend, I spent most of my waking hours playing Destiny 2. I dig it. And now here I am, happily reading up on and covering the sequel. I almost don't recognize myself!

The loop of bouncing around the world map to engage in public events, picking up the odd patrol here and there as time allows, and dropping off a whole bunch of tokens all at once for a nice payout flowed so well that I just couldn't stop. The shooting in Destiny is amazing -- that's no surprise -- but I didn't expect everything else surrounding the shooting to click with me so suddenly, and to this extent.

Those of us who have cleared the campaign and begun to grind our Power levels should be pleased to know that Destiny 2's first raid, which is planned to go live on Wednesday at 10:00am Pacific, won't require too much setup. According to game director Luke Smith, it "has a Power range of 260-280."

Destiny 2's first Raid has a Power range of 260-280.

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 11, 2017

It'll take some investment, don't get me wrong, but hitting that minimum won't be bad.

If I can reach 270 without dipping into the nitty-gritty of leveling guides (basically: don't clear out all of your Milestone quests right away) or messing with alternate characters, you probably can too. I mostly played the way I wanted to play, and had fun. Powering up to 280, though? That'll be a war of attrition.

With the raid news out of the way, I now patiently and cautiously await Xur's arrival on Friday.

Luke Smith [Twitter]

Arc System Works has announced that River City Melee: Battle Royale Special will be hitting Steam this week on September 14. The game is a spin-off of the main Kunio Kun series and features four player multiplayer action in the form of a fighting game similar to Street Fighter. Apparently there are 25 storylines to play through if you're a solo player, though the action won't become like a traditional River City game.

If you own the previous Arc System Works released River City game on Steam (which is Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~), you'll receive a 10% discount on the game in addition to the 10% off launch week special. No price was mentioned, but the game goes for $24.99 on PS4, so I'd guess around there.

I remember the first Christmas I ever worked in a mall at an EB Games, getting geared up for the holiday and ready to lose our minds at the absolute insanity of Boxing Day that was to come. In the mall they had these little kiosks where they would sell impulse items that changed throughout the year. But the most perplexing product I saw that year was something that looked like a Nintendo 64 and touted a thousand games. They had it displayed on a CRT television hooked up via RCA cables, so I gave it a shot.

It was shit, frankly.

The controller was cheap plastic garbage. The games were all Famicom/NES games, and most of them were not unique, being variations of one another. Mario 10 for example was just Mario 1 where you had ten lives, bringing the actual number of unique games closer to the range of about a hundred. Not to mention it being legally suspicious since I doubt the company selling this had license to any of the games on display here. It was a cash grab that roped a lot of people into paying fifty bucks for what amounted to a bad emulator in a shell coated in lead paint. Definitely no NES Classic.

Now these sorts of things are a dime a dozen. There are tons of YouTube channels which devote far too much air time to these products. But some of them have gotten better over the years. We now have a wide range of console clones that vary greatly in quality. Overall a lot of the core problems haven’t changed; questionable source of games being the primary one. The Bittboy Mini FC Handheld is not much different unfortunately, apart from one lovely boon that otherwise does not save the system from blending in with the rest of the crowd.

Selling an original game is hard! Trying to convince players why they should try something new without being able to compare it to an existing property is tough at the best of times and with a huge marketing budget and even then, the possibility of making it a hit is not high.

Ubisoft gave it a try back in 2007 with the original Wartech: Senko no Ronde... and it was a huge flop. Now, 10 years later, Degica games are trying again with an enhanced version of the sequel in the form of Senko no Ronde 2. And history looks like it will repeat.

Bigger is better in the new game from Ubisoft Reflections. The developer that's best known for Grow Home and Grow Up, adventures that see a little robot trying to ascend as high as possible, has just announced a multiplayer shooter that seems to retain all the charm from the Grow games.

This new effort is called Atomega, and it's an eight-player PC-only arena shooter about bulking up. Every player starts as a little ball of energy, and they vie to accumulate blocks in order to grow and transform into something else. Acquiring blocks earns points, and the goal is to finish the round with the most points. It stands to reason that anyone who can evolve into the Omega stands a pretty good chance at winning.

Spiritually, Atomega seems to be similar to the incredibly addictive browser game Agar.io in the way that it emphasizes both passive and aggressive means of growing. With regard to upcoming releases, it also strikes more than a passing resemblance to Switch shooter Morphies Law. It's not wholly original, but it's a fun formula nevertheless.

Maybe most surprising is how far away Atomega is from release. In its announcement post, Ubisoft says that it's set to launch on September 19 for $10. Next week! Just remember that when you tack on mass, you sacrifice flexibility.

