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Review: Enter The Gungeon (Switch eShop)

Nintendo Switch received one of the finest roguelike indie games in the business earlier this year with The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+. Now it has another in Enter The Gungeon. Much like Edmund McMillen’s reworked masterpiece, ETG takes the basic form of a top-down twin-stick shooter. Dodge Roll’s game, however, has an obsession with firearms and gunplay that would seem unhealthy had it not been executed with such spirit and humour.

Your lone gunslinger (chosen from a selection of four) enters a multi-layered dungeon populated by an assortment of anthropomorphic gun paraphernalia. You’ll be shooting bullets in both senses of the phrase, which is admittedly rather odd. Surprisingly, the whole gun world premise sticks, and that’s largely thanks to Dodge Roll’s painstaking world and myth-building work. Every gun you fire, boss you fight and item you collect has a story to accompany it, with each fresh discovery filling out your dusty Ammonomicon.

It also helps that Enter the Gungeon doesn’t take itself at all seriously. There’s a rich seam of humour running through everything, from the puntastic boss and item names to countless cheeky pop culture references. It looks great too, with an expressive pixel art style and fluid animation. Who knew that a homicidal bullet with a human face could be so thoroughly charming?

All of that would be for nought if the core gameplay wasn’t up to scratch. Thankfully, this is where ETG is at its strongest. The feel of the game’s second-to-second action is among the best you’ll find on Switch. There’s a weightiness to the combat and a nimbleness to the movement system that makes it a pleasure to return to the game again and again. ETG manages to strike the ideal balance between empowering you and making you feel perilously vulnerable. The screen is usually filled with bullets of all shapes, sizes, and movement patterns, but these glowing projectiles always feel avoidable.

Enemy bullets typically move very slowly, so you can sidestep them like Neo in bullet time if you have your wits about you. The randomised levels typically throw up plenty of cover opportunities too, and you can even turn over tables to form your own on the fly. Get ready to live out your favourite Western fantasies. But the key to ETG’s dance-like combat is there in the name of the developer itself. Hit the ‘L’ button and your gunslinger will execute a dodge roll, offering a brief window of invulnerability. It means that you can be confronted with a literal wave of death and still emerge unscathed.

Of course, a twin-stick shooter is nothing without its firearms, and here too ETG excels. There’s a dauntingly vast roster of pistols, rifles, shotguns and who-knows-whats for you to unlock and discover here. Real-life gun equivalents sit alongside conceptual jokes, like a letter ‘r’ that spits out the letters to the word ‘bullet’, or a T-shirt gun that leaves crumpled up clothes strewn across the levels. We’ve pumped countless hours into ETG now both here and on other platforms, and it continues to throw up new surprises.

The odds are far from stacked in your favour, however. The sheer weight of enemy numbers, some tough boss battles and the cruel hands that the game’s random spawns can deal out all ensure that you’ll be dying plenty. Once you’re dead, moreover, it’s back to the start for you.

We usually say this when a beloved indie game comes to Switch, but ETG really does feel at home on Nintendo’s console. Being able to play such a brilliantly rewarding twin stick shooter on the go is a real treat, while hooking the game up to your TV and using the Pro Controller brings its own precision-related rewards. Local co-op also makes the cut, though you’ll need a second pad or set of Joy-Cons to play it.

Better yet, ETG on Switch will be receiving the Advanced Gungeons And Draguns Update in early 2018, providing even more guns, items and levels. This really is a game that keeps on giving, and action-loving Switch fans owe it to themselves to give it try.

Conclusion

Enter The Gungeon is a brilliantly tactile, endlessly replayable twin-stick roguelike that sits right up there with the very best indie games on Nintendo Switch. With satisfying combat, random levels, and an endless supply of inventive weapons, items and secrets, it’s always a total joy to play. Yet another modern indie classic has found a natural home on Nintendo’s console.

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First 4 Figures Reveals Stunning Shovel Knight Collectibles

High-quality collectible maker First 4 Figures has revealed its first statue from the Shovel Knight universe and, as always, it’s rather breathtaking to behold.

