Drone Builder Nimbatus Could be the Next Minecraft
Nimbatus is the latest in a long line of projects to put the tools of creation into the hands of users. In this case, those tools range from weapons and thrusters to sensors and hinges, with the end goal being to build drones. Players then take those drones on fairly straightforward missions, with success being rewarded with an expansion of the procedurally-generated universe.
The game has been tearing up Kickstarter since the launch of the crowdfunding campaign last month, earning almost three times its initial funding goal with three days remaining at the time of publication. Understanding this overwhelmingly strong reception is simple. The developers at Stray Fawn Studio have made all the right moves in providing a reasonable funding goal, a plethora of work examples, and a playable demo. However, supplanting all of these positives, the game itself speaks volumes in the strength of its ideas and execution.
As with many of the most rewarding gaming experiences, Nimbatus is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Building a player-controlled drone capable of completing objectives is as simple as joining together a series of thrusters, fuel tanks, batteries, and weapons, which can be done in under a minute. The challenge within the game stems from the ever-increasing swarms of enemies, defence against which requires more complex designs that make use of autonomy. To that end, the developers have included a series of sensors that can detect foes and terrain and force the drone to respond accordingly. While the purpose of most parts is fairly straightforward, getting them to work correctly can be a distressingly fiddly process, as adjusting variables can produce unexpected results.
Games such as LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft, Planet Coaster, and Kerbal Space Program have enabled users to flex their creativity and build remarkable things. Nimbatus is designed with a similar mindset, and some crafty gamers have appropriated the existing parts to make speedometers, rovers, and other constructions that the developers have taken as inspiration to guide updates for the alpha build. Community feedback has also guided some of the crowdfunding campaign’s stretch goals, including more parts for land exploration and environmental events. Those additional financial targets promise significant expansions upon the fairly barebones structure of the game found within the demo.
As aforementioned, most missions involve either circumnavigating or drilling through a planet to locate and destroy an objective. While initially invigorating, the repetitive mission structure becomes rote after only a handful of quests. Thankfully, the developers have included challenges in the form of sumo arenas, where autonomous drones go head-to-head in an effort to push each other out of a circle. The technical dexterity and design iteration required for success in these arenas set them apart from the remainder of the game. Building fully autonomous drones is more difficult than player-controlled ones, but also more rewarding. Therefore, Stray Fawn’s decision to expand on this area with drone races and weaponised combat in the final release should prove to be rousing.
The brilliant design philosophy of Nimbatus is supported by a colourful 2D visual style that reduces the complexity of engineering and mechanics to an interface that is easy to understand. Supporting the engaging graphics is a suitably synth-based soundtrack honed to the perfect pitch to facilitate concentration rather than being distracting. The presentation adds up to a project that is stunningly videogenic, as even the most basic creations can put on a spectacular lightshow.
Nimbatus remains in a very early stage of development, and Stray Fawn anticipates not being able to release a final product until 2019, although alpha and Steam Early Access launches are scheduled to take place next year. The barebones mission structure and sometimes obscurely defined autonomy-based drone parts make the wait bearable, but those flaws are minor in the face of the whole game. Nimbatus is simple and engaging enough to be the next Minecraft and is sure to sit comfortably alongside Media Molecule’s Dreams as a new standard bearer for the play, create, share model.
The year of BattleTech
BattleTech, the grandfather of mech combat games, turns 34-years old next year. Since 1984, rights to that universe have traded hands several times, from the original creators at FASA Corporation to the current home with three different developers: Piranha Games, Catalyst Game Labs and Harebrained Schemes.
Next year, all three studios will launch new entries of the iconic franchise. For our latest cover story, Polygon talked with each of them, spending nearly a year piecing together four features about the BattleTech universe.
In part one, we traveled to an abandoned mall in Vancouver, British Columbia to lay hands on the first playable demo of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. It’s the first single-player, first-person action game to be published in the BattleTech universe in 15 years. You’ll hear from the team about their design goals, and watch the first 10 minutes of gameplay footage released to the public. Check it out below.
In part two, you’ll hear the latest on BattleTech, the third-person tactical strategy game from Harebrained Schemes. After a $2.8 million Kickstarter and a publishing deal with Paradox Interactive, the team of designers opened up about what they’ve learned from the community and how they plan to evoke the kind of ensemble storytelling that made Firefly a cult classic.
In part three, we talked to the BattleTech loremasters and cobbled together the definitive guide to the early history of that universe. It includes more than a millennium’s worth of alternate human history, filled with brilliant innovations and bloody civil wars. And it’s all been helpfully annotated with brand new art from illustrator Daniel Warren Johnson, as well as images culled from the archives at Catalyst Game Labs.
Finally, in part four, we tracked down and interviewed some of the principle creatives involved in the birth of the BattleTech universe. Our feature includes interviews with co-creators Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock, as well as the tabletop game’s current lead designer, Randall Bills.
2018 is shaping up to be the year of BattleTech, so here’s what every MechWarrior needs to know before they drop in.
Nexon’s take on Counter-Strike gets a Minecraft-like building mode
Publisher Nexon is taking its Counter-Strike mod that added zombies to the first-person shooter and throwing a little Minecraft into the mix. Players will be able to build their own blocky custom maps in Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies thanks to the free-to-play game’s new Studio Mode.
Studio Mode lets players create, play and share their creations in Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies. Players can add traps, obstacles and hide outs, while laying out friendly and enemy NPCs, to build their own custom levels. A brief trailer, posted above, shows what Studio Mode is capable of.
Building requires some specific items — confusingly named the Build Scanner License Item and Build Minigun License Item — and Nexon says it’s holding a “fan event” from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 where players can receive one of those for free.
You can grab the Studio Mode update (and Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies) for free from Steam, if you’re curious.
Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies launched in 2014. The game is based on a modified version of Counter-Strike 1.6 and includes content from the original game plus zombies and zombie-related game modes. The game is free-to-play and can get very weird if you’d like to give it a try.
Nexon’s take on Counter-Strike gets a Minecraft-like building mode
Jason Momoa reveals how he ended up playing Aquaman
When someone mentions Aquaman these days, your first thought is probably of a bearded, tattooed badass you definitely wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of. It wasn’t always like that, though.
As Jason Momoa explains in the BBC Radio 1 interview above, Aquaman used to be sort of a nerd. And Momoa was the one brought in to change all that.
