I had a pretty decent time with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. It’s a charming experience filled with wonder and imagination, but thanks to the repetitive, overly-simplified structure, that imagination is never afforded enough space to really shine.
I tolerated this, however, and had a good time discovering the game’s many weird and wonderful creatures. Before I even started, I felt at peace with the knowledge that it would probably never reach the heights of Yoshi’s Island on the SNES (honestly, what can?), and so I enjoyed it for what it was.
That is, until I reached World 6.
(Before I go any further, here’s your SPOILER WARNING in case you haven’t gotten that far yet…)
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo
Your goal in Mysterious Book is to eventually discover a creature called the Bewilder Bird before Bowser Jr. and Kamek do so. I couldn’t divulge the existence of this creature in my review as it was under embargo, so the Bewilder Bird’s unique ability was also off limits.
Y’see, every creature discovered until this point possesses abilities that help you navigate the environment and bypass certain obstacles. Snurfboard lets you ride across waves in style, Swirm catapults you across wide gaps, Stickiwick lets you swing from platforms like Spider-Man… You get it.
Every level is specifically designed to take advantage of each creature’s ability. This is what I mean when I say the game’s creativity is somewhat stifled, as you’re constantly doing what it wants you to do. The illusion of freedom and creativity is there, but once you figure out how to trigger the various discoveries (and that doesn’t take long), you quickly sink into a tedious rhythm.
Until you discover the Bewilder Bird. See, this thing is special in that it can instantly transform into any creature you’ve previously discovered. Executing this for the first time felt like a lightbulb moment – suddenly, everything made sense. The game was building to this moment. Everything before was a mere tutorial, and now I’d be let loose to experiment with different creatures and see which ones best suit the obstacles that lie ahead…
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo
After discovering the Bewilder Bird, you come across a large waterfall with no clear guidance on what to do. How do you get up? Well, let’s see what’s in the Creature Index… Ah, yes, the Glubbit will blow bubbles and let you float to the top, so that’s an option. Alternatively, the Goonie can simply fly up in short diagonal bursts – slightly less elegant, but a sound choice.
Once at the top, you come across a large body of water. Sure, you can toddle across just fine on your own, but why not break out Snurfboard for a slightly quicker jaunt? Better yet, you could try Bafloonder and explore the water’s depths, shooting through at speed to mop up any lingering collectibles.
My point is that the game’s surface-level creativity is finally unleashed once you discover the Bewilder Bird. I saw Mysterious Book being loosely described as a ‘platformer Breath of the Wild’ in VGC’s review, and when you’re tinkering with dozens upon dozens of creature abilities, I can kind of understand the comparison (though I would perhaps argue that it has more in common with Echoes of Wisdom).
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo
The problem — the big problem — is that it only lasts for one level. It appears briefly much later in the game, but fundamentally once you’re done with World 6, you go right back to the status quo in which you find new creatures and use their sole abilities to make discoveries. So all of that potential to experiment and tackle obstacles and puzzles in multiple ways just…doesn’t happen.
Frankly, it makes me a little angry; angry that such a wonderful gameplay mechanic appears so fleetingly. Honestly, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to state that Good-Feel could have crafted an entire game based around the Bewilder Bird’s ability, and I’ve been scratching my head as to why it didn’t have the ambition to do so. Was it a lack of time? An obligation to keep the game simple for younger players?
My only hope is that we get some sort of DLC expansion at some point that really homes in on the Bewilder Bird’s abilities. I’m not asking for something exceptionally challenging, because that would fundamentally break from what Mysterious Book is trying to do, but just… something more, y’know? A selection of large, sandbox levels that let you experiment and push the boundaries of creativity would be wonderful.
As it is, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book genuinely could have been an all-timer. But in showcasing such a brief glimpse of its tremendous potential, it exacerbates its shortcomings.
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo
What do you make of this? Do you wish Good-Feel did more with the Bewilder Bird’s ability? Let us know with a comment.
