With Kingdom Hearts III news on the horizon (that release date, Square Enix – we’re waiting!), we’ve all got a little more Goofy on the brain than we’d like to admit. Though we don’t have our hands on the newest title just yet, that doesn’t mean we can’t explore some of our favourite worlds within Minecraft!

This awesome creation comes from user “Water Block” over at PlanetMinecraft and the project is impressive. With familiar locations such as the Olympus Coliseum, Halloween Town, Wonderland, and tons more – this is the perfect way to get your Kingdom Hearts fix in before E3’s big announcement.

You can see all of the different nooks and crannies this creator implemented in the Minecraft Kingdom Hearts Adventure in the video above, it’s even fun trying to spot the more subtle nods tucked away in there.

This user is also responsible for even more creations, including The Battle of Scarif, Kingdom Hearts II Adventure, and more! You can follow them over on the Minecraft creation site right here, where you can also find monthly updates on the playable area’s progress and what’s continiously being added! With over 36,000 downloads, you definitely wouldn’t be the only one excited to delve into this magical, albeit blockier, world.

In other Minecraft news, the “Better Togethe” update is coming to Nintendo Switch next month!

Making the cross-play play jump makes it even easier to do just that so that platform of choice doesn’t have to mean missing out. Currently the “Better Together” update applies to the mobile, VR, PC, and Xbox One versions of the game, with the Switch coming later.

In addition to the update going live next month on the 21st, the physical version of the popular building title is also set to release the day before on June 20th. You can learn more about popular questions asked concerning this update and what that means for current platforms right here though the game’s official website.

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Excited to squad up with friends and family? Here’s what you can experience together with this expansive update:

“Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs.”

Minecraft Marketplace
For the first time, skins, textures, and worlds designed by the community are available in the store. Buy once and enjoy across Xbox, Windows 10 and mobile devices!* (and soon, the Switch)
Endless exploration
Create and explore your very own world where the only limit is what you can imagine.
Build almost anything
Crafting has never been faster, easier or more fun!
Co-op play
Play with up to four players in split screen for free, or invite hundreds of friends to a massive gameplay server or your own private Realm!

Minecraft has reached over 100 million registered users in China less than 12 months after it launched.

The free-to-play version of Mojang’s genre-defining builder was brought to China on PC in August 2017, quickly followed an iOS release in September, and finally an Android version in October; there is no console version available in the region.

Daniel Ahmad
@ZhugeEX
Minecraft now has over 100 million registered users in China across the free to play versions of the game on PC & Mobile.

12:40 AM – May 23, 2018
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Published by tech giant NetEase, in collaboration with Microsoft, the free-to-play downloads are in addition to the 144 million sales figure announced earlier this year, putting Minecraft on around 250 million downloads worldwide.

Developer Mojang recently announced however that it won’t be releasing anymore significant updates for the last-gen console versions of Minecraft.

Sega recently launched a new type of Total War game, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, as the latest in a long-running series of strategy titles for the PC.

I gave it a whirl and checked out how it offers a new take on real-time combat with a meta-layer of strategy and diplomacy. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia dwells on a particular historical period, with the battle for the British Isles during the Viking invasions. It starts after Alfred the Great wins a victory over the Nordic invaders at the Battle of Edington in 878 A.D. It is available on the Windows PC.

I played the Viking Sea Kings on the normal level. It was easy for me to grasp, but I’ve been playing the franchise since it started in 2000 with Total War: Shogun. The strategy series now has 15 entries that have combined sold over 20 million units. Developer The Creative Assembly, the studio behind Total War, also made Halo Wars 2 for Microsoft. The fantasy-themed Total War: Warhammer II debuted in September, but Britannia takes the series back to history.

I wish I had time to play it more. But you can check out a sample of it in the video. By the way, I’ll be interviewing Rob Bartholomew, studio brand director at Sega’s Creative Assembly, next Wednesday in London at the Casual Connect Europe event in London. We’ll be talking about catering to both the hardcore and the mainstream, and pivoting into new business models such as free-to-play.

Above: Thousands of soldiers can fight in real-time combat in Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia.

Image Credit: Sega
Unlike the Total War games that can span huge eras, Total War Saga games will explore key flashpoints at distinct places and times in history. Time progresses at about one season per turn, and a game might take about 200 turns to finish. That’s a lot of time.

The strategic map is built on Total War: Attila, which is about the fall of the Roman Empire. But while Attila covered much of Europe, the Britannia strategic map is much more concentrated. The whole geographic area is under a much tighter microscope. You move your armies around the strategic map, and when you meet another army in battle, the action zooms into a 3D landscape where the enemies clash.

