Category: Nintendo News

There has never been a better time to pick up a Nintendo Switch, but obtaining a console is merely one part of the puzzle. There are accessories and other items which are essential parts of Switch ownership, so we’ve pulled them all together for you in this handy buying guide. Is there anything you still need to pick up to optimise your Switch enjoyment? You’re sure to find it below…

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Nintendo Switch Console

At this time of year many of the unique console bundles are sold out, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find your very own Switch. Available in a variety of consoles and configurations, plenty of deals also include a game to accompany your new favourite handheld delight.

Nintendo Switch Games

Here are some of our favourite family friendly games for the Switch. Whether you’re looking for a little light-hearted downtime over the holidays or a new game to give your console a good workout in 2018, you’re bound to find a gem that’ll shine both tabletop and handheld modes. Which ones will you catch your eye?

You can find more great Nintendo Switch games to pick up here.

Nintendo Switch Micro SD Cards

The Nintendo Switch only comes with 32GB of on-board memory which will get used up quickly with game updates. With that in mind, we’d recommend picking up a Micro SD card right away to boost your storage options. If you aren’t a heavy downloader then the 128GB micro SD card will do nicely, but if you have deep pockets you can get one as large as 400GB.

These are four great options, but check out our Nintendo Switch Micro SD buyers guide for lots more.

Nintendo Switch Accessories

What’s a console without accessories, people? There are always additional controllers and gadgets to purchase along with your lovely new machine, so have a look below and see if anything takes your fancy. Whether it’s a brand new pair of Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller, we’ve got you covered.

Nintendo Switch Carrying Cases

One of the best things about the Switch is its portability, but when taking it with you on your travels we’d recommend picking up a protective case to keep that little box of wonders in good nick. You wouldn’t want to damage that beautiful screen would you? Check our collection below and ensure your Switch is suitably armoured up on the move.

For more inspiration, check out our Nintendo Switch carrying cases buyers guide.

Nintendo Switch Power Banks

The Switch’s internal battery offers between three to six hours of use, so if you’re planning on taking it out of the house for an entire day you may want to invest in one of these to keep you running. Having one of these powered-up bad boys in your bag will ensure your extended Breath Of The Wild sessions can go on for hours when you’re travelling away from home.

Feel free to check out our review of the AUKEY 30000 mAh, which we’d highly recommend.

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Did you find this guide useful? Do you have everything you need for your Switch now? Sound off in the comments below to tell us.

Rocket League seems to have been a major hit on the Switch eShop, having nestled near the top of the store’s charts for a number of weeks. Psyonix is keeping busy too, lining up a performance-boosting update that’s due on the Nintendo Switch imminently.

Some have been waiting for the retail version, however, announced a while ago with Warner Bros. assisting on publishing duties. Now details have been confirmed for the Switch version – Rocket League Collector’s Edition arrives in North America on 16th January, Oceania on 24th January, ‘Central Europe’ on 25th January and UK, Nordics and wider Europe on 26th January. It’ll cost $39.99USD / €39.99 / £34.99.

That’s about double the download price, depending on region, but the retail iteration will include the following.

• Rocket League Full Game
• Supersonic Fury DLC Pack
• Revenge of the Battle-Cars DLC Pack
• Chaos Run DLC Pack
• Aftershock DLC Car
• Marauder DLC Car
• Esper DLC Car
• Masamune DLC Car
• Customization Items inspired by DC Comics’ The Flash
• Limited Art Print by Psyonix Concept Artist, Jay Zhang

In UK money the included DLC (the packs and cars) are sold for a combined £15 on the eShop, plus there are the items inspired by The Flash and the Art Print to consider. That does justify the price tag if you’re happy to have that DLC and pay more, plus of course you’ll have a nice box and cartridge.

It is worth noting that the recommended price is higher than the PS4 / Xbox One equivalents – the following reasoning is given on the official blog.

