News Articles
Tuesday12th Nov 2024
Random Link Cosplayer Gets Advice From Sakurai After Master Sword Blunder
Wisdom of Sora
Legendary game designer Masahiro Sakurai has offered up some invaluable wisdom (as if he hasn't already been sharing his knowledge for the last two years or so) after noticing a cosplayer showcasing a rather awkward blunder with their impressive Link costume. The costume, based on Link's appearance in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is...
Tuesday5th Nov 2024
News Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2024
Two games switch places
Nintendo has released its latest financial data covering the first six-month period for FY2025 and, as part of that, it has updated the top ten best-selling games list once more. The only major change we can see with this one is that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has usurped Super Mario Party to claim the eighth...
Thursday31st Oct 2024
Random 'Nintendo Music' Has Fans Reminiscing About Smash Ultimate's Grooviest Feature
"It's kinda like using your Nintendo Switch as a music player"
The Nintendo Music app is awesome. The chance to listen to official Nintendo music from Nintendo might not seem like too big of a deal, but after all these years of asking, it certainly feels like one. However, with a library of iconic soundtracks now at our fingertips, some have...
Monday28th Oct 2024
Random Skull Kid "Clocks In" To Super Smash Bros. In This Awesome Fan-Made Trailer
A reveal to eclipse all others
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster may be full now, but that won't stop us from dreaming about what could have been thanks to a particularly awesome fan-made trailer. Animation YouTube channel King Bob (the creator behind the awesome Waluigi Smash reveal trailer from a few years back) has returned
Thursday24th Oct 2024
Random Game Director Masahiro Sakurai Reveals His Daily Work Routine
Balancing a new game and YouTube channel
When development on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate finally ended, fans were relieved the game's director Masahiro Sakurai would be able to take a break and get some rest. Although that's what we were hoping for, it seems this living legend hasn't really had a proper break. Even though his schedule was "wide open...
Tuesday15th Oct 2024
News Bandai Namco Reportedly Cancels Nintendo-Commissioned Project
Amid workforce cuts
Bandai Namco Holdings — the conglomerate of which video game publisher and developer Bandai Namco Entertainment is a part — is reportedly making a swathe of cuts to its workforce, which includes cancelling or pausing a number of projects. According to a report by Bloomberg (paywalled), a Nintendo-commissioned project is...
Wednesday9th Oct 2024
News Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Version 13.0.3 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Download it now
Nintendo has released a new update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, bumping the Switch game up to Version 13.0.3. This patch addresses an "online" issue linked to 'Global Smash Power' not returning to the appropriate levels. As usual, there may be compatibility issues with replay data from previous builds of the game in this latest...
Friday20th Sep 2024
Random Sora's Addition To Smash Bros. Required An Insane Amount Of Tweaks
Fixing those Sora spots
Masahiro Sakurai is back with yet another video (though not for much longer, of course), this time taking a look at the kind of feedback he provided on the development of Sora for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Spoiler alert, the video contains a lot of interesting pre-development images and footage of Sora, with Sakurai...
Thursday12th Sep 2024
Random Smash Bros. Meets Battle Royale In This Upcoming Playable PC Prototype
"We hope you can see the potential"
Development studio Odyssey Interactive has announced that it is working on a prototype combining Smash Bros-style platform fighting with 40-player battle royale gameplay. What's more, it is releasing this prototype to the public (thanks, Eurogamer). Byte Breakers, as the dev is currently calling it, initially...
Wednesday11th Sep 2024
Random "The Time Players Spend In A Game Is A Cost" - Sakurai Talks Long Runtimes
Blocking out a week
Masahiro Sakurai is back with more words of wisdom in his latest YouTube video, which this time is a cautionary tale against long game runtimes. To be clear, Sakurai isn't against putting hundreds of hours into a game — he even apologises for Smash Ultimate being such a time sink — but, he says, a game's length is something...
Thursday5th Sep 2024
Japanese Charts Emio Bags A Top Five Spot In A Week Of New Releases
Gundam Breaker 4 towers over all
We are back with the latest look at Japan's video game sales chart (via Famitsu) and it has been quite the week for new releases, with eight titles in the top ten making their debut. The big newbie for Nintendo fans is the arrival of Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, which is performing far better than...
Monday2nd Sep 2024
News Incineroar Stars In The Latest Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Tera Raid Event
7-Star smash
The latest Pokémon Scarlet and Violet 7-Star Tera Raid event has been revealed and will star Incineroar, the final evolved form of Litten. Incineroar will come packing the Dark Tera Type and the Mighiest Mark. Players can catch it once per save file from 00:00 UTC on 6th September through 23:59 UTC on 8th September. A second session...
Friday30th Aug 2024
Video "Keep Your Peaks And Valleys!" - Sakurai Explains Fighter Balance In Smash Bros.
When everyone's super, no one will be
The legendary Masahiro Sakurai is back with another look into the intricacies of game development on his YouTube channel and, of course, he's drawing from his wealth of Smash Bros. Ultimate anecdotes to make things clear. Today's lesson is all about character balance and the need to stress their differences to...
Thursday29th Aug 2024
Japanese Charts There's No Catching Powerful Pro Baseball In Another Quiet Week
PS5 tops hardware before the Japan price hike
The latest Japanese charts are in, courtesy of Famitsu, and it's an expectedly quiet week as we prepare for the stacked September release schedule. Despite only shifting an additional 10,198 units, Powerful Pro Baseball 2024-25 has held onto the top spot for the fourth week in a row. To be honest,...
Tuesday27th Aug 2024
Video Sakurai Looks Back On The Super Smash Bros. 'Dojo' Marketing Campaigns
"I chose to handle updating the website myself
We all remember those days leading up to the launch of Smash Bros. entries like BRAWL and Ultimate; waiting for any scrap of new information on potential fighters, stages, items, and more was certainly taxing at times, but goodness, it felt like Christmas morning everytime something significant was...
Thursday22nd Aug 2024
News Masahiro Sakurai Has Already Toured Nintendo's Museum
Here's what the Smash Bros. creator thought...
One absolute legend who has helped bring the world of Nintendo to life over the years is Super Smash Bros. creator and director Masahiro Sakurai - so it's no surprise he's been given the chance to tour the whole thing ahead of its official opening in Kyoto, Japan on 2nd October 2024. Yes, that's right...
Tuesday6th Aug 2024
Random Sakurai Shows Off His LEGO NES
He got it for his birthday
When he's not making games or recording videos about game design, Masahiro Sakurai likes to entertain himself in all sorts of ways. In his latest post on social media, the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director revealed a LEGO set he received for his 54th birthday earlier this week. It's not just any old Lego set, either -...
Friday2nd Aug 2024
News Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of June 2024
Change may be afoot
Nintendo has published its latest financial data for Q1 of FY2025, and as part of that, we've got an updated look at the top ten best-selling games list for the Switch. The order stays the same with some minimal additions to the total sales figures, but there may be a shift in the coming months. Take a look at Zelda: Tears of...
Friday26th Jul 2024
PSA Smash Bros. Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Spirits Now Permanently Available
Following a limited-timed event earlier this year
Earlier this year as part of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fifth anniversary celebrations, Nintendo added brand new spirits to the game. This included all sorts of franchises and one of the highlights was the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet spirit collection. If you didn't manage to get them back in...
Thursday18th Jul 2024
Random Stop-Motion Animation Shows Sephiroth Playing Basketball With Kirby
No no, *with* Kirby... You'll see
It's safe to say that the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster goes through quite a lot; after all, the very aim of the game is to beat on your opponent until you can fling them off the arena and into the sweet nothingness of oblivion. So it's only natural, then, that the fighters will want to use their downtime to...
