Depending on what kind of hybrid gaming system you’re in the market for, the Steam Deck might not be quite as appealing after a significant price increase this week.
Following in the footsteps of Nintendo and Sony recently, Valve has announced its 512GB OLED system has jumped from $549 to $789 ($240 extra), and the 1TB OLED model has increased from $649 to $949 ($300 more). It’s not all doom and gloom, as the price of the existing LCD model (which is still sold in select markets) remains unchanged. Refurbished models also offer more affordable options.
Here are Valve’s new regional prices for its Steam Deck OLED models. Keep in mind it hasn’t even released the Steam Frame or Steam Machine yet, which will function as both a console-style experience and PC.
Steam Deck 512GB: $789/£649/€779
Steam Deck 1TB: $949/£779/€919
While no hardware manufacturer seems to be safe from price increases or shortages on key components at the moment, as our colleagues at Push Square note, the big three console makers are arguably better equipped to deal with this kind of situation.
Fortunately, for the Switch 2, it’s already got some momentum as it nears 20 million sales and its first anniversary next month. Nintendo’s own $50 increase raises the price of its new hybrid unit (featuring an LCD panel) from $449.99 to $499.99. These price revisions are already in effect in Japan, and will take place this September in Western markets.
In saying this, the Japanese firm isn’t willing to rule out further Switch 2 price increases – with Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa stating earlier this month how the company could still be impacted by the “uncertainties” of component prices not only in 2026, but also next year.
What do you make of Valve’s decision to up the price of its portable system? Do you think it could clear up some space in Nintendo’s segment of the market? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
If you’ve been wondering about an upgrade, according to the official Nintendo store description for the Switch version, there are “no plans to sell an upgrade pack to upgrade the Nintendo Switch version to the Nintendo Switch 2 version”. This is reiterated in fine print at the bottom of the same game page.
*This is the Nintendo Switch™ version. There is also a Nintendo Switch™ 2 version of this game. Please select the version you require carefully. *There are no plans to sell an upgrade pack to upgrade the Nintendo Switch™ version to the Nintendo Switch™ 2 version. *Save data is incompatible between the Nintendo Switch™ and Nintendo Switch™ 2 versions.
As also noted, save data is not compatible between the Switch and Switch 2 versions, so if you are planning on picking up one or the other any time soon, you’ll need to “carefully” select the version that is right for you. Square Enix’s Japanese Dragon Quest website reconfirms data from the Switch version cannot be transferred to the Switch 2 version.
So, it seems there won’t be a paid upgrade path for existing owners of this Dragon Quest entry on Switch. If you do decide to get Dragon Quest XI S on the Switch 2, you can expect new optimisation modes, allowing you to prioritise graphics or performance. It’s also been confirmed the physical release of the Switch 2 version is a Game-Key Card.
If we hear any updates or developments, we’ll let you know.
It’s hard to stand out at BitSummit, Kyoto’s yearly indie games festival, especially on the third floor where the Nintendo Indie World and Sony booths dominate much of the real estate. But despite taking up a tiny slice of space and running on a single monitor with little adornment, Petal Runner stood out more than most with its vibrant pastel pixel graphics.
At a glance, the quaint little towns and character sprites look like they were pulled straight out of EarthBound or Pokémon Red & Blue. It’s clear to see where developer Nano Park Studios drew inspiration from. As such, the gameplay looks like it might lean into creature-collecting or turn-based combat as you go about cataloguing little critters called HanaPets; however, this isn’t the case.
Image: Nano Park Studios
The core gameplay is to clean up and deliver HanaPets to homes and businesses rather than battle with them, as lead writer Lauren Crown explained as I sat down to play through the demo. They’re for companionship the same way pets are in real life, and it’s your job to install them into people’s homes.
“This is a world where there are no natural animals,” Crown said. “All of the animals you see are these digital pets.”
From what I saw in the demo, there are two kinds of HanaPets: Gen 1, which are all but extinct aside from Kira, the little white fox pal of the main character Cali. The first generation mirrors real-life Tamagochi, as seen when you check up on Kira’s status in the menu. On the other hand, Gen 2 HanaPets reside in Leap Cells which are a bit more biologically based, as these contain flowers that provide the HanaPet with power.
Image: Nano Park Studios
There’s plenty of HanaPets to find. In the demo’s opening moments, I came across a little mouse called Checkers that was looking for ‘snax’ and a snake-like dragon creature called Root Zero that helped me escape from a lab after I cleaned up its Leap Cell. More common HanaPets like Checkers have several different variations while Root Zero is a bit more ‘legendary,’ if you will, and therefore unique.
Again, I battled against none of these critters. Nano Park Studios leans into this, including funny but meaningless little stats like their levels of cuteness and fluff in each HanaPet’s description and — Crown assured me — included a few tongue-in-cheek jokes about the absurdity of battling pets throughout the adventure.
You still do collect them and add them to an encyclopedia, and this isn’t a game without strife. The opening moments see you and your pink-haired friend Dahlia stealing an android sensor to help out her robotic friend. When you manage to nab said part, a ‘corrupted’ HanaPet makes an appearance, which triggers several minigames to clear in order to cleanse it.
Image: Nano Park Studios
These minigames take a page out of Undertale’s graphically simple battle screens and consist of quick, five-or-so-second challenges that wouldn’t be out of place in a WarioWare title, though they’re much less bizarre.
Here, you’re cleaning a little dog by moving the left joystick up and down as fast as possible, mashing ‘A’ for a chubby cat to eat its bowl of food, and — my least favourite, because I messed it up so many times — playing ping pong as a little mouse, strafing to the left and right.
Crown confirmed that there are seven total minigames in the demo, but couldn’t tell me how many there were in the full game. “As for the whole list, we’re working on making it as long as we can before launch. So I don’t know exactly how many, but we’re doing our best.”
When I cleared all of the corrupted HanaPet’s minigames without failing too many times, it was then cleansed, revealing the aforementioned Root Zero critter that then helped us escape from the lab with the android sensor in hand. From there, I separated from Dahlia and received a nasty phone call about late deliveries, so it was back to work with Kira the HanaPet in tow.
Image: Nano Park Studios
Hopping on a little motorcycle, I drove around a gorgeous town called North Valley looking for a nearby mall with the HanaPet shop inside, talking to and registering a few different HanaPets along the way. Here, where the main story progresses, so too does a sidequest that Crown pointed out. A boy named Percy stormed off to chase down a strange HanaPet, and Kira and I decided to help him out.
“I’m particularly fond of this sidequest because the pet you’re chasing started as a weird joke when we were trying to adjust the sprite of another HanaPet and it went all wonky,” Crown said. “I was shocked when our artist created a real sprite for it.”
Crown and the team then turned this messed-up HanaPet — called The Boy — into a sidequest that ties into the narrative’s themes. As Percy, Kira, and I tracked it through the gorgeous little town, residents exclaimed they saw the ugliest little creature running about. We followed it to a little shady spot in the woods where it was glitching out and, as you’d expect, I completed a few minigames to fix it up.
Image: Nano Park Studios
But this time around The Boy didn’t turn into something more visually pleasing. Instead, Percy decided to study it further, ending the quest and highlighting a narrative thread running throughout the demo and presumably the full game: What was happening to the HanaPets? First, the Gen 1 HanaPets are nearly extinct. Root Zero was covered in goop and had to be rescued. And now this wonky, glitched-out creature raised even more questions.
“Petal Runner really is primarily story-based,” Crown elaborated. “It’s about Cali and Kira and that relationship you have with your childhood pet that grew up with you and how important that is.”
Percy and The Boy’s questline also looks like it will explore those relationships between people and their pets, as Percy first perceives The Boy as an academic quandary to solve but — potentially — becomes something much more meaningful and personal to him.
