Now Diablo III: Eternal Collection has finally unleashed hell on the Switch, discussions have been raised about other Blizzard titles that could potentially be released on Nintendo’s hybrid device. Previously, the company said StarCraft is unlikely, Overwatch is feasible and not to rule out the insanely popular digital card game Hearthstone.
Speaking to Eurogamer at BlizzCon last weekend, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said Blizzard was “very open-minded” about bringing the popular team-based hero shooter to the Nintendo Switch but didn’t have anything to announce. He explained how his team’s main goal was to get as many people playing the game as they could:
Our philosophy has always been we want as many players playing Overwatch as possible, and we want to reach as many possible Overwatch players as are out there. We will always explore a platform if we think we could make it viable – both the technology and the business relationship. We would love to do it.
We don’t have anything to announce or any plans with Nintendo or Switch at this time, but… it’s something we’re very open-minded about.
In 2017, Kaplan admitted porting the game to Nintendo’s platform would be a real challenge. Then in August this year, Blizzard senior producer Pete Stilwell said it was possible. It’s also known Nintendo and Blizzard maintained a healthy relationship during the development of Diablo III on Switch, so hopefully, it does lead to more games being ported across.
Would you like to see more Blizzard games on Switch? Would you like to see Overwatch ported to Nintendo’s latest system? Tell us in the comments.
Epic Games is getting richer by the day thanks to its free-to-play battle royale sensation Fortnite. The marketing has very much fueled its success, with the company partnering with globally recognised brands and even going as far as dropping giant objects from the game in actual deserts. NFL outfits were recently added as well.
One other significant promotion helping Fortnite reach 8.3 million concurrent players has been the Avengers: Infinity War crossover with Marvel Studios. It appears Epic has now gone one step further, teaming up with Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt, to promote the game in South Korea. The American who plays Star-Lord in the Marvel films is apparently very popular in Korea, so it makes sense to plaster his face over billboards featuring the game. Below are some photos of the current advertisements:
Chris is previously known to have taken on voice acting roles in the Lego games. In terms of his acting career, he shot to global fame when he portrayed Marvel’s Star-Lord for the first time in 2014. Before then, he was known for his support roles in television series such as Parks and Recreation and eventually went on to be the star in the new Jurassic Park movies.
Are you a fan of the Star-Lord actor? Does ongoing promotion of Fortnite make you want to play it at all? Tell us below.
Given the success of Hollow Knight on the Switch eShop, it made sense for its developer Team Cherry to consider a physical edition in order to continue sales momentum. To make this happen, the talented people behind the title partnered with Skybound Games – a division of Skybound Entertainment – to make this happen.
The announcement was originally made in Variety way back in August, and at the time, the game was planned to be released in Spring 2019. In the latest update, Skybound Games has issued a tweet out of the blue, revealing it is “saddened” to no longer be bringing Hollow Knight to multiple platforms. Here it is in full:
Team Cherry followed up this tweet with its very own blog post explaining exactly why it wouldn’t be going ahead with this release and also mentioned how it would continue to investigate other ways to make a physical version of Hollow Knight a reality:
We’re regretfully announcing the cancellation of physical copies of Hollow Knight and our partnership with Skybound Games.
As a team of 3 people still in intensive production of Hollow Knight, taking the game into the retail space (even with the extensive assistance of Skybound) proved more work than we could reasonably manage.
In future we will investigate other ways to deliver physical versions of Hollow Knight, though likely that will be in smaller quantities.
We’d like to thank Skybound for the amazing opportunity they provided, and for their professionalism and enthusiasm the whole way.
Are you disappointed to hear Skybound won’t be releasing a physical version of Hollow Knight? Did you download a digital copy of this game? Tell us below.
It has been revealed that Prima Games, the largest video game strategy guide publisher in the US, will be closing down after 28 years.
The announcement comes from Prima Games’ parent company DK, which has shared its “extremely difficult decision” to no longer commission guides and its intention of discontinuing all Prima Games operations by spring 2019. The decision has been made thanks to a “significant decline” in the physical video game guide sector.
