Category: Nintendo

It’s almost there.

The Switch has been a huge success for Nintendo and it looks like the hybrid system is currently on track to surpass the sales of Sony’s PlayStation 2 in the US.

According to an update from Circana’s executive director and industry advisor Mat Piscatella, as of June 2024, Switch life-to-date US unit sales are now only 1.1 million units away from the PlayStation 2. The Switch is currently the third best-selling unit of all time in the US (since 1995), placing behind the PS2 and Nintendo DS.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Video game sales are up while net sales are down.

Sega has released its Q1 financial report for the three months ending 30th June 2024, and while net sales are down 3.2% year-on-year, the company’s entertainment division (which includes video games) is up 34% (via GamesIndustry.biz).

A large part of this increase has been attributed to the developer’s acquisition of Rovio, the maker of the hugely popular Angry Birds franchise. Sega acquired the company back in August 2023, and it seems to have given it a bit of a boost this quarter, where it made 8.7 billion yen.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

A great vacation, or Natsu much?

In a world where problems and frustrations seem to be around every corner, you might find yourself wanting to escape from it all. Maybe you dream of taking in the Japanese countryside, strolling around in a field of sunflowers, catching some bugs, fishing, all without a worry in sight. Well, if that’s what you’re looking for, and you don’t mind muddy textures, a little funky translation, and blocky 3D models, then this is just the game for you.

Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid takes place in Japan right around the turn of the millennium. August 1999, to be exact. You play as 10-year-old Satoru, who’s traveling with his circus-owning parents, and since you’re only a kid, you aren’t performing and instead have all the free time in the world for the 31 days the circus is in town. Each day follows roughly the same structure. Wake up, eat breakfast, do morning stretches, and then you’re free to do what you please until 5pm, when dinner-munching commences, and afterward, you’ll also have some nightlife hours before you enter dreamland.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Masterful.

Getting the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a highlight. No matter how you come across it — whether by following the Geoglyph sidequest or simply stumbling upon it by chance — it’s a magical moment, and gives you one of the best swords in the game. But what if we told you there was a way to make it even better…?

Fans have managed to find a way to make the Master Sword “unbreakable” via an extremely long and convoluted process of glitches, and YouTuber El Duende 05 has documented the steps in an hour-long video. Yes, an hour (thanks, ReadWrite!).

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

In an effort to reverse tumbling share price.

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly looking to sell a stake in its video game business.

As relayed by VGC, sources speaking to Financial Times claim that the media conglomerate is considering offloading smaller assets of its business in an effort to reverse its falling share price since the merger of Warner Media and Discovery in 2022.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Arriving on Switch next week.

Update :

In addition to the ‘Unholy Alliance‘ local co-op update for Cult of the Lamb, the developer Massive Monster has now announced the ‘Pilgrim Pack‘. This is new paid DLC arriving on the same date as the free update (12th August 2024).

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Spoiler warning!

Earlier this week, we got another look at The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom including a new trailer, new screenshots and some new information. It seems a few other things have also been spotted since then.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

“We’ll see what the future will bring”.

Digital Eclipse might not necessarily be a household name like certain other game studios but the retro specialist has made a name for itself in more recent years with compilations like the Mega Man Legacy Collection, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection.

The company has teamed up with iconic Japanese companies previously, so could we see it work on something related to Nintendo’s first-party releases in the future? According to Digital Eclipse’s Chris Kohler, the door on a possible partnership hasn’t closed, and historically speaking there are already some links. Here’s what he had to say during a chat with VGC:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Wilds of Wisdom.

Did you enjoy that fabulous The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer yesterday? Yep, we did too. So of course we’re going to do a bit of a deep dive.

Beyond the landscape of Hyrule, the horse riding, the smoothie-making, and the Waypoints, we’ve spotted a lot of similarities in Zelda’s adventure with both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Here be dragons.

A couple of years ago, it was notable when the Switch remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were developed not in-house by Game Freak, but by a smaller Japanese support studio called ILCA. That remake project was actually ILCA’s first crack at being the lead developer on a game, and it soon followed this up early last year with One Piece Odyssey, an original JRPG based on the long-running franchise about wacky pirates. Now this release has finally made its way over to the Switch, and we’re happy to report that it’s made the jump almost entirely intact. Though it’s taken a bit of a visual hit, One Piece Odyssey still proves to be an enjoyable and accessible release that’s a welcome addition to the Switch’s considerable RPG library.

The narrative in One Piece Odyssey is a sort of ‘bottle episode’ that follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates crew after they shipwreck upon a mysterious island called Waford. Shortly after arriving, a mysterious figure takes away their power (cutely represented by everyone dropping from level 40 down to 1) and locks it away in various magical cubes scattered across the island. Even when they recover some of the cubes, the only way they can unlock the power contained within is through diving into illusory worlds crafted from their memories and reconquering trials they once faced, although events play out a little differently this time around because of how ‘fuzzy’ memory can be. The crew thus sets out through worlds based on the memories of some of their greatest struggles to reclaim their power and get to the bottom of what’s going on with this strange island.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com