Author: sick skills

Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from 2025. This article was originally published in May. Enjoy!

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Warning: This article delves into spoiler territory for The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy. If you’ve yet to play the game and want to go in blind, we recommend you come back at another time…

I’m not a fan of tactical RPGs… is what I would have told you before I played The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy. Heck, I’m still not sure I would call myself a ‘fan’ of the genre, necessarily; one game perhaps isn’t enough to sway me that much. The Hundred Line, though..? Yeah, I’m a fan of The Hundred Line.

In fact, it’s easily my Game of the Year so far, and even with the Switch 2 on the horizon, it’s going to take something truly special to usurp its throne. Mitch gave it an ‘Excellent’ 9/10 in our review, but what he didn’t cover – what he couldn’t cover without spoiling anything – is just how ridiculously ambitious Too Kyo Games’ visual novel / tactical RPG hybrid really is.

So, if you’re sensitive about spoilers and want to go into this one completely fresh, consider this your last warning. We’re going in, folks.

Before I waltz headfirst into what is undoubtedly The Big Twist™, I want to first look at the wonderful cast of characters. Much like Danganronpa before it, the entire premise of The Hundred Line — survive and protect your school against invaders over the course of one hundred days — would have crashed and burned were it not for the likes of Takumi Sumino, Darumi Amemiya, Shouma Ginzaki, Nozomi Kirifuji, and the rest of those loveable goofballs.

Character work is truly where directors Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi shine brightest. They managed to make every member of the ‘Special Defense Unit’ completely unique and special in their own way.

Take Tsubasa Kawana, for instance. Whenever she’s placed in a stressful situation, she immediately feels nauseous, and it makes for some wonderful comedic relief. I lost count of the number of times I giggled whenever the story took a dark turn, and the camera switched over to Tsubasa loudly dry heaving.

In addition to the comic relief, however, we also learn a lot about Tsubasa’s background, including her passion for machinery fostered by fixing cars with her grandfather as a child. We get similar deep dives into every character, to the point where we begin to understand the potential causes behind their various quirks. Even total prats like Ima Tsukumo, whose obsessive devotion to his ‘Dear Sister’ Kako proves deeply concerning, gets his own moment of redemption through both his backstory and the way the plot progresses.

By the time I reached the credits, I really didn’t want the game to end. I’d grown to love these characters, and a couple of significant losses actually brought a tear to my eye during the final stages; something that no game before it has accomplished. Couldn’t I just keep going? Just for a bit..?

Well, here’s the thing: it didn’t end.

When you reach the last couple of days in the basic hundred-day timeline, you learn that through powers gained via absorption of your enemies, protagonist Takumi can actually go back in time to day one and re-do the whole thing again. Only this time, you’re free to make significant changes to the story and work your way toward one of a potential hundred different endings. Whoa – hold my beer, Nier Automata!

I know what you’re probably thinking, and no, you don’t have to play through the entire game a hundred times. Effectively, the story can branch off into several different paths, each of which has a number of potential endings, and the game even gives you the ability to jump back to specific days in order to change your decisions and alter the story’s path.

Some endings may be exceedingly short, others a bit lengthier… some good, and some very bad. One might see you become the villain of the story, while another may conclude with the adorably loyal samurai Kyoshika Magadori being devoured by your zombified friends. The variety of avenues is simply absurd, and discovering each one is a joy.

These are just a couple of the more, shall we say, ‘insignificant’ possible endings. I won’t go into those which might actually spoil the overarching plot; even if you’re still with me at this point, I’d like you to enjoy The Hundred Line’s story on your own terms. It’s safe to say, however, that the run through those initial one hundred days could definitely be considered a ‘prologue’, even though it comfortably stands as a compelling story in its own right with a beginning, middle, and end.

So you can definitely stop there and have a grand ol’ time, but if you’re looking for something a bit more ambitious — something that throws the rulebook out of the window — I’d encourage you to keep going and see exactly what The Hundred Line has up its sleeve. It’s simply magnificent.

