Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from2025. This article was originally published in June. Enjoy!
June 5th marked the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, but that very same day (or the day before on other consoles), the highly anticipated continuation of Deltarune, in Chapters 3 and 4, also hit digital shelves.
If you’ve had the chance to catch our review, you’ll know we fully believe this Undertale “follow-up” is worth the new price of entry, too, even if there are three more chapters to go. With big games like Mario Kart World and Cyberpunk 2077 ready and available for play, I’ve instead chosen to sink more time into the indie darling that is Deltarune. Its silly yet simultaneously serious world and characters have their hooks in me and it’s all I find myself thinking about night after night.
To help me try and silence those voices and get a few extra hours of sleep, I was graciously given the chance to pepper Deltarune’s creator, Toby Fox, with a few of the questions that have been knockin’ about in my noggin. Did Toby answer my questions? Yes. Did he also take every opportunity to run in a different direction and troll me? Yes, and yes, but that’s truly for you to decide. Did I love every part of his reply? Absolutely. Mild spoilers ahead, by the way.
Nintendo Life (Zion Grassl): The game show element introduced in Chapter 3, hosted by Tenna, has his third round of the show abruptly cancelled. Did you ever have more fleshed-out plans for that third round, or were you always planning to cancel it on the poor guy?
Toby Fox: We made most of it, but cut it because it slowed down the pacing too much. To put it in words that fans will understand, “Your taking too long” + “the game’s getting old.”
Mr. Tenna, sir, you’re hoggin’ all the air time — Image: Toby Fox
What drove you to make the [REDACTED] boss fight in Chapter 3 a seemingly impossible fight and how do you playtest something so difficult?
You mean Elnina + Lanino? Yeah, there’s actually a playtester that gave up at that point… Well, I didn’t make it that hard on purpose. But, I did make it so that if you get a Game Over and you have no points and no healing items, you get 2 TV Dinners for free.
After using “ILoveTV” a couple times, it should be enough to beat the battle just by defending and healing, so keep trying!
What sort of music brings you joy these days and what are a few musicians you find yourself listening to? Also, are you aware of the artist Porter Robinson? I feel like you two would make great pals and I’d selfishly love to see how you two could collaborate!
I heard Porter Robinson before… that’s right, the name of the music video was… “Shelter” (upon saying that word, his eyes glaze over, he steps back into the darkness and the door closes behind him…)
“I’ll give them shelter, like you’ve done for me.” — Image: Toby Fox
How has it been developing for Switch 2 and have you had any thoughts of how you could take advantage of the unique hardware again down the road?
It was kind of like the Nintendo Switch, but a much much bigger number, and strong. Down the road I’d like to take advantage of the unique hardware to play Donkey Kong Bananza.
I can’t believe they misspelled “Bananaz” but I’ll let it slide because they turned the rock into a girl. I wonder if she was originally intended to stay a rock, but then they realized that she didn’t sing rock music, she sang girl music.
How has it felt releasing your story in chunks/chapters like this, as opposed to a fully complete package and when are you personally hoping to have the final chapter of Deltarune release? Are we cursing you by even asking such a question?
I’ve never called them chunks. Maybe I should start calling them chunks? Like, here comes Chunk 5. I mean, that would be great if it was a game about cavemen, like Chuck Rock, or Bonk. That being said, I do feel like calling each episode a “Chapter” really undersells the fact that creating each one is like developing its own game. I’ve made the equivalent of like 2 and a half Undertales at this point. Continuously.
As for when it comes out, it should be out when it’s done, which is as soon as it’s finished, which, in my opinion, sooner would be better, but it takes a while. If it takes too long everybody is going to say ” you’re taking too long” and then I’ll say “I’m old!” They’ll have to revive me
When trying to ask Toby about the REDACTED boss fight in Chapter 3, he…ummm…seemingly misunderstood us and thought we meant the battle with Elnina + Lanino. Whoops! — Image: Toby Fox
Big thanks to Toby for taking the time away from his never-ending development cycle to answer our questions.
Deltarune is now available on the eShop and currently includes Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. You can also try the first two chapters for free by downloading the demo. All future chapters will be added to the paid package as and when they release.
