A brief history of the Wii U’s most forgotten feature
Posted on 3 days ago by Ethan in Features, Wii U | 0 comments
Today, we’re talking about an incredibly niche feature that some of you may have never even heard about. It’s the Wii U’s most forgotten feature – and it isn’t Miiverse. Whereas Miiverse had lots of charm and character, the feature we’re talking about isn’t one we think anybody particularly misses. It’s Nintendo TVii, a rather obscure service that you might have noticed on your Wii U menu before it was eventually removed in 2015.
More: highlight, Nintendo TVii, top
The best Animal Crossing games, ranked
Posted on 3 days ago by Ethan in 3DS, Features, Switch, Wii U | 0 comments
Compared to other easily-ranked Nintendo franchises, Animal Crossing is a bit different. At the time of writing, there are only a handful of main series Animal Crossing games and even fewer spin-offs. Most of them are incredibly high quality and well-received by fans, with only a small number of exceptions. There also aren’t quite as many games in the Animal Crossing series compared to some of Nintendo’s other juggernauts – these games take a long time to develop, and we suspect it’ll be a while before we see a new Animal Crossing game on Nintendo Switch 2.
In the meantime, we’ve made our own subjective list of the best Animal Crossing games, ranked from worst to best. Do note that we’re not including Animal Crossing Plaza (which really had very little to it) or Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp; the former is defunct and we’re focused more on Nintendo platform games for this ranking. Here’s what we came up with.
More: Animal Crossing, highlight, top
Two years later, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a fantastic remake
Posted on 4 days ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
Believe it or not, it’s been an entire two years since the last Kirby game. Nintendo has forgotten about Kirby. Jokes aside, the pink puffball had an incredibly productive 2022. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the first true 3D platformer in the series, was released to critical acclaim. Later that year, we got the less-critically-acclaimed Kirby’s Dream Buffet, and then only a couple months later we get Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. That’s a huge number of Kirby games in less than a year, though they were all clearly created by different development teams. Whereas Kirby and the Forgotten was a huge step in a new direction for the series, Return to Dream Land Deluxe didn’t need to be. We know there will be another 3D Kirby game in the hopefully not-too-distant future, and Return to Dream Land Deluxe served as a return to the franchise’s roots for those introduced to Kirby via Forgotten Land. Indeed, Kirby and the Forgotten Land sits on top as the best-selling Kirby game in the franchise at around seven million units sold.
Pokemon Day 2025 predictions
Posted on 4 days ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
With Pokemon Day 2025 approaching, we’ve got some predictions for the big event.
Pokemon Day just around the corner, and every time February 27 comes around there’s always a Pokemon Presents to go with it. Last year’s presentation revealed the existence of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, details on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Raid events, and updates on The Pokemon Company’s other ongoing games. While the 2025 Pokemon Presents will probably be more of that (minus Scarlet and Violet, most likely), it’s a good time to toss out some predictions before the Pokemon hype cycle begins.
Completing the National Pokedex in 2025 is almost impossible – the toughest Pokemon to catch
Posted on 1 week ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
We’ve been in the late era of the original Nintendo Switch’s life span for a good while now, which means it’s as good a time as any to work on a Pokedex. At the time of writing, there are a whopping 1,025 existing Pokemon, and the only way to hoard ’em all at once is to put them in Pokemon Home. To be clear, I’d finished my “Living Dex” a long while ago – but to fill the time between Nintendo’s official releases, I decided to redo my entire Living Dex – but with every Pokemon caught in a standard Poke Ball and with my OT (which means traded Pokemon don’t count towards it). If you don’t know this already, a Living Dex is when you have every single Pokemon in the game stored in your boxes. That means the entire evolutionary line, and in my case, every gender difference and form difference for each Pokemon as well.
