One of the shock announcements of the recent February Direct was Astral Chain. While we were all led to believe PlatinumGames was hard at work on Bayonetta 3, it turns out the team has also been developing this brand-new futuristic IP for quite some time now.
Following the reveal of this action game set in a cyberpunk metropolis, Studio Head Atsushi Inaba published the following message on the official PlatinumGames Inc. blog page, explaining who is developing it and the world the game takes place in:
With today’s Nintendo Direct, we at PlatinumGames are proud to show off our latest project: ASTRAL CHAIN, a thrilling new Synergetic Action game for Nintendo Switch. We’ve been working on ASTRAL CHAIN for a while now, but we’ve had to keep it under wraps until now. But now that it’s announced, you won’t have too long to wait – It’s coming to Nintendo Switch on August 30! I’m sure some of you were surprised to hear that an all-new, original PlatinumGames title is on its way so soon!
The idea for ASTRAL CHAIN came from none other than Takahisa Taura, the lead game designer for NieR:Automata. Taura and his team – which includes veterans of such PlatinumGames classics as Bayonetta and NieR:Automata – have worked very hard to make his ideas into reality with ASTRAL CHAIN, his directorial debut. Naturally, Taura’s no stranger to action games, but he’s pushed himself to new heights with the dual-character, Synergetic Action of ASTRAL CHAIN.
ASTRAL CHAIN brings you to a bold, near-future cyberpunk metropolis, featuring character designs by Masakazu Katsura, the acclaimed artist behind beloved manga and anime like ZETMAN and Video Girl Ai.
Last but not least, the team has received supervision and guidance from none other than Hideki Kamiya, to ensure that ASTRAL CHAIN has that special something that action game fans have come to expect from PlatinumGames.
I hope that all of you will join me in looking forward to this exciting, original title from one of our up-and-coming directors. I’m confident that you’ll enjoy it.
Astral Chain is due to arrive on the Switch on 30th August this year. In the meantime, take a look at the announcement trailer below:
Was this one of your favourite announcements of the recent Direct? Tell us in the comments.
In case you forgot, last May, Nicalis announced a new game called Crystal Crisis would be coming to the Switch. This crossover puzzle-fighter was scheduled to arrive this April and is now actually due out on 28th May 2019.
With the release date now finalised, the official Nicalis Twitter account has been spending most of its time showing off each of the characters in the upcoming game. Here’s how the roster is shaping up:
Noticeably, there’s one space left in the above image and it’s now been officially confirmed Umihara Kawase will be joining the line-up. This is how she will look:
The Umihara Kawase platform series started out in 1994 on the Super Famicom and has had multiple follow-ups released on platforms such as the DS and 3DS. The next outing will be Umihara Kawase Fresh! on the Switch, scheduled to arrive this year. Crystal Crisis includes other characters from the likes of Cave Story, The Binding of Isaac, Tezuka Productions and Code of Princess EX. To get a better idea about this game, take a look at the announcement trailer:
Have you been keeping an eye on this one? Will you be purchasing it on release? Tell us in the comments.
Wargroove is still less than a month old and already the team at Chucklefish are eager to share information about the future of the game with the player base. During a recent Twitch live stream, followed by a summary post over on the Wargroove subreddit, the developer outlined the upcoming quality of life and community feedback patch.
While a release date has not yet been confirmed, it’s evident a number of changes across all areas of the game are on the way. Players can expect a new checkpoint system, a difficulty system overhaul, multiplayer adjustments, fog of war changes, general quality of life improvements and plenty of new options along with further fixes and tweaks. Read about all of these features below:
Checkpoint system While playing in campaign mode you’ll be able to set a checkpoint in a mission, and then if you’re defeated you can retry from this checkpoint. You can set a checkpoint whenever you want, but you can only have one active at a time (previous gets overwritten)
Difficulty system overhaul Following player feedback we’re now adding 5x difficulty presets – Story, Easy, Medium, Hard (Default) & Custom. Hard is the standard rules of the game and the only mode where you can obtain S-ranks. Medium is a bit easier and allows up to 3 stars, Easy limits you to 2 stars & Story to 1 star (and is very easy indeed!)