Let us know if you’re enjoying Deltarune on Switch 2 in the comments!
Yes, yes, I know. Only 25 games since June. I am a lazy sod.
Regardless, I’ve had quite the ride thus far with my Switch 2. We’re still not that far out from launch, and I expect super-duper exciting things in 2026. Loads of ’em. I can smell it. Oh no, wait, that was just my dog.
Now, while I haven’t had the opportunity to review all of the biggest and best games released for the console in 2025, the ones I have cast my eye over make for a super solid list – with a few absolute stinkers thrown in for good measure. There’s always at least one stinker thrown in for good measure. *points at dog*
With all of this in mind — and having recently revealed our cumulative NL staff picks — I thought it might be useful to take a look at my top three Switch 2 games of 2025, in no particular order, selected from just the titles that I personally spent time reviewing. Yeah? Might as well give it a go now I’ve gone this far, eh. I’ll even give it a jaunty title. Let’s go!
PJ’s Top 3 Games From The 25 Switch 2 Games Wot He Reviewed On Switch 2 In 2025 (In no particular order)
I’m not having any more of this “Musou games are braindead button-mashers” patter out of you, son. I don’t care if it’s Christmas; that tired old line has been wrong for a while now, and in case you weren’t aware, Age of Imprisonment makes this very clear.
Long gone are the days of bland, barren maps populated by one-trick CPU enemies. No more are the tired side quests, lack of challenge, lack of variety, lack of combat strategising…and all that other guff that people say us Musou fans have had to endure over the years. This is a big, bold, and beautiful Zelda adventure that earns every bit of its “official canon” legitimising from the Big N.
This entry learns lessons and takes stock from what went a little wrong last time out, namely that crucial balance between story and combat. The rectifying of this one crucial aspect would have been enough for me, but with the extra grunt of the Switch 2 we also get an absolute looker that’s always a pure joy to sit down and blast through. It’s so slick and smooth!
My favourite Musou game thus far? Yep, it knocks that Fire Emblem effort out of pole position and everything.
Boof! I knew that The Ivalice Chronicles was going to be good. Very good, even. I did not, however, expect to be swept away quite as hard as I was.
Final Fantasy Tactics, you may be surprised to learn, is actually my favourite FF of the lot. It’s just exactly everything I want in terms of combat, vibes and story. The trifecta…she complete! Yes, I know some folk have issues with the reframing and reorganising of the War of the Lions content in this latest cut, but I am actually a big fan of what they’ve done with this new version.
It feels cleaner, and in all honesty, I don’t really need any more combat once I’m done with the main story as it was originally. The combat in the War of the Lions, well, it was just more gravy, nothing new. This snazzy new effort also does vitally important stuff like make cameras and controls easier and better to navigate with.
Battlefield views, tagging enemies, smarter CPU strategising all much-improved…this is genuinely making an already fantastic game a notably better one. It knocks the experience from Very Good Game™ territory into the realms of things that are actually, genuinely, very difficult to find any fault with. And all of this in the palm of your hand on Switch 2. Hold me, mammy.
I know I said this is in no particular order. But I sort of lied. The more I consider it, the more it becomes clear that nothing grabbed me in my pure gamer heart quite as much as Kirby Air Riders did this year. It feels like the purest of pure sort of Nintendo magic that we Nintendo fans are forever pining after. Gies a wee sniff, mate. Go on. I just need one hit on that magic, son. Wheeeeeeee!
What has got me so engrossed in and excited about a semi-automated racer? Well, first of all, it’s properly hard to fully master. Kirby’s latest has depth for those who like it deep (phrasing), whilst also providing for the button-mashers and the low-attention-span fans. Stick at it, get used to its chaotic way of doing things, and you’ll find a finely tuned racing beast purrs beneath the horror of giant neon pick-up icons. Yes, they are very big. I love them.
I’ve had some real sweaty finales (phrasing) during online matchups in this one, and all it takes is one other pro racer (or a whole bunch of you get lucky) to really awaken the magic. Once you’ve tasted the sweetness of a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, a victory at what feels like 1000s of kilometres per hour through a cosmic chaos of Masahiro Sakurai’s creation, it’s very hard not be get fully hooked.
