Tag: Nintendo

Video preview – New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe (Switch)

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment

Nintendo’s kicking off 2019 with another Wii U port, as New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe comes to the Switch on 11 January.

The Wii U version was much-loved by those who played it and ended up being the third-best selling title on the console, with 5.77 million copies sold.

Of course, given that the Wii U console sales themselves were poor, that made it a big fish in a small pond. Nintendo will be hoping that by putting the game on Switch – which already has a larger user base than the Wii U and continues to grow – it’ll reach a much greater audience more in line with the Wii and DS New Super Mario Bros games, which each shifted around 30 million.

Naturally, yer man Scullion’s been sent review code by Nintendo, and I’ve already started playing it. I’ll have a review ready before the game’s out, but it’s currently embargoed up the wazoo so you’ll have to wait until early 2019 for that.

Until then, here’s an 11-minute video in which I talk you through what’s new, show off the new characters and try to rewrite the lyrics to The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York. Enjoy.

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe is available on Nintendo Switch on 11 January. You can pre-order the physical version from Amazon UK.

In order that I could put this preview together, I received a digital copy of the game from Nintendo. The content of this preview was in no way positively influenced by this.

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Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) single-player review

Published on by Chris Scullion4 Comments
Nintendo / Sora Ltd / Bandai Namco
Nintendo Switch

Well, it’s finally here. Actually, it was here a week ago but I didn’t get code until the day before launch so you’re getting a review now.

Regardless, the point remains: Super Smash Bros Ultimate is now on Switch, giving Nintendo’s already popular system another massive boost. And, judging by early sales figures – roughly 1.3 million sold in Japan already, toppling Red Dead 2 in the UK and the like – it’s clear it’s going to be a huge success.

It’s safe to say this is mainly down to Smash’s multiplayer gameplay. After all, Smash has always been known as a multiplayer fighter first and foremost, and with this new Switch version once again offering support for up to eight players simultaneously it goes without saying that many of the fans buying the game are doing so to fight against their friends or online.

Not everyone likes playing online, though, or playing with their pals, or just people in general. Some folk – yer man Scullion included – are strictly solo gamers, and in that situation it’s maybe a little less immediately clear how long the game’s going to last. Well, I’m going to tell you. Continue reading “Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) single-player review” →

Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit (Switch) review

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment
Nintendo / Nintendo EPD
Nintendo Switch

Dark Souls? Easy. Cuphead? No problem. Bloodborne? Pfft, didn’t even break a sweat.

No, friends, the hardest challenge in gaming today is finding three spare hours to build a cardboard steering wheel when you have a 10-week-old baby in the house.

But find that time I did: yer man Scullion’s been spending the past week and a half utterly rinsing the newest Labo kit, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it’s the most ‘game-like’ package so far. Continue reading “Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit (Switch) review” →

Kartography #1 – Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends

Published on by Chris Scullion9 Comments

Kartography is my regular series in which I look at licensed kart racers throughout gaming history, and figure out where they fit on my all-time kart game leaderboard.

For more information on my scoring policy for Kartography, check out this introductory article.

Rising Star Games / Scarab Entertainment
Switch, Wii U, iOS (Switch version covered)

For the first instalment of Kartography I’ve decided to look at the most recent karting game I played.

Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends – to give the game its full name – originally launched on the Wii U back in March 2014, where it was released in such limited numbers that it’s become one of the system’s rarest games (in America, at least: you can still get it fairly cheaply in the UK).

Just a few months back, it was ported to the Switch and published by Rising Star Games. I recorded a First Play video at the time, but have since completed it.

Because it’s fresh in my mind, then, it’s the first game to get the Kartography treatment. Continue reading “Kartography #1 – Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends” →

Go Vacation (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
Nintendo / Bandai Namco
Switch, Wii (Switch version reviewed)

The year was 2011. Yer man Scullion was Games Editor at the Official Nintendo Magazine, and was about to review yet another mini-game collection for the Wii.

You’d have forgiven me at the time for being far from excited. As everyone who owned a Wii knew at the time, the popularity of the console meant that every shitmuncher publisher and developer was trying to capitalise on its success with cheap and nasty shovelware games.

More often than not, these took the form of mini-game collections, in an attempt to appeal to all the families who bought their Wii primarily for Wii Sports.

As ONM’s main reviewer, this meant I’d spent the past five years suffering my way through countless half-arsed money grabs. To this day I still occasionally wake up in cold sweats thinking about Carnival Games, Big Beach Sports and the unfortunately named Water Sports.

Go Vacation, then, didn’t exactly have me soiling myself with excitement when the disc came into the office, a fact I’m sure my colleagues welcomed. And yet, I was curious. Developed by (what was then) Namco Bandai and published by Nintendo itself, it seemed that there was a lot of confidence around this one.

Sure enough, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I gave the game 80%, and warned readers not to follow my lead. “Don’t fall into the same trap so many others will,” I advised. “Don’t take one look at Go Vacation and pass it off as shovelware. It’s not.”

This isn’t a retrospective rewriting of history either, mind you. You can see my full original ONM review at the bottom of this very page, and my 30 Best Wii Games article on Tired Old Hack has none other than Go Vacation nestled comfortably in the list.