We’re used to seeing all manner of clones on the eShop and other digital storefronts, with their ripped assets usually hidden behind a thinly-veiled key art tweak and title change; what we don’t often come across is something as shameless as the Google Play Store‘s current offerings.
Indeed, a brief search for ‘Tomodachi Life’ on the Android store brings up not one, but two titles that look eerily similar to the real deal — like, identical key art and tongue-trippingly close titles. ‘Tomodachi Life Living Dream‘ and ‘Tomodochi: Live the Dream Life‘ (yep, that’s the real spelling of both) are the prime offenders here, both boasting banner art and screens that appear to be ripped directly from the eShop.
Just take a brief glance at the following screenshot, and you’ll surely see how some might be fooled:
Image: Nintendo Life
Aside from a host of games with naff AI-generated artwork, ZStronics — the ‘developer’ behind one of the above apps — also has the likes of ‘Batman Legacy of the Dark‘ and ‘Subnautica 2 Mobile‘ listings in its back catalogue, each with similarly misleading cover art. Heck, the ‘Live the Dream Life’ description is even taken word-for-word from various Nintendo news posts published in recent months.
Perhaps most hilariously of all, both apps are rated PEGI 12 for ‘Horror’ and ‘In-game purchases’, in contrast to the real Tomodachi Life, which was awarded a PEGI 3, on account of neither of those being present.
Still, the apps have amassed over 150,000 downloads combined so far, and we can see how people might fall into the trap — particularly a younger audience. We can’t imagine the clones will be around for too long, but as a reminder, you’ll only find the real Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on Switch for the time being.
What do you make of these obvious rip-offs? Let us know in the comments.
Bloober Team’s CEO, Piotr Babieno, has once again teased the potential for new horror experiences on the Switch 2 as the company’s new subsidiary, Broken Mirror Games, works on the mysterious ‘Project M’.
Posting on LinkedIn (thanks, My Nintendo News), Babieno asked his followers what the Switch 2 could potentially do for horror that can’t possibly be replicated on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. Though it’s seemingly put forward as an entirely hypothetical question, you don’t have to read between the lines to realise that he’s probably teasing the company’s upcoming Switch 2 exclusive.
Here’s what he had to say:
“I have a question that’s been on my mind for quite a while. What could Nintendo Switch 2 do for horror games in a way that PC, PlayStation or Xbox simply wouldn’t be able to replicate in quite the same way.
“I’m not even talking about raw power or graphics.
“More about how the platform itself can influence experience design: immersion, tension, player behavior, portability, console features, controllers, the feeling of “closeness” with the game, or even completely different approaches to building atmosphere. What kind of horror game design would you personally love to see here?
“One thing I’ve always appreciated about Nintendo platforms is that they often inspire design decisions you probably wouldn’t make anywhere else.
“And honestly, that’s what excites me the most. I’m not asking how to make horror more casual or “safer.” Quite the opposite — how to create something uniquely “Nintendo,” while still remaining dark, disturbing and fully horror-driven.
“I already have my own thoughts, but I’m genuinely curious about yours. Of course — there’s always a chance we’re already working on something similar, so if you’re afraid of sharing your idea publicly… maybe keep the best ones to yourself.”
It does admittedly kind of read like the typical CEO nonsense you often see on LinkedIn, but it definitely feels like quite a blatant tease for Project M. He said something very similar during an interview toward the end of 2025, during which he stated that more information will be shared “very soon”.
There’s currently no word on what the game is or even when it will be released, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more information.
Back in the day, it was pretty well understood that seeing a popular show or brand on a licensed video game didn’t necessarily mean that you were in for a great time. Though titles such as DuckTales or GoldenEye 007 broke through as exceptional titles for their respective eras, the majority of licensed games were usually the sort of passable chaff that eventually made its way to the bargain bin to be forgotten about when the generation passed.
Yet, video game preservation is an increasingly discussed topic these days, and with nostalgia always being a reliable means of making a decent return on investment, many publishers have been investing more into collections that preserve legacy content by offering it to a new generation.
