Kirby™ is entering a tournament against his toughest rival yet…himself! 1-4 players can fight in local* or online** battles. You can pick from 10+ Abilities and 10 battle types to compete in countless matchups. You can hoard treasure in Ore Express, knock out opponents in Slam Hockey, shoot missiles at Robo Bonkers, and more.
Up to 4 players* can each choose an Ability and fight in Kirby-on-Kirby battles*
Battle via local wireless* or regional online play
Uncover King Dedede’s nefarious plan in the single-player story mode
The Kirby series amiibo™ figures and Kirby character amiibo from the Super Smash Bros.™ series are compatible with this game. Tap the corresponding amiibo to receive exclusive in-game headgear of Galacta Knight, Café Waddle Dee, Ultra Sword Kirby, or Masked King Dedede.
Take some of Kirby’s Abilities for a spin in the free game demo, now available for download on Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS™ family of systems. After finishing the demo, you can transfer your demo data to the full version of Kirby Battle Royale (once purchased) to unlock Meta Knight as a playable character!
The Kirby Battle Royale game is available now only on the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. It can be purchased in stores, in Nintendo eShop, and at Nintendo.com. For more information about the game, visit http://kirby.nintendo.com/battle-royale/.
Game in 2D.
amiibo sold separately. Compatibility and functionality of amiibo may vary per game. Visit amiibo.com for specific details on how each amiibo works.
* Additional games and systems required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately.
**Wireless Internet access required for online play. For more info, go to support.nintendo.com.
January 25th is becoming quite the notable date for retro gamers who own a Nintendo Switch and we now have word of yet another reason to be excited for next week; Irem’s 1986 Kid Niki: Radical Ninja (also known as Kaiketsu Yanchamaru in the Land of the Rising Sun) will join the platform and have the radical honor of becoming the second Irem produced game to be available on Nintendo’s hybrid system.
The self-titled coolest Ninja in Feudal Japan discovers his girlfriend, Princess Margo, has been kidnapped by (we assume) evil Stone Wizard. A perfect plot setup for a seven-level platform/fighting adventure, with seven bosses and presumably not a single Dragon Ball in sight. Despite modest success at the arcades, Kid Niki soared greater heights at the hands of Data East after being ported to NES, even managing to spawn a couple of sequels plus a portable outing for the original DMG Game Boy.
After all these decades will Niki remain radical among Switch owners? We’ll surely find out next week when it touches down with a price of £6.29 attached. Any particular memories from this Irem offering among our readers? Drop those comments like ninjas drop their foes in the comments section below.
Chromagun is a first person puzzle game with more than a passing resemblance to Valve’s much loved Portal games. Despite the immediate similarities, its developer hopes to impress with its own sense of witty humour and fiendishly clever colour based puzzles. With only three colours to choose from, it might seem that ChromaGun is keeping things simple with the challenges that lay ahead, but when you discover the colours can blend into new ones, the puzzles become that bit more fiendish. It’s a portal, but not to the experience you’re expecting. With ChromaGun set to lock and load on Nintendo Switch on 22nd January, we sit down with Steve Crouse, Creative Director at Pixel Maniacs to find out more….
Nintendo Life: Congratulations on bringing Chromagun to Nintendo Switch.
Steve Crouse: Thank you, it’s an awesome step for us to see our first game out on a Nintendo console.
When did development start on the Switch version?
We were quite quick with the Switch version, I think we began development last November.
It seems like a simple idea, but with a lot of scope for upping the challenge of using multiple colours.
That’s true, ChromaGun is based on a super simple idea, but the difficulty ramps up quite fast after the first chapter.
How was the design process regarding the use of colour for the puzzles?
The idea for the color attraction was the first thing we had, that’s what the game was developed around. The puzzles themselves evolved through the entire development cycle. Basically, what we did is build an empty test chamber, with an entrance and an exit – and then tried to find a unique way of blocking the player’s path. Then, we found a way for the player to un-block that path. After doing that often enough, certain mechanics and elements began to crystallize, and at some point we had enough mechanics to stretch them out over the course of the game.
How was the progression regarding puzzles and introducing new gameplay elements handled?
It was difficult to determine the difficulty of a chamber. We playtested over and over, and re-sorted the cambers every time. Overall, the difficulty increases from chapter to chapter, and we tried to sprinkle a few no-brainers in-between here and there, sort of as breather-levels to avoid player frustration.
