It’s still a poignant, haunting experience that challenges the traditional notions of gaming while presenting its own compelling gameplay. Braid also all the more relevant in today’s gaming world – one where video game budgets continue to balloon to absurd heights. Where some of the most relevant platformers are the dynasties and franchises – the Marios and Sonics of the world (no disrespect, of course). An industry where small and/or relatively unknown teams can still find absurd measures of breakout success.

"Braid is the story of Tim, an unassuming man who wants to find the Princess, ideally, save her from a monster and make up for a mistake he made."

Developed and published by Thekla Inc, Braid Anniversary Edition isn’t just a re-release – it offers gorgeous new visuals and backgrounds with higher-resolution art, updated sound effects and a more extensive soundtrack. There’s the option to switch between the original and updated visuals, and it really can’t be overstated how gorgeous the latter appears. Whether it’s the new foliage in environments, painted lights and shadows, improved effects for actions, improved animations or the extensive attention to detail, the graphical update is impressive all on its own. Suffice it to say that it runs incredibly well with no hiccups.

That’s not all, as new options like Speedruns (either for individual worlds or the whole game) and heaps of developer commentary are also included. It’s a lot to unpack, yet it would all be for nought if the core experience didn’t hold up.

Braid is the story of Tim, an unassuming man who wants to find the Princess, ideally, save her from a monster and make up for a mistake he made. By peering into short journal entries in each world’s “hub,” other aspects of Tim’s life are known, from his relationship with his parents to what seems like an experiment. The fact that the Princess is always noted as “being in another castle” by a cute stuffed dinosaur – who also questions whether she’s real – only adds to the mystery and intrigue.

There are initially five worlds to explore, each consisting of multiple levels where you collect puzzle pieces to form different frames. While the first level feels like a Mario clone, complete with goomba-like foes to stomp, things pick up immediately in the second as the player quickly learns of Tim’s ability to rewind time. It allows for negating deaths and redoing sections if you make mistakes, but that’s only the first world.

"Of course, if you want to see what every stage has to offer without bothering to collect the pieces of each frame, go ahead, but you won’t unlock the first and final world or the proper ending."

Subsequent worlds play around with different concepts of time, from everything – enemies, projectiles and even keys moving forwards or backwards in time and space as you do to some objects being unaffected by its flow.

So while you flip switches, jump off enemy’s heads and collect keys to unlock doors, it’s all wrapped up in clever puzzles that require ingenuity, timing and a fair number of retries. What happens when you start to think in terms of recording and rewinding your actions, especially when you create a temporary clone of yourself in the process or manipulate keys to open multiple doors? It’s a fascinating exercise that remains as clever now as it did all those years ago.

Of course, if you want to see what every stage has to offer without bothering to collect the pieces of each frame, go ahead, but you won’t unlock the first and final world or the proper ending. The responsiveness and physics of the platforming really are something to behold, especially when manipulating time.

Tim may be immune to fall damage, but can still bounce off the environment depending on the velocity, messing up some landings. He can drop down from ladders and fences but can’t leap up from them to attain greater heights. Minute as all this may seem, they’re critical to solving some trickier puzzles since you need to work around these limitations.

"You might think the developer commentary would shine more light on this, and, to be fair, it doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the more popular theories."

Otherwise, Braid lacks many of the so-called “traditional” platforming elements. There is only one boss to fight, who appears twice, though the method for taking them out differs significantly on the next go-around. Outside the frame pieces and mysterious stars, there aren’t any collectibles or extraneous dialogue during stages, making for a tighter, well-paced experience.

A good chunk of the game’s legacy also centers on the interpretation of its plot points, as it culminates in one of the best ending levels and reveals in a video game to date. The true identity of the Princess, Tim’s real life and how he views the world around him vs. its actual state, the misconception of heroism – there’s a lot to glean from it all, but Blow and his team aren’t forthcoming with the answers, even if some meanings are more blatant than others.

You might think the developer commentary would shine more light on this, and, to be fair, it doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the more popular theories. However, it’s a deep dive into the game’s development – its design, the art (both original and updated), music, programming and much more. There are options to delve into separate aspects of the entire experience – represented as separate interactive levels – or play through the whole game while the commentary outlines everything.

What motivated changing a certain level’s architecture? How did the idea for the game come about? Is the opening section meant to depict a city on fire (spoilers: it’s actually just a city during sunset)? All these questions and many more are answered throughout, while plenty remains up in the air.

