Nathaniel
Aug 21, 2018
During the opening ceremonies of Gamescom 2018 in Germany, Ubisoft took a moment to let German studio Blue Byte speak. Aside from celebrating 30 years of business, they announced not one, but two titles in The Settlers series. The first among these was an anthology title called “The Settlers History” and will be releasing this year. In fact, it releases November 15th, for PC. The idea is to bring all of The Settlers games up to modern standards so they can be played on modern PCs. Alongside this, they announced The Settlers original game would be available immediately on Uplay. Trailer below:
As the trailer teases, there is more to come, and indeed there was. Ubisoft Blue Byte next announced that The Settlers was in development for a brand new release in Fall of 2019. They sounded very proud of their work as they finally got to show us the first look at The Settlers, coming next year. Trailer below:
But What IS The Settlers
The Settlers is a settlement-building simulator that has a long-running tradition in the PC gaming world. This game blends Real Time Strategy with simulation with your main opponent being the environment around you and opposing settlers. It’s up to you to help your town thrive and grow.
- Jun 10, 2018
It’s that time of year and E3 2018 is right around the corner. Rumors are flying, hype is building, and gamers are gearing up for either a big announcement or a big disappointment. With all this excitement and anxiety, you might be wondering what to expect. Or perhaps you are looking for information on what to watch, when, and where. Maybe you’re just roaming from page to page looking for discussion to keep you going until the show starts. Regardless of what brought you here, we hope this article will have just what you’re looking for.
E3 2018 Show Schedule
So let’s begin with the basics. E3 is the biggest event in gaming, where all of the major companies come together to show off to gamers and investors alike what they have in store for the (usually) near future. Many developers and publishers stick to the show floor with gameplay demos, but some take to the stage for a full on press conference. This year, we’re getting conferences from Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, EA, Bethesda, and Square Enix, as well as a video presentation from Nintendo.
That’s just the basic rundown for any who are unfamiliar, though. What you really need to know is when and where. Below is a list of conferences with date and time, starting with EA’s conference, tomorrow. To the right of that, we’ve provided links to the official streams from each company.
- EA – Saturday, June 9th, 11AM Pacific/2PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
- Microsoft – Sunday, June 10th, 1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern ( Twitch | Mixer | Youtube )
- Bethesda – Sunday, June 10th, 6:30PM Pacific/9:30PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
- Square Enix – Monday, June 11th, 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
- Ubisoft – Monday, June 11th, 1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
- Sony – Monday, June 11th, 6PM Pacific/9PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
- Nintendo – Tuesday, June 12th, 9AM Pacific/12PM Eastern ( Twitch | Youtube )
There are a few other shows in the mix like Limited Run, Devolver Digital, and the PC Gaming Sideshow. These haven’t been included primarily because there are rarely any big announcements involved. These shows can still be seen by watching the main E3 Twitch stream, but we won’t highlight them here.
E3 2018 Expectations and Hopes
From this point forward, we can’t be sure of much. Some companies have been straight forward and others are predictable. Still others are being coy or just seem to prove us wrong at every turn. Still, below are our thoughts pre-E3 on what we’ll see at E3 2018.
EA
It’s hard to make EA predictions and not sound pessimistic. Still, we know we can expect Battlefield V, EA Sports, and most likely Anthem. How much we see of that last one will likely determine how concerned we should be, given how EA treated Bioware’s last title. Aside from that, we expect two “surprises” and maybe a racing title. One surprise would be an indie game EA has decided to support. The other could be anything in their library. Dragon Age would be a nice addition to the show.
Microsoft
Microsoft has to be the biggest wild card out of all the major developers. They have plenty under their wings to show us, but there’s no telling what’s ready. We’re only worried this E3 could make or break the Xbox One’s sales for the near future. After all, with Crackdown 3 pushed back to 2019, we aren’t aware of any other major exclusives for this year. Halo, Forza, anything. Microsoft needs to bring their A game.
