According to multiple retailer listings in North America, the physical Deluxe Edition of Wolfenstein: Youngblood on the Nintendo Switch might not actually include a game card. This version of the game will instead come with a download code which can be redeemed from the eShop. The same applies to the game’s Standard Edition physical release. Here’s the notice on the GameStop web page:
No cartridge for this game. Code will be packed in box. Internet connection required.
Until now, there’s been no mention about the Deluxe Edition possibly being a download-only retail release. Assuming these listings are accurate, Bethesda could have easily revealed this on the extensive FAQ page, as it does provide some extra information about the Standard Edition in certain regions:
*Note, the Standard Edition is only available as a digital download across Europe, Australia & New Zealand
Right now, there’s no word if this will apply to the physical Deluxe Edition release in regions outside of North America.
What do you make of this? Tell us down in the comments.
There’s been another Mortal Kombat 11 character reveal during the latest Kombat Kast. This time NetherRealm Studios introduces us to a fighter with four arms named Kollector. Below is a description along with the official reveal trailer, showcasing the characters full move set against Baraka. Just be warned, the clip contains graphic content.
A proud servant of the Outworld Empire, the Kollector cares only for his wealth and status and will kill anyone to keep it.
Earlier this week, Game Informer also exclusively revealed the Elder Goddess Cetrion. Once again, graphic content is on display.
Are you looking forward to the release of Mortal Kombat 11 on the Switch? What do you think of these latest characters? Tell us down below.
Sega’s Yakuza games don’t really have much of a history with Nintendo’s platforms, but somehow questions continue to be asked about the possibility of the series coming to the Switch.
During an interview with IGN Japan recently, series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi said the third-person action adventure games had not been considered for the Switch, at least for now. While it’s not much, it is slightly different from the response we heard last July, about Nintendo’s hybrid system not being the right platform for this series.
This followed on with a question asking if there was a chance of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima – two lead characters from the series – appearing as DLC characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Nagoshi seemed to find this amusing and jokingly said the game’s director Masahiro Sakurai wouldn’t want them.
The last time the Yakuza series graced one of Nintendo’s platforms was during the Wii U generation when Sega gave Yakuza 1 & 2 HD a Japan-only release in 2013. Sales bombed and the bundle shipped less than 2000 copies in its first week.
Would you like to see Yakuza given a second chance on a Nintendo platform? Have you ever wanted to see this series represented in Smash Bros? Tell us down below.
Well… Here we are at the end of yet another week. This week brought us all sorts of April Fools nonsense, including an excellent (but fake) Nintendo Direct presentation, and even some potential – and tasty sounding – leaks from Best Buy, but now it’s time to sit back and talk about our weekend plans. Members of the team have done just that below, and we’d love for you to join in via our comments and poll sections below. Enjoy!
Gavin Lane, staff writer
News that Civilization VI now supports cross-saves between Switch and PC reminded me that I’ve been meaning to go back to that game for months now, so I would love to find a couple of hours over the weekend to sit down with a Civ I haven’t tried yet.
I have visitors this weekend, though, so I expect we’ll be cracking out Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and perhaps some Overcooked 2. Alternatively, I might try Catastronauts out on the unsuspecting crowd – it’s essentially an Overcooked ‘clone’ that channels the same frantic action and management while mixing in a healthy dose of Star Trek. It’s good, solid fun that gets a thumbs up from me.
Ryan Craddock, staff writer
This weekend I’m doing something usually unheard of for me, actually leaving my house and seeing some other human beings for ‘fun’. As such, my current playthrough of Yoshi’s Crafted World will be temporarily put on hold, and I’ll likely end up playing several rounds of what is arguably the Switch’s best game for gatherings: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Having said that, the friends I’m seeing also love to have the odd round of Party Golf, a quirky little game full of all sorts of crazy shenanigans. With a bit of luck, we’ll be laughing our way through that, too.
Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer
This weekend I’ll be really mixing it up with some comedic case solving with the classic collection that is the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. When I’m not shouting “Objection!”, I’ll be attempting to survive and thrive aboard a starship in the deep space of Out There: The Alliance. I loved FTL and this looks like it’ll scratch that intergalactic management sim itch. Finally, I’ll be getting my point-and-click on with the Kickstarted world of The Mystery of Woolley Mountain. Look out for all three, in review form, next week on the site.
Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer
April is a big month for the Switch and this first week certainly delivered. My weekend will be mostly made up of eShop masterpieces such as Feather, Hob: The Definitive Edition, Overwhelm, Pressure Overdrive, AngerForce: Reloaded and the part brilliant, part hardcore run’n’gun insanity of Mechstermination Force! For cartridge based entertainment I will go with the ridiculously addictive Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission (got SSJ4 Broly on my first Gacha attempt, everyone lost their minds!) and the Air Conflicts Collection double dose for generous amounts of aerial combat.
My game of the week is the truly special The friends of Ringo Ishikawa, a delightful 16-bit throwback to my rebellious Japanese delinquent youth days. Don’t worry, I cleaned up my act and nowadays I write for Nintendo Life.
Liam Doolan, news writer
This weekend I intend to spend the majority of my time trying to escape from prison in Furi. I’m ashamed to say, but this is a game I somehow overlooked when it was originally released on the Switch eShop at the beginning of last year. I was immediately sold when I saw the update trailer for the game the other day. It’s easy to see why the developer says it’s been inspired by the likes of No More Heroes, Metal Gear Solid and God Hand based on the game’s funky combat, aesthetics, and soundtrack.
If I get the chance, I would also like to train up in Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission. I’ve oddly been craving a Dragon Ball card game on the Switch for some time now, so this is a great chance to finally get my fix.
Which games are you playing this weekend? (277 votes)
According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data, Nintendo’s first quarter in 2019 has been its third-best period for mobile gaming revenue to date. The Japanese publisher’s mobile titles grossed approximately $85 million worldwide across the Google Play and App Store, which is a six percent increase year-over-year. This figure still trails behind the fourth quarter of 2018 ($112.3 million) and the first quarter of 2017 ($106.6 million).
Fire Emblem Heroes was the company’s top earner during this period, with an estimated total of $46.6 million player spending globally. This was a 30 percent decrease when compared to the game’s first-quarter earnings in 2018 ($66.2 million). However, quarter-over-quarter it was a five percent increase for the title.
Nintendo’s most recent mobile release Dragalia Lost suffered from a 55 percent decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 (earning roughly $23.4 million), but this was still enough to increase the company’s overall mobile growth and prevent it from being “down 23 percent” from the previous first quarter.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp had somewhat of a resurgence in player spending during the first quarter of 2019, with gross revenue worldwide reaching $12.9. This was a 30 percent increase year-over-year when compared to the $9.9 million it pulled in 2018. Lastly, Super Mario Run made up just three percent of Nintendo’s total mobile revenue (approximately $2.3 million) in the most recent quarter – though, this was a 15 percent increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. Compared to the first quarter earnings in 2018 ($3.9 million), this was 41 percent less.
The upcoming mobile releases Mario Kart Tour and Dr. Mario World – releasing in the second half of this year – are expected to make significant contributions to Nintendo’s mobile earnings.
If Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hasn’t already received enough praise, it’s now taken out Famitsu’s 2018 Game of the Year Award alongside Monster Hunter: World. It’s a similar situation to the previous year when The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Dragon Quest XI both won. The game’s creator Masahiro Sakurai received the MVP award and the pink puffball Kirby – who was tasked with saving the day in Ultimate’s World of Light mode – was awarded character of the year.
One award-winning game that didn’t receive quite as much attention as other releases last year was the first-person monochromatic puzzle title, Return of the Obra Dinn. Following its recent success at the BAFTA Awards, fans are now wondering if the computer game will sail onto the Switch anytime soon.
Speaking to Metro, the game’s creator Lucas Pope said he had no specific details to share about a potential Switch port right now and hadn’t really worked out anything “solid” just yet.
“A lot of people are asking for it. Actually the first response when I released it for desktops was, ‘When is it coming to Switch?’ So the writing is on the wall on that I guess. I haven’t figured anything out yet solid for it yet though.”
Here’s the backstory, courtesy of the game’s Steam page:
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn’t met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.
Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company’s London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.
Would you be interested in seeing this game released on the Switch eShop in the near future? Tell us down in the comments.
For some unfathomable reason, Gain Ground has something of a cult following with Sega fans. Originally released in arcades in 1988, it gained notoriety largely down to the fact that it was quite unlike anything that had appeared before; while it looked like Atari’s Gauntlet, the gameplay was actually totally different, requiring the player to marshal warriors from different periods of time through increasingly challenging single-screen environments.
Running on Sega’s System 24 coin-op hardware and boasting a portrait screen orientation, Gain Ground felt a little underwhelming when compared to other arcade titles available at the time, and is perhaps best known for its subsequent conversion on the Genesis / Mega Drive – which was met with an equally lukewarm reception from the gaming press at the period. Simply put, Gain Ground wasn’t up to the high standard of Sega’s arcade output in the late ’80s.