"To say that Braid is an essential part of gaming history would be a given – it’s a title that should be experienced, even if some sections can be a little more frustrating than others, even when everything clicks."

If you thought there was some deeper significance to the boss and one other important character wearing armor…well, the answer may not be what you want to hear. It doesn’t change the fact that the sheer breadth of commentary, from early sketches and documents to interviews, is worth the price of admission for hardcore fans alone.

To say that Braid is an essential part of gaming history would be a given – it’s a title that should be experienced, even if some sections can be a little more frustrating than others, even when everything clicks. Even without one of the best platformers of all time and the various improvements made to its presentation, the Anniversary Edition stands out for its sheer range of extra content. It’s intriguing to hear about the process behind everything and how things came to be, not to mention Blow reflecting on the project after all these years.

In closing, Braid could be analogous to the industry itself, coming full circle and seeing the prologue seamlessly shift into an epilogue. Where the end becomes the beginning, and amid the doom and gloom, there’s some hope – or at least the potential for the same – even amid all the messy dealings. Maybe it’s unintentional, maybe not – the fact that it can still inspire such thinking to this day is undeniably impressive.

This game was reviewed on PS5.

Season 7, titled Compete & Conquer, will introduce the new map of Burning Mill, Tennessee. Racing events at Burning Mill include time-trial events with tracks both on and off-road. The new vehicles in Season 7 are the lightweight Gor BY-4, and the Dakar-style truck Sprinter 43-19.

A major part of the Season 7 update for the Nintendo Switch version of SnowRunner is the introduction of cross-play support. After the update, Switch players will be able to play SnowRunner‘s multiplayer with friends on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

The press release also reveals that the Season 7 update will bring with it the game’s PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions as free updates to the PS4 and Xbox One versions respectively. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions will feature a frame rate of 60fps, enhanced graphics, support for 4K, and deeper depth of field.

SnowRunner is available on PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions will be available as free upgrades once Season 7 drops on May 31.

https://twitter.com/PlaySnowRunner/status/1526506137318744064

We covered some of the broader implications of this move in an earlier piece, and if you are looking for a more holistic assessment of the situation, and what it may mean for the gaming industry, I encourage you to look at that. My interest with this acquisition, however, is in how starkly it reveals the precariousness of Sony and PlayStation’s position in the market at present – which sounds funny, given that they are currently more profitable than they have ever been, or that the PS5 has broken records for how successful it is this early on in its life cycle. But the fact of the matter is, Sony is suddenly in a precarious position in the market – and I think it is, ultimately, a consequence of the business moves and decisions they have been consciously making over the last decade, which slowly saw them singularly aligning themselves to fight for the western high end console market at the expense of everything else.

The long and short of it is, PlayStation is currently facing two extraordinarily strong competitors across the two major markets they could look to be pushing. In Japan, they are being crowded out by Nintendo. This is a culmination of a decade of maneuvers made by Nintendo and Sony alike, with the former choosing to build a device that appeals extraordinarily well to the Japanese market (along with appealing extraordinarily well to the rest of the world), and which has cultivated an extremely healthy market for Japanese games and publishers to find success on. Sony, meanwhile, has spent the last few years burning bridges with Japan in ways both big and small, from their treatment of Japanese third parties, to the games they make and market, to even how they build their consoles.

This is all well trodden territory now, so I won’t really get into it any further, but Sony made a conscious and deliberate decision to ignore Japan and Nintendo; presumably, they felt the Japanese market’s development community would always support PlayStation by default no matter what, and regardless of Nintendo’s success. This was, to be fair, a decision made on two decades of evidence, because it’s not like, for example, the Wii being successful sucked away support from PS3, or 3DS from PS Vita and PS4. Sony presumably may have expected that even if the Switch sells incredibly well in Japan, it will primarily be on the back of Nintendo’s own titles, and third parties will continue to thrive on PlayStation, which in turn would keep PlayStation going in Japan by sheer inertia. It was a decision they made to ignore Nintendo and Japan, choosing instead to focus on the western market and the fight against Xbox. Which, fair enough, that was a business decision made to focus and double down on the most profitable parts of the business.

What they could not have possibly foreseen, however, is that Nintendo would make a system that is a thriving market not just for their own games, but also for most Japanese third parties, to the extent that PlayStation is now irrelevant in Japan (less than 5% of the total marketshare belongs to them), and has totally lost support from small to mid tier Japanese third parties – the very same that were once the lifeblood of PlayStation. The end result of this has been that PS5 is selling worse than even the Wii U in Japan at the moment, and its software sales are so low that not a single game has managed to sell more than 100,000 copies so far (even though the PS5 itself has sold a million units). Essentially, Sony’s own decisions, and Nintendo’s savvy in exploiting them, have led to Sony losing the assured 10 million units of sale, and hundreds of games, that PlayStation could count on every generation from Japan.