As a lifelong dog owner myself, I began to worry someone might start chopping onions nearby as I played. While I didn’t get a good sense of the overall plot, the demo was packed full of endearing, lighthearted dialogue that I sensed could flip to melancholic and heartbreaking at any moment.
Image: Nano Park Studios
The little white fox Kira often stole the show with his portrait next to his dialogue box, as it featured adorable and expressive animations. Residents in town bickered with each other and one snarky boy challenged me to clean a Leap Cell quicker than he could. HanaPets themselves (they can talk, obviously) asked after ‘snax’ and protested when Kira got their name wrong. As such, I couldn’t help but talk to everyone I ran into as I explored Petal Runner’s gorgeously rendered world.
Crown assures me there are separate areas with different colour palettes. I can’t wait to see them.
But I’ll have to wait a while – at least to play it on a Nintendo Switch. There’s a similar demo to the one I played on Steam and a planned release date in 2026, but a release on a Nintendo console is still unconfirmed. But much like every other small developer I spoke to at BitSummit, the Switch is an eventual goal.
Regardless, Petal Runner’s gorgeous art direction and endearing characters stole the show this year despite the small amount of real estate it commanded, and I can’t wait to play more.
Mina The Hollower might just be our most-anticipated indie of the year. Yacht Club Games’ throwback Zelda-like has felt like a long time coming, and today, we’ve started to get an idea of what we can expect from the full game.
Yes, while we technically have to wait until release day (29th May) to go hands-on ourselves, the review embargo has lifted, and the scores are flooding in. Spoiler: they’re pretty darn positive.
Here at Nintendo Life, we gave Mina a 9/10, calling it “another retro-styled masterpiece” from Yacht Club Games. Here’s a snippet of our take, followed by a link to the full review:
Blending the exploratory charm of The Legend of Zelda with the European gothic setting of Castlevania, and adding subtle nods to numerous other titles, Yacht Club Games has delivered another finely polished gem that stands shoulder to shoulder with the classics it pays tribute to.
Of course, we’re not the only ones with thoughts on the game. Below, we have rounded up a handful of reviews from across the web, in the hope of showing you the full spread of opinions so far — as difficult as that is, since almost everyone seems to be in love with it! Do bear in mind that the following reviews may be based on other platforms.
We’ll kick things off with a full-beans 10/10 review from IGN, which, as you might expect from that score, praised just about everything Mina has to offer:
Its blocky exterior disguises rich combat systems, some of the best puzzle solving ever put to screen, and a funny, deeply weird world I loved to explore.
It was more of the same in The Gamer’s 5/5 review:
Mina the Hollower is an almost faultless game that combines elements of nostalgic classics we know and love with a healthy dose of Yacht Club’s flair and expertise to make it something that truly stands out as a retro-inspired masterpiece.
GameSpot landed on the same 9/10 score that we did, arguing that Yacht Club has even surpassed Shovel Knight this time around:
It surpasses the boundaries of mere homage or retro throwback to become something new, fresh, inventive, and exciting. Shovel Knight was a well-deserved successful debut for Yacht Club. Mina the Hollower may be its masterpiece.
GamesRadar+ was similarly optimistic in its 4.5/5 review, particularly praising the number of approaches available to each puzzle and combat encounter:
Yacht Club Games clearly understands what works about the classics, and Mina the Hollower is an incredible collection of tested ideas rebuilt in new ways.
Keeping the good times going, Game Informer offered Mina an 8.75, with the “annoyances” of Mina’s movement being the only real sticking point:
Mina’s titular hollowing ability, where she can go underground to move quickly, leap from the ground, and avoid some attacks, is the game’s most compelling and novel mechanic, but learning to control it well takes time; I still had annoyances related to it even through the final challenges leading to the end boss.
Giant Bomb went lower still, opting for a 3.5/5 after finding frustrations in one too many of its systems:
Other early game enemies hit so hard and have so much health that grinding almost feels mandatory. And, hey, usually I’m a big defender of grinding. I think it’s fun and relaxing. But even I thought it was a bit strange how much I was relying on it in a Zelda-type game.
