Sand Land Demo Out Now, Unlocks Rewards For The Full Game
A Sand Land demo is now available on PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X|S ahead of the game’s launch at the end of April. The reveal came via a new trailer you can watch below.
Although the 56-second-long trailer doesn’t give too much info away, it does tease some of the game’s action featuring the series’ signature vehicles like Battle Tanks, Battle Armors, and motorcycles.
Publisher Bandai Namco revealed that those who play the demo will receive 30 B-grade steel and 30 B-grade bolts when the full game launches. These in-game items can be used to enhance vehicles whenever players visit Spino.
For those unaware, Sand Land is a popular manga the late Akira Toriyama created. In it, a desert world shared by humans and demons suffers from a water shortage. The story follows a demon named Beelzebub, who travels to find a hidden water source with the help of some friends.
Sand Land is scheduled to come out on April 26. It’ll be playable on PC, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. For more Sand Land content, be sure to check out our preorder guide to ensure you secure some exclusive goodies.
How To Save $100 On Samsung’s Upcoming TVs, Projectors, And Soundbars
Earlier this year, Samsung unveiled its lineup of new TVs and audio devices launching in 2024, including the next Neo QLED 4K and 8K TVs, a new 8K projector, two new sound bars, and more. Preorders for all the new devices will be available soon, and Samsung its giving customers $100 off their orders ahead of time. All you have to do to get this special promo is sign up to receive preorder notifications for the upcoming products on Samsung’s online store by March 21. Signing up also enters you in for a chance to win a free second-gen Samsung Freestyle portable projector.
The $100 credit can be applied to one of the new devices during checkout once the preorder period begins on March 21. The credit must be used before the preorder window closes on April 10. Samsung’s preorder credit deal is limited to US customers 18 years of age or older, and signups require your name, email, and phone number.
As for the new devices you can use the $100 preorder credit on, the most notable are this year’s Neo QLED 8K and 4K TV models that feature AI-powered upscaling and motion enhancements, and run on Samsung’s new 2024 Tizen smart TV OS. Multiple size options will be available, starting at 43 inches and going up to 98 inches.
There is also Samsung’s new The Premier 8K wireless projector and a new version of Samsung’s The Frame display, which resembles a picture frame and displays a rotating selection of artwork and your own personal photos.
Finally, the new audio devices include the ultra-thin HW-S800D soundbar, the beefy HW-Q990D soundbar with Hi-Fi audio and 11.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos support, and a new wall-mounted speaker of The Frame display called The Music Frame.
You can learn more about all the new displays and audio products at Samsung’s official website. Pricing and release dates for all the devices will be announced in the coming days.
TMNT: Mutants Unleashed Preorders Come With A Bunch Of Free Extras At Walmart
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is an upcoming 3D brawler set in the same universe as the 2023 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. It lets you dive into the gritty streets of New York as one of the four turtles as you fight off a new enemy that’s threatening the city. Local co-op is also supported, allowing you and a buddy to fight side by side as you unravel the latest TMNT mystery.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed doesn’t have an official release date beyond Q4 2024, but preorders are already open. Here’s a look at all available editions and preorder bonuses up for grabs.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed preorder bonuses
There are no universal preorder bonuses for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed. However, Walmart has an exclusive edition that comes with a steelbook, pin set, art book, and keychain–all for the same price as the standard edition.
The Walmart Edition comes with a bunch of extras for free.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is up for preorder at multiple major retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and Walmart for just $40.
As mentioned, you’ll almost definitely want to opt for Walmart if you’re preordering. Mutants Unleashed is one of those rare games that has a Walmart-exclusive edition. These tend to be pretty cool, and it’s no different here.
The Walmart Edition comes with the following goodies at no extra charge:
- Steelbook case
- Pin set
- Art book
- Keychain
Mutants Unleashed is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Switch. It’ll also launch on PC, though preorders are not yet open.
Zack Snyder’s Dawn Of The Dead Has One Of The Greatest Openings In Horror History
The 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, written by James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder (in his directorial debut!), celebrates its 20th anniversary this week. Both critically praised and commercially successful at the time of its release, the film, along with 28 Days Later, helped popularize the concept of sprinting zombies over their shambling, slouching, Romero-made counterparts. They created panic and urgency, and they made for an opening sequence that was worth the price of admission by itself.