Were there any ideas you wanted to include but didn’t/couldn’t?
We cut a bunch of ideas out of the final game. Some because of time constraints, some because they just turned out not to be fun. For example, we had a sort of paint-waterfall, that would change the color of your shots. Maybe we’ll use some of these ideas in ChromaGun 2, if that ever becomes a thing.
What was your interest and exposure to the rumors of Nintendo Switch/NX?
We’re all fans of Nintendo. I don’t think there’s a single person on the team who never had at least one Nintendo console – so obviously, we wanted to see ChromaGun on the Switch.
What’s the reception of the Switch been like in Germany?
I don’t have any specific sales numbers, but based on what people are telling me, people here love the Switch. And I see a lot of them on trains and buses (accompanied by their humans).
How was it working on a title for Nintendo Switch?
Porting Chromagun for the Switch was super rewarding. It didn’t take too long, and Nintendo has been really great in terms of supporting us with any problems.
What do you think of the console and its success so far?
In all honesty, I was skeptical when it was announced, and I didn’t intend to buy one. But after getting some time hands-on with the Switch, I absolutely fell in love with it. It’s a great console, and an amazing handheld, and I think it’ll perform really well in that sort of crossover market.
Many in the press and the gaming community make comparisons to a certain Valve first person physics bending puzzle game…!
Is it Half-Life?
How do you feel about that?
Well, ChromaGun is obviously influenced by Portal. In a way, it’s a love-letter to Portal, so we knew that it was going to draw comparisons, and that’s cool.
Is that flattering?
Being compared with Portal is absolutely flattering. Imagine people comparing your garage rock band to AC/DC, that’s fantastic.
What differentiates Chromagun from it?
Well, at a superficial level, they are very similar – and that’s by design. We added some jabs and nods towards Portal – The art style reminds somewhat of Portal, the narrator has strong parallels to a certain psychopath lady-bot, and both games share a genre. But at its core, ChromaGun is a completely different game. For one, there are no portals. The puzzles rely more on analytical pre-planning, and environmental manipulation, in that you paint walls and move droids around the chambers, rather than moving around them yourself as much.
What Nintendo games did you and the team play growing up?
I spent probably way too much time catching fish in Ocarina Of Time, and destroying friendships in the original Mario Kart. Between all of us at the office, I don’t think there’s a lot of games that haven’t been played around here.
What’s next for the team and the IP?
Right now, we’re working on finishing our next game, Can’t Drive This, which will also be released for Nintendo Switch. In terms of ChromaGun, we’ll just have to see. Maybe, some day, we’ll do a second part, but there’s no way of telling as of now.
Thanks to Steve Crouse for taking the time to speak to us, and you can grab a copy of ChromaGun on 22nd January via the Switch eShop. And be sure to let us know what you make of the game in the comments below…
A year ago, the reveal of Nintendo Switch helped swell Nintendo’s market value by a staggering $1 billion, and now, mere months before the release of Nintendo Labo, the Japanese firm’s worth has shot up by another 2.4%. That might not sound like a big percentage, until you realise that translates into a tasty $1.4 billion, closing out its market performance on a seven-week high.
As we know, Labo’s reveal has seen Twitter and the internet frothing with takes of various temperatures, but that clearly hasn’t stopped the economic impact from playing firmly into Nintendo’s favour. In a report by the Financial Times, financial analyst David Gibson (of investment firm Macquarie) reacts positively to Ninty’s divisive cardboard creations, saying: “This is exactly the kind of crazy idea that Nintendo are known for which we believe will help expand the company’s audience.” He made the prediction that Nintendo Labo would initially sell somewhere between 1m and 2m units – which is around $45m-$90m in operating profits.
Although by no means hidden, there are a number of Nintendo Labo constructables that Nintendo revealed in the video that first looks at the product, but hasn’t properly acknowledged since, certainly not in a commercial manner.