Enter Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection, a middling basket of old platformers and mini-game collections whose main selling point at the time was that they were related to the popular Nicktoon. Now available on modern platforms, you can experience ‘memorable classics’ like Rugrats: Studio Tour and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in all their janky glory, with save states and scans of original manuals to sweeten the deal.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
Suffice to say, you’re not missing out on much if you choose to pass this one up, but it may hold some value to you if you played any of these games when you were a kid.
Six (technically eight) of the licensed Rugrats games are included here, covering the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation. The headlining game is Rugrats: Search for Reptar, joined by Rugrats: Studio Tour, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats: Time Travelers, and Rugrats: Castle Capers. That’s a lot of Rugrats content and… well, none of it is really that good.
Let’s start with the 3D titles, which demonstrate some basic, fun ideas marred by the severe technology and design restrictions of the generation in which they debuted. In all too fleeting glimpses, the mission-based level design, simple mini-games, and charming atmosphere reveal the bones of an enjoyable 3D action game with some unique protagonists and objectives.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
How many platformers place you in the role of a baby who can’t jump and needs to figure out how to navigate a house by figuring out how to crawl and climb on various furniture objects? That’s interesting, and a great basis for something that could be innovative and distinct.
Yet it’s difficult to get drawn too far into it, as you’ll be constantly fighting for your life against a primitive camera that’s more challenging to manage than any of the game content. Similarly, navigating the environments with sluggish and unresponsive controls makes it feel like you’re constantly wading through a shallow pool.
I’ll grant you that it’s kind of ‘punching down’ to criticise a 3D game from 1998 for having odd controls and a poor camera system, but such foundational issues severely undercut the fun factor of these games before they can really get any traction.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
The 2D entries fare a little bit better, offering up some serviceable platforming action. These are much simpler in nature and adhere more closely to tried and tested 2D platforming conventions—you move through set stages, nab collectables while avoiding enemies, and aim to get the highest score you can.
Each game is only a couple of hours long at most, and on the whole, I would say that they are more enjoyable than their 3D counterparts simply by virtue of how competently they’re made. Few would seriously contend that any of these deserve to be topping any ‘best of’ lists, but they at least offer decent challenge, minigames, and level design—none of which prove to feel too frustrating or unfair.
Across all titles, modern emulation features are included to help round out some of their rougher edges, giving you tools that can enable you to brute force jankier sections much more easily than you could in the past. Dropping a save state before a tough race can save you tons of time spent watching loading screen, while you can feather a toggle for a rewind feature to quickly undo mistakes and practice difficult manoeuvres or minigames with minimal consequence.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
These tools are far from a new idea in modern retro game collections, but it’s still nice to see how seamlessly they’re integrated here and how well they can cover over the uglier aspects of some more antiquated game design.
The developers saw fit to also include a bit of museum content in here, with hi-res scans of all the original boxes and manuals available for you to peruse and a soundtrack feature to listen to tracks from across all the games. Compared to the developer interviews, concept art, and extensive marketing materials included in other retro collections, the content here feels a little thin, though perhaps this could be due to limited rights issues over the Rugrats IP.
Conclusion
Looking at the whole package, Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is the epitome of a release that’s carried solely by nostalgia. If you happened to love the show or any of the games in this collection in younger years, there’s certainly a case to be made for picking this one up just to take a trip down memory lane and remind yourself of the simpler times. Yet when you take that aspect away, you’re left with a weird amalgamation of mid-tier games that exemplify many of the game design shortcomings and limitations of this era of the gaming industry.
At their worst, these games are janky, difficult to control, and relatively thin when it comes to meaningful content. At their best, they’re inoffensive and passable distractions that you’ll probably never feel like playing again after you put them down. There are much worse games out there, but Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection makes an unconvincing case for why it’s worth both your time and money. It’s a cool novelty and I think fans of the original show or games will get a bit more out of it, but this isn’t something that I can recommend as something you ought to pick up. If you must, I’d suggest you at least wait for a sale.
