During the Warhammer Skulls Showcase this week, Dotemu lifted the lid on its new action platformer Warhammer Age of Sigmar:Deathmaster for the Switch 2.
It will be arriving at some point in 2027 and requires you to stalk prey from the shadows as a “sneaky and brutal assassin” in what’s apparently the first-ever title in this series starring Skaven Ratmen.
Embark on a dark tale of treachery as the hooded Ratman Vihneek, an ambitious killer devoted to ascending to the top of his shadowy Eshin clan at all costs. Vihneek’s sinister masters demand unwavering loyalty, but a Skaven’s ambition knows no limits, even when scheming on the precipice of doom. Vihneek’s story is anchored in the rich lore of the Age of Sigmar, where the Skaven have erupted to seize the Mortal Realms for themselves.
Set traps, exploit your surroundings and outwit enemies as you ruthlessly carve your fate through the darkest corners of the Skaven world. Slink past threats undetected while devising cunning plans, savagely slaughtering any Skaven who foolishly stands in your way, from cowering dregs to towering rat ogors.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster’s gritty, atmospheric environments are beautifully twisted with relentless decay, accented with shadows and dark spaces prime for Vihneek to sneak through – and strike from. A richly detailed art style evokes suspense and thrilling tension while delivering a unique, unsettling vision of a Skaven world teeming with secrets that should never be unearthed.
Auroch Digital has also shared a new trailer of its fast-paced roguelite title Warhammer Survivors at the same showcase. It reveals new enemy factions and more. There’s also a demo available for the title on Steam.
“In the latest trailer, Warhammer Survivors’ playable universes (Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar) are consumed by the forces of Chaos in the form of two newly revealed enemy factions: the disgustingly resilient Death Guard and the bloodthirsty and savage Blades of Khorne. Fortunately, a host of new champions are ready to stand against them!”
What do you think of these upcoming Warhammer titles? Will you be checking them out on Switch? Let us know in the comments.
It may not be the Christmas Holidays yet, but No Gravity Games is back with a fresh line-up of daily free Switch games.
The ‘Pixel Chaos Giveaway‘ gets underway tomorrow (19th May) and will be sticking around until 24th May, with one No Gravity Games-published title going for free every 24 hours.
Just like the annual ‘Switchmas Giveaway‘, there are a couple of rules to bear in mind with this one. First up, the offer is only available to those with a North American Nintendo account, without parental controls enabled. Then, you’ll need to have downloaded at least one game from the No Gravity back catalogue to get the giveaway started.
Things then work on a chain basis, requiring you to pick up the previous day’s free game before you can move on to the next. Each game will be subject to a discount for 24 hours after its free period, so you can buy it on the cheap if you happen to miss a day and break the chain.
We’ll be updating the following list in the coming days, so you can keep track of each and every freebie in the giveaway:
If previous giveaways have taught us anything, it’s that the events rarely consist of wall-to-wall quality titles, though the theme this time around is all about “classic-style platformers”, so it might be worth checking out if you’re keen to beef up this specific section of your Switch library.
Will you be picking up any of the free games in this giveaway? Let us know in the comments.
Here’s a bit about the game’s story, which will be supported by the same “classic” action as the previous entries. You check out the trailer at the top of the page.
“Luminous Avenger iX 3 sees Copen back in his home world facing a new threat. A mysterious girl appears before him, bringing warnings of otherworldly invaders known as “iX Bearers.” Featuring the same classic 2D action as the previous games, iX 3 ups the intensity with a new weapon: the twin energy swords, “Divide Edge.” iX 3 also brings unprecedented levels of character customization with the “Code Customizer” system, allowing you to build up Copen’s strengths as you see fit, provided you can manipulate the system to your benefit!”
Along with this is the announcement of Azure Striker Gunvolt Trilogy Enhanced – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. This trilogy collection, containing the first, second and third game (and all of the DLC), was previously released on the Switch and will be made available in 2026.
The Switch 2 Edition will also add support for “high framerate and resolution displays” as well as a new story called “Azure Striker Gunvolt GX“. Here’s a bit about this, along with the new mechanic, and you can check out the trailer below:
“Players will control a tag-team duo of Gunvolt and Copen with new weapons and abilities. It also features a new “Inspiration” system, encouraging players to swap between the two heroes at the right time to activate gameplay and score bonuses. This newest chapter in the Gunvolt series comes to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026!”
