What to expect from Mario’s 40th anniversary
Posted on 1 month 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.
These games are most likely to appear in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct
Posted on 1 month ago by Ethan in Features, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Now that Nintendo has finally announced its next big console, the Switch 2, we’ve finally got a specific date to look forward to: April 2, 2025. On that day, we’ll be getting a special Direct that will no doubt reveal some heavy hitters for the console’s first year on the market. At the time of writing, April 2 is about two months away That leaves plenty of time to speculate, so today, we’re looking at some of Nintendo’s biggest franchises and which ones are most likely to appear at the Switch 2 presentation in a couple of months.
More: highlight, Nintendo Direct, top
How to complete the BDSP Pokedex in Pokemon Home
Posted on 1 month ago by Ethan in Guides, Switch | 0 comments
Recently, Pokemon Home began two exclusive distributions: Shiny Manaphy and Shiny Enamorus, which can only be obtained by completing the Pokedex categories for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends Arceus, respectively. Normally, you’d have to Google locations for every single Pokemon and look at all sorts of resources in order to finish the Pokedex – but we’ve done all that for you and organized all the information you’ll need in one place. If you’re looking to finish your BDSP Pokedex to redeem a Shiny Manaphy, look no further.
What we could see in a potential February 2025 Nintendo Direct
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
Today, we’re looking at the potential announcements we could see if we were to get a final Switch-centered Nintendo Direct in February 2025.
At the time of writing, we don’t currently have any sort of confirmation that we’re actually getting a presentation next month. That said, we’re arguably due for one. Other than Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, we don’t have any concrete release dates for remaining Nintendo Switch titles. We do know that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches sometime this year, but we’re still missing a defined release window. Additionally, if you remember the transition from the 3DS to the Switch, Nintendo continued to publish a number of ports on the dedicated handheld during Switch’s early years. We wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a similar approach here, and if it winds up being true, it means we might still have a remake or two bound for the original Nintendo Switch sometime this year.
More: highlight, Nintendo Direct, top
Mario Kart for Nintendo Switch 2 needs these new characters
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Features, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Mario Kart 9 has been officially teased for Nintendo Switch 2, and we presumably won’t hear much about it until the full Nintendo Direct presentation on April 2. In the initial footage, a whopping 24 racer slots were shown on the track. That’s double the amount of racers per match in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And with more drivers than ever present on the field all at once, Mario Kart 9 (which isn’t the game’s official name yet – it could wind up being Mario Kart 10 if we count Mario Kart Tour) needs more characters than ever to match. A while back, we talked about all sorts of crucial features Mario Kart 9 needs to succeed – but this time, we’re honing in on all the characters we want to see, no matter how obscure.
More: highlight, Mario Kart 9, top
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD 100% completion checklist
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Guides, Switch | 0 comments
Donkey Kong games are notoriously difficult to 100 percent complete. In terms of fellow Nintendo Switch games, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is tough as nails if you’re going for full completion. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD follows this trend – there are tons of collectibles to find, over 80 levels to complete, a time attack mode that takes way too long to load, and an unlockable Mirror Mode that makes everything even more challenging. Take it from us – full 100 percent completion really isn’t worth it here – but if you’re up for the task anyway, here’s the checklist you’ll want to go by.
GameCube remasters we want on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Features, GameCube, Switch, Switch 2 | 0 comments
We’re going over a whole bunch of GameCube games we’d love to see ported, remastered, or remade on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2.
It’s well-known that Nintendo has a huge backlog of classic titles available via Switch Online, but one point of contention among fans is that none of those classic games are from the GameCube. Many players who grew up with that console (this writer included) now have extra purchasing power that they didn’t have as kids, and Nintendo is seemingly well aware of this – which is partially why GameCube titles probably aren’t coming to Nintendo Switch Online. On Nintendo Switch alone, we’ve seen many GameCube remasters and just about all of them have been well received. The most notable of these remakes and remasters are Metroid Prime Remastered, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Pikmin 1, and Pikmin 2.
As Nintendo Switch’s life cycle comes to a close (or rather, a continuation with Nintendo’s next hardware), we may see one or two additional GameCube ports to fill up the time. We may even see full-on remakes on Nintendo Switch 2 as major first-party titles. After all, the first few years of Nintendo Switch’s life were full of Wii U ports – we may see something similar (but to a lesser extent) again while studios work on their ambitious new original games.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD review for Nintendo Switch
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: January 16, 2025
Developer: Forever Entertainment / Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
With all the buzz around the new Nintendo Switch 2, it’s easy to forget that Donkey Kong Country Returns HD released on the same day of the big reveal. The original game released on Wii way back in 2010 and was praised for bringing the series back into the limelight for the first time in over ten years. Three years later, the game was ported to Nintendo 3DS where it received additional content in the form of brand new post-game levels. Now it’s 2025, and Donkey Kong has returned for a third time – and at full price to boot. Is Donkey Kong Country Returns HD a worthy Nintendo Switch remaster, and how does it stack up to its original release and 3DS port? And perhaps more importantly, how does it hold up against its sequel, which is also available on the console?
The state of every Nintendo franchise post-Switch
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
As we head into the sunset era of one of Nintendo’s most beloved consoles ever, it’s as good time as any to take a look at all that’s happened over the past eight years. We’ve gotten tons of great games on Switch, and plenty of representation for most of Nintendo’s key franchises. Today, we’re taking a look at every single Nintendo series and each of its individual games on Switch. We’ll be analyzing how each series grew and changed over the course of the system’s life cycle – if it peaked, if it struggled, or if it wound up about average. Given the sheer volume of first-party offerings on Switch, this will be an extensive (and very long) analysis.
These are the strongest final bosses in Kirby history
Posted on 2 months ago by Ethan in 3DS, Features, General Nintendo, Switch | 0 comments
While we wait for the next entry in the Kirby series (and therefore the next galactic crisis Kirby has to stop), we figure it’s as good a time as any to rank the strongest final bosses that are most canonically powerful. Out of all of Nintendo’s big franchises, Kirby might be the one most famous for its dramatic final boss battles. The scale and scope of these clashes have only increased over the years, and it’s certainly reached a peak with 2022’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land. As new games in the series are released, more lore and story tidbits come out to help us better understand the incredibly dangerous world Kirby happens to live in.
