Tag Archives: Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin

TAGN Fantasy Critic League 2026 – Week Thirty-Four and Deltarune Chapter 5 Arrives at Last

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There being a Fantasy Critic League post at all this week was in some doubt.  With no releases slated for weeks thirty-three or thirty-four, it felt like there might possibly be naught about which to write.

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

Not that having nothing to write about has ever stopped me from writing something.  But I also have a few drafts hanging around looking for a lazy weekend time slot to arrive so I can finish them up and finally press publish.

And then stuff happened and… here we are.  My post titled No Second Hand Clocks will just have to wait for another time.

Since things happened, we do need to review the scoreboard, so here is where we left off.

Week 33 Scores

The title of the post gave away the big news for the week, but to go in chronological order, we first got a score update for Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin based on additional reviews coming in.

Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin

Last week’s score for it was based on just four reviews, so any new entries had the potential to move the needle.  And the update on Monday afternoon proved that.

  • Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin
    • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
    • Score has gone DOWN from 90.0 to 88.4

Not the worst hit.  88 is still an enviable score.  And, as I write this, there are now 17 reviews for it on Open Critic, so it is a bit more immune from the inevitable 4 out of 5 review from that site that doesn’t give half points.

That change left Shintar still in 4th place on the board and still projected for 1st place in the end.

Then Wednesday rolled around and Deltarune Chapter 5 finally got its third topic critic review with a score.

Deltarune Chapter 5

That allowed Open Critic to finally give it an overall rating, which wasn’t quite what I expected.

  • Deltarune Chapter 5
    • [Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)]
    • Now has a score of 82.7

A solid score, and better than no score at all by a country mile.  But part of the desire for that last top critic review was that all four of the scored reviews up to that point (only two of which were from top critics) had been between 92 and 96.  That had the potential to be a top result.

Then the site Cubed3 rolled in with a 6/10 review, calling chapter 5 something of a filler episode that showed a dip in quality relative to past chapters.  I have absolutely no insight into the game, so maybe this is actually the true review from somebody deep into the game, or maybe they just want to take the piss.  I can’t tell.  But there it is.

Still, that was more than enough to boost Corr on the board.

  • Publisher Score Updates
    • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
      • Score has gone UP from 70.3 to 83.0
      • Moved from 5th place to 3rd place
    • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
      • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place
    • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
      • Moved from 4th place to 5th place

It did not, however, change his estimated 2nd place finish because the league predictions always assume all your titles will get a score.  So the score update merely confirmed what the league already assumed.

As with Bubbly Basin, the Deltarune Chapter 5 score is based on small number of reviews, so should another review come in that score might change noticeably.  The chance of that seems small… but so did getting that last review nearly two months after the game launched.

That leaves us with Ghost of Yotei: Legends, released back in March, and Beastro, which launched in June, as the league titles still missing a score.

All of which was the story for the week on the board, which ended up looking like this.

Week 34 Scores

We did have two bids this week, so there was some activity going on outside of the scoreboard.  Both Bhagpuss and Arhanta grabbed new titles, dropping previous picks in search of better fortune.

  • Bids in TAGN League
    • Nighthawks
      • Won by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss) with a bid of $5
      • Dropped game ‘Coven of the Chicken Foot’ conditionally
    • Aniimo
      • Won by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta) with a bid of $5
      • Dropped game ‘Tides of Annihilation’ conditionally

That left the next ten upcoming titles as follows.

Week 35 Coming Up

After a two week dry spell we are back in the game with two titles landing, Star Wars Zero Company, which is both a pick and a counter pick, so double the damage so long as it gets enough reviews, and Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy.

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TAGN Fantasy Critic League 2026 – Week Thirty-Three and Waiting for Scores

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As expected there were no titles set to launch for week thirty-three.  We have nothing on the calendar until the last week of August.  So the same problem next week.

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

I may give next week’s post a pass if nothing happens.  But we left off last time with two titles that were still waiting for scores, so it is almost as if they did not ship last week.  They will be the meat of this post, but first we need to see where we left off last time.

Week 32 Scores

That set, we did get scores for the two missing titles.

First up was Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, which Archey had dropped previously and was subsequently picked up by Corr, who out-bid me on the title.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

We did not have to wait long for a score to show up.  It already had a page on Open Critic and by Monday afternoon it was on the board.

  • Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
    • [Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)]
    • Now has a score of 89

89 is an extremely strong score, enough to boost Corr on the board and make Archey regret at least that life choice.

  • Publisher Score Updates
    • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
      • Score has gone UP from 53.6 to 72.6
      • Moved from 6th place to 4th place
    • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
      • Moved from 4th place to 5th place
    • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
      • Moved from 5th place to 6th place

However, that score was based off of just a few reviews, so any further incoming reviews would have sufficient weight to change the overall score noticeably.  And that is what happened.

  • Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
    • [Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)]
    • Score has gone DOWN from 88.1 to 87.1

That move down wasn’t all that dramatic.  That is still a strong score, and we will have to see what score Nocturne, the title Archey too to replace it, turns in before we can fully know the wisdom of the choice.  But for the moment Marvel Tokon looked like a keeper.

Then there was Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin.  We had to wait until Wednesday afternoon before that showed up with a score.

Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin

I thought maybe this might be a case of an expansion that didn’t get reviews, but it got on the board with a strong number.

  • Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin
    • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
    • Now has a score of 88.3

That put it ahead of Marvel Tokon for score, if only just.  But it was enough to push Shintar back up the scoreboard after getting dropped to 6th place earlier.