As mentioned previously, though, both in this article, and in previous ones that have dealt with this one single decision, Sony’s choice to focus more on the west over Japan makes some business sense. While a company like Nintendo has shown that success in Japan does not have to come at the expense of success everywhere else (and vice versa), Sony presumably figured that their primary market was the western one, the one where software sales and digital revenues (from game sales, subscriptions, and microtransactions) were the highest, and where the primary contender they had to face off against would be Xbox.

And presumably they thought they’d be going up against an Xbox that would at best be as competitive as Microsoft in the Xbox 360 era, which they’d be more than capable of handling (and did successfully fend off in the past, in fact). They probably did not expect they would be going up against an Xbox that finally committed to the market, and decided to use the greatest resource at its disposal to fight back – Microsoft’s immense wealth. The $70 billion acquisition Microsoft made is a warning shot that Microsoft has no issues spending it money to muscle into the market; this is a company that has no issues buying out the biggest third party publisher in the world to buy their way into incumbency, and Sony flat out does not have the resources or ability to compete with something like that.

That right there is the issue. Theoretically and in a vacuum, one can argue that Sony can actually make viable and credible bids for third party publishers (such as Square Enix, or even EA). The problem is, Sony does not exist in a vacuum, and in the current market, any attempt by Sony to try and acquire a publisher can and presumably will be immediately outbid by Microsoft. Microsoft is fully capable of outspending Sony, and they have shown that they will have no qualms in doing so. The scale of finances the two companies are working with are massively different – consider that Sony earmarked $18 billion for acquisitions across the next two years for the entire company (so not just PlayStation, all of Sony); Microsoft spent nearly four times that on one single acquisition for the Xbox division. There have been cries from PlayStation fans around the world that Sony should retaliate to the Activision acquisition by buying out a publisher themselves (Square Enix being the name that is most commonly floated), but these takes are typically myopic and ill-informed, and do not consider that if Sony makes a bid, any bid, Microsoft will presumably outbid them and swoop in to take that publisher for themselves too. And these third party publishers will ultimately sell to the highest publisher – publicly held companies are, after all, legally obligated to generate the most wealth and returns for their shareholders. Sony cannot match Microsoft’s muscle in this regard.

So, Sony is facing a Microsoft in the room that can spend a good fraction of Sony’s total net worth in one single acquisition to take away some of the biggest games that sustain the PlayStation platform away from them. And that last bit is important – though Sony has managed to build up a good first party presence over the last decade, the bulk of their revenue, in fact the overwhelming majority of their profits, come from the sales, DLC, micro transactions, and such that popular third party games generate on their console – games such as Call of Duty. In fact, last year, Call of Duty took up multiple spots on the top PlayStation sellers lists, both at retail in markets such as the U.S., and on their own digital charts. The bulk of PlayStation’s 100 million units sold come from the less engaged players, those who buy one to play Call of Duty (or other games like FIFA or GTA); now, Call of Duty belongs to Xbox. And yes, Phil Spencer reiterated that he will continue to honour existing commitments to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, but what happens after those existing commitments are done? Even if nothing changes, does Sony really want to be in a position where its standing in the market is dictated by the good graces of its competitor?

Sony’s decision to double down on high end AAA games centering around western third party support, and fighting for exclusivity of any kind among popular multiplats (timed exclusivity, console exclusivity, DLC exclusivity, or even just marketing rights) made sense when it was facing a Microsoft that was, at best, putting in as much money into the fight as Sony itself was; how, though, does one fight a competitor that can spend as much money as your entire company is worth without even blinking an eye?

So now Sony is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and it’s hard to know what they can do. Microsoft is flat out beyond their ability or finances to counter, and while Sony is more than equipped to be able to fight off Nintendo and hold their own, unfortunately they ignored Japan and Nintendo for so long that the situation has become unbeatable and untenable for them. What can their next steps even be? They can try to magically generate a few trillion dollars, so the company has the resources to match Microsoft; or they can presumably try to differentiate their offerings (software and hardware alike) and try to reorient themselves to sell their platform on the back of the appeal of their own games – a first party driven direction, much like Nintendo’s.