There are so many reasons why I love this game. I love figuring out what to do during ‘free time’ sessions in which you can either chat to your fellow students, venture out into the world in a board-game-inspired minigame of sorts, or dive straight into a few battle simulations to potentially upgrade your abilities.

The biggest surprise for me, however, was how much I loved the battle system itself. As I mentioned at the start, I’m normally not one for tactical RPGs, but The Hundred Line’s turn-based structure just works so well. I often get overwhelmed when it comes to deciding how to approach tactical gameplay: how do these characters function? Why can’t I move more than two spaces? Just what the heck do I do?

The Hundred Line made it easy, though, and it’s once again thanks to the remarkably unique and diverse cast. Their artistic design makes it easy to distinguish one from another, and it only took a couple of battles until I memorised their strengths and weaknesses, along with how their attacks play out on the field of battle. It got to the point where, after a handful of quiet days full of ‘free time’, the warbling alarm to signify an incoming battle filled me with excitement.

Most of the battles felt doable and I never felt completely helpless against the hordes of invaders, but there were still a few that I managed to botch straight away and lose within just a few minutes. In those instances, the game gives you the option to redo the battle with significant boosts to your manpower, instantly giving you 300% ‘voltage’ (which essentially gives you three uses of your extra-powerful special attacks) and refilling your squad’s health. Is it cheating? Sure, I guess… But it also makes the game significantly more approachable for tactical newcomers like myself.

I adore the Danganronpa series. I think they’re wonderful games that remain just as compelling now as they were back when they first launched, and if it weren’t for Danganronpa, I don’t think The Hundred Line would even exist. I have to be honest with myself, though… The Hundred Line is better. It’s a masterpiece.

Co-director Kazutaka Kodaka has recently confirmed that the game is “selling well”, but I still feel like not enough people are talking about it. I suspect, however, that as the years go by and more people play it through word of mouth, it’ll go down as one of the greatest visual novels of all time. There’s simply nothing else quite like it.

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Have you played through The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy yet? What do you make of it? Do you have a favourite character / ending? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from 2025. This article was originally published in May.

We should note that the Giant Bomb story had a happy ending, with the staff buying GB from Fandom and going independent. Yes! Nevertheless, in another turbulent year for the games industry and the media covering it, it’s more important than ever to support the work you love…

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Well, we’ve come to the end of a week that’s seen the end of two gaming institutions as we’ve known them for many years.

The departure of Dan Ryckert and Jeff Grubb from Giant Bomb on Thursday was swiftly followed by news of layoffs at Polygon following the site’s sale to Valnet (owner of Screen Rant). Seeing these top-tier creators and games journalists unceremoniously cast aside has been a shock for anybody who’s followed and enjoyed their work over the years.

Except it hasn’t really, has it? The layoffs in games and games media have become so commonplace that it doesn’t come as a surprise anymore to see gaming institutions crumble around us – it’s just another week in the industry.

We’re a month away from a new Nintendo console launch — something we’ve been waiting for for so long — and yet many of the critic voices fans are most keen to hear have been de-platformed this week in circumstances that leave us, if not surprised, then thoroughly depressed and dumbfounded by the decisions taken by management at Fandom and Valnet.

Whether you’ve been an avid Giant Bomb fan since the original Gerstmann/Davis days, jumped on board in the mid-2010s, or are a more recent convert, the Giant Bombcast (and Beastcast for a good spell there) has been a fixture of many a gamer’s week since starting in 2008, even if you never watched a single GB video. The podcast’s radio-style warmth and informed-but-informal tone set the template for many a gaming podcast in the following years, and epic, multi-hour Game of the Year episodes became yearly traditions for listeners to look forward to and savour.

Vinny, Brad, Alex, and Jeff‘s respective departures across 2021/22 might have felt like the last straws, but Fandom pulling down episode #888 feels like the definitive end of an era.

