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The Smiling Man’, ‘Gundam Breaker 4’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales – TouchArcade

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The Smiling Man’, ‘Gundam Breaker 4’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales – TouchArcade


Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 29th, 2024. We’ve got another big plate of new releases to check out today, and that’s going to be the bulk of the column as it usually is on Thursdays. We also have a relatively hefty list of new sales to delve into, and that’s really about it. We can’t have Nintendo Directs every day, after all. Let’s get to the games!

Select New Releases

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ($49.99)

After a few decades without any sequels, Famicom Detective Club is back. This new case is very faithful to the original games, for better or worse. You get an entirely new mystery to unravel, and in terms of the presentation it’s relatively similar to the remake releases in Switch a little while back. Can you solve the latest serial murder case? I’ll be giving it a try in my review, coming soon.

Gundam Breaker 4 ($59.99)

Mikhail has already written a veritable book on this game in his review, so I’ll just direct you towards that if you want a full breakdown of the gameplay and how it performs on Switch. The short version is that you’re building and battling Gunplas, and while this Switch port is obviously going to falter behind the others in terms of performance, it does the job well enough that if it’s the option in front of you, it’s more than fine. Anyway, go read Mikhail’s review. It’s a goodie.

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn ($19.99)

Tengo Project has had a very good run with its remakes/re-imaginings so far. Wild Guns Reloaded, The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors, and Pocky & Rocky Reshrined brought back some 16-bit cult favorites with a lot of awesome extras. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn sees the team applying its touch to an 8-bit game, and as you might imagine it’s quite a bit more different from its source material than the aforementioned games. Still, if you’re fixing for an action-platformer with a classic style, this will serve you. I’ll be reviewing this early next week, so watch for that.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion ($19.99)

This is a follow-up to Valfaris, but don’t expect more of the same kind of gameplay you saw in that game. No, this is a 2.5D side-scrolling shoot ’em up, and it’s decent enough. I think some people were caught off guard by the genre shift and were put off as a result, but embrace the change and you’ll find plenty to enjoy. Yes, this is another one I’ve got a review coming up for. Funny how that works!

Nour: Play With Your Food ($9.99)

I’d like to pretend I know what’s going on with this game, but I really don’t. Those sure are some nice images of food, though. And you’re meant to play with all of that? Take some pictures, I guess? Look for secrets? Maybe I’ll dispatch our pal Mikhail to investigate this further. It seems like his sort of thing.

Monster Jam Showdown ($49.99)

If you like monsters, or you like jam, then… I have no idea if you’ll like this game. It’s about Monster Jam, the monster truck thing. No preserves or strawberries or goblins at all. Well, what can you do? It has support for multiplayer, both local and online, and seems to have plenty of modes and such to play around with. It seems to have met with a middling reaction on other platforms, but monster truck fans don’t have a whole lot of choices in front of them, I suppose. If that’s you, do what you must.

WitchSpring R ($39.99)

I think this is a remake of the original WitchSpring, but I might be wrong about that. WitchSpring to me was always the mobile “we have Atelier at home” series, and in that capacity and at that price point, it served its role well enough. Now that it’s getting very near to the price of an actual Atelier game, I’m not sure if I’m quite so on board with it. But if you’re willing to give it a go, it does look like the nicest WitchSpring game so far.

Depths of Sanity ($19.99)

Oh, this is one of those undersea exploration games. Those always have an interesting vibe to them. This one leans into the fantastical horror side of things, as you might expect from the title. You’re trying to figure out what happened to your missing crew, and you’ll have to poke around a big, dangerous interconnected underwater world to sort it all out. Yes, there will be fighting. This one is well-regarded on other platforms by fans of exploratory action games, and I suspect it will find an eager following on the Switch as well.

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire ($19.99)

Kids, am I right? Voltaire is rebelling against his vampiric daddy by taking up a vegan lifestyle to prove there are other ways to live than biting necks. Daddy doesn’t dig that, and is going to try to teach his son a lesson. What this amounts to is farming, of course. This is the Switch, after all. But also some action, because you’re going to need to fend off daddy’s attempts to mess things up for you. I’m a little bit burnt out on this genre at the moment, but if you’re more energetic about picking up a hoe than I am you might want to check this one out.

Marble Abduction! Patti Hattu ($11.79)

One of those marble roller games, this one with seventy stages and eighty marbles to collect. There are some secret collectibles to find, and special challenges that will score you some of the rarer marbles. The usual appeal is here of trying to go as fast as you can without flying off the track, so if that’s your thing then here is a heaping helping of it.

Leo: The Firefighter Cat ($24.99)

We’ve seen a few firefighting games on the Switch so far, but most of them aim for a somewhat realistic style. But you know what? Kids can often be interested in firefighting too, and there might be something in a firefighting game more geared towards their tastes. There are twenty missions here, and it seems to have the main details you would want to see in this kind of thing. I doubt it’s Fancy Feast, but it will probably do the job for the right kind of kid.

Gori: Cuddly Carnage ($21.99)

And on the opposite end of the cat game spectrum, here is a grotesque action game about a hoverboarding cat who slices and dices his foes with glee. Early reports seem to indicate that the game itself is decent enough, but this Switch version suffers from a lot of technical issues that drag down the overall experience to a meaningful degree. Not to the point where there isn’t any joy to be had in it, but worth thinking twice about if you’re bothered by framerate issues at the very least.

Arcade Archives Finalizer Super Transformation ($7.99)

You know, I consider myself a relatively knowledgeable fellow when it comes to video games. But every once in a while, Hamster pulls out a game for Arcade Archives that I really have no memory of, and this 1985 Konami vertical shooter fits that bill. The gimmick here is that instead of a ship, you’re a transforming robot hero of some sort. Let’s call it a Blundam. Grab power-ups to change your form or activate various powers. As shooters go, this is very much a post-Xevious pre-Tiger Heli affair. There’s a charm to that, if that’s the flavor you’re after.

EGGCONSOLE Xanadu Scenario II PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)

A very early example of an expansion pack for a video game, Xanadu Scenario II gives you a whole new underworld to explore. Since this was originally an expansion and not a new game, the gameplay mechanics and many other elements are identical to the first game. It’s naturally more difficult too, so you’ll likely want to finish the first game before trying this one. The most noteworthy thing about it? This game features the debut of the legendary video game composer Yuzo Koshiro, then just 18 years old. That might be reason enough alone to drop the cash for this depending on your tastes and interest in gaming history.