As it stands, Prima Games will no longer be working on any new material, with staff now working on the completion of all projects that have already been commissioned. DK says that it is “now in conversation with all colleagues in Roseville, Indianapolis and New York who have been impacted by this announcement”, with the Roseville office set to close as early as mid-November.
Of course, we’ve seen a lot of physical video game publications having to close down over the last few years – including this month’s closures of both GamesTM and GamesMaster magazines – with online publications now taking centre stage. With guide and walkthrough content now available at the click of a button for users – and for free, no less – it’s sadly not too hard to see how Prima Games will have struggled to keep up in recent times.
Do you own any Prima Games guides? Will you be sad to see the company go? We’d like to wish everyone involved at the company the very best going forward.
With the base roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate finally revealed, all new fighter and stage wishes and speculation now falls to DLC.
Although the content itself has yet to be revealed, there are several things we do know for sure about the future DLC of Ultimate.
There will be five DLC sets with each set including a new fighter, stage and music tracks. Each set will cost $5.99. All DLC fighters will receive amiibo releases as well.
Piranha Plant will be available for free for early buyers and will be available to purchase in the future. This fighter is not a part of a DLC set, and therefore does not come with a stage and music. Players must purchase the digital version of the game or register their physical game card on a Nintendo Switch device by Jan. 31st, 2019 to receive this fighter for free. Piranha Plant will be available around February 2019.
Additional content such as Mii outfits, spirits and game modes have not been announced as future downloadable content. As of now, only the Rex Mii outfit mentioned below has been announced, but this is not featured as a DLC set.
As with the previous instalments, regular updates will be independent of DLC. Examples include character balancing, bug fixes and graphical changes.
Echoes will not be featured in DLC sets, with only full-fledged newcomers being developed.
There will be more new DLC fighters than in the previous games, as veterans no longer can take DLC spots with five in Ultimate as opposed to four in Smash for the 3DS/Wii U.
All sets will be available for purchase in a reduce price bundle called a “Fighter Pass.” This is not referred to as a Season Pass in any region. This bundle will cost $24.99. Each set will be made available as they are released.
Players who purchase a Fighters Pass will receive an in-game outfit based on Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 starting December 7th. My Nintendo members who pre-purchase the digital version of the game with the Fighters Pass in Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo.com before 11:59 p.m. ET on December 6th will earn 425 bonus Gold Points, double the usual amount. These points will be added to member accounts on launch day.
DLC development is slated to end February 2020, with all currently announced DLC sets made available before then. This means known post-launch development for Ultimate will be at least 13 months long, while Smash for the 3DS/Wii U lasted about 16 months.
With DLC development likely underway for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, what do you hope to see added to the game in the future? We look forward to seeing your thoughts!
“The only thing that I can truly be sure of is the constant, pervading feeling I have deep inside. I’m empty. I’m hollow.”
This is some of the deep philosophy which you’ll find in Forever Entertainment’s Hollow, which landed on the Switch eShop way back in February. While on the face of it, this scary first-person action game brought to mind Dead Space and Resident Evil, it’s very much got a personality of its own.
We didn’t exactly get on well with it in our review, but we did acknowledge that those with a masochistic streak might derive some pleasure from its abrasiveness and its downbeat tone.
If you consider yourself to be one of those people, or if you were in any way curious to see if the game is any good for yourself, you can pick it up now in North America for only $1.99. That’s a massive 90% discount.
Will you be checking it out at this low price, or did our review put you off? Share your thoughts with a comment below.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has revealed that the Nintendo Switch Online service has had a “good” launch, noting that the company’s focus is now on boosting its appeal to secure more subscribers and convince early adopters to stick around.
It was recently revealed that more than 50% of Switch players who have signed up to the recently-launched Nintendo Switch Online service have opted for an annual plan, as opposed to the one-month and three-month options, but we still haven’t received any official figures for how many Switch users have actually subscribed. This new comment from Nintendo’s president (taken from a recent Q & A briefing) is the closest we’ve come to understanding its early success but, as you can see for yourself, the company isn’t willing to share further details just yet.