Atomega -- Grow, Shrink, and Shoot Your Way to Victory on September 19 [UbiBlog]

Nintendo have announced that they will be hosting another Nintendo Direct showcase in just a few days, revealing more info on the games coming to the Switch and 3DS in the coming months.

The stream will go live at the link below on Wednesday, September 13 at 3pm PT/6pm ET and is expected to run for around 45 minutes. We will receive new info on the anticipated Super Mario Odyssey, as well as details for other titles The Big N has lined up for this Holiday season.

Nintendo Direct [Official Site]

There are plenty of reasons to be wary of Life is Strange: Before the Storm -- it's the prequel to a highly successful, influential series, but it isn't being handled by the same development team. This time around, Deck Nine is in charge of a three-episode arc featuring two of the most mysterious characters from the full series. Even the voice actor for Chloe, the game's main foil, has been swapped out for someone new. The circumstances are ripe for Before the Storm to become a flimsy parody of Life is Strange, full of shallow awkwardness and referential quasi-humor.

Luckily, that's not what happened. Before the Storm slides into the Life is Strange library like butter, opening up storylines that were only hinted at in the full game. Part of this insight surely comes from Chloe's original voice actor, (the Emmy-winning) Ashly Burch, who stayed on as a writing consultant for the prequel.

But, just because Before the Storm isn't an embarrassment to the Life is Strange brand doesn't mean it's perfect. Engadget associate writer Timothy J. Seppala and senior reporter Jessica Conditt found different delights and drags in the first episode of Before the Storm, largely influenced by their own experiences as teenagers.

Spoilers for the entire Life is Strange series, including Before the Storm, reside below; you've been warned.

Kamen Rider games are hard to come by domestically (seeing as how there's basically no support for the niche fandom here), but if you're willing to import, Namco Bandai just might've greased the wheels on their upcoming Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters for PS4. The Asia release of the game will come complete with English subtitles, so if you're willing to pay a little more for it (like me) then it's the closest we'll ever get to an English Kamen Rider game since, uh, Dragon Knight on the DS I think. 

For those interested in importing, Climax Fighters features 1-one-1 or two-on-two fights (though I'm not sure how importing will affect online features) and it'll come complete with the form changes you've come to love from your Heisei favorites. 

Here are the characters announced. Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters releases in Japan and Southeast Asia (with English subs, heck yeah) December 7.

• Kamen Rider Build
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
• Kamen Rider Ghost
• Kamen Rider Drive
• Kamen Rider Gaim
• Kamen Raider Wizard
• Kamen Rider Fourze (My boy) 
• Kamen Rider OOO
• Kamen Rider W
• Masked Rider Decade
• Masked Rider Kiva
• Masked Rider Den-O
• Masked Rider Ryuki
• Masked Rider Blade
• Masked Rider Faiz
• Masked Rider Hibiki
• Masked Rider Agito
• Masked Rider Kabuto
• Masked Rider Kuuga

Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters coming to Asia in English December 7 [Gematsu]

A little over a month ago I stumbled my way through the front door of Destructoid, knocking things over as I went, writing about video game news, with an original goal to write various tips and guides on current games. But then instead I ended up on the front page of /r/gaming because of skateboards.

Now I've found the keys to the recording studio and locked myself inside it, creating videos for Destructoid's own YouTube channel! All of course while having that constant feeling of trying to fill shoes twice my own size in the wake of current people on the channel like Lyle McDouchebag, those extremely talented folks over at Gameumentary, and even past personalities that originally brought me to this website such as Max Scoville and Tara Long.

After three weeks of nothing but crap and indies filling theaters were people desperate to get out and see a good movie? Yes, yes they were, and IT rode that success all the way to an insane box office that outstripped even the wildest of expectations as it blew past box office records all weekend. 

IT destroyed the September/October release frame record by more than doubling Gravity's paltry $55.8 million. Its total box office of nearly $120 million (that's nearly four times its budget, by the way) was more like a summer tent pole than a fall sleeper. It's also the biggest horror debut of all time, the biggest opening night for an R-rated film ever, the second highest opening weekend for an R-rated movie (behind Deadpool), and the third biggest opening weekend of the year (behind Guardians Vol. 2 and Beauty and the Beast). It actually made more money than every single movie made over the three day Labor Day weekend -- in two days, with no 3D pricing, and with a hurricane closing most of Florida's theaters. IT accounted for 75 percent of the entire box office this weekend! 

All I can say is that there are some WB executives somewhere on the celebratory bender of this century. 