If I manage one thing this year — and really, I’m leaving it seriously late in the day but there’s always hope — I’d be quite happy it be turning someone, anyone, on to the delights of Air Riders. It’s a game that’s easy to look at and nope out of. It’s also a game that’s easy to pick up, play, and walk away from as something that’s just a big colourful mess for kids. But what’s here beats out Mario Kart World for me in terms of online fun and competitiveness. It does Sonic Crossworlds in as well. Kirby just has it exactly where it matters, and in exactly the right manner and style for me this year. So suck on that.
Have you got a top three you’ve been maining on Switch 2 you’d like to share in the comments? A top two? Just the one? Want to shout at me for something? Go ahead, it’s Christmas!
Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from2025. This article was originally published in June. Enjoy!
In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you’d find all the weird goofs that we couldn’t fit in anywhere else. Some may call it “filler”; we prefer “a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag”.
We don’t have pages on the internet, but we still love terrible jokes — so welcome to our semi-regular feature, Back Page.
I know what you’re thinking. You just read that headline, and you said out loud to yourself: “Yes! I completely agree with this sentence. Never before have truer words been written onto the hallowed pages of the internet. All other journalists should pack up and quit, because this is the pinnacle of the craft; it simply does not get better from here.”
I know. But I pitched 1,000 words, and so, that’s what you’ll get, even though you already agree with me. Woe! Such is my life.
So, here are a few examples of what every game on Switch could look like if they got smart, took a page out of Mario Kart World‘s book, and realised that what the world needs is ‘More Cow’.
Super Smash Bros.
The great thing about Cow in SSB is that no one wants to beat up Cow — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
“I main Kirby.”
“I’ve memorised every single Toon Link move.”
“I can beat you with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back as any one of the indistinguishable Fire Emblem characters.”
Who cares? Most of the characters in Super Smash Bros. have opposable thumbs, or, at the very least, little hand-nubs like Jigglypuff and the Animal Crossing Villager. Fighting is pretty much a fist-based sport. You’re all playing with the training wheels on.
And do you know what that means? Only true SSB aficionados would choose Cow – a character with no fists. Or arms. Cow doesn’t even have an angry game-face, just a placid, terrifying smile, ready to strike fear into the hearts of every opponent like Pikachu wishes he could.
Bonus: you can refer to Cow as having a “moo-veset”.
Metroid
Mootroid Moosion. Samoos Aran. Et cetera — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
Okay, so, you know the Metroids? The iconic jellyfish-like aliens from the series, which Samus has to kill and/or learn to love? Very scary and/or cute, right?
Sure, sure. But hear me out: Super Metroid is one of the most frequently played speedruns at the various Games Done Quick tournaments, and do you know what part gets the audience most excited? It’s a little detour called Save the Animals, where the speedrunner has to take precious seconds out of their time returning to an early room to free a bunch of space-birds and space-monkeys before the planet explodes, extinguishing all extant life.
So, we know people who play Metroid love animals. Why not give them what they really want – SPACE-COWS? Samus could ride them through the levels instead of having to Morph-Ball everywhere, which can’t be good for her spine.
Splatoon
Look! The three flavours of milk! This game designs itself, really — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
I commend Nintendo for discovering the fun combination of squids and ink, but let’s be real: it could be any animal and the fluid it produces. Bees and honey. Horses and sweat. Hippos and blood. Why not cows and milk?
Imagine this: you’re playing a game of Splatoon (Spilt Milk Edition), and you’ve dressed up your cow in cool sunglasses and legwarmers. You load up your milk gun, which is directly attached to your character’s udders, and let rip, spraying fresh 3.5% all over the floor like you think the dirt is cereal. You take out one of the enemy team (whose milk is a chocolatey brown) in a slippy, creamy massacre, before diving into the white stuff and swimming through curds to get to their base and cover it in dairy graffiti.
Doesn’t that sound fun, and not at all horrendous?