Working on a Living Dex in 2025 made me realize how absurdly difficult it is to complete this task in 2025. Having completed all of the main series Pokemon games, this was much easier for me than for someone just starting a Living Dex project. But today, I’ll explain what the toughest Pokemon to obtain for Living Dex purposes are and how to go about obtaining them in the easiest way. Surprisingly, there are also a lot of Pokemon that cannot legitimately be caught in a standard Poke Ball along with your OT. We’ll be going over those too.
More: Game Freak, highlight, Pokemon, top
Why Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga still holds up as one of the best Mario RPGs
Posted on 1 week ago by Ethan in Features, GBA, Switch | 0 comments
With the recent release of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, it’s a better time than ever to get into the rest of the series. And with Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack, that’s rather easy. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the first game in the series, is available as part of the Game Boy Advance app. After completing Brothership, we gave the original Superstar Saga another shot (making for this writer’s fourth unique playthrough). Despite the fact that it has a remake available on Nintendo 3DS that released in 2017, this game holds up surprisingly well – and in a way it’s actually refreshing to play after going through Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Here’s why Superstar Saga is still worth your time today. We’ll be discussing a few story spoilers, so keep that in mind before you continue.
These important games are missing from Nintendo Switch Online
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
Previously, we’ve gone over new retro catalogs that Nintendo should add to their Nintendo Switch Online service – including games from Nintendo DS as a hypothetical new addition. Today, however, we’re going over the platforms Nintendo Switch Online already has. It has quite a few, with NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo 64 all being included for some time now. That said, each platform is missing at least one notable game, and some are missing several. We’ll be looking at all five Nintendo Switch Online platforms (minus SEGA Genesis, which doesn’t receive much in terms of updates anyhow) and which important titles are missing in action.
More: highlight, Nintendo Switch Online, top
Fighters we might see in the next Smash Bros. game on Nintendo Switch 2
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Ethan in Features, Switch 2 | 0 comments
With Nintendo Switch 2 on the not-too-distant horizon, it’s almost certain that we’ll receive a new Super Smash Bros. game at some point within the next few years. And there’s plenty of debate on whether it’ll be an enhanced port of Ultimate or not – it’s possible this statement won’t age well, but we’re of the opinion that what we’ll see will be an all-new game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate itself will be playable as-is on Nintendo Switch 2 via backwards compatibility, and we think the next entry will need to look significantly different in order to make the casual player recognize the difference. Look at Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, for example – both were available on the same system, but couldn’t have looked more different in terms of aesthetics.
With the idea of an all-new Smash Bros. in mind, we’re going over several brand-new fighters we’d like to see in the next game. We don’t quite expect that every single character from Ultimate will make it to the next title, but it can counter-balance that with high-quality newcomers (mainly, ones with unique movesets and mechanics). There’s absolutely a place for two different Super Smash Bros. games on the same console, and here are some of the characters we think would help set it apart.
More: Super Smash Bros.
How rumored mouse support could change Nintendo Switch 2
Posted on 3 weeks ago by Ethan in Features, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Though not yet officially confirmed, one heavily-rumored feature of the Nintendo Switch 2 involves its supposed ability to use the Joy-Con’s infrared sensor as a mouse. We’ll absolutely find out if this is true when the upcoming Nintendo Direct airs on April 2, but in the meantime, all we can do is speculate. And speculate we shall, because Switch 2’s rumored mouse support could be a game-changer for some of Nintendo’s biggest franchises. Today, we’re looking into games that would benefit most from this feature – both existing titles as well as potential new ones.
What to expect from Mario’s 40th anniversary
Posted on 3 weeks ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the Super Mario series – which is crazy, because it feels like only yesterday that we celebrated its 35th anniversary with Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. 35. This year, however, is different. Though it still hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, Nintendo has new hardware releasing this year, which makes speculation a bit complicated. Will the company release a new 3D Mario game and tie it to the anniversary? Will Nintendo just release more remakes on the existing Switch? Who knows, but today we’re looking at all of the Super Mario anniversary celebrations throughout the years and what we might expect later this year.
