This Week in Games

Bowser Is Mr...

Welcome back, folks! So, I actually tried Peak with some online buddies of mine over the weekend. And I didn't really enjoy myself tons. Now, maybe it's because of the massive multiplayer mod my friends used (there are a lot of us, like 20+ at once), but between Peak and R.E.P.O., my experience with these titles has been more along the lines of waiting to play these games instead of playing them. I think I'll stick to Gunstar Heroes. Speaking of games, I had a miniature heart-attack earlier this week; I had a moment to play Future Redeemed... but then I couldn't find my physical copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I had forgotten I had left it in my Switch 2 carrying case during my trip to San Diego...

I've spoken before about how I'm a bit burnt out by Fortnite collaborations, if only because there's just not much to say about them. I appreciate the work that goes into them, all things considered, but we've long since hit the point where collabs are just white noise. What's a bit less common, and thus more novel, is a collab featuring Monster Hunter—especially since Monster Hunter has gotten so big, way moreso than when the Monster Hunter character was in Marvel Vs CAPCOM 3. Thankfully, we have a new Monster Hunter collab lined up for... DOTA 2...?

No, no, it's just... I didn't expect it to be DOTA 2. Short for Defense of the Ancients, DOTA 2 is the sequel to the original Warcraft III mod that created the MOBA genre. Valve has kept DOTA 2 alive for a while now and even commissioned a (mediocre) action cartoon based on the game, which I once covered on This Week in Anime. My main thing is that I wouldn't expect the audience that's ride-or-die for DOTA 2 to be that interested in Monster Hunter... but also, I don't spend enough time around the DOTA 2 audience to really gauge their interests. Regardless, fans can look forward to six new armor sets based on Monster Hunter, plus new pets like the beloved Poogie. Also, in a show of some good synergy, the Dragon Knight character can turn into a Rathalos now.

The sets are available from November 10, 2025, until February 2026.

Since Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie movie made a bazillion dollars at the box office, it was pretty obviously going to get a sequel—especially since Nintendo is making moves to expand their branding beyond gaming. People have been wildly excited about it. Of course, folks have been itching to see if Yoshi will be involved—it's all but confirmed, since Yoshi's new render has apparently been leaked via cookie boxes. Uh, whoops. However, we don't have information on T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas; we have a trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Right off the bat: they're going with Super Mario Galaxy for a sequel. Bit of a jump, yeah? I understand the logic here, though; none of the other mainline Mario games really fit for a sequel. You can't do Super Mario Bros 2, because that stars Wart—and Nintendo is about as interested in including Wart in matters as Sega is in making a new Ristar. So Wart's out. You can't really do Super Mario Bros. 3 because so much of the first The Super Mario Bros. Movie movie already includes the big beats from that game: the various kingdoms, Bowser's fleet of airships, mainly. I know a lot of people still hold a torch for the Koopalings, but there are seven of those guys—way too many to juggle for a sequel, especially since Nintendo prioritizes Bowser Jr. as Bowser's successor. Super Mario 64 is out, because it only involves Mario, Princess Peach, and Bowser, and the scope is limited to a castle and some paintings—way too small in scope for a sequel. And Super Mario Sunshine is similarly too small in scope because it just takes place on Isle Delfino; going from a kingdom-wide war to just a summer holiday gone wrong is a step down in scope. So Super Mario Galaxy it is—and you can still rope Bowser Jr. into things, because why wouldn't you.

Many people are disappointed that Princess Daisy is being passed over for the sequel in favor of Princess Rosalina, but again, I understand the logic; Daisy and Sarasaland are a cool setting... but they're from Super Mario Land. And as ubiquitous as Super Mario Land was for anyone with a Game Boy, getting Nintendo to prioritize Tatanga as a villain isn't going to happen in 2025—even if he's an alien that could segue into Super Mario Galaxy. Heck, Super Mario Galaxy doesn't even mention Tatanga. At least Wart's got the excuse of being a literal figment of dreams.

