Author: sick skills

After the Pokémon World Championships made its long-awaited return in London last year, it was announced that the 2023 Championships would be taking place at the Pacifico Yokohama in Japan.

This would be only the second time the tournament has been held outside of North America, making this truly a monumental announcement — somehow, even with Pokémon being huge in Japan, the Championship Series had never been held there. Many felt that this was truly going to be something special. The question is, did the 2023 World Championships live up to the hype?

In this feature, we’ll recap all the events and highlights of the World Championships in Yokohama in 2023.

What are the Pokémon World Championships?

The Pokémon World Championships have been going since 2004 when it started with the Trading Card Game (TCG). The series added the main line video games (VGC) in 2009, Pokkén Tournament in 2016 and Pokémon GO & UNITE in 2022.

To earn an invite to the World Championships, you are required to fare well at Regional, International and local competitions throughout the year. This year, the Championships returned to a three-day event with all four categories currently played on Friday & Saturday, and finals for GO, VGC and TCG taking place on Sunday.

It truly is a place where people can prove they are the best Pokémon trainers in the world.

What is there to do?

Outside the event

In previous years, outside of the main tournament, there was rarely that much to do outside of the event. This year, it feels like there was too much.

The Pokémon Company hosted many shows alongside the usual Pokémon Center Worlds Store, but all required a ticket to access and the tickets were acquired, much as everything in Japan, by a raffle system meaning a lot of people did end up disappointed and unable to enter them.

There were two nighttime shows: Imagination! Into the Next was a dance show featuring a variety of Pokémon mascots; We Move!! featured the biggest amount of Pikachu and was followed by a drone show. Both of these can be found on the official YouTube channel if you wish to check them out.

The day before the World Championships, a special concert was held featuring orchestral renditions of Pokémon music, as well as music from the host countries of the World Championships.

There was also a Pikachu parade for everyone to watch every day of the tournament, with a full-ticketed Pokémon Parade rounding off the entire weekend on Monday.

Pokémon Matsuri Park was another ticketed feature. Much like the Worlds Square of the 2022 World Championships, you could play a variety of games in order to earn points to redeem for prizes. These ranged from hooking a Magikarp in a fishing game, feeding a Dondozo various Tatsugiri plush using a catapult and rolling a Voltorb through a maze. It also featured the traditional dances featuring Pikachu, Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly.

Finally, there was the Pokémon Trainer Cruise. Mimicking the S.S. Anne from Vermillion City, you could go on the boat and do a variety of things including battle and trade with other players in VGC and TCG in a variety of different lounges. You could even check the bins to find various items. There was a stamp rally to make sure you had seen everything and a lovely photo spot on the deck of the ship. It truly was a surreal experience

Outside of these events, the entirety of Yokohama had been taken over by Pokémon. In all the malls there were images of Pokémon cards, with big card art displays being held throughout the area. Buses and train stations were covered in the Pokémon World Championships imagery. There were several pop-up Pokémon Center stores across the malls as well and there were screenings of the Championships everywhere.

There was also PokéGenic imagery, various bits of artwork on walls featuring Pokémon for you to take photos with. It truly felt like Pokémon had taken over the city and it was just surreal to see huge lines of people just for these photos.

Inside the event

If you weren’t competing at the World Championships, it felt like there was a little less to do at the event itself.

There were the usual side tournaments for TCG, VGC and GO you could play in order to get points to redeem for items, including the Paradise Resort promo card, at the Prize Wall. There was also the GO Scavenger Hunt where you had to complete a variety of tasks Otherwise, it was just a lot of seating where you could watch the various matches in front of the gorgeous main stage.

Next to the main building, you could view the tournament livestreams in a special auditorium called the Pokémon Activity Zone, which included an area for battling and trading in the games. This is also where a lot of Pokémon spin-offs showcased themselves. There was a corner promoting Pokémon Masters EX, as well as an area to play the arcade game, Pokémon Mezastar.

The Pokémon TCG Play Lab also returned to teach players the TCG and — for the first time — you could look at the coming Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic set. Finally, you could look at the Pokémon Local Acts, a campaign in Japan where various prefectures have a Pokémon ambassador. You could even meet these ambassadors.

Lastly, a local Pokémon GO event was held for those who had a pass to enter the World Championships, which was a change compared to previous years where it was open to everyone. This allowed for more spawns of various Regional Pokémon and better shiny chances for getting Pikachu and the other Pokémon including Farfetch’d, Pansage, Pansear and Panpour. This was done through the various unique PokéStops and Gyms running

Pokémon Center

The main Pokémon Center store at the Championships was the biggest they have ever done. Like many other events this year, entry was determined by lottery, but this time all spectators and competitors were guaranteed to get inside eventually.