Like many great horror films, Dawn of the Dead doesn’t start with horror. Our main character, Ana, is a nurse, and she’s wrapping up a long shift at the hospital. What’s great about this opening sequence–of her talking with co-workers and killing time–is how mundane it is. This is not load-bearing dialogue, and the actors don’t deliver it theatrically, as if to imply narrative stakes. We know that Ana is about to have the worst day of her life. But she doesn’t know that. Nothing feels urgent or pressing, because from her perspective, it isn’t.
She doesn’t know it’s the last time she’s going to see her co-worker, or the neighborhood girl, or her husband. Even the shower sex between them, tastefully filmed behind the steaming glass, feels domestic and perfunctory.
The neighborhood also looks perfect–a little too perfect. The ground is spotless, the lawns are immaculate, and the colors are a little too bright and saturated. It’s an old trick that lots of horror and thriller movies use. In Blue Velvet, David Lynch filmed the neighborhood of Lumberton in this manner to communicate its falsehood–that beneath the surface, there is a rot and evil.
The manicured nature of Ana’s life prompts the viewer to consider the suddenness with which life can go completely, irreversibly to shit. There’s no warning–it simply happens, with no chance for closure or to say goodbye. Instead, you just have to react and, hopefully, survive.
With enough attention paid, we can tell something terrible is unfolding. A patient at Ana’s hospital is likely a zombie victim. We hear bits of an emergency broadcast on the radio and television, although, of course, our characters don’t pay enough mind to it. This particular element is borrowed from the original Night of the Living Dead (1968), in which we heard about the zombie epidemic via radio–first in Barbara’s car, and later in the barricaded house.
Then the shit hits the fan–not in the middle of the night, like a more typical horror movie might have done, but in the wee hours of the morning. There’s something unseemly about getting one’s throat torn out before breakfast.
The neighborhood girl tears a hole in the husband’s neck, he bleeds out, and Ana goes into professional nurse mode–she tries to staunch the bleeding, and she gets on the phone to dial 911. Neither works, and in a matter of seconds, her husband’s corpse reanimates and attacks her.
The scene communicates several key points through staging and non-verbal communication. First, we get a rudimentary idea of how the zombies in this universe work. You get attacked, you die, you come back. Second, Ana realizes her training will have limited practicality. And third, she needs to divorce herself of emotional attachments. This is not a scenario where she has time to grieve or seek closure. She needs to kill or be killed. Everyone has been reduced to an animal state; the zombies are the predators, and the uninfected are the prey.
Then Ana goes outside, and everything she sees reinforces the prior points. A neighbor points a gun at her before he’s hit by an out-of-control ambulance. (How’s that for irony?) This is a world where panic will kill people as easily as the zombies. We see a gas station blow up, which has all sorts of long-term implications. The infrastructure of this world is quickly coming undone, which will affect people’s ability to contact and reach each other.
And Ana’s a quick learner–a woman asks for help, and she drives on by. She can’t trust anyone. And when a man attempts to steal the car, it only underlines this idea. Not only can she not help other people, but she has to worry whether those people are openly hostile.
In the ensuing scuffle, she loses control of her car and crashes into a tree. The screen goes black. And what ensues is one of the finest opening credits scenes of the last 20 years.
The song, for starters, is “The Man Comes Around,” by Johnny Cash. It’s the first track on American IV, the final album that Cash released in his lifetime, and his final masterpiece. The recording sessions were marked by morbidity. Cash was dying slowly; he was mostly blind, and diabetic neuropathy and pneumonia had ravaged his body.
His voice, one of the strongest in country music, had been diminished to a shaky rasp. Covers and traditional Americana made up the bulk of the album, but “The Man Comes Around” was the lone original song written by Cash, inspired by the Book of Revelation. It is a terrifying song, written by someone who knows the end is near. But despite its morbidity, it still has the rhythmic back beat that often defined Cash’s career. It’s a hell of a juxtaposition. And it communicated something subliminally: We’re about to watch a movie that’s horrifying, but a whole lot of fun.
The images that play over the music are a combination of original zombie footage and real-life footage of riots and urban warfare, and they’re edited together so seamlessly that you’re not entirely sure where one ends and the other begins. This strikes at the principal fear that contextualizes all zombie media: It’s your neighbors, your loved ones, and your fellow citizens who are the monsters. And this blurring, between what’s fake and real, makes it plain that humanity’s savagery is closer to the surface than we’d care to admit.
