Aksys Games has released the first trailer for the upcoming Little Dragons Café – a game from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada.
The game’s story opens with a twin brother and sister learning to cook as they strive to manage their very own café. One morning, however, the twins discover that their mother has fallen into a deep sleep, and a strange old man appears to inform them that they must raise a dragon in order to save her. Working together with three quirky café employees, the two siblings must figure out how to a control a dragon, while simultaneously managing the family business.
As you can see from the trailer, the game has a very warm, charming vibe – as you might expect from the man behind the Harvest Moon series. If you’re hoping to see some more of this game in action, you might want to check out this 15 minute video of footage that we shared recently.
In the meantime, though, what are your thoughts on Little Dragons Café? Let us know if you’re considering getting the game in the comments.
There’s no shortage of headsets out there that work with Nintendo Switch – such as the SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth – but there aren’t many that are a) Nintendo-themed and – more important – b) officially licensed. Well, audio tech firm Astro has teamed up with the big N to fill that gap with a range of cool speaker tags and branded headsets.
The first products launching as part of this partnership are some magnetic speaker tags that will clip onto the side of Astro’s robust A40 headset range, featuring retro-classic takes on The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. The tags were launched this week as part of PAX East 2018, and, as you can see, they’re pretty rad.
The tags themselves will be out later this year, although Astro hasn’t confirmed a price point for them as yet. The company is also planning to launch the Astro Gaming Nintendo Switch at the end of 2018, an ideal Christmas gift if you want more even more Nintendo properties on your lugs.
Are these Nintendo-themed tags piquing your interest? Or are you happy with the headset you’ve got? Share your thoughts below, if you will…
Love it or hate it, the My Nintendo rewards system is still in full swing, and it has now added a selection of new goodies for European fans to spend their points on including game discounts, a new 3DS theme, and starter strategy guides for some of the Switch’s top games.
It’s worth remembering that you can now spend your My Nintendo gold points on any Switch game available from the eShop, so make sure you’re certain about using up your coins on these offers before charging in full-steam ahead.
Platinum Point Rewards
Super C (Virtual Console NES) – [Wii U/3DS] (30% off) – 50 points
2018 is already shaping up to be a very good second year for Nintendo Switch, with the likes of Shovel Knight: King Of Cards making their way onto the eShop in the coming months. The final campaign in the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove saga casts you as King Knight, the gilded goon himself, in what promises to be a fine end to Yacht Club Games current saga.
The team over at GameXplain recently visited PAX East 2018 in Boston, and captured seven minutes of off-screen footage from the upcoming release. If you’re a fan of the series – or just love pixel-happy platforming throwbacks – you’ll certainly enjoy seeing how the regal baddie sets himself apart from Specter Knight and Plague Knight.
Be sure to share your thoughts on the game below, and whether or not you’ll be adding this final campaign to your growing digital library…
This time around sees the introduction of the Clash Blaster Neo. It will come with the Curling Bomb as its sub weapon, and the Tenta Missiles as its special, potentially allowing players to strike foes and claim turf from a safe distance.
If it follows the usual trend, the update will likely kick in at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern today (6th April), which means the early hours of Saturday morning in Europe.
Will you be giving this new weapon a go? Have you decided which team you’ll be playing for in the Splatfest? Let us know below.
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition is just around the corner, with the 18th May release date for this Switch super-port rapidly approaching. If you’ve been thinking about getting yourself a physical copy of the game, you might want to grab this bundle for an extra dollop of goodness.
This Green Rupee Light is available either alongside a copy of the game, or as a standalone item if you prefer, from the Official Nintendo UK Store. Measuring approximately 10cm from base to tip (approx. 4″), the website describes the light as “a perfect addition to any fan’s bedroom” – and we can’t say we disagree.
If you’re interested, you can grab the light and game bundle for £49.99, or the light on its own for £11.99. Other online stores do appear to be stocking the item, too – although most are currently sold out – so our chums in Europe and North America may be able to grab one for themselves with a little digging.
So, do you want one for your bedroom as Nintendo suggests? Let us know if you intend to buy one in the comments below.
Well, we didn’t see that coming. Apparently, there’s a remaster of the original Spyro The Dragon PS1 trilogy coming in September. I mean, it’s not as if there were weeks of rumours, leaks and purple eggs mailed to games journos around the world.
Okay, perhaps we’re a tad bitter that Spyro: Reignited Trilogy – which has been officially confirmed for PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One and Xbox One X – doesn’t have a Switch port. Or one we know of, at least. Considering Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy – another remastered collection of three classic PS1 platformers from the same era – is coming to Switch in 2018, it does seem a little bizarre to not even make a passing mention of Nintendo’s handheld.
Of course, we could see a second announcement further down the line – more than likely at the end of the year/start of 2019 (if we’re following the timeline for Crash) – but right now it’s just a quiet hope. Still, at least Spyro’s back without all that toys-to-life nonsense holding him down.