There was a lot of room to move and two big merchandise lines: one featuring the Pokémon World Championships imagery and another focused around Yokohama featuring a sailor Pikachu and Lapras. The store included t-shirts, hoodies, chopsticks, Switch cases, magnets, pins and so much more. There was truly so much you could potentially get. We may have had to buy an extra suitcase to bring things all of these extra goodies home.

The tournament – All of the winners

Pokémon UNITE

Pokémon UNITE was the first final to air. This is only the second time the MOBA has featured at the World Championships, and the reigning champions Luminosity battled through and ended up being the victors without losing once.

The idea of a bracket reset for the finals meant nothing to them as they just dominated the other team and got a 3-0 victory. It truly was a sight to behold how they simply dominated and controlled the field, especially in the final match

Winners:

• Luminosity

Pokémon GO

Like UNITE, Pokémon GO returned for only its second year at the World Championships. This year the finals ended up between ItsAXN and xxRubixMasterxx.

Some of the mainstays in competitive Pokémon GO teams returned — itsAXN ran a team of Noctowl, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Purified Sableye, Lanturn, Medicham and Shadow Swampert against RubixMaster’s more traditional though slightly varied Registeel, Defense Forme Deoxys, Shadow Quagsire, Altaria, Umbreon and Azumarill.

With itsAXN having a lot of Championships experience under his belt, particularly in the Top 8 or higher, and this being RubixMaster’s second event where he has placed highly, the battle was tense. RubixMaster managed to hold his own and get one battle win but eventually, itsAXN took the final match to win and become the 2023 World Champion

Winner:

Pokémon TCG

This year was the first year of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet series of the TCG; this added Pokémon ex back to the fold alongside the Paldea Pokémon. As a result, there was a lot of variety between the various decks. Mew VMAX, Origin Palkia V, and Gardevoir ex all showed up in a variety of strong decks.

The finals, however, came down to Vance Kelley and Tord Reklev. Tord, who is always one of the favourites to win, has racked up every single title other than World Champion under his belt; Vance, on the other hand, had several Top 16s. This was a match against two of the strongest TCG players.

After each of the players took one win, the third match was arguably one of the most tense Pokémon TCG match to ever take the World stage, with a to-and-fro between the two players, it eventually went to time and the final turns, but Tord couldn’t quite get the cards he needed leading Vance to take out Tord’s Pokémon deck and claim the title

• Masters: Vance Kelley
• Seniors: Gabriel Fernandez
• Juniors: Shao Tong Yen

Pokémon VGC

With Pokémon Scarlet & Violet releasing late last year, this was the first year for the Gen IX Pokémon games at the World Championships. However, in a strange turn of events it is the first, and only, event of the season to utilise Regulation D rules. These rules allowed for you to use not only the Pokémon from Scarlet & Violet but Pokémon transferred in from previous games, including various Legendary mainstays such as Landorus, Cresselia and more.

The VGC part of the competition did have a few controversies, with a number of players being disqualified due to hacked Pokémon violating the rules and a router issue that caused all matches to disconnect during the Top Cut. This meant that many matches were restarted in a Sudden Death manner which angered a lot of players and arguably meant some who were on track to win their match ended up losing. Whether this scenario will be resolved for future competitions, to avoid Sudden Death and just repeat the match, is unclear but the community has definitely been outspoken about these issues. Where do you side with them?

In the finals, however, it turned out to be a Japanese sweep with the home turf taking all three of the titles. The Masters finals were very tense with Shohei Kimura facing off against Michael Kelsch, a player who only started playing the game at the start of the year proving that you don’t need to have years of experience to be a good player. Michael came in with a very unique team including Pokémon such as Farigiraf but the team unfortunately couldn’t overcome the raw power of Shohei’s team, and the support of his Amoonguss.

Winners

• Masters: Shohei Kimura
• Seniors: Tomoya Ogawa
• Juniors: Sora Ebisawa

Next year — Returning to Hawaii in 2024

At the closing ceremony, there were a number of reveals, as there always are. Blaziken, Mimikyu and Meowscarada are coming to Pokémon UNITE; the introduction of Paradox Pokémon mechanics to the Pokémon TCG; and, a variety of competitive moves and the return of starter Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s DLC. However, at the end of the ceremony, they announced the location of the 2024 Pokémon World Championships — Honolulu, Hawaii.