Then there’s Valnet’s acquisition of Polygon and the subsequent layoffs. It feels like a tentpole of modern games media falling. For over 12 years, the site’s writers have consistently put out some of the best articles in the space, so the talent being thrown away with this round of layoffs is confounding. Firing your most experienced staffers mere weeks before an important console launch suggests something about the standard of coverage these companies are interested in providing their audience, you might think.

If you’re a fan of those voices (from Giant Bomb or Polygon, or any of the writers and creators who’ve suffered layoffs in recent times), remember that the vast majority are online, searchable, and — crucially — supportable. They may not be on the platform you’ve previously found them on for years, but they’re almost certainly out there doing great work.

If you love that work and you’re in a position to subscribe to their Patreon, fling them a few quid over Ko-Fi, or sign up as a supporter, please do so. Assuming that these sites and streams will just survive and their creators can simply jump ship to a similar gig when the iceberg looms is wishful thinking.

Willing but not in the financial position to send your hard-earned cash to a bunch of writers and podcasters and streamers? Hey, as anyone working in games media will tell you, it’s tough out there – and there’s no shortage of good causes in need of support these days. Remember, though, that just downloading and listening to podcasts on the free feeds, watching streams, and turning off adblockers on sites (like this one, for instance!) makes a big difference.

Our hearts go out to everyone at GB and Polygon affected this week. If you’ve ever enjoyed their work — or if you’ve never heard of them and you’re wondering what all the fuss is about — seek them out and, if you’re able, support them in their other endeavours, old and new.

And remember to be liberal with praise and support of the sites you love, and their creators.

I must have some kind of record for Ring Fit, if not internationally (see: here), then at least for the West Midlands. I played 10 hours over the weekend, which probably sounds like a lot. I can confirm it was.

You know those charity fundraisers of dancing for 24 hours or whatever? It wasn’t that. All I raised was my knees (a lot), the Ring (nearly as much), and my cat towards the ring to try and get it to jump through (once, he didn’t).

But I fancied an excuse to finally dust off my file and finish it before 2025 was up, and so pitched this article and then realised last week just how much adventure there was still left to be had.

It’s been genuinely brilliant, a great game and a gorgeous vibe to engage with and inhabit for a bit. Here’s some notes, only some of which can be attributed to the Stockholm Syndrome of largely running on the spot for six hours:

1) Ring Fit is one of Nintendo’s most beautiful games ever

I am not just dehydrated and delirious, and yes, I have played Breath of the Wild and Yoshi’s Island and Super Metroid and Mario Kart World (I love Mario Kart World).

But Ring Fit’s colour is something else, verdant fields of wind-rippled grass with peach-pink pom pom trees, azure rivers, and dandelion showers with every ring squeeze. Sometimes a level is gilded in sunset gold, sometimes thick with mist. And all this with a sort of robust, pastel creaminess – like Skyward Sword set to Vivid.

I’m not sure if it’s just the bokeh or also the field of view or something that gives it such an open-air sense of stretching scope, but I know that just loading it up feels like adventure.

2) Its linearity is brilliant and the jump is brilliant-er

No one wants to go to the gym with that blank-page vagueness of what to work out today, pootling around the machines and then just deciding to do another ‘whole body’ session that starts with press-ups again. Clear direction is movement is progress. And in Ring Fit there’s always a direction, and that direction is forward.

Sure, there is a bit of back-tracking for items and some branching world routes, but nothing to bend the vector of onward. And each level is gloriously on-rails, the landscape expansive but the path laid out, with enough analogue interactivity in the moving and jumping to add swing in the tempo.

But it’s also a bit Sonic with its upper/lower level tiers, and suddenly seeing a gap in the bridge and hastily puffing the Ring-Con just so to get enough thruster-boost to casually flip across is so gratifying, I’d add it to the best video game jumps.

3) The writing is classic understated Nintendo

For an RPG it’s quite Ring Thrifty, focusing mainly on modelling enemies and boss-baddies and the charming couple who work in the shop (big fan of the wife’s criss-cross tights being made of tape measure).

