Category: Nintendo News

Although the west only received Dragon Quest Builders on the Nintendo Switch at this start of this year, Square Enix is already well into the development cycle of Dragon Quest Builders 2.

At a recent Japanese event, producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto revealed the team would start work on a demo for the sequel, once the full version of the game had been completed. The demo will reportedly be made available prior to the game’s launch. While there’s no release date for the test try just yet, the game itself arrives in Japan on 20th December.

If you’re eager to get your hands on the demo while you hold out for the full game’s 2019 local release, you’ll need a Japanese Nintendo account. Square Enix also released a very generous demo for the original Dragon Quest Builders game (in both Japanese and English), which is available on the eShop right now if you’re curious to see what all the fuss is about and for some reason missed it the first time around. It’s basically Minecraft crossed with the Dragon Quest series. You can read more about it in our review.

In addition to the demo announcement, Square Enix showed a new island area in the sequel. Footage of this location starts at the 27-minute mark in the video below.

Did you play the original Dragon Quest Builders on Switch, or have you been holding out for the sequel since it was announced? Did you play the original game’s demo? Are you glad to hear you’ll be able to test the sequel out prior to the game’s release? Tell us below.

Sega Sammy’s integrated report for 2018 has revealed one of the Japan-based company’s “Road to 2020” objectives is to simultaneously release games worldwide.

The report touches on the localisation of Japanese games and explains how better quality translations result in a more positive reception from players worldwide.

The Atlus studio located in Calfornia was used to illustrate how the localisation process has been improved within recent times:

Before a Japanese game is released overseas, it is localized into the language of each country and region. For example, Persona 5 has been translated into three languages (English, traditional Chinese, and Hangul). No matter if a game is popular in Japan, it is unlikely to win over fans around the world if the localization is insufficient.

The Sega Group has localization studios that make a huge difference when games are sold overseas. Atlus became a member of Sega Group due to the transfer of business in 2013, which has a studio located in California, U.S.A. The studio understands both Japanese and American games very well, and is able to localize Japanese games in a way that accurately conveys the unique world views of Japanese titles to local gamers. The studio is able to maximize the entertainment value of localized games that reflect these unique world views, and this has led to very positive reviews from local gamers. During the product development stage, game content is shared with the localization team for translation before the development is finished, facilitating the rapid release of foreign language versions of the game.

We will strengthen such collaboration further with the aim of simultaneously releasing games around the world, which is an objective of Road to 2020.

As Sega has previously stated on a number of occasions, it intends to re-release older games and is also at work on new games utilising “idle” IP:

In addition to re-releases, we are also working on completely new games using idle IP like New Sakura Wars (working title), which was announced in April 2018.

How do you feel about waiting for certain Japanese video games to be localised? Are you glad to hear Sega is planning to improve this area of its business? What older Sega IP would you like to see make a return? Tell us below.

The Mario Party series is intended to engender friendly competition in a colourful, cartoon-like world, but as we all know, it rarely ends up like that. Few Nintendo franchises are capable of totally destroying relationships like this one, and since the inception of the series in the Nintendo 64, we’ve seen plenty of chances to annoy friends and family over the years.

With the release of Super Mario Party – one of the best entries in the series in years – we thought it might be nice to recount some of our personal memories relating to the lineage.

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

For me, Mario Party will always bring back memories of my childhood, even if the games started to grate on me after a while. My dear Mum and I would play Mario Party 4, 5 and 6 together pretty regularly, sometimes thanks to her wonderful trait of letting me have the odd day off school for no reason other than to play games together (although my pet rabbit actually chewed through Mario Party 6’s included microphone cable, so that didn’t help).

I always preferred the minigames to the main event as a child (although with Super Mario Party I’ve grown to love all aspects), which naturally meant that I started to lose interest after hours and hours of travelling around the boards. I’ll always love how they can appeal to players of all skill levels and experience, though, allowing us to both enjoy the game in equal measure.

Liam Doolan, news reporter

There are some serious life lessons in the original Mario Party games on the Nintendo 64. Much like the real world – one minute you’re enjoying the high life and the next thing you know you’ve lost it all. I guess in the context of Mario Party, this loosely translates to another player taking every star and coin in your possession. Often when I did get past this point, my hopes of winning would then be crushed during Toad’s closing ceremony when a player who was seemingly done and dusted made a stunning comeback by claiming every bonus star on offer. #rigged

Steve Bowling, US editor

My most fond memory of Mario Party is also my most recent. The night of Super Mario Party’s release, I was hanging out with two seasoned Mario Party players: Andre Segers of Gamexplain and Imran Khan of Game Informer. We sat down to play with Andre playing Mario, Imran playing Rosalina and me playing as Wario. For our fourth, we added a computer player, Peach, on the hardest AI setting. The game was set for 20 turns, which takes about two hours. As we started the game, we all joked that Mario Party’s notoriously brutal AI would be the death of us, and how the game would find a way to put an end to our friendship.