Bethesda
It’s an odd thing to know what to expect and yet not know what to expect. Fallout 76 will most likely be the centerpiece of their show, but we don’t even know anything about it. There have been rumors and “leaks” but it’s difficult to take those at face value. Aside from that, Rage 2 is very likely and people have speculated everything from Elder Scrolls VI to the oft-rumored Starfield. Bethesda has plenty up their sleeve, to be sure, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Square Enix
Kingdom Hearts III. There’s no question that will be their biggest focus, but that’s not to downplay Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There’s also the Marvel Avengers game they’ve said they were working on, which seems appropriately timed. We also think we could see more of Octopath Traveler here, but we dare not hope for another glimpse of the Final Fantasy VII remake.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft is always a grab bag of interesting stuff and not-as-interesting stuff. We can be sure they’ll have something for just about everyone, but no one will likely leave totally happy with it. On top of that, there’s so many games we could see. We already know about Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. We expect more from Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s Pirate ship battle sim. Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Starlink: Battle for Atlas are itching for more details. There’s also bound to be a new Just Dance, another single player story-based open world adventure, and never count out Rayman or the Rabbids. It’ll be one to watch, for sure.
Sony
Sony’s an odd one in that we already know about what to expect from them. There are four games in particular they will be giving us a “deep dive” into. These games are Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, The Amazing Spiderman, and Last of Us 2. We expect there will be more, but it will be restricted to trailers and probably a few words from the developer. Here’s hoping we finally see what that From Software teaser last year was all about.
Nintendo
Last, but never least, we have Nintendo. They’ve been very open about the presence of Super Smash Bros at this year’s E3 presentation, but we can guess quite a few other games that we might see. It’d be crazy if Fire Emblem, Yoshi, Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion, Travis Strikes Back, and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee Editions didn’t get at least a trailer or some game play.
On top of that, there’s a very believable leak showing a number of 3rd parties that would absolutely require at least a shout out. These include Dragonball Fighter Z, Fortnight, Killer Queen Black, and Monster Hunter Generations. We expect we could see some Metroid Prime 4, Retro’s infamous project, the rumored Nintendo-Konami project, and even–dare we say it?–Animal Crossing. With Nintendo’s conference being potentially 45 minutes long, they could stuff any number of announcements into it, so the sky is really the limit.
So with that, we hope you’re ready for the craziness that is about to ensue. Twitch will be live streaming all of these conferences and more. The show will start very soon, so expect frequent updates over the next week.
- Jun 9, 2018
E3 kicked off, this year with EA Play and their offerings for the year. While we have our hesitations regarding EA, this year’s conference gave us a couple pleasant surprises. We’ll avoid going too in depth, but here’s the general rundown, in case you missed the conference.
Introduction
The show started with a bang, giving us an augmented reality experience revolving around Anthem. The crowd didn’t seem to react much, so we wonder if this was exclusive to the livestream and they just saw a flat video or what. They talked about what they were about to show us quickly and then the show truly began.
Their first game was Battlefield V. EA has already given us a look at the single-player campaign, but the WWII-focused FPS will have plenty for the multiplayer crowd, as well. This includes a new battle royale game mode. EA assures us there will be no loot boxes or premium pass shenanigans, this time around and that we can look forward to seeing more of Battlefield V at the Xbox Briefing, tomorrow.
Without even a moment to breath, the conference jumped from the cinematic Battlefield trailer to a cinematic FIFA 19 trailer. They spent a great deal of time talking about the champions league before shifting gears to explain that they’d be hosting a world cup update in FIFA 18, complete with tournament and that the game would be available for a free trial on PS4, Xbox One, and PC through Origin.
After that, Andrew Wilson took the stage to announce what’s being called EA Origin Access Premier. We had to look around for actual details, but it appears EA Origin Access is a subscription membership that lets you play a given catalog of games (115) on EA Origin. It costs $4.99/month or $29.99/year. Premier is an upgrade to this that allows you to play newer games, including the upcoming Anthem, FIFA, and Battlefield, even before their given launch date. This upgrade will cost $14.99/month or $99.99/year when it releases later, this Summer.
