Yesterday, Nintendo shared financial data, sales figures and more from its Nine Months Earnings Release, revealing that it has slashed its bold 20 million Switch hardware sales target for the financial year. As is becoming a somewhat usual occurrence, the company’s stock has fallen by a dramatic amount as a result, with investors seemingly unhappy with the change.
The revised target was put in place “based on sales status for the nine months ended December 31, 2018”, as well as the company’s “future outlook”, with the gaming giant now forecasting 17 million Switch hardware sales in the financial year ending March 2019, instead of the original 20 million target. The news has caused a 9.19% drop today, according to Bloomberg‘s latest data.
Other than this hiccup, which arguably came into being thanks to having unnecessarily brave original targets, rather than low sales, the financial release showed very positive signs. Switch software sales are impressive, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate setting records all over the place, and hardware sales during the holiday season were through the roof with 9.42 million units being shifted. Nintendo’s upcoming mobile app Mario Kart Tour was also delayed, but the reaction from investors does seem a little extreme.
Nintendo’s stock levels have see-sawed over the last few months, so it’s very possible that we’ll see that number rise right back up again in the coming weeks. A good major announcement or two certainly wouldn’t go amiss, however.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this in the comment section below.
Ubisoft made big waves in the industry when it released Rayman Origins, a triumphant return to the company mascot’s 2D platforming roots. Blending goofy humour with thrilling platforming sequences, it captured the hearts of millions, but perhaps the most stunning aspect of the release was the flash new engine that it ran on. UbiArt allowed the art team to manipulate hand-drawn sprites with impressive gusto, presenting players with an unprecedented art style that really did bring drawings to life. Unruly Heroes, a new platformer from Magic Design Studios (consisting of some staff that worked on Rayman), carries on the dream and acts as a sort of spiritual successor to Origins, blending a fantastic art direction with slick platforming gameplay that makes for a compelling experience you won’t want to miss.
Unruly Heroes is a retelling of the classic Chinese folk tale Journey to the West, following the adventures of four unlikely (or, ahem, unruly) heroes as they endeavor to collect all the fragmented pieces of the Sacred Scroll and restore peace to the world. It’s an admittedly flimsy premise, but what’s lacking in the story department is more than made up for with the overall charm and humour that permeates every bit of the cast and the environment. Whether it be the goofy band that plays music on the loading screen or the hammy but surprisingly solid voice acting, there’s a certain kind of whimsy to Unruly Heroes that draws you into its deliciously weird and beautiful vistas.
Just about every level you encounter instils a sense of awe in how it lays out the environments, paying immaculate attention to detail to make the lush countrysides and damp caves feel like real places with self-sufficient ecosystems. Things like tiny drops of water dripping inconsistently from a cave ceiling or fireflies dynamically flitting about in the foreground cement this feeling, and the way in which the background gradually fades out soaring rock faces and warm sunsets creates a powerful sense of scale for a 2D game. Unruly Heroes stands as a prime example of how well a strong art direction can carry an interactive experience; this is arguably one of the most visually striking games available for the Switch, not because of how far it pushes the hardware, but because of how focused it is in executing the chosen art direction.
Luckily, the gameplay is no slouch either, even if it isn’t necessarily anything innovative. Levels are laid out in a Donkey Kong Country-esque fashion in which the path forward is always made abundantly clear, but little caves and branching paths along the way usually lead to extra goodies. It builds on this, however, by instilling subtle puzzle-solving elements that necessitate regularly swapping control between the four main characters to best use their unique abilities. One character can inflate like a balloon to access hard to reach places while another is capable of breaking down special stone walls, and while there’s nothing here in the puzzle design that’ll really make you think, it provides a welcome break in the platforming action every now and then.
The platforming itself could hardly be described as difficult either, but it’s clear the developers have made quite an effort to give each level a unique stage gimmick of some sort to make it memorable and interesting compared to what came before. One stage sees you riding a wooden log down a gorgeous river, while having to dismount at key points to save the log from getting ground up by buzzsaws. Another stage takes you through a spider’s nest laden with eggs that have to be destroyed in a certain order on each screen, culminating in a fight against the queen of the nest. The next stage then lets you take control of the defeated spider queen, using her attacks and wall-crawling abilities to your advantage. Although the relative ease of these stages does take a bit of the wind out of their sails, Unruly Heroes understands the value of memorable set pieces and diverse stage design, making for an experience that always keeps you guessing.
