Category: Nintendo News

The traditional design of the Pro Controller makes it a favourable choice for classic video game experiences on the Switch. Nintendo did such a fine job, Valve added an option to pair the controller with its digital game service, Steam. Valve has now compiled all of its data about controller gaming on Steam together. It turns out the Switch controller is actually “pretty popular” for a new device.

Valve explains how as soon as Pro Controllers became available in 2017, players began connecting them to their PC. When Steam then added in official support in May 2018, the result was an acceleration in registrations of the Pro Controller. This made it the 7th most popular controller on Steam, with just under 500,000 registered users.

As for old-school Nintendo gamepads, the SNES controller had 195,914 users, the GameCube had 129,783 registrations and the Nintendo 64 was lumped under the “Everything Else” category, which was a combined total of 118,410 users.

In terms of the competition, Xbox controllers reign supreme. Valve classes it as essentially the “default controller” for PC games. Nearly 40 million people have connected the Xbox 360 and Xbox One controller – representing 64 percent of all controllers connected to Steam in total.

The PlayStation 4 controller is “surprisingly abundant” at 20 percent. In terms of an actual figure, there are roughly 12 million users. Valve notes, historically the PS4 controller has not been treated as a PC controller, with built-in support uncommon. This often requires players to use software which translates their input to the Xbox style and can result in confusion for players, according to Steam playtime data.

As for the future of controllers on Steam, Valve plans to add even more support. On the Nintendo front, it recently made the Hori Pokkén Tournament DX Pro Controller compatible with Steam.

Tell us in the comments if you own a Switch Pro Controller and if you’ve used it with your Steam client before.

If you’ve been concerned about what would happen to your Nintendo Switch cloud saves when your subscription to the online service expired – worry no more. Nintendo has provided a statement to IGN explaining what exactly happens in this scenario. It turns out you’ll have plenty of time to recover your cloud saves.

Provided you resubscribe to the Switch Online service within 180 days or at least six months after a subscription has ended, you’ll be able to recover your previous cloud saves. Here’s the official word from a Nintendo spokesperson:

If a Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, users won’t be able to access their Save Data Cloud backups. However, Nintendo will allow users who resubscribe within 180 days to access their previous Save Data Cloud backups.

As highlighted by IGN, this is significantly different to existing information provided about cloud saves on Nintendo’s website – suggesting save backups would be lost permanently if a subscription expired.

Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership.

It’s a relief to know the cloud saves will hang around. In other words, you won’t have to frantically resubscribe before your existing membership expires in order to keep your cloud saves safe.

Are you glad to hear this? Were you planning to resubscribe to Nintendo Switch Online as soon as possible in order to keep your cloud saves? Tell us below.

Like a lot of series, Super Smash Bros. is one of those that builds upon itself every time a new entry comes out, rather than radically changing the formula a la The Legend of Zelda, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is taking this idea to its zenith. By including just about everything that made Smash Smash over the series and bringing it all together, including the mammoth task of including every single fighter the series has ever had, it really is pushing to earn its title of ‘Ultimate’. Does it seem worthy of the name from our early impressions? Oooh lordy yes.

Check out the video above where we look at the game and our experiences with it first-hand, including an attempt to talk about landing lag and frame data (emphasis on the word attempt).

Having banged the world to rights on thorny issues of uninspiring NES games and botched cloud save implementation, our thoughts now turn to the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app, which has proven to be quite divisive with Switch owners since its launch last year. With the paid Nintendo Switch Online service, many assumed the app might be getting scrapped in favour of native voice chat – or, at the very least, a significant update to bring it more into line with competing apps such as Discord. Let’s take stock of where we are at following the recent update which coincided with the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online membership.

Up until recently, the Nintendo Switch Online app really was specific to Splatoon 2. Not only did it give players the ability to chat with others during matches, but it also went the extra mile to add value to the core Splatoon experience with the SplatNet feature. Using the smartphone app, you can order items from outside of the main game menu, which is very useful. It also tells you the map rotation and Grizzco Industries status, and is a quick and convenient way to check your ranking in the game and review the outcome of previous battles.

Since the last update, the app now supports a few more core Nintendo games with voice chat. When playing online, you can chat with a friend while playing the NES games bundled with Nintendo Switch Online. In ARMS, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Tennis Aces, you can now chat with friends and random competitors in most of the online modes found within those games. But that’s it; the app doesn’t support any other games for the time being. Even the handful of games which it does support is barebones, to say the least.

We asked our readers on Twitter what they thought about the app and many of them actually quite liked it. This checks out on the iOS App Store rating, where the app currently has 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a bit of a Marmite situation, where some folks just hate the app and declare it useless and others seem to accept it for what it is and give it 5 stars.

Nintendo’s last home console, the Wii U, had native voice chat in games and worked quite neatly with the built-in microphone in the Wii U GamePad. I can testify to the usefulness of this myself as a parent of a 10-year-old who loves to play Minecraft on Wii U with her school-friends. None of them own smartphones yet, but on the Wii U, they are safely able to play games with voice chat which is restricted to their parent-approved friend list. You are out of luck if you want to have the same experience on Minecraft on the Switch, at least at present. Your child needs a smartphone to play, and for many parents, that’s a decision they’d rather make for themselves, rather than having it forced upon them by Nintendo.