The Backrooms: Survival ($10.99)

A bit of horror, a bit of survival, a bit of roguelite, and overall a game that many players have enjoyed over on PC. You can play with up to ten players online, and that’s really the ideal experience for this game. Playing solo, it’s going to be more of a specific taste thanks to its repetitive-by-design nature.

Can of Wormholes ($19.99)

You are a sentient tin can, and you need to deal with worms in a variety of ways in this clever little puzzle game. You get one hundred hand-crafted puzzles to solve, and the game is really sharp about sprinkling in new ideas as you go so that it never gets stuck in a rut. Something of a whiff of Stephen’s Sausage Roll about it, and that is in no way a bad thing. A real winner for puzzle game fans, if you ask me.

Ninja I & II ($9.99)

A pair of modern NES games running under emulation that are essentially a ninja spin on Wario Ware-style microgames. All of them are competitive, so you’re either pulling in a friend for local multiplayer or going up against a CPU that may or may not drive you up the wall. Kind of neat to see game like these running on NES specs, if nothing else.

Dice Make 10! ($3.99)

Sometimes these unassuming titles can be a lot of fun, and this is one that does it for me. You have two modes of play here, one with Tetris-style falling blocks and the other where you’re just placing pieces like those wood block puzzle games. Regardless of which version you play, your goal is make rows or columns where the faces of the dice add up to ten or multiples of ten. They’ll clear out, and on you go with the next line. Yes, I like it. Very good.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

It’s the 30th anniversary of The King of Fighters, and Hamster and SNK are celebrating with a sale on every single game in the series on Arcade Archives. Time to finish your collection if you haven’t got them already. There are also a ton of Pixel Game Maker Series games at their lowest prices yet, so if you’ve been holding off on those, perhaps now is the moment. Nothing too thrilling outside of those, but you might as well check while you’re at it. A few good indies in the outbox, so I recommend giving that a scan as well.

Select New Sales

Kamitsubaki City Ensemble ($3.59 from $3.99 until 9/3)Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/4)Rolling Car ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4)Fluffy Horde ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/4)Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4)Stunt Paradise ($5.19 from $7.99 until 9/4)My Time at Portia ($4.49 from $29.99 until 9/6)SpongeBob Krusty Cook-Off ($4.94 from $14.99 until 9/9)PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/11)Talisman: Digital Edition ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/12)Mystic Vale ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)Baron of Blood ($4.95 from $9.90 until 9/12)Fighting Fantasy Legends ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)Deathtrap Dungeon ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)White Eternal ($3.24 from $6.49 until 9/12)

ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’94 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’95 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’96 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’97 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’98 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’99 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2000 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2001 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2002 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2003 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)Kittey 64 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12)Last Bloody Snack ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Cat and Tower ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS Cat and Castle ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS Pentacore ($6.59 from $9.99 until 9/12)

PGMS BombMachine Gunzohg ($3.95 from $5.99 until 9/12)PGMS Pearl Vs Grey ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)PGMS Hunter of Devil ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS Lunlun Superherobabys DX ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS Storm Swordsman ($5.27 from $7.99 until 9/12)PGMS Project Nosferatu ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/12)PGMS Ninja Runner ($2.50 from $5.00 until 9/12)PGMS Ninja Sneaking R ($3.59 from $5.99 until 9/12)PGMS Ninja Sneaking VS ($3.60 from $6.00 until 9/12)PGMS Angel’s Gear ($7.49 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Angel’s Blood ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Ninja Otedama R ($3.59 from $5.99 until 9/12)PGMS Tentacled Terrors ($8.99 from $11.99 until 9/12)PGMS Loplight ($3.29 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS ClaM KNight ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/12)

PGMS Jetman ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Lab ($4.19 from $6.99 until 9/12)PGMS Steel Sword Story S ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Arcanion: Tale of Magi ($6.59 from $10.99 until 9/12)PGMS Shiba Mekuri ($2.74 from $5.49 until 9/12)PGMS Buraigun Galaxy Storm ($8.99 from $11.99 until 9/12)PGMS Block Slime Cave ($3.50 from $7.00 until 9/12)PGMS Game Battle Tycoon ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12)PGMS MessiahEnd Refrain ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/12)PGMS Oma2ri Adventure ($2.47 from $4.95 until 9/12)PGMS Dandan Z ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Cham The Cat Adventure ($5.49 from $10.99 until 9/12)PGMS Verzeus ($7.91 from $11.99 until 9/12)PGMS Oumuamua ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)PGMS Jewelinx ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12)

Sushi Battle Rambunctiously ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/13)My Incubi Harem ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/13)Hot Blood ($7.49 from $9.99 until 9/13)Jenny LeClue Detectivu ($2.99 from $24.99 until 9/18)Asterix & Obelix Slap Them All ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/18)The Sisters 2 Road to Fame ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/18)Noob: The Factionless ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/18)New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja ($11.99 from $29.99 until 9/18)Garfield Lasagna Party ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/18)Muv-Luv Remastered ($26.99 from $29.99 until 9/19)Muv-Luv Alternative Remastered ($35.99 from $39.99 until 9/19)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 30th

#BLUD ($19.99 from $24.99 until 8/30)8th Millennium: WAtPG ($7.49 from $29.99 until 8/30)Alpha Particle ($3.39 from $9.99 until 8/30)Batman: The Enemy Within ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30)Batman: The Telltale Series ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30)Empire of Angels IV ($6.79 from $19.99 until 8/30)Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption ($2.39 from $7.99 until 8/30)Forager ($6.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Hell Well ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/30)Midnight Fight Express ($11.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Mineko’s Night Market ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Moonscars ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)

OBAKEIDORO ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Puddle Knights ($2.99 from $9.99 until 8/30)Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic ($6.99 from $9.99 until 8/30)Slay the Spire ($8.49 from $24.99 until 8/30)Space Mercenary Defense Force ($3.49 from $4.99 until 8/30)Super Woden GP ($5.99 from $11.99 until 8/30)Supraland ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Surmount ($9.89 from $14.99 until 8/30)The Last Dragon Slayer ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/30)The Last Worker ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Thunder Ray ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30)Unpacking ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30)Void Bastards ($8.99 from $29.99 until 8/30)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow to finish up the week, with the remaining new releases, sales, and major news items on the schedule. Maybe some reviews? Perhaps. We’ll see. There’s a huge typhoon blowing through here this week, and I should acknowledge there is a chance I won’t be able to get to my office to do tomorrow’s article. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!



