This past December Team Meat's long awaited sequel to Super Meat Boy launched on the Nintendo Switch and the Epic Games Store. A few months later and it's time for Super Meat Boy Forever to hit the PlayStation 4 and 5 as well as the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. On April 16th Xbox and PlayStation owners will be able to enjoy the newest adventures of Meat Boy, Bandage Girl, and their child Nugget. Nugget has been taken by Dr. Fetus and it's up to the new parents to rescue their child. I'm still trying to figure out how Meat Boy and Bandage Girl had a kid that looks like Meat Boy in a bunny costume, but I digress.

WWE 2K20 was such a debacle that WW2 2K21 was cancelled so that they could spend more time fixing all the things that were broken. So after a year off, WWE and 2K used Wrestlemania 37, currently happening, to tease their next game.

Rey Mysterio is used along with Cesaro to show off the current gameplay off the upcoming WWE 2K22. In the tease, Rey pulls off his signature move, the 619 on Cesaro. The graphics sure look great with Cesaro showing off a great reaction when getting hit by Mysterio.

2K's got a lot of work ahead of them to make up for WWE 2K20, so let's hope 2K22 gets them back into the good graces of wrestling fans.

Rey Mysterio might not have a match at Wrestlemania this year, but he's got his Wrestlemania moment by being one of the two superstars to debut the first look at WWE 2K22.

Bandai Namco dropped its insanely intense arcade battle royale Pac-Man 99 onto the Switch this week, and being the huge fan he is, Games N Moorer's Joseph Moorer had to jump in for what he thought was going to be a short stream this afternoon. One hour, forty-three minutes, and several nervous breakdowns later, Joseph finally managed to escape the black hole of "one more try".

Gaming Nexus got access to the bells and whistles that come with the optional Pac-Man 99 DLC, including a number of cool modes and skins which Joseph spends a lot of time exploring. If you are wondering what you get that DLC, this is the stream for you. As a bonus, you can also watch Joseph have an embolism when he comes in second place.

You can check out all of the action here on Twitch. And yes, Joseph does eventually win one towards the end of the stream, which results in several minutes of celebratory dance. 

Eric Hauter

Randy Kalista

On June 29, last year's remake of Destroy All Humans! will land on Nintendo Switch. So, yes -- your hands now wield the power of anal probing. If the rectum rhetoric tickles your humor, then terrorizing 1950s America in Destroy All Humans! is worth your time. 

I certainly enjoyed my trip down memory lane with Crypto-137. The humor is relentless and very hit-or-miss, but it's a fun experience nonetheless. (Check out my review for more detail.)

Independent developer Playbae and Alcon Interactive Group have announced that their shadow manipulating puzzle-platformer, In My Shadow is now available on Steam. The game will release on mobile devices and consoles in Q3 2021.

I can always appreciate a unique twist on a genre, and manipulating silhouettes certainly sounds unique to me.  

In My Shadow takes you on a journey through the mind of Bella in pursuit of reconciliation with her past. The game is divided into four rooms, each offering a glimpse into her memories and changing relationships with her family. The shadows within each level must be manipulated via furniture to progress, often offering more than one solution.

In My Shadow is available now on PC via Steam for £8.00/€9.00/$9.99 with a discount running until the 16th of April.

Hasbro today announced the upcoming release of a programmable Optimus Prime robot at the Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest, a livestream event where Hasbro features all of its coolest upcoming stuff.

Okay, okay, I know that a programmable Optimus Prime robot isn't a "video game", and even though there is a mobile app involved, it is only tangentially related to video games at best. But this news story was just so awesome that I decided to throw caution to the wind, and redefine "video game journalism" to include topics like "the coolest thing ever made".

The upcoming Optimus Prime robot is the result of 11 years of research and development in a partnership between Hasbro and Robosen Robotics (Shenshen) Co, Ltd. The end result is the first-ever consumer robot that automatically converts from vehicle to robot, bipedal walks in robot form, races around in vehicle form, and can be controlled by either voice or mobile app. 

