Category: Nintendo News

Super Mario Odyssey for Switch is not far away now; it’s hard to imagine but on 27th October the game will be out in the wild. While collecting the physical version of the game will be nice (who doesn’t want this box on their gaming shelf?) – changing the cart in your Switch won’t be as much fun. Given that Super Mario Odyssey is a game that you will likely be going back to for months, if not years to come, perhaps a digital download is in order.

Annoyingly the digital version often costs more than the cart version, with ARMS and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe both costing £49.99 for the eShop version, when you can often buy the boxed edition for less.

If you fancy going digital this time, however, you are in luck; Super Mario Odyssey costs exactly the same on Amazon UK to buy on a cart or download, something the retailer hasn’t done often before now.

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Remember, Prime customers will get an extra £2 off their order, so you could get the digital version for only £39.99. We can’t say fairer than that!

If you think way back to the original January review trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there was a brief moment where we saw a character riding a Blade we now know as Dromarch, and the creature has since been seen running alongside the party in various sequences from more recent trailers.

Keeping up the steady flow of interesting tweets for the game, the official Japanese account has now posted a couple of fresh screens reiterating that the Blade is happy to let you hop on for a ride in order to get around quickly. Just like in the original trailer, the screens show ‘Nia’ riding the Blade.

The wait is tough…

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

As a ’90s kid I was only really aware of two main groups of gamers – kids and teenagers. It was a pre-internet age, so the points of reference were limited, but I doubt I was that far off. ‘Gaming’ had been a thing in the ’70s and ’80s, of course, but a rapid expansion of the industry – after Atari somewhat went off a cliff – was arguably driven by Nintendo and SEGA in the 8- and 16-bit eras, and a generation of people then grew up with the hobby. I think that’s why attending any game expo often highlights a lot of 30- and 40-somethings wandering around the hall. For some of us, games have always been a passion from the day we were old enough to hold a pad.

My personal gaming history has its own quirks that took in the ZX Spectrum and eventually a time when LucasArts was the name in PC game publishing. Yet through all those times most people I knew that played games were a similar age, give or take a half decade either way. I remember times my parents would join in for family games of PGA Tour Golf ’94 (!) or Micro Machines, but they always seemed like ‘guest’ gamers to my elitist young mind. That said, I once walked in on my mum ‘beating’ Columns II and getting to level 99, so that was an early sign of her gaming prowess.

As I’ve gotten older, and as I’ve gradually invested a lot of my gaming and now professional life in the fortunes of Nintendo, I’ve seen first-hand how the company has broadened its fanbase and, as a result, given itself a solid chance of success with each passing year. With the DSi, for example, my mum got one at the same time as me and fell for its charms in a whole different way. I’d play New Super Mario Bros. while she’d play something like Nintendogs, and then my dad got one and played random stuff like Sudoku apps. I felt like my home at the time was a microcosm of Satoru Iwata’s ‘blue ocean’, gaming for everyone. I’d ultimately be the only one playing the Wii 99% of the time, but like any good family we had Wii Sports routines. My mum would join in bowling, and my dad and I would have oddly competitive (and fun) games of golf.

The 3DS has continued the trend of the DSi, this time with my mum and brother on board. My brother and I have largely matching tastes, to be honest, yet when it comes to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, anything Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons or indeed a surprising range of RPGs (including Dragon Quest) my mum is the expert. I witnessed this first hand in recent years, seeing her gaming horizons expand in utterly surprising ways – with Nintendo’s system being the gateway.

The Switch, I have to say, has taken it all to another level. Everyone in my immediate family has one, all four of us, and it’s not just because of my day job. Between us we have four Switch systems spread across three homes, and whenever we visit each other we always bring them with us; it’s a lovely ritual where we always have a bag over our shoulder, protecting the valuable little gaming systems. I’ve written about this before, the way we share our Switch experiences across varied games. What’s amazing is how different we all are as gamers, yet even early on we all have our routines. My mum is a Breath of the Wild master dipping into Stardew Valley, my brother couldn’t resist Golf Story, and my dad is regularly buying games I previously never knew would interest him, like Oxenfree.

A key component to all this is the portability, of course, that hybrid nature that allows for taking it anywhere but also jumping into TV play. Like a lot of Nintendo’s most successful hooks it’s deceptively simple, but executed with enough confidence that the simplicity doesn’t matter. The form and the technology appeals, too, in ways that have surprised plenty of people; I remember after the January event worrying about the price – my dad said the price was a non-issue and, it seems, he was right. Plenty of consumers, at least early on, seem to see value in what it offers – that does matter, as a Nintendo system without a winning concept can fail, as we unfortunately saw with Wii U.

My family is only a small example of how broad the Nintendo fanbase can be, and the sheer nostalgia value and familiarity of the brand means that when the company finds the right ‘hook’ with hardware it can achieve amazing things. What prompted this article was a trip to the post office – when sending a parcel the topic of the SNES Mini came up with the lady serving me, who was probably in her 50s. “I really want one of them, apparently there’s more coming in time for Christmas. My favourite Nintendo console is the 64 though, I love that”. Righto, I thought, how marvellous and random. “The new Mario is out soon too, can’t wait to get that for my Switch”, she said. “Me neither”, I replied, sharing a smile.

It was an unexpected but a lovely moment. Two people that on the surface have zero in common, nattering away about Nintendo consoles; literally a generation apart, but we both love Mario and can’t wait for Super Mario Odyssey.

I walked away feeling like I’d experienced a very ‘Nintendo’ moment, and felt all the better for it.