Will you be checking out these upcoming Switch 2 releases? Let us know in the comments.
This 3DS title originally made its debut in 2013 and the game’s album was composed by Ryō Nagamatsu, who also worked on the Mario Kart and Splatoon series during his time at Nintendo. He also helped with the 2019 Switch release, Link’s Awakening.
The soundtrack update for this week includes 105 tracks and has a run time of 2 hours and 31 minutes. Here’s every song included:
To listen to the music on the Nintendo Music app, you’ll need to have an active Switch Online subscription. And if you’re curious to know more about this particular Zelda game, check out our review:
What do you think about the latest Nintendo Music update? What other albums would you like to see join this service? Let us know in the comments.
Although Sega recently cancelled its “Super Game”, it reconfirmed its plans to revive multiple legacy franchises.
One of these series is Crazy Taxi, and following the initial announcement in 2023, it seems the company is now gearing up for a proper reveal. On social media today, Sega uploaded a five-second video showing a taxi sign lighting up.
Crazy Taxi’s reboot, which is being developed with the help of Sega’s Sapporo Studio, has been previously described as a “triple-A” game and one that will be a “massively multiplayer driving” experience.
In Sega Sammy’s latest financial results presentation, Crazy Taxi was featured as part of the schedule for “Upcoming Plans”. This also included other legacy franchise revivals for Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio and Streets of Rage, with the official title and release date of each project listed as ‘TBD’.
Sega has already released a new entry in the Shinobi series on the Switch and other platforms. You can find out more about this game in our review.
Are you excited about Crazy Taxi’s return? Sound off in the comments.
Can you believe it’s 2026 and we’re about to embark on a brand-new, mainline Bubsy adventure? Ridiculous, right? And yet here we are, just one day out from the release of Bubsy 4D at the time of writing. What a time to be alive.
If that wasn’t enough, publisher Atari has also seen fit to release a physical edition of Bubsy 4D on Switch 2 – a proper physical edition, mind you, in which the full game is available on the cart (plus the obligatory day one patch that you’ll want to download). No Game-Key Card here, folks.
Atari sent us a copy of the so-called ‘Pawsome Edition’ of Bubsy 4D, so we thought it only right to show you exactly what you get in the box should you pick one up for yourself. So let’s get cracking!
First up, the outer box is of decent quality, with a high gloss finish and raised edges around Bubsy himself and the logo. It’s good stuff. Meanwhile, the main Switch 2 case itself is exactly what you’d probably expect, though it’s nice to see a proper manual sitting snug above the cartridge.
The manual itself clocks in at 34 pages, containing information on the characters, environments, controls, and more. There’s even a classic notes page at the back if you want to jot anything down – lovely!
In addition to the manual, you’ve also got an 83-page art book. It’s not huge, but the quality is excellent, with a matte cover and slightly glossy pages. It covers everything from character concept art to key art, logos, and more. If Atari decides to commission a proper, hardback art book at some point, we’ll be there day one.
Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Finally, the Pawsome Edition also includes a double-sided poster, which looks to be about A2 size. I’ve never been particularly fond of these, since the creases from being folded into the package look very unsightly. If that doesn’t bother you, the key art looks great.
And that’s it! You can grab the Pawsome Edition of Bubsy 4D from most major retailers at about £44.99 in the UK and $49.99 in the US. Otherwise, a digital copy of the game can be found via the eShop for £17.99. A free demo is also available if you want to take it for a quick spin.
If you want to know what we thought, then do check out our review when you have a moment. We gave Bubsy 4D a 7/10 and said that it’s “a long-overdue course correction for one of gaming’s most persistently maligned characters and a strong foundation for future titles”.
Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Thanks to Atari and U&I Entertainment for providing a copy of Bubsy 4D: Pawsome Edition.
Will you be picking this up? What do you make of its contents? Let us know with a comment.
Famitsu has published its top ten boxed charts for the week of 11th – 17th May in Japan, and would you believe it, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is once again back at the top with another 98,092 sales.
Not only that, but with a further 22,758 sales to its name, Pokémon Pokopia has now crossed the 1 million mark – a fine milestone, indeed!
Really though, those Tomodachi Life sales are putting everything else to shame at the moment. What a monumentally smart move from Nintendo to release such a popular game so late in the Switch’s lifespan, proving there’s life in the old dog yet.
