Publisher PQube Games has revealed that it will be bringing Kill la Kill: IF to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4 in Europe.
Being developed by Arc System Works, this game is being designed to recreate the feel of the original series, with animation studio Trigger keeping a careful eye on proceedings. A press release for the announcement states that the anime from which the game is based on will “be faithfully reproduced, bringing fans their favourite scenes revived with stunning visuals and cinematics – as well as a whole new story in a brand new ‘IF’ scenario”.
Players will find themselves performing devastating combos with their favourite characters from the anime in 3D arenas. Once again, the press release notes that the game “combines the perfect balance of simplicity in control with complexity in depth to provide players with a uniquely satisfying fighting experience”.
No specific release date has been revealed just yet, but the game has been scheduled for a release sometime this year. The tweet above mentions that it will be arriving both digitally and physically.
Are you hyped for this one? Will you be picking it up when it launches later this year? Let us know in the comments.
Baltoro Games has revealed that it has been working on Moto Rush GT for the Nintendo Switch, a racer which is set to include support for Nintendo Labo’s Toy-Con Motorbike.
The team describes the game as “a well-polished, dynamic and fast-paced racer aimed at both adults and kids”, with multiple game modes and bikes on offer for your enjoyment. As well as being inspired by games like Horizon Chase Turbo, Out Run, and Traffic Rider, the game has been born thanks to the studio’s love for Nintendo’s Labo kits, no doubt explaining why support for the Toy-Con has been included.
We don’t have any gameplay footage to share with you just yet, unfortunately, but we do have this feature list to give you some more info:
– Over 100 levels! – 12 bikes that can be customized, changed and recolored! – Endless racing experience! – Optional Nintendo Toy-Con support – play with your LABO! – 60fps and fast-paced gameplay! – Race against time, ghost opponents or try various challenges! – Tilt support – play by rotating your console! – 4 different modes balanced for both adults and kids! – Weather and day-night cycle effects: night, rain and storms! – Inspired by arcade culture games and six-generation era racers!
The game is scheduled to zoom onto the Switch this April, so make sure to keep an eye out for more news as we get closer to that release window.
Do you like the sound of this one? Would you like to use your Labo Toy-Con with more games? Tell us below.
There aren’t really any ultra-realistic motorsport offerings available on the Nintendo Switch. Each one that has been touted as the real deal has often run out of gas before reaching the finish line. Motorsport Manager by Playsport Games and Curve Digital takes a different completely different route. Instead of actually driving cars, you manage them. It’s described as a “racing management strategy game” and is the motorsport equivalent of Football Manager.
The game was previously released on Android, iOS and PC. The Switch version is said to be more of the same, allowing players to immerse themselves in a living, breathing world of motorsport crammed with strategic decision-making, as they attempt to lead their team to glory. Here’ some more information, directly from the PR:
As the manager of a fledgling team, players can scout new talent, build and buy better parts and push their technology to make it to the top step of the podium. Everything from the cars, engineers and mechanics, to the headquarters, sponsors, and more is within the player’s control – as long as they keep an eye on their cash flow! The very best managers must be able to expand their racing empire and get the results on the track to keep their team in pole position.
Below are the latest features, including exclusive Nintendo Switch content:
20 UNIQUE CIRCUITS AND 65 TRACK LAYOUTS: Including a brand new Nintendo Switch™ exclusive circuit in New Zealand, as well as a night race in Singapore.
EXPANSIVE TEAM CUSTOMISATION: Hire drivers, develop cars and invest in infrastructure to achieve the perfect qualifying lap.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT GAMEPLAY: Formulate the ideal pit-stop plan to win races and watch the race in real-time or jump into the strategy screens to take control of the action.
GRAPHICAL ENHANCEMENTS: Experience the game with higher resolution artwork and 3D cars, exclusive to Nintendo Switch.
GAME EDITOR: Included for Nintendo Switch, the Game Editor allows players to fully customise the world of Motorsport Manager, from teams down to engineers.