In the clip, Momoa says that he originally auditioned for Batman, but quickly realised it wasn’t right for him.
“I almost threw away the audition and went, like ‘this is silly’,” he explains. “And then my agent said: ‘Zach really wants to have you on tape.'”
Momoa went on tape, came back for another meeting with Snyder, and the rest was history.
Supergirl might just leave you singing about Minecraft
Minecraft mightn’t be the sort of game that inspires song and dance, but Melissa Benoist from Supergirl and Glee is here to prove that assumption wrong.
In an ad for the game’s Super Duper Graphics Pack set to release next year, Benoist sings about Minecraft and all the possibilities there are to be had…from an optional DLC graphics pack.
Gotta sing about something, we guess.
Mojang Is Letting Minecraft Fans Choose the Game’s Next Mob
The votes are in, and Mob B – aka “The Monster of the Night Skies” has won the vote. The flying manta ray monster will be added in a future update… which we’ll talk about now.
The new Mob will arrive as part of a new expansion coming to the game, dubbed The Update Aquatic, coming spring 2018.
Mojang is calling this the biggest update ever to the game’s oceans, adding new creatures (including dolphins), explorable shipwrecks, and a Trident weapon that can be enchanted to add new magical abilities.
Sadly, we also got some news of updates not coming as soon as we’d hoped – the Super Duper Graphics Pack and Nintendo Switch cross-play have been delayed.
Original story: As part of its Minecon Earth event taking place this Saturday November 18, Mojang has announced that it will be holding a special event to allow fans to vote for Minecraft’s next mob.
There are four options to choose from, but only one will actually make it into the game (at least for now).
The options available are in the gallery below, with descriptions below of each beneath:
Mob A, The Monster of the Ocean Depths – an ocean monster which will attempt to drown you with its “tongue-like tentacle”.
Mob B, The Monster of the Night Skies – a flying, “manta-ray-like” monster which targets players who haven’t slept.
Mob C, The Great Hunger – a “cute-looking” mob that sinks into the ground and waits for things to fill into its “huge mouth”.
Mob D, The Hovering Inferno – a master Blaze that appears in the Nether with a powerful shockwave attack.
While all of these sound delightful, it will be up to fans which one is added to the game; details on how votes will be cast have not yet been revealed, other than an instruction to tune in to the Minecon Earth livestream, which begins Saturday November 18 at 5pm GMT/ 12pm EST / 9am PST / Sunday November 19, 4am AEDT, with a pre-show starting twenty minutes before. You can watch the show here.
Minecraft-style Lenin monument unveiled in Siberian city (VIDEO)
The cardboard Lenin statue looks like it has come right out of the world of popular computer game Minecraft. It was unveiled in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk as part of an art project at a local state museum on Thursday. Incidentally, it is situated in Karl Marx street.
The pixelated Lenin stands in his iconic pose with left arm outstretched. The statue is placed atop one of the platforms near a local museum center, which was itself named after the revolutionary leader until the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.
The creator of the “Minecraft” Lenin, Aleksandr Zakirov, told Russian media that his work of art is meant to honor Lenin’s “visual image” as it had become a kind of “brand” long ago.
“Monuments to Lenin have recently been demolished only, but I have erected one,” Zakirov said. He added that his creation will last only one month, as it is made of cardboard and will soon get soaked in the snowy city.
READ MORE: Revolutionary corpse: Why and how Russia still preserves Lenin in its heart
Not everyone is happy with such an image of the leader of the October 1917 Russian revolution, which marked its centennial in early November. The leader of Krasnoyarsk’s Communist Party denounced the idea and called it “a mockery.” Speaking to Govorit Moskva radio station he vowed to demolish the monument.
Minecraft-style Lenin monument unveiled in Siberian city (VIDEO)
Don’t miss this Xbox One S + DOOM, Fallout 4 and Minecraft for… £169.99
Looking for the best Black Friday gaming deal? Want an Xbox One S 500GB with 3x amazing games? What if I told you that there’s an Xbox One S bundle with Fallout 4, DOOM, and Minecraft for £169.99. Would you buy it? Oh my – yes you would. Well, Currys is selling exactly that right now, and it’ll be a deal that gets snapped up VERY fast, so get on it. It’s one of the best Black Friday deals right now. Alternately, you can get the Xbox One S + Assassin’s Creed Origins and Forza 7 for £169 from eBay (and it’s brand new).
Xbox One S plus Fallout 4, DOOM, Minecraft: This really is the best Xbox One deal right now. That’s the console and all three games! Grab it immediately for £169.99 from Currys.
There are heaps of other Xbox One S deals this Black Friday, and a bunch of Xbox One X bundles too. None, however, offer such amazing value as this one. Don’t forget that the Xbox One S does support HDR, so it’ll still look great on your new 4K TV, if you have one. Sure, you’ve maybe already played Minecraft, but the addition of DOOM and Fallout 4 offer 100s of hours of genuinely great Bethesda action for an absolute steal.
Want something a bit different? You can get an Xbox One S with Assassin’s Creed Origins and Forza 7 for £169.99 too!
Xbox One S + Assassin’s Creed Origins and Forza 7: Yikes, this bundle is almost as tempting as the one above. Buy it right now for £169 – brand new – from eBay.
Don’t miss this Xbox One S + DOOM, Fallout 4 and Minecraft for… £169.99
School in Methven using Minecraft as education tool
Computer games and healthy eating might not seem like a natural combination, but the two go hand in hand for Year 5 students at Methven Primary School in Canterbury.
Using Minecraft’s education edition, the pupils are building a virtual village, complete with a free range chicken farm, crop fields and shops to sell the produce.
Teacher Adele Warburton says Minecraft is more than just a fun computer game. She says using Minecraft as a learning tool encourages 21st century skills such as collaboration, communication, creativity and problem solving. It also teaches the children about being good digital citizens.
“We talk about how you wouldn’t rip someone’s book up, therefore you wouldn’t tear down their house in Minecraft.”
Warburton admits that her students are all better than her at Minecraft.
“They’re digital natives after all. Accepting differences is one of our school values and the kids have to accept that I’m useless.”
Director of Minecraft Education Neal Manegold said his goal is to make Minecraft: Education Edition accessible to all teachers, not just the techie types.