I’ve covered a lot of gaming conventions in my time. Innumerable PAXes, E3 once, and a few Tokyo Game Shows. None of them match the immaculate vibes of BitSummit, Japan’s indie gaming convention.
Image: BitSummit
From developers fresh out of University to seasoned vets striking out on their own, an infectious enthusiasm for this hobby we all love takes over Kyoto for a weekend – made all the better this year as the showrunners bumped BitSummit up from a sweltering July to a bearable May.
Despite the heat, last year I saw a renewed enthusiasm for Nintendo as the Switch 2 had just been released. This year, it was almost impossible to choose just 10 games that will eventually make their way onto the Switch 1 or 2, so I’ve upped it to 12.
I’ve confirmed with each and every developer below that their game is either coming to a Switch console or they’re earnestly trying to get there, as Nintendo is still playing a bit coy with Switch 2 dev kits.
BitSummit 2026 – Every (Eventual) Switch 1 & 2 Game We Played
When the director behind Penguin Colony, Tali Faulkner, reached out for a meeting to show me his demo, I expected something more along the lines of an Animal Crossing clone based on the title alone. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Instead, Penguin Colony is best described as Lovecraftian cosmic horror seen through the eyes of penguins. Yes, you read that right. Coming from Origame Digital (Umurangi Generation), the penguins — which you can swap between and have different traversal strengths based on their size — explore a very John Carpenter-esque Antarctic, slowly unravelling the mystery of what happened to a Nazi expedition.
As I slid on my belly across large swathes of ice (first as a large penguin and then a baby penguin that could squeeze through gaps), I uncovered camps inhabited by insane Nazis. Well, more insane than usual. Some mumbled and rambled about unimaginable horrors as I waddled on by, while others had carved the skin from their faces, revealing a gruesome mask beneath. One’s head exploded as I shimmied a bit too close.
I won’t spoil much more because Penguin Colony is one of those games you have to play yourself, but I will say if you’re a fan of Disco Elysium you might recognise the narrator’s voice.
This one you can expect on Switch 2 sometime in October, along with a demo this summer.
As a Canadian, I didn’t know Australia had its own style of football, but after sitting down to play Pro Jank Footy, now I do.
As the title implies, Pro Jank Footy takes an arcade-like Aussie-rules football game and adds a lot of roguelite jank to it, making for an absurdly hectic party game that anyone can pick up and play – even Canadians!
Controls are simple: you can pass between the players on your team and kick the ball about. Pro Jank Footy complicates this simple formula by giving the player who lets in a goal a choice or cards that manipulate the match. These cards can be anything from swapping scores to adding a literal car to your team that runs down opponents.
As I played a few matches, I saw cards that turned everyone on the field into footballs, added extra goals all around the field, spawned a DVD Video logo that obstructed the screen (and didn’t quite hit the corners), and even more absurdity.
This uniquely Australian game is confirmed for Switches 1 and 2 sometime in 2026.
Monowave is a colourful little platformer from Studio BBB Inc., a developer based in South Korea. In this adorable game, you control Mono as he shifts between different emotions that give him different powers to progress.
An angry Mono can wall jump. A happy Mono moves quicker and jumps higher. A sorrowful Mono can squeeze through gaps as a depressed little blob, and an anxious Mono has too much to worry about to mind spikey obstacles.
These emotions extend to the other critters in each stage. An angry red crocodile will attack you. On the other hand, a sad crocodile turns into a springboard to reach greater heights. The empathetic Mono can give his emotion to the creatures you come across, which is necessary to clear each level and find difficult-to-reach collectibles.
You can expect to play Monowave on Switch 1 sometime in 2026.
FEAR FA 98 was by far the most bizarre game I played at BitSummit this year, and I think developer Jacob Jazz would be glad to hear me say so. It combines arcade-soccer gameplay with the horror of Silent Hill 2 and then adds a few dashes of grotesque absurdity for good measure.
