Physical editions of the critically acclaimed Dead Cells have launched today, bringing with them another chance to pre-order the super fancy Signature Edition bundle.
If you’re not up to speed on this recent roguelike/Metroidvania hit, Dead Cells is an addictive, difficult, and fun little title which we described as “a masterclass in excellent roguelike design” in our review. If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the promised physical version, or if you’re only just hearing about the game for the first time, then these lovely options may well be for you.
The Signature Edition, which you can see in the image above, has already seen its initial shipment sell out. A second wave of pre-orders are now being taken, however, allowing you get your hands on a copy after all. The bundle costs £40 and is available from Signature Edition Games. Here’s everything that’s included:
– A region free ‘Dead Cells’ Game – A double-CD digipak soundtrack – An exclusive enamel character pin – A fifty-six-page hardback artbook – A certificate of authenticity featuring the autographs of the developers, Motion Twin – An outer box featuring exclusive artwork in a matt finish with spot gloss
If giant bundles of goodness aren’t your thing, or if you’re looking to save a bit of cash, a standard physical edition is also available for £30. Both this, and the Signature Edition, are expected to be shipped by the end of September.
Have you been enjoying Dead Cells on Switch? Are you tempted by any of these physical offerings? Tell us below.
As technology continues to improve, so does the equipment inside our everyday automobiles. Video game devices in cars aren’t exactly new, but we couldn’t help but question what exactly was going on in one Facebook commercial posted by Honda Australia last month. The commercial plays out just like you’d expect from any car advertisement – until the people in the Honda Jazz pull over to play Super Mario Bros. 3 with some SNES Controllers on a screen that appears to only accept HDMI compatible devices, no less.
Initially, we thought this was a teaser for the Nintendo Switch Online service until those Super Nintendo controllers popped up. We then suspected it was a SNES Classic Mini powered by the car’s HDMI port but, of course, Super Mario All-Stars isn’t included on the SNES Mini, and Super Mario Bros. 3 itself is actually a NES game.
Honda Australia provided the following explanation when asked what exactly the HDMI port in the car could be used for:
The HDMI can be used to input any HDMI-capable device to the 7-inch colour display. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions!
After much thought, this leaves us wondering whether or not Honda even has the permission to display the Nintendo game and hardware, especially as they don’t actually match up. Is this actually running on some kind of emulator, or even a hacked SNES Mini? Is the image simply being used as an example while being technically inaccurate? Who knows? The controllers actually appear to be wireless, too, suggesting that they could even be from 8BitDo’s range rather than the real deal.
In case you missed the bombshell yesterday – and the rumours flying around just before then – it has been confirmed that Diablo III Eternal Collection will be arriving on Switch later this year. Adding a powerful portable dimension to its dungeon crawling, RPG action, this game could hopefully be the beginning of a fantastic relationship between Nintendo and Blizzard, who haven’t worked together for 20 years.
Fueling our excitement on this potential partnership even further, GameInformer recently sat down with Blizzard senior producer Pete Stilwell and PR manager Joshua Wittge to fantasise over potential crossovers with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The conversation actually took place around the time of the recent Smash Bros. Direct, and the two were asked about which characters they’d love to see in the game.
Blizzard senior producer Pete Stilwell laughed, but gave a quick answer. “Personally, yeah, I’d love to have Diablo. That to me is the immediate one. Then if we had over time, eventually the heroes, go through all of them…or you could go really awesome and only have Deckard Cain.”
Joshua Wittge, Blizzard PR manager, chimed in to add “He could just whack them with the cane or put them to sleep.”
“Or he puts them to sleep and just slowly drags them to the edge and drops them off,” Stilwell continued. “Like really sinister Deckard Cain.”
Keeping things fair and equal, GameInformer went on to ask which Nintendo characters the Blizzard team would like to see in one of their own games. The answers were all big, bad villains, with associate producer Matt Cederquist saying that “Bowser would be a sweet dungeon boss”.
“Pig Ganon would be cool,” said Stilwell… “I feel like we’re mostly naming villains, but there’s a lot of classic Nintendo villains. Pretty much any of them would be great.”
Would you like to see Diablo in Super Smash Bros. one day? Any other recent third-party ports that deserve the Nintendo brawler fame? Let us know your thoughts down below.
No one likes kicking the bucket in a game. Whether you’re licking your wounds in a beat-’em-up or lamenting a mistimed jump in a platformer, death is the constant that keeps us coming back for more with respawns, ‘Game Over’ screens and more. But what if popping your proverbial clogs could be used as a gaming mechanic that actually helps you? Not an ominous bloodstain on the floor or a warning-like corpse, but an army of ghosts ready to help fight the fight they couldn’t finish?
