Black Friday 2024 is almost here (or is already here depending on some retailers), and Nintendo has now offered up a look at some of the deals fans can expect for the holiday season.
First up, beginning November 24, some Nintendo Switch games will be sold at a discount including $20 off the suggested retail price. Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart will have the following:
A physical release of Little Kitty, Big City on Nintendo Switch has now been revealed. This one comes courtesy of Fangamer.
Retailers are already starting to list the game, including Target. It is currently listed for a March 28, 2025 launch. Other retailers should be taking pre-orders sometime in the near future.
The developers of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom have responded to a couple of criticisms – namely the game’s frame rate and menu system for echoes.
There are certain parts of the experience in which the frame rate can move between 60 and 30 FPS. In the end though, co-director Tomomi Sano said this was the “best option” available.
According to the developers behind The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Link came close to speaking in the game.
Series producer Eiji Aonuma shared that information in a recent interview. While the original plan was to have Link speak in Echoes of Wisdom, co-director Satoshi Terada said that it didn’t feel right. Since he hadn’t really spoken in a game before, that also made things difficult. Having Tri as Zelda’s companion is ultimately where things took a shift.
Here’s what Aonuma and Terada shared in the interview, as published by Famitsu:
Thanks to GamesIndustry, we have new insight into the UK gaming market for October 2024.
Nintendo has one game in the top ten this month, which is Super Mario Party Jamboree at #9. Also, remember that this is without the company reporting digital data, which means it could have charted higher. Something to note is that sales were up 11 percent over 2018’s Super Mario Party but 4 percent down over 2021’s Mario Party Superstars (based on first two weeks of sales).
Elsewhere, Sonic x Shadow Generations comes in at #10 for a new release. Launch sales were up 150 percent compared to Sonic Superstars, but down 21 percent over the launch of 2022’s Sonic Frontiers.
As part of the ongoing information leak from the Game Freak hack, more new details have been revealed regarding scrapped ideas and features for Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. To say that there’s a lot here would be an understatement.
The first feature is about something called “Guardians”. This would have been in places of Z Moves, which were a big hook in Pokemon Sun and Moon. Pokemon would be able to change their type based on the “Miracle Stone” and a “Guardian” avatar would appear next to them with the same type. “Guardians” were also technically planned to be a fifth move.
Different effects were planned on the type. As one example, Electric Guardians make all Pokemon the field super effective to Electric moves while Water Guardians bring down the speed of opposing Pokemon. Players could visit “Miracle Mountain” to receive these stones.
Somewhere around ten hours into Mario & Luigi Brothership, you’ll come across Lottacoins Island as part of the main quest. While we won’t go into any particular story details here, you’ll wind up having to figure out and then use codes to unlock gates to other areas. You’re supposed to find pieces of paper that show you an object, and from there you’re supposed to count the number of objects physically present in the area to determine the digit. But if you’re looking to skip all the searching, you’ve come to the right place – we have the Lottacoins Island gate codes so you can do just that.
Retailers have started to come forward with news about pre-order bonuses for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on Nintendo Switch. We’ll keep this post updated going forward as any additional items are revealed.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD will be Nintendo’s first notable release to start off 2025. It’s largely the same game fans who played it on Wii will remember. However, the visuals have been spruced up and all of the additional levels from the 3DS version will be included.
System: Switch
Release date: November 12, 2024
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
It’s easy to take Tetris for granted. Tetris games have been released on, apparently, over 65 different devices. Many have described it as the perfect puzzle game. Very smart scientists have even performed psychological studies about how Tetris affects the human brain. It has, incredibly, been about 40 years since the release of the very first Tetris title. To help celebrate such a monumental anniversary, the historians at developer and publisher Digital Eclipse are releasing Tetris Forever, a package that’s as much a digital museum as it is a compilation of retro Tetris games. While it’s hard to argue with the core quality of the experiences available in the package, overall I found the focus of Tetris Forever to be narrower than I had hoped – not just in terms of the history being shared, but the games themselves. It’s a good glimpse into the origins of this massive franchise, but not quite the definitive Tetris package it could have been.
The new Donkey Kong Country area at Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Japan now has an opening date. Today, it was confirmed that the park will be ready to go on December 11, 2024.
The Donkey Kong Country area will connect with the already-available Super Mario Land section. There are various things to see and do here. Aside from the previously-announced mine cart rollercoaster, visitors can play a rhythm-based activity with two other people, scan the “KONG” letters with their Power-Up Band, eat and drink at Jungle Beat Shakes, and purchase exclusive merchandise at the store.