Many minigames and a few drinks later, we were at the end of last dice roll of the 20th turn.
Peach was down by two stars, with my Wario in first place. Peach was up next. In that last roll she managed to use a gold warp pipe to grab a star, then got a second star from a hidden block. When the post-game bonuses were announced, guess who grabbed a third-star? Peach. I was dropped from first place all the way to fourth, and Peach, who we all knew was going to find a way to make us salty, claimed first. I may have lost, but it was the absolute best game of Mario Party I’ve ever played.

Austin Voigt, contributor

Although the first Mario Party released when I was the tender age of 6 – and not yet permitted to have any video game systems of my own – I do recall fond childhood memories of experiencing this shiny new multiplayer game on friends’ N64s. Some shamefully involved kicking the controller out of others’ hands in order to win the minigames!

However, the only previous version of Mario Party I actually owned myself was Mario Party 8 on the Wii – and sadly, it did not get played as much as it should have. Luckily, now that some time has passed – and more of my friends & family have become gamers – I have every intention of picking up the Switch version before the holidays. And solidly trouncing my grandma. (No joke – this will be a challenge; she’s actually great at gaming.)

Gonçalo Lopes, contributor

Since I am as old as time itself, it comes as no surprise that I actually got to experience the series right from the original Nintendo 64 outing. In those simpler days when the Internet was still an expensive privilege, local multiplayer remained the number one source for juvenile shenanigans for me and my like-minded friends.

Between loud Goldeneye and even louder WCW/nWo Revenge sessions, the original Mario Party became our number one go-to game when it came to pitting Nintendo characters against one another – outside the realm of karts, of course – at a time when no one could know that in just one year, something far more smashing was coming along. The board game nature of the title also made it far more accessible to non-hardcore gamers like our parents, so it was a title that could be enjoyed by the whole family without much fuss. Don’t mistake that last statement to assume this was a casual experience; some of those minigames gave the poor Nintendo 64 controllers’ analogue sticks quite a workout, but if anyone asks “officially”, none of them were broken playing Mario Party. Honest.

For me, the series truly took off on the GameCube, with the new technology enabling a big leap in aesthetics while at the same time not ditching out the ease of local multiplayer shenanigans and casual player friendliness. While not a match for the utter insanity surrounding our playing sessions of NHL Hitz, we still found saner entertainment in the GameCube entries of Mario Party 4 and 5, with my only regret being the late arrival of Mario Party 6. The microphone minigames were ridiculously fun, but we hardly had time to play them.

By the time the Wii arrived, something odd began happening with most of my friends. While I kept on living out my youthful carefree existence surrounded by Nintendo video game bliss, everyone was starting to get married, have children and take part in adult stuff like “real jobs”. While the Wii truly was the absolute king at parties, there where so many multiplayer offerings that even Mario Party began to struggle to stand out.

The brilliant Wii U version was used one single time with friends and I suspect the Switch version will probably have a similar future. I must admit that most of my friends have naturally outgrown the series, but I will keep on picking up every new outing; it may not be the pinnacle of Nintendo’s triple-A franchise pile, but one day I hope to once again gather family and friends around Nintendo hardware for some wacky dice-throwing antics.

Damien McFerran, editor

I have to admit, I’m one of those people who doesn’t possess especially strong feelings about the Mario Party series; unlike Mario Kart and Smash Bros., the franchise tends to pass under the radar of many players, but the massive number of instalments would suggest it has a large fanbase – and my few experiences with the game have illustrated why that is.

I recall playing the original Mario Party with a group of friends who weren’t what you’d call seasoned players. I popped it into the N64 almost unwillingly, as I was keener to play titles like GoldenEye 007 and J-League Perfect Striker – titles that required serious skill and therefore gave plenty of opportunity for bragging rights. However, I instantly became aware of the true power of Mario Party; because so much of it is based on chance it’s more of a throwback to board games – you know, those things we all used to play before video games came along and ruined family time.