That’s the premise behind Next Up Hero, and it makes for a Diablo-lite dungeon crawler that’s both immensely fun and utterly frustrating in equal measure. With a bright, hand-drawn art style somewhere between a Pop Cap mobile game and Skylanders, Digital Continue’s latest project has bags of charm right from the off. Its procedurally generated levels come in all manner of sizes, offering a vast selection of randomised setups that refresh every few days. You can even create your own and share these monster-filled levels with others.
Known as the Ceaseless Dirge in the game’s story, these enemies aren’t just there to provide a challenge. They also happen to drop items that can help shape your loadout. Once you’ve picked your chosen Hero (including a dual-wielding DJ called Mixtape and a bongo drum-toting warrior by the name of Symposer), you can unlock new abilities and buffs by collecting enough enemy-specific tokens. There are also Prestige Tokens, which are used to unlock new Heroes, upgrade existing ones and – in a neat twist – increase the chances of encountering rare enemies (and, thus, rarer loot) in a level.
As a top-down dungeon crawler, you’ll likely know what to expect when it comes to the familiar grind of killing every enemy in the vicinity and collecting stuff to spend later. However, don’t be lulled into a false sense of sword-swinging superiority. Next Up Hero is mercilessly difficult, even on its easiest difficulty setting. Health can’t be restored once lost and it won’t be replenished after completing each level, so you’ll need to rely on the support of those ghost-like Echoes and the Ancients they unlock.
Ah yes, those ‘ghosts’ we were talking about. Everytime a player dies, they leave behind a spectral version of themselves. You’ll find a handful of these beings lying on the floor of each colourful dungeon, and you’ll need to hold ‘X’ to revive them. Once restored, you can recruit up to eight of them at once and they’ll automatically follow you and attack any nearby enemy without the need to command them. A couple of Echoes won’t make much difference to an enemy’s health pool, but get a horde of them going and they’re a welcome way to distract more powerful foes.
Echoes can also perish, and there’s only a pre-determined number on each level, so there’s a satisfying reward to using them sparingly, especially on the harder difficulties. Ancients use Echoes like a sacrificial currency, enabling you to unlock additional powers (such as Ely’s temporary health boost or Numbskull’s melee assistance). You can customise which Ancients you want to use in the pre-game loadout, and you’ll need to decide whether sacrificing your Echoes to unlock a certain power is worth the risk of going it alone.
These are all really rewarding systems that show Digital Continue is a developer with real talent and vision, but there are real problems with the game that hold it back from gelling as a cohesive procedural whole. Enemy AI is far too aggressive, and their individual damage outlays are far too high. Add in the fact that the game’s dash mechanic is mapped to a press of the right analog stick (which never feels natural), and that it has a cooldown timer, and you realise the only viable option is to choose a ranged character and pepper every enemy from afar.
You can play the game in online co-op, which does alleviate some of the steep difficulty (you can drop into another player’s game mid-battle, or have another Hero join your quest while you’re doing the same), but it’s a balance issue that should have been addressed by now. It should be noted that this is an online-only experience as every level is stored and shared on a server. If you’re playing away from a Wi-Fi connection, or you have poor connection issues, you simply won’t be able to enjoy it.
There’s also the many serious technical issues Next Up Hero brings with it to Switch. Slowdown is a real problem for this game, especially when there are lots of characters on screen at once. Considering the game is all about having lots of Echoes fighting in your corner, and a wave of enemy types trying to rush you, you’ll start encountering serious drops in frames a handful of times per level.
Then there’s the fact that it continually crashes, freezing the game and locking the HD Rumble into a perpetual state of angry vibration. There’s no way to save the game in this state, so a hard reset of the software is the only way to solve it; all those foes you just ground through, all those Prestige Tokens you collected and all that time you spent carefully finding Echoes is gone. Our review copy froze in this way three times in our first couple of hours alone and the problem persisted throughout our playthrough.
Conclusion
There’s plenty to like about Next Up Hero. Turning death into an applicable AI co-op mechanic is a neat spin on a game with a high death turnover, and its cartoon art style complements an impressively large menagerie of monsters to kill. Unfortunately, there are inherent problems with balancing and some disastrous technical problems. Its grinding takes too long, melee characters are all but pointless due to the high damage output of enemies, and those technical issues make committing time and effort a constant risk.
Some newly discovered game listings on a Brazilian ratings board suggest that publisher THQ Nordic is set to release three as-of-yet unannounced Switch games.
The three titles in question are Deponia Doomsday, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, and The Raven Remastered, all of which have seen releases on other systems in the past. As these games are yet to receive any official announcement regarding a Switch release, no release dates or Switch-specific information is available, but we’ve provided a rundown of each title down below.