Available in Regular, Exclusive, and Ornate Plate Armor editions – as well as a Combo edition which gives you those second two variants in one package – this new figure is likely to have fans of the series frantically scrambling for their credit cards and thinking up ways to justify the $299 cost to their significant others. You can see the figure in the flesh in this video below, and we’ve thrown in some photos for you to feast your eyes on, too.

In what is a rather marvellous touch, all versions other than the Regular edition will come with an interchangeable Fish Head, resembling the character ‘????’ from the games. We can’t imagine anything better than displaying a shining, golden, shovel-grasping knight with a fish for a head on the dining table, and now that dream has finally become a reality!

Certain editions of the figure will be released through a limited pre-order window so, if you’re looking to grab one for yourself, you might want to head over to the First 4 Figures website pretty soon. As ever, we’d love to know your thoughts on the figure in the comments below.

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Pikachu Gets A Villainous Makeover With These New Secret Team Pokémon Plushies

We all know eternal Pokémon mascot Pikachu will forever remain a force for good – including when he hits the big screen with Ryan Reynolds’ voice, no less – but that doesn’t mean The Pokémon Company can’t throw an adorable curve ball in the form of these new bad guy-themed plushies.

They’re part of a new ‘Rainbow Rocket’ line designed to tie in with the post-game content of the same name that extends the life of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, one that… well, play it and find out.

And the best part? We’re getting six special takes on the iconic monster in soft, cuddly form. Each one is based on a famous team leader, so if you’ve ever wanted an evil version of Pikachu that looked like Giovanni, then you’re in serious luck. The bad news? They’re only available in Japan. Boo, we want evil soft toys, too!

Are you feeling these new heel-turn takes on a Pokémon icon, or do you prefer your pocket monsters to remain true to canon? Go on, comment, you know you want to…

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Image & Form Will Be Bringing More Games To Switch Next Year

With SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition blasting its way onto the Switch’s eShop on 28th December, and with the incredible success of the wonderful SteamWorld Dig 2 that came to the console earlier this year, it’s pretty safe to say that Image & Form had a pretty decent 2017. The future is looking just as welcoming, however, as the developer has now announced plans to bring more games to the Switch in 2018.

In a new video on their YouTube channel, CEO and Community Manager, Brjánn and Julius talk about what you can expect from SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition when it launches very, very soon, and also talk about how the Switch has generated far more sales of SteamWorld Dig 2 than other console rivals, and even Steam, managed.

The charming video gets even more exciting, though, as the pair begin to discuss the possibility of bringing more Image & Form titles to the console in the future. The tower-defence, mobile game Anthill is one of the games shown in the video, possibly hinting at more news to come, and talk of “a few surprises” definitely piques our interest, too.

What would you like to see from Image & Form in 2018? Would you like to see older games be reborn on Switch such as the original SteamWorld Dig, or perhaps you’d like to see some entirely new franchises? Let us know your ideas in the comments below.

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Video: This SNES Classic Mini Teardown Explores the Similarities to the NES Model

It’s been known for a good while that the innards of the SNES Classic Mini are pretty much the same as the NES Classic Mini. It makes perfect logistical sense for Nintendo and no doubt means solid profits on each unit, but it also raises questions around supply issues and what Nintendo may need to do for future ‘Classic’ consoles, should it opt to make more.

The teardown below, by The Ben Heck Show, is a pretty interesting take on the construction of the little SNES. He doesn’t pull his punches, either, questioning the logic behind some shortages, cable lengths and so on.

What do you think of this teardown and some of the questions it poses? Would you like to see Nintendo produce a Nintendo 64 Classic, and do you feel criticism around some of the choices with the NES and SNES model is fair? Sound off in the comments.

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Video: These D-Pad Joy-Con Shells are Great, But Come with a Cautionary Tale

When we covered these D-Pad-boasting replacement Joy-Con shells last month, we were pretty impressed with how they looked, and we knew we wanted to get our mitts on them in real life. As explained in the video above, the shells are of high quality and are certainly a good bit of kit, but the journey to get to an actual useable product was far from straightforward.

