Square Enix is joining the competitive multiplayer scene with a new game that somehow gives vibes of Splatoon, Persona, and Overwatch all at the same time. The fresh face is called Foamstars, and from what we’ve been shown so far, it’s an original take on third-person shooters with a whole lot of colorful foam and poppy style.
Foamstars was revealed at today’s PlayStation Showcase with a gameplay launch trailer. While not completely transparent on how the game plays, this initial trailer shows that it’s a hero shooter mixed with the groundwork set by Splatoon. However, this one is a lot more anime than the squid kids could ever hope to be.
Players seem to battle it out with foamy bubbles, champagne bottles, Persona-like pet creatures, and more in a fight to control the field. Controlling the field with your bubbles seems to allow you and your team to traverse in faster ways than without that control, similar to Splatoon. This traversal includes surfing across bubbles, gliding on them, and even simply running atop them.
While Foamstars is a brand new property from Square Enix’s vault, the title isn’t one that came out of thin air. Square Enix was shown to have trademarked the title as far back as January 2023 in an earlier leak.
We’re not sure when we’ll be able to see if this game is something special or just a bubble waiting to be burst, as the trailer ended with no launch date or release window.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?