It’s really two games in one: an old-school FIFA but with power-ups and a lot of blood and a single-player Silent Hill-esque campaign. If you want to ignore the campaign entirely, you can do so, but playing the versus mode will unlock items that help you progress the story further.
I spent most of my time getting wrecked by Jazz and the computer alike as I tried my very best as a team of sexy, murderous nurses to score some goals. The more I played, the more bizarre things got, as power-ups would trigger Final Fantasy-like summons that scored for me with massive energy beams.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of it when it enters Early Access later this year – especially with online play. It will come to Nintendo consoles sometime after that.
Owlboy is one of the most beautiful pixel-based games I’ve played, and D-Pad Studios may have outshone it with their next game, Vikings on Trampolines. Thematically and gameplay-wise, the two games couldn’t be more different: where Owlboy was an action platformer with its fair share of puzzles, Vikings on Trampolines is a brawler featuring both a co-op adventure mode and friendship-ruining versus mode.
In the former, you and up to three friends take on Balloonie and his balloon-based henchmen because Vikings are their natural enemies with their pointy helms. The problem is the Vikings can’t touch the ground and have to continue bouncing on trampolines; if they do fall off, they lose a heart and if there’s none left, it’s game over.
In the first stage I played with Art Director Simon Anderson, I had little problem popping some evil balloon guys and staying aloft, jumping off his viking to achieve even greater heights – though I did get distracted by the gorgeously rendered forest and mountain in the background quite often.
I didn’t last long in the latter stages, however, as trampolines flew by on speedy minecarts or a massive whale chomped apart half of the ship that the trampolines rested on, though I definitely improved in my short time with the game because it’s incredibly easy and intuitive to play.
Vikings on Trampolines can be played with only the left control stick, making it more accessible for players of different ages and abilities. In fact, Anderson told me he played with deaf people who sign with one hand while playing with the other, conspiring to take him out in the game’s versus mode in a language he couldn’t follow.
Speaking of the versus mode, Vikings on Trampolines will absolutely wreck friendships. Power-ups spawn frequently and give you abilities like hammer attacks that send your soon-to-be former friends flying off-screen as if they were a Super Smash Bros. character.
These Vikings will likely make it to a Nintendo Switch someday, although nothing is officially confirmed quite yet.
Starpath (Consoles TBC)
Image: Jonathan Smårs
Starpath is all about building and maintaining your starship as you explore a vast universe, and though that might sound rather chill, I couldn’t shake a feeling of existential dread as my character woke up alone – though I’m told by the developer Jonathan Smårs that you can bring some co-op friends with you.
What calmed my nerves after I got the hang of navigating zero gravity was finding several floppy discs strewn about. I collected one after another as the ship slowly drifted through the cosmos, plopping them into a little computer and playing little retro-style games on them. One of the games was a simple racing game while another was a Minesweeper clone that I probably spent too much time on, as I had a notification in the top-right corner telling me to fix a ship leak.
Donning a nearby space suit, I tried not to panic as I exited the starship and drifted a little bit too far from it. Luckily, you have some fairly powerful thrusters that helped me get back and find the leak. Here, I learned about the build mode and how you can greatly expand and customise your ship.
Once repaired, it was off to orbit nearby planets to find out whether or not I was truly alone in the universe. Presumably. I ended the demo there because I panicked when I noticed my oxygen was getting a little bit low and I couldn’t find the entry hatch.
There’s no release date yet but Smårs — lead engineer and designer of Valheim — assures me Switch 2 is the eventual goal.
Starless Umbra (Consoles TBC)
Image: Alcuria Games
When a game channels as much Secret of Mana energy as Starless Umbra, it’s impossible for me to pass up. I played through 30 minutes or so of an early section, switching between friends Amalia and Illari as they hunted little round rabbits and venomous snakes in a grassy region that wouldn’t look out of place on a Super NES.
If I had a friend of my own, I could have passed a second controller off to them so we could play together, though I found the computer-controlled companion more than capable enough. Much like its direct inspiration, Starless Umbra isn’t turn-based but rather features fast-paced action-RPG combat.
