Category: Nintendo News

High Horse Entertainment’s Disc Jam might be making its way to the Nintendo Switch.

There’s been no official confirmation yet, but the game has been listed on the Switch’s News Feed application, which would suggest one is coming very soon.

Seen by many as a spiritual successor to the classic Neo Geo title Windjammers, Disc Jam features similar gameplay bit adopts a behind-the-shoulder, third-person view of the action. Already available on Steam and PS4, the game features 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 matches, and also has online play support.

Disc Jam has been dubbed “the next Rocket League” by some players, but has received mixed some rather reviews since launch; our friends over at Push Square gave it a cautious recommendation with their 6/10 review.

Let us know if you’ll be downloading this on Switch, should an official confirmation be forthcoming.

After the excellent Sonic Mania graced consoles late this summer, fans were hoping that SEGA would be able to replicate the success with Sonic Forces and give the hedgehog one of his greatest years. Unfortunately, Sonic Forces turned out to be a bit of a dud; not a bad game by any means, but nothing particularly great either. SEGA isn’t quite ready to give up on the title yet though, as it just revealed a bit of DLC that fans will no doubt appreciate.

Super Sonic has been added to the game, allowing fans to play as the powered-up version of Sonic in either his classic or modern forms. The DLC is available for free right now and will be for the next few weeks, but on 23^rd January, SEGA will start charging $1.99 / €1.99 / £1.69. Here’s a trailer showing him off:

What do you think? Did you like Sonic Forces? Will you be giving Super Sonic a try? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Nintendo has been doing a fantastic job of keeping ARMS updated with new stages, characters, and ARMS, and that support has been continuing nearly nonstop up until now. The company has been teasing version 5.0, which would be adding in a new character, for a few days now, and the update only just went live. As expected, it adds quite a large amount of new content.

The headlining feature of this one is a new fighter named Dr. Coyle, who can be encountered when playing through Grand Prix on LV6 or higher. Alongside the doctor, a new stage and some new arms have been added, along with some new badges and a handful of other tweaks.

Here’s the full list of patch notes:

·  New fighter “Dr. Coyle” is now available. Play the Grand Prix at LV6 or higher as someone other than Dr. Coyle and see what happens…

·  New ARM “Lokjaw” added.

·  New ARM “Parabola” added.

·  New ARM “Brrchuk” added.

·  New stage [NAME REDACTED] added.

·  For Grand Prix LV6 and lower, the computer will now get stronger as you get deeper into the Grand Prix.

·  For Grand Prix LV7, the computer will start out strong right from the first match, as usual.

·  You can now view stats from previous Party Crash events in “Stats.”

·  Added new badges related to Dr. Coyle.

·  Fixed issue in online play where the healing area created by HP Juice would sometimes shift position.

·  Adjusted abilities of some fighters and ARMS as follows.

Fighters / Arms	Adjustments
Lola Pop	The holidays are a busy season for street performers, so Lola Pop is fired up! Her charges now persist longer.
Whammer Kablammer Blorb	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS.
Scorpio	Increased retraction speed. Shortened waiting time between flying off and retrieval. Fixed issue where time needed for retraction could be greatly protracted.
Skully	Improved curving. Increased rush damage. Decreased speed of initial rush attack. Adjusted the number of attacks needed for rush range to reach a maximum.
Glusher	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS. Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Megaton Megawatt	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS. Increased speed of charge attacks. Decreased speed of normal attacks.
Toaster Sparky Chilla Bubb Buff Roaster Nade	Decreased speed of initial rush attack. Adjusted the number of attacks needed for rush range to reach a maximum.
Slapamander Slamamander	Increased the time interval between initial launch and extension. Increased extension speed.

What do you think? Will you be playing much as Dr. Coyle? Who’s your favorite character thus far? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Nintendo has been doing a fantastic job of keeping ARMS updated with new stages, characters, and ARMS, and that support has been continuing nearly nonstop up until now. The company has been teasing version 5.0, which would be adding in a new character, for a few days now, and the update only just went live. As expected, it adds quite a large amount of new content.

The headlining feature of this one is a new fighter named Dr. Coyle, who can be encountered when playing through Grand Prix on LV6 or higher. Alongside the doctor, a new stage and some new arms have been added, along with some new badges and a handful of other tweaks.

Here’s the full list of patch notes:

·  New fighter “Dr. Coyle” is now available. Play the Grand Prix at LV6 or higher as someone other than Dr. Coyle and see what happens…

·  New ARM “Lokjaw” added.