So, Rosalina and Bowser Jr. are in. Who's voicing them? Well, this is an Illumination Studios joint, so it's too much to expect them to do like Paramount did with the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and bring any of the established voice cast from the games in. So, celebrities it is! Benny Safdie is voicing Bowser Jr. He's had several bit parts in movies like Oppenheimer and Happy Gilmore 2, and sounds about as much of a child as Chris Pratt sounds Italian. Par for the course for Illumination. Rosalina's casting gives hope, at least; Illumination brought in Brie Larson to voice the cosmic princess! Unlike many of her cast members, Larson actually has experiences with vocal performances; her rendition of Black Sheep in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a genuine show-stopper, and she even reprised the role of Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Actual voice acting!

Usually, I wouldn't give a rip if a person was a "real fan" of the material or not—it's easy to claim you've spent your whole childhood [x]ing [y], after all, it doesn't really mean anything. But for what it's worth, Larson has actual Nintendo cred; besides having appeared in commercials for Nintendo stuff, she threw her first boyfriend out of her house because he said she was "taking Super Mario Galaxy too seriously." And she also very famously cosplayed as Zero Suit Samus for Halloween in 2018. So for my money, this is the best casting choice anyone could have made for Rosalina—and possibly the best casting choice for the The Super Mario Bros. Movie movies anyone has made yet. I'd have liked to see Kevin Afghani get to reprise his role as Mario from the games, but oh well. The The Super Mario Galaxy Movie movie releases on April 3, 2026.

... Also, because people are going to want to know: Bowser's buff portrait was done by Brazilian artist Renan Porto. "Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined that one day I'd be painting a hot stud Bowser for official material, announced by Miyamoto himself," Porto said (translated from Portuguese). We thank Porto for making Bowser appropriately Daddy. 🏆🏆 BRASIL CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO!!

Sony has certainly been eager for IP for a while—or at least for reasons for people to buy a PlayStation 5. The decision to shut down their Japanese studios has eroded a lot of goodwill with the more hardcore crowd (along with a number of beloved IPs, such as Parappa the Rapper and Ape Escape). So when Sony announced a Japanese State of Play earlier this Monday, we had some hope. Hey, they might announce some new projects, right? Not to be too negative, but the hope of getting anything new announced was a bit much; it seems that anyone with teasers to tease is holding them off for Geoff Kighley's clown show (sure is incredible how they binned that Future Class program, guess Kighley will have to find something else to pat himself on the back for). So Sony's State of Play ended up feeling a bit anemic; not that there wasn't fun stuff announced, but nothing pointed to a new game.

The first reveal was for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. There's been a lot of buzz over this one, given how Square Enix has confirmed a lot of pacing changes for the game. On the one hand, these are necessary: the original Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a very long game; it can take quite a few hours before you even encounter your first random battle, let alone the forty hours it takes to unlock the game's job system. Wanting to revamp that is less a "concession" to modern audiences and more making a game playable. On the other hand, some people really want that original experience, even if it's clunky and slow—and I admit, I don't blame them for that. Unlike with Final Fantasy VII, the original Dragon Quest VII isn't readily available on modern platforms, and even the relatively recent 3DS remake was a radically different game from the PS1 original in terms of pacing.

At any rate, the trailer gives us more to chew on by showing us Kiefer, one of the main heroes of Dragon Quest VII. If you've played the Japanese games, you might also recognize Kiefer from Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, the third game in the Monsters spin-off series. A younger Kiefer stars in that game, long before the events that roped him into the mainline DQ series; sure is a tragedy that that game hasn't been brought to the US. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined comes this February 5, 2026. I hope folks can spare the time for this turn-based RPG.