While I only played an early section, a sizzle reel nearby showcased dramatic story moments, different playable characters, and varied environments.
Developer Alcuria Games has every intention to bring this one to the Nintendo Switch consoles, but it’s still relatively early in development.
Lunars (Consoles TBC)
Image: Anubis Arts
Lunars is a party game based on zodiac animals that reminded me of Mario Party mixed with the visual style of Little Big Planet. You’ve got your boards, your dice rolls, your minigames, but the characters are also made of felt with plenty of ways to customise them to your liking.
Lunars features a lot that sets it apart from its direct inspiration. Hanny and Waleed Agawani — the brothers behind Anubis Arts — love and hate party games like Mario Party, respectively, giving them perspectives to streamline the frustrating parts of the board-based party game experience while also tapping into what makes the genre so fun to play with your frienemies.
Take, for instance, their Blitz mode, where everyone hits their dice at once instead of taking turns. This speeds up games exponentially without sacrificing strategy, as you can still use items to mess with your opponents in real-time.
After every shared turn, you hop into one of 30+ minigames. One had me running around collecting musical notes more quickly than my opponents, while another had me floating up from bubble to bubble. If I missed a bubble, I’d fall all the way back down. My favourite was a little King of the Hill mode that had me controlling a little tank, complete with tank controls.
Naturally, I lost horribly to a group of incredibly competent computer players but I’m looking forward to bullying real people on a Nintendo console sometime after it leaves Early Access on Steam.
WTF – Waifu Tactical Force (Consoles TBC)
Image: Extremely Normal
WTF – Waifu Tactical Force was sold to me as ‘Waifu Titanfall‘ and after playing a few rounds of deathmatch, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, though I didn’t get to pilot any mechs in this build. The speed, wallrunning, and incredibly tight first-person shooting (including a Titanfall 2-style Smart Pistol) were here, however.
Except, y’know, I was an anime Waifu girl with a kitten-shaped reticle on my bright pink-and-blue gun, running around a vibrant arena full of cherry blossoms. I played a handful of matches against WTF’s Executive Producer, Raya Winterhalter, and didn’t do half bad if I do say so myself.
WTF didn’t only remind me of Titanfall. Your Waifu of choice also comes equipped with abilities like grenades that deal no damage but send opponents flying and even a bubble shield that felt right out of Halo 3. Except it, of course, had sparkly musical notes shimmering all around it.
For a game with WTF as an acronym, it was no less sweaty than those juggernaut FPS titles we grew up with. While I played on a Steam Deck — on which it ran smoothly — this one is hopefully coming to the Switch 2 after it releases in Early Access sometime next year.
Midnight Horde (Consoles TBC)
Image: Carry Castle
Midnight Horde is one of those slick, pixel-based roguelites that grab your attention immediately. It sets itself apart from similar titles like Vampire Survivors in the way it uses verticality and a kind of parkour system on a 2D plane to keep you on your toes as hordes of skeletons clamber after you.
In the demo I played, I started as the Wanderer, though I had the option to play as a Gunslinger as well. The Wander begins with the Silver Blades skill that, every few seconds, spawns a Silver Blade that slashes in a wide arc around the Wanderer automatically. As I levelled up, I unlocked a rifle that targeted a nearby foe for some high damage and a shotgun that melted everything in front of me every few moments.
As you can tell, weapons auto-attack, freeing you up to leap around and avoid the deadly hordes as you collect treasure chests containing upgrades. While I didn’t experience the build mode myself, you can customise each run with different buildings that grant boons. Not only do they change the landscape, but also the run itself.
Midnight Horde will release on Steam first in 2026 with the eventual goal of bringing it to the Nintendo Switches.
