The next Global Mission for Pokémon Sun and Moon has been announced, and it's going to utilize the games' new Island Scan feature. Unlocked once players earn 100 points from scanning QR codes, Island Scan makes available a hugely desirable feature for a Pokémon game: namely, the ability to find and catch pocket monsters that aren't available on the regional Pokédex.
The news was just a small part of the excitement and celebration at this weekend's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Japan, which followed up on some of the teasers that happened at the North American version of the event in October.
Batman's final Telltale outing — well, for this season, anyway — is a mostly-satisfying conclusion to a fascinating, dark and unusual take on Gotham. It doesn't quite fulfill all the narrative promise of its intriguing themes, but it does wrap things up in an effective enough way.
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is a delight to play and create with, but it's got some disastrous barriers to entry. The inability to share 3DS courses online is a painful limitation, as is the choice to gate creation tools behind 18 worlds of platforming. If you can overcome these issues, you've got a portable version of Nintendo's best game from last year, but I fear most users' patience will run out before then.
Final Fantasy XV's long, troubled development cycle is evident in some of its rougher elements, but ultimately, none of that really matters. Like many of its predecessors, this Final Fantasy's best elements — great characters, fun combat and a beautiful soundtrack — make its goofier shortcomings blend in as part of the endearing charm.
Batman: The Telltale Series – Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham follows up nicely on the plot twists and themes introduced in Episode 3, providing Batman with his darkest and most challenging video game story yet. The proceedings border on unpleasant at times, but then again, it's Gotham we're talking about here.