“We’ve baked a tutorial world into the game that is designed not only for teachers who have never played Minecraft, but teachers who have never played a computer game.”
Microsoft introduced Minecraft: Education Edition just over a year ago and the tech giant has been working hard ever since to keep up with teachers’ growing demand for the game as they begin to recognise its value as a teaching tool.
At the Bett Asia 2017 education technology summit held last week in Kuala Lumpur, teachers from all over the world got hands-on with the game in Minecraft Teacher Academy sessions.
Manegold says Minecraft can be used in and across all subjects.
“It’s not a case of teachers saying ‘ok, now it’s Minecraft time’; it’s about seamless curriculum integration.”
He points to a growing bank of Minecraft lesson plans shared by teachers, for teachers.
Most of the plans are multidisciplinary. One lesson plan tasks students with building a sustainable community on an island with limited resources, touching on literacy, geography and environmental sciences.
Manegold also says there needs to be clear evidence of students’ learning.
“It’s not enough for teachers to say, ‘I’m cool, I’m using Minecraft’. Students need to be able to show the benefits of what they’re doing and what they’ve learned.”
There are tools within the game – such as virtual blackboards and non-moveable players – to allow teachers to plant resources and information. Students have access to a camera tool to take pictures of their work, and a digital book for recording and sharing their learning. They can also use Code Builder to replicate code they’ve created and use it in other applications, and pull their 3D models out of Minecraft and into other projects.
Minecraft helps kids understand the basics of coding and computer programming.
Partnering with the global Hour of Code initiative, Microsoft launched last week a new Minecraft tutorial for this year’s event in December.
However, Don Carlson, director of education for Microsoft Asia Pacific, says there’s more to Minecraft than learning to code.
“Coding empowers young people, giving them the tools they need to not only express themselves, but also transform the way they think critically and solve complex problems.”
Dr Richard Campbell of Coding Heroes in South Korea agrees.
“We shouldn’t be teaching coding for coding’s sake. It’s the creativity, critical thinking and other 21st century skills that kids utilise that are important to take away from the coding experience.”
Minecraft: Education Edition
•Launched in 2016
•2 million licensed users
• Used in 115 countries
• 70 million Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial sessions
• 260 Minecraft lessons created by educators
New Minecraft Update Goes Under the Sea
Minecraft giveth; Minecraft taketh away.
Mojang has officially published all the big announcements from this year’s Minecon Earth live show—a much more convenient replacement for the traditional convention the company throws for its world-building game. Before we chat about the new aquatic content comign to Minecraft, we’ll get the bad news out of the way first: The game’s Super Duper Graphics pack isn’t going to arrive this year.
Instead, says Mojang, the optional downloadable content—”crammed full of excessive visual razzmatazz” for console and mobile players, including 4K HDR graphics—is going to arrive next year. Mojang didn’t offer a specific release date, but says that it’ll be updating Minecraft.net with new information as it becomes available.
Similarly, a new version of Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch that allows for cross-platform multiplayer is also being delayed until 2018.
“Nintendo has been a great partner and we’re really excited to fully bring Switch players into the fold, however, we need to make sure we deliver the best experience possible. So the new version of Minecraft will now be coming to Nintendo Switch next year. Xbox One, PC, mobile and Nintendo Switch, all playing multiplayer Minecraft together in 2018 – I’m getting emotional just thinking about it,” write Mojang’s Tom Stone.
The big content announcement from Minecon Earth is Mojang’s ‘The Update Aquatic,’ which will add lots of new watery features to Minecraft, including new fish, dolphins, coral, water physics, and explorable shipwrecks. Players will also be able to wield tridents as they adventure around—weapons you jab enemies with or throw at them. And, yes, you can enchant your trident to ensure it always returns to your hand once you’ve tossed it, the world’s most awkward boomerang.
In Mojang’s update, players will be able to catch different kinds of fish depending on the temperature of the water they’re in, and they’ll be able to create and populate aquariums for their collections. Minecraft builders will also get a chance to drop new bubble columns into their creations, and all players can go on hunts for treasure around their worlds—dolphins can help point the way to the loot, found in various structures like shipwrecks and icebergs.
Mojang didn’t indicate when The Update Aquatic would land, only that it would arrive in a future Minecraft update.
‘Minecraft’ now livestreams building sessions directly to Mixer
A large part of Minecraft‘s allure is showing off your work. And now, it should be relatively easy to do that in real time. Mojang has released an update that lets you livestream directly to Microsoft Mixer (its parent company’s service, naturally) from within the game on Android devices, Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One consoles. If you’ve just finished recreating an entire country, you can take people on a live tour without starting a broadcast in a separate app or service first. And your audience doesn’t have to simply watch, either.
Mixer support also lets you make aspects of your Minecraft session interactive. Viewers can vote on spawning objects (including enemies) or even change the environmental conditions. They can turn day into night to see whether you’ll survive the trip back to safety, for instance. If you’ve ever broadcast a Minecraft stream and thought it was too predictable, this could add just the right amount of chaos.
The feature isn’t available in other versions of Minecraft just yet. A mod to bring it to the classic Java-based game is coming later in 2017. Even so, this promises to make the world-building game a more social experience, whether or not your friends are ready to play.
‘Minecraft’ now livestreams building sessions directly to Mixer
The 20 best Nintendo Switch games you can buy right now
With nearly a year of gaming goodness under its belt, the Nintendo Switch is going from strength to strength. From the utter brilliance that is Super Mario Odyssey to Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure, to the ballsy brawler Pokkén Tournament DX (the revamped version of Pokkén Tournament and Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition, the brilliant platformer, there’s plenty on our list. And that doesn’t even include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Splatoon 2 or the glorious The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Even if you ignore those major releases, there’s a wealth of smaller but no less fun games out there on the eShop, just waiting to be snagged.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best Nintendo Switch games you can buy right now. While this won’t be a definitive list until we’ve gotten about a year’s worth of games, we’ll continue updating this page with recent releases worthy of your time and money. And whether you’re looking for party games, 2D platformers or big 3D adventures, the Switch has you covered. Oh, and if you want to know what’s still to come, check out our upcoming Nintendo Switch games.