The rest of the interactions are via low-stakes text window drama with NPCs drawn in that unique angular way. But within this you get a Robot World in which people speak in Binary (‘WANWANOH’), a sub-plot about a cyborg girl with literally Steel-y Buns and all sorts of other exchanges that don’t really add any real drama, but accent the whole game in lovely upbeat charm.

4) My sweat is so shiny and beautiful!

I know this because my (female-voiced, actually kind of endearing) Ring would say it at the end of some levels, which was quite uncanny. I am well known for my shiny sweat, after all.

But if you go straight downstairs without slapping on the roll-on before a marathon session you may start to get that acrid tang of old sweat, occasionally inducing a bin-juice wince. It was at about four hours in that I dreaded my own arm lifts.

5) Losing calories is gaining something else

People play games for different things, but I am particularly partial to movement. There is so much joy to be had in the compression of motion to fingers and thumbs, detaching it from actual body work to use it like a colour in a designer’s palette.

And yet even when burning calories by playing Ring Fit, there was something wholesome in the exertion, something evolutionary endorphinous (this is not a word) and replenishing. It certainly offsets that slight feeling of ennui that can follow a 2am game binge finish. Call it evolutionary wiring, call it Protestant work ethic, but an arduous boss fight against Dragaux combined with actual physical ardour has a lovely back-patting richness.

As did my sugary chai midway through the day.

6) The boss level music is epic and might not even be the best

I actually bought the game at release because I heard the main menu music linked to on a forum. I’d thought the game looked a bit silly and on-the-nose, with its literal abs-as-shield and floating spirit feet for leg exercises and so on. But the reviews had intrigued me, then hearing that bright, poppy, electro-optimism sealed the deal.

I’m also partial to the cooldown music, and the calm voice of the lady who guides it, which is basically part of the texture. And the brass-blare when you do the victory pose sounds like Walking On Sunshine. And the winter level theme is great.

But! The chord sequence in the Drageux boss levels is epic and rousing and I can feel that slight lift in the legs and straightening of the back, living up to the showdown music, slightly revived by the drama.

7) Cats truly give no Ring Fits

Both were pretty good at not getting kicked by my flailing legs or whatever. But like I said my idea of Cat-Crufts instincts kicking in and them jumping through the Ring with nonchalant grace did not come true.

8) The UI is a treat to navigate

At Hour Five on Day Two I really appreciated this, splayed on the sofa and treating myself to a bit of RPG house-keeping: clicking across skill-point menus and flitting between worlds with pleasing speed; hearing the different harmonized tones as you boop across the main menu creating an impromptu remix; growing to like the the weirdly literal use of the actual box as the icon for the main adventure because everything has such a pleasant, player-forward vibe.

This is UI design as encouraging as a personal trainer, and then the California summer pastel and bossa-nova lilt of the smoothie-squeezing is a menu vibe you could book a holiday in.

But! This is all emboldened by:

9) The happiest of haptics

Seriously, the HD rumble deserves its own review, especially finding sweet spots of position and feeling that tremble of confirmation through the joy-cons, like Will finding areas of thickened air for his Subtle Knife.

I might be overstating this, but it really is one of the most pleasing uses of tactile affirmation in games.
Anyway.

10) Every time I run or go to the gym, I vaguely intend to do some mobility but never do

All the podcasts go on about it. My brother can squat like a 3-year-old making a sandcastle. But years go by and I still have the flexibility of a parking bollard.

But Ring Fit forces me to stand like a tree to bamboozle dangerous flying insect enemies (this is presumably not a transferable skill) and doesn’t give my girl that super-saiyan magnesium-burn hair of feedback unless I squat to the limits of my groin, now done so much that I’m converted or at least recalibrated.

11) Minigames Max fun

Seriously, these are the best minigames since Super Monkey Ball or Super Mario 64 DS (shoutout to Astrolander in Timesplitters 2, the best of all time).

Robo-Wrecker is a brilliant circular Whack-A-Mole, and Squattery Wheel sounds like the best kind of pun-first fun. In general there’s an old-school sense of kitchen-sink generosity from an era before the crutch of updates and patches, and with a one-chance exhaustive imagination of there never again being a chance to use this Ring Fit controller.