If you’re keen to hear the story of tribulation surrounding these shells that’s been one month in the making, make sure you check out the surprisingly lengthy video above. Trust us, it’s worth it.

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Take A Look Behind The Scenes Of Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Character Design

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been sitting firmly in the cartridge slots of countless Switch consoles since its release at the start of the month. If after hours and hours of exploration you’re just as enamoured with the game’s art as we are, you may be interested to take a look at some behind the scenes discussion about the process.

In a recent series appearing on Nintendo UK’s official website, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 main character designer Masatsugu Saito has delved into some juicy details about the thought process behind the design and creation of characters such as Rex and Pyra. One key detail talks about how the characters were designed with a very obvious, and very different, colour palette to ensure that players could quickly identify them from far away. 

Interestingly, Saito-san goes on to explain that he made a request to the development team to ensure that each character’s personality shined through as they walk – a subtle feature that can go a long way to making them feel more ‘real’. 

If you’re interested in reading up on his thoughts and looking through some lovely concept art for your favourite characters, make sure to read through part one and part two of the blog series.

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Unofficial Nintendo GameCube Anthology Book Hits Kickstarter

Remember the superb N64 Anthology we covered a while back? Well the team behind that excellent tome are now producing a sequel in the shape of the GameCube Anthology.

A crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter has gone live, and currently sits at just shy of 29,000 Euros – the target goal is 40,000 Euros.

The final book will be 360 pages in length and will contain 388 game reviews as well as a complete history of the console and collector’s guides for both hardware and software.

Head over to the Kickstarter page now and you can see some sample images, as well as check out the various funding tiers available.

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Video: Check Out The Analogue Super Nt’s UI And Boot Animation, Created By Phil “FEZ” Fish

Analogue has lifted the lid on the UI of its forthcoming Analogue Super Nt system, as well as giving some details on the console’s unique boot sequence.

The man responsible for the clean look of the UI is none other than Phil Fish, creator of the cult indie platformer FEZHe has crafted all of the art, layout and animations for the UI, which you can see in action below.

Fish as also created the cool-as-hell start-up sequence which randomly cycles through 30 different retro-style logos to a piece of bespoke music by UK electronic act Squarepusher (AKA: Tom Jenkinson).

What makes all of this really impressive is that it’s all running on what is, on a hardware level, a humble SNES. That means that Analogue has had to work within the same limitations that developers did back in the ’90s.

We spoke to Analogue’s Christopher Taber about the system, and he had this to say:

This is the new standard for all our new products, $500 Nt-mini features at under $200! We’re beyond stoked to be able to get that level of hardcore features into this price point. I can see all our new customers are too!

The entire UI has been redesigned by Phil Fish and its pretty amazing. It was really cool of him to do this with us since it has so many crazy limitations to design on a Super Nintendo. The key thing to understand is that Super Nt is literally a Super Nintendo – it is not a computer or emulator. Meaning everything you see running in the UI is all designed and implemented the same way it would have been for a developer working on a Super Nintendo game nearly 30 years ago. So its quite esoteric to design for it. Phil did a brilliant job. He actually designed 2 different UI modes – one for SNES and one for SFC, you can switch between them depending on how you like it! 

Super Nt basically has all the in-system features that the Nt Mini has and of course some new ones specific to SNES/SFC. For example, one of the unique features is what we call ‘pseudo hi-res blending’ – this is a mode that blends certain sections of what’s on screen that would’ve relied on CRT technology to do this. So when you view it on an HDTV – minus the CRT – it actually shows up as lines, instead of water or something. So we implemented a special feature that blends all those parts so its exactly like it would be on a CRT. You can of course enable / disable this. 

A couple of other cool things: a Gamma boost mode, to match the gamma on a CRT when you turn on scanlines since the image will be darker. Then of course we implemented a 64 sprite mode, which doubles the sprites the original SNES/SFC could handle, meaning games that have flicker – this will be eliminated. We effectively gave the system 2x more tiles then it originally had. Again, this can enabled or disabled. There are also tons of aesthetic customisation options for the menus, just like Nt Mini. 