When I first zoomed into a battle, I noticed that I could see the individual shops in a bazaar in the middle of a small settlement. I zoomed out and could see the few square miles of battlefield where the armies could maneuver. That represented an astounding amount of detail.

The game depicts a defining moment in British history, when Alfred the Great defeated rival Viking factions. While he beat the Vikings, he subsequently made a deal with them. He converted the Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity, and then he used the Vikings as allies to become the dominant ruler in England. For the first time in 80 years of Viking raids, the territories enjoyed a measure of peace. That, in short, is your own task in the game, to become Britain’s ruler.

As the game begins, you face a series of choices that can branch the story in different historical directions. You can achieve victory by aggressively expanding through war, by increasing your fame through construction, achieving technological innovations or influence, or by completing a series of objectives for your particular faction’s history.

Other factions include the English, the Gaels, the Welsh, or the Great Vikings. The last time, I played King Flann of the Mide clan, one of the Gael factions.

Above: Rule Britannia. That’s the goal of Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia.

Image Credit: Sega
The tech tree is divided into eight military and six civic branches. You have to research things like Missile Specialists to get better ranged units. When you do it, those units are available for you to recruit in the pool.

Each province on the map consists of a provincial capital and a series of minor settlements. Capitals have walls and garrisons for defence, have six building slots, and tend to house structures relating to finance, trade, infrastructure, production and the military. Capitals also house larger religious centers, and famous cathedrals can be built in the appropriate towns, granting fame for your leader. Your leader gains traits such as “passionate” or attributes such as zeal, inspiring better performance from followers or armies.

As your leaders gain experience, you can customize how your faction develops. You can add more Champions as your followers to improve the leader’s combat abilities, or you can add Quartermasters to improve your logistics. So your leader doesn’t really change. But the followers behind your leader determine the unique characteristics of what the leader is capable of doing. You can tune the followers for combat or for running a province with bureaucratic efficiency.

I played the Dyflin clan, known as the Giant Slayers, led by my king Bardr, and squared off in battle against the Laigin clan. We were pretty evenly matched, but my soldiers had the better training.

In the battle I included in the video, I had a pretty large army, with plenty of ax soldiers, some spear units, a just a couple of bow units. It was a bit difficult to keep track of things because the entire battlefield was covered with thick woods. I had to zoom in periodically to see what was happening, bu the broke up into a bunch of mini battles as units retreated or charged in different directions. I tried to divide and

Like I said, I wish I had more time to check it out. If I get time to revisit my pile of shame, I’ll pick this one up.

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Minecraft fans didn’t downloaded fewer pieces of content from the game’s Marketplace last month, but the top 10 lists for most downloaded and top grossing are both still excellent reminders of the variety and fun that players can find in that tore. The Minecraft Marketplace had 285,816 downloads in April, which is down from 321,317 in March and 372,509 in February.

Welcome! You’ve once again found yourself reading GamesBeat’s monthly analysis of the Minecraft Marketplace, which is the block-building phenomenon’s platform for extra content from the Minecraft team as well as external developers. If this is your first time here, you can see the results from past months right here. We do have some new names on the charts, but once again developers like PixelHeads are dominating.

But we can also see that teams that specialize in roleplay content like InPvP are also thriving with the No. 2 and No. 3 spot on the most-downloaded top 10. Maybe we’ll see developers chasing that trend, or maybe we’ll see some new fad breakthrough in May.

Let’s do the charts.

Here are the top 10 most downloaded pieces of content from the Minecraft Marketplace in April 2018:

Wildlife: Savanna 6. Wildlife: Savanna by PixelHeads
Here’s the top 10 in list form:

City Life
BrightStart Daycare
Prison Escape
Dinosaur Island
K-Pop: Teenage Rebellion
Wildlife: Savanna
Oropia
Summer Mini Games Festival
Chroma Hills HD
Steampunk Castle
And here’s the top-grossing list for April 2018:

5. Chroma Hills HD 5. Chroma Hills HD by Syclone Studios
City Life
Dinosaur Isalnd
Wildlife: Savanna
BrightStart Daycare
Chroma Hills HD
Prison Escape
Relics of the Privateers
Lapis Lagoon
K-Pop: Teenage Rebelion
PureBDcraft
The Marketplace is already growing, and we can see that new content always causes download numbers to pop from month-to-month. But as the Marketplace hits new platforms as Bedrock launches on devices (like Nintendo Switch on June 21), content creators will have a chance to hit entirely new audiences. That’s a big opportunity for a group of Marketplace devs that are already making a living doing what they are doing.

