Author: sick skills

Capcom recently rolled out an easy GOTY contender with Resident Evil Requiem, but that apparently wasn’t enough for the Japanese publisher. It’s now unleashed Pragmata, a futuristic action-adventure that blends fast-paced shooting with intricate puzzle-solving mechanics.

We thought it was pretty great, too. In our 9/10 review, Ken Talbot praised the hybrid combat system, the dynamic between protagonists Hugh and Diana, and the replay value. Some frustrations with boss battles occurred, and we think mouse controls would have been a nice addition, but it’s nevertheless an excellent game.

Here’s how Ken concluded his review:

“With a strong relationship at its core, a striking sci-fi aesthetic, and an addictive puzzle combat loop, Pragmata is the full package. The adventures of Hugh and Diana stands as another excellent Switch 2 port from Capcom, and hopefully marks the beginning of a new blockbuster franchise.”

So now, we’ve love to hear what you think. If you’ve been playing Pragmata, then feel free to provide your own verdict in the poll down below. Do you agree with our 9/10 score, or do you think it maybe falls down in a few key areas? Let us know.

And, as always, don’t worry if you haven’t played enough of it yet to form a complete opinion. This article will be here when you’re ready, so bookmark it if you wish, and come back at a later date. Similarly, if you want to provide an initial score now and change your mind later, that’s always an option too.

Thanks for voting! If you’d like to expand upon your score with some commentary, then leave a comment down below with your thoughts on Pragmata.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is mleming its way to its 21st May 2026 release date, and we have a bunch of previews to showcase to see how it’s holding up so far.

Our own Jim Norman recently went hands-on with the latest Nintendo title and came away feeling pretty optimistic, stating:

“It’ll be interesting to see how far The Mysterious Book can push the sense of inter-level interaction before things become too messy. As it stands, this feels like a flutter jump in the right direction for Yoshi, as far as appealing to a more experienced audience is concerned, with one of the Switch 2’s most eye-catching visual styles to match.”

So now, let’s see what other outlets make of the game so far:

IGN: Overall, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is quite adorable. The scratchy fantasy book illustrations are very charming, all the little guys are super cute, and I am a fan of the choice to keep Yoshi half-pixelated in an homage to all the Yoshi games that came before this one. The whole thing might not be truly E for everyone if you were hoping for, say, a successor to Yoshi’s Island for Switch 2. But Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a gentle platformer that seems almost certain to provide an easy on-ramp to the Nintendo ecosystem for the next generation of Yoshi fans.

VGC: From the short segment I played, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book was a pleasant surprise. Its setup feels unique among Nintendo’s other 2D platformers, and if it delivers on the early promise of systemic gameplay, it could turn out to be a real gem in Nintendo Switch 2’s 2026 line-up.

GameSpot: It remains to be seen how Yoshi and the Mysterious Book sustains its entire length. I only played two chapters, and at times it seemed more like a toy to tinker with than a traditional platforming game. But there’s something novel at the heart of this reconceptualized idea of a platformer, eschewing combat in favor of play and discovery. It’s not something I’d want to see applied across the board, but on a continuum of Yoshi games becoming more inviting for younger players, it fits like a glove.

Metro: While we have questions around its longevity and scope, we came away from Yoshi And The Mysterious Book more intrigued by it conceptually than we expected to be. To an extent, it is reframing familiar platformer tropes – with different creatures tied to mechanics instead of items or power-ups – but there’s a creative playfulness in the way you discover abilities, and secrets, which distinguishes it from Nintendo’s well-worn history in the genre. If it can maintain the surprises throughout, this might be Yoshi’s strongest adventure in quite some time.

Polygon: Despite a slightly odd control scheme and occasionally too-subtle tutorials, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is one to watch for fans of chilled-out platformers as well as parents looking to share their love of games with their kids. I’m excited to see more of these creatures and their adorable habitats — as long as I don’t have to play any more music.

And of course, if you haven’t already, then be sure to check out our video impressions too. It’s sounding like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book might be one to keep an eye on next month, that’s for sure.

Will you be buying the latest Yoshi adventure in May? Let us know with a comment.

I love a good rhythm game, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how quickly GRIDbeat! would grab (and hold) my attention. As one of the first titles from the newly revived publisher Acclaim, it makes a strong, bold entrance with unique, stylised visuals, razor-sharp gameplay, and excellent music.

The aim of the game is simple: keep to the beat and make your way through each labyrinthine level. Think of it as a kind of top-down dungeon-crawler with cyberpunk aesthetics and you’re on the right track. Each level is meticulously crafted with paths diverging in multiple directions, but to traverse them properly, you need to jump from one spot in time to the music.

