Category: Nintendo News

If there’s one indie game that is more deserving of a physical release than any other, it’s probably Hollow Knight. Following the game’s successful digital debut on the Switch and multiple other platforms, the talented people at Team Cherry released a number of free content packs for the title. The cherry on top was the announcement a physical edition was also on the way, thanks to Skybound Games.

Unfortunately, last November, the physical release was then cancelled, with Skybound issuing a tweet saying how “saddened” it was it would no longer be releasing Hollow Knight in this form. Team Cherry added to this, explaining how it would continue to investigate other ways to make a physical version of its title a reality, but it would likely be a smaller release.

It now looks as if the developer has sorted things out, as the ESRB has given Hollow Knight an E10+ rating. As noted by NintendoSoup, ESRB ratings do not apply to digital releases and usually indicate a physical release is close by.

Are you glad to hear a physical release is likely on the way? Did you download this game from the eShop when it was released? Tell us below.

Earlier this week, we found out the turn-based tactical game Wargroove had covered its development costs in its launch weekend and now the roguelike RPG indie title Tangledeep by Impact Gameworks has had a similar level of success.

The developer revealed it took the Switch eShop release a single week to exceed the same amount of copies the Steam Early Access version sold in about half a year. The developer confirmed these launch week sales were enough to cover the costs it took to port the game to Nintendo’s newest portable system. Unfortunately, no exact figures were provided.

It was also confirmed the Switch version is most popular in Japan, with the country responsible for 33 percent of total sales on the eShop. If it continues to sell like this, Impact Gameworks will release a large DLC expansion called Legend of Shara on Switch. If you’re not familiar with Tangledeep, be sure to check out our review, where we awarded it 7 out of 10 stars and said it was a smart, deep and rewarding roguelike RPG designed for seasoned players.

Were you one of the many people who downloaded this game in its launch week? Tell us below.

Sensible Software is a studio embedded in gaming history for many reasons outside of the admittedly immortal Sensible Soccer. Along with the Canon Fodder games – the destructive sibling of Sensible’s popular football sim – the company’s commitment to the 16-bit Amiga proved that, sometimes, you can achieve impossibly addictive gaming perfection even with the most cartoon-like of visuals. Make a game addictive, and if it’s being played by enough people, you’ve succeeded – and the fame of Sensible’s output during the ’90s suggests that it was something of a triumph.

Aside from studio kingpins Jon Hare and Chris Yates, it’s the artistic mind of Stoo Cambridge which we see when we pump the Sensible Soccer ball up-field or load that Cannon Fodder gun; Cambridge gave Sensible’s games their artistic flair and his talent was responsible in no small part to their accessibility and appeal.

However, Sensible Software didn’t remain in the realm of home computers forever and eventually branched out into the 16-bit console sector. Cambridge had worked on the Sega Mega Drive conversion of Sensible Soccer, but did he also cut his teeth on the Super Nintendo version of the game? “I did and I didn’t,” he recalls with a smile. “I did the Sensible Soccer conversion for the Mega Drive, but the art was ported over to the Super Nintendo version, which sort of counts… though I did do some specific bits for it, like the gamepad user interface.” Cambridge’s involvement with SNES Sensible Soccer may have been slight, but it was another project with Sensible co-founder Chris Yates that offered Stoo the chance to work more intimately with Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse.

“I did quite get into the SNES,” he explains, before telling us a little about an unreleased project that could have topped the studio’s other console output. “I’ve been asked a few times over the years about this little-known Sensible Software game we – Chris Yates and myself – worked on back in the early ’90s called Molotov Man. I can’t recall exactly when we started working on this, but it was on the cusp of Wizkid being finished and Cannon Fodder being started, so probably the Summer of 1992 – though I could be mistaken on the finer points. Jools [Jameson] and I were also converting Mega-lo-Mania to the Megadrive.”

Molotov Man was heavily inspired by a certain Hudson Soft game which involved dropping bombs to blow up other players. “It was heavily based on the PC Engine classic Bomberman,” admits Cambridge. “Instead of leaving bombs, you hurled Molotov Cocktails. There was no real design on who or what Molly – the nickname I had for the main character – was, or indeed what he looked like. At this early stage, it was just Chris and myself working on a game demo. I provided the art when Chris requested it, and that was about it. I can’t even recall if there was a game design document.”

The lack of a design document – a vital part of game development – didn’t prevent Cambridge from putting in quite a bit of work on the game. “I initially worked on a few sprites ideas for the main character, along with some very basic walls and floors for scale, which I have to say were pretty awful,” he says.

“I was not happy with these placeholders, so I went back to the drawing board and opted to go with a more Japanese ‘Anime’ style of design, seeing as it was a big thing back then. I took this a stage further and created a large version so we got an idea of what he looked like in a bit more detail. I wanted him to be a bit chubby but not to the point where he looked like he was about to keel over due to the excess weight!”

The idiosyncrasies of the host platform made themselves felt at this stage. “The funniest thing about working on a SNES game is that the screen aspect is not the same as that of a Mega Drive or an Amiga,” Cambridge says. “The resolution is 256 x 224 compared to 320 x 224 on a Mega Drive, or 320×256 on an Amiga. So even though the resolution is smaller, the screen area covered is about the same, which really affects the aspect.

“I used the Deluxe Paint programme on the Amiga to create my art at 320×256, which meant as soon as anything I created was displayed on the SNES screen it immediately looked stretched when compared to the original. This isn’t a problem if you can take this into account at source, but if you’re drawing something that is circular or needs to be uniformly square, then it has to be right. I think I opted to manually ‘stretch’ my Amiga screen via the controls on my monitor so the aspect was nearer to that of the SNES; it kind of worked, but long term it was a right pain.”

With ‘Molly’ done, Cambridge turned his attention to the levels. “I think we worked out that the game is set within a house or cottage, something like that,” he recalls. “You have to remember it was all very loose from a design perspective; we were, after all, creating a ‘proof of concept’ so getting something up and running was our primary goal. In-between doing these background graphics I also played about with some ideas for a title screen logo, I came up with something that looked fairly half decent and we went with that.”

Is it fair to assume, then, that a playable demo was created? It would seem so. “Chris got something running and we had a little demo where you could walk about the level throwing Molotov cocktails that would explode along the paths,” says Cambridge. “Of course, we needed something to blow up, so I knocked up a couple of baddies; looking at them now are rather lacklustre and clearly just placeholders but they did the job, and that was about it for the demo.’

It’s at this stage that the game would have been shown to potential publishers, and Cambridge – who was not directly involved with this process – seems to recall some discussions taking place. “During this time, Chris had been quite chatty with the guys over in Japan, Imagineer Co. Ltd, who were converting Mega-lo-Mania to the FM Towns and the Super Famicom,” he remembers. “I think there was some talk about some project or another and working with them on something, though I’m not 100 percent on this. A deal was certainly bubbling away but whether that was for Molotov Man, I don’t know.”

No deal was forthcoming, and Molotov Man never saw the light of day. Cambridge himself has no idea why this is the case, even after all these years. “The simple answer is I don’t really know. From what I can recall from that time, nobody was interested in funding it through development to finally being published.”

All that remains of Sensible’s Bomberman beater is the visuals that Cambridge created, and we’re lucky to have those. “Thankfully I backed up my work many years ago when I switched from Amiga to PC as my main work environment,” he says. “I do wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t of backed it all up; a lot of this stuff would have been lost. There was a demo or two but I never had copies of these as they were always on Chris’ development machine, and most likely have been included in a Sensible archive of sorts somewhere over the years.” Given that Sensible closed years ago, it’s anyone’s guess where these files are, if they still exist at all.

Looking at Molotov Man today, it’s obviously a very rough proof-of-concept, but it’s still easy to see the potential. “It’s clear the art was far from final,” continues Cambridge. “But there’s enough to show what sort of look I was going for and what the game would have been if it had made to something playable and something to show in the press.”

Thanks to Cambridge’s efforts, we have an amazing insight into how the early origins of a game come about, but unfortunately, there’s little to tell about Molotov Man beyond that. Not all games make it out of the studio; many don’t even make it past being vague ideas or random scrapbook entries, but after hearing Cambridge’s memories and seeing these early visuals, it’s clear that somebody needs to raid Chris Yate’s development machine for the demo of Molotov Man.

It’s no secret there’s a portion of Nintendo fans who absolutely adore Waluigi. We’ve seen petitions for the purple Mario character to be included as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has even gone on record saying how the series’ creator Masahiro Sakurai is well-aware players want to play as the mischievous character.

If you needed some more evidence to prove just how popular this character is, the official Play Nintendo website recently ran a poll to find out which character fans would love to give a Valentine to on Valentine’s Day. Despite characters such as Isabelle from Animal Crossing, Pikachu from Pokémon and Princess Peach from the Mario series being on the list, Waluigi won in a landslide victory. Below is an image of the poll, courtesy of NintendoSoup:

As can be seen, Waluigi absolutely smashed the competition, with a whopping 2197 votes. That’s ten times the amount of votes Isabelle received in second place. Mario had just 15 votes and Jibanyan from the Yo-Kai Watch series wasn’t much better with 20 votes. Wario only had 30 and Luigi received a total of 27 votes.

Would you give Waluigi a token of love on Valentine’s Day? Are you surprised Mario is so unloved in this poll? Tell us below.

