Category: Nintendo

Look into the crystal ball…

After the bonkers bonanza of Game of the Year and holidays and wrapping up everything in a neat little bow that happens at the end of every year, the slate is finally wiped clean for 2023. This is, arguably, one of the most exciting times in gaming — when the year is fresh and unblemished like newly-fallen snow, and we can dream of what might happen next.

Here at Nintendo Life, we don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have many years of experience, and that’s better than nothing when it comes to predicting what’s next for Nintendo, indies, and the dear ol’ Switch. And fear not, we (mostly) won’t be mentioning the existence or non-existence of the Sw*tch P*o in here — no hardware, only software!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Puzzle Bobble 2 & 3 and Metal Black get the S-Tribute treatment.

Days after teasing its 2023 plans, Taito’s Puzzle Bobble series and Metal Black are coming to the Switch thanks to City Connection and its S-Tribute series (thanks, Gematsu!).

Puzzle Bobble 2X / BUST-A-MOVE 2 Arcade Edition & Puzzle Bobble 3 / BUST-A-MOVE 3 S-Tribute — a collection of both arcade and console versions of Puzzle Bobble 2 and 3 — and Metal Black S-Tribute — a rerelease of the classic side-scrolling shooter — are both coming to the Switch (and other consoles) digitally on 2nd February.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Plus a new squid case!

You might remember in one of 2021’s stranger collaborations, Fujifilm teamed up with Nintendo to let you produce polaroids of your favourite Switch screenshots via the Instax mini Link printer. These snaps could then be personalised with all kinds of Nintendo-themed frames and stickers including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario and Pokémon Snap. Now, Fujifilm has announced that Splatoon will be the next franchise to get in on the polaroid personalisation.

In a new update for the Instax mini Link for Nintendo Switch app (coming 19th January), the squid kids take centre stage as a batch of Splatoon 3-themed stickers and frames ink their way onto the customisation options. Ever wanted to pose with an Octoling in a polaroid (never mind how specific that dream may be)? This is your chance.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Another blast from the past.

Following on from the release of Bubble Bobble at the end of December, Hamster has now officially unveiled its first Arcade Archives release of 2023.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

A numbers game.

The Japanese developer Monolith Soft has been growing in size year after year. In a previous update – dating back to 2021, the company revealed its employee headcount had jumped from 261 (in December 2020) to 272.

As highlighted by Twitter user and gaming enthusiast Stealth, the latest update for 2022 is slightly different – with new annual data revealing the amount of employees at the company has dropped from around 272 staff down to 264 as of December 2022. This is just an interesting fact, and there’s nothing to necessarily worry about.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Pokémon Marry and Pokémon Me.

As a woman who will probably some day have to wear an engagement ring, I have spent some amount of time thinking about what designs I actually like. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of them are designed to tear up any kind of knitted sweater as soon as you put your arms into the sleeves, and I cannot for the life of me understand how this is still a thing. I like wearing knitted sweaters!

The reason I bring this up is because this 1-carat solitaire ring, which comes in all gold, all platinum, and a mix of platinum and gold accents, looks like it was precision-engineered to ruin every single piece of knitwear known to man. However, it is also Pikachu-themed. I am torn.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Special addiction.

When it comes to console special editions, Nintendo takes the biscuit. Whether it’s a colour variant, a game release exclusive, or a nod back to retro consoles of the past, the company is constantly looking for ways to get a ‘new’ model out on the market and, so it seems, get the money out of our pockets.

No more so is this the case than with special edition Zelda designs. Here at Nintendo Life, it’s fair to say that we are fans of the series — hands up, you got us — and a brief survey of our staff revealed a tidy collection of Zelda-themed consoles between us. And this should come as no surprise because a Death Mountain-sized pile of them have been released over the years that positively (Ganon)dwarfs all other series-specific console designs (ok, maybe except Pokémon special editions, though that’s a discussion for another day).

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 4 Golden, and more.

It’s a new year, folks! 2023 is here and if there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s that January is generally a pretty quiet month for gaming in general. Well, this year, the Switch has said “errr no thank you” and gifted us a whole bunch of awesome new releases that we should all be getting excited about!

So what exactly is in the pipeline? Well, check out the above video for a full breakdown from our lovely video producer Felix, and be sure to browse the upcoming games below at your leisure:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Fastemtem your seatbelts.

Last year’s Switch port of the Pokémon-like creature catcher/battler Temtem may not have taken the world by storm quite as rapidly as some expected, but it is fair to say that the team at Crema are working hard to consistently bring improvements to the game (thanks, Go Nintendo).

This progressive eye is continuing into the New Year as the developer has announced that a small update will be coming to the game next week (9th January) and will focus on patching some of the problems that arose with the addition of ver.1.2. These problems included issues with the Switch memory and game crashes amongst others, so it is good to see that the team are working on a solution.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Update: Season 1 Pass, faster load times, and more.

Update : As promised, Skullgirls 2nd Encore’s “massive update” is here!

Available to download on the Switch right now, this new update not only brings the whole of the Season 1 Pass to this edition of the game but also improves load times, online play, and a much-requested balance update to the game’s tournament mode.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com