FIFA 18 marked the first time EA Canada’s world-conquering footie sim had appeared on Nintendo Switch (minus a few modes, that is), but if a new data leak is anything to by, handheld owners will be getting a brand new mode in time to celebrate this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
The recently data-mined image shows a ‘Free FIFA World Cup Pack’ hidden among plenty of incoming FUT packs, and it’s already set owners of FIFA 18 on all platforms into a second-guessing frenzy. Of course, EA has yet to comment on the purported leak, so it could just be a hoax, but it certainly makes sense.
After all, EA has been producing World Cup-themed games since France 1998 and has produced plenty of separate physical editions, but World Cup and Euro modes have often been patched in as free add-ons in recent years. Will this version follow suit or will FIFA 18 owners have to cough up some cold hard cash to play as their home nation in this year’s official tie-in?
Share your thoughts with the community below. Does a World Cup 2018 tie-in bother you? Is it enough to tempt you back if you’ve been having a break from all things FIFA 18?
It’s fair to say that the Virtual Console was quite a significant part of Nintendo’s plans back when the Wii launched; it was certainly significant in the development of the site you’re reading now, which some of you may remember as Virtual Console Reviews prior to the triumphant merger with Nintendo Life in 2009. For a company that is so often lambasted for being hopelessly behind the curve, it was a startlingly forward-thinking concept; a service which allowed you to download classic titles from a wide range of vintage systems at a low price, all in one place.
Thanks to the Virtual Console, gamers got to experience the likes of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, MUSHA Aleste and Earthbound – games that cost extortionate amounts of money in physical form today – at a reasonable cost, thereby exposing them to an entirely new generation of players. While there were annoyances to speak of – the most grievous of which were the 50hz speed issue in Europe and the agonising drip-feed of titles, the latter of which was infuriatingly reset once the service hit the Wii U and 3DS – the Virtual Console must surely rank as one of Nintendo’s most notable success stories in the digital era. So why then has the company seemingly turned its back on the idea with the Switch?
Just to be clear, we don’t actually know what Nintendo’s plans are for retro games on its latest system; the much-hyped online subscription service is yet to launch, and Nintendo has previously mentioned “classic” games being part of this package – and even then, it’s hinted that retro games won’t be ‘for sale’ as such, but rather included as free downloads in your subscription. Nintendo’s vagueness on this point means that when the paid-for service eventually arrives, it could well be accompanied by a Virtual Console of some description – however, it’s looking increasingly likely that if that does happen, it will be almost unrecognisable to what has gone before.
Look at the landscape of the Switch eShop now; not only have we had a flood of Neo Geo games since launch – titles which have traditionally been released as part of the Virtual Console service – but last week saw Sega announce its AGES range, which will include Master System, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Saturn and coin-op titles from its illustrious history. In addition to this, we’ve seen retro releases from Zerodiv and Flying Tiger – such as Gunbird and Bad Dudes – which would, during the Wii era, have been prime candidates for release under the Virtual Console banner. What gives?
If companies like Sega are willing to bring classic games to market under their own steam rather than as part of the Virtual Console service, it would suggest that whatever Nintendo has planned will be very, very different from what we’ve become accustomed to on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS; Sega – and other companies like it – has presumably been briefed by Nintendo regarding its plans and has therefore decided to bring its vintage games to the Switch eShop as stand-alone downloads rather than as part of a system-wide classic games service. While this might seem odd, we perhaps need to remind ourselves that the Virtual Console, despite its name, was effectively just a sub-branding of the eShop on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS anyway; perhaps Nintendo is doing away with this branding and instead adopting a more open approach for retro on the eShop – very much like Sony and Microsoft do with their respective stores.
Should this be the case, then the death of the Virtual Console name shouldn’t mean an end of quality retro gaming on Switch; quite the opposite, in fact. It means that companies will be free to release titles (as they have been doing thus far) with the same regularity as standard eShop releases. We can’t say for sure, but we suspect that Nintendo has strictly controlled the rate of Virtual Console titles in the past, being careful to ensure that a neat balance was achieved between purebred eShop downloads and recooked retro titles. By ditching the Virtual Console sub-brand, the gates are open for publishers to release as many retro games as they wish – so it could actually be a good thing for players.
The catch is that with the Virtual Console, Nintendo (or, to be more specific, M2) handled the emulation side of things to ensure that quality was maintained. Games would be packaged up with top-notch emulators which were largely standardised across platforms, using the same basic interface and blessed with embellishments like save state support. By working outside of this framework, publishers lose the valuable experience of M2 (although, in Sega’s case, it has commissioned the Japanese company to handle its AGES ports) as well as a built-in UI which is instantly familiar with players. The upshot is that companies can do unique things with their games; Hamster includes various screen mode options and high-score settings with its Neo Geo games, and M2 is apparently working on adding unique enhancements to each Sega AGES title, just as it did with the superb 3D Classics range on the 3DS. This means that we could see less retro games being released as the amount of effort required could potentially be more – assuming that is that publishers actually want to go the extra mile and aren’t content to simply dump emulator-plus-ROM releases onto the eShop.