These include a camera, a pump-action gun of some kind, and a bird just to name a few. You can see them all in action alongside more in the video above. Don’t forget to subscribe to our lovely YouTube page, give the video a like and leave a comment there or on this very page…
Shu doesn’t reflect many modern 2D platformer trends. It’s far too old school for that. Rather perversely, it’s this traditional approach that makes the game feel rather fresh. We’re not dealing with an explorative Metroidvania here, nor is Shu a roguelike with randomised levels and permadeath. It’s just a plain old fashioned side-scroller, with a set series of (mostly) linear levels. These are filled with butterfly-shaped knick-knacks to collect, which helpfully form together in lines to produce path guides – as well as hinting at where each level’s bonus items might be.
That’s not to say that Shu is devoid of fresh ideas though. Its soft-hued visuals and charming pastoral fantasy world instantly set it apart from the garish palettes and noisy level design of other retro platformers, as do the abilities of Shu’s protagonist. Our poncho-wearing hero has but one consistent skill to call upon: the unlimited capacity to glide by holding the ZR button. This extends your jump range and enables you to scoot along thermal drafts in a way that’s strangely reminiscent of Sonic. It also enables you to cut out swathes of boots-on-the-ground platforming action if you’re so inclined, and indeed there’s a time trial option once you complete each level to encourage such shortcutting.
Besides gliding, Shu provides you with a constantly shifting suite of secondary abilities from the strange creatures you meet. What’s neat is that these abilities change from world to world rather than steadily stacking, which makes each change of scenery feel like an almost completely fresh start. In the first world, for example, you get the ability to pound through weak platforms and open flowers to act as platforms. These are air-lifted away (quite literally) in world two for the ability to walk on water and wall-jump, while world three gives you a double jump and control over moving platforms.
Some of these abilities quickly become ingrained in your muscle memory, leaving you pressing a button in the next world in expectation of a response that never comes. Generally, though, Shu’s use-and-discard approach to abilities is refreshing, and even a little Nintendo-like in its casual ingenuity. The lack of enemies and combat in the game is another surprisingly fresh touch. It’s just you against a bunch of jumping challenges – though instant death is just a spiky obstacle away, and the game’s limited lives system feels somewhat archaic.
Given Shu’s generally gentle difficulty level, and the fact that your lives reset at each checkpoint, this system only really bites when it comes to Shu’s periodic chase sequences. From time to time you’ll be instructed to run – and you’d better ruddy well do so. Otherwise you’ll be gobbled up by a slathering storm demon. These sections are easily Shu’s weakest. They’re effectively tuned to be ‘one slip and you’re done’ affairs, which can be rather frustrating. When you stir in the fact that one or more of the level’s bonus bird collectibles (referred to as ‘Babbies’) is inevitably stashed along a tricky alternative path here, they soon become a bit of a chore.
Fortunately, these intense sections only turn up once or twice per world. The rest of Shu is classic platforming, livened up by some ingenious mechanics and level themes that steer well clear of cliche. World two’s stormy forest and world three’s tottering, windswept platforms spring to mind.
Shu’s fresh approach to the classic 2D platformer template means it occupies a particular niche in the Switch eShop, right alongside Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition and Sonic Mania. It doesn’t have the boundless energy or sheer bombardment of expertly executed ideas of either game, but Shu has a unique elegance and poise of its own.
Conclusion
Shu is an elegant, attractive and thoughtful 2D platformer that strips away a lot of the excess of its genre rivals. It’s still not ripping up any rulebooks or reinventing the wheel, and it’s far from the best platformer on the eShop. If you’re after a more sedate alternative to Sonic Mania and company, however, it’s an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.
If you’re are recovered from last night’s Nintendo Labo hype, you’ll notice that there’s another fun packed European Nintendo Download to enjoy! This week’s haul brings in plenty of new titles to choose from, including two versions of the gory Darkest Dungeon, the light-hearted puzzling of Tales Of A Tiny Planet and the blob-based RPG world of Ambition Of The Slimes. So break out your bank card and prepare to give your balance and good battering with these top new releases and deals…
Switch eShop
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios, €21.99/£17.99) – Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes through twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts, and beyond.
Darkest Dungeon: Ancestral Edition (Red Hook Studios, €30.99/£25.99) – The Ancestral Edition includes the Darkest Dungeon core game plus the following content packs: The Crimson Court and The Shieldbreaker.
