4 New Video Game Rumors: A New Kind of Mario and More

Since the game industry just had its biggest annual event with the Electronic Entertainment Expo last week, things have been pretty slow when it comes to video game rumors. The event, known as E3, generated so much news that there was hardly time to keep track of it all, let alone room for leaks and speculation. Still, we’ve managed to find a few interesting tidbits that may or may not come true. Here are all the latest video game rumors and leaks, along with speculation about how likely they are to pan out.

1. What new kind of Mario game is Nintendo working on?

Source: Nintendo

In an interview with IGN last week, Mario creator Shigeru Myamoto hinted at a new Mario game being in development. He said, “We’re always challenging ourselves to create something new, so hopefully you’ll see a new kind of Mario in about a year or two. Maybe next E3 we’ll be able to share something.”

Another Mario game would come as little surprise, seeing as Nintendo plans to launch a new console next year, and whenever there’s a new Nintendo console, Mario isn’t far behind. What’s interesting is that Mr. Miyamoto called it a new “kind” of Mario.
The last time we got a truly new kind of Mario game was the Super Mario Galaxy games for Wii, which were extremely well received. (The less ambitious Mario offerings on Wii U were great games, but they didn’t break new ground). If Nintendo wants to make a big and bold change for the next Mario game — as it’s doing with the next Zelda game — I say bring it on.

2. Will Resident Evil 7 include an RE2 Remake demo?

Source: Capcom

This one’s a stretch, but let’s dig into it anyway. Last week Capcom announced Resident Evil 7 and released a demo for the game on PlayStation 4. A Reddit user somehow noticed that the demo includes a brief shot of some seemingly random numbers. Turns out those numbers are the very same as ones that identify the game Resident Evil: Director’s Cut in a PlayStation cataloging system.
When it was released in 1996, that particular game came with a demo for Resident Evil 2. Here’s where the leap of logic comes in. The Reddit user hypothesizes that, because this number is in the Resident Evil 7 demo, the finished RE7 game might come with a demo for the Resident Evil 2 remake announced last year. Like I said, it’s a stretch, but it’s possible.

3. Did Nintendo reuse Spaghettios art for the cover of a new game?

Source: Twitter

We’ve seen several signs that Nintendo has been phoning it in lately as its best development teams have shifted to working on games for the upcoming NX console, but this might be a new low.
Just when you thought you’d seen it all, Nintendo goes and (allegedly) recycles Spaghettios art assets to use on the cover of an upcoming game. The game in question is Mario Party: Star Rush, a 3DS game set to launch in November. The cover shows Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad posing happily. If this tweet from Twitter user @starwindbliss is correct, the art was basically lifted from a can of Spaghettios that features the Mushroom Kingdom crew.
Even more lazy is that the white-and-gray checkered background is the standard pattern in Photoshop for a transparency effect. Who needs to create a new background when Photoshop provides one for you? Of course, Nintendo can do whatever it wants with its art assets. But you’d think the cover of a game would warrant more work than copying the label of a can of pasta.

4. An unreleased Ecco the Dolphin game leaks online

If you’ve been gaming since the early ’90s, you may remember a Sega Genesis game called Ecco the Dolphin. It had some seriously killer graphics for the time and offered smooth underwater gameplay you couldn’t find anywhere else. The series continued all the way to the Dreamcast/PS2 era with Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, but that’s where it ended.
Or did it? Apparently a sequel called Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe was in the works, but Sega canceled it when the company decided to get out of the hardware business. Now, thanks to a leak and a game preservation site called Hidden Place, you can play the scrapped sequel on an emulator. If you do, note that the game is unfinished, so it only has a few levels, and it lacks audio assets.

By Chris Reed
http://www.cheatsheet.com