Category: Nintendo News

Nintendo News

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Taiko: Drum Master Charges Straight To Number One In The Japanese Charts

Taiko: Drum Master (known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version! in Japan) has drum-rolled its way right to number one in the Japanese charts.

It’s been yet another strong week for Nintendo on the whole in the region, with the top 12 chart entries all being either Switch or 3DS games. Octopath Traveler, which was sitting on top spot last week after some wonderfully high sales figures, has slipped down to number two this time around. Here’s a look at the top 20 (first numbers are this week’s sales, followed by total sales in brackets):

1) [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version! (Bandai Namco, 07/19/18) – 69,984 (New)
2) [NSW] Octopath Traveler (Square Enix, 07/13/18) – 22,438 (132,550)
3) [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 21,913 (2,469,695)
4) [NSW] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo, 07/13/18) – 20,547 (62,399)
5) [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces (Nintendo, 06/22/18) – 19,709 (247,161)
6) [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 16,265 (138,051)
7) [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 13,435 (1,641,109)
8) [3DS] Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (The Pokemon Company, 11/17/17) – 7,554 (1,676,067)
9) [3DS] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo, 07/13/18) – 7,188 (21,746)
10) [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 7,1173 (1,050,891)
11) [NSW] Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 6,407 (566,171)
12) [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 5,695 (1,772,133)
13) [PS4] Detroit: Become Human (SIE, 05/25/18) – 4,613 (94,973)
14) [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf Amiibo+ (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 11/23/16) – 4,354 (425,839)
15) [NSW] Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit (Nintendo, 04/20/18) – 3,842 (205,809)
16) [NSW] Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Nintendo, 05/04/18) – 3,378 (193,708)
17) [PS4] Mary Skelter 2 (Compile Heart, 07/12/18) – 2,986 (13,356)
18) [PS4] The Crew 2 (Ubisoft, 06/29/18) – 2,728 (35,004)
19) [PS4] New Gundam Breaker (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 06/21/18) – 2,639 (84,716)
20) [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 12/01/11) – 2,614 (2,903,441)

As is usually the case at the moment, the Switch has also found itself sitting securely at the top of the hardware pile, too. Here’s this week’s figures, followed by last week’s.

1) Switch – 53,745 (50,239)
2) PlayStation 4 – 14,035 (12,431)
3) New 2DS LL – 8,296 (4,176)
4) PlayStation 4 Pro – 6,274 (5,165)
5) PlayStation Vita – 4,277 (4,112)
6) New 3DS LL – 2,844 (2,507)
7) Xbox One – 709 (47)
8) 2DS – 437 (448)
9) Xbox One X – 56 (32)

Are you happy to see Taiko: Drum Master perching on the top spot? Join us in praying for a full western release in the comments below.

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Paladins is now free-to-play

Paladins is now free-to-play

Paladins is now free-to-play on the Nintendo Switch™ system!

This hero shooter has attracted more than 25 million players to its unique fantasy world, and is “One of the console’s best new multiplayer additions,” per Nintendo Life.

Choose your favorite Champion, like the ninja Koga introduced in a new update today. Then customize your core set of abilities to play exactly how you want to play.

Features

•Fantastic Champions: Set in a vibrant fantasy world, Paladins features a diverse cast of Champions ranging from sharpshooting humans to mech-riding goblins and jetpack-clad dragons. New Champions are regularly added to keep the game fresh.

• Build Your Deck: Play how you want to play. With Paladins’ deckbuilding system, you can become an iron sights sniper, a grenade-slinging explosives expert, or a track star with an assault rifle – all as the same Champion. Choose from dozens of cards to customize your abilities and make each Champion your own.

• Accessibility: Running at 60 FPS, Paladins can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective. The controls are simple to grasp for newcomers and shooter veterans alike.

•Gather Your Squad: Grab your friends and team up! Plus, with cross-platform play between the Nintendo Switch™ system and Xbox One, you’ll always have someone to compete against!

To download Paladins free, please visit https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/paladins-switch.