Star Wars and Originals
Then next few announcements were kinda squished together, as well. They spoke with the developers of a new Star Wars game, Jedi Fallen Order, who explained that the game took place between episodes III and IV. He also said that we could expect to see the game late next year before they kicked it back up to the stage for a word from the Battlefront II devs.
They explained that they’d had some missteps at launch and were reworking their strategy for Battlefront II, including the new hunt mode that just released. They’ll also be adding a stage and characters from the Solo movie, as well as bringing new content from the Clone Wars era of Star Wars. They name dropped characters like General Grievous, Obi-wan Kenobi, Count Dooku, and Anakin Skywalker, who will all be playable in the future and then moved on.
Next we got a cutscene that would turn out to be the intro cutscene for Unraveled two, a co-op puzzle platformer being published by EA. This game starts by breaking those bonds your character worked for in the first title before introducing him to a new friend who could help him on his path. For more information, you can check out our article on this game.
After that, we moved on to another EA Original named Sea of Solitude. In this game humans who become too lonely turn into monsters of all shapes and sizes. We got plenty of eyefuls of gorgeous seascape and landscape with some creative monster designs. We won’t get to see the game release until early next year, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for it.
More Sports, Esports, and Charity
The next few moments kinda flew right by. We got a trailer for NBA Live 19, which confirms we’ll be seeing this game on September 7th. With no explanation or fanfare, they moved straight on to a set of clips revolving around competitive Madden NFL 18 and a player named Young Kiv. This appeared to be showing his journey to the championship, but after a short talk, they moved on to a Madden NFL 19 trailer and moved on from it completely.
After that, we got our first look at a new mobile RTS game which was played between two players named iNcontroL and nickatnyte. The game involves moving units around a small field to control an area around the active missile and use it to destroy your opponent’s base. The game is called Command and Conquer Rivals.
Before moving on to their last big game, EA took some time to talk about EA Play to Give, which is a charity EA set up. By playing a series of nine challenges within various EA games, players contributed to a total donation of one million dollars to three anti-bullying organizations.
Anthem
To end out the show, EA spent a great deal of time talking about Anthem, Bioware’s new multiplayer RPG project with a story that claims to have depth and impact. They started with a killer trailer that really seemed to get the crowd going. Then they went on to discuss how the story was a major focus of the game. Beyond that, they’re planning on making the world wholly dynamic with the ability for them to make major changes for the entire player base in game.
They further explained that the game is really built from the ground up for co-op, expecting players to work together. Solo players can still tackle objectives on their own, but the developers would like everyone to give multiplayer a chance. Players can select between four Javelin suits, which change their abilities and weaponry. These are the Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor, and Storm. Think of it like all-rounder, heavy, speed, and special classes.
The presenters took a moment to inform us that there would again be no loot boxes or pay to win elements. There would still be cosmetics-based microtransactions for full character customizability. After that, we got a gameplay demo with all kinds of new elements from last year. Then, to end off, they announced that Anthem would be available on February 22nd, 2019.
Final Thoughts on EA Play 2018
EA had a lot to show us from a few different corners. There was still a clear audience and we were clearly not that audience. However, what we saw was still somewhat impressive and there were a few very nice surprises like Unravel two and Sea of Solitude. EA Origin Access Premier doesn’t hold too much of interest, yet, but it seems great for the proper audience. Overall, we give EA a C+ as they seemed to really be trying, this year, but we just weren’t that interested in all of the sports titles and shooters, ourselves.
If you’d like to watch the conference yourself, you can find it here.
- Jun 9, 2018
EA surprised us this year, showing off a teaser trailer and gameplay demo for Unravel two. This game features the same kind of platforming fun as the original. This time, however, you control two characters rather than one. This game features single player and co-op gameplay.
