Xbox 360 titles that are available with Games with Gold can be played on Xbox One and Series S/X. Additionally, the Series X/S can also play Xbox One titles.
In Canada, an Xbox Live Gold subscription costs $11.99 for one month, $29.99/three months and $44.99/six months.
Further, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members get Xbox Live Gold included in the price of Game Pass, which comes at $16.99 per month and features Game Pass for console, PC, Cloud Gaming and EA Play.
I was one of those kids who got a hole in their hand after playing Mario Party‘s ‘Tug o’ War‘ minigame on the Nintendo 64.
After the lawsuits and the fingerless gloves back in the late ’90s, I assumed the controversial minigame wouldn’t return in Nintendo’s nostalgic celebration of all things Mario Party for the Switch, Mario Party Superstars.
Surprisingly, Tug o’ War is part of the list of 100+ games spanning the long-running series’ 11 titles, along with a cautionary notification that reminds players “to avoid irritation to your skin and/or damage to the control stick, do not rotate it with the palm of your hand.”
With that side anecdote out of the way, Mario Party Superstars doesn’t do a lot to shake up the long-running virtual board game/party series’ formula. Instead, it aims to fix Super Mario Party‘s shortcomings with a collection of some of the best boards and minigames from the series, coupled with surprisingly extensive online play options that I, unfortunately, haven’t been able to test out yet. After I spend time with Mario Party Superstars’ online modes once they go live, I’ll add my impressions to this story.
First off, there are a few changes to the series’ formula in Superstars. For example, Stars now cost 20 coins to purchase again instead of just 10 like in Super Mario Party, and you can also add more turns to a game, allowing you to extend the action if you choose to.
Thankfully, it’s finally possible to save your game and dive back into the experience later, making a 30 turn game more feasible than it was before. While small additions, these quality-of-life changes go a long way towards making Mario Party Superstars feel more modern.
But as with all Mario Party titles, it’s the minigames that truly matter. As someone who has only played the Nintendo 64 titles and a few GameCube entries at friends’ places over the years, I was thrilled to see classics like ‘Bombs Away,’ ‘Shy Guy Says’ (I’ve always been awful at it), ‘Bumper Balls, ‘ ‘Trap Ease Artist’ and more featured in the title. If you’re a fan of the series, or like me, have only played a couple of games in the franchise, your most fondly remembered minigames are likely included in Superstar.
On the game board side of things, classics like Yoshi’s Tropical Island, Space Land, Horror Land and more return. I can’t help but wish more classic boards were included in Mario Party Superstars, especially those not from the N64 entries, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them added to the game at a later date through free DLC.
Along with the standard board game action the series is known for, there’s also a new area called Mt. Minigames. This section of Mario Party Superstars lets you play all 100 minigames in a variety of modes like ‘Freeplay,’ ‘Coin Battle,’ ‘Trio Challenge,’ ‘Daily Challenge’ and more. I’ve always preferred to just play a collection of minigames in Mario Party titles rather than slog across the game board — especially if I’m playing with AI opponents — so I’m glad to see these options included in Superstars. Some minigames also feature selectable stage variations, which is a nice touch on Nintendo’s part.
There are other additions to the series in Superstars, too, including emotive stickers you can make appear on the screen in the middle of matches, and a slew of unlockable music tracks, card designs and more.
It’s also important to mention this is the first Mario Party game for the Switch that can be played entirely in handheld mode. 2018’s Super Mario Party, on the other hand, featured motion controls, making it incompatible with handheld mode. This means the game works with all of Nintendo’s Switch consoles, including the handheld-only Switch Lite.
If you’ve enjoyed Mario Party titles in the past, you’ll likely find a lot to like about Mario Party Superstars, but if you’re expecting the game to shake up the franchise in a significant way, that’s definitely not the case here. However, what does make Superstars unique is that it’s a collection of all of the series’ best courses in one title.