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Castle Crumble for Apple Vision Pro Is Now Available on Apple Arcade Alongside Big Updates for Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop, Crayola Adventures, and More – TouchArcade

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Castle Crumble for Apple Vision Pro Is Now Available on Apple Arcade Alongside Big Updates for Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop, Crayola Adventures, and More – TouchArcade


This week, Apple Arcade sees a major game update for Apple Vision Pro and a few notable updates. Castle Crumble [apprice url=”https://apps.apple.com/us/app/castle-crumble/id1616814625″] for Apple Arcade has been updated to be a fully universal game with support for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple is treating this like a new release ahead of September’s game launches. Read about those here. As for the regular game updates, the highlights include Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop bringing in three new character episodes, Meena as a playable character, and seven new BGM songs from the series. Crayola Adventures has a new micro story added with Video Games Day celebrations going on with Lights Camera Action and Pixel Madness. The Koala Face accessory is also available in-game.

SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit brings in its next Tale of the deep with Karate Island where you can play as Sandy. Jetpack Joyride 2 brings in a new event taking Barry to outer space looking for a new signal. stitch. brings in new hoops featuring Taekwondo. The final notable update is Zookeeper World bringing 12 new puzzle stages. With the updates done, head over to our forum threads for Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop here, Castle Crumble here, Crayola Adventures here, SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit here, and Zookeeper World here. For all other Apple Arcade related things, check out our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of Apple’s newly released games and updates recently?





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Casual RPG ‘Disney Pixel RPG’ From GungHo for iOS and Android Gets New Gameplay Trailer, Listed for October 7th – TouchArcade

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Casual RPG ‘Disney Pixel RPG’ From GungHo for iOS and Android Gets New Gameplay Trailer, Listed for October 7th – TouchArcade


Last month, GungHo announced a new casual RPG for mobile in the form of Disney Pixel RPG (Free), due later this year. Today, Gungho has released (via Gematsu) the first trailer for Disney Pixel RPG. Disney Pixel RPG aims to let players explore with pixel versions of Disney characters across multiple worlds with battles, action, rhythm, and more challenges. It features an original story taking you on a journey with Mickey Mouse and other characters with many customization options. Watch the first gameplay trailer for Disney Pixel RPG below:

Disney Pixel RPG is currently listed for October 7th on the App Store, but this should be treated as a placeholder date since it was originally listed for early September as a placeholder and that has already changed. Disney Pixel RPG is set for release this year on iOS and Android as a free to play game with in app purchases. Check out the official English website for Disney Pixel RPG here. If you’d like to play Disney Pixel RPG, you can pre-order it on the App Store for iOS here and pre-register for it on Google Play for Android here. What do you think of Disney Pixel RPG so far based on its debut trailer?

Update: Added new English trailer.



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Crystal-Clear Gaming: ‘Visions of Mana’ Sharpens on GeForce NOW

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Crystal-Clear Gaming: ‘Visions of Mana’ Sharpens on GeForce NOW


It’s time to mana-fest the spirit of adventure with Square Enix’s highly anticipated action role-playing game, Visions of Mana, launching today in the cloud.

Members can also head to a galaxy far, far away, from the comfort of their homes, with the power of the cloud and Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws, with early access available on GeForce NOW.

Plus, be among the first to get early access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Open Beta on GeForce NOW without having to wait around for downloads — early access runs Aug. 30-Sept. 4 for those who preorder the game. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will join the cloud when the full game is released Oct. 25.

These triple-A titles are part of 26 titles joining the GeForce NOW library of over 2,000 games this week.

Cloudy With a Chance of Mana

Visions of Mana details a whimsical journey through the enchanting world of Mana. Step into the shoes of Val, a curious young man on an epic quest to escort his childhood friend Hina to the sacred Tree of Mana. Along the way, encounter a colorful cast of characters and face off against endearing yet formidable enemies.

Get ready for mana madness in the cloud.

The game’s combat system blends action and strategy for real-time battles where party members can be switched on the fly. Different party members offer unique skills, such as Val’s powerful sword strikes or magical spells cast by Careena’s dragon companion Ramcoh. Plus, traverse the game’s expansive, semi-open world on Pikuls — adorable, rideable creatures that can also ram through enemies.

Stream the game on an Ultimate or Priority membership for a seamless magical adventure. Experience the lush landscapes and dynamic combat in stunning detail — at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second for Ultimate members. GeForce NOW makes it easy to stay connected to the world of Mana whether at home or on the go, ensuring the journey to the Tree of Mana is always within reach.

Join the Galaxy’s Most Wanted

Star Wars Outlaws on GeForce NOW
Make your own destiny in the cloud.

In Star Wars Outlaws — the highly anticipated single-player action-adventure game from Ubisoft — explore the depths of the galaxy’s underworld as part of the beloved Star Wars franchise’s first-ever open-world game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Step into the shoes of Kay Vess, a daring scoundrel seeking freedom and adventure. Navigate distinct locations across the galaxy — both iconic and new — and encounter bustling cities, cantinas and sprawling outdoor landscapes. Fight, steal and outwit others while joining the ranks of the galaxy’s most wanted. Plus, play alongside Nix, a loyal companion who helps turn any situation to Kay’s advantage through blaster combat, stealth and clever distractions.

Get ready for high-stakes missions, space dogfights and an ever-changing reputation based on player choices. Unlock the power of the Force with a GeForce NOW Ultimate membership and stream from GeForce RTX 4080 SuperPODs at up to 4K resolution at 120 fps, without the need for upgraded hardware. The AI-powered graphics of NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction enhance the game for maximum performance, offering the clarity of a Jedi’s vision, and NVIDIA Reflex technology enables unbeatable responsiveness.

Answering the Call

Get ready for the anticipated addition to the Call of Duty franchise — Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. GeForce NOW will support the title’s PC Game Pass, Battle.net and Steam versions in the cloud.

Explore a range of new features, including innovative mechanics such as Omnimovement, which allows players to sprint, slide and dive in any direction to enhance the fluidity of combat. The Black Ops 6 Campaign features a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States. With a mind-bending narrative and unbound by the rules of engagement, the title embodies signature Black Ops.

Experience the new gameplay mechanics and features before the title’s official launch with early access to the preorder beta from Aug. 30-Sept. 4 — available for those who preorder the game or have an active PC Game Pass subscription. The Open Beta follows soon after on Sept. 6-9 and will be available for all gamers to hop into the action, even without preordering the game.

