Weird Mind News Room Episode 17: June 19th -25th 2023

 *have the music perfectly centered*

Hello again one and all you wonderful people to the newest episode of Weird Mind News Room. You already know what to expect in this with the talk on the new releases, trailer and all the news from this week. Bit of a mix of things this week but lets just get right into it.

What's newly released this week

Movies

Asteroid City

Lets start with the newest film of this week and it comes to us from the unique filmmaking mind of Wes Anderson, known for his style of every being shot symmetrical and having a unique quirkyness to them all and his new film is Asteroid City, a film that is staged like a stage play, which gives us the story of world changing events spectacularly disrupting the itinerary of a junior stargazer/ Space Cadet convention in the titular American desert town circa 1950. Now this film also boasts a huge cast list including Jason Schwartzman, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlet Johansson, Steve Carell and many more. Now the reception seems to be pretty good and I am sure I will give this a look into it when I have the chance to do so.

TV SHOWS

Secret Invasion

For the Tv release of this week, we are going to the side of the MCU again and this time of more of a deep spy conspiracy series with Secret invasion and will follow Nick Fury as he returns back down to earth when he learns of an invasion of some rebellious skrulls and with the assistance of Fellow Skrull Talos and agent Maria Hill, they will try and stop this deep infiltration of the entire government and stop an all out catastrophic event. Now the first episode has released and it is interesting as it is a lot different to the other MCU content of being more mature and darker and it is interesting. If you want to check it out the first episode is available now on Disney+ with a new episode avail every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks.

Video Games

Final Fantasy 16

Now for the game releases of this week, we have a return to the long running series of Final Fantasy with the official 16th mainline entry in the series. This new one is set in the fictional world of Valisthea, a world divided amongst 6 nations who hold power from crystals and dominants. When a malady known as the blight comes along and causes tensions amongst the nations and you take on the role of Clive Rosfield as you go on a revenge quest against the dark Eikon Ifrit after their kingdom was destroyed. Now this game has been getting some pretty strong reception and could be the case of being in the best games of the year contenders. Now I have tried a little bits of Final Fantasy over the years and I may give it a try at sometime so I am sure will check it out.

Crash Team Rumble

Now for a game that I know my Girlfriend will be very excited to try out herself and that is with an all new game set in the universe of Crash Bandicoot with the all new Crash Team Rumble. This is an all new multiplayer 4v4 game where you will battle it out to collect as much wumpa fruit in a fast paced all out brawl with all of your favourite characters. Now I have seen some decent reception for this new game and it seems to be one that will be coming out with plenty of new free content over a long period of time and I am sure I will give this a try and play it when I can in the future.

Aliens Dark Descent

And for the final release of this week is that we know that in space no one will hear you scream.... well except for maybe 3 of your close friends in an all new multiplayer strategy game set in the world of the Alien franchise where you will make your way through the endless array of xenomorph creatures and stop it from overtaking and causing a mass species forming. Now the reviews seem to be well received and I have heard some good bit of word for the game. I am sure that I will give it a try in the future with one or 2 other Alien game. The only thing I would love is for them to announce a sequel to Alien Isolation and I will be happy.

Trailers for upcoming releases

Kraven the Hunter

The first trailer from this week is taking us to the Sony universe of  Spider-Man villains and after 2 Symbiotic films and getting morbed, it is time for the hunt to begin with the new Kraven the Hunter film that will see the origins of Russian immigrant Sergei Kravinoff begin his mission to prove he is the worlds greatest hunter. Now the trailer has shown off some more graphic material given that I mentioned a while back that this film will be rated R so it will get bloody and the first impression does make it look enjoyable and I am sure that we will learn more by the time the film drops in early October.

Zoey 102

Now onto a follow up film that was based on a beloved Nickelodeon show that has gotten a reunion or reboot treatment, we are getting an epilogue film to the series of Zoey 101 with Zoey 102. This new film will see Zoey and the rest of the PCA Alumni from the series reunite to attend the wedding of Logan and Quinn and will see some old sparks fly and new chaos begin. Now this feels off to me for some reason (maybe its the same reason for the Icarly reboot that I just can't seem to like at all) but I am sure that it is harmless (although there has been some controversy with Jamie Lynn Spears due to the connection of her sibling Britney Spears) but I am sure I might give it a look when it releases in a months time on July 27th.

Detective Pikachu Returns

the next 3 trailers are all coming from the most recent Nintendo direct we had this week (with so much to talk on that I will delve into a quick fire discussion on the news section) but one of the surprises to see again that I thought was silently cancelled was a sequel to the 2016 3DS game of Detective Pikachu and then out of nowhere they drop a small trailer for the long awaited sequel and I am so excited as the game was great and the movie was actually really good (hoping to learn soon of when the sequel film is out) but thankfully I will not have to wait too long for this as it drop this year on October 6th.

Super Mario RPG remake

Now this next game is one of the more overlooked games in the Mario series that helped to spawn both the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario series and that was with the original Mario RPG: legend of the 7 stars. Well at this weeks direct what started as everyone thinking this was going to be the game put onto the online service consoles, they instead announced it was a full updated HD remake of the game for the switch with an all new art style and some new features to come alongside it. Now this looks amazing and I played a little of the original version and I will be definitely trying out this new one when the game drop on November 17th.

