Category: Nintendo News

Love him, or hate him, Wedbush Securities research analyst Michael Pachter sometimes makes some quite interesting predictions when it comes to Nintendo, and this blast from the past really makes us chuckle.

Back in 2012 on a episode of Bonus Round, everyone’s favourite analyst inadvertently predicted that Nintendo fans would go crazy for Nintendo Labo.

First he said Nintendo fans weren’t that stupid:

I don’t think Nintendo fans are so stupid they would buy a piece of cardboard.

But then, when explaining his position, he went on to say:

A box on the other hand, that says Nintendo on it, they probably would. Remember when you were a kid and you get gifts, and when you’re really little you like the box better than the gift? That’s how I think of Nintendo fanboys.

Quite a damning view of “Nintendo fanboys” from our old chum Pachter there, but it is amusing that he even thought of the idea of Nintendo selling cardboard in the first place.

Of course, Labo is so much more than just cardboard; it’s got the engineering precision of an IKEA chest of drawers – and lest we forget both sets come with innovative games to play, too.

Let us know what you think about Pachter’s prediction with a comment below.

We first played Aperion Cyberstorm – by aPriori Digital – back in early 2015 as shown in the video above, and had a lot of fun with its stylish twin-stick shooting. That was on Wii U, but the realities of making games with limited resources and the rapid decline of the console saw it fall off the radar, which was a real pity.

Well, the game is still very much alive, and it’s now been confirmed that it is coming to the Nintendo Switch on the 8th of February; importantly it’s still coming to the Wii U on the same day as well, so those with the previous system won’t miss out.

This bullet-hell shooter has various modes for single or multiplayer, with up to five people able to take part. On the Switch it’ll support various configurations and controls, and in a particularly nice touch it’ll have accessibility options including ‘lefty-flip’ controls and optional settings for resizing text, auto-fire and so on. 

Here’s what Jonathan Price, co-founder and designer had to say about the imminent release:

Prototyping for Aperion Cyberstorm began development in October 2013 as a cooperative space shooter made with the XNA framework and in mid-2014 we decided to move the game from XNA to Unity. This then gave us the ability to bring the game to Nintendo Wii U. During the lifetime of the project, we have revised the release date more times than we would like. The reason for doing so is that we understand that the game may not make back its development costs, which is a reality that a lot of studios face, but we wanted to make a game we could be proud of and that can be played years from now by a variety of people of different abilities.

Jack David, co-founder and artist enthusiastically added:

At aPriori we find joy in making games games and we are delighted to finally be able to bring Aperion Cyberstorm to market this year. The development process has really been a case of life imitating art – as a studio we’ve enjoyed the ride and we hope gamers will enjoy their virtual ride when they get their hands on the code in February!

It’s been a long time coming, but we can’t wait to get our hands on Aperion Cyberstorm and we think it will be a great fit for the Switch. Let us know if you plan to pick it up with a comment below.

Celeste is a tight, tough and tantalisingly precise platformer from the creator of the TowerFall series. Starting life as a game jam project in a ‘fantasy console’ called PICO-8, this new slice of indie challenge has blossomed into a beautifully crafted old school-style title. With its Nintendo Switch release date imminent, we chatted to one of its creators about the journey to Nintendo Switch, the games that shaped Celeste and what it takes to build an indie title in 2018. 

Nintendo Life: Could you introduce yourself?

Noel Berry: Hey! I’m Noel Berry, and along with Matt Thorson and many other very good friends, we created Celeste.

When did the development of Celeste start?

We created the original Celeste in August of 2015, but started on the new one in January of 2016.

When was the decision made to bring it to Nintendo Switch?

There was a time when we were far more optimistic about how fast we could get Celeste done, and initially thought we could be a launch title for the Switch. Both Matt and I grew up playing Nintendo games, so being able to release on a Nintendo console was a really exciting prospect. But we missed that by … nine months, and wrapped up the game at the end of 2017 instead. Better late than never!

We actually have experience of the game’s original engine PICO-8, a ‘fantasy console’ and its ecosystem. In fact, We’ve visited the creator and his cafe in Tokyo many times.

That’s awesome, I’m hoping to someday make a trip there and visit for myself!

How did you discover PICO-8? What was your experience in game development prior to using it?

I had been following Zep, the creator of PICO-8, for a little while due to his work on Voxatron, and at some point PICO-8 showed up in my Twitter feed. Once I had some free time I decided to dive into it a little bit. Before PICO-8, I think pretty much everyone on the team had been making games for several years. I started out with Game Maker as a teenager, and later worked in Flash and then C#.

How did you find working with it?

It’s awesome! I highly recommend PICO-8 to… basically everyone! It’s accessible and has a strong vision. It does come with some fairly big limitations, but I often feel constraints are great for experimentation.

Which engine did you choose to develop Celeste in after PICO-8?

