Category: Nintendo News

Warcave and Crazy Monkey Studios have today announced the upcoming launch of Warparty on Nintendo Switch, a real-time strategy game arriving on 28th March.

The game has spent the last few months in Steam Early Access, preparing to unleash its prehistoric battles in full form later this month. As you can see in the trailer above, the game throws dinosaurs and mythical creatures into the typical RTS mix.

You’ll be playing as one of three factions – the Wildlanders, Necromas, or Vithara – each of which comes with its own units, buildings, playstyles, and talents to work with on the battlefield. Game modes include Survival, AI Skirmish and Custom Online Multiplayer, which offers RTS battles for up to six friends, and a fresh Story Campaign which comes with unique maps, factions, missions, and cinematic cutscenes.

What do you think? An RTS that could be good to take on the go? Or not your cup of prehistoric tea? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

As you may well be aware by now, a cool little set of Detective Pikachu movie-themed trading cards are being released next month. We’ve already seen just a handful of the cards set to appear, but The Pokémon Company has now shared several more and, being the lovely folk that we are, we thought we’d share them with you, too.

If you haven’t already seen the previous reveals, we’d urge you to take a look these when you’re done here. We were first treated to a glimpse at Pikachu himself along with Charizard and Greninja, and then we saw Jigglypuff, Mr. Mime, and Psyduck. Before you go, though, here are another five to longingly stare at for the rest of the day.

First up, we have Mewtwo.

Second, another version of Detective Pikachu, different to the first one we saw.

Pokémon’s number one, Bulbasaur.

Arguably the best moment from the latest trailer was the introduction of Ludicolo.

And finally, Machamp. We wish Machamp would help us to cross the roads in real life.

These cards won’t be available in your standard booster packs; the Detective Pikachu collection will only be found in special collections. They’re set to go on sale from 5th April.

Do you like the look of these cards? Are you a collector? Let us know if you’ll tracking these down next month in the comments below.

Japan often plays hosts to incredible Legend of Zelda concerts featuring fully orchestrated performances of beautiful pieces from the series’ history. Naturally, it’d be pretty expensive to fly over there and experience one first hand, but this new CD and blu-ray release might just do the trick.

Available with international shipping via Amazon Japan, this release comes in two variants. You can either grab a CD featuring a full soundtrack recording from the 2018 concert, or a fancy limited edition which also comes with a blu-ray of the performance and other goodies shown in the image below.

The standalone CD costs ￥3,240 before shipping (approx. £22 / $29), whereas the limited edition costs ￥4,972 (approx. £34 / $44.50).

You can get a sense of the audiovisual delights contained in the release with this video below. That Breath of the Wild intro… *shivers*.

Thinking of picking one up? Let us know which edition you might get in the comments.

Japanese chart figures are now in for 25th – 3rd March, revealing that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has managed to climb back up to number two this week.

The game narrowly beats New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe to that position, with just over 1,000 sales between them, but it’s Dead or Alive 6 which has managed to claim top spot this time around.

There are a few of new Switch entries this week; Zoids Wild: King of Blast entered at number nine, Darius Cozmic Collection managed eleventh, and Doraemon: Nobita’s Chronicle of the Moon Exploration came in at number 19.

Here are the top 20 (first numbers are this week’s sales, followed by total sales in brackets):

1) [PS4] Dead or Alive 6 (Square Enix, 03/01/19) – 26,442 (New)
2) [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 25,617 (2,909,033)
3) [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo, 01/11/19) – 24,436 (479,443)
4) [PS4] Anthem (Limited Edition Included) (Electronic Arts, 02/22/19) – 20,368 (98,306)
5) [PS4] Left Alive (Square Enix, 02/28/19) – 17,622 (New)
6) [NSW] Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! (Bundle Editions Included) (Nintendo, 11/16/18) – 12,864 (1,514,711)
7) [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 12,369 (2,154,698)
8) [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III (Limited Edition Included) (Square Enix, 01/25/19) – 10,983 (781,051)
9) [NSW] Zoids Wild: King of Blast (Takara Tomy, 02/28/19) – 10,030 (New)
10) [NSW] Super Mario Party (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/05/18) – 9,900 (1,037,559)
11) [NSW] Darius Cozmic Collection (Limited Edition Included) (Taito, 02/28/19) – 9,495 (New)
12) [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 8,986 (2,947,577)
13) [PS4] Jump Force (Bandai Namco, 02/14/19) – 8,655 (103,020)
14) [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Bundle Version Included) (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 8,638 (624,521)
15) [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 7,694 (1,307,507)
16) [PS4] NieR: Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition (Square Enix, 02/21/19) – 6,625 (27,950)
17) [PS4] Far Cry: New Dawn (Ubisoft, 02/15/19) – 6,000 (44,668)
18) [PS4] Resident Evil 2 (Z Version and Limited Edition Included) (Capcom, 01/25/19) – 4,505 (348,778)
19) [NSW] Doraemon: Nobita’s Chronicle of the Moon Exploration (FuRyu, 02/28/19) – 3,370 (New)
20) [PS4] Catherine: Full Body (Limited Edition Included) (Atlus, 02/14/19) – 3,000 (61,855)

The Switch has managed to sell more units this week than last, comfortably sitting at the top of the pile once again. Here are this week’s figures, with last week’s in brackets:

1) Switch – 68,666 (53,270)
2) PlayStation 4 – 11,871 (10,632)
3) PlayStation 4 Pro – 7,986 (6,956)
4) New 2DS LL – 6,202 (3,388)
5) PlayStation Vita – 3,287 (3,600)
6) New 3DS LL – 1,203 (1,052)
7) 2DS – 116 (113)
8) Xbox One X – 67 (51)
9) Xbox One – 23 (21)

< Last week’s charts

Any surprises this week? Surprised to see Smash back in second place? Let us know in the comments.