Japanese Charts Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Gets Off To A Flying Start
But it can't scare off Luigi
Famitsu's latest look at the Japanese gaming charts is in and it's another clean sweep for the Switch. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD holds onto the top spot for the third week in a row — way to go, bro — but there are also two new entries this time around which have snuck into the proceedings. Aerial action was clearly a...
Thursday11th Jul 2024
Japanese Charts Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Holds Firmly Onto Top Spot
It's anything but dark
Famitsu's weekly physical sales charts have arrived, and it paints a very familiar picture. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD continues to suck up the rest of the competition, shifting 33,828 copies in the week of 1st to 7th July. In fact, the top three is exactly the same as last week — Animal Crossing: New Horizons shifted 10,965...
News Riot Games Reportedly Cancels Smash Bros. Style Fighter Codenamed 'Pool Party'
"A platform fighter in the vein of Super Smash Bros. Melee"
The Super Smash Bros. series is the king of brawlers and many other companies have attempted to recreate this magic with certain other franchises over the years. With this in mind, Riot Games (the same team behind League of Legends) has apparently cancelled its own "unannounced" Super...
Tuesday9th Jul 2024
Random Sakurai Explains How Manga Influenced Smash Ultimate's Character Designs
It's all in the mouth
Masahiro Sakurai is back with another game development video and today's lesson is all about Manga-like visuals. The legendary game designer discusses the expressive and unrealistic techniques employed by manga and anime artists to achieve the most expressive result, specifically, how a character's mouth appears in profile and...
Tuesday18th Jun 2024
News Bandai Namco's Smash Bros. Studio "No Longer" Advertising Select Roles For Nintendo Projects
"They probably filled them"
Remember last year when Bandai Namco announced a new in-house development team 'Studio 2 & Studio S' for commissioned projects - with Nintendo series like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart seemingly a big part of the plans? After advertising for multiple roles, it appears there's been a small development. As spotted...
Sunday16th Jun 2024
News Masahiro Sakurai Has Finished Recording His Final YouTube Video
"I think it will be a while before it is released"
Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has previously mentioned how he planned to wrap up his YouTube channel, and now he's shared another update about this on social media. According to a rough translation, he's now finished recording the final episode. Just don't expect to see it any time...
Friday14th Jun 2024
Random "Everyone Keeps The Gameplay In Mind" - Sakurai Talks Teamwork On Smash Ultimate
It's not all game designers, you know
Masahiro Sakurai is back talking about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on his YouTube channel (what do you know!). This time, the focus is on collision animations and how it's more of a collaborative effort than you might expect. Those who have been paying attention to the legendary game designer's videos over the...
Thursday13th Jun 2024
Random Aloy In Smash Bros.? 'LEGO Horizon' Dev Seems Up For It
Just waiting on that call from Nintendo
In a move that very few of us saw coming, PlayStation's Horizon series is heading to Nintendo Switch (albeit in the slightly more family-friendly, LEGO Horizon Adventures form). Is this a crossover episode? Are we witnessing the start of a bold new partnership between Sony and the Big N? Does this mean...
Tuesday11th Jun 2024
Random Sakurai Demonstrates The Importance Of The Finer Details
Breaking the fourth, fifth, sixth wall
Masahiro Sakurai is known for his keen eye for detail and staunch perfectionism, but his latest YouTube video demonstrates just how many revisions are required for even the smallest details. The majority of the video focuses on one particular example of this. He discusses the Mishima Dojo stage from Super...
News Nintendo Issues Multiple DMCAs On The Modding Site 'GameBanana'
Smash Bros. Ultimate and Zelda: TOTK targeted
Nintendo has seemingly issued multiple DMCA takedowns against mods hosted on the community site GameBanana. As member 'Waikuteru' highlighted, more than 60 separate DMCA takedowns have been issued over just a few days with 40 directed at them specifically, rendering their GameBanana profile empty of mod...