The minigames are simple but engaging, which helps novices to jump right in. Finally, the cast of instantly-recognisable characters makes the whole thing tremendously appealing, even to non-gamers. That’s perhaps the true magic of the Mario Party franchise; it’s one of Nintendo’s most accessible series, which is really saying something when you consider how much effort the company makes to ensure its games can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Richard Atkinson – contributor

Friendships. Many of us are lucky to have them and, in many instances, there are few things in the world that can easily break that special bond we hold with our nearest and dearest. That is until Mario Party entered the video game scene on the N64 in the late ’90s and, boy, did we know about it…

The Mario party series boasts itself – and always has done – as the ultimate couch party game and it personally has a special place in my heart. Since I was first rage-quitting at the tremendously young age of 10, I’ve played pretty much every Mario Party there is and, although it’s no secret that the franchise has come across some seriously questionable design choices over the years (I’m looking at you Mario Party 9 with your silly car mechanic), there’s no denying that the mini-games are where it’s at.

The recent launch of Super Mario Party on Switch isn’t perfect, but it feels like Nintendo has listened to its ever-vocal fans; the car is nowhere to be seen, less random stars are dished out willy-nilly at the end of games and the motion controls actually add a ton of fun and the ‘waggles’ don’t feel shoe-horned in to put the Joy-Con back on the main stage as a system seller.

Never go away, Mario Party, even if my best friend still won’t talk to me after snatching her stars right from under her unsuspecting nose using the gold pipe.

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What are your personal memories of the Mario Party series? Feel free to share them with the wider world by posting a comment below.

If you’ve been playing Mario Tennis Aces on the Nintendo Switch recently with a friend or family member, you may have encountered an error where the software immediately closes when you enter the “Co-Op Challenge” mode.

Nintendo has now issued an update on the situation in the support section of its website – with a fix expected to arrive on 16th October:

Description:
After selecting “Co-Op Challenge” from the main menu of Mario Tennis Aces, the software closes and the error message “The software was closed because an error occurred” is displayed.

What to Do:
We are aware of this situation, and expect this should be resolved by Oct 16th, 2018.
Once this issue is resolved, results for the Co-Op Challenge that occurred will be available.

The Co-Op Challenge for Mario Tennis Aces was first detailed during Nintendo’s Direct presentation around the time of this year’s E3. It’s focused on completing limited time online missions, with the rewards being new outfits and colour variations for certain characters. As noted above, the results for this challenge will be available once the issue is resolved.

Have you been playing tennis with Mario lately, or are you too busy partying with him instead? Have you experienced this error yourself? Are you still enjoying Mario Tennis in general? Tell us in the comments below.

Now that Luigi’s Mansion for 3DS has been released in the US, we can apparently share an odd secret about the game that Nintendo requested reviewers not to mention.

Even though the remake is based on the 2001 GameCube launch title, the new version of Luigi’s Mansion does include some additional features like amiibo support and a co-op mode, where two players can take on bosses together or play through the full story mode.

In the multiplayer modes, your co-op partner is Gooigi (as can be seen in the image above and the video below). The “green doppelgänger” is introduced to players by Professor E. Gadd. Apart from turning into a puddle of goo from time to time, the new character is just like Luigi.

You can see Gooigi in action in this week’s episode of Nintendo Minute:

What do you think about Gooigi? If a fan-made character like Bowsette can catch on, do you think Luigi’s double deserves some love? Would you like to see this character referenced in future Mario games? Tell us below.

Sonic Mania Plus is arguably the greatest Sonic game of all-time. Among critics, it became the highest-rated outing for the blue blur in 25 years. Its original launch in 2017 and DLC update earlier this year also had fantastic sales on the Switch.

If you haven’t picked up Sonic’s latest game in physical form just yet, this latest discovery via Twitter might be of interest. Amazon Italy is listing a “Sonic Double Pack” for the Nintendo Switch. The description reveals one of the included games is Sonic Mania Plus, which comes with an art book and reversible cover, but no name is provided for the second game. All that’s mentioned about it is a brief description – explaining how it’s a Sonic title characterised by innovative 3D graphics. This had led to speculation that the second game is Sonic Forces, originally released on the Switch in 2017.

The page listing also mentions the double pack is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at some point in the future. Whether or not there’ll be a release of this two-pack outside of this region is currently unknown.

What do you think the second game in this double pack listing could be? Would you be up for a two pack Sonic deal? Did you purchase a physical copy of Sonic Mania Plus, or did you buy the DLC online when it was released? Tell us below.

Following a cross-over with Splatoon last month, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for iOS and Android is now hosting a limited-time Eevee-themed Pokémon event.

In celebration of the upcoming release of Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, you’ll be able to take part in a scavenger hunt by collecting Poké Balls laying around your campsite and using them – along with Leaf Tickets – to craft special Eevee items. As a bonus, you’ll also receive an Eevee hood in the mail for your character to wear:

Special Poké Ball Hunt Packs are now available to purchase as well. One contains 20 x Leaf Ticket and 10 x Poké Ball for £0.99 and the other pack includes 180 Leaf Ticket (160 + 20 bonus) and 25 x Poké Ball for £7.99/€9.99/$9.99. Both packs are limited to a single purchase per person.