What’s your take on the Spyro announcement and the lack of Switch support? A prelude to a later announcement, perhaps? Let us know below…
Jungle-based arcade shooter/platformer Toki – which saw hit arcades in 1989 before arriving on consoles such as SEGA Mega Drive in the years that followed – is getting a brand new remake. According to developer/publisher Microïds, the game is set to arrive by the end of 2018.
Since it’s almost 30 years since the original version launched, the remake is going to look a little different, but with original artist Philippe Dessoly leading art direction and veteran developer Pierre Adane lending a hand to development duties, it sounds like the new version of Toki will be more than faithful to the old one.
Will you be monkeying around when Toki arrives on Nintendo Switch by the end of the year? Share your thoughts with the community below…
It looks like Don’t Starve – the grim and Gothic survival simulator – is coming to Nintendo Switch next week. There’s been no official announcement from developer Klei Entertainment as yet, but a listing on the Switch eShop (as spotted by Twitter user ContraNetwork) shows the popular indie hit is set to arrive on Thursday 12th April 2018.
The series has already had an outing on Nintendo, with 2015’s Don’t Starve: Giant Edition on Wii U, so a Nintendo Switch announcement was bound to happen eventually – in fact, it’s surprising it’s taken this long! It’s priced at £17.99, so if you’re looking to test your survival skills against the demonic wilds, you’re in for a gruesome treat in a week’s time.
Have you played a version of Don’t Starve before? Would a Switch version tempt you back? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below…
When Gotcha Racing arrived on the 3DS back in 2015 it received particular praise for its simple pick-and-play setup, the unexpected depth dictated by luck of the virtual Gashapon car parts and that moreish Micro Machines-esque gameplay. Three years later and on new hardware, will lighting strike twice as Gotcha Racing 2nd floors it for the gold?
Controlling your car could not be simpler: ‘A’ accelerates, ‘B’ brakes and ‘Y’ will annoy your fellow driver with the horn. Knowing how to properly brake and accelerate in order to make your car drift is the single most important skill you will need to ensure some proper racing times among the more curvy circuits from the 16 on offer. The action button is a new addition to the series. Hitting ‘X’ will execute your current chassis special action (assuming you have one at all). These charging abilities usually give you some sort of momentary advantage over your opponents, but come with a special penalty to balance things out. For example, your car might come with a speed boost that will greatly increase your top speed for a moment, but then penalise you during the recharge period with a 40% top speed penalty.
Now consider there are no less than 700 different cars parts that you can get from dropping your earnings in the game’s virtual gacha machines. These are divided into body, engine and tires (all of them in common and rare variants). This offers an incredible amount of combinations and variations on top speed, acceleration, cornering, drift and brake values, along with the new action command. You will constantly be taking on ‘just one more race’ so you can try your luck at getting a new part or a new chassis. You probably already figured this out already, but we’ll go on record as saying Gotcha Racing 2nd is insanely addictive.
A very welcome addition to this sequel is the brand new local multiplayer. Just like overhead racing games of old, adding other human players to the racing procedure will never fail to live things up and that much is certainly true here. You can split the screen with up to three other players and race any of the 16 circuits available in the single-player championship, play single-screen mini-courses that will bring further nostalgic memories of classics such as Super Sprint of Super Off-Road or even play a sort of battle royal mode where you get to spin-attack opponents out of bounds. Nintendo Switch is a perfect fit for this sort of local multiplayer mayhem and this game certainly nails the party aspect of play right from the pole position.
The tracks are cars are nicely rendered in 3D polygons, allowing for not only for some impressively smooth scrolling, but also some very nice details and perspective camera angles of all the action. Of course, Switch doesn’t have the same amount of vertical space as it was offered by the previous game’s double-screen 3DS setup, and this is mitigated not only with three camera distances (which you can switch on the fly with the ‘RZ’ button), but the ability to switch the racing screen to TATE. Music is adequate and the sound effects do a lovely job of making those engines roar properly.
Despite all of these positive aspects, the core gameplay remains locked to the genre’s tropes; if you’re not a fan of overhead racing games, it is doubtful this package will change your mind about it. Online multiplayer is sadly locked to leader boards where you can compete for the best times on all 16 circuits against the whole world (or at least the rest of Switch owners all over the globe). Having online racing lobbies such as the ones present in Mantis Burn Racing would have been a welcome addition, but this is perhaps something to be revisited in a possible future entry in the series.
Conclusion
Gotcha Racing 2nd is an incredible slice of generous retro racing content with hidden depths; one you can play for two minutes or two hours and always have incredible fun while at it. There is no single winning car combination so you will constantly keep coming back to get new parts and customise your four different designs in order to shave off seconds in the Grand Prix tracks and the game might even turn out to become a party favourite with your friends. Additive, fun and bursting with content for a sensible price we can’t but unquestionably recommend this second outing of overhead racing extravaganza even if you missed out on the first game. As for us, off we go to the gacha machine… again…