The Legend of Zelda
I put an extra Cow in this image so they can be friends — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
I know cows already exist in the LoZ world, but they’re usually cooped up on Lon Lon Ranch, stuck in underground caves, or getting abducted by aliens, and they always look so sad. Let’s give Hyrule’s cows the recognition they deserve by promoting them to Series Regular. I’ve already got someone in mind to demote: Epona.
Put away the pitchforks! Epona can still stick around, just in a lesser role. It’s not like Link’s never replaced her before – remember that motorbike in Breath of the Wild? That’s not a whole lot different to a cow, really.
Besides, Epona doesn’t give you delicious, HP-restoring milk. That’s a point in Cow’s favour.
Star Fox
MOO a barrel roll — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
Slippy’s a frog. Peppy’s a bunny. Falco’s a bird. Sure, I can suspend my disbelief enough to believe that woodland creatures can A) exist in space, B) fly spacecraft, and C) toss witty banter at one another long enough to become friends, but do you know what I don’t believe? That there are no cows in space.
You’re telling me that an animal LITERALLY KNOWN FOR BEING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS doesn’t exist in space? And that it wouldn’t have encyclopaedic knowledge of spaceships, having been on so many? I don’t buy it! Aliens, much like me, love cows, and there’s a good reason for that: they make great astronauts.
Give Slippy, Peppy, Falco and co. a cow friend, call it Milktopher Cow or whatever, and give the people what they want.
Balatro
Wouldn’t Balatro make you 50% less grumpy if all the cards were cows? Yes. — Image: Kate Gray / Nintendo Life
You herd it here first, folks: these are just some of the games that would be better with nature’s most beautiful and beefiest ungulates. Do you have suggestions for how to steer the industry in the bovine direction? Let us know in the comments.
Like other iconic Nintendo series, Metroid has a timeline documenting Samus’ space adventures from past to present. Although the newest outing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is very much its own thing, it is still part of the Prime series as a new chapter.
Outside of the first-person entries, it’s now apparently been mentioned by Nintendo how this game fits within the entire history of the Metroid series. Speaking to Famitsu recently, Nintendo’s development team reportedly told the famous Japanese gaming outlet how the latest Switch and Switch 2 outing is set afterSuper Metroid on the Super Nintendo and beforeMetroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance (thanks, Nintendo Everything).
In saying this, it’s reiterated how the new entry takes place in “another dimension”, meaning there is no need to worry about the timeline or possible impacts on the 2D Metroid series. As a result, players can jump into this new adventure without any prior knowledge and enjoy the original setting. It has been an 18-year wait between this game and Corruption, after all.
In our review of Metroid Prime 4 here on Nintendo Life, we also mentioned how newcomers would be able to enjoy this new adventure without having to understand the history of the series. If Nintendo, Retro Studios or a prominent Nintendo figure says anything else about how exactly Beyond fits within the Metroid timeline, we’ll provide an update.
What do you make of this? Have you played Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on the Switch or Switch 2? Let us know in the comments.
Arc System Works finally delivered the long-awaited Switch update for Guilty Gear Strive earlier this month.
Now, in a new development update, it has addressed the future of this particular version of the game. It mentions how the Switch version has required “a great deal of effort and ingenuity” and as a result, the team is currently examining what exact form future updates “beyond Version 2.0” could take.
The feasibility of this is dependent on how far the development team can push itself, and if it’s able to overcome technical challenges. Here’s the message in full:
“Regarding the future of GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- Nintendo Switch Edition.
Developing and operating the game on Nintendo Switch required a great deal of effort and ingenuity to work within hardware constraints.
Based on that experience, we are currently examining what form future updates beyond Version 2.0 could take for the Nintendo Switch Edition.
Please note that feasibility will depend not only on technical challenges, but also on how far we can push ourselves as a development team, as well as on feedback and support from our players. All of these factors will be taken into account as we make our decisions.”
If we hear any other significant updates about the Nintendo version of this title going forward, we’ll let you know.
Have you tried out this game on the Switch? Would you be interested in future support in some way or support? Tell us in the comments.
In a brief update on social media, Level-5 has confirmed it’s now surpassed 1.5 million copies in worldwide cumulative sales. As part of this, the developer is celebrating with a new illustration and a limited-time sale on the eShop.