Threaded through all the platforming and puzzle-solving are slices of combat that see your characters having to fight off all manner of animals and monsters, and while this is perhaps the weakest part of Unruly Heroes, it’s still surprisingly engaging for what it is. The four characters all more or less control the same, but utilise a different weapon of choice to make them feel unique, whether it’s an old-fashioned Bo staff or a Zenyatta-style collection of floating orbs. A quick tap of the shoulder button initiates a dodge roll and spamming ‘Y’ or ‘X’ causes your characters to dole out the pain with a mixture of light and heavy attacks. Once you’ve built up enough of a combo, a unique and flashy special move can be triggered that torches any remaining stragglers. As a side dish to the main course of the platforming, combat works well, but it does tend to get repetitive with time.
It should take you anywhere from five to ten hours to see Unruly Heroes through to the end, but there’s plenty of replayability options here for completionists. Every stage contains a hundred gold coins to collect – which can then be spent on new skins for the four playable characters – and a secret scroll which unlocks a piece of concept art for viewing in the extras gallery. Also, you’re given a ranking medal upon completion of a stage which takes into account how many coins you collected, how many times you died, and how fast you finished.
Along with all this, you can naturally play with a friend in local co-op at any time, and even take them on in a segmented PvP arena with a handful of stages and game modes. It’s a neat distraction, one that some players will no doubt find a solid amount of enjoyment in, though the complete lack of other players in the online matchmaking lobbies was rather disappointing. We certainly wouldn’t recommend Unruly Heroes for its in-depth multiplayer potential, then, but what’s here is a welcome inclusion that’s harmless at worst and good value added at best.
Conclusion
The ever-expanding Switch eShop has no shortage of excellent platformers under its belt, and while Unruly Heroes may not be the absolute best of the best, this is still one of the finest platformers we’ve played in a long time. Stunningly beautiful art direction coupled with diverse level design and well-paced gameplay makes this one an easy recommendation for both longtime platformer fans and for new players looking for an easier game to get into. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but Unruly Heroes hits all the notes that it needs to, and it’s more than deserving of a spot in your games library.
Continuing the recent trend of musical love, Sega has shared a new video today giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Team Sonic Racing‘s soundtrack.
The video features Sonic Team Sound Director Jun Senoue on guitar, Act. on drums, and Takeshi Taneda on bass, all jamming along to songs from the game during the recording process. We get to hear snippets of Frozen Junkyard, Market Street, and the particularly satisfying Green Light Ride playing alongside a blend of in-game visuals and footage of the musicians looking effortlessly cool.
In case you’d forgotten, Team Sonic Racing is speeding onto a Switch near you both physically and digitally on 21st May. Just last month, it was revealed that baddies Doctor Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Zavok are joining the lineup, taking the full roster up to 15 racers.
Will you be lining up on the starting grid this May? Let us know how you’re feeling about this one in the comments.
One of the most intriguing games on the Switch’s release schedule horizon is Ape Out, an ultra-violent smash ’em up that was originally planned to release next week. Sadly, the game has been delayed slightly, pushing its launch date back to 28th February.
The game is a wild mash-up of striking colours, frantic jazz music and inescapable violence, where players have to charge around destroying everyone in their path. You can build up momentum to cause even more destruction, using your captors to shield yourself from harm and cause more damage to others. In a nice touch, it even features a procedural music system which adapts as you play.
Devolver Digital’s fittingly angry press release tells us that the delay has been implemented to “get 60 frames in each glorious second of the game”, before going on to tell potential buyers exactly what they can do with the news:
“Consumers around the world can show their appreciation for a good old-fashioned delay by pre-ordering the game on Nintendo Switch to prove blind loyalty to frame rate.”
If you wish to take them up on that lovingly crafted offer, you can pick it up on Switch for $14.99 / £10.99 / €14.99.
Feel free to vent your delay frustrations in the comments below.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s latest star, Piranha Plant, is now available for all players as paid-for DLC on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
As you’ll no doubt be aware, Piranha Plant joined Smash’s roster earlier this week for all players who had purchased the game and registered it to their Nintendo accounts before 31st January. While it has always been known that the character would become available to all at some point in the future, specific details hadn’t been shared until now.
