Biggest Video Game News Of The Week (June 25 - July 1)

thegamer.com:

Odds are a lot of you reading this probably didn't expect much, if anything, from the announced Nintendo Direct to be among the biggest stories of the week. Turns out there was actually a lot to be excited about, from Mario + Rabbids, to the curious case of the missing Ms. Pac-Man.

Elsewhere this week, Amazon has made some big casting decisions for its Fallout show, and we might have John Cena to thank for Metroid Dread. More on that and much more in this week's gaming news round-up.

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Since the Nintendo Direct was bigger and better than most of us expected, that seems like the best place to start. Quite a few things vyed for the headline slot, but it arguably went to Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The rumored sequel to the popular crossover game will launch exclusively on Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2022. Its trailer also revealed Bowser will be joining the game's cast, and later in the week news broke that some of the video game world's most famous composers have been piecing together its soundtrack.

Another big reveal during the fast-paced Direct was Pac-Man World: Re-Pac - an unexpected remake of the 1999 PS1 game that took Pac-Man from the mazes he was known for, and put him into a platformer. Reactions to Re-Pac were mostly positive, but there is one element of the remake shown off in the trailer Pac-Man fans are up in arms about: the absence of Ms. Pac-Man. The ongoing legal issues surrounding the character mean Ms. Pac-Man has been replaced by Pac-Mom in the remake, and people aren't happy about it. It also appears to mean Bandai Namco has simply given up on trying to get the rights to use Ms. Pac-Man moving forward.

There are so many video games being