I don't want to sound down on Inkonbini: One Store, Many Stories because the game itself sounds rather fun: you play as a cashier for a convenience store in a small town, stocking wares, feeding coins into the gachapon machine, and learning more about the patrons that visit your establishment. It's Supermarket Simulator with some story to it. My problem is how it feeds on so many design decisions we're seeing from the glut of "cozy games." There's a way to make this game, and being made by Japanese developers gives me hope. Hey, there's room for a game that's all of the life-sim stuff from Shenmue—but the devil is in the writing. Cozy games need substance. Look forward to this one in April 2026; it'll also be released on Steam.

I'm a bit torn over Coffee Talk Tokyo. See, at first blush, it feels like VA-11 Hall-A warmed over; you play a barista in a fictional café in Tokyo patronized by yokai, with a mini-game based around preparing everyone's preferred cup of coffee. But also, VA-11 Hall-A is a pastiche of a whole library of visual novels that were released on the PC88 in Japan, and Coffee Talk Tokyo is the second in a series of café-based visual novels. There's a lot of complicated history here, but again, I worry about the writing. The thing that made VA-11 Hall-A stick out wasn't its sick cyberpunk trappings (although Anamanaguchi's music helped), it was the writing; not only was protagonist Jill Stingray learning about her patrons as they nursed the drinks she prepared for them, through them we also learned a lot about Jill herself. There is a whole story going on in the background involving public political corruption scandals involving the local private police force that directly impacts the lives of all of the local patrons—which one of the other patrons is strongly implied to be responsible for! However, their implication never really comes to light in the game because it's not the point: the story is about people in difficult times coming together and supporting one another as a community. And far be it from me to begrudge people their cozy coffee shop AUs, or demand that everything be on the level of one other arbitrary title, but I worry if Coffee Talk Tokyo has the writing chops to back up its aesthetic or if it's just another Ghibli-inspired cozy game starring yokai.

I must confess that I have no familiarity with any of the Broken Lore games, let alone that there was a whole series of them. But I can imagine the disappointment of some fans at the "news" that Broken Lore: Unfollow is coming to the PS5 this January, given that it's also releasing on Steam at the same time. They also announced another Broken Lore game, Ascend, where you and a friend try to scale Tokyo Tower and deal with the yokai Rokurokubi. For the uninitiated, the Rokurokubi is the long-necked woman-yokai. I do admit that the Broken Lore games seem like interesting first-person horror games; it's a bit of a shame they couldn't release one closer to Halloween.

Disappointing to fans must've been the announcement of the Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly remake. Not that the game doesn't look good or anything—I'm excited for it, and I hope that other people are. The issue is that this game was already announced back in September. Now, overlapping announcements aren't the end of the world, but at the very least give us something. Koei Tecmo announced a few DLC costumes for the protagonists, and they look nice... but I don't blame people for being upset at this caliber of announcement. At any rate, Crimson Butterfly comes out on March 12, 2026.

The other disappointment in the State of Play was how much DLC was being announced—not games, DLC. Dynasty Warriors Origins, Elden Ring Nightreign, Gran Turismo 7, Pac-Man World 2: Re-PAC, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Super Robot Wars Y, Monster Hunter Wilds, Digimon Story: Time Stranger... they're all getting DLC. Many of them aren't Sony-exclusive, either. Not that the DLC is bad, it covers the spectrum. Super Robot Wars Y is getting Kamen Rider Skull and Kamen Rider W from FUUTO PI added to their roster, which I'm down for. I can't even call it a goofy cameo because Full Metal Panic!'s Bonta-kun was in a Super Robot Wars game. Time Stranger's DLC is a bit less interesting; for starters, the DLC adds a handful of exclusive Digimon. Furthermore, they're all variants of Omnimon/Omegamon. And, sure, Omnimon is awesome, and he's been awesome for ages. But the likes of Omnimon Alter S aren't that much more interesting (especially since Alter S is specifically "what if we made a new Omnimon but swapped the sword-head and the cannon-head?"). Time Stranger was doing a way better job in the base game of avoiding too many overused Digimon stealing the spotlight. While I am frustrated at the number of people going ga-ga over Beelstarmon now, you'd have folks lining up for DLC that allowed you to earn her X-Antibody variant. The other DLC packs are what you expect: songs for Katamari, costumes and SpongeBob in Crossworld, the list goes on. Special credit goes to Gran Turismo 7 for adding new gaming modes in its DLC, including a 24-hour race. That's hardcore.