Blood
Suggestive Themes
Violence
Users Interact
In-Game Purchases

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Review: Chicken Assassin: Reloaded (Switch eShop)

Everybody knows that the bird is the word on the Nintendo Switch. We got your humble Cuccos in the greatest Legend of Zelda ever made, a chicken who lays bombs, a duck who can throw down with the best of the best and even a boy who is an owl. Joining the feathered ranks is Mean Mcallister, the toughest chicken in the hood and then some. But is there enough meat to this bird?

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a ‘clicker’. Yes, those games you often find on mobile platforms that are purely designed to reward the player for tapping the screen as many times as possible. It’s a very simple gameplay mechanic but one that will instantly appeal to gamers looking to spend some free for quick satisfaction.

That said, OneShark’s two-year-old offering surprised many gamers with the stellar quality of the product. Presentation still remains impressive even today, with a silly plot that sees Mcallister chasing his lady lover across a varied and absurd amount of levels, filled with some genuinely amusing foes. As for gameplay, you simply need to move the cursor over the enemy on your left or right and unleash the fury on that ‘A’ button. Mcallister just sits in the middle of the screen, taking it and dishing it out until your energy is depleted. Every ten waves you fight a boss, and even if you fall in battle, there is truly no penalty – you get thrown back at the main screen.

Loot is where it’s at, and Chicken Assassin has plenty of it. Some you can sell for souls/cash, while other loot comes in the form of usable weapons (including firearms) and wearable armour, and both visually change your character’s look. As you gain experience and level up, Mcallister’s upgrades are unlocked and can be purchased using the souls you gather during the fights. Not enough souls? Just hit the cauldron repeatedly until you have enough to pay for that upgrade, or open the chest for extra loot. You will be wearing out that ‘A’ button and your thumb, even if you’re not fighting.

Of course, in its native PC release, playing with a mouse made the gameplay far smoother than controlling a cross-hair, as is the case in this version. But regretfully, the developers didn’t make use of the Switch’s touch screen, so even if you’re not playing in docked mode you are still forced to control the cross-hair and hit that ‘A’ button like there’s no tomorrow. We’re not sure the Switch touch screen is even designed to take the amount of punishment needed to conquer some of the later stages, but it would still be nice to have the option to find out.

As we previously mentioned, the presentation is truly top notch. Varied and humorous characters – whose design often includes nods to pop culture icons – duke it out in lovely environments that begin in the local fight club but will end up in a middle of a riot or even a pirate ship. The level of customisation you can give Mcallister will certainly keep you interested, even if just to see how you can stack up on buffs and how ridiculous you can make him look. But for how long will you be doing the same ‘A’ bashing cycle over and over again until you either get bored, damage your controller of choice or – even more troublesome – get some straining injury?

Conclusion

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is being marketed as an action RPG and while it certainly does have its fair amount of upgrades and shenanigans, in the end, it is exactly what we already discovered back in 2016: a ‘clicker’ game dressed up in humorous and stylish art that effortlessly manages to make other ‘clicker’ games look appalling by comparison. While this bird does nothing wrong and snugly fits among the other avian heroes already out on the Nintendo Switch, we are not sure if the general audience will greet him with open arms or clenched fists.

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Guide: New Nintendo Switch Games Releasing In 2018

We still think Dragon Quest XI is coming this year? Loving the optimism!

Off the remaining titles for 2018, Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 4 are on top of my list. Then, I’m also considering Tales Of Vesperia, The Banner Saga Trilogy, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

I can’t shake this feeling that Xenoblade X and Tokyo Mirage Sessions are getting ported over soon; they’re the last WiiU games missing besides 3D World. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, don’t know. I’d go ahead and add Persona Q2 to the list while at it, I highly doubt that’ll be a 3DS exclusive at this point, if it stays on the system that is; almost August and we still know nothing about it.

Regardless, next year is where it’s at. Off the confirmed games, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Daemon X Machina, and Steins;Gate Elite alone have already topped my 2018 game list.

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Get Your Puzzle On With Tetra’s Escape, A Tetris-Inspired Platformer Headed To Switch

Ratalaika Games has announced Tetra’s Escape for Nintendo Switch, a puzzle-platformer developed by ABX Games.

As you can probably tell from the video above, this game is all about blocks. It’s down to you, as the player, to do everything you can to save them, making use of their special abilities. Through shape-shifting, your tetra blocks can turn into different tetrominoes – forming those classic Tetris shapes we’ve all come to know and love – before being used to fill holes and master puzzles in an attempt to reach the portal on the other side of the level.

