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

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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 …

A new two-year investigation has revealed that more Australians than ever before have been turning to their telephones and computers in order to enjoy some form of gambling entertainment. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

Conducted by researchers from Central Queensland University with funding from the Gambling Research Australia partnership, the Second National Study of Interactive Gambling in Australia surveyed more than 15,000 people from across the length and breadth of the giant nation and found that 17.5% of respondents had placed a remote wager over the course of the previous two years. The examination furthermore showed that this percentage represented a two-year rise of 8.1% after the overall gambling participation rate had decreased from 64.3% eleven years ago to 56.9% in 2019.

Lottery largess:

Professor Nerilee Hing from the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at Central Quee…

In Japan and the Casino Management Board regulator has reportedly unveiled the provisional inventory of games that could be offered inside the nation’s coming trio of integrated casino resorts.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the conditional list encompasses 21 game variants currently banned in Japan including two types of baccarat and eight deviations of poker. The source detailed that this rough catalog also embraces four forms of blackjack as well as sic-bo, craps, casino war, slots, pai gow and money wheel while excluding more traditional pastimes such as mahjong, pachinko and pachislot.

Pervasive powers:

Both chambers of Japan’s legislature reportedly approved the five inaugural members of the Casino Management Board in November of 2019 and subsequently tasked the body with serving as the official regulator for the embryonic domestic casino market. The organization is being led by the former Legal Compliance Inspector Ge…

Microsoft has revealed a brand-new custom Garfield-branded Xbox Series S console. It doesn’t seem like it will be available to the general public to purchase, as it’s being offered as a prize to celebrate the release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and the recent announcement of Garfield joining the roster.

This special console has a rather simple design: It’s just orange with a picture of an unamused Garfield. Those who follow the official Xbox account and retweet Xbox’s tweet with the hashtag #XboxGarfieldSweepstakes will have a chance to win it. The sweepstakes end on December 23.

According to the guidelines, since this sweepstake is being held on Twitter, there are several prerequisites. Xbox will directly message you on Twitter, so make sure you have them open on December 29 when the company will let you know if you’ve won. Additionally, your Twitter account must not be “locked” and should be “unprotected” or “public” in order to be eligible.

Your Twitter accoun…

Microsoft’s xCloud service has started getting Xbox Series X hardware upgrades for some games. As reported by Tom Warren from The Verge, some games on the cloud streaming service like Rainbow Six Siege and Yakuza: Like a Dragon now load faster and have options for Xbox Series X enhancements like improved graphics and frame rates.