Plus a banana game overtook BALDUR'S GATE 3 in peak players and ELDEN RING SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE is the best-reviewed expansion ever
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Borrett, Daniel Ang, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia for their support of SIFTER.
FIONA: Hi I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
GIANNI: and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
GIANNI: This week Zelda gets her own official game and more from the Nintendo showcase, the clicker game that’s been described as a legit infinite money glitch and Shadow of the Erdtree has become the most critically acclaimed DLC ever.
Here is the news for Sunday 23rd of June. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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GIANNI: This week it was Nintendo's turn for a gaming showcase and for a basically ancient machine it still manages to surprise.
My absolute highlight was The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and yes, this time it really is the legend of Zelda because she is the star of the entire game. Fans were collectively freaking out over this announcement.
The game is using the same cute art style as the Link’s Awakening remake, which I love and instead of a sword, Zelda has a new magic staff that she can use to copy enemies, items and objects to solve puzzles and fight enemies.
Let me tell you the furniture construction memes are alive and well, hit our discord to see a few.
We saw in the trailer the player making a staircase out of beds which you can still sleep in, so it definitely has some of the chaotic energy we’ve seen in Tears of The Kingdom. The game is out in a couple of months on September 26.
FIONA: The other big announcement was Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. Metroid fans have been waiting a long time for this one as it was first announced all the way back in 2017.
Sylux, the powerful bounty hunter is also back in this game but otherwise we don’t know a huge amount about the plot or how it will all play out.
I haven’t played much Metroid but I must admit and I’m quite keen on giving this one a go because it looks great. It’s scheduled for release later next year, so definitely keep an eye out.
GIANNI: In between those two announcements we saw a brand new Mario and Luigi game, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. You can catch everything also that was announced in the Direct in our shownotes.
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FIONA: In weird news today a free game called Banana has overtaken Baldur’s Gate 3 on the list of peak concurrent players.
The game was released back in April and it’s pretty simple, you download Banana and you repeatedly click on a banana. At the time of recording the concurrent player count is over 910,000.
GIANNI: There is a bit more to it than just clicking. If you click long enough another banana will appear which you can then trade or sell on the Steam market, and there are supposedly some rare and expensive bananas out there.
So like the money stays on Steam, but it’s wild that this collecting urge has created this massive demand.
It reminds me a bit of the Cookie Clicker game from 2013. It's bananas how close the game is to overtaking Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 on peak concurrent players. Let’s see how many games it can overthrow.
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GIANNI: Ok I get it Kyle, Adam and every single reviewer, but Elden Ring’s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree has knocked off the previous king of DLC, The Witcher 3.
Shads Erd as I will only refer to it, picked up an average rating of 95% on sites like Metacritic and OpenCritic, beating 2016’s Blood & Wine expansion, and CD Project Red have congratulated the Fromsoftware team.
Much like the Witcher, Shads Erd is a pretty massive addition to the base game, an almost pseudo sequel and yeah you know why Kyle isn’t here today.. “Cough I’m sick” lol as if.
FIONA: Even though I’m not an Elden Ring player it will be cool to see all the interesting secrets come out the cool communities that develop as players enjoy this game and you know where you can keep up to date?
That’s right subscribe to Walkthrough on YouTube or your favourite podcast player.
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FIONA: Life by You, a game that was meant to rival The Sims series for the top spot in the life sim genre, has been cancelled.
The game was meant to release in early access at the start of this month, but when that date was pushed back indefinitely, there was concern it could be the end of the project.
Sadly, that’s exactly what has happened, with publishers Paradox Interactive announcing on Monday that the project is officially cancelled.
Paradox Interactive Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja said in the statement that the game was lacking in key areas, and the road to getting Life by You to a place that the studio would be satisfied with would simply be too long.
GIANNI: But in the days that followed, a different story was being told.
In a massive post to his Linkedin page, former Life by You designer Willem Delventhalhas claimed the rug had been pulled out from under the dev team, and that the game was in a good position to release.
He said that in the lead up to the proposed launch date, the team was in good spirits, having more than achieved metric targets and everything seemed to be on track.
Then two weeks before launch, the release date was scrapped, and the team was left in what he described as a month of waiting in purgatory before finding out the bad news themselves for the first time in the public announcement.
Which is pretty damn rough.
I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear about what went down, so be sure to stay tuned to Walkthrough for all the latest.
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GIANNI: Rumours are back again for Final Fantasy Tactics, as a remaster is reportedly in the works.
There have been talks about the remaster for a couple of years now, ever since a list of games datamined from Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service was leaked and Tactics was included on the list of what was coming to PC.
However, the topic recently popped up again after Midori, a well-known JRPG leaker who shared a lot of details about the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, revealed themselves to be a blacklisted male American leaker who was going under the guise of a Japanese woman.
FIONA: This obviously caused lots of people to question gaming information he’s shared including about the Tactics remaster, but Bloomberg’s Jason Shreier jumped into the mix saying “The Final Fantasy Tactics remaster is real and happening.”
Which on one hand, ‘yay more confirmation’ but on the other hand it goes against what Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno said on X, “currently, there are no plans for remastering [Tactics]”.
All we can hope is that another game is in the works but only time will tell.
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FIONA: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
GIANNI: Out Tuesday is the latest Super Monkey Ball title, Banana Rumble. Expect more of the same Monkey Ball mayhem with, out exclusive to the switch on the 25th.
FIONA: 20 years ago Beyond Good & Evil arrived on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 and this week you can pick up the HD remake! This was a pretty groundbreaking game at the time and it features a bit of postgame DLC that connects it to the upcoming (maybe…) sequel. Pick it up on everything on the 25th
GIANNI: Speaking of blasts from the past Luigi’s Mansion 2 is getting a HD remake for the Switch. Over a decade since it was originally released on the 3DS, this HD version will feature improved controls, enhanced visuals, and a new multiplayer mode.Grab it on Switch on Thursday the 27th.
FIONA: One for the younger gamers out there this week, it’s Gigantosaurus: Dino Sports. Run, jump, ski, and climb as your favourite dinosaur competing in the dino games. That’s coming to all platforms on the 28th.
GIANNI: Also out on the 28th is Spy x Anya: Operation Memories. It’s a cutesy social sim spin off of the Spy X Family manga series where you play as Anya, tasked with putting together a photo diary for a school project. That’s out on PC, Switch, and Playstation 4 and 5 this Friday.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
GIANNI: And my name is Gianni Di Giovanni, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: Love chatting about games? Why don’t you tell us what you are enjoying in the SIFTER discord? It’s a cool chill place to hang out and we’d love to see you there. Head to sifter.com.au/discord that address is sifter.com.au/discord or hit the link in the show notes.
GIANNI: SIFTER is produced by Fiona Bartholomaeus, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Courtney Borrett and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni, SIFTER's Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
GIANNI: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday. See you then.
