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Nintendo dislikes Animal Crossing trading, BloodRayne’s Back

TODAY: Sony unleashes the mushroom zombie apocalypse just in time for summer — Grey market item trade platforms form around Animal Crossing: New Horizons — AT&T are selling off Warner Bros. Interactive

Top Story

Summer of Gaming Online game events round-up

Several online game events have kicked off in the past few days, featuring announcements, reveals and interviews. We have rounded up the highlights so far!

Future Games Show — Watch stream

Guerrilla Collective highlights — Watch stream

PC Gaming Show highlights — Watch stream

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Who voiced Mario and Luigi in the infamous CD-i game Hotel Mario?

  • Marc Graue
  • Charles Martinet
  • Stephan Weyte
  • John William Galt

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Daily Fact

Theme Park World was a Sim game too

Bullfrog’s Theme Park World was launched as Sim Theme Park in North America because Maxis was the big management game brand there. Theme Park and Theme Hospital were strong brand names in Europe, so there was no need to associate the game with the Sim series on the other side of the pond.

Maxis General Manager Luc Barthelet said he was actually pretty jealous that his studio didn’t come up with the idea, but appreciated the opportunity to be a small part of the story. Maxis eventually featured a theme park system in the 2013 Sim City reboot.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Game Review

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout Review

Developer: Daedalic Entertainment

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

Get ready for a wild adventure as Edna and her floppy-eared toy Harvey attempt to escape from a mental hospital. The 2008 point-and-click adventure was remastered and launched for PC last year, and is now arriving on Switch. While the remaster is perfect for fans of the wacky tale, it’s not the best introduction to the genre.

If you’re a hardcore point-and-click enthusiast, you’ll definitely enjoy the 20-hour story – but the cryptic puzzles are likely to stump newcomers. The controller isn’t as elegant as the classic mouse control either.

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout looks great, and the new high-resolution art makes it look like a late-night cartoon from the late oughties. The bright palette and exaggerated character designs result in a unique look suitable for a point-and-click game. You can also flip between the original and remastered art, although it’s mostly a nostalgic touch for fans of the original.

The game runs well and looks good on the Switch screen, but the lack of touch screen controls are a missed opportunity since the game is completely pointer-driven. Instead, you have to move the cursor using the right stick, which can be frustrating and imprecise, especially when puzzles have a timing element.

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout is a great remaster for fans of the original, but it doesn’t really fit the Switch platform particularly well. Die-hard fans might be able to forgive some clumsy input, but if you’re just looking for a nice point-and-clicker then beware that the mix of awkward input and hard puzzles can try your patience.

Score: 4/10

This Week In Gaming

Paradise City or zombie apocalypse?

The classic real-time tactics series Desperados returns on Tuesday alongside Disintegration, an FPS with RTS elements. On Friday you can return to Paradise City in Burnout Paradise Remastered, or do exactly the opposite in The Last Of Us Part II.

Tuesday – June 16

  • Desperados III launches on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4
  • Disintegration launches on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4

Friday – June 19

  • Burnout Paradise Remastered launches on Nintendo Switch
  • The Last of Us Part II launches on PlayStation 4

Animal Crossing Trading

Nintendo clamps down on Animal Crossing: New Horizons grey market

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a lot of rare and random items and characters, as well as a trading system. That’s pretty much a recipe for a grey market.

Since the game doesn’t facilitate buying and selling using real money, a bunch of individuals and even organizations have started acting as middle-men for such trading, and some characters fetch ¥5,000 and ¥8,000 on Japanese trading sites.

TOS violation: Nintendo is not terribly amused, as their terms of service forbids buying and selling content. This isn’t the first time grey markets spring up around games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has skin markets and even skin gambling sites.

Case-by-case: Nintendo is very keen to keep Animal Crossing: New Horizons nice and family-friendly, and will be tracking and pursuing real money trade, whether it is perpetrated by individual players or organizations.

What Else Happened Today?

Esports Bits

ESL is planning next LAN tournament

ESL could soon be hosting its first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament be held in a studio in Cologne between August 21st and August 30th.

Big events are still banned in Germany, so there won’t be any spectators in the arena, but the competing teams should be able to gather without breaking any rules, allowing European and American teams to compete for the first time since February. If that doesn’t work out, ESL will split the tournament into regional online divisions instead.

Blizzard tries new tournament format for ailing Overwatch League

The Overwatch League has been shedding a lot of viewers since the start of its third season. In response, Blizzard has tested a tournament format rather than the usual league. The May Melee event had twice as many viewers, with 88,000 tuning in for the finals. Blizzard’s VP of Overwatch esports Jon Spector said: “We think the May tournament went really well, so we’re going to run it back accordingly”.

That’s why Blizzard will keep the tournament format for the last two months of the Overwatch League. There will be three weeks of qualifications leading up to two regional competitions for the North American and Asian regions.

BBC will broadcast the UKLC and NLC

The BBC will broadcast the UK League Championship (UKLC) and Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC). Matches will be available through iPlayer and the BBC Sports app, both of which requires a valid TV license.

The UKLC takes place between June 14th and July 27th, and brings together eight teams who compete for places in the playoffs. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on traditional sports events, but esports doesn’t need centralized events, which is why the BBC is looking to introduce a whole new audience to League of Legends.

DailyBits Recommends

Findway Switch Case

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It won’t interfere with your button presses, and has a stable rear guard that helps the Switch stand on a flat surface. The protector is made up of three segments that can easily be fitted and removed thanks to its release buttons. Have a look at the Findway for Nintendo Switch Case, and if you buy it via our link, Daily Bits gets a small commission.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Who voiced Mario and Luigi in the infamous CD-i game Hotel Mario?

Answer: Marc Graue!

There are pretty much only two notable things about Hotel Mario: It’s on Phillips CD-i and has truly weird cutscenes.

The cutscenes are so weird they overshadow the rest of the game. The premise sounds ordinary enough: Mario and Luigi must save Princess Peach from Bowser and his Koopalings – but the whole production has an uncanny quality to it.

This is in large part thanks to the performance of one Marc Graue, a veteran voice actor who has also appeared in World of WarCraft and Fallout: New Vegas. He voiced both Mario and Luigi, and is both amused and honored to see his work attract attention more than 25 years later.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Christian Vaz, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey.