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Nintendo Download: 28th February (Europe)

Trials Rising - Nintendo Switch

The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Switch Retail – New Releases

Trials Rising (Ubisoft, €24.99 / £19.99) – Explore over-the-top action and physics-bending motorcycle racing in the latest opus of the Trials franchise. All new features, more competitions and more tracks means new challenges. Ride challenging tracks around the world – from the Great Wall of China and New York City to the Eiffel Tower and everywhere in between. – Read our Trials Rising review

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (WB Games, €39.99 / £34.99) – The alien monster invaders have left Bricksburg in ruins and taken Emmet’s friends! It is now up to Emmet and a host of heroic characters to go beyond their world and save their friends from the strange inhabitants of the Systar System. Journey into outer space, discover new worlds, and test your Master Building skills.

Rad Rodgers Radical Edition (HandyGames, €29.99 / £26.99) – Rad is a rambunctious but spirited young boy who maybe plays too many video games. After dozing off at the tail end of a long night of gaming, Rad awakens to find his dusty old console has turned itself back on. Suddenly a vortex emerges and he’s sucked into his TV, where he finds himself the star in his very own video game adventure.

Crash Dummy (Funbox Media, €29.99 / £26.99) – The evil D-TROIT has kidnapped MIA, the Advisor’s daughter! You might be playing as CID, the simple crash dummy, but CID was also programmed and equipped with everything need to be the hero he always dreamt of.

Constructor Plus (System 3 Software, €19.99 / £19.99) – In this town you’ve gotta think BIG! Take on the role of a budding property developer and build yourself up from minor-league housing crook to interplanetary property tycoon, wheeling, dealing and thieving all the way. Use a variety of sneaky methods to do over the competition, from a selection of Undesirables to calling in the Mob when you need a more heavy-handed approach…

Fimbul (EuroVideo Medien, €26.99 / £24.29) – Fimbul combines intense Viking battles with a deep story that unfolds through in-game comics to bring the frozen world of the Norse sagas to life. Immerse yourself in the blistering winter preceding Ragnarok — The Fimbul Winter! – Read our Fimbul review

Switch eShop – New Releases

DELTARUNE Chapter 1 (8-4, Free) – Create your own avatar, meet strange friends, and jump into the darkness. By the way, this first chapter is FREE, so please feel free to check it out. Like, you don’t really need to read this or anything… You can just try it…

Ape Out (Devolver Digital, €14.99 / £13.49) – Ape Out is a wildly intense and colourfully stylized smash ‘em up about primal escape, rhythmic violence, and frenetic jazz. Build up nearly unstoppable momentum and use your captors as both weapons and shields to crush everyone on your procedurally generated path to freedom. – Read our Ape Out review

Trials Rising – Digital Gold Edition (Hi-Rez Studios, €39.99 / £29.99) – Includes the Game & 55+ tracks with the Expansion Pass! Explore over-the-top action and physics-bending motorcycle racing in the latest entry of the Trials® franchise. With new tracks and more ways to compete, Trials® Rising is easy to pick-up and play, challenging to master and offers the best multiplayer racing experience. Includes: Main Game, Sixty-Six, Crash & Sunburn, Stuntman Rider Pack, Samurai Item Pack.

RemiLore (Nicalis, €39.99 / £35.99) – RemiLore is a “rogue-lite” anime-style adventure set in a colourful fantasy world where players hack-and-slash their way through an army of mechanical monsters using a huge variety of unique melee weapons and devastating magic attacks! – Read our RemiLore review

SKYHILL (Klabater, €13.49 / £12.14) – World War III was an unexpected and cruel tragedy… You seemed to have a nice time, hidden in your fancy penthouse in Skyhill Hotel… Till the impact of a bio-weapon blew away the life and world you once knew.

Dark Quest 2 (Brain Seal Entertainment, €9.99 / £8.99) – Dark Quest 2 is a turn-based RPG where you control a party of heroes on your epic quest to defeat the evil sorcerer and his minions. The game features a party based system where you control a group of heroes, an isometric hand-drawn art style, dice-based mechanics and much more.

Pixel Devil and the Broken Cartridge (Black Sun Game Publishing, €9.99 / £8.99) – Pixel Devil and the Broken Cartridge is an old school pixel art platformer. The protagonist ends up in the world of 8-bit video games. Help him get through challenging levels, beat various bosses, learn new skills, and find the villain behind the abduction of young women. But more importantly, together you’ll have to find the answer to the big question: why have the characters of old school video games suddenly turned evil?

The Lost Light of Sisu (Solvarg, €9.99 / £8.99) – Sisu is a forgiving yet challenging physics driven platformer. In this playful adventure, you find yourself searching planets in pursuit of energy cubes that power your spaceship but also evolve your abilities. Use these new-found powers to traverse obstacles and overcome grumpy alien species.

Stellar Interface – Deluxe Edition (Imagination Overflow, €15.89 / £15.89) – Fight In Ever Changing Space Battles, explore the Universe in Gold and expand your choices with 5 new Spacecrafts! Run through the universe, discover the numerous perks/consumables and their synergistic effects. Explore the randomly-generated galaxy to find merchants, unlock spacecrafts, collect StellarNetES Cartridges, checkmark your kills of the various galactic overlords. Main Title + Lost Galaxy DLC.

ACA NEOGEO THE ULTIMATE 11: SNK FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – “THE ULTIMATE 11: SNK FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP” is a soccer game released by SNK in 1996. Choose your favourite of 80 different teams, more than ever before, and conquer the two Championship modes! Choose from 4 styles of team balance to customize your team according to your own playing style!

Anodyne (Nnooo, €9.99 / £8.99) – Immersed in a moody, dream-like soundtrack explore a world full of natural, urban and abstract environments, solving puzzles and defeating enemies…with a broom!

BATTLLOON (UNTIES, €5.99 / £5.49) – Battlloon is a cute and casual PvP action game which pits you against your friends in a battle of bouncing balloons! Plays up to 4 players! The rules are simple! All you have to do is to bump other players into the spikes! May the best balloon win!

izneo (izneo, Free) – Description: Izneo BD Comics Manga Webtoon is a Nintendo Switch app for comics, with thousands of digital comic books.

Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Super Real Darwin (FTE Games, €7.99 / £7.03) – The inhabitants of the planet Lakya unwittingly unleash the planet’s life force known as Evol. As the released Evol drifts from planet Lakya, it is received by the inhabitants of the nearby planet Cokyo; the people of Cokyo initiate the Shlohe project, a plan to use their captured Evol to develop advanced biologic ships and weapons to invade planet Lakya. The inhabitants of Lakya retaliate the Cokyo invasion by using their own evolving fighter ships.

My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!? (Sekai Games, €24.99 / £22.50) – Our protagonist lives out in the city but one summer decides to return to his rural hometown and it is there he once again meets his childhood friend, Ion… who is now a mermaid!? Soon after he also meets Petakko, a mermaid who has lost her memory and Rin, a priestess who looks after mermaids but also has a split personality. It is these encounters that brings our protagonist in contact with the legend surrounding mermaid.

Monster Dynamite (TREVA, €19.99 / £17.99) – Cheeky monsters everywhere! Place your explosives strategically on stacks of crates, scaffolding and logs where the little critters are sitting. Light the fuse and bring them all down! What looks simple at first gets more and more demanding: The cheeky little guys won’t keep still – and they just keep coming! With the explosions you’ll have to take into account chain reactions, movement behaviour, tilt directions and much more. Got enough bombs? Rake in trophies and defeat the monsters!

Ninja Village (Kairosoft, €10.00 / £8.99) Rewrite the history of feudal Japan with an army of the ultimate guerrilla warriors: ninjas! The shogun has fallen from power, plunging the land into chaos as feuding feudal lords scramble to take his place. But the shogun has an ace up his sleeve: you! As the head of a leading ninja clan, it’s up to you to rally your followers and help unify Japan!

Space War Arena (Playchemy, €13.00 / £11.69) – Welcome to Space War Arena! Build an armada from 30 different types of evolving units, unleash your cunning, adapt to the enemy, and command your fleet in epic AI encounters or vicious same-screen multiplayer. Engage!

V.O.I.D. (JanduSoft, €3.39 / £3.05) – After some time, a group of Ploids decides to take action and return the peace. To achieve this, Alpha and Omega must travel through time to eras of an ancient land, in order to obtain sacred stones that will give him the necessary power to defeat the invaders. Some of the ancient epochs are feudal Japan, the ice age, the medieval era or among others. What he does not know is that the invaders tried to get those holy stones before him! … In addition, time threatens to collapse, and only you can connect to the PLOIDS to save the Earth!

World Tree Marché (Flyhigh Works, €11.99 / £10.69) – World Tree Marché is a warm-hearted management simulation in which you run the market of a struggling ‘world tree’ together with six chefs. As the Royal Food Adviser, you need to help them through their unique gourmet storylines, find new recipes and stop the evil Gourmand Corporation.

Awesome Pea (Sometimes You, €5.99 / £5.39) – Welcome to the Awesome Islands World! Awesome Pea is a classic run-and-jump platformer, where you must jump through many challenging levels and help the greedy Pea, who is ready to undergo any trials for the sake of gold. Dangerous dungeons, deceptively beautiful nature, hidden deadly traps, and many MANY coins await you!

Creepy Road (GROOVYMILK, €12.99 / £11.69) – When everything goes insane and the world falls apart, a man must take up arms to protect his loved ones. Embark with Flint Trucker on a crazy journey to reunite him with sweet Angelina, and try not to succumb to the madness that awaits you!

History 2048 (Run-Down Games, €4.99 / £4.49) – History 2048 is a familiar logic game, with beautiful graphics. Travel through the evolution of mankind, meet with famous kings, warlords and adventurer. A new and reimagined reboot of the well-known 2048 game. Pair the similar panels and step to a new era.

Klondike Solitaire (Baltoro Games, €8.99 / £7.99) – Klondike Solitaire, the perfect game to help you escape your hectic daily routine, relax and enjoy. Change the game’s appearance to suit your own taste. Progress through the game to unlock unique card sets and backgrounds. Customise your Solitaire to make it unique and exclusive. Stunning animations and gameplay designed for endless entertainment in the palm of your hand.

Pirates Pinball (EnjoyUp Games, €2.99 / £2.69) – Enjoy Pirates Pinball, a perfect reproduction of a real pinball machine, with all the graphic details and sounds. Discover all the secrets, complete all the missions and become number 1 in the world or the best among your Friends, posting your high score on the online leaderboard.

Queen’s Quest 2: Stories of Forgotten Past (Artifex Mundi, €14.99 / £13.49) – When the king asked a famous alchemist to look into the murder of his most trusted agent, the last thing the alchemist expected was to discover an intricate network of criminals working from the shadows to bring chaos to the land. Conduct the investigation as a shapeshifter and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to shake the foundations of the kingdom.

Shred! 2 – Freeride Mountainbiking (ASBO Interactive, €9.99 / £8.99) – Ride as Freeride legend Sam Pilgrim, and use the advanced trick system to bust out insane combos in over 40 levels including Big Mountain, Downhill, Slopestyle and Street!

Swords & Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon (Ronimo Games, €12.74 / £11.46) – In this base stomping battle extravaganza, each battle is a fight to win a fast-paced tug of war; whether online, locally in split-screen or against the devious AI.

Tardy (Drageus Games, €4.99 / £4.49) – Ramto isn’t the smartest guy in the Universe. He enjoys finding troubles – and solving them, but when woke up on a spaceship it was too much even for him. Alone on the ship he had no idea how to pilot, among heaps of weird devices created by a schizophrenic engineer.

Treasure Stack (PIXELAKES, €15.83 / £14.21) – Fusing the pulse-pounding pressure of a falling block puzzle game with grapple-powered platforming, Treasure Stack offers up a fast-paced party game experience like no other. As treasure chests and keys fall from the sky and threaten to fill the screen, take direct control of a pixelated hero as you run, jump, grab, climb, grapple and stack matching colours to keep the blocky deluge at bay. But don’t go in unprepared! Unlock over 100 items to customize your hero and grapple with, featuring everything from slimes with chainsaws, to avian boxing glove grapplers.

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! (HumaNature Studios, €19.99 / £17.99) – ToeJam and Earl have crash-landed back on Earth in ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!, a funky fresh roguelike adventure infused with old skool hip-hop and jam-packed with awesome throwbacks to the 1991 classic. Original Funk Lord (and co-creator) Greg Johnson is back at the helm with the sequel that ToeJam and Earl fans have been waiting for!

Riddled Corpses EX (COWCAT, €9.99 / £8.99)

Switch eShop – Demos

Ninja Village Demo (Kairosoft) – Rewrite the history of feudal Japan with an army of the ultimate guerrilla warriors: ninjas! The shogun has fallen from power, plunging the land into chaos as feuding feudal lords scramble to take his place. But the shogun has an ace up his sleeve: you! As the head of a leading ninja clan, it’s up to you to rally your followers and help unify Japan!

Riddled Corpses EX Demo (COWCAT) – Riddled Corpses EX is a twin-stick shooter made in the style of 8/16 bit arcade games. Travel through diverse locations packed with danger and huge bosses. Choose your character wisely and make good use of their abilities and the special items (clock, dynamite and turrets) to progress and destroy the root of evil!

Switch eShop – Pre-Orders

FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster (SQUARE ENIX, €49.99 / £44.99, pre-order from 25/02/2019) – FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster brings the timeless classics forward to the current generation of fans, old and new alike. FINAL FANTASY X tells the story of a star blitzball player, Tidus, who journeys with a young and beautiful summoner named Yuna on her quest to save the world of Spira from an endless cycle of destruction wrought by the colossal menace Sin. Bonus (PERMANENT): X-2 Pack, Credits & Bonus Audio Pack.

FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE (SQUARE ENIX, €49.99 / £44.99, pre-order from 25/02/2019) – Return to the World of Ivalice… Not only have the graphics and sound been updated to take advantage of the power of new hardware, but the core game design has also been tweaked to produce an evolution of the original FFXII fitting for the current generation.

FINAL FANTASY VII (SQUARE ENIX, €15.99 / £12.79, pre-order from 25/02/2019) – The world has fallen under the dominion of the Shinra Electric Power Company, a sinister corporation that has monopolized the planet’s very life force as Mako energy. In the urban megalopolis of Midgar, an anti-Shinra rebel group calling themselves Avalanche have stepped up their campaign of resistance. Cloud Strife, a former member of Shinra’s elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary, lends his aid to the rebels, unaware that he will be drawn into an epic battle for the fate of the planet, while having to come to terms with his own lost past.

Bard’s Gold – Nintendo Switch Edition (Pixel Lantern, €8.09 / £7.19, pre-order from 26/02/2019) – Help the Bard to overcome the dungeon’s many dangerous perils and use your new-found treasures to improve your character and to buy new weapons and gear!

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (CAPCOM, €29.99 / £29.99, pre-order from 27/02/2019) – The classic courtroom adventure series that has sold over 6.7 million copies worldwide is finally here. Become Phoenix Wright and experience the thrill of battle as you fight to save your innocent clients in a court of law. Play all 14 episodes, spanning the first three games, in one gorgeous collection. Solve the intriguing mysteries behind each case and witness the final truth for yourself!

Hard West (Forever Entertainment, €13.39 / £12.05 €17.99 / £16.19, pre-order from 28/02/2019) – Welcome to the Wild West as you’ve never seen before. Follow Warren on his descent into the darkest recesses of the human soul, and try to survive in a world full of hard choices and even harder consequences. Because in this world, death is a constant presence and the black pacts which you make with forces beyond human comprehension will forever haunt all those around you.

Resident Evil (CAPCOM, €29.99 / £29.99, pre-order from 28/02/2019) – The year is 1998. The Bravo Team of S.T.A.R.S., an elite special forces squad, has gone radio silent, and its Alpha Team has been dispatched to the forest on the outskirts of Raccoon City to investigate this mysterious disappearance. Attacked by bizarre and vicious dogs, alpha team members Chris and Jill manage to escape to a mysterious mansion in the middle of the forest. The horrors they encounter there are far greater than anyone might have foreseen…

Resident Evil 0 (CAPCOM, €29.99 / £29.99, pre-order from 28/02/2019) – This entry in the Resident Evil series expands on and enriches the excitement and intrigue of the survival horror genre. Learn of the events that preceded the series’ first game, and experience thrilling new gameplay systems as you alternate between its two playable characters to solve the mystery.

Resident Evil 4 (CAPCOM, €29.99 / £29.99, pre-order from 28/02/2019) – In the wake of the completely unprecedented biological disaster of Raccoon City, the corporation exposed as the initiator of those atrocities, Umbrella, has been dissolved. Leon S. Kennedy, a survivor of the incident, has gone on to become a special agent in the direct employ of the president of the United States. The president’s daughter has been kidnapped, and Leon has followed eyewitness reports to a cold village in Europe. In that village, a new intrigue awaits…

Fate/EXTELLA LINK (Marvelous Europe, €49.99 / £44.99, pre-order from 01/03/2019) – Servants from across the Fate series have come together to battle a new sinister threat to SE.RA.PH. Fully-loaded with new elements, Fate/EXTELLA LINK includes never-before-seen Servants, fresh scenarios, polished graphics and refined gameplay. With 10 Servants added to the original roster of 16, foes will quiver at the True Name of players’ Noble Phantasms as they assume the role of their favourite Servant. Bonus: Alteria DLC

Blood Waves (Sometimes You, €9.99 / £8.99, pre-order from 01/03/2019) – Destroy zombies, get the cash and prepare yourself for the next wave. During the break you can buy a necessary weapon, place the traps and defensive barricades, repair the traps survived in the previous wave. And of course, don’t forget to check the stock of bullets and restore your health.

Sushi Time! (Baltoro Games, €3.49 / £3.14, pre-order from 01/03/2019) – Welcome to Sushi Time! Manage a sushi bar and become a tycoon of Japanese food! Try to deliver the orders on time, but be careful not to mix them up! Upgrade your bar and beautify it, so that you’ll be able to create the best sushi in town!

Unravel Two (Electronic Arts, €29.99 / £24.99, pre-order from 01/03/2019) – When you cut ties to the past, new bonds form. In Unravel Two, create a Yarny of your very own. Then build relationships with other Yarnys in local co-op or as a single player, fostering friendship and support as you journey together. Begin your adventure in a cold and imposing land, then watch your surroundings blossom with new life as you chase the spark of adventure. Dive into an immersive story filled with energy, exuberance, inspiration – even monsters.

Switch eShop – Special Offers

Game Title Price Saving Until Original Price
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle ® (Ubisoft) €19.99 / £14.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €39.99 / £29.99
RAYMAN® LEGENDS: DEFINITIVE EDITION (Ubisoft) €19.99 / £14.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €39.99 / £29.99
Child of Light® Ultimate Edition (Ubisoft) €13.99 / £11.20 -30% Wed 13th Mar €19.99 / £16.00
Sports Party (Ubisoft) €27.99 / £20.99 -30% Wed 13th Mar €39.99 / £29.99
Valiant Hearts: The Great War® (Ubisoft) €13.99 / £11.20 -30% Wed 13th Mar €19.99 / £16.00
Monopoly for Nintendo Switch (Ubisoft) €19.99 / £14.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €39.99 / £29.99
Just Dance® 2019 (Ubisoft) €29.99 / £24.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €59.99 / £49.99
Just Dance 2017® (Ubisoft) €29.99 / £24.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €59.99 / £49.99
Just Dance 2018® (Ubisoft) €29.99 / £24.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €59.99 / £49.99
South Park: The Fractured but Whole (Ubisoft) €29.99 / £24.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €59.99 / £49.99
South Park: The Fractured but Whole – « Danger Deck » DLC(Ubisoft) €3.59 / £2.99 -40% Wed 13th Mar €5.99 / £4.99
South Park : The Fractured But Whole – From Dusk Till Casa Bonita (Ubisoft) €7.19 / £5.69 -40% Wed 13th Mar €11.99 / £9.49
South Park: The Fractured but Whole – Bring In The Crunch(Ubisoft) €7.19 / £5.69 -40% Wed 13th Mar €11.99 / £9.49
South Park: The Fractured but Whole – Season Pass (Ubisoft) €17.99 / £15.00 -40% Wed 13th Mar €29.99 / £25.00
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle – Gold Edition (Ubisoft) €35.99 / £29.99 -40% Wed 13th Mar €59.99 / £49.99
South Park : The Fractured But Whole – Gold Edition(Ubisoft) €47.99 / £37.79 -40% Wed 13th Mar €79.99 / £62.99
Starlink: Battle for Atlas – Deluxe edition (Ubisoft) €49.99 / £44.99 -50% Wed 13th Mar €99.99 / £89.99
Starlink: Battle for Atlas – Standard Edition (Ubisoft) €24.79 / £21.69 -69% Wed 13th Mar €79.99 / £69.99
South Park : The Stick of Truth (Ubisoft) €23.99 / £17.99 -40% Wed 13th Mar €39.99 / £29.99
RISK: The Game of Global Domination (Ubisoft) €9.99 / £8.00 -50% Wed 13th Mar €19.99 / £16.00
Trivial Pursuit Live! (Ubisoft) €9.99 / £8.00 -50% Wed 13th Mar €19.99 / £16.00
UNO (Ubisoft) €6.99 / £5.59 -30% Wed 13th Mar €9.99 / £7.99
Tesla vs Lovecraft (10tons ) €8.24 / £7.14 -45% Mon 4th Mar €14.99 / £12.99
Animal Rivals: Nintendo Switch Edition (Blue Sunset Games ) €0.99 / £0.93 -72% Fri 15th Mar €3.49 / £3.10
Pizza Parking (I.V.O Games) €2.79 / £2.51 -30% Fri 15th Mar €3.99 / £3.59
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (Activision) €25.99 / £22.79 -35% Tue 5th Mar €39.99 / £34.99
Smoke and Sacrifice (Curve Digital) €7.99 / £6.39 -60% Tue 12th Mar €19.99 / £15.99
Super Hyperactive Ninja (JanduSoft) €0.99 / £0.99 -88% Tue 12th Mar €7.99 / £7.19
Joggernauts (Graffiti Games) €7.49 / £6.74 -50% Wed 6th Mar €14.99 / £13.49
The Lion’s Song (Mi’pu’mi Games) €7.99 / £7.99 -20% Wed 27th Mar €9.99 / £9.99
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Tin Man Games) €17.49 / £13.99 -30% Wed 20th Mar €24.99 / £19.99
Ms. Splosion Man (Twisted Pixel) €8.99 / £7.19 -40% Mon 25th Mar €14.99 / £11.99
Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX (Akaoni Studio) €5.84 / £5.25 -35% Fri 29th Mar €8.99 / £8.09
Subsurface Circular (Ant Workshop) €4.79 / £3.83 -20% Wed 20th Mar €5.99 / £4.79
Immortal Redneck (CremaGames) €11.59 / £10.43 -42% Thu 7th Mar €19.99 / £17.99
ClusterPuck 99 (Coatsink Software) €5.68 / £5.15 -33% Thu 28th Feb €8.49 / £7.69
Shu (Coatsink Software) €5.68 / £5.15 -33% Thu 28th Feb €8.49 / £7.69
Legendary Eleven (Eclipse Games) €6.99 / £5.99 -30% Mon 18th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Bedtime Blues (Forever Entertainment) €6.69 / £6.02 -33% Thu 14th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Super Blackjack Battle 2 Turbo Edition – The Card Warriors(Headup Games) €0.99 / £0.99 -86% Thu 14th Mar €6.99 / £6.99
Green Game: TimeSwapper (iFun4all) €1.49 / £1.34 -50% Wed 6th Mar €2.99 / £2.69
Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated (iFun4all ) €4.99 / £4.49 -50% Wed 6th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Red Game Without a Great Name (iFun4all) €1.49 / £1.34 -50% Wed 6th Mar €2.99 / £2.69
Sky Force Anniversary (Infinite Dreams) €7.49 / £6.74 -25% Sat 9th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Transcripted (Plug In Digital) €1.99 / £1.74 -75% Thu 14th Mar €7.99 / £6.99
Odium to the Core (QubicGames) €1.99 / £1.79 -60% Sun 24th Mar €4.99 / £4.49
Coffee Crisis (QubicGames) €4.99 / £4.49 -50% Sun 24th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Mana Spark (QubicGames) €4.99 / £4.49 -50% Sun 24th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Wondershot (QubicGames) €2.99 / £2.69 -70% Sun 24th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Koloro (QubicGames) €4.99 / £4.49 -50% Sun 24th Mar €9.99 / £8.99
Late Shift (Wales Interactive) €6.49 / £4.99 -50% Thu 14th Mar €12.99 / £9.99
Typoman (Wales Interactive) €7.79 / £5.99 -40% Thu 14th Mar €12.99 / £9.99
Dexteritrip (Undergames) €2.79 / £2.50until 24/03/2019/ 23:59 local time -60% €6.99 / £6.25
Pinball FX3 – Bethesda® Pinball (Zen Studios) €5.49 / £4.94 -50% Wed 6th Mar €10.99 / £9.89
Harvest Life (rokapublish) €22.49 / £17.99 -10% Sun 17th Mar €24.99 / £19.99
ZOMBIE GOLD RUSH (amazing) €4.49 / £4.04 -10% Fri 22nd Mar €4.99 / £4.49
99Moves (EnjoyUp Games) €2.00 / £1.80 -33% Fri 29th Mar €2.99 / £2.69
Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing (EnjoyUp Games) €3.99 / £3.59 -50% Fri 29th Mar €7.99 / £7.19
Toast Time: Smash Up! (Force of Habit) €6.29 / £5.59 -30% Sun 3rd Mar €8.99 / £7.99
Magic Nations (PrimeBit Games) €1.50 / £1.34 -50% Thu 7th Mar €3 / £2.69
Saboteur! (SimFabric) €1.05 / £0.94 -85% Fri 8th Mar €7.00 / £6.29
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps And Beans (Trinity Team) €14.00 / £12.59 -30% Fri 8th Mar €20.00 / £17.99
ANIMUS (TROOOZE) €8.09 / £7.19 -10% Sun 31st Mar €8.99 / £7.99
Gelly Break (EuroVideo Medien) €19.99 / £17.99 -43% €34.99 / £31.49
Pilot Sports (EuroVideo Medien) €19.99 / £17.99 -43% €34.99 / £29.99
Roarr! Jurassic Edition (Klabater) €4.99 / £4.49 -38% €7.99 / £7.19
MechaNika (Mango Protocol) €4.79 / £3.99 for owners of Agatha Knife -20% Mon 11th Mar €5.99 / £4.99

New 3DS eShop – Special Offers

Game Title Price Saving Until Original Price
RTO 3 (nuGame) €7.99 / £7.19 -20% Thu 28th Mar €9.99 / £8.99

3DS eShop – Special Offers

Wii U eShop – Special Offers

DLC / Add-On Content

Nintendo Switch

  • Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes – DLC 1 Black Dandelion (Grasshopper Manufacture) – Free
  • Trials® Rising – Expansion pass (Ubisoft) – €19.99 / £16.00
  • Trials® Rising – Tiny Acorns Pack [10] (Ubisoft) – €1.99 / £1.69
  • Trials® Rising – Small Acorns Pack (30) (Ubisoft) – €4.99 / £3.99
  • Trials® Rising – Medium Acorns Pack (60) (Ubisoft) – €9.99 / £7.99
  • Trials® Rising – Big Acorns Pack (100) (Ubisoft) – €14.99 / £11.99
  • Trials® Rising – Huge Acorns Pack (300) (Ubisoft) – €24.99 / £19.99

So that’s your lot for this week’s Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!

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Competition: Win A Bundle From Zavvi’s New ‘Original Hero’ Clothing Range

To celebrate the launch of the new Original Hero range of clothing our friends at Zavvi have kindly donated a prize bundle worth around £100 to give away to you, the Nintendo Life readers.

The Original Hero range fuses the bold, exciting features of Japanese streetwear-inspired style with ‘Super Mario’ line art visuals. These complementary elements combine within a distinctive fashion range that celebrates the unmistakable Super Mario character aesthetic in both high contrast monochrome or subtle black on black.

The 16-piece range comprises t-shirts, long sleeves, sweats, and hoodies featuring characters and enemies spanning the iconic Super Mario franchise, including cult-favourites such as Goomba and Piranha Plant.

If you are interested in buying items from the range, they are available now, but hurry because they will only be available to buy for one week, or until sold out. Good luck!

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Nintendo Download: 28th February (North America)

Deltarune

The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Nintendo Switch Retail

Fimbul (EuroVideo, Today, $29.99) Fimbul combines intense Viking battles with a deep story that unfolds through in-game comics to bring the frozen world of the Norse sagas to life. Immerse yourself in the blistering winter preceding Ragnarok — The Fimbul Winter! Read our Fimbul review.

R.B.I. Baseball 19 (MLB Advanced Media, Tue 5th March, $29.99) R. B. I. Baseball 19 takes the field delivering heightened authenticity for a genuine MLB experience. We’ve added hundreds of new animations, updated player models, every official 2019 uniform, more player gear, improved ball physics and environments, and more!

Switch eShop

DELTARUNE (8-4, Today,) DELTARUNE: Chapter 1! Create your own avatar, meet strange friends, and jump into the darkness. By the way, this first chapter is FREE, so please feel free to check it out. Like, you don’t really need to read this or anything… You can just try it…

Ape Out (Devolver Digital, Today, $14.99) Ape Out is a wildly intense and colorfully stylized smash ‘em up about primal escape, rhythmic violence, and frenetic jazz. Build up nearly unstoppable momentum and use your captors as both weapons and shields to crush everyone on your procedurally generated path to freedom. Read our Ape Out review.

Treasure Stack (PIXELAKES, Fri 1st March, $19.99) Fusing the pulse-pounding pressure of a falling block puzzle game with grapple-powered platforming, Treasure Stack offers up a fast-paced party game experience like no other.

12 is Better Than 6 (HYPETRAIN DIGITAL, Tue 5th March, $9.99) It is 1873. An escaped slave is slowly walking through the desert, making his way from Mexico to Texas. He keeps a revolver close and is wearing the sombrero stolen from a dead man. Deadly gunfights: You’ll need to cock the revolver with one trigger before being able to shoot by pressing another trigger. One false move and you’ll be overrun in an instant.

ACA NEOGEO THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2003 (HAMSTER, Thu 21st February, $7.99) “THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2003” is a fighting game released by SNK in 2003. It features the same 3-on-3 battle system as the previous title in the series, but this time players are able to use the “Multi-Shift” format to freely tag in team members for speedier gameplay.

Anodyne (Nnooo, Today, $9.99) Immersed in a moody, dream-like soundtrack explore a world full of natural, urban and abstract environments, solving puzzles and defeating enemies…with a broom! Inspired by old-school 16-bit adventure classics, take part in a deep and wonderful journey exploring a large overworld and many quirky, challenging and fun dungeons to find out what awaits you in Young’s subconscious.

Arcade Archives: Ice Climber (HAMSTER, Fri 22nd February, $7.99) “ICE CLIMBER” is an action game released by Nintendo in 1985. Play as POPO and NANA to break apart blocks of ice with your hammer and defeat enemies that get in your way as you aim for the top of the mountain. However, only one person can catch the condor waiting at the summit. Will you work together, or try to go for it alone? It’s up to you!

Awesome Pea (Sometimes You, Fri 1st March, $5.99) Welcome to the Awesome Islands World! Awesome Pea is a classic run-and-jump platformer, where you must jump through many challenging levels and help the greedy Pea, who is ready to undergo any trials for the sake of gold. Dangerous dungeons, deceptively beautiful nature, hidden deadly traps, and many MANY coins await you!

Bard’s Gold – Nintendo Switch Edition (Pixel Lantern, Tue 5th March, $8.99) Bard’s Gold is a challenging platformer that lets you explore eerie worlds in a quest for a Goblin that stole your gold.

Battlloon (Unties, Today, $6.99) Battlloon is a cute and casual PvP action game which pits you against your friends in a battle of bouncing balloons! Plays up to 4 players! The rules are simple! All you have to do is to bump other players into the spikes! May the best balloon win! With its simple controls, anyone can play this bouncy game of battling balloons! From a unique point system allowing even beginners to have a chance at winning to a “Ghost” system where ousted players can still enact sweet revenge, Battlloon has something for balloons of all ages!

Beat Cop (11 Bit Studios, Tue 5th March, $14.99) New York, more like a beast than a city. Explore it’s darkest corners and uncover its secrets as Jack Kelly, a former detective who has been framed for a murder. Degraded and forgotten by old pals, it’s your last chance to find the truth behind this whole terrible mess. The thing is, your new boss treats you horribly, your wife is a money sucking spawn from hell and the local mafia wants your head on a plate.

Constructor Plus (System 3, Today, $19.99) In this town you’ve gotta think BIG! Take on the role of a budding property developer and build yourself up from minor-league housing crook to interplanetary property tycoon, wheeling, dealing and thieving all the way.

Crash Dummy (Funbox Media, Today, $29.99) The evil D-TROIT has kidnapped MIA, the Advisor’s daughter! You might be playing as CID, the simple crash dummy, but CID was also programmed and equipped with everything need to be the hero he always dreamt of. It’s time to set CID on his adventure and to save MIA.

Creepy Road (GROOVYMILK, Fri 1st March, $12.99) When everything goes insane and the world falls apart, a man must take up arms to protect his loved ones. Embark with Flint Trucker on a crazy journey to reunite him with sweet Angelina, and try not to succumb to the madness that awaits you! HUGE BOSSES Don’t let their size scare you!

Croc’s World Run (Sprakelsoft, Thu 21st February, $5.99) “Croc’s World Run” is the newest part of the Croc’s World franchise!

Dark Quest 2 (Brain Seal Entertainment, Wed 27th February, $10.99) Dark Quest 2 is a turn-based RPG where you control a party of heroes on your epic quest to defeat the evil sorcerer and his minions. The game features a party based system where you control a group of heroes, an isometric hand-drawn art style, dice-based mechanics and much more.

Darkest Hunter (Ultimate Games, Tue 5th March, $5.30) Choose your hero, grab your weapon, learn new spells and… HUNT! Eliminate every nasty beast you encounter, collect loot and find the rarest, as well as the best equipment!

Duck Hunting Challenge (BoomBox, Fri 22nd February, $9.99) Pack up your gear, call on your canine companion, and get ready for one of the best hunting trips ever.

Elevator…to the Moon! Turbo Champion’s Edition (Arcade Distillery, Wed 6th March, $14.99) You are a space cadet, rudely commanded by the President of the World to “Liberate” a Moon Elevator, evoking the wrath of the world’s most powerful AI. Will you crack under pressure trying to hold this broken Space Elevator together? Obey!

History 2048 (Run-Down Games, Fri 1st March, $4.99) History 2048 is a familiar logic game, with beautiful graphics. Travel through the evolution of mankind, meet with famous kings, warlords and adventurers. A new and reimagined reboot of the well known 2048 game. Pair the similar panels and step to a new era. Wander through time and get all the extras. A fun and refreshing way to spend your time.

Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Super Real Darwin (FTE Games, Today, $7.99) The inhabitants of the planet Lakya unwittingly unleash the planet’s life force known as Evol. As the released Evol drifts from planet Lakya, it is received by the inhabitants of the nearby planet Cokyo; the people of Cokyo initiate the Shlohe project, a plan to use their captured Evol to develop advanced biologic ships and weapons to invade planet Lakya. The inhabitants of Lakya retaliate the Cokyo invasion by using their own evolving fighter ships.

Klondike Solitaire (Baltoro Games, Fri 1st March, $8.99) Klondike Solitaire, the perfect game to help you escape your crazy daily routine, relax and have fun.

Monster Dynamite (TREVA Entertainment GmbH, Today, $19.99) Cheeky monsters everywhere! Place your explosives strategically on stacks of crates, scaffolding and logs where the little critters are sitting. Light the fuse and bring them all down!

My Girlfriend is a Mermaid?! (Sekai Games, Today, $19.99) Our protagonist lives out in the city but one summer decides to return to his rural hometown and it is there he once again meets his childhood friend, Ion… who is now a mermaid!?

Ninja Village (Kairosoft, Today, $12.00) Rewrite the history of feudal Japan with an army of the ultimate guerrilla warriors: ninjas! The shogun has fallen from power, plunging the land into chaos as feuding feudal lords scramble to take his place. But the shogun has an ace up his sleeve: you! As the head of a leading ninja clan, it’s up to you to rally your followers and help unify Japan!

Pillar (Michael Hicks, Tue 5th March, $7.99) Lost in an intimate snowy town, a palette of individuals are in search of a mysterious artifact said to bring great knowledge and understanding. Lead each character through their quest in this collection of minigames, each with unique personalities and challenges… maybe their paths aren’t so different after all.

Pirates Pinball (EnjoyUp Games, Fri 1st March, $2.99) Enjoy Pirates Pinball, a perfect reproduction of a real pinball machine, with all the graphic details and sounds. Discover all the secrets, complete all the missions and become number 1 in the world or the best among your Friends, posting your high score on the online leaderboard.

Pixel Devil and the Broken Cartridge (Black Sun Game Publishing, Wed 27th February, $9.99) Pixel Devil and the Broken Cartridge is an old school pixel art platformer. The protagonist ends up in the world of 8-bit video games. Help him get through challenging levels, beat various bosses, learn new skills, and find the villain behind the abduction of young women. But more importantly, together you’ll have to find the answer to the big question: why have the characters of old school video games suddenly turned evil?

Queen’s Quest 2: Stories of Forgotten Past (Artifex Mundi, Fri 1st March, $14.99) When the king asked a famous alchemist to look into the murder of his most trusted agent, the last thing the alchemist expected was to discover an intricate network of criminals working from the shadows to bring chaos to the land. Conduct the investigation as a shapeshifter and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to shake the foundations of the kingdom.

Riddled Corpses EX (COWCAT, Sat 2nd March, $9.99) Riddled Corpses EX is a twin-stick shooter made in the style of 8/16 bit arcade games. Travel through diverse locations packed with danger and huge bosses. Choose your character wisely and make good use of their abilities and the special items (clock, dynamite and turrets) to progress and destroy the root of evil!

Shred! 2: Freeride Mountainbiking (ASBO Interactive, Fri 1st March, $9.99) Created by a solo developer with a lifetime of Mountain Biking and Trail-Building experience, every inch of the handcrafted trail will push you to the absolute limit!

Swords & Soldiers II Shawarmageddon (Ronimo Games, Fri 1st March, $14.99) Fight your friends anywhere with your Nintendo Switch in split-screen mode or online, and enjoy the epic single-player campaign which gives you command of Redbeard and his Vikings. Join them as they fight their way through the forests of Vikingland, the scorching sands of Persia and even the nether regions of Hell!

Tardy (Drageus Games, Fri 1st March, $9.99) Ramto isn’t the smartest guy in the Universe. He enjoys finding troubles – and solving them, but when woke up on a spaceship it was too much even for him. Alone on the ship he had no idea how to pilot, among heaps of weird devices created by a schizophrenic engineer.

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove ( HumaNature Studios, Fri 1st March, $19.99) ToeJam and Earl have crash-landed back on Earth in ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! , a funky fresh roguelike adventure infused with old skool hip-hop and jam-packed with awesome throwbacks to the 1991 classic.

Unknown Fate (MARSLIT GAMES, Tue 5th March, $14.99) You wake up, alone, in a world completely unknown to you. You have no memories of your past, you don’t know how you managed to reach this world and the only thing you can do is go on and try to find the truth. Unknown Fate is a single-player first-person puzzle-adventure with a mysterious story, puzzles to solve and enemies to defeat. Travel in incredible worlds solving the puzzles around you and collecting Richard’s lost memories to uncover the truth about Richard’s journey.

V.O.I.D. (JanduSoft, Today, $3.99) V. O. I. D. is an all-new side-scrolling action adventure game! Taking the best aspects of the 8- and 16-bit era classics, and transforming them with modern tech & fresh mechanics, into something new and exciting! PLOIDS are the evolution of the human race by merging technology with its DNA.

Warhammer Quest (Chilled Mouse, Tue 26th February, $29.99) Based on the classic tabletop game, Warhammer Quest is an addictive mix of role-playing and strategy. Lead your group of brave adventurers through the perilous dungeons of the Warhammer World in the search for wealth and glory!

Nintendo Mobile

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – Happy Homeroom is now in session! The Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mobile game just received a major free update that introduces Happy Homeroom, a newly added interior design mini-game. In Happy Homeroom classes, players with a Camp Manager Level of 6 or above can use the furniture they have to practice their interior design skills, which will be judged by Lottie and others. Passing Happy Homeroom classes increases a player’s HH Rank, earning them items like HH material and more. If you haven’t played Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in a while, now is a great time to jump back in with all of this newly added content! See what’s new by downloading the latest update and launching the game on your mobile device.

Switch DLC

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes DLC #1 Black Dandelion – Play as the assassin Shinobu with two newly added special skills and an added Badman Strikes Back Adventure!

Activities

Happy Pokémon Day! – To help celebrate Pokémon Day, My Nintendo is offering Happy Pokémon Day cards, Meltan Wallpapers and more Pokémon game themed rewards from now until May 27. Have you exchanged your Friend Code from your Nintendo Switch system? Use the Happy Pokémon Day card to share it with your friends! For more info, visit https://my.nintendo.com/news/837f74adcdd985cb.

Nintendo eShop Sales

Check out the full list of deals available this week here.

So that’s your lot for this week’s North American Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!

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Want Resident Evil On Your Switch? You’d Better Have Deep Pockets

Stranger!

The news that Resident Evil HD Remaster, Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 4 are all coming to Switch was met with a positive response recently, even if Capcom has made the whole purchasing approach totally and utterly confusing. While North American players can get the HD Remaster and Zero in a lovely box, Resident Evil 4 is download-only, and European Switch owners only have digital options. Still, these are three fine video games irrespective of how they are delivered, and to be able to play them on Switch is great.

However, it would seem that Capcom is very much in favour of the infamous ‘Switch Tax’ as it has priced all three games at £29.99 each in the UK, and $29.99 each in North America. So if you want the trio, you’re looking at an investment of £90 / $90 – compared to the £40 currently being asked for a triple-pack of the same three games on PS4 and Xbox One in the UK (the games are also available individually on those consoles for around £16).

That’s one heck of a price hike, and quite hard to swallow when you consider these are digital games and not physical releases. Sure, the Switch versions will offer portable play which is a bonus, but outside of that, they’re the same games that PS4 and Xbox One owners have been playing for ages – so why do they cost so much more?

Will this price point impact your purchasing choice? Let us know with a comment below.

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Your adventure awaits in Season 8!

Your adventure awaits in Season 8!

Battle Royale
Season 8 has arrived and a monstrous volcano has appeared! Freed from the Ice King’s castle, the now-powerful Prisoner has brought fire and flame to Fortnite and its islands. Pirates, Ninjas and a ship load of new fighters will tussle over treasure, battle with Pirate Cannons and uncover legendary loot. For those daring enough to explore, the new Lazy Lagoon and Sunny Steps locations are just a jump away with the help of Volcanic Vents. There are tons of new areas to explore and secrets to uncover. This season, X marks the spot!

New to Season 8: Party Assist! Before a match, you can pick a Daily or Weekly challenge and get assistance from your friends to help you complete it! Team up with a friend to complete these new social challenges together.

A new season also means a brand new Battle Pass. Over 100 new exclusive rewards are ready for you to unlock, and it still costs the same 950 V-bucks. This season, you get the Blackheart and Hybrid progressive outfits instantly when you purchase the Battle Pass, both of which can level-up to unlock new styles.

For everyone that completed the 13 free Overtime Challenges during the Share the Love event, you can claim your free Season 8 Battle Pass at the Battle Pass tab or upgrade to a Battle Bundle at a discount.

Creative
Set up deadly traps or harrowing trials in your own adventure games using the new Jungle Temple Prefab and Pinball Bumpers, exclusive to Fortnite Creative.

If would like to download the game for free, please visit https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fortnite-switch.


Violence
Users Interact
In-Game Purchases

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Put your interior design skills to the test in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Put your interior design skills to the test in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Happy Homeroom is now in session! The Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mobile game just received a major free update that introduces Happy Homeroom, a newly added interior design mini-game where designers in the making can showcase their eye for creativity.

In Happy Homeroom classes, you use the furniture you have to practice your interior design skills. Your finished designs will be judged by Lottie and others, and if you pass Happy Homeroom classes, your HH Rank will increase, earning you items like the HH material and more. The HH materials can be used to make Golden Series furniture, which can be crafted after reaching Amateur Rank 1 in Happy Homeroom.

To access Happy Homeroom, you will need HH Vouchers, which replenish over time, and your Camp Manager Level must be level 6 or above.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp recently incorporated several other additions and features to the game that give campers even more to do, including the following:

  • New Local Produce – Grapes, lemons and lychees are the newest local fruit to be added to the game. While each player has a Local Produce tree in both their Lost Lure Creek and Breezy Hollow locations, they will need to make use of other players’ Market Boxes to obtain the other two regional fruit.
  • Blathers Treasure Trek – A new mini-game that involves rolling die on a map that resembles a board game. Treasure maps earned in this mini-game will reward bells or crafting materials. Special maps will even invite new animals to your campsite!
  • Pete’s Parcel Service – A new and handy way to level up your friendship with animals. By selecting this service, Pete will complete animals requests for you without you needing to visit their locations. What a nice pelican!