12) (Like this article) It is shockingly long

So I had to strategise.

I had done about 14 worlds after my first, ambling, intermittent half-decade with the game. 40-odd hours according to the Switch timer (which included a good amount of messing about with minigames and that Splatoon banger in the rhythm game). When I looked it up and found out there were 23 (!) worlds, I was impressed and a bit uh-oh..

It quickly became apparent that my previous random machismo choice to do everything at level 30 was not going to fly. Even at level 24, the amount of reps-per-battle was formidable.

So I put it down to level 1, which reduced the reps per exercise in battles and the time for long-holds. But there’s still a world to be traversed, a certain amount of paths to be jogged, sprinted, mud-trudged, high-kneed, canoe-rowed and flown across.

This gave things a meta-layer of strategy. Choosing to re-run levels with those rare persimmons (what a word!) to make a smoothie that would Double EXP to deploy only in a boss battle or prolonged battle arena. Or forcing me to sell precious gems like phosphophyllite (what a word!) to make enough money to unlock three-star skills in the skill tree like my beloved Russian Twist (level 3!).

The point is, sometimes you need an excuse to engage, and speed-rushing Ring Fit was a blast that made me lean into the game systems more than I had before.

13) It’s been a lovely send-off for Switch 1 and for the year

Will there ever be a Ring Fit 2? I hope so, but am not confident. I had to bring out the OG Switch again to charge its rail track Joy-Con for the controller, surprised at the suddenly slightly hazy 1080p of the homescreen on my TV.

Will I ever use my Switch 1 for anything else? Again, I’m not sure – my Switch 2 can do most things better. But it can’t do Ring Fit without those old Joy-Con, and now I’m chuffed to have actually finished it. What else can I do with the right excuse?

Let’s go, 2026.

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Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from 2025. This article was originally published in April. Enjoy!

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True love lasts forever – and so do some games. Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You, the legendary dating sim from 1995, is hooking up with Switch next month to celebrate 30 years on the scene.

Immaculately presented but bewilderingly complex, TokiMemo is a foundational piece of video game history that defined a whole genre, along with the increasingly universal mechanics of video game love. But for most players outside Japan, it fires nostalgia for someone else’s youth – and with no English release, it remains tantalisingly out of reach.

Its arrival is part of a bigger story. Switch has been Nintendo’s ultimate comeback kid, climbing from the Wii U stumble to contender for best-ever-selling console in eight short years. Its life has also coincided with a swell of gamers hitting mid-life nostalgia and an industry finding that bets on “new” have longer and longer odds.

The result? More comebacks. We’ve seen re-release after remaster after remake: Metroid Prime, Live A Live, Dragon Quest, Broken Sword, Link’s Awakening, Atari 50, Famicom Detective Club…. The list goes on, from niche to mega-mainstream. And now, Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You – Emotional is here to beam people back to CD-ROM ’90s Japan.

Tokimeki Memorial has long been a prize of legend, at the same time unmissable and unobtainable. Revered for its groundbreaking social mechanics, emotional storytelling, intricate simulation, and (let’s face it) fascination with high school romance, it’s a seminal dating sim that remains tucked away behind a Japanese language barrier.

eBay had it at the ready and, what’s more, I had learnt a bit of Japanese. Finally, it would be mine.

Featuring writing by no less than Koji Igarashi (whose next project was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – the trailblazing entry in the series he went on to produce), it’s probably as widely experienced by word of mouth and hidden-gem lists as it is firsthand. And now, with a 30th-anniversary, Japan-only Switch port, the myth gets a new lease of life for another hundred million or so to wish they could play it.

Even if you haven’t played Tokimemo, you’ve likely felt its notoriously far-reaching influence. If you’ve ever arranged a study date in Persona, fretted over gift-giving in Fire Emblem, or sweated a romance option in Cyberpunk 2077, a short queue of commentators will tell you that Tokimeki Memorial is to thank for it.

