Zelda: Breath of the Wild team on dev approach, difficulty, speedrunners, concept art, Shrines, bugs, and more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 9 Comments
The Verge recently chatted with Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, art director Satoru Takizawa, and technical director Takuhiro Dohta. Tons of topics were discussed in the new interview. Among them include how the team approached development, the game’s difficulty, speedrunning, the crazy concept, designing Shrines, and making the experience as bug free as possible.
We’ve rounded up notable excerpts from the interview below. You can read the full discussion on The Verge here.
First Away: Journey to the Unexpected gameplay
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch eShop, Videos | 1 Comment
Gameplay from Away: Journey to the Unexpected, an upcoming title for Switch, debuted during Twitch’s PAX stream. We have the full recording below.
Arcade Archives Neo Geo videos
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch eShop, Videos | 4 Comments
Hamster has prepared a few videos for its recent Neo Geo releases on Switch from the Arcade Archives series. We’ve rounded them up below.
More: Arcade Archives, Hamster
Fire Emblem 0 series 10 will have cards from Thracia 776, Fates, Heroes; Echoes’ Valentia Complete edition shown
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
Fire Emblem 0 series 8 is coming to Japan on March 17. Since that date is so close, a live stream was held to show off what’s in store in the near future as well as a few months from now.
Not only cards from series 8, but also ones from series 9 were on display. Additionally, we also have news about series 10. Thracia 776, Fates, and Heroes will all be represented there.
If that wasn’t enough, the Japanese Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia – Valentia Complete edition was shown. This included a look at the box, special edition, Blu-ray, and promo cards.
Serenes Forest’s Kirie recaps the entire event below:
Rime developer diary #1
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch eShop, Videos | 5 Comments
The first developer diary is now online for Rime. For the new video, developers from Tequila Works team talk about the origins and influences that shaped the game. Have a look below.
More: Grey Box, Rime, Six Foot, Tantalus, Tequila Works
Switch sold through 95% of its initial shipment in Japan
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 77 Comments
Various information about Switch’s debut sales have been coming this week. In its first three days, the console is estimated to have sold around 330,000 units.
Dengeki now reports that Switch sold through 95 percent of its initial shipment. Given that, as well as how it’s tough to find in stores, the system’s first shipment is almost entirely depleted. That means when next week’s sales are reported, Switch is likely going to have a major drop off – so don’t panic when you see the numbers.
By the way, on another interesting note, Dengeki says that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has an attach rate of 60.8 percent with Switch. That’s higher than the rate for Twilight Princess and Wii at 35.9 percent.
Nintendo offers up expanded statement on Switch issues, says problems “being handled promptly”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 17 Comments
TIME has received an expanded statement regarding issues some owners are said to have been experiencing with Switch. For the most part, it outlines what we’ve heard previously.
The big takeaway: Nintendo says that Switch isn’t facing “widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con Bluetooth connection.”
The statement in full reads:
“At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we want our consumers to have a positive experience. It is common with any new innovative consumer technology for consumers to have questions, and Nintendo Switch is no exception. There are no widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con Bluetooth connection. To best support our customers, we continuously update the online consumer support site and provide real-time answers to the questions we are receiving. We want our consumers to get up and running quickly to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we encourage them to contact Nintendo’s Consumer Service team. For help with any hardware or software questions, please visit: http://support.nintendo.com”
FAST RMX gets big visual boost on Switch compared to original Wii U version
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 16 Comments
FAST RMX isn’t a completely new game. It’s based on FAST Racing Neo for Wii U, but has a number of additions and improvements. Among these is a boost to the visuals. Once again, Digital Foundry is here for an analysis.
First, whereas FAST Racing Neo had a temporal upscaling to modify a 640×720 image into a 1280×720 one, this has been removed entirely on Switch. The game jumps between 900p and 1080p while docked (and sometimes a bit lower than that) “while portable mode drops the resolution ceiling to 720p where minor drops in pixel-count can also occur, mostly in pre-race fly-bys.” Switch apparently has a small issue with its firmware resulting in a drain on GPU resources, but when it’s fixed, FAST RMX will run at 1080p when docked. Also, thanks to the higher resolution and removal of flickering artefacts, the Switch game is clearer.
Mario Sports Superstars pre-load live on the North American 3DS eShop
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments
Mario Sports Superstars may have launched in Europe yesterday, but it’s still a couple of weeks out in North America. For those interested in the game, you can pre-load the game from the eShop. 6,591 blocks / 823.875 MB of free space is needed to do so.
By pre-loading, you can download most of Mario Sports Superstars’ data prior to release. Then on March 23, you’ll only need a small update to begin playing.
Cosmic Star Heroine looking likely for Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 6 Comments
Although not absolutely confirmed, it appears that Cosmic Star Heroine will be making an appearance on Switch. Robert Boyd from Zeboyd Games put out a message on Twitter that a port will probably be happening later this year.
The tweet is below:
No promises, but it looks like a Cosmic Star Heroine Switch port sometime late this year is probable.
— Robert Boyd (@werezompire) March 8, 2017
Boyd previously mentioned wanting to bring over Cosmic Star Heroine. However, he had major issues with getting a dev kit and reaching Nintendo overall. That just changed this week when Boyd heard from Nintendo of America’s Damon Baker.
