A slower week filled with Eggnog and presents, but there was some Nintendo news and some PlayStation news...
Everyone in the gaming world has been taking some time off from making exciting new game announcements this week to participate in some much deserved relaxation and holiday fun. But that’s certainly not to say we don’t have a few tidbits to give you, like January’s PlayStation Plus lineup and the future of Minecraft on Wii U!
January’s PlayStation Plus lineup is looking glorious
I’ve only been the proud owner of a PlayStation Plus subscription for a short while now, but the amount of amazing rewards and free games that are delivered to gamers on the service each and every month never ceases to amaze me. Sony recently revealed their upcoming PS Plus lineup of free games for January, and needless to say, they continued their trend of offering up the best and biggest games of our time for that enticing zero dollar price tag.
The big headline games next month are the incredible Bioshock Infinite and DMC: Devil May Cry, both released at the start of 2013 and now available for free at the start of 2014. But in some ways, I’m actually more excited about the heartwarming indie title that will be accompanying these two heavy hitters, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Now while this last game seemingly came out of nowhere this past summer, it has quickly gathered a cult following among gamers and racked up all sorts of acclaim as a wonderfully quiet “Ico meets Limbo” type of experience.
And finally, we have a brand new PlayStation 4 game debuting for free next month as well, in the incredible Don’t Starve from Klei Entertainment. I actually spent a good deal of time with this addictive and quirky survival game over the past year, and I can’t wait to see how the game looks with the sheer power of Sony’s PS4 behind it. If the next-gen home gaming console is really all about embracing the indie game developer, then I can’t think of a better title to showcase and use to kick off their campaign in 2014.
No Wii U version of Minecraft, says game creator
Sorry Nintendo fans, but it looks like yet another of the insanely popular and much beloved third-party games will be coming to every game console imaginable except for the Wii U. The latest game to skip on past the Nintendo camp is the iconic sandbox crafting game Minecraft from Mojang, which recently just saw a release on the PlayStation 3. What’s more, it has also been confirmed that full-fledged versions of the game are also currently in development for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One game consoles. However, when asked if a Wii U version was also in the cards one day, Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson confirmed via Twitter that he is “not aware of any plans to release a Wii U version of Minecraft.”
Will Rocksteady’s next Batman Arkham game be announced on New Year’s Eve?
A recent Warner Bros. posting on the official Batman Arkham Facebook page is instructing gamers to “Save the Date” of December 31, 2013 for a special announcement. Now of course, no other details were given as to what this upcoming news might be. While it probably makes the most sense for this announcement to be a build-up for the first piece of story-related DLC to accompany the recently released Batman: Arkham Origins, what if Warner Bros. decided to pull a fast one and unveil the long-awaited and long-rumored third Batman Arkham game from Rocksteady Studios?
We’ve known for a while now that Rocksteady Studios has been hard at work on SOMETHING ever since the release of Batman: Arkham City in 2011. The rumors for this top-secret project have naturally been focused on a possible next-gen Batman game, and were especially fuelled when Bruce Wayne voice actor Kevin Conroy had claimed to be working on “the next Arkham game,” despite not appearing in 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins. Well whatever this intriguing announcement might be, the good news is that there are only a few days left in 2013 before we get to find out!
Nintendo confirms Princess Zelda as playable character in new Super Smash Bros. game
Can’t really say this was the biggest surprise of the week, can we? Nintendo has officially confirmed what Super Smash Bros. fans have probably always knew all along: the titular Princess Zelda will be returning once again in the upcoming Wii U and 3DS installments of the popular brawler game. Zelda will join the fighting ranks of the already announced Princess Peach and Princess Rosalina (still no love for Daisy, I see), making her the 20th confirmed character on the game’s new roster. Now I’m all for having Zelda getting those white princess gloves dirty in the heat of battle, but am I the only one who wishes Nintendo would shake things up a bit more and include the oddball Tingle from The Wind Waker as a new playable character in the game? Or would that just make things too weird to the point that no one would even want to play it?
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