Another week, another fresh batch of Switch rumours. The most recent include renewed whispers from the Wall Street Journal concerning potential hardware revisions for your favourite ‘homeheld’. The paper reported back in October last year on Nintendo’s potential plans to introduce a smaller, portable-focused model in 2019 – a rumour to which Nintendo issued the standard “nothing to announce” statement back in February – but sources now suggest that two new SKUs (say that quickly five times) are on the cards.

If these rumours turn out to have real substance, that would mean three different versions of Switch available to purchase. On the surface, that might seem like a bad idea - while consoles invariably see updated iterations across their life cycle, three variants of a handheld that's only just celebrated its second birthday is surely going to confuse the general public. Of course, Nintendo has form when it comes to marketing upgraded/downgraded versions of handheld hardware, as evidenced by the convoluted 3DS family tree and its confusing mixture of 'New' prefixes, 'XL' suffixes, and numbers that go down instead of up. It's fine for people like us who keep on top of these things, but it's not immediately obvious to a non-gaming parent that the original 3DS is technically inferior to a New 2DS. That's a problem that needs to be managed carefully. The long-rumoured Switch ‘Mini’ – a cheaper model without detachable Joy-Con or HD rumble – would presumably be aimed at the exact market that the 2DS theoretically caters for at the moment, so it's imperative that Nintendo doesn't muddy the waters too much.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

For many, the Super Nintendo remains the absolute pinnacle of gaming hardware. The is 16-bit powerhouse was home to some amazing games, and via titles like Super Mario World, Zelda: Link to the Past and Street Fighter II, did much to expand the interactive entertainment market and turn an entire generation into diehard Nintendo fans. However, it's almost impossible to talk about the SNES without also referencing its biggest rival: the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis, as it was known in North America). After failing to make a dent in Nintendo's market share with the 8-bit Master System (outside of Europe, at least), Sega bet everything on its 16-bit successor, and thanks in no small part to some amazing arcade conversions, EA-made sports titles and a certain blue Erinaceinae, it managed to challenge Nintendo on even terms, doing the unthinkable and actually rivalling (and, at points, outselling) the creator of the SNES on North American soil – something that had been utterly unthinkable during the NES era.

The famous 'Console Wars' of the '90s have gone down in legend, and those old enough to recall this period will no doubt have expressed a preference for one of these two video game titans, but in 2019, it's easy to admit that if you wanted to sample the best the industry had to offer, you needed both in your life. That's why the release of the Analogue Mega Sg is such a noteworthy event, even in the world of Nintendo; it's the perfect opportunity to reacquaint yourself with the console that fought the SNES tooth and nail for living room supremacy.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Apple is set to hold a keynote event later today. At the upcoming presentation, the company is expected to mainly talk about new services, with a focus on their video streaming offering that's set to rival both Netflix and Amazon. However, many are hinting that the event could be about much more than just one new service, and won't even touch upon any new Apple hardware.

As an aside, if you're a keen Apple observer, you will have noticed Apple took to Twitter last week to announce several new hardware products, including new iPads, iMacs and AirPods — all stuff typically reserved for a big press event. By moving all of these hardware reveals to just web announcements, Apple may have just cleared up plenty of space so their event can big up services, services and more services.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

If you picked up a Nintendo Switch recently and have downloaded a number of games, it's highly likely that you'll be running out of internal storage space soon. Indeed, the console's weakness is storage space, and the fact that there are just so many amazing games to experience. The Switch comes with just 32GB of internal storage space, of which only 25GB is actually accessible by the end user.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

You couldn’t escape it. It was here, rife and potent. It ploughed a path through conventional gaming conversations from the casuals to the parents of gamers that had to put up with the noise, the screaming and the not going to bed because if you didn’t kill John with thirty-seven remote mines stuck to the toilet door in The Facility, well, what was the point of going on with life?

All anybody talked about was how good you were at the game or how you defeated three other people with ‘Slappers Only’ in The Archives. A random person would talk to you at the bus stop on the way to school, explaining how they ‘sniped’ their friend’s bonce as he peered his head out of one of the balconies in Complex.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Well, what a busy week we've had. There was the Nindies Showcase, which brought with it the Cuphead and Cadence of Hyrule reveals, the Animal Crossing tweet meltdown, and even a new gaming platform from Google, but it's finally time for us to settle down with some games for the weekend. We've shared our plans below, but feel free to join in via the poll and comment sections. Enjoy!

Gavin Lane, staff writer

This weekend I’ll be settling down for a nice relaxed time with Yoshi’s Crafted World for review. I’m a big fan of his last escapades in Woolly World and an even bigger fan of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, so I have high hopes for his latest adventure.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Maintaining a healthy degree of scepticism is always a wise policy in life, especially when you're faced with a seemingly endless number of companies trying to tempt you to spend your hard-earned cash. It's a practice we regularly employ in both our personal and professional lives here at Nintendo Life, and it's fair to say that, like a great many other people, we were slightly bemused at the news that Nintendo was embracing Virtual Reality via its cardboard Labo range.