Having gone to Hawaii in 2010 and 2012, the World Championships will make a long-awaited return to the state in 2024. Though, due to the recent news, Tsunekazu Ishihara also confirmed a donation to help those displaced and hurt by the wildfires in Maui.

Was it the best World Championships?

It really depends. There was so much to do in Yokohama, but most events you could only attend by lottery, so if you attended, you’d more likely than not have one or none of the activities on your list, which is unfortunate. Sadly, this is a necessity considering how big Pokémon is in Japan, with millions going to Yokohama each year just for the Pikachu Outbreak alone prior to 2020.

It was quite overwhelming — while it felt like there was a lot to do at the event, there was also not enough to do at certain times. However, the level of play at the event was high, and the decor and theming was off the charts. It truly was amazing to be in attendance and to see so much love towards Pokémon.

The question is, can it be topped? We honestly don’t know. It’s hard to say if this level “city takeover” is feasible again, and they need to make sure more things are available for more people to do, but if this is a new standard being set then the next few years are certainly ones to watch for the Pokémon World Championships.

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Bandai Namco has announced that Naruto X Baruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections will be launching on the Nintendo Switch later this year on November 17th, 2023.

The game will allow players to relive the adventures of Naruto and Sasuke as they take part in the most epic battles of Naruto’s story. So far, a whopping 130 characters have been confirmed to show up in the game, with the latest being Boro, Delta and Koji Kashin.

Bandai Namco has also detailed which editions of the game will be available at launch:

– The Standard edition (base game)
– The Deluxe edition will add the Season Pass to the base game, which will contain 5 characters to be announced at a later date. This edition also includes the Season Pass Bonus (1x costume) and the Deluxe Bonus (1x costume)
– The Ultimate edition contains the same content as the Deluxe Edition, plus the Ultimate Bonus that contains 5x costumes and 2x accessories
– The Collector’s Edition includes the base game, a steelbook case, two exclusive figurines and a special reversible inlay
– The Premium Collector Edition, only available on the Bandai Namco Store, contains the base game, two figurines, a steelbook, a special reversible inlay, six collectible cards, one official scroll, the Season Pass, the Season Pass bonus, as well as the Deluxe and Ultimate Bonus

Will you be picking up the latest Naruto adventure on Switch? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

Update: In a statement made to both IGN and Eurogamer, Nintendo has confirmed that Charles Martinet is not in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. That means both Mario and Luigi are voiced by a brand new voice actor in the upcoming platformer.

Nintendo told both publications that “… while Charles is not involved in the game, we’re excited to honour his legacy and contributions, including looking ahead to what he’ll be doing as a Mario Ambassador… Character voice actors for Mario and/or Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be credited in the game credits, so please wait for the game to be released.”

We’ll have to wait until 20th October to find out who has taken up the moustache.

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Original article: Charles Martinet — the legendary voice of Mario, who made his mainline debut as the plumber in Super Mario 64 — is stepping back from the microphone and will no longer be recording his voice for Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and many other characters.

Nintendo made the announcement on Twitter today, confirming that the iconic voice actor will be “stepping back from recording character voices from our games”. But don’t worry, as Martinet won’t be stepping away from Mario entirely. Nintendo has created a brand new role for the actor: Mario Ambassador.

This brand new role will likely involve promoting the plumber’s merchandise, movies, and of course the games, so we couldn’t think of a better person to don the cap. But we’d be lying if we said that we weren’t heartbroken — Martinet is Mario to millions across the world, and we’ll miss his voice massively.

So, from Nintendo Life and the community, we want to say a big “Thank you!” to the voice of a generation — for shaping an iconic character and helping us to fall in love with the plumber. And Wario too, of course. We don’t know who will be replacing Martinet as the voice of Mario in the games, but we wish them the best of luck. This means that Martinet’s last role will likely be Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is out this October, although many people aren’t even confident that Martinet’s voice is present.

Nintendo also confirmed that Shigeru Miyamoto and Martinet will be sharing a special video message in the “future”, though what this will entail, we don’t yet know.

How do you feel about this news? Will you miss Martinet as the voice of Mario? Let us know.

2D sports titles have had their place since Konami’s Track & Field rattled arcade screws loose with its fiercely competitive button rapping. WayForward’s Xtreme Sports draws influence from California Games, a summery seaside boardwalk of hip events and addictive tap-a-thons. You have two characters to choose from, dude or girlfriend dudette, who face off in various tricky sporting events that scream early ’00s gnarlyness.