20. Cave Story+
Genre: Platformer
Price: $29.99
What is it? A Nintendo Switch port of one of the best cult indie hits
Why should you buy it? While the price tag is a bit steep (especially considering it’s appeared cheaper on other platforms, and even launched for free back in the early 2000s), there’s no denying that Cave Story is still worth supporting now that it’s on the Nintendo Switch. It’s the labor of love of a single developer named Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, weaving retro-styled Metroidvania concepts with an engrossing and emotional story through multiple endings. If you grab a physical copy, you’ll even get a bunch of neat goodies, including a soundtrack mini-disc and full-color manual.
19. Thumper
Genre: Rhythm action
Price: $19.99/£15.99
What is it? Self described as a ‘rhythm violence’ game, Thumper sees you hurtling down a track as a giant bug perfectly hammering buttons to the beat.
Why should you buy it? Thumper might initially remind you of something a little gentler like Audiosurf as you glide down slick, stylised pathways with electronica in your ears but don’t be deceived, this aural extravaganza requires a calm head and pitch perfect twitch reflexes. Initially your giant bug just requires a tap of A as you go over a light panel or perhaps holding a button as you crash around corners but before long you’re tapping, flying, crashing down onto the track and causing tidal waves to destroy enormous floating heads… and that’s only the beginning. Utterly unforgiving with a soundtrack that you can’t pump into you head loud enough, Thumper is a treat for the senses and potentially RSI inducing for your thumbs.
18. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
Genre: Roguelike
Price: $39.99
What is it? The ultimate edition of the remake of the flash game by the artist behind Super Meat Boy.
Why should you buy it? Get past the aesthetic fuelling the Binding of Isaac’s narrative – in which a young, naked boy held captive in his own home attempts to escape his mom’s murderous intentions by navigating underground caverns and crying at enemies – and there’s one hell of a game here from Edmund McMillen. Each run is a randomly generated dungeon, pulling inspiration equally from games like The Legend of Zelda and Spelunky, and as you take on a menagerie of demons, you’ll pick up a variety of mysterious items which can help (or hinder) you on your quest to the bottom. Want laser tears or maps to every level? How about one giant tear droplet to steer around the demonic enemies?
Every run is completely different and always relentlessly, offensively wonderful. Packing in the remake of the original game (now known as Rebirth) along with all of the expansions released so far, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ is the definitive edition of a roguelike that will gleefully suck away hundreds of hours of your life if you let it. Oh, and in further temptation, hunt down the physical edition now available in the EU for a special retro-style actual manual like one you got in the ’90s, and some adorable Isaac stickers.
17. Tumbleseed
Genre: Roguelike
Price: $14.99/£11.99
What is it? A ‘rolly’ roguelike where you need to steer a tiny seed up a mountain using only your analogue sticks to control a tilting stick.
Why should you buy it? Because you like games that will beat you into a pulp before you finally master them. Tumbleseed looks simple on paper. Tilt a board with your analogue sticks and steer a tiny seed up a mountain. How hard can it be? The answer is exceptionally. Holes mean death. Enemies mean death. Everything means death. And then it clicks as you juggle seedling power ups, carefully dodging pits while collecting crystals from felled enemies. Every movement matters and while Tumbleseed is utterly unforgiving and will send you back to the bottom of the mountain as your pitiful number of lives deplete, you’ll be hitting restart without even thinking about it. A must play.
16. Pokken Tournament DX
Genre: Fighting
Price: $59.99/£49.99
What is it? The brilliant Wii U brawler is being brought back to life on the Switch with this DX version. Think Pokémon cross with Tekken and you’re spot on.
Why should you buy it? Pokkén Tournament never really stood a chance on the Wii U. While the Japanese arcade version got new characters and regular updates, the Wii U version was left to stagnate. And now it’s clear why, the Switch’s Pokkén Tournament DX edition was en route and ready to kick some Poké ass. Not only do you get five brand new characters – Croagunk, Empoleon, Darkrai, Scizor and Decidueye – but you also get Team Battle mode. You pick three different Pokémon and pits them against an enemy team, and it’s basically a game of survival of the fittest. It’s brilliant for playing solo offline as a way to practice and experiment with the different beasties. Otherwise, it’s the same brawler that so many people missed out on with the Wii U version.
15. Golf Story
Genre: Golf RPG (yes really)
Price: $14.99/£13.49
What is it? It’s a brilliant pixel art RPG crossed with a golf sim, with added tongue-in-cheek comedy.
Why should you buy it? Nintendo and Camelot’s Game Boy Color take on golfing was a revelation, even for people who hate golf. Mario Golf GBC combined RPG-lite character upgrades and progression with a simple and intuitive arcadey version of golf – and it happened exactly once. Sidebar Games has clearly taken this to heart, and has made its own full-on golfing adventure, complete with eight unique environments, side-quests, and even a story. I don’t even like golf and I’m addicted to this.
14. Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Price: $39.99/£39.99
What is it? One of Telltale’s best episodic adventures in one neat package with a story and world based around the blocky excellence that is Minecraft.
Why should you buy it? Not only is it the first of Telltale’s games to come to the Switch, but it’s also utterly brilliant. Even if you aren’t a Minecraft fan, there’s plenty of comedy, action and block-based jokes to chuckle at and you’ll appreciate the way Telltale’s engine works so seamlessly on the Switch. Of course, if you are a Minecraft fan this should be a no-brainer, especially with the Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition being so brilliant too. You can be Minecrafting on Switch all the time in all the ways.
And plus, you get a lot of game for your money. The Complete Adventure gets you all five episodes of Minecraft: Story Mode and the three episodes of the follow-up Adventure Pass released last year.
13. Arms
Genre: Fighter
Price: $59.99/£49.99
What is it? A unique fighter from the house that brought you Splatoon
Why should you buy it? Arms is a fighting game for the masses. Rather than forcing you to learn an endless list of combos and counters, Arms places all of its focus on your pugilists’ two stretchy limbs. That’s not to say it isn’t deep: each fighter has unique abilities and an array of special arm types to use, which allow for a wide variety of strategies. While it’s a bit light on single-player content, a solid foundation and the promise of additional free content on the way ensures that Arms will have a place in our Switch systems for months to come.
12. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap
Genre: Platformer
Price: $19.99/£17.99
What is it? A complete reskin of cult classic Wonder Boy 3, complete with the ability to switch between hand-drawn animation and the original 8-bit sprites.