Multiplayer You can now add CPU players to online games. There’s now also a message clarifying that you must join a match if you don’t have any in progress. A number of fixes have been made to Quick Play timers, and you can now no longer suspend Quick Play matches and play other games in the meanwhile, since they’re supposed to be real-time. Seven maps designed specifically for co-op will also be added.
General Quality of Life The effectiveness chart on unit info and recruit screens has been reworked to be far more readable and informative! Skipping battles, captures and cutscenes is now much faster, and S Rank requirements will now be displayed on the overview screen for a mission. “Exit” has been renamed to “Suspend” to avoid confusion and you can now see teams on the Overview screen. Fix has been made to international text input on Switch, and the Korean font has also been added. Display the Controller Select Applet on Switch less often (so only shows up when using local multiplayer).
New options: We’re adding a “Movement Speed” option that allows you to set all units to move faster, as well as a “Confirm End Turn” option to avoid accidental end of turns. A “Damage Range” option is also being added to display minimum and maximum damage on previews, instead of average damage.
Fog of War: Allies now share vision, and eliminated players can still see their team vision – thus becoming spectators. Now spectators can only view the current team’s vision, rather than the whole whole map. Enemy income and funds will now be hidden! Spawn effects and building colours will also not be shown inside fog of war. Likewise, battle and capture animations won’t be shown unless at least one of the units is visible to the current player. Fix made to “sonar” bug that allowed you to obtain extra information within fog of war.
The full changelog will become available when the patch gets a release date and goes live.
Are you still playing Wargroove? How are you finding it so far? Leave a comment down below.
It’s something approaching a tragedy that no Nintendo platform has ever played host to one of Valve’s two Portal games. All platform allegiances aside, these are two of the finest first-person physics puzzlers ever committed to ones and zeros. Fortunately, they’re also two of the most influential.
Nintendo fans were able to reap the benefits of Portal’s considerable cultural impact with Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut, which had clearly learned an awful lot from Valve’s masterpieces. Now the sequel is here for Switch, and it’s an even richer, more accomplished affair that manages to get a little closer to Portal’s magic.
You play the role of Amelia Cross, an archaeologist who awakes in a vast alien structure with no memory of how she got there. If that wasn’t sufficiently disconcerting, she (that is, you) finds that she’s wearing a power suit that enables her to interact with arcane machinery. Most notably, she can imprint square pads dotted around each cavernous room with colour-coded attributes.
Blue squares become bounce pads, red squares extend as platforms, and green squares spawn their own solid cubes. By combining these skills, you can solve the game’s many room-sized puzzles. For example, you might drop a green cube onto an angled blue bounce pad to land on top of a red platform, thus forming a makeshift staircase. You may even need to follow said green cube through the air in a feat of first-person gymnastics that’s very reminiscent of – you guessed it – Portal.
You’ll also encounter a bunch of additional gadgets that enable you to modify these cubes and the rooms they’re in. These include pressure-sensitive switch pads, movable wall and floor panels, vast floor fans and oil slick shooters. Figuring out the delicate interplay between all of these different systems is crucial to success in Q.U.B.E. 2, alongside a hefty dose of good old lateral thinking.
Fortunately, developer Toxic Games has paced the reveal of these systems and the ramping up of their complexity to nigh-on perfection. Experiences will vary depending on your aptitude, of course, but we made steady, gently taxing progress deep into the game’s six hour-or-so running time before we hit our first stop-dead snag. And even then, it turned out to be a fairly simple solution that we’d only overlooked through initial absent-mindedness.
Q.U.B.E. 2 works largely because its mechanics are so solid. Everything behaves as it should, and we only encountered one or two occasions where we had to attempt something a second time because a block didn’t behave quite like it should have done. We did much prefer playing using the Pro Controller over the default Joy-Con, though. You’ll be doing a lot of fine aiming at distant, barely-exposed panels using the right analogue stick, and the right-hand Joy-Con simply felt too imprecise for the job. You can adjust the sensitivity in the menus, though, which should mitigate your woes if you’re struggling.
Control quirks aside, Q.U.B.E. 2’s world feels pleasingly coherent. Credit should go to Toxic Games for creating an atmospheric, believable fiction out of fairly simple building blocks. The stark, sterile environments of the early game are convincingly alien, while moving to a more lush and naturalistic palette later in the game proves no less wondrous.
There’s even space for a compellingly mysterious story, delivered over your suit’s comms system. It’s nothing particularly original, and at times it’s quite apparent that it’s merely stitching together a series of self-contained physics puzzles in a rudimentary fashion. But there’s nothing wrong with economy or restraint in video game storytelling, and Q.U.B.E. 2 turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts on this front.
Generally speaking, the game looks and sounds superb. Again, there’s a degree of economical thinking on display here, with the developer leaning into and owning the whole blocky aesthetic. But there are also moments of stark beauty, typically executed through the application of smart lighting and the sparing use of otherworldly music. Incongruous elements like a great tree or a creepy statue also prove evocative.
We did notice that the frame rate would sometimes struggle during our playthrough, and there was one occasion where the fallen leaves from one of those aforementioned trees would flicker in and out of existence depending on our viewing angle. But the game’s sedate pace (we occasionally wished for a run button) and vaguely hallucinatory premise lessened the impact of these technical hitches.
Conclusion
Q.U.B.E. 2 is an accomplished first-person physics puzzler that learns a number of wise lessons from Portal in terms of mechanics and world building. The puzzles are smartly executed with a well-judged learning curve, while the story adds a welcome dose of context and intrigue to proceedings. Well-travelled gamers will instantly recognise its influences, but there’s nothing else quite like Q.U.B.E. 2 on Switch.
Nintendo arguably left the best announcement until last in the most recent Direct presentation. In case you missed it, we’re talking about the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Nintendo Switch – a remake of the Game Boy classic, first released in 1993.
With very few details about the game available at this point in time, other than the year of release and game trailer (see below), most returning fans are likely expecting it to be a relatively straightforward port, with a new lick of paint and some quality of life changes here and there. The game listing on the official Nintendo website though has led to speculation there could be a multiplayer option in the game, as the page says the number of players has not been determined. See for yourself below:
We know it’s still early days, but given the fact the original title was a solo experience, it raises questions as to why the listing doesn’t already say this. If we were to wildly speculate ourselves, perhaps there is a chance Nintendo will add in a bonus mode or game similar to Tri Force Heroes or the Four Swords, as this next outing appears to be another classic take on the series.
What do you make of this? Were you expecting a multiplayer component to be included with this Game Boy remake? Are you excited about Link’s Awakening coming to the Switch? Tell us in the comments.
We’re finally at the end of what has been a pretty eventful week – you know, with that little video presentation thingy from Nintendo and all that – so it’s time to settle down and recover with some games-based chat. As ever, members of the Nintendo Life team have gathered to share their weekend plans and we’d love for you to get involved, too. Make your voices heard in the poll and comment section down below. Enjoy!
Ryan Craddock, staff writer
This weekend, like any weekend, was going to be completely dedicated to hoovering up those last few Super Smash Bros. Ultimate spirits – I have around 1,100 of the things and getting these last ones are proving to be more time-consuming than ever before. Those plans might have just been thrown out of the window, though, thanks to that silly, ridiculous, brilliant Tetris game.
Yep, like most who have played it, Tetris 99 seems to have me pretty hooked. Winning is incredibly tough, but the ability to just jump straight into another game makes you want to go for ‘just one more’. I’ve already started seeing Tetriminos in my sleep.
