Plus Marvel Snap goes offline thanks to the TikTok Ban and Doom: The Dark Ages gets a release date
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: This week Celeste studio cancels upcoming game, Xbox Developer Direct gives us a Doom and Ninja Gaiden preview and Marvel Snap gets inadvertently knocked offline in TikTok ban.
Here is the news for Sunday 26th of January. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: Some sad news for indie fans, Extremely OK Games, the studio behind Celeste, has cancelled their upcoming project Earthblade.
After the well deserved success of Celeste, the Earthblade hype train was in full steam, particularly after a fantastic looking trailer was shown off at the 2022 Game Awards.
But after it was delayed early last year, it seems the situation behind the scenes had taken a nasty turn.
KYLE: Posting on the Extremely OK Games Blog earlier this week, Designer Maddy Thornson made the announcement that Earthblade was officially cancelled.
Thornson said there had been a major falling out between herself and artist Pedro Medeiros over an IP rights issue.
She said that despite reaching a resolution, the pair decided it was best to part ways.
As a massive Celeste fan, this sucks to hear, but the good news is everyone involved is heading off to work on new projects, which you can read more about in the full announcement in the show notes.
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KYLE: Marvel Snap is back up and running in the United States after getting caught in the TikTok ban earlier this week.
The game is published by Chinese company Nuverse which is a subsidiary of TikTok’s owner ByteDance. So when Tiktok started to get shut down, Marvel Snap became unavailable for anyone in the US and it was removed from the app stores.
Luckily the game is back up and running thanks to the delay in the ban, but it was definitely a surprise to the developers Second Dinner.
FIONA: Since it’s come back online the studio said they’re going to ensure all players are compensated for their lost time, and on Discord Chief development officer Ben Brode said to make sure it never happens again, they’re now looking to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher.
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FIONA: Microsoft held its first Xbox Developer Direct for 2025 and there’s a few new games on the way.
A new southern gothic adventure game called South of Midnight is coming this year from developers Compulsion Games and it looks pretty cool.
The main character Hazel is travelling the haunted fictionalised Deep South looking for her mother, all while discovering her new weaver powers and unraveling doomed creatures.
We got to see some more of the fighting and power mechanics of the game during the direct and I can’t wait to see more of the game
South of Midnight will be released on April 8.
KYLE: DOOM:The Dark Ages, the prequel to the DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal is out May 15.
It’ll be a little bit different from the previous games, instead of the acrobatic speed of Doom Eternal, Doom: The Dark Ages is more about power and tank-like force.
The game is coming pretty soon on May 15.
FIONA: And finally Ninja Gaiden is back with Ninja Gaiden 4, and a remake to the second game called Ninja Gaiden II: Black.
So get ready for some stealthy stabs as you move through the shadows, no release date on 4 but it’s expected to be a multi platform launch.
You can, however, play the remake of Ninja Gaiden II: Black right now.
There were a couple more games that were revealed at the Direct and you can check them out in the link in our show notes.
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KYLE: Here’s one for the Switch 2 rumour mill. Thanks to a retailer, there’s talk that we may be getting a new Mario game and a Zelda remake.
The online shop Newegg is selling Nintendo eShop gift cards and as part of the summary it has a short list of some of Nintendo’s upcoming titles, such as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.
But also on the list is a ‘New 3D Mario, New Mario Kart and a Legend of Zelda remake/remaster’.
I mean it could just be rubbish filler text for the online listing, but people are just clinging onto any tiny thread they can find for dear life at the moment.
FIONA: I think saying that there will be a new 3D Mario game on the Switch 2 is a given.
The Zelda remake or remaster is what I’m interested in. I would love to finally get an Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask remake for the Switch 2.
Visit sifter.com.au where we can exclusively reveal there will be a new pokemon game on the Switch 2. Obviously…
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FIONA: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
KYLE: First up we have the adorable roguelite dungeon crawler, Cuisineer. Basically picture Hades but food themed so if you liked BattleChef Brigade this could be a fun twist on that battle monsters and cook meals gameplay hook. That’s coming to consoles after already releasing on PC, pick it up on PlayStation , Xbox and Switch on the 28th.
FIONA: One for the PC elites out there, Spider-Man 2 is coming to PC, optimised for even the beefiest of builds. You know what a Spider-Man game is. That’ll be available to download on the 30th.
KYLE: And also out on the 30th is the latest in the long running Sniper series, Sniper Elite: Resistance. These games just keep quietly plugging away to what seems like a really dedicated fan base, so they must be doing something right. Grab it on all platforms except for the Switch this Thursday.
FIONA: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, the sequel to the indie sci fi inspired by dice rolling tabletop RPGs. Journey to the stars on Friday 31st. Make sure you check out Lightmap for an interview with developer Gareth Damian Martin on the first game, and a review on the sequel this week on sifter.com.au. You can pick up Citizen Sleeper 2 on all platforms.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: If you’re a fan of video game soundtracks, Gianni and the host of ABC’s Game Show Meena Shamaly sat down and took a big old look at the best tunes of 2024. It’s a massive episode with 21 pieces from 13 different games, it’s a top ten with bonus levels. Find it now on the Lightmap podcast feed, search for Lightmap and SIFTER on your favourite podcast player or head to our website for a link. That’s sifter.com.au
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by myself, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
KYLE: 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.
FIONA: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
