New Smash Bros. Challengers Approach, and the Rest of the Week in Games

Crossovers, screen tests, and the ever-looming threat of legal action—this week had it all. Let's get to it.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Is the Greatest Crossover Event in Yada Yada

Yesterday morning, Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct conference for the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and—lord, where to start? Well, a new Pokemon (Incineroar), and Ken from Street Fighter were announced as new characters. And there will be downloadable content, including … the Piranha Plant from Super Mario. Yes, you can fight as Piranha Plant, if you preorder the game or purchase it later. Legs? Who needs legs?

Also, in a bit of news that is an immense joy to me personally, there will be a story mode! In the vein of Super Smash Bros Brawl's "Subspace Emissary" mode, it will feature all of the game's characters teaming up to fight, um, a bunch of giant hands. Watch the trailer! Everyone dies! Kirby is there! Eat your heart out, Marvel.

A British Publication Apologizes for Reporting on a Rockstar Games Leak, Which Is Weird

In February, the game site TI Media, a British publication, ran a story based on leaked information about Red Dead Redemption 2. Now, several months later, the publication has apologized and pulled the story, pledging not to do anything like that again. Which is, well, a tad confusing. What's wrong with journalism? Great Britain, to be fair, has more restrictive libel laws than the United States, but still: even if based on confidential sources, reporting on leaks is bread and butter in the gaming journalism space, and it's hard to argue that reporting on the release of a cowboy game early did anyone any harm. Still, Take Two, Rockstar's parent company, is a secretive bunch. I'm sure they weren't happy.

Henry Cavill's First Screen Test as The Witcher Sure Is … Something

Following along with our ongoing saga of "Hey, this game everyone loved is going to be a Netflix show", we've got our first look at Henry Cavill in his Geralt get-up. With long, straight white hair, colored eyes, and some appropriate period wear, it's definitely a Geralt outfit. And, like, sure, brief screen tests aren't really indicative of the final product, but something about this just looks off to me.

Basically, dude comes off like BOB from Twin Peaks vacationing at a renaissance faire. Like your step-dad trying to cosplay Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Henry Cavill's Geralt is one tube of eyeshadow away from starting a metal band named after the Silmarillion.

Okay. I'm done. We can continue now.

Recommendation of the Week: NieR for the PlayStation 3

If you have the technology to play it, NieR is a messy masterpiece. The forerunner to Yoko Taro's acclaimed (and WIRED's Game of the Year for 2017) Nier: Automata, it's a subversive fantasy/sci-fi role-playing game that embraces the formula of games like Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda—only to wrench it away and turn it toward emotive, subversive ends. NieR has some of my favorite characters in games, and some of the best music. It has a layer of tedium and a lack of polish that are addressed in Nier: Automata, but if you have the patience, and the curiosity, it's one of the most compelling packages in games.