To see a new video highlighting all of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’s latest features and additions, including recently introduced animal friends, the cabin, and more, visit here.

If you haven’t played Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in a while, now is a great time to jump back in with all of this newly added content! See what’s new by downloading the latest update and launching the game on your mobile device.

Learn more about the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp game on the official site.

Game Rated:

In-Game Purchases

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Feature: Things We’d Love To See In Super Mario Maker 2 On Switch

After six weeks of rumours and escalating expectations, Nintendo chose to open its first Nintendo Direct of 2019 by revealing Super Mario Maker 2, and as opening gambits go, it was a winner.

The original Wii U game launched back in September 2015 and absolutely nailed the basics, providing an intuitive interface with incredible depth, couched in that trademark Nintendo charm. Players of all abilities were able to create their own Mario levels and switch at will between four game ‘palettes’ spanning the plumber’s illustrious 2D career, from the original Super Mario Bros. to New Super Mario Bros. U.

Although it was an absolute treat for Wii U owners (and later 3DS gamers), there were a few issues that players ran into, and wish lists soon started cropping up full of potential features to add to the game. Nintendo implemented some of these – checkpoint flags, for example – but anyone hoping for new game ‘palettes’ or slopes to slide down was left disappointed.

SWITCH

Fast forward to 2019, and it seems many gamers’ prayers have been answered. The very first seconds of Mario Maker 2’s reveal highlighted the most requested feature of all: frickin’ slopes. It went on to detail a whole lot more, including a Super Mario 3D World ‘skin’ plus associated elements, Desert, Snow and Jungle levels, Angry Sun guy… the list goes on.

Of course, we Nintendo gamers are a demanding bunch, and seeing all these new additions has only fired our imaginations up even more. So, let’s stoke the furnace a little and talk about what else we’re hoping to see revealed in the upcoming game; things that’ll make it feel like a real sequel and not something that could have been DLC or included in the ‘Deluxe’ Wii U port that many people expected.

We’ve divided our list into three sections: ‘likely’, ‘possible’ and ‘not-in-a-month-of-Sundays’. That last section features some really outlandish ideas, but let us dream!

Onwards!

Likely

Toad And Toadette As Playable Characters

Super Mario Maker 2

Thanks to the above promotional image, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll be able to play as Toad and Toadette. Although we’ve yet to see Luigi in-game, his prominent placement in the promo art makes him and his fluttery jump a dead cert, too. It will be very interesting to see if their different characteristics affect each character’s ability to complete a level. Perhaps there’ll be sets of levels that can only be completed using Luigi and his special jump, for example. While we confess we’re not the biggest fans of the Toads outside of a Mario Karting or Treasure Tracking context, variety is never a bad thing. Perhaps Toadette’s special abilities from New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe will also be in evidence here.

Multiplayer

MULTI

Switch’s focus on local multiplayer means it would fit very nicely and open up all sorts of exciting potential for co-op or competitive play. Imagine a simple level with switches that you must hit to let your partner through, or alternatively, obstruct their progress. Whether this will extend to four-players is another matter, but if the original game taught us anything, it’s that people can construct some incredible contraptions from the tools they’re given. The thought of four-player levels displaying the sort of ingenuity we saw in user-created levels from the last game is tantalising.

Additional Powerups

The Mario series has always been filled with incredible power-ups, but they can often be quite hard to come by. Think back to Super Mario Bros. 3 – the Frog Suit and the Hammer Suit were fairly rare finds, and more often than not we’d run into a goomba and lose the thing the moment we found it anyway, so it’d be fantastic to have access to these in Mario Maker. Items from later games would be great, too; the Tiny Mushroom would make for some intricate maze running, although it would probably need a host of miniaturised elements to go with it and the Giant Mushroom would perhaps cause too much mayhem. The Double Cherries from Super Mario 3D World would be a riot, though, and we’d love to see, say, the Bumblebee Suit from the Galaxy games. Who knows? If Toadette features in the game, perhaps the Super Crown will be amongst the new power-ups, too.

HMM

Moving swiftly on, let’s have a look at things we think are possible, though less certain than the above…

Possible

New Skins/Styles/Palettes/Themes/Whatever You Want To Call Them

The four game ‘skins’ in the first Mario Maker gave an excellent overview of the plumber’s career, but almost immediately we began imagining other styles. Super Mario Bros. 2 (or Super Mario Bros. USA as it’s known in Japan) is the obvious missing link for players in the west, and while we appreciate it was a mechanically different game, those mechanics aren’t strictly necessary if we just wanted the ‘skin’. Of course, implementing the vegetable digging and throwing mechanics of Doki Doki Panic would be amazing, but we’d take a SMB2 palette if that were the only option.

Elsewhere, how about a Game Boy theme aping Super Mario Land or Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins? The latter would probably be easier to implement, and we’re not sure we really want an accurate reproduction of Super Mario Land’s ‘interesting’ physics. For the time, it was an incredible approximation of the original NES game on the diminutive Game Boy, but the sequel did a much better job of capturing the look-and-feel of the series on the portable. We got the cute Plane Mario costume in the original game, but a complete palette would be great.

SM64

Lastly, a Super Mario 64 skin would surely be a winner. Yes, it’s a 3D game but so is Super Mario 3D World and that’s already in here! The crude 3D polygonal style of the mid-to-late ‘90s is back in vogue and it would be a wonderful nostalgia trip to bounce on little angular goombas and watch them disappear with a wisp of smoke, perhaps while the Bob-omb Battlefield music plays in the background.

Gravity Switches/Zones

We’ve seen gravity switches and zones in previous Mario games, and we think they’d fit in very well in Mario Maker. Zones could be ‘painted’ onto the background and there’s all sorts of potential in throwing shells at just the right angle to negotiate a fiendish gravity well, hit a switch and open a door or some such thing.

Worlds And Maps

Ah, this is the biggie. After slopes, it was this that people were clamouring for in the original game – the ability to string four levels together and make a proper ‘World’. Without it, the levels are individual curios, but the inclusion of this would mean people could really make – and share – their own Mario ‘games’. Adding a World Map would be the icing on the cake; adding multiple routes, secret exits, Toad Houses, Hammer Bros. encounters and those card matching games would be a dream come true. Perhaps all of this is too much to hope for, but it would be wonderful.

Text Boxes

If we’re able to link together levels to form ‘Worlds’, it would be nice to be able to add a micro-narrative to our creations. Freeform text opens a Pandora’s Box of unsavoury possibilities, so we doubt that will happen – but why not a Dark Souls-style set of jigsaw words and phrases that could be plugged together and assigned to NPCs or ‘?’ Blocks?

Importing Wii U levels

After the countless hours we invested in the original game, it would be excellent to salvage our creations and import them into the new game. While some people may still have their Wii U readily available, many more will likely have packed the console away. Technically, linking to an old Nintendo Network account should be easy enough, and while the engine might have changed substantially, it surely wouldn’t be impossible to convert those old files to run in the new game, even if it required players to recomplete old stages to authenticate them.

Wii U

Without knowing more behind-the-scenes technical details, it’s tough to know, but Wii U gamers would be very appreciative to be able to access their previous masterpieces on Switch.

