Category: Nintendo News

We’re happy to exclusively reveal the news that the hit indie puzzler Q.U.B.E. 2 is making its way to Nintendo Switch in both digital and physical form later this month.

Q.U.B.E. 2 is a much-loved puzzler that originally launched on PC and other consoles last year. Featuring more than 80 puzzles in total, the game puts players in the shoes of British archaeologist, Amelia Cross, who, with the help of fellow survivor, Emma, must face the challenges of the Q.U.B.E. in the hope of finding a way back home from the ruins of an ancient alien landscape.

Developer Toxic Games has partnered with Super Rare Games to release a physical version of the game on the console, as well as the standard digital version. The Super Rare physical edition will include a 12-page full-colour manual, interior artwork, an exclusive sticker, and three trading cards randomly selected from a five-card set. This marks the first time that the Q.U.B.E. series has seen a physical release; only 4,000 copies will be printed and pre-orders are set to go live on 13th February.

The physical edition and extra goodies will cost £29.99, or you could choose to pick up a digital copy from the Nintendo eShop with a 15% launch discount. Prices on the eShop will be set at £22.99 / €25.99 / $29.99 when the game launches on 21st February.

Are you a fan of the Q.U.B.E. games? Will you be picking this one up on Switch? Let us know whether you’ll be going for the physical or digital version in the comments below.

Over the last few hours, rumours have been circulating online suggesting that a major reveal of the new Animal Crossing game for Nintendo Switch is just around the corner. The rumours started to flow after fans discovered a collection of private Animal Crossing videos on YouTube but, sadly, this doesn’t mean that a reveal is on the way. Let us explain…

The speculation was first teased in a since-deleted Reddit post, amongst other places, before being shared around by news outlets and fans of the series online. The post linked to an Animal Crossing video playlist on the Nintendo DE YouTube channel which contains multiple private videos and, upon seeing these, eager fans began to get a little over-excited, dreaming of an imminent reveal that would perhaps come in the form of a Nintendo Direct or similar.

While we could never rule out the possibility of a surprise Nintendo Direct happening at any moment, including a reveal like this, the videos in question are not related and there are no signs of a reveal coming any time soon. The playlist in question hasn’t been updated for several months, and punching the private videos’ URLs into Google reveals that they are old listings that have since been removed – such as an old commercial for Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Tomodachi Life on 3DS.

The last official update we had on the game revealed that it is still on track for a 2019 release; we’re as desperate for more news on our favourite little critters as anyone, but it’s still very much on the way and more news will come when it’s ready. Hopefully that wait won’t be too much longer!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s promise to bring back all characters as playable fighters will extend to its amiibo figure line, making collectors all around the world both incredibly excited and terrified for the future of their bank balance in equal measure. As well as old favourites, all new additions are getting their own amiibo, too, including none other than Animal Crossing‘s Isabelle.

Strangely, despite it being revealed alongside the likes of King K. Rool, Piranha Plant, and Ice Climbers, we were never treated to a quick glimpse of the Isabelle figure’s packaging. If you’re the sort who likes to keep your amiibo collection boxed for display purposes, you’ll be happy to know that we can now see exactly how it’ll look thanks to an updated product listing on Amazon Japan.

The boxes and designs for the other three fighters mentioned above, as well as Young Link, Daisy, Pichu, and Ken, were revealed back in November. King K. Rool, Ice Climbers and Piranha Plant are all being released in just over a week’s time (the first two of which can still be pre-ordered through Nintendo UK), although no specific date for Isabelle has been shared just yet.

Will you be adding any of these to your collection? Do you already have many Super Smash Bros. series amiibo? Tell us below.

The latest North American My Nintendo rewards have gone live, offering a nice selection of titles at discounted prices across Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

We have several Mario titles up for grabs, including two Mario Party entries, as well as Animal Crossing, Dr. Luigi (possibly building the hype for the upcoming Dr. Mario mobile game) and more. As always, you can take advantage of these discounts by simply using the required Gold or Platinum My Nintendo Points listed below.

In addition to those, several Kirby gift items are also available, including printable gift boxes, placemats, wallpapers and a video.

And that’s not all, as these two 3DS themes can also be picked up as we speak:

• Nintendo 3DS theme: Mighty Mushrooms: 100 Platinum Points
• Nintendo 3DS theme: Spotlight: Yoshi: 100 Platinum Points

Will you be taking advantage of any of these offers? Remember, your Gold Points can also be spent on Switch software directly from the eShop or a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, too.