Your blocks can take a variety of different shapes, paving the way for your characters to move around each level. In the trailer, we see blocks being used to create staircases that help you to reach the end goal; it seems like a rather relaxing puzzle adventure that could be a lovely little way to pass the time. Here are some features for you to cast your eyes over:

FEATURES:
– 7 hours’ worth of content, which includes 64 levels to beat
– Increasing difficulty
– Conventional 3 star system with Bonus Trophy
– Explanatory images to walk you through Tetra’s abilities, which includes: Block Jumps, rotations, mirror effects, transformations, bombs for undoing transformations and more!
– Original Soundtrack by Levi Bond

Exact release information is yet to be revealed, with more details promised to be shared closer to launch.

Do you think this little puzzler could end up being downloaded to your Switch? Let us know your initial thoughts with a comment below.

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Ninjin: Clash of Carrots Brings Chaotic Side-Scrolling Action To Switch This September

Pocket Trap and Modus Games have today announced that Ninjin: Clash of Carrots, a chaotic side-scrolling game full of fast-paced combat, is coming to Switch.

Set on a fantasy continent inspired by the Japanese Feudal era, Ninjin: Clash of Carrots aims to lighten up the beat-’em-up genre with a pleasing dose of comedy, throwing in a healthy side of customisation options for good measure. Players must battle through side-scrolling worlds as Ninjin, a charismatic bunny, or Akai, a ninja fox, to recover your village’s stolen carrots. The horror!

You’ll be taking down numerous enemies and bosses, collecting carrots along the way which can be spent to purchase new equipment, special weapons, tons of masks and other items. You can also choose from a wide variety of equipment, suiting and booting your character to better defeat your opponents. The game’s official feature list is a pretty hefty one, so we’ll let that do the talking from here on out:

Key Features:
– Be a Ninja. Play as either Ninjin, the charismatic rabbit, or Akai, the ninja fox, and fight across a feudal Japan to defeat the evil Shogun Moe and retrieve the carrots he’s stolen!
– Engaging Storyline. Follow a robust Story Mode, meet a diverse cast of characters, and play through multiple stages in a crazy universe.
– Fast and Furious Combat. Dodge rockets, blast through throngs of incoming enemies and battle bosses in frenzied, fast-paced action!
– Stylish Visuals. Play through unique environments with anime-inspired HD pixel art graphics.
– Deep Customisation. Choose from a huge variety of equipment with more than 150 weapons and items, including masks, swords, projectiles, and more. Equip your character to better defeat rivals.
– Slash, Smash and Bash with Friends! Join your friends in 2-player local or online co-op as you progress through the game’s story.
– Oni TV Show. Compete in a “Live TV Show” survival mode, solo or with a friend, to see who can get the furthest without dying, as wave after wave of enemies attack from all angles. Rack up special rewards when you successfully finish each challenging stage!

The game will be available to download directly from the Nintendo Switch eShop from 4th September, currently scheduled to launch for $14.99.

You probably weren’t expecting a frenetic carrot-based adventure to pop up today, but has this one piqued your interest? Tell us with a lovely comment below.

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Review: Star Story: The Horizon Escape (Switch eShop)

“NO FREE-TO-PLAY! NO LOOTBOXES! NO GRINDING!” proclaims the eShop trailer. Developer EvilCoGames boldly assures players that Star Story: The Horizon Escape contains “ONLY FUN!” While it’s amusing to throw tired conventions and unpopular trends under the bus, ‘fun’ is a vague descriptor. What’s fun about this turn-based RPG/text adventure?

You play as Van Klik, a Star-Lord wannabe who crash lands on Horizon, a planet filled with hostile raiders and sand shrimps. You’re given an initial choice which leads you down one of three branches. The game is primarily a text adventure, with a liberal dollop of turn-based battles and crafting, and your AI companion Verdana provides occasional commentary and assistance as you meet people and uncover the secrets of the planet.

Your choices fall into three categories: ‘Resolve’ (aggressive), ‘Insight’ (intelligent), or ‘Goodwill’ (friendly). Every decision made will bag you a spec point which goes into a ‘Technologies’ tree back on your ship, gradually unlocking new craftable items using scrap you find on the planet. Better gear opens up narrative options; for example, jump boots might enable you to avoid a hazard or save a travelling merchant from a gang of raiders. Points remain after dying or reaching one of the endings, so you’ll eventually max out each category regardless of your initial picks.

