Category: Nintendo News

As we come to the end of yet another week, it’s time to take a moment or two to discuss which amazing games we’ll be enjoying over the weekend. That “Ultimate Smashing” game may well have released just last week, but there are plenty of other experiences being had by Team Nintendo Life this time around. Turns out we’re a pretty cultured bunch after all… Anyway, feel free to give our entries a read, and then put forward your own entries via our poll and comment section below. Enjoy!

Gavin Lane, contributing writer

After claiming I was done with new games until the new year, discounts on ABZU and Wolfenstein II had me flushing that plan down the pan. Both Everspace and Kingdom Two Crowns are still drawing me back after playing them for review and, having tracked down a jolly Solaire of Astora amiibo, I should probably jump back into Dark Souls, or perhaps get beyond the opening of Mario + Rabbids. Oh, and this morning I saw that Quarantine Circular had launched and used my remaining US credit on that, too.

Last night I also came home to a freshly delivered Flip Grip, so until Downwell launches I’ll be testing it out with arcade Donkey Kong. I should probably get some shmups, too – I hear Ikaruga is rather good…

So, as you can see, I almost definitely won’t be heading to the eShop again until 2019. Youbetcha.

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

Sorry to go for the obvious choice, but I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that my weekend will consist of more Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The last couple of Smash releases didn’t really grab me as much as Melee did in my younger days, but I’m absolutely loving every moment of my time with Ultimate. From playing random local multiplayer games to blasting my way through the surprisingly long World of Light mode, the whole thing has been a blast.

At some point, I really hope to be brave enough to explore new characters and properly learn all there is to know about each fighter and stage to give me an edge in battle. Currently, I only truly feel safe playing as Kirby, but I’m starting to see some weak points that could well be sorted by using someone else. Where to begin, though!?

Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer

This weekend I’ll be returning to one of my favourite games of 2016 – the engaging and emotive story of Firewatch. It’s about to make its debut on Nintendo Switch so I’ll be putting Henry and Delilah’s journey through a forest full of mystery through its paces once more. Look out for my full verdict next week.

Elsewhere, I’ll be carrying on my love affair with Warframe. Seriously, how does it run and look this good on Switch? Someone definitely sold their soul to the Devil…

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

While I could simply write “Smash!” and walk away, I can’t ignore the amount of quality that rolled up this week onto the eShop. One of my personal favourite games of 2017 is now on the Switch and I’m losing my mind all over again in the procedurally generated sectors of Everspace. We also have the brilliant Desert Child, the astonishing Conduct Together!, the solitude of Starman and the gorgeous visuals of Omensight: Definitive Edition. Despite being late to the party, it’s excellent to have Juan back on the Switch; Guacamelee! 2 is just as incredible as its predecessor!

Yet, despite this incredible quality, none of the aforementioned titles reaches the visual/audio heights of GRIS, my game of the week and quite possibly another personal GOTY candidate! It truly is the season… of bankruptcy.

Liam Doolan, news reporter

No surprises for guessing what I’m playing this weekend. Yep, it’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch. For the majority of the first week, I’ve been familiarising myself with the technical aspects of the game and training up with a bunch of new and old fighters. If you must know, I tend to practice with Link, Kirby and Inkling.

If I’m in need of a break, I think I’ll spend my time rolling about in Katamari Damacy Reroll. Else I might finally spend some of my precious gaming moments playing the Switch eShop version of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. It’s definitely one I’ll be enjoying when I’m out and about.

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…

Right now, there’s a Christmas promotion being advertised for the Switch version of FIFA 19 that allegedly isn’t available within the game. This annual event – known as ‘FUTmas’ – allows players to participate in squad building challenges in the game’s FIFA Ultimate Team mode and unlock special rewards.

What has apparently got this small but committed community on Switch in such an uproar, is how this latest event is being promoted to Nintendo players, despite it being unavailable in this particular version of the game which is known for cut content. A reader who reached out to us via email explained how particularly rare player cards are essentially locked behind these events and while Switch players have supposedly been able to participate in SBC from time to time, often they miss out.

Here’s the official tweet from Nintendo, which was called out as “false advertising”, followed by a screenshot (uploaded by a Reddit user) of the promotion being publicised in the Switch news feed:

According to the tip we received, the FIFA community has tried to follow up issues such as this with EA in the past but has not had any luck. As for Nintendo’s promotion of the event, it either knows something the playerbase doesn’t, or it’s perhaps a mistake. We’ll keep you posted if there are any developments.

Do you play FIFA on the Switch? Has this impacted your own experience with FIFA 19? Tell us below.

Right now, there’s a Christmas promotion being advertised for the Switch version of FIFA 19 that allegedly isn’t available within the game. This annual event – known as ‘FUTmas’ – allows players to participate in squad building challenges in the game’s FIFA Ultimate Team mode and unlock special rewards.

What has apparently got this small but committed community on Switch in such an uproar, is the fact both EA and Nintendo are promoting the latest event, despite it being unavailable in this particular version of the game which is known for its cut content. A reader who reached out to us via email explained how particularly rare player cards are essentially locked behind these events and while Switch players have supposedly been able to participate in SBC from time to time, often they miss out.

Here’s the official tweet from Nintendo, which was called out as “false advertising”, followed by a screenshot (uploaded by a Reddit user) of the promotion being publicised in the Switch news feed:

According to the tip we received, the community has tried to follow up issues such as this with EA in the past but has not received a response. We will just have to wait and see if the company rectifies the situation, assuming it is in the wrong. As for Nintendo’s promotion of the event, it either knows something the community doesn’t, or it’s perhaps a mistake. We’ll keep you posted if there are any developments.

Do you play FIFA on the Switch? Has this impacted your own experience with FIFA 19? Tell us below.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is coming exclusively to the Switch in 2019. Given the current hype surrounding the Marvel cinematic universe following its first ten years, this is a major coup for Nintendo.

Shortly after the Game Awards, IGN spoke to Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aimé and asked if the original titles – developed by Activision and dating back to 2006 and 2009 – had a chance of making the transition across to the Switch. According to Reggie, Nintendo hasn’t really considered such an idea and is more focused on getting the third entry right:

“I really can’t comment on that. That’s not been an area of focus for us…What we want to do is we want to make this game [MUA3] a great experience, and certainly with all of the excitement around the overall Marvel universe, we think it’s going to be a great opportunity.”

When he was queried about how the project came to be, Reggie explained how previous collaborations with Koei Tecmo on Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors helped, along with Marvel’s enthusiasm to do something big with Ultimate Alliance series:

“What happens in the world of development is you have companies who have positive experiences in working together, coupled with franchises being available, and the franchise owner wanting to do something with a particular franchise…And in this case, those three elements came together in order to create the opportunity for that game.”

Reggie went on to state how Nintendo was continually looking for ways to collaborate with other developers and said the Team Ninja portion of Koei Tecmo was handling the development of Ultimate Alliance 3.

Would you like to see the original Ultimate Alliance games on the Switch? Are you a fan of the MCU? Tell us below.

Charles Martinet is best known for voicing Nintendo’s iconic character Mario. Since 1990, Martinet has been providing the voice for this character and nearly three decades later he’s still doing it. Thanks to the recent release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch, Martinet was able to reach a very special milestone.

According to the Guinness World Records – the global authority on record-breaking achievements since 1955 – Charles now officially holds the world record for the most video game voiceover performances as the same character. To be precise, that’s exactly 100 performances as Mario, as of 7th December 2018. Here’s a look at the voice of Mario receiving the certificate for his achievement:

Once again, it’s thanks to the recent release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. We think it’s rather fitting he’s been able to reach this milestone with a game that is arguably one of the greatest Nintendo titles to ever be released and one that is already breaking existing sales records on all fronts.

On behalf of the community here at Nintendo Life, we would like to congratulate Charles on this epic milestone.

Christmas is rapidly approaching so you’re no doubt neck deep in buying presents. If you have any friends or family that are getting a Nintendo Switch for Xmas, your best bet is to absolutely get them a fancy new micro SD card.

Games are all good and that but the Switch isn’t lacking in that department. Where it is lacking is in the storage department. The internal storage features a measly 32GB of space, of which only 25GB is actually usable.

That’s such a low amount of space that certain games like NBA 2K19 won’t even fit on it. Heck, even if you buy most of your games physically you’ll run into trouble eventually thanks to the many patches you’ll have to install to make them function.

Below, we’ve rounded up all of the best micro SD cards you can get right now at the cheapest prices. The costs are slowly creeping down, so you might be surprised at how much bang you can get for your buck.

Please note that some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

Best Switch Micro SD cards (USA)

Our US micro SD card recommendations are mostly taken up by SanDisk, as these cards offer far greater value for money than their direct competitors. Having said that, we do recommend a Samsung card at 128GB due to its competitive price and a 512GB option by PNY, as it’s the only current card of that size on the US market.

Best Switch Micro SD cards (UK)

Our UK recommendations are very similar, with SanDisk generally offering the best bang for your buck across all of the ranges. Samsung’s competitively-priced 128GB still makes an appearance but we have another contender in the 512GB range with Integral.

Nintendo Switch Micro SD Cards FAQ

Our micro SD card FAQ below should answer any questions you might have, but feel free to ask us anything in the comments section and we’ll do our best to answer. The most frequently asked questions will then get added here.