Why should you buy it? Wonder Boy doesn’t have the same cultural appreciation that Metroid or Castlevania does, but that those who grew up with the series (along with spin-offs like Adventure Island) attest to its quality. Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap in particular is important because it helped laid the groundwork for a generation of non-linear platformers to follow. In the 2017 remake (which drops the numbering), developer Lizardcube lovingly takes the same game – passcodes and all – and applies a gorgeous painterly aesthetic on top of it, complete with an all-new soundtrack. It’s a bit archaic in spots, but the fact that it holds up so well with minor gameplay changes is a testament to how far ahead of the curve it was in 1989.
11. Minecraft
Genre: Building simulation
Price: $29.99/£19.99
What is it? A beautifully blocky, open-world, creative sandbox for you to build, destroy, and mine anything you want.
Why should you buy it? Because even if you’ve played it before, Minecraft on Switch means ultra portable, buildable delight. You can sit down with a friend to play together on the local network, which is ridiculously simple to set up – just put one of their Joy-Cons on your Switch once your world is loaded up, press +, and hand it back to them. You can also play online if you’re not eager to go exploring alone, or try out one of its mini-games: Battle (straightforwards PvP), Tumble (a race that involves shovels or snowballs), or Glide (get to the end of the course asap). A plethora of achievements makes for pleasantly directed playing as they give you something to aim for, but when it’s comes down to it you never feel like you’ve quite beaten Minecraft even if you’ve been playing for tens of hours. It’s an exercise in discovery and ambition, with structures that previously only existed in your wildest dreams suddenly viable – as long as you have the resources. Whether you’re tenacious, easygoing, or just rabidly curious, think of Minecraft as a gracious host that will make you and anyone you choose to co-op with delirious with happiness. Either that, or you’ll get your hands on some TNT and will make everything go bang. Which is also fun.
You can now get a Nintendo Switch with a game for under £300 thanks to Black Friday
You can’t say retailers haven’t been offering some great (slightly early) Black Friday gaming deals. From Xbox One S bundles to PS4 Pro packages, there’s been deals a plenty and we’re not even at the big day yet. But for the Nintendo Switch, GAME and Amazon are offering the Switch with a game for under £300. Take a look:
Nintendo Switch with Rayman Legends Definitive Edition The lowest price we’ve seen for a Switch bundle yet. Amazon is offering the neon Switch with Rayman Legends Definitive Edition for just £289.99. Now that’s what we call a bargain.
Neon Nintendo Switch with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle If you want a tactical experience with some of the most famous faces on your Switch, this bundle is just £299.99 from GAME.
So we’re already hitting sub-£300 deals for the Switch and there’s still two days until actual Black Friday. No doubt there are plenty of consumers out there waiting for such a deal for a Switch with either Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey for such a price. Of course, we’ll tell you if that happens, so keep an eye on our best Black Friday Nintendo deals hub for the latest.
You can now get a Nintendo Switch with a game for under £300 thanks to Black Friday
Minecraft comes to Windows Mixed Reality ahead of major update
Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform is still new, but we’re starting to see exciting and immersive content arrive for it, including SteamVR titles, and now, Microsoft’s own blocky adventure game.
That’s right. Minecraft has officially arrived for Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) headsets. Technically, you could already play Minecraft in WMR, but you could only play on a virtual big screen. The game has been updated on Windows 10, however, allowing you to strap on your headset and step into a virtual reality world. This update has been in beta testing for over a month, so we knew it was coming.
- There’s a new version of Minecraft that’s just for learning
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Here’s what Microsoft said in its announcement post: “Now, Windows Mixed Reality brings you even more options to 3D-ify your crafty fun, and requires next to no set-up. Just plug the headset into the USB slot and you’re good to go.” Speaking of headsets, check out Pocket-lint’s guide here to see what is available. There are many models to choose from, including ones from Samsung, Dell, and HP.
Alongside this news, Microsoft’s Minecraft team revealed that Mixer integration has been added to the game, giving you the option to start a stream from within Minecraft. Mind you, all this has arrived before a huge update coming to Minecraft. Microsoft has been hard at work on a new engine for the game so that it can run across Windows 10, iOS, Android, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch using the same codebase.
But the most exciting part about the upcoming update, dubbed Update Aquatic, is that it will add tonnes of new features to the game’s oceanic areas, including coral reefs, shipwrecks, new aquatic species, and more. Find out what else is coming via the video above.
Minecraft comes to Windows Mixed Reality ahead of major update
Box Office: As ‘Justice League’ Crosses $320M, Should DC Films Be Saved?
The next two weeks will decide the fate of the Justice League movie. It’ll open in Japan and Pakistan later this week and debuts in Lebanon on the 30th. The film should be over/under $325 million worldwide as of yesterday, with a solid $10.55m Tuesday in North America for a new $111.9m five-day cume. At least it has already passed Green Lantern and Catwoman.
It’ll be the next two weeks, specifically the Thanksgiving holiday in North America and the general worldwide legs overseas that will determine whether the film will be a disappointment or an outright money loser. The good news is that it has earned double the domestic take overseas, meaning that it may well earn triple its domestic gross worldwide. And yes, that’s good news, because we could have easily seen a situation where the film opened small and had an overseas split closer to Wonder Woman (50/50) than Batman v Superman (33/67).
I’ll go into this next week once we get more info, but Justice League may be yet another example of why/how domestic box office is still so damn important even to global-targeted would-be blockbusters. So what kind of grand total are we looking at here? Well, let’s play around with the calculator for a moment…
Come what may, if the film plays like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 in terms of legs and domestic/overseas splits, then we’re looking at a $195 million domestic (that’s bad) and a $585m worldwide cume (also very bad, or less than Transformers: The Last Knight or even It). Conversely, if it plays like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I (a 2.35x multiplier), then we’re looking at a $220m domestic total, which is still lower than Logan or Fate of the Furious. Of course, Fate of the Furious made $1 billion overseas, but that’s not happening here.
Removing Wonder Woman from the equation, a 2.22x multiplier — average for the DCEU — gets the film to $210 million, while a multiplier closer to Suicide Squad (2.44x) gets it to $230m and a run closer to the Hunger Games sequels and the first Twilight gets it to around $255m. The hope-against-hope scenario is where Justice League earns decent word of mouth and plays like a well-liked general audiences family fantasy, like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (3.1x) or even Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2.9x) or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2.85x).
