NLG - Next Level Gaming

Today's Pokémon Presents gave us lots of updates on upcoming Pokémon titles, like Detective Pikachu Returns , the classic games coming to Switch Online , and even new raids for Mewtwo  in Scarlet and Violet. However, none of those updates were as substantial as the one we got on the upcoming Scarlet and Violet DLC, with the showcase spending ten minutes of its 35-minute runtime to reveal new Pokémon, new areas, and even a release date. Here's everything you need to know about Pokémon Scarlet and Vilet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. We knew that one of the expansions, The Teal Mask, would be coming in the fall – but now we know the exact date. On September 13, you'll be able to leave the Paldea region and explore the area around Kitakami Village, which is where the DLC takes place. According to the trailer, ancient folklore of the village says that they were attacked by an Ogre, but that it was driven off by three Pokémon of legend: Okidogi, Munkidori, Fezandipiti. At

If you were looking forward to playing the pro-wrestling-themed RPG WrestleQuest today for its launch, it looks like that card was subject to change. The game has suffered a last-minute delay and will now arrive on August 22. Developer Mega Cat Studios and publisher Skybound Games announced the delay yesterday evening, explaining the cause was due to the discovery of a save glitch. The statement reads, “When performing final checks on one of our launch platforms, we discovered it was possible for players to lose their save game progress when playing WrestleQuest on multiple different devices. Because this is a game filled with hours of content and player progress is so important, we could never bodyslam our fans like that.” While it’s a bummer to see the game get pushed back mere hours before launch, it’s a good thing the team caught this issue before it could affect players. Curious wrestling and RPG fans will have to wait another couple of weeks, but at least they'll presumab

Following her announcement as the first all-new character to join the Street Fighter 6 roster by way of DLC, A.K.I. gave fans a taste of what to expect when she is added to the game this fall. During this weekend's Evo 2023 fighting game tournament, we received a host of new announcements, including new characters added to the roster of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 and even a surprise TMNT collaboration with Street Fighter 6 . However, Capcom didn't stop there, as it gave us the first teaser trailer for its 20th playable character, A.K.I. Described as "a manaical poison aficionado," A.K.I. certainly seems to fit right in with the long lineage of over-the-top and deranged characters within the Street Fighter universe. You can check out the surprisingly dark teaser trailer for A.K.I. below. While we already knew A.K.I. was planned, the teaser comes hot on the heels of the release of Rashid, the first DLC character for Street Fighter 6. Rashid debuted in Street Fig

Mortal Kombat 1’s roster continues to expand, and the latest trailer reveals a returning staple and two long-lost fighters from the series’ 2000s era: Reptile, Ashrah, and Havik. The lengthy trailer provides a great look at the new looks and abilities of each character as well as their respective roles in the story. Reptile is back in his more human form but can still shapeshift into his natural, intimidating lizard body to devour opponents.   Fans of 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception should be happy to see the returns of Ashrah and Havik. Each made their debut in that game, and neither has appeared in the series since Deception’s follow-up, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon in 2006. Ashrah sports a much different look and moveset but remains a demoness mostly cleansed of her inherent evil. Havik appears to retain his chaotic brand of body-contorting, limb-tearing offense. Sareena has also been confirmed as a new Kameo fighter to fan the flame of 2000s nostalgia. Check out the new trailer and

Publisher Tate Multimedia and developer Trialforge Studio have released the debut trailer for Deathbound, its new Soulslike action RPG with a unique class-based twist coming to Steam next year.  Set in a crumbling civilization where unnatural science clashes with fanatical faith, players take on the role of a warrior set on confronting the Church of Death. In this world – Ziêminal – there's no good and no evil; just monsters and enemies in your way. And if today's Deathbound trailer is anything to go on, they won't go down without a fight.  Check out the Deathbound reveal trailer for yourself below :  As you can see in the trailer above, players can freely switch between various heroes of different classes in a party at any time, and they'll need to do so to survive in specific situations. Trialforge Studio calls this a "Binding System, allowing players to absorb the essence of the fallen warriors found throughout the world." Using the collected essence,

In 2017, Sonic Mania brought the series back to its 2D roots in a way not seen in decades. While handheld titles, the poorly received Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and other games like Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors contained 2D gameplay, Sonic Mania felt like the true successor to the beloved titles that appeared on Genesis and Sega CD throughout the 1990s. A sequel felt all but inevitable, but when Sega and Sonic Mania mastermind Christian Whitehead decided to amicably go in creatively different directions (read the full story here ), Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka still wanted to build on the success experienced with Sonic Mania. "During Sonic Mania's development, I didn't expect this level of fan reaction or success," Iizuka says. "That success created the opportunity to think about the next generation of Classic Sonic and led to Sonic Superstars. Sonic Mania helped us realize that fans still wanted and enjoyed the Classic series." The road