Nintendo’s delve into the world of mobile gaming came as quite a shock, especially considering the Japanese giant had barely even scratched the surface of the new and rapidly emerging practice of paid DLC at the time. The company has often been thought to be slightly behind the times when compared to its main competitors in several areas, but this was one such case where fans were actually happy about it.

The concerns surrounding Nintendo’s smartphone adventures were mostly centred around the typical free-to-play or free-to-start models, where players can pick up the game for free but need to shell out on lots of smaller transactions to properly progress through the game. Nonetheless, games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost have done exceptionally well.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, however, Nintendo seems to have adopted a more consumer-friendly approach to the practice. Players have been known to spend hundreds, if not thousands, trying to earn elusive in-game rewards or to speed up their play time, but Nintendo has reportedly asked its mobile development partners to adjust games and limit possible microtransactions.

The move comes as a way to prevent its loyal fanbase from spending too much unnecessarily, benefiting the player, but also ensuring that the Nintendo brand keeps its positive reputation. According to The Wall Street Journal, one CyberAgent official (parent company of Dragalia Lost developer, Cygames) has said that “Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game. If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more”.

It’s a refreshing approach in today’s climate, where paid DLC and countless microtransactions have simply become the norm for many developers. Here’s hoping that more companies follow suit in the years to come.

KEMCO has revealed that its fantasy RPG Bonds of the Skies is headed to the Switch. Pre-purchase options for the game are set to go live on the eShop tomorrow.

In this game, you’ll follow the story of Eil, who begins the adventure in the middle of his coming-of-age ceremony. During this event, his town is attacked by a demon and fully engulfed in flames, forcing Eil to partner up with Nogard (the little blue dragon) in order to save the day.

Bonds of the Skies actually launched on 3DS just a couple of years ago and releases on the PlayStation store today (hence the trailer above). We don’t have a release date or pricing for the Switch version just yet, but hopefully this information from the game’s press release will tide you over until then:

Form Partnerships with Grimoas!
Through your adventure, you will come across different Grimoas. By partnering with Grimoas, Eil and his friends can use hidden powers. Strengthen the bonds with them to be victorious in battles!

Synchro Gauge and Special Skills
You can set up to five mastered skills, so long as the total costs of the skills do not exceed the characters’ cost limit. In addition, when the Synchro Gauge with the Grimoas reaches 100%, you can use special skills, more powerful than normal!

Other Features
– Turn-based battles with a pixelated dot animation
– A vast variety of skills to master
– Collect all the Grimoas and unleash the Synchro Skills!
– A wide range of achievements, including quests to complete and items to collect

The pre-purchase period, set to begin tomorrow, will offer players the chance to get 10% off the full asking price. If you’re interested, make sure to keep an eye out for it appearing on the eShop tomorrow.

Did you play this one on 3DS? Ready to give it a chance on Switch? As ever, let us know in the comments.

Joining the small army of puzzle games on the Switch eShop later this month is She Remembered Caterpillars, a quirky looking title that may be worth keeping an eye on.

Described as “a fungipunk fantasy about love, loss, and holding on”, She Remembered Caterpillars has players exploring a mysterious world inhabited by similarly mysterious creatures. You’ll need to lead these cute little critters through a collection of 40+ puzzles, presumably learning all about said love and loss along the way.

It seems to feature lovely hand-drawn art throughout, with puzzles being based on colours displayed on-screen. The game actually launched on Steam back in 2017, receiving a relatively small number of reviews which have averaged out as being “mostly positive”.

Here’s a list of game features taken from its Steam page:

Features:
– Gorgeous artwork from Symmetrain (IGF 2014 Student Showcase Award) creator Daniel Leander Goffin.
– 40 levels of brain-bending puzzles, with each new act presenting a fresh mechanic or a different color.
-A haunting soundtrack by Thomas Höhl, composer for Galaxy On Fire and the well-known Deponia (1–3) franchise.
– She Remembered Caterpillars can easily be played by the color-blind, thanks to its unique usage of shapes and symbols

It’s scheduled to launch on Switch on 28th March, although no pricing details have yet been revealed.

A nice little puzzler to play on the go? Let us know your thoughts in the usual place.

Paperbound Brawlers arrives on Nintendo Switch this Friday, and it’s said to be bringing “gravity-defying, intense, and hilarious battles” along for the ride.

In this game, magic has brought characters to life in the pages of a book and this has led to said characters taking each other on in crazy acrobatic battles (as you do). You’ll be wielding pencils, ink bombs, and scissors as weapons, with a variety of game modes such as ‘Gravity Ball’ and ‘Capture the Quill’ to keep you busy. You can check out the action in the trailer above.

Paperbound Brawlers is an “expanded and improved” edition of Paperbound, which originally launched on Steam and PlayStation 4. As well as keeping the features from that initial version, this new release on Switch has added the following:

• The new Gravity Ball game mode with a new arena and gameplay mutators
• Beautiful new character art to give the combatants a more fearsome look.
• A dynamic camera system that focuses in on the action

Up to four players can play together on the same console, so those versatile little Joy-Con should come in handy when this one launches on 8th March (this Friday).

Do you like the look of Paperbound Brawlers? Will you be giving it a go? Let us know in the comments.