Let's talk some Roguelikes for a minute, because I love my Roguelikes. I've been a bit miffed at the overabundance of them lately. I like that folks have finally come around on them, but I wish the Roguelikes on tap were better; it genuinely feels sometimes like people are defaulting to Roguelikes to depend on procedurally-generated dungeons (so as not to have to design levels) and randomized perk drops (so as not to have to balance skills). And far be it from me to hold that against developers! Game development is hard! But I've played good Roguelikes, and that kinda sticks with you. I haven't played the original Rogue (the reason I capitalize "Roguelike"), but I've gone as far back as Nethack. Another important aspect of a good Roguelike is that it forces you to use your skills creatively. It's why Shiren the Wanderer is such a phenomenal game: you cannot win by brute strength, you need to think laterally about how specific enemies work and how their abilities can be countered. And a lot of what they do doesn't even mess with your health points specifically, it puts your later progress at risk—for example, certain ninja enemies using water jutsu on you. Sure, it can rust your equipment (weakening their stats), but it can also make your riceballs rot, leaving you without food on later floors even if you survive. Ah—but ninja with fire jutsu can cook your riceballs if they hit you with fire attacks, turning them into Grilled Riceballs that work even better than normal riceballs! You must take the risk that one of your flammable items will be burned in the exchange. It's a level of out-of-the-box thinking that forces you to think less of your raw stats and perks and more about entire maps being puzzles. And I specifically underline Shiren the Wanderer for a reason—I might be obsessed with Izuna, but even the Izuna games aren't as good at making enemies logistical threats; enemies have gimmicks, but Izuna can just berserk her way through if her weapons or stats are strong enough.

And this is my issue with a lot of modern Roguelikes, and especially Roguelites: ultimately, enemies are only threats since they damage you more than you can damage them. The game becomes less a matter of strategizing around your toolkit and more a matter of hoping that your amassed perks can win you the battle of attrition. Now, Hades avoids this—and ironically, in a way similar to how Shiren the Wanderer does: Hades gives you "meta-progress" that revolves around you inevitably dying somewhere in your run. You miss two-thirds of the game if you one-shot the entire thing in one go. There's a level of strategy and thoughtfulness that should be inherent in a good Roguelike—but a lot of Roguelikes don't have it.

With that out of the way, two Roguelikes were showcased. The first marks the return of the Blaz Blue series in the form of Blaz Blue: Entropy X. Blaz Blue was Arc System Works' ersatz Guilty Gear for a while, but ever since the Guilty Gear machine started up, Blaz Blue took a backseat. A shame; it has a wild aesthetic and cast that are worthwhile in their own right. Entropy X allows you to control 14 characters from the series and slash your way through mobs of enemies. I like this; it's a good way to keep Blaz Blue alive without making it feel like a reskinned Guilty Gear.

The other title, though, is Pocketpair's Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. Remember that? I was convinced Pocketpair didn't! Ever since they made Palworld, you'd think Pocketpair never made anything else! Pocketpair president Takuro Mizobe, who's gone on record in the past about "not being particular about originality," was also responsible for this one; a side-scrolling game with a cartoonish and dark aesthetic where a little witch wanders a cave fighting enemies. As can be seen by the screenshot, the aesthetic lines up pretty heavily with Hollow Knight. Hilarious timing that Never Grave suddenly came back just in time to tag along with Silksong's release.