The hardware's not powerful enough. The screen is too low-resolution. Labo's not the right vehicle for this. It's going to look like a joke compared to PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. You have to hold the headset when you're using it.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The announcement of Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda (to give its unwieldy full name) in yesterday’s Nindies Direct presentation was a delightful surprise. Although we’d heard whispers of another 2D Zelda possibly releasing this year, this collaboration with an indie studio Brace Yourself Games – a developer with just one (very successful) game to its name – is somewhat unprecedented; Nintendo is letting an indie developer play with one of its big-name franchises. It wasn’t long ago when Nintendo wouldn’t acknowledge the existence of small developers unless they had a non-residential office address.

The company’s approach to indies has evidently changed a lot since the WiiWare days. It all seems to have come about thanks to a DLC pitch by the team for Crypt of the NecroDancer which really fired up Nintendo’s interest. It's heartening to see the company embracing the spirit and talent of these studios - yesterday’s ‘Nindies’ Direct was full of strong titles across a variety of genres. The strategy of using these reveal videos to plug gaps between bigger Directs seems to be working very well. Indeed, some might argue that yesterday’s video was better than some of the company’s more lacklustre Directs.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Yesterday’s reveal of Stadia, the boxless 'future of gaming' from Google, was certainly intriguing. It promises seamless browser-based streaming of AAA games at 4K and 60 frames-per-second to all manner of devices you already own. The proposition is a clear and clean one for people with cluttered houses chock full of tech that’s slowly turning obsolete with every annual hardware revision. Google’s message is strong: everyone, everywhere can join in.

Setting aside the massive hit to office productivity that implies, Stadia has the potential to transform the gaming industry and affect every company working in it. While Google’s presentation itself was formulaic and dry, the content spoke for itself and initial hands-on reports and first impressions signal that the tech appears to perform admirably.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Team17 has revealed that its RPG/crafting sim My Time at Portia is building up to a 16th April release on Nintendo Switch. Being the lucky so-and-sos that we are, we were recently invited to the studio's headquarters in sunny Wakefield, UK to spend some quality time with the game, giving us the chance to see what all the fuss is about for ourselves.

If you haven't heard of this one before, or if you need a quick refresher, let us quickly fill you in on what it's all about. Things kick off in the enchanting town of Portia, where you're ready to start a new life and restore your Pa's neglected workshop to its former glory. With just a workbench and a workshop handbook in your arsenal, your job is to gather, mine, and craft your way to making the workshop the best in all of Portia, farming, cooking, fishing, and even finding romance along the way.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Uncanny, no?

It’s Saturday morning and we’re relaxing on the sofa with a coffee, idly scrolling through Twitter while MTV Classics plays in the background. The 1992 video for Roy Orbison’s posthumously released track 'I Drove All Night' plays. Now, we’re partial to Roy, the American singer-songwriter behind such classics as 'You Got It' and 'In Dreams'. He rose to fame in the ‘60s and was in the midst of a career renaissance in 1988 when a heart attack took him at the age of 52. His back catalogue enjoyed a revival shortly afterwards, thanks partly to the prominent use of his signature track in the hit film Pretty Woman. Consequently, despite hailing from an earlier generation, Orbison’s songs fire up late ‘80s, early ‘90s nostalgia for us in the same way as double denim and Hypercolor t-shirts.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

We've made it to yet another weekend and it's finally time to relax with some of our favourite games. After the excitement of the physical Hollow Knight release and the horror of seeing Zelda: Breath of the Wild without its cel-shading this week, team Nintendo Life has gathered to talk over our weekend gaming plans. You can read up on what we're up to below, and make sure to join in via our poll and comment sections. Enjoy!

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This is random, and I’m not sure why, but I’ve reverted back to the old 3DS to play a few throwbacks this weekend: Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (most hate this game, but I personally love it) as well as X & Y, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, various Zelda titles, Luigi’s Mansion, etc. As I look at this list, I realize I may just be getting excited for all of the new games in these franchises coming out on Switch later this year... woah, insight.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Just yesterday, Nintendo released the full DLC package for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker on Switch and - being the ever helpful folks that we are - we thought we'd give it a go and share our findings with you lovely lot.

The DLC, called 'Special Episode' contains 18 new challenges (some new, some remixes of old) among five new courses. There's a nice variety here - as mentioned in our video above, one minute you'll be taking a ride on a haunted train full of ghosts, and the next you'll be exploring a sweet and sugary world. We're also incredibly pleased to discover that Nintendo has squeezed in another minecart level. Thank you!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Switch celebrated its second birthday recently and Nintendo deserves a lot of credit for delivering a console to suit multiple purposes and lifestyles. Its success as a portable device relies on it being a hard-wearing piece of hardware and – on the whole – it’s a solid, durable bit of kit.

That’s not to say it’s perfect, though. From launch there were Joy-Con connection issues and there are a couple of oversights in the design - why is it even possible to attach Joy-Con the wrong way up? Hairline cracks seen by some owners around the heat vents are concerning, but by far the biggest complaint we’ve got is the infamous Joy-Con ‘drift’ – a phenomenon where hair, dust or debris somehow gets into the analogue stick mechanism causing movement to register without any pressure being applied.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

‘Gather Around’ everyone, Google commands. Unless you’ve been actively avoiding it, you’ve probably heard about the company’s plans to reveal long-rumoured hardware at this year’s Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco next week. The latest teaser for the keynote – the company’s first at GDC since it began attending – seems to suggest a serious attempt to court console gamers, with highly detailed environments that nod towards a wide range of genres shown as the camera slowly approaches a grand, light-filled entrance…

As teasers go, it’s a good one, casting viewers themselves as ‘the future of gaming’. That phrase carries the caustic odour of PR, but we’d assume the web giant has better instincts than to prime an audience with hyperbole before unveiling some sort of Android-based box that streams mobile games to the telly. All evidence points to something more substantial, and that ‘Gather Around’ tagline implies some sort of social angle, too.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Nintendo’s long-rumoured foray into virtual reality with Labo: VR Kit has set some heads spinning with dreams of high-end experiences featuring all manner of Nintendo franchises. Imagine Mario Kart VR on Switch! they say. What about Animal Crossing VR! Where’s Metroid Prime Trilogy VR-astered?! Okay, we made up that last one, but we’re sure the idea must be on a forum somewhere.

We’ve already taken a look at the pros and the cons of Nintendo’s upcoming toe-dip into the world of VR, and while the company wisely kept the announcement low-key – releasing a press release with very little fanfare – the lack of game footage or simulated screenshots gives enthusiastic fans a blank canvas on which to scrawl their imaginings based on the more advanced VR experiences available elsewhere.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

It's hard to believe it, but Fire Emblem Heroes is now more than two years old. In that time, the smartphone-based tactical RPG has become Nintendo's most successful mobile venture, dramatically outperforming stablemates such as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Super Mario Run and Dragalia Lost. The game accounted for a whopping 66 percent of Nintendo's mobile revenue during 2018 (Pokémon GO isn't included in this list, as it's not a wholly-owned Nintendo property), which gives you some indication of how important it is to the company's plans.

Nintendo has continued to develop and evolve Fire Emblem Heroes' core offering over the past 24 months, and to mark its second anniversary, we were lucky enough to chat with the game's directors Shingo Matsushita (Nintendo) and Kouhei Maeda (Intelligent Systems) about its past, present and future.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

As I've gotten older I've noticed that I'm becoming increasingly forgetful, and I was reminded of this sad fact of life recently thanks to Blake J. Harris' The History of the Future, a book I've been lucky enough to have been sent an advance copy of to flick through. While the book – billed as the sequel to the brilliant Console Wars – is primarily concerned with the evolution of VR firm Oculus and its relationship with Facebook, it briefly mentions the Wikipad – a device which, in 2019, feels like it was way ahead of its time.

In case you missed it (and don't feel bad, because plenty of other people did because it sold so poorly), the Wikipad was an Android tablet which came with a bolt-on gaming interface. The objective was simple: to offer consumers the best of Android-based gaming and marry it with a proper, physical interface that would overcome all of the shortcomings of touch-based control. Flicking through Harris' book, it's hard not to become enamoured with the concept; the team behind it was clearly talented and passionate (some of the members would later co-found Oculus) and the Wikipad was even demoed with a glasses-free 3D screen not entirely unlike the one on the Nintendo 3DS. To sweeten the deal, in 2012 it was announced that cloud gaming firm Gaikai – co-founded by Dave Perry of Shiny Entertainment fame – would be integrating its services with the Wikipad.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Another busy week has gone by, with rumours of another 2019 Zelda release and Mario game discounts popping up all over the place, but we've finally made it to the weekend and it's time to play some games. As always, team Nintendo Life has gathered together to discuss our plans and we'd love to have you involved. Feel free to join in via the poll and comments below. Enjoy!

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend we’ll be getting a snowstorm in my neck of the woods, so I’m probably going to hunker down and force myself to get into more of the multiplayer games I’ve purchased and not devoted enough time to playing. I’m definitely more of an RPG/adventure gamer, so it sounds crazy, but I’ve really only played things like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc. in short bursts when there have been friends around to play with.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

You can always rely on Nintendo to enter a new market in the most esoteric way imaginable, and we got a great example of this today with the news that the next Labo kit is going to be based around VR. After the failure of the Virtual Boy, and repeated claims that it would only enter this exciting emerging sector when it made sense and the odd rumour, the Kyoto veteran has staked its claim to immersive gaming in the most 'Nintendo' way possible – by making 'simple and shareable' VR experiences part of its Labo cardboard DIY range, a Switch-based sub-brand built around experimentation and the joy of discovery.

While some will be disappointed that Nintendo hasn't created a 'proper' headset, it's a good fit for the Labo ethos, and could potentially be a game-changer for the company and VR in general – or, as we'll discuss, it could be the total opposite.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com