Legs like that, which will take JL anywhere from $267 million to $292m domestic. That still won’t qualify as a success, but it will argue that general audiences liked what they saw and that positioning Justice League as a season premiere (as opposed to a season finale) may pay off down the line. Apples and oranges perhaps, but Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins was not the biggest hit in the world back in 2005, earning $205m (from a $72m Wed-Sun debut) and $371m worldwide. But folks liked it, the critics liked it, and the payoff was the game-changing $1 billion+ gross of The Dark Knight.
But put that comparison aside for a moment. The other big factor is how well it plays overseas over the next two-to-three weeks. If we’re looking at a 2/1 split, then a Deathly Hallows part I run gets it to $665 million worldwide while a run like the Hunger Games sequels, the first Twilight and the earlier Harry Potter movies means a $750m-$775m global cume. The alleged word is that $700m is the break-even point, so while the movie won’t be incredibly popular, it might sneak into the black by the edge of its teeth, especially if we do get some kind of “alternate cut” on post-theatrical release.
Obviously, there are rosier scenarios, like Justice League indeed playing like Fantastic Beasts in more ways than one. That film earned a mediocre $234 million domestic but powered it overseas for an $814m global cume. And as awful as that $94m debut was, I will argue that a leggier Justice League that gets to $800m+ worldwide is a pretty okay result. If we look at Justice League not as a culmination movie but as a soft reboot/introductory title, the question becomes whether audiences like what they had to see, specifically in terms of the characters.
If they like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman (that franchise is already gold regardless), Jason Momoa’s Aquaman (I believe in James Wan) and/or Ezra Miller’s Flash, that’s a good sign for the long haul considering the next batch of likely DC movies. And yeah, while we may not need and may not get a Man of Steel 2, there is a case to be made for tossing Henry Cavill’s “good-hearted schmuck” Superman into a later DC Films offering as an added value element, just as Marvel has done with their third shot at making Bruce Banner cool. Ditto with Ray Fisher’s Cyborg (Fisher is fine in an understated turn and more Joe Morton is always a net-plus).
In a skewed way, Justice League has found itself in a position similar to Power Rangers and Ghostbusters. Power Rangers was far better than it had any right to be, operating as a kind of sleek, low-fi, character-driven origin story that felt like a cross between Chronicle and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. But it earned just $140 million global on a $100m budget. Ditto Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters, which offered Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon as crowd-pleasing new Ghostbusters but earned $128m domestic but just $228m worldwide on a $144m budget. Thus, both would-be franchise starters got stalled on the first try.
In both cases, the first films nailed the main characters just right but didn’t quite create a compelling story around them. And in both cases the films A) lost money, B) earned mixed or mixed-negative reviews and C) didn’t display the kind of legs that would argue for a continuation or any potential for “break out sequel” status the next go-around. But just because Justice League is probably dead doesn’t mean that DC Comics movies are toast. Wonder Woman is now WB’s most important franchise, while I would be shocked if James Wan’s Aquaman isn’t at least a crowd-pleasing, meat-and-potatoes entertainment. You don’t need a cinematic universe to have DC Comics movies.
I’ve said over the last few years that Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. is more than just Batman and Harry Potter. There is zero reason why WB can’t thrive on a stand-alone Wonder Woman series and periodic DC Comics adaptations like Flashpoint, Aquaman or Matt Reeves’ Batman movie, which will be slated alongside the LEGO films, the JK Rowling stuff, the Conjuring Universe stuff and the New Line Cinema studio programmers among other bigger and smaller movies. Heck, if Tomb Raider, Rampage, Ready Player One or The Meg hit it big next year, WB may finally be confident enough to end the DC Films cinematic universe in favor of merely making movies that are based on DC comic books.
Box Office: As ‘Justice League’ Crosses $320M, Should DC Films Be Saved?
Get an Xbox One S, Minecraft, Star Wars Battlefront II, DOOM, Fallout 4, AND Forza 7 for £210 on Black Friday *dies*
If you want to sample almost every of the main genres of gaming, hoo boy are you in for a treat. Now that we’re being drowned in Black Friday gaming deals, Currys is currently offering a bundle that not only provides you with the ramped up Xbox One S but also throws in a RPG with enough story for the most discerning of authors, the most shooty of FPSs, a sandbox game brimming with potential, a racing game, and a FPS RPG with killer online multiplayer. The only catch is you’ll have to order online and then go pick it up in store. But for a deal this great, we’re sure you can make an exception.
If Minecraft isn’t your cup of tea (Creepers aren’t for everyone, we guess), you can also buy the an identical bundle that just replaces Minecraft with Forza Horizon 3 and the Hot Wheels pack for £210 from Currys. Then you can race to your heart’s content and relive that magical childhood nostalgia that comes from making tiny plastic cars zoom along metres of bright orange plastic. If neither of these are quite what you’re looking for, head over to our best Black Friday Xbox One deals to see what else is on offer.
‘Coco’ Mints $12M+ Wednesday & Fights ‘Justice League’ For No. 1 At Thanksgiving Box Office With $68M
UPDATE, midday Friday: Disney/Pixar’s Coco is looking at an opening day of $12.5 million (including last night’s $2.3M) as of this point per industry estimates, which is $2.6M less than what Moana chalked up a year ago. Right now, because it’s so early, both Coco and Warner Bros’ Justice League are in a battle for No. 1 overall at the domestic box office with an estimated $47M three-day and $68M five-day each. As we move along this week, it should settle down and separate the two.
Coco will beat Justice League today with the latter Zack Snyder movie making an estimated $10.5M, down 1% versus yesterday. If its projections hold, the DC superhero team-up will touch just under $180M. While we’ve been complaining about the film’s lackluster performance in regards to the DC franchise, exhibitors could care less about that: They’re rolling in concession cash, and the marketplace in the past three weeks has been a boom versus last summer’s doldrums.
Lionsgate’s Wonder is looking at $6M today, up 7% from Tuesday, with a current three-day outlook of $26.5M and five-day of $37.5M, heading toward $74.6M. The Stephen Chbosky-directed film will easily be Lionsgate’s best of 2017, topping John Wick: Chapter Two‘s $92M. On a three-day basis, Wonder is expected to ease 4% right now. Wow.
Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok is looking at a $4M Wednesday, a three-day of $17.8M and five-day of $25M — still money out of Justice League‘s pocket. Running cume by Sunday looks to be $278.2M.