·  New ARM “Parabola” added.

·  New ARM “Brrchuk” added.

·  New stage [NAME REDACTED] added.

·  For Grand Prix LV6 and lower, the computer will now get stronger as you get deeper into the Grand Prix.

·  For Grand Prix LV7, the computer will start out strong right from the first match, as usual.

·  You can now view stats from previous Party Crash events in “Stats.”

·  Added new badges related to Dr. Coyle.

·  Fixed issue in online play where the healing area created by HP Juice would sometimes shift position.

·  Adjusted abilities of some fighters and ARMS as follows.

Fighters / Arms	Adjustments
Lola Pop	The holidays are a busy season for street performers, so Lola Pop is fired up! Her charges now persist longer.
Whammer Kablammer Blorb	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS.
Scorpio	Increased retraction speed. Shortened waiting time between flying off and retrieval. Fixed issue where time needed for retraction could be greatly protracted.
Skully	Improved curving. Increased rush damage. Decreased speed of initial rush attack. Adjusted the number of attacks needed for rush range to reach a maximum.
Glusher	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS. Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Megaton Megawatt	Lessened deceleration when knocking down mid-weight ARMS. Increased speed of charge attacks. Decreased speed of normal attacks.
Toaster Sparky Chilla Bubb Buff Roaster Nade	Decreased speed of initial rush attack. Adjusted the number of attacks needed for rush range to reach a maximum.
Slapamander Slamamander	Increased the time interval between initial launch and extension. Increased extension speed.

What do you think? Will you be playing much as Dr. Coyle? Who’s your favorite character thus far? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

It might sound like stating the obvious, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Champions’ Ballad DLC officially brings the game to a close – there will be no more content released from this point onwards, Nintendo has confirmed.

Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma delivered the news in an interview with Famitsu, stating that the release of the DLC means the game is now complete. There will be no further DLC expansions.

We already know that work has begun on the next Zelda outing, so it makes sense that the team at Nintendo has shifted its attention away from Breath of the Wild. However, given the incredible success of the game – and the fact that other publishers are supporting their big games for months (sometimes years) after release – one does wonder if it would have made more sense for Aonuma and his team to continue to expand the world of Hyrule with DLC packs throughout 2018.

What do you think? Were you expecting more DLC expansions for Breath of the Wild beyond Champions’ Ballad, or did you always think it would be the final throw of the dice for the game? Let us know with a comment.

Thanks to SLIGEACH_EIRE for the tip!

Earlier this week we closed voting on four major categories in the Nintendo Life community Game of the Year awards. Thousands of you took part in the polls and via email submissions, but there is one prize left – that of overall Game of the Year.

As promised, then, we’ve taken the top five from each of the four categories – Switch retail, Switch eShop, 3DS retail and 3DS eShop – and combined them in this final poll of 20 games. You can only choose one, however – yep, it’s a tough decision.

The top three will be named along with all of the other winners during the Holidays, so here’s your chance to choose your favourite game (on Nintendo hardware, at least!) of 2017. The voting closes at 9am Pacific / noon Eastern / 5pm UK / 6pm UK on 24th December.

Hit up the poll below and debate the vote in the comments!

Billy and Jimmy Lee’s original arcade adventure will bring the pain next week to the Switch eShop at the usual price point. HAMSTER’s Arcade Archives send off to 2017 is none other than Yoshihisa Kishimoto’s sequel to Renegade (Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun in Japan, Kunio’s debut video game), a coin-op that revolutionized the side scrolling beat’em up genre by offering two player cooperative gameplay… at least up to the very end (the heart wants what the heart wants).

In the grim dystopian future where gangs rule the streets and law is made by fists and steel, Marian sees herself kidnapped by the Black Warriors gang. Billy is having none of that, so he along with his brother Jimmy (Hammer and Spike in the US for Western sensibility purposes) take on the streets, the factory, the forest and the gang’s hideout, delivering martial arts justice to the many foolish street thugs who face them, including powerhouse Abobo whose debut entrance is in Double Dragon players’ minds to this day. It’s far from award winning plot material, but back in the ’80s this was all we needed to get things going.

Double Dragon will be the first Technōs Japan-developed / Taito-published title to be released as part of the Arcade Archives series from HAMSTER; hopefully it will not be the last.