The user interface is generally clear, although everything’s a mite too small for our liking. Pleasingly, touch is fully supported, and ship-based crafting is considerably easier on the touchscreen, although things can get fiddly elsewhere. When using the Joy-Con, the left stick navigates the environment and dialogue options while the D-buttons control your inventory. Holding ‘X’ brings up tooltips and, in general, overt instruction is pleasantly absent. Having said that, the method to recharge weapons took a little time to figure out – they are fuelled by scrap and must be recharged on your ship via a toggleable button as you gather your expedition gear.

The battles themselves are functional, if unremarkable. It’s all very familiar – burn/corrosion weapons do damage over time and different shields offer protection to specific attacks. The battles lack punch, though – there are none of the visceral animation or audio flourishes that make number attrition exciting in the best turn-based games. The soundtrack is inoffensive, and while the bone-based animation and steampunk aesthetic recalls Steamworld Dig, Star Story is unfortunately characterised by a lack of variety and polish. Things like mismatching fonts or the developer logo seemingly displayed in the wrong aspect ratio don’t make a good impression.

Despite the trimmings, this game is really a text adventure. Van Klik’s story of ancient artefacts, androids and aliens is told in the past tense and while the script has some fun moments, you’ll soon start playing ‘spot-the-typo’. Some sentences are simply unfinished, likely due to display errors – “I want to meet new people and make new”. The quality of the dialogue itself is inconsistent, swinging from admirably colloquial to stunted and awkward. It’s relatively entertaining the first time around, but repetition is Star Story’s biggest weakness.

Following the initial branch choice, the narrative forks a further three times, splitting each run into four chapters which lead to 24 possible endings – and finding them all becomes a slog. Non-story events are somewhat randomised every run, although the game doesn’t have a huge repertoire of encounters. On top of that, the necessity to craft every consumable item means you’ll be teleporting back to your ship repeatedly to restock and recharge. A loading screen which accompanies each trip doesn’t help matters – it’s a few seconds you’ll repeat hundreds of times. For a small adventure game, Star Story gives the Switch’s internal fan a surprising workout and leaves a 2.4GB footprint.

Once you’ve built up your inventory sufficiently, a complete run might take around 30 minutes, although dying will send you back to the very beginning. Your resources remain, but you’ll replay the same content a lot. Even on entirely different routes, environments and characters reappear. In fact, as we idly tapped through a scenario for the dozenth time, our mind drifted to the branching course map from Out Run – regardless of which finish line you aim for, the route there unavoidably retreads old ground. Then we thought how we’d rather be playing Out Run. As a text adventure, there’s just not enough variety to make finding all those endings worth it.

Conclusion

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is an inoffensive time sink with some competent gameplay that’s ‘fun’ for an hour or two. Once you’ve seen a couple of the endings, though, it quickly palls. If you’ve run out of things to play on your Switch – and given the current flood of software, that’s highly unlikely – and you’re willing to forgive a lack of polish, you could do far worse, but look elsewhere if you’re after a meaty adventure game.

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Co-Op Action RPG Warlocks 2: God Slayers Enchants Nintendo Switch This October

Fat Dog Games and Frozen District have announced that Warlocks 2: God Slayers will be making its way to Nintendo Switch this October.

The game is described as a 2D co-operative action RPG which combines a retro aesthetic with fresh hack ‘n’ slash mechanics. Players can choose from five bonkers, playable warlocks including a crazed goat riding a dwarf-centaur, or a tech-savvy e-witch who casts spells from her smartphone, as they join forces with up to three friends via local or online co-op, taking on the vile gods hellbent on reigning chaos throughout the multiverse.

Warlocks 2 features over 120 equippable items, more than 45 different abilities such as shooting selfies, turning enemies into frogs, and summoning hordes of skeletons, ghosts and demons, and over 100 upgrades to unlock which allow you to take on even greater challenges. Chairman of the board at Frozen District, Krzysztof Krej, has said the following alongside the game’s announcement.