Fortnite is … everywhere. Let’s be real. Epic Games‘ entry into the Battle Royale world has taken the gaming community, and the entertainment industry, by storm. From celebrities gushing about it, to over 1 million dollars on the line in eSports, this title is not going away anytime soon. Apparently it’s not going away in Minecraft either, because one fan took it upon themselves to recreate the entirety of the Tilted Towers area within the fun building game.

For those that may not play Fortnite, Tilted Towers, is an area in Battle Royale that is the bane of many people’s existence. It’s where everyone drops and it’s pretty much one giant death trap. To recreate it in Minecraft, I’m imagining the soothing sounds of the title’s soundtrack and it’s making it a little easier to let go of that ingrained hatred that I have for this map location. Still, it is pretty neat to see what players come up with in this building game, especially given that I can barely make a simple house with four walls that don’t collapse.

Some people just don’t have it. Me. I don’t have it.

In other Minecraft news, the “Better Togethe” update is coming to Nintendo Switch next month!

Making the cross-play play jump makes it even easier to do just that so that platform of choice doesn’t have to mean missing out. Currently the “Better Together” update applies to the mobile, VR, PC, and Xbox One versions of the game, with the Switch coming later.

In addition to the update going live next month on the 21st, the physical version of the popular building title is also set to release the day before on June 20th. You can learn more about popular questions asked concerning this update and what that means for current platforms right here though the game’s official website.

Excited to squad up with friends and family? Here’s what you can experience together with this expansive update:

“Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs.”

• Minecraft Marketplace
  • For the first time, skins, textures, and worlds designed by the community are available in the store. Buy once and enjoy across Xbox, Windows 10 and mobile devices!* (and soon, the Switch)
• Endless exploration
  • Create and explore your very own world where the only limit is what you can imagine.
• Build almost anything
  • Crafting has never been faster, easier or more fun!
• Co-op play
  • Play with up to four players in split screen for free, or invite hundreds of friends to a massive gameplay server or your own private Realm!

Fortnite’s Tilted Towers Recreated In Minecraft

Chances are if you have a kind between the ages of five and 14, you know “Minecraft.”

The video game is a constructable world of building cubes and creatures ranging from pigs to zombies to dragons. According to PC Gamer, “Minecraft” had 74 million active users in December. More than 144 million copies of the game have been sold since its 2011 debut.

Gabe Young, co-founder of Minefaire, calls it “digital Lego.” Minefaire returns Saturday and Sunday to NRG Center, bigger and better than last year. Tickets are still available at minefaire.com.

Last year’s Minefaire drew thousands of fans. This year’s incarnation promises even more alongside the stage shows, costume contests and “Minecraft” mentors.

Fans can meet more than a dozen popular YouTubers, including OMGchad, JeromeASF and Houston native UnspeakableGaming, who spoke about his rise to online stardom. They will take photos and sign autographs.

There will be a “more immersive” virtual reality experience. Attendees can create their own personalized “Minecraft” action figures. The Minecraft Escape Room challenges kids and parents to break into a Minecraft chest. Houston Public Library will host a “Minecraft Experience.”

The merchandise store is also 15 times larger than last year. Parents, get those wallets ready.

Minefaire returns to Houston with more ‘Minecraft’ than ever

The first phase of the promised Update Aquatic has arrived for Minecraft on Xbox One (not the legacy Xbox One Edition), Windows 10, Android, Apple TV, Gear VR, iOS, and Fire. As well as adding eight new achievements, Phase One will add lots of new underwater features. There’s a full list of those features in addition to a handful of new screenshots showing the features in action.

The first wave of Update Aquatic features arriving today include:

As you may have guessed, Update Aquatic will be arriving in multiple parts. The remaining features will be included in Phase Two, which will be “coming soon”. As soon as we get more details on Phase Two, we’ll be sure to let you know, but for now, enjoy all of the new features that are available now with Phase One.

Minecraft Update Aquatic Phase One Available Now

Minecraft’s long-awaited Update Aquatic has finally surfaced, and is now available on Xbox One, Windows 10, Gear VR and Oculus, mixed reality devices, and mobile.

Update Aquatic, as its name suggests, is designed to add more life to Minecraft’s oceans. It’s a major update too – so big, in fact, that developer Mojang has elected to release it in two parts. The first is out now, while phase two is “coming soon”.

Once the new patch is installed, Minecraft players on supported platforms will be able to enjoy a wide selection of new fish and other water-dwelling creatures, including salmon, cod, pufferfish, tropical fish, and dolphins – the latter of which will follow boats across the ocean.