Now it’s been granted a surprise re-release on Switch, and it’s just as entertaining as I remember it being seven years ago. Continue reading “Go Vacation (Switch) review” →

Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) review

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment
Nintendo / Camelot Software Planning
Nintendo Switch

Mario Tennis and I have been on bad terms for the past couple of years.

It’s a series I’ve loved ever since the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color days, but in recent years it’s been up and down more times than an eager ballboy.

In 2009 the brilliant GameCube game Mario Power Tennis was re-released on Wii, its once-tight controls replaced with frustratingly inaccurate Wii Remote swings.

Then, a few years later, the series was redeemed with Mario Tennis Open, a brilliant 3DS offering with great online multiplayer and a host of unlockable characters and costumes.

This return to form was then unceremoniously dumped with Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on the Wii U, a game I described in my video review at the time as “a monumental cauldron of shite” due to its complete lack of anything other than a bare-bones online mode and exhibition games (not even a tournament mode).

Mario Tennis Aces is here to right that wrong, and it succeeds… mostly. Continue reading “Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) review” →

NES on Nintendo Switch Online: the first 10 games explained (video)

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

This week Nintendo finally announced the first details of its online service coming to Switch in September.

Cunningly titled Nintendo Switch Online, it’s going to come with a number of features for your £17.99 a year, including access to online multiplayer and cloud saves.

Of greater interest to retro fans like me, though, is that Nintendo Switch Online will also come with a library of NES games, with added online multiplayer functionality.

There will be 20 NES games at launch with more to be added, and so far 10 have been revealed.

Not everyone’s a (tired) old prick like me, though, and while some take it for granted that we all know these games off by heart, some younger gamers will be experiencing them for the first time.

After all, while all 10 were on Virtual Console on previous systems, there’s a big difference between willingly paying £4.50 for an old game you’ve never played before and trying it out for ‘free’ because it already comes as part of the subscription you already signed up to so you could play online.

With that in mind, yer man Scullion – NES expert extraordinaire – has put together this video detailing all ten games to bring you up to speed. Enjoy!

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments
Nintendo / Retro Studios
Switch, Wii U (Switch version reviewed)

We all know the Wii U was a dismal failure.

Despite having a decent helping of excellent exclusive games, the negatives surrounding Nintendo’s sixth home console outweighed the positives, and as a result it would take someone truly delusional to argue that the Wii U was anything other than a giant lemon.

Naturally, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade, and Nintendo has been happily squeezing the Wii U’s software library to allow owners of the far more popular Switch to have a taste. Of the lemonade. This is an analogy, go with it.

The point I’m making in a horribly complicated way is that some of the Wii U’s finest games have already found their way onto the Switch.

The Switch ports of Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and Pokken Tournament have already outsold their Wii U forebearers, and Nintendo is surely hopeful the likes of Hyrule Warriors and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker do the same when they’re released in May and July respectively.

Before those turn up, it’s time for Donkey Kong’s Wii U adventure to get a second crack of glory. And in this case, it’s fair to say it deserves it. Continue reading “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) review” →

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp review – six months later

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp ‘soft-launched’ in Australia on 25 October 2017 and rolled out to other countries the following month.

As someone who couldn’t wait for it to come to the UK and downloaded a sneaky .apk file of the Australian version for my Android phone the day after launch, that means today marks exactly six months since I started playing it.

While most sites review games right after they’ve launched, not many of them track their progress months later. Although it’s obvious why this is the case – new games get more traffic than old ones – it’s sometimes a missed opportunity, especially when it comes to mobile games.

Mobile titles, more than any, are often treated as ‘services’ and are constantly updated, patched, evolved and enhanced with new features, modes, characters and various other whizz-bangs. Play a mobile game at launch and play it again a few months later and you’ll often find two very different beasts.

Sometimes a barebones game becomes one that’s packed with content. And sometimes a well-balanced game is ruined by publisher greed when the user base grows and the opportunities to make money through microtransactions get too great (I’m looking at you, WWE Champions).

With that in mind, I’ve decided to review Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp six months after it launched. It’s changed a fair amount since October 2017, but is that necessarily for the better? My answer is “it depends”, which is no doubt frustrating for you because now it means you have to read on. Continue reading “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp review – six months later” →

Kirby Star Allies (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
Nintendo / HAL Laboratory
Nintendo Switch

The Switch is a little over a year old now and the continued roll-out of established Nintendo (and Nintendo-related) franchises is ticking away nicely.

Zelda? Check. Mario Kart? Check. Splatoon, Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles, Pokken Tournament? Check times five.

There’s more to come: Hyrule Warriors is out in two months, and we’ve obviously got a Donkey Kong Country game, a Fire Emblem, a Smash Bros, a Yoshi game, Metroid Prime 4 and a new Pokemon in the distant future. Slowly but surely, fans of every series are getting games aimed at keeping them happy.

This week marks the next step in the process, with Kirby getting to take centre stage on the Switch for the first time. Continue reading “Kirby Star Allies (Switch) review” →