The newer Celeste was created in C# and XNA, a now deprecated framework originally created for Xbox 360 games. We use various open source ports that are highly maintained to get the game out on other platforms.

How was the transition from moving the game over to a format that was supported by consoles?

The new Celeste took us around two years to create… so going from the PICO-8 game to the full game people will be playing on consoles was a lot of work. I did recreate the original PICO-8 game inside our new one (as an unlockable), and porting that over was only about a day of work.

Is it true the initial concept was realised within four days from a game jam?

Yes, the original PICO-8 game was created in four days.

Could you explain the game’s origins?

Matt and I wanted to create a short game in PICO-8 over a weekend. We wanted our concept to be fairly minimalist (partially due to the time constraints we set on ourselves and the limitations of the tool), but that also had a lot of depth in mechanics. The idea of a character struggling to climb a mountain felt like it fit really well with this.

How did the ideas in the game grow from this initial version?

The game stayed very true to the vision of the PICO-8 version, but it was able to explore the space, story, and characters a lot more. Our plan was to take our initial jam game and see where it would go if we had more time and a larger canvas to work with, and it kept surprising us.

Was there anything you experimented with but ultimately left out?

Yes, basically every chapter in the game had ideas, mechanics, art, and levels that were eventually thrown out. I think when making a game you have to be alright with throwing things out, especially when they don’t really end up matching the vision. It’s not lost work or time, it’s part of the process of coming to the final realisation of the game.

It’s fair to say that Celeste is a departure from your previous work, such as TowerFall?

Yes, though I think a lot of the lessons from TowerFall make their way into Celeste.

Was this a conscious decision or did the game develop organically?

I think it happened fairly organically. Matt and I had approached Celeste from the beginning as a single-player adventure, and it grew from there.

What do you think about the game being mechanically compared to Super Meat Boy?

On the surface I think the games are similar – both are difficult indie platformers. However, I think at a closer look they approach that concept in very different directions, thematically and mechanically.

Was there a process behind balancing the difficulty?

Yes: Making our friends come over and play very rough segments of the game, over and over. And over. We also had a general philosophy that, though we want the game to feel hard, we always want it to feel fair. The game works in the player’s favor, wherever possible, and when it felt like a level or mechanic was hard in the ‘wrong’ way, it was cut or modified.

What was your interest and exposure to rumors of NX?

We’ve all been pretty big Nintendo fans our entire lives so…. we were all pretty excited for whatever Nintendo’s new console was. I don’t really recall what specific rumors we had heard at the time.

What do you think of the Switch hardware?

It’s awesome.

What influenced the design of Celeste?

Donkey Kong Country 2, Metroid, Mario, Kero Blaster, and many others.

What Nintendo games did you play growing up?

Oh man, I played so much A Link to the Past. That’s my go to, for sure. Yoshi’s Island is really up there for me, too. I think for Matt it’s going to be Super Mario Bros 3.

What does the future hold for Celeste?

Hopefully, a game that people remember and come back to fondly. I don’t think we have any plans to create a sequel to Celeste – it really feels like we told the story we wanted to tell.

We would like to thank Noel, Matt and the team for their time. Celeste hits the Switch eShop on 25th January for $19.99.

Monster Hunter World is shaping up to be pretty special indeed, but for Nintendo fans missing out on this blockbuster title it’s something of a sore point – especially when you consider how the 3DS iterations of the series did so much to expand its core audience.

Well all know that the game isn’t coming to Switch – Nintendo fans have been graced with Monster Hunter XX instead – but at least Capcom has an excuse. A while back, co-director Kaname Fujioka stated that his team’s aim was to make the best Monster Hunter for PS4 and Xbox One, and now Fujioka – alongside fellow director Yuya Tokuda – has offered another (similar) reason:

We don’t have any plans for the Switch at the moment. Part of the reason is that the title has been in development for almost 4 years. At the time we had to commit to our hardware choices, we decided on using the most powerful current generation consoles available at the time, which was Playstation 4 and Xbox One. So [the decision was made] before the Switch was even announced or on sale.

It’s also because for every title we decide what the best fit for hardware is for the concept. We don’t just look at everything. It’s more like ‘if we want to achieve this kind of game concept, where’s the best place to achieve that?’ and for this title the Playstation 4 and Xbox One were the best fit for us.

That’s a fair comment – if a game enters development for a target platform many years before another (technically weaker) system is announced and revealed, it’s hardly fair to expect it to be ported over right away – especially when you consider that Monster Hunter world is an ambitious outing which pushes Sony and Microsoft’s consoles to their respective limits.

However, when you see the way other companies have scaled their software for Switch – such as Rocket League and DOOM – one does wonder if Capcom’s decision to bypass what could potentially be the biggest platform for Monster Hunter World is a wise one.

We assume that Capcom will eventually give Switch owners a “proper” Monster Hunter game in the fullness of time, but will it be World or an entirely fresh outing? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.