Tales Of A Tiny Planet (Joindots, €19.99/£17.99) – Tales of the Tiny Planet» tells the story of a Planet searching through the galaxies for his lost friends. You have the ability to manipulate the world elements to guide him safely through the galaxies in this Physics-Puzzle-Adventure. Will the missing planet be behind the next portal? Find out, Beat the high-score or compete with your friends in this new Physics-Puzzle!
ACA NEOGEO POWER SPIKES II (HAMSTER, €6.99/£6.29) – Power Spikes II features its own Hyper Mode where the world’s strongest eight teams compete along with the World Men’s and World Women’s teams in this futuristic fighting volleyball. In Hyper Mode, commands for special serves and spikes can be input for an intense battle.
Ambition Of The Slimes (Flyhigh Works, €5.00/£4.99) – Slimes are surprisingly versatile – they can use magic, they can multiply, they can use special abilities…but no matter how capable they are, unfortunately, they usually end up bashed into a mush, sometimes not even by the protagonist of the game but by a village commoner!
Oh… Sir! The Hollywood Roast (Gambitious, €3.49/£2.99) – The boys are back , and they look better than ever! Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast is a brand new spin-off to the surprise indie hi, Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator. This time around we’re taking tinsel town down a few notches, whilst classing up the joint.
Oh… Sir! The Insult Simulator (Gambitious, €2.29/£1.99) – It does exactly what it says on the tin. Take on AI, players in local multiplayer or strangers online in this insult flinging comedy roast simulator.
Qbik (Forever Entertainment, €4.99/£4.04 – €4.49/£3.00 until February 1 if you own Sparkle 2 EVO, Violett or Frederic) – Enter the world of Qbik and explore a square land full of brainteasers, puzzles, and riddles – traverse all 63 levels and discover the origin story of this square little fella!
Rally Racers (System 3, €9.99/£8.99) – Wacky cartoon racing at its best, Rally Racers is an action packed family racing game that’s fast and furious fun for all.
World To The West (Rain Games, €19.99/£17.99) – A teleportation-mishap, a broken contract, a mysterious tree and a foolhardy expedition set the stage for our four heroes. Follow Lumina, Teri, Knaus and Clonington on a rip-roaring adventure full of twists and turns through the World to the West!
Baseball Riot (10tons, €4.99/£4.49) – Available 19th January. Help Gabe Carpaccio take vengeance on the unholy alliance of his former team and a corrupt energy drink manufacturer Explodz Inc.!
BRAWL (QubicGames, €9.99/£8.99) – Available 19th January. Step into the darkness of The Emporium with 8 unique characters, each with a rich back story and a surprising plot-twist.
Nuclien (SPRINGLOADED, €3.49/£2.99) – Available 19th January. Count as fast as you can in this mind-splitting game that forces you to locate numbers as fast as possible, and flip your perspective backwards and forwards at an almost impossible rate!
Vesta(FinalBoss Games, €14.99/£13.49 – €12.74/£11.46 until 26th January) – Available 19th January. Join Vesta as she explores various environments over 36 levels full of obstacles and enemy robots. She’ll need her brains and DROID’s power to traverse this varied landscape, properly manage the little energy left in the complex, solve the numerous puzzles she finds in her path, and even fight to survive.
ChromaGun (Pixel Maniacs – £19.99). Available 22nd January. In this love letter to the Portal series, use a paint-throwing gun to solve environmental puzzles and explore myriad test chambers on your Switch.
Arcade Archives DOUBLE DRAGON (HAMSTER, €6.99/£6.29) – Players can change various game settings such as game difficulty, and also reproduce the atmosphere of arcade display settings at that time. Players can also compete against each other from all over the world with their high scores.
Demos
Death Squared: The Employee Evaluation | Demo (SMG Studio) – Free
League Of Evil Demo (Ratalaika Games, Free) – Use your acrobatic skills to punch your way through levels filled with deadly traps and defeat your enemies. The world is counting on you!
DLC
Stern Pinball Arcade: Limited Edition Add-on Pack 1 (FarSight Studios, €8.48) This add-on pack includes the pinball tables: AC/DC Back in Black Limited Edition, AC/DC Let There Be Rock Limited Edition and Star Trek Enterprise Limited Edition
Stern Pinball Arcade:Limited Edition Add-on Pack 2 (FarSight Studios, €8.48) This add-on pack includes the pinball tables: Mustang Limited Edition “50 Years” and Ghostbusters Limited Edition
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 – Champions Character Pack (WB Games, €1.99) Ms. Marvel! Nova! Miles Morales! This generation’s greatest Super Heroes unite with other young heroes from around the world to form The Champions! If you download, you can play as: Ironheart, Devil Dinosaur, Moon Girl, Viv Vision & Sparky, Amadeus Cho, Nadia Pym Wasp, Kate Bishop and Nova.