The best part about this all, however, is that IT deserves a big box office. It's really quite good in a way horror movies usually aren't. Did you get to check it out?

Nintendo, particularly its Japanese arm, is a proud company. I've been told several times that they won't blame others for their failures, or make it clear why things are happening the way they are when there's a shortage issue (which of course, is a monthly occurence for some Nintendo product).

They're playing it coy with the Switch too, as Reggie explained to The Financial Times when prodded about Switch supply, that "There is not one choke point, there are multiple choke points. I won't go into any more detail but it's not just one component." He goes on further to say, "I’m going to make millions of these units to flow into the marketplace. But what I don't know is what the demand is going to be. And there is a potential that demand is going to outstrip supply."

Translation? There might not be a Switch under your Christmas tree if the craze takes off even further than it already has. Switch units are already woefully scarce in Japan, with ticketed raffles becoming commonplace, and all over the world shortages have been known to happen.

I totally get why Nintendo adopts a consistent stance of not throwing anyone under the bus, but some knowledge of why this always happens with them could help some third party help understand how to fix it. Or, could expose a situation where they're letting it happen -- a popular accusation that came to a head during the Wii shortage crisis.

Nintendo [Financial Times via Nintendo Life]

Super Mario 64 turned 21 years old back in June, but the classic title lives on in the hearts and minds of players. A new fan project has taken that collective nostalgia to another level with a downloadable version of the game allowing up to 24 friends to play through the (formerly) single-player adventure. But given Nintendo's extremely low tolerance for unauthorized versions of its games, play it now before the company DMCA's it off the internet.

Via: Mashable

Source: 'Super Mario 64 Online' (YouTube)

Swery decided to do some motion capture for his studio's, White Owls, first title The Good Life as the protagonist, Naomi. In the video he's mostly just goofing around and even a caption suggests they're not going to use the animations. One involves "sheep shearing" where he uses his stuffed monkey Public Relations Representative, Sharapova, as the sheep.

It's not really clear if this is just a funny snippet of a longer, serious capture session, or if they just decided to goof around for a little while. Either way, you have to kick back and have fun every once and a while to keep yourself sane.

Fire Emblem. One of the most puzzling Nintendo franchises for sure. Most people's first experience with the series was Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube, which included Marth and Roy. Neither of their games released outside of Japan, so they were just cool and mysterious swordsmen to everyone. Indeed, the first worldwide release of a Fire Emblem title was Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword on the Game Boy Advance, two whole years after Melee! Since that time, however, nearly every entry has been localized and published worldwide.

If you're thinking about caving in and buying a SNES Classic at those exorbitant scalper prices on eBay and other sites, then stop. Reggie Fils-Aime (which I always read as Feels-Anime) told Financial Times that Nintendo "dramatically increased" production for SNES Classic and that "I would strongly urge you not to over-bid on an SNES Classic on any of the auction sites . . . You shouldn't [have to] pay more than $79.99."

Regarding the pre-order situation at retailers, Mr. Reggie stated that it was not a supply issue and that it was out of their control. The cause for low supply of the NES Classic is that Nintendo anticipated low interest after looking at retro game consoles from other companies.

Sean Vanaman, co-founder of studio Campo Santo, announced on Twitter today that the studio would be filing DMCA takedowns against YouTuber Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg. Shortly afterwards they followed up, with all footage of Firewatch on his channel becoming unavailable as a result. Sean also confirmed that any videos of future Camp Santo games by PewDiePie would also be taken down, and called for other developers to follow suit.

So what was the cause of the sudden DMCA takedowns and for wanting more people to take this stance towards Kjellberg?

Apple isn't the only company showing off new stuff this week. Nintendo has announced it'll hold a 45-minute Direct stream this Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific. What's on tap? "Information mainly focused on what's headed to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS over the next few months," according to an email from the gaming titan. Oh, and the announcement specifically mentions we'll hear more about Super Mario Odyssey, which comes out next month (!!!). Unlike Apple's event tomorrow, you can all but guarantee nothing Nintendo announces will cost $1,000.

Source: Nintendo

A recent change to Arena mode made alongside the release of Hearthstone's latest expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, is to be rescinded after a mountain of negative feedback.

The "Restrictive Synergy" rule, implemented in the latest update, limited the first few deck draws for each player to specific synergy types, as opposed to the completely random draws that were made in the original ruleset.

Players complained that this new rule essentially "locked you in" to building an attack deck based on the synergy of your starting cards, rather than having the freedom to adapt and change as you built your deck. Whilst this may have even been the very intention of the new rule, a lot of fans felt it took away from the evolving playfield, making the game a more linear playing experience.