Famous secret agent and ’80s cartoon sensation Danger Mouse is coming to the Nintendo Switch, courtesy of 9th Impact Studios.

Danger Mouse: The Danger Games features DM, Penfold and Silas Greenback as they race around the streets of London in an effort to prove who’s the fastest. The gameplay looks quite basic, which is no surprise when you learn that The Danger Games originally launched on smartphones. 

Still, after countless mornings spent watching DM’s heroic feats as children (as well as checking out the recent reboot when nobody else is in the room) we have to admit our love of the character may mean we overlook such issues. Maybe.

Let us know if you’ll be downloading this acclaimed secret agent’s latest game by posting a comment below.

SteamWorld Dig is one of our favourite Wii U and 3DS eShop titles so the news that we’ll get the chance to play it a third time on Switch is very welcome indeed.

Image & Form’s Brjann Sigurgeirsson has stated that it’s coming on February 1st and will cost $9.99 in North America.

Sigurgeirsson said that he hopes bringing the original game to Switch will help fans see things have evolved when compared to the sequel. While it’s certainly true that SteamWorld Dig 2 is a more ambitious game, we have a real soft spot for the first title.

What about you? Will you be downloading this one on Switch?

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Hollow Knight is a cute yet dark Metroidvania from the talented minds at Australian developer Team Cherry. After a hugely successful 2017, the insectoid platformer is preparing to embark on the greatest adventure of all as it makes its way to Nintendo Switch this year. To celebrate its impending arrival, Nintendo Life was lucky enough up to catch up with director Ari Gibson to discuss the game’s reception, its passionate fan art community, the Nintendo franchises that inspired Team Cherry and much more… 

Nintendo Life: Congratulations on the upcoming release of Hollow Knight on Nintendo Switch!

Ari Gibson: Thanks! We’re really excited for the release. There’s a whole new audience of Nintendo fans who’ll finally be able to play the game and we think it’s a great fit with the console.

How has the development of the game been going on the platform?

Development has been quite smooth and Nintendo have been fantastic to work with, helpful throughout. The testing process in particular has been a nice change, playing on a couch, rather than just glued to our PCs.

So when did development start for the Switch port?

Way back in 2016 we were developing a Wii U version of the game, alongside the PC version. Eventually we shifted that version to Switch as the players moved across to the new Nintendo system.

Indies in general have been much more prominent on Nintendo Switch compared to recent years. It must be exciting to work on such a popular platform so early in its life cycle?

With Hollow Knight on Switch we feel like we’re right in the middle of the activity and we couldn’t be more excited. Nintendo have been a huge supporter of indies with the Switch and it’s the perfect home for many of them with its handheld/home-console modularity and those cute little turn-them-on-their-side controllers. It’s got everything we’d want!

It’s great to see Hollow Knight receiving so much praise on social media, but there’s been a large influx of fan art, too. Considering the relative age of your company and the game, this must be very flattering.

It’s the craziest thing! We’d never of guessed there’d be such an interest in weird, slightly-spooky insects. The fan art is a huge inspiration and motivation even as we continue to create more Hollow Knight stories in our upcoming content packs.

Looking at the game itself, there’s an interesting contrast between the cute characters and the atmospheric colour palette. How did the aesthetic of the game develop?

The Hollow Knight look is all about speed. Simple is fast. Monotone is fast. The whole thing started as part of a 72-hour Game Jam event, which William and I took part in. Obviously, our ambitions for the game grew beyond the scale (and time-frame) of the Jam, but the quick-to-produce aesthetic remained from it.

How did you go about balancing the atmosphere with the narrative and humor – was there a priority or did it evolve organically?

Everything evolved naturally, with William and I writing the narrative as we built the world. There are plenty of dark bits and plenty of dark-yet-slightly-humourous bits but we never consciously worried about the balance between the two.

You’re a young team made up of a few people from South Australia. What was your exposure to video games growing up?

William and I both grew up on the NES, then SNES and we still have huge fondness for games of that era. With Hollow Knight we set out to make a game that evoked the feelings when playing Metroid, Faxanadu or Zelda II for the first time. Quite a bit of Mega Man X influence also crept in as we built the game.

Hollow Knight has been a very well supported game after it’s release. Can Switch owners expect all of the content in one package and how much more DLC is there still to come?

Absolutely! Hollow Knight on Switch will launch bundled with the two previous free content packs, Hidden Dreams & The Grimm Troupe, and a bunch of smaller optimisations and improvements we’ve made along the way. We’ll be announcing details on the third content pack in the near future, which is looking likely to arrive shortly after the Switch launch. Beyond that pack, we have our second playable character, Hornet, in the works. She has her own story, abilities, bosses and more, which we’ll be talking about at a later date.

We would like to thank Ari for his time. Hollow Knight on Nintendo Switch is expected in Q1 2018.