Austin Voigt, contributing writer
This weekend, I have high hopes of maybe starting Final Fantasy IX on the Switch – but let’s be honest, it’s been a long week, and I’ll probably just end up playing Tetris 99 the whole time. I’m also pretty disappointed with the lack of Animal Crossing news during the Direct, and I have this itch to go re-purchase a Wii U (I traded mine in when the Switch came out) to replay City Folk. If I squint my eyes, I may be able to trick myself into thinking it looks like an Animal Crossing game on the Switch… desperate times call for desperate measures.
Gavin Lane, staff writer
Despite falling foul of this week’s eShop sale, I doubt I’ll have time to play Undertale this weekend. You see, an impending arrival in the household means sorting out the house is a matter of urgency, so I’ll be going through old boxes filled with consoles and games, making difficult decisions. It’s a pretty lean collection already, but I had a crisis of conscience a few months back when I had the idea to replace my original NES console – which I can’t actually play through my TV anymore – with a nice, neat NES Mini. Of course, in the end I came to the only logical conclusion: get the NES Mini and keep the NES, too. It’s going to be a long weekend…
Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer
On the assumption that ‘Tetris Battle Royale’ won’t take over my entire life, there are some ARMS punches to be thrown along with some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate amiibo and Spirit Board event action this weekend. Nothing like a Nintendo Direct midweek to send every sort of weekend plans into complete disarray and I certainly was not expecting to get my hands on an early build of one of my current 2019 GOTY candidates. Since we were asked so politely for feedback, I will indulge in exploring DAEMON X MACHINA’sPrototype Missions demo to the fullest.
Tikipod’s Iron Crypticle is my game of the week. Grab the game, grab three friends and wonder why no one else is delivering a twin-stick shooter of this finesse.
Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer
This weekend I’ll be falling back into a series I have a rather unhealthy obsession with: Blazblue. As per usual, it’s taken an age for BlazBlue: Central Fiction to make it to the west but it’s finally here and I can’t wait to get stuck into some more 2D fighting madness. Oh and lots of Paladins because I’m a predictable bore.
Liam Doolan, news reporter
If you had asked me several years ago what kind of video games I thought I would be playing in 2019, I probably wouldn’t have said Tetris against 98 other people online. I’m probably not alone when I say I’ve always been fond of this arguably perfect tile-matching puzzle game, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this impressed by it before.
When I’m not giving my brain a workout in Tetris 99 this weekend, I’ll be spending time making maps and slowly working my way through the campaign in Wargroove. Other than these games, I’ve been encouraged by the recent Team Cherry announcement to go back and play Hollow Knight. I’ll also be revisiting the Game Boy Color Virtual Console version of Link’s Awakening on the 3DS, in preparation for the Switch remake.
Which games are you playing this weekend? (417 votes)
Shortly after the Switch release of Dead Cells in August last year, the game’s developer Motion Twin was forced to issue an apology because of the frame rate issues. In certain areas of the title, players were reportedly experiencing significant dips in performance, resulting in entire sections of the game running well-below 60fps.
Motion Twin, at the time, said it would prioritise the issue and later on in September released a temporary fix, allowing “sensitive” players on the Switch to cap the game at 30 frames per second. Now, in the latest major update, the developer has finally got the game running on the Switch at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second. Here’s exactly how Motion Twin fixed it, courtesy of a message from the game’s newsfeed on the Switch:
We went back to the drawing board and completely rebuilt the driver that runs the graphics on the Switch, interfacing between Haxe, our home made game engine and Nintendo’s hardware. That was August last year…
As you can see we hit a few roadblocks, it was something of a technical challenge. However, we pulled it off and we’re really excited to see what you all think of our work.
In addition to this is a major update for the game. It adds custom game support – allowing players to select their level seed, and adjusts the difficulty and balancing. You can read the full patch notes over on the Dead Cells website.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out the recent interview with the Dead Cells team as well:
Have you been waiting for this Dead Cells frame rate fix? Will you be trying out the new update? Tell us below.
