Nintendo Australia Is Closing Down Its eBay Store Later This Month
Nintendo operates in all parts of the world and one of these locations happens to be Australia.
In this same country, the global video game giant has been running an eBay page where fans can purchase Joy-Con battery packs, replacement parts for Labo Kits, amiibo and even 3DS cover plates.
As of 30th November though, the store will no longer be in operation. Here’s the official announcement:
“Product sales on the Nintendo AU/NZ eBay Store will end after 30th November 2020.”
There’s no word if items like Labo replacement parts will be offered elsewhere just yet, but the Australian branch already sells exclusive products to Switch Online members via one of its webpages.
My Nintendo could also use an update in this region to bring it in line with other Nintendo stores like the UK one – so hopefully, something like this finally happens now that the eBay store is closing.
If we hear anything else, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Meet Luke Preece – The Man Behind the New Gears Tactics Poster
ABOUT
Luke Preece is an illustrator based in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom. A child of the 80’s raised on a mixture of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comics, Movies and Metal music.
Clients include 2000 AD Comics, Marvel, Lucas Film, Metallica, Slipknot, Ozzy, Sony Music, Music For Nations, Santa Cruz Skateboards, Metal Hammer, Xbox, Gears of War, Tony Hawk, Activision, Rockstar Energy Drink and more. He also collaborates with various galleries on limited screen-prints for various exhibitions, gig posters and events around the globe.
Let’s get the generic question out of the way – tell us, what are your main influences for your art? How would you describe your art style?
Growing up I was (and still am) a big fan of heavy metal music and a lot of the art that went alongside that. Whether it be album covers, t-shirts, going to shows and just the whole alternative scene in general. I’m sure that sank in from a very young age and came out later through my work. Outside of that, I read comics like 2000 AD. I was lucky enough to work for 2000 AD as a graphic designer for around 9 years. I still continue to work with them as a freelancer on the odd piece of cover art which is great. I also attempted skateboarding, played guitar in bands – which I did for many years then decided to later focus on my art full time. I’m sure all of this has influenced everything I do in some way.
With regards to ‘art style’ – this is something that has organically evolved over years of experimenting and trying different things. I feel it has a graphic detailed feel to it. I tend to work mostly with the screen-print medium in mind. I do a lot of gig posters and t-shirts for bands like Metallica, for example. I’m a big fan of the screen-printing process – which again links back to the art I’ve admired over the years. Whether it be band t-shirts, gig posters or even skateboards – these tended to be screen-printed. I always loved the way it made the art look. The limited colour palettes. Even the smell of the ink. There’s also something very ‘garage / punk rock’ about that way of doing things… which I like.
What do you use to work on and is everything hand-drawn? You post a lot of progress videos with a lot of hand-drawing small details!
Yep, everything is hand drawn from scratch. All artwork is created using Wacom devices with Adobe Photoshop. I use the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24″ with the Wacom Engine. I also use the Mobile Studio Pro 16″ if I’m on the move. I don’t use any fancy tricks, it’s just lots of drawing with one or two basic brushes in Photoshop. Think about it like I’m using a pen on a digital canvas. This is the closest thing to real drawing but done digitally. Before that I would have inked with bush pens and microns… which I still enjoy occasionally.
Do you listen to anything while you’re working? Anything we should check out?
As much as I’m a metal head I do tend to listen to a mixture of genre’s whilst working. Most stuff tends to be from the 90s because I’m old. But there is some newer stuff in there too…
Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, HEALTH, Run The Jewels, Ice T, Turnstile, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Slipknot, Mastodon, David Bowie, Deftones, Kerbdog, Therapy?, Kid Loco, The XX, This Will Destroy You, The Cinematic Orchestra, Silverchair, Daft Punk, Thrice, Baroness, Sepultura (Chaos AD / Arise era) Code Orange, Employed To Serve, Architects, The Cure, Creature, Down, Pantera, Faith No More, Gojira, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Helmet… I mean I could just keep going. Too many to name.
Love a good Podcast too! I can highly recommend Adam Buxton’s Podcast, The Gallery of Everything, Athletico Mince, Off The Beat & Track with Stu Whiffen and Sappenin’ Podcast with Sean Smith to name a few.
What excites you about working on art for Gears of War?
I mean, I’ve played all the games since day 1. So, for me personally it’s an absolute honour to create visuals for the franchise. For that reason, I find it extremely exciting working with the team on new artwork.