Continuing its apparent bid for world domination, Fortnite held an in-game concert this weekend featuring real-life music producer and DJ, Marshmello, reportedly seeing over 10 million players watching, interacting, and performing their favourite emotes in real time. If at least 50% of that sentence went over your head, you’re not alone, but the result was quite something.

At 7pm on Saturday, players were whisked away into a special match at the game’s Pleasant Park location, with all weapons completely removed. The event had been teased throughout the previous week, and many wore special Marshmello costumes and streamed the event on services like YouTube and Twitch. It was essentially like the Super Bowl, but for an entirely different crowd.

You can see it in action via the official video above, and this fan-recorded point of view below. Regardless of your views on the game (we know a lot of our more vocal readers aren’t particularly keen) or even your views on Marshmello’s music, it’s undeniable that this event was a rather spectacular effort on a technical level. Hosting that many players across all platforms, with live, interactive segments throughout (players experienced anti-gravity physics when the music dropped) is impressive, and goes a long way in showing why Fortnite’s ever-changing world is as popular as it is.

Despite the fact that these fans are technically too young for the game (that’s another story for another time), this shows the sort of hype levels it caused among its biggest fans.

Did you experience the event? Would you like your favourite game worlds to host real, live moments like this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The latest batch of My Nintendo game discounts for Europe has now gone live, giving players the usual chance to grab some 3DS and Wii U games at discounted prices.

There are eight games up for grabs this time around, including the fantastic Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, a spooky adventure featuring our favourite poltergeist-catching plumber, and several discounts on games from favourite Nintendo franchises. As always, you can take advantage of these discounts by simply using the required Gold or Platinum My Nintendo Points listed below.

There’s also a Nintendo 3DS theme up for grabs:

• Yoshi’s Springtime Siesta (Theme): 20 Gold Points

Will you be taking advantage of any of these offers? Remember, your Gold Points can also be spent on Switch software directly from the eShop or a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, too.

Varsav Game Studios, the developer of the upcoming Bee Simulator, has announced a publishing partnership with Bigben Interactive which will see the game launch physically on Switch “at the end of 2019”.

If you’ve missed the news on this one in the past, Bee Simulator has you seeing the world through the eyes of a honey bee. You’ll be competing with other bees in races, collecting pollen, performing “waggle dances”, and exploring a world inspired by Central Park in New York – presumably every bee’s dream destination? It supports co-op and vs. split-screen play, and the developer has been working on expanding the game’s features over the last couple of months.

Here are some of those features, as shared in a press release today:

– A unique chance to see the macro scale world from the micro perspective of a honeybee;
– A realistic representation of a place inspired by Central Park;
– Three diverse modes enriched with educational elements:
a) Single-player story mode presents you with a family of bees. Can you save the hive from the threat of human beings?
b) Exploration mode allows you to freely discover a world inspired by Central Park in New York.
c) Split-screen mode can either be used for cooperation or competition. It includes an additional map that makes the game even more fascinating.
– The possibility to interact with your surroundings: people, animals, plants, and other insects;
– A lack of violence – it’s a perfect choice for parents looking for a game that their children can safely play;
– Relaxing music composed by Mikołaj Stroiński, who was responsible for the soundtrack of such games as The Witcher 3 and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

Łukasz Rosiński, founder and joint-CEO of Varsav Game Studios, has said the following:

As a unique mix of action game with elements of simulation, and definitely with an educational mission, we deeply believe that Bee Simulator has great potential. Potential not only to give players huge amounts of fun and entertainment from being a bee, but also by increasing their knowledge of the nature that surrounds them, and maybe even change their work-life-nature balance.

No specific release date has been given just yet, but we do know that it will launch simultaneously worldwide across consoles and PC.

Will you be(e) adding this one to your physical Switch collection Does the idea have you positively buzzing with excitement? Tell us below.

Long before games existed as we know them now, ‘video games’ consisted of text-based adventures that demanded just as much imagination from the players as they did input. Dungeon crawlers were a popular genre at the time, one in which you guided a protagonist room by room through sprawling, confusing castles guided only by your wits and memory. Though the days of text adventures have long since passed, the Etrian Odyssey series has kept their spirit alive through its decidedly old-school gameplay, and though it may not be to everyone’s taste, Etrian Odyssey Nexus stands as the purest distillation of the series formula yet.

As far as story is concerned, Etrian Odyssey Nexus is rather unique in how its story focuses only partially on a pre-defined plot; broad strokes and story beats are laid out in a standard fashion, but much of the narrative will come from small, player-driven decision moments that occur rather frequently when exploring the labyrinths. The overarching story centres on the floating city of Maginia, to which Princess Persephone has invited all adventurers in the land to explore the mysteries of Lemuria and the Yggdrasil Tree that it houses, and you play as the leader of a new guild that has come to answer the call. Unlike some other games in the series, which dabbled in creating a more character-driven plot, Etrian Odyssey Nexus merely offers up this sort of rough framework, which is filled in by your own unique experiences.