And that’s why its reappearance on Switch is such a milestone: a wise old mentor is back. But does it have any more to say?

Down Memorial Lane

Like many of the luckier people during the COVID-19 lockdown, I found myself scouring eBay for retro games. Buying relics was an attempt to get my hands on something out of reach – the futile chase of nostalgia was a parallel to everyone and everything being physically inaccessible, no matter how nearby they seemed. Perhaps games in particular appealed because everything felt newly gamified by technology, from work to social interactions.

Whatever was behind it all, for me, the bug that bit was the original PlayStation. Specifically, I discovered that about half of the PlayStation’s 4,000-strong games catalogue was released exclusively in Japan.

I wanted to know what was out there.

One Japan-only title was Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You, the 1995 PlayStation version of the previous year’s Tokimeki Memorial on PC Engine. I think I half-remembered it from magazines as a kid, import reviews, or forum threads. That faint recollection of it sent my heart racing with wistful frustration, as Konami would surely never bring it to English-language audiences. But now, eBay had it at the ready and, what’s more, I had learnt a bit of Japanese. Finally, it would be mine.

However, when I navigated Tokimeki Memorial’s menus and carefully picked through its layers of dialogue, moving my lips as I read, I quickly discovered that while I was over the language barrier, the gameplay itself was a labyrinth of hidden rules and secret look-up tables that left me feeling impressed, overwhelmed, and really quite stupid. With bungling date etiquette, forgetting homework, and panicking through stingily one-and-done sports day events, I couldn’t really object when the humiliating ‘loser’ ending rolled after my first three-year stint at Kirameki High.

Even once I had got the hang of things and a girl confessed her love for me beneath the school’s tree of legend, where true love is destined to last forever, things were far from over. Beaming through the fog of digital teenagerhood is Shiori Fujisaki, the elusive, red-haired cover-girl-slash-final-boss.

She’s inhumanly perfect, the Terminator of high school crushes

Shiori demands perfection. Achieving the intricate mathematical balance of smarts, fitness, and popularity, wisely selecting your character’s blood type, avoiding rumour bombs from the other girls, and winning the three-legged race — all in one attempt — is like threading a needle on a bucking bronco.

Shiori smiles and blushes, then just stares matter-of-factly at you with these astronomical expectations, like a fairground automaton waiting for you to insert a coin. She’s inhumanly perfect, the Terminator of high school crushes – teasingly close to being won over, only for rejection’s charred endoskeleton to crawl out of the tanker explosion of your teenage affections.

As chance would have it, just as my fascination with the game took off, gaming celebrity Tim Rogers released a six-hour Action Button video review of Tokimeki Memorial, including two complete, translated playthroughs. His bottom line: “Tokimeki Memorial objectifies love.” He declared it a true cyberpunk artefact and deftly squelched any question of the propriety of high school dating simulation through comparison with Mortal Kombat fatalities. Quickly racking up a million views, hype for the OG dating sim hit a new peak.

This buzz no doubt spurred on the completion of a fan translation of the (non-voice-acted) Super Famicom version. Brilliant as this was, Rogers dismissed it in an email to Kotaku as “like watching a movie for the first time with the TV muted and two lines of subtitles displaying both the movie’s dialogue and the director’s commentary […] while waiting for your laundry to finish.”

Playing without voice acting probably does deaden the heart-thumping impact of a confession of love, or the humiliation of a post-date brush-off condescendingly delivered. But you can’t help but feel that even a full localisation with English voices would be somehow inadequate for this ultimate connoisseur, locking the game permanently into “you had to be there” territory.

You had to be there and you weren’t: this is a must-play game that you can’t play.

Modern Love

So what now, with the Switch hosting this revival? It’s on the Japanese eShop and importable, but will that actually bring it any closer to the average player?

Well, one of Nintendo’s specialisms is to give you something to hold in your hands — from hanafuda cards to toys like Mario Kart Live and Labo — not just platform-agnostic software distributed digitally. Its dominance in handheld gaming is a big part of that, and placing TokiMemo in your hands on a nice big screen is not to be underestimated.