GeForce NOW Ultimate members can gain an advantage on the field with ultra low-latency gaming, streaming from GeForce RTX 4080 SuperPODs in the cloud.

WOW, New Games

WoW The World Within on GeForce NOW
Join the underground party from the cloud.

The newest World of Warcraft expansion, The War Within, is available to play from the cloud today. Head to the subterranean realm of Khaz Algar, featuring four new zones, including the Isle of Dorn — home to the Earthen, a newly playable allied race. Experience game additions such as Delves, bite-sized world instances for solo or small-group play, and Warbands, which allow players to manage and share achievements across multiple characters.

In addition, GeForce NOW recently added support for over 25 of the top AddOns from CurseForge, a leading platform for WoW customization, enabling members to explore new adventures under the surface from the cloud.

In addition, members can look for the following:

Endzone 2 (New release on Steam, Aug. 26)
Age of Mythology: Retold (New release on Steam, Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Advanced Access on Aug. 27)
Core Keeper (New release on Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Aug. 27)
Star Wars Outlaws (New release on Ubisoft Connect, early access Aug. 27)
Akimbot (New release on Steam, Aug. 29)
Gori: Cuddly Carnage (New release on Steam, Aug. 29)
MEMORIAPOLIS (New release on Steam, Aug. 29)
Visions of Mana (New release on Steam, Aug. 29)
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Steam)
Cat Quest III (Steam)
Cooking Simulator (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)
Crown Trick (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Darksiders Genesis (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Expeditions: Rome (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Heading Out (Steam)
Into the Breach (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Iron Harvest (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
The Knight Witch (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Lightyear Frontier (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Outlast 2 (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
Saturnalia (Steam)
SteamWorld Heist II (Steam, Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)
This War of Mine (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)
We Were Here Too (Steam)
Yoku’s Island Express (Xbox, available on Microsoft Store)

What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

 



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Microsoft Mesh: the roadmap news

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Microsoft Mesh: the roadmap news


Yes, Microsoft Mesh finally made it to the M365 Roadmap. It’s entries are listed there under Microsoft Teams. So, let’s jump to see what’s in there. To see the live situation, use this URL to jump directly to the Mesh roadmap. There are some pretty big items in the list, that will help to utilize Mesh more and better.

The first one to catch the eye, is the support for Microsoft Whiteboard. This will enable us to collaborate with our whiteboard in Mesh events and very likely in Teams Immersive Spaces as well. It will work on both PC and on Meta Quest devices And it comes also with Whiteboard Copilot! We should be able to get our hands on this at November. Perhaps there is a bit of Ignite -scent in this timing?

The other items in the roadmap have been set to October, so we should have these available during the Ignite time as well. 🤔

I want to raise the first one (just recently added!) that is the Microsoft Mesh app on PC will support guests in Mesh events! This is big, as this expands Mesh from a single organization to wider audience. It will be possible to invite people outside from their organization to join Mesh events. And they can participate fully: join events, engage in discussions, and overall experience the event just like organization’s internal attendees. What’s going to come later is support for guests using Mesh app in Meta Quest devices and also the support for anonymous participants! This means we will have anonymous participants in Mesh events.. which means we can create all new kinds of experiences – from parties to B2B and B2C scenarios with Microsoft Mesh.

What makes the Whiteboard cooler, is that we will be able to use it with Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro without using our controllers. Mesh is getting hand interactions support – I have been waiting for this one a long time! Whiteboarding will be fun, as we don’t have to use controllers! Don’t worry, you can continue to use controllers and switch between hands and controllers as you need. And of course this has major impact on what you can do in Mesh experiences and interact with objects.

Microsoft Teams Chat support is an another great feature on the list. It will gives us the ability to communicate with all participants, across all rooms, within a Mesh event . It will be possible to chat from Teams desktop directly to Mesh events and vice versa. And of course attendees in Mesh can chat too (with both PC and Meta Quest devices). And in multi-room events, this chat includes all rooms.

We will be also getting a new environment The Project Studio, that we can use in Teams Immersive Spaces and also on Mesh events. It looks like it will be a interesting, space that has been designed for synchronous teamwork and productivity for small groups to collaborate on content and use whiteboards and other tools together Yes, Whiteboard will be embedded in the space! 🤘 And thinking that, how this space can be out October if the Whiteboard support is coming out November.. 🤔 My hunch is, that these will come out quite close to each other, instead of separately.

Whiteboard is really quite essential tool for people to work together in 3D spaces, so I am happy that we will see it in a few months.

And then there are Audio Zones, that Mesh developers can implement to spaces. These spaces can define how sound and audio is traveling to and from the space. It makes possible to create areas where you can talk with each other, without others hearing you, even if they stand just outside the audio zone limit. And vice versa, you can create an area where there isn’t any surrounding noise to make a quiet space in the middle of party to allow conversations. And I would not be surprised, if it would be possible to select between on and off levels how audio can pass through the zone limit.

Then there is one more feature: host and attendee interaction visibility. It is quite close to what Multi-Room User Visualization in the Mesh What’s new does, but it expands the visualization also to attendees, not just hosts. Multi-Room User Visualization just came out, but at the moment is limited to hosts only. We need to wait until they finalize this roadmap item and roll it out October. Multi-Room User visualization is allowing hosts to see attendees who have raised their hand. Additionally, hosts can now see emojis that attendees use in other rooms.

Here are the roadmap items, in a table. You can see the the live situation (if and when updates happen) in M365 Roadmap.