It’s a very interesting game that we’ll be excited to play when it comes out. Or when it came out, as it were. That’s right, Coldwick has really outdone themselves, this time, putting the game out alongside the announcement. The game is already available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
The only thing that confuses us about this is that this game isn’t coming out on Nintendo Switch. It seems like the perfect place for a co-op game, given the console effectively comes with two controllers to start with. Regardless, we’ll be looking into this game.
- Apr 30, 2018
During Nintendo’s recent financial briefing, Nintendo finally broke silence on their E3 Plans for 2018. Among plenty of other interesting info, Nintendo released the chart seen below. This chart outlines their basic schedule for the shows and events at E3, this year.
The quick overview of the above information is as follows. On June 11th, Nintendo will only be doing the first part of the Splatoon 2 World Championship. The real fun is on June 12th, where Nintendo will be starting with a video presentation at 9AM Pacific time. (That’s 12PM Eastern, 5PM GMT, and June 13th at 2AM AEST.) From there, we’ll be treated to more Treehouse Live demos, the end of the the Splatoon 2 World Championship, and the entire Super Smash Bros Invitational.
The most notable thing about this schedule is just how much emphasis they put on Super Smash Bros. This will likely be our first official look at gameplay, UI, really anything that wasn’t just a tease. Smash will undoubtedly be the biggest focus of the presentation, leading us to believe it’ll be the first game they show. Even with that, we’re only blatantly speculating.
There is also a big chance we will see some Animal Crossing Switch news at this year’s E3. Nintendo has recently teased a new Animal Crossing Game on Nintendo Switch through Pocket Camp. The big N has also recently made some suspicious changes to the official Animal Crossing website.
As Nintendo plans to talk about games that will release this year, that would mean if an Animal Crossing Switch does make an appearance at this years E3, that it would likely release before the end of 2018. Nintendo mentioned multiple times that there will be unannounced titles at this years gaming convention. Smash Bros Switch, Pokemon Switch, Pikmin 4, Metroid etc. have all been announced already, leaving mainly Animal Crossing to be the only option outside new IP’s.
Regardless, we’re really excited about the Nintendo E3 2018 Plans. We’ll be sure to cover any further info that comes out regarding the expo, so stick around for more news in the near future.
- Mar 9, 2018
Nintendo just delivered a megaton punch in the form of the March 2018 Nintendo Direct. There’s lots to talk about, so rather than overexplain it, we’ll get straight to the punch in order of release dates/launch windows. This is our March 2018 Nintendo Direct Recap
March
Arms isn’t quite finished yet, it seems. While the game content is finally complete, there is still a major event coming this month regarding Nintendo’s newest fighter. There will be an open tournament online taking place between March 8th and 18th. In this tournament, eight skillful players will be selected to compete on the 31st.
Kirby is on his way, but he’s not alone. He’s bringing with him favorites from the series’ history, like King Dedede, Metaknight, and Bandana Waddle Dee. On top of this, Kirby Star Allies will be receiving an update to add even more of these Dream Friends. The game launches on March 16th with the first update coming March 28th.
Detective Pikachu is another one we knew about for a while. It’s a 3DS puzzler similar in tone to the Professor Layton games, but with that Pokemon charm and humor. Detective Pikachu will launch alongside an oversized Detective Pikachu Amiibo for the 3DS on March 23rd.
April
South Park: The Fractured But Whole has been announced for the Nintendo Switch. Not only that, but the DLC packs will be available on launch with a season pass, as well. This Ubisoft RPG will be making its way to the Switch on April 24th.
Splatoon 2 will also be receiving an update in the form of version 3.0! There’s no set date for this, but in late April, prepare for new weapons, gear, stages, and more.
May
Little Nightmares, the 3D puzzle platformer indie hit is coming to the Switch. This version is the Complete Edition, meaning both stories are included. Little Nightmare: Complete Edition will be available on May 18th.