Romero, despite liking the remake overall, criticized the film in several interviews after its release. “… It sort of lost its reason for being,” said Romero in an interview with Uproxx. But there’s one thing that Romero and nearly every horror fan agreed upon. The first 10-15 minutes–from the opening scene at the hospital to the conclusion of the opening credits–are near-perfect. They throw you into a state of confusion and excitement for what’s to come. Then they ground a ridiculous premise in reality, by seamlessly editing news footage and zombie footage together over an upbeat Johnny Cash tune. It’s the end of the world. But we’re going out with a bang.
New On Hulu In April 2024: Vanderpump Villa, Mission: Yozakura Family, Shazam 2, And More
With March more than half over, Hulu has released its schedule of all the new movies and shows coming to its streaming platform in April 2024.
On April 1, viewers can watch the series premiere of Vanderpump Villa, a Hulu original. According to a press release, the upcoming show will be an “unscripted docu-drama” that follows the Lisa Vanderpump staff as they work/live at an exclusive French estate called the Chateau Rosabelle.
But if you’re looking for something with a little more action, don’t worry. Shazam! Fury of the Gods will also be dropping on April 1. The superhero film set in the DCEU tells the story of Billy Batson and his family teaming up to save the world from a pack of angry gods.
Anime fans may be excited to hear that Mission: Yozakura Family will premiere on April 7. The upcoming anime is based on the manga of the same name, written and drawn by Hitsuji Gondaira. The show tells the story of a young boy named Taiyou Asano who gets lured into a world of espionage
Below is a full list of everything coming to Hulu in April 2024:
April 1
- Vanderpump Villa: Series Premiere
- Annie – 2014 (Movie)
- The Big Lebowski – 1998 (Movie)
- Blair Witch – 2016 (Movie)
- Blockers – 2018 (Movie)
- Boys on the Side – 1995 (Movie)
- Capone – 2020 (Movie)
- Captain Phillips – 2013 (Movie)
- Copycat – 1995 (Movie)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days – 2012 (Movie)
- Don’t Worry Darling – 2022 (Movie)
- The Fifth Element – 1997 (Movie)
- The Fog – 1997 (Movie)
- Get Him to the Greek – 2010 (Movie)
- The Grudge 2 – 2006 (Movie)
- Hellboy – 2004 (Movie)
- The Host – 2006 (Movie)
- The Huntsman: Winter’s War – 2016 (Movie)
- Jack The Giant Slayer – 2013 (Movie)
- The Karate Kid – 2010 (Movie)
- Letters to Juliet – 2010 (Movie)
- Made in America – 1993 (Movie)
- The Next Karate Kid 30th Anniversary – 1994 (Movie)
- Ocean’s Eleven – 2011 (Movie)
- Ocean’s Thirteen – 2004 (Movie)
- Pacific Rim – 2013 (Movie)
- Runaway Jury – 2003 (Movie)
- Seven Years in Tibet – 1997 (Movie)
- Shazam! – 2019 (Movie)
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods – 2023 (Movie)
- Take Shelter – 2011 (Movie)
- Wonder Woman – 2017 (Movie)
- You Don’t Mess With The Zohan – 2008 (Movie)
- X2: X-Men United – 2003 (Movie)
- 50: First Dates – 2004 (Movie)
April 2
- iHeartRadio Music Awards 2024: Special Premiere
- The Interrogation Room: Complete Season 1
- Jumanji: The Next Level – 2019 (Movie)
April 3
- UFO Factory: Complete Season 1
April 4
- FX’s American Horror Story: Delicate: Part 2 Premiere
- American Pickers: Complete Season 24B
- Best in Chow: Complete Season 1
- Dark Marvels: Complete Season 1
- Mountain Men: Ultimate Marksman: Complete Season 1B
- Lord of Misrule – 2013 (Movie)
April 5
- Dinosaur: Complete Season 1
- She Came to Me – 2023 (Movie)
April 6
- The Fable: Series Premiere
April 7
- GO! GO! Loser Ranger!: Series Premiere
- Mission: Yozakura Family: Series Premiere (Subbed)
April 8
- Ishura: Complete Season 1 (Dubbed)
April 9
- The Grudge – 2020 (Movie)
- Teen Titans Go! To The Movies – 2018 (Movie)
April 10
- Blood Free: Two-Episode Series Premiere
- Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise: Series Premiere
- The Incredible Dr. Pol: Season 24 Premiere
- Sand Land: The Series: Two Episode Premiere (Dubbed)
- Curtain Call: Complete Season 1
