The best stuff on Destructoid this week [6/28]

I’m making guacamole. Here’slast week’s post. Let’s begin anew. [We post a lot of articles here at Destructoid. The endless, ouroboros news cycle has us burning the snake at both ends, which will ultimately push big news, thoughtful original pieces, and all sorts of other great content off of the front page. Check here every Saturday for my attempt to rectify that.] ORIGINAL CONTENT We’re celebrating Sonic’s 23rd birthday the only way we know how– Staff...

July 14, 2025 · 5 min · 854 words · Daniel Cruz

The Daily Hotness 05/30/08

I’d like to thankThe Daily Mailfor beingcomplete morons. I wouldn’t have hurt my side from laughing so hard this morning if it wasn’t for them. Seriously, how did they not even try to figure out where this image originated from? Awesome journalistic integrity there,Daily Mail. Here’s the recap for all of Friday’s stories. We still have some PS3 tokens to give away in theBattlefieldcontest, Samit tried outGuitar Hero: On Tour, and College Humor had a great new short onHalo 3....

July 14, 2025 · 2 min · 240 words · Michelle Nelson

These DmC combo videos are SSSENSATIONAL

Savage! Sadistic! Sensational! DmC: Devil May Crywas a blast to play, and one of my favorite things to pull in the game were all the crazy attacks and combos you can string together.Capcom-Unitypulled together a few videos fans have made stringing together some of the better combs you can do at higher levels. There’s a few more videos below, with the first one containing some majorDmCplot spoilers. If you’ve already cleared the game though, definitely watch it as the player is able to take down some of the big heavy set enemies down at lightning speeds....

July 14, 2025 · 1 min · 104 words · Robert Collins

This Dead Rising 3 commercial sure feels familiar

Uninspired, more like I love The Turtles’ “Happy Together” as much as the next person, but featuring it in a commercial for a videogame when that’s been done to the point of near perfection already? You’re walking on thin ice here,Dead Rising 3. Real thin. I mean, the song doesn’t even fit with what’s happening on-screen — unless this is supposed to be about the bond a survivor has with their weapon....

July 14, 2025 · 1 min · 103 words · Amanda Simpson

THQ blames $56 million loss on uDraw

Things aren’t great over at THQ. We recently told you how they werein danger of being delisted, and soon afterward we learned that240 employees were to be laid offin a restructuring. The situation is bad enough that the THQ president and CEO, Brian Farrell, took a 50 percent salary cut for the next year. They’ve now announced a $56 million loss for the quarter ending December 31, and they blame it all on the failure of their uDraw tablet and its planned expansion to the Xbox 360 and PS3....

July 14, 2025 · 1 min · 172 words · Ryan Tran

Undertale for Switch is still fantastic

Despite everything, it’s still Undertale What can I really say aboutUndertalethat hasn’t already been said? For me personally, havingUndertaleon another platform with a clean slate is already a huge advantage given the onset of guilt that comes from a certain garden plant, but we won’t be going into that today. For first time players, I can’t say enough about starting your experience on PC for the “true experience.” However, if you’re adamant, the Switch version will do just fine....

July 14, 2025 · 3 min · 465 words · Kurt Murphy DDS

Valve is banning naughty Dota 2 players with a surprise gift of coal

Dota 2is on a Godlike streak with its latest ban wave, which has arrived courtesy of Frostivus 2023 and already banned tens of thousands of smurf accounts. The world ofDotadoesn’t have a Santa Claus, but it seems that Wraith King is stepping up to fill his shoes nonetheless, and his “Naughty List” includes thousands of accounts that have been positively unsportsmanlike. Indeed, the Frostivus 2023 updatethat rolled outincorporates a hilarious surprise for smurfs and other bad actors inDota 2....

July 14, 2025 · 2 min · 361 words · Preston Castillo

Why Square Enix delayed NieR: Automata

More time and a more favorable release window Square Enix has delayed the release ofNieR: Automata, the company confirmed with Destructoid today. The follow-up to the 2010 cult role-playing game will be missing its initially-planned 2016 release window and will now be launching sometime in early 2017, should everything go to plan. While the publisher wanted to releaseAutomatathis November, there were concerns about how it might perform “against other big titles” that tend to release ahead of the holiday season, producer Yosuke Saito told me during a meeting at E3....

July 14, 2025 · 1 min · 205 words · Sandra Love PhD

Yes, you can pet the Polterpup in Luigi’s Mansion 3

The first five floors of The Last Resort Despite its faults, I will always look back on my time with the originalLuigi’s Mansionfondly. After being forced to play as Luigi for years as my older brother would always get to be first player, it was nice to see Nintendo put him in a game of his own; one full of personality and ghostly characters that felt as though they had a long, family history....

July 14, 2025 · 5 min · 945 words · Robert Gilbert

Yoshi’s New Island getting a limited 3DS console bundle

Et tu, Yoshi? Not that I’m complaining, but I am starting to get a bit confused at just how many limited edition 3DS’s Nintendo plans on releasing. Is it to plant a “collect ’em all” mentality? Are the nostalgia mainlines every few months a business strategy to recapture old fans or prompt sporadic double dip purchases from existing 3DS players? Japan just got aniceTheatrhythm: Final Fantasyone, while aYoshi’s New Islandconsole (bundled with the game, of course) popped up sans pictures on aretailer’s websiteand subsequently had its veracity confirmed byIGN....

July 14, 2025 · 1 min · 130 words · Erica Dixon

A Hat in Time is the second-best hat-based platformer this year

A HIT on PS4 and Xbox One So, let’s get this out of the way.A Hat in Timeis a wonderful, charming game, and comparing it toSuper Mario Odysseyisn’t really fair. But since both games are 3D platformers using a hat as the central mechanic, comparisons are inevitable. I was talking to Jordan aboutA Hat in Timeand admitted I spent the first hour or so reflexively trying to throw my hat at stuff....

July 13, 2025 · 4 min · 712 words · Thomas Morris

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition locked in for February 20 launch

Still have that muscle memory? Following a delay,Age of Empires: Definitive Editionis back on track and now aiming for a June 04, 2025 launch on Windows 10 PCs. “[I]t was important for the team to treat theAge of Empiresfranchise with the respect it deserves, so we took the time we needed to get features like attack-move and the improved minimap exactly right, and even added things like an in-game tech tree (how did we survive 1997 without that?...

July 13, 2025 · 1 min · 168 words · Jesse Osborne

All Sophronia Franklin quiz answers in Hogwarts Legacy

Time to cheat If you’re here, you’re probably a Slytherin. Well, anyone is free to read it I guess? Here are all the Sophronia Franklin quiz answers inHogwarts Legacy. Where do you find Sophronia Franklin inHogwarts Legacy? You’ll encounter Sophronia Franklin early into the main story, where she’ll task you with producing various bits of Wizarding World/Harry Potter/Beetle the Bardfactoids. Once you’ve cleaned up the first quiz you can move on with the critical path: or indulge in two more quizzes for some good early-game rewards....

July 13, 2025 · 1 min · 162 words · Jasmine Baxter