As you crawl through the seemingly endless dungeons, you’ll occasionally come upon tiles that prompt your guild with making a series of decisions, the outcome of which can result in either positive or negative effects. For example, one memorable instance early on saw our guild come into contact with a fruit tree, and the game asked whether or not we wanted to send someone up to try picking some fruit. After choosing someone to go, we had to periodically choose whether to let them come down or keep picking more fruit; the outcome resulted in our party getting a nice boost to their health, but it could’ve just as easily ended in them being poisoned or our chosen unit falling out of the tree and mortally injuring themselves. It’s these emergent moments that make Etrian Odyssey feel rather special in its storytelling, as you develop quite a bond with your otherwise flat characters. Rather than the game itself dictating the kinds of characters that constitute your party, the character development comes from player-driven choices such as this.

As a sort of ‘greatest hits’ release for the series, Etrian Odyssey Nexus features a whopping nineteen classes to choose from when building a team, of which you can bring five at a time into the mazes. As you’d expect, this leads to a staggering, almost overwhelming amount of player choice in how a team is built, but the game is relatively lenient in allowing just about anything to fly; there aren’t really any wrong answers here regarding how a team should be built, but you’re going to have a bad time if you try running a squad of five pure medics. Things become even more granular once you boost a character past a certain level threshold, which allows you to then add any of the other eighteen classes to them as a subclass, granting them access to the skills, weapons, and armour of that class. If you’ve ever been the sort of player that doesn’t like to feel boxed-in with an RPG regarding character growth, Etrian Odyssey Nexus is the game for you; there’s next to no limit on what you can do with how you build out a squad, and the game almost begs you to find ways to ‘break’ the system.

Once you’ve arranged a squad that you’re comfortable with, you can then dive into one of the game’s labyrinths and begin exploring away from a first-person perspective. As you walk, it’s up to you to draw your own map on the bottom screen, filling in the empty grid with lines, squares, and icons to represent things like walls, doorways, and enemy locations. Those of you that don’t want to waste the time can activate a convenient auto-map feature in the settings, but there’s something to be said about the experience of slowly putting together your own maps and watching them grow in complexity; much like the player-driven storytelling, it does a great job of adding extra layers to the immersion factor. Finding that staircase that leads to the next floor, or uncovering a treasure chest tucked away in a corner; these are events that feel like much more of an accomplishment when the game isn’t simply handing over a map.

Enemy encounters are mostly handled randomly; a small meter on the screen fills up a little bit every step you take and eventually triggers a fight once it reaches the top. The battle screen retains the first-person view, tasking you with clicking through endless menus as you set up each character’s action for that turn. Both your team and the enemy team are laid out with a frontline and backline, with the backline generally being harder to attack, so finding good team synergy is critical to overcoming the hordes of monsters and animals that roam the mazes. Some classes specialize in buffs and debuffs, others are good at tanking damage, while others are good at handing damage out; it’s up to you to best discern which character abilities and attacks are suitable in any given situation. White-knuckling your way through fights with basic attacks is a passable strat early on, but later levels demand that you learn the intricacies of each class and how they can best contribute to the overall effort.

All the standard turn-based JRPG actions are available here (using items, attacks, running away, and so on), but a cool addition that helps spice things up a bit more is the usage of the force gauge. Each character has a gauge that slowly fills every turn, and once full, it lets them activate their Boost, a passive ability that significantly enhances their battle effectiveness in some way. For example, the Arcanist – a class that specializes in laying down temporary debuffs that affect the whole enemy team – has a Boost that prevents their debuffs from decaying with each turn, while also raising the chance that enemy units are affected by the debuff. Every class’s Boost is only active for three turns, after which the force gauge has to recharge, but you’re given the choice to either let it run out or activate that unit’s Break. A Break is a special, game-changing attack unique to each class, and while they can singlehandedly change the outcome of a tense boss fight, using a unit’s Break will disable their force gauge for the rest of that current run through the maze. Although the base combat system has plenty of depth and difficulty, this Boost/Break system helps to add a nice layer of extra strategy to proceedings, injecting a healthy dynamic element to the otherwise static battles.

