Following KOF 2001 ACA NeoGeo, SNK and Hamster have released The Last Blade 2 ACA NeoGeo($3.99) on iOS and Android as this week’s new ACA NeoGeo series release. The Last Blade 2 originally released back in 1998. The classic fighter featured four gods aiming to seal Hell’s Gate. It brought in new gameplay systems, and fighters can use desperation and super desperation moves that can also be chained into enemy moves you’ve cancelled. As of this writing, the iOS 16 loading issue that affects some games has not been addressed, but waiting for the leaderboards check to fail solves the issue for me. It takes about 20 seconds on iOS 16, and it works fine on iOS 15. Hopefully Hamster and SNK can address the current issues that affect some players as reported on our forum thread in updates soon. Check out a screenshot from the Android version of The Last Blade 2 ACA NeoGeo below.
You can buy The Last Blade 2 ACA NeoGeo on the App Store for iOS here and Google Play for Android here. As with prior releases on mobile, this costs half of what it does on consoles at $3.99. If you’ve not heard of the series or seen it in action on mobile yet, Shaun has reviewed most of the releases so far in the ACA NeoGeo series on iOS. Check out his reviews for Samurai Shodown IVhere, Alpha Mission IIhere, Metal Slug 5here, Shock Troopershere, NAM-1975here, ZED BLADEhere, PUZZLEDhere, The King of Fighters 2002here, Big Tournament Golfhere, King of the Monstershere, Last Resorthere, Aero Fighters 2here, Burning Fighthere, Robo Armyhere, Mutation Nationhere, Twinkle Star Spriteshere, and Aero Fighters 3here. Check out the official website for the series on mobile here. What’s your favorite recent ACA NeoGeo release and are you grabbing this fighter?
A few months ago, Mi-Clos’ Sigma Theory()was confirmed for mobile with pre-orders pointing to an October release date. It is being published by PID Games and the App Store listing confirmed the price and in app purchases included. If you’ve not kept up with it, the tactical espionage game Sigma Theory hit PC platforms back in 2019 and it has finally gone live on iOS as of a few hours ago with Android and Switch coming later today depending on your region. Watch the Sigma Theory mobile trailer below:
The Steam version of Sigma Theory is priced at $17.99 while the iOS one is $7.99. The App Store version has a few in app purchases listed as well. The wait for this on mobile has been long, but it is finally here. You can currently buy Sigma Theory on the App Store for iOS here and pre-register for it on Google Play for Android here. Head over to our new forum thread for the game’s release and more. Check it out on Steam here. Have you played it on PC yet, or were you waiting for the mobile or Nintendo Switch versions?
Back in October 2009, the now super popular visual novel time traveling adventure Steins;Gate($3.99) debuted in Japan. To celebrate the original release’s 13th annivesary, 5pb has discounted the game on iOS to its lowest price yet. If you’ve not kept up with it on mobile, Steins;Gatewas finally released in 2016 in the West on iOS with English language support. Read Shaun’s review of it here. As of October 15th, it is down to $3.99 from $17.99 for iPhone and also for the iPad version. Watch the Steins;Gate Steam trailer below:
If you’ve not played the visual novel yet, Steins;Gate has a fantastic story with great characters and a brilliant soundtrack across its multiple endings. If you’ve never played a traditional visual novel, this is a great entry point into the genre as well. Note that Steins;Gate is a separate iPhone and iPad game on iOS. It is available on the App Store for iPhone here and iPad (HD) here. Check out the forum thread for Steins;Gatehere. You can get it here on Google Play where it is free to start. What is your favorite game in the series across all platforms?
You could practically hear Michael Myers (now around 65 years old) telling Art the Clown and the various baddies (no spoilers) from Barbarian, The Invitation and Smile to get the hell off his lawn. Despite concurrent availability on Peacock, Universal and Blumhouse’s Halloween Ends opened on target with $41.25 million in its debut Fri-Sun frame. I’ve read chatter elsewhere that the Peacock factor hurt the film’s theatrical reception and that somehow this poorly reviewed, willfully divisive franchise-ender (for a franchise that has ended before and everyone knows will eventually be restarted) was supposed to open closer to $55 million. However, recent ‘fine, whatever’ trilogy enders like Fifty Shades Freed, Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker and The Maze Runner: The Death Cure opened with 80% of their respective predecessor’s opening weekends. Halloween Ends pulled 84% of Halloween Kills’ $49 million domestic launch.
Not every ‘it all ends here’ finale plays like Harry Potter and theDeathly Hallows part II or Avengers: Endgame, especially with poor reviews and nothing new to offer. Some successfully sell the ‘end of an era’ hook. The critically acclaimed and unique (due to its real-world template and R rating) Logan parlayed Hugh Jackman’s last ride (uh…) into an $88 million Fri-Sun opening compared to $85 million for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and $53 million for The Wolverine. Right or wrong, if Marvel thought merely offering Deadpool 3 was enough to make it an event, they wouldn’t have coaxed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back into the saddle. Even Breaking Dawn part II earned about what the earlier Twilight Saga sequels made ($281-$300 million) in North America, with the same over/under $140 million opening weekend as New Moon and Breaking Dawn part I.