Tell us about the Hydra poster – what’s going on inside it?
With previous pieces I’d created individual character Omens which was great but for this one I thought we could go for something that was more ‘scenic’ or ‘in scene’. Something that felt more dramatic and told a story. I wanted the Hydra to dominate the composition then below have the COG soldier atop a hill about to meet his end. Then at the bottom of page / in the foreground litter fallen soldiers, weapons, skulls and destruction. It was really fun putting this together! I’d say it’s probably my most ambitious piece of Gears artwork to date. It took several months to complete… I’m pleased with how it came out.
What’s been your favourite Gears project to work on?
Too many to name but if I had to choose it would probably be the Gears 5 Soundtrack which was released on vinyl through Laced Records. I got to not only do the art for the cover but design the entire package. The graphic designer in me loves taking my illustration and applying it to other things like packaging/box art. I’m very much into putting my stamp on brands and this was really satisfying to do. Very honoured to have my name alongside the Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi also. It just ticked every box for me creatively.
How long does a piece usually take to complete on average, and are you someone who works on multiple pieces at one time?
A piece can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on feedback from the client. Once my rough concepts are approved though I can probably complete the artwork in around 3 – 4 days. Saying that, it varies from project to project. Yes, I do work on multiple pieces at once. I find it helpful to come away from a piece and go back to it with fresh eyes.
Do you play games when you’re not drawing? What games have you been into recently?
I do! I’ve been playing the remastered version of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2, Doom Eternal and Star Wars Squadrons. I also picked up Destiny 2 again recently on Xbox Game Pass. I lost interest in the game for awhile but it’s been fun going back to it again. Lots more content to get my teeth into… And obviously, I play Gears! Although, I’m terrible at multiplayer.
Who do you idolize in the art world? Who would be a dream mentor?
I tend to idolize more musicians than I do artists if I’m honest. Mike Patton is up there… I just think everything that guy does creatively is genius. With regards to artists, Steve Dillon and Jim Phillips are absolute legends.
It’s been a hard year, how has quarantine / COVID-19 impacted your work?
Due to the nature of my work, I’ve been able to still work from home. Some jobs have fallen through here and there but that’s completely understandable… Everything is so up in the air at the moment. I am extremely grateful that I’m able to create and support my family through these tough times. Understandably, a lot of people are in much worse situations than me. I have a lot to be thankful for!
Finally, any advice to any aspiring artists out there?
Whether it’s art or music or whatever your passion is – just keep plugging away. Practice, practice, practice. Talk to people, seek advice. Don’t be afraid to fail because I did. LOTS! You’ve got to pick yourself back up and just keep going. Nothing happens overnight. Maybe, look to get your work in galleries as well… It’s great having an online presence too. Although, I sometimes think because of social media, we live in a world where people want that ‘quick success’ without any of the hard work that goes with it. I’ve been grafting for over 20 years and I’ve still got lots more things I want to do creatively. If you’re passionate about what you do then that’s the main thing. People will notice that passion and who know it might lead on to an exciting project. That’s what happened to me when the Gears team at Microsoft approached me… Also, try and find your own voice. Taking inspiration from others is fine but try and turn into your own thing. It’s an organic process of creating over a long period of time and if something comes out of that is unique to you then own it and make it yours. The possibilities are endless. Most importantly – HAVE FUN DOING IT!
The special edition Hydra poster is now available for pre-order on the Xbox Gear Store.
You can see more of Luke’s artwork on his website and follow him on Instagram.
Gamasutra: Andrew Smith’s Blog – Spilt Milk Devlog 06 – Fascism Fighters 4000 (Part 1)
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FF4K = FASCISM FIGHTERS 4000 = CHANGE
As I cover a little bit in the Milky Q&A this month, the short answer is that the project was started out of anger.
Earlier this year, with the murder of George Floyd in America, equality, racism, and many other topics were brought into sharp focus. It rocked the world, to be honest, and made the team here really question some things. Mix in the Covid-19 lockdown and the political landscape here in the UK, and we couldn’t help but really question what we wanted to do to help – and what we could do.
First came the anger and frustration. How could the world be so callous and cold, and how could donating money be the only thing that happens? Why are people not stepping up and forcing change? If we’re to admit that the system is broken, then why aren’t the people inside the system changing it?