“FANTASY LIFE i” has surpassed 1.5 million copies in worldwide cumulative sales In gratitude, we’re releasing new illustrations! Please continue enjoying the powered-up slow life with the free major DLC! A limited-time sale is also underway where you can purchase it at a great discount! Don’t miss this opportunity.
The Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino also shared a message about this milestone:
“Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Stole Time and the Dragon of Gurgles” has surpassed 1.5 million units in worldwide cumulative sales! To all the users who purchased it, thank you so much! We will continue to create engaging, high-quality software, so we look forward to your continued support!
This news follows the free major DLC update The Sinister Broker Bazario’s Schemes, which launched last week. Level-5 has also announced Version 2.0.3 (including some bug fixes and more), with the Switch and Switch 2 versions of this patch to be made available at a “later date”.
Have you tried out the new Fantasy Life on the Switch or Switch 2 yet? How are you finding it so far? Let us know in the comments.
Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has sold incredibly well on Nintendo hardware over the years and while there have been no official updates about the mainline series returning to Switch hardware anytime soon, something rather interesting has apparently been discovered in a new Monster Hunter Wilds datamine.
In the title’s latest game update, lines of code such as “via.store.Native.ns2UpgradeEdition” have reportedly been added.
The general consensus seems to be that it’s a reference to a possible “Switch 2 version” of the game. Capcom hasn’t said anything about bringing this new entry to Nintendo platforms, but it has already shown strong support for Nintendo’s new hybrid system with games like Street Fighter 6 and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
The main concern among fans is tied to the game’s performance. When Wilds launched earlier this year in February, there were issues identified with this aspect of the title as well as the visuals on next-generation console hardware and PC. Capcom has rolled out multiple title updates since then, but hunters are still experiencing problems.
How Wilds would perform on a system such as the Switch 2 remains to be seen, but there have already been some stunning efforts on Nintendo’s new device including CDPR’s work on Cyberpunk 2077, and Capcom has demonstrated its abilities with Street Fighter 6. Of course, there’s no guarantee this discovery in Monster Hunter’s latest update will necessarily lead to an announcement.
Do you think Capcom could potentially release a game like Monster Hunter Wilds on the Switch 2 in the future? What else would you like to see it bring to Nintendo’s new system? Let us know in the comments.
Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from2025. This article was originally published in August. Enjoy!
Everyone remembers the first animated movie that scared them. For me, it was The Fox and the Hound — probably not the first movie in Disney’s canon that anyone remembers, but it was one of my brother’s favourites, so it was on regular rotation. Which means that the bear attack towards the end of the movie has been etched into my memory. It’s a terrifying scene which probably explains why I haven’t rewatched it since childhood.
Chris Darril, director of the upcoming narrative horror-platformer Bye Sweet Carole, understands the impact of those animated movies and the effect they have on kids. It’s this, along with a healthy dose of nostalgia and passion for animation, that fuels the entire game.
The Disney inspirations of Bye Sweet Carole are plain to see; every frame of the game looks like it comes from the Don Bluth era of animation — and Darril himself adores movies. This love of the cinema comes from his greatest inspiration, his mother, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2021. “[Bye Sweet Carole] was conceived when I lost my mum. I needed, at the time, to link myself to that child that I was years ago.”
One movie trip Darril speaks about fondly in interviews is Beauty and the Beast, and he tells me he saw when he was around three years old at the time, on a call a week before the release date trailer, “[My mum] told me that she never imagined that such a young boy could ever be so calm at the cinema… But there I was really calm, I was dreaming, watching this stuff.”
Bye Sweet Carole is a “homage to all the people that grew up with the Disney classics, with Don Bluth’s animation, but also Bluth’s experimental video game Dragon’s Lair, and a lot of other games that used to have this hyper-detailed animation.” And, visually, it could easily slip in with the rest of that era.
Break and rebuild
At this point, Darril is best known for the Remothered series, of which there are two games and a graphic novel. But, following the release of Remothered: Broken Porcelain and the loss of his mother, Darril left the partnership his company, Remothered SRL, had with Stormind Games: “I was not absolutely happy, not satisfied… you know when there is this strange feeling of bad air around and you feel like you can’t breathe? At the time, I lost my ambition.” [Note: Previously, this interview stated that Chris Darril left Storming Games. Darril was not employed there but was a partner via his own company. We’ve updated this interview to reflect that.]