Did Halloween Ends, which promised a finale to the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode saga, lose a few bucks this weekend by being available on Peacock? Well, it was their most-watched movie ever in a two-day period. However, even a 10% bump is $45 million, which is the same ‘hold’ on opening weekend as Jurassic World Dominion ($145 million) compared to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148 million). That a poorly reviewed threequel to Halloween, following the poorly reviewed Halloween Kills, was never going to somehow approximate the lightning-in-a-bottle arrival of Halloween ($77 million in 2018). Such thinking made up my villain origin story in the days of ‘Pearl Harbor will surely top $100 million over Memorial Day!’ and ‘Book of Shadows will open with $30 million!’ There’s a reason I tend to be the guy saying, “Wait… let’s cool our jets here.”
As with most biggies in the Covid era, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way. The Matrix Resurrections was always going to be a commercial miss, with or without HBO Max. Black Widow was never going to get anywhere near $1 billion worldwide, nor was Tenet or Wonder Woman 1984. David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends opened with $41.25 million this weekend, which is the third-biggest R-rated opening of the Covid era (since Bad Boys For Life in January of 2020) behind Jordan Peele’s Us ($44 million last July) and Halloween Kills ($49 million in October of 2021). The earlier two Halloween movies (even the 2018 one with great reviews and oodles of free media attention) were painfully frontloaded ($159 million from a $77 million debut and $92 million/$49 million), so we can expect likewise this time too.
We’re still talking about a $33 million R-rated slasher threequel that had already earned $58 million global (including $3.5 million in IMAX) and should reach over/under $80 million domestic and around $115 million global. The Blumhouse trilogy cost about $63 million in total and should crack $500 million globally in the end. This is a franchise that, before 2018, had exactly one (Halloween H20 in 1998) well-liked and well-received (by the masses) installment. All due respect to the various champions of Revenge of Michael Myers, Curse of Michael Myers and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, but Michael Myers spent even the 1980s taking a pop culture backseat to the likes of Fred Krueger, Jason Vorhees and Chucky. But now Michael Myers is currently the most profitable (budget versus gross) supernatural horror slasher of all, almost entirely due to the Blumhouse trilogy.
This marks the 16th #1 opening for Blumhouse (including Freaky, which did not get a day-and-date Peacock/theater release). Universal has four of this year’s 12 $40 million-plus openings (Halloween Ends, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Jurassic World Dominion and Nope). That’s more than any other studio and sans any Marvel/DC properties. Even with Paramount PARA offering up a breakout horror hit right when Universal starts to get cocky (A Quiet Place in early 2018, Smile three weeks ago), the Comcast CMCSA -owned studio still is the unofficial king of the horror movie mountain (see also: The Black Phone), which feels appropriate since they helped invent the modern horror movie with their 1930’s Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy and Invisible Man flicks. I wish their Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights mazes were anywhere near as immersive and scary as Knotts Scary Farm (or at least had a Minions maze), but I digress.
The only other major opener was the platform debut of United Artists’ Till. The well-reviewed and Oscar-buzzy (especially for Danielle Deadwyler) historical drama concerns the infamous murder of Emmitt Till, whose slaying (and much-publicized open-casket funeral) was one of the galvanizing moments of the Civil Rights movement. The Chinonye Chukwu-directed drama earned $240,940 from 16 theaters for a $15,059 per-theater average. It has a 100% fresh and 7.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with 95% among verified users and, uh… 76% among unverified users (cough-review bombing-cough). It will expand next weekend into 150-200 theaters before going wide (alongside Tar) on October 28. Speaking of Tar, Cate Blanchett’s conductor drama expanded to 32 theaters. The Focus Features release will earn $360,000 (+127%) this weekend for a $10,000 per-theater average and $585,000 ten-day total. The Banshees of Inisherin opens in limited release next weekend.
Earlier this year, I posted that Monster Train() from Shiny Shoe is in development for a global mobile release. This was originally spotted by our forum member Talbs. Today, Talbs has just spotted that the game is now up for pre-order for a premium release later this month on the App Store for iOS. As of this writing, an Android version has not gone up for pre-registration, and there is no official announcement from the publisher. The game is currently available to pre-order from publisher Good Shephard Entertainment with a release date listed for October 27th. If you’ve not played it yet, watch the Monster Train trailer below:
In addition to the base game, The Last Divinity DLC is also coming to iOS as an in app purchase for Monster Train. Read about this paid DLC on the Steam page here. You can pre-order Monster Train on the App Store for iOS right now for $9.99 here. I’m glad to see Monster Train not only arrive this soon, but also as a premium release. I’m looking forward to playing it on iPad later this month. If details for an Android version are revealed, I will update this story.Monster Train is currently available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC platforms. Check out our forum thread for it here. Have you played Monster Train yet and will you be checking it out this month on mobile?