And then came the realisation, that we’re inside the system. We might be tiny, we certainly have a tiny bank balance, but we felt like it was our duty to make a change. You can’t argue back from that. And if we could do something, then imagine what someone with real power and influence could achieve. Maybe we’ll have a huge impact directly from FF4K, or maybe it’s just the first pebble.
To be clear, all of the amazing efforts from the likes of Humble Bundle and Itch and the donations and efforts from companies ranging from Rockstar to Yachtclub games are amazing and to be celebrated and encouraged. We joined in too. But those things do not change the fabric of the world we live in, so they do not have as meaningful an impact as there needs to be.
How to break the cycle? How to create something that makes an indelible, inarguable, and hopefully un-ignorable (surely there’s a word for that… oh it’s ‘unignorable’…) mark on the bullshit system that sees inequality – specifically inequality towards Black people – sustained both intentionally and unintentionally.
HOW WE BEGAN
So what could we do? We’re dreaming big, but the reality is that we don’t have the contacts, the reach, or the money to just do whatever we wanted. We were engaged on work for hire, we were trying to pitch games, and develop our own. We had interns to manage (Project Mercenary yay) and even in the spare time between these important demands, there were all kinds of other peripheral things to distract us as well.
Problem 1 – no money: We decided to donate our time, and that of any other non-Black developer working on the project. We called in favours all over the shop and were met with a wonderful range of help and support.
We couldn’t hire a team to build assets, so we would have to make do with what we have up our sleeves, and that means art, animation, sound design, music, the lot… all of it has to come from something that already exists.
If we were going to spend any money, it would only make sense to spend it on Black talent. We didn’t have a lot, we had to scope carefully and pick the right people, but as you will see I think we managed that fairly and effectively.
Problem 2 – no time: We had to find scraps of time where we could to work on the game. We also couldn’t justify building a game from scratch. It’d take too long. Our initial goal was to be done within a month because we knew time was important for the game to have as big an impact as possible. It’s a sad fact that the focus of the world has moved on from those events, and that’s some of the bullshit we’re trying to fix. But it definitely has a huge effect on us launching in October as opposed to June or July.
Problem 3 – selling on steam, donating, etc:
We had to sell on Steam. That’s where the market is, and it has a lot of functionality that would allow us to make a better game (leaderboards etc) and also to better support it (discussion forums) and promote it (streaming to the store page) compared to any other platform. But releasing the game on Steam brings the nightmare of the platform taking a cut from every sale before we could donate, and we’d be stuck with the whole ‘how much is going to charity?’ thing hanging over what should be a simple, clear message. You buy the game, that money goes to charity. Also, it costs money (see #1) to launch a brand new game on Steam.
Solutions?: Our solution – or actually our only real option considering all of the challenges was to make the game a DLC for the one game we have that could support it. Tango Fiesta.
We’re fully aware it does not have a following on steam. But;
We had a ton of unused assets
Loads of assets that could be remixed/repurposed
Thematically had some shared intent (humour but also social commentary)
We have 100% control over the IP
We have expertise in the genre (more on the design below)
We had recently updated it significantly, so were familiar with the project
A small (ok, tiny) audience built-in
Etc
Black devs & White helpers
To start on a negative here, when canvassing for people to help with this effort, there was a (very sad, depressing, repeated) vein of ‘I’m not going to touch anything political’, especially from the pr/marketing side of things.
On the positive side regardless of that, we found some absolute champions who said ‘fuck that noise’ and totally delivered.
I want to be clear that we’re not dismissing those other concerns here, either – I totally understand how ‘political content’ can be toxic and damaging. But it is a real shame, and it is absolutely a symptom and at the same time a contributing cause of the very problem we’re trying to help fix.
So how did we approach getting Black developers on board? Well, we treated it like any other job. That’s kinda the point of equality. We defined the roles we needed, and then we put out a job post, and reached out to some of the people we’ve worked with to try and fill the roles.
We knew the game would need a strong identity, and whilst we’d scoped the design to make sure we didn’t need new ingame assets, a brand new logo would be a huge win, and of course, helps to define the whole game. We had to take cues from the original Tango Fiesta logo of course, but we knew just the man for the job – Jason St Paul, who we’d worked with before on an unreleased prototype, is a brilliant talent and he absolutely SMASHED it out of the park.
Early pencil concepts, with a punching fist, and three bullet variations, playing with the T shape a lot.