And this is just what’s on the launch firmware – we’ll be taking suggestions from customers for new features and continuing to develop for Super Nt to make it even more than it is!

In case you were still none the wiser, the Analogue Super Nt is a SNES clone which uses FPGA technology to emulate Nintendo’s legendary system on a hardware level. It will come pre-loaded with Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2, and will support cartridges from all over the world. You can pre-order one now.

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Guide: Super Mario Odyssey: Dark Side & Darker Side Power Moon Locations And Walkthrough

Welcome to our ultimate guide for collecting every Power Moon from Dark Side in Super Mario Odyssey! Below, you’ll find maps detailing the exact location for all 24 of the Power Moons located in this Kingdom, as well as descriptions on how to get each and every one of them. We’ve also added a small mention for the single Power Moon available from Darker Side.

The numbers on the maps correspond to the relevant Power Moon listed below and, whilst most of them appear in that spot from the beginning (or after you’ve completed the story at least), it is worth nothing that sometimes you are required to perform a specific action to make it appear. Use a combination of our maps and walkthrough information to grab each of the Power Moons with ease. Enjoy!

Dark Side Power Moons (1-24)

1. Arrival at Rabbit Ridge!: You’ll receive this Power Moon when you make it to the top of the giant carrot of doom™. The first four floors feature fights with the Broodals that you will have already encountered – the tricky part is keeping enough lives to see the whole thing through. On the fifth floor you’ll need to use the Hammer Bro to take down the mecha-robot and smash open each Broodal’s dome.

2. Captain Toad on the Dark Side!: As you’re making your way up the tower for Power Moon 1, walk past the green pipe that would normally take you up to the roof – after you have fought Rango on the fourth floor. You’ll find a hidden area with Captain Toad – talk to him to receive a Power Moon.

3. Breakdown Road: Hurry!: Just behind the Odyssey you’ll find a scarecrow standing next to a blue door. Throw Cappy at the scarecrow to enter and get ready for the Dark Side’s evil terror to begin. You may have seen this room before, except last time you still had Cappy to help you out. For this Power Moon, you’ll need to head to the back of the room to collect the key, and then make it back to the entrance without falling to your doom. If you’re after Power Moon 4 (which is in the same location), it would make sense to grab that one at the same time. (See below).

4. Breakdown Road: Final Challenge! (see location 3): In the same location as Power Moon 3, make your way to the end of the room with the key. You’ll have to let a Bonzai Bill come towards you to smash the floor you are currently standing on, using a backflip to jump over its head as it closes in. You’ll drop down to a lower level with another Bonzai Bill – you’ll need this Bonzai Bill to chase you all the way to the entrance of the room at this level. To make this happen, you’ll need to perform a series of very fast long jumps across tiny platforms that are lying in a straight line to a wall of bricks. The Bonzai Bill will smash open the bricks to reveal the Power Moon.

5. Invisible Road: Rush!: You’ll find a scarecrow standing in front of a blue door in an area off the side of the cliff in the main part of the Kingdom. Drop down to it and throw Cappy at the scarecrow to enter. You’ll find yourself in an area with invisible paths and Piranha Plants. To get this Power Moon you’ll need to make it to the end of the room (avoiding the poison as you try to land on invisible parts of the path) and defeat the three large Piranha Plants by jumping on their heads as they lower their bodies. If you touch them at the wrong time it will damage you instead so make sure to be careful.

6. Invisible Road: Secret! (see location 5): In the same area as Power Moon 5, make your way to the room until you reach the spinning section in the middle that appears to be shaped like a cross. Jump onto this platform and let it spin around until you are on the opposite side to where you initially jumped on. If you look in the direction that your current cross point is facing, you’ll notice a small hole in the wall – you’ll be able to walk directly into this hole using an invisible path. Head inside and ground pound the treasure chest to find a hidden Power Moon.