Now the good news is that while the tempo does vary slightly between levels, once you start a stage, it will never fluctuate until you reach your goal, so if you mess up at all, it’s really easy to get back into the flow. Otherwise, get ready for an absolutely brutal experience, one that will quickly punish you with a swift death if you slip up.

See, there are dozens of potential hazards in your way. Turrets populate most levels and will quickly cut down your health if you’re not careful, while other stages might have barriers that rotate to the beat, corrupted paths, or even a few homing missiles. You’ll perish a lot, but you learn from each demise.

Each level also contains blocked paths that must be hacked. This is mostly a case of holding down ‘ZR’ and moving the right analogue stick in the direction of the blockage to initiate the hack. Then you simply keep an eye on visual cues and press the right buttons to complete it. Again, you’ve got to make sure that you keep to the beat, as deviating from this may cost you both time and precious health.

If I were judging GRIDBeat! solely on its gameplay, it would be a fun, albeit slightly repetitive jaunt for a handful of hours. Its presentation, however, really elevates the whole experience. The colourful, psychedelic environments pulse to the music, making it feel like something Jeff Minter would cook up. Developer Ridiculous Games has managed to make it its own, though, and I’m really impressed at how well it all comes together.

The star of the show, of course, is the music. Naturally, it leans heavily into typical ‘80s-themed synth tracks, but they all work wonderfully well, and I started bopping my head immediately. If you’re a fan of rhythm games in general, I’d urge you to give this a shot, but just be mindful that it can be pretty brutal, so be prepared to hit ‘continue’ a lot.

If you have watched The Super Mario Galaxy Movie already (and based on those box office figures, we’d wager a fair few of you have), then you’ll no doubt know that there are some pretty big revelations when it comes to Princess Peach’s backstory. Well, according to Shigeru Miyamoto himself, that backstory will remain true in future games.

Now, worry not, we’re not about to go spoiling this big plot point right away. For those who really want to know, we’ll explain it at the bottom of this article under the picture (we’ll add another warning later on, just in case), but rest assured, you can still read Miyamoto’s take without getting anything spoiled, so let’s get to that first.

In a new interview with Japanese outlet Nintendo Dream, Miyamoto was asked whether the princess’ movie backstory is now canon in the game world too. And the answer is yes — at least, Miyamoto hopes it will be.

“Because we don’t know what kind of game we’ll make next with our characters, having too many character settings would become a constraint,” Miyamoto told the outlet. “I’m fine with being bound by the gameplay, but I don’t want to be bound by having created a story, which has been the reason for not making movies for many years” (translated by Nintendo Everything).

“So, before making this movie, I hadn’t decided on the character’s backstory, but now that I’m making the movie, it’s become fun to expand on the character in various ways,” he continued. “Therefore, I would like to adhere as much as possible to the settings created in the movie in future games.”

So, there you have it, it sounds like the big movie revelation won’t be tied to the movie forever — backstory in a Mario game? What a treat!

If you don’t want to know what said Peach backstory is, then this is your chance to turn back, because we’re going to be discussing it below. Okay, final warning: big spoilers for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie incoming…

The revelation that Miyamoto is talking about is that Peach and Rosalina are sisters. The pair were separated at a young age and had no idea of their relation as a consequence, what are the odds?

It’s strangely close to a fan theory about the princesses being related that spawned almost 20 years ago, with the launch of Super Mario Galaxy on Wii. Such rumblings could be found on the internet in almost every Rosalina appearance since, but it’s nice to know that it’s the real deal now.

Exactly how this backstory will be referenced and developed in future games remains to be seen — Mario games are rarely heavy on plot — but if Miyamoto wants to see it happen, we imagine that it probably will.

What do you make of this backstory making the jump to games? Let us know in the comments.

If your social media feed has been overrun with Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream content, well, same! Nintendo’s latest Switch 1 title seems to be a hit, perhaps nowhere more so than France, where the game is apparently the best physical launch of 2026 so far.

According to French journalist Oscar Lemaire (via Eurogamer) the new Tomodachi Life has outperformed Resident Evil Requiem — a multiplatform release — to become the best-selling physical game of the year so far.

Lemaire previously stated that RE9 sold 70,000 units at launch, so if accurate, Tomodachi Life’s numbers are pretty darn impressive.

We don’t have sale figures from elsewhere in the world yet, but we do know Living the Dream sold extremely well in the UK, being the top-selling physical release of the week.

And, according to The Game Business’ Chris Dring, the Switch 1 exclusive’s physical launch was 36% bigger than Pokémon Pokopia‘s launch, though that was a Switch 2 exclusive and was reportedly undershipped.

We’ll have to wait to hear from Nintendo itself on the overall sales figures, but we should know Japan’s physical numbers by the end of the week. Expect big numbers, folks…

Are you one of the many playing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream? Surprised by its success? Let us know in the comments.

