Final Fantasy XII Gets Another Chance to Shine, EVO Has Us Fired up for a Fight, and the Rest of This Week's Headlines

That's another week tucked away! Summer's going by way too fast. I have a nice, ripe tomato for the first "Back to School!" clothing ad I see.

Uh, I hope I don't see it on my computer.

This was Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age's week to shine. Square-Enix has gifted us with a terrific remake of one of the series' most overlooked and under-appreciated titles. Read Kat's review of the game, listen to Kat and I talk about the game on Axe of the Blood God this week, and stroke your chin as Kat points out how the original game marked the start of a tough decade for Final Fantasy.

Here's what else made headlines this week:

• What an excellent night to have a curse. Mike reviewed the Castlevania Netflix series, and I reviewed Castlevania IV in preparation for the SNES Classic Edition. I reviewed F-Zero for the same reason.
• Speaking of the SNES Classic Edition, there are some fakey-fake NES Classics up for sale. Buyer beware.
• Know what's real, though? The Nintendo 2DS XL. It's the Nintendo 3DS's final form, and according to Kat, it's great.
• Caty talked up a storm about Splatoon 2's single-player campaign, and she even made a Splatoon 2-inspired playlist for all your splattin' needs. Did that sound perverted? I hope that didn't sound perverted.
• Quite a bit of news on the competitive / fighting game front this week. Overwatch has its first teams and owners, ARMS has a new fighter, Samurai Shodown V Special is coming to PlayStation 4 and Vita, Disney XD will stream the Smash Bros finals and EVO, and man, do we ever have a beautiful oral history of EVO from freelancer John Learned.
• Metal Gear is 30 years old, and even though the series' future is bleak, fans didn't hold back on the celebrations. Make sure to re-visit our retrospective on the very first game. Now, come blow out your birthday candles, Snake. Snake? SNAAAAAAAAKE!

I've selected a "Game Over" theme for this week's music. Technically, Game Over themes aren't ending credits music, but they sure are some kind of ending music.

This time around: The Game Over for Batman on the NES. I sucked hard at this game when I was a kid, but at least my failure was accompanied by one of the most soothing pieces of music ever composed for a video game. Weird, lovely stuff.