Gaming

Nintendo GameCube Game Gets Surprise Update Nearly 20 Years After Release

A GameCube classic has received a new update out of nowhere. 

A Nintendo GameCube game that launched almost 20 years ago has surprisingly received a new update. Over the past decade, a number of GameCube games that were at one point stranded on the platform have been remastered or ported to new hardware. Games like Metroid Prime, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Beyond Good & Evil, Super Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil 4, and Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 have all been brought to new platforms at one time or another in recent years. Now, a game that was ported to PC back in 2018 has received a new patch without any warning whatsoever.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Within recent days, a new update for Killer7 on Steam went live. Originally released on Nintendo GameCube in 2005, Killer7 is a cult-classic action-adventure game from Grasshopper Manufacture and its famed director Suda51. It was later brought over to PC, which is the primary manner in which it has remained accessible in recent years. Prior to this new patch going live, though, the game’s most recent update occurred all the way back in January 2019. As such, this new patch was truly random as most assumed that Killer7 was a finished product on PC.

The bad news about this update for Killer7 is that it seems to have negatively impacted the game. Since going live, recent reviews for the title on Steam have fallen to “Mostly Negative” with many players taking issue with the AI-upscaled textures that have been implemented. This change to the textures was said to be done as a way of improving the performance of Killer7 and bringing the cutscenes more in line with what was seen on GameCube. Clearly, though, Grasshopper and publisher NIS America missed the mark if these reviews from players are to be trusted.

Moving forward, it’s not known if any further updates for Killer7 will be coming about. Given the problems that players now seem to have with the game, a new patch to try to resolve some of these complaints could go live in the coming days. Regardless of whether a new update is released, though, you might want to consider picking up Killer7 for yourself now as it’s currently on sale for only $4.99 in a deal that will last until November 8th.

If interested, you can check out the extensive patch notes for this update to Killer7 attached below.

Killer7 Update Patch Notes

Remastered Videos

  • The videos ofย Killer7ย have been updated based on the GameCube videos and updated so that they hopefully play smoother!
  • remastered all videos based on the original GameCube videos
  • all videos now use webm instead of ogv

Graphic Improvements

  • Various changes have been made in order to improve the general graphic performance to give you all a better visual experience.
  • more reload animations now use 60fps
  • added MSAA support (it can be enabled in the config tool)
  • added framerate limiter support (it can be configured in the config tool)
  • upscaled more fonts
  • upscaled more textures
  • added BC7 texture support
  • enabled DPI awareness to allow proper 4K resolutions (please disable custom DPI overrides!)

Quick Character Select

  • A quick character select option has been added for those using gamepads.
  • added a “Quick Character Select” option when playing with the gamepad
    – defaults to Left Trigger
    – configurable in the config tool

Other Gameplay Improvements

  • junctions can now be selected faster when using the mouse
  • it’s now possible to select all skills in the TV menu when using the mouse
  • Kess Bloodysunday’s cutscenes are now skippable
  • replaced fixed Xbox button references with dynamic button glyphs
    – properly displays customized buttons
    – added support for keyboard and mouse buttons
  • removed references to the “Memory Card” when saving or loading
  • the config tool now checks for incorrect duplicate bindings
  • added DualShock 4 & DualSense support

Various Bug Fixes

  • fixed the rendering of characters at junctions (they no longer appear red)
  • various fixes when using a monitor with a refresh rate greater than 60hz
    – mouse aiming was too slow
    – certain animations were too fast
  • fixed the Handsomemen death particle effect
  • fixed a rare legacy crash during the “Susie in dryer” scene
  • fixed text errors in various subtitles and memos
  • fixed a legacy bug in the Ulmeyda boss fight
  • fixed a graphical bug when quitting the game during the Curtis boss fight
  • Hopper7 mode now displays Camelia’s weak spot
  • fixed a rare random crash when opening the ingame menu
  • fixed an audio bug when (un)plugging headphones
  • fixed a legacy graphical glitch when battling using Kevin
  • fixed mouse issues when they had a high polling rate
  • various optimizations