Can You Use Any Micro SD Card For Nintendo Switch?

The Switch supports any UHS-I Micro SD, Micro SDHC, or Micro SDXC cards. If you have no idea what any of that means, it’s not really worth worrying about as you have to really go looking for the cards that the Switch doesn’t support.

Given how little the speed differs between the different cards that the Switch does support, we recommend just ignoring that aspect entirely and just grabbing the cheapest you can find. It really doesn’t make much difference.

Besides, cartridges are almost always slower than Micro SD cards, so no matter which you go for, you’re going to get improved loading speeds.

Where Is The Micro SD Card slot?

If you’re wondering how to go about putting a Micro SD card into your Nintendo Switch, the handy photo above should help.

To access the Micro SD card slot on your Nintendo Switch, simply pop out the kickstand on the back of the Switch. Inserting a Micro SD card can be a bit fiddly, so you’ll want to do it with the logo facing up. Push the card into the slot until it makes a reassuring clicking sound.

What Speed Micro SD Card Should I Buy?

At the moment, speed isn’t really worth considering when you purchase a micro SD card for your Nintendo Switch. The reason for this is that the Switch only supports UHS-1 cards, which max out at 104MB/s in terms of speed. The UHS-2 types are three times faster, with a 312MB/s speed but that’s irrelevant as the Switch doesn’t currently support them.

While it’s true that the speed between even the UHS-1 cards does vary, the differences just aren’t noticeable enough to worry about. That’s why we’ve focused purely on the best value for money, as there is a considerably larger difference between the prices of two micro SD cards than there is the speed.

What Size/Capacity Micro SD Card Should I Buy?

It’s going to be a while until 2TB cards are available and, more importantly, affordable. Right now you typically have the choice of 512GB, 400GB, 256GB, 200GB, and 128GB.

SanDisk has finally released a Micro SD card with a capacity of 400GB, which is a fantastic option for Switch owners who plan to download a lot of games, but it comes with a high price tag at the moment.

PNY has just released a 512GB Micro SD card too, with a similarly eye-watering price tag. This is the largest micro SD card from a respected manufacturer that we have seen. If you have that sort of cash to spend, this could be the ultimate option for your Switch.

On the other end of the scale you can pick up a very cheap 128GB Micro SD card, but chances are you’ll fill it up within a year or sooner with downloads, so we recommend you think long-term and consider the ~200-256GB range.

The best value for money right now is 200GB from SanDisk, which has been available for as little as $50.

An alternative approach would be to buy multiple cards and swap them depending on which games you want to play – slightly more effort, but potentially very affordable.

What Type/Brand Of Micro SD Card Is Best?

Nintendo Switch ideally wants the fastest micro SD card for improved loading times; generally, a good micro SD card will outperform Nintendo’s official game cards, which is a bonus for downloaders.

Each time SD Card technology has evolved its speed is rated, you can usually get a “read speed” rating on the SD Card your looking at buying. You should also notice that micro SDXC is the newer, faster type versus the older micro SDHC.

Brands also offer “premium” versions of their products; one example is the SanDisk “Ultra” range, which is typically populated by their fastest cards.

We’d recommend going for one of the premium offerings if you can, but it shouldn’t make a huge difference for the average user.

Should I Install All Of My Games On A Micro SD?

Given the Nintendo Switch’s limited 32GB of internal storage – of which only 25.9GB is actually usable – you’re going to be forced to install the vast majority of your downloaded games directly onto the micro SD.

However, we have learned that games installed directly onto the internal storage saw improved load times over cartridges and micro SDs, with the most extreme cases improving load times on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by a whopping five seconds.

The differences between Switch cartridges and micro SD were too small to really fuss over – a mere second or two here and there – but it does seem like installing on the internal storage offers a significant improvement. As such, we’d recommend installing your most played game/s on your internal storage, and the rest onto the micro SD.

How Do I Move A Game Between Micro SD And Internal Storage?

Sadly, there’s no easy way to quickly move a game from the micro SD to your internal storage. Instead, you’re going to have to delete and download it again.

When downloading a game, the Switch will always favour the micro SD card over internal storage, so to ensure a download goes into the internal storage, you’re going to have to take the micro SD card out first.

Turn off the Switch before you do so to avoid any nasty data corruption, then take the micro SD card out of its slot. Turn the Switch back on, head to the eShop, and download the game you want to be installed on your internal storage. Once the download is complete, you can turn the Switch back off and pop the micro SD card back in.

To move a game from internal storage to micro SD card, just reverse the steps. First delete or archive it, then download it while the micro SD card is in its slot. As the console favours micro SD over internal storage, it will download there first – provided there’s enough space, of course.