Now, to be fair to Never Grave, it's not a 2D Metroidvania with Souls-like elements, the way Hollow Knight is; it's a 2D Roguelite instead. Your titular witch earns perks as she explores a procedurally-generated cave and fights bosses. Also, there's some Terraria-style base-building where you can prepare materials. It's definitely unfair to compare Never Grave to Hollow Knight regarding gameplay... but man, Pocketpair is just never going to beat those allegations, what with the art style. But hey, this game is apparently actually launching in a 1.0 state this March 3. I wonder when Craftopia is getting its 1.0...

No Sleep for Kaname Date is also coming for the PS5 and is available for pre-order; there's a demo for Octopath Traveller 0 in advance of its December 4 release date (also, folks seem mighty taken with the character of Herminia, The Covetous Witch). MotionRec, a clever platformer where you can record and replay motions to clear puzzles, is also coming to the PS5 (although it's currently out on Steam). Nippin Ichi Software's new Disgaea spin-off, Kyouran Makaism, also made an appearance. Although it was announced back in September, I missed it—and I'm actually impressed with what I saw. I love the cast and aesthetic of Disgaea, but I've bounced off the series. I'm excited to see if I can actually latch on with an action-RPG twist. Look forward to it on January 29. Tokyo Extreme Racer is coming to PlayStation 5 this February 26. In the meantime, you can play it on Steam. Credit also has to be given to Sonic Racing Crossworld, however, for the addition of Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf to the game's roster as DLC—Tangle and Whisper are fan-favorites from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comics (and even have their own mini-series together), it's wonderful to see fan-favorite comic characters made playable in a Sonic game for once.

Damon and Baby was a new title revealed during the State of Play... but sadly, it's a 2D twin-stick shooter, and not the kind of thing the mass audience is here to see. A shame, because the game looks fun: it tells the story of a demon (named Damon) tasked with caring for a baby. It's a cute set-up, and the stages promise a ton of variety—not just with shooting, but with platforming and puzzle-solving. This one is slated for release in early 2026, and I hope it finds an audience.

I've gone on record before that there is a wealth of RPGs from China that we haven't scratched the surface of, and I'm glad to see more of those games getting localized in America. Wandering Sword... is not new; it came out on Steam in 2023. But it's incredibly ambitious: its aesthetic is on par with Square Enix's HD-2D releases, and it features a wild 20 endings to its narrative. This version of the game also features Japanese voice acting. I'm a sucker for the Wuxia-inspired aesthetic, and I'm looking forward to Wandering Sword's console release this upcoming May 28... but also, are these updates also coming to the Steam version?

Finally, there was a discussion of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Spirits. No, there isn't a new character announcement or anything—they just announced the new Closed Beta this December 5. They revealed the X-Men Manor as a fighting stage, but uh... showing off a ton of background Mutants like Ice-Man that (as far as we know) aren't playable is a bit rough.

You know what Sony did show that was new, though? A new screen. A 27-inch screen with a charging hook for your PS5 controller is set to release next year. Where other Directs would leave the ending for "one more thing," something to whet people's appetites, Sony instead explained all of the features of the now-five-year-old PS5 and a new screen that's coming out. I don't blame people for being disappointed; the titles on display all seem great, but we're still waiting on a game that makes the investment in a PS5 worthwhile. Speaking of investment, Japan's getting a Japan-only PS5 for JP¥55,000 (about US$357). As a reminder, the Japanese economy is in worse straits than the American economy; this might be the only way many people in Japan can even afford the PS5. Let's hope Sony's wait for the Game Awards was worthwhile...

That'll do it for this week. As Thanksgiving approaches, there's going to be a lot of talk about food and cooking. Speaking from personal experience: baking is fun (I make a mean flan). I know baking sounds hard, but believe me when I say it's actually really easy, and you'd be surprised how simple some things can be to make. This is me inviting folks to actually try making some kind of treat over this weekend, even if it's just those instant Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. And remember to share those with people, that's part of the fun. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven!