One of Sonic’s most beloved 3D outings is now available on PC

Sonic Colours: Ultimate is finally available on PC.

Feature: Our Predictions For The February 2023 Nintendo Direct

Zelda! Pikmin! …Metroid..?

What’s that, you say? There’s going to be another Nintendo Direct? Great Scott! This is heavy…

Yes, Nintendo is back with another showcase focusing on games launching in the first half of 2023. Well, mostly… Hi there, Metroid Prime 4. Hi… Please show yourself. Please?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

5 Ways Minecraft Legends Twists PvP into a Brand New Action-Strategy Experience

Minecraft Legends, the upcoming game from Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive is “not your normal strategy game,” according to Principal Design Director, Craig Leigh. Appearing on the Xbox Podcast last week, Leigh dove into multiple ways the new title (coming on April 18 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC (Steam & Windows), Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4|5) offers a very new twist on the genre. “We get that all time,” he explained, “People are like, ‘This is not the game I thought it was, this is an action game!’, and that’s what I love about it.”

When you’re blending genres, you need to come up with fresh ideas for how it will work, not least in Minecraft Legends’ 4v4 PvP mode, which was introduced during the Developer_Direct last month. The developers have come up with multiple ways to do that, and Leigh explained several of the ways PvP has been innovated on in this new twist on the formula.

Fast Travel

Not something you’d necessarily associate with strategy games, Minecraft Legends introduces a fast travel system to help players balance the various activities they’ll need to do to conquer their enemies. While base building is a key part of the picture, players will also need to venture out, explore, gather resources, and attack enemies to win a round – and that means offering them an easy way home to keep their base safe.

“So if you’re out in the world and you’re far away from your base and you hear that you’re under attack, you can fast travel,” Leigh explained. “So you can open the map, click on your base and go ‘whoosh’, be back home really quickly, because we didn’t want players running, panicked, ‘oh I can’t get back home in time’.”

Fast travel doesn’t just apply to player-characters, either. “If you’re at home as well, and you get attacked, you can go to a spawn and recall units, units that are out in thew world that maybe aren’t doing anything, you can call them back quickly to your base,” Leigh added. “You’re not running around looking for them, ‘Where are those Cobblestone Golems?’, you can just pull them back to help you with defence.”

PvPvE

It’s clear that Minecraft Legends will have players doing a lot during rounds, but its NPCs are pretty busy too – and may even offer players new ways to take down their opponents’ base:

“The thing I think people will be most surprised about is the game’s PvP, but there’s a little PvE in there as well,” Leigh revealed. “The Piglins [the enemies in the game’s story-led campaign] are also in PvP, and the Piglins do whatever the Piglins want. So the Piglins are attacking both teams, and there’s a day-night cycle going on during the battles, but the Piglins attack more ferociously at night – so do you time your strategy when the Piglins attack at night and wait for them to break the walls down and sneak in? So you’re not only dealing with the other team, you’re dealing with the Piglins are well.”

The Ping System

With a shared pool of resources, multiple activities to do, and attacks on multiple fronts, communication is key in Minecraft Legends’ PvP. Thankfully, the team has a neat solution for that, beyond the expected:

“We also have ping system,” Leigh said. “It’s really important to work together, because you’re sharing resources and so with the ping system you can say, ‘I want to build a Redstone Launcher’, and the team go, ‘OK, let’s save up our Redstone. Or you could be like, ‘I want coal!’, and so people go ‘OK let’s save up our coal’. You can use voice chat, and it’s great, but also we wanted to make sure there was a system that people could give out the basic commands because you are sharing resources.”

Game Time

Seasoned strategy players will be used to multiplayer matches that can take a very long time to finish, battling through stalemates to earn a hard-earned victory. Minecraft Legends wants to offer that same experience, but in a more manageable time frame, letting players constantly start new games, with procedurally generated maps offering fresh experiences every time they play.

“We’ve worked really hard, so games last between 20 and 30 minutes,” Leigh explained. “It does depend on the strategy; if teams have a crazy strategy they might win earlier if they take the team by surprise, or if both teams decide, ‘We’re going to build bastions with stone walls and massive towers,’ then the games might go on a little bit longer.

“But we’ve been working really hard to balance the games this way, because we don’t want it to be a 14-day siege of the Blue Team, and so our longer games have lasted around 30 minutes. It’s an old-fashioned thing to think about, but we wanted players to get two games in in a lunchtime, be able to play a couple of games in they were playing in their lunch. “

Cross-Platform Ease

Strategy games are traditionally the dominion of PC, but Minecraft Legends is coming out on every major gaming platform, simultaneously. In doing that, the team’s worked to make sure that not only can you play with anyone, on any platform, but that no one will be disadvantaged by playing on a specific machine.

“We thought it was really important, regardless of what platform you’re on that you could play together, we want as many players as possible playing together,” Leigh made clear.

“It doesn’t matter where you play, on launch day you’ll be able to play on any of those platforms in PvP and it plays perfectly on any platform. The way we’ve designed it there’s no advantage to be on a keyboard and mouse versus a controller, it’s not a first-person shooter or anything, so it’s been designed that way, so it’s perfect for cross-platform play. We thought that was really important, so we’ve designed it that way.”

And with a huge pool of players across platforms and continents playing together, that just means there will be more twists to PvP that even the developers can’t see coming.

“I’m particularly excited to see the crazy strategies that people come up with in PvP,” finished Leigh. “Because we think we’ve done everything and then someone will come in and just do something crazy that we haven’t thought of. We all joke on the team that we’re going to be good at the PvP for about and hour and then all the community will just crush us because they’ll come up with new strategies.”

Minecraft Legends launches April 18 on Windows PC (day one with PC Game Pass), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One (day one with Xbox Game Pass), Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

Minecraft Legends – Windows

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

The piglins’ Nether corruption is spreading across the Overworld, scorching everything it touches. Are you the hero who will protect this gentle land? Plan your strategy and face the piglins in epic battles – but be warned: they always fight back. Take on piglin bases by day and defend your allies after dusk. Explore lush biomes filled with treasures and perils, meet new friends, and reunite with familiar mobs. With the allays by your side, all that’s left to do is save the world.

Experience an epic legend from the Minecraft universe and the Overworld as you’ve never seen it before

Form alliances with new friends and familiar mobs, then lead the charge in epic battles against the fierce piglins to defend the Overworld

Traverse a lush, dynamic world that’s rich in resources and different in each playthrough

Challenge your friends or team up in intense battles as you defend your village while leading your units to destroy your opponents’ settlements

Daily Deals: 50% Off Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Up to 15% Off Hogwarts Legacy, $50 Off Apple AirPods Pro, and More

Today’s daily deals include several Apple devices, including the newest Apple AirPods Pro, and several of the newest Apple iPads. You can also save on the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch, the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game for all platforms, a fantastic ASUS ROG Scar Strix RTX 3080 gaming laptop, and more.

PlayStation 5 Finally In Stock on Amazon

Amazon is finally letting you buy a PS5 console without an invite. The PS5 God of War Bundle (Disc Edition) is currently the only model available without requiring an invitation. That means Amazon now joins the ranks of Walmart, Best Buy, and Target who have already had PS5 consoles in stock. For Amazon Prime cardholders, that’s great news because now you can get 5% Amazon cashback on this deal. If you’re an Amazon Prime member and you don’t have the Prime card, you’re missing out. The Price card has no annual fee and gives you 5% cashback on all Amazon purchases.

Out February 10: Preorder Hogwarts Legacy, Get a $10 Best Buy Gift Card

The highly anticipated Hogwarts Legacy game, an open world adventure that takes place in the Wizarding World in the late 1800s, has an imminent release date of February 10. Right now the only way to get a discount on the console version is at Best Buy. If you preorder the standard edition on either Xbox or PlayStation, you get a bonus $10 Best Buy digital gift card. Check out our review for our impression of the game.

Hogwarts Legacy for PC for $50.59

Green Man Gaming has the best deal on the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game for PC. Pick up the Standard Edition for only $50.99 or the Deluxe Edition for only $59.49. That’s a 15% discount on one of the most anticipated games of 2023. It’s out this coming Friday but anyone who gets the Deluxe edition can start playing now!

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope for Switch for $29.99

This is the first time we’ve ever seen the price drop this low. Amazon has the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch for only $29.99, a massive 50% price drop. If you liked the first Mario + Rabbods game, I think you will love Sparks of Hope. I personally played and enjoyed Kingdom Battle, but Sparks of Hope is, in my opinion, a much more polished game. Mario + Rabbids is an XCOM-like turn based tactical strategy game that’s different from your standard Mario fare. It’s also a lot more challenging than the cute creature outfits might suggest.

2nd Gen Apple AirPods Pro for $199

The 2nd gen Apple AirPods Pro truly wireless noise cancelling earbuds is back down to Black Friday pricing. Amazon currently has it for $199, a price drop of $50. The Apple AirPods Pro is one of the best sounding “truly wireless” earbuds you’ll find, especially at this price point. “Truly wireless” earbuds have no wires whatsoever, even to each other. In addition to the excellent sound quality, the AirPods Pro is the only AirPods earbuds with active noise cancelling technology.

New 2022 Apple iPad (10.9″, WiFi, 64GB) for $399

This is the first time we’ve seen a discount on the 2022 Apple iPad, which was released at the end of October 2022. It’s normally $449 but Amazon has the Pink color only for $399, undoubtedly a Valentine’s Day focused price drop. The new iPad has a host of upgrades from previous models, including a newer A14 Bionic chip, larger 10.9″ screen size, and the universal USB Type-C port now replacing the proprietary Lightning port.

2022 Apple iPad Air (10.9″, Wi-Fi, 64GB) for $499.99

Back down to the best price we saw during Black Friday. The 2022 Apple iPad Air was released in March of 2022 with a $599 MSRP. It represents a healthy upgrade to the 10.2-inch iPad in nearly all aspects. It boasts a larger screen size (10.9″ vs 10.2″) with both True Tone and P3 wide color. It has the same powerful Apple M1 chip found in the 2021 iPad Pro. Despite the more powerful hardware, the iPad Air is roughly the same size as the 10.2-inch iPad (thanks to the slimmer bezel) and weighs a bit less as well. Charging is done through the universal USB Type-C connector.

2021 Apple iPad Mini (8.3″, Wi-Fi, 64GB) for $399.99

This is easily the best price for the still current 2021 Apple iPad Mini. Don’t be fooled by it’s smaller footprint; it boasts superior hardware to the standard sized Apple iPad. The iPad Mini features an 8.3″ Liquid Retina display with True Tone and Wide Color, the capable A15 Bionic processor, USB Type-C port for fast charging, and Apple Pencil 2 compatiblity. If you’re looking for a powerful iPad that’s easiest to carry around, the iPad Mini is your pick.

GeForce RTX 4090 Starting at $1649.99

Here are two RTX 4090s at or close to MSRP! The stock RTX 4090 normally sells for $1599.99. However, both the MSI Gaming X Trio and the PNY XLR8 come overclocked right out of the box, which accounts for the small surcharge. Everybody knows by now that the RTX 4090 is the undisputed king of the hill. It’s significantly more powerful than any other NVIDIA card out there. It’s laughably more powerful than any AMD card, thanks to its support for DLSS 3.0 and it’s marvelous domination of ray tracing tech.

ASUS ROG Scar Strix 15″ AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX RTX 3080 Gaming Laptop for $1669.99

Amazon is offering a fantastic deal on this ASUS ROG Scar Strix gaming laptop. It features an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, RTX 3080 GPU 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The GeForce RTX 3080 provides plenty of muscle on the GPU front. It’s the most powerful mobile GPU available. Compared to desktop variants, it’s roughly comparable to the RTX 3060.

55″ TCL 4-Series 4K Roku TV for $268

Here’s a 55″ TCL 4K TV with the excellent Roku smart TV interface at an excellent price. The TCL 4-series is a no frills TV with a limited set of features but, more importantly, still offers good 4K image quality. It also fares well in gaming at 4K thanks to its low input lag. The Roku smart interface is intuitive to use and every bit as good as a Google TV or Fire TV.

BOGO 50% Off at Target Includes New Releases Like Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol, and Forspoken

Target’s Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off deal on select video games is back, and there are some great choices up for grabs. This time around, the offer includes a trio of very recent games: the Dead Space remake, Square Enix’s Forspoken, and The Callisto Protocol. If you want to grab two of these three recent releases, you can do so through this deal to save a good chunk of change. Plus, other 2022 games like Sonic Frontiers, Elden Ring, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and more are also included.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

Anker MagGo 621 5,000mAh Magnetic Battery for iPhone for $34.99

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If you don’t want to plunk down $100 for an official Apple MagSafe battery, then Anker has the next best thing. The Anker MagGo 621 boasts a 5,000mAh battery capacity and is MagSafe compatible. The magnets are strong enough to stick directly to your iPhone or a MagSafe case. The iPhone 14 has an internal 3300mAh battery and the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4300mAh battery, so the Anker MagGo should easily give either phone at least an extra full charge worth of battery life.

New 2022 Apple MacBook Pro with M2 Chip for $1396

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A 2022 Apple MacBook Pro laptop featuring the brand new Apple M2 chip in on sale today. Amazon has a 13″ model for $1396, a substantial 18% price drop from its $1699 MSRP. The new M2 chip is about 20% more powerful than the previous generation M1 chip, which was already faster than any other CPU found on previous Apple MacBook laptops. The M2 chip is also extremely power efficient, with this laptop boasting up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge. In addition to the new M2 CPU, this laptop features a gorgeous 13″ Retina display with P3 wide color, 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Toss A V-Buck To Your Witcher, Geralt Of Rivia Slashes Onto Fortnite Today

New quests and items available.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that at some point in each of our lives we will become a playable character in Fortnite. The crossovers have covered everything from Black Adam to John Cena and now it is the turn of Geralt of Rivia to take up the sword as The Witcher crossover leaps from the Battle Bus today.

There are a selection of quests that you Battle Pass owners will have to complete in order to unlock the Geralt outfit, all of which are available in the game right now. From defeating bosses and completing bounties to doing emotes in specific locations, details of the quests were shared in the latest Fortnite blog post, but you can also check out each of the tasks below:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Prepare for Destiny 2: Lightfall with the Beyond Light expansion, available with PlayStation Plus

With only a few weeks away from the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall, we’re excited to announce that starting today, the critically acclaimed Beyond Light expansion is available to PlayStation Plus members until March 6. This primer will help Guardians prepare for Lightfall by getting the most out of Beyond Light’s Stasis subclass, powerful Exotics, and more.

Not only does Beyond Light unlock an entire frost-themed subclass called Stasis, the expansion also includes a thrilling campaign filled with ice-cold cosmetics, Legendary gear, and powerful Exotic armor and weapons.

Wield Powerful Weapons

Weapons like No Time to Explain, the Exotic Pulse Rifle belonging to the iconic time-traveling Stranger.

No Time to Explain: Precision hits and hits against enemies affected by Stasis will return ammo to the magazine. Stack this effect to summon a portal which will fire bullets from an alternate timeline of the weapon.

And because of how Destiny 2 enables you to increase the strength of the weapons and armor you collect, the gear you love in Beyond Light can be as powerful as you want it to be as you embark on your Lightfall adventure. That means you can immediately start building your Guardian into a frost-slinging monster-shattering machine that will leave the Tormentors on Neptune shivering in their boots.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; Lightfall doesn’t launch until February 28. Today we’re heading to Europa, a cold and treacherous moon of Jupiter. So, let’s start with the power that Eramis, the Kell of Darkness, is chasing—the same power you’ll be mastering as you play through the campaign.

The First Darkness Subclass: Stasis

Beyond Light is significant for several reasons, but first and foremost, it marked the first time a new subclass was added to the original trio of Arc, Solar, and Void. And it’s the only subclass that draws its power from the Darkness as opposed to the Light. Diving into Beyond Light today is your opportunity to get a head start with Stasis in preparation for the threats of Lightfall.

At its core, Stasis is a power that unlocks the ability for Guardians to slow, freeze, and shatter their foes; and each class gets their own way to wield the new element:

Warlock Shadebinder: The Shadebinder can summon a Stasis staff that fires projectiles which can freeze opponents, immediately rendering them immobile. Their Penumbral Blast melee is a quick burst of Stasis energy that erupts from the staff and instantly freezes anyone it hits.

Hunter Revenant: They can’t kill what they can’t hit. Hunters use the power of Stasis to slow down foes, doubling their effectiveness on the battlefield. The Hunter’s Super features a pair of Kama blades which explode when thrown at opponents, summoning a Stasis storm that chases down stragglers.

Titan Behemoth: If getting up close and personal with the bad guys sounds like your style, may we introduce you to the Titan Behemoth? The Behemoth takes the most direct route to conflict resolution: forming a massive Stasis crystal gauntlet around their fist and punching their way to peace.

Destination: Europa

It’s on Jupiter’s moon of Europa that you’ll uncover Stasis as well as Eramis, the Kell of Darkness, and her Fallen army. As you play through Beyond Light’s story, you’ll discover her motives and a dark plot unfolding right at humanity’s doorstep.

In addition to the campaign which will take you all across Europa, through Empire Hunts and Exo Challenges, there’s also a new three-player strike and six-player raid.

The Glassway: Within the Asterion Abyss on Europa lies a Braytech facility holding a unique Vex portal. Eramis has ventured here intending to use this long-dormant gateway for an unknown purpose.

Deep Stone Crypt: Deep beneath the surface of Europa lies a facility created during the Golden Age. The knowledge of what it holds was lost to time… until now. Something within this hidden cavern whispers to Eramis. As she struggles to gain access, Guardians will intervene, and in the process, learn the dark truth about what happened here.

Up for the challenge? Ready to stand face to face with the power that whispers to you from the dark cold wasteland? Then we should probably upgrade your weapons and armor…

Exotic Power

From a Sniper Rifle that summons lightning to Warlock gauntlets that corrupt enemies with poison, here’s a look at three of the over ten new Exotics you can start collecting today for your mission to Neomuna in Lightfall.

Cloudstrike: Precision final blows will generate lightning bolts at the target location. Rapid precision shots will summon an entire storm at the point of impact.

Necrotic Grip: Melee attacks corrupt combatants with increasing damage over time. Defeating a corrupted combatant spreads the corruption to nearby targets and restores melee energy.

The Lament: Block with The Lament to rev the blade, then shred through shielded combatants. At its peak, damaging a combatant will heal the wielder.

Some Exotics (like Necrotic Grip) are so powerful that you can create entirely new builds around them, and others easily slot into whatever playstyle you’re into at the moment.

Beyond Lightfall

This is all just the tip of the iceberg. Once Lightfall launches and introduces the world to Strand (Destiny’s second Darkness subclass—that has a grappling hook, by the way), you’ll have brand new ways to approach Europa with a completely different build. Including mixing and matching Beyond Light Exotics with Strand abilities and vice versa.

Just imagine suspending enemies with Strand and revving up your Lament for a power attack, or freezing a Tormentor in its tracks with Stasis. Once you’re a grappling-hook pro, how cool would it be to fly through the platforming sections of the Deep Stone Crypt using Strand? The possibilities are only limited by your creativity.

In fact, you should probably just keep track of everything you think a grappling hook would be cool to shoot at.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light is available for all PlayStation Plus members to redeem until March 6, 2023, and keep for the life of their membership. It requires the base Destiny 2 game to play, but the good thing is that it’s available with no additional charge from PlayStation Store.*

Download and start playing today. We hope you enjoy your time on Europa and get ready for the next chapter coming in Lightfall. Our end is just beginning, and humanity needs every available Guardian to answer the call.

*PlayStation Plus membership may be required to access some features.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Is on Sale for $29.99

Here’s a great deal on an excellent game that many Switch owners slept on when it first came out. The colorful, turn-based strategy game Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is on sale at Amazon for $29.99 right now. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on this game. Also, it’s unclear how long the sale will last, so grab it if you’ve had your eye on it.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Deal

This Nintendo Switch exclusive is a sequel to the 2017 game Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. But instead of doing a copy-paste job, Ubisoft brings a bunch of major changes and improvements to this crossover sequel. The overworld is expanded and sprinkled with puzzles. Battles are more dynamic this time around, thanks in large part to new movement mechanisms that let you cross the map quickly, giving you tons of leeway in your battle strategy.

Also mixing things up is the addition of Sparks, critters you collect and equip in order to broaden your characters’ ability sets. Sparks let you do everything from adding elemental charges to your attacks to reviving fallen teammates. You can equip two Sparks to each character, creating clever and powerful combos, if you play your cards right.

In our Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope review, critic Dan Stapleton scored it 9/10, writing:

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope takes the excellent tactical combat ideas of Kingdom Battle and runs absolutely wild with them. Its goofy characters still have the ability to bounce off of each other, but they’re now free of the rigid grid and wonderfully customizable thanks to the mix-and-match Sparks that give them new and reliably interesting powers. Between fights you get to catch your breath in the large and brilliantly colorful open worlds, solving its light puzzles and being puzzled yourself by its oddball story. It’s extremely gratifying to play an ambitious sequel that fixes all of the main issues I had with the original, and then some.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.

Reality Bytes: Blade And Sorcery will make you a better sword-fighter and a worse person

Blade And Sorcery, a VR game about hacking people to death in a virtual environment. How fortunate!

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon – The First Preview

After three games of air juggles, pistol dances, hair-centric finishing moves, and universal acclaim from both critics and fans, PlatinumGames is dramatically remodeling the established Bayonetta formula. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is arriving only five months after the release of the erstwhile Bayonetta 3, and it brazenly trades in its third-person, button-mashing precepts for what is, essentially, a straight-up Zelda facsimile in the Super Nintendo tradition. The camera has been yanked back to an isometric vantage point, the levels are deliberately balanced between doses of environmental puzzle solving, tricky combat, and light platforming, and the sweatless, stylish tone of the mother series has been replaced with a somber tale about a vulnerable girl in an uncaring world. It is, in other words, the last thing you’d expect from a game bearing the Bayonetta name. That will undoubtedly turn off some fans of the franchise, but personally, I already can’t wait to play more.

Platinum starts subverting your expectations from the moment you get your hands on Bayonetta Origins. The game is played by piloting two distinct characters, by using a detached Joy-Con in each hand. On your left, you have Cereza — a younger, softer Bayonetta — who is just becoming accustomed to her nascent magical powers. (No, she is not yet brandishing firearms, nor is she dressed in stilettos and corsets.) On the right, we have the Lost Demon — known as Cheshire — who has possessed the patchwork cat doll owned by Cereza, and is able to deal massive payloads of damage with brute strength. You’re going to be navigating the world with both of these characters using each joystick, which brings to mind Josef Fares’ lowkey 2013 adventure Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. PlatinumGames has drummed up a number of clever navigational puzzles that require tight collaboration between the partnership to overcome. A carnivorous plant in the way? Perhaps Cereza can call on the spirits to bind it to the ground, while Cheshire uproots it from the earth. Does our prodigal demon need to reach a cliffside that’s just out of his grasp? Shrink him down to doll size and chuck him up there. Then he can morph back into his monstrous scale and get down to business.

It took me the length of the introductory level I played to become truly comfortable with this esoteric control scheme — the learning curve is going to be pretty steep, even for seasoned gamers. It gets especially hairy in combat, where you’ll be navigating two distinct move sets simultaneously, as you attempt to nullify all of the restless imps that want you dead. Cheshire handles the bulk of the offense by swinging his massive body around the arena, while Cereza plays more of a support role with her spellbook and a selection of stat-boosting items mapped to her D-pad. All of this is a far cry from the breezy 1,000-hit combos you might remember from other PlatinumGames titles, but I found myself enjoying some of Bayonetta Origins’ more tactical principles. The studio hasn’t lost any of its sublime mechanical fluidity, even as it has slowed down the pace.

The game is played by piloting two distinct characters, by using a detached Joy-Con in each hand.

Bayonetta Origins’ world also trades in the urban streets and moonlit cathedrals of the established canon for a fey, verdant forest — very Brothers Grimm — and a story that literally unfolds through a children’s picture book. It looks gorgeous on the Switch, wielding lots of deep blues and soft greens, which helped me immerse myself in the idea that the eight-foot-tall librarian I previously controlled in other Bayonetta games — the woman who cackles as she eats people with her hair — was nowhere to be found in this realm. Cereza is a teenager on the absolute precipice of her journey, and Origins matches those circumstances with an ethereal wistfulness. Yes, even Amazonians have to start somewhere.

It remains to be seen if Bayonetta Origins marks the beginning of a divergence with the overarching Bayonetta timeline, or if it’s simply a one-shot Platinum was cooking up as Bayonetta 3 approached its street date. Regardless, it’s nice to know that we’ll still be getting new games in this universe from a variety of different perspectives. Sometimes Bayonetta is carving up the forces of Hell on top of an 18-wheeler, other times she’s wandering through an enchanted woodland with a raggedy cat doll who also happens to be her guardian angel. Witches contain multitudes.

Category: Video Games