Chess Ultra: Pantheon Game Pack (Ripstone Publishing, €5.99) This pack features a Roman temple where Imperial Roman soldiers clash on a stone checkerboard. Chess is a battle, and what better chess pieces to do battle with than the Imperial Roman army!
Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court (Red Hook Studios, €8.99) Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court is the first expansion for the grim and gothic RPG by Red Hook Studios. Crimson Court is a parallel campaign experienced alongside the main Darkest Dungeon content that will provide you with new challenges and variation at every difficulty level.
Darkest Dungeon: The Shieldbreaker (Red Hook Studios, €3.49) The Shieldbreaker is a powerful ally in the fight to reclaim the Estate and banish the evil that squats in the Darkest Dungeon. A highly-tactical and solid damage dealing hero, she truly excels when countering monsters with high protection and those who guard their allies.
Pic-a-Pix Deluxe – Classic 01 (Lightwood Games, €2.99) An additional pack of classic black-and-white puzzles in various sizes.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Expansion Pass (Nintendo) New contents for owners of the Season pass are now available! Details about individual elements of the Expansion Pass will be released in the future.
Picross e8 (JUPITER, €5.00) The 8th game in the Picross e series! It retains all the functions of Picross e7, with all-new puzzles. Enjoy Picross in a comfortable play environment refined from all the previous series.
Raining Coins (Crazysoft, €3.99/£3.59) The skies have opened up but it’s not raining cats and dogs! It’s raining gold coins! Help poor Eve catch the gold coins and buy the toys she loves. Super addictive family game fun for kids, teenagers and grownups. New 3DS only.
Link-a-Pix Color (Lightwood Games, €7.99) Link-a-Pix is a clue-linking puzzle where every grid has a picture hidden inside. The aim is to reveal the picture by painting paths to link the clues.
That’s everything for this week – let us know what you’ll be downloading in the comments below.
According to data collected by NPD Group, a firm that tracks video game sales in the United States, Nintendo Switch sold more units than any other console during the month of December. The five weeks in question saw Switch shift a tidy 1.5 million consoles in one of the busiest months in the gaming calendar. That figure has helped Switch accumulate a mind-bendingly massive 4.8 million, making it the fastest selling games console in US history.
Oh, and did we mention 3DS racked up its best sales figures since 2014? Holy tamale! According to Nintendo, the NPD Group figures show that, collectively, the different versions of Nintendo 3DS hardware sold more than 750,000 units in the US during the most festive of months – that’s a 27% increase over the same period a year ago. That means the ‘Nintendo 3DS family of systems’ has hit a a new milestone of more than 21 million sold in the US alone.
So Switch continues to show strong stats, especially among our wise North American friends, but it’s amazing to see 3DS having a late resurgence thanks to a handful of strong titles in 2017. Let us know your thoughts, in word-based form, below…
While some videogame genres remain quite open-ended in interpretation – puzzles or platformers, for instance – others have become decidedly codified. Perhaps no template exemplifies this phenomenon as much as the ‘roguelike’, a game type born from its 1980 PC namesake and with a modern presence on nearly every console under the sun. Yōdanji is a new instantiation of the concept from eShop RPG veterans KEMCO, and it’s a demonically difficult delight; fun, fast gameplay, a great theme, and tons of replay value and variety make this an excellent addition to the Switch’s treasure chest of old-school experiences.
Yōdanji kicks off with an appealingly left-field, Denpa Men-esque premise: yōkai – ghosts and monsters from Japanese folklore – are floating among us in the real world, and your Nintendo Switch is equipped with the power to scan and uncover them. After a cutely tongue-in-cheek introductory sequence, you’ll be introduced to three of the little creatures, and can then choose any one from among them to start your journey.