“‘Is this doable? Are you sure?’ [laughs]”
Initially, a new game wasn’t in Darril’s future, he tells me. “I was really feeling really sad, of course, for a really important part of my life, I decided that I wanted to rest a little.” He took a hiatus in Malta, where he rediscovered his spark thanks to a friend’s discovery online — a build of Darril’s first project, Remothered 2D.
“[Remothered 2D] was a game that I started developing alone, on RPG Maker XP… that changed my life forever because I started working in the film industry and then I caught the interest and the curiosity of video gamers, players, and other companies.” That original build that put him on the map went missing, until his friend stumbled upon it online.
When he got hold of the build, Darril recalls having a renewed passion, a mix between “excitement, ambition”, he says. “So I told myself, take this build — I know it’s really old, because it was about 2009 and 2010 — do an HD remaster. But then I wrongly deactivated a layer on Photoshop and this frame, completely flat, popped out from my screen and I said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, the palette, the general aesthetics remind me of the colours of Snow White.’“
Image: Maximum Entertainment
With this mistake, Darril says that he was inspired to experiment — “not only in terms of game design, but also in terms of art direction” — to create a game inspired by the classic animated movies he grew up watching. When he formed his studio, Little Sewing Machine, he recalls saying to his team,”‘Is this doable? Are you sure?’ [laughs]”
Frame-by-frame
Hand-drawn animation is well known to be a difficult medium to work with — an extreme example comes from Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-nominated movie, The Wind Rises, in which a single four-second scene took 15 months to animate. So the question above seems reasonable.
And Darril says that it’s even more difficult for video games, because “you have a lot of variabilities.” Cuphead — which is inspired by rubber-hose animation — took five years to make. Hollow Knight, Spiritfarer, Skullgirls, and upcoming titles like Mouse: P.I. for Hire and The Eternal Life of Goldman all (likely) follow similar meticulous, loving processes.
“If you’re just watching a movie — like Beauty and the Beast, Studio Ghibli’s animation, The Iron Giant — you’re going to watch that movie and the movie will be just that, without any alternatives.” But for games, Darril and the team had to consider much, much more: on a character simply falling over, you have to consider how they’re moving — are they walking, running? Are they tripping to the ground? How far are they falling?
“So you have to do thousands of extra animations just to anticipate an action by another player.” And this was just for the main character, “Every frame was drawn every time.” Darril tells me, “Of course we have a few frames that you recycle, but every time you make a mistake, you have to redo the whole animation from scratch.”
But the work is more than worth it, and Darril can’t praise the team enough: “They did miracles”, he says multiple times throughout our chat. “I really feel that there’s something beneath those wonderful illustrations, those wonderful environments… And there’s something which has a kind of magic that I cannot find elsewhere in any other project. This is why I make video games.”
Childhood horrors
The Disney-style animation may have been technically demanding for the team, but it was clearly the way to go for a game with horror elements. Darril’s goal was to capture those feelings people had when watching Disney movies for the first time — not just the horrifying, though that was a big part of it.
Which is where contradiction comes in. When you first look at the game, Darril says, “You feel like in your comfort zone because you see the nice visuals, you see the little birds, Lana in her gown, and then something happens and feels so out of place.”
And there’s something which has a kind of magic that I cannot find elsewhere in any other project.
The horrors couldn’t come from the typical avenues — ” we didn’t want any gore, we didn’t want anything exaggerated, because… Bye Sweet Carol is an allegory about bullies, about the emancipation of women, so we didn’t want to speculate on the typical horror contents, the stream of violence.”
When I asked more about his intentions to invert expectations, Darril compared it to the Creepypasta phenomenon, using the example of Piglet’s Big Game (yes, really), which many have compared to Clock Tower 3 or Silent Hill thanks to its foreboding music and specific camera angles (yes, really). Darril himself even remembers playing the demo and thinking the same things.
