Mobile game company Wildlife Studios has secured $60 million in Series A funding to bolster its dev team, continue supporting existing titles, and kickstart new projects.

The investment round was led by Benchmark Capital, and also included former Facebook VPs Hugo Barra and Javier Olivan, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Red Ventures co-founder and CEO Ric Elias.

Wildlife has launched over 60 titles since 2011, including popular titles like Tennis Clash and Zooba, and claims its roster is on course to reach 2 billion downloads by the end of 2019.

It currently has 500 staffers working in offices throughout Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, and the United States, but wants to expand to 800 employees in 2020.

“Benchmark’s partnership will help us further our mission of entertaining billions of players around the world,” said Wildlife co-founder and CEO Victor Lazarte. “We are increasing our investment in world-class talent and significantly growing our team as we scale our games globally.”

Senran Kagura by Marvelous might not be the most well-known series here in the west, but it is beginning to get more exposure. Most recently, the localisation team at XSEED Games helped release Senran Kagura: Peach Ball on the Nintendo Switch.

Once again, this game starred the usual group of female ninja. Did you know though that the series could have had a very different name? As part of its 15-year celebrations, XSEED revealed a little bit of trivia about what else it could have been called:

If you’ve played any entries in this series, we’re sure you’ll be able to guess the reason why this name was even in consideration. As XSEED notes: “better judgment sliced through and prevailed” in the end.

Senran Kagura originally started out life on the 3DS in 2011. Since then, multiple entries have been released on Nintendo systems.

Have you played any of the games in this series before? Leave a comment below.

Reflect on the Nintendo DS generation and you might remember the system exclusive Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. The action-RPG by CyberConnect2 was well-received across all regions but only sold around 100,000 copies worldwide.

Is there a chance of the game ever getting a remake, though? CyberConnect2 boss Hiroshi Matsuyama was recently asked about this at a Q&A not long ago and said he was open to the idea. The main issue would be working out how to operate the game on a newer system that may not necessarily support the touch panel design of Solatorobo. Here’s the transcript, courtesy of Nintendo Everything:

Of course, the possibility is there. As you know, Solaroboto was a game exclusively released on Nintendo DS. You all remember, right? Nintendo DS had two screens. The top screen was the play screen and the bottom one a touch panel.

On the operational side of things, it will be quite hard to port the game without a hardware that supports this system. It is possible to rebuild the touch panel system of Solatorobo, and integrate the bottom screen into a single screen, but would call for a complete remake. I feel that this would bring its own set of difficulties.

Matsuyama went onto state how “a lot” at CyberConnect2 would like to re-release the company’s games made during the DS and 3DS generation, but at the same time would be more likely to “start over from scratch” in the case of Solatorobo.

I personally think that, not only for our title Solatorobo, but also for a lot of other games that were made for the Nintendo DS and 3DS, a lot of us would like to re-release, whether just a downloadable version, an HD remastered version of these games, so that our current customers could play with our past properties, but at this time, I don’t think the industry is aiming for that goal yet. If we were to remake Solatorobo, we would start over from scratch.

To find out more about this game, read our Nintendo Life review from 2011.

Did you play Solatorobo during the DS generation? Would you like to see this DS exclusive revived on a platform like the Nintendo Switch? Comment down below.

We’ve seen 24-hour gaming marathons before, but this particular story is slightly different. A YouTuber by the name of SwankyBox, who is said to be a “huge” fan of the Nintendo 64 classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, recently cut himself off from the real world and spent hours exploring the 64-bit land of Hyrule – while working his way through dungeons, watching the sunset (in-game, of course) and scouting out a safe and quiet spot to sleep in order to get a good night’s rest.

In case you’re wondering, this VR experience is running on a modified version of the original Nintendo 64 game. While it’s certainly not perfect, it was enough to get the job done – as he was even able to do push-ups on the top of Death Mountain (what an experience!). He also took some time to see what it was like to ride Epona and fish in VR. Take a look below:

While we wouldn’t recommend trying this out, if you are interested in getting up close with the land of Hyrule, you can always try out Nintendo’s official Labo VR support in the Switch title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That’s if you can handle it for more than a few minutes.

What do you think of this VR experiment? Would you want to live in Hyrule for 24 hours? Comment down below.

Osiris stood before a gate into the Infinite Forest.

Two years ago, news had reached him that one of his oldest friends was dead. Saint had been missing for ages, but the Warlock had always assumed the Titan would turn up someday. He was wrong.

He realized he was staring through a dormant gate frame and keyed a cubical device that hung at his belt to pry the doorway open.

He couldn’t save Saint from the Vex. But every day he stood vigil in the Infinite Forest to monitor simulations of the future based on their activity.

Beyond the gate, a shimmering sea of data beckoned him.

He stepped through, into the white maw of an Infinite Forest debug chamber.

“Start it up, Sagira,” he said.

“Sure you don’t want to take a break today?” she asked, unfolding above him like a crown.

“The Vex won’t.”

She considered it a moment, then the Forest shimmered around them and the white maw dimmed to half-darknes

Then pitch black.

The floor fell away, and Osiris’s Light held him aloft, sheathed him in a thin veneer of armor.

Nothing moved. The Warlock frowned, lit a Solar spark and held it up. It illuminated nothing around him. “Did something go wrong with the sequence?”

“I just triple-checked. No,” she replied. “This is it. This is the simulation.”

He keyed his radio.

 “Go ahead, Osiris,” Ikora said.

“What’s happening out there?” he replied.

“Take your pick. We’re at war on the Moon again. The Vex attacked.”

“And?”

“We retaliated. The Undying Mind is dead.”

“How?”

“A plan. And mutual friends.”

“Our mutual friends just changed all projected futures in the Infinite Forest.”

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

 “I’ll be in touch.” He cut the transmission. “Where are we?” he asked Sagira.

“Where we always are. Simulated Mercury.”

He couldn’t even see stars.

“How far does this void reach?”

“All the way to the Traveler, for all I know.”

“Take us there.”

Osiris knew the simulation moved around him, but the typical shimmer of the Forest was gone. There was nothing to see.

“We’re here,” she confirmed, as he found gravelly purchase under his boots. He had never heard her sound so unsure of herself.

It was brighter here at the top of a windswept dune, but barely. He couldn’t see the sun in the purple twilight that hung above him. The breeze roared in his ears.

The sphere of the Traveler was gone. In its place, an obsidian monolith at least twice the size dominated the sky. In the Last City’s place was a swirling dust storm, tinged purple by the dying light.

“When does this happen?”

“The Forest predictions give a window of two or three decades, depending on a multitude of variables. With a not-insignificant chance for acceleration based on specific elements.”

“What elements?”

“Actions of mutual friends.”

“Kill the simulation. Get me to Mercury.”

Nostos is Now Available on Steam!

Nostos is a cross-platform multiplayer game for PC & VR in an open world setting, where Oriental animation elements are found. You can explore with friends, discover historical sites and remains of war, build shelters and fight, uncovering the truth hidden by time and tasting the past stories of hope or regret.