This Week in Games

You Can't OutRun The Future

Welcome back, folks! Seems like I need to make some space in my life for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. I don't know anything about it other than that it's from AI: The Somnium Files's Uchikoshi, and it's apparently phenomenal. Also, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is finally out; I've had my eye on that one for a while, especially since the devs have cited some deep cuts like Shadow Hearts as their references. French anime fandom is not to be trifled with—those guys grew up with Captain Harlock (or "Captain Albator," as they called him in ). They know what's up.

The trend of theatrical adaptations for video games continues unabated: earlier this week, we saw confirmation that Shuji Utsumi will oversee the project.

It's pretty obvious, given the runaway success of the Sonic The Hedgehog films and the Super Mario Bros. movie, that video game adaptations are the next big thing—especially since comic books seem to have been fully mined out (you don't really think we'll ever see a Savage Dragon film, do you?). And the audience is right there, not to mention eager; while fans will make a big fuss about being very exacting in their tastes, there's a lot they're willing to forgive if the film is halfway competent (see: Five Nights at Freddy's). So it's no surprise that bigger names are starting to dig deeper into Sega's back catalog.

I'm not even going to concern myself over Michael Bay or Sydney Sweeney being involved. I'm a Transformers fan, there's nothing you can say to me about Bay's take on the 'bots that I don't already know—but lest we forget, Michael Bay can make a genuinely good action caper when he wants to. Cases in point: The Rock, Pain & Gain, and the Bad Boys series. As for Sweeney in direction, not surprised either. I don't know if Sweeney's going for the Margot Robbie approach of going into production to ensure she gets some good roles to avoid getting typecast, or if Sweeney is just flexing some creative muscle, Elizabeth Banks-style (: she produced Cocaine Bear!), but whichever one she's aiming for is a smart move, and I think she's got the chops for it.

The bigger issue is that they've chosen OutRun of all things. We haven't had a new OutRun game since Golden Axe animated series, a Shinobi film, an Eternal Champions movie... ignoring that some of those are very clearly in production hell and haven't been heard from since their announcements, most of those (except Eternal Champions) are at least far more recognizable series from Sega's history. Heck, Shinobi and Streets of Rage even had recent entries. I'd be less weirded out if they'd announced an Altered Beast film or even a Vectorman film!

I'm also not sure how you make a story out of OutRun. A lot of old arcade games aren't known for their stories, but at least have characters--JaJaMaru the ninja, or Master Higgins, or Hammerin' Harry. OutRun is almost literally about driving a Ferrari Testarossa. That's it. You've got some of those lovely Sega-blue skies, you've got a handful of phenomenal tunes (my personal favorite is "Magical Sound Shower"), and you can take a variety of paths down a branching highway that guide you through different biomes leading to one of five different destinations. You're ostensibly a guy driving the car with a cute blonde in the enger seat, but neither of these characters even has a name. Arguably, the Ferrari itself is more iconic to the game than the characters! There's room for a "road trip" picture in here about two people trying to drive away from their problems through picturesque Europe, but that's a bit too low-concept and emotional for the kind of box office bucks Bay is shooting for.

At any rate, I'm not bugging. There's a way to make this work, as with anything else. If any two brains could figure this out, Sydney Sweeney and Michael Bay are the ones I'd trust. At least there's no way it'll be as boring as the Gran Turismo picture. But, of course, the three most important things with any movie are the script, the script, and the script. We have a lot of producers on this picture, but no screenwriters. Time will tell if this movie actually arrives in theaters or just crashes out against a signpost along the way.

So. Vtubers! I know a lot of the Hololive folks are bummed out over the news of Gawr Gura's retirement from the agency (I loathe the term "graduation," and I'll be cold in the ground before I use it). Gura's pretty phenomenal, and I'm sure the LA Dodgers are sad to see their patron saint leave. Gura's been amazing ever since she burst on-stream with nothing but an "a", and nobody will ever make vacuuming as entertaining as her (even if it's vacuuming an entire desert).

In more relevant , let's talk about Nekomata Okayu. Debuting in 2019 in the Hololive Gamers unit (alongside Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, and the famously-Sonic-loving Inugami Korone), Okayu is a cat girl who streams from a computer in her old granny's onigiri shop. She's known for being rather emotional towards games and otherwise being a rather laid-back cat. And--she got a visual novel this past February, titled Okayu Nyumu!. Similarly to AQUARIUM, the visual novel starring fellow Hololive member Minato Aqua, Okayu Nyumu! is a romance story starring the player as they meet and grow together with Okayu. The title was originally released on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC in Japan—and it looks like Okayu's Onigiris in America can look forward to playing it in English soon!

So far, only the Steam version is scheduled for release in the US on August 7; you can add it to your wishlist now. There's no word yet on the PS4 or Switch versions ever getting released stateside, but here's hoping.

Okayu and Aqua aren't the only Hololive who've gotten games; Korone herself has also gotten a video game to her name, albeit it's a spin-off of the Tsugunohi horror games, Evil God Korone. You can also get Korone as a navigator for Megaton Musashi W: Wired. Here's hoping for more Hololive games in the future—who knows, they might even make some for the Hololive EN crew!