7. Vanishing Road Rush: At location 7 on our map you’ll find a scarecrow standing next to a blue door in a small alcove in the edge of the platform there – throw Cappy at the scarecrow to enter. You’ll find several sections that only appear when you’ve pressed the corresponding P-Switch and you’ll need to make it all the way across before their timers run out. The first section is easy if you keep pressing ‘Y’ to roll your way through; the second section is perhaps the hardest – you’ll need to use a combination of a triple jump at the start, dive jumps to get up the steps, and then long jumps in the longer stretches at the end; and the third section is easiest if you jump, and triple jump, up the crumbling steps on the right. If you make it to the end you’ll find a Power Moon waiting for you.

8. Vanishing Road Challenge (see location 7): In the same area as Power Moon 7, you’ll find this Power Moon sitting on the crumbling platforms in the third section. Hit the third P-Switch and make sure to stick to the right – you’ll need to jump up the steps perfectly with the occasional triple jump and long jump to make it to the end.

9. Yoshi Under Siege: You’ll find a grey warp pipe on a ledge just above the blue door that takes you to Power Moons 5 and 6. Enter the warp pipe to find a Yoshi egg waiting for you. For this Power Moon you’ll need to search the area as Yoshi and eat ten pieces of fruit. Don’t worry if the Sherm tanks make you lose all of your health – the fruit will still count as being found. Take your time and search the area thoroughly.

10. Fruit Feast Under Siege (see location 9): In the same area as Power Moon 9, you’ll need to use Yoshi to eat another ten pieces of fruit – meaning that you will have eaten all twenty in total. As before, you’ll keep the fruits you’ve already found even if you die, so take your time and make sure to search every area, climbing up to all of the platforms above you.

11. Yoshi on the Sinking Island: You’ll find a grey warp pipe just off the edge of a cliff near Uncle amiibo – enter it to find Yoshi in an area made up of small cliffs. You’ll need to eat ten of the twenty available pieces of fruit to get this Power Moon. As you climb the cliffs, use your flutter jump, and then extend Yoshi’s tongue at the area you’re aiming for so that he performs a front flip to land on it – his jump can’t make it otherwise and you’ll be swallowed up by the lava.

12. Fruit Feast on the Sinking Island (see location 11): In the same area as Power Moon 11, you’ll need to have Yoshi eat another ten pieces of fruit, meaning you’ll have eaten twenty in total. The same advice from before applies here.

13. Yoshi’s Magma Swamp: Enter the grey warp pipe at location 13 on our map to find Yoshi in an area with sinking platforms. For this Power Moon, you’ll need to have Yoshi eat ten of the fruit pieces that you can see dotted around the room. It is safest to cross between islands when they are raised and you’ll always want to return to the centre of each island when you can.

14. Fruit Feast in the Magma Swamp! (see location 13): In the same area as Power Moon 13, Yoshi will need to eat another ten pieces of fruit – meaning you’ll have eaten all twenty in total.

– The following Power Moons are all found using ‘hint art’. Our recommendation here is to find all ten pieces of art in Dark Side (the locations on map above show you where to find them) and use the Switch’s capture button to save them for reference before heading out to find them in the other Kingdoms. The descriptions below will help you to find the right areas in the corresponding Kingdoms after you have collected the hint art.

15. Found with Dark Side Art 1: This hint art depicts the Cascade Kingdom. Fly there and warp to the Fossil Falls Heights checkpoint, making sure to then walk over the bridge in the northwest. You’ll need to walk to the northeastern point of this area and perform a ground pound when you are standing at the spot indicated in the hint art – looking out to the waterfalls below.

16. Found with Dark Side Art 2: Fly to the Metro Kingdom and warp to the Heliport checkpoint flag. There is some yellow paint on the floor that looks just like the art in the picture – ground pound the spot that is indicated to receive the Power Moon.

17. Found with Dark Side Art 3: Fly to the Mushroom Kingdom and head over to Toad’s garden in the east. Use the hint art to locate the correct area – you’ll need to be standing in between the two bushes when performing the ground pound for the Power Moon. You can use the purple coin indicators as reference points.

