Fans of old-school platformers have had plenty of choices lately, and WayForward’s Shantae: Half-Genie Hero–the latest in the series that debuted on the Game Boy Color–is yet another great addition to the list. The franchise has received two excellent, intentionally retro-styled adventures on modern platforms, but Half-Genie Hero mixes in modern 3D graphics with its traditional 2D gameplay, which makes for a game that straddles the line between new and old.

The Shantae series always had a distinct, engaging tongue-in-cheek quality to them, and that’s on full display here. Shantae herself is a self-aware caricature of 16-bit icons–she’s moody and snarky and giddy in equal measure and the side characters are all fun in their own way. The plot feels a little thrown together at times, quickly establishing characters and story elements with little explanation. Admittedly, depth of story usually isn’t the main element we look for in a classic side-scroller, but …

Whether Nintendo intended it or not, conventional wisdom tends to sort modern Mario games into something of a mental tier list. The 3D Mario games like Galaxy and Odyssey are the flagship mascot platformers, and 2D Mario games like the New Super Mario Bros. series are somewhat lesser retro throwbacks. Still good, dependable, but less prestigious. It’s after years of 2D games languishing in understudy status that Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes center stage–and it delivers such a knockout performance that it makes the argument, implicit or otherwise, that 2D Mario games can be just as vital to the medium as their 3D siblings.

In essence, the Wonder effects that lend Mario Wonder its title can be likened to the planetoids of Super Mario Galaxy–a simple, easily understood hook that gave stage designers carte blanche to be as inventive and strange as they’d like, constantly reinventing the mechanics and subverting expectations. The result once again is a game …

That’s another Nintendo Indie Showcase in the books. As the name implies, these smaller Nintendo Direct-style events are solely aimed at smaller indie games, so don’t glance through this roundup expecting to hear what’s happening with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or (sadly) Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Below, we go over every announcement and include every trailer revealed during the Direct, including a handful of Switch games that are out today and release dates for anticipated sequels like Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and Blasphemous 2 Come from Sports betting site VPbet . We’ve organized announcements in the order they occurred during the Direct.

Mineko’s Night Market

…

Al Pacino has a storied career, appearing in The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, Heat… the list goes on. But apparently, the Oscar-winning actor had a chance to sit down across from Greedo in Star Wars. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

Speaking to Variety, Pacino says he passed on playing Han Solo back in the 1970s. “Well, I turned down Star Wars. When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous. It’s like, ‘Give it to Al.’ They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play,” he said.

“They gave me a script called Star Wars. …They offered me so much money. I don’t understand it. I read it. …So I said I couldn’t do it. I gave Harrison Ford a career.”

Ford, obviously, ended up portraying Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy. He then reprised his scruffy-looking role for Disney in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and …