Sleepover (Consoles TBC)
Image: KittyWampus
Last year, I highlighted a 3D platformer from KittyWampus, an up-and-coming developer out of New Zealand, called Bashful Adoration. While Bashful Adoration looks better than ever, KittyWampus also showed off a new, smaller project with completely different vibes: Sleepover, a visual novel where you take control of Yuna, the sole survivor of humanity trying to find meaning in an empty world.
In the short demo I played, I controlled Yuna as she wandered around her house, getting lost in memories of her brother and their complicated relationship with her mother. As you might expect, these memories start to get a little weird and downright creepy, accentuated by a unique, sketchy art style and shocking bursts of animation.
The demo concludes when a mysterious girl arrives at Yuna’s door – not a phantom of her tortured memories. It left me with many questions that I want answers to.
I’ll have to wait a while, though, because Sleepover is still in early development with eventual plans for a Switch release.
Petal Runner (Consoles TBC)
Image: Nano Park Studios
Last, I won’t talk too much about Petal Runner as I’ve done a full hands-on of the demo I played, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the most visually striking — and Nintendo-coded — game that I played at BitSummit this year.
Keep an eye out for a deeper look soon. Despite looking like a Pokémon clone, it’s far more than that.
While there were many more amazing games that didn’t make this list, what do you think of the ones that did? Are there any you’re particularly excited for? Let us know in this poll and the comments.
Which of these games are you most interested in? (271 votes)
It’s no secret that Nintendo was in a bit of a dark time at the end of the Wii U era. With sales down and everyone awaiting the next console (or should we say ‘NX console’?), the company needed something to bring in the big bucks over the holidays. The answer, alongside amiibo, was the NES and SNES Classic systems, and boy, did they work.
Ever ready to give a cracking PR response, Reggie was ready for the mini systems’ launch. We all knew that they were something of a stopgap for the big N while the Switch was still in the oven, and the then-NOA president told Kotaku as much at the time: “these were limited time opportunities that were a way for us as a business to bridge from the conclusion of Wii U as a hardware system to the launch of Nintendo Switch”.
One decade on, Reggie touched on the topic again in a recent addition to the NYU Game Centre Lecture Series (found around the 57:30 mark in the above video), though the gift of time has meant that there’s less need for business pleasantries in 2026 — he can be a lot more to-the-point these days, it seems (thanks for the heads up, Nintendo Everything).
“We did that to sustain our business,” Reggie said of the NES and SNES Classic launches, “because we needed something to sell at volume come the holiday season”. A rather candid breakdown, we’d say, but there’s more. These systems, alongside cutting the 8GB Wii U SKU and advertising more indie content, were “a series of commercial ideas,” he continued, “knowing full well that the Wii U was on life support”.
It was a smart move, it turns out. By late 2019, the two classic systems had combined for more than 10 million sales, tiding Nintendo over as the Switch picked up steam. There were those of us who believed that more classic systems were in the pipeline (never forget those ‘N64 Classic Mini’ rumours), but with business booming and NSO expanding every month, we think it’s safe to assume that such merch is a thing of the past.
Did you pick up an NES or SNES Classic console in the Wii U trenches? Let us know in the comments.
The game launched to mixed reception and earned a score of 5/10 from us. We said, “there’s no getting around the fact that the developer has made a mess of the accuracy. Purists will be dismayed, and those attempting to play through it will feel incredibly frustrated by the increased and frankly unfair difficulty level”.
ININ has promised that fixes are on the way, but for the time being, it’s prioritising instances of crashing on Xbox, so there’s no timeframe on when the hitbox/collision issues will be resolved.
Here’s the statement in full:
Dear ININ Community
Following yesterday’s digital release of R-Type Dimensions III, we have received numerous feedback from fans regarding bugs, technical issues like hitbox/collision problems, affecting the game experience.
First and foremost, we want to sincerely thank every one of you who has shared detailed feedback about the issue you’ve encountered. Your feedback means a lot to us and it helps us identify and fix issues more efficiently.
Our development team is fully aware of the situation and is hard at work on fixes and improvements, with the Xbox crashes being our top priority right now. We have been going through reported issues across affected areas, and we will evaluate how to mitigate those issues as soon as as possible.
