Author: sick skills

Normally we might have overlooked this press release from Nintendo, but our resident reviewer and fashionista Morgan is super excited about this one; so we felt it was our civic duty to keep you informed. Nintendo Presents: New Style Boutique 3 – Styling Star has some new details on the various features and modes it’ll have to offer; it was previously announced for a 24th November European release in September’s Nintendo Direct.

In North America the series is known as Style Savvy, and it looks like a worthy upgrade for fans of Nintendo Presents: New Style Boutique 2 – Fashion Forward which was released in 2015; we had plenty of praise for that one. 

In the game you become the manager of a downtown fashion boutique, and combine business smarts with fashion savvy to turn your shop into a thriving hub of chic. This time you’ll also become a stylist to the stars, as three aspiring pop singers will be relying on you to provide fashion guidance to help them break through into the big time. 

There is a lot more to say about the game from the press release:

Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique 3 – Styling Star is the fourth instalment in the fashion simulation series that has sold over 2.4 million units across Europe to date. As the story begins, the player will take over as the manager of her uncle’s fashion boutique, located in the heart of a city full of potential clients, each hoping to find that perfect outfit. Each client is an individual with his or her own personality and taste, and when they visit the shop it’s up to the player to listen to the clients’ requests and choose the most suitable clothes or accessories to match their needs. With over 20,000 items, many of which are brand new for this entry in the series, the creative outfit combinations are almost endless, and players will be able to let their inner styling star shine bright as they pick out perfect look after perfect look.

As the player’s style success story progresses, they will be approached by the talent agency Nin10 Productions, who need a stylist for their up-and-coming popstars. This game-changing event opens the door to the pop music world, and the chance to become a celebrity stylist. Players will help guide the three young singers on their road to stardom, designing outfits for them and assisting as they find their own identities. Eventually, the singers will perform on stage in outfits chosen by the player, and even adapt their musical styles to the fashion choices made for them. For example, choosing rock-themed clothing for a singer will lead her music in a rockier and edgier direction. There are 15 original pop songs included, in a range of styles, all specially written and recorded for the game. You can already check out one of the songs in the Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique 3 – Styling Star – Welcome to the new stage! trailer.

In addition to the huge number of in-game items with which to style customers, players can also use compatible amiibo during gameplay to add even more options. All currently available amiibo are compatible with Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique 3 – Styling Star. Some amiibo, including Animal Crossing, Splatoon and Kirby series amiibo, will unlock special character-themed design elements and emblems. Other amiibo will unlock Nintendo-themed design elements and emblems.

In addition to the fun shop management gameplay of previous titles, this entry contains a variety of exciting features, including:

– Menswear is back! Fashion is for everyone, and the men in town need a stylist too! Menswear returns as a fully-fledged feature in this game, with its own boutique. By helping out there, players can increase their influence around town and trigger menswear-specific story events.

– The Design Centre in-game app allow players to design their own clothes and outfits, and share them with each other online. Another in-game app, Shopdo, lets players upload their lovingly-designed boutique interiors, and even sell outfits to one another for in-game currency.

– New accessory types such as headphones, bangles and wristwatches give even more scope for creativity and customisation.

– Fashion’s not only about the clothes, and in the Beautician’s and Hair Salon players can put their makeup skills and hair-styling skills to work to add that extra something special to any look. The beautician’s salon now also includes nail styling – a brand new feature for this title, with a huge number of nail polish colours and designs to try out.

– The You Diva feature lets players relive the magic of the game’s music performances, and even customise them by changing the character performing and their outfit. Any of the more than 200 female characters encountered during the game, including the player’s own character, can shine like a star on stage.

If you aren’t sure if this will be game for you or not, there will be a demo on the 3DS eShop on 19th October so you can get a feel for what it is like to run your very own fashion boutique. Let us know if you plan to pick this up with a comment below.

Earlier this year Capcom announced it was releasing a revamped version of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on the 3DS. With the game already scheduled for a November launch, the Japan-based publisher and developer has now confirmed the title will release in North America on 21st November and across Europe on 23rd November.

To celebrate, a new trailer highlighting the game’s story has been released:

The arrival of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on the 3DS rounds off the popular series, with all of the ‘main’ games now available in one form or another on the platform. 

Below is some of the original press release information:

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney coming to Nintendo 3DS means that budding attorneys can see all the courtroom action from Apollo’s early days as a defense attorney in upgraded 3D graphics. Forensic investigation techniques play a vital part in analyzing the evidence to help solve some of the game’s mysteries. Utilizing the features of Nintendo 3DS, players can dust some crime scenes to search for fingerprints and also examine certain objects in a full 360 degrees to uncover hidden evidence! Will the fingerprints match any of the suspects on file and uncover new truths?

These investigation techniques combined with Apollo Justice’s magical bracelet that gives him the unique ability to detect lies during witness testimonies create a thrilling investigative journey.
In addition to the upgraded new look for Nintendo 3DS, this release includes the Japanese version of the game, allowing players to switch between the Japanese and English versions. More than just an alternative language option, keen eyes will be able to spot some differences in some background signs and art between the Japanese and English versions. Text skip options will also be available from the start.