As many of you have likely noticed, the MSRP for Rocket League Collector’s Edition is $10 more on Nintendo Switch than the same version on other platforms. As much as we tried to keep the retail price down, the reality of the Switch’s increased cartridge manufacturing costs meant that the MSRP had to be higher as well. That said, we are still VERY confident that players who join us from the retail side will get plenty of enjoyment from what Rocket League has to offer and we look forward to welcoming them to the community next month!

Or you can get the base game for less on the eShop – it’s a tough choice, but for big fans of the game this retail version is guaranteed to be tempting.

Are you a big Rocket League fan, and are you going to pick up the Collector’s Edition?

Nintendo Life shmup heads rejoice, for next week Hamster is bringing the forerunner to Blazing Star to the eShop!

It has been long rumoured (but never confirmed) that developer Aicom was a set up by ex-Jaleco and Irem staffers, so if you happen to feel that Pulstar feels a little bit too close to R-Type, it might not be a mere coincidence. 

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.

A rather welcome surprise as this year races to the end and once again Hamster clearly shows that does not care for a coherent timeline, with prequels showing up months after sequels, just to keep us guessing. 

Will you take on the role of ’90s anime girl pilot Kaoru Yamazaki at the controls of the Dino246 ship next week? Take off in the comments section below!

Build-A-Bear Workshop’s quest to licence every popular media property under the sun is set to continue with the announcement of a Super Mario range of stuff-em-yourself toys.

The store – which already sells a handsome line of Pokémon plushes – is releasing a series of themed teddies, as well as a range of accessories. The standard bear can be outfitted as either Mario, Luigi or Princess Peach, provided you buy the right clothes. Bowser and Yoshi are also part of the range.

If you visit your local store you get the chance to fill their flaccid skins with soft, white fluff. Kinky. More boring types can simply order the pre-stuffed teddies online. Toad only comes pre-stuffed, so we sadly won’t get the pleasure of inserting a cold metal pipe up his backside and watching him slowly – and painfully – inflate. Boo.

Which one is best? The following image should give you the answer.

Jennifer Kretchmar, chief product officer at Build-A-Bear Workshop, had this to say, presumably in-between rubbing her hands with glee at the thought of all that sweet, sweet cash the company will make off the back of these infernal things:

Super Mario is a classic game franchise many of our guests know and love, and we’ve had a lot of fun bringing these characters into furry-friend form. Like Build-A-Bear, Nintendo’s characters appeal to everyone, so we couldn’t wait to team up for the first time and offer another way for guests to enjoy the timeless brand with a new collection.

Will you be adding these to your cavern of soft toys, the door to which is locked whenever you have visitors over? Yep, we will be too.

The range will be available in-store this weekend.

Hot off the heels of Switch’s impressive global sales of 10 million units in its first nine months, the hybrid wonder continues to break records and sell like hot cakes the world over. Over in South Korea, it’s been revealed Switch has sold over 55,000 units in just three days.

The figure, which was revealed by Nintendo Of Korea and subsequently shared by a user on the Resetera forums, confirms the plucky console has even broken plenty of South Korean sales records. 

Switch has not only beaten the launch week sales for DS, 3DS and Wii, it’s smashed the monthly launch figures for each one as well. South Korean gamers have had to wait nine months to catch up with the rest of us, but it looks like our friends overseas are showing Switch just as much love right from the off.

Switch is going from strength to strength in 2017, but how do you think it’ll perform in 2018? Go on, treat us to a comment below.

It’s the middle of the week, which means we get an updated look at what’s hot and what’s not in Japan; though the software charts have new challengers to Nintendo games, hardware is still very much the dominion of a certain hybrid system.

Kicking off with software, two new releases on PS4 push Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon down to third place, though the standard editions have now passed one million physical retail sales (the combined pack has added plenty more). There are three evergreen Switch releases up next, with Super Mario Odyssey creeping towards the one million landmark in Japan; results are below with lifetime sales in brackets.