We’ve reached the weekend once again and, as is tradition, the Nintendo Life team has banded together to talk over all the lovely games we’ll be playing over the next couple of days. We’ve got farming, fighting, fishing, and fun bursting out of our Joy-Con this week, so feel free to read our entries and join in with a vote in the poll and a comment in the… Er, comments. Enjoy!

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend, I’ll be trying my hand at a few new indie titles I’ve been wanting to sink my teeth into. The first is Farm Together – which I keep hearing good things about, and should hopefully scratch my simulation itch. Next, I’m interested in giving Fishing Star: World Tour a go – although I’m not into fishing games necessarily, loads of people seem to be talking about it, and it’ll be cool to dust off the ol’ Toy-Con fishing rod to play. Lastly – and everyone will gasp when I say this – I have yet to play Hollow Knight, so that’s definitely on the list for this weekend. I’m essentially snowed in at my house at the moment, so it’ll be the perfect hermit gaming weekend!

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

I’m still completely hooked on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There, I said it. For some reason, I’ve decided to go for every single Spirit and complete every single challenge now that I’m done with World of Light (I’ve even got a little notepad document going on my laptop where I’m keeping track of which Spirits I’ve enhanced and stuff). Someone help me.

Realistically, I’ll be playing that again this weekend, although I do have a couple of indies lined up, ready to go in the form of GRIS and My Memory of Us. I haven’t started them yet, but I’m looking forward to booting them up at some point.

Gavin Lane, staff writer

Another week, another eShop sale and another game for the backlog. This week it’s Horizon Chase Turbo, an arcade racer I’ve been jonesing to try ever since it got a glowing review from yer man Chris Scullion on these here digital pages. Beyond that, I’ll be continuing to play the awkwardly punctuated Steins;Gate Elite for review. I say ‘play’; it’s a visual novel with dozens of hours of anime, so it more closely resembles a Netflix binge-watch. Keep your eyes peeled for the verdict soon.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

I knew this would happen: Kunio-kun: The World Classics Collection is impossible to put down! When I do manage to let it go for a bit, it’s time for some Splatoon 2 Splatfest splatting over the current breakfast feud (FYI, I eat much healthier than either option) and some mandatory Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit Board action (getting close to 100% spirits here!). While I would love to put some solid hours into Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, I sense the eternal blue skies from another Bandai Namco franchise will consume the rest of my weekend…

…And on that subject, the disappointment of the week goes to Sky Gamblers – Afterburner! Poorly optimised and, as of now, bug-ridden, all Nintendo Switch virtual Mavericks out there deserved a much better arcade flight shooter offering. Stick to the previous Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders instead.

Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer

For my sins, I’ll likely be spending a good portion of my weekend playing through Monster Energy Supercross 2 on Switch. For reasons I simply cannot fathom I’ve played all of the MXGP games and the last Supercross game. Here’s hoping this one ports a little more smoothly to Switch. Knowing me I’ll probably be playing lots of City of Brass as well. Because it’s brilliant. Have a good ‘un!

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…

Video game addiction in recent times has become a major concern for health authorities worldwide. The World Health Organization announced its own plans in June 2018 to recognise gaming as a mental health condition. Individuals suffering from it give increased priority to playing video games over other daily activities and routines, resulting in negative consequences in their lives.

As this has become a global problem for experts, organisations and governments, game companies are now being questioned about the addictive behaviour of video games. In Nintendo’s recent financial briefing Q&A summary, company President Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the measures Nintendo was considering to combat this disorder:

“I think the problem of game addiction is more about becoming overly dependent on video games than is about any issues with the games themselves. One thing we have done as a company that creates games is to implement features that allow parents to limit the time that their children can play games. I think that further implementing features like this, and raising awareness among more people that these features exist is one way we can face this issue.”

One of the features Furukawa appears to be making reference to is likely the Switch parental controls smartphone application. This allows parents to supervise gameplay, track play sessions, set daily limits and restrict gameplay features. If you haven’t heard about the Switch parental controls before, take a look at the trailer below:

Do you think video game companies need to take addiction more seriously? Tell us below.

Since the arrival of the Switch, 3DS sales have begun to slow. While this beloved handheld system – first released in 2011 – is easily one of the best Nintendo has created, it has come to a point in its life where support is finally slowing down. A quick look at the scheduled 3DS releases for 2019 reveals slim pickings, with only a handful of games on the horizon.

In the same Nintendo financial briefing Q&A, which was recently translated, company president Shuntaro Furukawa was queried about the staying power of the 3DS and if there was a possibility it could continue to co-exist alongside the Switch.

Furukawa was quick to admit the market for the 3DS had contracted a lot faster than Nintendo had expected but said the system remained appealing because of its compact design and affordable price.