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition is the final version of Hyrule Warriors, which came out for the Wii U and 3DS. All content unique to those versions will be available in the new version, along with a few extras. It’s a Third Person Action game in which Hyrule’s familiar heroes take on the hoards of enemies attacking Hyrule Castle and many other iconic locations. This will also be launching on Nintendo Switch on May 18th.
Dillon’s Dead Heat Breakers is a combination of the game’s classic style and a bit of tower defense, among other things. The series comes from Dillon’s Rolling Western, which was a well-received indie title on the Nintendo DS. You could think of them as the first Nindies! Dillon’s rolling Western will be available May 24th. A demo will be on the eShop May 10th.
Dark Souls Remastered is finally making its way to the Nintendo Switch. The full game is available in this version, which will have an online stress test similar to the global testfires Splatoon had going on. Alongside the game will launch a Solaire of Astora Amiibo. You can look for these starting on May 25th.
June
Sushi Strikers was a competitive matching puzzle game announced at E3 last year for the 3DS. Now Nintendo has announced that this experience will be available on both the 3DS and the Nintendo Switch on June 8th.
Mario Tennis Aces was the game Nintendo probably spent the most time on with this Direct. The information in their presentation was likely enough to warrant its own full article, however one big thing to take away from this is that Nintendo will host an pre-launch online tournament prior to the now-confirmed June 22nd release date.
July
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy originally launched for PS4, but now it’s coming to the Nintendo Switch! Prepare to play the original three Crash Bandicoot games when they’re available for Switch on July 10th.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is another Wii U port that’s coming not just to the Switch, but the 3DS, as well. Captain Toad was a 3D Puzzle Platformer starring the only character in the Mario Universe who can’t jump. Make your way through levels inspired by Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey when it releases on July 13th.
Octopath Traveler is Square Enix’s big Switch exclusive JRPG project they’ve been ramping up to for a while, now. The game consists of following the stories of eight separate characters as they cross paths and seek out their own goals. There’s already a demo available on the Switch, but the full game launches on July 13th.
This Summer
Warioware Gold is another zany collection of microgames put forward by our favorite garlic lover. Warioware Gold appears to be a series of all new games with some nice call backs to previous titles, but it may just be the best way to enjoy the end of your Summer when it launches for 3DS on August 3rd.
Okami HD has been announced for Switch. Join the Sun goddess Amaterasu in the form of a wolf as she travels a beautiful water color style Japan and wards off evil with the use of her Celestial Brush. Okami will make its stunning debut on the Switch eShop sometime this Summer!
Splatoon 2 is also getting a new expansion pack in the form of its first paid DLC. This pack appears to include an all new single player mode in which you play as an Octoling (or a girl who looks like one?) and fight through over 80 missions on your trek to the surface. Then you’ll be able to compete online using the Octoling so everyone else can see. This expansion will likely cost $19.99 and comes out sometimes this Summer.
2018 and Beyond
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is the continuation of Suda 51’s hit Wii series, No More Heroes. You play as Travis Touchdown who must go hacking and slashing his way through a series of his own video games to remove bugs. It’s a 3rd person action game that will be launching sometime this year. Hopefully we’ll see more as soon as possible.
Super Smash Bros is coming to the Switch. While the trailer doesn’t specify if this is a port of the Wii U/3DS version or a new game, we think it’s likely the former, as that seems more reasonable, given the time frame. What the trailer does tell us for sure is that Inklings will be playable, as well as Breath of the Wild Link, who is likely a new costume for the hero we all know and love. Super Smash Bros will launch on the Switch this year.
Luigi’s Mansion, the original game from the Gamecube, is coming to Nintendo 3DS. Luigi needs to save his brother from a haunted house and it’s up to you to make sure he doesn’t get too spooked in the process. Luigi’s Mansion 3D will be coming out sometime this year.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story was an RPG made by Nintendo that played with the premise of Mario and Luigi being swallowed by Bowser and having to work together with him to solve a major problem in the mushroom kingdom. That’s not all, though, as Bowser Jr will get his own side story, similar to the one found in the previous Mario and Luigi remake. This game is coming to the 3DS in 2019.