1. [PS4] Yakuza: Kiwami 2 (Limited Edition Included) (Sega, 12/07/17) – 131,931 (New)
2. [PS4] Earth Defense Force 5 (D3 Publisher, 12/07/17) – 111,075 (New)
3. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (Nintendo, 11/17/17) – 106,094 (1,050,168)
4. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 95,816 (949,470)
5. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 50,594 (1,460,370)
6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04,28,17) – 33,315 (894,553)
7. [PS4] Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 12/07/17) – 21,971 (New)
8. [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 12/01/17) – 19,678 (117,409)
9. [3DS] Kirby: Battle Royale (Nintendo, 11/30/17) – 19,325 (47,348)
10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 14,342 (682,992)
11. [PS4] Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package (Capcom, 12/07/17) – 13,029 (New)
12. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf Amiibo+ (Nintendo, 11/23/16) – 11,878 (306,517)
13. [PS4] Call of Duty: WWII (SIE, 11/03/17) – 11,589 (318,089)
14. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Double Pack (Nintendo, 11/17/17) – 11,198 (290,149)
15. [3DS] Style Savvy: Styling Star (Nintendo, 11/03/17) – 9,649 (70,704)
16. [NSW] Sumikko Gurashi: Sumikko Park he Youkoso (Nippon Columbia, 12/07/17) – 9,435 (New)
17. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Nintendo, 09/22/17) – 8,362 (139,637)
18. [PS4] Nioh Complete Edition (Koei Tecmo, 12/07/17) – 8,021 (New)
19. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 7,604 (295,470)
20. [PS4] Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition (SIE, 12/07/17) – 7,309 (New)

Moving on to hardware the Switch has gained more sales once again, likely the result of increasing availability. It’s particularly impressive momentum, and in second place there’s a revived PS4 Pro courtesy of a Monster Hunter: World edition that was released last week (though the game isn’t included). Switch still out-performed both PS4 models despite their increases, and momentum is positive for most systems with New 2DS LL and New 3DS LL (XL) also improving sales. Results are below with last week’s sales in brackets.

1. Switch – 164,908 (124,770)
2. PlayStation 4 Pro – 45,163 (8,244)
3. PlayStation 4 – 40,524 (25,163)
4. New 2DS LL – 27,074 (20,712)
5. New 3DS LL – 15,059 (12,431)
6. PlayStation Vita – 8,483 (6,127)
7. 2DS – 3,192 (2,747)
8. Xbox One – 406 (295)
9. New 3DS – 248 (348)
10. Xbox One X – 75 (213)
11. Wii U – 70 (45)
12. PlayStation 3 – 48 (48)

Despite the absence of big-hitting new retail games it was still a good week for Nintendo, especially in terms of Switch hardware sales.

We’ve seen various developers and publishers make use of the option to pre-purchase eShop games on the Switch, and Atooi got creative in turning Mutant Mudds Collection pre-orders into ‘early bird discounts’. In case you missed this little nugget of news last week, we thought a little reminder would be useful.

If you buy the game before 14th December you can pay $9.99USD / £7.29 / €8.69, a saving of a third on the standard price of $14.99USD / £10.99 / €12.99. It’s not clear – according to Atooi itself – when on 14th December the price will Switch, so the best bet if you want the deal is to purchase when your calendar still says it’s the 13th.

We’ve seen other developers also offer launch discounts on Switch eShop games; with intense competition on the store we’re seeing promotions more frequently. Are you tempted to pre-load Mutant Mudds Collection and get the discount? We certainly recommend it in our review.

With the positive momentum around the Switch and the evident eagerness of its growing userbase to play a lot of games on the device, plenty of developers are jumping on board. Another with a project in the works is inXile Entertainment, which is working on Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut for the system.

The studio’s Brian Fargo posted the tease on Twitter.

For those of you wondering where the first game is, that’s a title from 1988; though the original classic is included with Steam purchases of Wasteland 2 we wouldn’t expect it in this console release.

The post-apocalyptic setting is used to introduce a broad range of scenarios within a role-playing experience, with turn-based strategy at the heart of gameplay. The Directors Cut arrived on PS4 and Xbox One back in October 2015, so hopefully the port will come across in good shape.

Are you excited about this one coming to the Switch?

Thanks to everyone that sent this in.