It’s puzzling then that it has effectively jumped to the front of the queue in Sega’s ‘Ages’ range of titles, all of which are ported by the emulation experts at M2. We can only assume it holds a special place in the heart of someone at either Sega or M2, because there are many other games in the company’s vast and enviable library that are much more deserving of a resurrection than this. Still, in its favour, this is the original arcade version of the game and as such offers a fairly unique experience, even for those retro gaming veterans who remember playing the home port all those years ago.
Set in a future where mankind has finally settled all of its differences and everyone lives in peace, the game is focused on a computer simulation – the titular ‘Gain Ground’ – which has been created by the world’s greatest minds to allow people to maintain their aggressive, war-like instincts in a safe and controlled environment. The trouble is that the computer suddenly goes haywire and starts killing those who enter the simulation, as well as taking several innocents hostage. You must enter Gain Ground with your team of warriors to rescue the hostages and shut down the computer.
It’s a pretty silly plot, but you have to applaud Sega for at least trying to do something creative in order to justify the fact that Gain Ground is set across several time periods in human history; the idea is that the simulation could replicate these eras and give humanity the varied skills it needs to maintain that tactical edge. The end result is a game that not only spans hundreds of years in terms of environments but also offers up a cast of playable warriors that range from primitive cavemen to laser-spewing soldiers from the future. It’s an odd mix, and it only gets odder the more you play.
While the game boasts some high-resolution visuals for a title from the late ’80s, the actual graphics are pretty poor. The sprites are tiny and look very goofy indeed, with stilted animation that certainly isn’t anything to get excited about. The single-screen levels are also disappointingly sparse and lacking in detail; even when playing in TATE mode (you can use it with the Flip Grip, naturally), Gain Ground doesn’t dazzle. It’s a very basic affair in terms of presentation, and that extends to the music, which is surprisingly weak for a Sega game from this period in time.
The real killer is the gameplay, which many fans will tell you has been badly misunderstood over the years. Gain Ground may look like a Commando-style shooter, but if you go in all guns blazing you’re likely to see the ‘Game Over’ screen pretty swiftly. Sega has previously referred to it as a ‘strategy action’ title, which sounds overblown but is actually quite an accurate description of what’s involved here; it’s all about knowing how to attack each enemy and picking the right character for the job.
There are a lot of variables in Gain Ground, despite the rather lacklustre nature of the levels. Some enemies swam you on sight, while others will only attack or approach when you move within a certain distance. Some have weapons which are short-ranged but can be thrown over obstacles, while others rely solely on their speed to get close and hit your with their melee attacks. There are large ‘boss’-like enemies to face, and as you progress through each time zone, the weaponry available to your adversaries becomes more advanced. Other enemies are situated on high platforms, which means you need the right kind of weapon to successfully dispatch them. This is where your team of warriors comes into play.
Each warrior has a basic attack and a secondary attack. The latter is key to getting past some of the game’s harder stages, as these are often weapons that can be fired upwards onto high pieces of scenery to take out archers and the like. As a result, many of the levels you’ll face can only be overcome by employing good, old-fashioned trial-and-error; you need to painstakingly figure out which route to take, which warrior to use and how best to deal with the more aggressive enemies present. You also have to take into consideration certain enemies that only appear once you reach a particular point of the level.
The objective is to either kill all of the enemies or reach the part of the level marked ‘Exit’ before the surprisingly strict time limit expires. To add another level of complexity, there are hostages to liberate on some of the levels, and if you can successfully get them to the exit, they will be added to your available roster of warriors on the next stage, giving you more options moving forward.
It all sounds like a pretty interesting setup, but in practice, it’s anything but. For starters, Gain Ground is awkward to play due to the fact that even aiming your weapon at an oncoming foe is a challenge in itself. For some reason, Sega decided to make each character left or right-handed, and this impacts where your projectiles appear when you press fire. Because of this, it’s possible to be lined up almost perfectly with an enemy and still miss them because your good arm is a pixel or so to the left or right. You could argue this gives the game even more depth, but when you’re in the middle of a tense firefight, the last thing on your mind is “Did I pick a warrior who was left or right-handed?” It’s just an unnecessary annoyance that adds little to the game, other than making it frustrating.
Each character has different speed attributes, but on the whole, none of them is particularly fast and this can lead to some annoying deaths, too – especially when you consider that some of the enemies you face are as rapid as Usain Bolt trying to catch a bus. The collision detection is also painfully unforgiving, with your character’s hitbox being just that little bit too large, so projectiles that look like they’ve grazed you kill your warrior instantly.