“While the Nintendo 3DS market has contracted faster than we anticipated, currently many of consumers who newly purchase Nintendo 3DS are consumers purchasing Nintendo 3DS as their first game system. Nintendo 3DS is appealing as a portable game system, that is easy to carry around since it is small and light, and at a very desirable price point.”

He then explained how the system was still a popular choice with parents of younger players and said it was for these reasons Nintendo would continue offering both the Switch and 3DS.

“Demand still remains from parents looking to purchase a first game system for their children. That is why our basic policy is to proceed with both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS in our dedicated video game platform business.”

As for the future of the Switch, the company aims to drive sales of one system per household and then increase demand to the point where each user wants their own device.

“Going forward, we aim to generate such demand among consumers as they feel like “I want to have my own Nintendo Switch console” through measures such as software offerings, not necessarily so that each person will have one, but so that each household will have multiple Nintendo Switch consoles.”

What are your thoughts about Nintendo continuing to sell the 3DS? Would you prefer the company focused all of its energy on the Switch? Are you still playing your older portable device on a regular basis? Tell us below.

The proportion of female employees in hardware and software development departments at Nintendo was one of the many topics raised during the company’s recent Q&A session, which has now been translated. According to Nintendo Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi, the company has created a comfortable environment for the many females in the software development departments:

“There are many female developers in the software development departments. Especially, there are many design works involved in developing software, and very high number of females among our designers. Many of them have children, and we have created an environment to work with comfort even for those who have children. I think that it is a very good workplace where women can participate actively and find satisfaction in their work.”

Shigeru Miyamoto further elaborated on Takahashi’s response, pointing out how the Animal Crossing series has a female director and noting how development companies in Europe and the US were predominantly comprised of males:

“There are also many females actively involved in development. The director of the Animal Crossing series is a woman, and there are many female designers working actively. When I had chances to look at other development companies in Europe and the US, they give the impression that they’re overwhelmingly male-dominated. Compared to companies like that, Nintendo has a lot of female developers energetically working.”

Nintendo Director and Senior Executive Officer Ko Shiota finished up by saying how Japan did not have a high volume of female employees in certain engineering professions:

“This is a common issue in Japan that there is not a high percentage of female workers in engineering professions like hardware development and systems development. And it’s true in our company that compared to software development, the percentage of female workers in hardware development is low. However, Nintendo’s work includes approach to unique technologies, so I believe the proportion of female employees could potentially change in the future.”

Where to even begin? Welcome, friends, to an article more fitting of our ‘Random’ tag than we could ever have imagined.

3625 Elm Ave in Baltimore US has appeared as an available listing on real estate brokerage site, Redfin. Normally, this wouldn’t fall anywhere near our area of expertise, but the listing is so bizarre (and just about Nintendo related), that we simply couldn’t ignore it.

As well as standard photographs of the building, its rooms, and even local scenery, the property’s photo album includes a whopping 21 images featuring the creepiest Pikachu we’ve ever seen, complete with human feet. Why was this Pikachu employed to sell the house? What happened to the poor thing during its childhood? Will we ever get the image of the Pikachu in the shower out of our heads? We’ll probably never know.

You can check out the listing and all of its photos for yourself here if you like (until it gets taken down, of course). At the time of writing, viewings are available to be booked in, although we imagine that the Pikachu of Despair™ won’t be there.

Has this convinced you to buy the home? Would you like to be employed as a real estate Pikachu model? Let us know your thoughts on this important topic in the comments below.

As you may or may not be aware, Capcom keeps a tally of all its million-sellers called the ‘Platinum’ list. It covers all platforms and, right now, it’s up to 87 titles (although, confusingly, Capcom’s own description states that it has over 100 million-selling games) stretching from NES classics like Mega Man 2 and Ghosts ‘n Goblins right up to its most recent releases.

While it’s worth bearing in mind that this data dates back to the end of last year – and therefore doesn’t include the massively successful Resident Evil 2 remake just yet – it makes for some interesting reading. Monster Hunter: World jumps all the Resident Evils and Street Fighters to the top of the list with a colossal 11.9 million sales across all platforms. From a Nintendo perspective, Monster Hunter Generations creeps up to number 17 having sold an impressive 3 million copies across 3DS and Switch. There’s no individual breakdown between the platforms, although Capcom commented in its February 4th financial report that the Switch version enjoyed “robust sales” outside Japan.

With Switch’s growing player base, Capcom is sure to have plans for the franchise on Nintendo’s system going forward – the list features plenty of Nintendo hardware elsewhere. While a port of the ultra-successful Monster Hunter: World is unlikely, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

Would you snap up a Switch port of Monster Hunter: Worlds or would a bespoke title be a better idea? Give us your thoughts down below.