  • Publisher Score Updates
    • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
      • Score has gone UP from 57.4 to 75.7
      • Moved from 6th place to 4th place
    • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
      • Moved from 4th place to 5th place
    • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
      • Moved from 5th place to 6th place

That said, the Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin score is based on just four reviews, and the three “top critics” who got the game past the bar and on to the scoreboard seem pretty small scale to me.  And if another review comes in at, say, a 7 out of 10, the overall score for the game could take a serious dive.  This feels like the “stop the count” scene in Veep.

Then again, it could just keep getting good scores… which was what happened.

  • Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin
    • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
    • Score has gone UP from 88.3 to 90

So that came in at the end of the week, leaving the scoreboard looking like this.

Week 33 Scores

Shintar, while still hanging out in fourth place, remains with a solid prediction for first place for the end of the season.  Likewise, a strong showing by Corr this week has him now projected for second place in the league, pushing me down a notch.

For the first time in a while, there were no bids in the league.

We did get an update that one of our Warhammer titles might go missing as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV slipped out to December.

  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV
    • Picked by Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais),
    • Counter Picked by Anthania Interactive (Ula)
      • Release date changed from ‘Thursday, September 17, 2026’
      • to ‘Thursday, December 03, 2026’

December is very close to next year and it wouldn’t be the first title to decide to punt before the Steam Winter Sale and roll the dice in the new year.

With no other changes, the next ten titles remain as before.

Week 34 Coming Up

So nothing set for next week.  We shall see if there are enough updates to make a post for week thirty-four.  Otherwise, we’ll be back for week thirty-five

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TAGN Fantasy Critic League 2026 – Week Thirty-Two and the Big Walk

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We are looking at the last big week of releases until September in week thirty-two. We had four titles slated to launch.

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

Before we dig into that however, we need to check the scoreboard and where everybody stood last time around.

Week 31 scores

The groundwork laid down, we can get on with the scoring and releases, which kicked off right away.  Scores were down for the first two titles by Monday afternoon.

  • Beast of Reincarnation
    • [Picked by Anthania Interactive (Ula)]
    • Now has a score of 76.2
  • Big Walk
    • [Picked by S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)]
    • Now has a score of 87

Beast of Reincarnation came in a little soft with that initial score.

Beast of Reincarnation

The title from Game Freak, known mostly for being the developer of the core Pokemon RPG titles for the last 30 years, threw its hat into the realm of world fighting RPGs, launching on PC and consoles besides Nintendo’s.

Big Walk, on the other hand, came out strong.

Big Walk

This title from the makers of Untitled Goose Game, showed up with a strong indie energy buzz.  Despite getting fewer reviews that Beast of Reincarnation above, it got a much more positive reaction.

By the time we hit Monday evening and we rolled over to the next day on the east coast, the league marked them as released and gave us a big score update.

  • Publisher Score Updates
    • Anthania Interactive (Ula)
      • Score has gone UP from 87.0 to 93.2
    • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
      • Score has gone UP from 41.4 to 58.1
      • Moved from 8th place to 4th place
    • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
      • Moved from 4th place to 5th place
    • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
      • Moved from 5th place to 6th place
    • Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)
      • Moved from 6th place to 7th place
    • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
      • Moved from 7th place to 8th place

While Big Walk’s multiplayer only approach has caused a bit of push back (I like this post at Aftermath), it continued to score well as a few more reviews came in, bumping it up.

  • Big Walk
    • [Picked by S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)]
    • Score has gone UP from 86.7 to 88.6

This boosted Potshot’s prospects, though in my other league I counter picked Big Walk, so its strong release has likely thwarted my ambitions over there.  Here, however, nobody was so foolish so it was all upside for Potshot.

So the week was off to a strong start.

On Tuesday night we got notice that the next title on the list, Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin, had launched .

  • Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin has released!
    • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]

This title was an expansion to the popular and high scoring Pokemon Pokopia released earlier this year, as well as being another Game Freak entry this week.

Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin

However, there were not enough reviews for a score.  In fact, there wasn’t even a page for it over at Open Critic.

Likewise, the next evening we received the update that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls had launched.

  • Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has released!
    • [Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)]

This title has a bit of league history as well, having been dropped by Archey only to have Corr and I bid on it, with Corr winning the bid.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

On the hype factor front, it seemed like a solid pick given it rang in at 73.  Hype factor isn’t an absolute predictor of a good score, but it tends to be a more reliable factor than anything else.  If you picked the top ten titles available based on hype factor you would be doing very well.

That left our league with five titles on the “most desired reviews” list, grabbing the top four slots… again.  (Beastro is in the top twenty.)

Most desired reviews – Aug 6, 2026

And then… no further word.  The rest of the week was quiet, which left the scoreboard looking like this come Saturday evening.

Week 32 Scores

With the changes the projections shifted a bit, with UIa now pegged for 6th position and Potshot now in the run for 5th.  Arhanta held onto the nod for 4th, Corr is predicted for 3rd, I am lined up for 2nd, and Shintar remains the league’s pick for 1st place at the end of the season.

But there are still a lot of titles left to score and a more counter picks still to account for.

For the first time in quite a stretch there were no bids.

However, two titles did get release updates.

  • Crimson Moon
    • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
      • Release date changed from ‘September 2026’
      • to ‘Tuesday, September 01, 2026’
  • Toem 2
    • [Picked by Anthania Interactive (Ula)]
      • Release date changed from ‘Summer 2026’
      • to ‘Tuesday, September 29, 2026’

That leaves the next ten titles on the schedule as follows.

Week 33 Coming Up

We have no releases lined up for the next two weeks.  However, there are still the two titles from this week to check in on, Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.

As of Saturday night Marvel Tokon has five reviews, including two top critic reviews, so could show up with a strong score in the coming week.

However, Pokemon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin so far lacks a review page on Open Critic, leaving its status somewhat in doubt.  Its status as an “expansion pass” for Pokemon Pokopia could leave it in the lurch.  We shall see.

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