Undertale got a humorous trailer featuring Sans and Papyrus announcing its arrival on Switch. While it was known before that Toby Fox would be working on this, it was unknown how well he would put it together or if he even could. However, we’re here now and the RPG where you don’t have to kill anything is coming to the Nintendo Switch… eventually.
Final Words
And that’s about all! Nintendo had a lot to say and it took some time to get through it all, but here we stand. The Direct can be viewed below for anyone who wants to see the full presentation. A few games were sorely missed, such as Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime 4, and Pokemon Switch. Granted, aside from Animal Crossing, we didn’t think there was much hope to see these at the Direct. We still are waiting with baited breath to know more about these titles, and we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we do.
For even more new games from the Direct, check out the brand new Octopath Traveler Demo here. And all the games from the Nintendo Direct that you can already pre-order over here.
- Feb 28, 2018
Mulaka is a 3D action-adventure platformer about a Tarahumara warrior-sage known as the Sukuruame and his quest to stop the end of the world. You play as Mulaka, who wields a spear as his primary weapon and must make your way through various environments in order to prove your worth and enlist the help of the demigods. The game plays a lot like you might expect from Okami or Darksiders. However, the most notable thing about the game is its mission to teach players about the Tarahumara and their lore.
Of course, in any instance, focusing on one aspect of a game leaves room for flaws and gaps in another. In this case, we feel the story and lore focus of the game caused the gameplay to feel unpolished and somewhat lacking. Overall, Mulaka is a wonderful concept that seems to have just fallen short of its ambitions.
Gameplay and Mechanics
So as we stated, this is an action-adventure game. Mulaka really tries to balance exploration and combat. The combat is relatively simple and in a lot of situations, completely avoidable. You have a light attack and a heavy attack. There’s a dodge button, and of course, you can run and jump. Combining these makes for a few automatic combos and the occasional near miss of an attack. Unfortunately, as there’s no lock on to speak of, you’ll just keep missing some enemies altogether. Thankfully, your attacks usually have a really wide hitbox, so it rarely became a major issue.
Who needs to lock on when your opponent is the size of the Earth?
Aside from this, there’s exploration to consider. In this regard, there seems to be plenty to keep an eye out for. In service of getting around, you have a few potions and transformations that will let you go places you couldn’t before. Of course, that led to an observation very early in the game that finding everything would absolutely require lots of backtracking, which it seems the game really wants the player to do, as some fights become very tedious later on without upgrades. You also have Sukuruame Vision, which allows you to see invisible enemies, NPCs, and track down points of interest. This usually floods your screen with objective markers, which is actually a bit overwhelming, at times. It can also help you seek out hidden objects that will give you a piece of lore for your troubles.
There’s also a light puzzle element introduced in the form of water puzzles. These puzzles are all fairly easy to figure out, though, and later in the game just become monotonous. It would’ve been nice to see more variety in the puzzles rather than just an increase in the size of the puzzles themselves.
This is one of the later puzzles in the game. The solution is pretty obvious, but the puzzle still takes several minutes to complete.
Finally, there’s also a mechanic in the form of Korima, which works a lot like basic experience points. Korima embodies the thankfulness of the Sierra, which in turn translates to upgrades for Mulaka. However, there are only seven things to upgrade and they require a lot of Korima to do so, making it seem like too much trouble.
Mulaka’s lesser flaws
So there are other bothersome things present in this game. For one, the difficulty seem poorly curated, leading to an inconsistent curve. Some bosses later in the game are easier than some of the earlier ones and the final boss is much, much more difficult.
Also, when you lose a soul, Mulaka does a long animation where the soul is ripped from his body, but it seems he’s still vulnerable during this animation, meaning enough enemies can just chip away at your health and you can’t do anything about it. At one point, this led to us getting stun locked to death. Very frustrating.
This animation is unnecessarily slow and potentially just unnecessary.