Apart from Persona 5’s Joker, we still don’t know anything about the upcoming DLC fighters being added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While there’s been a number of developing rumours about possible characters who could be added, there’s been no other information about what to expect.
Until now, that is. In Masahiro Sakurai’s most recent feature within Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, it’s reportedly been confirmed the five upcoming DLC fighters in Ultimate will not have their own custom recordings or sequences for Palutena’s Guidance. No reasoning for this decision was provided.
For the uninformed, Palutena’s Guidance is essentially an easter egg in Smash Bros. Ultimate where characters from Kid Icarus: Uprising talk about a specific fighter when Pit uses his downwards taunt on Palutena’s Temple stage.
The decision to not include recordings for the DLC fighters in Ultimate is somewhat of a surprise after it was recently confirmed the bonus fighter Piranha Plant received its own sequence. In saying this, the situation is now likely to be the same as Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where additional characters received a generic sequence.
An article by Emily Rogers over on Nintendo World Report suggests a VR-related announcement for the Switch could arrive as early as this year. This information allegedly comes from “multiple sources” as Rogers goes onto state how a “small, select number of traditional first-party software titles” could potentially receive VR support in the “not-so-distant future.”
GoNintendo added fuel to the fire, revealing how a “very trusted source” said VR support for the Switch was, in fact, true and Nintendo Labo would be one of the first games to support it. Right now, there are no details about what this rumoured Labo kit would contain or what it would be called.
Last October, at Seattle’s Geekwire Summit, Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils- Aimé explained how Nintendo had been experimenting with VR technology but said it would need to be fun in order to get the green light:
“This is something we constantly think about, experiment with. For virtual reality, we’ve said: it’s tech that we’re looking at, but in the end it has to be fun. That’s our mission, and that is what we do arguably better than anyone else.”
While he had nothing to announce at the time, Reggie did mention how VR was a technology Nintendo would continue to experiment with in the future.
As noted by Nintendo World Report, there have been several signs Nintendo has been thinking about bringing VR to the Switch. Last August, data miners uncovered a screen-splitting “VR Mode” hidden within the Switch system firmware and in 2016 the hybrid device was reportedly delayed to enhance its VR capabilities. In the same year, the company also filed a patent application for a head-mounted display and just last month it was revealed Nintendo would be participating as an observer of a joint Japanese enterprise known as the VRM Consortium.
Based on the above-mentioned information, do you think VR is coming to the Nintendo Switch? Do you think it will arrive this year? Are you interested in using VR devices to play games? Tell us below.
Lots of lovely Kickstarter news today! Lunark comes from Canari Games, a one-man team consisting of Johan Vinet, and he hopes to bring his game to Switch. It launched on Kickstarter a little while back, but we’ve only just caught it, and we have to say it looks rather nice.
Self-described as a ‘wild adventure set in the midst of a rebellion against a totalitarian regime’, it owes a lot to the classic 1992 game Flashback, as you can see from the trailer. This means there’ll be plenty of running, jumping, ledge-grabbing and hauling yourself up, plus a curious mixture of natural imagery mixed with alien architecture and monolithic technology. Vinet namechecks both Flashback and Prince of Persia in the blurb of his Kickstarter pitch and is recreating the rotoscoped charm of his influences.
While the launch trailer and the screens set the scene nicely, the alpha footage below gives you a better idea of how the finished product will play.
While the developer is at pains to point out that the game is only around 15% complete – with readability of text and various other issues being addressed in the future – we think you’ll agree it looks pretty lovely even at this early stage. We also love the kidney-shaped Mega Drive pad on the Controls menu – what a reassuringly chunky bit of kit that was!
Lunark stands at 70% funded at the time of writing with just six days to go, so if you love those old Delphine Software games, or just like the look of this, head over to its Kickstarter page.
Does this tickle your fancy? Been stung by Kickstarters in the past? Still waiting for your 3DS version of Mighty No. 9 (we’re not bitter, honest!)? Share your thoughts below.
