Evening Reading - March 3, 2023

Greetings, all! We've weathered the storms and now we're back with another round of news, memes, and entertainment. This is the Friday edition of Evening Reading.

In case you missed it at Shacknews:

• Resident Evil 4 hands-off preview shows off Plagas transformations & knife gameplay
• Arcade1Up NFL Blitz Legends cabinet review: Maim responsibly
• Yosuke Matsuda stepping down as President of Square Enix
• Metroid Fusion comes to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack next week
• Capcom Spotlight showcase announced for next week
• iPhone manufacturer Foxconn to invest $700M in new India plant
• Vampire Survivors creator says a sequel is 'unlikely' but not impossible
• Tesla's (TSLA) Mexico factory may be double the size of the one in Texas
• Meta drops price on Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR HMDs
• Shack Chat: What is your favorite video game grappling hook?

And, because it's the weekend, go find yourself something to play!

• Weekend Console Download Deals for Mar. 3: PlayStation Mega March
• Weekend PC Download Deals for Mar. 3: Join the Dragonflight

Around the gaming horn

Warframe is getting The Duviri Paradox in April. That's not all, though! TennoCon is now set for August 26!

I'm gonna sing the doom song now!

We're getting retro with the Mario Tour in Mario Kart Tour.

Finally, Dredge is coming soon! Preorders are now available and there's also a new playable demo on Switch.

And now... Other Stuff From The Internet!!!

Meet the next Pokemon generation

Take a look at the main characters of the post-Ash Ketchum Pokemon series. The future begins in Japan this April.

Back on the case

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Portlandia’ co-creator Jonathan Krisel is in negotiations to direct the ‘Pokemon Detective Pikachu’ live action sequel based on the globally popular Pokémon franchise for Legendary entertainment. Chris Galletta will write the script https://t.co/zi2Pz0Re6S

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 3, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel is in negotiations to direct the Pokémon Detective Pikachu live-action sequel based on the globally popular Pokémon franchise for Legendary Entertainment. Chris Galletta will write the script for the follow-up to Legendary’s 2019 box office hit. The original pic was directed by Rob Letterman and starred Ryan Reynolds, Ken Watanabe, Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton. It was released by Warner Bros on May 10, 2019, and grossed more than $430 million at the worldwide box office. While no deals are done at this time and nothing is confirmed, insiders believe Reynolds will have some part to play in the upcoming sequel.

I mean, I don't know how you keep the Detective Pikachu story going, considering how it ended, but that's never stopped Hollywood from raising a corpse before.

Catnip

I may only have one life, but I will happily spend most of it in the Shrek Cinematic Universe.#PussInBoots: The Last Wish is streaming March 10 only on Peacock pic.twitter.com/4X2V4hBQrj

— Peacock (@peacock) March 3, 2023

Just one more week before we can all stream Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on our streaming machines.

Bar Rescue

Seventh Heaven ain't looking so hot @maximilian_ pic.twitter.com/Kz5IVd2xH5

— Jorge Constantini (@itotweets_) March 3, 2023

From Seventh Heaven to Seven Hundred Health Code Violations.

Nothing but the Hotfix Checking in on Frost Fatales

No Hotfixes this week, because we're in the middle of Frost Fatales, where the women of Games Done Quick have come together to raise money for Malala Fund. The runners are on the verge of hitting the $100,000 mark, a big one for this marathon that does not run the 24 hours the way a standard GDQ week does.

Outside of the marathon weeks, GDQ's Hotfix shows air every week and you can catch them all at the Games Done Quick Twitch account.

Under the learning tree with Masahiro Sakurai

Masahiro Sakurai started a YouTube channel! Let's learn from his decades of experience together by looking at one of his latest videos. This week, Sakurai looks at what it takes to market your game to audiences, a subject that should be fascinating to up-and-coming indie devs.

This week in Shaqnews

Shaq challenges Chuck to bust some moves and, thankfully, Chuck will be sticking to his day job.

IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!

We're going back one full week for this clip and it's worth it, trust me. We go to Impact Wrestling, where Joe Hendry brings out his best (literal) toys against Moose in this Dot Combat match. Yes, that is a Sega Dreamcast in the thumbnail, why do you ask?

Tonight in video game music

Bang your heads to the sounds of this metal tribute to Shovel Knight from the folks at GameGrooves.

In honor of BCF, use the following code to receive 50% off all items (today only).

"march"

— GameGrooves (@GameGrooves) March 3, 2023

Also, it's Bandcamp Friday, so feel free to toss a few bucks their way or the way of anyone you wish to support!

That's it for the first Friday Evening Reading for the month of March! Be sure to keep the spirit of the classic Evening Reading alive by jumping into the comments about whatever you see here or whatever randomness you'd like to discuss. Join the conversation and dive into the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below. I'll see you all next week!

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?