Deponia Doomsday
Deponia Doomsday is a game developed by Daedelic (the studio behind recently released Switch title State of Mind). The game is a point-and-click adventure that follows the story of Rufus, whoawakes from a haunting nightmare in which he sacrificed himself to save Deponia. Players are able to converse with other characters and use a range of items to solve puzzles and advance the story, and there’s also a handful of optional minigames to try out.
• A new instalment of the award-winning Deponia Series • Epic adventure gameplay • Unique hand-drawn comic style • Familiar faces and more than 70 new crazy characters featuring the whacky humour you love so much • Turn back time and see a new spin on the junk-planet’s history • Platypus-tastic action • Junk meets decadence: playable levels on Deponia and Elysium • Discover the lush flora and fauna of Deponia
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
Available on Wii U as THQ Nordic’s second game on the platform, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is another point-and-click title with a comedy twist. The game’s plot sees four protagonists – a gnome, human, elf princess and a ‘Critter’ – set off on an adventure through Aventasia. A magic force is turning beasts into puppies and castles into dollhouses and the four heroes must reunite to combat this unusual turn of events.
– A new adventure from KING Art, the creators of The Book of Unwritten Tales, The Critter Chronicles and The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief – A fantasy story with over 20 hours of pointing and clicking – The trademark BoUT-humor, lovingly spoofing LotR, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Discworld, The Hobbit, WoW and more – Hundreds of weird, yet oddly logical puzzles – The well-proven “Multi-Character-Gameplay” – The established four playable characters Wilbur, Nate, Ivo and Critter – An ensemble of quirky characters, both well-established and brand-new – Projection Mapping technology unites the merits of 2D and 3D styles and technique – An epic soundtrack with all the classics and many new compositions
The Raven Remastered
The Raven Remastered hasyou exploring a crime story through the eyes of multiple characters, all set in London, 1964. When an ancient ruby is stolen from the British Museum, a raven feather is spotted at the crime scene. Players must work out whether or not someone is trying to follow in the footsteps of The Raven – a legendary master thief who disappeared many years ago.
– A classic whodunit adventure from KING Art, the creators of the Book of Unwritten Tales-series – Experience a thrilling crime story through the eyes of multiple characters – Classic murder mystery locations, from a train in the Swiss alps, to a majestic cruise ship and the Cairo Museum – High quality voice acting from a compelling cast of quirky characters – Fully remastered animations, lighting and hair in full HD resolution
So there we have it, three games theoretically coming to Switch that will provide you with more point-and-click goodness than one person could ever need. Do any of these take your fancy? We’ll make sure to keep an eye for official news on these titles in the coming weeks.
Last month, we received confirmation that Surgeon Simulator CPR would be heading to Switch this autumn, and now we can finally get our first look at the game.
Taking on the role of Nigel Burke – a would-be surgeon with a less-than-conventional toolkit – players are expected to perform a range of terrifying transplants in the operating theatre, high-pressure procedures in the back of an ambulance, and even anti-gravitational operations in space. The new trailer (which you can check out above) should give you a nice taste of the slimy, body-chopping action.
Described as being “fully revived and feeling better-than-ever”, the Switch version will take full advantage of the console’s unique features to create the most immersive version of the game possible. Players will be able to swap from standard to motion controls at any time, simply by popping out one of the Joy-Con, while HD Rumble should go a long way to make the hammers, hatchets, buzzsaws, and laser pens feel like they’re really sitting in your hands.
You’ll also be able to team up with a second surgeon at any time for some local couch co-op play (or even on the bus, as seen above), and the game includes the additional teeth and eye transplants from the A&E Edition, as well as the highly-classified Alien Autopsy mode, too. It certainly sounds like this could be the ultimate way to enjoy your surgeon-based activities.
Will you be pulling on your best scrubs for some Surgeon Simulator in the coming months? Let us know if you’re hyped for this one down below.
Buying your own humble abode inside a video game can be a very satisfying part of the experience, and in some cases, can actually be at the centre of the game’s entire makeup. Adding customisation options to your new build only adds to the excitement, and we can only begin to imagine the vast amount of virtual homes that are currently being bought, sold, and renovated as we speak.
As it happens, London & Country Mortgages – a real, UK-based mortgage broker – discovered that every month, more people use Google to search for advice on buying a house in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim than they do in real-life locations like London, the UK, France, Spain, and America. To explore this idea further, the company has been hard at work on a project that works out the actual real-estate value for some of our favourite gaming worlds.
One such world is Hyrule, specifically the one found in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Of course, in this iteration of Hyrule, only one house is actually up for sale at the time of Link’s quest – the one in Hateno Village. You may remember having to hand over some Rupees and 30 bundles of wood to have your very own house be built. The base cost of this house turns out to be 3,000 Rupees (after receiving a nice discount from Bolson), with a total of 4,400 being needed for it to be fully furnished.