Let us know in the comments if you intend on purchasing the new and improved version of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. 

ARMS has been consistently supported by Nintendo in its post release period, receiving balancing tweaks, new fighters and ARMS, and new stages. The last update brought us a new stage and a whole wealth of balancing tweaks, but this new one promised to bring much more. It’s now live and available for download, and as expected, it does make a number of notable changes that should hopefully make the game that much more playable.

The biggest addition is the new Badge system, which essentially gives you in-game achievements for completing certain tasks. There’s also a new Replay feature that allows you to watch old matches, though it works a lot like the replay from Super Smash Bros. in that new updates will render old replays unusable. Also, there’s a new evil Spring Man character that jumps into matches when playing Grand Prix on higher difficulties. Here’s the full list of notes:

·  Added new “Badge” feature.

• Receive neat badges as a reward for fulfilling certain conditions.
• Wear your favorite badge and show it off to your opponent.

·  Added new “Recent Replays” feature.

• Select from a list and view replays of past matches.
• Replay data is automatically deleted when necessary, starting with the oldest data.
• Also, future ARMS updates will cause all replay data from past versions to be deleted.

·  During replay playback, ZR will no longer switch between targets. The X button instead is used for all camera angle switching.

·  During replay playback, + – buttons no longer toggle HP gauge display, and instead now bring up the menu.

·  Fixed issue where, at certain timings, follow up attacks after wind attacks would not land.

·  Fixed issue where, after suffering an ice attack, players on a snake board could repeatedly jump and the snake board would continuously accelerate.

·  Fixed issue where, when battle rules are set to 1-punch KO, under certain conditions fighters would become unable to move.

·  We’ve identified an interloper who has been disrupting the Grand Prix, going after our fiercest competitors. If encountered, we advise you to dispatch them with prejudice.

·  Adjusted the abilities of certain fighters and ARMS as follows.

Fighters / Arms	Adjustments
Lola Pop	It’s already been one month since she joined ARMS. Her beginner’s nerves have faded away, giving her increased movement speed during air dashes. Increased movement speed during high jump. Increased movement speed when bounding. Adjusted speed when descending.
Byte & Barq	Decreased time interval between Byte and Barq’s respective attacks.
Max Brass	Decreased expansion rate of attacks when buffed up. Increased distance from which he can approach targets.
Megawatt	Increased expansion rate when extending. Increased extension speed. Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Slamamander	Increased extension speed.
Biffler	Increased retraction speed. Increased floatiness of jump attacks.
Boomerang Coolerang	Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Revolver	Increased retraction speed.
Retorcher	Increased retraction speed. Adjusted path followed when extending.
Nade	Fixed online play issue where explosive damage would trigger twice.
Whammer Kablammer	Increased speed of charge attacks.
Blorb	Increased expansion rate when extending. Increased time needed to finish expanding.
Chilla	Decreased homing ability.
Tribolt	Decreased speed of charge attacks. Increased time needed to finish expanding. Fixed multiple online play issues.
Triblast Guardian Clapback	Fixed multiple online play issues.

What do you think? Will this coax you back into ARMS? What else would you like to see changed? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

As far as problems go, having too many great games isn’t a bad one to have, but recent weeks on the Switch have made it a reality for the system’s fans. Nintendo’s own efforts aside, we’re seeing more and more third party support with each month, and that’s not even getting into the indie scene.

The ever-growing list of games is reaching pleasing heights for a system so early on in its life, especially by Nintendo standards, so your average player is never going to be able to play a majority of the games available. Not that Nintendo makes it easy with its frustratingly limited eShop design.

Make sure you check out the video above in which we chat a bit about this, and let us know whether you think there are ‘too many games’ to keep up with on Switch.

During the most recent Nintendo Direct there was the surprise announcement of Mario Party: The Top 100 for the 3DS; the portable entry will combine a whole lot of classic minigames from throughout the IP’s history, also giving the system a useful Holiday release to tempt families.

The reveal didn’t get into too many details, but there’s now an overview trailer to outline more of the modes and the amiibo functionality. Using amiibo characters is always optional, of course, and in this case they offer assistance during rounds and even quicker minigame unlocks; here’s hoping standard unlocks without the amiibo aren’t too onerous.

Check it out below.

It’s out soon – on 10th November – and at least has the neat selling point of download play, so families should only need to buy one copy. Do you think you’ll pick this up?

Sonic Forces is now just a few weeks away, and plenty of Blue Blur fans will be hoping it follows the lead of the retro-infused Sonic Mania in bringing the IP back to the top of the game. Whether it’ll deliver that is up in the air so far, but there’s always hope.

In recent weeks SEGA has been cranking up the hype machine for the release, and has now published two new videos. One highlights the “Rental Avatar” feature; this allows you to ‘borrow’ avatar characters created by other players in order to utilise their Wispon abilities. You can swap between your own avatar and the rented one in a stage, and this is shown off in the brief boss fight snippet below.

There’s also a longer video showcasing a chemical plant / space port stage; in this case the avatar has the Drill Wispon.

Are you excited about this one and the potential to experiment with Avatars and Wispons? Well, there’s not long to wait now…