With this in mind, it’s sure to appeal to anyone with a nostalgic connection to the franchise.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.
A quick glance at the popular gaming forum ResetEra reveals several posts focused on the issues. There are also reports across Twitter surrounding input lag issues, particularly with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Holy shit OoT on Switch is so bad it might actually be worse than WiiU VC
The emulator used in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Super Mario 64 makes its return.
– Possibly codenamed “Hovercraft”? – Uses JIT dynarec to emulate the N64 CPU. – Uses Vulkan as its graphics API. – ROM files are zlib-compressed .n64 files.
There are even graphical glitches in several games tied to fog, draw distances and water textures, as well as other weird quirks, including Mario Kart 64 thinking a Controller Pak is required to save time trial data.
If these problems were tied to a free emulator and ROM files, they’d be far easier to swallow. However, Switch Online Expansion Pack games are official emulations offered by Nintendo and at a pretty expensive cost, too. Nintendo’s new ‘Expansion Pack‘ online tier costs $63.99 for a 12-month individual membership (one account) or $99.99 for a 12-month Family Membership (up to eight accounts).
Notable launch N64 titles include Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Yoshi’s Story, Mario Tennis 64, Super Mario 64 and more. Along with N64 titles, the subscription also includes access to Sega Genesis games like Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe, Contra: Hard Crops, Shining Force and more. It’s unclear if Sega Genesis titles also suffer from emulation issues.
It’s unclear what the source of the poor N64 game performance is, but it seems to be tied to shoddy, lazy emulation and the fact that these are likely ports of the Wii U Virtual Console versions of games. Hopefully, these are issues Nintendo can fix because right now, the additional Switch Online cost to access N64 titles isn’t worth it.
I’ve yet to test out N64 Expansion pack titles, but with these issues in mind, I think I’ll likely wait to see if Nintendo irons out the issues. That said, I do have a Switch N64 controller on order, so I’ll probably end up checking them out anyways.
If you’ve enjoyed the smash hit farming/life simulator Stardew Valley, you’ll be happy to know that the developer behind the title is working on a new game.
The new title, Haunted Chocolatier, looks similar to Stardew Valley, however, the game features a new engine/world and includes several unique quirks.
In a blog post revealing the new game, the developer behind the project, Eric Barone (Concerned Ape) said the following:
“In Stardew Valley, the focus was more humble: living off the land, growing food, and connecting to the people and nature around you. However, with my next game, I wanted to explore more fantastical possibilities… experiences that take you beyond the ordinary. That’s where magical haunted ghost chocolate comes in.”
The FAQ section of Haunted Chocolatier’s website defines the game as an RPG/simulation title, so it seems like the new it may be more quest and character-focused than Stardew. That said, there’s still no release window for Haunted Chocolatier, so lots could change before it releases. Concerned Ape says that they’ve been working on the game for a little over a year and that it’s been a side project throughout that time.
There’s also a short trailer that shows a character exploring a new town, making chocolate and fighting monsters in outdoor areas, which is a nice change from the underground mine-based combat in Stardew. The trailer shows a character using a bow, which hopefully means that ranged combat is better this time around.
It’s hard to tell from this early glimpse at Haunted Chocolatier, but the world looks expansive and like it features multiple biomes. Also, instead of running a farm, you’re in charge of a chocolate shop. In the trailer, the character hunts for ingredients in the wild and later boils a pot of chocolate. This leads me to believe that Haunted Chocolatier will feature lots of diverse and rare recipes.
Barone says that that the game is likely coming to PC first and will be a single-player experience.
Playstation has announced its next ‘State of Play’ event is on Wednesday, October 27th at 5pm ET/2pm PT.
The show is 20 minutes long and focuses on announcements and updates for upcoming third-party releases headed to Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
The event will primarily look at previously announced games plus a few reveals from Sony’s partners around the world, according to the gaming giant.
I’m looking forward to seeing anything to do with Elden Ring at the event, especially since the game’s release was recently pushed back a month.