- Kusama: Infinity – 2018 (Movie)
April 11
- Cold Case Files: The Rifkin Murders: Complete Season 1
- Scraps: Complete Season 1
- #TextMeWhenYouGetHome: Complete Season 2
- Immediate Family – 2022 (Movie)
- Trapped in the Farmhouse – 2023 (Movie)
April 12
- The Channel – 2023 (Movie)
- The Greatest Hits – 2024 (Movie)
April 13
- Alone – 2020 (Movie)
April 15
- A Kind Of Murder – 2016 (Movie)
- The Strangers – 2020 (Movie)
April 17
- See You in Another Life: Complete Season 1
- Under the Bridge: Series Premiere
- Drain the Oceans: Season 6 Premiere
- Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet: Season 12 Premiere
April 18
- All You Can Eat: Complete Season 1
- Secrets of Miss America: Complete Season 1
- 60 Days In: Complete Season 8
- Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story – 2023 (Movie)
- Blacklight – 2022 (Movie)
April 19
- FX’s Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3 Premiere
- Tattoo Fixers: Complete Seasons 1-4
April 20
- High Hopes: Complete Season 1
- The Marijuana Revolution: Complete Season 1
April 22
- Hip-Hop and The White House: Documentary
- Secrets of the Octopus: Special Premiere
- Little Women – 2019 (Movie)
- Yes, God, Yes – 2019 (Movie)
April 23
- The Meg – 2018 (Movie)
April 24
- Wonderful World: Complete Season 1
- Talking Sabor: Complete Season 1
April 25
- Booked: First Day In: Complete Season 1
- Mountain Men: Complete Season 11
- Wahlburgers: Complete Season 7
- Barber – 2023 (Movie)
- Boy in the Walls – 2023 (Movie)
April 26
- Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Complete Docuseries
April 27
- FX’s The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses: Special Premiere
- American Woman – 2018 (Movie)
April 28
- Isn’t It Romantic – 2019 (Movie)
- Stars at Noon – 2022 (Movie)
- Welcome to Smelliville – 2021 (Movie)
April 30
- FX’s The Veil: Limited Series Premiere
Xbox Expansion Card Gets Nice Discount, Will Sell Out Quickly
Best Buy has a great deal on the Western Digital Black 1TB C50 Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S. As part of the retailer’s “Drops” program, you can snag the card for $125 (was $150). This matches the best price ever at Best Buy and is the cheapest offer since Black Friday. Best Buy Drops is a relatively new initiative that is essentially the equivalent of Amazon’s Lightning Deals. It’s used for restocked items that will sell out fast and limited-time deals that are particularly good. At the time of writing, Best Buy still had roughly two-thirds of its inventory left–but the deal will likely disappear within a day.
$125 (was $150)
To get the WD Black 1TB C50 deal, you need to log into your My Best Buy account and purchase through the retailer’s mobile app.
You can run out of space on your Xbox Series X|S surprisingly fast. The Series X has 802GB of usable space, while the Series S clocks in at 364GB. Modern AAA games eat up space quickly, and if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, deleting games to make room for new ones can become the norm. The WD Black C50 is one of two official storage solutions. Your alternative is Seagate’s Expansion Card, which is going for full retail price of $150 at Amazon–Amazon is also selling the WD Black C50 for $150.
Western Digital also has a 512GB C50 for $80, in case you don’t think you need 1TB and want to save some cash.
Deals on Xbox Series X|S expansion cards are rare, and we typically only see them during major sales events like Black Friday and Prime Day.
Though you can plug regular USB external hard drives into your Xbox Series X|S, you can only use them to store Series X|S games. You can’t launch new-gen games from proprietary storage devices unless you insert the officially licensed Seagate or Western Digital expansion cards into the dedicated slot on your Series X|S.
Thanks to the Xbox Velocity proprietary technology, there’s no loss of data transfer speed either as you’ll still enjoy really fast loading times on your games and the Quick Resume function to switch between them in mere seconds.