Fortnite on the Switch, however, does support native voice chat and this is a common argument for why Nintendo themselves should be offering it as standard in Switch games which have an online component. As the Switch lacks a microphone, you will need to use a wired headset with Fortnite to talk to others in your squad, but it is a welcome option to have and removes the reliance on a separate smartphone app. It would be ideal if the Switch could support wireless Bluetooth headphones, of course; one day, perhaps!

Many of our readers have become so frustrated with the limitations found in the Nintendo Switch Online app that they prefer to use other alternatives, such as WhatsApp voice chat, Skype and, of course, Discord. Some of our readers are not even able to download the app in their territory.

Discord seems to be a firm favourite with gamers as you can easily create a room and send messages to your friends or people within a pre-set lobby. Being able to communicate before you even launch the game is such a basic feature which is completely omitted by the official Nintendo Switch Online app. Should Nintendo decide to address this, it will, of course, have a massive advantage over Discord as it could show your Switch friends list so you could message pals who are online and invite them to a game. Is this functionality which is found on the PS4 and Xbox One too much to ask for in a future update?

One of the Nintendo Switch’s main selling points is its portability. Yet by coupling voice chat with this smartphone app, it has made it a lot more cumbersome than perhaps it needed to be. We only have to think back to the wired nightmare that is the Hori Splatoon 2 headset to know that this was a pretty terrible idea.

Now that Nintendo is profiting from the proceeds of the Nintendo Switch Online membership, it is possible that some of the money will be reinvested into making the smartphone app completely indispensable with in-game features which we could only dream of. Still, there will always be a large proportion of users who would prefer to have native voice chat in all games, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the horizon, we’re sure to see some more changes coming to the Nintendo Switch Online app soon. Until then, we can only guess what is on Nintendo’s mind when it comes to the roadmap for how voice chat will be implemented in its future games.

Let us know your thoughts on the Nintendo Switch Online app with a comment below. Do you love it, or hate it?

Video game strategy guide publisher Prima Games is releasing a guidebook for the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, set to release on the same day as the game itself – 7th December.

If you’re wanting to master everything the game has to offer and crucially defeat any opponents that stand in your way, this guide could be a great way to go. The official description of the book from Prima Games’ website tells you what you can expect to find inside, so we’ll pop that here for you to read through now.

Everything you need to come out on top in the eagerly anticipated newest entry in the beloved Super Smash Bros. franchise!

Premium Hardcover Book: The gorgeous, exclusive design is a must have for any fan!

Comprehensive Strategies and Move Sets: The tips and tricks you need to succeed with every contender!

Digital Bonus: Unlock your digital version of this guide with the free code card included inside. Access your digital guide anytime, anywhere, on any web-enabled device.

The recommended price for the hardback version (seen on the left above) is $39.99 – although, at the time of writing, this is available on Amazon for just $23.99. The paperback version features a little less content – with 208 pages as opposed to the hardback’s 352 – but has a recommended price of $14.99. You can grab this one slightly cheaper from Amazon, too.

Does this look like a perfect book for the collection? Or are you already a Smash Bros. master? Let us know in the comments below.

It would appear that someone recently managed to get their hands on an early copy of Super Mario Party for Nintendo Switch, immediately jumping onto eBay and selling it for $7,100. Where to begin?

Yes, despite the game not being out until 5th October, one lucky person claimed to have found a working cartridge for the game sitting near an airport. On their eBay listing – which has now ended and is unavailable to view properly – the person describes the cartridge as being “in decent shape”, noting that it is “slightly damaged” but works just fine.

To prove that the cartridge is indeed real, the eBay seller shared a series of videos to show the cartridge being used. As you can see, the user appears to be using a Joy-Con to move characters in the game, suggesting that the cartridge is working as described.

As mentioned above, the listing went on to generate a whopping $7,100, with 81 bids taking place to reach that total. We’re just as intrigued as the next person on how the cartridge ended up in an airport (interestingly, the seller’s location was listed as Seattle, Washington – which isn’t too far away from Nintendo of America’s Redmond HQ) but we can’t see why anyone would pay such a substantial sum for a game which is officially out in just ten days.

Either way, we hope the buyer is happy with their purchase and that they don’t decide to spoil everything about the game online before release. Now then, Team Nintendo Life is just heading out to our local airport for… reasons.

The release date for Starlink: Battle for Atlas is coming up fast, with only a handful of weeks remaining until the big day. If you want to get ready for action, you might want to check out the pre-order options available from the Nintendo Official UK store.

The star player of the bunch is the Starlink: Battle for Atlas Starter Pack – which comes with a gorgeous looking A2 poster. This Switch-specific Starter Pack includes the game, the Arwing starship, two pilots, two weapons, the Joy-Con mount, a poster of the toy collection (which is different to the artwork poster), and a digital version of the Zenith starship and Shredder weapon.

You can also pre-order a range of Starship packs, Weapon packs, and Pilot packs, ranging from £6.99 to £24.99. Collecting them all won’t be cheap, so you may want to pick and choose some favourites unless you’re hoping to have a full set. You can find links for all of the products below.

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.

As a reminder, the game and all of its accessories release on 16th October.

Will you be taking to the skies as Fox and the gang? Let us know how excited you are for this one below.

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