Pride and progress
Plus Resident Evil is asking for trouble, and go support your local half-genie.
Hello there! Welcome back to Press Any Button, where this week we’re speculating about the return of one of history’s greatest games, checking in on queer representation in the AAA space, getting competitive over Catan and losing it over another teeny weeny Sega man.
But first, if you’re following the E3-that-is-not-E3, the next week is where you’re going to see the biggest announcements. Geoff Keighley will be hosting Summer Game Fest on Friday, where we’re likely to see gameplay footage from a lot of games that we’ve only had brief trailers from so far. There are quite a few smaller shows over the weekend that indie fans may want to keep an eye on, but the AAA goodness will come via the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase on Monday.
Does Microsoft have any near-term aces up its sleeve to fill in the rest of the year, which is looking noticeably barren after it had to delay some of its biggest titles into 2023? I’m sure we’ll have some opinions to share next week.
A chance for REvisionism
By Tim
The Resident Evil franchise has been on a fascinating trajectory over the years, from provocative to stale to cutting edge to laughing stock and right back through to exciting. The one-two punch of RE7 and an RE2 remake, after a decade of mediocrity, revealed a dual-pronged path forward. While one sub-series could lean into the popular first-person horror genre, the other could reach into the past and reimagine fan favourites as modern action-horror hybrids. RE Village and the RE3 remake continued along those lines.
But after a remake of Resident Evil 4 was announced last week during Sony’s State of Play, I’m starting to wonder if the writing is already on the wall for the reboot sub-series.
In many respects it makes sense that Capcom is skipping the likes of Code Veronica and Zero in the original canon. RE4 is one of the greatest games of all time, and after 17 years old you’d think it’s ripe for a refresh. But on the other hand it’s nowhere near as primitive as the original RE2; it’s entirely playable in 2022, and is even available in HD on all current platforms. Capcom’s reboot is going to be pitted directly against the original, and if it’s not careful it could come off second best.
Part of the reason the RE2 remake hit so hard is because it essentially borrowed RE4’s gameplay wholesale and paired it with incredible new visuals. How can the RE4 remake make a mark? And even if it succeeds what’s next, a remake of 2009’s unsalvageable RE5?
Last week’s trailer did give me hope though. Right at the end, loveable former ginge Leon Kennedy says “This time, it can be different.” Presumably he’s talking about his European mission going better than the disaster in Racoon City, but what if it’s also a metatextual comment about RE4?
Capcom has a chance here to send the reboot series spinning off in an entirely different direction than the original games did, making the RE4 remake materially different and interesting while also opening up an alternate canon where the events of RE5 and RE6 never happen, and instead the “reboot” sub-series becomes a series of totally new adventures.
What to play
Shantae is one of my (Tim's) favourite series; you're a cute half-genie with the power to transform into animals, in a magical woman-dominated world full of adventure, platforming, incredible music and kooky monsters you have to whip with your hair. And since the series is 20 years old this month, it’s going cheap on Switch and PC. All five are hilarious and charming platform adventures, but those who like pixels and harder games should look at the earlier Risky's Revenge or Pirate's Curse. The friendlier Half-Genie Hero is a better start if you want something breezy, and then you could grab the sequel Seven Sirens. The original 2002 game is on Switch only and is also great, but it is dated.
If you’re after something a bit different, Card Shark is out now for Switch and PC and it’s wonderful. Set in 18th century France and with beautiful monoprinted art, it’s all about learning card-based confidence tricks and using them to help the Comte de Saint-Germain fleece the higher classes and uncover a deep conspiracy. Plus, you get to play cards against Voltaire.
Tell Me Why is free on Xbox and PC right now for pride month. If you like games about quiet small towns, mysteries, mind reading and good queer representation, you’ll love it.
And if you do love it, you should buy Life Is Strange: True Colours. It has a smol bisexual in a mining town solving a mystery. The game is agonisingly slow, but the story is cute enough to be worth it.
Continuing the theme, Australian game Wylde Flowers just won the inclusion and diversity gaming award at the Apple Design Awards. It’s available as part of Apple Arcade and is an adorable RPG that you should totally check out.
Putting the gay in gaming for pride month
By Alice
It’s pride month in the US, which means it’s pride month everywhere on the internet, so I thought this might be a good time to take a look at the state of queers in games.
To start with the good news, queer representation is better in entertainment now than it has ever been, particularly when it comes to TV. Legends of Tomorrow, The L Word, Generation Q, Heartstopper, She-Ra and Love Victor are utterly ground-breaking, and I feel so excited for the next generation of young queer kids who won’t have to beg for scraps (or, shudder, watch Glee) like I did.