We understand the frustration these problems have caused and truly appreciate the community’s patience and continued support while we work on resolving them.
We’ll keep you posted as soon as we have more concrete updates to share.
Thank you for sticking with us.
Your ININ Team
It’s nice that this is seemingly being addressed so quickly, but nevertheless disappointing that games are still being launched in sorry states before being improved after the fact. R-Type Dimensions III could well prove to be a cracking experience at some point in the future, but that 5/10 score will forever remain.
What are your thoughts on this, dear reader? Have you held off on purchasing Dimensions III following the initial reception? Let us know.
At the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major this weekend, the game’s developer Psyonix has officially announced a “new era” of the popular multiplayer game alongside the reveal of Unreal Engine 6.
The free-to-play title, powered by UE3, will shift to Epic Games’ new engine in the future. Fortnite was also featured in the trailer.
Image: Epic Games
Rocket League is currently available for the Switch and received an update for the Switch 2 earlier this year, which included visual and performance improvements.
When more about this new era of Rocket League and Unreal Engine 6 is revealed, we’ll provide an update.
The latest adventure of T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas hit Switch 2 earlier this week, and we’re sure the biggest Yoshi fans among you have been spending this weekend with it. It seems to have gone down well with plenty of critics, currently flutter-jumping with an impressive 81 on Metacritic.
In our review of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Ollie wasn’t quite as enthralled as some, though he didn’t think it was bad, which is why he gave it an appropriate ‘Not Bad – 6/10’ score, citing a lack of engaging mechanics and a handheld resolution that was a touch fuzzy (not quite enough to get dizzy, but disappointing all the same):
“There’s a lot of fun to be had in discovering the many creatures hidden within Mr. E’s pages, though it also suffers from a repetitive structure that doesn’t evolve or provide any sense of meaningful challenge. Visually, it also lacks the punch that Woolly World and Crafted World offered, and it frankly looks pretty bad in handheld mode.”
If you haven’t played it yet, no sweat – you’re free to return and rate the game at your leisure via the game’s page should the fancy take you. However, if you have been rinsing your way through Yoshi’s book over the last four days, oh, have we a poll for you!
How would you rate this one? We’re keen to get your thoughts, so share your rating below, and remember, you’re free to change your mind and adjust your score at any time via the aforementioned game page.
What score would you give Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (Switch 2)? (69 ratings)
10 – Outstanding10%
9 – Excellent17%
8 – Great29%
7 – Good17%
6 – Not Bad9%
5 – Average6%
4 – Poor4%
3 – Bad0%
2 – Terrible3%
1 – Abysmal4%
Thanks for your ‘vote’. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, eh? Sounds like a follow-up to the recent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, no? Tough to beat a good Proper Noun and the Adjective Noun.
The recently released Switch title Pokémon Champions has announced a new mystery gift event is now live.
If you enter the event code before31st May 2026 (akanext week), you’ll be able to add a Gyarados to your party. As highlighted by Serebii.net, this was announced at the Pokémon Trainers Cup at ‘Pokémon Sports Day’ in South Korea.
The Gyarados is equipped with the following moveset – Waterfall, Earthquake, Ice Fang and Dragon Dance, and also has the ‘Intimidate’ ability. It’s the first Pokémon distributed with a title and is officially known as ‘Gyarados the Festive’.
The code to redeem it is DRAG0NDANCEPTC26 – from the main menu, select the ‘Submenu’ icon, and from here, navigate to the ‘Mystery Gifts’ option and input the code.
Image: Nintendo Life / The Pokémon Company
As we’ve previously noted, if the game says the code has already been redeemed, or you’ve exceeded the maximum limit of code inputs within a certain time frame, don’t worry. Navigate back to the menu, and there should be a notification in your ‘Mailbox’. And if there is no notice, try restarting the game.
Have you tried out this title on the Switch or Switch 2 yet? How are you finding it so far? Let us know in the comments.