Don’t worry about losing your save files while deleting or archiving a game though – they’re stored in a different location, and require deleting separately. Also, cloud-based saving is a thing now thanks to Nintendo Switch Online. Huzzah!

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Whichever Micro SD card you pick, you’re going to be increasing the potential of your beloved Nintendo Switch. If you plan on taking your Switch out with you on your travels, having a large capacity will be a great idea as you won’t need to carry loads of pesky carts around with you.

Nintendo has shared a new trailer for Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the moment the poor beasty lizard realised he’d somehow swallowed two whole plumbers. Yikes.

The game is set to arrive on Nintendo 3DS on 11th January in North America and 25th January in Europe, with pre-loading just becoming available on European stores. It’s thanks to this new pre-loading option that we’ve been treated to this new trailer and, while it’s a little on the short side, we love any excuse to see Nintendo plonk its characters into real-life situations. Give it a watch below.

If you’re after even more Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey content – what an unnecessarily long name – you might be interested in checking out these gameplay clips that were recently discovered on the title’s Japanese website. Each one shows off just some of the tricks you can pull off in battle.

Will you be picking this one up? Or do you tend to favour your Switch over your 3DS these days? Share your thoughts on this game’s upcoming arrival in the comments section below.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a lovely livestream, so come join Alex as he plays through the epic space shooter Everspace – Stellar Edition on the Nintendo Switch.

In our Everspace review, we felt it was an entertaining roguelike which fuses FTL with Rogue Squadron. We awarded it a mighty 8/10.

The livestream starts at 5pm UK time, so don’t miss out. Of course we’ll be archiving it for your future viewing pleasure, so no worries if you can’t join us live.

Sneaking onto the Nintendo Switch this week is Atari Flashback Classics, a collection of 150 Atari favourites all in one handy bundle.

Atari Flashback Classics includes a whole range of titles from the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 home consoles, as well as some former arcade exclusives. We’re talking games like Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Pong to name a few, with in-game achievements, leaderboards, and other social features supported, too. There’s even an archive full of classic artwork to round things off nicely.

We’ve got a feature list and a collection of screenshots for you to check out below.

Key Features Include:
– 150 Classic Atari 2600, 5200 and Arcade Games: Play seminal Atari titles including Asteroids®, Centipede®, Missile Command®, Pong®, Tempest®, Warlords®, and many more.
– Online and Local Multiplayer: Battle for arcade supremacy against friends online or at home.
– Online Leaderboards: Compare your high scores with players from around the world.
– Nintendo Switch Functionality: Designed to take advantage of the Nintendo Switch’s greatest features.
– Brand New User-Interface: New User-Interface designed to re-create the greatest classic arcade experience.

The game is available directly from the North American eShop for $39.99. A European release date is still to be confirmed, so you might have to set up a North American account if you’re hoping to get your hands on it immediately.

Do you plan on jumping into this Atari collection? Let us know with a comment.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is just over a month away from release on Nintendo Switch, and it looks set to offer a very different and rather intriguing adventure in the No More Heroes universe. It seems that the game is important for the franchise in more ways than one, too; not only is it a kind of side-step in terms of the plot, but its performance could well directly impact any potential for a No More Heroes 3.

As fans will no doubt be aware, the series has – up until now – had two main entries and next month’s spin-off title. No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle both appeared on the Wii around ten years ago, offering unique hack-and-slash experiences that found a natural home on Nintendo’s platform. A numbered sequel has been in demand for a while now, and while Travis Strikes Again will be a welcome return to the franchise, a potential No More Heroes 3 will always be high on fans’ wishlists.

Luckily, such a game could well make its way to a gaming console near you. In a recent interview with Kotaku, series director Suda51 has noted that the success of Travis Strikes Again could well lead to a new mainline game, going on to explain that he already has an outline for an “epic” No More Heroes 3 in his head.

“If Travis Strikes Again is a success, it could lead to another numbered instalment in the series, so, I’m hoping that everyone will support this spin off entry in the series.

“I already have a composed outline for No More Heroes 3 in my head, and I want it to be way more epic than previous numbered instalments in the series, with regards to Travis and his battle towards the new assassins. Because of that, I felt like Travis needed a kind of sidestep, to sort of add to his growth, giving him a chance to grow a bit before his next big battle in a numbered game. I feel like Travis Strikes Again is really integral to the series, and I want it to connect those numbered instalments together, so I hope people will support it because of that.

We don’t know about you, but this certainly sounds like a welcome idea to us. Here’s hoping the game can eventually become a reality.

Would you like to see a No More Heroes 3? Are you planning on supporting the series by picking up Travis Strikes Again? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.