Apex Legends Streamers Hacked During ALGS Tournament, And The Suspected Cause Is Ironic
The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) regional finals have been delayed for North America after two players were hacked mid-game over the weekend, and ironically, it seems the Apex’s anti-cheat software may be to blame.
DarkZero’s GenBurten (real name: Noyan Oskoze) was hit first, when he mysteriously gained the ability to see enemy players through walls in the middle of a match. Later, TSM’s ImperialHal (Phillip Dosen) suddenly found himself unintentionally aimbotting.
What is going on!? Apex player Genburten just got hacked mid-tournament and is now able to see EVERY player on the map.
Today is the last playday that determines the final #ALGS LAN spots for NA. pic.twitter.com/7oivW9P9NJ— esports (@esports) March 18, 2024
“I’m cheating! I’m cheating! I’m cheating!” Dosen exclaimed in shock when he realized what was happening. “I’m f***ing cheating, I have aimbot!”
As for Oskoze, the words “Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom” began to scroll across the screen as the streamer quickly took his hands off the controls, announcing, “I can see everyone!”
The Anti-Cheat Police Department–a volunteer-run organization that is unaffiliated with ALGS but specializes in “gathering intelligence on cheats to detect and disrupt cheating vendors”–weighed in on the situation on Twitter. It advised players competing in the event to protect their personal information by changing account passwords and putting other safeguards in place, like reinstalling their operating system.
The volunteer organization suspects that Apex’s Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) could be the source of the issue, with hackers using remote code execution (RCE) to inject cheats into streamers’ PCs. The Anti-Cheat Police Department also stressed that this exploit could be used for other nefarious purposes beyond disrupting ALGS–like remotely installing ransomware and other malicious software onto competitors’ machines.
Due to the competitive integrity of this series being compromised, we have made the decision to postpone the NA finals at this time.
We will share more information soon.— Apex Legends Esports (@PlayApexEsports) March 18, 2024
Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment also made a statement on the incident via its official esports Twitter account, announcing that the North American regional finals would be postponed, and promising to share more information soon.
LinkedIn Is Getting Into Gaming
LinkedIn has confirmed that it is adding games onto its social media platform. However, no launch date has been announced yet.
“We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Stay tuned for more!”
According to leaked screenshots from web developer Nima Owji, the three games that look to be in development are “Queens,” “Crossclimb,” and “Blueprint.” They all seem to be rather simple puzzles games you’d see on platforms such as Wordle from The New York Times. Players can track of how often they play in order to keep their daily streaks.
LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, but it’s unclear how much involvement it has over this initiative. Microsoft bought LinkedIn back in 2016 for $26 billion, a number that has since been dwarfed by Microsoft’s own acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $74.5 billion in October 2023.
Social media apps have experimented with gaming, including Facebook. But the Facebook Gaming app was shut down in October 2022. Since then, its parent company, Meta, has focused on virtual and augmented reality with the release of various headsets. TikTok has also ventured into the gaming space as well, as it has already conducted tests in Southeast Asia.
Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Makes A Strong Case For The Series’ Return After 25 Years
Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves is the next chapter in a nearly decade-long story for SNK. Since 2016, the company has painstakingly re-introduced its most popular fighting game franchises to the gaming world: first with King Of Fighters XIV, then Samurai Shodown in 2018, and most recently back to KOF with XV in 2021. In 2025, the company looks to revive another fighting IP, and this time it’s one that hasn’t seen a new entry in two-and-a-half decades. After a few hours of hands-on with City Of The Wolves during the recent SNK World Championships and speaking to the game’s director, Hayato Konya, this new Fatal Fury already looks to be worthy of carrying the baton.
The demo featured five characters from the game’s playable selection. Terry Bogard, Fatal Fury’s original protagonist, and Rock Howard, the new face of the franchise, were teased when the game was first announced in 2022. Two more characters, meanwhile, were confirmed to be returning from previous entries: Hotaru Furaba and Tizoc–both of whom debuted in 1999’s Garou: Mark Of The Wolves–now become playable again for the first time since The King Of Fighters XI in 2006.
All four of these fighters are faithful to their original designs; Terry is still a versatile bruiser, while Rock Howard continues to create guessing games thanks to Rage Run and Crack Counter. Hotaru thrives on powerful strikes while in close range–though she does still have a fireball for opponents at a distance–and Tizoc can still shift the momentum of a match with one well-timed command throw.