If you head over to the eShop, a quick search for ‘Piranha Plant’ will find the DLC option waiting for you. Alternatively, it also appears on the page for the main game. You can download it right now for £4.49 / $4.99.
If you want to see Piranha Plant in action, make sure to check out our recent video – it looks like it could be a pretty serious challenger.
Did you claim Piranha Plant for free? Will you be paying for the character instead? Let us know in the comments.
Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.
Piranha Plant has arrived in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and it’s utterly, undeniably, unashamedly glorious.
Yep, earlier this week, Piranha Plant joined the Smash Bros. roster as the first DLC character released for the Switch’s biggest fightathon. The release has been an interesting one; the arrival has generated a heartwarming amount of love for the character online (if you’re in our social circles, at least), but has brought with it some pretty alarming issues, too. If you missed the news, playing with Piranha Plant in All-Star mode has been known to wipe players’ save files.
Still, we’re completely enamoured of its bitey, leafy ways and our resident YouTube overlord Alex jumped at the chance to make a video all about it – you know, for science. To make sure the video was useful for you, and to make sure the bosses were actually on board, Alex takes you through some of the character’s most interesting battle techniques – its special moves are particularly interesting and could make it a serious contender at a competitive level.
Make sure to give it a watch and let us know how you’ve been getting on with the character in the comments below.
The retro-inspired action platformer Ghoulboy – Dark Sword of Goblin is planning a nostalgic trip to the Nintendo Switch later this month, it has been confirmed.
Said to combine elements from the action-RPG genre with hack ‘n’ slash style gameplay, Ghoulboy features all the heroic characters, gloomy environments, and demonic bosses you’d expect to find in your classic, retro platforming adventure.
Players must take control of said heroic character, throwing your spear to defeat enemies and create your very own platforms – you can see this taking place in the trailer above. You’ll find puzzle and combat elements to explore, as well as the ability to trade in any collected gold to acquire health upgrades and weapons.
The game has received “positive” user reviews on Steam since its launch last year, and will be available on Switch from 14th February. You’ll be able to get your hands on it for £9.99 / $9.99 / €9.99.
What do you think? A platformer worthy of your attention? Share your thoughts with us below in the comments.
Ed Annunziata’s career spans all the way back to the early ’90s, and includes titles such as Spider-Man, Chakan: The Forever Man, Cyborg Justice and Kolibri, all games that appeared on Sega hardware. However, his name is most closely associated with the groundbreaking Ecco the Dolphin, a 1992 Genesis / Mega Drive release which established a best-selling franchise.
Annunziata’s connection with Ecco could be seen as both a blessing and a curse, because it has arguably placed the designer in the shadow of his most famous creation, despite the fact that he has been involved with many, many notable games since then.
Annunziata is currently hard at work on Space War Arena, a Switch game which hits the eShop on February 14th. Keen to know more, we sat down for a chat with this legendary developer.
Nintendo Life: Before we get onto Space War Arena, it’s worth touching upon your amazing career. What have been the highlights for you personally?
Ed Annunziata: I’ve been making games for a very long time, so there’s been a ton of highlights. I’d say every single release of all the games I’ve worked on have all been highlights! Just getting the game into the endzone is always a victory. Sticking with the football analogy, it would feel so good I would totally do a touchdown dance on every game shipped!
Some individual moments that I cherish:
Doing voice over for Three Dirty Dwarves (Saturn). The whole team played roles, including the Hungarian-speaking Orcs! I never laughed so hard in my life.
When I met Micheal Jackson because he was friends with Tom Kalinske (President of Sega at the time) and was a fan of Ecco! I was showing him an early version of Tides of Time while we both sat on a piano bench. As I played the game, Michael started singing to the music of whatever level I was playing. I got goosebumps.
When we finished Tiny Tank (PS1) the team performed the song, “Up your Arsenal” which was just one of the songs on Tiny Tank’s crazy soundtrack. I remember the moment with all of us in the studio singing our guts out. It was awesome!
You’ve created Space War Arena with a small team; have you found that your fame with other titles has helped gain interest in the game?
Well, you answered my email! Other than that, I don’t think my track record helps one bit. For better or worse, only the game and how fun it is can gain interest if there is to be any. As for the team, it is still ‘us’, the original Ecco the Dolphin team! We have all worked together for the last 25 years. My development partner Laszlo Szenttornyai worked on many games with me, including Ecco the Dolphin. Laszlo the best Space War Arena player on earth right now. My secret plan: In the future, we are going to use machine learning to capture Laszlo’s strategies and tactics and make an AI opponent of him in the game; the bot will be called ‘I am Laszlo.’