The event runs until 11th November. Pokémon director Junichi Masuda has even been spotted tweeting about his Pocket Camp life:

Does this at all tempt you to play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp? What do you think about Nintendo cross-promoting its games like this? Are you excited for the release of Pokémon on Switch? How about Animal Crossing’s big return in 2019? Tell us below.

Yet another indie eShop release is reporting sales success on the Nintendo Switch. The “side-scrolling musical adventure” Wandersong – published by Humble Bundle – has already exceeded the developer’s expectations following its release at the end of September.

Speaking to Destructoid, the game’s creator Greg Lobanov said Wandersong on Nintendo’s digital platform had outperformed the Steam version in terms of sales, selling nearly three times as many copies. While no exact sales figures were provided, Lobanov did go on to explain how he had since received thousands of messages from people who had played the game and wanted to express their love for the silly bard’s adventure.

If this all sounds like familiar news, that’s because there have been plenty of other stories like this in recent times. Just last week, it was revealed the eShop version of Alwa’s Awakening sold as much in its first week on Switch as it did in its entire launch month on Steam last year.

Of course, there are many other small-sized teams who have also been successful on the Switch. Not long ago, the Salt and Sanctuary developer revealed the title had sold “super well” in its first week – with numbers rivaling Steam sales. Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King was another, citing higher sales numbers on the Switch than Valve’s digital service.

Have you downloaded Wandersong from the eShop? Do you buy most of your indie games on the Switch? Tell us below.

It’s Saturday! And that means it’s time, once again, to discuss our weekend gaming plans. Team Nintendo Life has the usual range of games on the go this weekend, from RPGs to party antics and everything in between, so make sure to read through our lovingly crafted words and join in the fun with our poll and comment section below. Enjoy!

Glen Fox, guides editor

I’m going away for a short holiday this weekend, so I’m gonna dig into something new I think – probably Hollow Knight. It’s a mishmash of a few different genres I love (Dark Souls, Metroidvania, and platformer) so I’m expecting good things. If I don’t immediately take to it I’ll probably go back to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – stalled on that ‘cos it got a bit repetitive, just like the first one.

Apart from that, I’m not really playing my Switch much at the minute! Stoked for Pokémon Let’s Go but taking the time to play some Black Ops 4 and Guild Wars 2 in the meantime. What can I say? I like a varied gaming diet…

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

Every night for the past week has been Super Mario Party night, and I daresay this will continue for the foreseeable future. Last week I actually mentioned grabbing Death Squared and the new Overcooked 2 DLC, with the intention of playing through those, but a last minute mention of nipping out to find a copy of Super Mario Party and a Chinese takeaway quickly ruined that – and we’ve been hooked on Mario’s colourful new world ever since.

My household is currently making our way through each of the game’s modes, hoping to collect each of the five gems along the way. I managed a particularly satisfying win last night (grabbing five stars in just a ten-turn game) so hopefully I can recreate that success over the weekend.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

This weekend I need to touch up on a few post-production tasks for my upcoming new music album release out next week. My perfectionist doesn’t allow me decent sleep until those are done away with, so I will need to at the very least try to look like I’m staying away from my Switch.

My neighbours have pointed out that I picked up a strange habit of screaming out at the top of my lungs every time I pull a special move in Dragon Ball FighterZ; I didn’t really notice but it does explain my sore throat in the morning. While expediting completion of DBZ story arcs will continue, Valkyria Chronicles 4 proceeds to absolutely overwhelm me with its brilliance. It is quite clear I won’t be able to finish the game before the original arrives on 16th October, but I will keep on making progress this weekend, along with what I believe are the closing hours of my prologue adventures on the back of a Titan in Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country.

Game of the week award goes to Mark of the Ninja: Remastered. It was a close call between this and the surprise elbow drop from Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition arrival on Monday, but despite “me gusta la lucha” any game with ‘Ninja’ in the title is an automatic winner. I promise to pretend to look away during the more brutal assassination animations.

Liam Doolan, news reporter

I’ve recently acquired a New Nintendo 2DS XL, so this weekend my plan is to revisit some of my favourite games from the 3DS library and see how they hold up on a bigger display. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon sounds like a good place to start considering the original game has just been released on the same system. I might even move onto the original game at some point.

When I’m not playing standard 3DS releases, I plan to make use of the ‘New’ system by downloading a few games from the eShop that likely won’t be made available on the Switch any time soon. This includes Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. I’m very excited about being able to take these games with me wherever I go.

Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer

This weekend my free time will be spent flying through the stars and planets of Starlink: Battle for Atlas. As a life-long Starfox fan – and someone who can’t get enough of dogfighting games in general – I cannot wait to fire up my Arwing and leap into Switch’s exclusive content. Expect my official verdict right here on Nintendo Life next week. I’ll also be playing a LOT of a certain new AAA shooter, but then again, if you know me then that’s hardly a shocking revelation.

Steve Bowling, US editor

This weekend is a busy one. While I longingly stare at a group of Starlink toys with no game to play them with, I’ll be diving into The World Ends With You, which I missed on the DS back in the day. I’m excited to see what all the fuss is about, however, as with most RPGs, I’m sure I’ll take a break in between which means I’ll still be plugging away at The Messenger and Crossing Souls; two of my favourite indies this year.

Richard Atkinson, contributing writer

Ahh… the mid-month slump where I’ve spent nearly all my extra dosh on takeaway food, shopping trips and random stuff online. It happens every month but I’m so happy with a game that I’m even taking it into work with me to play on my lunch breaks and when the boss isn’t looking, and it goes by the name of Hollow Knight. This may seem very strange to compare it to, but it’s reminding me of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. I’m drawing this comparison because the last time I spent a lengthy amount of time texting my friends to see what they’d uncovered and getting jointly excitable about secret areas and quirky enemies was with Link and the gang last year.

Developer Team Cherry has done an excellent job of balancing the title and it’s just so difficult to put down that even Super Mario Party will probably only earn around an hour or so of my precious gaming time.

Alan Lopez, contributing writer

Mi gente, ¡voy a jugar “Guacamelee! Súper Turbo Campeonato Edición” para el Nintendo Switch!

Guacamelee is a game that occupies a peculiar place in my heart, sporting a little bit “is it, or isn’t it?” when accounting for homage vs. caricature. My best guess is that it’s a bit of both, and while your local Mexican Nintendo writer tires of pueblo towns and hard-up locals as the only point of reference for Mexican culture, that doesn’t make Juan Aguacate any less awesome of a protagonist. It also doesn’t hurt that the game itself is an absolute joy of an action platformer, borrowing the very best of the Metroidvania formula and marrying it to a silky smooth combat system that never gets old. What fun to see Guacamelee surprisingly drop on the Nintendo Switch this week, with promise of the sequel coming soon after.

Like fun? Bright colors? Tons of hidden secrets? Spend the weekend playing through Guacamelee if you haven’t played it before. It just might inspire you to go on and create the next, great Mexican-flavored video game. May I suggest a game about a modern-day, Mexican grad student who likes to write about Nintendo?

Dave Letcavage, contributing writer

While I’m waiting on the release of single player games like Starlink, Dark Souls: Remastered, and Red Dead Redemption 2, I’m staying busy with Super Mario Party multiplayer shenanigans. So far, most matches between the wife and I (and the CPU) have gone in my favor, but she’s improving, and I’m liking my chances of winning less and less. When we aren’t partying with Mario and pals, I’ve been having a great time watching her play through Mega Man 11 (her very first Mega Man experience). With only three Wily stages left, I believe she may see the credits roll before the end of the weekend. I just hope none of this interferes with postseason baseball…

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…

It’s that time of year again where the majority of community-driven video games are celebrating the spooky season. Rocket League is once again joining in on the fun with the return of the Haunted Hallows event. This is technically the first time Rocket League players on Switch will be able to participate in the Halloween scares, as the game was originally released on Nintendo’s hybrid system in November 2017.

From the start of 15th October, you’ll be able to earn special ‘Candy Corn’ whenever you play and compete in online Rocket League matches. In exchange for these candies, you can obtain limited edition decals, toppers, wheels and more. There’ll also be ‘Golden Pumpkin’ doubling as loot crates – which contain one special customisation item from the nitro, turbo or player’s choice crates. It’s also noted how no key or decryptor is required to redeem Candy Corn or a Golden Pumpkin. When the event ends on 5th November, there’ll be an additional three days to redeem any leftover Candy Corn.

On a related note, this weekend Psyonix is hosting its first-ever Double XP Weekend in Rocket League to celebrating the ten year anniversary of the original 2008 PlayStation 3 game, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. Here are the details:

Base XP that’s earned in Online Matches will double via a “+100% Special Event” multiplier we’ve been saving for a special occasion. All additional bonuses and multipliers will be operating normally.

Take a look at the trailer above and tell us in the comments if you’re up for some spooky or Double XP fun in Rocket League.