Playing with colours, and the first blush of the rainbow element. The positivity to combat the darkness of the ‘fascism’ element.
More bold colour ideas, this time going with gold fill to really sell the upbeat vibes. We had focused around the fist here, but in the end it came too close to the Black Power symbol, and so we did not pursue this route any farther.
Specific noodling around the construction of the bullet and damage, making sure to keep the logo readable. We felt this was the most dynamic of the ideas so far.
The finished piece. Love it! Stepped a touch closer to the existing Tango Fiesta logo with the stars on either side, and stands on its own as a legit piece of work!
And of course, as sensible and responsible adults, we scoped the need for a Cultural Sensitivity Consultant to ensure that we hit some of our creative goals, without being dickheads. It’s all well and good using our white privilege to make this project happen, but it would all be for naught if we did so disrespectfully or disingenuously.
We also knew we’d need a ton of help with writing and tone, as we know the Tango Fiesta universe is one full of humour, which gives us plenty of ways to put our foot in our mouth – but there was a need for Black cultural references to be front and centre, as well as the political element being a core element whilst not being brow-beating.
We ended up with more than 10 applicants for the two roles but, due to the overlap in skills we considered combining the roles and ended up hiring Lillian Martin to handle both jobs. She wrote and edited all of the text in the game, was a brilliant sounding board for ideas from the get-go, steering us towards tasteful and respectful content that still hit home thematically – both in terms of the Black experience and also the political message. This extended to the Steam store page, and checking the press release. She even roped her mum in when it came to sourcing some good quotes for the Slams, which is amazing!
Game Design
First, a stream of thematic and topical musings…
We were angry (still are!). That anger cannot possibly compare to what the Black community must feel. Social unrest is often par for the course when it comes to society taking change into its own hands. We had to be somewhat sensitive to a very complex and incendiary topic. We wanted to give Black gamers some cathartic fun. We wanted it to be relevant though, not dismissive. It wouldn’t be one of our games if it didn’t have a sense of humour, or a sense of mischief. It had to be fast to make, but feature a rewarding amount of depth and play. It couldn’t be ‘cheap’ or come across as some opportunistic ploy. It would have to be markedly different and separate from the main Tango Fiesta game modes.
Of course a huge element of the game is limiting the playable characters to Black and Latina – Macmillan, Dr Henk and Conchita. Doing otherwise would undermine a lot of the work we’re trying to do.
I’m sure there’s more, but that gives an idea of the design space we were in. So, we settled on a single-level game focused on fighting Fascist fuckwads as the main hook, and set in a future where the Alt-Right and Fascists (the same thing, really) had taken over, and it was down to you, playing as one of the Heroes of Colour from the base game, to fight back!
We really wanted protest and social/political activism to be at the heart of it too, so we came up with the Squad Up mechanic. The idea of building a ‘protest’ or crowd of revolutionaries as your fight carries on to increase the power of your fight, and to really give the player something to work towards in the midgame sat really well with us.
We wanted Waves to form the structure of the game too, so that we could really hand balance the start of the game, and give players a sense of progression on a more granular scale. Once we implemented them, we realised there was a lot going on and no tutorial (nor room for one!) so we introduced an element we had half-built for the main game but never released. The Slam Badges are the very arcade-y text announcements of various key moments in the game – getting a new squad member, a squad member dying, hitting a new high score, etc.
The quotes that accompany every Slam are a personal favourite element! We agonised over getting them right, and Lillian’s recommendations and steering as completely invaluable here.
We also differentiated from the core TF experience by changing the amount of HP you get from Health Packs, which makes the game a little tougher, and also forcing the player into swapping weapons randomly rather than picking up ammo. This keeps them on their toes, and different weapons obviously have different positives and negatives. Adapting to the challenges and opportunities, and combining that with surprise, really leads to some fun moments. It even changes as the game mode goes on, the clearest example being the Rocket Launcher. Essentially useless in the early game as the player has to be pin-point accurate to use it and the reload time can easily scupper your combo… but later on, if you’ve got huge crowds of enemies and a high combo, taking out 5-10 enemies in one shot can really make the difference to your score.
We also have a ton of ideas that never made the cut! Things like a powerup that temporarily doubles your Squad size, or having enemies that die in the toxic goo splashed around the level turn into horrid zombies. Who knows, we might get the chance to keep updating it!