Pretty glowing across the board, eh? As it stands, Mina the Hollower has pulled in a Metascore of 93 based on 38 critic reviews — that puts it as the site’s best-reviewed game of the year so far!
Gosh, it may have been a long time coming, but it certainly looks like Mina the Hollower will be worth the wait.
Will you be picking up Mina the Hollower later this week? Let us know in the comments.
Ahead of its 10th anniversary later this year, Hello Games is back with another No Man’s Sky update, and it sounds like a big one.
The Swarm update arrives in the game today, throwing the entire galaxy into all-out war. Hey, we said it was a big one! Huge objects, the ‘Hive of Glass’, have appeared in the sky over NMS’ planets, and it’s up to the community to face off against it in space battles and by solving puzzles down on the surface. A faction system is being added to the game based on a personality test at start-up, with all three groups needing to work together to tackle the Hive head-on.
Naturally, anything shot down in battle can be salvaged on the planets below, so even if fighting isn’t your thing, know that there will be a lot of scrap collecting to be getting on with while the war wages overhead.
Here’s a handful of screens, so you can get an idea of how big a threat this Hive poses:
It’s quite the leap from No Man’s Sky’s last Pokémon-inspired update, no? Just when we think Hello Games has added everything it possibly could to the game, there’s another surprise waiting around the corner.
Will you be checking out the Swarm update on Switch (2)? Let us know in the comments.
Rounding out Dragon Quest’s 40th anniversary showcase, we got our very first peek at the next entry in the Dragon Quest monsters spin-off series: The Withered World.
The teaser was admittedly pretty light on details. We saw a bunch of monsters, two young protagonists and… that’s about it. It was all accompanied by a vague “Coming Soon” message, though Yuji Horii noted, “we hope to release before [Dragon Quest] XII”.
Just in case that sounds like it might be coming soon, the announcement also contained the news that development has restarted on the next mainline entry in the series, so don’t get those hopes up just yet.
So, there you have it! Another ‘Monsters’ game is in the works. We would have liked to see some gameplay, admittedly, or get even the vaguest idea of what this entry will bring to the table, but our fingers are crossed that it won’t take too long before we get to hear more about it.
Hey, at least we’ve got Dragon Quest XI to dive back into (again) on Switch 2 this year.
Will you be checking out the next Monsters game on Switch (2)? Let us know in the comments.
Yosuke Saito and Yuji Horii from Square Enix have revealed the new title for Dragon Quest XII after confirming that development was completely reset following multiple hurdles.
The new title is Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams. As a reminder, the old sub-title was Flames of Fate, with a much darker and oppressive logo.
No platforms have been confirmed at the time of writing, and it sounds like we might be waiting for quite a while for this one to launch. Gosh, it’s Metroid Prime 4 all over again, huh?
Despite this, we’ve gotten our first glimpse at footage from the game, including a look at the main protagonist, who is said to be “beset by strange visions in their sleep”. The visuals look nice, and hopefully it’ll all run perfectly well on the Switch 2 – if it’s confirmed, of course.
Yuji Horii also confirms that the game will feature Akira Toriyama’s characters and music from Koichi Sugiyama. Given that Toriyama-san sadly passed away in 2024, we’re not entirely sure what this means. Perhaps he contributed to the character designs prior to his passing.
Here’s a look at how it’s shaping up so far:
Image: Square Enix
So there you have it! We’ll keep you updated on any further developments, but as we mentioned earlier, it seems likely that we’ve got a long wait ahead of us before Beyond Dreams launches.
What do you make of this? Do you like the new title and footage? Let us know with a comment down below.
Since its release in 2014, Shovel Knight has been a gift that keeps on giving. Groundbreaking for its hugely successful crowdfunding campaign, it also helped usher in a glorious era of throwback platforming gems like Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger. Yacht Club Games has spent years expanding the Shovel-verse while developing its next project in parallel. Now that follow-up is finally here, and with Mina the Hollower, the studio is moving beyond Mario-like platforming to explore the formative era of action RPGs.