If there is one hint of international accessibility, it’s that you will be able to choose updated text, giving you higher-resolution kanji over the occasionally inscrutable clumps of pixels in earlier versions. Thankfully, this can be applied separately from the updated artwork, which at first glance makes the game look like one of its many modern descendants. The girls will say your name now, too, so that’s one word you can definitely understand.

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You – Emotional is more than a dating sim – it’s a time capsule from an era where gamified social interactions were new ground. Now, games are full of socialising, and socialising is equally full of games, from lockdown hang-outs in New Horizons to social media numbers going up, to just swiping right. Forever With You’s debut on Switch feels like a love letter still undeliverable after 30 years, an emblem of the persistent allure of unreachable classics, and yet now, maybe, a blip on the radar of an enormous global player base.

Some things will always be just out of reach, but nostalgia is the true love that lasts forever. If you’ve ever felt the pull of retro collecting or the urge to relive youth — even someone else’s — this release is a call to reminisce, rediscover things, and perhaps even to try decoding one of gaming’s most mythologised puzzles for yourself.

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We find ourselves in an unusual position when it comes to console exclusives these days.

Once upon a time, titles like Halo, Forza, Death Stranding, and God of War would have been playable only on hardware produced by their respective owners. However, today, Microsoft is releasing its games on PS5, while Sony is happy for its leading lights to hit PC.

Nintendo remains steadfast in its dedication to true exclusives, however, and ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden thinks that’s the right approach, despite the market seemingly heading in the other direction.

Speaking on the Pause for Thought podcast, Layden addressed the topic of platform exclusives and says he feels they’re still important (thanks, Genki):

“I don’t think every game has to be console exclusive. I don’t think every game should be console exclusive, but I do accept the fact that if you’re going to have platform companies like Sony and Nintendo largely. Microsoft is more of the Xbox everywhere, anywhere. There is a huge value to the brand of having strong exclusives.

If Mario starts to show up on PlayStation, that’s the apocalypse, right? Cats and dogs living together. And the same goes for Nathan Drake and Uncharted. I think they make the platform sing.”

Layden makes another good point in relation to exclusives – they push the host platform to its limit:

“And of course the other thing with multiplatform, that I’m sure most people realize, is that when you do code across multiple platforms you do have to code to the lowest common denominator. But if you do exclusives you can push every lever to 11 in that platform.”

Next year marks even more anniversaries, and one other big one coming up is for Dragon Quest. This classic role-playing series will hit its 40th birthday, and in the same end-of-year wrap with 4Gamer.net (via Gematsu), Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito mentions how the company is looking forward to everyone joining in on the grand celebration of the series.

“Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Dragon Quest! I’d be extremely happy if everyone could join in on a grand celebration.”

NieR:Automata will also celebrate its ninth anniversary! And the team is apparently preparing a “little something”, but temper your expectations.

And for NieR: Automata‘s ninth anniversary, we’re also preparing ‘just a little something…’ so please don’t get too excited with anticipation! With that, I wish you all a happy New Year.”

Director Kazutoyo Maehiro (Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles) also provided a brief teaser about Final Fantasy, mentioning how the next “something” the team is preparing will be “content with a different approach”.

“In 2025, we released Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles on September 30 and LOGOS: The World of Final Fantasy XVI on December 16. While the game and book took different approaches, we put our all into both so that anyone who picks them up might feel, even just a little, ‘Games are fun, huh?’ The next ‘something’ we’re preparing will also be content with a different approach. We’re working hard to bring you a new gaming experience, so please wait a little longer until the day we can debut it.”

In some other Square Enix news, the company is currently running a survey about the Final Fantasy series, where fans can share how they feel about the series.

And if you are looking for some more fun on the Switch 2, the demo for Final Fantasy VII Intergrade Remake is now live on the eShop. NieR has also recently got a backwards compatibility update.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s Switch 2 release arrives next month, and Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined will follow in February 2026.

What are you hoping to see from Square Enix and its series in 2026? Let us know in the comments.

