Secret Ending – Gex

Gex was painfully unfunny throughout. Still, if you slogged and completed all of the hidden bonus rounds in each world, thus garnering all of the remotes, you’d gain access to Planet X. This is a fairly large world with eight levels and completing all of them will unlock a special ending. Unfortunately, it’s a bit…mixed in the “pride and accomplishment” department. It starts out with a text crawl calling you the best player in the world, universe, etc etc.

However, it gets oddly personal, asking if you have a life or just play games all day, and telling you to think about what you could have done instead of wasting time on Gex. “Go have a life,” it says, before adding “Get out of those superhero pajamas and do something.” Was this meant to be inspirational in some way? A “get your life together before it’s too late, kids” message? Regardless, you’re then treated to some concept art and the credits, which is sort of better but does little to soothe the emotional damage.

METAL GEAR SOLID 5

It’s heartbreaking that a Metal Gear Solid game has to be the one that kicks off a list about disappointing stories, but that’s just the way it is- The Phantom Pain is a masterclass in emergent, system-based gameplay, with stealth mechanics that stand as the very best even to this day. But it’s a game that sheds the story-heavy focus that the series was always known for. Cutscenes are few and far between, while some of the most important storytelling bits are relegated to optional cassette tapes and missable events- don’t even get us started on the ending.

Nintendo’s Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! have seen strong success since launching several weeks ago. Along with selling 3 million units worldwide in the first three days, their combined first week sales in the UK were higher than competitors like Red Dead Redemption 2, the launch of Fallout 76 and so on. That said, there was some concern about first week sales being 60 percent lower than Pokemon Sun and Moon and five percent less than Pokemon X and Y.

However, now that the title has been out for a while, Gfk Chart-Track (via GamesIndustry.biz) has found Pokemon: Let’s Go to be performing quite well. After three weeks, the Switch titles are tracking eight percent ahead of Pokemon X and Y. Keep in mind that the overall install base would have been higher on the Nintendo 3DS, even if Pokemon X and Y launched a year later into the 3DS’ life cycle than Pokemon Let’s Go for the Switch.

It’s also interesting to note that Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! is selling better than Let’s Go, Eevee! The latter is 45 percent behind in sales and isn’t even in the top ten. Meanwhile, the Pikachu version is in eighth place. What can we say? The brand recognition and popularity of Pikachu (thanks in no small part to the Pokemon anime) is still strong after all this time.

The Nintendo Switch had a pretty good week in the UK. According to the latest sales data from Gfk Chart-Track for the week ending November 17th, Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! debuted in fourth and sixth respectively in the physical retail sales chart. Combined sales for the two would make them the most successful titles of the week, however. Digital sales aren’t factored into the equation, so actual sales will likely be higher.

Along with being a success in its own right, Pokemon Let’s Go helped boost sales for other Switch titles. As per GamesIndustry.biz, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sales were up 94 percent. Super Mario Party and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild saw an increase in sales by 25 percent and 52 percent respectively. Even Just Dance 2019 saw a 465 percent sales leap thanks to the Switch version, though its inclusion in a hardware bundle that also had Pokemon Let’s Go definitely helped.

Launch week physical sales for Pokemon Let’s Go, however, are down 60 percent next to Pokemon Sun and Moon (2016) for the Nintendo 3DS. Compared to Pokemon X and Y, which released in 2013, sales are down 5 percent. There are a fair number of reasons for this, such as stock issues (leading to some pre-orders not being fulfilled) and a smaller install base compared to the 3DS Pokemon titles. It’s worth waiting to see how many more Switch owners react to the games over the next month, especially when the Christmas season is in full swing.

It will also be interesting to see how Pokemon GO players react. The NPD Group recently reported almost 15 percent of the mobile game’s players in the US were interested in purchasing a Switch to play Pokemon Let’s Go. Since the latter implements quite a few elements from the mobile title, it could further help mobile players make the transition more easily.

Cubone’s Mask

There are several reasons why the whole “Cubone is actually wearing its dead mother’s skull” lore is weird. Breeding Cubones sees them emerge from eggs with their mask equipped. Also, at one point in Pokemon Origins, you can actually see a Marowak guarding her child, a Cubone with…its mother’s skull on? Yeah, a lot of it doesn’t make sense so theories of where the skull comes from are pretty far out.