FeatureRollout StartDescriptionMicrosoft Whiteboard can be added to Mesh eventNovember 2024Mesh event participants can now use Microsoft Whiteboard in Mesh 3D environments. This functionality will enable users to collaborate spatially as avatars on a 2D whiteboard present in the virtual space, available on PC and Meta Quest devices. Mesh event attendees can use inking, annotation, and other built-in tools to brainstorm, plan, and share with others on a digital canvas in real time. Copilot integration with Whiteboard helps suggest and organize ideas directly on your canvas while in Mesh.Microsoft Mesh app on PC supports guest access for eventsOctober 2024Attendees can now join Mesh events as a guest in the Microsoft Mesh app on PC. Event organizers can invite guest users outside their organization, providing an opportunity for broader collaboration and networking in Mesh events. Guests can sign in to Mesh app to join events, participate in discussions, and experience the same interactive features as internal users, all while maintaining secure access control. Guest access for events in the Mesh app on Quest and support for anonymous participants will be supported in a future update.Audio zones enable Mesh creators to craft custom audio experiencesOctober 2024Spatial audio in Mesh provides a realistic recreation of how sound moves in the real world, with the volume of people speaking or media playing getting lower of as you move away from the source of the sound. The introduction of audio zones enables creators to craft custom audio experiences for the intended use of a space with features such as extended audio drop off distances for conversations that happen in a large area, or restricting what audio can enter a given area, to allow smaller groups to have lively conversations without disrupting their neighbors.Host and attendee interaction visibility for multi-room Mesh eventsOctober 2024Mesh event attendees can now see raised hands and reactions from attendees in other rooms during large, multi-room Mesh events. This creates a greater sense of audience feedback as a whole across all rooms in a Mesh event and increases total audience engagement.Teams chat support in Mesh eventsOctober 2024Participants in Mesh events on PC and Mac can use Teams chat to communicate with all participants, across all rooms, within a Mesh event. Users can do this in the Microsoft Mesh PC app, the Mesh app in Teams, as well as in the chat message list of the Teams app.Microsoft Mesh app on Meta Quest headsets supports hand interactionsOctober 2024Microsoft Mesh app users on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro headsets can now use their hands to use the app, move around in event environments, and interact with objects. Motion controllers continue to be supported, and users can switch between using controllers or their hands while using the app.New collaborative Project Studio environment in Microsoft MeshOctober 2024The Project Studio environment is a new space for immersive meetings and Mesh events. This space has been designed for synchronous teamwork and productivity for small groups to collaborate on content and use whiteboards and other tools together in the virtual environment.

Published by Vesa Nopanen

Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen, Principal Consultant and Microsoft MVP (M365 and AI Platform) working on Future Work at Sulava.

I work, blog and speak about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Microsoft Mesh, Metaverse, and other services & platforms in the cloud connecting digital and physical and people together.

I have about 30 years of experience in IT business on multiple industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen



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‘Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’ Is Shutting Down on October 30th – TouchArcade

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‘Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’ Is Shutting Down on October 30th – TouchArcade


Square Enix just announced that Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (Free) is shutting down on October 30th (this year) following its debut back in June 2016. Since launching on mobile, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius has seen many collaborations including ones with some of Square Enix’s best games like NieR: Automata and also its other titles like Final Fantasy XV. It is being shut down because Square Enix says that it will be “difficult to maintain the app experience.” Following this announcement, in app purchases will no longer be offered but you will be able to use anything you’ve bought until service ends. Bundles will no longer be sold as well.

On October 30th at 23:59 PDT, service will end and accounts will be deleted. If you’d like to play Final Fantasy Brave Exvius until then, you can grab it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Read our review of the original game launch here. If you’d like to check out discussions from the game’s launch until now, check out our very old forum thread here. Have you played Final Fantasy Brave Exvius before and what do you think of today’s announcement?





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Arrowfell’ and More – TouchArcade

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Arrowfell’ and More – TouchArcade


Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a big old list of all the best new releases of the past seven days. Back in the day the App Store would showcase the same games for a week, and then refresh those features each Thursday. Because of that developers got into the habit of releasing their games throughout Wednesday or very early Thursday in order to hopefully get one of those coveted features spots. Nowadays the App Store refreshes constantly, so the need for everyone to release all on the same day has diminished. Still, we’ve kept our weekly Wednesday night format as for years that’s the time people knew to check TouchArcade for the list of new games. And so without further ado please check out the full list of this week’s new games below, and let us know in the comments section which games you’ll be picking up!

 

Death Travelers (Free)

iTunes Description

The Afterworld needs your help to stop it from collapsing! Travel the Afterworld’s various realms to save lost souls. Dodge and destroy obstacles along the way while stabilizing it with the resonance of music. Build your base, upgrade your car, unlock various abilities, play new music, and above all have some fun!Can you save the lost souls and stabilize the Afterworld?

Forum Thread: Death Travelers (by Death Travelers LLC)

Dusk of Dragons: Survivors (Free)

iTunes Description

Survive in a Medieval Fantasy World with Dusk of Dragons: Survivors!

Immerse yourself in a thrilling survival sandbox where you’ll face extreme weather, hunger, traps, and hordes of zombies. As a true survivor, you’ll need to master the wilderness and outwit the undead.

Forum Thread: Dusk of Dragons: Survivors (by COREGAMES)

Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home ($17.99)

iTunes Description

Head back to your roots and leave the city life for your childhood village of Alba in Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home, where the freshest fish and tastiest veggies are grown and caught by the local farmers and anglers!

However, with its population getting older and younger villagers leaving for the big city, Alba Village has seen better days, so can you help turn it from a village on the decline to one of prosperity? With its beautiful surroundings, Alba definitely has the potential, so work hard to bring tourists and even new residents to this sprawling green village! Reunite with your childhood friend and other familiar faces to help put Alba on the map!

Forum Thread: Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home (by Natsume Inc)

MMC KENKEN Math (Free)

iTunes Description

Stretching the ability to make fun becomes academic ability – Solving puzzles in a fun way improves academic ability

The hit teaching material that has sold over 2.5 million copies has been turned into game software as “Daizen”! A total of 3,000 math puzzles for children and adults to learn while having fun.

Forum Thread: MMC KENKEN Math (by Tetsuya Miyamoto / KenKen Puzzle LLC / Gakken / MAGES.)

Ocean Keeper Mobile (Free)

iTunes Description

A roguelike shooter with a top-down view where you play as a Miner whose spaceship has crashed on a planet, filled with underwater monsters! Use the time between each attack to power up your diver, mech, or weapon. Build automatic turrets, use drones to gather resources and improve your skills to increase your chances of survival. Discover mysterious locations and fantastic undersea deep biomes. EACH time you explore the underwater worlds, the layout changes, making every journey unique. You never play the same scenario twice in this drill dungeon core roguelite.

Forum Thread: Ocean Keeper Mobile (by RetroStyle Games)

Ogu and the Secret Forest (Free)

iTunes Description

Explore the wonderful world with baby Ogu!‘Ogu and the Secret Forest’ is a 2D adventure game with hand-drawn characters and various types of puzzles.Befriend bouncy characters and defeat strange creatures to unravel the mystery of the charming world.

Forum Thread: Ogu and the Secret Forest (by Sinkhole Studio Inc.)