The score chasing was always there – there’s a pretty natty combo system in Tango Fiesta, and leaderboards are as close to ‘free’ as you can get thanks to Steam – but we refocused towards it late in development, adding the HUD elements and associated Slams. This was crucial, in that it gave the longer-term players a goal that was ultimately missing, and hopefully contributes to a healthy community.
END OF PART 1
And there we end!
Keep an eye out soon for part 2, where we go into the post mortem – what went Right and what went Wrong – plus the launch, reception, and plans for the future!
THANKS FOR READING!
You can get into these posts early – and some other exclusive ones – over on our Patreon. You can buy the game here and donate to great causes in the process!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-16-2020, 03:15 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Valve adds extensive developer commentary to Half-Life: Alyx
Valve has added a three-hour long developer commentary to Half-Life: Alyx that delves into how the acclaimed VR adventure came to be.
The commentary is available to all Half-Life: Alyx owners right now, and features over three hours of audio from the development team “covering every aspect of design.” Better yet, the commentary supports subtitles in over 10 languages, so it should be fairly accessible.
As explained in a trailer uploaded to YouTube by Valve, players can access the commentary by grabbing ‘commentary nodes’ that appear in-game as floating holograms. The short preview posted online features the dev team chatting about a huge swathe of design elements including combat, character performances, level creation, VR controls, audio, and animation — so it looks no stone was left unturned.
Overall, the recordings promise to be incredibly insightful for anybody even vaguely interested in game development, so be sure to check them out if you own the game.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-16-2020, 03:15 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
PS5 Wishlist: Improvements We Want To See
After months of anticipation, Sony's PS5 is finally out now. Although it's only just now getting into the hands of eager fans, we've had the chance to interface with the console for quite some time. In our testing, we began to consider what Sony could do to further improve its next-generation console, whether it be through firmware updates or future hardware iterations.
Below we detail our biggest wishes for PS5 after using the console for a few weeks and what we think would help the PS5 shine even brighter than it already does. As a note, this article is focused more on the console from a feature-set or quality-of-life standpoint, so don't expect any wishes about specific game franchises coming back.
After you're done reading, be sure to jump into the comments to share your biggest wishes for the console moving forward. If you're still on the fence about buying one, read our PS5 review. And if you're looking to get a PS5, be sure to check out our PS5 buying guide, where we offer the latest updates on which retailers have the console back in stock.
So, can you use a function with or without return value as an expression inside a list comprehension?
Answer: You can use any expression inside the list comprehension, including functions and methods. An expression can be an integer 42, a numerical computation 2+2 (=4), or even a function call np.sum(x) on any iterable x. Any function without return value, returns None per default. That’s why you can even call functions with side effects within a list comprehension statement.
Here’s an example:
[print('hi') for _ in range(10)] '''
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi
hi '''
You use the throw-away underscore _ because you want to execute the same function ten times. If you want to print the first 10 numbers to the shell, the following code does the trick:
[print(i) for i in range(10)] '''
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 '''
Let’s have a look at the content of the list you just created:
lst = [print(i) for i in range(10)]
print(lst)
# [None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None, None]
The list contains ten None values because the return value of the print() function is None. The side effect of executing the print function within the list comprehension statement is that the first ten values from 0 to 9 appear on your standard output.
Walrus Operator
Python 3.8 has introduced the walrus operator, also known as the assignment expression. This operator is useful if executing a certain function has side effects that you don’t want. For example, if you have a string creation method inside the list comprehension statement, conditioned by some filtering criterion in the if suffix. Without the walrus operator, Python would execute this same routine multiple times—even though this is highly redundant. You can avoid this redundancy by assigning it to a variable s once using the walrus operator and reusing this exact variable in the expression.
import random def get_random_string(): return f'sss {random.randrange(0, 100)}' # Goal: Print all random strings that contain 42 # WRONG
lst = [get_random_string() for _ in range(1000) if '42' in get_random_string()]
print(lst)
# ['sss 74', 'sss 13', 'sss 76', 'sss 13', 'sss 92', 'sss 96', 'sss 27', 'sss 43', 'sss 80'] # CORRECT
lst = [s for _ in range(1000) if '42' in (s := get_random_string())]
print(lst)
# ['sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42', 'sss 42']
With the walrus operator s := get_random_string(), you store the result of the function call in the variable s and retrieve it inside the expression part of the list comprehension. All of this happens inside the list comprehension statement.