Music Creation Tools

Finally, expanded tools for music creation would be something special. The original game had limited functionality, enabling you to assign tones to in-level note boxes which led to some impressive auto-run musical creations. We’d like to see that go a step further and be able to create our own themes in a Mario Paint-style editor. Of course, we’re not suggesting we could create anything near the level of Nintendo’s composing wizards – we’re no Koji Kondo, that’s for sure – but we’ve been practising with our Animal Crossing town theme and we’re ready for a broader palette. Who could resist a Mario X Daft Punk crossover?

So, that’s the end of the credible ideas. Now it’s time to go off the deep end and dive into pure speculative lunacy. There’s virtually no chance we’ll see any of these, but we can dream.

The Completely Outlandish

Yoshi's Island

Let’s kick off this last little section with a couple of ‘skin’ or palette ideas. Yoshi’s Island still stands up today as one of Nintendo’s best-looking platformers; we adore the look of it, and it would make a wonderful addition to the line-up. Of course, it would probably mean we’d need the egg throwing mechanic and whining Baby Mario, too; perhaps too much of a price to pay, but it would look lovely.

The last style on our list is a Paper Mario palette. Even more so than Yoshi’s Island and Super Mario Bros. 2, the gameplay here would not transfer in any way, but Paper Mario’s 2D aesthetic is gorgeous and we’d snap it up.

While we’re on the topic of Paper Mario (and while we’re really getting into cloud cuckoo territory), can you imagine rotating the whole world 90° around the Y-axis? We still remember the first time that happened in Super Paper Mario and it was an incredible moment. The gameplay implications would make it almost impossible here, but let’s just ruminate on that for a moment…

Brain scrambled? Don’t worry – our last one is something less mind-bending, although the sheer amount of work involved probably makes it prohibitive. Imagine the Mystery Mushroom costumes – those 8-Bit characters you unlocked through challenges or tapping amiibo to the GamePad – that carried across the art styles. In addition to 8-Bit versions, you’d have the 16-Bit version of Samus, Sonic and co. in the Super Mario World palette. What about the 3D versions in the New Super Mario Bros. palette and beyond? That alone would be over 150 fully animated 3D character and vehicle models. We’d also want all the new amiibo that have come out in the interim. Oh yes, you see now why this is in the final section. Ah, but what a beautiful dream!

Phew! That’s it for our far-reaching (and increasingly outlandish) round-up of expectations for Super Mario Maker 2. Which of these do you see making the grade in the final game? What have we missed that you think would make a great addition? Let us know in the comments below.

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Pokémon Sword And Shield Are Already Available To Pre-Order

@Franz @nessisonett @peanutbuttercup

You people know you’re stuff, thats’ for sure.

My sons used to always buy 1 of each as well, but it was always based on which of the 2 main legendaries they thought looked cooler. Fortunately it always worked out they each picked one, but my youngest has outgrown them I think, he wont’ touch Let’s Go Eevee and I’m not sure he ever finished the last one he had. Actually he skipped Ultra too, and his brother bought the Ultra version of the opposite one, S or M, he had.

I’m hoping Switch Mini or Switch Portable releases alongside these games, preferably in a bundle, b/c my oldest son will still want it but I don’t think he’ll need a Dock for his college dorm room, and he mostly plays handheld anyway. For people on here always wondering why Nintneod should make some type of portable only Switch, Nintnedo fanbois going off to college is the main reason.

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Gallery: A Complete Breakdown Of The Pokémon Sword And Shield Trailer

Swordshield

Well, we finally got some solid information on the long-awaited next entry in the Pokémon series! It’s now got a name; Pokémon Sword & Shield will be releasing this year (thank goodness) and we’ve got a breakdown below of the trailer from today’s Pokémon Direct. Let’s have a closer look at the details of the trailer…

Things kick off in a picturesque little village that looks to be your starting area from the number on the sign…

Nestled in amongst the fields and parochial little walls is the town’s Pokémon stadium. The new style of Pokémon Gym, or something new?

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We then zoom in on an attractive little house to meet our trainer(s), who not only gets to live in this lovely abode, but also has a pretty swish telly in their room. Kids these days…

We then cut to the female trainer outside the house looking very chic in a bobble beret and boots, and ready for a Pokémon-based adventure with her all-important backpack.

Next we get a couple of location shots showing off the best looking Pokémon environments we’ve seen thus far in the series. Hardly groundbreaking, but still lovely.

We then cut to our male trainer jogging into the stadium. While the wheelbarrow on the left is fairly self-explanatory, what do those symbols on the right signify?

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Another couple of shots of the female trainer follow, this time skulking in the long grass. What’s that!?

Not a clue who this could be:

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Wild PIKACHU appeared! Our trainer throws out a Minccino who gives the Pikachu an ungentlemanly whack.

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Next up the trainer catches a Wishiwashi.

Female trainer jogs up to an opponent and begins a battle:

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We then cut to a montage of familiar ‘mon, including Grubbin, a Flygon and Braviary battling, and a Wailmer fighting a Meowstic:

After a brief cut back to what appears to be the trainer’s house with a Munchlax inside…

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… we jump into a stadium battle between a Lucario and Tyranitar. Plenty of familiar faces in this new game, then.

We then get a little showcase of some of the environments we have in store, including a snowy town square, a mine and hillside with what appear to be chalk figures – clues to pick apart, no doubt:

The camera then moves around the trainers showcasing the changing locations behind them:

We then see the trainer preparing and walking out through the tunnel into the stadium:

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That’s it for gameplay footage – the rest was a pre-rendered clip introducing the three new starter Pokémon: Scorbunny, Sobble and Grookey.

From the brickwork of an old clock tower the camera whip pans to a little fiery critter running up the edge of a cog on the side of a building:

We see a close up of its foot leaving flaming trails with each step:

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The creature then jumps into the sunlight before dropping fast and sliding along the grass for its reveal. Meet Scorbunny, the fire-type starter!

The rabbit hops away leaving burning footprints in the grass that are mysteriously extinguished…

From a nearby fountain, a camouflaged… something douses the flames.

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Its ‘cloak’ drops and we see the face of Sobble, the newest water-type Pokémon, squirting water from its mouth:

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The timid tadpole-esque creature wiggles out of the fountain and onto the grass for the money shot…

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… before being scared off by a loud banging sound.

The little green body is hitting a rock with a stick but it runs away before we see its face, climbing up the nearby building until it gets to the top and we meet the monkeying grass-type Grookey!

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Time for the logo reveal: Pokémon Sword and Shield! Check out those wolves!

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We then find out a little more information about the lovely new region. It’s called Galar and we get a good look at the different environments it offers:

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We’re then properly introduced to the starters by name:

And finally, the Direct rounded out with that all-important worldwide release window!

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Aaaaaaand breathe. What do you think of the three new starters? How do they compare to the last seven generations? Let us know all your impressions of the region and the everything else in the comments below.

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Hang On, Did Junichi Masuda Tease Pokémon Sword And Shield Last Year?

Masuda

If you haven’t seen the new reveal trailer for Pokémon Sword and Shield yet then, well… What are you doing here? Go and watch it immediately.

Now that you’re up to speed, it’s time to put on our detective (Pikachu) caps for a second. As is now clear, the new games are called Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, with each of the game’s logos even taking on the shapes of their namesakes. Here are the logos in question:

Logos

Now, feast your eyes on this tweet from Game Freak director, and producer of the two new games, Junichi Masuda, shared in October last year. The photograph was taken during a seemingly playful meeting at Nintendo of Europe, with Masuda holding office objects like a sword and shield. There’s even a giant Hylian shield right behind him for goodness’ sake.

Sure, it might just be a complete coincidence, but we’d be willing to bet that he was knowingly teasing everyone all along, knowing full well that nobody would be able to make the connection.

What do you think? A sneaky tease, or are we thinking into it too much? Let us know what you think down below.