Xtreme Sports, originally a 2000 Game Boy Color title, was graphically impressive for Nintendo’s colour handheld, and the portrait and character art will be familiar to anyone ingratiated with WayForward’s pirate platformer, Shantae. The visuals are bold, colourful, and cleanly arranged, each minigame functioning well around a two-button control scheme. As well as a piecemeal practice mode, the story game features an island over-world with various NPCs who shape your bid for podium gold, and energy drinks that offer a competitive advantage. To enter the tournament proper where the challenge is increased, you first need to complete the training rounds. There are five events to tackle: skateboarding, in-line skating, street luge, surfing, and skyboarding.

Skateboarding gives you a half pipe in which to build momentum, pulling off tricks at the incline lip using various input combos. It becomes more engaging when you’re making the lip on every roll and combining different tricks to shatter the opponent’s target scores. In-line skating is a 2D obstacle course where you tap to skate, slide under gates, jump and double jump to grab all the flags and reach the finish line in a timely fashion. It’s fun, with increasing creativity in its layouts, and challenging to master. Street Luge is probably our least favourite, a top-down course where you can earn points by hitting ramps and avoiding obstacles. The limitation of the Game Boy Color’s squat 4:3 screen makes it hard to see what’s coming here, meaning you need to hold back on top speeds until you have the layout memorised.

Surfing is very much cut from California Games, requiring you to skilfully ride beneath an endless wave for bonus point pickups and leap the top edge to perform mid-air tricks, ensuring your angle of reentry is suitable to avoid a washout. Finally, Skyboarding is not only the wildest event, but also one of our favourites, seeing you leap out of a plane, board at your feet. This one is fairly unique, in that you can grab directional arrow blocks to form a combo string. You then need to tap the D-Pad in the order of the collected arrows, completing the sequence to pull off a high-value stunt. It’s both novel and addictive.

Alas, even with WayForward’s skilled programming and graphical artistry, Xtreme Sports remains limited. The island overworld works well, adding a charming dash of RPG-lite, and the increased challenge will keep you at the events for some time. There are purportedly more than 400 competitors to defeat, but while fun and neatly executed, the repetitive nature and limited number of sporting events means that mileage will vary in how long it holds your attention.

If you’ve been waiting for a game to scratch that ‘Punch-Out‘ itch, then the upcoming Thunder Ray might be just what you need.

It’s not got a firm release date yet, but the beat-em-up looks very reminiscent of Nintendo’s classic franchise from the NES, SNES, and Wii. You’ll be taking to the ring to experience “adrenaline-pumping action” with some really impressive HD animation and effects.

Let’s take a look at the key features:

– Enjoy 2D wonderful Handme Animations
– Master Thunder special attacks
– Rule the Arcade dynamic boxing
– Travel across Galactic Stages
– Become a Champion of the Universe
– Learn to defeat the most brutal technics
– Be bloody and wild!

We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one in the coming weeks and months. We’ll be sure to update you on a release date as soon as we hear.

Does this one look intriguing to you? Have you been itching to try out a new Punch-Out-inspired game? Let us know with a comment.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered for the Nintendo Switch has seen its fair share of criticism, but it seems like Bandai Namco is at least looking to continue supporting the game with numerous updates and patches.

The latest is relatively minor, but there are a few things here that should make for a more pleasing experience for fans. So without any further waffle, let’s take a look at what’s in store for us:

– Fixed an issue where the background would not display, and the game would go dark when playing a “skit.”
– Fixed an issue where the background would go blank when opening the menu screen.
– Fixed an issue where the battle start sequence would not play when encountering an enemy in the field or a dungeon.
– Fixed an issue that caused the game to become inoperable in some dungeons.
– Other minor bugs have been fixed.

So that’s yer lot. It’s not a huge update, granted, but we’ll take it regardless.

In our review of Tales of Symphonia Remastered, we said that “Bandai Namco’s near-nonexistent efforts to scrub out the rough edges of this 20-ish-year-old game definitely hold it back from greatness”, awarding it a score of 6/10.

Are you still plugging away at Tales of Symphonia on the Switch? Let us know what you make of it with a comment down below.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

Publisher Red Art Games has announced that the PC ‘Wizard Simulator’ Spellcaster University will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch in early 2024.

Originally developed by Sneaky Yak Studio and ported to Switch by Red Art Studios, the game has been reasonably well received by critics and gamers alike, holding an average score of 73 on Metacritic and almost 3000 ‘Very Positive’ user reviews on Steam.

