Roundup: Hypercharge, Vikings, Kong

Hey there! We're actually not in the office today, so this roundup comes to you via the power of ✨ scheduled publishing! ✨

Hopefully our news stories are still accurate... Let's get into them!

Donkey Kong set to return

Is there a new Donkey Kong on the horizon? It sure looks like it. Nintendo have this week updated the trademark for the titular gorilla, and it's not a routine extension of the existing one - it's got new language suggesting forthcoming "downloadable programs for portable and electronic consoles".

There have been rumours, circulating since last year, that suggest Nintendo EPD Tokyo (the team behind Super Mario Odyssey) is working on a new Donkey Kong game, but no specific details have been released. Some commentators are even suggesting that the game development is complete and Nintendo are "sitting on it" until they're ready to reveal and release it.

The involvement of EPD Tokyo might suggest that this could be a flagship 3D title for the Nintendo Switch, but it is of course possible that this could also be a new 2D game in the style of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the most recent entry in the franchise, which hit store shelves in 2014.

Whatever it is, I think more information might surface in the week ahead. The 41st anniversary of the original Donkey Kong arcade game is tomorrow.

Adam Burt

Tribes of Midgard

As you all probably know by now, I am a sucker for co-op games. Although I do love a great solo experience, I much prefer playing with friends. Working as a developer can be a solo job, so I need to fill up that social bar!

Tribes of Midgard is a game I picked up on PlayStation Plus for free in May. It's a fast paced, colourful action RPG. By day, you'll roam around a set of diverse and increasingly dangerous areas completing simple quests, levelling up, and gathering materials (and souls!) to upgrade your gear and your settlement. By night, you're defending your settlement from the minions of Hel.

Basically, it's a fantastic game you can pickup and play with up to 9 friends (10 including yourself). And best of all, it's a game made for Vikings that don't necessarily have all day. It's not something you have to really focus on to enjoy, reminiscent of old Runescape, with the crafting and levelling up, mixed with an element of tower defence.

Mehdi Miah

Hypercharge's viral moment

I've been following Hypercharge: Unboxed and its small team of developers for a while and have been eager to try it out. Although the game has been out on PC for about 2 years, it has started to blow up this week on social media, with many players sharing gameplay clips.

The game is currently being developed for an Xbox release, and the team has been placing a lot of their attention on promoting this on socials. Now more people are seeing how awesome this game looks, a lot of excitement is swelling around it and has somewhat gone viral over the last week.

Unfortunately, as we sometimes see in games, not all the attention has been positive. The team have had to explicitly call out the toxicity and abuse being directed towards them about not having stated an Xbox release date. It is categorically not okay to behave this way towards anyone. People seem to forget that these are real people, working exceptionally hard to bring you something that you will hopefully enjoy, and this complete display of entitlement from select groups of people is quite frankly infuriating. You only need to watch the recent videos from Joe, who looks after the marketing for Hypercharge, to understand the toll this toxic behaviour takes on devs.

Here's wishing all the best to the team, and I for one am looking forward to the Xbox release when they are good are ready.

Ben Joy

Fall Guys renaissance hits 50 million players

Fall Guys has amassed a whopping 50 million players since going free to play (F2P) just 2 weeks ago. Around 20 million of those players arrived in the first 48 hours alone.

Here’s how that compares with other F2P monsters:

• Fall Guys - 50m in 2 weeks
• COD Warzone - 50m in 1 month
• Apex Legends - 50m in 1 month
• Fortnite - 45m in 100 days

Fall Guys continues to go from strength to strength, and I’m excited to see where they go from here.

Ben Gammon

God of War release date confirmed, accessibility revealed

I was excited to see this week that the upcoming God of War Ragnarök now has a release date of 9th November 2022. I was a huge fan of the previous God of War game and am excited to see Kratos and Atreus back in action before the end of the year.

Sony's Santa Monica Studio are back at the helm and have been dropping snippets of progress. Notably, this recent news item on the website, about the upcoming accessibility features, is both an interesting insight and reassuring step in the right direction, as part of the wider games-industry's focus on inclusivity.

Dan Thomas

Other stuff

Guardians of the Galaxy writer joins Bioware.

Diablo Immortal is making 1 million dollars a day, despite criticism.

Rockstar shelves remasters to focus on GTA6.

How playing video games can be good for teams.

More Etch Play

You can find Etch Play on all the usual social networks you might imagine. In particular, we hang out on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Twitch.

You can also find us on YouTube, where we have a wide variety of video content available for your consumption: Fun gameplay, lively discussion, and insights into the games industry from us and lots of special guests. In our latest video, we're on a mission to find the worst videogame box art of all time. 

See you next week!