Blending the exploratory charm of The Legend of Zelda with the European gothic setting of Castlevania, and adding subtle nods to numerous other titles, Yacht Club Games has delivered another finely polished gem that stands shoulder to shoulder with the classics it pays tribute to. Zelda is the key inspiration here, though – the game takes its cues from Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, key maturation points for the series.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
The story follows Mina — an inventor and member of the earth-studying guild known as the Hollowers — who is summoned to Tenebrous Isle to reactivate the Spark Generators, revolutionary power sources of her own design. At the request of her old friend, Baron Lionel, she travels across the island to investigate why the generators are failing, repair them, and restore balance to the local communities.
Along the way, you explore the regions around the capital, battle hordes of monsters, and repeatedly cross paths with Thorne, a mysterious rival. The main narrative is fairly straightforward, but it’s fleshed out with side quests and smaller subplots, including Thorne’s ongoing opposition to Mina’s mission and lighter diversions such as helping two hunters take down a bunny-shaped monster. Tenebrous Isle is filled with stories both funny and sad.
Building on the style of its previous title, the game sticks with the 8-bit visuals, this time drawing inspiration from the Game Boy Color’s palette. Jake Kaufman returns with another strong set of chiptune compositions, collaborating with the legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro (ActRaiser, Streets of Rage) to produce an infectious musical suite.
Everything about Mina the Hollower oozes retro cool, demonstrating an expert command of style and genre conventions. Rather than feeling like a simple throwback, it’s a focused, confident reinterpretation of classic action RPG execution.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Tenebrous Isle is an intricately designed area to explore, with a central town hub that connects in all directions to mechanically distinct biomes that you must traverse to find and fix the Spark Generators. The looping, layered design harks back to classic top-down and side-scrolling RPGs of yesteryear, recreating the kind of interconnected map that went on to inspire Hidetaka Miyazaki’s From Software titles (which are heavily referenced throughout).
You are free to venture out from the hub, tackling any of the six areas in whatever order you choose. Without a map to refer to, NPC dialogue, signage, and environmental clues are all you have to go on as you hunt down the next objective.
The freedom to explore and the lack of hand-holding are hugely refreshing in this current era of quest markers and constant tutorial pop-ups. That said, it can be easy to get lost on this treacherous island, and for a while I found myself wandering back and forth between the hub and seemingly blocked paths.
Later, after the game forced me to be more observant and realise that secrets and hidden paths appear on each screen, everything started to click into place. There’s an extensive manual tucked away in the menus, but for the most part, Mina’s journey is one of discovery.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
There’s a heaving menagerie of deadly creatures great and small across the island, and you are given plenty of ways to dispatch them. Combat and movement both revolve heavily around manual jumping, which conjures fond memories of the Roc’s Feather item in Link’s Awakening. Mina can burrow underground, then burst up to launch herself into the air. Mastering this ability is essential for progression, with jumping puzzles scattered throughout every area and a high number of aerial enemies to contend with.
Health is managed by a potion system, the replenishment of which is tied directly to aggressive offence in combat. Spark charges add an extra layer of survivability, while bones are the game’s primary upgrade resource. A surprisingly deep weapon system provides a wide arsenal of primary and secondary tools to experiment with. Each main weapon has a distinct feel and can be upgraded to unlock additional utility. The Nightstar is a chain whip that will have you feeling like a Belmont, while the Blackstrike Maul delivers slow but heavy-hitting attacks. Whisper and Vesper favour rapid dagger-based combat, the Battery Buster caters to projectile-focused playstyles, and the Guardian Casket supports defensive approaches.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Sidearms add further variety, offering both offensive projectiles and defensive options that complement primary attacks. Mina can also equip trinkets that further customise and modify her overall playstyle.