Yōdanji is an old-school, classical roguelike, which means you’re in for a dungeon-crawling experience with randomly-generated floors, turn-based movement and combat, a hunger system, and a heavy focus on positioning, items, and exploration. If you’ve played any recent Mystery Dungeon games – either in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon or Etrian Mystery Dungeon form – you’ll have a good idea of what to expect, although Yōdanji also retains another element common to older titles in the genre: a difficulty curve that points about 90-degree north.
Once you jump in, the gameplay is simple enough to grasp: you’ll move your monster one tile at a time with the left analog stick, and combat is handled automatically, Ys-style, with standard attacks doled as you bump into enemies. Every action – from walking or attacking to using an item or resting to recover HP – takes a single turn, and nothing else happens in the dungeon until you act, giving you plenty of time to plan out your strategies before putting them into action.
Each floor of the dungeon is procedurally generated from a set of basic elements – monsters, traps, stairs, and treasure chests – and your overall goal is to equip yourself well enough to make it all the way down. That preparation comes in the form of items like recovery potions, amulet upgrades which boost certain stats or abilities, and, of course, plenty of food. Incorporeal or no, yōkai still have to eat, and if your character goes too long without food, they’ll start to suffer and eventually die from starvation, meaning keeping hunger in check is one of the biggest keys to success here. Munch management is made much trickier by the fact that your inventory only has five spaces — shared across items, amulets, and snacks — so you’ll have to think and plan very carefully about what you want to take with you.
Along with useful items and a full stomach, you can also keep yourself in top shape by levelling up as you descend. Rather than levelling up from experience points, in Yōdanji you’ll raise ranks by finding and defeating a spirit known as the Hitodama, with one on every floor. This flighty blue wisp could be anywhere – including invisibly possessing another enemy! – and since levelling up is one of the best ways to ensure survival, tracking it down is of upmost importance, and a refreshingly unique take on character growth.
Once you’ve snared a Hitodama, you’ll also be able to allocate a single point to unlocking or powering up one of your monster’s four unique skills. These vary greatly between characters, and choosing to invest in certain skills can make for very different playstyles as well. The weasel-like Kamaitachi we started with, for instance, has access to a healing skill, a multi-hit attack, a paralysis spell, and a slap with a speed buff. Some runs, we chose to throw all our points into the heal for faster recovery, on others we went all in on speed, and once in a while we went for a more balanced build; experimenting is not only a great way to out what works, it’s also fun in and of itself, and helps make each dive into the dungeon feel distinct.
Typically, roguelikes challenge you with simple, subterranean survival; how far down into the ground can you make it before you expire? Yōdanji uses its theme to add a welcomely concrete goal to the mix: unlocking the rest of the 21 playable yōkai in the game. In the main Yōkai Hunt mode, your mission is to make it down 10 floors and collect three scrolls along the way, each of which contain part of a (creatively written!) tale centred on a certain yōkai. Placing all three in an altar on the bottom floor will trigger a boss battle, and if you defeat the massive monster, you’ll unlock the yōkai described in the scrolls as a new playable character.
This isn’t just a nice gameplay goal – it’s also a means to experience one of Yōdanji’s best features, because each of those 21 yōkai play vastly differently to the rest. They’re essentially each their own micro-‘class’, with different strengths, spells, and styles of play. Some (like our weasel friend) are focused on offence, others on defensive moves, and other still on running away from battles. Some have area-of-attack spells which cover long ranges, while others are entirely confined to melee combat. A very few have access to healing, while many more focus on inflicting debuffs of various kinds on your enemies to make things smoother. As an extreme example of the variety on offer, you’re even able to unlock the Hitodama, whose only attack is to ‘possess’ and then become any enemy they run across – a fantastically fun divergence from the norm.
Unlocking new yōkai is a real highlight, but it’s also very much easier said than done; as we alluded to above, Yōdanji is a seriously tough time, even on the easier ‘Yōkai Picnic’ mode which gives you more favourable conditions on earlier floors. And the fact that the easier mode basically only grants better RNG shows one potentially polarising aspect of Yōdanji: a great deal of your success is down to pure, rotten luck. The random systems in place don’t particularly care about being ‘fair’, so on some runs we found ourselves surrounded by monsters that could each one-shot us individually on the second floor. Getting hit with two particularly nasty status effects at once, not finding any food when you need it, or being ambushed at low health are all just a few of the fatal scenarios that killed us at least once, and which will swiftly introduce players to another feature of the rougelike genre: permadeath.
