Earlier this year Vampire Survivors blew up on Steam due to it being a fresh take on the Rogue-like that feels incredible on the Steam Deck. Since then it's been ported to all the XBoxes and recently came to iOS and Android phones and tablets. I've played Vampire Survivors on the Steam Deck and it shines in that format but when I played it on the Deck I wondered if it would work on a phone. Needless to say is that it's a great phone port but It's not quite as good as playing on the Steam Deck but it's still a great way to play. Vampire Survivors is currently free to play on mobile and if you want, you can watch an ad to get a few more gold than you obtain normally in the game. So far, that's the only free to play mechanic on mobile and if you want, you seemingly can avoid those ads entirely.

If haven't heard, Vampire Survivors is a game where you try and avoid waves of enemies while collecting gems to upgrade your character to survive as long as possible. The crazy fun part of the game is when you unlock more and more abilities to last longer and longer. Vampire Survivors is a fun game but it's not one of the Rogue-likes that feels soul crushing. The game seems fair and sometimes you are incredibly overpowered and seeing things die around you so fast is a great thing to behold.

If you don't like playing games on your phone you can also head to Itch.io and try Vampire Survivors for free in your browser or buy it today on Steam or XBox.

https://poncle.itch.io/vampire-survivors

Apparently there isn't any world where there are too many video game documentaries about video games I love. Video Game Historian is back with a nod to the history of Mario Kart and you should click play. You know, in between Andor, House of Dragons, The White Lotus, Wednesday, Handmaidens Tale, Yellowstone, 1899, Willow, Warrior Nun, Tulsa King, The Peripheral, Pepsi Where's My Jet, Walking Dead, The Crown, The Tim Allen Santa Clause Show, Manifest and that billion dollar Lord of the Rings show on Amazon.

Looks like the biggest update to Broforce is coming in 2023 and while there aren't a lot of details surrounding the announcement, I'm still quite excited. Yeah, the game came out almost 8 years ago but it's still incredible and plays well on everything it's on (I've got it on Switch).

"The Biggest Update to Broforce Yet: New Bros, New Missions, New Freedoms - Coming Early 2023"

New freedoms, hell yeah, now let's high five an Eagle while we wait for 2023.

Marvel Snap launched last month to quite a bit of press and accolades and I'm here to say it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah it's free to play going heavy on cosmetics but none of that is annoying, in fact I think it nails the free to play curve.

Second Dinner is the development shop that created Marvel Snap and it formed up a few years ago from former Blizzard employees that made Hearthstone great. Hearthstone at launch was one of the most refreshing digital card games that later went so heavy into free to pay to play that caused me to go from a long time player to a former player. Marvel Snap changes the digital card game format by making the matches faster and removes nearly all the pay for power aspects. Some cards you can unlock FASTER by paying for the season pass but if you want to wait, you can unlock them normally through the card upgrade mechanics later.

The basic game premise is fairly simple, there are three lanes and you focus on winning 2 out of the 3 lanes to win the match. Each lane has a Marvel effect that changes how you can win it such as doubling the strength of your cards or lanes you can't play cards in at all. How you approach these random lanes can really mix up the matches and they keep adding new lanes all the time really changing how the game works.

If you want to you can buy gold to unlock new cosmetic cards (essentially card skins) or power to unlock other cards faster, but there is a daily limit to the amount of cards you can upgrade this way. So even if you unleashed your credit card to buy everything, you'd still need to play daily matches to unlock all the cards quickly.

With a quick yet fun base game and progression system that doesn't, to me, feel excessively grindy, Marvel Snap is the game I now play daily. I don't think I'd ever NOT buy anything in game, but at this point, I'm not sure what the point would be. I'm content playing free to play games like Fortnite without buying cosmetics and Marvel Snap seems like a perfect game for that. In fact, you can earn enough gold in game to buy cosmetics and I've just been hording mine for the perfect card skin or ... something else.

If you are interested in playing Marvel Snap, as I said, it's entirely free and available on Android, iPhones, tablets and PC on Steam. When I tried the Steam port it had a phone aspect ratio but at some point the developers will add proper widescreen making the PC version better.