Death comes quick and often in Gain Ground, largely because it doesn’t actually mean the end of your game. When one of your warriors dies, they become a ‘hostage’ on the level and you simply call in another of your characters. If they can reach their fallen comrade without dying, they can escort them to the exit so they’re ready to fight another day. However, should they die before rescuing them – or if the level is completed without picking them up first – then they’re gone forever, which presents another of Gain Ground’s more egregious issues.
As we’ve already touched upon, certain warriors are needed to defeat certain enemies; if you’ve got a foe who is happily raining down projectiles from higher ground and you don’t have a character who can reply in kind, then you’re basically screwed. This situation happens more often than you’d imagine, and leads to an incredible amount of frustration. Given how easy is it to lose a vital character due to the ropey controls, slow movement and the fact you have to remember which bloody hand their weapon is in, getting anywhere in Gain Ground is a real test of patience. Oh, and did we mention that some of the stages literally flood you with enemies from the get-go, giving you little chance to figure out what the best strategy is, let alone which character you’re best off using?
To mitigate this, M2 has thoughtfully included a ‘Rewind’ feature which allows you to skip back five seconds when things end up going wrong. This makes things a lot easier to stomach, as does the ‘Full Member Mode’, which removes the need to rescue other warriors along the way and gives you all 20 characters from the outset. It’s also worth noting that when playing the ‘International’ version of the game in this Switch port, you can use three Joy-Con and play as a trio, something that was possible in the original arcade edition (the Japanese version only supports two players). Even so, none of these elements change the fact that Gain Ground, for all of its clever ideas and deep strategy, is actually much fun to play.
Some real, official Joy-Con for your viewing pleasure
With the Nintendo Switch seemingly growing in popularity by the day, it will hardly come as a surprise to most of you that there are unofficial controllers knocking about, hoping to cash in by offering a cheaper – and very similar-looking – alternative to the real deal.
Some ‘fakes’ can be spotted instantly, and some third-party controllers are officially licensed and perfectly safe to use with your console, but others might cause more of an issue. While regular readers of the site – who no doubt know what every millimetre of a Switch looks like – will be able to see the differences, those looking to buy accessories for their friends or family may not.
As such, we feel it worth sending out a friendly reminder that controllers such as these below will not have been approved by Nintendo and could cause damage to your system. These ‘fake’ or unofficial Joy-Con use the same colour scheme as the real deal and even offer the same features – including rumble, sensor functions, and the ability to connect to the main tablet.
There are plenty of similar controllers waiting for unsuspecting customers on sites such as eBay. We found all of the following products on the first page of search results for ‘Joy-Con’.
If you’re looking to pick up some controllers for your Switch, or maybe for a friend, we’ve got a full guide to the best (and safely official) controllers you can get your hands on.
Marvelous Europe and XSEED Games have confirmed that Senran Kagura: Peach Ball will launch on Nintendo Switch in the west. The game is expected to release this summer.
We first heard about this one way back in August 2017, when series producer Kenichiro Takaki revealed that the project was something he had “always wanted to do“. The game is the latest entry in the genre-spanning Senran Kagura franchise, this time featuring a pinball twist. We have a description, taken straight from an official press release today, for you to check out below:
So…this is going to take some explaining. Haruka, the mad scientist of Homura’s Crimson Squad, is up to her usual experiments again, brewing up mysterious concoctions with unknown effects. Unfortunately for her fellow shinobi, she’s chosen the local arcade she works at as her laboratory, storing her experiments in the bathroom. After an accidental outbreak infects five of her shinobi friends, she learns that her latest concoction can transform those exposed it into animals, at least mentally.
Now, with Asuka, Yumi, Yomi, Ryona, and Murasaki causing wild havoc in and around the arcade, Haruka has devised a way to return these shinobi to their senses – the mystical Peach Ball. Applied to a subject’s body repeatedly, with the proper vibrational force, it can undo the effects of her experiment. Conveniently, it’s just the right size for a pinball table. Now all Haruka needs is a skilled assistant to operate the table, bopping each shinobi girl with the ball until she comes around.
You can see a brand new trailer for the game below. (Note: The video contains suggestive themes and an unsurprising lack of pinball content).
Here’s a screenshot of some of that missing pinball content, should you be interested.
The game will launch in Europe, North America and Australia this summer; it has been confirmed that North America will receive a limited edition physical release which will be available from select retailers.
Will you be keeping an eye on this one? Why not ‘bop’ your way down to our comments section below?
