With week forty-one of the league we were expecting to see two releases, including the latest entry in the Pokemon Switch titles, Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

But before we see what impact Pokemon had on the scoreboard, let’s review where things stood last time.

Week 40 Scores

With two end of week releases on the board, I wasn’t sure how early we might start seeing reviews.  But Nintendo wanted some pre-launch momentum it seems, so we started seeing scores for Pokemon Legends: Z-A a couple days early.

• Pokemon Legends: Z-A
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Now has a score of 83.3

Well, 83 isn’t a BAD score.  But I was expecting more from Pokemon.  Still, maybe the first reviewers out were angry about something.  However, the follow on reviews… weren’t helping.

• Pokemon Legends: Z-A
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 83.3 to 80.7

80 is very average for the league.  Reviews were also starting to pile in, so we were getting past the point where any individual review would influence the score.  Each new review could only push the score by small increments, unless a bunch of them dropped at once… which I think explains this last score update, which was up from the previous one, even if it was marked as down.

• Fantasy Critic: Pokemon Legends: Z-A
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 82.2 to 81.1

It looks like 81 is where it will end up sticking.  There were no real bad reviews, but many of the “it’s fine” sort of responses.

Pokemon Legends Z-A

Still, even an 81 was enough to change up the bottom of the rankings a bit.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)
    • Score has gone UP from 50.4 to 60.9
    • Moved from 9th place to 8th place
  • Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)
    • Moved from 8th place to 9th place

Overall, the trade back in week 18 in a trade where I swapped Donkey Kong Bananza, which ended up at 91, for Pokemon Legends: Z-A turned out to be bad for me.  Lesson learned I suppose; always bet on Donkey Kong!

The other release for the week was Keeper, which did not have a score when it hit its release point at midnight Eastern time on Thursday.

Keeper… available on XBox

However, by the time I was up on Friday morning it had sufficient reviews to put a score up on the board.

• Keeper
  • [Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Now has a score of 84.8

Better than Pokemon!

That was also enough to shake up the top end of the scoreboard.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)
    • Score has gone UP from 87.7 to 102.5
    • Moved from 4th place to 2nd place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 2nd place to 3rd place
  • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place

It dropped a bit as the day moved on, but not enough to changed the lineup.

• Keeper
  • [Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 84.8 to 83.6

That left the scoreboard at the end of the week looking like this:

Week 41 Scores

The modest result for Pokemon changed the league’s prediction for my final score, dropping me from 7th to 8th as a final result, though Kluwes and I are still pretty close on that front.

At the top end it looks like Bhagpuss is still solidly in front, but Potshot still has two titles left to ship.  Meanwhile, the league seems to thing Cyanbane will get into third based on his final unshipped title.

There were no bids this week, so that leaves the next ten titles on the release list as below.

Week 42 Coming Up

The upcoming week is potentially a big one, with FOUR titles landing between Tuesday and Thursday.  Potshot and Shintar both have a title set to launch while Arhanta has two title set to go in week 42.

However, there are already some dark clouds on the horizon for next week.  Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been out for press previews and the scores… are not great.  Games Radar+ gave it a 1.5/5 score, saying:

It’s impossible to roleplay a narrative that’s already set its course.

While that was the most harsh score I saw, were still a lot of low cards in that hand, with EuroGamer going with a 2/5.  That meant when scores started coming in, it wasn’t looking good.

• Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 66.2 to 63.6

We’ll see if more time brings the score up any, but for now it is set to be a negative six on the board.  As somebody who picked the title in my other league, I feel the pain as well.

Arhanta also has another pick going live in the coming week, Ninja Gaiden 4.  Maybe that will improve the situation.

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