In case you missed it, following ConcernedApe’s status update last week, Stardew Valley – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is now officially available.

This particular version comes loaded with mouse controls, four-player split-screen as well as eight-player online multiplayer. There’s also GameShare support for Switch and Switch 2 users, so players without a copy of the title can still join in on the farming fun.

Admittedly, there have been some teething issues with this update. It’s already been acknowledged by the creator and some issues have now been fixed. The plan is to resolve the other problems as soon as possible.

“I am aware that there are some issues with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition that just dropped. I take full responsibility for this mistake. We will fix this as soon as possible”

It’s also worth noting that this upgrade may not be live on your local eShop yet. Fortunately, it is available in locations such as the US.

Despite these issues, we’re sure many fans are still jumping into the Switch 2 version of Stardew Valley over the holiday season, so vote in our poll and let us know in the comments if you’re playing it (and how you’re finding the experience so far).

Last year in January, Hamster’s Arcade Archives series for the Switch and multiple other platforms reached 400 releases. Now, in an update at the end of 2025, it’s been officially confirmed that the retro-specialist has now hit 500 releases!

Arcade Archives originally began life on 15th May 2014, and more recently expanded to the Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.

To celebrate this huge milestone, the 1978 Taito game Space Invaders has been distributed. It will set you back $7.99 (or your regional equivalent). Here’s the full rundown via the eShop, along with a look:

In 1978, we confronted the Invaders!

“SPACE INVADERS” is a shooting game released by TAITO in 1978.
The origin of the masterpiece that once captivated all of Japan has finally arrived on Arcade Archives!
This title includes both the black-and-white and color versions, and the sound has been reproduced to the limit of how it sounded back then.
Experience the timeless legend once again!

The “Arcade Archives” series has faithfully reproduced many classic Arcade masterpieces.
Players can change various game settings such as game difficulty, and also reproduce the atmosphere of arcade display settings at that time. Players can also compete against each other from all over the world with their high scores.
Please enjoy the masterpieces that built a generation for video games.

*The options menu and manual are available in Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

You can see the history of Hamster’s Arcade Archives series in our full guide here on Nintendo Life:

How many Arcade Archives games have you played and purchased over the years? Will you be revisiting Space Invaders? Let us know in the comments.

It’s once again that time of year where companies sum up all sorts of things about the year that was, and with this in mind, Nintendo’s Japanese branch has revealed the best-selling games on the Switch and Switch 2 eShop in 2025.

This covers January through to December, and everything else in between. It also factors in digital sales across both the eShop and the My Nintendo Store. Note: this also excludes free-to-play titles and games rated above CERO rating Z / IARC 16).

On the Switch 2, Mario Kart World took out the top spot, and leading the charge on the Switch front was Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Here are the top 20 best-selling games on each system, according to Nintendo’s digital store (via Perfectly-Nintendo):

Nintendo Switch 2:

1. Mario Kart World
2. Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
3. Kirby Air Riders
4. Donkey Kong Bananza
5. Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
6. Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2 Remake
7. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
8. Momotarou Dentetsu 2 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
9. Tamagotchi Plaza – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
10. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
11. Street Fighter 6
12. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
13. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
14. Octopath Traveler 0
15. Shine Post Be Your Idol
16. Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut
17. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
18. Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV
19. Hollow Knight: Silksong – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
20. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Nintendo Switch

1. Pokémon Legends: Z-A
2. Tamagotchi Plaza
3. Minecraft
4. Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake
5. Super Mario Party Jamboree
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
7. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
8. Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
9. Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
12. Power Pros 2024-2025
13. Urban Myth Dissolution Center
14. DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake
15. Momotarou Dentetsu 2 ~Anata no Machi mo Kitto Aru~ Higashi Nihon-hen + Nishi Nihon-hen
16. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
17. Super Robot Wars Y Digital Ultimate Edition
18. Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer
19. Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2
20. Splatoon 3

What did you think of the top-selling games in Japan on the Switch and Switch 2 in 2025? How many of these games did you end up buying? Let us know in the comments.