Other holders are as follows:
Murder on the Orient Express (Fox) $2.6M Wed, 3-day $13.5M and 5-day $19M, running cume by Sunday of $74.6M.
Daddy’s Home 2 (Par) $2.5M Wed, 3-day $13.5M and 5-day of $18M, running come by Sunday of $72M.
Expanding titles:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (FSL), 590 runs. $800,000 Wed, 3-day of $4.5M, 5-day of $6.2M. Total by Sunday of $7.96M.
Roman J. Israel, Esq (Sony), 1,648 runs. Looks like $800K today (including $175K from Tuesday night) for 3-day of $4.1M and 5-day of $5.7M. Total by Sunday of $5.8M.
Lady Bird (A24), 741 runs. $600K Wed, 3-day $3.4M and 5-day of $4.6M, Total by Sunday of $9.9M.
PREVIOUSLY, 8:26 AM: Disney/Pixar’s Coco began its Thanksgiving march on the box office last night with $2.3 million, with an eye on making $60M or more over the next five days.
Coco opens at a sensitive time for Disney. Just yesterday, Pixar boss John Lasseter said he was taking a six-month sabbatical amid allegations of inappropriate behavior. Still, that Hollywood insider scandal isn’t expected to rock Coco‘s prospects in the rest of the U.S. and Canada.
Coco‘s preview is just $300,ooo shy of Moana‘s $2.6M Tuesday preview a year ago. That pic racked up $15.5M on its first day. Coco is also far ahead of The Good Dinosaur, considered a bomb for Pixar with $1.3M previews ($9.76M Wednesday). Coco is also ahead of Disney’s uber hit Frozen, which made $1.2M on its first Tuesday ($15.1M Wednesday) during Thanksgiving week.
Coco in its Dia de los muertos story doesn’t have the Disney princess factor Moana possessed, which pushed down on Coco‘s projections prior to opening. But the film has a 95% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which could push its tickets sales higher; it’s just one point below Moana‘s RT rating. Moana grossed $56.6M in its first three days and $82M over five, making it the second-best Thanksgiving stretch debut after Frozen‘s $93.6M. Coco carries a reported production cost in the Pixar range which is typically between $175M-$200M before P&A, however, those in the animation world believe it’s much higher north of $225M.
The night before Thanksgiving is a notable one at the B.O. and Black Friday is even bigger. Today there are 74% kids off from K-12 and another 59% of colleges. That number moves up to 100% over the next two days.
Warner Bros/DC’s Justice League led all films in regular release with a big Tuesday of $10.6M, up 41% over Monday, for a running cume of $111.9M. The Zack Snyder-directed movie is expected to take in a gross similar to Coco‘s with $60M over the next five days. While critics have strangled Justice League with a 41% Rotten Tomatoes score, audiences are enjoying it with final PostTrak showing a 4-out-of-5-star response with males at 62% enjoying the movie with an 80% overall positive, and females at 38% giving it an 85% grade. Warners is hoping that more of those older female Wonder Woman fans come out, just like they did for her June solo outing: Females over 25 are giving Justice League its best grades at 90%, but they’re still in the minority among the pic’s headcount repping only 18% of the audience. Leading the charge are males under 35 (32%, 78% positive), males over 25 (30%, 81% positive), and women under 25 (20% at 81% positive). Justice League overall has a 65% definite recommend.
Lionsgate’s Wonder chalked up an estimated $5.6M yesterday, up 43% over Monday, for a five-day total of $37.1M. Many expect the Julia Roberts-Owen Wilson movie to be north of $64M by Sunday in its running domestic total.
Sony’s Roman J. Israel, Esq. expands from four to 1,648 today. Bleecker Street has the period piece The Man Who Invented Christmas in 500 houses, while Focus Features will open its Gary Oldman-as-Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour in four New York and Los Angeles theaters. Ditto on that count for Sony Pictures Classics’ Spirit Award-nom leading pic Call Me By Your Name.
‘Justice League’ Scrapped Batman Motorcycle Design Revealed
Batman has some cool vehicles in Justice League and while the Batmobile and the Flying Fox get some much-deserved screen time in the film, the Dark Knight could have had an awesome motorcycle, too.
Justice League production designer Patrick Tatopoulos shared a few sketches on his personal Instagram earlier today of a concept he had for a Batbike. You can check out the post below.
The idea of Batman having an elaborate and unique-looking bike isn’t new. In 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, Batman had an epic if not unusual motorcycle that the rider practically had to lay on in order to and operated on two, very wide tires. It also had some pretty cool tricks, but it lacked an overall “Batman” look to it.
Tatopoulos’s design remedies that by giving the motorcycle a distinctive and angular feel with lots of references to the shape of bat wings. The top sketch even has a seat that looks strikingly like the bat symbol or a batarang, and while the sketches don’t show wheels, the whole vehicle appears to have smaller profile which would give it dexterity for whatever chase Batman is on. It looks like there’s plenty of places for neat tools and weapons to be tucked away. It also looks like it would fit in nicely on the Flying Fox which itself is a unique vehicle. Tatopoulos recently shared concept art for the plane with the LA Times, revealing that some simple changes to the aircraft’s design had given it a look closer to that of Batman’s Batmobile, specifically by moving the placement of the cockpit.
“That little movement made it special,” Tatopoulos said. “It started to make it more like the Batmobile.”
However, it doesn’t appear that this Batbike is going to be parked next the Batmobile or part of the DC Extended Universe Bat fleet anytime soon. Tatopoulos’s caption on the photo made it sound like this sleek take on Batman’s bike will remain something from the designer’s dreams.
“Another quick doodle on the side of my dreams,” Tatopoulos wrote.
Fans can check out the designer’s other Batman vehicle designs, including the unique Flying Fox, in Justice League in theaters now.
What ‘Justice League’ Understands About the Modern Superman
Superman’s mythology is a living document, an ever-changing tapestry in which Justice League is just the most recent thread. It does, however, give a generation of comic book fans a perspective on “their” Superman which has not really been explored before on the big screen.