RWBY: Arrowfell (Free)

iTunes Description

Dive into an explosive new RWBY action-adventure! Instantly switch between all four members of Team RWBY — Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long — and use their signature weapons and Semblances to battle the Creatures of Grimm and other foes in this in-canon story set during RWBY Volume 7. Featuring voiceovers from RWBY’s original cast, all-new cutscenes from the team behind the show, and a brand-new theme song by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams, RWBY: Arrowfell lets you explore Atlas and the surrounding areas to solve environmental puzzles, slay massive bosses, power up with Skill Points, and interact with characters such as Penny, Winter, and General Ironwood, as well as the enigmatic new team of Huntresses, Team BRIR! Only Team RWBY can protect Remnant from a mysterious new threat in RWBY: Arrowfell!

Forum Thread: RWBY: Arrowfell (by Crunchyroll)

SlidewayZ: A Musical Journey (Free)

iTunes Description

Welcome to SlidewayZ™, a new kind of sliding block puzzle! Slide adorable character pieces through fun worlds to collect soothing classical music. Easy to learn and fun to play, SlidewayZ™ adds a new twist to sliding block puzzles with moves from games like chess and other classic board games. A gentle soundtrack of Classical music helps you unwind from the stresses of the day. Perfect for commuting or a quick brain break, no internet connection required! Filled with collectables, beautiful art and engaging gameplay, SlidewayZ™ will provide hours of low-key puzzling fun!

Forum Thread: SlidewayZ: A Musical Journey (by DiG-iT Games)

Snake.io (Free)

iTunes Description

It’s a snake-eat-snake world: Slither around the screen to collect energy, grow bigger and devour your competition in this fast-paced arcade game.

You’ll start out as a small snake in each round. Eat energy pellets to expand your size, and surround or cut in front of other snakes to explode them into (edible) segments. But watch out — because they’ll be trying to do the same to you. In this reptilian battle royale, how long can you stay in one piece?

Forum Thread: Snake.io (by Kooapps)

Spidersaurs (Free)

iTunes Description

Alert! Alert! The nightmarish dinosaur-spider hybrids known as Spidersaurs have run amok and only you (and a friend in co-op mode) can stop them! Created by InGest Corp to provide the meat and muscle that humanity needs to end world hunger, the Spidersaurs are now on the loose, leaving it to two former taste-testers – officer-in-training Adrian and punk-rocker Victoria – to use their awesome firepower to overcome six stages of ferocious run-‘n’-gun action. Blast through a sweltering jungle, an infested laboratory, the heart of a live volcano, and more! The tangy food source with a bite is biting back, but by grabbing power-ups, gaining new abilities, and obliterating everything in sight, you can send these mutant monstrosities back to the stone age.

Forum Thread: Spidersaurs (by WayForward)



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‘Pizza Tower’, ‘Castlevania Dominus Collection’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales – TouchArcade

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‘Pizza Tower’, ‘Castlevania Dominus Collection’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales – TouchArcade


Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 28th, 2024. Gosh, that presentation yesterday sure had a lot of good stuff in it, didn’t it? A bunch of shadow dropped games, too. That means our usually quiet Wednesday is anything but, and that’s not a bad thing. We’ve got a bit of news, a look at all the new games on the eShop today, plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales for the day. Lots to see, so let’s get going!

News

The Partner/Indie World Showcase Had Plenty to Offer

Sandwiching together two slightly smaller versions of the usual types of Directs was an interesting choice, and it means we got a bunch of announcements. I can’t go through all of them here, but highlights included some shadow drops we’ll talk about in the New Releases section, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, the Suikoden I & II remakes, Yakuza Kiwami, Tetris Forever, MySims, Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition, new Atelier and Rune Factory games, and many, many more. I’d advise just setting aside some time and watching the video. Skim if you must. Plenty of great games there for a variety of tastes.

Select New Releases

Castlevania Dominus Collection ($24.99)

One of the many cool shadow drops from the Direct was a third Castlevania collection. This one includes the three Nintendo DS games: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. It also includes the absolutely rancid arcade game, Haunted Castle, and as an extra, a remake of Haunted Castle by the folks at M2. It’s a lot better. As you would expect from this developer, this is a top-notch treatment that features great emulation and pretty much all of the features you’d want. An absurd value for the price.

Pizza Tower ($19.99)

The Wario Land-inspired frenetic platformer dashes on to the Switch with this Direct shadow drop. Make your way through the five massive floors of the Pizza Tower in order to destroy it and save your restaurant. If you miss Wario’s handheld adventures, you’ll really want to grab this. If you have no strong Wario feelings but like platforming, you should also give this a look. We’re hoping to review this one, but we’ll have to see how things go.

Goat Simulator 3 ($29.99)

The shadow drops continue. Look, it’s a Wednesday. If it weren’t for these, we wouldn’t have much at all. Anyway, Goat Simulator 3. You know how Goat Simulator works by now. I can’t verify how this game runs on Switch, but I know more powerful consoles struggle with it in places. So, you know, proceed with caution. Though I suppose even if it does run badly, it might just play into the whole sh**post nature of the game. Well, I leave it to you to decide. Silly goats doing silly things in an open world, may or may not make your Switch vomit blood.

Peglin ($19.99)

I know it’s cliche to armchair quarterback and talk about companies leaving money on the proverbial table, but I genuinely think Electronic Arts made a giant mistake by not putting Popcap’s games on the Switch in some form or another. Maybe even a collection? Well, they didn’t. They aren’t going to. And so we must scratch that itch in other ways, and for my fellow Peggle fans I can’t recommend Peglin enough. This one has been available on mobile for a while, and it’s just as good here on Switch. It’s basically Peggle blended into a turn-based RPG roguelite. We’ll have a review of this soon in case you need more details.

Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story ($20.00)

How can Kairosoft spice up its now incredibly well-worn formula for simulation games? Well, I suppose one way is to add a license to the mix. That’s what we’ve got here with Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story, a standard Kairosoft shop sim featuring the characters from the popular Doraemon manga and anime series. A decent effort has been made to do the license justice, and you might even spot some characters from the manga artist’s other works popping in as customers. Cute.

Pico Park 2 ($8.99)

More Pico Park for the Pico Park fans out there. Up to eight players can join in via local or online multiplayer, and this is one game where the rule of the more, the merrier is in full effect. Play through a bunch of puzzle stages that require some sharp thinking and cooperation to solve. One for those who didn’t get their fill with the first game, but not really different enough to be likely to pull in anyone new. And that’s fine.