Speaking of modification, the game has an exhaustive menu of quality-of-life and difficulty options that let you tweak the entire experience to your liking. These mods build on the cheat code system in Shovel Knight and can be enabled at any time if you don’t mind sacrificing the game’s feat challenge system. Not very good at jumping? Give Mina a super jump. Looking to sprint through another playthrough? Double her walking speed. Maybe you’re playing with a young adventurer and just want them to breeze through Tenebrous Isle with no resistance. There are plenty of options for casual players.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
The modifier menu is so jam-packed that it even includes a favouriting system. This can be a punishingly difficult game at times, with the boss battles in particular providing a serious challenge, so it’s nice to see the developer cater to those of us who prefer an easier time at the cost of earning achievements. It’s worth noting that there are modifiers to increase difficulty as well, so there are plenty of options for those who baulk at easy modes.
Mina the Hollower, like Shovel Knight before it, pays careful homage to a beloved genre and visual style, while also blending in modern design sensibilities. While the potential for future DLC that could bring players back to Tenebrous Isle is exciting, the base game already feels substantial, offering plenty to uncover across the main campaign. Re-igniting all the Spark Generators took around 25 hours and there’s a wealth of post-game content, as well as numerous weapon builds to experiment with.
It also feels purpose-built for handheld play. The Game Boy Color-inspired visuals suit a smaller screen perfectly, and Jake Kaufman’s soundtrack, best experienced through portable speakers, adds even more character to the small-screen experience. Performance is razor sharp in both modes and offers a stability that’s noticeable during visually busy boss battles and platforming puzzles. The original Switch targets 60fps, while Switch 2 has 120fps support and HDR settings for those that have the display to accommodate it.
The version will come packed with neat new features, including new story chapters, the ability to switch between 3D and 2D modes, and toggles to prioritise visuals or performance. This follows the launch of the Switch version back on 27th September 2019, with the original 3DS game landing on 29th July 2017 in Japan.
So yeah, another Dragon Quest game, huh? Pretty cool. Hopefully it’ll keep us occupied while we continue to wait for information on the elusive Dragon Quest XII.
For now, here’s a look at the official description:
What does it mean to be a hero? A young lad from a country village sets out to find the answer to this question, embarking on an epic adventure that will lead him to uncover the secrets that lie at the heart of his world.
Play the entirety of the ageless Erdrean adventure, all in one package! DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition for Nintendo Switch™ 2 includes:
• New story chapters where the party members take center stage • Japanese voices and additional English voices • The ability to switch between 3D and 2D mode • An orchestral score • All new optimization modes, allowing you to prioritize graphics or performance
The game page is now live on the Switch 2 eShop and it’s priced at £34.99 in the UK. It doesn’t, however, sound like there’s any kind of upgrade offer for current Switch owners.
Meanwhile, those looking to go physical should be aware that this will be a Game-Key Card. Like the digital version, this is also priced at £34.99 via the official Square Enix store.
Another Switch 2 port, huzzah! Will you be grabbing this one? Share your thoughts with a comment down below.
Jackbox Games has announced My Arms Are Longer Now for the Switch 1 & 2, developed by Melbourne-based studio Toot Games.
Scheduled to release on PC this year, a console launch is currently planned to follow in 2027. Blending absurd comedy with puzzle solving and stealth mechanics, it looks like a cross between the excellent Thank Goodness You’re Here and Untitled Goose Game.
In other words, it’s right up our alley.
It’s tough to really get a feel for what the gameplay is like from the above trailer, but it seems you’ll be worming your way around different environments to nick valuable items and generally just cause a bunch of chaos.
The art style and sense of humour really shine though, and it certainly helps that Toot Game’s co-founder and narrative lead, Millie Holten, has experience in creating the ‘Long Head’ webcomic alongside being shortlisted for the 2023 Australian Writers Guild Monte Miller Award.
Let’s check out a few screenshots:
We’ll be sure to provide updates on My Arms Are Longer Now as soon as we hear more.
What are your thoughts on this one so far? Will you be keen to check it out? Let us know.
