Submit a news tip



GameCube

At the time of writing, Chibi-Robo is Nintendo’s latest offering in the GameCube division of Nintendo Switch Online’s emulators. Notably, this is the first time Nintendo has given any significant attention to Chibi-Robo since Zip Lash on 3DS. If you don’t know this already, Zip Lash is commonly attributed to the downfall of the entire series – it was a mediocre 2D platformer on a system with a ton of great 2D platformers, so it didn’t stand out and sold poorly as a result. Skip Ltd., the developers of the Chibi-Robo games, shut their doors soon after.

That’s why it feels important to look at the original Chibi-Robo now more than ever. It’s a very unique and charming little game, and it’s very much unlike most classic Nintendo franchises – it’s probably most similar to Pikmin, if I had to make a comparison. Regardless, today we’re talking all about the original Chibi-Robo, which you can now play via Nintendo Switch Online – but only if you have a Switch 2 and the Expansion Pack membership.

Wind Waker Missable Figurines

Today, we’re going over a list of missable pictographs and missable figurines in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Recently, we’ve been playing the game on GameCube. More specifically, the version that’s available on Nintendo Switch Online. While the game is fun to play casually, it’s not fun to 100 percent complete. The Wind Waker’s side content includes plenty of tedious Heart Pieces and trading sequences, but its biggest task is completing the dreaded Nintendo Gallery. For this task, you have to take pictures of almost every single entity in the game. The picture needs to include its face and most of its body in order to count. You can then hand this picture off to Carlov, who makes a figurine based on it. There are well over 100 different figures to make, and some of them are actually permanently missable. If you decide to play through The Wind Waker with a walkthrough (Zelda Dungeon’s is particularly good), it most likely won’t tell you which pictures are about to become unobtainable.

Sonic Adventure fans might not be happy to hear this, but there aren’t any plans to come out with a remake or remaster anytime soon.

Takahashi Iizuka, head of Team Sonic, was recently asked about revisiting the game in an interview. The takeaway here is that Iizuka believes it’d take a huge effort to bring the experience up to today’s “standards and expectations” – as much as a new title would apparently. Because of that, he feels working on a new game instead makes more sense.

Iizuka said the following when asked about a possible Sonic Adventure remake / remaster in an interview with Shacknews:

Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective

November 25: Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, a new collaboration between Piggyback and Nintendo, has been revealed.

The art book will cover the first three games in the series. Fans can expect a celebration of the franchise’s art “with exclusive insights from the game developers.” The hardcover book spans over 200 pages. Interestingly, this is Piggyback’s first art book.

After over ten long years, the future of Mario Kart is finally here. Indeed, the gap between Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart World has been the longest in the franchise’s history. Sure, we received Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart Tour, and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, but none of these were intended to be the next big Mario Kart game. Mario Kart World is exactly that, and with a new era for the series soon beginning, we figured it’s a great time to look at the development history of the Mario Kart franchise as a whole. There’s an absolutely huge amount of information here, so we’ll be telling the condensed version of Mario Kart’s history.

N64 Switch Online rewind.jpg

April 3: Nintendo has revealed that the Switch Online N64 app on Switch 2 is bringing along some extras, including the ability to rewind while playing games.

Rewind was already supported on the current Nintendo Switch, but only for some platforms such as NES and SNES. However, that was lacking when it came to N64 titles.

More:

April 2: Nintendo Switch Online made a major announcement today with GameCube games now confirmed for the platform. It will be available alongside launch.

This is the first time that Nintendo will be offering these titles as part of its classics service. During the Virtual Console days, support stopped with the N64. GameCube games have only been sold as individual releases, sometimes as updated remasters.

April 9: A key detail about Switch 2’s GameCube controller is seemingly confirmed. As it turns out, the device will apparently be compatible with just the upcoming Nintendo Classics app.

That information is included in Nintendo’s official video announcing GameCube games on Nintendo Switch 2. Since it’s only shown in the fine print of the UK upload (it’s not in the North American version), you may have missed it last week – in fact, it seems most people did.


Switch Online Gamecube Predictions

Today, we’re going over a bunch of popular GameCube games and how likely they are to come to Nintendo Switch Online on Nintendo Switch 2.

In somewhat of a surprise move, Nintendo recently announced that titles from that console are coming to Switch Online + Expansion Pack members exclusively on Switch 2. The reason this is surprising is that GameCube games on the service sort of run counter to Nintendo’s strategy with GameCube games on the current Switch. Up until now, Nintendo has been content to release individually-packaged GameCube games as standalone titles – or remake them altogether. Pikmin 1, Pikmin 2, Metroid Prime, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are all playable on Nintendo Switch already. That may knock out quite a few titles from Nintendo Switch Online, though it’s technically still possible that they could get a release later.

Shmupulations recently released a translated 2003 Nintendo Dream interview with the lead developers of Mario Kart: Double Dash. Producers Tadashi Sugiyama and Shinya Takahashi, as well as chief director, Kiyoshi Mizuki, all discuss the development of Double Dash as well as their concern over the two-driver mechanic.

Sugiyama suggested that the staff wasn’t very confident in the feature, as to not harm what made Mario Kart unique. The team was even simultaneously developing a single-driver version in the early stages, in case two drivers didn’t go over well. After they gained confidence, they discuss that most of the games’ development time was placed into tinkering with the two-driver mechanic.

Here’s what they said, as shared by Shmupulations:


Manage Cookie Settings