What inspired Space War Arena, and what makes it unique in your opinion?
Little spaceships! When I was a kid the video games that appealed to me had little ships, like Defender, or Nolan Bushnell’s Computer Space. And ultimately the game called Spacewar, the very first video game ever created in 1962 (the year I was born). What was interesting about Spacewar is it was it started as player vs. player from the beginning. I had a little ship, you had a little ship and we went at it until only one remained. It was awesome.
Space War Arena is a modern take on a real-time wargame with spaceships. On a very fundamental level, Space War Arena was designed as a two-player, head-to-head game. Like a real-time chess game, only the pieces are little ships that have different parameters and behaviours.
A natural component of this kind of game is its sci-fi theme; AI is emphasized. In the single-player mode, you battle against different flavours of AI. Even the little spaceships have their own unique AIs that drive them. As you observe how these machines think, you get better at playing this game. While designing all the AIs for the units, we discovered that there is infinite space for strategies and tactics.
What element of the game do you think players will find most surprising?
How solidly fun it is. One small indication of this is when you start a battle, it is very difficult to stop playing until someone wins.
What kind of modes will the game have, in terms of solo, local and online?
The premier mode is head-to-head, local. We don’t support online yet, but it’s coming. The game includes a story-based campaign mode where victories unlock new units. Also, 6 different AIs to battle are provided to level-up units you already own. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
How are you making use of the console’s unique features, such as the Joy-Con, desktop mode, and the touchscreen?
I love the haptics on the Joy-Con. Space War Arena is a very explosive game! The visual effects are great for seeing the explosions, but the haptics let you feel them; very satisfying. We support the touchscreen as much as possible. We even support head-to-head touchscreen play on a single system, which is surprisingly fun!
Space War Arena looks like as great new series, but do you ever feel like returning to the classics of your past?
One of the OCD characteristics of my personality is I never give up! When I was trying to convince Sega about Ecco the Dolphin it took me years to get them to bite. There are some challenges I need to overcome but eventually, there will be a new Ecco! Also, I am trying to find a way to port our Saturn game, Three Dirty Dwarves, to the Switch. I think that’s an excellent game for the platform. Also, if I have it my way, modern versions of Mr. Bones (Saturn) and Tiny Tank (PS1) are heading over to the Switch someday! You tried to crowdfund a successor to Ecco a few years back; what happened with that?
Ugh, I knew you were going to ask me this! Ok, the Big Blue failed as a crowdfunded project, not for only one reason. I know I did not do it well. I still very strongly believe in the story and the mechanics but it really can’t be a spiritual successor to Ecco, it has to be Ecco! One thing I can say is in the future, people are playing this game. I never give up!
Nintendo fans are hungry for a Nintendo Direct right now. You know that, we know that, and we’re pretty sure Nintendo knows that, but there’s still no sign of a presentation in our near future. So what’s going on?
The last Direct presentation we received was on the 1st November – a special Direct which was the last one to be centred completely around Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Going back further, the last “proper” Nintendo Direct which catered to all fans and spoke about a variety of games was released on 13th September, almost five whole months ago.
Since then, Nintendo has been making large, potentially Nintendo Direct-sized announcements on social media; you can easily visualise moments like the Metroid Prime 4 delay and the Dr. Mario smartphone game reveal popping up in a video, but they were shared as standalone news items instead. Picking up on this fact, Wall Street Journal reporter Takashi Mochizuki asked about Nintendo’s current attitude to Nintendo Directs in a recent Q&A session.
He reports that Nintendo’s stance on Directs hasn’t changed, signalling that more will come in the future, although the long gap between presentations was fully acknowledged in the response. The hypothetical January Nintendo Direct that fans were desperately hoping for and attempting to wish into existence never came, so does this acknowledgement suggest that Nintendo is aware of the demand, waiting to spring a presentation on us in the coming weeks?
It’s impossible to know for sure, but what we do know is that Nintendo Directs are definitely still a thing; we’re sure a presentation will arrive as soon as Nintendo is ready to deliver the goods, so remain calm.
Are you itching for another Nintendo Direct? When do you think the next one will come? Share your thoughts with us below.