So, to say that the Virtual Console service is dead perhaps isn’t actually as dramatic as it sounds; it was only a name, a banner under which publishers could flock in order to gain some valuable revenue from their older releases. However, we perhaps shouldn’t underestimate the amount of preliminary work Nintendo – along with M2 – undertook in order to ensure that all of the supported consoles were properly emulated; if Nintendo does decide to “kill” the Virtual Console – or at least restrict access to third-parties – then it could result in a flood of poorly-ported titles, or a lack of content altogether.
We’ll no doubt have a better idea of what Nintendo has planned later this year, but it could well be a future which doesn’t include the words “Virtual Console” at all. Let us know your hopes by posting a comment below.
Original Story: Remember Horizon Chase? We reported on this Top Gear and Out Run-inspired racer back in 2015, when it was reported that the title – which later launched on smart devices – would also be coming to consoles.
It may have taken longer than expected, but the game is indeed making the leap to home systems in an updated form. Horizon Chase Turbo is currently confirmed for PS4 and Steam, but Brazilian developer Aquiris Game Studio seems keen to also bring it to Switch, posting on Facebook:
We’ll work to make Horizon Chase Turbo possible for Nintendo Switch after PS4 and Steam release!
Horizon Chase Turbo comes with a split-screen multiplayer mode as well as new cars and tracks. Let us know if you’d like to see this one on Switch by posting a comment.
Back in the glory days of the arcade, beat ‘em up games represented some of the most fun and most challenging games that you could find. With a clear narrative and finite stages to follow, these games could be ‘beaten’, but it often took a monumental effort and a fistful of quarters. Secret Base wanted to revisit that experience in the modern age with Streets of Red – Devil’s Dare Deluxe, and it’s done a fantastic job of creating an arcade experience that both pays homage to the past while introducing new elements that bring it in line with current gameplay standards.
Streets of Red follows standard beat ‘em up gameplay, though there are a few modern infusions that breathe new life into the tried and true formula. You’ll still be spending much of your time mashing buttons, but there’s a little more method to it than basic attacks. Every character has three special attacks that are tuned to be effective in different situations, and these can be chained together with your standard attacks for some impressive and satisfying juggle combos.
The special attacks are governed by a constantly refilling skill gauge that’s used up in chunks depending on the attacks that you use, but these attacks form the backbone of your battle strategy. If you finish off an enemy with a special attack, they’ll drop more money then usual, and if you finish off three or more enemies with the same special attacks, it’ll trigger a Massacre and drop a health item in the field. All of this combines to make for a beat ‘em up experience that’s a little more cerebral than usual, as you’ll have to account for proper spacing, timing, and resource management while you’re cutting through the hordes.
There are four characters to choose from (and two more unlockables) which all manage to have varied movesets, yet still feel quite similar to each other, rather like how characters are designed in the Super Smash Bros. series. The button inputs are all the same and the specialized attacks generally all have the same effect (i.e. the neutral ‘B’ input is an AoE defensive attack for everybody), but the way that each character handles it is different. One character’s side-B attack may be a flamethrower while another’s is an aggressive shield charge, and it can be fun to do multiple playthroughs to try out different playstyles and to see how they link together. There can be moments where the button mashing can become a bit mindless, but Secret Base has done a fantastic job of creating a diverse combat system that favors experimentation.
Upon beating the boss of a stage, you’re greeted with a short menu screen that offers you the chance to upgrade your character, and this is where the rogue-lite elements come into play. The upgrades you can pick from are different every time, ranging from upgrading your special attacks to increasing the amount of money that you gain from enemy drops. These do a great job of adding a sense of progression and empowerment to your character, and if you feel that the upgrades make the game a little too easy, you can choose to forgo the buff in exchange for a cash reward.
That might not be a bad idea, either, as you will also need to spend money to revive your character if they’re killed, and the amount needed to revive goes up drastically each time. Should you be too poor to resurrect your character, the save is deleted and you restart from square one. These rogue-lite elements are a welcome inclusion, then, as they add diversity to each run and high-stakes to keep you on edge.
Technically, there are only four stages in Streets of Red, but it goes about expanding them in interesting ways. Stages are divided into levels that are referred to as ‘Nights’ and the number of nights per stage increases with each one you pick. So, the first stage you pick only has one night (and one boss), the next stage has two nights, and so on. Every stage has a total of four nights, but you’ll only see all four of those nights if you pick that stage last. This adds in a welcome amount of replay value, as each night has distinct environments and bosses to incentivize you to pick a different route on another playthrough.