Elsewhere beneath the waves, you’ll find the likes of coral reefs, kelp, underwater ravines and caves, sea grass, shipwrecks, treasure chests, ruins, and more. Additionally, there are nine distinct new ocean biomes: frozen, deep frozen, cold, deep cold, lukewarm, deep lukewarm, normal, deep normal, and warm. Icebergs and blue ice are now found in chillier climes.

A somewhat more exhaustive list of Update Aquatic’s new additions, including improved boat control, is located over on Mojang’s announcement post.

Minecraft’s Update Aquatic will launch on Switch on June 21st, alongside the console’s new-fangled Bedrock Edition, but will not be coming to either Switch or Xbox One’s older, pre-Better Together versions. The update is also due on Minecraft’s Java version “very soon” and will arrive on PS4,Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Vita, at a currently unspecified future date.

Update Aquatic will be the last major content drop for older platforms.

Minecraft’s ocean-expanding Update Aquatic is out now on Xbox One and PC

MInecraft is one of those games that’s in a constant state of flux, with the developers wasting no time in adding new content through regular(ish) patches. The big “Bedrock” update is due to launch on the Switch on 21^st June, adding in cross-platform play and a whole slew of other features. However, alongside the Bedrock update, Switch will also be receiving the Update Aquatic, the details of which have just been revealed.

Update Aquatic will be rolled out in two phases, the first of which comes out with the Bedrock update. The included content is as follows:

• Fish (salmon, cod, pufferfish, tropical fish)
• Bucket of fish
• Coral (coral, coral fans, coral blocks)
• Kelp, Dried Kelp, Kelp Block
• Dolphins (follow boats, get a boost swimming next to them)
• Icebergs
• Blue Ice
• Nine Ocean Biomes (frozen, deep frozen, cold, deep cold, lukewarm, deep lukewarm, normal, deep normal, warm)
• Underwater Ravines & caves
• Sea grass
• Sea pickle (w/ illumination! Up to 4 in a block – only light up underwater)
• Shipwrecks
• Treasure chests (in ruins, shipwrecks)
• Ruins
• Swimming
• Treasure Map
• Buried Treasure
• Heart of the Sea in buried treasure chests (non-active)
• Trident
• Trident enchantment
• Stripped Logs
• Buttons, Trap Doors, Pressure Plates with variation
• Carved Pumpkins
• Floating Items
• Boat Polish (smoother control)
• 8 new achievements
• Water has a completely new look and increased visibility while underwater
• Prismarine Stairs and Slabs
• New swimming animation while sprinting in water
• Minecraft: Education Edition Chemistry features can now be enabled under Cheats! For tips on getting started, check out the Chemistry Lab Journal

It looks like this’ll be quite a significant expansion on the base game, and of course, it’ll be free to all owners.

What do you think? Do you still play Minecraft often? Will you be giving Update Aquatic a go? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Mojang Details Phase One Features Of Update Aquatic For Minecraft

Batman: The Animated Series is returning as a series of board games from IDW Games, starting with Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham Under Siege.

Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham Under Siege is a 1-5 player game. Players play as either Batman or one of his allies as they defend Gotham City from classic Batman villains from the animated television series.

The game is designed by Richard Launius, whose game design credits include Elder Sign and Planet of the Apes and who is known for creating thematic tabletop games, and co-designed by Michael Guigliano. Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham Under Siege’s gameplay includes the use of dice allocation and threat management as players defend Gotham against henchmen and boss villains.

This game’s production design includes all new artwork, character miniatures, 3D city buildings, and other board game elements. You can see the Box Top art by Matt Ferguson above. The figures are sculpted by Brian Dugas.

Future releases in IDW’s Batman: The Animated Series board game series will continue to celebrate the series and its universe with more heroes and villains, and new and familiar settings.

Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham Under Siege will be available in August 2018, with a preview at Origins Game Fair 2018.

Batman: The Animated Series seems to be experiencing a resurgence in tabletop gameplay. For the first time ever, the DC Animated Universe will be represented in HeroClix when Wizkids releases the DC Comics HeroClix: Batman: The Animated Series set also in August. The HeroClix release includes a full five-figure booster set, a Fast Forces set, a Dice and Tokens set, and a release day organized play kit. The set will include characters from Batman: The Animated Series and other DC-inspired animated series, including Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond, and the Super-Friends. The set will include several characters who have never been made in HeroClix before, such as Zeta, Leslie Thompkins, Maxie Zeus, Kyodai Ken, the Clock King, the Phantasm, Riddler’s Robot Minotaur, and Apache Chief.

Batman: The Animated Series is also set to come to Blu-ray for the first time ever sometime in 2018. The theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was released on Blu-ray last year.

‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Is Getting a New Board Game