I teach these concepts in my exclusive FINXTER email academy—join us, it’s free!
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BlockBench is a free 3d modelling, texturing and animation application for creating Minecraft style models. Blockbench is available on Windows, Mac and Linux, as well online.
Blockbench features include:
Blockbench is an all in one 3D Editor and Animator for Minecraft and other games and applications
Blockbench comes with a powerful animation editor. Animations can later be exported to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, rendered in Blender or Maya, or shared on Sketchfab.
Customize Blockbench with the built-in plugin store. Or create your own plugin and add a new feature or new format.
Collaborate with your friends on models, textures and animations – in real time, over the internet!
Blockbench is available in 12 languages, and the number is growing.
Create, edit and paint texture right inside the program. Create or import palettes, paint, draw shapes or automatically create templates.
You can learn more about Blockbench and see it in action in the video below.
Leaker teases holiday Apple ‘surprise’ is on the way
A serial Apple leaker has warned Apple has a “Christmas surprise” on the way, but it is unclear if the puzzling tease relates to a physical product, a sale or promotion, or something else.
Posted to Twitter on Saturday, leaker “@L0vetodream” told followers “You’ll get a Christmas surprise from Apple.” The tweet didn’t state what it was, but offered clues by claiming it is “Winter exclusive” and “good for winter.”
While the leaker often provides accurate leaks for unreleased Apple products, they are typically easier to understand and work out than in the latest cryptic tweet. A follow-up post highlighted that they didn’t mention what the “Christmas gift” was nor the date of its release, and that it was “a game, a riddle game” for their followers.
You’ll get a Christmas surprise from ApplePSWinter exclusivegood for winter
Considering it would be unwise for Apple to launch hardware products over the holiday shopping period, and that it has just completed three months of product launch events, it seems extremely unlikely for something like “AirTags” or “AirPods Studio” to launch and go on sale during that time.
Since that basically rules out the majority of physical items, that leaves Apple with providing something software or data-based to consumers.
This would present a big opportunity for Apple to promote its Services business to consumers, by offering something from it for free. Possible candidates include special content on Apple TV+ that’s free to view, or free content from the App Store, both of which could easily cover the “Winter exclusive” hint.
There’s also an outside chance Apple could relaunch its “12 Days of Gifts” promotion, an annual tradition that ceased in 2014.
Lastly, the mention of a “Christmas surprise” could be a reference to Apple’s 2019 holiday ad campaign, one called “The Surprise.”
With the weekend now finally upon us, though, it’s time to discuss our weekend gaming plans. Members of Nintendo Life have done just that below, and we’d love for you to join in via our comment section below. Enjoy!
Stuart Gipp, reviewer
Happy weekend, Nintendo Lifers. I’m pecking away at Chicken Police (review imminent) and Serious Sam Collection (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!), but most of my Nintendo time this week has been taken up by my eBaying reams and reams of old Game Boy and Game Boy Color games in order to revisit my childhood.
I bought myself a modded Game Boy Color and have had a whale of a time going back to all the stuff I used to play after school – you know, stuff like Gremlins 2 and Bart Simpson’s Escape From Camp Deadly. It ain’t great but it was yours, damnit. I wish Nintendo would hurry up and either put Game Boy on the Switch Online service, or get on with a Game Boy Classic Mini. Show that grey brick some love.
Also some Switch action with the world’s wildest police chases in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered and the hardcore mecha action of Hardcore Mecha. My game of the week is the latest way to purchase and play Super Mario Bros., coinciding with my entry into this next generation of consoles since I will be playing it on my brand new Game & Watch. Fits snugly in my pocket too!
Ryan Craddock, news editor
At a time when others are enjoying their shiny new Xbox and PlayStation consoles, I’ve gone back in time to play 2008’s Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia on the good old Nintendo DS.
I played the original game back when it released, but I’d never picked up the sequels and my partner surprised me with a copy of this one for my birthday last month (thank goodness for the used games market, huh?). If we’re being honest, I’m obviously playing through it just to experience it rather than to be blown away by it, but I must say it’s been really nice to play on a DS again after all this time.
It’s also making me crave a new playthrough of Pokémon HeartGold and Soulsilver, though, and for the sake of keeping up with current games, I simply can’t afford to let that happen!
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…