DiggleDog

@EarthboundBenjy it’s quite nicely done. Not intrusive but certainly explicit in its intent. A few lines of dialogue during a quiet moment that give Vivian a nice bit of characterisation. Doesn’t go much further than that as Viv, like all the sidekick characters fade into the background once their particular chapter is over.

Astro Bot is an exceedingly tight game that throws exquisitely designed platforming challenge after exquisitely designed platforming challenge at you. Mario Odyssey is an exceedingly robust and inventive sandbox rewards you endlessly for your own ingenuity and willingness to experiment. Both take heaps skill, both earn my awe.

Hint hint, eh Moon Studios?

While these guys have really bungled their communication, it speaks to how special Hollow Knight was that people have remained invested in the sequel all this time.

Personally I think it could upset the balance. Mario Kart is chaos, yes, but there’s an obvious method to the madness, the tension that it could be anyone’s race right until the end. I think the potential to be forever stuck in the middle of the pack due to the volume of players hammering each other with shells would slow the pace right down and make the game more frustrating.

My tinfoil hat is on and has me thinking more Donkey Kong content is on the way with a new, in house vision from Nintendo. It seems weird to me that you would drastically redesign a character simply for a spin off.

So, like, the people who actually made it?

I really hope Nintendo is launching with a killer app. Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart solidified the Switch as a must have right out of the gate. If I’m not mistaken, Wii U launched with ports that were well out of the limelight by the time.

Here come the people who don’t understand how freedom of speech works in 3…2…1…

This game is almost as old as the original SNES game was when it came out.

Up there with Super Mario 64 for sheer seismic influence

Nintendo is going to remove the Switch 2 from sale on March 31st if these leaks keep happening.

Punch Out was “dead” until Next Level Games explicitly requested to work on it. If you’re not a tentpole Nintendo franchise, you kind of need someone to champion you to see any sort of update. Metroid has Sakamoto, Pikmin has Miyamoto etc.

How is it that Level 5 became financially able to publish globally again? I get the vibe they are spreading themselves thin at the moment.

DQ III is the perfect cosy game to survive Winter with. I love when Japanese games have a UK centric voice cast for the English release so the localisers can pump as much cockney slang into the script as possible.

Dragon Quest III was totally out of stock in Ireland but Santa made it happen anyway. A true Christmas miracle.

Merry Christmas to all the staff at Nintendo Life. Thank you for the excellent work you do, in both covering all things Nintendo and cultivating a community right here on this site.

They should click their fingers with both hands during the Direct

Real recognises real.

@Uncle_Franklin it would not be a Layton game if it didn’t take forever to be localised.

I’ve been replaying the trilogy, one game per Winter. I’m just done Arkham City and they hold up amazingly well. Switch would not be my preferred platform, of course.

What’s this? Nintendo permitting access to its intellectual property while simultaneously boosting the value of NSO? Surely not.

I’ll be jumping in sooner or later. Sonic Generations got me through some bumpy patches in my teenage years and I’m keen re-experience it.

Great, well done guys, now the Nintendo Museum is closing down on March 31st.

Astonishing. The last of shred of intrigue I had for the Ubisoft brand has vanished.

It’s sincerely one of the most impressive multiplayer offerings Nintendo has ever put out and feels like the culmination of feedback received regarding past entries and also other Mario spin offs that have come up short. Content rich and varied in its gameplay to make every session fresh and surprising for years to come. My girlfriend and I can’t get enough of it. 9/10.

It’s good, but it’s no Animal Crossing DSiWare alarm clock.

Layton is peak non-Nintendo series that might as well be a Nintendo series.

Ace Attorney games seem relatively inexpensive to make and can find success without having to be multi-million sellers. It’s a series whose popularity transcends sales in my opinion. You might not have played the series, but you definitely know “Objection!” Definitely a series to keep around.

Absolute riot of a game. One of the special ones that makes my non-gamer partner turn her head.

@Sequel Star Wars is also one of the biggest media brands on the planet. No way was Emio going to beat that.

Stray is a great little gem and one those experiences that is distinctly video games. The cat simulator aspect of it is really strong and the narrative has its moments too.

@Eggolor not everyone is as obsessed with 2 lines of NPC dialogue as you are.

I don’t really recall seeing this marketed much. Braid was notable for being an early indie success story but I think it’s actual fame in the industry, especially 16 years later, is a bit overstated. The name Jonathon Blow isn’t going to sell copies like Hideo Kojima.

I think Three Houses is a better console game and Engage is a better portable game. Fitting they’d both be on Switch.

Love the minimalist box arts for these series.

Some good points in the comment. I never really considered the angle of protecting the devs from the media circus.

Link’s Awakening is a top 5 Switch game for me. I bemoaned the full priced release at the time but I’ve since cleared every save file because the shorter length is actually rather inviting when considering a replay. Looking forward to this but I probably won’t be getting it straight away.

Better throw the devs in the Call of Duty mines

Nintendo, you’ve done well.

I’d like a Metroid where you start out as Samus without the power armour (maybe an emergency catches her off guard) and you work your way up to getting it. I think that would be a nice narrative explanation for why she’s missing her moves. I don’t really care either way. Getting bonked on the head and losing all her moves works too.

I foresee at least 3 noteworthy Nintendo game announcements but mainly ports or remakes.

The Wii U Zelda remasters seem like a no brainer but aggravatingly, they will be sold separately at full price.

We’ve had successful remakes from 2 Mario RPG sub-series. Maybe Mario and Luigi is on the cards?

Anything truly new and exceptional from Ninty is probably being developed for the next console.

More Professor Layton is all I ask.

I think this will be the next industry trend that Nintendo won’t quite “get” for a bit. That said, Nintendo tends to inherently optimise their games as well as they can for their hardware.

I think Nintendo is extremely utility oriented when it comes to how content is portrayed in their games in a way that makes them seem a bit detached. Like, what function does this serve in a player experience.

For example, people were clamouring for ages for Peach to have more agency and not be a damsel in distress all the time. Now that co-op is more prominent in Mario games, Peach gets promoted to playable character status.

Darker skin tones finally made their way into Animal Crossing: New Horizons because the avatar creator was (marginally) more involved than before.

It’s a bit twisted, but think it speaks to Nintendo viewing their games as toys rather than art capable of resonating with their customers. I genuinely believe they saw same sex relationships in Tomadachi Life as an unintended bug and that patching them out would be a bad idea never occurred to them. They are myopically focused on the game design to the detriment of how their games sit in local and global communities.

All this is to say that trans rights are human rights.

Microsoft hates this one simple trick

Please for the love of god just let it be called Switch 2 and don’t make it so you control it with your tongue.

Anyone who can make a quality Crash Bandicoot has my trust with DK. Those 2 series (in their heyday at least) share a lot in common I think.

Rayman has been fairly prominent in ancillary Ubisoft material lately. They clearly value the brand but not enough to hedge a fiscal year on it. A shame. Probably only going to get worse as Ubisoft continues to torpedo its reputation, harming the prospects of projects that are not obvious franchises.

I’m from Ireland. Game ceased operations here about a decade ago to save the UK mothership, giving GameStop a huge share of the market. GameStop shut down here last year. Sad sign of the times. Brick and mortar retail gives a lot of young people necessary work experience. That said, zero contracts are appalling. I was put on 1 at the start of the pandemic.

That’s actually brilliant.

Luigi clutching the 3DS banner in lieu of a door frame is actually such a fun little touch on the original.

If history repeats itself, then ports of older Luigi’s Mansion games are a sign of the end times for a Nintendo platform.