Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!
It’s a third collaboration between BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! and Hatsune Miku
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! is collaborating with Hatsune Miku for the third time. The anime music rhythm game and superstar vocaloid bring new songs, a login campaign, and several exclusive rewards. The event runs from July 28 to August 11.
Part of login campaign rewards require logging in on three different days to earn items relating to that day’s song release. Log in on Day 1 to earn the Collaboration Live Costumes of the Roselia members. Log in on Day 2 for the Collaboration Live Costumes of the Morfonica members. Log in on Day 3 for the Collaboration Live Costumes of the RAISE A SUILEN members. Logging in for every day during the collaboration will total 500 Stars and various types of Shards. Logging in once at any point during the ten days will earn players 70 Tone Crystals.
How did I miss this adorable cat colony sim game?
I proudly describe myself as a crazy cat lady, so any game with even a single important cat is pretty likely to make it into my library. Somewhere along the way, I missed the announcement of Catizens, a cat colony management simulation. Unlike in real life, where cat colonies are basically consistently-breeding and often-feral stray cats (my fuzzy little jerk was a swamp colony kitten), Catizens makes the concept a positive. Here’s the latest trailer, focusing on gameplay:
Each cat has a unique personality and traits, so making them all work together to create a world of their own will be about as easy as herding cats. (Seriously, have you ever tried? Unless there is food involved, it’s impossible, even with as few as three. And yes, I speak from experience.) The goal is to help them not just build, but also grow their settlement.
Catizens is developer by a small studio in the US, Bad Optics; the studio is led by Yang Shan, who has previous experience as a gameplay engineer for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. It is being published by HeroCraft PC. The game will launch for PC via Steam sometime this year.
All the info you’ll need about the Babylon’s Fall closed beta
Babylon’s Fall has had a permanent buzz around it since its E3 2021 trailer. We knew there was a beta coming, but the company has now announced some more specifics. The first phase is already known to be exclusively for PC, while the second will add PlayStation 4, and the third will also include PlayStation 5.
Phase one is designed to focus on fundamentals, such as installation, registration/authentication, and operational tests. Game elements are expected to be sparse. In Japan, it will begin on July 29. In North America, it will begin on August 5. Europe will be the last to join the part, on August 12. A Closed Beta Test Play Guide has been published prior to the beta beginning; it can be found here.
Babylon’s Fall is developed by PlatinumGames (Bayonetta, NieR: Automata) and published by Square Enix. It will launch for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4, but the release date remains a mystery.
Picross plus Sega equals true love
Picross, more commonly known as nonograms, is a puzzle format that’s similar to paint-by-numbers on a grid. It’s surprisingly soothing, and it can be compared to Pringles: once you pop, the fun doesn’t stop. No, really, it’s easy to become absolutely obsessed. So this news is for nonogram lovers, yes, but it’s also for Sega fans. Picross S: Mega Drive & Mark III Edition is ready to launch, and combines Sega characters with picross puzzles. It will launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch on August 5 for a most reasonable price (US$9.99). Here’s the latest trailer:
Characters from 59 Sega Master System and Sega Genesis titles are now in puzzle form! Pixel art lends wonderfully to this sort of puzzle, so I’d expect a pretty smooth experience. Some of the games are Altered Beast, Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe (and two sequels), Kid Chameleon, Phantasy Star (and three sequels), Puyo Puyo, and a bunch of Sonic titles.
Picross S: Mega Drive & Mark III Edition has a handful of game modes, all adapted from the Picross S series: Picross, Mega Picross, Colour Picross, and Clip Picross. There are 480 puzzles total, including 300 puzzles over Picross and Mega Picross modes, 30 puzzles for Colour Picross, and 150 puzzles for Clip Picross. It also has a character editor.