Sony could theoretically follow the Nintendo route – they have certainly built up a great reputation with their first party games, and they should be able to sell systems on the basis of their own games. And it has certainly worked out well for Nintendo – they are more successful now than they have ever been, selling more hardware and software than ever, they are insulated from the turbulence in the rest of the industry (the day the Activision acquisition was announced, Sony’s stock price obviously went down; Nintendo’s not only didn’t go down, it actually rose), and their success has even saw them getting more third party support than they have managed to get in almost three decades now. So it’s not the worst position for Sony to try and emulate, carving out a niche of the market to themselves. The issue is, Sony is very different from Nintendo, and the core of their appeal actually more or less prohibits a Nintendo like direction from them.

See, Nintendo keeps development costs low, develops across a range of genres and game styles, can put games out pretty rapidly, and has broadly appealing games across multiple demographics. Nintendo primarily sells its systems on the back of its own games. None of this is true for Sony. Sony is… narrowly focused on one genre, on one demographic, with freakishly high development costs and long development times, and selling systems primarily as the best place to play all games – not just their own. Nintendo has created a culture where their games command premium pricing, and then maintain that for, well, pretty much forever. Sony’s first party games sell a lot, but the bulk of those sales are assisted by aggressive bundling, price cuts, and discounts. The nearly 20 million God of War sold is extremely impressive, and nothing can take that success away, but the reason Nintendo can exist and thrive as a first party driven platform is not because they sell 25 million copies of Super Mario Odyssey, it’s because they sold 25 million copies of Super Mario Odyssey at full price. While having lower development costs. And quicker development turnarounds than modern AAA games that can take 5-6 years for a single game to be put out.

The reason Nintendo can be a first party driven platform, in other words, is because they can put out literally a dozen games every year; each game is far cheaper to make than a Sony game, far quicker to make, and spans a wide range of genres and game types. Like, look at Nintendo’s biggest sellers – Pokemon, Zelda, Animal Crossing, are all nothing alike and cover totally different genres and parts of the market. Conversely, Sony’s first party titles, the ones that sell, the ones that sell their system, are all cut from a similar cloth, and as a result, all appeal to the same slice of the market. While taking a lot more time to develop. And being far more expensive to make. And usually not holding their price well, and needing discounts and cuts to sell in high volumes.

In other words, Sony’s games are too expensive to make to sustain their current profit levels. We know this, because former Sony execs such as Shawn Layden have explicitly said that the reason Sony brings games to PC, or keeps supporting cross-gen, is because they simply don’t generate enough profits otherwise. Sony’s current first party strategy, which is making expensive, high end games that appeal to a singular slice of the market, worked so far because third party games and revenues gave them a buffer. In other words, Sony didn’t have to worry about making, for example, a sports game because EA would do that for them, or a multiplayer shooter because Activision would do that for them, or a fighting game because someone else would do that for them. They could just focus on making the one style of game that has come to be associated with them as the cornerstone of their premium tentpole game strategy.

Those third party games also subsidized the expensive development of those single player games too. If PlayStation is making billions from the micro transactions that Call of Duty generates, for example, then it’s less important for, say, The Last of Us Part 2 to be profitable in and of itself; it can be commissioned anyway, and used to create a compelling, differentiating exclusive for their system to induce adoption by users, without the pressure of it having to sell the tens of millions of units at full price it would otherwise have to sell to be profitable enough for the project to have been worth it. But if more and more, those third parties are getting snatched up by Microsoft, then they can’t bring revenues to PlayStation – meaning Sony can’t rely on that money to subsidize its first party either.

This isn’t true of Nintendo – the company makes games in literally every single niche and genre that exists, and relies primarily on the revenues those games bring in for its profits. Meaning, if Fortnite or Minecraft come to Switch and do great there, that’s wonderful for Nintendo, because they get more money, but if they don’t, it doesn’t matter to Nintendo, because they are making an obscene amount of money by selling 40 million copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, pretty much all at full price, anyway.

For Sony to be able to match Nintendo’s first party driven strategy, they would have to heavily diversify and stop the endless graphics and tech arms race they have been pushing for almost 30 years now (which, as I noted in an earlier article, may actually be harming the games we love in a lot of ways). And that seems difficult for Sony to do when the core appeal of their games has been the high end graphics and top notch presentation and tech for so long; imagine if Sony started putting out games that looked no better than, say, the average PS4 game, as their PS5 flagship games. The fanbase they have cultivated, which is buying those first party games in the tens of millions of units, would not stand for that.