“We think Nintendo Switch Online had a good launch, but the service has only just begun, so we have no plans to disclose any current subscriber ratios or number of subscribers at this time. Our objective for launching the service is to bring “More Games. More Features. More Fun.” to Nintendo Switch. Our focus at this point is on boosting the appeal of the service. We need to further enhance the content of the service for the subscriber base to reach a certain size, so that is what we’re working on, with the understanding that the time it will take to do so will be measured in years.”
Despite being unwilling to provide those exact subscriber numbers, Furukawa did expand on ways in which the service might progress in the years to come. He spoke of the special NES controllers exclusive to Switch Online subscribers, hinting at the potential for the service to go “beyond” being a digital-only affair.
“As for the kind of service this will develop into in the future, Nintendo Switch Online is essentially a digital service, but we are also offering controllers specifically for use with Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online exclusively to subscribers of the service. We see the need to develop the service beyond being merely digital, in ways play to our strengths as a company that operates an integrated hardware and software business.”
This paid-for online service is brand new territory for both Nintendo and its fanbase, so seeing its development over the next few years could be very interesting indeed.
Have you subscribed to the Online service? Does Nintendo need to do more to entice you in? Perhaps you wish things were still how they were before the paid subscription was introduced? Whatever you’re feeling, let us know below.
Trine Enchanted Edition hits the Nintendo Switch eShop today, and developer Forzenbyte has revealed that the second and third games are also coming to the console in the fullness of time.
We already had a hunch that Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power was on its way thanks to an entry on the German ratings board, but it will also be joined by the second game, Trine 2: Complete Story. Release dates are yet to be confirmed for both these games, although we do know that BlitWorks is handling the porting duties.
We also know that Trine 4 – which is currently in development – is also headed to Switch, which means you’ll be able to play the entire saga on Nintendo’s hybrid wonder. Now that’s magic.
Nintendo’s recent investor’s Q&A document is now live in English, and a few little pieces of info that weren’t covered in the translation of the Japanese version have now come to light – one of which involves the company’s plans to expand into China.
Nintendo has recently made deals with firms like Nvidia to allow certain key Nintendo titles to be ported to the Shield TV system – which shares the same basic architecture as the Switch – but outside of this, the company appears to be rather cautious when it comes to cracking this huge market.
When pressed on the topic, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said:
I cannot say anything new at this time about our plans to start our business in China with Nintendo Switch or smart-device applications. We are continuing to look into a business opportunity in China, but the reality is that there are a variety of issues that give us the impression that it will not be easy to do. And although the market for games in China is incredibly huge, the market for dedicated platforms is small, so even if we were to enter into China, the challenges we would face there certainly would not be simple ones. Even so, I would very much like to try and see how receptive the Chinese market would be to Nintendo IP.
The amazing potential of the Chinese market is something the entire games industry seems focused on tapping these days, but as Furukawa says, there are notable roadblocks which have to be overcome before the company can truly capitalise on this massive – and game-crazy – audience. The 14-year ban on games console was lifted in 2015, but the focus in the region remains on smartphone and PC-based online games, and consoles have yet to make the same impact they have in other parts of the world.
A video game which genuinely looks and feels like an interactive cartoon is a long-held dream for many gamers and we’ve seen some impressive attempts over the years. As far back as the 16-bit era, pixel art classics like Yoshi’s Island showcased beautiful art that nodded at the medium of traditional animation, but modern tech enables a far greater level of fidelity. One of the most notable examples in recent years is Cuphead, a game that wowed with its incredible imitation of Max Fleischer’s animation from the ‘20s and ‘30s; in fact, the aesthetic arguably outshone the workaday gameplay in that case. With Forgotton Anne (yes, that is the intended spelling), Danish developer ThroughLine Games does a spectacular job recreating look and feel of anime in a light puzzle-platformer and, similarly, it works well enough that its gameplay imperfections are easy to forgive.
