[Review] Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: July 12, 2023
Developer: Night School Studio
Publisher: Netflix
When Oxenfree released in 2016, I was enamored with it. I was younger then and found comfort in its high school drama and socially awkward characters, who were relatable and felt real. The supernatural yarn it weaved was surprisingly dark, yet grounded in events that felt possible in its strange world of ghosts and timeloops. But players who made it the end were likely left with at least a few unresolved questions, and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals tantalizes with promises of answers, or at least a deeper glimpse into the strange phenomena that occurred on Edwards Island all those years ago. While Oxenfree II delivers in that regard, its narrative and new exploration mechanics felt disappointingly safe for most of its runtime, failing to surprise and hook me in the way its predecessor did (outside of a few key moments); still, fans of the original owe it to themselves to see this story through to its conclusion.
Mario Kart DLC’s exciting new tracks, Pokemon Sleep, Kid Icarus, and more | Nintendo Everything Refresh Ep. 059
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Podcast, Switch | 0 comments
As life races by at the speed of a Blue Shell, it’s important that we all take the time to enjoy some good old-fashioned vroomin’ from time to time. Fortunately, in this week’s episode of Nintendo Everything Refresh we finally get to take a deeper look at the next round of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, which is bringing back some classic tracks that have at least one of us unreasonably excited. Nick and rising co-host Dawn will also discuss what the heck is going on with Pokemon Sleep, nerd out about the newest Sakurai deep-dive on Kid Icarus Uprising’s development, and much more!
[Let’s Talk] Are you sold on Pikmin 4?
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk, Switch | 0 comments
Pikmin 4 is the next big game from Nintendo, and it’s actually one that’s going to need to carry Switch for a bit – at least from a first-party perspective. As things stand now, Nintendo won’t be publishing a brand new game until October. That’s when things get busy as the company will be involved with Detective Pikachu Returns, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, WarioWare: Move It, and Super Mario RPG in the span of a month or so.
Pikmin originated from Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of hits like Mario and Zelda, but this particular franchise hasn’t quite reached the same heights as those IPs from a sales perspective. Still, the series has continued on since the GameCube days. Pikmin is also one of the few Nintendo franchises with a presence on mobile.
[Interview] Little Kitty, Big City game director on game design, development process, and cats (of course)
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Interviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
One of the standout indie games we played at Summer Game Fest Play Days was Little Kitty, Big City, an exploration-driven game that was highlighted in a recent Nintendo Direct a while back (check out our new hands-on impressions here). It may be the first release from Double Dagger Studio, but it’s far from being the first project for game director Matt Wood, who’s contributed to numerous influential games released over the past twenty-five years. During our hands-on demo, we had the chance to chat with Matt about his experience developing Little Kitty, Big City, what made him want to make a game about a cat in the first place, and much more.
[Review] Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope – The Last Spark Hunter
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: June 21, 2023 (new DLC)
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
2022’s Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was an excellent evolution of its predecessor’s fast-paced, freeform strategy gameplay, and I’ve been eager to check out its DLC to have an excuse to play more of it. The Last Spark Hunter is significantly larger in scope than the run-based Tower of Dooom DLC from earlier this year, this time offering up a whole new planet to explore, a new antagonist, and even some new mechanics to shake up gameplay. But for players who have likely already sank dozens of hours into the base game, is the overall quality high enough to justify revisiting the world of Sparks of Hope?
More: DLC, highlight, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, top, Ubisoft
[Preview] Hands-on with Another Crab’s Treasure, an underwater Soulslike
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
Over the years, I’ve made a few attempts at the Soulslike genre – most notably via Bloodborne and the recent Demon’s Souls remake – but have yet to find one that I truly want to sink a lot of time into. I think it’s just a matter of preference, as I don’t have much patience for games that don’t respect the player’s time or are needlessly opaque and difficult – but at the same time, I love games with moderately challenging, strategic real-time combat. It’s why I was so curious to try out Another Crab’s Treasure at Summer Game Fest; finally, here’s a Soulslike game that seems purpose-built for relative genre newcomers like me. After going hands-on with the game, I think this could be the first Dark Souls-inspired game I actually complete.
More: Aggro Crab, Another Crab's Treasure, highlight, top
[Preview] Little Kitty, Big City could be the purr-fect game for cat-lovers
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
Anyone who owns a cat is probably well aware of how quickly they can turn from cuddly, loveable fluffballs into zooming creatures of chaos. While I can’t say I always understand why they feel compelled to, say, scratch at our brand-new barstools or knock over a cup of coffee that I just placed on the counter, perhaps the upcoming sandbox-exploration game Little Kitty, Big City will give me some answers, or at least let me empathize with them a bit more. I was able to play 45 minutes of Double Dagger Studio’s debut game at Summer Games Fest recently, and I’m already floored with it.
[Let’s Talk] What are you playing? – July 2023
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Let's Talk, Switch | 0 comments
A new month started up today. Now that we’re in July, we want to know what you’ve been playing.
Are you going through the recently-released ports of Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 for Switch? Still playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? No matter the case, let us know in the comments below.
Platformers shine in the June 2023 Nintendo Direct
Posted on 1 year ago by Tom in Features, Switch, Videos | 0 comments
The most recent Nintendo Direct sure had a ton of great announcements, but Sam wanted to take some time to highlight all the phenomenal looking platformers that were shown off in our latest video.
Many great games are on the horizon, highlighted by Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Sonic Superstars. The bizarre reality of a new 2D Mario and Sonic game releasing alongside each other in 2023 is something we can get behind. And speaking of Sonic, we can look forward to Penny’s Big Breakaway from the makers of Sonic Mania early next year.
More: highlight, Nintendo Direct, top
[Review] The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Posted on 1 year ago by Elias in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: July 7, 2023
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: NIS America
Following the steady drip of titles from Falcom’s Legend of Heroes series, Trails into Reverie is the latest installment coming to western players. As before with Trails to Azure, our latest game is also interwoven into a storied timeline. This time, we’ll be following up after the events of Trails to Azure and the Great Twilight events of Trails of Cold Steel IV. With these stories being so connected, there are no ways to absolutely avoid spoilers for the previous games, but we’ll do the best we can in case this is your first introduction to the series. With this particular entry first launching in Japan, the Switch port will see the world of Zero/Azure in HD for the first time, and follow up almost immediately after the events of Trails of Cold Steel IV – the interwoven timeline for both lines of games finally converges, and both protagonist groups of Lloyd and Rean are joined by a third protagonist – the black-clad and mysteriously masked “C.”