The Nintendo Switch userbase may well still be modest in size, due to the system only being 7.5 months old, but it’s evidently eager for new experiences on the system. Smaller publishers and developers have benefitted from this and there have been a number of heartening examples of studios being delighted by sales on the Switch eShop.

Curve Digital, publisher of The Molasses Flood’s debut game on the Switch, has spoken to MCV about the buzz within the company after seeing the launch day sales for the game. It’s gone well beyond what was expected on day one, and even represents the best launch that the game has had on console. Curve’s publishing director Simon Byron had this to say.

It’s a real relief having our personal enthusiasm for the Switch being backed up with sales success. It’s been incredibly frustrating only having anecdotal evidence about the buzz for Switch titles, so we’ve been genuinely desperate to get a game out there so we could get some hard data ourselves.

There was a real buzz in the office this morning – [managing director] Jason [Perkins] was in before me, which is very rare indeed – and it was specifically due to the excitement of seeing figures. I had a number in my head which I would be very pleased with – and it was a third over that. 

Indeed, it’s fair to say it’s had its best ever day on any console since we’ve been publishing it, beating any other format we have launched on. It’s done just under half of our first full month forecast in a day.

There are always nerves around launching a new title – and particularly on a new format – but The Flame In The Flood is a perfect fit on Switch and we’re delighted it’s been received so well. Next up for us on Switch will be Serial Cleaner, with Human: Fall Flat following in December.

Another success story in waiting, it seems, which can only be a good thing for the Switch eShop. The more positives we see around quality games achieving solid sales, the more talented developers we’ll likely see bring their games to the store.

It’s a good time for fans of download games.

There’s little doubt that, aside from occasional exceptions, Nintendo hardware in the DS / Wii and 3DS / Wii U generations was seen as mostly family friendly, offering colourful and safe gaming experiences. There were some mature games, of course, but far less than you’d see on other gaming platforms; games like The Binding of Isaac were blocked for a time, as an example, though policies started softening a couple of years ago.

It’s been clear from day one that Nintendo has shifted up its marketing with Switch, which surely helped contribute to early success. Commercials and marketing has often featured older photogenic types in their late teens and 20s, a contrast to the consistent focus on children in promotional materials in past years. There are exceptions, of course, but from the first teaser trailer last October to the eSports-centric marketing around games like ARMS and Splatoon 2, Nintendo is seeking a different image for its latest system.

A Wall Street Journal report (paywall) explores this angle from the perspective of publishers and developers in Japan. When discussing the upcoming release of Gal Gun 2, Takuya Aizu – chief executive of Inti Creates – stated surprise that the pitch was welcomed by Nintendo.

I thought it wouldn’t be possible to release such a game for the Switch, but surprisingly, Nintendo gave me positive feedback.

An unnamed executive says that Nintendo was ‘passive’ towards more mature content in the past, but has now changed gear and is more open. We also have DOOM to look forward to soon along with Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, as two examples, while even in the Indie space we can see that 18 ratings and edgier content are no obstacle to publication.

Some, understandably, are cautious around all of this and whether it could affect Nintendo’s family friendly image. Of course, Nintendo couldn’t do much more in terms of parental control options on the system, including the smart device app that gives guardians full control over the system. The goal will no doubt be to project that same family friendly stance, while also having the sort of content that’ll appeal to a wide range of older gamers.

The test, of course, will be in how 18+ content sells on the hardware, and whether publishers encouraged by Nintendo right now will feel inclined to come back with more games in the future.

It seems like a shame that we’re back to separate Splatfest themes between Europe and North America, especially if you’re in Europe. With the original Splatoon NA had neat licensed battles that skipped Europe, and recently us PAL gamers had a Splatoon 2 battle over toilet paper.

This weekend’s NA battle between Team Vampire and Team Werewolf is now over, and those adamant that Pearl will win every Splatfest that counts (outside of Global Testfires) are having a field day on social media.

Some of the replies are worth sharing…

So, were you on the winning team?

A little while ago a Nintendo Life regular sent us an email to ask where the ‘What Games Are You Playing This Weekend’ (WGAYPTW™) series had gone. Of course, our chums over at Push Square have never stopped doing it, but we drifted away from the series a few years ago here on Nintendo Life.

Why? Partly because it got a bit disheartening. We seemed to be playing retro and ‘other console’ games more than anything else, as Nintendo was in the midst of its ‘oh no what do we do about Wii U’ phase, and the 3DS could only offer so much. And so the series quietly got put on the scrapheap.

Yet times change and, to be fair, anyone with a Switch that can’t find something interesting to play must have insanely particular standards. There are normally 2-3 tempting retail releases every month (many more at this time of the year) and more high quality Switch eShop games than we can keep up with. Let’s not forget the 3DS either, which shouldn’t be cast aside quite yet.

And so it feels like a good time to bring the series back. Assuming enough of you care / bother to comment with your weekend plans we’ll re-introduce this with our staff’s weekly entries. As for this time around, because this writer is completely winging it this one is mostly down to you, our charming community.

I’ll go first person to get us started with my weekend gaming plans. I just bought Wulverblade and it’s terrific, and nice and different from anything else I have on Switch. Since doing an interview with the developer I’m also hugely intrigued by The Flame in the Flood, so I’m going to be a right big-spender and buy that for the weekend. Sure, I could get it on Steam, but the option to play it on the handheld is tempting – to be honest, as a Nintendo fan I also like to try and ‘support’ the eShop anyway, doing my humble part in making the store financially worthwhile for all these incredible indie devs. Beyond that I’ll also play a bit of MLB The Show on PS4, because it’s the post-season and I’m up until 3am (here in the UK) most nights watching baseball. GO CUBBIES!

So, what will you be playing this weekend?