Since the Series X/S’ release, only a pricey 1TB ($299) variant has been available. Canadian pricing remains unclear, but in the U.S. the 2TB storage card costs $399.99 (about $493 CAD) and the 512GB card costs $139.99 (roughly $171.40).
While the 512GB card is a little more reasonably priced, the 2GB Expansion Card costs nearly as much as the $599 Series X.
Both cards will launch in mid-November in the United States. We’ll likely see the new Storage Expansion Card sizes in Canada during roughly the same period. MobileSyrup has reached out to Microsoft for more information regarding Canadian pricing.
Series X/S Storage Expansion Cards are compatible with Microsoft’s Xbox Velocity Architecture, enabling fast loading of Series X titles thanks to its 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, a number 40x the original Xbox One.
While playing last-gen games on the Series X with a standard USD HDD or SSD drive is possible, current-gen titles need to be installed on the consoles’ internal drive or on an Expansion Card. Further, if you play a last-gen game on the internal drive or expansion card, you’ll get improved load times.
While a Storage Expansion Card is far from necessary, the Series X’s 1TB or Series S’ 512GB built-in SSD can fill up after installing just a couple of games.
On the other side of the console war, though Sony’s strategy of allowing owners to install any compatible SSD in the PlayStation 5 is far more open, M.2 SSD drives remain relatively expensive.
Sony is celebrating Halloween early with a special themed sale on the PlayStation Store.
The Halloween sale offers over 570 titles, season passes and DLCs, including Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Borderlands 3, Resident Evil Village and more up to 75 percent off until November 4th, 2:59am ET.
Microsoft is hosting two promotions at the moment: an Electronic Arts (EA) Publisher sale and an Assassin’s Creed Franchise sale, offering titles up to 75 percent off.
The Publisher sale ends on November 1st and the Assassin’s Creed sale ends on October 25th.
Below are some of the notable games from the Publisher’s sale:
Microsoft has revealed the next wave of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass today which will also drive the number of games supporting Xbox touch control to over 100.
The company is adding 13 more titles to its roster of touch-enabled games, increasing the total to more than 100, marking a record high for Xbox Game Pass.
Touch controls were originally introduced with the launch of Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) about a year ago. Touch-enabled titles enable Xbox Game Pass subscribers to stream games without a controller on Windows PCs, iOS devices, and Android phones and tablets. The titles offer gyro aim controls with the ability to rearrange and resize on-screen controls.
Since then, Xbox has consistently added touch-enabled games to its subscription service, with 13 new titles added today.
Check them out below:
Art of Rally
Boyfriend Dungeon
Crown Trick
Curse of the Dead Gods
Gears Tactics
Lethal League Blaze
Signs of the Sojourner
The Ascent
Train Sim World 2
Yakuza 0
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza Kiwami 2
Find all touch-enabled titles on Xbox Game Pass here.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes first-party Microsoft games, third-party titles, cloud gaming and EA Play costs $16.99 CAD per month.
Further, Xbox also unveiled other titles coming to the platform later this month. Check them out below:
Dragon Ball FighterZ (Cloud and Console) – October 21
Echo Generation (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 21
Everspace 2 (Game Preview) (PC) – October 21
Age of Empires IV (PC) – October 28
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Console and PC) – October 28
Backbone (Console) – October 28
Bassmaster Fishing 2022 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 28
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 28
The Forgotten City (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 28
Pokémon Unite is getting a little spookier thanks to a new Halloween event running from October 20th to November 7th.
The Festival will offer several cool costumes for you and your Pokémon, as well as what looks to be a possible additional game mode and new playable Pocket Monster, Greedent.
Attention, Trainers! A spooky Halloween event is on its way to #PokemonUNITE! Get ready to scare up a good time from 10/20 to 11/07, and treat yourself to some Halloween fun! pic.twitter.com/M4t0157wLb