Certain bosses are much tougher if the stage they show up in is picked later, so there’s an element of strategy to how you choose to navigate the game’s levels. There are also branching endings depending on the route you picked and your performance in the stages, and considering that it only takes maybe an hour to complete a run, this adds a healthy amount of incentive to dive back in and do a run differently.
Streets of Red also supports local four-player co-op, and this is where the game really begins to shine. Enemy numbers and difficulty scale up according to how many players you have at once, and everyone shares the same pool of money for revives and upgrades. It can be interesting to see how the various characters’ movesets link together, and setting up combos that require two or more people can be immensely satisfying once you master the timing. We’d highly recommend you give this one a go with a buddy; it’s fantastic fun when playing alone, but adding more players into the mix adds some variety and chaos to the experience that’s quite satisfying.
One minor complaint, however, is that it can be a little easy to lose your character in the madness on screen, and we took a few hits that maybe could’ve been avoided if it were easier to differentiate your character. Tapping the left shoulder button will temporarily shine a colored light on your character to help combat this, but it’s easy to forget about this when in the heat of battle.
From a presentation perspective, Streets of Red does a great job of crafting its own distinct charm, even if the visual style isn’t the greatest. The pixel art and animations are beautifully drawn and rendered, making for a lively experience, but the color palette is a little more muted than we’d prefer. Much of the visuals are characterised by a monochromatic brown, with red and blue being the only other colors. It’s an interesting design choice, and we can see what the developers were going for, it nonetheless falls a little flat. The soundtrack is similar, going for an 8-bit horror vibe, and while it provides a lovely and authentic sonic background to the action on screen, it can be rather forgettable.
We’d be remiss not to mention Streets of Red’s heavy reliance on pop culture references, which add plenty of humor and charm to the game’s stages. Whether you’re fighting Jason Voorhees wielding Cloud’s buster sword or a hybrid cross between the Demogorgon and Xenomorph, nearly every boss character is memorable and humorous in their design. The references show up in more subtle ways, too, such as how the stage intros mimic the act introductions from Sonic the Hedgehog, or how Shovel Knight appears in the background as a sculpture. There’s plenty of Easter eggs like these hidden around the game, and this is part of the reason for why it can be fun to try different routes and see what other nights have to offer.
If you happen to find the core game too easy, there’s an expert mode that doesn’t heal you between nights, and let you spend money to make bets before entering a night which will raise the strength of the enemies you’ll face. This does a good job of infusing the main mode with some higher intensity, and will no doubt challenge even the most seasoned gamer in the later stages. And if the main arcade mode is getting a little stale, there’s also an endless survival mode that tasks you with fending off more and more difficult waves of enemies in pursuit of a higher score. An in-game achievement system works across all of this, tasking you with playing the game in unconventional ways, and this adds some interesting wrinkles to challenge you in successive runs.
Conclusion
All told, Streets of Red is a surprisingly varied and replayable game with plenty of clever ideas and riffs on the old school arcade beat ‘em up formula. Though the visuals and music may not be terribly exciting, the pop culture references crammed into every stage help to give the game lots of charm. Engaging gameplay, high replay value, and a great co-op experience make this one an easy recommendation for anybody looking for a little arcade game to play in short bursts either when alone or with friends. We’d recommend you give this one a look if you’re into arcade beat ‘em ups; for under ten bucks, this one’s a steal.
With its official Japanese reveal last week – and confirmation that Alex Kidd and Ground Gain are joining the lineup – Sega has now officially confirmed Sega AGES (the revived retro collection) is headed to Nintendo Switch in the West sometime in the summer of 2018.
As we’ve previously reported, the first five games are Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Ground Gain, Sonic the Hedgehog, Thunder Force IV and Phantasy Star. More titles are planned from the annals of Sega’s vast gaming library, so with this unique virtual console headed to Switch in the coming months Switch is fast becoming the place to enjoy your favourite retro classics.
No word on an official price point yet, but expect more details to emerge as we approach a firm release date in the summer.
Will you be picking up Sega AGES when it arrives on Switch? We certainly will, but we want to hear your take on this revived retro series…
The game once known as My Hero Academia: One’s Justice is getting a slight name change for its western release, adopting the new moniker My Hero One’s Justice. With a title that’s far less of a mouthful, Bandai Namco has also unveiled some of the new gameplay features set to appear in the anime-based brawler.
This being a game all about a world filled with super-powered characters, you’ll fittingly be able to pull of assists by using the new sidekick system. You’ll be able to choose up to two other characters to help you out in a fight (and turn the tide if you’re in a bit of a tight spot).
We’ve also got more details on League of Villains leader Tomura Shigaraki, whose quirk power ‘Decay’ will make his opponents rot. For every consecutive hit of his special skill, a countdown starts to decide your opponent’s fate! When this special attack hits four times in a row, it will automatically decrease the opponent’s HP to zero.
