The best Animal Crossing games, ranked
Posted on 2 months 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
[Let’s Talk] Name a random game on a Nintendo platform
Posted on 2 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk | 0 comments
The other day, I was thinking about Spyborgs. The first question some of you may have is: what the heck is that? And some of you might be wondering why.
I can’t tell you why I was thinking about Spyborgs, as it randomly popped into my head. But as for what it is, Capcom originally released it exclusively on Wii in 2009. Bionic Games made the game and would end up shutting down not too long after.
Back during the Wii era, before Spyborgs launched, it was a bit of a big deal within the Nintendo community. The console wasn’t exactly getting a ton of hardcore titles, and especially with Capcom publishing, the game was receiving a good amount of attention. The whole thing kind of turned out strangely – the project ended up going through a shift, moving away from a cartoony look and towards a more mature style. Ultimately that didn’t matter as the game came out to not much fanfare.
Especially in the Nintendo sphere, games like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid come to mind. But have you recently been thinking about a random game, one that hasn’t ever really been in the spotlight? Let us know in the comments.
Two years later, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a fantastic remake
Posted on 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 months 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
[Interview] Aspyr talks Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered
Posted on 2 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Interviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
Ahead of the imminent launch of Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered, we caught up with Aspyr to chat a bit more about the package as part of an interview. Brand manager Matthew Ray was kind enough to answer some of our questions.
We’re just days away from a new round of Tomb Raider remasters with The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and The Angel of Darkness coming together in a new collection. This follows updated versions of the series’ first three games that launched on Nintendo Switch last year.
Here’s our full discussion:
[Let’s Talk] How big is your Nintendo Switch games collection?
Posted on 2 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk, Switch | 0 comments
It’s crazy to think about just how many Nintendo Switch games are out there. Between Nintendo and others, system owners have thousands of possibilities to choose from. Not all of them are of the same quality, but there’s certainly a lot of variety.
As we head towards the end of Nintendo Switch’s lifecycle, we wanted to ask: how bis is your games collection? We don’t expect many (if any) of you to have specific numbers, but how about in general? Have you purchased more Switch titles than you did for previous Nintendo systems? Have you been more of a physical buyer or digital? Let us know in the comments.
The best sub-skills in Pokemon Sleep
Posted on 2 months ago by Dawn in Features, Mobile | 0 comments
Today, we’re going over which sub-skills are best for which Pokemon according to their Specialty in Pokemon Sleep and some of the things you should consider when assessing whether they’d be worth investing in, or better sent to the Professor for candy that you can invest in better ones.
In Pokemon Sleep, the Pokemon that you recruit have a variety of parameters to consider which can dramatically affect their productivity when you’re awake. Although their Main Skill is fixed by their species, their sub-skills, which they will learn at Level 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100, are randomly selected from a small pool of options, and can make a huge difference on how effective they are at their Specialty.