Did you play this one back in the arcades or on any one of the many home ports? Will you grab an important piece of video gaming history next week to carry around on your Switch? Put up your fist and take on the comments section below.

It’s the final European Nintendo Download Update before the festive break, and it’s a bumper offering. The Switch has various high-profile downloads to cater to most tastes, while the 3DS also has a notable retail title and a few of its own new downloads. Without further ado let’s get to it!

As for festive discounts, there are a lot of them once again, so we’ve put them all in one place right here.

Switch eShop

TINY METAL (Unties, €24.99 / £19.99) – A title that does nothing to hide its attempt to fill the gap left by franchises such as Advance Wars, it offers stylish turn-based strategy allied to modern weapons and warfare along with a bombastic storyline. We were rather impressed with it in our TINY METAL review.

Enter the Gungeon (Devolver Digital, €14.99 / £10.99) – This is a smartly designed roguelike in which you go into a run with the hope that a mix of skill, luck and perfect drops will see you make it all the way through. It has some smart twists to keep you going, too; we bloomin’ loved it in our Enter the Gungeon review.

Brawlout (Angry Mob Games, €19.99 / £17.99) – A game that isn’t hesitant to affirm itself as an Indie take on the Smash Bros. style of brawling. Similar techniques are cited as key to gameplay, and you use assorted – in some cases familiar – indie characters to bash others off the screen. We gave this a solid recommendation in our Brawlout review, even though it perhaps struggles to reach its full potential.

Floor Kids (Merj Media, €16.99 / £15.99) – This rather unique and charming rhythm / dancing game has finally arrived. With just sticks and buttons at your disposal you have to find the flow and pull off funky dance moves across various tournaments. We loved it in our Floor Kids review and were lucky enough to speak to JonJon and Kid Koala about the game.

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops XL (Wired Productions, €12.99 / £9.99) – On the surface this looks like a modern-day reimagining of Cannon Fodder, with an isometric overhead view as you lead your tiny troopers into battle. It looks rather charming and promises various challenges and soldier classes; we’ll head into battle and let you know what we think in a review.

Bloody Zombies (nDreams, €13.49 / £10.99) – A brawler that previous arrived in VR form, it’s now been adapted to suit the Switch. It aims to server up ‘freeform’ combat within beat ’em up gameplay, as you go through London knocking the snot out of a variety of zombies; it also supports local and online co-op for up to four players. We’ll get into a review, but in the meantime you can learn more about it from our interview with nDreams.

Crawl (Powerhoof, €14.99 / £12.99) – This dungeon-based game lends an awesome visual style with a clever local multiplayer concept – one player is the main protagonist, but up to three friends possess traps and monsters to try and kill them. The multiplayer hook could make it perfect for the Switch; we’ll find out in a review.

The Next Penelope (Aurélien Regard, €12.99 / £10.99) – Previously planned for Wii U, this is a half racer, half shooter and features some massive boss battles which – once complete – give you additional weapons to use. It’s a stylish modernised take on Greek mythology that we rather enjoyed on PC, and now we’ll take another look on Switch.

Hammerwatch (Blitworks, €9.99 / £8.99) – This pixel-rich fantasy action title sees you taking down hundreds of enemies as you attempt to storm the castle of Hammerwatch. 7 character classes are available while local multiplayer for up to four players is supported; online multiplayer is coming in the future.

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (FDG Entertainment, €14.99 / £13.49) – As Lily, Knight of the Rose, you must go on a quest to save the Kingdom of Blossom from eternal darkness, collecting a host of weapons, spells, and more along the way. It has a top-down adventure approach that brings 16-bit Legend of Zelda experiences to mind; we’ll see how it stacks up in a review.

Puzzle Box Maker (Bplus, €14.99 / £13.49) – An interesting arrival as it provides some basic tools for creating your own game stages, on which you can then try out an assortment of minigames. It has plenty of pre-set levels too, and does a solid job of providing accessible level creation. We gave it a recommendation in our Puzzle Box Maker review.

60 Seconds! (Robot Gentleman, €9.99 / £8.50) – Released on PC a little while ago, this has the premise of trying to gather supplies in 60 seconds before surviving for a long time in the fallout shelter. It seems to have some rather dark humour (unsurprisingly) and could certainly be a rather intriguing title on the system. 