18. Found with Dark Side Art 4: This picture is a representation of the Cloud Kingdom’s centre island map. Fly there and head to the mainland – you’ll notice that the raised platforms in this area all look like variations of the moon. Find the picture that matches the moon shape from the hint art (it’s the one in the northwest) and perform a ground pound in the centre for a Power Moon – you have to be quite precise with this one.

19. Found with Dark Side Art 5: Fly to the Snow Kingdom and jump down the well to find Shiveria Town. You’ll need to go down to the race area, stopping by the archway that serves as the entrance to the bottom floor. You’ll notice that the image from the hint art is in the middle of this archway – head to the side of it, perform a back flip and a Cappy dive to get onto it, and run up to the point above the picture. Perform a ground pound here for the Power Moon.

20. Found with Dark Side Art 6: Head to the Seaside Kingdom and locate the Talkatoo. From there, you’ll need to travel directly north until you reach the green binoculars (it has to be the correct set of binoculars). Then head directly east until you reach a bunch of parasols up on an island, and then south again to find two pillars that are close to the section with the rolling spiky shells. Ground pound on the spot indicated in the hint art to reveal the Power Moon.

21. Found with Dark Side Art 7: Fly to the Lost Kingdom and make walk north from the Odyssey. You’ll need to make sure that you are in the block labelled ‘C4’ on your map. The exact spot you need for the Power Moon is near the edge of the cliff on the eastern side – you should recognise the shadow from the hint art that is being created by a nearby tree.

22. Found with Dark Side Art 8: The two images in the hint art act as a game of ‘spot-the-difference’. The difference is the blue fork in the top-right of the image, standing next to one of the tall pillars. You’ll need to fly to the Luncheon Kingdom, head to Peronza Plaza, and ground pound this exact point for the Power Moon. 

23. Found with Dark Side Art 9: The pillars in this hint art can be found inside the Water Plaza in the Lake Kingdom. Head there, making your way to the bottom floor, and walk over to the right-hand side to spot the broken pillars from the image. Ground pound in the spot indicated to reveal the Power Moon.

24. Found with Dark Side Art 10: This hint art shows the Ruined Kingdom. Fly there, and ground pound the spot indicated in the image for the Power Moon (it’s very close to the Odyssey).

Darker Side Power Moon

You’ll unlock Darker Side when you have collected 500 Power Moons. There is only one Multi Moon available here but it’s locked behind a pretty hefty challenge!

1. Long Journey’s End: The journey to this Power Moon is a very tough one indeed. As you make your way through Darker Side, you’ll have to travel through what feels like an underground, pure evil in video game-form to eventually re-surface and claim your Moon at the top of the tower at the other end of the Kingdom.

The main reason that the challenge is so difficult is the lack of checkpoints – you’ll need to make it all the way to the end without losing all of your health. The best advice here is to start the challenge knowing that you’ll fail numerous times – use each of these times to learn from your mistakes and you’ll start to get better at each section every time that you complete it.

It’s also worth noting that you can grab yourself two Life-Up Hearts during your travels, increasing your maximum health to 6. The first one will be given to you if you defeat the optional Yoofoe right at the beginning (the thing that spits out Goombas). The easiest way to beat it is to climb the steps behind it until you reach the top, and then perform a long jump when it is at its closest point. This way, you don’t need to bother creating Goomba towers and you’ll find yourself with 6 health rather quickly.

The second is much later through the adventure – when you are running across the flower paths, make sure to visit the Sphynx and answer its question for a second Life-Up Heart. Once you’ve answered the Sphynx once, you’ll never have to do so again – the heart will just be waiting for you each time. The answer to the question is ‘Mushroom Kingdom’.

So, grab the hearts, memorise the sections, and – importantly – good luck!


We hope that you have found this guide on collecting all Power Moons in Super Mario Odyssey’s Dark Side useful. Let us know if you’ve managed to grab them all with a comment below.