The eponymous Anne is the ‘Enforcer’ of the Forgotten Lands, a surreal and murky realm inhabited by misplaced or forgotten items from the real world. Until these odd socks, tools and trinkets can be reunited with their owners in the ‘Ether’, they live their lives under the regime of Master Bonku, Anne’s adoptive father. The Forgotten Lands are powered by anima, a glowing energy that’s also the life force of the Forgotlings. Following an attack, it’s your job as Bonku’s protégé to track down an elusive rebel leader with the help of your Arca, a watch-like device which enables you to transfer energy between machines, operate valves and even distil lowly Forgotlings, leaving them to crystalise and perish.
Right off the bat, it’s the animation hooks you. Jumps between brief cutscenes and gameplay are absolutely seamless, and character animation emulates exactly the trademark anime style (typically running at 8-12 frames-per-second). You’ll spend your opening minutes simply moving about the environment – grabbing ledges, climbing ladders and staircases – just to watch Anne’s animation frames and admire little touches, like how the ambient light plays on her or how she dusts herself down. ThroughLine has done a remarkable job in capturing that look and feel of great anime.
The afore-mentioned framerate applies only to character animation, mind – camera motion and background scrolling is perfectly smooth. The beautifully layered 2.5D environments are a strange fusion of Edwardian England and ‘future dystopia’. Everywhere, from the glowing opulence of the train station to the steamy brick-lined backstreets and rooftops, lighting is employed brilliantly. It shifts throughout scenes, silhouetting Anne and bathing the background in colourful haze or smoke as she crawls through vents, collects mementoes and meets unusual folk.
The characters you encounter during your investigations are a motley bunch with a mixture of English and American accents (in addition to some obligatory gor-blimey-guv’nor Cockney, we made out Yorkshire and Scouse, too) and they’re decent company over the game’s 8-ish hours, from the lava lamp reading a newspaper on the train to the old petrol pump employed as an implacable security guard. Voice work is generally strong and subtitles (in bold, yellow Calibri, type fans) are large and readable on whatever screen you’re using. You can’t skip or speed up dialogue – not a problem on your first playthrough, although upon completion you gain the ability to travel back to pick up any mementoes you missed or make different decisions.
The linear narrative offers binary dialogue choices; they’re pretty black-and-white, as are the moral quandaries you’ll come across. We played as a goody-two-shoes, and when we tried to sneakily distil a Forgotling (just as a test, you understand), Anne prevented us from doing so. Much of the story is delivered through snippets of overheard conversation. Anne keeps a diary chronicling your progress and actions (viewable on ‘X’) which also contains clues to some of the more involved puzzles.
Pressing ‘Y’ activates the Arca – your means to manipulate and transfer anima. It freezes the action and blankets the screen with a ‘detective vision’, highlighting all energy sources and receptacles. Anima also powers a pair of mechanical wings enabling you to jump higher and farther, activated by holding ‘R’. You can sprint with ‘ZL’ or ‘ZR’ but the game is at its weakest when it demands precise jumping – Anne’s anime framerate might be authentic, but it doesn’t translate well to precision platforming. She’s so wonderfully realised that, overall, authenticity is arguably worth the compromise, but certainly towards the end, these sections – plus some overly-talky encounters – drag the pace down a tad.
An excellent orchestrated score compliments the art, flowing between melancholy and mischief, grandeur and gloom. It’s the details that stick with you, though – they way Anne adjusts her hair, or how Bonku’s bright image spills across communication mirrors as she activates them. This attention to detail sets the game apart from your garden-variety puzzle platformer and helps gloss over deficiencies elsewhere.
Conclusion
Forgotton Anne is an evocative, artistic triumph that nails that feeling of a ‘living anime’. Sure, the puzzles are hardly mind-blowing, and some later sections may test your patience, but the beauty of the art and the gentle humour of the writing should carry you through these irritations. Animation buffs should dive in without reservation, and we’d recommend anyone with even the slightest interest check this out.