Here’s a peek at some of the key features:

– Build your university using an original magic decks mechanism. Each game will be unique.
– Access different decks according to the magic taught in your schools. Make choices and take advantage of opportunities to create a unique university.
– Explore the Arcane Deck to access artifacts with strange powers and rooms that defy reality.
– Dive into the Deck of Light to take care of your students and teachers.
– Use the Nature Deck to gain access to a wide range of magical beasts.
– Choose the Alchemy Deck to boost the production of mana and potions.
– Yield to the Shadow Deck to teach real discipline to all those nasty students.

The game is now available for physical pre-order via Red Art Games for $34.99, or you can opt for the digital edition at a slightly lower price of $24.99.

Will you be picking up Spellcaster University for the Switch? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

Following the release of Red Dead Redemption on the Switch, Digital Foundry has now provided its full technical analysis of the game to see how it holds up on Nintendo’s console.

The video states that the Switch version is comfortably more capable than the original 2010 release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and is at least comparable to the PlayStation 4 version. Regarding resolution, you’re looking at a native 1080p in docked mode and 720p in handheld mode; about as good as you can hope for on the Switch, then.

The boost in resolution over the original release ensures that the environments look cleaner with fewer jagged edges and blurry visuals. However, one downside to the Switch version when compared to PS4 is that it only has one alternative option for motion blur which, while certainly an improvement over the default option, is less capable than the PS4’s ‘FSR 2’ motion blur toggle.

Moving onto the performance, the game remains mostly locked in at 30fps, which you probably knew already. It drops down to the high 20s during specific in-game moments, like when you arrive at the Armadillo saloon at night-time, or during a particularly chaotic gunfight at Ridgewood Farm. All in all, though, you’re looking at solid performance for the most part, even during the more intense encounters in Undead Nightmares.

That’s about it! Be sure to check out the video above for more in-depth details, and if you happened to miss it, we’ve also got provided our own verdict on the game below in which we describe Red Dead Redemption as “a straightforward port of 2010’s masterpiece with no added bells or whistles for a rather high price tag”.

Have you played Red Dead Redemption on the Switch yet? Is the price still putting you off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

We recently got the chance to have a pop at Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 at the invite of Konami. We had around an hour or so to dig into Metal Gear Solid and its two sequels (as well as have a quick gander at all the bonus content on offer), which isn’t a huge amount of time for games of this scale, but we were able to get a broad idea of how the collection pans out. So, what’s the damage?

We started off with the OG, Metal Gear Solid. We were initially struck with the reality that this really is a warts-and-all kind of port, sticking to the original PS1 version’s low resolution and frame rate. We had a bit of a giddy retro thrill seeing it run as originally intended, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to not take things even further and provide a way to play these games that’s more in line with modern sensibilities.

Speaking of missed opportunities, we were also surprised to discover that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater are based on the HD Collection editions that were released for PS3 and Xbox 360 back in 2012. We say ‘based on’, but in truth Konami has made no effort to hide this fact (and to be fair it did announce them as such with an admittedly slim banner on the collection’s promotional material). The menus for both games just flat out have ‘HD Edition’ plastered on them, with ‘© 2012 Konami’ still there as well.

These versions run at 720p, and the Switch version is also seemingly capped at 30fps, despite the original HD releases running at 60fps. Considering the Switch is more powerful than the two consoles that previously held this pair of games, it’s disappointing to say the least that the frames have been halved.

We asked about performance on PS5, Xbox Series X, plus the newly announced PS4 release; Konami clarified that the games will be targeting the same resolution (720p) and frame rate of the initial HD releases. Given that Switch isn’t running them at 60fps, we suppose we’ll have to wait and see how things fare on the other platforms.

What did put a big, childlike grin on our collective face was the bonus content. This collection is jam-packed full of great little extras, such as the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, as well as the NES version of the first game and Snake’s Revenge.

There’s also a special booklet detailing the history and insider information for each of the games included, and the big three also come with a screenplay each, meaning you can finally recreate the iconic ‘Les Infants Terrible’ scene with even greater confidence.

Beyond that, well, there’s really not much else to be said! We’re pleased to see all three of these games on Switch, 100%. However, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little bit disappointed with the core games’ presentation. Considering how much love has been poured into the bonus content, the lack of such care being present in the main games feels very out of place.

Three games as excellent as these may be enough to sway our favour regardless, and you’ll have to wait for our review to know that for certain. First impressions, though? There was an opportunity here for Konami to push the boat out and honour these classics with a truly special package. Bonus features aside, this ain’t that.