Do you watch motorsport? Would you be interested in this upcoming release? Tell us below.
I don’t think this is set in the reboot universe, this looks to be a somewhat shot to shot remake of the first movie but in CG. Even the original writer, who’s no longer with us, is credited for writing it.
I did wonder if that were the case, maybe they’ll just reuse the voice track and music from the original, but Mewtwo’s VA seems to have confirmed they’re recording a new voice track. Gotta be interesting to see what the Dub will do, will they leave in the music like the Power of Us letting Western fans finally hear the original Japanese music core (if its not a new one.), reuse the original’s English dub’s score (Though likely without the pop songs) or record an all new score together that either recreates tunes from the original’s dub or new music entirely much like movie’s 17-20? Course, it’ll probably be the TPCI’s current VAs as Ash and co….maybe.
As you probably already know by now, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé is set to retire from his position this April. Reggie has become such a huge part of the company over the last 15 years that it’s hard to imagine Nintendo without him, and his enthusiasm for the role, appreciation of his position and the fans, and pure personality have left a huge impact on the industry.
To celebrate and thank the ‘Regginator’ for the good times over the years, YouTube user lookfishart has created a speed drawing video, showing the creation of an art piece which acts as a tribute to the man himself. We thought the epic music playing in the background might have been a bit much at first, but being reminded of his video highlights throughout the clip reminded us that he really has generated that amount of love and respect from fans.
It might be time for him to move on, but he’ll definitely be missed. Check out the video for yourself below.
Will you miss Reggie going forward? Are you ready to embrace the new Bowser era? Share your thoughts with us below.
The My Nintendo rewards service in North America has introduced a handful of Pokémon goodies this week to celebrate Pokémon Day, the anniversary of the original games’ release in Japan.
First up we have a couple of game discounts available. As always, you can take advantage of these discounts by simply using the required Gold or Platinum My Nintendo Points listed below.
And last but not least we have a free printable ‘Happy Pokémon Day’ card. Of course, Pokémon Day was actually yesterday so it might be a little pointless now (sorry!) but you could always save it for next year!
We hope you’re a Pokémon fan because it’s pretty hard to keep away from the pesky critters at the moment. Let us know if you’ll be using any of these discounts in the comments below.
As you may have already seen if you’ve checked out the Nintendo Download for Europe this week, Ubisoft is hosting a pretty spectacular sale on the eShop for the next couple of weeks.
There are a total of 15 games up for grabs at up to 69% off, with extra savings on DLC and the like, too. You can pick up games like the excellent Mario + Rabbids Kingdom battle for less than £15, and Starlink: Battle for Atlas is available for just £21.69.
You can see all of the savings below; you have until 13th March to claim these deals from the eShop.
Yesterday’s reveal of Pokémon Sword and Shield didn’t give all that much away about the new games, but one particularly notable segment introduced the three new starter Pokémon we can expect to choose from on our journey.
As series veterans will be aware, a great emphasis has always been placed on your first Pokémon (even though you could technically store them in the PC never to be seen again, if you wish) and that initial decision can be a real challenge. Do you choose your favourite type? The cutest? The strongest-looking? It’s tough, and your decision stays with you throughout the game.
But which of the three Generation 8 Pokémon have captured players’ hearts right from the start? Well, to find out exactly that, the official Pokémon Twitter account posted a poll just after the big reveal and the votes are now in. You’ve probably already gathered as much thanks to this article’s title, but the water-type Sobble has come out on top.
It turned out to be a pretty close contest; Sobble may have won with 38% of the vote, but the fire-type Scorbunny was just behind on 37%. Poor Grookey only managed 25%, so a quarter of the 212,740 votes placed in total.
But what about you? Let us know which starter is your favourite in the comments below and feel free to check out our trailer breakdown to reminisce over yesterday’s events.