Nintendo will be hosting a new Pokemon themed Nintendo Direct this Friday- the Pokemon Direct is slated to have some ‘big Pokemon news,’ with Nintendo teasing some ‘exciting information [that] could be revealed.’

The last time there was a Pokemon Direct was in early 2013, when Pokemon X and Y got announced for the Nintendo 3DS; they were followed up by Pokemon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire a year later. The Pokemon series took its first break from its annual release schedule since 2009 in 2015- presumably, this week’s Pokemon Direct announces a new Pokemon game- widely speculated to be Pokemon Z. Pokemon Z could either be the third, ‘expanded’ re-release of X and Y in the vein of Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Crystal, Pokemon Emerald, and Pokemon Platinum, or, as is more likely, it may be a sequel to X and Y like Black 2 and White 2 in 2012.

On the other hand, this announcement could just as well be something entirely new- after all, this is the Pokemon franchise’s 20th anniversary. Who knows? Maybe they have some big surprises under their belt this year.

Post launch event distributions for Pokemon X and Y have been shockingly low in number (and certainly nothing compared to the sheer number of distributions we got for Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver or the Black and White games), but we are finally getting one notable set of distributions this fall, as Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have confirmed that a Shiny Gengar and Diancie will be made available for free download at GAME stores in the UK this fall.

The Shiny Gengar will be holding a Gengarite, which lets it evolve to Mega Gengar during battles; meanwhile, the Diancie is the long awaited mythical Pokemon that players of X and Y will finally be able to obtain (and once OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire release, be able to evolve further in battled to Mega Diancie).

Pokemon X and Y released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS last year. This year, they will be succeeded by Pokemon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire. Stay tuned for more coverage of these games.

Of all the Pokemon that Nintendo could give away, a Mamoswine is probably the last one you would expect. It’s a fairly average Pokemon, the third evolution in a line of Pokemon that isn’t particularly iconic or fondly regarded either, and is generally considered a forgettable addition to the roster (although it is considered to be pretty useful in the metagame).

So it might appear to be slightly puzzling as to why Nintendo would give a shiny Level 50 Mamoswine away at the Pokemon European National Championships- although it does make sense from the perspective of it being a competitively viable Pokemon, and the Championships themselves being a competitive event. But yes, that’s what’s happening. Players who visit the Pokemon European National Championships this year (they don’t even have to be participating) will in fact get a level 50 shiny Mamoswine. The Level 50 Shiny Pokémon has the following moves: Icicle Spear, Earthquake, Icicle Crash and Rock Slide and the ability, Thick Fat.

The European tournament takes place in the UK later this month, with the world finals occurring in August in Washington D.C., USA.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game is the world’s largest TCG, with millions of players worldwide, and a never ending stream of revenue generated via a steady release of expansions. The expansions always follow the latest video games that are released, and the latest one, Pokemon XY: Flashfire, is similarly following Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, the Pokemon games that were released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS last year, that kicked off the sixth generation of the long running series to great critical and commercial acclaim.

The new expansion, Flashfire, features the powerful Mega Charizard-EX cards, five new Pokémon-EX cards, over 25 Pokémon from Pokémon X and Pokémon Y video games, along with 15 new Trainer cards, all of which sounds like it significantly expands the scope of the game.

The next installments in the Pokemon series are Pokemon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, due for release on the 3DS and its variants in November this year. The games are remakes of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, the underground fan favorite installments, and promise a new take on the thrilling adventure. Stay tuned for more coverage.

Franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon all spawned major new installments in 2013, as did several other franchises over the course of the year. But which of these numerous sequels released in 2013 were the best?

Listed below, in no particular order, are eight sequels that were released in 2013 that we thought stood out from the lot and gave us some moments we would remember the entire generation of gaming for. Have a look at the list below, and tell us what you think in your comments!

ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

The Assassin’s Creed series was in desperate need of something fresh and new after AC3. That isn’t to say that AC3 was bad- no, it was, on paper, a game that was well above average. Yet it lacked the spark that made Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood so special. And after AC3, people were starting to wonder if the franchise’s overall quality was slowly waning. All these fears were swept away comprehensive when Black Flag came out. While the games barely has the right to be called ”Assassin’s” Creed, having foregone its assassin-y roots almost completely, it’s still a darn good game with some great characters, an excellently large and living world to explore and some memorable islands to chart. In fact, one might even say that with Black Flag, Ubisoft has delivered what is probably the best Assassin’s Creed game till date.