This game also has some very wonky collision detection, which can be see while climbing just about any mountain wall. However, it was at its worst during a late game boss fight where you have to climb on the boss’s back in order to hit weak points up there. Even outside of that, though, it left an odd feeling like anytime I got somewhere, it felt as if I didn’t do it the intended way, even when it clearly was the intended path.
There’s also a balancing issue in combat where for the most part, the game gives you no reason not to run in and spam light attack until everything stops moving. There’s a few enemies that force you to use heavy attack, Sukuruame Vision, and even dodge in some rare occasions. However, it doesn’t really feel organic, so much as something you’re doing because you have no other choice.
Finally there was some issue with our game that caused frequent crashes. We don’t know if this is only on the Switch version, but it led to a few infuriating resets. Granted this was usually after a death, so we’re not sure how far back it really set us.
The Best Part About Mulaka
Finally, with all our nitpicking and gripes out of the way, we can get to what Mulaka is really about: the lore and the aesthetic. Mulaka uses a simplistic style to mimic the simple geometric drawings of the Tarahumara tribes. The story may follow the Sukuruame, but the lore is truly about a native American civilization in what is now New Mexico. Naturally, this means the main events of the game must also be from native lore, and so they are. The game even gives you a heaping does of legend in the exposition.
Lore tidbits for every enemy in the game tell you about them and hint at how to fight them.
Aside from that, the music is actually really good and super interesting. We never entered a new area or a staged fight without noticing the music immediately. It really kept us going in a number of spots where the gameplay would’ve made us quit.
On top of that, there’s a great variety of levels. You travel from the desert into town. From there to the caverns by a river and then on towards the jungle. You even visit mountains the and underworld itself by the time you’re done. Every area feels similarly ancient and sacred. The team at Lienzo have certainly outdone themselves on this front.
Waterfalls and mountains galore
Final Thoughts
Mulaka is a unique and interesting game. It’s difficult to recommend fully because the game is so unpolished and could easily lose many of its players because of it. However, we didn’t have a terrible time, outside of a few frustrating resets, and a few key aspects of the game kept us going. We greatly suggest giving this game a chance, if it sounds like your cup of tea. All judgements aside, we hope to see more from Lienzo, as we feel this game wasn’t too far off the mark for redemption.
Mulaka is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, and will be available on Nintendo Switch beginning March 1st.
Special thanks to Lienzo for providing us with a review copy of Mulaka. This game has been reviewed using a pre-release download code of Mulaka – Nintendo Switch.
- Feb 16, 2018
Emily Rogers is an industry insider who is known for leaking information regarding Nintendo and the Switch. With everything she tells the public, she’s always careful to give us the grain-of-salt warning. Anything she tells us is still subject to change or possibly outright false without her knowing. However, she has been pretty adamant about a few of her rumors, including the ever-discussed Smash Switch port.
Emily first talked about a Smash 4 port before the Switch came out, saying it was planned to be a year one release. Since then, we’ve heard nothing about the port and are left only to speculate on any changes. However, recently Emily Rogers mentioned the port again on a forum board. Most of the post is speculation, even on her part, about what may be included in the port. However, one thing stands out. Emily Rogers says we won’t have to wait long to hear about the Smash Switch.
In her first post, Emily says “I don’t think Smash Bros will be a straight simple port. They will probably position this as the “Ultimate version of Smash Bros”. Anyways, we won’t have to wait too long to hear about it.” Then when asked about it, Emily clarifies, “Nah, I’m just saying you’ll hear about it either before or by E3.” (Post #3922)
Regardless of whether there’s any substance to this rumor, we can’t imagine Nintendo leaving Smash, Animal Crossing, or any of their other key titles in the dark for too much longer. We’ll be sure to cover any further information regarding the Smash for Switch port or other credible Nintendo leaks in the future.
Check out the huge space Nintendo reserved at E3 here. More rumors about Pokemon Switch have also surfaced recently.