Although the bulk of your combat experience comes from random battles, Etrian Odyssey Nexus also brings back the F.O.E. (Field-On Enemies) system, in which especially powerful, boss-like enemies appear on the map and must be manoeuvred around as you explore. Generally speaking, your team isn’t powerful enough to take on the F.O.E.s for a given floor when you first come to visit, so avoiding them is the best option, and the game helps facilitate this by showing where they are relative to your location. Every now and then, however, F.O.E.s have to be used to progress further in a dungeon, such as baiting them into breaking down walls, and this can lead to deliciously tense chases down long corridors and twisting paths. F.O.E.s only take a step when you do, but it can still be all too easy to get backed into a corner and forced into a fight. If you can take them down, there are some incredible rewards to be had, and coming back to a dungeon once you’ve levelled up more can lead to some extremely rewarding fights against enemies that once dwarfed your own combat effectiveness. A dungeon crawler such as Etrian Odyssey Nexus is always in danger of becoming a stagnant or repetitive experience, but this F.O.E. system goes a long way towards making every run through a dungeon something special by introducing some real, serious stakes to every step you take.

Every battle sees you getting a lump sum of XP that’s evenly distributed to every conscious member of your team, and when a unit levels up, their stats see a small bump and they’re granted one point to invest in a chosen ability in the skill tree. Every unit has a skill tree divided into three parts according to what level threshold they’ve reached, with the latter skills obviously being quite powerful. However, reaching the desired skill usually takes a fair bit of planning, as you have to first unlock the right to activate it by upgrading lesser skills a certain amount. You’re given full view of a skill tree right from the beginning so you can best plan out a unit’s build, and every decision you make along the way feels impactful and meaningful. Most skills can have several points invested into them to boost their effectiveness, and due to the relatively slow drip of points that you’re given, it becomes critical to find that balance between what you’re currently using and what you’re going to use several levels on from here. Much like with team composition and subclassing, this granularity gives you complete freedom in how your characters shape up, which can be either stressful or welcome, depending on what kind of player you are.

Once you’re finished with a dungeon run (usually when you’ve run out of TP to power your special attacks), you can then take the team back to Maginia to rest up and restock on items and weapons. A shop in town will buy enemy drops off you and create new armour and weapon sets to utilize them, along with offering you the opportunity to use those parts to augment already existing gear. Meanwhile, a tavern nearby gives you the chance to talk with NPCs and pick up or turn in sidequests; these mostly consist of unmemorable fetch quests, but they nonetheless help to give more purpose to each run through a dungeon. More importantly, this constantly revolving dynamic of bouncing between town and dungeon creates a satisfying and rewarding feedback loop that keeps you coming back for more; every town visit gives you the material and motivation to go a little further into the dungeon next time, while every dungeon visit sees you racking up tons of sellable items and treasures for subsequent visits to town. It all fits very nicely together, and though it isn’t anything very complicated, this simplicity of design can be quite effective in keeping you unaware of how many real-time hours are slipping by.

This being a dungeon crawler, Etrian Odyssey Nexus has an interesting graphical style that’s as much about menu navigation and design as it is about the actual graphics. For example, the town of Maginia isn’t an actual town that you can explore, it’s simply a menu that lets you select where you want to ‘go’, which then brings up background art and character portraits that fit the setting. The dungeons, on the other hand, are beautifully well-realized environments full of detail and colour, accompanied by enemy models that are basic, but well animated. Etrian Odyssey Nexus isn’t exactly a knockout in terms of its graphical style, but it certainly does deserve an extra nod for its tremendous usage of stereoscopic 3D, a foundational system feature that even Nintendo itself has been mostly ignoring as of late. Looking down a corridor and truly seeing how far down it goes, or scrolling through battle menus with four or five different layers, is an experience that adds a surprising amount to the game; that added depth gives everything it touches a distinct sort of presence that helps contribute to the immersion that’s clearly being attempted. It works well, and though Etrian Odyssey Nexus is no system showcase, it has a distinct way of drawing you into its world that few other games on the 3DS can match.

This is helped in no small way by the absolutely stellar soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro, industry legend and longtime composer for the Etrian Odyssey series. The orchestral tracks mix pianos, strings, and soft percussion to create relaxing, dreamlike tracks that call to mind some of the work from Studio Ghibli film. This music does a fantastic job of drawing you into the gameplay and instilling a sense of wonder as you traipse your way through mossy stone temples and other such locations. In battle, the music tempo picks up considerably and adds in some electric guitars to spice things up, but it still doesn’t lose that chilled sense of adventure that the rest of the soundtrack builds. Rest assured, you’re sure to find a few tracks in Etrian Odyssey Nexus that will stick with you for a while after putting the game down.