But he also feels that animation, naturally, lends itself to horror more easily, bringing up Courage the Cowardly Dog as another example. He goes further to say that “I think that the closest thing to the horror media in general is the animation, because it speaks to your inner child, to your deepest feelings, traumas, memories.
Image: Maximum Entertainment
“It’s pretty common that if you watch a movie, and it’s an animated movie, if there’s a topic about something that really touches you, it’s way more common that you’re going to cry at the end of the movie… And the horror is the same.”
Bunny Hall and Corolla are deliberately designed to invoke all of those unsettling memories and destroy your comfort zone. “There are a lot of scenes set in the bathroom, the bedroom, because those areas are where you feel really comfortable… So when those [are breached] there are no more boundaries; when the enemies, the evil, whatever it is, enters your comfort zone, you’re completely lost.”
‘Votes for Women!’
Darril has spent much of his career focusing on women’s stories, and Bye Sweet Carole really puts the importance of women — and women’s history — first and foremost by setting it at the time of the women’s suffrage movement. Why?
It’s a question the creator has been asked before, as recently as an event a few weeks prior to our chat — “‘why should a grown man tell a story about women’s rights?'” He recalls he was also approached on a train while reading The Scarlet Letter. The novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, follows a woman who has a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a big scarlet letter as punishment. “‘Why should a man read The Scarlet Letter?'”
Image: Maximum Entertainment
Darril has the same response to both of these people — “Why shouldn’t a man read a specific book? Why shouldn’t a man fight for other people’s rights?”
Women’s rights are particularly personal for Darril as he was fascinated with stories of women’s emancipation: “My mum was really in love with the story of the 20th century… I fell in love when she was telling me about Emmeline Pankhurst, Harriet Tubman, or Rosa Parks. All these women that, in a moment where they really risk everything, they throw a little rock into the ocean and they make a tsunami.”
I fell in love when she was telling me about of Emmeline Pankhurst, Harriet Tubman, or Rosa Parks
“What my mother taught me was really important, telling something that probably I couldn’t relate yet at the time because I was too childish, I was still a teen at the time.” But it still had a profound effect on the creator, so he spent the studying and honing his knowledge because he wanted the game to be “a homage to my mum and my childhood.”
But Darril was also conscious that he was putting a woman’s story, a woman’s narrative, at the front of a horror game; “It was important not to exaggerate too much because I didn’t want to make anyone or anything a laughing stock.” His focus was to make it “unsettling” because in some parts of the world, it’s still difficult to talk about “women’s rights and human rights in general.”
Sounds scary
That unsettling feeling goes beyond the darker, cartoon-esque visuals and thematic concerns, as it should for a horror game. Remothered composer Luca Balboni is once again working with Darril, and the pair spent a lot of time nailing the feel of the music.
“It was pretty hard,” he laughs, recalling his and Balboni’s process. “We basically rewatched the oldest classics by Disney — so Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and the oldest movie by Bluth. The latter was most helpful because a lot of Bluth’s movies were really scary like The Secret of NIMH or the rats in Lady and the Tramp.”
“We watched those scenes thousands of times and I had a clear idea that we needed to try and reproduce this kind of specific melodic structure and instruments that were used between the ’30s and the ’60s.” While the animation style took inspiration from across the generations, Darril was more keen to avoid the musical trappings of Disney’s more modern output.
Image: Maximum Entertainment
In particular, he pointed to Frank Churchill’s score from Snow White — “The music doesn’t just describe [the Evil Queen] Grimhilde, it describes what is happening all around. The world changes at the same time as this beautiful queen who turns into an evil old lady just to kill her worst enemy because she’s jealous of her.”
It’s telling from the trailers alone that Balboni seems to have nailed that feel so far, with the music ranging from bouncy and strange to unsettling and dramatic. There’s even a ballad-style song. And it all ties into what Little Sewing Machine is trying to do with Bye Sweet Carole.
“An artisan of feelings”
Darril is extremely passionate about Bye Sweet Carole, and understandably so — but early on in our chat, he was adamant about one thing in particular: “I don’t care about the sales.”