The fifth character is Preecha, a student of Fatal Fury alumni Joe Higashi who uses a similar Muay Thai style. Preecha was designed for new players to enjoy, according to Konya, as she is “a way for players to dip their toes into the pool before jumping in fully.” Asked if Preecha is taking Joe’s place in the world of Fatal Fury, Honya quickly pointed out that while she is complementary to Joe in that she “borrows some of his catchphrases and attacks,” she is not a one-to-one representation of the legacy character; as Honya put it, Preecha “is not Joe’s replacement.”
As is standard in fighting games, each character has a slate of normal moves and special moves, which in City Of The Wolves also includes three different types of “super move.” Ignition Gears are “level one super moves,” which can be performed when one of the two bars at the bottom of the screen is filled (as depicted by a star on top of the bar). When both bars are filled, you can turn the Ignition Gear into a more powerful Redline Gear for added hits and damage. The final super attack, Hidden Gear, requires special parameters to be fulfilled before you can perform them; these moves were so “hidden,” in fact, that SNK didn’t tell us how to perform them–though we did figure them out for two of the five fighters in the demo. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to pull off, however, as one of them required three full rotations on the stick before hitting the attack button, while the other was down, down-forward, forward twice, then from forward to back and attack.
The main new addition within City Of The Wolves is the REV System, a mixture of offensive and defensive mechanics that enhance each fighter’s abilities in battle. Some of the REV System’s parts will sound familiar–REV Arts, for example, are more powerful versions of a fighter’s special moves, a la EX specials from Street Fighter 6. REV Blow, however, is a unique attack that damages an opponent and creates distance at the same time, while REV Accel lets you link REV Arts and REV Blows together for massive combos. There’s a new defense-focused ability too, REV Guard, which is a special block that will push an opponent back further after each blocked attack.
All of these are managed by the REV Gauge, a semi-circular bar in the bottom corner of the screen. The REV Gauge doesn’t fill to give you access to REV abilities, though; instead, the bar fills as you use REV moves, and once the bar fills, you’ll go into a Overheat state and lose the ability to use REV until the bar depletes. Though you’re not helpless while in Overheat–walking toward an opponent and/or landing an attack will speed up the meter’s depletion, while a successful Hidden Gear will automatically set it back to zero–the loss of those powerful tools does put you at a disadvantage.
In action, the REV system creates some exciting possibilities, as chaining moves together makes for flashy and powerful combos. Managing the meter brings a strategic element as well, as the threat of Overheat constantly keeps you thinking about whether you can afford to throw a REV ability and risk losing them for a time. The Overheat mechanic is a smart way to ensure that players don’t rely solely on REV in each match, as the threat of being locked out of those moves will force them to proceed carefully.
This new REV system is a major part of modernizing Fatal Fury, which Konya said was a huge focus. “The previous game, Garou, is 26 years old, and remaking that old game isn’t going to sell copies,” Konya said. “If we’re going to make this game, it has to be something different and more modern, and with [the REV system] we think this new project keeps the overall feeling of the previous game, while also adding new things for players to discover.”
City Of The Wolves also features a “modern” control scheme suited to accommodate new and novice players. As in other recent fighting games, this Smart Style adjusts each character’s movesets to perform special moves more easily, replacing the traditional sequential command inputs of Arcade Style with simplified single-button inputs. Rock Howard’s Reppuu Ken–which is down, down-forward, forward, and attack in Arcade Style–can be performed with a single button press in Smart Style.
This design was created with a specific type of player in mind. “Typically, a lot of fighting games have the hardcore players who want full inputs,” Konya says, “and there are also people who play offline and just want to push buttons, have fun, and not worry about advanced tactics. Smart Style was made with those players in mind.”
However, not every special move in a character’s arsenal fits into the Smart Style, as some maintain their command inputs regardless of the player’s choice. Konya hopes that this will organically encourage new players who start with Smart Style to eventually make the jump to Arcade Style. “They may see some moves or combos for the character they like and think, ‘Wow, that looks cool. I want to see how that works.’ Our hope is, in this manner, this will make them want to go offline and practice with Arcade Style in training mode to add more to their moveset.”