Super Mario Wonder

in the last game I want to show a little focus on was the game that ended the direct this time around and a long overdue make-over to the 2d platforming forms of Mario. We received an all new form of the Super Mario Bros series with a new name of Wonder (and the dropping of the word "New"). This new game will have you playing as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad and even Daisy as you explore a new land, experience new powers like the Wonder flower and even a powerup that turns you into an elephant in this all new colourful game that has some artstyle that looks like the style from the recent Puss in Boots
film. Now I will be definitely checking this out when the game drops on October 20th and will be going head to head in release with the next game in the Spider-Man series from Insomniac.

Dumb Money

this last trailer has to be a little bit of a coincidence as the same week this trailer releases is the week that Gamestop sadly closed all its stores in my home country and it is sad to see them go. But anyway this new film will focus on the insane true story from early 2021 when a group of rag-tag redditors on the subreddit wall street bets, put some stock into Gamestop that crushed major hedge funds of wall street and uprooted major establishments and then was funny to watch a lot of grown men who gamble with our own money to make them richer get upset and whine on live tv. This does look interest and I am sure I may check this out when it comes out September of this year.

All other bits of news

Marvel is skipping the hall of Comic Con

On the first story this week come to us for the upcoming event of comic con which is set to take place next month. Now this one doesn't have a lot of info from it but it has been confirmed earlier this week that Marvel Studios themselves will not be doing a Hall H panel conference as they have done the last few years. It is not due to them not having anything to show but mainly on the basis of connecting to the On-going Writers Strike as they would see it as bad taste to do the large conference, however they are still going to be at the convention of just being on the show floor so they are not fully absent.

Do you think that this is a good move on Marvel's end cause I know I understand their reasoning. But let me know down in the comments below 

All the hype from the new Nintendo Direct 

As I mentioned above we have gotten ourselves an all new Nintendo Direct this week and while I focused on 3 of the games for trailers of a detective pikachu sequel, Mario remake and an all new Mario Bros game, I will delve onto some more new exciting announcements from this new direct:

-we got more information on Pikmin 4 coming out next month with a new focus of the dog companion, night explorations for the first time in the series and an all new Glow Pikmin

-Pikmin 1 and 2 ports available digitally and physically in Late September

-The Batman Arkham Trilogy is coming to the switch sometime in the fall

-Metal Gear solid collection Vol.1 is coming to the switch with the release date announced as October 24th

-a new remaster of Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon is coming next year.

-Princess peach is getting a new solo game as well sometime next year.

-a new look at the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet expansion pass content

-New Mario Kart wave content showing an all new course and 3 new additional characters

-2nd part of Mario and Rabbids DLC released same day as event

-A new 3d platformer game with a new IP from the creators of Sonic Mania coming early 2024
-A new Warioware game

I am sure that I may be missing a few smaller ones but there was so much amazing content announced at the event coming out by the end of this year and next year. Sure one or 2 things I was hoping for didn't get announced (like info on the next Metroid Prime game and a Windwaker/Twilight Princess port) but I am happy with everything unveiled.

What did you think of the direct if you watched it, are you excited for any of these games. Let me know in the comments down below and we can discuss it further

E3 may be a thing of the past

Now on more convention news we turn to the event that would be hosted at the beginning of this month and that is with E3. Now there has been some discussions that apparently the event will be following on from this year and last year with the event possibly being cancelled for the next 2 years. Now the full event is not totally cancelled as it has been discussed that it has not been fully cancelled but most case the actual event space seems to be, but I will update on any more confirming info if it is.

Do you think E3 is coming back at all or do you think it is time for an all new gaming convention. Let me know your thoughts down below

New elder scrolls may be a bit of time away

Onto the only other sudden bit of gaming news we are turning towards Bethesda as we have some news on the long awaited follow up in the Elder Scrolls series. Now we have heard very little about this game since they dropped the very brief teaser 5 years ago and some development has been supposedly worked on since then but it has mainly been focused to other games like the upcoming Starfield game. However we now have some new news and it is not looking good as according to some sources it is seeming like Elder Scrolls VI is going to be at least another 5 years away. Now that could be a projection and the game does actually come out in less time but until we get confirmation by Bethesda, we will have to wait (and most likely see another port of Skyrim happen)

What do you think, do you think we will get this game within the next 5 years or beyond that? Lets have a discussion down below

Going beyond the Spider-verse may be a little longer

The last story I can find this week comes to the highly anticipated finale to the Spider-verse trilogy beyond. Now we all know how successful the film has been and the heavy praise that it has received (which you can also check out my review for it on my blog), but it seems that their maybe some trouble in the works on the next film as while is was discussed that both films were being worked on Back to back, it seems like the sequel has not been heavily worked on and there has been a lot of stress when it came to make the recently released Across the Spider-verse. Now this has brought up the discussion that over 100 animators quit the project due to pressure and now a rumour circulating that the next film may not actually be releasing in late March of 2024 and could be delayed to late next year or even into 2025 due to the level of inventiveness for these films. Now personally I kind of expect this sequel will be delayed and I am all honestly fine with that cause I know this film series is really delving into some interesting experimentation and to help with any time constraints and stresses of the animators and the entire studio, so if they need more time then so be it I can wait.

but what do you think, do you feel that this trilogy finale will be delayed and for how long will you say it will be, let me know down below in the comments

And with that we have come to the conclusion of this week Weird Mind News room and I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings once again and love to hear your thoughts on some of the topics discussed here today. As for now I hope you stay being wonderful people and until next time, Good night, good news and powering down.

Signing off

Sam H