Thank God, it's not another Fortnite collab! I might have actual stuff to say about this one! Overwatch isn't doing so hot these days; from being such a beloved darling in the game industry to desperately lagging (especially in the wake of the current darling, Marvel Rivals), Overwatch is a long way from its initial hype and reception. Heck, most of the newer additions to Overwatch barely even get franchise this time is a bit curious...

For those waiting for my "IT'S A GUNDAM"-bit: Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX to get some representation, it's possible that GQuuuuuuX is too new for that. (This deal would've likely been inked long before GQuuuuuuX finished production.) More skins will be revealed on April 29.

Activision-Blizzard also announced an anime collaboration for Diablo IV, and it's a doozy: players will be able to unlock Berserk-themed items. You get the usual: replicas of the Berserker armor, Griffith's armor, and Guts' "Black Swordsman" outfit, along with an outfit based on the Skull Knight (plus all of the necessary weapons, like the Dragon Slayer, Griffith's rapier or the Skull Knight's behelit-sword); a mount based off of Griffith's horse; and even a little pet based off of Schnoz. Everybody loves Schnoz, right?

At the very least, Diablo IV is a no-brainer for a Berserk collaboration. And at least it's not Diablo Immortal; not even Schnoz would make folks wanna play that one. The Berserk collab goes live May 6.

It's not often you see video game studios working together in the name of the industry. A few months back, we saw several major studios and publishers (including Nintendo, Sony) pool their resources along with the Electronic Software Association to establish the Accessible Games Initiative, which is committed to ensuring accessibility in games via features like options for controller inputs, text and audio options, and other features that can help people with various disabilities enjoy video games. Considering how relatively recently it was that subtitles during video game cutscenes became a standard feature in games, it's good that we finally have something like this—many games with oodles of text don't even feature dyslexia-friendly fonts as a standard feature!

But I digress. A new initiative started by Sega, Square Enix, Taito, and CAPCOM is dedicated to the archival of old game materials: sprite sheets, promotional materials, interface art, arcade machine designs, merchandise, concept art... anything related to the development of older titles from the '80s and '90s. In a presentation in Japan, Yoichiro Miyake from Square Enix presented how these materials are being digitized and archived to preserve them for future reference. While each company has its own bespoke archive, like CAPCOM's Illustrations Archives System (CIAS), the companies are pooling their resources for these materials to be made available for research purposes.

This is all quite a major deal. Many older game materials have sadly been lost to time. Older backups of games are susceptible to bit-rot, and certain beta versions of games, or even older master copies, have simply been deleted because companies never thought to preserve their games. (Famously, this is why the Silent Hill remasters are noticeably jankier than the PS2 originals: they were based on earlier beta versions.) A lot of these older materials are still important. While we may not be able to play a lot of older games in context (on original hardware), it still helps us to see how these games were played and what they looked like in their totality. This is also important because, as pointed out by Sega during the presentation, sometimes you don't know what exactly you own. Sega is working on a complete database of all the titles they own across Sega, Atlus, Rovio, and other entities.

This is also important because a lot can be lost due to employees leaving companies—and at a time like today, where studios lay off staff like it's going out of fashion, a lot of vital design components can potentially get lost on a lot of PCs. Friend of the column (and former The X Button writer) because one of the original devs discovered he had the source code after all this time. Who knows how many other half-finished titles lie forgotten in some former dev's attic?

This is a tremendous step forward for developers and a great effort to see coming from the gaming industry at large. Hopefully, more studios follow along. Goodness knows, it's gotta be hard to preserve all of those old, forgotten promotional websites for each game from the early '00s...

The THOSE GAMES series now has a third entry! Folks interested in playing real versions of the games d by those irritating videos for mobile games can now look up LISTEN UP! WE TRIED TO MAKE “THOSE GAMES” EVEN MORE EXTREME! SOME THINGS HAVE TO BE LEARNED THE HARD WAY!, the third in the series that originated with Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! and continued with YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2. You can pick it up on Steam, PlayStation store and Nintendo eShop. (If you close your eyes, you can pretend you're playing Retro Game Challenge...)

Good news for nostalgic PlayStation fans: starting April 24, the classic PlayStation 5 home menu themes based on the previous four PlayStation consoles will be made permanent options! The PS5 will also get a new Audio update.

That'll do it for this week. As I write this, folks all over are going nuts trying to pre-order the Switch 2. I'd love to them, goodness knows I've been saving up for a Switch 2 for ages. But also, I'm not interested in running headlong into the rat race. I want a Switch 2, but I don't wanna stress over it. I'll wait for Nintendo's email. Maybe it'll be sent out after the Switch 2 launches; maybe it won't. I've got time. I'm not going anywhere. And as we all know, I'm still waiting on Izuna 3 news—who knows, we might hear something this summer. Best of luck to folks braving the pre-order rush! Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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