Kamitsubaki City Ensemble ($3.99)

An affordable little rhythm game featuring music from Kamitsubaki Studio. Hit the notes, follow the story, enjoy the tunes. Not the fanciest dining, but for that price it doesn’t have to be.

SokoPenguin ($4.99)

Yes, that’s a Sokoban-style crate-pushing puzzler starring a penguin, alright. One hundred levels. You know if you want it or not.

Q2 Humanity ($6.80)

More quirky physics-based puzzles, over three hundred this time around. You’ll have to make use of your character’s abilities in addition to drawing to solve the problems now. Up to four players can get in on the fun, either via local or online multiplayer.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Mostly NIS America games in the inbox today, but you can also score some deals on Balatro, Frogun, and The King of Fighters XIII Global Match if you want. The outbox has a fair bit in it, so you’ll probably want to have a careful look through there and see if there’s anything you want.

Select New Sales

Bilkins Folly ($12.59 from $19.99 until 9/2)Balatro ($13.49 from $14.99 until 9/3)MLB The Show 24 ($19.79 from $59.99 until 9/10)Frogun ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/11)Frogun Encore ($11.04 from $12.99 until 9/11)Death Road to Canada ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/11)Demon Gaze Extra ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/12)The King of Fighters XIII GM ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)Lapis x Labyrinth ($7.79 from $29.99 until 9/16)Raiden III Mikado Maniax ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/16)GrimGrimoire OnceMore ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16)Void Terrarium 2 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails ($24.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16)Saviors of Sapphire Wings/Sword City ($17.49 from $49.99 until 9/16)

Disaster Report 4 ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/16)Labyrinth of Galleria: TMC ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16)The Cruel King & the Great Hero ($13.49 from $29.99 until 9/16)R-Type Final 2 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)The Legend of Legacy HD ($34.99 from $49.99 until 9/16)Poison Control ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Labyrinth Legend ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/16)Giraffe and Annika ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/16)LA-MULANA ($4.99 from $14.99 until 9/16)LA-MULANA 2 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 9/16)The Princess Guide ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory ($4.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Fallen Legion: Revenants ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)RPG Maker MV ($14.99 from $49.99 until 9/16)Happy Birthdays ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Penny-Punching Princess ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)The Longest Five Minutes ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16)Disgaea 4 Complete+ ($17.49 from $49.99 until 9/16)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 29th

A Cat & His Boy ($1.99 from $2.99 until 8/29)Alan Wake Remastered ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/29)April’s Diary ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/29)Astebreed ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Bio Inc. Redemption ($10.49 from $14.99 until 8/29)Botany Manor ($22.49 from $24.99 until 8/29)Crashout Xtreme ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29)Cyber Citizen Shockman ($4.19 from $5.99 until 8/29)Dead Cells Castlevania Bundle ($18.89 from $31.49 until 8/29)DoDonPachi Resurrection ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Bundle ($19.99 from $39.99 until 8/29)DRAINUS ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Ebenezer & the Invisible World ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Escaping a Fireworks Factory ($2.00 from $4.90 until 8/29)Espgaluda II ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)

Gematombe ($4.49 from $14.99 until 8/29)Gnosia ($17.49 from $24.99 until 8/29)Gunman Tales ($2.09 from $6.99 until 8/29)Gynoug ($3.49 from $6.99 until 8/29)Hero of Fate ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/29)Kero Blaster ($2.99 from $9.99 until 8/29)Kowloon High-School Chronicle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Matchpoint: Tennis Championships ($31.99 from $49.99 until 8/29)Mighty Goose ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Moonshine Inc ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)My Little Universe ($6.74 from $14.99 until 8/29)Noel the Mortal Fate ($9.99 from $24.99 until 8/29)OnlyUP! ($5.27 from $7.13 until 8/29)Operation Steel ($5.99 from $9.99 until 8/29)Overboss ($13.49 from $14.99 until 8/29)Pogo Joins the Circus ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29)

Radiant Silvergun ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Red Colony ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29)Red Colony 2 ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29)Red Colony 3 ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29)Remote Life ($9.49 from $18.99 until 8/29)Retro Mystery Club Vol.1 ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29)Retro Mystery Club Vol.2 ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29)Retro Revengers ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29)River City Saga: Three Kingdoms ($20.99 from $29.99 until 8/29)Satay Shop Tycoon ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/29)Smashing the Battle ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/29)Smashing the Battle Ghost Soul ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/29)Spy Bros. ($4.79 from $7.99 until 8/29)Super Sean 007 ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29)Taboo Trial ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)The Good Life ($15.99 from $39.99 until 8/29)The Ouroboros King ($6.99 from $9.99 until 8/29)The Sokoban ($8.99 from $17.99 until 8/29)UNO Ultimate Edition ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29)Vera Blanc: Supernatural Mysteries ($5.59 from $7.99 until 8/29)Within the Blade ($3.29 from $10.99 until 8/29)

That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow is Thursday, and that means we’ll have another pretty big day for new games. The new Famicom Detective Club is among them, but there are other big names in there too. We’ll have summaries of the games worth summarizing, plus whatever sales and major news items roll in over the course of the day. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!



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Bitcoin Layer 2s: Explained & Examples | Chainlink

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Bitcoin Layer 2s: Explained & Examples | Chainlink


A Bitcoin layer 2 is any offchain network, system, or technology built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain to help extend its capabilities.

Since its inception in 2008, Bitcoin has become the focal point of the verifiable web as the first decentralized cryptocurrency, remaining the largest one by market capitalization. However, Bitcoin’s growth has faced challenges due to the network’s limited scalability, often resulting in high transaction fees and network congestion. 

The recent introduction of ordinals, BRC-20 tokens, and other Bitcoin-native onchain applications has further exacerbated these issues, where—especially during peak times—Bitcoin can become impractical for everyday use. These ongoing scalability challenges highlight the immediate need for Bitcoin scaling solutions such as layer-2 networks.

In this post, we discuss what Bitcoin layer 2s are, how they work, and how they can benefit from industry-standard oracle services.

How Do Bitcoin Layer 2s Work?

The Bitcoin network takes about 10 minutes to finalize a single block of transactions—only seven transactions per second (TPS) on average. Scaling the Bitcoin blockchain directly isn’t an option, as it would require compromising either security or decentralization per the blockchain scalability trilemma.