So what’s the response? What should Sony do? Honestly, it’s hard for me to tell. I do think doubling down on first party and diversifying is a good idea, and to Sony’s credit, they are making a lot of moves to do just that. They are working on a whole lot of multiplayer games in collaboration with new studios, and creating more types of games thanks to their acquisitions (such as Housemarque or Insomniac). I think if they can keep that going, they may be able to carve out a profitable niche for themselves as a first party driven platform that works for them anyway – after all, no one said that the only way to do that is to literally be Nintendo in every way possible, they can just as easily find their own take on the strategy that works well with the brand they have cultivated.

Whether or not they do that, and whether or not it works, remains to be seen. But I do think that this Activision acquisition has shown the precarious situation Sony is in in the market, and the importance of acting to address that as soon as possible – and the way to address that is not by acquiring some other big publisher.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The latest in long running Basketball sim from Take-Two, NBA2K18 made headlines earlier this year less for the quality of the game, and far more for the controversy around the in game microtransactions system. While originally a simple hairstyle was a pretty penny, the developers toned it back by a ton and during yesterday’s earning’s call, it was revealed that the usage is up by 30%.

Replying to an investor question about the recent loot box monetization push back that NBA 2K18 got caught up in, CEO Strauss Zelnick reported that while they take consumer feedback seriously, the title was seeing a usage boost of 30% over last years title, something Take-Two can only take as a good sign.

While it did have the benefit of releasing on more platforms than ever before between the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the release also notes that NBA 2K18 has sold-in over six million units, about 20% over last year.

Nintendo has had one fantastic year of releases so far, with a new console backed by some of the hottest, most anticipated and highest rated games of the whole year in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey among others. But in the run up to December, Nintendo wants to remind you that the Switch isn’t done quite yet, and they’ve got a huge JRPG on the way

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 just had a Nintendo Direct all to itself, revealing a handful of new details about the game and its world. The most important part of which was the reveal of a season pass, which will flesh out nearly a year’s worth of content for the game. Also at launch, should you want to play with the original Japanese voice acting, there’s a free DLC for that.

A handful of extras will come to the game to begin with, before next summer adds a challenge mode, and finally next autumn brings fresh story content. If you can’t wait, a new quest will come soon to Breath of the Wild where Link can be decked out like Xenoblade 2 protagonist, Rex.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has received a new update which brings it to version 1.3.1. Available now on the Nintendo Switch and Wii U, this version corrects a few bugs. More importantly, it introduces Tips From The Wild on the Switch, which is a new channel dedicated to Zelda.

Interestingly enough, Tips From The Wild can be used to earn in-game items. Nintendo made sure to clarify that some items may not be available “depending on your game progress and location”. It’s also not clear what items can actually be earned but regardless, the channel can found in Home menu’s News tab from August 9th onwards.

As for other changes, the update fixes issues with The Master Trials DLC which saw certain enemies not contributing to one’s completion rate once defeated. You can check out the full patch notes below find out what other fixes have been introduced to “improve gameplay”.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild released in March alongside the Nintendo Switch and has thus far sold 4 million copies. You can check out our official review here to learn more about it.

Patch Notes:

• We have fixed the issue in Pack 1: The Master Trials of the Expansion Pass, in which defeating certain enemies for Kilton was not counted toward completion when playing in Master Mode.
• In-game items can now be obtained from launching the software from certain articles distributed through a new News channel (“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Tips from the Wild”) which can be accessed through News on the Home menu.
  • This channel is expected to open on 8/9/2017.
  • Depending on your game progress and location, certain items may not be obtainable.
• Various fixes to improve gameplay.

Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which saw its fair share of raised eyebrows upon its initial leak but has enjoyed a positive outlook since E3 2017, has received a new gameplay video. This one is about the world of Spooky Trails, skill trees and co-op challenges that players can take on.

Given how the game starts off somewhat simply but begins to ramp up, it’s interesting to see some of the trials that Spooky Trails presents. The co-op challenges are especially interesting and it’s good that players can actually experience the entire game with friends.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle mixes the exploration of the Mario games with the tactical combat of XCOM, as special abilities, cover and strategy take center-stage. The art-style is nice and colourful and somehow, the Rabbids seem to fit in Mario’s universe. Sort of. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is set to release on August 29th for Nintendo Switch exclusively.

Remember the “core RPG” Pokemon title that Nintendo confirmed would be coming to the Switch? In a recent release (unearthed by NeoGAF), the company provided release windows for several of its upcoming titles including Pokemon. Long story short, Pokemon on the Switch will be releasing in “2018 or later”.