“Knowing there could be someone at the end of the game who says, ‘I’m going to miss those characters. I’m going to miss everything there.’ And then in about a few months, ‘I’m going to replay it to experience the game again.’” – this is what drives Darril’s passion.
“Feelings command people, the world.”
As we wrapped things up, we circled back to that passion: “I don’t consider myself an artist, I consider myself an artisan of feelings because I really like to share what I feel.” His work isn’t about explicit messages or making something universally relatable, he wants to “speak to a specific community.”
“If you can speak to those specific people who really relate to the things you have to say, the things you want to say, I think that’s the biggest change you can make…. Okay, of course I want to make a game that people could enjoy [laughs]…but at the same time, that has never been my target. I do this because I love to do this.”
Moving from the Remothered series to a more independent studio has only strengthened Darril’s convictions: “You cannot push people to create art if that art is not ready… This is why I’m independent. This is why I decided to speak, to tell my stories.”
Image: Maximum Entertainment
But there’s one thing in particular that Darril said that has stuck with me since our chat — “Feelings command people, the world.” Bye Sweet Carole has clearly been developed with feelings — from Darril’s childhood, from his love of movies, his mother, of the process of creation — but also, he wants the game to evoke feelings from players.
“I would really love [Bye Sweet Carole] to stick deeply in other people’s skin, in the players’ skin.” And he tells me people are already “hungry for more content.”
“There’s people already in cosplay as Lana. That’s the biggest achievement for a creator. Absolutely.” It sounds like Bye Sweet Carole may already be sticking, then. Let’s hope it brings back all of those childhood horrors.
This interview has been edited.
Thank you to Chris Darril for taking the time to speak with me, and to Maximum Games for arranging this interview. Bye Sweet Carole launches on Switch on 9th October 2025. Let us know if you’re looking forward to the game in the comments.
Step 3: Copy and paste the whole JSON data into ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude
Step 4: Prompt something like this to discover user needs:
Look at this Subreddit (JSON format). Find and list all user pain points, needs, and struggles. Suggest top products and unique selling propositions (USPs) to satisfy these needs. Research similar products and find unique positions.
Here’s a sample output on my ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking:
It also shows a number of products that would fill these needs:
I omit the rest for brevity – you get the point.
This truly is a goldmine of business need analysis.
Since the Switch 2 generation got underway, many Nintendo fans have been hoping for the Pikmin titles to receive a next-generation upgrade. Now, in an interesting development, a Switch 2 rating has surfaced on the European age rating board PEGI for Pikmin 3 Deluxe.
This rating was apparently filed by ‘Nintendo of Europe SE’ on 28th December 2025 (thanks, Gematsu). It’s ‘PEGI 3’ (the same classification as the Switch game listed), contains “occasional, very mild violence in a comical or abstract context” and is suitable for all ages.
The same brief outline of the game is also attached to this rating, but no other significant details have been shared.
“In Pikmin 3 Deluxe, players take command of three explorers and a legion of adorable Pikmin in a fight for survival. By employing the unique abilities of these tiny Pikmin creatures, players will solve puzzles, battle dangerous predators and recover food needed to save the explorers’ depleted home planet.”
Image: PEGI
Pikmin 3 Deluxe made its debut in 2020 and follows the original Wii U entry from 2013. The Switch version of the game received a small update in June of this year, improving the gameplay experience on Switch 2, but there has been no upgrade for the title so far. Pikmin 4 also received a free content update in November, adding new content and new modes.
Nintendo has previously released free and paid Switch 2 upgrades for existing Switch titles. This included 12 free Switch game updates when the new hybrid system launched in June.
Would you be interested in revisiting Pikmin 3 Deluxe on Switch 2? Let us know in the comments.
![When trying to ask Toby about the [REDACTED] boss fight in Chapter 3, he seemingly misunderstood us and assumed we meant the Elnina + Lanino fight. Our bad there.](https://images.nintendolife.com/d80979356561f/when-trying-to-ask-toby-about-the-redacted-boss-fight-in-chapter-3-he-seemingly-misunderstood-us-and-assumed-we-meant-the-elnina-plus-lanino-fight-ou.large.jpg)