According to some, Super Mario World is one of the best platformers of all time. For me and my family, this game sold us the Super Nintendo. My parents were really impressed by the 16bit graphics and I think that convinced them to buy us one that Christmas.

If you love Super Mario World or have yet to play it, the Gaming Historian has a great video all about the game and it’s historic creation.

Wanted to wish everyone a very Happy and safe Halloween this year. Also wanted to share the latest Angry Video Game Nerd episode covering all the classic Doom ports. We’ve covered the basic Doom port history before but the Nerds review is fun and worth watching.

DF Retro interviewed Randy Linden, the programmer behind the Super Nintendo Doom port. The interesting part about that console Doom port is that it was created to run on the Super FX 2 chip and was one of the better Doom console ports. It's still a bit framey, but was one of the best non PC ways to play Doom for quite some time. The DF Retro interview is incredible and Randy talks about how he miraculously ported the game to the Super Nintendo.

Did You Know Gaming create a video recently (not that recently) that briefly covers the history of the Super Nintendo and how Nintendo responded to the Sega Genesis. Lots of this information is available elsewhere but why not experience it all over again?

"In this episode we take a look at some facts, secrets, and history of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES is a gaming device developed by Nintendo. In its native country of Japan, the console is named the Super Famicom. The system is Nintendo's second home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short. It had similar success to its predecessor, and became the best-selling console of the 16-bit era globally. This was partly thanks to Nintendo's all-star franchises such as Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong."

When the original Sims came to PC in 2000 I was hooked. It was such a refreshingly fun game and with each expansion things got even more fun. The Sims has received quite a few sequels over the years, but for whatever reason I never played any of the follow ups to the original. Seems like that might change now that EA is going to release The Sims 4 for free on basically all platforms.

"We’re excited to continue to welcome in more players than ever to create new stories, and explore without boundaries. The Sims has always been about celebrating new ways to play and offers so many possibilities to discover. Beginning on October 18, 2022, The Sims 4 base game will be available to all new players to download for free on PC via EA app or Origin, Mac via Origin, Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One systems."

I imagine EA will make up for having the game go free to play through the sale of Sims 4 DLC considering there is a whole lot of it. Still, I wonder if this means The Sims 4 will be ending soon or if they plan on having a solid base be free and charging for everything else and continuing with that model? EA says it will spill the beans on the new way forward with the game on October 18th so I'll be curious what they have to say about the game then.

All that to say, I'm very excited The Sims 4 is going free to play and I hope that the base game is as fun as I remember the original being.

https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/play-the-sims-4-for-free-beginning-october-18

When GoldenEye 007 came to Nintedo 64 it was, for many, the first multiplayer shooter experience they had. It was also a great game for the time and I have many fond memories of multiplayer parties at friends houses (no one was allowed to pick Oddjob). Well, Microsoft is giving GoldenEye 007 the re-release treatment and bringing it to XBox and Switch.

"Since its original release in 1997, GoldenEye 007 has remained a beloved classic in the hearts and minds of millions of fans worldwide. Today, we’re excited to announce that a new generation of players will soon get to experience the genre-defining stealth shooter gameplay for themselves, faithfully recreated to preserve the action and excitement of the original while adding new features for the modern age of gaming.

Players will guide James Bond on a global espionage mission to prevent the devastating power of the GoldenEye satellite from being unleashed upon the world. The classic campaign mode, transformative difficulty levels and havoc-inducing cheats will all make their return – as will the iconic split-screen local multiplayer mode, allowing up to four players to take to the couch in a battle of wits and skill.

The original experience has been updated with improved control options (including dual analogue stick support), native 16:9 resolution up to 4K Ultra HD (where supported), a consistent refresh rate and a full complement of achievements to unlock."

The GoldenEye remake is coming to XBox Games Pass as well as a free download for folks that have the Rare Collection digitally!

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/09/13/james-bond-returns-goldeneye-007-on-game-pass/