Other noteworthy titles in that release includes Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on track for its Holiday 2017 release date. Fire Emblem, Yoshi and Kirby for Switch have been slated for release in 2018. Metroid Prime 4, meanwhile, has “TBA” next to its release window.

As for the Pokemon title, it’s likely not going to be a port of Pokemon Sun and Moon like the rumours stated. Nintendo noted it to be a “core” title so we’ll likely be getting our first full-fledged Pokemon RPG on consoles in a while.

Meanwhile, Nintendo released sales figures for the Switch and its various games, which you can read more of here. The console sold nearly 5 million units since release while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild nearly hit 4 million units sold.

New footage from Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey has emerged from San Diego Comic Con 2017 courtesy of Yoshiller on YouTube.

The footage sees Mario exploring New Donk City, running into Pauline (who’s the mayor) and Captain Toad and finding several different Moon Pieces. Mario also takes the opportunity to jack some guy’s scooter because he’s Mario, damn it.

Super Mario Odyssey sees our favourite plumber return in a 3D platforming space but this time, he’s packing a hat that can “capture” various people and creatures. This allows Mario to transform into a car, a Bullet Bill, T-Rex and so much more. What little we saw of the mechanic from E3 2017 looked fun and we can’t wait to see how it translates over into the main game.

Despite the next few months being busy with several big-name releases scheduled, Super Mario Odyssey will be coming out on October 27th for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo’s ARMS is receiving update 2.0.0 today which will add the first free post-launch character, namely “The Commish” Max Brass. However, the patch notes for the update reveal quite a bit more content for players.

Along with Hedlok Scramble, where 2 to 3 players compete to grab a Hedlok mask and become the fighter after which the others must defeat him, there are balance changes for heroes in store. Players can also look forward to a new stage, Sky Arena and Snake Park has been swapped out for Sky Arena in Ranked Match mode. Furthermore, there are three new Arms to use, namely Nade, Roaster and Kablammer. To find out what else is in store, read the full patch notes below.

ARMS will be receiving free post-launch DLC for the time being though Nintendo hasn’t indicated for how long. New stages, characters, Arms, modes and more are included in that deal so stay tuned for information on the next major update.

Arms Update Version 2.0.0
New Content
Arms League Commissioner Max Brass added as a playable character with the following:

• New Arm Nade
• New Arm Roaster
• New Arm Kablammer
• New stage Sky Arena

New versus mode Hedlok Scramble

• Punch or touch the capsule containing the Hedlok mask to become Hedlok for a period of time
• This can be selected in Versus, Friend, or Local and it will also appear in Party Match

Title Menu

• Stats added to the Top Menu: Check stats such as your most used fighter, best stage, and Arm accuracy.
• Events added to the Top Menu: Here you can set whether or not you want to join official online events.

Changes

• Snake Park has been swapped out for Sky Arena in the Ranked Match stage roster.
• Raised highest rank in Ranked Match to 20.
• Increased the penalty for disconnecting during Ranked Match play.
• Shortened the amount of time necessary for the following Arms to return after being extended, making them easier to use: Megaton, Megawatt, Revolver, Retorcher, Boomerang
• Increased movement speed of the Guardian.
• Improved visibility during charge attacks for the Popper and Cracker.
• Increased the amount of time necessary for the following Arms to return after being knocked down, increasing risk: Popper, Cracker, Hydra
• Increased the amount of time it takes to recover when a grab is deflected with a single punch.
• Decreased the amount of damage when the Hydra’s rush connects with multiple consecutive hits.
• Decreased the distance Kid Cobra travels when jumping.

Fixes

• Fixed issue where in some instances Ribbon Girl could remain airborne for an overlong period of time while continually attacking.
• Fixed issue where Ninjara would not destroy the light boxes on the Ribbon Ring stage when getting up.
• Fixed issue where the time necessary for the Triblast to return when deflected was shortened.
• Fixed issue where Arms such as Blorb and Megaton would catch on the ground and fail to fire.
• Fixed issue where explosive Arms would sometimes fail to explode when receiving an attack.
• Fixed issue where the Slapamander would sometimes fail to hit Helix when he is extended.
• In online play, fixed issue where the appearance or non-appearance of items could differ between devices.
• In online play, fixed various issues with V-Ball including an issue where the ball would remain grounded and play would not proceed.
• In online play, fixed an issue where sometimes Barq would continually defend against an opponents’ rush attack for a set period of time.
• In online play, fixed issue where sometimes pillars in the Scrapyard would not be destructible.