Submit a news tip



GameCube

Smash Bros. art styles

It’s been many years since the original release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018. There’s been no official announcement for a new game at the time of writing, but the wait between Ultimate and its eventual sequel is already setting a record. Indeed, the time between new Smash Bros. games has never been greater. But that leaves us with plenty of time to appreciate the titles we already have, and one aspect of them that often goes undiscussed is their art styles.

Despite being fairly similar to each other on a gameplay level, each Super Smash Bros. game winds up feeling distinct because of its art style. 64, Melee, Brawl, 3DS, Wii U, and Ultimate are all visually distinct from one another, and this is a trend we can expect to see when the next entry eventually does come out. In the meantime, today we’re analyzing the individual art style of each entry in the series and going over what makes each one charming.

Nintendo fans have been pouring over a new FCC filing that gives some hope about a GameCube controller for Switch 2.

The listing just went live today. There’s not much in the way of useful information, but the key relies in images associated with the listing.

Below is a look at what’s included:

More:

GameCube remasters Nintendo Switch 2

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. 

More: ,

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.

Nintendo museum prototypes

In what has come as a surprise to many, a number of hardware prototypes were added to the Nintendo Museum just days before the official opening date.

One of the key complaints brought up with the location prior to its opening was that based on what was shown in the Direct and to the press, Nintendo didn’t delve much into its history here. However, this has been rectified a bit. Now that the museum has just started to open, fans have discovered that many prototypes are on display, including the earlier times with the Super Famicom and Virtual Boy, extending into the Wii U era. Some have been shown publicly before, but many have not.

Killer7 director Suda51 has interest in revisiting the game with both a Complete Edition and a sequel.

That news comes from a Grasshopper Direct presentation, which largely focused on the upcoming launch of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered. Suda51 was present alongside Shinji Mikami, who also worked on Killer7.

Here’s what the two said during the event:

Shadow the Hedgehog M-rating

Shadow the Hedgehog was a more serious and mature take on the Sonic series, but it turns out that SEGA originally had plans to take things even further with an M-rated classification.

That news comes from Jason Griffith, who voiced the character in the GameCube game. Griffith was looking back on the role in an interview with GameLuster.

Kirby Air Ride Dolby Surround audio

Kirby Air Ride almost supported Dolby Surround audio. That’s according to Masahiro Sakurai, the game’s director.

Sakurai was speaking about the game during a live stream with Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya. The two participated in a live discussion event hosted by Hamster Corporation. Sakurai’s comments came about while discussing how he’d like publishers to improve the waiting time before each game begins.

Top 10 Best Kirby Games

While we wait for his next adventure, we’ve compiled a list of the ten best Kirby games of all time. As always, don’t take this list as pure fact – it’s always just opinion, and if you have your own thoughts on which games should be ranked where, feel free to tell us in the comments down below.

Kirby’s been on more than a handful of adventures. There are over 30 different games to choose from, and each one has its own unique story and gameplay loop. It stands to reason, then, that a few of these games are better than others. We haven’t seen or heard anything from Kirby in 2024 – and even then, the past few years have been great for the pink puffball. 

Masahiro Sakurai GameCube scroll wheel

Masahiro Sakurai posted his latest YouTube video today, and includes an interesting tidbit of information that he wanted a scroll wheel on the GameCube controller when the hardware was being developed.

Sakurai said he was allowed to give input – which makes sense given his close relationship with the company thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series. As explained in his proposal for Melee, the scroll wheel – or jog dial – “is a knob that you can turn either up or down, and it also functions as a switch if you press it in.” The idea here is that players would more quickly make menu selections and it’d allow for smooth camera movement.


Manage Cookie Settings