Immortals of Aveum is an upcoming action game that mixes a fantasy world and its magic with first-person shooting. We've played a chunk of it and enjoyed it – read our full hands-on preview thoughts here – but now, we've heard a track from the game's score. And you can too because we can exclusively reveal that track today.  It's big, robust, and heroic, fitting if the full game is anything like what we've gone hands-on with. After listening to this track, we interviewed the game's audio director Aubrey Hodges, music producer Jamie K, and media composer Tom Hawk about the game's score, how the team created a soundtrack that blends hip-hop with orchestral arrangements, and so much more.  Q&A With The Composers Of Immortals Of Aveum   How would you describe the score and/or soundtrack of Immortals of Aveum?  Aubrey Hodges:  The score for Immortals of Aveum is a hybrid of several genres that have been fused together to create a very wide palette

Immortals of Aveum is an upcoming action game that mixes a fantasy world and its magic with first-person shooting. We've played a chunk of it and enjoyed it – read our full hands-on preview thoughts here – but now, we've heard a track from the game's score. And you can too because we can exclusively reveal that track today.  It's big, robust, and heroic, fitting if the full game is anything like what we've gone hands-on with. After listening to this track, we interviewed the game's audio director Aubrey Hodges, music producer Jamie K, and media composer Tom Hawk about the game's score, how the team created a soundtrack that blends hip-hop with orchestral arrangements, and so much more.  Q&A With The Composers Of Immortals Of Aveum   How would you describe the score and/or soundtrack of Immortals of Aveum?  Aubrey Hodges:  The score for Immortals of Aveum is a hybrid of several genres that have been fused together to create a very wide palette

The Pokémon Company has announced that a Pokémon Presents presentation is happening next week, on Tuesday, August 8. It will begin at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET and run for roughly 35 minutes. The company announced this with a short teaser clip on the official Pokémon Twitter account, and you can watch that for yourself below:  The next #PokemonPresents arrives soon, Trainers! Tune in to our official YouTube channel at 6:00 a.m. PDT on August 8 for 35 minutes of Pokémon news and updates! 🎊 https://t.co/Lxoud6kVxF pic.twitter.com/xe65FmqEn5 — Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 4, 2023 As you can see, the teaser doesn't reveal too much beyond details of when the Pokémon Presents is happening. However, near its start, there's an interesting use of purple-pink and neon lighting. Perhaps it's alluding to Mewtwo or Mew, or maybe to Ryme City from  Pokémon Detective Pikachu , which features plenty of neon lighting in the movie . It could be an allusion to  Pokémon Black and its neon f

Striking Distance Studios, the studio behind last year’s action horror title The Callisto Protocol, as suffered a number of layoffs. It’s been confirmed via IGN that 32 employees have been let go from the studio. These include production coordinator Sebastian Marlow, associate producer Nora Falcon, senior environment artist Matthew Smith, and VFX artist Matt Christopherson.  A spokesperson for Krafton, Striking Distance’s publisher, gave the following statement to IGN :  “Striking Distance Studios and Krafton have implemented strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success. Unfortunately, these changes have impacted 32 employees. Honoring the invaluable contributions of each departing team member with material support in the form of outplacement services and meaningful severance packages is our top priority during this difficult moment.” Striking Distance was founded in 2019 by Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofi

Nintendo just had one of its best first quarters since the launch of the Switch in 2017, thanks in part to sales of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom . The company’s latest financial report reveals that Tears of the Kingdom sold 18.51 million units from its release to June 30. This led to Nintendo having the highest “global sell-through of first-party” for a first quarter since the launch of the Switch. It says sales of Tears of the Kingdom also drove hardware sales, as Nintendo sold 3.91 million units in this quarter, which ran from April 1 to June 30, 2023.  Nintendo says those 3.91 million units sold translates to unit sales for the entire Switch family of systems rising by 13.9% year-on-year, led primarily by the Switch OLED Model, which contributed 2.83 million of those sales. The standard Switch sold .64 million units and the Switch Lite sold .43 million. Software sales grew by 26.1% year-on-year to 52.21 million units during the same period. Tears of the Kingdom’s

Pokémon Trading Card Game releases its latest expansion, Scarlet & Violet – Obsidian Flames, next week. With Charizard serving as the figurehead Pokémon for this expansion, it's sure to be a popular release given that particular Pocket Monster's history with the TCG.  This expansion continues building on the Scarlet and Violet games with even more Paldean species but also adds type-shifted Tera Pokémon ex. This mechanic recalls the Delta Species mechanic from the early 2000s, where the strongest form of a Pokémon could be of a different type than its evolutionary chain. However, type-shifted Tera Pokémon ex actually make sense within the context of the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games , as Tera Pokémon often change types when they Terastallize. One of the marquee type-shifted Tera Pokémon is a Darkness-type Charizard ex. Obsidian Flames adds more than 190 new cards to the TCG, including more than 20 new Pokémon ex cards, more than 15 Trainer cards, and a bunch of special