There aren’t any ‘save points’ as such in Yōdanji, and dying means heading back to the main menu, with progress completely reset and the dungeon re-randomized for your next attempt. Happily, however, your score and time for each run is saved, and is shown in comparison with other adventurers in online leaderboards. We found this helped quite a bit with the motivation to dive back in, and considering how many times we watched the death counter rise (well over 50 attempts in before we unlocked our first yōkai) that’s saying something.
And while luck plays a starring roll here, there’s still plenty of strategising to be done, and the quick-fire nature of the game (we average about five minutes per attempt) means that trying out novel approaches each run- with new characters, new spell sets or new techniques – is a distinctly satisfying option. Even as we stretched into triple-digit dungeon dives, each time through felt appreciably unique, and we always had a story to tell; whether that involved success and a new yōkai or dying in the first 30 seconds, each trip was worth it. It’s telling that following our first win, after having already spent several hours trying to make it to the last floor, the first thing we do is jump right back in again to try and beat our score. Yōdanji is punishing, but snappy enough that that never works against its appeal.
In terms of its gameplay, Yōdanji is simple but endlessly compelling; diving through the dungeons is a blast, and unlocking new yōkai makes for a wonderful feedback loop of replay incentives, where you’ll want to test out each new monster to find a winning strategy for unlocking the next. And when you’re done hunting yōkai (or just want something different), a Challenge Dungeon option provides the endless dive of traditional roguelikes, where you can attempt to get as many floors down into an infinite abyss as possible.
Its presentation, in contrast, is more of an acquired taste. Graphically, Yōdanji hearkens back to the days of its genre’s genesis, with a limited colour palette, heavily tiled textures, blocky, full-fill pixels, and the stark white-on-black fonts of the computer consoles from which these adventures originated. Some of its more archaic aspects are charmingly so — like the text-based log which keeps a running account of everything that happens — but others are eyesores, like the massive inventory overlay and the controls cheatsheet which takes over a good bit of the right side of the screen.
The controls legend can be turned off, but another problem is that you’ll likely need it; originally a mobile title, Yōdanji’s transition to Switch comes with an unfortunately awkward control mapping that never totally makes sense. Using the left stick for movement is easy enough to grasp, but things get more complicated from there; pressing ‘A’ will use an item you’re standing on, but to pick it up and add it to your inventory, you need to flick the right analog stick to the left, while flicking the same stick to the right will drop the top item in your inventory. Expanding and collapsing your inventory fall to the vertical axis of the right stick, though navigating through it is back to the D-Pad, and only when it’s active on the screen; a distinction which we found difficult to make quickly.
Each of your character’s four potential spells are also mapped to the D-Pad, which makes sense in and of itself, but we’d much rather have seen spells on the left stick and movement on the pad. Since there’s no hold-to-run option when enemies are on-screen (an understandable function of the turn-based system), you have to flick the analogue stick continuously to move across a room when running away from danger. It feels silly and cumbersome, and seems like a much better fit for the discrete buttons of the Switch’s D-Pad, while spells would work fine on either input.
These quirks are manageable, but it all adds up to an interface that feels more than a bit clunky. It’s a shame especially because elsewhere, Yōdanji feels lovingly polished: the genuinely well-written lore and backstories for each yōkai and colourful portraits on the character select screen, the cleverly balanced movesets of its many, many classes, and the sunny Japanese theme of mochi, tofu, and sake cups that lends a playful feel to the otherwise dreary depths. While its fast pace and clear goals make it perfect for Switch’s portable play, a bit more optimisation would have been needed for it to feel entirely at home on the console.
Although we’ve still got three months to go until Nintendo Labo is on store shelves, fans are already clamoring to have the toy in their hands. There will be two kits initially available for Labo, one for Project Giant Robot and one with a variety of minigames and Labo constructs.
If you head on over to Amazon, both of the kits have been made available for pre-order, so head on over if you want to ensure you get Labo on day one. The Variety Kit is going for $69.99, and the Robot Kit is going for $79.99; certainly not cheap, but this is arguably a milestone moment in Nintendo history. It’ll be interesting to see which becomes more popular, as the Robot Kit is currently listed as a “Best Seller”.
What do you think? Will you be pre-ordering either? Which kit is more appealing to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
