It's been a big week for "toys-to-life" games.
The fledgling genre is still in its infancy. Having been borne out of Skylanders, Disney quickly picked up the ball and ran with it, introducing well-known, beloved characters into its entry. The third big player was Nintendo — who, oddly enough, once had the chance to own the Skylanders franchise before Activision snapped it up. Nintendo's Amiibo figures have been an enormous hit, but collectors have faced endless frustrations with stores never having enough of the blasted things.
Elsewhere... Anybody remember the Oculus Rift? That VR goggle thing that was a big hit on Kickstarter like a hundred years ago? It's still around, and it's finally coming to store shelves. Plus, we got updates on Batman: Arkham Knight and Star Wars: Battlefront.
Let's dive in.
Nintendo ramps up Amiibo production — finally
Disgruntled Nintendo fans are not fun people to hang out with. After months of empty shelves and frustrating silence from the big N itself, the gaming titan seems to have figured this out at last.
The company's Amiibo figurines, its entry into the popular toys-to-life genre, have been a nightmare for collectors. Nintendo addressed the issue this week via a Facebook post where it apologized for shortages and promising that the rate of Amiibo manufacturing has increased. Nintendo also pledged to bring back retired figurines that many fans never got the chance to collect.
Surprising no one, Star Wars is coming to Disney Infinity
After months of "duh, of course they are" speculation and weeks of leaked images making their way online, Disney Interactive finally made it official that Disney Infinity 3.0 will bring Star Wars into the mix. Why did the publisher wait so long to announce what everybody already knew? Because they'd promised Game Informer an exclusive.
Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars adds five new Playsets (three based on Star Wars), most of your favorite original trilogy and Clone Wars characters as collectible figures, loads of Toy Box enhancements and transparent bags for Power Discs so you can see what you're getting. The game arrives in August.
Oculus Rift gets an actual release date(ish)
Four long years after its record-setting Kickstarter campaign, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is finally going to make its way into the hands of consumers in early 2016. "First quarter 2016" is as specific as Oculus is willing to get, but that makes this no less a huge moment in VR history.
Oculus' history has been a long, colorful road that included milestones like the aforementioned Kickstarter campaign, John Carmack quitting Id Software to join Rift creator Palmer Lucky and Facebook spending $2 billion to buy the fledgling company. At long last the thing is actually going into production, and pre-orders are expected to begin later this year.
Batman: Arkham Knight boasts a ridiculously awesome voice cast
A new video released by Rocksteady Studios this week revealed the new voice actors joining the Batman franchise with Arkham Knight. Gamers were giddy to discover that top-notch talent is attached to some of the game's most crucial roles.
Specifically, John Noble (Fringe, The Lord of the Rings) stars as the villain mastermind Scarecrow, Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) portrays Commissioner Jim Gordon, Ashley Greene (Twilight) is Barbara Gordon aka Oracle, and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) joins the cast as Nightwing. They join existing cast members like Kevin Conroy as Batman and Tara Strong as Harley Quinn.
Many new Star Wars: Battlefront details emerge
The good news: Star Wars: Battlefront will ship with twelve huge maps, with more to be added later via DLC (some of which will be free). And it turns out, singleplayer gamers aren't being left out in the cold. A series of "moments" from the original trilogy are being strung together to create a singleplayer campaign of sorts.
The bad news: Despite running in both first-person and third-person modes, Battlefront will not allow players to aim using ironsights. And some gamers are really not happy about it.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