If you thought Nintendo suing the U.S. government over tariffs was bad enough, two gamers have now reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo over the tariff refunds. Strewth.

As reported by Stephen Totilo at Game File, California-based Gregory Hoffert and Washington-based Prashant Sharan have alleged that Nintendo will be unjustly enriching itself over the refunds, stating that they had both purchased products after the company raised prices.

The suit states, “Unless restrained by this Court, Nintendo stands to recover the same tariff payments twice— once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds, including interest paid by the government on those funds”.

While Nintendo refrained from raising the price of the Switch 2 itself, it nevertheless upped the cost of multiple accessories. The original Switch also saw a minor price hike as a result of the tariffs. Nintendo even delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the U.S. over tariff uncertainty, eventually reinstating them for the planned 5th June 2025 release date.

The Supreme Court eventually ruled that President Trump had unlawfully imposed the tariffs, thus paving the way for mass refunds to those who had been affected. Nintendo was one of many companies to file a lawsuit against the federal government, but this was swiftly put on hold pending the result of the refund implementation.

Indeed, Nintendo has not indicated whether any refunds would be passed onto customers, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this new lawsuit.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie released to fairly middling reviews, with many critics in agreement that it felt overblown with references that ultimately struggled to make up for the lacklustre story.

In a new interview with NDW (thanks, Nintendo Patents Watch), Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressed his surprise at the critical response, describing it as “odd”. Although he understood the sentiments toward the original movie, he thought that the sequel would be better received.

Here’s what he had to say (translated by Nintendo Patents Watch):

“Regarding the critics’ reviews of the first film, I remember thinking, ‘they have a point.’ But I figured this time would be different… only to find that the they were even harsher than last time, which I found rather odd (laughs).

“We stepped in from another medium and did our best to help energize the film industry. And yet the very people who are supposed to champion the film industry are the ones being so negative; it’s truly baffling.”

It sounds surprisingly defensive for Miyamoto, right? The implication being that critics are somehow meant to champion the movie rather than analyse it with a critical eye. Regardless, the movie has gone on to find great success, helping the franchise recently pass the $2 billion mark at the global box office.

Nintendo will soon be looking to ramp up the marketing for its Legend of Zelda movie too, which is currently scheduled to release on 7th May 2027.

What do you make of Miyamoto’s comments here? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.

Ecco The Dolphin‘s return is official, as Ecco the Dolphin: Complete has officially been announced by A&R Atelier, and it contains a bundle of games — every version of the first two Ecco titles plus a brand new game (Thanks, Wario64!).

Platforms and a release date haven’t been announced, but this news was teased almost a year ago by series creator Ed Annunziata, and later came up earlier this year when Annunziata spoke to Famitsu.

The collection will contain every single version of Ecco the Dolphin and The Tides of Time, from 8-bit to 16-bit (no mention of the 3DS version…), plus a “contemporary game built for the modern era.” Annunziata is returning, along with members of the original development and programming teams. Because “No one else can make this game.”

The new game claims to weave together the franchise’s history together into a single experience, but the collection will also contain built-in speedrunning support, online leaderboards, and achievements. There will also be custom courses where players can create their own underwater locales.

Obviously there are a few games missing — Ecco Jr., Defender of the Future — but it sounds like a pretty good package. We don’t know whether this is coming to Switch 1 and/or 2 yet, but we’d have to imagine it will.

Still, if you’re craving more Ecco, you can head to the official website, complete with some very relaxing dolphin noises. There also seems to be a timer in the bottom left of the webpage, so perhaps keep an eye on the page…

Are you an Ecco the Dolphin fan? Do you hope this comes to Switch 2 (or Switch 1)? Dive into the comments and let us know.

Bubsy 4D is out in exactly one month, so what better way to build up excitement than by downloading the free demo, which Atari and Fabraz have just dropped on the eShop today.

Available to try on both Switch 1 and Switch 2, the demo will allow you to explore the first three levels of the game. And you’ll be able to try out some of Bubsy’s moves, such as gliding, rolling, and (of course) jumping. It’s a platformer, what do you expect?

This seems to be the same demo that was available on Steam, so if you’ve already played it there, don’t expect anything new. But it’ll be good to see just how Bubsy 4D runs on the Switch consoles.

Bubsy might not have the best reputation in the industry, but this new game comes from Fabraz, the developer of Demon Turf and Demon Tides — the latter of which isn’t on Switch just yet, but is meant to come to consoles – -and those games are pretty fantastic.

So this is a good chance to see just how the momentum-based platforming transfers to the world of Bubsy. From our interview with Fabian Rasforter and Ben Miller of Fabraz, it sounds fantastic, and now we can see for ourselves.

Are you excited for Bubsy 4D? Will you be downloading the demo? Let us know in the comments below.