There are a few mechanics from Garou: Mark Of The Wolves that have transitioned to City Of The Wolves, though with some key differences. Just Defense–a precisely-timed block which increases health among other perks–makes a return, but accompanying them is a new Hyper Defense ability, which acts similarly to Just Defense but specifically defends moves which hit multiple times. If you’re able to sense when an opponent might throw a multi-hit move at you, a Hyper Defense can turn the tables quickly and with style.
The most interesting return, however, is SPG, or “Selective Potential Gear.” Formerly called TOP, SPG sees you designate a third of your life bar as “in SPG”–which grants you gradual health recovery, more powerful attacks, lessened REV Gauge growth, increased super meter growth, and the ability to use the Hidden Gear attack if both super meters are filled when in SPG. It can be placed at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the life bar, and the farther down it’s placed, the more beneficial it becomes once your life bar reaches the SPG zone and it activates. A few characters we played during the demo seem to benefit from specific placements–Tizoc, for instance, can use it as a comeback mechanic where two or three command grabs can take out an opponent regardless of how far behind he is in the round.
Konya, however, sees the benefits as more player-specific rather than character-specific. “It’s more of a reflection of the individual player’s play style,” Konya says. “For example, let’s say you set it to the front; you play through the first round, and then in round two you see that you have a full super meter. From there, you can go right in, use your REV abilities until you hit Overheat, and then use your Hidden Gear in order to reset Overheat. Being in SPG mode at the start of a round lets you do that, and some players want to come out hot and heavy right at the start.”
After 26 years, SNK is confident Fatal Fury can make its mark in what is becoming an increasingly crowded fighting game space. The team is confident their approach will delight fighting game fans new and old, as, according to Konya, the tactical elements brought to each match through the REV system and SPG will bring a unique layer of enjoyment. “You’re not just picking characters and hitting buttons,” Konya says. “There’s also the mind game of where you’re placing SPG and things like that. That’s the shining star of this new Fatal Fury.”
Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves is scheduled to release in early 2025, though specific platforms have not yet been announced.
Call Of Duty: Warzone Mobile Launch Event Details Free Ghost Operator Skin And More
Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile releases later this week, and Activision has revealed a new launch trailer and blog details for the upcoming Operation: Day Zero celebration event. Here we highlight all details about the new event and rewards.
Warzone Mobile brings back Call of Duty’s classic battle royale maps Verdansk and Rebirth Island with the worldwide launch on March 21. Following the game’s release, the Operation: Day Zero event will go live on March 22, allowing players to earn both individual and community rewards.
Operation: Day Zero is a launch event with rewards that can be earned by completing challenges within Warzone Mobile. However, all of these event rewards will also be available to use across Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone as Warzone Mobile supports cross-progression.
This event features a total of six contested map zones, with five zones for Verdansk and one zone encompassing the entirety of Rebirth Island. Players who complete certain actions within the corresponding zones will earn event points.
Actions that award points in these contested zones include things like opening supply boxes, eliminating players, completing a contract, using a killstreak, getting headshots, and purchasing items from Buy Stations. These event points count toward individual rewards and also work to unlock community-based rewards.
Community rewards for Operation: Day Zero include:
- Gilded Devil King – Large decal: Clear Zone 1
- Scorched Beginnings – Animated calling card: Clear Zone 2
- Golden Blaze – Emblem: Clear Zone 3
- Golden Flame – X12 weapon blueprint: Clear Zone 4
- Heavy Thunder – M4 weapon blueprint: Clear Zone 5
- Golden Phantom – Ghost operator skin: Clear Zone 6
Individual rewards for Operation: Day Zero include:
- Crimson Blaze – Emblem
- Nightmare Rift – Calling card
- Forsaken Past – Emblem
- Tearing Me Apart – Sticker
- Demon’s Claw”- Combat knife weapon blueprint
- Last Word – Weapon charm
- Hell Scrapper – LTV vehicle skin
- Nightmare Inferno – Large decal
- Crimson Prince – X12 weapon blueprint
- Vengeful Devil King – Large decal
- Raging Blaze – M4 weapon blueprint
- Bloody Reaper – Ghost operator skin
All Operation: Day Zero rewards can be claimed in the Warzone Mobile event store up until April 3rd at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM GMT.
In other Warzone Mobile news, Activision has announced controller support and revealed that Backbone is the “official controller partner” for the mobile game.