In 1991, a strange new game released for the Sega Mega Drive: ToeJam & Earl, a title that defied conventions of both genre and style. That original spaced-out adventure became known as a classic of the era by way of its distinctive presentation and roguelike gameplay. Could a similar formula work as well in a revival 28 years later?
ToeJam & Earl Back in the Groove finds our two favourite eponymous intergalactic funkmasters in a bind. They have crash-landed their Rapmaster Rocketship on Earth, and the darn thing broke into a dozen pieces now scattered across the planet. In order to find them, you’ll take a bird’s eye view and guide your an extraterrestrial across Earthy landscapes, trying to recover all twelve ship pieces. Along the way, you’ll encounter Earthling enemies along with hostile landscapes.
Like the 1991 original, Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove is a cartoony, sci-fi twist on the classic roguelike genre. Like an old ASCII dungeon-crawler, you go through the world one level at a time. There’s a minimap, which is unlocked a section at a time when you tiptoe into new territory. Character stats like health, inventory size, speed, and luck can slowly build through gaining XP and levelling up with the Wiseman. The characters have different strengths from the beginning; ToeJam moves fast but has little health, for example, while Earl is slow but beefy.
In Random World, the levels are generated randomly, leading to some potentially tricky situations. In Fixed World, there’s more of a solid expectation for the 25 levels, but you will still deal with enemy-placement oddities and present arrangements.
Oh, right, the presents. In ToeJam & Earl, you don’t get to just pick up an item and use it all willy-nilly. Each new present (literally, like, a Christmas present, all wrapped up) is unknown until you try it, although after trying a present variety once you’ll have it identified for the rest of your adventure. The problem is, not every present is good, so trying new ones can be potentially harmful. One present sounds an alarm, alerting enemies to your presence and ruining the usual light-stealth mechanics at work. Another present gives you ‘bad food’ instead of healing food, so it takes some health away. Then there’s the ‘Total Bummer’ present, which kills you instantly.
And that’s where you might begin to detect ToeJam & Earl’s design philosophy of randomness and redundancy. The games throws so much zany stuff at the player(s) that it’s easy to be continually charmed by new shiny things, but ultimately can be pretty iterative. There are systems within systems, and the ingredients don’t always add up.
For example, each character can ‘Search’ with the Y button, which sends out a pulse-wave thing that shows which of the surrounding plants or structures contain something (they’ll wiggle if they do). You can then search them and get a present or something else, like money.
So you slowly gain money. With the money, you can purchase services from ally characters. For example, you can fix presents! But why do your items ever need fixing? Why, that’s because sometimes your presents are broken and can’t be used. It’s just another random thing, like the harmful presents you might run into when trying them for the first time. But if you pay the right friendly Earthling, your presents can be identified.
So the solution (an entire in-game economy!) exists solely for problems that don’t need to, only to add difficulty through randomness. There’s one character that instantly sends you back down a level, necessitating some annoying backtracking. Does this really add a fair kind of challenge, and enhance the feeling of reward to play through? Why are some stages cast in darkness? Did we mention that each level ends by finding the elevator, but there’s an enemy that mimics the elevator in order to take you back a stage instead of forward? At least you can escape it, if you notice the teeth in time.
If you look at this game in a slightly different light (is it fun to discover a hidden path, or is it strange that I should have to walk around an entire landscape edge just to finally find my way across the gap?), you begin to perhaps see how session time is inflated in cheap ways.
However, this is all very true to the original 16-bit game, and that had its share of fans. As long as you can accept that zany randomness is just part of the ToeJam & Earl experience, there’s a good time to be had here. It’s fun to see all the bizarre enemies, from the Insane Dentist to the Cow Ghost and the Man in Black who will make you forget what your presents are. The presents themselves are amusing, from rocket skates that are a little too fast to be helpful to random teleports and Icarus Wings to enable glorious, freeing flight.
Beyond the randomness, there are layers of strategy to figure out, too. Enemies that seem like major threats turn out to have movement patterns to be exploited. There’s a certain satisfaction in gaining XP efficiently (grab the telephone whenever possible!) and getting a good set of stat boosts in a level-up. The game presents a measure of wackiness, yes, but there’s still a solid roguelike design under the hood somewhere.