It turns out that the Hyrule to real world conversion rate would be rather highly in our favour, with house prices in that region being just a tiny fraction of the terrifyingly large rates we’re faced with in real life. It’s a decently sized home, far away from any neighbours and noise, but it would only set you back £51,637 / $69,710.
So how was this worked out? Well, London & Country compared a whole range of items that are both purchasable in Hyrule and the UK, finding an average conversion rate that took all of this into account. For example, the Raw Prime Meat that’s purchasable in Breath of the Wild for 15 Rupees was compared to an organic fillet steak from a UK market which was on sale for £12.75. With lots of other items also compared, the average conversion rate showed that one Rupee equals roughly £1.03.
The study goes into more detail on various other games, too, such as Skyrim and Stardew Valley – which is much more realistic by today’s standards. If you want to check it out in full, you can find it here.
The lesson to be learned here? When you’re ready to buy your first house, move to Hyrule!
Super Mario Party is only a month and a half away from releasing on Switch, and if you want to get your pre-orders in early, you can even come away with a funky little bonus.
The Nintendo Official UK Store is offering a Super Mario Party bundle which includes a free Question Block 3D Lamp. The lamp measures around 10cm from base to tip (approx. 4″) and would double up as one of the coolest desk lamp or night lights we’ve seen – as well as acting as a nice little display model in the day time. This bundle costs £49.99 – the retail value of the game alone.
You can also grab this lamp separately if you prefer, or even one of a different design. Alongside the Question Block Lamp, you can also get your hands on Boo, Goomba, and Super Mushroom lamps. All of these are available to pre-order for £11.99 each and will launch alongside the game on 5th October.
You can find the links to all of these 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.
They all look rather lovely, right? Let us know if you’ll be grabbing one in the comments below and, of course, whether or not you’re excited for Super Mario Party in October!
Diablo III Eternal Collection brings the acclaimed action RPG to Nintendo Switch!
Later this year, the definitive version of Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo® III will come to the Nintendo Switch™ system, including all the features and content from every expansion and update as well as exclusive bonus items!
The Eternal Collection is the definitive edition of the award-winning action RPG, and includes the original Diablo III, the critically-acclaimed Reaper of Souls® expansion, and the Rise of the Necromancer® pack. With seven powerful character classes, a five-act campaign that spans the lore-rich and demon-infested world of Sanctuary, and an endlessly replayable Adventure Mode, the Eternal Collection is the perfect all-in-one package to introduce newcomers to a lifetime of adventure.
Up to four players can also band together to engage in grand multiplayer crusades, whether they’re sharing a screen on a single Nintendo Switch, linking their consoles together wirelessly, or teaming up through the Nintendo Switch Online service*.
Exclusive content for the Nintendo Switch system includes bonus items like The Legend of Ganondorf cosmetic armor set, inspired by the iconic villain from The Legend of Zelda™ series.
*Nintendo Account required. Online services and features of the Nintendo Switch system, including online gameplay, are free until the paid Nintendo Switch Online Service launches in the second half of September. Terms apply. Learn more at https://www.nintendo.com/switch-online.
Beat it and you’ll earn Battle Stars that will help boost you up the tiers for those sweet Season 5 exclusive rewards.
In this guide, we’re going to help you find the location of each Timed Trial and how to complete them, then you can move on to the other difficult challenge this week, Search Where The Stone Heads Are Looking.
Fortnite – How To Complete Timed Trials
Though you might not recognise the name, chances are you’ve taken on a Timed Trial in a game before. You know, those things where you have to run through a bunch of different checkpoints within a time limit to complete them?
That’s the score here. First, you have to find the location of a Timed Trial. You’ll know you’re at one if you see a floating, ethereal stopwatch.
Once you’ve found one, activate it and you simply have to run through the different checkpoint markers that appear. You’ll have to be quick though, as you are being timed, and it doesn’t go easy on you.
If you have an ATK, you’ll probably have a much easier time, but it’s not mandatory. It is possible to sprint through a Timed Trial.
But a huge part of the difficulty is the fact that you have to build platforms to reach certain checkpoints, which can slow you down or prove impossible if you haven’t gathered enough resources.
So you’re really going to have to focus on this one, and strategise. Pick a Timed Trial from our map below and land in a nearby spot where you can farm a bunch of wood. Wailing Woods is a good option.
Then, give the Timed Trial a go and if you complete it on your first go, awesome. If not, you’ve probably got all of the building done so give it another shot.
If you’re still struggling, try and find an ATK nearby. Failing that, it might be time to give this challenge a shot with a friend or three.
Fortnite – Timed Trials Locations
There are seven Timed Trials in total on the Fortnite map, and we’ve included all of them on the map above.
Most of them are at, or near, named locations. We’ll include screenshots of all of them below to help you narrow down the locations.