Heart&Slash (BadLand Games, €13.99 / £12.59) – This brawler is treated as a roguelike, so each run throws up different stage designs and weapon pick-ups. What’s particularly neat is that there are “up to 75 different weapons and 60 different robot body parts”, which all affect how you fight and play. In theory that should keep things very interesting, and we’ll try it out in a review. Available from 22nd December.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Stage Clear Studios, €14.99 / £14.99) – Originally released in 2014, this is a clever puzzle platformer in which a coloured ‘magic marker’ allows for various abilities. We’ll see if it ain’t heavy in a review.

Mom Hid My Game! (KEMCO, €4.99 / £4.49) – Previously released on mobile, this is a simple and rather quirky puzzle game in which you attempt to find and retrieve your GBA / DS hybrid on each screen. It’s a charming title that can raise a smile, albeit its limitations meant we only gave it a limited recommendation in our review.

The Coma: Recut (Digerati, €19.99 / £17.99) – A manhwa-styled Korean survival horror, this is a remaster of the “indie cult classic” The Coma: Cutting Class, in which you have to survive and escape in a twisted version of High School. We’ll face the horror and bring you a review soon.

RXN -Raijin- (KAYAC, €31.99 / £28.79) – Developed by Gulti, this is a vertically scrolling shooter that evidently goes big on its story, with three playable characters. One of the key selling points is that it’s a ‘wide-screen’ shooter, designed to fill the entire width of the Switch screen. We’ll try it out in a review.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli (Crazy Monkey, €9.99 / £8.99) – Ideal for ‘shooting zombie freaks on the go’, this run and gun title is set in a comedic and highly stylished take on 1920s America. You play as mobster wise guys and shoot everything in sight; it certainly looks entertaining, we’ll bring you a review as soon as possible.

Plague Road (Arcade Distillery, €8.75 / £8.39 until 28th December, normally €12.50 / £11.99) – A game of strategic turn-based combat with rogue-like progression. Set in a world engulfed in disease, as a doctor you seek survivors to help but also recruit them to build up your farm or accompany you on your travels and assist you in combat. There are four regions, five ‘types’ of survivors and plenty of challenges to face as you head for the end goal. We gave it a modest recommendation in our Plague Road review.

Frederic: Resurrection of Music (Forever Entertainment S. A., €5.39 / £4.85 until 4th January, normally €5.99 / £5.39) — Previously released on PC, smart device platforms and Wii U, this is a music adventure game that certainly has an intriguing style, aiming to blend humour and classical music. We quite liked the basic idea but bemoaned technical issues in our review of the Wii U version, so we’ll see whether this Switch iteration solves those problems.

FruitFall Crush (System 3 Software, €5.49 / £4.99) – A puzzle game in which you re-arrange fruit to match up within various shapes and confined stages. It has 75 stages and local multiplayer – we’ll see where it’s a tasty download in a review.

The Deer God (Level 77, €7.99 / £7.19) – A title we also saw on Wii U, this is a heavily stylised adventure that aims to deliver a positive storyline. The potential is undoubtedly there, but we were left disappointed with the end result in our The Deer God review.

VS. Super Mario Bros. (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – The latest ‘Arcade Archives’ Nintendo release, this brings the arcade spin of the NES classic into our homes. Fewer Warp Pipes means you can’t warp your way to the end as easily as in the original, there are also less power-up blocks and more enemy placements. In addition you’ll find six new levels that were unique to the arcade before later being reused in Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.

Woodle Tree Adventures (ChubbyPixel, €4.99 / £4.49) – Described as an ‘old school platform game’ with eight worlds to take on, it goes for a bright and cheery look for its 3D platforming. We’ll see whether it’s worth picking up in a review. Available from 23rd December.

Pulstar (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – This 1995 arcade release was the first Neo Geo game to feature pre-rendered graphics, the same kind of that were pushing the industry forward one year previously with Donkey Kong Country. Unlike its more hectic sequel, Pulstar is a far more slow-paced shmup, one that requires a different set of skills to tackle: enemy pattern memorization, navigation and the correct choice of weapons for each section are key for smooth sailing on this one.