One refreshing developer choice is the extensive documentation on deck. Right from the start, the Game Manual section of the options presents comprehensive galleries and descriptions of every variety of present, food, Earthling, player-characters, and other lists. There are in-game achievements, a solid dose of unlockables, credits featuring the Kickstarter backer names, and a well-executed Tutorial. These features definitely help prevent the game from feeling overwhelming.
In fact, while honouring the franchise legacy (you’ll see the Hyperfunk Zone from ToeJam & Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron, and characters like Latisha from the third title) as a whole, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove sets out to be as good as it can while sticking to the original formula faithfully. Nostalgic fans should be happy to see an experience that feels like the first game finally got a fresh coat of paint. Enjoying it to a new funk-flavored soundtrack of slap bass jams and hip hop tracks is just icing.
We did not get a chance to try the online multiplayer, but ToeJam & Earl is a solid choice to play with a friend to cover more ground and find ship parts more quickly. If it wasn’t for occasionally penalizing the player with randomness, this would be the perfect game to kick back and chill with. Still, it’s a fun reimagining of an iconic entry in games history, produced smoothly and delightfully. Even at its most random, it’s never as bad as being just-plain bad, and helping ToeJam & Earl get back home still feels rewarding.
Conclusion
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is a faithful enhancement to the classic original. It might not satisfy those looking for their next big blockbuster or ‘prestige indie’ title as the design may feel somewhat dated, despite the game’s own attempts to obfuscate the obsolete with the arbitrary. This funky, distinctive game should please the nostalgic while being unique enough to attract, and satisfy, the curious. Details such as the exhaustive documentation and varying minigames definitely show some heart in the development. Ultimately, this is a package that is designed to appeal to pre-existing fans rather than create entirely new ones, but if you’re a fan of this kind of game and don’t mind the odd spot of randomness, then you should give it a try.
Indie game publisher Sold Out has today announced that it will be bringing Imagineer’s recent release Little Friends: Dogs & Cats to Switch in the west this spring.
We first heard about this one last September when the game was first revealed in an issue of Famitsu magazine. The game soon released in Japan in December, but we haven’t had any confirmation of a release in Europe and North America until now. If you’re a fan of the Nintendogs series who’s been hoping for a similar title on Switch, it looks like you’re about to be in luck.
The game lets you choose from a variety of puppies and kittens to play with, feed, pet, and dress up in a no-doubt adorable simulation setup. You can play with your pet using their favourite new toy, or even take your new puppy out for walks and compete in a flying disc tournament. There are more than 600 accessories included to make your new best friend stand out, as well as the following features:
Game Features:
– Meet your new best friend! Choose from 6 breeds of puppy and 3 cute kittens, including Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd and French Bulldog. Give your new friend a name, care for them and develop a bond with them. Lifelike animations help bring your little friends to life.
– Play with them! Use the Nintendo Switch touch screen to pet your new friend, or take your puppy pal out on walks to keep them as happy as you can. Play ball, practice for the flying disc tournament, and unlock new toys as you play. Play with up to 3 pets at the same time, or use the hotel to keep up to 12 furry friends.
– Get to know them! Learn what your pet prefers to play and feed them their favourite food. With hundreds of lifelike personality traits, getting to know what each pet prefers is important for bonding with your little friend.
– Dress up! Choose from over 600 stylish accessories to dress up your new companion. Once they’re ready, take screenshots to remember their amazing outfits.
– Look after them anytime, anywhere! Take care of your cats and dogs on the go, or put the console in the dock to continue playing on the TV.
We still don’t have a specific release date or pricing for this one, but we do know that it’ll be arriving “this spring”. PAX East visitors will also be able to go hands-on next month; the game will be displayed at booth #24096.
Do you like pet simulation games? Will this one be going to the top of your Switch wishlist? Let us know below.
