Pokemon’s Crown Tundra, Balan Wonderworld Might Surprise You

Yuji Naka’s latest game will surprise you

Sonic creator and Sega veteran Yuji, is working on an action game called Balan Wonderworld for Square Enix, where your abilities is determined by your costume.

"Even during test play, I saw everyone use different strategies," Yuji Naka told IGN Japan at Tokyo Game Show 2020. This is the first character-based platformer from Yuji Naka in a long time, and he's keenly aware that Square Enix “has an RPG image,” which is not really his forte.

Dual Sense: The team is going all-in on PlayStation 5's new features, such as its adaptive triggers: "I think players will be really surprised by it," he said.

Tall tales: Naka said he exaggerated his proposal for Balan Wonderworld, believing he’d “run out of steam” at around 40 in-game abilities, but actually ended up making all the 80 abilities he pitched. The legendary producer is taking his “one chance” at Square Enix seriously, and promises the story will be a proper hero's journey.

Which version of War of the Worlds were the three game adaptations based on?

a) The 1938 Radio Broadcast
b) The 1953 Film
c) The 1978 Concept Album
d) The 1988 TV Series

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.

It’s Mr. Pants had Rare artists draw only with their left hands

Rare’s oddball Game Boy Advance puzzle game It's Mr. Pants had a rather striking artstyle that looked like childrens' drawings. How do you make a studio full of world-class artists draw like kids? By forcing them to use only their left hands, of course!

It's Mr. Pants was designed as a multiplayer game, but ended up as a single-player game due to technical limitations. It started out as Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, but the project was cancelled when Microsoft bought Rare in 2002.

THQ picked it up, and finished it up – with some changes. The game's marathon mode Crayon Snake was originally called Trouser Snake, but THQ wasn't quite as enthusiastic about toilet humour as the lads at Rare.

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

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Super Mario Bros. 35 and Star Wars: Squadrons

Crash Bandicoot is crashing Mario's birthday party with his long-expected comeback, while EA is launching their VR-compatible Star Wars space ship simulator.

Monday – September 28

• Genshin Impact for PC, PlayStation 4, iOS and Android
• Panzer Dragoon: Remake for PlayStation 4

Tuesday – September 29

• Re:Turn – One Way Trip for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One & Switch
• Spelunky 2 for PC
• Umihara Kawase BaZooKa!! for PlayStation 4 & Switch
• Warsaw for PlayStation 4

Thursday – October 01

• Super Mario Bros. 35 for Switch
• Warsaw for Switch

Friday – October 02

• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time for PlayStation 4 & Xbox One
• Star Wars: Squadrons for PC, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One
• Warsaw for Xbox One

Sword & Shield Expansion Pass news

The Pokémon Company will be streaming fresh news about the Pokémon Sword & Shield Expansion Pass tomorrow.

“Get ready, Trainers: we’ve got updates for you about the upcoming Pokémon Sword Expansion Pass and Pokémon Shield Expansion Pass!”

Sword & Shield each has its own Expansion Pass, and the previous expansion which added The Isle of Armor launched on June 17th. The next adds The Crown Tundra and is scheduled to launch this winter.

Snowy highlands: The stream will most likely be all about The Crown Tundra, which is based on Scotland, building on Sword & Shield's British inspiration. The new expansion is spearheaded by the deer-like legendary Pokémon Calyrex.

Fuller Pokédex: Various regional forms of well+known Pokémon appareed on The Isle of Armor, and The Crown Tundra will reintroduce over a hundred Pokémon that were not available in the base game at release. The Pokédex still won't be complete, but it's a big step in the right direction.

Tekken 7 Season 4 changes the game

Bandai Namco has announced how Tekken 7's fourth season will change the game. The biggest announcement is the return of Kunimitsu, her first appearance since Tekken 2 in 1995. One more character will be added during Season 4, and is scheduled to arrive in early 2021.

The existing character roster will also be rebalanced to make the weaker characters more viable and prevent the top-tier fighters from dominating the field. There is also new netcode and an overhauled matchmaking system on the horizon, but no release schedule has been revealed. Expect to hear more closer to launch later this autumn.

League of Legends World Championship breaks 1.1 million viewers on its first day

The League of Legends World Championship is back, and has already smashed previous spectator records. The opening day drew hundreds of thousands of viewers, with the most popular match being Team Liquid vs MAD Lions, peaking at just over 1.1 million viewers.

ESPN’s Tyler Erzberger noted that this figure does not include television viewers or streaming sites, so the actual number of viewers is much greater. The play-offs will continue until the end of October, and you can find the match schedule here.

Hearthstone World Championship 2020 returns in December

Blizzard is hosting the online Hearthstone World Championship 2020 from December 12th until the 14th, and features eight of the world's best players: Brian ‘bloodyface’ Eason (Grandmasters 2020 Season 1, Americas), Sato ‘glory’ Kenta (Grandmasters 2020 Season 1, Asia-Pacific), Vladislav ‘Silvername’ Sinotov (Grandmasters 2020 Season 1, Europe), and Fan ‘iG.Syf’ Yilun (Gold Series, China).

Three more competitors will qualify once season two of Grandmasters concludes on October 11th, while the final spot in the tournament goes to the winner of the Chinese Gold Series, which will be decided on November 15th.

• Amazon warns of Xbox Series X stock issues, warning customers that they “might not receive” consoles on launch day
• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition delayed into 2021 to ensure consistent quality and apparently the original Mass Effect is causing some headaches
• Capcom teases Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, a CG animated series for Netflix coming next year
• Grey Skies: A War of the Worlds Story coming on October 22nd, putting your stealth skills to the test among invading Martians in rural England
• Colletion of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend for Switch bundles all the Game Boy Final Fantasy Legend games into one package

Which version of War of the Worlds were the three game adaptations based on?

ANSWER: The 1979 concept album!

No adaptation of HG Wells' famous science-fiction novel has proven as durable as Jeff Wayne's musical – there have even been three videogames based on it!

The first one from 1984 is ancient and slow-paced, but the 1998 PC game is notable for being one of the first 3D real-time strategy games, and allowing you to control either Terran defense or Martian invasion forces. The 1999 PlayStation game was a vehicular combat game only released in Europe.

All the games feature remixed music from the War of the Worlds concept album, but you're unlikely to find any soundtracks to supplement your limited edition vinyl version of the source material.

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

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