Check out the latest multiplatform trailer above. And let us know what you make of the new features coming to My Hero One’s Justice when it arrives later this year…
Hot on the heels of its recent release on PC and other console platforms, British publisher Wales Interactive has confirmed FMV-based crime thriller Late Shift is headed to Nintendo Switch as well – and it’ll be sidling onto the eShop on 26th April.
Created by developer CtrlMovie – and written by screenwriter Michael R. Johnson (whose previous work includes Sherlock Holmes, Pompeii and Mute) – it features 180 different decision points spread across a live-action story shot in HD across London. There are countless story threads to follow, with seven full endings to unlock depending on where your moral compass is pointing.
It’ll drop next week, with a price tag of £9.99/$12.99 attached. Check out the trailer below and let us know whether you’ll be signing up for a Late Shift on your handheld…
Catching the right Pokémon, training it, and evolving it is only half the battle in Pokémon GO. Arguably, the most important aspect of a Pokémon is its moves, as you can bring down a much more powerful Pokémon if yours has the better moveset.
It gets a little bit more complicated when you realise that there are two different types of moves: fast moves and charge moves. The names are pretty self-explanatory.
In this guide, we’re going to list every single move in Pokémon GO in order of the damage they inflict, and explain how it all works from getting TMs to using a charge move.
How do fast moves and charge moves work in Pokémon GO?
Basically, you use fast moves to build up energy and then use that energy to unleash a charge move when you’ve built up a sufficient number.
Each fast and charge move has a different energy gain or cost associated with it, and finding the balance that’s right for you is key.
Efficiency is the most important aspect, though. You want to deal solid damage with your fast attacks, while also building up a steady stream of energy. Then, you want to spend that energy wisely with a charge attack that deals sufficient damage.
It’s not all about how much base damage each move inflicts, either. Arguably, the most important thing to note is how much damage per second (DPS) you can inflict with each move.
Seeing as not every Pokémon can use every move, you need to pick that particular Pokémon’s best fast and charge moves.
Wait a minute – moves are distributed randomly, aren’t they? Well, yes, but you can mitigate that somewhat with the use of TMs. Let’s take a look at those.
What are fast and charge TMs and how do I get them?
Put simply, TMs (Technical Machines) are items in Pokémon GO that let you reroll a single fast or charge move. There’s a TM for each of the different types of moves, and when you use one, you’ll get a new fast or charge move at random, depending on the TM used.
A Pokémon can’t just learn any move though – the moves rolled at random will only ever be a move that the particular Pokémon you’re rolling for can use. It’s important to bear that in mind so you don’t waste TMs.
So how do you get TMs? Well, at the moment the only way you can get TMs is by raiding. Each time you complete a raid, you’ll have a chance to earn some fast or charge TMs. The number is very small though, and smaller still is your chance of getting them.
Don’t use them willy-nilly, then. TMs should only ever be used on your most powerful Pokémon that you absolutely plan to use over a prolonged period of time. You should do some research into the best Pokémon and then check the IVs (individual values) of any Pokémon you own that are considered best. Really, you should only use TMs on the best Pokémon that has perfect (or close enough to perfect to satisfy you) IVs.
As for the moves themselves, we’ve included a list of every single one of them in the game below so you can choose the best. Remember what we mentioned before, and aim for those that have the highest DPS.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Sega is bringing its own “classic edition” system to market in the form of the Mega Drive Mini.
A micro-console pre-loaded with classic titles, the system was shown off during an event in Japan, instantly triggering speculation that AtGames – a US firm which has been making officially-licensed Sega consoles for the past decade – might be involved. Shortly before the reveal, Sega had spoken publicly about bringing AtGames hardware to Japan.
Following the announcement, AtGames tweeted this message:
This tweet has since been deleted, which would suggest that AtGames jumped the gun somewhat. Perhaps Sega wasn’t happy that AtGames stole some of the company’s thunder by pointing out that it, and not Sega, is responsible for the product, or maybe the overwhelming negative reaction to the tweet is the reason; AtGames’ systems don’t have the best reputation among gamers, and are plagued by poor quality emulation and bad audio.
At the start of the year, following our scathing verdict on one of its Sega products, an AtGames representative got in touch to tell us that its 2018 Sega system would feature improved technology and features; we assumed at the time it would simply be a revised Mega Drive clone, like the ones the company has been releasing on a regular basis for years.
Perhaps the Mega Drive Mini will indeed be a step up from previous licensed models, but the fact that AtGames is involved again this time around doesn’t do much to inspire confidence; we wish Sega would take Nintendo’s lead and create the software for this system internally, as Nintendo did with both the NES Classic and SNES Classic.
Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.