Anyway, here’s a look at the top ten in full:
Position
Game
Platform
Unit Sales(11th – 17th May)
Total Unit Sales
1
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
Switch
98,092
1,141,649
2
Pokémon Pokopia
Switch 2
22,758
1,001,464
3
Mario Kart World
Switch 2
12,651
2,938,509
4
Minecraft
Switch
3,857
4,207,594
5
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Switch
3,305
8,436,761
6
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Switch 2
3,229
120,098
7
Pragmata
PS5
2,937
62,455
8
Kirby Air Riders
Switch 2
2,778
530,268
9
Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Switch 2
2,571
196,983
10
Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Switch 2
2,340
1,123,043
Meanwhile, Switch 2 sales continue to spike in Japan ahead of the expected price increase on 25th May (1st September in the West). If you cast your mind back to last week, the Switch 2 came out at 214,438 sales, but that was across two weeks. It’s managed to surpass that lofty number in just one week with 217,922 sales, which just goes to show how many people want to grab the console before the price goes up.
Elsewhere, the OG Switch is still doing remarkably well, with the three SKUs shifting a combined 21,392 units. Compared to the PS5, which sold 9,243 units across its three SKUs, that’s pretty damn good. Xbox meanwhile, is… well, it’s still being sold, that’s about the best we can say for it at the moment. Hey, maybe the big leadership changes over at Microsoft might shift its fortunes.
When Bluey: The Videogame launched toward the end of 2023, I found it a faithful yet soulless adaptation of the cartoon phenomenon from developer Artax Games, cramming some of the show’s most iconic locations into a repetitive one-to-two-hour game. It wasn’t great.
Fast forward to 2026, and Halfbrick, the studio most famous for Fruit Ninja, is having a go at delivering something a bit more substantial. And y’know what? It mostly succeeds. Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen retains some of the repetitive nature of the first game, but it’s also a much more ambitious experience with some solid gameplay mechanics.
If I told you it takes place solely on the Heeler family’s kitchen table, that would actually be accurate – but also not. Y’see, Bluey and Bingo are having fun drawing before their dad, Bandit, playfully steals their Gold Pen. As is customary for the show, the family go to the absolute extreme by concocting a fabricated hand-drawn fantasy land in order to retrieve it. Chilli (Bluey and Bingo’s mum) draws the environments while the kids take on the role of the heroes.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
And so your adventure — written by the series’ creator, no less — takes place within the pages of Chilli’s delightful environmental drawings, ranging from quaint forests to icy landscapes and others, with a total of nine worlds to explore. After a short tutorial world that introduces you to the core mechanics, the rest are surprisingly vast, so much so that you can take advantage of fast-travel once you’ve located and activated each relevant signpost.
Visually, it all looks lovely. Like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Gold Pen utilises a hand-drawn aesthetic, with characters in particular depicted as stylised versions of themselves, with stick-thin arms and colours that go just outside the lines – it’s adorable. The environments are a bit less stylised, though why Chilli decided to work in airport security when she can draw this well is beyond me.
The deliberately simplistic aesthetic means that Gold Pen looks and runs beautifully in both handheld and docked modes. There’s little difference between the two, with visuals that remain sharp throughout. As for performance, it feels like it’s gunning for 60fps, though it doesn’t always hit it. The drops are very minor though, so it’s not a major concern. Overall, it’s a huge step up from the last game.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
As for the gameplay, the whole experience is basically one big collectathon, which is great for kids and easy to grasp, but it’s also the primary source of repetition. Each world contains three sets of collectibles: ‘goose food’, which is required to proceed into the next area, smaller trinkets that number in the hundreds, and a dozen or so insects.
Everything you do is in service of obtaining goose food which, depending on the area, could be blueberries, cherries, strawberries, etc. With the smaller trinkets, for example, you can give 50 of these to an NPC in exchange for goose food, and same with the insects. You’ll need to grab a specific amount of goose food to unlock the next area, but each world has plenty, so you can always stay where you are and mop up every last item before proceeding.
Most of the main collectibles are obtained by completing simple platforming puzzles. By default, Bluey can’t jump, but she does have access to a rather handy magic wand used to activate moving platforms, shoot across gaps via a makeshift hookshot, or destroy brittle rocks. It’s all very straightforward, but some of the later puzzles will no doubt give younger players something to think about.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
I say Bluey can’t jump, but there are context-sensitive moments that alter her moveset. Pressing ‘A’ under normal circumstances will activate Bluey’s magic wand, but when you find yourself on a frozen lake, the same input will change to allow for some fancy, twirly jumps – kind of like when Mario frolics around in Freezeflame Galaxy.