The blockchain scalability trilemma posits that a tradeoff has to be made when attempting to maximize scalability, security, and decentralization.

It’s worth noting that the limited core functionality (i.e., a global, censorship-resistant decentralized currency) helps make the Bitcoin network so tamper-proof and robust, and a significant technological breakthrough of the 21st century. However, this narrow focus limits the network’s usability in everyday scenarios and limits developers’ ability to launch new applications on Bitcoin. Enter layer 2s.

A Bitcoin layer 2 is any offchain network, system, or technology built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that helps extend its capabilities. Layer-2 networks can introduce improvements such as greater transaction throughput, reduced fees, and programmability through smart contracts. A key requirement for a network to be considered a layer 2 is that it must inherit the security of the blockchain it is built on—in this case, Bitcoin. In the case of Bitcoin layer 2s, this means that transaction data is verified and confirmed by the Bitcoin blockchain rather than a separate set of nodes.

Layer-2 networks can vary considerably in how they achieve this increased scalability, but a common denominator between layer-2 environments is that when looking to settle on the base chain, they must provide some kind of cryptographic proof to the blockchain on the integrity of the proposed state change, either preemptively or retroactively.

If you’d like a deep dive into how layer 2s work, read What Is Layer 2?.

Types of Bitcoin Layer 2s

There are several types of Bitcoin scalability solutions that can be categorized as layer 2s, though some exist in a gray area regarding their classification as true layer-2 solutions. Note that Bitcoin scalability is an ongoing area of research, and new solutions and technologies may emerge in the future to address some of the limitations of current Bitcoin layer-2 technologies.

State Channels

State channels enable users to bypass high transaction fees by moving transactions offchain, where two parties lock a certain amount of bitcoin into a multisig to send and receive payments. These channels then maintain records of all transactions that occur within them until they are closed. When the parties are done transacting, they sign and broadcast the final state of the channel to the Bitcoin blockchain.

State channels keep all transactions within them offchain, only reporting the opening and closing balance of participants to the Bitcoin network. This allows participants to make transactions without having to pay Bitcoin mainnet fees for each transaction. 

State channels are similar to payment channels in the Bitcoin Lightning Network, but they also support more complex transactions other than micropayments.

Bitcoin Lightning Network payment channels diagram
State and payment channels enable users to move transactions offchain.

Sidechains

A sidechain is an independent blockchain with its own consensus mechanism that connects to Bitcoin via a two-way peg, allowing the transfer of assets or balances between the two chains. While sidechains often use bitcoin as their native currency, they can also issue their own native tokens.

Operating as separate blockchains, sidechains offer faster transactions and additional features like smart contracts. Because sidechains have their own validator set, they are not always considered true layer-2 solutions, as transactions aren’t necessarily ultimately verified by the Bitcoin network. However, some sidechains may tap into Bitcoin’s security or periodically settle on the main chain.

Rollups

Bitcoin layer-2 rollups move transaction execution and data off the main Bitcoin blockchain to a separate rollup chain or layer while still anchoring to Bitcoin for data availability and consensus.

Rollup technology involves executing transactions on the rollup chain, compressing data, and anchoring to the Bitcoin mainnet. Users submit transactions to be executed on the rollup chain rather than directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. The rollup chain then processes these transactions and updates account balances accordingly. 

After processing a batch of transactions offchain, the rollup compresses the transaction data into a compact cryptographic proof or commitment, representing the net effect of all those transactions. This compressed proof is periodically submitted to the Bitcoin blockchain as a single transaction, and some kind of verification mechanism on Bitcoin then validates and applies the changes represented by the rollup proof.

Rollup transaction bundling
Rollups bundle transactions into batches that are executed offchain and verified onchain using some kind of proof.

Benefits of Bitcoin Layer 2s

Bitcoin layer 2s offer several benefits:

Greater scalability—Bitcoin layer 2s effectively increase the transaction throughput and speed of Bitcoin by processing transactions offchain and then settling them on the main chain, depending on the solution.
Reduced fees—Bitcoin layer 2s enable lower transaction costs, unlocking use cases secured by Bitcoin that wouldn’t be feasible on the main Bitcoin network, such as micropayments.
Programmable smart contracts—Although Bitcoin was not initially designed to support smart contracts, layer-2 solutions can introduce this functionality, enabling the creation of complex decentralized applications and novel programmable financial instruments built on Bitcoin.
Deeper liquidity—Bitcoin layer 2s can improve liquidity and access to Bitcoin, unlocking DeFi on Bitcoin with enhanced liquidity, capital efficiency, and increased access.

Bitcoin Layer 2 vs. Ethereum Layer 2

The utility of layer-2 solutions lies in how they tap into the security of the main chain while increasing its scalability. In this way, Bitcoin and Ethereum layer 2s are quite similar—both seek to introduce enhanced scalability without making changes to the base layer. However, Bitcoin and Ethereum layer 2s differ significantly in their technical implementation, as Bitcoin and Ethereum themselves are designed for distinct purposes.

Accelerating Bitcoin Layer 2 Adoption

State channels, sidechains, rollups, and other layer-2 solutions are all methods of approaching the blockchain scalability problem in different ways—supporting both the growing adoption of onchain applications and enhanced use cases and user experiences.

The Chainlink platform has underpinned the DeFi ecosystem since its inception, fulfilling the need for high-quality data, compute, and interoperability services that help developers create fully-fledged decentralized applications. In many cases, integrating Chainlink has helped layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems bootstrap their growth with battle-tested Chainlink infrastructure, attracting both new developers and users. With the emerging ecosystem of Bitcoin layer-2 scalability solutions, the need for high-quality data and other oracle services will also grow in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Chainlink Effect
Ecosystems that integrate high-quality Chainlnik services are better equipped to help bootstrap their ecosystem.

A significant advantage of adopting the Chainlink platform is that once an app uses a single Chainlink service, there are little-to-no additional trust assumptions for using other Chainlink services since they are all built upon the same time-tested oracle infrastructure. And every new service built on top of Chainlink adds more value for all existing users. This is why blockchains are increasingly joining the Chainlink Scale program as a way to accelerate the growth of their application ecosystem. An integration with Chainlink can bring multiple services to a single blockchain and subsequently drive a surge in developer activity.

To learn more about Chainlink, visit chain.link, subscribe to the Chainlink newsletter, and follow Chainlink on Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.



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