And gamers don’t seem to be as overtly homophobic in online play anymore. I’ve only seen/heard one slur this year in Forza Horizon 5 multiplayer, which is huge progress.
But when it comes to AAA games, where sexuality isn’t player choice, it may as well be 2010.
Despite Xbox talking a big game with the Gaming for Everyone group, there are more gays on PlayStation. Both Bugsnax and The Last of Us Part II have queer female couples. In Bugsnax, the couple is delightfully adorable and weird, while TLOU2 contrasts that by being the most emotionally challenging game I’ve ever played. It’s utterly brilliant, but I’m still working out who to send the therapy bill to.
Over on Xbox, Tell Me Why starring transman Tyler was a huge step forward for the queer community, particularly given how much effort DONTNOD put into making sure they got him right. It’s a quiet narrative game, where Tyler and his twin sister are trying to solve a mystery. Going back a few years, State of Decay 2 was one of the first AAA titles to feature a lesbian couple. They’d just broken up before the apocalypse started and now have to work together to try to keep themselves, and a small group of survivors, alive.
Of course, when it comes to representation, it’s a matter of quality over quantity. But having played approximately 1000 games where the straight man violently attempts to get justice for his dead wife/girlfriend, I do sometimes wonder when it’s my turn to play as a character who loves like me without thinking it’s a big deal.
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
There is a small to medium chance that I might be a bit competitive. Whether it’s trying to dominate in Mario Party (a game where the win can easily be given away), trying to pass everyone on the footpath, or discussing with my mum which of us had the largest uterine tumours, competition seems to be in my blood.
However, after spending my Saturday at the Settler’s of Catan Victorian Championship, I might not be as competitive as I originally thought. Don’t get me wrong, I was mildly heartbroken that I didn’t win. But it was clear that, for most people, the event was less about winning, and more about getting to hang out with other people who love board games and playing with new competitors who would have different strategies.
The event had a really good mix of people who’d been playing board games competitively since before the pandemic, and people like me who had always enjoyed games, but had gotten way more into them during the lockdowns.
At the final table, at least 75% of the participants had never played in a competitive tournament before, despite there being lots of very serious, studious players with a long history that had entered the tournament.
Tournaments like this Catan one, and the Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne ones I hope to see in the future, will never get the big purses and professional players the Magic the Gathering pro circuit does, and I think that’s a good (and more welcoming) thing.
Fortress Melbourne has already said that they hope to hold more big tournaments of this kind, and there’s clearly an appetite for it. Now that I know these tournaments aren’t just for super serious players, but everyone who enjoys games, I think I might bring the whole family along next time. Hopefully I’ll see you there.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
Sega has announced the Mega Drive Mini 2, and as a big fan of tiny little babyman consoles I just have to wig out for a second about how cute it is. It’s modelled after the Japanese Model 2, which is my personal favourite Mega Drive, but one assumes that if there’s an international release we’ll see the Genesis 2 for America with its black buttons (yuck) and the sick Mega Drive II for Europe and Australia with its red buttons.
What really put the icing on the cake is the tiny little replica of the Mega CD 2 Sega also showed off, which clips onto the Mega Drive Mini 2 and serves absolutely no purpose other than being astonishingly cool.
But aside from aesthetics, what’s the point of this thing? Well the original Mega Drive Mini came with 40+ very good games that were extremely well emulated, making it a perfect no-fuss time capsule for folks who don’t want to bother with old and expensive original hardware or DIY solutions.
Sega says there will be 50 games on this thing, taken from the Mega Drive, Mega CD and arcade. We can only assume they will not be games that are already on the original MD Mini. It has only announced 11 games for the Japanese model so far, which are:
Bonanza Bros (a 1991 stealth platformer for MD)
Fantasy Zone (a colourful 1986 shooter for arcade)
Magical Taruruto (a 1992 anime platformer for MD, by Pokemon’s Game Freak)
Mansion of Hidden Souls (a spooky 1993 Myst-like for MCD)
Popful Mail (a cute 1994 platform RPG for MCD)
Shining Force CD (a 1994 tactics saga so big the saves didn’t fit on the MCD. You had to buy a RAM cart)
Shining in the Darkness (a 1991 first-person RPG for MD)
Silpheed (a 1993 space shooter for MCD)
Sonic CD (a 1993 platformer starring some blue hamster thing)
Thunder Force IV (a 1992 scrolling shooter for MD)
Virtua Racing (an extremely expensive 1994 racer, which effectively put arcade hardware in a cartridge so the MD could do basic 3D)
It’s coming to Japan in October for around $100, but international release is still TBA.