Similarly, other areas might make use of the ‘B’ button, enabling Bluey to cross large gaps via a paraglider, or shoot into the sky with a rocket. It’s all kept very basic and easy-to-grasp for youngsters, which is nice.
In addition to platforming puzzles, there are instances where you’re given some more brain teasing tasks. The Snowlands area contains a bunch of statues, for instance, and you’ll need to figure out how many are facing north, south, and east. Elsewhere, an NPC in an earlier level challenges you to a game of rock, paper, scissors, providing specific coloured words during dialogue to indicate which option they’ll choose.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Speaking of speaking, there are small snippets of text dialogue in Gold Pen, and so youngsters will need basic reading skills to fully enjoy it. That said, adults can always lend a hand, and I do appreciate that certain simple words are coloured to give children a bit of a leg up.
I think it misses a trick in not having voice acting throughout, though, as it’s really just limited to the cutscenes showing the Heeler family. But there’s nowhere near as much reading required as Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Dare I say it, but Gold Pen may understand its target audience a little better.
What is puzzling, however, is the lack of any two-player or co-op mode. Bluey and Bingo explore the environments together (with Bingo flapping around in her ‘Bingoose’ costume), and while the latter helps point out certain objects like fast-travel signposts, it feels odd that there’s no option to control both characters independently. It would’ve allowed for some nice parent-child multiplayer sessions, and its absence is a shame.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Ultimately, while the overall structure is definitely repetitive (I started each world feeling a little deflated that I essentially had to start from scratch again with no collectibles), I’m not sure kids will mind quite so much as they work their way through the roughly five-to-six-hour experience. I handed the controller to my daughter and, thanks to some familiarity with the show, she had a blast just roaming around and digging up trinkets here and there.
Kids will definitely enjoy this one, and thanks to the huge improvement in overall quality over the last game, I think adults may do, too.
Conclusion
Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is a substantial improvement over the last game, offering up a bunch of well-realised worlds to explore with charming visuals and engaging puzzles. It retains the essence of the original show, but thanks to the adorable narrative, Bluey and Bingo can finally break free from the overly-familiar TV locations.
Repetition does quickly seep in thanks to the focus on collectibles, but I’d wager that younger audiences probably won’t care about this too much. The lack of a proper co-op mode is a bizarre omission, however, and the experience would have definitely benefitted from voice acting throughout. Still, this is a fine effort from Halfbrick, and an easy recommendation for the summer break from school.
Nintendo has teased an official LEGO Donkey Kong set via Nintendo Today.
As noted by the redoubtable Wario64, the video tease on the app shows only the logos of the Danish company and the SK series, with a little brick barrel rolling from right to left across a wooden tabletop:
There are no further details at the time of writing — we’ll update when more details come to light.
This isn’t DK’s first brush with Lego bricks, of course — he’s already appeared as part of the Super Mario and Mario Kart lines — but this would be the first set in a dedicated Lego Donkey Kong series.
There was also an impressive DK submission to the Lego Ideas scheme (which lets fans and builders submit designs for peer review, with the vote-winners going to Lego for evaluation and the best ones chosen for production) back in 2024, and the rolling barrel and the pixel art print on top suggest a set that gets back to DK’s arcade roots.
Will we get to see a pixel Mario in ‘Jump Man’ attire? Or will it feature the plumber in minifig form (which we definitely know is coming in 2027)? Let us know your thoughts below.
Reputation matters, and few video game characters have spent longer trapped beneath the weight of their own than Bubsy. The wisecracking bobcat arrived in 1993 as Accolade’s answer to the ’90s mascot-platformer boom and promptly became notorious for clumsy design and punishing controls. Yet, the bobcat kept clawing his way back into new releases regardless.
Since acquiring the rights to Bubsy, Atari has been intent on nudging him through a belated redemption arc. Two underwhelming modern revivals and a poorly received retro collection have not exactly made that easy, but Bubsy 4D, developed by independent studio Fabraz (Slime-san, Demon Tides), is the first of these efforts that feels like it has a real idea of what Bubsy could be.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
While still a long way from clawing at the heels of the genre’s biggest names, Bubsy 4D gets one very important thing right. It is a solid mid-tier 3D platformer built around speed, momentum, and replayability, and it directly tackles the flaw that has dogged the series from the beginning: Bubsy is now genuinely satisfying to control, if you can believe it.