This is actually just the first product to emerge from this partnership between Hasbro and Robosen, with "new products and collectibles being announced in the months to come." Which means that there could be a Bumblebee headed our way very soon. According to a recent press release, "all of the products and collectibles will be meticulously designed and crafted with state-of-the-art, high-grade metal alloy parts, combining a classic industrial design with the most cutting-edge robotic technology." So yeah, Optimus is made of metal.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Hasbro and look forward to ushering in a new standard of robotics with the most advanced TRANSFORMERS robots for consumers ever created,” said Sean Tang, Director of Robosen USA. “The team is working hard to deliver an amazing user experience for fans of this esteemed franchise and produce TRANSFORMERS that will be a premium addition to their collection with its superior functionality.” 

Fans that are interested in pre-ordering Optimus Prime (for a cool $699) can do so at the Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest site. While you are there, take some time to browse around. Just hold on to your wallet, because there is so much cool stuff on that site that you might end up blowing the mortgage money on X-Men toys. 

Here's a thing about me - I don't care all that much about framerate or resolution. Sure, I like my games to look nice, but in my house there are other concerns when it comes to streaming platforms. We have at least three people on the internet at any given time, and at peek periods that goes up to six. My wife gives presentations for her job, so her internet has to be rock solid. So I tend to stay off of streaming game platforms while she works.

That's what makes Amazon Luna's big move today nice for me (and probably a lot of other folks). Sure, it might seem counter-intuitive for a gaming platform to announce that you can run games at 720p - and sell that as a feature - but for gamers like me, that lower resolution can be something of a boon. It can make the difference between playing a somewhat fuzzy game, and not playing at all. 

Folks with stressed internet systems, people with data caps, people with flat out bad internet can now play Luna. And let's be real. On a 1080p monitor, 720p doesn't look all that bad. It's not great on a 4k monitor, but it is what it is. Sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of gaming. I'm all for it. Let people game in whatever way works best for them.

I'm a sucker for Hot Wheels, so I'm pretty amped for the September release of Hot Wheels Unleashed. I love seeing all the cars modelled in the game, and yelling stuff like "I had that one!" at my computer. I really enjoy the whole vibe of this game, with the orange tracks weaving in and out of the environments, and the cars turbo-ing past opponents. 

Milestone and Mattel dropped a new gameplay trailer today, which revealed that there might be a bigger interactive aspect to the tracks than previously thought. Though the first few segments only show cars zooming around the Garage track, if you stick around, there are a few unexpected moments - with one car drifting right off of the track and across the room, and one point where cars fall victim to a surprising environmental hazard. Check it out:

Hot Wheels Unleashed is scheduled to release on September 30, 2021 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, all of the Xboxes, Nintendo Switch, and PC on both Steam and Epic Games Store. For more info, you can check out the game's official site.

"Social Deduction" games enjoy valuable shelf space in the board game section of your local hobby store. Board games like Deception, Coup, and Secret Hitler (that last one is additionally the best name of any piece of entertainment in recent years). The most fun I've had socially deducing was with Bang!, a spaghetti Western card game that had me and the in-laws playing beer-swilling outlaws ganging up on the sheriff and shouting, "You suck at guns!" around the dinner table. Heck, I don't know the board game arena very well but I'd even throw in Clue as being the granddaddy of the whole genre, in a way.

Social deduction video games, however, really hit the limelight with Among Us. SpyParty and Project Winter continue to chart as well, similarly two and three years after launch. But a new one, First Class Trouble, tickled our fancy. That's where you'll find the Gaming Nexus crew this Friday evening, somewhere around 7:30 p.m. Eastern over on the GamesNMoorer Twitch channel.

In First Class Trouble we'll run around, verbally setting up makeshift alliances and backstabbing partners, on board some kind of art deco luxury cruise ship. Kind of like the aforementioned Among Us but in a BioShock outer space. It takes place onboard the ISS Alithea. Google tells me Alithea was the Greek goddess of truth, so, har har. With six players running around this boat, you're either a plain old human trying to survive, or your a murderous A.I. Personoid. You're partying, puzzle solving, and being burned alive, shocked to death, drowned in the pool, or shoved out the airlock. All the hits. The proximity chat is where a lot of the yelling takes place. Sounds like a good time.

First Class Trouble is on Steam Early Access. The servers just fired up, today.