“Warlocks 2 presents an exhilarating spread of multidimensional travel, side-scrolling adventure and hack ‘n’ slash combat. It’s the perfect blend of humour and action to share with friends.”

Acting as a sequel to Warlocks vs. Shadows, Warlocks 2: God Slayers will be available on Nintendo Switch this October for $19.99. 

Do you like the look of this one? Let us know with a comment down below.

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NBA Playgrounds 2 Will Now Be Published By 2K Games, Adding Some “NBA 2K Flair”

NBA Playgrounds 2 was originally planned to release on the Nintendo Switch on 22nd May, but a mysterious delay prevented the launch from taking place. At the time, developer Saber Interactive said that “there are exciting things brewing” with the franchise, resulting in this delay, and it seems we now have our answer as to what those things were.

It has been announced that 2K Sports will take over publishing duties for the title, sitting it alongside the studio’s best-selling NBA 2K franchise and giving it a rebranded name in the process – NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The over-the-top, two-on-two basketball experience is hoping to complement the best-selling series and “expand 2K’s footprint in the basketball video game space”.

Greg Thomas, President of the NBA 2K series developer Visual Concepts, has said the following about the new partnership:

“The original NBA Playgrounds was a fantastic throwback to the glory days of arcade-action sports. The new NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 will step up this energy and attitude big time – with a bit of added NBA 2K flair – giving fans of both franchises an exciting new way to game with friends around the world.”

The game is now expected to release in “fall 2018” for Switch and other platforms. We’ll make sure to keep an eye out for any more news on this one over the coming months.

What do you think about this partnership? Are you happy to see 2K Sports takeover the Playgrounds franchise? Let us know with a comment below.

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Hands On: Things Are Hotting Up In The Kitchen Thanks To Overcooked 2

Anyone who has played Ghost Town Games’ indie darling Overcooked is sure to harbour a love-hate feeling for the little cooking simulator. It’s a game where you must work together inside a kitchen to piece together meals for needy customers. The only problem is you are timed, you bump into each other a lot, sometimes food burns and causes fires, and, oh yeah, you’re on a flying blimp that crashes into another, different restaurant halfway through the level.

On sight, Overcooked 2 is everything the original was, but just a little bit better. The visuals remain largely identical: cartoonish with a slightly askew and overhead perspective of a kitchen. But unlike the original game, you aren’t just cooking steaks for half the game.

Our first task was to make two types of sushi for three minutes within a busy intersection of pedestrians. In this game, you move your little chef around and press B to chop up ingredients, manically carry items around the kitchen, plate things as dictated, and try to serve them to customers as quickly as you can. There’s food prep, plate cleaning, and if you’re unlucky, fires to put out. All of this will seem very familiar to fans of the original, of course.

In the demo, we were making various salads, burgers (with cheese), and all sorts of dishes not native to the original game. Part of what made the symphony of the Overcooked kitchen progressively easier was that you got really good at making the orders. As meals are a lot more varied this time around, things remain more manic for a lot longer. It’s a welcome change of pace from the original and a logical improvement for the sequel.

Here’s what else is new: you can throw items a decent distance across the stage. A circular select screen allows for real-time emoting as you’re dashing around the kitchen (thanks, Fortnite). There’s also the particularly smart addition of combos, which gives you more points if you finish your orders exactly in the order as they are tabbed at the top of the screen. Nice.

As emphasized by the developers, none of these things are required to finish a level or complete your goals, but they add another layer for those completionist (or masochist) players out there; we can already tell that this sequel will offer players plenty to master.

And yes, there is a story. Something about the onion master who raises “The Walking Bread”, a horde of evil pieces of toast that plague the identical-looking level select screen from the first game. None of this matters in the slightest, but the fact that it’s there adds proves this is a labour of silly love.

The most important addition to Overcooked was the one we couldn’t play, but were told about in detail. As was boasted in the game’s trailer, co-op online multiplayer has been added to the already solid local multiplayer experience. That means the game covers all of the connected gaming bases, although local play is still one of the funniest experiences you can have on the Switch right now.

Look forward to Overcooked 2 when it releases on August 7th. Between the wizard portals, the expanded menu, and the promise of online, Overcooked 2 might become a multiplayer must-buy for the Switch. Look for our review soon.