His double jump, glide, flutter, pounce, and wall-scramble can all be chained together with surprising elegance, giving you multiple ways to correct mistakes in mid-air, while a new hairball roll adds a burst of Sonic-like momentum that sends him rocketing through half-pipes and feeds neatly into the game’s obvious speedrunning ambitions.
Bubsy 4D’s stages are more sprawling obstacle courses than sandboxes, emphasising traversal while being fairly shallow in terms of exploration. Levels are open enough to invite some poking around for collectibles, but their real purpose is to test how well you can string Bubsy’s moves together across long gaps, moving platforms, and timed hazards.
Each stage asks you to reach the Golden Fleece at the end, collecting yarn along the way and hunting for blueprints that unlock new shop items or abilities. Generous checkpointing does a lot to keep that focus enjoyable rather than frustrating. Most failed jumps simply drop Bubsy back to where he started, but he can be kicked back to a checkpoint after taking three hits.
Yarn can be spent on costumes, while blueprint upgrades meaningfully add to Bubsy’s moveset, along with unlocking options such as checkpoint warping, healing at rest areas, or extra movement assists. These modifiers can be toggled, which is a smart touch, letting you make the game more or less forgiving depending on how you want to approach it.
A casual run through a level might take 20 minutes or more if you’re seeking out optional pickups, like the trickier-to-find blueprints, but the same stage can be blasted through in a fraction of that time once you understand the route. Each level has speedrun targets, and the inclusion of ghost data lets you study other players’ beelines through the stage.
The catch is that the overall level design rarely matches the quality of Bubsy’s movement. While colourful and competently assembled, stages are underbaked as actual spaces, with nothing in the way of small puzzles or NPC side objectives or diversions that would make gameplay more varied. Exploration rarely has a satisfying ‘aha’ quality that defines the best 3D platformers.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Yarn balls, Bubsy 4D’s main collectible and in-game currency, are frequently laid out in plain sight, scattered across rooftops and platforms with little required beyond spotting them and hopping over to collect them. Blueprints are placed behind more involved platforming sequences and are better hidden in the latter half of the game’s 15 stages.
Combat is similarly lightweight. Series staple Woolies serve as standard enemies dispatched in a single hit. Boss fights against cyborg sheep Baabots fare better, with genre-typical three-hit patterns that have you dodge attacks, wait for openings and strike back. They are not especially inventive, but they are mildly challenging and perfectly serviceable.
Visually, garish colour palettes are confidently committed to, but the overall presentation lacks the refinement of stronger platformers. The game’s three worlds each carry a distinct handmade aesthetic, from Yoshi-like yarn-covered crafts to paper-and-ruler themes and more. But its environments too often felt sparse, and large open stretches can look a tad unfinished.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Bubsy’s cel-shaded model is endearing in a Saturday-morning-cartoon way, and gels with the game’s irreverent, fourth-wall-breaking humour. A pointed riff on a certain Italian plumber’s gold star collectible and his cheeky self-appointment as the “orange blur” both land with a knowing wink that got a chuckle out of me, as did a few more of his ironic one-liners.
The voice work is generally solid, too. A looping soundtrack of funky, loungey jazz pieces was similarly agreeable without being especially memorable. There is some minor audio jank, however. Bubsy’s incidental lines occasionally overlapped with other dialogue, while a death-animation quip kept getting cut off when the game reloaded me at a checkpoint.
Performance on Switch 2 is largely stable in both docked and handheld modes with no major issues interrupting play. Whilst I was reviewing the game, a pre-launch patch was issued that addressed a number of bugs and made the visuals look a touch crisper. It was a welcome improvement, but it did not dramatically alter my broader impression.
Conclusion
At $20, Bubsy 4D is a solid budget platformer with levels that are consistently fun, if somewhat underbaked. Admittedly a low bar, it is comfortably the best Bubsy game ever made, with genuinely great controls and speedrunning depth that will reward players who relish climbing leaderboards and shaving seconds off their runtimes.
It’s an easy recommendation for anyone with a soft spot for ’90s mascot platformers or morbid curiosity in the Bubsy franchise. For a series that spent decades as a byword for bad game design, Bubsy 4D is a long-overdue course correction for one of gaming’s most persistently maligned characters and a strong foundation for future titles.