Replying to a complaint of Hearthstone's Reddit page, game designer Mike Donais said that the original randomiser method of card-drawing will be reimplemented in the very-near future, although no specific date was given.

Hearthstone new rule rollback [Reddit]

Wacoal, a popular Japanese lingerie company, has released a dating game where you take on the role of sleep deprived woman. The culprit of her insomnia? Her breasts of course. In what apparently is a real issue for some larger breasted women, movement makes it difficult to sleep.

Available on both Android and iOS, Karemin combines the words for "boyfriend" and "sleep." To solve your sleeping problem, you attend a seminar and meet five handsome guys: four sleep instructors and their manager. They of course provide some tips on how to get drowsy before sleep, but also help you pick out a suitable bra to reduce movement while sleeping (by Wacoal of course) and even lay down in bed with you til you drift off, and then wake you in the morning.

Space odyssey sequel Destiny 2 made an explosive debut in the UK last week, planting itself firmly into the number one spot, pushing out Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which now sits in second place.

It's hardly surprising really, not only is Destiny 2 quite the hyped release for a lot of people, but it also has numbers on its side, being currently available on two formats. Forza Horizon 3 made a stunning return, climbing back into third position, whilst the Bethesda triple-threat of Fallout 4, Doom and Dishonored 2 still refuses to go away.

Both Knack II and Monster Hunter Stories failed to crack the Top Ten, launching at number 12 and number 21 respectively. Mario & Rabbids, as with other recent Switch releases in the country, has peaked after just one week, dropping from number 2 to number 10. Many great debuts from last week, such as Everybody's Golf and Yakuza: Kiwami have already dropped out of the top ten entirely.

On behalf of the entire nation I happen to reside in, I apologise.

U.K. video game sales chart w/e: September 9 2017
(Chart reflects in-store sales only)

1. Destiny 2 - Activision Blizzard
2. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - Sony Entertainment
3. Forza Horizon 3 - Microsoft
4. Grand Theft Auto V - Take 2 
5. Fallout 4 - Bethesda
6. Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy - Activision Blizzard
7. F1 2017 - Codemasters
8. Dishonored 2 - Bethesda
9. Doom - Bethesda
10. Mario & Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Ubisoft

U.K. video game charts [GFK Chart-Track]

I don't really get the stigma attached to 'port begging.'

Sure, some exclusives are great, as they wouldn't have otherwise been made without the backing of a specific angel investor, and the terms of those deals often stipulate that they must remain exclusive. But that doesn't always have to be the case -- in many instances, publishers are simply afraid of porting to certain devices for sales purposes -- the Wii U was proof of that. But the Switch is going along much more swimmingly, and at this stage, arguably has more third party support than the Wii U ever had (I mean Rockstar is even getting involved for crying out loud).

This success is even trumpeted by Lizardcube's Omar Cornut, who notes that Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, has sold more on Switch than "the three other platforms we released on combined." Several other developers back this sentiment up even if they don't provide the same helpful comparison.

It'll be wild to see where the Switch is at the end of next year. Will it already surpass the Wii U? Will it ever approach the coveted 100 million sold mark and make a name for itself in the pantheon of all-time sellers?

Rise of the Nindies [Gamasutra]

[Header Image by @eafrns]

This weekend, Japan waged war a civil war on arena-shooter Splatoon 2 to determine which was the "best" McDonald's side-dish, Fries or "Chicken" McNuggets.

When all the ink had dried, McNuggets took an incredibly narrow 2 - 1 victory over the thin, limp slices of fried potato. This win garnered another notch on the belt of carnivore Marina, who probably got a last-minute popularity boost from eye-glasses fetishists, thanks to this recent artwork.

Interestingly (or perhaps not) Fries won the fan vote with a huge 71%, but it was McNuggets that took both Solo and Team battles in the arena, with a very tight 51% victory in both cases. I am unable to translate spokesquids Marina and Pearl's comments on the matter, but it's likely to be something insightful, such as "Buh-Bam!"

Congratulations to those of you who backed McNuggets, now go reconsider your life choices.

Final Fantasy XIV is no stranger to crossovers with Level-5 properties. In fact, the MMO's Yo-kai Watch event recently came back giving players a second chance at nabbing some Yokai companions and inspired weapons.

It looks like players will soon get a shot at some Professor Layton themed events. The Layton series official Twitter recently posted the image below asking "What clues lie amongst these gentlemen?"

What clues lie amongst these gentlemen? http://pic.twitter.com/cHslXWRnVR

— Layton Series (@LaytonSeries) September 10, 2017