Grant Morrison, generally accepted as one of the great Superman writers of the last 20 years, was asked at the time about changes to Superman’s mythology in Man of Steel and to Iron Man’s significant changes in the franchise’s third film. His response was worth considering:
“In Australia, Aboriginal artists, every generation goes in and repaints the cave paintings. And they all tell the same stories over generations. And that’s what we do. The human species tells the same stories over and over again. Stories of heroes and villains. And I think we have to update them for each new generation,” said Morrison. “Any fans who cling on to maybe a version of something they read when they were children are really just hanging on to a past. The world’s moved on. There’s new children. They want their version of it. So I think it’s very important to freshen these things up and to update them and to move them forward and to look at them in the context of all the things we’re interested in now.”
For a generation born in the ’80s, our “version” of Superman, the one that most of us connect with and the character we think of when someone says “Superman,” had been gone since around 1999 or so, his history and attitude quietly changed until he was nearly-unrecognizable in some respects, in order to appeal to a different demographic. The version that replaced him vanished in 2011 when they rebooted the whole publishing line. Our version, in turn, sprang to life in 1986 after the previous one was deemed too quaint for his own good — and while the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman informed the 2000-2011 more significantly than the 1986-1999 version, those influences did not completely disappear when a recognizably ’90s-inspired Superman returned to the comics in 2015’s Superman: Lois and Clark.
The process is cyclical, and it has been for years. Before we had giant, continuity-altering, time-travel stories to “force” the change, we had the simple act of a writer consciously changing the depiction of a character to better reflect the times. Superman, when introduced, wasn’t “The Man of Steel,” “The Man of Tomorrow” or “The Last Son of Krypton” but the “Champion of the Oppressed.” He fought fat-cat bankers who gamed the system and screwed the little guy but years later he was busting commies just like any other American pop-culture hero. In the ’70s, his book became increasingly science fiction-oriented, which continued until the ’80s when they officially hit the “reset” button the first time.
There is, as longtime Superman: The Man of Steel artist Jon Bogdanove recently recounted to us, a disagreement even among the professionals who make Superman comics about just how he should be handled. Is he an alien who feels out of place? Is he a god merely masquerading as a man? Is he a farm boy ill-at-ease with the expectations placed on his shoulders? Is he the all-American kid? A little of everything?
For creators like Bogdanove, and current Action Comics writer Dan Jurgens, Superman is Clark first. This is one of the things that the film universe largely seems to understand (even if it not always executed perfectly): the appeal of exploring who Superman is and why he does what he does.
In the past, films have seen him as a generally good guy and was raised right, with not much needed beyond that. Still, exploring Clark before he was Superman has some value, for a reason made explicit in both the Superman comics of the post-Crisis era and the Justice League movie:
In Justice League, when pressed by Alfred as to why it was so important to resurrect Superman, Batman gives a variety of answers that fail to pass muster with his father figure. One of them, finally, connects. The answer?
“He’s more human than I am,” Batman says. “He lived in this world, fell in love, had a job, despite all that power.”
“The world needs Superman,” Bruce adds. “The team needs Clark.”
That fundamental part of most modern interpretations of Superman had never really made it to the big screen before Snyder: the idea that Batman is the real guy, and Bruce Wayne is the mask he wears in the daytime. Superman, meanwhile, is a costume that Clark Kent puts on.
Batman is driven by guilt and rage and his truest, most recognizable self is the one who dresses up in body armor and pummels people who remind him of the guy who killed his parents. He wears the costume to strike fear into the heart of criminals who are, by nature, “a superstitious and cowardly lot.”
Superman, on the other hand, just does what he does because it’s the right thing to do, and he can.
Superman wears a costume to protect Clark Kent’s loved ones, and to give himself a chance at a normal life in the off-hours. Clark is who he is, and Clark is a hero in his own right. He’s an award-winning investigative journalist and when he’s occasionally found himself without powers, that hasn’t stopped him putting himself in harm’s way for a story. Dressing as Superman, and NOT wearing a mask, is a calculated move. If he were wearing a mask, there would always be a question of who’s under it, and so he would always be worried about protecting his identity. Not wearing one, and going out in public, gives people the impression that this is his life. The hope is that they assume when he’s not Superman, he’s off on another planet or in his Arctic Fortress or something. They don’t think he’s even got another life because, why would he?
(Seen in that light, incidentally, the idea that changing your hairstyle, posture and wearing glasses might ACTUALLY be a legitimate disguise for Clark, since nobody’s looking for Superman to be anywhere else. I mean, we have no reason to assume that Donald Trump has a second life, either, so if you saw someone who looked a lot like him, would you accuse him of being President? Would people try to lobby him? Assassinate him? Probably not.)
And that’s been the thing about the film adaptations up until now: “You will believe a man can fly” was the most important thing. Superman was always the most important thing. Clark was secondary–at best–and frankly it left the character a bit shallow and aloof. In the more modern setting of Snyder’s films, it’s about his struggles — because without Clark Kent, Superman is basically just a costume.
Justice League is in theaters now.
Lego Live NYC to feature Star Wars, Ninjago, Minecraft, more
Lego Live NYC is bringing a massive, immersive three-day event to Manhattan in 2018, giving families and anyone Lego-obsessed a chance to really get their brick on.
The event will be held from Feb. 16 to 18 at the Basketball City facility on Pier 36 in lower Manhattan. It will be an “immersive experience” with Lego-themed zones, including Star Wars, Ninjago and Minecraft, to name a few, says Mark Guest, spokesman for Bricklive, a promotional network of Lego-focused events. In each of the areas inside the 65,000-square-foot facility, visitors will “experience hands-on building and get involved in the total creative experience, including live demonstrations,” he adds.
They will be presented by “Master Builders,” who come from all walks of life, including “wood carvers, furniture makers, engineers, you name it,” says Amanda Madore, senior manager for Brand Relations of the Lego Group.
Although anyone could potentially achieve Master Builder status, to do so one must first be able to accomplish tasks such as building a trophy out of Lego pieces in 10 minutes and a sphere in only one, among other tasks. “Lego Master Builder status can be achieved by anyone who can demonstrate the determination and skill to explore the Lego system and what can be achieved with this limitless building system,” says Madore.
Other highlights will include a community building area, appearances by yet-to-be-announced costumed characters, an area where guests can create robots in a “Coding Corner” and an assortment of special souvenirs and Lego sets available for purchase.
Tickets for the event, which will be held at 299 South St., Manhattan, are available for $30-$75 at legolive.frontgatetickets.com. Email questions to info@parallellive.com.
Lego Live NYC to feature Star Wars, Ninjago, Minecraft, more
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