In 1992 Kirby's Dreamland hit Gameboy and the Nintendo puffball train hasn't stopped since. There is a new Kirby game coming to the Switch next year but until then we can pour one out for the little marshmallow that can eat... anything. One thing I didn't know as I was watching the 25 years of Kirby video above is how many Kirby puzzle games there are. It makes some sense as Kirby is a lovable puff-thing that you can put in any game to make it instantly more charming.

Brink didn't get great reviews when it launched or garner much praise but today it went free to play on Steam. If you are looking for a free multiplayer shooter to play that offers interesting character customization, parkour gameplay mechanics and a bit more... the price is right. If you want you can still pickup the games DLC but the base game is entirely free and right now there are quite a few people playing it on Steam so if you do try it out, you won't be the only one playing.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22350/BRINK/

The US release Super Nintendo Classic trailer has gone up and this retro feast confirms many details that were in the Japanese Famicom Classic trailer. Live rewind & game borders are coming to the Super Nintendo Classic. Last night pre-orders went up on Amazon and Best Buy and sold out quickly. Many were happy to secure one but many were sleeping, including myself. Hopefully the rest of the pre-order sites go live today and there is a brief window where I can pick on up.

If you are interested in getting on I urge you to check the Nintendo page for retailers that have yet to go live with pre-orders like Walmart & Target:

https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic

There is a brand new trailer out for the Super Famicom Classic that you need to watch. Firstly the trailer is incredibly charming even though I don't understand most of it. That said, it's still fun to watch and it's a bit sad to notice how many games we didn't get released in the states that look like fun. At the end of the trailer they go over some new features to the Super Famicom Classic that I imagine will be in the Super Nintendo Classic such as a setting to select different borders for games AND the ability to live rewind a game. There also appears to be some kind of feature where you can control Mario in the menu to select a game.

I hope when Nintendo said they'd release more Super Nintendo Classic units they meant it because I really want to get one and open it on Christmas. But you know... i'm not really counting on it.

Age of Empires IV was just announced at this years Gamescom with a brand new trailer. As a huge Age of Empires fan I'm really interested in this news and hope Microsoft can work amazingly well with Relic Studios(the developers creating Age of Empires IV) to make a game that fits in with the style of Age of Empires. The original Age of Empires featured early progression from very early tribes to bronze age and later early civilization level units. Age of Empires 2 started you in a later civilization stage to end up solidly in the Dark Ages / Castle age. Age of Empires 3 was set around the time that America was colonized roughly around the years 1492 to 1876 so my thinking is that Age of Empire IV will be set after that. Getting an Age of Empires that starts in the 1800's and ends up in the 90's, 2000's or later era seems really interesting to me. Traditionally Age of Empires has featured older civilizations but i'm interested in seeing a new take on modern RTS combat.

All that said, the details on Age IV are sparse to non existing so as more information drops i'll keep you updated.

https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-of-empires-event-at-gamescom-live-wrap-up/

All The Definitive Editions!

Age of Empires Definitive Edition is coming which is a 4K HD revisioning of the original Age of Empires that should release at some unspecified date. In keeping the Age of Empires hype train rolling Microsoft released that they will also create Definitive Editions for Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 3.

"We started off announcing the release date for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, October 19th, 2017! What a great way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original game! AoE: DE will launch with a ton of awesome new features, but we have kept a lot of things the same to preserve the feel of the original game. Take a look at the list:

• Attack Move


• 250-300 population cap​


• Rally Points Basic


• Rally Points Contextual (Intelligent Villagers)


• Grid default key layout​


• Select Idle Military


• Select Idle Villagers


• Unit queueing


• Right-click mouse scroll


• And MORE!

We then announced that we will be releasing Definitive Editions of both Age II and Age III, keep an eye out for more details about those!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3rDhoWcVgQ

I wonder how Age of Empires 2 Definitive stacks up to Age of Empires 2 HD? I thought Age of Empires 2 HD was an incredible rebuild of the game and it works great on Steam so i'm wondering what Microsoft is going to for the definitive edition? I suppose they could remake the graphics in 4K but i'm not sure Age of Empires 2 HD really needs that but then again, I love the original 2D graphics.

What are you looking for in Age of Empires IV and what do you think about Age 2 and 3 Definitive Editions?

New episodes of The Angry Video Game Nerd are a bit few and far between these days so when one comes out it's pretty special. The latest one is all about the Gameboy, which is pretty amazing up front but the Nerd focuses on the many odd Gameboy accessories. The Gameboy had a lot of accessories and some really strange stuff was made including a Gameboy sewing machine? The video wraps up in the typical Angry Nerd style making me happy that James is still doing these video after all these years.

Nostalgia Games recently found an old Toys R Us promo VHS for The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask and recently dropped it on their YouTube channel. It's a fun snapshot of the NES dominated era and features a Nintendo counselor talking about the game and giving it high praise. Majora's Mask is one of those Zelda games that does get quite a bit of love still but even so the video really does seem a bit forced and even so, it would have totally worked on me as a kid to seem like some kind of real news expose on how great this game is.

Chess came out on the NES in 1988 and this is a really good review of it. The reviewer takes point with some of the games graphical and gameplay choices, which makes sense considering Chess doesn't seem like it wasn't well designed.

Good news everybody, Battle.net is back and it's... the same?

Back in September Blizzard announced that it's Battle.net online game service would be called "Blizzard." It was an interesting idea but one that was a bit sad and strange because they didn't seem to consistently stick with it. That and most people still called it Battle.net. Well it seems Blizzard is heading back to calling Battle.net Battle.net and I think that's a really good idea.

"Battle.net is the central nervous system for Blizzard games and the connective tissue that has brought Blizzard players together since 1996. The technology was never going away, but after giving the branding change further consideration and also hearing your feedback, we’re in agreement that the name should stay as well. Take it from the developer formerly known as Silicon & Synapse, and Chaos Studios, names are important too.

Moving forward, to help offset some of the original concerns we listed back in September, we will be connecting “Blizzard” to “Battle.net” in our logo for the service and in general when we refer to it in print: Blizzard Battle.net."

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20972461/blizzard-battle-net-update

Like many of us YouTuber Lazy Game Reviews(LGR) is a fan of the original NES Duck Hunt. Sad that the NES light gun doesn't work on modern LCD panel TV's but if you keep an old 4x3 around the house you can shoot 8-bit ducks to your hearts content. In his latest video LGR talks a bit about his love for the original Duck Hunt and reviews a bunch of other Duck Hunt clones, most on the PC. Results vary but one thing remains true... The original Duck Hunt is the kind of Duck shooter games.