Switch eShop Pre-Purchase

Pic-a-Pix Deluxe (Lightwood Games, €7.99 / £6.99)

Switch eShop Permanent Discounts

Just Dance 2017 – Just Dance Unlimited 30 days (Ubisoft, €3.99 / £3.29, previously €4.99 / £3.99)

Just Dance 2017 – Just Dance Unlimited 1 day (Ubisoft, €2.99 / £2.50, previously €3.99 / £3.29)

Just Dance 2017 – Just Dance Unlimited 365 days (Ubisoft, €24.99 / £19.99, previously €29.99 / £24.99)

Switch DLC

Fire Emblem Warriors: Fire Emblem Fates DLC Pack(Nintendo, €8.99 / £8.09 or as part of the season pass)

LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes 2 – Out of Time Character Pack (WB Games, €1.99 / £1.69)

LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes 2 – Agents of Atlas Character Pack (WB Games, €1.99 / £1.69)

LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes 2 – Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 Movie Character and Level Pack (WB Games, €2.99 / £2.50)

SUPERBEAT XONiC EX DLC Single Track – Expressive Air 06 (Rising Star Games, free)

SUPERBEAT XONiC EX DLC Single Track – Vertical Horizon (Rising Star Games, free)

Zen Originals Season 2 Bundle (Zen Studios, €17.99 / £17.97)

Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition – 1st Birthday Skin Pack (Mojang, free)

Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition – 2nd Birthday Skin Pack (Mojang, free)

Sonic Forces: SUPER SONIC (SEGA, free until 23rd January, then €1.99 / £1.69)

Switch eShop Demo

Pic-a-Pix Deluxe (Lightwood Games, free)

Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical (Flyhigh Works, free)

3DS Retail Download

Mario Party: The Top 100 (Nintendo, €39.99 / £34.99) – This 3DS entry in the series aims to tap into the best of the series by combining 100 minigames from across the IP’s history. It does that, but also falls short outside of the nostalgia around the collection, as we explain in our Mario Party: The Top 100 review. Available from 22nd December.

3DS eShop

The Legend of Dark Witch 3 – Wisdom and Lunacy (CIRCLE Entertainment, €9.99 / £9.89) – An action platformer in the vein of retro Mega Man, this places you in the shoes of series regular Zizou, who returns to Earth to check everything is running smoothly only to discover another witch is running amok. Cue platforming, bullet hell gunfights and plenty of big bosses to take down. TLODW3 is also the first instalment to feature 3D effects.

Battleminerz (Wobbly Tooth, €4.99 / £4.99) – A sequel to the studio’s earlier effort Battleminer (a game released back in 2014 that we weren’t particularly keen on), this promises a range of new features. It promises modes including Adventure, Creative, Horde, and Battle, along with support for local and online multiplayer.

New Nintendo 3DS eShop

Mom Hid My Game! (KEMCO, €4.99 / £4.49) – You can expect pretty much the same game as on the Nintendo Switch, just on a smaller screen.

Breakout Defense 2 (nuGAME, €6.99 / £5.99) – This is a versus Breakout game in which you try to beat the AI across 20 stages.

New 3DS DLC

Fire Emblem Warriors: Fire Emblem Fates DLC Pack (Nintendo, €8.99 / £8.09 or as part of the season pass)

3DS DLC

Culdcept Revolt – Two Worlds (NIS America, free)

3DS HOME Themes

Pokémon: Winter Hide-and-Seek (Nintendo, €1.99 / £1.79)

Basic: Green (Green Lightning, €0.99 / £0.99)

Basic: Orange (Green Lightning, €0.99 / £0.99)

Basic: Purple (Green Lightning, €0.99 / £0.99)

Hiding Out (Green Lightning, €1.99 / £1.99)

Magical world of Beast Quest (Coolabi, €0.99 / £0.89)

Beast Quest heroes! (Coolabi, €0.99 / £0.89)

Beast Quest featuring Elenna (Coolabi, €0.99 / £0.89)

Xmas gifts with Jurassic Cubs (Animundi, €1.49 / £1.39)

White Xmas with Jurassic Cubs (Animundi, €0.99 / £0.89)

JC 3pack Number 11 (Animundi, €2.49 / £2.29)

CHRISTMAS (Umusic online France, €1.99 / £1.79)

KITTEN (Umusic online France, €1.99 / £1.79)

SMILE (Umusic online France, €1.99 / £1.79)

TEDDY BEAR (Umusic online France, €1.99 / £1.79)

Wii U DLC

Minecraft: Wii U Edition – Norse Mythology Mash-up (Mojang, €5.99 / £4.79)

Minecraft: Wii U Edition – 2nd Birthday Skin Pack (Mojang, free until 30th December)

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Plenty of options to consider this week – let us know what you’ll be downloading in the poll and comments below.